Friday, March 19, 2004
Vanity Fair on "Steal This Election"
I have been gratified that the voting machine situation is moving from "issue" towards "scandal" without isen.blog's help. But I'm rushing right out to buy the April issue of Vanity Fair -- not available on line! Doug Simpson's Unintended Consequences blog says:
"In 'Hack the Vote,' Vanity Fair probes the partisan politics, murky accountability and lurking felons inside the e-voting systems industry and the government procurement decisions regarding it. As author Michael Shnayerson prefaces it, 'this is a story of good intentions gone awry, of Congress bamboozled into thinking the machines were ready when they weren't, of county and state election officials softened over lavish dinners into endorsing one kind of machine over another, with some later induced to take jobs at voting machine companies. And like most American stories its about money -- big money, $3.9 billion, showered on the states to buy the machines, and buy them fast.' Vanity Fair, April 2004, p.158.Thanks Elliot!
The article provides an overview of the rogue's gallery of the players in government and in the private sector (including the convicted felons) who have been close to several surprising political upsets in states using the new D.R.E.s -- direct recording electronic voting systems. It provides some sympathetic background on the role of Bev Harris, to whom the Diebold email archive was leaked, and her new book 'Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century.' (Talon 2003). BlackboxVoting.org"
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