Reply #9: You're missing the point.

[nicknameless]

These are the ladies who have been counting people's votes for decades. That's what's being lost.

Yes. Some people are just democracy fanatics. They do get up at 5:00 a.m. and work all day at the polls and count the votes when the polls close. They still do it that way in REAL democracies. They believe that democracy is worth fighting for -- and that it's worth one very long day. How many YEARS of * have we had to endure because expedience has been overvalued -- particularly by those who oppose transparent elections? YEARS vs. one very long day.

Your post echoes the county clerk:

Ohlsen assured me that the election ladies will still be plenty busy taking care of the new voter registration requirements. And with the machines counting the votes, he said, "I think they'll be able to go home a few hours earlier."

And why should we believe that any poll workers will be having an easier day than when votes were hand counted? Now they have to tend to machines that won't boot up, machines that malfunction all day, printers that jam, angry people whose votes aren't being registered properly, angry people who can't wait longer than six hours to vote without losing their jobs, right-wing election thugs, whose job it is to interfere with and intimidate voters, too few machines, etc. ad nauseam.

I wonder which scenario is preferred by the "election ladies"?

Election theft nowadays bears no resemblance to voter fraud incidents of the past. No ballot box stuffer can add or delete tens of thousands of votes, cause the count to reverse, or flip the vote count so that the losing candidate is suddenly ahead at the same percentage he was losing just minutes before -- all in a matter of seconds, all unobserved and leaving no trace.

Peace Patriot summed it up nicely in a recent post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=420580&mesg_id=420588

Of course everyone who can help out at the polls should do so.