voting

Should Police Be Allowed to Restrict Who Votes?

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After the wake of many close elections, one has to wonder if we need more restrictions on voting, to ensure that dangerous people, who don’t fully understand the consequences of voting don’t vote. It’s quite possible that George Bush won in 2000, not because of his abilities to lead our country, but because voters were just plain stupid.

Some have proposed to give local police forces the unilateral authority to decide who gets to vote and not vote on election day. It could be a very simple and straightforward procedure — the chief of police in every town could sign a sheet of paper to make it unlawful for anyone to vote whose name appears on the list.

135 Cornelia St

Why have tough evidence based standards to keep people from voting? Why bother to get a court order, showing a person is mentally unfit to vote? Or if we insist on requiring court involvement, shouldn’t courts be able to keep anyone they want to from voting?

Certainly requiring evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt of a crime committed or about too be committed is too high of a standard. That could allow a lot of people who are of questionable mind to vote in elections. Indeed, even one voter, throwing an election could lead to a totalitarian regime to take over our country. We certainly don’t need any more tragedies like George Bush getting elected.

People make similiar arguments about gun control, so why not voting? Doesn’t this sound very democratic and fair to give government lots of arbitrary control over who can vote?

… and yes, I think this an awful idea.

A Script to Make Pretty Political Google Maps

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A while back I wrote I script for converting and styling KML files from ERSI Shapefiles, like you might download or export form a program like Quantum GIS. It requires you have the web programming language PHP 5 installed, along with the ogr2ogr command.

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This program extensively uses the PHP/DOM model, to read and write the XML file. I am not an expert programmer — it’s a hobby, but I am very happy with the results. You might consider using the LATFOR data and Census TIGER/Line for this if your a New York State resident.


#!/usr/bin/php -q
<?php
// POLITICAL STYLING FOR KML
// Converts a Shapefile with Election Results in Percentage
// 
// Input:
//      File_Title = Title for KML Name Field (as Seen in Google Maps)
//      District_Name = Field with District Name In It
//      Percent_as_Decimal = Election Result with Percent. 
//      0.00 - 0.49 = Shade of Red
//      0.50 = White
//      0.50 - 1.00 = Blue
//      Shapefile_Name = Path to Shapefile
//
// Output:
//      Google Maps KML File, Nicely Styled

if (!isset($argv[4])) {
        echo "usage: php politicalKML.php [File_Title] [District_Name] [Percent_as_Decimal]  [Shapefile_Name]\n";
        exit;
}

// required fields
$fileTitle = $argv[1];
$nameField = $argv[2];
$percentField = $argv[3];

// filename
$filename = $argv[4];
$KMLfileName = substr($filename,0,-4).'.kml';

// convert shapefile to kml using ogr2ogr
system("ogr2ogr -f \"KML\" -sql \"SELECT * FROM ". substr($filename,0,-4)." ORDER BY $fileTitle ASC\" $KMLfileName $filename -dsco NameField=$nameField -dsco DescriptionField=$percentField");

// load our new kml file
$doc = new DOMDocument();
$doc->load($KMLfileName);

// first let's replace the name field with a nicer one
$oldnode = $doc->getElementsByTagName('name')->item(0);
$node = $doc->createElement('name', $fileTitle);
$doc->getElementsByTagName('Folder')->item(0)->replaceChild($node, $oldnode);

// delete schema field to save space
$oldnode = $doc->getElementsByTagName('Schema')->item(0);
$doc->getElementsByTagName('Folder')->item(0)->removeChild($oldnode);


// load each placemark, search for maximum — used for making color judgements
foreach ($doc->getElementsByTagName('SimpleData') as $data) {
        if( $data->getAttribute('name') == $percentField) {
                $max[] = abs(substr($data->nodeValue,0)-0.5);
        }
}

// maximum in the political race
sort($max); $max = array_pop($max);
        
// calcuate multiplier for each race
$multiple = 255/$max;

// load each placemark, then set styling and percentage description
foreach ($doc->getElementsByTagName('Placemark') as $placemark) {
        foreach ($placemark->getElementsByTagName('SimpleData') as $data) {
                if( $data->getAttribute('name') == $percentField) {
                        $value = $data->nodeValue;
                        $color = substr($value,0);
                }
        }
        
        // decide if we want to do this blue or red, and then calculate
        // the amount of color versus white
        
        // republican leaning
        if ($color <= 0.5) {
                $colorStr = sprintf('%02x', 255-floor(abs($color-0.5)*$multiple));
                $colorStr = "a0{$colorStr}{$colorStr}ff";
        }
        
        // democratic leaning
        if ($color > 0.5) {
                $colorStr = sprintf('%02x', 255-floor(abs($color-0.5)*$multiple));
                $colorStr = "a0ff{$colorStr}{$colorStr}";
        }
        
        if ($color == 0) {
                $colorStr = '00ffffff';
        }
        
        // stylize the node based on color
        $node = $doc->createElement('Style');

        $linestyle = $doc->createElement('LineStyle');
        $node->appendChild($linestyle);
        $linestyle->appendChild($doc->createElement('width', 0.1));
        $linestyle->appendChild($doc->createElement('color', 'ffffffff'));
        
        $polystyle = $doc->createElement('PolyStyle');
        $node->appendChild($polystyle);
        $polystyle->appendChild($doc->createElement('color', $colorStr));       

        $oldnode = $placemark->getElementsByTagName('Style')->item(0); 
        
        $placemark->replaceChild($node, $oldnode);
                        
        // delete extended data to save KML space
        $data = $placemark->getElementsByTagName('ExtendedData')->item(0);
        $placemark->removeChild($data);
        
        // update the description
        $oldnode = $placemark->getElementsByTagName('description')->item(0); 
        $node = $doc->createElement('description', 'Recieved '.($color*100).'% of the vote.');
        $placemark->replaceChild($node, $oldnode); 
}

// finally write to the file
$doc->save($KMLfileName);

// calculate size in MB
$filesize = filesize($KMLfileName)/1024/1024;
if ( $filesize < 10) {
        $zipCommand = "zip ".substr($KMLfileName,0,-4).".kmz $KMLfileName";
        system($zipCommand);
        
        $kmzfilesize = filesize(substr($KMLfileName,0,-4).".kmz")/1024/1024;
        echo "KMZ is " .sprintf('%01.2f', $kmzfilesize)." MB, while the KML file is ".sprintf('%01.2f',$filesize)." MB.\n"; 
}
else {
        echo "Woah Horsey! The produced file is greater then 10 MB, at a size of ".sprintf('%01.2f',$filesize)." MB uncompressed. You need to simply your polygons before proceeding, otherwise Google Maps won't be able to read it. \n";
}

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