Reply #17: I agree with most of your points, but the machines in NH are Diebold.

[Peace Patriot]

The two corporations are closely related, however. ES&S was a spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture--Windows!), and they were, indeed, run by two brothers, Bob and Tod Urosevich. I think Bob left Diebold. But Tod may still be an ES&S. Diebold recently changed the name of its elections div. to "Premier," and started separating that div. from the rest of the company (which does ATMs, mostly), possibly in anticipation of lawsuits.

Diebold and ES&S also share political philosophy. Diebold's CEO was a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser. (He's gone now, too--Wally O'Dell). And ES&S has initial funder and major investor Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon foundation (which touts the death penatly for homosexuals, among other things).

CA Sec of State Debra Bowen hit ES&S with a $15 mil lawsuit this fall, over lies they told about the security of their disabled voting machines, which they sold to SF and other CA counties. She also decertified their Los Angeles County voting system (ES&S designed and manufactured, called InkaVote), because, unlike every other voting machine corporation, they did not provide her with equipment/software by the deadline, for her top-to-bottom review of CA election systems this fall. Experts found many security flaws in their L.A. system, and they were given 35 conditions that they must meet, for the Feb. 5 election. (I haven't been able to find out yet if they have met the conditions.). Bowen is a VERY INTELLIGENT Sec of State, working closely with computer experts, and may have found something--which could precipitate a corporate crisis. She's really on their case.

The FL-13 case--which involves ES&S 'disappearing' 18,000 votes for Congress in Democratic areas (in an 06 election that ES&S awarded to the Bushite (Vern Buchanan), by a margin of only 350 or so votes) went to the GAO in November for investigation (GAO, Congress' investigative agency, is one of the few agencies of our gov't from whom we can expect honesty). They might have found something. That case is highly, highly suspicious. It involves ES&S's outrageous assertion that their "right" to profit from our elections, with their "trade secret" code, trumps the right of the voters to know how their votes are counted, even in a stinko case like FL-13. They refused to disclose their software to Democrat Christine Jennings' lawyers, and the Jeb judge agreed with ES&S. My jaw dropped when I read about that.

More bad news for ES&S: They got exposed by Dan Rather in his hot documentary "The Trouble With Touchscreens" (www.HD.net). One revelation: ES&S touchscreens are manufactured in sweatshops in the Philippines, under highly insecure and onerous conditions. Great documentary! It's got some fascinating stuff on FL-2000, too.

The machines in question in NH are Diebold optiscans. And although they do have a paper ballot backup, NH has NO audit! ZERO automatic hand-count to check for errors or fraud. I was floored when I learned that. But even the best states do only a 1% audit. And recounts are generally not full recounts, but, say, 3% of selected precincts.

Nobody is counting our ballots! Even where we manage to get a paper trail, it is not being utilized at all--or not sufficiently--to verify elections.

Kathy Dobbs (stats expert) recommends 5% to 10% audit - needed to detect fraud. This is especially needed in a TRADE SECRET CODE system. In Venezuela, they hand-count a whopping 55% of the votes--and they have an OPEN SOURCE CODE system (anyone may review the code by which the votes are tabulated).

In sum: The entire country is extremely vulnerable to election fraud. And ES&s and Diebold are the two election theft corporations who pushed hardest for this fascist coup, and profited tidily from it. (Also Sequoia--the third big election theft industry player--also has ties to the Republican Party.)