BRAD BLOG: Coverage of E-Voting Crisis Finally in the Nation's Media!

[BradBlog]

Finally this topic is being covered in MSM. But is it being covered enough? And is the coverage now too late to do much of anything about the enormous problems we've been yelling about for two years? (SHORT ANSWERS: No. Yes.) - Brad

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Diebold Tells NYTimes Access to Their Voting Machines 'Analogous to Launching a Nuclear Missile'
'We Must Restrict Access to the Buttons' Says Diebold as They Allow Faulty, Hackable Machines to be Used Everywhere in the Country this November!
Company Refuses to Supply Latest Machine for Testing to Either Princeton OR the US Elections Assistance Commission!

If Diebold actually made nuclear missiles, would they allow the government to actually test them before using them?...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3523

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Columbia Journalism Review Criticizes Media for Failing to Report Electoral Issues
BRAD BLOG Criticizes Columbia Journalism Review for Being Two Years Late and More Than Two Dollars Short…

Someone's got to be the watchdog watchdog watchdog. Guess it's our turn...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3520

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Sunday NYTimes: Elections Officials Get 'Cold Feet' About E-Voting (The 'Paper of Record' Reports Years too Late!)
UPDATE: Story Hints 'LET AMERICA VOTE ACT' Being 'Considered on the Federal Level'!
PLUS: Vermont's Sec. of State Makes Jerk of Herself…

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3518

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CNN's Lou Dobbs: Problems With E-Voting Machines Are Now Nationwide

Dobbs continues to be the only national media outlet (aside from yours truly, of course) to give this story the continuous coverage it deserves!...

LATEST TRANSCRIPT: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3517

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---
Brad Friedman
THE BRAD BLOG - The uprising continues...
http://www.BradBlog.com
VELVET REVOLUTION - The revolution begins...
http://www.VelvetRevolution.us

[ChiciB1]

1. It's About THREE Elections Too Late Here In Florida!!! n/t

[Justice Is Comin]

2. Take a bow Brad. All that applause is for you.

[BradBlog]

3. No bow necessary...

...It's simply ALL of our jobs to look after this democracy. Just wish more folks realized that! (Yup, talking to you NYTimes and friends!)

[Peace Patriot]

4. Solve the problem in one fell swoop--Vote by Absentee Ballot this fall!

If everybody who despises the Bush Junta (60% to 70% of the American people) votes by Absentee Ballot this November, the reign of these diabolical machines is OVER!

In the Montgomery Bus Boycott, black citizens went to work, but they didn't take the buses--they WALKED!

Similarly, we will vote, but NOT ON THEIR DAMNED ELECTION THEFT MACHINES!

And if enough people do it, we will create sufficient panic and crisis in the election theft industry, at the state/local level, to FORCE reform NOW.

AB votes aren't "safe" either, but that's not the point. The point is to PROTEST THE MACHINES, as if they were segregated buses. DON'T USE THEM! Don't cooperate with your own oppression! And hit 'em in their pocketbooks--$3.9 billion in boondoggle money for these crapass machines, OUR MONEY right into the pockets of major Bush donors and rightwing billionaires.

STOP!

DON'T DO IT!

VOTE BY ABSENTEE BALLOT!

FLOOD election officials with MOUNTAINS of AB votes, and FORCE them to the table with our demand for TRANSPARENT vote counting, in every jurisdiction in the country. We won't get accurate vote counts this fall, but we WILL save the '08 primaries and general election from SECRET corporate vote tabulation.

The optiscans are NOT an option. They, too, are run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, and profit Bush donors and people who believe in the death penalty for homosexuals--ES&S, spinoff of Diebold, was initially funded by Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation. If you want to reward people like that, vote on the optiscans--and trust in their a nearly worthless "paper trail."

We need TOTAL REBELLION against SECRET corporate vote counting of ANY kind, and all privately controlled voting machines--touchscreens, optiscans and central tabulators!

It's all fine and good to ask the Diebold Congress to fix the problem THEY CREATED of no "paper trail" in one third of the country, and extremely insecure, unreliable and insider hackable voting systems, that are breaking down all over the landscape. But these are the same people who are going to let Bush continue to torture prisoners! You think they WANT the American people--63% of whom oppose torture "under any circumstances"--to be able to vote?

It doesn't seem likely to me. I think it's a great educational effort, and I applaud you for it. But we need a backup plan. And this is it. It's easy. Everybody can do it (most states have some form of AB voting). Best to hand-deliver it to the polling place on election day.

It's a PEOPLES' PROTEST. It bypasses Congress and the collusive Democrats, and hits the purchasers of these machines--local officials. It says: WE. WILL. NOT. VOTE. ON. THESE. MACHINES!

And when we win this one, and we've restored transparent elections, we will begin to solve all the other problems in the election system and in this country, as if by magic. Because Democracy works! Put the Iraq war to a REAL vote of the people. Put torturing prisoners to a REAL vote of the people. Put universal health care to a REAL vote of the people. Put busting up corporate monopolies to a REAL vote of the people. Give Americans a REAL voting system, and we will find, to our amazement, that we are still--despite everything that has been done to disinform and oppress us--one of the most progressive countries on earth.

Boycott the Machines! Vote Absentee!

[babsbunny]

5. How do you know they won't throw your absentee ballot in the trash????

I need to know.

[helderheid]

8. It amounts to a massive boycott of the machine that would send a powerful

message if we all vote absentee. I'm voting absentee. Besides - my vote on record is a PAPER one when I vote absentee. I will make a copy of it before I send it in as well.

[Wilms]

9. The question was:

"How do you know they won't throw your absentee ballot in the trash????"

And I'll add: What legal or PR advantage do you imagine resulting from making a copy?

[helderheid]

10. We don't know if they will throw it away just like we don't know if our

vote will count on the machines.

[Wilms]

12. So what's so great here?

While some have questioned absentee ballotting under any circumstance, I feel it could,at least, be argued for in a VVPAT-less state.

The "protest" aspect is specious, at best. Peace Patriots "mountain of paper" assertion is balderdash. Here in CA, where many jurisdiction use central count op scan so there's a mountain of paper that come in from each precinct. There is no difference to the BoE that would make them abandon e-voting.

In Riverside Cty, CA, the absentee ballots were handed to poll workers who then entered them on DRE's!

So, about this supposed protest... :eyes:

[helderheid]

18. I think it still would show that the voter has no confidence in the evote.

[Wilms]

19. How?

What's to say people won't do so because it's more convenient? Because polling "super centers" caused a travel problem?

It's a state by state - jurisdiction by jurisdiction affair. What is the equipment used? What are the procedures and regulations? What are the laws? Are absentee ballots included in any audit? (Doubt it.) Are they hand-counted? (Doubt it.) Are they entered into a DRE by a poll-worker? (Perhaps. That's already been done.) Is it a close race? (I think it was reasonable for progressives in CA to vote Nader in 2000 and unfortunate that they did so in FL. The Left needed all hands on deck there...the same deck.)

A blanket "Vote Absentee" recommendation sans consideration of the above and a legitimate campaign supporting it seems beyond futile. I think it's reckless.

Now in CO, the Dems have called on voters to vote absentee. I hope they're right. And, if successful, I expect THAT would get the point across. You see the difference, I'm sure.

Then there's VVPAT-less GA where I would have thought absentee was the answer, and yet there are conflicting reports on doing that.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it until someone, logically, dismantles it. :D

[helderheid]

21. I disagree

:shrug:

[Wilms]

22. I can't argue with such a well articulated response. n/t

[Peace Patriot]

13. Oh, they might throw it in the trash, but it's a whole lot easier for them

to make bunches of electrons disappear.

That's why they want to turn all our votes into bunches of electrons. So much easier. No fuss. No bother. Just a little TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY hacking.

I suggest some inquiries of your local registrar. What do they do with AB votes? How are they handled, stored, counted? When (also an important matter--do they "call" elections on e-votes alone)? Make them know that you are watching. Be a pest. Go there on election day. Take a video camera.

I'm not saying that AB votes are "safe." They are no "safer" than an optiscan vote, in many cases (and optiscan votes are very riggable). That's not the point. The point is to NOT TOUCH THEIR GODDAMNED MACHINES. Don't cooperate! Boycott! Protest! The best method is to hand deliver your AB vote in person at the polling place on election day (if possible--check local rules). Or mail it registered/return receipt requested, or by Fed Ex--to insure that it got delivered. You could also send a separate letter to your registrar/sec of state/media demanding TRANSPARENT elections--no secret code anywhere in the system!

And, I'm sorry, Wilms, but if 60% to 70% of the voters REFUSE TO VOTE ON THESE MACHINES, the fools who bought them have a very serious problem--a problem of credibility, the problem of a massive citizen "vote of no confidence" against them, a problem of the foolishness of their BAD INVESTMENT in machines that people won't vote on, and a problem of exposure of their corruption and removal from office.

Did the Montgomery Bus Boycott solve segregation, all by itself? It did not. It was ONE METHOD of public pressure used, and a cry of protest that resonated through society.

That's what I want to see this November--a definitive ACTION by the citizens in PROTEST of these extremely insecure and insider hackable machines, run by BUSHITE CORPORATIONS, counting all our votes IN SECRET. A cry of protest that resonates through society, and jump-starts reform.

[Wilms]

17. What are you talking about?

They DO use machines to handle absentee votes. (A fact you consistently ignore.)

In fact, in Riverside Cty they used DRE's to count Absentee votes. (Another fact you consistently ignore.)

Here's what you MAY accomplish in addition to help making it easier to steal an election:

1. Provide a rationale to eliminate precinct-based OpScan (the best of the worst).

2. The closure of polling places.

Nice going, PP.

So the BoE's will interpret an increase in absentee voting as a mandate on which to eliminate e-voting?

How? :eyes:

[Wilms]

6. I see the drugs haven't worn off yet. n/t

[helderheid]

7. Recommended!

[Raffi Ella]

11. Well I'll be damned...

It's finally starting to happen...Thanks for the update Brad.

K&R

[bleever]

14. They're playing defense now at Diebold. That's a good sign.

The free market may decide this issue, thanks to all the people wanting to know if the machines are reliable enough to even be legal.

:thumbsup:

[EFerrari]

15. K&R Thanks, Brad.

[leftchick]

16. CNN did a great short segment today on e voting issues

They showed the Gov. of Maryland demanding paper ballots and tackled a few others in the short amount of time. This needs to be covered in depth for an hour long segment at least! People need to know the truth about their vote! Go Brad!!!

[texpatriot2004]

20. K & R for Transparent Democracy nm