When A Lead Is Not A Lead
In Washington state, Christine Gregoire now leads Dino Rossi. Or so the media would convey it to you.
What I'd like to know is how she was ever behind. Isn't it the case that when all the votes are in, the outcome is determined, and the order in which the results are presented should be irrelevant? Trouble is, we have a media which treats elections like football games.
The difference is subtle, but it definitely frames how people think about elections. Let's face it--as it stands, Republicans will cry that they were robbed. Were they? Who would be robbed if the votes were not properly counted? And don't get me started on the will of the voters; Florida Jews for Buchanan from Y2K is still a farce.
Is it just me, or does it seem like it is always Republicans who are trying to stop votes from being counted?
And is it just me, or is something really screwed up when we cannot get this right the first time? We can complain about Diebold machines all we want, but how hard is it really to put together voting kiosks that print receipts of votes so that the user can verify the transaction and then hand in the paper trail to the election officials? You'd have it all online and offline. You could do a bunch of random integrity checks to make sure nobody is cheating. Why is it so hard for this country to get a simple election done properly?
And, again, is it just me, or does anyone else find it comical that the US can go into other countries as an observer of their elections? Exactly what expertise do we really have, given today's technology, to show others how it is done right the first time?
What I'd like to know is how she was ever behind. Isn't it the case that when all the votes are in, the outcome is determined, and the order in which the results are presented should be irrelevant? Trouble is, we have a media which treats elections like football games.
The difference is subtle, but it definitely frames how people think about elections. Let's face it--as it stands, Republicans will cry that they were robbed. Were they? Who would be robbed if the votes were not properly counted? And don't get me started on the will of the voters; Florida Jews for Buchanan from Y2K is still a farce.
Is it just me, or does it seem like it is always Republicans who are trying to stop votes from being counted?
And is it just me, or is something really screwed up when we cannot get this right the first time? We can complain about Diebold machines all we want, but how hard is it really to put together voting kiosks that print receipts of votes so that the user can verify the transaction and then hand in the paper trail to the election officials? You'd have it all online and offline. You could do a bunch of random integrity checks to make sure nobody is cheating. Why is it so hard for this country to get a simple election done properly?
And, again, is it just me, or does anyone else find it comical that the US can go into other countries as an observer of their elections? Exactly what expertise do we really have, given today's technology, to show others how it is done right the first time?
posted by Josh Paley at 10:53 PM
1 Comments:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/26/national/26gov.html
I guess it isn't just me.
Now, I would like someone to do something about this.
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