Judge denies e-voting injunction (our e-voting case)

[sonias]

KVUE News 7/11/06
Judge denies e-voting injunction

A state district judge has refused to block the use of Travis County's electronic voting machines in the next election.

The Texas Civil Rights Project and the Texas NAACP asked for that injunction. Tuesday, Judge Rose Spector denied the request.

Plaintiffs wanted the judge to either require Travis County to go back to the old paper-balloting system or install printers next to each voting machine so voters could verify that the vote they intended to make was actually recorded in the computer system.

The judge did not say why she refused to grant the injunction.

The head of the Texas Civil Rights Project told KVUE News he will press ahead and go to trial in the spring.

Oh well, we didn't expect the TRO to be issued. Would have been great if it had, but I'm sure the visiting judge just didn't want to handle that hot potato. Case now gets a spring date and Nov. elections go on with the same old sucky "faith based" e-voting.

Sonia

[Czolgosz]

1. disappointing

[WestHoustonDem]

2. That's too bad

I'm hopeful that the case will be successful.

[susanr516]

3. Bummer

[sonias]

4. Professor Dan Wallach on Dobbs show on CNN tonight 7/12

(picked this up from the PPC mailing list)

Rice computer scientist Dan Wallach, one of the nation's leading experts in e-voting security, is expected to appear this evening on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight." The program airs from 5 to 6 p.m. Central.

Lou Dobbs Tonight, CNN
5-6pm Central time, July 12, 2006

Dr. Wallach is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Rice University and Associate Director of the federally funded ACCURATE (Center for Correct, Usable, Reliable, Auditable and Transparent Elections). He also testified before the Baker / Carter Commission on Federal Election Reform . His testimony is available here.

His research focuses on computer security and other areas of computer systems, such as wireless systems and secure software systems for the Internet. Dr. Wallach's pioneering efforts led to the development and standardization of the "stack inspection" security model, now used by Sun, Microsoft, and many other systems. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University.

Professor Wallach was our expert witness for our hearing last Thursday. I recommend you listen to him. He's very articulate and convincing. Dobbs is really getting on the e-voting case seriously.

Sonia

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

5. Thanks for fighting the good fight. n/t

[sonias]

6. You're welcome TTC, it's for all of us

This is really David Van Os' lawsuit and I was privileged that he asked me to participate with him on this. Just goes to show you how committed David is to a whole lot of issues that are important to all of us. And of course the great people at Texas Civil Rights Project are the other star. Nobody works harder in Texas to defend our rights. Something you may not know is that Jim Harrington the lead lawyer and founder of TCRP, is a litigant himself in a case against AT&T for the records they turned over to the NSA in order to spy on Americans. Jim uses AT&T and he and a bunch of other Texas people are involved in that lawsuit.

Sonia

[Melissa G]

7. Bummer.. but just a beginning, not the real case. Still fighting!!!

[derby378]

8. Just don't use the e-voting machines

Use the scantrons instead - at least they have a paper trail.

[sonias]

9. That was one of our relief remedy recommendations

But the country clerk of course didn't want to go back to them. The optical scan ballots were way more trust worthy than evoting, plus as you said it was the ballot of record i.e. the paper trail we wanted.

Sonia

[derby378]

10. So what alternatives can you get hold of now?

Anything but e-voting. I did it once and felt sick about it afterwards.

[sonias]

11. None before November, really

You can vote by mail (formerly called absentee voting) in your county but only if you follow the rules for requesting a mail in ballot.

http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/pamphlets/faqs.shtml
A: Only specific reasons entitle a person to vote early by mail (no longer called absentee voting). You may request a ballot by mail if you:

1. will be away from your county on Election Day and during the hours of early voting;
2. are sick or disabled;
3. are 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
4. are confined in jail.

We have to continue our fight in the courts and in the legislature to regain our rights for paper ballots in our elections.

Sonia

[derby378]

14. Would they really press you on that?

After reading this about Cynthia McKinney and those Diebold machines...

http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0072.html

...maybe you should consider an absentee ballot. You could just tell them you've got a conference in Albuquerque or somewhere on Election Day week that you can't get out of. At least your ballot would be on paper that way.

[sonias]

15. OK, if you're going this route

You actually have to say you're going to be away the full two weeks of early voting and election day. In order for them to mail you a ballot you have to give them an address that is not your regular home address. In other words lets say you were visiting your Mom in another county for 3 weeks, they will mail your ballot to your Mom's house. Or option #2 you request a mail in ballot because you are ill. That one they will mail to your home. They don't specify how ill you have to be.

Sonia

[David Van Os]

12. What it means

The denial of a temporary injunction is no comment on the merits of our lawsuit. Legally, it only means that the judge did not find a need for an immediate injunction now. I disagree with the judge completely in her belief that a temporary injunction was not warranted. However, it is in no way a rejection of our Constitutional theory. If I become Attorney General I am unequivocally resolved to ruling e-voting systems unconstitutional under Article 6 of the Texas Constitution because I am convinced they are unconstitutional. Then the shoe will be on the other foot and the proponents will have to take court action to overrule my opinion if they can. I do not believe they will be able to do so.

[sonias]

13. Good point David

We needed a lawyer's comments on that. Jim Harrington said the same thing to me, that the denial of the TRO did not impact the merits of our case. I'm glad we made that attempt for the TRO though, since people are now talking about it. We need more citizens to become knowledgeable about this issue.

And one more reason to support David Van Os for AG - because he'll defend our rights to fair and transparent elections which Abbott has not done. Abbott is complicit with the private corporations who are holding our elections hostage.

Sonia