[1448] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
same old new ballgame at MIT
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brian T. Sniffen)
Tue Sep 16 09:28:47 2003
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 18:30:58 -0400
From: "Brian T. Sniffen" <bts@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0309151401420.3607-100000@sub-zero.mit.edu>
(wally@sub-zero.mit.edu's message of "Mon, 15 Sep 2003 14:15:13
-0400 (EDT)")
Wally <wally@sub-zero.mit.edu> writes:
> Rhett's a grad student in course 22
Um.
> Rhett's .............. in course 22
Um.
> Rhett's .............. .. course 22
Well. That puts the duration of this sort of argument in a new
perspective, doesn't it?
Hi ho.
But to take on something *truly* irrelevant and unchanging:
> the UA still doesn't really matter,
But they've got such a fascinating new set of election
irregularities:
* The electronic voting system is not auditable -- there's no way to
do a recount, and there is insufficient published information on its
security.
* Both the electronic voting system and the physical voting system are
under the control of the incumbents.
* The polling staff were undertrained, to the point where they could
not correctly identify which positions were open for election, even
when provided with a list. If words like "flashlight", "map", and
"both hands" aren't running through your head now, read it again:
they couldn't tell which races were running even with the list taped
to the front of the voting box.
* Questions pertinent to the elections, like "How do I vote for a
write-in for this position?" or "The pollworkers turned away an
undergraduate; who precisely made this decision and how can it be
appealed?" weren't answered in time to vote.
So maybe in nine years the Tech can write another "Fair Elections for
First Time in N years!" article, but it won't be coming this year.
Is it any wonder nobody bothered running from several dorms, or that
turnout was so low? There's no reason to believe this is really an
election, when some candidates won with only a single vote, others are
appointed, and voters are turned away from the booth at random.
-Brian
--
Brian T. Sniffen bts@alum.mit.edu
http://www.evenmere.org/~bts/
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