Paperess Voting in Florida: I think I voted, but I'll never know for sure.

[shereads]

Okay, I'll bite. Let's set aside any suspicion that Diebold, Inc., was chosen to supply Florida's snazzy new touch-screen voting machines because of their financial support of Gov. Jeb Bush and his older brother. Let's pretend there was a fair and impartial bidding process during which, for some reason, none of the competing firms was able to provide machines that leave a paper trail.

And of course, let's take it for granted that a Diebold board member was making a joke when he told guests at a Republican fundraiser, "Diebold guarantees that George W. Bush will carry Florida."

Haha! Stolen-election jokes from Florida Republicans have remained a bright spot during these dark times. Group hug.

Still...l have to wonder why Automatic Teller Machines are able to produce a paper receipt if the technology is too sophisticated for a voting application.

Would you use a bank that couldn't provide you with a receipt for your deposits?

I woudn't either.

But today I deposited my vote, which is worth substantially more than my checking balance, into a machine that might have been on its coffee break or surfing porn for all I know. It felt wrong.

Wrong and eerie. As if a disembodied voice were about to call out, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"

Four years ago, we Floridians asked our state and local boards of election to accomplish one thing: drag our voting system into the 1990s with something more accurate and reliable than paper ballots.

Foolishly, we forgot that when your genie grants a wish, phrasing is everything. We should have said, "A paper trail is essential in case something goes wrong with the machines." It seemed to go without saying. Until the Diebold contract was made public.

Today we were supposed to be reassured by a press release stating that the machines are being spot-tested throughout the day, using a scripted mini-vote that will determine whether votes are being accurately counted.

Great!

I asked a poll watcher from Florida Voters' Rights what happens if a machine is shown to be inaccurate.

"They'll replace it with a backup machine," she said.

"What about all the voters that have already cast their votes on that machine?"

"They're screwed," she told me.

No paper trail. No evidence.

Not that there's any reason to fear abuse of the system. Florida has lost entire children from state custody. As busy as they are looking for those kids, they won't have time to misplace my vote.

I reviewed my votes on the screen and pressed "Vote" as instructed. The screen went blank. I'm 70% convinced that it's supposed to happen that way. The other 30% is still wondering if my virtual ballot disappeared into the virtual lockbox, with none of its chads hanging...or if it just disappeared.

On the plus side, I'm 99% sure that I didn't accidentally vote for Pat Buchanan.

 

[fogbank]

The technology behind the ATM thermal printers is extremely cheap and easy to install. I used to write documentation for a multimedia terminal system that used them, and it was a very simple and inexpensive part of the machine. Give me a USB port and I could hook up a receipt printer in fifteen minutes. And the cost is almost insignificant when you compare it with the cost of LCD touchscreens. Maybe $50 maximum for a bulk manufacturer.

It's also ridiculous that they don't have appropriate documentation telling you exactly what to expect on-screen at all times. Something that says, "When you press the button, the screen goes blank. You have now completed voting."

 

[shereads]

The technology behind the ATM thermal printers is extremely cheap and easy to install. I used to write documentation for a multimedia terminal system that used them, and it was a very simple and inexpensive part of the machine.

Maybe the paperless system was chosen out of a concern for the environment.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I feel your pain Sher.

In my district of Pa. they decided to move the polling stations. I go with my husband and kids, find the table that would have my area....lo and behold, neither of our names are listed. My inlaws are, who live right next door.

Poll lady: What's the name again?

Me: give them correct spelling.

Poll lady: How long have you lived there or did you just move.

Me: No, I've lived there almost 13yrs.

Poll ladybewildered) Have you voted here before.

Me: (DUH) Yes, for years.

Poll lady: Now calling over the other poll lady.....We can't find them.

New Poll lady: Recycle all the info from above.

Me: (In my mind) Okay, I served as a Democratic woman in this county, I've voted since I was able to, you can't put my name in the books, but you can fucking call me or come to my door constantly, if this election wasn't so important I would tell you to shove it all so far up your ass......Smiling on the outside.

So we end up having to do a write in....fill out this ballot, put in envelope #1 and seal, then insert into larger envelope and seal....here is your ballot # you can call the toll free # on there to make sure your vote was counted...........

I pray to the Gods and Godesses and all the lesser known saints of the electoral system that my vote did get counted or I swear on the lives of my children that this will become the vote heard around the world!!!!

My rant, thank you. So much for my fucking civic duty.

 

[matriarch]

I feel your pain Sher.

In my district of Pa. they decided to move the polling stations. I go with my husband and kids, find the table that would have my area....lo and behold, neither of our names are listed. My inlaws are, who live right next door.

Poll lady: What's the name again?

Me: give them correct spelling.

Poll lady: How long have you lived there or did you just move.

Me: No, I've lived there almost 13yrs.

Poll ladybewildered) Have you voted here before.

Me: (DUH) Yes, for years.

Poll lady: Now calling over the other poll lady.....We can't find them.

New Poll lady: Recycle all the info from above.

Me: (In my mind) Okay, I served as a Democratic woman in this county, I've voted since I was able to, you can't put my name in the books, but you can fucking call me or come to my door constantly, if this election wasn't so important I would tell you to shove it all so far up your ass......Smiling on the outside.

So we end up having to do a write in....fill out this ballot, put in envelope #1 and seal, then insert into larger envelope and seal....here is your ballot # you can call the toll free # on there to make sure your vote was counted...........

I pray to the Gods and Godesses and all the lesser known saints of the electoral system that my vote did get counted or I swear on the lives of my children that this will become the vote heard around the world!!!!

My rant, thank you. So much for my fucking civic duty.

Far be it from me to criticise or make negative comments, but what is wrong with a paper ballot?

We still use them in the UK, the good old 'X' marks the choice. *shrug*. So it takes thousands and thousands of people to count them, hours and hours and sometimes days. What's the rush? Youve waited how many months for the result? What difference a few more hours.

As for the wrong polling station, every person that is eligible to vote receives a card, at least 2 weeks before, with the address of the allotted polling station, a registration id.....just take it along, hand it in, and they tick you off the register, give you your voting slip, direct you to the upturned packing crate with a half curtain, and off you go.

's cheap, 's easy - it seems to work. Like the saying goes, if it ain't broke......don't mend it.

A Brit take.

Going back to me tea now. *slurp*

 

[shereads]

This isn't civic duty. This is war.

I heard a story like yours from someone in line today. He's lived in Miami all his life, in the same house for 38 years. When he showed up to vote in the primaries, he was turned away because his name wasn't on record. He had somehow been added to a "purge" list of people who have moved and left no forwarding address. He was sharp enough to challenge the pollworker, but how many people - especially the elderly - walk away thinking there's nothing they can do?

Absentee ballot applications that were received by the deadline three weeks ago were mailed to the applicants on Saturday.

1500 names erroneously added to a purge list of felons were only removed because of a Miami Herald expose.

A high voter turnout in Florida traditionally favors Democrats. It's impossible to know if we're witnessing incompetence or multiple attempts to appear incompetent while keeping turnout low.

 

[Somme]

Maybe the paperless system was chosen out of a concern for the environment.

It's not over yet, eh?.......and there are lawyers, awakened minorities and international observers watching every other move.....damn, I was trying to be cheery.

 

[shereads]

It's not over yet, eh?.......and there are lawyers, awakened minorities and international observers watching every other move.....damn, I was trying to be cheery.

The two parties began covering their butts by filing lawsuits before the machines were even plugged in.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

This isn't civic duty. This is war.

I heard a story like yours from someone in line today. He's lived in Miami all his life, in the same house for 38 years. When he showed up to vote in the primaries, he was turned away because his name wasn't on record. He had somehow been added to a "purge" list of people who have moved and left no forwarding address. He was sharp enough to challenge the pollworker, but how many people - especially the elderly - walk away thinking there's nothing they can do?

Absentee ballot applications that were received by the deadline three weeks ago were mailed to the applicants on Saturday.

1500 names erroneously added to a purge list of felons were only removed because of a Miami Herald expose.

A high voter turnout in Florida traditionally favors Democrats. It's impossible to know if we're witnessing incompetence or multiple attempts to appear incompetent while keeping turnout low.

I just find it amazing that this 'war' has been in the works for how long yet, an educated society such as ours can't figure out how to do it right?...I vote for complete incompetence level red. I take no excuses for something that was 4 years noted.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

This is really shocking to me, and I grew up in Chicago, home of the Daley machine and the ghost voter.

NPR had a report on "voting irregularities" that were leading up to the election. These included some republican registrar in Ohio rejecting thousands of voter applications because they weren't printed on the proper weight of paper, phony campaign workers giving the elderly the wrong address for their polling place, and even voter's "aides" who would pick up registration forms and absentee votes and just throw them away.

It's like the USA is becoming a fucking banana republic. I just can't believe that Florida okayed an electronic voting system that doesn't give you a printed receipt.

Who approced these machines?

---dr.M.

 

[Somme]

Diebold

mates of George - or so rumour has it...lives just around the corner too, I believe....although, of course, I may be wrong.

 

[Somme]

The source code was on the net too...; it's probably still around if you want to have a squiz?

 

[sweetnpetite]

Okay, I'll bite. Let's set aside any suspicion that Diebold, Inc., was chosen to supply Florida's snazzy new touch-screen voting machines because of their financial support of Gov. Jeb Bush and his older brother. Let's pretend there was a fair and impartial bidding process during which, for some reason, none of the competing firms was able to provide machines that leave a paper trail.

...

I reviewed my votes on the screen and pressed "Vote" as instructed. The screen went blank. I'm 70% convinced that it's supposed to happen that way. The other 30% is still wondering if my virtual ballot disappeared into the virtual lockbox, with none of its chads hanging...or if it just disappeared.

On the plus side, I'm 99% sure that I didn't accidentally vote for Pat Buchanan.

Remember Basic Programming language?

10 Enter A
20 If a=George W. Bush count ballot
30 if a does not = George W. Bush erase ballot; surf for porn
40 Goto 10

***Did diebold *really* make that ***JOKE***??? And everyone just laughed it off!!??

Could I make a joke like "Sweet garantees that GWB won't live to see 2005" and then just say, 'ha ha only kidding'???!!! I think not!

 

[Weird Harold]

Still...l have to wonder why Automatic Teller Machines are able to produce a paper receipt if the technology is too sophisticated for a voting application.
...
Four years ago, we Floridians asked our state and local boards of election to accomplish one thing: drag our voting system into the 1990s with something more accurate and reliable than paper ballots.

Foolishly, we forgot that when your genie grants a wish, phrasing is everything. We should have said, "A paper trail is essential in case something goes wrong with the machines." It seemed to go without saying. Until the Diebold contract was made public.

I voted today on touch-screen voting machine. It wouldn't even show me the "cast vote" option until I reviewed by ballot on-screen and then ok'd it for the printed copy review. They even provided a huge fresnel magnifier for those of old fogeys with weak eyes to read the 12pt type face of the printed record.

I'll ask you the same questionsI asked Owera on the GB:

Did you attend any of the public hearings on the choice of new voting machines?

Did you write to the Election Commision, State Representive or a newspaper to complain about your election commision's choice to save a few bucks on a voting machine with no printers?

Voters in Clark County Nevada did all of the above and WE have a printed record of every vote cast so a true manual recount is possible if necessary. ( I didn't check which of three the brands in use the machine I used was but even the Diebold machines have printers here.)

 

[Pure]

come on you excessively informed and infernally articulate--
Sher, mab, Somme, WeirdH, and other brilliant folks, lets hear your *electoral college* predictions-- preferably in the thread I started.

 

[shereads]

This is really shocking to me, and I grew up in Chicago, home of the Daley machine and the ghost voter.

NPR had a report on "voting irregularities" that were leading up to the election. These included some republican registrar in Ohio rejecting thousands of voter applications because they weren't printed on the proper weight of paper, phony campaign workers giving the elderly the wrong address for their polling place, and even voter's "aides" who would pick up registration forms and absentee votes and just throw them away.

It's like the USA is becoming a fucking banana republic. I just can't believe that Florida okayed an electronic voting system that doesn't give you a printed receipt.

Who approced these machines?

---dr.M.

Hmm....I believe that duty would ultimately fall to the Florida Secretary of State appointed by Jeb Bush to replace Kathryn Harris, who won a seat in Congress by stopping the 2000 recount.

I'm sure it was all on the up-and-up. We have a Republican majority in the state legislature to keep the president's brother honest. Can Ohio say the same?

From verifiedvoting.org:

Voting machine controversy

08/28/03

Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus - The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election.

O'Dell attended a strategy pow-wow with wealthy Bush benefactors - known as Rangers and Pioneers - at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch earlier this month. The next week, he penned invitations to a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser to benefit the Ohio Republican Party's federal campaign fund - partially benefiting Bush - at his mansion in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington.

The letter went out the day before Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, also a Republican, was set to qualify Diebold as one of three firms eligible to sell upgraded electronic voting machines to Ohio counties in time for the 2004 election.

Blackwell's announcement is still in limbo because of a court challenge over the fairness of the ion process by a disqualified bidder, Sequoia Voting Systems.

In his invitation letter, O'Dell asked guests to consider donating or raising up to $10,000 each for the federal account that the state GOP will use to help Bush and other federal candidates - money that legislative Democratic leaders charged could come back to benefit Blackwell.

They urged Blackwell to remove Diebold from the field of voting-machine companies eligible to sell to Ohio counties.

This is the second such request in as many months. State Sen. Jeff Jacobson, a Dayton-area Republican, asked Blackwell in July to disqualify Diebold after security concerns arose over its equipment.

"Ordinary Ohioans may infer that Blackwell's office is looking past Diebold's security issues because its CEO is seeking $10,000 donations for Blackwell's party - donations that could be made with statewide elected officials right there in the same room," said Senate Democratic Leader Greg DiDonato.

Diebold spokeswoman Michelle Griggy said O'Dell - who was unavailable to comment personally - has held fund-raisers in his home for many causes, including the Columbus Zoo, Op era Columbus, Catholic Social Services and Ohio State University.

Ohio GOP spokesman Jason Mauk said the party approached O'Dell about hosting the event at his home, the historic Cotswold Manor, and not the other way around. Mauk said that under federal campaign finance rules, the party cannot use any money from its federal account for state- level candidates.

"To think that Diebold is somehow tainted because they have a couple folks on their board who support the president is just unfair," Mauk said.

 

[shereads]

Re: Re: Paperess Voting in Florida: I think I voted, but I'll never know for sure.

Did you write to the Election Commision, State Representive or a newspaper to complain about your election commision's choice to save a few bucks on a voting machine with no printers?

Yes to state elections division. Yes to state representatives. (By e-mail; I was lazy and didn't have any stamps.) No to the newspaper, which was packed to the rafters with letters to the editor pointing out the obvious.

Voters in Clark County Nevada did all of the above and WE have a printed record of every vote cast so a true manual recount is possible if necessary. ( I didn't check which of three the brands in use the machine I used was but even the Diebold machines have printers here.)

Maybe Nevada benefits from not having the president's brother in the governor's mansion and key persons from the president's state campaign appointed to positions that influence the outcome of an election. Call me a skeptic, but if you look closely I think you might make out the barely perceptible taint of a conflict of interest.

 

[shereads]

come on you excessively informed and infernally articulate--
Sher, mab, Somme, WeirdH, and other brilliant folks, lets hear your *electoral college* predictions-- preferably in the thread I started.

I've already conceded hope, Pure.

I voted anyway, out of spite. And on the off-chance that my vote would crash the machine and fuel a lawsuit, eventually leading to the secession from the union of the blue states.

We'd call ourselves the Blue States of America. All of the statues in our capital would be naked, not just the one of Justice that Ashcroft finds offensive.

 

[Pure]

yes, sher, i know what you mean. i'm definitely feeling uneasy (11pm EST).

too many 'iffy' things have to break Kerry's way, sorta like having to get a hole in one and to come home and find notice you've won the lottery.

anyone wanna get together and write porn suitable for Southern Baptists? (there's some wonderful priest/nun porn from the older eras).