Vote fraud

Yes, I've been lax at covering electoral issues. But the latest on BradBlog is too juicy not to mention here. Dennis Vadura, the former CEO of Accupoll -- an election machine company -- has this to say about the current state of the industry:

"I think that something needs to be done. I'm not sure what it is, it probably doesn't include AccuPoll at this point, but I do not feel that any of the vendors has a system that voters can trust. I think that vendors outright misrepresent the robustness, stability, and security of their systems. You just have to look at the litany of problems and it points at one thing, bad fundamental design, and not enough checks and balances. I also wonder why the other vendors were so adamant in fighting a VVPAT system requirement. They spent much more in fighting it than in implementing it."

Okay, next time you argue with someone who says "Oh, those machines can't be so bad..." remember this quote. Commit it to memory: Vadura...CEO...AccuPoll. He says the system is crappy, and he ought to know.

By the way, AccuPoll produced a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system. They're out of business, perhaps because they did not provide enough "grease" to various officials. The surviving companies are notorious for having incestuous relationships with election officials. (See below.)

Also...

The Ohio recount was fixed. We knew that already, but now they admit it.

In the days before Dec. 16, 2004: Election workers, fearing the cost and publicity of a monthlong hand recount, a special prosecutor now contends, meet in secret to crack open the ballots and hand-count votes, identifying precincts where the machine count of votes from election night exactly matches the hand count.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer does not see fit to mention the fact that this is all very illegal. Of course the recount will testify to a clean election if you cherry-pick the precincts.

Venezuela. Cute, isn't it, how the right-wingers have picked up on Hugo Chavez and his use of machines produced by Sequoia's parent company? Ah, but in Venezuela, the machines use open source code. There are oodles of international observers -- something sorely needed here. Even so, I would prefer to see paper trails.

Blackwell. Speaking of the incestuous relationships between the voting machine compnaies and various election officials, how about Ken Blackwell, Ohio's notorious Secretary of State?

Ohio is reeling with a mixture of outrage and hilarity as Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has revealed that he has owned stock in the Diebold voting machine company, to which Blackwell tried to award unbid contracts worth millions while allowing its operators to steal Ohio elections. A top Republican election official also says a Diebold operative told him he made a $50,000 donation to Blackwell's "political interests."

I cannot believe that this crook is likely to become the next governor of Ohio. Of course, he will count the votes... (Thanks to Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman for their amazing story.)

A final question. We know that Democrats will win in 2006. But by what sort of margin will they have to win in order to be allowed to hold a majority of seats in congress?

WE NEED INTERNATIONAL ELECTION OBSERVERS IN AMERICA!