Customer Reviews

A Margin of Error: Ballots of Straw

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"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.

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.

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.

Politics is a tough career, with more knives in backs than a backstabbing convention. "A Margin of Error: Ballots of Straw" is a political thriller following Cady Palmer as she attempts to stand up for what she believes in the face of a corrupt governor and his deep reaching network. Not knowing who to trust, Cady submerges herself in the webs of deceit where her next mistake may be her last. "A Margin of Error" is an exciting read.

Lani Brown pulls off a topical and frightening scenario of 21st century electoral corruption in A Margin of Error: Ballots of Straw. Being the former tabulation manager for one Florida county's election committee, Brown has a unique insight into the machinations of our new voting systems, as well as a keen eye for a story. Her lead character, Cady Palmer, Deputy Elections Supervisor knows that Miami's election has been rigged by a high-tech stalker, but no one wants to hear it. People in power have spent a great deal of money to get the election results they wanted, and they don't care to undermine anything. Soon, Palmer's embroiled in a national conspiracy going to the highest reaches of government. This book reminded me of Don Bruns' Florida conspiracy/caper novel STUFF TO DIE FOR.

Lani Massey Brown uses well-written fiction to make a point to those of us who are neither political wonks nor computer-types. This book is a real page-turner and a good read for anyone that likes high drama. Even if you don't care about how easy it is to steal an election, the perils that confront the characters in this book make it worth reading just for fun.

Based on an author request, I accepted a copy of A Margin of Error: Ballots of Straw by Lani Massey Brown for review. The premise was certainly pulled from the headlines of today's elections... Electronic voting machines are forced on a state by officials that may not be totally impartial in the decision. The main techie who is responsible for an error-free election is outspoken over the fact that no means exist to audit the results. But she has to do the best with what she has, and document every procedure and process they have. As the elections get closer, a series of prank/obscene/threatening phone calls escalates for both her and one of her female staff members. A "spy" from the governor's office shows up to make sure she doesn't create waves as the election is manipulated. But the spy gets a case of ethics, sides with the techie (and falls in love in the process), and decides to work with her to blow the lid off of the whole corrupt establishment.

In terms of a plot that may be closer to the truth than we'd like, this book scores. Even as late as this week, it was discovered that one of the main electronic voting machines (all models) have had no audit trail to show when votes were deleted. Of course, the official explanation is "we didn't know, and we're working to fix it now". The truth may well be totally different. Unfortunately, the dialogue of the characters left something to be desired. Cady (the techie) and Neil (the spy) end up using each other's name in almost every sentence, and it makes for some pretty stilted conversational flow. If I'm talking to my boss, I'm certainly not using her name in every other sentence when I'm talking to her. It also took a bit of time to get into the story, as you're not really sure who the voyeur and phone caller is and/or why he's there for quite awhile. I almost felt as if there was an earlier episode that I had missed.

While Margin is not the best novel I've ever read, it was worth it to explore the issue surrounding the transparency and ability of American voters to participate in a free and honest election. We shouldn't let the lessons of Florida and 2004 go to waste.