BBV: SF Chron censoring LTE & protest suggested election day 10/7

[Bushfire]

and a call for volunteers in Northern CA found in an interesting letter to the Whatreallyhappened.com website:

"I just spoke with one of the webmasters of this site:

http://www.verifiedvoting.org/index.asp

. . and he asked me to let as many people know about it as possible - they are in need of volunteers to help out. That person was located in Northern CA. He was somewhat concerned about the number of Justice Dept viewings he was seeing of the site.

Here in Alameda County, CA, our machines apparently have no paper trail, and it appears that some of them may be Diebold machines, but I'm in the process of trying to find out. The Secretary of State had a 'task force' that took public comments for quite awhile, but nothing seems to have come of it.

I've noticed that our local paper, the SF Chronicle, edits out any criticism I include about the voting machines in letters (that get published), and has never published anything I've written concerning them. Henry Knor, the tech writer who was fired from the Chron, spoke out strongly against the voting machines in an article published soon before that. While many think he was fired due to attending a peace march, I have to wonder.

One group had started building for a protest at the Federal Building in Oakland on election day (Oct 7th), but now that date is up in the air. I really think it's the only way we'll force the newspapers to cover the issue of the voting machines, is at the minimum to have protests on election day."

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/letters.html
--------------------------------------------------------

I was trying to find out who owns the SF Chron, but came up with conflicting statements from a Feb 2003 article:

"A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Hearst Corp.'s $660 million purchase of the San Francisco Chronicle, a century-long rival of Hearst's Examiner."

"The Independent's publisher, Ted Fang, has announced plans to switch the Examiner from afternoon to morning publication in August and compete with the Hearst-owned Chronicle."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/03/30/national/main178183.shtml

I'm sure another DUer would have more insight on this than myself.

[hedda_foil]

1. Alameda County definitely uses Diebold machines.

Someone with more technical info on your county should be along shortly. Please keep this kicked.

[Bushfire]

2. I'm not in California

but thought I'd share this letter over at DU.

on edit: if someone can confirm if ES&S' Optech 3P Eagle machines can have their audit log altered in anyway, I would have some ammo to bring to my local election officials.

[AndyTiedye]

3. It Disenfranchises the Troops Too

Not much chance that California's soldiers serving in Iraq will get to vote in this one.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! LET THEM VOTE!

[ParanoidPat]

4. Voting systems used in California listed by county....

.....From the California Secretary of State website.:evilgrin:

Link to Voting Systems PDF for systems used in the November 5, 2002 election.

Voting Systems Used by Counties
For the October 7, 2003 Statewide Special Election

A. MARK SENSE / OPTICAL SCAN SYSTEMS

1. DFM Mark-a-Vote: Butte, Lake, Madera, Santa Cruz, Sonoma, and Sutter.

2. ES&S Optech Eagle: Amador, San Francisco, and San Mateo.

3. Sequoia Optech: Kings, Mariposa, Mono, Napa, and San Bernardino.

4. ES&S 350/550/650: Colusa, Contra Costa, Merced, Nevada, Stanislaus, and Tuolumne.

5. Diebold AccuVote OS: Fresno, Humboldt, Kern, Lassen, Marin, Modoc, Placer, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Siskiyou, Trinity, and Tulare.

B. PUNCH CARD SYSTEMS

1. Datavote: Alpine, Calaveras, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Imperial, Inyo, Monterey, Orange, San Benito, Tehama, Ventura, Yolo, and Yuba.

2. Votomatic: Los Angeles, Mendocino, San Diego, Sierra, and Solano.

3. Pollstar: Sacramento and Santa Clara.

C. TOUCH SCREEN / DRE SYSTEMS

1. Sequoia Pacific AVC Edge: Riverside and Shasta

2. Diebold AccuVote-TS: Alameda and Plumas

Mark Sense / Optical Scan Systems

This is a system similar to the standardized tests given in school. The voter marks the appropriate position on the ballot with a number 2 pencil or other approved marking device. The names of the candidates may or may not be printed on the actual ballot, depending on the variety of the system. The ballots are counted on an optical scanning machine, either at the polling place, or at a central location.

Punch Card Systems

Punch card systems use pre-scored computer punch cards upon which the voter indicates his or her vote choices by punching out the pre-scored holes. The "chad" is the piece of the ballot that is poked out by the voter. California has clear guidelines for interpreting the intent of the voter if the chad is not fully poked out.

Votomatic is a punch card system that relies on inserting a standard computer card into a voting assembly, and the voter votes by poking out a pre-scored hole for the candidate of his or her choice. The names of the candidates are printed on the voting assembly, not on the card itself. This makes it a "fixed capacity" system --- there are only 312 possible voting holes. The Votomatic system is in use in many of the larger counties in California, such as Los Angeles and San Diego.

Several other counties, such as Sacramento and Santa Clara, use a variant of the Votomatic system called Pollstar. This system relies on inserting the punch card into a ballot assembly that directs voters to vote "by number" by referring to a complete posted paper ballot displayed in the voting booth. The Votomatic system was certified in the late 1960's, the Pollstar system was certified in the early 1990's.

Datavote is also a punch card system, but differs in at least two ways from the Votomatic. First, the names of the candidates are printed on the ballots. As a result, this system usually uses multiple cards to punch out the hole to vote, so there are fewer, if any, "chad". Because the system uses multiple cards, it has unlimited capacity, but the counting of the votes may be slower than in counties using a single card system.

Touch Screen / DRE Systems

Touch screen, or direct recording electronic systems, are the newest of the certified voting systems in California. These machines can be programmed to contain every ballot style for every voter in the county, and so are of particular use for "early voting" programs at public locations.

[Eloriel]

5. Kick