US Embraces electronic voting funded by radical Christian right

[SharonAnn]

U.S. has embraced a form of electronic voting that is unreliable, unverifiable and funded by the radical Christian right.

http://www.infernalpress.com/Columns/election.html

ES&S, Diebold and Sequoia may not be household names like Enron or Arthur Andersen, but these three companies will decide America's next president. In the 2004 presidential election, the full effect of electronic voting will be felt for the first time and these are the companies that will report the majority of the results.

<snip>

Purged voter lists are only one method of pre-determining the outcome of an election. An even more serious problem lies inside the voting machines themselves. While representatives of Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia herald the benefits of their systems, not everyone shares their enthusiasm. Dr. Rebecca Mercuri is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Bryn Mawr College and has been referred to as "the leading independent expert on electronic voting technology." Shortly before the 2000 Presidential election, Mercuri defended her Ph.D. dissertation on the subject of "Electronic Vote Tabulation: Checks and Balances" at the Engineering School of the University of Pennsylvania.

<snip>

American Information Systems (AIS) was primarily funded with money from Ahmanson brothers, William and Robert, of the Howard F. Ahmanson Co. The majority stake in ES&S is still owned by Howard F. Ahmanson and the Ahmanson Foundation

Howard Ahmanson belongs to Council for National Policy, a hard right wing organization and also helps finance The Chalcedon Institute. As the institute's own site reports, Chalcedon is a "Christian educational organization devoted to research, publishing, and promoting Christian reconstruction in all areas of life... Our emphasis on the Cultural or Dominion Mandate (Genesis 1:28) and the necessity of a return to Biblical Law has been a crucial factor in the challenge to Humanism by Christians in this country and elsewhere..." Chalcedon promotes Christian Reconstructionism, which mandates Christ's dominion over the entire world. The organization's purpose is to establish Old Testament Biblical law as the standard for society

[sandnsea]

1. Good info in here

kick

Anybody have this info already, does it fill in any gaps? Curious about connections.

[DrBB]

2. Well, I'd prefer to see it on CBS

...but it's at least another source picking up on this story. Looks like a Canadian indy kind of site. Refers to Bev Harris and links to her site as well as some others involved in this. Good solid article and not sloppily written like some indy stuff can be. Do you know anything more about this site? How did you come upon it?

on edit: and welcome to DU b.t.w., if no one has said it.

[SharonAnn]

5. Found this at Buzzflash, hadn't seen it anywhere else

Good write up about some things we knew before (from Bev and her references) but a couple things were new to me.

Just thought others would like to see this, I don't know anything about the site.

And thanks for the welcome. I was here under the name ShaddAnn but changed it in honore of DU2.

[seemslikeadream]

7. Thanks for posting

some new things there for me too.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

3. "Faith Based Voting"

See, you push the button, and the smart computer man will tell us who won.

Trust us! Don't you have faith in our democracy?

[Zan_of_Texas]

4. Yup, it's the faith-based trifecta!

<> Trust us, we'll run your corporations and ensure your comfortable retirement. -- America's CEOs

<> Trust us, Iraq has WMDs and we know where they are. Those UN inspectors are bunk. -- BushCo

<> Trust us, WE'LL tell you who won your elections. -- Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia

[Pocho]

6. SAY IT 18,181 TIMES

.

[Trajan]

8. Our own Bev Harris ... here at DU ....

Was instrumental in exposing this cabal ...

Read her stuff at http://www.blackboxvoting.com

We LOVE you Bev ......