From a wired blog just posted here
ES&S Failed to Disclose Manila Manufacturer to Fed Agency
Per the previous post about a manufacturing facility in the Philippines that has been assembling voting machines for Election Systems & Software, it appears that ES&S failed to disclose the foreign facility’s role in assembling its voting machines to the Federal Election Assistance Commission.
The EAC is newly in charge of overseeing the testing and certification of voting machines. As part of that process, voting machine companies are required to disclose the names and locations of all of their manufacturing and assembling facilities. But, according to a letter the EAC sent to ES&S today (pdf), ES&S failed to disclose the existence of the Manila sweatshop that has been assembling its machines for several years, although the company did submit a list of other manufacturing facilities involved in making its machines.
read the rest on wired
In addition, the inquiries from election boards have started.
Dan Rather was and is a good man. He also is a great reporter IMHO.
Comment by Realtor SEO -
Mark,
First time on your blog and I love the fact that you talk a little bit about everything.
Comment by Dallas Realty -
Dan Rathers job was to give the american people the facts as he knew them. He did just that. We have local newscasters here where I live that are always getting facts mixed up, or maybe not just quite the way we would like to hear them. We would have no local news if they fired them for what they thought was false or mistaken information. I am glad that in this case Mr. Rather is on the ball,\”GOOD FOR HIM\”. He is standing up for his rights, and for the american people to see justice
Comment by CR LOVE -
I think that is why our forefather wrote in the 2nd amendment where it is not only ones right to carry a gun but the purpose of this amendment was our ability to \”bear arms against a tyrannous government\” Is this what is happening or better yet, what HAS happened?
Comment by AV Furniture -
Dan Rather is just awesome. I just saw the repeat yesterday and I think it is really a scandal, what\’s going on there. We need much more Dan Rathers in our country. So many things are going wrong, but only such a few people really care about it.
Comment by Peter Hochzeit -
The evidence Dan Rather has is an obvious fake. But even though the evidence is faked, the story behind it is still true.
Besides, who do you trust, dan rather in his suit and tie or some internet guy in his pajamas?
Comment by FSBO -
Just browsing the internet, your blog is very, very interesting.
Comment by Freddie Sirmans -
Three Things to Ponder:
1. Cows
2. The Constitution
3. The Ten Commandments
Cows
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that our government can
track a single cow born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the
stall
where she sleeps in the state of Washington ? And they tracked her calves to
their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens
wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.
The Constitution
They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq . Why don\’t we
just
give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked
for over 200 years, and we\’re not using it anymore.
The Ten Commandments
The real reason that we can\’t have the Ten Commandments posted in a
courthouse is this: You cannot post \”Thou Shalt Not Steal,\” Thou Shalt Not
Commit Adultery\”, and \”Thou Shall Not Lie\” in a building full of lawyers,
judges and politicians. It creates a hostile work environment.
Had my say for the day!
Comment by Mary Clemente -
Dan Rather has a cool reporter voice.
Comment by russian bride -
As someone else said, who need voting machines, PC is the best option for it. Use the technology government.
Comment by Clarks Shoes -
Where was Dan Rather in 1996 when Ross Perot was denied entry into the political debates when he had $8-12 Million of our Taxpayer money? Why did Dan keep his mouth shut then?Perot wanted Internet and telephone voting, Isn\’t it strange no one questions a proxy balloting from a Public Company? You Call in or log in with a control # and vote the number of share you own …yet we can\’t figure any of this stuff out in America?
Bad touch screens, chad paper ballots the media is gutless. We could have had a viable 3rd party in America, but Dan and his Buddies at CBS and the other networks didn\’t want to rock the
political boat and Demand Perot be given his rightful place in the Presidential debates.
This is what set up the debacle in 2000…And unless Bloomberg or Buffet or Gates runs for presidency there will never be a 3rd party again…Thanks alot
Comment by Richard Allen -
I do not know Chuck Hagel\’s (R.Ne) current status but as late as 2002, he was listed as an owner of ES&S, and these were the voting machines that were used in his landslide elections in 1996 and 2002. It raises a Hmm among some…
Dan Rather\’s report illustrates how these machines are so totally flawed, down to the final literal shake-down test: a worker literally shakes the voting machine to check for loose screws or things that move that shouldn\’t be moving.
Comment by russian bride -
There are so many overlapping conflicts involved in the companies that manufacture these machines..
Such as the President of Diebold\’s brother is the Vice President of ES&S..!
There\’s so many more items like this that make these machines weapons of mass destruction for our or any Democracy..!
We can never trust any election outcome that does not have a provable paper trail outcome, not after Ohio and also Florida..in 2004..!
Check out this site and ink for the 20 facts you should know about these sleaze bags that own and manufacture these voting machines..
http://www.guerillafunk.com/thoughts/doc000023.html
Also this testimony before the Congressional committee investigating this by a programmer who worked for NASA and other government agencies and was asked by some corrupt Republican Florida sleaze bag to fix their elections..
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=55298778264345748
Thanks you can check out my blog site as well..
\”Our is not a system based upon trust..\”
http://stars4peace.blogspot.com/
TJ Peace..
Comment by TJ Colatrella -
the investigation Dan Rather reports is more about the problems with Electronic Voting machines and continies to look into the issue of potential sabotage of the paper used for the ballets in Southern Florida for the 2000 presidential election. Did Al Gore lose the election due to a specific paper company sabotaging their own product in order to move into the electronic voting market? You will see 8 employees who will tell you what they witnessed and had to deal with in the months leading up to the election wherein the paper ballots they were working on were SPECIFICALLY sent to West Palm Beach, Florida for the 2000 election. Watch as independent paper specialists test the paper that was not approved AND was not from the manufacturer
In a country where we have standards to protect lead paint in toys, prescriptions for drugs and other government oversight, dont each one of you think it is important that the vote, THE most important part in our democracy, needs protection from companies who claim thier product is protected like the formula in Coca Cola? Shouldn\’t there be a higher scrutiny set by our government who contracts out these private companies who use cheap parts overseas, gives passing grades to faulty machines and has no oversight?
The loss of my right to choose and the value of ones vote is this countries biggest threat. PERIOD..bigger then the \”Terrorists\” who supposedly hate us for that freedom which we have seem to have lost to the certain powers who only care about the bottom line. These companies within our free markets would love nothing more then to have no oversight into this with a powerful lobbying group that has spent BILLIONS in taxpayer money over the past few years alone. Have we lost something in America? We should care about our democratic system more. It is the essence of what our country is built upon and what our fore fathers believed when they created this nation. Have we started to stray from its core values and what then? Do we slip into the corruption laded Russian system that crippled their ideology? Is China on a similar course as their close Russian allies from years past?
Is the lesson here that once countries start to stray from the values its citizens have entered a social contract with, does the decention start to cause certain cracks to form within the system itself? If our own government cannot protect its most vital element; ones right to vote; to choose, then we have lost something so much greater. I think that is why our forefather wrote in the 2nd amendment where it is not only ones right to carry a gun (yes the NRA has taken this way out of context) but the purpose of this amendment was our ability to \”bear arms against a tyrannous government\” Is this what is happening or better yet, what HAS happened? Do you feel confident that this is still YOUR government where you have a say or has the process been so corrupted that we just feel we cannot make a difference anymore?
As Americans, we need to know that our vote counts, if it does not because the free markets feel it can regulate themselves, well.. i guess this proves to the contrary.
Let me know what you all think individually..
Comment by Brian Sirgutz -
We have touch screens in banks, at ATM\’s, in hospital\’s, restaurants, shopping stores, automobiles. They are every where. We trust with our money. But put them in our election system then all of sudden there is a problem. It\’s all a conspirancy. Dan Rather is the best on spreading consprancies
Comment by Dan -
I just wanted to thank you, Mr Rather, and everyone else at HDnet for the great work on Dan Rather\’s report on the E-voting
machines. Its time to start a congressional investigation into
fraud on the part of Sequoia in the 2000 election, and their
business practices. That should be followed up with a special
prosecuter to investigate them.
Comment by Laura Mullen -
Why don\’t you just go back to the good old, reliable bubble sheets? Shade in the circle besides the candidates name you want to elect. Obviously, your electronic voting machines do not work effectively and pretty much compromise democracy. Take a lesson from your Canadian neighbors who don\’t botch elections, EVER!
Comment by Ryan -
Hey Mark, Thats all well and good but how would we keep someone from stealing an election in a state say where his brother may be governor of that state and the election is really close? Just a thought, I mean it sounds far fetched but it could happen couldnt it? Then lets say it comes down the wire and the people this individual put on the job to make decisions about law get to make the final decision and what do ya know? Everybody wakes up a week or so later and he wins the election, Hypothetically speaking of course. Hmmmm? Hope the wheels are getting better and thanks for the thoughts.
Comment by Frankie from Lawnside -
Honestly why do we need special voting machines? I guess it would be too cheap for the government to use a program that ran on a PC. Also my grandma even knows how to use a PC and I\’m sure most other old people do as well.
Comment by madison flooring -
I wonder how many of the other companies listed along with Pivot International also outsource manufacturing of their machines overseas, as Pivot Int\’l did. I suspect most of the others do, too.
It is pretty commonplace these days for many companies to do the same. The corporate management may so take it for granted that it need not be mentioned. Of course, they deliberately want to avoid arousing the ire of American workers and consumers, too, by avoiding disclosing those facts.
Comment by Russian bride -
So basically.. even our tax dollars are being spent offshore?! This country\’s going to have nothing left!
Conspiracies are definitely where it\’s at though, keep it up Mark!!
Comment by Grivon -
WOW!! I am watching it now and saw your post.. All I can say is WOW!! Mr. Cuban your almost always on the mark, and HDNet is one of the best channel on TV. The format is refreshing from the programming to the short commercial breaks etc. Just wanted to drop a note to ya and say thanks and keep it up.. PS- Buy the CUBS. TJ
Comment by TJ Zook -
Please God let this be the start of some new investigative journalism in the United States. We so badly need new and gutsy investigative journalists that aren\’t intimidated by big brother. Mark this is a great start and this is a step in the right direction. If anyone can dig deep and expose crooks and liars its Dan Rather. How about getting to the bottom of the fact that George W. Bush and John Kerry are cousins and both memebers of Skull and Bones secret society. You don\’t believe they are cousins? Well MSNBC and CBS both reported this fact, here are the links:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/04/politics/main604163.shtml
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4286105/
Comment by Isaac Herrera -