The Orlando Sentinel sends me a Christmas gift. While it’s not exactly that I may have asked for, this being the charitable season I’ll look the other way and be thankful for what I got. Particularly as the Sentinel (or the Slantinel as some in the Sunshine State aptly refer to it) has never been particularly democracy-friendly.
Here then, a few highlights from their weekend editorial entitled “Drop touch-screens – Our position: It’s time to pull the plug on the failed experiment of electronic voting”…
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Whatever happens in the race between Ms. Jennings and Mr. Buchanan, one thing is clear: The experiment with touch-screen voting is a failure. Florida and other states should scrap touch-screens and use the pen-and-paper ballots of the optical-scan method, allowing a verifiable, independent recount.
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[P]aper-trail systems present other problems. Printers can jam and run out of paper. There is ample evidence that today’s touch-screen machines are too complicated for volunteer poll workers to handle, and adding a printer would only make that worse.
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[S]aving money is the last reason to use these flawed touch-screen machines. If we are going to spend money on anything, it should be on elections.
Generations of soldiers have paid a much higher price in securing the right to vote from themselves and others, fighting and dying in places like Lexington and Concord to Kabul and Baghdad.
Let’s remember that the hard-fought right to vote isn’t worth much without the confidence the votes will count.
This is such a no brainer, I can’t comprehend why it took 6 years to get here.
you said it, Dan. i suppose we are to be thankful that it is better late than never.
methinks it would be interesting to go back into the Sentinel’s archives and compare their snide election malfunction coverage over the years to their about-face position today. perhaps depressing, too, since so many have died while they tittered snidely at their keyboards over these “conspiracy theories” that the voting machines are unmitigated, democracy-threatening crap.
NOW they finally care enough about the troops to remember who has done the real fighting and dying for democracy and the right to vote.
it is a waste of time to expect the Sentinel, or anyone in the Corporate MSM to have the self-awareness, intllectual honesty, or decency to acknowledge just how wrong they were… or admit that we were right.
maybe the price of aiding the bush regime is becoming too high for these “late starters” ?
U.S. Iraq War Toll Passes That of 9/11
I’m shocked that the smutinal would stoop to such lows and not accept the Corporate line like they have always in the past, they must be peeking over here 😉
I know they didn’t do their own investigating on this, its not in a conservative rags M.O. to question authority
The “Comfortably Numb” media awakes from their “Momentary Lapse of Reason”, (six years)!
Those soldiers fought for freedom of speech as well as voting rights and it would be awfully nice if they would say something about the dominantly corporate friendly FCC which is trying to land a blow against us!
Again!
No more media consolidation please, and hands off the internet!
“Hello, Hello, Hello, is there anybody in there. Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone home”
~Pink Floyd, The Wall