Defend America's Democracy

Started by Adam_Fulford, Feb 28 06 01:10

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Adam_Fulford

[A href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/opinion/l27vote.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin"]http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/opinion/l27vote.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin[/A]

  LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES



Electronic Voting Glitches

To the Editor:

Re "Common Sense in Maryland" (editorial, March 23):

I am the chief Democratic election judge for District 21, Precinct 2, in Prince Georges County, Md. We have used the Diebold AccuVote-TSX machines since the 2002 primary election. From the start they did not encourage confidence in them.

When they were turned on in the 2002 elections, some of them refused to start unless we reseated the memory cards. In the 2002 primary, one of the machines chose to lock up just as the poor voter pushed the "cast ballot" button on the screen. The technician we got in to check the machine insisted that the vote was counted. Then why did we have 30 paper voter authority cards for the machine and only 29 votes recorded?

In the 2004 general election, two of our machines refused to start up. We got in another two machines, and one of them refused to use the electricity from the wall. Its internal battery was not enough to run the rest of the day, so we shut it down. These machines are quality only if you spell quality with a capital K.

Surely the Free State could find a far more reliable replacement than Diebold's TSX machines. The rest of the nation should, too. Preferably one with a good paper trail.

Paul D. Motzenbecker Jr.
University Park, Md.
March 23, 2006

Adam_Fulford

  Witch wrote:
[div style="font-style: italic;"]Interesting letter. Did Debra Bowen write it?[/div] [/div][div]Yes.  She also has authored the "Voter Bill of Rights" for California voters:[/p]  1) The Right To Register To Vote. Every Californian who is eligible to vote has a legal right to register to vote without being forced to navigate through unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles.[/p]  2) The Right To Vote. Every registered voter has a right to cast a ballot. This means voters shouldn't show up at a polling place, only to find it closed for hours or be forced to stand in lines because the voting equipment doesn't work. In addition, essential information about voting should be readily available to all voters.
 
 3) The Right to Vote In A Tamper-Proof Election.
Every voter has the right for his or her vote to count equally – which means no one should be required to vote using machines that have been proven time and time again to lack the security necessary to ensure that people's votes are counted accurately. If a piece of voting equipment isn't secure, accurate, and auditable, it should not be used in California's electoral process.[/p]  4) The Right To Vote On Paper. More and more counties are installing electronic voting equipment and doing away with the paper ballots that voters are used to just as voter confidence in electronic machines is plummeting. Voters should have a right to cast a paper ballot, and it should be made clear to voters that they have this choice.[/p]  5) The Right To Have Each Vote Counted Accurately. A vote is meaningless unless it is counted as the voter intended it. In recent years, every election has brought instances of votes being inaccurately tabulated and voter confidence in the election results is at an all-time low. It's time to change that.[/p]    6) The Right To Have Election Results Properly Audited.  Audits are the only way to ensure the accuracy of the vote.  Next year, when [a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/sen/sb_1201-1250/sb_1235_bill_20060930_chaptered.pdf"]SB 1235[/a] (Bowen) takes effect, the current law requiring that 1% of precincts be audited will be expanded to include votes cast by absentee ballot and at early voting centers, and will require full transparency of the auditing process. Audits should be statistically valid, and when there are irregularities, the audit should be expanded or a full recount should be conducted.[/p]  7) The Right To An Open, Transparent, Public Process. While every voter's ballot is and must be private, that's the only thing in the electoral process that should stay a secret. We should have full transparency in elections procedures, all phases of the conduct of the election, the process used for testing, reviewing and buying voting systems, and all reports of errors and anomalies should be made public. Finally, voters should be entitled to watch the vote-counting process and the 1% manual audit process.[/p]  8) The Right To Elections Officials Who Operate Free of Partisan Influence. Anyone who is in charge of tallying the votes and certifying the results of an election, including the Secretary of State and local registrars of voters, should not endorse candidates for office in that election.[/p]  9) The Right To Know that Elected Officials Are Free From the Influence of Campaign Contributions From Voting Machine Vendors. The people responsible for setting the standards for voting equipment, for testing a voting system, or for deciding which system to buy should not be taking campaign contributions or gifts from voting equipment manufacturers who have a financial interest in the decisions that are made.[/p]  10) The Right To Find Out How Money Is Being Raised And Spent In The Political Process. Voters should be able to easily find out the true identity of any person or any entity that is contributing to campaigns, as well as how candidates and campaigns are spending their money.[/p]  For more information about Debra Bowen, [a href="http://www.debrabowen.com/"]go to her website[/a] and, if you live in California, VOTE FOR HER as Secretary of State to ensure the integrity of American democracy.
 
   

Adam_Fulford

Witch wrote:
[blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px; font-style: italic;"]Adam_Fulford wrote:
[/p]The bipartisan GAO (General Accounting Office) couldn't "even remotely be considered unbiased"??  [a href="http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05956.pdf"]http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05956.pdf[/a]  [/div][/blockquote][div style="font-style: italic;"] [/div][div style="font-style: italic;"]In the post I was referring to, you didn't reference this document, you referenced some guys blog who obviously has an axe to grind. In addition, this document is in no way saying what your original post in this thread says, so it's not really a help to you.[/div][div style="font-style: italic;"] [/div][blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px; font-style: italic;"][div]How about laws against the kind of hackable "interpeted code" used in Diebold voting machines, stated in the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) guidelines -- they couldn't "remotely be considered unbiased"?? [/div][/blockquote][div style="font-style: italic;"] [/div][div style="font-style: italic;"]That's assuming that the Diebold machines actually contravene those guidlines. So far you havn't given any independant sources that show this is the case. Again you've given us the claims of some very biased sources that may or may not be misrepresenting the actual facts.[/div][div style="font-style: italic;"] [/div][blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px; font-style: italic;"][div]Nor could an independent report commissioned by the Secretary of State of California [font color="#0000ff"][a href="http://www.votetrustusa.org/pdfs/California_Folder/DieboldReport.pdf"]http://www.votetrustusa.org/pdfs/California_Folder/DieboldReport.pdf[/a][/font][font color="#000000"]  written with the assistance of Chris Karlof and Naveen Sastry of the University of California "even remotely be considered unbiased"??  [/font][/div][/blockquote]
[div style="font-style: italic;"]Is that actually the transcript of said report? Hard to say. Anyone can type up a "report", put a fancy sounding title on it and pdf it. The report isn't signed, it bears no seal, and there's no independant corroboration that it is genuine. You've already accused one organisation of lying, who's to say this votetrustusa.org is honest? I'm not willing to take your word for it, sorry.[/div][div style="font-style: italic;"] [/div][div]As I've said before, I'm suspicious of the voting machines, but I see no need to take the word of one very biased side over the word of the other very biased side. That is why I would like to see info from unbiased sources, which you have certqainly not yet given.


[span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 127);"]Here's something for that clueless, stripper-seducing-for-purposes-of-a-threesome-with-his-wife, turd who pretentiously calls himself "Witch" to suck on:[/span][br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 127);"][br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 127);"] [div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 127);" class="BloggedBy"] BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 5/18/2007 12:48PM   [/div] [div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 127);" class="ItemHeadline"] Finally: The ACVR's 'Voter Fraud' Scam Outed in All Their Ignominious Shame in New Slate Article! [/div] [div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 127);" class="ItemSubHeadline"] Rick Hasen's: 'The Fraudulent Fraud Squad - The Incredible, Disappearing American Center for Voting Rights' [/div] [div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 127);" id="post-4576"] [a set="yes" href="http://www.slate.com/id/2166589/pagenum/all/#page_start"][img]http://www.bradblog.com/Images/AC4VR_ThorHearne_Exposed.jpg" align="right" border="0" height="273" hspace="6" vspace="3" width="164"][/a]I  may have more thoughts on [a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2166589/pagenum/all/#page_start"]this article[/a] a bit later, but for now, allow me to just recommend it.[/p] Loyola Election Law professor Rick Hasen outs, in some detail, the shameful case of democracy-hater Mark F. "Thor" Hearne (former Bush/Cheney national general counsel) and his  entire Rove-orchestrated ACVR "voter fraud" scam over at Slate today, in a piece titled: [a set="yes" href="http://www.slate.com/id/2166589/pagenum/all/#page_start"]"The  Fraudulent Fraud Squad - The Incredible, Disappearing American Center for Voting Rights"[/a].[/p] After more than two years of the story being [a set="yes" href="http://www.bradblog.com/ACVR"]"chronicled indefatigably" here at The BRAD BLOG[/a], as Hasen is kind enough to  point out/link to, his article summarizing the rise and fall of one of this century's most insidious assaults on American values under the guise of the ACVR GOP front-group fraud comes not a  moment too soon.[/p] Let's see if the rest of the MSM catches onto it, and if they're able to advance the story a bit to finally begin peaking under the filthy stained ACVR sheets to figure out who was really  pulling the strings behind the scam...not to mention funding it.[/p] As mentioned, perhaps more later on this, as I'm currently in the middle of a thing or two, but wanted folks to catch --- [a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2166589/pagenum/all/#page_start"]and  read[/a] --- Hasen's critical exposé, as the breadth of the full story is finally told somewhere other than here(!), and before it gets too late on a Friday.[/p] [/div] [p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 127);"][a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4576#comments"]The BRAD BLOG Finally The ACVR's 'Voter Fraud' Scam Outed in All Their Ignominious Shame in New Slate Article![/a][/p]  

 

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