Friday, August 31, 2007

The 2008 Presidential Election Has Already Been Hijacked, And It's Too Late To Stop It

Republicans are firm believers in the power of globalization, and not just cheap, shitty, toxic Chinese imports either. It turns out that Election Systems & Software, a major manufacturer of election machines in the US, isn't exactly assembling their systems entirely in the US. Instead, the job is being outsourced to identity-theft hotbed The Philippines.

ES&S officially claims that their machines (which will determine the next President based (allegedly) on the votes that are input) are built by five US subcontractors. What ES&S didn't bother to tell the Federal Election Assistance Commission is that one of the companies, Pivot International of Lenexa, Kansas, outsources assembly work to Philippine-based manufacturer Teletech. Just like Telus, a Canadian company which is gradually sending more and more of itself overseas while maintaining a fiction of economic patriotism.

There don't appear to be any concerns that putting employees to work for under three bucks a day might make them vulnerable to bribery attempts. Nor has much been said about the really crappy touch screens that tend to malfunction, particularly in humid environments like Manila. Or Miami. You can find an hour-long documentary by Dan Rather about the problem HERE. Take the time to watch it, and find out for yourself just how far down the rabbit hole goes.

You'd think more journalists would have said something about the huge potential for both errors and outright fraud. Like, say, The Washington Post.

They did, and were gagged.

Oh well. At least the voting machines built by Diebold are all-American.

Here's how to hack a Diebold machine:

Finally, a prediction. One of the stories you'll hear the day after the election will be the big upswing in votes for third-party candidates, like Pat Buchanan used to be. Most of the media will claim this will be because of voter dissatisfation with the mainstream parties (which is certainly reasonable). But when those stories hit, ask yourself this: if 60 percent of the people vote Democrat, 35 percent vote Republican, and 5 percent vote "other," what happens to those results when a bad touch screen or a hack randomizes those results? You got it... a "big upswing" in third-party voting.

Just you wait.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good prediction, I think you're onto something.