Chavez victory due to voter-verified paper trail . . .

[TeeYiYi]

In Venezuela, Chavez's opposition cried 'foul' claiming that the vote had been rigged. Because of a paper trail, the international election monitors were able to conduct an audit and prove otherwise.

Touch-screen voting
Critics warn of post-election problems if no paper trail exists
BY Michael Hardy
Published on Sept. 6, 2004

In many ways, politics in the United States are unlike those in Venezuela. The South American nation last month held a recall election for President Hugo Chavez, who survived an attempted coup in 2002.

But in another sense, that election may foreshadow the upcoming election in this country. The Venezuelan vote was conducted using electronic voting machines that generate a voter-verified paper trail. Chavez's opposition claimed that the victory, in which 59 percent voted to keep Chavez in power, was rigged. But international election monitors were able to conduct an audit by comparing the paper record to the electronic vote tallies.

"Without a paper trail to audit, there would have been no way to reach any closure on this situation," said one American observer on the scene in Caracas, Venezuela's capital. "There would be no paper trail, and you would be left with the assertion that some kind of manipulation happened. You have a safe bet that something like that is going to happen in November" in the United States.

The Venezuelan referendum is just one more chapter in the controversy over direct recording electronic (DRE) machines, most of which use a touch screen to record votes. A U.S. company, Smartmatic Corp., made the machines used in Venezuela. Each machine has a built-in printer to create a paper record. Another U.S. company, AccuPoll Inc., also makes DREs with built-in printers. Other vendors, mostly basing their products on older technologies, are trying to add printers to some models, with mixed results.

Nearly 30 percent of American voters will use touch-screen machines in November, almost none of which will generate a paper record. Defenders say the machines provide electronic means to recount contested votes. But skeptics continue to call for the addition of a voter-verified paper record that could be stored securely and used as an additional check.

More: http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0906/pol-vote-09-06-04.asp

TYY

On Edit: Change headline.

[TeeYiYi]

1. kick

TYY:kick:

[AP]

2. Can you BELIEVE Venezuela runs elections better than the US!

It's shameful.

(Hey, by the way, notice that the left won in VZ despite a right wing domination of the media that's even more intense than the one in the US. When you get people to think hard about politics, they'll do the right thing no matter how much power the oligarchs have over what you see and what you read in the press.)

[TeeYiYi]

3. There is no doubt in my mind . . .

. . . that Chavez would have been usurped without the verified paper trail. This is a huge story that needs attention in the US. There is no excuse for Diebold to withold paper printers. If they won't provide them then maybe we need to borrow Venezuela's machines. The November election will be more corrupt than ever without a paper trail.

TYY

[AP]

4. Just a reminder about the companies involved:

Venezuela terminated its contract with ES&S (whose machines malfunctioned so badly in 2001 that the government sent an air force jet to Nebraska to fetch ES&S technicians to fix them) and entered into a contract with Smartmatic (maker of the voting machine hardware) and Bizta (maker of the software that programmed the ballots and tabulated the votes). The new machines created an auditable paper trail.

[slojim240]

5. Maybe Venezuela can export its kind of democracy elsewhere without

invading a country to do it?