Sequoia Voting defeated in Fed Court in Rnd 1; A New Breed Cong. Candidate

[Land Shark]

Today marks a legal round one victory for the people of the United States of America, or that portion of the them that agrees that counting votes in secret as Sequoia Voting Systems insists is its private right in American elections is anathema to any legitimate form of democracy and is further something wholly untenable in any democratic system of checks and balances.

Pleadings in Lehto v. Sequoia are located at (with the latest order on remand not posted yet):
www.votersunite.org/info/lehtolawsuit.asp

Earlier today, federal district court judge Ricardo Martinez (Western District of Washington) granted plaintiffs Lehto and Wells' motion to remand their case against Sequoia Voting Systems back to state court where it was originally filed.

The case has also been ordered closed by the same judge, thus terminating the federal case number (created by Sequoia when it removed the case to federal court) in favor of the plaintiff citizens interested in voting systems' integrity.

A lot of heat was generated by Sequoia's initiation of this federal court process, but to no avail. The judge found that there was no basis to believe that federal court jurisdiction was present and available as had been adamantly alleged by Sequoia.

Specifically, the court agreed with us that there is no federal cause of action under HAVA (although we pointed out that certain HAVA terms can be enforced in federal court via 42 USC sec. 1983, a statute that allows for vindication of federal rights and privileges, but we specifically did not sue under that statute but instead adverted to HAVA as one of many reasons the purchase contract between the county and sequoia for voting machines was illegal and void ab initio and in toto for you Latin fans.)

Though we will still need to reach the merits of secret vote counting and purchase-contracts-changing-our-democracy in state court, Sequoia's 3 law firms in 2 states were unsuccessful in attempting to move the case into a forum where they believed they would obtain more procedural advantages. (the 3 law firms counts the captured services of the Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney's office since they are directly controlled by sequoia under the contract with Sequoia)

An important note about why I think that our present system of CAMPAIGNS (something not part of the lawsuit per se) in which candidates seek votes in exchange for promises about future political positions is much better replaced by something like that being done by my attorney Randy Gordon, who is the #1 Democratic candidate right now in Washington's 8th CD: running for Congress by DOING and by setting an example such that people can respond more spontaneously with votes and monetary support because they see the fruits of the candidate's work and wish to bring the values and productivity the work represents to Washington DC and the House of Representatives.

Indeed, in this lawsuit, the services of only one lawyer, namely that of Randy Gordon of Bellevue, Washington, were needed to spank the forces of election darkness represented by Sequoia Voting Systems.

If by any chance you happened to be looking for a competitive progressive Democrat running for congress against a freshman Republican in Washington's 8th Congressional District, and most importantly one who knows what the real issues are and isn't afraid to talk about problems of computers in elections, check out the website at www.randygordonforcongress.com

You know, what would be most powerful is if people didn't have to beg for money when running for Congress, (or make promises for it) but instead if candidates SHOWED what they stood for and what they would do by mechanisms like pro bono lawsuits, and like minded people responded and thereby removed the need for candidates like Randy to promise anyone anything instead of just focusing more and more on doing what's right.

Please go to www.randygordonforcongress.com and send them a message of support, or a contribution, so the Gordon team knows what you think about progressives that put their law firms where their mouth is.

[understandinglife]

1. Congratulations Paul!!! Nominated.

Matthew Donaldson, an independent visual artist from Auckland. “On this, the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima's bombing, my grief for all of those murdered and yet to be murdered by America's weapons - of mass destruction or otherwise - overwhelms me” said Matt.

It overwhelms me, as well, Mathew.

Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us - How ever long it takes, the day must come when tens of millions of caring individuals peacefully but persistently defy the dictator, deny the corporatists their cash flow, and halt the evil being done in Iraq and in all the other places the Bu$h neoconster regime is destroying civilization and the environment in the name of "America."

[Land Shark]

2. thanks UL, and keep up your good work! n.t

[yowzayowzayowza]

3. Bravo!!!

:applause: :applause: :applause:
:applause: :applause: :applause:
:applause: :applause: :applause:

[Land Shark]

4. whoa boy!, never seen that applause rigged that way, thanks a mill

[eridani]

5. Kick and nominated

Wonderful news! His competition is a Microsoftie who, when I asked her about voting machines said "If we can make ATMs that work, why can't we make voting machines work?" She is otherwise a decent candidate, but Randy is better.

:party: :toast: :bounce: :beer: :headbang: :yourock:


:kick:

[Melodybe]

6. Yay! Kicked and nominated!!!

[Land Shark]

9. there are dozens of reasons why we can't make atm's like voting

machines. #1 is that every transaction in an atm is completely tracked with redundant account numbers (unlike a secret ballot) traceable to the account holder (voter), an atm videos or photographs you for security purposes, and banks INSIST that all code in atms be fully disclosed to them and they won't trust their money or their depositor's money with anything less.

If one had to make a perfect analogy to voting with atms, you'd have to have every bank account holder making a cash nontraceable deposit on the same day (read: election day) by dropping this anonymous deposit (read: ballot) into a large bin, and the account holders would come back at the closing of the business day with media in tow (read: end of election day) asking for reliable bank totals and overall account results.

Note that because of the very secrecy of the ballot, it creates a virtually untraceable system that is wide open to both fraud and the coverrup of material irregularities, and that there isn't a receipt in elections to prove a transaction (concerns about using it to sell votes) nor is there ANY TIME AT ALL IN WHICH THE VOTER CAN CORRECT ERRORS AFTER THEY INITIALLY LEAVE THE BANK. With your bank, you have at least 60 days after receiving the statement, if not much longer, to contest and challenge the transactions involving your acoount. With voting, the voter is considered legally *incompetent* to contest one's ballot with extrinsic evidence, one couldn't locate the specific ballot anyway in all likelihood, and some elections officials cite to academic research purporting to stand for the proposition that voters can not correctly recall their votes after having voted....

All to the point of this: you vote untraceably, you're not allowed to challenge or change even your own vote, you're not trusted to remember it, and then the elections officials will refuse to disclose their data (ballots) AND their analysis (counting software) methods on the grounds of trade secrecy, but will only release their conclusions (election results).

Such a system is ENTIRELY unlike the safeguards built into ATMS, but even ATMS suddenly spit out cash for no reason, a favorite of local tv news stations from time to time.

Putting together (1) no basis for confidence in election results because data and analysis are never disclosed, only conclusions with (2) the voter herself is considered legally incompetent to change or challenge her own vote, and is argued factually incompetent to so much as recall what that vote WAS, means.....

We need to fight for democracy here in our time, as Jefferson anticipated every generation would.

[eridani]

11. Great summary--

--I'd also add that ATMs are part of a complex system that has had most of the bugs worked out of it by being constantly tested in the real world, millions of times an hour, 24/7, 365 days a year. Voting is something we do a couple of times a year, and letting software do it for us must inevitably be a beta test. If we only drove cars for a couple of hours once a year, they'd suck pretty badly too.

Also, there is quadruple redundancy. If you take out $100, you can count the five crisp $20s, check the receipt, and crossreference it with your bank statement listing individual transactions. Plus the bank has your photo.

[Land Shark]

12. good point i'll add that to my mental list

[Amaryllis]

15. Kip says ATMs mess up to the tune of millions a year; it just isn't

reported.
They have to balance our bank acounts at the end of the day to match the printed receipt and the record of the transaction. It is a misconception that ATMs are super accurate. They eat it on the mess- ups.

[eridani]

19. However, this has zero practical consequences for customers--

--who usually notice discrepancies, and have 60 or more days in which to get them fixed.

[Amaryllis]

25. Exactly, but the point is, ATMs also have accuracy issues. BUT we

have a way to catch them. But people normally talk about ATMs being accurate, when in fact, there are millions lost each year. So if anything, comparing ATMs to voting systems should be another reason why we should NOT have electronic voting because ATMs are not accurate.

[skids]

7. Way to go...

...and best of luck to you in round 2!

[GuvWurld]

8. Kicked and nominated

Great work Land Shark! <imagine cool emoticon here>

[EFerrari]

10. Thank you, Paul.

:kick:

[glitch]

13. This is excellent -- and for those of us with safe, stellar congressmen

like Jim McDermott, we can throw our support and contributions to other districts,
Go Randy in the 8th!

And congratulations Paul on this win.

[Land Shark]

17. Hope all's well glitch, thanks doo-rev.. and pressing on...

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. A first step towards transparency in the election process. Hooray!

[Land Shark]

18. i recommend the canada pics above if you like travel pics

[GreenPartyVoter]

20. Thanks :^) CaliforniaPeggy has some great European shots

[Doo_Revolution]

16. Excellent work!!!

It's time to end the machines in democracy once and for all, privatization must be proven unconstitutional. Secret vote counting is wide open to unofficial, inaccurate results.

[FogerRox]

21. Diebold ATMs use opensource code

Diebold DREs use proprietary source code

[kster]

22. Kick.nt

[Bill Bored]

23. Well, just FYI, if they want to do business in NY, they'll have to:

place into escrow with the state board of
elections a complete copy of all programming, source coding and software
employed by the voting machine, system or equipment;

file with the state board of elections and the
appropriate local boards of elections a waiver, prepared by the state
board of elections, which shall waive all rights of the vendor or
manufacturer to assert intellectual property or trade secret rights in
any court of competent jurisdiction hearing a challenge to the results
of any election and requesting that programming source coding, firmware,
and software as well as voting machines or systems be tested by
independent experts under court supervision and at the conclusion of
such proceeding shall be sealed.

And file with the state board of elections and the appropriate local boards of
elections a consent to having and cooperating in the testing of any
programming, source coding, firmware, or software, pursuant to an order
of any board of elections or court of competent jurisdiction. Any such
board or agent thereof shall be required to maintain the confidentiality
of any proprietary material.

(Just FYI.)

[kster]

24. kick.nt

[Melissa G]

26. Thanks Landshark, for all your great work!

Congrats on your Victory! May it be the first win of many in our battle for democracy and transparent elections!:toast:
:loveya::loveya::loveya::loveya::loveya: