Reno, Nevada voter sues Sequoia Voting Systems, 10/25/06

[Emit]

I'll be curious what comes of this:

PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Patricia Axelrod, 775-787-1909 For immediate release
(Leave message) 10/27/06
RENOITE SUE SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS

On October 25 Washoe County resident and voter Patricia Axelrod sued Sequoia Voting Systems for the loss of her 2004 vote, which she says, is her “precious and personal private property.” Sequoia Voting Systems sold Nevada electronic voting, election management, and Vote tabulating machines and systems to Nevada including the Advantage and AVC Edge with Veri-Vote Printer voting machines. “Sequoia management and product defect and negligence lost my 2004 vote, impaired the accurate results of both the 2004 and threatens the outcome of the 2006 elections,” says Patricia Axerod a professional researcher who has sued Sequoia for negligence, property damage, negligence, strict product liability and breech of the warranty Sequoia extended to Nevada. Axelrod discovered her missing 2004 vote by review of her voting record on Washoe Registrar’s DEMS (Diebold Election Management System). Accessing the DEMS computer she found her vote had neither been registered nor counted and that she had been issued 3 – rather than one unique Voter ID number. Axelrod is asking Washoe’s Second Judicial District Court for damages in excess of $10,000.00 and to order the public testing of all Washoe County Sequoia voting and election machines as well as to fix defective machines as discovered. Additionally she requests the court to order Sequoia to allow citizen oversight of its Washoe operations in addition to the company’s adoption of fair vote election regulations and standards. Axelrod says she will forgo financial remuneration in return for Sequoia’s test and fix remedy and provision for citizen oversight.

MORE…
Axelrod investigated the 2004 election results; suing Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller for access to and copies of the 2004 election records and documents kept in the Secretary’s files. She says she also obtained information and documents from other informed sources. Most importantly, says Axelrod, she obtained the Wyle Laboratory December 2004 test results of the AVC Edge with VeriVote printer that she and other Washoe citizens and most of Nevada voted on in 2004; and will again in 2006. Wyle tested the machines for reliability and certified the AVC machine suitable for Nevada voter use. Axelrod says Wyle’s operational, test and evaluation records reveal that test machines “ failed to operate when subjected to electrical surge, electromagnetic radiation and electrostatic discharge; overall standard reliability testing failed at 4, 8, and 10 hours causing the machine to lock up; VeriVote printers slipped out of alignment and/or repeatedly jammed and stopped printing even though the machines read “Printing Ballot Selections; and VeriVote Printing paper folded up on itself accordion style”. Axelrod also says, “Wyle engineers found that, “ongoing review of individual VeriVote paper receipts produced during testing show that a font size change had occurred on multiple occasions which in turn caused some of the information on the printer receipt to be found missing.” Axelrod also says that, “Wyle Laboratory suppressed and failed to print out VeriVote serial number data of machines under test so that printed rolls could not be traced back to the specific machine from which the voter receipts were printed. Sequoia attorney Adolph Romei has threatened Axelrod with sanctions for pursuing this lawsuit but Axelrod declares that she will not be dissuaded from seeking Election Justice.

By the way, for what it's worth, Dean Heller (R) is our SOS but is running for Congress -- against Jill Derby (D).

[pnwmom]

1. Way to go, Patricia!

Recommended!

[DRoseDARs]

2. In Heller's defense my impression was he listnd dring the public input period...

...a few years back when it was decided that our old and trusty (voter-verifiable AND a paper trail of actual votes cast) optical scanners suddenly - as if by magic - became obsolete ... nevermind that other parts of the country have brought in optical scanner machines to modernize their ballot systems. :shrug:

Anyway, he decided against Diebold as a result.

[NVMojo]

4. don't forget that Las Vegas still has old Sequoias without printers

in place, they never replaced them in 04 or since.

[DRoseDARs]

5. I still remember their rep giving the bs line about "it'll cost too much"

...too add the printers. :eyes: If memory serves, even Heller didn't buy it.

[NVMojo]

3. is there a link to this that we can all use? Thanks!

[Emit]

6. No link, she sent it to me via email

I don't know if she'll send it in to the newspapers or what. At a minimum, she'll likely send it to the Reno Gazette Journal soon. I'm really curious what will come of this.

[Emit]

7. Here's her email message

Hello all: Attached is the pertinent press release
and info regarding a product liability lawsuit I filed
October 25 against Sequoia Voting systems for the loss
of my 2004 vote and other election irregularities
surrounding the 2004 election. I consider my vote to
be my most precious, personal private property and
therefore I have filed a property damage lawsuit
alleging Sequoia mismanagement, product defect,
negligence and breech of warranty. A copy of the
actual suit in electronic format can be obtained by
reply request. Please post this press release as you
may/can. Any request to be taken off email list will
be honored by prompt removal.

Patricia Axelrod