Friday, October 24, 2008

Perils of Straight-ticket voting

Apparently some people can't figure out how to use the electronic voting machines:

A widely circulated Internet message telling people to vote straight party and to vote again for their choice for president needs to be ignored, Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir said. ... If Travis County voters mistakenly vote that way, a message will appear on the screen saying that they have changed their choice, she said.
The electronic ballot allows voters to reselect that candidate, which means that their selection will be counted, she said. The process is still confusing, said Buck Wood, an attorney representing the Texas Democratic Party. A lawsuit that the party filed last year against the Texas secretary of state alleges that the electronic voting machines used in Travis and 101 other Texas counties disenfranchise voters who make the same mistake that DeBeauvoir discussed. The lawsuit is on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Seems like nonsense to me. It was fairly easy to vote this morning, going straight party first, then checking and correcting. Anyone who can't handle it probably shouldn't be deciding on who runs the country.

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