Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News TUESDAY, 11/29/05

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(Main site for JeffK

Jeff K’s 2005 Review

Secretary of State Bruce McPherson wants hackers to take a shot at Diebold. He also wants his people to select the hackers. Well, I’ve got a suggestion. Let’s let legendary hacker Jeff K go after old Diebold. Jeff’s been a “haxor” for years and done some amazing things (like take over an adult swinger site for three days and taunt the users as they tried to log in…priceless). So Secretary of State McPherson, there’s enough information here for you to get to Jeff directly. Good luck Jeff, we know you can do it.

Please note: On the basis of post five, I think we should all nominate Fitrakis and Wasserman for the Freedom Medal and "Scoop" for the Pulitzer (DU's althecat). Who else is reporting on election fraud but a very few. They've beeing doing from the start, writing and npublishing.

SIGNS OF SANITY EMERGING

Never forget the pursuit of Truth.

Only the deluded & complicit accept election
results on blind faith.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News TUESDAY, 11/29/05

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

If you can:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233

3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.

If you want to know how post "News Banners" or other images, go here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=371233#371391



All previous daily threads are available here:
http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm

Please

"Recommend"

for the Greatest Page (it's the link just below).

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1. NC: Sanity 1.0 NC Judge Refuses to Immunize Diebold on Code Inspection.

Diebold will leave NC in order to avoid being held to reasonable standards. Amazing isn’t it. What if Amazon.Com said, we can’t offer its web site in the US anymore because the US courts won’t indemnify us from prosecution for spreading malicious code. We’d think that they had something really big to hide. Maybe Diebold is fearful because they know that their business practices may be illegal in NC and need protection. Call Tony Soprano. He’s got free time lately.


http://www.the-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051128/APN/511280948&cachetime=5

November 28. 2005 9:45PM

N.C. judge dismisses voting machine case, vendor may pull out

By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press Writer

One of the nation's leading suppliers of electronic voting machines may decide against selling new equipment in North Carolina after a judge declined Monday to protect it from criminal prosecution should it fail to disclose software code as required by state law.

Diebold Election Systems is worried it could be charged with a felony if officials determine the company failed to make all of its code - some of which is owned by third-party software firms, including Microsoft Corp. - available for examination by election officials in case of a voting mishap.

The requirement is part of the minimum voting equipment standards approved by state lawmakers earlier this year following the loss of more than 4,400 electronic ballots in Carteret County during the November 2004 election. The lost votes threw at least one close statewide race into uncertainty for more than two months.

About 20 North Carolina counties already use Diebold voting machines, and the State Board of Elections plans to announce Thursday the suppliers that meet the new standards. Local elections boards will be allowed to purchase voting machines from the approved vendors.

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2. KS: Sanity 1.1 Douglas County, Kansas RETURNS TO PAPER

The is unambiguous. Thanks to Douglas County, home of the great University of Kansas for helping the USA return to election integrity and sanity.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/nov/28/douglas_county_will_keep_paper_ballots/?city_local

Douglas County will keep paper ballots

By Chad Lawhorn (Contact)

Monday, November 28, 2005

Douglas County voters will continue to rely on paper ballots to elect their leaders, county commissioners tentatively decided today.

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew recommended that commissioners purchase new vote counting equipment to be in place by next August's election to meet federal requirements that are part of the Help America Vote Act. But Shew said he could not recommend a system that would solely rely on touchscreen voting and produce only electronic results.

Instead, voters will continue to mark paper ballots with a pencil like they have for years. But instead of all the ballots being scanned at the County Courthouse, there will be scanners at each polling place. Voters will place the ballot in the scanner. The scanner will alert voters if they mismarked a ballot - such as voting for two people for one position - and allow them to cast a second chance ballot. The system also includes special machines that will allow people with disabilities to vote without assistance from a poll worker.

Commissioners are scheduled to give final approval to the system at their Wednesday evening meeting. The system will cost $855,514. The state, through federal funding, is providing $460,000. The county over the past several years has created a reserve fund that has accumulated enough money to cover the remaining costs.

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3. CA: BradBlog’s Brad Goes After Truth on CA’s Decision to Let Diebold Back

Brad’s there again, kicking ass in our behalf.

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002087.htm
Monday, November 28th 2005

AUDIO: Sec. of State Spokesperson Evades Questions in Live On-Air Interview About

California/Diebold Situation
Brad Questions McPherson Communications Director on KRXA's Peter B. Collins Show

Just finished a rather remarkable hour on our good friend Peter B. Collin's radio show on KRXA out of Monterey, CA.

Peter was able to bring Nghia Nguyen Demovic, a spokesperson from the CA Sec. of State's office on air the last few minutes of the hour to try and clarify some of the last minute tomfoolery that seems to be going on concerning the impending decision about whether or not to re-certify Diebold Electronic Touch-Screen Voting Machines in the state of California.

Demovic dodged and danced, and generally evaded such probing questions as to what the response from the community was at a public hearing held last week in Sacramento where input was sought concerning the decision about whether or not to allow Diebold back into the state after a major test over the summer revealed that some 20% of Diebold's AccuVote TSx voting machines failed to operate properly.

As previously reported on BRAD BLOG, the Republican SoS Bruce McPherson -- remarkably, and nearly inexplicably -- seems to be leaning towards allowing their faulty machines back into the state as the Help America Vote Act's January 1, 2006 deadline for such acquisitions rapidly approaches.

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4. CA: BS Alert! Arnie’s Scty of State Offers Hacker Test-Recruits Hacker

California Secretary of State offers a hacker test, then recruits the hacker from Finland. How about all those teen and college student hackers who hack into much bigger things. Why not a hacker superbowl held anonymously, virtually. THIS IS A SET UP, IT’S BOGUS, IT’S FAKE. They need Diebold to keep Arnie in office.

http://www.journal-news.com/local/content/gen/ap/CA_Voting_Systems.html

California may impose hacker test on all electronic vote machines
By TOM CHORNEAU
Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO — Companies wanting to sell electronic voting machines in California may be forced to prove their systems can withstand an attack from a computer hacker, the state's top elections official said Monday.

Secretary of State Bruce McPherson said his office is planning a hacker test on a machine built by Diebold Election Systems, an Ohio-based company that's one of the nation's largest manufacturers of electronic voting systems. McPherson said he might seek to expand such testing to all systems seeking certification for use in California's 58 counties.

"It's all about giving the voters trust in the system," McPherson told reporters after giving opening remarks at a conference focused on testing and certification of electronic voting machines.

Several media outlets had reported that the Diebold hacker test was scheduled for Wednesday, but McPherson said the details of the arrangement are still being worked out. He said he expected the Diebold test to be performed sometime before the end of the year.

Diebold, which is based in North Canton, Ohio, has been criticized by some activist groups as being vulnerable to outside hackers seeking to manipulate election results.

The secretary of state's office has asked Finnish security expert Harri Hursti to come to California and conduct the Diebold hacker test, said Nghia Nguyen Demovic, a spokeswoman for McPherson.

"He's been invited and we're in talks with him," Demovic said.

<snip>

Earlier this fall, McPherson issued 10 requirements that voting machines must meet to be used in California elections starting next year.

Those requirements include gaining approval by an independent testing unit certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and providing state officials with information about how the machines operate. It also requires companies to test their machines under Election Day conditions.

California law also requires electronic voting machines to provide paper receipts to assure voters that their votes were recorded accurately.

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5. OH: Fitrakis & Wasserman Tell Truth on Bogus Ohio Special Election

THIS IS A HISTORIC DOCUMENT. SAVE IT. Thanks to Fitrakis and Wasserman and to “Scoop” for being there again, and again, and again!

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0511/S00340.htm

Ohio's Diebold Debacle: New Machines Call Election Results Into Question

by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
November 24, 2005
From: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1593

Massive Election Day irregularities are emerging in reports from all over Ohio after the introduction of Diebold's electronic voting in nearly half of the Buckeye State’s counties. A recently released report by the non-partisan General Accountability Office warned of such problems with electronic voting machines.

E-voting machine disasters

Prior to the 2005 election, electronic voting machines from Diebold and other Republican voting machine manufacturers were newly installed in 41 of Ohio’s 88 counties. The Dayton Daily News reported that in Montgomery County, for example, “Some machines began registering votes for the wrong item when voters touched the screen correctly. Those machines had lost their calibration during shipping or installation and had to be recalibrated. . . .”

Steve Harsman, the Director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections (BOE), told the Daily News that the recalibration could be done on site, but poll workers had never performed the task before.

The city of Carlisle, Ohio announced on November 22 that it is contesting the results of the November 8 general election as a result of Montgomery County vote counting problems. Carlisle Mayor Jerry Ellender told the Middletown Journal that the count on the city’s continuing $3.8 million replacement fire levy is invalid “since they are not sure if Carlisle voters received the right ballots on the new electronic voting machines.”

Harsman, according to the Journal, said, “poll workers incorrectly encoded voter cards that are used to bring up the ballots on the electronic machines in precincts in Germantown and Carlisle.”

At least 225 votes were registered for the fire levy in precincts with only 148 registered voters, according to the Journal. In addition, 187 voting machine memory cards were lost for most of election night in Montgomery County, according to the Dayton Daily News.

In Lucas County, election results appeared more than 13 hours after the close of polls. The Toledo Blade cited “‘frightened’ poll workers,” intimidated by the new “touch-screen voting machines.”

The Blade found that despite an $87,568 federal grant to the Lucas County Board of Elections for “voter education and poll worker training . . .” only $1,718.65 was spent from the grant.

The Blade also reported that ten days after the 2005 election, “Fourteen touch-screen voting machines have sat unattended in the central hallway at the University of Toledo Scott Park Campus.” The GAO report warned that touch-screen machines are easily hacked and should be kept secure at all times.

In Miami County, the Board of Elections fired the Deputy Director, Diane Miley, following a 20-minute closed-door session reviewing the November 8, 2005 general election.

The Free Press had reported that in the 2004 presidential election, Miami County was cited in the seminal Moss v. Bush election challenge case. The county was specifically cited for an early morning influx of 19,000 additional votes, mostly for Bush, after 100% of the vote had been reported.

The AP reported additional irregularities in the 2005 election in Ohio. In Wood County, election results were not posted until 6:23 a.m. after poll workers at four polling places accidentally selected the wrong option on voting machines preventing the machine memory cards from being automatically uploaded, according to the Board of Elections Deputy Director Debbie Hazard.

In five counties – Brown, Crawford, Jackson, Jefferson and Marion – using Diebold machines, there were problems with the counting of absentee ballots as a result of “the width of the ballot,” the AP reported.

In Scioto County, the vote count was not finished until 4:30 a.m.. Board of Elections Director Steve Mowery informed the Portsmouth Daily Times that, as a result of machines undergoing insufficient testing and absentee problems, things went “poorly.”

Many counties used “roving employees” assigned to pick up memory cards from voting machines. In Lucas County, these “rovers” traveled “to multiple locations before delivering the cards to the election office at Governmental Center.” The polls closed at 7:30 p.m. but, “The final memory cards were delivered to the Board of Elections office just before midnight,” according to WTOL Channel 11 News, Toledo.

Toledo’s WTOL Channel 11 News posed the simple question: “Did the delay in returning memory cards to the election office open the door to possible vote fraud?”

Amidst these massive glitches, Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, who personally negotiated the deal for the Diebold machines that he called the “best in the nation,” insisted through his spokesperson Carlo LaParo that “The new touch-screen systems went well.”

Odd results for election reform initiatives

The Reform Ohio Now (RON) campaign saw polls throughout the state showing two of its four election reform to be passing easily. Both the Columbus Dispatch and University of Akron Bliss Institute polls predicted victories for Issue 2 and Issue 3, only to see them go down to sudden and statistically unexplainable defeat. Issue 2 allowed for early voting in Ohio and Issue 3 reduced the amount of money an individual can give a candidate from $10,000 to $2,000. Both were predicted to pass with 59% and 61% of the vote, respectively.

The Bliss Institute of Applied Politics’ survey was completed on October 20 at the University of Akron Survey Research Center, and found that Issue 2 seemed likely to win approval with more than three-fifths of likely voters.

The Dispatch mail-in poll was completed on Thursday Nov. 3, just prior to Election Day. The Dispatch poll is so accurate, that at least two academic studies have been published about it in the Public Opinion Quarterly (POQ). The first paper documents that the Dispatch poll between 1980-1984 was far more accurate than telephone polling. The study showed the Dispatch error rate at only 1.6 percentage points versus phone error rates of 5%. A companion study published in POQ in 2000 dealt specifically with the question of statewide referenda. A quote from the study: "The average error for the Dispatch forecast of these referenda was 5.4 percentage points, compared to 7.2 percentage points for the telephone surveys."

The academic study concluded that the Dispatch's mail survey outperformed telephone surveys for both referenda and candidate's races.

The fact that the Dispatch was nearly 30 points off in predicting the "YES" vote on Issue 3 should raise concerns.

Dispatch Associate Publisher Mike Curtin shrugged off the worst polling performance since the infamous Literary Digest predicted that Alf Landon would beat FDR in 1936. In an email obtained by the Free Press, Curtin told California voting rights activist Sheri Myers, “There is no evidence of any irregularities in Ohio’s 2005 voting results.” Curtin, according to election attorney Cliff Arnebeck, had also dismissed anyone who raises issues about Ohio’s 2004 presidential election results as “conspiracy theorists.”

Curtin co-authored the scholarly papers on the Dispatch’s legendary polling accuracy. Editorially, the Dispatch has not endorsed a Democratic presidential candidate since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

Curtin pleaded with the voting rights activists, “Please don’t buy into the conspiracy theories without any shred of evidence.” Curtin did not deal with the specifics about how the polling, which he was so proud of, was up to 40 points off on certain issues for the first time ever. In another email explaining the unprecedented Dispatch polling debacle, Dispatch Editor Darrel Rowland told a Tribune Media Services columnist that, “I also can’t imagine voting technology is to blame, when both Democrats and Republicans are involved in every crucial step of the way.”

Under oath testimony at public hearings sponsored by the Free Press after the 2004 presidential election revealed that election workers admit that they have little or no knowledge of how e-voting technology works and are totally reliant on private vendors for vote counting inside the “black box.” Ohio’s other major newspapers routinely suggest what Rowland “can’t imagine.”

Rowland did note that despite the Dispatch’s recent embracing of its unprecedented incompetence at polling that, “Over the years we have found that the people who return our mail poll are likely voters – the holy grail in political polls. Our track record in gauging public opinion in this state regarded as a national political bellwether is unparalleled.

Don McTigue, the attorney for RON, told the Free Press that Blackwell had issued a ruling barring RON volunteers from the county vote counting rooms on election eve. McTigue and the RON volunteers had filled out a request form to view the counting eleven days prior to Election Day, but Blackwell had added a new form to verify which group was representing the issues. This new form was not filled out, McTigue admits.

Matt Damschroder, the Franklin County Board of Elections Director, allowed the RON observers in anyway, despite their being barred from the vote counting rooms in other counties.

This is the second straight election in which the polling organizations were spectacularly wrong in Ohio. In the 2004 election, the media consortium exit polls, as well as the Harris and Zogby polls, all declared Kerry the winner on Election Day.

Democracy in jeopardy

One of the first times electronic voting machines were used, in the 1988 New Hampshire presidential primary, former CIA director George Herbert Walker Bush pulled off a stunning and unpredicted upset. The last poll before that primary showed Senator Bob Dole winning with 8 percentage points. Bush won by 9 points, a startling 17-point shift. Bush’s e-voting victory allowed him to claim the White House and paved the way for his son to become the United States’ chief executive.

Diebold electronic voting machines use non-transparent, proprietary software to count the votes. Diebold’s CEO Wally O’Dell is one of President Bush’s major donors and fundraisers.

Election Day news coverage from the 41 counties that adopted Diebold touch-screen machines makes it clear that poll worker ignorance about how to use the high-tech equipment and machine glitches were widespread problems in 2005. Diebold technicians in many areas were key in producing the final vote results.

Use of e-voting machines has resulted in two elections with improbable results in Ohio, with potentially catastrophic outcomes for American democracy – especially if they are ignored.

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6. DU: Elections Own “bleever” Comes Up with a Great Theoryl...& cool too!

This post made it to Greatest in no time. It’s what I call an “intuitive” post but right on target. Thanks bleever!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5467221&mesg_id=5467221">Bleever has his channels open…may be on to something big!

bleever Donating Mon Nov-28-05 03:05 PM
Original message

Susan Ralston: Traitorgate, Abramoff scandal, AND election theft witness?
Susan Ralston, former assistant to Karl Rove, has testified again to the new grand jury convened by Patrick Fitzgerald, regarding how calls to Rove were logged by the White House.

She was also Jack Abramoff's personal secretary.

And in looking for a photo, I was reminded of another photo from a year ago



There she is, with Rove, at his bank of computers, monitoring precinct-level returns on election night. Many of us wondered at the time what in the world Rove would be doing with all those computers, and why it was important in the wee hours of election night for him to be "monitoring" results on the precinct level. (Not to mention that running this campaign-related operation from the WH dining room was technically illegal.)

If she knows simple facts that lay out the timeline and activities of key players in the CIA leak case and the Abramoff scandal that are of use to prosecutors in untangling lies and inconsistent testimony, there is a good chance that this is also the case with regard to the theft of the 2004 election.

What was she doing for Rove that night? What were her duties? What kinds of data was she handling? Simple questions like these could end up having the kind of explosive impact for the election theft story that her testimony about the WH call-logging procedures may be having for the CIA leak case.

[FogerRox]

13. bleever link broke-- please help old man and FIX IT

eom

[Wilms]

14. Try this.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5467221

[Wilms]

7. Florida Improperly Certified the Diebold TSX

Florida Improperly Certified the Diebold TSX

By Susan Pynchon, Florida Fair Elections Coalition

November 28, 2005

Florida Fair Elections Coalition's preliminary review of documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request to Florida's Division of Elections reveals that the state improperly certified the Diebold "paperless" TSX voting machine and improperly certified Diebold's so-called "blended" system. Our preliminary findings include the following:

snip/more

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=350&Itemid=51

Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=403084&mesg_id=403084

[kster]

8. False Frames

False Frames
by Patricia Goldsmith


http://www.opednews.com

False Frames
Patricia Goldsmith

When it comes to evoting, the corporate media have put out a couple of narrative frames that have been successful in throwing even voting reform advocates off the track. The most obvious is the conspiracy frame. Stephen Pizzo, who ultimately advocates the abolition of evoting in order to restore voter confidence, nevertheless believes “he party caught fixing a major race would be out of power for a generation. Also, if I learned anything from a quarter century of unraveling real and alleged conspiracies it’s that getting caught is always in the cards.” In this, he finds himself in substantial agreement with conservative columnist and former Reagan administration official
James Pinkerton.

It seems to me their argument would be a lot stronger if the GOP hadn’t already been “caught” attempting to fix every single election since 2000. Hell, they do it out in the open, proudly. People like Katherine Harris, Glenda Hood, and Ken Blackwell have made whole careers out of purge lists, voter intimidation, and aggressive partisanship in the administration of elections.

That’s because what we are seeing in operation is not a conspiracy, but unchecked monopolies and corporate combinations, and there is nothing fanciful or farfetched about it. The concentration of wealth and power is the ultimate point toward which all capitalist systems tend. The last 70 years of (relatively) regulated corporations are the exception, not the rule.

Privatized voting is a perfect example of how the undermining of government regulatory mechanisms leads to one-party rule and further deregulation, in a self-perpetuating cycle. We see the same thing with the highly-consolidated corporate media. Nor is a “conspiracy” required in order for the various corporate entities to act in concert. Combination is in their best interests, and successful corporations are all about finding and pursuing their own best interests, as single-minded as sharks. Which explains why the corporate media have virtually ignored a recent GAO report detailing serious evoting failures in 2004.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_patricia_051128_false_frames.htm

[kster]

9. Discussion here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x403164

[rumpel]

10. AL:Day: Morgan needs federal funds for special needs voting machines

http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/051129/voting.shtml

By Sheryl Marsh
DAILY Staff Writer
[email protected] · 340-2437

Morgan County Probate Judge Bobby Day says the County Commission needs to ask the secretary of state's office for help in buying 60 voting machines at $5,000 each.

snip

Officials were considering consolidating voting precincts to buy fewer machines, but that won't work because of time constraints, said Day.

snip

"And, in addition to that, I understand that the Association of County Commissions of Alabama is getting a state bid list together, and I'm hoping that will cut down on the cost," said Day.

snip

"They would vote by voice or some other touching type method or by blowing into the machine," Day said. "They would put on a headset and the computerized machine would give them instructions on how to cast their ballot. It's pretty complicated."

on edit my comment:
"What the heck is "blowing into a machine" ?

[rumpel]

11. VA:Election questions turn touchy

http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/42549

Watchdogs insist paper-ballot backups are necessary to validate touch-screen voting.

Cody Lowe
The Roanoke Times


For voters who are suspicious of the accuracy of new touch-screen voting machines now in widespread use in Virginia, the prospect of a recount to determine the next attorney general isn't much comfort.

On Election Day, several voters reported irregularities to news media in the Roanoke Valley.

Most indicated they had problems getting their votes recorded correctly -- often needing assistance from precinct officials to finally cast their ballots on the touch-screens, which technically are known as direct recording electric machines.

snip

The Virginia State Board of Elections has never taken a position on paper trails, Jensen said. But she pointed out some potential difficulties, in that the state's localities use machines from six vendors and only two have "a voter-verified paper trail device that has been certified at the national level."

"Our position is that there is a lot of research and development to be done and that it's too soon to mandate a paper trail."

[Bill Bored]

12. Nice Article About NY, where WE DO HAVA RIGHT (or better yet not at all)!

Vive la resistance!



Vote of No Confidence
New York shows up late in national push for clean voting

<http://villagevoice.com/news/0548,murphy,70447,5.html>

"It is either a classic case of dysfunctionality of the state or a devilish plot"

Everything is going according to plan if you ask me!
I :loveya: NY!