Red flags raised on voting machines

[DoYouEverWonder]

December 1, 2006

<snip>

Call for paper record

On Friday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who is scheduled to become chairwoman of the committee that oversees federal elections, announced that she plans to hold hearings into the security and reliability of electronic voting machines.

She also plans to file legislation requiring an independent paper record of every ballot.

“As we’ve seen in Sarasota, Florida, where officials have been unable to account for about 18,000 undervotes in the congressional election, it is crucial that there be an independent record that can be reviewed by election officials,” Feinstein said in a statement.

Other lawmakers, including New Jersey Democrat Rep. Rush Holt, are also revving up their calls for a paper trail.

The calls for more voting reform are reminiscent of Congress’ rush to outlaw punch cards and lever systems after the 2000 presidential election debacle. But critics of electronic machines say federal and state elections officials were too quick after 2000 to embrace the technology without considering that those voting methods had their own vulnerabilities.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/12/01/State/Red_flags_raised_on_v.shtml


If they had used Paper Ballots (not a paper trail) none of this would even be an issue. Feinstein needs to learn the difference.

[PurityOfEssence]

1. This is why they destroyed Kevin Shelley

He would be in office today had he not fought against the Diebold machines. All charges brought against him have been dismissed and derided as political crap.

[Morgana LaFey]

10. I'm glad to hear that -- what I'm not glad about is

that there was no one to stand up for him when he needed it, and needed it badly. For shame, CA Democrats, for shame. And national Democrats as well.

[Peace Patriot]

2. Good luck to us all, educating Diane ("You too can learn to love the

Corporate Rulers") Feinstein.

She knows.

-----------

In response to PurityOfEssence's comment:

I learned two things from the Kevin Shelley "swiftboating": 1) that many of our Democratic Party leaders are dirty on this issue; and 2) how desperate the rightwing is to have these Bushite corporations "counting" all our votes with TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code.

A paper trail (and even a real paper ballot backup) is not enough. These criminal, lying, secrecy-addicted, BUSHITE corporations need to be completely removed from any involvement in our election system. Because they will use any loophole (and you can be sure Sen. Feinstein has half a dozen of them up her sleeve) to continue to control our election results.

[dmosh42]

3. Oregon method

I believe it was in Oregon that people use a mail ballot? Some DUers from Oregon( I think) posted that about a month ago. The whole thing goes off very smoothly.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. yep, we did...

and yep, it does. :)

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. How do they verify

the id of the person who fills out the ballot?


In FL, this is a big problem because the GOP combs the lists of absentee voters, then they get their ballots and vote for them.

[NMDemDist2]

6. the signature on the ballot has to match the signature on the registration

card

[w4rma]

7. Paper *ballots*, not paper records, Sen. Feinstein. (nt)

[texpatriot2004]

8. K & R for Transparent Democracy nm

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. who the hell came up with the silly "undervote" label?

It is not an undervote. IT IS A MISSING VOTE!

Undervote my ass. This is newspeak from 1984.

[Joe Chi Minh]

11. Spot on and well said! MISSING votes!

[clixtox]

12. Missing?

Perhaps STOLEN would be much more accurate description of what actually happened to the so-called undervotes or "missing" votes. Our former democracy is what is missing now.

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. Yes, but until it's proven in the courts, it won't have the power of

the incontrovertible fact that they are MISSING (believed to be stolen with some degree of certainty). Though of course, you couldn't add the bracketed qualification every time MISSING is mentioned.

The burden is on the machine manufacturers to adduce a convincing explanation as to why the votes have gone missing, which is not attributable to their machines. If they cannot, the machines are definitively unreliable; if they can then fraud is the only plausible explanation; in the circumstances compelling.

[truthisfreedom]

14. silly isn't the proper word. it's designed to confuse and obfuscate. vote-stealing is an art.

missing votes is right.