In Today’s (August 26, 2008) New York Times, Editorial writer Adam Cohen writes about vote suppression in 2004 and how those of us who should know better missed it: “…tens of thousands of votes were suppressed by something so mundane that no one thought to focus on it: long lines.”
We’re doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. The next vote suppression problem is hiding in plain site. That’s right…the very “Help America Vote Act [HAVA]” intended to solve electoral problems has a little noticed provision that will deny the right to vote to many, many Americans. Here is what “HAVA” says: “registrants who have not responded to a notice and who have not voted in 2 consecutive general elections for Federal office shall be removed from the official list of eligible voters,…”
Like the mythical Cassandra who chants to alert ancient Troy, Cassandra is chanting again. Are we going to wake up again in November and say “oh my gosh? How did I miss that?”
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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.
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