JDoors Posted April 8, 2009 Report Share Posted April 8, 2009 (edited) We had a ton of local elections recently, board members, I dunno, librarians? A ton. The list of contested elections was long, but near as I could tell the only ones that applied to me specifically (that is, that I qualified to vote for based on my location) were for "township" offices. I don't know nothin' 'bout what goes on on the township level. I think I saw the township offices a couple of times, years ago, on road trips through the countryside, that's about all I know (and I couldn't find those offices now if I had to). I didn't bother voting for candidates I don't know for an office I know nothing about. So: Do you vote EVERY election day that comes up?***** Edited April 8, 2009 by JDoors Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blim Posted April 8, 2009 Report Share Posted April 8, 2009 I'm like you, if I know nothing about the candidates, I leave the voting to those who are familiar with them. I must even admit to not voting in our latest election for Governor, simply because I didn't want either one of the candidates! (and there wasn't a "none of the above" option ) Liz Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pete_C Posted April 8, 2009 Report Share Posted April 8, 2009 I try to. Once in a while I forget that they are having one when it is just a small local thing (have to remember May is city council elections and whether the mayor should be able to issue $500 million in bonds to build a city owned hotel or if any city projects over $100 million should require voter approval before they can start). But if I know it is happening and I can make it I do. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bozodog Posted April 10, 2009 Report Share Posted April 10, 2009 (edited) You know it's funny, I really think local elections are just as important as the national presidential voting is. Yet it is more difficult to learn about the candidates and their platforms. Sure you see the signs planted here and there... But who are they? What do they stand for? Who the heck has time to spend at township and county board meetings to get to know the folks? Even the local media skips over anything "local". Little is ever discussed about bond issues, school millage... etc, in the local news, except that it's gonna be more ca$h outta the pocket. *sigh, I guess it's no different than the "overdose" of lies and promises we get every four years... "What you don't know, won't hurt you." (until you find your wallet empty) Edited April 10, 2009 by bozodog Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JDoors Posted April 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2009 The local paper I susbscribe to has EXTENSIVE local political coverage, I just don't read that part (my eyes glaze over the moment I see those stories). My fault. There's been a lot of talk lately about newspapers becoming relics of a bygone age, but where else are you going to get extensive local coverage? Sure, I can get national news, sports, celebrity news, even the weather online. But who's covering how high the river going through town is during flood season? Who's covering when the next "spring cleaning" pickup is for my neighborhood? Who's covering what intersections and roads are going to be covered by easy-money-cams? (Err, 'red-light' and 'speeding' cameras.) The main road out of my subdivision lets out on a state route, one of the major roads going through town. There's going to be, some day, an enormous change at that intersection (a 'bypass' of the downtown area, taking place at my intersection). It will make life just a little more difficult for me every single day (longer waits at the intersection), who's gonna cover that? OK, that's got nothing to do with voting ... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bozodog Posted April 12, 2009 Report Share Posted April 12, 2009 If we are to retake Washington, we must first take our state capitols and local councils. It is close to home that we voters have the most leverage, and we need our local and state governments as allies in restoring citizen control of the federal government. nothing partisan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pete_C Posted April 12, 2009 Report Share Posted April 12, 2009 Well we have a May 9 election There are two major city charter amendmentsThe first proposition seeks to prohibit Dallas from owning a convention center hotel – something the city is today in the process of trying to build.The second proposition aims to all but require Dallas to conduct a citywide referendum each time the city wants to give $1 million or more in subsidies to private developers of hotels, condominiums and retail facilities. Under the amendment, 500 Dallas voters would have to sign a petition to call a citywide referendum on any applicable subsidy.Then we have City Council elections. I like my representative; so will vote for her to stay.http://www.dalcoelections.org/We have sample ballots online already for all the cities in the countyhttp://www.dalcoelections.org/may92009/SampleBallotJoint.pdfMakes it nice that we already can see what it will be.We can early vote (limited number of polling stations but they have way more voting machines set up and since it goes on for over a week it makes it a no brainer that early voting is the way to go) Early Voting Monday, April 27 - Tuesday, May 5, 2009 . I did it on the Presidential election and the lack of a line was so much of a bonus I will do it in all elections in the future. We now have the electronic touch screen voting machines (vote recorded to five independent network servers) and I am all in favor of them too.Love the technology. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hitest Posted April 12, 2009 Report Share Posted April 12, 2009 We have our next provincial election on May 12th. I vote in each election, I'm a bit of a political junky. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pete_C Posted April 21, 2009 Report Share Posted April 21, 2009 OOOH, they now have a demo of the touch screen voting consoleshttp://www.essvote.com/flash/demo.htmlLast year they only had them in select early voting locations; looks like they will be everywhere this year.Yep, that is how I remember it, they program the activator so it brings up the correct ballot, then you put it in , make selections, review the ballot and either change it or approve and press vote. Still divided on whether I would prefer it to print out a copy or feel that would raise privacy issues . I kind of lean towards the latter since once you press the vote button and it clears the screen and you take out your activator key your ballot was really secret. Votes get automatically recorded to five separate servers and the tallies compared. They start the day by running a test on all voting machines and connections to confirm that everything is recorded and matches. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jcl Posted April 22, 2009 Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 Still divided on whether I would prefer it to print out a copy or feel that would raise privacy issues .Considering that every electronic voting machine in the world seems to be broken or rigged, I would lean toward printing out what will likely be the only evidence that you didn't vote for the candidate of the party that installed the machines.They start the day by running a test on all voting machines and connections to confirm that everything is recorded and matches."They" being the people who would be manipulating the voting results. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hitest Posted April 22, 2009 Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 Considering that every electronic voting machine in the world seems to be broken or rigged, I would lean toward printing out what will likely be the only evidence that you didn't vote for the candidate of the party that installed the machines.Up here in Canada in my province we still use paper ballots. Ballots are hand-counted by trusted officials in each electoral district. It is a bit old fashioned, but, it works. I would also be very leery of voting on an electronic machine. I can appreciate that the machines are convenient and they quickly count ballots, but, if there is even a remote chance that the machines can malfunction or worse be hacked then that is unacceptable to me. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jcl Posted April 22, 2009 Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 I would also be very leery of voting on an electronic machine. I can appreciate that the machines are convenient and they quickly count ballots, but, if there is even a remote chance that the machines can malfunction or worse be hacked then that is unacceptable to me.The uncertainly isn't a problem down south: our voting machine are designed to malfunction and be hacked. Premier (nee Diebold) made the news a few weeks ago when it was revealed that their voting machines had a button to erase their audit logs. Let me repeat that: the voting machines were designed to allow election officials to erase the logs that are used to verify that the machines are accurately recording votes. As a bonus, the button was placed next to the "save" button and the deletion operation doesn't require confirmation, so if the touch screen wasn't properly calibrated or your aim was off you could accidentally delete the logs when you tried to save them. Voila, plausible deniability.As it turned out that this flaw wasn't quite as serious as it sounds because the machines don't actually log enough events to detect tampering. Notably, they don't log vote deletion. So, really, deleting the logs is harmless. Nothing to see here, move along. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JDoors Posted April 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 Up here in Canada in my province we still use paper ballots. Ballots are hand-counted by trusted officials in each electoral district. It is a bit old fashioned, but, it works. I would also be very leery of voting on an electronic machine. I can appreciate that the machines are convenient and they quickly count ballots, but, if there is even a remote chance that the machines can malfunction or worse be hacked then that is unacceptable to me. Umm, there's been plenty of vote fraud long before electronic voting machines were invented. Intentional mis-counts, ballets "disappeared," questionable rejections, etc. I'm just sayin' ... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jcl Posted April 22, 2009 Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 Umm, there's been plenty of vote fraud long before electronic voting machines were invented. Intentional mis-counts, ballets "disappeared," questionable rejections, etc. I'm just sayin' ...Vote fraud with paper ballots was a bug. With electronic voting machines it's a feature.(I don't really care half as much about all this as it sounds.) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sultan_emerr Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 (edited) Yes, as what's-his-name said, "All politics are local". Edited April 23, 2009 by sultan_emerr Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JDoors Posted April 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 Vote fraud with paper ballots was a bug. With electronic voting machines it's a feature. ... Nice paraphrase of a famous quote! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.