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The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes...

LA County's System, for example, Was Apparently Approved for Use at the Fed Level by a Former Waitress/Bartender!
By John Gideon on 6/26/2006 7:38am PT  

By John Gideon, Executive Director VotersUnite.Org

There is, for good reason, much concern and a lack of confidence in the process for federal qualification/certification of voting systems. Independent Test Authorities (ITA), who test the systems against federal standards, are not really 'independent' because they are paid to do testing by the vendors who also provide the test parameters. They look where they are told to look and go no further than that.

The next step in the process is review of the ITA test and the voting system by a panel of 'experts' called the Voting Systems Board Technical Committee. This committee is under the auspices of the National Association of State Elections Directors (NASED). One might think that this part of the process would be free and clear of any reason for concern. One would be wrong...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---




Those Requesting Paper Ballots Had Privacy Violated and Votes Entered Into E-Voting Machines Anyway!
By John Gideon on 6/25/2006 2:33pm PT  

Guest Blogged by John Gideon while Brad takes care of other important business related to the Busby/Bilbray fiasco

Many Riverside County California voters went to the polls on primary election day, June 6, with the plan that they would use their right to request paper ballots instead of voting on the Sequoia Edge Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, touch-screen) voting machines.

Those voters will probably be surprised to learn that the county Registrar of Voters thumbed her nose at them. The paper/absentee ballots they were given --- Xerox copies of the ballot on 8 1/2×11 paper --- were then punched into the DRE's by election workers later. On the same touch-screen systems the voters had wanted to avoid by requesting a paper ballot in the first place. This was all done without their knowledge, without their permission, and without their ability to verify that their ballots were recorded as they had voted them.

Moreover, the voters were forced to attach their names and addresses to the ballots! So much for private voting in Riverside!...

UPDATE: Riverside County Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore responded to the story by Art Cassel with a 'Letter To The Editor'. See the text of the letter at the end of this article.

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---




By John Gideon on 6/24/2006 5:06pm PT  

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of
VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

The Pottawattamie Co. Iowa vote counting problem from earlier this month has now spread to Polk Co., where a five-term incumbent lost by a wide margin to a newcomer. The incumbent is now demanding a hand recount to prove one way or another whether the Polk machines had the same problem as the Pottawattamie machines. Unfortunately, the Polk Co. Auditor is campaigning to be Secretary of State so some don't want the hand count because it may make the Auditor look bad. Since when is it OK to not ensure every vote is counted correctly? If there is any dispute, a hand count must be done....

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---




Waytago Bruce!
By Brad Friedman on 6/24/2006 4:42pm PT  

Congratulations to California Sec. of State Bruce McPherson!

Not only did you succeed in running the first federal election --- with illegal/decertified voting machines --- since massive vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Diebold systems you okayed for use (against state laws), but you've also now received an 18% pay raise in the bargain!

According to yesterday's Sacramento Bee, your pay will increase by $23,265 to a full $154,875 just after you run your next illegal election in November!

Nice work if you can get it! Not that he's not worth it, of course. Here's a video to give you an idea what $154,875 buys for California these days. (The following video and details explaining it were originally posted at BRAD BLOG here back in February, when McPherson was acting as if he didn't know for sure if he'd re-certify Diebold in the state. Nice acting, Bruce! It was dang-near believable!)


-- Video in Streaming Flash format...
-- Video in Windows Media format...

(Hat tip Bruce Sims, who pays closer attention to California's elections --- by far --- than Bruce McPherson has ever done. And Sims does it on his own damn dime. For free! And also, unlike McPherson, doesn't have Diebold employees actually doing his work for him!)




Spread the word! Come on by! Save democracy!
By Brad Friedman on 6/24/2006 12:51pm PT  

Downloadable/printable versions of the flier, and more details, are available here...

Busby/Bilbray Election: Emergency Townhall Meeting Flier




By John Gideon on 6/23/2006 5:03pm PT  

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of
VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

CommonCause's report on voting machines seems to have stirred-up the hornet's nest, as it were. States are scrambling to defend their machines and their elections. If they would only spend as much time listening and learning, everyone would be much better off. / South Carolina may have some problems being ready for their run-off elections as ES&S has not delivered ballot programming to some counties yet. / Qualifications of the people who certify our voting systems have now been questioned and rightfully so it appears. Why is it that some will listen to people with experience in bars and restaurants but not listen to computer scientists and elections experts? ...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---




By Brad Friedman on 6/22/2006 7:48pm PT  

UPDATE: Printable/emailable flier for the "Emergency Townhall" events now available here...

This will be quick-ish. By necessity.

Several additional organizations and individuals have announced "NO CONFIDENCE" declarations in the announced Busby/Bilbray election results due to state and federal laws and provisions violated when the San Diego County registrar allowed the highly-hackable Diebold voting machines to be sent home with poll workers in the days prior to the June 6th. U.S. House special election.

"Emergency Townhall" events...to rally around the issue, raise awareness, and discuss actions to deal with the problem moving forward and call for accountability are now scheduled for Tuesday the 27th in Los Angeles and Wednesday the 28th in San Diego...

LOS ANGELES: Tue, June 27, 2006 @ 7:30pm
Venice United Methodist Church
1020 Victoria (Lincoln & Victoria, 1 block N. of Venice Blvd.)

SAN DIEGO: Wed, June 28, 2006 @ 7:00pm (rally@ 6pm)
Oceanside Civic Center
330 N. Coast Hwy. Oceanside, CA

Speakers at both events to include myself, Rob Cohen (co-director of the upcoming VoterGate documentary), Mimi Kennedy and Marcy Winograd (CA Election Protection Network and PDA), Jeeni Criscenzo (U.S. House nominee in San Diego's 49th district) and...possibly others to be announced soon.

Both events are OPEN TO ALL and I hope you'll turn out if you're anywhere near! More details, a swell poster, fliers and other info soon (hopefully by this evening). Please spread the word!

New Folks Declaring "NO CONFIDENCE" in the Busby/Bilbray Election Results as Announced...

- - The Commonweal Institute. A "multi-issue research and educational institute/think tank" who, amongst other things, has been "working to raise awareness of the public and our political representatives of the problems posed by electronic touch-screen voting systems and how these might be corrected."

- - Progressive Democrats of Sonoma County. They also join both the national PDA and California Election Protectoin network in endorsing the declaration of "No Confidence" in the reported Busby/Bilbray Election results.

- - Clint Curtis. Vote-rigging whistleblower, election integrity advocate and now candidate in Florida's 24th congressional district. Curtis, whose extraordinary story was first broken here is running against Rep. Tom Feeney, the man who he claims had asked him to create vote-rigging software when they both worked for the same computer firm. Curtis has released an eloquent declaration of "No Confidence". Few know better than Curtis how easy it is to game these systems via electronic voting systems. As with the other candidates who've come out to declare "No Confidence" (see the list below), we recommend that you support him...as opposed to candidates and organizations who do not do so.

(ADDITIONAL NEWS FLASH: The Miami-Dade chapter of Democracy for America has just endorsed Clint!)

- - Among those already having declared "No Confidence":

  • VelvetRevolution.us (Sign their petition here!)
  • California Election Protection Network (CEPN)
  • Progressive Democrats of America (PDA)
  • Election Defense Alliance (EDA)
  • Tribune Media columnist Robert Koehler
  • U.S. House Nominee Jeeni Criscenzo (CA-49)
  • MD U.S. Senate Candidate Kevin Zeese
  • MA Sec. of State Candidate & Constitutional Attorney John Bonifaz
  • - - It's also well worth noting again that San Diego's Republican radio host (and former mayor), Roger Hedgecock has also come firmly on board --- as I discovered while a guest on his program yesterday --- in calling for accountability in Busby/Bilbray as well. And he is an ardent Bibray supporter! Hedgecock will be guest hosting the Rush Limbaugh show tomorrow.




    By John Gideon on 6/22/2006 5:21pm PT  

    Guest Blogged by John Gideon of
    VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

    Imagine this! A recount from the memory of 8 Sequoia DREs in Monmouth Co. New Jersey gave the same results as the original count. Of course, no one can say that either count is accurate just that they agree. / States designated as high risk in a newly released CommonCause report, because they use DREs with no paper backup, are: Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. / A statewide primary on Diebold TSx machines will be held in Utah next Tuesday. ...

    --- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---




    (Much to the Dismay of Diebold Spokesmen and the San Diego County Registrar...Who Believe Election Workers Would Never Commit a Felony to Game an Election!)
    By Brad Friedman on 6/22/2006 8:30am PT  

    (Hat tip to "journalist" "Jeff Gannon" who thought we'd not be interested in covering this story! Wrong again, old boy! Thanks for the tip!)

    Apparently, it's neither a case of "sour grapes" nor "sore losers" when Republicans challenge elections that they reportedly lost. That's only the case when Democrats charge irregularities or illegalities in an election. And, of course, when it's a Republican whose ox has been gored, the GOP uses every available means to fight the results of the election, and the courts and the legislatures usually play along. And nobody bothers to call them "tin-foil hat conspiracy theorists." Go figure.

    Yesterday, in Tennessee, three poll workers were indicted for adding ballots to an election for the state Senate in which a Democrat won by 13 votes.

    Of course, the GOP has fought that election tooth and nail, as the GOP, unlike Democrats, always do. And they've even managed to convince the state Senate to overturn the election due to their "allegations" of "irregularities."

    As you'll see in the report from AP, the idea of poll workers gaming an election has once again occured. That, despite many absurd claims of late from Diebold spokesperson David Bear to NEWSWEEK, NYTimes and others to this effect...

    "For there to be a problem here, you're basically assuming a premise where you have some evil and nefarious election officials who would sneak in and introduce a piece of software," [Diebold spokesman, David Bear] said. "I don't believe these evil elections people exist."

    Believe it, bitch.

    Or this equally absurd comment from San Diego County Registrar Mikel Haas who discounted concerns of sending easily-hacked Diebold voting machines home for overnights with poll workers just before the Busby/Bilbray election. Even though the machines are incredibly vulnerable to tampering, and storage in poll workers' cars cannot be considered secure --- by Haas' own admission --- there is little to worry about when it comes to fears of poll workers doing anything untoward. As he made clear to me, "you'd have to want to commit a felony, which knocks out most of our poll workers."

    Despite plenty of recent examples of "evil and nefarious elections officials" who were more than willing to "commit a felony," it looks like the story out of Tennessee yesterday makes the case against Haas and Bear's feigned Pollyanna-isms. Again.

    As reported by AP (emphasis added)...

    --- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---




    His June 13th and 20th Reports...Both on Paperless Diebold Touch-Screen Voting Machines...
    By Brad Friedman on 6/22/2006 7:25am PT  

    With special thanks to David Edwards for the Video Magic...

    Lou Dobbs has now done at least eight reports over the last two weeks on the grave danger to American democracy as posed by Electronic Voting. We've had a tough time keeping up with them all.

    We've yet to hear anybody so far refer to Dobbs as a "Lefty" or a "Moonbat" or a "Conspiracy Theorist" or a "Sore Loser" or suggest that he wears a "tinfoil hat". Just a coincidence, we guess.

    Here's two of his reports that we've only gotten to post finally today. One is on un-recountable paperless elections and the other focuses on Democrat Cathy Cox (Georgia's SoS and Diebold champion) and her extreme conflict of interest in running her own unverifiable election now that she's the Gubernatorial nominee. Will Dobbs be running a similar report on Ohio's J. Kenneth Blackwell's similar conflict of interest? We'll hope so.

    Please note: It seems Diebold is no longer returning Lou's calls for comments. Go figure.

    06/13: Lou Dobbs - "Electronic Voting Machines Nullify Recounts"

    - - Video in Streaming Flash format...
    - - Video in Windows Media format...

    06/20: Lou Dobbs - "Quite a little industry. E-Voting."

    - - Video in Streaming Flash format...
    - - Video in Windows Media format...

    Text transcripts from both reports follow...
    (See previously posted Dobbs reports here.)

    --- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---




    Rightwing Roger Hedgecock (occasional fill-in for Rush Limbaugh!) in 'Complete Agreement' About Concerns over Diebold Voting Machines Used in the Special Election!
    By Brad Friedman on 6/21/2006 5:02pm PT  

    Wow...Given what I know about San Diego's KOGO radio host, Roger Hedgecock --- a frequent fill-in for Rush Limbaugh, by the way --- I would have predicted a firefight between us concerning my arguments questioning the validity of the Busby/Bilbray U.S. House special election in California's 50th congressional district on June 6th.

    You know, the one were the highly-hackable Diebold voting machines were sent home with poll workers for days prior to the election in defiance of both state and federal rules and laws, rendering them illegal and uncertified for use in the election.

    Well, slap my bottom and call me Spanky!...Guess what? I just got off the air with him, and Hedgecock and I were in complete agreement! He may even turn up at next week's "Emergency Townhall" meeting on this which is currently being organized (details soon).

    The full afternoon drive-time appearance, about 15 minutes, is linked below if you'd like to listen. But to give you a flavor, here's how it ended...

    Visit Brad Friedman at BradBlog.com...and, again, a very liberal leftwing guy, but I think he's on to something in this case. In fact I know he is. And that is, that we now have allowed a system of counting our votes to be presented to us as a system that does it accurately, when it has manifestly been proven that it can be monkeyed with...and the results tampered!

    It seems to me if we have any bedrock notion in this country it ought to be that the votes ought to be fully and fairly counted.

    I just think that's...wow...if we can't agree on that one, this country's farther down the division road then I think we are.

    Were it not for other fairly unforgivable transgressions in the past in other areas politically, I might have otherwise given Roger the too-rarely bestowed BRAD BLOG "Intellectually Honest Conservative Award." If he decides, however, to show up and bring along a few thousand folks with him for next week's "Emergency Townhall" event in San Diego (details soon) --- as I've invited him to do --- I might even consider a "provisional" awarding of the highly coveted prize!

    Listen up...
    -- Brad on the Roger Hedgecock Show on Busby/Bilbray & Electronic Voting [MP3]

    (AFTERTHOUGHT: For those interested in on-air firefights between myself and "conservatives," see my shoot-out with St. Louis' wingnut-in-training, Crane Durham here, or the time I helped run Ann Coulter off the air halfway through our debate on Ron Insana's show here.)




    By John Gideon on 6/21/2006 5:01pm PT  

    Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

    The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the claim of Florida Congressman Robert Wexler in ruling Tuesday that paperless machines don't violate Floridians' constitutional rights. Congressman Wexler is now considering an appeal to the Supreme Court. “Primary elections will give people a chance to ‘test drive’ the new voting machines," says Thad Hall, a voting expert and assistant professor of political science at the University of Utah. Since when are primaries, or any other election for that matter, a time to 'test drive' voting machines? Voters are not 'test dummies' and no election is a test medium. I would think a 'voting expert' would understand that....

    --- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---




    By Brad Friedman on 6/21/2006 2:10pm PT  


    --- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---




    By Brad Friedman on 6/21/2006 1:43pm PT  

    Sorry. Up to my neck in phone calls, media inquiries and all manner of related items in re: the Busby/Bilbray race for the moment. Looking forward to covering it here ASAP. But I can't do it all at the same time, unfortunately. :-(

    I'll be on Roger Hedgecock's show in San Diego at 4pm PT (7pm ET). Hedgecock sits in for Rush Limbaugh with some frequency, so it could be an interesting appearance. See the "Media Appearances" info above for details on listening in online.

    More groups and individuals have come on to declare "No Confidence" as well. Details on that and, fates allowing, much more by tonight, I hope. Other than that, for the moment, it's an official Open Thread....




    Law Guarantees VVPAT, Hand Audits, and Durable Paper Ballots
    New Law Now Only Requires Governor's Signature
    By John Gideon on 6/21/2006 9:16am PT  

    Guest blogged by John Gideon

    Late last night the Arizona Legislature took the steps necessary to pass legislation that will guarantee the voters in the state have more transparency and auditability in their elections. The bill passed the House of Representatives 51-0 then immediately went to the Senate who passed it 25-3.

    I received an email that originated from Arizona state Representative Ted Downing last night that says:

    Dear Fellow Patriots,

    SB1557 passed the House of Representatives with a 51-0 vote! Then, it immediately passed the Senate 25 to 3! It is now on its way to our Good Governor’s desk. As planned, it includes the Paton Amendment that I helped draft (see Star description below). Karen Osborn, the Maricopa County Elections Director calls this one of the most significant election reform bills in decades.
    This election reform bill is the result of three years of working with the Pima County Democratic Party and the great work of Dr. Tom Ryan, Bill Risner, Esq., our current and former Pima County Democratic Party Chairs, and many, many more dedicated individuals. I want to specially thank each and every one of you for your dedication, your hard work, and your support in working for election integrity.

    Now focus on the Governor to make certain that she signs it right away. I am confident she will. It will become law upon her signature, since it contains an emergency provision. We still must await Department of Justice approval which should be expedited because of the emergency provision. At that point, hand counts will no longer be illegal and we will have a first-level audit of the election system. This is, however, just the beginning.

    Politics is a team effort. As hard as it may be for many to accept, the East-Mesa Republican Senator Karen Johnson merits thank you emails, (kjohnson@azleg.gov), as does Karen Osborne, kosborne@risc.maricopa.gov (602) 506-7960, and yes, Brad Nelson, brad.nelson@pima.gov (520) 631-3939. Even Rep. Russell Pearce (rpearce@azleg.gov) should be thanked, yes, that’s right and I know its hard, but he fought to assure that our elections are fair. We will continue to disagree on almost every other issue, but he wants a fair count.

    I hope each PC will take the time next year to come up to visit the Legislature and witness your legislature at work. Those of you who have tell me that it is not what they imagined.

    You are true patriots for protecting our system of government just as those brave men and women did at the founding of this great nation. Thank you and bless you.

    Ted Downing
    State Representative LD28
    tdowning@azleg.state.az.us
    Capitol 602 926 5108 toll free 800 352-8494 ext 6-5108 Capitol fax 602
    417 3128 Legislative profile:
    http://www.azleg.state.a...ersPage.asp?Member_ID=16
    professional profile: www.ted-downing.com

    The Arizona Daily Star article mentioned in Representative Downing's email can be found here.




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