In Response to Hursti Hack, MD Election Admin. Expresses ‘Great Concern’

[Wilms]

In Response to Florida Diebold Hack, Lamone Expresses ‘Great Concern’ About Threat to Maryland

By TrueVoteMD

January 24, 2006

TrueVoteMD Urges De-Certification of Voting System and Halt to ‘Secretive” Style of the State Board

snip

Maryland Elections Administrator Linda Lamone also responded with a strongly worded letter to Diebold demanding immediate and daily briefings. This letter recently came into the hands of TrueVoteMD and can be downloaded here.

In a letter to Linda Lamone, TrueVoteMD urged de-certification of the Diebold system as required by law and that all information be made public.

“Since December 23, 2005 Ms. Lamone has known that the legality and certifiability of our state’s entire voting system is in question. Policymakers and the public must be immediately informed on whether we are prepared for the September, 2006 primary election or must we go into over-drive to procure a new system,” said Linda Schade, Executive Director of TrueVoteMD.

“Election officials in other states such as California regularly post press releases and all technical reports on their public websites. The Maryland State Administrator’s policy of secretive, back-room administration of our state’s elections must come to an end NOW no matter how embarrassing recent events have become. Openness is not negotiable in a democratic society,” Linda Schade, Executive Director of TrueVoteMD.org.

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=833&Itemid=113


TrueVoteMD's Letter to Maryland State Elections Administrator Linda Lamone

By Linda Schade, TrueVoteMD

January 24, 2006

snip

As you know, Maryland uses the TS machines across our state except Baltimore where the TSX machines were recently deployed against the wishes of the City. On January 5, 2006, Diebold Elections Systems admitted in their “Response to Pennsylvania Request for Clarification on ABasic Issues (memory card interpreter software) that their OS, TS and TSX voting equipment uses the interpreted code.

Thus it appears that the legality of all Diebold election equipment nationally and in Maryland is in question. As you know Maryland law (COMAR) requires compliance with federal standards which we now know Diebold does not meet. It seems appropriate then to urge you to immediately de-certify the OS, TS and TSX Diebold voting systems Maryland intended to use in the upcoming 2006 elections - or to provide extensive documentation showing why this should not occur.

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=832&Itemid=113


So of course, the "Voter Fraud" goons show up.




Possible fraud cases highlight need for election reform
By DAVID ABRAMS, Staff Writer

The Anne Arundel County Board of Elections has reported seven cases of possible "double voting" from the last presidential election, and one criminal case is pending in state court.

While elections officials stress that fraud isn't rampant in the state, the issue is taking on new urgency as the 2006 contests approach.

The General Assembly last week overrode the governor's vetoes of bills that will allow people to vote up to a week before an election and cast provisional ballots anywhere in Maryland.

"The word 'fraud' is coming about more and more," said Barbara Fisher, the county's elections chief. "I think people are thinking there's a lot more of it than there really is. But I'm not trying to downplay it."

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2006/01_23-15/TOP

[Wilms]

1. .

[AuntiBush]

2. A Serious Kick & Nom

Diebold has created havoc for the state of MD, blue for eons. If it turns red, you can thank Ehrlich.

[AuntiBush]

3. You Might Want to Cross Post this in the State/Md Section, too.

:thumbsup: Time to get this out there.

[mirrera]

4. People lets not miss this chance!

If everyone here at DU went to VoteTrustUSA.org and printed the following articles and presented them to your town officials and agitated among your fellow citizens we could grassroots these parasites out of our election process. This is the turning point! Buy more machines made by GOP corps. or throw them in the harbor?

Miami Herald Article:
http://votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=509&Itemid=113

Witness to the Hursti Hack:
http://votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=820&Itemid=113

Explanation of Interpreted code:
http://votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=645&Itemid=26

Washington Post Article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012101051.html

The time is ripe! All that is missing is larger numbers of caring citizens. If WE don't who will? Are we waiting for Katie Couric? Ha ha ha ha AH ha ha ha ha...

Impeach Image (signature)



http://NoBullshiRt.com

[FULL_METAL_HAT]

5. The Levee Might Be About To Break!!

Getting people to accept that computers are infallible has turned out to be like pulling hens teeth, despite the daily blue screens almost everyone has had to endure (blue screen = some nasty computer error screwing up your work!).

Hursti's tiny little "hackattack theater" seems to have bust open people's realization as to just how weak these computer systems really are.

The reaction of those at the Florida revelation is very encouraging!!

Spreading this story to local election officials should have a similar effect

Harri told me, and Dr. Thompson confirmed, that Harri's hack was Level One (the first, primitive level), and could have been done by an 8th grader with some basic information. They explained to me that the voting machines in this country are so vulnerable that they cannot even withstand a Level One attack, much less a Level Two or a Nation-State attack.

As an added tactic, distancing the inquiry away from knee-jerk calls of "anti-republicanism" can be achieved by referring to the "level" of the attack demonstrated, and how if level one is wide open, then level THREE -- Nation-state attack is SUPER WIDE OPEN!

What if CHINA realized how much there was to gain from gaming our elections?? They've had the most to gain from the "Borrow and Spend" policies of the executive...

Protecting our elections from "foreign tampering" is a much easier entre than pointing at the republicans right from the start. Once the door of inquiry is opened, the real culprits will be easy to spot!!

A "flood" of people against the voting machines seems to closer than ever before!

{B^> FMH

[autorank]

6. CHINA! This takes "outsourcing our elections" to a whole new level.

Smartmatic, a vague Venezuelan Corporation bought Sequoia. Nobody yet has tracked down who owns Smartmatic. Wonder if Diebold has any Pacific rim partnerships.

Oh, it's getting deep.

[Amaryllis]

8. Here for more on Sequoia and its ownership:

From a Sequoia press release dated March 9, 2005, it appears that De La Rue has quietly just pulled out of the election business altogether, and that Sequoia has been acquired by another company—out of Boca Raton, Florida, Smartmatic Automated Election Systems (SAES)—described as involved in “device networking.” Smartmatic boasts that in 2004 they “recorded 16 million votes in Latin America” with their election systems, including the Venezuela Presidential Recall referendum of August 2004. Their claim is that they transmitted all the votes in one minute- “one-way data transmission using public phone, cellular or satellite” and the tally was instant. This was the Chavez replacement for ES&S, and they used DRE machines with a paper trail!

With offices located in Venezuela, Mexico, Taiwan and Barbados, per their website, this newly formed team hopes to provide global election assistance to “emerging democracies” as well as established ones. (Wonder if Chavez studies mergers and acquisitions?)

http://whoscounting.net/TheCompanies.htm#SEQUOIA%20VOTING%20SYSTEMS

[mirrera]

10. This is a great link! Thanks...

I was looking for a reminder about the shady shifting of these companies. It is also scary how big it all is!



http://NoBullshiRt.com

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[autorank]

11. Diebold -- publicly held. ESS--acquired by SAIC (scary!).

SAIC is an employee owned DC mega conslting firm...logistics, operations, even a private army or two. Board is heavy Republican, some neocons. Diebold is a publically traded comopany, NYSE.

Hope this helps.

[mirrera]

12. What does that mean?

Are the brothers still involved? It really resonates with people when you hit them with 80% of our votes being counted by two corporations owned by two brothers. I want to know if I can still say that. I would appreciate any info!

PS what does SAIC stand for?



http://NoBullshiRt.com

[autorank]

13. Ownership

Diebold = Diebold Corp (http://www.diebold.com/) - Owned by stock holders, NY Stock Exchange

ESS = owned by SAIC (Science Applications International Corp. http://www.saic.com/) SAIC is the "world's largest employee owned corporatoin."

Sequoia = Smartmatic (Venezuela, SA http://www.smartmatic.com/)

The original source you're referring to:

Black Box Voting

Two voting companies & two brothers will count 80 percent of U.S. election using both scanners & touchscreens

By Lynn Landes
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Look here: http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

Cheshire Rebels Against Voting Machines
http://www.bluemassgroup.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1155
by: Bob
January 06, 2006 at 10:41:52 EST
The North Adams Transcript reports Cheshire has informed Galvin they will not install electronic voting machines as required by federal law because the existing paper ballot system works just fine (hat tip, BradBlog and VotersUnite.org).

"This system has served us well for the past 213 years, and we see no compelling reason to change," says a letter signed by the town's Selectmen. Cheshire cited the cost of electronic machines and the fact that absentee ballots already allow disabled citizens to vote (one of the objectives of the federal law).

All of which reminds us that approximately 80% of votes in the U.S. are counted by two companies, Elections Systems & Software (ES&S) and Diebold, with strong links to the Republicans. ES&S was founded by brothers Bob and Todd Urosevich and built with money from the Ahmanson family of Irvine, California, also well-known for funding the Discovery Institute, of Intelligent Design fame. Todd Urosevich remains a top executive. Bob Urosevich heads Diebold Election Systems. Walden "Wally" O'Dell, the chairman of the board and chief executive of Diebold, is a major Republican fundraiser, and famously promised to deliver Ohio for Bush in 2004.

Read all about it: Diebold, Electronic Voting and the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy from CommonDreams, Diebold's Political Machine from Mother Jones, Sale of Electoral Politics from Project Censored, Raw Notes from EcoTalk, and in general BlackBoxVoting.org.

SAIC: Chairman of Board Kenneth Dahlberg (google Dahlberg and Watergate)

K.C. DAHLBERG, Director since 2003
SAIC CEO, President, Chairman of the Board, and Director
K.C. DAHLBERG
Mr. Dahlberg has served as chairman of the board since July 2004 and chief executive officer and president since November 2003. Prior to joining the company, Dahlberg was with General Dynamics Corp. from March 2001 to October 2003, where he served as executive vice president. Dahlberg was with Raytheon International from February 2000 to March 2001, where he served as president, and from 1997 to 2000 he served as president and chief operating officer of Raytheon Systems Company. Dahlberg held various positions with Hughes Aircraft from 1967 to 1997. Read biography...

[mirrera]

16. Your awesome! Thanks! n/t

[autorank]

18. De nada, gracias

[AX10]

19. The damn broke in Connecticut.

Our SOS (Dem) has already said that electronic voting machines WILL NOT BE USED for the 2006 election.

[Wilms]

7. kick

[autorank]

14. Ditto

[Wilms]

15. It's a cascade.

And I wonder, what other manufacturers have interpreter code on their systems? Hmmm?

[Wilms]

17. State Elections Chief Questions Voting Machine Operator

State Elections Chief Questions Voting Machine Operator

By JARED S. HOPKINS
Capital News Service

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

WASHINGTON - Maryland's chief elections administrator has put the company that produces the state's voting machines on notice that it must provide full information and daily briefings on testing required after another state experienced security problems with the devices.

In a Dec. 23 letter to Diebold Inc., State Elections Administrator Linda Lamone asked for all pertinent information and any reviews by the Independent Testing Authority related to Diebold electronic voting machines. She also asked for detailed information regarding the memory cards that store voter information and Diebold's plans for addressing concerns raised in other states.

Lamone said Wednesday her letter to Diebold CEO Thomas Swidarski was prompted by a December incident in Florida, when an election supervisor allowed individuals to hack into the voting system and successfully alter results.

snip

"I just want to make sure that Diebold knows that I am aware of what's going on, especially with the incident in Florida," she said.

snip

http://www.journalism.umd.edu/cns/wire/060125-Wednesday/LamoneLetter_CNS-UMCP.html