Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Voting Fiasco
In yesterday's Democratic primary election for Maryland's 4th district, there was yet another voting fiasco in a very very close race.
Machines in Montgomery County broke instantly, meaning that polling places were turning people away in the morning, and that they had to turn to provisional ballots. Some people were writing their votes on scraps of paper because the polling places then ran out of provisional ballots. The voting machines kept breaking, hours were extended, and precincts from Prince George's County - where Wynn has his base - were apparently among the last to be counted. A rule of thumb for stealing elections is to make sure that your precincts are the last ones to be counted. This is just brazenly atrocious, and emails are coming in about peoples' bad voting experiences.
The race is still undecided with the netroots long-shot, Donna Edwards, still hanging in there. Despite this having been a contest of Democrats, it still highlights the inadequacy of voting machines. It also continues to throw suspicion on the legitimacy of voting in general.

It's unlikely the Republicans will ever do anything about this issue as they really are a minority party that depends on manipulation, propaganda, greedy pandering, and fear to win. Any voting system that disrupts the vote is a plus for them. This is precisely why Democrats have to win, and win big. If the election isn't close, then the opportunities for manipulations or the impact of errors go way down. Once in power, the Democrats then need to clean up the voting machine mess once and for all.
Written at 2:23 PM by Greyhair.
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