From: dorin... [deleted for privacy]
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 09:49:25 -0800
Subject: Re: Fwd: Diebold Machines in California
Diebold Machines in California!
Please Spread the word to everyone on your list!
DEIBOLD IS NOW OUR OFFICIAL VOTING MACHINE IN CALIF. I know I didn't
send you the first alert, but it may not be too late to SPEND A FEW
MINUTES to make your vote count at all in the next election.
OK- Here is the guy who did it- Secretary of State McPherson- 916-653-6575
Call him and tell him you find it very troubling that he chose to
have Diebold voting machines certified in Calif when they have been
shown to be extremely easy to tamper with as the Berkeley Study
showed, etc. (You can use information from the article below my
notes and tell him whatever you feel is important.) REMEMBER: If
our votes are thwarted, which is what has been happening with the
"new" voting machines, we have absolutely no say in our government,
and no democracy! Supporting wonderful candidates becomes a moot
point if the votes are rigged. This issue and the issue of a free
internet are of paramount importance. Without these 2 things,
Americans cannot be educated about what is really going on in the
world, and we can do nothing about it.I sent you the article about
the privitizing of the internet last week- Did you call your Senators
to voice your concern? Bill read a new article saying that they are
getting millions of dollars from the big boys- AT&T etc. We have
GOT to fight this! All we can do is swamp our Representatives with
calls about it.
BOXER: 415-403-0100 (OR IN DC: 202-224-3553
FEINSTEIN:415-393-0707 (DC: 202-224-3841
Now Nancy's sister just called Perata and was told it is too late to
call him about the voting machines, and to call McPherson (# above),
but I think we should still call, because it is about subpeonaing
the election industry and having a hearing, that Debra Bowen is
heading, and my information is that that has not happened yet, not
until March 2. SO PLEASE REALLY CALL about both issues, please
please, and send this to all your friends who care about anyone
beside themselves.
PLEASE CALL THESE 4 SENATORS NOW and IF YOU HAVE ALREADY, call again
& ask what is going on! PLEASE CALL THESE 4 SENATORS and E-MAIL
THE ONE SAY: "I'd like you to tell the Senator to support getting
subpoenas for the election industry and certification
insiders." If they give you more time, and you want to, you can
add "...to answer the Election Committee's questions about voting
machine programming, examination and certification."
Senator Perata- 916-651-4009
" Battin- 916-651-4037
" Ashburn- 916-651-4018
" Cedillo- 916-651-4022
E-mail Sen. Debra Bowen- she is mounting the case, and asks for
e-mails rather than calls, as her staff is busy working on this case
debra@debrabowen.com
There. I made it really easy for you!
Thee rest is exactly what came from my friend's e-mail- you can read
it for more info, but don't forget to call! It really only takes a
few seconds- They answer the phone really quickly, and thank you
and tell you they will tell the senator, and you are done!
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.
THIS IS ALL FROM BLACKBOXVOTING.ORG:
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 failedto 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@sen.ca.gov
Fax (510) 286-3885 Perata
Senator Jim Battin (Vice-Chair) R
(916) 651-4037
Jim.Battin@sen.ca.gov
Fax: (951) 653-9524 Battin
Senator Roy Ashburn R
(916) 651-4018
senator.ashburn@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@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 forcertification.
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 noaccess 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 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 ChairpersonDebra
Bowen. Sen. Bowen has to get permission from the California Senate
Rules Committee tohave 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-o ld sister and all her giggly friends can
changeadministrative 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#POST17506
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@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
ownelectoral 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
1) Vote by absentee ballot.
2) If you see one of these machines at your polling place request a paper write-in ballot
The absentee ballots will be tabulated by Diebold or other such insecure tabulator.
