News

ES&S Caught with Uncertified Machines in CA; Decertification May Result

EDA — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:14:59 -0400

Original article published at Bradblog.com: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4985

ES&S Facing Massive Fines, Possible Decertification in CA for Use of Uncertified Modifications to Voting Systems

Illegal Changes to Company's AutoMARK Ballot Marking Device Could Bring $10,000
Fine Per Machine, Full Refund of Purchase Price, Prohibition from Doing Business in State of California...

By Brad Friedman from St. Louis, MO...

ES&S, the country's largest distributor of voting machines, looks to be in a lot of trouble in California. A public notice from the CA Secretary of State's office was posted this morning by Thad Hall of CalTech announcing that the company "has violated" CA Elections Code by modifying "hundreds of units of a version of the AutoMARK ballot marking device" without certification or permission of the Secretary of State...

CA Source Code Reports Are Dire -- Bowen's Decisions Due Today

EDA — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 13:58:31 -0400

VS Review page 080307

Below are the conclusions from Bowen's three source code reports

posted at http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vsr.htm
Thanks to Jim Soper, (Voting Rights Task Force, Alameda Co. CA) for providing this digest of the individual vendor system security reports. http://www.CountedAsCast.com

Public Comment Still Being Accepted

Comments e-mailed to votingsystems@sos.ca.gov or phoned into voicemail at (916) 651-7834 will still be considered in advance of the certification decisions Sec. Bowen will announce later this afternoon. (Thanks to Jennifer Kidder of VRTF for this info).

UPDATE on today's Sacramento press conference regarding Secretary of State Debra Bowen's voting system certification decisions...
We do not have an exact time yet, but it will be in the p.m. and not a.m.
Thank you for your patience,

Nicole Winger
Deputy Secretary of State, Communications
Office of California Secretary of State Debra Bowen

DIEBOLD, pg 65

Our study of the Diebold source code found that the system does not meet the requirements for a security-critical system. It is built upon an inherently fragile design and suffers from implementation flaws that can expose the entire voting system to attacks. These vulnerabilities, if exploited, could jeopardize voter privacy and the integrity of elections. An attack could plausibly be accomplished by a single skilled individual

Riverside Activists Prevail -- County to Dispose of DREs

EDA — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:31:59 -0400

Guest BLOGGED BY Tom Courbat ON 7/13/2007 2:46PM at BradBlog.com http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4816

'Blue Ribbon' Committee to Riverside County, CA Board of Supes: Dump DRE Touch-Screen Voting Systems!

Enormous Victory as Dogged Citizen Advocacy Finally Pays Off!

Committee Also Recommends Security Audit of Registrar's Office in First County in America to Move to Touch-Screen Voting Systems

Guest Blogged by Tom Courbat of SAVE R VOTE

ED NOTE: Courbat and his band of intrepid Election Integrity advocates are owed a huge debt of thanks and an enormous congratulations for their effort. This recommendation, and indeed the creation of the "Blue Ribbon" commission itself, only came about due to the dogged, week-in, week-out, year-in, year-out persistence of Tom and the Riverside County advocates of SAVE R VOTE.
We're happy to run his first-hand, guest blog contribution on this tremendous victory, as Courbat's group and efforts serve as a role model for citizens in every county in the nation. --- BF

Dump the DREs and Minimize Additional Outlays To Go To Paper Ballots

Next Tuesday, July 17, 2007, the Riverside County, California Board of Supervisors’ hand-picked “Blue Ribbon” Elections Review Committee will present the Board with recommendations to “Move as quickly as possible to a hybrid voting system…on paper ballots…counted by optical scanners.”

For Riverside County, the first in America to move to touch-screen electronic voting systems, the importance of their findings cannot be understated.

Alameda Court Orders New Election as Remedy for Destroyed Vote Data

EDA — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:39:34 -0400

"Judge Smith's decision in the recount suit vindicates a fundamental right reserved long ago by the People of California to ferret out possible fraud or error in election results," noted counsel for the voters Gregory Luke. ". . . The decision is a firm rebuke to the culture of secrecy that has taken hold in too many election offices around the country."

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
June 12, 2007

Tentative Ruling Finds that County Officials Destroyed Voting Records from Election
Conducted on Diebold Electronic Voting Machines

Election Results May Be Nullified and County Ordered to Conduct Re-Vote on Ballot Measure at Next General Election; Hearing on the Tentative Ruling Tomorrow

OAKLAND, CA - Superior Court Judge Winifred Y. Smith issued a tentative ruling that the Alameda County Registrar of Voters and Alameda County "have engaged in a pattern of withholding relevant evidence and failure to preserve evidence" necessary to conduct a recount of a hotly contested Berkeley ballot measure. As a result, the Court has signaled its intention to void the election and order the County to place Measure R back on the ballot for a re-vote at the next general election.

Judge Smith will issue a final ruling after the Court hears oral arguments tomorrow (Friday, July 13, at 9:30 a.m. at the Wiley Manuel Courthouse, Department 114, 661 Washington Street, Oakland).

"Judge Smith's tentative ruling confirms our contention that Alameda County violated its duty to preserve the critical voting machine data that was the focus of this recount lawsuit and election contest," said Gregory Luke of Strumwasser & Woocher LLP, attorney for the plaintiffs who sought the recount of the vote on Measure R.

Riverside County (CA) Panel Recommends Dumping DREs

EDA — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 15:34:58 -0400

Riverside_071307
Original Riverside Press Enterprise article at http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_H_vote13.400853f.html

Optical Scan, Precinct Posting, Video Cameras Among Recommendations

Tom Courbat, founder of SAVE R VOTE, an elections integrity group that has pressed the supervisors to abandon the touch-screen machines, called the panel's recommendations "very bold ... something they knew the Board of Supervisors did not want to hear."

By KIMBERLY TRONE and RICHARD K. DEATLEY
The Press-Enterprise, 10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, July 12, 2007

Riverside County, the first in the state to use electronic touch-screen voting machines, should return to a paper-based voting system, a panel appointed by the Board of Supervisors has recommended.

The Sequoia Voting Systems machines in use by the county since the 2000 presidential elections haven't gained voter confidence and have failed to meet expectations of reliability and cost savings, the five-member panel found.

The panel found no evidence of any errors or defects in the county's touch-screen system, however.

Michelle Shafer, vice president of communications for Sequoia Voting Systems, said late Thursday that she could not comment on the recommendations until she'd had an opportunity to review them.

The decision about whether to scrap the electronic system rests with the county supervisors, who will discuss the recommendations Tuesday. The county has spent about $25 million on electronic machines since putting them to use. The cost to replace them is not yet known.

The Case for Hand-Counted Paper Ballots

EDA — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:09:41 -0400

THE CASE FOR HAND COUNTED PAPER BALLOTS

by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.

February 21, 2007

I remain an advocate of paper ballots, counted by hand, at the precinct level, in full public view, on Election Night, no matter how long it takes. Here is an outline of my reasons:

1. Without PAPER BALLOTS, no election results can be verified by auditors.
“Voter-verified paper trails” do not suffice, because:

(a) not all voters will take the extra time to “verify” each and every vote for a multitude of offices and initiatives;

(b) there is no way to ensure that the vote count reported by the machine actually matches the “paper trail” without looking at the paper record;

(c) contentious court cases will be required in order to look at the paper record during the brief time period when an election can be challenged; therefore

(d) the unverified machine count will likely become official; and

(e) auditing the poll books and voter signature books can only verify the accuracy of the total number of ballots cast, and cannot detect alteration of the vote count for individual candidates.

2. The ballots must be COUNTED BY HAND.

We have examined tens of thousands of ballots from the 2004 general election in Ohio, and have found large discrepancies, errors, and outright fraud that were not detected by the machine counts, including:

(a) hundreds of consecutive ballots cast for the same presidential candidate;

(b) inexplicable voting patterns, such as half of the gay marriage supporters voting for Bush;

(d) “duplicate” ballots without original “voided” ballots to match them;

(e) unused ballots missing or destroyed;

(f) ballots cast in the wrong precinct, with a different ballot rotation;

(g) far more, or far fewer, voted ballots than the official number of ballots cast;

(h) thousands of “absentee” ballots identified in the same handwriting, with the same writing implement;

(i) absolutely blank ballots substituted for ballots cast by voters;

(j) thousands of ballots punched in advance for third-party candidates, causing voters to spoil their own ballots by casting overvotes, found almost exclusively in heavily Democratic inner-city precincts.

3. The ballots must be counted AT THE PRECINCT LEVEL, because:

(a) hand counting of paper ballots is not manageable at the county level;

(b) the counting takes place before “chain of custody” issues have arisen;

4. The ballots must be counted IN FULL PUBLIC VIEW, because:

(a) nothing else will restore public confidence in the veracity of the vote count;

(b) public monitoring of the actual counting of ballots is an exciting opportunity for citizens to engage in participatory democracy; and

(c) if observers are limited to persons residing in the precinct being counted, contentious challenges from partisan lawyers can be averted.

5. The ballots must be counted ON ELECTION NIGHT, NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES, because:

(a) again, the counting takes place before “chain of custody” issues have arisen;

(b) the voters have already endured a lengthy campaign, and can wait a while for the unofficial results;

(c) the right of voters to have their votes counted correctly, the first time, trumps the desire of election workers to go home early; and

(d) if election workers are tired after a long day, a new team can be brought in to count the ballots.

EAC Takes Aim at Paper Ballots

EDA — Wed, 30 May 2007 18:35:42 -0400

May 30, 2007

"So what did the techno-advisory group come up with
in their recommendations for dealing with the "problem" of handling and counting paper ballots?

Paper ballots must now all be technology-enabled. . . 'machine readable.'

Let's think about this for a moment."

By Nancy Tobi

I went to Washington, DC last week. Our nation's capital. I wish I could say that I went solely to enjoy the warm and nourishing hospitality of my food and lodging angel, Arlene. Or that I went to enjoy the May roses not found in New England until much later in the summer. I wish I could say that I went to embrace the massive willow oak in the park outside the congressional office buildings, or that I went just so that I could lie on my back on the grass in the park and feel the rays of the DC sun melt into my face.

CA 50 Plaintiffs Petition CA Supreme Court for Review

EDA — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 21:04:40 -0400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2007
Contact Linda A. Poniktera - 619.987.7200
Plaintiffs Petition California Supreme Court
On Ruling In California’s 50th District Election Contest

Petition Seeks To Confirm Courts' Jurisdiction Over Elections And Continuing Importance Of Voting Rights

San Diego, CA April 27, 2007 –
In a press conference today near the San Diego Convention Center, the nonprofit legal firm Psephos announced that plaintiffs Gail Jacobson and Lillian Ritt have petitioned the California Supreme Court regarding the Jacobson v. Bilbray election contest requesting discovery and a recount of the vote in the June 2006 special election in California’s 50th Congressional District. The election was terminated via a premature swearing-in only 7 days after the June 6, 2006 election although the Congressional Record stated that 68,500 votes were still uncounted and the election was not yet completed or certified.

State, County Resistance Slowing Rush to H.R. 811

EDA — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 22:00:57 -0400

Originally published at: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/election-officials-predict-chaos-pro...

"Wait a Minute-- Counties Have Something to Say"

Election Officials Predict Chaos, Protest Reform Bill

By Heidi Bruggink
April 12, 2007

Eyeing the passage of Rep. Rush Holt’s (D-N.J.) election reform legislation, election officials are protesting what they believe is a poorly planned, even dangerous, set of changes.

The Voter Confidence and Increased Accountability Act of 2007, which boasts more than 200 bipartisan cosponsors, appeared to be sailing toward confirmation before Congress adjourned for Easter recess. However, the House Administration Committee vote was postponed unexpectedly after election officials from across the country testified before the Elections Subcommittee and scores of others contacted their representatives predicting problems that could make the 2000 and 2004 elections “look like the proverbial walk in the park.”

Disability Voter Advocates Call for Ban on DREs

EDA — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:50:09 -0400

Originally published at BradBlog.com: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4270

BLIND AND DISABLED VOTER ADVOCATES, GROUPS
CALL FOR 'IMMEDIATE BAN' OF DRE VOTING SYSTEMS!

Two Different Statements from Civil Rights Leaders Call for Discontinuation of Insecure, Unverifiable, Disenfranchising DRE/Touch-Screen Voting Technology
Both Destroy Myth of Need to Sacrifice Verifed Ballots for Accessibility...

"Electronic ballot systems such as DRE machines, are neither fully accessible nor secure and accurate methods of recording, tallying, and reporting votes ... [They] are inappropriate for use, because these systems make it impossible for voters to verify that their votes will be counted as cast." - Statement released today by DISABLED VOTER ADVOCATES