I actually had about 15 php software glitches I fixed today.

Even I take my PAPER ballot in PERSON to the polling place.

But I still vote permanent absentee.

This movie might make you want to not even bother voting:

http://www.uncountedthemovie.com/

Someone needs to figure out how to make this a real issue while not sounding like a conspiracy theorist

That sounds like a great trick, alright. Good luck with that.

The point of the cartoon isn't that software glitches exist - even places that don't use diebold machines have been counting ballots via computer for at least a decade. The point is that they are dealing with the wrong problem: ensuring a closed-access system.

Anthony, have you spoken to any of the news reporters at The Stranger about this? In depth? Because I'd bet that none of them grasp this issue beyond the the most superficial level (i.e. Diebold = Republican = Evil).

Dominic Holden maybe.

Well let's think. I know that Randi Rhodes and Stephanie Miller have spoken about this issue for oh, FOUR YEARS!! I have written 14 letters to my congressman and 18 to the two Senators. (All to no avail, anyone remember what happened in Ohio?)

There have been documentaries done on this (See "Hacking Democracy" on HBO) and Greg Palist (who Josh Feit(sp)had never heard of) wrote a book about it.

But hey, good thing that the Stranger has come around from their pot smoke haze and realized it is a problem but guess what? IT IS TOO FUCKING LATE YOU HACK!!!

speaking as an outside i have to say whats wrong with paper and pencil? but then i remember that it's the states and if there's a possibility to make money then it must be made no matter what effect it has on the result

Anybody stupid enough to use Access as an embedded database (Diebold) is due for trouble.

Make up t-shirts that say *Bigfoot Rigged My Election* with a picture of W hugging a Yeti wearing a Diebold coverall.

All the nerds I know kinda lost their shit over this particular xkcd. Because it is so, so right on.

I am not at all a conspiracy theorist, and I am very afraid.

This.

4 is right on.

Yes, the point is that they're dealing with the wrong problem when they install virus programs on voting machines. But the fact that paper ballots have been counted with computers for a while is not at all the same as casting the votes on computers, with no physical ballot for verification. The point is not the use of computers at all, it's the use of computers ONLY.

Cato,
To give discredit where it's due, it was Eli Sanders (not Feit) that had never heard of Greg Palast. I guess Sullivan never linked to him.