Yesterday, I wrote this public service diary on touch screen voting: http://www.dailykos.com/...
I wrote that because any of us who voted on a touch screen doesn't really know anything about our votes. Yes, some machines have paper trails, but where that paper is not used directly in the count, we really don't know anything either.
But that's not the point!
We lost because not anywhere near enough of us voted. That's the truth.
More...
... and that truth should be motivational.
It's good to know we lost due to lack of votes, and really internalize it. No excuses. That should empower us to work harder and resolve the problem of why people don't vote.
After some good discussion in that voting technology diary, I realized we question election results a lot more than I recall happening before 2000. Bush v Gore. That's really the kick off event for all this election question mess that just won't seem to go away.
I submit to you these questions won't go away until we actually record the intent of voters directly and use that direct expression of intent for the count to arrive at a final tally.
Worse, I submit to you these questions never going away are a negative motivation for voting. Why vote, if it's not really going to matter? Or why vote, if we can't trust our votes are counted or counted correctly?
Deep mistrust and cynicism of our elections and politics in general runs far more rampant than any of us would like. And there are always questions. And those questions become excuses, which is why understanding voting tech is important.
If we improve how we capture voter intent and improve the trust in elections, we get rid of an awful lot of those questions. And with them, excuses not to vote.
That's why I wrote the diary yesterday. I just didn't fully actualize it in my own mind.
Again, I want us to know we lost due to lack of votes.
Not good.
With the election questions off the table, we are left with why people didn't vote. That is just the kind of problem we can get after as activists. So let's continue to stay focused on trusted elections, so that we improve the focus on getting people to turnout for the election.
It also occurs to me we've got just as big of a problem with registration. Who is working on this? I'm not seeing or hearing enough about efforts to reform. These efforts should be a great foundation message to GOTV this next election. The basic message should be something like: We need to turn out big to fix all the registration and voting trouble people have.
I do very strongly believe we lost votes due to the new voting laws passed after SCOTUS gutted the Voting Rights Act. However, I also know those laws would not have mattered where our turnout was good.
Toward that end, improving turnout, I'm a voting tech advocate who wants to see:
1. Direct capture of voter intent onto physical records
, and
2. those physical records used directly in the count to form the final tally.
And I want to see that so I can tell people their vote will actually count and remove one barrier to turnout.
Thought I would clear that up. I'm not willing to entertain all the theories about fraud, etc... where elections were close. They might be valid, they might not. In many cases, those questions are unresolvable.
Let's focus on trusting the tech, so we eliminate those questions where possible, and let's focus on turnout so we get the votes we need to reform voting and election laws to secure the future.
In Oregon, we like to vote. Turnout is high. It's easy to vote. We send pamphlets to people so they can understand their vote. We send them ballots and we even pick them up so they can vote from the easy chair, if they want to.
Maybe we can link that vision to some turnout messages and improve both in one shot!
We can't just bitch about the system we've got and hope for a reset or a new one. We have to turn out in the system we've got, which is entirely possible to do mind you, and then reform it to secure our policy vision for the future.
Progress requires we turnout to vote every time. We need to vote when we don't like the vote choices much. We need to vote when we are mad. We need to vote when we are sick, or tired. And we need to vote to check the Republicans and their votes.
When we don't vote, we live by the product of those who do, and that is primary. All else we desire comes from that reality. Vote.