Fact or fiction? Tell me what you think.

As voting officials readied Diebold machines in their precinct, a few machines received a small modification. A $10 part plugged directly into their logic board, tucked inside the machine, and the machine locked up. Everything was done according to routine, down to verifying the locks on the machines were engaged. Only one key was needed to verify, leaving a single official to oversee the final setup.

Election Day dawned, and long lines formed early. After showing the correct identification to enter the voting booth, citizens cast their votes for President, Congress, and assorted local offices.

In the next room, the official overseeing results held a small remote device. Periodically, he pulls out the remote and pushes the right button. Activation complete.

Whatever votes were actually cast are now irrelevant. The voter's choices have been intercepted and changed to the new slate before they're recorded in device memory.

Voters were shocked to discover a Republican landslide in 2012. The House ,Senate, and Presidency had been won by a handful of votes in key districts expected to vote solidly Democratic.

If you think it's fiction, watch the video at the top.

Brad Friedman reports for Salon:

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Voter record tapes recovered from trash bins in Tennesee

In Houston, 10,000 voting machines and associated data spontaneously combusts, incinerating the machines and tapes, and leaving a right-wing Republican's allegations of voter fraud standing with nothing to prove or disprove them.

In South Carolina, ES&S voting machines are used to nominate an unknown and non-viable Democratic candidate to run against Jim DeMint.

In Alaska, tea party candidate Joe Miller alleges vote tampering by the Murkowski campaign.

These are only a few of the stories we're not seeing about voting machines and their role in shaping government and politics, particularly in areas with heavy Latino and African-American populations. It could almost be called a pattern -- one that threatens to undermine the fundamental pillar of our democracy: one person, one vote.

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Informed Comment: Russia rebuffs Clinton on Iran sanctions

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The Brad Blog: Diebold, Return Our Money

TPMMuckraker: It's starting to look more and more like Texas governor Rick Perry orchestrated an effort to thwart a state probe into an arson investigation that may have led to the execution of an innocent man.

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Black News Junkie, Work-related Blogs and News, Dailycensored, The Brooklyn Ink

Via Salon:

"Diebold Election Systems" are three words synonymous with the aggressive pursuit of failure. Not only did the company badly implement a dubious concept -- unverifiable electronic touch-screen voting machines -- but it did so with determined flourish, letting its code and internal communication leak out onto the Web; employing as a chief executive a man who declared he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year"; abusing copyright law in an attempt to quell its critics; and, among many other caught-red-handed indiscretions, deleting criticism of itself from Wikipedia.

No wonder, then, that Diebold Election Systems has decided to steal a page from the playbook of that paragon of corporate responsibility Philip Morris (aka the Altria Group): Diebold will erase its sorry history with a simple name change!

Henceforth, when reaching for an example of mind-boggling incompetence, please say "Premier" rather than "Diebold," because Diebold Election Systems is now Premier Election Systems.

The name change, the company says in a press release, "signals a new beginning" and a "fresh identity" -- though in the same release the firm concedes that it will still be making and pushing the same sorry voting machines (machines that, as Princeton computer scientist Edward Felten and his colleagues showed last year, are actually vulnerable to a virus-based attack). Read more...

It seems Diebold has teamed up with FOXNews in an attempt to re-write history. We have to stay on top of this sort of trickery, especially with the crucial 2008 presidential election on the horizon. Let's review - Diebold Election Systems is now PREMIER Election Systems.

Via the Sacbee: (h/t Nate)

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, bowing to fears of computer fraud, Friday decertified Los Angeles County's electronic voting system and sharply curtailed the use of two other machines that California counties had hoped to use to conduct the February 2008 presidential primary.

She said she would allow unlimited use of one system, Hart InterCivic, as long as security and auditing safeguards are implemented.

But in the case of two major companies -- Diebold Election Systems and Sequoia Voting Systems -- Bowen said she would allow just one machine per polling place, apparently to provide an accessible option for disabled voters.

Electronic voting critics had unsuccessfully lobbied Bowen's predecessor to stop the machines' use in California. More than three dozen California counties have invested millions of dollars in the technology and some will be forced to replace many machines by February under Bowen's order.

"I reject the notion that I should not require changes in security simply because counties already own (the machines)," Bowen said. Read more...

It’s one thing for Bush/Cheney to lie us into war, but a rude guest who won’t leave is simply unforgivable. And why won’t Bush say “Howdy” to the Saudis?

John Edwards’ ‘Two Americas’ Campaign, in the The New Gilded Age.

Practice makes perfect: even Diebold needs a straw poll to fine-tune its fraud for the real elections.

Keeping score, on the GOP whores.

Assuming you’re against more draconian measures, here’s How to Win a Fight with a Conservative.

Guest blogged by Don Davis of the Satirical Political Report. Send links to Don at dgdavis41 AT optonline DOT net

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Roger Ailes: Get off the cross we need the wood!  Michael Smerconish likens himself to a Holocaust/lynching victim

darrel plant: Other victims of lmus

I just got back from voting and we suffered from a "glitch". As I was voting, my ballot started off with governor and then worked down through the list. After voting for all the politicians, up next were the issues. My first issue was State issue 1, an issue dealing with Ohio's Worker Compensation. I was expecting to see this, but knew my vote didn't count on it:

In most elections, ''State Issue 1'' is something highly significant and its outcome closely watched. However, in Ohio today, Issue 1 doesn't count, literally.

That's because the issue, a referendum on changes in Ohio's Workers Compensation law, died in a legal challenge that determined the measure lacked sufficient valid signatures on petitions to put it before the voters. But that ruling didn't come until it was too late to remove Issue 1 from the ballot, both absentee and electronic.

So today, when you go into the voting booth, you will see Issue 1 on your ballot, even though it isn't a valid ballot issue anymore.

So after my voting experience went smoothly, the person I went down with had her turn to cast her ballot. She had the same ballot, the same ballot (iso) card, and the same machine, but her ballot did not appear the same. Instead her ballot started out with a blank blue screen and then went onto the candidates and the state issues, but issue 1 was not on her ballot. She called the poll worker over who said that "this has been happening on some machines". Well our polling place only has three machines and she was on the same machine as I just got done voting on, and this problem did not happen for me.

After we got done we did immediately call the Democrat hotline (1-888-DEM-VOTE) to report the problem. They connected us with a local person, who was very interested in the problem.

The most interesting thing I kept thinking of was Ken Blackwell on CNN this past weekend saying the machines do not have any problems, it was the poll workers. Well this poll worker did everything the same as she did with me (programmed the card for ballot 84), yet our ballots appeared differently. This machine was a Diebold touch screen machine, and as a programmer I can tell you that it is a definite software glitch. The poll worker did the exact same thing she did for me and all the end user variables were the same.

While this might not seem like a major problem, it is a problem all the less. Everyone must be vigilant today and make sure that any glitch, no matter how small it may seem, gets reported. While Ohio Issue 1 has been invalidated in the courts, it was still suppose to be on the ballot. Why was it removed from the ballot (on some machines) after telling people in Ohio that it would still be on the ballot, but your vote just won't count on it? Sounds like another way to add to voter confusion.

On a more positive note, I have voted in this precinct for four years now and this was the busiest I have ever seen it. 10:00 on a rainy Tuesday morning and there was a line in this rural area.

Booman Tribune: You get what you pay for, and in Iraq, we paid for Death Squads

James Wolcott: The South has made such progress, yet in affairs of the groin, it still has so far to go.

Confined Space: Either allow us to rape your countryside, destroy your streams and flood your homes or we'll kill your husbands and fathers, lay off the survivors and wreak economic ruin upon your communities.

Simply Left Behind: Diebold being run by a long-time Bush supporter and Pioneer who promised to deliver Ohio for Bush is OK, but there're limits to GOP tolerance...digby has more...

NewsHog: America's untapped anti-terror weapon--Technothriller Writers

Politics in the Zeros: Several videos from a protest at the CNN Building in Los Angeles last Saturday.

I sincerely hope the election come off without any problems, but if it doesn't, will you take action to protect our Right to Vote?

I'm sure you all feel MUCH better now that they've isolated the problem...

WaPo

The maker of Maryland's electronic voting system replaced a flawed electronic component in several thousand touch-screen voting machines in 2005, state election officials acknowledged this week.

To eliminate unpredictable "screen freezes" that have occurred since the machines were first used in Maryland in 2002, Diebold Election Systems installed new system boards in about 4,700 voting machines from four Maryland counties: Allegany, Dorchester, Montgomery and Prince George's.

The screen freezes do not cause votes to be lost, officials said, but they confuse voters and election judges who sometimes wonder whether votes cast on a frozen machine will be counted.

The acknowledgment of the repairs came in response to queries from The Washington Post and sheds further light on Maryland's troubled transition to electronic voting. Critics said it raises concerns about whether the state and company officials have kept the public adequately informed about problems with a system that cost taxpayers $106 million. Read on...