BBV: Bob Urosevitch of Diebold....apologizes for device flaws!

[Andy_Stephenson]

"We were caught. We apologize for that," Urosevich said of the mass failures of devices needed to call up digital ballots. Poll-workers in Alameda and San Diego counties hadn't been trained on ways around their failure, and San Diego County chose not to supply polls with backup paper ballots, crippling the largest rollout of e-voting in the nation on March 2. Unknown thousands of voters were turned away at the polls.

"We're sorry for the inconvenience of the voters," Urosevich said.

"Weren't they actually disenfranchised?" asked Tony Miller, chief counsel to the state's elections division.

After a moment, Urosevich agreed: "Yes, sir."


Bev had this to say

Seattle journalist and BlackBoxVoting.org leader Bev Harris took a microphone two feet in front of Urosevich and said, "What we have is a company that lies. Yes, I'll say it -- lies."

http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10669~2100333,00.html

[ParanoidPat]

1. Hmmm, can the people who were 'disenfranchised' file civil suites.....

.....against those involved for violating their civil rights? :shrug: :evilgrin:

[Andy_Stephenson]

4. Class action perhaps?

I need to call Bev right now.

[cmd]

10. Does Bev know about this lawsuit?

http://www.timesreporter.com/archive/left_archive.php?ID=28979&r=5

Organization for the blind sues over lack of accessible voting machines
COLUMBUS – The National Federation of the Blind sued Ohio and 31 county boards of elections Tuesday in federal court in Columbus saying they have violated blind Ohioans’ civil rights for failing to provide voting machines and systems that are accessible to blind voters.
(more)

I forgot to take that paper with me today.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. I worked with some poll workers this last election and they were cold-

blooded about disabled people. They said that they should vote absentee ballot because it creates problems to accomodate them.

I was shocked.

[cmd]

13. I know what you mean

The disabled are an inconvenience for some people. Imagine how inconvenient it is to be disabled. I want blind people to have voting machines that they can use. I also want that machine to spit out a receipt that can be used for a recount. This is in the best interest of our nation. The next presidential election must be legitimate.

[Andy_Stephenson]

14. Coalminers Daughter

remember...call it a ballot not a reciept.

[stellanoir]

5. So sorry. . .

we, the biggest manufacturers of EVM's have no clue what we're doing having such enormous influence in what is perhaps the most important presidential election in our country's history. Because we're such flaming incompetants, there will be no accountability but it's really no big deal.

And we really can't risk all those nefarious paper jams we see so frequently in more important devices like lottery machines. . .can we. . .?

[ParanoidPat]

8. LOL! I bet there are more lottery tickets sold on any given day.....

....in this country than votes cast in any given election. How come the lottery always gets it right?

[Tansy_Gold]

15. paper receipt from Diebold ATM yesterday. . . .

I made a deposit and simultaneous withdrawal at a Bank One Diebold touch-screen ATM yesterday afternoon, 4:56 p.m. AZ time.

Here's what the receipt says:


SEQ#9776
BAL BEFORE
DEP $1,101.18
DEPOSIT $348.00
TO CHECKING

SEQ#9777
WITHDRAWAL $20.00
FROM CHECKING
BALANCE $1,290.18

Now, the way I calculate dollars and cents, $1,101.18 plus $348.00 equals $1,449.18, minus $20 equals $1,429.18.

So, my question is, where is my other $139?

Yes, I'll be checking my bank statement ASAP.

But just shows to go, I guess, that even a paper receipt may not be enough . . . . . . . . .

Tansy Gold

[BevHarris]

21. Beautiful. If you fax that here: 425-228-3965 I'll get that to the press

This is just the kind of thing they love.

When I testified before the California senate committee Wednesday I brought one of the stupid blue plastic zip ties they like to use to "seal" the Diebold machines. I said "In San Diego County, they sent 33 million worth of voting machines HOME with 1,600 poll workers without even asking for I.D. But we are not supposed to worry -- the machines were sealed, right? This is what they were sealed with" (I held it up). A senator snorted.

"But not to worry, you have to actually get your nail clippers out to remove it" (held up clipped-ope seal).

"But then, they provided extra seals. And didn't inventory them."

The senators busted out in laughter. One turned to the others and said "I think that about says it. Do we need any more to move this bill forward?"

That's why the kind of visual you describe can be so effective. Great story. Thanks forf sharing it.

Bev Harris

[phillybri]

2. "We were caught. We apologize for that,"

We don't apologize for screwing voters out of their right to vote, we apologize because we got caught while screwing them...:grr:

[Andy_Stephenson]

3. Yes

my take exactly.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. I got the same message.

It's like they were apologizing to Bush & the RNC.

[Bushfire]

6. Lawsuit challenges Md. voting machines

Just posted story in LBN, but here's the direct link

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.lawsuit22apr22,0,3682754.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

[Zorra]

7. A republican owned, voting machine manufacturing company lying?

I'm shocked.

We absolutely need to begin organizing a nationwide general strike, and demand that all electronic voting machines be sent to the junkyard before the November election. There is no issue that is more important than insuring that our votes are counted accurately and honestly. A general strike will put this issue right up in the face of everyone in the US

[redqueen]

9. I love Bev's comment!

Should a company so reckless with a serious an issue as voting which lies about their failures be trusted with such a critical task as vote tabulation?

How anyone in DC can continue to ignore this is beyond me.

on edit - from the article linked:

Diebold was not the only vendor to seek last-minute changes to its software. Every vendor selling e-voting systems in the state asked for changes in the two months before the March primary.

Diebold offered explanations for at least some of the last-minute software changes. Its executives said they were caught between the slow, federal transition to "new" 2002 voting system testing and California's desire to approve the hardware and software counting its votes.

State elections officials were dismayed to find that Diebold had sold and installed thousands of its new TSx machines in the state without getting them tested, nationally qualified and even before applying for state certification.

"I understand your frustration," said Diebold chief developer Tab Iredell. "Why did we sell something that we didn't think we could run? Our understanding based on past experience was we thought we could get that certified."

[RedEagle]

16. California Provided the Evidence

It's up to us to slam dunk this.

State use uncertified software in violation of many state laws.

Machines are sold on fraudulent claims.

You CANNOT audit the beasts.

Write/email/fax your congress people now- then follow up with a phone call.

It's MOMENTUM- use it

[Andy_Stephenson]

17. AMEN!

sista AMEN!

[FDRrocks]

18. Ooops, sorry, we seemed ot have stolen a democratic election...

American Democracy, right now...christ.

[not systems]

19. 24% of votes in my county were lost.

I heard this on the radio.

I can't reconcile the fact that when the Governor recall
vote happened last fall there were more people than I had ever
seen at my polling place with the official count that had the vote
total actually down from the previous vote.

These machines make voting a joke.

This company is part of a criminal conspiracy of traitors to
the constitution as long as these machines are used with no
audit trail there is no democracy in this country.

[0rganism]

20. WTF kind of language is this? "We were caught. We apologize for that,"

WHY IS THIS MAN APOLOGIZING FOR GETTING CAUGHT????????

He should be doing whatever he can to make a compliant, reliable, certified product for California. His fault was in not delivering said product. Yet he's apologizing for getting caught for selling unreliable crap, rather than the crap itself? I can only conclude that his apology is intended for shareholders rather than the people of California.

Or this gem, from "Diebold chief developer Tab Iredell":

"Why did we sell something that we didn't think we could run? Our understanding based on past experience was we thought we could get that certified."

This points to a pattern of chronic fraudulent lawlessness. The representatives of Diebold Election Systems Inc should be fucking run out of the state on a rail.

[BevHarris]

22. Yes. The pressure point that will speed the tar and feathering is:

Somehow getting at least a handful of county officials on board. Wish they were all like the wonderful Freddie Oakley of Yolo County, who said, "running an election is not rocket science. If it was, most of the county registrars would be out of a job because of incompetence."

And get this: one of the county registrars, Scott Konopocek (San Bernadino County, I think) was actually in national security of some sort before he took the job. Question: Mr. Konopocek, when you were in national security, did you use unpatched Windows with an unsecured MS Access database for your mission critical endeavors, and did you like to transfer data wirelessly with cheap systems, sometimes cell phones, unencrypted as ASCII text?"

Didn't think so.

Bev