Sad state of voting in the US.

[yebrent]

I revised the list of 20 facts to include a few that might be more relevant and powerful. I still haven't found a way to include the exit polls, because I think too many Americans are sceptically about the accuracy of polls and it doesn't help the argument much.

On edit: With all the people working on voting reform, why aren't these facts clearly displayed on one website, with well researched links to the most effective articles? I attended the Oakland "Election Rigging 101" teach-in last Saturday. While this was a very educational event, there were only 200-300 people there. An effective and easily readable website compiling the best arguments could reach that many people in an hour.

20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA

Did you know....

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S. http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/04280 04landes.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/04280 04landes.html

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers. http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.h ...
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/04280 04landes.html

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main63 32436.shtml
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/0 03_200.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031 1004fitrakis.html

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.
http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News& p;file=article&sid=26
http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News& p;file=article&s i d=26 http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates. http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.ht ...

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.
http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/04280 04landes.html

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfin ndex.html

10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm

11. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as senior managers and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml

12. Jeff Dean, Diebold's Senior Vice-President and senior programmer on Diebold's central compiler code, was convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree.
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

13. Diebold Senior Vice-President Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

14. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio. http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh ....

15. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it. (See the movie here blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov .)
http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190

16. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main63 32436.shtml

17. 100% of the votes cast in the latest Venezuelan election were cast on electronic voting machines with a paper trail.

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0906/pol-vote-09-06-04.asp
http://news.com.com/Global+lessons+in+e-voting/2009-7337_3-5387540.html

18. All - not some - but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Ohio and Florida went in favor of Bush, Republican candidates, or against Kerry. http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html
http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm
http://www.blackstate.com/election-errors-bush.html

19. Kenneth Blackwell, The Secretary of State of Ohio, the person ultimately responsible for an accurate vote count in Ohio was the Co-Chair of the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign for Ohio. After the election he sent out a letter to his supporters bragging about delivering Ohio for Bush.
http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=528
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/010505Conover/010505conover.html

20. The Ohio recount was performed illegally and is being challenged.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=7
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1231-02.htm

[yebrent]

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