Blogged by Brad from the road…
I was able to listen in via cell phone to the Press Conference just held outside the San Diego courthouse where Attorney Paul Lehto has filed a lawsuit to contest the results of the Busby/Bilbray election.
I wasn’t able to hear everything…but here are a few quotes as transcribed as best as I could from speakers Lehto, Judy Hess, Barbara Gail Jacobson and Mimi Kennedy…
LEHTO: “This action is to send a message to the country that these voting machines are getting out of control, security is being ignored, and election officials need to take these issues seriously…especially when dealing with voting machines where one person can tamper with a machine, affecting every other machine in the race, and nobody would ever be able to tell…”
LEHTO: “[San Diego County Registrar of Voters] Mikel Haas cannot prove that Bilbray won this race….We’re calling for a count of all of the ballots.”
LEHTO: “We want the public to be involved in the voting which they can’t when these machines are used and that’s a threat to democracy.”
LEHTO: “This action focuses on the Busby/Bilbray race…we’ll likely file another action that focuses on November.”
Q: Do you want to end electronic voting? Yes or no?
LEHTO: “Personally, I do, but this action has nothing to do with that. It’s about accountability in the Busby/Bilbray election”
Judy Hess, organizer of the CA50 Action Group, introduced the speakers and pointed out herself, in response to media questions about how the machines should be deployed (since Haas has claimed in several media interviews that “sleepovers” with poll workers are the only way he can think of to deploy all of the voting machines on Election Day) that in Washington state, where Lehto is from, they serve half a million voters and deploy all of the voting systems on the morning of Election Day with just nine trucks.
Mimi Kennedy (national chair of PDA) spoke about the need to maintain security on these systems in this, the first year that the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) is giving states and counties $3.8 billion to encourage them to “upgrade” to these systems.
Barbara Gail Jacobson, who filed the hand count request which was stymied by Mikel Haas spoke: “I filed this not for any partisan reason, but because the public deserves accountability in elections. We are drawing a line in the sand…America needs to know that their votes are counted the way they intended.”
San Diego television channels 10, 8, 7 and several print media were on hand I was told. “About a dozen media” as it was reported to me. I hope to get a copy of the suit as filed today posted here at The BRAD BLOG as soon as it’s made available.
Lehto is confirmed to appear on the nationally syndicated Ed Schultz Show at 5:30pm ET (2:30pm PT) today.
Brad –
Check this out! Flip a switch in Diebold machine – changes everything!
BB2, You beat me to it. I was just going to link that same story. Thanks!
You usually scoop me – LOL 😉
I have yet to read or see anything on this within a newspaper or on network/cable TV.
Is this “BLACKOUT” heat related?
Time for another letter to the editor. If only I could tie this into Mel Gibson somehow….
And Yet, the Roveality is to assure voters (recent college graduates – among them republican operatives of the futute), that elections are always “messy” no need to bother your conscience with the particulars…aka move along folks…this is the way we’ve always done it. And, he says, the outcome is just fine, no matter.
We need to distinguish this fight from anything in the past.
You beat me to it, too, BB2. OK…it’s good to see lawyers getting involved. Republicans hate lawyers…except the thousands that THEY have. Lawyers are ruining America (according to the Republicans)…except for THEIR crooked lawyers… You know what? I learned a while back, that it is the same reichwing radio shows and followers that want us all to hate lawyers, because they are are only weapons against them. I learned this after I learned about rightwing media…
This is the website where the pictures are from the Raw Stopry article.I have no idea what I’m looking at, does anybody else? If anyone can explain, Thanks! Link: http://politics.slashdot.org/ar.../07/31/1646246
That was Raw Story
Laura #7
Photo #6: circuit board – notice grid with “Boot Area Configuration” at the top. This is switch and jumper settings to switch between various boot up devices.
Along the top and to the right of the red “Printer Pwr” connector is one of the switches – SW4. The long black socket with the white clip at the left end is for an SDRAM memory card.
Photo #8: Jumpers JP1-3, 5 & 6 are located to the left of the speaker. (Enlarging photo #5 shows which is which)
Also above the jumpers is another set of instructions based on the jumper settings.
Photo #9: Appears to be half of the case showing posts for 14 or 15 screws which hold the whole thing together.
Photo #20: Another switch – not labled.
The long white socket is for some other form of circuit board.
The other photos are just various views of the motherboard.
The point of their article is that by moving the jumpers and flipping the switches you can completely reconfigure how the machine boots up and the source of its boot instructions. (Programming)
Thank You BlueBear2, How significant is this? I get the idea that it can be switched but can it throw the whole election?
It seems to me if they can switch this, then they could switch it for a recount to get any results they want. Is that possible?
I read the same story on the Diebold machines in Raw Story. The question I have is “why” is the machine engineered this way, if not to allow specifically for tampering? Someone should be questioning Diebold “under oath” for an explanation. If the machines were designed to be secure, they would be engineered to work one way under one set of conditions that cannot be altered in any way. Building a machine that can be operated with more than one set of instructions, i.e. programs and cannot be detected when a switch is made sounds like criminal intent from the get go.
There is a lot of conflicting information on this issue.
The San Diego Union Tribune just editorialized against this as a partisan scare campaign.
Is this true?
How else do elections officials get machines out without paid, trained poll inspectors taking them home?
What was the result of the manuel recount audit required by state law? Any vote discrepancy?
Also that story referenced above is about the diebold TS – I do not think that is what is ok’d for use in CA
Isn”t it the optical scan or “os”?
Alan C –
As pointed out in today’s press conference in San Diego, Paul Lehto’s own county in Washington state serves half a million voters by deploying machines on election day morning with 9 trucks.
Haas already owns a fleet of trucks at the San Diego County Registrar’s office. He simply doesn’t wish to follow the law.
Yes, now that we’ve finally gotten *some* of the information on the 1% audit (only days ago) all manners of irregularities are being found. Amongst them, Haas’ horrific administration of the 1% audit!
The story referenced at RAW is about the Diebold TS system. San Diego County used a mix of Diebold optical-scan (OS) and touch-screen (TSx, which is the later version of the TS system and includes a so-called “voter verified paper trail” printer)
Maybe RFK jr can put this in his lawsuit? That the machines were DESIGNED ON PURPOSE with these flaws to make them easily manipulated??? Why would they design these machines to be manipulated at all? Instead of 100% secure? It’s not a FLAW…it was on PURPOSE!
Miss Persistent #5
Hi!
I like the word “Roveality” you used … very, very real … based upon their own description of “reality” … “something you make with your own press manipulation” … which is better described by your word Roveality.