"Dieb-throat" blows the whistle

My friend Wayne was apoplectic about vote fraud after the 2004 election. I have to admit I was dismissive of his obsession, and his daily email barrages. My feeling was there was nothing new about vote fraud, we lost, move on, and if you have to obsess, devote your energies to preventing future frauds.

I'm beginning to think I was wrong. e-voting is really dangerous. This whistleblower interview on Raw Story is enough to change my thinking: Dieb-throat

a whistleblower from electronic voting heavyweight Diebold Election Systems Inc. raised grave concerns about the companyÂ’s electronic voting technology and of electronic voting in general, bemoaning an electoral system the insider feels has been compromised by corporate privatization.

The Diebold insider, who took on the appellation "Dieb-Throat" in an interview with voting rights advocate Brad Friedman (BradBlog.com), was once a staunch supporter of electronic votingÂ’s potential to produce more accurate results than punch cards.

But the company insider became disillusioned after witnessing repeated efforts by Diebold to evade meeting legal requirements or implementing appropriate security measures, putting corporate interests ahead of the interests of voters.

Chilling. I emailed this link to my friend and he came back at me with this one: With new legislation, Ohio Republicans plan holiday burial for American Democracy

A law that will make democracy all but moot in Ohio is about to pass the state legislature and to be signed by its Republican governor. Despite massive corruption scandals besieging the Ohio GOP, any hope that the Democratic party could win this most crucial swing state in future presidential elections, or carry its pivotal US Senate seat in 2006, are about to end.

Time to pay more attention to this issue. Have the ultimate levers of power already been stolen from us?