Shooty's News and Current events

It's no secret that the new voting technology--paperless, electronic voting machines--has increased the risk of fraud and incorrect totals. You have only to read the daily newspapers to see story after story of possible tampering and elections gone wrong.

Take Indiana, for instance. WISH TV, an Indiana television station, did a recent in-depth investigation of the election woes plaguing some Indiana counties after some precincts ran out of republican ballots shortly after the polls opened, and after some counties reported thousands more votes than registered voters.

What the WISH-TV news team uncovered was something far deeper even than a lack of ballots. A look beyond the present failings toward the fall election revealed possibilities for tampering that would scare even the most complacent of voters.

Top state election officials tend to work closely with the vendors of voting equipment. Republican Kathy Richardson, an Indiana State Representative who was Indiana's Hamilton County Clerk, purchased $1.3 million worth of electronic voting equipment from MicroVote, and says she plans to purchase $700,000 more. She told WISH-TV, “When you work with a vendor, you develop a relationship.” She works closely indeed. MicroVote's president, James Ries Jr., has donated to Richardson's campaign. Apparently, voting equipment companies don't see that as a conflict.

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