2012 election: Disenfranchised voters, hacked machines?

istockphoto

Will the 2012 elections reflect the will of the American people?

That question seems increasingly relevant today in the wake of a new report suggesting many Americans will have a harder time casting ballots next year - and a finding last week that voting machines can be hacked with "just $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education."

The report, from the liberal think tank the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, found that new laws put in place this year could "make it significantly harder for more than five million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012."

The study points to GOP-driven voting reform efforts that Republicans say prevent fraud - but which some Democrats suggest are specifically designed to disenfranchise the young, minority and low-income voters who largely vote with their party.

"Some states require voters to show government-issued photo identification, often of a type that as many as one in ten voters do not have," reads the Brennan Center for Justice report. "Other states have cut back on early voting, a hugely popular innovation used by millions of Americans. Two states reversed earlier reforms and once again disenfranchised millions who have past criminal convictions but who are now taxpaying members of the community. Still others made it much more difficult for citizens to register to vote, a prerequisite for voting."

The most significant change, the report suggests, is the fact that new laws will be in effect in five states - Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin -requiring photo identification at the polls, something the Brennan Center suggests could make it harder for 3.2 million Americans to vote.

Republicans say it is ridiculous that Americans must routinely show photo identification in their daily life but have not been required to do so when casting ballots. Democrats say that more than 21 million Americans don't have such identification and that Republicans are seeking to disenfranchise them while claiming concerns about voter fraud, which Democrats say is a relatively minor concern. At least 34 states have introduced voter identification laws this year, according to the Brennan Center.

Among the other new laws are measures eliminating early voting on Sundays in Ohio and (on the Sunday before Election Day) in Florida, when some African-American churches organize voters to go to the polls. A ban on election-day voter registration was instituted in Maine, which will likely reduce the number of new, largely-young voters casting ballots.

The new laws, many of which were passed as a result of Republican takeovers of statehouses around the country in 2010, fall under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department, which could potentially argue that they violate the Voting Rights Act. As the New York Times points out, the Supreme Court upheld a voter identification law in Georgia in 2008, "saying that while it found no evidence of the fraud the law was intended to combat, it also found no evidence that the new requirements were a burden on voters."

Meanwhile, for those who do cast ballots, new questions are being raised about whether they will be recorded accurately. Last week Salon.com reported that experts at the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois found that people can hack Diebold voting machines using a remote control and leave no trace that they changed votes.

The researchers demonstrated that for a total cost of $26, it was possible to hack the machines by inserting a piece of "alien electronics" into the voting machine - without tampering with the microprocessor or software in the machine. (It does require a decent amount of knowledge and access to the machine, however.) They said such a hack was possible "on pretty much every electronic voting machine." You can see a video demonstration below.

"This is a national security issue," Roger Johnston, leader of the assessment team, told Salon. "It should really be handled by the Department of Homeland Security."

[mitzie--2008]

This was shared on Facebook today. Voting machines hacked:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdpGd74DrBM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Votes cast for Barack Obama default to Mitt Romney. Hope this is an isolated incident. I have no idea if it was fixed.

[gregtompkins]

There are untold tens of millions of criminal aliens from other countries squatting in our country. They (more often than not) use fraudulent documents at every turn to obtain employment, open bank accounts, etc. Would you believe that here in Oregon our idiot governor even wants to give these criminals driver licenses? So much for national security in this regard and no wonder Obama and his Chicago thug minions want to grant amnesty and deferment to untold tens of millions of criminals -- so he can make himself into the American Hugo Chavez!

[IGotBupkis]

Geez, the number of whackos out there is amazing.

"They don't have ID"? If you can't get an ID then three questions:
1) How the hell are you going to vote responsibly, if you can't accomplish this simple task?
2) How are you living AT ALL? You can't have a checking account (requires ID), can't have a job (requires ID), can't drive a car (requires ID).
3) The requirements to operate a car **require** an ID. You can't even GET a license now without 57 forms of reference to do so. We're going to make the standard for DRIVING A CAR higher than that for voting? *** is wrong with you people?

[RonPaulKicksAss]

I do not care what party you are in! That is the ENTIRE point,they want you to fight over being a democrat or republican. WHO CARES? Everyone knows voting is rigged. But, that does not mean I will not vote! If you are voting for ANYONE who is going to continue war, you are voting for PNAC, the Project for the New American Century and the Foreign Policy Initiative. I am not..I am voting for Ron Paul! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9G9rSX7Kr8

[TStewartIII3]

NewsBusters: Soros-Backed Voting Study Promoted By Soros-Funded Media
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/iris-somberg/2011/10/06/soros-backed-voting-study-promoted-soros-funded-media

[RobAla]

Liberals are already trying to set the stage for claiming that President Obamas upcoming defeat in the 2012 election is due to tampering with voting. Here we go again with the "hanging chads", "you stole the election" crap.

What is the big deal about showing an ID at the polls? People have to show an ID to buy a beer, and voting is much more serious than a beer.

[elliesamericana]

Same old conservative arguments. We need to all speak out whenever it is voiced. Big deal about photo ID is that not having one the state government says is acceptable means you will not be allowed to vote. Up to 20% of voters here in Wisconsin may be disenfranchised by our new picture ID law. A state worker here was fired for sending an email telling co-workers that the $28 fee for a voter ID could be waived if you were smart enough to ask. Charging for a voter ID is a poll tax. On top of that our governor wants to close down DMVs in democratic areas causing people, who already do not have a driver's license, to travel further to get this ID. Already, I have to go 20 miles just to get my driver's license. Yes, this is a big deal. To deny anyone their right to vote when they are citizens is a very big deal. It is unamerican and unpatriotic. Respectfully, retired US Army Medical Officer.

[owlgal]

You have to show ID for a myriad of transactions and even those withoug a driver's license can get an ID card in all states. They only reason Democrats oppose this system is because they want the votes of those here illegally who they pander to for votes. They can't win on the votes of legal AMericans only and they know it which it why they fight against this so fervently. Like most of our government the system is full of fraud and unaccountability.

[elliesamericana]

The reason democrats oppose the system is because it is voter suppression. It is my duty as a patriotic American to speak out against these conservative wrong statements. When voters are suppressed, it is never republican voters that are the victims. It is minorities, poor, elderly, disabled voters. It is repuglicans who want this as it favors their voters and not their opposition. Classic example was the 50,000 voter purge list put out by Atty Gen Harris in Florida before the 2000 election--99% black names (remaining 1% hispanic). We will never know how many voters this spurious list stopped from voting on election day, but even 1% of 50,000 is 500 votes, enough to have swung that election. I served in uniform for 28+ years thinking I was defending our rights as Americans. When I see our right to vote being threatened I have to call it what it is, unpatriotic, unamerican, and likely racist. Respectfully, retired US Army Medical Officer.

[llamos]

Sure. People who are here illegally, who scatter at the mere sight of an official vehicle, would happily stroll up to a voting booth and cast an illegal ballot.

Are you mental, ignorant or just five?

[kenhamlett]

South Carolina is the perfect example of corrupt voting. Before the electronic machines they routinely move4d polling places at the last minute top keep blacks from knowing where to vote. Then when Louisiana outlawed their voting machines for being hackable, SC bought those old machines specifically knowing they could be hacked. Now they require a photo ID and claim to be implementing a verification procedure on the voting tally. The problem is that the Numbers can be manipulated at every point along the counting process in addition to the machines themselves and there is no credible way to certify an election...not that they are expected to actually want a valid election. The so called validation process is only to make an appearance of an honest election which is something I doubt has ever occurred there.

[NinthSt78]

And we wonder where all the money went. That huge intertwined banking machine in the sky ate it all at the electric company. The lumberjack's product along with a fountain pen was more trustworthy and authentication was much more certain.

[fwd23515]

Bring back paper ballots and people to count them and these stupid electronics problems go away.

[slappy-mcjohnson]

Nothing like bringing back the "hanging chads" of the 2000 election, eh?