Why are morons allowed to vote? And why do morons tend to be democrats?

[Lawrence of Arabia]

They are getting blamed because they are complaining. No one should complain because then things might get changed.

[Drake Tungsten]

Now, why don't we address the real question this whole fiasco brings up. How are the Democrats going to blame the evil Republicans for this?

The article is about problems with the Florida election system. The governor of Florida is a republican. Yet, leftover_crack blames the Democrats. Are the Democrats in charge of the election system?

Looks like I have my answer...

[Tingkai]

What are you saying there, boy. Is it the Democrats fault? Both parties fault?

Who is in charge of organizing the system for voting in Florida?

[Dis]

not everyone is a democrat or republican now. I seem to think many people lose sight of that.

[Drake Tungsten]

I was just saying that the Democrats or people who sympathize with them were bound to try and blame this whole deal on the Republicans, even though it was a Democratic primary. I'm not picking sides, at any rate. The Republicans would do the same thing if it was their primary.

As for whose fault is is, I think I was pretty clear about my feelings in my first post. It is the fault of stupid people; no system can compensate for people who are to dumb to follow an arrow or push a button.

[Kaak]

my favorite part was how they couldn't find the HAND SIZED ON SWITCHES...seriously

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
I was just saying that the Democrats or people who sympathize with them were bound to try and blame this whole deal on the Republicans, even though it was a Democratic primary. I'm not picking sides, at any rate. The Republicans would do the same thing if it was their primary.

As for whose fault is is, I think I was pretty clear about my feelings in my first post. It is the fault of stupid people; no system can compensate for people who are to dumb to follow an arrow or push a button.

I'm still trying to figure out how this system works. Do the Democratics run their own primary with their own voting system, or is this something operated by the state?

As for the voters' being to blame, the article seems to indicate it was the system.

The voting problems ranged from technical to human error. Workers had problems starting up new touchscreen voting machines; ballot cards tore and couldn't be read on optical scanning machines; technical problems delayed processing the electronic cartridges used in the new touchscreen voting machines. In Miami-Dade, nearly half of the ballots that were still uncounted on Wednesday were cast by black voters.

In addition, some poll workers failed to show up; several polling places opened late; some voters were wrongly turned away for not showing a picture identification.

Seems to me this has more to do with a moronic system rather than moronic voters.

[Drake Tungsten]

I'm pretty sure the system is bipartisan. I doubt Jeb Bush took a personal hand in designing and implementing the new system.

[Sikander]

A quick recap of how our election system "works" for foreigners and clueless Americans:

Votes are tabulated at the county level according to state laws (for elections to state or federal office). County officials make the final decisions regarding methods used, personnel, maintaining voter registration rolls etc. In other words they act as the executive officers in this instance, carrying out the laws passed by state legislature.

In Florida the legislature passed a law outlawing punch card ballots (among other things). Counties decided which of the legal methods of vote tabulation they would use, bought the necessary equipment, hired the necessary personnel and conducted the elections by selecting polling places, determining whether people who turn up to vote are registered etc. After the polls close the county officials tabulate the votes and send them to the Secretary of State (in most states anyway) where the statewide totals are tallied. If things go well, the Sec. of State certifies the results, and the election is over.

So the state legislatures decide the general rules of elections, and counties carry out elections. The Executive branch of the State has the least imput in the system of all. They merely take / investigate complaints of impropriety and tally the final results. They also rule if there is a reason for a recount (evidence of fraud, malfeasance or in case of a statistical tie). Once they have finished this business they certify the results of each election, which are then fairly well set in stone.

So in answer to Tingai's question, the main responsibility lies with the counties. The problems reported in the story seem to lie almost exclusively with counties. As the counties which had the most problems are also the same counties that had the most problems during the last election there has been plenty of hue and cry about it. The fact that these counties are also heavily Democrat, while the legislature and the executive are Republican just adds more fuel to the fire, especially since the Governor and Legislature went to a lot of trouble trying to reform the election laws and allocated state funds for these reforms in response to the fiasco in 2000, for which they were heavily criticized, though most of the problems then as now seem to be with certain Democrat controlled counties.

So Governor Bush (GW's Bro) and the Republicans came out firing in an attempt to get the first shot in the blame game. I can't blame them really, as they got something of a raw deal in 2000 vis a vis blame for that fiasco.

[mindseye]

Yeah, let's just let the smart people vote. Smart people like Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, you know - those MBA business geniuses who really know how to run a a large organization properly.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by Promethus
Can you prove this? I have never heard this before. Who decides if a person "Is to Mentialy Disabled" to vote?

Visit your local nut house and you'll people who are not allowed to vote.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by jimmytrick


Hey! My IQ is over 130. I am those people.

(my wife does our mechanical work, like using the ATM card and replacing light bulbs)

Only you can get away with it to JT.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Thrawn05



Visit your local nut house and you'll people who are not allowed to vote.

Depends on jurisdiction. In Canada, IIRC, the mentally incompetent have been allowed to vote since a series of rulings by the Supreme Court ~1988.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by mindseye
Yeah, let's just let the smart people vote. Smart people like Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, you know - those MBA business geniuses who really know how to run a a large organization properly.

Please refer to my prior post about people with an IQ of 130 and not knowing how to screw on a lightbulb.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by Frogger


Depends on jurisdiction. In Canada, IIRC, the mentally incompetent have been allowed to vote since a series of rulings by the Supreme Court ~1988.

That's it, time to annex Canada!