Local Elections

[sometimeman]

Yes Eddie. The Board of elections must guarantee the people of Union County the election is free and accurate. Electronic machines prevent this.

Sonny Boyer should clone himself. He is knowledgable enough to slow Lie mar down in the vote stealing.

[gapeach]

Check out HR 811 - www.federalelectionreform.com/holt_bill.html

[manape]

GA Peach, you really found some good information.

I don't have time to read it all right now, but there is some good information at GAP's link and the proposed tiered auditing appears to be a good concept because it is based on probability of error.

Before you read the following consider in some countries, Germany for example, common citizens can stay around the polls to keep an eye on things. I guess it is the same here, but it could be more organized.

As I see it, the real problem(s) with Computer voting equipment, especially Diebold, is that the machines are too easy to tamper with, it is proprietary software, they are unreliable, and they can't be audited because there is no paper trail. Using Linux would make it easier to correct problems because the Linux community could correct source code problems faster and you have a large community to test the software. Linux is very secure because it is open source. As far as, reliability is concerned, considering the cost of such machines they should have the same reliability as computers used in the space shuttle and server data centers.

One of the basic rules of information security is to limit physical access to computers (in this case limit internal access).

Looking over some of the correspondence on the website for HR 811 (ie: Letter to Congressman Hult) shows some of the system thinking that went into the bill.

"Discovery of systemic error vs. confidence level and the development of tiered auditing approach" is the language of a statistician. A statistician will never say if something is true or false. What he or she will say, "based on a confidence level of XX.X the hypothesis is correct." (Moreover, the bigger the sampling improves the confidence level) However, performing a 100% audit would be too burdensome on the voting process. Tiered auditing is a good thing. Tiered auditing is based on what percentage of precincts must be audited in order to ensure that there is not an "unacceptable" level of error.

I can see through the computer screen that your eyes are glazing over. You can go to the pdf file and read the whole thing at www.brennancenter.org/dynamic/subpages/download_file_48231.pdf
if you are so inclined.

Please comment on HR 811. I don't have "no sense", so, I'm sure your comments will be more relevant.

[realitycheck101]

Several independent security studies of a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine, including its hardware and software have been done the result was Analysis of the machine, in light of real election procedures, shows that it is vulnerable to extremely serious attacks. For example, an attacker who gets physical access to a machine or its removable memory card for as little as one minute could install malicious code; malicious code on a machine could steal votes undetectably, modifying all records, logs, and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote count it creates. An attacker could also create malicious code that spreads automatically and silently from machine to machine during normal election activities — a voting-machine virus. Hackers have constructed working demonstrations of these attacks. Mitigating these threats will require changes to the voting machine's hardware and software and the adoption of more rigorous election procedures.

[gapeach]

Remember that the Board Of Elections in this county is controlled by the Local Governing Authority, i.e. Lamar Paris.

Not true. The governing authority of the county only appoints one member. He does not "control" the BOE.

The BOE must follow guidelines from the Secretary of State's office. Oh, I forgot, you don't trust them either. They are in on the conspiracy too.

Only Eddie the Great is right. Only Eddie knows how things should be done. If you are so smart how come you aren't in Washington fixing things? How come the Governor isn't calling you asking for your advice?

Maybe they had car trouble. Did you ever consider a simple explanation? On no, it has to be hinted at that it was probably something fishy and underhanded. Just another example of your paranoia.

I bet you don't even trust your own mother. Maybe she is in on the conspiracy.

You are just pissed because YOU would like to be in control. Or you would like for your party to be in control.

Sorry, I was going to try and be nice but I can't help myself. You just amaze me with your commentary.

Don't get me wrong. I am totally for having a secure voting system. Electronic voting as it stands now scares me. But I don't think our BOE is the problem. and I don't think the commissioner is the problem. I know the people on the BOE and a more upright and honest group would be hard to find. To cast aspersions on them because you are mad at the commissioner is not right.

[manape]

Per Eddie:

A simple check of ballots say from one precinct chosen at random would do wonders to check for errors and improve voter confidence.

Yes, random check of ballots is good, but to fix the problem we must understand the problem. The problem with Diebold machines is if I understand it correctly, is there are no paper ballots to check for errors. So, what are you going to check?

1. Therefore, until there are fixes to the computers (printing a ballot and putting it in a secure box), you can't check the ballots.

2. I don't buy this it will never happen crap. If you want to fix it, then find out what is broke and fix it. We hold elections to elect government to serve the people. People should not have to serve the government.

Yes, you are correct, we definitely need a secure system of voting but it will never happen under the current Union County Board Of Elections Act. Change must begin there.

No, change begins here with the Plan-Do-Check-Act model. See how communications is the center of the model?

Commissioners and elected officials come and go. It is the process that needs to be fixed.

[sometimeman]

I"m Gone say it loud.

APE HAS GOOD SENSE!

[sometimeman]

Don't be confused. It's simple enough. I have good sense. When Ape agrees with me, he has good sense.

And------when he doesn't well, you know Ape an't got no sense.

[manape]

Look people, what needs to happen is a participative form of government that is responsible to the people. If that is Lamar, then that is fine with me. I don't have a big problem with him. That's OK if you do have a problem with him, in my book. Find someone who will manage growth and move us forward better and I will consider that person.

I'm not talking about mob rule or a democracy, here. But this whack-a-mole process of attack doesn't solve the problem. Here is the PDCA Quality improvement model shown another way. It looks at the total system.



The model was invented by a quality guru named D. Edwards Deming. The quality model of continuous improvement can be use to create effective change. Constant whining and complaining doesn't solve the problem. Get past the plan and problem definition stage and become part of the solution.

I'll never be Commissioner, but if I were, I would put in a plan of improvement based on the input of the people. I would seek the guidance of the people and implement a plan according the the wishes of the people. At the same time, I know I could not please everyone, but at least I would try to do my best to listen to the voices of the masses. Yes, there is the rule of law, but law doesn't always address the root cause of the problem. No one is above the law. The candidates that I vote for in the next election will be the ones who hear the voice of the people.

[manape]

The people have good sense, sometimeman aaaannnd don't you forget it!

[eddie]

gapeach said:

Remember that the Board Of Elections in this county is controlled by the Local Governing Authority, i.e. Lamar Paris.

Not true. The governing authority of the county only appoints one member. He does not "control" the BOE.

The BOE must follow guidelines from the Secretary of State's office. Oh, I forgot, you don't trust them either. They are in on the conspiracy too.

Only Eddie the Great is right. Only Eddie knows how things should be done. If you are so smart how come you aren't in Washington fixing things? How come the Governor isn't calling you asking for your advice?

Maybe they had car trouble. Did you ever consider a simple explanation? On no, it has to be hinted at that it was probably something fishy and underhanded. Just another example of your paranoia.

I bet you don't even trust your own mother. Maybe she is in on the conspiracy.

You are just pissed because YOU would like to be in control. Or you would like for your party to be in control.

Sorry, I was going to try and be nice but I can't help myself. You just amaze me with your commentary.

Don't get me wrong. I am totally for having a secure voting system. Electronic voting as it stands now scares me. But I don't think our BOE is the problem. and I don't think the commissioner is the problem. I know the people on the BOE and a more upright and honest group would be hard to find. To cast aspersions on them because you are mad at the commissioner is not right.

Re: Not true..... BOE consists of two each Dems. and Rep. selected by each Party. Lamar appoints one, which is also Dem. hence deciding vote or controlling vote. And for the past 8 months Lamar has held up one of the Rep. selections.

Re: The BOE must..... I never said conspiracy. They just refuse to get involved. I never said that I don't trust them but you cannot count on them.

Re: Only Eddie..... You ask the Governor.

Re: Maybe they had.... Then why no explanation?

Re: I bet..... How low will you stoop? I never brought Lamars' family into this, but I can if you keep this up.

Re: You are just......No, I don't wish to be in control. Niether should Lamar or either Party. Thats' my whole point, The BOE should be free of either Partys' dominance and serve the best interest of the people (voters).


No, you were not trying to be nice, you were trying to be sarcastic. I have no problem with any individual on the BOE. They are all doing something that most want no part of and deserve credit for that. So quit attempting to pit me against them when there's no truth to it.


You know exactly what my issue is with the BOE, the Union County Board Of Elections Act itself that was enacted in 2001, adopted by resolution in 2001 by none other than you or your mentor, Lamar Paris.

Your entire post reeks of Lamar Paris words and tactics.

[sometimeman]

Work with me here just a little bit Ape. I done said you got good sense. Don't make me say I was mistaken. You said, "The candidates that I vote for in the next election will be the ones who hear the voice of the people."

Ape, what we have here in Union County, is a man who wanted alcohol sales, put the choice to a vote, it was voted down and then went against the peoples vote!

Can't you see that Lie mar is a liar? As far as the code of Georgia is concerned in Union county Lie mar is not only above the law, he is the law!

According to your quote, you can't have good sense and vote for Lie mar!

[sometimeman]

Not only does Eddie have good sense, Eddie has the rare quality of also having integrity!
There needs to be more like Eddie and Sonny.

Sonny, by the way, is a member of the BOE! Sonny was appointed by the republican party of Union County. The little lying lie mar commissioner wrote slanderous letters against the person of their choice because he is so stupid and full of his own ego he thinks they had to choose some one he approved of.

His slanderous letters confirm the fact that the choice for the Union County Board of elections was none other than a great man of integrity, a man of truth and honesty, a man who would look after the citizens of Union County! A man with enough backbone to tell Lie mar to his face he is a liar Sonny was chosen and Lie mar didn't like it. He has done all he can about it.

If Lie mar had a Christian bone in his lying body, he would apologize to Sonny and work for the good of the people of Union County!

[roundtree]

I believe that Eddie hit the nail on the potatohead, that sure sounds like Lamar wrote that bit of sarcasim and profanity. What a wonderful example he is.

[zhelton]

If he does not control the BOE, why does he care so much about who the GOP appoints. Lamar is casting off responsiblity to avert blame. For example, the County Website used to say that the Commissioner is directly responsible for the Tax Assessors office.
web.archive.org/web/20050204121601/unioncountyga.gov/home.htm

Now it doesn't.