The Gamut

I had what I consider a flash of brilliance today. An epiphany! It concerns the problem with black box voting. As you probably know since you were smart enough to find this blog, many states (including my home-state of Ohio) are considering or have decided to use electronic voting devices which do not leave a verifiable paper trail. I've been concerned about this, as I truly fear monkey business in the upcoming general election.

When I voted in March, I asked the women at my polling place if we were going to have the electronic devices in November. They didn't know. I asked if there would be an announcement giving me time to get an absentee ballot. Again, they didn't know. So I checked the web. There is nothing there that I can find answering my questions.

Then it hit me. The solution to all our problems. Write in voting!

I don't know if there is something in the law prohibiting it, but I intend to look into it. I will have an answer soon. But for now, what I plan to do, and what I suggest that everybody else do is - where it is legal, ask for a write in ballot and then write in Kerry's name. DO NOT make the mistake of voting for him the standard way, checking his name and also making a write in ballot. That would be considered an over-vote, and both of your votes would be void.

I think it's brilliant. If we all refuse to use the machines, and if we all write Kerry's name on a write-in ballot, we will have the only verifiable votes in the event of a recount. AND if they rig the machines, we can expose them.

Consider: if a million people vote in Ohio and 800,000 of us write in Kerry, there will be no way that they can give the vote to Bush. It's perfect!

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