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

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.