Secretary of State's Office admits direct reporting function of untested election software

[Columbus Free Press]

From: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2012/4779

Another Husted dirty trick in Ohio: Secretary of State's Office admits direct reporting function of untested election software
by Gerry Bello and Bob Fitrakis
November 4, 2012
Citizen concerns about untested software have multiplied since the Columbus Free Press broke the news that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted's office installed uncertified and untested software on the central vote tabulation machines in up to 39 counties in the state.

Memos circulated amongst senior staff at the Ohio Secretary of States' indicate that they consider this skirting of Ohio Election Law is justified because the software does not directly tabulate or communicate actual votes. Their statements to the mainstream press reveal a different set of facts about the software and a different justification.

In statements to the theGrio, NBC's political blog, SOS spokesman Matt McClellan said the software is to “assist counties and to help them simplify the process by which they report the results to our system.” and that it was deemed experimental because “It is a pilot project that we’re doing with about 25 counties or so. So it’s not statewide, but it is a pilot project we’re trying.”

Ohio election law does not allow software or hardware to be used in election until it has been tested or certified by the Ohio Board of Voting Machine Examiners unless it is experimental. The confidential internal memos indicate that this software was never tested because of claims that it is not involved with the tabulation or communication of votes. Reporting election results from county tabulation systems to the secretary of state's office, which is the purpose of this software as explained by McClellan, is in fact communication of votes.

The potential federal illegality of this software has been hidden from public scrutiny by the Secretary of State's Election Counsel Brandi Seske. In a September 29 memo, Seske wrote, “Please see the attached letter from Matt Masterson regarding de minimis changes - one submitted by ES&S and one by Dominion Voting Systems. He has reviewed and approved the changes." “De minimis” is a legal term for minute. Federal election regulations have a very specific definition of de minimis. This definition was clarified to all state level agencies in a federal Elections Assistance Commission memo dated February 8, 2012 entitled “Software and Firmware modifications are not de minimis changes.”

Ohio election law provides for experimental equipment only in a limited number of precincts per county. Installing uncertified and untested software on central tabulation equipment essential affects every single precinct in a given county. Nowhere in the memos circulated by Seske, nor in the contract, is the software called “experimental.”

The Secretary of State's office has given one questionable justification to its own Board of Voting Machine Examiners and another to the public.

The contract provides for testing, performed jointly by the counties and the vendor within 30 days of the software being installed. This testing was required to be independent and overseen by the Board of Voting Machine Examiners, as required by Ohio law.

McClellan told theGrio “I’m not sure the exact timeline of that [the installation and testing], but I know we’ve been working with the counties for the past couple of months on getting these in place, testing them to make sure they work properly, and working with the vendors as well.”

This uncertified and untested software could easily malfunction and corrupt votes on the central tabulation machines, thus destroying any electronic record of the actual votes by citizens. This “experimental” software, as outlined in the contract, has no security protocols. A “man in the middle” attack, like the one that stole the Ohio election for George W. Bush in 2004, could be directly facilitated by this untested and uncertified software installation.

The Secretary of State's office has used every legal contortion to avoid the use of science and the possibility of public scrutiny of this possibly illegal software. The Free Press will continue to report on this story as it develops.

--------------

Gerry Bello is the chief researcher at the Columbus Free Press. He holds a degree in computer security from Antioch College. Bob Fitrakis is the Editor of the Free Press. He holds Ph.D. in Political Science and a J.D. from the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University.

[UCmeNdc]

1. This is how the GOP steals the election! It only matters who counts the votes!

[DFW]

37. For all their "Anti-communist" BS, the Republicans really worship Stalin:

As Stalin said: "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."

And from election day, 2004, here's living proof that the Republican Party has taken Stalin to heart:

[Mc Mike]

39. Ms. Pelosi's 'Travels with George' + 1.

How many votes did that butt-head get from his repug caucus, for the 9-11 first responders health bill?

[young_at_heart]

2. What is being done about this?

How can it be proven that there was a "man in the middle" for Bush. Wouldn't that have been criminal? Bur---anyone doing anything about this fiasco?

[Columbus Free Press]

3. We are

Filing for an injunction in both federal and state court tomorrow...

Official anouncement to be posted in am

[pnwmom]

4. Glad to hear this -- thank you. n/t

[Binders Keepers]

8. Why have you waited until this long to file an injunction?

[flamingdem]

13. They had to file a FOIA

request to get this information, check out the various articles at freepress.org

[Columbus Free Press]

15. actually

we didnt get it via foia...

They stonewalled...

We got it via leaks.....

[flamingdem]

16. Ah, that's very interesting

Thanks for sharing that

[Columbus Free Press]

17. I mostly did it

so they can all have a nice comfortable moment around the water cooler together over at the SOS office in the morning

[flamingdem]

12. Good luck, we're rooting for you

and for the citizens of Ohio.

[triplepoint]

30. Try to Have "Standing" and "Hard Evidence" When You Do It

There may requirements for that in order for you to succeed with an injunction. Any technicality could derail your attempted legal action. I hope you succeed. I and many others here also wish you'd just make a citizen's arrest of that fucker husted. Frog march him out of there and hand him over to the proper "Authorities." The sooner the better.

[Columbus Free Press]

31. We have

both Standing...

Bob is a candidate and a chair of the Ohio green party

and evidence...

The actual contracts and the SOS media statements...

[liberalmuse]

5. This might help a bit:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/03/1155078/-Stop-fretting-over-the-Ohio-voting-machine-patch-and-GOTV

What we really should be worrying about is the suppression we see with our own eyes - long lines, not enough polling places, people being turned away from the polls after waiting hours in line, and Thug-trained "poll watchers" who will try to convince or intimidate vulnerable Democrats (i.e.; the elderly, minorities) that they aren't eligible to vote.

[Columbus Free Press]

6. We will be monitoring

on election day for all the fraud and suppression. and the thugs.

See also our article on election suppression:

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2012/4777

Of course election suppression has dozens of groups and platoons of lawyers.

On the electronic fraud end... we have ourselves

[Mojorabbit]

7. Thanks for doing this. nt

[diane in sf]

10. Thank you.

[liberalmuse]

33. Thank you.

If it weren't for yours and others efforts, I'd be feeling a lot more nervous (I'm nervous as it is!).

[Egnever]

9. The question I have on this is

What 25 counties and what are the demographics of these counties.

Are they all dem leaning? are they a mix?

Curious minds and all that.

[Columbus Free Press]

11. That is unclear

but it could included Franklin and Cuyahoga are two of them...

that means columbus and cleveland

Plus Summit (Akron), Trumbull (Warren),and Mahoning (Youngstown), clark (springfield)...

And we are not sure if it is 25 of 39.

39 counties could be affected if we go by who has the equipment. The SOS office saying 25 is meaningless considering their record for truthfulness... the contract itself does not specify which.

Bottom line... this could affect every metro area in Ohio except Dayton, Cinci and Toledo

And Hamilton county has a different set of voting machine issues as we reported earlier this month

[flamingdem]

14. Can you tell us what the Obama legal team

involvement is -- assuming that you're in touch and sharing information?

[flamingdem]

18. If you see cable: Cnn had an interview with Husted and Don Lemon asked about

the "experimental" software patch. Of course Husted pleaded innocence.

The Ed Show also covered the story and Nina Turner said that this does concern her -- she had previously said that all machines were checked out and she wasn't worried about electronic theft.

[Columbus Free Press]

20. link please

or email it to us

[flamingdem]

22. I'll look for it right now nt

[flamingdem]

23. Found it - starts at around 6:15 min.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/49678188#49678188

[flamingdem]

24. Partial transcript

Husted: The reporting system and accounting system are not connected in any way (msnbc is using the cnn video)

Ed: Is the system transparent?

Nina: They should not be experimenting in a Presidential Election

Nina: We have our eyes on the prize, other folks are working on this.

[md83]

19. Polling place equipment

Here's the equipment by county.

http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?ec=allall&state=Ohio

[Columbus Free Press]

21. lower right hand corner

lets you sort by vendor also

[flamingdem]

25. CNN transcript: Husted and Don Lemon

With Ohio being one of the key states, Obama and Romney are battling to win, voting rights advocates are already raising some concerns. It follows a report in "The Columbus Free Speech" that Ohio Secretary of State John Husted ordered experimental software patches to be installed in vote machines in 39 counties. The software has the potential to affect more than 4 million registered voters, including those in Columbus and Cleveland. "The Free Press" says the software was never certified or tested.

CNN's Don Lemon spoke to Husted last night and gave him a chance to respond to those allegations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON HUSTED (R), OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE: We have a new system, all we have to do is load the data into that election reporting system. And actually, it's so -- it's so -- the reporting system and the actual counting system are not connected in any way, and the results that anybody can get in their home on the computer, they're going to get them the same time I do on election night. So, we have a very transparent system that's brand new and will help people across this country and across the world frankly look right at our Web site and find out what's going on.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: So nothing fishy going on.

HUSTED: Nothing fishy going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Husted also said that 1.6 million early votes have already been cast in Ohio. That tops the 1.4 million from 2008. Early voting continues now through Monday.

[Binders Keepers]

26. I saw that interview.

Don Lemon is not exactly Mike Wallace.

[flamingdem]

27. Ha! Don't you love his hard ball question to this criminal!

He had him right there -- but he was avoiding questioning his honesty, but that's the point along with simple questions about whether what he did is legal.

[budkin]

28. You know the team Obama lawyers are all over this thing

They're not going to let another 2004 happen in Ohio

[robinlynne]

40. Is that a joke? Obama left the Bush appointees in charge of the EAC. He could have appointed, maybe

an Elizabeth Warren to oversee our elections?

[octoberlib]

29. Buzzfeed has video of the Don Lemon interview on CNN

http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/top-ohio-elections-official-accuses-critics-of-tr

[Mc Mike]

32. Thanks, FreePress.

'Reporting the results is communication of votes.'

Hoping Holder helps here.

[boingboinh]

34. LOL! Holder? Seriously? The man is useless.

Unless its about going after democrats.

[Mc Mike]

38. He's very low key, bb, but at least he isn't

Meese, Ashcroft, Gonzalez, Mitchell, etc.

They should have expanded Justice Dept. exponentially, just to go after the 8 zillion repug criminals from the smirking chimp's administration. For some reason, our nation's budgetary cupboards were a little bare at the beginning of '09. 12 trillion in the red, in fact.

Lobby him, don't tell him he sucks. Lobby him aggressively.

[CrispyQ]

35. Thank you for this.

Bookmarking.

[yellowcanine]

36. Wouldn't there be parallel reporting using the current system?

And then they see if the new system works the same way as the current system?

Otherwise there would be no way to determine if the new system is as reliable as the old. It should be fairly easy to firewall the two systems from each other so there could be no corruption of one with the other. These are basically database files and we store separate databases on the same computer all of the time without one corrupting the other. I am as concerned about the potential of corrupting the e voting process as anyone but this seems as if it might be a tempest in a teapot.