Did E-Vote Firm (Diebold) Patch Election?

[Democat]

Now a former worker in Diebold's Georgia warehouse says the company installed patches on its machines before the state's 2002 gubernatorial election that were never certified by independent testing authorities or cleared with Georgia election officials.

If the charges are true, Diebold could be in violation of federal and state election-certification rules. The charges also raise questions about the integrity of the Georgia election results and any other election that uses patched Diebold systems that have not been re-certified.

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60563,00.html

[hang a left]

1. OK Bev go get em and get Arnold the hell out of Sacramento!

[Kelvin Mace]

2. This story is brutal!

They try to smear the whistle-blower and fail. The media is finally airing what Bev has been saying for over six months.

Folks, this is a clear violation of federal and state law.

David

Diebold AccuVote Ingredients

Taxpayer money.................$5000
Security Flaws....................328
Critical Security Flaws.........26
CEO commitments to
deliver election to GOP........1
Tamper-proof Paper ballots...0
Tamper-friendly digital
ballots................................At least 32MB
Your actual vote..................None of your business.

[CheshireCat]

3. bump

This needs to be national news!

[xultar]

4. Diebold CEO Statement...

I'm sure you've seen this but I thought I would post it here to keep it hot!
DIEBOLD CEO DECLARES THAT HE'S "COMMITTED TO HELPING OHIO DELIVER ITS ELECTORAL VOTES TO THE PRESIDENT NEXT YEAR"
Voting machine controversy
By Julie Carr Smyth for the Plain Dealer Bureau.

The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election.
O'Dell attended a strategy pow-wow with wealthy Bush benefactors - known as Rangers and Pioneers - at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch earlier this month. The next week, he penned invitations to a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser to benefit the Ohio Republican Party's federal campaign fund - partially benefiting Bush - at his mansion in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington.
The letter went out the day before Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, also a Republican, was set to qualify Diebold as one of three firms eligible to sell upgraded electronic voting machines to Ohio counties in time for the 2004 election.
Blackwell's announcement is still in limbo because of a court challenge over the fairness of the selection process by a disqualified bidder, Sequoia Voting Systems.

Here is the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/106207171078040.xml
Voting machine controversy

[Marthe48]

28. Walden O'Dell made News of the Weird

http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/nw030921.html

aptly, under the heading "More Things to Worry About"

[Eloriel]

5. Great! But

why the hell did it take so long for this story to come out? Ridiculous.

Glad to see it, I just can't stop scratching my head about the timing.

Eloriel

[Kelvin Mace]

7. Well, you know how it is...

It's taken us this long to prove to these people we are not cranks. Now, they are beginning to dig back into the old stuff since we are finally being "vetted".

David Allen
Publisher, CEO, Janitor
Plan Nine Publishing
1237 Elon Place
High Point, NC 27263
http://www.plan9.org

[The Zanti Regent]

6. Bev, get a hold of Faun Otter

Faun found some very bizzare anomolies with the California counties that used Diebold machines.

GO GET 'EM BEV!

[kimchi]

8. kick for democracy

[librechik]

9. We have heard this story here before--now it's confirmed

Bravo "Rob" in Georgia!

[lostnfound]

36. Does this mean the Rob_Georgia patch was 'Rob the noun' ?

not 'rob' the verb? If so, I'm so glad to hear that. For a minute I thought the bad guys had taken to outright mocking us, not just scr--ing us out of our votes (and our nation and our money and our children and our world...)

[DEMActivist]

37. LOL, well, kinda sorta....

The use of the word "rob" was probably in reference to a man named Rob.

But don't assume the programmers didn't get a ironic rush out of the use of the word.

[Mari333]

10. kick for democracy

:kick:

[schultzee]

11. I won't believe it if Dumbya wins the 2004 with computerized voting.

What can we do?

[AndyTiedye]

14. I Don't Believe California Really Voted for Ahhnold

The voting machines did, but how did the people vote?

[KeepItReal]

18. 900,000 votes like mine NOT COUNTED!?

They knew this was gonna be a big recall and they cut the number of polling places! I was forced to vote provisionally. And that vote did not count!? Check this out:



" With only a few months to prepare in the cash-strapped state, officials opened about 10,000 fewer polling places than in past elections.

Los Angeles County Chief Deputy Registrar Kristin Heffron defended consolidating 4,900 precincts into 1,800 for the time-pressed special election, saying the results proved "that consolidation was the right thing to do. We know people found their polling places."

Shelley's office projected the turnout would top 60 percent of the state's 15.3 million registered voters, revising an earlier erroneous projection that turnout could be in the range of 65 percent to 70 percent.

The semiofficial canvass completed Wednesday showed 8,359,168 ballots were counted Tuesday, or 54.3 percent of registered voters. But that does not count the estimated 900,000 provisional and absentee ballots cast on Election Day but not yet counted. "

http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/politics/story/1023433p-7180127c.html

[Spazito]

20. Now this is interesting!

The semiofficial canvass completed Wednesday showed 8,359,168 ballots were counted Tuesday, or 54.3 percent of registered voters. But that does not count the estimated 900,000 provisional and absentee ballots cast on Election Day but not yet counted.

Weren't they saying that over 2 million absentee ballots were cast prior to the election? If so, why is the figure now 900,000 combined absentee AND provisional ballots?

Another question I have is: what about the missing approximately 400 ballots from Alameda?

I have YET to see a set of figures that add up anywhere!

[kurtyboy]

29. Actually, there is a resonable explanation...

Absentee ballots are routinely counted as much as a week BEFORE the election--as they are received--but the count remains secret. Then, at 8:00 PM on election day, this is the first count released. Didn't you ever wonder how they could count 10 or 20 percent of the vote in just a minute or so?

However, absentee ballots are received on election day, and for a few days after, and these are put in the "yet to be counted" status, as well as provisional votes--which are cast by folks who cannot make it to their precinct on election day, but want to vote, nonetheless. (Did you know that on election day 2004, you can cast YOUR vote for president from

ANY

polling place the United States? It's true--you get to use the provisional ballot process, and your vote WILL be counted in your home precinct.

So, to have 900,000 votes LEFT to coiunt on election is perfectly reasonable.

How do I know? I spent days on end as an official Dem Observer in my local elections. I have a limited degree of faith in the process, and I think Black Box Voting is the biggest threat we now see....

[Wickerman]

12. kick

:kick:

[leftchick]

13. will this story make it to mainstream papers?

This is great story of the issues with Diebold/DREs and needs to keep spreading across the country!

[Kelvin Mace]

15. ATTENTION GEORGIA VOTERS

Please print out the Wired story:

FAX it to your state reps, your state attorney general, your local radio/TV stations, Max Cleland's office, the GA NAACP and the Carter Center. Call in to local talk stations and read it on the air.

KEEP THE PRESSURE ON!

The more presure we apply, the more they lie. Sooner or later, somebody is going to realize that jail cells are in the future and they are going to sing.

I know you can email links easier, but they can ignore and delete email easier. CREATE A PAPER TRAIL OF DISSENT!

This should be faxed in every county DA's office, every memeber of the GA board of elections, the office of *any* official who lost in the 2002 election.

The point of this story is that the entire 2002 election was conducted with uncertified software in DIRECT VIOLATION of state and federal election laws.

This IS a "smoking gun". People should now be pulled in to testify UNDER OATH about the election.

The people disenfranchised by this trickery are the citizens of Georgia. Only you can complain about it.

[MGKrebs]

16. One of the interesting things about this article,

is that Brit Williams, who I believe is supposed to be an independent tester/certifier of these machines- in other words, not cozy with the manufacturers he is testing for flaws- chooses to comment on the employment status of a Diebold employee. I find this disturbing. But then, it turns out his comment is inaccurate anyway. So, what or who would have given Brit Williams the idea that Rob was fired? And what on earth would inspire him to say it in an interview?

As my friend from Louisiana might say, "Dat don smell too good."

[DEMActivist]

19. It's a pattern!

Let us not forget that Dr. Williams had no qualms about describing the likes of David Dill, Kim Alexander and David Jefferson (Livermore National Labs, Computer Science Dept.) LIARS. He did so publicly - in front of the press, in front of congressional staffers, and in front of everyone present at the Georgia Dog and Pony Show on August 22, 2003.

If Dr. Williams is incapable of professional courtesy with his equals, what makes you think he'd offer anything close to a citizen like Rob Behler?

If you have no facts to back up your actions, label them conspiracy theorists, whack job nut cases, hysterical, uninformed voters. It's worked so far.....

[Kelvin Mace]

23. Williams has major, major problems

He is working for other states "certifying" these machines. Frankly, based on the interviews and upon his public statements, I question his expertise. He seems to have very little experience with Windows, has seen none of the source code, yet he constantly claims the system is secure.

If it is found that machines he "certified" are in fact completely insecure, then he faces civil and possible criminal sanctions for his actions.

No wonder he tried to discredit Rob.

David.

Diebold AccuVote Ingredients

Taxpayer money.................$5000
Security Flaws....................328
Critical Security Flaws.........26
CEO commitments to
deliver election to GOP........1
Tamper-proof Paper ballots...0
Tamper-friendly digital
ballots................................At least 32MB
Your actual vote..................None of your business.

[Eloriel]

24. Yeah, DEMActivist and I knew from the get go this guy had

no expertise whatsoever. Well, I take that back. He's great at bullshitting, lies and obfuscation. Not so good on remembering what he said in the past, and not so good at realizing that some of his former statements could actually surface when new statements come out.

Eloriel

[DEMActivist]

25. I think we're finally seeing signs

That this guy is feeling the heat. He's got himself so twisted up in pretzel shapes with lies, he can't remember which lie he told where.

This is why we'll see him less and less at the public meetings - he's terrified of coming face to face with knowledegable people. When questioned, his lack of knowledge shows too clearly.

Now we just have to keep the pressure on.

[hang a left]

17. KICK BABY KICK

[Spazito]

21. Dupe, ignore

[Spazito]

22. Here is a good op-ed piece "Computer Voting isn't fool-proof"

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/othercolumns/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1065951213314010.xml

( Spike Tree found it, thanks Spike Tree!)

[loudsue]

26. There is soooo much more that needs to hit the press on this

Today in North Carolina, I heard on NPR that N.C. will continue to use the old type machines where they are in place until the new machine certifications are clarified by the congress.

:bounce: At least they're holding back until they know more! :bounce:

Kickity kick for the late crowd!

:kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick:

[DEMActivist]

27. Whoooooo hooooo, one in the win column!

I know some NC counties are using the Diebold touchscreens...will they mothball them?

[loudsue]

34. I don't know if they'll mothball them or not, DA....

Sorry for kicking this thread so late in the game...just came back to the computer today.

I know that I hammered the facilitator at the hearing of the Bd. of Elections about the BBV issue, and referred them to BBV.com & .org. I've been so busy at work, I haven't had time to follow up.

Please, NorthCarolinians who have a free second.....PLEASE call the bd. of elections and offer your support and research! I'll kick in when I can...hopefully next week won't be so hectic!

:loveya: Thanks!
:kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick:
Sue

[leftchick]

30. From the Idependent in the UK!!!!!

This is one devaststing piece of writing against E-Voting! Thankfully in Britan posted it in Editorials but this needs to be SEEN!!!

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=452972

Heads up DEMA! You are in print again!

[DEMActivist]

31. Not just me....

many of the dedicated activists in Georgia are included in that piece. Andrew Gumbel did a wonderful job and talked to many folks.

The Zogby quotes in there are especially damning, don't you think?

[Spazito]

32. Excellent Article!

The message IS starting to get out!

[alfredo]

33. I talked with three county election officials yesterday

They are all working with the county clerk on what voting machines to buy. They seem to be leaning in our direction, they just need to be 'fine tuned.' they seem to know about Diebold's faults. I hope it was the pressure I put on my city council, or maybe there are other activist in Lexington Ky. I hope so.

I got an inside by agreeing to be an election officer for this year.

At orientation last night I forgot to ask if the memory card shows everything that transpires in the processing of the vote. I noted the paper readout just shows the votes cast, who certified the machine was zeroed out and when. I will see just what the memory card on a Shouptronics machine shows. If it is a complete audit of activity, I will be happy.

Lexington Ky is aiming at 2006 for the installation of new machines. We need to act quickly. They do want a paper trail, I am just not sure they are asking for the right thing.

[DEMActivist]

35. We are working on a similar situation

for an upcoming election. Can't say much publicly for fear of being locked out for being anti-Diebold activists.

Hopefully, we'll have some first hand experiences to recount soon.

[peabody71]

38. So now what?