[Seattle-editorial] (No Subject)

anarch3m anarch3m at lycos.com
Mon Dec 29 12:17:44 PST 2003 

Date:   Sun, 28 Dec 2003 14:11:48 -0800 
From:   Edward Cherlin <edward.cherlin at etssg.com> [add to address book] [protect or block sender] 
Subject:   Secure voting (was Re: [IMC-Tech] An urgent plea for your assistance) 
To:   <imc-tech at indymedia.org> 
Cc:   "Eric A. Smith" <snowdog at juno.ocn.ne.jp> 


Enic is right that pure electronic voting would be a disaster,  but it turns out that there is also hopeful news. The Open  Voting Consortium is on the case, and is already getting buy-in  from voting officials in several states.

OVC

http://www.openvotingconsortium.org

has a SourceForge project to create Free/Open Source voting  software for systems combining electronic touch-screen voting  with voter-verified, machine-readable paper ballots. The electronic system prevents over-voting, greatly reduces  under-voting, and supports unassisted private voting for people with several types of disability. The paper ballot, combined  with software verification techniques and appropriate human  procedures, will be verifiably far more secure than current  voting systems. Procedures recommended for use with the system  will be based on a detailed security audit of voting procedures  and requirements.

You can try out a demo version of the proposed voting process on  the Website, and print a ballot with your selections. Click on  EVM2003 for information and a link to the demo.

A prototype of the complete system is planned to be available for  demonstrations in the San Francisco Bay Area in January. Contact  OVC if you would like to arrange a demonstration for your state or national voting officials or legislators, or if you want to 
write a story about OVC, or if you would like to contribute to  the effort.

My company, Encore Technologies, is interested in finding  partners to build machines, using Encore's hardware and language  technology and the OVC software, to offer for sale to every  country in the world that holds elections.

On Sunday 28 December 2003 08:52 am, Eric A. Smith wrote: > I'm writing today to ask for your help because I'm very, very > frightened.
>
> My name is Eric Smith. I'm a journalist and IT instructor in > Tokyo. And after three years of study I've come to a > terrifying conclusion. As British security expert Scott > Granneman put it, "the heart of American democracy is at > risk."

The 2004 presidential election is indeed at some risk.
 > The import of this threat cannot be overstated -- the issue is > very real and very grave. The chilling, incontrovertible fact > is that America's elections are being silently, deliberately > and PERMANENTLY compromised. The problem lies in the rapid > installation of unauditable, unverifiable DRE (Direct
> Recording Electronic) touchscreen voting machines in advance > of the 2004 elections.

It is possible that DREs will be forced to produce a printed  audit trail allowing voter verification of their own ballots,  even in time for 2004. My district in Santa Clara Country,  California uses Sequoia DREs that produce an audit trail, but do  not let the voter verify it.

> Just how vulnerable are these machines? Author Bev Harris's > diagrammed report of the hacking of a Diebold "Accuvote" > machine to reverse an election proves it's not just possible > -- it's easy:
>
> http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00065.htm#password
>
> These e-voting machines are being quietly installed across the > country in preparation for the 2004 election, as per the > characteristically disingenuously-named "Help America Vote > Act" President Bush mandated in the wake of the 2000 debacle.

Rick Shelley, the California Secretary of State, has announced  that DREs will be required to print out the votes. Other states  are moving in that direction.

> Alarming summaries of independent research by Johns Hopkins > and Rice University, MIT, the Electronic Frontier Foundation > and even Congress echo Harris's concerns:
>
> http://www.eff.org/Activism/E-voting/20030724_evote_research_r

>eport.pdf
>
> http://www.vote.caltech.edu/Reports/
>
> http://www.eff.org/Activism/E-voting/20030723_eff_pr.php
>
> http://www.epic.org/privacy/voting/crsreport.pdf
>
>
>
> The full extent of the threat to our electoral process has > been documented in Harris's explosive expose, "Black Box > Voting", which  can be downloaded free of charge here:
>
> http://www.talion.com/blackboxvoting.org.htm
>
> In light of these stunning vulnerabilities, US Representative > Rush Holt has sponsored "The Voter Confidence and Increased > Accessibility Act of 2003" which which calls for printed > receipts for the 2004 and subsequent elections:
>
> http://holt.house.gov/issues2.cfm?id=5996
>
> Unfortunately, Republican support hasn't been forthcoming, and > the measure has stalled. Because of the stillborn status of > Rep. Holt's initiative, the outlook for Americans is rapidly > worsening to the point of emergency: primaries for the 2004  election will begin in two months.
>
> And so, I'm writing to ask -- in fact to BEG -- for your help  in seeking an immediate moratorium on the use of paperless,  unverifiable e-vote machines in the 2004 election. The use of  paper ballots may be the only interim solution to assure a  verifiable election: DREs which produce verifiable paper
> receipts are available, but are not currently in widespread
> use.
>
> An immediate legal injunction to halt the use of
> non-verifiable DREs in the 2004 election is a stop-gap  emergency measure, perhaps at this late date the only way to  ensure the integrity of our Democratic process. Over the long  term, lobbying for the implementation of Congressman Holt's  Voter Integrity Act will provide a more permanent solution.
>
> Today,  I'm asking you to aggressively and persistently bring  the legal and personnel resources of your organization into  the effort to save our electoral process.  Before it's too  late.
>
> Officials you can phone, fax and email right now:
>
> Congress
> http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
>
> State elections boards:
> http://www.blackboxvoting.org/htdocs/dcforum/DCForumID29/47.ht
>ml
>
> State Attorneys General (party affiliations listed):
> http://www.naag.org/ag/full_ag_table.php
>
> State Election Officials
> http://www.nased.org/
>
> Members, Natl. Assoc. of County Recorders, Election Officials

> and Clerks: http://www.nacrc.org/leadership/st_coord.htm
>
> Penelope Bonsall, national director of the Office of Election
> Administration Office of Election Administration
> Federal Election Commission
> 999 E Street, NW
> Washington, DC 20463
> vss at fec.gov
> (202) 694-1095 (phone)
> (202) 219-8500 (fax)
>
> Online e-petitions EFF and VerifiedVoting.org:
> http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2821
> http://www.verifiedvoting.org
>
>
>
> Media Contacts:
> http://dmoz.org/Arts/Television/News/
> http://newslink.org
> http://www.cantufind.com/american_newspapers.htm
> http://dmoz.org/Arts/Radio/Formats/Talk_Radio/Networks/
> http://dmoz.org/Arts/Radio/Formats/Talk_Radio/Stations/
> http://dmoz.org/Arts/Television/Networks/Cable/
> http://dmoz.org/Arts/Television/Networks/
> http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Broadcasting/Information/
>
> Alternative e-voting machines:
> http://www.accupoll.com/
> http://www.aitechnology.com/avantetech/home.html
> http://www.vogueelection.com/
>
> Author Bev Harris is also in immediate need of attorneys for  coordinating legal injunctions to stop insecure voting machine  use before the 2004 primaries: Bevharriscontact at aol.com
>
> Act now - your country needs you. And the time is getting  very, very short.
>
> Tomorrow might be just one day too late.
>
> sincerely,
>
> Eric A. Smith
> Tokyo, Japan
> snowdog at juno.ocn.ne.jp
>
>
> BACKGROUND
>
> Compelling evidence for the gravity of the situation can be
> found in the following "smoking gun" internal emails from  Diebold. As you've no doubt heard, the company began a  desperate attempt at suppressing the distribution of these  emails on the Internet, in a series of gag lawsuits  succesfully countered by the Electronic Frontier Foundation  last month.
>
> One of these emails  -- from Lana Hires to Global Election  Systems (now Diebold) -- baldly states how 16 THOUSAND e-votes  for Gore were "disappeared" during the 2000 Presidential  election. Hires frantically asks how she should explain this
> to an auditor:
>
> <I need some answers! Our department is being audited by the  County. I have been waiting for someone to give me an  explanation as to why Precinct 216 gave Al Gore a minus 16022  [votes] when it was uploaded. Will someone please explain this  so that I have the information to give the auditor instead of  standing here "looking dumb"
>
> Additional excerpts from the Diebold internal emails:
>
> <For a demonstration I suggest you fake it. Progam them both  so they look the same, and then just do the upload fro [sic]  the AV. That is what we did in the last AT/AV demo.
>
> <Right now you can open GEMS' .mdb file with MS-Access, and  alter its contents. That includes the audit log. This isn't  anything new.
>
> <Elections are not rocket science. Why is it so hard to get  things right! I have never been at any other company that has  been so miss [sic] managed.
>
> <Johnson County, KS will be doing Central Count for their mail  in ballots. They will also be processing these ballots in  advance of the closing of polls on election day. They would  like to log into the Audit Log an entry for Previewing any  Election Total Reports. They need this, to prove to the media,
> as well as, any candidates & lawyers, that they did not view  or print any Election Results before the Polls closed.  However, if there is a way that we can disable the reporting  functionality, that would be even better.
>
> "Diebold - The face of modern ballot tampering"
> http://www.bartcop.com/diebold.htm
>
> "If You Want To Win An Election, Just Control The Voting  Machines"
> http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0131-01.htm
>
> "How George W. Bush Won the 2004 Presidential Election"
> http://www.infernalpress.com/Columns/election.html
>
> "Safeguarding the Vote"
> http://www.yesmagazine.org./26courage/pibel.htm
>
> "Electronic Voting Machines Blasted by Scientists, Hacked by
> Author"
> http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00198.htm
>
> Did You Know:
>
> * Diebold "disappeared" over 16,000 Presidential votes in one  Florida county during the 2,000 election?
> http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0310/S00275.htm
>>
> * Diebold's primary business is making ATMs and ticket  machines (which DO provide paper printouts, unlike their  voting machines!), has already been infected with worm  viruses:
> 
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,61526,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_8
>>
> * The Diebold "Accuvote" machine has been hacked and an  election reversed by author Bev Harris:
> http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00198.htm
>
> * Diebold's Board of Directors donated over a quarter of a  milllion dollars to Republican campaigns in the last six
> years? 
> http://www.bartcop.com/diebold.htm
>
> * Sequoia machines use different software when being tested  than when being used in elections?
> 
http://www.exit.com/RiversideVoteTest/RiversideCountyTestObservationBoard.pdf
>
> *  Walden O'Dell, Diebold's CEO, is a Bush/Cheney Pioneer, and  hosted a $600,000 fundraiser for Cheney in 2003?
> http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0311/S00084.htm
>
> * O'Dell in an Ohio Republican fundraising letter, promised to  "deliver all of Ohio's votes to the President in 2004"?
> http://www.dscc.org/information/stopvotingmachines_letter/
>
> * Senator Chuck Hagel secretly ran ES&S, the company that  counted his votes in a "stunning upset victory -- the biggest  landslide in the state's history?
> http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0131-01.htm
>
> * Hagel lied to Congress about about his involvement in the  company? 
>http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx
>
> * Hagel has already bought the rights to the
> "HagelforPresident2008" website domain?
> 
http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26
>
> * Hagel's campaign manager, Michael McCarthy, is now a major  owner of ES&S?
> http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0311/S00084.htm
>
> * Before running ES&S, Hagel was head of the Private Sector
> Council for George H.W. Bush?
> 
http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26

-- 
Edward Cherlin, Simputer Evangelist
Encore Technologies (S) Pte. Ltd.
Computers for all of us
http://www.simputerland.com, http://cherlin.blogspot.com




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