SOCIAL: Black box voting threat in California -- please make some noise! ( noarchive )

Fri Feb 24 11:47:05 PST 2006

Strangely enough, Diebold voting machines have been re-approved for use 
throughout California, despite a recent UC Berkeley report and 
state-commissioned "hack test" which found that they're ridiculously to easy 
to hack, both individually and on each county's central computer.  Details 
below.

On Feb 16, the state Senate Elections Committee held hearings to investigate 
this, but all of the key industry witnesses that were expected to attend 
(from four manufacturers, including Diebold, and two testing labs) simply 
did not show up.  Details below.

The five-member Senate Rules Committee has the power to issue subpoenas to 
bring these missing witnesses in to testify under oath, but being elected 
officials, they need to know that that's what people want.  Please let them 
know!

I just contacted the five senators below (four phone calls, and an email to 
Debra Bowen, who doesn't want calls) to register my support for issuing 
these subpoenas.  Everyone on the phone seemed interested and nice.

I think the "Black Box Voting" issues (in Ohio last two elections, and now 
this) aren't getting more attention because people feel that the issue has 
already played out, and is now boring, irrelevant, and "over."  But that's 
just when you have to be extra careful!

Paul

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Timothy Rood" <tim at calthorpe.com>
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 11:39 PM
Subject: FW: Alert: Key witnesses hiding, Make 5 contacts NOW to get 
subpoenas!

> Hello friends, this is completely unbelievable, but true. >
>
>
> We need subpoenas to force these jerks to testify.
>
>
>
> Please make 4 phone calls and send 5 emails to state Senators on the Rules
> Committee. Instructions are below in bold.
>
>
>
> Tell your friends.
>
>
>
> Thanks for standing up for democracy.
>
>
>
> Tim
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: update at blackboxvoting.org [mailto:update at blackboxvoting.org]
> Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 6:54 AM
> To: tim at calthorpe.com
> Subject: Alert: Key witnesses hiding, Make 5 contacts NOW to get 
> subpoenas!
>
>
>
> Please take action and forward to your contacts.
>
>
>
> This has national implications.  For the first time ever, we have the
>
> opportunity to subpoena key voting industry witnesses to get them
>
> under oath in front of a senate hearing to investigate what the Sam Hill
>
> they were doing when they created and recommended tamper-friendly
>
> voting systems.
>
>
>
> We're sure by now you're aware that Calif. did  an about face and
>
> certified Diebold's entire line of products -- hackable touch screens,
>
> hackable optical scanners, and extremely hackable GEMS tabulators
>
> -- despite 100% public opposition and numerous attacks proving the
>
> sytems' fatal flaws and insecurities.
>
>
>
> But this isn't just California. Get these people under oath in California,
>
> and you get them questioned for the whole nation.
>
>
>
> Everything is at stake.
>
>
>
> We are putting some very important phone numbers and emails here
>
> along with simple instructions for what we all need to do.
>
>
>
> We have everything to lose if we don't all take a few simple steps
>
> immediately.  EVERY STATE is experiencing issues with secret, privatized
>
> voting equipment examined by mysterious private contractors who won't
>
> answer any questions at all about what they do.
>
>
>
> Here is the most efficient, easiest strategy to counteract shoving illegal
>
> and insecure systems that we never asked for down our throats. This
>
> action is the culmination of years of hard-core work by Black Box Voting
>
> and others. JUST DO IT.
>
>
>
> Here are the simple, painless suggestions. See below for why they are
>
> so important.
>
>
>
> This comes down to only FIVE emails, FIVE faxes, FIVE calls.
>
>
>
> Do you have one good excuse for not being able to make five contacts?
>
> On second thought-- don't think one up. Just do it, please.
>
>
>
> Remember; your tax dollars are paying not only for this equipment,
>
> but for the voting machine examiners who refused to answer any
>
> questions in last week's Calif. Senate Elections Committee hearing.
>
>
>
> WHAT'S DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS CALL TO ACTION:
>
>
>
> 1) All we need is three out of five senators.
>
> 2) All five are interested and willing to listen
>
> 3) This is the FIRST time Black Box Voting has issued a call to action.
>
>
>
> We believe grass roots calls to action lose their punch when overused.
>
> We have waited until now because, like the Black Box Voting Hursti
>
> project, we know THIS effort is highly strategic and can create real
>
> change, quickly.
>
>
>
> WHO TO CONTACT:
>
>
>
> California Senate Rules Committee. Only they have the power to
>
> authorize subpoenas.
>
>
>
> WHY DO WE NEED SUBPOENAS?
>
>
>
> Key voting industry witnesses, including all federal testing lab 
> personnel,
>
> chickened out of Calif. Senate Election Committee's Feb. 16 hearing on how
>
> this stuff got certified in the first place. They don't want to answer
> questions.
>
>
>
> Subpoenas will legally compel them to show up so they can be questioned
>
> under oath. Black Box Voting believes that perjury will follow. A plan is
>
> in the wings for what to do if/when key witnesses perjure themselves.
>
>
>
> By the way, documents can also be subpoenad - like the NONDISCLOSURE
>
> AGREEMENTS signed by voting system examiners, which reportedly have
>
> prevented them from telling what they know. And like the documents
>
> requested under Calif. public record law by the Senate Elections Committee
>
> which the current secretary of state -- in violation of the law -- has
> failed
>
> to answer or provide.
>
>
>
> HERE IS THE CONTACT LIST FOR THE FIVE RULES COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
>
>
>
> Urge support for subpoenas of election industry and certification 
> insiders.
>
> (Among those who chickened out of testimony on Feb. 16: Diebold, ES&S,
>
> Sequoia and Hart Intercivic; Ciber labs, Wyle labs, and voting system
>
> examiners).
>
>
>
> IT'S ONLY 5 EMAILS/FAXES/CALLS. MAKE THEM ALL.
>
>
>
> Senator Don Perata (Chair) D
>
> (916) 651-4009
>
> District office (510) 286-1333
>
> Senator.Perata at sen.ca.gov
>
> Fax (510) 286-3885 Perata
>
>
>
> Senator Jim Battin (Vice-Chair) R
>
> (916) 651-4037
>
> Jim.Battin at sen.ca.gov
>
> Fax: (951) 653-9524 Battin
>
>
>
> Senator Roy Ashburn R
>
> (916) 651-4018
>
> senator.ashburn at sen.ca.gov
>
> Fax: (661) 323-0446 Ashburn
>
>
>
> Senator Debra Bowen D - She is on the rules committee and
>
> is also the chairperson of the Senate Elections Committee.
>
> EMAIL ONLY
>
> Debra at debrabowen.com -
>
> (Ms. Bowen is mounting this case and will be busy preparing,
>
> emails are welcomed-- See below*)
>
> Fax (310) 318-6733 Bowen
>
>
>
> Senator Gilbert Cedillo D
>
> (916) 651-4022
>
> Fax (916) 327-8817 Cedillo
>
>
>
> This is about volume of calls logged, emails sent.
>
> Make the contacts and make sure this goes out to your list.
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>
> WHAT TO SAY:
>
>
>
> Be concise, be polite, be professional. Here's your message:
>
>
>
> You want Rules Committee support for subpoenas of election
>
> industry and certification insiders to answer the Elections Committee's
>
> questions about voting machine programming, examination and certification.
>
>
>
> A sample letter is provided below in this email.
>
>
>
> That's it. Short and simple. Polite, professional, firm. Short clear
> message.
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>
> WHO ARE THE KEY WITNESSES?
>
>
>
> Diebold head programmers, federal testing labs (Ciber, Wyle) that
>
> repeatedly certified flawed systems, voting system examiners who
>
> took taxpayer money, spent hours on  so-called "security exams" on
>
> systems a 12-year old can hack, repeatedly recommending for
>
> certification.
>
>
>
> BACKGROUND
>
>
>
> The Calif. Secretary of State's office decided to certify Diebold -- again
> --
>
> despite the new UC Berkeley report.
>
>
>
> QUOTES FROM THE LATEST REPORT, COMMISSIONED BY THE STATE
>
> OF CALIFORNIA:
>
>
>
> "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."
>
>
>
> -- (Comment from Black Box Voting: Note that Diebold has lied repeatedly
>
> to election officials and secretaries of state about this. We have 
> videotape
>
> and documents from Diebold documenting this posted at our Web site) --
>
>
>
> ...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."
>
>
>
> -- (Comment from Black Box Voting: Note that 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. It follows that 
> the
> entire
>
> Diebold product line should be illegal under state law.)
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>
> WHAT'S ALL THIS ABOUT KEY WITNESSES CHICKENING OUT?
>
>
>
> 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 also
> 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.
>
>
>
> Sen. Bowen has to get permission from the California Senate Rules 
> Committee
> to
>
> have subpoenas issued.
>
>
>
> Only three of the Rules Committee Senators are needed to invoke port
> subpoenas.
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>
> SAMPLE LETTER
>
>
>
> Senator ____,
>
> California Senate Election Committee
>
>
>
> Dear Senator ____,
>
>
>
> I urge you to take a courageous stand to issue port subpeonas to
>
> key representatives and officials from Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia and Hart
>
> Intercivic, as well as Wyle and Ciber Testing Labs and state voting system
>
> examiners who fail to appear for your hearings on this matter.
>
>
>
> I also urge you to subpoena documents as needed, including the non-
>
> disclosure agreements signed between examiners and vendors, and
>
> all other documents needed to assess the integrity of the certification
>
> process.
>
>
>
> Voters must be able to ensure that voting systems are secure from 
> tampering,
>
> either by outsiders or by insiders. If the citizenry cannot see for itself
> that
>
> elections are secure, that our votes are being counted as we cast them, it
> is
>
> only a matter of time before the very fabric of our nation is torn to
> pieces.
>
>
>
> Flawed, hackable systems have been approved that violate FEC guidelines.
>
> Some of these systems are so deeply flawed that they defy common sense.
>
> It is imperative that the elections industry insiders who were party to 
> the
> design,
>
> examination and recommendation of these systems appear before California's
>
> Senate Election Committee in open hearings under oath to answer questions
>
> and address these serious concerns.
>
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
>
> [name]
>
>
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>
> FROM CALIF. SENATE ELECTIONS COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON BOWEN:
>
>
>
> "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."
>
>
>
> "Email is great because it is easy for us to log and report -- and we can
>
> actually prove how many emails we've received!"
>
>
>
> "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.  You can always call and
>
> fax later!"
>
>
>
> Debra Bowen
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>
> THANKS EVERYONE, IN ADVANCE, FOR MAKING FIVE EXTREMELY
>
> IMPORTANT CONTACTS FOR DEMOCRACY.
>
>
>
> Thanks to M.S. English for collaborating with Black Box Voting to craft
>
> this message quickly and effectively. Her Web site is recommended for
>
> those who want to get up to speed on the history of the voting machine
> issue:
>
>
>
> http://www.whoscounting.net
>
>
>
> Recommend the Chapters on "Technology" and "The Companies" as a Primer.
>
>
>
> For more information, see the free online chapters of Black Box Voting:
>
> Available in .pdf format on the home page at http://www.blackboxvoting.org
>
> (scroll down, look in right hand column)
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>
> HERE ARE MORE LINKS YOU MAY FIND OF INTEREST:
>
>
>
> Here is a copy of the Diebold GEMS program. Thirty million votes will be
>
> counted on GEMS in the brutal battle for control of congress in 2006.
>
> Be your own "federal testing lab" -- see for yourself:
>
>
>
> http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/10519.html
>
>
>
> (Is this not ridiculous? You could teach a pigeon to hack the audit
>
> log. Your 12-year-old sister and all her giggly friends can change
>
> administrative passwords and election results.)
>
>
>
> Details: The true scariness of the Herbert Thompson GEMS hack:
>
> With Visual Basic script, a one-minute access by anyone -- even
>
> years ahead of time -- can implant a trojan horse. Thompson's
>
> script demonstrated May 2 in Leon County, Florida was able to
>
> make "intelligent guesses" to find names and ballot questions and
>
> then manipulate them.
>
>
>
> http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/19304.html?1140298038#POST1750
> 6
>
>
>
> Article: Key Witnesses chickening out on hearing:
>
> http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/10519.html
>
>
>
> More extensive article on Calif. certification issues:
>
> http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/19353.html
>
>
>
> Voting system examiners blocked from telling what they know:
>
> http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/17717.html
>
>
>
> Electronic voting machines: Who cooked this turkey?
>
> http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/14337.html
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>
> IF YOU WANT TO DO MORE:
>
>
>
> Now comes gathering evidence in the form of public records.
>
>
>
> Black Box Voting will work with any who volunteer to send customized
>
> public records request letters. We will help you learn the ropes, will
>
> suggest strategic records to start collecting NOW to protect Election 
> 2006.
>
>
>
> This year, it is all about mentoring individuals to regain their power as
>
> citizens. It takes no more effort to write a public records letter than to
>
> write your congressman -- but when you write for public records, you
>
> end up with something tangible: Evidence.
>
>
>
> To participate in the 2006 Election Cleanup Crew, email
>
> crew at blackboxvoting.org. Please allow a few days to respond, due to
>
> our heavy schedules -- this is a one-on-one, personalized project, and
>
> we are so very proud of the many citizens who are stepping up to the
>
> plate.
>
>
>
> We are quietly developing leaders in "cells" throughout the country,
>
> helping citizens learn the skills to oversee their own government.
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>
> Black Box Voting is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501c(3) organization
>
> that is teaching citizens how to take back oversight of our own
>
> electoral process.
>
>
>
> We do not accept funding from any vendor or anyone associated
>
> with any corporation that stands to benefit from electronic voting.
>
> We are funded solely by citizen donations.
>
>
>
> Our expenditures right now are dedicated to further work with
>
> Hursti and specific one-on-one empowerment and training of local
>
> citizens, mentoring how to take effective action to collect evidence
>
> that will help protect Election 2006.
>
>
>
> We need to make sure we can survive into the 2008 presidential
>
> election cycle. If you believe our work is important and should continue,
>
> here's how:
>
>
>
> To donate by credit card: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
>
> To donate by check:
>
> Black Box Voting
>
> 330 SW 43rd St Suite K
>
> PMB 547
>
> Renton WA 98055
>
>
>
>
>
> -Black Box Voting
>
>
>
> ,
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe, send an email to: unsubscribe-160264 at elabs3.com with the
> address: tim at calthorpe.com in the subject line.
>
>
>
> 