BBV... While Whackamole Is Fun.. What Happens Next? Lets Brainstorm.

[althecat]

BBV Crew, DUers, Friends, Americans, Everybody...

While playing Diebold Whackamole has been great fun in recent days I think some wider discussion on what happens next might be in order as well. There is a lot going on. Ordinarily this might take place in the BBV.org forums.. but that option appears to be temporarily out of order thanks to Whackamole fallout.

To kick this discussion off I have a few observations and questions to set the scene with.. That said all you wonderful people should add in your own questions and observations... think of this as a sort of general BBV strategy brainstorming session...

1. The Maryland SAIC report.

The Maryland SAIC report is supposed to be out by now. Leastways that's what the state told Wired (Google cache copy - wired seems to be having probs). It was supposed to be out on Friday but was delayed by Hurricane Isabel.

I assume that when it does appear it will be somewhere like
here that it does so. Interestingly Wired's story came out well after the FT reported that the report was already with Maryland State Officials.

So here are the questions:

- Where is the report?
- Why has it been delayed?

2. Diebold's increasingly irrational conduct.

The most likely answer to the two questions above in my mind is that SAIC's whitewash looks so stupid in light of the Diebold Whackamole jobby that the Maryland Gov. has decided to ruminate rather than release. Which makes one wonder what Diebold is up to now. If SAIC clearing them was plan A, then what is Plan B? In Ohio I seem to recall that Diebold had been planning a statewide "public education" (propaganda) campaign to soften up the state for Touch Screen voting tech. What has happened to that.

Suggested Questions:

- What is Diebold's next move - plan B?
- What happened to the ITAA PR campaign?

3. California.

The recall is now back on. There are a couple of pathetic legal challenges still on the books but they seem unlikely to get anywhere. Presumably the ACLU are a little pissed at losing their shortlived victory, but from what I understand Cal. Democrats are now quite keen to get the recall underway, as they now think they can win it.

From a media perspective the recall is the biggest opportunity that BBV has. It was the recall developments that got the BBV issue onto NewsHour and onto the front page of Salon.com. Therefore it would seem sensible for the BBV community to have a plan for the recall - for a start it would seem sensible for every county using GEMS to be put on notice that their computer system is completely insecure.

Suggested Question:

- What should the BBV crew now plan in California to coincide with the recall?


Al

[BevHarris]

1. Yesyesyesyesyes. Great post, Althecat

I was going to post also on the strange delay of the SAIC report. You postulated a sensible reason for the delay. Another reason for the delay is that the big VoteHere push is not going well. And I think the big VoteHere push might very well have been part of the ITAA plan for PR.

How do I know the VoteHere push started? They got some PR, because MSNBC did an bit on them and the (big woop) Puget Sound Business Journal did, but you see, these very friendly articles went out and actually included another point of view. Then the Tacoma Tribune did a bit from RedEagle which laid it all out, and then Jim Adler, eager to go on the Dave Ross radio show, got himself booked but an hour before the show they suddenly asked me on also, and frankly, he did not fare well in the debate.

Then VoteHere installed its "review" version on Dr. David Dill's web site, but conveniently forgot the promised source code, so everyone yawned.

Okay, and if Dr. Dill was supposed to come forward with a ringing endorsement, which doesn't seem at all clear if he was, he certainly hasn't done any such thing. So, if VoteHere is the fix for Diebold, it is flying about as well as your famous New Zealand Kiwi bird.

Yes, I'm brain dead on the next steps because I'm focusing on some media right now, but I do think the next steps should be a healthy thread here.

Bev

[althecat]

2. Interesting.. and in case you missed it Bev on Slashdot Re Whackamole

As an aside. Here's a link to Bev's post about Diebold Whackamole on Slashdot.. it is really very funny...

http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=79628&threshold=0&commentsort=0&tid=103&tid=99&mode=thread&cid=7041325

On David Dill. His newsletter on the IEEE standards thing was very interesting. I think VoteHere will be waiting a long time for him to decide to become cooperative in any of their PR plans.

[eridani]

3. Find out what happened to the Black Box Voting site

It seems to be down. I don't have enough posts to personally contack Bev Harris. Might one of the BBV crew see to that?

[althecat]

4. There is an explanation for what has happened here...

http://www.blackboxvoting.com/

and much much more in this thread..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=389773&mesg_id=389773

[Kelvin Mace]

13. Also, blackboxvoting.com is still up

[Zhade]

10. Once again - AWESOME.

I especially love the matter-of-fact "No", and the fact that Diebold keeps screwing themselves over worse every time they try to silence us.

Death to Diebold! Not literally, of course. Just financially. :)

(edited for poor spelling, d'oh!)

[mhr]

7. Sent the Salon.com Article

to everyone on my email list and tickled them with the following:

---
Subject: Will Your Vote Be Counted?

Hi All,

A simple question right? Wrong? In the rush to eliminate hanging
chads, election officials nationwide have embraced electronic voting
systems. Turns out that the new systems are worse than what is being
replaced. Think your vote will be counted, think again!

Enjoy the following article from Salon.com.
---

My hat is off to Bev and crew for all the hard work spent investigating and exposing this issue. I hope critical mass has been reached and the preponderance of evidence will force review and change.

Good Job!

[Resistance Is Futile]

5. Diebold is smelling a little stale. Time to take down ES&S.

[althecat]

6. Now there is an interesting idea....

I like it... :)

[MrGrippey]

8. Stability & Security

A couple of thoughts--


1) Strategizing in a public forum (where the 'their' boogie man is watching) seems like the *last* place to be doing serious strategic layout, unless you want to hand them your gameplan. Is there a way to manage such a huge endeavor less publicly?


2) it's a lot harder trying to peruse the archives when we have to chase them around the globe. I'd prefer my own copy, and have room for 1.2 GB of files. What's needed is an additional distribution method, perhaps FTP?


3) In these public forums and shifting sites, hard to know what level of legal expertise is being brought to bear on serious analysis of the memos. It's fun and gleeful to look at what the bad guys did, but if actual prosecutable evidence can't be turned up, what's the point?


4) Good to hear from Salon article that House of Representatives is **FINALLY** taking an interest--perhaps this could be followed up with some hammering on our local reps--can we hook this up with MoveOn.org?


5) Recall in CA: umm, less than 2 weeks away--if action is going to happen, it needs to HAPPEN QUICKLY. What (who) should be targeted?
What word do we get out, and to whom?

Mr. Grippey

[althecat]

11. Some answers...

1. This is true enough... and for anything that requires subterfuge or surprise this is obviously not the place. But for general discussion of what is going on, this is fine.

2. http://211.117.160.48:8000/s/lists.tgz

3. Gordon25 has posted some threads on this I think. I will see if I can find a link. The bottom line is that what we have is already prosecutable. Diebold has admitted it sold product that did not meet legal standards. A staff member has admitted that the company regularly sells vaporware.

4. Moveon.org showed a bit of interest back when the JHU report came out - they posted a bulletin on it.

http://www.moveon.org/moveonbulletin/bulletin24.html

You are very right that getting them involved again/more would be an excellent move. Thanks...

5. Zhade's suggestions on this - below - are good. Leafleting on the day makes a lot of sense. People will be thinking about their votes as they vote. It seems to me that it would be relatively easy to write to each of the County Election Supervisors using GEMS sending them a copy of Eloriel's 50 page report (which she has been distributing in DC) and copying it to local news media with a press release.... Even if they were forced to to turn off the live internet results (JResults I think it is called) service that would be a good place to start as media would no doubt ask em why, and would then begin to be educated.

[MrGrippey]

22. good answers always lead to more questions...;-)

Thanks for info, althecat.

1) Yes, it's not the place. is there some way to email you?

2) taiwan was whacked. but I don't want to ask here for a new site. see what I mean?

3) I'm not a donor, so I can't search for Gordon25--it would be awesome if you find his thread. thx!

4) The MoveOn page looked as weak as the NY Times article on Maryland. No offense to you--I'm just so frustrated that media doesn't get it. Or maybe they get exactly what's up & are being paid to look the other way until AFTER Oct 7. Jeeze, I'm gettin' paranoid.

5) Good start. leveraging contacting masses with one interview is WAY more powerful than one person talking to five people--that's example of simple strategy--but deeper should be discussed elsewhere. Could you say how to get Eloriel's report, please?

Thanks a MILLION, a!

[Zhade]

9. Pound the pavement.

Do the usual grassroots stuff - flyers, bumper stickers, clipboards, etc. I live literally a two-minute drive from Venice Beach, and if anyone wants to join me on a Tues/Wed/Thurs (my weekend) to do this, PM me. We can ruminate on materials, too.

An organized letters-to-the-editor campaign would be another good idea. Maybe we could also collect "signatures of conscience" protesting the use of DREs in the counties they'll be used in.

Basically, anything that educates John and Jane Q. Voter is a good start on which to build. It's got to be some face-to-face time for this to really connect with people (we sure can't rely on the media!)

[althecat]

12. Bloggers still running hot....

http://www.blogdex.net

Salon's BBV article is at No. 4....

[seemslikeadream]

14. kickin' for the cat

[BevHarris]

19. Now #1 on the blogs

http://www.blogdex.net

[loudsue]

30. Salon article is not in the same place - I've YET to get to read it!!

I wish someone could just "copy & paste" it in an e-mail to me!!??? I REALLY REALLY want to read it!!

:kick:

[Bushfire]

15. Bookmark this link everyone

http://www.electionline.org/electionlinetoday.jsp

You'll see daily stories that update on this issue.

[BeFree]

16. California

Is hot. Anything we can do to educate and inform about how the vote is counted in Califronia is going to further our cause.

The more people looking over the shoulders and taking notes of the election operator's actions will lay out a base of things to watch out for in future elections.

IOW.. this election is the first experiment to be performed with all of us watching. We need eyes and ears to record what happens.

[hedda_foil]

17. What's this doing way back here?

[SharonAnn]

18. I don't know

why it's so far back.

[MrGrippey]

23. Thanks for encouragement

Certainly constructive action! Excellent.

But (not to sound ungrateful) more needs to happen, and BEFORE the 7th. Watching and waiting and then saying "Told you so!" is too late.

Specially if with all this attention, they've actually smartened up enough to not be detectable.

But thanks -- I'm emailing a reporter in one target county, and working on another.

[Pobeka]

20. Be ready with the follow-up story

Odds are Diebold will go down if the BBV effort continues at this pace.

But, I can just hear it now:

"The problem with Diebold is they didn't have good procedures, we just need a company with good procedures, and all will be fine, so we're proud to announce that <pick your state, county> has selected <pick another sham company> is providing election machines".

The real problem, which has to be pointed out very clearly, is that these systems are so complicated, that good procedures may not be enough, and what is most compromising to our free elections, is it takes months and months for an independent team to vet out these machines after an election, well beyond any reasonable time to perform a recount (if at all possible), and possibly declare a new winner.

[althecat]

21. Very True Pobeka... hence the need to focus a bit of attention on ES&S

Not sure how mind you..

al

[TinfoilHatProgrammer]

27. maybe someone will steal their internal mail

Then you misinterpret it all over the internet.

JC

[MrGrippey]

24. OpenSource might work

There's an excellent rationale for using opensource software with a paper trail audit by Jim March at

http://www.equalccw.com/iowadialog.html

In it he references an Australian product built on Linux that is already up and running, could be deployed using older computers. They are at:

http://www.softimp.com.au/evacs.html

Imagine that! Software that's stable, protectable, auditable, and open (as in everyone gets to review the code to make sure there are no hidden trojans or trap doors). Mr. March suggests a link for getting familiar with how OpenSource software works. (Hint: Bill Gates hates it because it's free to everyone)

http://www.spack.org/index.cgi/InTheBeginningWasTheCommandLine


A U.S. initiative is working on improving the Australian version:

http://gnosis.cx/voting-project/announce.html

[TinfoilHatProgrammer]

28. hurray for open source!

Sadly the system Mr. March advocates doesn't meet the same FEC guidelines to which he requires Diebold et al to be certified. He neglects to mention that.

JC

[shirlden]

25. Please keep this kicked

for the day. All Duers need to be involved in this.

:kick:

[Eloriel]

26. a bump and a

:bounce:

Eloriel

[never cry wolf]

29. back to the top for you

:bump:

[loudsue]

31. Ok DU activists....let's put the rubber to the road!!!

:kick::kick:

Big kick to save our freedom!!!!

:kick::kick:

THANKS BBV PIT BULL PATRIOTS!!!!

:kick: