On a Newfangled Voting Machine, the Same Old Fraud

[gristy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/27/international/asia/27indi.html?hp

By DAVID ROHDE
Published: April 27, 2004

MAUJEMPUR, India, April 26 - Standing under a blistering sun in this destitute farming village in northern India on Monday morning, about 100 sinewy men and 30 rail-thin women waited patiently for their chance to cast ballots on India's newest accomplishment: an electronic voting machine.
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In less than 30 minutes on Monday morning, workers from a local political party, which political analysts say has kept Bihar's 100 million people mired in poverty, seized control of the voting machine. An old India abruptly reappeared, one that shows that the country still faces pitfalls as it pursues its dream of becoming a global economic and political power.

In what appeared to be a carefully planned series of events, two small bombs exploded near the polling place and party workers threatened the five policemen guarding the booth and then brazenly took control of it. As poll workers and policemen averted their eyes, young party workers pushed the button for their party on the electronic voting machine over and over again, casting vote after fraudulent vote.

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[dusty64]

1. Looks like these

machines are ruining democracy all around the planet. They MUST be stopped!

[PATRICK]

2. Poorly trained vote fixers

Another reason we cannot export our tech and jobs overseas. Any idiot with computer sense could quietly fix votes in a dozen different ways. If they had even bothered to read Bev's book! But perhaps these goons can't read the Diebold instructions.

This is like someone beating someone on the head with a missile launcher. How dumb, how inappropriate. What a waste of technology.