Another Voting Machine Conspiracy

Voting Machines Elect One Of Their Own As President

Not Showing at Sundance

[Voting] Utah's Bruce Funk is a movie star. The former Emery County clerk whose questioning of voting machines led to his ouster from office is profiled in a new movie, Uncounted, put out by those who want to convince you that elections are being stolen.

The folksy, soft spoken Funk was featured in City Weekly articles after he tussled with Emery County and state election officials over electronic voting machines in 2006 (Ghost in the Machine, and Election Defection). In Uncounted, he is profiled as one of several “heroes” the film tells us have stood up against dark forces trying to deny Americans their right to vote.

Uncounted is showing in a few California theaters this month. It will also be shown at the Durango Film Festival in Colorado. Director David Earnhardt, a documentary filmmaker, is also hawking DVD copies on a Website, UncountedTheMovie.com.

The film’s premise isn’t new among voting conspiracy buffs: the presidential election in 2004 and congressional elections in 2006 were stolen, and more fraud “looms as an unbridled threat to the outcome of the 2008 election.”

It's hard to watch the film and not become a little convinced there is indeed a conspiracy. Uncounted has all the plot lines—including a segment about a man who invented the world’s greatest voting machine … only to die in a mysterious accident before his democracy-saving company could get off the ground.

Uncounted also includes the story of a computer expert who told a congressional committee that he was paid by a prominent George W. Bush supporter to create voting machine software that could switch votes from one candidate to another.

But the film’s most convincing segments aren’t those devoted to the alleged terrors of computerized voting. Rather, the film works best when it rehashes the well worn stories of voters—mostly poor or minority—who appear to have been systematically denied a vote during elections of 2004 and 2006.

There are the stories of would-be voters turned away at the polls through what seem like obvious attempts at voter suppression (like having just one polling place in poor parts of town or telling people to vote in the wrong neighborhood). There is the famous 2004 Ohio exit polling showing victory for Al Gore.

Some anti-voting machine buffs had trouble sticking to their conspiracy theory after the 2006 mid-term elections, which were won by Democrats. (The Democrats shouldn’t have won if the Bushies had fixed the elections through friends in the voting machine companies.)

Uncounted’s answer to the dilemma: Democrats would have won the 2006 elections by much wider margins had the fix not been in. The film examines polling data and examples of vote counting irregularities to support the idea.

Utah’s Funk serves as a bookend to the story. To recap: Funk was the man in charge of elections in Emery County when new electronic voting machines were delivered. Funk noticed the machines giving weird readouts and called in computer experts to check it out.

The geeks who Funk brought to town were from Black Box Voting, a group of prominent electronic voting critics, and Black Box splashed their visit to rural Utah all over the Internet. It was the first time a government elections official had allowed Black Box to hack into an official voting machine and Black Box claimed it had exposed vulnerabilities in the Utah boxes. (Utah state election officials, who purchased the machines for counties, denied the claims.)

Soon after the episode, executives of the voting machine company were in town and meeting privately with Emery County commissioners and state election officials. At the end of the meetings, Funk was out on his ear. There is still debate about whether or not Funk voluntarily resigned.

In the year since the Funk fiasco, several counties across the country have scrapped voting machines—some even returning to paper ballots—citing security flaws like those Black Box claimed to have found in the Emory County machines.

To the folks who made Uncounted, the Funk saga is evidence of nefarious private corporations taking over our democracy. One of the film’s final scenes is Funk, presumably at his ranch, tending animals and looking out into the sunset. (Ted McDonough)

Voting: Funner Than Bingo

[Politics] Voting has not been a strong suit lately of my generation. Gen X,Y whatever you call them, I like generation "I" for ipod, iphone, i-dont-give-two-shits-about-the-world.

From the greatest generation to the progeny of the sixties, society has now arrived to us, the generation for whatever you call it, who really just stopped caring...about everything, least of all voting.

That's why I've been anxiously awaiting the election to see how the polls compared to a recent straw poll conducted at the University of Utah's Hinckley Center of Politics.

The results are interesting. For example, while today's polls showed Becker trouncing Buhler 64 to 36 percent the Hinckley straw poll shows U students narrowly giving the win to Becker at 45 to 42.

The results for the voucher issue were a little closer to the mark with election polls showing an approximate voucher defeat of 62 to 38 percent, and the Hinckley poll showing 67.99 against and 30.03 for.

The results are interesting, when compared, and speak alot to the generation difference. Yet what still concerns me is how much the actual difference matters at the polls. The Hinckley poll for example had over half of respondents describing themselves as 'very interested' in the election and over thirty percent saying they were 'somewhat interested.' These folks I am sure will go on to take active part in their community and be tomorrow's civic leaders--it's the ones that aren't interested that worry me. The uninterested, unseen majority of apathetics who's not caring might give tacit support to the whole world going to hell so long as ipods get smaller, sports vehicles get bigger and Fox News keeps dishing out trademarked "fair and balanced" news.

Anyways, whatever your slant, it's worth checking out the excellent work the Hinckley folks did on the poll, which has many interesting demographic breakdowns and results for the 2008 presidential election, here. (Eric Peterson)

Voting Under the Influence

[Booze News] Recently State Sen. Scott McCoy D-Salt Lake has mentioned pushing to loosen liquor laws that prohibit getting a drink at a bar or restaurant on election day. Mccoy said these arcane laws were "bizarre and inconsistent."

And sure, I agree, but at the same time I can appreciate the logic that once went behind discouraging drinking and voting. Voting is afterall a very important duty, one not to be taken lightheartedly. Heaven forbid anyone throw back too many boilermakers and then head on over to the polling place- the results could be disastrous, think of all the write-in candidates suddenly sweeping into office (Phil Mcrevases, Hugh Jasals, etc...)

And yet as with other activities we as a society see fit to temper our inebriation when performing (driving, operating heavy equipment), voting and drinking shouldn't be completely banned so much as it should just have limits.

So I propose that McCoy consider as a backup bill to his upcoming legislative liquor package (which already has the values vote kiss of death on it) one that would set blood alcohol limits for voting. This way when voters lineup to their polling place and they notice the fella ahead of them with bloodshot eyes staggering to and fro, they can notify a friendly poll worker who would then submit the individual to a breathalyzer test before handing them their ballot.

And then how about this, just to encourage voting, why not after somebody has voted, instead of offering an "I Voted" sticker, how about a shot? They've already performed their civic duty why not reawrd them with something better than a sticker. It could still have the effect of notifying others that they voted when, for example, Joe Voter returns from his lunch break with the smell of cheap bourbon on his breath, everyone at the office will know that he is indeed a responsible citizen. (Eric S. Peterson)