Think the Patriot Act is scary? Electronic voting machines (aka DREs) are even scarier. The Evils of Electronic Voting is a horror story with many characters, slashing the rights of voters all along the way. Their mission? What else, money and power. It's a "you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours" relationship between the companies selected to count our vote, and the politicans that need the votes to stay in power. The Moral Right? Wrong. These acts shake not only the constitution and our governmental processes, but also the 10 Commandments, the Golden Rule, and Karma.

We’ve Created A Monster!
Electronic voting is becoming a common method used in counting our votes. Can it be trusted?

DREs tallied about 30% of the votes during this election, up from 13% in the 2000 election. Why the sudden increase? Well, Congress passed the “Helping America Vote Act (HAVA)” by allocating $3.86 billion in federal matching funds. The effort was is in hopes to avoid “another Florida.” However, what we ended up with was another Florida AND Ohio. In many states, that money went directly to companies producing DREs. The machines in question are primarily made by four companies – Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia, and Hart Intercivic. They also make other voting machines that record the votes made on paper ballots, they're known as Optical Scans. With both types of machines, the votes are tallied and electronically sent to a remote location (DREs do NOT have a paper trail). The votes are received on a central PC, then counted and reported. All of the technologies (the DREs, the Optical Scans, the vote counting and reporting software) used in this process have been proven to be vulnerable to tampering. Despite security concerns, DREs have no paper trail and the votes are recorded "secretly" within the machines. There is no proof of who people actually voted for, and it makes it impossible to conduct a legitimate recount.

Diebold's CEO, Wally O'Dell, stated in a fundraising letter, that he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President.”

Should we trust the people and companies that implement these technologies?

The two companies with problematic technologies that were rewarded the majority of the contracts to electronically count Ohio's vote:

The company that was thrown out of Ohio's vote counting considerations (this move is now under investigation):

ES&S – Supplied machines to 50% of the voting precincts. Their DREs had the ability to add votes multiple times to the overall tally. Opening and closing the polling did not require a password. No receipts.

Diebold – Distributed 50,000 machines in 37 states. The DREs used “supervisor cards” that allow the polling to begin/end with the same password nationwide. No receipt, despite the fact that every other machine they manufacture provides a receipt (including ATM's - think of that next time you pay that $1.50 fee).

Sequoia – Used in Nevada this year. The preferred voting machine according to Consumer Reports. Polling stations could be closed by flipping a switch that was accessible to all voters. They actually do provide a receipt. They were also dismissed in the DRE running in OH. They later filed suit for wrongful dismissal.

As you can see, the most popular models do not provide you (or election officials) a receipt after you vote. Your vote goes into the magic vote machine, it’s then sent to a remote location, compiled on a PC, and the results are sent elsewhere (more explanation on this process). Ah, don’t worry, those computer geeks know how to protect that stuff…well, there are also a bunch of computer geeks who know how to hack into that stuff. Unfortunately, that’s the situation we are in due to shotty programming and product design. Johns Hopkins did a study in 2003 to prove that not only can voters cast unlimited votes without being detected using Diebold’s GEMS software, but that the software could be hacked into remotely. In fact there are step-by-step instructions of how to do it online. Bev Harris walked Howard Dean through the process in a documentary called "Votergate" (see a clip). Later that year, one brave soul went so far as to hack into Diebold’s system and snagged some emails and other documents. The emails were quite telling, including the following:

“Elections are not rocket science. Why is it so hard to get things right! I have never been at any other company that has been so mismanaged.”

“I need some answers! Our department is being audited by the County. I have been waiting for someone to give me an explanation as to why Precinct 216 gave Al Gore a minus 16,022 when it was uploaded. Will someone please explain this so that I have the information to give the auditor instead of standing here looking dumb.”

Yes, that’s right Gore was given a minus 16,022 in Florida during the 2000 election by a Diebold machine. Luckily he was given those votes back, but you can see the potential. A couple votes here, a couple votes there. It makes us very nervous when you look at how close the Florida and Ohio elections were this year. Both states used Diebold machines. And in Ohio, the story is down-right disturbing.

• For a brief history of electronic voting, see this article (link)
• Suggested further reading on this topic (link)

The people behind the implementing of faulty technologies and their obvious conflicts of interest:

Why would people create such machines, why would states agree to use them? They’re all friends, business partners, brothers, Republicans. This was no more apparent than in the swingingest swing state, Ohio. These people are responsible for counting our vote. Should they be trusted?

Bob and Todd Urosevich, Brothers. Both founded Data Mark (later became ES&S). They received funding early on by far-Right contributors (the Ahmanson family). Todd is still a VP at ES&S. Bob is now President of Diebold’s election system division. Diebold has contributed $409,170 to Republicans since 2001.

Wally O’Dell. CEO of Diebold. In a fundraising letter, he said he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President.” He also hosted a $1000/person fundraiser for the Ohio Republican Party, but urged donations of $10,000. The Diebold machines that he represents have been known for bolstering Bush votes in 2000 election.

George W. Bush. “President” of the USA. Hosted his Pioneers and Rangers party at his Crawford Texas Ranch. O’Dell was one of many in attendance, who earned the invitation by contributing $100,000 or more.

Kenneth Blackwell. Secretary of State, Ohio. Loyal Republican. He is also a potential beneficiary of the money that O’Dell raised for the Ohio Republican Party. Responsible for several voter suppression efforts including contesting the weight of paper used for registration. He made the decision to contract Diebold for Ohio’s DREs - helping O'Dell live up to his promise to "deliver" Ohio to George W. Bush. Katherine Harris ring a bell?

So, what’s happening is that contracts are being given to friends and supporters. Then they make the machines, filled with flaws, and when the election comes, their machines count the votes. This gives them the ability to control the outcome. The result, a Republican victory, made for Republicans by Republicans.

• Suggested further reading on this topic (link)

This time it’ll be different…yeah, it’s worse!
Things started off promising for voters. In April, California’s Voting Systems and Procedures Panel unanimously voted to recommend banning the TSx Diebold Election System. They went so far as to refer an investigation into the company to the attorney general for possible civil and criminal sanctions. “I’m disgusted with this company,” said one member of the panel. The company admitted that their errors had prevented some Californians from voting. Oddly enough, the TSx was granted a one-time certification by CA Secretary of State Kevin Shelley for the March election. What was the significance of that election? That just happened to be the recall election that landed Republican poster-boy Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Governor’s office.

However, not all the states caught on. With the “Help Ambush Votes Act”, billions of dollars went to fund the implementation of electronic voting machines in states across the country. The DREs seemed to gravitate towards 20 swing states as 14 (70%) of them were using DREs for this election. Of the 6 not using DREs, Kerry won 5 (83%). Of the 14 using DREs, Kerry only won 3 (21%).

States nationwide are infested with DRE errors, as there have been over 1,100 reports of electronic voting malfunctions in key states. We’ve included some of our favorites:

• Broward County, FL – Officials were shocked to find that their new machines were counting backwards. They found that the “brand new” machines could only handle 32,000 votes, and after that starts counting backwards.

• Franklin County, OH – Electronic voting machines gave Bush 3,893 extra votes in one precinct alone, while records show only 638 total voters in that precinct.

• Craven County, NC – Bush was awarded an extra 11,283 extra votes. In a report, they stated that while counting absentee ballots, they accidentally doubled Bush’s votes.

• Carteret County, NC – More than 4,500 votes may be lost because officials were told by the machine’s makers (UniLect Corp.) that the capacity was 10,500 votes. The capacity was only 3,005 votes.

• LaPorte County, IN – A strong Democratic county had some strange outputs from the voting machines. Every precinct reported exactly 300 voters. That brings the total number of voters in this county to 22,200. The left-leaning county in the state that went red actually had 79,000 registered voters.

• Sarpy County, NE – This county reported as many as 10,000 extra votes. One precinct saw 3,342 votes where only 3,000 people were registered.

These reports are scary, disturbing, aggravating, and immoral. So much for morality contributing heavily to the outcome of this election.