The plot thickens
In an editorial in Monday's Salt Lake Tribune, we note that the ongoing controversy over Utah's new Diebold touch-screen voting system is one reason why a mail-only option for some of the state's less populated precincts might not be such a bad idea.
A little dot connecting on the Internet provides a thicker plot.
The Diebold machines that were examined by the public interest group Black Box Voting in Emery County, Utah -- an event that caused then-County Clerk Bruce Funk to lose his job -- is cited in our sister paper The Oakland Tribune as the source of a new report pointing out the serious flaws in the system. That report notes that election officials in California, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Iowa -- but not, as far as we know, Utah -- are acting on that report to further secure the trustworthiness of the process.
Meanwhile, the happy-face reporting in The Emery Count Progress of how those tampered-with machines are being restored to health highlights the reassuring comments of Diebold workers from, of all places, Ohio. Those machines are very popular back home, says the software re-installer from Suffield Township, Ohio.
Ohio, of course, is the state where, partly because of questions concerning
the Diebold system, a low murmur of discontent has alleged that the 2004
presidential election was stolen. Such concern -- which has yet to be proven
or disproven -- is the subject of a report from the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee and a book called "Fooled Again."
I'd never encourage anyone to abstain from voting. But maybe a little
absentee voting would be prudent.
-- Posted by George Pyle
A little dot connecting on the Internet provides a thicker plot.
The Diebold machines that were examined by the public interest group Black Box Voting in Emery County, Utah -- an event that caused then-County Clerk Bruce Funk to lose his job -- is cited in our sister paper The Oakland Tribune as the source of a new report pointing out the serious flaws in the system. That report notes that election officials in California, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Iowa -- but not, as far as we know, Utah -- are acting on that report to further secure the trustworthiness of the process.
Meanwhile, the happy-face reporting in The Emery Count Progress of how those tampered-with machines are being restored to health highlights the reassuring comments of Diebold workers from, of all places, Ohio. Those machines are very popular back home, says the software re-installer from Suffield Township, Ohio.
Ohio, of course, is the state where, partly because of questions concerning
the Diebold system, a low murmur of discontent has alleged that the 2004
presidential election was stolen. Such concern -- which has yet to be proven
or disproven -- is the subject of a report from the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee and a book called "Fooled Again."
I'd never encourage anyone to abstain from voting. But maybe a little
absentee voting would be prudent.
-- Posted by George Pyle
4 Comments:
No matter what system we use there will always be those who will find a way to change the results in their favor. I have yet to use a Diebold machine, but I am not in a hurry to try. There are too many stories relating to Diebold and the Republican connection for me to be comfortable with the machines as a safe way to vote.
On the other hand, my sister works in voter elections in Colorado and they haven't had any problems with the machines. As I see it, only time will tell and in this state it will turn out Republican anyway.
It is foolish to have a Republican run company making voting machines. Were a Democratic company to make the machines, then the press would automatically dismiss allegations of vote tampering and would could vote in bliss.
Diebold is clearly a sleaze bag company. I think the real challenge in any government contract is that honest firms rarely get the contracts, while less than honest firms with great PR skills and political connections (like Diebold and Enron) thrive.
Bring those Diebolds on! There used to be instructions out on the Internet on how to change the counts to whatever you wanted while you were voting.
If the digerati can ever agree on anything, we can look forward to Linus Torvalds or Scott Adams as President very soon.
I'm disgusted with the whole Diebold story. Wish I were smarter and had more time to look into it to be sure all the scarty things I've heard about the system are true. Hope people with reliable and objective info about the machines will blog in. I assume there are some of those.
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