I just sort of happened across some very odd information. Is it strange to anyone else that there was a big hullabaloo about the elections and counting votes and the machines in the past few years and now it seems just seems so quiet? Does anyone think this information I found is sort of weird? I just sort of googled this together in ten minutes. Maybe I just don't know enough about this. But is just seems too strange.
Avi Ruben, a former security expert at John Hopkins,
seemed to be a very vocal and respected critic that the voting machines were far below minimum standards. Then, poof! he joins Diebold in May 2004 as their Chief Security Officer. Here is his
announcement that I quote from:
I know that many of you may feel I have "sold out"...yes, the salary is astronomical, and yes, I will no longer be able to say what I really think about the insecurity of their machines...but think of the possibilities of my new position. I will have the ability to almost singlehandedly pick our next President."
Isn't this how dissenters are squelched? I thought it was awfully strange how a popular Democratic Governor, George Barnes, ahead of his Republican challenger Sonny Perdue by 11 percentage points just two days prior to the election was unseated in 2002 by a Republican for the first time in 134 years. It just didn't make sense. Is this how money talks?
And then the Republicans just blew into office in the 2002 mid-terms like a Hurricane Rita.
Then here is anannouncement posted on 11/5 of two state election heads resigning suddenly in Florida.
Help me here. I'm having a little trouble connecting the dots. Why is Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood suddenly announcing Nov. 2 that she is resigning to spend more time with her family? So is this guy, Paul Craft Florida State Elections Division Voting Systems head, who has "been a kingpin" on the national certifications committee, the National Association of State Election Directors Voting Systems Panel. Are people being cleared out of the way? This just seems too coincidental.
Seems like something funny is going on in Ohio, too. This was posted on October 28, 2005 at BlackBoxVoting.org and maybe it got overlooked with the Plamegate buzz?
The Diebold GEMS system cited in the Aug. 18 CompuWare report was used in hundreds of jurisdictions and dozens of states in the Nov. 2004 election, including Lucas and Hardin counties in Blackwell's own state. If Blackwell failed to implement the CompuWare risk mitigation procedures, and if he failed to disclose the information in the CompuWare report to the rest of the U.S., he may very well have put the entire 2004 election in jeopardy.
Will someone who knows about this 'splain it to me? I really haven't been paying much attention. Did I miss something?