An HBO documentary aired on November 2, 2006. Titled "Hacking Democracy," voting reformist Bev Harris investigates a trail of inaccuracies and suspicions regarding electronic voting.
This documentary is a serious eye-opener. "Hacking Democracy" suggests that the Diebold electronic voting systems can be and has been rigged to essentially hack votes in favor of one party. For people who have been following the electronic voting ballots, this is nothing new - its a topic that is over four years old. But nowadays this scandal is all over the mainstream media. Why? Because its estimated that over 40% of American voters will be using these electronic ballots come November 7. 40% of the voters. That's one hell of a margin of error.
The problem with electronic voting is that there is no paper trail = no record for a recount. All the votes are stored on hard drives and memory cards. If there is reasonable suspicion of error, all the counts are lost. Even other methods of voting that use electronic counting -- including punch card paper ballots -- can create error, and the paper ballots -- the actual punch card -- is a last resort for recount.
And things are getting scary now; with Republicans boasting certainty for the election year, you can't help but wonder why they are so optimistic. Is it just for the cameras and they're just sucking it up, or are they rigging/have the rigged the voting machines? Already in Jefferson County and Dallas, Texas, Maplewood, Missouri, and Hempwallace, Arkansas, early straight-ticket democrat voters have claimed that the voting machine registered Republican votes instead.
In the documentary, Harris and computer engineers attempt to write a vote-stealing script. The worst part about their attempt was that it was highly successful. Scripters and programmers give interviews about how easy is it to spread a "virus" on every voting machine.
When all this information comes into the limelight, its the electronic machine companies that act surprised. How could computer programmers for VOTING not know about the security risks? Either we've got some oblivious intellects designing our voting system, or they know about and not want to admit to it. Diebold has already requested HBO to cancel the documentary claiming "inaccurate reporting."
No matter the election results this year, the American public going to wonder if that's who we've voted for.
Oh please. Tying the republicans certainty to electronic voting is ridiculous. You can thank Kerry for any republican victory that there is. But I do agree that the computer systems are too easy to hack into. I cant remember which channel specially I was watching that talked about people being able to break in simply with a credit card.
Francesca Chambers
I wasn't implying that the Republicans are trying to hack the vote/are hacking the votes and that's why they're optimistic about the upcoming elections. In fact, in some states, its the Republicans that are skeptical for this reason. Republican Governor Ehrlich of Maryland wants to get rid of the Diebold voting systems in Maryland which was originally purchased by a democrat.
But Diebold is one shady company anyway when it comes to the suspicion of the GOP doing the hacking; Diebold definitely has ties to the GOP, a history of both lying to and currying favor with officials, a brusque and secretive posture in its dealings with critics and the press, and, worst of all, a pattern of technological ineptitude so startling you sometimes wonder if the people who work there are trying to sabotage the vote.
Oh and the way to fix the no paper trail is to make it more like a computer that has an auto recover and prints out a receit for voters.
Francesca Chambers
What gets me is that there is a bill in Congress just sitting there gathering dust (a bill requiring a mandated paper trail). Why, for Pete's sake, is the bill still sitting there? We *know* these systems aren't as great as some would like us to believe... why are we ignoring that and hoping it won't make a difference on Tuesday? I have no faith whatsoever in electronic voting machines... never have, never will.
"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us." -Marcel Proust
Electronic voting machines have poll tapes though. They tally up how many votes are registered per machine. And the voting machines also have VVPATs -- voter-verified paper audit trail -- to prove to the voter that their selection was recorded accurately. The only problem is that less than half the country (I think its around 22 states, but don't quote me on that) require VVPATs, which can be used if there was a need for a manual recount.
In the documentary though, these VVPATs are in horrible condition which makes it impossible for a recount. Some are crumpled, torn, taped together, some have blank spots, etc etc.
I think VVPATs should required in all 50 states and DC, and should be required to be kept in usable condition.
I did watch the documentary you talked about and I have seen more articles pop up about this subject. I did some of my own research and discovered that Diebold's profits mostly come from sales of ATM's. This made me think that I have never heard of or seen an ATM that could be hacked or that malfunctioned often. Why is it that the electronic voting machines that they make are so susceptible to hacking or flaws in the design? It seems to me that a voting machine that only has to add would be less sophisticated than one that disperses money, keeps balances, receives deposits and even pay your bills at some ATM's now. These are the things that congress seems to overlook. I also discovered that the individual counties get to choose which machines they want to purchase. I searched and searched to find only two other vendor options: Sequoia and Smartmatic who actually purchased Sequoia last year. The Sequoia machines have been blasted in the past as well for having serious security flaws. This just doesn't seem right that the only two options these counties have is between two documented problematic vendors that have been caught red handed telling President Bush that the Ohio votes would be delivered to him. I'm not an idiot and I'm getting tired of the government and big business thinking that we all are. I really feel that in a short amount of time we will be called upon to show this organizations and cartels that the people are the real source of the power here and when united we can accomplish amazing things.
Anthony Tenaglia, A.K.A. El Tigre Del Norte
Sorry to say this, but I used to believe in votes up until those voting machines were invented. My theory is that if they really wanted a democracy, they wouldn't use those ridiculous machines at all. I just don't see the point in voting anymore. We are being played by money and power. That's that.
And there is nothing we can do about it. Sorry I'm just not convinced that there is a solution. A simple blogging website would not be able to solve conflict with government. For thousands of years, governments ruled people, unless there is a rebellion as in the french revolution. I don't see that many Americans protesting.
They say this is a free country, but if you try to overthrough the government, your a gonner. That's not what we are trying to do here though. We just want an HONEST government.