Votes Go Missing as Diebold Voting Machine Kills Another Election, This Time in Texas

[BradBlog]

Votes Go Missing as Diebold Voting Machine Kills Another Election, This Time in Texas
City Election Goes to Paper Ballots After Votes Disappeared on Malfunctioning Touch-Screen System, Memory Card
Aurora City Election May Have to Be Run Again...

URL: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4572

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

1. K & R.

[napi21]

2. What in the world kind of junk was Diebold using inside those machines?

I've been using a PC for almost 15 years and I've MEVER encountered problems like the voting machines do. Damn near EVERYTHING has a memory card or chip in these days. If your car is less than 10 years old IT litterally won't run without the data on it's memory chip. For what these damn machines cost, they could have bought complete cheap PC's for every voting station and just not hook them up to the net!

[Frustratedlady]

4. Diebold's machines worked just fine when they needed to...

They got this cabal in office. I'm convinced that is true.

[eridani]

7. You're forgetting something that's pretty important

Computers that function well in the real world are used ALL THE DAMNED TIME, so that even though they are still full of bugs, most of the ones that seriously impair functionality get fixed within a reasonable amount of time.

Voting isn't done all that often. Whether you're a person or a machine, things that you don't do often you hardly ever do well. Would you be shocked if you left your car sitting in the driveway for a year and it didn't fire up right away when you turned the ignition? If it did, that would just be a matter of dumb luck.

Using computers to tabulate votes turns every election into a beta test, which is absolutely unacceptable.

[petgoat]

9. Excellent point eridani.

Plus the machines get banged around in transport.

When they get to be ten years old, will they have
to undergo expensive individual reliability tests
every time they are to be used?

Electronic voting machines make about as much sense
as electronic toilet paper.

[Kurovski]

3. You would think that election officials across the land

would resent the multiple problems caused by machine voting so much that they would move to scrap them immediately, never mind the ease with which they allow election fraud. The logistics alone are an impossibility.

Hand counted paper ballots will be far less of a nightmare, I don't care if there are 100 things to vote for on the ballot. It will be NOTHING like this.

Check out this thread for some urgent action regarding HR 811 and the problems we face with our elections:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x911579
Here is my post to the thread creating a quick synopsis of Paul's beautifully heartfelt piece on what we could be losing, and what we're up against.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=911579&mesg_id=914118

[BradBlog]

6. Short Version: Holt's Election Bill (HR811) as Currently written is damned dangerous...

...So raise hell with your Congress members now if you don't want to see another Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

Most important needed amendment (in my opinion), a requirement for a paper BALLOT that is actually tabulated for every vote cast. Meaning no more DRE touch-screen voting systems!

[Kurovski]

8. Thank you Brad.

That's it.

[BradBlog]

10. You're welcome, but...

...Please help spread the word. On all of this. It's gonna take everybody.

Please. Make. Noise.

Thanks!

Brad

[MagickMuffin]

5. Off to the Greatest: For the Lone Star State

[Kurovski]

11. Kick

:kick:

[Up2Late]

12. WOW! That's Great!

I wish that would happen here in the Diebold state of Georgia.:argh:

[bonito]

13. Kick

[IChing]

14. Crap ......"and so it goes"

Kurt Vonnegut ..........thanks Brad