The Electronic Voting Movie Diebold Didn't Want You To See... Even If They Hadn't Seen It

from the and-here-it-is dept

Mon, Nov 6th 2006 9:25pm — Mike Masnick

As ever more reports of e-voting irregularities are coming in from across the country as we head into election day, the producers of the e-voting documentary "Hacking Democracy" have put the entire movie up on Google Video for viewing. A bunch of people submitted it, but I finally had a chance to watch the whole thing. This is the movie that Diebold tried to stop from airing last week -- though, the details showed they were protesting a different movie. The movie is a bit overly melodramatic, and the suspenseful voice-over voice and background suspense music are unnecessary and (if anything) take away from the seriousness of the movie. At times the documentary also wanders a little too far into hinting at conspiracy theories in places they have no proof. However, what you actually see in the movie is a very good summary of many of the stories we've all seen over the past few years about problems with these machines. It shows what a marvelous job Bev Harris and Blackboxvoting.org have done over the past few years to both find out what's going on and publicize the matter (a tremendous effort). It also shows how some elections officials stonewall or ignore the issues while a few, such as Ion Sancho, do what is necessary. What the movie leaves out of the Sancho story in Florida is how Diebold first mocked the results of the hack shown in the movie and later caused additional problems as he tried to find replacements. And, of course, now that it's election day, there's not very much that can be done about all of these problems. The movie is worth watching, if only to convince people to stand up and make an effort to make sure these machines are no longer used in future elections. Update: And, as long as we're watching videos about e-voting, might as well watch the Daily Show's take on the issue, as explained by "resident expert" John Hodgman: "These voting machines are shiny. They go 'beep' and 'boop.'"

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8 Comments

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Revrendmaynard, 6 Nov 2006 @ 10:13pm

Word!
Bev Harris is my hero... what a great thing she has done. These machines are evil and must not be used anymore! Diebold must buck up to the fact that they liars.
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dorpus, 6 Nov 2006 @ 10:36pm

Thought Police
Q: How many thought police officers does it take to change a light bulb?

A: None, because the light bulb never existed.
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Sohrab, 7 Nov 2006 @ 1:16am

Beep and Boop, just watched that episode. lmao
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Sanguine Dream, 7 Nov 2006 @ 5:43am

A test is too difficult?
How hard is it really do just sit back and have some test elections at Diebold? Just have a test election to test out the voting machines for a few years (or however long it takes) until they are working.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2006 @ 7:19am

If IRS can track every cent you earn then we should be able to count some votes. At this point we should design our our voting system. Maybe use http://sourceforge.net/ to make one. Their are a few there that haven't gotten off the ground.
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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased), 7 Nov 2006 @ 8:02am

To 'Beep' or not to 'Boop'
One of my coworkers went to vote first thing in the morning. Apparently there was quite a crowd. He waited in line for about 15 minutes while watching a lady vote at an e-voting machine. She was still in the booth after his entire wait in line. I guess they give you the choice of e-voting or paper ballot because he decided to go paper since the e-voting machine seemed to take a lot longer to figure out.

I am not sure how I want to vote; paper or e-vote. That may depend on which party I support, and how many times I want my vote to count.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2006 @ 8:36am

Re: A test is too difficult?
Yes, it is too difficult for diebold. The only reason I don't necessarily believe in the highly organized election conspiracies at diebold are because there is such an enormous amount of evidence that theyre just incompetent.

Theyre _AMATEURS_.
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Stu, 7 Nov 2006 @ 4:28pm

stupidity or or malice?
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
An idea known as 'Hanlon's Razor' by Robert J. Hanlon

"Never attribute to stupidity that which is malice."
An idea known as Howard's Scissors from my brother Howie

Both are indispensable insights.
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