Blogspot bushed !!
Well, I had posted a msg on Nov 3 at max-frustration levels when Bush had won for all purposes. And today I find that for some reason, it was neither posted or saved as a draft. Having read so many conspiracy theories on the US Elections, I am pretty sure that Blogspot has been Bushed! Everyone has a conspiracy theory of their own - Republicans claim opinion polls were biased towards Kerry and Democrats claim the actual polls were tampered with. And independent academicians have a grouse against the electronic voting scheme followed in some states in USA. One Mr. Ken Deiflik has mailed a group mail IP (ip@v2.listbox.com) on this issue and I quote
"I just found this posting in the Democratic Underground site ...on several swing states, and EVERY STATE that has EVoting but no paper trails has an unexplained advantage for Bush of around +5% when comparing exit polls to actual results.
In EVERY STATE that has paper audit trails on their EVoting, the exit poll results match the actual results reported within the margin of error."
This distrust of electronic voting machines is not limited to 'underground democrats' alone. One of the leading academicians in this front has been Prof Avi Rubin of John Hopkins Univ. Here's a link to a narrative on his experience as an election officer and how easily the system can be broken into.
In short, there seem to be too many doubts on whether the electronic voting system works. This might be of special significance to India - which has been shifting towards a 100% Electronic Voting machines (EVMs) system with no paper trail. Based on the public discourse I've observed in the US media, this would appear blasphemous - especially that there is no paper trail. Well, I remember there was an article by Prof Indiresan of IIT Madras in The Hindu a couple of years ago on how the EVMs cannot be broken into. The author himself had been the head of a committee that certified the EVMs to be unbreakable. On googling, I found this article in frontline, on the same issue - that also seems to arrive at the same conclusion. To be sure, most of the objections in the US are on the implementation and not the concept - Diebold systems, which manufactures the voting machines, is headed by a known supporter of the Republican Party (huh!).
I'm currently working on a related term paper titled "The effect of Internet on democracy, in the context of the US Presidential elections 2004" - as part of my academic coursework!! Will keep you updated on any additional insights I get on this issue.
On a lighter vein, here's how the UK media reported Bush's victory.
I'll sign off by joining former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook (as reported in an article in The Hindu that was reproduced from Guardian) with a prayer that "It is to be hoped that the obsession of President Bush with fitness will guarantee his health for the length of his renewed tenancy of the White House. Otherwise we get President Cheney."
"I just found this posting in the Democratic Underground site ...on several swing states, and EVERY STATE that has EVoting but no paper trails has an unexplained advantage for Bush of around +5% when comparing exit polls to actual results.
In EVERY STATE that has paper audit trails on their EVoting, the exit poll results match the actual results reported within the margin of error."
This distrust of electronic voting machines is not limited to 'underground democrats' alone. One of the leading academicians in this front has been Prof Avi Rubin of John Hopkins Univ. Here's a link to a narrative on his experience as an election officer and how easily the system can be broken into.
In short, there seem to be too many doubts on whether the electronic voting system works. This might be of special significance to India - which has been shifting towards a 100% Electronic Voting machines (EVMs) system with no paper trail. Based on the public discourse I've observed in the US media, this would appear blasphemous - especially that there is no paper trail. Well, I remember there was an article by Prof Indiresan of IIT Madras in The Hindu a couple of years ago on how the EVMs cannot be broken into. The author himself had been the head of a committee that certified the EVMs to be unbreakable. On googling, I found this article in frontline, on the same issue - that also seems to arrive at the same conclusion. To be sure, most of the objections in the US are on the implementation and not the concept - Diebold systems, which manufactures the voting machines, is headed by a known supporter of the Republican Party (huh!).
I'm currently working on a related term paper titled "The effect of Internet on democracy, in the context of the US Presidential elections 2004" - as part of my academic coursework!! Will keep you updated on any additional insights I get on this issue.
On a lighter vein, here's how the UK media reported Bush's victory.
I'll sign off by joining former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook (as reported in an article in The Hindu that was reproduced from Guardian) with a prayer that "It is to be hoped that the obsession of President Bush with fitness will guarantee his health for the length of his renewed tenancy of the White House. Otherwise we get President Cheney."
posted by eV at 10:44 AM
1 Value-adds:
So your post did turn invisible!
Your Original Anonymous Commenter
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