h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Being a Yank...I must say, next election I'm going to try to get a smilie on the ballot!

And I do wish everyone could be just a bit kinder, after all, it is terrible to have 'electile dysfunction'.

it's even worse when a whole State suffers

If anyone cares, I just heard on the radio that the Florida State Supreme Court (I think) just ordered all counties to conduct a recount.

After the announcement, there was a moment of silence, as if everyone who there couldn't believe what they'd heard.

*Pandora awakens with a hang over...lipstick on the pillow... mascara flaking off ger eyelashes...hair looks as though it's been combed with an egg beater* "Oh my Hell, is it time to go vote AGAIN?!?"

No, it's not time to vote again, though I think that'd probably be easier and less costly.

I figure the Florida Supreme Court probably went by the idea that "If you're going to conduct a recount, you should recount all the ballots, not just certain ones in certain counties." Also, it was a 4-3 decision, so it's not like they all unanimously (sp?) agreed that a full recount was in order.

I liked what one guy on The Daily Show said: "If I may make an analogy, right now Florida is driving five miles an hour in the fast lane with its left turn signal on."

When this lot started, I was disinterested in the outcome but wanted to see that the process was "fair". It seemed that both sides were prepared to admit and accept that there was likely to have been "irregularity" to some extent - which one side (with the "advantage") wanted to ignore whilst the other side wanted to clear it up.
My British regard for "fair play" was mobilised against the apparent arrogance of the "winner".
My luddite distrust of machinery increased my sympathy for the "loser".
So it is with a degree of satisfaction that I heard the majority decision in favour of further investigation.
I have no doubt that the U.S. is quite capable of withstanding what some folk seem to regard as a disgraceful failure to accept defeat. Why are they not prepared to accept that it will do nothing but good to establish the result with the greatest degree of accuracy? That way there will be no possibility of charges of illegitimacy against the eventual winner.
These are the thoughts of a casual observer, it's really nothing to do with me.
The BBC has shown some clips from The Daily Show. It's rather good, isn't it.

Personally, I think that we should make sure that the outcome of the election is determined fairly. Unfortunately, there's not really a fair way to do it, because the people involved only scream about fairness up until their candidate gets the majority vote. Everyone has a different opinion of what's "fair," and the devil lies in determing what exactly is fair.

For example, is it fair to exclude overseas absentee ballots because they didn't get postmarked before the deadline? Or is it fair to include them because postmarking might not have been available where they were? Or is it fair to include them anyway because they might be from military personnel, who risk their lives to protect our country?

Is it fair that many people who would have voted for the "loser" accidentally voted for another candidate (an independent, not the "winner") because the ballots weren't properly lined up in the machines? Is it fair to count votes where the ballot card is not completely punched, but only "dimpled" because perhaps the voter in question wasn't strong enough to punch all the way through?

Or is it fair to all the average Americans that people who are too dull-witted to follow the voting directions get their votes counted regardless of how much time and our tax dollars it takes?

Is it fair that whoever gets into office will do so without a proper cabinet and staff because the election process took so long? Typically this time period is used by the president-elect to select and confirm his new adminstration.

The most ironic thing is that The Daily Show has been making fun of the election for months by calling it "Indecision 2000." When this whole dispute started, legitimate news stations also started calling it "Indecision 2000." I wonder if TDS could sue...

"Okay, it's like this...I hope you're old enough to absorb this trauma. I really think someone ought to tell you. Since nobody has, I'll do it as gentley as I possibally can.
LIFE IS NOT FAIR...IT NEVER HAS BEEN AND IT NEVER WILL BE!" (this has been a tough love announcement from a tipsy Hiker)~peace & love~Pan

Screw FAIR!

The objective at this point is to keep G W Bush away from power as long as possible. Every day he's not president is a day the world should treasure.

Did you see that email anout the "Notice of Revocation of Independence"

Election weary voters in America have been given the perfect answer to resolve the race for the White House - Bring back the Queen. The tongue in cheek advice has come in a mystery Email which has swept America and Britain
Titled "Notice of Revocation of Independence" it claims presidential candidates Al Gore and George W Bush are turning the election into a fiasco.

Headed "To the Citizens of the United States of America" it says: in the light of your failure to elect any body as President of the USA and thus govern yourselves and by extension the free world, we hear by give notice of the revocation of your independence. - Effective today

It states that the Queen will resume her monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and territories, including new Jersey.

Americans needed to comply with 10 orders.

All American cars should be scrapped because they are rubbish, and driving on the left is to be made compulsory.
Look up revocation in the Oxford English dictionary. Then look up aluminium and check the pronunciation guide. In general, raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels
Start spelling English words correctly
Learn to differentiate between English and Australian accents
Start referring to 'soccer' as football
Arrest Mel Gibson, the star of anti English movies Braveheart and The Patriot, for treason
Declare war on Quebec and France
Relearn your original national anthem, god Save The King
Scrapping July 4th
November 8 presidential election day should be a national holiday, but only in England.

In conclusion, Please tell us who killed JFK - it's been driving us crazy.
Thank you for your co operation, and have a nice day.

seasons greetings

TPS

I think you might want to check out the conversation further down the forum:
NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE - it even has the reply "In the interests of balence and fairness..." from the Americans offering 51st Statehood if we leave Europe.

I'm sold.

"The objective at this point is to keep G W Bush away from power as long as possible. Every day he's not president is a day the world should treasure." - And ditto for Al Whore. My vote was for "none of the above." Looks like I won.

...and it looks like it's working.

I'll drink to that!

Ahoy, S.S. Wampus,
In response to the questions which you very thoughtfully, and properly, posed to an interfering onlooker, the answers are:
yes, yes, no, no, yes, no and yes, but not necessarily in that order.
Obviously nothing is as easy as it looks, but my sympathy is likely always to lie with a person who prefers human intervention or interpretation rather than relying on machine examination. I am prepared to recant in some circumstances e.g. looking for radiation leaks or other hazardous situations.
And another thing: it should be for the local ballot supervisor to declare the result, after advising the candidates, or their representatives, of the tally of the figures and giving them the opportunity to raise any justifiable complaint. No one should be put under pressure to concede, it is not the decision of the candidate - it is the decision of the electorate.
Oops, getting carried away.
Surely there will be a change introduced to the system(s) now; although it could never happen again. Could it?

I certainly hope it does happen again. It's all been tremendously entertaining for the casual observer. Best American sit-com I've seen in years...

It could happen again. There is a very close election in America every 50 years or so. And whenever the election is close, there are all sorts of legal and ethical questions raised in key states. I can think of two things that might help us avoid problems the next time we have a close election.

First, federal money should be distributed to numerous counties to upgrade polling equipment. In my opinion, punch card and lever-pull ballotting machines should no longer be used. They are relatively unreliable and can be confusing to voters. The technology that drives them is over 40 years old. Also, the roughly 30% of American counties using this type of equipment typically have larger than average minority populations and higher poverty rates.

Would you be willing to take your SATs and other important school exams on a punch card ballot machine? I wouldn't. So why is it okay when a presidency is at stake? It seems nonsensical to me. A change to fill-in-the-bubble ballots and matching readers would increase accuracy by over 4% in poorer counties and speed up both machine recounts and hand recounts significantly.

Second, I feel there should be some sort of legal law giving the people a right to vote and to determine the outcome of federal elections. Technically speaking, this right does not exist in our Constitution. Some of our founding fathers -- when confronted with a large illiteracy problem -- felt elections should be reserved for the more educated. Today, literacy is much higher and the average person has free access to at least basic sources of news. Times have changed.

Yet, our state legislatures have the power to overturn the popular vote and assign their own representatives to the Electoral College. They also have the ability to use various administrative programs to 'accidentally cleanse' legitimate voters from their records and prohibit them from voting. The disqualified voters have no legal recourse unless they can prove racial discrimination. This sort of abuse of power should not be possible in our day and age.

The sad thing about this whole mess is that it was so preventable. All we have to do to prevent a repeat is put our money where our mouth is. If we really do believe in the will of the people, then we need to show it with our actions.

Any one got any info on the possability of Florida sending two lots of Electors to Washington, each with differnt mandates ?

Fragilis: New voting methods are already on their way. I work in IT for county government, and my county was one of a half-dozen or so who were debuting the new electronic voting system. We're going beyond the SAT cards and moving into the computer age. Piles of absentee ballots were kept on hand in case of glitches or sporadic cases of technophobia, but were largely unnecessary. Nobody is debating the validity of hanging chads here.

I'd like to see someone vote against the will of the people in the electoral college. They'll get mauled in the press. Not by law, but by practice and tradition, an elector is required to vote for the candidate his state chose by popular vote.

Colonel I belive that voters have voted against there mandate on a few occasions in the past ?