Therefore, depending on the number of votes cast on the Diebold touch-screen system's so-called "voter verified paper trail" printer there is no way to know if the results are valid.
If state, county or Diebold officials tell you otherwise, if they say that they can prove with certainty which of the two candidates actually won yesterday without a full, manual hand-recount of all paper ballots and paper "trails", they are lying. Plain and simple. They cannot do so.
A complete, manual hand-count of all such paper ballots and "paper trail" records is the only way to know for certain. And then, only if the number of votes cast on the touch-screen systems is smaller than the number of votes separating the two candidates after all of the optical-scan paper ballots have been counted manually. If the margin separating the two after the op-scan ballots are counted is smaller than the number of votes cast on the touch-screens, there is no way of knowing who the winner of the race truly is.
That is all thanks to Diebold's purposely horrendous design of both the hardware and software used in these machines, and Sec. of State Bruce McPherson's willingness to certify the machines for use anyway in this state even after the results of his own report confirmed the vulnerabilities described.
Ultimately, this is precisely what is wrong with using electronic voting machines of these types, tested in secret (barely), by testing labs which are selected and paid for by the voting machines vendors themselves, which employ secret software to both record and count the votes, as written and run by those same private companies for use in our public elections.
As long as our public officials continue to defy the will and best interests of the citizenry and our democracy by allowing private, partisan -- and even foreign-run -- companies who are accountable to no one, to hijack our electoral system, American democracy will be lost. Period.
The Busby campaign has already issued a concession, and we have so far been unable to reach anyone who can speak for the campaign to comment on this matter. A concession, however, is just a nicety with no official meaning. Busby should not concede anything until all of the ballots and "paper trails" in the race are counted by hand in the 50th district.
Yesterday, Lou Dobbs reported on CNN that, "The security of our elections and the integrity of our democracy is in jeopardy."
The day before he told CNN viewers that elections officials have "no concept" of "whether or not they can assure us that this election in mid-terms in nearly every state is accurate and verifiable."
The conservative Dobbs, certainly no "moonbat leftie" or "sour grapes conspiracy theorist", described the electoral crisis we are now facing in this country as an "outright threat to our democracy, to the integrity of our voting system, and to our elections process."
He's exactly right. And the integrity of that system has been violated nearly beyond repair as exemplified by last night's important election in San Diego.
Here we go again? You betcha. Is this what we want in our American elections? Questions about the validity of every single race from here on out? Because that is precisely where we are now at.
So now who is going to do anything about it?
Originally published on Bradblog.com
If state, county or Diebold officials tell you otherwise, if they say that they can prove with certainty which of the two candidates actually won yesterday without a full, manual hand-recount of all paper ballots and paper "trails", they are lying. Plain and simple. They cannot do so.
A complete, manual hand-count of all such paper ballots and "paper trail" records is the only way to know for certain. And then, only if the number of votes cast on the touch-screen systems is smaller than the number of votes separating the two candidates after all of the optical-scan paper ballots have been counted manually. If the margin separating the two after the op-scan ballots are counted is smaller than the number of votes cast on the touch-screens, there is no way of knowing who the winner of the race truly is.
That is all thanks to Diebold's purposely horrendous design of both the hardware and software used in these machines, and Sec. of State Bruce McPherson's willingness to certify the machines for use anyway in this state even after the results of his own report confirmed the vulnerabilities described.
As long as our public officials continue to defy the will and best interests of the citizenry and our democracy by allowing private, partisan -- and even foreign-run -- companies who are accountable to no one, to hijack our electoral system, American democracy will be lost. Period.
The Busby campaign has already issued a concession, and we have so far been unable to reach anyone who can speak for the campaign to comment on this matter. A concession, however, is just a nicety with no official meaning. Busby should not concede anything until all of the ballots and "paper trails" in the race are counted by hand in the 50th district.
Yesterday, Lou Dobbs reported on CNN that, "The security of our elections and the integrity of our democracy is in jeopardy."
The day before he told CNN viewers that elections officials have "no concept" of "whether or not they can assure us that this election in mid-terms in nearly every state is accurate and verifiable."
The conservative Dobbs, certainly no "moonbat leftie" or "sour grapes conspiracy theorist", described the electoral crisis we are now facing in this country as an "outright threat to our democracy, to the integrity of our voting system, and to our elections process."
He's exactly right. And the integrity of that system has been violated nearly beyond repair as exemplified by last night's important election in San Diego.
Here we go again? You betcha. Is this what we want in our American elections? Questions about the validity of every single race from here on out? Because that is precisely where we are now at.
So now who is going to do anything about it?
Originally published on Bradblog.com
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