Voter Suppression and Diebold/Electronic Voting Machines
Is anyone else as concerned as I am that the fundamental ground-game changes the Republicans have put into place over the last eight years will make all of our efforts a moot point. Please don't get me wrong, I'm donating, actively volunteering via phones and door-to-door, and all-around excited about the Obama-Biden ticket, however, I have this nagging fear that it is all for naught. To my knowledge, the electronic voting machines, such as the ones we use in Texas, still do not produce a paper trail. Does anyone have more intimate knowledge about this situation? Who can allay my fears?
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Rec'd. I beg others to spread this concern. I also suggest that you follow up with a second post, since you share this concern with me. Can I offer a suggestion for that post? Do some reading on 1) Diebold software malfunctions, 2) instances of the chain of custody being broken. Provide your two strongest links for each of these, and summarize your research. You would be doing all of us a great service by raising awareness of this issue!
Let me help point you in the right direction: bradblog, and, by extension, http://www.votersunite.org/ is very much on top of this issue! Again, good luck, and God's speed.
August 29, 2008 3:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, and my two cents. The Republican strategy is Keep It Close. If it is close, then they can steal it. If it is a landslide, then it would be more problematic to steal it, because the discrepancies from the polls would be too great to seem legitimate. This was Kerry's problem-- the election had been stolen, but it was not manifestly obvious to the general public. I believe this is the strategic reason behind Obama's claim to want a "mandate." I think what he's saying, strategically, is he needs to be far far ahead, or else this thing could be stolen again.
August 29, 2008 3:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Freedom to Tinker has been working on voting issues, among other civil liberties issues. Here's a link to their voting posts:
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?cat=17
There are a lot. A couple of them are on the teams that design testing programs for the machines, and report their findings to the states. Here's a short summary of what usually happens:
Testers: Well, we've tested these machines and found that they are vulnerable to security attacks in these ways (detailed report). We have also found that they return incorrect tallies under some circumstances (more detailed reports).
State: Well, we'll get back to you later. We're in an awful rush to get these machines certified so we can use them in November.
PROTIP: Diebold isn't the only bad actor on the scene. The Sequoia voting machines appear to be pretty fluky as well.
August 29, 2008 4:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes! In fact, Sequoia have the most ridiculous error rates. How about a 29.49% error rate for Sequoia AVC Edge Touch Screen?!?!
August 29, 2008 5:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the help ya'll. I'll do some more research and post an updated post. Right now I'm trying to keep from vomiting whilst watching Palin's speech.
August 29, 2008 12:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the help ya'll. I'll do some more research and post an updated post. Right now I'm trying to keep from vomiting whilst watching Palin's speech.
August 29, 2008 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink