Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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As violence surges in Iraq, the death toll for journalists has risen to a new high. Depending on the source, between 76 and 82 journalists have been killed since the war began.

While covering the bombing of a revered Shi'ite mosque, Al-Arabiya's Atwar Bahjat and two of her colleagues were shot by two gunmen. Atwar Bahjat had recently left the Al-Jazeera television network for pro-American Al-Arabiya network. She was widely known and respected in the Arab world.

"Ryan" seemed like a nice enough fellow...until a few tell-tale signs of trollishness seems to have slipped into his repartee. We'll let you see if you can spot them.

My weekly radio appearance on KRXA 540am in Monterey, CA with the always delightful Peter B. Collins was a gas as usual. This week we covered everything from Diebold in Alaska and California to Sequoia and Clint Curtis in Florida. Much to cover, and we didn't even get to all of it. It was a busy week in the trenches of the War on Democracy.

Late in the program came a call from "Ryan in Salinas" asking about Photo ID requirement laws at the polls --- a question I'm always happy to answer to. The ensuing exchange, I believe, is worth posting here for your listening pleasure.

-- Photo ID Call with "Ryan" [MP3, about 6 minutes]
-- Complete Appearance Today with Peter [MP3, about 30 minutes]

A bizarre story concerning Alaska's 2004 Election has taken yet another even more bizarre turn this week, The BRAD BLOG has learned.

A long-standing public records request for the release of Election 2004 database files created by Diebold's voting system had been long delayed after several odd twists and turns, including the revelation of a contract with the state claiming the information to be a "company secret."

But while it finally appeared as though the state had agreed to release the information (after reserving the right to "manipulate the data" in consultation with Diebold before releasing it), the state's top Security Official has now --- at the last minute --- stepped in to deny the request. The grounds for the denial: the release of the information poses a "security risk" to the state of Alaska.

The state Democratic party has been attempting since December of last year to review the Diebold GEMS tabulator data files from the 2004 election in order to audit some of the strange results discovered in the state, including a reported voter turnout of more than 200% in some areas.

"At this point," Democratic Party spokesperson Kay Brown told the Anchorage Daily News in January, "it's impossible to say whether the correct candidates were declared the winner in all Alaska races from 2004."

Some of the questionable results from the 2004 Election were outlined in a January 23rd letter [PDF] to the state's Division of Elections from the Alaska Democratic Party chairman, Jake Metcalfe. Amongst the anomolies detailed in Metcalfe's letter: "district-by-district vote totals add up to 292,267 votes for President Bush, but his official total was only 190,889."

The state Division of Elections, which had previously relented and agreed to release the data after refusing at first to do so, announced its latest about-face in a letter to Metcalfe on Wednesday citing the following concern from Alaska's Chief Security Officer Darrell Davis after he reviewed the public records request:

The complete letters from Alaska's Division of Elections Director Whitney Brewster and Chief Security Officer Darrell Davis are both available in full here [PDF].

The earlier twists in this strange tale occurred first in January and then in early February.

In late January, we reported that the state had refused to release the Election Data Files on the grounds that their contract with Diebold disallowed the release of the files. Their contract, apparently, recognizes the voter information to be a "company secret" and thus the proprietary property of the company which could not be released to the voters of Alaska.

A week or so later, in early Februrary we reported that the state and Diebold had capitulated. Sort of. After conferring with Diebold, the state relented and agreed to release the files. However, they reserved the right to --- sit down for this --- "manipulate the data" in consultation with Diebold before releasing them!

As the Elections Director Brewster stated in a February 3rd letter [PDF] to Metcalfe announcing they would release the data:

And now, the new wrinkle, the state's "security risks" lead them to announce that "after careful consideration," they "will not authorize the release of the GEMS database or audit files" after all.

"Delivery of the database itself, and some of the information contained within this database," says the letter from Davis, "presents numerous security risks to the State of Alaska Government."

We couldn't make this stuff up if we tried.

So just to recap: First the voters of Alaska were not allowed to see their own voting data from the 2004 Election because it was the proprietary "company secret" property of Diebold. Then they would be allowed to see it as long as the state and Diebold could "manipulate the data" before releasing it. And now finally it's determined that allowing the voters to see how they actually voted in the 2004 Election would be a "security risk" to the state of Alaska.

No word yet on whether the Alaska Democratic Party will take the matter to court to seek resolution.

The American War on Democracy continues...

(Hat-tip to VoteTrustUSA.org for the heads up and additional information!)

UPDATE 4/18/06: The insane roller coaster continues. State Democrats are forced to file a lawsuit to get at the records showing how voters voted in 2004. Details now here...

AP --- yes, AP --- is now reporting the just released audit information obtained from Palm Beach County, Florida's 2004 Election. And the picture of the Sequoia paperless touch-screen voting machines used that night is not pretty. The information was obtained and released tonight by BlackBoxVoting.org...

From the AP story...

The election officials in Palm Beach, however, say there are perfectly good reasons that their own election audit tapes showed thousands of errors and other anomolies...and, of course, they blame the victims...

Meanwhile, the folks from Sequoia Voting Systems, who make the apparently error-prone machines in question, say "all is well"...

That "fine election", however, apparently seems to have included votes cast prior to the start of early elections...

BlackBoxVoting.org now has many more details on all of this up at their site. Amongst a few of the other notable points from BBV not mentioned in the AP article:

See BBV for more anomolies, details and explanations on all of the above.

A "fine election" indeed.

Diebold continues to run their previously good name into the ground, as the Mainstream Media finally begins to notice what's been going on around here...Finally, the unAmerican Voting Machine Company who originally brung you the War on Democracy, seems to be getting the incredibly bad press they've always deserved...Now from coast to coast...

In today's LA Times (in the Business section, because your elections are big business!) Michael Hiltzik condemns the recent inexplicable re-certification of Diebold in California:

And there's much more...This in regard to the panel assembled by McPherson to study the issue, after whose brutal report, he went ahead and --- incredibly --- re-certified the machines anyway!

And then there was Tom Elias in today's column for Torrance Daily Breeze (syndicated in many other papers, as well):

Well, heck, with rave reviews like that, no wonder McPherson re-certified 'em!

Speaking of which, our new pal Skippy the Bush Kangaroo called the Secretary of State today to register his complaint about recertification. Guess what Skippy found out?

Meanwhile, on the other coast, out in Diebold's one-time "showcase state" of Maryland where the Republican Governor recently declared he "no longer [has] confidence in the State Board of Elections' ability to conduct fair and accurate elections in 2006" on Diebold's machinery, Mike Himowitz in the Baltimore Sun rages against the machines and the pitfalls of secret software used to count our votes:

Ouch. We suppose the boyz in North Canton, OH, would be wise to find a buyer soon...before the lawsuits start hittin'.

Yes, that appears to be what he actually said.

For my part, I'm somewhat agnostic about the Dubai Ports issue. However, if the law was broken, as some are contending, that's another story all together.

In general, however (and I realize this position may well earn me some ire from BRAD BLOG commenters) it seems to me the concerns about the Dubai ports deal from the Republican side is largely racist in nature. And on the Democratic side the outrage seems somewhat opportunistic in general --- despite the fact that they are doing what a loyal opposition party ought to be doing as far as oversight, checks and balances and all of that.

I reserve the right to change my position on this matter as I learn more (have been busy with a few other matters, as you may have noticed.) And, as I've said, if the deal is in opposition to the law, then the deal should die, and the law breakers should be held accountable.

Either way, the entire matter is clearly a politically tone-deaf move by Bush, outmeasured only by his incredibly foolish statement today that Americans "don't need to worry about security."

California State Senator Debra Bowen, chairwoman of the State Elections, Reapproprionment & Constitutional Amendments Committee has just released a statement of condemnation for Sec. of State Bruce McPherson's recent re-certification of Diebold voting machines in the state.

A press release just issued by her office includes a letter she has sent to McPherson (posted in full below) calling on him to reverse his recent decision to re-certify based on a number of apparent violations of California's state laws and regulations which seem to have been disregarded in his decision making process.

McPherson's decision to re-certify Diebold --- after they had previously been de-certified in 2004 for violation of state law; after at least 20% of their machines failed during a massive mock election test last summer; after the same machines were shown to contain hackable "interpreted code" which is banned outright by federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) guidelines; after previously announcing that certification review would not proceed in CA until those federal authorities re-examined that banned code (they didn't do so the first time they examined Diebold's machines); and after his own secretly-conducted independent analysis [PDF] confirmed that such unsecure and buggy code indeed existed in the machines and would put our elections at grave risk of being hacked and/or tampered with --- stunned virtually everyone when it was announced quietly last Friday night after the week's news cycle had ended and before the long holiday weekend began.

Only California County Elections officials and Diebold Reps seem pleased with the move.

Bowen's letter, calling for a reversal of McPherson's "conditional certification" points to at least three different violations of state laws and regulations.

In the release which includes the full letter, Bowen who is herself running for Secretary of State in 2006 and has been a champion of transparent government for many years, says, "The certification doesn't comply with state law and it breaks the commitment the Secretary made to Californians in December to wait for a federal review and testing process to be completed before deciding whether to allow Diebold's equipment to be used in California."

Further, Bowen continues, "Californians shouldn't be required to vote on machines that the Secretary's own internal review team found to be riddled with bugs and susceptible to tampering. For the Secretary to get that kind of a report, then turn around and re-certify the Diebold machines for use in California only serves to undermine the already low level of confidence many people have in the integrity of our elections."

The State Elections Committee, which she chairs, has been holding hearings on these matters of late, which both McPherson and all of the Voting Machine Vendors being considered for certification in California have refused to attend and testify in front of. A grassroots email and phone campaign has been launched to convince the Senate Rules Committee, on which Bowen sits, to allow for subpoenas to be sent to those parties compelling them to testify under oath before the State Senate. Such subpoena power, by tradition in the CA Senate, is rarely invoked.

Bowen's complete letter sent today to McPherson follows...

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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This video contains clips from CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight and MSNBC Countdown that focus on the financial concerns that are motivating President Bush to stand firm on the Dubai Ports takeover in the face of extreme public dissent, political pressure and possible national security concerns.

Lou Dobbs puts together financial connections between both Bush Presidents, the UAE, the Carlyle Group, Dubai Investment Fund, Neil Bush and John Snow.

The Bush appointment of a former Dubai Ports Executive, David Sanborn, as head of the U.S. Maritime Administration is also under scrutiny. In his new position, Sanborn now oversees all U.S. port operations. Dubai Ports has hired Bob Dole and two other Republican ex-senators to lobby Congress. The UAE paid over $750k to lobbying firms last year.

MSNBC Countdown provides analysis from David Sirotaan who is an expert on big money's influence on government:

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

The White House says that the President didn't know about the Dubai Ports takeover deal until after it was approved.

Patrick Malloy is an attorney who help write the law that regulates the approval of foreign investments in the United States. He says that the law requires that the President be notified on all foreign investments that pose a national security concern. The law also says that the President must report his findings to Congress where the issue could be debated.

The White House is expected to begin briefing select members of Congress today. In the meantime, Secretary Rice will visit the UAE today to ensure them that the Dubai Ports deal will go through as planned.

Eric Dezenhall runs a crisis management firm. He explains that "Americans often have a harder time with inconsistency than we do with dishonesty." The President has a record of stong national security rhetoric including the protection of U.S. ports.

This video clip from CNN shows the President talking tough on security during speeches at several ports. During a speech at a port in Philadelphia, the President said "We will use all our power to keep out the terrorist and the criminals."

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UPDATE: Dems send letter challenging legality of ports deal...

UPDATE #2: Video of Democratic Senators on the Armed Services Committee questioning the Bush Administration's CFIUS members about avoiding the law while approving the Dubai deal.

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Notable news around the nation in regard to Electronic Voting, Election Reform and Voting in general is coming now at a more and more frenetic pace. We've got much more we're personally working on, but today there were a few other small-ish, yet notable-ish stories worth mentioning. Here they are --- wrapped into one single, user-friendly, BRAD BLOG item...

1) California May Want to Get Ready for Diebold Related Lawsuits
Voter Action --- the group who has successfully received a Temporary Restraining Order against the purchase of Sequoia voting machines in New Mexico while they enjoy unprecedented "discovery" on such machines --- has turned their eye towards Diebold in California, given the latest developments/shenanigans concerning SoS Bruce McPherson's re-certification in apparent violation of state laws and regulalations. The Voter Action press release issued today indicates that litigation in California, similar to that in New Mexico, might be very appropriate. Stay tuned.

2) Greens/Libertarians Demand Reinstatement of Federal Ohio '04 Recount Suit
Yes, they're still fighting for your vote to be counted. A Federal judge recently dismissed their lawsuit charging that the 2004 Ohio Presidential Recount was gamed. The reason for the dismissal: The point was now moot, since the 2004 recount procedures would not be used again. But, according to 2004 Green Party Presidential Candidate David Cobb, what the judge didn't know when he dismissed the case, was that Ohio's SOB SoS, J. Kenneth Blackwell, recently announced that recount procedures would be the same in the future. Game back on, says Cobb in his motion to re-instate the case.

3) Diebold Whistleblower Charged With Three Felony Counts
The LA Times reports today (link above) that Stephen Heller, the man who released internal memos from Diebold's California law firm in 2002 showing they were aware of a number of election law violations pled "not guilty" to the charges. Says his attorney, "Certainly, someone who saw those documents could have reasonably believed that thousands of voters were going to be potentially disenfranchised in upcoming elections." Diebold fought to keep the docs from being published. They lost. Eventually it all led to a multi-million dollar settlement with California and BlackBoxVoting.org, who has more on this...

4) TV News Waking Up to Election Reform Issues!
WGAL in Philadelphia covers the Electoral mess hitting their state. The second of their two-part report takes a look into the unsavory legal backgrounds of virtually ALL of the American Voting Machine companies. From ES&S to Sequoia to Danaher to Diebold, etc. Here's to more local news outlets jumping into the game where the national media is failing!

5) George W. Bush Acts Like He Gives a Damn About the Voting Rights Act
A few years ago, he didn't know what it was. Now, with it coming up for renewal in 2007, after his Dept. of Justice has all but gutted it, Bush has the temerity to call for its renewal as if he cares about it. Says Bush in this short video today (thanks David Edwards!): The VRA is a "milestone in the history of civil Rights. Congress must act to renew the Voting Rights Act of 1965." Like he could give a shit.

6) Parallel Universe: Election Reform as Covered by Fox "News"
A preview of how the MSM (led as usual by Fox) will likely cover Election Reform as soon as they notice the massive crisis. Which is to say, they'll report on everything that doesn't matter, but that which Fox and the GOP tells them is important. In their article, Fox, of course, puts the emphasis on States that haven't implemented HAVA fast enough, Photo ID requirement laws, the non-existent problem of "Voter Fraud" (yes, all the Baker/Carter Commission cretins, including our friend, the unrepentant Robert Pastor make unsurprisingly Fox-friendly cameos) and finally, at the end --- the very end --- a brief nod to a few concerns about Electronic Voting. The biggest concern there? "Inexperienced poll workers" having problems with the "new technology." Hey, it's the "#1 Name in News" for a reason, baby!

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

From Alabama comes a report that ES&S had an internal communications problem and they provide the optical scan machines used in Belforest in their elections. "The company delivered "data packs" --- the electronic devices in which the voters' selections are stored --- programmed for absentee voting, causing the two machines to reject the ballots, Johns said. The situation did not affect the voting, as voters filled out their ballots and slipped them in an emergency bin used for occasions such as this one, he said." Imagine if that had been DREs instead of optical-scan. Just why is there an IrDA port on those Diebold machines? Just a reminder, that this will be the last Daily Voting News until next Tuesday evening. I will be off line until then. Have a great weekend....

We hate to pile on... (Or do we?)

But, really, with all the recent discussion of California Sec. of State Bruce McPherson's mind-blowing about-face re-certification of Diebold --- against state law, we hasten to add --- this may be a good time to point out one small item that we've been meaning to mention for a while.

As Jody Holder's recent comment points out, McPherson's silly "conditions" for re-certification of Diebold in California require a few much-less-than-adequate knee-jerk "safe guards" towards protection of the handling of the hackable memory cards in Diebold's voting machines. (Here's McP's full "Certificate of Conditional Certification").

Never mind, as Holder mentions, that the protective seals to be required are easily peeled away without tearing. Or that such voting machines have been stored in poll workers houses for weeks leading up to an election. More to the point, for the moment, there are ways to manipulate the information on those memory cards even without removing them or breaking the seals. This is more of a concern than ever, since it was recently proven, by the now-infamous Harri Hursti hack in Leon County, FL, that changing the information on the memory cards can force election results to be flipped...without a trace being left behind.

On that note, here's the little item we've been meaning to point out. It's a photograph from the side of a Diebold AccuVote TSx TS6 touch-screen voting machine:

Now we have no idea what that "IrDA" port is meant to be used for with a touch-screen voting machine, but we do know that the IrDA (Infrared Data Association) is an Infrared port used for wireless connection between two devices. We used to have one on the back of our notebook and desktop computers which we used to keep the two systems synched up via wireless data transfers over that Infrared port.

A few election watchdog groups, including some members of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) who works with the federal authorities on these matters, have issued warnings about the IrDA port and protocols on voting machines. However, little --- if anything --- seems to have been done to mitigate the rather obvious security threat posed, as far as we can tell.

Here's how a page at Microsoft.com, last updated December 4, 2001, explains cable-free Infrafred data transfer on the Microsoft Windows CE operating system (the operating system which happens to be used in Diebold's AccuVote touch-screen voting machines --- like the one pictured above)...

There ya go.

The issue of the IrDA port on touch-screen voting machines hasn't been much discussed as far as we can tell. VotersUnite.org issued an alert mentioning it, with a photograph (seen at right), back on October 26, 2004. The alert warned:

The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) --- who works with the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to develop and recommend guidelines for electronic voting machines --- issued a similar warning [PDF] about the Infrared ports on voting machines in a report which warned "The use of short range optical wireless," like infrared, "particularly on Election Day should not be allowed."

As mentioned, since touch-screen machines have been stored at poll workers' houses and other unsecured locations prior to Election Day, and since data can be transferred to the machines and their memory cards via Infrared --- even without removing the cards or breaking their protective seals --- the IrDA ports would seem to be a tremendous concern.

The NIST report discusses such concerns and some of the troubling security issues with IrDA protocols:

The undated report --- from the EAC's own standards body, NIST --- then goes on to describe how simple and readily available IrDA software drivers are to obtain for use with UNIX and most Windows Operating Systems, including Windows CE. As well, it points out that such software could add executable code to the machines on, or prior to, Election Day and could then delete itself after ithe code has completed its main purpose [emphasis ours]:

Obviously, that last paragraph is very troubling. But also note the section about COTS.

The source code for that "Commercial-Off-The-Shelf" software is what Diebold recently argued that they couldn't provide to North Carolina after they changed their law to require all voting machine vendors to submit such code in order to receive state certification. Diebold went to state court arguing they shouldn't be forced to supply the source code for COTS software. Eventually, they lost that battle, and notified North Carolina they preferred to pull out of the state entirely (if the state wouldn't change the law for them) rather than complying with the state law requiring the submission of all such source code.

And another comment posted to NIST's voting website [PDF] by James C. Johnson on October 5, 2005, also discusses the concern, revealing that the use of the IrDA protocols could be used at any time, even after final "Logic and Accuracy" tests have been performed, and thus "totally compromising the system":

Perhaps some of you have additional thoughts on this matter. Like why such a port would be needed, or even present, on a touch-screen voting machine at all. And why the existence of such a port --- to our knowledge --- has hardly been discussed at all in conjuction with these machines. Especially in light of the now-infamous Leon County, FL "hack test" proving that executable code can be added to Diebold's memory cards resulting in a completely flipped election...as we've said...without a trace being left behind.

CORRECTION: We had previously identified the machine in the article's first photo as a TSx, when it's actually from a slightly older TS6 like those used in Maryland and elsewhere. The second photo, with all of the various ports identified, was originally taken from the Diebold AccuVote TS User's Manual. We have conflicting reports on whether the IrDA port is still used on the newer TSx machines and will try to follow up later with definitive information when we can get it.

UPDATE 6/28/06: Something happened during our import to the new software here at BRAD BLOG to munge up the comments section of this post. We'll see if we can figure out how to restore them correctly. Until then, we've turned off the comments on this post.

God bless the doctors...and the U.S. Constitution...Sanity prevails, if only for the moment, in California.

Crumbling down.

One of the original Neocon architects and a signer of the infamous PNAC letter, Francis Fukuyama, says the movement has failed and has "evolved into something I can no longer support," according to this report.

Further, he makes what can only be seen as an exceedingly uncomfortable --- yet perfectly apt --comparison between the Bush Administration policies and ... Leninism.