Can't a nat'l accounting firm verify votes-as they do for AcademyAwards?

[DesEtoiles]

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. O god no..let's not do that

if after all these years, i were to come to the conclusion that the academy awards were rigged too, it would be more than I could bear.

[elehhhhna]

6. Hell Diebold's probbaly crawling with old Arthur Andersen partners...

[Liberty Belle]

2. Like who?

Isn't the "independent" accounting firm that counts the Oscars the same one that got nailed for skullduggery involving Enron?

[Kingshakabobo]

3. God no! The accounting firms are the biggest thieves in the country.

Republicans to boot (for the most part). I'd rather have the votes counted by federal inmates. At least you would know what you were dealing with.

[napi21]

5. I disagree with your statement that all acctg firms are Pubs,

I've been an accountant for 45 years, and always a Dem. But THAT DOESN'T MATTER! Sure, there are bad apples in every barrel, but by far, most accountants try their very best to be honest, credible, and verify everything to what is legal. Do they push the envelope, yes. But I have never known or worked with any who would OK, suggest, authorize, or sign off on anything that was illegal or against any of the FASB standards.

[napi21]

4. An accounting firm can't prove anything because there's no

source documents to verify the votes with. The secret ballot is a good thing, but it eliminates the possibility of tracking the vote back to the source to verify intent.

The only way to verify a vote, wether it be on the new electronic Dibold like machines, or the old lever machines, is to have the equipment product a piece of paper that the voter loo9ks at, agrees, and then deposits it into some kind of collection bin. Then you have a hard copy of something to COUNT and see if it agrees with the computer or machine tally.

(edited for spelling)

[JaneEyrez]

7. Thank you for pointing out what I've been saying...

The secret ballot which was supposed to protect voters from harrasment by employers or others is now being used to hide the fact that you can do anything you want to with the vote tabulation because there's no way to guarantee that the stack of ballots you're counting represents the original voters in any way.

I fear that even in the recount in Ohio, we have no way of knowing whether the ballots that will be counted are the ones that were cast. It's a new level of paranoia, I admit, but if you went to the trouble to hack an election and you've had three weeks to cover your tracks, it would be insane NOT to make the physical evidence conform to the numbers.