In Canada we use a simple paper ballot to which one writes in an X beside the person & party one is voting for. Americans have used electronic voting machines & computers or the old punch card & they have had and are still having no end of problems & issues with these supposedly "better High Tech forms " of voting. And Stephen Harper has suggested Canada go the High Tech route but why. Canadians should say NO to unnecessary High Tech method. And Americans might be better off if they simply used an old-fashioned paper ballot.
Anyway the opinion polls show Barack Obama is ahead in the presidential race and should therefore, in all likely hood win the election. But there are questions being raised about the reliability of the voting machines being used by Americans to cast their votes. The machines seemed to be plagued by malfunctions which could decide the election in favor of McCain/ Palin ticket. These malfuntions were known about by the election officials and by the companies who provided the States with these machines. Knowingly selling a flawed product is at the least a form of Fraud . These computerized systems are not as secure as the companies who manufactured them claim. They are in fact hackable in various ways. Their physical security features can be breached rather easily some experts have claimed. It is also the contrntion of some experts that the software is vulnerable to hackers. Another issue is that the majority of states are not requiring some form of paper trail which can then be checked and verified to show that the votes are tallied correctly.Given the problems with these current machines and with the earlier punch-cards used in previous elections it is a wonder to those of us outside United States that the US administration didn't just revert to a simple straight forward paper ballot such as we use in Canada.
It is bizarre that now Stephen Harper is suggesting that Canada in the future use such machines or computers for voting . One wonders if Harper or one of his friends either owns a company which wishes to lease or sell such computers to the government and is this the real reason for supporting such a change in our voting procedure.IsHopefully Canadians will resist such a change .
The Young Turks: Voter Fraud In West Virginia
From: TheYoungTurks
Added: October 21, 2008
Watch more clips at http://www.theyoungturks.com
Ohio and west virginia Voting Machine problems plus possible tampering
Voting Machines Switching Votes In West Virginia!
CNN: GOP using foreclosure list to purge voters
CNN’s Carol Costello reported that Republican Party in Michigan may be trying to use a list of foreclosed homes to purge voter rolls.
This video is from CNN’s American Morning, broadcast October 20, 2008.
Notebook: Voting Machines
From: CBS
Added: October 13, 2008
In a heated campaign riddled with conflict, arguments should be left to candidates' stances on the issues, not on the accuracy of voting machines. Katie Couric has more.
No paper trail & confusion on the part of Poll workers
Diebold voting - security flaws in American voting machines
Every election has fraud but now the trail is paperless. As of today: Who is counting our votes if not the election workers? Who owns the machines? Is there independent oversight in this process?
Penn. gets paper ballots after complaints-1/2
Electronic voting problems & Outsourcing to Private Companies
Following Widespread Complaints, New Lawsuit Seeks Paper Balloting in Pennsylvania
Voter rights groups have filed a federal lawsuit in Pennsylvania seeking emergency paper ballots. The lawsuit was filed after Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State ordered counties to provide emergency paper ballots only if every electronic voting machine breaks down at a voting site. We speak to John Bonifaz of Voter Action.
Voting Machine Companies Knowingly Selling Macines They Know are Flawed
Massive purges of Registered Voters combined with an Insitance on strict enforcement voter IDs could lead to large numbers of voters not having their votes counted or not being able to vote at all.
Following Widespread Complaints, New Lawsuit Seeks Paper Bal
also see:
FBI working in league with the Bush Regime to discredit ACORN while ignoring widespread attempts at voter suppression on the part of the Republican party and its supporters. America has moved far from its democratic principles as it has been taken over by those who support Bush and McCain and the rich and powerful while ignoring the wishes and political decisons of the majority of American citizens in regards to how they would wish to be governed and by whom they are to be governed. But according to the Religious Right America must obey God's law and so according to their view it is up to the True Believes even if they are a minority to take control of the country to enforce God's Law.
Justice Department Targets ACORN But Ignores GOP Voter Suppression By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet. October 23, 2008.
On the eve of the 2008 election, the Department leaks a FBI probe of ACORN but remains silent on widespread voter intimidation tactics.
Partisan considerations still appear to be contributing to the Department of Justice's actions when it comes to enforcing the nation's voting rights laws.
With Election Day less than two weeks away, proponents of more tightly regulating the voting process -- this time led by congressional Republicans -- have gotten their desired response from the nation's guardian of civil rights' laws: a FBI investigation into ACORN, the low-income advocacy coalition that registered 1.3 million new voters in 2008.
Last week, two FBI officials told reporters an ACORN investigation was underway, violating Department rules for disclosing information on cases that could impact an election. The Obama campaign's response was to ask the Attorney General to include that leak in a special prosecutors' investigation of the U.S. attorney firing scandal. No response to that request has been forthcoming.
But more disturbing to civil rights attorneys is the Department's silence on what voting rights lawyers say are myriad voter suppression tactics by partisans in the campaign's final weeks. These efforts include attempts by Republicans to disqualify legal voter registrations, unlawfully purge voters, threaten individual voters with polling place challenges, fabricate barriers to student voting and abuse prosecutorial authority by investigating 2008's early voters.
"Voter suppression is not new. But this year has brought heightened efforts to disenfranchise and intimidate voters," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, in a Wednesday press conference. "We've seen legal challenges to registered, valid voters in Ohio; Fear tactics threatening that mortgage foreclosures or unpaid bills will thwart your right to vote or may even result in arrest; and massive attempts to confuse voters through robo-calls, official looking web sites and e-mails. These are targeted and insidious attempts to suppress the vote, particularly in communities of color."
(and as is pointed out Bush and Cheney and their supporters are still calling the shots at the FBI and the Justice Department .) gord.
What is most striking about the voting rights lawyers' criticism of the Department is that the agency does not have to wait until Election Day to act. Under Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, the Department can move to stop voter intimidation schemes without having to prove the motive behind those actions. This section of the law does not require the government show any intent by partisans to discriminate, the lawyers say. Instead, if the result is intimidation or suppression of minority voters, it can act.
"We really need the Justice Department to get out there and make a pronouncement, publicly, that voter intimidation and voter suppression will not be tolerated because it violates federal law," said Gerry Hebert, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center and a former Department Voting Section Chief. "We have asked the Attorney General to do this and thus far there has been a deafening silence."
"I think the Department's response to these issues, at best, is tepid, and at worst ignores what we think is a serious problem and their responsibility to address it," Henderson said. "The Department of Justice often argues that its jurisdiction is limited. But we think the interpretation that they have given to their jurisdiction is exceedingly narrow and it certainly ignores the larger responsibility to use the bully pulpit of the Attorney General to make clear that the Department will vigorously prosecute where possible, under federal law, any attempt to suppress the right of duly registered American citizens."
and :
Anyway yes indeed President Bush is at it again trying to prevent large numbers of registered voters ( most of whom are democrats ) from casting ballots . Meanwhile there have been a number of stories about malfunctioning voting machines and a lack of machines if there is a big voter turnout. There maybe a big voter turnout because the Obama campaign has been doing a great job of getting more new voters registered and getting them to vote early. According to the McCain campaign & Republicans the Obama campain is acting illegally or unethicaly by encouraging American citizens to register to vote and encouraging them to actually vote.
Bush Orders DOJ To Probe Ohio Voter Registrations
October 25, 2008 By Jason Leopold The Public Record
President George W. Bush late Friday asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate whether hundreds of thousands of newly registered voters in the battleground state of Ohio would have to verify the information on their voter registration forms or be given provisional ballots, an issue the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on last week.
The unprecedented intervention by the White House less than two weeks before the presidential election may result in at least 200,000 voters in Ohio not being able to vote on Election Day if they are forced to provide additional identification when they head to the polls.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, sent a letter to Bush Friday asking that he order the Department of Justice to probe the matter.
"I strongly urge you to direct Attorney General Mukasey and the Department of Justice to act." Boehner said in his letter "Unless action is taken by the Department immediately, thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands of names whose information has not been verified through the [Help America Vote Act] procedures mandated by Congress will remain on the voter rolls during the November 4 election; and there is a significant risk if not a certainty, that unlawful votes will be cast and counted. Given the Election Day is less than two weeks away, immediate action by the Department is not only warranted, but also crucial."
Independent studies have shown that phony registrations rarely result in illegally cast ballots because there are so many other safeguards built into the system.
For instance, from October 2002 to September 2005, a total of 70 people were convicted for federal election related crimes, according to figures compiled by the New York Times last year. Only 18 of those were for ineligible voting.
In recent years, federal prosecutors reached similar conclusions despite pressure from the Bush administration to lodge "election fraud" charges against voter registration groups seen as bringing more Democratic voters into the democratic process.
Some of the Bush administration prosecutors who refused to seek these indictments were then fired in 2006 as part of a purge of nine U.S. Attorneys deemed not "loyal Bushies."
and so it goes,
GORD.
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