Re: ballot confusion?

[Marc Cramer <mc20@proteanspecialties.com>]

>Marc,
>
>Kudos to you.  I presume you checked your ballot because you assumed there 
>was a possibility (albiet small) that you made a mistake.  What if you 
>discovered that you made a mistake, and wanted a new ballot, and the 
>election official denied you the opportunity (which I presume is either 
>total incompetence and/or a violation of federal law).  There is at least 
>one report of that happening.  Seriously, what would you do if the official 
>snatched your ballot and dropped it in the ballot box?  If you wouldn't 
>think about a legal challenge, then I propose that you aren't sincere about 
>your commitment to democracy.
>
If I discovered a mistake, then I would have torn the card in half and
asked for another one.  If they refused to give me one, then I would stand
there until the police removed me.  At some point someone would realize the
error and then I would continue to vote.  I very seriously doubt that would
happen to me.

As for all these various reports about ballots being put in the box against
voters wishes or voters being refused ballots, I will wait and see if there
is any validity behind it.  And is this something that only happened to
Gore supporters?  Are any Bush supporters claiming they were
"disenfranchised"? (Love that term--just seems to roll off the tongue for a
sound bite.) If this is the case then the whole voting method is
flawed--the assumption of an anonymous vote is gone!  

And while I think it is extremely wrong (criminal even) if the one report
turns out to be true, I am amazed at how well the system works. I have seem
some posts alluding to nothing short of a conspiracy by Bush people to
seize the ellection.  One instance out of 100 million I would call a
astonishing success!  I can't think of anything with a failure rate that
small that would not be considered good.  To think that we can have such an
achievement without the methods used in some other countries (I didn't see
one machine gun toting dude posted anywhere near the polling place) just
shows how well it all works.  I'm not saying it's perfect, just that it's
darn good.

I cast my vote.  Now I'm just waiting for the bean counters to tell me who
won.  To me, it is as simple as that.

Marc