Once again the Times is trying to grab us and warn us about faulty election law and bills.
Any change to election law that does not include mandatory, statistically valid audits is worse than doing nothing. Or a new approach proposed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) would do the same: provide for multiple yet independent methods to count and recount the ballots. Do both and let's begin to protect our precious right to select our leaders by the will of the people. A new bill without audits or what NIST calls “Software Independence” would give false security and would be worse than doing nothing.
The Times previously reported that paper trails from touch screen machines were unusable as much as ten percent of the time. As the Times has pointed out in several articles, including a detailed report in the Magazine in January by Clive Thompson, hand-marked paper ballots have been proven to be “hackable” as well. This is not made up. This is real.
We try to alert Americans in an entertaining fictional account, Cassandra, Chanting. People who would do us ill have reason to subvert our electoral process. Cassandra has been chanting for quite some time. Thanks again to the Times for adding to this Greek chorus (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/opinion/03sun2.html).
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An Election Insider's Nightmare
An Election Insider's Nightmare
I'M TOO YOUNG TO HAVE MY VOTE STOLEN
In March, Bree Barton published an op-ed in USA Today on her fears and hopes as a young voter. Now you can follow Bree on her firsttime journey to the ballot box. Read "Bree Barton at the Ballot Box" in the Dallas Morning News. Click here.
History
An Election Insider's Nightmare
You can send us an e-mail
CassandraChanting@gmail.com
DATA
"Most public voices have been anxious to dismiss out of hand any inquiry into the possibility of a corrupted vote count. But absence of scrutiny does not make a democracy function; democratic processes do.
...[T]he only way to maintain democracy or unite a people is to ensure that election probity is beyond question."
From the preface to Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?: Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count, by Steve Freeman, Joel Bleifuss. Available from Amazon.com Used with permission.
...[T]he only way to maintain democracy or unite a people is to ensure that election probity is beyond question."
From the preface to Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?: Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count, by Steve Freeman, Joel Bleifuss. Available from Amazon.com Used with permission.
Was It Heard?
"…[W]e demonstrate that the insider threat is also quite considerable, showing that not only can an insider … modify the votes, but that insiders can also violate voter privacy and match votes with the voters who cast them."
Quoted from Analysis of an Electronic Voting System ; February 27, 2007 by Tadayoshi Kohno, Adam Stubblefield, Aviel D. Rubin And Dan S. Wallach.(http://avirubin.com/vote.pdf ). Used with permission.
Quoted from Analysis of an Electronic Voting System ; February 27, 2007 by Tadayoshi Kohno, Adam Stubblefield, Aviel D. Rubin And Dan S. Wallach.(http://avirubin.com/vote.pdf ). Used with permission.
Prophecy
“To such prophecies the human race, as presently bred and educated and situated, is incapable of listening.”
Margaret Mead: Culture and Commitment
Margaret Mead: Culture and Commitment
"All computer systems are subject to subtle errors. Moreover, computer systems can be deliberately corrupted at any stage of their design, manufacture, and use. The methods used to do this can be extremely difficult to foresee and detect."
Quoted "Resolution on Electronic Voting" posted on http://www.verifiedvoting.org/, the website of The Verified Voting Foundation, Prof. David L. Dill, Founder and Board Director. Used with permission.
Quoted "Resolution on Electronic Voting" posted on http://www.verifiedvoting.org/, the website of The Verified Voting Foundation, Prof. David L. Dill, Founder and Board Director. Used with permission.
Voters Unite!
Cassandra, Chanting isn't only "an election insider's nightmare" about a "race against the clock to uncover the high-tech complexities of a plot to fix the outcome of the election" (as the book's jacket promises). It's a well-presented and readable integration of many of the complex, interwoven forces that enable, support, and foster the disease that presently besets our election system.
---Comment by Ellen Theisen, Voters Unite. Used with permission.
---Comment by Ellen Theisen, Voters Unite. Used with permission.
Hanging Chad
Image from website, http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/cards/chad.html ; Douglas W. Jones; THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA Department of Computer Science. Used with permission.
1 comments:
I read your e-mail about this NY Times article. Thank you for continuing to comment on these problems.
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