Rolling Stone has a jaw-dropping article on the way voting machines have been recklessly deployed in the US elections. To be frank, if this is even half true, it reeks of a James Ellroy stlye plot, at the highest levels, to fix national elections:
* “…the president of Diebold’s election unit, Bob Urosevich…was personally distributing a “patch…”It was an unauthorized patch, and they were trying to keep it secret from the state”…”
* “…Diebold employees altered software in some 5,000 machines in DeKalb and Fulton counties – the state’s largest Democratic strongholds…”
* “It is impossible to know whether the machines were rigged to alter the election in Georgia: Diebold’s machines provided no paper trail, making a recount impossible. But the tally in Georgia that November surprised even the most seasoned political observers. Six days before the vote, polls showed Sen. Max Cleland, a decorated war veteran and Democratic incumbent, leading his Republican opponent Saxby Chambliss – darling of the Christian Coalition – by five percentage points. In the governor’s race, Democrat Roy Barnes was running a decisive eleven points ahead of Republican Sonny Perdue. But on Election Day, Chambliss won with fifty-three percent of the vote, and Perdue won with fifty-one percent.”
Nice.
This is not a Republican/Democrat thing – this is a Democracy thing. ( _Update:_ mind you – check out these charts documenting systematic Republican vote blocking during the 2004 election)
I realise that I’m a Brit, and so not versed in the nuances of intra-state politics, but I am just gobsmacked at how things like a lack of paper receipts, a lack of official oversight and strong political party affiliation from these companies can be allowed…
Is this just a non-story in the mainstream press? Overshadowed by Iraq?