``If he could make me look bad, I think it would give him some satisfaction,'' Mauro said of Brien.

(Mauro is Polk County Auditor; Brien is contesting.)

...and the stupid quotes keep coming...

When dealing with political animals, this whole extra dimension of idiocy comes into play. To them this "reasoning" makes perfect sense. It's agonizing enough when the future of our democracy isn't hanging in the balance, but now... agh!

I guess I've been wrong. Utah elections are going great! It's just like someone in an article from last week said:

"You can't cheat, you can't steal” the machines are smarter than we are,". "The whole thing is really exciting."

What in heaven's name has gone wrong? Who needs any stinking machines at all? Why resort to hand recounts when we could easily have hand counts in the first place. After all, we insisted that the Germans and the Japanese use paper ballots and pencils to ensure ultimate transparency, and they still use the system, as do countless democracies around the world. Are Americans so soft that they have to use machines for every damn thing? Here in Prague they mail you the extensive ballot well in advance of the election, you fill it in at your leisure, take public transportation to your polling place on the election days (2 consecutive days, Friday and Saturday), fold your ballot, and place it in a sealed ballot box. The results are tallied completely, by hand and with witnesses, by morning. Of course the politicians are crooks, almost to a one, and voter partidipation is low as a result, but the actual voting and counting system can't be gamed by anyone. Let's take a lesson from the Ukrainians! No need for orange garments - when we take to the streets we should bring giant rolls of aluminum foil to fashion stylish hats for everyone. My, how we'll sparkle on that sunny day...

"It was a simple problem, a dumb mistake," Herman said. "Things happen sometimes. But just because one county did something wrong doesn't mean another county was wrong, too. That's not good logic."

Questions for Herman:

Is it good logic to assume that Poke county is the only county that could possibly have done something wrong? Would you bet your democracy on it? Do you want Iowa to be a Machine Controlled State Like Nebraska???

Here's copy of letter to editor sent today from my wife concerning the TN story:

So Tennessee Election Coordinator Brook Thompson thinks our elections will
be just fine, even though Tennessee is one of only 16 states that are
listed as at "high risk" for compromised elections (6/24 Tennessean:
"State's ballots pose fraud risk" By Anne Paine). How did we get on such a
list? Our elections will use computer voting machines with no
voter-verified paper ballots; equipment that has been proven over and over
to be both hackable and undependable. In 2006, we've seen THOUSANDS of
problems with this equipment. Mr. Thompson is on the Board of Directors of
The Election Center, an "educational" group that is funded by the vendors
of such machines, and is the only member of said board to be of such lofty
rank within a state's government. Why is Thompson so confident in computer
voting machines? Fox Alert! Fox in charge of Henhouse! Mr. Thompson is the
guy who insisted that our counties buy these computers to vote. Both of
Tennessee's major vendors, ES&S (who broke the Davidson County contract
almost as soon as it was signed!) and Diebold (which designed 3 ways to
sneak into their own machines and change votes without detection!), have
been shown as breathtakingly incompetent, if not criminal. Mr. "Conflict
of Interest" Thompson claims he has "not yet seen" the Common Cause report
which lists our state so badly. Isn't that his job to know such
information??? Mr. Thompson misinforms the citizens of the state and the
Legislature as to what's happening in our elections. There is no way,
without a paper ballot to look at and place in a ballot box, for a voter
to be sure if the vote was recorded correctly. Tennesseans, freedom-loving
Americans, deserve to have free, fair elections. Brook Thompson hurts the process. He should resign.

And WHAT did they recount in the above-listed AK race? Anybody know? Did they have paper ballots, or was it even worse?

shw

I was wondering if anyone has heard about this supposed incident at UCLA? Rightwing radio is talking about it, reportedly. Six college kids who argued their way into voting six times (I guess for six candidates --- these wingers are weird).

Karls got $1000 for any young Rapepublican who wants to help him create smokescreen propaganda.

Perhaps this was discussed here, but since Brad brought up the 'voter fraud' nonsense, this incident is being used to support that.

Rapepublicans taking briefcase voting machines home right before an election, for 'maintenance work' --- that's another grand I'm sure.

And you get to keep the $12 an hour. Not to mention the great fun mocking the public (and the republic) in plain view.

F*ckin' eh, #4, f*ckin' eh.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH HAND COUNTED PAPER BALLOTS. ME LIKE. ME LIKE A LOT. I am sick of not trusting the electronic count. It's even more upsetting that no one else seems to care...

We must never go back to punch cards!

I have been hoping there was some way I could find out something about how the punch card machines we have used in Utah work, ever since I found out they use software. I’ve never seen a picture of one, or seen one article that describes them. Nobody seems to know a darned thing about these enigmatic punch card machines!

This 1988 document, which appears to be authentic has a section that knocked me right off my chair!
Document

I had no intention of reading this huge legalistic document, but, almost by magic, happened upon something VERY INTERESTING. A detailed description of the punch card system by Dr. Michael Ian Shamos. Dr. Shamos, although not from Utah, is one of a handful of people allowed to comment about voting machines in the Utah press. Despite the fact that he has come out strongly stating the vulnerability of the Diebold machines after the BBV examination, I’m uncomfortable with him being used as a source of expertise because he has done studies against the use of paper ballots. So I was stunned to see this observation by him concerning the punch card ballots:

“the ballot itself contains no candidate names and is meaningless when examined”

Granted, this was many years ago, and he’s certainly allowed to change his mind. Also, if he’s been working on this issue that long, he’s probably even more confused then I am! He continues with his description of the punch cards with these stunning revelations:

“It is a straightforward matter to alter a punched-card voting booth so that votes cast for one candidate will be recorded as though they were for another....Any required tampering can be performed during the election and all traces removed before any investigation can occur. Computers can be manipulated remotely, by wire or radio, or by direct physical input. The memories on which these computers operate can easily fit into a shirt pocket and can be substituted in seconds. The software can be set to await the receipt of a special card, whose presence will cause all the election counters to be altered. This card could be dropped into the ballot box by any confederate. The possibilities for this type of tampering are endless, and virtually no detection is possible once tabulation has been completed”.

Possible RADIO manipulation of Utah votes since the 1960's or whenever we got these things. WOW!. Verification of my every suspicion, right from the horses mouth (Shamos). If we get to send our Diebold machines back for credit, I move that we NEVER even consider using these scary pieces of junk again!

This Diebold debacle may turn out to be the best thing that has ever happened to election reform!

Lary Bergan #10

What a find! And I thought only Floridiot could find those jewels after Kira retired from us. Miss her and all the other old timers ... anyway ...

That document could be a neo moment. Like in Matrix I where Neo realized his world was not what he had thought it was.

I purchased a little book, literally about 3" x 3", which is named "Quotable Women", published by Running Press (1989, Philadelphia), and it had this jewel:

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are"

(Anaiis Nin) which certainly fits the electronic voting machine era, and makes me see how realistic the movie Matrix I really was/is.

We think we have it all figured out ... until something happens to wake us up.

In the current electronic voting machine maelstrom it seems to be the 2000 and 2004 elections that woke us up. And when we looked around, things were worse.

But some, as your link shows (1988 Election Machine White Paper), were awake before we were.

Which made me wonder ... are those who were enlightened then those who do not vote now?

And thus, we can be certain that we live in a "soft dictatorship" ... but are complaining only because we don't know how long it will be "soft" before it goes hardcore?

Like the enlightened Nin said, we see what we are.

Dredd:

Amazing, isn't it. I never expected to find out that the punch card machines were probably WORSE then Diebolds.

I was referred to another site on election reform which I won't name because I don't want to steer people away from this terrific one, but there is a guy there that has a lot of great stuff. He gave me this one saying it would "blow my mind".

Another interesting fact. I'm sure John Giddeon will be posting a terrible article from the "Salt Lake Tribune" yesterday that interveiws five pro-Diebold people and Bruce Funk!

Here

One of the people defending Diebold is Lloyd Carr. Mr. Carr has been the sole programmer of the punch card machines that have been used in Utah, and comes from a family that has been providing ballots materials here since 1902!

I'm getting the creeps!

Dredd, man, I second your missing Kira - she had such great links! And KestrelBrighteyes, too! And so many other wonderful Bradville alumnae/i! I rejoice that WP is as feisty as ever, and as nice... What a crew! I propose we all meet up on the first Saturday after the long struggle is finally over. My friend Shvejk knows just the pub in Prague...

Aloha;
I have a link to your site on my website, what are the chances of getting a link to my political cartoon site on you links for political cartoons? Check my work out, pklease. Thom hartmann has recomended my site on air, and Randi Rhodes has posted my cartoons on her home page as well.
Thats it thanks for your time.

Ah, i guess i didn't email to you directly, so here's my website for my political cartoons, www.whatnowtoons.com