While we’ve been concentrating on the healthcare debate, the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, another story important to American democracy has gotten inadequate attention: a single company is poised to monopolize the counting of over 75 percent of the nation’s votes.
Earlier this month, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), which counted roughly 50 percent of the ballots in the last four major U.S. elections, purchased Diebold’s electronic voting unit, Premier Election Solutions, which controls roughly a third of the voting machine market.
The merger of these two companies has set off alarm bells, and not just in the voting activist community.
Hart InterCivic, a competitor in the voting machine market, has filed a lawsuit seeking a federal court injunction to block the merger as an antitrust violation and a threat to “the integrity of the voting process in the United States.”
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, wrote Attorney General Eric Holder requesting that the Antitrust Division review the deal for possible violations. Schumer’s letter referenced a Congressional Research Service report from 2003 which indicated that having a diversity of systems and vendors might decrease the likelihood of widespread election fraud.
(Please read the rest of my article at Consortium News)
How does Sequoia fit into this? They make our machines in Illinois.
Sequoia will have that much harder a time of competing.
Btw – Sequoia’s machines are really hackable. Here’s a recent story re this.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/13/hang-your-head-sequoia-e-voting-machine-youve-been-hacked-aga/
You should work with people in your area to pass local legislation (and national legislation! Hello, HR 2894!) to require 1) paper ballots for all votes and 2) an audit of at least 3% of the precincts – where 100% of the ballots are counted by hand to check the machine counts. And if they are off, the legislation should stipulate that the paper, not machine, record is the legal one representing the vote.
Thanks for the info. I always request a paper ballot. In the last election, there was a deep line for the machines, but four booths for paper ballots were immediately open. Apparently, the machines are very popular. Personally, I would wait in line for a paper ballot rather than use a machine. I base that on 25 years experience as an embedded programmer. I maxchine that printed a ballot that I could read and verify would be acceptable. Also, an internet scheme whereby I could print my own ballot and mail it would also work.
And then the problem is this.
Voting on paper in itself is not any kind of protection. That only helps if someone actually EXAMINES the paper after the election. That’s why the post-election audits are SO important.
So yes, please, vote on paper. But don’t stop there – it’s really meaningless. Your paper could be ignored by the machine it’s fed into, and you would never know. It will tell you what you put on it, even, but that doesn’t mean that’s what will be recorded..!
might this be of interest?
http://www.tripzine.com/listing.php?id=corporate_metabolism
This is long, and the beginning almost sent me away, but it’s getting more and more interesting. Thanks for the link!
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[Article Mother Jones] – In 1992, investment banker Chuck Hagel, president of McCarthy & Co, became chairman of AIS. Hagel, who had been touted as a possible Senate candidate in 1993, was again on the list of likely GOP contenders heading into the 1996 contest. In January of 1995, while still chairman of ES&S, Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald that he would likely make a decision by mid-March of 1995. On March 15, according to a letter provided by Hagel’s Senate staff, he resigned from the AIS board, noting that he intended to announce his candidacy. A few days later, he did just that.
A little less than eight months after steppind down as director of AIS, Hagel surprised national pundits and defied early polls by defeating Benjamin Nelson, the state’s popular former governor. It was Hagel’s first try for public office. Nebraska elections officials told The Hill that machines made by AIS probably tallied 85 percent of the votes cast in the 1996 vote, although Nelson never drew attention to the connection. Hagel won again in 2002, by a far healthier margin. That vote is still angrily disputed by Hagel’s Democratic opponent, Charlie Matulka, who did try to make Hagel’s ties to ES&S an issue in the race and who asked that state elections officials conduct a hand recount of the vote. That request was rebuffed, because Hagel’s margin of victory was so large.
Indicted GOP Moneyman Tied To ACVR, the Phony GOP 'Voting Rights' Group!"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Yep. I wrote this up a few years ago now – see http://www.realhistoryarchives.com/voterisk.pdf for some more details.