Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

That’s a Pretty Big Glitch (recent NYT editorial)

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009) Donate to DU
 
ProSense Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-14-08 09:25 PM
Original message
That’s a Pretty Big Glitch (recent NYT editorial)
More than 350,000 black voters were disenfranchised in Ohio alone, and probable more than a half million in Florida. The GOP establishement carried out a huge fraud that prevented votes from being cast.

Then there is this:

Editorial

That’s a Pretty Big Glitch

Published: October 8, 2008

Election officials, who will have plenty on their minds on Nov. 4, have one more thing to worry about: Diebold electronic voting machines that drop votes. Ohio’s secretary of state raised the alarm after local officials reported problems with the March primary count. Diebold has since notified more than 30 states to be on the lookout for missing votes.

In the early days of electronic voting, critics who warned that it was unreliable were dismissed as alarmist. Now it seems that hardly an election goes by without reports of serious vulnerabilities or malfunctions.

In the case of Diebold, votes are being dropped when they are transferred from individual machines to the central server in a county’s election headquarters. When an election worker inserts the memory card from a machine into the server, a green arrow is supposed to light up after all of the votes have been uploaded and added to the county’s totals. In some cases, the green arrow is wrong, and none of the votes have been added.

When election officials in Ohio’s Butler County first spotted the problem, Premier Election Solutions — a unit of Diebold — suggested that antivirus software on the voting machines or human error was at fault. That turned out not to be true; the fault was Diebold’s. In August, the company notified clients of the software glitch, advising election officials not to rely on the green arrow, but to use alternative methods of checking that every memory card — and every vote — is counted.

When dropped votes are noticed — and so far they appear to have been — they can be recovered. But the flaw is troubling, the latest in a long line of problems.

Computer scientists have shown that electronic voting machines are easy to hack. And voters report errors like vote flipping, in which the vote they cast for one candidate is recorded for another. Ohio’s secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, is suing Diebold over the vote-dropping and noted that its machines crashed repeatedly during last year’s voting in Cuyahoga County.

more

(emphasis added)

Funny, after 2004 the media concluded that this claim was being advanced by the "loony left."

Bush won by a significant margin they claimed. No one remembers Howard Dean stating that all it would take was about 10 votes at precincts across the country to disappear five million votes.

That combined with vote suppression is how the GOP stole the election, and many states refused access to the machines.

It's impossible to count votes that no one can find or those that were not cast.

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
Arugula Latte Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-14-08 09:33 PM
Response to Original message
1. Don't you wonder how many votes have been flipped to our side?
I know the vast, vast majority of vote-flipping has favored the Republicans, but you know that somewhere along the way, either intentionally through fraud or unintentionally through a "glitch," that Republican votes were flipped to Democratic votes.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
karynnj Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-14-08 09:39 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. Actually, there are very few instances where the Republicans
were the ones hurt in 2000, 2002, 2004 or 2006. This is not rocket science - how often does your ATM decrement the wrong account?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Arugula Latte Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-14-08 09:47 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. I know, but I'm just thinking that somewhere along the way, in isolated races
that weren't of national interest, some votes probably got flipped to us. And, we need to let the other side know that their votes are vulnerable, too, which is yet another reason that we need voter-verified paper ballots.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
WinkyDink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-14-08 10:50 PM
Response to Reply #1
9. No, we DON'T "know" this. All evidence is to the contrary.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Arugula Latte Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-15-08 11:04 AM
Response to Reply #9
11. Yes, but we'd like to have the other side think that their votes have been/could be flipped.
I'm just saying, theoretically, it could have happened. And that should make the Republicans worry about this type of voting, and they should demand paper ballots as well.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Quantess Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-15-08 11:34 AM
Response to Reply #1
12. You probably have heard about the WA state governor Gregoire vs Rossi brouhaha
Many republicans in WA think Gregoire unfairly won.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
karynnj Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-14-08 09:36 PM
Response to Original message
2. Let's see, Kerry got about 90% of the black vote
so that means .8 (350,000) = 280,000 net Kerry votes. If you assume that he got just 80%, this equals .6(350,000) = 210,000 net Kerry votes. If this ends up 100% confirmed, this alone means Kerry actually won on the basis of votes cast - not just votes that would have been cast if people were not required to wait 4 hours plus in the rain.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Cha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-14-08 09:37 PM
Response to Original message
3. In the 21st Century this country should be
able to divise a method to have the person you voted for register as fact. End of story.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ProSense Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-14-08 10:30 PM
Response to Reply #3
8. Yeah, it's disgraceful. n/t
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Diana Prince Donating Member (267 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-14-08 09:47 PM
Response to Original message
6. I find it interesting that this is coming out with less than a month...
before elections. There is no way that this can be fixed in time or new machines certified. This is just another sneaky trick by the Rethugs to steal their 3rd election.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ProSense Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-14-08 09:53 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. From what I understand, this was a bigger problem in 2004
When dropped votes are noticed — and so far they appear to have been — they can be recovered. But the flaw is troubling, the latest in a long line of problems.


When the votes were switched or dropped, there was no way to recover them.

Still, it's pretty clear what the Republicans are up to with there "voter fraud" BS.






Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
GeorgeGist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-15-08 08:55 AM
Response to Original message
10. How many LOONIES does it take ...
to screw everyone?

A majority of one.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Mon Apr 29th 2024, 03:41 PM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009) Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC