Voting System Roundup

Short version: e-voting systems don't work and are insecure.

New Mexico's Gov. Bill Richardson knows it. On his completely reasonable preference for paper ballots instead, the governor writes, "[w]ith paper ballots, the fundamental principle of one person, one vote will be assured."

100,000+ Votes Were Errantly Added by Hart Machines in a Single County in Last Tuesday's Primary via Flawed, Paperless 'eSlate' Touch-Screen System! Discussing computer "glitches" during the Texas primary, notes, "[o]ne such "glitch" occurred in Texas' Tarrant County, which encompasses Fort Worth. That "glitch" resulted in some 100,000 votes being added to the result totals across the county's paperless Hart-Intercivic "eSlate" touch-screen voting system."

Tarrant County's Election Programmer sent two complaint letters to election officials and the Secretary of State, detailing irregularities.

Department of Justice vs. New York State Lawsuit

On Tuesday, 3/14/06 the Department of Justice (DOJ), New York State, New Yorkers for Verified Voting (NYVV), the League of Women Voters of New York State and the individual citizens who are requesting Intervenor status will have a first opportunity to appear together in court. The hearing will take place on March 14, 2006 at 11:00 AM in the US District Court, Northern District of New York, in Albany New York.

The citizens and civic groups who have requested Intervenor statusare maintaining that the DOJ action to force New York to overhaul our voting systems before the September 2006 primary risks Election Day chaos. An effective and secure implementation requires substantial time for certification, training and installation which is not possible under the current timeframes. Also, the lawsuit could result in New York being forced into hasty purchase of voting systems which are not secure, poorly tested, and which fail to reliably and accurately record and count votes. Using untested voting systems acquired in haste is a recipe for disaster.

Paper ballots were found in studies to be the most reliable voting system Well, duh.

An October 2005 report of the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that current federal standards and initiatives are ineffective and are unlikely to provide solutions to voting system problems in a timely fashion.

States that rushed to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act by the Jan. 1 deadline have run into operational failures in actual elections. The faulty voting systems acquired by these states had passed federal testing and certification procedures.

Thanks to twistedchick for the links.

Republicans Destroying Government -- Again

This time, Bill Frist is threatening to dismantle the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Bill Frist threatens to re-structure the Intelligence Committee in order to block NSA hearings

New Replies to the News over at 3rdWWWave

Evolve Your Hair to 'Attract a Mate'! by yours truly. [permalink]

"Evolution is Just a Theory"

Buzzflash sent me a blurb on the "Evolution is Just a Theory" pin.

Cute, but I don't want one. *I* want one that says

Gravity. Special Relativity. Evolution. All "just theories".

That, or a "gravity is just a theory" pin.

Introverts of the World, Unite!

Introverts of the World, Unite!

It's been so long since I've read the original essay (and written my own on arguing with an introvert -- specifically an INTJ-type introvert -- mate), it's time to revisit:

The original essay:Caring for Your Introvert. My favorite line is still the description of extroverts as "inscrutable as puppy dogs."

In our extrovertist society, being outgoing is considered normal and therefore desirable, a mark of happiness, confidence, leadership. Extroverts are seen as bighearted, vibrant, warm, empathic. "People person" is a compliment. Introverts are described with words like "guarded," "loner," "reserved," "taciturn," "self-contained," "private"—narrow, ungenerous words, words that suggest emotional parsimony and smallness of personality.

And from the recent interview with Rauch (Introverts of the World, Unite!):

Yet the uncomprehending extrovert majority imposes its own gregarious expectations on extroverts and introverts alike—compelling incessant socializing, enthusiastic party-going, and easy shooting of the breeze as norms. Introverts, Rauch pointed out—though an oppressed minority—comprise a significant portion of the population. Their quiet, introspective ways, he argued, should therefore be viewed not as a deviation from standard, but as a different kind of normal.

One of the things that Rauch notes is the "brain pressure" of being constantly with an extrovert (or squad of them). I've always thought of it as rising to their energy level. It takes work to emote the way an extrovert does when you're not one yourself, and it sucks to always get called a "party pooper" when you can't maintain it, or don't have the energy in the first place and therefore dread going, etc.

Another thing Rauch describes is that there is a difference between introversion and shyness, saying that a social event leaves him wiped, yet running a business meeting causes no feelings of reluctance or anxiety.

On "small talk" v. "big talk", after noting how draining the former is for an introvert:

[O]nce an introvert gets on a subject that they know about or care about or that intrigues them intellectually, the opposite often takes hold. They get passionately engaged and turned on by the conversation. But it's not socializing that's going on there. It's learning or teaching or analyzing, which involves, I'm convinced, a whole different part of the brain from the socializing part.

Introverts aren't actually shy -- you're just too goddamn chatty, is all.

Buh-bye!

Maryland tosses Diebold, for two very important reasons:

1. Don't Work.
2. Cost Too Much.

I heartily encourage the rest of the US to follow suit.

Next Up: Nuking Iran

Ex-U .N. inspector: Iran’s next And it'll be a nuke. There's nothing else left.

Ritter described how the U.S. government might justify war with Iran in a scenario similar to the buildup to the Iraq invasion. He also argued that Iran wants a nuclear energy program, and not nuclear weapons. But the Bush administration, he said, refuses to believe Iran is telling the truth.

[...]

Ritter also predicted the military strategy for war with Iran. First, American forces will bomb Iran. If Iranians don’t overthrow the current government, as Bush hopes they will, Iran will probably attack Israel. Then, Ritter said, the United States will drop a nuclear bomb on Iran. ”

It's the only way we can go to war with anyone else right now. We don't have the manpower -- oh, unless you want a draft, and the Bush Administration loves their high-tech movie-plot weapons anyway -- God, I bet Bush'll hit that little red button and make a pious-sounding speech on TV that's really all about the size of the Presidential Weenie.

They Decided to Invade, Then Picked The Data to Lie With

Teasing out the horror of the Bush Administration: The Irrelevance of Intelligence, and "Rational Actors", where the author confirms that the decision to invade Iraq had nothing to do with intelligence, bad or otherwise.

I underscore these points: the Bush administration was repeatedly told that Saddam was being kept "in his box," and that the best policy was one of aggressive inspections and the avoidance of war. The Bush administration was repeatedly told that the prospects for Western-style democracy in Iraq were very bleak, and that Iraq's economy and infrastructure would require the expenditure of massive amounts of U.S. funds if they were to recover. The Bush administration was repeatedly warned that, in the aftermath of an invasion, it was highly probable that violence would be directed against the American forces -- and that violence would also ensue between the various factions within Iraq.

Not only did the Bush administration misrepresent and lie about all of this to the American public and to the world: it did not make any plans at all to deal with even one aspect of these momentous problems.

Ex-CIA Official Faults Use of Data on Iraq: Intelligence 'Misused' to Justify War, He Says

"Official intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs was flawed, but even with its flaws, it was not what led to the war," Pillar wrote in the upcoming issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. Instead, he asserted, the administration "went to war without requesting -- and evidently without being influenced by -- any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq."

"It has become clear that official intelligence was not relied on in making even the most significant national security decisions, that intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made...."

Lying About FISA

The Administration's new FISA defense is factually false

Glenn Greenwald notes, Gen Hayden's excuse for the Administration bypassing getting FISA warrants "is because the 'probable cause' standard for obtaining a FISA warrant was too onerous (and prevented them from obtaining warrants they needed to eavesdrop)".

Well, that's obviously bullshit, as Greenwald points out, since the Administration, when previously offered a chance to change that very standard, said "oh, no, we're fine."

No big surprise

Get ready for the white men of the Republican party to lecture black leaders about not knowing their place

At the funeral of Coretta Scott King, the grande dame of America's civil rights and progressive activist community, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery, a revered elder of that same community, criticized President Bush, and the war, and the fact that America still has so many poor and needy. Kind of something you'd expect at the funeral of a woman who after her husband was assassinated, yet the day before he was buried, led a civil rights march of 50,000 people. A woman who spoke at an anti-war rally in NYC only 3 weeks after her husband was mattered. A woman who devoted her entire life to non-violence.

I say this because you know it's only a matter of hours before the Republican Swift Boating of Rev. Lowery and Coretta's funeral begins. How dare a black man not know his place at a funeral, they'll say. As if the Republican party and its surrogates have any right whatsoever to speak on behalf of Mrs. King, to tell black America what they can and cannot do to honor one of their most revered leaders.

A party that doesn't have a single African-American member of Congress has no right lecturing black people about knowing their place.[Emphasis added.]

The Latest From Black Box Voting -- Opening Diebold

(Permission granted to copy, distribute, reprint, or cite granted - requires link to http://www.blackboxvoting.org, credit source.)

SIX MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS FOR ELECTIONS:

1) Diebold agrees to waive proprietary claims to GEMS database files http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/17793.html

This is big, and has nationwide implications as it can open up access for Volusia County, San Diego County, DuPage County, and other areas where questions have arisen on voting machine results.

Black Box Voting has been assisting the Alaska Democratic Party in fighting for the right to obtain the Diebold "central tabulator" database files.

The crux of the dispute: According to Alaska Democrats, official results from Alaska's 2004 election are riddled with discrepancies but the Alaska Division of Elections refused to turn over the voting files to the Democrats, arguing that the data format belongs to Diebold and can't be made public. Diebold told Alaska officials it owns the "structure of the database."

Today, Diebold caved and released its proprietary claims. The formal letter from Diebold and the implications of this, which are significant, can be read at the link above.

AND THIS:

2) Though you may already have heard that the US Supreme Court is getting a case on electronic voting, you may not have seen the particulars.
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/17790.html

Pennsylvania's Lynn Landes is fighting the suit in the Supreme Court as a citizen, by herself, with no lawyer (called a "Pro Se" case). She follows in the footsteps of the founder of Pennsyvlania, William Penn, who himself fought a Pro Se case which established the power of citizen juries in English and American jurisprudence. Others who fought and won Pro Se cases include Nelson Mandela and Emma Goldman. Landes, in taking this on by herself, honors the Sufragettes, who also fought a seemingly unwinnable battle. (Until they won.)

Landes has asked the Supreme Court to examine the important issue of financial penalities invoked against those who file civil rights cases. She has also asked the court to allow her to have her voting civil rights case heard. For an analysis of the important and creative issues in her case, and to view the lawsuit itself, go to the link above, and also see Lynn Landes's site: http://www.ecotalk.org/Lawsuit.htm

AND MORE: NEW DOCUMENTS

3) Important new information is coming out by way of transcripts and depositions obtained by Black Box Voting. Grab some popcorn. These documents are available here:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/17789.html

The documents, which include personal sworn testimony by 23-count felon (for computer crimes) Jeffrey Dean, who ended up creating the programs that process ballots and votes in much of the USA, are filled with new information:

- Dean achieved remote access into several California counties for the 2000 election. He did this to run a "VoteRemote" program, and it involved transferring data back and forth from his office in a suburb of Seattle.

- Dean sold vaporware to the state of Colorado

- In one election, on software for an absentee ballot counter that Dean helped create, Sacramento County was unable to get results out of the system until days after the election

- The documents contain testimony indicating that Jeffrey Dean began programming components for King County absentee balloting while STILL IN PRISON.

- A great deal of new information is provided about how Dean got involved in elections, how Global Election Systems took over Dean's company (Spectrum), and then Diebold took over Global and Spectrum, and other information of historical significance.

- The documents also contain copies of checks forged by Jeffrey Dean.

Even Black Box Voting has not read all of these documents yet. They are hot off the scanner and full of surprises.

AND THIS: AN IMPORTANT ISSUE THAT HASN'T BEEN ADDRESSED:

4) What protects your personal information once it enters e-elections?

here are the kinds of databases that are and will be created with new e-elections technology:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/17778.html

- Massive computerized statewide voter registration databases
- Voter identification cards and voter biometrics
- VoteRemote-style electronic signature databases
- Electronic poll check-in databases
- And proposed by some companies, databases for electronic
verification of your vote

Are there any laws at all that protect this kind of information from being purchased by companies like Choicepoint, one of the nation's primary resellers of personal information to homeland security, law enforcement agents, employers, insurance agencies and direct marketing groups?

Choicepoint, according to the Atlanta Constitution and the Associated Press, has purchased voter registration databases before. It has a $60 million contract with the Department of Homeland Security, and was one of the first clients to sign up with lobbyist "The Ashcroft Group" -- run by former attorney general John Ashcroft.

Within 24 hours of publishing this story, which is about the issues that remain to be addressed in the ethics and regulations of data-brokering for elections information, the president of Choicepoint called Bev Harris.

In this surprising conversation, he revealed that his wife is on the board of directors for VoteTrustUSA. He said he did not believe this needs to be disclosed.

He pointed out that Black Box Voting erred in the article [in] saying there were ties with Choicepoint and Equifax, and Black Box Voting issued a correction in the story to that effect.

For more information on Choicepoint, see EPIC.org:
http://www.epic.org/privacy/choicepoint/

5) This story was broken by BradBlog, and it's important:

A court has ordered a re-do of an election in Ohio, due to Diebold touch screens recording too many votes.

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002379.htm

6) Volusia County poll tapes are up here:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/15675.html

Black Box Voting found numerous irregularities in the poll tapes from Volusia County's 2004 election. The images of the tapes are now posted, along with a list of the anomalies.

Among the problems:

Precinct 215: Multiple anomalies including mismatched vote counts

Precinct 303: A white rectangle appears in the zero tape and the public defender's race doesn't appear on zero tape

Precinct 305: A documented case of time travel? Reported date on voting machine is 18,000 years in the future.

Precinct 417: Doozy of a time error on results report. Poll workers noticed it, signed off on it, thinking the clock stamp on the results report was about an hour off. However, the clock was actually nearly 13 hours off. In fact, it had not advanced even one second during the entire day while the voting machine was counting ballots. This gets into a tech discussion of CPUs and clocks, and is very difficult to explain.

Precinct 527: Race # 60 recorded "zero" votes for both ballot choices (all other races did record votes). The long report shows no undervotes.

About a dozen precincts have "memory card error" on the tape. Tapes for dozens of precincts reveal that the machines were not tested before the election. Several time discrepancies, one zero report was run at 11 p.m. with results appearing at midnight.

* * * * *

RIP Betty Friedan

Betty Friedan, Who Ignited Cause in 'Feminine Mystique,' Dies at 85. You changed the world.

Time for a Revolution

Senator Russ Feingold on the Pre-1776 Mentality

If this is pre-1776, then it's time for a revolution.

EFF files class action lawsuit over NSA eavesdropping

Against AT&T, for providing access to its network and databases.

Privacy group sues AT&T over alleged surveillance

The class-action lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, seeks to stop the surveillance program that started shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks. It also seeks billions of dollars in damages.

The EFF claims the San Antonio-based telecommunications company not only provided direct access to its network that carries voice and data but also to its massive databases of stored telephone and Internet records that are updated constantly.

"Our main goal is to stop this invasion of privacy, prevent it from occurring again and make sure AT&T and all the other carriers understand there are going to be legal and economic consequences when they fail to follow the law," said Kevin Bankston, an EFF staff attorney.

President Bush has acknowledged authorizing the super-secret NSA to eavesdrop on international phone calls and e-mails of people within U.S. borders without the approval of a court, as required by existing surveillance and wiretapping laws.

Myths and Falsehoods of NSA Spying Scandal

Top 12 media myths and falsehoods on the Bush administration's spying scandal