Why Is there No Mainstream Talk about the Threat of Electronic Vote Switching in the 2012 Election?

[Time for change]

There are five very simple reasons why anyone concerned about the state of our election system and our democracy should be concerned about the threat of electronic vote switching in the coming election. These reasons are so obvious to anyone who is familiar with the state of our election system that it is difficult to fathom why almost nothing has been done about this threat, though it has been well known for at least as long ago as the days following the 2004 Presidential election. It is equally difficult to fathom why there is so little talk about it in the “mainstream” media today – unless one postulates that our corporate-owned “mainstream” media is well aware of the threat and yet chooses to ignore it because they are more interested in preserving the status quo than they are in preserving our democracy. Let’s consider why we should be concerned about this threat to our democracy.


Electronic voting machines can be easily programmed for fraud

Myriad articles have been written on how easily electronic voting machines can be programmed for fraud. Nobody, to my knowledge, has ever disputed this. Here are some excerpts from the summary of a typical article on the subject, titled "Analysis of an Electronic Voting System". It was written by four authors, one from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, two from the Information Security institute at Johns Hopkins University, and one from the Department of Computer Science at Rice University:

We show that voters, without any insider privileges, can cast unlimited votes without being detected by any mechanisms within the voting terminal software… In the face of such attacks, the usual worries about insider threats are not the only concerns; outsiders can do the damage. That said, we demonstrate that the insider threat is also quite considerable, showing that not only can an insider, such as a poll worker, modify the votes, but that insiders can also violate voter privacy… We conclude that this voting system is unsuitable for use in a general election. Any paperless electronic voting system might suffer similar flaws, despite any “certification” it could have otherwise received. We suggest that the best solutions are voting systems having a “voter-verifiable audit trail,” where a computerized voting system might print a paper ballot that can be read and verified by the voter.

I would like to add just two comments to this. First, I am much more worried about fraud mediated by very powerful and wealthy people than I am about the “such as a poll worker” noted in the excerpt above. Second, while a voter-verifiable audit trail is a good start towards addressing this problem, it is currently far from sufficient. There have been many problems discovered with voter-verifiable audit trail systems currently in use. Furthermore, even if such as system was made to work perfectly it would not ensure an accurate vote count, since it cannot work unless the paper ballots are actually counted. In the 2004 Presidential election in Ohio, it required a great effort to get permission to do a recount, the Democratic nominee had conceded the election long before the recount began, and when it finally was performed it was found to be fraudulent, having occurred under the supervision of Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State, who was also, simultaneously, the Bush/Cheney Campaign Chairman in Ohio in 2004.


Electronic voting machines produce unverifiable results

There is no way whatsoever to verify the results of a vote count produced by an electronic machine that is not associated with a voter-verifiable audit trail. All we have is vote counts produced by the machine, which we are left to accept on faith. In situations where recounts have been ordered, the “recount” of the vote count produced by the electronic machines is conducted simply by having the machine produce the number again. The “results” are already in the machine. Inevitably they produce the same numbers that they did the first time.

When election integrity activists ask that the machine be examined by an independent outsider expert, in an attempt to discovery evidence of fraud, their request is inevitably refused with the rationale that the machine is proprietary – meaning that it is owned by the corporation that made it. Courts have upheld the rights of the voting machine owners to refuse to allow independent examination of their machines – in large part because of written agreements to that effect between the voting machine owners and the election officials who contracted with them to count our votes.

Any idiot could tell you that that is a recipe for election fraud and tyranny. Why do our election officials make such deals with voting machine corporations?


There is much evidence that electronic voting machines have been used for fraud

The final exit polls, posted at 12:23 a.m. on Wednesday morning, November 3, 2004, predicted John Kerry with 50.8% of the national vote and George W. Bush with 48.2% of the national vote – a difference of 2.6%. In marked contrast, the machines that were responsible for the official vote count registered a national vote of 50.9% for Bush and 48.1% for Kerry, a 2.8% Bush victory. The difference between the exit poll results and the official vote count – the red shift – was thus 5.4%. The statistical odds against such a large discrepancy occurring by chance were astronomical, approximating one in a million. In Ohio, the state that determined George Bush’s Electoral College victory in 2004, the exit polls predicted a Kerry victory by 4.2%, while the official vote count gave Bush a 2.5% victory – a red shift of 6.7%. In that same year, a discrepancy between exit polls and the official vote count in the Ukrainian presidential election led to the reversal of the official results, thus elevating Viktor Yushchenko to the Ukrainian presidency – with the official support and encouragement of the U.S. government. Yet the exit poll discrepancy in the U.S. Presidential election was barely commented upon by our “mainstream” media.

An analysis of reports by U.S. voters to the Election Incidence Reporting System (EIRS) developed by the National Election Data Archive Project demonstrated numerous voter complaints of vote switching that they directly witnessed on the touch screen machines on which they voted. The good majority of these complaints, by a ratio of 12 to 1, favored Bush over Kerry. A report by Paul Lehto and Jeffrey Hoffman identified 19 voter reports of electronic vote switching in Snohomish County, Washington – all which favored Bush – from the Washington State auditor’s office, the Washington Secretary of State’s office, and a Snohomish County voter complaint hotline. An investigation undertaken by the Washington Post regarding electronic vote switching in Mahoning County, Ohio identified 25 electronic voting machines in Youngstown, Mahoning County, each which transferred an unknown number of votes from Kerry to Bush. The Post report went on to state “Due to lack of cooperation from Secretary of State Blackwell, we have not been able to ascertain the number of votes that were impacted or whether the machines malfunctioned due to intentional manipulation or error.”

Supporting the supposition of election fraud as an explanation for the vote switches described in the EIRS and other analyses, as well as the exit poll discrepancy nationally and in Ohio, sworn testimony of computer programmer Clint Curtis before the House Judiciary Committee’s Democratic staff suggested an intention on the part of Republican functionaries to utilize electronic vote switching software in the 2004 election. The strange "suicide" death of the Florida investigator who was in the midst of investigating Curtis’ allegations (after telling Curtis that his investigation revealed corruption “all the way to the top”) provides additional reason to believe that the implications of Curtis’ revelations were very important.

All of this is just a sampling of the great conglomeration of evidence that electronic vote switching not only can be, but actually has been used to steal elections – and not just in the 2004 Presidential election. There is much more.


Electronic voting machines with no paper trails will be widely used to count our votes in 2012

In the 2012 general election, almost 25% of U.S. voters, from 17 different states, will vote on electronic machines that produce vote counts with no paper trail at all. Again, these results will be completely unverifiable. An additional 12% of U.S. voters will vote on electronic machines that produce voter verified paper trail audits, with all their attendant problems, which would require an honest hand recount (a seemingly unlikely possibility) of the paper ballots in order to verify their results.

With electronic control over 25% to 37% of votes cast in the 2012 Presidential election, do you think that that is enough to swing an election? Again, I have to ask: Why is this allowed in a country that is supposed to be a democracy?


The issue of motive

All of what I wrote above are simply facts – facts that cannot be disputed, though some may argue with the interpretation of those facts with regard to the question of how widespread electronic vote switching has actually been in previous U.S. elections.

Given the known capability of private corporations to program their machines to switch votes from one candidate to another, do you think that any of them would actually have a motive to do it if they could? I suppose that there are people who would answer “no” to that question, but personally I think the answer is so obvious that it doesn’t warrant discussion.


The book

My book on the myriad problems with our election system has been recently published in different electronic formats by Biting Duck Press. Electronic vote switching is one of many issues discussed in it. It is titled “Democracy Undone – Unequal Representation, the Threat to our Election System, and the Impending Demise of American Democracy. It can be purchased at this link: http://bitingduckpress.com/democracy_undone/ .

Here are some excerpts from an editorial review of the book by Jonathon Simon, Executive Director of the Election Defense Alliance and the man who first identified and reported the great exit poll discrepancy of 2004:

In writing Democracy Undone, Dale Tavris has forsaken easy refuge in the crowd of passive bystanders to a chilling and devastating crime…. The subject is computerized election theft, which Democracy Undone examines, for the most part unblinkingly, in the crucial context of the multi-faceted breakdown of American politics and American democracy itself. We are shown a government that is veering further and further from the interests and the will of the governed in a process that is accelerating catastrophically…

Yes, it is the stuff of “conspiracy theories,” and passive bystanders can comfort themselves with the “never happen here” mantra. That is, after all, how the Big Lie prospers and exactly what its perpetrators count on. But Tavris provides plenty of evidence not only that it can happen here… but that it has happened and is happening here…

It’s a chilling nexus but no less real for being so disturbing. We have, individually and collectively, too long been bystanders to a cheap trick with massive political and historical consequences… There could not be a more timely or important book to read this November or in this rapidly darkening time.

[riqster]

1. "Ostrich Syndrome"

The information is out there and is easily available, but people in general and the Left in particular have turned a deaf ear. Hell, one site actually banned the topic a few years ago as "conspiracy theory".

I spent five years trying to raise awareness, and finally threw in the towel. As far as I am concerned, the American people do not care about the integrity of their elections; and since they don't care, they don't really deserve free and fair elections.

[WinkyDink]

4. It was literally a coup the day privately-owned machines were okayed for voting.

[Time for change]

5. I think you're correct about the ostrich syndrome

Psychologists call it "denial", which means that some truths are just too difficult for people to process and accept as truth. It's the same psychological process that prevents many abused spouses from recognizing what kind of person they're dealing with.

So I don't think that it's that people don't care. It's just that they can't bring themselves to believe, or even consider believing the truth about this. Would people actually steal a presidential election? Of course not! Not here. Other countries, sure. But it couldn't happen here because we've been brought up to believe, all our lives, that this country is too good and too great for that kind of stuff.

[DemReadingDU]

2. Sadly, many people don't pay attention

This election is of the wealthy, for the wealthy, by the wealthy. So Rmoney will be the next president.

The only way for Obama to win re-election is for every Democrat to go to the polls to vote to make a wide enough margin that there would be nothing to doubt that he wins. The polls currently indicate the outcome is too close to call, and therefore can easily be 'fixed' for the Republicans.

[WinkyDink]

3. No, Romney will not be President.

President Obama said he agreed with him on Social Security.

[riqster]

6. Turnout is the only reason Obama won his first term

For the reason you describe.

[Fearful]

7. I really hope that a lot of people read this book!