20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA

[nabraxas]

by Angry Girl

of Nightweed.com

Did you know....

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/04280...2804landes.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/04280...2804landes.html

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/04280...2804landes.html

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/...ain632436.shtml

http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/colu.../03/03_200.html

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/03100...04fitrakis.html

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?...icle&sid=26

http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx

http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.

http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm

http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/04280...2804landes.html

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm

http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evo...es/pfindex.html

10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm

http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm

11. Diebold is based in Ohio.

http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm

12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml

13. Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0312/S00191.htm

http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.

http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.

http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html

16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it! (See the movie here: http://www.bbvdocs.org/videos/baxterVPR.mov.)

http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190

17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/...ain632436.shtml

18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html

http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAfterm...esBushIsOut.htm

http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html

http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=m...cle&sid=950

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm

19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee...cal/7628725.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2004Oct29.html

20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.

http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAfterm...esBushIsOut.htm

http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttop...1,97614,00.html

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html

http://uscountvotes.org/

NOTE: Some of the data are outdated but much of it is still true. But don't take my word for it.

Do your own research and discover the truth for yourselves. You may freely copy and distribute this copy as long as credit is noted.

[ramon]

So Americans have a excuse for having voted in Bush.

Unfortunately in Australia we have no such excuses for voting Howard in time and again.

[nabraxas]

well, the stupid do---intertest rates ---:i can't find a "despair in the common knowledge rate" icon:

i just wonder how long before this whole electronic (read: un-accountable) touch screen voting pokes it head up here; i can see the sales pitch now:

"Instant tallying; No More Waiting to see if your team won; the Voting of the Future is Yours Today"

[Maturin]

well, the stupid do---intertest rates ---:i can't find a "despair in the common knowledge rate" icon:

Agreed. Lack of knowledge on this topic is astounding

[Pala]

I feel cheated . No, not because of the US voting system, but because I read the thread title as "...Amazing Facts About Vomiting..."

[onz]

Ramon:

Unfortunately in Australia we have no such excuses for voting Howard in time and again.

It was my understanding that the previous election b4 lathem between beazly and howard that beazley actually got more votes than howard. HOWEVER, due to our fucked up democracy country votes are worth more than city votes so Howard retains power. It was after this happened I tried to stay away from political discussion as it just made me frustrated and angry. Add to that the compolsury voting laws and we have 2 excuses. But I realy believe there no excuse! now that howard has direct control over the senate, pala, it makes me wanna

screw it I'll go on... I believe Lathem proved his rare quality by resigning, for if he stayed in politics his character, honesty, and moral values would deteriorate. He wasn't after power, he was after improvement. Why should he suffer due to the naiive ignorance of the australian public...

Even though his leaving made me feel as though australias future is somewhat hopeless, I'm glad he did it.

[nabraxas]

I believe Lathem proved his rare quality by resigning

just for the sake ov argument, i'd have to say i disagree.

to loose an election & then resign is pretty weak IMHO. the right thing to do in my opinion, would have been to stay & provide some fierce opposition. make a stand for what you believe is right & show the country why they choose the wrong man/side, rather than sulk off w/your tail between your legs & then write a book exposing how it was everybody elses fault that things didn't go your way....

[Endrogen]

here's another one

[hairyplant]

I feel cheated . No, not because of the US voting system, but because I read the thread title as "...Amazing Facts About Vomiting..."

lol, Yep, but I would have also accepted: "amazing facts about human feces"

or "amazing facts that go into detail about the blatantly obvious"

or "amazing facts about power in a country of gulla-bulls"

moooooooo