I'll just ask Bev Harris direct: Are we screwed in November?

[trumad]

Lot's and lot's of folks think that a vote for Kerry ain't gonna matter anyhow because BBV is going to do us in. Do you agree with this assertion?

tru

[senseandsensibility]

1. You mean

you're going to ask her, right? You haven't asked her yet? It's getting scary here in California, let me tell you.

[trumad]

2. LOL

OK...in a non-direct way... But you get my take...

tru

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Trumad, why don't we beat Diebold using a two step process.

Step One: Encourage diehard Democrats to vote absentee.

Step Two: Have stickers made out that say, "I voted Democratic" so that people can put them on as they leave the polls so that poll counters will be able to get a rough head count. In that way, we can at least identify the worst abuses.

[ramapo]

4. Only if it's close

A repeat of 2000 and we're screwed. No way the Repubs lose that one.

[Andy_Stephenson]

5. We are not screwed if we

mobilize now! Have you joined the clean voting crew and encouraged 10 others to do so as well?

if not go to www.blackboxvoting.org and do so.

sign the statement of principle http://www.andystephenson.com">here

[stellanoir]

8. I certainly can't speak for her as we've never met. . .

But I hope she would say, "not entirely yet." With Kucinich's recent statements, the article in Vanity Fair, the constant hammering of the issue on AAR, and the recent California ruling, I'm at least marginally hopeful. I continue to keep obsessively writing to every politician, plutocrat, and pundit I can think of regarding. . .

BIGGER THAN TERRORISM. . .THE BIGGEST THREAT TO DEMOCRACY EVER. . .

Plus Congressman Rush Holt was on the floor last week re HR 2239, albeit to a nearly empty chamber.

There has been some progress. Though it's been a "long hard slog." Oh sheesh. . .I can't believe I quoted Rumfeld. . .Ugh. . .got to go take a shower.

[BabsSong]

6. CNN ticker yesterday kept repeating the state legislatures all across

the country are getting very skeptical about touch screen voting. They are waking up.

[0007]

30. I hope so!

[Jeebo]

7. We MUST have exit polling in place on Nov. 2!

This is why we MUST have exit polling in place on Nov. 2, so that if the voting machines are rigged, WE WILL KNOW ABOUT IT. Obviously, exit polling is the most accurate kind there is, because you're polling people who actually vote and you're catching them at the same time that they cast their votes. Does anybody have any ideas as to how to make SURE that SOMEBODY is going to be collecting exit polling data on Nov. 2?

Ron

[OneTwentyoNine]

9. Do what I do and vote by mail in....

You can vote a week or so early and its on a paper record. Hell..take a pic of your ballot before you mail it in. Its a paper trail all the way.

David

[DaveSZ]

10. Three words:

Absentee paper bollots

[Touchdown]

16. Eight words for you.

Absentee balllots are also read by Diebold machines... Electronic, optical scan machines that can also misread, and be rigged as well.

Didn't you read her book?

http://shop1.got.net/plan9/Search.bok?category=Black+Box+Voting

Get involved. Absentee won't save you.

[BevHarris]

18. Correct address for book purchase:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/1890916900

I'm putting out a call here: If you think I've done good work and deserve to be paid my royalties, help me with the audit taking place on Plan Nine right now: Anyone who bought a book from Plan Nine, please email [e-mail] and let me know who you are and when you bought it. Put the word out on your lists. (Very few people showed up on the list he sent the auditor, which was supposed to contain everyone who had ever bought the book. There were no books listed as going to legislators, so if you ordered one for a member of congress, let me know and I'll have the auditor check to see if it was ever fulfilled).

And now, let's return to our regularly scheduled programming:

The issue is in Time Magazine this week! I found it in the online version, with the book Black Box Voting referred to by Time Magazine as "the bible of the voting movement" -- it hasn't made it to the stands yet. I hope it made the print edition.

There was also a mention of Diebold's problems in Forbes Magazine.

And for those who aren't sufficiently disturbed about this company, something not reported in the press, but it came up in testimony in California last week: Section O of the Diebold contract with the counties. It requires the county to install a dedicated line in its GEMS server directly to the Diebold corporation, available for updates and uploads from Diebold 24 hours a day.

I'm not kidding. This is the second time I've heard of this feature. Also, from one of the very good researchers in Georgia, learned of a similar feature there.

Bev Harris

[leftchick]

20. OMG.... dedicated line to DIEBOLD?!!

:wow: :grr: :wow: :grr:

I think I am going to be sick....

[BevHarris]

22. My reaction exactly. Picture how important this could be:

If you can do push-style updating into the GEMS servers (in other words, supposedly update the software any time you want, directly from the Diebold company) you can:

Push all kinds of uncertified programs in any time you like. Certification becomes a joke.

And if you have these "dedicated lines" in a lot of counties, you can sit in a war room in Texas and tinker to your heart's content.

Also, remember: You create the ballots on the GEMS central tabulator. That means the vulnerability isn't just when the votes are being tabulated, but when the system is mapping who gets votes recorded for each candidate.

Nice, huh?

And another tidbit: Bob Kibrick is asking the question that keeps nagging me too: The TSx technical data specs show wireless capability. Diebold told the Akron Beacon Journal the TSx would transfer votes wirelessly all the way from the polling place to the county -- a considerable distance, in some cases. Then, Diebold started telling reporters the TSx has no wireless capability. When asked, at the voting panel meeting in California, if the TSx has wireless capability, Diebold apparently said it "didn't know" and "would have to check."

Kibrick brought it up again last week: To date, NO ONE HAS ANSWERED THAT QUESTION.

Bev

[nostamj]

24. ACK! "Is that a massive bleeding wound on your forehead?"

"Let me find a mirror and check."

[bobbieinok]

21. in many states it is AGAINST THE LAW to vote absentee if you will

be in town on election day

[BevHarris]

23. Good point. I think Texas is one of those states.

What good does it do to tell people to vote absentee if their state doesn't allow it without a note from your parents (Dear elections official, John is in the hospital and won't be able to attend the polls today)

Bev

[bobbieinok]

32. and in FL2000 didn't Jeb break state law by telling repugs to vote

absentee?? I think I read something like that.

And only repugs did/could/were told.

[seabeyond]

11. question on absentee

i heard that they dont count these votes unless it is close. if dems vote by absentee then it wont be close and they wont be counted

so before telling everyone to vote them, i want to know, do they count them

[Pallas180]

12. Sen Chuck Hegel is connected to Diebold, Right? Hasn't anyone noticed

that he's appearing all over tv talk shows like a busy senator
representing and concerned for the people and the country? but of course no one, and I do mean no one ever asks him about his connection to the voting machines and why they don't work. not a peep.

he's doing a big PR job for himself...like "how could you accuse this dedicated public servant of helping to steal the votes of my fellow 'muricans?"

[GregD]

13. Not Diebold

Hagel was chairman of ES&S.

http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx

http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=slv1-&ei=UTF-8&p=hagel+ethics+es&s

[Andy_Stephenson]

14. Hi GregD

:hi:

[GregD]

15. Hey Andy

Hope you are well.

[trumad]

17. Kick for the Bev Signal

[BevHarris]

19. We are semi-screwed in November

Because the industry and certain election officials are drawing lines in the sand. My favorite quote from a California voting systems panel member, was something to this effect: "I feel like it's that movie Groundhog Day. They keep telling the same lies over and over."

So does Sequoia. Explosive new information coming soon: Certifier Wyle Labs passed known flaws in Sequoia because they'd passed the same flaws before and because Sequoia "made an effort." Along these lines, a panel member questioned whether Wyle and Diebold were in cahoots in the most recent certification of the TSx, which clearly wasn't ready for prime time when it failed in 40% of San Diego polling places.

We ain't done yet. Some things are going to come completely out of left field from our side, in May.

Bev

[Iceburg]

26. Bev -- An extremely naive question but why can't the ballots be counted

by hand like most 1st world countries? Why does the US deem it necessary to use machinery to do this very simple job? Why is "hand counting" not the option of choice? I have been in the election business for over 20 years in Canada (at municipal, provincial and federal levels) and have also spent several weeks in Ghana reviewing the 1992 presidential election, and 6 months in South Africa in 93/94 preparing for its first democratic election.

Is there legislation in the US that demands the use of technology for a presidential election? I understand the slant toward the utilization of technology for municipal and state elections where additional items/referendums are attached to a ballot thus complicating the presentation to the electorate but "what gives" in the presidential election?

respectfully
R.Kall

[RedEagle]

27. Because we vote on everything including the kitchen sink

In a couple elections.

I think November 4 should be limited to president, congress, and state legislative races- then hand count EVERYTHING.

Go to the universities and recruit counters. Give them work credit for the job and a minimal wage. Provide transportatin, buses, etc.

Get busy in local communities volunteering people.

It's PEOPLE election officials don't want to deal with, along with paper.

Why not paper? If you ask most of the officials in this state they will yowl at the suggestion. Paperless machines mean the election is over with the election. No more recounts or challenges. You can't question a black box. You can't prove your vote is accurately recorded, either.

Don't discount 10 or more years of brainwashing by "The Election Center," that organization that we know nothing about but has had more influence on elections than any other entity.

And then there's corporate influence at the corporate junction in state government- the Secretary of State.

[Andy_Stephenson]

31. "And then there's corporate

influence at the corporate junction in state government- the Secretary of State."

not in my administration...

[BevHarris]

28. We certainly could hand count everything. Would be cheaper

And I was interested to see a variation on a suggestion I floated here at DU last summer, to howls of derision, is being discussed very seriously -- will pass, in fact, from the looks of things -- by the California legislature.

I suggested that security guards bring 100% of the ballots in to high schools. In a large urban area, 800,000 votes could be counted in a matter of hours, and it would be a great civics lesson. High school kids are not the monsters some DU folks made them out to be when they shuddered at that idea.

Well, in California they are very seriously discussing allowing supervised high school kids, from classes in civics and government, to act as poll workers. Why not?

There are many ways we could count everything by hand.

After a breakneck travel schedule, where I interviewed a whole lot of people, I think the problem is with the election officials, with The Election Center (who trained them) and also, that we do indeed have significant corruption in the system. This thing stinks of kickbacks and bribery, frankly, and some election officials have absolutely zero interest in solving this problem to make elections truly trustworthy.

Conny McCormick, the Los Angeles County registrar, absolutely bristled at the idea that counting votes is a form of bookkeeping.

Yeah, use that one a lot. It separates the good from the bad quickly and is an easy, non-computer way to frame the problem. Counting votes is bookkeeping, and we need to be able to "show our work."

In an old report I did called "how to unbezzle a fortune" I listed characteristics of embezzlers. One was "tries to make bookkeeping look twice as complicated as brain surgery."

Well, here's another favorite quote of mine, from the fabulous Freddie Oakley, elections registrar of Yolo County CA -- who said something like this at the True Majority press conference:

"Elections aren't rocket science. And if they were, a whole lot of people would lose their jobs, because these people who want unauditable voting don't seem to be bright enough to be rocket scientists."

Bev

[RedEagle]

34. Yeah Freddie Oakley!

I want her to replace Penelope Bonsall- then begin kicking the aft sections of certain election officials in this country.

While we're at it, how about an independent congressional investigation of R. Doug Lewis and The Election Center?

[cally]

35. I like this idea

HS students would do a much better job than electronic machines.

[leftchick]

25. kick

:kick:

[Ardee]

29. For Ms. Harris

You are doing absolutely essential work and I fervently hope you will not stop!

I am encouraged by the California debate and see a light at the end of the tunnel here, but this is only one state and one that will probably go democratic again though by a slimmer margin than ever, making auditless voting even more dangerous.

[John_H]

33. Please see post 18 for your answer n/t

[trumad]

36. Thanks Bev for your answers....