A Stolen Election? (the Nation)

efore the vote-counting was done, the e-mails started arriving. The election's been stolen! Fraud! John Kerry won! In the following days, these charges flew over the Internet. The basic claim was that the early exit polls--which showed Kerry ahead of George W. Bush--were right; the vote tallies were rigged. Could this be? Or have ballot booths with electronic voting machines become the new Grassy Knoll for conspiracy theorists?

Anyone who questioned the integrity of the nation's voting system--before the election or after--has had good reason to do so. Electronic voting that does not produce an auditable paper trail is worrisome--as is the possibility that the machines can be hacked. The proponents of these systems claim there are sufficient safeguards. But in this election there were numerous reports of e-voting gone bad. Votes cast for one candidate were registered for another. In Broward County, Florida, software subtracted votes rather than added them. In Franklin County, Ohio, an older electronic machine reported an extra 3,893 votes for Bush. Local election officials caught that error. But when I asked Peggy Howell, one of those officials, why the mistake occurred, she replied, "We really don't know." Were these errors statistically insignificant glitches that inevitably happen in any large system? "It gives us the uneasy feeling that we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg," Cindy Cohn of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is part of the Election Protection Coalition, told Reuters. "What has most concerned scientists are problems that are not observable," David Jefferson, a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, explained to the Associated Press. "The fact that we had a relatively smooth election...does not change at all the vulnerability these systems have to fraud or bugs." And the 2000 fiasco in Florida demonstrated that non-electronic voting can also have serious problems, which often disproportionately affect low


http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20041129&s=corn

This is good, no?

Sorry but my resolve is waning. Must...keep...trying...

I didn't read the whole article, but I have written to the Nation twice, yesterday and today, asking why are you talking about irrelevant musings--how the Dems failed, etc., when the real issue is Vote Fraud? Of all media, they should be taking this seriously.

if not THE oldest (still operating).

I can't shake this cold and I'm just a wee bit tired.

I really believed. Not only that a Freeper put me in my place. Admitted yea Kerry probably had more votes he caved at least Gore fought in 2000. Now if he comes back he will have fliiiii (can't say it)

Did you ever get mad and all of a sudden things get very focused?

To any one I offended on DU for supporting John Kerry I apologize. To any one I held up hope this would reverse soon I am sorry.

FOCUS this is about elections. Think Secretaries of State. No Christmas this year and it will get leaner kids.

NO MORE KOOL-AID

:shrug:

Trust does not work.

There should be a Constitutional Amendment against Skull and Bones Candidates. Want to jerk Fundies mention Illuminati. (I know it is rich College kids acting stupid)

I think we have been had.