Sequoia Bites the Dust in Washington State: Terminated by Visible Voting

[Land Shark]

We can now for all practical purposes pronounce the state of Washington DRE-FREE!!! There will be no more DRE computers placed between voters and their ballots to make elections inherently unreliable, unless such "assistance" is really needed by disabled voters.

Sequoia, under pressure from lawsuits as well as political pressure from the (newly Democratic majority) Snohomish County COuncil, finally succumbed to the political pressure in a 3-2 publicly visible roll call vote of the entire County council. Sequoia's machines now will be unused and unusable come September of 2005.

At that point, Snohomish county will no longer have polling place voting, but instead will vote by mail, with regional drop off places for those who don't want to use the mails.

YAKIMA COUNTY, having already ditched their DREs for vote by mail earlier this year, left Snohomish as the only county in the state of Washington with DREs used throughout their polling places (as opposed to being used occasionally for disabled persons' voting).

But now, you can mark Washington state on your map as BLUE and DRE-FREE BABY!!!! Of course, the influence of the Snohomish study and lawsuit is "unknown", except that I know Somers beat Sax to shift the balance of the county council, and Somers doesn't like DREs, so you do the math!

LandShark
"helping to make the nation safe for democracy, one county at a time"

NOTE: I was not at all involved in the county council vote or lobbying regarding it, whether wise or not....

SEE:
HeraldNet: County OKs all-mail voting
Facing high election costs, the Snohomish County Council voted Wednesday to close its polling places and switch to all-mail elections starting in September.
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/01/05/100loc_a1voti...

[AmBlue]

1. GREAT news!!!

And gives me hope for us down here in Pinellas County, Florida, also stuck with Sequoia DREs. Can we talk?
:patriot: :party: :toast: :bounce: :kick: :grouphug: :yourock: :patriot: :party: :toast: :bounce: :kick: :grouphug: :yourock:

[Land Shark]

2. If you speak english or finnish, yes we can talk

Freepers who REALLY think they know what they are doing: here's my cell phone number: 425-422-1387

[Land Shark]

43. Others have pointed out that five counties in WA state are still

not entirely vote by mail, but there is a landslide of counties switching in favor of vote by mail (overall). A very small percentage of the vote may still be served by DREs for disabled voting and some small counties. So "DRE-FREE" is not 100% accurate, but the market share is going down, and even the remaining DREs will be under pressure.

[eridani]

60. What will happen then, is that the payoff for cheating--

--will be greatly diminished. Too bad that the machines will be buggier than ever owing to even less real world testing than they now get. Net result may be that disabled people come to see that they really don't help all that much.

[emlev]

3. Hoooooooooorayyyyyyyyy! C'mon, Sharkie, take the credit!

I give you permission. Go ahead, gloat!

[Land Shark]

7. Well i did hear some citizens may have used a copylefted LS phrase

here and there. And a major blog called Washblog (I write there occasionally) and the blogger-in-charge put some major heat on Jeff Sax and in favor of the Democrat Somers, and that helped win a close race and shifted control of the council (remember we are 75% mail in voting ALREADY so DREs are not TOTALLY in control, never were)

I can say I helped frame the debate. And that's important. Maybe even *crucial*. Sometimes.

[GuvWurld]

4. Congrats Land Shark.

Thanks for everything you do, including sharing this great news.

[autorank]

5. I am PROUD of you!!! You are "the man" (or "the person"). GREAT WORK.

Land Shark undertook this task and made it work. He didn't get paid by some fat ass corporation or lobbying group. He sacrificed his own time and persevered with great skill and some considerable humor (as demonstrated here on DU).

You have my total respect! (However, I reserve the right to disagree with you on threads, although that's never happened, not once)

I nominate Land Shark for DUer of the year 2006...

btw, read Gore's speech. You will love and truly appreciate the logical and rhetorical precision and brilliance!

[AmBlue]

8. I'll second that...

"DUer of the Year for 2006"

[EFerrari]

6. Baby! High FIVE!

LOL!

'Way to go, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaa!

[Nothing Without Hope]

9. K & R!!!! What wonderful news, a payoff after what must have been

gruelling months of tedium and fighting. Congratulations to all involved in this fight and to the citizens of Washington State, who have reclaimed some democracy and set an example for many other states which have not yet followed suit, so to speak...

:toast: :applause: :woohoo:

[Matariki]

10. this is good news

do you have any idea how they'll count the mail-in votes?

(i'm in seattle/king county)

[Land Shark]

13. optical scanners that have been around a while

meaning that they can be trouble, but with optical scanning you at least have a good solid SHOT at a decent election system if you set up the rest of the checks and balances just right.

Elections are not TECHNOLOGY: they are checks and balances, at bottom. Paper just happens to (usually) have the best checks and balances but calling it by the technological name 'paper ballot' makes it sound like a throwback when if done right it's really an extraordinarily sophisticated yet simple and elegant reasonably secure system with a (all important) LOW PAYOFF for the inevitable election crimes and frauds that do come along. Whereas, with electronic systems, the payoff is very high indeed, for just a single act.

[emlev]

11. Wanna migrate south a couple of states?

We could sure use you here in the Golden--er, blue, er, getting redder all the time, by hook or by crook--state!

[Land Shark]

17. Can anyone afford my fee? If I save democracy, you pay ME what it's worth

OK, that's a contingency fee joke. of sorts.

[emlev]

24. Well, I can afford about what our "democracy" is worth right now

but no way I can afford what it would be worth if it existed!

[Land Shark]

39. I don't think we should INSIST that lawyers work for free because

of the public nature of suits like this, but it should be highly encouraged. (If there's absolutely no money to be made in a certain area it will be harder to find skilled lawyers keeping up on their skills)

That being said my attorney RAndy Gordon is working pro bono and I've certainly lost my shirt on the case. Happy to do that, but taking on issues in any other state pro bono seems impossible at least from a time standpoint! So while i wish lawyers didn't charge the movement a lot of money, on the other hand I definitely understand WHY there's a need for a lot of money. It's amazing how difficult the litigation system, and expensive to be a lawyer too.

The court system is, at bottom, an expensive process that effectively strips from people of fewer means whatever rights may have been gained in the legislature, because court is the only place those rights can actually be enforced. No money = no rights. I've often wondered why no politician that I know of has ever run on such a stark, and obviously true, platform of legal reform instead of this "tort reform" that uses the power of the problem of an expensive system in order to TAKE AWAY RIGHTS OF INJURED PEOPLE and REDUCE access to courts further.

Unbelievable. Orwellian stuff.

[emlev]

41. too important a thought to be hidden in response

to my wisecrack.

But, speaking of wisecracks, since you've lost your shirt, shall I send you this cool one I got at the Portland conference? It says "A brighter future for all of us. Randy Gordon U.S. Congress." On the back it has the picture of the bottom (not back) half of a donkey. I don't know where it came from...just fell out of the sky.

Thank you so much, Landshark, for all you do. I wish you could be paid as much as your work is worth. If you want help finding ways to get your shirt back (rather than accepting the one I'm offering), let's brainstorm it here!

[mod mom]

46. Assuming that * et al have been surveilling elect reformers/investigators,

couldn't you bring a civil suit against bu$h for violating the law and our constitutional rights? This could possibly bring you a deserving fee, but otherwise most of us in the election reform world are self funded and spent out.

[Wilms]

12. Did the Snohomish County Council fear a lawsuit...

for aiding and abetting Sequoia?

Could that be done? :evilgrin:


-on edit-

Here's the corrected link from the OP.

http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/01/05/100loc_a1voting001.cfm

[Land Shark]

16. I was ALREADY SUING snohomish county AND Sequoia for

having a contract, in black and white, pledging the county's loyalty to Sequoia's positions about its machines. See paragraph 34 of the contract exhibit at www.votersunite.org/info/lehtolawsuit.asp

So, where they aiding and abetting Sequoia? Lordy, that's putting it nicely. They signed away control of our sovereign elections in their totality to whatever Sequoia's "judgment" was about anything "regarding" Sequoia machines. Signed away the county's right to free speech and thus it's duty to inform the citizens accurately. It goes on and on.

[Wilms]

20. I should have been watching more closely.

Would you consider applying the suit to Op Scans?

[Land Shark]

21. Depends on how opscans are configured with checks and balances

They can be good or they can be very bad.

[Wilms]

23. Details. Details.

I love it when we get Op Scan over DRE's or, at least, add VVPAT to them. But the HOW these systems are employed is no less important.

[eridani]

31. The lawsuit is still on, I hope?

With optical scanning, the software is STILL PROPRIETARY. Can we crack this nut too?

[Land Shark]

35. yes the lawsuit continues, it's not moot as an anti-secrecy suit

www.votersunite.org/info/lehtolawsuit.asp

[mgr]

49. Best part of win/win thread

Congrats.

Mike

[f-bush]

14. Way to go

The Governor's race last year was a mess in this state. All kinds of crazy shit was pulled by the Republicans but she won in a land slide of about 95 votes or so! That qualifies for a mandate in bushspeak!

[suffragette]

15. Wonderful news

Landshark,
Thank you for all your efforts. They helped make this happen.
:yourock:

[understandinglife]

18. K&R. Outstanding.

Peace.

[Land Shark]

19. Let's all remember that WA is Andy Stephenson's home state

as well as bbv.org and Hope and the folks at voteraction in New Mexico have support in Seattle, and Votersunite.org with all their great work, so maybe the way to look at it is that if you get the ball rolling with a critical mass, it can work

Public votes, like those on county councils, are still accountability pressure-points (even when general elections themselves are questionable)

[eridani]

61. I remember vividly Andy crossing swords with Terwilliger at an LWV event

Terwilliger is a good guy, but utterly clueless about computer security, plus the burden of resolving cognitive dissidence because he blew $5 mil on the Sequoia machines.

Andy, if you can still connect with what's going on on our astral plane--this one's for you!

[Land Shark]

22. Let's try that Herald link again, someone said it wasn't working

<http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/01/05/100loc_a1voting001.cfm>

[ClayZ]

25. Thank you! K & R

:kick:

[Rainscents]

26. This is great news!!!

:bounce: :kick: I called, faxed and put mails into election office for almost a year and I am proud I am part of this change here in Snohomish county!!!

[The Backlash Cometh]

27. How are you going to avoid election fraud through the mailing system?

Can't people with double residents vote more than once? How will you be able to double check that, especialy if they live out of the state.

[Land Shark]

36. Given the incentives to cheat in elections no system will be perfect

because given enough security to effectively prevent possible cheating, such a system would involve effective SUPPRESSION of the vote. For example, a "secure" system *might* start with voter ID, but that will suppress the vote disproporationately, etc.

The standard (in my book) is this: what is the relative PAYOFF for a given act of cheating? With paper based systems, it is a single vote, and the act of cheating creates witnesses and evidence in virtually all cases. With e-voting, the act of cheating can throw an entire election or thousands of votes, and if done with some skill leaves NO EVIDENCE.

Bottom Line: The better election system has low rewards for cheating and is easy to use (with some reasonable security checks and balances)

[Amaryllis]

53. OR has had vote by mail for years, and there are MANY checks and

balances built into the system to prevent this kind of thing. All ballots are inside two envelopes, and the outside on has a signature on it that is matched with the one of the voter reg card, and all signatures are verified by human eyes, trained by police handwriting forensics experts, and they are extremely accurate. Once the sig is verified, it's entered into the computer and if the person tries to vote again under that name, they are caught. The person would have to have dual indenties as wella s dual residences. Besides, how many people actually have dual residences? Very minor compared to the potential for fraud with E-voting.

[Festivito]

64. Mail-in makes ballot stuffing easier. Uncheckable.

Visiting the polling place allows people to count bodies at least.

With gerrymandered and re-gerrymandered districts and precincts, counts can change and who would know. Unless each voter's name were printed as voting or not in some publication of record distributed to each voter. Then the total number of voters could be checked. (This ought be done anyway... Hmmm.)

I still prefer home/library/polling-place-computer-printed optical-scanable random-and-loser-chosen-audited voting.

[Amaryllis]

68. Each voter's ballot is registered on computer when it is received after

their signature is verified. YOu can call and find out if they have a record of your ballot being received. So there is a record that the voter can check. Oregon has excellent checks and balances. But if you export the system to OH or FL...different story. But vote by mail prevents a lot of the the disenfranchisement tactics used in those two states. And since the ballots come out two weeks before the election, if you don't get yours you can go to BOE and get one so you don't have the situation with people showing up at the polling place and being told they aren't registered and can't vote. Unless they reallly aren't registered.

[Festivito]

71. I now agree with you. Thank you.

I was worried about ballots appearing after hours, but this is monitorable by the candidates who can retain counts before each day's workload is set away for safe keeping each night and verify those counts the next workday's start.

Solving many errant registrations is a real plus.

I'm a fan of mail-in voting.

Adding, I still want the ballot printable on home computers.

[Wilms]

28. Land Shark, how about suing the STATE and the vendors?

Here in CA, we're upset at the prospect of re-certification of some Diebold equipment.

With or without Diebold, there's still Sequoia and ES&S. Plus, if Diebold passes all the required tests, I figure the SoS be obligated to certify.

It seems one way to stop certification of DRE's is through legislation banning them.

Might a lawsuit against the state help? Why did you sue the county instead of the state?

[Land Shark]

37. I sued the county because I attacked the CONTRACT TO PURCHASE

I did not attack certification. I think certification is a false issue of sorts because the government (since it gets all its power and tax money from elections) can not claim to be able to "certify" machines under *any* circumstances. Private certifiers are even worse since the one's that will get the most business will be the one's that most easily or most deceptively approve the machines (a testing agency that flunks machines left and right would lose all its business). Plus the standards they are certifying the machines for are incomplete, and even if the certification standards were decent and performed properly by an objective party without a conflict of interest, even in THAT CASE, that PERFECT CASE OF DRE UTOPIA there is STILL:

1. THe huge problem of secret vote counting, not observable or verifiable by the public
2. The huge problem of long lines in financially poorer areas that can afford fewer of these expensive bottleneck machines that force voters in poorer districts to stand in long lines while rich districts vote with ease....

So, even if every dream came true for DRE supporters, the system is a constitutional and democratic nightmare. I attacked the contract to purchase as void and unconstitutional, and illegal and without force or effect FROM THE DAY IT WAS SIGNED for the above, and other reasons, even if certified 100 times over.

[Febble]

29. Excellent.

What's the score so far? NM, WA....

[MelissaB]

30. Wonderful news!

:yourock:

[Melissa G]

32. WE LOVE YOU LAND SHARK! You are DA MAN!

There are stars in your sharkly Crown! Woo HOO ! We are Celebrating with you!
We are doing the happy Shark Dance! We are Hi Finning! We are street dancing to the Sequoia Washington Dirge! Woo Hoo!:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :toast: :kick: :yourock: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya:

[Twist_U_Up]

33. front page stuff...

Things like this need to be spread far and wide we have a few months left to influence some more counties and states. Kick Rec and Nom.

[garybeck]

34. Two questions

Does this affect your lawsuit, or are you still pursuing nullification of the contract and reimbursement of the payment for the DREs?

Who makes the optical scanners that will read the mail-in ballots? Will there be audits? Proprietary software? If there are no audits and still proprietary software, don't you still have secret vote counting?

Sorry, I guess that's more than two.

[Land Shark]

38. yes the case is still on, because the issues of the denial of rights

to open elections happened in the past and even with DREs in the future could theoretically happen again at least until the machines are destroyed and a court order entered so they can't come back.

as to optical scans, that's still Sequoia. But with the paper mail in ballots being optically scanned, under conditions of a decent recount system (as seen in the Governor's race here last year) so long as Mandatory manual recounts and audits are in place, an optical system can be reformed into a reasonably robust system of checks and balances. THis is a detailed conversation that has taken place elsewhere, but yes there are still optical scan issues to be solved. However, the extent to which those are involved in my case is uncertain because the 2004 featured a manual hand recount that eliminated the optical scan risks and errors so that those paper numbers could be compared to the (unrecountable) DRE numbers. That's the whole foundation for the study at www.votersunite.org/info/SnohomishELectionFraudInvestigation.pdf

[garybeck]

40. OK, so....

the DREs are gone, but you still have secret vote counting by a Republican owned company, unless there is a recount, right?

that's what we have here in Vermont, and without mandatory audits, I don't feel much better than I would with DREs. The fact that we "could" have a recount is nice but it just doesn't happen. I don't mean to diminish the wonderful news. I just want to point out that banning DREs is a step but unless there are mandatory audits, there is still secret vote counting. And the fact that it's still Sequoia doing the counting, to me, tells me not much has changed functionally. They just have a greater risk because there is a paper trial. The skeptic in me says, all they have to do is find the happy medium in rigging an election, between being too close as to engage an automatic recount, or so far off as to engage a candidate's request for a recount. I think there's a large enough gap between there, that the "theoretical" election rigger at Sequoia still has a job.

As you have taught me Land Shark, the litmus test is whether or not there is secret vote counting and verified results. With more and more states dumping DREs and going to Opscan, we need to maintain our focus. Opscans with proprietary software and no mandatory audits do not pass the litmus test. There is still secret vote counting and unverified results.

But I want to say again, KUDOS and I'm glad WA is taking steps in the right direction.

I was thinking, since WA, NJ, OR, and VT, and possibly others, appear to be in the same boat now (DREs are gone but we're left with secret vote counting on Opscans) we should work together and pool our resources? NJ is drafting legislation now on mandatory audits.

gary

[mod mom]

42. You rock Landshark. Any chance you'd like to move to OH and take on

the big boys?

:yourock:

[Land Shark]

44. I can take them on from anywhere. Why let them see ya by moving to OH?

[mod mom]

47. If the neo-consters stay in office much longer, Ohio just might be a coast

[bleever]

45. Land Shark! Land Shark! Land Shark!

:woohoo:

[Usrename]

48. Awsome news. Great job sharky!! K&R

[Peace Patriot]

50. FABULOUS, Land Shark! Verified voting is on the march!

Election reform is a young movement, as movements go. Think how long it took black Americans to be considered full human beings under the law, to achieve civil rights and, finally, the right to vote. Hundreds of years. Same with women. It's been a lo-o-o-o-ng time since white males were denied the right to vote (because they were property-less). And long enough for women, that it seems inconceivable that anybody would mess with us now. So we have a lot to learn about those who would deny us the right to vote, about those who corruptly and collusively assist them, and about ourselves as oppressed citizens--and how to ENDURE, and how to have faith, and how never to give up.

I've seen a lot of impatience here at DU, of people who call other Americans sheeple and stupid--or who rail against the lack of coverage of this matter in the war profiteering corporate news monopoly press--as if this whining will doing any good. And I do think that the whining comes from people who have taken their rights and privileges as Americans for granted, and are finding it almost impossible to believe what has been done to them. I sympathize, but we've got to get past that stage, and face the reality of the Bush junta. We are no longer "endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights" in this country, not so long as we have illegitimate government ruling over us, having gained power with rigged elections.

But not everybody whined about loss of the privilege of having their vote counted. Some fought back with mighty brains and fired up hearts. And you, Land Shark, stand out among the many as one of the most tenacious, the most committed, the smartest and most passionate American patriot I've ever had the privilege to meet on a blog.

We have been very blessed, indeed, to have you among us.

And to have had such incredible successes, as we have had, as to public consciousness and action, over this one year period, is astonishing, really. We now have a candidate for Sec of State in Calif (Debra Bowen) who seems to get the whole picture, and is sure saying the right things. We have a FLORIDA election official--Ion Sancho--willing to stand up and speak the truth, in the midst of BushWorld. And many other things happening on the plus side of election reform, all year long, resulting from kickass activists not giving up.

I think this is a tribute to how much people in general really are paying attention. They know something's very wrong, and when we tell them what it is, they are not surprised and they want action.

But most of all it's a tribute to you, and to all of us, for our tenacity and our courage, and our smarts. The idea of America will never die, no matter how much the fascists beat up on it, as long as there are people such as assembled at the DU Election Returns and Discussion Forum after the 2004 election. It's not over yet, by a long shot. But I gain more hope every day.

A note on optiscans: It was Diebold optiscans that failed the tests in Florida. So they are not to be trusted. Considering the speed and stealth with which fraud can occur in the central tabulators--and the cleverness of the fraudsters (I think they stole quite a lot of their votes in Republican counties and precincts, for instance--at least in Calif), we need rock solid audits (I'd say a 20% automatic recount). Secret source code is of course unacceptable on its face; and I think we need to SLOW everything down. Speed only serves the corporate news monopolies--and has actually invited their complicity in fraudulent results. Accuracy and verifiability should be the ONLY considerations.

Mail-in: An excellent temporary solution, and has some good points long term as well. Far, far superior to DREs (like night and day). But why can't we have a full hand tally, while they are scanning the ballots? I also worry about centralization of anything. Just on principle. I'd rather have my local precinct counting the votes, fully visibly, where I and others can easily go watch. On the other hand, mail-in DOES help workers and the poor. It will improve turnout.

Debra Bowen is leading an effort of counties in Calif who want to do all mail-in this year (cause they can't use their DREs). I think we should certainly support that. It really pisses me off that the EXPENSE of these goddamned machines has broken the piggy bank, so they can't (or say they can't) do paper ballot voting at the precinct level.

We must also heed Al Gore's call regarding the utter corruption of campaign finance and lobbying. That is not the least of the reasons we got so much corruption in the purchase of voting systems. But save that for when we have retrieved our right to vote itself. And when we do, I think we are going to see the most amazing reform movement in our history.

Thank you, Land Shark, for all your work! I'd be glad to help out with fundraising here at DU, if you think that would be a good idea.

[Zan_of_Texas]

55. Ha, lucky me, I've gotten to meet Land Shark in person.

I know a lot of lawyers, having worked in the field for 16 years.

I was just listening to constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe of Harvard testify re Alito on Friday.

Land Shark is like Tribe -- brilliant.

Kudos!

And, I subscribe to your notion, LS, that a critical mass of voting activists such as you have in WA can move mountains.

Way. To. Go!

[flyarm]

51. great job land shark and washington state activists!! i am jealous!!

i am jealous and sitting in florida with the damn sequoia..and a dem party that refuses to admit their is anything wrong with those freaking machines!! and a dem party that calls those of us working against the machines..everything from conspiracy nuts ..to just nut cases, or calls us liars!!]

a very frustrated fly

[freedomfries]

52. thanks for your great work landshark

WA DRE-free!!tremendous news!

[Land Shark]

56. Of course, they will try to make a comeback, and in fact haven't stopped

but they are one the decline to be sure

[Land Shark]

63. Major role here by (who else?) votersunite.org of WA state....

[FogerRox]

54. Dude-- sweet-- Shark attack- sweet

K n freeaking R

[TheGunslinger]

57. "unusable come September of 2005. "

Old news?

[Land Shark]

62. should say "september of 2006" instead of 2005; sorry for typo

[mom cat]

58. Outstanding news. A lot of good work went into it!

[kster]

59. Good job, Landshark

[garybeck]

65. Reminder: Mail-in ballots are still counted in secret!

I don't want to take anything away from this great news, but I want to remind everyone that technically speaking there is little difference between counting DRE votes in secret and counting mail-in ballots in secret.

As long as there is proprietary software counting the votes (and remember it's still the same Republican owned companies) they still have the ability to rig the elections without being detected.

We have the same situation here in VT. No DREs but Diebold is still counting our opscan ballots in secret.

The next step is AUDITS and getting them to disclose their software code!

Gary

[kster]

66. I think it should work both ways

All voter verified paper ballots should be brought to counting rooms
not 1% not 10% but all the ballots. This should be automatic this way they get their e-voting, and we get hand counted paper ballots, And no count is official till both counts are done, Of course we would have get the count done in a reasonable time frame but other than that, we should be entitle to count the damn ballots if we want to, Thats a pretty fair deal, and that should be the law of the land.

[garybeck]

67. That would be ideal, but

I think we have to take it one step at a time.

In the ideal scenario, I think the machines should be used to verify the hand count, not the other way around.

Until then, we need some sort of audit, or we have a completely currupt system.

My view has changed in the last 2 years, as I learn more. At this point, if we had VVPB and MMRA across the board, I feel like I could at least rest at night.

gary

[kster]

70. You are correct

keep up the good fight. I will never rest until we take our Democracy back from Diebold,ES&S and Sequoia. They should not be allowed to count votes anywhere in our country. The Governments SILENCE allows them to continue with this theft. We are up against the election theft machines and our very own Governments SILENCE on this issue.

[Amaryllis]

69. You are right, Garybeck! Paper ballots are just our first hurdle. Scanners

and tabulators are next. But at least we have half the equation.