starroute, let's dig: Computer Scientists Cautious of E-Voting

[George_S]

Computer Scientists Cautious of E-Voting
Computer Scientists Still Doubtful About Electronic Voting Despite Few Glitches on Election Day
The Associated Press

Nov. 4, 2004 - After only scattered problems in electronic voting's biggest day ever in the United States, with roughly 40 million people casting digital ballots, voting equipment company executives crowed.

To them, the relatively smooth election was a vindication of paperless touch-screen systems.

For more than a year, computer scientists and voting rights advocates had vigorously assailed the nation's 175,000 touch-screen machines as insecure and unreliable, prone to software bugs, hackers and hardware failures.

Some naysayers had even predicted worst-case scenarios in which the ATM-like computers deleted or altered votes, machines overheated and crashed under record turnout. But that's not to say electronic voting was trouble-free.

On Tuesday, poll workers in New Orleans had numerous problems operating the equipment. On Election Day and during early voting, several dozen voters in six states reported difficulty selecting candidates, apparently due to miscalibration.

Tuesday's vote was not marred, however, by the problems that plagued primaries earlier this year power outages, missing memory cartridges, machines that displayed the wrong ballots and suspicious delays in reporting results.

"It was a very positive day for the American voting system generally and for electronic voting machines particularly," said Harris Miller, president of the industry trade group Information Technology Association of America, which represents voting equipment companies. "The machines performed beautifully ... Instead of theories about catastrophes, the simple reality is that the machines produce accurate results and the voters love them."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/print?id=225265

Who the hell is that and they? Anyone wanna bet they are part of the web of lies?

[glitch]

1. Incredible ain't it? Why abc news is not my go to source for info nt

[bullimiami]

2. the lack of catching the problems

is a sign the system is working as planned.

Im sure BBV, Palast and other interested parties auditing this mess will come up with enouth inconsistancy to curl the hair.

[George_S]

3. Information Technology Association Of America

The more than 350 member companies listed on ITAA's website include such major computer manufacturers, defense contractors, electronic voting machine manufacturers, internet-based companies and other major corporations as: Accenture Ltd., Amazon.com, AOL Time Warner, AT&T, Boeing Company, ChoicePoint, Dell Inc, Diebold Election Systems, Earthlink Network Inc, eBay Inc, Gateway Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, IBM (Corporation and Global Services), Intel Corporation, Lockheed Martin (Federal Systems and NE & SS Surface Systems), MCI, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft Corporation, Northrop Grumman IT, Oracle Corporation, PepsiCo, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Raytheon Company, Science Applications International Corporation, Sequoia Voting Systems Inc, TiVo Inc, Verizon, VoteHere Inc and Xerox Corporation.<9>

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Information_Technology_Association_Of_America

As usual, disinfopedia.org is a good place to start fishing.

[starroute]

18. Add in Disinfopedia's list of defense contractors

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Defense_contractors

The following listing of Defense Contractors includes either internal or external links to information.

Also see Military-industrial complex, Prison-industrial complex, Homeland Security contractors, Private Military Corporations and federal contractors.

(Doesn't the idea of a prison-industrial complex just give you the warm fuzzies?)

The list is too long to reprint here but it includes everyone you might expect -- aerospace companies, mercenaries like CACI and Dyncorp, Halliburton and Brown & Root, a lot of IT companies. Many of them are just big American corporations doing routine work for the military, but some of the names are more surprising.

For example, have you ever hears of "Vinnell Brown and Root"? Vinnell are the people who were targeted by terrorists in Saudi Arabia last year (see http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_18-5-2003_pg3_8 for some intriguing background from a Pakistani point of view) and we all know Brown and Root. Now they seem to be engaged in a joint venture maintaining US Air Force bases in Turkey. Is this a sign of significant connections at a higher level? I have no idea, but it might be important to find out.

And there's an enigmatic item in the list that says only "RONCO (de-mining operations Horn of Africa.)" There's no further information at the link for RONCO, and the Horn of Africa entry doesn't mention de-mining directly, but I would guess it has something to do with removing land mines left over from the recent Ethipian-Eritrean conflict. It seems that US (and other nations') forces are all over that area because they think it's a hangout for al Qaeda. So don't be surprised if that's where the next US invasion comes, rather than someplace where the locals might actually fight back.

Tracking down the various tentacles of the vast right-wing conspiracy, demonstrating how they dominate our national dialog, and getting some sort of regular system of issues analysis and press releases going is good and useful work. It's also relatively simple to do, because we're tracking a finite group of people, many of whom have known each other for 20 or 30 years, and the connections can be charted and made pretty explicit.

But in the long run, the military-industrial complex is where the real power lies -- and it's getting more pumped up than ever by these obscene military and intelligence and homeland security budgets. I have the feeling that even the CIA is becoming irrelevant, because the special ops forces and mercenaries are now able to act openly in most of the world's trouble spots. I'm not sure how to integrate these two areas of investigation, but at some point we're going to have to.

I'm also starting to think that we need to talk to the people at Disinfopedia, find out what their long-term goals are, and make sure we don't duplicate their efforts. If they're just aiming at providing a resource and have no interest in further analysis or commentary, then we have a comfortable fit. But it would probably be good to make a personal connection in any case, since we're obviously going to be drawing heavily on their work. (For that matter, since it's a wiki, maybe we should start contributing to it if we turn up information they don't already have. Like who the hell RONCO is.)

Let's think about all this, figure out exactly how much we're prepared to bite off, and start making connections.

[George_S]

4. E-Vote Firms Seek Voter Approval

By Kim Zetter

02:00 AM Oct. 20, 2003 PT

In the wake of concerns raised about security flaws in electronic voting systems, a lobbying group is strategizing a public relations and lobbying campaign to help voting companies "repair short-term damage done by negative reports and media coverage."

And in a separate and surprising move companies, according to one vendor, are reversing their long-time opposition to giving voters paper receipts as a way to verify electronic voting results, a change critics have been seeking for months.

According to a draft plan produced by the Information Technology Association of America, a lobbying and trade association for the tech industry, electronic voting machine makers are discussing ways to convince state election officials that their products are the gold standard and worthy of taxpayer money.

The plan calls for a media campaign to "generate positive public perception" of the companies and to "reduce substantially the level and amount of criticism from computer scientists and other security experts about the fallibility of electronic voting systems."

The security of electronic voting machines was called into question by a recent report written by computer scientists at Johns Hopkins and Rice universities. According to their findings, at least one voting system, manufactured by Diebold Election Systems, contains serious security flaws and runs the risk of being compromised.

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,60864,00.html

Sounds live Rove to me. After all, to them reality is perception.

[LiberteToujours]

5. I have a Computer Science degree

And these machines have so many problems it almost seems intentional. It's really almost laughable. When you look at truly secure software (ATMs) and the measures that go into ensuring their reliability, the voting machines are nothing but hack jobs thrown together by amateur companies.

If I had to trust e-voting (which isn't necessarily a bad thing IF you can guarantee accountability, ie. a paper trail), I would trust it to the companies that make ATMs.

[starroute]

7. Some of them are the companies that make ATMs

I think Diebold is, for one. That makes it particularly weird that their voting software isn't even close to the same standard.

[LiberteToujours]

9. I didn't know that

And you're right, that makes thing much weirder.

[starroute]

19. Diebold invented the ATM

http://www.diebold.com/solutions/atms/default.htm

Diebold introduced the concept of a cash-dispensing automated teller machine in 1966.

By contrast, many of today's ATMs are multifunction devices that perform a variety of tasks -- some quite advanced. Diebold makes them all. From simple to complex. And Diebold makes more of them than most any other manufacturer.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

Diebold, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD) is a security systems corporation which is engaged primarily in the sale, manufacture, installation and service of self-service transaction systems (such as ATMs), electronic and physical security products (including vaults and currency processing systems), and software and integrated systems for global financial and commercial markets.


http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994425

Cash dispensing ATMs belonging to two US financial institutions were shut down when the computer worm Welchia invaded their embedded Windows XP operating systems in August. Diebold, the Ohio-based company that makes the machines, revealed the security breach on Tuesday.

[starroute]

6. Not tonight -- I'm exhausted and about to go to bed

Bev Harris's people already have the e-voting end of this stuff covered -- they've been digging into the companies and their owners and their overlapping contingents of employees for a couple of years now.

ITAA is a whole other issue though -- full of defense contractors, homeland security contractors, and people who issue your Social Security check when they're not peeking in your window. It overlaps with the sort of people Carlton Sherwood is in business with currently. I looked into it a little a year ago, but I barely scratched the surface. Definitely something to pursue further.

[George_S]

13. Ah, okay. Thanks for the info.

Just kind of figure it SOMETHING to do ;)

Sweat dreams.

[George_S]

8. Harris Miller

Harris Miller was quoted in the May 2004 issue of Congressional Quarterly's Governing Magazine: "I think that the paper verification system is kind of giving people a false sense of security... I can give you a receipt, but if I started out the day by stuffing the ballot box with 50 ballots for Bush, I haven't actually done anything to make the system secure."

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Information_Technology_Association_Of_America

100 to 1 there is more to this Harris Miller guy than meets the eye.

[George_S]

10. Miller immersed in the outsourcing debate

Security restrictions often keep government contractors from using foreign workers, he pointed out. Miller of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) has warned critics of outsourcing that companies could suffer if they are unable to use cheaper foreign workers to stay competitive.

He also said the whole issue has been blown out of proportion. He estimated that in the entire IT industry, both commercial and government work, less than two per cent of some 10 million jobs are performed overseas.

The ITAA is monitoring such legislations in states around the country and helping organize business leaders to lobby against them.

Companies need the flexibility to use cheaper, offshore workers to help them hold down costs, Miller said. If the US starts throwing up protectionist barriers, he cautioned, other countries might do the same, and "the big losers are US workers and US industry." (PTI)

http://www.ndtv.com/template/templatebusiness.asp?slug=Federal+law+to+reinforce+BPO+curb&template=BPObacklash&callid=5&id=17197

[Bozos for Bush]

11. George, you know I'm in

I need to send you a PM - just waiting on starroute to rest up and respond to my PM about a proposal.

John

[ZombieNixon]

12. I'm in, George_S.

I'm going to go to college next fall and study computer science, so I'm intrigued by all of this. Something reeks here. The numbers just don't add up and I wasted three hours in school this morning figuring out a reasonable legit win for W. It didn't happen. PM, me please or post anything more you can find.

[George_S]

14. Bozos, Zombie, lol

As starroute said, Bev Harris has investigated it. She has a book of the same title: Black Box Voting.

http://www.blackboxvoting.com/index.php

Maybe we can find a lead or something she needs followed or overlooked.

So we may not find anything new, but who knows. Google is free and at least we would be doing something.

[Bozos for Bush]

15. Already read both the abridged and unabridged versions

Briefly,

Someone has contacted me about possibly financing our efforts. I've contacted star with my thoughts. On the one hand, I like the idea of an open site with tons of information for people to see - but on the other hand, I also think that privacy might be a better way to go, until such time that we have a coherant indictment of the entire vast right wing conspiracy. Perhaps we can do both.

Star needs some rest, and so do I to be honest - I'll probably start digging into new things on Saturday. I envision you, star, myself, and 1-2 others that have been deeply involved in the work getting together in a chat room, defining ourselves, our goals, our roles, etc., perhaps pick a name for a website, decide who to bring in, decide private vs public, or perhaps both concurrently, etc. I have no desire for credit or fame. This is my calling, I know it is, ever since they made it personal by messing with my mom. I have no desire to suddenly disappear off the planet, but I will not allow fear to dictate my actions or my personal credo.

So for now, I am responding to PMs from interested parties, cautiously and deliberately, in anticipation of what we might be able to form....basically a little advance planning. It would be nice to have a lawyer in our group, and a computer whiz. Each of us have skills, talents, etc., for various things that need to be done. I know you'll be interested :)

Time for bed :(

John

[camero]

16. Industry Trade Group...Pshaw

That's like asking the fox how well the chicken house is being guarded by him.

[Eloriel]

17. It gets even better

These were the guys who were behind the initial push for electronic voting with Congress (HAVA). ITA is a HUGE lobbying interest, and that's about all they are.

If you use google, you can find some info about their initial efforts. One of their newsletters, as I recall.

Also, in he teleconference David Allen sat in on, one of them (I think it was Harris himself) actually admitted that their intent lobbying so hard for HAVA was just a way to get government to fund a lot of their members' work.

And while I'm at it, I might point out (going back to FL 2000) that one way the Bush Crime Family and its allies work is to create a problem, and then come up with a solution that even further benefits them and their agenda. (If I'm not mistaken, the S&L scandal was also along these lines, but I'm not as familiar with all the details of the deregulation and subsequent mess of all that.)

[LisaLynne]

20. I think the telling thing is that ...

those of us who have some programming experience don't trust these machines. I would have thought that would mean something to people, but when I would bring it up to less technically savvy people, they would just shrug, like it was the most boring thing in the world. You would think that people who have been subjected to even getting a virus on their home computer would be a little more nervous about trusting our democracy to BBV.

I just thought maybe this once the Luddites would work in our favor. Guess not.