Ballot Bandit Tips On How To Steal An Election In Texas

A week ago if you'd asked me if it were possible to steal an election in modern day America I would likely have opined that such a thing would not be possible, what with me assuming there must be a lot of checks in place to assure the validity of an election.

Who could get away with such a thing?

Well.

A week later, methinks something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

I mean Texas.

Regarding rigging an election the following is what The Economist had to say about election day frauds...

With so many possibilities for subtle rigging, it may seem odd that the crude stuff remains so popular. Perhaps election-rigging is a hallmark of ill-run political systems, where corrupt local officials instinctively revert to the malpractice that comes naturally. Or perhaps, since the clever stuff can go wrong, ballot-stuffing is a safety valve. Politicians in shoddy democracies are learning what leaders in real ones have long known—you can fool only some of the people, and only some of the time.

A Washington Post article titled How to Steal an Election has some interesting information about stealing an election, along with a revealing graphic...

It's easier to rig an electronic voting machine than a Las Vegas slot machine, says University of Pennsylvania visiting professor Steve Freeman. That's because Vegas slots are better monitored and regulated than America's voting machines, Freeman writes in a book out in July that argues, among other things, that President Bush may owe his 2004 win to an unfair vote count. We'll wait to read his book before making a judgment about that. But Freeman has assembled comparisons that suggest Americans protect their vices more than they guard their rights, according to data he presented at an October meeting of the American Statistical Association in Philadelphia.

Then there is Arstechnica with an article titled How to steal an election by hacking the vote which includes the following disturbing warning...

What if I told you that it would take only one person—one highly motivated, but only moderately skilled bad apple, with either authorized or unauthorized access to the right company's internal computer network—to steal a statewide election? You might think I was crazy, or alarmist, or just talking about something that's only a remote, highly theoretical possibility. You also probably would think I was being really over-the-top if I told you that, without sweeping and very costly changes to the American electoral process, this scenario is almost certain to play out at some point in the future in some county or state in America, and that after it happens not only will we not have a clue as to what has taken place, but if we do get suspicious there will be no way to prove anything. You certainly wouldn't want to believe me, and I don't blame you.

Well now, what to make of all this? Does it explain the inexplicable in the recent Texas election? I don't know.

But, I think we will find out....