4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some Hanging - and Deadly - Chads, January 10, 2009
This review is from: A Margin of Error: Ballots of Straw (Paperback)
"I...have...a...sur-r-pri-se...for...you."
A corrupt governor, a stalker/hit-man and an election-day "observer" who has connections in high places; and they all have a problem with election official Cady Palmer. It looks like counting votes will be the least of her worries on election day.
Author Lani Massey Brown builds a foundation for the fictional conspiracy thriller through the real controversies surrounding fraudulent vote counts and political corruption, while basing the action in (Miami) Florida. There are the state-of-the-art ElecTron voting machines - that actually can rig an outcome better than a boxer can fake getting KO'd - and contingencies to dispose those who are working on the dirty secret; because the game is plausible deniability and protecting the boss.....at all costs.
Added to the mix is Palmer's assistant, Izzy Palacio, who may be an unwitting accomplice in the crime and a few dangling clues that gets Palmer thinking about possible storm clouds brewing in The Sunshine State and that she may be the lightning rod because of her integrity.
There are enough twists and turns that makes this race between deceit and truth too close to call until the final pages. And with lives hanging in the balance, there is no chance for a future recount.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A political thriller based on a plausible scenario of election fraud, January 21, 2009
This review is from: A Margin of Error: Ballots of Straw (Paperback)
As someone who teaches computer security and subscribes to several trade journals, I find the premise of this book to be extremely believable. The setting is Florida and the premise is election fraud on the new electronic voting terminals. Cady and Izzy are two female members of a technical team tasked with monitoring the results of the election, looking for anything unusual or unexplained. Neal is a man supposedly tasked as an observer but who is in fact working for people outside the state that are concerned about the potential for fraud. Leonard is a programmer who was fired for cause and is seeking revenge against Cady and whose mental state has turned malicious.
As the presidential Election Day proceeds there are occasional serious anomalies that need to be examined. While none of them appears serious, the behavior of the machines makes no sense. A small number of people who voted for a major candidate are told that they voted for a minor candidate and they protest to a poll worker. Furthermore, there are discrepancies between the exit polls and the recorded counts at the precincts.
When Cady and Izzy delve deeper into the problem and crack the encryption of the voting machine program, they discover that the program has been altered in an ingenious way. On the day of the election, a percentage of the votes for the Democratic candidate are altered in the following ways:
*) Some are declared invalid.
*) Some are switched to the Republican candidate.
*) Some are switched to votes for a minor candidate.
The plan was to switch a percentage just large enough to swing the election, but split the percentages among the three alternatives so that none is large enough to generate suspicion. The voting machines are completely electronic, so there is no trail of paper ballots that can be examined. Since the alteration of the counts will only take place on the day of the election, any test performed on subsequent days will yield the appropriate results.
Officials in the election commission and some elected political officials are the masterminds of the election fraud and when Leonard's mental state goes so far that he kidnaps and rapes Izzy, they get involved to cover their actions. Neal falls in love with Cady and assists her, but powerful forces are arrayed against them. Even the national political figures that sent Neal are reluctant to see the evidence of fraud exposed to the media. There is no happy ending here; Cady and Neal are unable to reveal the evidence.
What is disturbing about the scenario here is that it is very plausible in the technical sense. Computer security professionals continue to warn about the weak security in the electronic voting machines and know how easy it would be to subtly alter the vote counts. Therefore, Brown has written a thriller based on a form of election fraud that is very possible as the safeguards against it are currently inadequate.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Voters, Especially Florida's, Must Read List, August 4, 2007
It's a realistic novel that will intrigue anyone interested in fair elections, especially for Florida voters.
Realistic scenarios in the voting process that should make you wonder if this could happen or if it has happened.
Makes you wonder if paperless voting machines should be banned.
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