BREAKING: Calif revolt against e-voting, counties want mail-in voting

[Peace Patriot]

Friday, January 13, 2006

Title: "Mail-only vote in primary possible: Sonoma, Mendocino, other counties join Alameda's request to Legislature

"By BLEYS W. ROSE - THE PRESS DEMOCRAT (Santa Rosa, CA)

"The June primary in Sonoma, Mendocino and other counties could be conducted entirely by mail - with no polling places open - if the Legislature approves a plan gathering steam across the state.

"The idea for emergency legislation allowing counties to conduct absentee-only balloting stems from Alameda County, where officials are concerned their new electronic voting machines aren't working well enough to use in June.

"Because of those concerns, Alameda has asked the Legislature for special permission to substitute mail-only balloting for the traditional system of polling places.

"Now Sonoma County and others that long have supported mail balloting because they believe it is more efficient want to be added to the legislation.

"'At this point it may be a shot in the dark, but of course we are interested because over half our voters vote by mail and the benefit is always increased turnout,' said Sonoma County Clerk Eeve Lewis.

"Marsha Wharff, Mendocino County's registrar of voters, delivered an emphatic 'absolutely' when asked whether Mendocino would like to switch to all-mail balloting in June. (MORE)

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060113/NEWS/601130304/1265


------------------------------------

This Santa Rosa Press Democrat (owned by the NYT) article leaves out the most important fact in this story--that it is DIEBOLD touchscreens and optiscans that are the problem--machines that have failed security and reliability tests in California and Florida. DIEBOLD, of course, is the Bushite voting machine company, until very recently headed by Bush/Cheney Ohio campaign chair Wally O'Dell, which manufactures the crappiest, most hackable of the new election theft machines, all of which are run on "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls.

Here is how the Press Democrat describes the problem in Alameda: "...election officials there are scrambling to make their new touch-screen electronic models work and time is running out." No manufacturer mentioned. No political controversy. Nothing about the felons who wrote Diebold's secret programming code. Nothing about Diebold's and ES&S's lavish lobbying, or their benefiting from the $4 billion H.A.V.A. boondoggle, gifted to them by Tom Delay and Bush's "pod people" in Congress. Nothing about the current Calif Sec of State's wily rejection of Diebold touchscreens (bumped up to the Bushite Feds for certification by private parties), added to the former Sec of State's much firmer rejection of these machines (Kevin Shelley sued Diebold and decertified their touchscreens prior to the 2004 election).

Reporter Bleys Rose carefully tailors the information in the article to make REAL voting (paper ballot, marked by the voter) seem antiquated, and to promote the idea that speed is the only important matter on election results.

He writes," Many North Coast counties, including Sonoma and Mendocino, still use old-style pencil-and-paper ballots." By "old-style pencil-and-paper ballots," he is referring to optiscan machines (voter fills out the ballot, ballot gets scanned and retained), the most prevalent voting system in Mendocino, the implication being that the modern, new touchscreen election theft system should be preferred ("old style," verified by the voter, vs. "new style," verified by Karl Rove). He adds, "The mail voting could delay some election results"--as if this was some horror to be dreaded. (Speed trumps accuracy and verifiability. Speed is the means by which war profiteering corporate news monopolies have come to control election outcomes, by squelching protests of questionable results*).

He also throws in that, "Neither county (Sonoma or Mendocino) currently has voting machine problems that might jeopardize an election conducted at polling places."--but fails to document this assertion or quote officials on it, and fails to provide any basic information about voting machines and central tabulators that are run on "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming with virtually no audit/recount controls. How does he (or anyone else) KNOW if there are "problems" that "might jeopardize an election"?

The article notes that other counties have responded enthusiastically to the mail-in voting proposal (Marin, Humboldt and Solano) .

Calif State Senator Debra Bowen (D-Redondo Beach, who is running for Sec of State) is leading the campaign in the state legislature to permit counties to use all mail-in voting this June, and to STOP using these hackable electronic systems. She needs our support! I can't find a url for info on this legislation, but will find one and post it here later. Bowen's campaign web site: www.debrabowen.com, and her contact info: [e-mail].  Tels: [phone] or [phone].

[Peace Patriot]

1. P.S. My note* on speed and corporate news monopoly control of election

outcomes.

*Note: The Fox News switch of its call for Gore in Florida in 2000, to calling it for Bush, is of course one notorious example of how speed of election result reporting has come to trump accuracy and verifiability. But the most egregious example of corporate news monopoly control of election outcomes occurred in 2004, when the corporate news monopoly exit poll consortium DOCTORED their exit polls, late on election day on everybody's TV screens, to make their exit polls (Kerry won) "fit" the results of Diebold's and ES&S's secret vote tabulation formulae (Bush won), thus denying the American people major evidence of election fraud, and squelching protests and calls for investigation. It was the worse journalistic crime I have ever witnessed. And it means that the corporate news monopolies have now gone from calling elections too quickly--and thus creating a news juggernaut for the supposed winner--to FALSIFYING data in order to speed up confirmation of the election outcome that best suits war profiteering corporate news monopolies (in this case, a Bush win).

[oneold1-4u]

2. Anyone-

Citizen or politician should easily be able to access the method that OR changed to "mail in" ballots. This has been verified to be economical to the state and certainly to the voter that doesn't have to go out to some precinct and wait in line to vote.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Yes, the sheer cost of these election theft machines--billions pouring

into the pockets of Bushite corporations--in both the initial outlays, and all the upgrades and on-going servicing requirements, is a major issue. Simple, easy to mail-in, REAL ballots is an excellent, TEMPORARY solution, to achieve better election transparency in the near term (critically needed). However, the WAY votes are recorded and tabulated (what they do with the mail-in ballots once they get them--results probably scanned into a computer and sent to DIEBOLD central tabulators)--remains a serious issue, as well as the REMOVAL of vote counting from local precincts to centralized facilities that may be harder for people to monitor. Paper ballots, hand-counted at the precinct level (with results POSTED at the precinct level) is the most reliable system of voting.

[kster]

6. Think college credits

any college kid who shows up to count ballots gets a college credit, Why give the money to Diebold or ES&S to count the votes in secret. When we can give the money to our kids to count them out in the open.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Note2 on cost of e-voting, and potential perils of mail-in voting:

But I still think that this movement toward mail-in voting is a significant positive step toward restoring our right to vote.

As a rural resident, I have felt very attached to going to vote at my local precinct--as a basic patriotic act, and a confirmation of the grass roots basis of democracy. I enjoy seeing the familiar faces who volunteer every year to oversee the polling place in our small community. It feels like there is a rope that attaches this little community all the way to Washington DC, through this local polling station. However, last year I switched to absentee ballot voting--which, in California, you can easily do, and which also allows becoming a permanent absentee ballot voter (so you don't have to re-apply every time), and further permits you to deliver the absentee ballot to your polling place in person, rather than mail it in. The reason I switched is Diebold/ES&S and electronic voting machines that are very hackable, and are furthermore controlled by major Bush supporters. Absentee and other paper ballots have provided critically important data in several studies of paper vs. electronic results, and may provide critical data for election challenges in the future. And it appears that paper ballots act as a deterrent, even in situations where electronic central tabulators are used.

But I will gladly give up the democratic intimacy and good feeling of voting at my local precinct--temporarily--in order to help restore election transparency as soon as possible. Long term, I think we must return to the paper ballot/precinct system. That's Canada's system, and it works very well. They generally get results in a day. Germany also has such a system. They are very serious about democracy in Canada and Germany. And the scandal of electronic voting in the US in 2002 and 2004 is the biggest mess we have ever faced. These election theft machines need to be thrown into 'Boston Harbor'! Enough! Fini!

[kster]

5. Will they be counting

the mail in votes by hand?

[Peace Patriot]

7. I doubt it. I presume that they will scan the mail-in ballots into a

computer and send those electrons off to Diebold central tabulators. I'm not saying it's ideal. But mail-in voting does several positive things: It eliminates election fraud in the voting machine at the polling station level. (There were many reports of touchscreens changing Kerry votes to Bush votes. It also eliminates any fraudulent coding that may have been going on in the optiscans.) It provides the voter with a REAL paper ballot, which the voter can photocopy as a record. It forces human beings into the equation (handling, counting, scanning). Human beings can be watched. Electrons inside a black box cannot be. And if your county has an electronic voting system that has no paper trail or no paper ballot, mail-in provides a solid paper ballot record of your vote.

Not ideal. Paper ballots, hand counted at the precinct level, with results POSTED at the precinct, is the most reliable voting system. But mail-in, I think, is the beginning of a very good trend, and represents vast distrust of these machines among voters, and the work of many dedicated activists to get Diebold decertified (that's why these counties want mail-in, because Diebold touchscreens have NOT been certified).

[nicknameless]

8. Mail-in voting makes me a little nervous, but nothing is as bad as DREs.

It would be good if there also were a way for voters to get a ballot if one doesn't arrive in the mail.
Could avoid fiascoes like the 58,000 absentee ballots that went missing in Broward County, Florida in 2004.

ANYTHING is better than DREs.
Next: hand counting paper ballots at each precinct.

[Festivito]

14. Me too. Turn in a ballot at a voting place.

Physically count the voters in, the ballots dropped. Then the vote count.

Just a plain 8.5x11 sheet printed on a home or library computer.

[nicknameless]

20. If you haven't seen this yet:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x406688

*Swoon* :)

[rumpel]

22. I am not so sure if mail-in is the answer look at this LAT article(s)

January 14, 2006

Postal Officials Say They'll Sort Out Delivery Problems
By Martha Groves, Times Staff Writer

As customer complaints about late mail service continued Friday, local postal officials pledged a new campaign to improve delivery times across Los Angeles County.

Officials acknowledged serious problems even as more complaints piled up about mail that is delivered late at night, magazines and newspapers that arrive months after publication, and mail that is dropped off miles from its intended destination.

snip

Susan L. Harris of Manhattan Beach said she posted a letter with a check two weeks ago that has yet to arrive at its destination in Rancho Palos Verdes, 16 miles away. The intended recipient, Carole Black, reported that she doesn't receive half of her magazines and gets "invitations to events that arrive after the event."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-mail14jan14,1,6510100.story

and

January 12, 2006
Inquiry Seeks to Stamp Out Mailbox Mishaps
Rep. Waxman has asked the U.S. Postal Service to explain a spate of late and incorrect deliveries.

By Martha Groves, Times Staff Writer

It was the ancient Greek historian Herodotus who, writing about the Persian Wars, lauded the Persian messengers with a compliment that many modern-day Postal Service employees have adopted as their mantra: "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

It's the "gloom of night" part that's bugging residents across Los Angeles County. Is that a prowler lurking around your front door late at night or your letter carrier?

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/los_angeles_metro/la-me-mail12jan12,0,1354712.story?coll=la-commun-los_angeles_metro

[WHAT]

9. What about the software that validates...

the signature?

I heard there could be a problem with this similar to the Florida felon purge that resulted in so many disenfranchised voters. If I recall, the parameters for authenticating signatures could be "tweaked" to an unreal level of preciseness that would select-out many voters. It seems that this could be a big problem.

Does anyone know exactly how this would work?

[Peace Patriot]

10. No, I don't know exactly how it would work, and I am not recommending it

as a best-case or permanent solution. I haven't been able to find the bill number or the bill. I've put in a request to Debra Bowen for info. All I'm saying is that it's a hell of a lot better than having Diebold touchscreens in the June primary and November election.

I imagine that Oregon has considerable experience with these mail-in issues, and we should consult Oregonians and Oregon info on it. But I would be surprised if Bowen has not thought it through pretty well. She's on the CA Senate elections committee, and seems quite savvy about the whole voting matter.

There are all kinds of way to mishandle any kind of paper ballot, and to wrongfully purge voters from the rolls. But electronics makes the problem of election fraud orders of magnitude worse, as to scale, speed and un-traceability. With paper ballots, whatever fraud is attempted, you have a chance of catching the perps. Not so with electronics.

And, once again, this is an interim, emergency measure, to solve the problems of counties that were about to bring uncertified Diebold touchscreens on line, and cannot do so. If it were a permanent measure, I would be a little more concerned about the permanent, budget-cutting elimination of precinct voting. Precinct voting may be something we have to give up, in the end--but only if the bargain is getting rid of Bushite-controlled voting machines and central tabulators with "trade secret" software.

[happydreams]

11. We need to stop arguing about whether e-voting is worse than

mail-in voting. At least for now. What we need to do is get the vote counting out of the hands of corporate, biblical reconstructionist hands where it is now. Mail-in voting may not be a panacea but it would gum up the works of the fascist political machine.

[phoebe]

12. who is in charge of printing the ballots - Diebold was in charge in

King County, WA if memory serves - last thing we need is them mailing them late (happened), errors on the ballot (happened)and any and all future variables one can think of in order for them to tamper/steal the vote..

[Peace Patriot]

13. Diebold printed the ballots for a paper ballot mail-in? Or do you mean

for their optiscans?

[phoebe]

16. meant Global Election Systems - a valuable lesson to be learnt

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/election/2001855390_felons11m0.html

Dean, who used his computer savvy to cover up his embezzlement of $465,341 from a Seattle law firm in the 1980s, was given keys to the election offices on the fifth floor of the King County Administration Building. And he had unrestricted access to the elections office's high-security computer room where votes are tallied.

snip

Dean, who began printing ballots and handling absentee mailings in the mid-1990s, found a new way to put his computer expertise and his election savvy to work when Global Election Systems asked him for help.

Global, a publicly traded company with offices in Vancouver, B.C., and McKinney, Texas, had run into trouble in its $4.3 million contract to modernize King County elections.

Global had succeeded in the largest and most visible part of its contract, replacing the county's unreliable punch-card ballots with state-of-the-art optical-scan ballots starting with the September 1998 election.


Read entire article..

[phoebe]

17. Diebold and Global Election Systems - a VALUABLE lesson to be learnt

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/election/2001855390_felons11m0.html

snip

Dean, who used his computer savvy to cover up his embezzlement of $465,341 from a Seattle law firm in the 1980s, was given keys to the election offices on the fifth floor of the King County Administration Building. And he had unrestricted access to the elections office's high-security computer room where votes are tallied.

snip

Dean, who began printing ballots and handling absentee mailings in the mid-1990s, found a new way to put his computer expertise and his election savvy to work when Global Election Systems asked him for help.

snip

Voter View, as the system was known, was supposed to have been tested and accepted by the county in February 1999. But two months later Global pulled the initial subcontractor off the job and turned the project over to Dean.

Dean, whose family business, Spectrum Print and Mail Services had been doing printing and mailing for King County elections for several years, was familiar with the county's voter-registration data. County election officials, like Global executives, were impressed by the quality of Dean's work.

Please read ENTIRE article..

On edit - sorry re: duplication, some sort of bug message - (NSA??)

[kster]

15. kick.nt

[greiner3]

18. As a DU'er in Ohio;

I do not hear anything in the press about dieblied and'or voting machines. I guess the only recourse is that the voters in CA and FL keep on and maybe the word will reach here. Maybe!

[diva77]

19. Is there a detailed explanation of mail-in voting? I am concerned about

precinctless voting -- how do you audit it? How will you detect irregularities? How will people know whether or not their ballot was received/counted? Is there a link somewhere? After seeing elections that are centrally tabulated I don't think we can "settle" for precinctless voting -- too much "power" in the hands of the person in charge of that one central location...

Is there a way to create secure "precincts" that ballots are mailed to/tabulated at with mail-in voting?

[Peace Patriot]

21. Diva77, Oregon has been doing all mail-in voting for some time now.

We should consult Oregon DUers and rules to see how they do it.

The alternative to mail-in in the Calif counties is DIEBOLD! And Diebold, ES&S and the others have bled off all the county elections money, so they don't have funds for precinct voting and handcounts (so they say). I'm with you in being suspicious of any centralization. However, I support it in this case, and I'm willing to look at it further. Debra Bowen seems well aware of all election transparency issues. That's a pretty powerful endorsement of this proposal. But I'm with you. Be ever vigilant!

[VeryZexyLiberal]

23. What we need to do

Is make sure every vote counts, stop the fascist voting system and put an end to all corporations!

[Einsteinia]

24. Terrible idea ---

We're going from the frying pan to the fire

Please read this audit protocol's chapter on why we must keep our votes tethered to neighborhoods.

Hello Great Minds of Election Integrity

FINALLY, at last possible moment BEFORE the CA '06 legislation cut-off,
here is our draft Gold Star Audit Protocol, which could use your help.

>>> http://www.califelectprotect.net/GSAP_16d.pdf <<<<

The biggest paradigm shift we’re about to encounter is
whether the control of our ballots will be
centralized—under the primary purview and of the county
-OR-
decentralized—first under the purview of ALL the local precincts,
then with clear divisions of power
between the various government entities

[Land Shark]

25. The revolt has completely CLEARED WA state of DRE's

see
<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x409602>

[Einsteinia]

26. Yes, but it's another case of from the frying pan into

the fire--just like when we got rid of hanging chads and got DREs.

Land Shark: It's true, Orweil is turning in his grave!

With this model comes the elimination of precincts--local purview of our elections process. Thereby, there is less control over the vote counting with less public scrutiny. We have a terrible problem with the scanning technology used in vote by mail, which I'm told is even worse than that of DREs with "interpeter code." Also, the "Vote Remote" is a signature scanning technology that can be calibrated up or down for signature matching. In other words, it can easily be used as a vote spoilage device.

If you've got Vote by Mail in Washington, please sound the alarm that ALL of these votes must be process by the local precincts.

Please read this proposed 'audit protocol that explains this in more detail:

http://www.califelectprotect.net/GSAP_16d.pdf