blackbox story hits freerepublic.com

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/943341/posts

They picked it up from a web site http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10393

From theinquirer:


US election fraud scandal looms?

Explosive conjectures and evidence


By Egan Orion: Wednesday 09 July 2003, 07:03

STEALING ELECTIONS is a sordid tradition in the United States, though it's certainly not unknown in some other countries, as well.
From Tammany Hall's machine politics in the 19th century through Mayor Daley's grasp on Chicago elections, right up to Lyndon Johnson's first election and John Kennedy's 1960 cliff-hanger defeat of Richard Nixon, many US elections have been thought to have had "irregularities".

So much so that it's not really certain where "Vote early, and often!" originated, whether in Boston, New York, or Chicago. It is also well known that many lesser US cities had political corruption, including rampant election fraud, at one time or another in their histories.

Now a New Zealand political activist has published suspicions, along with supporting evidence, that electronic voting in the US is being manipulated by right-wing politicians with the connivance of several voting machine manufacturers. The story revolves around some highly volatile conjectures and might be explosive, if fully investigated.

The article is reprinted below with permission, lightly edited merely for formatting, minor typos and a minor fact (G.W. Bush isn't a Jr.).

Here at the INQUIRER, we can't help but notice that the highly, er... accommodating database software that drives these allegedly dodgy and easily tampered electronic voting machines is... Microsoft Access.

:argh:

New Voting Systems Assailed - Computer Experts Cite Fraud Potential
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/878609/posts

They are talking exactly about the problems of electronic voting machines. The opinions there certainly contradict most of the thread you linked too, but this just shows how important it is to make this issue non-partisan.

A few examples of what they said back then:


To: Mark Felton

he who writes the program, decides the winner. And becomes very rich indeed!


2 posted on 03/28/2003 12:28 PM PST by camle (no camle jokes, please...OK, maybe one little one)

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To: camle

That's right.

During my campaign experience I have learned of some sophisticated algorithms used by the automatic counting machines that count punch ballots.

That software is ALWAYS kept highly secret and "company proprietary".

All of the code must be publicly available and audited, with multi-party verification of the s/w versions loaded in each machine.

Without hard and fast, public, scrutiny these WILL be abused.

It is impossible to place the greatest power known to mankind in the hands of a few secretive s/w engineers, without it being corrupted by powerful folks.


6 posted on 03/28/2003 12:37 PM PST by Mark Felton

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To: Mark Felton

I am not a "computer scientist," but I have spend 25 years in the computer hardware/software industry. I can state without doubt that there's never been system yet that couldn't be hacked and further that any piece of software that does useful, sophisticated work contains at least one undiscovered programming error (bug).

Touch screens and dials are nice but are of little use in case of a catastrophic failure. This is why the paper receipts as backup are so necessary.

We've been trying to create the paperless office for 30 years and have yet to succeed. Not likely with electronic voting systems either.

I'm sure we're smart enough to create an electronic voting system that will be easy to use and relatively foolproof. But to totally depend on hardware and software created by humans is very foolish.


7 posted on 03/28/2003 12:46 PM PST by upchuck (Sadamn: You are on the way to destruction...you have no chance to survive, make your time..ha ha ha)
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This is very interesting... it would be nice to see what these people say when they realize the importance of all the problems that BevHarris and her team have found.

....which is useful to us, too.