Diebold TSx Going Under Scrutiny

Remember kids, I worked with these an election inspector in San Diego. I was not impressed. There was the fact that there were two executables on the PC card, there were multiple reboots, there was the guy who said his vote kept changing when he tried to cast it, and, of course, the complete mismatch in physical voter count v. ballots the machine said were issued.

And then there are other problems with anything that runs on a fricking Access DB.

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Permission to reprint granted, with link: http://www.blackboxvoting.org

BLACK BOX VOTING INVITED TO HACK DIEBOLD VOTING MACHINES

Nov 23, 2005: The California Secretary of State has invited Black
Box Voting to hack away at some Diebold voting systems. The testing
is set for Nov. 30, 2005.

Diebold Election Systems has been trying to re-certify its “TSx” touch-
screen machines in California. Diebold has added stronger passwords
and encryption, but even the consultant hired by California to evaluate
the system reported that the voting system remains vulnerable to
alteration of vote results. (More on consultant report and vulnerabilities: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/14296.html)

This week, officials at the California Secretary of State's office invited
Black Box Voting, a nonprofit, nonpartisan watchdog group for elections,
to try hacking into the Diebold system. A specific testing protocol was
provided by Diebold and the California Secretary of State’s office.

Though the opportunity was welcomed by Black Box Voting, negotiations
remain on the procedures. Black Box Voting contends that the proposed
testing violates California Election Code §19202, which governs the
request for voting machine testing formally submitted to the state of
California by Black Box Voting on June 16, 2005. Also, Black Box Voting
identified areas of bias in the proposed procedures, which would violate
normal scientific protocol and cause voters to lack confidence in the results.

At issue is Diebold’s insistence on being involved in setting up the testing
procedures, and Diebold’s provision of hand-picked machines, using new
voting systems not currently in use in California.

LET'S LOOK AT WHAT'S AT STAKE FOR DIEBOLD:

Black Box Voting had formally requested replication of the work by experts
Harri Hursti and Dr. Herbert Thompson. If Diebold does not survive the tests,
the firm may face a nationwide product recall, rivaled in notoriety only by the
exploding gas tank fiasco that afflicted the Ford Pinto. Diebold is dependent
on a particular outcome. Failing this test might cost them their elections business
altogether.

Diebold’s stake in the outcome is compounded by financial problems in the
Diebold ATM division, which produced a restatement of corporate profits and
caused a significant collapse in stock prices.

Though the formal request for replication of Black Box Voting security tests
was made over five months ago, Diebold delayed the test required by §19202
for more than five months. Diebold is now “permitting” the testing only under
conditions Diebold controls, using machines only Diebold provides.

THE PROPOSED PROCEDURES CONTAMINATE THE RESULTS

Black Box Voting has offered to resolve procedural defects in such a
way as to “enhance public confidence” as required by §104 (c) in the
California certification procedures. Instead of voting machines hand-
picked by the vendor which have never been used in elections, Black
Box Voting wants to test a randomly selected voting system used in
the last election -- the machines that elected the California governor
and the president.

Black Box Voting also proposes selecting machines from county
elections offices which have not shown a bias for Diebold, recommending
Alameda County for the evaluation of the touch-screens and Placer,
Modoc, Trinity or Santa Barbara County for evaluation of the optical
scan system. Within these counties, Black Box Voting proposed random
selection of the machine. The five counties suggested by Black Box
Voting are the Diebold customers who did not take part in a pro-Diebold
advertisement copied on back of the official flyer containing the agenda
for the certification hearing. Sec. State’s office’s Bruce McDannold
disavowed the flyer, saying his office had nothing to do with its distribution.

The scientific method attempts to minimize bias by removing the influence
of any party who profits from one outcome or another. In testing, those
who design the system are not supposed to be the same as those who
test the system.

Therefore, Black Box Voting is confident that the California Secretary
of State will comply with these reasonable adjustments.

# # # # #

Australian Aborigines and Welfare

Aborigine leader warns on welfare

A prominent Aboriginal leader has called for a radical overhaul of Australia's benefits system to help native communities escape from poverty.

Noel Pearson has warned that a reliance on state handouts has caused psychological harm in many settlements.

National Indigenous Times
Traditional Aboriginal Music
ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIA ART & CULTURE CENTRE - ALICE SPRINGS

Doing More than Soothing the Savage

How singing unlocks the brain

All I can say is my Grandma seemed a lot happier and alive, once she moved in with her sisters in Tennessee, got some meds for her dementia, and started singing and playing guitar with her siblings.

Wow

Using Ocean Waves to Power Desalination

Oh, how terribly clever.

Edwards: I was wrong

The world desperately needs moral leadership from America, and the foundation for moral leadership is telling the truth.

George Bush won't accept responsibility for his mistakes. Along with Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, he has made horrible mistakes at almost every step: twisting intelligence to fit their pre-conceived views about Iraq's threat; failed diplomacy; not going in with enough troops; not giving our forces the equipment they need; not having a plan for peace.

I think Senator Edwards is too kind: twisting intelligence to fit pre-conceived views is not a "horrible mistake". It was not a mistake at all. It was deliberate.

Going to be Ruined? Try "Has Been"

McCain: Torture Ban Needed for U.S. Image

I feel about John McCain the way a lot of people feel about Colin Powell: he failed to stand up when necessary, and is thus a failure. His moral authority has been squandered.

Going to be ruined? Try already has been ruined.

Why is it so hard for a representative of the people to speak the truth? I think we should ban incumbents' campaigning or something.

Indigenous People and Unrest in Columbia

Columbia Unrest

I read a couple of articles that talked about FARC when I was writing a paper on guerrilla warfare earlier this year (for my international humanitarian law class), but there was nothing on indigenous peoples' issues.

Columbia timeline

What Happened to the U.S.?

Carter 'Disturbed' by Direction of U.S.

"Everywhere you go, you hear, 'What has happened to the United States of America? We thought you used to be the champion of human rights. We thought you used to protect the environment. We thought you used to believe in the separation of church and state,'" Carter said Friday at Unity Temple.

Huh. I wonder if Jimmy could win if he ran in '08.

Genetic Component to Loneliness?

Loneliness could be in your genes

The researchers suggest that loneliness may stem from prehistoric times, where hunter-gatherers may have deliberately shut themselves away from others so they did not have to share food.

That would have meant they were better nourished and therefore better able to survive and have children.

Um. How? That is one of the most astonishingly simplistic explanations I've ever heard for anything as complex as the human psyche. How is someone who hides themselves away from other people going to survive better, much less attract a mate? Survival is more than the eating of food, you know.

I mean, honestly.

First, hunting and gathering - both - are communal activities. Human beings, you may have noticed, are soft, squishy, and don't have sharp teeth. We're such awful natural hunters that we have to make spears and knives and stuff, to compensate for our complete lack of claws or ability to run quickly on four legs, and we have to work together to kill one fricking gazelle.

How, pray tell, is refusing to share food ever going to get Thag invited on a hunt again?

And what about Ooga? Who gathers tubers and insects and plants in a squad of other women and youngsters - some watching for danger from outside, some watching over each other, and some grinding nuts into a tasty paste, even though there's no grape jelly, or come to mention it, bread, for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Back then, kids, we were all Communists. I know, I know, but we were.

Second, did I not just mention our complete lack of predatory characteristics? A lone human can't watch his or her back, even with one of those cool spear thingies.

In kindergarten we learn the most fundamental lesson of human society: share. For alone, you die.

Loneliness may be in my genes, but it's not to make me a reclusive lone hunter-gatherer.

America's Moral Crisis

Buzzflash makes a darn good point in their comments on the review of Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis by Jimmy Carter, in the St. Petersberg Times:

Carter, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is living proof that the radical right wing fundamentalists don't give a hoot about Christ. Otherwise, they would have embraced him and his presidency.

That's a darn good point. A darn good point.

Oh, and blaming the CIA for 'bad intel'? Maybe not so much.

Prewar CIA report questioned al Qaeda-Iraq ties (Well, so did I, and no one listened to me, either.)

CNN on Thursday obtained a CIA document that outlined the history of the claim, which originated in 2002 with a captured al Qaeda operative who recanted two years later.

The CIA report appears to support a recently declassified document that revealed the Defense Intelligence Agency thought in February 2002 that the source, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, was lying to interrogators.

Habeas Corpus? What's That?

Senate Bars Detainees From Filing Lawsuits

The Senate voted Thursday to bar foreign terror suspects at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from filing lawsuits in American courts to challenge their detentions, despite a Supreme Court ruling last year that granted such access.

As TalkLeft put it, No Habeas for Them, No Habeas for Us.

GAO Says 2004 Election Stolen

Powerful Government Accounting Office report confirms key 2004 stolen election findings

Several of the details the article lists are things I have observed with my own eyes, while working as an election inspector in California, in March 2004.

GAO's report (PDF)

Greenhouse Gas projected increase

Greenhouse gases 'to rise by 52%' by 2030.

The IEA's warning comes at a time when the Kyoto climate change agreement calls on developed nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions to 5% below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

There are days when I fear for our survival as a species.

Bird Flu Map

How Bird Flu Has Spread