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This situation is due to the public's complacency in allowing unknown entities to manipulate their votes, now in larger degree than ever before. Make inquiries! Know exactly what happens to your vote after you hand it over. Is it counted on a scanner that sends its totals via the Internet? Are software modifications to the central tabulating machine in your county made via the Internet?
Salient points:
Some, if not most, voting machines used in this 2004 General Election can actually have their vote totals changed by anyone, at any computer, anywhere in the world. This is because the centralised counting machines are ordinary PC computers which use RAS (Remote Access Server) software to connect to voting machines. RAS systems are tragically easy for amateur hackers to enter.
Source: Bev Harris at
www.blackboxvoting.org, page 10
In the November, 2004 General Election, it has been noted that a "Battleground State" which largely used the old fashioned "paper ballots" came out with totals that virtually matched their exit polls. In the other ten very significant "Battleground States" without paper ballots, all went an average of 5 and 1/2 % higher for Bush, than their exit polls indicated. (See our "Exit Polls" page.")
Source: Internet forum commentator quoted at
www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00106.htm
page 6
If you rely on newspapers, TV and radio for your news, you have missed the following: (1) Currently (Dec. 20, 2004), Bev Harris is suing 5 counties in Florida for voting fraud, and has issued requests for voting information under the Freedom of Information Act from all US counties. (2) The entire state of Ohio is charged with performing a total recount. (3) Kerry and Edwards have issued a formal letter to all Ohio's counties on how to conduct the recount, specifically how to insure real randomness and true transparency. (4) Kerry may still win the state of Ohio, though polite refusals have been offered that he will not seek the Presidency. One wonders. And hopes. (5) The minority leaders of the House Judiciary Committee have called for, and are pursuing, the recount in Ohio. This effort is amalgamizing both the Black civil rights leaders and the Liberal leaders. (6) A hard drive from a central computer that tallied votes in Ohio has been snatched by an official who says it lost its information because its battery went dead. Myriads of people who know better are swarming in and insisting that this harddrive be retrieved. None of this is getting covered in mainstream media. Mainstream media is all but dead. (Or, hopefully, just very slow to arouse?)
Bev Harris, the "Erin Brockovich" of voting fraud, and Governor Howard Dean, on CNBC in August 2004, demonstrated how tabulated votes, on the widely-distributed Diebold voting-machines, could be traded from one candidate to the other in 90 seconds. (This was narrated by journalist Thom Hartman, on the 'Topic A, with Tina Brown' show, where Gov. Dean was stand-in host for Tina that night.) That is to say, Governor Dean, with Harris directing, cut-and-pasted one candidate's votes into the other candidate's slot, and vice-versa, in 90 seconds.
Source:
www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00106.htm
page 4
Central tabulating machines allow large quantities of "minus votes" to be entered, as evidenced by a technician quoted in the sources
Source:
www.blackboxvoting.org
page 5
On November 5 following the Presidential Election, U.S. House Judiciary Committee members John Conyers, Jerrold Nadler and Robert Wexler posted a letter to the GAO (General Accounting Office), to the person of the Comptroller General of the United States, David Walker, asking for an immediate and full investigation into the voting machines. They described many instances of malfunction known to them, such as (1) in Florida, where use of computerized vote scanning machines significantly reduced the quantity of Democrat votes, and (2) where voters who selected Kerry saw, before their eyes, that their vote went for Bush instead. And (3) in Ohio, where, in some overt instances, computerized machines gave Bush thousands of erroneous extra votes, where there had only been hundreds, not thousands, of voters in that area.
Source:
www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00106.htm
page 7
Beverly Harris, at her website www.blackboxvoting.org delineates how our National Association of State Election Directors (aka NASED), who are supposed to "certify that your voting system is safe," breached our trust, and, through an "Independent Testing Authority," did not test for security, nor do any "penetration analysis" of the new computer voting systems, because that was not deemed necessary.
Source: www.blackboxvoting.org
page 2
Voting in the U.S. is supposed to be in the public commons. That is, it is supposed to be totally transparent and viewable by the public, through observable documents known as ballots, which are counted at the polling place, then the totals sent to the county level, then the counties send their totals to the State. With every step being observed by a representative of the public, and signed off. The only concession to this observability in the past has been that the polling places in some counties have physically taken their ballots to the county seat, where they have been counted (known as "centralized" counting.)
But this November's election, and those prior to it for a few years now, have had the verifiability removed, by using voting machines that are computer driven, and tallying the votes over the Internet! No one tested the voting machines, and especially their paths on the Internet, for security. The "Independent Testing Authorites" who were contracted to do so, have sequestered their reports and won't give them out. (Not even to the California Secretary of State, who finally got his request after much difficulty.)
Clearly, the verifiability of the vote count in the US is nil. We are in the throes of a national disaster.
Source: www.blackboxvoting.org
page 2
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News
The Movement for Hand-Counted-Paper-Ballots News, Lynn Landis, current, 2005
Black Box Voting Website & News, Bev Harris, current, 2005
Ohio Elections Chief Blackwell Makes Improper Fund-Raising Solicitations and Partisan Efforts on Secty of State Letterhead, Associated Press, Jan. 8, 2005
Clint Curtis, Computer Programmer, Interviewed by House Judiciary Committee, THE VIDEO (15 min), bradblogtoo, Dec.18, 2004
"A Day Spent at the...Ohio Recount", Black Box Voting, Dec. 16, 2004
Rep. John Conyers of the House Judiciary Committee: "Ten members of congress, including myself, have written to Governor Taft asking him to either delay, or treat as provisional, the vote of Ohio's presidential electors", US House of Representatives, Dec.13, 2004
Ohio's Election Results are Challenged in State Supreme Court, Dec. 13, 2004
Kerry's and Edwards' Requests for How to Recount Ohio, Dec. 13, 2004
Voting Rights Groups Tragically Ignore Paper Ballot Option, Dec. 11, 2004
Ohio Secty of State Blackwell Locks Down Public Records, Dec. 10, 2004
Former Congressman Jailed in Ohio in Trying to Give Letter to Secty of State Blackwell, Dec. 10, 2004
Kerry/Edwards could still seize the Whitehouse, Dec. 2, 2004
Recount Efforts in the U.S., Kim Zetter at Wired News, thru Nov, 2004
E-Voting News at VerifiedVoting.org, thru Nov, 2004
Latest on the Ohio Re-Count, by Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, Nov. 23, 2004
Berkeley CA statistical analysis of Florida data, Nov. 18, 2004
Recount in Ohio "All but Certain," WorldNet Daily, Nov. 15, 2004
California collects $2.6 million in Diebold suit for faulty voting machines Monterey Herald, Nov 11, 2004
NBC exec calls exit polls "junk,"British Broadcasting Corporation, Nov. 4, 2004
Kerry Won in Ohio, MUST READ, by Greg Palast, TomPaine.com, Nov. 4, 2004
Myriad errors in OH & PA Voting Process, Nov. 3, 2004
California investigates Diebold, Dec. 17, 2003
Will the Election be Stolen? Sept 29, 2003
Seattle Times discusses Bev Harris's findings, Sept 25, 2003
Definitions
assigned votes: the final numbers of votes, as declared by the authorities who count them; the counterpart to assigned votes is projected votes, which are the numbers of votes accumulated through exit polls
Australian ballots: another name for paper ballots in the U.S., system developed in Australia in mid-1800's
balanced: a voting precinct is balanced when the number of voters' signatures (on poll tapes) matches the number of ballots after that precinct's polls close; many, many precincts are not balanced at first, but are brought into balance later as the reasons for the discrepancies are found out
ballot: comes from the same word as "ball"; voting in ancient times was determined by secretly placing a tiny black or white ball into a container; today, ballots are of many types: optical scan, punch card, data punch, and paper; ballotless voting is done by electronic (touch-screen) machines and the older, lever machines that count like a car's odometer; by far the largest form of ballot in use in the US in 2004 is the optical scan ballot ("OS") ballot system
central tabulating software: ballot-counting software installed on a computer at the vote-counting headquarters, usually at county level;it is possible that this vote-tabulating function can be accessed by any computer in the world, and that to do so is not at all complicated, however, an investigation is necessary to learn the extent to which this is possible
central tabulating office: ballot-counting is done here, usually at the Registrar of Voters of any given county (US); a county will be divided into regions called "precincts," which have a voting place centrally located; votes made at the precinct polling place are counted either at the precinct, then sent to the central tabulating office, or sent directly to the central tabulating office where all votes/ballots are counted ("tabulated")
chad: the pieces of paper left in the holes that are supposed to get punched completely out in votomatic and other punch-card voting machines; recent discussion has delineated several specific types of chads, such as "hanging chad," "pregnant chad," and the like, giving much cause for election-time mirth
Ciber Labs: the Huntsville, Alabama branch of an ITA that was supposed to, but didn't, test Diebold GEMS central tabulator software for penetration, according to Bev Harris
computer voting system: a blurry, general category that, in the public eye, includes paperless touchscreen systems, as well as any system where voting results are tabulated by computer at a centralized location, which of course includes almost the entire U.S. voting process; much clarification needs to be done between computer knowledgeable people and their less-informed counterparts across the nation, to inform ourselves more clearly on what is being sent by what segments of the Internet; the primary necessity is to create a U.S. system where a recount can occur as accurately, precisely, and efficiently as it does in European and other democracies; only when a recount is feasible can the voting process be depended upon to be fair
data punch: "voters punch holes in the cards (with a supplied punch device) opposite their candidate or ballot issue choice. After voting, the voter may place the ballot in a ballot box, or the ballot may be fed into a computer vote-tabulating device at the precinct."
Diebold: second largest vendor of voting machines for the 2004 Election; owner, Mr. O'Dell, said publicly that he will help to get Ohio's votes to go for Bush; the company has given nearly $200,000 to the Republican party
DRE: a ballotless system known as "Direct Recording Electronic" voting system, also called "Touch Screen"
electronic voting machine: a term used non-specifically for (1) a DRE "touchscreen" voting machine, or (2) a centralized electronic vote-tallying computer that counts thousands of votes
electronic voting system: Ballotless voting system, also known as Direct Recording Electronic (DRE); used statewide in Georgia (Diebold), and nearly-so in Kentucky, Tennessee, Nevada, New Mexico, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey; used extensively in several other states (see map, above)
ES&S: Election Systems and Software, one of the biggest manufacturers of computerized voting systems; 56% of US votes in November 2, 2004's General Election were cast on ES&S machines; formerly named American Information Systems, Inc.
exit poll: a survey taken after voters have voted and exited the polling place, by asking voters who they voted for; this gives a very close approximation of how the real vote is going; historically, exit polls in the U.S. have been very accurate, differing from final tabulations, at the most, by 1/10th of 1 percent.
FEC: Federal Election Commission; in 1984 they produced Voting System Standards: A Report on the Feasibility of Developing Voluntary Standards for Voting Equipment
GEMS: Global Election Management System, the Windows-based software at the heart of the Diebold voting machines
HAVA: Help America Vote Act, a Federal act brought about as a result of the 2000 General Election debacle; it is to be implemented in 2006, giving almost 3 billion dollars to elections operations for procurement of electronic voting machines; the results of HAVA will be to compel small counties which currently use, and are happy with, paper ballots, to switch to grossly-more-expensive electronic voting machines
IEEE: "The IEEE and its predecessors, the AIEE (American Institute of Electrical Engineers) and the IRE (Institute of Radio Engineers), date to 1884."
ITA: Independent Testing Authority, the categorical name for companies hired by NASED to test the computer-driven voting systems now in use in the U.S.
lever machines: Ballotless voting system operated by pulling a lever to add one's vote to a tally; a series of levers and resulting tallies operate like odometers, moving up 1/10th of a rotation with each vote; now used in New York, Virginia and Louisiana primarily; these machines are no longer made
Mark-sense or Marksense: Voting system where dark marks are made on a paper ballot, then scanned by various types of machinery; also known as "Optical Scan" or OS, as opposed to the earlier (pre-1960's) electronic sensing systems that read the conductivity of pencil marks; optical systems read the shade (lightness/darkness) of the mark, not its electrical properties
NASED: National Association of State Election Directors, with the Secretariat of this group being in Texas; they are supposed to certify that your election voting system is "safe" and free from tamperability (Note: their new website has only one contact person, whose city and state are not given; see Bev Harris's website , p. 5, for a list of NASED officials; the Secretariat is/was R. Doug Lewis in Houston, TX electioncent@pdq.net)
optical scan:, a voting system where ballots are marked by the voter, then put through a scanning machine that reads the marks; the most widely-used type of US voting system; also known as "Marksense" (see above)
OS: Optical Scan (see above)
paper ballots: forms printed on paper, listing candidates names, and election choices, and including places to mark one's choice; known as Australian ballots, because the system was perfected there first; are filled out in privacy, then publicly put into a sealed ballot box; counted by hand; undoubtedly the best, some say the only, system for insuring accurate counting of ballots; not to be confused with paper trail; not to be confused with optical scan or punch-card ballots, which are also paper, but which are not hand counted
paper trail: nebulous term meaning any type of paper documents created by voters, including optical scan and punch card ballots; the idea is that if voters cast paper ballots or generated paper receipts of some kind, these can always be recounted, thus keeping the election honest. However, the US recount process itself is not trustworthy due to many opportunities for fraudulent practices
PBHC: Paper Ballot Hand Counted, the voting system in the U.S. where voters mark ballots that have the information printed right on the ballot itself; also called the Australian Ballot , as it was first perfected in that country (in 1856!); these ballots are counted by hand right in the voting precinct, without being removed from the building until a well-witnessed total is achieved and publicly posted; precincts then telephone their totals to the county HQ; the counties then telephone their totals to the State; this is the least expensive while at the same time being the most fraud-proof method of casting and tallying ballots, and is the method used by the vast majority of democratic governments the in the world; see Lynn Landis for a strong voice for returning to paper ballots in the U.S.
polling place: or "polls," the place where people go to vote; the voting place; in the US, these are often in schools and other official, easily-accessible locations;not to be confused with the other meaning, i.e., surveys taken, asking a series of people the same questions
polls: (1) surveys taken by asking people certain choices, for the purpose of finding out the generally-held views of a group of people; (2) the place where people go to vote; the voting place; in the US, these are often in schools and other official, easily-accessible locations; usually there is one polling place per precinct
poll tapes: the record that contains the original voters' signatures; these are compared to the actual number of ballots cast in that precinct; if the number of signatures matches the number of ballots, the precinct is said to be "balanced" (q.v.)
precinct: the local voting region; in the U.S. there are several precincts in each county; people living in one precinct will all vote at that precinct's polling place; votes can be counted in the precincts, with those totals being given to the county office; or the voted ballots can be delivered to the central county location where all votes are counted together; the county election officials then report to the Secretary of State of their state; with the mass switch to electronic voting machines in the U.S., precincts become disused, and in one state (Florida) they have been all but obliterated
projected totals: the numbers of votes accumulated through exit polls, which figures are used to create media projections of how the final count will turn out (see Exit Polls)
public commons: the rightful gathering places of the public; the entire vote-counting process is supposed to take place here, in full view of members of the public, and never be hidden from public view, as it is today with computerized counting machines of all kinds, which system is causing increasing secrecy of the vote-counting process away from public accessibility
RAS: Remote Access Server, a type of phone-number-accessed server, run on Windows, which is very easy for computer folks to enter; the centralized vote counting programs used in the November 2 Presidential Election were linked through RAS systems, meaning that anyone, anywhere in the world, could get in, change vote counts, and leave without much of a trace, according to Bev Harris
Secretary of State: An office at both the Federal and State levels; at State level, this is an elected position, but quizzically, this official's responsibility is to oversee all major elections
server: a computer that "serves" to link many computers together, forming the "Internet"; a server is any normal small computer, like yours or mine, that has "server software" operating on it; the huge net of servers forms the Internet; you can "see" the Internet connecting you to a distant website --- go to Start, Run, type in cmd, hit OK, then in the black window, type tracert, then a space, then the domain name of the website you want to see the path to (e.g., www.craigslist.org); hit "Enter"
tabulation: the county-level activity of counting all the votes in the county; this counting is done, in most cases in the US, by a normal-looking computer that has special tabulation software installed; each county has one, or sometimes two, such computers functioning on Election Day and for some time thereafter; each computer can process up to 2,000,000 votes at a time; often, today's voting machines are connected via the Internet, directly to the tabulation computer
touch-screen, or touchscreen: a ballotless voting system where the voter touches the computer screen to select his/her choice; a type of DRE, or direct recording electronic, system; also generically known as a voting machine, though this is a non-specific term
voting machine: general term denoting either (1) an apparatus used to vote with; or (2) a centralized vote-counting machine that can tabulate tens of thousands of votes; see electronic voting machine
Voting Systems Panel (VSP): group at State level, California, 2003, to inquire into the nature of current voting systems
Votomatic: punch card voting system that has nothing except numbers printed on the ballot cards; one punches the card at the numbers that correspond to the choices on a separate display
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