Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman: The Globalization of Electronic Election Theft

[kpete]

Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman: The Globalization of Electronic Election Theft
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Fri, 05/11/2007 - 10:42am. Guest Contribution
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

From Ohio and California to Scotland and France, the disputes surrounding electronic voting machines have gone truly global.

E-voting machines have already been extensively studied and condemned by a wide range of expert committees, commissions, and colleges, including the General Accountability Office, the Carter-Baker Commission, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, and Stanford University. Rigging of a recount in Cleveland has resulted in two felony convictions. The failures of e-voting machines have been the subject of numerous documentary films, including the aptly titled HBO special "Hacking Democracy."

Now the secretaries of state in Ohio and California are subjecting e-voting to still more official review. Ohio's Jennifer Brunner has announced she'll seek bids to conduct independent studies of both touchscreen machines, which record votes electronically, and optical scanners, which tabulate paper ballots electronically.

Brunner has already removed the entire board of elections of Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) in part because of a major fiasco caused by new electronic machines in the state's 2006 primary election. Voting rights activists vehemently opposed the $20 million purchase, but Board Chair Robert Bennett and Executive Director Michael Vu rammed it through.

more at:
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2007/2585

[loyalkydem]

1. Too bad

That this couldn't happened before the 2004 elections. Maybe we have a new president.

[Joanne98]

2. There was a heroic effort by activists to stop the machines before 2004

But a paper trail bill was bottled up in committe by Bob Ney. The dems were in denial too. Welcome to DU!

[Stevepol]

3. Welcome KY Dem, stick around the ERD if you haven't already been lurking.

Eventually, we'll get our democracy back.

When the votes are counted in total secrecy without verification, it's impossible to have a democracy.

[diva77]

4. why don't they commission a study of the feasibility of hand counted paper ballots

instead of perseverating with this multibillion dollar albatross hanging around the nation's neck:mad: