Computers, not voters, to determine results of 'toss up' race...

Brad Friedman Byon 5/6/2013, 3:32pm PT

At the beginning of last month, The BRAD BLOG explained in detail why it was that, no matter who South Carolina's 100% unverifiable touch-screen voting systems declare to be the winner of tomorrow's special election for the U.S. House, there is virtually nothing that either supporters of Elizabeth Colbert Busch (D) or of former Gov. Mark Sanford (R), can do about it.

If there are questions about the results, too bad. The state of SC doesn't care. They don't want citizens to be able to oversee their own elections. The results will be 100% unverifiable as determined in secret by computers --- at least for those votes cast on election day at the polls, versus those cast on paper via absentee ballots.

The voting systems in use on Tuesday, as we noted in our previous article, will be the same ones which inexplicably declared the unknown, unemployed, non-campaigning Alvin Greene to be the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate over the veteran state legislator and former circuit court judge Vic Rawl back in 2010. That race shouldn't have even been close. It was thought to be Rawl's in a rout, prior to the results being announced by the computer voting systems, which had a different idea.

Tomorrow's election, however, despite the 1st Congressional District having gone for Romney over Obama in a big way in 2012, is believed to be very close, according to pre-election polls.

When we wrote our April article, Colbert Busch (Stephen Colbert's sister) was seen to be barely leading the disgraced Sanford, in what was described by Public Policy Polling (PPP) as "a toss up" at the time...

Since that time, Sanford has found himself embroiled in yet another scandal, as his former wife accused him of trespassing at her house (as opposed to "hiking the Appalachian Trail.") He is scheduled to face those charges in court hearing this coming Thursday. In the wake of that news, Colbert Busch's poll numbers, according to PPP (a Democratic-leaning outfit, but one with among the best recent track records in the business), bumped up to a 9-point lead over Sanford.

And now, on the eve of the race, PPP says Sanford has closed the gap, and leads Colbert Busch by just 1 point in what they describe as "a toss-up" again.

In other words, it's anybody's guess how voters may vote tomorrow. Unfortunately, even after tomorrow, it'll still be anybody's guess as to how the voters actually voted, thanks to the oft-failed, easily-manipulated, 100% unverifiable ES& iVotronic touch-screen electronic voting systems in use that will either record voters' intent accurately tomorrow...or not. Nobody can ever know.

And, as Vic Rawl, who inexplicably "lost" to Alvin Greene in 2010 told us last month after we published our article on all of this, whatever the 100% unverifiable voting machines say tomorrow, and whether they are in line with pre-election polling or the will of the voters, "the fact is, there's not a darn thing that anybody can do about it."

The BRAD BLOG wishes both candidates, and the voters of South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, good luck in deciphering whatever truthiness the voting systems decide to offer to us all after the close of polls tomorrow.

• Here's our detailed report from last month...

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UPDATE 5/7/2013: Despite Colbert Busch's 9pt lead in the polls two weeks ago, and the race declared a "toss-up" by pollsters over the weekend, Sanford has now been declared the "winner" by a landslide tonight by SC's 100% unverifiable touch-screen voting system. Details now here...

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