Earlier I responded to a comment by a reader as to the position that Democrats should support the fron-runner and not necessarily the candidate with the best interests of America at heart. Of course, I hold that I could care less if my candidate wins or loses, only that I supported the Candidate who I believe best represents my and my Nation's best interests. I told him of a emerging scandal which will all but refute the argument that we should support the Dem. regardless the positions held. This concerns the Diebold Voting Machine and how there seems plans afoot to once again steal the elections and nullify the people's will. This concerns all Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Socialists, and me as well. Please give it a read and if it strikes you as interesting, post a comment and I'll provide you more information as to this scandal coming in 2004. e-mail: wahkonta@graffiti.net. Thanks for the read and Blog On.
ARTICLE EXCERPT HERE
-Caveat Lector-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62759-2003Dec13.html
Group Mobilizes Opposition to New Voting Machines
By Brigid Schulte
Sunday, December 14, 2003; Page C04
The fight to preserve democracy in Maryland is being waged from a sunset pink
room on the second floor of an orange house in Takoma Park, where a gray cat
named Handsome sleeps soundly on the batik-draped sofa.
The freedom fighters, Linda Schade and Kevin Zeese, pad about the house in
their stocking feet and jeans, firing off e-mails and calling state legislators
and warning citizens that the new, ATM-like voting machines that are becoming
all the rage are, in fact, quite nefarious.
Who's to say that the machines -- Maryland just signed a $56 million contract
with Diebold Election Systems to purchase 11,000 of them before the
presidential primary -- won't misfire and throw elections? Or worse, be programmed to
do so?
Without some kind of receipt, they say, there's no way to verify that a vote
cast on the touch screen is the vote that's registered.
"Every other machine Diebold makes has a receipt -- ATMs, cash registers,"
Zeese said. "It just makes no sense that they wouldn't do the same for voting."
Especially since Diebold, they say, just agreed to add a paper trail to
touch-screen voting machines in San Diego County for free.
And so, under bright posters of antiwar slogans and pro-farm workers' rights
celebrations, the Campaign for Verifiable Voting in Maryland goes about its
work.
Most of the heavy lifting is done through Schade and Zeese's Web site --
www.truevotemd.org -- a $4,000 investment they made from their own bank account.
And many of their comrades in arms in this new virtual reality of e-mail,
conference calls and Internet grass-roots organizing -- the woman out on the
Eastern Shore, the Republican up in Carroll County -- they've never seen.
But in just a few weeks, the virtual campaign has started an actual tremor.
It may be too early to call it an earthquake, but that's what they're shooting
for.
A few months ago, state elections officials assured nervous Montgomery County
officials that not only were the Diebold machines safe, but that voters
didn't really care much if they weren't.
Now, Schade and Zeese are happy to report, they are proving the officials
wrong. More than 600 people have gone to their Web site and sent hundreds of the
form letter protests to legislators, election officials and county leaders.
Many join because they're worried, writing on the discussion board about
funky experiences with the machines -- "smart" cards that didn't work, computers
that crashed, screens that went dark leaving no way of knowing whether the
machines counted their votes.
Karen Montgomery, a Democratic state legislator, has introduced a bill
requiring all voting machines to produce a paper printout that voters can check
before pushing the final button and casting their vote.
"Nobody was worried, because nobody knew about it," said Bob Ferraro, who is
part of the core of the group, along with Zeese and Schade and a handful of
other activists. Ferraro, who works on the receiving dock at a nearby Giant
grocery, wears mud-spattered black pants and brown work boots. In his spare time,
he serves as president for the Eyes of Paint Branch, a local environmental
group.
Ferraro became concerned after reading that nearly 1,000 computer scientists
from across the country -- the ones who make the machines -- warned that the
machines' accuracy can't be entirely trusted.
The group got its start last summer after a town hall meeting held by Rep.
Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). Nancy Wallace, a local environmental activist, asked
him whether he was concerned about the machines. He said that he was, adding
that in June, he had signed on to a bill requiring a voter-verified paper trail.
Wallace invited civic-minded friends to her house, including Zeese, Ferraro
and Schade, and the movement was born.
Among them, the activists represent an alphabet soup of causes, from
legalized drug use to fighting the proposed intercounty connector. They are mostly
Democrats and Greens, but Republicans, they say, want their votes counted, too.
"This is definitely a multi-partisan group," Zeese said.
"Republicans think the Democrats are out to steal votes. The Democrats think
the Republicans are out to steal votes. And the Greens know they're both
right."
END EXCERPT go to link to verify copy.