Largest Nashville TV station (NBC) begins major voting integrity series

[Fly by night]

We have been working with this reporter for several weeks and this story aired last night. There wil be another story tonight and there may be more over the next week. If you have a minute, please drop Dagny Stuart a note and thank her for helping protect our votes here in the Orange State.
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New voting technology upsets taxpayers, commissioners
Nov 8, 2005, 07:37 PM

Reported by Dagny Stuart (E-mail: [email protected])

Tennessee is about to receive nearly $57 million to help buy new voting machines. But there are questions about who's deciding what to buy and if taxpayer money is being well spent.

In some counties in Tennessee, like Lewis County, voters still mark their ballots by punching a hole in a ballot card. Local election commissioners say it is a simple, economical system that also allows them to do recounts.

"We don't like our results being tampered with, and with punch cards we don't have to worry with that," said Jim Hensley, Lewis Co. Election Commissioner.

Commissioners are upset that the state is trying to force them to scrap punch card voting. Spearheading the drive to get rid of punch cards is Brook Thompson, the state's coordinator of elections.

Thompson says the federal government is giving Tennessee nearly $57 million to improve voting and buy new equipment. It is part of the new Help America Vote Act (HAVA) that was passed after the contested presidential election of 2000.

"From that very moment we said we're going to take the federal money. If we don't get rid of punch cards, we have to give back some of that federal money, and we don't want to do that," said Thompson.

But Lewis County's Jim Hensley and others have been doing their own investigating and discovered HAVA does allow punch cards in some cases.

"The buck stops with Brook Thompson because he's the one that puts out the information. When it's all said and done he's the one that's telling people you had to do it. He's the one who said he'll have us decertified," said Hensley.

So why is Thompson insisting that they buy some kind of new voting system?

"This is a one time chance to replace voting equipment to upgrade ourselves and to let the federal government pay for that," says Hensley.

But several election watchers have questions about Thompson's seat on the board of directors for The Election Center. This is a nonprofit organization that provides training for election officials, but it receives some of its money from the companies that make voting machines.

A 2001 tax return shows The Election Center received $40,000 over several years from Sequoia Pacific Corporation -- one of the biggest voting machine companies.

In Beverly Hills, at the Election Center's August conference, Diebold Election Systems cosponsored the welcome reception. Sequoia Voting Systems co-sponsored the Dinner/Dance while the voting machine company ES&S sponsored the Graduation Luncheon.

Thompson doesn't see a conflict with his service on the board, even though he is in charge of helping certify voting machine companies doing business in Tennessee.

"Vendors being involved in conferences of election officials is not new or unique," says Thompson.

"But they are not just involved, they're actually underwriting those conferences and giving money," said Dagny Stuart to Thompson.

"Maybe so, I mean it's a conference. It raises money, but I don't think The Election Center is different than any other election organization," said Thompson.

But in Lewis County, commissioners think it is a conflict of interest.

"It's the look of impropriety. You should avoid that at all costs if you were in his position," said Butch Lawson, Lewis Co. Election Commissioner.

Representative Susan Lynn thinks someone should investigate. She sponsored a bill to require voter verified paper ballots on all election machines -- something Thompson opposed.

"Given his position in state government, it's important that he not serve an organization that gets money from voting machine companies because he has a lot of money to spend, federal money on voting machines," said Lynn.

She and others will be watching closely when Thompson and the State Election Commission meet later this month to make a final decision on how Tennessee spends its federal election dollars.

No one is claiming that Brook Thompson has done anything wrong. He is not paid for his service on the election center's board of directors, although his travel expenses will be covered.

But with so much money at stake, some election officials say it's reasonable to look at how Tennessee is spending millions of tax dollars and who is making those decisions.

The state election commission meets again November 15th to discuss the new voting technology.

Learn more about the State Election Commission by visiting their web site.

[Arugula Latte]

1. That's great.

Slowly this information will trickle into the voters' minds until a critical mass of doubt is reached.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

2. Kick & recommended n/t

[MelissaB]

3. ditto

[Fly by night]

4. Thanks. Needs one more vote for Greatest page, s'il vous plait.

[demodonkey]

5. Done! Bernie you and your patriot Orange Staters are the greatest.

:patriot:

Glad I could put ya' over the top. Hats off and (((( Hugs )))) to you from your PA friend, (especially this week.)

MB

[blm]

6. Another K and R.

.

[autorank]

7. Music to my ears!!!! I love this. You really did a good job with this

reporter.

They don't have our time and committment. They're spread across many other issues. This is the second first rate CM article on election fraud (the other was form DuPage County IL recently).

Here is the Du Page article (home of some voting machine companies):

Earlier, easier voting comes at price for DuPage County
Security, cost debated in possible switch to yet another new system

By Robert Sanchez and Marni Pyke
Daily Herald Staff Writers
Posted Sunday, October 30, 2005

By the spring 2002 primary, all DuPage County voters were using a state-of-the-art optical scan system.

The $4.3 million investment was lauded as a success, producing quick poll results with few glitches.

But the county election commission may soon scrap it for new voting machines that could cost up to $12 million.

New laws that extend early voting and require accessible machines for disabled residents are forcing them to consider switching to a fully electronic system, instead of the optical-scan method that uses paper ballots.

And that puts the commission on the horns of a dilemma.
The cost of the switch is giving budget hawks on the DuPage County Board ulcers. And some election watchdogs warn that electronic voting is vulnerable to tampering.

<snip>
Schultz Voots questions whether it’s worth it.
“You know how computers are,” she said. “They are obsolete in a couple of years.”

She also points out that none of the electronic voting devices are certified by the state. They can’t be used in an election until that happens.

Still, Cunningham says he’s “guardedly optimistic” that the devices Kane plans to use will be certified in early December.

Cunningham also has his own theory why counties with optical scanning systems might be reluctant to switch.

“If they put money into it already, it’s hard to justify getting off of it,” he said.

Security qualms

In the upcoming weeks, DuPage Election Commission officials will be visited by several voting machines vendors.

But a commission meeting last week, in which Diebold Election Systems demonstrated its AccuVote-TSX touch-screen voting machine, ended in a confrontation between Saar and residents skeptical about Diebold’s track record.

While Saar accused some residents of twisting the facts about Diebold, they countered the company was woefully unreliable.
Such doubts aren’t restricted to Diebold. Researchers with the Government Accountability Office concluded while electronic voting holds tremendous promise, it’s not tamper-proof.

<>
“The science to study how to do electronic voting correctly has not been done yet,” Rubin said. “We’re years away from being able to use electronic voting in any kind of secure way.”

While some characterize fears about voting security as paranoia and confined to a few special-interest groups, some see a larger problem.
“It’s not only the problem of cheating, but even if the election department is absolutely honest and scrupulous, there could well be large numbers of people who don’t believe it,” said Scott Peters, a political science professor at Illinois Institute of Technology.
“If they don’t believe the election, then the resulting government isn’t viewed as legitimate.”

But officials report no problems with electronic voting devices in Harris County, Texas, where they’ve been used for years.
In fact, Beverly Kaufman, the clerk in the county that includes Houston, says she believes the electronic system is more secure than traditional paper ballots.

“A vote is a vote,” she said. “No human hands are going to touch your ballot after you cast it and change it.”

[Fly by night]

8. Here's the second story in the "continuing" series

Please, please write Dagny Stuart at Channel 4 (her email is below) and thank her for her in-depth reports. We are hopeful that Channel 4 may continue their reports (they still have tons of information to work with) and we want them to know that their efforts are being noticed nationwide. We need to get every major TV station in the nation to follow Channel 4's lead. Here in Tennessee, we are hopeful that Dagny's series will also be run on other NBC affiliates in Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga.

Both video segments (and related text) are available at http://www.wsmv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4097778&nav=menu109_6 Thanks.
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New voting machines face myriad of criticisms
Nov 9, 2005, 07:27 PM

Reported by Dagny Stuart (E-mail: [email protected])

Tennessee is about to spend nearly $57 million to improve elections and buy new voting machines. Critics complain the new technology is too expensive and may not guarantee that your vote is counted.

Ophelia Ford has been sworn in as Tennessee's newest state Senator, even though her opponent Terry Roland is contesting the race. Ophelia won the race to fill her brother John Ford's seat by only about a dozen votes. But because Memphis uses push pad voting machines, election officials can't do a true recount.

Voter groups like "Gathering to Save Our Democracy", are demanding a way to do a true audit of elections. They say many of the new electronic touch screen voting machines, including the machines used in Davidson County, can't give an accurate audit.

Davidson County's machines produce a simple tape that counts the votes recorded, but it doesn't prove the machine took every vote. Some voter activists want something more.

"The voter verified paper ballot is what we want. That means the voter does look at a record of how their vote was counted by the machine and they verify it," said Thelma Kidd, Voter Activist.

Representative Susan Lynn has introduced a bill that would require a paper audit trail -- something at least 10 other states have already passed.

"There's always a suspicion or a risk of manipulation. That's why a voter verified paper trail is important. Vote by vote by vote it gives reassurance that votes won't be tampered with," said Lynn.

But Representative Lynn's bill went nowhere and Brook Thompson, Tennessee's Coordinator of Elections, opposes the paper audit trial. He says it would be possible to figure out how an individual voted.

"It puts names on a piece of paper in order. I have concerns about the secrecy of the ballot," says Thompson.

"Even though some states are requiring it?" asks Reporter Dagny Stuart.

"Absolutely, I don't know what they're doing about it, but we have concerns in Tennessee," said Thompson.

Some voter advocacy groups are also concerned about the reliability of new voting machines. Some of Diebold Systems' machines were decertified in California after they failed two tests and they all had to be sent back. Then there's the issue of built-in computer technology.

"Some of the equipment now being considered is configured with wireless communications capability which would allow vote totals to be changed from a distance," said Bernie Ellis, Voter Activist.

"The wireless capability I'm aware of relates to transmission of results after the election, and we can turn off the wireless during an election. That's what we want them to do," said Thompson.

But Bernie Ellis isn't willing to take that on faith.

"They are machines owned by private companies, counting our votes in secret, using software we're not allowed to examine," said Ellis.

The fear that any votes won't be counted is driving the discussion about voting machine technology.

"Now to come to a point where votes cast has some question mark when they're counted is an affront to all we've stood for," said Rev. Charles Kimbrough Voter Activist.

The fight over electronic voting machines is headed to the Tennessee courts. Attorney David Mills filed a lawsuit against Shelby County claiming Tennessee's election laws are unconstitutional.

"The people who get to vote on paper have greater rights than those who have to vote on machines that have no paper," says Mills.

That's because paper ballots inside or outside of a machine, can be recounted. This means some voters can demand a recount while others cannot, which is precisely the case with Ophelia Ford's contest.

Mills and others say it's time to eliminate elections that end with a question mark.

State officials have ordered counties to scrap older punch card systems and buy newer electronic voting equipment. But some election commissioners complain that the new equipment usually has a one year warranty. When that runs out, county election commissions will have to come up with the money to repair or replace the new equipment, which could cost tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

Voter activists plan to attend the State Election Commission meeting November 15th and speak out about new voting machines.