Comments on: Debra Bowen’s Big, Bad-Ass, Fabulously Gutsy Choice (UPDATED)

By: GM Roper

GM Roper — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 01:04:47 +0000

Celeste: “About Barak, yeah, now that you mention it he is kinda buff. But I honestly didnâ€™t see a legitimate way of working that into a story about Californiaâ€™s voting methods.”

Does that mean that you thought about trying to figure a way to do it?

By: GM Roper

GM Roper — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:59:40 +0000

Darn Celeste, now that Democrats can’t cheat on the state machines, how will they manage to keep getting elected? ;-P

By: Woody

Woody — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:38:13 +0000

Celeste, go with Mr. Peabody and Sherman in the Way-back Machine to 1962, when the mechanical voting machines were used. You flipped the switch by the name of the candidates for whom you wanted to vote or just flipped one switch at the top of the column to vote for everyone within your party. When finished, you cast your vote with another switch, which rolled the numbers on the counters, reset the voting switches, and opened the curtains. There were no receipts or paper proofs of your vote, and the votes were recorded on a mechanical tabulator, which had the reliability of a Ford automobile. Don’t think that problems with voting machines began in Florida with stupid Democratic voters. The problems with voting machines have always been there. It’s just popular to make political points over the issue today.

By: Celeste Fremon

Celeste Fremon — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:11:48 +0000

Thanks, DB. I’ll fix that.

Hey, Jon. Glad to know that our rampant paranoia about those electronic contraptions is matched by your more knowledge-based suspicions.

We used the punch thingy’s in Topanga for years, and I’m sure there were loads of hanging chads we knew nothing about. Of course, after 2000 we each took every precaution short of stabbing the things out with a Bowie knife.

By: John's friend Jon

John's friend Jon — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:08:48 +0000

YO’, DEBRA!! Iâ€™ve been working as a Polling Center Inspector (the guy with the roster) in South Pasadena/Pasadena/Altadena for about 10-12 years and from my experience, sadly, itâ€™s the voter who doesnâ€™t pay attention to the e-z to follow instructions that creates smudged ink-dots, â€œpregnantâ€ chads and an unpleasant election experience for the other voters who are waiting for me to fix things. (My Swiss Army penknife has saved many a ballot AND voting machine.) In my precincts, the old-fashioned stylus-stabbing system really worked well and the Inkavote system has also been successful. I trust the electronic machines about a far as I can throw a Steinway (full or baby). And, that whole 2000 mess in Florida/Ohio was a â€œsmoke & mirrorsâ€ act standing on the shoulders and yet far beyond the talents of Donald Segretti. Anyway, when you vote, as in life, if you donâ€™t follow instructions, you get what you get – eight years of Bush. Ewwww!

By: db

db — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:52:22 +0000

BTW, Brad Friedman and The Brad Blog are California based, not Texas based. That said, he has been traveling recently, and that’s the reason his recent posts have been from Texas.

By: 2020 Hindsight » Voting Machines in California round-up

2020 Hindsight » Voting Machines in California round-up — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:28:35 +0000

[...] Excellent post with background and context (and snark!) on the recent events of California Secretary of State decertifying machines. [via LA Observed] [...]

By: Celeste Fremon

Celeste Fremon — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:32:44 +0000

Heck, Woody, I’m an old ex-fashion editor. (I worked for various women’s magazines when I was in my 20’s—Seventeen, Glamour, that sort of thing.)

So, for me, although politics and policy issues are important and everything—in the end, it’s all about the accessories.

(And I really did like the claret blazer.)

About Barak, yeah, now that you mention it he is kinda buff. But I honestly didn’t see a legitimate way of working that into a story about California’s voting methods.

By: Woody

Woody — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:40:13 +0000

P.S., LotS, my “frustration,” if there was one, wouldn’t be helped by fantasing about Hillary Clinton.

By: Woody

Woody — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:14:59 +0000

LotS, it wasn't I who started this whole thing about cleavage. The liberal press started making a big deal of it when someone implied that HRC was acting like a man. LINK: The US debates Hillary's cleavage As O'Bama goes, the press has discussed his "muscle" lately. I just implied that there may be no limit to defining the god or goddess comparisons of Democratic candidates.