California refuses approval of Diebold voting machines

Suggesting the "security and integrity" of electronic voting could be at risk, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson on Tuesday refused to approve the use of thousands of electronic voting machines pending a federal evaluation.

The touch-screen and optical-scan machines, made by Diebold Election Systems are used in 17 counties, including Alameda. They were found to have "unresolved significant security concerns" with a memory card that stores votes in each machine, McPherson's elections chief, Caren Daniels-Meade, said in a letter to the company's vice president, David Byrd.

.......

"I think there's been a lot of concerns with some of the problems that have been demonstrated with Diebold Systems," said Avi Rubin, a computer scientist at Johns Hopkins University, "and he's trying to make sure if there's a problem, it's discovered before those machines are certified and used."

Yet, examining the source code, Rubin said, won't necessarily pinpoint potential problems, such as if a computer expert tried to introduce malicious code through one of the memory cards.

Evaluating the source code, Rubin said, "is definitely not something that's going to give a definitive answer."


http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/13452703.htm

I've no doubt their intention was to take down congresspeople like Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters and Lynn Woolsey. Who, in my view, we can't afford to lose

The Feds that will evaluate and certify these machines are the voting machine companies themselves. McPherson has just given the fox the keys to the hen house. He has paved the way for Diebold to come be back with a big ole stamp of approval for all Californian Republicans to enjoy.

McPherson has sold you and your votes down the Diebold river.

It makes no difference which company counts the votes if the problem is the same with all the companies. They violate the necessary transparency required in order to fulfill a legitimate voting process.

Peace.

:D

YAY!

We still have to get the other machiens examined and tested as well as those in other states. Things are starting to look much better!

Yeah Right.

I hope the rest of the states are paying attention.

and I am calling our election officials tomorrow to find out what they plan to do with these things.

OF COURSE we still have a major job ahead of us, to get rid of "trade secret" source code and the corporate privatization of our elections, but this is a big step in that direction. Diebold being so bad woke people up (just like Bush being so bad is creating the biggest leftist movement this country has ever seen). The public is becoming educated on the issue, and organized, and vigilant. This is a big change. The issue is now "hot" whereas it was a dead letter before. And because people didn't know about it, the whole scene became rife with corruption. Public consciousness is now growing fast. And it is a short step from questioning Diebold to questioning the whole premise of secret source code and private-run elections.

It's possible that Diebold is being used as a "sacrificial lamb" to keep the whole system as it is--highly riggable. I mean, even Jeb Bush was questioning Diebold machines the other day. But I don't think it's going to work. Every election now is going to be questioned, and more and more problems found. Every election official will be subject to more scrutiny. The issue HAS 'ARRIVED.'

McPherson refused certification to Diebold touchscreens (DREs), the worst of the lot. But the issue in Florida, with Ion Sancho, was Diebold OPTISCANS. BOTH touchscreens AND optiscans are now being questioned. Calif has both Diebold optiscans and the GEMS tabulators (Diebold). If their touchscreens are crap, how can we trust their optiscans and their central tabulators? They're NEXT for scrutiny. And the optiscans have now been banned in an important Florida county (the capitol county) with much fanfare. We must use this to attack the GEMS tabulators, which are likely the heart of the problem.* Also, ES&S's computer architecture is similar to Diebold's (they were once one company). Partisan (rightwing) ownership is also a problem with them, as well. And Sequoia hired Republicans to promote their machines (former CA Sec of State Bill Jones and his chief aide Alfie Charles)--"revolving door" employment-type corruption. None of these companies can bear scrutiny. Diebold is just the most blatant. Scrutiny of Diebold will lead to scrutiny of the others.

And consider this in the California situation:

--CA Dem Sec of State Kevin Shelley was driven from office, in a dirty campaign led by Diebold shills, BECAUSE he sued Diebold and decertified the worst of their election theft machines (the touchscreens) prior to the 2004 election. Think what this means re: the importance to Bushites (and to corrupt election officials) of having Diebold in place. The EFFORT involved in getting rid of Shelley POINTS TO Diebold's key role in rigging elections. Diebold's are the most insecure, hackable and partisan-controlled of the election theft machines. And the touchscreens are probably rigged to work most smoothly with the GEMS tabulators.

--The Schwarzenegger appointee who replaced Shelley (McPherson) immediately started maneuvering to get Diebold touchscreens re-certified. For instance, he stacked his advisory committee with Diebold-connected people. When the public showed up by the hundreds in Sacramento to protest this re-certification, he tried to shut out the public at the next hearing (by not attending, and sending a secretary and a tape recorder in his place). When Diebold failed the first security tests, he let them take the next tests in more company-controlled conditions, at their headquarters in Texas. Then BBV technologists hit him with a hacking challenge. In summary, the public foiled the plan to sneak Diebold touchscreens back into Calif.

--This was the defeat of a MAJOR campaign on Diebold's behalf, by corrupt county officials, mostly Republicans, but led by Democrat Connie McCormack (Los Angeles), who made the astonishing assertion that a "paper trail" would only make the public more suspicious of electronic voting. This group was anti-Shelley and pro-Diebold and they LOST.**

A triumph for California. A triumph for the public. A triumph for the grass roots groups who organized so successfully against Diebold. A triumph for democracy, and a major indication that the public is awakening on this vital issue, despite every effort of the war profiteering corporate news monopolies to keep a lid on it.

The battle is certainly not over. Corporations and Bushites never sleep, and have nearly bottomless resources to keep coming back, and, among other things, to keep corrupting and intimidating public officials, in their long term plan to destroy this Republic. It's going to be a long term struggle, with election reform the key to it. But WE have overwhelming numbers, and a public that is overwhelmingly progressive in Calif, and far more progressive nationwide than anyone realizes. And we will win.

------------

*(Barbara Boxer won Calif by 20% in 2004. Kerry by 10%. This might not be so odd--it's Calif after all--except that all of Boxer's margin over Kerry came from Republican counties, which is very odd, indeed, and which indicates that some Kerry votes may have been switched to Bush, or 'disappeared,' in order to pad Bush's national popular majority. I couldn't find a correlation to voting equipment by county. So what I suspect is that the flipping occurred in the central tabulators, and was done in the confidence that election officials in Republican counties would look the other way--or would cover it up. Boxer out-pulling Kerry in Repub counties makes no sense.)

**(The campaign to force Shelley from office also had less visible forces behind it. I haven't' seen such foul play in Calif since the rightwing destruction of Rose Byrd, the anti-capital punishment CA Supreme Court Justice, in the '70s.)

get the certification process out of the state. He's handing it over to the feds and the crooked ITAs.

He's such a bastard. I can't think that it's even legal for him to do that.
(See post #13)

A letter from State Senator Debra Bowen, written in response to McPherson's decision, can be found at the BradBlog link.

:grr:

www.blackboxvoting.org

California "Hack" test stalled as Diebold certification derails

BREAKING - Dec. 20, 2005: California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson
has laid a subtle and elegant trap. Today, California threw Diebold Election Systems'
pending certification into a tailspin, using Machiavellian logic designed to cast doubt
on the federal testing lab process, the upcoming HAVA deadline and Diebold voting
systems simultaneously (while standing neatly aside to watch the house of cards
collapse).

This move follows on the heels of a devastating hack demonstration by Harri Hursti
sponsored by Black Box Voting, which took place in Leon County, Florida on Dec. 13.
This hack manipulated memory cards by exploiting design defects and Diebold's
customized "AccuBasic" program code.

Here's how the California trap works: In a terse letter to Diebold, State elections
chief Caren Daniels-Meade writes, "Unresolved significant security concerns
exist with respect to the memory card used to program and configure the
AccuVote-OS and the AccuVote-TSX components
of this system because this component was not subjected to federal source
code review and evaluation by the Independent Testing Authorities (ITA) who
examined your system for federal qualification. It is the Secretary of State's
position that the source code for the AccuBasic code on these cards, as well
as for the AccuBasic interpreter that interprets this code, should have been
federally reviewed.

".we are requesting that you submit the source code relating to the AccuBasic
code on the memory cards and the AccuBasic interpreter to the ITA for immediate
evaluation. We require this additional review before proceeding with further
consideration of your application for certification in California."

And herein lies the trap. Federal testing authorities are supposed to rely on
standards set by the Federal Election Commission. The FEC standards prohibit
"Interpreted code" - thus, the AccuBasic "interpreter" is illegal. (The entire
AccuBasic source code tree is written in a home-brewed language that Diebold
programmers made up themselves, making it more difficult for certifiers to examine.)

The Hursti memory card attack demonstrated in Leon County Florida manipulated
the voting system by passing code through -- drum roll please -- the Diebold
interpreter, using a set of programs called AccuBasic which was written in a
concocted computer language and (now it is revealed) was never examined at
all by federal testing labs.

The ITA dilemma: ITAs have the choice of either recommending code that explicitly
violates FEC standards (placing an unsupportable liability burden on them) or
admitting that the original certification was defective. If the ITAs retract their
recommendation, it will effectively strip Diebold of its federal certification, and
may also affect its older products.

The Diebold dilemma: Diebold can refuse to submit its code to the ITAs, but that
will lose the state of California, continuing a pattern initiated last week when
two Florida counties dumped their Diebold machines. Alternatively, Diebold can
submit its code and watch as the federal authorities sever their product line
from the U.S. market.

The position is made more unstable because Diebold is now fending off stockholder
suits by an armload of attorneys piling on to solicit clients for a voting machine-related
securities fraud lawsuit.

California Secretary of State letters to Diebold Election Systems:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/legal/Dumpty1.pdf
http

People need to know this! They need to be encouraged and heartened and RE-EMPOWERED. They need to know that other progressives--the vast majority of the population--are awakening and TAKING EFFECTIVE ACTION. Kick and recommend!

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002183.htm


Here's an article about the crooked "testing labs" that McPherson wants to leave CA certification up to:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/avi-rubin/the-dirty-little-secrets-_b_12354.html



Avi Rubin, the writer of this article, commends McPherson "for the dialogue that he opened up" about the ITAs.
He must not know our POS SoS very well. Well Mr. Rubin, here is his consistent pattern: say one thing, but do another.
Example: Attend a meeting wherein the unscrupulous practices of these ITAs are exposed, then turn around and hire them.

:woohoo:

See post #13. Our POS SoS is ALWAYS up to something. He's just handing the decision for certification over the the feds.
His main objective would appear to be to get the machine testing out of California -- and away from the Election Reform groups.

x(

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5655602&mesg_id=5655602

A kick and nomination would be appreciated. Too many people think that this is cause to celebrate and are letting their guard down.

:(

Brief summary in post #13. McPherson is up to no good.

:(

and day is night...if they say they have done something good, you can bet your ass that the good was a lie and they are ready to wrap us up in garbage and throw us to the wolves. (and wolves only eat the weak and the dying...cullling the herd)

So the machines are unreliable...paper trail....hacking machines......all smoke.

The fraud happens at tabulation, either county or State.

Bev Harris showed this abundantly clear,with her MS Excel presentation, yet noone addresses this.

Tabulation is where the fraud occurs , flipping the results, if the results are not what the hacker wants.

Where's the uproar over tabulation?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x406331

:)

There is MORE than enough evidence on the subject of vote tampering on electronic voting machines. Its high time that this became a national issue. Dr. Dean and the rest of the gang need to bring this up BEFORE 2006.

For the last 200 years, there have been minimal problems with using paper ballots. Just what is the justification to use this untried technology that could very well be dangerous to our democracy?

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of folks.

Voting machines in 17 counties face security testing
By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, December 21, 2005
(12-21) 18:02 PST SACRAMENTO, (AP) --

The secretary of state's office has warned election officials in 17 California counties that new electronic voting machines produced by Diebold Election Systems may not be available for use in upcoming elections if they don't pass new security tests.

But Diebold officials said Wednesday they are confident the two machines in question will meet the state standards and agreed to submit the computer coding to new testing within weeks.

"We feel confident that with adequate, efficient review, the state will feel fully comfortable using these machines in an election," said David Byrd, vice president of Diebold Election Systems Inc.

On Tuesday, the secretary of state's office said the two Diebold machines failed one of the 10 criteria the state had established for updated voting systems. Secretary of State Bruce McPherson asked Diebold officials to get testing on the computer language — or so-called source coding — of its memory cards. It had not been reviewed previously.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/12/21/state/n180243S29.DTL

thought I would see this much.

Voting machine maker Diebold in trouble
Dec 22, 2005, 7:19 GMT

SACRAMENTO, CA, United States (UPI) -- The California secretary of state is ordering all of the electronic voting machines made by Diebold Electronic Systems to undergo outside testing.

The move comes after tests in Florida found the system susceptible to hackers and experts accuse it of violating federal voting standards, the Oakland Tribune reports.

California counties must update their voting systems by Jan. 1 to comply with state and federal law.

The testing Secretary of State Bruce McPherson has required of Diebold may take months.
(snip/...)

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1070767.php/Voting_machine_maker_Diebold_in_trouble

See post #13. This is McPherson's attempt at an end-run around California's election reform groups.
In June, BBV.org applied to have Harri Hursti test various election equipment in CA.
McPherson is in violation of this formal 19202 Request.