Black Box: Gov Perdue Orders Inquiry Into BBV in Georgia!!!

[althecat]

"The governor said he would ask Cox, a Democrat often mentioned as a candidate for governor in 2006, to re-examine the system."

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0803/19guvvoting.html
Mirror - Scoop USACOUP Link...
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0308/S00138.htm

Voting security questioned
Perdue seeks probe after study cites risks in new state system

By JIM GALLOWAY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution


INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Sonny Perdue on Monday called for an investigation of charges that Georgia's new $54 million system of computerized voting machines is vulnerable to tampering.

"We're very concerned about the software, about the security of the ballots," Perdue said on C-SPAN while attending a gathering of the National Governors Association. "If turn out to be not reliable or can be tampered with, then they're -- frankly -- useless."

In Atlanta on Monday, Secretary of State Cathy Cox expressed "total confidence in Georgia's new electronic platforms," which she said "increased the accuracy of the vote count fivefold last year."

..... I love this bit.....

The governor said he would ask Cox, a Democrat often mentioned as a candidate for governor in 2006, to re-examine the system. She implemented it in November, after questions were raised about Florida's ballot system in the 2000 presidential race.


follow the links for the rest..

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[ibegurpard]

1. Is this some kind of sick joke?

Is that CATHY Cox? I can't wait until DEMAacivist and Eloriel see this!

[althecat]

2. I can't believe I saw it first... SNAP... n/t

Me too....

and I can't believe I saw it first... SNAP... :)

Tis nice to be the bringer of good tidings. Perdue orders inquiry into the shonky election system that elected him. The heat must be intense. I wonder what the Georgia Greens and Hugh Esco will say.

[ibegurpard]

4. I wouldn't call it good tidings

From my understanding, Cathy Cox has been a HUGE roadblock in trying to get this stuff addressed. Purdue assigning her the task of overseeing it is simply assigning "bi-partisan" window dressing to a likely whitewash.

[althecat]

6. The thing is... reporters cannot ignore inquiries...

Newspapers love writing about them. And they legitimate public debate and scrutiny by others. By everybody in fact. And remember this is the second State to order an inquiry....

I agree with you on Cox. I'll bet she comes out (momentarily) and invites SAIC to do the work. It would be good to head this move off at the pass if possible... but even worst case scenario, two whitewashes of what has till now been an impervious stone wall are better than none.

Finally... that Perdue is speaking out in such a way is a huge move forward.

On July the 7th this issue was not being discussed at all in Georgia.

On August 19th it has the Gov discussing it on C-Span.

I call that progress...

[BevHarris]

35. I agree with you, on all points -- this is gonna get bloody

Yes, Cox will try to whitewash with SAIC, but remember -- unlike the states that are considering buying and using SAIC to do the report, she already bought the systems. This is a no win for her.

I will be sending you a press release with some other updates shortly.

And yes, this development gives that crucial "safety factor" that allows the press to cover this, giving more exposure.

Gee, maybe the Georgia gov. didn't like being the the center of that ad parody about Diebold in the August issue of Hustler? Can anyone find the hustler link to that, by the way -- not the ad image, but the link to the ad image at Hustler? It's not on the main site. It was here once...

Bev

[DEMActivist]

23. ROFL, think we're turning up the heat in Georgia?

I do! See my post below about crashing Cathy's party.....

[althecat]

3. Can someone track down the C-Span link?

I have to get back to work.. will check back soon and see what fun is being had...

[Bushfire]

5. On hold with Malloy to speak about this

Will give Al credit for posting this on DU, and his site. Feel free to listen in.

[althecat]

7. How do I listen in?

[never cry wolf]

8. here's a link to the radio station site

they have streaming audio

http://www.ieamericaradio.com/

[never cry wolf]

9. bushfire is on right now

n/t

[althecat]

10. I caught the end of it.... Big Ups to BushFire

Fantastic stuff... and thanks so much BushFire for the credit (to be honest all I caught was you saying I was in NZ and the host saying yes that's a very good website - blushes). What else did you say?

al

[Bushfire]

12. Asked Mike if he trust the machines down in Georgia

and maybe Sonny Purrrrrrrrrrrdue doesn't trust them either. There was a thread earlier from an evil DUer who called into CSPAN catching Gov* Purdue off guard about the machines.

* after Gov since he may have been the winner by vote fraud, but we will probably never know...

on edit: I also got to talk about Maryland's "independent study being done by a defense contractor". Mike had a good laugh at that too.

:evilgrin:

[althecat]

13. Very interesting... and which evil DUer was that?

There are so many! Would love a link to the thread. How old was it...

[Bushfire]

14. I believe it was

seemslikeadream who busted Sonny on the air during the CSPAN call in portion of the National Governors Conference. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I don't have search abilities. :(

[never cry wolf]

16. do you think this is an example

of a duer making a real difference maybe??

[Bushfire]

18. I think it quite possibly is...

Sonny got embarrassed on public TV, and has to save face.

Way to go seemslikeadream :toast: :bounce:


You could be going down in history with Bev, Al, DEMActivist, Paranoid Pat, and many many others who've been pushing this like crazy!

[never cry wolf]

20. yeah, way to go

and if i remember from the thread this morning seems is an illinoisan too!!!

[seemslikeadream]

43. Really sweet of you to mention my name

with such hard working devoted people. I didn't think my call would even get much notice, maybe I was wrong? Just trying to be of some small help, anyway I can.

And yes steviet, I am in the cornfields of Illinois

[althecat]

19. Seems like dream is dream like again...

Thought so. Just listened to it. Well done seemslikeadream... you go girl! She did a great job on C-Span back when the NYT published their report.

I thought Perdue responded extremely calmly and sensibly to the question. Looks like he is better at spinning that cathy.

[althecat]

21. Seemslikeadream's last starring role ... link to archived thread

Archived Thread from July 26th...

[seemslikeadream]

42. well what do you know

That's what I get for going to bed early last night, school starts today lots to do this morning. Come back to find people are talking about me, little old me. You guys really make me feel great. And I really needed that. Its very lonely out here sometimes thinking nothing I do will ever make a difference. Thanks for the kind words.
Standing ready for my next assignment!

[ConsAreLiars]

15. seemslikeadream

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=192861&mesg_id=192861

[DEMActivist]

17. Here's the link to it

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=192861&mesg_id=192861

[Bushfire]

11. Shows are archived here

http://www.whiterosesociety.org/

Should be up in just a little bit. Makes it easy to find my call since I was the last caller.

[DEMActivist]

22. Crashing the party - my email to the reporter

In your article, you say:

On Friday, Cox plans to host an explanatory session for Georgia members of Congress. Staffers from five offices already have signed up.

Can you tell me where this "session" is going to be conducted?

Would you like to help the Black Box Voting.org Georgia Activists set up a demonstration of how the Diebold voting machines can be hacked at this session?

Would you like to break the REAL story at this "explanatory session" of Cathy Cox's?

If so, please call me at (contact info redacted)

---

I say we take a laptop to the meeting and show them all!!!!!!

Hehehehehehehehehe! Think the reporter will take me up on it?

[ibegurpard]

24. Can you pull that off?

If you could it would be fucking fantastic!

[DEMActivist]

27. Oh hell, yes! And I intend to!

Even if I have to disrupt the meeting and get arrested trying.

Cathy Cox isn't going to do another Diebold Sales Presentation without answering some serious questions.

Can you imagine the jaws on the floor when I walk in with a laptop and the Cobb County, Georgia file and show them how they changed the votes in it??????

[ramblin_dave]

41. What did you mean when you said...

"Can you imagine the jaws on the floor when I walk in with a laptop and the Cobb County, Georgia file and show them how they changed the votes in it??????"

How who changed what votes and when?

[Eloriel]

25. Oh, boy,

Let me at 'em. Er, well, let YOU at 'em.

I'm thinking about writing a Letter to the Editor about how hard we worked to try to get Ms. Cox's precious attention MONTHS ago about this problem. Whadya think, DA? Think they'd print it? (If I do write such an LTE, does that mean I have to actually read the damn paper to see if they print it???)

Edit: And shouldn't we rag on Jay Bookman about this "non-story" a little bit?

I'm sure you'll be calling our Libertarian friends tomorrow, eh?

Also -- what about swamping the SoS and Governor's office asking for a public meeting for this "explanatory" bullshit?

Eloriel

[DEMActivist]

28. All EXCELLENT ideas!

Sonny Perdue just turned the gas on under Cathy's seat. It's up to us to turn it up now.

I'm ready....are you ready? (I know, dumb question.)

[BevHarris]

36. You are absolutely awesome.

When is that session again? Who got the gilded invitations?

Bev

[Eloriel]

26. The main thing is: we CAN'T let this be yet another whitewash

We just can't.

Eloriel

[DEMActivist]

29. I have no intention of allowing that...

and with a little help from my friends.....

Garrett Hayes and I were going downtown this week anyway to view the documents in the Open Records Request.....

[DemBones DemBones]

31. You go, girrrls! (DEMActivist and Eloriel) Get CatWoman and

Ulysses to help, too, if they can. I can't drive to Atlanta now (medical reasons) or I'd be there to help! I will be out here cheering for you. Wish we had a cheerleader with pom poms icon. ;-)


Gimme a B gimme an E gimme an A gimme a T,
Whaddya ya got?
B -E -A -T
What ya gonna beat?
VOTE FRAUD!

BEAT VOTE FRAUD!

[Eloriel]

32. No, no, can't get CatWoman

If we did that, we'd have entirely too much fun. We'd have a riot. No, we'd cause a riot. No, we'd BE a riot.

ROTFL.

Man, I have so much pent up anger, angst, frustration about this damned subject that *I* could be a riot all by my self.

In fact, I just had this mental image of me walking into that room and simply EXPLODING once my feet crossed the threshhold. BOOM!

Let's go, Team! Let's PARTY.

Eloriel

[DEMActivist]

33. ROFL! The more the merrier.

Need a ringside seat for Hugh, though.

I'm gonna call the Governor's office tomorrow and ask for a special invitation to the party. Find out if they want a REAL investigation or not.

[TacticalPeek]

30. Kick n/t

[DEMActivist]

34. Kick

some good news to the top.

[RedEagle]

37. Invite other Press, etc., ....

Let the press know you intend to be there and demonstrate- but a bit more quietly, in case Purdue and Cox get (or are given) cold feet.

If you are refused entry in any way, have plan B in place, and give your own conference and demonstration.

Have lots of hard copy hand outs with contact information to hand out to any and all press there, interested onlookers, the legislature....

Yay Georgia BBV's!!!!:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[never cry wolf]

38. kick

back to the top

[Eloriel]

39. Okay, folks, let's go

I'll be posting some info separately -- activists, start your engines!

:evilgrin:

Eloriel

[PATRICK]

44. ambush?

Just wondering with the SoS cheerleader, the government officials who benefitted from 2002's strange skew, chosen press and computer company pitchmen whether BBV people are not going into a planned crossfire.

A surprise of two of our own wouldn't hurt. This might be used as an example of "dealing" with the issue, with an end PR result set up favorable to going ahead with the machines. Already the SAIC and delay game with "fair and balanced" news coverage is bogging down the advance, sidetracking the challenge.

More grassroots knowldege has to be spread to burn away the chaff sitting in pretentious or pretended ignorance on the top of the kettle. More public venues, more computer user education and mobilization. More challenges to half-wise, all convinced voter organizations like LWV and ACLU.

The ordinary GOP schmoes who dimly realize that computer fraud, perhaps internet voting might be their mainstay, might be dismayed at getting caught with full public awareness of the blatant insecurity, might be very nervous at someday being the victims of apolitical hackers with no agenda at all or just about anyone with expertise and a backer. First they would want to protect themselves. Lastly, they might try to do the right thing and rely on incumbency to close the doors they came in on.

Ultimately, the WH and their companies are calling the shots.

[Eloriel]

45. My Letter to the Editor, AJC

(sorta tries to warn off one possible deflection -- and the wonderful language of the last paragraph is DEMActivist's)

To the Editor:

An article in today's AJC by Jim Galloway, "Voting security questioned," reports that after being questioned about Georgia's voting machines on C-Span by an Illinois caller, Gov. Perdue called for an investigation into whether our $54 million dollar's worth of computerized voting machines are "vulnerable to tampering," as has been described recently in great and embarrassing detail by a research team from Johns Hopkins and Rice Universities.

In that article, GA Secretary of State Cathy Cox is quoted as saying, "Although we've not previously heard anything from Governor Perdue indicating concern about the integrity of our election system, we welcome his questions."

Gov. Perdue may have not expressed any previous concern, but concerned Georgians have been trying to raise these issues with Cox and the Elections Division since late winter -- shortly after the totally open and unsecured FTP site holding all Diebold's sensitive files was discovered. As we learned about this monstrous security violation and some of the contents of the files on that site, we did everything we could to try to get Secretary Cox's attention so she could "get out in front of this problem."

We were blocked and stonewalled at every turn. So much so that it finally became clear to us that the last thing the Elections Division and the Secretary of State wanted was our "help."

As a result of those troubling and discouraging experiences trying to be good and helpful citizens, we have little faith that an investigation by Cox's office -- or Georgia's Certififier, Dr. Britain Williams who has built a new career on certifying machines now for other states -- will be complete, thorough, competently conducted by disinterested experts, or yield accurate results.

Further, under no circumstances should Georgia be allowed to buy into the investigation and eventual "secret" report currently being conducted in too big a hurry, at Maryland's request (to which Ohio has now joined), by Scientific Applications International Corp. (SAIC), an enormous defense contractor (already a confict of interest) with ties to the CIA as well as the computerized voting industry (yet more conflicts of interest).

We cannot allow our government to privatize the vote. We cannot allow our government to abdicate the responsibility to hold free and fair elections to corporate interests.

Name
City/State
Phone

[seemslikeadream]

46. I'll be writing my letter later today

but I had to copy your's for a keepsake. So proud to be that infamous Illinois caller. I can't believe my call was the spark for this. Do you really think so? Anyway I'm just glad to be a small part of it all. I have been following Bev from the first day she started posting here. I remember saying to her that the people here were the best in the world and she would find true friends at DU. I said that because of the way so many rallied around coalminersdaughter when she had her problems with the press after that demonstration. I am one of Bev's biggest fans, say hi for me next time you speak to her.

[Eloriel]

47. Yes, absolutely, you infamous Illinois caller, you

ROTFL.

Purdue's on air promise of an "investigation," followed by the article in the AJC gave us a bit of an entree into the matter. It gives us a focus on which to base our calls, etc. and try to get MORE leverage.

It also gave us a heads up about the meeting on Friday, which we hope to be able to attend.

Yeah, I think it's absolutely astounding, frankly, and I'm simply awed by what one little teensy phone call on C-Span could do.

You go, Girl!!

C'mon, folks, need a little more DU participation here.

Eloriel

[RedEagle]

40. Physical security- the vote fraud panacea

"They said it exaggerated the machines' vulnerability to hackers and failed to take into account the physical security surrounding the machines."

This the standard, oft repeated phrase in defense of these voting machine black holes. Physical security has never prevented vote fraud in the past, why should it suddenly become the method de jour (sp?) of fraud prevention? Heck, quite often it IS the physical security that is compromised, hello? If physical security were all it's cracked up to be in preventing computer compromise, hacking, fraud.... the military, Pentagon, government.... even to a lesser extent, Microsoft, would never be hacked.

And Cox believes a few election workers will save votes from the ill intentioned? Can we have some less delusional officials in government?