Dan Rather Investigates Voting Machines -- Uncovers New Surprises About ES&S Touch-Screens

by jayr_patron | August 15, 2007 at 06:59 pm

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By Kim Zetter

Who would have thought that Manila sweatshops would figure prominently in the manufacture of U.S. voting machines?

It turns out that Election Systems & Software, one of the top voting machine companies in the country, has its machines assembled in a Philippines sweatshop. The $3,000 computerized machines at the heart of America's democratic system are assembled in a factory where workers earn between $2.15 and $2.50 a day, and the temperature sometimes soars above 90 degrees. This, and other surprising information, was uncovered by producers of Dan Rather Reports for an hour-long special that broadcasts tomorrow night (August 14) on HD Net at 8pm ET and again at 11pm ET (and several other dates and times after this).

You'll also be able to watch the show online (an HDNet
spokeswoman says they'll post the program online in full either in
advance of tomorrow night's broadcast or shortly thereafter). Until
then, you can watch a 12-minute clip from the show here.

CIA, Vatican editing Wikipedia

A new Wikipedia tool has apparently revealed the
CIA and the Vatican are altering entries on the user-generated free
online encyclopaedia.

The Wikipedia Scanner site trawls the popular online encyclopaedia and normally detects spelling mistakes and corrects factual errors.

However the scanner also compared the millions of edits to
Wikipedia entries against the internet addresses of more than two
million companies or individuals, unearthing the oganisations whose
staff have changed entries.

Among them are the CIA – which has allegedly changed entries
including one about the Iranian President --- and the Vatican, which
has massaged entries on several Catholic Saints as well as Sinn Fein
leader Gerry Adams.

Other organisations implicated in the new discovery are the US
Republican and Democratic parties, Fox News and the British Labour
party.

However the most widespread changes have been made by the Diebold
company, supplier of the infamous voting machines at the centre of the
storm surrounding the 2000 US presidential elections.

It's claimed company employees have removed up to 15 paragraphs of
content describing its involvement in the controversial 'hanging chad'
votes that were not counted in the poll.

SOURCE: Guardian/SBS

jayr_patron, I like this story. It's good stuff.

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Dan Rather Investigates Voting Machines -- Uncovers New Surprises About ES&S Touch-Screens

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