Letter to the Editor
The Republican controlled news media is blaming bloggers for reporting early that Kerry had won the election. As a blogger I find that amusing because we got our information from pollsters like John Zogby of the Zogby poll who announced the day before the election that Kerry was going to win by a landslide. We also got our information from the real results of the exit polls that showed Kerry winning by a landslide. Were bloggers like me wrong about what we reported? No - we weren't.
The real story now is that with electronic voting on voting machines that are easily hacked, and in states like Ohio where the Secretary of State who counts the votes was also the state chairman for the Bush campaign, that the system is so riddled with fraud that we don't know who really won the election. The real story is that in areas with voting machines that are easily tampered with that the supposed error in the exit polls are far greater than areas with paper ballots and the error was all in favor of Bush. But if you want the details of those stories - you won't find that in the mainstream press. You have to get online and read the blogs.
We need to make the charge of voter fraud and intimidation stick to these people. Just as they have make liberal a bad word.
Edd
Every State/County has an EDP auditing staff. As electronic voting machines are EDP devices, simply filing a FOIA with the county asking for all records pertaining to audits of these machines and their disk drives should be the first salvo.
When no records are forthcoming, a lawsuit claiming a lack of proper oversight of these systems would be the next step, followed by pressure on couty/state elected officials to demonstrate the integrity of these systems and producing election day audits and examinations of the systems drives and logs (including setting the clock back to election day and running a several thousand documented votes through the system, among other tests).
Posted by: Steve at November 9, 2004 08:57 PMPardon my computer ignorance, but by the time we get our little hands on all this voting software wouldn't it be possible that Republican sponsored hackers will tamper with the info that we really need to make our case? This worries me. Am I correct in assuming this? Anyone? Thanks.
Posted by: Hope at November 10, 2004 11:11 AMWhat the fuck? I have friends from Mexico who had this happen to them with elections. 70 years the same party won. How did we become Mexico? And what do these moralists in the Refuglican Party think of stealing votes through machines? Do they really believe it was Gods will that the machines gave Bush extra votes?
Sincerely,
Pissed in OC
Posted by: Mark at November 12, 2004 08:36 PMI believe we are seeing a technique called co-option. A little dissent is allowed, then marginalized and discredited. Conventional Wisdom tells us nothing can be proved due to lack of a paper trail. Yes, in most cases there is no paper trail, but a trail exists nonetheless. It becomes a Computer forensics problem involving at least a random sampling of precinct machines, and more importantly Physical examination of the Central Servers used to tabulate All precinct results. Possible examples would be machines which had been serviced after certification, missing Software or Hardware, or Altered Software or Hardware. Any indication of change would set off a red flag. These are Windows OS machines which not only record all activity, but are notorious for their lack of security. The Windows version on most of these is several generations old and have not been kept up to date via patches. Then you have the problem of the proprietary GEMS Software etal, which the various Voting Machine Companies should be forced to provide the source code. Next you have the physical storage medium which can be examined for changes. The tabulation records should still exist on the Hard Disk Drive. Unless the Drive(s) have been physically destroyed, the data in all probability can be retrieved. If the storage has been removed or erased, this would indicate Criminal behavior. I have heard comments asking why there are no Hackers on the Dem side. Good question, but while it may be possible to break into some of the machines remotely, results would likely be limited. The real opportunity exists with the entity with physical and intellectual possession of Our Votes. So Who has the Motive, the Ability, and the Opportunity to do this?
Posted by: M Patrick at November 13, 2004 01:35 PM