Over the weekend, at least two reports out of mainstream Florida papers — one in the Miami Herald and one in the Tallahassee Democrat — report that Gov. Jeb Bush himself is now questioning the reliability of Florida’s electronic voting system in light of the recent hack test in Leon County, home of the state’s capitol Tallahassee. That security test, carried out last week, successfully flipped the results of a simple mock election test held on Diebold, Inc. voting equipment. The hack, which changed the results of an election from 2-6 to 7-1, left no trace of evidence behind.
After reports of the test were released, Florida’s Sec. of State’s office had initially criticized the messenger, Leon County’s Director of Elections, Ion Sancho, suggesting that the matter was not the state’s concern, but rather was an issue between Diebold and the county. That, despite the fact that it was the state of Florida who had certified the particular Diebold made machinery for use in the Sunshine State.
Acting FL Sec. of State David Mann also echoed Diebold’s statement on the matter, criticizing Sancho himself because they believe that in allowing the hackers to gain access to the memory cards — where a very short executable program capable of changing the election results had been secretly placed — the test did not replicate ‘real world’ conditions.
Bush, who may be realizing the untenable position the state and their friends at Diebold now find themselves in, is at least taking the public stance that Sancho’s findings and concerns should be taken seriously.
Quoting from the Herald coverage:
Bush, saying the subject is ”too important” to ignore, echoed national computer-security and voting experts, and struck a dissimilar chord to acting Secretary of State David Mann, who expressed less urgency Thursday to retest vote machines. Mann said he was ”concerned” only that Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho might have given an outsider access to his vote machines’ computer codes Tuesday.
Bush also questioned whether Sancho gave away privileged information — which Sancho denies — and noted Sancho’s ”unorthodox” media-friendly style, in which he conducted his computer-hacker tests and spoke about them with The Herald before discussing them with the secretary of state’s office, which oversees elections.
‘My general thought is, probably, they’re saying, `Well, here he goes again. We don’t want to deal with him because he’s a maverick.’ And I would suggest that, no, this is too important, that we ought to get his information, look at it carefully,” Bush said.
“If there needs to be any changes in policy as it relates to certification of machines, then we should do so.”
Over in the Tallahassee Democrat Sancho responds to the criticisms of the state and Diebold about granting access internally to the hackers, and the absurd charge that such things could never occur in a “real world” election:
Of course, we know that nobody in either Florida or Ohio or any other state in the union would ever try to rig an election from the inside.
Since the test, Sancho has announced that Diebold voting equipment will no longer be used in the county’s elections and has requested funding to replace them with an alternate system that allows for recountable paper ballots and additional access for the disabled.
Earlier in the week, a Securities Fraud Class Action suit was launched against Diebold, in part, for failing to disclose flaws in their voting equipment.
Later in the week, after the test in Leon County, another Florida county, Volusia, decided against using the same unsecure Diebold machinery for their elections as well.
The BRAD BLOG has previously reported that even a branch of the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security has warned about security flaws in Diebold voting machinery, and a recent non-partisan GAO report which has further confirmed such concerns about all of the currently available electronic voting systems now being deployed around the country.
UPDATE 12/22/05: Miami Herald calls on Bush to retest all touch-screen and optical scan machines in the state!
Brad,
It’s very helpful how you’ve combined and referenced these various stories. The flaws of the voting machines currently in use (not just the Diebold ones) are the product of completely inadequate certification systems at both the state and national level. All US electronic voting machine equipment should be considered to be virtually untested for security and they should be removed from service until adequate testing procedures are put in place. All HAVA requirements should be immediately suspended until these matters can be sorted out.
The use of any equipment without a backup paper ballot should be forbidden, and all elections should be required to hand-count paper ballots since the machines cannot be counted on to count accurately.
Counting only a selected sample of the paper ballots will not be sufficient to detect fraud, since this is all too easily to do selectively with the vote hacks that have just been demonstrated.
As for Governor Bush’s pronouncements, actions will speak louder than words. We will all wait to see what happens next before believing any fundamental improvements to democracy have taken place.
He sounds like Arnold Schwartzanegger making up an elaborate ploy.
We’ll see where Governor Bush truly takes this…It was Diebold and the Choicepoint DBT which got him elected, anyway. All of it was fraud. Jeb has so many crimes to answer for its scary……
Doug E.
Yeah, you go boy. Jeb "The Fixer" Bush calling for honesty in elections is like Don Vito Corleone calling for cleaning up Organized Crime. Watch for some sleazeball Congressional action…..how about "The No Voter Left Behind Act"? Or "The Clean Voting Act"? Should be good for a laugh.
Yes–and while I’m at it, thanks Doug for your suggestion on another thread to download the RawStory/Plain Dealer pdf file documenting the extensive mismanagement of the FLA Bd of Elections. Hard to believe that a formal report is filled with so much damning information. I can’t believe this hasn’t gotten more coverage.
It’s here for any who haven’t yet seen it–and boy is it a humdinger. Electrifying reading. The Noe connection seems important.
http://rawstory.com/other/pdfs/...ryrawstory.pdf
God bless Jeb Bush (snark)
If Al Gore had won FL in ’00 where Diebold machines were used, and John Kerry had won Diebold’s home state of OH in ’04, the uproar by congressional repugnicans and at Faux News would be deafening.
Conservatives, why can’t I hear you now?
Fucktards.
OPERATION "SYSTEM RESTORE" :plain:
He sounds like Arnold Schwartzanegger making up an elaborate ploy.
We’ll see where Governor Bush truly takes this…It was Diebold and the Choicepoint DBT which got him elected, anyway. All of it was fraud. Jeb has so many crimes to answer for its scary……
Doug E.
I seem to recall him defrauding some Savings and Loan in Florida. It wasn’t as bad as the Savings and Loan scandal his brother Neil got involved in, but it was up there. Also, wasn’t ol Jeb involved in some Medicare scandal?
That Barbara Bush, she sure raised some winners.
"That Barbara Bush, she sure raised some winners."
and did they all have the same father ?
I am still remembering the "this goes all the way to the top" quote from Ray Lemme.
I believe Jeb cares when elephants fly.
Reminds me of the wolf that guards the hen house.
Wolf says; What missing chickens? Oh those missing chickens. Yes , we should look into that matter seriously!
Floridians should hold Jeb & SOS directly accountable if other counties continue using Diebold equipment.
…Yes Jeb is "shocked…shocked I tell you. to find gambling goin on in this establishment". –Claude Raines in Casablanca 1941
…jpentz "I am still remembering the "this goes all the way to the top" quote from Ray Lemme."
so true ,everybody who has not read of the tragic death of Raymond Lemme should do so and ask yourself if this "is ”too important” to ignore"" .
FDOT Investigator "Suicided" after telling witness he "had tracked the corruption ‘all the way to the top’ and that the story would break in the next few weeks and I would be satisfied with the results."
Catherine: It is damning stuff, but that has nothing to do with Florida. All of the reports cover Ohio in this instance, though there are reports on Florida too that have been filed.
Doug E.
So do Broward and Miami Dade use Diebold as well? I’m very interested in how this will play out in Florida and California.
I’ve lost hope in a fair election being held in Ohio. Something earth shattering has to happen over there.
Of course Jeb Bush is concerned, Why wouldn’t he be? I’d venture to say he’s very concerned…to find out if the trail leading back to him has been satisfactorily wiped clean. It probably hasn’t been, though he’ll give his ‘all’ to see that it will be, I’m sure.
You have to remember that poppy wants jeb to run as prez in 08!
Y’know how Frist voted for the PATRIOT act at the last second… so that the repugs could get a re-vote whenever they want?
Y’know how ACVR started off trumpeting it’s fight against vote-fraud… only turning out to be a major detour the other way…
I get the feeling Jeb’s going to appear to lead the charge on electronic-vote-questioning… only to steer this issue into another tar-pit… intentionally making it so that the only official investigation/action on this… is controlled by those closest to Bush and either proceeds as slowly as possible… or… ends up taking a twist in the opposite direction… resulting in excuses to remove even more voting rights!!!
(as in… "hackable machines eh?? – evidently we NEED Voter ID requirements!!" kinda bullshit.)
Whenever the ground becomes unstable for them, they try to embed themselves in somewhere on the good-guys side… and then gradually attempt to subvert everyone’s genuine efforts, until the issue is either dismissed or slowed-down until it can burried by another story.
I reckon Jeb only wants to get involved so that he can either dismiss it… or… palm the vote-rigging off to another repug-friendly company.
Mick #8 – LOL! Did you notice how much jeb looks like KKKarl Rove in that shot? What’s up with that?
Where’s Clint Curtis? Now that the MSM and Jeb Bush is paying some attention to Florida’s electronic voting in security, Clint Curtis should come out of the woodwork and make hay while the sun is shining!
Brad: We haven’t heard from Clint Curtis lately…what’s going on???
Yeah, this whole Jeb Bush thing is a lot like TOny Soprano playing the victim when the FBI wants to look into his "waste management" employees. Wasn’t Jeb actively defending the purged voter rolls from 2000 which disenfranchised thousands of black voters? Then when the press wanted to look into the newer rolls to make sure they were fixed he refused to show them…when he caved into pressure it turned out they still disenfranchised blacks.
Wasn’t this the same Jeb Bush who has tried to keep the Clint Curtis story burried by saying it is a Transportation matter or something stupid?
This is called "getting ahead of the news." The Director of Elections in Leon County, where Tallahassee is located, conducts a successful hack of a machine.
POTENTIAL PROBLEM FOR JEB: Local press coverage that could lead BACKWARD to the 2000 election, Clint Curtis, and Ray Lemme’s "suicide."
SOLUTION FOR JEB: Pretend this is a brand-new problem that has only FORWARD implications for the 2006 and 2008 elections. Appear proactive by expressing concern over this "surprising" event and promising to investigate.
EXPECTED BENEFITS FOR JEB: Shifts press focus to his "take charge" approach. Makes him look like a strong, ethical leader (looking to 2008). And most important and least obvious, IT LEAVES THE INVESTIGATION ENTIRELY IN HIS HANDS, BECAUSE HE CALLED FOR IT. IF THE PRESS DID THE DIGGING, SOME WORMS WOULD COME UP, A FACT HE IS FULLY AWARE OF.
A Rovian stroke of genius. Give the Bushes credit; they’re crooked as the yellow brick road, but they never stop acting like Boy Scouts to fool people.
My guess is that Jeb is taking lessons from his buffoonish older brother, and is doing nothing but blowing smoke right out his ass. This won’t go anywhere as long as that hillbilly bastard is in office.
Doug #13
Thanks for the correction–I was combining the 2 states and got mixed up in the posting between the two threads. I guess it’ll be a long time before such a report gets written in Florida. It’s a surprise such an honest report came out of Ohio.
It’s a great primer in how not to manage.
Rember Jeb was with king george in Crawford the night of 2000 voter scam assuring him the fix was in.Thats why chimp was not worried when news media all announced by exit polls GORE was the winner in Fiorida large margin.This was back before news MEDIA became Bush CONTROLLED PUPPETS.And they are in charge of the voting machines with no paper .Have bush get us some purple ink and paper ballet sheets ,from IRAQ so we can elect someone other than the ass we have now.
Big Dan – I hope to have some more interesting news on Clint Curtis in the coming weeks. I’ll just leave it as cryptic as that for now 😉
So..when can we expect the mainstream news media to report on this…? After the 2006 elections…maybe..?
Jeb Bush thought-bubble caption:
"Damn I’m good at my ‘fake concern’ look"
Does this mean that we need a re-vote on the presidency? George W. Bush may not have been elected. No way of proving that the count is accurate. :hehe:
Does this mean that we need a re-vote on the presidency? George W. Bush may not have been elected. No way of proving that the count is accurate. :hehe:
Bush sees the writing on the wall and has to bring the machines into question in a win/win kind of way so if:
1.) the machine are rigged and he (plus his candidates and issues) win handily, no matter what the exit polls say and his state’s voters know, he can say "I was afraid of that…unfortunately, there is no remedy under the law" or,
2.) his hacks underestimate his loyal republican voters and don’t substitute enough votes to elect him, then he can scream "foul" let’s find a remedy under our Supreme double voting law.
Again, can we please be extra careful with the facts when repeating this information (considering our supposedly-knowledgeable status):
Yes, you did a great summary, Brad, until:
"…Since the test, Sancho has announced that Diebold voting equipment will no longer be used in the county’s elections and has requested funding to replace them with an alternate system that allows for recountable paper ballots and additional access for the disabled…"
As I recall from reading Sancho’s statement(s), an ES&S TOUCHSCREEN system, with no paper trail, is what he will be replacing Diebold’s OPTICAL SCAN system with, for the time being, pending tests on the new ES&S system. Thus, no "recountable paper ballots" will exist in the new ES&S system, although they did exist in the now-discarded and hacked Diebold optical scan system. Remember, without careful provision for actual recounts, recountable ‘paper trails’ are simply wishful thinking. Hand-counted paper ballots are the only TRUE "paper ballots" used in elections.
Perhaps this issue would remain clearer, if not just the brand name but the make and model of the particular electronic vote-counting system was used every time it is referenced. [BBV should have that info for you – it was the Diebold Accuvote optical scanner, wasn’t it? And the version of the software is important too.]
From the Harri Hursti Report link at blackboxvoting.org:
The successful hacks done earlier this year in Leon County, Florida were conducted on a Diebold "AV OS" [for Accuvote Optical Scanner presumably] Precinct-Based 1.94w voting system (including its GEMS central tabulator).
Ok now I’m getting confused.
Do the ESS machines have a paper trail or not?
This piece at the Orlando Sentinal is vague on this – they mention a handicap accessable machine which has no paper trail being the only one approved under HAVA, but go on to say that a substitute will be used which costs more. It does not say if it has a paper trail, nor does it mention the other non HAVA machines which would be used.
Then there was a post at one of the threads here – but I’ll be darned if I can find it now – which stated that the ESS machines used a paper fill-in-the-blank type ballot. This in itself would seem to be a paper trail, yet that poster stated it wasn’t. (Wish I could find that post – just read it a half hour ago).
Answer on ES&S:
The AutoMark system is not produced by ES&S but by vogue election systems an independent third party company for the disabled.
ES&S has adopted AutoMark and replaced its flawed iVotronic machines with AutoMark.
AutoMark has full paper ballots and is easily auditable and has not encountered the problems.
Not a perfect system, but ES&S uses this, not the touch screens….and that is what they are replacing with. The two entities are not related, AutoMark is leased by ES&S or any other vendor to be the official voting machine or ballot system.
Doug E
Heeeeeeeaaal !!! Jeb’s had a conversion > NOT
Good thing the President ordered that there be no paper trail.
Otherwise we would have to go back and see if he really won, and that would be a big pain.
😉
Okay, thanks BlueBear and Doug E. — you got me to go re-read the Miami Herald article about this, and it looks like I misread the following paragraph:
"…After receiving county commission approval Tuesday, Sancho scrapped Diebold’s system for one made by Elections Systems and Software, the same provider used by Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The difference between the systems: Sancho’s machines use a fill-in-the-blank paper ballot that allows for after-the-fact manual recounts, while Broward and Miami-Dade use ATM-like touchscreens that leave no paper trail…."
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamih...d/13410061.htm
[I’d read "Sancho’s machines" to mean his current, just-hacked Diebold machines, rather than his new ES&S machines.]
Unfortunately, even for a first-out-of-the-gate stab at this issue, this is a pretty garbled and confusing description. Seems to me you can’t be sure from reading this paragraph whether Sancho’s new ES&S system is a touchscreen or an optical scanner, which is a pretty fundamental difference, and one most readers won’t even recognize co-exists within the same manufacturer’s brand, probably.
But – assuming this is accurate information, and I’m now interpreting it correctly, Ion Sancho is temporarily moving to the ES&S-leased Automark with a paper trail, touchscreen system, at least for handicapped voters? And to an ES&S OPTICAL SCAN system for everyone else? Or is it Automark Optical Scans leased by ES&S for everyone?
Sorry – still clear as mud. I guess all I can be sure of at this point is the information about the system Leon County is ditching, as above, and the fact that Leon County is moving to some system provided by ES&S instead, of specs unknown.
[And to be fair – the way Brad worded the paragraph I objected to now reads as literally accurate, after all (although implying that the old system did not also leave a paper trail).]
Might want to ask Bev- But I’m fairly sure its just plain old AutoMark, no touch-screens involved.
Doug E.
don’t ever forget the response to jeb’s hurricane compared to NO’s hurricane …one was pre-election ,one was post election …one was a pre-emptive response ,one was a lack of response…I know I’m cynical but am I cynical enough ?
OT
What do two of the biggest national-security news stories of the century — the Valerie Plame leak scandal and the legal case of FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds — have in common?
They both are being presided over by the same federal judge in the District of Colombia, Reggie Walton, a Bush appointee to the federal court and a man who appears to have a few well-kept secrets of his own.
Judge in Scooter Libby, Sibel Edmonds cases is redacted in action
Unless Jeb publicly denouced his father and his brother and exposes them as traitors to America, I will assume that the acorn does not fall far from the tree.
If Florida had "real" elections Jeb would "really" be in jail.
Not only did the acorn fall close to the tree, I feel he’s more dangerous the the other two. He’s like GWB with brain matter.
One only needs to listen to him speak to realize he can read newspapers, and talk without a radio receiver taped to his back.
Hi Guys
Great Blog.
Im from New Zealand and am horrified by what I see happening in your country. Im also a little worried that if our right wing party get elected they will introduce paperless voting machines.
They would love to get rid of the welfare state period but know voters will never let them.
Its already starting in Australia right next door. The right wing government there are introducing about 95 electronic voting machines and have decided paper printouts are too expensive. They are claiming that there system will be ok because the source code is pubic property but if so why don’t they just go all the way to security with paper printouts. I smell a very nasty rat in there somewhere and its getting to close to me for comfort.
Hi Guys
Great Blog.
Im from New Zealand and am horrified by what I see happening in your country. Im also a little worried that if our right wing party get elected they will introduce paperless voting machines.
They would love to get rid of the welfare state period but know voters will never let them.
Its already starting in Australia right next door. The right wing government there are introducing about 95 electronic voting machines and have decided paper printouts are too expensive. They are claiming that there system will be ok because the source code is public property but if so why don’t they just go all the way to security with paper printouts. I smell a very nasty rat in there somewhere and its getting to close to me for comfort.
Hi Guys
Great Blog.
Im from New Zealand and am horrified by what I see happening in your country. Im also a little worried that if our right wing party get elected they will introduce paperless voting machines.
They would love to get rid of the welfare state period but know voters will never let them.
Its already starting in Australia right next door. The right wing government there are introducing about 95 electronic voting machines and have decided paper printouts are too expensive. They are claiming that there system will be ok because the source code is public property but if so why don’t they just go all the way to security with paper printouts. I smell a very nasty rat in there somewhere and its getting to close to me for comfort.
Oops re double post.
Kept getting a timed out message. Please remove first unedited copy.
i like your blog. could it be sent to my computer.PLEASE 😀 😀 😀