BBV: Giant front page of SUNDAY San Jose Mercury News

[Newsjock]

Look at that! It cannot be ignored! Read the main story here:

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/7849090.htm

Poll workers in Alameda County noticed something strange on election night in October. As a computer counted absentee ballots in the recall race, workers were stunned to see a big surge in support for a fringe candidate named John Burton.

Concerned that their new $12.7 million Diebold electronic voting system had developed a glitch, election officials turned to a company representative who happened to be on hand.

Lucky he was there. For an unknown reason, the computerized tally program had begun to award votes for Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante to Burton, a socialist from Southern California.

Similar mishaps have occurred across the country since election officials embraced electronic voting in the wake of the Florida vote-counting debacle of 2000.

more

[gristy]

1. nice to see!

[Eric J in MN]

2. When you see an article on BBV which doesn't mention Voter Confidence Act

When you see an article on BBV which doesn't mention Voter Confidence Act (HR2239 in the US House and S1980 in the US Senate) please write the reporter or send a letter-to-the-editor about this bill.

Praise the article first, but explain that readers may feel like they can do nothing about a problem described in an article unless a bill's name and number is provided. Providing that information gives people information they can use to contact Congress.

By the way, this also applies to articles on issues unrelated to BBV which don't mention relevant bills in Congress. by name and number.

[Eloriel]

3. The Merc has been one of the best publications

on this issue all along. Good for them!

[leftchick]

4. Law Suits Anyone?!?

Woo Hoo! This is a great article..... it seems there should be a few lawsuits against Diebold for using uncertified software at the very least....

<As the black box replaces the ballot box, concern is growing that local officials are becoming dependent on a handful of corporations to guarantee the integrity and accuracy of elections.

Counties, including Santa Clara County, rely on these voting-equipment companies to manage the software that runs digital voting machines and counts electronic votes -- and to fix things when they go wrong on election night. The companies, however, consider such software a trade secret, making independent confirmation of contested elections difficult, if not impossible.

To guard against error and fraud, the state requires that the companies only install approved software on electronic voting machines. But in California, one of the biggest voting-equipment companies, Diebold Election Systems, provided 17 counties with uncertified software that was used in recent elections.>

[dusty64]

5. Great, I hope.

I will have to read the entire article later and see.