Kerry: 'Every vote' will count

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Fri, Jul. 09, 2004

Kerry: 'Every vote' will count

Presidential candidate John Kerry told Democrats in Broward County that he has hired a lawyer to guard against a repeat of voting problems in the state.

BY LESLEY CLARK
[e-mail]


Touching down for the first time at the center of the bruising 2000 presidential election, Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards vowed Thursday in South Florida to see that ''every vote'' will count in November, as the campaign detailed a legal strategy that includes hiring a lawyer with recount experience to pursue potential voting irregularities in Florida.

''I've got news for you,'' Kerry told a crowd at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. ``In 2004, not only does every vote in Florida count, but every vote is going to be counted.''

Charging state officials with a ''pattern'' of voter disenfranchisement, the Kerry campaign said Thursday it has hired Steve Zack, a Miami attorney and member of Al Gore's legal team during the protracted legal battle of 2000.

''If you look at everything that's going on, there's a repeated attempt by Gov. Jeb Bush and others to disenfranchise voters,'' said Matt Miller, a spokesman for Kerry's Florida campaign. ``We're looking at ballot access, we're looking at the purge list, we're looking at the machines.''

Earlier this year, Kerry told a West Palm Beach audience that the strategy could include ''pre-challenges'' and injunctions ''where necessary'' to avoid a repeat of the election fiasco of 2000.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/9111842.htm
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[teryang]

1. They'll fix the machines all right

...he should commit millions right now to law firms to collect the scientific evidence and prepare the legal basis for temporary and permanent injunctions against electronic voting machines. If it hasn't already started, it may be too late.

The machines can't be fixed. It was known by experts in the industry years ago, that there was no effective means to certify, verify or do an effective recount with electronic voting. And this problem was independent of extrinsic tampering, defective codes, and back doors. It was caused by the security problem of guaranteeing voter anonymity. This is the fundamental paradox of electronic voting that can't be fixed. Thus the flawed assumption was made that the devices could be made total secure (perfect, fail safe) and the need for recounts would be obviated. The trouble is that recounts are required by law under certain conditions to preserve the integrity of the electoral process. This whole issue that the experts were well aware of when laws promoting the use of these machines were written and passed went completely uninvestigated and unexplored in the press and legislatures around the country.

It's the old corporate fait accompli.

[Massacure]

4. Computers just do what you program them to.

If they are flawed it is the programmers fault. Of course, the Bushies like the flaw, and are going to hee haw around. If there were a actually half decent governer in Florida, they would pay the millions to reprogram them + print, or they would go back to paper.

[teryang]

5. They are required to keep the vote anonymous

That is what they are "programed to do." Programing votes to decouple from identity characteristics means that a verifiable recount cannot take place. This isn't something I made up. This is what the experts have said from the beginning, it is the fundamental paradox of electronic voting. The two legal requirements of anonymity and recounts are antithetical.

A paper trail might be a solution if it weren't for the superimposed computer security issues extrinsic to the paper trail. On the one side, the votes can be tampered with easily because they are in a data base which people have access to. But paper ballot recounts are cumbersome and time consuming legal processes which cannot be accomplished in every precinct in every county. Therefore, the entire electoral system is subject to widescale manipulation because it is electronic.

In the final analysis, a paper ballot system is the only one that meets constitutional muster. At least this is true in my state, which has a recognized constitutional right to vote.

[Bandit]

7. I agree with you 100% because "I Trust the People not Machines"

as compared to Bush* who ran on the slogan "I Trust the People" and the first opportunity to prove it he said "Machines are Objective while People are Subjective so only Machines can be Trusted" when it came to the Florida Recount. It is amazing to me how Canada can have an election with paper ballots and have everything counted and done the same day as the election was held. We must be able to recount the ballots. Nothing less is acceptable.

[Sperk]

2. Good, but what about California? Isnt he concerned with the

diebold machines out there?

[mzmolly]

6. According to the article yes. He qualified he was not ONLY concerned

with Florida.

[AndyTiedye]

8. CA Sec'y of State Shelley Has DeCertified Diebold DRE Machinez

because they screwed up so badly in the primary. They couldn't
even make the things work reliably in an election that nobody
would have bothered to try to rig (our prez primary being as
meaningless this year as it usually is).

Sometimes it is fortuante that they are BOTH evil and incompetent.

[Catch22Dem]

3. Off topic, but I really like that middle picture

Let JE get out front and do what he does best. He's an incredible speaker. I usually don't care much for carolina accents (no offense intended at all) but his is wonderful.

[UrbScotty]

9. Off-topic, but... Lesley Clark????????

;-)

????