Touch-screen voting set for next election (TX)

[phoebe]

After previous delays caused by a software glitch, Bexar County's long-awaited touch-screen voting system will be rolled out for the Sept. 13 state constitutional amendment election.

snip

The iVotronic system, developed by a Nebraska company, was approved last week by the secretary of state's office, clearing the way for its use in all future elections.

Some folks initially voiced concerns about the effect of power outages, where electrical cords would be placed and how to correct a mistake on the screen.

But after some hands-on practice voting for "candidates" like Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams and Francisco "Pancho" Villa, concerns were quelled.

http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=1028311

[slack]

1. very dangerous

have a look at "If You Want To Win An Election, Just Control The Voting Machines"
<...>Back when Hagel first ran there for the U.S. Senate in 1996, his company's computer-controlled voting machines showed he'd won stunning upsets in both the primaries and the general election. The Washington Post (1/13/1997) said Hagel's "Senate victory against an incumbent Democratic governor was the major Republican upset in the November election." According to Bev Harris of www.blackboxvoting.com, Hagel won virtually every demographic group, including many largely Black communities that had never before voted Republican. Hagel was the first Republican in 24 years to win a Senate seat in Nebraska.

Six years later Hagel ran again, this time against Democrat Charlie Matulka in 2002, and won in a landslide. As his hagel.senate.gov website says, Hagel "was re-elected to his second term in the United States Senate on November 5, 2002 with 83% of the vote. That represents the biggest political victory in the history of Nebraska."

What Hagel's website fails to disclose is that about 80 percent of those votes were counted by computer-controlled voting machines put in place by the company affiliated with Hagel. Built by that company. Programmed by that company. <...>
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0131-01.htm

it's not my understanding of democracy. sorry for reapting this link, but i think its important to think about.

[Zan_of_Texas]

4. If the vote is crooked, what kind of politicians can we expect.....

Here's a quote from Charlie Matulka, who lost to Chuck Hegal in the Nebraska Senate race. As an article in The Hill documents, Hegal was owner of a stake in the company whose subsidiary owns most of the voting machines used in Nebraska.

Matulk's quote is from a fine special done by Geoff Brady for Free Speech Radio News called "Hacking Democracy." (You can listen to that by going to www.fsrn.org)

Charlie Matulka, after the votes showed he lost the Nebraska Senate race in 2002: "They got the law set up to where I can't get a manual count of the election. They said, well we can do the same thing -- have the software recount again. There were gonna have the same result they just covered up...All I wanted is the 4 or 5 largest counties. Like for example, North Omaha, it's a heavily black district. Hegel basically swept it the last two elections -- he didn't do nothing to get that vote. Never represented any minorities, never represented the people. Never represented the farmers, never represented the teachers. All he represents is big business....You can't prove it, can't disprove it."

Also, see David Dill's website, www.verifiedvoting.org

From the website:
"The risks of paperless DRE machines are large. Programming errors are an inevitable fact of life given current technology. With these paperless DRE machines, there is nothing that can stop a determined group from achieving large-scale election theft. We see no reason why major problems will not occur, including obviously messed up elections, election of incorrect candidates, and, certainly, disillusioned and disenfranchised voters."

Dill, a professor of computer science at Stanford, has gotten nearly 1000 computer experts to sign a petition recommending a voter-verified audit trail to accompany electronic voting. That trail would likely be a paper ballot, printed at the time a voter casts his or her vote, viewed and verified by the voter, and locked in a safe box, and available for random checks of accuracy.

In my opinion, EVERY race should at least be randomly spot checked -- preferably in high proportions.

In fact, I'd be in favor of going back to paper ballots right now for all races, until the computer guys can prove their machines work. Right now, all they do is say "Trust us."

It's faith-based voting. Kinda like faith-based corporate management. Kinda like faith-based weapons of mass destruction.

[0007]

14. Chuck Hegal & the Nebraska Senate race

Were there poll numbers that indicated Hegal was gonna win?

What would happen if junior's number were around 37% and he were to win the election?

I do believe the fix may have taken place in Texas. I have no proof because Gore & Bush were fairly even.

[Wwagsthedog]

2. Paper trail, etc.

I think one of Bev Harris's issues is that the new touchscreen machines in several states lack an auditable paper trail. This would help prevent "programmed" victories by the party in control of the voting process. As usual, the public remains blissfully unaware of these concerns about our hallowed "democracy".

[Mithras61]

3. Re: Paper Trail

The "paper trail" of paper ballots would only be useful if the ballots were counted and tallied by hand. If we run them through a scantron or similar type of counter, all that means is that they have to "fix" the software in 2 places instead of one. You really need to check out http://www.votescam.com and the associated book. Elections have been crooked since the Republic was founded. The current ones are merely crooked in a way that makes it harder to prove unless we get a genuine impartial count, which won't happen until we, the citizens, demand hand counts of ballots and demand the use of people-readable ballots instead of punchcard voting and touch screen voting.

BTW, don't you find it amazing that Hagel's company makes the voting machines that keep showing "stunning" Repuke upsets? The Diebold machines aren't much better, though.

[discordian]

5. brainwashed people...

I sent the common dreams article and the black box voting site to a co-worker of mine. As soon as he saw that the "Christian Right" was implicated in these misdeeds, he immediately dismissed the entire premise as invalid because no one on the "Christian Right" would ever do that sort of thing. He also said that Hagel couldn't possibly have had any financial interest in the voting machine company because that would be a blatant violation of the Senate ethics bylaws. I had no answer to the second part, but the first is obvious brainwashing (obvious to me at least).

[lightbulb]

6. Laughter - good medicine

no one on the "Christian Right" would ever do that sort of thing.

ROFL!

(edit) To clarify, I'm not laughing at the Christian Right, I just find it incredible that some people are blind to all the wolves in sheep's clothing that hide behind the fundie facade to give themselves false credibility. I do know there are plenty of good Christians out there, too!

[chadm]

10. yeah, on a positive note

I brought this up to a "centrist" friend of mine this weekend, and he had already heard of the Diebold story. Pretty good coverage.

[BadGimp]

7. I'm gonna say this one more time - paper receipts are not gonna help

There would be no way to do a recount even if everyone got a receipt. Unless 2 receipts were printed, then the 2nd one held by the registrar, that might be useful.

The real threat is in the software. The way the Federal Law was written (by the GOP), the company that builds the machine is granted the right to secure the code in a way that nonone can look at the counting mechanism (counting code).

This effectively means the way in which our votes are counted, the very mechanism is SECRET and not for our eyes. This nullifies any attempt to do a software recount.

Worse it allows the companies to insert code that serves their interests and not ours.

Then there is the dial up issue. The companies can dial in and modify each terminal, and are not required to provide a audit trail of those transactions. Because the whole damn thing is "proprietary", read that secret and not for our eyes.

THIS IS THE SINGLE BIGGEST THREAT TO DEMOCRACY WE HAVE...imho.

[newyawker99]

8. Hi lightbulb!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Nottingham]

9. I agree Gimp! If they keep stealing our votes!

Their power gets immense. The only other movement is revolution

America is in Big Trouble! :bounce:

[BevHarris]

12. Hi, Gimp! Paper trail means put it in ballot box

and do a robust audit against the machines using it.

"The companies can dial in and modify each terminal, and are not required to provide a audit trail of those transactions. Because the whole damn thing is "proprietary", read that secret and not for our eyes.

Stay tuned on the above :)

Bev

[sham]

11. Bexar County...

Bexar County is San Antonio. It is a heavily Hispanic area. Texas wingers are petrified of the rising Hispanic population because they overwhelmingly vote Democratic. Is it paranoia for me to think that these machines are being used in Bexar County for very specific reasons (which have nothing to do with technology or convenience)? This is beginning to reek of Florida 2000.

[Gman]

13. Not to worry...

The Bexar County elections administrating is so fubar'd it really doesn't matter.

Any attorneys around that want to file a federal lawsuit against Bexar County to get to the source code? I'd be glad to volunteer as a plainiff.