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I just heard the daily Donald Trump spot on the radio just before noon today. This is the radio spot sponsored by Office Depot. I have heard Trump run down President Bush on this spot before. He is obviously in the Kerry camp. Now he cites an article in the NY Times comparing the accuracy of slot machines to voting machines. The crux of the comment is that slot machines are more closing regulated and inspected than the voting machines. Slot machines are more accurate than voting machines. He and the NY Times are casting doubt on the voting process....

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — More than 45 million people in 29 states and the District of Columbia are set to vote using touch-screen machines Nov. 2. But the devices once hailed as the answer to the nation's voting woes are stirring up some serious cases of buyer's remorse here and across the country. California officials have accused the companies that make electronic voting machines of delivering shoddy equipment and are suing to get their money back. Candidates in other states seeking to overturn questionable election results have turned to the courts as well. Election reform advocates rallied in 19...

Touchscreen Hack Effort Called 'Monkey Business' Wednesday, September 22, 2004 By Joseph Bacchus and Stacy Kaper Critics of the Diebold (search) touch-screen voting machines turned their attention Wednesday from the machines themselves to the computers that will tally the final vote, saying the outcome is so easy to manipulate that even a monkey could do it. And they showed video of a monkey hacking the system to prove it. In the minute-long video produced by Black Box Voting (search), Baxter the chimp is shown deleting the audit log that is supposed to keep track of changes in the Diebold central...

IT IS not often that the dry subject of voting technology makes the headlines. It famously happened in America's presidential election in 2000, when the previously obscure differences between hanging, pregnant and dimpled “chads”—the small flakes of paper punched out of cards by mechanical voting machines—suddenly became a national crisis.Many states subsequently invested in new, electronic voting machines, in which old-fashioned paper is replaced by a shiny touch-screen. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA), passed in October 2002, provided $3.8 billion of federal funds to encourage states to upgrade their voting machines. Electronic touch-screen machines have now proliferated throughout the...

Just over six weeks before the nation holds the first general election in which touch-screen voting will play a major role, specialists agree that whatever the remaining questions about the technology's readiness, it is now too late to make any significant changes. Whether or not the machines are ready for the election - or the electorate ready for the machines - there is no turning back. In what may turn out to be one of the most scrutinized general elections in the country's history, nearly one-third of the more than 150 million registered voters in the United States will be...

Many computer scientists insist that electronic voting machines will be trustworthy only when they produce paper receipts that can be audited. But supporters of electronic voting have long argued that doing so would be extremely difficult, if not impossible. Nevada proved the naysayers wrong this month, running the first statewide election in which electronic voting machines produced paper records of votes cast. Election officials across the country now have no excuse not to provide systems that voters can trust. There is a growing body of evidence indicating that electronic voting machines are vulnerable to tampering and to software glitches that...

COMPUTERIZED voting machines are attracting a lot of attention in this election year, but one system is being watched particularly closely: the AccuVote-TS. The AccuVote-TS has been the subject of at least four studies over 14 months that expose security holes. This spring California's secretary of state, Kevin Shelley, blasted the manufacturer, Diebold Election Systems, for not following proper procedures in updating its software. Those problems and a battery defect that rendered some machines unusable for hours during the March primary prompted Mr. Shelley to order all counties using touch-screen machines to offer a paper alternative. Still, the AccuVote-TS will...

.....The new study was released this week by economists Ricardo Hausmann of Harvard and Roberto Rigobon of MIT. They zeroed in on a key problem with the August 18 vote audit that was run by the government's electoral council (CNE): In choosing which polling stations would be audited, the CNE refused to use the random number generator recommended by the Carter Center. Instead, the CNE insisted on its own program, run on its own computer. Mr. Carter's team acquiesced, and Messrs. Hausmann and Rigobon conclude that, in controlling this software, the government had the means to cheat. "This result opens...

An analysis of data from the Aug.15 referendum in Venezuela to recall President Hugo Chávez indicates that certain forms of computer fraud were unlikely to have occurred during the electronic voting process, according to a study by computer science researchers from Johns Hopkins and Princeton universities. Groups opposed to President Chávez charged that statistical anomalies in polling data indicated that election results were fraudulent. However, an independent analysis of the same data by Edward Felten, professor of computer science at Princeton, and Aviel D. Rubin, professor of computer science, and Adam Stubblefield, a doctoral student, both at Johns Hopkins, did...

Making sure that your electronic vote will be counted Next month, nearly one-third of voters will be able to cast their ballots on a computer touch screen-a highly controversial development. Some surveys show that people trust electronic voting, but the prospect alarms some computer scientists and voters' rights groups. People in precincts that already offer e-voting have reported the use of unauthorized software, nonworking machines, and delays in tallying votes cast onscreen. The critics point to a number of potential problems: Voter-access cards, needed to activate the machine, being mass-produced and used to allow individuals to vote multiple times. Insiders...

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer joined a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that voting equipment company Diebold Inc. sold the state shoddy hardware and software, exposing elections to hackers and software bugs. California's Alameda County also joined the false claims case, originally filed by a computer programmer and voting rights advocate. Faulty equipment in the March primary forced at least 6,000 of 316,000 voters in the county east of San Francisco to use backup paper ballots instead of the paperless voting terminals. The lawsuit is the first e-voting case to rely on an obscure legal provision for whistleblowers who help the government...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. LAS VEGAS (AP) - Voting officials were watching how successful Nevada would be Tuesday in becoming the first state to use touch-screen machines in statewide voting. Primary voting was due to narrow the field of November candidates for Congress, the state Legislature and two nonpartisan seats on the Nevada Supreme Court. Seats also were at stake on the state university Board of Regents and state Board of Education and many local offices. State and county election officials reported few problems with electronic machines after at least 100,000 ballots were cast during...

An Anne Arundel County judge yesterday rejected a challenge to the state's touch-screen voting machines, saying they are more accurate than the paper ballots plaintiffs are seeking to make optional for the November elections. Circuit Court Judge Joseph P. Manck called the concern that the electronic machines might be vulnerable to tampering "a very real fear," but he found that Maryland officials had "taken all reasonable steps to protect the integrity of the voting process." The ruling was a victory for the state's embattled elections administrator, Linda H. Lamone, who has championed electronic voting and was a defendant in the...

Use Electronic Voting From Overseas As 'Last Resort,' Official Says By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Sept. 1, 2004 – Some overseas servicemembers have another way to vote in the upcoming Nov. 2 elections, but they should use it as a last resort, a senior Defense Department official said here today. The alternative electronic voting method would apply only to troops whose local voting laws allow it, Charles Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, noted during an interview with the Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service. Servicemembers stationed overseas who want to...

Here's a textbook example of how government operates: A substantial portion of the population believes that our balloting system is flawed. The government solution? Make the system more convoluted and less resistant to fraud. In 2000, some Democrats in Florida had a tough time dealing with a simple punch card and ended up voting for a Reform Party candidate who many Republicans would admit had certain subtle fascist tendencies. So, instead of simplifying the voting process and creating a verifiable ballot system to avoid a repeat of the ugliness, we're being pushed to embrace a problematic touch-screen system. Electronic ballots...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A state rule barring the 15 Florida counties with touchscreen voting from conducting manual recounts is at odds with state law, which requires hand recounts in some close elections, a judge ruled Friday. A coalition including a labor union, government watchdogs and other interest groups sued the state, arguing the law requires provisions for hand recounts in every county, no matter what voting technology is used. Administrative Law Judge Susan Kirkland agreed, writing that state law clearly contemplates "that manual recounts will be done on each certified voting system, including the touchscreen voting systems." With a primary...

Secretary of State gets special permission for overseas troops. Missouri's Secretary of State says some members of the military will be allowed by vote by e-mail in the November elections. Matt Blunt says people in serving in combat overseas can complete their ballots, scan and e-mail them to the Department of Defense. The department will then forward the ballots to the appropriate local election officials. Blunt had asked about the option after some in the military stationed in Iraq reported trouble submitting absentee ballots for this month's state primaries.

SACRAMENTO - The Senate on Wednesday revived an effort to require a paper trail to ensure that electronic voting machines aren't tampered with and accurately record voter preferences. Meanwhile, the Assembly approved a bill that would create a state conservancy to help protect the Sierra Nevada from overdevelopment, and the Senate passed legislation requiring economic impact reports before local governments approve Wal-Mart-like superstores. The Senate also approved a bill by Assemblyman Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark, that would require that all touch-screen voting machines used after Jan. 1, 2006, give voters paper receipts verifying how they voted. The machines would also have...

NewsMax Wires Monday, Aug. 23, 2004 HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- The three companies that certify the nation's voting technologies operate in secrecy, and refuse to discuss flaws in the ATM-like machines to be used by nearly one in three voters in November. Despite concerns over whether the so-called touchscreen machines can be trusted, the testing companies won't say publicly if they have encountered shoddy workmanship. They say they are committed to secrecy in their contracts with the voting machines' makers - even though tax money ultimately buys or leases the machines. "I find it grotesque that an organization charged with such...

WASHINGTON — The disputed presidential recall referendum in Venezuela offers ominous lessons about the use of electronic voting machines in U.S. elections this November, critics of the process are warning. Venezuelan opposition leaders are refusing to accept the results of the e-voting and won't even participate in a partial audit of the results overseen by international observers led by former President Jimmy Carter. The losers charge that some of the nearly 20,000 electronic voting machines made by Smartmatic Corp. of Boca Raton, Fla., were rigged to limit the votes in favor of ousting President Hugo Chavez in Sunday's referendum. And...