From the March 2004 Idaho Observer:

Apparently determined to avoid a repeat of the chad scandal that caused the Supreme Court to choose our last president and compromised voter perception that elections are fair and honest, the Bush administration passed the Help the American Voter Act in 2002. Under the guise of making it easier for all voters, including the disabled, to exercise their right to choose their leaders at the polls, a new age of votefraud has begun in America. Instead of traditional ballot box-stuffing, Diebold has developed a black box capable of any election result hackers, programmers and the interests employing them desire. And there is virtually no way of recounting the electronically-cast votes to qualify them.

The Inlander of Spokane published the excellent feature, “Cyber Voting” (Feb. 19, 2004) by Farhad Manjoo. The article states the stark realities of electronic voting as they are being uncovered by investigators such as Roxanne Jekot of Georgia and Bev Harris of Seattle.

Jekot, 51, a computer programmer, was initially excited about electronic voting but obviously rigged outcomes in Georgia elections in 2002 caused her to investigate the new system. When she analyzed the source code for the Diebold machines, she was shocked at how vulnerable they were to hacking. She described the security features as being akin to “locking the door and leaving the key on top of the mat.”

Jekot received an email circulating among those like herself who are tracking the security flaws of the Diebold system. The email did nothing to allay her concerns that electronic elections will be rigged. In the email, Diebold CEO Waldon O'Dell boasted that he is “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.”

Manjoo described a meeting with computer tech Jim March of Sacramento. March got right in and changed the results of a March, 2002 primary held in San Luis Obispo, Calif. March explained that anyone in the county elections office could accomplish the same thing. The Diebold system used in San Luis Obispo, Georgia and elsewhere does not leave a paper trail so it's virtually impossible to investigate votefraud with this system.

Former publicist Bev Harris began investigating the Diebold system in 2002. What she has uncovered should convince even the most trusting voter to question the integrity of blackbox voting. In the 1990s, for instance, before he was elected to office, Nebraska Senator Chuck Hegel was president of American Information Systems -- the company that built most of the voting machines used in his state. Harris also found that Diebold left the files used to run its system during the Georgia elections questioned by Jekot on a public server where anyone could download them. She also found the source code to be rife with security flaws.

Diebold executives and others defending blackbox voting are not able to counter claims that the system is open for mischief, but they are quick to describe the likes of Jekot, March and Harris as “conspiracy nuts” or “whack jobs.”

At least one thing is certain -- There will be no need to call upon The Supreme Court to choose the next prechosen president in 2004.