BBV - new documents surface -- big doings in CA, OH, TX, WA,

[BevHarris]

(keep this kicked if possible) Watch the (mainstream) news tomorrow and Wednesday for an unfolding story. New documents have surfaced that will prove very troublesome for one of the big four voting machine companies.

On Wed-Thurs big doings in California, as they will be holding hearings on whether to decertify all touch screens, and also on whether to pull the plug on Diebold altogether.

Also: The 600,000-member TRUE MAJORITY has jumped on BBV like flies on you-know-what.

California:

Earlier this month, TrueMajority members sent California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley 10,861 messages asking him to decertify paperless electronic voting machines.

Wednesday, April 21st True Majority is sponsoring the at the "Computer Ate My Vote" rally in Sacramento.

It's a coalition, folks: I'll be participating in the press conference at 9:30 a.m. on behalf of -- and with -- BlackBoxVoting.org's California members, as will VerifiedVoting.org, the California Voting Foundation, SAVE-Democracy (San Diego voting group), and EFF.

The meeting is at the Secretary of State's office at 9:30, 1500 11th Street in Sacramento, -- looking for as many people as possible to gather in front of the building. Signs: "Computer Ate My Vote" t-shirts, and the debut of TrueMajority's dancing vote-eating "Hungry Computer." If you can come a little early and take part in setting up the event, please send mail to [e-mail] with a contact phone number.

Ohio:
On Thurs Apr 22 guess what's happening?

The Diebold Board of Directors meeting. And at 9:30, another press conference, and I'll be there on behalf of -- and with -- BlackBoxVoting.org's Ohio members.

TrueMajority and the Rukus Society have organized a rally to be held at that meeting and all of us are encouraging everyone who is interested in this issue to join us.

Gather at 9:30am at the Kent State Stark campus in Canton, OH at the Main Hall parking lot. email [e-mail] for more. I may be doing something surprising there, by the way.

On Friday Apr 23 in Cleveland, Ohio's CASE voting activism group has organized a townhall meeting featuring State Senator Teresa Fedor (who's trying to block Ohio's purchase) and State Rep. Peter Ujvagi and other local elected officials and civic leaders to be on a panel discussing this issue. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur has agreed to attend from 4-6 at the demonstration of the machines that have Voter Verified Paper Ballot capability, i.e., TruVote, Accu Poll and AI Technologies.

Yup, I'll be there too. There are now over 100 groups working on the Black Box Voting issue, and we're focusing on coalition-building in a big way. If you have a group you want to coalition in, let me know.

Texas:

Just got back from meeting with folks from Dallas County, Collin County (where Diebold HQ is) and Austin, I'm thinking that's Tarrant? Travis? County?

Wow. Dynamic people and LOOK OUT, Texas. Our Clean Voting Crew idea is galloping faster than we are, with a wonderful local group run by a former Texas legislator, Harryette Ehrhardt, called the Election Protection group. They've got 300 people lined up already to monitor and file reports in Dallas County alone! Collin County isn't far behind, and the Austin area has Paper - not Vapor! type billboards going up shortly.

Washington: Andy Stephenson has BBV stuff coming up in parades, and we've got a test crew to practice up on the Clean Voting Crew, for an election on April 27. We'll both be there, watchin' and reportin' -- if you want to join us, email me at [e-mail] or [e-mail]

In 18 states at once!

Tuesday April 20 at 1:00 Eastern time -- There is a new group, with some of the people who were driving forces with VerifiedVoting.org (a shakeup, Greg Dinger is no longer there, nor is the mighty Ellen Thiesen). The new national group is called VotersUnite.org and they have a packet going out called "Myth Breakers" to sway opinions of county officials. Simulataneously, this packet is being delivered to county officials in 18 states -- more joining all the time! Go to http://www.votersunite.org to download a packet and sign up to deliver near you.

It is up to us to make our voting system work. It is not too late to win this thing. But no one's gonna do it for us.

Bev Harris

[rdfi-defi]

1. kick for cali

[Kukesa]

2. Kick!

Thanks for the info; I live in Ohio.

Kukesa

[Pale_Rider]

3. With votes going to the wrong candidate ...

... something is definitely broken.

You go Bev ...

Diebold reports multiple malfunctions
http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10671~2080464,00.html

Electronic devices that held the key to digital voting in Alameda County's Super Tuesday primary failed in at least a half dozen ways, hobbling the $12.7 million voting system at a quarter of polling places.

Poll workers saw unfamiliar Windows screens, frozen screens, strange error messages and login boxes -- none of which they'd been trained to expect.

A report released Monday by Diebold Election Systems shows that 186 of 763 devices known as voter-card encoders failed on Election Day because of hardware or software problems or both, with only a minority of problems attributable to poll worker training.

... snip ...

After the Oct. 7 recall election, when Diebold's vote-tabulating software wrongly awarded 9,000 Democratic absentee votes to a Southern California Socialist, Diebold decided its computer was overwhelmed and replaced it.

In the March primary, Alameda County workers eased the load on Diebold's computer by scanning absentee ballots one party at a time. But San Diego County fed its absentee ballots in as a mix, and Diebold's software misreported almost 3,000 votes. In the worst case, it switched 2,747 Democratic presidential primary votes for U.S. Sen. John Kerry to U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, who had dropped out of the race.

Funny how these things only happen to Democratic candidates ... :wtf:

[BevHarris]

4. Ahhhh -- I wish I could tell you what's gonna surface tomorrow

I'm breaking it on the Mike Webb show tonight at 10:00 Pacific.

You're all gonna be shaking your heads in disbelief.

Ack-ack-ack-ack. Wish I could tell ya now.

Bev

[govegan]

8. Thanks for the heads up on the Mikey Webb show, Bev.

I always try to catch him on Mondays anyway, as he, his guests and callers rehash the latest madness.

Sorry you can't make it to Shoreline on Wednesday, but I am sure Andy will have lots to say and plenty of information to share.

Shoreline Community College is located at 16101 Greenwood Avenue North, west of Aurora Avenue and just north of Seattle city limits. The lecture is in the Campus Theater. No admission charge.

Time: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 12:30 PST
Length: 1:00

Stephenson (D-WA), an entrepreneur and business owner who is currently running for Secretary of State, has pledged to keep the vote free, and out of the hands of corporations. He feels that protecting the voting process is the most important responsibility of the Secretary of State and that the public has a right to know when uncertified and unapproved software is being used in the election process. He alleges that King County absentee ballots are handled by a private firm and that the chain of custody cannot be ensured.

“Most people don’t realize that this is very much a state issue,” says Stephenson. “It is imperative that the American public know about this issue, and how it absolutely politicizes the position of Secretary of State in every State of the Union, starting now, here, in Washington.”

[Pale_Rider]

12. Smells like state decertification of Diebold equipment ...

... for shoddy and improperly designed equipment and software which will leave bunch of counties in California scrambling for voting equipment replacement. I suspect that Alameda and San Deigo counties were only the tip of the iceberg.

:kick:

[BevHarris]

15. As Jim March says: "Time to vote 'em off the island"

But I don't know if they will.

At this point both Sequoia and Diebold have some pretty damning stuff coming out.

Bev

[OneBlueSky]

5. three cheers for Bev! . . . and a kick . . .

.

[wryter2000]

6. Great news!

:kick:

[Melodybe]

7. Thank you Bev, for all your hard work.

God bless you!

[Butterflies]

9. Thankyou Bev!

I admire you so much for sticking with this issue and getting results. My naive mind has had a hard time believing we have to fight so hard to be sure we have accurate vote-counting in our country. But we do need to fight, and you are a hero for taking it on like you have. :thumbsup:

[VelmaD]

10. Austin is Travis County

And dangit...you shoulda called and we woulda showed you a good ol' time down here. :)

[scarletwoman]

11. Thanks to 2 years of hard work by my district's progressive DFL state rep

Bill Hilty, the Minnesota Secretary of State's office has turned away from touchscreen voting to paper ballots with optic scan AND a built-in random audit provision.

I won't feel completely safe until Mary Kiffmeyer is out of office, but it does appear that there will NO touchscreen machines in use except for those with physical need of them.

I know that he has been keeping up with all your information for some time now. I threw out a few links as I came across them too -- but I knew he was in good hands when he said he was reading you! :hi:

Our rural county DFL unit up here is fully stocked with progressives and old-time liberals; farmers, union people, long-time organizers and passionate neophytes -- even some Greens who have seen how committed we are to shifting the agenda of the Democratic party back to the People. (and one old hippie, me :hippie: )

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that you deserve alot of the credit for the current successful outcome of the battle to keep BBV machines OUT of Minnesota -- especially for THIS election!

sw

[myrna minx]

21. Hey SW.

:hi: Thanks for all of your hard work up Nort. I agree with you about Mary Kiffmeyer, but at least we have representatives that are taking action on this issue. :hi:

[scarletwoman]

23. We have some great people up here!

It's pretty exciting, really. Lots of fired up DFL grassroots here. I'm a delegate to the state convention, one of 4 Kucinich delegates out of our county's allotment of 6. :D (the other 2 are Kerry delegates)

It's going to be tough making it down to the Cities for awhile, I think, I've got so much to do up here! Sure would like to see you again, though!

:hi:
sw

[Judi Lynn]

13. Kick!

:kick:

[Qutzupalotl]

14. Oh man, this is too good...

On Wed-Thurs big doings in California, as they will be holding hearings on whether to decertify all touch screens, and also on whether to pull the plug on Diebold altogether.

That would be SO f'in sweet! And so richly deserved. If California decertifies Diebold, that would pressure Maryland and Georgia to do the same.

As a side note, I just learned that my home state of Oregon's vote-by-mail system gives us the highest turnout in the nation (~80%). Our statutes stipulate that we must have paper ballots, which is the first thing these touchscreen companies tried to have changed when they pitched their systems to us. My county elections supervisor says he was "less than impressed" with Diebold.

Thanks for all you do, Bev.

[Exgeneral]

16. Bev, according to Jeff Seemanns website

he will be in Canton and Cleveland at the same time you are , and would like you to contact him.

http://www.jeffseemannforcongress.com

[BevHarris]

18. Kewl. Will do, if I can keep this schedule straight.

Thank you thank you for the contribution of a laptop, so at least I can have communications reasonably intact.

Yes, things are heating up. Hopefully the heat will get uncomfortable enough that election officials will decide not to risk flaming out altogether this fall with insecure systems.

Bev

[Skittles]

17. HQ in Collin County?

blech, and I live there

[BevHarris]

20. Diebold Election Systems HQ is McKinney.

Diebold Inc. is Canton OH.

And Collin County is the county where 310,000 Texans had their personal info left on the Diebold FTP site. If you registered, you were probably on the Diebold web site (along with your apartment number, your school district, your birthdate, and your voting habits).

Bev

[Skittles]

22. I'm in Plano

you were kind enough to verify I wasn't on that terrible list.

Anything I can do for you, you let me know.

[blm]

19. Keep this kicked.

.

[Pale_Rider]

24. Kicked ...

:kick:

[0007]

25. btt

[sadiesworld]

26. Thank-you for all the incredibly important work you do...

:yourock:

[PatGund]

27. A kick

from San Diego county, where the registrar of voters just *LOVES* her new Diebold machines and won't listen to *ANY* complaints or concerns about them.

Here's hoping she has to eat her words.

[juajen]

28. You should have a superwoman outfit on under your suit!

I know, I know, you didn't do it all by yourself. Honestly, though, Bev, what this country owes to you is unbelievable. My thanks for every single thing you've done to preserve our vote.

:kick:

[Cookie wookie]

32. you didn't do it all by yourself . . . .

Got that straight!! I know of a few folks in Georgia who have contributed massively their hard work, bravery, and devotion to the issue.

Here's a salute to them!!

Thank you thank you thank you.

[BevHarris]

35. Yes --- groups in Georgia are kicking butt:

- Count The Vote (http://www.countthevote.org)
- League Opposed to Virtual Elections
- Voters Choice (http://www.voterchoice.org/)
- Southern Media Justice Coalition

and there are more, I'd like to find out about -- I think they're in Georgia:
- Voter Independence Project
- Democracy Unplugged
- LOVE

I'm serious, folks. Job one right now is to identify all the groups and do better at coalition building. And pay close attention to this new national group, because I know the players and they are formidable:

Voters Unite (http://www.votersunite.org)

Bev Harris

[Bluebear]

29. kick

[yowzayowzayowza]

30. Donkey...

soccer, anyone...
:kick:

[gemlake]

31. Just made a contribution

to your website, Bev. Thanks for your good work!

[BevHarris]

36. Yes, I saw, and thanks. You just paid for my motel room in Columbus

Thanks, these are badly needed. I am so grateful to HAVE support for modest travel, because now is a critical time and it is making a big difference. There is no substitute for face-to-face, whether it is for investigations, or for getting groups to converge around more powerful actions. Until your contribution came in I was (again) digging into my own pocket. Very, very much appreciated.

Bev

[Cookie wookie]

33. True Majority and MoveOn stood up for Georgia too

We've also had support in our calls for action for our legislation for VVPAT in Georgia from both TM and MoveOn.

[Andy_Stephenson]

34. Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail...

is still not a ballot.

But it is a start.

[BevHarris]

37. Yes. MoveOn is gently moving on this one, increasing velocity

They told me it is the number one most requested issue.

Bev

[BevHarris]

38. HERE COMES: THE DOCUMENTS

Part 1 -- Remember rob-georgia in 2002?

Now we have rob-california in 2004.

On edit - gave this one its own thread. Here ya go: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1440739

Bev

[ParanoidPat]

39. Thanks AGAIN Bev!

Please check your inbox. :evilgrin:

[RedEagle]

47. Too Much "Fun" Guys!

I'm thrilled with all the action now.

Don't let'em tell you in California that they can't conduct an election without those paperless monsters.

People can still mark a ballot and people can still count ballots.

Time they got a little practice in with real democracy.

Can't wait to hear more Sequoia stuff- the machines that are promoted in Washington State any time, any where Reed needs a demo.

[revcarol]

40. Can you send stuff and make personal calls on the Secretary of State

of New Mexico? I tried to talk BBV with her at a Dem meeting, and she looked at me like I was from another planet. Simply clueless...

The Attorney General was also clueless.

BTW, NM is a swing state that just BARELY(on recount of paper ballots) went for Gore.

[BevHarris]

41. New Mexico is also a problem area, agreed.

Bernalillo County has already been nominated for special attention from the Clean Up Crew.

The S.O.S. and officials are a bit cozy with the vendor side of the issue.

Bev

[cmd]

42. See you in Canton on Thursday

and I'll be contacting others.

[BevHarris]

44. CoalMinersDaughter -- I am THRILLED to know that we'll meet

finally. I almost did the wheelbarrow thing but we couldn't get the memos in time.

Bev

[revcarol]

43. Can someone appear on Fascist Friday on Washington Journal?

C-Span 1.

a Caller called in last Friday and talked about BBV, and Lamm called it "the mother of all conspiracy theories" that the election might be stolen.

Don't you love it how I volunteer you for a lot of work? But I hope you have thousands of workers with you, and someone knowledgeable and personable can appear on C-Span.

[Andy_Stephenson]

46. I will be in Washington Soon...

one of the days is a Friday. Want me to go on?

If Bev is busy...I can certainly fill in.

[Pale_Rider]

45. Challenge to Maryland's Electronic Voting Machines

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/04-19-2004/0002154720&EDATE=
WASHINGTON, April 19 /PRNewswire/ -- A cross-partisan group of concerned Maryland voters will hold a news conference to discuss impending action to force the state of Maryland to decertify 16,000 new Diebold AccuVote-TS "touch screen" electronic voting machines until the state addresses the security vulnerabilities that can be exploited in the new machines and installs a voter-verified paper audit trail as required by state law.

[kimchi]

48. Take care of yourself Bev, and watch your back.

And Kick!

[dusty64]

49. Kick!

:kick:

[Imalittleteapot]

50. Thanks Bev. Kick.

[bmbmd]

51. Travis County

Austin is Travis county-and kick.

[ronatchig]

52. kick