Some PA. Voting Machines May be Decertified - North, Lack, Wayne Cos, etc

[JPZenger]

"Voting machines' validity in question
Company used by Northampton County faces decertification.
August 22, 2007
Easton Express-Times

The company that manufactures Northampton County's electronic voting machine must answer the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission's questions by Sept. 20 or it could be decertified. The commission issued a notice of non-compliance to Texas-based Advanced Voting Solutions on Tuesday. AVS manufactures the voting machines used in Northampton, Lackawanna and Wayne counties. County officials are considering bringing the old lever machines out of retirement for November's election after learning last week AVS might not have federal certification.

iBeta Quality Assurance, a federal voting system test lab accredited by the EAC, said it couldn't complete its testing of AVS machines because AVS did not pay its bill. iBeta also said a testing subcontractor found hardware drawings AVS submitted did not match the actual hardware offered for testing.

"Absent any additional clarification from AVS, the EAC must assume that AVS either had prior knowledge of this discrepancy, or did not have adequate management and procedural quality controls in place to prevent the use of changed components in your voting systems," Hancock wrote to Van Pelt" (the AVS representative)...

http://www.pennlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-12/118775560998690.xml&coll=2

[happyslug]

1. I have to make a comment on you signature line

The Zenger case did NOT bring to the Law that truth was an absolute defense. The actual decision of the case was to uphold the traditional law on libel "The Greater the Truth, the Greater the Libel". The case itself is more a story of Jury Nullification, the JURY refused to Convict, dispute what the law was. The law started to change afterward, based on the Zenger Case results but the time of the Revolution 40 years later, truth was an absolute defense, even if you had to still rely on Jury Nullification to get it.

A side note, the Lawyer who argued for Zenger, was Andrew Hamilton, the Uncle to Alexander Hamilton. Furthermore the Judge REMOVED by the Governor BEFORE the Trial (So the Governor could name another Chief Judge) was the Great Grandfather of Gouvernor Morris (Author of the Preamble to the US Constitution), who was one of leaders of the American Revolution and one of leaders of the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

For more on the Trial:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/zengeraccount.html
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/zenger.html

For more on Andrew Hamilton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Hamilton_(lawyer)

For more on Gouvernor Morris:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gouverneur_Morris

[JPZenger]

2. Zenger Trial

I can appreciate the legal clarifications you made on the JPZenger trial. However, in my mind, the important thing is that a jury of his peers refused to convict a man for writing the truth about a powerful person. The jury knew knew in their hearts that what he published should not have been considered libelous. The jury was threatened with imprisonment, but they did what was right - they stood up for speaking the truth to power, and for freedom of the press.
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On the other matter, Northampton County PA has now decided they have no choice except to use their old lever machines for the November election.

[happyslug]

3. I always compare Zenger's case to William Penn's Treason Trial in the late 1600s

William Penn was a Quaker and that was Treason in England at that time period. At his trial the Jury refused to Convict him, and spent two weeks in Jail for NOT finding Penn Guilty (The Judge put them in Jail till they brought in the right Verdict). After two weeks in Jail one of the Jurymen managed to get to note to his lawyer who requested a writ of Habeas Corpus from another Judge and that released the Jury. That is considered the start of the right for the Jury to make any decision without fear of any consequence.

The right of the Jury and the Right of Trial by Jury is tied in with the concept that the law should reflect what most people think the law should be (but may NOT be). Jury Nullification is mentioned even today, but attacked by people who favor the law as written as opposed to the law as juries want it to be. While in the Case of William Penn and Zenger, jury nullification is viewed with favor, Jury Nullification is why many southern Klansman were able to beat Murder charges in the South till the passage of Civil Rights laws in the 1960s (Those acts forced the South to put more blacks on Juries AND made many Civil Rights Violations a law tried by a Judge Alone). Jury Nullification is good to a degree, but lets remember its down side, such as when the Jury members oppose the rights of a Minority.