Huffington Post: Electronic Voting Machines Still Widely Used Despite Security Concerns
-By Gerry Smith
October 22, 2012- For years, researchers have been aware of numerous security flaws in electronic voting machines. They've found ways to hack the machines to swap votes between candidates, reject ballots or accept 50,000 votes from a precinct with just 100 voters.
The Free Press: e-Voting Company Could Intercept and Change Ballots Without a Trace
-By Gerry Bello and Bob Fitrakis
October 22, 2012- The Free Press has previously reported, Scytl, a Barcelona based e-voting company will be counting votes in 26 states. They will be doing so through something called the Federal Overseas Voting Program or FVAP. FVAP is a program designed to allow military personnel and other overseas Americans to vote in their home districts seamlessly through electronically delivered absentee ballots.
Intercepting and changing these ballots, as well as voting electronically on behalf of service people that have no idea such a thing is happening, is something that Scytl is uniquely positioned to do because of their cellphone spyware sister company, CarrierIQ. These stolen votes, distributed throughout jurisdictions across the country, could become a critical component of any scheme to defraud the 2012 presidential election. By means of changing a relatively small number of votes, and laundering those stolen votes in the correct places, the net effect would be a near silent theft.
Forbes: Romney Family Investment Ties To Voting Machine Company That Could Decide The Election Causing Concern
-By Rick Ungar
October 20, 2012- It’s 3:00 a.m. on November 7, 2012.
With the painfully close presidential election now down to who wins the battleground state of Ohio, no network dares to call the race and risk repeating the mistakes of 2000 when a few networks jumped the gun on picking a winner.
As the magic boards used by the networks go ‘up close and personal’ on every county in the Buckeye State, word begins to circulate that there might be a snafu with some electronic voting machines in a number of Cincinnati based precincts. There have already been complaints that broken machines were not being quickly replaced in precincts that tend to lean Democratic and now, word is coming in that there may be some software issues.
The network political departments get busy and, in short order, discover that the machines used in Hamilton County, Ohio—the county home of Cincinnati— are supplied by Hart Intercivic, a national provider of voting systems in use in a wide variety of counties scattered throughout the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Colorado and Ohio.
RAW Story: Harris-Perry: ‘Disgusting’ voter-suppression tactics still spreading
-By Arturo Garcia
October 20, 2012- On her show Saturday, Melissa Harris-Perry addressed some of the newer, more subtle voter-suppression tactics being reported not only in several states, but now in different languages.
Besides billboards in Ohio and Wisconsin threatening enormous fines and prison sentences for “voter fraud,” Harris-Perry noted the appearance of a Spanish-language billboard spotted in Pennsylvania telling voters, “Si Quieres Votar Muéstrala,” or, “If you want to vote, show it,” a reference to the state voter identification law that was largely struck down in court earlier this month.
The Guardian: US civil rights groups ask international election monitors for assistance
NAACP and others say voter restrictions and ID laws ahead of 2012 US election require planned observer mission to expand
-By Ewen MacAskill
October 20, 2012- American civil rights groups have appealed to the world's biggest election monitoring organisation over concerns about controversial changes in voter registration ahead of the November 6 White House poll.
The eight civil rights group expressed their worry that millions, including those on low income as well as minorities, could be excluded from the vote for the presidency and for members of Congress.
They raised the issues during a meeting on Tuesday in Washington with representatives from the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which represents 56 states in Europe, Central Asia and North America.
The OSCE is likely to refer to the concerns in an interim report on the US elections out at the end of next week. It is also expected to pass on the views of the civil rights groups to its team of international observers who are being sent to monitor elections in 40 states.