Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA
The “DVN Top 5” is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The March 27 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the “Top 5” for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I’ve posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!…
This week I find it impossible to make any of my “Top 5” the Number 1 story above any of the rest of the “Top 5” so they are all designated “Number 1”. Pay no attention to the order in which they are posted; that’s just the way they came up.
The main stream media seems to have finally decided that they may want to begin reporting about voting machine problems. It took a disaster in Illinois to wake them up, and that’s the unfortunate thing. Things are so bad in Cook County and Chicago that one Alderman is quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying, “It is an embarrassment. It is a disgrace. And until such time as we find out what caused all this, I don’t think this firm should be paid.” Meanwhile the Chicago Sun Times reported information about the voting machine vendor responsible for the primary election debacle, Sequoia Voting Systems, and their parent company, Smartmatic, a Venezuelan owned company with possible ties to Hugo Chavez.
Meanwhile in Emery County Utah another hero for the voting activist community has stepped forward as County Clerk Bruce Funk allowed Black Box Voting.Org to have access to two of his Diebold TSx machines On Monday he voiced his decision to resign his position rather than endorse an election using those machines. The county commission heard Bruce say that he resigned, though he never submitted a written statement, but by Tuesday he had changed his mind, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, and stated “I plan to fulfill the term of my office. I was elected to this position by the people of Emery County.” While this was unfolding Diebold decided that the inspection done by the BBV folks had affected all of the counties machines which would require $40,000 worth of inspection. Funk vows to watch every step that Diebold makes, even to a point of video-taping, while the county commission says that he no longer has a job working for the voters. The lawyers will have to work all of this out and let’s hope whatever is worked out the voters come out on top for a change. UtahCountVotes.org has actions we can all take to help Funk and ultimately, his voters.
Last Wednesday Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist surprised a lot of people as he subpoenaed the state’s three voting systems vendors; Diebold, Sequoia, and ES&S; to answer questions regarding their sales practices in the state. In a media release Crist announced, “The Attorney General’s Civil Rights Division will be assisting the Antitrust Division because of the importance of securing accessible voting systems for all Floridians. The subpoenas are seeking information about whether the companies agreed among themselves not to do business with the county.” Also in question is whether the three companies colluded to not sell voting machines to Leon County as some kind of punishment for the actions of Ion Sancho.
Pennsylvania’s voting systems examiner, Prof. Michael Shamos, performed pre-certification testing and inspection on the new Sequoia Advantage voting machines that are destined for use in some counties in the state. These machines are 10 year old machines that were used in Clark County, Nevada in the past. They have been refurbished by Sequoia and audio has been installed for use by voters who are blind or vision impaired. The inclusion of the audio caused a “bug” to be installed in the WinEDS software. That “bug” was reported to Sequoia, who was on site and it was immediately fixed. However, that “bug repair” caused more “bugs” to appear. Finally, Professor Shamos stopped the testing process and told Sequoia to get all of their problems fixed and return with a good product. It is important to note that all of these “fixes” must lead to a final WinEDS that must be federally qualified along with the rest of the Advantage system. It must also all meet the 2002 Voting Systems Standards and all of this has to happen in enough time for the state to certify the machines for use prior to the state’s primary in May.
The arrogance of the voting machine vendors reared its ugly head this past week in counties across Texas with most of the reporting of this incident coming from Jefferson County. iVotronic voting machines manufactured by Elections Systems and Software (ES&S) were used in the Texas state primary last month and were due to be used in this months run-off elections. However, the machines performed so poorly in the primary that the counties demanded that ES&S repair the problems or the final payments for the machines would be withheld until they did make the fixes satisfactorily. Rather than work to satisfy their customers ES&S refused to do any work, including printing ballots and programming the machines for the upcoming run-off elections. The counties needed those services or they would be forced to use paper ballots so they found themselves between a rock and ES&S and they were finally squeezed into making the vendor happy. The Secretary of State’s office was complicit in this strong-arming as they took the time to remind the county that if they did not have the machines ready they risked losing HAVA funds and risked being investigated by the DoJ for HAVA Section 301 violations.
What ever happened to all them missing mem cards in Ill. ? Did I miss them re-appearing ?
John, I think a story has been missed here. Of the 5, I now focus on the Texas case.
You said "The counties needed those services or they would be forced to use paper ballots so they found themselves between a rock and ES&S and they were finally squeezed into making the vendor happy" (bold added).
Forced into the solution is a problem?
I think that Texans blew it. Here was an opportunity to go to paper ballots. That would be an advance, in my opinion, not a retro.
We know machines are currently insecure, and therefore our democracy is currently insecure. Paper ballots and hand counting are the better solution at this time.
Texans missed the ball.
There is no way we are going to get the best solution in this election cycle, so settle for the safer bet.
Texans also erred in showing their cards. If they have the option to go to paper ballots and hand counts then the fraudy election machine vendors do not have dictatorial powers.
Texans caved in and blew it for all of us. Someone set the example and stand up to the dictators of elections.
We elect election officials to represent us, not to represent the fraud for profit crowd.
Floridiot #1 –
There was no announcement that I ever saw that said they had found all, or a portion, of the cards. I can only assume that they did because they claim that all votes were counted.
Dredd #2 –
The choice of the word "forced" was probably not a good one. However, the state made it very clear, with scare tactics (always a good right-wing tactic) that if the counties even considered using paper the DoJ would swoop down on them and fine them and do all kinds of other unnatural acts on their body and person.
Essentially, the state colluded with ES&S to force the counties to pay the rest of their bills and to bow under to the vendor.
DIEBOLD ALERT!
4-3-06: ALERT – elections officials: Diebold making ‘visits’ to your equipment
Please forward to your local elections officials:
Warning: Black Box Voting has received credible first-hand reports from multiple states that Diebold is making unannounced visits to counties, sometimes when the elections supervisor is out of town. Diebold has prevailed on assistants and managed to gain access to the voting equipment.
Elections employees report to us that their questions to Diebold are not being answered to their satisfaction.
Here is what to look out for, and why this is so important:
1. Program changes: Watch very carefully whether Diebold puts a card into your machine and boots it up. Alert your staff to be on the lookout for this. By inserting one card, either the operating system or the voting software can be altered. Inserting two cards can change both.
Such changes can hide evidence of the kind of security vulnerabilities found by Harri Hursti and Security Innovation Inc. in Emery County, Utah. However, replacing the operating system and programs does not ensure the integrity of your machines, since the security vulnerabilities found appear to be able to survive overwriting both the operating system and the programs.
2. Swapping out equipment or components: We have credible reports that Diebold has swapped motherboards in some machines. We have less firm reports that Diebold has made reference to repartitioning memory and/or other adjustments. Either swapping the motherboard or repartitioning could obscure evidence of programming that shouldn’t be there, and/or introduce new vulnerabilities to your system.
3. Swapping or recording serial numbers. The Diebold serial numbers do not appears to be burned into the machine/motherboard itself, but are simply affixed with a plate that can be replaced.
You should, immediately, photograph each of your machines’ serial numbers.
Diebold denies that they have sold used equipment. However, a recent response from Deborah Seiler, the former Diebold sales rep who is now Elections Registrar for Solano County, California, gives a perception that someone is not being forthcoming.
Solano County used the Diebold TSx for one election and then rejected the system. Seiler, who took office shortly after Solano rejected the Diebold equipment, has reportedly responded to a public records request for Solano County TSx serial numbers by claiing that they were given back to Diebold and that Solano County no longer has them.
Diebold’s odd explanation in Utah, that there were perhaps Chinese or Asian fonts on touch-screens delivered to Utah, would be consistent with selling machines from California. There were some 800 to 900 TSx machines, apparently, rejected by Solano County.
Black Box Voting encourages all recipients of "new" Diebold TSx machines to log serial numbers immediately, photograph or videotape them, and do so before Diebold arrives to visit your machines if at all possible.
It would be a good idea to take the keys to the voting machine storage facility with you when you are not in the office. Advise your staff not to allow Diebold to access your machines without your presence.
If Diebold comes to visit your machines, you are advised to tape record, videotape, and have several witnesses present to observe exactly what they do.
Better yet, tell them you need a written work order specifying what they will be doing in detail before you authorize it, and stand over them to observe during any access to any part of your system.
Diebold is a private company. As soon as you took delivery on your system, you have the responsibility to be in control of it and observe at all times. You are under no obligation to allow a vendor access (even if your state has mandated that you take these machines).
The upcoming security report, along with the testimony of Wyle Labs at the California Senate Elections Committee hearing last week, provide clear indications as to why preservation of your system AS IT WAS DELIVERED TO YOU should remain "as is."
Original BBV post is here.