V-odometer Fraud

by Robin Baneth

RE: "What Can You Believe?" by James Rosen (12/12)
( http://www.newsobserver.com/news/q/story/... )

In some of last Sunday’s newspapers, you may have read a Washington Bureau article called "What Can You Believe?" In the sub-section "A Level Playing Field," James Rosen, the interviewer, summarizes that (Mr. Baneth) "... has no direct proof of election fraud but suspects it occurred, because the machines are so vulnerable to tamperings and malfunctions."

James, there is no shortage of proof. There is a shortage of American wherewithall on this topic. It’s quacking like a duck but it is us early-adopters who know it is a duck.

I do not own or possess the evidence nor do I have my own forensic lab. But I read. I read about it everyday and I believe it is the job of the FBI to investigate federal crimes, collect and organize the mounting evidence. Why are these systems not GUILTY until proven innocent? A jury just convicted Scott Peterson TO DEATH for less evidence — than the 57,000 GAO reports of voter irregularities — in which no weapon was found.

Do we need more evidence than the smoking guns of the negative 16,022 votes for Gore in Volusia County, Florida or a negative 25 million in Youngstown, Ohio five weeks ago? Why do these things happen in battleground states? Why do these problems keep favoring one candidate over another? The voting machines have failed us on two levels. They have failed us perceptually, that is, they do not give the APPEARANCE of fair and honest elections and they have failed us empirically — in a "send them to the gas chamber way."

Just because I personally do not not have photographs, fingerprints, or secret documents does not make me a conspiracy theorist. Because I read papers, google the internet, watch MSNBC and have suspicions does not mean I believe in UFO body snatchings. Whether or not we can prove OUR voting machines were hacked or vote-rigged in 2000 and 2004, they certainly COULD HAVE been. Why do we not hear the Fort Knox argument, that it would take Dr. Evil or Dr. Strangelove with all the world’s resources and equipment to compromise these systems? All we hear is that they are reliable and accurate but we never hear they are tamper-proof. Glad we all live by the honor system.

Did you know odometer Fraud costs Americans $4 billion dollars per year? To thwart Odometer Fraud, the 1972 Thunderbird had a non-reversing odometer as standard equipment. Odometers count mileage and determine YOUR vehicle’s value while voting machines count YOUR voice and determine YOUR value as a citizen. You and you and you. You are either a one or a zero. How do we know if we are a ONE without proof? Why is the burden of proof on the victims?

Your vote starts in your head, goes to your body and hands, and is then sent down an electronic assembly line. Is there quality control on this assembly line? A lot of trust but no quality control. None of these machines have passed security penetration analysis. This is according to the manufacturer’s own records. That means they can be hacked as easy or easier than a web site.

Counting votes with or without computers should NOT be complicated or controversial or secret. At minimum, creating the illusion of fairness is paramount. These non-paper trail systems have failed in this primary objective. They do not appear to be fair and honest to us in the information technology arena. Find a programmer who will get on a stage and defend these swiss cheese systems.

Paperless touch screen voting has zero face validity. Even if no problems were reported this last election, we should NEVER trust many of these systems without printers. That is because the hanky panky can go by UNDETECTED. How can anyone report a problem they do not witness? But, oh did these systems have problems! 57,000 reports of irregularities THAT WE KNOW OF were sent to the GAO, many of which were classified as machine malfunctions.

100% Opaque is the opposite of 100% transparent. The designers of these systems at Diebold and ESS seemed to have gone to great lengths to ensure the complexity and non-auditability of these systems. These systems are 100% opaque! Why?

I am no election expert but it seems to me Vote machines really are the odometers of elections. If you want more money for your car, just jack it up, put it in reverse and watch the value increase. Make sure it has a reversible odometer. Watch the miles fall off the vehicle. Wouldn’t the fraudsters - say a Halliburton employee or Eric Rudolph, clinic bomber — love a way to reverse a foe’s vote count in seconds, not hours, or even automatically?

What’s my point with all this v-odometer talk? Well, reversing votes is EXACTLY what happened in Volusia County, Florida in 2000. It is now historical fact that a negative 16,022 votes were subtracted from Gore and were posted on CNN and other Networks. It was fixed shortly AFTER Gore had called Bush to concede. This stigma then biased subsequent remedies painting Gore as a sore loser.

Couldn’t happen again? Well the impossible reversing odometer problem did happen again on one of these infallible machines. Five weeks ago. One precinct in Youngstown, Ohio, the new Florida, recorded a negative 25 million votes (that’s not a typo) on an ES&S Votronic voting machine a 11/3 report in Youngstown’s Vindicator newspaper. Mark Monroe, the election chief said: "The numbers were nonsensical so we knew there were problems.
– http://www.vindy.com/basic/news/...

My question is this: What if the numbers are NOT nonsensical? Mark blamed machine malfunctions combined with human error to create the massive negative vote count. Was this potential vote rigging?

Vote rigging is setting the slot machine to never make a payoff. Vote tampering is hiding the fact that the slot machine hit a payoff. Both may have occurred here.

Right here in North Carolina, the v-odometer in Carteret County stopped counting and they lost over 44 hundred votes. This is no different than a disabled odometer that stops counting the miles. That is enough to turn any election or sell any car. Now there will be a re-vote in a few weeks. I ask you, could paper balloting do this on such a massive scale? Maybe machines ARE the problem. When can I stop writing about this issue and get back to criticizing the president?

Gary Bartlett, Director of North Carolina’s State Board of Elections has SUGGESTED that: "North Carolina may become the third state — following Nevada and California — to put printers in precincts." Mr. Bartlett is also receptive to open source coding and wants more state authority in machine selection along with standards and training. Looks like Christmas is coming early this year. Goliath may want to go to Disneyworld over the holidays while we Davids fix the embarrassment they have perpetrated on America.

Robin C. Baneth, M.S., M.A.
Raleigh, NC
rbaneth@mindspring.com

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