Hey Election Reform people (and everyone), Newsweek just put an article up

Will Your Vote Count in 2006?

By Steven Levy
Newsweek



How did Newsweek do, any good? It looks good to me.

and so do I! Levy's been one of the few who were on this issue from the beginning. Glad he's still writing about it.

K&R.

:kick: :thumbsup:

Lemme guess, Bush's personal popularity polls dropped again.

If mainstream media finally recognized it, that is news!

I had a conversation with Rod Smith, Candidate for Florida Governor, this afternoon. He understands the problem.

We have to get past the machines to get him elected.

a landslide goes a long way towards ensuring that the true candidate of choice wins! Everybody must get out and VOTE!!

:kick:

just sayin'.

sorry if I misused the donkey --

:blush:

"If Diebold had set out to build a system as insecure as they possibly could, this would be it," says Avi Rubin, a Johns Hopkins University computer-science professor and elections-security expert.

that makes you think your vote counted. better than straight vapor, but worthless without audits, and integrity.
but my real question is, is this going to be in the print version, or is this another newsweek "web exclusive"? they have been known to run election integrity articles only online.

Brad Friedman has a great article with photos of the paper trail. It isn't what we want. More and more it seems like DREs just have to go.

I'll be checking news stands this week to see if they buried it online or it really gets printed.

Anybody that knows much about the subject knows that electronic transfers are only as good as the people transferring them them. Like when you are buying a house, new car, business or just about anything with title transfer the name on the title, the name on the title won't get changed till the payment for the title is secured. The key is secured, and none of this ever takes place in the place that is known as electronic voting. When was the last time the bank did a recount on your money and came up (several times, mind you)a different amount of money in your account?.

The crooks who are trying to steal the vote will never give until they are made to, it's only that simple

Are all computer hackers Republicans?

:)

having worked for a progressive dem that lost in a close and smelly primary election, i believe that for the right price the hackers will work for anyone.

It may be that they're working for "nonpartisan international capital funds" since they can afford to pay the most. Such folks would prefer Kerry to an evangelical ayatollah willing to, for example, get serious about family values as well as a particular religion and close all the stores on Sunday.

though once again reminded of the fact that the McNews has to come up with Fraud McNuggets for anyone to pay attention.

But grateful, still.

:)




ed: prepositional switchification

It's the truth rolling over America. This is GREAT! Thanks, Robbien!

(Somebody, frisk 'em.)

Welcome, mm! :bounce:

It is a good article and I am glad that Newsweek has covered it, but Science & Technology section? Ensuring every vote is counted is the very foundation of a democracy, yet Newsweek thinks that the appropriate place for this article is to bury it in Sci/Tech. <<shakes head>>


edited to remind everyone to vote up the story. :)

It's true what's being said here that putting it online doesn't mean it's on TV or in the actual magazine.

front pages tomorrow. Online pressure and an increasing public awareness can make it happen.

could...".

Not an "if," in my book. It parallels Rumsfeld creating order in Baghdad with uncontrolled looting (freedom = the freedom to loot). These frekkers thrive on chaos.

So, what kind of election system did the biggest crooks in Congress--Tom Delay and Bob Ney (abetted by Christopher Dodd)--set out to build, with their $4 billion "Hack America's Vote Act" boondoggle of 2002?

--one in which election officials from one end of the country to the other could be corrupted by wads of federal cash, and power over federal cash, and lured by uncontrolled lavish lobbying--with bullying and the coercion of new federal rules for the incorruptible (damn few--and the main one, Kevin Shelley in Calif had to be "swiftboated" out of office).

--one in which a couple of electronic voting corporations with very close ties to the Bush junta and far rightwing causes would get all of the boodle, and end up with total control of the vote tabulation by means of "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code--code so secret that not even the nation's secretaries of state are permitted to review it--and built-in 'back-doors,' internal modems and insecurity, with virtually no audit/recount controls

--one in which industry is permitted to "test" its own voting systems in secret

--one with a weak, underfunded federal election commission, which is told to go slow

--one in which there is NO TRANSPARENCY

--one in which there would be NO TOOLS FOR VERIFICATION, because, a) there would be no paper trail at all--let alone a real paper ballot--in one third of the country, and woefully inadequate auditing everywhere else; and b) they knew that the war profiteering corporate news monopolies would back them up, in 2004, with exit polls that would be DOCTORED to match the results of a NON-TRANSPARENT "official result" (rather than using exit polls as they are used worldwide in other democracies, as a CONTROL GROUP to COMPARE to the "official results" and to CHECK FOR fraud*.)

Diebold built exactly the election system that was intended. Its brethren corporation, ES&S (a spinoff of Diebold, with similar computer architecture) is equally insecure and hackable. These are the biggest two--who, together, 'tabulated' 80% of the nation's votes in 2004. Diebold--headed by Wally O'Dell, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser, who promised (in writing) to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush/Cheney in 2004." ES&S--initially funded by Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation, which touts the death penalty for homosexuals (among other things). Diebold and ES&S have an incestuous relationship--they are run by two brothers, Tod and Bob Urosevich.

Tom Delay's kind of election system.

---------

*(The undoctored exit polls showed a Kerry victory by a 3% margin. The real exit polls were obtained by alert statisticians and bloggers in screen shots taken before the impossible, late-in-the-day change to Bush. What the war profiteering corporate news monopolies had done--acting together as a consortium, using only one pollster (Edison-Mitofsky)--was to feed the NON-TRANSPARENT "official results"--concocted by Diebold and ES&S--into the exit poll data, CHANGING THE EXIT POLLS to "fit" those results. See www.TruthIsAll.net for the analysis. Also, see www.UScountvotes.org for a project to DO something about it. NOTE: They need donations!)

--------

THROW DIEBOLD, ES&S AND ALL ELECTION THEFT MACHINES INTO 'BOSTON HARBOR' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :think:

--------

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it."
--Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

uh, I want a paper trail, that'll fix it.

Sure it will. I hope they'll get around to reporting the real scandals pretty soon.

Welcome to DU :toast: . Our excitement about this article, as incomplete and wimpy as it may look to an online community that has been paying attention, is very rare in a mass media outlet, online OR hardcopy.
We have to cheerlead when it happens, to encourage the author, and to alert editors that the subject generates interest.

So we click on the link, go to the bottom of the page, rate it up.... And congratulate the author on a job well done.

what an amazing disguise that has proven to be. clever bastards.

...the info:

Practical suggestions:

1. Request absentee ballots. At least they provide a tangible paper record for challenges, recounts and investigatiions. (Absentee ballots were a great help to investigators in 2004.) Absentee ballot voting is also a form of protest against the machines. A lot of peope are starting to do it because they DON'T TRUST THE MACHINES. And, if enough people do it, the machines will be obsolete, and then we can work on getting rid of the central tabulators.

2. Join with others to closely monitor the elections and gather and document evidence. See UScountvotes.org, below. They need donations!

3. Demand that the Democratic Party fund INDEPENDENT EXIT POLLS. Exit polls are used worldwide to verify elections and check for fraud. The war profiteering corporate news monopoly exit polls cannot be trusted (they are doctored to match the results from the voting machines' secret programming code; rather than being used to verify elections, they are used to confirm NON-TRANSPARENT results). The Democratic Party owes us, big time, for their lack of vigilance--and in some cases corruption--on electronic voting. This is one critically needed thing that they can do to help.

4. Think long term. Saving our democracy promises to be a long hard struggle. We obviously can't get rid of these machines before the '06 elections, so focus on doing our best with the Diebold/ES&S handicap (a 5% to 10% "thumb on the scales" for Bushites and warmongers), and getting rid of them afterward, for '08. These machines are DEATH to our democracy. They ARE the problem. Without them, Bush and his "pod people" Congress would be long gone.

5. Tell people the truth. They NEED to know it. Engage them in the fight. Bumper sticker: "Help Us Beat the Machines--VOTE!" There is nothing more demoralizing or disempowering than constantly losing and not knowing WHY. The machines CAN be beaten by massive turnout--and can be heaped with ridicule, for their fraudulence, by massive absentee ballot voting.

Never give up on our right to vote! NEVER!

----------------------
----------------------

Hopeful signs - latest news:

California voters sue the state over Diebold:
www.VoterAction.org is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal Diebold "certification" by Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496
Seven of these counties just promised the judge they would use PAPER BALLOTS, and were dismissed from this lawsuit (4/27/06).
http://kcbs.com/pages/29285.php
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2249205

Maryland rejects Diebold:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x418263

Florida - anti-trust accusations against Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia, re: heroic Florida election official Ion Sancho:
(FLA AG subpoenas the companies)
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,110192,00.html
http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/MGBKSY8W8LE.html
(info & discussion)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2183630

Utah county clerk fights back!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x419226

(Tide turning?) New York Times: "New Fears of Security Risks in Electronic Voting Systems" (5/12/06)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2278829

And now NEWSWEEK!

-----

More resources for American Revolution II:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections--they need donations)

(Activist sites with links to state activist groups or info)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.votersunited.org (good general info, and state links)
www.verifiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)

www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)
Provisions of the PA lawsuit:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x423739

The Voter Confidence Resolution
http://tinyurl.com/rlnr2 (“We Do Not Consent”)
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com (GuvWurld blog main page)
http://tinyurl.com/amryg (Voter Confidence Resolution

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Congressional bills:

Russ Holt's HR 550 requires a real paper ballot, bans secret software in "voting machines", and has more than 170 co-sponsors, but the audit required is too weak, it promotes electronic voting and centralized power, and the secret software might be permitted to continue in the central tabulators (the bill is not clear). To sign the HR 550 petition: http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
At lot of discussion at DU of the loopholes/pitfalls in HR 550:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x422926
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x421136
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=422967&mesg_id=422967
(Note: Senate Bill-SB 330 and House-HR704 simply require a "voter verified paper audit trail" (VVPAT), which may be best for the moment.)

Also of interest:

Michael Collins (Autorank)'s searing election reform article for New Zealand's Scoop.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x971363

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy! Title: "Poll Shock" 11/24/05)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col321.htm

Bob Koehler's latest: "Trust us: Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm
More Koehler:
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

HOWARD DEAN remarks on electronic voting machines 04/06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x994507

Never give up on it! NEVER!

a mod mom promise

:patriot:

It is almost a given that I would say this article doesn't go nearly far enough in explaining the situation. Not only that, it also offers token "balance" that simply doesn't wash. Instead of being forced to prove that Diebold machines are secure, which he can't do, the Diebold spokesman is allowed to make the argument that the machines are not secure but the company bears no responsibility for any breach. This is precisely at issue in Denver right now where a City Auditor made news for complaining about the terms of the contract he just signed with Sequoia limiting that company's liability for their machines' potential (inevitable) failures.

The closest the article comes to the correct framing is at the very end:

"In other words, it's unlikely that every voter using an electronic voting device in 2006 will know for sure that his or her vote will be reflected in the actual totals."

The correct framing says that unverifiable voting guarantees inconclusive outcomes. There is no rational basis for confidence in the results reported from elections in America today. We are being asked to have blind trust. Like the rest of us, the media too cannot verify election results. That means we have faith-based reporting about faith-based elections.

I wouldn't expect Newsweek to offer such paradigm-shattering analysis but since you want to know how they did, you might consider it a limited hangout.

This is the most comprehensive story I have seen in the corpomedia so far. We have to help this one get buzzzzzz.

It highlights the software problem and draws attention to HR 550. I wnat this to be the most linked to, the most forwarded and the most copied online article ever.

(off to email Levy a big fat pat on the back)

Your article on the problems with the electronic voting machines is great! This is the first time I have seen anyone in the “mainstream media” cover the astounding problems on this front with this much comprehensiveness.

Diebold’s assertion that the fact that there might be an “evil, nefarious person breaking the law” has NO BEARING on how their machines are constructed, shows their lack of comprehension, in fact, their DISDAIN for the voting process. Any corporation with such a profound misunderstanding of the nature of concept of “consent of the governed” has no business getting involved.

There is one aspect that you didn’t cover in your excellent article. In addition to the fact that the software can be jiggered without leaving traces of tampering, the mere fact that this software is proprietary is a problem for those who understand what “transparency” in elections means. There is an online consensus that any software that is posited into the election process should be open sourced.

One other quibble…. A paper trail, in and of itself, isn’t the answer to the problems. The term we use online, to make the most secure system, is a “voter verified paper ballot.” The vote of record, the one that must be referred to in any recount should be the paper itself, a ballot that has been secured after the voter has been able to see it, and has seen that the machine correctly printed the voter’s intention.

Thank you again for your timely, comprehensive article. I hope to see this issue discussed at length where the greatest number of American citizens can see and discuss it.

It's time for a 2nd American Revolution!! The friggin Computerized Voting machines strike to the heart of what's gone very wrong in this society. We've allowed the fox in the hen house with these machines. Their are forces at work in this society that hate democracy and these machines are being produced with the sole purpose of doing just that. A return to paper ballots is the only way out of this whole mess. With paper u have a simple "paper trail" and it's very hard to steal entire elections without open stealing by more then a few individuals. The computers are easily networked and easily hacked or worse coded before hand for the results you want. Plus, many leave no footprints. They are an example of the perfect crime. the GOP loves then because look at the statistics where ever they exist the GOP wins disputed elections. It's statistically impossible that computer errors almost always favor GOP candidates and issues. So far many expert studies have concluded that the GOP has stolen every major Nat'l election and some state elections since 2000 included both Presidental races. As long as 1 party counts the votes our democracy is at an end.

Article: Is Democracy all it's cracked up to be?

http://youralternativenews.zapto.org/news/ed/democracy.html

We must stop Bush!

Demand a Special Prosecutor investigate President Bush!

http://truth4you.no-ip.org/special/demand.html

Luke

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

I suppose that's all we can do, considering our ignorant democracy.

this does nothing today.

I admit, I am not up on election stuff. I'm running out of steam.

My ancestors spent time running from genocide. And here we are again, fighting the same evil. I'm just plain worn out. Being as stubborn, and as tenacious as I am, I have to wonder about the rest of the people.

yeah, you want to walk up to them in the street, and scream in their faces to wake them up.

Is read by a machine

There is a paper trail - but here in Marin County, CA
the ability of someone to access that paper trail
is hampered by a Registrar of Voters (Michael J Smith)
who demands about $ 166,000 paid upfront before he
will allow a recount to occur. (we are talking about
a County in which there are ONLY 250,000 people and
ONLY 101,000 ballots in any given election.)

This fact has totally hampered just about every
individual and every concerned citizens group when they
suspect foul play.

And in many Counties (I am thinking Riverside CA here)
when there is a recount, they just run the ballots through
the exact same machine that counted them in the first place

The Canadians do it right. So can we.

there were many Diebold apologists who used the argument:

"Do you think an organization of thousands of employees could keep election rigging secret?".

I would always answer: "No, but security flaws could be introduced and made know to a select group of insiders."

I think more are coming around to understanding what I meant.

page!!!!

that it likely won't be counted at all, rendering the question of whether or not it matters moot.

If a techie can insert a card that gives them control to change votes and subvert and election could they at the end of the process reinsert the good card so that when the system is 'audited' it will appear that everything is on the up and up? Though I believe that the vast majority of people that work in our elections are honorable people it would not take much to get enough people in positions of control that are so partisan that they would have no problem doing this. Another thing I would like to see emphaisized is this idea that all of a sudden after years of being accurate all of a sudden 'exit polls' are wrong and they only seem to be 'wrong' in those areas that favor the Republican candidate. What's up with this???

I'm passing this on to everyone I know.
I even have my conservative father-in-law on board. Of course he's a real conservative, the few who actually are in fear of the fascists who have taken over his party.
But that only goes to show that this is not an issue having to do with political ideology, but one of integrity and national security.
I think all of us have to remember that and try to get the word out to as many people as possible about this extremely important and urgent issue.

pulling your head out of your ass always helps you see things a little clearer.

Americans who read Newsweek need to learn about this too, not everyone reads internet news.

...addressing a tiny, less important part of the problem.

The main problem is still the GEMS system (the master tabulator). Securing the individual voting machines does almost NOTHING, if you don't secure the central tabulator.

Email me the full text of this Newsweek article?

My machine will not give me access...

Much thanks in advance

cjsterrittATsethreturns.com

When I clicked on the stars, they went from 4 1/2 to a full 5 stars!

People care about this issue!

I'm sending this out to everyone on my email list. There are some people who just don't get it unless it's reported in a "mainstream" media. Well, here it is on the "mainstream."

The more people understand how vulnerable our votes are to tampering, the more chance we can get something done about it and the more chance the Republicans will be exposed as the election thieves that they are.

The Bush fascists don't turn election fraud into a national security issue. You know: causes social unrest, etc.

Thanks ____. To be fair, the New York Times did an article on this recently.


As for the ballot issue, I see what you mean. It had little space to get into much explanation of the process. That's why I couldn't get into the transparency issue, either.


Thanks for writing and rest assured that this issue is of continuing interest to me.


Best,


Steven

Just goes to show what a useless label that is.

The term only works for the GOP or neocons trying to discredit some reality they don't want to get out, especially if everyone is scared of being labeled that way.


But it is about time!! This story, for which I and a lot of others have been labeled "conspiracy theorists" has FINALLY Made it to the Main Stream Media!!!

:applause:

:woohoo: