NJ Judge Gives Go Ahead to Independent Review of Sequoia's Failed Touch-Screen Voting Machines

[BradBlog]

Source: BRAD BLOG



BREAKING: NJ Judge Gives Go Ahead to Independent Review of Sequoia's Failed Touch-Screen Voting Machines

The BRAD BLOG learned this morning that a New Jersey judge has today given plaintiffs and Princeton University computer scientists the right to examine the state's Sequoia AVC Advantage touch-screen voting machines which failed to record voter totals accurately, in at least six different counties, during the Garden State's recent Super Tuesday primary.

Sequoia had previously both threatened legal action against the professors, despite a unanimous request from a state association of county election clerks, and attempted to quash the court-ordered subpoenas to have the machines impounded and examined independently.

The BRAD BLOG has covered this (sometimes very amusing) saga in great detail, since it first came to light following the election (and even on Election Day, when machine failure kept the NJ Governor from being able to cast his own vote for 45 minutes)...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5927


Read more: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5927

[RC]

1. Maybe now we will get to see just how corrupted these machines really are.

[BradBlog]

2. "see" and "machines" in the same sentence?

Your mouth. Gods ears.

[grannylib]

3. Let's hope something comes of it...maybe for once there will be

some action on this issue. I'm terrified of what may happen in the GE if this shit is allowed to continue. God knows this country can't afford 4 more DAYS of fucking rePiglicans, let alone four more YEARS.

[Peace Patriot]

4. I keep wating for some old-fashioned lawn order judge to look at this shit and say

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING WITH OUR ELECTION SYSTEM IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, HOME OF THE BRAVE... ASSHOLES!"

And personally take their goddamned voodoo voting machines down to whatever harbor seems handy--though Boston Harbor would be nice--and dump them into the sea, himself.

I live for that day. I know Bush has been appointing a lot of judges. But, hey, there's gotta be somebody on the bench, somewhere, who remembers the Old Republic. Maybe this guy in New Jersey, when they report back to him.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. I am not kidding when I say this:

Give one of the things to real, honest-to-goodness black-hat hackers. The kind that dream in script languages and speak in Perl. Let them have at it with token adult supervision. Give them every tool they need.

I guarandamntee you that they will have every software and hardware vulnerability laid out in roses well before the academics. For the hardware end of it, get the kid from NJ who hacked the iPhone.

The added benefit will be that they won't keep quiet about it: "d00d! We ha><o3rD that thing in 3 dayZ! pWnEd! You cannot believe how lame it was! There was evil shit written all into the OS!"

[BradBlog]

6. UPDATED WITH EXCLUSIVE NEW DETAILS!!

And this is a BIG one folks:

"Sequoia CEO Jack Blaine Admits Company Does Not Control the Intellectual Property Rights for Sequoia's Voting Machines!"

See the OP for details of Blaine's stunning, recent admission, which I'm able to report now for the first time!

And then please K&R this one, since folks are not likely to notice the slightly-later, but rather huge UPDATE (which is likely more important than the originally story itself!)

[Kaleko]

9. So, Sequoia's previous owners have the intellectual property rights

to these voting machines? And that means what, exactly?


K&R by the way!

[BradBlog]

10. Yup...

It means that Sequoia has no right to assert IP rights to IP they do not own. Only Smartmatic (Sequoia's "former" owners) would have the right to do that, but they won't, because they claimed to have divested of Sequoia last year when the feds at CFIUS had them under investigation (as a foreign company owning crucial infrastructure, such as voting machines...think Dubai Ports, for example)

As I point out in the update, Sequoia is now said, by AP to be negotiating what can and can't be disclosed in the court ordered independent examination of their failed voting machines. They are asserting protection of their IP rights, but they do not have any.

That means that they similarly have no such rights, in any state in the union, to assert IP rights in order to keep independent citizens from examining those systems.

It's rather huge news, in truth, and confirmed by the CEO's own statement (as quoted in my update) on a "confidential" company-wide phone call a week or so ago.

They blew it. Big time.

[Kaleko]

11. Do you know how many states have the Sequoia machines -

and would an independent investigator need a court order in each state to put an end to this scheme?

[BradBlog]

14. About 16 states (20% of America's votes). Here's a map...

This graphic is from May 2007, and there have been a very few changes since then, but it'll give you an idea of where Sequoia currently is across the country:


They don't all use the same AVC Advantage machine being tested in NJ. But they use other, equally flawed systems made by Sequoia.

Further, you can check any state/county to see what type of voting system them use, via this link:
http://verifiedvoting.org/verifier/

Sequoia currently has about 20% of the country's voting system. Hart Intercivic, who is trying to takeover Sequoia (as BRAD BLOG has been covering exclusively, unfortunately: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5915) has 8% of the industry. If Hart's successful in their takeover, they will become a powerhouse in the nation, second only to ES&S. Yet nobody other than BRAD BLOG has covered the attempted hostile takeover.

[sunnystarr]

13. So does that mean

that a foreign entity (Smartmatic) has the ability to change election totals on those Sequoia machines?

[BradBlog]

15. No, it means...

...that *anybody* has that ability.

It does, however, mean that the sale of Sequoia to a bunch of executives (calling themselves SVS Holdings, Inc.) by the Venezuelan-consortium (Smartmatic) which had originally been the parent company, was by and large, little more than a scam to get federal investigators off their back.

But despite my revealing this fact over the last week or so, nobody in the media -- not even Lou Dobbs who had covered this issue in depth previously -- seems to give a damn.

[Senator]

7. K&R

[BradBlog]

8. Thank you, Senator (n/t)

[Senator]

12. Nice to have a bit of good news

Here at home. Great work Brad.

--

[Mnemosyne]

16. KnR. Thank you, Brad! n/t