Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

As related by Brad Friedman in today's Huffington Post:

That story, and many others today, linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today we have a lot of fun stuff that was covered by the media (or not). The two election workers from Cuyahoga Co. Ohio who rigged the recount were each sentenced to 18 months in prison and the judge stated that he felt they were not telling the whole story and that they were covering for someone.

In Georgia the media failed to report that a complaint to the State Board of Elections brought by concerned citizens has now been referred to the Attorney General for investigation and action. The complaint is that the state illegally used Diebold software in elections that was never qualified by NASED for use (a state law requires this). The complaint is against Diebold and state elections officials.

In Sarasota Co. Florida a letter from ES&S to the state and county has come to light. Interestingly this letter was not included in discovery from the state or county but was found on the website of the North Carolina Coalition For Verified Voting. Joyce McCloy of that group has been trying to get people to read and pay attention to this letter for months. Finally someone has and this could be the answer that everyone has been looking for.

And finally the disabilities community and advocacy groups are beginning to speak out against DRE voting systems!

Those stories, and many others, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In written testimony presented to the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives; Ellen Theisen concludes in part:

That story, and many others are linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

There are many good provisions in the new election reform bill (HR 811 introduced by Congressman Rush Holt D-NJ), called the "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007." There is significant momentum in the U.S. House to pass the bill as written; and it is on a "fast-track."

BUT, the bill allows the continued use of electronic "ballots" (invisible data on a computer) as the ballots of record. Democracy demands that voters can know the selections on their own ballots. This means --- regardless of whether ballots are counted by optical scanner, by hand, or by some other method --- all ballots must initially be cast on paper and only paper "“ no electronic ballots, which keep the ballot secret from the voter.

The members must hear from us - NOW - that the bill urgently needs an amendment to ban electronic ballots. We are not seeking to "kill" the bill, but to gain support for an amendment banning electronic ballots and the use of Direct Record Electronic (DRE) voting machines, which create them.

We believe we have a chance! Here's what you can do: Go to LINKand take action...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

A recent report from the Wisconsin State Elections Board says, "The three major vendors (Diebold Election Systems, Elections Systems and Software and Sequoia Voting Systems) have minor upgrades that would improve the administration of elections for local election officials." The report goes on to say, "The new federal certification process developed by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (US EAC) is in place, but no voting systems are currently under review. The SEB staff believes that these changes should be evaluated by a contract reviewer to avoid the delays attendant with the federal certification process." In other words, the vendors say changes need to be made but the EAC and the federal certification process cannot be relied upon in the state's opinion so they will, instead, turn to a contractor to review the equipment. History tells us that as bad as the ITA process is; contractors have been much worse....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Johns Hopkins University Professor Avi Rubin reports the following in his blog about his recent congressional testimony; "Finally, I was asked if I thought that a DRE with a paper trail was an adequate voting system. I replied that when I first studied the Diebold DRE in 2003, I felt that a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) provided enough assurance. But, I continued, after four years of studying the issue, I now believe that a DRE with a VVPAT is not a reasonable voting system. The only system that I know of that achieves software independence as defined by NIST, is economically viable and readily available is paper ballots with ballot marking machines for accessibility and precinct optical scanners for counting - coupled with random audits. That is how we should be conducting elections in the US, in my opinion."...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

From the just released GAO report "ELECTIONS: All Levels of Government Are Needed to Address Electronic Voting System Challenges": "Election officials, computer security experts, citizen advocacy groups, and others have raised significant concerns about the security and reliability of electronic voting systems, citing vague or incomplete standards, weak security controls, system design flaws, incorrect system configuration, poor security management, and inadequate security testing, among other issues. These security and reliability concerns are legitimate and thus merit the combined and focused attention of federal, state, and local authorities responsible for election administration."...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The Vindicator (Youngstown, Ohio) reports that ES&S is showing Lawrence Co., Pennsylvania, just why signing a contract with the company is like signing a contract with the devil. Some of the ES&S iVotronic machines used in Lawrence Co. in the 2006 election were found to have been improperly programmed, according to the article. ES&S had agreed to reprogram and recertify all of the county's machines at no cost to the county (probably under pressure from county officials). However, the recent cold snap in that area caused some frozen pipes which resulted in a leak in the storage area. Upon inspection the county found about 20 of their 275 machines had evidence of water spots on their cases. The county asked ES&S to inspect those 20 machines. Instead ES&S is insisting on inspecting and recalibrating all 275 machines and they want $298,028 to do the job. So, no more free reprogramming and the county pays over $1,000 per machine for an inspection that is probably not needed. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

As reported by VoteTrustUSA, "The Financial Services Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing on "Ensuring the Integrity of Elections" on Wednesday March 7 at 2:00 PM in the Rayburn House Office Building. Witnesses for this hearing will be EAC chair Donnetta Davidson, former EAC commissioner Ray Martinez, Randolph Hite, Director, Information Technology Architecture and Systems, United States Government Accountability Office and Avi Rubin, Director of ACCURATE and professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University."

David Allen of BlackBoxVoting.Com has stated about the possible sale of Diebold's election arm, "It would be easier to sell Titanic brand cruise ships, or Hindenburg brand zeppelins than a Diebold voting machine company."...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

There are many good provisions in the new election reform bill (HR 811 introduced by Congressman Rush Holt D-NJ), called the "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007." There is significant momentum in the U.S. House to pass the bill as written; and it is on a "fast-track."

BUT, the bill allows the continued use of electronic "ballots" --- invisible data on a computer --- as the ballots of record. Democracy demands that voters can know the selections on their own ballots. This means all ballots must be cast on paper and only paper "“ no electronic ballots, which keep the ballot secret from the voter.

The members must hear from us - NOW - that the bill urgently needs an amendment to ban electronic ballots.

We are not seeking to "kill" the bill, but to gain support for an amendment banning electronic ballots and the use of Direct Record Electronic (DRE) voting machines, which create them. We believe we have a chance!

Here's what you can do: Go to VotersUnite.Org and take part in the action to ask Congress to support an amendment to ban DRE voting machines....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Miller Co. Arkansas Election Administrator Robby Selph resigned from his job saying this about Election Systems and Software, "The reason I am leaving is the provider of the Ivotronics and related software lacks competency to make their equipment work timely and effectively. They ... make a difficult job impossible to do. They can't spell, meet deadlines, send documents to the right address or code elections correctly. They leave races off the ballot for us to correct, they can't program their software to work and you have to hand add the results. And they don't return phone calls. The ES&S people in Arkansas are capable but the people I have dealt with in the home office in Omaha prevent them from being effective. They are also mean-spirited when you try to get them to correct the numerous and recurring errors."...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In a disturbing article from Chicago, IL, it is revealed that Cook County will pay Sequoia for their voting machines based on a sliding scale that will be controlled by how quickly machines transmit results to election headquarters and also by how quickly those votes can be tabulated. The county does not seem to care as much about accuracy or security as it does for speed. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

LINK There are many good provisions in the new election reform bill (HR 811 introduced by Congressman Rush Holt D-NJ), called the "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007." For example, it would ban wireless communications to reduce the possibility of some types of hacking; it would prevent Diebold, Sequoia, and other voting machine companies from using secret software on the voting machines; and it would require partial hand counts to check the accuracy of the machines.

However, the primary problem with the bill is that it allows the continued use of Direct Record Electronic (DRE), or "touch screen" voting machines, as long as they print out a copy of the electronic record of your vote for you to approve (called a "voter-verified paper audit trail" or "VVPAT"). But this "band-aid" cannot solve the systemic problems inherent to DREs. Democracy demands that DREs be banned from all American elections.

It has been said of those calling for a "ban DREs" amendment to HR 811 that we intend to "kill" the bill. Nothing could be further from the truth. We do not seek to remove this bill from consideration; we seek to correct a fundamental omission, which we believe presents a grave danger to all future elections....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In an excellent, must-read, article in "The Free Press" authors Victoria Parks and Paddy Shaffer relate, "The Squire v. Geer case is more than just a mere election challenge lawsuit; the reliability of electronic voting was on trial last week in a small courtroom in Franklin County, Ohio. Voting rights activists see the issues before the court as going to the heart of democracy itself and whether or not election results obtained through the computerized voting machines can be trusted."

And they sum-up their article thusly: "Electronic voting seems more questionable than ever as vendors pass on the substantial costs of software service contracts to taxpayers in already financially cash-strapped counties. Electronic voting also appears more vulnerable than ever at this time of slumping voter confidence. In the final analysis, the integrity of electronic voting continues to dog this industry "” a private industry that holds so much power over a democratic process meant to be fully transparent and accountable to the public. The trial reconvenes Wednesday, February 28, to hear final arguments. Afterwards, Sacco's findings go before a three judge Appeals Court panel which will decide to accept or reject his recommendations. All Franklin County judges have been removed from the case to avoid the appearance of impropriety."...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

"Florida's Congressional District 13 race and the report of conflicts between the paper trail records and the electronic ballots in Cuyahoga County, Ohio are only two recent examples of how elections using DRE technology cannot be trusted and how confusing the technology can be to voters. Evidence overwhelmingly confirms that, even with the addition of a voter-verified paper audit trail, DREs cannot be made to serve our nation's need for universal citizen enfranchisement. It would constitute a grievous error to further codify the use of DRE systems, as is currently done by the redefinition of "voter verified paper ballot" found at the beginning of HR 811's Section 2(a)(1). We believe that all voters should have equal access to accurate, secure, meaningfully observable, and verifiable election systems. DREs have been touted as providing this kind of election system, but America's experience with hundreds of documented DRE failures and thousands of voters disenfranchised by them proves otherwise. Any voter required to use a DRE is at once relegated to second-class status, given that other voters can vote on voter-marked paper ballots. Evidence shows that voter-marked paper ballots, combined with existing ballot-marking interfaces, provide both equity and parity to disabled and language minority voters in full compliance with ADA and HAVA."...