GOP brochure urges voters not to use voting machines!

gop flyer.jpg

Can you read that? It’s from a GOP flyer telling Florida Republicans that electronic voting machines are unreliable because they don’t leave a paper trail. Never mind that jeb bush and his cronies are assuring voters that the machines are safe and there’s no cause for alarm. Never mind that they’re promising Democrats the machines are foolproof, while mailing Republicans to tell them the machines might lose their ballot!

Something here smells really bad. How can they now argue the machines are reliable? How can they claim the election is fair if they themselves are saying beforehand that the votes can’t be accurately counted?

It should be obvious now to everyone that we are heading toward a major train wreck in Florida yet again, and it may be even worse than last time.

Photo and story via All Spin Zone, which also has some good commentary on this bleak situation.

The Discussion: 8 Comments

The liberal Democrats have already begun their attacks and the new electronic voting machines do not have a paper ballot to verify your vote in case of a recount.

The insinuation that the Democrats are somehow responsible for the unreliable, unverifiable electronic voting machines (chosen, of course, by a Republican state government) is particularly cheeky.

Actually, that’s not a strong enough word. Outrageous, perhaps?

August 2, 2004 @ 1:53 pm | Comment

David, how about “obscene”? The ballsiness of these Republicans is staggering.

August 2, 2004 @ 3:04 pm | Comment

I’m pretty sure that if you put in a paper trail for these votig machines, some civil liberties group would complain that it breaches privacy, after all you don’t get a recipt for voting anyway.

Wouldn’t it just be easier to have a punch card system that won’t leave hanging peices of paper and gives a recipt, no computers involved.

It would have to be florida wouldn’t it.

August 2, 2004 @ 7:36 pm | Comment

Gee, the Democrats question the reliability of electronic voting because they want every vote to count while the Republicans question them because then are evil bastards trying to subvert democracy.

Even when the two sides agree, the Republicans are nefarious.

Or are we just lining up our excuses in advance for the anti-Kerry debacle that is unfolding?

August 2, 2004 @ 8:41 pm | Comment

Perhaps the US should ask Taiwan to help organise the election. The Taiwanese system has had a good workout this year 🙂

August 2, 2004 @ 8:48 pm | Comment

Conrad, that isn’t fair and you know it. It’s the Republicans — repeat, the Republicans — who are assuring everyone these machines are safe and there’s nothing to worry about and there’s no need for a paper trail. Repeat, the current governor of Florida and his election people — Republicans. And these same people, the ones who release the felonly list that misses likely Republican-voting felons (oops!), after assuring the machines are safe they then send out a direct mailer warning Republican voters that the machines are unsafe. Get back here and argue that this is fine with you. Argue that the Republicans are merely “questioning” the reliability of the voting machines. That won’t fly — they made their argument in the public arena that the machines are safe, period, full stop, end of story. Then they told a different story to their constituents with the flyer. You can’t neutralize it by saying all they’re doing is “questioning” the machines just like the Democrats are. There’s no way you can have it both ways, no matter how you lawyer it — they can’t tell the world the machines are safe, then write to their base that the machines are uinreliable. No matter how you slice and dice it, this sucks.

August 2, 2004 @ 8:59 pm | Comment

Gee, the Democrats question the reliability of electronic voting because they want every vote to count while the Republicans question them because then are evil bastards trying to subvert democracy.

Let’s see if we can make it clear enough for Conrad.

1. The state government of Florida, led by a Republican governor, chooses a paperless electronic voting system and tells the world that the system is reliable and will prevent any repetition of the debacle in 2000.

2. The Florida Republican party tells its members that the paperless electronic voting system is unreliable and does not allow any means of recounting votes if the result is disputed. This directly contradicts assurances given by the Republican appointees of the Republican governor (see above).

August 3, 2004 @ 5:20 am | Comment

Except for the minor detail that the Governor of Fla does not decide whether or not to use voting machines. What type of ballots and how the candidates names are placed on them is up to kthe county elecltion boards. The Gov may get to comment on the decisions, but the final say goes to the county boards.
So far, the voting machines have had mixed results. If it is built by man it can be beat by man

August 3, 2004 @ 2:10 pm | Comment

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