Election Results: Diebold SUCKS

...Or should I say, Premier Election Solutions. For a nice change, the Board of Elections ran a smooth day yesterday, sort of a dress rehearsal for next year's presidential election. God knows we don't want any more repeats of the antics witnessed in prior elections: ballots being pre-counted, technical difficulties during the polls, lines out the door necessitating the extension of the polling for the evening.

Now, please note that several of those past disasters were human-caused, and some were solely technological glitches. And I am happy to report that this time, fortunately, the voting public was spared any direct inconvenience. I guess by that, I mean, nobody was left in pouring rain waiting for four hours to vote.

Where the disappointment in the system surfaced was during the vote tallying. There were reporters at the Board of Elections offices during the local newscasts. They reported that the touchscreen voting machines would load data for a short period of time, and then "threaten" to crash. The workers would have to stop, save all the information, then start over.

Bumbling, stumbling, January molasses, what other descriptors can we come up with?

During previous elections of this sort (primarily local issues and local offices), most of the voting tallying would have been completed and results reported by the 11 o'clock news.

Is the need for electronic voting machines really all because of hanging and dimpled chads? Aren't there better alternatives? Isn't there a better company with more reliable technology? Is it any wonder that there is low voter turn-out for local elections, when the results are so discouraging?

What will happen in less than 12 months, when the weight of the country rides on what the people of the State of Ohio do at these same electronic voting machines?

I vote for a recall of Diebold/Premier Election Solutions.