- Sep 10, 2001
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This is a very frightening thought... to have touch-screen computers to handle our nation's elections, which DO NOT have a paper receipt of your vote, and as many of you porbably know, computer software is not exactly reliable.
Read this article
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=301&row=1
Now, before you go questioning the reliability of this source (I can't really say whether it's reliable or not) I have watched a Tech TV Screen savers episode once where they had a representative from EFF I beleive it was, talking about some voting machines which were base don regular windows operating systems and did not have a paper trail, and they were being used. They also had a policy where the machine has to 'checked and authorized' before use- to make sure it's correct and counting correctly, BUT an administrator can come in and patch it later and the machine would NOt have to be re-authorized for use! The EFF guy
I'll look for more info on that story, but what do you think of computerized voting? I know it can be a great convenience and can simplify things- but ONLY when done correctly and EXTREMELY transparently, which is just not what is happening now.
Read this article
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=301&row=1
PALAST: You may have already voted in 2004; they just haven?t told you how. Last year, our President signed a law, with little fanfare, called the Help America Vote Act. As soon as the Bush family tells us that they?re gonna help us vote, I say, "Look out." Sure enough, go into the details of it, and it has that old Florida swamp smell. I?ve been working with Martin Luther King III, and he?s calling this the Floridation of the nation. This law is going to provide $3.9 billion of your tax money to computerize the voting systems of America. We?re going to have computer screens in the voting booths. The administration has put to death any plan that would allow you to have some type of backup paper ballot or receipt. Which is pretty strange when you think about it. You get a Slurpee from a 7-Eleven; you get a receipt. You vote for President of the United States, and you get no record to prove exactly how you voted.
HUSTLER: Why should we be suspicious of these computer machines?
PALAST: If you?ve ever had a Windows document, you sure as heck know it?s about as reliable as any other computer system. Except with this one you have more at stake: Who?s going to run this planet? We just had an election in Texas in which three Republicans won with exactly 18,181 votes.
HUSTLER: All three won with the exact same number of votes?
PALAST: The Republican elections officials thought that was quite an interesting coincidence. These were done on iVotronics machines, but the Democratic officials were actually able to go back and reset the machine to re-tally the votes and, lo and behold, suddenly the Democrats won. So if you think that this is a tamperproof system, I?ve got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.
Now, before you go questioning the reliability of this source (I can't really say whether it's reliable or not) I have watched a Tech TV Screen savers episode once where they had a representative from EFF I beleive it was, talking about some voting machines which were base don regular windows operating systems and did not have a paper trail, and they were being used. They also had a policy where the machine has to 'checked and authorized' before use- to make sure it's correct and counting correctly, BUT an administrator can come in and patch it later and the machine would NOt have to be re-authorized for use! The EFF guy
I'll look for more info on that story, but what do you think of computerized voting? I know it can be a great convenience and can simplify things- but ONLY when done correctly and EXTREMELY transparently, which is just not what is happening now.