Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Yesterday our friends at OpEdNews.Com featured an article that includes an interview with the former CEO of AccuPoll, a voting machine vendor that recently went bankrupt. In the article by Sean Greene of electionline.org the CEO, Dennis Vadura is quoted as saying:

Now, finally, an industry insider and 'mover-and-shaker' has stepped forward to echo what many of us have been saying for the past two or three years. The remaining vendors are doing all they can to prove that Mr. Vadura is right. That fact is borne out by the following two stories:

In Nebraska, home state for Elections Systems and Software (and home of one of the owners of this private corporation, Omaha World-Herald), 69 of 93 counties do not have their paper ballots for early voting even though early voting began on Monday. Nebraska joins Indiana and other states that are not able to conduct elections because ES&S cannot provide the ballots that they are contractually responsible to deliver. In defense of it's partially owned subsidiary, the World-Herald misinforms it's readers with this gem:

There is no new type of ballot required by HAVA and there is no standardized form for optical scanners. This is all just hype to cover-up for the failure of ES&S to do its job.

In another indication of a vendor's failure to meet its contractual duties, the Richmond (IN) Palladium-Item reports that Fidlar Elections, a mid-west representative for Diebold, has failed to deliver paper ballots to 11 Indiana counties that can be read by optical-scanners. The state's mandated absentee voting (early voting) began on Monday and the bad ballots were not reported until Tuesday so all voters who voted on Monday are now being given an opportunity to vote again, when good ballots are received.

Quality control? Apparently not, after all its just elections. As Mr. Vadura correctly states, "You just have to look at the litany of problems and it points at one thing, bad fundamental design, and not enough checks and balances".

Yesterday our friends at OpEdNews.Com featured an article that includes an interview with the former CEO of AccuPoll, a voting machine vendor that recently went bankrupt. In the article by Sean Greene of electionline.org the CEO, Dennis Vadura is quoted as saying:

Now, finally, an industry insider and 'mover-and-shaker' has stepped forward to echo what many of us have been saying for the past two or three years. The remaining vendors are doing all they can to prove that Mr. Vadura is right. That fact is borne out by the following two stories:

In Nebraska, home state for Elections Systems and Software (and home of one of the owners of this private corporation, Omaha World-Herald), 69 of 93 counties do not have their paper ballots for early voting even though early voting began on Monday. Nebraska joins Indiana and other states that are not able to conduct elections because ES&S cannot provide the ballots that they are contractually responsible to deliver. In defense of it's partially owned subsidiary, the World-Herald misinforms it's readers with this gem:

There is no new type of ballot required by HAVA and there is no standardized form for optical scanners. This is all just hype to cover-up for the failure of ES&S to do its job.

In another indication of a vendor's failure to meet its contractual duties, the Richmond (IN) Palladium-Item reports that Fidlar Elections, a mid-west representative for Diebold, has failed to deliver paper ballots to 11 Indiana counties that can be read by optical-scanners. The state's mandated absentee voting (early voting) began on Monday and the bad ballots were not reported until Tuesday so all voters who voted on Monday are now being given an opportunity to vote again, when good ballots are received.

Quality control? Apparently not, after all its just elections. As Mr. Vadura correctly states, "You just have to look at the litany of problems and it points at one thing, bad fundamental design, and not enough checks and balances".

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

"I have no idea what happened in Pennsylvania or Chicago. I don't read about any of that." Essex Co., New Jersey Superintendent of Elections Carmen Casciano when asked about recent problems with Sequoia machines. "I am not happy about the outcome, or the state of the industry. I think that something needs to be done. I'm not sure what it is, it probably doesn't include AccuPoll at this point, but I do not feel that any of the vendors has a system that voters can trust. I think that vendors outright misrepresent the robustness, stability, and security of their systems. You just have to look at the litany of problems and it points at one thing, bad fundamental design, and not enough checks and balances. I also wonder why the other vendors were so adamant in fighting a VVPAT system requirement. They spent much more in fighting it than in implementing it." Ex-AccuPoll CEO Dennis Vadura. Eleven Indiana counties were forced to suspend absentee voting when they found out that the ballots they were provided could not be read by their Diebold optical-scan machines....

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

It is apparent that even though the vendors had three years to prepare for the large number of machines they are selling, they were not ready. Now counties across the country are going into elections without enough machines or the machines they have were hastily built and are failing. There have been two, large, state primaries so far and two disasters. Though the vendors have done a good job of deflecting blame from the machine failures toward the human factor, they have not been totally successful. Local governments are threatening lawsuits or threatening to withhold money that is owed. Something must be done on a national basis, and very soon, or we are in for a disaster in November....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Proving that local TV News stations actually can serve their viewers by actually investigating stuff that matters, and then reporting on it, Indianapolis' WISH-TV 8 does it again. In yet another report on local election problems, WISH-TV has been keeping their viewers informed with a series of stories on voting issues.

"Well, once again, a Voting Machine Company is breaking Indiana law and violating county contracts," the story by reporter Pam Elliot began.

Last night, WISH TV 8 reported on the failure of Elections Systems & Software (ES&S) to perform up to their contract with their customers. That contract: to provide ballots to voters and touch-screen voting equipment that actually works.

Johnson County Indiana was supposed to have their ES&S iVotronic DRE (touch-screen) machines set-up and in use for "absentee voting". However, contrary to their contract and, as WISH TV reports, in violation of state law, ES&S has failed to program the counties "smart cards" with ballot definitions. Which means the voting machines are of no use.

Also missing are printed paper ballots for Johnson County and nearly two-dozen other counties across the state. Which means that in order for these counties to conduct "absentee voting" they will have to copy paper ballots and provide those to the voters.

But perhaps more troubling, as reported by the WISH-TV 8 "I Team" (Investigative Team):

And what does the Secretary of State have to say about this situation? He had the same reaction as many who have misinformed their counties into buying voting systems that were not really necessary...

And what does ES&S have to say about all of this? Why, they blamed the counties, of course.

But WISH TV didn't let 'em get away with that. They concluded their report with just the facts m'am:

-- WISH TV's written report is here...
-- WISH TV's video report is here...

It seems ES&S has a long and proud history of failing the voters of Indiana. Back in late 2004, just two weeks after the Presidential Election, The BRAD BLOG ran a story highlighting a series of reports from WISH TV filed back in April of 2004. Here's some of our coverage at the time...

"Outright fabrications and mistruths" from ES&S?! Knock us over with a feather. See our November '04 story for more details and links to the excellent WISH TV video reports from April.

Feel free to write a thank you note to reporter Pam Elliot for knowing what important news looks like and then caring enough to actually report on it.

Other than that --- sssshhhh --- don't tell anyone! It's better if nobody learns about this stuff.

(Additional snark for this story provided by Brad)

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

Today we have an "Action Alert" for all voters to demand fair elections in the state of Florida. We also have another in support of Emery County Utah clerk Bruce Funk who has taken a stand against Diebold DREs. And there is a petition at VoteTrustUSA in support of HR-550. That petition has over 50,000 signatures and the number is growing quickly. The petition will be delivered to the House Rules Committee on Friday. In the bad news category we have more failed memory cards in Summit County, Ohio and now a report of ES&S not meeting dates for smart card delivery in Johnson County Indiana. That will force that county to use paper ballots (which may be a good thing)....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, VotersUnite.Org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Summit County has recently had problems with failed memory cards as related by The BRAD BLOG on March 9 and March 10. As reported at the time, as many as 30% of the cards completely failed initial testing in the county. A few days later, corresponding tests in North Carolina found more than 1000 of the cards failed. The memory cards, amongst other things, store the vote tabulations from elections.

New tests now in Summit County have also revealed additional failures on both memory cards, and the voting machines "firmware" as well.

Today the Akron Beacon Journal has revealed that Summit County has discovered 28 more bad cards in a batch of what was supposed to be good cards as sent to them by ES&S specifically to replace the previous bad ones.

The Beacon-Journal reports:

The Beacon-Journal is also now reporting that ES&S has found a problem with the firmware --- the software which is embedded into the system's hardware --- on their touch-screen machines that are used in counties across Ohio and across the country. ES&S is currently in 41 of Ohio's 88 counties.

Other states and counties who use ES&S should be made aware of the problems, since ES&S does not seem to be doing so.

On the firmware issue, the Beacon-Journal reports...

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

We get a reprieve in primaries this month. Next month there are two or three every Tuesday with Indiana, North Carolina and Ohio all leading off the month. It seems to me that we should be using April to get the word out about voter registration and have people ensure they are, in fact, registered to vote. The new voter registration data bases are going to disenfranchise voters if they are not vigilant. Verification should be just a phone call away in most states....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The March 27 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!...

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

California, and I suspect, many other states, are heading for a 'train wreck' with regard to their new voter registration data bases. Many state primaries will feature disenfranchised voters. The screaming from voters who were registered but find that they are no longer may end up drowning out the news about the failing voting machines. Counties in Texas are speaking out against the heavy-handedness of ES&S. Their machines failed and when the counties refused to pay until they are fixed, ES&S refused to do any work for next weeks run-off elections. The counties have no choice but to bow down to ES&S....

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

The testing and failure of the Sequoia Advantage machines in Pennsylvania dominates the news today. It will be interesting to see if Sequoia can get it right and can get something to pass testing by the state and then get it federally qualified in enough time to allow the counties to use it. I don't see it happening but then the whole process with the ITAs seems to be PFM (Pure F*****g Magic) sometimes. They may even stamp it with the 2002 qualification even though it is still not accessible....

Last night's DVN mentioned that Dr. Michael Shamos had found a "minor glitch" in the Sequoia Advantage system that he was inspecting for the state of Pennsylvania. In fact, Dr. Shamos had never called the problem a "glitch", that was the reporters words and not his, and it has now been reported that the problem is worse than he originally found and he has refused to certify these machines at this time....

Last night's DVN mentioned that Dr. Michael Shamos had found a "minor glitch" in the Sequoia Advantage system that he was inspecting for the state of Pennsylvania. In fact, Dr. Shamos had never called the problem a "glitch", that was the reporters words and not his, and it has now been reported that the problem is worse than he originally found and he has refused to certify these machines at this time....

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

Another county in Pennsylvania is reporting that they have been told by ES&S that they will not get all of the machines they have contracted for. It appears that ES&S has overextended their promises and their Philippines manufacturing plant just can't crank them out fast enough. Also in Pennsylvania Michael Shamos has found a problem with the Sequoia software but he is passing it off as a 'minor glitch' even though it appears to be the same problem that affected machines in Illinois in their primary. In Florida the AG has decided to subpoena the three vendors who have decided not to sell to Leon County. Collusion? ...

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

Jefferson Co. Texas had so many problems with their ES&S voting machines in their primary that they have asked for the system to be fixed. They are withholding final payment until that happens. They also have a runoff election to hold and now ES&S is refusing to program their machines for that election until they get final payment. Typical ES&S service with a smile. In Utah Emery County election chief, Bruce Funk, is threatening to resign rather than use the counties Diebold machines. Meanwhile in Illinois the cry to not pay any further funds to Sequoia and the questions about their Venezuelan ownership are getting louder....