In his plea to Clinton, Edwards, Gravel, Kucinich, and Obama, Adams argued this point:
In case you are not aware, Article II, § 1 of the Constitution of South Carolina states, "the ballots shall not be counted in secret." No one can see a computer count, and therefore, computers count in secret and using computers to count votes in secret violates South Carolina's Constitution!
Will you take legal action in South Carolina to require that its upcoming Presidential primary is conducted in a manner which complies with the plain language expressed in South Carolina's Constitution and with all Americans' rights to make sure that our votes are counted accurately? Will you take action, or will you stand by and allow our votes to be counted in the equivalent of a secret smoky back room? Complete set of Mark Adams letters to the candidates.
Democrats Say No Go but Paul Supporters Know the Score
The letters informed, but they didn't move any Democratic candidates to file suit for injunctive relief. There was real interest among Paul supporters in South Carolina. In general, the Paul campaign watches the voting process closely and with a skeptical eye.
In South Carolina, there were anecdotal reports of sudden increases in precinct vote counts at the last minute impacting Paul's votes and after the fact reductions in vote totals for their candidate. But a Paul suit to stop a Democratic primary lacked the weight necessary for a serious hearing.
Will South Carolina remind Obama of New Hampshire? Image
Faith in the False Idol of Voting Technology
When voting machines are sold, the manufactures include a privacy clause that prevents in depth inspection of the machine software and methods of operation. You can buy it but the only people who can look inside are manufacturer representatives.
Kim Zetter of Wired Magazine reported on a comprehensive study done for Ohio on the iVotronic touch screens, the very machines everywhere in South Carolina. She noted that "the ES&S tabulation system and the voting machine firmware were rife with basic buffer overflow vulnerabilities that would allow an attacker to easily take control of the systems and 'exercise complete control over the results reported by the entire county election system.'"
The study discovered that a hacker with just an infrared enabled Palm Pilot or cell phone can hack any of these voting machines with infrared ports. Once in, the hacker could alter memory, "ballot handling," and manipulate other machine processes.
This news should have rocked the nation given the presence of touch screens in almost every state.
The iVotronic machines are the very same voting equipment that dropped a carefully estimated 14,000 votes for just one candidate for Congress in Florida's 13th Congressional district in 2006. The problem was characterized as "machine malfunction" in the election contest filed with Congress in behalf of Democratic candidate Christine Jennings. Apparently, this was the type of "malfunction" that produces consistent results in just one direction, for just one candidate.
Maybe these recurring problems and design concerns are the reason voting machine vendors are reluctant to guarantee their products. Zero Guarantee from Vendors for Voting System's Performance, P. Lehto)
Will Common Sense and the Law Prevail?
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