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I've been involved with discussions and knock-down battles between voting activists and computer scientists for several years now. Our disgust with some of the computer scientists has been with delays they have created in getting important information out to the media. This was mainly influenced by their inherent conservatism, non-disclosed self-interest (monetary investments and grants/subsidies by computer/ software firms), and even secret investments in computerized voting machines, which makes their recommendations TAINTED by any standard. The result is that they have maintained FOR YEARS that all voting should continue to be done with computer technology.
Very recently there is a change. Avi Rubin (Johns Hopkins University).. changed his opinion to state clearly last week that paper ballots are the only answer. That was done very publicly on National Public Radio on Science Friday last week. It took Avi Ruben six years to get to that statement... but too late... two weeks before the election. And now... Dan Wallach of Rice University speaks out and says something that we've been trying to get ANY OF THEM to say for years.
Now Wallach admits now, out loud, that ALL THE PROBLEMS SEEN BY COMPUTERIZED VOTING MACHINES BENEFITS REPUBLICANS AND SCREWS DEMOCRATS.
This e-mail is below from my friend David Dudine who has worked with me since 2002. It shows a progression of e-mails between him, Wallach and major news outlets.
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Greetings,
As a citizen activist on the electronic voting catastrophe, I have had it up to my eyeballs with pundits, reporters and experts accepting the word "glitches" to describe the computer voting errors which have been discovered by voting officials, academic experts and citizen investigators. Why? Because it looks to me like these dumb machines produce "glitches" that always favor Republicans. So, I decided to ask some of the nation's top experts if this is true. As you can see, there are four reporters also receiving these messages to and from Dan Wallach.
My first question to the experts may have been poorly constructed, and the answers I received prompted me to try a second time. Copied below is this second question and the answer from Dan Wallach of Rice University, followed by my reply to him: ------------------- From: David Dudine <ddudine@psci.net> To: Dan Wallach <dwallach@cs.rice.edu> Cc: "David L. Dill" <dill@cs.stanford.edu>, "Peter G. Neumann" <Neumann@csl.sri.com>, Lynn Landes <lynnlandes@earthlink.net>, Bev Harris <bevharrismail@aol.com>, Avi Rubin <rubin@cs.jhu.edu>, Barbara Simons <simons@acm.org>, Will Doherty <will@verifiedvoting.org>, Robert Kibrick <bob@verifiedvoting.org>, "Douglas W. Jones" <jones@cs.uiowa.edu>, Chuck Herrin <me@chuckherrin.com>, <loudobbs@cnn.com>, <countdown@msnbc.com>, <caffertyfile@cnn.com>, <dsimon@miamiherald.com> Date: Wednesday, November 1, 2006 12:24 PM Subject: Re: Party affiliation of computer voting equipment
OK. Let's try this another way. Maybe I suffer from Kerry syntax disease.
Have most of the so-called "glitches" that have been attested to by local voting officials or discovered by investigators or discovered candidates favored one party? Or, have these "glitches" favored both parties equally, when viewed in the aggregate?
If these "glitches" have in the aggregate favored one party, which one is it?
If these "glitches" have in the aggregate favored one party, what is the scientific explanation of why these dumb machines which lack any ability to favor one party over the other are behaving in this manner?
Can I get some responses on this?
Regards,
David Dudine ---------------- From: Dan Wallach <dwallach@cs.rice.edu> To: David Dudine <ddudine@psci.net> Cc: "David L. Dill" <dill@cs.stanford.edu>, "Peter G. Neumann" <Neumann@csl.sri.com>, Ashley Simmons Hotz <ahotz@mindspring.com>, Lynn Landes <lynnlandes@earthlink.net>, Bev Harris <bevharrismail@aol.com>, Avi Rubin <rubin@cs.jhu.edu>, Barbara Simons <simons@acm.org>, Will Doherty <will@verifiedvoting.org>, Robert Kibrick <bob@verifiedvoting.org>, "Douglas W. Jones" <jones@cs.uiowa.edu>, Chuck Herrin <me@chuckherrin.com>, <loudobbs@cnn.com>, <countdown@msnbc.com>, <caffertyfile@cnn.com>, <dsimon@miamiherald.com> Date: Wednesday, November 1, 2006 2:59 PM Subject: Re: Party affiliation of computer voting equipment
All the reports I've seen have generally been at the expense of Democrats. However, there are a variety of non-sinister explanations, such as Republicans being at the top of the ballot and the touch-screens being miscalibrated.
Dan -------------- From: David Dudine <ddudine@psci.net> To: Dan Wallach <dwallach@cs.rice.edu> Cc: "David L. Dill" <dill@cs.stanford.edu>, "Peter G. Neumann" <Neumann@csl.sri.com>, Lynn Landes <lynnlandes@earthlink.net>, Bev Harris <bevharrismail@aol.com>, Avi Rubin <rubin@cs.jhu.edu>, Barbara Simons <simons@acm.org>, Will Doherty <will@verifiedvoting.org>, Robert Kibrick <bob@verifiedvoting.org>, "Douglas W. Jones" <jones@cs.uiowa.edu>, Chuck Herrin <me@chuckherrin.com>, <loudobbs@cnn.com>, <countdown@msnbc.com>, <caffertyfile@cnn.com>, <dsimon@miamiherald.com> Date: Wednesday, November 1, 2006 5:40 PM Subject: Re: Party affiliation of computer voting equipment
Dan,
Thanks. You comfirm my impression that Democrats have been the losers in all of these "glitches". It is my opinion that in high-stakes political matters the sinister explanations should be at the top of the list. In the present case, the appalling design, implementation and public opacity of these machines gives the non-sinister possibilities quite a boost.
I have no doubt that the Democrats would love to have their loyalists controlling the secret software. I would not be surprised if the DLC has a committee trying to put together a buy-out of Diebold and ES&S. The fact remains that the secret software and firmware and Rube Goldberg hardware is under control of corporations whose loyalites are in some cases known to lie with the Republicans.
On another topic, I am struck by the stunning leadership of the Montana legislature in adopting old fashioned paper ballots for all elections. The Senator and software engineer who introduced the bill gave an interview on TV last week that should be seen by all Americans. Regarding the "solution" of voter verifiable paper records being produced by computers and held as the official vote count, he produced the most dependable and wildly cost-effective tool for filling out such a record. It is a pencil.
His name is Wiseman.
Best regards (and heaven help us),
David Dudine ---------------
There you have it. The dumb, politically neutral machines overwhelmingly cheat Democrats out of their votes. I hope that this opens up a host of questions in your minds that you want to find answers for. Here are four from me:
What is the procedure for calibrating a touch screen machine and in whose employ are the people who perform and verify the calibration?
Have the touch screen machines been proven to be mis-calibrated in all known cases in which Democrats have been cheated out of votes?
Have Republicans been at the top of the ballot in all known cases in which Democrats have been cheated out of votes?
What are the other non-sinister explanations for the pro-Republican behavior of computer vote counting equipment, and can all of the possible non-sinister explanations account for all of the known so-called "glitches"?
Does anyone know how many Democratic votes have been flipped or erased by using the proven hacking methods for which there is absolutely no electronic "trail" within the computer equipment?
I hope some of you will find this line of inquiry worth your time to pursue.
Regards,
David Dudine Jasper, IN
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