[announce-gpco] Poop on computer-based voting

[Bruce McNaughton]

After a successful rally at the state Capitol steps on a cold wet Saturday,
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2549008,00.html
the Mercury Coalition for Honest Elections will meet tomorrow, Monday,
evening at the Mercury Cafe (22nd and California) at 7 pm, to plan ongoing
action to wrest our democracy from the corporate thieves.  Do come if
you can.  It's happening civic arousal, pilgrims.

Below are a few bits of history on the corporate takeover of our elections.

BruceMcN

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"Voting Systems `Can't be Trusted'"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/073103F.shtml
A Denver Post front page article by Susan Greene, 30 July 2003, during the
International Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers conference
held at the Adam's Mark Hotel.   ..."In Colorado, for example, the executive
director of the Denver Election Commission resigned in 1998 to go to work 
for Sequoia Pacific Voting Equipment, Inc., a company that had received 
$6.6 million in contracts from his own department." ...

---

After Florida elections in 2002, Dr. Rebecca Mercuri, an internationally known
computer software voting security expert, was asked to look into anomalies
brought before Palm Beach County's 15th Circuit District Court.  In court,
Palm Beach supervisor of elections Theresa LaPore [yes, `Butterfly Ballot'
LaPore of November 2000] "revealed that the county's purchase contract
[with Sequoia Voting Systems, Inc.] included trade-secret clauses that would
make it a third-degree felony to disclose details of the specifications or int-
ernal functioning of the machines.  LaPore also testified that she couldn't 
understand why anyone would want to take apart the machines since, in her
words, `there isn't much inside there.'"

"Further she noted that the vendor would void the warranty on the machines 
if they were opened for inspection.  Effectively, any independent verification
of proper operation was limited to an examination of the outside of the box."
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/oct02/evot.html

At the Denver Election Commission meeting of 17 Feb. 2004, the issue of
"Voting Machine Security" was on the agenda.  During the meeting, I relayed
to the Commissioners and others present the "Danciu case" described in Dr.
Mercuri's words above.  I then asked if the Denver Election Commission had
such trade-secret and warranty-protection clauses in their (our) contract
with Sequoia Voting Systems [yes, the very same vendor -- imagine my
anticipation of an answer]  the Commissioners (Vaden, Rogers, Adams and
exec. dir. Hackett looked like a squad of cheerleaders being asked to explain
Quantum Mechanics.  Interestingly, all their faces turned not to the represen-
tative of the City Attorney's office, Vicky Ortega, seated at the Commission
table, but to the representative of Sequoia Voting Systems, Inc., Vice Presi-
dent of Sales Howard Kramer, sitting among us spectators.  Kramer, a large,
not terribly friendly-looking person, slowly turned to me and spoke.  "I'd be
willing to entertain some brain-storming on this issue", quoth he, and no more.
While I struggled to stifle a growing need to shriek "What the fuck does that
mean, you suet-brained ham-faced usurper of democracy!?", a bevy of
octogenarian election judges cooed indignantly all around me that they'd been
watching the polls since God was a corporal and they never found the least
reason to suspect anything untoward in Denver balloting.  At this point Exec.
Dir. Karon Hackett brought the meeting to a close.  -BMcN

---

"An investigation into the surprisingly-sordid history of America's `election
services industry' has revealled that executives and owners of ES&S and
Sequoia Pacific, the two largest companies, have been repeatedly convicted
of bribery and suborning public officials in more than a dozen states," 
http://www.madcowprod.com/mc6912004.html

---

"I thought HAVA already required a voter-verifiable paper ballot."
http://verifiedvoting.org/article.php?id=5019
HAVA section 301 (a)(2)(B) ... "On first reading this requirement seems to
ensure that every voter can verify his or her vote...  Unfortunately, this audit
requirement is widely interpreted to mean the permanent record produced
at the end-of-day, unverified by voters."    -Prof. David Dill

---

""I need some answers!  Our department is being audited by the county.
I have been waiting for somone to give me an explanation as to why Precinct
216 gave Al Gore a minus 16,022 when it was uploaded.  Will someone please
explain this so that I have the information to give the auditor instead of stand-
ing here `looking dumb'."   -Internal Diebold memo, election 2000



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