Update on Hawaii election reform bills

[tommcintyre]

From: http://www.safevotehawaii.com/
2/15/2005 - Two Down, Two to Go!


On Tuesday, 2/15, our Senate bill SB1325 also passed Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, and gone on to Ways and Means (Finance). Once again it was your vocal support and especially your overwhelming testimony that made it possible.
Now the real battle begins, where we need every piece of testimony and support possible.

Stand by for information about the schedule of the next hearings, and where and when to send testimony. Remember that you can re-use your testimony from previous hearings, but don't forget to change all the relevant details! Thank you for all your help!

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Personal report from DU member Oasis:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=147x724#729
The hearing went exceedingly favorable for the bill. Safe Vote Hawaii reps gave a smooth, comprehensive presentation. Other speakers from different groups and private citizens were also impressive. Including DU's own, Mahina.(You go girl!!)

Republican, Mike Gabbard gave tesimony in favor of 1325 and Linda Lingle sent in a written testimony in support.

Looks like a cinch.
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Testimony I prepared for the hearing: <Feel free to use>

Oral Testimony – Hawaii Senate bill SB 1325
Submitted to the Hawaii Senate Judiciary Committee
by Tom McIntyre on February 11th, 2005
independentmediasource.com

There is growing doubt among voters that their vote is counted accurately. The January 7th, 2005 National Annenberg Election Survey (1) showed that 30% of American voters were NOT “very confident that their vote had been counted accurately”. Similar surveys taken in November and December were 20%, so the trend is that more and more people doubt their vote was counted correctly.

As voters learn more about the inherent flaws in electronic voting (that are not adequately safeguarded), this number will only increase. This issue will not go away by itself. As more investigations are launched more people will become informed on this issue – and less secure about their vote. We are in danger of developing a “crisis of confidence” regarding electronic voting. This is already a reality for too many voters.

When so many people have doubts, adequate action must be taken to restore and maintain voter confidence. Simply put, the voting public must believe “beyond a reasonable doubt” that their vote is counted – and it is counted right.

I have submitted in writing many resources that demonstrate the vulnerability of electronic voting. For example, on January 29, 2005, nine Ph.D.'s from leading universities issued a report that calls the 2004 election result into serious question. (2)

Hawaii Senate bill SB 1325 is a step in the right direction for providing the necessary safeguards to restore and maintain voter confidence in our elections.

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Written testimony: <Thanks to Peace Patriot for providing most of the references.>

To: Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, Chair
Sen. Clayton Hee, Vice Chair
Judiciary and Hawaii Affairs Committee

From: Tom McIntyre
independentmediasource.com
Date: Friday, February 11th, 2005
Subject: Support of SB 1325, Relating to Electronic Voting Requirements


My name is Tom McIntyre and I am testifying in favor of SB 1325.

I believe that electronic voting (DREs) is not secure without:

- A voter verified paper audit trail (paper ballot)
- Public inspection of the machines, with a freeze on changes after inspection
- Open source code of all DREs.
- A statistically valid automatic random audit after the election to verify that the DRE totals match those of the voter verified paper ballots

Voter confidence is eroding because of the inherent insecurity of electronic voting without adequate safeguards. All necessary steps must be taken to assure that the voter will be confident “beyond a reasonable doubt” that his or her vote has been counted accurately.

The following are references to demonstrate the necessity for adequate safeguards to ensure that votes are counted accurately with DREs:

1 - January 7th, 2005 National Annenberg Election Survey (page 2 - 30% of American voters were NOT “very confident that their vote had been counted accurately”.
http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/naes/2004_03_mindset-bush-kerry-supporters_%2001-05_pr.pdf

2 - Nine Ph.D's from leading universities call for investigation of 2004 Election:
http://uscountvotes.org/ucvAnalysis/US/USCountVotes_Re_Mitofsky-Edison.pdf

Florida: 130,000 to 230,000 phantom votes for Bush--paper vs. electronic voting:
Dr. Michael Haut & UC Berkeley stats team: http://ucdata.berkeley.edu

Johns Hopkins report on insecurity of electronic voting (general): http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00196.htm#5

Easy demo of the how insecure voting machines are:
http://www.chuckherrin.com/hackthevote.htm

"Myth Breakers: Facts About Electronic Elections" (2nd edition): www.votersunite.org

Computer expert testifies before the US House Judiciary Committee that he was hired to write a program to flip the votes electronically:
- Article: http://www.newtimesbpb.com/issues/2005-02-10/news/news.html
- Video: Clinton Curtis testifies before House Judiciary
http://www.ledgeofliberty.com/2004/12/video_clinton_c.html
- Transcript of video: http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2004/12/13/18416/541/77#77

Exit poll analysis: astronomical odds against Bush win:

Dr. Steven Freeman: http://www.appliedresearch.us/sf/epdiscrep.htm

Dr. Ron Baiman: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/997

Dr. Webb Mealy: http://www.selftest.net/redshift.htm

Ohio vote suppression: http://www.bpac.info

Documentation of widespread machine fraud and dirty tricks in over 20 states:
http://www.flcv.com/ussumall.html

(North Carolina: absentee ballot vs. electronic, inexplicable 6% edge to Bush in electronic:)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.phhp?az=view_all&address=203x45003

(also at:) http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/12/233831/06

"To believe Bush won, you have to believe…"

Part 1
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1316010

Part 2
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1358806

Part 3
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.phhp?az=view_all&address=203x197878

The Time Zone Discrepancy
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.phhp?az=view_all&address=203x318693

In progress compilations of various articles and materials on 2004 Election Fraud:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ... hp?az=view_all&address=203x311105

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ... hp?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=304579

Additional notes:

Dr. Steven Freeman wrote two reports on the 2004 election. The first is available at his web site, listed above: "The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy."

The second was circulated on the internet in draft form, then withdrawn, because it is being published as a book in May, but legislators and other interested parties can easily obtain a copy from Freeman at his web site. It's entitled:

"Hypotheses for Explaining the Exit Poll-Official Count Discrepancy in the 2004 US Presidential Election (Working Paper #05-01, January 5, 2005)"

Click on the title, and it says write to Dr. Freeman at: [e-mail]

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Freeman's second paper contains an intriguing analysis of what Kerry's vote should have been, based on factors other than the exit polls. Here's my summary of it:

Dr. Steven Freeman provides an astute analysis of the predictable vote for John Kerry in 2004, using the base vote going in (who voted in 2000), the big switch from Nader to Kerry, and new voter registration which favored Democrats by 57% to 41%. Adding these three groups of voters together, Dr. Freeman finds a discrepancy of over 4 million votes (and possibly as high as 8 million) that Kerry should have gotten and didn't, in the official results. (This analysis appears in Dr. Freeman's second study on the 2004 election, available on request.)

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Summary of the 9-Ph.D. report on the election:

In another new study, on January 29, 2005, nine Ph.D.'s from leading universities issued a report that also calls the 2004 election result into serious question. They find that Kerry won the exit polls (by a 3% margin). They find the odds against exit poll error--and thus, the odds against the Bush win --to be 1 in 10 million. They find a large, unexplained skew toward Bush at the precinct level in electronic voting vs. paper ballot (a skew that has been confirmed by other reports--see the U.C. Berkeley/Florida, and democraticunderground.com/North Carolina reports).

This report also finds the explanation by Edison/Mitofsky (the exit pollsters) for why Kerry won the exit polls--that Republicans were shy of the pollsters--to be without foundation. In fact, the data points to the opposite conclusion--that the exit polls actually favored Bush--which makes the unexplained discrepancy between the exit polls and the official results even larger in Kerry's favor. The report calls for a full investigation of the 2004 election--the latest in a growing list of expert reports that do so.

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This 9-Ph.D. report has an ungainly title:

"US Count Votes: Response to Edison/Mitofsky Election System 2004 Report"

The report is only 5 pages.

Here are the 9 Ph.D.'s:

Josh Mitteldorf, Ph.D. - Temple University Statistics Department
Steven F. Freeman, PhD - Center for Organizational Dynamics, University of Pennsylvania Brian Joiner, PhD - Prof. of Statistics and Director of Statistical Consulting (ret), University of Wisconsin
Frank Stenger, PhD in mathematics - School of Computing, University of Utah
Richard G. Sheehan, PhD - Department of Finance, University of Notre Dame
Elizabeth Liddle, MA - (UK) PhD candidate at the University of Nottingham
Paul F. Velleman, Ph.D. - Department of Statistical Sciences, Cornell University
Victoria Lovegren, Ph.D. - Department of Mathematics, Case Western Reserve University
Campbell B. Read, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Statistical Science, Southern Methodist University
Kathy Dopp, MS in mathematics - USCountVotes, President

Also Peer Reviewed by USCountVotes’ core group of statisticians and independent reviewers.

Press Contact: Bruce O'Dell, USCountVotes, Vice President [e-mail]



The evidence is overwhelming that adequate safeguards must be employed to guarantee that all DRE votes are counted accurately. Public confidence in our voting system will continue to erode unless this is done. The voter must be able to believe, “beyond a reasonable doubt” that their vote counts. I urge the committee to pass SB 1325. Thank you for this opportunity to testify.

[yorkiemommie1]

1. i'm proud of you all

...in the state of my birth. mahalo!

[holomua]

2. That's great news!

Thanks again, Tom, for all of your hard work!

[keepthemhonest]

3. thanks for the update Tom

I miss the old days of media blasting all the time. On second thought no I don't. Sounds like you are making progress out there.We'll help keep it kicked of course.:kick: