While U.S. Foreign Policy is seen as an attempt to promote Democracy, “back at home”, elections are a questionable exercise. Please see the following notices and websites.
2 things you can do for honest elections:
* Video The Vote
Stopping voter suppression, by observing the vote.
And sharing the results-on Election Day.
http://www.videothevote.org
* Velvet Revolution $250,000 Reward For Information About Election Fraud In The November Election - definitive and conclusive proof that a United States House or Senate election has been rigged by illegal means. The information must result in an overturning of a congressional election and a conviction of the person or persons responsible for the fraud.
http://velvetrevolution.us
Election Protection Strike Force
http://velvetrevolution.us/electionstrikeforce
Voter Protection Immediate Response Network
http://www.workingassets.com/election_protection.cfm
* League of Technical Voters
http://www.leagueoftechvoters.org
Imagine with us a future where:
* Legislators understand the greater implications of technology and are held
accountable for it
* Our government has a implemented a new level of technical transparency
without compromising privacy
* Technical Experts are savvy on how to influence governmental processes like
lawmaking and bidding
* Technical advice and information are readily available to legislators and
administrators
* Your concerns about the implementation of technology are heard and discussed
* A strong, influential community of technical activists gather to share
resources
* Technical experts fill advisory boards, directly influencing procurement and
policy decisions
* The press has a credible, collaborative news resource on technical legislative issues
via
Evan Ravitz evan@Vote.org
Vote to Ratify the National Initiative at http://Vote.org
"Fool's gold exists because there is real gold." –Rumi
____________________________________________________________________________
The Landes Report http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingSecurity.htm
Voting Integrity on Election Day
http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=1385
New Worries Abound about Reliability of US Voting Machines
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1103-03.htm
America's last chance
http://www.unknownnews.org/061030a-hh.html
______________________________________________________________________________
BREAKING NEWS: The report on Diebold security flaws is publicly released that Linda Lamone, MD Election Director and former President of the National Association of State Election Directors kept secret since 2003!
BRAD BLOG EXCLUSIVE DOCUMENTS: 'THE PENTAGON PAPERS OF E-VOTING' — THE LONG-SOUGHT 2003 STATE OF MARYLAND'S 'SAIC REPORT' ON DIEBOLD SECURITY VULNERABILITIES — NOW RELEASED IN FULL!
Previously Unreleased 200-Page Report Said to Document Some 180 Security Flaws and Recommendations Made to Diebold and the State Still Unclear as to Who Made Changes, Additions, Redactions to Publicly Released 40-Page Version of Report…
On Friday night, we broke Rebecca Abrahams' exclusive story concerning the long-sought, yet never-released complete "Risk Assessment Report" of Diebold's electronic voting systems as commissioned by the state of Maryland from the Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in 2003.
Tonight, The BRAD BLOG is releasing that report exclusively in full as given to us by Abrahams who says she got it from a source described to us as "a patriotic high-level state official." She says the source is "someone very close to this situation" in the Maryland government.
The original, never-before-released SAIC report was nearly 200 pages in all as completed, and details a number of extraordinary security vulnerabilities found in Diebold's AccuVote-TS (touch-screen) voting systems as deployed by the state of Maryland initially in 2002. The version of the SAIC report that was eventually released to the public, after extreme redaction, was a mere 38 pages long...
COMPLETE STORY, EXCLUSIVE RELEASE OF FULL UNREDACTED 2003 REPORT: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3731
Brad Friedman
THE BRAD BLOG - The uprising continues...
http://www.BradBlog.com
______________________________________________________________________________
What do U.S. experts say?
http://utahcountvotes.org/docs/WhatdotheExpertsSay.pdf
Kathy Dopp
National Election Data Archive http://electionarchive.org
Dedicated to Accurately Counting Elections
Subscribe to announcements by emailing election-subscribe@uscountvotes.org
Please donate or volunteer.
"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day", wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1816
___________________________________________________________________________
Charles Corry is a staunch Republican, engineer, graduate of Utah State and University of Utah, former Marine Corporal and former IEEE committee member to develop voting system standards. He speaks about the real threat to our national security that Diebold voting machines pose.
Let me see if I understand the current situation with regard to using Diebold electronic voting machines and central tabulators in the November 7, 2006, election:
· Many of the hard drives and apparently all of the motherboards of the voting machines are Made in China. China is known to be attacking Department of Defense, Commerce Department, and other government computers. Since the motherboard controls the voting machine, and hiding a malicious program in the boot sector of a hard drive isn't much of a trick, one has to assume that some or all of the Diebold voting machines are potentially, even probably controlled by China (Security 101). The only remaining question is whether they have exercised that control yet? Personally, if the option were mine, I'd wait until the 2008 elections.
· Diebold voting machines are all based on one variant or another of the Microsoft Windows operating system. No other computer operating system in the world is subject to so many viruses, trojan horses, hack tools, worms, rootkits, or other attacks as Windows.
· The voting machine does not have to be connected to the Internet to become infected with these agents. For one example see Tom Clancy's novel The Bear and the Dragon.
· Diebold programming is primarily done in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, by individuals of unknown allegiance who are certainly not citizens of the United States or loyal to it.
· Diebold has established a reputation for selling election "vaporware."
· Diebold treats all software and hardware as proprietary so that it is impossible to determine what is actually used in an election to tabulate votes.
· Logic and Accuracy Testing (LAT) is done in "Test" mode, not "Election" mode.
· Central tabulation software, GEMS, is widely available on the Internet and step-by-step instructions on hacking the vote are posted. Whether this is the actual software used in a given election is impossible to determine as Diebold requires a non-disclosure contract and regards their software and hardware as proprietary.
· Diebold uses Microsoft Access database to store election results with basically no security on the database.
· There are no meaningful standards in place and the so called "Independent Testing Authority" that "certifies" the voting machines is paid by Diebold and only tests what Diebold wants tested. And, if problems are found, they may or not be corrected.
· What standards do exist permit wireless communication with the voting machines and Diebold is known to have implemented such methods in their voting machines in the past. A wireless link would be easy to include in the motherboard when Made in China.
· Diebold has repeatedly used uncertified and untested software and hardware in elections, making a mockery of even the weak certification and testing procedures in place.
· Diebold voting machines do not meet HAVA requirements for handicap access. The only handicapped they even try to assist are the visually impaired. Diebold paid one association of the blind $1 million to promote their voting machines. But when blind voters have used them in elections they haven't been real happy and to hell with any other handicapped voters.
· Diebold voting machines have failed every independent security test ever undertaken by a number of nationally-recognized authorities.
· Diebold has repeatedly failed to correct known security flaws and software bugs.
· Attacks by a variety of experts have shown Diebold voting machines are easily hacked.
· Standards for security of these machines has been demonstrated to be completely inadequate and unaffordable even if required by court order. So the argument that election processes and procedures "protect" them is fallacious. For example, every vote counting machine used in a precinct is sent home with an election judge from one day to a week before the election (known as "sleepovers").
· Diebold hires technicians to support local elections off the street, does no background check, provides minimal training, and gives them unlimited access to the voting machines in most jurisdictions.
· In many election jurisdictions Diebold personnel actually run the election.
· Diebold TSx DREs with paper ballots must have the paper roll changed by a technician, not an election judge, every time 60-75 ballots are cast. The ballots are on a continuous roll and make a potential hand recount very tedious and time consuming.
· "Programming" and machine errors have been exposed in every election cycle Diebold voting machines have been used in for the past ten years. Note that it is virtually impossible to distinguish "programming" errors from deliberate fraud or sabotage.
· It has become easy to determine that a Diebold representative is dissembling. His, or her lips are moving.
With the exception of the motherboard, the other issues listed above are documented in the EJF book on Vote Fraud and Election Issues. Pictures of the Diebold motherboard and details on the Hursti hack can be found at http://www.openvoting.us/tsx/all-files.php .
Additional examples of problems with Diebold voting machines are documented on VotersUnite, Vote Trust USA, Brad Blog, Black Box Voting, and by many others.
The truly frightening thing is that Diebold may not even be the worst of the electronic voting machines in use. While I have painted China as the villain in the above synopsis, Sequoia Voting Systems is owned by a government-controlled Venezuelan company. Venezuela hasn't been notably friendly to the U.S. lately, either.
Our forbearers developed a working solution for elections. Voters go to a local precinct, hand mark a paper ballot and put it in a locked ballot box. At the end of the day the ballots are counted in public view by at least two election judges of opposing parties before the ballots ever leave the polling place. That is as safe, secure, and accurate a method as has been devised for voting. It is also considerably cheaper than electronic voting. Why don't we use it?
Before you dismiss the above as the paranoid ranting of one more radical, consider the following listings from my curriculum vitae:
Who's Who in the World, 16th through 24th Editions, 1999-2007.
Who's Who in America, 53rd through 61st Editions, 1999-2007.
Who's Who in Science and Engineering, 4th through 9th Editions, 1998-2007.
I began working with electronics in 1957 and with computers in 1960 on flight control and guidance systems for Atlas and Centaur missiles. In 1976 I earned a Ph.D. in geophysics that was largely supported by the aerospace engineering department at Texas A&M. Much of my career was spent in such institutions as Scripps and Woods Hole. I also served on the IEEE Voting Equipment Standards committee for virtually its entire duration from 2001 to 2006.
So when some election official claims problems with electronic voting machines don't exist, ask them for their credentials and educational background. Pay particular attention to their computer experience (most don't have any).
As a Marine, I took an oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. I still take that oath seriously.
Semper Fi,
Chuck Corry
President
Equal Justice Foundation http://www.ejfi.org
The good men may do separately is small compared with what they may do collectively.
Benjamin Franklin
_____________________________________________________________________________
We're All Prisoners, Now: US Citizens to be Required ''Clearance'' to Leave USA http://sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3023
U.S. Video Testimony of Vote Machine Whistleblower Video
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=2699&blz=1
U.S.: Caught On Tape, The Fix Is In, notes Lynn Landes
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=2550&blz=1
2 things you can do for honest elections:
* Video The Vote
Stopping voter suppression, by observing the vote.
And sharing the results-on Election Day.
http://www.videothevote.org
* Velvet Revolution $250,000 Reward For Information About Election Fraud In The November Election - definitive and conclusive proof that a United States House or Senate election has been rigged by illegal means. The information must result in an overturning of a congressional election and a conviction of the person or persons responsible for the fraud.
http://velvetrevolution.us
Election Protection Strike Force
http://velvetrevolution.us/electionstrikeforce
Voter Protection Immediate Response Network
http://www.workingassets.com/election_protection.cfm
* League of Technical Voters
http://www.leagueoftechvoters.org
Imagine with us a future where:
* Legislators understand the greater implications of technology and are held
accountable for it
* Our government has a implemented a new level of technical transparency
without compromising privacy
* Technical Experts are savvy on how to influence governmental processes like
lawmaking and bidding
* Technical advice and information are readily available to legislators and
administrators
* Your concerns about the implementation of technology are heard and discussed
* A strong, influential community of technical activists gather to share
resources
* Technical experts fill advisory boards, directly influencing procurement and
policy decisions
* The press has a credible, collaborative news resource on technical legislative issues
via
Evan Ravitz evan@Vote.org
Vote to Ratify the National Initiative at http://Vote.org
"Fool's gold exists because there is real gold." –Rumi
____________________________________________________________________________
The Landes Report http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingSecurity.htm
Voting Integrity on Election Day
http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=1385
New Worries Abound about Reliability of US Voting Machines
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1103-03.htm
America's last chance
http://www.unknownnews.org/061030a-hh.html
______________________________________________________________________________
BREAKING NEWS: The report on Diebold security flaws is publicly released that Linda Lamone, MD Election Director and former President of the National Association of State Election Directors kept secret since 2003!
BRAD BLOG EXCLUSIVE DOCUMENTS: 'THE PENTAGON PAPERS OF E-VOTING' — THE LONG-SOUGHT 2003 STATE OF MARYLAND'S 'SAIC REPORT' ON DIEBOLD SECURITY VULNERABILITIES — NOW RELEASED IN FULL!
Previously Unreleased 200-Page Report Said to Document Some 180 Security Flaws and Recommendations Made to Diebold and the State Still Unclear as to Who Made Changes, Additions, Redactions to Publicly Released 40-Page Version of Report…
On Friday night, we broke Rebecca Abrahams' exclusive story concerning the long-sought, yet never-released complete "Risk Assessment Report" of Diebold's electronic voting systems as commissioned by the state of Maryland from the Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in 2003.
Tonight, The BRAD BLOG is releasing that report exclusively in full as given to us by Abrahams who says she got it from a source described to us as "a patriotic high-level state official." She says the source is "someone very close to this situation" in the Maryland government.
The original, never-before-released SAIC report was nearly 200 pages in all as completed, and details a number of extraordinary security vulnerabilities found in Diebold's AccuVote-TS (touch-screen) voting systems as deployed by the state of Maryland initially in 2002. The version of the SAIC report that was eventually released to the public, after extreme redaction, was a mere 38 pages long...
COMPLETE STORY, EXCLUSIVE RELEASE OF FULL UNREDACTED 2003 REPORT: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3731
Brad Friedman
THE BRAD BLOG - The uprising continues...
http://www.BradBlog.com
______________________________________________________________________________
What do U.S. experts say?
http://utahcountvotes.org/docs/WhatdotheExpertsSay.pdf
Kathy Dopp
National Election Data Archive http://electionarchive.org
Dedicated to Accurately Counting Elections
Subscribe to announcements by emailing election-subscribe@uscountvotes.org
Please donate or volunteer.
"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day", wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1816
___________________________________________________________________________
Charles Corry is a staunch Republican, engineer, graduate of Utah State and University of Utah, former Marine Corporal and former IEEE committee member to develop voting system standards. He speaks about the real threat to our national security that Diebold voting machines pose.
Let me see if I understand the current situation with regard to using Diebold electronic voting machines and central tabulators in the November 7, 2006, election:
· Many of the hard drives and apparently all of the motherboards of the voting machines are Made in China. China is known to be attacking Department of Defense, Commerce Department, and other government computers. Since the motherboard controls the voting machine, and hiding a malicious program in the boot sector of a hard drive isn't much of a trick, one has to assume that some or all of the Diebold voting machines are potentially, even probably controlled by China (Security 101). The only remaining question is whether they have exercised that control yet? Personally, if the option were mine, I'd wait until the 2008 elections.
· Diebold voting machines are all based on one variant or another of the Microsoft Windows operating system. No other computer operating system in the world is subject to so many viruses, trojan horses, hack tools, worms, rootkits, or other attacks as Windows.
· The voting machine does not have to be connected to the Internet to become infected with these agents. For one example see Tom Clancy's novel The Bear and the Dragon.
· Diebold programming is primarily done in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, by individuals of unknown allegiance who are certainly not citizens of the United States or loyal to it.
· Diebold has established a reputation for selling election "vaporware."
· Diebold treats all software and hardware as proprietary so that it is impossible to determine what is actually used in an election to tabulate votes.
· Logic and Accuracy Testing (LAT) is done in "Test" mode, not "Election" mode.
· Central tabulation software, GEMS, is widely available on the Internet and step-by-step instructions on hacking the vote are posted. Whether this is the actual software used in a given election is impossible to determine as Diebold requires a non-disclosure contract and regards their software and hardware as proprietary.
· Diebold uses Microsoft Access database to store election results with basically no security on the database.
· There are no meaningful standards in place and the so called "Independent Testing Authority" that "certifies" the voting machines is paid by Diebold and only tests what Diebold wants tested. And, if problems are found, they may or not be corrected.
· What standards do exist permit wireless communication with the voting machines and Diebold is known to have implemented such methods in their voting machines in the past. A wireless link would be easy to include in the motherboard when Made in China.
· Diebold has repeatedly used uncertified and untested software and hardware in elections, making a mockery of even the weak certification and testing procedures in place.
· Diebold voting machines do not meet HAVA requirements for handicap access. The only handicapped they even try to assist are the visually impaired. Diebold paid one association of the blind $1 million to promote their voting machines. But when blind voters have used them in elections they haven't been real happy and to hell with any other handicapped voters.
· Diebold voting machines have failed every independent security test ever undertaken by a number of nationally-recognized authorities.
· Diebold has repeatedly failed to correct known security flaws and software bugs.
· Attacks by a variety of experts have shown Diebold voting machines are easily hacked.
· Standards for security of these machines has been demonstrated to be completely inadequate and unaffordable even if required by court order. So the argument that election processes and procedures "protect" them is fallacious. For example, every vote counting machine used in a precinct is sent home with an election judge from one day to a week before the election (known as "sleepovers").
· Diebold hires technicians to support local elections off the street, does no background check, provides minimal training, and gives them unlimited access to the voting machines in most jurisdictions.
· In many election jurisdictions Diebold personnel actually run the election.
· Diebold TSx DREs with paper ballots must have the paper roll changed by a technician, not an election judge, every time 60-75 ballots are cast. The ballots are on a continuous roll and make a potential hand recount very tedious and time consuming.
· "Programming" and machine errors have been exposed in every election cycle Diebold voting machines have been used in for the past ten years. Note that it is virtually impossible to distinguish "programming" errors from deliberate fraud or sabotage.
· It has become easy to determine that a Diebold representative is dissembling. His, or her lips are moving.
With the exception of the motherboard, the other issues listed above are documented in the EJF book on Vote Fraud and Election Issues. Pictures of the Diebold motherboard and details on the Hursti hack can be found at http://www.openvoting.us/tsx/all-files.php .
Additional examples of problems with Diebold voting machines are documented on VotersUnite, Vote Trust USA, Brad Blog, Black Box Voting, and by many others.
The truly frightening thing is that Diebold may not even be the worst of the electronic voting machines in use. While I have painted China as the villain in the above synopsis, Sequoia Voting Systems is owned by a government-controlled Venezuelan company. Venezuela hasn't been notably friendly to the U.S. lately, either.
Our forbearers developed a working solution for elections. Voters go to a local precinct, hand mark a paper ballot and put it in a locked ballot box. At the end of the day the ballots are counted in public view by at least two election judges of opposing parties before the ballots ever leave the polling place. That is as safe, secure, and accurate a method as has been devised for voting. It is also considerably cheaper than electronic voting. Why don't we use it?
Before you dismiss the above as the paranoid ranting of one more radical, consider the following listings from my curriculum vitae:
Who's Who in the World, 16th through 24th Editions, 1999-2007.
Who's Who in America, 53rd through 61st Editions, 1999-2007.
Who's Who in Science and Engineering, 4th through 9th Editions, 1998-2007.
I began working with electronics in 1957 and with computers in 1960 on flight control and guidance systems for Atlas and Centaur missiles. In 1976 I earned a Ph.D. in geophysics that was largely supported by the aerospace engineering department at Texas A&M. Much of my career was spent in such institutions as Scripps and Woods Hole. I also served on the IEEE Voting Equipment Standards committee for virtually its entire duration from 2001 to 2006.
So when some election official claims problems with electronic voting machines don't exist, ask them for their credentials and educational background. Pay particular attention to their computer experience (most don't have any).
As a Marine, I took an oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. I still take that oath seriously.
Semper Fi,
Chuck Corry
President
Equal Justice Foundation http://www.ejfi.org
The good men may do separately is small compared with what they may do collectively.
Benjamin Franklin
_____________________________________________________________________________
We're All Prisoners, Now: US Citizens to be Required ''Clearance'' to Leave USA http://sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3023
U.S. Video Testimony of Vote Machine Whistleblower Video
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=2699&blz=1
U.S.: Caught On Tape, The Fix Is In, notes Lynn Landes
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=2550&blz=1