CNN: E-Voting Machine Maker Admits Miscounts!

[L. Coyote]

Run time: 03:14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL3VyifXCEc   Posted on YouTube: August 22, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: August 22, 2008 By DU Member: L. Coyote Views on DU: 978

 

[helderheid]

1. 3rd rec

[L. Coyote]

2. The headline should be "ATM maker admits flawed product ..."

Imagine. We are talking about a company that makes bank machines.
If they mess up a voting machine, it certainly raises some questions about WHY!

[defendandprotect]

3. Fairly good report by CNN . . . . except Dobbs attempt to water down

the report by suggesting that we can't verify "voters" -- thrown in there to confuse and

water down the issue ---

[L. Coyote]

11. INDEED!!!! "problem has been part of the software for 10 years"

That should be the focus! Plus, now We the People must examine ALL the code!!

What impact has this had?

====================
Ohio Voting Machines Contained Programming Error That Dropped Votes
Mary Pat Flaherty - Aug 21, 2008 - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/08/21/ohio_voting_machines_contained.html


A voting system used in 34 states contains a critical programming error that can cause votes to be dropped while being electronically transferred from memory cards to a central tallying point, the manufacturer acknowledges.

The problem was identified after complaints from Ohio elections officials following the March primary there, but the logic error that is the root of the problem has been part of the software for 10 years, said Chris Riggall, a spokesman for Premier Election Solutions, formerly known as Diebold.

The flawed software is on both touch screen and optical scan voting machines made by Premier and the problem with vote counts is most likely to affect larger jurisdictions that feed many memory cards to a central counting database rapidly.

...............

[CitizenPatriot]

4. premier election = diebold

and actually, they do know how widespread the problem is and it isn't "dropped votes" -- at least not according to the GOP IT experts. It's dropped democratic votes, vote switching devices like the ones found in Georgia on the diebold machines, etc. And voter fraud which he alluded to does not exist in any real way in terms of individuals voting who do not have the right to vote (DOJ has spent last 8 years investigating dems desperating trying to find voter fraud -- some of the attorneys were fired because they couldn't find evidence of it and refused to manufacture said evidence). election, not voter, fraud happens, according to GOP worldwide computer security expert Steven Spoonamore, in a way which benefits Republicans.

OK. Here's more:

Snip (this is long and I apologize but it's from a PDF sent to me today):



The Fraud Behind Diebold's Touchscreen Certifications

With the release today of a declaration by Professor Richard Lee PhD (attached), a trail of
investigation lasting three years comes to an end.

EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

The net result of this investigation is that Diebold's Federal certifications for their touchscreen
"voting system" product line is revealed as having been obtained by Diebold's fraud. Therefore,
their certification documents at the state level, commonly known as "NASED numbers", are
worthless. It is a basic principle of US and prior English law that any document, contract, deed,
diploma, certification or other credential obtained by way of fraud is legally valueless.

The chain of evidence is as follows:
* In 2003 a Diebold internal memo was released in which the top technical officer for the
elections division (Talbot Iredale) ordered underlings NOT to release customized Windows CE
operating system code (found on all Diebold touchscreens) to Wyle Labs.

* On 3/27/06 Wyle testified before a California legislative hearing that they treated Windows CE
as "COTS" (Commercial Off The Shelf) and hence did NOT do source code review as required
of any customized code by the Federal Election Commission rules.

* On 8/3/06 Professor Richard Lee PhD released a declaration describing how Windows CE
works – specifically to what degree it is customized for the hardware environment. Per Prof. Lee
and all other published sources on Windows CE, this "Compact Edition" is sold by Microsoft as
an unfinished "kit" that must be completed by a hardware vendor such as Diebold. Windows CE
therefore cannot be treated as "COTS".

Once assembled, these three pieces of information lead to only one conclusion: Diebold
defrauded the Federal certification process.

__________

There are four pages of evidence attached to this pdf. I'm happy to send it to anyone who wants it or can get coverage regarding this issue.

[ihavenobias]

5. K & R, very interesting n/t

[L. Coyote]

6. States seek workarounds for e-voting systems

States seek workarounds for e-voting systems
Published: 2008-08-20 - http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/803


The U.S. presidential election of 2008 has already decided one issue: Electronic voting systems still have a long way to go before they are trusted.

Under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002, states were given federal funds to buy electronic voting machines that satisfied certain certification guidelines. Six years later, many states are left with machines that have no independent audit trail, making any recount essentially a sham. As the presidential election for 2008 nears, states are dumping touchscreen voting machines that have no audit trail and looking for ways to shore up the physical security of the systems.

The result is a clear trend, says an article in McClatchy Newspapers citing Election Data Systems: While nearly half of voters used touchscreen voting systems in 2006, only a third will do so this election. ......

[L. Coyote]

7. Did Washington waste $1.2 billion on new voting machines?

Did Washington waste millions on faulty voting machines?
Greg Gordon | August 15, 2008 | http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/48508.html


WASHINGTON — Hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding that have gone to upgrade the nation's voting machines since 2003 were used to purchase touch-screen systems that many states are now scrapping because of concerns about their security and reliability.

State governments in Alaska, California, Florida, Iowa, Maryland, Tennessee and New Mexico have decided to replace their touch-screen electronic machines. While some states have completed the switch, others won't finish replacing the machines until 2010. Nationwide, the federal government spent $1.2 billion on new voting machines between 2003 and 2007.

.................

[L. Coyote]

8. computerworld.com: E-Voting Critic Avi Ruben Interviewed

The Grill: Avi Rubin
The e-voting critic talks about the inherent weakness of software, the critical need for audit trails and the 'perfect storm' of the 2000 election.
By Todd R. Weiss - http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=security&articleId=323186&taxonomyId=17&intsrc=kc_feat


August 18, 2008 (Computerworld) For more than a decade, Avi Rubin has been a vocal critic of e-voting systems across the nation. In 2006, he wrote Brave New Ballot: The Battle to Safeguard Democracy in the Age of Electronic Voting, which heavily criticized e-voting machines for security and reliability shortcomings.

How do you think e-voting went this primary election season?

You can run an election and say that it appears to have gone fine, but we don't really know. ............

[L. Coyote]

9. Mom, Can My Voting Machine Spend the Night?

Mom, Can My Voting Machine Spend the Night?
Anahad O'Connor - August 19, 2008 - http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/19/mom-can-my-voting-machine-spend-the-night/?hp


Ohio is an election battleground state with perennial problems at the polls. So what have election officials in some precincts of the state been doing to keep their voting machines safe from tampering?

Taking the machines home with them and stashing them in their garages in the days before a big election.

If it sounds like something pulled straight out of an episode of Saturday Night Live, or Borat for that matter, it’s not. The practice has become so widespread that it even has a nickname, “sleepovers.”

Ohio, you may remember, has plenty of reason to be particularly vigilant about the security of its voting machines. The state has been a frequent battleground not only for presidential candidates, but also for lawyers and party representatives who have tangled over accusations of election fraud and concerns about paperless voting machines that incorporate new technology. After the 2004 presidential election, in which Ohio narrowly went to President Bush, some inspectors said they found signs of tampering in a number of precincts throughout the state.

.....................

[bbgrunt]

10. I guess it takes an election where

repukes have a severe disadvantage to bring this story to the forefront.

[LiberalLovinLug]

12. Why not paper ballots?

Why was that proposition shot down by the legislature? I wish they had questioned those that voted against that bill. It is the most obvious and simple solution at least until voting machines can be absolutely trusted, which IMO is never, but who knows.

Every other western democracy worth its salt uses paper balloting. Not because they can't afford to upgrade to machines, its because paper ballots are the most secure system ever devised. Physically marking a big X next to a candidate and dropping it into a secure box, and then workers who are overseen by reps from each party, count them by hand. I have heard the argument that it takes too long. No it doesn't if you hire enough temporary workers for the day. In Canada it only takes until the same evening to tally up the vast majority of votes, the same is probably true for European countries.

I am of the opinion that Diebold/Premier and other E voting machine companies were purposely developed and given a clear mission to sabotage the democratic will of the people for the ultra right wing elite's benefit. And that must cross party lines as the silence is deafening in the Democratic party on this issue.

[L. Coyote]

13. BradBlog: Lou Dobbs Covers VotersUnite's Report on Private Vendors

VIDEO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TFAsa-DdH8

Lou Dobbs Covers VotersUnite's Report on Private Vendors Undermining Our Public Elections
Brad Friedman - http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6301#more-6301


Congrats to our friend Ellen Theisen of VotersUnite.org for both her tremendous report on private vendors undermining our public elections (about which she guest blogged here yesterday http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6287) and her long-overdue appearance on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight on Wednesday to discuss it ......

VIDEO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TFAsa-DdH8

Great to see Ellen finally recognized for all the tremendous work that she and BRAD BLOG stalwart John Gideon have been doing for so long at the non-partisan election watchdog Voters Unite!

That said, two minor-ish complaints about the Dobbs segment above...

Both complaints are luxuries, given the dearth of serious coverage of these issues (not) found everywhere else in the mainstream broadcast media .......