First, on the election...
1) I'm glad that Donna's in the runoff
2) I'm glad that Steve Francis is not in the runoff
3) I'm sad that Donna couldn't have won it all yesterday, but that isn't the end of the world.
4) Running against Sanders will be *a lot* harder to win than running against Francis.
I think the Rethugs knew about #4, and consider that from their point of view, this might have been their best possible outcome to avoid having Donna Frye in office (by getting Sanders against her one-on-one). They probably knew it would be a lot harder to have Francis beat Frye in November. The good news is that all of you, by coming out so heavily for Frye, made it impossible for them to push her out of the runoff. Had they done that, there certainly would have been an investigation. The biggest defense against voter fraud is for all of us to come out and vote decisively. But as the following notes show, that still doesn't leave us immune from tampering.
Now couple that with the following:
From the San Diego Tribune, the subject line of this article makes this election sound like it was running cleanly without a hitch. In it though they do mention one version of events where Jim March of Black Box Voting got arrested for "bolting in" to see the central tabulator machine in operation... Here's the San Diego Union Tribune version of events...
From:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20050727-0036-7n27vote.html"...
About 10:45 at the registrar's office in Kearny Mesa, a member of a group that monitors elections stormed into a computer room where votes were being tabulated. Jim March, who sits on the board of Black Box Voting, complained about having to observe from behind a window eight feet away. When an election worker opened the door, March bolted inside.
Two sheriff's deputies jumped from their seats, pulled him out of the room and led him to a patrol car.
Thirty minutes earlier, March told a reporter he was going to perform an act of civil disobedience.
The day was markedly different than March 2004, when a new touch-screen system malfunctioned.
Paralyzed by a computer glitch, the touch-screen problems caused more than one-third of polling places to open late and an unknown number of voters were turned away."
Here's a version that was posted in an email sent out to the Open Voting Consortium Discussion list:
Subject: Black Box Voting Board Member Arrested in San Diego for Viewing Vote-Tallying
From: "Black Box Voting" <crew@blackboxvoting.org>
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 01:51:05 -0700 (PDT)
VIEWING THE DIEBOLD VOTE-TALLYING SCREEN PROHIBITED
Jim March, a member of the Black Box Voting board of directors,
was arrested Tuesday evening for trying to observe the Diebold
central tabulator (vote tallying machine) as the votes were being
counted in San Diego's mayoral election (July 26).
(- online discussion: http:/www.blackboxvoting.org -)
According to Jim Hamilton, an elections integrity advocate from
San Diego, he and March visited the office of the registrar
of elections earlier in the day. During this visit, March made
two requests, which were refused by Mikel Haas, the San Diego
Registrar of elections.
1) March asked that the central tabulator, the computer that
tallies up the votes from all the precincts, be positioned so
that citizens could observe it. According to Hamilton, this
would have required simply moving a table a few feet.
2) March also asked for a copy of the ".gbf" files -- the vote
tally files collected during the course of tabulation – to be
provided for examination after the election.
During the tallying of the election, the Diebold computer
was positioned too far away for citizens to read the screen.
Citizens could not watch error messages, or even perceive
significant anomalies or malfunctions.
Unable to see the screen, March went into the office where the
tabulator was housed. Two deputies followed him and escorted
him out.
According to Hamilton: "He was not belligerent, not at all.
After he went inside the tabulator room he came
out and he said clearly 'I’m not resisting.' They handcuffed
him, took him out of the building. They put him in a squad car.
take him to jail," said Hamilton. "He’s getting charged with a
felony, 'interfering with an election official.'"
March's actions are the culmination of two years of increasing
frustration with the refusal of election officials to respond to
security deficiencies in the voting machines. The software that
tallies the votes in San Diego is made by Diebold Election Systems,
a company that has already paid the state of California $2.8 million
for making false claims, due to a lawsuit filed by March and Black
Box Voting founder Bev Harris.
On July 4, a report was released by European computer security
expert Harri Hursti, revealing that the Diebold voting system
contains profound architectural flaws. "It is open for business,"
says Hursti, who demonstrated the flaws on Leon County, Florida
Diebold machines. He penetrated the voting system in less than
five minutes, manipulating vote reports in a way that was
undetectable.
Despite the critical security alert issued by Hursti, San Diego
County sent 713 voting machines home with poll workers, increasing
the risk that the "memory cards" housed in the machines could be
hacked, and removing the argument that "inside access" was carefully
safeguarded.
The arrest of Jim March underlines a fundamental problem facing
Americans today as, increasingly, they lose the ability to monitor,
verify, or watch any part of the counting process.
The San Diego registrar of elections knew of the security flaws in
the voting system. Diebold has never denied the vulnerability
identified in Hursti's report, found at http://www.blackboxvoting.org/BBVreport.pdf.
Despite knowledge of the increased risks, Haas made the decision
to create additional vulnerability by sending the machines home
with hundreds of poll workers.
While San Diego officials will no doubt point to a small seal on
the compartment housing the memory card (the component exploited
in Hursti’s study), Black Box Voting has interviewed a former
San Diego poll worker, who reported that all that is necessary
to dislodge and then reaffix the seal is a small pair of pliers.
IN A NUTSHELL:
- The machines have been demonstrated to be vulnerable to
undetected tampering
- The San Diego registrar of voters chose not to take
appropriate precautions
- The main tally machine was placed in a location that was
impossible for citizens to observe
- Many voting integrity advocates have come to believe that
voting machine reform now rivals the urgency of the Civil
Rights movement in the 1960s.
Jim March acted on those beliefs.
* * * * *
If you share the feelings that Jim March has expressed
about voting system secrecy, please forward this message to
your lists and to online blogs as appropriate. Permission
granted to reprint, with link to http://www.blackboxvoting.org.
* * * *
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
