Reaching out to the masses

This week we have an article by a great activist for fair and verified balloting - Ms. Joan Brunwasser reflecting on 6 months of sending out DVDs of "Invisible Ballots" to many, many people across the nation.

Here is a great listing from an Italian lady explaining the problems with electronic voting

Top 10 reasons for paper balloting

This is a summary - click on first link for full article

TOP 10 REASONS FOR PAPER BALLOTS ON EVOTING MACHINES

1. EVOTING MACHINES ARE NOT RELIABLE.
2. EVOTING MACHINES NOT VIRUS/HACKER PROOF.
3. PROGRAMMING 'SOURCE CODE' IS SECRET.
4. VOTES CAST RUN RISK OF NOT BEING COUNTED.
5. THE VOTE IN DATA CARTRIDGE IS 'CERTIFIED' BY ITA'S.
6. THE MACHINES ARE PROGRAMMED BY THE VENDORS.
7. 'SMART CARDS' ALLOW MULTIPLE VOTES.
8. MEMORY ON VOTING MACHINES TOO SMALL.
9. MACHINE CALIBRATION 'IFFY' AT BEST.
10. MACHINES LOSE ELECTION DATA.

SUMMATION: Electronic voting machines have been touted to be easy to use, giving quick election results with no mechanical breakdowns. This is simply not the case. These electronic voting machines have proven to incorrectly tally votes, cost counties more money, take longer to complete elections and cost states millions in recounts (when they can perform one). These are just some of the many reasons why having a paper ballot is a necessity. It is imperative that these machines be equipped with paper ballot (vvpb) audit capacity to insure that every vote cast on them is in fact cast, counted and can be recounted if necessary. Paper ballots/receipts on these unreliable machines will not fix this broken system, however at the very least an audit of the election can be performed to see if the receipts match the machine totals.

Robert Koehler asks the right questions

Bob Koehler asks the question that the American media and we, the citizens, refuse to ask and are afraid to answer "Was the 2004 election stolen". see his link at the top of the link list.

Invisible ballots review

Anthony Wade reviews the movie invisible ballots. I agree with him that there should have been more on exit polls. However, he does get to the root of the problem - inaudibility, narrow ownership of voting machine companies, company ties to thh Republican party, and Secretary of Stae bias.

Please review and comment on top link in links:

Carter-Baker lowdown

Some hot info behind the Carter-Baker election reform committee. Link

And now Carter-Baker on vote reform

On the Carter-Baker commission

Here is how the Washington Post reported it

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64518-2005Apr18.html

Many basic points were addressed:
"Those recommendations are not expected until September, which is a good thing because the academics, advocacy group leaders and politicians invited to testify yesterday provided a dizzying list of electoral problems that might make some wonder how any ballots were counted in November."

But Diebold security (or rather the lack of it) was not.
See this expose:
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001838.htm

And as to be expected:
"Carter and Baker were clear on what they do not plan to address: how congressional districts are drawn, whether the electoral college ought to be revamped or abolished and whether the District ought to be able to vote in Congress."

My prediction:
Carter will be the front man, the honest guy for yet another of Baker's devious plays....