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Comments Posted By sillylittleme

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The Weekend Music Thread – Love Songs

» Posted By sillylittleme On October 18, 2014 @ 10:58 am

» Posted By sillylittleme On October 18, 2014 @ 10:55 am

» Posted By sillylittleme On October 18, 2014 @ 10:49 am

Love Jacques Brel!!! From the original Broadway cast…

» Posted By sillylittleme On October 18, 2014 @ 10:48 am

» Posted By sillylittleme On October 18, 2014 @ 10:42 am

» Posted By sillylittleme On October 18, 2014 @ 10:41 am

» Posted By sillylittleme On October 18, 2014 @ 10:40 am

Should Voting in the U.S. Be Mandatory?

Yes, but the assumption of the experiment was that none of the voters would have access to information nor know who the candidates were in advance of an election. In essence, the experiment gave them the results they expected because they ambushed their friends, told them it was mandatory (without delineating punishment), gave them no information (as if all voters go into the booth and play pin the tail on the donkey), and just used words and names that would be familiar. That may be representative of some, not all voters. If it was, we would have had R majorities in all states for the past three decades. Not meaning to be argumentative, but creating a self-fulfilling prophecy and then saying “see I knew that would happen” does not a prophecy make.

» Posted By sillylittleme On October 19, 2014 @ 8:28 am

Ad, excellent article. I have put my comments on the subject where appropriate. While I do support a national holiday, mandatory shut down of all businesses; obviously emergency services would still operate, as well as hospitals. I also believe that those who are unable to get to the polls, should be given access to an absentee ballot. After all that is how expats and the military, not stateside, vote. And with more corporations moved overseas, we have expats worldwide. Additionally, I believe that all ballots should be paper. And yes, we do have technology that gives a paper ballot even as one uses a computer to vote.

In MA, we had an RFP (request for proposal) for electronic machines for the disabled, elderly, and those whose native tongue is not english (they are able select their language). Diebold attempted to sue the Commonwealth for refusing to give them the contract. They lost as they did not meet all of the criteria, paper ballots being one of them. Don’t get me started on their objection to having non-english ballots.

FYI, none of the following articles actually touch upon the underlying reasons for their loss of the contract, but the comments are interesting, to say the least…

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070326/132725.shtml
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/07/03/26/1431258/diebold-sues-massachusetts-for-wrongful-purchase
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/03/26/316254/-Diebold-Sues-Massachusetts-after-Snubbed-for-Contract

We still have paper ballots, that are first run through a machine and are then spot checked for anomalies. If any are found, then those ballots are hand counted again for accuracy. Yes, we take it seriously in MA. After all, we got the ball rolling and we aren’t taught (at least when I was in jr and high school many millenia ago, lol) a revised version of the revolution because the scars are still very much all around us.

» Posted By sillylittleme On October 18, 2014 @ 10:30 am

MA, and that is the fallacy of this video. First, this was a Canadian experiment and none of the candidates presented would be eligible to run as they are all American. Second, the idea that mandatory voting automatically means that a larger portion would be going to the polls without having a chance to look at the candidates/issues is a bit hard to swallow.

Every state does it different, but in Mass we get a pamphlet every election with the ballot questions. They present the issues, that would become law, and then both the pro and con view. It is sent to every home, regardless of whether one is a citizen and/or registered to vote. And yes, it is sent out with plenty of time to register if a particular issue resonates. When the decriminalization of pot was put on the ballot, the participation level was higher than the average election.

I equate this “experiment” to polling, depending on sample size and those polled the outcome can be skewed to give the pollsters the answers they were looking for and therefore not a real answer at all.

» Posted By sillylittleme On October 18, 2014 @ 9:48 am

What MA said…

» Posted By sillylittleme On October 18, 2014 @ 9:21 am

MA, I believe that a national holiday that actually requires every business to shut its doors would be the best incentive to get more people to vote.

I believe that it is also the reason that so many protests are easily quashed, no one has enough free time to express themselves. When losing even one day of work could make one unable to pay for the basics, we as a nation no longer have the American Dream. It is officially a nightmare.

Past time for us to realize that we are our government and not participating is tantamount to cutting off one’s nose to spite their face.

For the record, I have always voted in every election since I was eligible. I have felt that that is the least I can do as a good citizen.

» Posted By sillylittleme On October 18, 2014 @ 9:20 am

The Weekend Music Thread – That’s Life

» Posted By sillylittleme On October 11, 2014 @ 4:52 pm

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» Posted By sillylittleme On October 11, 2014 @ 3:10 pm