Will The Next Election Be Hacked?

[babsbunny]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11717105/robert_f_kennedy_jr__will_the_next_election_be_hacked

The debacle of the 2000 presidential election made it all too apparent to most Americans that our electoral system is broken. And private-sector entrepreneurs were quick to offer a fix: Touch-screen voting machines, promised the industry and its lobbyists, would make voting as easy and reliable as withdrawing cash from an ATM. Congress, always ready with funds for needy industries, swiftly authorized $3.9 billion to upgrade the nation's election systems - with much of the money devoted to installing electronic voting machines in each of America's 180,000 precincts. But as midterm elections approach this November, electronic voting machines are making things worse instead of better. Studies have demonstrated that hackers can easily rig the technology to fix an election - and across the country this year, faulty equipment and lax security have repeatedly undermined election primaries. In Tarrant County, Texas, electronic machines counted some ballots as many as six times, recording 100,000 more votes than were actually cast. In San Diego, poll workers took machines home for unsupervised "sleepovers" before the vote, leaving the equipment vulnerable to tampering. And in Ohio - where, as I recently reported in "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" , dirty tricks may have cost John Kerry the presidency - a government report uncovered large and unexplained discrepancies in vote totals recorded by machines in Cuyahoga County.

[Chemical Bill]

1. They start by controling the news.... n/t

[loudsue]

2. The news is certainly a HUGE part of all of it.

Back in the day when Kevin Shelley, Sec.of State of California, outlawed Diebold, the media talking-heads kept mentioning California was a blue state.

Then the repukes drummed up some TOTALLY bogus claims of fraud against Shelley (which he was later cleared of, sound familiar? ), and drummed him out of office while his mother was in the hospital dying (later, she did die) .

So, the NEW repuke appointed Sec. of State reinstated Diebold (which is, of course, WHY they got rid of Shelley). IMMEDIATELY on the news, you started hearing the talking-heads saying "California is a SWING state".

Anyone that thinks Rove's media arm of the repervlikin party is not in on the Diebold mess (and indeed they are part of it) hasn't been paying attention.

Rove has NO INTENTION of letting Dems take both houses of congress in 2008. He FULLY INTENDS to have a Democratic president, because there will be such a mess left after bush that the repukes will need someone for the repervlikin media to BLAME this mess on. It is in keeping with Rove's long term strategy to have a repervlikin majority, forever and ever amen, to make the Dems look as overwhelmed as possible, and to create such chaos that there's no way anyone could ever possibly straighten it all out.

Unless Dems get rid of the computerized voting machines and reinstate the Fairness Doctrine and RE-regulate the media, this country is TOAST in the long run.

The repervlikins fully intend to keep their hands in the voting machines. And with at least one branch of congress in hands of republicans come 2008, there's no way in hell any election reform will ever take place.

Dems are NOT paying attention to the KEY ELEMENTS that will save our Democracy, but you can bet your bottom dollar the repervlikins know exactly what they're doing.

:kick::kick::kick:

[bearfan454]

3. How did we get both houses in the midterms ?

Did Rove misjudge how many votes to steal ?

[truebrit71]

4. Simple answer? Yes, I think he did...

I think that there will be more 'shenanigans' in the next GE, and the rethuglicans will either miscalculate again, OR, and this would be even more fun, MASSIVELY over-compensate and make it so freaking obvious that they are manipulating the vote that the bastards get lynched...

[loudsue]

11. Yes. According to the AAAS, approx. 20 seats were stolen in 2006.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science convention in San Francisco in February of this year had a forum on the subject. A panel of 5 scientists & mathematicians, with research, graphs and figures provided by states and counties, concluded that the Dems would have won an additional 20 seats if the election had not been gerrymandered. I was at the convention, and sat in for this presentation, and a follow-up the next day with a smaller, less structured group.

They concluded, further, that there was NO WAY it was NOT gerrymandered.

:kick::kick::kick:

[mnhtnbb]

5. Yes. Unless the Dem Congress requires paper ballots.

[bearfan454]

9. I can only hope for that.

It doesn't look like they will.

[CRH]

6. The Voting legislation introduced in the 110th Congress ...

Amendments to HAVA have been introduced in previous congresses only to die. The latest was H.B. 550 sponsored by Rush Holt, and was introduced in the 109th congress. The bill drew mixed reviews.

Bev Harris from Black Box Voting on H.B. 550 sponsored by Rush Holt

http://www.onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_677.shtml

Black Box Voting opposes Rush Holt bill, calling it "dangerous"
By Bev Harris
Online Journal Guest Writer

Apr 10, 2006, 01:50

snip

Paul Lehto, an attorney who is a leader in the election reform movement and the plaintiff in a groundbreaking lawsuit related to electronic voting, has a unique clarity in public policy issues. Lehto says, " paper record requirement, combined with a worse than anemic audit feature, is so darn dangerous in terms of its ability to create false confidence . . .

"Putting into the Holt bill a provision specifying the method of EAC audit (2 percent or more precinct sampling) simply telegraphs to cheaters how to cheat and not get caught . . ."

snip

But here it is: Black Box Voting believes that H.B. 550 is unwise. It will not be effective to improve citizen oversight or election integrity. It is dangerous, because the weakness of the antibiotic will create a more resistant strain of election manipulation.

snip

It's Not About a Paper Trail; it's About Banning SECRECY

If we want a trustworthy system, we need to be unafraid to entertain the idea that if you make any facet of elections secret (other than who a person votes for), it will attract criminals. Such a temptation may take place inside a voter registration database or voting machine vendor's operation. In the case of a rogue programmer, management need not even know (if the programmer is positioned correctly). It may exist inside an elections office, or with a poll worker, or through a political operative.

--end of excerpts this article--

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/nj12_holt/020607.html

Holt Reintroduces Voting Integrity Bill
Bill Would Require Voter-Verified Paper Ballot and Random Audits 

snip

The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act would require a voter-verified paper ballot for every vote cast, which would become the ballot of record in the event of any recount or audit.  It would require routine random audits of paper ballots by hand count in a percentage of voting precincts in each Congressional District.  It would also take steps to make elections more publicly transparent by allowing for the inspection of voting system software.  It would require documenting a secure chain of custody for voting systems and prohibit conflicts of interest involving vendors.  It would keep the election process accessible to voters with disabilities, and authorize federal funding to help states meet the requirements.

Holt first introduced legislation requiring that electronic voting machines produce a voter-verified paper ballot in the 108th Congress.  In the 109th Congress, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (H.R. 550) had the support of 222 bipartisan cosponsors, more than a majority of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Despite this fact, it was not brought to the House floor for a vote. 

Holt called on Congress to pass his legislation soon, in order to assure enough implementation time for the 2008 presidential election.  “Restoring confidence in our democracy and in our electoral system is a priority that cannot wait,” said Rep. Holt.  “Mandating the accessibility and auditability of elections is essential for voters to have faith that their votes are counted as cast.”

--end excerpt this article--

This Bill has been re-introduced in the 110th congress as H.R. 811, presently with 210 co-sponsors. You might want to see if your congress person is a co-sponsor, and if not, you might want to ask them, why not. The link to H.B. 811 at Thomas is below.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h811:

the text link to H.R. 811 below

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.811:

Bev Harris still finds issues with H.B. 811 at link below.

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

The slow wheels of legislation are turning, but are they turning fast enough? It must pass soon if it is to be implemented for the 2008 primaries and general election. After seven years since Election 2000, and the subsequent ineffectiveness of the HAVA reform, one would certainly hope Madam Speaker can provide us with an election reform bill that works. Then it is up to the Senate. Then we will be able to see in the congressional record, which legislators in both houses support the integrity of democracy's most sacred right, that of the vote.

Happy reading.

[windy252]

7. K&R

Glad to see someone is finally considering this. My own opinion is they'll manipulate it so that it's obvious, but I doubt anything will happen. But hey, I was wrong about 2006, so fingers crossed.

[Greyhound]

8. Just like the last the last four were. n/t

[mtnester]

10. Not again in Ohio it won't

We got RID of Blackwell and his ilk, thank God and the flying spaghetti monster!

State office holders are all DEMS now here...no hacking tolerated.

What WILL happen is voter suppression AGAIN if we let it. The bad thing is that at every voting place, there are equal amount of REPUBS as there are DEMS, plus the phone system, mailings, etc. I AGAIN, will stand in the rain as is tradition in Ohio on election day and fight suppression tooth and nail.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. They will try, you can bet on it