Yup, it’s just a question of where the buck stops. With volunteers, or the elected officials.
Even if they’re expelled, can we still vacation there?
Bad news, the “state officials” you seem to think act independently of sending orders to the local canvassing boards do not exist. That’s OK, light a torch.
Do you have any idea how much money that would make us once people saw the possibilities? This place is overrun with disaffected yanquis already.
Sure. There is the matter of the small entrance fee.
Elections are run completely by counties. Local voting districts, in fact. States typically have very little involvement, other than setting the overall rules, recording the data statewide, etc.
It’s my understand that counties were given an option of what type of new voting equipment they wanted, and given all the information they needed on how to use it, months in advance. I guess it will always take one actual under-fire run to expose all the bugs. But I’ve heard stories of considerable incompetence in the counties with the most problems. (Guess which political party is the majority in each? :D)
But yeah, it’s Jeb Bush’s and Katherine Harris’ fault. Get the torches!
Dave Barry in the Miami Herald on the elections in Florida.
Myriam Marquez in the Orlando Sentinel
If Myriam says that the Democrats don’t have an issue, they don’t. Check her previous columns - I’d bet that she is one. She is no fan of either Bush.
::Reminiscing:: I spent some years in Costa Rica. There you vote by inking your thumb on a pad of (very) indelible ink and using your thumb to mark the ballot. You don’t have to be able to read, just to know the symbols of the various parties. (you vote for the party, indicated on the ballot by a picture of that party’s flag. You don’t vote for the person, but since you vote for every position separately, it’s the same thing) They have the same protections as us to keep people from voting twice, but with your thumb already black, it’s a given you won’t fool the system. People really care about voting too, so that black thumb is a badge of honor.
They have public, outdoor debates before every election. For National elections, even the presidential candidates make it at least once to debate in every major town. This way almost everyone can actually see the candidates debate in person. You don’t have to be able to read to know the issues (although I bet the literacy rate there is close to what it is here), - you can hear them debate and if for some reason you miss it, it is the talk in every bar, church, and barbershop for weeks afterward.
I know this would never work here. God knows the thumbless people would have a hissy, and counting the votes one-by-one is too timeconsuming and error-prone. And Bush and Gore couldn’t make it to every town of 15,000 or more in less than 4 years. But to the Costa Ricans, our problems with measuring the vote (and with low voter turnout) must be incomprehensible.
Fishhead
I think Florida Dem’s are just mostly too intellectually challenged to figure out how to vote properly.
:me takes the same exit as andros, just twice as fast:
Me vote proper. Me vote how Marcie say. Marcie watch, me vote proper.