Computer glitches plague US voters (UK's Guardian)

[eek]

Computer glitches plague US voters

Associated Press in San Francisco
Wednesday March 3, 2004

Frozen screens and malfunctioning computers plagued some voters who tried to cast electronic ballots in yesterday's "Super Tuesday" contests to win the Democratic nomination for this year's US presidential elections.

Experts predicted such problems will be repeated on a national scale in November's presidential election.
(snip)

Electronic voting got its biggest test so far in the United States as 10 states cast ballots in primaries and caucuses yesterday.

Election officials blamed improperly trained poll workers, especially in counties that recently switched from antiquated punch-card and lever systems to touch-screen terminals. "There have been a few human errors, which you have in any election," said Linda Lamone, Maryland election laws administrator.


(snip)
Some computer scientists say electronic systems expose elections to hackers, software bugs and power cuts. Critics say that because most electronic voting terminals do not produce paper records, there is no way to ensure accurate recounts.

more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1161154,00.html


Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

[JaySherman]

1. There have been a few "human errors?"

I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't process that Democratic ballot.


:scared:

[short bus president]

2. This Linda Lamone is a piece of work

Her two statements yesterday on the primary in Maryland are at odds with one another:

A morning http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=562&ncid=703&e=3&u=/ap/20040302/ap_on_hi_te/e_voting_s_biggest_test">Yahoo article says:

"One Maryland polling place had to switch to paper ballots Tuesday because its new electronic voting machines didn't work. State elections supervisor Linda Lamone said technicians expected to have the problem fixed quickly."

While an afternoon CNET article says:

"'We had no equipment failures at all,' Linda Lamone, Maryland's elections administrator, said in an interview Tuesday afternoon."

So which is it, Linda? I would consider "machines didn't work" to be a significant "equipment failure," wouldn't you?

[JaySherman]

3. First I've heard of this Linda Lamone.

She sounds like a first-class, grade-A nitwit.

[Nightjock]

4. I am scared s***less

Hi. I'm new to this site. I am a converted Republican who is embarrassed to say I voted against Bill Clinton twice before "seeing the light" back in 1998.


The issue of these voting machines owned by Bush supporters that work with no paper trail scares the hell out of me!!!
They stole one election and lied to go to war..why not steal another election?
Could someone who is level headed and informed PLEASE ease my fear whether this is a REAL CONCERN or just some of my paranoid fellow Dem's?

I was starting to feel really good about Kerry's chances and our country finally pulling out of this Bush-Fascism-tailspin and now I am worried sick.

I would appreciate if anyone could enlighten me one way or another on this issue.

[Cronus Protagonist]

5. Try these sites

A primer: http://cronus.com/electionfraud

The current sitch: http://blackboxvoting.org

... enjoy :(

"FCUK BUSH" Buttons, Stickers & Magnets

[JohnOneillsMemory]

6. Remember no exit polling in 2002? Now you know why.

And since you're new to the site, allow me to give you a healthy fear. Y'know, the kind that makes you look before crossing the road:

Religion is the biggest arrow in the quiver of the Culture War to hijack control of the biggest weapon on the planet, the US government. Television is a close second for filling the collective American mind with manipulative fearmongering. Combined, they are a 24/7 Nuremberg rally of adrenalin and endorphins, a daily drip of red-white-and-blue indoctri-Nation-alism.

'THE CHOSEN FEW' IS BEING MORPHED INTO 'THE MASTER RACE'
THE SAME WAY 'GET OSAMA' WAS MORPHED INTO 'GET SADDAM'! GET IT?

We are living in the closing minutes of a religious culture war that the American Taliban, called Dominionists, are winning.
The US Constitution (of-by-for the people) is being gutted and replaced with the Bible (Divine Right of Kings.)

This is the basic model of this religion-fueled fascism:
Supreme Dictator Smiting Evil-doers Wrathfully Without Legal Restraints. Sound familar?
Yup. George W. Bush as the American Ayatollah.

The inflammation of the old anti-semitic, anti-homosexual, anti-abortion, and anti-porn 'passions' is cover for a very real and documented campaign to make this country into a Hitlerian theocracy fueled by fundamentalist Christian religious passions called 'Dominionism.'

It’s teachings are the opposite of those of Jesus Christ.
Wealth=virtue/Poverty=sin, Monarchy=Success/Democracy=failure. Killing=justice/Peace=danger.
It is totally Orwellian and some animals are definitely more equal than others.

'Might Makes Right' is WINNING over 'The Rule of Law.'
We are experiencing the return of Eugenics (elimination of the 'weak') in our government's policies that looks very much like the old systems of feudalism, slavery and holocaust.
Have you noticed the body-count in the last three years with no end in sight?


Georgie's brain is much worse than you think and he's being used for terrible purposes. Here's a British clinical psychologist's researched analysis of the boy king. He interviewed Georgie's family, friends and such and determined that he was abused as a child and developed an 'authoritarian personality,' the root of fascism. Read it and weep for him and us.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1033904,00.html
(So George, how do you feel about your mom and dad?)-CLICK

And this personality is being exploited to further the creation of a Hitlerian Theocracy called ‘Dominionism’, which has been going on in this country for the last thirty years. Read it and wonder what the hell we're in for next now that Eugenics is domestic policy and Imperialism is foreign policy.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_5160.shtml
(God Bless America, The Constitution is Dead)-CLICK

If you'd like to read the full speech of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia back in the dark ages of January 2002 when he said that 'democracy interferes with the Divine Right of Kings and he's doing something about it,' read this and wonder what century we're living in and just what that Constitution was for, anyway.
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/scalia.htm
(God's Justice and Ours)-CLICK

Eugenics, isn’t that a little dramatic? Social conditions have not improved in the United States since 1980.
Using data from the UN and World Bank, researcher Richard Estes created an Index of Social Progress that
Takes into account health, education, human rights, political participation, population growth, the status of women, cultural diversity, ‘freedom from social chaos’, military spending, and environmental protection.
In a list that included 163 countries, the United States ranked 27th. Estes, who has researched world social development for 30 years, found the pace of social development to be "on hold" since 1980, putting the U.S. on the same level as Poland and Slovenia in the current "report card.” Yet the US ‘defense’ budget is the size of the next 15 largest in the world combined.
(US Ranks 27th in World Social Progress)-CLICK.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-07/uop-ur2071703.php

How can they get away with it when everyone seems to be pissed off at Georgie and we're supposed to be able to vote the bastard out of our White House? By fixing the electronic voting machines for 'the House.' Read this and decide which country to escape to this fall when Georgie is reinstalled, like a 'Manchurian Candidate' to finish the job he was sent to do-eliminate democracy, create a police state, and conquer the world as Superman Jesus in a Cowboy Hat.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
(Diebold, Electonic Voting, and the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy)-CLICK

LATE BREAKING NEWS-FEB. 26 2004
Right now the Dominionists are introducing legislation to replace 'The People' as the authority in our democracy’s Constitution with ‘God’ in a bill called ‘The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004,’ exactly the opposite of what it really is, just like the Patriot Act, the Help America Vote Act, the Leave No Child Behind Act, and the Clear Skies Act. The legalities of the Christian Theocracy are being used to destroy our laws as if by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

This is not a test! It is absolutely real and happening right now while the media are busy covering gay marriage and Mel Gibson’s bloody crucifixion porn film, ‘The Passion of the Christ.’

“…on February 11 , 2004 Dominionist leaders in congress made their move; they introduced a bill in both houses called The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004. Among the sponsors of the bill are Rep. Robert Aderholt (Alabama), Rep. Michael Pence (Indiana), Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, Sen. Zell Miller (Georgia), Sen. Sam Brownback (Kansas), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (South Carolina).

The House version is H.R. 3799 and the Senate version is S. 2082. The bill limits the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts to hear cases involving “expressions of religious faith by elected or appointed officials.”

Although the claim by its sponsors appears to be that the intention is to prevent the courts from hearing cases involving the Ten Commandments or a Nativity Scene in a public setting from being reviewed, the law is drawn broadly and expressly includes the acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law by an official in his capacity of executing his office.”

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0402/S00172.htm
(The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004)-CLICK

[htuttle]

7. That's an excellent question

Well, from a merely technical/procedural standpoint, it is a very real concern. From this standpoint, it doesn't matter if somebody has ever used these machines to sway an election, nor does it matter whether they intend to do so.

What matters is that they are vulnerable to tampering/subversion, and that needs to be fixed before they should be used in an election, whether or not this has already happened, or is planned to happen.

And then there's the other question: Have these machines been used to steal an election ALREADY, and/or is there a plan to do so in the future.

I will say that it is very easily possible that there was election machine tampering in Georgia's 2002 midterm elections. There are inconsistencies that can be pointed to that need answering/addressing. EVEN if you feel that the proposition that our elections are already subverted is too 'far out' based on available evidence, the point is that the suspicion seriously damages the credibility of our elections -- whether it can be concretely proven (as in a court) at this point or not.

The first step of the solution to both possibilities is the same: Stop using these machines. Barring that, there is legislation in progress to attempt to at least require that they print out a paper BALLOT to allow for meaningful recounts. (perhaps a more BBV-up-to-date person can post what bill number it is -- I can't remember at the moment).

If the lock on your front door was not working, you'd replace it whether or not you thought someone was sneaking into your house. It's a bad lock, so should be fixed. It's the same with these machines -- they are like bad locks. We don't have to wait for a proven burglary before we do something about it.