I don't trust any election anymore.

[Atman]

I have been an assistant Registrar of Elections, I've seen it all behind the scenes. The old mechanical machines rocked. Triple redundancy. Now we use George W. Bush's Magical Mystery Machines with zero accountability. And somehow, despite all evidence and polling to the contrary, Republicans keep winning everything. Gerrymandering and computer-rigged electronic polling machines have made elections a joke. There is no way to audit vote tallies, and the GOP pretty much OWNS the entire voting machine industry.

I understand that the "flyover states" are a bunch of hicks who like authori-tay. They vote Right. But there are not that many actual humans on the ground in those states. The population centers vote Democratic. Democrats win virtually every election, and yet we don't take office because of "technicalities." Or the Electoral College.

I'm feeling like my kid. Why bother? I've been part of The Process on many levels, from Registrar, to campaigning, to Democratic advertising. Ever since W and his Magical Mystery Machines, every election has been 50/50 up until the night the media announces the winners. It's always a horse race now, when in the past, before Magical Mystery Machines, polling was very accurate.

I don't trust any of it anymore. Bring back the old mechanical voting machines. Outlaw gerrymandering.

[NightWatcher]

1. We've known our elections have had issues for some time and we haven't worked on it.

That in my opinion is silent complicity. You cannot complain about it being rigged if you've done nothing to fix the suspect parts. We've known of issues since 2000 and didn't work on it, and 2016 is what we deserve for failing to address holes that trump drove right through.

Future elections will be no better if we continue do nothing about it.

How far are we from Turkey? Not very far in my opinion. Hell, we may vote trump King next time for all we know and we won't have a right to say shit about it.

[Amaryllis]

7. Lots of people have been trying for many years. Verified Voting has been at it since before the

theft of the 2004 election. https://www.verifiedvoting.org/
They are excellent, and if we could get the Dem leadership to throw their weight behind them, it would be huge, but it has been next to impossible to get any interest from Dem leadership.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2017/01/23/russians-suspected-hacking-local-dems/96965824/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/24/russians-suspected-hacking-wisconsin-dems/97023222/
http://www.alternet.org/new-video-watch-wisconsin-election-officials-reject-hand-counts-after-electronic-scanners-make-big
http://time.com/4599886/detroit-voting-machine-failures-were-widespread-on-election-day/
http://crooksandliars.com/2017/01/according-declassified-report-russians hacked local and state election boards
https://www.thomhartmann.com/users/sfpauly/blog/2016/11/did-gop-strip-flip-2016-selection-bob-fitrakis-and-harvey-wasserman
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-voting-technology/
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37486-the-shocking-truth-about-election-rigging-in-america
https://thevotingnews.com/tag/interstate-crosscheck/
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-gops-attack-on-voting-rights-was-the-most-under-covered-story-of-2016/
http://fortune.com/2016/10/01/hackers-targeted-election-systems/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/russian-hackers-targeted-half-states-voter-registration-systems/story?id=42435822
https://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2017/01/does-no-one-care-7-million-votes-were-not-counted
http://www.gregpalast.com/the-republican-sabotage-of-the-vote-recounts-in-michigan-and-wisconsin/

[Calculating]

2. Gerrymandering, vote suppression and the EC have stabbed the heart of our democracy

Republicans figured out that if they can't win, they just need to change the rules of the game and exploit everything they can.

[BSdetect]

3. Any faith in the US election system is now defunct

You've been robbed several times now.

The whole process is a monstrous joke.

The Senate crap is especially ridiculous.

[Worktodo]

4. Glad people are waking up to this

The good news on the gerrymandering front is that there are mathematicians that are working on models and simulations that can objectively quantify gerrymandering. While the court has found gerrymandering illegal they have lacked an objective measure and that seems to be forthcoming. Just read today they are looking for volunteers and training people. Google it.

On the voting machines, wow that's been a big issue for over a decade! "Bradblog" is one that covered a lot of issues early on. It's a mess. They are software. Not verifiable. No paper trail. A design disaster. One can only hope that with the increasing awareness of hacking and it's potential impact people will finally take notice.

I won't stop voting though. If you vote and complain, OK, but if you don't vote (or at least try) don't complain.

[canetoad]

5. What lies at the core of any democracy

Is the confidence that:

1. All citizens are allowed to vote
2. Their votes are counted

When that's gone, so is democracy.

[mythology]

6. National polls were more accurate in 2016 than in 2012

Some state polls were off, but not substantially more than in other elections. It boggles my mind the stuff people just invent to make the story fit the narrative they want to tell. The information is available, you just have to actually be willing to consider that you might be wrong about what you "know".

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/23/national-polling-in-2016-may-have-been-better-than-polling-in-2012/

http://www.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/198155/national-polling-accurately-nails-popular-vote.aspx

[moondust]

8. "GOP pretty much OWNS the entire voting machine industry"

If true, that's a big red flag right there that never should have been allowed to happen.

I've wondered since the Russiagate scandal broke if programmers at the (GOP) voting machine companies could conceivably create a back door into the tabulators and pass along the access instructions to their political operatives, who in turn pass it to a remote party like the Russians who could then fudge a few critical numbers in a few critical states at the tabulator level, possibly with no one else even knowing they did it. Maybe even with some state officials (such as operatives for GOP govs. Scott Walker and Rick Snyder) aiding and abetting the operation. I don't know anything about the networking linking the voting machines, how secure it may or may not be, etc. Any thoughts?

I've actually had suspicions since Reagan won reelection with 49 states. Back before the machines took over didn't precinct people count the votes and relay them over the phone up the chain to a central tabulator? I've wondered if Republicans could have placed their hacks on the phones where they could fudge the numbers as they got passed up to the next level.

[Amaryllis]

9. IT is very true that GOP owns voting machine industry as those of us who have been .

following this for years are aware:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37486-the-shocking-truth-about-election-rigging-in-america

[MainSt99]

10. I agree with what you say Atman. BUT ...

The testimony of one election official isn't enough to bring charges of election fraud. Since there is zero accountability built into current electronic polling machines, there would have to be something akin to a class action lawsuit, probably involving hundreds or even thousands of election officials, willing to testify. Only then would there be a possibility of getting rid of election fraud and installing more verifiable methods of counting votes.

Providing we can get Progressive government back again, gerrymandering might be easier to get rid of because it is more transparent. Of course any solution to gerrymandering would have to apply to both parties including rare states like Delaware, where the Democrats are just as guilty.

[Atman]

11. Oldie but goodie. I did this during the W years.

[img][/img]

[yuiyoshida]

12. The machines can be manipulated..

Maybe the best way is to count them by hand like in the old days, though i suppose even that can be mishandled. The Republicans will always put their thumb on the scales. Its how they roll.