Election Whistle-Blower Stymied by Vendors (From the Washington Post!)

[MelissaB]

Election Whistle-Blower Stymied by Vendors
After Official's Criticism About Security, Three Firms Reject Bid for Voting Machines

By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 26, 2006; Page A07

MIAMI -- Among those who worry that hackers might sabotage election tallies, Ion Sancho is something of a hero.

The maverick elections supervisor in Leon County, Fla., last year helped show that electronic voting machines from one of the major manufacturers are vulnerable, according to experts, and would allow election workers to alter vote counts without detection.




Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho: "I'm
being singled out for punishment."

Now, however, Sancho may be paying an unexpected price for his whistle-blowing: None of the state-approved companies here will sell him the voting machines the county needs.

"I've essentially embarrassed the current companies for the way they do business, and now I believe I'm being singled out for punishment by the vendors," he said.

...snip

A spokesman said Diebold will not sell to Sancho without assurances that he will not permit more such tests, which the company considers a reckless use of the machines.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/25/AR2006032500805.html

[acmavm]

1. And their refusal alone proves what everyone has been saying all

along. That they are hackable pieces of crap designed to allow the theft of any election in which they are used.

edit: spelling

[Tigress DEM]

25. Yeah. It sure does.

What is wrong with the right wingers? Their approach is just like some character in an Austin Power's movie...

"It's those damm people that tell the truth causing ALL the problems!"



I mean if we **just didn't point out the fact** that elections are being stolen right out from under us, we would have (the appearance of) fair and free elections in this the most renowned country for Democracy of and by the People. :sarcasm:

[rzemanfl]

2. What more proof do you need people? Recommended. n/t

[mom cat]

3. Great news! The story hit WAPO! K&R

[Trevelyan]

4. "Reckless use of the machines" Unbelievable nerve. I am glad that WaPo

did an article on the Whistleblower Sancho. I have been concerned about the court case AGAINST HIM for doing the right and patriotic and honest thing. American truly has become Bizarro World.

About two weeks ago Congress refused to do anything to protect Whistleblowers and Sibyl Edmonds group and Russell Tice testified to no avail and a very brave military officer. Edmonds' had a lot of information on this further disgrace by the Congress against honest and patriotic Whistleblowers who deserve protection for risking so much to TRY to keep us safe. Edmonds' site is http://www.JustACitizen.com and she has a new version of her petition to unredact her 911 testimony and a link to her whistleblower group with the testimony before Congress very recently.

[Occulus]

13. Did you notice there was no mention of the case in the article?

I read the whole thing, and it wasn't until I read your post that I was reminded of that fact.

HHHHHHhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmm.

[EST]

5. How can a vendor make such demands?

The most easily hackable part of their damn machines is patently illegal! Can't these idiots even read? Their product is not certifiable in the first instance because they don't even meet HAVA standards. What utter tripe. They are guilty; we know it and they know we know it.

[Land Shark]

6. They wouldn't need secret software if it was secure

this is, in effect, an admission on their part

[wordpix2]

40. because they're vendors for BushCo, Inc.?

[twiterpatted]

7. crazy and evil

...snip
"What kind of message is this sending to elections supervisors?"

more...

elections workers could alter the vote tallies by manipulating the removable memory cards in the voting machines, and do so without detection

more...
Florida elections officials issued new guidelines this month for handling the memory cards

more...
Diebold spokesman David Bear. "You basically follow these industry standards, and you don't have issues."

more..
A spokesman said Diebold will not sell to Sancho without assurances that he will not permit more such tests, which the company considers a reckless use of the machines.

Okay now, this is absolute insanity. I mean this is crazy, crazy and more crazy.
The maker of the machine is soooo.. pissed off that the elected officials tested their machine. I mean they are totally offended. They refuse to deal with such an over the top requirement that they work. There reasoning is that if honest people just follow the rules, nobody will cheat.

This is crazy evil bullshit.

[Trevelyan]

9. A minister said a strange but true thing in a sermon. Don't remember what

it was in reference to but he said his response to people who said you should trust other people was to ask the person talking to him if they had keys in their pocket and if so why they needed keys for their car or their home, etc. if they "trust" everyone.

[Binka]

12. Great Name & Welcome To DU

Glad you joined the party!:toast:

[twiterpatted]

31. as a long time lurker, i thank you.

[Votergater]

41. Who legally owns the Diebold machines

in Ion Sancho's county in Florida? The county owns them and so as election supervisor Ion Sancho has the legal authority to have them tested as he sees fit.

What's going on here is Diebold is sending a warning shot out to all the other election supervisors in the country.... Look inside our machines and we'll attack you.

However, Diebold Election System's attorney Michael Lindroos wrote to Mr. Sancho stating: "While we welcome authorised testing and examination of products by qualified professionals and are confident that our products are the most secure and accurate products available, actions such as yours only serve to undermine the public's confidence in the security and accuracy that good systems can provide when used with the proper procedures and by authorized personnel."

BUT Mr. Sancho did legally authorise the testing of the Diebold products and did use qualified professionals to conduct those tests, namely the computer experts Mr. Harri Hursti and Dr. Herbert Thompson.

An own goal by Diebold I think.

[Wilms]

42. I recall reading that it was considered a violation of a contract.

I'd like to see that contract.

In Utah, there was a claim made that there was a contactual obligation to use Diebold's equipment.

I'd like to see that contract, too.

[Votergater]

43. Mr. Sancho bought his Optical Scan machines in 1992...

... before Diebold bought the company that designed them. But his tabulator (GEMS software) is pretty current standard Diebold issue. Of course BOTH the Opticals Scan (Accuvote OS) and the Diebold GEMS tabulator were hacked successfully and undetectably by Harri Hursti in December.

[SammyBlue]

8. Stop using our machines to prove how weak and hackable they are

so we can use the machines to manipulate the vote to keep the anti-American Republicans in power! Yes, welcome to the day where voting doesn't matter anymore!

Orwell was 22 years late in his prediction!

[Faygo Kid]

10. Time to put Diebold out of business; not savable

The risk is too great for any community to use Diebold. They have made their intentions clear time and again. I found this excerpt chilling:

A spokesman said Diebold will not sell to Sancho without assurances that he will not permit more such tests, which the company considers a reckless use of the machines.

"While we welcome authorized testing and examination of our products by qualified professionals," Diebold attorney Michael E. Lindroos wrote Sancho last year, "actions such as yours only serve to undermine the public's confidence in the security and accuracy that good systems can provide when used with the proper procedures and by authorized personnel."

[mwooldri]

36. If we can't trust Diebold with our vote, what about our money?

Lots of banks still purchase and install Diebold ATM machines. There is an alternative - NCR make good (sorry I'm biased - great) ATM machines. An easy step to avoid Diebold is to avoid their products. Ask your banks to install cash machines made by NCR instead. If your bank has a mix of Diebold and NCR machines, use the NCR ones. Yep, NCR is a big corporation - and although I don't know enough about it politically (I bet it leans right) it can't be as bad as Diebold.

Mark.

[Kurovski]

11. Great article...the lousy bastids'

The daily thread has only 2 votes so far...why is that?:shrug: :hi:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x418765

[Imagevision]

14. Diebold?... Ion Sancho, Kill The Messenger...!

[roseBudd]

15. Vote with your mouse, click through to register page views, then go to

a different computer and click through again for another unique visitor.

[ooglymoogly]

16. isn't that the new gop mantra

sure we're stealing, cheating, lying and spying on every last one of you and we're going to keep on doing it, so get over your insignificant selves.

[Lostnote06]

17. The New &Improved Fascism....No Money STFU....

.......We determine where the money flows

[MelissaB]

18. Hey, Lostnote06!

Welcome to DU! :toast:

[Lostnote06]

20. Thank You MB

.....nice to be back

[JohnWxy]

19. THis really demands an email campaign not just to congress but to

MSM. Go to www.Congress.org or Congress.org - media guide to send email. Congress.org makes it real easy to send an email.

This should be enough to stop all use of Diebold machines. If you use Diebold it's not a real election.
Another thing that's bad about the Diebold machines is you can't prove the machines mis-tallied the votes. If you had that you could demand a re-balloting in affected precincts and go after Diebold.

We will never be able to stop the Diebold fraudulent vote counts until we get a majority of Democrats in Congress.

Send emails. All that matters is salvaging democracy in America.

[Higans]

21. Sounds fine to me, time for pen and paper, hand counted.

It's what florida really needs.

[crispini]

22. K&R.

[oxbow]

23. this is the opening we need

email this article out to friends and the news agencies, write the WashPost and the author thanking them for bringing attention to this issue. With the 2006 elections a little over 6 months away, it's time to raise some noise about election fraud. Be the change you want to see in the world, to paraphrase Gandhi

[Patsy Stone]

24. Nice to see this in the WaPo

Any national attention drwn to the sham of e-voting is a plus, imho. K&R!

[catrose]

26. K & R eom

[Quantess]

27. Great article!

Cheers to Ion Sancho!:toast: I hope others will speak out, as well.

[nicknameless]

28. K&R

[eppur_se_muova]

29. Nice picture! "I'm Ion Sancho. Go ahead ... just cross me." nt

[Up2Late]

30. Oh well, I guess it's PAPER AND PEN for all of Florida!

Or maybe there are some NON-U.S. made and controlled Voting machines who Florida should now contact.

Those are the steps I would take next. :evilgrin:

[Amaryllis]

32. Are you guys noticing how many articles have been in MSM about Ion?

Are we hitting the tipping point, the 100th monkey? Will MSM be more responsive to weirdness in the 2006 election? Will they maybe even be looking for it?

[Imagevision]

33. Sancho is a hero! this story needs to gain traction!!

[McCamy Taylor]

34. Great job WaPo! Link to toon about Sancho below.

http://www.grandtheftelectionohio.com/Flash/IonSancho/IonSancho.htm

[SeaBob]

35. vote counting

What ever happened to paper ballots and hand counting. If they can do it in Iraq they can do in Florida

[tecelote]

37. Some things should never be privatized!

Our voting system and our jails!

Profits have no place here.

[peace13]

38. The really sad part

is that I just received a letter in the mail from our Board of Elections about the 'exciting news' that our new voting machines have arrived. I cannot believe that they went ahead with Diebold. I do not intend to work at the poll with these machines. How could I promise to voters that their vote would be counted? Another Ohio county falls. I may go to the training with Diebold articles in hand just to ask the questions. Peace

[wordpix2]

39. true American patriot in war against terror of Repigs: Ion SAncho