Krugman: Fear of Fraud (BBV - Krugman takes on Jeb)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/27/opinion/27krug.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

It's election night, and early returns suggest trouble for the incumbent. Then, mysteriously, the vote count stops and observers from the challenger's campaign see employees of a voting-machine company, one wearing a badge that identifies him as a county official, typing instructions at computers with access to the vote-tabulating software.

When the count resumes, the incumbent pulls ahead. The challenger demands an investigation. But there are no ballots to recount, and election officials allied with the incumbent refuse to release data that could shed light on whether there was tampering with the electronic records.

This isn't a paranoid fantasy. It's a true account of a recent election in Riverside County, Calif., reported by Andrew Gumbel of the British newspaper The Independent. Mr. Gumbel's full-length report, printed in Los Angeles City Beat, makes hair-raising reading not just because it reinforces concerns about touch-screen voting, but also because it shows how easily officials can stonewall after a suspect election.

Some states, worried about the potential for abuse with voting machines that leave no paper trail, have banned their use this November. But Florida, which may well decide the presidential race, is not among those states, and last month state officials rejected a request to allow independent audits of the machines' integrity. A spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush accused those seeking audits of trying to "undermine voters' confidence," and declared, "The governor has every confidence in the Department of State and the Division of Elections."

Should the public share that confidence? Consider the felon list.

[jeff30997]

1. It will happen.

[Zeke]

2. Absolutely...

It will happen.

There's no news coverage of this anywhere I can see or hear, so Repukes will proceed just like 2000 in Forida---even worse this time!

[AndyTiedye]

3. Not If We Get Enough Votes Elsewhere So We Don't Need Florida

If it comes down to Florida we lose. It's that simple.
They have the Diebold machinez which can throw tens of thousands
of votes to Bush*.
They can stuff the military absentee ballots again.
Tens of thousands of voters who were wrongfully disenfrachised in 2000
are still stricken from the rolls, with the backlog of applications for
reinstatement expected to take at least 2 more years.
They could even call off the election and award the state to Bush* by
legislative action. They have the votes in the legislature to do it,
it would be perfectly legal, and they were all set to do it in 2000
if the Supreme Court had not awarded the Presidency to Bush*.

What part of "they OWN Florida" don't we understand?

We need to find 27 more Electoral College votes somewhere else.

[Nambe]

4. Mr. Krugman virtualy threatened the bush family!

"I'll write soon about what can be done in the few weeks that remain, but here's a first step: if Governor Bush cares at all about the future of the nation, as well as his family's political fortunes, he will allow that independent audit."

A Florida voting fraud leading to a second term for the dictator could very likely lead to a violent revolution. I agree with Mr. Krugman!

[reprehensor]

5. BUMP n/t

[Brotherjohn]

6. Oooohhh!! As a Floridian, this PISSES ME OFF to no end!!

Those seeking audits are not trying to "undermine voters' confidence", you arrogant SOB. They're trying to strengthen it!! But as usual with this crowd, up is down, black is white, and war is peace.

If it's true, Jeb, that you have "every confidence in the Department of State and the Division of Elections", then an independent audit should only shore up the confidence of the voter. The only way it could undermine that confidence is if there's a problem with the voting system. So in essence, you're saying you don't want to reveal any problems with the voting system, which seems to me like a violation of the trust people placed in you when they elected you Governor.

The way in which the State claims that Hispanic felons were "mistakenly" left off the purge list stretches credulity well past the breaking point. At a minimum, it proves that the company producing the purge list (Accenture) is guilty of the most glaring incompetence which should automativcally trigger an independent audit.

According to Krugman, "State officials declared it an innocent mistake. They told Accenture to match a list of registered voters to a list of felons, flagging anyone whose name, date of birth and race was the same on both lists. They didn't realize, they said, that this would automatically miss felons who identified themselves as Hispanic because that category exists on voter rolls but not in state criminal records."

Now, forget that "employees of a company that prepared earlier felon lists say that they repeatedly warned state election officials about that very problem". The claim that they "didn't realize" that the comparison would miss Hispanics because "Hispanic" was not a category on one of the two lists is simply not plausible (or, again, reveals the company to be so incompetent as to require an audit on that basis alone).

Anyone who has so much as ever looked at an Excel spreadsheet or comparable database would realize within minutes that this was a problem with running such a comparison.

They are either liars or incompetent. But then those are the two possibilities that consistently come up whenever the Bush's are involved.

[Bushfire]

9. Well said!

Thank you Brother John for stating the obvious!

[Catfight]

7. The Supreme Court should remove all Florida Electoral Votes

until they can prove that the voting system is safe and valid. This way, Florida is not counted at all and will completely be disenfranchised from the United States. Florida-the fascist vacation spot. Wonder if we can recall Jeb?

[MrPrax]

8. If anyone is interested in the Gumbel article...

DOWN FOR THE COUNT

by Andrew Gumbel

http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=1013&IssueNum=55

Really is hair-raising...not even a really good 'satire' of corruption