Text 4766, 62 rader
Skriven 2007-07-20 04:07:54 av Bob Ackley (1:2905/3)
   Kommentar till text 4623 av Björn Felten (2:203/2)
Ärende: Correction on recount
=============================
Replying to a message of Björn Felten to mark lewis:

 RC>>> As I understood it, they were preperfed.

 RC>>> How could a chad be hanging, the ballot being called into question
 RC>>> with a already existing hole?

 ml>> errmmm... haven't you even used a hole punch to punch thru several
 ml>> sheets?

 BF>    Can I ask a question without immediately being dismissed as US
 BF> bashing and hating?

Probably not. <g>

 BF>    Does anyone of you know what was the real reason for introducing
 BF> this strange hole punching idea? To me it sounds so stupid I cannot
 BF> even start to find any reason for it.

Way back when computers came into general use, it was considered 'progress'
to use punch cards for various purposes - such as but not limited to bank 
(more correctly - US Treasury) checks.  Also in the 1960s came the 'mark
sense' forms, where one blacks in small boxes on the form to indicate a
response of some sort - these were mostly used for machine scoring of test
results (and, AAMOF, for machine counting of votes).  The mark sense forms
are still used for scoring test results, machine counting of votes, and for
making bets on the various lotteries.

For whatever reason, some localities opted for punch out forms rather than
the mark sense forms for their voting systems.  Around here the mark sense
forms have been in use for decades - although in the last election I had the
option of using a Diebold voting machine (I did not exercise that option,
preferring instead the mark sense form, and I explained to the local election
officials precisely why).

 BF>    Having a machine detect a hand written cross in a square is not
 BF> really rocket science, is it? It's been done for decades -- at least
 BF> here in Sweden.

Similar to the mark sense forms here.

 BF>    Our machines can even read digits and characters written in the
 BF> proper square on a form. We use it all over the place here. I write
 BF> down the water and electricity meter numbers twice a year on a
 BF> postcard and send it to the proper "company", and their OCR systems
 BF> have never failed to read my hand written numbers. How hard can it be
 BF> to detect a cross, then...?

It isn't a question of being easy or hard.  You have to understand that the
powers
don't *want* to make it easy or accurate.  They're presently fighting tooth and
nail
to prevent a requirement that voting machines maintain a paper record of votes
cast
(this isn't rocket science, cash registers have been doing the same thing for
over a
century), because a paper record can be audited (just like the paper tape in
cash
registers) while a purely electronic system cannot be.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+
 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:2905/3)