OK I feel better now

[prog]

Here is a non-paranoid prediction about next week from me:

No matter what the outcome of the election, there will be a high-holy stink about voter fraud, the likes of which the nation has never seen before, not even during the 2000 elections (which were as much about confusion and stupidity as outright fraud).

The losing party will of course lead the charges, and yes, I think that either party is ready and willing to do this once the returns are added up.

And no matter which color's calling for the investigation, I will support it completely. My attitude will be either this cannot stand or bring it, shitheads, but my resolution will be the same, and I call on all Americans to join me.

Treat everyone wailing NO NO you had your chance and you lost LOOK IT SAYS SO RIGHT ON THE SCREEN SO JUST SHUT UP aaaaaAAAAAAGGGHHHH as an enemy of democracy.

Comments

[radtea.livejournal.com]

It is my sincere hope that some American heros will sacrifice their careers and go to jail for the sake of hacking as many Diebold machines as possible so that all votes are given to a third-party candidate in their district.

Not sure I get you

[prog.livejournal.com]

You mean in order to make an obvious point about how susceptible the machines are? There are better ways to do this.

I do not want to see any live vote hacking going on by anybody. I don't want any voter's vote to be ignored, or reported falsely. Ever.

Re: Not sure I get you

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I don't want any voter's vote to be ignored, or reported falsely. Ever.

Too late.

Re: Not sure I get you

[ianmcin.livejournal.com]

You mean in order to make an obvious point about how susceptible the machines are? There are better ways to do this.

Any particular suggestions on this front? It seems like it's a point that needs to be made, but very few people seem interested in listening.

Re: Not sure I get you

[radtea.livejournal.com]

The public resistence to the belief in vote-hacking is enormous. It takes on virtually religious proportions. I've been active in this debate on /., and there are three classes of response:

1) Grow up! Vote hacking as always gone on. Real men don't cry when elections get stolen. And besides, you can hack paper votes too! (Presumably this is from people who have never used a computer to do a task quickly and easily that takes arduous hours manually.)

2) Don't be silly. It's impossible that "they" would ever let this happen.

3) Sure there have been a few hacks, but they don't really count because a) they were in favour of my party or b) they didn't change the outcome of the election or c) it would be just too painful to believe that our democracy has been stolen from us.

Now that it has become clear how easy it is to hack an election I've seen people claim that voting machine failures are probably due to people like me hacking elections to make a point. I believe it likely that the majority of Americans will refuse point-blank to believe that the American electoral process has been violated until they have repeated, flagrant examples of electoral failure.

So while I sympathize with your view that everyone's vote should always be counted, and I'm a little concerned that what I'm advocating has a flavour of "we had to destroy the democracy in order to save it" about it, I do not know of any other way to get past the religious belief people seem to have that "that just can't happen."

If you have better ways, I'm all ears, though.

[chocorisu.livejournal.com]

Do us non-americans have permission to keep shaking our heads in bemusement?

[prog.livejournal.com]

I don't believe anyone here considers that an invadable offense, so have at it. (And I have fond memories of screaming British tabloid headlines after the 2004 election.)

I will weather the scorn of people both foreign and domestic about this, whether it takes the form of "Suck it up, crybabies" or "WTF is wrong with you Yanks". The fact is that the implementation of the physical electoral layer has changed dramatically in this country since 2000, and there has been almost no accountability for it.

If a democracy's principal interface with its people is suspect, that democracy should be considered compromised, and requires deep diagnostics.

[chocorisu.livejournal.com]

It certainly seems odd that, for a country that apparently has a Mission from God to export Democracy to other nations, America doesn't appear to actually be very good at it.

On the bright side, rioting and the collapse of civilisation are quite bad for business, and at least we know business always gets whatever it wants regardless of who's in power.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Depends on whether you're willing to come here and observe to make sure that we have fair and legal elections. The Onion has never looked more prescient...

[chocorisu.livejournal.com]

Hahah!

I made the silly mistake of marrying an American and living here, so it's in my best interest that the country doesn't self-destruct just yet.

[doctor-atomic.livejournal.com]

Well, I filled out a nice old-fashioned absentee ballot, so my vote probably won't even by counted.