They are going to hold it because Americans are too docile to do anything about problems like this. Welcome to the United States of Soviet America people:

Debra A. Reed voted with her boss on Wednesday at African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale. Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist…

A poll worker then helped Rudolf, but it took three tries to get it right, Reed said.

Hmm… if I were a programmer and I wanted to skew the results. 2/3 switches to my party seems a bit extreme, but it guarantees statistically that I will win the election. Unless everyone votes Democratic and more than 1/6 of the voters notice the mistake. Which they likely won’t since:

The fact is that a lot of people will push the button for their candidate and not even look at the confirmation screen. After all, you would assume that if you press the button for one candidate, the machine isn’t going to register the vote for another candidate.

Oh well, there must be a way to monitor these problems:

Election officials say they aren’t aware of any serious voting issues. But in Broward County, for example, they don’t know how widespread the machine problems are because there’s no process for poll workers to quickly report minor issues and no central database of machine problems.

Hmm… America, the democracy, we’ll miss thee.

…..1337hax0r…..

The Con running for the by-election in London North-Centre apparently has an interesting history. From Rob Edger’s Blog:

I had heard about the human-rights complaint and a $10,000 fine in 1995 for refusing to declare a Gay Pride week in London while she was the Mayor.

I had not heard that she used to work for the Republican party. Did the rest of you know this? Why didn’t anyone tell me?

1. “A former mayor of London, Ont., who recently worked as a communications adviser and researcher for U.S. Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole will make a bid for the federal Conservative nomination in a vacant London-area riding.”

2. “Ms. Haskett, who moved back to Canada last week to contest the Conservative nomination and campaign in the Nov. 27 federal byelection…”

3. “Haskett served two terms as mayor before leaving for Washington to work with the Republican party”.

4. “During Haskett’s six years in Washington, she said she did volunteer work for Elizabeth Dole, wife of former Republican presidential candidate Robert Dole and worked on election campaigns.”

Thus making it that much easier for the Libs to sweep that riding. Hopefully the votes will spread nicely across all of the other parties running.

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edit: For the Greens and NDP, it’s going to be an uphill fight to run against a guy with a history like this:

Glen Pearson has proudly served as a London firefighter and Captain for 28 years.

Service and leadership are at the heart of Mr. Pearson’s many contributions to his community, his country and to causes around the world.

Moved by the plight of families facing hunger, Glen and his wife Jane Roy founded the London Food Bank 19 years ago. Today, the Food Bank serves over 2000 families each month and Mr. Pearson continues to lead as volunteer Executive Director. Mr. Pearson has also served as the head of Ontario’s Association of Food Banks and has consulted with provincial and federal governments regarding poverty issues.

Mr. Pearson has also put his experience in political activism and public education to work to assist the people of Southern Sudan. He and his wife Jane founded the organization Canadian Aid for Southern Sudan, which has helped inspire Londoners to assist the people of Sudan to begin rebuilding schools and villages in a country torn apart by years of civil war.

…..1337hax0r…..

Man, I want to see Elizabeth May win this one so badly. If only to finally legitimize the Green Party by giving them a seat. Especially since it is pretty obvious that Garth Turner isn’t going to switch to the Greens anytime soon (which is a good move on his part imesho. It would just seem way too opportunistic and be bad for his rep in the riding. They did elect a Conservative after all.) As well, if May wins this byelection it will give the Canadian government a good shake up especially regarding ecological matters, and perhaps get them to do something about the climate crisis and such that needs to be handled. However, being a realist, I understand that short of a miracle it just ain’t going to happen.  If I see any chance of it, I will donate to May to help her out, but at this time that riding is pretty hardcore Liberal stronghold, and has been for a long time, federally.

So, I expect to see the polls to very quickly show a Liberal lead that is held onto pretty tightly. Especially since the Greens mostly take votes from soft-NDP and green-Conservatives. On the plus side, with a Conservative scandal already brewing, it looks like the seat will remain strongly not-Conservative. Which is a plus with this government.

Either way, I will be watching this by-election closely with the really really small hope that the Greens will be able to crack into parliament for the first time. Especially now that they have a real candidate running who knows how to be political.

For those in London North-Centre, remember to vote!

…..1337hax0r…..

The CRTC issued a “Bill of Rights” for consumers of phones and such. The Star has a great summary of them:

Did you know that you’re legally not supposed to get calls from telemarketers hawking their goods and services with automated recordings?

Or that your phone service can’t be cut off if you agree to a repayment plan for your overdue bill and stick with it? Or that you can have outgoing long-distance calls blocked from your home phone free of charge?

…..1337hax0r…..

“Educating Youth about the Law” is a great website with some exciting comics like:

and:

And of course there is this thrilling strip:

Another fantastic use of tax dollars. Hope to see more of these soon.

…..1337hax0r…..

The Globe and Mail asks the obviously loaded corporate bullshite question:

How much wind power is too much?

While giving bullshite excuses as to why investment into wind power is a bad thing. What a load of tripe. Apparently the fear that the wind will stop everywhere there are wind turbines and that there won’t be any form of backup system in place is why we should continue polluting the air and contributing to the ongoing climate crisis.

…..1337hax0r…..

edit: fixed some spelling

Apparently, the Cons in Canada are afraid of revealing why Rob Anders got acclaimed in his riding in Calgary West. So much that the release of the documents regarding it will:

“irreparably harm” the federal Tories, its lawyer said today.

Hmmm… I wonder what those documents really say. What is particularly damning is the following quote:

Outside court, Hawkes questioned why the party would want to keep confidential the documents relating to Anders’ selection.

“Obviously the party seems to feel that its internal records would be so embarrassing as to cause them irreparable harm,” he said.

What would Cons really want to hide from Canadians? Do they have some sort of hidden agenda that would be incredibly damaging to them in a federal election perhaps?

Note: Any party that has to hide documents from the public because it may hurt their election prospects, probably shouldn’t be elected in the first place.

but that’s just my opinion

…..1337hax0r…..