Florida Republicans Should Use Absentee Ballots, Says GOP
But say touch-screen voting is good enough for Florida voters who didn't get their flier about it (Democrats). Hm.
According to a July 30th article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, someone in the Florida GOP sent out a campaign brochure to Florida Republicans urging them to use absentee ballots instead of the touch-screen voting machines that Governor Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Glenda Hood (Kathleen Harris, Jr.?) are touting as the next best thing to sliced bread.
Apparently, the flier had a pic of President Bush asking voters to not take chances with the touch-screen voting machines. "The liberal Democrats have already begun their attacks and the new electronic voting machines do not have a paper ballot to verify your vote in case of a recount. Make sure your vote counts, order your absentee ballot today."
For weeks, the Gov. and pals have been touting the accuracy and reliability of the machines, but then sends a nice glossy brochure only to Republican Floridians telling them that they should vote absentee in order to ensure that their vote is counted.
Now this all sounds kind of moot when it’s joined with the fact that in Miami-Dade county, one of the most controversial counties in the 2000 election, they recently discovered that someone lost most of the electronic records of the 2003 race between Janet Reno and Bill McBride due to computer crashes. Makes a Floridian Democrat feel right confident, don’t it?
So this begs the question: Did the same family-values, God-fearing, and level-playing-field branch of the GOP that put out the brochures notify the Secretary of State or the “loyal opposition” Democratic party to let them know of their serious concerns? Or is voter disenfranchisement only a concern when Republican voters are possibly disenfranchised?
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? I try not to be paranoid and fall into the conspiracy theory trap that many of my fellow lefties are victim to, but when I hear things like that, my nutty friends sound a lot less out there.
Regardless of the reassurances, both Democratic and Republican groups in Florida are widely distributing the absentee ballot forms and encouraging people to use them.
You can bet your sweet bippy I’d do the same.
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J Klein is the creator of DemocracyMeansYou and occasionally writes and pens cartoons for the site. He lives in an undisclosed location in North Carolina with Dick Cheney.
DemocracyMeansYou was started as both an artistic response to the ubiquitous flag stickers after 9/11 (the THINK sticker was the impetus for the whole shebang), and a forum for liberal and progressive opinion, humor (always important), and inspiring / urging / demanding participation in the democratic process.
He has written for various publications and websites over the years, has worked as a licensed Psychiatric Technician with both the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled; worked as a mechanic for several years; worked for local government promoting ridesharing and alternative transportation in California; quantifying school accountability for California schools; and marketing writing and web design.
