(Maybe the truth will set Bruce McPherson free… to spend more time with his family. Debra Bowen is a star — she’s already got my vote, and she should have everyone’s. – promoted by jsw)
Sen. Debra Bowen is starting to get some attention on her excellent web ad, which demonstrates just how easy it is to break into Diebold voting machines. The fact of the matter is that even though that particular model is not being used in California the ones that are have their own problems.
The Sequoia machines that are used in more than a third of CA counties have this nice little button at the back of the machine. Press it and it restarts the machine and let’s you vote again. What was McPherson’s and the registrar’s solution? Tell, poll workers to get suspicious if someone lingers by the machine for more than a minute while they are voting. Wow…that will work.
Back to the video and the “outrage”. Salladay blogs about a packet and a green plastic alien head (yes he really did say that he got an alien in the mail). It was from TheAlienseAreComing.com, which he believes is a nice bit of voting machine astroturfing. They seem to take the Bowen video literally, which is pretty damn funny.
The whois lookup shows the domain was registered Aug 24th to a Henry Shinster in San Diego. There is an yahoo email and a phone number, but I am not going to post it. My searching didn’t turn up anything on the guy. This could be a wingnut, but it would be a damn big story if this was connected to Diebold or ES&S.
Salladay contacted both Bowen and McPherson for a response.
Bowen’s office defended the video. “The fact is, Secretary McPherson continues to deny there are any problems with these machines, despite the fact that very reputable studies have been done showing there are vulnerabilities,” said Sandra Lloyd-Jones, spokeswoman for Bowen. “He asking for blind faith in the security and accuracy of these machines with no proof.”
But Beth Miller Malek, a spokeswoman for McPherson, said the video Bowen promotes lies about electronic voting systems and attempts to scare voters. “It’s pretty outrageous to be a candidate for secretary of state and feature a video where you are hoping to show vulnerabilities in the system. I think it’s shameful.”
Did she really just say that it is wrong for a SoS candidate to point out voting machines? Why yes, I think she did. That is really outrageous. It is McPherson’s fault that we even have these machines in operation, since he didn’t stop and make sure they were secure before certifying them.