Tuesday, November 07, 2006

You're Doing A Heckuva Job, Hart InterCivic!

Voting machines in Alexandria, Falls Church, and Charlottesville did not display the full name or political party of Democratic challenger Jim Webb today. Instead, voters were asked to choose between James H. "Jim" or George F. Allen.

Guess how the residents of Alexandria, Falls Church, and Charlottesville typically vote.

Don't worry though, Hart InterCivic promises to fix this problem "before the next major election." 'Cause, you know, a mid-term election involving one of the mostly hotly-contested Senate seats in the country. . .no biggie.

If Hart InterCivic's unwavering devotion to future voting accuracy doesn't make you feel better, take heart: "This is not the kind of problem that has either shaken our confidence in the system overall or that of the vote," said Alexandria Registrar Tom Parkins. "There have been far worse problems around the country."

Buck up, lil' campers. You've got it pretty good here in the Old Dominion. There have been far worse problems around the country than not knowing which candidate you're voting for.

Fucking fake democracy.

And PS, they haven't called the race yet, and Webb is up at the moment anyway, so don't bother accusing me of being a sore loser.

7 comments:

Phil said...

I'm biting my nails over here in Illinois 6th, too.

lulu said...

We had to connect parts of arrows in order to vote yesterday. People kept walking off with the special voting pens, so they would run around looking for a pen that worked when someone came in to vote.

I take back everything I have ever said against testing though, you need those bubbling-in skills to match the parts of the arrows up. I now think that it is our civic duty to give as many scantron tests as possible.

Jenny Jenny Flannery said...

Now, now, everyone. It's a new system and there were less problems than expected. Hang tough and the will of the voting populace will prevail...either that or the Supreme Court will call it. No big whoop.

Moderator said...

If Webb ultimately wins - I'm giving you full credit.

If Allen ultimately wins, it's because you didn't do enough.

Fair?

Megan said...

Phil - Did your guy win?

Big Orange - Fuck and alas.

Lulu - Parts of arrows? Like a matching test? What the hell?

Flannery - Yeah, I'm sure this is exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind.

Grant - Totally fair.

And FYI for everyone - It will likely be weeks before we're able to declare a winner in the Virginia Senate race. State law REQUIRES a recount if the margin is within 0.5% (right now Webb's ahead by 0.26% with 94.81% of precints reporting) and allows either candidate to request a recount if the margin is within 1%.

Phil said...

No, Tammy Duckworth didn't win, but she put up a fight in a very Republican District. Maybe next time. Still, the Dems won the House, Rumsfeld resigned and MSNBC just said that Virginia is calling it in favor of Webb, so that means Senate too. All in all, more then I expected.

lulu said...

Not like a matching test, more like a bubble-in test. There was the name and then half an arrow and then a space and then the other hald, and you conncected the two parts of the person you were voting for. It seemed less high tech than the punch card.