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BIOGRAPHICAL REPERTORY
Arnebeck, Cliff: legal adviser to the liberal group, Alliance for Democracy; now (Dec., 2004) conducting the investigation into voting fraud in Ohio
Baird, Victor: Senate Ethics Committee director in 2002; in 1997, he had asked Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) to clarify the nature of his investment in McCarthy Group, the parent company of ES&S voting machine company; Hagel declared it to be an "excepted investment fund"; Baird said that the McCarthy group "did not appear to qualify as an excepted investment fund," then abruptly resigned, during the time that he was being interviewed by Alex Bolton of The Hill; his successor, Robert Walker, was very pro-Hagel (Blackbox Voting, Chap 3)
Baran, Jan, Esq.: "...perhaps the most powerful Republican lawyer in Washington" (B. Harris); "...head of the firm' s Election Law & Government Ethics Practice, advises clients and litigates on federal, state and local campaign finance laws, government ethics requirements and lobbying laws" (his company's website); together with Lou Ann Linehan, visited reporter Alexander Bolton at his office at The Hill, and tried (unsuccessfully) to pressure him to not print, or to "soften," his story on Senator Chuck Hagel's involvement with voting machine manufacturing (Blackbox Voting, Chap 3)
Barnes, Michael: of the elections division of the Georgia Sect'y of State's office; said, in an interview with Bev Harris, "That ftp site did not affect us in any way shape or form because we did not do any file transferring from it." (http://www.scoop.co.nz)
Baxter, Sandy:Elections Supervisor for San Juan County, Washington. Baxter: "I have what's called a digiboard on my server that allows multiple modem connections. I have a second modem on the GEMS [Diebold] system but its only for the AccuVote systems. My precincts modem me the results on that." (http://www.scoop.co.nz)
Behler, Rob: computer technician who installed [2003] the patch on Georgia's voting machines; in an interview with Bev Harris, he said "I had my laptop out, and one of the engineers used my laptop -- or maybe it was James [Rellinger] -- one of them had to go in and get it from the FTP, put it on a card, make copies of the cards and then we used them to update the machines." (http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00078.htm#rob)
Blackwell, John Kenneth: Ohio Secretary of State; was President Bush's Ohio campaign manager; is currently directing the recount of Ohio's votes from the 2004 General Election, though many feel he should recuse himself
Bolton, Alexander: reporter for the respected Washington publication, The Hill; after meeting Bev Harris, he interviewed Victor Baird, chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, and wrote a story (early 2003) about Senator Chuck Hagel's involvement with the voting machine business (Blackbox Voting, Chap 3)
Brown, Sherrod: "... has represented Ohio's 13th District as a Democrat since 1993 and served as Ohio's Secretary of State for two terms, from 1982 to 1990. He is the author of Myths of Free Trade, Why American Trade Policy has Failed. (Harpers.org, What Went Wrong in Ohio?, panelist on this forum, July 25, 2005)
Carroll, Kathleen: senior vice president and executive editor of the Associated Press, was a reporter at The Dallas Morning News before joining AP. Carroll is also on the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME)'s 7-member executive committee. The APME "works in partnership with AP to improve the wire service's performance," according to their website (http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=18549&mode=nested&order=0)
Chavez, Hugo: President of Venezuela; "accused ES&S of trying to destabilize the country's electoral process. Chavez asked for help from the U.S. government because, he said, the U.S. had recommended ES&S." (Blackbox Voting, Chap 2)
Conyers, John Jr.: U.S. Congressman (D-MI); ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, is the 2nd most senior member there, elected to the House in 1964. "He was, notably, the driving force behind the Help America Vote Act of 2002." (Harpers.org, What Went Wrong in Ohio?, panelist on this forum, July 25, 2005)
Eschberger, Tom: A Vice President of ES&S; involved in a case against Arkansas Secretary of State Bill McCuen, dealing with bribery and kickbacks related to computerized voting systems (Blackbox Voting, Chap 2)
Foley, Edward B: director of the election law program at the Ohio State University law school and a former Ohio state solicitor; interviewed by The Washington Post Dec. 15, 2004; Quote: "...there have been very significant problems in running elections in Ohio this year...We clearly ended up disenfranchising people."
Garofolo, Lisa: County Clerk in Indianapolis, Indiana, Nov. 2003 (Blackbox Voting, Chap 2)
Hagel, Chuck:U.S. Senator (R-Nebraska); formerly Chairman (1992-95) and CEO (1993-95) of American Information Systems (AIS), now called ES&S, manufacturers of a gigantic proportion of America's voting machines; he resigned in March 1995; announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate in the same month, and won, defeating both Don Stenberg (Republican Attorney General) in the Primary, then popular Democratic Governor Ben Nelson, frontrunner in the polls; was the first Republican to win a Nebraska seat in the U.S. Senate in 24 years; votes in these elections were counted on machines his company had made (Blackbox Voting, Chap 3)
Holt, Rush: U.S. Congressman (D-NJ) who is pushing for voting reform, but who ignores the hand-counted paper ballot option; attended the Voting 2004: A Report to the Nation on America's Election Process Conference Dec. 7, 2004; the Conference adopted his proposal; Lynn Landis says that his proposal is no improvement over the current machine-counting systems
Jones, Stephanie Tubbs: U.S. Congresswoman (D-OH); "... is a four-term Democratic congresswoman representing the 11th District of Ohio. A lifelong resident of Cleveland, Representative Tubbs Jones was a prosecutor and a judge in Ohio before she came to Washington. She currently sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, the first African American woman to do so. It was Congresswoman Tubbs Jones who, partly on the strength of the Conyers investigation, formally objected to the certification of the Ohio electoral count last January." (Harpers.org, What Went Wrong in Ohio?, panelist on this forum, July 25, 2005)
Kelley, Mark: ES&S spokesman who said, of Don Siegelman’s loss in the Alabama election where 6,300 votes were lost, “Something happened. I don’t have enough intelligence to say exactly what.” (Blackbox Voting, Chap 2)
Landes, Lynn: Proponent of 100% hand-counted paper ballots; she has filed lawsuits to this effect; Lynn's website
Lewis, R. Doug: Head of, and singular spokesperson for, "The Election Center," a private non-profit group in Texas whose origins are obscure, and which nevertheless officially receives all public inquiries about "the testing process for voting systems...questions related to a specific manufacturer or a specific voting system..." (NASED website). Lewis "headed the democratic party for the States of Texas and Kansas...[and]...managed affairs for former Texas governor John Connolly." He was former owner of a computer hardware and software business, Micro Trade Mart Inc. in Texas, 1986-1993. Became Executive Director of The Election Center in 1994. (Blackbox Voting, Chap 6)
Linehan, Lou Ann: Senator Chuck Hagel's Chief of Staff; claimed (2003) that there is no conflict of interest in Hagel having ownership ties to ES&S; says it is quite a possibility that Hagel will run for President in 2008; tried, together with Jan Baran, Esq., to pressure reporter Alexander Bolton into not publicising his story on Hagel (Blackbox Voting, Chap 3)
Matulka, Charlie: Democratic opponent of Chuck Hagel in 2002 for U.S. Senate; wrote to Senate Ethics Committee in October, 2002, requesting an investigation into Hagel's nondisclosure of ownership in ES&S; no action was taken; after he lost the election, he asked for a recount, but was told by the Nebraska Sect'y of State that, by law, the paper ballots could not be recounted (Blackbox Voting, Chap 3)
McCarthy, Michael R: of the McCarthy Group, parent company of ES&S voting machine company; he's also a director of ES&S; is Chuck Hagel's campaign finance director (Blackbox Voting, Chap 3)
McCuen, Bill: Arkansas Secretary of State "who pleaded guilty to taking kickbacks and bribes in a scheme related to computerized voting systems" (Blackbox Voting, Chap 2)
Mitofsky, Warren: of Mitofsky International, the company who conducted the exit-polls for the November, 2004 General Election in the United States; this exit-poll data was, for the first time ever, grossly out of balance with the numbers as they came from vote-tallying machines after the polls closed; in the 10 top battleground states, the error was only in favor of George Bush, by an average of 5 and 1/2 percent; major news media altered the data later on Election Night, to make their publicized exit-poll figures correspond with machine-tallied figures; only a few people found the original Mitofsky exit-poll data still up on a website in the middle of the night; Mitofsky has refused to release the data to the House Judiciary Committee
O'Dell, Wally: President of Diebold voting machine company; says that Diebold's computers are not connected to the Internet (http://www.scoop.co.nz)
Osborne, Burl: Chairman of the Associated Press board of directors; also publisher emeritus of the conservative The Dallas Morning News (http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=18549&mode=nested&order=0)
Peevy, Don: Dem. State Senator in Georgia, 1986 election, first declared the loser, then it was found that a Repub. Elections official kept ballots in his trunk; then it was revealed that computerized voting system had miscounted; Peevy insisted on a recount; he was declared winner without any explanation (Blackbox Voting, Chap 2)
Rellinger, James: computer technician "...who installed all 159 GEMS (Diebold) host computers in Georgia." Stated in an interview with Bev Harris, "...we'd add things to make them modem capable."
Riley, Bob: (Republican) victorious candidate for Gov. of Alabama in 2002, winning over Don Siegelman; an ES&S machine in that election lost 6,300 votes (Blackbox Voting, Chap 2)
Roe, Bill, Jr.: county auditor in Iowa (Blackbox Voting, Chap 2)
Rosberg, Paul: Nebraska candidate for Governor, 2002; attempted to view the vote-counting process; saw only a machine in operation, and a blank computer screen (Blackbox Voting, Chap 2)
Rubin, Avi: Computer expert from Johns Hopkins University, who, in 2003, together with Dan Wallach, tested the software that runs Diebold's voting machines; Quote from Popular Science Magazine: "Rubin and Wallach found that there were no safety mechanisms in the software to prevent people from casting unlimited votes. Shocked, they wrote that the e-voting machine was 'far below the most minimal security standards'."
Sands, Deanna: Associated Press Managing Editor's vice president; also is managing editor of the ultra conservative Omaha World Herald newspaper, whose parent company owns the largest voting machine company in the nation, Election Systems and Software (ES&S).(http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=18549&mode=nested&order=0)
Shelley, Kevin: California Secretary of State; inquired into Diebold voting machines Dec., 2003; [quote] "The core of our American democracy is the right to vote....Implicit in that right is the notion that that vote be private, that vote be secure, and that vote be counted as it was intended when it was cast by the voter. And I think what we're encountering is a pivotal moment in our democracy where all of that is being called into question." (www.wired.com)
Siegelman, Don: Dem. Candidate for Governor of Alabama in 2002 general election who lost to Repub. Bob Riley; ES&S machines lost 6,300 votes after the polls had closed; Siegelman’s request for a recount was denied (Blackbox Voting, Chap 2)
Soaries, DeForest Jr.: Chairman of EAC (Election Assistance Commission) Nov. 2004; "The
Commission will review election reform issues related to the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) and craft voluntary guidance for the states." "The lack of a major crisis on November 2 does not mean that we can overlook all of the critical unresolved issues," remarked EAC Chairman DeForest Soaries, Jr. "We will use these hearings to gather information on
a series of election topics, including election equipment, statewide voter registration databases and provisional voting." (North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting)
Southworth, Shawn: Main tester of voting machine software for a succession of companies, all in Huntsville, Alabama, with authority to officially certify that software for the entire United States, beginning with Nichols Research (after Wyle Laboratories, also of Huntsville, stopped certifying software in 1996), PSInet, Metamore, and currently Ciber, (Blackbox Voting, Chap 6). Also, "when Bev Harris asked Shawn Southworth what he thinks about Diebold tabulators accepting large numbers of 'minus' votes, he said he didn’t mention that in his report because 'the vendors don’t like him to put anything negative' in his report. After all, he said, he is paid by the vendors [of voting machine companies]." (http://www.blackboxvoting.org/)
Taylor, M.A.: a Republican Party Chairman in McLennan County, Texas in 1996; regarding the tally of 800 votes in a runoff, where only 500 ballots had been ordered, Taylor said, “We don’t think it is serious enough to throw out the election.” Error rate: 60% (Blackbox Voting, Chap 2)
Truitt, Susan: Attorney in Ohio who is working on the issue of computerized voting systems; helped stop Ohio from buying touchscreen voting machines
Urosevich, Bob: “… has headed three different voting machine companies under five different corporate names…” ES&S, Diebold Election Systems, Global Election Systems (Blackbox Voting, Chap 2)
Urosevich, Todd: spokesman for ES&S (Blackbox Voting, Chap 2)
Walker, Robert: replaced Victor Baird Jan. 2003 as director of the Senate Ethics Committee; took over for Baird in an ongoing interview with the Washington publication The Hill, which was looking into Senator Chuck Hagel's involvement with voting machine manufacturing; wanted to take a loose view of Hagel's lack of disclosure about his involvement (Blackbox Voting, Chap 3)
Williams, Brit, Dr.: "...the official voting machine certifier for the state of Georgia, and a key member of the panel that chooses national Independent Testing Labs for voting machines." Dr. Williams wrote, in 2003, "The GEMS [Diebold] computers are not connected to any communication system, including the Internet, and contain no software other than the Windows operating system and the Global Election Management System object code"
(http://www.scoop.co.nz)
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News
Breaking News from Bev Harris
Berkeley CA statistical analysis of Florida data, Nov. 18, 2004
Recount in Ohio,
Nov. 15, 2004
California collects $2.6 million in Diebold suit for faulty voting machines, Nov 11, 2004
Kerry Won in Ohio, by Greg Palast, TomPaine.com, Nov. 4, 2004
Myriad errors in OH & PA Voting Process, Nov. 3, 2004
Will the Election be Stolen? Sept 29, 2003
Seattle Times discusses Bev Harris's findings, Sept 25, 2003
Definitions
Australian Ballots: another name for paper ballots in the U.S., system developed in Australia in mid-1800's
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 System: Ballotless voting system, also known as Direct Recording Electronic (DRE); used statewide or nearly so in Georgia (Diebold), Kentucky, Tennessee, Nevada, New Mexico, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey; used extensively in several other states (see map, above)
E S & S: "Election Systems and Software," one of the biggest manufacturers of computerized voting and vote-counting systems; its machines count 56% of America's votes, according to its own literature
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
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 or cardstock 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 and put into a sealed ballot box; counted by hand; undoubtedly the best, some say the only, system for insuring accurate counting of ballots
Paper Trail: = ballots! If voters cast paper ballots, these can always be recounted, thus keeping the election honest. When voters use computerized voting machines, there's no proof that what the voter chose is what got counted (even if the voter gets a paper record, that will not help, since it would be impossible to collect all these papers from voters and recount them)
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
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 just another computer, like yours or mine, that has server software 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
TS: Touch Screen, a ballotless voting system where the voter touches the computer screen to select his/her choice; a type of DRE system
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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