Diebold Gets Free Passes In Both California And North Carolina?

Diebold Gets Free Passes In Both California And North Carolina?

Contributed by Mike on Thursday, December 1st, 2005 @ 03:51PM
from the how-nice dept.

The continuing saga of e-voting machine maker Diebold is incredibly odd. It seems fairly self-evident to just about anyone that in order to have a free and fair election, any equipment used in such an election should be open to scrutinization to make sure there are no problems with it. Also, it makes sense that any such system should have a backup -- because we all know that computers run into problems. It's never been at all clear why Diebold has resisted -- but what's scarier is that politicians seem to let them slide by each and every time, no matter how many times evidence of problems with the machines are presented. We've been following two separate Diebold stories over the past couple of weeks, one in California and one in North Carolina -- and there's more news on each right now. In North Carolina, remember, Diebold was accused of skirting new election law that required companies to submit the source code of their systems in escrow so that it could be examined. Diebold asked to be exempt from that law. However, they were sued over it and a judge said the law is the law and Diebold must obey -- to which Diebold said it might no longer bid to process elections in the state. So, what happens today? According to the EFF, the North Carolina Board of Elections certified Diebold's equipment anyway -- even though they did not obey election law and did not submit the source code.

Meanwhile, it looks like Diebold is similarly getting preferential treatment in California as well. In this case, the Secretary of State originally invited some e-voting reform advocates to hack the Diebold machines. As we stated at the time, there are problems with this (putting the burden of proof on the hackers, rather than Diebold), but at least it suggested that the Secretary of State understood there were problems facing electronic voting. However, having invited and confirmed that the group would be a part of this hack test, the Secretary of State proceeded to stop responding to emails and then deny that the event was happening when he had promised. He later made vague statements about maybe doing a test sometime in the future. However, according to another site, instead of holding this hack test, it looks like the Secretary of State held a special summit on e-voting that apparently shut out many e-voting reform advocates, while stocking many panels with only supporters of existing e-voting machines. It sounds like a few reform advocates, such as Avi Rubin did attend -- so it wasn't entirely one-sided. However, it looks like the discussions were geared more towards listening to what the e-voting machine makers had to say, rather than what the reform advocates had to say. Reform advocates who tried to register were turned down, even though seats tickets were available. The thing that's still the strangest of all about this is that it's in the e-voting companies' best interests to go out and prove that their systems are safe and secure. If they actually did that, there wouldn't be any problems. It's the fact that they keep hiding stuff that makes everyone question what is going on -- and yet our politicians give them a pass each and every time. Update: On this California story, it was clear that the only report we saw was one sided -- put forth by those who were unable to attend. However, Joe Hall, who did attend, points out that the summit was much more balanced than the initial report suggested, and he felt that the important issues were raised. That's good news.
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How do we protest?

It makes me feel so hopeless about the election process.

also, as was the case this morning when the Friends of John Kerry called for a donation, I told the caller that we are hit up by many democratic causes; I said that until democrats stand up effectively to existing voting problems, no amount of money will make any difference overall. When I recently met Angelides (running for the dem governor ticket here in CA) and told him my concerns about the current Diebold certification process, he said this was an issue we have to take to the streets. Petitioning and protesting, IOWs we have to get the information out ourselves - we cannot rely on politians or the press.

:kick:

Awful,just awful.

certifying the Tsx

http://ga3.org/campaign/diebold_test?rk=YdAfG291MX4OE

Which I just signed this morning

on edit this petition also asked that hack tests be performed.

If and when Hursti is going to hack it successfully, then NC citizens can use the result to protest big time, and have the decision rescinded.

More would sign if it had greater visibility.

If Diebold steals California, this country is dead :(

Her friend is the wife of a Diebold executive. Discussed at great length in the election reform at DU many months ago. She has been a strong advocate of electronic voting and tabulating.

and have, (after the recall), republican Gov. Arnold, appoint a republican Sec. of State...who counts the votes and is allowing the machines in...

This was a White House & Rove, sponsored secret plan from the beginning and people still don't see it. Starting with the recall!

This is no coincidence or accident...they want CA and they will have CA when the voting machines are finally in place!!!!!

are going to take back Congress in 2006...How?

No matter how much the republicans cheat, and as obvious and proven as it is, its to late, they are in office.

Not one seat has ever been retracted, so as long as they steal a seat they our in.

So why not just blatantly steal? What do they have to lose?

was appointed by Ahnold to replace the elected one, Kevin Shelley, who was forced out of his office. I believe it's time to march on Sacramento to demand election reform before any other election takes place.

despite all the evidence that e-voting can be hacked -- and likely was in the past three elections -- and despite the efforts of concerned citizens and groups across the country to demand auditable voting systems, states and counties continue to buy and install e-voting systems that rely on proprietary software and vote tabulation by Republican corporations . . .

even the Democrats in Congress -- who have the most to lose -- are not demanding that the voting and tabulating process be taken away from private corporations and returned to the people . . .

the question is "WHY?" . . .