SURPRISE! Italian election was "FIRST TEST" of electronic voting in Italy

[Atman]

Electronic voting comes to Italy (as do conspiracy theories)
By Eric Sylvers International Herald Tribune

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2006

MILAN When Lucio Stanca, the minister of innovation and technology, began preparing Italy for electronic vote counting a few years ago, there were some naysayers. But test runs for European Parliament elections in 2004 and Italian regional elections in 2005 silenced the critics - temporarily.

With the arrival of the April 9 and 10 general elections, the dress rehearsals are over. Electronic vote tabulating will move beyond the test phase in Italy for the first time: It will be used in four of the nation's 20 regions and will affect a fifth of the population.

Detractors worry that mischief will mar the count, especially if there is a close race in any of the four regions, which have many undecided voters.

Silvio Berlusconi, who has been prime minister for five years, is running against Romani Prodi, a former president of the European Commission who heads a vast coalition of center-left parties.

Prodi has maintained a lead in opinion surveys but Berlusconi can never be counted out.

Some of Berlusconi's critics have seized on the electronic voting issue as a chance to confront the prime minister.

<snip>

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/04/news/rome.php

EDIT: COPYRIGHT: PLEASE POST ONLY FOUR OR FIVE
PARAGRAPHS FROM THE COPYRIGHTED NEWS SOURCE
PER DU COPYRIGHT RULES.

[ShortnFiery]

1. No wonder! Despite exit polls to the contrary Berlusconi's ahead :P n/t

[Junkdrawer]

4. They changed the exit polls now... It's deja vu all over again....n/t

[helderheid]

19. and here we are doing the same thing over and over expecting a

different result (at least the masses watching the teee veee - we at DU know better).

[Junkdrawer]

22. Italy: The country that knew too much....

With the Niger forgeries originating in the Italian secret service and with the killing of the bodyguard of the captured Italian journalist in Iraq, not many old hands here believed they'd let Berlusconi lose.

[Karenina]

34. NOW is the time for DU

to test its INTERNATIONAL skills. There must be SOME percentage of posters here with ties, whether familial, cultural, political, to ITALY. NOW is the time to BOMBARD your contacts with every bit of info you can find (DU Research is an excellent place to start) on the ELECTION DEBACLE that has 3 times occurred on your shores with those FUCKING FASCIST MACHINES. Those with language skills can target the press NOT OWNED BY BERLUSCONI (a tall order, I will admit). Remember that ALL politics is "local" with a mind to the new definition, in a global village, of LOCAL.

[helderheid]

38. ABSOLUTELY!!! Bravo!!!

:applause:

[blm]

40. You should post a thread about this. We need to send the machine fraud

articles to Italian press, too.

[Mnemosyne]

50. Here is a site by an Italian man trying to educate

the Italians on e-voting.


http://www.electronic-vote.org/TERMINI/italians_en.php

:hi:

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Ohio Redux!

[quiet.american]

3. *SIGH* Birds of a feather flock together. n/t

[incapsulated]

5. Good Christ, it's like a fucking cancer

Spreading it's disease across the world.

:(

[Atman]

7. Can you say "WORLD DOMINATION?"

It's like a goddam James Bond movie! But we have no James Bond.

[incapsulated]

9. Or some Dr. Evil plot...

But it's not funny.

[Junkdrawer]

10. More like a rootkit computer virus...

Basically, it turns your machine into a virtual machine that hides the virus. We now have virtual democracies that hide the criminals.


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

[incapsulated]

13. Yeah, a virus is a better word to describe it. n/t

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Let me guess - the e-vote company's name is

Deiboldi.

[incapsulated]

8. Ha, ha!

Good one.

[Junkdrawer]

11. Accenture...picked by cronies of Berlusconi....

...

Issues of conflict of interest have often hovered over Berlusconi, who controls 90 percent of the Italian television market.

The perception has been revived in connection with how the contracts to run the electronic vote tallies were awarded.

The main contract was awarded without a public tender to Telecom Italia, the nation's dominant telecommunications company and the former government monopoly.

It hired the consulting firm Accenture to do some of the work. Gianmario Pisanu, a partner at Accenture, is the son of the interior minister.

Telecom Italia declined to comment on how Accenture was picked. A spokeswomen for the consulting company declined to comment on the contract. She did say, however, that Pisanu would have no role in work connected to the vote tallies.

....

[MrMonk]

14. "Accenture" = "(Arthur) Andersen Consulting"

[Junkdrawer]

18. Marie26 posted this excellent link on another thread...

Last year, while President Bush marshaled U.S. forces for the invasion of Iraq, the patriots at the Department of Defense awarded the contract for a new online voting system for the military... to an offshore company.

It gets worse.

Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE) is the system and Accenture (formerly Anderson Consulting of Enron bankruptcy fame) is the company. And although Accenture has not been officially implicated in the Enron scandal, they have created a reputation of their own that is already raising eyebrows.

This is hot off the newswire -- 7/15/03 "NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Accenture Ltd., the former Andersen Consulting, disclosed Tuesday that it might have violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Chairman and CEO Joe Forehand, on an earnings call with analysts and reporters Tuesday, said the consulting firm's Middle East operations could be in non-compliance with the Act, which prohibits the bribery of foreign government officials by U.S. persons."

The Canada-based Polaris Institute published a scathing report on Accenture, saying, "Accenture's efforts in government outsourcing have often been very expensive and/or of poor quality. There is good reason to question Accenture's track record in outsourcing of government services."

Accenture is the leading offshore beneficiary of government contracts whose main business is the privatization of government services, according to Lee Drutman of Citizen Works, a non-profit founded by Ralph Nader. Accenture has a troubling track record, a close business relationship with Dick Cheney's Halliburton, and 2500 partners - more than half are not U.S. citizens.

...

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0718-05.htm

[slackmaster]

25. a.k.a. the Borg

I worked for Andersen Consulting for two years.

I started at age 35, too old for their brainwashing program to be fully effective. I left for a much higher paying job.

It didn't do me any harm really, except for the occasional whirring and clicking in my head.

[MrMonk]

31. I have heard that the founder (Arthur Andersen) had a passion

for serving the investors' needs (rather than the client's wishes) and protecting the integrity of the firm. What happened?

[dogday]

12. This is a wake-up call my fellow Americans nt

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

15. Wake Up To What?

Nobody believes us. We're all a bunch of tinfoil crackpots so far as most people are concerned. Even many democrats refuse to acknowlege anything is amiss.

I sort of see it as inevitable. The future looks pretty bleak, and there is little that can be done about it. Another reason why the conservatives will hold onto Congress in November. There's no way they'll give that up.

[dogday]

17. Not so, there have been a few states

that have since rejected diebold machines and others, they are calling for paper receipts. With that attitude, you can't affect change, you must call your representative and email and do whatever you can to make a difference......

[ContraBass Black]

16. Ya don't say!

:crazy:

[SoCalDem]

20. Somehow, I DO envision millions of Italians in the streets

if Silvio "squeaks past" and "wins"...

We may see a whole new "Orange Revolution" happening in Italy.. Italians have never been shy about changing their governments, and I don;t see them passively accepting a stolen election like we have done here THREE CONSECUTIVE elections:puke:

[Junkdrawer]

29. Berlusconi controls 90% of the media...anyone who questions the resuts...

will be called "conspiracy theorists". As you know, that works pretty well here.

[nini]

37. This is what I was going to say

They're not as lazy and intimidated as we are.

I know people there and they're on to Berlusconi there. It won't matter what the press says.. they KNOW and they will react.

[UTUSN]

21. Yip, the BFEE has had this "election" nuisance-thingy DOWN

ever since Poppy fixed up the October Surprise of 1980. And wouldn't it be a GREAT going away gift if Jeb Crow Shrub could be installed before Poppy ditches his last big plane in the ocean.

[glitch]

41. They're still working on synching the polls to the rigged count.

Apparently a few bugs to work out there before the process is seamless.

[understandinglife]

23. Talk about a canary in the mine .... anyone paying attention, since 2000,

.... shouldn't be surprised.


Not One Line Of Software Between A Voter And A Valid Election

[flpoljunkie]

24. It says the votes will be counted as before (by hand) and results entered

into a computer. Will someone be reconciling the hand count at the precincts with what it sent into the Interior Ministry in Rome from the collected memory sticks?

Voters in the four regions will cast their ballots just like everybody else and the votes will be counted as before. It is what happens next that changes.

The authorities at each polling station will enter the results into a computer and save the data on an encrypted USB memory stick that is formatted to work only on certain computers.

The memory sticks will be collected in one room, where the data will be read and sent on to the Interior Ministry in Rome. Polling officials are to follow every step of the process. The intent is to speed up the count.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/04/news/rome.php

[unblock]

26. conservatives always do better when there's no paper trail.

verrrrry interrrresting!

[Atman]

27. Curious how the US media will report this

It seems to me that if the report on even the most superficial of facts that it will raise eyebrows here. I mean, seriously...If the US media reports that Berlusconi was trailing by 5% in exit polls, but then miraculously came from behind, and that electronic voting was involved...like, how many miraculous coincidences can keep happening before people say "HEY! WTF!"

But then, I suppose I'm giving Americans too much credit. Sadly.

[blm]

32. The media is COMPLICIT with the election-stealers so they WON'T report

on the entire issue honestly. Note that this article immediately trots out the "conspiracy theory" meme that they use to protect the fascist powers.

[mimitabby]

28. oh sh**

gee, i thought my vote would help get that berlusconi creep out.
nothin doin!

[Junkdrawer]

30. A kick while we wait for official results...

:kick:

[DFW]

33. Well, now we know

Berlusconi was in the USA recently for a visit.

Bush is very unpopular in Italy, so it wasn't to
shore up Berlusconi's rep by a photo op with an
American president the Italians admire, and it
probably wasn't for giving lessons on how to cook
pasta to Laura. I did wonder what he was in the States
for, so close to an election. I think now, I have a
pretty good idea.

[Minstrel Boy]

35. Centre-left leaders reacted with dismay and disbelief as the polls changed

direction - from Reuters story, "Italy's election swings Berlusconi's way -pollster"

I'm dismayed, but beyond disbelief.

[CrazyForKucinich]

36. I'm laughing right now because I knew this was going to happen...

once the exit polls showed his challenger in the lead. Now it's "CLOSE" and then Berlusconi "wins".

Ridiculous. I hope the people of Italy take a cue from their neighbors in France and protest.

[SmokingJacket]

39. Un-focking-believable. nt

[tom_paine]

42. The Free World is flickering out into Totalitarian Darkness.

Will there be anyplace on this whole wide Earth untouched by BushPutinism?

[In Truth We Trust]

43. MOTHERF***ERS!!! Enough is enough! Btw, this is foreshadow of 11/06

[tom_paine]

44. K & R

Where is the Nazi smiley when you need it?

These are Kinder and Gentler Nazis.

[Atman]

45. I love the mods...but sometimes they suck

Seriously...I wouldn't want your job. Which is why I haven't volunteered. Delete this if you must. But please, first meditate on it, and try a bit of introspection on what your DUTY is. Our own president can shit on the constitution, but when I post an extra paragraph from an Italian newspaper, you delete the very best part, the ONLY part I highlighted and bolded. Essentially the gist of the entire article...


"But the critics said such a development could lead to a crisis of the type that shut down Florida after the U.S. presidential election in 2000.

Critics also pointed out that the son of a cabinet minister is a partner in a company that was hired as a consultant by the firm running the electronic procedure."


So sue me.

:eyes:

[woldnewton]

46. Thanks for reposting that...

I too was annoyed when I didn't see it in your excellent posting any more...

[Telly Savalas]

47. Did I miss something? Prodi won.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,1751421,00.html

[SeveneightyWhoa]

48. Holy Christ, close enough election? Look at these results:

"Provisional official results showed the centre-left won the lower house with 49.8% of the vote compared to 49.7% for Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition."

49.8% versus 49.7%!

With results that close, my conspiratorial side just wonders whether or not computer "glitches" really might've been involved..

[Land Shark]

49. 55 minutes ago, the Telegraph reports narrow Prodi victory and recount

requested by Berlusconi:

<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/11/uitaly.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/04/11/ixportaltop.html>

on edit: don't be alarmed by the Filed date of 11/04/06, our elections will be 11/7/06 and this is the european method indicating april 11th! : )