Accurate vote counts shouldn't be so hard

People have voted on slips of paper -- or rocks or some other tangible, countable resource -- since the beginning of civilization.

So, in 2008, why is it so daunting for public officials who can't get their acts together on electronic machines to print up some ballots and have us all vote by putting our hand to pen to paper? Have you ever seen anyone other than for-profit newspapers and broadcast stations say they care whether the results are announced an hour after the polls close or a day afterward?

Today's Asbury Park Press has this must-read editorial: "Will the winner be the winner?"

Who is this Nina Mitchell Wells and how did she become the all-powerful N.J. secretary of state that gets to pull the levers behind the curtain in Oz?

Back in the box

Rep. Rush Holt's, D-N.J., flawed voter integrity bill is back to committee for rewrite. Let's hope it comes out fixed this time.

Update July 21: The Star-Ledger is reporting NJIT found 33 flaws in three printer models expected to be used next time around under a new state law designed to ensure accuracy of electronic voting machines across New Jersey. The experts say these flaws could compromise voter privacy and election security.

Meanwhile, Bradblog found out the disabilities "advocate" who's a big proponent of the corruptable DRE-only machines was paid $26,000 last year by the DRE companies that want us to just shut up and let them tell us how we voted ... and we'll be expected to believe them, for no good reason.

What the hell is the matter with Rep. Rush Holt?

In an interview just now with Richard Green on the Clout show on Air America Radio, our congressman tried to defend his now-indefensibly bad electronic-vote protection bill. He kept saying, "Voters can feel safe now with this bill," HR 811.

No, we can't feel safe with this bill. Anyone who thinks we'll feel safe just because Holt keeps parroting that senseless line is wrong!

Holt seems like a brick wall, incapable of listening to anyone on the black box voting issue. He says Rep. Dennis Kucinich supports this bill; the Democratic presidential candidate yanked his support weeks ago because the bill is so bad.

We, the voters, and the nonpartisan experts who've studied this are in virtual unanimous agreement the bill stinks after the meddling amendments. I'd rather see no bill than one that gives false security leading up to the crucial November 2008 presidential election.

Holt's bill is unacceptable. There's no reason to think random recounts of buggered black boxes will produce anything but buggered confirmations.

This bill at the onset was promised to ensure paper ballots. Scrutiny showed Holt didn't understand that printouts of what the machines read are not confirmation from voters that the machine recorded their votes accurately. We all expected that to be corrected in committee, not eroded even further with garbage such as sanctions of DREs.

I urge my readers to really study this, because this is the most essential issue now to our democracy. Our federal government is presently an anarchy, any way you slice it. We must correct that in 2008, once and for all. We can't do that if our votes aren't counted. The tabulating machines can be hacked in any number of ways, including as demonstrated by a monkey in a matter of a minute or so, literally, and by wi-fi diddling from anywhere within a quarter-mile radius of a poll machine.

How can we get through so Holt "can hear us now"? I want to see a piece of paper I must confirm before it goes into a secured paper ballot box that will be counted in any challenge of the count, not random recounts the meaningless bill promises.