Amend Holt! Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Tuesday, 2/20/07

[Melissa G]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Tuesday, 2/20/07

Rep. Jackson Proposes Amendment Establishing Constitutional Right to Vote

The United States is one of the eleven nations in the world that doesn't provide an explicit right to vote in its Constitution.

On February 13, 2007, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL, pictured above) reintroduced a resolution proposing an amendment to the constitution establishing the right to vote for all American citizens (H.J. Res. 28). The following article is posted on the Congressman's website.
see post one..
and...


Amend Holt!
Here are some key points from our Beloved John Gideon at VoteTrustUSA.
There must be no undisclosed voting system software. However, HR 811's proposed HAVA Section 301(a)(9), as currently written, fails to exempt software that is truly Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) from public disclosure. The bill must be amended to require true COTS software, such as the Windows operating system and standard printer drivers, to be escrowed and available to officials under confidentiality, but not publicly disclosed. // Connecting voting system components to the Internet or transmitting system information over the Internet facilitates hacking. However, HR 811's proposed HAVA Section 301(a)(11), as currently written, would allow the central Election Management System (EMS) computer of a voting system to be connected to the Internet. The EMS computer of a voting system is arguably the component most critical to protect from Internet connection. The bill must be amended to ban all Internet connections for all components of a voting system. In addition, the bill should include a ban on the Internet transmission of voted overseas ballots referenced in HR 811's proposed HAVA Section 301(a)(2)(C

from 'Daily Voting News' For February 18 and 19, 2007 <[e-mail]>



All members welcome and encouraged to participate.



Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

If you can:
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[Melissa G]

1. Rep. Jackson Proposes Amednment Establishing Constitutional Right to Vote

National Issues

Rep. Jackson Proposes Amednment Establishing Constitutional Right to Vote
By Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.
February 18, 2007
The United States is one of the eleven nations in the world that doesn't provide an explicit right to vote in its Constitution.

On February 13, 2007, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL, pictured at right) reintroduced a resolution proposing an amendment to the constitution establishing the right to vote for all American citizens (H.J. Res. 28). The following article is posted on the Congressman's website.


Most Americans believe that the "legal right to vote" in our democracy is explicit (not just implicit) in our Constitution and laws. However, our Constitution only provides explicitly for non-discrimination in voting on the basis of race, sex, and age in the 15th, 19th and 26th Amendments respectively.


Even though the "vote of the people" is perceived as supreme in our democracy - because voting rights are protective of all other rights - Justice Scalia in Bush v. Gore constantly reminded Al Gore's lawyers that there is no explicit or fundamental right to suffrage in the Constitution. The Supreme Court majority concluded: "the individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States." (Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98, 104 (2000))

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2273&Itemid=26

[Melissa G]

2. Response to Avi Rubin's Support for Holt HR 811

February 18, 2007 at 07:41:43

Response to Avi Rubin's Support for Holt HR 811


by Bev Harris

Permission for anyone to reprint this is granted

Black Box Voting said...
Avi,

I think you mischaracterize what "the primary concern" of others is. You characterize yourself as a "top expert," but readers should know that your
expertise is only in one area: computer security. You do not possess any more expertise in constitutional law, audit design, or the legislative process than
anyone else, and thus one would hope that you would qualify your claim to expertise accordingly.

Here are some staggeringly large problems with the Holt Bill that you overlooked:

1. By making the EAC permanent, under the appointment of the White House, this bill fundamentally changes the checks and balances of our system of government
in an extraordinarily dangerous way.

2. This bill contains a billion-dollar unfunded mandate for "text converters." My organization, Black Box Voting, would love to obtain the budget worksheet
for how Holt's office concluded that 185,000 $7,000-machines with text conversion properties can be purchased for $300 million, but since the US
Congress made itself EXEMPT from the Freedom of Information Act when it passed that act, putting only the Executive Branch under it, none of us can ever learn what transpired between "top experts" and the U.S. Congress in crafting this bizarre unfunded mandate.

3. It's fascinating that the audits in the bill are NOT designed to make sure the right candidate is put in office (Holt's office's own words), but just to
provide "confidence" and find random errors. Even Holt's office admits that the audits have less than a 50% chance of catching fraud. Holt's office certainly
were provided with models for more robust audits, but chose to ignore them.

4. And speaking of unfunded mandates, the Holt Bill prohibits voting machines that contain undisclosed code -- and includes firmware (software housed on
chips) in this requirement. That would effectively ban every voting machine in America (perhaps not a bad thing...) but, again, provides no funding for such a radical move.

It isn't up to the manufacturers, of course, to disclose all that code -- many of the chips containing firmware are made by third parties, so the voting machine vendors have no authority to release the source code -- in fact, they don't even have it in their possession, and in some cases it is in the custody only of companies in Asia.

I was very surprised to see that you were involved in writing this bill, since the absolute prohibition against any undisclosed firmware, and the resulting
unlegislatable complications due to such firmware being owned by foreign companies, certainly IS in your area of expertise.

But carry on. As will the dozens of election integrity groups, election officials, and disability rights organizations that are AGAINST this bill.

here is Avi Rubin's piece on HR 811 from his blog:
http://avi-rubin.blogspot.com/2007/02/hr-811-new-holt-bill.html

2/18/2007 10:03 AM


Black Box Voting said...
Two arguments:

(1) The experts know best
(2) It's "good enough", something is better than nothing, don't expect it to be perfect

From Appendix F, government propaganda manual:

(1) Appeal to Authority. Appeals to authority cite prominent figures that support a position, idea, argument, or course of action.

(2) Least of Evils - This technique acknowledges that the course of action being taken is perhaps undesirable, however, any alternative course of action would result in a worse outcome.

It's simply not true that "something is better than nothing" if that something is harmful to the fundamental checks and balances in our system of government, and if that something contains $1 billion (minimum) to $5 billion (if you follows the undisclosed code problem) in unfunded mandates that counties cannot afford -- and doesn't solve the problem anyway.

Three things not addressed in the Holt Bill:

1) Citizen rights -- it instead turns all auditing rights over to governmental agencies who in some cases will be asked to audit themselves

2) Right of citizen access to ANY information to allow citizens to authenticate elections

3) Consequences or meaningful deterrents - The bill also does not address consequences for public officials who flaunt the law, and those of us working
on the front lines see that every day, and realize that any law passed will have no teeth if it doesn't address CITIZEN remedies and consequences.

Yes, the Holt Bill does give the right to sue, but we already have the right to sue in many cases, such as refusal of officials to turn over public records,
and refusal of public officials to allow citizens to observe. Right to sue means, if you the citizen fork out $25,000 (at least) for litigation, a year or
so later you MIGHT be told you were correct, the public official MIGHT be told to change their behavior, but there are generally no punitive consequences -- no real deterrents -- to prevent them from saying "so sue me" the next time.



Bev Harris is executive director of Black Box Voting, Inc. an advocacy group opposed to electronic voting methods based on non open-source code.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bev_harr_070218_response_to_avi_rubi.htm

[Melissa G]

3. Campaign Strengthens For a Voting Paper Trail

Campaign Strengthens For a Voting Paper Trail

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, February 19, 2007; Page A17

Efforts are intensifying in Congress to pass legislation that would require electronic touch-screen voting machines used in federal elections to provide paper trails that could be checked in the case of a recount.

The new momentum is the result of lingering concerns about the machines as the 2008 presidential primaries fast approach, as well as strong support for changes by the new Democratic majority, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chair of the Rules Committee, taking a leading role.

snip
"Democrats are committed to election-reform legislation that requires all voting machines produce a paper trail," said Brendan Daly, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
The work at the national level echoes moves in many states. Often under pressure from voting-rights groups, 27 states have decided to require paper trails.

snip
In Congress, Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.) has introduced legislation to require paper trails and audits that test the paper results against the electronic tally, among other things. The bill has nearly 200 co-sponsors, and Holt wants it to take effect before the first primaries in January. Feinstein plans to introduce a similar bill soon.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/18/AR2007021801067.html

[Melissa G]

4. Invitation to Stealing America: Vote by Vote

Thanks to Galloglass for the post and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x468035

You are invited to a screening and presentation of…

Stealing America:
Vote by Vote

The Electronic Voting Crisis Facing Americans
in 2008 and
The Return of Paper Ballots


Meet Oscar-nominated, and Emmy-Award winning, film director Dorothy Fadiman when she headlines a presentation examining the electronic voting crisis of trust and accountability across America. Fadiman will screen her new movie StealingAmerica: Vote by Vote, a nonpartisan documentary.


"Dorothy Fadiman's powerful, moving, infuriating, comprehensive and brilliant new film might as well be renamed The Crime of the Century."
-Harvey Wasserman, The Free Press


The presentations will also feature: Steven Freeman, author of the book, "Was The 2004 Presidential Election Stolen? Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and The Official Count." This book was the basis for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 's recent Rolling Stone Magazine cover story.

Also, Paul Lehto, America's foremost election reform attorney.


A Panel discussion and Q & A will follow.


Monday: Feb. 26th at 6:30 PM. UMKC Student Center (RM106) 5000 Holmes

Tuesday: Feb.27th at & 7:00 Flarsheim Hall (RM310) UMKC, 5120 Rockhill Road

Wednesday: Feb. 28th at 7:00 Royal Hall (RM 104) UMKC, 800 E. 52nd Street

R.S.V.P. to be sure of a seat -------- Admission is Free

Questions? 816-256-7012 www.stealingamerica.org

[Melissa G]

5. Voting Machines as a Giant Ponzi Scheme

Thanks to babylonsister for the post and the DU discussion here..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x468044

February 20, 2007 at 05:20:45

Voting Machines as a Giant Ponzi Scheme

by Nancy Tobi

Just posted at http://www.blackboxvoting.org - A brilliant analysis by Nancy
Tobi that uncovers the actual schedules and timelines for the voting machine
product development cycle, revealing it to be a fraud on the American taxpayer.
I've excerpted the introduction here, but STRONGLY encourage those of you who
are in it for the long haul to read the whole article. It provides powerful
ammunition that should be passed along to ELECTIONS OFFICIALS, the MEDIA, and
BUDGET COMMITTEES. A PDF version will be uploaded tomorrow.

Full article:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/46701.html



INTRODUCTION

A Ponzi Scheme, by definition, is an artifice that is insolvent from its
inception, thereby defrauding its funders (in this case, the taxpayers). Ponzi
schemes work on the "rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul" principle, as new investment
(taxpayer) money is needed to fulfill promises made on earlier investments (tax
monies) until the whole scheme collapses.

Our nation has already suffered an incalculable blow from the use of expensive
computerized voting equipment, which, by all accounts, has been an abysmal
failure by every reasonable criterion: product quality, reliability, accuracy,
and security.

Taxpayers are now being required to invest in a certification and voting machine
procurement program built on a cycle of lag, non-implementation and
obsolescence:

• Products procured before guidelines are established for them;
• Guidelines and testing programs, while trying to catch up to features in
already-purchased equipment, add new requirements;
• Each new wave of guidelines obsoletes existing equipment;
• Successive waves of new investments (by taxpayers) are required to catch up to
previous assurances

snip

www.democracyfornewhampshire.com


Nancy Tobi is the author of numerous articles on election integrity, including "The Gifts of HAVA: Time to Ask for a Refund," "What's Wrong with the Holt Bill,"and the newly released "We're Counting the Votes: An Election Preparedness Kit." She is co-founder and Chair of Democracy for New Hampshire and Chair of the Democracy for New Hampshire Fair Elections Committee. Her writings may be found at www.democracyfornewhampshire.com

[Melissa G]

6. Advocacy Groups Call for E-voting Changes

Advocacy Groups Call for E-voting Changes

February 19, 2007 (Computerworld) --
WASHINGTON -- A coalition of voting rights groups last week called on the U.S. Congress to pass legislation requiring that electronic voting machines have printers attached to ensure that election results can be audited.

Speakers at last week’s Elections Looking Forward forum, sponsored by Common Cause, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and other advocacy groups, also sought solutions to other problems related to the failure of e-voting machines to meet expectations in recent elections.

Those speakers cited a lack of training for poll workers and administrative mistakes as causes of e-voting problems.

Efrain Escobedo, director of voter engagement at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said his group noticed that poll workers didn’t know how to change the paper in machines or how to reboot e-voting machines.

more...

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=software&articleId=283550&taxonomyId=18&intsrc=kc_top

[Melissa G]

7. Gordon says Comelec softened stand on Internet voting

Gordon says Comelec softened stand on Internet voting
02/21/2007 | 12:25 AM

.us Senator Richard Gordon on Tuesday said the Commission on Elections (Comelec)softened its stand on the implementation of Internet voting for overseas Filipinos.

Gordon, chairman of the joint congressional oversight committee on absentee voting, said that after the lawmakers raised the issue of legality on Internet voting, Comelec representatives agreed to just pilot-test the system.

The committee conducted a hearing Tuesday on the Comelec's plan to implement Internet voting for overseas Filipinos, particularly in Singapore.

snip
"In fairness to Comelec Commissioner Florentino Tuazon, he said they are willing to go on an unbinding test," Gordon said, explaining that for the May 14, 2007 elections, the Comelec will still implement Internet voting and voting by mail as specified under the law.
Still, the senator said the implementation of the Internet voting is "an unnecessary expense that we ought to spare our people."

"It's not even a good pilot, Internet voting is so full of holes, it's a very porous network and it would entail a huge amount of expenditure to ensure that the transmission is safe," Gordon said.

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/31441/Gordon-says-Comelec-softens-stand-on-Internet-voting

[Melissa G]

8. Provide ‘Paper Trails’ For Voting Machines

Provide ‘Paper Trails’ For Voting Machines

By the News-Register



Elections officials in West Virginia were wise to require that electronic voting machines used in our state must provide a “paper trail” showing what choices voters make in the ballot box. But not all states have such a requirement.

Members of Congress now are discussing that — and may enact a law requiring that all electronic voting machines provide paper records of ballots that are cast.

Twenty-seven states already require that paper records be provided. Officials in those states simply want to be certain that if questions are raised about tampering electronically with ballots, they will have paper records to check.

As we noted when West Virginia put the “paper trail” requirement in effect, that’s a good idea. It is more than a formality intended to reassure those who don’t trust computerized voting equipment. As sophistication concerning such equipment increases, the possibility of fraud also will increase.

http://www.theintelligencer.net/editorials/articles.asp?articleID=16493

[Melissa G]

9. Editor's note..Give Brad blog some bucks if ya have some...

Bradblog is one one the cornerstones of investigative journalism for the election reform movement..
Someone Please go ask Skinner to run a donation thread for him! I'm sending 20 bucks today!

Anyway...this is currently running on Brad's site and I bet it is okay with him if i run it in full.
mg


You are The BRAD BLOG
Please Help Us Survive...
Finally back at the anchor desk of The BRAD BLOG World News Headquarters after three (unexpected) weeks taking my dog and pony show on the road. Upon my return: a total of two cash dollars in the Snail Mail PO Box --- for which I am eternally grateful.

But even during the time I was away, we managed to bring you first-hand exclusive eyewitness reporting from the courtroom of the Scooter Libby/CIA Leak Trial in DC by Margie Burns, an important continuing investigative series you'll find nowhere else on the disastrously compromised EAC by Michael Richardson, the latest daily developments in our crumbling Electoral System saga as brought to you by John Gideon, insightful Video Snippets on a number of broader topics by Alan Breslauer, Guest Blogs from important newsmakers, and yes, I did my best to keep up, managing to edit, file my own exclusives, and work behind the scenes on all of the above even while making public appearances around Arizona and California, Guest Hosting radio broadcasts and working the phones endlessly to both dig and try to move mountains while barreling down the highways and byways at 80 mph.

PLEASE NOTE: I am not compensated for my travel or hotel rooms or public appearances or radio Guest Host duties. I don't have a book to sell, nor the time I'd like to find to try and write one or two. Rather I do all of these things because the word needs to get out. Nobody supports The BRAD BLOG but you --- when you do --- along with a few ad sales which bring in a few hundred dollars or so on a good month.

With much to do around here, continuously expanding duties required of me, long overdue web work/programming which doesn't come cheap, and no paid staff, the site is largely funded by whatever freelance writing work I have the time and chutzpah to scrape up.

If a mere 1% of those who read this site daily contributed $5 or $10 or $50 or more monthly (see the blue form in the right sidebar to subscribe monthly for any amount you are able!), we'd be able to breathe easier and, more importantly, continue to grow and improve so much of what we do around here.

A single contribution by PayPal or Credit Card is also tremendously appreciated anytime!

I'm quite certain that most of you currently pay $50 or more a month to a corporate multimedia conglomerate already making huge profits, for cable news services which fail all of us every single day. If you're able to share any portion of that with The BRAD BLOG, I promise we will continue to bring you the important investigative coverage, unflinching advocacy journalism with a sense of humor, and satire too often missing everywhere else --- even in the bulk of the Progressive Blogosphere!

I promise to keep things going here no matter how much it costs and no matter how little we take in via ads and donations. I believe the work here is simply too important right now to stop.

But please remember, your support means the world and every dollar contributed goes towards improving what we do, allowing us to try and grow and yes, even helping to assure we may be able to help cover rent and food each month in the bargain.

I could take different routes on this blog in what and how we cover things in order to improve traffic, readership, and ad revenue. It's not a difficult trick. But I'd prefer to keep doing what only The BRAD BLOG does and can do, in the way that we do it, since I believe we offer something almost nobody else does.

I know you hate these public pleas at least as much as I hate making them, so I try to keep them as limited as possible. In the bargain, to help me do so, please consider a donation to The BRAD BLOG today or even better, a monthly subscription available easily via the blue form at right.

Either option will likely take you less than two minutes, even as it continues to mean more than you can know. To all of us. Thanks for whatever you can do.

UPDATE: Snail mail address follows for those who prefer sending their donations the old fashioned way...


Brad Friedman
7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Thanks again!

[Melissa G]

10. The False Dichotomies Being Used by Democrats and Their Public-Advocacy Group Supporters to Prop Up

The False Dichotomies Being Used by Democrats and Their Public-Advocacy Group Supporters to Prop Up the Failings of the Holt Election Reform Bill
Misrepresentation of the 'Opposition', Fear of Failure, and a Bizarre, Unsubstantiated 'Civil Rights' Argument All Employed to Avoid Legitimate Debate on the Dangers of the Pending Legislation...
We've been discussing the pros and cons of Rep. Rush Holt's Election Reform bill (HR 811 ) since it dropped two weeks ago in the House.

There is, no doubt, much more I'll have to say about the specific pros and cons in detail here as we move forward. But for the moment, allow me to first address three false dichotomies opportunistically and/or disingenuously and/or naively being used by supporters of Holt's legislation in order to help see it passed by Congress.

In doing so, I'll share some of what I've learned over the past several weeks via my personal investigations into why it is that the Democrats who support the bill, along with their closely-allied public advocacy groups, are currently unable or unwilling to show the necessary courage to insist upon the banning of disenfranchising, failed DRE/touch-screen voting system technology from all American elections.
more...
http://www.bradblog.com/

[Melissa G]

11. From the op....John Gideon's comments in full...

plus the link to

'Daily Voting News' For February 18 and 19, 2007
Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

There must be no undisclosed voting system software. However, HR 811's proposed HAVA Section 301(a)(9), as currently written, fails to exempt software that is truly Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) from public disclosure. The bill must be amended to require true COTS software, such as the Windows operating system and standard printer drivers, to be escrowed and available to officials under confidentiality, but not publicly disclosed. // Connecting voting system components to the Internet or transmitting system information over the Internet facilitates hacking. However, HR 811's proposed HAVA Section 301(a)(11), as currently written, would allow the central Election Management System (EMS) computer of a voting system to be connected to the Internet. The EMS computer of a voting system is arguably the component most critical to protect from Internet connection. The bill must be amended to ban all Internet connections for all components of a voting system. In addition, the bill should include a ban on the Internet transmission of voted overseas ballots referenced in HR 811's proposed HAVA Section 301(a)(2)(C)....

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4166#more-4166

[Melissa G]

12. Election officials fear '08 disaster

Election officials fear '08 disaster
Confluence of pressures could be 'perfect storm'
Sunday, February 18, 2007
BY DIANE C. WALSH
Star-Ledger Staff
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.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-6/117177792397300.xml&coll=1

[Melissa G]

13. Hoyer: "If we conclude ultimately the machinery didn't work then we need to order a new election".

Thanks to eomer for the post and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x467981

Original message
Hoyer: "If we conclude ultimately the machinery didn't work then we need to order a new election".
Edited on Mon Feb-19-07 09:36 AM by eomer
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was interviewed by David Bender on his Air America Radio show Politically Direct and talked about the election contest in the Florida 13th Congressional District.

Here is my transcription of that part of the show:


David Bender: We just saw what happened in Sarasota, Florida, and in that election Vern Buchanan was seated, Christine Jennings has been on this program, is still contesting the validity of that. How do you see that playing out. Are you involved in the leadership in overseeing that process?

Steny Hoyer: I am. We're working with Christine Jennings, I've even talked to Mr. Buchanan, and the fact is that it is just... it defies reason that in some of the polling places in some of the jurisdictions, in one in particular, 18,000 people decided not to vote for the congressional office and voted for lesser offices in numbers greater than 18,000.

David Bender: Those of us in politics for a long time -- you're in your fourteenth term in the Congress -- that just doesn't happen.

Steny Hoyer: It defies reason and the chances of that happening are astronomical. Therefore, a reasonable conclusion is the machinery didn't work. If we conclude ultimately the machinery didn't work then we need to order a new election. We're not going to know who won or lost but we need to have a new election and that's really what we're looking at. We talked about that yesterday. We're pursuing that vigorously. It's in the courts in Florida but ultimately under the Constitution the House has the absolute oversight and right to determine who should be seated and we have the responsibility to do that. This is an election decided by less than 400 votes with a very substantial question raised.



To listen to the full interview, go to the Politically Direct with David Bender Podcast page and play 02/16/07 Segment 2. The excerpt above begins at 2:36 in.

http://am1090seattle.com/pages/85413.php?

[Melissa G]

14. Complaint filed with Debra Bowen about "One of the Worst Election Officials in the Country."

Thanks to Stevepol for the post and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x468028

Original message
Complaint filed with Debra Bowen about "One of the Worst Election Officials in the Country."


Brad Friedman has a good article about a complaint just filed with the new CA SoS, Debra Bowen. Friedman calls the elections official in SD, Mikel Haas, the one who oversaw the infamous Busby-Bilbray elecion fiasco, "one of the worst election officials in the country."

COMPLAINT FILED WITH NEW CA SoS AGAINST SAN DIEGO COUNTY'S REGISTRAR MIKEL HAAS


SD County's Registrar of Voters, Mikel Haas, has attracted the attention of The BRAD BLOG for many months as "one of the worst elections officials in the country." His policy of sending pre-programmed, election-ready Diebold voting machines home with poll workers weeks in advance of elections, without any training on security or assurance that the machines would be held in a secure environment, likewise attracted the ire of many San Diego County voters.

snip....

The voting machine "sleepover" policy is one example of the disregard by the Registrar of Voters of the proven vulnerabilities of the Diebold machines, which can be hacked in one minute and made to change the outcome of an election. In defending the sleepover policy, Mr. Haas points to the "tamper-evident" tape used to seal the memory card compartment as sufficient security against fraud. But, when one observer discovered on election day that the tape had been removed from the machines at two precincts, and reported the violation of the certification requirements to Mr. Haas, he refused to take the machines out of service and allowed voters to cast their votes on the then-uncertified machines...

snip...

Mr. Haas undermined the audit by "randomly" selecting the precincts to be audited before the votes from the precincts had been counted. That allowed the canvass to proceed with the foreknowledge of which precincts would be checked before workers completed the canvass. When the canvass revealed discrepancies, Mr. Haas certified the election without resolving the discrepancies as required by law.

Responding to the complaint will be a test for Secretary Bowen. She will either show voters that she will not tolerate elections officials who violate election laws, or she will show them that she is not up to the task of challenging those who care more about their own convenience than the integrity of elections.

More at the link.

Link: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4162

[Melissa G]

15. SPECIAL ELECTION DAY USES SAME OLD VOTING MACHINES

SPECIAL ELECTION DAY USES
SAME OLD VOTING MACHINES
Wasn’t the Empire State supposed to get new voting technology by now? > By Jarrett Murphy


Today's special elections for two City Council seats in Brooklyn and Staten Island were supposed to be a milestone for city voters: the last hurrah for old-fashioned lever voting machines, which after decades of service are supposed to be replaced with new electronic devices.
Thanks to a cascade of delays, however, New York City elections officials are now scrambling to figure out how much longer the clunky metal dinosaurs will serve the city – a question that involves two U.S. agencies, a federal judge, a besieged company, and hundreds of millions of dollars.

Had NYC met its own deadline for implementation of new equipment – already years later than federal regulators wanted – new machines would be in place by primary day of 2007, which is Sept. 11. This year is an ideal time for unveiling new technology and working any kinks out, because there's not much to vote on other than district attorney contests in three boroughs, and turnout is expected to be low.

The overall effort is mandated by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), a response to the contested presidential election of 2000 that required states to replace lever and punch-card machines with more accurate technology. But this past summer when the state began to evaluate voting machines, it hit roadblocks. Voting machine vendors were late to submit their devices for evaluation. In September, an auditor found problems with Ciber, the Colorado-based company contracted by the state Board of Elections to test the new voting machines for both physical workability and software security. Then last month, the New York Times broke the news that Ciber had failed to receive accreditation from the federal Election Advisory Commission (EAC), a fact that neither the commission nor Ciber had shared with the state board.

http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/viewarticle.cfm?article_id=3275&content_type=1&media_type=3

[Melissa G]

16. NEW: Princeton prof says e-vote machines hackable

NEW: Princeton prof says e-vote machines hackable
DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x468085



Company, elections officials say machines are secure
By Michele R. Marcucci, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 02/20/2007 04:15:35 PM PST


A Princeton University professor is claiming that some of Sequoia Voting Systems' electronic touchscreen machines can be easily manipulated to throw an election.
In a blow-by-blow on his school Web page and a separate filing for an electronic voting lawsuit in New Jersey superior court, computer science professor Andrew Appel details how he was able to purchase five of the Oakland-based company's AVC Advantage machines off a Web site auctioning government surplus items, pry open the back and access the computer chips that control the vote count.

He said security features the Oakland-based company claimed on its Web site were not in place on the machines he bought for $82 off www.govdeals.com.

``Anybody who has access to one of these machines for 10 minutes unattended could replace the computer program that adds up the votes,'' Appel said.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_5266691

[Melissa G]

17. WA: More than 176,000 names removed from voter rolls

Thanks to rumpel for the post and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x468081

Original message
WA: More than 176,000 names removed from voter rolls
Tuesday, February 20, 2007 - Page updated at 03:46 PM

By Rachel La Corte
The Associated Press
OLYMPIA -- More than 176,000 names were removed from the state's voting rolls last year under a new statewide voter database that was developed to help counties find duplicate registrations and dead voters, Secretary of State Sam Reed said today.

The purge of illegal registrations is the result of the new system that has consolidated all 39 separate county systems into one database in January 2006.

Reed said that from Jan. 1, 2006 to Dec. 31, 176,373 names were removed from the state's database of about 3.2 million registered voters:

• 39,814 duplicate voter registrations. Reed said these often happen when a voter moves across county lines, forgets to notify the local election office and then reregisters somewhere else. Under the new database, screenings for duplicate registrations are automatically conducted each day, and reports of duplicate registrations are generated for the counties. The counties confirm each record before canceling the duplicate registration.

snip

Reed said that just because a high number of names were removed doesn't mean that there is anything fraudulent going on -- its just that cross-database information makes it easier to quickly catch duplication registrations and voters who have recently died.

He said that for January and February of this year, so far 118,000 inactive voters, who haven't voted in the past four years, were removed from the rolls.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003580693_webvoters20.html

[Joe Chi Minh]

18. It seems to me that your authorities are still conspiring to prevent

honest, "above board" elections. What, in this present day and age, that says about your body politic, is almost too difficult to believe. Your President Eisenhower must be turning in his grave.

[Melissa G]

19. Many people are turning in their graves

Some were far too young to have gone...All because of stolen elections..
Does Election Reform matter?

I think so..

[Joe Chi Minh]

20. Some day, probably in the not too distant future, the historic and currently

ongoing, major, electoral fraud and voter suppression will surely be the subject not just of learned tomes and tertiary studies, but of a best-seller non-fiction book, and many others in competition.

You would think that at least the more high-profile Democratic leaders who currently seem uninterested in, even apparently sceptical of the matter, would be concerned that they will figure in such books as effectively on the side of the malefactors.

Or maybe - it's perhaps more plausible - they are waiting for their turn to act within a sequence of developments already in train, and which they are confident will save your nation from further electoral infamy. Let's hope it's the latter.