Tom Herman of Vocalo.org (a project of Chicago’s National Public Radio) had some good questions about how votes are counted in Illinois, and elsewhere, over the weekend. I tried to give him some good answers. I believe it was a very good, sober discussion on these questions, and one that might come in handy tomorrow and beyond.
Appx. 14 mins, download MP3 or listen online right here…
The BRAD BLOG on the Air
2/4/2008
AUDIO: How Do You Know If Your Vote is Counted Accurately or Even at All? | A Sober Discussion on Vote Counting Between Brad Friedman and Vocalo's Tom Herman... · · · · · AUDIO: How Do You Know If Your Vote is Counted Accurately or Even at All? | A Sober Discussion on Vote Counting Between Brad Friedman and Vocalo's Tom Herman...
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To the DARKEST men in the world,
you ain’t even good poker players,
the contempt and greed
on your faces
WITNESSED by ALL.
I hope local people get a clue,
and ACT FOR YOUR COUNTRY.
Ya know, my brother works doing CAPITAL PUNISHMENT and HABEAS CORPUS cases, and when I try to get him to talk…
He’s sad.
Put these lying pricks in jail. NOW.
That’s what I’d like to see the “party” do anyway!
The Dems are all about surrender. I understand now why they don’t care about election integrity issues. Look at the candidate they are so excited about now, Obama. His main argument is that he loves Reagan and GOPers like him. In other words, the Democratic Party prefers to let the GOP select their candidates anyway!! So what’s the effing difference!
I guess maybe Naomi Wolf’s theory about Disaster Capitalism explains this. Years, even decades, of one outrage after another against Democratic principles has Dems and Progressives in shock. All they needed was a candidate to open his arms and say to them “come to me and I will lead you to Reagan,” and they just fell into step, like he was their Pied Piper. It’s Morning again in Amerika.
No, that’s from Naomi Klein‘s The Shock Doctrine. Naomi Wolf’s is The End of America.
Brad,
Happy Super ScrewsDay. That is a good question you ask:
This blog is sometimes seen as cynical, however, Willie Nelson is far more cynical than this blog:
(Prison Planet via Raw Story Link).
Some of the activists of the 60’s are endorsing candidates:
(Joan Baez). Tom Hayden takes the same tact:
(Tom Hayden at After Downing Street).
I listened to the interview and I liked the way you kept it simple, yet clear, Brad. Good job!
yep Dredd, the train is leaving the station and some are never going to get on board…is that just an excuse to piss and moan ?, I don’t know, maybe it is a race thang.
If you look at Obamas street creds, he’s not too bad either, similar to Wellstone, except Paul was a poli-sci professor.
IMO we’ll be voting for Clinton come November anyways, the dLC still has its hold on the party
Here is a link to a description of the Canadian electoral system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ca...ectoral_system
Note the last paragraph:
Floridiot #9
We thought the lies started just before the Iraq invasion, but some moms and wives tell us it started earlier.
Willie (see post #6) could be correct if this is a wake up call to set up the stage.
I am voting democratic this year to REJECT this fascist regime and hold them accountable. It is more of a vote against the regime than it is a vote for the current candidates.
Then yet another year goes by and I do not know if my vote will count or be counted.
Hey guys, there was a great interview with Shenon on Democracy Now.
http://www.democracynow.org/200...1_commissioner
Everyone knows that the people are supposed to be able to peacefully remove bad leaders through elections, but what if those who control the machines and their secret vote count want bad leaders in power?
Is there another way that citizens can prevent abuse of power without resorting to violence? Yes, there is another way to hold our governors accountable without resorting to violence. If you want to find out the other civil check on government abuse of power that our Founders provided for us, then read What Happens When the People Lose the Power to Control Government and What You Can Do to Take the Power Back? http://www.opednews.com/article...ns_when_th.htm
If you care about the safety of your family, read this article now, and send it to all of your contacts today. Now is the time for action!
hi brad,
first i wanna thank you for the work u r doing on elections
now a suggestion, i sure would of liked to heard u recite the list of “wrongs” that have been discovered in nh…the missing memory cards,unsecured ballot boxes,more votes showing than voters,ect
AND THE ONE NOBODY SEEMS TO HAVE PICKED UP YET,THAT ALMOST A MONTH AFTER NH’s VOTE THE SOS STILL HASNT POSTED POLLING NUMBERS(the precincts that we know numbers and can tell their r too many votes r because some local clerk has reported to the media how many voters they had)
paper ballots and open acess counting is the only thing that can save us
The thing about the Diebold machines is that the mere fact that there is active executable software on the memory card–in the words of “hacking democracy” video, “a living thing”–that should be case-closed game-over right there. There is no reason for engineering such a system that would allow active executable software on the memory cards, except for wanting to do dirty things.
And it allows negative totals–it is so obviously crooked. As someone I heard said–“If you haven’t looked into it, you have no idea how bad it is. The more you look, the worse it looks.” It’s not that there is inadequate security–it’s that practically every aspect of these machines appears to have been designed specifically for hacking elections, feature after feature…
Mark #13
Thank you. Although I’m at a loss for words, the action potential is rising. Peace.
Just to make sure you understand me Mark, an action potential is the message your brain sends to your body.
How we conducted the election in my precinct in Dupage County Illinois (I being 1 of 7 election judges)!
566 ballots casted on Accu-scan 1.96.6 software and 0 discrepency b/w ballots scanned and ballot count. 164 ballots were casted on Diebolds TSX. Paper trail on TSX prints as user votes, but then most ppl never looked at the paper tape about 20-50% did thought.
We experienced no problems having to distribute 16 different ballot types. All ballot types voted on were accepted.
Only 3 provisional ballots were issued. 730 total ballots cast with 566 on Accu-scan.
Memory cards where tie-wrapped sealed with metal bracket covering cards on Accu-scan and tie-wrapped sealed on TSX unit.
We had a few problems with the TSX unit starting up and basically ran out of tape the last 1/2 hour. We had problems inserting a new tape roll, so everyone was directed to scanned ballots during the last 1/2 mad rush.
Estimated time to vote scanned ballot was 15sec for speedy ppl (like me) to 4-5m on a 2 page race for most ppl. Average voting item on the TSX machine 5-10m per voter. We only had 1 EVM, but 9 booths for scanner card selection.
Dupage County uses specially provide paper ballot boxes for scanned ballots which I personally double sealed with unremoveable labels – the type of labels which tear when you try and peal them off. All ballots fit into 1 box. All tapes and ballots were placed into a specially provided large zip case and will be personally delivered to count center by 2 of the election judges.
Memory cards are removed from units and placed in special anti-static bag and hand carried by the 2 election judges to the counting center. No outside contracters are involved in voting setup, ballot management or transport to counting center.
Accu-scan had about a 20% reject on first insertion rate, but all ballots were eventually accepted by the 3rd insertion attempt.
Our election procedures very very good. DuPage County Illinois is NOT NH! $ was spent to make everything unform and NO outside contracters are involved after the huge election supply cabinet is opened – only us the election judges.
What happens in the tabulation is another matter as well all know.
But we had 0 discrepancy b/w ballots inserted in to the Accu-scan and ballots issued. For the 200 or so ballots I over saw the insertion of, there were 0 over-counts.
Im real beat from 5:00 AM to 9:00PM is a long day. Record turn out Ive been told. 2.2k voters registerd and 730 ballots cast. I know low, but for a primary, that is very high.