I know it's late on a Friday, but this story at The Raw Story is extremely disturbing. It's hard to be outraged with the weekend just around the corner, but after all, our democracy is at stake!
During the 2002 senatorial election the CEO of Diebold himself flew in from Texas and applied a patch to two and only two voting machines. Those machines went to Democratic stronghold counties:
Spoonamore received the Diebold patch from a whistleblower close to the office of Cathy Cox, Georgia’s then-Secretary of State. In discussions with RAW STORY, the whistleblower -- who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation -- said that he became suspicious of Diebold's actions in Georgia for two reasons. The first red flag went up when the computer patch was installed in person by Diebold CEO Bob Urosevich, who flew in from Texas and applied it in just two counties, DeKalb and Fulton, both Democratic strongholds. The source states that Cox was not privy to these changes until after the election and that she became particularly concerned over the patch being installed in just those two counties.
If this was a legitimate patch then why was it only applied to machines from two counties? Why did the CEO of the frickin' company need to fly from Texas to apply it himself? Is he one of those amazing Hacker/CEO types? I doubt it.
The other red flag? The "patch" didn't fix the problem it was designed to fix:
The whistleblower said another flag went up when it became apparent that the patch installed by Urosevich had failed to fix a problem with the computer clock, which employees from Diebold and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office had been told the patch was designed specifically to address.
As far as I can tell by reading the story there is not yet solid proof of election tampering, but if the shoe fits:
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who was five percentage points ahead of Republican challenger Saxby Chambliss in polls taken a week before the vote, lost 53% to 46%. Incumbent Democratic Governor Roy Barnes, who led challenger Sonny Perdue in the polls by eleven points, lost 51% to 46%. However, because the Diebold machines used throughout the state provided no paper trail, it was impossible to ask for a recount in either case.
Interestingly enough, this story is being broken by a GOP security expert and former McCain campaign adviser! Sometimes even Republicans have brief outbreaks of genuine morality, I guess. Still, I guess he couldn't resist breaking it on a Friday for minimal outrage.
Now I've heard people around here say "if it isn't close they can't steal it," but an 11 point lead isn't close. If you have the opportunity to observe election equipment in November, be vigilant! If you have the chance to eliminate electronic voting machines in your area then do it! This is terrifying stuff!
<bold>H/T to MotleyPatriot for a few corrections and clarifications</bold>