READER COMMENTS ON

"BREAKING: E-Voting Primary Election Train Wreck In Maryland Primary"

(38 Responses so far...)





COMMENT #1 [Permalink]

... mr.ed said on 9/12/2006 @ 9:53 am PT...





Sounds even worse than Cuyahoga county- untrained/missing pollworkers, missing memory cards, insufficient equipment arriving just before election...

I pity you folks in MD. Taking away somebody's ability to vote, either intentionally or incompetently, should be treason.

COMMENT #2 [Permalink]

... Miss P said on 9/12/2006 @ 10:12 am PT...





Yep. Here are some local comments made to WTOP news: http://www.wtopnews.com/...909548&comments=true

COMMENT #3 [Permalink]

... phil said on 9/12/2006 @ 10:29 am PT...





JESUS TITS!

COMMENT #4 [Permalink]

... JW said on 9/12/2006 @ 10:43 am PT...





In its first opportunity to properly preside over an election, the Squ-Ehrlich administration screws it up like a shady land deal gone bad. What an overt attempt to depress voter turnout during a time when Republicans are vulnerable and running from Bobby's buddy George W. Bush. When he gets bounced from the Governor's mansion, he can kiss those free vacations at Camp David goodbye!

COMMENT #5 [Permalink]

... TJ said on 9/12/2006 @ 12:31 pm PT...





Hey, here's the key phrase: "dozens of polling places." DOZENS, alarmist boy. Not hundreds, not thousands, DOZENS. About par for ANY election in ANY state. Jeesh.

COMMENT #6 [Permalink]

... whig said on 9/12/2006 @ 12:46 pm PT...



COMMENT #7 [Permalink]

... Steve said on 9/12/2006 @ 1:00 pm PT...





TJ says: ..."DOZENS (of polling places). About par for ANY election in ANY state. Jeesh." Yeah, it probably is about par for any election in any state in an era of virtually unregulated electronic voting machines. What's the big deal about a few thousand votes lost here and there, TJ, as long as it's not your vote and as long as the RIGHT guys keep on winning.

COMMENT #8 [Permalink]

... Steve said on 9/12/2006 @ 1:07 pm PT...





I liked this comment from the link Miss P provided in #2 above: "This is Florida 2000! We need to ditch these electronic voting machines and go back to the old fashioned Votamatics with the mechanical levers. They provided a paper trail and everyone knew how to use them. We don't need a better mousetrap just because the elections in Florida were corrupt." Truer words were never spoken!

COMMENT #9 [Permalink]

... Sandy D. said on 9/12/2006 @ 1:33 pm PT...





I sent this bradblog info to a friend who lives in MD this morning and he confirmed that there was a problem at his precinct. He got there at 7:00 and no one knew how to start up the machine. He was offered a provisional paper ballot and that is what he voted on. I'll make you a bet this is affecting more than "dozens" of precincts.

COMMENT #10 [Permalink]

... EagleFury said on 9/12/2006 @ 1:36 pm PT...





Spoke to MD Board of Elections communications director, Mary Heath. To her credit, she was professional and patient in her explanations about what has gone wrong so far in MD. She attributed much of the problems in many polling stations, and especially across Montgomery County, to human error. She said it has been incredibly hard for them to recruit able pollworkers and election judges who can pass background checks, absorb a huge amount of training materials, and then put in a 7am-11pm volunteer work day on election day. Remedies: 1) make election judge/pollworker service mandatory, like jury duty? Or, Democrats use this huge opportunity to staff the polls to absolutely ensure voting goes off without a hitch. 2) get ourselves on a paper-based, fully transparent and auditable voting process ASAP. Not only is training for paper ballots straightforward and simple, but also the paper trail exists immediately following the vote. When I asked about the Diebold machines, Mary claimed Maryland learned from Florida 2000/2004, Ohio 2004, and California 2006, to make their machines more secure, etc. Of course, when I asked why it was these machines could not be designed to provide paper receipts which could later be scanned into optical scanners for verification, she said the machines are equipped with printers, but that reprints of a single ballot are over 7 feet long ?!? This from a company that makes ATM machines perfectly capable of printing out receipts after every transaction. I'm more resolved than ever to push MD legislators, hard, to resolve this issue.

COMMENT #11 [Permalink]

... LiberalEsto said on 9/12/2006 @ 2:08 pm PT...





The judges at our Montgomery County, MD, polling site didn't know what to do about the lack of voter access cards, so they started sending prospective voters to another polling location. They even put up signs directing folks to the other polls. A number of people gave up and left in disgust. I wonder how many potential votes weren't cast because of the delay in bringing voter access cards to the polls. Even if it were 10 potential votes, multiply that by 238 precincts in Montgomery County, and you've got 2380 votes --- enough to change the results of many local races. This s a Democrat county, in a Blue state, and these Diebold machines were purchased by the Democratic state elections commissioner. Which is why our Democratic leadership will not lift a finger to get rid of these Cheating Machines.

COMMENT #12 [Permalink]

... Shannon Williford said on 9/12/2006 @ 4:09 pm PT...





It goes to show how deep our problem is. Dems, Pubs, it don't matter - when they're involved in continuing election incompetance and fraud, we all gonna lose sooner or later... shw

COMMENT #13 [Permalink]

... DIXIECRAT said on 9/12/2006 @ 4:32 pm PT...





IT IS TREASON, BUT WHO WILL DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT? IT'S NOT EARTH SHATTERING LIKE MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL BEING CANCELLED OR DOMINO'S PIZZA STOPPED DELIVERING.

COMMENT #14 [Permalink]

... Miss Persistent said on 9/12/2006 @ 4:38 pm PT...





Our income and schools rank in the top percentages country-wide. How can they NOT find "able" pollworkers who can "pass" a background check? BTW, what's up with the background check?

COMMENT #15 [Permalink]

... Miss Persistent said on 9/12/2006 @ 4:45 pm PT...





Maryland Election Process - League of Women Voters 2006 Update. No mention of background checks... http://www.lwvmd.org/kent/voting-fact-sheet.html

COMMENT #16 [Permalink]

... Dixiecrat said on 9/12/2006 @ 4:55 pm PT...





No one is looking to find competent poll workers. And, that's what they are counting on to keep the status quo. If intelligent honest patriotic people (democrats) who are not satisfied with the way elections are being conducted, they should get off their lazy bitching asses and become poll workers or just shut the hell up! What is it with you people...flapping your gums and sitting in front of a computer typing all day and no one even makes the minutest effort to help or get involved or help one person register to vote. The most important election in years is about to take place all anyone can do is bitch and blog.

COMMENT #17 [Permalink]

... bushishitler said on 9/12/2006 @ 4:59 pm PT...





"dozens of polling places." Guess the neocon and repugs don't have to send their "1st team" trolls to bradblog, so we just get the morons. So tell me, steve, you would have to admit that "dozens" is more than enough to skew the results if they are ALWAYS in areas that vote DEMOCRATIC, right?

COMMENT #18 [Permalink]

... bushishitler said on 9/12/2006 @ 5:05 pm PT...





So bradblog isn't about the truth either - you are a relatively small-time player and the faux "advertise liberally" group refuses to cover these issues or link to your blog. americablog, atrios, fdl, digby, c&l, kos, greenwald, and the rest of that gang REFUSES to acknowledge these issues AND YOU DELETE AND BAN ANYONE THAT POINTS THIS OUT! Then you have the gumption to post IMPORTANT BREAKING stories that get buried in silence by the MSM and the self-proclaimed "liberal" blogs (NOT!) Yet you constantly ask for money, despite the fact that you are also CENSORING comments that point out the hypocracy of the concerted effort by "so-called-liberal" blogs to bury the issues you discuss. You are part of the problem if you are not part of the solution - grandstanding over this but remaining silent (and actively censoring) dialog about these important issues is just as bad as the lying liars in MSM.

COMMENT #19 [Permalink]

... Miss Persistent said on 9/12/2006 @ 6:20 pm PT...





Er, so what's up with the "background check" statement by the MD Board of Elections communications director, Mary Heath that EagleFury was good enough to find out for us. Now I'm not saying it's a bad idea on the surface - for public safety that is - but I don't know - it just seems odd. Does it deter some volunteers? What kind of things do they check? P.S. Montgomery County blaming "volunteers" is not a new concept. Nonetheless, the persons training them are paid yes?

COMMENT #20 [Permalink]

... Miss Persistent said on 9/12/2006 @ 6:54 pm PT...





So, here is the application for election judge for Montgomery County and NOWHERE does it mention background check. It mentions plenty of training however... http://www.montgomerycou...ctions/questionnaire.pdf Here’s the CURRENT link they give if you have any questions about paper v. electronic. http://euro.ecom.cmu.edu...aculty/mshamos/paper.htm Excerpt: Michael Ian Shamos, School of Computer Science, Cargegie Mellon U, April 2004 “Objection 4. Hackers can do anything: [Answer:]. Only in books and movies. The hacking stories we read in the papers concern attacks over the Internet against systems that are deliberately held open for access by the general public. Voting machines, by contrast, are highly controlled and cannot be accessed over the Internet. Hackers are not omniscient and even vendors have trouble programming tabulation software correctly. The prospect that a hacker could not only manipulate an election but do it without exhibiting a detectable bug is so far-fetched an idea that no one has come close to showing how it might be done.” And here is an interesting Maryland snippet on the integrity of DRE’s. Check out Myth 4 Fact 3… http://www.elections.sta...g_systems/mythvsfact.pdf

COMMENT #21 [Permalink]

... big dan said on 9/12/2006 @ 7:27 pm PT...





Brad censors comments about kos/americablog/etc??? I always say they stink. So does Huffington Post and now Air America radio. Those places never talk about e-vote fraud, that's why I don't go to them. And I question their motives, on why they suppress this subject. Anyone know why? And my former hero Al Franken, too.

COMMENT #22 [Permalink]

... fran kaye said on 9/12/2006 @ 8:22 pm PT...





Now we know one more way these people are going to snafu the election in November. Hopefully we can pick up more ways they are going to screw up intentionally.

COMMENT #23 [Permalink]

... JPentz in Maryland said on 9/12/2006 @ 8:35 pm PT...





All I can say is what a catastrophe. Much to my disappointment, the democrats AND republicans IN Maryland (save about two, which were my senator (dem) and delegate (rep)) are rotten. It was Paula Hollinger's democratic senate committee that haulted any sort of paper trail or way to count the votes. Hollinger who launders money, I heard. Thank god she lost the congressional race! I was at a presinct in the evening. ONE of the voting machines was down all day. I was astonished at the results OR the people of Maryland are mindless automations who choose proven crooks to be elected because they put out a lot more crap advertising with lies. Are people really so stupid? Or is it the voting machines??? They voted for people who chose to deregulate our gas and electric so that now we are going to be paying 200 percent more. But that is OK with their constituents. At the end of the evening they taped cash register rolls on a window that contained the votes for each machine. OR there is something seriously wrong with the voting machines and NO way to count the votes . .no paper, nothing. We have to accept their results on blind faith. All day long my in box filled with reports from all over the state. People turned away, not able to even vote, power outages, broken machines that would not power on. Cards not delivered. Poll books that when voters got there, it said they had already voted . . . and they had to fill out provisionals, but HOW are they going to check if that person voted? With no paper or way to trace it?? OMG I am really mad . . . AND disenfranchised. HOW do we KNOW if our votes even count???? I am REALLY mad.

COMMENT #24 [Permalink]

... oldturk said on 9/12/2006 @ 8:42 pm PT...





Maryland is one of the DIEBOLD EVM - SHOWCASE STATES,.. Brad said,.. Meanwhile, on the other coast, out in Diebold's one-time "showcase state" of Maryland where the Republican Governor recently declared he "no longer [has] confidence in the State Board of Elections' ability to conduct fair and accurate elections in 2006" on Diebold's machinery, Mike Himowitz in the Baltimore Sun rages against the machines and the pitfalls of secret software used to count our votes: With every jurisdiction in Maryland now using the same system, all it takes to ruin an entire statewide election is a single glitch in a single line of that secret code. In the systems business, this is known as a computer monoculture. It's a term borrowed from agriculture to describe a large area planted in a single crop - and hence vulnerable to devastating damage from a single source. Maryland is completely planted with Diebold's electronic cotton - all it needs for disaster is one electronic boll weevil. To all of this criticism, Linda H. Lamone, the state election administrator has had one response: "Trust us." Well, I don't and you shouldn't. Elections aren't based on trust. They're based on verifiable results. You can't throw technology at a problem and throw common sense out the window. There's no way to fix this system. I don't care how much we've spent on it. Source Above:Link Can not say there was not sufficient forewarning given to these incompetent election administrators.

COMMENT #25 [Permalink]

... molly said on 9/12/2006 @ 11:44 pm PT...





#18 Let's try to stick together. Who 'ya gonna' turn to? I've never had any kind of problem railing against the liberal blogs on bradblog. Just did it on another thread. Kos was my pet peeve. Americablog..Crooks and liars is allowing 9/11 news now just because so many people are seeing the light. It'll happen with the election machines. Just don't forget we lost Jack, Martin and Bobby before election fraud. It's all the same folks.big oil...big corporations. We walk a thin line of fascism

COMMENT #26 [Permalink]

... Miss P said on 9/13/2006 @ 6:37 am PT...





So, why did election judges have people vote on the back of pamphlets, scraps of paper, redirect them to other polling places? Like any of those votes will be counted. Who was in charge of the communication for PLAN B. Where is the PLAN B for when there is system failure? Dixie - I will bitch while sitting on my ass blogging if and when I damn well feel like it.

COMMENT #27 [Permalink]

... big dan said on 9/13/2006 @ 7:44 am PT...





I like the little choo-choo trains, whenever Brad has a "train wreck" article.

COMMENT #28 [Permalink]

... fair_verifiable_elections said on 9/13/2006 @ 9:10 am PT...





... molly said on 9/12/2006 @ 11:44 pm PT... Point is - IT EVEN GETS CENSORED HERE! And c&l is still deleting TONS of stuff - usually without the disclaimer so no one nows. How can brad try to promote this site and blackboxvoting will banning dialog about the lack of coverage from those that proclaim to "lead" liberal issues. IF WE CAN'T TALK ABOUT IT OVER THERE AND IT IS BANNED HERE - WHATS THE POINT OF "BREAKING NEWS" AND FLASHING BANNER HEADLINES> What is upsetting is that THIS IS AN ISSUE WE COULD WIN WITH - 92 percent of the population wants verifiable elections! Yet its banned in mainstream media, the parties won't talk about it, the so-called-liberal blogs won't allow dialog, and it even gets censored HERE! Go figure! {It doesn't, YOU do, for spamming this site with an axe to grind, and using disinformation to do it. --99}

COMMENT #29 [Permalink]

... Miss P said on 9/13/2006 @ 9:51 am PT...





As far as I can tell, no one gets censored here when they follow the rules of engagement, including staying on topic I suppose. I am an independent and so couldn't vote yesterday (I could have for school board but the only people elected are those backed by the teachers union). I mentioned in a previous post some Myth v. Fact information that Maryland puts out with regard to electronic voting. I just want to write one of their best here. Just THINK about this statement: Myth 4 “Paper receipts solve the concerns regarding electronic voting system fraud.” FACTS "...Paper receipts provide a false sense of security, because they do not guarantee that the results recorded in the machine are the same results printed on the receipt." Think about that.

COMMENT #30 [Permalink]

... Taffy said on 9/13/2006 @ 10:01 am PT...





I feel compelled to respond to Dixicrat's rant.

For several years I was a Democratic election judge in Montgomery County Maryland. I stopped participating after a few elections with electronic voting. Once the state of Maryland (after an initial study by Johns Hopkins University determined the vulnerability of the system)refused to allow paper receipts, that was it for me. I felt unable in good conscience, to certify any election's validity anymore and just maybe other intelligent people like me sat back down on their lazy bitching asses in dismay and despair.

COMMENT #31 [Permalink]

... Miss P said on 9/13/2006 @ 11:25 am PT...





Does anyone think it's possible to get a question on the November ballot to let the people decide?

COMMENT #32 [Permalink]

... fair_verifiable_elections said on 9/13/2006 @ 3:52 pm PT...





No axe to grind - just asking why it is not possible to discuss the FACT that the rest of the "advertise liberally" blogs WILL NOT COVER YOUR STORIES OR LINK TO YOUR SITE? Who's the FRAUD - YOU OR THEM! Legitimate question and the facts are on my side. It is starting to appear the disinformation is actually on your side {Ed Note: No. It only "looks" like that because yours has been deleted, and anyone as obsessed as you are about this stuff should take the hint, sit back and consider more carefully, rather than just scheme their way boldly forward. --99}

COMMENT #33 [Permalink]

... DIXIECRAT said on 9/13/2006 @ 5:12 pm PT...





Taffy, giving-up isn't the answer or what made America great. The first Revolution took 8 years to win and another 15 just to get our country going. Americans don't stop until they close the lid on their coffins. Rest when you're dead cuz deomocracy can be taken away at any time - it is not a permanent system; it is a concept, just like freedom.

COMMENT #34 [Permalink]

... DIXIECRAT said on 9/13/2006 @ 5:16 pm PT...





VOTE BY ABSENTEE BALLOT, CREATE A PAPER TRAIL AND COMPLETELY AVOID THE ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINE MESS.

COMMENT #35 [Permalink]

... DIXIECRAT said on 9/13/2006 @ 5:18 pm PT...





#26 Miss P. you do it so well, but it accomplishes nothing.

COMMENT #36 [Permalink]

... BOB YOUNG said on 9/14/2006 @ 4:51 am PT...





#31

Nope! For the people to decide the votes would have to ber counted as cast. That ain't gonna happen here!

COMMENT #37 [Permalink]

... John Rouse said on 9/15/2006 @ 1:40 am PT...





This news about the electoral mess caused by the poorly managed introduction of the new Diebold electronic voting machines is only the tip of the iceberg. Much more disturbing to me, as a Maryland resident and an American, is the recent confirmation by a team of Princeton researchers that the Diebold machines are definitely not secure and are easily hackable. All election results determined in part or in whole by these machines should be disallowed and, if necessary, elections rescheduled using a more secure method of vote tallying.

COMMENT #38 [Permalink]

... ruskindoc said on 9/15/2006 @ 11:24 am PT...

