U.S. digs for vote-machine links to Hugo Chávez

Miami Herald ^ | October 28, 2006 | ALFONSO CHARDY achardy@MiamiHerald.com

[Madame Dufarge]

No matter what is claimed, the only way to have a verifiable election that can be recounted is paper ballots.

I agree wholeheartedly.

I want those nice elderly folks who volunteer at libraries and pass out ballots at voting time to count paper ballots.

I hate the idea of electronic voting.

[Pablo64]

I've never voted anywhere that didn't use some form of paper ballot (probably due to living in smaller, rural areas most of my life). I've used two types of paper ballots. One is the type with the infamous "chads". It is inserted into a holder in the center of a book in the voting booth. The book is permanently attached and has all the candidates and ammendments, etc., on it. You use a little stylus to punch through the ballot (knock out the chad). When you are done, you pull the ballot card back out and nobody can tell by looking at it who you voted for since all the candidate names, etc., were on the book in the voting booth. Your card just looks like a computer card with holes punched in it.

The other type (that I've used most often) is like your standard scan-tron card, similar to what you would use to take multiple choice tests in school. You color in the oval next to the name of the candidate you want to vote for. They give you a little kind of binder to put it in after you are done. Only the bottom sticks out and it is a perforated tag the election official tears off (number matched with your ballot). They tear off the ticket (to verify that that ballot has been used) then you slide your ballot into the locked box by holding the little binder up to the slot and letting your ballot slide into the box.

I've always wondered what an electronic voting machine would be like to use, but I'm satisfied with the paper ballots. It's at least something tangible.

[RichardW]

This e-voting is a prescription for disaster. Paper ballots are the only way to go. You don't fix what isn't broken. And we ought to have early voting as well. I voted this past Monday in Texas. In an out in 10 minutes.

[FairOpinion]

"Federal officials are investigating whether Smartmatic, owner of Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems, is secretly controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, according to two people familiar with the probe. "


Amazing!

I hope there is a full investigation.

[sam_paine]

I'm an engineer.

I'm NOT opposed to electronic voting.

The stakes are too high. No matter what is claimed, the only way to have a verifiable election that can be recounted is electronic ballots. In paper land, votes can appear and/or disappear without a trace. Votes need to remain immidiately verifiable.

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Give people a paper receipt of their ballot.
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Funny how we accept that every dollar I give to the FedGov disapears into a bizarre black hole that pays for ilegal immigrants and bridges to nowhere, yet we are worried about efforts to avoid the legal cheating that went on in PBC or Chicago in 2000 with paper ballots.

[okie01]

A very important story that the MSM has somehow managed to overlook -- despite their wailing and moaning about vote suppression and Diebold.

[rfp1234]

Vote Absentee!!!

[shield]

Here's one for you.

[Artemis Webb]

This is potentially very big.

The graphic summarizes things very well.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Don't worry...

Just let ME count the votes 8*}

[montag813]

Cool...now we on the right can have our very own "the election was stolen" conspiracy!

[Chode]

no no no... it's dibold, Dibold, DIBOLD!!! pay no atttention to the man behind the gas pump!!!

Chavez: "You are a devil, you smell like sulfur, you are a drunk, you are the demon, you are a dictator, you are an assassin Mr. Devil, you are..."

Bush: "YEAH, Yeah, yeah, WHATever... just fill'er up MonkeyBoy!"

[Tunehead54]

Very Scary News bump ;-(

[Kenny500c]

Why use these things when there is no reason for it.

I don't mind waiting for the results but I guess the news outfits want a quick result.

How about paper ballots, photo ID and purple dye?

[defenderSD]

"No matter what is claimed, the only way to have a verifiable election that can be recounted is paper ballots."

You're right; there has to be some kind of physical ballot generated by the voter, whether it be a paper ballot or some other material like a punched plastic card that might be more durable during recounts. I'm a software developer myself and like you I know how easily electronic votes can be changed or frabricated.

It seems like we need some kind of hybrid voting system where an automated stylus device punches the ballot for the voters with no mistakes and no "hanging chads" and then verifies that the ballot has been properly punched with an indicator light that flashes bright blue for a good hole punch (can't use red or green because of color bindness). That's all we need, just a device to punch the ballots properly and verify to the voter that the ballot has been properly punched.

As you say, the stakes are way too high and software can be easily manipulated. Physical ballots can still be illegally cast and stuffed into ballot boxes, but at least that kind of fraud is much easier to prevent than electronic fraud. I predict eventually some day we'll get rid of voting machines and just go with an automated stylus device to punch the ballots. Maybe we should start a campaign for this on FR.

There is a proper use for databases and software technology to keep a running tabluation of vote counts and detect sudden inexplicble changes in counts that could indicate fraud. But there's no good way to replace a physical ballot and these voting machines are scary, especially considering the low level of honesty of many democRAT politicians today.

[windchime]

Convoluted, complicated, secretive, involvement in international election structure and technology would indicate some involvement by this guy:

Soros Blows a Clinton-Style Gasket at Fox's Cavuto

Posted by Tim Graham on October 6, 2006 - 08:21.

NRO Media Blog notes that George Soros blew a Clinton-style gasket at Neil Cavuto on Fox Thursday afternoon. Cavuto raised his accented ire by noting that he may not be paying all those taxes on the super-rich that the Left constantly demands, since his Quantum Fund is registered in the Netherlands Antilles, in Curacao:

Soros funded Stewart defense
NRO.com ^ | 10-16-06 | Byron York

Soros's Quantum Fund is registered in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, the Caribbean tax haven - so he avoids paying taxes, and also hides the nature of his investors, and what he does with their money. By moving his legal headquarters to Curacao. Soros was able to avoid the kind of U.S. government supervision of his financial activities, that any U.S.-based investment fund must agree to, in order to operate. The Netherland Antilles, a possession of the Kingdom of Holland, has repeatedly been cited by the International Task Force on Money Laundering of the OECD as one of the world's most important centers for laundering the illegal proceeds of the Latin American cocaine and other drug traffic.
http://users.cyberone.com.au/myers/soros.html

43 posted on 10/16/2006 7:49:46 PM EDT by fight_truth_decay

Soros's Quantum Fund is registered in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, the Caribbean tax haven - so he avoids paying taxes, and also hides the nature of his investors, and what he does with their money. By moving his legal headquarters to Curacao. Soros was able to avoid the kind of U.S. government supervision of his financial activities, that any U.S.-based investment fund must agree to, in order to operate. The Netherland Antilles, a possession of the Kingdom of Holland, has repeatedly been cited by the International Task Force on Money Laundering of the OECD as one of the world's most important centers for laundering the illegal proceeds of the Latin American cocaine and other drug traffic.
http://users.cyberone.com.au/myers/soros.html

[Cincinatus' Wife]

How interesting.