Vote machines make under fire

In Waldenburg, Ark., population 80, one mayoral candidate garnered zero votes -- a number he knew was incorrect because he had cast a ballot for himself.

In Westmoreland County, Pa., some machines shut down prematurely and had to be restarted manually after every vote, forcing poll workers to switch to paper ballots in some precincts.

In each of those Election Day cases last November, county officials were relying on touch-screen machines made by Election Systems & Software -- the same ones used in the disputed congressional race in Sarasota County.

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uh hello STP ... where have you been? or were you're notes on the problems with these machines part of the "caging" database, you know, Carl Rove's "direct marketing" firm out of Austin?

this is so old news for americans who really care about votes counting

thank God you finally caught on to reporting the real news - albeit a bit late. now start investigating a bit and become real reporters rather than copying and pasting, please

from Vanity Fair - All of the big counties up for grabs, however, would soon go with touch-screens, and most of those would go with a machine made by an Omaha-based company called Election Systems & Software, or E.S.&S., which had the good political sense to hire Sandra Mortham, former Florida secretary of state and implementer of the ex-felon-purge campaign by DBT, as its chief lobbyist in the state.

Big money was at stake—tens of millions of dollars—and so, tragically, the push for clean elections with new voting machines became a classic exercise in murky politics. Shortly before signing on with E.S.&S., Mortham signed on as a lobbyist for the Florida Association of Counties (FAC). On June 21, 2001, the association formally endorsed E.S.&S.’s iVotronic and began urging the state’s undecided counties to buy it.

In return, E.S.&S. promised the association a commission on sales. By year’s end, E.S.&S. would win 12 counties, including Miami-Dade and Broward, for overall sales of about $70.6 million. According to the agreement, FAC would earn about $300,000 in commissions. If the association looked bad, Mortham looked worse. She was taking commissions from E.S.&S. while on contract with the association that endorsed E.S.&S. In at least one county—Broward—Mortham received a 1 percent “success fee” of $172,000 for the county’s $17.2 million purchase of E.S.&S. touch-screens. If that rate applied across the state, noted the Sun-Sentinel, then Mortham would have earned $706,000 in all from E.S.&S.’s total sale of $70.6 million.

That summer of 2001, Mortham set up a network of lobbyists for each county in contention. If she did anything else, the county commissioners of Miami-Dade and Broward, her two biggest prospective customers, are unable to recall what that was. They never saw her. (Mortham declined to elaborate to Vanity Fair on her arrangement with E.S.&S.)

"If the association looked bad, Mortham looked worse. She was taking commissions from E.S.&S. while on contract with the association that endorsed E.S.&S. In at least one county—Broward—Mortham received a 1 percent “success fee” of $172,000 for the county’s $17.2 million purchase of E.S.&S. touch-screens. If that rate applied across the state, noted the Sun-Sentinel, then Mortham would have earned $706,000 in all from E.S.&S.’s total sale of $70.6 million." -

bottom feeder
a. An opportunist who profits from the misfortunes of others.
b. A low or despicable person.

It's over. Touchscreens are now illegal in Florida so quit your whining. Next subject please.

[taxedToDeath]

Vote Democrat (or we'll sue)!

nothing to worry about, folks!
keep moving!!
nothing to see!

the machines garner the jebba seal of approval
the chimpy seal of approval
the karli/miss piggy seal of approval
the katie hair-do seal of approval

keep moving, nothing to see here, folks...save for the demise of democracy!

9:57, please live in the present. You certainly have read where touchscreens have been outlawed in FLorida, so you're right - keep moving, nothing to see here - at least not any more thanks to your Republican legislature.

The last time I voted on an Electronic Machine… I got three bananas, won $87.53… and got an “I broke the bank at the Hard Rock” t-shirt.

… the buffet was great… lots of pork!

[taxedToDeath]

9:57's personal attacks notwithstanding, not a single machine tested in Sarasota was found to have malfunctioned. No instance of any wrongdoing was uncovered and no evidence of tampering, voter fraud or any other malfeasance yet the rabid left takes it as a doctrine of faith that any and every close election was stolen.

A lack of evidence is itself evidence to the rabid hate-filled left whose childish playground names "chimpy" and "miss piggy" are best left to 8yr olds.

“We’ve tested out products over and over again, sirs, and have found them to be of the utmost in integrity with no evidence of adverse impacts.”

Signed,

The Tobacco Industry

And then there’s…

“Read my lips…”
“1000 points of light…”
“WMD’s exists in Iraq…”
“I did not have sex with that woman… Ms’…”
“They were not fired for political reasons…”
“I only had one, ossifer..h’up…”
“She told me she was 18…”

"sarasota", sarashomsa!!

"not a single machine..." YET! is really the operative wording, isnt it?

somewhere in the u.s. of a. voters were cheated out of their votes just as they have been cheated out of their votes by well-run, well-financed, illegal "vote caging" operations practiced by miss piggy and his clones -- as revealed only a few days ago by the "imunity-granted (since i broke a lot of laws)" monika goodling, formerly of the u.s dept of "justice".

the only folks who seem to think it is o.k. to cheat others out of their votes seem to be those favoring people for whom pathologically lying is not only their second nature, but their FIRST nature!

Mortham would like everyone to forget about her involvement, so that she doesn't get indicted.

1:14 aka ron mills, did you stop using your real name because you got schooled in blogging last time?

[taxedToDeath]

No evidence of anything

“Either of you ever convicted of a crime?”

“… convicted? … no, never conficted.”