In “deep, deep trouble.”

September 30th, 2006

Lou Dobbs sez: “If there is a close election anywhere in this country, we’re in deep, deep trouble.” Well — that would be us in 2000, 2004 … and 2006. So Lou’s on the money. Dobbs has a wide audience … and he got the story out — having the public alert to possible fraud is the kind of “oversight” we must establish for ourselves.

Here’s another quote worth noting:

“The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which all other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery..”
~ Thomas Paine

An even darker underbelly of voting repression is electioneering — I’m beginning to think that the only safe vote is by mail … maybe a little more than half the nation needs to take a “day trip” on November 7th, out of their county and away from their polls, so that there is every reason to submit an absentee ballot. [If that is a consideration, get all the details early, including deadlines.]

Here’s voting news of the moment — something of a hair ball [hack, hack!] Oh, go ahead … laugh — at least they can’t legislate against that!

Last piece is typical of those appearing across the nation.

Jude

Suppressing The Vote
The Nation: GOP Tries To Disenfranchise Voters
Katrina Vanden Heuvel, CBS
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/29/opinion/main2052495.shtml

With Election Day around the corner, and concerns about another voting debacle of Florida 2000-proportions running high (especially given problems at primaries this year in Maryland, Ohio, Illinois and several other states), Republicans in Congress are on the job and doing everything they can to further disenfranchise voters.

Rather than taking the necessary steps to strengthen, expand and improve the democratic process, the GOP has launched a new effort to create modern-day Jim Crow exclusionary practices through new voter ID requirements.

The House recently passed a bill along party lines requiring voters to present a photo ID beginning in 2008. Starting in 2010, voters would need to pay for a government-issued proof of citizenship — a virtual poll tax. This shameful legislation was passed just months after the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act when President Bush declared “the right of ordinary men and women to determine their own political future.”

“If the (House) Bill passed the Senate and became law, the electorate would likely become more middle-aged, whiter and richer — and, its sponsors are anticipating, more Republican,” the New York Times wrote in a recent editorial

Demos, a national public policy organization, reports that the legislation would disproportionately impact people of color, individuals with disabilities, rural voters, people living on reservations, the homeless, and low-income people — all of whom studies show are less likely to carry a photo ID and more often have to change photo ID information.

Senate Democrats have asked that Majority Leader Bill Frist not bring the bill to the floor. In a letter to Frist, Senators Reid, Kennedy, Dodd and Obama wrote: “The burdensome and costly requirements of obtaining (citizenship) documents not only could prevent many eligible voters from participating, but … Worst of all, this bill recalls a dark era in our nation when individuals were required to pay a poll tax to cast their ballot and has been termed a 21st century poll tax.” Frist’s next move remains to be seen.

States, too, are getting into the voter suppression act. Georgia, Missouri and Indiana have passed similar ID requirements. The laws were overturned by the courts in Georgia and Missouri while in Indiana, the law was upheld by district court and is now under appeal. The right-wing pins hopes on appealing all the way to the Supreme Court where decisions by Scalia and the Supremes seem to fall in their “1 Man, 1 Vote — sort of” favor.

“This is the most sinister scheme I’ve ever seen,” said former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, “and it’s going on nationwide.”

“Voter suppression doesn’t happen with intimidation on Election Day,” said Michael Waldman, executive director of The Brennan Center for Justice, “but rather through silent and sometimes secret government actions in the weeks leading up to an election.”

If the Republicans are truly concerned about “the integrity of our voting process,” as Rep. John Boehner claims, they should take a look at flawed voting machines that, according to the Washington Post, “scientists have shown they could manipulate … to report a vote total that differed from the actual total cast by voters.”

Or they could address the fact that the Diebold machines tested in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, rendered a paper trail “nearly 10 percent of (which was) destroyed, blank, illegible, or otherwise compromised.” Or they could explain why a Princeton professor was able to hack into a voting machine as an experiment. Or they could reform the administering of elections, so that partisan secretaries of state with lofty political ambitions such as Katherine Harris and Ken Blackwell are no longer running the show. Or they could try to stop the purges of valid voters from the voter rolls …

The blueprint for what to do is out there. Robert Pastor, director of a commission on electoral reform organized by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, told the Washington Post, “The Carter-Baker commission identified 87 steps that need to be undertaken. Regrettably, almost none of them are being done right now. I would start by establishing statewide, nonpartisan election administration.”

And Americans can start by voting Democrat this November, and then pressing a new Congress to give us common sense reforms that create a truly democratic, transparent and legitimate electoral system.

Just hope your vote is counted — correctly. ++

Diebold Added Secret Patch to Georgia E-Voting Systems in 2002, Whistleblowers Say
Matthew Cardinale, Atlanta Progressive News
September 28, 2006
http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atlantaprogressivenews.com%2Fnews%2F0091.html

(APN) ATLANTA – Top Diebold corporation officials ordered workers to install secret files to Georgia’s electronic voting machines shortly before the 2002 Elections, at least two whistleblowers are now asserting, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.

Former Diebold official Chris Hood told his story concerning the secret “patch” to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for Kennedy’s second article on electronic voting in this week’s Rolling Stone Magazine.

Hood’s claims corroborate a second whistleblower who spoke with Black Box Voting and Wired News in 2003.

Whistleblower Accounts
“With the primaries looming, [Chief of Diebold's Election Division] Urosevich was personally distributing a ‘patch,’ a little piece of software designed to correct glitches in the computer program,” Rolling Stone Magazine reported.

“We were told that it was intended to fix the clock in the system, which it didn’t do,” Hood told Rolling Stone. “The curious thing is the very swift, covert way this was done.”

“It was an unauthorized patch, and they were trying to keep it secret from the state,” Hood told Rolling Stone.

“We were told not to talk to county personnel about it. I received instructions directly from Urosevich. It was very unusual that a president of the company would give an order like that and be involved at that level,” Hood told Rolling Stone.

The “patch” was applied to about 5,000 polling places in Fulton and DeKalb Counties in 2002, Rolling Stone reported.

Hood did not immediately return a text message from Atlanta Progressive News and his voicemail was not operational.

The second whistleblower, Rob Behler, was contracted to work with Diebold in the lead up to the 2002 Elections.

Two patches were applied in June and July 2002 respectively while Behler worked in the Diebold warehouse; another patch was applied in August 2002 after Behler left the warehouse, Wired News reported.

“Behler said Diebold programmers posted patches to a file-transfer-protocol site for him and his colleagues to apply to the machines,” Wired News reported.

Diebold officials first denied any patches were applied in an interview with Salon in 2003, according to Wired News.

“We have analyzed that situation and have no indication of that happening at all,” Joseph Richardson, Diebold spokesperson, is reported to have told Salon at the time.

This story later changed.

Activists Speak Out
Elections integrity activists are outraged by the relevations, although they say the apparent secretive nature of “the patch” has only confirmed the things they already suspected and feared.

“The fact that they were doing any patch of any kind is very disturbing,” Garland Favorito of VoterGA, an organization that is suing the State of Georgia over the meaningless nature of elections here, told Atlanta Progressive News.

“It raises the distinct possibility the machines might have counted [in a] different [manner] on Election Night than when certified,” Favorito said.

“It corroborates two of our key points of the suit. One, machines can count differently on Election Night than when certified. So, the only way is to verify on Election Night. Two, it’s another example of how people have been removed from the counting of the votes,” Favorito said.

“I’m not surprised people are playing tricks. As far as the patch, I say ‘time out’ for that,” Donzella James, who is contesting her purported loss in the Democratic Primary in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District to US Rep. David Scott (D-GA), told Atlanta Progressive News.

“I’m definitely going to look into it. I’m glad there’s a credible person–Kennedy–who has brought this information forward,” James said.

An outspoken advocate for a voter verified paper trail since her days in the Georgia State Senate, James said she is getting ready to run again in 2008 whatever the outcome of her lawsuit.

“It immediately shows Diebold has not been telling the truth, has been covering up facts, in state after state, year after year. This is someone who knows. He has insider knowledge,” Brad Friedman of BradBlog told Atlanta Progressive News.

“These are things people suspected. He confirmed it. Diebold never gave a damn about security, accuracy, or transparency,” Friedman said.

What is worse, the use of last-minute patches on electronic voting machines are routine, Friedman said.

“It has happened all over the country. Because they find out about security issues at the last minute and apply them without going through the proper procedures,” Friedman said.

At a recent press conference called by Donzella James, poll watchers say one county official locked herself in a room with the machine for three unexplained minutes during the recent Primary.

Cathy Cox’s Role
Where was Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox during all this?

Apparently, Diebold leadership asked employees to not let her office know about the patch or patches.

And Diebold first alleged this application of patches wasn’t going on.

However, Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox appears to have found out anyway.

And Diebold appears to have at some point acknowledged the patches existed.

At least one patch was approved by Kennesaw State University, who got a state contract to do so, according to Wired News.

And Diebold admitted to the Elections Assistance Commission about the “0808″ patch, Garland Favorito said.

Cox wrote a letter after the 2002 Elections, asking Diebold to address a total of 29 problems with the functioning of their E-voting machines, technology, and procedures, Rolling Stone reported.

This list of 29 items was also brought up in a press conference by US Rep. Cynthia McKinney, her first major press conference on electronic voting.

Cox referred to the item of the mysterious patch as “The application/implication of the 0808 patch.”

“The state was seeking confirmation that the patch did not require that the system ‘be recertified at national and state level’ as well as ‘verifiable analysis of overall impact of patch to the voting system,’” Rolling Stone Magazine reports.

But shouldn’t they be seeking her confirmation and not the other way around?

Diebold’s reply to Cox’s letter, if one exists, has not been made publicly available, according to Rolling Stone.

“She [Cox] should be the one confirming it, not the vendor. She’s the one responsible for running elections in Georgia,” Favorito told Atlanta Progressive News.

“She appears to be trying to privatize the election system to the point where she’s trying to ask the vendor to determine if they’re in compliance, rather that using their own resources,” within the Office of the Secretary of State, Favorito said.

“They claim [as an excuse] to have changed the operating system and not the tabulating software. We believe the law says the systems have to be re-certified with a patch of any kind.

The State did not certify those patches. The State took Diebold’s word,” Favorito said.

“However, State Law does not seem to support Diebold’s testimony,” Favorito said.

Atlanta Progressive News will be looking more into how Diebold was, or was not, able to satisfy Cox’s 2002 concerns.

“Atlanta Progressive News is the only media outlet in Georgia that’s covering this story,” Garland Favorito of VoterGA said. ++

CNN’s Lou Dobbs: Alarming Congressional Testimony On The Threat Of Electronic Voting Machines
John Gideon
9/29/2006
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3553#more-3553

Dobbs Says, ‘This country has got to think about going to paper ballots…If an election is close, we’re in deep, deep trouble.”

“Congress today heard alarming testimony on the threat of electronic voting machines and experts at the hearing testified that e-voting machines are vulnerable to tampering, outright fraud, and political manipulation. They also testified it’s uncertain whether the votes of millions of Americans will count on election day,” said Lou Dobbs at the top of yesterday’s report.

Thursday’s Lou Dobb’s Tonight Democracy at Risk segment centered on a hearing before the House Administration Committee yesterday where experts told the committee about the possibility of tampering, fraud, or political manipulation.

Dobbs closed with: “I think, we’re at the point…that this country [has] got to start thinking about going to paper ballots because these machines — it’s obvious. The training is not there. The backup, the lack of a paper trail. If there is a close election anywhere in this country, we’re in deep, deep trouble.”

Princeton University’s Ed Felten was on hand among those testifying to demonstrate his Diebold Virus Hack originally reported by Brad the week before last. Here’s a taste:

PROF. EDWARD FELTEN, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: It takes about one minute of access to the machine. And I can show you roughly what would be involved. It would involve opening the door on the side of the machine, which would require getting a key, as I said, those are for sale on the Internet. There may be some security tape that would need to be removed and might be missing already.

Opening up this door, putting in a memory card like this, into the side of the machine. The memory card would have been prepared in advance with the computer virus on it. Then pressing the red power button and waiting about 30 seconds.

PILGRIM: The committee clearly need no additional evidence that the computer could be effectively hacked.

The text-transcript of Thursday’s segment on Lou Dobbs Tonight follows in full…

DOBBS: Congress today heard alarming testimony on the threat of electronic voting machines and experts at the hearing testified that e-voting machines are vulnerable to tampering, outright fraud, and political manipulation. They also testified it’s uncertain whether the votes of millions of Americans will count on election day. Kitty Pilgrim has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT, LOU DOBBS TONIGHT (voice over): The hearing is focused on how insecure the technology is, featuring a demonstration of how quickly a machine could be hacked.

PROF. EDWARD FELTEN, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: It takes about one minute of access to the machine. And I can show you roughly what would be involved. It would involve opening the door on the side of the machine, which would require getting a key, as I said, those are for sale on the Internet. There may be some security tape that would need to be removed and might be missing already.

Opening up this door, putting in a memory card like this, into the side of the machine. The memory card would have been prepared in advance with the computer virus on it. Then pressing the red power button and waiting about 30 seconds.

PILGRIM: The committee clearly need no additional evidence that the computer could be effectively hacked.

BARBARA SIMONS, U.S. PUBLIC POLICY COMMITTEE: Because of the risks of software bugs, malicious code, or computer failure, we cannot trust that the results in a paperless voting machine accurately reflect the will of the voters. That is why voter verified paper ballots or audit trials, or VPATs, as we refer to them, are needed.

PILGRIM: In many primaries the deficiency of the machines and the inadequate preparation of the poll workers who run them was evident. Testimony about review of the recent Ohio primary was chilling.

KEITH CUNNINGHAM, ELECTION DIR., ALLEN COUNTY, OHIO: Nearly 17 percent of those tapes showed a vote discrepancy of one to five votes from the electronic machine. And nearly 10 percent of those tapes were either destroyed, blank, missing, taped together, or in some other way compromised.

PILGRIM: Some say the machines can be made secure and flaws repaired in time for the November election. But experts caution just jerryrigging a paper trail attachment is dangerous.

PROF. MICHAEL SHAMOS, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY: It should be obvious that adding a new device with moving mechanical parts to an existing electronic machine cannot improve its reliability.
(END VIDEOTAPE)

PILGRIM: Now, the legislation considered by the House committee calls for a voter verified paper trail on every electronic voting machine. Another bill, by Senator Boxer, provides financial reimbursement for the states to help pay for backup paper ballots.

DOBBS: I think, we’re at the point, it looks to me, Kitty, that this country is, as Senator Dorgan, or Congressman Holt have suggested, I mean, we’ve got to start thinking about going to paper ballots because these machines — it’s obvious. The training is not there. The backup, the lack of a paper trail. If there is a close election anywhere in this country, we’re in deep, deep trouble.

PILGRIM: It’s very clear. And the technology’s just been put in too fast. It’s not understood and it’s definitely not understood at the local level, which is the most important level when you have an election.

DOBBS: And unfortunately, nearly all of the knowledge on these machines is held by the companies that manufacture them. And that does not make me, for one, and I’m sure millions of others very comfortable.

Kitty, thank you. Keep up this terrific reporting on this very scary proposition. Kitty Pilgrim. ++

Ghost in the Machine
Bruce Funk is out of a government job but still raising a ruckus over hackable voting machines
September 28, 2006
Ted McDonough, Salt Lake City Weekly
http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2006/cityweek_1_2006-09-28.cfm

Shown the door of the Emery County Clerk’s office six months ago, Bruce Funk has become a folk hero of sorts. He’s the easygoing pin-up for those who believe new touch-screen voting machines are vote-stealing democracy destroyers.

One such group will even sell you a T-shirt. “I Know Bruce Funk,” the shirt reads, “A voice for America against ‘hackable’ voting equipment.”

This March, Funk became the nation’s second county election official to test the new wave of vote-by-computer machines by bringing in computer technicians to try to hack one. A few weeks later, Funk was out on his ear. Depending on whom you believe, he either resigned in frustration or was maneuvered out of the office to which he was so often re-elected he’s lost count of how many terms he served.

If Funk wanted his county clerk job of 23 years back, he might have had a court case. After all, he was elected by the people of Emery County and couldn’t be fired by county commissioners, or—as Funk suspects—by the lieutenant governor operating in concert with a voting-machine maker.

But he isn’t suing. It’s not his style. The grandfather who occasionally frees mountain lions caught in bobcat traps on his farmland south of Price is mild-mannered. Anyway, he was near retirement age when he was shown the door.

But that doesn’t mean Funk’s going away quietly. Raising alarm bells over voting machines scheduled to be used throughout Utah in November is his new job. “This takes precedence over anything after my family,” Funk said.

Earlier this month, Funk brought a case against Emery County to get copies of the minutes from a closed-door meeting Emery County Commissioners held in late March with representatives of the lieutenant governor, who is the state’s top election official, and representatives of Diebold, the company that sold Utah its new voting machines. After the off-the-books session, Funk was called in by commissioners and—he claims—bullied into resigning. Funk quickly thought better and informed commissioners he would be staying to finish out his term, but locks were changed and the Emery County Republican Party was asked to select a replacement.

Funk feels certain if the minutes and recordings of the hush-hush meetings were unsealed, they would show the maker of voting equipment conniving with state politicians to get rid of an elected county official who raised uncomfortable questions—confirming some of the worst fears of conspiracy theorists.

Fueling the conspiracy fire, the Utah State Records Committee denied Funk’s request, ruling the meetings for which Funk wanted records were properly closed to the public.

Two representatives of Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert present at the meeting—Deputy Director Michael Cragun and Joe Demma, Herbert’s chief of staff—deny pressuring for Funk’s ouster, saying they discussed only how to fix the intentionally hacked voting machines for the next election. Also present at the March 27 closed-door meeting was Diebold’s regional sales representative. She did not respond to a request for comment.

Emery County Attorney David Blackwell said neither the lieutenant governor’s representatives nor Diebold asked for Funk’s ouster, but he doesn’t deny that one reason for the closed-door session was to talk about getting rid of Funk.

Emery County was in a jam, Blackwell said. Commissioners had signed a contract with the lieutenant governor’s office pledging to use the new voting machines. But the county’s chief election official, Funk, refused to use them. Funk’s ability to do his job was in question, Blackwell said.

Commissioners also discussed potential legal action to oust Funk, an elected official, said Blackwell. If Funk refused to run a Diebold election, the only way for the county to stay in compliance with its state contract was to get rid of him, or at least strip him of his power over elections. “It would have been ugly,” Blackwell said.

In the end, he said, Funk made it easy by resigning. Commissioner Ira Hatch said Funk was given several opportunities to reconsider, but Funk was adamant about quitting if the county used Diebold equipment.

Funk is a farm boy but not a bumpkin. He was one of the first in the state to switch from the punch card, choosing new voting technology during the mid-1990s. But when the vote-by-computer machines arrived this year, there were problems. Printers jammed. Meters on some turned red, showing low memory. Looking for answers, Funk called in Black Box Voting, an election watchdog group formed after the 2000 “hanging chad” debacle that has become a leading critic of the new voting machines.

Black Box’s technicians attempted to hack into the Emery County machines, then publicized alleged security holes they found.

Those who continue the fight against the new election machines say events since Funk’s ouster suggest Emery County may have killed the canary in the coal mine.

They point to a recent study by Princeton professor Edward Felton, who claims—as Black Box did earlier in Emery County—to have hacked through Diebold’s security and change voting machine computer programs.

Diebold noted the Princeton team hacked an old version of their machine, one since replaced with more secure software. Officials at Utah’s lieutenant governor’s office also note Utah’s Diebold machines are a newer version.

Demma said state officials aren’t ignoring bad news for Diebold, acknowledging “many problems” in other states. But the Emery County experience actually comes out in Diebold’s favor, he said. When Diebold came back to repair whatever Funk and Black Box had done, Demma said Diebold technicians found traces of Black Box trying to hack in but failing because of the machine’s advanced security.

Out of a government job, Funk hopes to form a company to advise how to run secure elections with the new equipment. He wishes governments would take on the job now being done by Black Box: Looking for vulnerabilities in the voting machines and fixing them. Too many, he said, have their heads in the sand.

“The election officials don’t want these concerns being raised and then having voters looking over their shoulder and questioning everything,” Funk said. “They are assuring the integrity of the election, but the integrity of the vote contained in the machine is the part that gives me the heartburn.” ++

What’s right and good doesn’t come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it - as if the cause depends on you, because it does. Allow yourself that conceit - to believe that the flame of Democracy will never go out as long as there’s one candle in your hand.
~ Bill Moyers

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Entry Filed under: Political Waves