Tennessee's ballots will continue to be counted by flying monkeys

[Fly by night]

I was up at the Tennessee legislature yesterday picking up the last of my 180+ support letters for my Presidential pardon. (As all y'all know, I am only required to submit three.) I wasn't aware that the guillotining of the TN Voter Confidence Act was being discussed (again). That is probably a good thing. I was standing in the media room when Tom Humphrey of the Knoxville News-Sentinel walked in and said "There were some real fireworks in the discussion of the TVCA just now. Why weren't you there?"

I told him (and the other reporters), "Likely, if I had stepped foot in the hearing, the Republicans would have had me shipped off to GITMO." Everyone laughed, but me.

For background on that reference, see this link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=5908269

One faux man's "domestic terrorist" is another man's American.
Here's to the ghosts of Athens, Tennessee.
I know just how they felt and I wish we had some of them with us today.
God (and Tom Paine) both know we need them, if we are going to save our democracy.

FBN
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http://wpln.org/?p=24784

WPLN News
Paper ballot system to be postponed for lack of funds

Tuesday, March 08th, 2011, by Joe White

The Tennessee legislature is poised to un-do a measure it passed three years ago to increase confidence in the state’s balloting system.

In 2008 and 2009, grassroots activists began to complain that no one could be sure in a computerized voting system that his or her vote counted.

Eventually those activists were joined by public interest groups like Common Cause. They talked Tennessee lawmakers into enacting a system where voters would mark paper ballots, which would then be read by optical scanners. If an election was contested, the paper ballots could be audited. It was called the Voter Confidence Act.

Now, under a proposal from Knoxville Representative Bill Dunn, the switch won’t happen unless the state legislature pays all the costs.

“It became very apparent it was gonna be very expensive for counties …it was gonna be tough to carry out elections using paper ballots.”

Dunn says printing the new ballots and storing them safely will be expensive for county election commissions. His bill would effectively put off the measure permanently, unless the General Assembly finds the money to pay those costs.

Dick Williams of Common Cause is frustrated at the latest delay.

“We of course think the cost is much less than they’re touting it is, and we think it’s certainly worth it whether it’s state or local government to fund it, to have the confidence that this legislature passed almost unanimously in 2008.”

When the paper ballot bill originally passed, the two political parties were balanced almost evenly in the state House and both wanted to make sure every vote was counted. This year Democrats want the Voter Confidence Act to go forward, but Republicans with a substantial majority are satisfied with the current system.

The House bill delaying the Voter Confidence now goes to the House Finance Committee for a closer look at its costs… or savings. The bill hasn’t been brought up yet in the state Senate.

[Fly by night]

1. One self-kick and then to the exercise bike

I need to blow off steam somehow this morning, in the ancestral home of Andrew Jackson. "Ole Hickory" would know what to do ....

[tnlurker]

2. K&R

[spanone]

3. this state is quickly going down the tubes

[Tsiyu]

4. The validity of our vote is worth the extra expense

:kick: and rec

[Fly by night]

5. There is no extra expense and the flying monkeys know it.

Voting on paper ballot/opscan systems with mandatory random manual recounts is 40-50% cheaper than voting on DREs (according to studies in North Carolina, Maryland and Florida), it is 10-15 times faster (in a one-on-one comparison of an opscan system versus a DRE system) AND it is verifiable. Republicans nationwide want us to keep voting on DREs for reasons 2 and 3 above and they are lying out their monkey butts about reason 1.

Tennessee IS going to hell in a hand-basket, and it is not because voters (of every political persuasion) want it to.

[Tsiyu]

6. Thanks for the facts, I am dumb on all of them

I guess I've given up to a certain degree.

I do not trust the machines i use to vote here, even though they have always seemed to "take" my choices. I prefer a paper ballot, and whether it is more or less expensive to provide them to voters, the expense is worth it.

Knowing it is actually cheaper makes my blood boil.

OT, it won't quit raining here. Glad I'm on the mountain. Driving back from a friend's last night I could barely see the road for the rain driving across the highway. Has been pouring all night and morning.

Hope no floods in Nash Vegas again...

[Fly by night]

7. No floods yet though it might take another one to wash the monkey shit out of our legislature.

That or channeling the ghosts of the Battle of Athens.

[Tsiyu]

8. maybe they'll fling enough poo at each other

and all the bad monkeys will be gone next cycle.

I don't know how we got the idiots we got - statewide or in Congress

[demodonkey]

10. The paper ballot based systems actually COST LESS!

Read the independent report commissioned by the Maryland Legislature:

A report released by the Department of Legislative Services in December 2010 shows Maryland could save at least $9.5 million over 8 years by replacing its aging touch-screen voting equipment with optically scanned paper ballots. The study estimates that the state already would have saved $1.6 to $5.2 million by now if it had switched in 2006. The independent cost analysis was mandated last spring by the General Assembly to examine the true costs of operating the existing machines versus switching to the more verifiable voting system required by a law passed in 2007.

http://www.saveourvotes.org/releases/index.htm

[RedCloud]

9. Man that Scopes Monkey Trial has taken on wings!