ClarkCast 021 - The Security Of Our Elections
Submitted by Wes Clark on August 16, 2006 - 10:27am.
2006 Elections | ClarkCast | Democratic politics
August 15, 2006
ClarkCast 021 - The Security Of Our Elections
In the first of a two-part series, Clark supporter MSinLA interviews noted experts on the topic of elections and election security. In discussing a broad range of potential voting inaccuracies, these interviews tell us much about our current system and how it might be subverted. With the 2006 mid-term elections less than three months away, the integrity of our voting process is a crucial matter. We hope these interviews will motivate you to take action in your state to protect the integrity of our election system.
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Mr. in la was hunched over doing the editing for many long hours!
We had two hours of interviews to cut down to 40 mins or so (with both Part 1 and Part 2) and there was so much good information... hard to pick what to cut. So i think I'll just put the transcripts up so people can see what didn't get in the final cut.
Part 2 is coming along great!
Brilliant, just brilliant!!! I have enormous admiration for Wes Clark for broaching the subject of Election Integrity in this public venue and allowing these voices to be heard.
Yessir, Mr. President!
And kudos to the participants - most esp. to ms and 'that singer', for bringing it
What would you do for a Klondike Bar?
And yes-- thanks to General Clark for taking on this important topic, and in time for people to beging thinking about their roles in the November elections... what we can do to reclaim the process for the people. Part 2 has a whole section on November 7th and advice from the panelists. Part 2 has some fun surprises too!
Transcripts will be going up.... in segments.
What a great thing, to see General Clark speaking out on such a critical topic.
And HUGE KUDOES to Ms (and Mr) in LA for all of your hard work, superb research and passion on this issue!
Wow, you're a natural at this ms!! You should have your own show on cable, or radio!!! Remarkable interview!!
Thanks!!
I just put up the (long!) transcript for the Mark Crispin Miller interview at my blog--
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/7997
If you don't have time to read the whole thing, just skim down to the last section on the Republican plans (according to Mark) for November and see how tricky this might get... I've already seen confirmation of this in a few press reports around the country... media already laying the foundation for this "scheme". Eerie.
Oh and RegNYC-- this transcribing thing is really 'hard work'! I've suddenly gained a whole new appreciation for it!!
So far, I haven't been able to download the MP3 like I used to on my old computer. I'll keep trying to figure it out with this new one.
Good work, ms we'll have to change your name to scoop in la:)
mr in la, MCM, David Dill, Debra Bowen...
What can I say besides THANK YOU ALL for putting this together and presenting it for all to learn what a major threat we're facing in our election system.
First people have to know what's going on -- only then can anything be done. This is a huge step for all of us. Thank you.
Please, go bump the posts I put up at DU! (Election Reform Forum) and HERE, (General Discussion, Politics.)
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right. - Hunter/Garcia
I'm with the others, you need to get a job on CNN or MSNBC.
Why can't Tweety interview you instead of those tired, old, inside the beltway, clueless yahoos, he has on every night?
And kudos to Wes for speaking out on election fraud. There are way too many Dems who are afraid to and as Mark said, it will come back to bite them even if they do win.
This is not a time for a candidate who will offend no one; it is time for a candidate who takes clear stands and kicks ass.....Molly Ivins
I called MS on a lark, hoping she would bail us out at WesPAC to create an informative, well-done, podcast on election security. I think MS and her husband did an outstanding job!
and it took me awhile to ponder it and decide whether I wanted to do it or not....
Like-- um, one half a second...
Thanks Larry for the offer! This has been great fun to do.
Mark said to tell you
"Impressed with MS's podcast. It deserves far wider distribution..."
I'm still listening while doing other things, absorbing. It is so comprehensive, so informed- such an arsenal of knowledge, common sense, sanity...
All I can say is BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO!!!!
Ab-so-lute-ly magnificent.
Ms, Mr. Ms - just - thanks so much for this. You just nail it, ms. You really have a talent for this interview thang. Am I surprised? Nope.
Thanks Larry for thinking to call msinla, thanks WesPAC for having this terrific outlet for the important stuff, thanks Wes for having the courage to engage and promote the issues important to all Americans and like no other, making the grassroots voice heard on this and so many other issues.
Oh, and David Dill, Mark C Miller and Senator Bowen - no slouches either! Thanks so much to them for giving of their time and expertise.
On many levels, this podcast means alot.
Definite thanks to Wespac and Wes for having such courage in general (pun intended) to not only take on the issue but to allow his followers to put something like this together without interference or micro-management. I was allowed to present this, of course with final editorial oversight from Wespac... but basically, we were left alone to produce it... That says a lot to me.
I'm listening to your ClarkCast right now. Terrific job. Professional, relaxed, informed. You're a natural!
Patriotic? Provocative? Pissed off? Get your protest on at http://www.cafepress.com/fightinwords
Seeing as I'm a big Hogfan Fan (!) that means a lot!
Thank you... so glad people are listening. It 's a little longer than most of the podcasts (7 mns longer) so we were worried about holding attention, but the issue is so vital right now I couldn't find any more edits that would allow me sleep at night--
Please forward to people who need to know. ;-)
Thank you very much ms in LA for doing such a professional job as the interviewer in this very special Podcast!
"What the mind conceives, we shall achieve"....which is what you have done.
Kudos!
"decent wages, education and health care for every American is "not just an opportunity, but a right."--Wes Clark
This is simply superb, MS. With you as the (extremely knowledgeable) interviewer and the technical expertise of MR_in_LA, this is a top-notch effort.
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
BE THE CHANGE you wish to see in the world.
If not us, WHO? If not now, WHEN?
We just now finished Part 2 and are bouncing it, to send it back east-- and then it will get sent to Arkansas-- and then it will get sent somewhere else, to magically appear on ClarkCast! Ah, modern technology.
Phew.
I love Part 2...
From the Commonwealth of PA - "Citing concerns about accurate, verifiable election results, a group of 25 Pennsylvania voters has gone to court, trying to stop use of the electronic voting machines deployed in Philadelphia and 57 other Pennsylvania counties.
The lawsuit, filed in Commonwealth Court, alleges that most of the new touch-screen voting machines approved by state election officials do not produce adequate paper records for use in a recount or audit.
"The machines that have been certified in Pennsylvania are inherently unreliable, they can be tampered with, they malfunction and they have had a history of malfunctions, which have disenfranchised voters all across the country," said attorney Michael Churchill of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, part of the legal team filing the lawsuit.
Lowell Finley, a leader of the national nonprofit group Voter Action, added: "Whatever the initial promise may have been for electronic voting, we know now, based on the consensus of computer-security experts and actual experience, they are simply not ready for prime time."
The lawsuit would require all 67 Pennsylvania counties to use a combination of paper ballots and optical scanners - a process now used in only nine of the state's smaller counties.
Leslie Amoros, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, said every voting machine approved for use in Pennsylvania also has been tested to comply with federal law.
"There is an audit capacity, even in these electronic systems, that gives us the ability to reconstruct the votes cast in each machine," Amoros said.
She acknowledged, however, that most of the machines approved for use in Pennsylvania would not produce paper records of individual votes, for subsequent recounts or audits.
Robert Lee Jr., a member of the task force that chose a new fleet of electronic voting machines for Philadelphia in 2001, said the group ruled out a paper-ballot/optical-scanning system, "because of all the things that can go wrong with a paper ballot."
"Paper can disappear, it can burn; it's a nightmare dealing with paper in a jurisdiction this size," Lee said.
While providing hard, tangible evidence of exactly what voters did on Election Day, paper ballots present different problems, like the hanging-chad and butterfly-ballot controversies that stretched the 2000 presidential election count past Thanksgiving.
The city paid $18.5 million for 3,500 electronic voting machines, manufactured by a division of Danaher Corp., in use since 2002.
About 200 Danaher machines broke down in last May's primary, the result of printer installation problems, according to city officials.
There have been no apparent problems with Philadelphia machines providing inaccurate vote counts, but the point of the new lawsuit is, how could someone tell?
"The machines can be subject to tampering and malfunctions where there is no independent record allowing either voters to verify their own votes or election officials to recount all votes, if necessary," said Mary Kohart of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, lead attorney challenging the touch-screen machines.
Past casualties in Pennsylvania include four precincts in Berks County that lost their votes in a 2005 election because Danaher cartridges had been improperly programmed.
In the 2004 presidential election, an estimated 10,000 votes in Mercer, Green and Beaver counties somehow disappeared."
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/15283920.htm
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a few brave attorneys have been spearheading all these lawsuits cropping up everywhere. I hope they go down in history as the few-- the very few--- who stood up and tried to prevent the hijacking of our election systems.
Lehto has the Sequoia Washington case and the Busby San Diego case going now.
The HAVA money was awarded like the Halliburton contracts in Iraq basically. Primarily to a few (3) right supporting corporations who greased the right palms leading up to the passage of HAVA. So states were up against unrealistic deadlines to order systems while the Feds (EAC etc) dragged their feet to meet ANY of their deadlines, including forming the commission, setting standards and enforcing standards.
It just stinks.
I hate to think MCM is correct, but if it's too late to get other systems in place by November, and all these machines that are now being exposed for the pieces of crap they are are still in place... well, guess who the sore losers will be -- screaming, ranting, filing lawsuits, on and on and on. Sure won't be a Dem. Nope. Won't catch a Dem risking being called a "sore loser."
I just want to be happy it's finally being exposed, but after reading ms in la's interview with MCM, it looks like things are playing out exactly as he said. :(
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right. - Hunter/Garcia
to PA's post above. Thanks, PA!
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right. - Hunter/Garcia
Maybe we need to add a Recommended Reading graphic on Securing Amer. with links to Amazon. It's so frustrating to watch them get away with this again, but a book is tangible and gets passed around and talked about, so maybe push the literature??
BTW, blew my politics email folder clean out of my system while housekeeping, but FYI, just cancelled my time off for LA next week. The daughter is subletting furnished and has to start new job in NYC ASAP, so no trip after all.
This should be picked up by Ed Schultz & AAR, Stephanie Miller, etc. ....
I think 9 PM Central time.
Stay tuned for more on our elections sytems including the grade that each of the interviewed gave to the current state of our elections today.
You won't believe it...
Always on the case.