Unions, Internet giants plan to revolutionize voting

Unions, Internet giants plan to revolutionize voting

Want elections by smart phone 'just a click away'

Published: 09/28/2014 at 4:27 PM

Aaron Klein About | Email | Archive

Aaron Klein is WND's senior staff reporter and Jerusalem bureau chief. He also hosts "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on Salem Talk Radio. Follow Aaron on Twitter and Facebook.

The AFL-CIO union has teamed up with an online voter advocacy group funded by Internet giants and left-wing billionaire George Soros in a new online voter registration drive, WND has found.

The People’s World, a news website associated with the Communist Party USA, reported last week that the “voter registration” plan is “just a click away.”
Reports the magazine: “The AFL-CIO has teamed up with TurboVote to make voting easy for you and for your friends and family. Not only can you register or update your registration, but TurboVote will help you with absentee ballots, vote-by-mail information, finding your polling place and even sending reminders by email and text so you won’t forget to vote.”
TurboVote, based in Brooklyn, New York, defines itself as “an application that makes voting easy.”
In the “What We Do” section of its website, TurboVote lays out its mission: “When you sign up (won’t you sign up?), we keep track of your elections, local and national. And if you need to get registered, update your voter registration, or request an absentee ballot, we’ll get you all the forms and information you need, when you need them.”
WND has found TurboVote is linked to Internet giants like Google. The website lists its seven funders, including Google Politics.
Another funder of TurboVote is the Democracy Fund, which was created in 2011 by eBay Founder Pierre Omidyar as an initiative of Omidyar Network. In 2014, the Democracy Fund became an independent private foundation.
TurboVote is also funded by the Sunlight Foundation, which in turn receives funds from billionaire George Soros’ Open Society.
While TurboVote currently focuses on functions to making voting easier, WND first reported that in largely unreported text, President Obama’s special commission on election reform recommended tablet computers, such as iPads, be used to cast votes.
Obama’s 10-person Presidential Commission on Election Administration released its recommendations this past January in a 99-page document available online.
Much of the media coverage of the commission’s conclusions focused on a summary of key recommendations provided by the White House.
The recommendations include the following:

• Modernization of the registration process through continued expansion of online voter registration and expanded state collaboration in improving the accuracy of voter lists;
• Measures to improve access to the polls through expansion of the period for voting before the traditional Election Day and through the selection of suitable, well-equipped polling place facilities, such as schools;
• State-of-the-art techniques to assure efficient management of polling places;
• Reforms of the standard-setting and certification process for new voting technology to address soon-to-be antiquated voting machines and to encourage innovation and the adoption of widely available off-the-shelf technologies.

A WND review of the commission’s full paper, however, finds far more extensive recommendations for electronic voting.
The document states: “Software-only products can be integrated with off-the-shelf commercial hardware components such as computers, laptops, tablets, scanners, printers, and even machine-readable code scanners and signature pad products.
“Tablet computers such as iPads are common components of these new technologies,” the document continues. “They can be integrated into the check-in, voting, and verification processes in the polling place.”
The commission called attention to new technologies that allow voters to “pre-fill” sample ballots at home that can be later scanned at the polling place.
The panel addressed concerns that such technologies can be hacked.
The commission stated: “The fact that a tablet or off-the-shelf computer can be hacked or can break down does not mean such technology is inherently less secure than existing ballot marking methods if proper precautions are taken.”
The concept of electronic voting is already being tested.
WND reported in 2012 that SCYTL, an international company that purchased the leading U.S. electronic voting firm, announced the successful implementation of technology that allows ballots to be cast using Google and Apple smart phones and tablet computers.
Obama’s panel was chaired by Robert F. Bauer, the president’s personal attorney who served as White House counsel until 2011.
With additional research by Brenda J. Elliott.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/09/unions-internet-giants-plan-to-revolutionize-voting/#esUue35K9bFTKFAq.99