Fears of more US electoral chaos: Flaws are discovered in ballot computers

[Karmadillo]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=453116

Next year's US presidential election may be compromised by newvoting machines that computer scientists believe are unreliable, poorly programmed and prone to tampering.

An investigation published in today's Independent reveals tens of thousands of touch screen voting machinesmay be less reliable than the old punchcards, which famously stalled the presidential election in Florida in 2000, leaving the whole election open to international ridicule.

The machines are said to offer no independent verification of individual voting choices, making recounts impossible, and the software is shielded from public scrutiny by trade secrecy agreements.

The shortcomings have appeared in two academic studies and have prompted calls for urgent oversight legislation. They have also cast doubt on the accuracy of last November's mid-term election results, especially in Georgia, the first state to switch to touch screen voting.

more...

[ixion]

1. and why isn't this news in the US media?

it's pathetic, really, that the US media has become such a whore to the WH and corporate interests that this story isn't plastered all over the front page of every newspaper one of the lead stories on CNN, etc. :argh:

[terrisel]

3. Sent the article to [e-mail]

He did an article recently in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on questions about voting machines.

[PsychoDad]

4. The media is owned by corporate interests

There is no free press.. at least not on any national scale

[sungkathak]

14. Because election is rigged

Don't you know how the insider group control US politics? They hold media and intelligence. Through intelligence they rigged election. the election of Florida 2000 is a typical case. And through media they control public's sentiment. Through fake poll they make people thought the result of election is a fair one. The Iraq war is a typical one. When they say 70% people support war, I think it's a lie. Americans, like most people in the world, are against war. But media is at the hand of inside group, they turn the minority into majority. When it turned into Capital Hill, (the authorization of Iraq war power to Bush), they couldn't use the media to cheat because the vote of representative was open. And representative knew clearly what the majority of their constituents wanted: anti-war. That's why there was a DC sniper shooting, an intimidation to law makers in DC. The result was clear, quite some obeyed that power and voted yes. Those out of track was "Wellstoned".

[Minstrel Boy]

2. Here's another good story from the same issue

of The Independent (apologies if it's been posted elsewhere):

All the President's votes?
A quiet revolution is taking place in US politics. By the time it's over, the integrity of elections will be in the unchallenged, unscrutinised control of a few large - and pro-Republican - corporations. Andrew Gumbel wonders if democracy in America can survive
14 October 2003

Something very odd happened in the mid-term elections in Georgia last November. On the eve of the vote, opinion polls showed Roy Barnes, the incumbent Democratic governor, leading by between nine and 11 points. In a somewhat closer, keenly watched Senate race, polls indicated that Max Cleland, the popular Democrat up for re-election, was ahead by two to five points against his Republican challenger, Saxby Chambliss.

Those figures were more or less what political experts would have expected in state with a long tradition of electing Democrats to statewide office. But then the results came in, and all of Georgia appeared to have been turned upside down. Barnes lost the governorship to the Republican, Sonny Perdue, 46 per cent to 51 per cent, a swing of as much as 16 percentage points from the last opinion polls. Cleland lost to Chambliss 46 per cent to 53, a last-minute swing of 9 to 12 points.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=452972

Seems like the world's media is twigging to America's black boxes. How about American media?

[rfranklin]

5. This is more important than any candidate or issue...

The Republicans have not won a presidential election since Dumbya's Poppy was elected. And they will not win the next election without massive fraud. We have to hammer home the unreliability of computer voting with letters to the editor, speaking on talk shows, and just in regular conversations. The future of democracy depends on this. NJ congressman Rush Holt has a bill pending that would require paper receipts from all machines. Express your support with a call to your representative.

[Trajan]

9. The Infamous 'Diebold Magic' .....

Amazingly: ..... the late minute poll swings towards GOP candidates in Georgia and other regions where Diebold machines were used were NOT seen in regions that used traditional methods of voting ....

We are being had .......

[Eloriel]

6. And here's the original article

to which he refers when he mentions "an investigation published in today's Indpendent" --

Common Dreams
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1013-01.htm

Independent UK
http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=452972&host=3&dir=70

Edit -- I see someone already provided it above.

Eloriel

[ninkasi]

7. I know it won't happen...

but I wish we could get the UN to come in and oversee the next presidential election. Let UN reps check over the voting machines...let the world demand an audit trail.

With the United States being so powerful in the world, surely it has become in world interest to be sure our elections are fairly held.

[loudsue]

8. PLEASE!! E-mail a link to this article to the chief Aides to every Senator

and Congresscritter in your State and County -- both national and State elected reps., as well as your Secretaries of State and State Board of Election Officers.

The phone numbers and e-mail addresses are available on-line. If you call your reps. offices, and ask who their chief Aide is, you can personalize it, and ask to MAKE SURE the rep. sees the whole article.

Please express your concern that this is a bi-partisan issue, really, as the Georgia Secretary of State who is pushing Diebold in Georgia is a DEMOCRAT, and still, she won't listen to the experts.

We've just seen another election fiasco in California, where the pResident said on the MORNING of the election, before the polls opened in California, that "today, Californians will make a wise choice for governor." Then you look at all the hundreds of thousands of votes that were provisional, absentee, or just the number of Dems who never got their voting letters saying they were approved on the rolls; or where people went to their polling places to find them CLOSED, with NO forwarding message directing them to a new polling place...and you KNOW the fix was in -- yet again. Hell, CNN made up their own poll a week before the election giving Ahhnoold a 15% lead or so....when more unbiased polls showed a dead-heat.

THIS AIN'T OUR FIRST RODEO!!! And unless we REALLY get to work on this issue -- each one of us -- it will not be the last time we get thrown off our horse before we're even out of the gate.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get this information to your elected folks, activist groups, church groups, and everyone you speak to on the street. Refer people to Blackboxvoting.org and blackboxvoting.com, and encourage people to read Bev's book -- FREE!!! -- on line!

Thanks, DUers! Together we can rock the world!

:yourock:

[GinaMaria]

10. done n/t

:-)

[dusty64]

11. Kick!

Its sad that once again a HUGE story like this has to be printed outside the US because our corporate media has no interest in showing it (or worse).

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

12. Another kick

N/T

[Desertrose]

13. Kick

Keep this floating!!!
:kick:

Peace & free elections!!

DR