Anonymous did not stop Rove from stealing the election.

[JohnnyRingo]

62. I thought we were just talking about Ohio.

I live in a part of Ohio that uses the infamous Diebold touch screen machines. Trumbull and nearby Mahoning Counties are 2:1 democrat so they would be prime targets for vote switching in a Rove conspiracy.

We received these machines in 2004 when we and almost all of Ohio replaced the old punch card machines with touch screens that had no paper trail to determine after the election how those units actually voted, other than a computer memory chip. When Ohio went suspiciously for Bush in the '04 election, a public cry went out to add a paper print-out for accountability. Vote switching was cited as the reason.

At first, Diebold said that the technology was impossible, but we elected a Democratic governor that year, and they quickly found a way to print the ballots on a paper roll (like a register receipt) when governor Ted Strickland threatened to end their contract immediately.

I"m a precinct worker here in Trumbull County, and as such, I and three others (2 dems 2 Repub) are largely responsible for security of these paper rolls at our precinct. Here's how that works: The rolls are loaded into the machine and the door is locked (There's only one key). The moment a voter casts their vote, the machine begins printing the vote, line by line, while the voter watches. When the roll fills up, one republican and one democrat replace the roll, and all four workers (two from each party) sign the roll and place it in a locked steel box. Accounting, such as machine serial # and sequential paper roll #, are recorded in a book and signed off by all four of us. The vote total for the machine are printed on the last roll as a final report. At the end of the day, those rolls are returned in the locked box by car to the BOE by one Representative of each party. The rolls are then stored for (I think) two years in case there's a problem that requires accounting.

"Back door" programs can still be installed to change votes, but it's much easier to get caught doing so now as well. Unfortunately, in spite of my advice, many people do not watch the print out, though I've never seen a discrepancy myself, nor has anyone ever complained of one. If they did, the paper roll is to be removed at once by a member of each party and examined for accuracy.

Unlike in 2004, I now have a great deal of confidence in this system.