County Won’t Recall Questionable Electronic Voting System (Alameda)

[Bushfire]

By CHRISTINE SZETO
Contributing Writer
Wednesday, October 1, 2003

Alameda County officials said yesterday they will continue to use the electronic voting system for the Oct. 7 recall election, despite a controversial study that criticized the system's security.

snip

The study, released in July, called the security of the county's Diebold machines to be "far below even the most minimal security standards applicable in other contexts," citing inadequate password and encryption systems.

The Diebold voting machines replaced the controversial punch-card ballot system in Berkeley in 2002. By inserting a "smart card," voters retrieve their ballots from the electronic system and submit their votes into the machine. The card prevents voting more than once, while still protecting voter anonymity.

snip

"There is no way to check the vote because it is recorded internally on electronic memory and you, the voter, cannot see the vote," Dill added.

more...

http://www.dailycal.org/article.asp?id=12929

[PurityOfEssence]

1. A heavily Democratic county, need we point out

Home of, among other places, Berkeley...

[Bushfire]

2. I noticed that too

if it votes Ah-nold in, there should be some major red flags going up. Hopefully some lawsuits start flying.

[The White Rose]

3. Well, if they cheat on this one

it'll be a dead giveaway; Alameda county is Oakland and Richmond, as well as Berkeley. The recall vote itself may be an issue but Arnold's got a snowball's chance in hell of getting even close in this county. Having said that, we know that the Repubs have absolutely no shame, so...

[Qutzupalotl]

7. Time for some independent exit polling?

[aquart]

4. Run by Democrats? Or Repubs registered as Democrats?

Like in sunny Florida?

[Maine-i-acs]

5. Paging Jimmy Carter!

I said it in another thread and I'll repeat it here. We need verification that these machines are accurate.

[AndyTiedye]

6. It Would Look Suspicous as Hell if Arnie took Alameda County

but watch for it to be a lot closer than it should be there.

The recall itself may win there anyway, as some may vote YES in the futile hope of electing Camejo, and their votes will be used to explain it away when the machine
votes put the recall over the top there.

[PATRICK]

8. the fix IS in

Almost 100% certain. We have the same media blitz push, obfuscation and "disheartening" of Dem vioters as in 2002. LA TImes, it is late, but investigate your own. Selling our soldiers' bodies to massacre iraqis for Bushco, Pravda campaigns for one party tyranny. What relevance is any rag, pro or con in this country?

To cover vote shaving which shouldn't be hard to gloss over in this mess. AND then the same media analysis after to bury all questions and revile and laugh at the Dems.

Who deserve to be laughed at uness they do heavy heavy work in turnout, get a brain about BBV, and do some heavy counter move to prevent vote fraud. Davis just went through 2002, apparently with blinders on.

Flooding the papers with what? The media will twist it into worse than useless futility. Voters who believe will really be disheartened, and they have cause.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

10. And 12 of those computers in LA county now

[MGKrebs]

9. The counties or SOS's should be suing

Diebold for sending them machines that don't meet the #@%$@#* standards.

[hunter]

11. Let's watch this election VERY carefully...

If it stinks in California after this, things will be absolutely putrid across the entire United States by next summer.

[dusty64]

12. Hmmm.

Any guesses how long it will be till the NEXT recall. My bet, about 2 months.