Not Again! How Our Voting System Is Ripe For Theft and Meltdown in 2012

[BridgeTheGap]

The most fundamental of democratic processes has become more barrier-filled and error-prone than at anytime since Florida’s 2000 election, when voter list purges, flawed voting technology and a partisan U.S. Supreme Court majority ended a statewide recount and installed George W. Bush as president.

This fall’s potential problems begin with a new generation of voter suppression laws and aging voting machines in a handful of presidential battleground states. And other important factors are in play, such as election officials curtailing voting options due to fiscal constraints, the increasing age of poll workers—volunteers averaging in their 70s—who must referee an ever more complex process, and the likelihood that close races will end up in post-Election Day legal fights.

Voters tell academics they want consistency in voting. Yet emerging trends are poised to upend that hope in many states. This year’s big questions are: where will the meltdown—or meltdowns—occur, what will go wrong, on what scale, and, when it comes to computer failures or tampering, will we even know about it?
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“We need good technology and we need good laws,” said Barbara Simons. The retired IBM computer scientist and nationally known expert on voting technology is co-author of a new book, Broken Ballots: Will Your Vote Count? which details America’s history of voting machinery and election administration, and concludes that many states have neither good technology nor good vote count rules.

http://www.alternet.org/story/156252/not_again%21_how_our_voting_system_is_ripe_for_theft_and_meltdown_in_2012?akid=9052.260941.as2oG7&rd=1&t=3

[zeemike]

1. No we don't need no technology at all

Other than paper and pencil.
You fill out the ballot....someone counts it in front of observers...and gives the results...spend the money on hiring people to do the simple job instead of spending more and more on gadgets that require you to spend more on gadgets to watch that no one hacks the gadget...
The money spend on paying some retired people to work once in a while goes right back into the economy anyway...

[RC]

2. Naaa, too transparent for our Overlords.

The machines are easy to "Program" with the proper results beforehand.

[polichick]

3. The truth - and horror - is that neither party has fought for...

...verifiable voting on behalf of citizens - even after 2000 and 2004.

[BridgeTheGap]

4. Absolutely. I know the g.o.p. has no interest going there for obvious

reasons. The Dems must be affraid that pursuing this looks too much like conspiracy theory quackery. But the evidence is awfully strong that something is going on here, particularly in the discrepancies between exit polling and actual results. I'm seriously considering an effort to get the book mentioned in this article ("Broken Ballots: Will Your Vote Count?&quot into the hands of every secretary of state (or state electoral officials) and county clerk in the country. These 2 authors can not be easily discredited.

[groovedaddy]

5. Here's the thing: this whole conversation seems to engender deep cynicism.

Think about it. If you have any inkling that this is going on, why vote? You certainly can't vote with confidence that your vote is being registered as you actually cast it. This issue needs to be dealt with NOW!