Electronic voting continues to put our democracy at risk

[kster]

By Bennet Kelley

“Electronic voting machines are placing our democracy at risk.” This dire warning on the eve of the election came not from MoveOn.org or Air America, but CNN anchor and lifelong Republican Lou Dobbs.

Dobbs was hardly alone in sounding the alarm, as in Maryland both gubernatorial candidates urged voters to use absentee ballots rather than rely on the state’s Diebold voting machines, and nationwide, 66 percent of registered voters believed it to be likely that hackers would tamper with the vote count. While it is encouraging that last week’s election does not appear to have been marred by major allegations of electoral theft, the alarm is still ringing and must be addressed prior to 2008.

In the past six years, the use of electronic voting machines has tripled and is now used by nearly 40 percent of registered voters. Questions about these machines first surfaced after the 2002 Georgia elections in which Sen. Max Cleland and Gov. Roy Barnes were upset by Republican challengers on Election Day, despite leading in the polls, and it was later discovered that Diebold had covertly implemented a program patch entitled “rob-georgia.zip” shortly before the election.

These suspicions grew exponentially after the 2004 election in which exit polls “incorrectly” showed John Kerry winning the national vote and key states such as Nevada, Ohio, New Mexico and Iowa, but otherwise were “correct” in non-swing states and precincts without electronic voting. What was particularly egregious was that Diebold’s CEO promised to deliver Ohio to President Bush and proved to be a man of his word since significant discrepancies between the official tally and exit polls favored Bush 90.9 percent of the time.

http://www.smdp.com/article/articles/3189/1/SOAP-BOX/Page1.html

[Greyhound]

1. Just because we won doesn't mean that there was no fraud in 2006.

Credible allegations have been made and, once again, the re:pukes: were the beneficiaries of nearly all the reported errors. This would explain how we went into the election with better numbers than even the re:puke:s of 1994 yet gained only half as many seats.:dunce:

[kster]

2. You make an excellent point and

it is definitely something to look into.. Thanks greyhound1966

[Stevepol]

4. If you want something pretty close to reality, check out ...

www.electiondefensealliance.org to see the data.

[Greyhound]

7. Thanks, good info. n/t

:kick:

[galloglas]

8. Hi Steve...

I found that TIA's figures, as reported by? Mod Mom (I think), were pretty close, wehn I checked them.

[Rock_Garden]

3. I wish this issue had been part of the One Hundred Hours agenda.

With all that's going on now, with so many crucial issues competing for attention, this one has gotten shoved aside. We must let Congress know that we do not intend to go through the 2008 election without every possible safeguard in place. It needs a Congressional committee working on it full time, because it will take two years to get it fixed.

[Kurovski]

5. Kick.(nt)

[galloglas]

6. K'n'R

Good show, Kster!