-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 What I can't understand is why a 'smart' terminal has to be on site. In this day and age the county courthouse or whatever should have a mainframe or something that has remote 'dumb' terminals doing the actual voting. Who knows though. At 10:49 PM 11/5/02 , you wrote: >Here's a typical example of why people make fun of those in rural areas as >"hayseeds", "hicks", etc... > >We live in a town of 800, with the unincorporated area around it also voting >at the same place. The machines are electronic with a motor to roll paper >around for write-ins and a touch pad for balloted votes. The total >population of registered voters is around 1500. There are 12 hours, 6am to >6pm, to vote in. Say 1200 eligible voters show in that 12 hours...that's 200 >per hour divied by 60 minutes per hour, or 3.5 voters PER MINUTE. Guess what >we have at our polling place - ONE MACHINE and ONE SPARE. When they opened >at 6am the primary machine was DOA and they spare became the primary. The >primary machine broke once per 30 minutes all day long, average 10 minutes >to get the machine back on and usable. Yada, yada, yada - you get the idea. >I was lucky enough to get in after they swapped the primary DOA with the >spare at 6:05am > >Well my wife went at 10:30am - at noon she was 5 people away - BROKE again. >They had the one tech across the county with yet another broken machine and >she had an appointment so she left to come back. I went back with her at >3:15pm....she finally got her 12 seconds of glory at 6:35pm with 200 others >that hadn't voted still there waiting that had come before the doors wrre >locked at 6:00pm exactly. It's now 9:45 pm and they still have 25 people to >let vote since the machines have locked up or in other ways broken every 30 >mins or so. The amchine is not worn out by any means either - the mechanical >counter that shows total votes in the machine's life only had 3300 on it >when she voted, and the LED for votes since today's poll started was 975. Go >figure - 4.5 hrs to vote for 12 seconds. > >Many people got pissed and left - what a shame. We may end up with one of >the people that have no business running get into an office because 10 or 15 >people left and didn't vote, despite goingt hrough all the trouble to get >out and give it a shot. > >I'm applying for absentee next time around and voting at home, by mail, 2 >weeks in advance. I qualify with my job being so flexible and a service call >possibly being away. This screwed up system will not keep me from voting but >I will find an easier way... -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 6.5.2 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com> iQA/AwUBPcn0R+99oM3Hp0DwEQLp7QCfXuRjn/sXuyXVEIthl/5NuQrWhC4AniRO Gsx6bijqox1xKHuBPgW9W7Xb =cTB8 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Computer Talk Shop http://www.computertalkshop.com Un-subscribe/Vacation, http://szaroconsulting.com/cts/list_options.htm List HowTo: http://szaroconsulting.com/cts/faq To join Computer Talk Shop's off topic list, please goto: http://szaroconsulting.com/cts/other_cts_lists.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------