Guest Blogged By John Gideon
Just released by the Green Party US is a Press Release from San Diego County, CA that states, in part, “The Green Party of San Diego County does not endorse the protocols used for obtaining and tabulating votes during the June 6 primary and previous elections. As we outline below, the process is fundamentally insecure leading to election results that are neither accurate nor verifiable.”
The complete Press Release is below:
THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA
www.cagreens.org
GREEN PARTY OF SAN DIEGO, CA
www.sdgreens.org
August 07, 2006
Released Aug 04, 2006
A Resolution of the Green Party of San Diego County, California calling for the removal of electronic voting machines from the County of San Diego.
The Green Party of San Diego County does not endorse the protocols used for obtaining and tabulating votes during the June 6 primary and previous elections.. As we outline below, the process is fundamentally insecure leading to election results that are neither accurate nor verifiable.
Whereas voting machines are known to have gone home overnight with poll workers who had not undergone background checks, and who had unsupervised access to these voting machines, as documented by Pamela Smith, Nationwide Coordinator, www.VerifiedVoting.org and Verified Voting Foundation, and poll workers Terry Olson, Brian C. Baer, Patricia Mack Newton, and others, and admitted to by Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas, who told the Union Tribune, that the practice of sending home voting machines with poll workers “has been followed without incident for about 40 years.” (Electronic voting machines have not been in use for 40 years, so the Registrar’s statement appears to be inaccurate.)… (1)
Whereas the multiple means of a single individual undetectably “hacking” both optical scan and touch-screen machines have been documented by the Brennan Center Report, the second report of the Irish Commission on Electronic Voting, and the Hursti Reports… (2)
Whereas the Secretary of State has ignored his own technical advisory panel regarding security safeguards submitted in their report on November 8, 2005…(3)
Whereas the machine count on optical scan machines used in two different Iowa primary elections were found by a hand recount to have been inaccurate and to have altered the results of the elections…(4)
Whereas observers have noted that there does not appear to be any public oversight of the security of ballots between an election and a recount, the recount process is no more transparent than the first tally, and the costs of recounts are prohibitive ..(5)
Whereas the electronic voting machines to be used in the November election in San Diego county produce no paper trail and cannot be verified or audited to ensure accuracy…(6)
Whereas all vote counting must be public and it is humanly impossible to view any tallying of votes which takes place within optical scan, touch screen machines or central tabulators so as to ascertain that they have not been programmed to display an incorrect result….(7)
Whereas the costs of the maintenance of electronic voting machines are prohibitive… (8)
Whereas the Registrar of Voters apparently plans to hire, at taxpayer expense, at least one extra poll worker per precinct, a specialist whose duties include turning the new voting machines on and off..(9)
And whereas all electronics quickly become obsolete and must be replaced, while the costs and reliability of paper and pencil have remained relatively steady for hundreds of years……
It has been resolved by the Green Party of San Diego County to call for the Board of Supervisors of San Diego County to terminate the contracts with Diebold for costly voting machines that do not and cannot meet certification standards, and to put in place verifiable elections procedures, preferably paper ballots that would be hand counted at the precincts in full public view.
This resolution adopted by the County Council of the Green Party of San Diego County:
SOURCES:
1 http://votetrustusa.org/
BUSBY/BILBRAY ELECTION IN DOUBT: The Diebold Machine Sleepovers at Poll Workers Houses…
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/73/32802.html?1152131323
2 http://brennancenter.org/programs/downloads/Executive%20Summary.pdf http://www.cev.ie/htm/report/download_second.htm
3 http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/2005_pmp_report_final.pdf
4 http://votetrustusa.org/
5 http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070706B.shtml
6 http://www.votetrustusa.org/
7 http://brennancenter.org/programs/downloads/Executive%20Summary.pdf http://www.cev.ie/htm/report/download_second.htm
8 http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/8/19518.html
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/8/9658.html
9 Registrar of Voters employment application
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Disclaimer: State, local, and candidate press releases made available here represent the opinions of the original source only. Opinions expressed by a state party or candidate do not necessarily represent the views of the Green Party of the United States. State party contact information, when provided with candidate releases, does not imply state party endorsement of the opinions expressed nor of the candidate (prior to gaining formal nomination by the party).
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Office: PO Box 57065 Washington, D.C. 20037
Email: office@gp.org 202-319-7191 or toll-free (US): 866-41GREEN
Also making recent statements regarding CA-50:
Oregon VRC
http://www.oregonvrc.org/2006/07/bilbray/busby_election_a_warning_to_the_nation
Bilbray/Busby Problems a Warning to the Nation
NO CONF
VotersUnite.org joins Oregon VRC’s statement…
http://www.votersunite.org/info/ovrcstatement.asp
“Bilbray/Busby Election a Warning to the Nation”
VotersUnite.Org joins Oregon Voter Rights Coalition in their statement applauding the actions being taken in San Diego Co., California and warning that voting system security is essential to the substance of democracy.
DFA Temecula Valley
NO CONF
NY Verified Voting
NO CONF
J30 (in Columbus, Ohio) passed the following Resolution of No Confidence, which supports CEPN efforts. ~ Rady
Resolution of No Confidence
in Current U.S. Elections
by J30 Coalition
http://wedonotconsent.blogspot.com/2006/07/ohios-j30-coalition-adopts-resolution.html
From Conyers on CA-50 (included with an as-ever gracious hat-tip to our work here)
http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000487.htm
This indicates the Greens deserve our vote more than the do-nothing Democrats.
Let the Greens get the majority.
This call for verifiable elections should have come from the Democratic Party which is apparently AWOL. Having said that, I know one Democratic candidate who understands the importance of getting these ridiculously insecure and secret vote counting machines out of our elections and that is Florida’s Clint Curtis who is running for congress. For those Bradblog readers who live in the Seattle area, Clint Curtis will be in Seattle Aug 17 for a campaign fundraiser. We will also be showing his new documentary film. Come support Curtis. If he wins the primary election on Sept.5th, he will be running against Tom Feeney the very man that hired Curtis to create vote flipping software to “control the vote” in Florida. The fundraiser will be at the Seattle Labor Temple, 2800 First Ave. in Belltown Seattle at 7:00 pm. Please join us and support this heroic, whistleblowing candidate.
Both Secretary of State Bruce McPherson and San Diego’s Election Supervisor Hass, need to be sued for misfeasance and malfeasance of office. Until we make these people personally pay for their crimes, they will continue to defy the rules of democracy and honest, transparent, elections.
Where is the ACLU when we need them?
This is what I was talking about in previous posts, I love the Green Party. That’s why I’m upset they are “dealing with the devil” by accepting all those GOP “donations” from Republicans who are just giving to them to take votes away from Casey. The Green’s have the highest integrity, except for that. I actually think it’s shocking that they accept “blood money” to be used as patsies. The Greens & Libs contested Ohio, as the Dems remained silent.
If anyone from the Greens is reading this, I have a plan for you: Take all the $$$ from Santorum backers, then drop out, and have Casey make Romanelli the Lt. Governor!!! Huh? How ’bout it? Whaddya say?
Good Plan. Also: until AMERICANS force a cap on corporate contribution as well as destroy electronic voting machines, no 3rd party has a chance or just keep smokin the green and coming in 3rd or 4th place.
THE STINK OF THE 50th
From these methods we must be weaned.
The methods of the electronic voting machines.
Swiss cheese at best the security they offer.
Sending them home with poll workers ain’t proper.
Our ‘R”O”V’ is an ‘S”O”B’
’cause our ‘S”O”S”s rules were not followed by he.
So now the conundrum we find ourselves in
is that we don’t know who should lose and who win.
The republicans have already decided the winner for us.
Despite the sleepover and security so porous.
“Trust us,” they say, “we will count the votes right.”
“We will count them in secret, far out of your sight.”
“They’ll be counted on machines; not sure how they work.”
“They’ll be counted proper, now don’t be a jerk
and ask us these questions we don’t want to answer
of whether these machines are a democracy cancer.”
“Of whether those elected are the one’s voted for.”
The beginning of the end of democracy’s core.
— Chris Hooten
(still here!)
Chris Hooten!
Hooray! I was worried about you! Now I know you and Floridiot are safe, I feel much better! Goodie!
I have a sneaking suspicion that the line, “We will count them in secret, far out of your sight.” is subconsciously borrowed from some other poem somewhere. F*ck if I know where, though. 1000 apologies to whoever.
— Your friend