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

Additional Reporting by Brad Friedman

The voting activist and election reform advocacy community was excited yesterday upon release of news about the signing of a new bill in Wisconsin, AB267, that originally included wording that would allow munipalities to "provide to any person, upon request, at the expense of the municipality, the coding for the software that the municipality uses to operate the system and to tally the votes cast". Indeed, The BRAD BLOG received many email reports last night about the "good news" concerning this bill.

The bill, as understood and reported by many, would have been the first time that voting activists would have been afforded the opportunity to actually "look under the hood" of voting machines by examining the source code used in the software in order to see what was really being done on the equipment supplied by Voting Machine Companies. So far, those companies have managed keep such source code secret and proprietary and away from the 'prying eyes' of the pesky public who has been forced --- by the corporate privatization of America's public elections --- to rely on such secret
software to accurately record and count their votes.

The apparent "good news," however, was incorrect, as The BRAD BLOG has learned. The language from the original bill was changed during the amendment process to strip it of the provisions that would have allowed the public inspection of the secret code!

The good news still left to report is that the bill, signed yesterday by WI Gov. Jim Doyle, will at least require a voter verified paper "record" for every vote cast. In theory, the measure would allow for a manual count or recount of votes in cases where the state determines such a count would be necessary.

Unfortunately, the version of the bill widely cited by election reform advocates was to the original language as introduced on August 24, 2005.

On November 3, 2005 a committee gutted the "disclosed source code" requirement with an Assembly Substitute Amendment 1. That amended deleted AB627 as introduced and replaced it with ASA1.

On November 10, that version was replaced in toto by Assembly Substitution Amendment 2 which is the version eventually signed by the Governor yesterday.

So, we are now going to have to wait for another day to "look under that hood"... Though that day may be coming soon...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

We are happy to join the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA and ask that the EAC do their job and demand that the ITA reinspect the Diebold software looking for banned 'interpreted' code. Diebold has admitted that it is there. Now the ITA needs to find it and, if necessary, withdraw the qualification of Diebold software until the 'interpreted' software is removed. So far 36 organizations have signed the VoteTrustUSA petition. Concerned citizens have sent 9465 emails and 1175 letters so far. There is a lot of good that has happened today. Nearly 6000 emails were sent to the EAC and nearly 700 letters. Besides that Connecticut decided to wait a year and keep their levers. New Mexico announced they were going to wait on any further purchases of Sequoia Edge. And, Wisconsin is now a vvpat state but with the added bonus of having a 'disclosed source code' mandate....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

DRE's? Optical Scan? Diebold? ES&S? Not for the little town of Cheshire, Massachusetts! They've used paper ballots for 213 years and the system, they say, is not broken so it needs no "fixing"!

Furthermore, they suggest an interesting (and perhaps obvious) means for meeting the new Federal requirement for disabled voters...The absentee ballot!

According to The North Adams Transcript the "Voice of the Northern Berkshires", town Selectmen in the small city have signed a letter to Secretary of State William F. Galvin, giving notice that they would not comply with the federal Help America Vote Act, which mandates the purchase of an electronic voting machine for elections. (Note: There is actually no requirement for any electronic voting machines as noted in VotersUnite's "Myth Breakers: Facts about Electronic Elections")

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

We are happy to join the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA and ask that the EAC do their job and demand that the ITA reinspect the Diebold software looking for banned 'interpreted' code. Diebold has admitted that it is there. Now the ITA needs to find it and, if necessary, withdraw the qualification of Diebold software until the 'interpreted' software is removed. So far 34 organizations have signed the VoteTrustUSA petition. Concerned citizens have sent 3570 emails and 460 letters so far....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

We are happy to join the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA and ask that the EAC do their job and demand that the ITA reinspect the Diebold software looking for banned 'interpreted' code. Diebold has admitted that it is there. Now the ITA needs to find it and, if necessary, withdraw the qualification of Diebold software until the 'interpreted' software is removed. So far 26 organizations have signed the VoteTrustUSA petition. Concerned citizens have sent 2705 emails and 375 letters so far....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The December 26 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

We are happy to join the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA and ask that the EAC do their job and demand that the ITA reinspect the Diebold software looking for banned 'interpreted' code. Diebold has admitted that it is there. Now the ITA needs to find it and, if necessary, withdraw the qualification of Diebold software until the 'interpreted' software is removed. So far 18 organizations have signed the VoteTrustUSA petition. Concerned citizens have sent 1550 emails and 180 letters so far....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

We are happy to join the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA and ask that the EAC do their job and demand that the ITA reinspect the Diebold software looking for banned 'interpreted' code. Diebold has admitted that it is there. Now the ITA needs to find it and, if necessary, withdraw the qualification of Diebold software until the 'interpreted' software is removed. So far 14 organizations have signed the petition. Concerned citizens have sent 855 emails and 90 letters so far...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

VoteTrustUSA has launched a campaign; with the assistance of The BRAD BLOG and VelvetRevolution, and other state and national election integrity groups; to hold the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) accountable for ensuring that all Diebold software is re-inspected and decertified until it can be shown that all prohibited code has been removed. We also urge the EAC to initiate the re-inspection of the election software of other vendors, which may also include software that is expressly forbidden in the FEC Voting System Standards. Please go to the VoteTrustUSA action page and send an email to the EAC voicing your concern about the use of prohibited software on voting machines.

In December, The BRAD BLOG joined newspapers across the country and reported that computer experts in Florida had conclusively proven that the “electronic ballot box” in Diebold optical scan vote counting systems could undetectably alter the results of an election. Within days, California's Secretary of State reported that the use of banned software affects Diebold's touch-screen voting system as well, a fact which Diebold has acknowledged.

This breach of security exploits an inherently insecure feature of the Diebold optical scanners and touch screens known as interpreted code, which the Federal Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) of 1990 and 2002 specifically prohibit. For further details about how Diebold uses interpreted code and why it is banned from use in voting software, please click here.

Because this prohibited code exists on Diebold touchscreen machines as well as their optical scanners, the Secretary of State of California has demanded that the Diebold Touchscreen (TSX) software be re-examined by the Independent Testing Authority (ITA), who originally certified that the systems were in compliance with the 2002 Federal Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG).

How did the ITA overlook such an obvious violation of federal standards in the first place? And just as importantly, do the voting systems produced by Diebold's competitors contain similarly prohibited code?

It is time to put the EAC on notice that violations of federal standards by the ITA, which is now under their jurisdiction, will not be tolerated by voters.

Take action and send an email to each of the four EAC commissioners and to the EAC Independent Test Authority Secretariat and let them know you demand that action be taken.

National, state, and local election integrity groups can sign an Open Letter to the EAC which will be sent to them on January 3.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

We are happy to join the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA to ask that the EAC do their job and demand that the ITA reinspect the Diebold software looking for banned 'interpreted' code. Diebold has admitted that it is there. Now the ITA needs to find it and, if necessary, withdraw the qualification of Diebold software until the 'interpreted' software is removed....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Just as suddenly as the alarm was raised over ES&S being a concern in the state of California the word seems to have been passed that there is no longer any concern. Perhaps ES&S has gotten a manicure kit federally qualified so voters with long fingernails can cut them before voting. (Note: Long fingernails was one excuse given by ES&S for votes being swapped on their touch-screens)...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

There is very little in the news today. I know there is a lot happening because I have been busy all day today; it's just not getting into the news yet....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The news today is sparse, to say the least, with news mainly from Connecticut and Pennsylvania, two states that are still trying to figure out what the future of their voting will look like....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

As an introduction, the "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The December 19 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

There is not much in the way of new news today. I guess this is to be expected. Have a great Christmas. ...