Voting Stuff

Went to a seminar on voting technology. Wow are we screwed.

The Diebold machines and others of that breed by different companies are TOTALLY untrustworthy. If you can vote on paper ballot, do it.

The summary I can give is:
The whole process is a mess. Even if it were attacked with careful consideration, accountability, etc., there are no perfect solutions, only educated choices which are compromises of the lesser evils.

The good news is that in California by 2006 the electronic voting machines have to print out receipts. I'm not clear, however, as to whether or not the electronically recorded vote will be the vote, or the printout will be the vote. If the former, the innovation is useless and there is no accountability.

Anyone know if there are groups lobbying for runoff voting? If I got the name wrong, what I am looking for here is voting wherein you rank your choices and if your first choice gets too few votes to be in the running, your vote is cast in favor of your second choice instead. That's probably a simplified description of the algorithm, but you get the idea. I really feel like it would solve a lot of the political problems in this country and I could really get behind such a drive.

phones again

Just an observation:

Being here at the conference trying to work on several different articles at once has really drove home to me how essential it is for me to have 24/7 access to email, ideally through a PDA phone.

Verizon is still letting me down, but there's still 1.5 months till I can get a new phone anyway, and things can change in that time. The only options they have are the samsung i600 and the i700. The rest of their options are hopelessly obsolete.

I should probably look into arranging for email download to my phone, but if that doesn't work out I may have to ditch Verizon come June. :(

marriage, government, and children, oh my!

Just a thought:

If there were some kind of civil union called thingum which was designated: Union between two or more people to raise a child

And if Thingum permitted those people various tax breaks and financial incentives in return for doing their best to raise a child as a contribution to society...
And if Thingum was only permitted to people who either had compatible genetics or were adopting or were getting implants from those with compatible genetics...
And if Thingum was only permitted to people who met an objective psychological profile verifying their stability...
EditAnd if Thingum were only available once a child was born... perhaps it were set up through pre application and then once the child is born or legally adopted, it goes into effect, and when the child is done going through college or is no longer a minor, the incentives go away...

Then I'd be cool with the government's sanction of that. See, to bear and raise children, you wouldn't have to enter thingum. But if you wanted the tax breaks etc. that went with it, you'd have to sign that contract and meet its requirements.

But Thingum would be a different thing from marriage, which is a religious or romantic union.

Marriage would still have legal sanction, but there should be no financial incentives associated with that except those related to inheritance. The legal sanction would be instead a sort of registry to indicate that this was the person(s) who should not be contested in your will, who should be allowed at your side in the hospital, etc.

Just some thoughts.