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Jonathan Kim

Jonathan Kim

Posted: October 31, 2008 10:38 AM

How Electronic Voting Machines Could Steal Our Democracy


Did you know the hardware and software used in electronic voting machines (DREs) is considered proprietary and cannot be inspected by outside experts? That means that a small number of people could easily program DREs to flip votes, and the evidence of this crime would be safely locked inside the machines, with no way that anyone (except for the manufacturers) to know with 100% certainty that votes were accurately counted, or even if they were counted at all. And paper trails are only useful if they are actually counted. They often aren’t.

As Josef Stalin (allegedly) said, "It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes."

This is potentially a democracy nightmare, where private companies are allowed to count the votes with absolutely zero transparency or accountability. We might as well have the vote count done at Guantanamo Bay by Blackwater.

But there are a few patriots out there who are ceaselessly fighting to expose this potential crisis. One is Clint Curtis, a software developer turned whistleblower who was asked in 2001 to write vote hacking software to be used in DREs. Another is Brad Friedman, a tireless investigative blogger and creator of Bradblog.com, an excellent clearinghouse for election fraud information. Both are featured in the excellent, terrifying documentary Murder, Spies & Voting Lies: the Clint Curtis Story. You can see my review of it here (you can buy the movie and find out more about it at Votinglies.com).

America’s corporate media has done a woeful, shameful job reporting this issue that goes to the very heart of our democracy and our identity and reputation as a free nation. A few nights ago, a major channel finally did a long, in-depth story about election fraud, featuring interviews with Curtis and Friedman. The channel? Al-Jazeera English. You can watch the entire story here (part 1 & part 2).

I’ve talked to a lot of serious progressives who refuse to believe that election fraud could decide the election. But there is a very real chance it could. I checked VerifiedVoting.org, which lists what voting systems are used in which states and the makers of their voting machines, and compared it with the electoral map at RealClearPolitics.com. The contested states of Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Florida use a mix of paper ballots and DREs without paper verification. Nevada uses DREs with paper and Colorado uses a mix of DREs with and without paper. That’s 133 electoral college votes that could be flipped to decide the election.

To find out how to protect your vote, check out Bradblog.com or these other sites:

Videothevote.org
Votersunite.org
Voteraction.org
Velvetrevolution.us
Standingforvoters.org

And remember to bring your video camera to the polls to record any dirty tricks.

Don’t think for a second that this couldn’t happen.

Follow Jonathan Kim on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ReThinkReviews

Did you know the hardware and software used in electronic voting machines (DREs) is considered proprietary and cannot be inspected by outside experts? That means that a small number of people could ea...
Did you know the hardware and software used in electronic voting machines (DREs) is considered proprietary and cannot be inspected by outside experts? That means that a small number of people could ea...
 
 
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
vernbvb
12:21 AM on 11/04/2008
It's too late and it's too bad. I cannot believe that there are not lawsuits that cannot be brought to force these companies to allow investigation of suspected fraud through the use of their voting machines.

This protective law for their property puts them above the constitutional rights of Americans to vote and have their vote counted.

Why?
07:13 PM on 11/03/2008
Vote by mail - though Oregon is hopelessly in love with itself, this state has it right on that one. No hours-long lines at polling places, no republican controlled companies - Diebold - controlling the hardware and software that determines our democracy. Blacken the circle paper ballots, much like SAT answer sheets, optically scanned, with a paper trail. Diebold voting machines have the ability to calculate negative values in their programming - why would a vote tabulation device have the ability to SUBTRACT votes? Mathematically, vote tabulation is an additive calculation.

If we let them, they'll steal this election. Insist on a paper ballot. Report any problems OF ANY SORT at polling places, and lobby your state elected officials for mail in ballots (which, in Oregon, can also be handed in in person to election offices).

Obama 2008!!!
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
waitforme
09:05 PM on 11/02/2008
No, I don't think, for a minute or a second, that this couldn't happen. I have been predicting it for years, ever since I heard about vote-flipping in machines in the last two elections. If it is clear that voting machines can be programmed -- by anybody who knows how -- to flip votes, WHY DO WE HAVE VOTING MACHINES AT ALL? ....WHY?

(See an article at Salon.com about a week ago which describes just how, techinically, someone can do this.)

WHY DON'T WE HAVE LAWS (CONGRESS?) WHICH BRING ANY VOTING MACHINE UNDER FEDERAL JURISDICTION? (But, really, why risk it? Why have voting machines at all?)

Where is the Congress in this?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
vernbvb
12:27 AM on 11/04/2008
The Bush administration put this whole process in play. His last joke on us.

This is why McCain is running fervently from one state to the other so that when they steal this election by way of electoral fraud through these voiting machines, then McCain can try to blame his fraudulent win on the fact of a week of campaigning. Give me a break, please.

Until Americans decide to stand up and not accept this type of voter disenfranchisement, there will never have to be another fair election in this country.
01:31 AM on 11/01/2008
Watch Virginia, Georgia, and Nevada, There is alot of talk about these states but they are all electronic voting states.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
kjstjohn
03:10 PM on 11/01/2008
In Georgia, there is no paper record of the electronic votes. Any state that has such a system is a stolen election waiting to happen.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
vernbvb
12:29 AM on 11/04/2008
Why do we continue to accept the system? Let's start a serious protest.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
06:11 PM on 10/31/2008
This stuff needs to be auditable and transparent. Of course even if it is you can still have you vote suppressed by old fashioned means.. I was forced to express mail my wife's and my own absentee ballots from out of country to try and get them back prior to the deadline.. Customs at LAX has decided to hold onto them for us, probably until after the election. I wonder if it is intentional or it they really are just too stupid to figure out mail addressed to Yolo County Elections at this time of year might be time critical..
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05:08 PM on 10/31/2008
I've been in software development since 1983. It is easy to have any machine use any algorithm you like, development-wise. Most likely the false coding is actually placed into the chipset.

As your youtube review of 'Murder, Spies & Voting Lies: the Clint Curtis Story' shows, it only takes a criminal mind with the power to order the criminal deed.

Paper must be a requirement. I am glad to see that this issue is gaining attention.

It's a travesty.

I voted today in Dallas, Texas on a paperless machine. I wonder how my vote was actually counted.
02:04 PM on 10/31/2008
Hi Jonathan,

Mike Connell (Smartech Corp and many other companies) is someone everyone should read about. He's been rigging for years. And guess what? He's working for John McCain now. This election will be rigged, there is no doubt about it. Why isn't Mike Connell in jail for his past crimes is beyond my comprehension.

I had mentioned Stephen Spoonamore in an earlier post. Here is an article about his recent actions taken against vote rigging. (sorry for the long messy link)

http://thejournal.epluribusmedia.net/index.php/state-news/ohio-news/200-ohio-cyber-security-expert-says-2004-kingpin-attack-benefited-bush
02:00 PM on 10/31/2008
.
why aren't we using paper and pencil?


.
01:59 PM on 10/31/2008
.
that information about daily recalibrating touch voting machines that flip the voters' choices is pretty scary - the UN can't help us if the vote is already programmed to choose a candidate

why aren't we using paper and pencil?

.
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XME
Life is hard. After all, it kills you.
03:23 AM on 11/01/2008
Because it would take weeks to add up the votes, ballots could be lost, etc. Sadly, I'm not sure there is any really good option.
12:21 PM on 11/03/2008
it certaintly does not take weeks to count the ballots.....take a look at any country that uses this method.....and besides, wouldn't you rather it take weeks to count the votes and ensure a fair election, or are you that impatient that you need to know the same day
02:31 PM on 11/03/2008
Canada uses strictly paper ballots and cardboard boxes with a hole in them. We get our results usually by 8pm on election night. No shenanigans ever, and the U.N. rates us in the top 3 countries of the world for our clean, valid, and reliable elections. Any school kid could do it.
01:55 PM on 10/31/2008
Thanks for writing this. We desperately need nationwide election reform.
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MamaJoe
Age is a high price to pay for maturity.
01:16 PM on 10/31/2008
Is this why McCain says that he's confidant he's going to win? Maybe he knows something we don't.

Obama/Biden 08
12:59 PM on 10/31/2008
Yes, and this option scares the h-ll out of me. Election may well be a crazy demo, not an example of democracy.
12:56 PM on 10/31/2008
In West Virginia the election officials there say that they recalibrate the machines that have been reported to have problems. I want to know what happens when a machine is recalibrated once voting has begun?

Are the votes that are logged lost? What happens to the data?

What do the machines need to be recalibrated so much?

How do we know that no votes have been lost or inaccurately recorded?
12:48 PM on 10/31/2008
Why don't we just dip our fingers in purple ink like they did in the Iraq elections. We may have to resort to that.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Phil Waste
Angry Middle Class American Citizen
12:46 PM on 10/31/2008
There is only one sure way to overcome the fraud and cheating and that is to go to the polls is such numbers that the outcome cannot be in doubt. No more close elections. We the people have to overwhelm those who would deny us our voice and overwhelm them in such numbers as they can't deny us our day at the polls.