Durka-Durka-Muhammed-Jihad!!
I heard about this on the radio this morning while driving into work and just about drove off the road:
(by way of La Shawn Barber and fellow Munuvian Michael King)
I honestly cannot think of anything to say to something as inane and just plain stoopid as this except that this woman needs to drink some really strong coffee and wake up cause this is the 21st century.Black Voters 'Afraid' of Electronic Voting Machines, Activist Says
Miami (CNSNews.com) - An African-American civil rights spokeswoman said on Wednesday that the new computerized voting machines "terrify" her, and that blacks are "afraid of machines like that."
Joanne Bland, the director and co-founder of the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute in Selma, Ala., told CNSNews.com on Wednesday that the new computerized voting machines are going to intimidate black voters in Florida and elsewhere and suppress their vote in the November presidential election because many blacks are not "technologically savvy."
"The computers really terrify me. The electronic voting -- the new machines -- I think it will turn off a segment in my community, particularly the elderly. We are not as technically savvy, and we are afraid of machines like that, and they (African-Americans) probably won't go [to the polls] and they probably won't ask for assistance, said Bland, who spent the last week in Florida.
"It is going to turn them off totally and I want that to stop," said Bland, who also serves as a spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Public Accuracy, which predicts that "several million voters" may be "deprived of voting rights again" in 2004.
When asked if she preferred low-tech punch-card ballots that produced the controversial hanging chads in Florida in 2000, Bland responded, "Now that was low technology to who? People that have been privileged to learn technology? There have been lots of changes in the United States, but if you look at the statistics, our biggest block of voters would be between 40 and 80, so when did those people have access to any kind of technology?"
As an 11-year-old in 1965, Bland took part in the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She has just concluded a speaking tour on the history of the civil rights movement in the Miami area.
"I got the hell out of there Saturday, and I would suggest you do, too. Until we get rid of those Bushes (President George W. Bush and his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush), we're going to have a problem in Florida," Bland said.
GOP political operatives were quick to denounce Bland's comments.
African-American GOP consultant Tara Setmayer, who has worked on Florida congressional campaigns, called Bland's remarks "insulting" to black Americans.
"I think it's insulting to imply that African-Americans are unable to comprehend or assimilate modern-day technology," Setmayer said.
"As a registered voter in Florida, I am familiar with these touch screen voting machines,and they're very easy to understand, very voter-friendly," Setmayer told CNSNews.com. "Her claim is absurd," she added.
Syd Dinerstein, the chairman of Republican Party of Palm Beach County, also denounced Bland's comments.
"If there was ever proof positive that the black community needs a different set of leaders, statements like [Bland's] are exactly it," Dinerstein told CNSNews.com .
"I wish the Democrats thought as highly of the black community as Republicans do. We trust black parents to pick the right schools for their children, the Democrats don't. We trust black people to make informed electoral choices, the Democrats don't," Dinerstein said.
"It is sad that the soft bigotry of low expectations is at the core of the fundamental principles of the Democratic Party," he added.
Republican consultant and former political and government affairs director of the African American Republican Leadership Council Kevin Martin also rejected the idea that blacks can't grasp computerized voting.
"What Bland is trying to say is voters down there [in Florida] are dumb, they are not educating themselves. She is saying that African-Americans-- when it comes to voting -- are intellectually inferior," Martin told CNSNews.com.
"You have touch screens in grocery stores, at [state run motor vehicle offices] and African-Americans seem to have no problem using those," he added.
I agree wicha nat. Absentee ballots is the way to go. The republicans in Florida sent around a fl
Read more in In Need of Coffee
nathaile said:
GrumpyBunny hit the nail on the head: absentee, baby. this lady, instead of doing this pre-emptiv
Read more in In Need of Coffee
Chelle said:
I don't know... I've heard many black people in my community talk about how technology scares the
Read more in In Need of Coffee
GrumpyBunny said:
'...may be "deprived of voting rights again" in 2004.' They are not being DEPRIVED of their voti
Read more in In Need of Coffee
Comments on In Need of Coffee
'...may be "deprived of voting rights again" in 2004.' They are not being DEPRIVED of their voting rights. They can fully exercise them. IF they are THAT afraid of the dang machines, they can do the absentee ballot. Sheesh.
If I were Black, I'd be severly offended by these remarks.
|| Posted by GrumpyBunny, October 4, 2004 10:51 AM ||I don't know... I've heard many black people in my community talk about how technology scares them and it's not so much that they are "afraid" of it but that they don't trust it in any way shape or form. But in the South, a majority, and I in no way mean ALL, of the black community is highly superstitious of many things and technology is top on that list.
|| Posted by Chelle, October 4, 2004 04:55 PM ||GrumpyBunny hit the nail on the head: absentee, baby. this lady, instead of doing this pre-emptive "stolen election" campaign, should do an absentee ballot drive. just heard on the news today that in my state (CA), absentee ballot voters are up 10x since they made it easy to be a permanent absentee voter. they estimate that 3 *million* votes will be cast via absentee this year, which will be approximately 1/3 of the total expected turnout. many people don't trust the electronic voting machines, even here in the technology hotbed. but instead of getting whiney, people are getting paper ballots. it's pretty simple, and if I were black, I'd be insulted by what this woman is implying.
cry baby.
|| Posted by nathaile, October 5, 2004 08:54 AM ||I agree wicha nat. Absentee ballots is the way to go. The republicans in Florida sent around a flyer encouraging people to vote that way. Hows that for irony?
I don't really have to worry too much upo here in the sticks... we still use a burnt stick and slate.
|| Posted by scroff, October 6, 2004 09:46 AM ||