GEORGIA DUers - - and EVERYONE -- help turn up the heat on BBV

[Eloriel]

As ya'll know, Georgia is "Ground Zero" for the BBV issue, with its 22,000 machines that helped give the Governor's seat to the first Republican in 130 years and helped defeat Vietnam war hero Sen. Max Cleland. (Not that there's any connection between their defeats and the machines, mind you. :evilgrin: )

Yesterday morning, DUer Seemslikeadream got through on C-Span and was able to ask Gov. Perdue about those machines. I missed it (drat!) but word is he was taken aback by the question AND that someone "that far away" knew about the Voting Machines. (If anyone can provide a transcript of that question and his response, it would be greatly appreciated.) Here's the link to that thread:

I got to ask Gov. Perdue on C-SPAN
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=192861

THEN, the AJC ran a story about it:
Voting security questioned
Perdue seeks probe after study cites risks in new state system
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0803/19guvvoting.html

And here's the thread on that:
Black Box: Gov Perdue Orders Inquiry Into BBV in Georgia!!!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=196905&mesg_id=196905

NOW, here's the plan.
First, let Governor Perdue know that people all around the country know about the voting machine problems in Georgia, the Hopkins study, etc.

Perdue's ofc: PH 404-656-1776
FAX - 404-656-7332
And you should be able to send an email here: http://www.gov.state.ga.us/document.asp?doc=contacts


Tell Cathy Cox the meeting with GA members of Congress should be made open to the public (from the AJC article, very last line):
On Friday, Cox plans to host an explanatory session for Georgia members of Congress. Staffers from five offices already have signed up.

SoS PH 404-656-2881
FAX [phone]

SoS Elec. Div PH 404-656-2871
FAX [phone]


ALSO: Write Letters to the Editor at the AJC about the subject, expressing whatever it is you want to express -- [e-mail]

REMEMBER: Even if your letter doesn't get printed, an influx of mail on the subject lets editors know this story is HOT. We've been trying to get their attention for months, to no avail. This is an opportunity to do so, at last.

A few ideas (pick a few or think of your own -- and post them here):
* that you hope the SoS's "investigation" won't result in another whitewash;

* that she shouldn't expect to rely on the mega-defense-industry, CIA-connected SAIC with its conflicts of interest and "secret" report;

* that concerned Georgians have been trying to get her attention since late winter;

* that a voter-verified paper trail and open source code is the only way to go (and why the rigid resistance to paper?) -- and that the "vote-buying" excuse is pure malarky, a red herring;

* that you wonder how many more Diebold machines she's helped sell across the country;

* that "you can't vote 'em out if you didn't vote 'em in"

* that her meeting with the GA Congressional delegation on Friday needs to be open to the public

* that it's a NON-partisan issue (very important) -- we don't want corporations with connections choosing our nominees and elected representtives at any level

* And so forth and so on. You know the drill. ;-) Post your letters or other ideas.

Speaking of trying to get the AJC's attention, DEMActivist has tried working with Jay Bookman, who wrote that amazing PNAC expose early on, when few were talking about it anywhere in the press. His response, "it's a non-issue" (or non-story, maybe was his term). Here's his email: [e-mail]


Here's a list of other AJC contacts:
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/services/info/staff.html


Let's go, gang!

Eloriel

[Rose Siding]

1. OK

kick

[Jim Sagle]

2. kick

[arcane1]

3. done!

and kick

:kick:

[seemslikeadream]

4. You know you can count on me!

I love to talk on the phone.

[shance]

11. I wish I had heard you yesterday****

You GO Dreamer******!!!!

:)

[CatWoman]

5. Eloriel -- you can watch Perdue

that show has been archived. the Aug. 18th show.

It's towards the end: http://www.c-span.org/homepage.asp?Cat=Series&Code=WJE&ShowVidNum=6&Rot_Cat_CD=WJ&Rot_HT=204&Rot_WD=&ShowVidDays=15&ShowVidDesc=

[Eloriel]

23. Dial-up sucks

But you don't. :evilgrin:

Thanks. I'm on at 33,000 something at the moment. It was just painful.

Eloriel

[TacticalPeek]

6. Nah...no story. Don't count those votes over there...just old, non-news.

Hey Greta, should Kobi and Gary hookup?!

KICK the CW!

[Capn Sunshine]

7. Done

I hope they publish mine. I have a habit of getting under the editors skin.:)

[donsu]

8. e-mail sent to gov.

nt

[Eloriel]

9. My letter to the AJC

(The wonderful language in the last paragraph is from DEMActivist. She strongly suggests we get that talking point out there wherever/whenever we can, so feel free to pick it up yourself.)


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.

[Zan_of_Texas]

32. just one small quibble

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

The computer people, like Dan Wallach at Rice of the Hopkins/Rice team, want source code for voting machines to be open source.

They say that even if everyone in the world knows what's in your code, it should be robust enough to defeat an evildoer.

Obviously, this is the opposite of Diebold's intent, and the rest, with their proprietary, secret song and dance.

Nevertheless, perhaps we should not emphasize the exposure of their code as being a security violation, since we are also asking all voting software companies to go ahead and make their code public.

Otherwise, great stuff.

I can't imagine what Jay Bookman is thinking, unless he is under pressure to not give this any column inches unless he absolutely has to.

[BevHarris]

35. People keep confusing "open source" with Diebold's security breach

Open source is worth nothing unless you have a feedback mechanism and you take action to correct flaws, publicly, then subject your updates to scrutiny.

What Diebold did was not open source, it was an invitation to commit election fraud. As Dem says, "They not only opened the door, they hung out the welcome sign."

Yes, we want open source, but that is something very different -- that involves feedback and constant improvement IN PUBLIC.

Now let's look at what Diebold is currently doing -- claiming they have fixed the flaws (but refusing to show us) and finally getting evaluated by the SAIC in a report that will not be made public.

That has nothing to do with open source, nor does their posting files on the FTP site. That was a security breach of staggering proportions, and the fact that they knowingly let it continue for years says all you need to know.

Bev

[Robbien]

10. email sent to the Gov and email sent to ajc

The point I stressed was that if it was so easy to get into Diebold to get the program, is Diebold's programming really secure? Then after they said they secured their site, it was broken into again. Should these be the people we trust with our votes?

Hope this helps.

[Eloriel]

12. News from DEMActivist incl Jay Bookman's response to another DUer

DA lost power a little before 9 a.m. this morning, but she did get to see that from early, early morning on, on WSB (Channel 2, ABC affiliate), the top of every hour led with the news that Gov. Perdue had called on Cathy Cox to conduct an investigation. THAT is absolutely amazing, folks.

Another DUer sent an email to Jay Bookman to the effect, still think this is a non-story? His response was 2 words:

No story.

Would anyone like to join me in trying to explain to this poor man exactly how much of a story this really is? (Be nice, please, no matter how much you want to wring his neck.)

His email: [e-mail]

And we should probably remember that his job isn't news coverage. I think he's the Deputy Editor of the Editorial/Op-Ed pages. See my first post for contact info for more news-related contacts, if you're so inclined.

Eloriel

[ibegurpard]

15. No story?

Georgia officials appear to do a complete flip-flop (not that I trust them one bit on their upcoming "review") on their voting technology after reports of security flaws come out and that isn't newsworthy?

[Bushfire]

17. My email to him

Dear Sir,

I've heard thru friends that you are under the impression that having your Governor order your Secretary of State to perform an investigation of your states touch screen voting machines happens to be a "non-issue". I would like to inform you that North Dakota has placed their purchase of these machines on hold until they can determine how secure they are. Both Ohio, Virginia, and Maryland have ordered an investigation of these machines. Even your own newspaper has reported on the Johns Hopkins study that exposed the flaws in these machines. Gov Perdue was visibly embarassed on CSPAN recently that someone in Illinois would know about what machines are being used in Georgia. Please don't feel that I'm belittling your opinion, but that many many people are watching what will happen with Georgia's investigation. If it is allowed to be done by a major defense contractor with ties to other voting machine companies like what is happening in Maryland using SAIC, a whitewash would be exposed as just that. Here are a few links should you want to verify any facts in this email, and please feel free to ask me any questions.

Sincerely,

Name
City, State

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2003/08/04/news/state/sta01.txt

http://www.saic.com/about/bod.html

http://www.nbc4.com/news/2395692/detail.html?treets=dc&tid=2652838160813&tml=&tmi=&ts=H

p.s. "An outside consultant assured the three-member panel recently that the report was nonsense.

"I hope you're right," Chairman Michael G. Brown said, taking a leap of faith and approving Diebold Election System's upgrades. "Because when they get ready to hang the three of us in effigy, you won't be here." "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42085-2003Aug10.html

[Eloriel]

20. GREAT letter, thanks

All nice and business-like. I love it.

Eloriel

[ParanoidPat]

22. Response to Bookman....

....No Story?

In answer to your "No story" in reference to the Diebold scandal it has become apparent that the AJC has "NO CREDIBILITY".
Our "watchdog press" are nothing more than "lap dogs"
I'll see your two words and raise you one....
"FOLLOW THE MONEY"
Thank goodness for the Internet, at least we can do the research and compare notes to find out the truth. Since you've apparently given up on carrying any 'real news', your services are no longer required, you can fold now!

Pat x. xxxxxx :evilgrin:

[ParanoidPat]

28. Bookmans response....

....Jay Bookman wrote:
>
>
>
> Yeah, right. You're as bad as the people on the right, insisting that >only those who see the world exactly as they do have any merit or >credibility.
> You have become what you claim to hate.

And my response to him!

It's not a matter of being on the 'left' or 'right' or seeing things one way or the other. It's a matter of being an American who still believes we should have the right to see how our votes are counted. I'm also a computer professional who HAS taken the time to look at and run the code. Party is not the issue here, corporations undermining the basic right of the people to elect the representatives of their choice is.

Whether the machines are 'safe' is not the only story either.
I've personally spent hundreds of hours doing the research that prestigious press entities such as the AJC previously did regarding the 'money trail', both through the www.FEC.gov and www.opensecrets.org web sites. Finding and cataloging the donations from the principles of the voting machine manufacturers and those companies that act as the certifiers of the machines (including SAIC and their subsidiaries) has taught me volumes about how one can hide campaign donations. The millions of dollars of donations involved, and the 'quid pro quo' contract awards (not just in the voting machine area) is indeed a story unto itself.

The financial information collected from the Federal Elections Commission is currently being rolled up into a presentation format to go along with a video demonstration of how an election can be hacked using the Diebold machines running the 'certified' version of software utilized in Georgia in the 2002 election. We are planning a live web cast of the taping for invited journalists, politicians and other interested parties. I assure you I will not be wasting any time contacting the AJC. You'll get your chance to decide if there's a story there after it's been reported in the real press.

Don't worry about your job, I'm sure the AJC will still be an effective newspaper suitable for wrapping fish and lining birdcages all over Georgia.

Thanks for your time,
Pat x. xxxxxx

[seemslikeadream]

29. Nice letter

really nice letter.

[BevHarris]

30. Pat -- Jay Bookman picked the WRONG person to be flippant with

Geez, that was a great letter. Made my day (along with a post in the Activism forum at http://www.blackboxvoting.org by Jim March -- another devastating bit.

Bev

[DEMActivist]

33. Direct link to Jim's post

Whoooo hoooo! Go Jim!

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/htdocs/dcforum/DCForumID12/43.html

[ParanoidPat]

40. Thanks Bev, DemActivist, and all who are helping.....

....Sorry I haven't been keeping in touch. Plans are still proceeding despite a number of 'strange' things going on here at the moment. :evilgrin:
Just a hint, keep someone at your house at all times! Due to my families schedule there is usually someone here 24/7 and for the first time in months, my house was empty for 50 minutes on saturday during which it was entered and both my daughters computer and my own computer were 'compromised'. The only thing that was missing is a disk drive that had nothing on it,(???) and two sets of files were deleted from my hard drive. (can you guess which ones? :)) Several 'goodies' were loaded on mine as well. Whoever did this were GOOD and they left very little evidence that they were here. However it seems they left several hints behind.

While they looked through the down rev software archive on the top shelf of my bedroom closet, they knocked a couple of small items on the floor and put a flight case that they removed back on top of those items. They also pulled out two books I finished reading a while back (Forbidden Truth and Fortunate Son) from under some stacks of paperwork and placed them prominently on top of the stack. Oh, and one more thing, GUYS! YOU LEFT YOUR PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER UNDER MY SCANNER! (They can have it back when they return my drive!) ;-)

On top of all of this, there's been a white Ford van with blacked out windows parking on the street across from my house watching the house, following my wife and I when we go out and taking pictures of the license plates of all of the vehicles that come and go from the house.
I snuck out the back door last week and made my way over to where they were parked to ask them what was up and I thought the driver was going to have a heart attack as I approached the van! He obviously was not in a talking mood and he took off before I could even say hi.:hi:
The look on his face was PRICELESS!

My poor wife is having anxiety attacks and nightmares but my kids are loving this. Between the secret meetings, surveillance, the TON of computer, audio, and video equipment gathering in my living room for our presentation, (You have no idea how much equipment it takes for a three camera 'broadcast quality shoot'!) and my kids having a field day sitting out front trying to take pictures of THEM, my life and home have taken on a rather surreal quality. It's kind of like being trapped in a Mel Brooks adaptation of a Tom Clancy novel. :)

After 12 years of living in this house I'm fortunate to have good relations with all of my neighbors. They're all aware of what I'm up to and they are all looking out for my family and me.

To give you a little idea of what we have planned here's a list of the crew we have so far,

3 camera operators
1 video switcher operator
1 audio console operator
1 lighting console operator/'grip'
1 director
2 VTR operators
3 audio/video technicians
5 person computer/IT engineer 'geek squad'

And this is just the 'A' team! :bounce: We still have a backup plan should something go wrong.

We're negotiating with some friends that do a political talk show on a local cable system for a possible 'live' event on cable to go with the web cast. We're still trying to decide on the venue for the actual video shoot if we don't use the cable company studio. If worse comes to worse, I'll have to do it here. It will be crowded but I do have DSL for the web cast link. I should have everything nailed down by the weekend. Keep it up Bev and DemActivist, we've got your back!

[BevHarris]

41. Pat, thank you for sharing this important information

Backups and more backups.

For my own list of bizarro circumstances this week, a person tried over and over and over again to make contact with me -- I was avoiding. A wad of cash was left on my porch. Small bills, amounted to $85.

Ohhh-kay. Along with a handwritten note about my phone being bugged and several references to "NASA." (???) Whatever. The note also included references to my house being broken into (yes, that happened, but I had not shared it until recently in public). It also described conversations I'd had on the phone with my husband.

I concluded this particular situation of mine was definitely NOT from anyone on the A team.

Thank you for sharing the exact nature of strange doings. And they wonder why we are taking some precautions.

Bev

[Eloriel]

44. Holy Cow, you two

Bev, what a weird story. The best they could come up with was $85? Sheesh. El cheapos, huh? :evilgrin:

Pat, what a story. You've got guts, fella. Hey, next time take a camera when you sneak up on them! Did you get a license plate number? Did you file a police report about the missing drive, etc.?

Yikes.

Eloriel

[ParanoidPat]

47. Well....

....lets just say the van didn't have a California plate and as far as the drive is concerned it was an older junk drive in an anti-static bag that I was using to prop up my router so I can see the lights and watch the traffic coming and going from the modem. :)
I have my camera ready with a 300 MM lens and it's loaded with high speed film!
As far as calling the police is concerned, if they showed up and walked in my house right now and saw the amount of equipment piled up around here, their first question would be 'how do you know it was stolen?' Are you sure it's not buried under something?

I'm really not all that worried. The house will not be left empty again and we've made arrangements to alert others should anyone show up here. I have a lot of really good friends and neighbors looking out for us and helping the effort with donations of time and equipment! As far as legal problems go, I've never been arrested or even gotten a parking ticket. (hence the name 'ParanoidPat', everything by the book) In some ways this is almost normal for me considering some of the things I've been involved with in the past. I'm only doing this because I can, it's important to me and my family and someone has to do it!
If not me, who? If not now, when? :evilgrin:
Besides, it's entertaining, educational, and look at all the really great people I get to hang out on line with! :)

[althecat]

51. If not me, who? If not now, when? - Says ParanoidPat Hero Of The Day....

"If not me, who? If not now, when?"

Phew... that's what I call stepping up to the plate. Kia Kaha Pat (Kia Kaha = "Stand Tall" in Maori).

I must say I am extremely impressed with your composure Pat - and that of your kids. I would love to be there for your recording but the little matter of a few thousand Kms prevents me.

You are without a doubt my hero of the day (along with DA and Eloriel and their grand plans for Georgia).

al

[BevHarris]

57. "If not me then whom?" THIS is an example of citizenship

Pat has done a great job on this.

[DEMActivist]

43. Hey Pat....

I have a watchMacaw....wanna borrow her for a few days?

Trust me, anyone comes in my house and they have one very big, very blue bird who intends to rip them to shreds to deal with.



Strangers do NOT enter her "nest" unapproved.

[ParanoidPat]

52. Up until last Christmas day....

....we had a blue attack bird too! His name was Blue. He became Christmas dinner for a pair of eagles! :evilfrown:
I'm not kidding!



I miss you Blue! :( (Our cats don't)

[Eloriel]

42. There's something so deeply troubling about Bookman's response

> Yeah, right. You're as bad as the people on the right, insisting that >only those who see the world exactly as they do have any merit or >credibility.
> You have become what you claim to hate.


The foundation of this issue is NOT about opinions, it's about facts and, in the AJC's instance, the SEARCH for the facts (or not). For Bookman to somehow imagine that he's entitled to ignore facts, or imagine them to be opinions, seriously concerns me.

I would like to think there's a miscommunication here, that perhaps he thinks that just because some of us go a little farther with our own speculation to find the just-past election questionable, that we are dealing in some "Sore Loser" angst and can't see clearly. But even that doesn't alter the facts that -- again -- stand at the very foundation of the voting machines issue.

The "credibility" issue rests on whether or not the AJC is interested in going after the FACTS, not whether they're interested in pursuing your concerns about the outcome of the last election (tho, IMO, that's a pretty heft clue that ought to be investigted).

And that's just the problem, isn't it? The election results CAN'T be investigated. There's no way for the AJC or anyone to find out via a recount of some kind, or an inspection of the code (which is forbidden, of course), just how accurate the election results ACTUALLY were. It's a closed loop. No way in, no way out.

The other things that bother me greatly about his response are that:

* it's so unbelievably arrogant
* it's basically a rightwing argument
* and who said anything (let alone ParanoidPat) about "hating" the right? (That's actually another rightwing talking point.)

Very, very disturbing and sad.

Eloriel

[Bushfire]

13. Rebecca Mercuri interviewed by Thom Hartmann NOW

http://mikemalloy.pmachinehosting.com/listen.html

www.notablesoftware.com Rebecca's website

on edit:

Thom's shows are also archived at whiterosesociety.org

on edit: spellun' & grammr

[CatWoman]

14. also

ieamericaradio.com or radiopower.org

[Zan_of_Texas]

34. Phily event with Mercuri and Landes coming up

Anybody in Philadelphia area?

Forum -- Voting Machines: A Threat to Democracy?

Sunday <> September 7 <> 2-5 PM

Philadelphia

Philadelphia Ethical Society

Rebecca Mercuri, Marc Rotenberg, Lynn Landes and others will discuss a wide range of controversial issues that surround the use of voting machines. Admission is free.

For further details see www.ecotalk.org.

(just found this at Mercuri's website)

[burr]

16. Time to turn up the heat on Georgia Democrats...

especially now that they need our support more than ever before. Time to make them work for our votes.

Call Speaker Terry Coleman's office, let him know what our party is really about!

The best time to send the wakeup call is before the General Assembly next meets.

<http://www.legis.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/gl_peo_detail.pl?Leg=gash118>

[Eloriel]

18. My letter to Jay Bookman

Jay, Jay!

After Gov. Barnes got caught all flat-footed and flabbergasted on C-Span yesterday morning (see replay at link below, it's priceless), and, grasping for straws, ended up putting Cathy Cox on the hot seat, do you REALLY still believe the Voting Machine issue is a non-story?

Tsk, tsk, what will we do with you? Here you were such a hero with that PNAC column you did, and you're totally zoning out on this, the biggest GEORGIA story in literally decades if not ever. Trust me, there's story aplenty there, just begging to be reported.

Heck, if you guys at the AJC weren't covering up for Cathy Cox (accidentally or on purpose, whatever the case may be), you could probably track down the money angle with your connections and resources. Gotta be one somewhere.

And just how many trips has Secretary Cox taken to hawk electronic voting (and Diebold, at least by inference)? And what about Dr. Brit Williams' new career certifying these infernal machines for other states? (Pssst. Here's a tip for you: He didn't do such a good job of it in Georgia, though he talks a good game.) And what about that tech guy who was involved, Larry Singer, the same guy who left Georgia four days after the election but surfaced recently as an "elections consultant" of some type, I believe?

And have you taken a good look at the conflicts of interest this entire industry has? Whew! That whole issue alone could curl your hair: http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingMachineCompanies.htm

You know, when I think of all the information out there, all the links and sites with tons of information about the hazards of electronic voting in general, and Diebold and other vendors in particular (and I'm going to go ahead and send you a few), it just shocks and awes me that you could still think this is a non-story.

I mean, really, what makes you think it's NOT a story? There's been vote tampering and fraud as long as there's been voting. Do you really imagine that computers will do away with that somehow? The truth of the matter is that computerized voting makes it EASIER, and greatly expands the scope possible, while reducing detectability, and in Diebold's case, auditability.

I dunno. Maybe if you got a look at our new Governor's reaction when asked that question by an Illinois caller on C-Span you might begin to think that there just might be a story in there somewhere:

C-Span link:
http://www.c-span.org/homepage.asp?Cat=Series&Code=WJE&ShowVidNum=6&Rot_Cat_CD=WJ&Rot_HT=204&Rot_WD=&ShowVidDays=15&ShowVidDesc=

Let me leave you with this thought: We cannot allow our government to privatize the vote. We cannot allow our government to abdicate the responsibility of holding free and fair elections to corporate interests. Do YOU really trust corporations -- with the kinds of conficts of interest they have PLUS the unparalleled computerized opportunity to manipulate the votes on a massive scale -- to be the ones counting our votes? I don't.

Why do you?

Name, city&state, phone

Selected Links:
Pima County (AZ) Electronic Vote Counting Procedures and Safeguards
http://www.pimademocrats.org/votingreport/votingintegrity.htm

"Hagel’s ethics filings pose disclosure issue," The Hill, Jan. 29, 2003: http://www.thehill.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx

"If You Want to Win an Election, Just Control the Voting Machine," Thom Hartmann, Guerilla Network News, Feb. 26, 2003:
http://www.guerrillanews.com/corporate_crime/doc1126.html"A Long

BlackBoxVoting.com
http:/www.blackboxvoting.com

History of Voting Irregularities," Bev Harris: http://www.workersrighttovote.org/more.htm

Who Counts the Vote http://www.southernstudies.org/reports/votingmachines-new.htm

"Can the Votes be Changed? Can the password by bypassed? Can the audit log be altered?" Bev Harris, http://www.blackboxvoting.org/access-diebold.htm

Interview with R. Doug Lewis, of The Election Center, by Bev Harris, February 12, 2003: http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3

"What Really Happened in Georgia," interview by Bev Harris with Rob of the "Rob-Georgia" file:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/robgeorgia.htm

Hopkins Report: http://avirubin.com/vote.pdf)

Diebold Rebuttal to Hopkins Report: http://www.diebold.com/checksandbalances.pdf

Rubin et. al. - response to Diebold rebuttal: http://avirubin.com/vote/response.html

BALTIMORE CITY PAPER coverage
http://www.citypaper.com/2002-10-30/mobs2.html
http://www.citypaper.com/2002-12-11/feature.html

YES! Magazine: Safeguarding the Vote
http://www.yesmagazine.org./26courage/pibel.htm

Mercuri
http://www.notablesoftware.com/evote.html

Lynn Landes website: http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingMachines-TechnicalIssues&Standards.htm

Verified Voting FAQ
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/drefaq.asp

CalTech/MIT report
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2001/voting2facts.html

[seemslikeadream]

19. Did you mean Barnes

or Perdue?

[Eloriel]

21. Good catch.

I did that THREE times on the phone with various govt offices this morning.

Fortunately, my email was still in queue.

The subject line, btw, is: Yeah, and the Earth is flat.

I was trying to be a little tongue-in-cheek about the whole thing.

Eloriel

[never cry wolf]

24. Hey, I just want to thank all you guys

You are doing a GREAT job. I wish I had more time to help but I run my own business and since discovering DU I have been in gross neglect and now my back is up against it. This is all very exciting to watch and I'll fire off some emails as soon as I get a break.

[ewagner]

25. 'BOUT TIME!

Finally somethign aggressive directed toward people who can do something!

Letter is going out now

E-mail to gov to follow.

[Eloriel]

26. Just one

One email, one phone call or fax.

We'd particularly like the Governor to know that the voting machine problem in Georgia is known around the country -- in fact, around the world.

Please take 3 minutes out of your day and make just one contact to the above people.

Oh! If you're doing any mails, this is absolutely PRICELESS to include: http://www.larryflynt.com/ad_parodies_gallery/source/vote-machine-parody.htm

Thanks, all!!

Eloriel

[DEMActivist]

27. Great thread!

Way to go Eloriel! Finally got power back!

[TacticalPeek]

31. Kix are for fair and balanced kids. n/t

[Rose Siding]

36. More.

We need more!

[Eloriel]

37. For the evening crew

while I try to get over being stunned by ParanoidPat's awesome letters.

I can't believe Bookman's letter. Zounds!

Eloriel

[althecat]

38. Wow Eloriel... I am in awe....

And everybody else... excellent stuff to. Jay Bookman is probably going to feel like he has stepped on a hornet's nest. Though knowing how stubborn news editors are.... lets see what happens.

Extremely excellent stuff...

And Eloriel.... I hope you have a video with you Friday - we should try and find someone to post some real video on it.

Al

[Eloriel]

39. I think DEMActivist is working on the video

Thanks.

Now can we get just a little more action here? C'mon people -- if we can get some traction on this, it could take us a little closer to defeating these monstrous machines.

We need your help? Or does your vote not really matter all that much to you? C'mon, I know it does.

Just 3 minutes to send an email to the governor. Or the SoS. We'd like a meeting open to the public on Friday, and we don't want any investigation done by SAIC or any other defense contractor or other sort of corporate whitewasher.

At LEAST tell him what state you're in and YOU know all about these Georgia machines. ;-)

Eloriel

[RedEagle]

45. Kicking this up

Let'em know in Georgia how you feel!

[TruthIsAll]

53. Send Perdue the "Voting Computer Fraud 101" Final Exam

Voting Computer Fraud 101 Final Exam

1) With the new computer voting systems, the following have been unavailable to the public:
a) Source code
b) Results of third-party certification analysis
c) Both
d) Neither

2)In the 2000 Presidential election, how many blacks were disenfranchised from voting?
a) under 10,000
b) under 20,000
c) over 50,000

3) The Butterfly Ballot was used in
a) Dade County
b) Palm Beach county
c) Broward County

4) The Butterfly Queen is
a) Katherine Harris
b) Teresa LePore
c) Ann Coulter

5) The excuse most given by election officials against the need for a voter-verified paper trail is:
a) The machines worked great when they were demonstrated to us.
b) Computers are much more accurate than punched cards.
c) They are already paid for.
d) Diebold is a world-class company.

6) The design of a voting system must provide:
a) anonymity of voter's ballot
b) tamper-resistance to thwart ballot-stuffing by voters
c) tamper-resistance to thwart incorrect tallying by insiders
d) comprehensibility and usability by the entire voting population
e) all of the above

7) Computer studies caution against moving to quickly to adapt electronic voting because of
a) engineering challenges
b) insider threats
c) network vulnerabilities
d) challenges of auditing
e) all of the above

8) The fundamental problem with a "direct recording electonic" (DRE) voting system is that the entire election hinges on the correctness, robustness and security within the voting terminal. Software flaws might be exploitable by
a) election officials
b) developers of the system
c) unscrupulous voters
d) operating system developers
e) all the above

9) The only known solution to potential fraud in a DRE is:
a) The software developer must release the software code
b) The machines undergo certification from a government contractor, such as SAIC
c) A "voter-verifiable audit trail" is part of the system
d) The election supervisor must pass a course in Introduction to Computers.

10) In the 2002 Senate elections, strange results did NOT occur in
a) Georgia
b) Texas
c) Minnesota
d) Massachusetss

11) Johns Hopkins researchers found significant security vulnerabilities in the Diebold voting terminal, including:
a) voters can easily program their own smartcards
b) voters can cast multiple ballots without leaving a trace
c) a voter can perform actions that require administrative priveleges, such as terminating the election early and viewing partial results.
d) even unsophisticated attackers can use insecure phone lines or wireless Internet connections
e) all of the above

12) The greatest potential attacking threats are from
a) A voter
b) A poll worker with access to storage media
c) A poll worker with access to network traffic
d) An OS Developer
e) A Voting device developer
f) An Internet provider
g) b,d,e
h) a,c,f

13) The Diebold machines "smartcards" provide very little (if any) additional security, because
a) They do not provide password encryption.
b) There is no authentication of the smartcard to the device.
c) An attacker can program his own,homebrew smartcard.
d) The attacker can thus vote multiple times.
e) All of the above.

14) Using a homebrew administator card, a poll worker who has access to the voting machines before and after the election can
a) gain access to the administrator controls
b) terminate the election
c) can with others shut down a polling place
d) deter a large number of voters from voting
e) all of the above

15) The odds of 4 out of ten hard-fought Senate elections all falling for the Republicans, with deviations from final polls all exceeding the margin of error (+or - 3%) is approximately
a) 1 out of 10
b) 1 out of 1000
c) 1 out of 40,000

16) Voting computers were thought to be the solution to overcome the problems of punched card machines (as occurred in Florida) and provide for more accurate voting. Which is false?
a) Voting computers are produced by Republican organizations.
b) There is no reason to suspect that computer software would be rigged.
c) It is reasonable to assume that even after knowing the pitfalls, the election supervisors who approve machines without voter-verified audits and thorough certification testing are part of the problem and must be replaced.

17) In Florida 2000, how many votes were double or triple-punched.
a) 20,000
b) 40,000
c) 75,000

18) We can assume the double or triple-punching happened because
a) Poor Blacks and old Jews are not too smart
b) It was due to poor ballot design
c) election officials realized the only way Bush could win the state was to invalidate Gore's votes.

19) Bush has said: "a dictatorship would be better, as long as I am the dictator" and "there ought to be limits to freedom". Based on these statements, and based on the obvious fraud which took place in Florida, we can assume Bush is
a) for full, verifiable paper audit trails.
b) for paper ballots, like they use in Oregon.
c) For Diebold voting machines, as they are currently configured.

20) A fascist dictatorship would probably like to
a) make election day a national holiday.
b) have the election take place all weekend.
c) Do away with the Electoral College.
d) Provide a full, voter-verifiable paper trail with federal certification.
e) Just leave the system as is and trust our election officials to do the right thing.

[BevHarris]

46. Okay, Cox is using the Rubin story to try to get out of hot water

AJC just wrote a lopsided and biased story. I just sent this to the reporter who wrote it:

What's in the data is in the data: It is Cathy Cox who is outrageous
From: Bev Harris
To: [e-mail]

And questions of your own bias should be examined. In your article you noted that election officials -- ELECTION OFFICIALS, not computer programmers -- took issue with the study, yet you failed to point out that the study has been endorsed by many of the top computer scientists in the nation, including Dr. Doug Jones, who not only is a professor of computer science, but an official examiner for voting machines for the state of Iowa, and Dr. David Dill, of Stanford University. You fail to mention that Dan Wallach, an entirely independent researcher from Rice University, was a co-author of the Hopkins study and stands by the findings, as do two more co-authors.

Just report both sides. Why is the Atlanta Journal-Constitution going
through such gymnastics to avoid just looking at and reporting the
facts?

By the way, the election officials you mention don't know a lick about C++ coding, remote access security, or the Windows operating system.

So, while your bias is showing, it looks like the next step is to
demonstrate hacking the system in the capitol building. Is that what it will take?

Just report the facts. You are slanting the story, and it's an
embarrassing show of poor journalism. Avi Ruben may have screwed up, but the data is the data -- nothing he does or doesn't do changes what's in that source code.

Bev Harris
Black Box Voting

[althecat]

48. Here's the link... reading it now...

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0803/20voting.html

[RedEagle]

50. Crying Wolf

As I said in another link:

One advisor to VoteHere who was never contacted and has asked his university to investigate....

Is trumped by-

SAIC, with two former directors now directors of VoteHere


If Diebold is going to whimper about Rubin's now former relationship, they should absolutely cry crocodile tears over SAIC's ties.

:nopity: :nopity:

[althecat]

49. To be fair... while biased it is probably to be expected..

I think it is also interesting to consider how the public will percieve this. I reckon anyone reading this story is going to say. Yeah right!.... and then start thinking that Cox is trying to save her skin by biting the first fish that comes past...

And also by making a big deal of Avi Rubin's conflict of interest it really does beg a few thousand questions about everybody involved in the purchase of the Diebold machines. I.e. who accepted money from who.

al

[ParanoidPat]

54. We'll show 'em.....

....literally! :evilgrin:

[althecat]

55. Kick.. back to the top...

Hint for those looking for the real deal in this thread... check out the heavily indented BevHarris And ParanoidPat's posts... and then follow Eloriel's instructions.

[RedEagle]

56. Go Georgia!

Kick!

[never cry wolf]

58. fascinating and important thread

needs a :kick: i'll write my letters in a bit

[Eloriel]

59. Thanks,

I appreciate it.

Eloriel

[loudsue]

60. THIS THREAD NEEDS MORE AIRE TIME!!!!!

Come on DUers!! We need to stay on top of this!!

Call and fax AJC and the Gov....Don't let our Democracy die!!!


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