The voting thing, interestingly enough, seems to be following the same pattern as the torture story.

I mean the vice president's office has been actively lobbying for torture.

They won't admit it but they demand that McCain's "torture is illegal" addendum to the bills be removed.

They want the option of torture when under american law, torture is not an option.

The bulk of political sentiment is against Cheney on this. Witness the 90-9 vote on the issue.

I think non-verifiable voting machines are in the same category.

Cheney types like Feeney and Delay want low-quality easily hackable, and unverifiable vote machines used.

But the sane people want fair and verifiable election records, just as sane people do not want torture used.

I have not heard of any voting problems in the area of San Francisco that voted to discourage the use of military recruiters at local high schools there.

Bill O'Reilly has nullified all that, however, because he feels that al-Qaida should be allowed to bomb those voting precints (link here).

Uh ... this gives new meaning to "voting problems".

Fitrakis and Wasserman have an essay at freepress.org that must be read. The various ballot initiatives that were defeated in Ohio (by large margins) were either favored to be approved in pre-election polls or considered a toss-up.

The differences between the polls and the recorded vote are so wide as to be impossible. The obvious conclusion drawn by Fitrakis and Wasserman is that the new electronic machines used to count the votes were hacked in the Republicans' favor.

Surprise, surprise. Other states are banning these machines, yet Ohio uses them to defeat measures that, among other reforms, would lead to cleaner elections. Also "defeated" was a proposal to remove districting questions from the political process...an idea that had only merit on its side.

Ohio residents, this is a great idea from a friend in CA.

Encourage everyone you can to vote absentee. You must submit an application to request an absentee ballot. (In OH one of the amendments that was "soundly defeated" would have made absentee voting easier...)

As a form of protest we should refuse to vote on DIEBOLD touchscreens.

The process for requesting and obtaining an absentee ballot is HERE.

Please pass this on to any Blue Ohioans!