BBV: Diebold paid $1 million to the blind - inside story on that

The current focus for Black Box Voting is on kickbacks and money trail investigations. We have three stories -- the first one broke last week (partially).

We decided that the best way to run the money trail stories is in national mainstream press, without my byline and mostly, without my name even appearing. That's for two reasons:

First, we will get a lot more traction with national press coverage, but they are often reluctant to cover it if they can't appear that they broke the thing themselves.

Second, it isn't the safest idea in the world to go traipsing around the country stirring up stories on kickbacks under my own byline.

So here, we're going to have two stories converge a bit - this one also relates in a minor way to the League of Women Voters reversing their stance.

I began the money trail investigation in Ohio. I was planning to investigate one particular set of officials. They are still on my plate, because I stumbled into something else that caught my attention.

For some reason, my instincts told me to drive to Mercer County, Ohio, to appear at their meeting about whether to buy touch screens.

A bit of background:

Ohio senator Teresa Fedor made a brilliant move in the state senate, forcing the counties to reaffirm the contracts they'd signed if they really wanted touch screens. The National Federation of the Blind stepped in and filed lawsuits in all 31 counties, threatening to sue for civil rights violations unless they bought touch screens.

With CASE Ohio activist and lawyer Susan Truitt, I went to Mercer County, 5 hours away. This county has just 28,000 voters, and just one voter who is visually impaired. Thus, it is bizarre for them to consider spending half a million on Diebold touch screens instead of $300 for a single tactile ballot.

The Mercer County officials seemed a little stunned that we showed up. The prosecuting attorney came down and made a big show of reading the settlement offer from the National Federation of the Blind into the record. This made me sit up and listen! First, in pending litigation they usually go into executive session and settlement offers aren't available to the public. (I immediately did a public records request for that document).

It was worded only slightly nicer than this: "We'll make our lawsuit go away if you immediately buy those touch screens."

Since almost all the 31 counties were contracting for Diebold touch screens, I started to wonder about the relationship between the National Federation for the Blind and Diebold. I'd heard there was an ATM lawsuit and a payment.

Here's what I found

1. The NFB sued Diebold and NCR over ATMs that weren't accessible. They settled with NCR and Diebold, and the two firms retrofitted -- but ONLY DIEBOLD PAID MONEY TO THE NATIONAL FEDERATION FOR THE BLIND. Diebold paid $1 million.

2. Then the NFB went on a lawsuit spree, suing a whole string of banks to get them to buy retrofitted ATMs.

At this point, I called Andy Stephenson. "Seems weird that only Diebold paid cash in addition to retrofitting. Wonder if there have been more payments from Diebold."

Instantly, he said, "The banks the NFB sued -- did they then buy Diebold?"

He went looking for that while I went looking for more.

I found:

3. The National Federation for the Blind announced a formal PARTNERSHIP with Diebold on the ATMs. They were on a shakedown cruise, we sue - we make this go away if you buy Diebold.

Andy found:

4. Yup. The banks that got sued then bought Diebold.

I found:

5. Inside source at Diebold: At least six banks are trying to drop Diebold ATMs. When they did the redesign, quality problems arose and the banks are unhappy. These banks include the biggies, like Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank.

6. What's wrong with this picture:

First, the organizations should DISCLOSE that they have taken payments, and especially, any partnership agreements with Diebold, when they lobby for the voting machines.

Second, the lawsuits were selectively filed -- and didn't say to get an accessible option (there are at least three) but said only to get touch screens. And the lawsuits weren't filed against all counties that don't have touch screens, just against those who were in the process of purchase negotiations.

==================

Enter the New York Times.

Adam Cohen, head of the editorial board of the New York Times, called me wanting to do a story on the vendors who hired former public officials. I gave him the rundown on what I know on that. "But you should do a story on the blind," I suggested. "It's politically incorrect. You've got the clout to do this, though."

I told him what we'd found. He perked up, kept me on the phone for nearly an hour. Then called back to tell me he'd confirmed the $1 million (that's an easy confirm, it's on the Internet). I sent him the lawsuit from the NFB, a bunch of documents, and Andy's research.

Last Thursday, the article appeared in the New York Times. The very next day, the NFB dropped its lawsuits in Ohio.

Of the 31 counties, only five are going ahead with touch screens.

=================

But there's more: According to insiders, Jim Dickson of the AAPD was planning a dramatic and theatrical bit at the League of Women Voters, to dissuade them from changing their stance. Something like -- planting someone at every microphone in the caucus and dominating the floor. Dickson gets very loud and dramatic.

I guess they thought it wasn't such a good idea to draw such attention to themselves, just days after the New York Times revealed that his group had taken $26,000 from the vendors.

There will be more.

This is the smallest of the three stories on kickbacks and money trails.

Bev Harris

... BBV machines with Las Vegas slots.

Thanks for your work.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1782692


Here is a link to ALL the NYTimes' articles and editorials on BBV ("Make Votes Count")

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/opinion/13SUN1.html

it's actually very important. And the NYT coverage is pushing it into the mainstream.

The technique used to rig the slots bears a relationship to the voter card encoder problem that Jim March and I exposed in California (with great help from technician James Dunn, who came forward with a story very much like Rob, of rob-georgia fame) and of course, since 40% of the new encoders failed, that drew more attention to the fact they were uncertified -- as we had contended at the voter panel meetings for several months.

In the slot machine rigging, they rigged a smart card to trigger the slots to pay out.

Bev

Uggh...Bev, you've got guts of steel! I don't know if I'd be able to keep my meals down wading through the brackish miasma that you do on a daily basis...Thank you!

Wait 'till you see what's next.

Bev

Bev Harris, saving democracy as we speak! ;-)

spoilage. He said that the top three places for spoiled (Black?) votes were FL, Georgia and Chicago.

He said that he regretted having to admit it, but the Democratic Party in Georgia and Chicago are dominated by white politicians and they're able to do that by spoiling the votes of black voters in the primaries.

It reminded me of your problems in Georgia with democrats. Am I remembering that situation correctly?

Would you say that white democrats in Chicago and Georgia haven't been very receptive to BBV issues? If that's the case, have you tried to work with black democratic organizations in those places?

You hit the nail on the head, AP.

During the travels for the kickbacks investigation, I set for myself a certain minimum number of face-to-face visits each day, not including the fantastic meetups with local activists, who provide the road map to local politics for us.

A significant investment of time is spent in the 'hood. We are making headway, though I haven't gotten to Georgia yet, because I'd heard that other groups wanted to handle Georgia.

It isn't just African American constituencies -- Latino, also, are a high priority, as are Asian-American voters, especially in voting cesspools like San Francisco.

It's mostly under the radar, but we finally are getting traction with minority communities. I'd characterize it as a rumbling, at this point, but I can tell you they are VERY aware of the felon purge situation and becoming suspicious about having their votes counted by computers. We've got a ways to go, but this is a good investment of time, because these are the groups that got touch screens first (not the wealthy white areas; that is a myth...it is the minority areas that had touch screens shoved down their throats in 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2002. Touch screens are just now getting to affluent suburbs.)

These groups also will be one of the most potent voices for reform. The African American activism community is somewhat splintered. It didn't help to have its leaders assassinated a few decades ago. It also hasn't helped that they got targeted for payoffs. But among them, the groups who have come to this issue first are the churches and, especially, the women's groups. In fact, I think that African American women may end up at the forefront of this battle.

Fields still need to be tilled.

Bev

The truth is that Chicago has a one party system. Chicago really doesn't have a "Democratic Party". They have a "Daley" party. They are both Republican and Democrat rolled into one. And if you want to do business in Chicago, you have to play ball with the Daley machine!!!!!

So the black activists in Chicago need to stop cow-towing to Daley and get serious about this vote spoiling issue!!!

When Daley died, I thought the thing broke up.

Also -- I think some of these things are because they got media coverage. My guess is that we'll find a very widespread infrastructure for corruption, and not limited to big cities.

Bev

and coerced into buying Diebold and are probably miffed the new machines suck.

Maybe they'll cooperate with BBV activists?

Strange bedfellows and all that...Yeah, I'd imagine the banks would be a bit PO'd, being blackmailed into buying shitty ATM's...Good point!

:)

MegaThanks Bev and all the many BBVers who are going above and beyond the call of duty to help save democracy in the USA.

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so
long as I'm the dictator." - GW Bush 12/18/2000. CNN transcript

"There ought to be limits to freedom." - GW Bush on May 21, 1999

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
- GW. Bush, while Gov. of Texas

It's still a shame that a private citizen has to do all the heavy lifting.
Granted, the stories are eventually getting published, but where would be without you doing all this work and presenting them these stories on a silver platter?
Bottom line: Please be careful.

1 million bucks!


that sure is a lot a money........

I made a tactical decision on the kickbacks / money trail investigations to break stories through others, in part to take the heat off myself until I'm through with this phase. One of the first things I did was to line up national reporters interested in picking up the stories. I told them to feel free to omit me.

It'll be enough of a zoo come fall, when elections are back in the news. I'd rather contribute to the news than be the news.

Bev

Thank you for your hard work, for your dedication and for what you have accomplished already!

Am I surprised about the NFB revelations?

No.

The NFB is (IMNSHO) frankly... corrupt. They are the "republican party" of the blind community. The American council of the Blind (ACB) is somewhat the opposite, taking differing stances from the NFB in may areas. I'd trust them, first.

The sad thing is that *nobody* wants to actually **investigate** the blind organizations because of the 'sympathy factor' and the NFB has used this to their own benefit while loudly declaiming the complete opposite.

Anyone interested in NFB can go to their website at http://www.nfb.org
but don't expect to find much about their finances... those are a closed book even to the membership.

309

or ...

The Nation


They should hire you Bev!!!!!

They're mostly press release whores now. They repackage the propaganda pushed out by think tanks and corporate PR operations.

I think that news in this country will undergo a real transformation with the advent of the internet. Activists (who do REAL research) will no become journalists. And an effective alternative press will eventually rise.

crystal clear what the NFB was doing. I spent...what Bev...like 5 minutes searching. Nice work Bev...this is too easy....like shooting fish in a barrel.

Glad the NY Times took on the story. Thanks Adam! :yourock:

(aside)

Is there any info relating to the League of Women Voters stance on touchscreen machines?

A small thread, here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1792187

There will be more -- they have another planning meeting today and said they'd have more of a statement at that time.

Bev

I missed that thread.

It's embarrassing. I called him, told him my big revelation -- the settlement letter connecting the NFB lawsuits to Diebold, the failure of the other ATM makers to make any payoffs, yet they settled just fine...the fact that the NFB was also suing banks, though.

Here's what's embarrassing -- I thought the suing the banks actually weakened the story. Made it look like the NFB was being an equal opportunity litigator.

Andy said immediately -- and I mean instantly -- "Did the banks buy Diebold?"

I stammered. "I don't know."

Worse, I didn't see the relevance of that question. I actually had to come out and ask him -- well, what would that mean, why is it relevant if the banks bought Diebold? I would think that's because Diebold had retrofitted a machine.

thunk thunk thunk

No, Andy says, not if both ATM makers retrofitted. They made a deal, Bev. They were working as a partnership on this, and they just transferred their partnership strategy to voting.

Okay. So I went to Lexis-Nexis and there it was. National Federation of the Blind announced a partnership with Diebold on ATMs.

Now, these groups don't have to reveal the names of their donors. So the $1 million only surfaced because it was laundered through a settlement. I'll bet there are more payments. (stay tuned).

Bev

Diebold more than made up the $1 mil payoff to NFB...in sales of the ATM's. Sometimes we don't see the forrest for the trees.

In this case...the forrest had been cut down clean to the clearing in the center of the woods.

I am back on the road here in a few minutes. I will check in later if internet connectivity allows me to do so.

Andy

Thanks! :kick:

You guys ROCK! Can't wait for the juicier parts.

nt

That's a good old-fashioned shakedown scam!

This scheme would have to go back years. What's it been 10 years since the ATMs were first getting installed? There has got to be more money here than that. It sounds pretty tricky. I bet the banks would know exactly what they've been doing. I'm not surprised some banks want to get rid of the Diebold ATMs. People hate using them. I have a friend who goes into rants about them being "criminal machines". I told him about the Diebold e-voting story. Now I get to tell him the "blind" were the ones who got them installed. haha He's going to lose it.

and then replace them with Diebold. It started shortly before 2000, and continued at breakneck pace for about 3 years (with ATMs) and then it started on voting machines, first, with the blind lobbying to force the Help America Vote Act to mandate touch screens.

As soon as HAVA passed, they started telling the counties and states that they had to buy touch screens in order to protect the civil rights of the blind. Then they got more aggressive -- when California decertified and added paper ballot standards, disability groups sued to try to block the paper ballot and the new security measures.

And when Ohio tried to roll back the touch screen purchases, the NFB sued and in the settlement offer, never told the counties that the NFB had never objected to the inexpensive tactile ballot option, but said they had to get touch screens.

And when the League of Women Voters debated whether to support paper ballots, the blind came out swinging.

This was a powerful lobby, and I do agree with you on another point: I'll bet there is a lot more money changing hands. They don't need to disclose it, and the only reason we know about the $1 million is that they laundered that through a settlement on a lawsuit.

Bev

I wonder if the "experience" of using an ATM changed after Diebold's were installed. I'll have to ask my friend. I had no idea people hated ATM's the way they do. He was using one in Wal Mart about six months ago and flew into a rage saying they rip you off all the time. He says they charge you each time you have to re-enter your transaction when it's their fault. He's sure they're doing it on purpose. He didn't know they were made by Diebold and knew nothing about the e-voting and didn't care. I wonder how many people have complaints of ATM extortion "criminal machines". They might not care about our right to vote but BOY do they care about this. Maybe I'll ask people in Wal Mart who are standing in line for the ATM if they ever got ripped off. Who knows. There may be a whole other angle here.

So was Rite Aid, though my memory isn't 100% on which places got sued.

Anyway, tell your friend that the only reason he's using Diebold in WalMart is that they got into cahoots and did a shakedown. He'll love that, I'm sure.

Bev

I can't wait. He hates this kind of stuff.

and they were all proud of the new "Diebold" ATMs that were also intereactive kiosks that sold postage stamps, and did all sorts of cutting edge technology stuff ATMs didn't typically do. With the CEO's unabashedly Republican, I can only assume they didn't mind paying top dollar for sub par ATMs. They can make a killing on service fees from those. I was never a fan of them when I used them.

lawsuits for the blind? That might yield some interesting connections as well. I somehow can't quite imagine this being done pro bono by some righteous do-gooders.

And you can bet that they are not doing it pro bono. I started looking into them, but I have a specific loose end relating to this case that is a higher priority.

I did look to see what other clients/cases they have been working on.

By the way, speaking of shakedowns...and off topic...

I was at the airport and got a call on my cell phone. It was from an organization purporting to be an African American civil rights group, CORE. Their pitch involved asking for a donation and then saying, in the same sentence, "we haven't had any complaints about civil rights violations from your employees...yet..."

I about spit in the cell phone. Called my husband, and a couple others who know. It's another organization that capitalizes on feelings of guilt, in inappropriate money raising.

Agent Mike was apparently sitting nearby at the airport, too. That was a weird morning.

Bev

You should take a picture of him! Hey Mike... don't you want your vote to count?

Boy thats kinda a humorous allusion when you think about it ;-)

...org more than 15K bucks total. A check for a million bucks on the condition that you scratch my back...I don't find that hard to believe at all.

And it doesn't have to go back years.

These are people suing banks for not having ATMs which the blind can used. They're not suing banks for not having ATMs at all.

I didn't know the blind forced them to change ATMs. It's really sad if the blind got sold out for a measly million bucks. It makes you wonder how many other organizations have been corrupted. Hell if that's all it takes then maybe the whole country is corrupt. What an awful thought. I suspect there is something along these lines going on with the LWV. They are also rumors about others. It's just hard to believe it takes so little money. We need stiffer "white collar crime laws" and more whistle blower protection.

Look at what Bev has accomplished. What do you think her budget is?

I bet you could find lots of groups who would sell out for a lot less than that and that corporations will pay them their price so long as it reaps dividends that justify the investment.

However, I'm intrigued when Bev says this is the smallest of the stories about to come out.

The NFB and the Council for the Blind. Hate each other. Put the festering sore right out in the open. At one point, the NFB picketed a Council event.

Which makes me wonder...is there a wedge available, anyone?

Bev

I am saddened but by no means shocked at this development. Our local NFB chapter, for instance, engaged in some shady telemarketing practices:

http://starbulletin.com/2004/01/14/editorial/editorials.html

For example, a National Federation of the Blind Hawaii fund-raising campaign by its telemarketer, David Modansky's Ultimate Contact Management, raised $104,702, of which only $546 actually was spent for the tax-exempt purpose of "self-help for the blind." Modansky was paid $73,449 of the proceeds for what the tax document described as "community outreach" and $30,707 for "program services" -- a total of $104,156. Jones said his office is investigating Modansky's fund-raising activities.

This may well explain why the disability rights community has, by and large, jumped on the HAVA/BBV bandwagon so quickly. Once one national organization, in this case NFB, signs on, others like AAPD tend to follow. The irony is, if people with disabilities had voted in proportionate numbers in Selection 2000, there'd be no Bush*, and in all likelihood, no BBV.

When an Wisdonsin MS Support Group particpated in a clinical trial with a local physician to see what effect long term (started with 90 months but continued) antibiotics would have and found that at least 20% had definite reversal of nerve damage the the National Organization flew in to talk to them out of going public. The old traditional treatmnet for MS was steroids, it is now immune systm modulators but many people see only short term help with eithier therapy. The people refused and the MS society dropped support for that support group and the resultes never got published.

Later we found out that that there were people in the US government with a specific agenda that manipulted the MS society into doing this for them. At least some MS according to research in Germany in the early 1900's and here in the States in the 1950's proved that at least some MS is of spirocetal origin. Standard autopsies to not detect long standing infections. One in 20 people who get such an infection are genetically suseptible to chronic neurological problems. Since spirochetal disease is deep tissue even current tests are outrageously unreliable because they only pick up the disease whne it is passing through the blood or other fluids. Antiboidies are only made for the spirochetes when they are effective and they do little for deep tissue infection.

People born after 1948 have a 300% larger chance of having a neurological disease. Outside of sexual transmission, ticks are the main source of spirochetal disease in humans. Our back-to-nature lifestyle puts us in greater contact with the ticks and their animal hosts. The trend for physicians to give lower doses and shorter courses of antibiotics as well as the over use of antibiotics by ranchers in animals we eat are also factors.

Hundreds of thousands of people would not be on disability for MS and other misdiagnosed cousins if research results were not directed by drug companies and officials in the CDC, NIH and FDA who had patents and other ties to those companies.

coasting along on lack of scrutiny because they are exploiting sympathy factors, and people are not sure they want to "out" them for conflict of interest.

Hmmm.

by hostile interests. And money often gives decisive power and influence in these conflicts. Democracy Now! today had anti-fluoridation activist talking about the corporate interests funding the pro-fluoridation effort (I'm agnostic on this) and comparing it to the use of DU in weapons as a more profitable alternative to hazardous waste disposal (this I believe). The Sierra Club recently confronted a take-over effort by racists. The charge that "xyz" org has "sold out" is often literally true, and in other cases the more apt description isd that they have been "bought off" or been subverted by hostile forces. It happens, and big money has no conscience.

(edit, replace accidentally deleted words)

For some reason, I thought the NFB got a million a year from Diebold but I can't find my link to that information.

Might Wayback the websites with that information. Kind of assume that donations per year would be listed for that year.

And there's also a story floating around about how Sequoia funded a study for the visually disabled then turned around and used that report in a court case.

http://www.nfb.org/tech/diebold.htm

Over the next five years, Diebold will contribute $1 million toward the construction of NFB's National Research & Training Institute for the Blind. Diebold also will install and operate a voice-guided ATM at the organization's National Headquarters.

200 grand a year is still a sizable chunk of change for any nonprofit. Could the fix be in? Yep, could be...

:yourock:

Thank you, Bev!

Match me, folks. Fifty bux!

All go to the new NONPROFIT: Black Box Voting

Our board of directors is a good one (I'm not on the board, I'll be an employee, the Executive Director.)

On the board:

Linda Franz One of the most eloquent and incisive legislative and strategic people. She'll have to now wear two hats, one for her outstanding work on legislative issues relating to clean voting, and one as the president of the board for Black Box Voting

Joseph M. Bailey III -- A staunch civil rights advocate from way back. Founded the electricians union for people of color in the northwest, was an executive for many years with the IBEW in Washington State.

Vickie Karp - Who is also chairman of the Coalition for Visible Ballots, and managed to get front page coverage for that organization this weekend in Austin, Texas (Hart Intercivic machines, and Hart is based in Austin -- Hart has Bush Pioneer Tom Hicks as a major investor. He's the guy that bought the Texas Rangers from Bush.) Anyway, Vickie has billboards up in Austin against E-voting, and this made the FRONT PAGE of the Austin Statesman on Sunday, and also made local TV

Agrippa Williams - Known for his powerful work keeping black history alive, he once gave up a kidney to a complete stranger to save the man's life. He is well known performing artist in the Pacific Northwest, played the part of the legendary Paul Robeson in the theatre and is now appearing in the theatre production for Smokey Joe's Cafe. He's received several awards for his work as a performing artist and his outstanding citizenship.

Jim March - This one Republican is right wing enough to make up for a whole handful of lefties. In his other hat, he's a gun lobbyist in California. He has also been one of the most effective researchers and advocates on the Black Box Voting issue. It is Jim March who received one of the first Diebold cease and desist letters attempting to shut down his web site. In his characteristic style, he responded, "Diebold: Make my day. Sue me. I'll see you in discovery." Diebold never had the guts to sue him, just left him alone after that.

Thalia Dudley - A member of the fifth generation of the Dudley family, who began fighting for the right to vote in North Carolina shortly after the Civil War, and continued with each successive generation until today.

We'll be making an announcement later this week pertaining to Black Box Voting, the org.

Bev Harris

Ooooooohhhhhh we're getting serious now. This is turning into a nightmare for the bad guys. Who would have thought a brillant scheme like this would turn into a curse. I would love to be a fly on the wall at one of their meetings. :)

Why do you need to organize?

Generally this is done when there's gonna be big bucks flying around.

I can't decide if this is ironic or hypocritical.

First, I shut down a lucrative business to do this and have gone without a paycheck for more than a year; had to borrow money to pay my mortgage and literally sat in a house with no heat, wearing an electric blanket, because my fingers got numb trying to type the last two chapters of the book. Yes, I will become an employee and for the first time in 12 months I will get a paycheck. I'm excited. I can fix my sink. What's your problem?

Next, the amount of travel needed to do the kickbacks investigation is considerable. The reason we don't have investigative reporters anymore is that newspapers don't have the budget to pay them. So they have to do their investigating only locally, or on the Internet or the phone.

As we learned when Andy and I broke the "five felons" story, you get dynamite stuff when you go knocking on doors. I would not have gotten this story, had I not happened in on that meeting in Mercer County, Ohio. Next we will be doing a major investigation in Texas, and we have at least six more states with pieces of the puzzle. That requires donors with checkbooks of all sizes. Donors with larger checkbooks require 501(c)(3) status. It was a pain in the ass to set up this corporation, and it sidetracked me for over two weeks, and I would not have done it if it wasn't truly important to do the research and education needed to make our electoral system more secure.

I didn't see you objecting to Verified Voting (a 501c3 nonprofit) or Electronic Frontier Foundation.

I do find it extremely odd that, according to a credible e-mail that just came through my mailbox, an individual, a blind woman with eight children, has apparently been trying to expose this story since last December, and e-mailed people affiliated with the Electronic Frontier Foundation FOUR TIMES trying to get help, and this happened more than six months ago. She had gone so far as to file a case herself on RICO statutes, against Diebold, the National Federation of the Blind, and 10 banks.

That amazed me. It turns out she had put the matter in court way back in December and had sent all the details to others involved in the voting integrity community, and somehow they didn't go public with it.

If a voting organization knew about it, but decided not to go public with it, I would call this behavior hypocritical. And if this behavior relates to cases filed under seal for personal gain, I would say that it borders on treason. Counties bought these unauditable machines because they were bullied by the NFB lawsuits. People lost their votes because of this. And, had Black Box Voting not taken this public, this shakedown would have continued.

Bev

You're a true American Patriot!!!!! Your service to democracy has not gone un-noticed!!!!

and congratulations on your new job.

You deserve all the kudos big time. I have followed and passed along your articles & other information sinve I first ran across your web site..... (3 yrs? or more)

You have paved the path in the field of voter fraud and I commend you for a job well done.

I am in Florda, home of voter fraud, and I have been disgusted since that little weasel was appointed to the office of the presidency. Many of us could see the evil that was coming from the voter fraud & that appointment. Now we have to do our best to reverse this horror show that unfolds daily.

What a find!

:kick:

The truly is a need for blind voters to be able to independently cast ballots in a way that they know it correctly recorded. But touchscreen only fullfills the "independent" portion of the equation. The blind voter has as much idea that his vote is recorded as everyone else. And in computerized voting that ZERO.

A blind voter can recruit one or more friends to assist them in filling out their absentee ballots. Counties could even provide notaries to authenticate the votes and it would still be CHEAPER than the touchscreen machines. They could even provide a democratic and republican representative to help them so that there is no partisan tampering.

Until a paper BRAILLE BALLOT is provided, blind voters will have no idea wether there vote is correctly recorded.

absentee or at the polls. They are used in Rhode Island and in Europe, and the organizations for the blind have never objected to them. These are not Braille ballots, but a tactile ballot style with an audio cassette. Sort of like a very low tech (and less expensive, and fully auditable) touch screen.

http://www.electionaccess.org/Bp/Ballot_Templates.htm

I have emailed this organization. What is not explained on the site is that the voter gets an audio cassette to follow along with, or at the polls, a worker could read from behind a screen, provided that there was witness that the worker was reading correctly, of course.

This whole system could be MAILED,if so desired. If coercion is a worry, then it can be used at the polls.

And it is way, way less expensive than touch screens. You can create a folder that would accomodate optical scan ballots.

FYI, I was told a while back now that only about 20% of the visually disabled read Braillle, so that is not the best option, although it's what we all automatically think of.

they offer the voter a choice of Braille, tactile template, or one other thing, I forgot what it is...

That web site is so calm and matter of fact. And Rhode Island was not sued by the National Federation of the Blind.

Bev...I made one tonight...Someone that can help us tremendously. I will call you in the morning and tell you what I have found out.

This is HUGE!!!

and hopefully next paycheck will see another one go to BBV ORG. I heard I helped them buy a couple hard drives last time. What you are doing in Washington is shaking things up nationwide. I'm honored to help you from the cheese state.

Andy, you should have a weblink to your website in your posts at DU. I can't keep up with all the good news you post. :yourock:

Some supporters of voter-verifiable paper trails question
whether disability-rights groups have gotten too close to
voting machine manufacturers. Besides the donation by
Diebold to the National Federation of the Blind, there have
been other gifts. According to Mr. Dickson, the American
Association of People with Disabilities has received
$26,000 from voting machine companies this year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/11/opinion/11FRI1.html

:bounce::toast::beer: THIS IS AWESOME!!!:hi::party::bounce:

That is a GREAT victory, Bev!! Thanks so much to you, Andy, Spillane, .....well, the whole group! What a great job you have been doing!

I had been away all afternoon & evening, so I just found this thread. I'm PUMPED!! I've already sent a link to this thread out to a bunch of fellow activists so they will wake up to good news in the a.m.

I want you to know something...

This kind of thread gives us "troops" on the ground the kind of incentive we need to keep pushing even harder: more solid ammunition, more resolve, a better perspective.

People like me, who believe REALLY SOLIDLY in this cause, but don't have the computer knowledge, the highly ranked contacts, the exceptional research skills, or the communication skills and savvy that you and some of the other BBV Patriots have, are really EMPOWERED BY YOUR RESEARCH in our local and State battles. This thread helps to shed light on one of the arguments we've been coming up against: I'm just now realizing that some of the resistance we've seen may very well be tied into this very issue.

This is HUGE! These assholes are toying with our Democracy, and I hope they all choke on their filthy lucre.

O8)And I hope all of you.... Bev, Andy, Dan, RedEagle, GregD, etc., ALL the BBV Patriots will have blessings on your houses for generations to come! O8)

And for YOU, Agent Mike <grrrrrr!>: I KNOW you think you're doing a "service" to your masters, who think if the "little people" actually RAN the world through TRUE Democracy, that these masters would somehow not have as many toys as they wished they could, nor could they, as freely, play the games that enamor them so. Or have they convinced you that we're all too phucking naive, that we'd all be "in danger" from some evil forces if the 'powers that be' weren't in charge of who won elections?

Is THAT why you're threatening Bev? Is THAT why you're stalking her? You've been drinking the kool-aid, hunny. If REAL people are allowed a vote that counts, and the media is free to tell the TRUTH, and do their research, it all cancels each other out in all the right places....it BALANCES! And the best of all things can come out of it, for EVERYONE....everyone gives a little, everyone gets to take a little! And the ones who really ARE the smartest and strongest, are free to have a little MORE than the rest, IF they want it! What is it WORTH if it is taken at gun-point or under threat? That only encourages someone else to try to take it away again!

Humanity is BEYOND that primitive meme. We, as humans, are evolving WAY beyond that. There's got to be room for everyone. Even you, agent Mike. A gun, a gang, or worse, a government gang, thugs....they're just SOOOO 20th century. You, my friend, are going to be on the losing side of this issue, one way or the other. Because if you're on the WINNING side, NONE of us will be alive on this planet much longer. In other words, if yours is the winning side, we all lose everything.

:kick::kick::kick::kick:

This fight for honest, free, accountable elections will go beyond 2004.

There is a reason the fight has been so hard and the insistance on keeping flawed systems in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

The need to influence elections goes beyond 2004. Keep in mind that a "good cop/bad cop" scenario may well be what we get in 2004. That is supposed to placate us.

I've got news- citizens at the grass roots level are going to get this system cleaned up from the bottom up. We know that questionable elections affect us all greatly at the local level.

Keep the rally for auditable, honest, accurate elections going for 2004 and beyond.

:yourock: :thumbsup: :yourock: :thumbsup: :yourock:

In the above post, you write:

Thus, it is bizarre for them to consider spending half a million on Diebold touch screens instead of $300 for a single tactile ballot.

But on blackboxvoting.org, you write:

Thus, it is bizarre for them to consider spending $300,000 on Diebold touch screens instead of a hundred bucks for a single tactile ballot.


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


Why "half a million" then "$300,000"

and

$300 then $100.

They have not responded to all my public records requests. I wrote this post with a quick guestimate of their purchase amount, then did a more precise estimate for Black Box Voting based on number of voters and approximate costs in other counties per number of voters.

Tactile ballot prices vary, because there are different kinds of them and also, it is more per ballot if you have fewer tactile ballots.