{"article":{"id":148653,"heading":"Diebold Approved for Cali, Protest","author":"imc repost","created":"2006-03-02 01:10:47","modified":"2006-03-04 04:54:48","last_modified":"Sat, 04 Mar 2006 11:54:48","article":"\n

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<\/a>

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<\/a>

Fax (510) 286-3885 Perata

Senator Jim Battin (Vice-Chair) R

(916) 651-4037

Jim.Battin@sen.ca.gov<\/a>

Fax: (951) 653-9524 Battin

Senator Roy Ashburn R

(916) 651-4018

senator.ashburn@sen.ca.gov<\/a>

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<\/a> -

(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<\/a>

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<\/a> (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<\/a> (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<\/a>

Article: Key Witnesses chickening out on hearing:

http:\/\/www.bbvforums.org\/forums\/messages\/2197\/10519.html<\/a>

More extensive article on Calif. certification issues:

http:\/\/www.bbvforums.org\/forums\/messages\/1954\/19353.html<\/a>

Voting system examiners blocked from telling what they know:

http:\/\/www.bbvforums.org\/forums\/messages\/1954\/17717.html<\/a>

Electronic voting machines: Who cooked this turkey?

http:\/\/www.bbvforums.org\/forums\/messages\/1954\/14337.html<\/a>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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<\/a>. 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<\/a>

To donate by check:

Black Box Voting

330 SW 43rd St Suite K

PMB 547

Renton WA 98055

-Black Box Voting<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Diebold has been chosen as the voting machine for california. See blackboxvoting.org.","numcomment":2,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2006\/03\/148653.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":148677,"heading":"Two other actions you can take","article":"1) Vote by absentee ballot.\r\n\r\n2) If you see one of these machines at your polling place request a paper write-in ballot\r\n\r\n\r\n","author":"FYI","parent_id":148653,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2006-03-02 03:59:44","modified":"2006-03-02 04:02:47","fileurl":""},{"id":148920,"heading":"absentee","article":"The absentee ballots will be tabulated by Diebold or other such insecure tabulator.","author":"Ruth","parent_id":148653,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2006-03-04 04:54:48","modified":"2006-03-04 04:54:48","fileurl":""}]}