Wake up and smell the fraud

Yesterday, I noted, without much enthusiasm, that the DNC report on the 2004 election in Ohio was due. Today, it's here. Should I have been more enthusiastic? Is the report better than expected?

Yes, it is. This report may not be ideal, but it takes some punches that hit the target hard. Ken Blackwell has already referred to the report as a "bald-faced fabrication" -- and any time Korrupt Kenny says something like that, you know that he's hurting.

The investigation includes a good (though flawed) section on the problems of DRE machines, with a special focus on the issues of hackability and paper trails. Alas, the DNC's Voting Rights Institute (responsible for the report) still suffers from a certain degree of wool-in-eye syndrome: While the writers correctly decry internet-accessible ballot machines, they do not discuss the very real possibility of hacking the systems via the power cords -- an under-recognized means of data-transference. Until this problem receives recognition, the committee's recommendations won't provide safe elections.

We also need greater scrutiny of the voting machine vendors. The Voting Rights Institute, correctly dismissive of the companies' claims of "proprietary information," demands that source code be made available to objective third party overseers. (But how can we know that the scrutinized code is the actual code in use?) However, the report does not demand the boycott of vendors guilty of bribing public officials or offering them cozy post-public-sector employment. A little internet research will uncover a long, evil history of corruption.

The DNC should also have demanded that states avoid machine vendors owned by individuals who have contributed to groups espousing an end to democracy. Surely that is not too much to ask for?

Needless to say, I had hoped that the DNC would take the fraud issue taken out of the realm of the theoretical. Our current state of knowledge allows us to state with confidence not that the machines might be hacked, but that the machines were hacked. Of course, this problem takes us into the familiar realm of standards of evidence. By my standards, the unassailable fact that Diebold and its defenders lied about paper trails ("The technology isn't there yet") provides us with all the evidence of fraud that any sensible person needs. If the vote were clean, why fib?

Donna Brazile, chair of the DNC's Voting Rights Institute, recommended the following goals (among others):

...to adopt legislation which limits identification requirements to first time voters at the time they apply for voter registration or the first time they vote, whichever should first occur, and to adopt and enforce procedures to guarantee that identification requirements are not abused as a voter suppression tactic; to encourage the adoption of precinct-tabulated optical scan voting machines; to abstain from using touchscreen voting machines unless or until they are perfected such that they are no longer vulnerable to fraud---and even then, to discontinue the use of touchscreen voting machines that do not have a reliable voter verifiable audit feature; to discontinue the use of punchcard systems; and to require voting equipment vendors to disclose source codes so that they may be examined by third parties and ensure that voting procedures are transparent at every level of the voting process...

Brazile understands that Republican cries of "voter misidentification" are nothing more than another suppression tactic. I'm grateful for that.

All in all, a good job. Perhaps not a superb one -- Brazile and co. didn't wow us they way John Conyers did -- but you can still recommend this report to your skeptical friends who need an education on this issue.

In other news:

Remember Sherole Eaton?She was the whistleblower who worked for the Hocking County, Ohio Board of Elections. Thanks to her, we learned that Triad Corporation got their grimy mitts on Board's computers during the recount, after learning which precincts were to be recounted. She fingered a Triad techie who told the staff to use a "cheat sheet" which would ensure that the recount results matched the el-fake-o original tallies.

Since no good deed goes unpunished in the Bush era, Sherole was fired for telling the truth.

She had brain surgery recently, due to an aneurism. Her health problems remain a threat, and she desperately needs to keep up her insurance payment. Yeah, I know -- lots of folks can't make an insurance payment these days. But lots of people don't have the courage that Sherole Eaton has displayed, and she doesn't deserve further punishment for doing the right thing. If you want to donate, write here: Michael Eaton, 7157 Addington Road, New Albany, Ohio 43054.

For an interview with Sherole Eaton, check this out.

Correction: Yesterday, I gave the wrong name for the California Secretary of State, who is Bruce McPhereson. (I accidentally typed in the name of his press contact officer.) Apologies; I've re-written the old post.