Missouri chooses machines. Can someone "Show Me"

[galloglas]

After a trying six months with a new Democratic SoS, Missouri has chosen a set of Voting Machines for use by BoE's.

Missouri has passed no new legislation regarding voting, the Sec. of State has not addressed this issue on her web site, and the SoS web site's newest addition (as of 7/20) regarding voting, was the a list of "HAVA" committee members from former Sec. of State (now Gov.) Matt Blunt's term as SoS.

http://www.sos.mo.gov/elections/hava/stateplan_members.asp

This list became infamous for its inclusion of "Thor" Hearne, the AC4VR.com's general counsel who testified as a "non-partisan voting rights activist" before Bob Ney's dog and pony show on 3-21-05, after the formation of AC4VR.com on 3-17-05.

Hearne was also an "academic advisor" for the Carter-Baker pony and dog show. AC4VR's non-partisan sharing of its post office box with Jeff Gannon's Talon News was also cause for notoriety.

Missouri's concern should be that "Thor" Hearne was general counsel for Matt Blunt as SoS, advisor to three of the GOP reps in 2004 election and, most ominously, in charge of all litigation in '04 "battleground states".

And, except for a press release of last week naming acceptable machines, our prsent Dem. SoS has been largely silent on voting issues. And that silence has been chilling!

Can anyone provide quick input about the machines listed below. The apparent meeting referred to in the press release below cannot be found, nor the members identified, despite a "Sunshine Law" in Missouri.

PRESS RELEASE:

Secretary Carnahan Qualifies Voting Equipment for Missouri
Secretary of State Robin Carnahan today approved voting systems that meet Missouri statutory requirements, opening the way for local election authorities to finalize your equipment purchasing plans before the January 1, 2006, HAVA deadline.

All equipment in the approval process was studied in detail by the Missouri Automated Voting Equipment Qualification Committee (AVE Comm), which met in April. In June, the committee submitted its observations to Secretary Carnahan for extensive review and consideration .

The state of Missouri Office of Administration is currently developing procurement agreements for the approved voting systems. These agreements should be final by September 2005. We encourage election officials to use the state-negotiated contracts to purchase your equipment at the best price, but you are free to negotiate separately with vendors if you prefer.

The approved systems fall into three categories: Qualified; Qualified with Contingency; and Qualified with Disclaimer. In addition, two voting systems were denied qualification.

In short, the systems that were qualified with a contingency have not yet received federal independent testing authority (ITA) certification. Once these systems receive their ITA certification, our office will update their qualification category. The system qualified with a disclaimer includes specific information in the disclaimer statement regarding AVE Comm's concerns. A contingent qualification or a qualification with disclaimer should not preclude you from initiating contract negotiations.

Below is a listing of the qualified systems:

Qualified Systems


Qualified:

ES&S AutoMARK Voter Assist Terminal

ES&S Model 100 Precinct Ballot Counter

ES&S Model 650 Central Ballot Counter

AccuPoll DRE AVS-1000 v 2.5


Qualified with Contingency

Diebold AccuVote Optical Scan and Gems 1.118.24

Diebold AccuVote TSX DRE with printer module

ES&S/Unisyn InkaVote Plus Precinct Ballot Counter

Sequoia AVC Edge with VeriVote


Qualified with Disclaimer

Populex Digital Paper Ballot System

[FogerRox]

1. here ya go ---------------- -

ES&S AutoMARK Voter Assist Terminal
This markes ballots for visually impaired voters

ES&S Model 100 Precinct Ballot Counter
Optical scanner
ES&S Model 650 Central Ballot Counter
tabulator for opscan

AccuPoll DRE AVS-1000 v 2.5
this DRE may be the best (cough) DRE out there-- it uses Linux- so it is open source-code software. Availoable IIRC qwith printer for VVPR Law.

I wish NJ would certify equipment like this- we have 6 DREs certified.- in the current environment this seens like a good deal.

[Cookie wookie]

2. Diebold AccuVote Optical Scan and Gems 1.118.24

That probably should be 1.18.24 (software). However, don't see it listed as a qualified voting system by NASED. The last version of the Gems software that qualified was 1.18.22 on 5/16/2005. http://www.nased.org/certification.htm. The contingency may be NASED qualification.

The Diebold AccuVote TSX DRE is the one California counties were using when Kevin Shelley went to court against Diebold. It's basically the same technology as what Georgia has (TS-R6). The Printer module has great rolls for the paper that scroll onto wheels so the votes are hard to count in a recount and voters lose their anonymity since the votes are in order on the tape. It appears Diebold deliberately created bad technology for printing from DREs. It also prints a bar code that is unreadable by voters.

The AutoMark is the best product on that list. The ballots are fed into Optical Scan, so you still need to push for hand counts at the precinct to tally against the optical scan totals. After all, the vendors write the code that reads optical scan too. Also, although the ES&S optical scanners that read the AutoMark ballots are not NASED qualified to 2002 Voting System Standards, the AutoMark system is qualified to 2002.

Speaking from Georgia all I can say is for god's sake stop them from buying DREs or you too can have a nightmare that never seems to end.