[ale] OT: Free Showing of "Invisible Ballots", Thursday, 3/16, 7:00pm, UUCA

[aaron]

On Friday 17 March 2006 22:02, Sid Lane wrote:
> ? for those who've seen this:
> 
> is it a serious, objective discussion of current systems and possible
> solutions or is it just a Michael Moore-ish anti-Diebold/Bush rant? not
> defending either (or Moore for that matter), just don't want to waste
> money/time on something like that (that's what /.'s for)

The Invisible Ballots documentary is a fact founded and generally objective 
look at the voting system issues. It features detailed considerations of the 
voting processes and the challenges of implementing computer voting from 
several top flight computer scientists who have studied the problems 
extensively. A lot of their points also address the proprietary secrecy, 
incestuous organizations and unavoidable conflicts of interest that permeate 
the testing and certification processes.

A couple of the segments also speak to issues surrounding the ethics and 
competence of the three voting machine vendors who currently monopolize the 
market, two of which are run by one pair of brothers. These are, of course, 
very real areas of concern that have arisen from the privatization of our 
public election processes --  the producers and promoters of Zero Evidence 
elections are commanding that we must trust these companies with every aspect 
of our right to vote (commanding being the accurate word since the voters are 
never given a choice about the installation of the black box, Zero Evidence 
election systems).

On the ethics and competence issues, Diebold is the primary focus not only 
because it is the largest vendor, but because evidence is abundant that 
serious investigation of Diebold is called. A lot of that evidence of 
incompetence is found in the fact that they left every component of their 
entire system's software suite, inclucing CVS data, available on an anonynous 
FTP site, where it was stumbled upon, downloaded, examined and found to be 
severely flawed code. There were also a couple of gigs worth of Diebold 
internal memos that were leaked by a concerned patriot. Among the many 
revelations there are numerous cases of Diebold illegally running 
uncertified, untested software (as they did in the entire State of Georgia in 
2002) and repeatedly engaging in deceptive practices like concealing major 
system errors from election officials. Lastly, investigations of the history 
of the Diebold Election Systems division reveal how a number of the company's 
founders and cheif programmers are or were in prison for felony convictions 
like embezzlement and computer fraud.

All the Diebold ethics and competence issues have additional evidence arising 
from a dozen or so State law suits against the company over the past 5 years, 
all of which helps to explain Maryland's 137-0 decision to dump the corporate 
carpetbaggers in favor of transparent, auditable election systems.

> I'm very interested in this issue but want to stick to the constructive.

Invisible Ballots has no narration, interviewer questions or cutaways. It 
primarily shows the various activists, election officials, computer 
technicians and computer science PhD's on camera and speaking to the critical 
topics. There are occassional generic cover shots of people voting or of 
voting equipment, as well as computer screen shots showing things like the 
Diebold memos, but these images and occasional b-roll clips are neutral in 
tone and are used sparingly.

The only "commentary" is a brief introduction segment by the producer, and 
that is only shown in the full length (160 min) version;  the shorter (50 
min.) public presentation version has no intro or commentary.

The purpose and tone of the film is definintely constructive.

> any reviews?

I think that's a pretty complete review above. ;-)
==================

Defenders of Democracy will help in arranging a DVD viewing of the 50 minute 
Invisible Ballots program for any interested group of 8 or more registered 
voters, and will also provide a representative from the group to answer 
questions when practical.

The DVD is available for purchase on line using the ORDER link at:
http://InvisibleBallots.com


peace
(through transparent democracy)
aaron