Categories
Political

Good intentions do not compensate for bad organization

I had volunteered for TechWatch because Missouri is one of the states that had contested election results in 2000 and several of the counties are using the electronic voting system. I heard that they needed experienced tech people, especially people familiar with PHP and MySQL.

 

One of the emails I received was a call for someone who was an expert database person. I responded, and was sent an Excel sheet with all of Missouri’s counties and asked to find and call the registrar in each and get what voting machine they’re using. Since there is no 800 number that would mean spending about 3 days total in long distance calls on my dime. At the time, extra dollars were scarce.

I declined this ‘expert database’ assignment.

Finally a week or so ago I got my assignment. I was to be the tech support for the EIRS system at a lawyers office in Kansas City. They had me assigned all day, but I informed that I need to vote first, so they put me on afternoon and evening. Okay.

So what is this system, where is the lawyer’s office, and when do I need to be there? Well, this information is forthcoming they say.

I get another email to turn into these phone conference training sessions. Hmmm. Well, okay.

I call into one this afternoon, and get connected to the conference room. I hear a woman trying to instruct people but she’s constantly interrupted with:

“Someone has entered the conference.”

(Person’s name)

“Someone has entered the conference.”

Eventually this was joined by:

“Someone has left the conference.”

(Person’s name)

In the meantime the instructor is having us pull up a Powerpoint slide presentation that is supposed to teach the people how to use the EIRS system. Not mockups of the EIRS system (which is web-based) — a PPT slideshow of it.

I think I said this once before, but this is wrong on so many levels.

I listened and the instructions were for how to take an incident report, nothing on technology. I asked if this was for the tech support people, and was told, no this was tonight.

I call the conference tonight.

“Someone has entered the conference.”

(name)

“Someone has entered the conference.”

(name)

One of the people connected was from Florida. Another woman cut across the conversation and said she and others were heading down to Florida to monitor these elections — was there a place for them to stay? She wanted to avoid a hotel room. The man paused, and then replied that they were replacing the floor of their home, which was lost during the hurricane, and couldn’t offer a place; but he’d recommend some good places to stay.

(Something all those with good intentions might think on — how much is all of this imposing on a state that’s been badly battered by storms not that long ago, and is now faced with a mass convergence from outsiders, in order to Monitor the Polls. Poor Floridians, yet another hurricane: Hurricane “Oh-hell-we’re-really-screwed-now.”)

Anyway, back to the conference. We were directed to another web page which has a bunch of links. I look for something about technology. There is, but this is for the Poll Monitor people — those monitoring the voting machines. I’m not doing this; my assignment is to provide tech support for the people in the lawyer’s office that are getting incident reports from the field.

And I really don’t want to hear the history of voting machines.

“Someone is leaving the conference.”

In a few days time I have to go somewhere in Kansas City, at sometime during the day, and do something that may or may not be related to technology for something that may or may not have to do with the election. And this is the organization that is monitoring the use of electronic voting machines–to make sure they work right, and that no irregularities occur.

This election is in deep, serious trouble.

Categories
Political Voting

Scared into voting

I recovered this from the Wayback Machine in 2023. Boy, I don’t agree with it now. After the loss of women’s rights, rights for members of the LGBTQ+ community, rights for people of color…people had better be scared into voting.

Michelle Malkin points out a flyer making the rounds here in Missouri that …includes a 1960s photograph of a firefighter hosing a black man that reads: “This is what they used to do to keep us from voting.”

I agree with Malkin that this not only is deliberately misleading and inflammatory, but it’s also going to backfire. As Malkin has unfortunately pointed out, most of the racist activity in the South was committed by the so-called Southern Democrats–before they jumped the party after Lyndon Johnson’s civil rights activities in the 1960’s.

According to the ACT spokesperson:

Sara Howard, ACT’s Missouri spokeswoman, on Sunday defended the handouts as part of a voter-education effort. She said Republican concerns may stem from reports of increased voter registration among minorities.

“The Republican Party knows that generally when African-Americans vote in large numbers, Republicans lose,” she said. “They will do everything in their power to try and prevent that from happening.”

I would say anyone with half a brain should be concerned with this type of tactic. Which I guess says a lot about the mental capacity of the ACT people.

However, I also disagree with a Malkin quote that says:

It’s worth noting that, by my count, all Missouri governors from 1945 to 1973 were Democrats. (Via The Political Graveyard: http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/MO/ofc/gov.html). Segregation – and violent resistance to desegregation– was driven and perpetrated in large part by Southern Democrats.

As I just said, this was true – up until the 1960’s. Then most of the Southern Democrats jumped ship, and became the core of what is now known as the Republican Fundamentalists.

Blacks should vote for the same reason all races should vote – because voting is as much a responsibility as a right, and we all have a stake in the outcome. However, no one should be scared into voting, or voting a certain way: whether it’s stupid Democrats using old white/black fears to scare blacks into voting for Kerry; or stupid Republicans using new terrorist fears to scare all of us into voting for Bush.

Categories
Political

Debate Winner

Recovered from the Wayback Machine

From the hits I’m getting, I just found out that I own the Google phrase winner of the debate.

By the way, I lied and did watch the debate tonight. Well, the domestic part towards the end. I’m not going to address each issue because I don’t get paid to do this, and spent too much time jumping up and down going, “He’s an idiot! He’s an idiot”. Hard to effectively report in these circumstances.

(My roommate has sworn never to watch another debate with me. Ever. Again.)

My respect for John Kerry has increased with this debate, considerably; that for Bush lowered even further when the only mistake he would admit to is who he has appointed, but he can’t divulge the names, so as to not hurt feelings. And I’m sorry, but tort reform will not magically create health care insurance for 45+ million people currently without any coverage; nor will it significantly lower the cost of drugs. And Bush, your forest initiatives are going to kill the last virgin forests left in this country.

For those who see no difference between the two candidates, you’re not looking hard enough. George Bush sees the world in black and white, right or wrong, with us or against us. He appeals to people who want the world to live in black and white, right or wrong, or to be with us or against us. Kerry, on the other hand, can see the gray, and this isn’t necessarily reassuring to some folk.

But I want my President to see the gray, as well as the black and white. And I want a president who is willing to admit when he’s made a mistake, and learn from it. Bush never will.

Categories
Political

You might as well fire me

You might as well fire me, right now. Yup, just give me my marching orders and strip me of my feeds.

The candidates are in town tonight and I’m not going down to take pictures. Not only that, but I’m also not going to the DNC party, to see John Kerry make an appearance and take more pictures. I won’t be there to fact check that yes, Kerry is 6′ 4″, white, male, and speaks English.

In fact, I doubt I’ll even watch the debate tonight. I know, I know. There is no excuse. How can I provide my analysis, or point out any of the many gotchas that Bush, or Kerry, is sure to commit if I don’t watch?

I’m not sure what’s come over me. Flu? West Nile Virus? Too much interesting experimentation with drugs earlier in my life?

Personally, I think it was turning on the TV today to get a feel for the traffic problems and watching political ad after political ad, and not one was positive; every single one was a negative ad aimed at a candidate for one office or another, with largely unsubstantiated attacks that made each person seem like the Devil incarnate.

It was like watching snippets from political weblogs come alive on TV. I’m going to have nightmares for a week.

Categories
Political

Now is the time to rob a bank in St. Louis

If someone were interested in robbing a bank in St. Louis, now is the time to do it. Most police are being pulled into details covering the joint appearances of Kerry and Bush here from Thursday to Saturday, culminating in their next debate, Friday night.

I didn’t even attempt to get tickets for this, but there is a party at Missouri DNC headquarters I can attend. And I also thought about hitting the ‘mad as hell’ pens, otherwise known as the remote Public Viewing Area for protestors, to take photos. It is, after all, in visual range of the complex where Kerry and Bush will speak. But then, so is the moon.

What think – do you want to see photos of the demonstrations at St. Louis? I think I’d rather pass on robbing a bank.