Is it time to have the United Nations keep an eye on our elections?
The working title of this article used to be “Election 2006: Can Diebold Save the GOP?” but as more and more evidence mounts, that’s actually become a rhetorical question. The new question is will they, as increasing substantiation and public opinion seems to be favoring the forgone conclusion that they surely can.…
Article comments
— go to most recent comments226 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks SR, I was wondering where you'd wandered off to. Any contributions to the discussions are welcome
Jet
227 - Jet in Columbus
From the UPI
With the November midterm election about two weeks away, stories of ballot box blunders are pouring in from across the United States.
In Ottawa County, Mich., officials are reprinting some 170,000 ballots at a cost of $40,000 because the word "public" in a proposed constitutional amendment is missing the letter "l," Stateline.org reports.
Voters in Tennessee will have to read printed copies of a proposed property tax freeze amendment because the last two paragraphs of the amendment are missing from the electronic voting machine version.
In Kansas, the Wichita Eagle discovered that Spanish-language voter registration forms failed to contain the same warning about incomplete forms as the English-language version.
Typographical errors are forcing officials in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, to replace 5,000 absentee ballots that contain incorrect party affiliations for two legislative candidates.
The list goes on, including in Denver where 44,000 absentee ballots were sent out with the boxes for "yes" and "no" reversed for a ballot initiative and the wrong amount of return postage recommended
228 - Clavos
In Kansas, the Wichita Eagle discovered that Spanish-language voter registration forms failed to contain the same warning about incomplete forms as the English-language version.
Spanish (or any other language, other than English) voter forms, including ballots, should be illegal. One of the requirements for citizenship is a demonstrated proficiency in English.
I am not an advocate for "official" English, but providing foreign language voter materials is wrong.
229 - Jet in Columbus
EVERYONE mark your calendars. Tomorrow (Thursday) HBO at 9PM Eastern "Hacking Democracy"
Jet
230 - Martin Lav
Hey, don't ATM's have a choice?
English or Spanish.
I mean that's what Diebold makes right? ATM's?
231 - Jet in Columbus
Martin, our constitution, declaration of independence and every document this country holds dear is in English.
It is the language of our country and is what we speak.
On this subject I'm a staunch consevative. All peoples of all cultures are free to come here and become americans, and Citizens of these United States speak English and that should be a given without artificial requirements or laws to back it up.
ATMs don't determine the future of our country, bht voters do.
232 - Jet in Columbus
According to several news sources, the Bush Administration is pressuring Iraq to bring in a verdict on Saddam's trial just before our midterm elections next tuesday.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm
Jet
233 - Nancy
Jet, at this point I wouldn't be surprised if they suddenly "captured" Osama bin Laden, just before the election...and then afterwards, said, "oops - our bad, it was mistaken identity". The real tragedy is, how many idiot fools would swallow it whole?
234 - Jet in Columbus
Nah, Nancy, I think they'll save that for just before the 2008 presidentials. Besides if we capture him, he's afraid he won't be remembered as a war President and have statues erected to him all over the place.
We need to stay in a state of war, so the republicans can maintain they're the only ones who can protect us.
235 - Nancy
No, I meant, they'd say they captured bin Laden, get all the half-wits excited & elated enough to vote GOP, then immediately afterwards when it can't be fixed, say - Oops! Mistaken I.D. It wasn't him after all.
236 - Jet in Columbus
Or it was one of Osama's doubles.
What I'm trying to figure out is that bin Laden is supposed to be in dialisis. that's not something or a machine you can exactly drag around with you.
Someone knows more than their letting on.
How about this scenario,
They captured him long ago and were waiting for just the right time to politically release the news, and he died on them before they could?
237 - Nancy
If you have the money, there are miniaturized portables that can be adapted to batteries. Easy for him or his family to get hold of one, with the money he & they have access to. Or any of his followers, for that matter. They can be carried on a strap over the shoulder. No sweat. Perfect for picnics, the busy executive, or the terrorist ringleader on the run....
238 - Jet in Columbus
In 2002, an online search for information about voting machines led her to an unsecured website for Diebold , the Ohio company that holds a vast portion of the nation's electronic voting machine market.
She found pages and pages of programming code, gibberish to her untrained eye. But her instinct was to download it and pass it around. A computer security expert at Johns Hopkins University confirmed what she feared: that anyone with computer know-how, and access to the right memory card, could tap into the code and alter an election.
"Hacking Democracy" follows the ensuing crusade, as Harris and a handful of compatriots -- academics, former political candidates, a few voting officials -- try to spread the word that the nation's elections are in jeopardy. They road-trip to Alabama and Florida, prompt hearings in California, embarrass a Florida election supervisor who's steeped in denial. This is, in part, a story about how ordinary people turn to activism, but it's also a sad little parable about how hard it is to stir
up outrage over the nuts and bolts of democracy. In truth, the filmmakers face a similar challenge; they do their best to build up tension, but it's hard to wring excitement from a computer printout.
For the rest of this article click anywhere in the underlined section.
239 - Jet in Columbus
...Diebold has been dealt yet another setback as Alaskan state elections are hampered by problems with the company's products. Assorted issues with voting machines in seven precincts forced some election officials to manually count and upload votes.
The Alaskan Democratic Party had anticipated the machine failures, and encouraged voters to use paper ballots in order to ensure that their votes were not discarded or incorrectly counted. Diebold voting machines have a poor track record and a colorful history. The machines were successfully hacked by computer experts hired by Leon County, Florida, and a 2003 study of leaked Diebold voting machine code conducted by security analysts revealed that the code is fundamentally flawed and vulnerable to exploitation in numerous ways. The state of California banned Diebold machines and then sued the company in 2004, asserting that the voting machine manufacturer had installed uncertified software on the machines, violating its agreement with state and calling into question the validity of vote counts conducted with the hardware..
For the rest of this article click anywhere in the underlined section
240 - Jet in Columbus
Headline? Bush aides fight to keep him from running as a write-in candidate after verbal spars with Kerry!
241 - Jet in Columbus
U.S. Representative Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican, resigned from Congress following his guilty plea to taking gifts from lobbyist Jack Abramoff in exchange for legislative favors, House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office said.
Ney, 52, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine after pleading guilty Oct. 13 to conspiracy and making false statements. Ney's resignation comes four days before voters in Ohio choose a successor to fill his seat.
For the rest of this BLOOMBERG article click anywhere in the underlined section.
242 - Jet in Columbus
Rumors have been flying about Florida attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist ever since a third-party candidate alleged he is gay on a local radio show last month. Now the Broward"Palm Beach New Times is reporting that Crist had a recent romantic relationship with a male convicted felon and former travel aide to U.S. representative Katherine Harris, who is running for the U.S. Senate
For the rest of this ADVOCATE article click anywhere in the underlined section.
243 - Jet in Columbus
The United States is one of only a handful of major democracies that allow private, partisan companies to secretly count and tabulate votes using their own proprietary software. Today, eighty percent of all the ballots in America are tallied by four companies - Diebold, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Sequoia Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic. In 2004, 36 million votes were cast on their touch-screen systems, and millions more were recorded by optical-scan machines owned by the same companies that use electronic technology to tabulate paper ballots. The simple fact is, these machines not only break down with regularity, they are easily compromised - by people inside, and outside, the companies.
Three of the four companies have close ties to the Republican Party. ES&S, in an earlier corporate incarnation, was chaired by Chuck Hagel, who in 1996 became the first Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from Nebraska in twenty-four years - winning a close race in which eighty-five percent of the votes were tallied by his former company. Hart InterCivic ranks among its investors GOP loyalist Tom Hicks, who bought the Texas Rangers from George W. Bush in 1998, making Bush a millionaire fifteen times over. And according to campaign-finance records, Diebold, along with its employees and their families, has contributed at least $300,000 to GOP candidates and party funds since 1998 - including more than $200,000 to the Republican National Committee. In a 2003 fund-raising e-mail, the company's then-CEO Walden O'Dell promised to deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush in 2004.
For the rest of this article click anywhere in the underlined section.
244 - Jet in Columbus
UPDATE:
Two days before a bitterly fought midterm election, Democrats have moved into position to recapture the House and have laid siege to the Senate, setting the stage for a dramatic recasting of the power structure in Washington for President Bush's final two years in office, according to a Washington Post analysis of competitive races across the country.
In the battle for the House, Democrats appear almost certain to pick up more than the 15 seats needed to regain the majority. Republicans virtually concede 10 seats, and a split of the 30 tossup races would add an additional 15 to the Democratic column.
For the rest of this WASHINGTON POST article click anywhere in the underlined section.
245 - Jet in Columbus
Saddam sentenced to hang... gee and just in time for the November elections... what a coincodence!
246 - Dave Nalle
Jet, if the terrorists can launch a Tet-like suicide attack to try to impact the election, it seems only reasonable that the legitimate government of Iraq can schedule the inevitable sentencing of Saddam for equivalent impact.
Dave
247 - Jet in Columbus
Dave are you suggesting that the Bush administration had nothing to do with the timing of the verdict?
248 - Jet in Columbus
From Fox News!!!...
Nearly half of likely voters " 49 percent " favor the Democratic candidate in their House district and 36 percent the Republican, with 15 percent still undecided in a FOX News poll conducted the final weekend before the midterm elections.
More Democrats (37 percent) than Republicans (26 percent) say they are extremely interested in tomorrow’s elections, and more Democrats (89 percent) than Republicans (81 percent) say they plan to vote for their party’s candidate in their district.
For the rest of this FOX NEWS article click anywhere in the underlined section
249 - Martin Lav
"Jet, if the terrorists can launch a Tet-like suicide attack to try to impact the election, it seems only reasonable that the legitimate government of Iraq can schedule the inevitable sentencing of Saddam for equivalent impact."
Dave
It would seem that the fact that their NOT launching this offensive indicates that they want Bush to stay in power. After all, if Bush is claiming to keep them in check, then for them to be in check, helps him. By helping him, they help themselves by perpetuating a Jihad on Western Civilization.
Make perfect sense?
250 - Jet in Columbus
Indeed it does make perfect sense Martin... I thought that for some time.
Thanks
Jet
251 - Nancy
Come again? You're saying the terrorists would launch an offensive in order to keep Bush in power? Why would they want to keep Bush in power? If Bush/the GOP loses, it's far more likely the US will leave the area a lot sooner.
252 - Jet in Columbus
Nancy, are you reacting to Dave, Martin or Me?
253 - Martin Lav
"You're saying the terrorists would launch an offensive in order to keep Bush in power? Why would they want to keep Bush in power? If Bush/the GOP loses, it's far more likely the US will leave the area a lot sooner."
I'm saying they won't launch an offensive to keep Bush in power.
The TERRORIST want war and the baiting us into it in the first place. Bush Co. are so dumb, they feel right into OBL's trap.
That's what I'm saying and I think Jet agree's with me and I'm sure Dave will not.
254 - Jet in Columbus
Absolfuckinlootly Martin!
255 - Jet in Columbus
From the conservative site BBS...
...Voter intimidation, poorly trained poll workers, and defective equipment are just some of the serious issues detailed in "Projected Election Day Problems in the 2006 General Election: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania." The selected jurisdictions - all in states with closely contested elections - show a host of other problems that may prevent Americans from casting a ballot for candidates of their choice.
Voters in Arizona, Ohio and Missouri should be aware that late-changing identification requirements might lead to confusion by poll workers and conflicting implementation of ID requirements across the state.
Voters from minority communities in Arizona, Michigan and Maryland should be aware of recent or planned attempts to aggressively challenge their eligibility as voters.
Voters in Colorado (Denver), Maryland (Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Prince George's County) and Ohio (Cuyahoga, Franklin, Summit, and Hamilton) should be prepared for inadequate or poorly trained poll workers, which may result in long lines, a denial to vote a regular ballot or the failure to be offered a provisional ballot.
Florida (Duval County), Pennsylvania (Alleghany and Philadelphia Counties) and New Jersey (Essex County) voters should be alert to last-minute, unannounced, polling location changes.
Voters in all nine states should be alert to misleading communications regarding their polling place and the date and time of the election.
For the rest of this article click anywhere in the underlined section
256 - Clavos
Jet,
Even a cursory examination of the BBSNews site reveals it emphatically is NOT a conservative site; despite their use of the word consevative in their masthead.
257 - Jet in Columbus
Well what can I say? the title reads "Your true conservative news source" silly me, and from North Carolina too.
My bad
258 - Clavos
Not to worry, Jet. The site deliberately deceives--anyone could have been fooled by it.
259 - Jet in Columbus
Fool me once, hame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. I'll be more carefull thanks to you Clavos
260 - Jet in Columbus
DON'T VOTE TODAY AND YOU'LL GET THE CANDIDATE YOU DESERVE-NOT THE CANDIDATE YOU WANT!!!!
261 - Jet in Columbus
Here are the political races to watch today...
Democrats need to make a net gain of 15 seats to end 12 years of Republican control of the House. A net pick-up of six seats would give the Democrats a majority in the Senate. Despite some tightening polls over the weekend, most prognosticators still expect Democrats to take the House, while the Senate is expected to remain a close-run affair.
Results from Indiana and Kentucky, which both contain key battlegrounds, will likely be the first to arrive, coming in after 7 p.m. Eastern.
Key tossups include Kentucky's Republican-held third and fourth districts. In the third, Rep. Anne Northup is attempting to fight off a tough challenge from Democrat John Yarmuth. Polls showed Northup holding a narrow lead in the Louisville-area district, which narrowly went for John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race.
A loss by Northup would signal that other battle-tested GOP incumbents in narrowly divided districts, such as Florida Rep. Clay Shaw, could be in for a rough night, wrote Nathan Gonzalez, an analyst at the Rothenberg Political Report.
Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Geoff Davis in Kentucky's more heavily GOP fourth district is facing a challenge from Democrat Ken Lucas. University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato rates the race as a toss-up. A loss by Davis would likely signal a strong tide for Democrats.
In Indiana, Republican Reps. John Hostettler, Chris Chocola and Mike Sodrel appeared on the defensive.
If Democrats are surging, it will be more apparent after 8 p.m. Eastern, as results start coming in from Ohio, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia, Missouri, New Jersey and Tennessee.
If Democrats are riding a major wave, Republicans could see their majority eliminated by the time the polls close in the 8 p.m. states, Gonzalez wrote. Republicans could consider losing only three or four seats as a "moral victory."
Three Connecticut Republican lawmakers -- Reps. Rob Simmons, Christopher Shays and Nancy Johnson -- remain engaged in fierce re-election battles. The Philadelphia suburbs have also turned into tough ground for GOP incumbents, and a handful of Republican-held seats in Ohio are viewed as in danger.
Democrats aren't invulnerable. Two Georgia Democrats -- Reps. John Barrow and Jim Marshall -- face stiff challenges. Sabato lists Barrow's race as a "toss-up," while Marshall is rated "leans Democrat." Other potentially vulnerable Democratic House members include Iowa's Leonard Boswell and Illinois' Melissa Bean.
Senate
Prognosticators have all but written off the re-election bids of Republican Sens. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Mike DeWine of Ohio. If they fall, and Democrats manage to keep all of their own seats, control of the Senate will likely be decided by the outcomes of closely-fought battles for GOP-held seats in Rhode Island, Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri and Montana.
Democrats would need to take three of the five to gain a majority. Polls are set to close in Virginia at 7 p.m. Eastern, though the close-fought battle between Sen. George Allen and Democratic challenger Jim Webb is likely to translate into a long night of tallying before a winner is declared.
Results from Missouri are expected after 8 p.m. Eastern. The battle between Sen. Jim Talent and Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill has been described as a jump-ball by several analysts. But if Talent fails to hold on in a Republican-leaning state, it will likely signal that Democrats are enjoying a high tide, said Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes Senate races for the Cook Political Report, in a panel discussion last month.
Tennessee will also see its polls close by 8 p.m. Eastern. Surveys show Democratic Rep. Harold Ford and Republican Bob Corker remain in a close-fought battle.
Meanwhile, results from Rhode Island won't start to roll in until after 9 p.m. Eastern, while Montana's polls close at 10 p.m. Eastern. Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee is facing a challenge from Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, while Montana Democrat Jon Tester is seeking to unseat Republican Sen. Conrad Burns.
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez remains the most vulnerable Democrat, according to many prognosticators. Returns from his battle with GOP challenger Tom Kean Jr. are expected to begin coming in around 8 p.m., as will results from Maryland, where Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele has narrowed the lead of Democratic Rep. Ben Cardin in the battle to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Paul Sarbanes
262 - Nancy
I voted - first in, first out, as usual - but I wonder if my vote was correctly recorded, or whether it was subverted to the GOP, as I strongly suspect, or whether it was counted at all, since I had to use the (to me, at least) un-credible Diebolds to cast my ballot.
I suspect that this evening or tomorrow when the tallies are announced, the Republicans will have won mainly thru the usual election fraud, vote stealing, and dirty tricks, as they did in the past 2 elections.
I DON'T trust the US government - or any of the state or local governments, for that matter - to conduct fair, unbiased, and honest elections. Hell, they can't normally conduct fair, unbiased and honest day to day business, so why should anyone think they'd start now, with this?
I want monitors from a neutral, unbiased, outside source like the UN or Canada or Norway or someplace like that overseeing our polling places and testing our voting machines, and Diebold & their claims of corporate privilege due to business secrets be damned. If they aren't willing to be publicly & openly monitored, tested, and re-tested, then they have no business being in business, and our various governments have no business giving them any business.
A recent study was released today in the WP, that shows that public confidence has hit rock bottom with 3 major 'institutions'; from miserable to abysmal to disastrous, they are in order: congress, the president, and the media. What little confidence the public has in any institutions goes to the military & medicine, respectively, a nice pat for our soldiers, and only slightly less for our doctors & medical personnel.
It was news to me but I was not surprised (as Gandalf says in LOTR) that the media were at the bottom of the heap. Obviously they got there through the popular peception that they are (currently) airheads & sensationalists, chasing after any story that they think will gain them a nickel no matter how idiotic or disgusting (the Jonbenet debacle comes to mind), & ignoring more serious matters as it suits them. In short, of behaving like the public, in having the attention spans of fleas when it comes to matters of national import & deepest significance, and being too obviously eager to sell themselves to the highest bidder as far as serving up propaganda (instead of the truth) is concerned. Obviously in general opinion they have long abrogated their function which is to ride herd on, report on, and expose those public institutions most susceptible to abuse & fraud.
That congress & the president are at the bottom of the garbage heap is a surprise to nobody, I would guess. The true surprise is that given what would to any other parties be a humiliating status at the nadir of society, none of these 3 is interested in making any kinds of improvement whatsoever. Two of them seem to ignore public opinion in favor of the status quo, confident that they don't have to improve, since they're the only game in town, as it were, while the third exists in a state of denial (as the book says) surrounded by yes-men & hordes of carefully vetted worshippers.
263 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks Nancy. I guess all we can hope for is that the Dem fraud canceles out the GOP fraud and it all comes out right.
oy vay
264 - Jet in Columbus
In Virginia, election officials contacted the FBI over complaints of voter intimidation in the hard-fought race between GOP Sen. George Allen and Democrat Jim Webb. Jean Jensen, secretary of the Board of Elections, said her office received reports of phone calls apparently encouraging voters to stay home on Election Day. Other calls directed voters to the wrong polling place.
In Indiana, the FBI was investigating allegations that a Democratic volunteer at a Monroe County polling site was found with unprocessed absentee ballots.
Other states reported voter intimidation problems and dirty tricks.
In Arizona, three men, one of them armed, stopped Hispanic voters and questioned them outside a Tucson polling place, according to voting monitors for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which photographed the incidents and reported them to the FBI.
In Maryland, sample ballots suggesting Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich and Senate candidate Michael Steele were Democrats were handed out by people bused in from out of state. Democrats outnumber Republicans in Maryland by nearly 2-to-1.
An Ehrlich spokeswoman said the fliers were meant to show the candidates had the support of some state Democrats. They were paid for by the campaigns of Ehrlich, Steel and the GOP. Some of the fliers include pictures of Ehrlich with Democrat Kweisi Mfume, a former NAACP president.
Believe it or not this is only PART of the article!
For the rest of this aFORBES rticle click anywhere in the underlined section.
265 - Jet in Columbus
Senate Democrats are declaring they have won the six seats needed to take control of the Senate, even though Republicans may demand recounts in two neck-and-neck races led by Democratic challengers in Montana and Virginia.
"Jon Tester and Jim Webb have won their races in Montana and Virginia but want to make sure every vote is counted," said Phil Singer, spokesman for Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). "We expect to have official results soon but can happily declare today that Democrats have taken the majority in the U.S. Senate."
Republican Sen. Conrad Burns lost his job in Montana in a squeaker of a race Wednesday, thrust from office due to his own gaffes, his ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a determined campaign by Democrat Jon Tester, a farmer.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting Wednesday, Tester had 198,032 votes, or 49.1 percent, to Burns' 194,904 votes, or 48.3 percent.
With a similar percentage of votes counted in Virginia, Webb, who declared victory early today, leads incumbent Republican George Allen by about 7,500 votes.
Montana and Virginia elections officials haven't yet officially confirmed the results. Neither Burns nor Allen have conceded and it's likely that automatic recounts will take place in both states due to the small margins of victory. A call to the National Republican Senatorial Committee was not immediately returned.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
by
BY GLENN THRUSH
WASHINGTON BUREAU
November 8, 2006, 2:10 PM EST
266 - Jet in Columbus
If I go to the store and buy a sympathy card for Arch Conservative will all of you sign it?
267 - Martin Lav
Fool me once, fool me twice.......fool.....
WE WON'T BE FOOLED AGAIN!
Can't believe I missed that Jet!
Send me the card I'll sign it .....
268 - Nancy
No. He should take his own advice he's been so fond of dishing out, and "get a life - get over it". Or is that JOM?
269 - Nancy
BTW, they all must be out drowning their sorrows & trying to come up with suitably snappy one-liners; I haven't seen but a couple of posts by Arch on BC today, & nothing at all from the rest of them. Being rebuffed by another person hurts; being rebuffed by the entire rest of the nation - all your fellow citizens, including conservatives - must be traumatic.
270 - Jet in Columbus
thanks Martin, now that song will be stuck in my head all day!
271 - Jet in Columbus
Nancy, he scared the piss out of me by agreeing with my Rumsfeld article, but at the last moment pulled it out by saying I supported infantcide on my S. Dakota abortion law article this morning.
As for the other one, we don't mention him here.
272 - Jet in Columbus
Nancy, I was thinking of an nice carw with flowers and maybe a gay couple kissing in front of the White House?
273 - Martin Lav
I'm sure they're all scurrying to spin this deal. I mean Rush already was drooning on about how the Dems that won are really conservatives and how this helps the Republican party, so I suspect that that's the story line that Arch and JoM will be yarning on here soon.
274 - Jet in Columbus
Actually Martin, they've been saying all night they expected it and that it's normal for Congress to change hands every 6 election cycles.
275 - John Q. Public
Does this mean that non-republicans can use Anthony Grande's line about "we won the election, so deal with it." bit about majority rule?
I know, that's a bit cruel, and kicking people while they are down. But after the last few years of having to listen to the arrogant gloating coming from a small minority of such Republicans, it's nice to have their jackboots off the nation's neck.