Here's a good handout: 20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA

[Carolab]

20 Amazing Facts About
Voting in the USA
by Angry Girl

Nightweed.com



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/042804landes.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/042804landes.html



3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.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/main632436.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/2004/03/03_200.html

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.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&file=article&sid=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.html



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/042804landes.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/pfindex.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 is based in Ohio.
http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm



12. 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



13. 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



14. 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



15. 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.html



16. 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 <http://blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov>.)
http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190



17. 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/main632436.shtml



18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html

http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm

http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html

http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=950

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm



19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html



20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.
http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm

http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,97614,00.html

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html

http://uscountvotes.org/

[slor]

1. WOW...NICE WORK...

and quite depressing too!

[greenman3610]

2. I'm going to circulate this widely

[greenman3610]

3. add Mike Malloy's rant about the Right wing Christian connection

http://www.greenmanstudio.com/malloy11304.mov

[progressoid]

4. Nice synopsis but one thing...

I don't think Hagel is all that tight with the bushes. He's a little too open with his opinions and strays too far from the neocon path. He was one of the first to openly condemn bush's handling of Iraq. He pisses off a lot of NE repubs all the time with his statements

But his miraculous landslide victory has always been a wonder (maybe he does have a connection to bush there - maybe god picked him just like god picked shrub). And his connections to ES&S and his denial of it is reprehensible to the extreme. Sadly, most people in NE don't even know about this issue or maybe just don't care.

[Angry Girl]

21. Hagel business ties go back to Bush Sr.

Hagel has an odd relationship with the Bushes, not one that could be described as lovey-dovey, but Hagel has been working with the Bushes for a while. For one, Hagel was Head of the Private Sector Council under Bush Sr.

[Jo March]

5. Wow. That is great - and scary.

I've been trying to say this all along but I've never had such a great list like that.

Thanks for posting. It's now time to spread it far and wide.

[Hamoth]

6. #18 not true.

go to votersunite.org, there are machine errors that inflated for Kerry.

Here's one:
http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10669~2507743,00.html

There's a handfull more at:
http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp?offset=80&sort=date&selectstate=ALL&selectproblemtype=Machine%20malfunction

[fasttense]

10. Some voting complaints fell in favor of Kerry

If I were going to rig the election, I would ensure some (a very small percentage) of the rigging would fall out in favor of my opponent so it looked like it was not intentional. Just in case I was caught, just in case someone started talking or complaining. There were so few "glitches" that fell out in favor of Kerry that there seems to be someone orchestrating it all. There is no way around this conclusion. Someone very carefully planned this botched election despite what the media and some democrats say.

[Chi]

12. Re-read your links

Would be a good idea to read a tad more closely before telling someone they are incorrect, in no uncertain terms.

"All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates."

Neither of your links contain any information on FLORIDA Bush voters
having problems.
Please let me know if I am incorrect, or missed something.

[Hamoth]

13. Gotcha...FLORIDA

I did miss that word...I think it might be a little misleading though given the title...then that #18 only applies to florida.

[Angry Girl]

20. I didn't find anything contradicting #18

Maybe I missed it. Please note that #18 specifically mention FLORIDA.

If #18 is not true, please show me the case and I will correct my list.

[s-cubed]

7. nice job

[Kralizec]

8. Good collection! I'm going to go through and print up a page

with the full links, so I can pass this out and people can go home and try the links.... Perhaps I can just direct them to ONE site that links all of this. Anyway, that is my problem. Good work.

[Hamoth]

9. Distribute at your own hazard...

#18 needs to be corrected before distributing.

It's otherwise good work.

[Kralizec]

16. I'll go through and edit it if necessary. Thanks for the heads up. n/t

[electropop]

11. Well done!

I'm going to email it to the lefties in my family. The righties can find out when Bush does: when the indictment is unveiled by Kerry.

[MarkusQ]

14. To make it more persuasive

To make it more persuasive, you might want to either 1) drop point 18 (which I don't think is correct) and/or 2) make a clear separation between the Bush/Neocon/Win-at-any-cost group and Republicans in general. Remember, most Republicans (my self included) take a very dim view of cheating. The "moral values" everyone makes such a big deal of are pretty clear on that point--it doesn't matter what the scoreboard says; if you cheated, you lost.

--MarkusQ

[glitch]

15. That may've once been true, but the kind of people your party has been

supporting, and therefore attracting, has changed radically in the last 25 years.
I am sure you know you guys need to take your party back, if you can, before it self-destructs.
I honestly wish you good luck.

[MarkusQ]

17. They are the same people you've been electing president.

That may've once been true, but the kind of people your party has been supporting, and therefore attracting, has changed radically in the last 25 years. I am sure you know you guys need to take your party back, if you can, before it self-destructs.

We (the Republicans) have been supporting them the same way we (all Americans) have been electing them: the majority of people seem to be against them, but they some how mysteriously win anyway. Look at the ads that somebody (not Bush, of course) ran against John McCain's military record. Then look at the ads that somebody (not Bush, of course) ran against John Kerry's military record. Look at the voting irregularities in the primaries. Compare the process by which the Neo-cons took control of the Republican party with the way the took control of the country. See why we're pissed?

How many fiscal conservatives do you really think support Bush? How many Christians with strong family values do you think are really in favour of lying to the American public so you can get "permission" to send their children off to kill people, and possibly get killed in the process? How many social conservatives do you think like having their tax dollars pay to have people use dogs to force men to masturbate on camera?

Of course, you'd never guess it from the media, or if you only listen to the astro-turf yahoos. But then, if you only listened to them you'd think the Democrats were mostly on board with Bush & co. too.

If you want a strong ally in this fight (or at least a determined one) court the non-Neo-con Republicans. The ones that don't think the Geneva Convention is "quaint", the ones that take the constitution seriously, the ones that value integrity, responsibility, and moral principles.

From what I've seen, we're even more fed up with Bush and his yes-people than the Democrats are.

--MarkusQ

[glitch]

18. Unfortunately some of the Republicans I know fit into the cheat to win

variety. It's not just the vote fraud and the media that makes us think most Republicans are supporting the changes to the Republican Party, it's some (albeit limited) personal experience.

But I don't know every Republican in America, and I don't trust the measures to evaluate opinion any more than you do. If most of the Republicans you know feel the same way you do, I will be greatly encouraged.

I do know some Republicans are horrified at Bush and did not vote for him the second time. So I don't lump all Republicans together.

And I agree - we will have to find as many allies as we can to fight this cancer.

As to your final sentence - I have been saying this for years! You guys are not only losing what we're losing, but also your good name.
You should be livid.

And, belated welcome to DU!

[MarkusQ]

22. Sadly true.

There are Republicans who want to win at any cost. And I've seen Democrats here on DU call for planting evidence to help nail them.

I've met people of low character from every corner of the political landscape. In fact, they seem to scatter like leaves, changing sides with every gust of wind. But I've met many, many more people of sound and strong character, people who want to be on the side of right more than they want to be on the side of victory. And again, these people come from every corner of the political landscape.

Unfortunately, unless you take the trouble to reach out to the "other side" (as, for example, I am doing by hanging out on DU) you mostly encounter the blowhards and shills. Everybody got to see the Swift Boat Liars For Bush, but very few got to see the grass roots Republican reaction (disgust at the tactic) or hear the more responsible Republican leaderships (e.g., John McCain) decry the slander.

--MarkusQ

[pipes]

19. This is on Solarbus.org also

Who's is it, and can we send it out all over the place...

http://www.solarbus.org/stealyourelection/articles/20things.html

[Angry Girl]

26. It's mine and here's the original

http://nightweed.com/usavotefacts.html

[pipes]

27. Well it is an awesome thing....

Great job! This was the most comprehensive "our voting system sucks" all in one place reading that has links and everything. I posted on a Yahoo group for Kerry as well as sent it out to all of my contacts!

Thanks for putting it together!

The people should know all of this crap!

[bj2110]

23. Kick

[Eloriel]

24. Carolab -- why not repost this with "plain text" formatting

so people can copy and paste with the links intact?

(Just click the box at the top of the "Your Message" window.

[Dinger]

25. Thanks! I'm E-mailing It To Everybody I Know!

Excellent list!!:thumbsup: