Maryland House votes to oust Diebold machines

[Stop Shrub]

http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/governmen...

[rndmprsn]

1. yea! go my state!

[smtpgirl]

15. Too bad they did not decide that

BEFORE THEY SELECTED ERLICH, that fake haired man is dust, he won't be around next year.

[rndmprsn]

23. omalley is going to wipe his ass with ehrlich come nov!

[MadMaddie]

2. Yes.....

[Tiggeroshii]

3. FINALLY!

New Mexico didn't seem like it had plans to do so, but it ended up beating Maryland to it! I'm glad they finally got to it!

That's 2 down. 48 more to go? Or how ever many can be done before the electioons. It's clear, those are not in the interest of anybody who loves freedom.

[MissWaverly]

4. there is no way that Maryland would walk away from 90 mil

investment in Diebold w/o a good reason.

[bpj1962]

8. Diebold

Maryland has one simple reason to walk away from Diebold. Governor Erlich. He is up for reelection and since both houses of the MD legislature are firmly in democratic hands, I think they want to ensure that a "fair" election occurs in November. Also Erlich's Lt. Governor Michael Steele is running as the republican candidate for the MD senate seat being vacated by Paul Sarbanes. Erlich is up to his neck in lawsuits over firings of career state employees. He learned his political dirty tricks from Newt Gingrich.

[MissWaverly]

12. Yes, but Ehrlich is leading the charge

and I still think the State of Maryland should be trying to get it's investment back.

[smtpgirl]

16. Erlich won't be back neither will Steele

O'Malley will win the Governorship

[MissWaverly]

19. Hey , I hope so

I don't like this scandal where people were booted out of their jobs because they were dems,
or the 2 Baltimore Sun reporters that were blacklisted.

[OKNancy]

5. snip from article

MARCH 10, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - The state of Maryland stands poised to put its entire $90 million investment in Diebold Election Systems Inc. touch-screen e-voting systems on ice because they can’t produce paper receipts.
The state House of Delegates this week voted 137-0 to approve a bill prohibiting election officials from using AccuVote-TSx touch-screen systems in 2006 primary and general elections.

The legislation calls for the state to lease paper-based optical-scan systems for this year's votes. State Delegate Anne Healey estimated the leasing cost at $12.5 million to $16 million for the two elections.

Healey is the vice chairwoman of the Maryland House Ways and Means Committee, which recommended the passage of the bill.

---

it will need to go to the Senate for final passage

[FogerRox]

6. KNR

[rg302200]

7. Nice...

I am just ashamed that Diebold is from my home state of Ohio...

[happydreams]

9. KICK!! This is a hopeful sign.

[tom_paine]

10. Good news for a change!

[demobabe]

11. Well, it's a step

Only one problem: optical scan machines have central tabulators as well.

I interviewed Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman who suddenly lost the election after a second recount of the votes, secretly done at night with Republicans locking themselves in the Baldwin County Courthouse.

Blamed on a "machine malfunction" from a lightening strike, thousands of votes were switched giving the win to Riley. Oddly enough, there wasn't a single discrepancy in ANY of the other races during this recount. Even Riley didn't gain or lose a single vote. Just Siegelman.

Banning the DRE is a good thing, but we still need further precautions.

[meganmonkey]

14. Yep - I just keep reminding myself

that the more this happens, the more people will at least think about their vote and how it is counted. The vaaaaaast majority of voters have probably never even thought about it before.

Every headline is a step in the right direction!

[Orangepeel]

22. but they have ballots that can be recounted

there may still be fraud, but at least the ability to detect fraud exists.

[lovuian]

13. Whoo HOO!!!

MD!!!

[Minnesota Libra]

17. Let's hear it for smart state lawmakers nt

[annabanana]

18. nice... but not good enough

A paper receipt is not a paper ballot...If the voter doesn't get a chance to verify that their ballot (the legal instrument itself) is correct, and that it is the vote of record.. a receipt is just a piece of paper crumpled up in your pocket...

ALSO.. proprietary software in the central tabulators could compromise the whole thing anyway..

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

20. YEEEE HAAAWWWWW !!!

[w4rma]

21. These machines must produce countable paper ballots. (nt)