Bittersweet day gang, not all bad, but not very good.
Before I get into the report, the KPFA Evening News (link below) reported an interesting story. Even if you don't want to wait for the VSP Meeting news report (which is 20-minutes into the show), this lead story is a "MUST HEAR" for everyone that loves and adores our US Attorney General! I popped around LBN and am disappointed that it is not being discussed. Had anyone seen this report in print or anywhere else?
OK, on to the meeting in Sacramento...
The good news is we got around 100 rowdy, seething, well-informed and bloodthirsty members of the public to attend the meeting. The air was buzzing when we "regulars" walked in, looked around and found ourselves surrounded by mucho support. Very cool indeed.
However, the Diebold audit report is STILL not complete, the VSP didn't want to act in a "rash manner", and won't take action until the audit is final. They are auditing all counties, and need to figure out if ALL the vendors are behaving like this, or if Diebold is the only one to feel like rules are for anyone but them - and only then will some sort of decision be made about what to do about them. Really frustrating...
So, California marches steadily forward toward the March Primary, and according to the news story that was broadcast on the
The KPFA Evening News, 14,000 spanking new Diebold TSX systems (which are not yet Federally certified) are heading into the Golden State.
I received a chart revealing the software versions that were discovered during the audit, and will have it posted to www.verifiedvoting.org in the next few days. Diebold has been provided a list of several questions - very pointed questions indeed - and will be required to comply fully or be considered to not be cooperating with the audit. The questions include "What have you done with Windows CE, and why didn't it get submitted for certification?"
Kim Zetter, the lovely and distinguished
journalist that has covered this story for months, will have a story sometime tomorrow.
Also in the audience (which numbered 116 at what seemed to be the peak) were half a dozen county elections officials, who largely opposed a VVPB.
MARSHA A. WHARFF the Registrar of Voters from Mendocino was the exception, who thrilled all of us when she demanded that no DRE would appear in her county that didn't have a VVPB.
OTOH,
http://regrec.co.la.ca.us/connybio.htm">CONNY B. McCORMACK had the nerve to stand before the audience and wave one of the CA Recall ballots (the one with 130+ candidates and 2 propositions, printed on both sides of a scanner ballot the size of a typical restaurant placemat) at us. She stood there and informed an astonished crowd that she just could not imagine how any vendor was supposed to print a VVPB which could meet "these" dimensions! I could't flipping believe she was saying this! What garbage...
The sales rep from Avante who has for 14 months tried to get their
VVPB-ready DRE approved for use in California was turned away, refused certification for yet another month, with the explanation "no harm done since none of these systems are installed in California". In public testimony, he read a letter from the
California Council of the Blind who has declared admiration of their systems. He further mentioned, on the record, that members of a panel (including county elections officials from around the state) are witholding approval of his equipment. He reported that members of that panel have taken vocal public positions against VVPB, and that these individuals therefore had a conflict of interest.
After the meeting, the guy from Avante handed out examples of their VVPB, roughly the size of an ATM receipt - each of which are individually sliced and randomly dropped into the clear plastic hopper that is pictured in the photo above. (CONNY had left by then, otherwise I would have been in her face showing her whata VVPB looks like!) He also made a statement that his source could be made available for scrutiny, though we didn't explore that too far.
I'm not taking a position on Avante, but it seems a real pity that the one vendor that has stepped forward with a solution that is ready to go, can't get certfied. Diebold is able to get contracts in the absence of a VVPB, in the absence of Federal certification, and in the absence of any credibility after everything that has happened in the past year. Logic simply does not explain this, and something simply STINKS!