5 Phone Calls and/or Emails to Save California

jen4clark

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Sun Feb-19-06 10:06 AM
Original message

5 Phone Calls and/or Emails to Save California

I posted this on THIS THREAD last night, but it seems to have dropped away.

(Original post composed by ms in la at CCN (Clark Community Network). She's also the author of WHO'S COUNTING.)

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I'm not playing around here and you'd better not be either. We have everything at risk-- in this state and in the nation if we don't all do a few SIMPLE steps immediately. Especially Californians, but every state is experiencing this problem now, and the window is rapidly closing ... IT WILL NOT REOPEN.

Bev Harris has provided us with the most efficient and easy strategies to take back our vote. She has spent years in the middle of this storm so we should defer to her expertise and JUST DO IT. I'll give you her simple suggestions below.

I'm sure you're aware that CA's corrupt SOS McPherson has conditionally certified Diebold's entire line here-- hackable touch screen, hackable optical scanners, extremely hackable GEMS tabulators, despite 100% public opposition-- and State Senator Debra Bowen (hopefully new SOS after Nov '06) is on the warpath along with BBV and others to try to prevent a total disaster electoral landslide from occurring in California. Everything is at stake. I am putting some very important phone numbers here and simple instructions for what we ALL need to do.

None of your contributions to your candidates -- your hard work at grassroots level-- none of it will mean a damn thing if we cannot have votes counted. NONE! Remember; It's your tax dollars that are paying for this equipment...

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Background:

The Secretary of State's office has released the UC Berkeley report which was used to inform their decision on the Diebold product line. Some relevant quotes from it:

Harri Hursti's attack does work: Mr. Hursti's attack on the AV-OS (Optical scanner) is definitely real. He was indeed able to change the election results by doing nothing more than modifying the contents of a memory card. He needed no passwords, no cryptographic keys, and no access to any other part of the voting system, including the GEMS election management server.

...and:

Interpreted code is contrary to standards: Interpreted code in general is prohibited by the 2002 FEC Voluntary Voting System Standards, and also by the successor standard, the EAC's Voluntary Voting System Guidelines due to take effect in two years. In order for the Diebold software architecture to be in compliance, it would appear that either the AccuBasic language and interpreter have to be removed, or the standard will have to be changed.

California can only run software certified by the Federal ITA process, by state law. The "Berkeley team" is saying flat-out that such certification was NOT done correctly, therefore the entire Diebold product line is illegal under state law.

The Feb. 16 California Senate Elections Committee hearing on certification was hit with no-shows by ALL FOUR major vendors (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia and Hart Intercivic). Representatives from Wyle and Ciber testing labs declined to appear. The Secretary of State's office is now "legally late" on a series of public records requests made by California Elections Committee Chairperson Debra Bowen. Bowen has to get permission from the California Senate Rules Committee to have subpoenas issued. Only three of these Senators below are needed to invoke port subpoenas.

The Plan: CALL and/or EMAIL 5 SENATORS on CA Senate Rules Committee (see #s and email addys below)

You will be requesting Subpoenas on KEY WITNESSES -- on election industry and certification insiders who did not come forth on the 16th.

The Goal: Subpoena-induced sworn testimony from voting machine vendors and errant testing labs, voting machine examiners.

THIS IS EASY. YOU CAN DO IT. YOU MUST DO IT.

FIRST:

Here is your contact list for the Rules Committee, you need not be Californian to call: Urge support for subpoenas of election industry and certification insiders who didn't testify on the 16th.

IT'S ONLY 5 CALLS. (For those who prefer to email, only 3 of the 5 Senators have email addys listed at the CA Senator website. The others have webforms which can be used by CA residents only)

Senator Don Perata (Chair) D
(916) 651-4009

Senator Jim Battin (Vice-Chair) R - but approachable
(916) 651-4037
email: Jim.Battin@sen.ca.gov

Senator Roy Ashburn R - approachable also
(916) 651-4018
email: senator.ashburn@sen.ca.gov

Senator Debra Bowen D - (Senator Bowen posted at CCN last night requesting emails instead of phone calls.)
email: Debra@debrabowen.com

Senator Gilbert Cedillo D
(916) 651-4022

SECOND - What to say:

Be quick, be polite, be professional. Here's your message: ask for "Rules Committee support for subpoenas of election industry and certification insiders who won't otherwise inform the Elections Committee as to what's going on".

The key people: Diebold head programmers, federal testing labs (Ciber, Wyle) that repeatedly certified this stuff, voting system examiners who took taxpayer money, spent hours on "security exams" on systems your 12-year old sister can hack, then repeatedly recommended for certification.

This is about volume of calls logged/emails received. Not only should YOU make calls, but this needs to go out to your list.

Polite, professional, short clear message, FIRM is what works. Read background info above.

Once subpoenas go out, that will have nationwide impact. Never before have the key witnesses had to answer questions under oath in public. That will unravel the garment, and we are so close. Demonstrate that the citizenry of America wants those guys compelled to testify, with subpoena power, under oath. Per Bev Harris..."Perjury will follow". It's our best shot.

THIRD - if you want to do more:

Below, from Bev Harris:

Next comes gathering evidence in the form of public records. I'll work with any who volunteer to send customized public records request letters, will help you learn the ropes, will suggest some really juicy stuff to ask for. This year, it is all about mentoring individuals to regain their power as citizens. Just one person can make a difference.

But you need evidence, and records requests are the best way to get it. For the power of a single records request by a single individual, look at what Joan Quinn achieved in the article called "Voting machine examiners chickening out" on our home page, I think it's the third article down on www.blackboxvoting.org .

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Bev and BBV are mentoring individuals now in private "cells", on how to take back democracy at a grassroots level. Go to her site above to learn more. She told me she just trained an 84 year old woman who will be a huge asset to the cause. YOU can DO this!

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UPDATE: Senator Bowen just posted last night at CCN:

Senate Elections Subpoenas -- How to Support My Request

Posted by Senator Debra Bowen on February 18, 2006 - 11:06pm.

Hi CCN community--

Please email me in support of issuing subpoenas rather than calling -- you will save my staff a great deal of time logging calls, and you know what kind work we have to do right now.

use this address:

Debra@debrabowen.com

This will be greatly appreciated.

This is a critical time in this fight - thank you so much for blogging this and for CARING about our democracy.

...Email is great because it is easy for us to log and report -- and we can actually prove how many emails we've received!

We are going to need an enormous amount of people power in the next couple of weeks. Together we can change this whole pathetic mess. Let's stand up for our democracy RIGHT NOW.