After EFF Litigation, Diebold Pulls Out of North Carolina
Infozine - December 28, 2005
After a series of lawsuits led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to defend North Carolina's election integrity laws, controversial electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold Election Systems finally withdrew from the state's voting machine procurement process on last Thursday.
Raleigh, North Carolina - infoZine- In November, Diebold filed suit against the North Carolina Board of Elections to try to avoid a state requirement that vendors place into escrow all source code "that is relevant to functionality, setup, configuration, and operation of the voting system." Under a strong new state law, this code is to be available to the Board of Elections and the chairs of the state political parties for review so that they could look for security vulnerabilities. EFF intervened in the case on behalf of local voter integrity advocate Joyce McCloy and succeeded in convincing the judge to dismiss the case and require Diebold to comply.
Despite Diebold's open admission that it could not meet the state requirements for voting machine integrity, the Board of Elections later agreed to certify Diebold. EFF filed suit against the Board of Elections last week, arguing that the Board had violated its own obligations to perform extensive security-related tests of all of the code on all certified systems prior to certification. The court denied EFF's motion, but Diebold was nonetheless forced to withdraw from the North Carolina procurement process because it did not escrow its code.
In a letter to the Board of Elections on Thursday, Diebold indicated that it is still unwilling to comply with the law. Instead, it offered to help the state "revise" the law so that "all vendors will be able to comply with the state election law."
"The purpose of election integrity law is to ensure that votes are accurately counted, not to ensure that all equipment vendors can comply," said Matt Zimmerman, EFF's Staff Attorney specializing in electronic voting issues. "The law requires voting machine transparency for good reason. All vendors must realize that the public will not and should not accept a process that forces them to simply trust, but not verify, their votes are accurately counted."
By withdrawing from North Carolina's electronic voting contract, Diebold cedes the market to competitor ES&S. The rival company has stated that it will comply with all state escrow requirements.
Link >>
Related infoZine articles:
North Carolina Sued for Illegally Certifying Voting Equipment >>
North Carolina Illegally Certifies Diebold E-voting System >>
Diebold Attempts to Evade Election Transparency Laws >>
28 December 2005
22 December 2005
Diebold Withdraws As NC Voting Equipment Vendor, Only One Left
22 Dec 2005
Raleigh, NC -- The effort to upgrade voting equipment in North Carolina by next spring took a hit when an approved vendor pulled out of the running.
Diebold Election Systems says it can't follow a new law that required it to share its software coding with the state.
The company told the State Board of Elections it would be impossible to meet a deadline to account for all software used by the company for machines certified to be sold in all 100 counties.
The decision means that only one vendor currently is cleared to sell equipment, raising more questions about whether counties will have enough time to buy machines that meet the state's technical and security standards.
Another firm that was certified, Sequoia Voting Systems, withdrew earlier this month.
Read More >>
22 Dec 2005
Raleigh, NC -- The effort to upgrade voting equipment in North Carolina by next spring took a hit when an approved vendor pulled out of the running.
Diebold Election Systems says it can't follow a new law that required it to share its software coding with the state.
The company told the State Board of Elections it would be impossible to meet a deadline to account for all software used by the company for machines certified to be sold in all 100 counties.
The decision means that only one vendor currently is cleared to sell equipment, raising more questions about whether counties will have enough time to buy machines that meet the state's technical and security standards.
Another firm that was certified, Sequoia Voting Systems, withdrew earlier this month.
Read More >>
21 December 2005
Diebold Hack Hints at Wider Flaws
21 Dec 2005
Election officials spooked by tampering in a test last week of Diebold optical-scan voting machines should be equally wary of optical-scan equipment produced by other manufacturers, according to a computer scientist who conducted the test.
Read More >>
21 Dec 2005
Election officials spooked by tampering in a test last week of Diebold optical-scan voting machines should be equally wary of optical-scan equipment produced by other manufacturers, according to a computer scientist who conducted the test.
Read More >>
Voting machine maker Diebold in trouble
21 Dec 2005
The California secretary of state is ordering all of the electronic voting machines made by Diebold Electronic Systems to undergo outside testing.
Read More >>
21 Dec 2005
The California secretary of state is ordering all of the electronic voting machines made by Diebold Electronic Systems to undergo outside testing.
Read More >>
20 December 2005
California Sec. of State Refuses to Re-Certify Diebold Voting Machines! (For Now...)
Bradblog - 12/20/2005
SoS: 'Unresolved significant security concerns', 'Source Code Never Ever Reviewed'
State 'Punts' Issue Back to Feds for Further Testing, State Senator Objects -- Complete Letter from SoS, Senator Bowen's Full Statement...
Read More >>
Bradblog - 12/20/2005
SoS: 'Unresolved significant security concerns', 'Source Code Never Ever Reviewed'
State 'Punts' Issue Back to Feds for Further Testing, State Senator Objects -- Complete Letter from SoS, Senator Bowen's Full Statement...
Read More >>
18 December 2005
Bucks voting coalition grows in numbers, influence
Municipalities, Dems join call for machines with paper record.
The Morning Call - December 18, 2005
Six months ago, the Bucks County Coalition for Voting Integrity amounted to little more than a few names and phone numbers scribbled on a note pad kept by Mary Ann Gould, the Richboro woman who founded the group.
Today, the coalition has a mailing list of more than 1,000, an attorney, a legal defense fund and a major political party backing its mission, which is to persuade the county commissioners to buy voting machines that preserve paper records of each vote cast in an election.
County commissioners have been flooded with phone calls and e-mails from coalition members.
And others are sitting up and taking notice as well.
Four municipalities in Bucks have passed resolutions calling for ''voter-verified paper ballots.'' And, the Bucks County Democratic Committee has weighed in, passing a resolution this month calling on commissioners to adopt the coalition's stance and buy machines that create paper records.
Read More >>
Municipalities, Dems join call for machines with paper record.
The Morning Call - December 18, 2005
Six months ago, the Bucks County Coalition for Voting Integrity amounted to little more than a few names and phone numbers scribbled on a note pad kept by Mary Ann Gould, the Richboro woman who founded the group.
Today, the coalition has a mailing list of more than 1,000, an attorney, a legal defense fund and a major political party backing its mission, which is to persuade the county commissioners to buy voting machines that preserve paper records of each vote cast in an election.
County commissioners have been flooded with phone calls and e-mails from coalition members.
And others are sitting up and taking notice as well.
Four municipalities in Bucks have passed resolutions calling for ''voter-verified paper ballots.'' And, the Bucks County Democratic Committee has weighed in, passing a resolution this month calling on commissioners to adopt the coalition's stance and buy machines that create paper records.
Read More >>
17 December 2005
Voting machines hacked, Leon official says
Palm Beach Post - December 17, 2005
TALLAHASSEE — Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho asked state elections officials Friday to reexamine their voting machine certification program after computer experts conducting tests in Sancho's office hacked into Diebold machines and altered the vote count.
Gov. Jeb Bush, despite calling Sancho as a "maverick" who uses "unorthodox" methods, said earlier in the day that incoming Secretary of State Sue Cobb should "carefully" consider Sancho's complaint.
Sancho, who has been a frequent critic of the Secretary of State's Division of Elections, said that the tests exposed a serious flaw with the Diebold Accuvote 2000 optical scan machines.
"They've obviously missed the basic element of what they should be testing for — whether or not you can steal the election," Sancho said after sending a letter to interim Secretary of State David Mann requesting an investigation into the certification process.
Sancho said he will no longer use the Diebold machines and is seeking $1.2 million from the county to purchase new voting equipment.
Sancho said that Diebold officials were uncooperative and refused to admit that there was a problem with the Accuvote machines.
"When confronted that potential anomalies existed, they denied that it was possible," he said.
Diebold Chairman and Chief Executive Walden W. O'Dell resigned on Monday.
Sancho said he was approached by Black Box Voting about the tests, in which a pre-programmed memory card was inserted into the Diebold machine. A "zero votes" test was run on the machine, indicating that no votes had yet been cast in the election. Tests conducted in March revealed the same problem.
"Our findings show that it is possible to put an executable file on its memory card which produces false results and leaves no trail that any violation of the system has occurred. Only the originally marked ballots show that the printed and computer-generated totals are incorrect," Sancho wrote.
Read More >>
Palm Beach Post - December 17, 2005
TALLAHASSEE — Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho asked state elections officials Friday to reexamine their voting machine certification program after computer experts conducting tests in Sancho's office hacked into Diebold machines and altered the vote count.
Gov. Jeb Bush, despite calling Sancho as a "maverick" who uses "unorthodox" methods, said earlier in the day that incoming Secretary of State Sue Cobb should "carefully" consider Sancho's complaint.
Sancho, who has been a frequent critic of the Secretary of State's Division of Elections, said that the tests exposed a serious flaw with the Diebold Accuvote 2000 optical scan machines.
"They've obviously missed the basic element of what they should be testing for — whether or not you can steal the election," Sancho said after sending a letter to interim Secretary of State David Mann requesting an investigation into the certification process.
Sancho said he will no longer use the Diebold machines and is seeking $1.2 million from the county to purchase new voting equipment.
Sancho said that Diebold officials were uncooperative and refused to admit that there was a problem with the Accuvote machines.
"When confronted that potential anomalies existed, they denied that it was possible," he said.
Diebold Chairman and Chief Executive Walden W. O'Dell resigned on Monday.
Sancho said he was approached by Black Box Voting about the tests, in which a pre-programmed memory card was inserted into the Diebold machine. A "zero votes" test was run on the machine, indicating that no votes had yet been cast in the election. Tests conducted in March revealed the same problem.
"Our findings show that it is possible to put an executable file on its memory card which produces false results and leaves no trail that any violation of the system has occurred. Only the originally marked ballots show that the printed and computer-generated totals are incorrect," Sancho wrote.
Read More >>
14 December 2005
EXCLUSIVE: SECURITIES FRAUD LITIGATION FILED AGAINST DIEBOLD, INC!
Eight Current and Former Executives Named as Co-Defendants, Including former CEO O'Dell and New CEO Swidarski
Class Action Suit Alleges Fraud, Insider Trading, Manipulation of Stock Prices, Concealment of Known Flaws in Voting Machines and Company Structural Problems
The BRAD BLOG can now report that a Securities Fraud Class Action suit has been filed against Diebold, Inc. (stock symbol: DBD) naming eight top executive officers in the company as co-defendants. The suit has been filed by plaintiff Janice Konkol, alleging securities fraud against the North Canton, Ohio-based manufacturer of Voting Systems and ATM machines on behalf of investors who owned shares of Diebold stock and lost money due to an alleged fraudulent scheme by the company and its executives to deceive shareholders during the "class period" of October 22, 2003 through September 21, 2005.
The suit was filed today in U.S. Federal District Court in Ohio and alleges the company "artificially inflated" stock prices through misleading public information designed to conceal the true nature of Diebold's financial and legal situation. The defendants are also alleged to have attempted to disguise well-known and ongoing problems with Diebold's Voting Machine equipment and software. Additionally, the suit alleges insider trading by defendants resulting in proceeds of $2.7 million. Remedies are sought under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Read More >>
Eight Current and Former Executives Named as Co-Defendants, Including former CEO O'Dell and New CEO Swidarski
Class Action Suit Alleges Fraud, Insider Trading, Manipulation of Stock Prices, Concealment of Known Flaws in Voting Machines and Company Structural Problems
The BRAD BLOG can now report that a Securities Fraud Class Action suit has been filed against Diebold, Inc. (stock symbol: DBD) naming eight top executive officers in the company as co-defendants. The suit has been filed by plaintiff Janice Konkol, alleging securities fraud against the North Canton, Ohio-based manufacturer of Voting Systems and ATM machines on behalf of investors who owned shares of Diebold stock and lost money due to an alleged fraudulent scheme by the company and its executives to deceive shareholders during the "class period" of October 22, 2003 through September 21, 2005.
The suit was filed today in U.S. Federal District Court in Ohio and alleges the company "artificially inflated" stock prices through misleading public information designed to conceal the true nature of Diebold's financial and legal situation. The defendants are also alleged to have attempted to disguise well-known and ongoing problems with Diebold's Voting Machine equipment and software. Additionally, the suit alleges insider trading by defendants resulting in proceeds of $2.7 million. Remedies are sought under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Read More >>
Diebold chairman/CEO quits under pressure from board
AP - 12/13/2005
NORTH CANTON -- The chairman and CEO of North Canton's Diebold Corporation, whose voting machine systems came under fire from critics during last year's election, quit Monday.
The company says the resignation of Walden O'Dell was initiated by the board of directors. The company says the board felt the resignation for personal reasons was in the best interests of all parties.
Link >>
AP - 12/13/2005
NORTH CANTON -- The chairman and CEO of North Canton's Diebold Corporation, whose voting machine systems came under fire from critics during last year's election, quit Monday.
The company says the resignation of Walden O'Dell was initiated by the board of directors. The company says the board felt the resignation for personal reasons was in the best interests of all parties.
Link >>
Leon County, FL to Dump Diebold After Undetectable Hack Reverses Test Election!
Results Completely Flipped Despite 800 Documented Officials Told by Diebold That It Couldn't be Done!
Election Supervisor Requests Funds to Replace Diebold in County, Says 'We will never use Diebold in an election again'
Bradblog.com - 12/14/05
The bad news keeps rolling in for Diebold. But that is hopefully good news for democracy and America! And it doesn't get any plainer than this stunning report from election watchdogs at BlackBoxVoting.org
Even as the beleaguered American Voting Machine company smarts from yesterday's filing of a securities fraud class action suit a test election was carried out on Diebold voting machinery in Leon County, Florida. Diebold's security measures failed miserably and were easily defeated by a hack performed by a computer security professional on a Diebold Touch-Screen Voting Machine and Central Tabulator.
In a post yesterday about the test and its remarkable results, BBV's Jim March gave this stunning summary of what happened:
Read More >>
Results Completely Flipped Despite 800 Documented Officials Told by Diebold That It Couldn't be Done!
Election Supervisor Requests Funds to Replace Diebold in County, Says 'We will never use Diebold in an election again'
Bradblog.com - 12/14/05
The bad news keeps rolling in for Diebold. But that is hopefully good news for democracy and America! And it doesn't get any plainer than this stunning report from election watchdogs at BlackBoxVoting.org
Even as the beleaguered American Voting Machine company smarts from yesterday's filing of a securities fraud class action suit a test election was carried out on Diebold voting machinery in Leon County, Florida. Diebold's security measures failed miserably and were easily defeated by a hack performed by a computer security professional on a Diebold Touch-Screen Voting Machine and Central Tabulator.
In a post yesterday about the test and its remarkable results, BBV's Jim March gave this stunning summary of what happened:
Read More >>
10 December 2005
Staff Opinions Banned In Voting Rights Cases
Criticism of Justice Dept.'s Rights Division Grows
Washington Post - December 10, 2005
The Justice Department has barred staff attorneys from offering recommendations in major Voting Rights Act cases, marking a significant change in the procedures meant to insulate such decisions from politics, congressional aides and current and former employees familiar with the issue said.
Disclosure of the change comes amid growing public criticism of Justice Department decisions to approve Republican-engineered plans in Texas and Georgia that were found to hurt minority voters by career staff attorneys who analyzed the plans. Political appointees overruled staff findings in both cases.
Read More >>
Criticism of Justice Dept.'s Rights Division Grows
Washington Post - December 10, 2005
The Justice Department has barred staff attorneys from offering recommendations in major Voting Rights Act cases, marking a significant change in the procedures meant to insulate such decisions from politics, congressional aides and current and former employees familiar with the issue said.
Disclosure of the change comes amid growing public criticism of Justice Department decisions to approve Republican-engineered plans in Texas and Georgia that were found to hurt minority voters by career staff attorneys who analyzed the plans. Political appointees overruled staff findings in both cases.
Read More >>
07 December 2005
Voting Machines Under Scrutiny
Brian Bergstein, AP - 07 December 2005
States face a January 1 deadline to meet reliability standards.
The potential perils of electronic voting systems are bedeviling state officials as a Jan. 1 deadline approaches for complying with standards for the machines' reliability.
Across the country, officials are trying multiple methods to ensure that touch-screen voting machines can record and count votes without falling prey to software bugs, hackers, malicious insiders or other ills.
These are not theoretical problems - in some states they have led to lost or miscounted votes.
One of the biggest concerns - the frequent inability of computerized ballots to produce a written receipt of a vote - has been addressed or is being tackled in most states.
Read More >>
Brian Bergstein, AP - 07 December 2005
States face a January 1 deadline to meet reliability standards.
The potential perils of electronic voting systems are bedeviling state officials as a Jan. 1 deadline approaches for complying with standards for the machines' reliability.
Across the country, officials are trying multiple methods to ensure that touch-screen voting machines can record and count votes without falling prey to software bugs, hackers, malicious insiders or other ills.
These are not theoretical problems - in some states they have led to lost or miscounted votes.
One of the biggest concerns - the frequent inability of computerized ballots to produce a written receipt of a vote - has been addressed or is being tackled in most states.
Read More >>
02 December 2005
Time For Dems to Come Clean on Dirty Politics
Flavia Colgan - December 2, 2005
[...] The Democratic leaders should then announce that the very first act under a Democratic-controlled Congress would be to pass real campaign finance reform – Clean Elections.
This form of voluntary public financing of campaigns is the only proposal that is guaranteed to make special interest money a non-factor in politics. Here’s how it works. If you want to run for office as a Clean Elections candidate, you must raise a certain number of qualifying $5 contributions from your district to show some level of support from your constituents. The money goes to the Clean Elections Fund, not to your campaign. If you qualify, that’s it, you receive a check to fund your campaign, but you are forbidden from accepting any additional money. Should you run against a candidate who is not participating in the system, the Clean Money Fund will match what your opponent spends – dollar for dollar to a set amount – so that it’s unlikely you will ever be outspent.
On the state level, it is already showing dramatic results. In Arizona, the governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer and corporation commissioners were all Clean Election candidates, meaning they did not take one drop of special interest money. A Republican and Democrat in the Maine House of Representatives coauthored an op-ed that read, “We are happy to say that public funding has given us the freedom to spend more time with our constituents discussing important issues. We are no longer stuck in the "dialing for dollars" game, in which we would need to spend long hours on the phone asking special interest donors and lobbyists to contribute to our campaigns.”
Interestingly, this proposal has passed in red states and blue states – from Maine to North Carolina and Massachusetts to Arizona. Like fraud itself, the desire to fundamentally change the system crosses party lines. Backing Clean Elections could therefore win a good number of marginal districts for the Democrats, possibly enough to return control of Congress to them. Let Republicans try to oppose this earthquake of an idea, and explain to people why special interest money is needed in government.
Read More >>
Flavia Colgan - December 2, 2005
[...] The Democratic leaders should then announce that the very first act under a Democratic-controlled Congress would be to pass real campaign finance reform – Clean Elections.
This form of voluntary public financing of campaigns is the only proposal that is guaranteed to make special interest money a non-factor in politics. Here’s how it works. If you want to run for office as a Clean Elections candidate, you must raise a certain number of qualifying $5 contributions from your district to show some level of support from your constituents. The money goes to the Clean Elections Fund, not to your campaign. If you qualify, that’s it, you receive a check to fund your campaign, but you are forbidden from accepting any additional money. Should you run against a candidate who is not participating in the system, the Clean Money Fund will match what your opponent spends – dollar for dollar to a set amount – so that it’s unlikely you will ever be outspent.
On the state level, it is already showing dramatic results. In Arizona, the governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer and corporation commissioners were all Clean Election candidates, meaning they did not take one drop of special interest money. A Republican and Democrat in the Maine House of Representatives coauthored an op-ed that read, “We are happy to say that public funding has given us the freedom to spend more time with our constituents discussing important issues. We are no longer stuck in the "dialing for dollars" game, in which we would need to spend long hours on the phone asking special interest donors and lobbyists to contribute to our campaigns.”
Interestingly, this proposal has passed in red states and blue states – from Maine to North Carolina and Massachusetts to Arizona. Like fraud itself, the desire to fundamentally change the system crosses party lines. Backing Clean Elections could therefore win a good number of marginal districts for the Democrats, possibly enough to return control of Congress to them. Let Republicans try to oppose this earthquake of an idea, and explain to people why special interest money is needed in government.
Read More >>
Justice Staff Saw Texas Districting As Illegal
Washington Post - December 2, 2005
Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay (R) violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo obtained by The Washington Post. But senior officials overruled them and approved the plan.
The memo, unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department's voting section, said the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts. It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections.
Read More >>
Washington Post - December 2, 2005
Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay (R) violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo obtained by The Washington Post. But senior officials overruled them and approved the plan.
The memo, unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department's voting section, said the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts. It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections.
Read More >>
Justice Denied
The Progress Report
The Washington Post reveals today that the Texas congressional map drawn by Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), which helped him gain five seats in the 2004 House elections, was unanimously opposed by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division because it was deemed to illegally dilute black and Hispanic voting power. The case is the second major example in the past few weeks of political appointees at the Justice Department overruling civil rights professionals on implementation of the Voting Rights Act. In mid-November, the Post reported that a Georgia voter-identification program was deemed by the Civil Rights Division to be discriminatory against black voters, yet their judgment was overruled. These most recent examples highlight a pattern of conduct by the Justice Department political appointees; they have repeatedly sought to advance a right-wing ideological agenda at the expense of traditional and broadly-supported civil rights protections.
Read More >>
The Progress Report
The Washington Post reveals today that the Texas congressional map drawn by Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), which helped him gain five seats in the 2004 House elections, was unanimously opposed by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division because it was deemed to illegally dilute black and Hispanic voting power. The case is the second major example in the past few weeks of political appointees at the Justice Department overruling civil rights professionals on implementation of the Voting Rights Act. In mid-November, the Post reported that a Georgia voter-identification program was deemed by the Civil Rights Division to be discriminatory against black voters, yet their judgment was overruled. These most recent examples highlight a pattern of conduct by the Justice Department political appointees; they have repeatedly sought to advance a right-wing ideological agenda at the expense of traditional and broadly-supported civil rights protections.
Read More >>
01 December 2005
Diebold, North Carolina, and the Immaculate Certification
December 01, 2005
On Monday, EFF went to superior court in North Carolina in order to challenge e-voting recidivist Diebold and their attempt to skirt the state's strong new election transparency rules. Diebold pleaded with the court for an exemption from the statute's requirement to escrow "all software that is relevant to functionality, setup, configuration, and operation of the voting system" and to release a list of all programmers who worked on the code because... well... it simply couldn't do it. It would likely be impossible, said Diebold, to escrow all of the third party software that its system relied on (including Windows).
What a difference a few days make.
Despite Diebold's asserted inability to meet the requirements of state law, the North Carolina Board of Elections today happily certified Diebold without condition. Never mind all of that third party software. Never mind the impossibility of obtaining a list of programmers who had contributed to that code.
Read More >>
December 01, 2005
On Monday, EFF went to superior court in North Carolina in order to challenge e-voting recidivist Diebold and their attempt to skirt the state's strong new election transparency rules. Diebold pleaded with the court for an exemption from the statute's requirement to escrow "all software that is relevant to functionality, setup, configuration, and operation of the voting system" and to release a list of all programmers who worked on the code because... well... it simply couldn't do it. It would likely be impossible, said Diebold, to escrow all of the third party software that its system relied on (including Windows).
What a difference a few days make.
Despite Diebold's asserted inability to meet the requirements of state law, the North Carolina Board of Elections today happily certified Diebold without condition. Never mind all of that third party software. Never mind the impossibility of obtaining a list of programmers who had contributed to that code.
Read More >>
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