The last two presidential elections were clouded, to say the least. The mainstream media went on with business as usual, while private citizens went sleuthing. The results is a diversity of grassroots investigation and activism. I am now viewing fair elections activism as a branch of the civil rights struggle that has gone on for decades.
Last week, Elizabeth Walters of Seattle organized a Forum. She is a political activist and volunteer who has chosen the issue of fair elections as her major focus, and considers it the question that really matters in the 2006 and 2008 elections. The event was essentially about preserving democracy in America. Co-sponsors were local party districts, local progressive talk radio, Code Pink and the Backbone campaign. Three Forum participants were included, and a moderated discussion followed.
Bev Harris, author of “Black Box Voting – Ballot Tampering in the 21st century” and founder of Blackboxvoting.org, a consumer protection organization that helped prove that voting machines can be hacked. Paul Lehto, consumer protection attorney, recently won a citizen’s lawsuit against Sequoia Voting Machines. Richard Borkowski, computer consultant and activist, demonstratedin person how to secretly reverse election results and he did it in a few seconds.
Bev Harris reminded us that election fraud has historically been a possibility, starting from the local level, because money flows through the system. If you are a developer, contractor or common criminal, there might be a motivation to try to influence law and lawmakers. Jim Crow laws and poll taxes have troubled our history. With devious manipulation possible, computer technology takes potential for fraud to a new level. The strategy of Black Box Voting is to identify “attack points” in present-day voting systems.
It’s not just about hardware and software but also vote authentification, vote casting, date/ballot transfer, data consolidation, results/reporting and the final canvas. Electronic systems require an update for the criminal-minded who would tamper with elections. It is now possible to pre-stuff memory cards to, in effect, “roll over the odometer" during elections. Elections can be and have been hacked, and it’s not so hard to demonstrate with a “mock election.”
Machines can be wireless-enabled and remote access made possible. The central tabulator can be altered. Extra code can be added to restart the count at a certain threshold. Ballot-reading machines can be tampered with by altering their sensitivity. Mail-in ballots can be vulnerable, as many counties “outsource” sorting and transfer that occurs from the time ballots leave the post office. My own county uses a company called PSI, that employs convicted felons. It was a computer fraud felon who developed the program which compares signatures on the ballot and the envelope. Recognition tolerance for matching can be altered.
Richard Borkowski is a lifelong computer afficionado. He was astounded and flabbergasted when he learned how easily an election can be hacked. He demonstrated it to us in just a few seconds, using a couple of hypothetical guys named Bush and Kerry. He reminded us that our elected officials are supposed to represent “We the People” and that we have the right to a secret ballot. He reminded us of the prevalence of bank fraud and identity theft now that large computerized databases are commonplace.
Many of our Secretaries of States have “outsourced” the election process to private venders who consider voting software and actual votes their “intellectual property.” The software is proprietary, therefore secret. We do not know if it contains codes capable of altering data or if there is remote access. From time to time, there are media stories about “lost votes” or “overcounts” but they are generally buried on page 16. The media is not providing oversight. We the people must take back our elections for corporations and corporate media.
Paul Lehto is active in the voting rights and democracy movement. He views organizations such as NAACP and Black Box Voting as branches on the same tree. He believes in one person/one vote and that the ballot represents democracy. He sued Snohomish County, WA because he believed the public had the right to transparent elections. As a result of his lawsuit, Sequoia machines were dumped as of September, 2005.
He urged us to get involved. Here are ways:
Websites like http://www.blackboxvoting.org and http://www.bradblog.com have Activist sections with downloadable materials to get you started as well as associated blogs and forums.
Attend this important event or get involved in your area:
Ask Congress to Make Our Voting Machines Secure! Come to Washington, D.C. on April 6 & 7 to Advocate for H.R. 550 and Voter Verified Paper Records!
Sign up athttp://www.icountcoalition.org/dclobby.html
H.R. 550, a bill introduced by Rep. Holt of New Jersey, would protect the integrity of our elections by requiring a voter verified paper record of every vote, requiring mandatory random hand counted audits to verify the accuracy of electronic tallies, and prohibiting the use of secret software and wireless communication devices in voting machines. The recent change in leadership of the Committee on House Administration has created a new opportunity for passage of this vital election integrity measure. Previous constituent meetings in June and August of 2005 were a huge success, generating 24 new co-sponsors of the bill from both parties. Please join us in Washington, D.C. on April 6 and 7 to build even greater bipartisan support for this critical bill.
Message from Elizabeth:
Can we be sure we actually had a fair election among those who did vote? Can we be sure we will actually have a fair election the next time? Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Diebold, and Sequoia are the companies primarily involved in implementing the new voting stations throughout the country. All three have strong ties to the Bush Administration. The largest investors in ES&S, Sequoia, and Diebold are government defense contractors Northrup-Grumman, Lockheed-Martin, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and Accenture. Diebold hired Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC) of San Diego to develop the software security in their voting machines (SAIC has very close ties to the National Security Agency (NSA spy agency)). A majority of officials on SAIC's board are former members of either the Pentagon or the CIA including: - Army Gen. Wayne Downing, formerly on the National Security Council - Bobby Ray Inman; former CIA Director - Retired Adm. William Owens, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - Robert Gates, another former director of the CIA. So we have a CIA/military private firm that programmed the security in the voting machines for companies owned by some of the largest military contracts in the country.
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