Does anybody know if Ohio's machines were ever certified

[kitkat65]

From
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1013-01.htm
regarding Georgia election 2002

First, they wanted to know if the software had undergone adequate checking. Under state and federal law, all voting machinery and component parts must be certified before use in an election.....


"If the machines were not certified, then right there the election was illegal,"...

[Higans]

1. Damn Good question!n/t

[Bill Bored]

2. You can't certify what you can't examine.

If the source code is proprietary and the machines are accessible to potential hackers, how CAN they ever be certified?

And welcome to DU!

[kitkat65]

6. I think it means they must be PRE certified.

Did Blackwell perform this specific action?

[Andy_Stephenson]

3. It isn't as far as I can tell

http://www.nased.org/ITA%20Information/NASEDApprovedSystems1.03.pdf

[Ms. Toad]

13. The punch card systems in

Cuyahoga have been around since at least 1978; Summit since at least 1989. The earliest model and/or comment date is 1995, and most are post 1999. I suspect most of Ohio's (punch card) systems predate NASED certification.

[Quakerfriend]

4. I recall reading that Blackwell had the BOE people wave this!

Apparently it was NOT done on most of the machines.

[kitkat65]

5. OHMIGOD!

This seriously has the potential to negate the whole Ohio Election!

The Secretary of State in Ohio who has the conflict of interest being Chair of the Bush/Cheney campaign doesn't bother to follow a federal statute that a voting system must be certified?

Holy shit! Holy fucking shit!

Who here is up to snuff about the extreme particulars of the federal laws concerning certification?

[hedda_foil]

7. Aren't any.

There's a recommendation that the states use the certification of the National Association of State Election Directors ... a certification which is at best useless, and appears to be paid for by the vendors!

http://www.votefraud.org/hacked_by_author_Bev_Harris.htm

WHO TESTS AND CERTIFIES THESE SYSTEMS?

The story gets a bit odder here. An unelected person named R. Doug Lewis runs a private non-profit organization called "The Election Center." Lewis is possibly the most powerful man in the U.S., influencing election procedures and voting systems, yet he is vague about his credentials and no one seems to be quite sure who hired him or how he came to oversee such vast electoral functions. Lewis organized the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS, now heavily funded by voting machine vendors); he also organized the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) and, through them, Lewis told Harris he helps certify the certifiers.

Wyle Laboratories is the most talked-about voting machine certifier, probably because it is the biggest, but in fact, Wyle quit certifying voting machine software in 1996. It does test hardware: Can you drop it off a truck? Does it stand up to rain?

Software testing and certification is done by Shawn Southworth. When Ciber quit certifying in 1996, it was taken over by Nichols Research, and Southworth was in charge of testing. Nichols Research stopped doing the testing, and it was taken over by PSInet, where Southworth did the testing. PSInet went under, and testing functions were taken over by Metamore, where Southworth did the testing. Metamore dumped it, and it was taken over by Ciber, where Southworth does the testing.

This is Shawn Southworth.

What are Shawn Southworth's credentials? We are not allowed to ask. The rules are set by R. Doug Lewis of The Election Center, which states that the certifiers will not answer questions from the media, or from anyone else.

According to Dr. David Dill of Stanford, formal questions were posed to Wyle and Ciber about what is done to test these machines, but both declined to answer.

<snip>

[Mistwell]

8. Why post the pic?

Forgive the lawyer in me from coming out, since I know you meant well...

Why are you posting the man's picture? Do you have his permission?

If not, since he doesn't qualify for the actual malice standard of public figures (unlike say, Britney Spears), nor is the photo itself a newsworthy event (hence fair use), I think it's perhaps unwise to do that to someone without their consent.

Particularly given that DU does not have an agent registered with the US Copyright Office, and hence does not have the protection offerred to online service providers by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, you put DU itself at risk by posting this picture without the man's consent.

Perhaps we should focus on the things the man has done, rather than a picture of him...

[sepia_steel]

9. This is an article from BBV.org

and the picture is in it there.

[Mistwell]

14. Assume that is okay

Assume for the moment that BBV.org had the right to use the image due to some fair-use exception or a paid license or something...that does not in fact make it a public domain image. Seriously, it doesn't add to the discussion, and it could cause harm. Why leave it up?

[zapped 1]

16. usage of the image is fine

as long as it is not used for a commercial advertisement or that you are not implying that the subject is commiting a crime.

[kitkat65]

15. More about Lewis on North Dakota republican party web site

http://www.ndgop.com/gop_news/news_detail.asp?ID=425

This is just some of it there's much more on the site

During the workshop, Lewis will lead discussions about the state planning process and provide feedback and commentary concerning North Dakota's draft plan. Throughout the remainder of the summer, the state planning committee will continue meeting to finalize a plan that must be submitted to the newly created Federal Election Administration Commission and be published in the Federal Register.

"I am pleased that Doug is here to offer his perspective and guidance to our reform efforts," said Jaeger. "His expertise in HAVA are unparalleled and we plan on taking advantage of his time with us to gauge his response to our efforts."

As the Executive Director of the Election Center, Lewis has distinguished himself as an election administration expert in many ways. Lewis has developed and authored the Professional Education Program for elections and registration officials, the most extensive professional training program in the world for elections officials. The Professional Education Program is being copied by other governments, and was named as the best continuing education program in the nation by the National University Continuing Education Association (1995). Other accomplishments of Lewis include:

Development of the first Code of Ethics for elections administrators.

Establishment of the Professional Practices Papers program, which promotes sharing successful practices among election officials.

Establishment of the Joint Elections Officials Liaison Committee, which is a confederation of American elections organizations who, along with The Election Center, promote common interests of the elections profession.

Establishment of the National Postal Task Force, which created the Official Elections Mail Logo and continues to break new ground for cooperation between government and the US Postal Service.

Establishment of the National Task Force on Voting Accessibility.

Establishment of the National Task Force on
Election Reform, which studied and proposed solutions to the problems of the 2000 Presidential Election

[euler]

11. If you can, calm down.

No one said they were not certified. The question was asked, but not answered.

[The Judged]

10. Does certification involve calibrating?

[candice]

12. From what I've read, no

that has been one of the complaints. I can't readily find info by googling, although Ohio election + voting machines + certified yielded over 800 hits! Charlie Rose mentioned in his Dec. 28 interview of Zogby how many emails he has gotten from viewers who are questioning the validity of this election (20 % of voters).