Mississippi goes all Diebold Touch Screen - Secty of State: "great system"

[cyberpj]

State unveils computerized vote machines
Counties will receive them at no cost
By JUSTIN HOOKS
SUN HERALD

BILOXI - Mississippi Secretary of State Eric Clark gave circuit clerks across the state a glimpse into the future Thursday, unveiling new computerized voting machines.

Clark presented the machines at the Circuit Clerk's 70th Annual Convention at Beau Rivage Resort and Casino, and said the touch-screen system will do wonders to improve the state's election process.

"This is just going to be a wonderful thing," Clark said. "For the first time ever, we'll be able to have accurate election-night returns from around the state. As information comes in from the counties, they'll be able to transmit in real time over a secure line to our offices. It's a great system."

Diebold Election Systems, which supplies 95 percent of the state's ATMs, won the $15 million contract to upgrade the state's voting systems and will provide training, maintenance, voter education and technical support for the next five years.

The upgrade is part of the the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) signed in October 2002. HAVA requires the replacement of all central scanner machines, lever machines and punch-card machines in the state by Jan. 1, 2006, and at least one available device that is fully accessible to the disabled in every polling place.

Clark said county governments don't have to worry about the cost of the upgrade, or the security of the new systems.

"You hear about (computer) hacking, but it just can't happen here," he said. "It's as secure as anything can be. Based on everything I've seen, these are the best machines available and they're coming at zero cost to the counties."

The federal government is covering 95 percent of the cost of the machines under HAVA, with 5 percent covered by state matching funds. Mississippi is expected to receive 5,164 Diebold machines, but each county has discretion to choose what manner of HAVA-compliant system it wants to use.

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/news/local/12136459.htm

[Maddy McCall]

1. Damn! Don't post that!

Bev will think that she needs to come to Mississippi.

;-)

From what I heard from merh, though, Clark has demanded a paper trail. How old is that article? Must be several days old, because the most recent development is that he insists on a paper trail.

[cyberpj]

3. Sorry - Clicking on the link would show you:

Posted on Fri, Jul. 15, 2005
State unveils computerized vote machines

[Maddy McCall]

6. Wow. I'll have to do some research and post back.

[warbly]

24. paper trail

you sure? if you're right that is good news. i was about to scream when i read this, with all the progress being made to counter the paperless machines, i see this, and was about to scream. hope you're right about the paper trail. i bet mississippi will find that these things cause more problems than they solve anyway...
then again, it's not like we have a snowball's chance in mississippi these days anyway.

[msongs]

2. will Mississippi let black people use it? n/t

[Maddy McCall]

7. Not unless they pay their poll tax.

:eyes:

[SouthernDem2004]

13. What would a post about something in the South be without an ignorant

reply....

Yes, you are right. The entire state is racist. No, black people are not allowed to vote here.

[QC]

29. Well, self-righteous horse's asses have nothing else to contribute,

but still, it's hard to take political sanctimony from someone whose state elected as its governor a B-movie muscleman, former hustler, and steroid abuser.

[Hippo_Tron]

31. Wouldn't polling stations in African American neighborhoods...

Probably be staffed by African Americans or at least by Democrats. I'm not trying to make ignorant remarks about the south, I'm a southerner myself. Here in New Orleans, for example, the entire city government is pretty much controlled by African Americans, who are a huge majority in the city and would be an even greater political force if they turned out to vote in higher numbers. Since polling stations seem to be a fairly local thing, it would seem pretty difficult for Republican poll workers to try and disenfranchise African Americans in mass numbers in this city, since most likely, the poll workers would all be Democrats except in the suburban Republican parts of the city.

I know this is not standard all over the place, especially considering Florida 2000, but I am just wondering what the situation is like in other places.

[GreenPartyVoter]

19. Good point. Even so

it sucks that another state has given up its power of democracy.

http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm

[KansDem]

4. In a related story...

BILOXI-
Eric Clark, Secretary of Stare for Mississippi, was named to chair the Mississippi "Jeb Bush for President 2008" committee. "This is an awesome responsibility," said Clark. "We got a lot of hard work ahead of us, but I'm confident we will emerge victorious!" Asked what he intends to do to claim this victory, Clark replied, "We'll take care of everything, but the voting. I mean, that'll be taken care of by...uh, the people, or course!"

on edit: :sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:, oh, and :sarcasm:

[cyberpj]

9. Link?

Or is that a joke?

[KansDem]

10. Sorry, it was sarcasm

Sorry to mislead you, but I was being sarcastic. I was just continuing the tradition of SOCs being state Bush campaign chairs (Harris-Florida, Blackwell-Ohio)

I changed my post to reflect the intended sentiment.

:blush: I'm soooo ashamed of myself!

[cyberpj]

11. Ok. You're forgiven. It was the quote marks that reeled me in.

Then I realized there has been no announcement of Jeb in 2008 (yet).

Good one.

[Cassandra]

5. How much did he get paid to say that?

Now they can have blacks voting Repuke in record numbers.

[wildwww2]

30. That is exactly what I was going to say.

Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[Toots]

8. they're coming at zero cost

Zero Cost...hear that? We want those machines there so badly we will give them to you. :+

[Al-CIAda]

16. Exactly. Our elections have been stolen, America is no more. n/t

[Joanne98]

26. Free my ass! It will cost you your democracy.......

[wli]

12. no big surprise

The elections have all been rigged at least since the first October surprise anyway. Which is no surprise given the cabinet.

Folks, we've been had even if Dubya et al are booted out of office.

[jmowreader]

14. Well, they ARE great machines

Now if they'd just reformat the hard drives and install some GPL'd vote counting software on them, pry the modem cards out and drive a bulldozer over them, and not let anyone who'd ever voted for a Republican in his life within 500 feet of the central tabulators, they'd actually be trustworthy.

[Fire Walk With Me]

15. "You hear about (computer) hacking, but it just can't happen here,"

Of course not. "It....is....pre-programmed!", to quote a song from "liquid sky". :-|

What does the code look like?

12. If democratic vote, then add 12 republican.

[Ready2Snap]

17. 2 points

1- Do you really think Mississippi is ever going to be in the blue column?

2- With a whopping 7 electoral votes even the GOP ignores
them when campaigning.

[Al-CIAda]

18. -2 points (goal tending)

1- This isn't even about a Democrat 'winning', it is about fair, open, HONEST elections.

2- Nebraska (Chuck Hagel)

[Ready2Snap]

20. Diebold: the antonym of fair, open and honest elections.

That's a given.
Those machines have one purpose and one purpose only-
to render irrelevant the entire election process.
Fair, open and honest have never been used in the same sentence as Diebold. Nor should they.

[Imagevision]

21. Now there won't be any point to voting - they only need us for the "show

[starmaker]

22. State takeover of elections??? Breaking laws???

From sos site

<Mississippi law does not require any certification of voting systems for use in Mississippi. The Secretary of State's Office does not test, certify, or recommend any voting system. The decision to select a particular type of system rests solely with individual county government. > http://www.sos.state.ms.us/elections/voting-systems.asp


<By law, general elections are run by county or municipal Election Commissioners with limited oversight from the State Board of Election Commissioners. Circuit and Municipal Clerks also provide support.> http://www.sos.state.ms.us/elections/voterinfoguide.asp

Laws also say we have rights to observe the vote count

[WhiteTara]

23. great system

if you want to steal an election!

[Logan_430]

25. Will it have a paper trail?

It's my hope that if more states select the paper trail/receipt option the powers here in Florida will adopt it. Then it will be much easier for me to check that my wife and daughter have voted the way I've told them to.

[WhiteTara]

27. the article doesn't say and I'm assuming no

BTW welcome to DU Logan good luck with telling the women what to do NOT
:hi:

[leesa]

28. Wonder how big HIS check from the Diebold rep was.

Blackwell got 50,000 dollars for his services. How much is Mississippi worth?

[Hippo_Tron]

32. Presidentially this won't matter, but the Governor's race could be close

And if one of the Mississippi Senators steps down in a midterm year, there could be a competative Senate seat as well, depending on who decides to run.

Hopefully Hayley Barbour will be so unpopular in two years that Diebold won't be able to fix it for him and hopefully a Dem Governor can get some paper trail reform or something passed.

[sakabatou]

33. "...we'll be able to have accurate election-night returns..."

And by accurate I mean heavily leaning right. And uh, purging of blacks, hispanics and non-felons from the rolls. And switching votes so they only read Republican. Yeah.

[Al-CIAda]

34. Exit polls be damned. We have assumed control. You are playing

fisher-price democracy. The fix is in.