[lbo-talk] RE: Diebold/Democracy

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

> 
> On Fri, 24 Oct 2003, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> 
> > 1.  Fighting any perceived compromises in the vote tallying system
> > peddled by Diebold & Co is rather easy - all it takes is to ask the
> > voters to request absentee ballots.
> 
> How would that help, Wojtek?  If we increased the absentee count from
1%
> to 15%, it still doesn't help us audit the election.  All we can audit
is
> the absentee ballots -- which are probably counted correctly in the
first
> place.

It depends how the rigging is done.  If its is creating votes ex nihilo
then indeed you would need nearly 100% of the absentee ballots, but such
rigging creates the risk of being detected if the number of votes is
greater than that of the registered voters.  However, if the rigging is
by electronic switching of votes (e.g. a legit vote for a Democrat is
recorded as one for a Repug), that all you need is the absentee ballots
of those intended to vote Democratic.

In any case, an unusually high number of absentee ballots may subvert
the push for electronic voting machines because it will greatly increase
the cost of tallying and thus make this option less attractive to the
states, especially that most of the m face a budget crisis.

Wojtek