I think Briggs & Stratton could make a lawnmower engine that could process ballots at "high-speed" without bogging down down due to "human error." If gas prices are a problem, perhaps a traditional home fireplace and chimney would be better suited. (I am being sarcastic)

How many years out is this and these electronic vote tabulation machines are still running flawless, while the humans are the error.

Maybe next election Premier/Diebold can just eliminate the voters altogether? After all, if humans are the error, why have humans at all?

No this little witty sarcasm isn't going to fix this problem, the problem is these machines are embedded with the elections officials by law across the land.

And while we still get Senators that go on talk radio and make an ass out of themselves by saying that it's not something that can be nationalized in order to fix it, the same idiot (or is that corrupt, oath-breaking) Senators simply ignore the fact their own Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) was pretty much nationalized. Otherwise why would we all have these electronic vote tabulation devices across the whole nation?

Human error my ass. Backroom deals more like.

Still yet here we are at the end of 2008 and the corporate fascist media still won't shine a light on this problem and put this fire out once and for all.

These electronic vote tabulation devices have to go, they are the enemy of our constitutional republic. The damage done by these devices that is always "human error" can't even be counted on my casio calculator anymore. The Deaths from war, the destruction of the Constitution, the theft of hundreds of trillions of dollars. Logically by Premier/Diebold logic, if it's really "human error" causing all these problems we shouldn't have humans anymore!

I couldn't agree more!

I have to agree with Phil. The problems are overwhelming. What is so frustrating to me is how few people know there is a problem.

Brad, I wish you'd do a comprehensive, updated posting that would directly address the gap between votes that have been counted so far and these stories about a "record turnout."

The media and both political parties are ignoring what appears to be the fact that 10% of votes haven't been counted, amid massive failure of vote tabulation systems throughout the country.

One example comes instantly to mind. In California, the total number of votes on Prop 8 is about 10 million, but the Census Bureau says that in the 2004 presidential election there were 12.8 million voters.

Another example: According to Census figures, there were 125.7 million voters throughout the country in 2004, for a turnout of the voting-age citizen population of 64%.

The last figures I've seen from the major media show 120 million presidential votes this year. The Associated Press quoted a few experts to the effect that 134-136 votes were cast this year. Where are the 14 million missing votes.

Brad, I love your site. I've been reading it for years and I respect the hell out of you. So, please take this criticism in the highly constructive mode that it's meant. So far, your site has addressed this year's fiasco in piecemeal terms. You need to bring all of the threads together in one posting that will make it clearer.

The election systems in the U.S. appear to have further weakened, yet the issue is getting NO attention.

Maybe the MSM could also do a study on the percentage of voters who found themselves booted off the voter rolls this year, quite to their surprise- nah, that would so un-MSM.

Help! What's going on in Georgia ??? - it seems very FISHY.

Karen Handel = Katherine Harris & Kenneth Blackwell. GA's Secretary of State Karen Handel has called for a state investigations and issued threats of possible criminal prosecution. Handel Throws Fulton County Under the Bus

...But the lady doth protest too much, methinks. And, frankly, the actions of Handel’s office over the past few months make us wonder if Republicans might not be pushing for an investigation out of a desperate hope that some reason might be found to invalidate a chunk of Fulton’s 31,000 absentee ballots, the majority of which went for Martin.

NOTE: That's Jim Martin who is in a run-off with Saxby Shameless [Chambliss.]

Is anybody collecting GA election/registration numbers & crunching them? Please provide a link for me if so. The numbers I can find really make the GA election results look suspicious. Thanks.

Also this story:

Fulton County delays vote certification - Due to Faulty Memory Card

While the continued problems are troubling, it's good to finally see judges and prosecutors start to take at least *some* of these issues seriously.

A new wind is beggining to blow, thanks to the tireless efforts of many out there, not the least of which is Bradblog.com

Kudos for all your hard work, and let's hope this trickle of attention this is finally getting turns into a giant wave of people demanding that this kind of thing be rectified.

GA again ... The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports 2008 voter turnout went up 0.6 percentage points from 2004.

How can it be we had early voting for more than a month before the election ... there were horribly long lines and thousands of people waiting 2 to 8 hours to vote.

In 2004 there were few precincts that saw overwhelming numbers. 2004 early voting lasted just one week with only 670,000 casting their votes early. And now they tell us turnout was just up 0.6 percent??? Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it seems fishy to me.

Mark Crispin Miller is writing about the odd low-turnout across the country.

In Ohio, a “record turnout” that WENT DOWN!

Presidential turnout was FLAT?

My wish list for the new administration;
How about paper ballots in locked boxes with video cameras on them 24/7 to make sure no one tampers with them, revotes if something funky is up with the videos, poll watchers from all parties, and full ballot access for third parties.

That is until there is a way to make some sort of electronic voting unhackable.
I think it is amazing that our ATMs seem to be A WHOLE LOT MORE RELIABLE than these voting machines. I guess that's because they'd lose a lot of business if they were caught screwing with our money. Funny how screwing with our vote, the very basis of our democracy is so easily forgiven. It's treason!

If the Democrats don't get it right this time. It's time for a full 3rd party revolution; Greens, Libertarians, Constitutionalists, whatever Nader is, the full gamut.

Oh, and a national press that is not owned by any corporation, that prints facts, not the blathering opinions of one corporate mouthpiece after another.

Keep it up Brad. You are the best.