Liz12:12PMJan 9th 2008

“Bev Harris, author of Black Box Voting: Ballot tampering in the 21st Century, argues that without a paper trail, these machines are open to massive voter fraud. Diebold has already placed some 50,000 machines in 37 states and their track record is causing Harris, Johns Hopkins University professors and others great concern. Johns Hopkins researchers at the Information Security Institute issued a report declaring that Diebold’s electronic voting software contained ‘stunning flaws.’ The researchers concluded that vote totals could be altered at the voting machines and by remote access. Diebold vigorously refuted the Johns Hopkins report, claiming the researchers came to ‘a multitude of false conclusions.’”

Liz4:30PMJan 9th 2008

NH: "1st in the nation" with corporate controlled secret vote counting

By Nancy Tobi
Democracy for NH Article Link
81% of New Hampshire ballots are counted in secret by a private corporation named Diebold Election Systems (now known as "Premier Election Systems"). The elections run on these machines are programmed by one company, LHS Associates, based in Methuen, MA. We know nothing about the people programming these machines, and we know even less about LHS Associates. We know even less about the secret vote counting software used to tabulate 81% of our ballots. People like to say "but we use paper ballots! They can always be counted by hand!"

But they're not. They're counted by Diebold. Only a candidate can request a hand recount, and most never do so. And a rigged election can easily become a rigged recount, as we learned in Ohio 2004, where two election officials were convicted of rigging their recount. (Is it just a funny coincidence that Diebold spokesman is named Mr. Riggall?)

We need to get the count right on election night. Right now, nobody in New Hampshire, except the programmers at LHS Associates and Diebold Election Systems, knows if we are getting it right or wrong. Our state officials and representatives know this. They learned all about it when computer security specialists Harri Hursti and Bruce Odell testified before the legislative subcommittee on e-voting in September 2007 (Hursti's testimony is shown in this video). Scientific reports about the vulnerabilities and risks with Diebold optical scanners have been available since 2003.

We love our state. It takes courage and strength to admit where we are going wrong and to fix it. May our state officials and representatives find that courage and strength soon. Before we lose the other 19% of our votes.


END
This article may be reproduced in whole or part with attribution of authorship and a link to this article

Liz7:17PMJan 9th 2008

An investigation into the surprisingly-sordid history of America’s “election services industry” has revealed that executives and owners of the two largest companies, E S & S and Sequoia Pacific, have been convicted of bribery and suborning public officials in more than a dozen states.

And while a felony conviction may be enough to prevent you from voting in Florida, convicted felons can take heart in the fact that the “blemish” on their record in no way disqualifies them from owning companies counting the votes.

In fact, the word ‘coverup’ itself was invented to describe the activities of the original owner of Sequoia Pacific, "shadowy financier" Lewis Wolfson, who got caught bribing no less a personage than a Supreme Court Justice of the United States of America.

While Abe Fortas was forced to resign in disgrace, no such harsh fate befell Wolfson. When you own a company that counts the votes, politicians smile more kindly on you than they might otherwise... and for good reason.

Continuing this dubious 'tradition,' the owner of Sequoia Pacific until recently was also accused of bribing public officials, in this case the Prime Minister of Ireland.

While the name Dr. Michael Smurfit is not well-known to Americans, his company manufactures the software used to compile more than two-thirds of the nation's electronically-counted votes.

Perhaps this may help explain why, for the second Presidential election in a row, a Democratic bandwagon was derailed early on Election Night by an unusual television appearance by the Bush Family, after exit polls showed them losing in key battleground states.

While what transpired remains closely guarded, whatever went on behind the scenes was clearly decisive: Bush took the lead in the election, and John Kerry suffered the same fate as Al Gore had four years earlier...perhaps even in the same way.

Prima facie evidence that this year’s American Presidential Election was fixed can be found in the recent statements by numerous computer security experts that it could have been. And if it could have been, it probably was...

“If you leave the door to the bank vault open, sooner or later you’re going to get robbed,” said one. “Its just human nature. And besides, fixing elections is far more lucrative than robbing banks.”

Analysts describe the software as "spaghetti code," tangled strands of instructions indecipherable to outsiders. Experts say the code can be manipulated without detection. In fact, many believe it may have happened already.

So it may be of interest to learn the Smurfit (the richest man in Ireland, though he’s not Irish) has a penchant for hanging out at Geneva racetracks with international gamblers and Zurich currency speculators. He must have a habit for picking winners, too: his company was successful in suborning the Louisiana Commissioner of Elections for over a decade...

Jerry Fowler had run up some big gambling debts at Harrah's in Atlantic City, we learned. So he found the chance to pay off by making his voting machines "pay off" irresistible. In all, 22 people were indicted, 9 pled guilty, and Fowler went to jail.

But the Sequoia Pacific "Southeast Sales Manager," a man named Pasquale "Rocco" Ricci of Marlton, New Jersey, barely even got a slap on the wrist. For the crime of suborning democracy in the state of Louisiana for over a decade, Mr. Ricci was sentenced to just a year...

A year of home detention.

Through multi-billion dollar federal subsidies, electronic voting has been pushed onto the American electorate. And its not hard to see why... the heady prospect of a sure thing.

But America may never again have an honest Presidential election.

Former Manhattan Commissioner of Elections Douglas Kellner told the MadCowMorningNews, “The problem is that, with an electronic voting system, you can never be sure that the vote is being recorded the same way it was cast. Because the only record is done electronically, there is no paper audit trail.

“And any good computer person can alter the electronic record.”

Most Americans, if they think about it at all, expect that the people standing behind the voting machines on which their votes are cast and tallied look like computer experts wearing white lab coats from IBM.

Nothing could be further from the truth.
Investigating the ownership of the two companies that together dominate the American elections industry reveals evidence of routine and systemic bribery of public officials, not just here but overseas (the recent Prime Minister of Ireland, to give just one example.)

It is a world filled—not with guys in lab coats and pocket protectors—but with guys with links to the Mob, or international money launderers, Zurich currency manipulators, telecom scandals, off-shore Channel Islands accounts in the names of fictitious people, "untraceable shareholders," Bahamian resort owners, and supra-national financiers.

Tests performed and videotaped by candidate Susan Bernacker in New Orleans in 1994 demonstrated that votes she cast for herself were electronically recorded for her opponent. This test was repeated multiple times with the same result thus confirming that the machine had been fraudulently altered to influence the outcome of the election. In Louisiana there, was an election in 1996 , which was for local

After Susan Bernacker lost a New Orleans City Council race in 1994, she decided to exercise her legal right to inspect the voting machines three days after the election... and she took along a video camera.

(The shocking results can be seen in our documentary "The Big Fix 2000". )

Three times she keyed in her own name on the voting machines. and three times a vote for her opponent was registered. After these proceedings she perhaps justly feared for her life if she kept the secret to herself...She convened a hastily-called press conference, and then retired from public life.



The next president of the United States may not be chosen by the voters of the United States. Instead, he or she may be the choice of whomever controls or manipulates the computer systems that tally the votes," wrote Ronnie Dugger in the New York Times a decade ago.

"With the entire system shrouded in mystery and absent of assurances that the voting process is tamper-proof, voters these days have more reason than ever to ask, "Does my vote count?" "The whole damn thing is mind-boggling," said someone who investigates computerized elections. "They could steal the presidency."

“I don’t believe in counting votes in secret,” Manhattan Commissioner Doug Kellner told us. “I think the public has a right to see what’s happening at every step of the way.”

The problem is so manifestly obvious that even humor columnist Dave Barry was moved to offer a desperate solution, in the Miami Herald: "My suggestion - call me crazy - is that we print the ballot on paper, with a box next to each candidate's name. We instruct a voter to put an X in their candidate's box. Then we have human beings count the Xs."

Sounds easy, practical, and cheap.

paul zaccardi3:38AMJan 10th 2008

when corporate america controls votes @the voting machines you will get who corporate america wants as your president.... not who you want as your president. "let me control the money supply and i care not who makes the laws" Rothchild

Thomas Petrie10:13AMJan 10th 2008

Supposedly, Ron Paul got 8% - this does not make sense. Here's why:

Richmond is hand count 34% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Lyman is hand count 28.7% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Orange is hand count 25% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Harts location is hand count 25% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Wentworth is hand count 24% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Goshen is hand count 17.68% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Marlow is hand count 16.6% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Cornish is hand count 14.8% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Rumney is hand count 14.5% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Croydon is hand count 14 % for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Dorchester is hand count 13.89% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Effingham is hand count 13% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Albany is hand count 12.9% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Antrim is hand count 12% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
South hampton is hand count 12% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Sullivan is hand count 12.61% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Troy is hand count 12.21% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Mason is hand count 11.88% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Newport is hand count 11.45% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Charlstown is hand count 11.3% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Allenstown is hand count 11.16% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Bristol is hand count 11% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Warren is hand count 11% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Strafford is hand count 11% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Washington is hand count 11.02% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Lancaster is hand count 10.9% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Springfield is hand count 10.6% for dr.paul…100% reporting
Wilton is hand count 10.37% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Northfield is hand count 10.3% for Ron Paul…100% reporting
Mont vernon is hand count 10.25% for Ron Paul…100% reporting

No matter how you look at it, it is physically impossible for Ron Paul to have received less than 15 percent of the OVERALL vote. That 8 percent figure? It's called fraud folks. Let's forget the silly statistics jingo--repeated often by those who want us to suspend simple reasoning and stick with facts: Ron Paul got shafted.

Kelly B.10:41AMJan 10th 2008

WHY WHY WHY didn't the DEms after 2004 go full steam ahead in investigating this! The President of Diebold said in a letter that "he would personally guarantee Ohio to Bush" He was a huge donor to the Bush campaign.

What doesn't stink about this??

Who has benefited from the touch screen machines? Repulicans only! No Democrate 20 points down in the polls suddenly won, like in Colorado.
This could only explain Bush "winning" in 2004.

Paul2:11PMJan 10th 2008

What is that saying from one of our founding fathers about the price of freedom being eternal vigilance? The head of Diebold also promised to deliver Ohio to the Republicans in 2004 well before election day. How can the owner of a voting machine company make such a promise? If you do research, you will find there is more to this conspiracy theory that is documented. It's shameful that you think we should just brush this off, just as we brushed off the denial of voting rights to thousands of primarily poor black people to Florida in 2000, right? Statistics don't lie, people lie with statistics or without. Sometimes, though, people also tell the truth with statistics. Mark Twain was making a joke, that founding father I referenced, was deadly serious.

Donna3:13PMJan 10th 2008

ALL OF THE POSTS ARE INFORMATIVE AND ACCURATE. KUDOS TO ALL

NOW IF ONLY AMERICANS CARED ENOUGH ABOUT THEIR CHILDREN, FAMILY AND THEIR COUNTRY........ TO ACT

Jim H.8:52PMJan 10th 2008

How many billions of dollars are transacted daily over the internet? Yet some folks feel that electronic voting can't be made secure. How safe is the old system? Is tampering possible with paper ballots? Give me a break, the right answer is internet voting. And quite frankly with the right kind of security systems, ie the kind used by financial institutions or the military, this could be the fastest and safest way to vote. It would also increase the percent of people who vote. Complaining about electronic voting is in my opinion put forward by people who think bits are things you put into the mouths of horses. In my opinion these people are closer to the other end of the horse. Hopefully the young internet generation will fix this as the "paper ballot" generation dies away.

Equal Elections11:06PMJan 11th 2008

Its not a conspiracy theory in ohio, it has been proven a fact that machines can be hacked and were hacked. Open your eyes people, we are losing our democracy.

mickrussom1:12AMJan 12th 2008

Princeton exposes how bad the Diebold machines are:

http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/voting/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNYA5ggwG84

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JESZiLpBLE

This is Princeton University , not some wingnut moonbat conspiracy club.

The physical key for *ALL* diebold machines is the same:

www.bradblog.com/?p=3489
nuclearsnake.com/plain.html

The CIA, political campaigns try and deface and remove information about Diebold on wikipedia:
www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/08/wiki_tracker

The NH primary was stolen.

Walden O'Dell, CEO, Diebold, August, 2003 : "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year"
Walden has since resigned as he the company he lead is facing securities fraud litigation surrounding charges of insider trading.


80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the US voting machine industry.

The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

35% of ES&S is owned by Senator Chuck Hagel, who became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

Senator Chuck Hagel was caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the US and counts almost 60% of all US votes.

Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

Diebold's Senior Vice-President, Jeff Dean, was convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree.

Diebold Senior Vice-President Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.

California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it! (See the movie at blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov )

30% of all US votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 has as its goal to replace all machines with the new electronic touch screen systems with no paper trail

Robay1:30AMJan 12th 2008

@Liz, comment 12:12 pm Jan 9: "Diebold vigorously refuted the Johns Hopkins report,"---
I must argue with you on this point you make. I would hold that it is impossible for Diebold to "refute" the John Hopkins report, because that would mean they provided irrefutable evidence that the report was incorrect. That is impossible. The Diebold machines have been shown over and over again to be hackable and of devious design.
Perhaps one could say that Diebold "protested" the conclusions of the John Hopkins report, or "contested" the report. But refuted? No way.

Caitlin12:30PMJan 12th 2008

everyone MUST watch this testimony by a computer programmer hired by a republican official to create a program to control votes in electronic voting machines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEzY2tnwExs

also everyone watch the documentary "Hacking Democracy" which uncovers the fraud in the Diebold machines aka "Premier Elections Solutions" which you can watch for free on Youtube and google video.

please send these links to everyone you know to spread awareness.

J. Todd Ring2:10PMJan 12th 2008

"The term "conspiracy theory is used to poo poo institutional analysis," remarked political analyst par excellence Noam Chomsky. Let's be a little less reckless with such a loaded term please. The integrity of the electoral process is far too important to pass off glib remarks masquerading as informed opinion. If there is ever any doubt, however slim, as to the accuracy or validity of the polling or electoral process, it should be investigated thoroughly, as New Hampshire has sensibly just demonstrated. Investigation will simply increase public confidence. If there is no problem, great, the public confidence is increased. If there is a problem, then obviously it needs to be rectified. Glib dismissal is thus irrational and irresponsible. Please retract, and reconsider.

By the way, most Americans, as well as most people around the world know that the 2000 election was stolen, hence voter skepticism is highly warranted. Furthermore, a recent Princton study showed clearly that vote fraud through Diebold machines is quite simple, and can be done in under a minute. Please google Greg Palast re: vote fraud (and to see what real journalism looks like)

hockeybrawl3:34PMJan 12th 2008

does anyone know how many counties were diebold, and if so which ones?