No. A guttering candle isn’t going to prevent the train wreck that Cuyahoga County have become.

But I’d like to think, to flog the analogy further, that another leader might have put a string of police cruisers on both sides of the track with their brights all shining on the engine and a ton of flares on the tracks.

We are now more than three years past the 2004 recount (which I took part in) and I don’t feel any more secure that my vote will be properly counted.

If it were me I would do three things:

First, scrap ALL voting machines and print paper ballots to be marked with a standard No. 2 pencil.

Second, put transparent ballot boxes in each polling place with a a police office assigned to each box who would treat the box as evidence in a murder investigation, i.e. ensure the chain of custody of the ballots.

Third, I would open and count the ballots at the polling place and have a team of five, party diverse, poll workers count the ballots, prepare a provisional tally sheet, return the ballots to the transparent ballot box, seal the box and affix the tally sheet to the top of the box. The police office would then transport the box to the board of elections.

Fourth, at the Board of Elections the ballots would be again hand counted. If this takes two weeks to complete, so be it.

How much will this cost? I don’t care. Freedom and Democracy ought not to be subject to a Wal-Martesque every day low price mentality.

Besides, there’s all that money from the recent increase in the sales tax lying around. Have you heard any mention of Medmart since the increase?

B’shalom,

Jeff

By the way, my business makes internet-controlled electronic signs….

PL

Here the analogy I’d use.

It’s night. It’s raining cats and dogs. The river is rising. The bridge is washed out and Brunner is standing in the middle of the tracks waving a guttering candle as the Cuyahoga Voter Express high-balls it toward the rushing waters.

The wreck, when it happens will not be pretty.

I’ll be voting absentee this time around.

Look for Brunner’s head on a pike.

B’shalom,

Jeff

The guys in the ivory tower get fired with some regularity, and the new guys always want to change something. Maybe it’s better. Maybe it’s just different.

It’s a wonder the customers put up with it.

PL

For those who work in the polls (as I have since 2004) it’s like every time you come to work, the menu is completely different. In the front of the house, the customers not only have to deal with the new items, they are forced to learn a new ordering procedure because the chain has also changed out the cash registers and the way customers pay.

The folks in the kitchen aren’t having any fun either. They got about an hour’s training on the new menu and new kitchen equipment before coming to work. There’s not much time to learn on the job as there are 100 customers lined up at the door by the time you open.

About the time everyone figures it out, it’s closing time. The workers go home exhausted since they’ve been there from 5:30am to 8pm.

And tomorrow will be a new day with yet another new menu, new equipment, new procedures, and new frustrations for everyone.

It sure would be nice if the guys in the ivory tower could figure this thing out.