Hello Folks:

----------------Dave "thought I gave up these theories" Darnell writes--
So what's going to be the fallout of all this?

1) Better than even odds there is a movement to reform the election
process.
2) Even odds there is a movement to change to a popular vote.
3) if #2, then backlash from smaller states over the dilution of the
value of their "minimum" 2 electoral votes in the face of ever-growing
electoral-vote power of the more populated states.
4) New Federalist/Populist movements?
5) Me wondering if there wasn't some sinister reason for converting so
many National Guard units to Reserve units over the last few years.
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Sorry, I could not help myself...  I did post this as "OFF TOPIC", enjoy.



#6) Federal law prohibiting the abuse of data (IBM) cards used as
ballots? Stuck with a pin/stylus? and for this technology to die out
with the likes of the 8-Track and Lava Lamp (yes, I know the Lava Lamp
is on the way back in, don't tell my kids that I have one hidden in
the attic).

The last card reader I saw on a 3000 was in 1978 and the cards were
punched by a IBM TYPE/PUNCH machine... hanging chad or dimples were
never an issue...   These machines punched some serious holes.

Anyone out here who booted a 3000 from paper punch tape ? or Card Deck ?

The only time a hole was manually poked in one of these card decks is
when you wanted to mess up a "friends" deck, but it was just as fun and
much less effort to random sort a few cards in the deck.  We never never
never read the punch cards by hand (not even after liquid libations)!

The extent of my experience with punch cards was:

!job user.account
!showjob
!eoj    {now check the line printer for the job listing}

This is the way I would have liked to have remembered it, but these
elections have reminded me that I also not so many years ago committed
the data card sticking abuse at a polling place //:~(

Optical scanners where being used in the mid 70's, WHATSUP with this
perverted use of data cards in the 21st century ???  I understand that
some folks may not be ready for electronic data entry, but everyone has
filled in the dot with a #2 led pencil some time in their life.  It
would be a good idea to start introducing electronic data entry along
side of fill in the dot/scanner technology... make sure the lines to
the electronic data entry devices are shorter to promote the new
technology!  If one thing comes out of this election mess, I would hope
a technology improvement is implemented and we never never never again
hear of our new found friends Hanging Chad and his brother Dimpled Chad!


#7) Federal law mandating technology to prevent "no" vote for a seat/race
or to identify with out question the voters intent is a "no" vote. If (7)
candidates are running, then offer a (8th) choice of no-vote for this
seat/race.  If a voter does not select candidate 1-7 or 8 no-vote then
their ballet is rejected and required to be corrected before the voter
leaves the polling place.


#8) Improved Identification of Registered Voters... WHATSUP with the
alleged abuse of voting multiple times as well as the deceased voting ?
How about Picture ID's and Finger print validation if necessary.   Yes,
I know about the "BIG BROTHER" concerns of a national ID card and finger
printing, but voting is a privilege and should be taken serious by
responsible adults.  Showing up to vote with your fishing license as your
only form of ID leads one to question how serious you are about voting.


#9) Stiff penalties for voter fraud... It is rumored some voters have
been paid off for their vote... It sounds like it may be time to set up
a few sting operations and nip this in the bud...  This might be good
practice for our local SWAT.


#10) Saturday voting!  WHATSUP with Tuesday... The polling places should
be open for 16 hours on Saturday from sunrise to sunset modified as
necessary to assure all polling places in the U.S. close at the same time.
Each polling location should be staffed to be able to support 4 times the
number of registered voters in a 16 hour period to avoid the lines/delays.


Oh, it felt good to get that off my chest...   I left items #11 - #999
for you to fill in!

Enjoy,

James Hofmeister
Hewlett Packard
Worldwide Technology Network Expert Center
P.S. My Ideals are my own, not necessarily my employers.