Who's Shaun Southworth & what's his role in vote counting software?

[Amaryllis]

Text below from http://www.bartcop.com/110904votes.htm
but no source is provided in the article. I googled Shaun Southworth and found nothing except this article. Anyone know anything about him or the org to which they refer "which supposedly tests and authenticates the vote counting software for these companies?"

FACT: The organization which supposedly tests and authenticates the vote counting software for these companies is a front organization
which consists of a single individual, Shaun Southworth, who refuses to disclose his qualifications for doing the testing, and refuses to
disclose his testing procedures and protocols, and who is being paid by the companies writing the software; and who has been shown
to have repeatedly certified software versions for Diebold which did not fix previously disclosed flaws, security problems, and bugs.

Secretaries of State and local election officials certify vote counting software based solely on Southworth’s say so. They do no
independent examination or testing of the code themselves beyond simple logic and accuracy tests which security experts have
called completely inadequate to the task of ensuring the software to be safe, secure and accurate. In essence this means that
outside of the programmers who actually write the code, there is only one person in the entire US who has had access to the code
and he is at best a shadowy figure who is dependent for his livelihood on the companies whose products he tests and certifies.

[punpirate]

1. If you go to the archives...

... in both the old DU and new, plug in Southworth in the search, and you will find many references to him and to the firm for which he works which does voting machine certification. The firm he works for is not the only one now doing certification, but they do seem to have most of the business.

[Amaryllis]

2. Thanks! What's the old DU? Also, I don't think you can search archives

any longer. All the search options say "does not include archives."
What do you know? Do you have any links? No doubt he is connected to the Theocons.

[punpirate]

3. Yes, you can search the archives...

... just go to advanced search. Then plug in a keyword, say, "Southworth" and select a forum. If you do that, select a date field of Jan 1 2002-Apr 24 2005, and ask to look in GD, you get about two pages of hits.

Also, in the forum select box, you'll find listings for "archives." Those are from the site prior to the system software changeover that was, I think, done in July, 2002.

I and many others tried to get some info on him, but there's little about him. The strange thing is that the company he works for has been bought and sold several times, but has stayed in virtually the same location and with the same personnel at each sale.

What has made the problem very confounding is that The Election Center determines the certifying companies. Call The Election Center and ask them for info on the certifiers, and they say, call the company. So, one calls the company and they say, "all requests must go through The Election Center."

The greater problem is not Southworth, but R. Doug Lewis at The Election Center--he's the truly shadowy character in all this, and he's the one being supported by the voting machine manufacturers.

Cheers.