corporate interests win again
dcdaveA Florida judge ruled against Democrat Christine Jennings, saying that she “cannot examine the programming code of the electronic voting machines used in the disputed election.” In plain English, this means that the corporate interests of the company who builds the voting machines was held in a higher regard than the ideal of a clean, verifiably accurate election. The irregularities are not normal, and have caused some serious concern, as noted in the Herald Tribune:
More than 18,000 voters who showed up at the polls voted in other races but not the Buchanan-Jennings race. That means nearly 13 percent of voters did not vote for either candidate — a massive undercount compared with other counties, including Manatee, which reported a 2 percent undervote.
Regardless of who ends up being the eventual winner of this race, it is deplorable that corporate interests can trump the integrity of the voting process. Contact your representatives and demand paper trails and accountability. Cross Posted @ Bloody Blue Blazes
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December 31st, 2006 at 7:55 pm
that is such a crock of shit.
December 31st, 2006 at 8:10 pm
I can’t find the text of the judge’s ruling. Either way this went it was going to wind up in the appellate courts. From what I am reading the judge says the absence of votes does not indicate that there was an error justifying the release or proprietary information. Without any errors in the tests the state performed on the machines we are left with the “supposition” that the machines made an error which the judge indicates is not enough to justify ordering the code released.
I am not sure what is to be gained by looking at the code, even if flaws are found it will not confirm that those votes were “lost” by the machines, just that the code had some uncorrected errors right? I am with Dave in one respect though, a paper receipt that can be kept in a locked ballot box for recounts and such would solve this entire dilemma. The tech will get better, it always does, but without a physical backup digital records will always be vulnerable.
January 3rd, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Has anyone thought that 18,000 people might have not wanted to vote for either one? I mean there were races that I did not cast a vote for in my area because I did not like either one. So I left i blank. God for bid the public does not like either party. Oh no they have to vote. Support the county not the party people. Two nations in the 20th Century put the party above the country- Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
January 4th, 2007 at 7:34 am
James, that’s ridiculous. That fact is that the undervote was statistically abnormal compared to all surrounding areas. There was an undervote in the FL-13 race of 18,000 votes (13%). That’s compared to only 2.53% of voters who did not vote in the race via absentee ballots.
A study by The Herald Tribune, found that one in three of Sarasota election officials “had general complaints from voters about having trouble getting votes to record” on the electronic machines for the Congressional race. Since 53% of voters in Sarasota County picked Jennings over the Republican Vern Buchanan, those missed votes would likely have put Jennings in front.
January 4th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Voting machines will never work accuratly. This is mainly due to the fact that only corporations can afford to build them on a useable scale, and they’re the ones trying to purchase representation in the first place.
More and more I am convinced that there’ll never be such a thing as a real democracy. Merely economic warfare.