Will MSNBC put this ON TV ?

[kster]

Will Your Vote Count in 2006?

'When you're using a paperless voting system, there is no security,' says Stanford's David Dill.

By Steven Levy
Newsweek

May 29, 2006 issue - Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the voting booth, here comes more disturbing news about the trustworthiness of electronic touchscreen ballot machines. Earlier this month a report by Finnish security expert Harri Hursti analyzed Diebold voting machines for an organization called Black Box Voting. Hursti found unheralded vulnerabilities in the machines that are currently entrusted to faithfully record the votes of millions of Americans.

How bad are the problems? Experts are calling them the most serious voting-machine flaws ever documented. Basically the trouble stems from the ease with which the machine's software can be altered. It requires only a few minutes of pre-election access to a Diebold machine to open the machine and insert a PC card that, if it contained malicious code, could reprogram the machine to give control to the violator. The machine could go dead on Election Day or throw votes to the wrong candidate. Worse, it's even possible for such ballot-tampering software to trick authorized technicians into thinking that everything is working fine, an illusion you couldn't pull off with pre-electronic systems. "If Diebold had set out to build a system as insecure as they possibly could, this would be it," says Avi Rubin, a Johns Hopkins University computer-science professor and elections-security expert.

Diebold Election Systems spokesperson David Bear says Hursti's findings do not represent a fatal vulnerability in Diebold technology, but simply note the presence of a feature that allows access to authorized technicians to periodically update the software. If it so happens that someone not supposed to use the machine—or an election official who wants to put his or her thumb on the scale of democracy—takes advantage of this fast track to fraud, that's not Diebold's problem. " throwing out a 'what if' that's premised on a basis of an evil, nefarious person breaking the law," says Bear.

Those familiar with the actual election process—by and large run by honest people but historically subject to partisan politicking, dirty tricks and sloppy practices—are less sanguine. "It gives me a bit of alarm that the voting systems are subject to tampering and errors," says Democratic Rep. William Lacy Clay, who worries that machines in his own St. Louis district might be affected by this vulnerability. (In Maryland and Georgia, all the machines are Diebold's.)

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12888600/site/newsweek

[Steve A Play]

1. One can only hope!

:kick: :thumbsup:

[mmarcus]

2. Awesome. Just awesome!

Hey, how come msnbc is linking newsweek?

[kster]

5. Puppets have to get their news from somewhere

:rofl:

[ginnyinWI]

18. Owned by GE.

NBC-MSNBC-CNBC-and Newsweek. Ever notice how many Newsweek reporters go on shows on those networks?

Not being especially critical, just pointing it out. Newsweek is better than Time, and MSNBC has been better than CNN--lately, anyway.

[Kurovski]

3. Wow. Is this article only online, or is it also in the magazine?

Wow.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

4. Considering it starts with..

.."May 29, 2006 issue", I'd say its in the May 29th issue of Newsweek, yeah.

[Kurovski]

6. Yeah. Most likely.

Thanks. :-)

Wow.

[SeveneightyWhoa]

7. Sucks that its in the..

..technology section though, apparently.

Should be in the "SAVE DEMOCRACY NOW!" section..

[autorank]

8. THANK YOU NEWSWEEK! Just in the nick of time. (Color Version)

Kster, you beat me to it. Someone posted it in GD too, damn. Why stay up this late, well I have my reasons.

About four months ago, I suggested that when * went below 35%, MSM would start sovering election fraud.

Well, I'm almost exactly correct because "MSN" is covering it, that's just one letter off damn it. I'll take this as validation of my prediction so those of you who forget everything I say (which is understandable), just remember this, I was right about "MSN" covering election fraud.

Good for them. It's about time. Maybe Monty can take a vacation:evilgrin:

Finally, "MSN" is covering election fraud...but ya know, what about the biggest crime in our history,
Stolen Election 2004...

Here it is in living color

The cover looks like this 


Here’s the link…

Will Your Vote Count in 2006?

'When you're using a paperless voting system,
there is no security,' says Stanford's David Dill.
By Steven Levy
Newsweek
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12888600/site/newsweek/

May 29, 2006 issue - Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the voting booth, here comes more disturbing news about the trustworthiness of electronic touchscreen ballot machines. Earlier this month a report by Finnish security expert Harri Hursti analyzed Diebold voting machines for an organization called Black Box Voting. Hursti found unheralded vulnerabilities in the machines that are currently entrusted to faithfully record the votes of millions of Americans.

How bad are the problems? Experts are calling them the most serious voting-machine flaws ever documented. Basically the trouble stems from the ease with which the machine's software can be altered. It requires only a few minutes of pre-election access to a Diebold machine to open the machine and insert a PC card that, if it contained malicious code, could reprogram the machine to give control to the violator. The machine could go dead on Election Day or throw votes to the wrong candidate. Worse, it's even possible for such ballot-tampering software to trick authorized technicians into thinking that everything is working fine, an illusion you couldn't pull off with pre-electronic systems. "If Diebold had set out to build a system as insecure as they possibly could, this would be it," says Avi Rubin, a Johns Hopkins University computer-science professor and elections-security expert.

Diebold Election Systems spokesperson David Bear says Hursti's findings do not represent a fatal vulnerability in Diebold technology, but simply note the presence of a feature that allows access to authorized technicians to periodically update the software. If it so happens that someone not supposed to use the machine—or an election official who wants to put his or her thumb on the scale of democracy—takes advantage of this fast track to fraud, that's not Diebold's problem. " throwing out a 'what if' that's premised on a basis of an evil, nefarious person breaking the law," says Bear.

"The voters are saying that every vote should count, and the only way to do this is by verified audit trails," he says. But even an optimistic scenario for passage would challenge his goal of mandatory paper receipts for November's elections. In other words, it's unlikely that every voter using an electronic voting device in 2006 will know for sure that his or her vote will be reflected in the actual totals. Six years after the 2000 electoral debacle, how can this be?

[JimDandy]

9. Newsweek didn't marginalize the problem either -- no "glitches."

They called it like it is -- a "feature." And built-in, pre-planned, knowingly implemented, security "vulnerabilities."

[Stevepol]

10. "How can this be?" the writer of the Newsweek article asks.

How? How could we be in this shape in 2006, 6 years !!! after the 2000 debacle of chads and ex-felon lists?

Because of the most lazy, obsequious, addle-brained media in the history of mankind and legislators, primarily Dems, who are if anything even more addle-brained and who are shills for the corporations to boot and suicidal in their actions.

This has been around at least since 1996 when nobody in NE or elsewhere had enough sense to check the voting technology when Hagel won his "amazing" 83% victory in NE, winning every precinct, even black precincts that had never voted Repub, a senate seat that had been Dem for 24 years. The fact that Hagel had been the leader of the company, AIS, that counted the votes in his own election, never seemed to interest our media very much. There were other things to cover of course. AIS is now ES&S, the biggest vote stealing technology in history, and that's just drop in the bucket to what is happening nation-wide right at this moment.

[windy252]

20. Thanks for pointing the Hagel issue out

I was wondering if there were any stolen elections before 2000.

[OnTheOtherHand]

22. fact check

You seem to have conflated two different elections. In 1996, Hagel won approximately 56%-42% over Ben Nelson.
http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe1996/senate.htm#NEBRASKA
In 2002, he won approximately 83%-15% over Charlie Matulka.
http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2002/senate.htm#NE

It is a huge stretch to call Hagel's victory margin in 2002 "amazing" or "'amazing'" considering that in a pre-election poll he led 82%-10%.
http://www.ncpp.org/2002SenGovPoll/2002SenGovPolls.html
But the 1996 result was pretty startling, given that the last poll (the week before the election) had the race tied at 47-47. The outcome generally was credited to Hagel's late advertising. I don't have the state exit poll data here.

[Boredtodeath]

23. Facts?

These folks don't want facts!

Just watch how many times this bogus Hagel claim gets typed here in the next week.

Facts get in their way.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

28. well, a really funny/terrible thing

Ok, North Carolina will be the big test for the
ES&S/Chuck Hagel theory in 2008.

Since our state is now all ES&S because the other chickenshit
vendors ran off in December, maybe
NC will go for Hagel in 08.

But how surprising would this be, given that NC
has not given over it's electoral votes to a Dem President
since Carter???

So, we will never know, but we will see.

Agh

[Steve A Play]

31. What makes you believe that ES&S machines

don't have the very same problems that the Diebold machines have? I'm sure you're aware that Bob's brother Todd runs ES&S, and both companies used the same ITA's that *claim* to have missed the problems with the Diebold machines.

:shrug:

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

32. speed reading ticket for you

Steve A Play said in reply to my message:

"What makes you believe that ES&S machines
don't have the very same problems that the Diebold machines have? I'm sure you're aware that Bob's brother Todd runs ES&S, and both companies used the same ITA's that *claim* to have missed the problems with the Diebold machines."


**Steve A Play - I dont know why you even made that comment.
I didn't state any such belief.

Perhaps you were speed reading, or you glanced at the wrong message, and you may be suffering from excessive eyestrain or some other malady, but that is not at all what my message said.



Heck, I could see it if my message was hand written, but it is typed.
Maybe go take another look at it, and just read it word for word.

I pretty much say what I think, and if people read innunendo into it, they will miss
the mark greatly. I do have a dry sense of humor, (part british), so maybe you don't
get the irony of voting activist's state going all ES&s and then what if Chuck Hagel
get's that state's electoral votes!

Here is what I believe, and it came from a very wise man:

"Every voting system (perhaps every system of any kind) is insecure. Making
them more secure is a desirable secondary priority, but unless we focus everyone on ensuring both
auditability and effective auditing, we're just going to create an impossible muddle.
These are examples of why we'll never be able to make sure that systems are correct or secure,
and need to focus on checks and balances, especially auditability and auditing.
I see no other implications for e-voting."

Dr David L Dill.

Steve A Play, it might be time to get some of these:

[Steve A Play]

33. You are correct on two counts

First, you are correct that I've been "speed reading" as I have little time to fight the damage caused by people here who have been repeating lies about our organization for over a year now, while we're trying to get the truth about these machines out to the public. I'm NOT accusing YOU of doing so, but it's very clear that a small group of people here has been repeating the same lies for some time now in an attempt to discredit our work. I apologize for misrepresenting the jist of your post with my response.

Try as they might, those trying to misrepresent the importance of our work are only wasting their time. Computer professionals like Dr. David Dill, Doug Jones, Aviel Rubin, Michael Shamos, and many others have gone on record in the MSM backing the findings of Harri Hursti, Dr. Hugh Thompson, and his company, Security Innovation. Without BlackBoxVoting.org, those machine tests would not have happened and these revelations would not have happened. There is nothing they can do to stop that. :)

You are absolutely correct on one other point, I do need reading glasses. Since Bush came into office, my job has been outsourced and I have lost my medical benefits. I went from spending most of my time building robotic assembly lines to produce the items in your computer, to spending 12 to 16 hours a day working on election reform issues on my computer. Unfortunately my former job has been "outsourced" and I was the one who was designated to train my replacements.

The people I trained in other countries now have the insurance that I lack, and I can't even afford to pay my damn bills, much less get the glasses I really need! You've gone on public record saying that I'm taking part in a scam.

You might want to take a second look at what we're doing at BBV.org before being so dismissive of our actions.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

36. thank you.

"I apologize for misrepresenting the jist of your post with my response."

Thank you. My post was never intended as a slight to you.
It was something entirely different.

[OnTheOtherHand]

37. Nebraska 1996 exit poll data

unweighted results:
Dole beats Clinton by 12 points
Hagel beats Nelson by 7 points

official results:
Dole beats Clinton by 19 points
Hagel beats Nelson by 14 points

For Exit Poll True Believers, that is proof that Hagel rigged the machines to boost his winning margin. For the rest of us, that is further evidence that Hagel won, period.

[MelissaB]

11. Don't forget to rate it up while you're there.

:kick:

[DemReadingDU]

12. I rated it a 5!

Thanks for the reminder!

[Berry Cool]

13. What do you mean...

"Finally, 'MSN' is covering election fraud...but ya know, what about the biggest crime in our history,
Stolen Election 2004..."?

Keith Olbermann was covering "Stolen Election 2004" way back in 2004.

Too bad more people weren't watching his show back then. You missed it. :shrug:

[Chipper Chat]

19. Keith covered it almost every night in November 2004.

He even had Blackwell on (who of course disputed ANY claim of fraud).
But coverage just withered away because no one else was out there willing to touch it. Even Tweety laughed about the "conspiracy theories."

[Steve A Play]

29. Funny he had Blackwell on to dispute claims

but he canceled two appearances by Bev Harris before he started trashing her over a video he either knew, or should have known, had been turned over as evidence in court! :crazy:

I wonder if the MS in MSNBC had anything to do with it? MSNBC pays him to 'report' and MicroSoft makes money on selling and licensing the Windows CE operating system used in the Diebold TSx and TS6 voting machines. Not to mention that NBC's parent corporation has been awarded billions in contracts from this administration.

Why don't I place my trust in Keith Olbermann? :eyes:

[Boredtodeath]

35. Bwahahahahaha - evidence in court?

I see........Bev's group is making up new shit every day.

Hey, Steve, did ya hear about the Wired coup yesterday? It seems they released sealed evidence into the wild!!!!!!

So, let's hear it - are you claiming that this "video" was sealed by a court?

AND you're claiming that Bev Harris didn't have the courage to DEFY this supposed court order?

This is gettin' goooooood!

[livvy]

14. This is a wonderful beginning to the whole story.

It's about time...(well, I guess it's actually about Newsweek...sorry bad pun.)
Keep this story out there, pass the link, etc. With the nitwit's popularity as low as it is, the time is ripe. People are ready to believe anything, even if it's the truth.

K&R

[Koyaanisqatsi]

15. I think Countdown with KO is our only hope. Contact....

Can't hurt to request this story be aired on Countdown (at least). It effects us all no matter what party affiliation (Remember to mention this. Media types are trying not to sound too "Liberal Media" -ish *rolls eyes*).

Contact emails for "The Countdown":

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

Or here's the contact page for MSNBC if you want to take the time to request this as a news story elsewere on MSNBC:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10285339/

[roody]

16. Always request paper!

[fearthem]

17. done! n/t

[Boredtodeath]

24. Bwahahahahahahaha, Keith already had his experiences with Bev

No way in hell he's touching this one.

Be sure to send Bev a thank you note for that.

Each and every day since our coverage of all this began on November 8, I have received a set of emails, some times a few, some times many, asking “Why don’t you have Bev Harris on Countdown?,” “Why don’t you run the Bev Harris videotapes?,” “Why don’t you show the voting tapes Bev Harris found discarded in the trash in Florida?”

Because she won’t let us.

I have not dealt with Ms. Harris directly, but my staff has, and though we have asked her on a regular basis to let us show these tapes on national television, she has declined.

We are running in risky waters as it is, offering a platform for tapes we can’t independently verify. But I have heretofore been convinced that she had credentials sufficient to make an interview segment with her both useful and reasonable.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6533008/ (scroll down to December 1, 2004)

[Steve A Play]

25. There's a big loss, NOT!

BBV.org has reached millions of people in the last week alone, thanks to the Associated Press, Newsweek, the New York Times and many, many other main stream media outlets.

If Keith wants to make himself irrelevant to his 164,000 viewers, so be it. :)

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/q1_06_msnbcs_olbermann_beats_cnns_zahn_hlns_grace_in_the_demo_34504.asp

Q1 '06: MSNBC's Olbermann Beats CNN's Zahn & HLN's Grace In The Demo

In the first quarter of 2006, MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann beat CNN's Paula Zahn Now in the 25-54 demographic. "This marks MSNBC's first quarterly primetime victory over CNN in the demo in almost five years (2Q01 MSNBC Investigates beat CNN at 8 p.m. ET)," MSNBC's press release said today.

Countdown averaged 164,000 total viewers in the quarter, up 41% from Q1 2005. Zahn averaged 158,000 demo viewers (down 33 percent), according to MSNBC. Bill O'Reilly averaged 450,000 in the demo (down 24 percent).

It's funny that I could pick up my phone at any time of the day or night and reach Bev directly over the last three years but Keith Olbermann has never talked directly to her! Am I that important or is he that irrelevant? I think Keith needs better 'people'. :rofl:

[Boredtodeath]

26. Wow, that'll help get this on the news

Good attitude. :sarcasm:

[Steve A Play]

27. We're having no problem getting this in the news

It's big news outside your little world. :)

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&q=%22Black+Box+Voting%22&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d

Voting machines raise security concerns
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription), WI - 22 hours ago
... Scrutiny of Diebold comes after Black Box Voting Inc., a non-profit, non-partisan, consumer protection group for elections, released a "security alert" about ...

Will Your Vote Count in 2006?
Standard-Speaker, PA - May 21, 2006
... Earlier this month a report by Finnish security expert Harri Hursti analyzed Diebold voting machines for an organization called Black Box Voting. ...

NEWSWEEK MEDIA LEAD SHEET/May 29, 2006 Issue (on newsstands Monday ...
PR Newswire (press release), NY - May 21, 2006
... Earlier this month a report by Finnish security expert Harri Hursti analyzed Diebold voting machines for an organization called Black Box Voting. ...

DIEBOLD DISASTER: NEWSWEEK JUMPS IN, COVERS LATEST E-VOTING ...
Brad Blog - May 21, 2006
... Earlier this month a report by Finnish security expert Harri Hursti analyzed Diebold voting machines for an organization called Black Box Voting. ...

Will Your Vote Count in 2006?
Newsweek - May 20, 2006
... Earlier this month a report by Finnish security expert Harri Hursti analyzed Diebold voting machines for an organization called Black Box Voting. ...

Winnebago still debating touch screens
Appleton Post Crescent, USA - May 18, 2006
... purchase. Bev Harris, director of the national advocacy group Black Box Voting, said security vulnerabilities haven't been fixed. ...

Officials warn of election errors
Oshkosh Northwestern, Wisconsin - May 18, 2006
... purchase. Bev Harris, director of the national advocacy group Black Box Voting, said security vulnerabilities haven't been fixed. ...

Voting irregularities - Diebold news
Bay Area Indymedia, CA - May 17, 2006
... The state of Iowa is trying to figure out a way to scrub Diebold clean. Harri Hursti has just come out with Hursti Report II, a Black Box Voting project.

Hits & Misses
Salt Lake City Weekly, UT - May 17, 2006
... Black Box Voting inspected machines in Emery County, Utah, and released a report detailing programming holes the group claims could be used to rig elections. ...

More E-voting Concerns Surface with State Primaries Underway
The NewStandard, NY - May 17, 2006
... Last week, voter-access group Black Box Voting (BBV) released the report of Finnish computer scientist Harri Hursti, who discovered the "back door" into ...

There's lots more where these came from, and plenty more to come! Perhaps Keith should stop waiting for 'his people' to find the news for him and pick up his own phone occasionally. Perhaps if that dipshit just read a paper once in a while he would have known that the video Bev "wouldn't let" them show was turned over as evidence in a Florida court case to overturn the election results in Volusia County, long before 'his people' called and asked to air it.

He couldn't get the story straight back then about what the status of the tape was, why would anyone believe that he'd get any story straight now? :shrug:

MS = MicroSoft NBC = National Broadcasting Corporation, wholly owned subsidiary of General Electric Corporation = One of the largest military contractors on earth. :eyes:

[kster]

30. Then again, we are getting to

that window of opportunity 4 months prior to the election and two months after when they are allowed to put some stories about election machines ON TV, because in that window the people believe that it is bickering between the parties and don't really suspect
that there is a real crime going on.

Two months after the election you will ONLY hear from the comedians again.

[Boredtodeath]

34. The question was "TV"

and I suspect, like Air America Radio, Keith Olbermann's experience with Bev Harris is well known.

Make no mistake, Bev's reputation preceeds her everywhere.

So, no, Bev isn't likely to take her claims to TV - unless Fox News, friend of President Bush who ordered Bev's book - decides to put her on.

[hunter]

21. Any general purpose computer used to count votes is vulnerable.

This includes modern optical scanners that read paper ballots.

The majority of local election officials do not have the technical sophistication required to keep these machines honest. I sometimes wonder what we'd find if we checked out the home computers of these election officials... I'm guessing it would be the same maggot nest of viruses and spyware you find on so many computers.

This focus on Diebold DRE's is useful if it alerts the public to the broader issue, but I believe the bad guys who would steal elections would quite happily feed Diebold to the dogs if they remained free to steal elections using other machines, and other methods.

Our best protection against these machines is a paper ballot. If these sorts of machines are used to produce a paper ballot then the auditing must be scientifically rigorous, and in the case of recounts, this paper ballot must be the legal ballot. Any lesser standard invites corruption.