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What a bunch of nutballs!? Yeah, compare Ohio to the bastillions of intelligence that are California, New York, and Florida ... let's see, what do the four have in common? Well, if you count democrat controlled Cuyahoga County, they seem to be the only places in the country that can't seem to handle a simple process like voting. Let's get this straight? These folks advocate taking Ohio back to caveman times in order to IMPROVE something?

Here's the problem ... California ??? New York ??? Florida (Miami, Dade, Palm Beach) ??? Cleveland ??? Jennifer Brunner ??? OK, It's all becoming crystal clear now - ELECTION PROBLEMS! Conspiracy theories! People who are so smart, they can't seem to poke a hole in a piece of paper, or draw in a pencil mark in a dot, or touch a button on a screen. These clowns won't be happy until the election results come out the way they WANT them to come out - the theory? if you can't win legitimately at the ballot, then keep fussing, complaining, crying conspiracy, and chaning the rules until you find a way to get the results to come out the way YOU wish they were.

MORONS! Don't allow these clowns to hijack the rights of the avearge INTELLIGENT Joe Citizen to vote and have their vote counted.

No way is foolproof, every way is about equally as likely to being rigged somehow. At least the touch screens make it clear as day for most voters to understand, and tell you if you picked too many/few selections.

While I agree the touch screens make voting simpler, they should use a stylus if they can't get the stupid machines to register being touched. If I hadn't had my daughter with me to touch the screen for me, I'd have had real problems this last time, as the machine didn't register my touch at all. Fine tune the machines and make them more functional instead of returning to the older methods. If elections are going to be rigged, the method of voting means very little. If anything, the machines should be a little harder to rig than a ballot box is to stuff or lose.

Get the machines out. They don't work! The machines are the reason Bush was able to steal the election! Paper Ballots are safer by far. One year I saw the lady at North let Hanni see the ballots by unlacking the box and removing a ballot and handing it to him. My mom spoke up and everybody just looked stupid. We reported it. So, we need to get new poll workers and run a background check on them first!!!!!!!!!!

Honey at 7 yrs old you have no business on these boards. Go play with your toys.

A heartfelt thanks to you, Mr. Kovac and to the Youngstown Vindicator for so accurately translating OEJC's message in your article, Group wants to scrap electronic vote machines.

Springing from the heart of this very complex set of issues surrounding our current voting system is the citizen's cry for accountability and transparency in the entire process of our American elections. Some time ago I was someone who thought voting machines could be counted on to accurately count my vote. It has been a sometimes infuriating and painful process for me to conclude that electronics and private corporations should have little or nothing to do with the People's elections.

In my informed opinion, hand-counting and casting of paper ballots posted in the precinct on election night, along with the implementation of public financing of campaigns, are two of the most effective ways to restore our democratic election process—two very simple remedies to the electoral crisis we find ourselves in. While the voting public has so often been infantilized and silenced by elections officials and other political/corporate influences, we remain resolute that we are extremely capable of hand-counting and casting our own paper ballots.

Just your simple reporting of the facts is so valuable to a voting public which feels so helpless against a system that increasingly appears to be set against their best interests.

Dear Vindy,

Thank you for writing this story. I think this is an important effort to educate all of us as citizens, and I applaud your work here in fulfilling the historic mission of the media in a democracy. I wish more newspapers and media outlets would follow your lead.

I also appreciate the lively discussion this article has generated, and I'd just like to point out to Mr. Nachos that Florida, which was nationally embarrassed in 2000 over its voting, took the whole issue to heart. It has worked hard on voting, one reason it decided as a state to stop using the machines.

I encourage more discussion and coverage of this issue, since my understanding is that the machines, although touted as "ATMs," are not even close. Several studies have been conducted, and it looks like this is just a way to make our elections expensive and confusing, profiting only a few corporations and lobbyists, not us.

But we all know there are some occasions that call for human beings, not a computer. If you've ever tried to reach the hospital when you've had an emergency -- or even tried to change a flight -- you know that when something is really, truly important -- like elections -- you want human beings directly involved, and you want to keep it local, simple, friendly, and transparent as possible.

Thanks, again, Vindy!

Kitty

To Nacho Wrote:
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> Honey at 7 yrs old you have no business on these
> boards. Go play with your toys.

You are funny - and you are probably the person who was in front of me at the ATM the other day who couldn't figure out how to make the $20 bills come out either. People, there is a difference between IGNORANCE (which is no excuse) and rigged elections (which is what some are upset they haven't been able to crack more recently as they have in the past. While the computers may not, indeed, be 100% perfect, computers are "garbage in garbage out" - the computers will do whatever they are told to do. The people who believe that it is guns that kill people (and not people) or that it is the fault of the MACHINES when the election doesn't go their way (as opposed to their losing candidate or issue - or better yet, their failure to get thier message out) - THESE are the problems that need to be fixed.

I spit on all of the whiners who want to blame a computer for anyone being elected to any position. Get a reality check people - you lost one, it's over, go focus your energy on something WORTHWHLE and maybe someday, maybe, you might win one too - LEGITIMATELY.

Not liking the results is no excuse for you to disenfranchise my right to vote effectively, efficiently, and accurately. DEAL with the progress, and fix, IF there are, any "real" problems that might come up. Meanwhile, quit whining that you weren't able to "fix" the results the way you wanted them this time.