http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0309/S00157.htmDiebold Election Systems Election Manual For Staff
" Do not to offer damaging opinions of our systems, even when their failings become obvious."
" Indicate that you are attending an election when questioned by US customs. Provide a terse explanation of what your job is as well as the business the company you work for is in. Under no circumstances should you indicate that you intend on working in the US. "
" Ideally, a recount yields exactly the same results as the initial count. However, in the case of AccuVote- OS ballots, this is qualified by the following considerations. These considerations become increasingly relevant over larger quantities of ballots."– Diebold Election Systems' "Election Support Guide "
Diebold Election Systems Election Manual For Staff
Selected highlights from the Diebold Elections Systems " Election Support Guide" - the instruction manual for staff attending elections in the United States - follow. The manual comes from a 1.8 gigabyte data dump of files distributed widely on the internet including to media in recent weeks. You will find the complete manual below presented in HTML format. The original is in PDF format.
For more background on the Diebold Data Dump see also…
Internal Memos: Diebold Doing End-Runs Around Certification and
Diebold Internal Mail Confirms U.S. Vote Count Vulnerabilities and
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/.This information has been published here for a number of reasons.
Principally - as the above linked stories show - Diebold Elections System has shown a clear intention to distribute an election software system that is 1) easily hackable, and 2) which they have known for at least 10 years is easily hackable.
Moreover, since Scoop first began publishing stories on this subject in July, Diebold Election Systems' response has been to tell a seemingly endless series of lies about how its products work.
Just yesterday PBS's NewsHour programme was told by a Diebold employee that concerns about election systems being hackable were mistaken because they are not connected to the internet.
Yet section 13 of Diebold's manual below - "13. JResultClient" - shows that in many instances the vote tallying computers are connected to the internet to provide real time results. In addition there is an extensive description below of how results from county election results are often modemed into election supervisors offices.
These modem connections could also be used to hack into the GEMs vote counting programme which - Bev Harris and Scoop has shown (and which Diebold admits in internal memos) - is not only easily hackable but which also features an audit trail that can be overwritten in a trivially easy fashion.
Therefore the following manual is published in the public interest, so that accurate information is available to all those who wish to examine whether Diebold's systems are indeed secure as they claim.
- Alastair Thompson, Scoop Editor
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Selected Highlights From The "Election Support Guide"
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1. Overview
This document is intended for Diebold Election Systems, Inc. staff attending elections, and attempts to address the majority of representati ve situations that may be encountered at an election. The document aims primarily at educating novice election support staff, and is in no way intended to provide an authoritative basis of product information.
Please note that this document is intended strictly for the consumption of Diebold Election Systems, Inc. staff, and is not intended for customers or other election-related authorities.
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2.1. Border crossing
Indicate that you are attending an election when questioned by US customs. Provide a terse explanation of what your job is as well as the business the company you work for is in. Under no circumstances should you indicate that you intend on working in the US. If requested, give Tab's name and work telephone number as reference.
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3. General issues
As representative of Diebold on election day, you will be considered the paragon of knowledge and authority with respect to the jurisdiction’s election, even though you may in fact be the least qualified person on site. In light of this, present yourself in as diplomatic, reassuring, and professional a manner as possible.
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3.2. Communication
You will generally be considered to be a high-ranking election specialist and a paragon of knowledge and solutions, which may be disconcerting when things go wrong. Do not promote your ignorance - in case of doubt, call a designated contact who may be more knowledgeable than you.
Ideally, you should not remain all day at election central, but spend at least several hours visiting polling places in order to view the voting process itself.
Be observant throughout the election, making notes of any anomalies or issues you believe the company could/should be aware of.
Be aware of the fact that pollworkers are often quite aged, and that technological issues that to you are utterly banal may be quite daunting to the pollworkers.
Do not flaunt your knowledge, particularly if it is technical only, and not election specific. Not only may your audience be less than receptive, you may be called to task where you least expect it , and can least make a difference.
Carry with you a list of telephone numbers of Diebold Election Systems, Inc. contact people. Carry a cell phone with you if possible - if you don't already have one, attempt to procure one from the jurisdiction.
Remember to take along the Excel spreadsheet containing all employee phone numbers.
Be aware of any senior technical staff that will be present at the election other than yourself. Be aware of their strengths and limitations as far as product and election knowledge is concerned. Just because someone has been working for our organization for years does not mean they will be aware of every facet of election management requirements.
Defer to more experienced staff where possible. Do not offer answers if you are not perfectly comfortable with doing so - an incorrect answer may well have more serious consequences than no answer at all. It is acceptable to indicate that you are not aware of the answer requested, and that you will contact another company representative who will be equipped with the answer.
Offer the minimum amount of information necessary. Consider the nature of information being discussed, your familiarity with the subject being discussed, the position of the individual you are discussing the issue with, as well as any individuals or press who may be present who you are not familiar with.
Under no circumstances should you discuss anything to do with the election with the press, or appear on press cameras. The same applies generally to any individuals outside of the immediate election environment. You cannot be familiar with the partisan politics that may be rife in the jurisdiction, and possible oppositional sentiments towards our product or company.
Do not to offer damaging opinions of our systems, even when their failings become obvious.
Contact Tab or Ken at the Vancouver office once the election has been deemed to have been closed.
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3.3. Attendance
Expect to be onsite on election day between 6am and 7am. Depending on how well the election goes, you may be able to leave the site as early as 10pm or 11pm. If things go badly, you could be there until the next morning.
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6.2. AccuFeed
The jurisdiction may be using the AccuFeed in order to process absentee ballots in batch mode. The AccuFeed is often sensitive to the orientation, size, and print quality of the ballot.. AccuFeed units tend to reflect varying behavior in terms of speed and quality of processing. Familiarize yourself with the functioning of the AccuFeed before the election if it will be used in the election. Do not offer information as to the AccuFeed's shortcomings to the jurisdiction, even where obvious.
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FOR FULL TEXT SEE...
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0309/S00157.htm
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