Content on the Daily Paul is the opinion of the original poster, not necessarily of the Daily Paul, its owner, moderators or Ron Paul.

South Carolina Vote Results Will Be Invalid

Submitted by sobrdup on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 16:34

Ron Paul 2012

I'm not expecting Ron Paul to have great results in South Carolina -- not because he has lack of potential there, but because the true voting result will be impossible to be confident of.

All of South Carolina's votes will be taken and tallied by electronic software with NO paper records.

This to me is shocking. The reason is because I'm a computer scientist and programming engineer. I can tell you that for something as important as the validity of an election there MUST be a paper trail which can be scrutinized if need be.

To convince you of this I don't need to get into technical jargon, but present a simple case: Obviously there is no such thing as flawless/foolproof software, at least, none the world has ever seen. A look at how often and easily computers are "hacked" should confirm that.

Now, if that's the case, why would we believe voting system software can be flawless?

The South Carolina State Election Commission website seeks to ease any such fears by stating there are tests to ensure votes are accurately tallied. http://www.scvotes.org/are_the_dre_voting_systems_tested

It's fine to state this, but what about being prudent about a backup in the case of system error? The only backup the system has is electronic! This is like saying the only backup needed for a power outage would be a set of stored batteries, and nothing can ever go wrong with that, right?

Obviously, there is a flaw in that logic.

The documentary Hacking Democracy - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7926958774822130737 - shows how very possible and likely our elections have been and are being compromised with ill-advised vote software.

The very worst kind of system to have if seeking election integrity is the one SC is using for its entire vote count.

I'm stunned to learn of this and hope the people of South Carolina come to understand this travesty and correct it as soon as possible.

EDIT - just to clarify, I HOPE Dr. Paul will do quite well. He just may. BUT this is NOT the way we want to hold elections in the USA. It needs to be pointed out.

And the software is in

Submitted by PAFFVINTAGE on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 20:57. Permalink

And the software is in Barcelona, Spain!! (It's on blackboxvoting.com). Apparently, the results are sent to Spain before the results come back to us. Why? Why do we even need to use a foreign country's software to begin with? I'm so sick to my stomach tonight over all this. I tried in the last election to bring up the computerized voting with no paper trails at my own TN hometown precinct and the areawide voting commission was very irritated that I brought it up. The only ones who can do anything about this is us. If we got as boisterous as Occupy about the computerized voting, something might be done. But I just don't see people caring all that much. It's really a sad day in this country to think the people don't even care. I agree that until the pain is felt, people won't do anything.

Voter fraud is the issue

Submitted by kcop on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 20:50. Permalink

The revolution will only be peaceful if we have fair elections and we don't. This to me is the single most important issue facing us. Ron Paul cannot win with electronic voting machines. We need to codify a system and present it to each of our States. What can we do short term and long term? We all need to work on changing our States law regarding this. Even with paper ballots, boxes are missing, dead people voting, etc. I believe people should sign the ballot so not more than one vote can count and it can be traced back and verified. However, our founding fathers were persecuted for voting for the “wrong” candidate and wanted votes to be anonymous. I would love a discussion and opinions to try and resolve this issue.

Theatre of the Absurd: South Carolina Primary

Submitted by tad on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 19:44. Permalink

No Paper Ballots.

No Paper Trail.

Just Bleeps of energy supposedly going through phone lines, computer lines, or the wireless ether.

See this 10 Min YouTube video:
"South Carolina, Super Tuesday, and Ron Paul"

This is a 2008 video, but still applies.

http://www.watchthevote2012.com/SouthCarolinaPrimary2012.htm

After 4 years nothing has changed

—

Ron Paul 2012 - Restoring the Founding Fathers American Dream

Could not agree with you more. I saw the guy testify

Submitted by 3StepsTowardFreedom on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 19:35. Permalink

before the grand jury and he stated how he created the program to hide the corruption in the computerized voting system. This is not the way we want our vote. We have a caucus in our state with paper ballot, but that is only up until the primary. Several people had there computerized ballot completed with harry Reids name on it before they even completed the ballot. I do not and will not trust these voting systems at all.

—

Take these www.3StepsTowardFreedom.com to assist Ron Paul in becoming our next Commander In Chief. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-480OMya3U

Our elections are counted by

Submitted by Zachnap Ω™ on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 18:30. Permalink

Our elections are counted by foreign polling companies.

I have this feeling...

Submitted by Jobarra on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:51. Permalink

... that if Ron is in first place, they will immediately call fraud. They will find fraud, but since who the 'dead' voted for is not tracked, they will claim fraud on behalf of Ron Paul because "There's no way he could have taken first".

I really hope he wins 1st, but I don't think we've seen any of the really dirty tactics until that happens unfortunately.

There should be "watchers" from each campaign

Submitted by cepivon on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 18:33. Permalink

ESPECIALLY AT THE PLACE WHERE THE VOTES ARE TOTALLED....

Of course, there is a strong possibility prior to this for ballot stuffing and fraud in the local tabulations, too.

However, we watched a clever SOFTWARE design to totally eliminate electronic voter fraud. As follows:

There would be 2 sides of a perforated voting ballot, with a ballot ID number on both sides. On one side are the candidates names & corresponding numbers. On the other side were the candidates numbers only. The ballot is coded to allow the ID number to correlate to the particular candidate number being voted for. Each ballot has different numbers for the candidates chosen randomly. Once the voter tears off the side with the number marked, he places this in the ballot box, and all that is on the ballot is numbers, not names. The workers at the polling site only see numbers and not names voted on. The voter brings home his ballot with the ballot ID, and logs onto the voting website where he can check if his vote was counted properly by typing in his ballot number and noting the number voted for, that should correlate with the candidate of his choice.

You can double-check your vote when you get home.

This is great. Now how do you

Submitted by dacarm on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 23:35. Permalink

This is great. Now how do you prevent multiple voting?

Yes. This Would Work - Especially With One Other Feature

Submitted by GeneLouis on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 18:51. Permalink

The blind ID numbers would be published on the net. Anyone would be able to audit, authenticate and tabulate the votes by taken random samples from volunteers who submit thier receipts.

This would work very well, but will never happen.

It would be too hard to beat.

So, we must go back to paper.

—

Gene Louis
http://www.survivaloftheslickest.com/
Supporting a Needed Tool for Government Feedback:
A Citizen-Operated Legal System.

Yep, if you told any businessman to put his business in the

Submitted by samadamscw on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:38. Permalink

hands of a machine that tallied things and there was ZERO paper trail for an audit, he'd laugh you all the way to your car and out of the parking lot.

The really sick part, is the lying scumbag politicians who took bribes and kickbacks to approve the contracts to purchase the machines tried to tell us that NO SYSTEMS on the market provide a paper trail, so they "have no other choice." (in Louisiana our Commissioner of Elections was convicted of taking bribes to secure a contract for electronic machines, his position no longer even exists, but we still have the machines - go figure)

#1 - they fail to acknowledge, no one is holding a gun to their head forcing them to buy the machines and abandon traditional methods.

#2 - government submits RFPs - Request For Proposals when they want to purchase something. They announce they have contracts for purchasing equipment available and they need the equipment to do x,y & z. All they had to do was make printed receipts mandatory in the RFP. This would have either eliminated the companies that didn't provide such machines from consideration, or else they would have had to add that capability to their systems. The fact that they didn't tells you the real agenda here.

#3 - they outright lied to the voters. There ARE systems that provide a verifiable record of every vote. Those companies just don't pay off politicians to secure their business.

I hope we have an infiltrator

Submitted by JFEJ004 on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:27. Permalink

I hope we have an infiltrator amongst Diebold that will hand Paul the election instead of them handing it to the establishment's chosen one...

No, don't say that, because that will be the one time they

Submitted by samadamscw on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:41. Permalink

manage to "expose" the machines and they will invalidate his election, then claim they "fixed" the problem afterwards and when Romney wins, this will mean the fix worked.

The sheep will go back to sleep, the MSM will be happy, and the Liberty movement will be known as a real threat to the government.

I'd say such an event would be a lose-lose proposition for us.

Solution Would Be Simple

Submitted by GeneLouis on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:21. Permalink

Any good business analyst or accountant could create a computer system that can be reliably audited. There are tons of good people with that talent.

However, because of the lack of trust of the system designers that the government hires, our only solution is to continue demanding paper ballots, sealing the ballots for audit by any citizen who wants to count them publicly with witnesses.

For that reason, I would give up promoting improvements on electronic systems and continue to support the groups that demand a paper system.

Until then, no election results will be trustworthy, especially those of challengers.

—

Gene Louis
http://www.survivaloftheslickest.com/
Supporting a Needed Tool for Government Feedback:
A Citizen-Operated Legal System.

I find

Submitted by Habit4ming on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:07. Permalink

this EVEN MORE disturbing: (from Bev Harris, Black Box Voting)
Recipe for Vote Fraud: Global Internet Voting Firm Buys U.S. Election Results Reporting Firm

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/01/global-internet-votin...

It just enrages me!

—

Ron Paul 2012 - The People's Choice
rEVOLution SuperPAC: http://www.revolutionpac.com/
WTP Federal Lawsuit to BAN ALL ELECTRONIC VOTING
Appeal filed 2/13/12: http://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/PROJECTS/NCEL/PACER2012...

How else was Gingrinch

Submitted by mskellymac on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:04. Permalink

How else was Gingrinch suppose to win?

—

Ron Paul or Bust

The revolution will only be

Submitted by kcop on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:00. Permalink

The revolution will only be peaceful if we have fair elections and we don't. This to me is the single most important issue facing us. Thanks for your post especially since you’re in the industry. Ron Paul cannot win with electronic voting machines. What can we do short term and long term? We all need to work on changing our States law regarding this. Even with paper ballots, boxes are missing, dead people voting, etc. We need to codify a system and present it to our States. I believe people should sign the ballot so not more than one vote can count and it can be traced back and verified. However, our founding fathers were persecuted for voting for the “wrong” candidate and wanted votes to be anonymous. I would love the discussion on opinions to try and resolve this issue.

fair elections = PEACE!

Submitted by ecorob on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:32. Permalink

steal the elections?

REVOLUTION in the STREETS!

its very simple...

—

its 'cos I owe ya, my young friend...
Rockin' the FREE world in Tennessee since 1957!

Anyone know how state lottery

Submitted by dacarm on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:35. Permalink

Anyone know how state lottery checks and balances work? Just asking i don't know but i sure as heck can say they may be among the safest around.

This could be a combination of tech and paper receipts. Question is how do you prevent people from multiple voting and dead people voting? Is the enforcement of voting elections actually upheld, are my concerns.

I believe the perfect system

Submitted by sobrdup on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:09. Permalink

is this one:

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_bismark_e_voting_without_frau...

It was proposed mid 2010. Hopefully, we can get it implemented everywhere soon. It would be MORE efficient, LESS costly and MORE transparent than all current systems.

it doesn't matter...

Submitted by ecorob on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:33. Permalink

after this election!

—

its 'cos I owe ya, my young friend...
Rockin' the FREE world in Tennessee since 1957!

Excellent presentation. Even

Submitted by David40 on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:27. Permalink

Excellent presentation. Even a manual version of this should be possible.

—

------------------
Turn off the TV Propaganda.
Find out what's really going on!
www.Tru-News.org
"Your portal to reality!"

Yep.

Submitted by sobrdup on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:30. Permalink

Yep.

Agree. It truly is shocking

Submitted by H-daddy on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 16:57. Permalink

that any state would CHOSE blackbox voting. This type of voting is can be tampered with EASILY and no one would be the wiser. Totally frigged up way of doing things.

—

h-daddy

Come on

Submitted by whatever5678 on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 16:49. Permalink

I trust the technology over paper ballots. And if there truly is a level of interest to go the good drs way the people will know and rise up. I don't think we are there yet. The media perpetually blasting the airwaves with negative, dismissive and deceitful nonsense for the last six months is a bigger issue imo than vote tampering on an electronic system.

If anything anonymous would more likely be supportive of Ron Paul than mitt or Obama.

you OBVIOUSLY

Submitted by Expat but still... on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:14. Permalink

did not watch the documentary.

—

Freedom may be worth searching for.

Remember, Dont battle the govt with guns(ALONE), Beat them in court, in state legislature, or hire Ron Paul for president.

So you are

Submitted by whatever5678 on Sun, 01/22/2012 - 21:06. Permalink

Ignoring my point that instead of focusing on the message and media bias you would rather believe that Ron Paul has a larger chunk of the voting block and the powers that be are maliciously holding him back and in their vast wisdom choosing who should win and by how much. You would rather me be concerned with this than something that actually matters and that is the media bias and how the vote count was probably pretty accurate.

Have you asked yourself the question, how would all these people know who to vote for if they didn't know any better. The media dismantling of a surge right before Iowa was clear as a bell and then in NH the same sort of thing. So ask yourself how anyone watching the news was to determine that Ron Paul is the real choice. Before you go down the conspiracy theory hole the consensus of support has to be there. It wasn't there because of the media. This is my point that you and the other three people missed.

You need to watch the

Submitted by mskellymac on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:05. Permalink

You need to watch the documentary "UNCOUNTED"

then try and say this...

—

Ron Paul or Bust

There needs to be transparency

Submitted by americasos on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 17:03. Permalink

to justify your level of trust. Why is the programming not allowed to be scrutinized by an independent party, let alone the public? This hardly qualifies as a conspiracy theory, it is a matter of transparency.