Jul 03 2008

Diebold Schmiebold, or Don’t Worry About Obama

Are they going to Steal 2008?

by Greg Palast, www.gregpalast.com

Are they going to Steal 2008? Don’t worry: it’s already stolen. But you can steal it back. Ted Rall and I have teamed up for one of the first ever series of hard-edged investigative journalism – in ‘toon form. Steal this strip … and pass it on: VOTE THEFT FOR IDIOTS – PART 1 … (click here to download a pdf)

Analysis of an Electronic Voting System [.PDF]

Johns Hopkins University Information Security

Institute Technical Report TR-2003-19, July 23, 2003.

We discovered significant and wide-reaching security vulnerabilities in the version of the [Diebold] AccuVote-TS voting terminal found in [9] (see Table 1). Most notably, voters can easily program their own smartcards to simulate the behavior of valid smartcards used in the election. With such homebrew cards, a voter can cast multiple ballots without leaving any trace. A voter can also perform actions that normally require administrative privileges, including viewing partial results and terminating the election early.

We identify several problems… We conclude that this voting system is unsuitable for use in a general election.

Saturday, November 6, 2004:

Election night… I was startled to hear the reporter detail how Karen Hughes had earlier sat George W. Bush down to inform him that he’d lost the election. The exit polls were clear: Kerry was winning in a landslide. “Bush took the news stoically,” noted the AP report.

But then the computers reported something different. In several pivotal states.

“Exit Polls are almost never wrong,” Dick Morris wrote.

He added: “So, according to ABC-TVs exit polls, for example, Kerry was slated to carry Florida, Ohio, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, and Iowa, all of which Bush carried. The only swing state the network had going to Bush was West Virginia, which the president won by 10 points.”

Yet a few hours after the exit polls were showing a clear Kerry sweep, as the computerized vote numbers began to come in from the various states the election was called for Bush.

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    • Edger on July 3, 2008 at 18:51
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    a clear Kerry Obama sweep, as the computerized vote numbers began to come in from the various states the election was called for Bush McCain…

    Singing the Down-Ballot Blues

    By Charlie Cook

    The Cook Political Report

    © National Journal Group Inc.

    Considering how bleak Republicans’ down-ballot prospects look, it is re-markable that they appear to have a 50-50 shot at holding on to the presidency. What makes this situation particularly unusual is the fact that a party seeking a third consecutive term in the White House generally succeeds only 20 percent of the time.

    …

    A new Cook Political Report/RT Strategies poll, conducted May 29-31 among 802 registered voters, has John McCain and Barack Obama tied at 44 percent.

    Stealing 1% is going to be no big deal.

    • brobin on July 3, 2008 at 18:53
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    And likely we will receive the McSame results in 2008.

    Please give a round of applause for President McSame voter-fraud.

  3. Diebold delivers Ohio (from CommonDreams 2003):

    COLUMBUS – The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.”

    The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O’Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. – who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush – prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O’Dell’s company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election.

    O’Dell attended a strategy pow-wow with wealthy Bush benefactors – known as Rangers and Pioneers – at the president’s Crawford, Texas, ranch earlier this month. The next week, he penned invitations to a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser to benefit the Ohio Republican Party’s federal campaign fund – partially benefiting Bush – at his mansion in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington.

    The letter went out the day before Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, also a Republican, was set to qualify Diebold as one of three firms eligible to sell upgraded electronic voting machines to Ohio counties in time for the 2004 election.

    Blackwell’s announcement is still in limbo because of a court challenge over the fairness of the selection process by a disqualified bidder, Sequoia Voting Systems.

    In his invitation letter, O’Dell asked guests to consider donating or raising up to $10,000 each for the federal account that the state GOP will use to help Bush and other federal candidates – money that legislative Democratic leaders charged could come back to benefit Blackwell.

    They urged Blackwell to remove Diebold from the field of voting-machine companies eligible to sell to Ohio counties.

    This is the second such request in as many months. State Sen. Jeff Jacobson, a Dayton-area Republican, asked Blackwell in July to disqualify Diebold after security concerns arose over its equipment.

    “Ordinary Ohioans may infer that Blackwell’s office is looking past Diebold’s security issues because its CEO is seeking $10,000 donations for Blackwell’s party – donations that could be made with statewide elected officials right there in the same room,” said Senate Democratic Leader Greg DiDonato.

    Diebold. The machine that votes so you don’t have to.

    Diebold. Because democracy is too important to leave to chance.

    Diebold. It’s not who votes that matters, but who counts the votes.

  4. what should an individual do ?!?………

    • RiaD on July 3, 2008 at 20:05
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    thanks ever so much!!

    until we fix the voting process the whole system is broken 🙁

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