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Banned
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Is Bev Harris This Country's Only Hope For Election Oversight?
The media and the prosecutors do not seem to have the interest or the incentive to investigate and expose the fraud committed by election officials in
the 2004 election. This is especially frustrating to many people because of the
events surrounding Bush's 2000 Florida election vote plurality of only 537 votes
before his lawyers successfully argued for the U.S. Supreme Court to intercede
by issuing an order that stopped the Florida vote recount.
It appears now that the most effective investigation into possible official misconduct of election officials across the country is being conducted by
Bev Harris of www.blackboxvoting.org. Here is some of her past accomplishments and current efforts:
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<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm">http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm</a>
On the CNBC TV show "Topic A With Tina Brown," several months ago, Howard Dean had filled in for Tina Brown as guest host. His guest was Bev Harris, the Seattle grandmother who started www.blackboxvoting.org from her living room. Bev pointed out that regardless of how votes were tabulated (other than hand counts, only done in odd places like small towns in Vermont), the real "counting" is done by computers. Be they Diebold Opti-Scan machines, which read paper ballots filled in by pencil or ink in the voter's hand, or the scanners that read punch cards, or the machines that simply record a touch of the screen, in all cases the final tally is sent to a "central tabulator" machine.
That central tabulator computer is a Windows-based PC.
"In a voting system," Harris explained to Dean on national television, "you have all the different voting machines at all the different polling places, sometimes, as in a county like mine, there's a thousand polling places in a single county. All those machines feed into the one machine so it can add up all the votes. So, of course, if you were going to do something you shouldn't to a voting machine, would it be more convenient to do it to each of the 4000 machines, or just come in here and deal with all of them at once?"
Dean nodded in rhetorical agreement, and Harris continued. "What surprises people is that the central tabulator is just a PC, like what you and I use. It's just a regular computer."
"So," Dean said, "anybody who can hack into a PC can hack into a central tabulator?"
Harris nodded affirmation, and pointed out how Diebold uses a program called GEMS, which fills the screen of the PC and effectively turns it into the central tabulator system. "This is the official program that the County Supervisor sees," she said, pointing to a PC that was sitting between them loaded with Diebold's software. ....
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Years before the election, perhaps it was with the quiet passage of the 2002 Help America Vote Act which mandated the use of Diebold and ES&S machines notorious for their "tamperability"--concerned citizens from various walks of life--professors, computer scientists, systems analysts, even grandmothers and literary publicists from Seattle--had been attempting to sound the alarm: the Diebold voting machines are not secure; the democratic process itself is in jeopardy, seriously so. Bev Harris, Executive Director of the consumer protection organization Blackboxvoting.org, first published her groundbreaking book Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century in 2003......... <a href="http://www.opednews.com/friedberg_111504_media_whitewash.htm">http://www.opednews.com/friedberg_111504_media_whitewash.htm</a>
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For Harris, this all started with a search of the Internet during her lunch hour. She was cruising Commondreams.org, a left-wing Web site, when she noticed an article by Lynn Landes. Since she was still sore about the Florida machinations of the 2000 presidential race, the article's scathing critique of computer voting piqued Harris' interest.
She decided to do some research. She learned that Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., had an ownership share in Election Systems & Software (ES&S), whose Web site brags that its equipment counted 56 percent of the nation's votes in each of the past four presidential elections. Moreover, ES&S voting machines count all the votes in Hagel's home state of Nebraska, except in those counties that tally ballots by hand. While there is nothing illegal about the senator's stake in the company, it didn't seem right to Harris. When she posted the information about the situation on her Web site, she promptly received a cease-and-desist order from ES&S lawyers. She e-mailed the cease-and-desist order to 3,000 of her media contacts.
<a href="http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0410/040310_news_blackbox.php">http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0410/040310_news_blackbox.php</a>
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SEATTLE, WASHINGTON Nov 3 2004 -- Did the voting machines trump exit polls? There’s a way to find out.
Black Box Voting (.ORG) is conducting the largest Freedom of Information action in history. At 8:30 p.m. Election Night, Black Box Voting blanketed the U.S. with the first in a series of public records requests, to obtain internal computer logs and other documents from 3,000 individual counties and townships. Networks called the election before anyone bothered to perform even the most rudimentary audit.
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Posted on Thu, Nov. 11, 2004
Diebold settles e-voting lawsuit
Judge's OK would end California's fraud claim
By Erika D. Smith
Beacon Journal staff writer
Diebold Inc. shook loose an expensive albatross Wednesday, agreeing to pay California $2.6 million to end a lawsuit over electronic voting.
If the settlement is approved in court, it would put to rest rounds of finger-pointing that began back in November 2003. It also would let the Green-based company escape a trial. The plaintiffs were seeking as much as $57 million in damages.............This is just our effort to put these issues behind us so we can move forward,'' Diebold spokesman Michael Jacobsen said.
In the lawsuit, the state of California accused Diebold of making false claims about the security and certification status of its electronic voting machines and tabulation systems. As a result, six counties were misled into buying the machines, the state said.
Diebold denies any wrongdoing and insists its voting machines are secure.
However, $500,000 of the settlement would go toward training poll workers, and Diebold would be required to bolster the security measures on its touch-screen and tabulation machines............
Harris, who did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday, said in September that a settlement might not satisfy her. Asked if she would object, the Washington state resident said that would depend on the terms.
<h3>
``What I want at this point is them out of the industry,'' Harris said of Diebold.</h3>
The court will determine how much Harris and March receive from the settlement. They also will be able to ask the court to make Diebold pay their legal costs.
<h3>
Harris and March filed the whistle-blower lawsuit in 2003 under the ``qui tam'' provision of California's False Claims Act, which is often used to find fraud. Under the law, whistle-blowers -- Harris and March, in this case -- can collect 30 percent of the damages for tipping off the government to shoddy contractors. The law allows for damages of triple the amount paid to the contractor.</h3>
In this case, Diebold was paid $19 million by California and Alameda County, meaning the parties were seeking as much as $57 million.
<a href="http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/business/10152705.htm?1c">http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/business/10152705.htm?1c</a>
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TUESDAY NOV 16 2004: Volusia County on lockdown
County election records just got put on lockdown
Dueling lawyers, election officials gnashing teeth, Votergate.tv film crew catching it all.
Here's what happened so far:
Friday Black Box Voting investigators Andy Stephenson and Kathleen Wynne popped in to ask for some records. They were rebuffed by an elections official named Denise. Bev Harris called on the cell phone from investigations in downstate Florida, and told Volusia County Elections Supervisor Deanie Lowe that Black Box Voting would be in to pick up the Nov. 2 Freedom of Information request, or would file for a hand recount. "No, Bev, please don't do that!" Lowe exclaimed. But this is the way it has to be, folks. Black Box Voting didn't back down.
Monday Bev, Andy and Kathleen came in with a film crew and asked for the FOIA request. Deanie Lowe gave it over with a smile, but Harris noticed that one item, the polling place tapes, were not copies of the real ones, but instead were new printouts, done on Nov. 15, and not signed by anyone.
Harris asked to see the real ones, and they said for "privacy" reasons they can't make copies of the signed ones. She insisted on at least viewing them (although refusing to give copies of the signatures is not legally defensible, according to Berkeley elections attorney, Lowell Finley). They said the real ones were in the County Elections warehouse. It was quittin' time and an arrangment was made to come back this morning to review them.
Lana Hires, a Volusia County employee who gained some notoriety in an election 2000 Diebold memo, where she asked for an explanation of minus 16,022 votes for Gore, so she wouldn't have to stand there "looking dumb" when the auditor came in, was particularly unhappy about seeing the Black Box Voting investigators in the office. She vigorously shook her head when Deanie Lowe suggested going to the warehouse.
Kathleen Wynne and Bev Harris showed up at the warehouse at 8:15 Tuesday morning, Nov. 16. There was Lana Hires looking especially gruff, yet surprised. She ordered them out. Well, they couldn't see why because there she was, with a couple other people, handling the original poll tapes. You know, the ones with the signatures on them. Harris and Wynne stepped out and Volusia County officials promptly shut the door.
There was a trash bag on the porch outside the door. Harris looked into it and what do you know, but there were poll tapes in there. They came out and glared at Harris and Wynne, who drove away a small bit, and then videotaped the license plates of the two vehicles marked 'City Council' member. Others came out to glare and soon all doors were slammed.
So, Harris and Wynne went and parked behind a bus to see what they would do next. They pulled out some large pylons, which blocked the door. Harris decided to go look at the garbage some more while Wynne videotaped. A man who identified himself as "Pete" came out and Harris immediately wrote a public records request for the contents of the garbage bag, which also contained ballots -- real ones, but not filled out.
A brief tug of war occurred, tearing the garbage bag open. Harris and Wynne then looked through it, as Pete looked on. He was quite friendly.
Black Box Voting collected various poll tapes and other information and asked if they could copy it, for the public records request. "You won't be going anywhere," said Pete. "The deputy is on his way."
Yes, not one but two police cars came up and then two county elections officials, and everyone stood around discussing the merits of the "black bag" public records request.
The police finally let Harris and Wynne go, about the time the Votergate.tv film crew arrived, and everyone trooped off to the elections office. There, the plot thickened.
Black Box Voting began to compare the special printouts given in the FOIA request with the signed polling tapes from election night. Lo and behold, some were missing. By this time, Black Box Voting investigator Andy Stephenson had joined the group at Volusia County. Some polling place tapes didn't match. In fact, in one location, precinct 215, an African-American precinct, the votes were off by hundreds, in favor of George W. Bush and other Republicans.
Hmm. Which was right? The polling tape Volusia gave to Black Box Voting, specially printed on Nov. 15, without signatures, or the ones with signatures, printed on Nov. 2, with up to 8 signatures per tape?
Well, then it became even more interesting. A Volusia employee boxed up some items from an office containing Lana Hires' desk, which appeared to contain -- you guessed it -- polling place tapes. The employee took them to the back of the building and disappeared.
Then, Ellen B., a voting integrity advocate from Broward County, Florida, and Susan, from Volusia, decided now would be a good time to go through the trash at the elections office. Lo and behold, they found all kinds of memos and some polling place tapes, fresh from Volusia elections office.
So, Black Box Voting compared these with the Nov. 2 signed ones and the "special' ones from Nov. 15 given, unsigned, finding several of the MISSING poll tapes. There they were: In the garbage.
So, Wynne went to the car and got the polling place tapes she had pulled from the warehouse garbage. My my my. There were not only discrepancies, but a polling place tape that was signed by six officials.
This was a bit disturbing, since the employees there had said that bag was destined for the shredder.
By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly threatening to charge Black Box Voting extra for the time spent looking at the real stuff Volusia had withheld earlier. Other lawyers appeared, phoned, people had meetings, Lana glowered at everyone, and someone shut the door in the office holding the GEMS server.
Black Box Voting investigator Andy Stephenson then went to get the Diebold "GEMS" central server locked down. He also got the memory cards locked down and secured, much to the dismay of Lana. They were scattered around unsecured in any way before that.
Everyone agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit, discuss the hand count that Black Box Voting will require of Volusia County, and of course, it is time to talk about contesting the election in Volusia.
<a href="http://blackboxvoting.org">http://blackboxvoting.org</a>
<a href="http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Politics/Headlines/03PoliticsPOL03111704.htm">http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Politics/Headlines/03PoliticsPOL03111704.htm</a>
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If you wanted to commit massive illicit vote fraud the vote tabulator software on the PCs is the easiest place. Another place is modifying the memory cards from the controllers but you have hundreds or thousands of them. Changing the memory cards after the controllers are turned in might be easier than before the election and less likely to be caught if there is some kind of test, for example only a few people vote on one machine and you know how they voted. The original paper trails from the controllers could reveal modifications in either the tabulator results or the memory cards after they left the precinct.
There should be no changes from a precinct printed controller paper trail after the election.<h3> It is also, of course, a felony violation of federal law to change the votes or even throw away most of the election materials</h3> <a href="http://elemming2.blogspot.com/">http://elemming2.blogspot.com/</a>
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Well......Tee Effers....whaddya think???? Was the response to Bev Harris's
FOIA request for voting records lawful, ethical, professional, or suspicious
enough to warrant more press coverage and a criminal investigation?
Why don't Bev Harris's credentials and track record, especially with the news
last week that her lawsuit against Diebold has prompted a response from that
company of a swift offer to settle the case, prompt more media coverage?
With what is truly at stake here, regarding the future of our country, how
much more than Bev Harris's reputation and actions in filing 3000 timely
and precise FOIA requests and the above developments at the Volusia
County, Florida election officials HQ will it take to arouse media and prosecutorial interest in the results of Bev Harris's Election 2004 investigation? |