A couple weeks ago, Duodecad posted a link to a study by researchers at Princeton that demonstrated how easy it is to rig an electronic voting machine, and get away with it.
Here’s an update with some old news, via BoingBoing.net this week: former Yang Enterprises computer programmer Clint Curtis says that, in 2000, Rep. Tom Feeney (R) asked him to do just that — fix voting machines to spit out 51-49 splits in your favor.
Watch video of Curtis’ testimony, under oath, on YouTube.
Six years ago, Feeney was a member of the Florida legislature, as well as Yang’s corporate attorney and a registered Yang lobbyist. A year later, Curtis quit Yang. In 2002, Feeney was elected to Congress.
Curtis’ story has some holes in it. Yang Enterprises and Mr. Feeney, of course, deny the meeting ever took place. And there were no touch-screen electronic voting machines in West Palm Beach Florida in 2000 to rig at the time.
But Curtis sticks to his story, nevertheless, that Feeney asked him to write some code that could do it. He’s testified to it in court, taken a polygraph, and even staked his own Congressional bid on it, running against Feeney as a Democrat (although Curtis was a lifelong Republican).
Plus, Feeney was named one of the 20 most corrupt Congressmen in the land by a government watchdog group (the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington — good luck, guys). So there’s that.
Add my natural partisan subjectivity, the Princeton report, and I’m a believer; democracy is for sale in Florida!
2 Responses to More on Voting Machines
I always thought that “corruption” meant skimming off the top a little, or taking money for something that you should be doing anyway, etc. This goes to the heart of democracy, people! It can’t be true, can it?
Speaking of Florida, did anyone catch the Daily Show interview of Al Gore (it was a couple of months ago, but the interview is available on http://www.comedycentral.com)? Jon Stewart asks that when, in his film about Global Warming, graphics show Florida becoming completely submerged, if Gore didn’t feel like cheering a little.
The YouTube video is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7-uR_Ibe3w
Another excellent post; thank you and here here. One thing I want to point out on this topic, especially for people who can vote in Minnesota, is that the Secretary of State position is really crucial to issues like this. Minnesota’s current Secretary of State is cut in the Katharine Harris mold, big time. But she can be voted OUT of office this November.
Happily, the DFL candidate is excellent. His name’s MARK RITCHIE ( http://www.markritchie06.org ), and he’s done tremendous work on progressive issues for many, many years. I was fortunate enough to work with him on a couple projects in my last job, and donated to his campaign last week. He’s great, and I hope everyone votes for him.
Thanks again for a great post, Kris.