The BRAD BLOG has learned that several lawsuits are likely to be launched this week in the Sarasota, Florida, election meltdown where some 18,000 votes failed to register on the county’s paperless ES&S touch-screen voting systems on November 7th. Fewer than 400 votes currently divide candidates Vern Buchanan (R) and Christine Jennings (D), who are vying to fill disgraced former Sec. of State Katherine Harris’s U.S. House seat in Florida’s 13th congressional district.
A number of sources have confirmed to The BRAD BLOG that Jennings’s legal team — who previously filed court papers to impound voting machines and data for a possible investigation — are preparing to file legal action to challenge the legitimacy of the race, perhaps as soon as this week.
As well, non-partisan legal election watchdog VoterAction.org has announced they will be filing suit this week along with People for the American Way Foundation, the ACLU of Florida, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Common Cause. Velvet Revolution.us (of which The BRAD BLOG is a co-founder) is also joining in support of the action. A plea to citizens by Voter Action, seeking help in funding the lawsuit, follows in full at the end of this article.
This graf, from Voter Action’s announcement, is of particular note in light of our own previous call for the resignation of Sarasota’s atrocious Supervisor of Elections, Kathy Dent — the person responsible, perhaps more than any other, for leading her constituents into this otherwise avoidable debacle [emphasis in original]:
Sarasota’s Herald-Tribune has been doing a very good job of covering the mess since it happened (if not prior to its occurring when something might actually have been done to avoid it).
Today, Herald-Trib columnist Rich Brooks joins the drumbeat of those calling for a full re-vote, writing this weekend: “[I]t’s clear that a special election is needed to ensure a fair process. That’s preferable to sending the wrong representative to Washington.”
In an article on the many phone calls received from Sarasota voters detailing their experiences in trying to vote in the 13th District race, the Herald-Tribune reports today:
Either they couldn’t find the District 13 race as they scrolled through their voting screens (about 36 percent) or their votes for either candidate did not initially register on the ballot summary page (more than 62 percent).
…
[M]any of the voters interviewed bristled at the notion that they were somehow careless or clueless and thus missed the race. Most of them — ranging in age from 19 to 91 — were keenly interested in the race and were familiar with touch-screen technology.
…
The most prevalent problem callers reported encountering happened when they touched a candidate’s name, only to find that their vote hadn’t registered on the ballot review page
Clearly, had Dent simply chosen a voting technology that would have allowed voters to express their intent on a paper ballot, this mess could never have occurred. Dent has gone out of her way for years to ensure that Sarasota voters would have no way of avoiding the problem they now face. Hopefully the courts will offer a way for the voters to express their actual intent in this important House election.
And the most important hope of all: That this election underscores everything that is wrong with E-Voting in our country and that we must do away (at the very least) with touch-screen voting systems…with or without a “paper trail.”
Voter Action’s announcement of their intended legal action and a plea for support follows in full…
Shining a Light on the Sunshine State ““ Can you help?
Voter Action Co-Director and election law attorney Lowell Finley has been in Sarasota since November 9th, investigating the 18,000 missing votes from Florida’s District 13 congressional race in that county. Today, Voter Action is pleased to announce that the People for the American Way Foundation, the ACLU of Florida, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Common Cause are joining this effort on behalf of the voters of Sarasota County, regardless of party affiliation. Based on previous experience and success in the courts to block the use of electronic voting systems across the U.S. and the strength of our new partners, Voter Action is well poised to move this investigation forward and , if as it increasingly appears will be necessary, to file suit to get to the bottom of what happened.
The purpose of this investigation and potential legal action is to
- Get to the bottom of what happened through legal discovery
- File legal action on behalf of the voters of Sarasota challenging the validity of the election if need be.
- Protect the integrity of future elections in Sarasota County, the State of Florida, and the nation.
But in order to do this we need your help. Voter Action needs to raise funds very quickly to continue its work in Sarasota. Even with the legal and organizing assistance of our new partners, we must raise an estimated $45,000.00.
This is an unparalleled opportunity to shed light on the continuing election crisis that plagues Florida, to expose the problems inherent in electronic voting systems, and to demonstrate the harm that can be caused by elections officials with a pro-vendor and anti-voter bias.
Please donate now and share this email with your friends! Donations to this effort are tax deductible.
http://www.voteraction.org/donate.htm
Because we are working on behalf of voters and not a candidate or political party, all donations are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by law and can be made through our fiscal sponsor, the International Humanities Center, a 501(c)(3) organization through the Voter Action website. www.voteraction.org
At the very least there should be a re-vote, and not on the same machines, but on paper ballots this time. Why anyone would object to a paper receipt of a voters choices, in this day and age when we use atm’s, lottery’s, etc., is beyond belief. Just having a paper trail would eliminate any attempts at fraud, and be a sure remedy for any other technical issues that might arise. This is such a no-brainer from the start that it boggles the mind why anyone would ever object to it in the first place. As I recall it had something to do with the expense. What price can you put on a fair and honest election in a democracy, I ask you?
Maybe if this gets to court the country will FINALLY see what’s really been going on when we go to vote ! Hopefully the people of both parties will rise up against the machines. Voting and counting both. And H G Lite.. We have a paper trail in Ohio, they get around that too. Ohio should have turned deep blue by the votes cast for Brown and Strictland. Instead Reps still have control of congress and the courts here. Don’t forget Mean Jean and Pryce are still undecided. Brad’s right, (as always!) paper trails don’t prevent rigging.
Clint Curtis on the Thom Hartmann Show, Now .
‘With or without a paper trail.’
The government promised us ‘paper trails’ for these machines by 2007. I’m a programmer and I’m here to tell you that adding code to any program to create a paper trail would take about ten lines of code and an hour at most for any experienced programmer. What’s this ‘Wait and we’ll do it in a couple of years?’ Wake up, folks.
Jennings filed complaint today!
I live in Sarasota where eveything is rigged here. The Courts and Attorneys violate all the Rules and citizens rights, and run obvious sham trials. Perjury, obstruction, extortion and all laws and evidence are openenly and completely ignored here, as we remain robbed of compensation and our property like it is nothing.
Their are websites listing countless people involved, because it is endless, while the officials in florida turn a blind eye. Some is seen throughout the Tampa Bay neighboring counties, but will eventually be the same in every County, in every State as well.
Election Systems & Software Continues Heritage of Innovation (SPOOF)
OMAHA, Neb., Nov. 22 /PRNewswire/ — Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S), the world’s leading provider of voting technology, sponsors a national competition to encourage new insights into voting system enhancements. The program, organized under the auspices of the University Voting Systems Competition (VOCOMP) brings together teams of the best minds in the country — all focused on innovating new and exciting technologies.
Amanda Brown, a spokeswoman for ES&S, said today that ES&S is working with scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to provide vote counting through quantum computation, which provides a result to an election without ever running the vote counting algorithm.
By combining ES&S’s quantum computation counting algorithm and quantum interrogation, scientists at the University of Illinois have found an exotic way of determining an election result ““ without ever counting the votes!
Using an optical-based quantum computer, a research team led by physicist Saul Tu Kwick has presented the first demonstration of “counterfactual computation,” inferring information about an answer, even though the computer did not run.
Quantum computers have the potential for solving certain types of problems much faster than classical computers. Speed and efficiency are gained because quantum bits can be placed in superpositions of one and zero, as opposed to classical bits, which are either one or zero. Moreover, the logic behind the coherent nature of quantum information processing often deviates from intuitive reasoning, leading to some surprising effects.
“It seems absolutely bizarre that counterfactual computation ““ using information that is counter to what must have actually happened ““ could find an answer without running the entire quantum vote counting computer,” said Kwick, a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics at Illinois. “But the nature of quantum interrogation makes this amazing feat possible.”
“In a sense, it is the possibility that the vote counting algorithm could run which prevents the vote counting algorithm from running,” Kwick said. “That is at the heart of quantum interrogation schemes, and to my mind, quantum mechanics doesn’t get any more mysterious than this.”
Amanda Brown said test results at ES&S show that “this new technique of determining an election result without counting the votes makes substantially fewer errors than previous techniques of actually trying to count the votes.”