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Wednesday, November 10, 2004 |
2 QUOTES
"Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil. Wherefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
- - THE BIBLE, Romans 13
"The whole problem with the world is that fools & fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
- - Bertrand Russell
KNOW YOUR HISTORY - November 10
2000 -- US electoral politics has entered the twilight zone. The masses are in shock & awe.
2004 -- US electoral politics slips into the zone again. This time the masses think it normal.
RHINO SEZ:
Late last week I suffered a computer crash which kept me from receiving or sending, so if you sent me a message I didn't respond to, please resend now as I'm back up with my horn out o' the bushes. I wasn't sure when I'd be back to blogging, post election, but the flurry of election fraud accusations has gotten my goat. What follows are a variety of links to the countless reports of the fraud & to some gallant efforts to counter it, even hinting at the possibility of Kerry un-conceding before next months Electoral Collage vote. 'Member folks, it isn't really over 'till the 'Lectoral Collage sings.
Be sure to check out THE BOTTOM LINE, an update from The Black Box Voting website. I've posted it in its entirety because the web site is rarely accessible these last few days, apparently either overwhelmed by those who want to know or being blocked by those who don't want anyone to know.
I'll likely follow up on all this in the next few days with suggestions on how, if you're inclined, you can help.
But let's begin with some graphs of the exit polls & final machine tallies of states with paper ballots, compared with those of states with electronic voting machines.
AT: http://news.globalfreepress.com/ewing/images/exit_poll.gif
(o/)(o/)
White House argues to deny voting-rights lawsuits to public
By David G. Savage and Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 29, 2004
Bush administration lawyers argued in three closely contested states last week that only the Justice Department, and not voters themselves, may sue to enforce the voting rights set out in the Help America Vote Act, which was passed in the aftermath of the disputed 2000 election...
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/10045248.htm
(o/)(o/)
Presidential Votes Miscast on E-Voting Machines Across the Country
Kansas City Infozine, November 3, 2004
Voters from at least half a dozen states reported that touch-screen voting machines had incorrectly recorded their choices, including for president. Voters discovered the problems when checking the review screen at the end of the voting process....
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/4154
(o/)(o/)
Scads Of Evidence of Election Fraud From Across The Country
The Democratic Underground
In this discussion thread we post any and all evidence. Suppression, intimidation and kinky numbers. There are so many threads we can't keep up. Please please keep this thread alive so that there will be one reference point. Then I would like a response from the Kerry campaign if there are any insiders here that can let us know if the Dems are going to roll again...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1333866
(o/)(o/)
KERRY WON. - HERE ARE THE FACTS.
Greg Palast, TomPaine.com, Nov 5, 2004
I know you don't want to hear it. You can't face one more hung chad. But I don't have a choice. As a journalist examining that messy sausage called American democracy, it's my job to tell you who got the most votes in the deciding states. Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry...
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won.php
(o/)(o/)
Machine Politics in the Digital Age
By MELANIE WARNER, NY Times, November 9, 2003
In mid-August, Walden W. O'Dell, the chief executive of Diebold Inc., sat down at his computer to compose a letter inviting 100 wealthy and politically inclined friends to a Republican Party fund-raiser, to be held at his home in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year," wrote Mr. O'Dell, whose company is based in Canton, Ohio...
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/09/business/yourmoney/09vote.html?ex=1100587135&ei=1&en=70bae4a924517808
(o/)(o/)
Bush's 'Incredible' Vote Tallies
By Sam Parry, Consortium News, Tuesday 09 November 2004
George W. Bush's vote tallies, especially in the key state of Florida, are so statistically stunning that they border on the unbelievable. While it's extraordinary for a candidate to get a vote total that exceeds his party's registration in any voting jurisdiction - because of non-voters - Bush racked up more votes than registered Republicans in 47 out of 67 counties in Florida. In 15 of those counties, his vote total more than doubled the number of registered Republicans and in four counties, Bush more than tripled the number. Statewide, Bush earned about 20,000 more votes than registered Republicans. By comparison, in 2000, Bush's Florida total represented about 85 percent of the total number of registered Republicans...
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/111004W.shtml
(o/)(o/)
Worse Than 2000?
By William Rivers Pitt, TruthOut.org. Posted November 9, 2004.
Even if Bush did really win, Nov. 2 was a voting disaster. It's not too late for there to be an accurate count, but how to get the tallies from the black boxes?...
http://www.alternet.org/election04/20451
(o/)(o/)
Electronic voting angst
Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, 11/9/04
NEW YORK - Bev Harris, the Blackbox lady, was apparently quoted in a number of venues during the day Monday as having written "I was tipped off by a person very high up in TV that the news has been locked down tight, and there will be no TV coverage of the real problems with voting on Nov. 2… My source said they've also been forbidden to talk about it even on their own time."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6368819
(o/)(o/)
A Message from Cam Kerry (John Kerry's Brother) on Counting All the Votes
November 9, 2004
I am grateful to the many people who have contacted me to express their deep concern about questions of miscounting, fraud, vote suppression, and other problems on election day, especially in Florida and Ohio. Their concern reflects how much people care about the outcome of this election. I want to you to know we are not ignoring it. Election protection lawyers are still on the job in Ohio and Florida and in DC making sure all the votes are counted accurately. I have been conferring with lawyers involved and have made them aware of the information and concerns people have given me. Even if the facts don't provide a basis to change the outcome, the information will inform the continuing effort to protect the integrity of our elections. If you have specific factual information about voting problems that could be helpful to the lawyers doing their job, please send it to vri@dnc.org rather than to me. The election protection effort has been important to me personally, and I am proud of the 17,000 lawyers around the country who helped. It's obvious that we have a way to go still, but their efforts helped make a difference. Their work goes on. Thank you, Cam Kerry
9:11:36 AM 
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BLACK BOX VOTING (http://BlackBoxVoting.org)
Nov. 7 2004: Freedom of Information requests at http://www.blackboxvoting.org have unearthed two Ciber certification reports indicating that security and tamperability was NOT TESTED and that several state elections directors, a secretary of state, and computer consultant Dr. Britain Williams signed off on the report anyway, certifying it. Black Box Voting has taken the position that fraud took place in the 2004 election through electronic voting machines. We base this on hard evidence, documents obtained in public records requests, inside information, and other data indicative of manipulation of electronic voting systems. What we do not know is the specific scope of the fraud. We are working now to compile the proof, based not on soft evidence -- red flags, exit polls -- but core documents obtained by Black Box Voting in the most massive Freedom of Information action in history. We're awaiting independent analysis on some pretty crooked-looking elections. In the mean time, here's something to chew on.
Your local elections officials trusted a group called NASED -- the National Association of State Election Directors -- to certify that your voting system is safe. This trust was breached. NASED certified the systems based on the recommendation of an "Independent Testing Authority" (ITA). "Whuuut?"
What no one told local officials was that the ITA did not test for security (and NASED didn't seem to mind). The ITA reports are considered so secret that even the California Secretary of State's office had trouble getting its hands on one. The ITA refused to answer any questions about what it does. Imagine our surprise when, due to Freedom of Information requests, a couple of them showed up in our mailbox. The most important test on the ITA report is called the "penetration analysis." This test is supposed to tell us whether anyone can break into the system to tamper with the votes.
"Not applicable," wrote Shawn Southworth, of Ciber Labs, the ITA that tested the Diebold GEMS central tabulator software. "Did not test." Shawn Southworth "tested" whether every candidate on the ballot has a name. But we were shocked to find out that, when asked the most important question -- about vulnerable entry points -- Southworth's report says "not reviewed."
Americans want to know:
- Ciber "tested"whether the manual gives a description of the voting system. But when asked to identify methods of attack (which we think the American voter would consider pretty important), the top-secret report says "not applicable."
- Ciber "tested" whether ballots comply with local regulations, but 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. "Hmmmm."
Shawn Southworth didn't do the penetration analysis, but check out what he wrote: "Ciber recommends to the NASED committee that GEMS software version 1.18.15 be certified and assigned NASED certification number N03060011815."
Was this just a one-time oversight?
Nope. It appears to be more like a habit. Here is the same Ciber certification section for VoteHere; as you can see, the critical security test, the "penetration analysis" was again marked "not applicable" and was not done.
Maybe another ITA did the penetration analysis?
Apparently not. We discovered an even more bizarre Wyle Laboratories report. In it, the lab admits the Sequoia voting system has problems, but says that since they were not corrected earlier, Sequoia could continue with the same flaws. At one point the Wyle report omits its testing altogether, hoping the vendor will do the test.
Computer Guys: Be your own ITA certifier.
Here is a copy of the full Ciber report (part 1, 2, 3, 4) on GEMS 1.18.15. Here is a zip file download for the GEMS 1.18.15 program. Here is a real live Diebold vote database. Compare your findings against the official testing lab and see if you agree with what Ciber says. E-mail us your findings. TIPS: The password for the vote database is "password" and you should place it in the "LocalDB" directory in the GEMS folder, which you'll find in "program files."
Who the heck is NASED?
They are the people who certified this stuff. You've gotta ask yourself: Are they nuts? Some of them are computer experts. Well, it seems that several of these people suddenly want to retire, and the whole NASED voting systems board is becoming somewhat defunct, but these are the people responsible for today's shoddy voting systems. If the security of the U.S. electoral system depends on you to certify a voting system, and you get a report that plainly states that security was "not tested" and "not applicable" -- what would you do? Perhaps we should ask them. Go ahead. Let's hold them accountable for the election we just had. (Please, e-mail us their answers) They don't make it very easy to get their e-mail and fax information; when you find it, let us know and we'll post it here.
NASED VOTING SYSTEMS/ITA ACCREDITATION BOARD
- Thomas R. Wilkey, Executive Director, New York State Board of Elections
- David Elliott, (former) Asst. Director of Elections, Washington State
- James Hendrix, Executive Director, State Election Commission, South Carolina
- Denise Lamb, Director, State Bureau of Elections, New Mexico
- Sandy Steinbach, Director of Elections, Iowa
- Donetta Davidson, Secretary of State, Colorado
- Connie Schmidt, Commissioner, Johnson County Election Commission, Kansas
- (the late) Robert Naegele, President Granite Creek Technology, Pacific Grove, California
- Brit Williams, Professor, CSIS Dept, Kennesaw State College, Georgia
- Paul Craft, Computer Audit Analyst, Florida State Division of Elections Florida
- Steve Freeman, Software Consultant, League City, Texas
- Jay W. Nispel, Senior Principal Engineer, Computer Sciences Corporation Annapolis Junction, Maryland
- Yvonne Smith (Member Emeritus), Former Asst to the Exec Dir Illinois State Board of Elections
- Penelope Bonsall, Director, Office of Election Administration, Fed Election Commission, Wash, D.C.
- Committee Secretariat: The Election Center, R. Doug Lewis, Exec Dir Houston, TX, PH 281-293-0101
http://BlackBoxVoting.org
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8:26:26 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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