The Agonist - USA: E-Voting

Republican IT consultant subpoenaed in case alleging tampering with 2004 election

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:09:25 -0700

Larisa Alexandrovna & Muriel Kane | Columbus, Ohio | September 29

Raw Story - A high-level Republican consultant has been subpoenaed in a case regarding alleged tampering with the 2004 election.

Michael L. Connell was served with a subpoena in Ohio on Sept. 22 in a case alleging that vote-tampering during the 2004 presidential election resulted in civil rights violations. Connell, president of GovTech Solutions and New Media Communications, is a website designer and IT professional who created a website for Ohio’s secretary of state that presented the results of the 2004 election in real time as they were tabulated.

At the time, Ohio’s Secretary of State, Kenneth J. Blackwell, was also chairman of Bush-Cheney 2004 reelection effort in Ohio.

The Empire Strikes Back: Sarah Palin's Speech

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:18:09 -0700

September 4, 2008

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: SARAH PALIN’S SPEECH

John Chuckman

I’ve reassessed my view of Sarah Palin.

My first thought about her usefulness to John McCain was that she would be a draw for disaffected Hillary supporters in a close race, but then all I knew about Sarah was that she characterized herself as a soccer, or hockey, mom.

But already I’ve learned more about her than I ever would have wanted to know, and her simple, original description of herself proves disingenuous at best, and there is the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell of her appealing to Hillary supporters.

PC World: U. S. Presidential Election Can Be Hacked

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:39:30 -0700

PC World Apr 10, 2008
U. S. Presidential Election Can Be Hacked
by Robert McMillan, IDG News Service

This year, the U. S. will pick a new president using electronic voting machines that can be hacked, security experts said Thursday at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

As the November election approaches, the question before officials is not how to fix known bugs in their e-voting systems, but rather, how best to check them for fraud, said David Wagner, an associate professor with the University of California, Berkeley's computer science department.

Cuyahoga's Election Day count complete

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:23:44 -0800

J. Horton | Cleveland | March 5

PD - At 5:14 a.m. Wednesday, a ballot out of Parma's Precinct 2E slid through an optical scanner at the Cuyahoga County Board of Election.

With that, Election Day came to a close in Cleveland.

Elections workers counted the 406,450th - and final - vote of the day nearly 10 hours after most of the county's polls closed. A nasty winter storm and a court ruling keeping 20 precincts open until 9 p.m. complicated the night.

Some ballots didn't reach the central counting site until after 1 a.m., when officials said three trucks still awaited unloading.

But overall, the count went smoothly - especially compared to recent elections in the county. More than 165 workers processed the ballots in efficient fashion. The first ballots arrived to cheers at 9:44 p.m. It took more than seven hours to complete the task.

Where’s My Rebate Check?

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:16:02 -0800

For the second time in his presidency George Bush has had to provide an “economic stimulus” to the failing economy. When will these clowns get it? These short-term band-aids will not fix a broken economy. These rebate checks are just a way for the politicians in Washington to be able to accept their checks from the lobbyists without guilt. The truth is just like the last rebates they will do little to rescue an economy that has inherent flaws. Rather than do the hard work needed to create a working economy, the Washingtonians have opted for a symbolic gesture designed to appease the masses in time for the fall elections. It is a win/win for both parties and a loss for the American public.

20 percent of [Cuyahoga] election printouts were unreadable

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 05:50:47 -0800

Joe Guillen | Cleveland, Ohio | Nov 28

Cleveland Plain Dealer - A recount after next year's presidential election could mean disaster for Cuyahoga County based on problems discovered Tuesday with paper records produced by electronic voting machines.

More than 20 percent of the printouts from touch-screen voting machines were unreadable and had to be reprinted. Board of Elections workers found the damaged ballots when they conducted a recount Tuesday of two races, which involved only 17 of the county's 1,436 precincts.

The recount lasted more than 12 hours. Reprinting the damaged records and hand-counting them created an extra step that added hours.

more...

Destruction of Evidence - Ohio's 2004 Presidential Ballots

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 09:56:52 -0700

Letter from an Ohio Board of Elections (Holmes County) on missing 2004 ballots.

“Letters from the Edge” - Part 1

"Microsoft 811" - Maqking the World Safe for Voting Machine Vendors

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 19:19:22 -0700

"Microsoft 811"

Making the World Safe

For Voting Machine Vendors

Pentagon Setting Up War Information Room

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 16:33:15 -0700

Lolita C Baldor | Washington | August 24

AP - (I think, unlike Posse Commitatus, the law against the military diseminating propaganda in the US is still on the books - Ian.)

Shaping the Bush administration's message on the Iraq war has taken on new fervor, just as anticipation is building for the September progress report from top military advisers.

For the Pentagon, getting out Iraq information will now include a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week Iraq Communications Desk that will pump out data from Baghdad - serving as what could be considered a campaign war room.

According to a memo circulated Thursday and obtained by The Associated Press, Dorrance Smith, assistant defense secretary for public affairs, is looking for personnel for what he called the high-priority effort to distribute Defense Department information on Iraq.

Diebod Election Systems? Would cha believe "Premier Voting Solutions?"

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 23:04:29 -0700

Election Unit Spins off from Corporate Parent, Becomes 'Premier Election Solutions' After Failure to Find Buyer for Failing Unit!
Is Full Bankruptcy Far Behind?

-- By Brad Friedman from St. Louis, MO...
at Brad Blog

Diebold Elections Systems, Inc., is no more. At least in name.

After a year and a half of conversely trying to dump their failed voting unit and/or lying to customers about the reliability and security of their voting systems, corporate parent Diebold is giving up the ghost of its election business which, according to an analyst in a Reuters report, was "responsible for less than 10 percent of Diebold's revenue, and 100 percent of its bad publicity."

Voting Officials Face New Rules to Bar Conflicts

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 06:02:20 -0700

IAN URBINA | August 1

NYT - The state officials who run the nation’s elections — most with little oversight — are facing new efforts to limit what have been widely criticized as political and financial conflicts of interest.

Across the country, state voting officials routinely participate as candidates in races they are responsible for overseeing or act as leaders in their political parties. In the last presidential election, the secretaries of state in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio, were chairmen of their states’ re-election campaigns for President Bush.

While federal ethics rules require lawmakers to wait a year after leaving office before they can take a job lobbying their former colleagues, no such rules exist for election officials, creating a revolving door between election administration and the voting machine industry. In recent years, top election officials in at least five states have moved from government posts directly into jobs as lobbyists for the voting machine industry, which itself grew immensely after Congress allocated billions of dollars to help states update equipment.

Most vote machines lose test to hackers

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 22:00:42 -0700

John Wildermuth | California | July 31

San Francisco Chronicle - State-sanctioned teams of computer hackers were able to break through the security of virtually every model of California's voting machines and change results or take control of some of the systems' electronic functions, according to a University of California study released Friday.

The researchers "were able to bypass physical and software security in every machine they tested," said Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who authorized the "top to bottom review" of every voting system certified by the state.

Neither Bowen nor the investigators were willing to say exactly how vulnerable California elections are to computer hackers, especially because the team of computer experts from the UC system had top-of-the-line security information plus more time and better access to the voting machines than would-be vote thieves likely would have.

Ohio's 2004 Presidential Election Records Are Destroyed

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:19:23 -0700

Steven Rosenfeld, | July 30

AlterNet - In 56 of Ohio's 88 counties, ballots and election records from 2004 have been "accidentally" destroyed, despite a federal order to preserve them -- it was crucial evidence which would have revealed whether the election was stolen.

Two-thirds of Ohio counties have destroyed or lost their 2004 presidential ballots and related election records, according to letters from county election officials to the Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner.

The lost records violate Ohio law, which states federal election records must be kept for 22 months after Election Day, and a U.S. District Court order issued last September that the 2004 ballots be preserved while the court hears a civil rights lawsuit alleging voter suppression of African-American voters in Columbus.

Scientists’ Tests Hack Into Electronic Voting Machines in California and Elsewhere

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 09:36:11 -0700

Christopher Drew | Davis, CA | July 28

NYT - Computer scientists from California universities have hacked into three electronic voting systems used in California and elsewhere in the nation and found several ways in which vote totals could potentially be altered, according to reports released yesterday by the state.

The reports, the latest to raise questions about electronic voting machines, came to light on a day when House leaders announced in Washington that they had reached an agreement on measures to revamp voting systems and increase their security.

Medical marijuana election may head to revote

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 08:55:12 -0700

Henry K. Lee | July 14

SFGate - An Alameda County judge said Friday she may void election results for a failed 2004 Berkeley medical marijuana measure and order it returned to the ballot because county election officials failed to hand over data from voting machines.

Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith also indicated that she may force county officials to pay attorneys' fees and reimburse a medical marijuana group more than $22,000 for the costs it incurred during a disputed recount shortly after the November 2004 election.