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WanderingTraveler · 07-04-2012, 01:14 PM

*facepalm*

http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol.../11274676/

~~Persnickety Polecat~~ · 07-04-2012, 01:29 PM

Not even sure what to think or say. On the one hand, my less charitable side says that if someone cannot distinguish between red and green, yes and no, perhaps they should abstain from the vote. On the other hand ... well ... No, Chava, there is no other hand. I'm going to have to stick with being uncharitable.

Historian · 07-04-2012, 08:30 PM

Ooops. I would suggest maybe she's colorblind, except for the gigantic AYE and NO printed on them as well.

dramaturge · 07-04-2012, 10:35 PM

I'm bothered by the fact that the article says this apparently happens on a regular basis. That seems like a huge cop-out: "Oops, I pushed the wrong button; I'd like to change my vote." I wonder how often that really means, "I voted X because I thought that was right, but I need to change it to Y now so my voting record looks good." I mean, seriously: even if you're red-green color blind, not only are the words on the buttons, like Historian said, "Aye" is the top button and "No" is the bottom one. Pretty sure that doesn't change between votes or desks....

Don · 07-04-2012, 10:47 PM

(07-04-2012 10:35 PM)dramaturge Wrote: I'm bothered by the fact that the article says this apparently happens on a regular basis. That seems like a huge cop-out: "Oops, I pushed the wrong button; I'd like to change my vote." I wonder how often that really means, "I voted X because I thought that was right, but I need to change it to Y now so my voting record looks good." I mean, seriously: even if you're red-green color blind, not only are the words on the buttons, like Historian said, "Aye" is the top button and "No" is the bottom one. Pretty sure that doesn't change between votes or desks....

I didn't think females could be colorblind? I thought that was a male genetic trait.

lucrezaborgia · 07-04-2012, 11:05 PM

(07-04-2012 10:47 PM)Don Wrote: I didn't think females could be colorblind? I thought that was a male genetic trait.

It mostly is but women can still get it.

Historian · 07-04-2012, 11:31 PM

Yes, come to think of it I thought it was a male trait, too. Now I'm curious...

Ok, so webmd.com says colorblindness is inherited (which would be male problem), but that you can also develop it due to aging, eye problems such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, cataracts, or diabetic retinopathy, injury to the eye and as a side effect of some medicines. So I assume both men and women could develop it as lucrezeborgia states.

Webmd hath spoken...

WanderingTraveler · 07-05-2012, 05:11 AM

(07-04-2012 10:35 PM)dramaturge Wrote: I'm bothered by the fact that the article says this apparently happens on a regular basis. That seems like a huge cop-out: "Oops, I pushed the wrong button; I'd like to change my vote." I wonder how often that really means, "I voted X because I thought that was right, but I need to change it to Y now so my voting record looks good." I mean, seriously: even if you're red-green color blind, not only are the words on the buttons, like Historian said, "Aye" is the top button and "No" is the bottom one. Pretty sure that doesn't change between votes or desks....

That is what bothered me too. And also the fact that in NC, it seems our politics and lawmakers just keep getting worse and worse. I would rather have a group of lawmakers who, even if I did not agree with them, are at least thinking through decisions and not making stupid mistakes than the leaders we have now who have been there for years and seem to think this is still the 1950s and make stupid mistakes like this. (But that is an entirely different topic. Tongue

)

**Tiarali** · (This post was last modified: 07-05-2012 06:22 AM by Tiarali.)

(07-04-2012 10:47 PM)Don Wrote:
(07-04-2012 10:35 PM)dramaturge Wrote: I'm bothered by the fact that the article says this apparently happens on a regular basis. That seems like a huge cop-out: "Oops, I pushed the wrong button; I'd like to change my vote." I wonder how often that really means, "I voted X because I thought that was right, but I need to change it to Y now so my voting record looks good." I mean, seriously: even if you're red-green color blind, not only are the words on the buttons, like Historian said, "Aye" is the top button and "No" is the bottom one. Pretty sure that doesn't change between votes or desks....

I didn't think females could be colorblind? I thought that was a male genetic trait.

Colourblindness is recessive and carried on the X chromosome. So if a guy gets an affected X chromosome, then the pairing chromosome will be Y so there won't be a corresponding dominant trait (non-colourblindness) to overrule it, so any male who receives the colourblindness trait from his mother (his father gives the Y chromosome) will be colourblind.

A girl, however, gets two X chromosomes - one from her mother and one from her father. If she gets an affected X chromosome from either parent, she will still exhibit the dominant (non-colourblindness) trait that is present in the other chromosome.

If the girl, however, gets two colourblind X chromosomes, so BOTH parents have an affected chromosome (meaning the father would be colourblind and the mother might be colourblind or might just be a carrier) then she will actually be colourblind herself. This is, of course, very rare.

Either way, the girl who gets only one affected X chromosome is automatically a carrier - in each of her children, she will have a 50% chance of giving them the affected chromosome. So 50% of her daughters are likely to be a carrier of colourblindness without being colourblind themselves, and 50% of her sons are likely to be colourblind. Unless, of course, she marries a colourblind man, in which case all of her daughters will be carriers, and 50% of them might also be colourblind.

Also, if a colourblind man has only sons, then since he will not have passed on the affected X chromosome at all, then the colourblindness trait will have died out in his particular branch of the family.

Source: My husband is colourblind, and my daughters are therefore all carriers of it. Interestingly enough, all the boys (4) in his family are colourblind, even though statistically speaking they only had a 50% chance.

Edit: I wasn't aware that you could also develop colourblindness. I did know there are several different types, just wasn't aware that they were obtained differently.

**Tiarali** · (This post was last modified: 07-05-2012 06:20 AM by Tiarali.)

Having read the article - to start with I thought she was incompetent and should be in a different job. Then I saw that the vote was being held late night and under pressure. What a stupid way to ensure that the best decisions are being made. Would you want your brain surgeon to schedule your life-altering surgery at 2am? No? Why have votes that can permanently change a nation then? The fact that it allegedly happens commonly indicates that there is, indeed, a serious problem with the way the voting is being held.

I understand that politicians have to work long hours, but surely they could schedule debates and things for later time slots, and votes for when people are fresher and thinking better.