Our Awful Situation

Archive for the ‘Election’ Category

Dutch government bans electronic voting

Posted by patriot on May 20th, 2008

A country that cares about the integrity of its citizens’ votes? Intriguing…

The government of the Netherlands has banned electronic voting machines from future elections because of a risk of eavesdropping. The nation will return to paper voting.

“Research indicates that a secure voting machine that is immune to the risks of eavesdropping can’t be guaranteed. Developing new equipment furthermore requires a large investment, both financially and in terms of organization. The administration judges that this offers insufficient added value over voting by paper and pencil,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs said Friday evening.

Zogby Poll: 48% of Voters Dissatisfied With Candidates

Posted by Charlie Kilo on May 15th, 2008

Shock and yawn:

Nearly half of likely voters — 48 percent — are not satisfied with the current candidates for president, with Republicans and conservative voters the most unhappy about their likely candidate choices in November, a new nationwide Zogby Interactive poll shows.

In what could spell bad news for the presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, an overwhelming 86 percent of self-described “very conservative” voters said they are displeased with the current presidential candidates, and 65 percent of these voters said they are very unsatisfied.

The vast majority of conservatives (76 percent) and Republicans (76 percent) also expressed significant dissatisfaction with the current candidates, as did more than half of political independents (55 percent).

Furthermore, nearly half of Americans would never vote for Hillary Clinton…

Zimbabwe cracks down on opposition

Posted by patriot on April 20th, 2008

Ah, the path to democracy:

Zimbabwe’s opposition party Sunday said dozens of its members have been detained as authorities try to block the party’s challenge to a recount of votes that could crush their claimed victory over President Robert Mugabe.

The arrests began last Tuesday as the MDC staged a strike to protest the government’s refusal to acknowledge their victory claim, Movement for Democratic Change lawyer Andrew Makoni told CNN.

Zimbabwe election officials on Saturday began a partial recount of last month’s vote despite opposition efforts to halt the move on the grounds that the original results have yet to be released.

Mugabe cracks down on journalists

Posted by patriot on April 4th, 2008

Mugabe is really anxious tokeep his power. He’s arresting journalists and withholding election results. Crazy!

Zimbabwean government forces Thursday began cracking down on the main opposition party, raising fears of a political crisis, according to witnesses and an opposition spokesman.

The forces raided at least two hotels in the capital, including one that houses foreign journalists, a witness told CNN.

Four journalists unaccredited by the Zimbabwean government were taken away, he said.
…
The Zimbabwean government has denied CNN and other international news organizations permission to enter the country to report on the elections.

Before the election, the Movement for Democratic Change said the government had printed millions of excess ballots in a scheme to rig the vote in Mugabe’s favor, an allegation the ruling party denied.

An indictment of the Sequoia voting system

Posted by patriot on March 30th, 2008

The Black Box forums highlight a report regarding the use of Sequoia voting machines in Arizona:

1) Appendix A is a scathing indictment of the security and legality of the Sequoia product line. Taking advantage of material that wasn’t available to California Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s top-to-bottom review team, they’ve shown that Sequoia must now be considered the least secure and most illegal black box voting system in America - “dethroning” Diebold. Appendix A is a standalone section that can be read independently of the full report.

2) Also of national interest: this report forms a blueprint on how to do central tabulator observation missions, whether as a citizen or partisan representative. By carefully observing the hardware being used and asking pointed questions and public records digging, they’ve shown that it’s possible to pierce the veil of secrecy over election (mis?)conduct.

Findings include the outsourcing of the entire mail-in vote process including the use of a private company to print, mail out, -=receive=- and scan the ballot signatures … all by a private company outside of the scope of public records access and proper accountability.

3) For any Arizona voter, the report is a must-read to see just how badly an election can be run in the 4th largest county in America! It’s also a message of hope - they can’t get away with running a system this sloppy without getting caught.

The PDF report can be downloaded here.

Early Zimbabwe Results

Posted by patriot on March 30th, 2008

MSNBC reports:

Zimbabwe’s opposition claimed victory on Sunday based on early results from an election that could unseat President Robert Mugabe after nearly three decades in power.

“It’s a historic moment for all of us. We have won this election, we have won this election,” Tendai Biti, secretary general of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, told reporters, diplomats and observers at a briefing.

The opposition, headed by former trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai, has accused 84-year-old Mugabe of employing election-rigging tactics in an attempt to stay in power.

The Movement for Democratic Change said it was investigating reports of thousands of voters being turned away from polls and the discovery of stuffed ballot boxes in one district. African observers also questioned thousands of names on official rolls.

Should he lose, don’t look for Mugabe to relinquish his power easily.

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