FL has NO IDEA who runs their voting machines (don't ask don't tell)

[nashville_brook]

(big snap to the St. Pete Times for covering this! -- BROOK )

Exactly who is running the new voting machines?
Florida's counties are not required to ask.

Florida knows more about the clerk who sells lottery tickets at the corner store than it does about the technician who troubleshoots voting machines at the corner precinct. That's because lottery ticket retailers must undergo criminal background checks, but there are no such state requirements for the employees of the companies that manufacture and maintain voting equipment for Florida's 67 counties.

A Florida felon can't vote, but he or she can own, sell, program and fix the machines that nonfelons use to vote - unless counties prohibit that in their individual contracts.

That, and the worrisome possibility of vote tampering, has voting watchdog groups asking who, exactly, is behind the companies that make Florida elections equipment. "We've been concerned about this for a long time," said Pamela Haengel, head of the Voting Integrity Alliance of Tampa Bay.

Haengel's interest mirrors that of the federal government, which is looking into reports of a possible connection between a Boca Raton company, Smartmatic, and Hugo Chavez, the fiery Venezuelan leader who recently called President Bush "the devil." Smartmatic, whose chief principals are Venezuelan entrepreneurs, last year purchased Sequoia Voting Systems, which makes the equipment used in Pinellas and Hillsborough elections.

Sequoia officials have vehemently denied any connection with the Venezuelan government. They say they are voluntarily providing information to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which oversees foreign companies operating in the United States, in order to put the rumors to rest. The possible link between Smartmatic and Chavez was reported over the weekend in the Miami Herald and the New York Times. Pinellas and Hillsborough County elections officials say there's no reason to be concerned about the ownership of their election equipment vendors.

But watchdog groups like Haengel's say there should be more information about the companies that make and maintain Florida's equipment, and about the proprietary software that is used, particularly in the 15 counties that use electronic voting machines. Their concern isn't limited to Sequoia. Of the three companies certified to do business in Florida only one is publicly traded - Diebold Elections Systems, based in North Canton, Ohio. The other two - Sequoia of Oakland, Calif., and Elections Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb. - are privately held, so less information on them is available.

____________________________________

OTHER TIDBITS:

-- Diebold has contracts with 30 Florida counties;
-- Sequoia has contracts with five counties;
-- ES&S, which had employed former Florida Secretary of State Sandy Mortham as one of its lobbyists - has contracts with 32 for regular precinct coverage,
-- Some companies have additional contracts to handle absentee ballots or disabled accessible machines.

AND, MY PERSONAL FAVE...
State Sen. Nan Rich, the vice chairwoman of the Ethics and Elections Committee, said she would be more concerned about the background of the companies that sell voting machines if the individual counties didn't do a good job of vetting them through the contracts.

(this last bit might have been an occasion for my FIRST USE of the ROFL emo if it weren't so F'n evil).

[nashville_brook]

1. ... shameless self kick

[karlrschneider]

2. To be brutally honest, I'm much less afraid of foreign ownership

than of American-run admittedly partisan outfits...
:eyes:

[nashville_brook]

3. i think the paper went after the Venz thing b/c it offers a contrast

and, if you click the link and read the article, that's only a small part of the reporting. it's just a "for instance." the meat is with the issue itself: we don't know. Saddam Hussein, Michael Jackson or the ghost of Stalin could own these machines... we don't know.

[lyonn]

6. Exactly, Who Owns and Runs these machines

This whole issue is a no brainer. These are the so called important votes Americans are so proud of? Yet, we have no oversight on the inner workings and tabulations of these machines. What do they call it, something like proprietary secrets? Then we need to get the paper ballots out and let's have an honest election.

This is a No Brainer folks.

[nashville_brook]

7. we've known the software is proprietary... now the basic ownership!

it's staggering.

[nashville_brook]

11. here's a general FYI on "who owns" the vote

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2527109&mesg_id=2527972

it's an older article, but the basic idea is there... these guys are KNOWN FELONS! that little fact keeps escaping me. it was top-of-mind in 2004. this year that major fact has been lost.

[nashville_brook]

4. does this somehow ruin the rest of the story for you?

[karlrschneider]

9. Uh, did you mean to ask me that? Don't get the question...

It's interesting to me because I lived in Tampa for 16 years...and I always appreciated (er, I mean
'prishated') the SP Times...
:-)

[nashville_brook]

10. no, i was serious, b/c the critique from the "other side"

could/should be very valuable to getting the election fraud issue on the table. the bugaboo being Chavez for the Repugs, and Repugs for us. :evilgrin:

if i could, i would change my screen name since i'm back in Florida after being a native ex-pat. Orlando at the moment, but i grew up in Leesburg and later, Satellite Beach. the whole family and extended family is native. Miami, St. Pete, Jacksonville, Panama City -- ugh. i'm not happy about it. Florida makes Tennessee seem like California.

[nashville_brook]

5. edit: link fixed

[nashville_brook]

8. 'nutha shameless kickee

i'm just THAT proud of the St. Pete Times. they rawk.