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The best electronic system you can think of is a Rube Goldberg compilation of spread sheets and Access databases.

Actually, I was thinking of the Diebold AccuVote TsX and its GEMS and BallotStation software, although that was a pretty good description of how it works under the hood. You've probably voted on it, and it has been used to elect congressmen, senators and presidents, so maybe you should know how it works.

You are either an idiot or a liar. Either way, you've proven you are incapable of discussion, intelligent or otherwise.

Ah, the classic "Well, you're a poo-poo head and I don't wanna debate wif yoo no more" defense. I bow to your superior intellect and will trouble you no more.

Sorry the police are here to serve and protect, their actions are the actions of thugs who enjoy weilding power. So while I might not be deeply sorry for the kid, I am deeply ashamed of the actions of the law enforcement officials.

In Nevada, among other security measures, the state has a copies of the code used in all slot machines and audits machines to make sure they haven't been modified from the reference versions. Gamblers can request an immediate investigation of any machine they believe may have cheated them. After all, money is at stake. It would be nice to have at least the same level of security for our vote.

  Links to NY Times article "MAKING VOTES COUNT - Gambling on Voting",
  contrasting slot machine and voting machine security

http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/voting/press/nyt /2004-06-13%20NYT%20Gambling%20on%20Voting.pdf (PDF)
http://www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting-31.htm (no registration required)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/opinion/13SUN1.h tml (registration required)

Well, I don't have a big list which I can whip out on a moment's notice, but a little Google searching yields a URL that seems to list a number of recent-medium-term historical American voting events where it was fairly apparent that voter "buying" was occurring.

There were also many examples of voter intimidation in the South occurring when blacks were fighting for the right to vote.

Once I mobilize the army of undead Chicagoan voters, this will be a certainty.

The more I look into the Feeney/Curtis story the more I believe it.

There are clear links between YEI and Feeney. The president and the CEO of YEI donated over $5,000 to Feeney's 2004 campaign:

http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/campaigns/t om_feeney.asp

Feeney also served as general counsel and lobbyist for YEI:

http://www.mystolennation.com/modules.php?name=New s&new_topic=18

The most interesting thing is that Bev Harris outlines a back door in the GEMS tabulator that is very similar to what Curtis created a demo for:

http://www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting-30.htm

She even specifies a date, October 13, 2000, as to when this back door was first implemented in the code. This is very shortly after the time that Curtis says his company was approached by Feeney.

I find it strange that Harris would discount this story as disinformation after these pieces line up like this....

Electronic voting, while a neat idea to speed up the vote counting process, seems to have run into a number of glitches (over 1100 nationwide) this November 2nd. In addition to seemingly random problems in Florida [1, 2], Ohio [1], and North Carolina [1], there are allegations of systematic fraud based on statistical comparison of exit polls to final results in precincts with audit trails and those without. It is also interesting that in Florida, the voting patterns do not match the voter registration patterns as they do nationwide. This has attracted the attention of numerous civil rights groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation that has filed at least two lawsuits since election day, and BlackboxVoting.org that has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain computer logs and documents from 3000 counties and districts across the US. Equally disturbing is the fact that CNN has (since Nov 2) changed its exit polling results to reflect the actual results. This has attracted the attention of Congressmen John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, Jerrold Nadler of New York and Robert Wexler of Florida who have jointly requested that the GAO immediately investigate the efficacy of e-voting machines.

In case you are thinking that this is just sour grapes from Democrats who lost the election, think again. BlackboxVoting.org has been investigating e-voting fraud for years. Likewise, the CEO of Diebold, one of the e-voting machine manufacturers has been quoted as saying "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president." And if that's not conflict of interest enough for you, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel (now resigned) is an owner of the largest e-voting machine company ES&S.

Other numerous problems have been found with the machines from nearly every company in the past [1, 2, 3]. Avi Rubin, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University, has been investigating such machines on his own and has found a number of security issues. Swarthmore students stood up to Diebold in November of 2003 after discovering