Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Thursday 12/15/05

[Wilms]

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

If you can:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x397093

3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.




Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page (it's the link just below).

[Wilms]

1. NC: Can State Ignore Its E-Vote Law?

Dec. 14, 2005 PT

E-voting rules head to court this week in North Carolina, where election officials stand accused of ignoring a tough new state law designed to raise the bar on procedures to ensure machines are secure and accurate.

A hearing is set for Wednesday in the suit, filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, against two state agencies in North Carolina for certifying voting machines in violation of state law. Though it's limited to North Carolina, court watchers say the case is a critical test of one of the strongest laws governing how e-voting machines are scrutinized before they are used in elections.

"Everyone is watching this carefully," said David Jefferson, a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and chair of California's Voting Systems Technical Assessment and Advisory Board, which advises the secretary of state on voting systems.

snip

"We've had so many problems with these machines in the past," said Joyce McCloy of the North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting. "We just want election officials to follow the law the state passed."

snip

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,69831,00.html

[Wilms]

2. NC: Action Delayed in Voting Machine Complaint

12/14/05

RALEIGH - A judge delayed acting on a lawsuit challenging the certification of three voting machine vendors Wednesday because he needed more time to familiarize himself with details of the case.
A civil liberties group sued two state agencies, seeking to prevent the firms from selling voting equipment because it contends officials failed to properly review and assemble software code from their machines.

The lawsuit, filed by California-based Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of a Winston-Salem activist, asks the court to block the approval of what it called "unqualified voting systems."

Foundation lawyer Matt Zimmerman said Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens heard arguments on the complaint Wednesday, but declined to rule because he is new to the case.

Another hearing was scheduled for Dec. 21, and Zimmerman said Stephens hopes to rule within days. The State Board of Elections faces a tight schedule to get new or upgraded voting machines in roughly 90 of North Carolina's 100 counties before the May primary.

snip

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=central&id=3726747

[Wilms]

3. FL: Diebold Apparently Kicked Out Of Florida County After Hack Test

December 14th, 2005

However, a more interesting story may be that BlackBoxVoting is claiming the latest series of hack tests in Florida have convinced some election officials there to "never again use Diebold in an election."

The hack test is simply an update on an earlier hack test that was done last summer, showing problems with Diebold's equipment.

Of course, we haven't seen any other reports confirming this -- other than on the BlackBoxVoting site, and they organized the hack test, so there's some bias. Also, from their description, it looks like just one county official, and not the whole state. Finding one county official who doesn't like Diebold probably isn't that difficult.

It would be nice to get some independent confirmation on this story -- and then see if other election officials start to question their own use of the Diebold machines. At the very least, all of these questions should, once again, make election officials demand more openness from the company -- but, so far, Diebold seems to have been able to dodge most of the questions.

snip

http://techdirt.com/articles/20051214/1827236_F.shtml

Pie Fight:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=405005&mesg_id=405005

[Wilms]

4. Analysis Finds Serious Flaws With New Jersey Voter Fraud Report

Analysis Finds Serious Flaws With New Jersey Voter Fraud Report

December 14, 2005

A new analysis conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and Dr. Michael McDonald, an elections expert at George Mason University, found factual and methodological errors in a recent voter fraud report submitted to the state Attorney General in September. The report claimed to have uncovered deep problems of voter fraud in New Jersey. In its continuing effort to scrutinize the accuracy of claims of voter fraud, the Brennan Center enlisted Dr. McDonald’s assistance in analyzing the report’s underlying data.

The analysts found serious methodological problems with the report, echoing the problems with the notoriously flawed “suspected felon” purge lists in Florida in 2000 and 2004. They cautioned election officials not to rely on the flawed report and urged the Attorney General to follow the normal statutory procedures for maintaining the state’s voter registration rolls.

“Even a cursory examination shows that the methodology used to develop the alleged fraud lists is seriously flawed,” said Dr. McDonald, who analyzed the lists of allegedly illegitimate votes submitted with the report, along with the New Jersey voter file. “For example, it fails to resolve inconsistent data within individual records. Moreover, by assuming that two people who share a name and birth date are the same individual, the report fails to take into account even the most basic principles of statistics.”

Justin Levitt, associate counsel at the Brennan Center, noted: “Our analysis shows that the report substantially overstates the problem of illegitimate votes in New Jersey. In fact, the vast majority of the accusations in the report are simply unwarranted.”

“We hope that New Jersey does not allow these trumped-up allegations of voter fraud to influence any purges of the state’s voter registration rolls or to make it harder to vote,” added Wendy Weiser, associate counsel at the Brennan Center.

snip

http://www.brennancenter.org/presscenter/releases_2005/pressrelease_2005_1214.html

[Wilms]

5. OH: Committee to negotiate election bill differences

Dec 15, 1:19 AM EST

Committee to negotiate election bill differences

By JOHN McCARTHY
Associated Press Writer

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Republicans in the Ohio House and Senate tried to meet halfway on a bill that would dramatically change the state's elections laws, couldn't do it, then went home for the holidays.

That was fine with the Democrats, who liken the changes to an attack on voting rights.

The House on Wednesday rejected Senate amendments to a bill that would make major changes to Ohio election law after concerns were raised about the effect on local elections and other issues.

The unanimous vote means differences between the House and Senate will be negotiated when members return early next year. The House tried to call a committee together to resolve the issues Wednesday afternoon, but Senate Republicans questioned the legality of such a hasty meeting. Then both chambers recessed until 2006.


snip

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OH_XGR_ELECTION_CHANGES_OHOL-?SITE=PAPIT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=home.htm

[Wilms]

6. NY: Voting machines are topic at state hearing

Voting machines are topic at state hearing

Joseph Spector
Staff writer

December 14, 2005

The long rows of metal machines inside the Monroe County Board of Elections service center is an image soon to fade.

The state's bulky voting machines are expected to be replaced next year with more technologically advanced ones.

But the question remains: What are those new machines going to be?

The question was at the heart of a hearing Tuesday at the service center on Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Road. The state Board of Elections held its first public hearing there to get comment on proposed regulations for the new machines. Hearings are also scheduled in Albany and Manhattan.

snip

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051214/NEWS01/512140369/1002/NEWS

[Wilms]

7. IL: Will County ballot requires proper pronunciation

Will County ballot requires proper pronunciation

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

By Cindy Wojdyla Cain

Special to the Daily SouthtownWill County Board chairman Jim Moustis doesn't have a mouse or a moose in his name.

Just ask the employees in the county clerk's office, who've given the chairman's name an awful lot of thought recently.

In spelling his name phonetically for the computer software system designed to pronounce names for visually impaired voters, clerk's office employees first tried "Moustis," but the system said "Mouse-tis."

"Moohs-tis" didn't work. Neither did "Myus-tis." After several more stabs at it, clerk's staffers cracked the code and came up with "Meus-tis."

snip

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/yrtwn/swest/142swyt2.htm

[Wilms]

8. Guidelines Designed to Ensure Vote Accuracy

Guidelines Designed to Ensure Vote Accuracy

Associated Press

Wednesday, December 14, 2005; Page A15

Voting systems would be more secure and voter access improved for those with disabilities under voluntary guidelines approved yesterday by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

The guidelines are a result of legislation passed two years after the 2000 presidential election, with its hanging chads, complaints of inadequate polling places and problems with mistaken voting. The Help America Vote Act requires improved voting systems, improved voter access and statewide voter registration lists by Jan. 1.

The act also required the guidelines that were approved yesterday. "The voting system guidelines we've adopted are structured to make sure voting systems function properly, that they are secure, that the votes cast by voters are counted accurately, that they are accessible to all voters no matter their age, disability and level of literacy," commission Chair Gracia M. Hillman said.

Under the guidelines, those responsible for the voting systems would have to ensure that all voters can cast ballots with privacy, independence and the knowledge that their votes will be counted accurately.

snip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/13/AR2005121301960.html

Discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x404937

[Wilms]

9. FL: New tests fuel doubts about vote machines

New tests fuel doubts about vote machines

A top election official and computer experts say computer hackers could easily change election results, after they found numerous flaws with a state-approved voting-machine in Tallahassee.

BY MARC CAPUTO AND GARY FINEOUT
[e-mail]

TALLAHASSEE - A political operative with hacking skills could alter the results of any election on Diebold-made voting machines -- and possibly other new voting systems in Florida -- according to the state capital's election supervisor, who said Diebold software has failed repeated tests.

Ion Sancho, Leon County's election chief, said tests by two computer experts, completed this week, showed that an insider could surreptitiously change vote results and the number of ballots cast on Diebold's optical-scan machines.

After receiving county commission approval Tuesday, Sancho scrapped Diebold's system for one made by Elections Systems and Software, the same provider used by Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The difference between the systems: Sancho's machines use a fill-in-the-blank paper ballot that allows for after-the-fact manual recounts, while Broward and Miami-Dade use ATM-like touchscreens that leave no paper trail.

snip

Sancho said Diebold isn't the only one to blame for hacker-prone equipment. The Florida secretary of state's office should have caught these problems early on, he said, and the Legislature should scrap a law severely restricting recounts on touch-screen machines and equip them with the means of producing a paper trail.

A spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office said any faults Sancho found were between him and Diebold.

''If Ion Sancho has security concerns with his system, he needs to discuss them with Diebold,'' spokeswoman Jenny Nash said.

snip

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13410061.htm

[paineinthearse]

10. Diebold for sale?

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x405199

[Wilms]

11. .

:hi:

[kster]

12. -

:headbang: