The Sam ([info]utricularian) wrote in [info]2004_elections,
2004-10-01 11:37:00
Alright, time for some awesome election year bullshit.

Behind the cut is Michigan's absentee ballot (scanned by a friend of mine). Pay close attention to the Presidential section and the arrows...





Wtf are they going to do to fix this? They've already mailed out an assload of these.

I guess what upsets me most is the fact that Florida didn't teach anyone jack shit. Do people not proofread this shit??


If you're upset about this, please link this post on your friends page. We don't want to deal with more shit like back in 2000, especially if you're a resident of Michigan.


If you would like to contact the company that printed the ballots, here is their contact information:

Miller Consultations & Elections, Inc., 231-869-4349


x-posted to hell and back

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[info]flavobean

October 1 2004, 15:45:29 UTC 7 years ago

That can't be good.

Orlando had a ballot like that in 2000. It was kinda cool, cos if your mark wasn't dark enough or you did something wrong, the machine spit it back out.

But this... I mean, it's clear that a vote for John Kerry is a vote for Dubya.

This han't been in the papers? I know some peeps at the Free Press. I might pass this along.

[info]taumeson

October 1 2004, 15:49:38 UTC 7 years ago

beanoman, if anybody can save us, you can!!!

[info]utricularian

7 years ago

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[info]neoqbacca

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[info]ex_wild_iris641

October 1 2004, 16:14:46 UTC 7 years ago

This needs to be forwarded immediately to the Michigan State Representatives.

[info]maxomai

October 1 2004, 16:20:08 UTC 7 years ago

Warning

I just posted this shit to DailyKos, so your web account is going to get hammered.

[info]maxomai

October 1 2004, 16:21:45 UTC 7 years ago

Additional suggestion

How about contacting Michigan's Secretary of State?

[info]cyns

7 years ago

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[info]ex_wild_iris641

October 1 2004, 16:27:03 UTC 7 years ago

I'm from Michigan, and I'm outraged.
I have just informed the press and our news reporting agencies of this gaffe, and I'm hoping that they take it from there.

Anonymous

October 9 2004, 13:38:20 UTC 7 years ago

Report this, too

Will you also be reporting this error?:

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/32-10072004-379121.html

[info]astroghoti

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[info]maxomai

October 1 2004, 16:30:15 UTC 7 years ago

Update

This apparently is a printing error which the company has committed to fixing.

[info]navychamois

October 1 2004, 16:43:17 UTC 7 years ago

Re: Update

and how many absentees are going to bother filling out another form, or at least be counted twice if their first one is already mailed in?

[info]utricularian

7 years ago

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[info]navychamois

October 1 2004, 16:43:28 UTC 7 years ago

wow.

thats all.

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[info]save

October 5 2004, 00:13:39 UTC 7 years ago

Yes! I am way late. But yeah, it's really weird to me how modern Republicans are quick to claim the old Republican leaders as their own, even though they aren't exactly similar.

[info]staircase_wit

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[info]didymos

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[info]crankyasanoldma

October 1 2004, 18:21:03 UTC 7 years ago

This is bad.

From a purely practical standpoint (like let's say I thought my candidate was going to benefit from the confusion, which is not the case).... any election inspectors seeing what I am seeing? There are going to be dozens of absentee voters who are going to fill in the arrow, and then wonder if they filled in the correct arrow, and they are going to write on their ballot or fill in a second arrow and cross stuff out. Which means the ballot will be rejected by the machine and inspectors will have to fill out a new ballot without the extraneous marks. With the voter-intent laws, I suspect some of these votes won't be counted at all. But in any case, that is a lot of work for election inspectors. I live in a township where the clerk processes all the absentees, so it won't affect me. But it will be a problem in a lot of precincts, and it's going to overtax people on an already busy stressful day, redoing dozens of ballots. AIGH!!

Lord I hope we're looking at a situation where just a few ballot came off the press wrong.

[info]rainfallsautumn

October 2 2004, 22:11:13 UTC 7 years ago

Yeah, that's what I was seeing.

Anonymous

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Anonymous

October 9 2004, 13:20:23 UTC 7 years ago

Always in Bush's favor, yessiree.

Tell me, sweetheart, where the Bush box is clearly visible on that ballot.

It's not? Oops! The Bush/Cheney line does not appear to have one thanks to the error! Well, piss on any idiot who wanted to vote for the GOP anyway; they don't deserve to have a spot to cast their vote. Right?

Did you know that ballot errors never happened until Bush came along? The first time they ever appeared was when Bush came on the scene. Horrible! Just horrible!

Oh, wait. Maybe not.

Ballot error that has nothing to do with Bush:
http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20040908/topstories/139643.shtml

A 2004 presidential ballot error that doesn't favor Bush:
http://www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=2377112

Where does this favor Bush again?:
http://www.theiowachannel.com/politics/3768952/detail.html

Proofreading errors NEVER happen, and when they do they favor Bush:
http://www3.ci.boulder.co.us/comm/pressrelease/2002/0927.html

Who does this favor again?:
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/4408402.htm?1c

Error screws democrats!
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/108582215445230.xml

Error screws republicans!
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/article.php?id=1035&print=yes

They left a candidate off:
http://www.rosevillept.com/articles/2004/10/07/news/top_stories/04news.txt

THey left another off:
http://www.dailydem.com/articles/2004/09/29/news/news1.txt

Mixup costs republicans either way:
http://www.southdakotaelections.com/Story.cfm?Type=Legislature&ID=2550

An error before Bush? Nonsense!:
http://starbulletin.com/1999/01/16/news/story2.html

Was Bush running in this San Fran election?:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/04/BAGL65DRB81.DTL

By "West," I'm sure they meant "Bush"
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan04/199500.asp

And so on.

I trust you get the point.

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[info]blue_lorelei

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[info]titaniumdragon

October 1 2004, 19:07:58 UTC 7 years ago

Election fraud starting already? :(

[info]surrealchris

October 1 2004, 19:27:38 UTC 7 years ago

It's never too early to fraudulently steal an election, you know.

[info]silvernyte

October 1 2004, 20:02:30 UTC 7 years ago

feggin' hell... and that's what my parents and I get to fill out... *shakes fist*

[info]moonchylde

October 1 2004, 22:23:42 UTC 7 years ago

I recommend sending this to http://www.boingboing.net

Great people, the really get stuff out there, and can probably pass this on to NPR.

[info]moonchylde

October 1 2004, 22:26:38 UTC 7 years ago

NM, I just went to boingboing and sent it in myself. Keep and eye on the RSS feed for the link to pop up. :)

[info]imcompulsive

October 2 2004, 05:56:20 UTC 7 years ago

How do they get away with this shit? I'm so sick of getting screwed over by bush. This is sickening. It should be all over the news! I am so pissed! I will post it in my lj tonight.
~Kristine

[info]cryonic2099

October 3 2004, 04:53:32 UTC 7 years ago

This may come as a bit of a shock to you, but I don't think Bush designed this. It's a typo, pure and simple...fucked up, but a typo none-the-less.

[info]mckenzee

October 2 2004, 13:59:41 UTC 7 years ago

I like the way they chopped up the word "Democratic" in the party icon. Bet that wasn't proofed by the Party either.

[info]agateway

October 4 2004, 22:10:35 UTC 7 years ago

ok..i love your icon.

seriously that fucking rocks.

[info]mckenzee

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[info]canth

October 2 2004, 15:14:54 UTC 7 years ago

Bring me the head of GW

Nevermind..i'll go get it myself

I would see this as some laughable error in printing that could be on Jay Leno or something..that is IF i hadn;t watched my city get attacked by terrorists and i hadn't had to watch an inept president try to avenge America with a falsely justified war.

Shame on those of us who allowed this to be sent to people. The confusion will be enough to get kerry votes discounted in small towns, and i highly doubt Bush is going to sit there and demand a fuckin recount if HE WINS.

I should just expatriate now and join a drumming commune in canada.


[info]jon_a_ross

October 5 2004, 03:55:41 UTC 7 years ago

Re: Bring me the head of GW

I can get you an address on that commune if you would like. (The weather is nicer, but the politics are a little bit slower...)

[info]canth

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[info]flatlineloki

October 2 2004, 16:58:58 UTC 7 years ago

I'm from Michigan. I feel like puking.

I can honestly see why this is such a huge mistake. Why? This is going to be my first time voting. It took me a minute to figure out what was wrong with this ballot.

I pointed it out to a few friends. They all said "What is wrong with it?". Once I pointed out the mistake they all said "Oh, shit . . . I didn't notice that because I wasn't going to vote for Bush."

Definitely a big mistake. What's the point in voting if we can't make our ballots right?

I'm still going to vote. I am just *very* sickened by this. Expect a response to be known soon. The Michigan people will hear it if they want to or not.

Anonymous

October 9 2004, 12:44:15 UTC 7 years ago

Overreact much?

Do you and the rest of the clowns here often do a lot of overreacting? Because you're trying very hard to do exactly that right now.

First, only 60 of these ballots were printed and mailed. Frickin' 60. And the error was caught and corrected. Cry me a river.

"An assload of these" my goddamn ass, you idiot.

Second, you people harp and moan about proofreading and shout with outrage that it was never caught, except 1) it WAS caught and 2) Flatti here admits that when showing it to people, they didn't catch the error, either. Gee ... I'm shocked and amazed that people overlooked an error that other people easily overlooked ...

And third, the point you all seem to be missing, is that on this ballot a Bush voter would have no visible box to check. At a glance, a Bush voter would be prone to thinking that the printing error takes away their ability to cast a ballot for their guy. In other words, Bush voters would be just as screwed. I know that's difficult to recognize through the haze of partisanship, so I don't except much more than a "so what?" After all, it's okay if BUSH loses votes.

[info]blue_lorelei

7 years ago

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[info]ewokette

7 years ago

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[info]azurelunatic

October 2 2004, 21:45:06 UTC 7 years ago

Was pointed by [info]ataniell93. Have pointed my extensive crew over here.

[info]ladynaberrie

October 2 2004, 22:52:52 UTC 7 years ago

That's just... I haven't the words.

I LOVE, LOVE I say, your icon.

[info]utricularian

October 2 2004, 22:55:05 UTC 7 years ago

:)

[info]outoftime

October 3 2004, 00:41:38 UTC 7 years ago

Man. They even spelled "affiliation" wrong under Nader's name.

Seriously? Did someone even BOTHER to proofread this? Outrageous!

[info]tychoelite

October 3 2004, 01:31:04 UTC 7 years ago

your icon makes me very happy....

and it's good to see that after the fiasco in 2000 that some one, some where is trying to make the voting process better >

[info]tyraarane

October 3 2004, 02:49:26 UTC 7 years ago

*facepalm*

My state is making me look stupid again. Suddenly I'm glad to be at school here in Illinois. Except that I would've voted absentee...if the ever-lovely city government had bothered to help me figure out the voting laws, which can now bite me (long story, that)...and that would've been the ballot I would've gotten. And it took me a minute to figure out what was wrong with it, too.

Somebody smack everyone involved. Hard. Or I'll march back up there and do it myself.

[info]kayshapero

October 3 2004, 03:11:26 UTC 7 years ago

Oh aarghh... We ARE going to have fun this time around aren't we?

[info]dnwq

October 3 2004, 03:45:21 UTC 7 years ago

Someone slashdot this!

[info]tyraarane

October 3 2004, 04:29:47 UTC 7 years ago

It already has been.

[info]silverhill

October 3 2004, 05:35:56 UTC 7 years ago

The worst thing about it is that even when you see the error, you still don't know how to mark the ballot to ensure a vote for the candidate you want.

[info]pbristow

October 3 2004, 11:23:35 UTC 7 years ago

Actually, that could be the best thing about it. That means they're more likely to re-issue the ballot and get it right, instead of saying "oh, it's just a minor issue, only a few people will have been confused, it doesn't affect the overall vote...".

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