A front page blockbuster set for tomorrow’s New York Times reveals that one of the three approved labs which make up the so-called Independent Testing Authority (ITA) responsible for testing all electronic voting systems prior to certification has been barred from testing by the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC).
The Times reports that Ciber Inc. was barred from further testing last summer, but that the EAC failed to disclose the information to the public.
Thousands of electronic voting machines “okayed” by the Ciber labs were in use last November, despite what the Times reports as a failure by the company to follow quality-control procedures and an inability to “document that it was conducting all the required tests.”
As The BRAD BLOG reported earlier today, thousands of reports of e-voting machine failures were documented across the country in a report released this week by a number of non-partisan election watchdog organizations.
Ciber is one of three companies selected and paid for by the Voting Machine Companies themselves to secretly test their electronic voting systems. The results of the testing by the ITA labs and the documented failures or successes are never released to the public.
As the Times is now reporting on their website:
The company, Ciber Inc. of Greenwood Village, Colo., has also come under fire from analysts hired by the state of New York over its plans to test new voting machines for the state. New York could eventually spend $200 million to replace its aging lever devices.
Experts on voting systems say the Ciber problems underscore long-standing worries about lax inspections in the secretive world of voting-machine testing. The action by the federal Election Assistance Commission seems certain to fan growing concerns about the reliability and security of the devices.
The commission acted last summer, but the problem was not disclosed then. Officials at the commission and Ciber confirmed the action in recent interviews.
…
Experts say the deficiencies of the laboratory suggest that crucial features like the vote-counting software and security against hacking may not have been thoroughly tested on many machines now in use.
“What’s scary is that we’ve been using systems in elections that Ciber had certified, and this calls into question those systems that they tested,” said Aviel D. Rubin, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins.
…
Even though Washington and the states have spent billions to install the new technologies, the machine manufacturers have always paid for the tests that assess how well they work, and little has been disclosed about any flaws that were discovered.
While The BRAD BLOG has documented myriad failures on electronic voting machines over the last several months and years, we’ve also documented the dreadful failure of the EAC to perform oversight and the fact that they have been wholly compromised by partisan appointments, including their current (though outgoing) chairman Paul DiGrigorio and have withheld important reports from the public when the information revealed in them was not to the liking of the Republicans who head the committee.
As well, we ran shocking excerpts from an exclusive interview with the first head of the EAC, DeForest Soaries, detailing his unhappiness with both the White House and the Republican-led Congress to properly fund the commission formed by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 to oversee the certification of voting systems and other related matters. Soaries was appointed by George W. Bush and charged, in the shocking interview, that there are “no standards” for the voting equipment in use in America, that the White House and Congress misled him about the commission and “made things worse through the passage of the Help America Vote Act,” and that due to underfunding and lack of attention, America now has an “inability to trust the technology that we use” in elections which he says are “ripe for stealing.”
The excerpts we ran were from a network news interview with Soaries which was never aired by the network.
UPDATE: Lambert from Correntwire has some excellent details on Ciber’s big money ties to the Republican party. He’s critical of the Times’ failure to point that out given they supplied some $72,000 to Republican candidates between 2001 and 2004. As well, he’s got an excellent catch concerning the fact that Ciber’s CEO dumped a bunch of stock just before year’s end, leading Lambert to ask, “Insider trading, anyone?”
FURTHER UPDATE: Howard Stanislavic detailed a number of flaws discovered in Ciber’s testing processes in New York last October at VoteTrustUSA.org. Needless to say, the Times gave him no credit for having beat them to a number of the items they reported in their story tonight. We feel ya, Howard.
(Hat-tip RAW STORY who had the early scoop on the Times story.)
Well this monkey was bound to fly out of somebody’s butt eventually confirming what I’ve always said about e-voting.
Oddly, or not, Times completely fails to mention that Ciber is a Republican contributor (just like Wyle, another testing company).
I think we should have complete trust in the ITAs and the EAC. I mean, after all, aren’t they set up to protect us, the voters? And gee, the government would never lie to us, because we live in the United States of America, and it could never happen here.
So gee whiz, a few months went by (and a couple of elections) and then they remembered that they forgot to remember to let folks know about the wrist slap on Ciber. How big a deal is that REALLY? I mean, how many Joe Sixpacks or Sally Sleepers tune to the news to hear about voting machines – c’mon? If they had reported it during the summer when it actually happened, most everybody’d have been at the beach or out drinking and partying, so they would’ve missed it anyway.
Now this thing about Repugs on the commission, and pleasing the bosses. Come ON! That is SO 90s! Everybody knows nobody would try that because they would be reported and arrested and detested and eventually maybe even have to spend a lot of time in prison – and nobody wants that – trust me. I mean think about it, if you knew YOU might go to prison for brown nosing, would YOU do it? Damn straight!
Now not airing an interview is very common. We should have no concerns about that. I mean, it wasn’t like it was on an important topic, or something that might have been timely, or even something many people would want to see. Imagine flipping through the guide and seeing CSI Miami, Criminal Minds, Crossing Jordan, 24, Dirty Dancing, and something called “DeForest Soaries and the EAC”. Not much chance THAT was going to get watched anyway, so we have to stop sniveling about such trivia.
Voting machines are pretty much here to stay, and airing opposition to them is just throwing fuel on a fire. The government needs to confiscate all the fuel anyway and ration it out only to people who won’t throw it on a burning fire. – The Morons!
Well, I’ve talked to Stephen Colbert and he pretty much agrees with everything I’ve said. He actually called it “truthiness”, so I think that’s a GOOD thing. Happy to put everyone’s fears to rest so you can sleep better tonight, knowing none of this is really happening.
🙂
Tom Courbat #3
Feeling a little sarcastic today, aren’t we?
Well said!
Americans aren’t concerned with hit jobs on democracy, just blow jobs. After all, these media news corporations have to think about the bottom line.
I’m so tired of being tired…
God Damn, Dredd, that was about the time we were looking around at them, wasn’t it
spooky
And what about SAIC, another neo-con outfit, I wonder if they took a look at them also (I doubt it)
Link
and Link
…Are Shawn Southworth and R Doug Lewis running for the border yet ?
I want a crack at them before they get away,
un-American bastards
On Ciber, at least someone is paying attention at the Fed, but why the delay ?
Note to Feds (the American ones)
Try connecting SAIC (Vote Here), Wyle Labs, Ciber, EAC, IFES, The Election Center, IRI, Diebold & all, together
I’ll say they all have strong Republican party ties
Who really wrote the software that is present in all these machines ?
(sometimes a guy has to rub their nose in it to get them on track… woof woof)
One more thing, then I’m outty
“A recent appearance in Sarasota, Fla., by the SysTest Labs president, Brian T. Phillips, and “the victorious Republican candidate hired Mr. Phillips as a consultant to monitor the state’s examination of whether there had been a malfunction in the voting machines.”
What did he (phillips) have to do, come down and re configure the machines before the test ?…another hunk of lying bullshit
I’ll guarantee you, there is a stink emanating from his closet also
Floridiot #5…
And we asked why one person certifies the machines no matter how many ITA companies claim to do the certification?
Or who sets the standards of the lone EVM ranger republican doing the testing (The Lone EVM Ranger)?
Wow, maybe the worm is finally turning.
Now let’s finish the bottle; run these lying bastards out of our government, our corporations, and our lives forever, whisking the worst of the lot off to prison.
(Been house/dog sittin’) Woof.
A little insider-trading litigation to start the new year!!
This is great news!! A new chink in the armor…one that I hadn’t even thought about…but I like it!!
When are Noe and Feeney going to start squealing??
The Hinder American Vote Act should be immediately repealed!!
Floridiot #5
I wondered if you and Dredd didn’t spark this “concern” by the EAC. Good work!
#8 Floridot
Try connecting SAIC (Vote Here), Wyle Labs, Ciber, EAC, IFES, The Election Center, IRI, Diebold & all, together
I did. The only way to visualize it is like so:
Install debian linux.
apt-get install e16 or e17(CVS)
apt-get install etherape
apt-get install bittorrent.
fire up etherape
fire up bittorrent, search for Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Cindy Crawford, etc..
Look at your etherape window. LOL
All tied together.
Thanks guys ^^^
Another note to the Federales
Use this Link for my #7, That’ll get you started
And this Read my posts down from here
Sorry, another Link for my #14 above (musta did something wrong)
Maybe it’s more properly the Hijack American Votes Act
When will Congress investigate origination of the legistlation that appeared to mandate states had to buy this stuff, paid for by taxpayer dollars?
And how about a full, independent investigation of The Election Center? Now just why was a secretive, vendor contributed-to-organization allowed so much influence?
And why won’t congress let true citizens attend hearings and participate in originating and writing legislation pertaining to voting?
That’s a bipartisan failure. You can look at all the Republican influence you want, it still took a lack of concern across the isle to let it get this way.