Largely Avoided my foot... wrote on Jul 9, 2006 7:54 AM:If its not quarries, it's e-voting, and within the last couple of weeks you combined the two in one column...come'on friend, PETA is going to be after you soon for continuing to beat the same old horse!

Bev wrote on Jul 9, 2006 9:21 AM:Good editorial. I have a question: Why the requirement to turn off the video cameras when a problem arises? The voting process should be open -- all of it, including its warts and glitches. Identifying problems is how things get fixed, and resolving issues (sometimes finding out they were not a problem after all) is how citizens learn more about the system as a whole. I run the nonpartisan, nonprofit national elections watchdog organization BlackBoxVoting.org, and have been very impressed with Riverside citizens for some time now. Keep it up, folks!

Get Real wrote on Jul 9, 2006 10:05 AM:After I watch the World Cup, which will be never, I'll worry about this dribble.

Nancy wrote on Jul 9, 2006 10:09 AM:In two elections that I monitored preceding Murrieta's Recall, cartridges took four hours to get to Riverside after the polls closed. According to the employees in Riverside, the driver said, "I got lost". For Murrieta's Recall election, 18 volunteer teams followed cartridges from the precincts to Riverside. The results were still suspicious because of the narrow margins and the fact that the Mall cartridges were overlooked. Suspicion of tampered results has been a problem for a long time. From those who help the elderly fill out their absentee ballots to huge numbers of absentee ballots being delivered to the precincts on election night. Now with electronic voting, we add the suspicion that a good hacker can pad the results with a little time and some statistics. That's where the voters can mount a defense. But only if they decide to start voting. As long as 75-80 percent of the voters opt-out of voting, the well-funded committees can use the high propensity voter list together with a polling for the count of their "candidate of choice" to calculate how much to pad their candidate’s count. Democracy is the people’s choice.

curious wrote on Jul 9, 2006 10:44 AM:"Get Real" needs to "Get Real". When the citizens lose control of the honesty of balloting, he won't need to worry about watching the World Cup. Secret prison camps don't have TVs. And of course, it CAN'T happen here. Just because the feds ignore laws they don't like, the State ignores laws they don't like (like procedures for certifying voting equipment) and the county ignores laws it doesn't like (like posting results at the precincts), I wouldn't worry that they might ignore laws about civil rights - would you? Oh, I forgot, they already DO ignore them - e.g. spying on Americans, holding people with charges, etc. Heck, it's all good. Most of us have our homes, our SUVs, our jobs and our toys. Why worry about something so insignificant as a voting system, owned by 4 Venezuelan nationals, that captures, counts and reports our votes on secret software. No worry, Mate!

God fears me wrote on Jul 9, 2006 11:22 AM:Good report Paul. This is just the tip of the Ice burg. We are at the point where the look out on Titanic is saying oh s..t Get Real is in the lounge smoking a cigar and telling dirty jokes.

Mary wrote on Jul 9, 2006 1:07 PM:"Get Real" -- was there ever so apt a nickname? Dear -- when attempting to dismissively and derisively insult someone's content, you might want to educate yourself about your own vocabulary. The word you sought was "drivel." Not "dribble." Neither of which this article is -- nevertheless, has the Bush Administration so thoroughly saturated American culture with incompetent mediocrity that it has seeped down to people who actually DO read news? God help us all.

De-voted wrote on Jul 9, 2006 1:26 PM:I'm glad a group has formed to watch over the election proceedings. 17 missing cartridges? How can that happen..who is in control? Makes me wonder, as a disabled person, if my absentee ballot was one of the 4,800 out of about 90,000 that was tossed for being received "too late"? I'm mad....Who IS protecting my rights to an accurate vote count??

Shayne wrote on Jul 9, 2006 2:14 PM:Very good report Paul! I suggest that you continue to beat this "old horse" until until people like Largely and Get Real get it into their heads that the only thing that we citizens have to ensure our democratic way of life is the vote. If someone steals your vote you have lost your voice.

Telling it like it is from Temecula wrote on Jul 9, 2006 5:52 PM:Jacobs and the leftists like him will always continue to beat this horse because as leftists, they know that their political ideas can never win in an election. Their political vision of a Karl Marx socialist utopia went the way of the Berlin Wall. Their form of government has been thoroughly discredited. Even Communist China has rejected true communism and socialism in favor of a capitalistic style of economy. China now resembles a fascist state akin to Mussolini's Italy. They obviously have a long ways to go yet, but let's not digress. The reason that Jacobs and his ilk must continually bang on this drum is because the only way that they could even remotely hope to push through any of their agenda is to discredit our election process. So if the left-wing socialists lose another election, not to worry...just scream vote fraud! If they lose the election after that, they will question the integrity of the vote. And when they lose in the election after that, claim a corporate conspiracy by the manufacturer of the voting machines. Yeah...we're starting to see a pattern here. I suppose that in Paul Jacobs' world, sophisticated voting equipment cannot be manufactured and sold by the private sector. His response would likely be to have these machines made by the government itself. Yep; machines constructed by government employees who belong to government employee labor unions. No conflict of interest here...NOT! Maybe then the teachers labor unions can come in and re-educate us to teach us how to vote, right Paul? Anyways, Jacobs’ tactic of casting doubt on the integrity of the vote is a ploy that we can see happening right now in Mexico as the leftist Obrador is "taking to the streets" over his slim loss to Calderon. Why don't you just admit it Mr. Jacobs, your brand of politics sells about as well as a dead skunk at a picnic! As you and your issues continue to lose in election after election, you continue to whine about the integrity of the vote. I suppose if Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong were miraculously voted into power in this country, you wouldn't question the integrity of the vote whatsoever. Of course these dead commies could never run for office, so get a grip. Just substitute Howard Dean in place of these 20th century monsters. They're all the same anyways. Jacobs, your crocodile tears over this issue betrays your true intent. You're a totalitarian at heart and your supposed concern about this issue is best summarized by your hero Josef Stalin's infamous quote "Those who vote decide NOTHING. Those who count the votes decide EVERYTHING." I'm just telling it like it is, Paul.

Telling it like it is wrote on Jul 9, 2006 8:19 PM:Jacobs and the socialists like him will always continue to beat this horse because as left-wing extreimsts, they know that their political ideas can never win in an election. Their political vision of a Karl Marx socialist utopia went the way of the Berlin Wall. Their form of government has been thoroughly discredited. Even Communist China has rejected true communism and socialism in favor of a capitalistic style of economy. China now resembles a fascist state akin to Mussolini's Italy. They obviously have a long ways to go yet, but let's not digress. The reason that Jacobs and his ilk must continually bang on this drum is because the only way that they could even remotely hope to push through any of their agenda is to discredit our election process. So if the left-wing socialists lose another election, not to worry...just scream vote fraud! If they lose the election after that, they will question the integrity of the vote. And when they lose in the election after that, claim a corporate conspiracy by the manufacturer of the voting machines. Yeah...we're starting to see a pattern here. I suppose that in Paul Jacobs' world, sophisticated voting equipment cannot be manufactured and sold by the private sector. His response would likely be to have these machines made by the government itself. Yep; machines constructed by government employees who belong to government employee labor unions. No conflict of interest here...NOT! Maybe then the teachers labor unions can come in and re-educate us to teach us how to vote, right Paul? Anyways, Jacobs’ tactic of casting doubt on the integrity of the vote is a ploy that we can see happening right now in Mexico as the leftist Obrador is "taking to the streets" over his slim loss to Calderon. Why don't you just admit it Mr. Jacobs, your brand of politics is as welcome as a dead skunk at a picnic! As you and your issues continue to lose in election after election, you continue to whine about the integrity of the vote. I suppose if Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong were miraculously voted into power in this country, you wouldn't question the integrity of the vote whatsoever. Of course these dead commies could never run for office, so get a grip. Just substitute Howard Dean in place of these 20th century monsters. They're all the same anyways. Jacobs, your crocodile tears over this issue betrays your true intent. You're a totalitarian at heart and your supposed concern about this issue is best summarized by your hero Josef Stalin's infamous quote "Those who vote decide NOTHING. Those who count the votes decide EVERYTHING." I'm just telling it like it is, Paul.

Patriot wrote on Jul 10, 2006 12:40 AM:The issue is democracy -- not politics. Do not be fooled by hate-bloggers. That neoconservative nazi nuthead has one thing right: "Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything." I didn't know Stalin was a Republican!

God fears me wrote on Jul 10, 2006 2:16 PM:Bev: Video cameras can be intimidating to some people. This is the argument given to the election observer panel by the Registrar.

God fears me wrote on Jul 10, 2006 2:29 PM:Telling it like it is from Temecula believes private companies should manufacture our voting equipment. Well he would probably like to take privatizing to its natural conclusion. Let’s privatize the Army Navy and Air force. Then the republicans would have what they truly want ,an Army designed to make a profit by invading countries with natural resources so big business in the U.S can make a bigger profits. Oh gee I forgot we already have that.

Jean wrote on Jul 10, 2006 5:33 PM:I second Bev Harris in her accolades to the Riverside patriots. One question: What do you do if the person in charge gives a contrary-to-transparency order such as turning the cameras off when there is a problem? This is something that needs to be thought through. Waiting until it happens on election night will be too late. As for those who have nothing to say except to call names, I think they are simply embarrassing themselves. We should just let their comments stand for the fair-minded to see.

curious wrote on Jul 10, 2006 9:40 PM:Bev Harris knows of what she speaks. She has seen plenty of questionable voting practices on electronic equipment. She wrote the book on "Blackbox Voting". The task here is NOT for voters to prove the machines are fixed, but for the Registrar of Voters to prove they are not or, more importantly, CANNOT be. When the prestigious non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice at NYU concludes that one person can alter the voting results of an entire election, people should not close their ears and cover their eyes. The danger is not fabricated, only the election results are.