Congressman Dennis Kucinich
For Immediate Release
Friday, November 21, 2003
Kucinich Requests House Judiciary Committee Hearing
On Diebold’s Abuses Of Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Sends Letter to Chairman Sensenbrenner and Ranking Member Conyers
Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), today, sent a letter to the Chairman and the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee requesting that the Committee hold a hearing to investigate abuses of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by Diebold Inc., one of the nation’s largest electronic voting machine manufacturers.
Recently, Diebold has waged an intimidation campaign to repress circulation of employee e-mails that raise concerns about the security of its electronic voting machines. Since early October 2003, Diebold has sent more than a dozen cease-and-desist letters to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and universities that host websites that either posted Diebold employee e-mails or merely hyperlinked to other websites with the e-mails.
Diebold invoked the DMCA to pressure many ISPs and universities into removing websites and hyperlinks. These cease-and-desist letters were inappropriate.
Kucinich states in his letter,
“There is a compelling argument that the fair use doctrine precludes copyright liability for posting the e-mails. The archive is predominantly factual and was reproduced to inform the national public debate on election reform, specifically, on the machines used to count our votes. The e-mails do not harm any market of Diebold’s, except in the sense that admitted problems may cause municipal and state purchasers to subject the machines to greater scrutiny.
--snip
Yesterday, Kucinich unveiled a new section on his website at www.house.gov/kucinich to educate the public on the perils of the current electronic voting systems, and Diebold in particular.
Read Article
25 November 2003
24 November 2003
Wired News: E-Votes Must Leave a Paper Trail
Kim Zetter
Nov. 21, 2003
Wired News
SAN FRANCISCO -- California will become the first state requiring all electronic voting machines produce a voter-verifiable paper receipt.
The requirement, announced Friday by California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, applies to all electronic voting systems already in use as well as those currently being purchased. The machines must be retrofitted with printers to produce a receipt by 2006.
Wired News: E-Votes Must Leave a Paper Trail
Well, you know, this is great news except for one thing. The 2004 election will long since have been stolen by republicans by then, bush will have installed himself as dictator for life, and the damage will already have been done. Good try, but too little, too late.
Kim Zetter
Nov. 21, 2003
Wired News
SAN FRANCISCO -- California will become the first state requiring all electronic voting machines produce a voter-verifiable paper receipt.
The requirement, announced Friday by California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, applies to all electronic voting systems already in use as well as those currently being purchased. The machines must be retrofitted with printers to produce a receipt by 2006.
Wired News: E-Votes Must Leave a Paper Trail
Well, you know, this is great news except for one thing. The 2004 election will long since have been stolen by republicans by then, bush will have installed himself as dictator for life, and the damage will already have been done. Good try, but too little, too late.
15 November 2003
Legislators are warned by voting system critic Expert who found flaws fears they weren't fixed
By Michael Dresser
sunspot.net - maryland news
November 14, 2003
The Johns Hopkins University computer scientist who identified security lapses in the voting system Maryland is adopting took his warnings to Annapolis yesterday, telling legislators he has no confidence the flaws are being fixed.
Aviel D. Rubin, technical director of Hopkins' Information Security Institute, criticized the Ehrlich administration's decision to withhold two-thirds of a consultant's report on problems with the Diebold voting system from public view. Rubin said that if the flaws have been fixed there's no justification for secrecy.
Read Article
By Michael Dresser
sunspot.net - maryland news
November 14, 2003
The Johns Hopkins University computer scientist who identified security lapses in the voting system Maryland is adopting took his warnings to Annapolis yesterday, telling legislators he has no confidence the flaws are being fixed.
Aviel D. Rubin, technical director of Hopkins' Information Security Institute, criticized the Ehrlich administration's decision to withhold two-thirds of a consultant's report on problems with the Diebold voting system from public view. Rubin said that if the flaws have been fixed there's no justification for secrecy.
Read Article
Schrodinger’s Vote
Why Diebold can’t be trusted to tally in ’04.
NYPress - Rotation - Alan Cabal - Vol. 16, Iss. 46
Somewhere out there in the wilds of America is a patsy, a Lone Nut if you will. He’s living a quiet life. Maybe he has a secret fixation, an obsession that no one around him, no neighbor, no co-worker, no family member knows about. Maybe he thinks he’s Gwyneth Paltrow’s soulmate. Maybe he wants to "rescue" Britney Spears.
When the Tecumseh Curse kicks in and bullets rip through the head of George W. Bush, this man will be called upon to take the fall, and fall he will. In the absence of an impeachment resolution, the Tecumseh Curse may be our only hope for regime change. Most likely our salvation will emanate from CIA headquarters in McLean, VA, but we can call it Wellstone’s Revenge.
Because the way it’s looking, an honest and fair election won’t do the trick.
--snip
Some very peculiar results came out of California’s recent recall election. Fringe candidates who shouldn’t have gotten any votes at all outside of their own districts received puzzling margins in unlikely places. Not surprisingly, in these unlikely places, the voting machines are manufactured by Diebold. Diebold machines were behind the insane seesawing vote counts in Brevard County and Volusia County, FL, during the 2000 presidential contest. These machines have also been implicated in irregularities (not to say outright fraud) in Dallas, TX, and in Georgia.
AN ABSOLUTELY MUST READ ARTICLE!!!
Why Diebold can’t be trusted to tally in ’04.
NYPress - Rotation - Alan Cabal - Vol. 16, Iss. 46
Somewhere out there in the wilds of America is a patsy, a Lone Nut if you will. He’s living a quiet life. Maybe he has a secret fixation, an obsession that no one around him, no neighbor, no co-worker, no family member knows about. Maybe he thinks he’s Gwyneth Paltrow’s soulmate. Maybe he wants to "rescue" Britney Spears.
When the Tecumseh Curse kicks in and bullets rip through the head of George W. Bush, this man will be called upon to take the fall, and fall he will. In the absence of an impeachment resolution, the Tecumseh Curse may be our only hope for regime change. Most likely our salvation will emanate from CIA headquarters in McLean, VA, but we can call it Wellstone’s Revenge.
Because the way it’s looking, an honest and fair election won’t do the trick.
--snip
Some very peculiar results came out of California’s recent recall election. Fringe candidates who shouldn’t have gotten any votes at all outside of their own districts received puzzling margins in unlikely places. Not surprisingly, in these unlikely places, the voting machines are manufactured by Diebold. Diebold machines were behind the insane seesawing vote counts in Brevard County and Volusia County, FL, during the 2000 presidential contest. These machines have also been implicated in irregularities (not to say outright fraud) in Dallas, TX, and in Georgia.
AN ABSOLUTELY MUST READ ARTICLE!!!
Wired News: Aussies Do It Right: E-Voting
While critics in the United States grow more concerned each day about the insecurity of electronic voting machines, Australians designed a system two years ago that addressed and eased most of those concerns: They chose to make the software running their system completely open to public scrutiny.
Although a private Australian company designed the system, it was based on specifications set by independent election officials, who posted the code on the Internet for all to see and evaluate. What's more, it was accomplished from concept to product in six months. It went through a trial run in a state election in 2001.
Critics say the development process is a model for how electronic voting machines should be made in the United States.
Wired News: Aussies Do It Right: E-Voting
While critics in the United States grow more concerned each day about the insecurity of electronic voting machines, Australians designed a system two years ago that addressed and eased most of those concerns: They chose to make the software running their system completely open to public scrutiny.
Although a private Australian company designed the system, it was based on specifications set by independent election officials, who posted the code on the Internet for all to see and evaluate. What's more, it was accomplished from concept to product in six months. It went through a trial run in a state election in 2001.
Critics say the development process is a model for how electronic voting machines should be made in the United States.
Wired News: Aussies Do It Right: E-Voting
Wired News: E-Vote Firm's Bill Comes Due
Nov. 11, 2003
SACRAMENTO -- Citing concerns that Diebold Election Systems installed uncertified software on some electronic voting systems in a California county without the state's knowledge, officials are forcing the company to pay for an audit of all the company's voting machines used in the state in order to win certification for a new model.
Wired News: E-Vote Firm's Bill Comes Due
Nov. 11, 2003
SACRAMENTO -- Citing concerns that Diebold Election Systems installed uncertified software on some electronic voting systems in a California county without the state's knowledge, officials are forcing the company to pay for an audit of all the company's voting machines used in the state in order to win certification for a new model.
Wired News: E-Vote Firm's Bill Comes Due
Monterey County poll workers prevented Hispanics from voting
Thursday, November 13, 2003
MONTEREY, Calif. (AP) - Monterey County poll workers prevented some Hispanics from voting in recent elections, county elections chief Tony Anchundo said Wednesday.
At a union-sponsored voter forum in Salinas, Anchundo accepted responsibility for poll worker actions and promised to take steps to prevent future problems.
An eight-member panel listened to Hispanic voters talk about their experiences at the polls. Voters said they were denied provisional ballots and sent to the wrong polling place. They complained about delays caused by long lines and a shortage of ballot envelopes.
Others said they witnessed voter intimidation by men in black suits who said they were members of the county's Republican Party.
Voters mainly complained about the Oct. 7 recall election. One person said some Castroville voters didn't receive ballots for the Nov. 4 elections, which were conducted by mail.
Information from: The Californian, Salinas
LINK
Thursday, November 13, 2003
MONTEREY, Calif. (AP) - Monterey County poll workers prevented some Hispanics from voting in recent elections, county elections chief Tony Anchundo said Wednesday.
At a union-sponsored voter forum in Salinas, Anchundo accepted responsibility for poll worker actions and promised to take steps to prevent future problems.
An eight-member panel listened to Hispanic voters talk about their experiences at the polls. Voters said they were denied provisional ballots and sent to the wrong polling place. They complained about delays caused by long lines and a shortage of ballot envelopes.
Others said they witnessed voter intimidation by men in black suits who said they were members of the county's Republican Party.
Voters mainly complained about the Oct. 7 recall election. One person said some Castroville voters didn't receive ballots for the Nov. 4 elections, which were conducted by mail.
Information from: The Californian, Salinas
LINK
13 November 2003
LA Weekly: Features: Uncensored Gore
The take-no-prisoners social critic skewers Bush, Ashcroft and the whole damn lot of us for letting despots rule.
by Marc Cooper
NOVEMBER 14 - 20, 2003
It's lucky for George W. Bush that he wasn’t born in an earlier time and somehow stumbled into America’s Constitutional Convention. A man with his views, so depreciative of democratic rule, would have certainly been quickly exiled from the freshly liberated United States by the gaggle of incensed Founders. So muses one of our most controversial social critics and prolific writers, Gore Vidal.
--snip
Speaking of elections, is George W. Bush going to be re-elected next year?
No. At least if there is a fair election, an election that is not electronic. That would be dangerous. We don’t want an election without a paper trail. The makers of the voting machines say no one can look inside of them, because they would reveal trade secrets. What secrets? Isn’t their job to count votes? Or do they get secret messages from Mars? Is the cure for cancer inside the machines? I mean, come on. And all three owners of the companies who make these machines are donors to the Bush administration. Is this not corruption?
So Bush will probably win if the country is covered with these balloting machines. He can’t lose.
--snip
But getting back to Bush. If we use old-fashioned paper ballots and have them counted in the precinct where they are cast, he will be swept from office. He’s made every error you can. He’s wrecked the economy. Unemployment is up. People can’t find jobs. Poverty is up. It’s a total mess. How does he make such a mess? Well, he is plainly very stupid. But the people around him are not. They want to stay in power.
LA Weekly: Features: Uncensored Gore
The take-no-prisoners social critic skewers Bush, Ashcroft and the whole damn lot of us for letting despots rule.
by Marc Cooper
NOVEMBER 14 - 20, 2003
It's lucky for George W. Bush that he wasn’t born in an earlier time and somehow stumbled into America’s Constitutional Convention. A man with his views, so depreciative of democratic rule, would have certainly been quickly exiled from the freshly liberated United States by the gaggle of incensed Founders. So muses one of our most controversial social critics and prolific writers, Gore Vidal.
--snip
Speaking of elections, is George W. Bush going to be re-elected next year?
No. At least if there is a fair election, an election that is not electronic. That would be dangerous. We don’t want an election without a paper trail. The makers of the voting machines say no one can look inside of them, because they would reveal trade secrets. What secrets? Isn’t their job to count votes? Or do they get secret messages from Mars? Is the cure for cancer inside the machines? I mean, come on. And all three owners of the companies who make these machines are donors to the Bush administration. Is this not corruption?
So Bush will probably win if the country is covered with these balloting machines. He can’t lose.
--snip
But getting back to Bush. If we use old-fashioned paper ballots and have them counted in the precinct where they are cast, he will be swept from office. He’s made every error you can. He’s wrecked the economy. Unemployment is up. People can’t find jobs. Poverty is up. It’s a total mess. How does he make such a mess? Well, he is plainly very stupid. But the people around him are not. They want to stay in power.
LA Weekly: Features: Uncensored Gore
12 November 2003
Handicapping the 2004 Race
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
November 11, 2003
Twelve months from now, the most important American presidential election since the Depression will take place. It will determine whether the country continues its imperial warring abroad -- the next potential targets appear to be Syria and Iran -- and whether domestically we will continue our quick slide away from Constitutional protections into an even more militarist, police-state society. The stakes are that high.
It might prove useful one full year before that vote, therefore, to take a step back and see where we are in a variety of areas that might influence American voters.
--snip
DIRTY TRICKS AND COMPUTER-VOTING
All signs point at this stage to yet another extremely close election in 2004. Which means that, once again, we can anticipate dirty tricks being employed in numerous large electoral-vote states -- last time in Florida, more than 90,000 voters were illegally purged from the roles in advance of the balloting, and similar ploys may be tried this time in several key states. In addition, the potential computer-voting scandal could well become actual.
If several thousand votes could determine elections in those key states, it is not outside the realm of possibility that the vote-counting computer software could be fiddled with to determine the winner.
As mainstream press outlets finally are starting to report, those computer-voting software codes are mainly controlled by three major Republician-supporting corporations -- the CEO of one of those companies, Diebold, promised to "deliver" Ohio to Bush in 2004 -- and they refuse to permit examination of those codes by outside inspectors. Reason enough to push for paper ballots for the 2004 election, counted by hand; computer-voting technology is simply too new and too open to manipulation. A journalist recently demonstrated how easy it is to enter into the machines, manipulate the tally numbers, and exit without leaving any trace of having even been inside the system. There is some evidence to suggest that such vote-tampering may have taken place in the 2002 elections in key states.
Given how close the 2004 vote might be, and the built-in problems with the vote-counting software, it is incumbent on all of us interested in the democratic process to lean on our state and county election officials not to certify those touch-screen computer-balloting machines until the software codes can be certified and until a paper-trail of votes cast can be built into the process. For more information on all this, see the Electoral Integrity file on The Crisis Papers, and Congressman Rush Holt's bill on computer-voting.
Read Article
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
November 11, 2003
Twelve months from now, the most important American presidential election since the Depression will take place. It will determine whether the country continues its imperial warring abroad -- the next potential targets appear to be Syria and Iran -- and whether domestically we will continue our quick slide away from Constitutional protections into an even more militarist, police-state society. The stakes are that high.
It might prove useful one full year before that vote, therefore, to take a step back and see where we are in a variety of areas that might influence American voters.
--snip
DIRTY TRICKS AND COMPUTER-VOTING
All signs point at this stage to yet another extremely close election in 2004. Which means that, once again, we can anticipate dirty tricks being employed in numerous large electoral-vote states -- last time in Florida, more than 90,000 voters were illegally purged from the roles in advance of the balloting, and similar ploys may be tried this time in several key states. In addition, the potential computer-voting scandal could well become actual.
If several thousand votes could determine elections in those key states, it is not outside the realm of possibility that the vote-counting computer software could be fiddled with to determine the winner.
As mainstream press outlets finally are starting to report, those computer-voting software codes are mainly controlled by three major Republician-supporting corporations -- the CEO of one of those companies, Diebold, promised to "deliver" Ohio to Bush in 2004 -- and they refuse to permit examination of those codes by outside inspectors. Reason enough to push for paper ballots for the 2004 election, counted by hand; computer-voting technology is simply too new and too open to manipulation. A journalist recently demonstrated how easy it is to enter into the machines, manipulate the tally numbers, and exit without leaving any trace of having even been inside the system. There is some evidence to suggest that such vote-tampering may have taken place in the 2002 elections in key states.
Given how close the 2004 vote might be, and the built-in problems with the vote-counting software, it is incumbent on all of us interested in the democratic process to lean on our state and county election officials not to certify those touch-screen computer-balloting machines until the software codes can be certified and until a paper-trail of votes cast can be built into the process. For more information on all this, see the Electoral Integrity file on The Crisis Papers, and Congressman Rush Holt's bill on computer-voting.
Read Article
11 November 2003
Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election - A documentary about the battle for the presidency in Florida and the undermining of Democracy in America
This documentary is being shown on the Sundance Channel. Click link below to find times and dates when it will be shown.
Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election
This documentary is being shown on the Sundance Channel. Click link below to find times and dates when it will be shown.
Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election
10 November 2003
Vote count marred by computer woes
Indianapolis Star
November 9, 2003
Lebanon -- Boone County officials are searching for an answer to the computer glitch that spewed out impossible numbers and interrupted an otherwise uneventful election process Tuesday.
"I about had a heart attack," County Clerk Lisa Garofolo said of the breakdown that came as an eager crowd watched computer-generated vote totals being projected onto a wall of the County Courthouse rotunda.
"I'm assuming the glitch was in the software."
A lengthy collaboration between the county's information technology director and advisers from the MicroVote software producer fixed the problem. But before that, computer readings of stored voting machine data showed far more votes than registered voters.
"It was like 144,000 votes cast," said Garofolo, whose corrected accounting showed just 5,352 ballots from a pool of fewer than 19,000 registered voters.
"Believe me, there was nobody more shook up than I was."
Link
Indianapolis Star
November 9, 2003
Lebanon -- Boone County officials are searching for an answer to the computer glitch that spewed out impossible numbers and interrupted an otherwise uneventful election process Tuesday.
"I about had a heart attack," County Clerk Lisa Garofolo said of the breakdown that came as an eager crowd watched computer-generated vote totals being projected onto a wall of the County Courthouse rotunda.
"I'm assuming the glitch was in the software."
A lengthy collaboration between the county's information technology director and advisers from the MicroVote software producer fixed the problem. But before that, computer readings of stored voting machine data showed far more votes than registered voters.
"It was like 144,000 votes cast," said Garofolo, whose corrected accounting showed just 5,352 ballots from a pool of fewer than 19,000 registered voters.
"Believe me, there was nobody more shook up than I was."
Link
Machine Politics in the Digital Age
New York Times
Melanie Warner
November 9, 2003
--snip
Touch-screen machines from Diebold, called AccuVotes, do not have such a "voter verified" paper trail. ES&S and Sequoia are working on prototypes for machines with printers. Diebold's machines are like A.T.M.'s, in that voters touch their selection and hit "enter" to record their votes onto memory cards inside each terminal. After voting has ended, the memory cards are inserted into a Diebold server at each precinct. The results are tabulated and sent by modem, or the data disks are sent to a central office.
Rebecca Mercuri, a computer scientist and president of the consulting firm Notable Software, who has been studying election systems for 14 years, says the trouble with this system is that it is secretive. It prohibits anyone from knowing whether the data coming out of the terminals represents what voters actually selected. If someone were to challenge election results, the data in memory cards and the software running the voting terminals could be examined only by Diebold representatives.
MS. MERCURI ran up against this last year, when she served as a consultant in a contested city council election in Boca Raton, Fla. Her request to look at the software inside the city's machines, made by Sequoia, to see if there were any bugs or malfunctions, was denied by a judge on the grounds that the technology was protected by trade-secret clauses. Sequoia, ES&S and Diebold routinely include such clauses in their contracts.
"These companies are basically saying 'trust us,' " Ms. Mercuri said. "Why should anybody trust them? That's not the way democracy is supposed to work."
Representative Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, is leading an effort to make computerized voting more transparent. His bill, introduced this year, would require that computerized voting systems produce a voter-verified paper ballot and that the software code be publicly available.
The bill, in the House Administration Committee, has 60 co-sponsors, all Democrats.
"Someone said to me the other day, 'We've had these electronic voting machines for several years now and we've never had a problem.' And I said, 'How do you know?' and he couldn't answer that," Representative Holt said. "The job of verification shouldn't belong to the company; it should belong to the voter."
Read Entire 3-Page Article
New York Times
Melanie Warner
November 9, 2003
--snip
Touch-screen machines from Diebold, called AccuVotes, do not have such a "voter verified" paper trail. ES&S and Sequoia are working on prototypes for machines with printers. Diebold's machines are like A.T.M.'s, in that voters touch their selection and hit "enter" to record their votes onto memory cards inside each terminal. After voting has ended, the memory cards are inserted into a Diebold server at each precinct. The results are tabulated and sent by modem, or the data disks are sent to a central office.
Rebecca Mercuri, a computer scientist and president of the consulting firm Notable Software, who has been studying election systems for 14 years, says the trouble with this system is that it is secretive. It prohibits anyone from knowing whether the data coming out of the terminals represents what voters actually selected. If someone were to challenge election results, the data in memory cards and the software running the voting terminals could be examined only by Diebold representatives.
MS. MERCURI ran up against this last year, when she served as a consultant in a contested city council election in Boca Raton, Fla. Her request to look at the software inside the city's machines, made by Sequoia, to see if there were any bugs or malfunctions, was denied by a judge on the grounds that the technology was protected by trade-secret clauses. Sequoia, ES&S and Diebold routinely include such clauses in their contracts.
"These companies are basically saying 'trust us,' " Ms. Mercuri said. "Why should anybody trust them? That's not the way democracy is supposed to work."
Representative Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, is leading an effort to make computerized voting more transparent. His bill, introduced this year, would require that computerized voting systems produce a voter-verified paper ballot and that the software code be publicly available.
The bill, in the House Administration Committee, has 60 co-sponsors, all Democrats.
"Someone said to me the other day, 'We've had these electronic voting machines for several years now and we've never had a problem.' And I said, 'How do you know?' and he couldn't answer that," Representative Holt said. "The job of verification shouldn't belong to the company; it should belong to the voter."
Read Entire 3-Page Article
Touch-and-Go Elections
Editorial - washingtonpost.com
November 9, 2003
ARE TOUCH-SCREEN voting machines fast and flawless, or glitch-prone and vulnerable to tampering? No one can say for sure, which is reason enough for Maryland and Virginia localities to conduct more extensive testing before totally embracing the new systems they have inaugurated with mixed results. On Tuesday it took Fairfax County more than 21 hours to get final election results from its new computerized machines; when all was cast and done, enough doubts existed to prompt legal action by some Republicans who lost.
Any possible malfunctions seem unlikely to call results into doubt. But questions about reliability remain, and the absence of a paper trail makes checking difficult. Attorneys for the GOP went before a Circuit Court judge Wednesday, asking him to keep 10 voting machines under lock and key. The machines, from nine precincts across the county, broke down about midday and were brought to the county government center for repairs and then returned to the polls. The judge said the activity logs of these machines will be inspected, with members of both parties on hand. The challengers noted that whether a contest is affected or not shouldn't be the chief question; ballot integrity is at issue. A number of Fairfax voters complained that it took them several tries to register their votes. A few precincts were forced to return to paper ballots.
Read the rest of the Story
Editorial - washingtonpost.com
November 9, 2003
ARE TOUCH-SCREEN voting machines fast and flawless, or glitch-prone and vulnerable to tampering? No one can say for sure, which is reason enough for Maryland and Virginia localities to conduct more extensive testing before totally embracing the new systems they have inaugurated with mixed results. On Tuesday it took Fairfax County more than 21 hours to get final election results from its new computerized machines; when all was cast and done, enough doubts existed to prompt legal action by some Republicans who lost.
Any possible malfunctions seem unlikely to call results into doubt. But questions about reliability remain, and the absence of a paper trail makes checking difficult. Attorneys for the GOP went before a Circuit Court judge Wednesday, asking him to keep 10 voting machines under lock and key. The machines, from nine precincts across the county, broke down about midday and were brought to the county government center for repairs and then returned to the polls. The judge said the activity logs of these machines will be inspected, with members of both parties on hand. The challengers noted that whether a contest is affected or not shouldn't be the chief question; ballot integrity is at issue. A number of Fairfax voters complained that it took them several tries to register their votes. A few precincts were forced to return to paper ballots.
Read the rest of the Story
07 November 2003
Coin Based Voting System
Proposal for Public Domain Election System Standard
Implementation of this standard will allow for a very accurate, cross-verifiable system for vote tabulation
Token based ballot systems were invented thousands of years ago. Today, a token based system, coupled with technology can provide a very accurate, cross-verifiable system for vote tabulation.
This open standard is published for use in the public domain.
Overview
In terms of accountability and security, gumball machines are superior to electronic touchscreen voting machines.
SavForPeace.org
Proposal for Public Domain Election System Standard
Implementation of this standard will allow for a very accurate, cross-verifiable system for vote tabulation
Token based ballot systems were invented thousands of years ago. Today, a token based system, coupled with technology can provide a very accurate, cross-verifiable system for vote tabulation.
This open standard is published for use in the public domain.
Overview
In terms of accountability and security, gumball machines are superior to electronic touchscreen voting machines.
SavForPeace.org
03 November 2003
Clean up the rigged elections at home first
Walter Cronkite
The Daily Herald
November 02, 2003
The recent redistricting of Texas, promoted and directed by Houston's congressman and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, reminds us that it is not just countries like Zimbabwe, Azerbaijan and Chechnya that rig their elections.
We've been doing it in this country ever since the Founding Fathers sought to assure that each congressional district would represent as nearlyas possible an equal number of citizens. They provided a census, to be taken every 10 years, as the basis on which the districts could be realigned.
Unfortunately, they left to the states how those district lines would be redrawn. The state legislators undertook the task and highly politicized it.
--snip
Concern over this essentially corrupt practice has been rising, and some states have been trying alternatives to redistricting-by-legislature. Iowa has adopted an independent commission, with salutary results -- more competitive elections and more sensible, contiguous congressional districts.
Rigged elections here seem especially scandalous today, as we preach to the Iraqis and others in the developing world the virtues of representative democracy and hold ourselves up as the paragon of that virtue. It is high time we cleaned up our own house.
Clean up the rigged elections at home first
Walter Cronkite
The Daily Herald
November 02, 2003
The recent redistricting of Texas, promoted and directed by Houston's congressman and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, reminds us that it is not just countries like Zimbabwe, Azerbaijan and Chechnya that rig their elections.
We've been doing it in this country ever since the Founding Fathers sought to assure that each congressional district would represent as nearlyas possible an equal number of citizens. They provided a census, to be taken every 10 years, as the basis on which the districts could be realigned.
Unfortunately, they left to the states how those district lines would be redrawn. The state legislators undertook the task and highly politicized it.
--snip
Concern over this essentially corrupt practice has been rising, and some states have been trying alternatives to redistricting-by-legislature. Iowa has adopted an independent commission, with salutary results -- more competitive elections and more sensible, contiguous congressional districts.
Rigged elections here seem especially scandalous today, as we preach to the Iraqis and others in the developing world the virtues of representative democracy and hold ourselves up as the paragon of that virtue. It is high time we cleaned up our own house.
Clean up the rigged elections at home first
MIT snared in dispute over voting machines
Firm: Students posted stolen Diebold files
Hiawatha Bray
Boston Globe Staff
10/30/2003
Two students have embroiled the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a nationwide controversy about the reliability of a company's high-tech voting machines.
Diebold Inc., of North Canton, Ohio, on Tuesday sent letters to MIT demanding that the school cut off Internet access to data files posted by C. Scott Ananian, a graduate student in computer science, and sophomore mathematics student David Meyer. The files, thousands of pages of Diebold internal documents, were stolen in March when someone broke into the Diebold computer network. They have been widely distributed on the Internet by political activists, who say the documents reveal serious flaws in Diebold's line of computerized voting machines.
--snip
Publishing the documents online has become a crusade for many Internet activists, who say Diebold is trying to conceal the truth about its voting machines.
"There's a lot of stuff here that's important to be known," Ananian said. The documents include internal e-mail messages that suggest Diebold workers were aware of serious problems with the voting machines, even as they were being used in elections.
Meyer said that even if the documents were stolen, they contain information the public needs. Diebold "should not be allowed to hide behind copyright law," he said.
Read Article
Firm: Students posted stolen Diebold files
Hiawatha Bray
Boston Globe Staff
10/30/2003
Two students have embroiled the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a nationwide controversy about the reliability of a company's high-tech voting machines.
Diebold Inc., of North Canton, Ohio, on Tuesday sent letters to MIT demanding that the school cut off Internet access to data files posted by C. Scott Ananian, a graduate student in computer science, and sophomore mathematics student David Meyer. The files, thousands of pages of Diebold internal documents, were stolen in March when someone broke into the Diebold computer network. They have been widely distributed on the Internet by political activists, who say the documents reveal serious flaws in Diebold's line of computerized voting machines.
--snip
Publishing the documents online has become a crusade for many Internet activists, who say Diebold is trying to conceal the truth about its voting machines.
"There's a lot of stuff here that's important to be known," Ananian said. The documents include internal e-mail messages that suggest Diebold workers were aware of serious problems with the voting machines, even as they were being used in elections.
Meyer said that even if the documents were stolen, they contain information the public needs. Diebold "should not be allowed to hide behind copyright law," he said.
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Problem with new voting method
Jacksonville Daily Progress
Steven R. Guy - Republican
--snip
So what is the problem?
This touch screen supposedly safely and accurately records your vote in memory, where you cannot see. How do you know your vote for candidate "A" was not recorded for candidate "B"? You don't.
These machines raise a specter of danger for democracy. With computer technology there is always the risk of a software programming flaw or, worse, tampering with the software that would change votes and even change the outcome of an election.
These errors might never be detected since there is no independent record.
--snip
If America is to switch to DRE then we must consider requiring voter verifiable audit trails be part of every machine.
A paper trail should include the DRE printing a paper ballot for each voter showing the votes cast by that individual. The voter will check that for accuracy before leaving the booth.
The voter would turn in his paper ballot to a secure lockbox as we do now. This would provide the most reliable backup in the event of computer tampering.
Read Article
Jacksonville Daily Progress
Steven R. Guy - Republican
--snip
So what is the problem?
This touch screen supposedly safely and accurately records your vote in memory, where you cannot see. How do you know your vote for candidate "A" was not recorded for candidate "B"? You don't.
These machines raise a specter of danger for democracy. With computer technology there is always the risk of a software programming flaw or, worse, tampering with the software that would change votes and even change the outcome of an election.
These errors might never be detected since there is no independent record.
--snip
If America is to switch to DRE then we must consider requiring voter verifiable audit trails be part of every machine.
A paper trail should include the DRE printing a paper ballot for each voter showing the votes cast by that individual. The voter will check that for accuracy before leaving the booth.
The voter would turn in his paper ballot to a secure lockbox as we do now. This would provide the most reliable backup in the event of computer tampering.
Read Article
Would Paper Trail Meet Security Concerns About Touch-Screen Voting?
BY MARGIE WYLIE
c.2003 Newhouse News Service
Some computer scientists want to plug the security holes in electronic voting machines with a low-tech fix: paper printouts. The idea seems straightforward, but it's generating fierce opposition.
--snip
As the debate heats up, Dill's arguments are getting some traction. The New York State Assembly recently passed a bill requiring voter-verifiable paper ballots on all electronic voting machines. In California, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley is considering whether to require the same thing.
Nationally, a bill requiring paper ballots on all electronic voting machines has been introduced in Congress.
Touch-screen machines that print out ballots are coming on the market.
Read Article
BY MARGIE WYLIE
c.2003 Newhouse News Service
Some computer scientists want to plug the security holes in electronic voting machines with a low-tech fix: paper printouts. The idea seems straightforward, but it's generating fierce opposition.
--snip
As the debate heats up, Dill's arguments are getting some traction. The New York State Assembly recently passed a bill requiring voter-verifiable paper ballots on all electronic voting machines. In California, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley is considering whether to require the same thing.
Nationally, a bill requiring paper ballots on all electronic voting machines has been introduced in Congress.
Touch-screen machines that print out ballots are coming on the market.
Read Article
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