‘Daily Voting News’ For June 6, 2006

12 Comments on “‘Daily Voting News’ For June 6, 2006”

1. I thought of a perhaps original extension of the requirement for a voter paper printout: a requirement that the same software routine as publishes the total, also email and paper copy snailmail each voter who has voted a copy of that individual’s ballot, including absentees and in person and provisional ballots after certified; in other words, everyone who votes should have a replica of the ballot cast. The amount of shenanigans you are reporting is astounding.

2. I decided to wait and take my absentee ballot to the polling place instead of mailing it so I could get a look around.
   With the way the room was set up I wasn’t able to get near the box where people were placing ballots, or another item with an LCD screen. At the end of the sign- in table, sitting on the floor, was a satchel with the side zipper slightly unzipped – I was told to put my ballot in there.
   The box into which people were placing their ballots – paper fill-in-the-oval type – looked kind of like a copy machine or fax machine. There was a tray on top in which they laid the ballot as it was inserted into a slot. It was then drawn in.
   On the front of the machine, below the tray, was a strip of white plastic tape about 8 inches long covering something. The tape was marked "Security Tape", it was all wrinkled and looked as if it could easily be peeled away and replaced back again without any sign of tampering.
   Boy do I feel secure!

3. I’ve been giving this a lot of thought… ok a little thought recently. I think I have the directions for a solution (to this voting nightmare).

   I mean, this doesn’t seem like rocket-science to me.

   I’m a software engineer, here’s my fix, here’s my approach…

   Open-source software. Web-based (people can vote online).

   First of all, we do everything online (credit-card, banks, mortgages, everything).
   We can certainly vote securely and with total access.

   Here are the features I would like to see for the voters…We should be able to…
   – cast all votes (primaries, local, etc.) online.
   – vote at anytime up to the final bell of whatever election.
   – review our vote and our voting history.
   – change our vote, up to the final bell.
   – lock-in our vote for whatever election at any time. (which means that we can’t change it from then on).
   – see summary data for our county, city, state, party, etc. (I’m not sure if we should see this before the election-close or not.

   For those who can’t use a computer, we have voting centers where there are people to help, using the same national, open-source, web-based system.

   Here are the features I would like to see for the election officials…
   – see summary data (like any voter) but maybe without time restrictions (if time restrictions are in place for voters).
   – see those registered who have not voted.

   National-id. I’m convinced we need a national-id. Effectively we have one, or rather many. One would be more useful. We can use our SSN. If we use our SSN as a national-id, no one can steal it, literally. It’s because we have several we’re vulnerable. I’ll explain why later.

   Let’s put aside this issue for now. For this system we need a national-id; an SSN. One vote, one current, registered address (for voting registration), world-wide voting capability. (not rocket-science, a piece of cake).

   What it looks like…
   You log in, yes, create an account (register to vote), sign-on / password. Yes, you can go to the center for help. Yes, you can forget your password and have them e-mail you. Yes, you can forget your sign-on and have alternate ways of identifying yourself to re-instate your sign-on.
   This has been done quintillion times. No problem.

   Sign-On. You have a list of elections, pertinent to you. Click one. You have a list of positions (or issues) pertinent to that election. Click one. You have a list of candidates registered for that position. Perhaps photos and summaries that have been reviewed by the appropriate election board and entered in the system. There may be a companion research site with additional information and links. But for election processing you have your candidate lists.
   For each Position or Issue, you select a choice. An election has a sequence of issues/positions. You continue through them, at any time, returning to your ‘home’ page. There is a summary link, showing your current votes and pending decisions.

   As this thing advances, we may select to receive e-mail warnings of approaching closing dates (for voting).

   You already know how this thing works. We have a million systems like it already. Our banks use something as secure. Details, such as where it’s hosted and who administers it and how it maintains anonymity and yet verifies publicly, the count and each individual vote are what are interesting to me, but they are technical details.

   I’m not trying to do away with paper voting or paper trails (this thing, of course, will have robust and public verifiable procedures at every level), but the tallying is inevitably done on computer. We have to procure our votes on computer at many stages…. We NEED a complicit computer interface for our voters as well.

   If votes on computers scare you… get a life. Your life is on computer already. What we don’t need is the mess we’ve got today (proprietary machines and software, election influence, malfeasance, and the host of irregularities we’ve experienced). It’s on computer already. We might as well make it robust, easy-to-use, process-open and verifiable. Let’s do away with the Mitofskys and the rest of those ancient animals.

4. Now why would "thieves" want to steal voting machines? Are there any fences dealing in voting machines? Such a theft is in itself highly suspicious. How many other voting machine "thefts" have there been in US electoral history? It has usually been the ballot boxes stolen in crooked elections in the past. It seems that ballot boxes = voting machines in these times.

5. Thanks for the listings.
   Keep up the good work guys.

   I had asked earlier for a list.
   Silly me. It’s been hiding conspicuously right here all the time.

   LOL.

   AND I AM A BLOND TOO.
   I resemble that comment, too. 😛

6. KCBS and KNBC have declared Debra Bowen the Winner. See it yourselfs:

   http://cbs2.com/electionresults/electionresults/electionresults/electionresults/electionresults/?eid=6961

7. Business as usual, part two: The government short-sells America Link here

8. A little blurb on the National Endowment For Democracy and the International Republican Institute
   After interfering in Peru’s election, the National Endowment for Democracy, a propaganda arm for the neo-cons in the Bush administration that works closely with the International Republican Institute (IRI), a part of the Republican Party, is now turning much of its attention toward Mexico and its presidential election on July 2. The Bush regime is pouring in assistance to conservative National Action party candidate Felipe Calderon who is running neck and neck with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the populist Democratic Revolution Party candidate and former mayor of Mexico City. The Bush regime would like to see another defeat of a leftist candidate in Latin America after the Peruvian election.

9. Whos who in NED and IRI, you will recognize a few names

10. Floridiot

    NED said: "Democracy involves the right of the people freely to determine their own destiny.

    The exercise of this right requires a system that guarantees freedom of expression, belief and association, free and competitive elections, respect for the inalienable rights of individuals and minorities, free communications media, and the rule of law.
    ~ "Statement of Principles and Objectives," 1984"

    1984! – I didn’t make that up!

    And if you don’t get it right – the way we say is right –
    if you elect someone we don’t like –

    Shock and Awe baby Shock and Awe!
    Mushroom clouds in your backyard!

11. The exercise of this right requires a system that "guarantees freedom of expression," – (demonstrators assaulted in Ney York City – teargas swabbed into demonstrator’s eyes elsewhere – demonstrators kept far away from politicians)

    "freedom of expression belief and association," – (government chastising of people for not being "Christian" – spying on Grandmothers Against the War and the Quakers)

    "free and competitive elections," – (Voter alienation and intimidation – Dieblod – Sequoia – ES&S)

    "respect for the inalienable rights of individuals and minorities," – (Gay Marriage Ban – Proportion of Death Penelty Sentences between whites and non-whites)

    "free communications media," – (majority of media outlets owned by large corporations beholden to the government – even more concentration through ownership of all media in a single area by one comany currently proposed)

    "and the rule of law" – (for everyone but the politicians and especialy the preseident who can write his own version of the laws when the don’t suite him with no oversite).

    Need I say more?

12. Damn the typos

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