Drudge: New Electronic Voting System in Florida: Flawed

[NewJerseyDem]

http://www.drudgereport.com/

NEW ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEM IN FLORIDA: FLAWED... all electronic records from first widespread use of touch-screen voting in Miami-Dade County have been lost ,,, records disappeared after two computer system crashes last year, leaving no audit trail for the 2002 gubernatorial primary... Developing...

[tridim]

1. Well * had better cancel the elections

because the new machines can't be trusted.

[GHOSTDANCER]

24. This message was approved by Me George W. BOOsh

We are going to win 2004 !....... You Can Write it down!!
Signed George Bush





(C) DIBOLD INC.

<>

[kungfugrip]

2. No! Really?

Who could possibly have ever thought that would EVER happen?

[spotbird]

3. Has hell frozen over?

What is this doing on Drudge?

[librechik]

4. developing?

I dare Drudge to follow this story to the obvious source--Jeb Bush's ILLEGAL manipulations of FL election law.

[Maine-i-acs]

5. Wonder just how close that primary was?

Maybe Jebbie's covering his tracks!

[Zorra]

6. How can they keep on with this farce? These machines continually

prove to have glitches of one type or another.

It is a very irresponsible, thoughtless government that would allow it's citizens to vote with systems on which there is no accountability.

Ballots made out of recycled paper. Indelible pens.

What is so fucking hard to understand here? Am I smarter than four-fifths of our federal legislators?

If I am, God help us.

[leesa]

18. The point was to steal the election with these machines

It's why the bloated overkill on dangling chads...it forced the purchase of these machines across the nation.

I think this is good news because somebody is getting real close and they are dumping the evidence in the most obvious fashion

[truthisfreedom]

7. we are reaching new heights of cynicism here in our great country

where no bush is to be trusted, and everyone feels it, even the rethugs. they know that every cheneying thing about the bushes is suspect, and it makes them feel ill, but they soldier on like good little hypnotized subjects, queasy as all-get-out.

[Octafish]

21. They can't print money fast enough that a Bush can't steal.

You can say that ag'in! Heh heh heh."

[kittykitty]

8. So what is the best system? We use paper ballots and a pencil and

blacken the circle of the candidate we choose. Then it is read by an optical scanner?? I think. We get a numbered stub that is torn from our ballot. This seems better than computerized voting and punching those confusing paper ballots with hanging chads, etc.

But I suppose there is some flaw to optical scanners??

[aquart]

9. How about a witnessed hand count?

[kittykitty]

14. We DO have witnessed hand counts in our little community AND optical

scanners.

[InkAddict]

11. There's no honor among thieves

and until the BFEE/theocrats are removed from the political processes of this country, there is little chance of trust returning to the election booth. That nagging doubt that, at the moment we mark our ballots, a conspiracy of malevolence will erase our choices can wipe out the very spirit inspiring us forward.

[TahitiNut]

17. Optical scanners help COUNT ... not RECORD the vote.

That's the HUGE difference. The so-called touchscreen terminals don't offer a tangible record that can be COUNTED in a variety of ways. Consider, for example, that scanning equipment could be made by multiple unrelated manufacturers. The mere improbability of systemic errors (or frauds) being embedded in two differently-designed scanners is a safeguard in itself.

Scannable paper ballots can be the same ballots used for absentees, reducing costs.

Scannable paper ballots can be used in small, remote precincts where the budgetary constraints make equipment investments less feasible.

And they can be hand-counted.

And they can be serial-number controlled documents without exposing the secret ballot.

Undercounts and overcounts? Let the voter do a preliminary (audit) scan of their own ballot and have a "mulligan" if it's not kosher.

Optically scanned ballots offer the absolute best deployment of technology with all the ages-old lessons learned about safeguarding paper documents. We really all know much better how to handle paper - without the "magic factor".

[kittykitty]

19. Good. Thanks. I'm glad that's what we use. It seems they are the best

then most simple and probably the cheapest. So why doesn't the whole system convert to optical scanned paper ballots?

It seems it would be rather simple to buy millions? thousands? of optical scanners, print paper ballots, pencils, ballot boxes, and the metal trays they use to put your ballot in so it can be confidentially slipped into the ballot box?

A WHOLE lot cheaper than the crooked touch screen machines!

[rawstory]

10. TIMES LINK

Come on guys, he's just pirating the Times wire service. A little bird is telling me this... and a little bird is helping raw story (http://rawstory.com) get access to these "newsroom sources" drudge is talking to -- e.g., computers... developing... (lol)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/28/politics/campaign/28vote.final.html

[struggle4progress]

20. There's never any reason to link to Drudge. eom

[BlueHandDuo]

12. That's ridiculous. Electronic voting

... is perfectly s@f3.

[TahitiNut]

13. Not "lost"! Destroyed. Erased. Wiped out.

It ain't like they've been misplaced, misfiled, or stored in the wrong shelf. They're {{{poof!}}} gone! (Noiselessly, too. Not even the sound of a 'crash'.)

That's the "wonderful" thing about electronics - no fire hazard and no air pollution from burning paper ballots. Who says the GOP isn't solicitous of the environment and helpful to fire-fighters? See? That's what "compassionate" means.

[BattyDem]

15. As we say in my neck of the woods ...

No sh*t, Sherlock! :eyes:

[iconoclastic cat]

16. Bev? BEV! Snap out of it! (snap, snap) Hellooooo...Bev!

Wow. She's been sitting there with that smile on her face for hours now. What do you think it could be?

[moondust]

22. All very foreseeable.

And foreseen by many long ago. Ignorance is not a valid excuse.

[squidbro]

23. Does Kerry really even have a chance at Florida?

One wonders if some computer expert geek could perhaps hack into those systems and run up huge vote counts for Kerry.

Or perhaps put in a keystroke logger that will record the vote and relay it to an external machine not controlled by jeb.

It is sad and maddening, but Kerry might need to give up on the Florida electoral votes and concede them to shrub. Kerry would do better focusing his energies on states like Nevada, Missouri, etc. who are on the fence and more likely to count votes honestly.

[Moderator]

25. Locking - Please Continue in New York Times thread

Now that the actual New York Times link has emerged to replace the Drudge link, please continue discussion in this thread:

Lost Record of Vote in '02 Florida Race Raises '04 Concern (NYT)

A link to this original discussion has been included in the new thread.

Thanks!

DU Moderator