When I read the first few paragraphs of this article, I was thinking, "here we go again with another Moonbat conspiracy theory on how Bush "stole" the election"; after all, it is in the SF Chronicle, hardly a bastion of rational thought from a conservative point of view.
In reading furthur, however, I found that the author had a salient point. The perceptions held by any large segment in the general population are just as important as the facts in any given election.
The Moonbat Left has tried to say that Bush and Deibold "stole" a number of votes in some Florida, and California counties, since it is obvious that these were really Democratic Counties by the number of registered voters. The theory doesn't hold water because it doesn't take into account a number of factors, ie Independants, new voters, crossover voters, etc.
As someone once said: "there are lies, damned lies, and then there are statistics". If the proper information is "massaged" or salient facts ignored, statistics can be made to back up any loony theory you might care to espouse.
The main point however, is that for the people to trust in their leaders, they HAVE to have confidence that the electorial process is fair and accurate.
With some of the new electronic systems, it is all too easy for any glib Moonbat to make outrageous statements that are taken up by ignorant Moonbats as proof that any given election was "rigged" or "stolen", and these theories can't be effectively squashed due to a lack of a solid paper trail.
When any given theory is possible (even though highly unlikely), and you can't point to hard, irrefutable evidence; it allows the theory to take roots and grow, undermining confidence and spreading disension in the electorate.
I believe that any given system used should have some way of producing a hard copy of any given vote that is independent of the electronic tabulations, so that if there is any controversy, it can be CONCLUSIVELY proven just how that vote really went.
I for one, am sick and tired of Moonbat Left wing Democratic (redundancy alert!)
conspiracy theories that, for the most part, can't be proven, and lack of tangible evidence is taken to mean that it proves the theory.
Given the Left's proclivity toward these theories, we must ensure that the electoral process is conducted in such a manner as to provide solid evidence to refute any such claims in a manner understood by even a product of the Public SchoolIndocrination system.
A paper ballot somewhere in the process is probably the best way. It may be cumbersome and slow, but just remember that the integrity of the process must be as absolute as possible, or a breakdown of the process is inevitable sooner or later.
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