We're Pleased Too
Fla. Elections Officials Find 2002 Data

MIAMI July 30, 2004 — Miami-Dade County elections officials said Friday they have found detailed electronic voting records from the 2002 gubernatorial primary that were originally believed lost in computer crashes last year.

Seth Kaplan, spokesman for the Elections Supervisor office, said the records were found on a compact disc in the office. "We are very pleased," he said.

Translation: found in the same place George Bush's war records were found -- in their imaginations:

"There are now more questions than before," said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition. "I certainly want the disc, I certainly wish someone would test the original disc they are now claiming they found and determine when that disc was made, where it came from, whether it's been tampered with and if anyone's opened it."

And the most comforting thought of all,

"Touchscreen systems have worked successfully in hundreds of elections since 2002 and we expect them to do the same in the upcoming election," said Alia Faraj, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Glenda Hood, who oversees the state's elections.

I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of precincts are electing everything from dog catcher every year to officials whose terms may last 6 or 8 years, but having them work in hundreds of elections in a country this large is no test at all. Reports of them failing are in the hundreds too, in just about every state they've been tried. The only thing they seem to be good for is to make money for the companies (like Diebold, Sequoia, NCR, etc.) that have rushed the cheapest technology possible into these things while charging big time prices.

So was this the weekly Friday surprise story? They've actually been spinning the record deficit as good news:

The figure is well above the 2003 shortfall of $374 billion, the prior record in dollar terms. But the midsession review forecast is $76 billion less than the $521 billion the White House projected in February.
...
"Because the president's economic policies are working, we are ahead of pace to meet the goal of cutting the deficit in half within five years," said White House budget director Joshua Bolten.

I don't know how these lying sacks of shit can sleep at night. I really don't.

- posted by Cynthia @ 3:34 PM | | | Link |