| Topic: |
Sociology > Education |
| User: |
"Dana" |
| Date: |
19 Sep 2003 10:51:12 PM |
| Object: |
How ACLU's Lawsuit to Stop the Recall Is Bogus |
ACLU Fails to Address Questions About Anti-recall Lawsuit
Eric Leonard, NewsMax.com
Thursday, Sept. 18, 2003
LOS ANGELES - American Civil Liberties Union has not responded to questions
raised about the information and reasoning used in a lawsuit that has halted
California's recall election, which had been scheduled for Oct. 7.
The suit alleged possible violations of the equal-protection clause of the
U.S. Constitution because, ACLU claimed, minority voters would be
disenfranchised.
The lawsuit said counties with high minority populations that use punch-card
voting machines have a higher voting "error" rate and suggested the errors
were somehow connected with minority voters "unfamiliarity with technology."
But:
State election information reveals the two California counties with the
highest incidents of so-called voter error have predominantly white
residents.
A voting equipment company paid for a study used to bolster ACLU's argument.
The lawsuit misrepresents election errors, election officials said.
None of these issues was raised as an argument against ACLU's claims in
court.
Two California counties, Lake and Colusa, recorded the highest error rates
in the state during the November 2000 presidential election. Both counties
have mostly white voters, and only one of the counties uses punch-card
technology.
Much of ACLU's case for demanding newer voting machines was based on a 2001
study by the University of California at Berkeley that found higher error
rates in counties that used punch-cards and other low-tech equipment to
count votes.
The study was partially funded by Sequoia Voting Systems, a national company
that sells and installs computerized voting equipment.
"The UC-Berkeley study was something that we assisted with to help them
develop the data, and provided some funding to help put the raw data
together," said Sequoia spokesman Alfie Charles.
The company's sponsorship had no impact on the findings, Charles said.
Additionally, registrars of voters in California and other experts say ACLU'
s interpretation of the Berkeley study mischaracterizes what consistutes a
voting error.
"I think that there's been a lot of talk about what an error rate is in an
election, and it's really not an error rate," Los Angeles County Registrar
of Voters Connie McCormack told the county's Board of Supervisors on
Tuesday.
Experts say there are only two possible errors when using punch-card
machines: over votes, when a voter selects more than one candidate, and
under votes, when a voter does not choose any of the options.
Either action could be accidental, or more likely, an intentional choice,
they say.
"The supposition is if people skip a race and don't vote for that, that that
's an error, that's part of the court pleadings," McCormack said.
ACLU's Condescending Attitude Toward Non-whites
ACLU has suggested the "errors" were the unexplainable result of minorities
having some sort of difficulty operating voting equipment.
Experts on voting equipment said part of the reason for punch cards having
twice the "error rate" as electronic voting machines was simply the
inability of electronic machines to register one of the two possible errors
on a punch-card ballot.
Although ACLU says the electronic voting machines are "twice as accurate,"
it's really only because they allow half the possible errors, they said.
ACLU's Los Angeles office did not respond to calls for comment over two
days.
Former ACLU attorney Dan Tokagi, who helped draft the initial lawsuit,
dismissed each of the concerns as "illegitimate." He said the quality of the
Berkeley study was "above reproach."
On Monday, a three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sided
with ACLU and ordered the recall election delayed until six counties upgrade
punch-card voting machines with more modern equipment.
California's secretary of state and supporters of the recall have challenged
the decision. They say they will appeal to the United States Supreme Court
if necessary.
--
Atheism teaches that there is no God, hence no God-given rights. That
ideology coupled with a system that believed in the superiority of the state
at the expense of the individual was murderously synergistic.
--
There can be no prescription old enough to supersede the Law of Nature and
the grant of God Almighty, who has given to all men a natural right to be
free, and they have it ordinarily in their power to make themselves so, if
they please."
James Otis
.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: How ACLU's Lawsuit to Stop the Recall Is Bogus |
20 Sep 2003 01:00:29 PM |
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On Fri, 19 Sep 2003 19:51:12 -0800, "Dana" <#####@example.com> wrote:
ACLU Fails to Address Questions About Anti-recall Lawsuit
Eric Leonard, NewsMax.com
You fail to mention that NewsExLax is a right wing parallel to Weekly World News
It has no crediblity, no standards, no journalistic integrity
nothing from this rag is credible
sorta like you
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63j187%24nji%40bgtnsc03.worldnet.att.net&rnum=226>
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.
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