Vote Hacking and More

[SHRED]

We need our PUBLIC voting process out of the hands of PRIVATE corporate proprietary trade secrets.
We need a transparent vote count method that is not rushed.
We need a National holiday for voting on a Friday or Monday and the polls opened for 3 days over the weekend.
We PUBLIC financing of our election process to cut out the special interest lobbying. Term limits will not fix it because the professional lobbyists will remain and a fresh batch of "greenhorn" Congressmen will be thrown to them.
The system needs a total overhaul.

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http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hackingdemocracy/synopsis.html


"Diebold software, or other software like it, is installed in thousands of counties across 32 states. David Dill, professor of computer science at Stanford, says the problem is that there are "lots of people involved in writing the software, and lots of people who could have touched the software before it went into that machine. If one of those people put something malicious in the software and it's distributed to all the machines, then that one person could be responsible for changing tens of thousands of votes, maybe even hundreds of thousands, across the country."

In Florida, Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho presided over a trial "mini-election" to see if the vote could be hacked without being detected. Before votes were actually cast, computer analyst Harri Hursti "stuffed the ballot box" by entering votes on the computer's memory card. Then, after votes were cast, the results displayed when the same memory card was entered in the central tabulating program indicated that fraud was indeed possible. In other words, by accessing a memory card before an election, someone could change the results - a claim Diebold had denied was possible.

Ultimately, Bev Harris' research proved that the top-secret computerized systems counting the votes in America's public elections are not only fallible, but also vulnerable to undetectable hacking, from local school board contests to the presidential race. With the electronic voting machines of three companies - Diebold, ESS and Sequoia - collectively responsible for around 80 percent of America's votes today, the stakes for democracy are high.

http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hackingdemocracy/index.html

[fasttense]

1. I have very little hope that anything will change.

We can not vote in a new congress when the the votes are not being counted. I wonder what American citizens will do when they see that the repukes stayed in power after November 7th?

[SHRED]

2. I wonder also

I mean the exit polls in the last election were one-sided and Kerry "lost". Barely an eyebrow was raised in the mass media about those million-to-one odds of Bush winning.

Things are a bit different now so if they do win there might be a shit storm, but don't count on it from the Repub/Corporate media.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

3. and then there were none....

...no more democrats at all -- just republican votes....

I vote absentee - It is the one thing that we, in San Diego, can do to leave a paper trail and maybe have our votes counted. It's also easier to have my ballot in front of me while I research the bills and more obscure people/positions, i.e. judges etc. that are on the ballot. I can take my time and then just drop it in the mail after I finish voting.

As for the Diebold machines -- I am amazed that only Democrats complain about these things -- that for the republicans, it's okay if the things can be hacked. They love to point the finger and yell "Lefty Wing-nut conspiracy theorist." when it's a bunch of carnival freak show idiots winning these elections in predominantly democratic sectors.

I would love to see a three day voter holiday. Why isn't that the way it is? I have worked for people who made it impossible for me to vote during the course of my work day and I eneded up standing in line after working all day, tired, unhappy and hungry.