Nope I think it takes more than reading directions to be familiar with something.

“If after years of taking standardized tests, filling bubbles in all those tests, someone has reached the age of 18 and still hasn’t mastered the skill, that’s not an example of what you were arguing.”

I’m not talking about the people this applies to

Comment by imdw — 11/21/2008 @

This comment would have been great in the Prop 8 thread where the governed having made their votes are awaiting the consent of the judicial component of the govt to see their majority votes validated. The judiciary kind of blew past the burden of asking part, too. The majority rules in a democracy, except when it doesn’t. Initiative mechanics…rig it now, or rig it later.

Sure but you need to know that if you x the bubble it wont work, for example.

You are arguing that being able to read something to the effect of “Don’t make an X, fill the whole bubble in” is being familiar with the technology.

I understand that some people are too dim to grasp these concepts, but that’s hardly a case of technology favoring those familiar with it. If after years of taking standardized tests, filling bubbles in all those tests, someone has reached the age of 18 and still hasn’t mastered the skill, that’s not an example of what you were arguing.

Just about everyone still leaves people out. I remember when I was a kid we got big lessons on how to do it properly. People without this experience aren’t going to get it. People with this experience a long time ago may not do it right.

“It’s just filling in bubbles, no one needs experience with the technology to use it correctly.”

Sure but you need to know that if you x the bubble it wont work, for example. These things are second nature to me. But not for everyone. And thats not reason enough for me to say “maybe they shouldn’t be voting.”

The way I look at it, imagine if we asked people to write out the name of the candidate they were voting for. Would we count misspellings? They didn’t follow the directions. And just about everyone should know how to spell. But we can still determine intent.

It is embarrassing to me that we haven’t mastered the technology behind voting still…

But there’s subjectivity in the machines too: they favor those with experience in using the technology.

Uh, no. Just about everyone takes standardized tests in grade school, without having experience with the technology. It’s just filling in bubbles, no one needs experience with the technology to use it correctly.

But there’s subjectivity in the machines too: they favor those with experience in using the technology. And frankly, there’s subjectivity in your counseling for using the machines: you already established that democrats are more likely to not follow the instructions.

“If you can’t cast your vote competently, in a way that will be read by the machine, maybe you shouldn’t be voting.”

A cute and simplistic logic. But the problem is that “maybe you shouldn’t be voting” isn’t a very good standard on which to base who to disenfranchise. If we can determine intent, we should. I think in a democracy,where government is based on the consent of the governed, its fair to have certain burdens of asking for this consent be placed on the government.

Ballot 11: Reject this. Who knows what the hell this person was doing?

I do. He voted for Franken by mistake, crossed his name out, and then voted for Coleman. Don’t let the misleading headline fool you; there’s no way in hell he was trying to “underline” Stuart Smalley’s name. He didn’t mean to “underline” anything. If he had, he’d have started at the bottom, and perhaps ended up at the middle inadvertently. He did the opposite.

Proof that not all lazy dumbass voters are Democrats. Only most of them.

If identifying marks are allowed, some local hoodlum could make people mark their ballots so he could check their vote. Especially “absentee” ballots cast in, say, union halls.”

That, seems hard to do. Is that the official reason? These marks appear to be voluntary; if someone made me mark it, I would go in the booth and erase or change the mark. If they are enforcing the marked ballot by checking after I have voted then it really makes no difference if there is an identifying mark or not.