HOLT BILL ON TRIAL: Election Reform, Fraud, & News Sunday 02/18/07

[freedomfries]

HOLT BILL ON TRIAL: Election Reform, Fraud, & News Sunday 02/18/07

A "paper ballot produced by a touch screen" is a misnomer, Rush!

http://www.josephhall.org/tmp/HOLT_2-5-07.pdf
:shrug:

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.
:patriot:
Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.
If you can:
:argh:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.
2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233
3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.
4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.

Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page
:patriot:

[freedomfries]

1. OpEdNews: 2008 Election Series Premiere - 10 dates in February

2008 Election Series Premiere - 10 dates in February

OpEdNews Press Release
February 17, 2007, 18:05:31
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_press_re_070217_2008_election_series.htm
Present or Speaking: Dr. Steve Freeman, Univ of PA, Paul R Lehto, Election Attorney, Atty Ken Simpkins
Are We a Democracy? Vote Counting in the United States

Featured Speakers

Dr. Steven Freeman
"Mass Scale Election Fraud in Recent U.S. Federal Elections"
University of Pennsylvania
Author of Book: "Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?"
http://www.AppliedResearch.us/sf /

Attorney Paul Lehto
"Legal and Political Standards for Verifying Democracy"
http://www.votersunite.org/info/lehtolawsuit.asp

Attorney Ken Simpkins

"San Diego County Elections: Case In Point"
http://www.nosleepovers.org/Ken's.htm

Election fraud cases in San Diego and elsewhere paint a disturbing picture of an emerging post-democratic America. Mass scale election fraud in recent U.S. federal elections is a nonpartisan issue whose time has come. This session will explore the values and standards of democracy and democratic elections (with many references to the Founders and the democratic theories they adopted) which are the basis for rules and definitions that determine whether or not we live in a democracy.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_press_re_070217_2008_election_series.htm

[robinlynne]

13. our very own Landshark in action!!!!

[freedomfries]

2. NJ: NYT: Proof Sought on Reliability of Vote Units

Proof Sought on Reliability of Vote Units

Richard Jones
New York Times
February 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/nyregion/17vote.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

TRENTON, Feb. 16 — A Superior Court judge on Friday gave New Jersey elections officials three months to prove that they had adequately tested the reliability of electronic voting machines or to remove them from service.

The judge, Linda R. Feinberg, said that beginning in early May she would hold public hearings into the security and accuracy of the machines, which are at the center of a lawsuit against state officials.

The suit, brought on behalf of critics of the voting machines, charges that the state did not properly certify the machines and that the equipment could not adequately protect against vote fraud.

The lawyer who filed the suit, Penny M. Venetis, said in court papers filed last week that a Princeton University computer science professor was within minutes able to circumvent the security measures on the machines.

New Jersey officials are trying to meet a January 2008 deadline to equip all voting machines with paper printouts that can be checked for discrepancies in the event of irregularities.
...
“This is a public issue,” Judge Feinberg said. “We should all be in the same place and that is to make sure the voting system is reliable.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/nyregion/17vote.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[freedomfries]

3. NJ: Judge wants ballot contingency plan

Judge wants ballot contingency plan
Doubts upgrades will be done in time

Associated Press
Asbury Park Press
February 18, 2007
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070218/NEWS03/702180426/1007

TRENTON — State officials need to make backup plans to replace electronic voting machines in most of New Jersey's 21 counties if they can't be fitted with paper printers before next year, a judge said.

At a hearing Friday, Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg said she doubted whether the upgrades will be completed by the deadline of next January set by the state Legislature. Lawmakers approved $21 million to equip 10,000 of the machines with printers that produce paper copies of electronic ballots in case of a recount.

Several voter-rights organizations have mounted a legal challenge to the machines, claiming they were never officially certified by the state and can easily be compromised by hackers.

A Princeton University computer science professor told The Star-Ledger of Newark last week that he was able to buy five Sequoia machines that were virtually identical to the ones used by the state from a Web site, and that a Princeton student was able to easily remove chips containing the machines' computer software.

The attorney general's office provided Feinberg with records showing that the state certified the machines in 1987, but no evidence they had been re-examined since then. She requested all documents related to the machines.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070218/NEWS03/702180426/1007

[freedomfries]

4. NJ: Election officials fear '08 disaster

Election officials fear '08 disaster
Confluence of pressures could be 'perfect storm'

Diane C. Wash
Star-Ledger, NJ
February 18, 2007
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-6/117177792397300.xml&coll=1

Election officials across New Jersey are bracing for what could be an election-year tempest in 2008.

With the presidential primary shifting to February for the first time, the new statewide voter-registration system taking effect and demands to retrofit electronic voting machines to produce a paper trail for voters, election officials said there is potential for turmoil.

"These are all major, drastic things. When you add them up, you can't help thinking it's a perfect storm," said Carmine Casciano, superintendent of elections in Essex County, where the new statewide voter-registration system is being tested.

Leading election officials are scheduled to be in Trenton Friday for a meeting with the state Attorney General's Office to try to resolve lingering concerns over statewide registration.

Teams of elections officials have been experimenting with the system for months and they said it should be ready for the June primary. But their optimism does not extend to the 2008 deadline for the paper trail, which would provide voters with a receipt that they could correct if they see an error.

"A centralized voter registration system is big enough," said Patricia DiCostanzo, the Bergen County superintendent of elections who also heads the New Jersey Association of Election Officials. "Let's get that right. Let's not be embarrassed, especially with all eyes on us with the new presidential primary."
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-6/117177792397300.xml&coll=1

[FogerRox]

10. Another election reform thread @ bluejersey w/pix

http://www.bluejersey.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4033

[freedomfries]

5. CA: Make voices heard on voting

Make voices heard on voting

Paul Jacobs
The Californian
North Country Times
February 18, 2007
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/02/18/opinion/jacobs/19_40_232_17_07.txt

It used to be that the West Coast was often credited for setting trends for the country, but like a shift of the polar axis, the East Coast has taken the lead by giving up the ghost on electronic voting.

From the land of butterfly ballots and pregnant chads, we find Florida Gov. Charlie Crist leading the parade back to paper ballots as the state jettisons its inventory of touch-screen voting machines and replaces them with a $32 million investment in optical scanners.

That is roughly the same amount that Riverside County has spent on electronic voting in less than seven years ---ñ and the meter is still running.

The comparison is especially ironic because Riverside County's previous registrar of voters, Mischelle Townsend, flew to Florida to help sell them on Sequoia voting machines used here since November 2000. Despite all the money poured into electronic voting, Riverside County counts its absentee and paper ballots on scanners purchased back in the 1980s.

The whole state of Florida is returning to a sensible, secure paper ballot system that affords the simplicity and transparency required for any legitimate election process. While this is a giant step toward election integrity, the ultimate dilemma is over ownership of our democracy: Do we consent to a privatized election industry or do we insist that the control of our votes return to the public domain?

In almost every other application, computers make transactions more convenient, if not necessarily more secure. But voting is something we only do sporadically and the lugging around of tons of equipment is illogical, impractical and extremely expensive.

We trust electronic banking and other forms of commerce because most transactions are verifiable on paper and with a few clicks of a computer mouse. That transparency does not exist with electronic voting.

...
Three public hearings are scheduled before the panel has three "regular" meetings with county executives and issues its final report to the supervisors. The first hearing is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Kay Ceniceros Community Center, 29995 Evans Road, Sun City .

The two other public hearings are scheduled for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Mar. 12 at the Riverside Central Public Library, 3581 Mission Inn Ave., and 9 a.m. Mar. 30, at the Palm Desert City Hall, 73-510 Fred Waring Drive.

You can communicate with the panel members and find out the times and places of other meetings by visiting the county's Web site at www.countyofriverside.us and clicking on the "Elections Review Committee" link on the right side of the page.

Through silence, we the people have acquiesced the power of this representative republic to private enterprise that now holds our votes as a trade secret. It is time to break the silence and save our vote by participating in public hearings that may determine the fate of our democracy.

Paul Jacobs of Temecula is a regular columnist for The Californian. E-mail: [e-mail].
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/02/18/opinion/jacobs/19_40_232_17_07.txt

[freedomfries]

6. Nat: InternetNews: Senator Introduces 'Disappointing' E-Vote Reform Bill

Senator Introduces 'Disappointing' E-Vote Reform Bill

Michael Hickins
InternetNews.com
February 14, 2007
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3659991

Florida Senator Bill Nelson, who last week called snafus during a recent election in his state "a mockery of democracy," has introduced a bill that would ban paperless voting.

Nelson, who represents the state that has come to symbolize election problems for its controversial handling of the 2000 presidential recount and a disputed congressional election in Sarasota in 2006, warned in a statement that, "if Congress doesn't get this done, I'm afraid our democracy could die from lack of legitimacy."

Nelson's bill is intended to shore up the nation's electronic voting system and restore voter confidence in the way all states record, tabulate and verify votes.

Specifically, Nelson's legislation would require all electronic voting systems, including direct record electronic (DRE) machines, to produce a checkable paper record.

It also would prohibit top state election officials from working on candidates' campaigns. In 2000, then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris oversaw Florida's recount while also serving as a top campaign official for GOP candidate George W. Bush.

But election integrity activists expressed frustration that the bill doesn't go far enough in ensuring that votes are counted accurately and that election results can be audited.

One activist, speaking off the record for fear of straining relations with key political figures, told internetnews.com that Nelson missed "an opportunity to do something really new and innovative. It's very disappointing."

No one on Senator Nelson's staff was available for comment at press time.

Nelson's bill is pretty much a companion to legislation filed in the House last week by U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, except for the ban on conflict of interest on the part of elections officials, which is not part of the Holt bill.

Another difference between the bills is that, while both require random audits of paper records against electronic tabulations in every congressional district, the Holt bill exempts states that have mandatory recounts under certain conditions.

"This is what we named 'The Get Out of Audit Free' card," said John Gideon, executive director of VotersUnite in an e-mail to internetnews.com.

Gideon said his organization supports many elements of both bills, such as the ban on wireless communications, requirements for disclosed source code and hand audits, as well as the mandate that testing labs be contractually independent from vendors.

But he said his group isn't endorsing either bill because "we believe we have a duty to call attention to the bill's unacceptable shortcomings and to call for the needed amendments."
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3659991

[freedomfries]

7. FL: 100 days later, Jennings still campaigns

100 days later, Jennings still campaigns
Jennings - the-almost-but-not-quite-congresswoman - spends her time meeting with Democratic House members, attending her party's events and, of course, calling her own contributors for donations.

Anita Kumat
St. Pete's Times
February 18, 2007
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/18/Worldandnation/100_days_later__Jenni.shtml

WASHINGTON - Every couple of weeks, Christine Jennings flies from Florida and camps out in a room at the Democratic National Headquarters where members of Congress sit and make fundraising calls for hours at a time.

Jennings spends her time meeting with Democratic House members, attending her party's events, like a recent retreat for Democrats in Virginia, and, of course, calling her own contributors for donations.

As each day passes chances become more unlikely that her one-time rival, Republican Vern Buchanan, will be stripped of his U.S. House seat in favor of her.

But Jennings still talks as if she has a chance to win the 2006 Sarasota area congressional seat. And she does it with the same vigor she showed before Election Day when she lost by a few hundred votes.

"I don't think it's been that long," she said.
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/18/Worldandnation/100_days_later__Jenni.shtml

[freedomfries]

8. PFAW: Fixing the machines???

Fixing the Machines

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=23548

November 2006, voters in Sarasota County, Florida, went to vote in the highly charged race to succeed Katherine Harris in the 13th Congressional District. All but absentee voters were relegated to voting on Sarasota’s paperless, unverifiable iVotronic voting machines. Unfortunately, these voters’ worst fears were realized. Sarasota County’s voting machines failed to register a vote for approximately 18,000 voters in that race—more than one out of every seven voters who attempted to vote on these machines.

Watch our expert forum on fixing voting machines! People For the American Way, PFAW Foundation, and others took a look at how the nation is still grappling with voting machine problems that could create controversy again in 2008.

Even though almost 15 percent of the voters in Sarasota County saw their votes disappear in this election, the state certified the winner by a margin of only 369 votes—less than 0.2 percent of the total vote. Meanwhile, dozens of voters have submitted sworn testimony that the machines changed, or flipped, their votes, required multiple attempts to register their votes, or completely failed to register their votes at all. (Watch testimony from Sarasota voters, who packed our meeting held to share their concerns.)

Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey recently introduced H.R. 811, with the bipartisan support of 191 co-sponsors (as of February 15, 2007). This bill, titled the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007, is designed to prevent what happened in Sarasota County from ever happening again, requiring all voting technology to be voter-verifiable, fully audited, and accessible to all voters. People For the American Way, Common Cause, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Brennan Center for Justice, Vote Trust USA, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, MoveOn.org, and others support the bill. What People For, and those other groups, realizes is that it is urgent that legislation requiring verifiable, auditable, and accessible voting must be passed now, or we will likely be stuck with the status quo—millions of voters relegated to voting on technology that is not properly audited, does not allow for the voter to verify their vote, and does not provide for meaningful recounts. (Check out our forum where voting machine experts discussed how technology can help or hinder efforts to run fair elections.)
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=23548
:shrug:

[freedomfries]

9. BradBlog Re-Post: Why the Holt bill must be amended

Why the Holt Election Reform Bill Must be Amended to Guarantee a Real Paper Ballot

Guest Blogger and Constitutional Attorney John Bonifaz on Concerns About Holt's 'Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007' (HR 811)
Guest Blogged by John Bonifaz
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4125

Ed Note: John Bonifaz is a constitutional attorney, the founder of the National Voting Rights Institute and a Senior Legal Fellow of Demos' Democracy Program. He further serves as co-counsel for VoterAction.org on behalf of the voter plaintiffs in the Sarasota FL-13 case.

Earlier today, The BRAD BLOG posted a short article about the new Holt Election Reform bill in the U.S. House urging readers to read it before either endorsing or rejecting the legislation. We hope to have a thorough analysis of the bill in the coming days and weeks. For now, Mr. Bonifaz, given his background, credentials and current work on the FL-13 case, provides a useful and important perspective on the new legislation.

We can and we should press for the principled position here: an amendment to the Holt bill that would ban the continued use of DREs and require a real paper ballot.

Today, Congressman Rush Holt introduced H.R. 811 , a bill trumpeted as requiring “a voter-verified permanent paper ballot.” But before we all jump on this train as the new guarantee that our votes will be properly counted in future elections, we ought to beware of the warning flag. A paper trail from DRE (Direct Recording Electronic, usually touch-screen) machines cannot protect the integrity of our elections.
Here’s the bottom line: The DRE technology is fundamentally flawed for recording and counting our votes. The Holt bill, unless amended, will further codify into law the use of this technology, piling onto the disaster of HAVA (the Help America Vote Act of 2002) a new disaster.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist recently announced proposed state funding to replace DREs in the state with optical scan machines for election days and Florida is moving forward on certifying the AutoMARK machine, a ballot marking device NOT a direct recording device. New Mexico has already moved away from DREs and has a blended system of optical scan machines and AutoMARK. New York may soon go that way, as may California and Ohio.

Why, in the face of this movement in the states, should we embrace a bill in Congress that allows for the continued use of DREs? Yes, optical scan can also be vulnerable to being hacked, but at least with optical scan, there are still paper ballots (marked by hand or by a ballot marking device) that can be audited or recounted to ensure that our votes are properly counted. DREs provide no such guarantee.

Yes, the Holt bill tries to say it is requiring a paper ballot even for DREs, but, in the end, a DRE "paper ballot" is nothing more than a paper trail, which requires voters to verify their votes after they have cast them in the DRE machines. Studies show that most voters will not spend the time to verify their votes after casting them into DRE machines. Thus, the "voter-verified paper ballot" is a fiction when it comes to DREs.

If none of this is convincing, we need to look no further than Sarasota, the current epicenter of this debate. A "voter-verified" paper ballot or paper trail in Sarasota would not have erased the problem with the 18,000 missing votes in the FL-13 congressional election. With most voters not verifying their votes, most of those missing votes would still be missing --- and with no way to recover them and derive voter intent.

As Brad Friedman rightly says, placing a paper trail on DREs is like placing a seatbelt in the Ford Pinto. The Pinto will still explode --- so what is the point of installing a seatbelt?

We can and we should press for the principled position here: an amendment to the Holt bill that would ban the continued use of DREs and require a real paper ballot. Otherwise, we're going to wake up in 2008 realizing the new disaster we helped to create.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4125

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

11. Circular shoot-outs are what got this country in the mess it is in now

Smart money is on amending HR 811.

The bill is not in Holts hands now, so it makes no sense to
attack him.

Attacking doesn't get results, it just alienates people.

You have to prove your points, and you have to rebutt
the opposition.

If you can't do that, then you have nothing.

If you want to have a good law, then the smart money is on
working hard to prepare your recommendations in a professional manner.

The opposition to VVPB is too smart to yell and scream,
-too smart to attack each other publicly,
-knows who the real enemy is,
-and appears far more creditable than many of us,
-and is too smart to enjoin in a circular shoot-out.

Legislation starts out not perfect,
Holt tried to improve the legislation by addressing activists points,
this made the bill more complicated.

Now the bill is in a committee and only the smart voices
will make a difference.

Instead of a circular shoot-out, strategy should be to do
everything possible to get the best legislation possible.


Disclosure: This message typed from a state that passed a verified
voting law and ran Diebold out - from a state where Diebold makes the touch-screens.
It wasn't done by yelling and screaming, it was done by presenting creditable
arguments and not by attacking the legislators who introduced our bill.
We had to work constantly to protect the legislation, it was changed 30 times while
in committee.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

12. Avi Rubin

I believe that HR 811 needs amending, but the fact is,it IS being amended.
It will take brains and hard work to do it right.

Here are Avi Ruben's latest comments on HR 811:

Saturday, February 17, 2007
H.R. 811, the new Holt bill
Earlier this month, US Congressman Rush Holt (D, NJ) introduced H.R. 811, a bill to amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified paper ballot. I have read the bill, as well as some of the criticism by various activists.

In my opinion, passage of the Holt bill would be the single most positive development in this country this decade to ensure the security, integrity and verifiability of elections. As a federal law, this legislation would establish a baseline for all states that would exceed the security and audit of elections in most states today.

The bill is well thought out. It addresses the issues of audit, security, privacy, recounts, conflicts of interest, testing, certification, and cost. I was personally privy to discussions on these issues as the text for the bill was being drafted, and I believe that the reason that this bill handles all of these difficult issues so well is that the Holt staffers took their time, acted deliberately, and consulted with the top experts, until they got it right.

The primary criticism from a subset of the activists is that the bill does not go far enough. For example, it does not ban DREs, as long as they are equipped with a voter verified paper record that is not kept in sequential order. Personally, I would support a ban on all DREs, with paper trails or without. However, the lack of such a ban does not detract from the fact that the Holt bill as it reads would do more to improve election integrity, security and audit than anything that anybody else is doing.

Similarly, when I read the NIST report about software independence (SI), and the resulting recommendation that legacy systems be allowed, and that only future systems will require SI, I would have preferred that all non-SI systems be immediately decertified. But, the net result of that report was positive and will ultimately lead to better elections in this country.

As we move forward, it is important to constantly improve our elections. I believe that the Holt bill has the potential to take the biggest step this country can take towards the ultimate goal of minimizing fraud and error, while increasing access, confidence, and thus, hopefully, participation in public elections in the United States.

Posted by Avi at 11:06 AM 3 comments

http://avi-rubin.blogspot.com/

[robinlynne]

14. secure accurate elections: Investigate San Diego 2006 election, petition

link here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/182978839?ltl=1171667878