Voting a straight party ticket DOES NOT include a vote for president in:

[berniew1]

Hundreds of thousands or millions of votes appear to have not gone to the intended candidate for President due to defaults or programming that did not credit straight party voters with the Presidential choice they intended. Many counties in many states affected.

Voting a straight party ticket DOES NOT include a vote for president in North Carolina and South Carolina, by State Law.
But the public generally doesn't know about it and Kerry lost many thousands of votes (called undervotes) in N.Carolina & S. Carolina.
Many other states also had similar "defaults" or "glitches" or "programming problems" that cost straight party voters their presidential vote, and vote straight Dem voters got Bush as their choice for President in states like Texas.

http://www.wwaytv3.com/Global/story.asp?S=2477730

Burke County, N.C., Unilect Patriot touchscreen machines registered presidential undervotes in excess of 10% -- 1 in 10 people didn't vote for president. The machine is the same as the one that lost 4,400 votes in Carteret County, but officials think it was the screen/ballot design(default to blank) rather than a malfunction that caused the high undervote rate. (apparently the majority were straight party voters who did not realise that voting straight party did not include the vote for President). http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=4645

(10% of voters in Burke County didn't have their Pres. vote count, and similar for some other counties where straight party voting was possible)
North Carolina http://www.flcv.com/northcar.html
South Carolina http://www.flcv.com/southcar.html

Texas http://www.flcv.com/texas.html

Indiana Franklin County. Optical scan equipment counted straight-party votes for Democratic candidates as Libertarian votes; 9 counties may be affected. A programming error in Fidlar optical scanners in Franklin County led to a recount last week. The error caused straight-party Democratic ballots to be counted for Libertarian candidates and straight-party Libertarian ballots to be counted for Democratic candidates, Fidlar officials said. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=3862

Missouri http://www.flcv.com/missouri.html

Wisconsin similar & other states (including some counties in Fla.)

http://www.flcv.com/ussumall.html

[berniew1]

1. What should be done about programming "glitches" like these???

Change laws?
More voter education?
Audit all election computer compilers before and after election?


Along with the millions of votes potentially affected by touchscreen fraud/glitches and the thousands of other programming "glitches" known about and the many not caught, millions of votes didn't go for the candidate of voters choice. What does this say about the 2004 election and our electoral system??




Can we fix the system?

Is Electoral Reform by citizen Initiative the most logical response?

[Kip Humphrey]

2. They're NOT GLITCHES - They are programmed features

Programs are not organic. If a program performs a function repeatedly, that function was designed, written, debugged, tested, and integrated with forethought and intention. IT IS NOT A GLITCH! It is a program function.

The "Vote Democratic Slate" exploit occurred repeatedly in at least 8 states on several types of voting machines (DREs and scanners*). It is an alogorythm: a program function designed to fool voters and favor Bush. It is a crime and it was part of an organized effort to steal the election.


source: EIRS

[iconoclastNYC]

4. Here's what should be done

Some left-winging hacker should screw over a Republican candidate in this manner. The Republicans will make a big deal out of it and then maybe we'll get some traction for reform.

[Kip Humphrey]

3. Texas

Both AccuScans and Hart Intercivics used in Texas incorporated the Vote Democratic Slate" exploit which denied Kerry countless votes.

[Botany]

5. The machines did what they were told to do.

And the press will not touch this story.
And the bodies will build up like cord wood.
And Osoma will still be free.
And Fox & company will continue to lie.
And most of the democratic leadership will not do shit.
And the debt will grow.
And bush will go on his Leni Reifenstahle style tour lying about Social Security.

Stephanie :loveya: Miller

[emlev]

6. Thanks for this, Bernie. But do we really need a Straight Party?

They all seem that way to me!