Current Events > A black Texas votes in the primary today

(+) Yeah! (+)

*Be me, black man who lives in middle of Texas voting in primary*
*Same venue and all that, slight steady stream of people*
*get into main hall of the community center, notices people hunched down at tables with those dividers*
<Me>: "....Paper ballots?"

*asks one of the workers how come the paper ballots for this year*
<Me>: *already has an idea, but wanted to know if she knew* "Hey, why are we on paper ballots this year?"
*She doesn't know, but calls over one of the 'leaders,' some big tall white dude*
<Me>: *asks him the same thing*
<Dude>: *gives a spiel that basically is paraphrased as thus* "It's easier to keep track of where the votes go on a paper ballot"
<Me>: "Really?"
*Oh god....either he's naive or really is a believer in the conspiracy*
<Me>: "But, the electronic ones were secure before, they weren't connected to anything on the outside."
<Dude>: *I can see him struggling to answer that* "They...had a connection ((a lie right there)), but..." *goes back to odd 'answer' about paper ballots having a better trail on who person voted for, which...makes little sense*
<Me>: "Okay, thank you."

....
*walking outside of the community center, an older black woman is also walking out at same time.*
<Me>: "That was fun, huh?"
<Woman>: "At least it was fast."
<Me>: "The electronic machines were faster."
<Woman>: "Yes they were."
<Me>: "And-"
<Woman>: *interrupts* "And we both know why they took 'em out. Believing in conspiracy theories."

It's sad as hell to see the 'voting fraud' conspiracy theory bullshit that the GQP politicians gleefully harped on about take shape and make things go backwards in terms of progress.

Oh, and to make sure I wasn't talking out of my ass, I checked this, but keep in mind, it's an article from 2022....

https://www.tpr.org/government-politics/2022-10-26/texas-voting-machines-are-secure-heres-how-they-actually-work

Hacking concerns unfounded, state says
One false allegation that circulated around voting machines is that they are hackable because of a connection to the internet. Scott explained why this isnt true.
Voting machines in Texas are never connected to the internet, he said. In fact, in order to be certified in Texas elections, they cannot even have the capability of connecting to the internet.
This allegation comes from a misunderstanding about how voting data gets transferred and counted.

Canada uses paper ballots and we dont do that conspiracy shit (yet)

A lil bit more context, but the state has been using electronic voting machines for years.

None of this BS came about until Agent Orange and his vile nonsense about rigged elections that all this started coming about.

Minor bump for now.

I wonder if anyone else encountered the change backwards from electronic to paper ballots in the US.

As a Texan, I appreciate your post and I hope my own polling place isn't ran by some paranoid conspiracist.

I don't usually wait for election day, however dropped the ball this year so I'm gonna go soon.

Our far-right party in Portugal has also been playing the "voting is rigged card" in the past few days. Already the second time the election board had to make a statement assuring that there's no reason to question the election.

Just finished voting, it was electronic.

Kradek posted...

Just finished voting, it was electronic.

I would ask what county but....

Ack, nevermind.
Guess it's patchwork depending on where ya go.
Unfortunately I'm in an area where I'm surrounded by Red and there are a number of Agent Orange true believers....

We switched back to paper at my place over the last year or two.

BombermanGold posted...

I would ask what county but....

El Paso, so it's rather blue and we don't really have poll watchers or people infringing on election rights.

Kradek posted...

El Paso, so it's rather blue and we don't really have poll watchers or people infringing on election rights.

Lucky.

I dunno how the hell El Paso did it when they got off of the Texas electric grid to have their own, but that shit sure did save them a whole lot of pain during that 2021 blizzard.
That zero people still hadn't paid a price for due to the outaages.

BombermanGold posted...

I dunno how the hell El Paso did it when they got off of the Texas electric grid to have their own, but that shit sure did save them a whole lot of pain during that 2021 blizzard.

I wonder about that too as I think we're literally the only TX city not on that grid, maybe also some of the very small towns close by when you go East.

BombermanGold posted...

That zero people still hadn't paid a price for due to the outaages.

Yes, it's infuriating. It's atrocious that so many other decent Texans have to suffer the asininity and greed of ERCOT

I think of all the shitty things Trump did during his Presidency, normalizing the denial of election results is probably the worst.

Almost every relevant right-wing conspiracy theory stems from that, and fuck that orange piece of shit for starting it.