"What is being done to assure accuracy of election results?"

[orleans]

October 16, 2008

Three months ago, I first asked the DuPage County Election Commission if it would publicly explain to our many concerned readers, in a column or an open letter, the measures it is taking to overcome the numerous problems in our electronic voting system, like the fact that the tabulation software unpredictably drops votes - something the Diebold/Premier company admits.

It has also been proven that the machines contain security flaws so great that election officials must take extraordinary measures to prevent the election fraud that the machines seem to invite. So easy is it for even a single person to alter election results that experts in Ohio, Florida and Arizona have outlined strict measures that, if followed, would minimize but not eliminate the chance of fraud. All I asked the DCEC was: Are such measures being taken?

It has been suggested that their repeated refusal to respond in any way is an answer in itself. However, such behavior is not, I have been told, uncharacteristic of this body that is appointed by the County Board chairman and answerable to no other authority but his.

So what about the questions I asked? Well, all I can do is relate what I have been told by readers, which may or may not be true and cannot be confirmed. The ballots are, in fact, transported in containers with newly improved seals, but we don't know if they have serial numbers or are tamper-revealing. Computer audit logs, tabulation databases and problem reports are reportedly not available to observers on Election Night.

The names of election technicians are not available, and bipartisan observers are apparently not present through the whole process, especially late at night. Lists of voters who have been purged, or had their category changed, are reportedly not available, even to the state board of elections.

Memory cards containing the vote numbers are often not returned properly, and dozens have apparently been left in polling places overnight. Touch screen machines, which are used for early voting, can reportedly be opened with a common mini bar key. The paper tape printers from these machines, which contain the only audit-able record of the vote, often fail, leaving the results missing or unreadable. In any event, these tapes are destroyed soon after the election and not kept for 22 months, as the law requires. Also, because they are cumbersome to unroll, votes on these tapes are not included in the state-required 5 percent vote audit.

Because the DCEC apparently didn't buy enough memory cards, or for whatever reason, these records of the vote are wiped clean after the election instead of being kept, as required. In fact, several hundred pounds of records have reportedly been destroyed without the proper permissions. Obviously, under such conditions, filing Freedom of Information requests and detecting election fraud is virtually impossible.

I would expect that the County Board chairman would place the responsibility for conducting fair elections, the foundation of our great republic, in the hands of the most scrupulous men and women he could find, people who were above even the appearance of impropriety.

Their responsibility is to ensure that government derives its just power from the consent of the governed. If they don't, then they are not just expressing contempt for our readers but for liberty itself.

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/mego/1224568,6_4_NA16_MEGOCOLUMN_S1.article