# Election Rigging - is this video genuine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 19, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-rigging-is-this-video-genuine/486629 "2009-02-19T23:06:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-rigging-is-this-video-genuine/486629/1 "2009-02-19T23:06:10Z")
[Or is it another Onion job?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEzY2tnwExs&feature=related) I don’t see the humour in it if so, so could anyone tell me if this is faked by someone else? > [@](#): > > Feeney’s 2006 congressional opponent, Clint Curtis, has previously provided a sworn affidavit alleging that in October 2000, Feeney asked Curtis, then a computer programmer at Yang Enterprises, to design a computer program to falsify touch-screen voting results in Palm Beach County.[18][19] Curtis subsequently passed a polygraph test commissioned by a Washington, D.C. private investigator. I’ve checked on Wikipedia, and that seems to confirm it happened, but I know Wikipedia can be erroneous. So, what’s the dope, Dopers? [Tom Feeney](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Feeney) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-rigging-is-this-video-genuine/486629/2 "2009-02-20T03:23:51Z")
Any source that claims to use a polygraph as evidence is suspect on its face. The only lie a polygraph can detect is whether someone’s lying about having an orgasm. ---
**Author:** ![RogueAOV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecb155/32.png) [@RogueAOV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueAOV)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-rigging-is-this-video-genuine/486629/3 "2009-02-20T07:19:07Z")
I did watch a interesting documentary on HBO called [Hacking Democracy](http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=234) And IANAE in computers but i do know the theory is sound in the man’s claims and that it at least concerning enough to warrant further thought. I personally would always be happier with a solid confirmed paper trail for any vote because computers are only as perfect as the programming, which is never perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-rigging-is-this-video-genuine/486629/4 "2009-02-20T15:07:40Z")
For the 2000 election Palm Beach County used the now infamous ‘butterfly ballot’. It was in response to that debacle that they decided to switch to touchscreens for 2004. There would not have been any discussion about touchscreens in October of 2000. This guys allegations against his political opponent don’t hold together at all. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-rigging-is-this-video-genuine/486629/5 "2009-02-20T15:48:01Z")
I saw a program with a spokesman for exit poll company. He explained how accurate exit polls are. Our government has no problem using them to determine whether a foreign election is fixed. The UN uses them. He also said they doubled the polling in the US to make sure the results were accurate. It was ,he said, statistically impossible for the polling to be wrong. Yet, it was wrong again. I guess our elections are now impossible for exit polls to work. They were reliable for generations though. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-rigging-is-this-video-genuine/486629/6 "2009-02-20T16:52:10Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > I saw a program with a spokesman for exit poll company. He explained how accurate exit polls are. Our government has no problem using them to determine whether a foreign election is fixed. The UN uses them. He also said they doubled the polling in the US to make sure the results were accurate. It was ,he said, statistically impossible for the polling to be wrong. Yet, it was wrong again. I guess our elections are now impossible for exit polls to work. They were reliable for generations though. GQ is intended for discussion of factual answers, IIUC. To that end - You make a number of claims above. Could you please provide cites for those claims that you believe to be factual? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-rigging-is-this-video-genuine/486629/7 "2009-02-20T17:02:57Z")
Further on the OP - > [@](#): > > Adam Stubblefield, a computer science graduate student who wrote a paper about Diebold’s voting machines, told Wired that Curtis’s code would not have been used in any voting machine, even assuming fraud, because (1) Curtis did not have access to any original voting machine source code, and (2) the code that Curtis claims to have written was “so trivial” that it would be easier to write new code than to try to incorporate Curtis’s code into the actual voting machine. [Cite.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clint_Curtis) Nor is there [good evidence of e-vote fraud in Florida.](http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2004/12/65896) Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![WoodenTaco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/45deac/32.png) [@WoodenTaco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WoodenTaco)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-rigging-is-this-video-genuine/486629/8 "2009-02-20T17:13:06Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > GQ is intended for discussion of factual answers, **IIUC**. Excellent cites **Shodan** , thanks. But what’s IIUC? I’m racking my brain trying to figure out what that could possibly be. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-rigging-is-this-video-genuine/486629/9 "2009-02-20T17:33:20Z")
If I Understand Correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-rigging-is-this-video-genuine/486629/10 "2009-02-20T17:41:11Z")
CandidateA.totalCount = VotingMachine.totalCount_0.51 CandidateB.totalCount = VotingMachine.totalCount_0.49 There. I just wrote some universal code that can be run on any voting machine to make Candidate A win. There are some trivial details to accomplish like insert the code into the existing code running on the machines and get it compiled for the appropriate processor. Oh, and I guess it has to be loaded on all the machines as well. But it’s universal! ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-rigging-is-this-video-genuine/486629/11 "2009-02-20T17:47:05Z")
> [@WoodenTaco](#): > > Excellent cites **Shodan** , thanks. But what’s IIUC? I’m racking my brain trying to figure out what that could possibly be. Sorry - If I Understand Correctly. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-rigging-is-this-video-genuine/486629/12 "2009-02-20T19:01:23Z")
> [@](#): > > In 2005, Feeney responded to Curtis’s allegations in a news article posted in the St. Petersburg Times. According to the newspaper, Feeney stated: > > ``` > * that he had no recollection of ever meeting Curtis or of discussing vote fraud with anyone; > * that he could not have discussed a plan to commit fraud in touch screen voting machines in September or October 2000, as alleged by Curtis, because, "touch screen voting machines were not even contemplated until November 2000" > > ``` I must say, those seem like particularly lame responses though. “He had no recollection…” - How convenient! “touch screen voting machines were not even contemplated until November 2000” - Contemplated by who? Is he saying no-one in the world was aware of them 3 months earlier? > [@](#): > > Regardless of the merits of the Berkeley study, Stewart said valid questions about the election results in Florida and elsewhere remain unanswered. To that end, a number of groups will be investigating and releasing reports in coming months. Any news on them? ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-rigging-is-this-video-genuine/486629/13 "2009-02-20T20:31:54Z")
> [@Folly](#): > > For the 2000 election Palm Beach County used the now infamous ‘butterfly ballot’. > > It was in response to that debacle that they decided to switch to touchscreens for 2004. There would not have been any discussion about touchscreens in October of 2000. > > This guys allegations against his political opponent don’t hold together at all. Feeney already said it was known of in the November of 2000, so who’s to say people ‘in the know’ weren’t aware of it earlier?