I never seek to represent anyone but myself. But suggesting that Diebold (for example) don't want just anyone to tinker with their kit means it's bent is quite a leap. Many manufacturers don't like it, car makers for example don't like their 'black boxes' to be re-programmed. Does that mean they contain a secret means of tracking their drivers movements, reporting speeding etc etc? :biggrin1:
No, you missed the entire point. Diebold makes the machines, Diebold contributes to the Republicans, Ken Blackwell, a known crooked republican was the overseer of the election (also took money from Diebold), Diebold's owner promised to "deliver the election for bush" in his own words, the machines registered votes for bush, right out of the box, and Ohio had the FIRST AND ONLY ELECTION IN RECORDED HISTORY that went against the exit polls! Do you get what I'm saying YET? THEN Ken Blackwell refused to testify on a committee investigated voter irregularities, so the laws were fucking changed to protect him! If you don't see a problem, then I'm glad you're over there.
I posted all those links so you'd know I wasn't making this stuff up. I can post thousands more if you'd like to read more, but this is how it is.
I read some, yes but they demand a degree of familiarity that only a resident or avid politico watcher would have. I don't dispute that such systems are open to abuse, of course they are. My comment was really that all systems involving people are open to abuse and electronic systems are only as good as those who design them and their software.
Sure, all system are open to abuse. WE have an election in one week, WE are talking about things people need to hear RIGHT NOW.
I'm not averse to the technology per se and suggesting that a
blanket rejection would be irrational. I don't keep my money under the bed anymore, that's not to say I have 100% confidence in banking computers. After a 2 month battle to reverse a £1000 error by them (which was resolved today :biggrin1

I'd have good reason not to. It's just I trust them
more than I trust leaving it lying around unprotected.
I'm certainly not adverse to technology either, just technology without a paper trail. I want us to get a receipt for our vote, and to be able to have them verified by paper if there's a recount called, which the current machines won't do. It wouldn't have been more expensive to build them that way, they were intended to be impossible to monitor in any way. THAT'S my complaint. The owner bragging about "delivering the election for bush" was just shoving it right in our faces.
Basically, electoral fraud or any fraud for that matter is going to happen whenever and wherever people are involved in a process, whatever that process may be. We have confidence in the traditional voting system because it's what we know best. That breeds complacence and just perhaps false trust.
Yep, false trust alright. That's what happens when we get too many devil's advocates and no one really honing in on reality. We have an extremely obvious case of fraud here, as well as Florida. If Americans don't face reality, the world will pay.
I'm not suggesting that but just because you (or I) believe something doesn't make it so (or not so) or a Diebold/Bush conspiracy. Based on 'evidence' millions think 9/11 was also a Bush lead conspiracy and based on 'evidence' millions don't; both groups can't be right can they.
Oy vey. No, two conflicting arguments can't both be right. That's a whole different, unrelated argument. I am only talking about this one thing, Diebold machines, for which there is a literal avalanche of evidence. I want Americans to know what they're voting on.
Similar thing happened in Zambia in September this year, Sata was ahead in polls but Mwanawasa was re-elected. This lead to riots in Lusaka. That election wasn't rigged (significantly, anyway

) though if it was a fix Zambia is better off without Sata who models many of his views and policies on those of Mugabe, as well as being bonkers, much like Mugabe actually.
Okay, well that was entirely pointless. YOU don't know if it was rigged or not, but it wasn't even in America! It has nothing to do with Diebold, and whether you like one better than the other doesn't have shit to do with the election being rigged. You weren't here for the screaming in the streets in Dayton. No, nothing close to a riot, but let that shit happen again and see how it goes.
Sorry, I digress. My point being that polls can only tell you so much, too often what you want to hear. You may be right, and as they say there's seldom smoke without fire but I'd suggest that using Ohio polling predictions being wrong for the first time as evidence of electronic vote rigging is supposition, bordering on superstition. MZ, I don't know what the solution will be but I'd lay odds that eventually it will have a plug on it.
Polls have set an historical precedent of perfect accuracy in this state, what the HELL are you talking about? It matters one HELL of a lot that this was the first and only one in history to go against the exit polls. I've mentioned this now three times, please understand- I'm angry about something VERY real! Your last sentence I'm sure will resonate with most Americans, even the politically active ones, but if you read your own sentence very carefully, you'll notice a) no solution offered, and b) no one responsible for carrying it out. "It will have a plug in it"? Really? How, and by whom?