MUST READ! - E-VOTING 2006: The Approaching Train Wreck

[BradBlog]

The following piece linked below is an absolute MUST READ by BRAD BLOG Guest Blogger John Gideon of VotersUnite.org, no matter how much you already know, or don't, or think you do about the state of our Elections in 2006! Please read, link and/or disseminate this piece! The warning signs here have never been plainer. Please take note. -- Brad

E-VOTING 2006: The Approaching Train Wreck
Our Elections are Now Officially 'A National Disaster in the Making'
A MUST READ GUEST EDITORIAL BY JOHN GIDEON OF VOTERSUNITE.ORG

Normally this space is taken with my ideas of what are the "Top 5" voting news stories for the week. Today I am going to use this space to talk about what I see as the beginning of a disaster in the making with our elections. This isn't the election fraud that some point to when they talk about the vendors and some elections officials. It's not about recounts or audits. This is a real, get your hands around it, happening problem that will disrupt our election process if we do not do something about it now. While we have been involved in all of our issues about Direct Recording Electronic (DRE or "touch-screen") voting machines or paper ballots the electronic voting machine vendors have been wreaking complete havoc across the country.

So far this year two states have conducted primary elections. In Texas there is at least one candidate who has stepped forward and has challenged the election because of anomalies in vote counts and known voting machine failures. One county's machines counted some votes up to 6 times which resulted in approximately 100,000 more votes being counted than were cast. Though the vendor, Hart Intercivic, initially blamed the problem on human error, they finally had to admit that it was a programming error and not poll workers or voters who had erred. In Illinois some county officials are threatening to withhold final payment of funds on contracts with Sequoia Voting Systems because of failures with their machines that ended with results in the primary not being known for over a week after the voters went to the polls. In both states the involved vendors were very successful in the media with deflecting the blame from their machines to "human errors" or "glitches". However, when you listen to people who were there and who saw and worked through the problems you get a very different picture...

COMPLETE EDITORIAL: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002673.htm

[Richard Steele]

1. Kicked and recommended.

[CatWoman]

2. YES

:kick:

[mopinko]

3. minor picky point

the illinois body threatening to withhold payment is the city of chicago. more here..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=421873&mesg_id=421873

[nofurylike]

12. ty posting this link. "i say, just go back to pencil and paper." yes! eom

[rucky]

4. They can't say they weren't warned...

when they gave these clowns the contracts in the first place.

I hope this leads to state litigation on the scale of Big Tobacco.

[In Truth We Trust]

5. Paper ballots and Hand counts NOW!!! Democracy NOW!!!

[nofurylike]

9. absolutely. eom

[never_get_over_it]

6. Electroninc voting

is absolutely the number one issue in this country - and I know alot of people are hoping that the Dems will take over one or both Houses of Congress. I truly believe it will not happen and I believe that key races all across this country will be stolen. Although many wonderful people are working this I have yet to hear any Democratic leader address this issue - closest we came was when Barbara Boxer challenged the OH vote in 2004 and of course all the great work of John Conyers - and the repunks answer to these charges - anyone making them is a tin foil hat Michael More nut case.

I think the only way we can be sure of a fair election in November is a paper ballot and hand counting. I know alot of folks think if we just win by big enough numbers they can't steal it - well I don't believe that for a moment - if they flip votes it doesn't matter if you are ahead by 100 votes or 200,000 votes - especially when so few "officials" will challenge the results and there is no paper trail

Case in point wasn't there funny business in Ohio's November election on voting reforms - wasn't the result almost exactly opposite of the pre-election polls - didn't "liberals" do really well that day in CA and in PA - and guess what when someone raised this as an issue to Bernie Sanders - on the Thom Hartmann show - Bernie's response was we can't go saying there was something wrong with the elections just because we lose - now if we get a response like that from Bernie Sanders - who in hell holding political office will stand up on this issue.

[nofurylike]

11. yes. well said. sadly, so true. eom

[CrispyQ]

18. Once the entire country is red

will the dems step up & challenge electronic voting? Of course, that won't happen. They'll keep enough DLC dems in office so the public sees enough dems to override their questions of election integrity.

My repuke mother told me to "just get over it" regarding the stolen 2000 election. If Hillary won under such dubious circumstances I know she would not "just get over it."

[drfresh]

7. K & R the clock is ticking - nt

[BradBlog]

8. Thank you for kicking...and recommending (NT)

[nofurylike]

10. k&r&scream. thank you for posting this info, Brad. eom

[helderheid]

22. .

[autorank]

13. "Train wreck" may be too mild--many negative forces in motion. Fight back

At the risk of sounding negative, 2006 is shaping up to be a giant train wreck.

I've heard th is and said it for a few weeks now...too much news reading for the daily thread.

CA Registration Database -- rejecting 25% to 43% of registrants.

FL Registration Database (felon purge of up to 50k in 2000; attempt to do the same in 2004 but caught; you just know they'll do the same in 2006)

IN Wow, check this out --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=417795&mesg_id=417796


Detailed coverage of what a disaster this is.

Not all states have these problems. Why these states -- Uh, they ALL have Republican Governors and Republican Secretaries of State.

There are more on the centralized registration databases but that's not all...by a long shot.

TouchScreens are out there en masse, thanks to the "bi partisan" Help America Vote Act.

WE NEED TO THINK ABOUT HOT TO PREVENT AS MUCH OF THIS AS WE CAN AND HOT TO RESPOND POLITICALLY AFTER THE FACT IF IT MATERIALIZES. (Legal responses will be very difficult).

I HOPE IT DOESN'T BUT IT'S A BIT NAIVE TO THINK THAT IT WON'T AT THIS POINT.

Recommended, the post and www.BradBlog.Com

PS. Imagine the Democrats doing better than they do now in the polls and imagine * and the Republican candidates doing worse...ok, got that,

NOT IMAGINE THE REPUBLICANS RETAINING CONTROL OF BOTH HOUSES.

COULD BE, WE'LL SEE. KEEP WORKING.

[Amaryllis]

23. Actually, Auto, many states are having these problems, even .

those that DON'T have Republican Governors and Republican Secretaries of State.
Even Oregon has a problem wiht ES&S trying to change contract terms for the Automark at the last minute because they can't deliver. OR was going to use the Automark to meet the HAVA disability requirement; the only one that complies with OR law since it uses a paper ballot, and ES&S says they can't meet the contract terms. So now OR is suing ES&S for breach of contract. John Gideon's whole point with this article is that, because of HAVA requirements, the vendors have entered into contracts far beyond what they can provide or service.


And, the repub gov of MD is calling for ditching Diebold and going to all paper, while the Dem director of elections, Linda Lamone, is still touting the virtues of Diebold to the press, including actually spouting lies about how great Diebold is. Brad has covered this.

The good thing, if there is a good thing, about this issue John brings up in this article is that it's something that affects ALL parties, not just Dems.

We need a major call to action to alert our reps and senators to this info in JOhn's article, at a state level as well as national; certainly anyone we know who is running for office needs to be alerted, and this is factual info that should be much easier to sell to the media than election fraud. The facts are right there in black and white and are not debatable. Can't chalk this up to conspiracy theories or sore losers. And this stuff will affect all parties.

[SeattleGirl]

14. Read, kicked, and recommended

Great article. Scary too.

[liberalla]

15. Thanks for posting this--I need to finish reading it tomorrow!

[annabanana]

16. Last Week. . . KKKarl Rove, in front of a bunch of Repug

lawyers (it was on CSPAN.. can someone identify which repug lawyers?)

He was crowing about the fact that GWB has made nearly 1/3 of all the current appointments to the district court benches...

AND he made noises about control of the "out of control" election process...

This little speech was scarier than anything I've seen this guy do. EVER.

[helderheid]

21. missed that - EEGADS!

[annabanana]

24. Just knowing that voting fraud is on KKKarl's radar

makes me nervous. If suits are brought in districts where they have a judge-in-the-hole, what chance to we have to challenge results?

[helderheid]

25. no chance. UGH!!!!

[leftchick]

17. you can count a pen and paper vote in a day!

damn I hate these damn machines!!! :argh:

[genieroze]

19. Kick

[helderheid]

20. I just emailed this to my lists as well as Helen Thomas

Oh, someone should send it to KO

[Amaryllis]

26. Why is this happening?

"Why is this happening? It is very apparent that some of the voting machine vendors over-extended their ability to meet their contracts for machines and for ancillary services like paper ballot printing. These companies saw an opportunity to make a lot of money at the expense of the tax payers and they saw a deadline of 1 January 2006 that fit right in with their plans to get as much money as possible this year. The vendors are raking in the money through deceptive practices and shoddy workmanship."

and democracy is the sacrificial lamb.