Guest Blogged by John Gideon
Just hours ago Betty Ireland, the Secretary of State of West Virginia filed a formal complaint against ES&S with the federal Elections Assistance Commission. A story in the State Journal quotes Secretary Ireland:
“And, Ireland says, now that the election is over, strategy talks about the problems with Election Systems and Software will begin…but, “We will not and cannot discuss publicly our legal strategy. As before, we continue to work with the Attorney General’s Office to address our options”.”
“The state’s selection committee chose ES&S because of it’s past service in the state and it’s knowledge of West Virginia election deadlines and procedures. Ireland says, “Unfortunately, we now feel ES&S let West Virginia down”.”
There have been failures all over the state. A small sampling of problems gives us:
– and ?
The national media? Mums the word for them, it seems.
John, I know when you typed "Taylor County’s votes could be counted" you meant could not, and everyone else will know that too …
Hey, I hope these election officials do not think there is no sympathy … there is … however … I only extend sympathy to those who admit that these companies are not performing.
I have no sympathy for the election officials who are not saying anything …
These machines are mass produced and the folk in W. Virginia are going to go thru what any other county that has the same machines and versions are going to go thru.
Its a function of mass production and anyone with that same machine is either going to complain about it or cover up the malfunctions.
I am glad that Betty Ireland chose to speak up instead of covering up the destabilization of the American election system.
Forgive me for sounding naive, but why isn’t the national media picking this up?
""As before, we continue to work with the Attorney General’s Office to address our options"."
That should be in bold for effect. It seems like she is crying out for effect here.
Max 1 #2
John, Brad, Bev Harris, Jim March, Catherine A, Clint Curtis, now you, and an army of bloggers have been asking this for a long time.
They have become frustrated at times in their long journey and struggle to try to stimulate the MSM (or national media as you call it) to report this to the people.
We have a plethora of theories as to why it is that there is virtually a national blackout of this news.
And it may just be that all those theories are correct, since there are so many media members. And they have different political, religious, and social views.
And many of them are controlled by their editors and the editors by the owners.
We have thought that it could be denial, disbelief, pride in our nation "that can do no wrong", or that they simply figure we are a bunch of sore losers or something akin to that. Who knows.
But I don’t think they realize the danger that a destabilized election system presents. Or how easy it really would be to destabilize that system.
The vulnerability is obvious when one realizes that most American votes are handled by machines marketed by only three companies (Diebold, Sequoia, and ES & S).
Thus, anyone with ill will against Americans could sabotage its democracy by controlling only three people in theory. Start with the IT managers at those three companies, or the equivalent.
And a rogue government could take distasteful actions when all of this power is concentrated in only a small handful of people.
Add to that the fact that some of the machines are made in foreign communist nations, and one has to resist thinking something is amiss with the MSM for not shouting this loudly to Americans.
the media cannot be trusted. the govt cannot be trusted. the vote is never honest, and the man at the top is a crook. democracy is a lie, and while the power lies in the proles, still, they will never grab it.
these are sad truths, but ones that have sustained the test of time for thousands of years.
big ups to brad and all the work he does. while my view may be fatalistic, i do not think this (realistic) view precludes doing all one can at the moment, for Good. that is still called for, or why bother living?
New Security Glitch Found In DIEBOLD Systems
OT (Kind of)
This could work out really great! New press sec is attacking press. Maybe if he gets them pissed off they will finaly wake up from their deep slumber.
I love the statement: “Again, the White House is clearly manipulating what I broadcast to fit their agenda. And they are wrong to do that.”
So expose them I say!
I don’t know the WV Sec. of State Betty Ireland, but I don’t trust her any further than I’d trust any other politician. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she has just realized she’s not going to get re-elected unless she does something big, like crying about ES&S.
I suppose it’s important to note that the biggest (population) counties of the state were not considered problem areas. Cabell and Kanawha are probably the biggest counties, though Wood county is one of the most Republican areas of the state.
I don’t read the local papers very often, so I haven’t heard of any problems in Cabell county (my home county).
One of the dangers is that the real problems will go unnoticed or they’ll only appear when someone (like Karl Rove) puts them into motion during a general election, especially one where a presidency is on the line.