Coleman versus Franken
Norm Coleman (R) versus Al Franken (D) sounds like the writing on an advertisement poster for the next boxing match at a casino in Las Vegas, but it refers to the battle these individuals are involved to win a seat in the US Senate.
Last time I heard, on the recount, they were 225 votes apart. The group in charge of re counting went over 933 improperly rejected ballots and figured out that Al Franken was now ahead of Norm Coleman. Al Franken became known for his role on the TV show Saturday Night Live. Norm Coleman is the incumbent MN senator. At this point in time it appears that the winner is Al Franken. Of course this may change with time.
No matter what the results are after the final count by the canvassing board, the looser is expected to file a lawsuit. Our society has become very litigious. The US has more attorneys per capita than any other developed country. Attorneys provide a service. They contribute to the economical issue of having 80% of the working force of the US population being in services, not in engineering, science and manufacturing.
A few weeks ago I was watching the 06:00 PM news on cable TV. They showed some of the people that were revising the questionable ballots in order to decide (guess) to which candidate should they be assigned. They showed a few of the ballots. Without asking each voter there is no way to come up with an answer. Let me give you some examples of this ludicrous attempt.
A ballot had a pencil mark that was close to a check box for a candidate. Clearly the mark was done by accident. The voter did not mark the box. They assigned it to a candidate whose box was closer to the mark.
In a separate ballot, a voter marked candidates for other positions (i.e., president) but did not mark the ones for the MN Senate. The ballot was assigned based on the affiliation of the political party of the ones selected for other positions. The team came to such conclusion assuming that if one votes for a state representative affiliated to the DFL, then even if the person did not vote for Coleman or Franken, they probably intended to do so for Franken, but forgot. Have you ever voted for local candidates only in a presidential election? Perhaps one does not like the choices for the MN Senate.
I believe in the fundamental principles of the Republican Party. I fully understand this last statement is subjective. Do not like most of the ideas of the Democratic counterpart either. That said, I strongly believe in some basic health and retirement plans for all Naive Americans. Apparently either party does not support these essential needs. Our president-elect Obama has a health plan. I will wait sitting down, not holding my breath, waiting for these specific CHANGES. One way or the other when I look back at the last two (2) presidential periods of the Republican George W. Bush, I feel ashamed to be associated in any way shape or form with the Republican Party. Looking back at the 8 years of president Bill Clinton, my feelings are exactly the same. In the past 16 years, half dominated by Democrats and the other half by Republicans, our country has continued to spiral downward. The only thing to be going up is lack of morals and corruption by career politicians and business executives. So perhaps it was my ballot that was shown on TV with the blank check boxes for Barack Obama and John McCain.
On another example, the voter marked one of the candidates but one could see a speckle on the box for the opponent. The mark could have been made accidentally by the voter, have been picked up from the folder used to transport the ballot from the booth to the reader, by the rollers in the reader, or by … (you get the point). The people looking at the ballots were discussing if the voter was undecided and he or she meant the candidate with a stain in the check box or if the ballot should be dismissed. I was just laughing so loud during the news broadcast that my wife though I was watching The Colbert Report on the Comedy Channel. The news show was quite amusing that day.
Given the disagreement that occurred in the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore counting paper ballots in the state of Florida, the US government has spent millions of taxpayer Dollars to replace systems and machines used by Naive Americans to vote. If the issue of electing “career politicians” to bring CHANGE at all levels is important to Naive Americans, how is it possible that up to this past elections the USA does not have a unified and secure electoral system that works? Perhaps it is not a priority for the US Government, the “career politicians”, the Democrats or the Republicans.
Do you own a credit, debit or an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card? Most Naive Americans do own several ‘plastic’ cards. The US economy is based on spending what we have and what we do not (consumer society). This is one of the contributing reasons for the economic debacle our country is in today. When was the last time a Naive American used their ‘plastic’ and the charges were not properly recorded? I am nor referring to mistakes made by the hotel (front desk clerk) were you stayed on your last 5 day vacation and came back with charges for 7 days. That mistake has nothing to do with using and properly recording the balance after the transaction was completed.
When was the last time that you withdrew $200 Dollars from your user-friendly ATM machine and it did not show up in your balance because the machine was in a different city, state or country? As a matter of fact last summer my wife and I were shopping at an outlet located north west of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. We do this once or twice a year. It is about an hour drive in good weather conditions. Common practice for shoppers is to shop for a few items and then return to your vehicle to unload the bags and repeat. Even though I mentally prepare for this occasional ordeal, I am not able to take it for more than a couple hours. As we were leaving the last shop and heading to our car my wife’s phone rings. It was the card fraud department of one of our credit cards. They wanted to confirm that we were shopping and that our card had not been stolen. The spending was out of the average for us. I thanked the caller for their concern and informed them that we were done with our shopping for the day. By the way, at the end of the month, our credit card statements reflected ALL our purchases indicating the EXACT amounts. The system used by the different shops accepting credit cards did not get CONFUSED (not even once).
I have been developing computer software for over 30 years. Much of my work has been dedicated to products sold and used worldwide. I cannot understand how could it be possible for a reputable and qualified company not be able to develop in one year time a nationwide secure and accurate voting system that would eliminate the three ring circus we currently have in MN. The dispute between George Bush and Al Gore was FOUR years ago.
To summarize, Naive Americans go to the polls in an attempt to select one or more “career politicians”. Very, very, very few politicians serve a single term and then move on with their lives. In the US once a Naive American experiences the power and wealth brought in by politics they never wants to leave the spot light; WOULD YOU? Many companies and Naive Americans contribute to the campaign funds of their favorite candidates. The Democratic and Republican parties spend millions of Dollars in attempts to win the different political posts all over our country. The “career politicians” that make up the Federal Government in an attempt to clear face and pretend they care to address the issue that helped them get were they are, have funded some companies to develop voting machines. Surprisingly none of such efforts has paid off yet. The simple objective method to manage elections appears not to be important or popular enough.
If common sense was used to decide which ballots were intended for each of the candidates, now hired guns (lawyers) and our inadequate and incompetent legal system will be called upon to decide who won the US Senate election in Minnesota. Perhaps they have a crystal ball that anonymously can read the minds of the voters who filled the ballots in question. Sounds like something you read in a 19th century novel based now we now call a developing (third world) country.
Not sure what could the Naive American do to induce CHANGE in our society before it is too late. We need to realize that the issues are all over our country and society. If you have an idea please send me a comment. I would like to hear your comments and ideas.
