Scanner : voting machines

Simpsons Trying to Be All Hip Again, Gets All Change-y

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:45:00 GMT

With last year's episode in which Homer tries to vote Democrat and has his machine insist on switching his vote, The Simpsons carried a biting political message four years too late. Now, as The Daily Show, Colbert Report, and even Saturday Night Live steal the Biting and Relevant Comedy mantle from Matt Groening, the show's producers have tried a new opening title sequence to celebrate their first episode in high definition.

What do you think? Is the Simpsons still a great show?

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Beware Of Blowfish Balls

If You're A Liberal And Terrified Your Vote Won't Count...

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:08:00 GMT

...you won't want to watch this... or read this horror story from West Virginia (who would've thought, just six months ago, West Virginia would be this fierce?)

1) The horror show... this is former NRCC head Tom Davis at the National Press Club, answering a question from the audience about whether the GOP is going to be up to their usual tricks this time around. Remember: this is a GOP-friendly reporter asking a fellow GOPer if the GOP is going to put the band back together, as it were. The response is the most frightening political thing we've seen since Wally O'Dell, the guy in charge of many of Ohio's voting machines in 2004, said he was "committed to delivering [the state's] electoral votes to George Bush."

Note that it isn't so much what he says but how he says it... and the almost sinister laugh from the room. It's the closest thing we've ever seen to the media admitting the GOP is disgracefully and possibly illegally purging voters.

2) In case you think we're exaggerating or even, somehow, imagining that this hasn't been going on for years, here's another classic example:

Virginia Matheney and Calvin Thomas said touch-screen machines in the county clerk's office in Ripley kept switching their votes from Democratic to Republican candidates.

"When I touched the screen for Barack Obama, the check mark moved from his box to the box indicating a vote for John McCain," said Matheney...

When she reported the problem, she said, the poll worker in charge "responded that everything was all right. It was just that the screen was sensitive and I was touching the screen too hard. She instructed me to use only my fingernail."

Even after she began using her fingernail, Matheney said, the problem persisted.

She isn't the only one. The Charleston Gazette has reported that West Virginia is experiencing these problems all over, with election officials attributing the malfunction to "shifting" that occasionally occurs in transporting the machines to the polling sites. No one, of course, had an explanation for why there were all changing only Democratic votes.

More here. Image via Mother Jones.

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We Love Wilco and Voting, And So Can You!

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We Love Wilco and Voting, And So Can You!

Emily Farris — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:07:00 GMT

You may not know that we're huge, huge Wilco fans. We may or may not have Wilco lyrics tattooed on the back of our neck and Scanner Emily and Scanner Brian may or may not have kind-of sort-of met over a Wilco ticket via Craigslist. We snuck back from camp to see them one night and drove back the same night (6 hours each way). We've even seen them in Amsterdam. If Jeff Tweedy wanted to put a baby in us, we would most definitely let him.

Now, if it's possible, we love them even more, because we also love voting.

Our Favorite Band Ever covered Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" with Fleet Foxes at a show recently, and they're offering a free download for anyone who pledges to vote in the 2008 Presidential Election.

Pretty sweet deal, right?

Right.

It's simple. All you have to do is go here and pledge to vote. Within 30 seconds you'll have the zip file in your inbox. And it's worth it, or so we like to think. And it's virus free. We promise. We're still here, aren't we? Actually, we're here in sweet, sweet musical bliss.

[Wilcoworld via BoingBoing]

[Image]

If The Election Were Today... Round One

Brian Fairbanks — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:55:00 GMT

This will be the first in a series of periodic updates on the electoral college, the only "polls" that matter. (Don't listen to any idiot media person who says "Obama is leading by ###" because it's totally irrelevant and a blatant lie most of the time, since those numbers usually come from a survey of "registered, likely voters" across the nation, which is different from the electoral college. Got it?)

Anyway, let's look at who's really ahead right now...

Dick Morris, ex-Clinton kingmaker and now right-wing operative and FoxNews buffoon, is the country's most consistent pollmaster. Here's what he has to say about the race, as it stands today. (By the way, you don't have to read all this; just scan and jump to the bottom if you'd like.)

STATE	VOTE	00, 04 RESULT	'08 PREDICTION
ALABAMA	EV 9	B,B	LEAN MCCAIN
ALASKA	EV 9	B,B	MCCAIN
ARIZONA	EV 10	B,B	MCCAIN
ARKANSAS	EV 6	B,B	LEAN MCCAIN
CALIFORNIA	EV 55	G,K	OBAMA
COLORADO	EV 9	B,B	TOSS UP
CONNECTICUT	EV 7	G,K	OBAMA
DELAWARE	EV 3	G,K	OBAMA
D.C.	EV 3	G,K	OBAMA
FLORIDA	EV 27	B,B	TOSS UP
GEORGIA	EV 15	B,B	LEAN MCCAIN
HAWAII	EV 4	G,B	LEAN OBAMA
IDAHO	EV 4	B,B	MCCAIN
ILLINOIS	EV 21	G,K	OBAMA
INDIANA	EV 11	B,B	MCCAIN
INDIANA	EV 11	B,B	MCCAIN
IOWA	EV 7	G,B	LEAN OBAMA
KANSAS	EV 6	B,B	MCCAIN
KENTUCKY	EV 8	B,B	MCCAIN
LOUISIANA	EV 9	B,B	MCCAIN
MAINE	EV 4	G,K	OBAMA
MARYLAND	EV 10	G,K	OBAMA
MASSACHUSETTS	EV 12	G,K	OBAMA
MICHIGAN	EV 17	G,K	LEAN OBAMA
MINNESOTA	EV 10	G,K	LEAN OBAMA
MISSISSIPPI	EV 6	B,B	LEAN MCCAIN
MISSOURI	EV 11	B,B	TOSS UP
MONTANA	EV 3	B,B	MCCAIN
NEBRASKA	EV 5	B,B	MCCAIN
NEVADA	EV 5	B,B	LEAN OBAMA
NEW HAMPSHIRE	EV 4	B,K	LEAN OBAMA
NEW JERSEY	EV 15	G,B	OBAMA
NEW MEXICO	EV 5	G,B	LEAN OBAMA
NEW YORK	EV 31	G,B	OBAMA
NORTH CAROLINA	EV 15	B,B	LEAN MCCAIN
NORTH DAKOTA	EV 3	B,B	MCCAIN
OHIO	EV 20	B,B	TOSS UP
OKLAHOMA	EV 7	B,B	MCCAIN
OREGON	EV 7	G,K	OBAMA
PENNSYLVANIA	EV 21	G,K	LEAN OBAMA
RHODE ISLAND	EV 4	G,K	OBAMA
SOUTH CAROLINA	EV 8	B,B	LEAN MCCAIN
SOUTH DAKOTA	EV 3	B,B	MCCAIN
TENNESSEE	EV 11	B,B	MCCAIN
TEXAS	EV 30	B,B	MCCAIN
UTAH	EV 5	B,B	MCCAIN
VERMONT	EV 3	G,K	OBAMA
VIRGINIA	EV 13	B,B	LEAN MCCAIN
WASHINGTON	EV 11	G,K	OBAMA
WEST VIRGINIA	EV 5	B,B	MCCAIN
WISCONSIN	EV 10	G,K	LEAN OBAMA
WYOMING	EV 3	B,B	MCCAIN

McCain Total = 202

LEAN MCAIN    = 72
MCCAIN          = 130

Obama Total = 269

OBAMA           = 186
LEAN OBAMA   = 83

TOSS UP      = 67

To make this easier, let's look at his "Toss Ups" and make some educated guesses to get our final tally.

COLORADO: Colorado is hosting the Democratic National Convention, which could both hurt and boost Obama's chances (for example, we recall a lot of Bush Republicans hating their candidate after their New York neighborhoods were turned upside down four years ago.) Nonetheless, let's give this one to Obama, since the state is moving toward the Democratic column in general. Obama +9.

FLORIDA: This one's easy, especially if McCain picks Governor Charlie Crist, as is our prediction. We give it to him anyway. McCain +27.

MISSOURI: McCain should win this one in a squeaker, although we'd love to see a competitive race in Missouri, which would give the state some much-needed financial attention. If the race were held today, we'd say: McCain +11.

OHIO: As in 2004, it's going to come down to Ohio. Obama and McCain both know this-- but how well do their campaigns? Kerry could've called in the UN Fraud Inspec-- nah, he wouldn't have the guts to do that, and it might've backfired. Anyway, we would put our money on Obama this time-- there is no Republican in power in the state that could send broken or insufficient numbers of voting machines to black (i.e. Democratic) neighborhoods to doom the Dem candidate. It's a popular Governor on the Blue Team this time around, and he'll make sure this fight is fair. That means Obama +20.

By this rationale:

MCCAIN WINS 240 ELECTORAL VOTES

OBAMA WINS 294 ELECTORAL VOTES

And if Ohio goes to McCain:

McCain wins 260 Electoral Votes

Obama wins 274 Electoral Votes

Wait, you're saying, I just contradicted myself. In a way, no-- as I said, it will come down to Ohio. Obama must win Ohio because he will most likely lose in at least one of the states we have given him. It's just too early in the race and he's coming off a huge bump in polling, following Hillary's withdrawal. In other words, bad news for McCain, although he knows that it's easier to pull ahead than to stay on top for four more months.

Via Dick Morris.

Live from the Bk: Obama Moves in on Hillary's Turf

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 22:36:00 GMT

It's been a long day... and we've only just voted now, as the sun was going down in our poor Brooklyn neighborhood. For the first time in the six years we've been here, there were wait times to vote, even at 3:45pm, a notoriously dead time.

These people were waiting in line for centuries to vote. One of the Obama supporters outside (we have yet to see a single Hillary supporter in New York City today) told me several of the precinct's machines went down (or never went up) this morning and that a lawyer had to step in. Quite a few of the voters came back later in the day and got to vote, quite a few did not.

Paper ballots, optical scan anyone?

After a long, long time of wrestling with our conscience, we decided to vote for this guy:

[Photos by the author.]