Experts across the country, from Princeton to MIT, have found serious security flaws in these electronic voting systems forced on us by HAVA (Help American "Vendors" Act). We citizens were forced to pay private corporations $3.8 billion to privatize our elections. "Privatize" in this case means the vote count is kept secret from public observation. Electronic voting systems are unfit for use in any democracy.
There are 120 ways to hack the vote on a computer; there are 5 ways to hack a Hand-Counted Paper Ballot system. See the resource list below for links to these reports. At the very least, please read the executive summaries.
Election integrity is a non partisan issue. Republican Governor of Maryland, Bob Ehrlich, estimated electronic voting represents a 1000% increase in cost. HCPB is the most accurate, the most secure and by far the least expensive voting system.
We must return to a citizen count of paper ballots, at the precinct, before all who wish to observe. To participate in a Parallel Election being run in Central Ohio, contact me or my cohort, Marj Creech, at risenregan @ earthlink.net.
Ten percent of the nation will vote in the midterm elections without a paper trail. We have no basis for confidence in reported results of any election held on a paperless electronic system, because we can't count electrons. We simply have to trust politicians.
But, I assure you, a paper trail is useless unless it overturns official results when anomalies surface. In August, San Diego learned Ohio's lesson, if not "legally" blocked, at best recounts are meaningless. There, election officials charged $150,000 to count 164,000 ballots. To give this perspective, 04 Ohio Recounters paid $113,000 to count 5 million ballots. And Blackwell certified the Electors before the recount even occurred!
Audits and recounts aren't placebos; they're supposed to determine election results.
To remove citizen oversight completely, the San Diego Superior Court ruled in August that from here on out, Congress determines the outcome of federal elections - even if the election violated state and federal laws, even if the state didn't certify the election. So now we know how we stand come November. Want to recount a federal election now? Got a half million dollars for attorney fees, with no guarantee of being allowed to do so? http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3353 and http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/hl0608/s00338.htm
Democide, the death of democracy, is fully supported by our judicial system, starting on 12/12/00 when the US Supreme Court halted the recount that the news media later confirmed would have given Gore the presidency. Our public servants seem to have forgotten their place in a democracy. Elections belong to the people - not courts, not politicians, and certainly not corporations.
"But what about auditing these machines?" you ask. Audits are as effective as baby aspirin is for a migraine.
AS to TouchScreen (DREs), to audit, we are to be comparing what is produced inside the machine with what is produced (or reproduced with no oversight) inside the machine. Malicious software can report whatever results it wants to report.
As to Optical Scan machines that do use a paper ballot, if we only audit 1, or 3, or 10% of the electronic ballots, then we can only be confident in 1, 3 or 10% of the results. That is simply not enough to conclusively determine the results of an election. There is no reasonably certain result from counting only 10% of the ballots. Do I pass an exam if I only answer 10% of the questions?
Elections, audits, and recounts are all run by politicians who stand to benefit by the outcome. Do I get to grade my own paper, too?
Boards of Election do not appreciate citizen oversight, in San Diego, nor in Ohio. Ask any of 150 citizens who have been trying to study the 04 records in Ohio. Public servants have forgotten they serve the people, and their attitude ensures our distrust of official results and official audits.
And then to have our Chief Election Officer counting the vote of his own election? This is absurd; this is fascism.
And this is why those citizens who believe in democracy (demos = people; kracy = government) are running Parallel Elections. We want to know how our precinct voted. It only takes about 10 people and $100 to run an election for 500 voters. Ohio has over 11,000 precincts; pick one.
In 2004, Rady Ananda began contributing to the Web, as part of the growing community of citizen journalists. Focusing mainly on elections, her blogs also address religious, gender, sexual and racial equality, as well as environmental issues; and are sprinkled with book and film reviews on various topics. She currently serves as a senior editor at OpEdNews.
All material offered here is the property of Rady Ananda, copyright 2006, 2007, 2008. Permission is granted to repost, with proper attribution including the original link.
"It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies." ~ Noam Chomsky http://www.wisdomquotes.com/001925.html
To modify my paragraph that starts with "As to Optical Scan machines" the reason we cannot trust audits (of anything less than 100%) is that Boards of Election across the country have proven they are unwilling or unable to "randomly" select precincts for audit. "Random" means each precinct has an equal chance of being pulled for an audit.
The lack of randomness invalidates the results of any audit or recount (of anything less than 100%). Precincts can be chosen BECAUSE they will match official results, allowing election riggers to hide their actions.
Boards of election across the country have also shown an unwillingness to open their records for public inspection, and many resent citizen oversight. Exorbitant fees are charged to discourage records requests and recounts.
Public officials have forgotten they serve the public and their attitude ensures our lack of trust in them or what they show us.
Public officials have created an environment of secrecy; election officials routinely violate election laws; and courts support and protect them from prosecution. In this environment, we can only trust election results from a 100% hand count of paper ballots.
by
Rady Ananda (80 articles, 219 quicklinks, 17 diaries, 572 comments)
on Monday, October 2, 2006 at 4:01:13 PM
