WHO'LL STOP THE TRAIN (WRECK)? Reject Theft-Enabling Voting Computers(X)

[kster]

by andi novick

Snip...But this piece isn't about the requirements of a democratic electoral system: No one in New York is even thinking about something like that. This piece is about how shoddy and untrustworthy the voting computers are; how irresponsible the voting vendors, politicians and election officials are; and how responsible you need to be while there's still time.

When products are made so unsafe and so defective that they cannot perform the function they are intended to perform (in this case voting machines that are capable of accurately recording and counting votes), those products are supposed to be recalled. Dozen of studies have shown that these voting computers are incapable of providing for a safe and reliable election because aside from a myriad of other problems, anytime a computer scientist (or a competently skilled child) gets her/his hands on one, the machine is hacked in a matter of minutes. Rather than rejecting these error-prone, vulnerable machines New York - the only state in the Union not to have purchased computerized voting systems for its citizens- is planning on doing just that.

What if the government in New York decided to purchase one automobile per family. Let's say it was considering the Ford Pinto, even though it had already been revealed that the Pinto would explode upon impact. And to make this fully analogous to the current situation with computerized voting systems, let's say that dozens of studies had confirmed that the Pinto is too unsafe to drive. If New York State, notwithstanding that evidence, was still going to buy one of these vehicles for your family, what would you do?

Don't let your government buy these unsafe machines for us. The piece below is redrafted from a letter I sent to various members of our NYS government. Please read this and do what you think you should.

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must....undergo the fatigue of supporting it." --Thomas Paine.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x484298

[flashl]

1. Machines defective? The self-voting machines appear to be working as desired. n/t

[papau]

2. Stop/control those voting machines possibilities ended by those that killed the Holt Bill n/t

n/t

[kster]

4. A bill would have stopped a Pinto from exploding? nt

[ellenfl]

3. there is an obvious solution to the voting machine issue . . .

the whole country should vote absentee. of course, then you will have to trust that your ballot will not be thrown away but it WILL send a message.

ellen fl