Miami Herald Reports on Hacking Test of Diebold Optiscans in Leon County!

[davidgmills]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/13410061.htm

No need to rely on Bev Harris and BBV. The reports of these tests now seem very legitimate.

What is so disapointing is that optiscans have voter verified paper ballots --what we all want -- and still are easily subject to hacking. Optiscans are considered to be the best and most secure voting system short of handcounting every ballot.

And the counts could easily be close enough so that no recount is mandatory and so close as not to be picked up by an audit of a certain percentage of the ballots. You would literally have to handcount every single ballot to be sure of the computer count.

This certainly explains why optiscan precints in Florida could have been so far off from exit polls.

[wli]

"When the debate hit fever pitch before last year's presidential election, many conservatives said questions about the machinery were a liberal ploy to undermine confidence in the voting system."

Um, elections are getting rigged here. The voting system needs a vote of no confidence (pun intended) and going back to hand-counted paper ballots.

Goddammit, if it's what it takes, we should vote by carving cuneiform on the side of a goddamn pyramid.

[Two Americas]

Why would someone say "questions about the machinery are a liberal ploy to undermine confidence in the voting system?" Wouldn't that be an admission that they see the issue as partisan? How could this issue be partisan - how could it be a threat to one partisan side - unless they were in fact cheating?

The reporter is saying that phrase as though it is of his own making - it isn't in quoite, and is attributed to "many conservatives." Yet I doubt very much that the reporter originated the wording "liberal ploy" and "undermine confidence" since neither makes any sense and seem rather to be propaganda phrases inserted into the text.

Ploy means "a way of achieving something, especially a clever or dishonest way." what is it that could be achieved that would be questionable or negative?

Can you imagine a bank officer saying "these calls for audits are just a ploy by the depositors to undermine confidence in the bank" and getting away with it? can you imagine a reporter repeating that phrase as though it were his own? "Many bankers feel that calls for audits are a ploy to undermine confidence in banking."

So I think it is very likely that some right wing propgagnda mill thought this phrasing up and insinuated it into the discussion. Think about that. Why would anyone do that? What could be motivating them to go to the time and the trouble if there were nothing there?

[wli]

It's pretty clear what's going on.