Peeking into the rock

Diebold machines are among the ones certified for the state of California -- another thing ytou can thank the Republicans for. But in Santa Cruz County, we're not using those. We're using machines by Sequoyah which have a paper trail and a whole raft of fail safe provisions. And we have an alternative paper ballot system with a scanner in the polling place and the memory card and all the paper ballots go to the county. There are all these receipt and ticket systems to make sure the same number of votes are counted as are cast.

I know this because I just came home from election clerk class. Our county clerk is the best in the world. She made us chant "Let the Voter Vote" and she made us do the Chicken Polka (it made sense at the time) and we had to do role plays to figure out how to enable every kind of voter and how to assist voters who need he;lp without voting for them.

This is just so cool. If only Florida and Ohio had election officials like our county's, everything would be different . . .

So, yeah. I'm sort of looking forward to the seventh.

Though I have to admit I'm still puzzled about: port commissioner (I'm supposed to vote for two, and if I don't get any better information, I'll vote for the retired fisherman and the water conservation technician), city school board, and a handful of propositions. And the judges? It's a yes-or-no vote. What am I to do with this? It doesn't make a difference what I vote in those situations, does it?