Yeah! Who is Senyszyn? He’s apparently an American Atheist. Ohh! They’re evil, aren’t they?

The American Atheists believe in everything fundamentally American, including freedom of expression, freedom of (and from) religion, and all of the democratic principles that make our nation the greatest in the world.

Gary Barten’s little whine about Senyszyn is sad when you consider the differences between the Atheists’ protests and the militant mob that threatened the counters. The Atheists, unfortunately, are never even close to a majority. They can muster a few brave souls occasionally to picket some of the more social evils in our nation, like the PK’ers, State-Church entanglement and the like. More often than not, the American Atheists have to be protected from the very people they are protecting against. This is a far cry from pounding on doors and intimidating lawful, honest people from doing their patriotic duty to count ballots.

Now, let’s talk about counting ballots. George W Bush would have you believe that hand counting ballots is arbitrary and inaccurate. So why does Texas do that exact same thing? Bush himself signed the law! (Tex. Elec. Code Title 8 127.130 (2000). So, the man who “trusts the people, not the government” instead “trusts the machines, not the people.”

Time and again (well, since the enfranchisement reforms) courts have upheld the people’s rights to vote. These rights supercede any law or magistrate (such as the Florida Secretary of State). They even supercede an illegally set-up ballot. Florida Law states that the holes are to be to the right of candidate’s names and that the democratic candidate’s hole is to be second. In other words, whenever it is possible to ascertain the will of a voter, then his or her vote MUST be counted. So, when a computer fails to ascertain the will of a voter (because of a hanging chad, power failure, or whatever) we MUST find some other way of figuring out whom he/she voted for. The easiest way to do that is with a hand count. Don’t believe me? Ask the machine’s manufacturers. The ballot counting machines used in Florida are accurate to about +/- .01 percent at ideal conditions. This means the machines are accurate to about +/- 600 votes in Florida. Funny, how that’s about the same as the gap between the candidates. The ballot machine manufacturers agree that the most precise way to count ballots is by hand.

The law here isn’t on G. W. Bush’s side nor is it on Al Gore’s side. It’s on the people’s side. The Florida votes were all screwed up, we can agree, now we need to use the law (our only option in a civilized society) to mop up the messes caused by an illegal ballot and illegal and arbitrary deadlines.

These arguments are essentially a synopsis of an article by Richard Carrier with a bit my own interpretations thrown in. Read the original with much more evidence and eloquence at: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/features/2000/carrier3.html

Keith Twombley

Sophomore

Computer science and philosophy