BEING JOHN MILKOVICH - a Portal Into Corrupt Louisiana Elections

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

This story of truth bares a few similiarities with the "Being John Malkovich" story and then veers off. In the movie, everyone wants to be Malkovich. In the movie the character Craig Schwartz, an unsuccessful puppeteer - discovers a "portal" into the mind of actor John Horatio Malkovich .

In real life, John Milkovich, former candidate in the 4th congressional dist in Louisian discovers a portal into the workings of Louisiana's elections. That portal - Sequoia Voting Systems. In this story, different successions of election officials share control over that portal and people pay to access the portal.

Today, it is JAY DARDENNE, Secretary of State of Louisiana who is the chief puppeteer. In real life Louisiana, there are payoffs to access the portal, just as in the Malkovich movie. The similarities end there, and in real life, the puppeteer does not voluntarily relinquish control.

OPEN LETTER TO MR. JAY DARDENNE, LOUISIANA SECRETARY OF STATE

by John Milkovich, June 4, 2009
Shreveport, Louisiana

Protecting the Integrity of Louisiana Elections

Enough voters were disenfranchised by procedural and programming errors in Louisiana’s 2008 Congressional Primaries, to have possibly changed the outcome of those elections. The company that manufactures and services Louisiana’s voting machines has a long history of corruption, particularly in Louisiana— yet, there are troubling connections between this company and some Louisiana election officials. The voting machines Louisiana now uses have no paper trail, so it is entirely possible for the computer operators/programmers to cheat and never be caught. Finally, Louisiana fails to conduct its elections with enough transparency, to protect the integrity of election results.

On October 13, 2008, I filed a Judicial Challenge to the results of the October 4th Democratic Congressional Primary for the 4th Congressional District of Louisiana, in which I was a candidate. There are over 80,000 Independent Voters registered in Western Louisiana, the 4th Congressional District. Independent voters had a legal right to vote in the Democratic Congressional Primary, held October 4. It was confirmed after the October 4, 2008 election that the Electric Voting Machines (EVMs) manufactured by Sequoia and used in the election were programmed by the Office of the Louisiana Secretary of State, so that Independent Voters were locked out from voting in the Democratic Congressional Primary, on a large scale. Computer Scientist and Princeton Professor Dr. Andrew W. Appel, one of the leading experts in the world on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), has documented that over 2,100 Independent voters were wrongly prevented from voting in the Democratic Congressional Primary, in Caddo Parish alone. On October 17, 2008, a Beauregard Parish District Judge dismissed our Challenge on technical grounds, without denying that thousands of Independent Voters had been illegally excluded from voting in the 2008 Democratic Congressional Primary.

Even after media coverage of the Illegal Preclusion of Independent Voters, and a Judicial Petition setting forth the Illegal Preclusion of Independent Voters in the October 4, 2008 Primary— the Secretary of State’s Office still failed to rectify the problem. Independent voters confirmed to us that they were still illegally precluded from voting in the Democratic Congressional Runoff, held November 4th, 2008.

The most compelling questions raised by the 2008 Democratic Congressional Primary for the 4th Congressional District were not simply about what happened in the election in which I was a candidate. The gravest concerns raised by this election bring into focus an even larger issue: Protecting the Integrity of Future Elections in Louisiana.

Who Is Counting The Votes In Louisiana?

Sequoia is the Company that manufactures and markets the Electric Voting Machines used in Louisiana elections. Sequoia sells and services the computer programming that is used to tally votes.

The founder and CEO of Sequoia’s corporate predecessor was convicted of bribing an official and sentenced to prison. The next owner of the company was convicted of bribing United States Supreme Court Justice, Abe Fortas, with a “lifetime yearly ‘retainer’”. In the 1990s, a Gambino crime family underboss hosted a luncheon for Sequoia in connection with Sequoia's efforts to win a multi-million dollar contract for election machines in New York City.

In November, 2000, former Louisiana Elections Commissioner, Jerry Fowler “pled guilty to nine felony counts, admitting to receiving bribes for almost the entire decade of the 1990s.” Sequoia “was named as the company behind the scheme to successfully bribe the commissioner of elections of the state of Louisiana.” Mr. Fowler reportedly took “bribes for the purchase of outdated voting equipment at inflated prices.” Sequoia’s “Louisiana representative pled guilty (in Baton Rouge) to passing out as much as $10 million dollars in bribes over the course of almost an entire decade.” The bribes were reportedly transmitted by Pasquale “Pat” Ricci, a “senior executive with Sequoia“, who was convicted on November 27, 2000. According to one publication, “The scheme was hatched and run by Sequoia Pacific senior executive Phil Foster, Ricci said in court documents.” An East Baton Rouge Assistant District Attorney asserted, according to an investigator, that “Ricci’s bribes and kickbacks were passed out on behalf of Sequoia Pacific.” “Foster’s attorney said Foster took envelopes given him by and deposited them in a box in Louisiana where they were allegedly retrieved by Fowler.” But according to Foster’s lawyer, Foster didn’t know the envelopes contained large amounts of cash: “As far as Foster knew, . . ., the envelopes might have contained the ‘the Hope Diamond.’” Researcher Daniel Hopsicker notes, “One of America’s two major election companies, Sequoia Pacific, has a felony ‘rap sheet’ an arm-long.”

On Christmas Eve, 2002, Jerry Fowler’s wife, Mari Ann Fowler, stopped at a Port Allen sandwich shop, on her way to visit her husband at a Beaumont, Texas, federal prison, when she was apparently abducted. Mari Ann Fowler was never found, and was judicially declared dead in 2004.

In or about 1996, losing candidate Susan Bernacker performed a pre-election test on a Sequoia machine in New Orleans, and videotaped the machine giving votes electronically cast for her— to her opponent. Two weeks before that election, an Election Supervisor for New Orleans with access to the EVMs, was found dead near a dumpster, and officially reported to having committed suicide. In 2002, 12 Clerks of Court from Louisiana sent a letter to then Commissioner of Elections, Suzanne Terrell, complaining that, among other problems, Sequoia machines “improperly locked out” eligible voters.

A Report by Project Vote in November, 2006 documented that “Screens registering the incorrect candidate were a problem in Sequoia machines, in at least 10 jurisdictions.” The Rocky Mountain News reported in May, 2006, that “Malfunctions in Sequoia Voting Systems’ machines contributed to a four-week delay in getting full results in Chicago’s March (2006) primary election— prompting a Cook County official to threaten to withhold payment of some of the $50 million the county owes Sequoia.”

Professor Appel, has rigorously examined the Sequoia machines and software, with a team of experts. Appel documented that it took a Princeton student, working with him to analyze a privately purchased Sequoia EVM, 7 seconds to pick the lock on a Sequoia machine. Appel observed “I was surprised at how simple it was for me to access the ROM memory chips containing the firmware that controls vote-counting.” He concluded that Sequoia’s “AVC Advantage (EVM) can be easily manipulated to throw an election . . . .” “he vote-counting firmware can be removed and replace (sic) with fraudulent firmware.”

According to Voters Unite, there have been documented failures with Sequoia’s EVMs in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Washington— and Louisiana.

Why the Close Ties Between Sequoia—and Mr. Dardenne’s Office?

After the October 4, 2008 Democratic Congressional Primary, your Office moved to block Professor Appel from examining the Electronic Voting Machines used in the election. Thus, on or about October 15, 2008, Dr. Appel, was present in the Caddo Parish voting machine warehouse in Shreveport to examine the EVMs used in the election, pursuant to court order, for fraud, tampering or error. When he was seconds away from examining the voting machines used in the election, the Office of the Secretary of State frantically intervened to prevent Dr. Appel from examining any of the machines.

Within minutes of the Judge’s ruling dismissing our challenge to the election, your office moved to reset every machine used in the election-- and thus destroy all evidence in the EVMs of the election. Thus, minutes after the Trial Court's October 17, 2008 ruling, the Secretary of State's Office prepared an Order which authorized the Secretary of State to remove the electronic/digital election data from the EVMs used in Western Louisiana. The Secretary of State's Office thus quickly moved to prevent scientific examination of any of the Electronic Voting Machines used in the October 4, 2008 Democratic Congressional Primary Election.

On or about October 16, 2008, my office filed an Affidavit by Dr. Appel documenting that thousands of Independent Voters were illegally precluded from voting in the October 4, 2008 Democratic Congressional Primary in Caddo Parish alone. That affidavit was initially provided to only the Court and the Office of the Secretary of State. Yet, within an hour or 2 of its filing, a copy of the affidavit had been provided to Sequoia.

An attorney for the Secretary of State acknowledged, immediately after the October 17, 2008 trial, that she speaks with Sequoia "all the time."

It could be surmised that blocking independents from voting in Democratic Primaries, could preclude the primary election of conservative Democrats, and facilitate the election of Republican candidates in general elections. However, manipulating elections for or against any candidate or party is not the function of election officials. The valid objective of elections officials is to give true effect to the Will of the People, as expressed at the polls.

Legal Reform Long Overdue

LSA-R.S. 18:573 provides that most election records of election results can not be viewed by anyone without court order-- until after the delay for judicially challenging fraudulent elections has expired. In other words, records of an election records can not be viewed by anyone without court order— until its too late to do anything about the election. Citizens can’t look at the majority of the records without Court Order. They can’t get a court order without filing suit to challenge election results. They can’t present a fully informed challenge without looking at the Records. If citizens believe election results are incorrect or fraudulent, they can’t obtain most of the pertinent records until after they file a judicial challenge. Any Challenge must be filed without the benefit of most of the relevant records. Even after the filing of a challenge, there is no legal guarantee that citizens will be allowed to view election records and electronic data from the EVMs.

In short, citizens can’t get evidence without a Court Order. And they can’t get a Court Order, without evidence.

At the local level, the Clerk of Court is the top election official, conducting and directing elections, tabulating and certifying election results. In Caddo Parish, the legal advisor to the Clerk of Court on elections in 2008, was also heavily involved in the campaign of one of the candidates seeking election that same year. It’s a built in conflict of interest for a lawyer to advise the Clerk on how to conduct an election— and at the same time work to get a political ally elected in that same election conducted by that same Clerk.

Louisiana’s Current Election Law works not to ensure transparency, integrity and honesty in elections— but to conceal errors, fraud and deceit.

Its Time for Verifiable Election Results

Sequoia has a less than exemplary track record in Louisiana and across America. Yet, citizens have little or no way to scrutinize the process to ensure that the election returns generated by Sequioa’s machines, truly reflect the vote of the people. The EVMs manufactured by Sequoia, and serviced by Sequoia, and used for virtually every public election in Louisiana, for the most part, leave no paper trail; generate no traceable returns; produce no verifiable results. Sequoia’s EVMs do not provide for or process a voter verified paper ballot that permits each voter to create a durable record of their vote. In a word, there is no paper record of the individual votes cast. As Dr. Appel notes, “The difference between the paperless and other kinds of voting technologies is that they have the very dangerous potential to miscount the votes without leaving any evidence that they’ve done so.”

Aside from the fact there is no paper record of individual votes cast, election officials and Louisiana law shield even the electronic results from scrutiny. The election results are contained in computer cartridges— which some election officials actively withhold from the public; preclude from review; and refuse to disclose absent court order.

As of January 2007, 27 states required EVMs to produce a voter-verified paper trail, and paper trail legislation was pending in a dozen more states. Only these 11 states use paperless EVMs in most or all of their counties: Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee— and Louisiana.

Protecting the Integrity of Future Elections

We should protect the accuracy of election results, enhance the transparency of the process— and ensure the accountability of election officials, by using precinct count optical scans of paper ballots of each vote cast, to provide a verifiable record of every vote cast, and to ensure that every vote cast will count.

We can protect the Integrity of the Electoral Process with concrete actions:

• Switch to Precinct Count Optical Scan, with auditable ballots.
• Ensure that the illegal preclusion of independent voters from primaries does not happen again.
• Disentangle our State’s electoral process, from Sequoia.
• Expose and publicize all financial and political ties between voting machine companies and election officials.
• Make Election Records and digital data accessible to the citizens, candidates and the press.

The Issue is bigger that the Election in which I was a candidate. The Issue is bigger than any one Election. Our Concern is not solely with the elections of the Past— but with the Elections of the Future.

Hundreds and thousands of honest election officials in our great state work with diligence and honor, every election, to protect the Integrity of the Principle of One Man, One Vote. One of the tragic ironies of the current problems, is that the results of the efforts of these public servants, is undermined by corruption, questionable policies and connections in state government, machines that leave no paper trail, bureaucrats and laws that conceal election results and records from public view.

The principal aim is that the people decide who wins future elections. Once the principle that people decide the elections is compromised, the people’s right to determine our destiny, the people’s right to make decisions concerning our families, our future, and our freedom, is imperiled. If we’re not electing our leaders, someone else is. If we’re not electing our leaders, we’re exercising no direction or command over our own government— or its decisions. Once our legal and constitutional right to control our government is lost— so is our freedom.

cc:

Media of Western Louisiana
Citizens via Web Site
Louisiana Legislature
Mr. Moon Griffon
Interested Citizens

[pleah]

1. K&R

[Stevepol]

2. It's going to have to be a state-by-state fight for a long time. K&R!