Inveterate Huff Po contributor, R.J. Eskow picks up on our coverage of the latest mind-blowing Dieboldery by California Sec. of State Bruce McPherson and what it may bode for the Golden State as the GOP sets their sights on political manifest destiny.
Connecting a few dots, and noting big Bush Adminstration gunslingers, like Steve Schmidt, who are roving their way westward to help shore up the Governator’s re-elect prospects out here, Eskow concludes:
All the ‘heavy hitters’ are coming into town, their shiny cars pulling up to the curb. You’ve seen the movie. You know what happens next. If you live in California, my friend and blog-comrade skippy has a suggestion for how you can help.
Note: Eskow’s appropriate concerns about McPherson’s inexplicable Diebold double-cross don’t even mention the Dept. of Homeland Security’s warning about their hackable tabulator software, the recently flipped-without-a-trace-left-behind mock election in Leon County, FL, the GAO Report confirming the dangers of electronic voting, and his link to a page describing the failure rate of Diebold machines in a massive election test last summer pins the percentage of failed Diebold touch-screen machines at just 10% (a later report confirmed the number was more like 20%, and a later one still pegged it at 30%.)
It also still remains unexplained why McPherson didn’t wait to hear back from the federal “Independent Testing Authority” (ITA) — which isn’t actually independent, as it’s created and funded by the Voting Machine Companies themselves — to whom McPherson had sent back the Diebold memory cards after the Leon County hack test revealed their machines employed hackable “interpreted code” which is expressly banned by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) guidelines for software used in electronic voting machines.
Back in December, McPherson’s office sent a letter to Diebold explaining that they would not re-certify Diebold in California until the ITA completed their re-examination of the code in light of the hack test discovery:
Apparently, the SoS’s office was just kidding.
They went ahead and re-certified Diebold out here last week without waiting to hear back. They announced their decision late on Friday, at the start of the long holiday weekend and in apparent defiance of state election law and McPherson’s own “10 Strict Standards” [PDF] which include “State certification testing does not begin until the federal qualification testing is successfully completed.”
Apparently, he was just kidding about that as well.
With all of that in mind, readers of this blog would be remiss if they failed to take the actions described in Eskow’s link to Skippy. Five phone-calls and/or emails this week are all that may be needed to finally see representatives from these unpatriotic Voting Machine firms subpeonaed and forced to answer questions — under oath — in a public hearing before elected officials concerning their secret software, shitty machines and under-the-table efforts to work around state and federal election laws. Hit that link, and call the five members of the California legislature’s Rules Committee now!
By the way, McPherson himself also refused to show up at that hearing and refused to send a representative from his office to boot.
It should also be noted that Diebold is not the only bad player here. Add ES&S, Hart-Intercivic, Sequoia and several others to the list of cowardly unAmerican firms who recently refused the invitation to show up to testify before the California State Senate’s Election Committee last week. All of those companies, apparently, believe it’s none of our damned business how they count the votes (or not) in our American democracy.
For full disclosure, we should also mention that we had the privilege of meeting both R.J. and Skippy in person over the weekend in an L.A. Blogger’s get together out here. Good folks all of them, and we’re delighted to see them jump into this most important game of all.
And finally — since we’ve been looking for a good excuse to post this video — we’ll take this opportunity to give you an exclusive peek inside the “brain” of the man whose perplexing decision to re-certify voting machines and software known to be flawed and hackable may well effect similar decisions by Elections Officials around the entire country.
The following short Q&A with CA’s SoS was video-taped by Dave Berman of GuvWurld about two weeks prior to the recent about face by McPherson. It’s somewhat revealing — particularly in the last couple of minutes where Dave gets to ask the questions — as to the mindset and intellectual capabilities of the man currently appointed by Arnold to oversee free and fair elections in the country’s largest “voting market” (as Diebold refers to it).
At one point in the questioning, when asked about the re-examination of Diebold software by the ITA, McPherson says, “If they’re going to be certified, they’re going to have to meet those levels of satisfactions to me…We, uh, we’ve, uh, just said that, uh, you have to meet these strict requirements and if they do, we’ll consider it.”
Apparently, McPherson was just kidding there as well….Since he recertified them without, apparently, waiting to hear back from the ITA.
Without further ado then, we give you the man, the myth, the elusive and rarely seen genius that is California Sec. of State Bruce McPherson — as videotaped exclusively about two weeks ago in Humboldt County, just prior to his re-certification of Diebold voting machines in this state.
— Video in Streaming Flash format…
— Video in Windows Media format…
UPDATE: CA State Senator Debra Bowen (chair of the Senate Elections Committee) issues her own call to action to force McPherson to review his outrageous decision. Her reasons are summarized thusly:
What could Secretary of State McPherson possibly be thinking?
This alert is also posted here with much more information
The whole hearing room is expected to reconvene on this issue by March 1.
Doug
When GOP Schwartznegger was put in, in that special election, did he get to replace the SOS with his? Did the SOS go from being a Democrat to a Republican, when Schwartznegger was put in?
Here’s my point, and I may be wrong because I’m not an expert on this. But if the Gov of a state gets to pick the SOS, Davis obviously had a Dem SOS. And when Schwartznegger got put in, did he get to pick a GOP SOS, McPherson? If this is true, the GOP electronic voting machine operatives saw an opportunity to ram electronic voting machines in, with a GOP SOS, and turn a solid blue state "red". Also, if this is the case, they’re probably making traceable mistakes because they’re trying to do it fast, so it would be easier than normal to expose it.
"Bruce McPherson became California’s 30th Secretary of State on March 30, 2005. After being nominated by the Governor,………"
Brad, you need to get the scoop on McPherson BEFORE he was SOS. They didn’t just nominate anybody, this was a plan.
What are McPherson’s ties to electronic voting machine cronies???
Probably Jim Wilkinson was behind the "special election", too!!!
Here’s the killer:
Let’s say we can get this reversed in California somehow.
McPherson has done damage nationally with this action.
Naturally, Wyle and Diebold will never come up with a report because it’s now a "dead issue" in California. But it was NOT a "dead issue" nationally. Black Box Voting actually liked the idea of the Wyle review when it was announced because it would have a major impact everywhere Federal certification is required – the majority of all US states.
So, I think Brad hasn’t fully got the implications of this figured. Rather than see this as a California-specific issue, what McPherson has done now will have if anything MORE impact outside of California – in Ohio, Maryland, Georgia, Florida and all the other states with enough Diebold gear to matter.
Especially the ones doing buying decisions right now.
So folks, this isn’t just a California problem. Not even close. Start looking at it as part of a national problem and national trend.
Jim March
Staffer/investigator
Black Box Voting
Jim March As I’ve repeatedly said I think it is interesting the connections McPherson has or *doesn’t have* according to his undisclosed information.
However, I don’t think it is neccesarily truly relevant. It was Bruce McDannold who, has worked inside Diebold and so on and got these machines ceritifed. He has alot of lobby connections and who is, intriguingly responsible for Cathy McCormack the "democrat" who was supposed to take over….
Obviously this man did quite a major spin operation which is of exclusive interest to the GOP. Because as you know they have a vested interest in ruining that state, and/or getting rid of all the democrats or maybe just replacing them with DLC.
But that’s not the real issue….the real issue is McDannold’s intricate ties to the lobbyists and the fact that neocons from both parties are targeting California. That’s a significant thing, Jim. It means they are really scared and cornered now, and we have to shove them out and smack them down— permanently. In fact, do it in California and do it in the supreme courts as well…I have told groups who are now involved in shutting down their election offices. We can easily do this, we just do it all at once this time.
Doug E.
Look, I am going to say something real basic and obvious from this video tape. The man is Lying, without a doubt, NO questions asked. His whole body language just screams . .I am nervous, I am uncomfortable, I twitch around, I don’t make eye contact, I stutter, I stammer and everything I am telling you is total bullshit.
He looked as though he wanted to peal off his own skin throughout the video.
Really, what I am saying is not a discussion point, but an observation. People see a lot about others IF they open their eyes. IF sensitive to this and becoming aware, you can tell a lying liar in a second.
Put this man on a lie detector machine and watch the needle leap off the graph.
Whatever he was doing here, I can’t speculate as to what criminal wrong doings he is involved in, however, put some toothpicks under his fingernails and he would probably be more comfortable. This man has "I am doing something ILLEGAL written all over his face and his entire twitching convulsing body.
Jim – I’ve pointed out many times on these pages the national importance of the Diebold situation here in California.
Perhaps I focused more specfically in this piece on the inner-state shenanigans, though I believe I’ve also made clear the national implications of all of this.
If I didn’t do so in the above piece, I assure you it was an oversight with so much background info to try and sneak into each piece for folks just coming to the story.
Either way, I’m on the same page with you, and absolutely concur with your assessments above.
Well my guess is that BBV figured out the implications of the Wyle re-exam faster than McPherson’s people did (and we agree completely re: Bruce McDannold but the situation DOES fall back on McPherson).
Once somebody in there realized they were about to cream Diebold *nationally* they switched gears in a hurry.
Jim
Secretary of State McPherson’s signing a letter certifying Diebold’s optical scan and touch screen voting systems for use in California elections is an impeachable offence. The letter of certification is required by law. In signing such a letter he is certifying that the voting systems meet state and federal legal requirements. He was informed by the very advisory panel of technical experts he had evaluate the voting systems that:
"• Interpreted code is contrary to standards: Interpreted code in general is prohibited by the 2002 FEC Voluntary Voting System Standards, and also by the successor standard, the EAC’s Voluntary Voting System Guidelines due to take effect in two years. In order for the Diebold software architecture to be in compliance, it would appear that either the AccuBasic language and interpreter have to be removed, or the standard will have to be changed."
To make matters even worse, his technical experts in their very limited examination discovered 16 additonal "bugs" just related to the memory cards. They stated those "bugs" would only require access to the memory card.
"An attacker could change vote totals, modify reports, change the names of candidates, change the races being voted on, or insert his own code into the running firmware of the machine."
They admitted their examination was very limited: "We did not do a comprehensive code review of the whole codebase, nor look at a very broad range of potential security issues. Instead, we concentrated attention to the AccuBasic scripting language, its compiler, its interpreter, and other code related to potential security vulnerabilities associated with the memory cards."
They also started with the presumption that the only possible attack on the systems would come from outside the normal election process, ignoring every study that has shwon that there are multiple motivations and opportunities for insiders to manipulate election results.
What is the fix that the Secretary requires counties to implement to foil an "attacker": After the memory card is programmed it must be placed in the machine and have a "tamper-evident" adhesive seal placed over the door. Ignoring the fact that in recent elections such adhesive seals were able to be peeled off, without breaking, to open the access door and then re-applied. Several counties sent the Diebold machines home with poll workeres up to two weeks prior to the election. In three days an entire machine could be couriered anywhere in the world, dismantled, had whatever loaded into it, and shipped back to the poll worker.
But it is even easier to alter the contents of the memory card than actually accessing it physically. It can be accessed electronically through alternative ports that are on the machine. In fact, the TSx machine was setup with a port where a wireless card could be inserted. San Diego County had in their contract that they wanted the ability to program all their Diebold TSx machines wirelessly so they would not have to remove and program each memory card. The so-called "security fix" is neither secure nor a fix.
Secretary of State Bruce McPherson knowingly broke the law. Whether he broke it to appease local election officials who were pressuring him to certify for their expediency, or for some other reason, he broke the law. When a constitutional officer breaks the law it is the responsibility of the legislature to initiate impeachment proceedings.
Because he signed a "conditional" certification of approval there is the possiblity that he can reverse the certification based upon Diebold not meeting one or more of the conditions. Condition 4(j.)(K.)(i) requires that the voting systems meet all requirements of law. As his technical advisors stated, the only way the Diebold systems can comply with the law is if; Diebold removes the offending coding from the voting system (which is problematic because it is the sole method by which the machines record votes), or the standards change (which is not going to happen in the near future).
If he does not reverse the certification, and counties proceed to purchase and use these voting systems, expect lawsuits and injunctions. Any election results resulting from the use of these voting systems will be highly suspect.
Please contact your legislative representatives and demand they initiate impeachment proceedings. Contact your local Board of Supervisors and election officials and tell them "no to Diebold". What is more worrisome is what we do not know about the other manufacturer’s voting systems.
Jim Correct, but my real point was I believe that is grounds to get McDannold put under oath. He’s the one who should be at this hearing as it was mainly his decision and it is his integrity or lack of it on the line.
I’m not sure how the whole lobbying industry works in california, but I can tell you this was purposefully setup in advance. And if its an ongoing thing, we have legal rights just on the merit alone to see just how big it is. And that means he needs to be forced to be under oath.
Secretaries of State can be recalled (see the petition actions/boycotts..) but an aide; particularly one that works for Diebold can not be and this person has the inside story. Let’s hear it in court.
Doug E
Please allow for video and audio downloads allong with streaming!
This helps out those who are not running ms and mac os’s.
Thanks..
These guys are smart, and they’re always thinking a step ahead.
How come Schwartznegger is off the radar on this, too? He’s the bastard who nominated McPherson!
And the media had us all distracted with Gary Coleman jokes, while they had "other plans".
Jim – Credit where it’s also due. Over at VoteTrustUSA.org where Warren and John had an email campaign launched to the EAC demanding full de-cert of Diebold based on the "interpreted code" about a day or two after the Leon County hack as I recall.
Jody – thanks for posting your always excellent observations!
POWER DISTRIBUTION IN SENATE COMMITTEES
Senate Standing Committee; Chair, (R=repub; D=dem); (Member Count)
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; (Chambliss, R); (11 R, 09 D)
Appropriations; (Cochran, R); (15 R, 13 D)
Armed Services; (Warner, R); (13 R, 11 D)
Banking, Housing,and Urban Affairs; (Shelby, R); (11 R, 09 D)
Budget; (Gregg, R); (12 R, 10 D)
Commerce, Science,and Transportation; (Stevens, R); (12 R, 10 D)
Energy and Natural Resources; (Domenici, R); (12 R, 10 D)
Environment and Public Works; (Inhofe, R); (10 R, 08 D)
Finance; (Grassley, R); (11 R, 09 D)
Foreign Relations; (Lugar, R); (10 R, 08 D)
Health, Education,Labor, and Pensions; (Enzi, R); (11 R, 09 D)
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; (Collins, R); (09 R, 07 D)
Judiciary; (Specter, R); (10 R, 08 D)
Rules and Administration; (Lott, R); (10 R, 08 D)
Small Business and Entrepreneurship; (Snowe, R); (10 R, 08 D)
Veterans Affairs; (Craig, R); (08 R, 06 D)
"the Senate divides its tasks among 20 committees, 68 subcommittees, and 4 joint committees" …
"The chair of each committee and a majority of its members represent the majority party. The chair primarily controls a committee’s business" (link here).
How many democrats, independents, greens, etc. chair committees in the senate or the house? (Zero)
Therefore, republicans are where the power and the accountability of congress lies.
Both the White House and the Congress are republican controlled. All the Cabinet is republican.
It’s a republican thang, and if voting machine law is going to be federally moderated and made fair, then remember the status quo is a function of that republican power.
The legal structure of our congress does not support a multi-party system, and is designed really for a two party system. This is not good.
Under the law of the House and Senate, "the Senate divides its tasks among 20 committees, 68 subcommittees, and 4 joint committees" … "The chair of each committee and a majority of its members represent the majority party. The chair primarily controls a committee’s business" (link here).
Take an example where republicans win 30 seats, independents win 28 seats, greens win 29 seats, and democrats win 13 seats. We can now easily see that this will not work well.
The republicans with 30 seats end up as the majority party. Remember that the majority party and the majority are not the same thing in our example. The majority is 70 votes (greens, indys, and dems), but the majority party is 30 republican seats.
Therefore, they get the committee chair on each committee, and they get the majority number of members in each committee.
So, in our system, the majority of seats would be governed by the minority 30 seats.
Anyone see any way to improve this?
there goes my dream of new england, new york, illinois, wisconsin, michigan, we need the water and the pacific coast to become its own country.
The Fix is Still In.
Did McPherson take a bribe, or did they threaten to murder him and his family?
Both are politically acceptable to the Neocons.
Welcome to the New World Order.
Democracy is DEAD.
Anyone see any way to improve this?
Easily but you won’t want to hear it. Instant-runoff voting made into official law.
We’re going to court already to force it to become law as voting machines are taken out/removed and that will allow everyone to have who they voted for most of the time….
Doug
This is the letter I sent the 5 State Senators on the "Rules Committee". I did not include Bev Harris’s letter to SOS Bruce McPherson in this post because it is some long.
Dear Senator,
I am a concerned Californian, and I have been aware of what you will find in the follow letter that Bev Harris from BlackBoxVoting.org has address in her letter to the Secretary of State.
I too, have talk to personnel in SOS office. Specifically, Mr. Bruce McDannold, who was put off by my questions about the "Voting Systems Summit", and why many of the activities of the SOS have not been publicly released until the two days prior, the day of, or even after the fact. Meaning, I feel that my SOS has neglecting his responsibilities via lack of communications of his or the office’s activities concerning the voting systems and HAVA.
Please read the letter below and consider my request that you and the other Senators on the "Rules Committee" not only send out Subpoenas to Diebold, Sequoia, Hart Intercivic, Cyber Labs, Wyle Labs, and voting systems examiners. These corporation have refused to take part in hearings in the question of voting systems.
I am also asking that you inquire to the SOS why he and his office feel that is not their responsibility to communicate the activities of certification of said voting systems and any other action address California voting systems requirements in a timely manor.
Most Sincerely,
Y’all keep me laughing….. I’m amazed that no candidate that is a Democrat ever loses because they failed to get enough votes…… It’s all part of a vast right-wing conspiracy! Yeah, right!
Bush may not have been popular, but who the hell ran against him? Sadly, no one worthy of the confidence of voters, nationwide. Who voted for Schwartznegger? Perhaps that was a conspiracy too!
Keep talking amongst yourselves…… I’ll enjoy being from a "red state", and voting, and being comfortable that all votes count….even those of us who are not as "enlightened" as you conspiracy theorists!
hey guys,
sen. bowen suggests we call and/or email macpherson as well as those 5 senators (including herself).
details on my blog.
This is a test. I tried to post here and I didn’t want to type the hole thing again and it not post…
:blush:
Everyone keep up the phone calls and faxes…
People in the area of california should also send a certified letter or a copy to the Senate office. Lets get action, now. Unlike the troll above, we have a chance to save the vote for everyone period and elect no more neoconvicts in either party: Get to it!
Doug Eldritch
Doug #21 The answer is …
The legal structure of our congress does not support a multi-party system, and is designed for a two party system. It is a winner take all affair.
This is not good, but it is reality.
Under the law of the House and Senate, "the Senate divides its tasks among 20 committees, 68 subcommittees, and 4 joint committees" … "The chair of each committee and a majority of its members represent the majority party. The chair primarily controls a committee’s business" (link here).
Take an example where republicans win 30 seats, independents win 28 seats, greens win 29 seats, and democrats win 13 seats. We can now easily see that this will not work well.
The republicans with 30 seats end up as the majority party. Remember that the majority party and the majority are not the same thing in our system. The majority, in this example, is 70 votes (greens, indys, and dems), but the majority party is the republicans because they got those 30 seats.
Therefore, they get the committee chair on each and every committee, and they get the majority number of members in each and every committee of congress.
So, in our system, the majority of seats would be governed by the minority republican 30 seats.
Anyone see any way to improve this?
I do. The polls show that the body politic favors democrats in the upcoming election, and voting democrats into the majority is the public will.
We would have an easier time prevailing upon them to change the rules.
It should be pro rata based upon percentage of seats.
Committees should be distributed to all parties based upon percentage of seats in a pro rata configuration.
Otherwise, when independents, greens, democrats, and other parties fight each other the republicans always remain the majority party and therefore always control the congress.
So …
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Seeking help to start legal action versus Ca. SOS. e-mail sent with demand to rescind and notice of legal action. I can write it with the help that i have, but i may need more on evidence for court hearing. Time for San Diego to stand and be counted. We are on for April 11, 2006 special election. Diebold machines in San Diego and now certified?
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