20 shocking facts about US elections

Posted by Deanna Zandt at 7:15 AM on November 7, 2005.

On the eve of Election Day, I share with you 20 shocking facts about the voting system in this country. Sweeping election reforms are on the ballot in Ohio, and other states are continuing the battle. Find out where your state stands here.

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.
   
   http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold



2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
   
   http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm
   http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html



3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
   
   http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html
   http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html



4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
   
   http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml
   http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886



5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.
   
   http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html
   http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/ 031004fitrakis.html



6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.
   
   http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php? name=News&file=article&sid=26
   http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx
   http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php



7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.
   
   http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm
   http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html



8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.
   
   http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html
   http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html



9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.
   
   http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
   http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html



10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.
    
    http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
    http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm



11. Diebold is based in Ohio.
    
    http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm



12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.
    
    http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html
    http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml



13. Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.
    
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0312/S00191.htm
    http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
    http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf



14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.
    
    http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
    http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf



15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.
    
    http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html
    http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html



16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it! (See the movie here: http://blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov.)
    
    http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190



17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.
    
    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml



18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.
    
    http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html
    http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/...
    http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html
    http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=950
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm



19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.
    
    http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html



20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.
    
    http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/...
    http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/...
    http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
    http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html
    http://uscountvotes.org/

Deanna Zandt is a contributing editor at AlterNet, and manages Start Making Sense.