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SAME DIFFERENCE

Following his successful elevation of Ned Lamont to non-power, political genius Markos “Daily” Moulitsas takes on the hated Diebold machines:

Down in Florida, an epic battle is brewing over the electronic Diebold voting machines that ate 18,000 votes for Democrat Christine Jennings in FL-13 and cost her the election.

Not only is an expensive recount in the cards, but campaign and DCCC lawyers are flocking down, demanding the state freeze the machines for inspection.

These are the opening salvos in what will be the battle to end Diebold.

But only 36 people have given via our Blue Majority Act Blue page for the legal battles ahead.

To put it bluntly, to anyone who has ever complained about Diebold, this is your chance to put your money where your mouth is. No more talk needed. No more advocacy needed. This is a real-world, legal frontal assault on those electronic voting machines.

If we win this battle, you’ll be able to kiss Diebold goodbye.

Update: No one will confirm, but word is that the DCCC and the Jennings campaign are considering suing for a brand new election.

Update II: Machines in FL-13 were made by ES&S. Same difference.

As James Taranto points out, ES&S is a Diebold competitor.

Posted by Tim B. on 11/17/2006 at 10:28 PM
  1. Kos opposes Joe Lieberman. Result: Lieberman wins big.

    Kos opposes Diebold. Likely result: record profits for Diebold and an all-time stock price high. Buy now!

    Posted by paco on 2006 11 17 at 10:40 PM • permalink

  2. It is amazing the sound you hear regarding “voting irregularities” in the states following the recent election:  deafening silence.  An example is Senator Allen who gracefully conceded with the narrowest of losses.  Man, I can hear the drumbeat and shouts had the results been reversed. Had the numbers gone differently the Angry Left and the media would have have worked themselves into an apopylectic fit, calling for all kinds of recounts and trashing every conceivable voting apparatus.

    Children vs. adults.

    Posted by Kathy from Austin on 2006 11 17 at 10:46 PM • permalink

  3. Don’t know about y’all, BUT I’m a tad sick of hearing from this fucking asshole kos.

    Excuse my language, but y’all is part of Southern’speak, folks.

    Posted by El Cid on 2006 11 17 at 10:54 PM • permalink

  4. #3: El cid: Kos kinda reminds me of that character, “Booger”, in Revenge of the Nerds.

    Posted by paco on 2006 11 17 at 10:56 PM • permalink

  5. Update II: Machines in FL-13 were made by ES&S. Same difference.

    Ha-ha! A beautiful illustration of the “But Still” Gambit - when you’re in a debate, and a fact surfaces that completely destroys your argument, say “But still…”, and you don’t really lose.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2006 11 17 at 10:59 PM • permalink

  6. What is it with the Democrats demanding a recount every time they lose? 

    Oh, wait a minute!

    But only 36 people have given via our Blue Majority Act Blue page for the legal battles ahead.

    Gasp!  Is it true?  Could money be the motivation?  As in:  give me money and I’ll confirm your tinfoil-hat, moonbat conspiracies?

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 11 17 at 11:00 PM • permalink

  7. Talking weird voting things, voters in the forthcoming Victorian State elections have received am ‘EasyVote’ card from the Victorian Election Commission.

    It has one’s name, address, and voting district on it.  Just in case you forget in between you leave home and when you arrive at the polling station.

    Posted by walterplinge on 2006 11 17 at 11:03 PM • permalink

  8. Maybe that’s why I’m having so much trouble with my Microsoft iMac, too?

    Posted by andycanuck on 2006 11 17 at 11:28 PM • permalink

  9. I used to know Kos, and he did look a little like Booger now that you mention it.

    OTOH, have you seen the video of Nancy Pelosi with her hands raised with other Dems and sort of dancing?  Am I the only one that thinks she looks like Ed Grimley (Martin Short) on SNL dancing around like a goof with his hands in the air?

    Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2006 11 17 at 11:29 PM • permalink

  10. So are the Kossacks just doing a Find & Replace on “Diebold” for “ES&S” and resubmitting the moonbat boilerplate to the Letters Page?

    Posted by Jeffersonian on 2006 11 18 at 12:13 AM • permalink

  11. I find it really disconcerting the trend in recent years for the lefties to question elections on the flimsiest grounds.  I find it offensive and undemocratic.  Basically, the attitude seems to be “we just know” we were supposed to win, therefore any tactic no matter how under-handed or illogical is fair game.

    I remember after the Bush-Gore 2000 election and the controversy in Florida, there were so, so many accusations of Republican wrong-doing yet basically all of them failed to stand up to closer inspection.

    My favourite one was a claim of Republican wrong-doing via nasty minions-of-the-Right sneakily designing a confusing butterfly ballot and ordering the candidates in a way to screw Gore over, etc (in a nutshell).  The only problem was that the type of ballot had been chosen by local officials from the county who were Democrats.  (It’s been a long time, and I can’t remember the county specifically, but “Dade” or “Palm” or something sticks in my mind.)

    So basically, the claims of poor design and implementation screwing over Gore(in this specific case), were accurate.  But the claims that this was part of an intentional, Machiavellian plan by the Lord Rove and his minions was a complete slander.  It was actually an innocent, unintentional fuckup by local Democrat officials!

    There were so many more cases like that.  Yet to this day, it seems to be ‘conventional wisdom’ of the left the Bush somehow ‘stole’ the election in 2000.  (Hell, they even chuck in 2004 with less evidence.)

    These guys need to just grow up.

    Posted by ekb87 on 2006 11 18 at 12:16 AM • permalink

  12. Down in Florida, an epic battle is brewing over the electronic Diebold voting machines that ate 18,000 votes for Democrat Christine Jennings in FL-13 and cost her the election.

    While I have heard all of these conspiracies about machines and tactics, etc that “disenfranchise” voters - I never hear an explanation of why they only eat democrat votes. 

    I will tell you the ugly truth about American elections and the people who are most disenfranchised:  working executives.  No shit.  I, like many millions of other executives, travel a lot and often have to make plans that take me away from family & events that I wish I would not miss - including voting. 

    Why can’t we have elections that are like, convenient?  Like over the weekend or that last a week so we those of us that have to travel can find the time to get to the voting station.  Or Gaia forbid, vote over the internet safely? 

    You don’t get much sympathy when you want to stay home for the first part of the week to vote.  Simply aint happening.

    So you say - why not vote absentee?  For those who have not tried it, here is the procedure - Apply for the ballot, get it sent to you, fill it out, take it to have it notarized, send it in.  Think of the arguments that the left is putting out for not even requiring an ID to vote?  It is too hard for poor people to get an ID - when they have vans that will pull up to their door in order to register them.  It is 100x more time consuming & full of hassles to vote absentee.

    I am the most disenfranchised voting bloc in America!! The working, executive class!!

    Posted by bill w on 2006 11 18 at 12:21 AM • permalink

  13. Democrats would screw up their own funeral.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 11 18 at 12:25 AM • permalink

  14. Democrats would screw up their own funeral.

    They did. They got themselves elected in ‘06.

    Now this walking corpse of a party is going to shamble around searching for “brains, braaaaaaiiiiins” at least two years longer than it should have.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2006 11 18 at 12:41 AM • permalink

  15. I agree with Kathy. It seems just a little curious that any vote won by a Democrat is all fair, and above board.

    But, if a Dim loses, the chorus is: Vote fraud! Vote fraud!

    They’re not gracious losers….just losers.

    Posted by rinardman on 2006 11 18 at 12:48 AM • permalink

  16. I have waited in line to vote and I have voted absentee. Neither are difficult.  There is no valid reason not to vote unless you just dont want to.  If you can read and comprehend simple instructions then you will not have any difficult voting in person or by mail.  Perhaps that’s the problem.

    Posted by jeff mccabe on 2006 11 18 at 01:00 AM • permalink

  17. Thanks, JorgX, now I’ve got to change my dacks.

    (having name dropped in another thread, I will reveal here that I once, working as a courier, delivered a package to Martin Short’s Toronto home. Big tipper, nice guy. Say, does anybody know if you can get SCTV on DVD?)

    Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 11 18 at 01:10 AM • permalink

  18. Old guard Dems used to brag about their vote fraud victories: Tammany, Tweed, Daley (hell, all of Chicago), Talmadge, Maddox, FDR, JFK, LBJ. 

    20th Century America would have been quite different if the Democrats weren’t so adept at fraud themselves.

    Posted by nofixedabode on 2006 11 18 at 01:12 AM • permalink

  19. #7, Walter. Don’t laugh, I forget my name every time I’m stopped by a policeman.

    And at other times as well. F’r instance, bailiff’s have a very forgetting effect on me.

    Posted by hipower on 2006 11 18 at 01:25 AM • permalink

  20. Look, when you’ve worked so hard to stuff the ballot box in a particular area and you still lose, what other conclusion can you come to but that someone didn’t count the ballots correctly?  I’d be ticked off too.

    Posted by saltydog on 2006 11 18 at 01:29 AM • permalink

  21. Now this walking corpse of a party is going to shamble around searching for “brains, braaaaaaiiiiins” at least two years longer than it should have.

    Fortunately they’re in Washington,so they won’t find many. (I’ll be here all night, folks!)

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 11 18 at 01:34 AM • permalink

  22. I freaking hate the phrase “same difference”. What the hell is it supposed to mean?

    Too bad he didn’t say “by and large” in the same post.

    Posted by Brian Tiemann on 2006 11 18 at 03:55 AM • permalink

  23. I freaking hate the phrase “same difference”. What the hell is it supposed to mean?

    Same as, “But still…”

    In other words, “I’m totally wrong but damn if I’ll admit it.”

    Posted by Dave S. on 2006 11 18 at 04:12 AM • permalink

  24. bill w - Can’t you vote in advance, at a registered place if you know you are going to be out of your electorate on voting day?

    Or arrange a postal vote?

    Or vote at a major polling place where you are going (if there is one) which will have your details?

    All these options available here in Oz.  As a ‘travelling executive’, I often vote out of my electorate (but as our elections are always on a Saturday, its not as often as it might be for you).

    As an aside, why can’t USA elections be held on a week-end?

    Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 11 18 at 05:33 AM • permalink

  25. Every second ATM in Sydney is a Diebold.  If it’s not a Diebold, it’s a NCR ATM.  Plus a few other very minor players in the market.  The Diebold ATM I use reguarly works well, it gives me money.  Cash’n'grab.  If it wasn’t for Diebold or NCR ATMs I’d be broke.

    Posted by Stevo on 2006 11 18 at 07:46 AM • permalink

  26. Why don’t the election organisers in the US go back to the simple paper and pencil method?

    Any idiot can use a pencil even if it is to draw squiggly lines on the ballot paper

    At least there would be none of this rubbish talk about bloody machines from the lefties

    Posted by aussiemagpie on 2006 11 18 at 09:29 AM • permalink

  27. The paper and pencil method is what we use in my Florida county—at least the last election, for a variety of reasons I missed this past one. Anyway, I guess they use the machines in places where they’re afraid the voters will eat the paper and stick the pencil in their ear by mistake.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 11 18 at 09:45 AM • permalink

  28. #27 Andrea

    Anyway, I guess they use the machines in places where they’re afraid the voters will eat the paper and stick the pencil in their ear by mistake.

    Thanks for the laugh ! Good one

    Posted by aussiemagpie on 2006 11 18 at 09:55 AM • permalink

  29. #25 Stevo -

    Every second ATM in Sydney is a Diebold.  If it’s not a Diebold, it’s a NCR ATM.  Plus a few other very minor players in the market.  The Diebold ATM I use reguarly works well, it gives me money.  Cash’n’grab.  If it wasn’t for Diebold or NCR ATMs I’d be broke.

    Fact #1:  Diebold is headquartered in Canton, Ohio

    Fact #2:  NCR is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio

    Fact #3:  Ohio was the deciding state in the 2004 election for George Bush.

    Coincidence?  I think not.

    Posted by wronwright on 2006 11 18 at 10:57 AM • permalink

  30. How do they know 18,000 votes are missing?  That’s an awfully precise number.  Is that how many votes they lost by?  Do they have a master list where they can check to see who voted and who didn’t?  How did they come up with this mysterious “18,000”?

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 11 18 at 12:38 PM • permalink

  31. No, Rebecca, that’s how many phoney ballots the Dems cast, so they know there’s something fishy going on.

    Posted by andycanuck on 2006 11 18 at 01:51 PM • permalink

  32. SCD asks “why can’t USA elections be held on a week-end?”

    According to Wikipedia:

    This rule was instituted by the U.S. Congress in 1845, and the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November was chosen to keep the election day from falling on November 1, All Saints’ Day, a Holy Day of Obligation for Roman Catholics. Tuesday was chosen to allow voters one day to travel to their polling place, as most residents at the time could not travel on Sunday because of church. The month of November was chosen because it was after the crops were harvested.

    So there’s probably no good reason any longer.  However, I would favor either changing election day to tax day or tax day to election day, just to put people in the proper frame of mind.

    Posted by 68W40 on 2006 11 18 at 02:57 PM • permalink

  33. “To put it bluntly, to anyone who has ever complained about Diebold, this is your chance to put your money where your mouth is.”

    Kos must be feeling the pressure from Global Warmatology, he’s stepping up the efforts to establish his own religion.

    Diebold is our Satan!

    Posted by PW on 2006 11 18 at 03:19 PM • permalink

  34. Private Sub SubmitVote()
    ...Select Case bolGOPLeading   //Are we winning?
    ......Case False   //No
    .........Vote.Party = “gop”  //Change vote to repubs
    ......Case True   //Yes
    .........If Vote.Party = “dems” Then
    ............Delete Vote
    .........End If
    ...End Select
    End Sub


    Seriously, do they actually think a Diebold or ES&S programmer managed to slip this in somewhere?

    Posted by david on 2006 11 18 at 06:47 PM • permalink

  35. #24 SCD -

    There are only two ways to vote - between 6am & 7pm in your local polling place on a Tuesday - not even local township, you have one place & one place only to vote. Or, by the absentee ballot, which is the 5 step procedure that I mentioned. 

    It really does penalize those of us who have to travel, often at the last minute - vs. the imaginged “disenfranchisement” of the poor who might have to actually have some ID to vote.

    Posted by bill w on 2006 11 18 at 11:17 PM • permalink

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