(Alaska) State Claims Diebold Data is Proprietary

[sabra]

http://www.sitnews.us/0106news/012406/012406_diebold.html

State Claims Diebold Data is Proprietary


The Alaska State Division of Elections has denied access to public records that are needed to verify the accuracy of the 2004 General Election vote results, the Alaska Democratic Party (ADP) said Monday.

The Division of Elections claims that its electronic computer file that contains all the final vote tallies for the 2004 General Election is proprietary information belonging to its contractor, Diebold Election Systems.

"It is wrong that the State of Alaska is letting Diebold take possession of our votes and our public data by claiming that these are their proprietary information. This is not acceptable or legally supportable," said state Democratic Party chair Jake Metcalfe.

Although Diebold claims that their data structure is proprietary, it is publicly available on the Internet today and has been for several years according to Alaska Democrats.

[phoebe]

1. recall we've "been there, done that" - Diebold lost on that claim

http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5101623.html

snip

When Diebold Election Systems learned that its internal e-mail correspondence had popped up on the Web, it used a common legal tactic: sending cease-and-desist letters to Webmasters.

But in the months since the North Canton, Ohio-based company began trying to rid the Internet of those copyrighted files, it has arrived at a very unusual impasse. Far from vanishing, the files have appeared on more than 50 Web sites, run mostly by students who claim Diebold has a suspiciously cozy relationship with the Republican Party and that the e-mail conversations demonstrate its election software is flawed and should not be trusted.

On Tuesday, Diebold will find itself on the defensive in court as well. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society are planning to file a lawsuit asking for a temporary restraining order that would effectively halt Diebold's campaign against the loosely organized network of mirror sites. A hearing could be held as early as Tuesday in federal district court in San Francisco.

[Peace Patriot]

2. Now THAT'S a state Democratic Party!!!! One that fights for our right to

vote, and that's in there punching and kicking and screaming about frigging BUSHITE-controlled secret vote tabulation!

I love it! I love it! Kudos to Party chair Jake Metcalfe and the Alaska Dems!!!! THAT'S the Democratic Party I remember from my youth! The one we could count on to protect our rights. The one that wanted everybody to vote, because its policies benefited the majority and aimed at the common good. The one that would take no crap from the rightwing. People say, "I want my country back." And I agree. But I also want my PARTY back, the one who would never, ever have been silent and scared, or collusive and corrupt, on rightwing Republican corporations controlling the vote count. I mean, it's just ludicrous. And way past hell time for the NATIONAL Democratic Party to crawl out of its bunker and DO something about this NOW!

[VegasWolf]

3. I think they know that if they can't get the corruption out of the voting

process that they will never be in control again.

[loudsue]

13. Me, too, Peace Patriot! I love the way the Alaska Dems are fighting

for the rights of the citizens. The ENTIRE Diebold picture is so incredibly transparent to see....they don't want ANYBODY to see how they steal elections.

These methods can't possibly be supported by the State constitutions.

We're still fighting in North Carolina where our elections officials are, also, bought and paid for.

:kick:

[Fredda Weinberg]

4. Not data ... data structure

The data is on the Alaska DoE site ... but the database structure is Diebold's intellectual property. If you managed to grab a copy of a file I produced for one of my government clients, that does not make it 'public property'.

I've examined the Diebold code, as have other computer engineers. There was nothing nefarious in it and from what I've seen so far, nothing wrong with the Alaska results, though I'm still checking the presidential returns.

[VegasWolf]

6. I was under the impression that there were propritetary subroutines

in the Diebold executables that independent experts were not allowed to examine. Do you have a link to an independent experts site. Thanks.

[Fredda Weinberg]

8. It was all VB

Look at it yourself - if you don't have Visual Basic, open the files in Notepad

http://www.equalccw.com/dieboldtestnotes.html

[stickdog]

18. And what the fuck is that supposed to prove? What is the justification

for ANY lack of transparency in this critical PUBLIC arena?

[stickdog]

14. It's a database that's being used to count our votes. What's your

justification for keeping it secret? Don't you think the data structures our government uses to count votes should be transparent? If not, why not?

Democracy is NOT proprietary, IMHO. How about yours?

[superconnected]

17. This is bad.

There is something seriously wrong with diebold thinking that using their machines means they OWN the results. In that case they can change the results if they own them, legally.

Other than that, hiding the results leads me to believe they are corrupted.

It's a vote count for pete sakes. Microsoft doesn't own any companies data just because the company wrote their documents in Microsoft Word.

[Roland99]

5. Surely Sen. Stevens will get right on this and fix it.

:sarcasm:

[Lorien]

7. K&R

[BadGimp]

9. this is precisely what they are trying to do

omg

If this holds we are completely screwed. I mean we are screwed right now but we have a chance. But if the courts hold that the data is proprietary then it all over except for the goose stepping.

[harpboy_ak]

16. Alaska courts don't let them get away with much

Loren Leman, the Lite Gov. with one eyebrow (seriously!) was trounced pretty badly by the courts for trying to keep initiatives off the ballot and for trying to rewrite the sponsor's descriptions of them.

Alaska courts are independent; a committee reviews judicial applicants and forwards a short list to the Governor. Judges thus appointed face a retention election every 10 years; campaigning is forbidden.

A hell of a lot better than the corruption of states where judges and DAs are elected, like Texas. The folks that wrote our constitution 50 years ago saw what went on in states like that and came up with something that works very well.

[Supersedeas]

10. State election results belong to private companies - Oligarchy ftw

[Demeter]

11. I DON'T THINK SO!!!

Talk about grasping at straws! They stole Alaska?? Just how much did Bush really lose by?

[superconnected]

19. rofl rofl

ahahhahhshhahahah

good one :)

[texpatriot2004]

12. No transparency = NO DEMOCRACY! nm

[leesa]

15. So, are all you state's righters in Alaska going to take this shit?

They say they have a right to steal your vote? Do you agree?