#1303 Election Systems are Not to Be Trusted, They are to Be Verifiable
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 September 2019
⏱️ 86 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date: 9/6/2019
Today we take a look at the fact that our election system is designed to fail in ways that undermine the legitimacy of our elections and, by extension, our entire democracy.
Be part of the show! Leave a message at 202-999-3991
EPISODE SPONSORS: Blinkist.com/BEST | Election Ride Home| Clean Choice Energy
SHOP AMAZON: Amazon USA | Amazon CA | Amazon UK
MEMBERSHIP ON PATREON (Get AD FREE Shows & Bonus Content)
VOTE IN THE WEEKLY SHOW TOPICS POLL
SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: Holes and Gaps: Where Our Voting Systems Fail Part 1 - The Takeaway - Air Date 7-3-19
Even as our national focus has turned towards cyber threats, vulnerabilities in our election systems abound -- from outdated voting machines and hack-able technology to lack of paper back-ups and no procedural standards across states or even counties.
Capital One exposed the personal financial records of more than 100 million people — underscoring yet again the insanity of relying on proprietary, hackable computer systems "overseen" by ordinary county clerks to safeguard free and fair elections.
Ch. 3: VIDEO: Voting Machine Switches Votes - David Pakman Show - Air Date 8-28-19
Multiple Mississippi voting machines are caught flipping votes just as we've seen many times before
Ch. 4: Voting machine errors in Georgia seen as part of biggerproblem - The Rachel Maddow Show - Air Date 8-27-19
Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, talks with Rachel Maddow about the need for states like Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi to upgrade their voting systems to avoid undermining faith in elections
Ch. 5: Holes and Gaps: Where Our Voting Systems Fail Part 2 - The Takeaway - Air Date 7-3-19
Even as our national focus has turned towards cyber threats, vulnerabilities in our election systems abound -- from outdated voting machines and hack-able technology to lack of paper back-ups and no procedural standards across states or even counties.
Take action! Click the title and/or scroll down for quick links and resources from this segment.
A growing chorus of cybersecurity and voting systems experts are warning against new, unverifiable touchscreen voting systems known as Ballot Marking Devices
VOICEMAILS
Ch. 8: Go green - Alan from Connecticut
Ch. 9: Distrusting the press - Dave from Olympia, WA
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 10: Final comments on the legitimate concerns about voting from the disability community
TAKE ACTION!
Understand your state and local elections & take action:
1. Learn About Your State Election Policies&Voting System Paper Trail Requirements
2. Learn How Your State’s Election Administration Officials Are Put in Office& Fight to Unseat Those Not Actively Advocating for Hand-marked Paper Ballots
3. Attend Your Local Town/City/County Public Meetings and Advocate for Hand-marked, Voter-verifiable Paper Ballots.
4. Learn From/Get Involved With:
The Brennan Center for Justice
EDUCATE YOURSELF & SHARE
Vote Flipping Claims Underline Urgent Need to Fix Voting Machines (The Brennan Center)
The scramble to secure America’s voting machines (Politico)
How Officials and Citizens Can Protect the Integrity of Their Elections(City Lab)
Groups push lawmakers for hearings on voting machine security(The Hill)
Voters say touchscreen machines switched their votes in nine Mississippi counties (Salon)
Georgia’s New Voting Machines Must Be Ready for 2020 Primary, Judge Says(The Wall Street Journal)
A Top Voting-Machine Firm Calls for Paper Ballots(Wired)
Voting Machine Security: Where We Stand Six Months Before the New Hampshire Primary(The Brennan Center)
Researched and written by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman
MUSIC(Blue Dot Sessions):
- Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr
- A Path Unwinding - K4
- Derailed - The Depot
- Felt Lining - The Cabinetmaker
- Milkwood - The Cabinetmaker
- White Limit - CloudBreaker
- This fickle world - Theo Bard
- Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent
- Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
Thanks for listening!
Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com
Support the show via Patreon
Listen on iTunes | Stitcher| Spotify| Alexa Devices| +more
Check out the BotL iOS/AndroidApp in the App Stores!
Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft
Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft
Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Today's episode is sponsored by the Election Ride Home Podcast. |
| 0:07.3 | Someone's gonna be challenging Donald Trump for the White House and the Election Ride |
| 0:10.1 | Home Podcast is dedicated figuring out who that someone or maybe even multiple someone's |
| 0:15.2 | will end up being. |
| 0:16.8 | Every day at 5 p.m. Eastern, veteran journalist and this American life contributor, Chris Higgins |
| 0:21.9 | catches you up on what happened on the campaign trail. |
| 0:25.1 | Who's up? |
| 0:26.1 | Who's down? |
| 0:27.1 | What issues are getting traction? |
| 0:28.2 | And what the polls say? |
| 0:29.8 | It's a 15-20 minute show that keeps track of all the latest and summarizes it so you |
| 0:34.5 | don't have to be nervously refreshing your web browser 12 times a day. |
| 0:38.6 | It's like TLDR as a service. |
| 0:41.5 | So if you want to catch up on what you missed on your way home, search your podcast app |
| 0:45.9 | and subscribe to the Election Ride Home Podcast. |
| 0:49.8 | And now, welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of a Left Podcast in which we shall |
| 0:54.8 | learn about the fact that our election system is designed to fail in ways that actually |
| 0:59.7 | undermines the legitimacy of our elections and by extension our entire democracy. |
| 1:05.6 | So nobody will. |
| 1:08.0 | Before we get started though, I just want to give you this thought that I realized as |
| 1:12.0 | I was doing my research for this episode that I have really not been doing a good job |
| 1:19.6 | of presenting... |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jay Tomlinson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jay Tomlinson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.