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Election fraud?
I'm usually hugely sceptical about conspiracy theories but this one I DO buy. I'm sure the right hacked into the computer system at Ohio in 2004. Remember how the exit polls all predicted that Kerry would win it? The pundits were stunned when he didn't. They all later tied themselves in knots putting down the actual result to `values` voters.
I didn't believe it. I vividly remember a Democratic observer saying that it was weird the way results `mistakenly` flashed up on the computers before the election had closed and he was convinced it was rigged.
Anyone here know what protections are in place against hacking and whether they're cast iron in swing states currently administered by the GOP?
Comments (7)
I've got no doubt that the GOP has some pretty solid protections in place to prevent us from hacking in and making sure the voting machines are accurately reporting results. They've fought tooth-and-nail against requiring such machines use only open source code, so you know they're not going to let us validate the integrity of the system.
The only optimism I can warrant is that we're smarter than they are.
June 16, 2008 8:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I follow the voting posts at the Freedom to Tinker blog - they touch on all manner of tech issues, and they take issues with voting machines very seriously.
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?cat=17
In short, I am VERY concerned about problems with voting machines, not to mention voter ID requirements in several states.
If it comes down to squeaking out victories in purple states by a vote or two per precinct in November, I'm worried. The votes can be off by one or two PER MACHINE, let alone precinct.
June 17, 2008 3:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Fran, the real problem is that no one knows what protections are in place, if any. As Ben says, the voting machines are essentially black boxes and the last thing their manufacturers will tell you is how they actually work. I honestly don't understand how the US government could be so idiotic as to allow this to happen (but idiocy does not imply conspiracy!).
From what is publicly known, many of the voting machines are not secure. And the whole system is a lot less secure than, say, the slot machines in Vegas. After all, it's only about votes, not about money.
After the Nov 2000 mess, the US Govt set aside several billion dollars for voting machines. This money had to me spent within certain timeframe. This had a predictable result: several companies quickly threw together crappy products to get a chance at a slice of the pie, and local governments went with the lowest bidder. Capitalism at its best.
June 17, 2008 4:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is so depressing. In 2004 after Ohio I told a friend of mine that now the US was going computerised, the Dems would never win an election again.
sigh
What on earth is wrong with ticking a box on a ballot paper? We still do it here - polls close at six pm and we're pretty sure of our results by 8pm and know them by 9.
And we have confidence in their integrity because all political parties are allowed to have their own people in there supervising the count.
June 17, 2008 7:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
There's nothing wrong with ticking a box on a ballot paper. Keep in mind that at the centrepiece of the Florida 2000 Voting Disaster were voting machines... just mechanical, not electronic ones. If something is broken, the American approach is to fix it with more of the same.
June 17, 2008 7:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Fran, I do not know what, if any, protections are in place for this election.
But if you want to read a comprehensive, carefully-researched and footnoted article about all the ways in which the 2000 and 2004 elections were manipulated, please look in the June '06 archives of Rolling Stone. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with a co-author, researched this piece for two years. There were five forms of election manipulation they cited: 1) prejudicial voter registration blocks (which we just saw enacted as new legislation in IN, and which was defeated recently in MS); 2) the infamous Florida butterfly ballot, which did not align properly, so that a vote for Gore read as a vote for Pat Buchanan (in addition to the recount that was arbitrarily stopped by Supreme Court; 3)computerized voting machine manipulation in only carefully selected precincts (in which a vote for Kerry registered as a vote for Bush)... There were two more categories but I can't remember, off hand, what they were.
It is a sobering read. I'm sure the DNC is aware of it. Whether anything can be done, in advance, to prevent these problems I do not know.
June 17, 2008 10:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
commoncause.org has an election reform section with charts that depict which states are high risk for voting fraud, plus other key information.
The chad problem never called for anything but tossing ballots with chads and perhaps also a standard, clear paper ballot with boxes to check.
The paper method--with local volunteers collecting and counting votes--seems the hardest to tamper with. If it's not broken, why fix it?
June 17, 2008 11:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
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