Maple & Main

Wisconsin has Made the News Again

Posted by Curt Otto on April 8, 2011

Wisconsin has once again made the news in Southern California, but unfortunately the news is not very good.

It was dreadful enough when Wisconsin lost the “cheese making” title to California, and then made headlines again when painted-face union supporters nearly burned down the capital last month.

Now reports on the west Coast are highlighting the recent vote in Waukesha County that went a little haywire- it seems a few extra votes may have been found after the final tally was taken- perhaps hiding under a desk or behind a file cabinet.

Hmm, might be time for me to change the license plates on my truck…

Funny enough, I was having lunch with the guys at a local chicken wing establishment the other day and while we were waiting for our order, some of the chaps were playing a trivia game.

The game works like this- multiple choice questions pop up on the television monitors around the restaurant and you have a limited time to answer them using a hand-held device at your table. The quicker you answer correctly, the more points you get. The final scores are added up at the end of each question and answer session and those totals are then added to a list of results from all the other chicken restaurants across the United States.

Seems simple enough, right?

So my question here is, if a chicken restaurant can keep record of the results of the people playing trivia at all of its establishments nationwide, why on earth can’t a county like Waukesha- or like all of the other places that screw up their voting results, create a voting system that actually works?

I am told over and over again that my vote is very important. They tell me on the radio, they tell me on the television, and they tell me in the newspaper.

But once I cast my all important vote, there is no real guarantee that it won’t be lost forever by an outdated voting system.

Perhaps it is time to spend less money on reminding me to vote and spend more money on making sure my vote gets counted.

May I also suggest that those in charge of our voting system have lunch at their local chicken wing establishment and maybe even play a little trivia while they are there?

Who knows, it may inspire them to rethink the way we vote here in America.

Or, at the very least, it will test their knowledge of useless trivia. After all, our elected officials should all know what animal can last longer without drinking water than a camel…