Diebold: "Complete Idiots"

As computer scientists, professors, state and federal lawmakers express their concerns about the integrity of "paperless" and unverifiable voting, Diebold just makes excuses for its inability to produce reliable machines.

These e-voting machines are as easy to hack and manipulate as your home computer. Is this what we, as a democracy, have resorted to? If we get, say, 90% of all the votes counted, that's OK. Or, maybe it's 80% counted. What's the number? This is how the business-world measures itself: 100% is not attainable, so it sets an arbitrary number for its definition of "success".

Why shouldn't this apply to our votes and our democratic government? Because 100% is the only acceptable number of votes that count! Anything less than 100% would ensure we do not live in a democracy.

When will we finally abandon the idea that government should be run like a business? A business has the luxury of choosing its market. Our government is for ALL of us. It doesn't have the ability to pick and choose its "customers."

I guess the problems we're seeing with private companies creating and running our e-voting machines should be expected when we try to run government like a business, then. These problems may be within the acceptable range in the business world, but they're an abomination to our democratic government.

Click HERE to learn more about this evolving story.



Above: Protesting outside the California Secretary of State's office in Sacramento. AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

PLEASE go to VerifiedVoting.org to find out what's currently being done to ensure a paper trail for every vote cast on e-voting machines. Demand your public officials mandate paper ballots on all e-voting machines in your state: click HERE to learn how your state is currently addressing this problem.

On a satirical note, I thought I'd highlight the following quote from the President of Diebold: "We're not idiots, though we may act from time to time as not the smartest," Diebold President Robert J. Urosevich told California regulators investigating the company's performance.