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BOSTON, MA - Next Tuesday's Special Election for the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts looks to be coming down to the wire. Surprising pundits in what had previously been thought to be a cakewalk for State Attorney General Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate hoping to fill the seat of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, Republican state Senator Scott Brown has come on strong in the final days of the campaign. But as the election looms, tempers flare, money is poured into the contest from all sides, and Democrats sweat out what should have been a safe seat for them -...

John Charlton reported three weeks ago that, “… Obama made his first official move to corrupt and undermine the 2010 elections… The move consisted in the little noticed appointment of a technical adviser ,Edwin B. Smith, III, to the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC).” Smith is known to have been the vice president of manufacturing, compliance, quality and certification at Sequoia Voting Systems, which is a company that makes voting machines, and it has been at the center of infamous voting irregularities in different elections across the country. Sequoia has secured the voting...

GETS FORMER SEQUOIA CO. VP NAMED AS ADVISER TO U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION Earlier this month, Obama made his first official move to corrupt and undermine the 2010 elections. The move consisted in the little noticed appointment of a technical adviser to the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The importance of the appointment was explained at The Brad Blog last Monday. The Official Press Release of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission read as follows: U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION 1225 New York Ave. NW – Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20005 For Immediate Release December...

I finally found the article that I was looking for regarding a Venezuelan software firm with no experience in elections being involved in the last election fiasco in Venezuela. I suppose it was only a fiasco if you voted against Hugo Chavez. The point of this article was that two software engineers got a loan from the Venezuelan government and started a voting software company called Smartmatic. This company subsequently bought a US voting machine manufacturer called Sequoia. I don't know how to automatically link to the article above, (Tim Golden,NYT,29OCT06), but it goes into much more detail.

{SNIP} This lawsuit alleges that the voting machines used for years in the majority of New Jersey counties – Sequoia’s AVC Advantages - are inaccurate, insecure, and unreliable – and thus unconstitutional for use in New Jersey. Sequoia categorically denies this allegation and has provided material to the contrary. {SNIP} “Throughout our report response, we show how simple, established, and previously used accuracy and security protections - removed from the Advantages studied in the report published by the plaintiffs - make the items in their report next to impossible,” said Edwin Smith, Vice President of Compliance and Fulfillment for Sequoia...

Allegheny County cannot verify the software in its touch-screen voting machines is what the state certified when it allowed paperless voting machines, county officials say, because the state provides no mechanism for such an audit.

"...vanishing votes, breakdowns, malfunctions and increasing evidence that the devices were vulnerable to hackers..."

"...E-voting systems have to be completely redesigned with security in mind, McDaniel says. In the short term, this means adding more thorough vote-auditing capabilities so that discrepancies can be investigated. "The elections systems should have the same quality, the same reliability, the same testing and the same certification requirements as financial systems," he says. "If the systems used by banks, which have to report to the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission], had this level of quality, no one would put their money in the bank."..."

Arguing that the current electronic voting systems across the U.S. are fundamentally flawed and, worse, being gamed for political gain, "Stealing America: Vote by Vote" functions as an organizing tool for people worked up about the important issue, but is hardly suitable as a commercial doc release. Pic's classroom-style presentation and wooden filmmaking can be ignored by eager activists, but will surely bore audiences in theaters (a limited rollout began Aug. 1). Homevid sales, though, look to enjoy a boomlet close to election season. Director-producer Dorothy Fadiman summons a large group of experts, observers and activists (and no less a...

"...The results produced some remarkable anomalies, such as 21 counties showing no Republican voters and three counties showing no Democratic voters..."

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- United Technologies Corp., continuing to broaden its security business and expand its presence in China, said Sunday it has made an offer to buy Diebold Inc. for $2.63 billion. United Technologies, parent company of jet engine-maker Pratt & Whitney, Otis elevator and Sikorsky Aircraft, said it made the unsolicited offer Friday after trying to negotiate a deal with Diebold for two years. Diebold, based in Canton, Ohio, makes ATMs, business security systems and voting machines. The $2.63 billion purchase price represents United Technologies' offer of $40 per outstanding share, about two-thirds higher than Diebold's closing stock...

MEXICO CITY — This year, for the first time, expatriate Democrats can cast their ballots on the Internet in a presidential primary for people living outside the United States. Democrats Abroad, an official branch of the party representing overseas voters, will hold its first global presidential preference primary from Feb. 5 to 12, with ex-pats selecting the candidate of their choice by Internet as well as fax, mail and in-person at polling places in more than 100 countries. Democrats Abroad is particularly proud of the online voting option — which provides a new alternative to the usual process of voting...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - As many as 90 percent of the electronic voting machines in one coastal South Carolina county did not work when polls opened in Saturday's Republican primary and officials also worried that snow forecast for the northern part of the state could impact voter turnout. Lisa Bourcier, a spokeswoman in Horry County, which is home to Myrtle Beach, said 80 percent of the roughly 400 machines that failed to function were up and running by noon and that technicians were working on the rest. She said officials had heard reports of voters being turned away because of machine...

CONWAY, South Carolina (CNN) – Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign called on supporters in South Carolina Saturday to make sure that their votes are counted, as voting machines in an eastern county malfunctioned on primary day. "We have received reports from Horry County that voters are being turned away from the polls, because electronic voting machines are not working and paper ballots are not available,” Buzz Jacobs, McCain’s South Carolina state director, said in a statement. “Some voters say they are being instructed to return at a later time. We are disturbed by these reports and hope that this issue...

Could someone have messed with the vote in New Hampshire? That is what some people are wondering, after looking closely at the totals in the votes for surprise Democratic primary victor Hillary Clinton, and for Barack Obama, who placed instead of winning as all the polls had predicted he would. And thanks to candidate Dennis Kucinich, we are likely to find out. Kucinich today filed a request, and a required $2000 fee, to order up a manual recount of the machine ballots cast in the state. Polls taken as late as the day before the Tuesday vote showed Obama up...

Jennifer Call's eyes searched the office for nothing in particular. Her arms waved and her fear spilled out. "This is where I grew up," Sutton's town clerk said yesterday. "This is my hometown, this is where my family is, and all of sudden, my name is being splashed across the internet as this horrible person. And the frightening part is, I don't know these people and they don't know me." Call wants the nationwide army of boisterous Ron Paul supporters, believers in more conspiracy theories than Oliver Stone, to know that she's committed no crime. Not treason, as the dozens...

Westech writes "Multiple indications of vote fraud are beginning to pop up regarding the New Hampshire primary elections. Roughly 80% of New Hampshire precincts use Diebold machines, while the remaining 20% are hand counted. A Black Box Voting contributor has compiled a chart of results from hand counted precincts vs. results from machine counted precincts. In machine counted precincts, Clinton beat Obama by almost 5%. In hand counted precincts, Obama beat Clinton by over 4%, which closely matches the scientific polls that were conducted leading up to the election. Another issue is the Republican results from Sutton precinct. The final...

This is popping up ALL over the Leftist Blogosphere right now, showing a large discrepency between DIEBOLD vote counts, and those counted by hand in New Hampshire. "I used the Comma delimited database: NH municipalities hand count vs use Diebold machines from BlackBoxVoting.org to see if there was a deviation between the results from precincts which used hand counts and those which relied on Diebold machines. The results were astonishing. : Updated: 5:05 AM (EST) - Results tallied for 209 out of 236 of the municipalities. By Percentage Method Hillary Clinton Barack Obama Diebold Machines 53.23% 46.77% Hand Count 47.47%...

Colorado's top election official decertified electronic voting machines used in many of the state's largest counties Monday, calling into question equipment used in past elections in a move he said could have national implications. Electronic voting machines used in Denver, Arapahoe, Pueblo, Mesa and Elbert counties cannot be used in the next election because of problems with accuracy or security, Secretary of State Mike Coffman said. A number of electronic scanners used to count ballots were also decertified, including a type used by Boulder County as well as more than three dozen small to mid-size counties around the state. His...

Earlier this year, California found all sorts of problems with e-voting machines used in the state. Now, Ohio, home to some of the more controversial stories surrounding presidential elections, has also found serious flaws in every e-voting machine used in the state. It's the usual stuff that has been pointed out for years: it was easy to pick locks on the machines, introduce fake votes, and load up dangerous unauthorized software onto the machines. Not much new there -- just another confirmation. What's much more interesting is the reaction of the firms involved. First up is "Premier Election Solution," who...