Sun
Oct 21 2012
08:30 am
Why is the purchase of Ohio voting machines by Tagg Romney legal?
By: djuggler

Why is the purchase of the Ohio voting machines by Tagg Romney 1) legal and 2) not all over the news?

What if:

  • The Obama family bought voter machines in battleground states. Remember, Ohio is crucial. No Republican has won without winning Ohio.
  • Democrat CEOs urged employees to vote for President Obama, or they would be fired.
  • Obama was caught asking independent business owners to apply pressure to their employees to influence their votes.
  • Obama had knowingly invested in a brutal Chinese sweatshop, while campaigning against China.
  • Obama had at least $250,000 in the Bain Capital Asia Fund and as much as $1 million each in Bain Capital Funds IX and X, all Cayman Islands entities used by Bain to make sizable investments in China.
  • A noted war monger supported Obama, publicly.
  • Obama tried to suppress the Republican vote, while Democrats cheered it on.
  • Joe Biden swore an oath to cease any effort by the newly minted President, to better the nation.
  • Obama's tax plan was disproven time and time again as mathematically incorrect/incoherent, but cheered on by 'fiscal Democrats' anyway.

What if our churches put up signs stating, 'Get the Mormon out of our White House.' What if. Imagine the uproar.

Saving the best for last: What if, after considering the ramifications of the aforementioned, Obama refused to release his tax returns?

[Source, FreakOutNation, Hypocrisy: If the President's Family Purchased Voter Machines, the Uproar Would be Deafening]

Topics:
bizgrrl's picture

I have to say I'm a little

Submitted by bizgrrl on Sun, 2012/10/21 - 5:45pm.

I have to say I'm a little shocked by this news. It's not like they are going to make a lot of money off this investment. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when they made this purchase decision.

djuggler's picture

Here's a change.org petition

Submitted by djuggler on Sun, 2012/10/21 - 6:44pm.

Here's a change.org petition requesting the Ohio Secretary of State to provide transparency for e-voting in Ohio.

djuggler's picture

2004 vote swing occurred on a Chattanooga server

Submitted by djuggler on Sun, 2012/10/21 - 6:52pm.

In 2004, in the dead of election night, an electronic swing of more than 300,000 votes switched Ohio from the John Kerry column to George W. Bush, giving him a second term. A virtual statistical impossibility, the 6-plus% shift occurred between 12:20 and 2am election night as votes were being tallied by a GOP-controlled information technology firm on servers in a basement in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

[Source, truth-out.irg, Does the Romney Family Now Own Your e-Vote?]

Tennessee! Again!?

redmondkr's picture

I think it's safe to project,

Submitted by redmondkr on Sun, 2012/10/21 - 7:56pm.

I think it's safe to project, with zero precincts reporting, that Mitt Romney has won in Ohio.

Average Guy's picture

12 year old problem

Submitted by Average Guy on Sun, 2012/10/21 - 8:24pm.

Like him or not, Burchett at least was on the forefront of fighting these machines back when.

Digital voting machines always have been, and still are, a terrible idea. Any digital devices input is at the mercy of the person(s) writing the code for the output. Beyond that, time and time again, they've proven easy to hack.

When Bush touted paper ballots, locked ballot boxes and purple fingers in 2005, he at least was getting that right. Those votes were verifiable.

bizgrrl's picture

Each time I hit the button to

Submitted by bizgrrl on Sun, 2012/10/21 - 8:32pm.

Each time I hit the button to finalize my vote I look around expecting my receipt with my votes. They really need to put that into place.

Average Guy's picture

They are equipped to do so

Submitted by Average Guy on Mon, 2012/10/22 - 8:36am.

Too hard I guess.

Like voter ID, it's something that apparently requires many hoops. Never mind a device about the size of a shoebox on the end of a polling location table could produce an ID; (link...)

Twenty first century America, the "land of the free", seems stuck somewhere between Jim Crow and Stalin when it comes to voting.

djuggler's picture

The voting machines should

Submitted by djuggler on Mon, 2012/10/22 - 9:31am.

The voting machines should produce a QR code as a receipt. Each polling place should include an exit poll machine produced by a different company than produced the voting machines. On exit, the voter would scan their QR code and the machine would show a summary of their picks. The voter would confirm and leave. At the end of the day, the exit poll machine tally should approximately match the reported tally from that polling location.

That's one of many conceivable solutions. If we want to eventually do away with the electoral collage, electronic voting will have to become iron clad and trusted.

Average Guy's picture

Not necessary but for a 24hr news cycle

Submitted by Average Guy on Mon, 2012/10/22 - 11:36am.

Is there a need except for expediency? What if the count took two days?

Does human counting and recounting leave room for mistakes? Sure, but but I'd rather have a room full of people who could catch a mistake than I'd prefer a mistake of one person's code no one is looking at.

The input of a paper ballot placed in a box will always have the same output. The count can be off, but the vote itself is sacrosanct. As it should be.

Somebody's picture

Stuffing is popular in November

Submitted by Somebody on Mon, 2012/10/22 - 2:33pm.

Stuffing ballot boxes is an age-old sport. The problem is not with electronic voting, it is with a real or perceived lack of safeguards against electronic stuffing of the ballot boxes.

Paper ballots placed in boxes are not intrinsically safer than any other means of counting votes. They've just been around a lot longer, and there have been verifiable quality control procedures developed to assure a proper chain-of-custody from voter to vote counter.

Whether votes are done on paper or with electrons, or done one way and backed up by another, it matters not. The main thing is that the system should have a secondary way to assure that votes can be checked and re-counted, if needed.

Average Guy's picture

paper

Submitted by Average Guy on Mon, 2012/10/22 - 7:14pm.

The main thing is that the system should have a secondary way to assure that votes can be checked and re-counted, if needed.

Unless you include the original source code, source code experts and digital security experts along with the normal poll workers, the only way to achieve what you suggest is paper ballots.

We've put a lot of faith into a voting system that's proven to be as susceptible as it is reliable.

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