Election Science Institute (ESI), a San Francisco based non-profit, was contracted for $341,000 to do a complete study of the May 2 primary in Cuyahoga (Cleveland) County. The study was just released to the public and it is another scathing report against Diebold and their voting machines.

Ohio requires a voter verified paper audit trail printer on every Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machine. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that ESI found:

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Tonight Lou and Kitty Pilgrim report on the litigation that is taking place around the country in order to stop the use of paperless voting machines.

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

The text-transcript of tonight's segment on Lou Dobbs Tonight follows in full...

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

An inquiry by the state of Indiana into actions by ES&S is still ongoing. Money that would be paid by counties to ES&S is being withheld by the state to ensure the funds are not paid to the company until the investigation is complete. / Today is primary day in Nevada. / Registered to vote? Are you sure? Use www.canivote.org to ensure you are registered and for other important information. / 25 voters filed a lawsuit today in Pennsylvania against paperless voting systems used in the state / The Pentagon has been given funds to help overseas military to vote in a program called Interim Voting Assistance System (IVAS). ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Tonight Lou discussed the fact that Diebold voting machines and parts can be purchased on-line and at least one of those purchases has revealed a vulnerability in the Diebold TS-R6. The only response Diebold had was that there are only a few thousand of those machines being used as they are being replaced. Diebold obfuscates the truth; there are over 40,000 in use in Georgia and Maryland alone.

Hat-tip to our friends at the Open Voting Foundation who not only purchased the machine at E-bay, but went on to use it to discover one of the "worst ever flaws found in a voting machine" (at least until the next one is found, anyway.)

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

The text-transcript of tonight's segment on Lou Dobbs Tonight follows in full...

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

Why is it that some states talk about their voting systems and mention that they use AccuVote? In Connecticut papers they talk about the "AccuVote-OS system, sold by LHS Associates of Massachusetts". Are they afraid to say 'Diebold'? / The Massachusetts primary is on Sept. 19 yet the state still has no voting system that is accessible. They have not even settled on a choice but they still hope to have the machines in time. Counties are concerned about training but the state says they are all easy to use. Why doesn't anyone look outside of their own fences to see the failures of not training? / Poll workers in Jefferson Co. Missouri voiced their frustration of vowed to never do the job again due to the new voting machines and lack of training. ...

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

As has been previously reported in this space the voters in Tennessee were faced with new voting machines and an extremely long ballot (up to 21 screens in one county). To go with the machines and ballots is a state law that only allows each voter 5 minutes to vote when there are others in line to vote and 10 minutes otherwise. Now losing candidates are using the time-limits as a reason to contest the election. When counties choose to use only DRE voting their polling places are limited as to the number of voters who can vote at one time. When using paper ballots the only limit is the number of pens or pencils and the amount of space people can use to mark their ballots....

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

A grand-jury is investigating complaints of voter fraud in Alton, Texas where, amongst other complaints, there were some from elderly residents alleging the mayor’s wife took their mail-in ballots before they had selected a candidate. The mayor was losing in early voting and on the voting machines but won on all but a handful of mail-in ballots. ...

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

In St Louis Co. Missouri some voters found the ES&S iVotronic touch-screens too sensitive. For machines not calibrated properly, all it took to enter a vote was an accidental graze of the palm over a candidate's name. In other places in the county, voters complained it was too easy for others to spy on how they were voting. / What is the message when county election officials encourage voters to vote absentee so they don't have to use the machines? / Arizona is proposing giving one lucky voter in November a $1M prize in a voter lottery scheme / Bruce McDannold appears to have violated confidentiality agreements in his quest to smear Vote-PAD and damage it's ability to be used in California elections / Indiana is now finding a large number of mistakes in their voting roll purges. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

A very revealing article was published this week in the Arcata Eye, a weekly newspaper, in Arcata, Humboldt County, California.

The article, headlined "County’s new voting machines may be flawed", was published on August 8, one day prior to the hearing in Sacramento about the Vote-PAD that was reported yesterday by The BRAD BLOG.

Reports from the hearing indicate that even hearing officials were questioning Bruce McDannold, the Secretary of State's Interim Director of the Office of Voting Systems Technology Assessment, about how he came to some negative conclusions about Vote-PAD; questions he could not answer; questions that, according to eye-witnesses, made him look rather foolish.

Yet, according to the Arcata Eye article, McDannold seems to have been carrying on a vendetta against Vote-PAD for a while. It seems that late last month McDannold spoke about Vote-PAD at the annual conference of state’s clerks and elections officials in San Diego:

It needs to be mentioned that Carolyn Crnich spoke in favor of Vote-PAD and pointed out problems with the testing procedures to the hearing panel in Sacramento. This testimony, on top of the testimony of Vote-PAD President Ellen Theisen, should be enough to prove that McDannold has lost grip on reality.

It is also important to note that an understanding of confidentiality was entered into by all who participated in the testing and evaluation of the Vote-PAD, including Bruce McDannold. When McDannold spoke to the counties in San Diego, he violated the same agreement that he demanded that Vote-PAD maintain.

Why is it that McDannold is overseeing a process that welcomes unreliable, error-prone, insecure electronic voting machines with open arms while it unfairly tests a voting device that is truly accessible to the community it was designed for? What does McDannold gain by his misinforming county election officials based on data gained from unscientific and shoddy testing? I, for one, hope that Vote-PAD seeks redress for the grievances heaped upon the company by McDannold. It's beyond time that the disinformation from the Secretary of State stop.

UPDATE: It has been pointed out in a comment to "'Daily Voting News' For August 10, 2006" that McDannold did not adress the counties as a whole. Any mention of Vote-PAD was done in casual conversation. Of course this does not absolve him of keeping a confidentiality agreement and certainly not of bad-mouthing any voting system that has not yet had any hearing within the state.

Disclosure Statement:
In the interest of full disclosure: Ellen Theisen was the founder of VotersUnite and its Executive Director before I took over the helm from her. She resigned from her position upon founding Vote-PAD, Inc. I have no stake in Vote-PAD in any way except as Ellen's friend.

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

Fraus omnia vitiate, “Fraud vitiates everything” and when it may apply to Diebold it means a lot such as Diebold machines have no valid federal certification. / Diebold has announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission is now involved in a formal investigation into some of the corporation's practices. / Michigan reports that voting machines purchased for voters with disabilities are seeing little use across the state. / Election procedure questions in Tennessee? Don't call the state; call the vendor. ...

Blogged by John Gideon

As reported previously the state of California unfairly treated voters with disabilities in the testing of the Vote-PAD, a voting assistive device designed specifically for use by voters with disabilities and successfully tested and used by those voters across the country. The fact that the staff of the Secretary of State of California used shoddy test procedures and then recommended denial of certification, based on those test procedures, of the Vote-PAD is certainly questionable. Why haven't other voting systems, that purport to be accessible, been tested by the disabilities community at all?

As reported earlier, today is the public hearing for the Vote-PAD. Ellen Theisen, President and Founder of Vote-PAD has testified about the problems with the test procedure. In her testimony she referred to accompanying testimony from Valerie Rice, PhD., CPE, OTR/L, whose PhD is in "Human Factors Engineering (Industrial Engineering and Operations Research) with a specialization in Human Factors Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and masters degrees in both Occupational Therapy (University of Puget Sound) and Health Care Administration (Baylor University). She is a Board Certified Professional Ergonomist and a liscensed and registered Occupational Therapist". In other words, Dr. Rice is the person who should have written the states test procedure which would have given everyone a fair and even field for making a judgment on Vote-PAD.

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

Missing candidate names seems to be one of the stand-out problems for today. A candidate for Gov. in Connecticut has reports that his name was missing from at least one machine. That machine was removed from service. It is also reported that Lieberman's name was missing on the same machine. In Georgia, McKinney voters are reporting that her name is missing from some ballots. / Voters in Connecticut are still using their old lever machines at the polls. / The first head has fallen in Cuyahoga Co. Ohio as the Ballot Manager has resigned under fire....

In a just issued Press Release, VoterAction has announced that California voters are challenging the use of the Diebold TSx touch screen voting system and that they have filed a motion for preliminary injunction in state court.

This announcement follows the July 18 announcement that an attempt by the state to move the original suit from the state courts to federal court had failed.

The press release follows:

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

Voters with disabilities are being unfairly used in the recommended denial of certification of the Vote-PAD by the SoS of California. It's unfortunate that an unfair test procedure was used in testing. Why were no other systems purporting to be accessible sent through comparable testing? / Tennessee is shaking off their primary night failures while other states prepare to enter the fray tomorrow. / Primaries tomorrow in Colorado, Connecticut, Michigan, and Missouri, with a run-off in Georgia and local elections in Ohio. ...

Guest Blogged By John Gideon

Just released by the Green Party US is a Press Release from San Diego County, CA that states, in part, "The Green Party of San Diego County does not endorse the protocols used for obtaining and tabulating votes during the June 6 primary and previous elections. As we outline below, the process is fundamentally insecure leading to election results that are neither accurate nor verifiable."

The complete Press Release is below: