Guest Blogged by John Gideon
Just announced by KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is the news that a group of citizens and People For The American Way have filed suit against the Secretary of State; Dan Onorato, Allegheny County Chief Executive; James Flynn, County Manager; and senior officials at the federal Department of Justice. The citizen group includes members of the disabilities community who want to make sure the County purchases machines that are accessible to all individuals with disabilities.
KDKA reports:
“This rush to a new and flawed technology just weeks before the election threatens to sow chaos in the primary and compromise the fundamental rights of thousands of voters for years to come,” says Harry Litman, the former United States Attorney in Pittsburgh and an attorney for the plaintiffs. “It’s a bad deal for Allegheny County, and, we believe, a violation of federal law.”
The suit, Celeste Taylor v. Dan Onorato asks the court to prevent use of machines manufactured by Election Systems & Software until the County has spent the time necessary to identify voting systems that are secure; reliable; and accessible to voters with disabilities.
…
The plaintiffs cite elections in Texas, Florida, California, Ohio, and North and South Carolina where ES&S machines failed on Election Day.
A report by the Inspector General in Miami of a 2002 election found that the ES&S machines were not properly prepared; their results could not be audited; poll workers were unable to operate machines; and large number of voters simply gave up as a result.
…
The complaint alleges that DOJ has pressured Allegheny to buy the new machines by improperly threatening to take back about $12 million that has been given to Pennsylvania for improved voting systems.
These machines are sold and serviced by Elections Systems and Software, the same company that has played a major role in failures of memory cards and is a large reason why this nation is headed for a “Train Wreck” in our primary elections and, if no action is taken, in November.
BRAD is First & Best!
Now that’s taken care of… whew!
Next, my bet is… Santorum’s goon will find a way to affect this lawsuit. Without rigging, he’s going down.
And Rep. Rush Holt has just published a very complimentary letter addressing some of the concerns that BBV has raised about the Rush-Holt Bill H.R.550.
I await to hear more to discover if a public statement from him of the legislative intent carries the force of law.
Rep. Holt’s response seems very encouraging. It doesn’t address all the concerns but it addresses some of the major ones. It is outspoken in its appreciation for the work done by BlackBoxVoting.org.
The question I have is, will Holt’s comments be taken into account by judges if there is a question about how to interpret the legislative intent? Where the language of the legislation is ambiguous, would Holt’s comments be used to clarify, or would they be inadmissible?
I am particularly pleased to see that Holt is still asking for suggestions for amendments to the Bill.
>Catherine,
The holt bill was certainly only a good beginning, not an end all fix and I think the question of the Judges interpreting the law is a very good and valid one to make right now.
I would much rather see the bill be passed and fully adjusted with the help of represenative Ehlers, then delay it in committee and try to re-write it later.
Of course, I deal with things from the full outside in and am actually tracking the neocon criminals doing this.
So I take the matter much more seriously….and I would strongly suggest that Holt, Ehlers and others confer a conference about solving the issue.
Less than 2 months until our train wreck here in California when we vote in the primaries for our govenor.
People are being dropped from the registry for not having their name and address match the DMV data base. Give your address as Ave. one place and Avenue at the other – your a goner!
Investigations into voter registration fraud in southern California.
Diebold re-certified.
For those who are superstitious – if you take out the zeros – our primary is on 6/6/6
Here is Rush Holt’s response to Bev, correcting a "few" misrepresentations in her opinion piece.
Rush Holt’s response to Bev Harris
http://onlinejournal.com/artman...rticle_688.sht…
An open letter to voters clarifying H.R. 550
From Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ)
Apr 12, 2006, 01:12
I would like to thank Bev Harris for her work to improve the integrity of elections. ….
I would like to correct, however, a few misrepresentations about my legislation included in her recent article….
# He is rather gracious in his comments, as usual.
It is too bad that some folks are so interested in being in the limelight that they would rather not see good legislation passed.
Passing HR 550 could put Bev Harris out of business.
Well Bluebear, I unfortunately know HOW they are matching the records and electronically purging and casting votes.
Like I said I’m a private investigator and, as a matter of courtesy if you would like to hear more please contact
worldtribunal@gmail.com for details.
Diebold was just "kicked off" again and is facing another lawsuit, unfortunately some employees of Diebold working in California and Ohio are engaging in election tampering and covering it well.
As for the Bev Harris deal, I stay out of the personality conflict situations.
Technically this has never been about, "personalities" and I applaud the professional manner in which she criticized Holt’s bill as needed, and the manner which she constructively worked with him to go further with it.
Don’t forget the history of ES&S. Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel was on the board of ES&S and got them installed in Nebraska, stepped down to run for Senator, and became the first Republican Senator in Nebraska in years.
"In 1992, investment banker Chuck Hagel, president of McCarthy & Co, became chairman of AIS. Hagel, who had been touted as a possible Senate candidate in 1993, was again on the list of likely GOP contenders heading into the 1996 contest. In January of 1995, while still chairman of ES&S, Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald that he would likely make a decision by mid-March of 1995. On March 15, according to a letter provided by Hagel’s Senate staff, he resigned from the AIS board, noting that he intended to announce his candidacy. A few days later, he did just that.
A little less than eight months after steppind down as director of AIS, Hagel surprised national pundits and defied early polls by defeating Benjamin Nelson, the state’s popular former governor. It was Hagel’s first try for public office. Nebraska elections officials told The Hill that machines made by AIS probably tallied 85 percent of the votes cast in the 1996 vote, although Nelson never drew attention to the connection. Hagel won again in 2002, by a far healthier margin. That vote is still angrily disputed by Hagel’s Democratic opponent, Charlie Matulka, who did try to make Hagel’s ties to ES&S an issue in the race and who asked that state elections officials conduct a hand recount of the vote. That request was rebuffed, because Hagel’s margin of victory was so large. "
Hagel/ES&S
Notice, some states won’t recount if the margin is greater than a certain %. So, it’s a "catch-22"…make sure the machines give you a victory greater than the recount margin…so it’s never proven to be fraud on e-vote machines. That’s only if the machines provide a paper trail…
The bill has a ways to go, and we need to make sure they hear us about going sky is the limit on the audit scenario.
A federal agency should never be utilized to decide all the audits, instead we should have technical experts and citizen oversight which is not on anyone’s "payroll"
For a while the vendors have been harassing and trying to control the whole process, its time to end that abuse with passage of a secure fail-safe version of this bill. That will also crack down on registration purging/fraud and allow both parties and the third party leeway in protecting the vote.
Formal BBV response to Rush Holt is here.
This is a very interesting discussion for anyone who is interested in H.R.550.
I don’t think Rush Holt addressed enough of the problems with the bill. Jim March has post that follows with some interesting insights into legislative strategy.
People for the American Way is finally taking this issue seriously… as more and more of America finally seems to be getting it.
Four months ago I sent PFAW President Ralph Neas a copy of the Conyers Report "What Went Wrong in Ohio?" and an impassioned letter asking for them to get on the bandwagon.
Nice to see: message received 😉
Whether or not I had anything directly to do with this, it is clear that all of use who continue to make a noise on this issue are being heard, and more and more people every day are realizing that election rigging is not just for third-world countries.