khaosworks: (Default)
khaosworks ([personal profile] khaosworks) wrote2003-04-20 08:21 pm

Buying the Election, 2004

New site soon to be added to my truth list - Bev Harris' Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century. Scary little interview here with Paul Miller, Registration and Systems Manager of the Office of the Secretary of State.

Two basic points: One, the government reps don't seem to care exactly when programming changes are made to the ballot-counting programs, and rely on the manufacturer to tell them what the upgrades are and only then do they decide if they need to certify the new software. In other words, if the manufacturer tells them it's only a minor modification, and they're either lying or someone slips in a trojan line of code in there, they don't check.

Two, there is no scope for a hand ballot recount on DRE (Direct Recording Electronic) touch screen machines - because there's no voter verified paper trail. Yet, the government reps don't seem to want to discuss the possibility that the programmer may be tampered with in rigging the machine towards a particular vote count.

Those interested in more in-depth information as to electronic vote rigging may want to check out the site, order Harris' book coming out in May, and/or just read this Salon.com article that may have slipped under your radar.

[personal profile] cheshyre 2003-04-20 06:27 am (UTC)(link)
Have you read the material on Seeing the Forest -- they've got a lengthy archive of stories on this subject.

[identity profile] khaosworks.livejournal.com 2003-04-20 06:30 am (UTC)(link)
No - thanks for the link.

One of the scariest quotes

[personal profile] cheshyre 2003-04-20 06:53 am (UTC)(link)
A spokesperson from Sequoia Voting Systems, one of the companies manufacturing the machines, spoke out against providing paper confirmations, because "you'll have voters say, 'That's not how I voted,'"

You got that? The Sequoia spokesperson complains that there shouldn't be a paper trail because voters will say "That's not how I voted"!!! This company is making it clear that they trying to stop voters from being able to verify that the machine correctly records their vote!

Source: Seeing the Forest

And, of course, that doesn't begin to go into the issue of voting machine companies with strong ties to Republicans (*cough*ChuckHagel*cough*) and elections where the results were far more GOP-sided than the exit polls...