“Just push the yellow button and you can vote as many times as you want,” Tom Courbat, an Election Integrity advocate from Riverside County, California informed The BRAD BLOG tonight. Not that we’re in any mood to report more such stories, but this seems to be a big one. A very big one.
It seems there’s a little yellow button on the back of every touch-screen computer made by Sequoia Voting Systems, that allows any voter, or poll worker, or precinct inspector to set the system into “Manual Mode” allowing them to cast as many votes as they want.
Concerns about the flaw were first reported some thirty days ago to California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson’s office by Ron Watt, a Tehama County, CA precinct inspector who has been a poll worker in the county for the last fifteen years. And yet, as recently as a radio interview last Tuesday, McPherson — who has been crowing about having the country’s most stringent security process for voting systems — denied he was aware of any security issues with Sequoia systems.
“They didn’t care about it,” Watt told us tonight about his “late September or early October” discussion with McPherson’s voting systems chief Bruce McDannold. “He said he didn’t think it was an important issue. He said I don’t believe this is really a vulnerability.”
Watt and Courbat disagreed and placed another phone call to the SoS’ office on Friday after Watt received a copy of Sequoia’s “Poll Workers Guide, Booklet #5: Troubleshooting” via a public records request in Tehama. On pages 19 through 22 of the booklet — which is marked as “Confidential and Proprietary” — he confirmed the simple manual override to the system. He’d learned about it years earlier and the new manuals confirmed that button was still in place. Even in the latest models of the Sequoia Edge voting systems (both models 1 and 2).
The complete sequence to override the system and enter manual voting mode, along with the Sequoia booklet received via Watt’s public records request, is now posted here at BlackBoxVoting.org.
Watt had been taught to be a poll worker trainer by De La Rue, the former parent company of Sequoia, years ago when the systems were first brought into the county. The two men placed a conference call with McDannold last Friday after receiving the booklet. McDannold again reportedly downplayed the concerns, but said “he’d look into it,” according to Courbat.
He called Courbat back on Monday afternoon to say Sequoia technicians had been in the SoS office and had confirmed the vulnerability. (A complete transcript of McDannold’s Monday phone message left on Courbat’s cell phone, confirming the security issue and describing the actions — or lack thereof — being taken, is at end of this article.)
Sequoia’s voting machines are perhaps the most widely used in California, in some 19 different counties, including both Tehama and Riverside, which is known as the “Home of E-Voting” as it was the first county in the nation to deploy such systems. But identical Sequoia machines are also used in dozens of other states around the country including Florida, Illinois and elsewhere.
Thanks to the diligence of Watt and Courbat, it is now confirmed that all such systems are completely vulnerable to virtually anyone who wishes to cast as many votes as they please.
“I can do it in 18 seconds,” says Watt. “I can train you to do it in 3 minutes. Just push the yellow button, wait 3 seconds and it chimes. Push the yellow button again, wait 3 seconds and it chimes again. Then it’s all on the screen prompts. You’re asked ‘Do you want to enter manual mode?’ and you push ‘Yes’…And then you’re on your way.”
“You can then vote as many times as you want. You won’t ever have to stop until someone physically restrains you from voting,” he explained.
“But wouldn’t someone hear the chime?” we asked…
“No, it’s barely audible. Quieter than the beep on your computer when it boots up. The systems are usually kept up against the wall to be near a power outlet and away from the poll workers for privacy. Plus, if you really wanted to pull it off, just come in with a friend and have them talk to the poll workers to distract them. Nobody would ever know.”
McDannold’s message left on Courbat’s cell phone Monday confirming the issue. “Sequoia was actually in here this morning giving us a demonstration of the feature and how it works and how you would set it up and put it into that mode,” said McDannold.
He claimed that the SoS office had then contacted all California counties using the Sequoia Edge and said “they are all doing poll worker training” and “putting signs up to warn people about the severe penalties for tampering with voting equipment uh which is would fall under—- most of them are putting signs actually on the machines.”
“They are also being very conscious of the placement of the equipment so that they can observe, actually many of them are – have already planned to assign staff members to do nothing but just watch the machines for that purpose to make sure ah nobody is reaching around or doing anything,” McDannold explained on the recorded message.
“It’s not the voters we’re worried about doing this,” Courbat said. “It’s the Precinct Captains and Elections Officials across thousands of precincts across the country. This isn’t unique to Riverside or Tehama. Tens of thousands of votes can be stolen across the country,” he added.
Courbat was furious at Sec. of State McPherson, who has been touting his record on security issues for voting systems on the campaign trail. A record, we might add, that seems to have little in common with McPherson’s frequent public claims. He has certified system after system in the Golden State despite scores of vulnerabilities, inaccuracies, failures and malfunctions found in each of them.
McPherson is currently in a tight race with his Democratic challenger, State Sen. Debra Bowen, who has been a long time champion of Election Integrity and security issues, as well as transparency for such systems and in government as a whole. She has also been critical of McPherson’s lax security standards, such as allowing hackable Diebold voting systems to be sent home with poll workers on “sleepovers” for days and weeks prior to elections despite serious vulnerabilities, more than 16, found by McPherson’s own team of computer scientist advisors at UC Berkley.
From the radio debate on KCRW this Tuesday, the following exchange occurred concerning this development:
Secretary McPherson: I think she, uh, that has not been detected in two elections. It’s interesting that she should just bring that up a week before the election.
Olney: She said you just found it because of a Freedom of Information request and says you must have known it.
Secretary McPherson: No, that is not true. That is not true. I think she is throwing a lot of fear and doubt out there, and it’s unwarranted.
UPDATE 12:22pm: Bowen’s campaign has just released a statement on this matter. We’ll link up here as soon as it become available online…
“If McPherson says he didn’t know about this on Tuesday during that interview, after his office had been notified long ago, then he’s lying,” Courbat charged. “McPherson had to know by Monday. He either knew about it or his staff never told him, in which case they need to be fired on the spot.”
But if Watt knew about this vulnerability for years himself, why didn’t he say something prior to 30 days ago?
“Ya know, I always thought people were honest. I really did,” he told us during tonight’s phone call. “I didn’t really think anybody would exploit something like this. I just thought the best of people. But now I feel differently. After this last election, the Primary Election on June 6th, I saw things I couldn’t believe. After all this talk about security for these systems, and chain of custody stuff…I saw the chain of custody issues just thrown right out the window in Tehama County,” he said.
“Maybe it was naiveté before, I don’t know. But after what I saw in that election, it just suddenly dawned on me. We’ve got a very serious problem here.”
###
The transcript of the phone message left by Bruce McDannold on Tom Courbat’s cell phone follows in full…
10-30-06 Voice Mail Message from Bruce McDannold ““ CA Secretary of State’s Office, 4:34 p.m. [2 minutes, 40 seconds duration] left on cell phone of Tom Courbat.
Yes, Mr. Courbat. Bruce McDannold from the uh Secretary of State’s office. We spoke Friday night and I just wanted to get back in touch with you.
Since we spoke, we have ah reviewed the information. Sequoia was actually in here this morning giving us a demonstration uh of the feature and how it works and how you would set it up and put it into that mode [the manual mode that allows continuous voting on any Sequoia Edge I or Edge II machine]. We’ve reviewed it with them and I have to at least notice or note that that’s not an easy thing to reach around and go through that sequence unobserved.
We’ve also spoken with all the counties ah that are Sequoia users today and verified they were all aware of that as a feature for the backup purposes, of course, that we discussed and why that feature was put in. Uh, they’re all aware of it, they have all of them been training their staff and are continuing to train their staff and their poll workers on observing that and watching the equipment um during the day for uh any use of that system or people reaching around certainly or too long in the voting booth or the audio beep that it automatically emits every time you try to put it in that mode there’s also an audio warning that goes with that so, you know, it’s an important kind of mitigation being aware.
They are all doing poll worker training ah they’re all putting signs up to warn people about the severe penalties for tampering with voting equipment uh which is would fall under—- most of them are putting signs actually on the machines. They are also being very conscious of the placement of the equipment so that they can observe, actually many of them are – have already planned to assign staff members to do nothing but just watch the machines for that purpose to make sure ah nobody is reaching around or doing anything.
And then of course, um a final important component is, they’re all required to do balloting accounting afterwards to verify and demonstrate that no one has ah tampered with the machines or put any extra votes on it. So ah we’re confident at this point that there are effective mitigation strategies out there — everybody’s clear that the essential [potential?] danger and alert to it, confident that it won’t be affecting the election. Hopefully that answers your questions and puts you at a little more at ease. If you have any further questions or want to get back in touch with me, my number of course is 916-653-7244.
Thanks
To hell with the Red Pill!
To hell with the Blue Pill!
*I* want the Yellow Button!
And then bring me… the bore worms.
Paperless Voting is Like a Paperless Toilet . . . . . & is Bad Hygiene for democracy . . .
I am too lazy to go read the manuals, but I have to wonder: why is there a manual override button in the first place? I mean one that allows continuous voting, screen after screen, vote after vote? The location and accessibility of the button suggests that it is a kind of re-boot switch for machines that lock-up. But to allow continuous, successive votes on reset doesn’t make sense to me.
The 4th Branch of government is
The Main Stream MediaThe Brad Blog, Lefty Blogs & Progressive Radio.
P.S. . . . . . Keith Olbermann . . .
FBI in Maryland
http://baltimore.bizjournals.co...l?surround=lfn
http://www.examiner.com/a-37495...ng_places.html
#5 Amy – Ya, bush’s nazi gestapo will be @ the polls . . . . . to insure fascist control . . .
Jeezus Christmas!
Are we sure this is not some Monty Python PARODY of American elections?? Because it is sure beginning to sound like one.
Unfreakingbelievable. Follow the yellow brick road & push the yellow button, kids.
Well, before I was knocked for a loop by this yellow button business, I really wanted to share THIS, which is o.t. but about damn time SOMEBODY investigated them for SOMETHING:
“..Two federal agencies are investigating whether the Bush administration tried to block government scientists from speaking freely about global warming and censor their research, a senator said Wednesday.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg [D-NJ] said…[that]…the Commerce Department and NASA had begun “coordinated, sweeping investigations of the Bush administration’s censorship and suppression” of federal research into global warming…”
So what happens if I vote 100 times, do I get 100 Receipts? So much for paper trails…..hmmm.
If this is organized, than 3000 people overvote, 100 per machine for Arnold Schwarzenegger (or another candidate) and guess what?
300000 votes for Arnold
We have a Republican running California again!
And the handcount agrees!
The only issue is the overvote.
Look for that pattern….. but that would never happen.
What did they know and when did they know it? (the elections officials that is). SURELY, Sequoia is fully aware of the design features of its equipment at all times, the question is one of disclosure of this defect, primarily.
Brad, I think it’s worth your time a bit and Tom’s time to continue to nail this one down. I can tell you when I knew it: in a couple weeks it will be the two year anniversary of my own yellow button discovery.
#5 Amy,
Re your first link, does anyone know this Maryland attorney, Rod Rosenstein? I notice he said:
“We will review all allegations [of election fraud] in a nonpartisan manner and pursue any evidence that warrants criminal prosecution.”
While it sounds like mighty good news that “…the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s office said Wednesday that federal prosecutors and FBI agents are prepared to review and investigate allegations of election fraud…”, I have a few dozen questions, such as
Will they only be looking at Maryland? And only at current allegations? What about the truckload of allegations from other states & other elections?
Brad, I hear Maryland is lovely this time of year….
I thought that I had already heard it all. Now, a yellow button on the back of voting machines….just there for overriding votes, or voting as often as you want? The integrity of the American election process is gone!!!
John Wright
Oakland Park, FL
I can’t believe they are still going forward with using these machines for the election. What would it take for a machine to be considered disqualified?
Note to self: check for yellow button on ATMs. Mmmmm, free cash.
– Tom
TomR said, “What would it take for a machine to be considered disqualified?”
Answer: a big hammer hole in it
Joan #7
Thanks for the tip about the Commerce Department and NASA.
You may be interested in This
#12 TomR What would disqualify the machines? ALL THESE MACHINES GIVING OUT DEMOCRAT VOTES ! THAT’S WHAT ! If this gets any real press it’ll be because Sequoia supposidly has ties to ” I can smell the sulfer ” Chavas. They’ll use the machines, and threaten to bomb his country! I’m sending this to Dobbs and Keith, and political writers in the Ohio press.
Hallelujah! This is it, our big chance! Now the Democrats can WIN!
Only evil terrorist-comforting blogs like this one will report this voting machine flaw. America-loving sites like RedState, etc., will not. So only us evil Defeatocrats will know about the yellow button. Ha ha ha!!!
Get out and vote, fellow terrorist comforters, and PUSH THAT BUTTON!
The “CHIME” the “AUDIBLE SIGNAL” that is activated when the yellow manual over ride button is pushed can be easily circumvented so that the “CHIME” noise does not alert election monitors. If the Sequoia electronic voting machine has an earphone jack and it is inserted this will shut off the chime sound from coming through the built in speakers. The audible signal to alert the election monitor has now been by passed,.. one is now free to tamper with the equipment to enter multiple votes. The election has now been fraudulently been mucked with,.. the count of the vote becomes bogus,.. everyone remains clueless of the fraud having been perpetrated.
In the past I have joked about flinging shoes and other objects at my TV over various subjects.
Well last night it happened for real.
CBS Nightly News was on and Katie Couric brought on a story on electronic voting machines.
I thought “great the MSM is picking up on it”
Well as the report went along they talked about poll worker errors, voter errors, etc. etc.
The only mention of machine errors or fraud was to bring on a Diebold rep to proclaim how their machines were the most secure of all and how they have been certified as such all over the country.
At that point a slice of 4 cheese pepperoni pizza left a greasy skid mark across the screen.
My dog thought it was great!
Is it possible they just track every vote made by manual mode and have to have a corresponding paper ballot? Maybe every time a manual vote is processed, there is a special audit trail?
BB-2,.. Comment # 17
that’s funny,..
just imagine the MSM food fight going on over at the BIG DAN household. He must have to scrape off the boob tube screen with a putty knife or industrial squeegee 10x a day.
I myself prefer bricks,.. cobble stones,.. and cinderblocks.
I also want to say I am not trying to be a troll…I hate the vulnerabilities of e voting as much as everybody here, but I hate ill-concieved rhetoric even more.
Joel, it’s quite ok to hate ill-conceived rhetoric but you really should re-evaluate the notion that rhetorical “crimes” are worse than e-voting and its implications/destruction of democracy generally. The damage to democracy is clearly far worse than zealous exercises of constitutionally protected free speech rights, even if considered over the top sometimes.
Catching you on Thom Hartmann’s streaming radio show right now, Brad…. you’re really doing a good job – concise and brutal… brutal.
I received the pollworker training in my county, which uses Sequoia touchscreens. I also received the special training to be that person who stands beside the touchscreen machine and sets it up for each voter. I do not remember being told anything about the severe dangers of letting the voter near the yellow button. I do remember that the instructions about the yellow button were very confusing, because there are lots of different reasons the pollworker has to push it. Sometimes you push it quickly, sometimes you hold it down…
I checked the manual given to me at the training and find nothing about the yellow button, which is called the “activate” button.
However, a supplement was mailed that says, in the GLOSSARY only, as far as I can tell: “Activate Button: The yellow button on behind the touhscreen [sic] unit that will activate the ballot for the voter. DO NOT EVER ALLOW ANYONE OTHER THAN A PRECINCT OFFICER TO ACCESS THE YELLOW ACTIVIATE [sic] BUTTON. GUARD THE UNIT AT ALL TIMES.” [Emphasis in original.]
This glossary was part of an approximately 50 page “updated version” of the manual. The instructions that came with the update did not even request that pollworkers read this manual, simply that they discard the original version [oops!] and add this one to their binder.
This crucial and useless information is conveyed in the new materials, it is well-hidden in the glossary that I’m guessing–due to two typos that would have been caught by a spell-checker–was hastily assembled.
Why am I calling this crucial information useless? How many pollworkers do you know, paid a whopping $60 for working a 14+ hour day–are going to be willing to physically restrain a voter trying to push the yellow button? And what if the pollworkers themselves were to want to cast a few extra votes?
I personally think that this renders the machines non-compliant with HAVA, as this yellow button does not provide equal opportunity for vote stealing to the blind and disabled. The button is only marked by color, has no braille label, and is extremely hard to reach, creating unfair and unequal barriers to blind and mobility impaired voters who want to steal votes as privately and independently as anyone else.
Oh, and by the way, it doesn’t make a bit of difference whether people actually steal votes this way or not, because the fact that we *could* means that we can’t trust the announced results of the election.
News Flash: on the issue of the yellow button, sequoia and elections officals have almost undoubtedly known FULL WELL for well over a year and a half. At least, that’s how long i’ve been publishing scientific studies and suing Sequoia and their county customer(s) for various reasons, specifically including the YELLOW BUTTON issue. There’s even more to this than at first meets the eye:
I originally discovered the “yellow button twice” function a few days or a couple weeks after the November 2004 election by examining a Snohomish County pollworker troubleshooter’s manual that warned pollworkers to “watch the voters carefully” to ensure that they don’t “vote repeatedly” when in Manual Mode, the mode triggered by two pushes of the yellow button. Bob Terwilliger, chief elections official in my county of Snohomish, confirmed that the beep heard is not very loud and likely would not cause alarm when pressed or necessarily be noticed.
Even if it were noticed, the yellow button ALSO triggers the recalibration functions as well as the disabled voting access functions, so there’s good reason for disabled folks to be fumbling around the back of the machine (Pretty bad design if you’re blind, eh? Guess you just can’t vote “independently” after all, with Sequoia)
There’s a discussion of the yellow button that you’ll definitely want to look at in parapgraphs 5.20 – 5.24 of my complaint which is located here
http://www.votersunite.org/info...ting4-7-05.pdf
Although 5.24 is a discussion of ballot secrecy, the manual I have, by suggesting that voters be watched closely to ensure they don’t vote repeatedly, appears to require pollworkers to invade the secrecy of the voters ballot by watching either the screen or the paper trail, when they’re not supposed to. Nice feature.
This story is very rich and deserves follow up. For example, they probably have (though you never know) changed the audio track for the disabled access features, but for sure in 2004 they literally told BLIND voters to “press the yellow button” to access disabled features! It sure is helpful to specify that color for the blind! Especially since HAVA specifies adaptability for the “blind and visually disabled” it doesn’t look like a lot of legal thought or a lot of disability-design thought was put into this.
SO: What do you think Sequoia would say if there showed up 10 manual votes on a printout log? Yup, they’d claim a blind voter fumbling for the “hard to reach” yellow button triggered it. In the transcript above, the phone message claims that the button is not easily reached, which is a tiny fact supporting an anti-fraud inference, but is a HUGE problem for disabled voters for whom it may well be an illegal barrier to access to voting! Alternatively, Sequoia would try to explain the manual votes by saying an attempt to recalibrate the screen triggered manual mode.
If you think about all of these independent features being accessible through the same yellow button is a major design foulup, you would be correct.
And Sequoia’s been sued on this by yours truly, so they most certainly can’t claim to not be aware of this. Moreover, evidence of post-filing remedies to fix a dangerous situation are not admissible for policy reasons (to promote fixing dangerous stuff) so there’s really no excuse for Sequoia to continue to have this feature.
Sure they could password protect it, but even then the passwords are in the control of the most dangerous election fraud suspects: the officials themselves, who have full access and can sell elections that are electronic with their secret vote counting at will to the highest bidder. Not to mention the fact that a successful election fraud expert quickly BECOMES an elected official and makes policy for elections. While bankrobbers never get to be bank president, election stealers do get to be president or some other official with an influence on elections.
SO when did the elections officials know, and what did they know, and when did they know each element of the above facts regarding the yellow button? What mitigation and disclosure remedies did they take upon learning the above? If they claim that they don’t want to let “bad elements” know about this capability, what in the world are they doing sleepovers for? Do they REALLY think that election criminals don’t know about the “yellow button” when it’s on the internet and in public record lawsuits like mine, plus among the knowledge of at least several thousand random pollworkers across the country, each of whom talks to other people?? (I could get tapes and CDs of talks where I’ve mentioned this capability like the one I did with Thom Hartmann in Portland to further show that there is every reason to believe that word has gotten around).
It’s like the lock on your car, the average citizen needs to know what it’s strengths are and also the fact that it can be jimmied using a slim jim, in order to intelligently assess the risk of, say, storing gold bullion on the front seat. The notion that basic safety issues about common devices can be reasonably withheld from the public is yet another flavor of the incredible BS and pablum we are daily fed by “elections” “officials.”
Properly developed, we’ve got them on the horns of a dilemma: they are either screwed by nondisclosure problems, or they are screwed by a disclosed security risk and design defect that they refuse to correct for YEARS, even after being sued in my lawsuit and losing the touch screen business contract in Snohomish county. Don’t they ever learn? Perhaps they do, and they just want plausible deniability for any problems that occur, because it “coulda been” any number of yellow button “issues?”
If Sequoia remembers or recalls when they lost the touch screen business in Snohomish county washington and they went back to their old optical scan business, that may “refresh” their memory about this lawsuit that their appellate briefs are due on now in a couple weeks or so. Our appellate brief is posted in the legal section of http://www.electionfraudnews.com under Lehto v Sequoia.
Brad, considering this link provided in a comment on this story published at Smirking Chimp, could this be a rovian trick to contest or cast doubt on pro-democrat election results? Or is that too far out? Just asking.
Link to the Smirking Chimp post: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/2546
So, if they do a crosscheck when the voting’s over and discover more votes then people, what then? You can’t correct the votes so all you can do is void them. Saying that canvasing will catch the tampering isn’t an answer unless you can identify and remove the illegal votes.
This has Hugo Chavez written all over it. I hope everyone is ready for the November 6th invasion of Venezuela.
Sure, when the Repubs lose, they could try to challenge the elections too. Would they? WOuld REpublicans use the court system to their advantage? (the question answers itself).
If one is the incumbent, one has two routes to political office: (a) win re-election and (b) invalidate the election, in which case no mechanism for replacement exists.
So yes, the fact that an election is hacked doesn’t truly tell us WHO the election was hacked or rigged FOR, especially if it is done in a way that DOES leave evidence, like too many votes compared to voters…
As yet, many Americans find it too difficult to believe in the dreaded “C” word,..whisper it, “conspiracy”. Our nation’s founders knew of the possibilty of “enemies, external or domestic”, but all too many citizens are content to disbeliieve in the possibility that the stakes are high enough for serious players to actually cheat. (Need I mention 911?)
Has anyone yet addressed the question as to why Sequoia felt the need to put this “yellow button over ride” in place to begin with? What internal memos address the purpose of this design function?
“Hidden in plain sight” is an amazingly audacious strategy for fraud, but it is not unheard of in these days of knee jerk patriotism.
I know why the button is yellow. It’s yellow for banana, because we are most assuredly a banana republic now!
Riverside County, California routinely shows discrepancies between sign in logs and vote counts as do probably most counties in the US. They are dismissed with the wave of a hand as human error, too small to be important. In other words they would not be checked. Consider the idea of a rogue “range inspector,” running five precincts of five machines each. He as the ability to add eight to ten votes per precinct without arousing suspicion. Imagine planting 20 range inspectors in the system, not hard to do considering they are temporary employees with minimal, if any, background checks and that there are over 100 of them hired. They could again, without arousing suspicion, cast 900 ballots for candidate X that are bogus. Considering the fact that many elections on November 7th will probably be very close. 900 corrupt votes could easily swing an election. If they weren’t full of so many toxic chemicals, DRE’s would make great starters for coral reefs.
True.
but then, there was no basis for confidence in the results of these machines a long time ago, many arguments before all of these…
So if everyone were to overvote and create a clearly insane voter turnout count, what then?
Leave voter fraud to Republicans.
Our goal is to RESTORE the Rule of Law, not break it.
OTOH, if we can get a court to rule the machines violate HAVA then they could be pulled, requiring the jurisdiction to use paper ballots after all.
In Answer To “The Math”
What do yu think about these numbers KKKarl??????
SLAVES TO THE BEAST
VS
DECENT PEOPLE OF AMERICA
Be in this world but not of it!
Re: Overvoting.
They’d simply do as they have in the past. Adjust it to fit the precinct count.
As to comment #33, I agree. I’ve been fighting this for 2 1/2 years and I don’t care what brings these things down, as long as they’re gone. Riverside County was ground zero for DRE’s and remains so to this day. The machines they bought in 2000 for over $14 million were supposed to be good for twenty years. They were replaced this year, in a no bid purchase with new Sequoia Edge 2’s that cost another 14 million plus. The Riverside County Registrar of Voters, Barbara Dunmore, stood before the Board of Supervisors and admitted she knew nothing about any other DRE’s or systems available or any pending legislation that would affect the County and her office. In a bold display of cluelessness, the Board approved the purchase. I wonder if the “Yellow Button” says “that was easy” when you push it?
Diebold demands that HBO cancel documentary on voting machines
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/n...diebold01.html
I keep wondering why the machines we use in Minnesota aren’t being pushed for nationally. You mark a paper ballot (a bit like taking a multiple choice test), feed it into the machine which counts them electronically. If you make a mistake, say vote for two people for president, it kicks back the ballot. Then you get to try again. At the end of an election if there is a question about the electronic count the paper ballots can be counted by humans. It’s simple. It works.
Of course it is harder to steal an election using them, so maybe I’ve just answered my own question.
To
BLOW YOUR FACE OFF YOUR NAME SAYS IT ALL CHENEY &
HIS PUSSY BOY ROVE!
I think its reaching critical MASS
“OH NO”
Time for a regime change,
YOURS THAT IS.
Come on PEOPLE
PESTER those corrupt officials of OURS,
In PERSON
DO IT
For our SONS & DAUGHTERS &
THEIR SONS AND DAUGHTERS.
# 39 Peter
Minnisota people
SALT OF THE BLUE EARTH!
Every ROV who recomended the purchase of these systems and the persons giving them certification are all equally culpable in this situation. They took an oath to protect the integrity of the election process to the best of their ability. They have failed. This is not something new but rather has been a real flaw in the system since its inception. The ramifications could be National. Take the Scenario in which it is proven that one precinct had significant corruption, does this nullify the entire county? No wait you have Statewide issues. Therfore, you would need to scrap the Statewide results. Now move up to 2008 and you have National candidates, do you scrap the Nations results? This flaw in security could simply be exploited to cause Nation wide chaos. The very simple fix for this Tuesday, USE A PAPER BALLOT. Any ROV and or the Secretary of State who beleives otherwise does not have the interest of the people at the forefront.
#39
Hey what can I say I’m a bad speller!
#39 Peter. I was shocked to hear we are using Optical scan in our municiple election this year. (They are slowly sneaking them into provinces) I was looking at some information from Brad and BBV on how reliable they are and it doesn’t sound that promising. I don’t know yet who’s machine it is (most are a Diebold spin off I think) but will take a picture and check it out.
Thanks to reading bradblog since 04 I will go armed to the teeth as no one here seems to know anything about bush being “selected” by Diebold. When I closed my accounts at TD Canada Trust (they installed Diebold ATM’s) and told the teller it was because of Diebold she said “What’s that?”. I gave her Brad’s site and BBV and said go read and get depressed.
De La Rue has one hell of a lot more to do with this than anyone is saying, and the motivation. Take one moment to check at the top commentary at http://greatreddragon.com and there are NO ads.
I’m a poll worker in Northern Wisconsin. We’ve been using the Edge II since April. We are small population, rural, may have 300 to 500 voters. The machine is touch screen and has a paper trail. It’s for use by handicapped voters, but can be used by anyone. We mostly use paper ballots, fill-it-in and count by hand at the end of the day.
A poll worker stands behind each machine and presses the yellow button to set the machine for the next (or first) voter. When the voter makes their selection, reviews it, makes any changes, they push “cast Ballot” and they’re done. But they can sit there and vote all day long, IF YOU LET THEM.
In the good old days you could give them 10, 20 or a hundred ballots and let them “stuff to ballot box”
But we also keep a pair of poll books in which each voters name is entered and if you have more votes than voters names, you’ve got a problem.
Life is simpler in small pieces. ron up north
GWN #39, yep, optical-scan machines are also hackable, BUT at least there is a paper ballot that can be recounted, that is marked and verifried personally by the voter, and is the legal ballot of record. it is much easier to count, without the barriers and the hassle of the false-choice of paper “trails”.
Optical scan machines are not the solution, but are nonetheless far better than touchscreens right now.
Well my friends, those of you who smell Chavez´ sulfur here might be disappointed to know that in Venezuela voting is done with old-fashioned paper ballots. There also seems to be far less discrepancy between polls (pre-election and exit-) and outcomes (unlike Ohio, Florida…)
Face it, this election has got CORPORATE written all over it. Now it´s up to you to guess which Grand Ole Party has warmer ties with the Chief Execution Officers.
So whada we do after the bad guys win again on Tuesday?
I’m getting a root canal Wed. AM. Seems like a good time for it. I mean, if I’m gonna feel bad…
Does anybody here, despite the media’s current breathless handing of Congress back to the Pubs, think the Dems will take either of the Houses?
anybody?
shw
So, the reason for having the “manual mode” is to allow a polling station to continue operating even if their card activator is non-functional. In Santa Clara County, at least, we actually were told about this, briefly, at the training session, and they mentioned that you needed to keep an eye on the voters if you put a machine into manual mode.
In my experience, the chime from our machines is pretty darn loud, but I’m not sure whether there may be a volume knob or other way to quiet it down.
In any case, I’m not too worried about a voter using the machine to cast multiple votes. The fact that they’re standing at the machine for a long time would be noticable. And I, at least, would certainly notice if a voter went around the back of the machine to futz with the button.
I’m more concerned that the officers themselves would have the option, at the end of the night, to put a machine into manual mode and cast a bunch of extra votes, then put signatures in the spaces for people who were non-absentee and didn’t show up, to make the counts match. If anyone ever detected that anything was wrong (say, by comparing signatures from the book to the voter registrations — supposedly they do compare these, but I’m not sure what good it would do, since you can’t then identify which votes were fraudulent), the officers can claim that the “voter fraud” that the GOP has been on about (people impersonating other voters) must’ve been responsible.
shw # 49 I really don’t have a clue. Sometimes I think something big is going to happen before you even vote. My stomach is in knots and it’s only Thursday AND I am in Canada!
Thanks Des # 47
EARLY in the day, I will push the dreaded YELLOW BUTTON. They will, of course, be upon my butt like flies on shit. But too late!!! My hidden micro tape recorder (and my friend’s in the next booth) will record the BEEP!!!, and we will make copies of this, and distribute them to our henchmen, who will bring them into all the voting stations and set them off at the damnedest times, in the damnedest places. Election goons will instantly strip-search innocent little old ladies, etc. WHEE!!!
There will also be a cacophony of R2D2 beeps and whistles all over the place to drive the voters to madness. They will never forget this electronic outrage!!!
Man. Maybe I’m glad I already voted. 😛
Since Bruce the Dickwad is in Sacramento, I started some stuff up.
Alright,
My Sacramento (Anti Electronic Voting) Freeway Bloggin Project is fully underway in South Sacramento.
My first sign is up now, on Florin Road and I-5.
Total time three and one half hours on the actual art.
about 15 minutes to water-proof it.
Five minutes to install it. (car ride, and labor)
Total cost $2 for $1 for pencils $1 for the construction paper from the dollar store. (I had the zip strips, duck tape and packaging tape.)
The first TWO folks that can see it and email me with:
“The LAST TWO words written on my first freeway blog.”
(note: Your going to have to do some searching on the net to actually FIND my email address. But it will be FUN!)
First TWO, Can win a an new,
“Every Time I Die (The New Black Video)”
(From Ferret Music)
I will go by the TIMESTAMP on the email
Hows that sound? Free. Freeway Blog. Get it?
peace all.
~phil
Des, Optical scan machines are not “BETTER” than any other electronic box.
If it’s electronic, IT WILL FAIL.
(not yelling at you, just clarifying fact)
An independent, public, transparent “exit poll” is needed in the U.S.
Only one problem. Its now way too late to organise such a thing.
But what to make of the fact that despite it being known perfectly well for several years that the electronic voting machines are rigged, there has been no organised effort to create an independent exit polling infrastructure?
As far as I can see, the sad answer is that the incumbent power group (in the widest sense, including the media, courts, corporates, legislature, both major parties, and all significant branches of the government) have the situation so totally under control that no such effort can even begin to organise.
And so…
The coming election will have no significant exit polling.
Any exit polling there is won’t get significant MSM coverage.
The vote(rigging) machines will do their job – rigging.
The MSM will lie as much as they like about the results, same as always.
Because us usual, they are under no legal obligation to tell the truth.
The Republicans will retain a majority in the senate (by the official count.)
Even if the Democrats are allowed to gain a majority, only pro-war, pro-Israel, pro-corruption, pro-fascist-control Democrats will be elected.
The MSM will laugh long and loudly at ‘those few fools who threw away their vote on independent candidates.’ While also insisting that the many odd voting glitches were due to despicable vote rigging by Venezuelan agents.
So nothing will change. Things will continue on the same path to Hell thereafter, only rather faster.
Everyone who was praying ‘please, let this work, let the nightmare end!’ will face a major decision point.
I’ve been considering material for an article on the psychological effect this perpetual, grinding sense of helpless horror must be having on the portion of society who understand whats happening. I know what its doing to me, and it isn’t good. Wonder if this is how people always feel, in every Olduvai Gorge and/or ‘government gone mad’ instance in history? The stomach churning sense of knowing the future is folding up like a termite-eaten card table, and knowing ruin is simply impossible to avoid.
The last few years for many such people seem to have been an exercise in ‘just hold on, at some point it has to turn around’. But to me, it seems obvious that it won’t. Seems like ‘the powers that be’ have a death-grip on government, and won’t let go for any combination of ‘traditional’ opposition. I seriously believe the Bushies must laugh at the naivity of people who still talk of petitions, congressional impeachment, demands for constitutional conferences, and so on. Hell, Bush could admit on camera that he watched the 1st plane impact televised live; Silverstein could admit on live TV that he deliberately demolished the towers, and nothing would happen.
Oh wait… they already did that. See?
About the only thing they must seriously fear would be a military coup. But given that the Bushies have been figuratively kicking the US military in the nuts continuously for years, and nothing happens, I don’t rate that possibility very high either.
We’ll see.
Have to admit, its exciting.
What I’m wishing for, is for some hacker group to counter-rig the voting machines. Not to ‘win’, but to produce a truly spectacularly comical farce, that so totally destroys the machine’s credibility that a new, paper-only election has to be called, and electronic voting machines are never used again. Given the ‘viral memory card programs auto-run & mini-bar keys’ revelations, its technically and operationally feasible.
You could have a new public holiday in the USA- ‘Diebold, Die! Day’. The day all the electronic voting machines were piled up in public places and burned. Whether the pyres would be more pleasing with current members of congress tied to poles above, shall be left to the reader’s imagination.
TerraHertz
Floridiot said:
Are you sure a hammer hole would disqualify it. In light of this thread, I am being completely serious!
I just realized. This yellow button is just in keeping with tradition.
How could you possibly design a voting machine without a ballot stuffing button!
The American election process WAS spiralling down the toleit with the Bush and Gore thing. These fraudulent machines only confirms that democracy in the US is either dead or dying. “Someone” has flushed the toleit!
Electrons and elections don’t mix.
Keep our elections honest – go back to the future.
Hand counted paper ballots is the ONLY way to go!
They do it in Canada, Ireland, Germany and Australia and have the results in in about 4 – 6 hours, and it’s all done publicly with anyone watching who wants to.
All the publicity about: Hugo Chavez, Sequoia, fraud investigations. Now a connection between Sequoia and fraud so obvious that even a wingnut can see it. Tailor-made for the Republicans, isn’t it? Hard to believe that Hugo Chavez is behind this. If he is not, then who is?
#52
Damn, Blues, I’m a law-abiding citizen, but I’m outraged over so damn many things that I can’t even see straight anymore. Does it even make any sense to be a law-abiding citizen these days? Our goddamn president is breaking laws right & left, making NEW laws to protect his own ass over laws he already broke, while his goons maim & torture people and, to make themselves feel all warm & self-righteous, they put people away for thirty years for smoking weed.
Now we’ve got a full-blown, despicable, in-your-face-shamelessly-blatant SCAM masquerading as a voting system, with the gop poised to holler FRAUD at the first hint of Democratic victory.
So you know what? I wish you lived in my neighborhood & could come knock on my door the day you plan to unleash your bells-n-whistles havoc, because I’m ready to join you.
Anybody ever read Ira Levin’s “This Perfect Day”? A funny little story. Kinda reminds me of our present situation somehow.
#49 Shannon,
Re your question
“Does anybody here…think the Dems will take either of the Houses?”
Sad to say, I really do not. Very VERY sad to say. And yeah, a root canal seems appropriate. I plan to get very drunk & try to laugh alot. Which won’t be hard, since I’ll be very drunk.
Dear Drunk Joan,
I’m LMAO. Thanks for the chuckle.
ACC
This is a real dilema. The ones most likely to have the inside knowledge are the precinct inspectors (captains) and the roving inspectors (who troubleshoot problems the precinct inspectors can’t resolve). The problem has never really been the voters – they are the least likely to know of the sequence needed to pull this off.
In CA (at least), poll workers have now (supposedly) been alerted to watch out for ANYbody spending too much time or reaching around or beeps. However – that isn’t any kind of a lock-tight system to ensure no hanky-panky is taking place. I have no idea if/when any other states have been notified of this or what they are doing to take precautions.
With 10s or 100s of thousands of precinct captains throughout the U.S. (in Sequoia Counties), all of whom supposedly have the ability and opportunity to do this (activate the yellow button and vote multiple times), all that is needed is “motive” and the extra votes can/will be cast. [The volume control on the beep can be turned WAY down or off if the audio voting (headset) feature is activiated.] Money, especially in elections, has always been a strong motive to take actions that are contrary to the public good. The vote tally from the machines could even be forced to agree with the sign-in register by simply signing in someone’s place who didn’t show up to vote, thus increasing the number of signatures to match the number of machine votes.
This is in no way an accusation that ANY temporary worker (whom about ALL the poll workers are) would be tempted by certain offers, but it certainly COULD happen.
So what is the solution? Poll WATCHERS should certainly be alerted to this throughout the country. And, if all the poll WORKERS are told to watch for this, then any poll captains who might be tempted will be less likely to carry it out, as the poll workers will serve as watchdogs.
That’s about the best I can suggest at this late point for this election. Other ideas would be VERY welcome.
I repair machines such as arcade machines, slot machines etc. for a living. All of these games have a credit override system to make the game believe it has been paid for. The difference is that its LOCKED inside the game, not sitting outside it where any idiot can get to it.
Hello
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!?!