" Just two days ago MicroVote sent that software for federal inspection and certification."

Not that we currently HAVE a federal government, but you are helping to spread confusion with this terminology.

The testing is NOT federal inspection. It is done in private, by a Bushbacker company, and reported as proprietary data back to the company. Results are never released publically --- it is unclear to me as a lay person how that proprietary information ever gets to the federal government.

It is Private, Secret Inspection, by non-governmental companies. It is not federal inspection done by the government.

Secondarily, NONE of our software in the 2003 Recall Ripoff in California was state certified, and the major counties didn't get federal cert on their software either. Did that stop anything? NOPE, NOT AT ALL.

Consequently, it is clear that 'federal certification' is worthless on its face. But we should at least try to develop terminology that actually reflects the PRIVATE FOR-PROFIT nature of the so-called testing.

As for certification, who does certify the software federally (DoJ, I presume?), and according to what law (is a law being followed in this ridiculous fake certification that outright violates our rights to legal elections?). Is there actually some law being violated by the software not being certified in an election (aside from state constitutions?).

"Is there actually some law being violated by the software not being certified in an election (aside from state constitutions?)."

I mean aside from the Help Amerika Vote (By Voting For It) Act.

Federal qualification is voluntary for the states. Many states do not require federal certification; Delaware, New Hampshire, etc.

Indiana does require that all voting systems be inspected and tested by an Independent Testing Authority (ITA).

HAVA requires that the ITAs be certified by the EAC however the EAC has not yet gotten around to doing that certification so they have decided that the old National Association of State Elections Directors list of ITAs is good enough for them.

That is factually what I know.

Polls are showing that the people favor democrats taking over majority party status in congress in November. It is by average about 47% to 33% and growing (link here).

However, the way congressional districts are drawn (link to your district map here) raises the very serious spectre that gerrymandering may thwart the will of the people.

The way districts are drawn can change everything (link here).

The reason that is wrong is because it is anti-voter and even when the voters overwhelmingly favor a particular outcome, this can be thwarted and republicans could hold the majority contrary to the people's will.

In other words, the design of the districts is such that it thwarts and is contrary to the will of the people at large. It is designed to preserve incumbency and thwart the political notion of accountability.

The effect is that the people cannot replace members of congress unless and until the kool aid drinking devotees of that congress member revolt.

Furthermore, districts are carved out in strange shapes that result in districts passing thru many counties instead of being defined and bounded by one or more counties.

The map link above shows how true this is. Look at the 25th and 28th districts of Texas, Tom DeLay constructs, to see what I mean.

Thus, malfunctioning electronic voting machines in a county may actually add up to malfunctioning in several congressional districts even tho only one county is involved.

We have a dictatorial situation anytime the will of the people is thwarted by its government. There is no other name for it.

Some dictatorships are less vile than others, but calling a spade a spade is what I am talking about.

We have a dictatorship if the people cannot express their will by their vote. If the government allows us to vote but that vote is meaningless, the fact is that it is a dictatorship because the people cannot change the government.

The Texas gerrymandering case has been put on the fast track by the US Supreme Court (link here).

This is unusual under normal circumstances, but is all the more unusual since the cases have been stalled and have therefore been on the slow track in the US Supreme Court until now.

The case it now seems that will be reversed is Henderson v Perry (link here).

The issue of gerrymandering is equal to the problem with voting machines. Because even if we perfect the voting machines, the gerrymandering issue is just as much a threat.

Both evils ... gerrymandering and fraudulent and junky electronic voting machines ... are destroying American democracy.

And if the judicial goes down the tubes too (link here), and does not stop gerrymandering, I am sorry to say that democracy will be gone from American soil for a long time.

'Dredd' has a good point about redistricting, add to that voting machine manufacturers who are strictly partisan, and certification being done by equally partisan private companies, all of whom are in it for the buck as 'Paul in LA' mentions. The only conclusion is that we no longer have a free election in the United States. The time has come where low-tech is much superior to high-tech. We need to return to paper ballotts marked by hand and, preferably, counted by hand.

2006 will be the determining factor as to how much of our Republic survives the currant government.

Bumpa #5

California District 1 winds its way thru Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake, Sonora, and Napa counties; while California District 2 winds its way thru Siskiyou, Trinity, Shasta, Tahama, Glenn, Butte, Yuba, Colusa, Sutter, and Yolo counties. Both districts may have more, the map is too small to tell for sure.

But it illustrates the point that election officialdom is bounded by county lines and state lines, however, these congressional districts have no such boundaries, except state boundaries.

Thus, if counties use different voting machines and techniques, you could have ten different types of voting procedures for one congressional district. Add precints to the count, and it becomes more and more obvious that cacaphony and helter skelter are apt descriptions for the gerrymander world.

"We need to return to paper ballotts marked by hand and, preferably, counted by hand."

I have suggested the phrase:

POP the Vote!
Plain-Old Paper ballots --- now.

for this campaign.

"republicans could hold the majority contrary to the people's will." --- Dredd

You mean like they currently do? Yeah, they could, they really could.