****OPRAH EARLY VOTED, BUT SHE'S NOT THRILLED WITH THE EQUIPMENT!

[FrenchieCat]

"When I voted yesterday electronically, the first vote that you vote for on the ballot is the presidential candidate. It was my first time doing electronic, so I didn't mark the X strong enough, or I held down too long. Because then when I went back to check it, it had not recorded my presidential vote," she said.

She then simulated her meltdown, shaking and breathing heavily while stuttering out the words, "It didn't record my presidential vote."

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6603


VIDEO: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6603

[PretzelWarrior]

1. I happened to catch that show earlier. ChicagoTalk or something

the people on the panel were pretty funny too. But as she described her problems with voting it occured to me. HOW FUCKING STUPID IS THIS VOTING TECHNOLOGY???? When I go to any normally functioning website that takes me through a series of screens where I need to make selections, it will prompt me if I didn't choose something I needed to. Also, it will have good navigation allowing me to jump to a particular portion of the ballot (think TurboTax GUI).

We are being ridiculously mocked by the shit heads who've foisted this current electronic pile of garbage on the US voters. It is a travesty. It is a sham. It is a mockery. It is a traveshamockery!

[stellanoir]

2. Well she should check with her producers.

I took the time to write to her shortly after HAVA was passed.

This goes into the "No Shit Sherlock" category.

She's been no where on black disenfranchisement. It's inexcusable.

Hope she does something about it finally.

:hug:

[FrenchieCat]

3. She certainly has the influence to get the nation on that page......

[gblady]

4. agree....

she's a good one to have experienced the problem.

[FrenchieCat]

5. She really did point many in the right direction for a new President.

Perhaps she can be as powerful pointing the way to a different voting system.

We're looking for Change anyways!

[SoCalDem]

6. Gee Oprah, where ya been , girlfriend?

We (some of us) even wrote to you waaaaaay back in 2001, BEGGING you to take this on as a signature issue that someone with YOUR stature could move forward, but apparently you thought spiritual awakening & make overs of celebrities' kitchens
were more important..

If YOU had been flogging this issue even ONE time a MONTH, from 2001...who knows what migth have happened by now.. Maybe we WOULD have had some real progress in getting our elections under control..

Goodness knows, there are certainly enough HIGH PROFILE experts available to be on your shows...people who could show in REAL TIME, just how easy it is to hack into these machines and change election results..


Too bad for ALL of us without hour long tv shows that WE are 100% in charge of, if this election "goes bad"...like the "00 & '04 ones did.

[democracy1st]

7. I think what happened was other than Cynthia McKinney

there was no political figure that took this issue on with Bradblog like passion. This has been a issue since 2000 and the Democrats refused to give it proper attention.

American Blackout

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPOmOTyDm1w

[WinkyDink]

11. Saving the Union is not Oprah's responsibility. Maybe en masse notification of our ELECTED OFFICIALS

might have had a bigger impact? Protests?

[SoCalDem]

13. Au contraire...

Things that get discussed on Oprah's show BECOME issues.. and she had (until recently) a broad swath of the public as her "base".. She was perfectly positioned to speak to the women (mostly) of BOTH parties, and to do it in a bi-partisan way that would have resonated..

My fear is that if Obama wins, there will be no real impetus to change something that "worked" for us (this time), even if we have the power needed to change it...and if we lose, well...we end up with McCain in no particular hurry to change anything..and of course Oprah is quite the partisan now, and emphasis on the issue would be viewed through that lens, and attention to it would be seen a sour grapes.

[PCIntern]

8. She had said that about Stedman as well...

[No Elephants]

9. She noticed it only because the voting machine spit out a receipt. If there had been no receipt,

she would have left believing she had voted for Obama for President.

As soon as this election is over, we MUST devote our time and money to this issue. Badger mayors, town councils, state houses, etc. We just MUST.

[No Elephants]

10. BTW, if she had not been Oprah, would anyone have let her go to the machine a second time?

[mucifer]

12. I voted on the same equipment. I DON"T agree with this assessment.

I voted in Chicago. First of all, after you place all of your votes the machine then goes thru every vote you made so that you check it. Then you can see if you voted wrong it prints it and asks you if this is correct. Oprah saw on the paper it wasn't correct and she CHANGED it to what she wanted.

THERE WAS NO ERROR. Watch the video again if you don't believe me. She corrected the machine. Her vote IS on paper also. It has a paper printout that goes into the machine so that people can count the paper ballots in event of a tie.

I voted on the same machine. It's not a problem. It would have been a problem if you couldn't double check it. It FORCES you to double check it.