Voting machines

[iago]

These facts (which all have sources) are very scary:

Did you know....
1.  80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies:  Diebold and ES&S.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold


2.  There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html


3.  The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html


4.  The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml

http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886


5.  Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S.  He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html


6.  Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26

http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx

http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php


7.  Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.

http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm

http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html


8.  ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html


9.  Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes.  In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm

http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html


10.  Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm

http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm


11.  Diebold is based in Ohio.

http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm


12.  Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml


13.  Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold.  Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0312/S00191.htm
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf


14.  Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.

http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf


15.  None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.

http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html


16.  California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad.  Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it!  (See the movie here:  http://blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov.)

http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190


17.  30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml


18.  All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html

http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm

http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html

http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=950

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm


19.  The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html


20.  Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.

http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm

http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,97614,00.html

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html

http://uscountvotes.org/


NOTE:  Please copy the above list and distribute freely!
LET THE FACTS BE KNOWN!  Thank you!

[Sidoh]

Wow, that's horrible.  Thanks for sharing, iago.

[Screenor]

I say x86 start a voting machines company to fix this problem immidietly.

[Hitmen]

The link to the video supposedly containing a hacking chimpanzee does not work.
This post sucks.

[iago]

That sucks.  The video used to work, it was very cute, but that was months ago :(

[Hitmen]

 :'( :'( :'(

[zorm]

You just violated your own rule by forwarding email spam when it tells you too, good job.

9.  Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes.  In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

10.  Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

The whole idea of a paper trail is misleading. Nothings going to stop the machine from printing one thing while recording another. I don't think the technology exists for a solution to this problem yet, if it does im sure the record companies would be all over it to protect their cds.

[iago]

You just violated your own rule by forwarding email spam when it tells you too, good job.

9.  Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes.  In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

10.  Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

The whole idea of a paper trail is misleading. Nothings going to stop the machine from printing one thing while recording another. I don't think the technology exists for a solution to this problem yet, if it does im sure the record companies would be all over it to protect their cds.

It was actually from a website, but because of that disclaimer (and this is why I included it), I pasted it here instead of hotlinking.  Technically, the link DID arrive in an email, but it was part of a discussion in a mailing list.  It's more of a license than a request/demand, though :)

And you're right about the paper trail.  The ideal one is where you physically write down, or punch out, who you want to vote for.  Then, even though a machine is reading it in, you can still go back and count the holes.  Some talk was about a machine that would visually punch out the card and add it to a stack, and you could watch it do the punching.  That would be a more ideal solution. 

[ZeroX]

Damn that sucks no wonder bush was re-elected.

[AntiVirus]

Damn that sucks no wonder bush was re-elected.

Or maybe because the majority of the United States Citizens support Bush and his campaign.

I just don't think it would make sense if it was rigged.  Clinton was elected and he was democratic.  And it seems to me that the people who count these votes are primarily republican, so why would they allow that?

[iago]

Damn that sucks no wonder bush was re-elected.

Or maybe because the majority of the United States Citizens support Bush and his campaign.

I just don't think it would make sense if it was rigged.  Clinton was elected and he was democratic.  And it seems to me that the people who count these votes are primarily republican, so why would they allow that?

Clinton's votes weren't put into a machine, but Bush's were.  The machines are a new invention marketed by a crooked company who promised Bush the election and who has rigged back-doors into devices before.  The guy running it is a known criminal, and he does have a political agenda. 

Did you read the points?  That's the scary part. 

And whether or not Bush would be in on it is another question.  There is absolutely no evidence that Bush knew it was going on.  But that doesn't make it any less possible.

[AntiVirus]

Damn that sucks no wonder bush was re-elected.

Or maybe because the majority of the United States Citizens support Bush and his campaign.

I just don't think it would make sense if it was rigged.  Clinton was elected and he was democratic.  And it seems to me that the people who count these votes are primarily republican, so why would they allow that?

Clinton's votes weren't put into a machine, but Bush's were.  The machines are a new invention marketed by a crooked company who promised Bush the election and who has rigged back-doors into devices before.  The guy running it is a known criminal, and he does have a political agenda. 

Did you read the points?  That's the scary part. 

And whether or not Bush would be in on it is another question.  There is absolutely no evidence that Bush knew it was going on.  But that doesn't make it any less possible.

Not all of them, I was in a hurry because I was leaving class soon.

[iago]

Damn that sucks no wonder bush was re-elected.

Or maybe because the majority of the United States Citizens support Bush and his campaign.

I just don't think it would make sense if it was rigged.  Clinton was elected and he was democratic.  And it seems to me that the people who count these votes are primarily republican, so why would they allow that?

Clinton's votes weren't put into a machine, but Bush's were.  The machines are a new invention marketed by a crooked company who promised Bush the election and who has rigged back-doors into devices before.  The guy running it is a known criminal, and he does have a political agenda. 

Did you read the points?  That's the scary part. 

And whether or not Bush would be in on it is another question.  There is absolutely no evidence that Bush knew it was going on.  But that doesn't make it any less possible.

Not all of them, I was in a hurry because I was leaving class soon.

Well, go back and read them, and read the sources for them if you don't believe.  Then stop and wonder how your government can be selected by such an obviously dangerous method.

[Joe]

Or maybe because the majority of the United States Citizens support Bush and his campaign.

Recent polls say otherwise. About 39% support him.

This is BS. The day I turn 18 I'm in Canada. Ron, mind if I pitch a tent in your backyard?

[iago]

Depends what you mean by "pitch a tent"