Election redux

[GlueGuy]

Excuse me for throwing a little cold water on this otherwise upbeat vennue, but I think it's good to talk about this stuff.

Regardless of whether you liked the outcome of the election or not, it's clear that it highlighted the differences between voter intent, and the end result. Congress is (finally) getting around to looking at this, and it looks like there will be no easy solutions.

Bottom line for me is that I'd like to see the error rate be smaller than the difference between the candidates. The problem in Florida was that the difference was something like .0001 percent, and the error rate was more like 3%. In that particular case, I think we're SOL, because I don't think you can get the error rate that small.

Perhaps the best solution (besides buying new voting machines everywhere) is voter education. This little article talks about some of the issues: Congress examines election reform



The GlueGuy

 

[ERNIEB]

Well said. I don't think new voting machines would get the error rate that low. Some of the Florida voters I saw were admiting to mistakes that I would never admit to on national TV. There is no nice way to say it, they were just bone headed.
Voters need to motivate themselves toward education. Better trained poll workers would probably help too.

Ernie
"I shall never surrender or retreat" William Barret Travis

 

[Harv]

GlueGuy -

You've nailed the issue that bothered me so much about the Florida vote count. The fact is that the difference in tallies was so far below the margin of error, there was no mathematical or statistical way you could call it anything other than a tie. They could recount the ballots until they're blue in the face and they would never come up with enough votes to declare either candidate the winner.

I was surprised and appalled that they spent the weeks and manpower (personpower?) counting, recounting and fighting their way through the highest courts in the land over numbers that would reveal nothing! I must be missing something major here, 'cuz after a month of following the endless coverage by CNN, FOX and others, I barely heard a whisper about this irrefutable mathematical conundrum (hey -- I finally used that word in a sentence /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif).

My own conclusion is that there simply is no procedure on the books for how to deal with a tie. Do any of you folk know differently? With this particular selection of candidates I would have opted for "sudden death", but that may not always be the right solution. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Thomas]

GlueGuy,
I'll say very little about the election.
Between the news coverage and mud slinging plus the voting mess at the end and the courts having a say...the tax payers & voters sure didn't get a fair shake...it was a circus act.

I thought this people that were hired to make sure problem like this wouldn't happen,so if the can't do the job than they should be remove.

I better stop before I really get to rolling...yikes.

Good topic!!

Take care out there.


Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Boondox]

Sudden death playoff...what a concept in politics!!!

Pete

 

[GlueGuy]

<font color=blue>I would have opted for "sudden death"</font color=blue>

Now there's a solution I could get behind! Would also solve a bunch of those issues about dwelling in the past too! /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

And this morning I hear that Ahnold is thinking about running for CA guvna! Well, heck, if Ronny could do it, and if Jessy can do it, I think Ahnold could do it too.

The GlueGuy