Dan Rather Reports on iVoting Machines "The Trouble With Touch Screens" (Watching It Now)

[Hissyspit]

IVOTRONIC TOUCH SCREENS: Rather Investigating Overseas Manufacturing Plant - "Were Pivot, ES&S and Bergquest ever worried about the problems with the touch screens not correctly tallying the votes?" "No," says Tuggle (Tuttle).

Rather travelled to Phillipines to see where the machines manufactured. Tuttle was brought in to bring plant up to standards.

From legal document filed in Minn. in a rather unknown case - Bergquest versus Hartford Casualty - Bergquest seeking reimbursment for defective touch screens: Investigater found no date of humidity tests even though Bergquest was telling customers the screens met standards.

"Many screens would go out of calibration with time," in humid places like Florida.

Showed being off a 1/4 inch in your touch gave wrong selection.

Showing touch screens stored in warehouse "suddenly seem like graveyards," now that they are going to optical scan units MADE BY ES&S IN PHILLIPINES just like the touch screens!

ES&S fell into disfavor IN THE PHILLIPINES after a national election had problems and they went back to HAND BALLOTS.

INTERVIEW: (with University professor Mike Shamos) Purpose of mechanical voting screens back in 1900 - "To protect the voter from rascaldom." The reliability of electronic voting methods is deplorable.

"The touch screens in jet fighters don't fail. Voting machine touch screens fail." Why? Manufacturers go cheap.

Don't know this guys name, but he just used a false analogy to criticize critics of electronic voting; he is critical of the money spent on the machines.

PUNCHCARDS: More historical background on punchcards and how they fell out of favor/Flordia 2000 and overvotes, etc. "Public is clamoring for paper ballots again."

"Was the rush to go electronic even necessary?"

Exeter FL to visit Sequoia punchcard ballot manufacturing site. Former Sequoia employees: (Dan: "Never had a chance to tell their story until now.") They saw many things changing right before 2000 election. The PAPER went down in quality. "If you don't have good paper, you can't make good ballots."

Employees could reject rolls based on quality, but in 1999 started getting terrible rolls, from Boise Cascade, who had virtually no experience in ballots, and employees not allowed to have input. "The paper changed. Everyone's opinion was that this 2000 election was going to be our demise," said former worker. Suddenly started seeing even paper that wasn't coming from Boise Cascade. BAD PAPER being REWOUND and sent back.

Employees: No doubt management knew that bad paper was used in 2000 election. Accountant: No signatures to account for receipt of paper at Sequoia. Stamps on receips suspicious says former employee. He never stamped them, only signed. Employee: Questioned quality control about size specs that might move the chad on the paper, cause misalignment, hanging chad. This had never happened before.

HOLE PUNCH DEMONSTRATION Older Sequoia ballots punched perfectly. Palm Beach ballots from 2000 paper had SEVERAL hanging chads.

Employees' reaction the day of the 2000 election: "Somebody blew it bad." "I didn't expect anything less than fiasco." "We blew it, the ballots are bad in Florida. It's all over the news." "They were hiding stuff," because the news people wanted to tour the plant. Anything that had Florida on it disappeared. "I feel like they deliberately did this so that the electronic voting systems would get off the ground."

Sequoia Employee: "It's a sad state of affairs that it took someone 7 years to ask the question."

RATHER'S WRAP-UP: "When citizens try to get to the truth of the effectiveness of these machines, manufacturers continually hide behind the wall of 'trade secrets.'"

Are these machines the same "as the formula for Coca-Cola? We don't think so."
"Their message is 'trust us.'" What we've seen is that that trust has not been earned.

"What could be more important in democracy than the having confidence in the right to vote."

[babylonsister]

1. That wrong selection was blamed on calibrating problems.

:eyes: You have to see this to believe it!

[helderheid]

2. REC 1 of 100

[helderheid]

3. k

[CatWoman]

4. here's 4

:hi:

will that be available on line in it's entirety?

[kster]

24. Yes

Watch Online HDNet is making select episodes of Dan Rather Reports available for viewing online. They'll be ready later in the week, once they've aired on HDNet.


http://www.hd.net/danrather.html

[helderheid]

5. Gravel bot says....

Kick and recommend this thread!!!

[Junkdrawer]

6. Was the Prof. named Mike Shamos?

He's infamous...

[Hissyspit]

7. Possibly. University of Pittsburgh? Wears glasses?

[Junkdrawer]

11. Picture

[Hissyspit]

12. I think so.

His hair was a lot shorter, though.

[Junkdrawer]

13. More recent pic:

[Hissyspit]

15. That's him.

He was right about the problem with the machines, but wrong in his analogy: "If the meat is bad despite the inspection process, do we stop selling meat?" The activists want to stop selling meat.

[Junkdrawer]

16. He's a not-so-stealth voting machine advocate....

claims he's a skeptic, sells his time to PA and Texas (and others by now I'm sure) to advise them on safe voting procedures, then works his ass off to kill all paper trails.

Like I said, infamous...

[Junkdrawer]

14. BTW: He bet voting machine investigators $10,000 they couldn't hack...

a machine, then backed out when machines were hacked...

[mopinko]

8. is this a whtiewash?

are they just trying to inoculate themselves? oops, we meant to make reliable machines, but those offshore guys f'ed it up?

[Hissyspit]

9. Well, Dan seems to be covering all bases.

Coming down pretty hard on the American companies, too. My main problem was the interview with the professor.

[Zan_of_Texas]

21. Don't have that station. However ...

Shamos is a dubious person to interview, in my view. Yeah he is frequently quoted, but I find him to be a shill. He is one of a handful of computer scientists in the whole country that has, usually anyway, been a DRE defender.

I'll have to find a way to see the show. But I will say that if Rather only focused on the quality of assembly of the machines, and their reliability in humid weather, then he missed the boat.

The problem with using software for elections is that there is no way the machinery can be protected from flaws and fraud. No way. Zero way. It's impossible, no matter how much you pay the assembly workers, no matter how much you inspect it, no matter how much you test it.

It's not like we are using Ford Pintos for elections.

It's like we are fish, wanting to get from Point A to Point B, and we are being offered bicycles.

You can have elections with secret ballots. You can have honest elections. You can have electronic elections. But, you cannot have all three at once. Period.

[madfloridian]

22. I put up a link for online viewing.

http://www.hd.net/

Rather did a thorough job. He was skeptical of that professor.

[helderheid]

45. I only see the "sneak peek" there - is the full episode up?

[Zan_of_Texas]

23. deleted. (DU hiccupped.)

.

[madfloridian]

18. No whitewash. The part at the end about Sequoia paper was devastating.

None of it was a whitewash. Rather questioned that professor pretty well, and let it be known he was an advocate for the machines.

The Sequoia paper, I had not heard about. The employees were very sincere and upset.

[young_at_heart]

25. Is Sequoia Paper being investigated?

And if not, why not? I agree---that segment was unbelievable and needs to be seen by ALL Americans!!

[madfloridian]

30. Well, as Rather said at the end....he doesn't have subpoena power.

But most certainly someone should be doing this.

I thought I had heard a little about all the issues. But I had not heard about the paper for Palm Beach County.

[Greyskye]

48. Not Sequoia Paper - Sequoia VOTING SYSTEMS

Follow the money.

Sequoia Voting Systems deliberately dumped years of flawless work making high quality paper ballots. One possible reason? Sequoia wasn't having much luck making headway into the eVoting market. Paper ballots and the associated readers were low-tech, and low cost. If paper ballots proved problematic, Sequoia could potentially make huge profits off of new technology sales.

Rather's report left two potential root-causes for this:

1. Sequoia did this all on their own in order to increase profits
   
2. Political factors were involved
   

As Rather pointed out, a news show does not have the subpoena power that Congress does. Congress must get involved in order to find out what happened, and to protect our Democracy.

[kster]

27. That would be my thought

But Michael I. Shamos, a Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor, sees no need for abandoning the current system.

‘‘I think that the old adage, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ applies here,” said Shamos who has analyzed voting systems since 1980. ‘‘There is nothing demonstrably wrong with the Maryland voting system.”

A paper trail should not be considered a panacea to the state’s election woes, Shamos said. In fact, it could produce more problems because an internal printer could result in paper jams or other mechanical failures.

The touch-screen machines record votes internally, which Shamos said is less error-prone than a paper trail, and acts like an airplane’s black box, which is used to retrieve flight data in crashes.

SNIP...But Shamos maintained that adding a printer won’t achieve that goal. ‘‘It’s a non-solution to a non-problem,” he said.


http://www.gazette.net/stories/012507/prinnew174000_32325.shtml

[Hissyspit]

29. The Shamos part was a small part and he didn't make his points very well.

I don't know why Rather felt the need to interview him, though.

[kster]

41. The crooks thought that Dan Rather could stop their sinking ship

They will come to realize that Secret Vote Counting IS OVER!!

[grateful581]

10. I plan on watching his report on HDNET tonight

Too Bad everyone doesn't have access to HDNET.
This looks a report that everyone should see.

Hopefully they make this episode of Dan Rather Reports available for viewing online later.
They have done this with other Dan Rather Reports.

http://www.hd.net/danrather.html

[Alexander]

17. This is why Rather had to be discredited during the 2004 election.

One MSM network covering the truth about DIEBOLD, ES&S and other "trade secret" electronic voting companies was one too many for Bush and his cronies.

[Peace Patriot]

19. Look, ES&S was initially funded by rightwing billionaire nutball Howard Ahmanson...

also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon foundation, which touts the death penalty for homosexuals (among other things).

Do we really need to know anything more about the folks who are 'counting' all our votes on extremely insecure and insider hackable voting machines, run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code?

Diebold, its brethren corporation (ES&S was a spinoff of Diebold--both corps run by the Urosevich brothers), had Wally O'Dell for CEO, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair (the one who promised in writing to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush/Cheney in 2004"), and a major Bush/Cheney fundraiser (a Bush "Pioneer," right up there with Ken Lay).

I mean, what ELSE do you need to know?! That they manufacture this EXPENSIVE, crapass, RIGGABLE technology in the Philippines? Surprise, surprise. Our elections are not just rigged, they are outsourced!

I'm the hell SICK of reporters, and Democrats, and compromised "election reform" groups, and corrupt county officials talking about THE TECHNOLOGY and not about WHO OWNS AND CONTROLS THE SECRET CODE!

It's mind-boggling!

And the reason for all the dancing around is that the Democrats--yes, our own party leadership--facilitated this coup. Back when they helped passed the Iraq War Resolution--October 2002--they ALSO helped pass the so-called "Help America Vote Act" (e-voting with "trade secret" code owned and controlled by Bushites). Don't ask me why. All I can do is point to the RESULT: Not only a criminal president and vice president who started a criminal war, and have committed boffo "high crimes and misdemeanors" including trashing the U.S. Constitution, and a so-called 'Democratic' Congress that just ESCALATED the war--in the teeth of 70% opposition by the American people--larded Bush/Cheney with $100 billion MORE of our tax dollars to keep killing Iraqis until they sign over their oil rights, and furthermore just gave Alberto "torture memo" Gonzales and assorted Bushites immunity for their outright felony of domestic spying, and MORE spying powers.

You tell me what "trade secret" vote tabulation is FOR.

And now we get this tame shit from classic sellout "liberal" millionaire, Dan Rather, that maybe...just maybe...these machines are FLAWED. But, hey, there's "another side" to this story. Drag out the 'opposing' expert. Got to be "fair" to the fascist election theft corporation.

The killer "talking point" of the political establishment, delivered by Rather, is that "it's the touchscreens" that are the problem. Well, guess who manufactures the optiscans and the central tabulators--also run on "trade secret" code? It's a little trickier to rig the optiscans, but not much. Optiscans are their fallback position. And they meanwhile get to rake in BILLIONS and BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to REPLACE the bad touchscreens or rig them with printers, and for on-going "servicing" of all kinds for their constantly failing machines.

---------------------------------

Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW--if you want your country back!

[AntiFascist]

42. Very interesting about the punch cards...

they've always worked pretty well up until the 2000 election, then Sequoia suddenly started using poor paper stock AND the batch sent to Palm Beach Florida were calibrated differently to compensate for "humidity." This was the first time the employees interviewed had seen this happen.

After the election there was suddenly a much bigger push to abandon punch cards with all the new hanging chad problems. How convenient that some of the major electronic voting system companies were largely owned by extreme right-wing people of influence.

Rather should have interviewed Clint Curtis who was approached by the corrupt Congressman Tom Feeney to write a rigged program for electronic voting.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=1025

[Junkdrawer]

43. Nail...Head...

:thumbsup:

[madfloridian]

20. Here's the link to HD Net TV website....videos online, DVDs.

http://www.hd.net/

[Hissyspit]

26. Repeating on HDNet at 11 p.m. ET n/t

[Clyde39]

28. This should be seen by everyone

I just watched this program and Dan did a superb job and raised many questions. What a fiasco in Florida---and the mess continues all over the country right now.

[madfloridian]

31. Special paper to Palm Beach County....

and calibrated differently because of the heat. That guy looked like he was going to cry.

The employees knew something was up when the paper quality changed in 1999.

[Clyde39]

33. What I want to know is---why 7 years have gone by?

This should be a major wake-up call to both parties and we're just now hearing the dirty details.

[bullwinkle428]

I was shocked to see him being interviewed by Fox News today about this -

NO, I'm not a Faux Noise viewer...it's just some of the right-wing tools that I work with turn the TV in the break area to it from time to time, and I happened to catch this as I was over there getting a drink.

[DU GrovelBot]

32. ## PLEASE DONATE TO DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND! ##

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[helderheid]

37. GRAVEL BOT CHALLENGES YOU TO A DUEL!

[Greyskye]

49. The Zell Miller Bot accepts!

:evilgrin:

[madfloridian]

34. Here's the link where the transcript will be later.

http://www.hd.net/transcript_list.html#danrather

[Hissyspit]

36. Transcript:

http://www.hd.net/transcript.html?air_master_id=A4755

Dan Rather Reports
Episode Number: 227

Episode Title: The Trouble with Touch Screens

Description: An investigation into the voting machine industry that reveals problems with the latest touch screen technology.

Transcript:

TONIGHT THE TROUBLE WITH TOUCH SCREENS SCREENS EVEN IF IT'S JUST OFF A 1/4 OF AN INCH IT CAN THROW A VOTE UPPER OR LOWER TO THE OTHER CANDIDATE AND YOU HAVE THE WRONG SELECTION AND YOU REALLY DON'T REALIZE IT THE STORY OF COMPANIES THAT BUILT 1000S OF NEW AGE VOTING MACHINES FOR ELECTIONS ALL ACROSS AMERICA WITH TOUCH SCREENS THAT WERE UNRELIABLE WE WERE REJECTING AT THE TIME ANYWHERE FROM 30-40% OF THE TOUCH SCREENS THAT CAME IN WAIT A MINUTE, YOU WERE REJECTING AT THAT TIME 30-40% OF THE TOUCH SCREENS YOU WERE GETTING IN FROM BERGQUIST THAT'S CORRECT ALSO TONIGHT, THE PAPER TRIAL AND I THINK THAT EVERYBODY'S OPINION WAS THIS 2000 ELECTION WAS GOING TO BE OUR DEMISE BECAUSE OF THE POOR QUALITY THAT WE PUT OUT THE DOOR WORKERS RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING PAPER BALLOTS THAT LED TO THE FLORIDA FIASCO OF 2000 TELL THEIR STORY FOR THE FIRST TIME IT'S A SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS THAT IT TAKES 7 YEARS FOR SOMEBODY TO ACTUALLY ASK THE QUESTION TO THE PEOPLE THAT MIGHT HAVE THE ANSWER A SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORT ON THE MACHINES THAT COUNT AMERICA'S VOTES TONIGHT ON DAN RATHER REPORTS

GOOD EVENING, FROM WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA. NOTHING IS MORE FUNDAMENTAL TO THE STORY OF AMERICA, AND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN AMERICAN, THAN THE VOTE. A FREE PEOPLE, VOTING WITH THE GUARANTEE OF A SECRET BALLOT, HOLDS A PRIVILEGED PLACE AMONG OUR MOST CHERISHED CIVIC INSTITUTIONS. VOTING ALSO REPRESENTS AN EXERCISE IN FAITH--A FAITH THAT AFTER ONE DROPS ONE'S BALLOT IN A BOX, OR PULLS A LEVER, OR PRESSES A BUTTON ON A SCREEN ONE'S VOTE WILL BE COUNTED. RECENT ELECTIONS HAVE SORELY TESTED OUR AMERICAN FAITH IN THE SANCTITY OF THE VOTE. FEW PLACES IN THE COUNTRY SYMBOLIZE THIS STRAINED FAITH MORE THAN THE BUILDING BEHIND ME- THE PALM BEACH COUNTY COURTHOUSE, SCENE OF SOME OF THE FIERCEST FIGHTS DURING THE 2000 ELECTION MESS IN FLORIDA. BUT THAT CONTEST SEVEN YEARS AGO IS BY NO MEANS THE ONLY ONE THAT HAS RAISED QUESTIONS AND SOME OF THE MEASURES THAT RESULTED FROM THAT EPISODE- SUCH AS NEW VOTING MACHINES- HAVE SPAWNED QUESTIONS OF THEIR OWN. TODAY (APPLAUSE)

I AM PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THAT I AM A CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS FOR 2008! THIS IS CHRISTINE JENNINGS. IN NOVEMBER OF 2006 SHE LOST THE HOUSE RACE FOR FLORIDA'S 13TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. BUT JENNINGS, A DEMOCRAT, IS ALREADY BACK--RUNNING AGAIN. I WILL FIGHT EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING THE PEOPLE'S REPRESENTATIVE FOR DISTRICT 13!

SHE LOST THE 2006 RACE BY A ONLY FEW HUNDRED VOTES. BUT HER DEFEAT MADE HEADLINES, NOT BECAUSE OF VOTES COUNTED- BUT BECAUSE OF VOTES THAT MAY NOT HAVE BEEN COUNTED AT ALL. MYSTERIOUSLY, 18,000 VOTERS IN SARASOTA COUNTY -ABOUT 13% OF ALL VOTERS THERE- APPEARED TO HAVE CAST NO VOTES AT ALL IN THE RACE FOR THIS SEAT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES THIS RATE OF SO-CALLED UNDERVOTES WAS MUCH HIGHER THAN FOR OTHER COUNTIES IN THE CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. JENNINGS DIDN'T BELIEVE THAT THOUSANDS OF VOTERS HAD INTENTIONALLY NOT VOTED IN HER RACE. SHE BLAMED THE TOUCH SCREEN VOTING MACHINES AND SHE HAD HER REASONS. ON THE FIRST OR SECOND DAY OF EARLY VOTING, WE STARTED GETTING CALLS FROM VOTERS TELLING US THERE WAS A PROBLEM WITH THE SCREEN, WITH THEM TRYING TO VOTE FOR ME ON THE REVIEW SCREEN. AND IN ADDITION, VOTERS HERE CALLED THE SARASOTA HERALD TRIBUNE, THEY CALLED THE RADIO STATIONS. VOTERS, WE HAVE HUNDREDS OF VOTERS THAT SIGNED AFFIDAVITS THAT SAID, " THOSE MACHINES DID NOT WORK PROPERLY." THOSE " MACHINES" WERE THE " IVOTRONIC," TOUCH SCREEN VOTING MACHINE, MANUFACTURED BY ELECTION SYSTEMS & SOFTWARE OF OMAHA, NEBRASKA ES&S WHICH CLAIMS TO BE THE WORLD'S LARGEST ELECTION SYSTEMS PROVIDER. IS PRIVATELY HELD. THE COMPANY SAYS THAT OVER 67 MILLION VOTERS CAST THEIR BALLOTS ON ES&S EQUIPMENT LAST NOVEMBER, IN SOME 22 STATES. AND JUST AFTER ELECTION DAY MANY VOTERS IN JENNINGS' RACE SAID SOMETHING WASN'T RIGHT WITH THE VOTING MACHINES. WHEN I WENT TO REVIEW MY VOTE, THE 13TH DISTRICT CAME UP AS I DIDN'T VOTE. I WENT TO CHECK IT AND HER NAME WASN'T THERE. I HIT THE SQUARE, THE X CAME UP, I CONTINUED VOTING DOWN TO THE END, WENT TO THE REVIEW PAGE, IT WASN'T ON THERE, IT WASN'T THERE. IT CAME UP THAT CHRISTINE'S VOTE DID NOT GO THROUGH. I'M HOPING THAT MY VOTE DID GET COUNTED. 18, 000 VOTES MISSING IS A BIG MISTAKE AND A BIG ERROR FOR THIS COUNTY AND IT SHOULD BE CORRECTED. JENNINGS SUED THE STATE AND ES&S, SAYING THE MACHINES HAD MALFUNCTIONED. SHE NEVER CONCEDED THE RACE AND FILED AN ELECTION CHALLENGE WITH THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. CHRISTINE JENNINGS HAS MADE A CAREER OUT OF INSISTING THAT NUMBERS BE RIGHT. SHE HAD STARTED OUT AS A BANK TELLER IN OHIO, MOVED TO FLORIDA AND EVENTUALLY FOUNDED HER OWN BANK IN SARASOTA. RUNNING FOR CONGRESS WAS HER FIRST VENTURE INTO POLITICS THE ONE THING THAT I WANT - IT'S VERY SIMPLE - THE TRUTH, THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED IN THIS ELECTION JENNINGS' RACE WASN'T THE FIRST TIME SERIOUS QUESTIONS HAD BEEN RAISED ABOUT THE IVOTRONICS. VOTERS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY HAD COMPLAINED THAT THESE VOTING MACHINES HAD REGISTERED THEIR SELECTIONS INCORRECTLY. BESIDES FLORIDA, PROBLEMS WITH RECORDING VOTES ON THE IVOTRONICS WERE REPORTED IN PENNSYLVANIA, ARKANSAS, OHIO, INDIANA, MISSOURI, AND TEXAS. JUST IN THE LAST ELECTION. BUT THERE MAY HAVE BEEN A SPECIAL PROBLEM IN FLORIDA IN 2006. ES&S HAD SENT FLORIDA ELECTION OFFICIALS A MEMO THAT SUMMER WARNING OF A SOFTWARE GLITCH THAT COULD CAUSE MISVOTING-AND SAYING THE COMPANY WOULD FIX THE PROBLEM. SURPRISINGLY, NEITHER ES&S NOR THE STATE DID ANYTHING TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEM BEFORE THE NOVEMBER ELECTION. SARASOTA DIDN'T EVEN POST WARNING SIGNS FOR VOTERS IN THE POLLS, WHICH ES&S HAD PROVIDED! STILL, A STATE-SPONSORED AUDIT CONCLUDED THE SARASOTA MACHINES HAD WORKED FINE. SO WHY DID 18 THOUSAND PEOPLE NOT VOTE IN THAT HOUSE RACE? MANY VOTING ANALYSTS BLAMED A CONFUSING BALLOT LAYOUT FOR THE UNDERVOTE BUT JENNINGS WASN'T BUYING IT. HER CASE -AND CAUSE- LED TO HEARINGS IN CONGRESS--. I AM GOING TO ASK THAT THE GAO AND THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY REALLY CONDUCT A TOP TO BOTTOM INVESTIGATION OF THESE PARTICULAR MACHINES. CHRISTINE JENNINGS WAS IN ATTENDANCE, BRINGING HER LOCAL SPOTLIGHT TO A NATIONAL PROBLEM. AND IT'S AT THE HEART OF OUR DEMOCRACY AND PEOPLE FROM ACROSS THIS COUNTRY HAVE MADE IT CLEAR TO ME THEY WANT TO KNOW THAT THEIR VOTE COUNTS AND THEY HAVE ENCOURAGED ME TO KEEP THIS UP SO THAT WE GET TO THE PLACE THAT EVERY VOTE COUNTS. BACK IN FLORIDA, THE JENNINGS RACE CONFIRMED WHAT SOME OFFICIALS HAD KNOWN FOR YEARS. GENE HINSPETER HAS BEEN AN ELECTIONS OPERATIONS SPECIALIST FOR LEE COUNTY- THAT'S THE FT. MYERS AREA-- FOR THIRTEEN YEARS. HE DISCOVERED A SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH THE IVOTRONIC VOTING MACHINES IN 2003, WHICH HE RECREATED FOR US IN A DEMONSTRATION. IN 2003 WE NOTICED THERE WAS A CALIBRATION ISSUE WITH THE IVOTRONIC TOUCH SCREEN AND WE BROUGHT IT UP TO THE PEOPLE THAT MAINTAIN OUR VOTING EQUIPMENT. AND THIS IS JUST A LITTLE EXAMPLE OF WHAT WE SAW. IF YOU SELECT THE FIRST BOX, IF IT IS OFF ENOUGH. IT WOULD MAKE ANOTHER SELECTION. IT IS NOT EXACTLY WHERE YOU MAKE YOUR SELECTION AT. AS YOU SEE, I AM SELECTING THE TOP BOX AND THIS SECOND BOX IS HIGHLIGHTING. LEE COUNTY RETURNED ALL 1800 OF ITS IVOTRONICS TO ES&S TO HAVE SCREENS REPLACED, BUT PROBLEMS CONTINUED. FOR HINSPETER, THE MACHINES WERE A HIGH MAINTENANCE HEADACHE. WE STARTED OUT WITH TWO EMPLOYEES WHEN WE WERE DOING PUNCH CARD, AND WHEN WE SWITCHED OVER TO THE IVOTRONIC WE BASICALLY HAD TO TRIPLE OUR STAFF BECAUSE THE HANDS-ON IS JUST SO INTENSE. YOU KNOW BEFORE YOU LET THE MACHINE GO OUT, YOU TEST IT, YOU CALIBRATE IT, YOU CHECK THE DATE AND TIME. THERE'S SO MANY THINGS THAT NEED TO BE DONE BEFORE IT GOES OUT. IT'S NOT LIKE YOU CAN JUST PULL IT OUT OF THE RACK, THROW IT IN THE BOOTH AND SEND IT OUT. WE HAVE TO BRING IN A TEAM OF PEOPLE THAT CAST BALLOTS ON EACH ONE OF THESE MACHINES TO MAKE SURE THAT IT'S WORKING PROPERLY. AND EVEN AFTER ALL THAT, THERE WERE STILL PROBLEMS IT SEEMS LIKE THEY WILL WORK TODAY AND TOMORROW THEY MIGHT NOT WORK. I CAN USE TEN OF THEM IN A TEST AND THEN WE WILL GO AHEAD AND GET READY TO SEND THEM OUT AFTER THE TEST AND WE WILL CHECK THEM JUST BEFORE THEY GO OUT THE DOOR AND WE WILL FIND THAT ONE IS NOT WORKING PROPERLY. SO, THEY ARE JUST UNRELIABLE IN MY OPINION HOW COULD MACHINES THAT HAD COST TAXPAYERS MILLIONS ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES BE SO UNPREDICTABLE? ACCORDING TO ES&S, THERE ARE 97,000 IVOTRONIC MACHINES IN USE ACROSS THE COUNTRY! MOST OF US USE TOUCH SCREENS EVERY DAY. FROM THE ATM MACHINES TO THE LATEST IN CELL PHONE TECHNOLOGY. THEY HAVE TO BE RIGHT. SO WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM WITH THESE VOTING MACHINES? OUR INVESTIGATION OF THE ES&S IVOTRONIC TOOK US NOT TO COMPANY HEADQUARTERS IN OMAHA, NEBRASKA BUT HALF A WORLD AWAY.

THESE ARE THE SHANTYTOWNS OF MANILA HOME TO THE TELETECH FACTORY WHERE, SINCE 1999, FILIPINO WORKERS HAVE BEEN CRANKING OUT TOUCH SCREEN MACHINES THAT WERE USED IN FLORIDA AND OTHER STATES.

MORE

[Supersedeas]

46. thanks for the link

[Kurovski]

35. K&R (nt)

:kick:

[bonito]

38. K&R

[Roland99]

39. Oh, that was GOOD!!

[young_at_heart]

40. K & R

[tbyg52]

44. A dialupper thanks you for the summary! nt

[helderheid]

47. Is there a link to the FULL video yet?

[in_cog_ni_to]

50. It won't be available online until the end of the week.

http://www.hd.net/danrather.html#watch

Watch Online

"HDNet is making select episodes of Dan Rather Reports available for viewing online. They'll be ready later in the week, once they've aired on HDNet."

[Greyskye]

51. .

:kick: Too important to let slide off the page. :(

[Greyskye]

52. i'm depressed that this isn't getting more visibility

keeps sliding right off the page. :banghead:

[Greyskye]

53. Error: You've already recommended that thread.

But it only needs one more to hit the "Top 40".

Just sayin'...

[Skarbrowe]

54. Thanks all for the link. Just watched and I am so depressed. nt

[bagrman]

55. Vote by mail, Vote by Mail, fix it now before we need it.

[bagrman]

56. Happiness is the smell of burning electronic voting machines.

[McCamy Taylor]

57. It's already available online.

http://www.hd.net/drr227.html

[McCamy Taylor]

58. Help me here: Jeb Bush had a paper company donor that bought Sequoia I thought

This was all way back around the 2000 election. Then Sequoia was sold to someone in Great Britain, then it was sold to Venezuela. The paper company was located in Florida I think and Bush did favors to keep state environmental people out of the company's business and they gave him money. At least, that is the way I am remembering it. The name Sequoia seems to stick in my mind in relation to that paper company and Jeb Bush.

Does anyone know anything about it? Maybe I have the names wrong. I will keep googling.

[McCamy Taylor]

59. Here we go, Jefferson Smurfit, pal of Jeb Bush, owned Sequoia in 2000

Jefferson Smurfit owned Sequoia during selection 2000:

http://rte.ie/business//2002/0529/smurfit.html

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20060619/ai_n16489392

And look whom Jeb Bush could count on for fund raising dollars:

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/110102/met_10851669.shtml

"Bush had raised at least $493,000 in Duval and its four surrounding counties as of Oct. 11, while McBride had collected at least $286,000, a Florida Times-Union analysis of state records shows.


"Bush has banked on contributions from prominent companies, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, Florida Rock Industries, Gate Petroleum, Jefferson Smurfit and The St. Joe Co."