SHIT!!! Diebold to be certified in CA ... with yet-unstated conditions.

[nicknameless]

I just received this brief email from CA State Senator Debra Bowen's office:

Diebold Certified

Apparently the SOS announced in a conference call with county elections officials today that he’s going to certify the Diebold machines for 2006 “with conditions,” but he didn’t lay out the conditions just yet.

When is our rethug POS SoS going to comply with the 19202 request for a hack test? That request was formally filed in June 2005.
He's breaking the law by not allowing that test. What other CA election code violations is he guilty of? BASTARD!!!

On edit: I changed the headline. Although the email read "Diebold Certified", subsequent text states that he's *going to* certify.
It hasn't happened ... yet.

There are too many pissed-off Californians for this issue to just fade away. We WILL be fighting back!!!

[upi402]

1. is it overwith in America?

I mean, when CALIFORNIA has this shit happen ... I dunno, it's time to stick a fork in it.

[marmar]

3. The United States of America 1776-2000 R.I.P.

:cry:

[kster]

2. Kick-N Recommended..nt

[upi402]

4. Recommended - IMPORTANT

:patriot:

[datadiva]

5. Holy Crap

I don't use machines, I always file absentee. But this is just awful. I wonder what the Conditions are? This stinks bigtime. :argh: :grr:

[Peace Patriot]

29. You don't use the machines, but THEY use the machines when they scan

your ballot into a computer, or use date entry to record your vote, and it all ends up in Diebold's central tabulators and other electronic systems. Absentee or mail-in ballots are good because they are PAPER and can be RECOUNTED, but they are no gurantee of an honest, transparent election if private Bushite corporations are using "TRADE SECRET," PROPIETARY programming code in any part of the election system.

The automatic/audit recounts are minimal, maybe 1% (at best), and even very rare formal, requested recounts don't count everything (not on the first run anyway). So the chances of catching innocent errors or fraudulent changes of votes in these fast-as-the-speed of light electronic systems with secret programming code are just about nil. The auditing system is antequated, and many secretaries of state handle elections with highly improper secrecy and hate recounts.

We have to get private corporations entirely out of the election system--most especially Bushite corporations, a no-brainer.

[Amaryllis]

55. PP, question: does any of all this have to do with scanners, tabulators,

or just with DRE's? Because if it's just DRE's, even if he doesn't, or should I say didn't, recertify, aren't we still screwed? I say we even tho I'm not in CA, because as I said when the coup was going on to take Shelley down, if CA goes, the whole country goes.

[AX10]

74. So Cali will not be using electronic voting machines then?

Just electronic tabulators that read optical scan cards? Do I understand you correctly?

[robbedvoter]

6. Chalk 35 electoral votes to BFEE already

[nicknameless]

37. CA actually had 55 in the 2004 election.

That would be a lot to lose, but this fight is far from over.

[EVDebs]

54. McPherson's antiterrorism background...makes you think...he's planted

""As Chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Anti-Terrorism Policy, Senator McPherson looks forward to the opportunity to continue his hard work towards securing public safety in an increasingly tumultuous time. He is especially proud of his support of legislation aimed at assisting victims of violence, empowering law enforcement, and keeping dangerous weapons out of school and off the streets.""

http://www.smartvoter.org/2002/11/05/ca/state/vote/mcpherson_b/bio.html

Lost his son, Hunter, to street robbery in SF, but ironically, the Santa Cruz pol is now having his constituents under military intelligence surveillance despite legally dissenting. What ties to BushCo does this CA Senate Select Cmte on Anti-Terrorism Policy have that we should know about ?

Inquiring minds need to know.

[nicknameless]

67. McPherson is definitely a plant. The anti-terrorism stuff looks to be from

2002 though. Could have just been a requisite blurb so soon after 9/11.

The guy was appointed for one reason only: to get the vote-stealing machines in place and end clean elections in CA.

Not sure about the "having his constituents under military intelligence surveillance" part though. Where are you reading that?

[EVDebs]

70. UC Santa Cruz kids were under military intelligence surveillance

Students Denounce Pentagon Surveillance of Counter-Recruitment Activities
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/19173/index.php

""According to a document obtained by NBC News, the Pentagon has been spying on 1,500 “suspicious incidents,” including anti-war and counter-recruitment meetings and actions throughout the nation over the past 10-month period. Among the first pages of more than 400 released, 10 college anti-war protests were listed, including UC Santa Cruz Students Against War (SAW)’s counter-recruitment protest of April 5, 2005, which was the only one to be labeled both credible and a “threat...”""

Local authorities would be asked to assist the military intelligence in spying on the kids. All local police forces have intelligence 'liasons'; Denver police did the same thing and got caught, too. McPherson may just be a useful dupe, due to the murder of his son in a senseless street mugging in SF. He may not be thinking through what his puppetmasters have been ordering him to do.

[nicknameless]

72. Ugh. I remember reading about the spying on anti-recruitment protesters.

Much as I abhor McPherson, I don't think he was involved in that. He used to represent that area in Congress, but now he's in Sacramento full time, trying to destroy our elections. If he *hadn't* been in Sacramento, I absolutely believe that he would have supported that spying operation though.

"Useful dupe" (and co-conspirator) -- absolutely.

[xxqqqzme]

7. he's rethuglican - he don't need no steeeenking laws!

The CDP let this happen...Shelley may not have been a sterling people person but NO charges were ever brought against him for anything only nasty whisper campaign rumors, which started right after he DEcertified Diebold. The CDP left him 2 twist in the wind; if Shelley had done something to violate his oath of office, ok fine then he should have gone but he WAS elected. Then CDP allowed steroid boy 2 appoint a rethug who was NEVER elected and here we are stuck w/ diebold - wow big surprize.......NOT. Get ready folks cuz steroid boy is going 2 B elected governor in November no matter how hard we work for Angelides.

[melody]

8. The state is already seriously discussing secession

This will just kick it into high gear.

We're a big enough economy to go it on our own, though I'm sure we'd rather take our sibling blue states with us. (Red staters, you're all welcome to move to our state).

[xxqqqzme]

11. I am ready for that!

We have agriculture, vineyards, shipping ports, If we could get Oregon & Washington to go w/ us we would be pretty stable and be able to charge port fees that would stay in the state - anything crossing the borders, - food, timber, imported plastic crap from China all that stays here.

[melody]

20. Together with Oregon, Washington, we'd be unstoppable

The right-wing keeps trying to drive their backward philosophies, then they should have to pay for them by themselves. By ourselves, we'd be among the largest economies in the world.

[SupplyConcerns]

63. There was a novel about this scenario, "Ecotopia"

It was pretty terrible, but the idea remains! I prefer the name Cascadia myself, but that would be better if we took along Southwestern Canada (voluntarily, of course).

[melody]

66. Cascadia is much better

Ecotopia is as bad a name as it was a novel.

I agree, Southwestern Canada would be a coup and would keep our culture together.

[GuvWurld]

13. tell us more, please

link?

[melody]

17. a peaceful Constitutional secession for the world's 5th largest economy

http://www.californiasecession.org/
http://www.alternet.org/story/14531
http://calrepublic.tripod.com/
http://www.daveblackonline.com/was_secession_treason.htm
http://www.newcaliforniarepublic.org/
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041109-122753-5113r.htm
http://zapatopi.net/cascadia/
http://www.petitiononline.com/casec/petition.html

[Amaryllis]

56. ARe you serious about seccession being discussed? Maybe we can get

OR and WA to go along...can we form a country outa three states?
On edit, just read post number 11...you're right, we have all the west coast ports...:)

[melody]

62. That's the idea

California, Oregon and Washington. If Quebec ever gives Canada the boot, maybe we could get BC to come along. We'd be a great cumulative force for the environment and more humane economic policies. Even our "conservatives" aren't Neocons.

[SupplyConcerns]

64. Sign me up

[Gregorian]

9. What do these people want?

Really! What do they want? They've stolen two elections, bankrupted the country, started at least one illegal war. They own a media that doesn't even know how to tell the truth.

Just what the hell do they want? I mean, they have to live here too. Do they really want a fascist, noncultured, ignorant, treeless, polluted, nonfree country?

I'm going back to getting drunk and laughing. I can't deal with the bullshit.

Here- have this stolen image from my favorite website. Sorry, DU is only my second favorite site.

[Amaryllis]

57. I've asked the same question...do they reallly want to live in the kind of

world they are creating? Mabye they have no concept of cause and effect.
The dominionist Christians want to bring about ARmageddon ASAP; this is the onlly logical explanation I can find. They are trying to bring it on as fast as they can so they can get the rapture.

[GuvWurld]

10. McPherson Press Release Announcing Certification and Conditions

http://ss.ca.gov/executive/press_releases/2006/06_021.pdf

[nicknameless]

15. So, regardless of the Hursti hack test, use of interpretor code,

and massive failure rates of the TSx machines ...

How many more laws is this POS going to break?

[Amaryllis]

58. What is POS?

[nicknameless]

65. POS = Piece of Shit.

[caligirl]

12. vote trust usa article link on this.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/

[caligirl]

14. part of article here

Secretary of State Bruce McPherson (pictured at right) today announced his decision to certify with conditions the Diebold TSX and Optical Scan (OS) voting systems for use in California’s 2006 elections. The decision comes after months of thorough review of both voting systems, their compliance with both state and federal laws and the completion of an additional security analysis by independent testers from computer labs at the University of California, Berkeley.

“As the State’s chief elections official, the decision to certify voting systems is a very serious responsibility, and a number of factors must be carefully weighed before I determine whether to grant certification,” said Secretary McPherson. “This is precisely why I created 10 strict standards that must be met for a voting system to be certified, making California’s process the most stringent in the nation. We have applied these standards and after rigorous scrutiny, I have determined that these Diebold systems can be used for the 2006 elections.”

Mikel Haas, San Diego County Registrar of Voters said, “I appreciate Secretary McPherson’s leadership in establishing what must be the most comprehensive and rigorous certification process in the nation. To comply with new federal and state laws regarding elections, we need a new and different set of tools and Secretary McPherson made sure we got those tools.” San Diego is home to California’s first federal election of 2006, a special congressional vacancy election to be held in April.
Read more...

[cascadiance]

16. DAMN! They're going to screw Busby and the 50th district in April!

Crap! We don't have time to organize opposition to this! I'll try and send it out locally shortly so we can start getting some protests organized around here! I'm sure they are going to keep Busby from tipping that 50% mark. That will be an "excellent" test from their viewpoint, because even if she does win it, everyone is expecting that she won't, so they'll be able to make sure "the fix" works undetected then! We need to get a parallel election organized in precincts around here then to make sure this doesn't screw us!

[Nothing Without Hope]

18. When I see something so outrageous as this, I wonder: is it money?

Is it kissing up to power? Or is it blackmail?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x338735
thread title (2-6-06 GD): Ex-Reagan official- Dubya uses spying to blackmail media & Dems
Comment/excerpt: About the author:?Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review.

[tiptoe]

27. it's Nazism

[caligirl]

32. You should watch Bernstein and Woodward on Larry King tonight.

They talk about the corrupt government, the power and money. Woodward talks about a book he had thought about writing called Empty Seat. He describes the empty seat as the public interest and how at all meetings in Congress now that seat is always empty. We don't have the money or power that either party seeks. Both sides are corrupt, right now the righties are the worst. Also new DVD set(2 dvd's) comes out Tuesday of All the Presidents Men. This was a good interview as thyey covered the NSA stuff and other corrupt things going on now.

[Nothing Without Hope]

35. The Empty Seat. Yes, that's the heart of the problem. The wolves have

run free.

RFK Jr once said that 95% of the GOP members of Congress are corrupt and 75% of the Dem ones are. Looking at vote records, I do believe he's about right.

And the public is busy watching TV, which has replaced reality for them.

[nicknameless]

43. I TOTALLY AGREE that a huge part of the issue is blackmail.

And I would venture to guess that moderate Repubs are being blackmailed too.

[Nothing Without Hope]

45. Yes, I think ALL the Repubs are being blackmailed. For the NSA

investigation, they were quite open about Rove threatening the Senators with non-support in their next elections:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x342591
thread title (2-6-06 GD): Rove Threatens Republican Senators...
Comment/excerpt: WH going all-out on blocking investigation of the NSA spying. “Congressional sources said Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president. The sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November.”
Keith Olbermann covers Rove’s “enemies list” on Countdown. VIDEO:
http://www.canofun.com/cof/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=16329

I am betting they are also blackmailing with the REAL stuff - secretly gathered blackmail evidence - behind the scenes.

[nicknameless]

47. What would it take for these people to disregard the blackmail effort?

Could it be made a crime to use/leak information gathered illegally?

Moderate Rs and the Dems should band together and go after this NSA issue aggressively. Blackmail info be damned.
The means of gathering of the information was illegal. Blackmail is already a crime. They also need to criminalize the leaking of illegally-gathered NSA info.

They need to get aggressive about this.

Why can't Rove be halted, instead of their own political aspirations? The Plame issue should have taken him down already.

[Nothing Without Hope]

48. It's difficult - I'm betting the blackmail will include illegally gathered

evidence with things like evidence of bribe-taking (or APPARENT bribe taking that would be hard to disprove) or photos/videos with prostitutes, for example. (I think THIS is where Gannon/Guckert's escort buisiness came in, for example.) Things that would mean career-ending professional disgrace. I actually think Ney was made an example of. Yes, he's guilty and a slimy guy, but he was also starting to object to the Patriot Act.

If it's just electability, that can surely be fought more effectively. but unfortunately elections these days are all too much a measure of which candidate can buy more TV spots and hire better speechwriters and psyops talent.

But we have to work at showing them that if they DON'T stand up and fight the fascism, their career will be over anyway. Liebermann is trailing Lamont, and I hope he sinks like a stone....

[nicknameless]

50. I'm thinking of some kind of amnesty.

After all, the current cabal is committing mass murder, shredding the Constitution in violation of their oaths of office, etc.
... Not to mention their own involvement with Gannon/Guckert.

I'm beginning to think that electability is hinging more and more on candidates being opposed to what the cabal is doing.

"But we have to work at showing them that if they DON'T stand up and fight the fascism, their career will be over anyway."

Why don't they get that? And why don't they get that they need to stop the e-voting companies' frauds or their careers will be over?

[Peace Patriot]

80. Reminds me of some dates that always stuck in my mind...

May 1, 2001: Chandra Levy disappears without a trace, in the early afternoon. 12:00 noon, Gary Condit meets with Dick Cheney on Capitol Hill, the beginning of a three hour (12:00 to 3:00) hole in Condit's schedule that day.

May 3, 2001: Three days after Levy's disappearance, Condit is among only ten Democrats who vote in favor of Bush/Cheney's first tax cut for the rich, in a very close vote.

Early June 2001: Condit, who is harassed by media all summer about what appear to have been multiple mistresses, releases his daily schedule to the press for the May 1 date (Levy's disappearance).

August 2001: It takes three months before the Cheney/Condit meeting receives any discussion in the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, and then it's a plant of Cheney's version of the story in Newsweek, in which Cheney aides say: short meeting, about 20 minutes, routine politics, two aides present; they also say that NO ONE--not FBI, not DC police--had questioned Cheney or his aides about that meeting, not even to verify that it took place.

What also goes unnoted by the news monopolies is that the FBI (which was under investigation that summer by a House committee on which Condit was sitting) and the DC police had just changed the Chandra Levy disappearance timeframe from what it was initially, midmorning May 1 around 10 am, to early afternoon, with Dick Cheney now being Condit's only alibi during her disappearance time--and the length of the meeting, and witnesses, etc., becoming quite crucial information. The timeframe was changed on the basis of Levy's computer use. The FBI lab had had custody of her computer for three months, and only now, in late summer, revealed that she had used the computer for a MapQuest search of Rock Creek Park (and other places) in the early afternoon--information that most ten year olds could have obtained in a couple of minutes. They announced this change in the timeframe with a high profile, photo op, second search of Rock Creek Park by a parade of police cadets. (Her bones were found nine months later, in May 2002, not far off one of the paths they searched.)

Suspicion: that the coincidence of Levy's disappearance with the Condit/Cheney meeting was withheld to give Cheney time to work on his version of the meeting and put it out in the public venue, and that the FBI, and possibly the DC police, and certainly the news monopolies, were complicit in this Cheney news management. Further suspicions: that Cheney was blackmailing Condit with information about his mistresses, probably from the FBI; that the investigation of the FBI was, in reality, the beginning of the Bush junta purge of the FBI, leaving the toadies and yes-men (and that the Levy affair was possibly an early test of who needed to be purged). As to who killed Chandra Levy and why, I don't know--I just know that the news about this Cheney item was managed similarly to the news about Cheney shooting Whittington, although the news monopolies seemed a little feistier about Whittington (they were total lapdogs and toadies in summer 2001*).

-----

*(--as they were post 9/11, throughout the Iraq war, throughout the installation of a fraudulent, non-transparent electronic voting system all over the country, and throughout the 2002 and 2004 elections. It's interesting what the news monopolies were doing that summer, 2001, while John O'Neill was being purged by the FBI, while Colleen Rowley was frantically trying to get a FISA warrant for Zacharias Moussoui's computer, and while Bush & Co. were ignoring "hair of fire" presidential briefing papers and numerous intelligence warnings about an Al Qaeda strike in the U.S. They were filling the airwaves and the headlines with steamy tales about Condit's mistresses--and completely ignoring all the political and bureaucratic aspects of the story that might have been useful in getting to the bottom of it. They, too, never asked Cheney or his aides ANY questions about the Condit/Cheney meeting, and failed to investigate other odd goings on, such as the sudden early termination of Levy's internship at the Bureau of Prisons, two weeks before she disappeared. Who knows--if they had caught Cheney early on in some skulduggery about that disappearance, we might be living in a different world today.)

[Amaryllis]

60. Not only pollitical and financial support, but rigged voting to take them

out is a good threat too. Damn, this is depressing. Is there hope?

[EVDebs]

71. Where Plamegate and the NSA domestic spying converge...pre 9-11

NSA 'policy shift' Greg Palast wrote about

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2466336

It's the 'smoking gun' on LIHOP (or MIHOP if you prefer).

[Amaryllis]

59. Or is it fear? The same bunch that took down SHelley is probably

putting pressure on McP and you can bet Conny McCormack is at the helm and probably ARnold, too.

[Nothing Without Hope]

73. Yes, I think an added goad of FEAR is very likely.

They can threaten end of career, expensive litigation. If that doesn't work, there's always harassment of the family, income tax attacks, and on and on. They run the goverment with basically no oversight, so they can use whatever dirty or even criminal ploys they want to get to the goals that are their highest priorities.

I really do believe it's come to this.

[Amaryllis]

75. Exactly. I wonder if they would do a Shelley on Bowen?

[kster]

19. We have all weekend to wake up people in California

to this, I'm in Lets do it!

[CoffeeCat]

21. California would be more difficult to steal...

Don't Califonians vote heavily Democratic, when it comes to Presidential and Congressional candidates?

The current CA politicians are fairly popular, aren't they?

I would think that it would be incredibly difficult for them to steal a CA election. Usually, in the Presidential elections, the Dems are at least 10 pts ahead.

If they steal it, it will be more obvious.

[cascadiance]

26. Oh Yes, they will be able to steal Cunningham's old district in April!

Heck it will look like the Rethuglicans win there! The 50th district election is the PRIMARY place where Diebold can be USEFUL! Think about it. Only real Democrat running is Busby. She easily at least gets in the runoff (much like Donna Frye earlier did), if not wins it outright (with all of the people upset about corruption, etc. around here).

There are some 12-18 Republicans running. I'm betting that they want to make SURE that:

a) Busby gets a sealing of 49% of the votes or less by Diebolding. They obviously don't want her winning it in April to avoid the runoff.
b) Want to ensure that a good "not too extreme" Republican gets second place (kind of like Jerry Sanders in the mayoral election instead of Steve Francis). They want to make sure that they get someone that can wint a majority of votes against Busby. They don't want someone that's got too narrow a voting base (religious right or some extreme CEO-like guy like Steve Francis was). With the number of Republicans in the race, without Diebold, this would be hard to control. They can tweak the votes a bit to get this outcome without it looking "screwy"...

Easily this is one they can manipulate a Republican into office where Dems have their best chance at taking one from them if it isn't "controlled"...

[Wilms]

22. Arrgghhh!

It's news to me is that he had Berkley looking at "the identical issue that the federal testing authority was asked by this office to examine".

Who TF are they to say the inclusion of interpreted code is allowed?

Meanwhile, the ITA is hiding.

Can we sue?

California: Secretary of State Bruce McPherson Grants Certification to Diebold with Conditions

By California Secretary of State Press Release
February 17, 2006

After the completion of the federal and state certification requirements, as well as a complete and thorough review of the voting system components, Secretary McPherson requested that Diebold undergo an additional security analysis of the source code on the system’s memory card. Computer scientists at the University of California, Berkeley laboratory conducted the additional security review of the memory card components for both systems. The independent reviewers concluded that while some of the code on the memory cards should be rewritten for an improved long-term solution, the problems identified are “manageable” and “the risks can be mitigated through appropriate use procedures.”

In his certification of the systems, Secretary McPherson is mandating the additional use procedures from the independent reviewer’s analysis to further bolster security and oversight of the use of these products. Counties wishing to use either the upgraded OS system or the upgraded, paper audit trail-retrofitted touch screen (TSX) system for elections in 2006 must comply with these requirements.

Diebold will be required to make all recommended long-term programming modifications contained in the report and submit the modified product to the Federal Independent Testing Authority (ITA) for requalification and state certification.

On December 20, 2005, Secretary McPherson requested that the ITA conduct an additional review of the Diebold systems. To date, that review is not yet complete. However, the additional security review conducted at the University of California, Berkeley addressed the identical issue that the federal testing authority was asked by this office to examine.

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=941&Itemid=113

[EFerrari]

23. Please, in simple language even I can get --

When is the certification sheduled - date?

Will it be done without a recoutable ballot?

Sorry, I have so much going on I can't dig for myself. Can you help me with these two questions.

TY in advance, Wilms.

Beth

[Wilms]

33. That it went down is not surprising. The WAY it's going down is.

I was aware that the software was sent off to the ITA (Independent Testing Authority) that certified it previously, asking them for clarification about the seemingly fed-certification-busting presence of "interpreted code".

As I posted above, I had no idea that the software was sent off to UC Berkley, too. Perhaps someone can point out to me where that had been announced, but I missed it, or, McPherson didn't inform us.

McPherson's decision was based, at least in part, on the analysis/recommendations of Berkley, not of the ITA, from whom we've yet to hear. As a side note, the security measures being added may well be a product of Diebold.

UC Berkley isn't an ITA. (That may well be to Berkley's credit! ITA accreditation has been the source of misgivings.) Berkley does not have the certifying (/decertifying) authority that is the domain, collectively, of the (3)ITA's, NASED, and the EAC, or the state's BoE through even tougher standards.

Let's keep in mind. The ITA HAD certified this equipment. It was CA (Shelley) that pulled the plug on it for use in this state. But the ITA HAD, indeed, certified this equipment! That status, while challenged, was not changed. I suppose the ITA could choose to not do anything in response to the "interpreted code" issue.

Let's also keep in mind. It's not the prime directive of an SoS to "no-matter-what" prevent certification. Quite the opposite could be argued. There are no CA laws against DRE's.

Bowen's charge that McPherson "punted" by sending the software was premature. Now, however, it would be fair given his use of Berkley consultation without comment from the ITA. He ought to be busted for that, but like I say, the ITA has previously certified it. They can tell a state, "if you don't like the job we did, don't use that equipment", though I think they/NASED/EAC ought to be busted.

Finally, keep in mind that McPherson's certification is conditioned on software upgrades that Diebold will make. Once that's done, they HAVE TO SEND IT TO THE ITA FOR TESTING. That may provide the opportunity for a confrontation over the interpreted code.

I don't know which if any of the VVPAT printers have been certified. But CA has VVPAT. That was Bowen's baby. McPherson, I recall was Pro-VVPAT until Bowen's bill went to the Govs. desk, at which point he recommended against signing.

[nicknameless]

36. The TSx DREs will have to have printers attached, but their failure rate

last summer was around 30%. The optical scans, of course, use paper ballots.

[Wilms]

38. Do those printers have certification at both the state and federal level?

[Wilms]

40. See #39

[Wilms]

39. Here. We got commentary from Bowen.

snip

The Secretary’s decision is only good for the 2006 elections and comes with a number of conditions.

"In August, the Secretary said any machine approved in California would have to comply with all federal standards and regulations, yet the EAC bans machines that contain interpreted code and these Diebold machines rely on that type of code to operate, so he’s gone back on that commitment," continued Bowen. "In December, he said he’d wait for a report from the ITAs before acting on the Diebold re-certification request, yet now he’s re-certified the Diebold machines without hearing from the ITAs. He says he’s acting based on the recommendations of an ‘independent state audit’ that came out on Tuesday, but the California State Auditor hasn’t issued any reports on this issue and hasn’t been asked to do a report. Asking a board appointed by the Secretary to make recommendations doesn’t constitute an ‘independent state audit’ in my book.

"The other thing that no one has mentioned is the fact that the Diebold machines don’t comply with the state’s paper trail law because they don’t provide blind or visually impaired voters with a ‘read-back’ of what the paper trail recorded, they only read back what the machine recorded electronically," noted Bowen.

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=947&Itemid=113

[EFerrari]

24. Over my dead body!

I've asked Wilms to help me with specifics. And we will mount the loudest, most obnoxious protest possible until they need tongs to get their socks outta their throats.

This WILL NOT HAPPEN because we WON'T LET IT HAPPEN.

Fuck Diebold and the money they rode in on.

Bruce hasn't EVEN heard from us yet.

:nuke:

[Peggy Day]

25. Just sent an email to the gov

It's too bad people can't win elections fairly anymore-they have to resort to cheating. It makes me ashamed to be a californian right now.

[EFerrari]

28. Dear Peggy Day - don't let the Thuggery shame you.

Instead, check out who you have in your address book and be looking to join an action on Tuesday.

They can have California when they pry it out of our cold dead hands. I'm willing to be an uber brat in this fight. Are you?

:toast:

/typo

[Peggy Day]

30. What's an uber brat?

There are just too many things that pop up on a daily basis to try to put out all the fires. I've been trying to support and get support for Clean Elections, call my ca senators (preaching to the choir), called and thanked Feingold today.
Anyway, I don't want to whine or give up, but I am getting very discouraged. Nothing seems to be working-it seems that people just don't care.

[EFerrari]

31. I can't go there. All I know is, I have NOTHING without my vote.

Grieve -- but please, please be ready to stand with us next week.

:hug:

[Ladyhawk]

42. Again I ask: What are we going to do?

I don't think I can make a trip anywhere. I might be able to, but my health has sucked badly lately. I can write and call.

If this is the end, I might as well try to drive even if it kills me. :shrug:

[caligirl]

34. GlennGreenwald has an excellent letter today on this.

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/


Friday, February 17, 2006
The Long Hard Slog

There are lots of people who appear to be morbidly depressed -- to the point of conceding defeat -- as a result of yesterday’s unilateral obstruction by the incomparable White House shill Sen. Pat Roberts of the long-planned and long-promised investigation into the operational aspects of the NSA program by the Senate Intelligence Committee. That defeatist reaction and the borderline-self-pitying sentiments which accompany it are, for literally countless reasons, completely unwarranted.

First, nobody ever thought that a just resolution of this scandal was dependent upon an investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee, dominated, as it is, by the mewling, slavish and indescribably dishonest Pat Roberts. The notion that this scandal has come to an end all because Roberts blocked, for the moment, hearings that were to be held by that Committee is nonsensical. Thankfully, this scandal never depended upon the integrity of Pat Roberts, and hearings in front of that Committee were merely one of the many ways to compel a real investigation, but it was hardly the only or even primary way.

Moreover, the Committee did not vote against an investigation. Instead, Roberts merely invoked a procedural device as Chairman to prevent a vote, for now, from taking place. (Incidentally, what happened to the Republican mantra that procedural maneuvers ought not be used to block up-or-down votes? It seems that principle only applies to matters where they know they will prevail on the vote. Here, there were clearly Republican members of the Committee who did not want to go on record – and who may have been unwilling to go on record – voting to oppose an investigation. As a result, no vote was held).

And, one must remember that there are numerous other branches of this scandal which are alive, well, and growing. The investigation of the Senate Judiciary Committee continues, with disputes raging between the Republican Chairman and the Attorney General over the scope of further witnesses testimony and the DoJ’s obligation to disclose documents. The House Intelligence Committee voted yesterday to launch its own investigation and hold its own hearings, and Republicans on that Committee are already feuding with one another over the proper scope of that investigation. And, as I posted about yesterday, the judiciary is now involved in this scandal and is beginning to assert its institutional role in our democracy.


Theres a little more at the link above.

[roody]

41. McPherson sucks

Subject: BREAKING: McPherson certifies Diebold machines
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 01:25:25 GMT Status: Normal
From: "Debra Bowen" <[email protected]> Save Address
------------------------------------------------------------------------


I have just learned that Secretary of State Bruce McPherson has conditionally certified the use of Diebold electronic voting machines in California's 2006 elections.

Secretary of State McPherson's release of bad news late on a Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend is a blatant attempt to prevent us from learning about this decision. We were in a similar position the Friday before Christmas last year when the AP ran a story disclosing voting problems from last November's special election. 

But, try as he might, Secretary of State McPherson is not going to succeed in burying this story from the people of California -- this is too critical an issue to go away quietly.

With the many problems that have plagued Diebold machines, as well as the complete lack of transparency into this certification process, McPherson's decision certainly does nothing to restore confidence in California's elections.

I'll have much more to say about this Diebold certification in the next few days, and I'll be inviting you to do your part as well, but for now I just wanted to share this information with you.

Thanks for your continued support. 

Have a happy and safe Presidents' Day weekend!
 
Sincerely,
 

Debra Bowen
California State Senator 

Visit DebraBowen.com | Contribute Today!

Paid for by Debra Bowen for Secretary of State
578 Washington Blvd. #409, Marina del Rey, CA 90292
(c) 2006 Debra Bowen for Secretary of State, ID #1271345

[nicknameless]

44. McPherson does indeed suck. n/t

[upi402]

46. California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, the new satan

on the block

[Amaryllis]

61. We are all in the same boat. I'm in a paper ballot state but we still

have ES&S and sequoia counting our votes with no audits. Well, I shouldnt say the same boat because obviously with paper ballots we've got the first part of the battle won, and we don't have eleciton officials in bed with vendors like in many states, but the point is that all Americans have compromised elections to one degree or another so feeling ashamed to be in CA is pointless.

[rumpel]

49. Letters to the editors in all counties is a must! The only thing I can

think of right now.

Ms. Bowen says:

I'll have much more to say about this Diebold certification in the next few days, and I'll be inviting you to do your part as well, but for now I just wanted to share this information with you.

Let's see if she can come up with a plan.

[nicknameless]

51. Senator Bowen released this statement about the re-certification:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x413375

[nicknameless]

52. Here's more from Bowen. The report McPherson based his decision on:

This is the report the SOS refers to as an “independent state audit.”

http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/voting_systems/security_analysis_of_the_diebold_accubasic_interpreter.pdf

[freedomfries]

53. k & r

[jen4clark]

68. 5 Phone Calls Tuesday to Save California!!

jen's note: This was posted by my friend ms in la at CCN (Clark Community Network), and author of WHO'S COUNTING, who doesn't post here, so I'm posting for her.


I'm not playing around here and you'd better not be either. We have everything at risk-- in this state and in the nation if we don't all do a few SIMPLE steps immediately. Especially Californians, but every state is experiencing this problem now, and the window is rapidly closing ... IT WILL NOT REOPEN.

Bev Harris has provided us with the most efficient and easy strategies to take back our vote. She has spent years in the middle of this storm so we should defer to her expertise and JUST DO IT. I'll give you her simple suggestions below.

I'm sure you're aware that CA's corrupt SOS McPherson has conditionally certified Diebold's entire line here-- hackable touch screen, hackable optical scanners, extremely hackable GEMS tabulators, despite 100% public opposition-- and State Senator Debra Bowen (hopefully new SOS after Nov '06) is on the warpath along with BBV and others to try to prevent a total disaster electoral landslide from occurring in California. Everything is at stake. I am putting some very important phone numbers here and simple instructions for what we ALL need to do.


None of your contributions to your candidates -- your hard work at grassroots level-- none of it will mean a damn thing if we cannot have votes counted. NONE! Remember; It's your tax dollars that are paying for this equipment...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Background:

The Secretary of State's office has released the UC Berkeley report which was used to inform their decision on the Diebold product line. Some relevant quotes from it:

Harri Hursti's attack does work: Mr. Hursti's attack on the AV-OS (Optical scanner)is definitely real. He was indeed able to change the election results by doing nothing more than modifying the contents of a memory card. He needed no passwords, no cryptographic keys, and no access to any other part of the voting system, including the GEMS election management server.

...and:

Interpreted code is contrary to standards: Interpreted code in general is prohibited by the 2002 FEC Voluntary Voting System Standards, and also by the successor standard, the EAC's Voluntary Voting System Guidelines due to take effect in two years. In order for the Diebold software architecture to be in compliance, it would appear that either the AccuBasic language and interpreter have to be removed, or the standard will have to be changed.


California can only run software certified by the Federal ITA process, by state law. The "Berkeley team" is saying flat-out that such certification was NOT done correctly, therefore the entire Diebold product line is illegal under state law.

The Feb. 16 California Senate Elections Committee hearing on certification was hit with no-shows by ALL FOUR major vendors (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia and Hart Intercivic). Representatives from Wyle and Ciber testing labs declined to appear. The Secretary of State's office is now "legally late" on a series of public records requests made by California Elections Committee Chairperson Debra Bowen. Bowen has to get permission from the California Senate Rules Committee to have subpoenas issued. Only three of these Senators below are needed to invoke port subpoenas.



The Plan: CALL 5 SENATORS on CA Senate Rules Committee (see #s below)

You will be requesting Subpoenas on KEY WITNESSES -- on election industry and certification insiders who did not come forth on the 16th.

The Goal: Subpoena-induced sworn testimony from voting machine vendors and errant testing labs, voting machine examiners.

THIS IS EASY. YOU CAN DO IT. YOU MUST DO IT.

FIRST

Here is your contact list for the Rules Committee, you need not be Californian to call: Urge support for subpoenas of election industry and certification insiders who didn't testify on the 16th.

IT'S ONLY 5 CALLS.

Senator Don Perata (Chair) D
[phone]
Senator Jim Battin (Vice-Chair) R - but approachable
[phone]

Senator Roy Ashburn R - approachable also
[phone]

Senator Debra Bowen D
[phone] - (Yes, call her too so she can log the support calls, it's important since it allows her to back her position from the grassroots.)

Senator Gilbert Cedillo D
[phone]


SECOND- What to say:


Be quick, be polite, be professional. Here's your message: ask for "Rules Committee support for subpoenas of election industry and certification insiders who won't otherwise inform the Elections Committee as to what's going on".

The key people: Diebold head programmers, federal testing labs (Ciber, Wyle) that repeatedly certified this stuff, voting system examiners who took taxpayer money, spent hours on "security exams" on systems your 12-year old sister can hack, then repeatedly recommended for certification.


This is about volume of calls logged. Not only should YOU make calls, but this needs to go out to your list.


Polite, professional, short clear message, FIRM is what works. Read background info above.


Once subpoenas go out, that will have nationwide impact. Never before have the key witnesses had to answer questions under oath in public. That will unravel the garment, and we are so close. Demonstrate that the citizenry of America wants those guys compelled to testify, with subpoena power, under oath. Per Bev Harris..."Perjury will follow". It's our best shot.

THIRD - if you want to do more:

Below, from Bev Harris:

Next comes gathering evidence in the form of public records. I'll work with any who volunteer to send customized public records request letters, will help you learn the ropes, will suggest some really juicy stuff to ask for. This year, it is all about mentoring individuals to regain their power as citizens. Just one person can make a difference.

But you need evidence, and records requests are the best way to get it. For the power of a single records request by a single individual, look at what Joan Quinn achieved in the article called "Voting machine examiners chickening out" on our home page, I think it's the third article down on www.blackboxvoting.org.

~~~~~~~

Bev and BBV are mentoring individuals now in private "cells", on how to take back democracy at a grassroots level. Go to her site above to learn more. She told me she just trained an 84 year old woman who will be a huge asset to the cause. YOU can DO this!

***************************************

UPDATE: Senator Bowen just posted this at CCN:

Senate Elections Subpoenas -- How to Support My Request

Posted by Senator Debra Bowen on February 18, 2006 - 11:06pm.

Hi CCN community--

Please email me in support of issuing subpoenas rather than calling -- you will save my staff a great deal of time logging calls, and you know what kind work we have to do right now.


use this address:

[email protected]

This will be greatly appreciated.

This is a critical time in this fight - thank you so much for blogging this and for CARING about our democracy.

[jen4clark]

69. Another Update from Senator Bowen

Posted at CCN: (same link as above)

How to stay up to date on Diebold and other e-voting issues
#76898
Posted by Senator Debra Bowen on February 18, 2006 - 11:26pm.


Anyone who wants to stay up to date on Diebold and other voting issues can sign up at www.debrabowen.com. We sent out the Diebold info on Friday within a few hours of the certification.

Anyone cross-posting, please include the contact info -- www.debrabowen. com and

[email protected]
-- if you can. Email is great because it is easy for us to log and report -- and we can actually prove how many emails we've received!


We are going to need an enormous amount of people power in the next couple of weeks. Together we can change this whole pathetic mess. Let's stand up for our democracy RIGHT NOW.

[Amaryllis]

76. Jen, I went to the site but couldn't see where to sign up for updates.

[jen4clark]

79. To sign up for updates

the only thing I could find is to sign up for the campaign HERE.

The other thing you can do is email her and title your email "Sign me up for Updates" or some such. Her email addy = [email protected]

[cascadiance]

78. Sign Debra Bowen's petition to McPherson to release all documents...

Go here to sign her petition as well...

http://ga3.org/campaign/mcpherson?rk=X1NuA_S1XzvkW

[Blue Shark]

77. Nothing sez the Dems...

...can't play by the new rules too.