READER COMMENTS ON

"Disgraceful: Discredited E-Voting Vendor VP Appointed to U.S. EAC Advisory Panel"

(25 Responses so far...)





COMMENT #1 [Permalink]

... colinjames said on 12/14/2009 @ 11:08 am PT...





Well, let me be the first to say... BULLSH*T!!! I mean is intellectual analysis even necessary? What more can be added? So unbelievable, yet so perfectly typical of our whole e-voting universe, where up is down, black is white, and Hans Von Spazkowski our whatever is actually a human being who cares about civi rights.

COMMENT #2 [Permalink]

... Floridiot said on 12/14/2009 @ 12:54 pm PT...





Maybe it was him or one of his cohorts that found Gibbons dead? I'm going out on a limb and start calling it the EACIA now...jeez, this is one of the most corrupt agency s ever

COMMENT #3 [Permalink]

... Mike said on 12/14/2009 @ 1:12 pm PT...





I'm nearly 70 years old and a Vet and a politically active bleeding heart liberal progressive union member for about 50 years. Only since the inception of blogs like this on the Internet have we the average citizen been able to get the actual truth as it happens. Thank You !

Since "O" has been in office I have thought "we" finally have a President to represent the average person even though he was a member of the DLC while a senator ! The corporate military industrial complex must have put a note under his pillow the first night he spent in the White house reminding him of JFK and RFK ! The party crashers at the white house may have been another warning to him on how easy it is to put some one right next to him and his family ! Other than sheer greed what reasons for "O"'s decisions and policies on all of the issues we elected him for could there be ??? This is just another of his unbelievable insane decisions he and his administration have made ! Maybe we are all just whistling in the dark when we assume we live in a real democracy where we the people have a say ? All my life the corporate military industrial complex have been calling all of the shots. Can we save ourselves from ourselves before it's to late ??? Here in Nevada elected politicians and activists I have known for over 30 years just do not listen to any criticism of the dean heller sequoia gambling system we have turned over our entire election process to ! Just beyond all comprehension !

COMMENT #4 [Permalink]

... MsKitty said on 12/14/2009 @ 1:16 pm PT...





Who did the appointing? They are either clueless or could care less. HAVA which was supposed to help make voting more accessible to the handicapped has become the Trojan horse which hides electronic vote manipulation. Will the tea-party patriots scream about this? This REALLY does affect their democracy and their freedom.

COMMENT #5 [Permalink]

... Bev Harris said on 12/14/2009 @ 1:20 pm PT...





Doug Jones, while considered a "good guy" by many, didn't blow the whistle on any of the Diebold flaws found in about five minutes by 50-year-old ladies, a gun nut, a Finnish guy. "Mr. Jones served on the Iowa Board of Examiners for Voting Machines and Electronic Voting Systems for 10 years, where he helped examine and approve voting systems before they were sold to the state's county governments. That's right. He was the examiner for the Diebold (then called Global Election Systems) stuff from the mid 1990s on. Yet you didn't read about the problems until Black Box Voting exposed them. All these experts are tainted by their unwillingness to voice unpopular truths to the public. And I don't buy hiding behind a nondisclosure agreement as any excuse whatsoever.

COMMENT #6 [Permalink]

... Brad Friedman said on 12/14/2009 @ 1:23 pm PT...





Mike said: Other than sheer greed what reasons for "O"'s decisions and policies on all of the issues we elected him for could there be ??? This is just another of his unbelievable insane decisions he and his administration have made ! To be fair, on this point at least, the decision to appoint Smith was the EAC commissioners. Currently there are 2 Rs (one of them the chair) and 1 D on the commission. Obama has yet to appoint the second D to fill the vacant spot. Even with 2 Ds and 2Rs, however, the EAC has proven itself over and over again to be a miserable failure. In every respect. Here in Nevada elected politicians and activists I have known for over 30 years just do not listen to any criticism of the dean heller sequoia gambling system we have turned over our entire election process to! Please go out and buy Mark Crispin Miller's "Loser Take All" and get it to everyone in NV! In it, Michael Richardson, John Gideon and myself have an investigative expose on the illegal way in which Dean Heller "certified" those Sequoia machines in your state, blatantly lying to the public and blatantly violating the law. Nobody has done a damned thing about it, despite our nearly 6 months of investigation for that report, showing all of the above in no uncertain terms. Heller should be arrested. That said, Obama and the Dems looked the other way as one Sequoia machine after another failed in the early voting lead up to the '09 election in NV. The BRAD BLOG documented that exclusively right here.

COMMENT #7 [Permalink]

... Big Dan said on 12/14/2009 @ 2:40 pm PT...





The EAC Chamber of Commerce.

COMMENT #8 [Permalink]

... Vote Carefully said on 12/14/2009 @ 5:53 pm PT...





As good as your election/e-voting coverage is - the fairness of vote tabulations DOES NOT MATTER is the elections are dominated by 2 sham candidates. "Yes we can" was clearly a sham. The "change" that obama ran on was a lie. Many examples of this have been posted here (and elsewhere), but the white house pressuring reid to accomodate joe LIE-berman's demand to gut even the lame senate healthcare bill should be the last "proof" any reasonable person needs. And don't kid yourself - the link I posted may say "rahm" in the title, but the buck stop with obama. Brad - why does how they count our votes matter if, in the end, you get lemons whether you pull the red or blue lever?

COMMENT #9 [Permalink]

... leftisbest said on 12/14/2009 @ 6:25 pm PT...





This makes me want to puke. The squirrel wheel just goes faster and faster, and I'm not sure where it will ever end. Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, and here I am, stuck in the middle with you (not you Brad, just some "you"). Like any circus or "magic act", if they can keep your eyes away from the real deal, they can convince many that they really can do magic and we really should "trust" them. Eeech! Please keep up the great exposure journalism you are doing, even when on the road.

COMMENT #10 [Permalink]

... Jack Nauti said on 12/14/2009 @ 9:09 pm PT...





MsKitty: While never having attended a "Tea Party", I would associate myself more with the TeaParty gang than probably most people on here. And yes - this DOES piss me off! I'll be writing my worthless Senator (both DNCites) and my equally worthless RNC congress dweeb later this evening to complain. Despite your (quite common) notions about non-Democrats, we (mostly) care just as much if not more about democracy and honest government. Remember: Bush never came close to getting all our votes - just the dumb ones.

COMMENT #11 [Permalink]

... Fusion said on 12/14/2009 @ 9:43 pm PT...





Jack Nauti Hope ypu will stay on this list. There are many here who tilt pretty much left but there are also many who have wanted to draw in people who are genuinely concerned for the Constitution and are appalled by what the neocons and now Obama have done...[Put me down as not progressive but radical in defense of the Constitution...took the oath in the USAF with service in the Southwest Pacific in WWII and in ARDC in Korean War and am quiet but furious...]

COMMENT #12 [Permalink]

... Jon in Iowa said on 12/14/2009 @ 10:58 pm PT...





The press release concludes, "There is one vacancy on the commission." Have you sent in your resume yet, Brad?

COMMENT #13 [Permalink]

... MsKitty said on 12/15/2009 @ 4:22 am PT...





Jack Nauti,

Great! All americans should do everything possible to keep the vote as honest, fair, safe and verifiable as possible. 1 vote per US citizen. All of us.

COMMENT #14 [Permalink]

... Sophia said on 12/15/2009 @ 8:16 am PT...





This is the kind of thing we can all do something about-we can send emails to Michael Moore, Rachel Maddow & Greg Palast to alert them to speak out. We can coss-post to aggregate news sites like OpEdNews (a very worthwhile site that's my 'other' news feed; though its traffic seems low, the range of articles is vast & the quality excellent), post our comments on HuffPost & DailyKos. This is OUR job people! Brad can't do it all himself. It's up to us to Digg these articles too. Did you know that we could create our own Digg community, thus increasing articles' relevance? Anyone wanna help me start this? (I'm just learning about Digg after Mr. Canfield suggested Digging his amazing article on Afghanistan & the war machine.) If I hear a yea, I'll post an email addy to the list to get it going. It's our country, and I want it BACK! Also, what activist organizations do you belong to-let them know that publicly funded elections & hand-counted paper ballots WILL remove the corporate deathgrip from our necks. In addition, as I've mentioned before: get your money out of the Banksters' hands. If you switch your accounts to local banks that invest sustainably, the those robber barons CAN'T use your money against you! This is the way to take the Empire down-stop donating to them their life's blood-money! Spread the word like the bumblebees of patriotism that you are! We can DO this-TOGETHER! To steal a phrase from a MASTER of the art of phrasemongering: YES WE CAN!!!

COMMENT #15 [Permalink]

... Sophia said on 12/15/2009 @ 8:23 am PT...





P.S. For those of you who are amused by tiny messages the Universal Jokester sometimes sends out-the security code for posting my comment was 1BBB1. Hmmm. Coincidence?! Random? Well, I don't care what anyone else thinks of this. Here's what I KNOW: 1'm a BumBleBee for the Constitution1. Sophia, in a strangely jolly mood these days. Could be end-of-the-world-as-we've-known-it psychosis, or just a random energyblast of solidarity with the brilliant change-artists that are US. We are the ones we've been waiting for. You know?!

COMMENT #16 [Permalink]

... Suzan said on 12/15/2009 @ 8:51 am PT...





Thanks, Brad. It's not unbelievable at all if you assume that Obama is the true "black job" President, which I've been trying hard not to say outright at my site due to wanting to "give him another chance" as they say in the "forgiveness" blogs. This is my final straw. The only reason for this to happen is that those who make the decisions (way up above us in the clouds of glory, I guess) have decided that they don't care whether or not the public knows that from now on we will live and die according to Sequoia/Diebold vote counts. As if we haven't already. Thanks again! Courage, friend. Time to storm the gates. S

COMMENT #17 [Permalink]

... Ernest A. Canning said on 12/15/2009 @ 9:36 am PT...





It appears that our current President has adhered to the "foxes in charge of the hen house" policies of his predecessor. I don't know which is more disturbing --- a passel of Goldman Sachs insiders being placed in charge of the economy or e-voting scam artists in a position to insure the theft of future elections. Perhaps someone brighter than I can weigh in on which is more disturbing.

COMMENT #18 [Permalink]

... karenfromillinois said on 12/15/2009 @ 10:14 am PT...





well ernie i am in no way brighter than u but u bring up a good point,which is more disturbing,and there are many more things to be added to the "disturbing list" including the spineless dems letting joe l single handedly water down the best part of the new crappy healthcare reform bill in the senate by taking out the medicare buy in...i mean look at his " criminal activity" compared to siegleman...seigleman took money for a campaign to start a lottery to benefit education and then appointed a well qualified guy to head a board he had been appointed to 3 times before,,,and his conviction stands...yet joe l takes millions for his personal campaign ,is caught on tape backing something like a medicare buy in,then changes his mind in front of the whole world to please who??? it can only be his insurance company masters...and the fbi isnt interested...just like they are not interested in the the pay offs the rep nevada senator made to his mistresses family or the clearly illegal lobbying he set up for his former aid the mistresses husband....i could go on and on but what i would like to know is why we all can not seem to band together to collectively challenge these "foxes"(i do think vr's dif campaigns r worthwhile but how do we get them any real msm attention?) when the ny 23 numbers came out i went out on a limb and spent a couple days on bbv trying bring attention to hayes research that showed 9-12 % of the ballots were not counted on the machines(in several precincts),i got 3 or 4 of the regs to comment but past that nothing,and the original data hayes refered to was nevr posted so the discussion just stopped,,,,but back to your original question,the neo cons must think the insiders being in charge of the hen house(fed reserve) is the most important because after comacst bought nbc,the morning meeting was taken off the air(at least in bloomington) and now that it is back it has been cut to an hour and dylan(who really railed against the bankers and wall street) is doing a lot more "entertainment" news...this appointment will nevr even hit the airwaves(msm) thank you brad for your excellant reporting

COMMENT #19 [Permalink]

... Floridiot said on 12/15/2009 @ 11:19 am PT...





I'm wondering if this Smith guy isn't the infamous "K-Tec Days" of yore? https://bradblog.com/?p=5849#comment-358540

COMMENT #20 [Permalink]

... zapkitty said on 12/15/2009 @ 12:10 pm PT...





... Ernest A. Canning said... "... a passel of Goldman Sachs insiders being placed in charge of the economy or e-voting scam artists in a position to insure the theft of future elections. Perhaps someone brighter than I can weigh in on which is more disturbing." And the answer is: Why would you treat them as two separate issues?

COMMENT #21 [Permalink]

... CharlieL said on 12/15/2009 @ 12:53 pm PT...





Obama is not responsible for this decision directly. HAD he appointed a reasonable Democrat to the Commission, it's not even clear whether it would be a 2-2 vote, (or whether the current Democrat on EAC would vote with the R's), and how that would be broken if it WERE a 2-2. However, it would be easy for Obama to make a public speech and CALL OUT THE ASSHOLE and ruin his life. If the President of the United States were to claim that you were totally unqualified for a position you had been given and that the Republicans who placed you there were nearly treasonous in their actions, it would make it hard for him to serve. Whoops, sorry, I lost my mind for moment and fell into DREAMLAND, where Obama wasn't ruled by Rahm Emmanuel, but rather by an interest in preserving the Constitution. --- NEVER MIND. Perhaps Obama can just END this Commission somehow? I think the "powers that be" are realizing that with peer to peer and social networking and blogs, we might be close to the population actually FIGURING IT OUT and realizing how they are being screwed, and getting ready to vote out a lot of DINO's, centrists and Rethuglicans in favor of some liberal and progressive candidates, and that no amount of corporate-controlled media and spin could stop that drive. And, realizing that, they see that they must have total control over the ballot counting, as they will definitely NOT have control over the ballot voting. And, I'm sad to say, I think they are there.

COMMENT #22 [Permalink]

... Agent 99 said on 12/15/2009 @ 1:13 pm PT...





Sheesh, Charlie! Really! Wake up! Obama thinks the arc of the universe bends toward justice by use of drones bombing innocents to kingdom come.... Not exactly the kind of guy who objects to this sort of thing.

COMMENT #23 [Permalink]

... David Lasagna said on 12/16/2009 @ 7:37 pm PT...





Couple of years ago I went to see my rep Barney Frank to try to light a fire under his ass about the urgency of election reform. First thing I noticed was his lack of social skills. Had to wonder how someone that rude and dismissive could get as far as he has as a "servant of the people". And he's one of those really smart people(and he IS really smart, I'll give him that)who's so smart he even knows more than you(a concerned citizen who's been obsessing about and studying election integrity issues for years) about stuff he doesn't know shit about, like election integrity issues. I tried to direct him to Maxine Waters hoping they were tight and believing her to be better informed. He said he would talk to her though I see no indication that he ever did. One of several maddeningly stupid things he said during this visit was in response to my complaint that the EAC was terrible and should be done away with. He said no, we shouldn't cuz soon we'll be in charge and then we'll get to put our people in. Uh huh. Uh Huh. Uh Huh. Uh huh. Barney's lost me. I agree--it's pitchforks and torches time.

COMMENT #24 [Permalink]

... David Lasagna said on 12/16/2009 @ 7:48 pm PT...





Invasion of the Obama Snatchers. There are very few humans left in DC. There's an elf who's real--Kucinich. And a socialist--Sanders. And maybe a handful of others, but that's it. They're all corporatist pod people now. And we're all Kevin McCarthy. Hope this turns out better than the movie.

COMMENT #25 [Permalink]

... Lora said on 12/16/2009 @ 9:19 pm PT...

