On Friday night, we broke Rebecca Abrahams’s exclusive story concerning the long-sought yet never-released complete “Risk Assessment Report” of Diebold’s electronic voting systems as commissioned by the state of Maryland from the Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in 2003.
Tonight, The BRAD BLOG is releasing that report exclusively in full as given to us by Abrahams, who says she obtained it from a source described to us as “a patriotic high-level state official.” She says the source is “someone very close to this situation” in the Maryland government.
The original, never-before-released SAIC report was nearly 200 pages in all, and details a number of extraordinary security vulnerabilities found in Diebold’s AccuVote-TS (touch-screen) voting systems as deployed by the state of Maryland initially in 2002. The version of the SAIC report that was eventually released to the public, after extreme redaction, was a mere 38 pages long.
It was reported by Abrahams that neither the full MD State Board of Elections, nor even the Governor himself, was ever allowed to see the full report.
Regarded by many in the computer science, security, and election integrity community as “The Pentagon Papers of E-Voting,” the report as released by MD’s State Election Administrator, Linda Lamone, was edited, changed, and, of course, highly redacted by someone.
To this date, it remains unclear whether or not Diebold itself was responsible for the changes, edits, and redactions, but according to several computer scientists and security experts with whom we discussed the matter today, the company currently seems to be the leading candidate responsible for changing and removing information from the independently commissioned SAIC report. Those with whom we spoke questioned the propriety of Diebold having such final control over an independent report concerning its own systems. Systems, we might add, that will be used across the state and indeed across the entire country this November 7th, despite the information withheld from the public in this 2003 report.
Also unclear — since the state and virtually the entire computer science and security community have been unable to review the complete, original report until now — is whether or not any of the various 180 or so recommendations for changes contained in the report have ever been addressed and corrected by either Diebold or the state of Maryland.
Myriad independent reports on Diebold systems have shown, over the last several months and years since the SAIC report was completed, that scores of serious security vulnerabilities still remain on Diebold’s voting systems — including their paper-based optical-scan voting machines, touch-screen voting machines, and even their central tabulator software.
Reports of these serious vulnerabilities have now been documented by Finnish computer scientist Harri Hursti, the computer security firm Security Innovation, and BlackBoxVoting.org in both Leon County, FL and then in Emery County, UT; by a team of scientists at UC Berkeley commissioned by the CA Sec. of State; by Princeton University; and even by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team (as The BRAD BLOG originally reported in September of 2005 after a tip from a Diebold insider).
Whether or not the vulnerabilities revealed in those subsequent studies — made mostly over the last year or so, but some, such as the Dept. of Homeland Security’s CERT alert came even prior to the 2004 Presidential Election — were discovered previously in the full 2003 SAIC report has been widely questioned until now.
If, in fact, such vulnerabilities were indeed found in 2003 by SAIC but subsequently kept covered up by Diebold or their allies within the MD State Elections division, such as longtime booster Lamone, the question of accountability — and even the specter of malicious out-and-out fraud — has been raised.
During an interview with Abrahams and Stephen Spoonamore, the CEO of computer security firm Cybrinth Inc., on a radio program we co-hosted yesterday, they suggested that an FBI investigation may currently be under way in Maryland concerning several events surrounding the use of Diebold machines in the state.
We’ve not yet had time to review the entire unredacted report as posted below. However, given the importance of this never-before-released information — and after close consultation with Abrahams and several others — The BRAD BLOG feels the national public interest in the information contained in this report requires full and immediate release and disclosure.
The report, therefore, is released here for the first time…
Please note that the version of the report released here has several additional cover pages describing the report as “State of Maryland – Electronic Voting System Security: Department of Budget and Management, Annapolis, Maryland, September 17, 2003.”
Nonetheless, the header on each page describes the document with a SAIC tracking number, with a date of September 2, 2003, and contains the title “Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting System and Processes Risk Assessment.” The publicly released redacted version (also linked below for comparison) has the same date and tracking number. The title for that version is the same, but with “Redacted Final” added to the header.
As well, this version contains many unexplained strike-throughs, additions, and rewrites. As Abrahams detailed in her Friday exclusive, some of those edits were included in the final redacted release version of the report, while other sections were simply removed entirely. It is unclear as to who made the suggested edits and additions seen in the version of the report we are making available here.
Note also that there are several handwritten comments and marginalia which were apparently made by Abrahams and others during their review of the document and comparisons with the publicly released redacted version.
We discussed the issues of both the dates and the various edits with Spoonamore this afternoon. He told us that he previously reviewed this document “in great detail” in conjuction with Abrahams’s initial report.
As to its authenticity, since we are unable to get comment from the state of Maryland, SAIC, or Diebold at this time, Spoonamore told us, “The report is certainly a Diebold risk assessment for the state of Maryland.” He says that he “would give a 99% assessment that this document is the real thing.”
Spoonamore adds that the SAIC tracking number is an “authentic tracking number for the state of Maryland and matches the sequence for mid-2003 assignment by SAIC.”
With regard to the content of the report, Spoonamore, a Republican of 22 years, explained in our conversation late this afternoon, “There is no one on that public commission [in Maryland] that has the skills to use that document.” After his review of the report, he says that “the real value in this document is what it’s not saying. It’s clear that even SAIC was not allowed to review the source code or the computer interfaces” for the complete Diebold AccuVote-TS voting system.
Nonetheless, he says that the report clearly reveals that the security in place in these systems is wholly inadequate for the threats faced when used during an election. That danger is one described this week to the LA Times as “a matter of national security,” by computer scientist David Jefferson of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He added, “The legitimacy of government depends on getting elections right.”
Jefferson served on the UC Berkeley panel convened by California Sec. of State Bruce McPherson to study several aspects of the Diebold voting system. That panel found more than 16 “serious vulnerabilities” in the system last February before McPherson certified the systems for use in California anyway. Jefferson continues to serve as one of the top technical voting systems advisors to McPherson.
“Microsoft has admitted that the Windows operating system in use in Maryland’s Diebold voting systems is subject to at least 75,000 known exploits,” Spoonamore told us. “The unredacted version [of the SAIC report] reveals that none of them have been defended against in these Diebold machines.”
Finally, as Abrahams reported last Friday, there is yet another report commissioned by the State of Maryland to examine whether the items in the SAIC report were adequately addressed. That report, completed by the firm Freeman, Craft and McGregor — a group which has come under fire from Election Integrity advocates for its close relationship with the voting machine companies such as Diebold — has also never been released to the public. We are told that we may soon be able to release that report in full as well. Stay tuned.
The complete SAIC Report documents follow in full below. The 200 or so pages have been converted into five separate PDF files for easier downloading…
SAIC’s Maryland Diebold Report, September 2, 2003
(Complete, never released, unredacted version, 197 pages including suggested edits and changes as made by unknown party.)
— Section 1 [PDF, appx 3mb] — Section 2 [PDF, appx 8mb] — Section 3 [PDF, appx 8mb] — Section 4 [PDF, appx 6mb] — Section 5 [PDF, appx 2mb]
SAIC’s Maryland Diebold Report, as Publicly Released September 2, 2003
(Edited and redacted down to 40 pages)
— Redacted Version [PDF, appx 700k]
Thank you for this – I wrote to Linda Lamone when I read about her unbelievable purchasing of Diebold machines after the sale had been stopped when the vote switching and other problems were made know BEFORE the 2004 “election” and received a lying reply from someone in her office that just because the republicans owned the machines didn’t mean that the votes couldn’t be counted correctly.
I had included Rep. Peter King’s statement about “It’s all over but the counting of the votes, and we count the votes.” bragging about his destruction of our democracy.
Linda Lamone had to testify at a hearing a few months after the 2004 presidential “election” was stolen on why she had gone ahead with the purchase of hackable machines but could not find out anything about her defense testimony or why she was not sacked.
GO TO Jail Card11111111111111111111111
Holy Shit!
And none of this will matter if we don’t take back the house.
NONE of it. Nothing they have done and no evidence of it — no matter how blatent — will matter.
If we do not take the house, the guilty will go free.
You know what do do. Vote November 7 for each and every Democrat.
Stand November 8 (and beyond) to make sure the votes are counted.
At first, I was going to come back here and start whining about how it was too over-whelming and demand that someone explain this to me. But I kept reading.
By the time I hit page four, I totally understood, was extremely pissed off, and in a WTF! moment, threw something across the room.
I feel like Al Pacino in “And Justice for All” screaming “That man should go straight to fucking jail!” — but which one? There has to be a whole slew of people involved in this. Where the hell is the FBI with this stuff?
Why does a democracy depend upon a blogger to investigate the crimes against our most basic constitutional right? WTF is going on here?
Brad, I’ll say it again — you are a true hero!
Everybody on BradBlog has to stop posting for a couple of days until I get back. I’m leaving town to pollwatch in a smaller town that might be easier to catch fraud in.
Thanks for your cooperation in this matter!
Just got time to watch the HBO special “Hacking Democracy”. Great American activist detective story. Quite inspirational! They also showed one at our largest library here called “Stealing America”. Don’t miss this one. It has interviews from all the biggest hero’s in the voting activist community!
As Keith Olberman and others would say:
Good night, and good luck!
OT for youtubers with kids …priceless
“The Coolest 8 Year Old In The World Talks About O’Reilly”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8x14cLGh5o
MMIIXX,.. Comment # 7
I get an error report when your link clicked,..
Youtube says a “malformed URL”.
Anyone else finding bradblog loading much slower since this went up?
This should be the nail in the coffin, for Bobby Kennedy’s civil lawsuit against DIEBOLD. Bye, bye, DIEBOLD!!!
Does anyone now believe that Bush won the 2000 & 2004 elections? Or that Schmidt beat Hackett in Ohio? Or that Max Cleeland lost in 2002, even though the polls said he had a double-digit lead?
Or, does anyone believe all of the Republican “upsets” in the 2002 Senatorial elections??? All of them, Republican “upsets”? It’s not random, when always one party benefits!!!!
Democracy NOW! (LINK/FSTV/DISH9410/9415)
Monday, November 6th, 2006
Voter Suppression in Midterm Elections: Robocalls, ID Confusion, Voter Roll Purges
excerpt:
“””
In Virginia, Democratic Senatorial candidate James Webb’s name does not appear on the voting summary sheet. In Indiana, African American congresswoman Julia Carson was told her congressional ID was not sufficient to vote. In Broward County early voting, a vote for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate registered as a vote for the Republican candidate. Adam Cohen, editorial writer for The New York Times, joins us to discuss voter disenfranchisement. [includes rush transcript – partial]
——————————————————————————–
On Tuesday, millions of voters will cast their vote in the mid- term elections. Many are calling this the most high-stakes election in recent years with the possibility of a Democratic takeover of Congress. But some are warning that voters could be subject to intimidation and a variety of suppressive tactics meant to keep them from casting a ballot. Some of these tactics have been mandated by the government like new rules requiring government-issued voter identification cards. Others have been perpetrated by unofficial sources such as the bogus letters sent to thousands of Latino voters in California telling them it was illegal to vote
“””
http://www.democracynow.org/art.../11/06/1450228
Hi all! This is a bit OT, but then there wasn’t any OT for me to post it on. I checked out the NYT today – oh boy!
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/...on/06mon2.html
It’s as if they just discovered BradBlog. I wouldn’t insult my parrot by lining its cage with that rag!
re. #7
try this ?
“The Coolest 8 Year Old In The World Talks About O’Reilly”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8x14cLGh5o
strange ,link not working ,go to youtube.com then in search put ” The Coolest 8 Year Old In The World Talks About O’Reilly ”
mick
“they suggested that an FBI investigation may currently be under way in Maryland…”
The FBI has certainly been busy lately, like a swarm of annoying fleas getting very itchy and bitey under the GOP’s skin. I wonder how long until Bush fires the current FBI head and appoints Michael Brown as his replacement.
Thanks MMIIXX….
The search function worked for me. What a sweetheart she is..!! Wouldn’t anyone be proud to have her for a daughter……maybe she’s a future President for the U.S.
To all our sisters and brothers south of the border tomorrow….
GOOD LUCK…!!!
We Canadians will be keeping our fingers, eyes, legs, arms and anything else that we can cross tomorrow.
The house of cards is gonna collapse and all your hard work, dear patriots, will come to fruition…!!!
Who in their right mind after reading about all the corruption, scandals etc over the past years would even REMOTELY think about voting Republican..!!!
If you wake up in the morning too lazy to get out to vote just remember the words of one of the most important historians in our lifetime.
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth...n_my_lifetime/
Gore Vidal: ‘The Most Important Election in My Lifetime’
“This is the most important vote that you’ll probably ever cast. Because should this gang of thugs continue in the two houses of Congress, there isn’t any chance of getting the Constitution back….”
—-
Watch the video. Gore Vidal looks sad, very sad. At one point he looked as if he was going to lose it. He understands better than any of us.
here is video of unattended voting machines in Pinella county, Florida.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WMG34cv0zM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBO8Bpv2ySg
This is getting so totally absurd, that I just had a thought straight out of Bush’s “Reality Based” existence.
If/when the Democrats take back the House and Senate, will Carl Rove cry “unfair! unfair! Diebold machines are hackable” or would that be pushing credulity far tooooo far?
That’s really great that the media and Nancy Pelosi have started talking about this.
However, It’s too damn bad that they practically waited until the DAY BEFORE election day to speak out.
They’ve had six freakin years to deal with this. Ugh!
We so need to raise some hell. No more dirty corporate money in Washington!!
Jeanne # 18. Gore Vidals answer to being called a “conspiracy theorist”, is that he is a “conspiracy analyst”. I’v always wanted a good reply to that statement and now I have it.
Go to RollingStone.com and read the cover story about the worst corrupt 109th Congress in history. After reading this article of a Congress which has provided -0- as in zero over-site of the criminal Bushit administration in the last 6 years, NO AMERICAN ON THIS PLANET WOULD VOTE REPUBLICAN. Not to leave out that over 200 environmental laws were reversed.
NO ONE!
i don’t care if Kerry came out and screwed up a joke that he conceded the day after the Presidential Election because he intended to lose all along and the Bushit administration orchestrated the false flag operation called 9/11 (watch World Trade building #7 fall controlled demolition without any help from an aircraft flown by box cutter wielding Arabs as Norad stood down!) The intention was increase the power of the Executive branch, shred the Constitution, and reverse over 200 environmental laws. Not to leave out the excuse to attack Iraq.
Lastly, Saddam was convicted of crimes committed in 1982. Check out the picture of him shaking hands with Rumsfeld in 1983 at Rolling Stone.com under politics tab. Oh he wasn’t convicted for ties to 9/11 or weapons of mass destruction..pretty pricy for the cost of your oil war -eh
Bushit administration??? Thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians and US servicemen have been injured or died at the tune of 1 billion dollars per week but then again Congress has no idea and DOES NOT CARE.
Impeach and jail all these lying criminal murderers in US government!
crossposted to Daily Kos
comment #23:
Oh yeh – at Rolling Stone they also had a link to Bradblog! How cool is that bebe???
This raises a crucial question, “So what does a Maryland voter do to exercise their right to vote with this fiasco in place for tommorrow”?
#26 Maryland Voter
Print out the SAIC Report, and hand it to your election worker (Chief?, along with a formal letter to your county Election Board stating that you protest the use of the electronic voting machines and request a new election with paper ballots, due to the obvious problems clearly outlined in the attached security report.
The FBI is into spiking software.
http://www.prosefights.org/nmle...rdy.htm#hardy1
So is NSA http://www.prosefights.org/balt...htm#buehlerlet