Voter Confidence takes another hit in NJ

The Buck Stops At The Governor's Desk... (4.00 / 1)

.....if he had ORDERED the AG to get it done; it would have been done; long ago.

What kind of hold does this one vendor have on our "leaders"?

The technology for this exists.  Rewarding the existing vendor, Sequoia, for dragging it's feet is a perverse incentive.  

In a sane world, Sequoia would have made the necessary modifications AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE years ago; just to keep on being our supplier.

On the other hand, it may be just a simple matter of sheer incompetence.

Now the failure to comply with the law has been "remedied".....by changing the law to fit the failure; that is the kind of crap we're getting from the Bush administration on the issue of retroactive immunity.    

I expected better from our Democratic majority here in New Jersey.

This truly does stink.

PS  Maybe the matter isn't petty corruption or sheer incompetence; maybe someone has a hard interest in maintaining insecure elections???

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by: Nick Lento @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 20:10:18 PM UTC

who's to blame? (0.00 / 0)

This is a failure of the Attorney General and of the legislature to demand accountability. The legislature inserted a giant loophole into the original version of the bill which allowed them to repeatedly extend the deadline. There's been no accountability.

They won't retrofit the current machines because the AG won't certify the new machines.

They won't buy new machines because they say it costs too much. (what is the dollar amount of the integrity of the vote?)

They won't go to optical scanners because then there's no one-button party line vote option.

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by: Juan Melli @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 20:13:58 PM UTC

"one-button party line vote option" (4.00 / 1)

There isn't one now.  Title 19 would have to be amended for that.  Additionally, it should be possible on an opscan ballot to have a bubble for voting a full party row or column.

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by: Creed Pogue @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 21:41:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Spelling (0.00 / 0)

Great video!

One question though:   Shouldn't it be "compliant"  instead of "complaint" at the end of the video?  Maybe I misunderstood the reference?

Personally, I don't understand how NJ Democratic leaders can complain about the bad job Bush is doing [ok, I can!, but ...], since they seem equally determined to do a bad job on simple items like voting machines.    NJ should be a model to the rest of the country of what the Democratic party can do.  Somehow, I don't think I'm going to live to see that.  

Best,
pb

 

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by: princetonblue @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 20:51:24 PM UTC

On the Attorney General (3.50 / 2)

Am I only the one who thinks that the AG's recent suggestions regarding the Family Leave Bill, which will now require the Senate to revote on it, could be a back-door attempt of killing the legislation?  

The amendments would seem to add nothing of content that wasn't already part of state law.  But they force a revote, when the original vote was very close.  Maybe I'm too cynical about how NJ politics works.

Best,
pb

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by: princetonblue @ Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 20:54:02 PM UTC

We wuz robbed (0.00 / 0)

If our elected officials can't figure out how to get a verified paper trail with greatly overpriced printers attached to obsolete (Vic Commodore 64) computers, perhaps they could give us the option of voting with hand counted ballots filled out with cheap pens.
Enough already. We want our votes counted.
Free and fair elections are the bedrock upon which real democracies stand. We the people demand paper ballots. And if some voters are incapable of filling out paper ballots they can vote via absentee ballots.
They've come up with every excuse imaginable to suspend verified voting. If they refuse to provide paper ballots they should be sued out of office. Every resident of this state should sue for verified voting, as the electronic ballot box is a fraud.  All legislators who deny verified voting need to be asked why they oppose a government of, by, and for the people.
Why is the code that counts the vote proprietary? We're not talking about defense secrets. We want our votes counted in public, not in secret. Anyone wanting to hide how the vote is counted is up to no good, and playing by election rules set forth by Joseph Stalin.  
The world's oldest democratic republic will be nothing more than the newest fascist tin- horn dictatorship unless this voting issue is equitably settled.
We've spent half a trillion to give 25 million Iraqis purple thumbs and paper ballots. We should be able to spend some of our money on pens, paper and some thumb ink.
No more excuses. Legislators must deliver or be sued for consumer fraud and return to the State Treasury their salaries in triplicate.
Having anything less than a verified paper trail invites corruption, and worse, the possibility of insurrection.
The whirring sound in the background is our founding fathers spinning in their graves.

Restore democracy and the Constitution for which it stands.

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by: The Wizard @ Tue Mar 11, 2008 at 12:35:08 PM UTC