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The software utility, eVote and the eVote clerk, injects true democracy and deliberation into our real-world landscape.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

EFF: Breaking News - vote suit to come in Sarasota

EFF: Breaking News: "Voter Action, a national nonpartisan advocacy group focused on election integrity has been leading legal efforts nationally to address the problems with electronic voting. 'The problems in Sarasota are not unique, 'said election law attorney Lowell Finley, co-director of the organization. 'Across the country we have seen how these systems lose large numbers of votes, switch voters' selections on the screen, cause high undervote rates, add votes or even count votes backwards. Our democracy is too important to continue using unreliable and untrustworthy voting equipment. The people of Sarasota are standing up for their most fundamental right no matter their political affiliation. This is about protecting democracy.' The suit is being filed under provisions of Florida law that permit voters to contest an election based on misconduct by election officials or on evidence that legal votes were rejected in sufficient numbers to place in doubt the outcome of the election."

Monday, November 20, 2006

STOP DNC INTERNET VOTING

Posted by: "Richard King" kinggaines@comcast.net

Call the DNC: (202) 863-8000 ask them, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?"

STOP A SLEASY DEAL BEFORE ITs MADE: TELL THE DNC TO DUMP Election Services Corporation (ESC) AND Democratic bad boy: Tony Coelho, (WHO SITS ON THE ESC BOARD)

How many credit cards numbers get stolen every day on the internet?

(202) 863-8000 TELL THE DNC: "THIS IS INCREDIBLY STUPID... AND BAD POLICY "DUMP INTERNET VOTING NOW!

And pass verified voting with audits in January !!!

Democratic Party Headquarters, 430 South Capitol Street, SE, Washington, DC, 20003, (202) 863-8000 www.democrats.org

http://www.ncvoter.net/downloads/DNC_Internet_Voting_Rule_-_Memo_and_Fact_Sheet.pdf

SOME BACKGROUND, please take with grain of salt:


Democrats Send Mixed Signals in Voting Technology Debate by Lynn Landes
www.dissidentvoice.org

January 13, 2004

There's something strange going on in the Democratic Party. While George Bush's buddies dominate the vote counting business with no apologies to anyone about this rather incredible conflict-of-interest, Democrats are sending mixed signals on this continuing train wreck for democracy.

Let's start with billionaire George Soros, the Democrats anointed billionaire savior. They should get to know him better. According to voting rights activists, Soros is a proponent of Internet voting, the most insecure voting technology on face of the planet. He's also a disciple for Direct Democracy (i.e., the initiative process). Think about that. For anyone who wants to control a government, the combination of the Internet voting and Direct Democracy is a fascist's dream-team. Through control of vote-counting technology, not only could "someone" pick our legislators, they could also pass their own legislation. They could be a true Wizard of Oz.

Howard Dean says on his website, "I support pending legislation to require that all voting machines produce an actual paper record that voters can view to check the accuracy of their votes, and allow election officials to verify votes in the event of irregularities."

However, the Associated Press reported on Oct. 02, 2003, "Eight of the presidential candidates have written national Democratic officials to support a challenge of Michigan Democrats' plan to allow Internet voting in its caucuses Feb. 7. Only Howard Dean, former Vermont governor, and Wesley Clark, the retired general who just joined the race, did not sign on to back the protest."

One day later, on Oct 3, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) voted to endorse the policy of requiring paper ballots for touchscreen voting machines by the 2004 election. So far so good.

This action was in line with Congressman Rush Holt's (D-NJ) legislation to require touchscreen voting machines to produce paper ballots for audit purposes and recounts (HR 2239). Presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) is one of 96 co-sponsors. And despite the fact that the legislation does not call for a full hand count of the ballots, which many activists feel is essential to establish real security, most agree that it's a step in the right direction. Of course there are others, this writer included, who believe that all the machines should be junked.

But on Nov 22, hardly a month later, the DNC took it all back. They voted to approve the use of Internet voting for the Michigan Democratic Primary. What's up with that? Aren't they connecting the dots? No paper ballot - no security - no recount. But, there's also something sinister in the air.

When this reporter called the Michigan Democratic Party to find out which company got the contract for the Internet vote, I was told that the company did not want its name released at that time. I then called the DNC who had to approve the deal and who also agreed to keep the company's name a secret. They finally relented under the merciless scorn this writer heaped on their spokesperson.

So, Election Services Corporation (ESC) is the Internet voting company and Democratic bad boy Tony Coelho is on their board. This is a little unusual in a business dominated by the Republican and foreign corporations. Tony "was a six-term congressman and House majority whip, who resigned from Congress after reports surfaced that he had accepted a sweetheart loan from a troubled S&L operator. The loan helped Coelho buy a $100,000 junk bond, but he never reported it on his government disclosure form. The Justice Department decided not to bring charges against him," according to Slate.msn.com. He was also investigated by the State Department when he was Al Gore's campaign manager for the 2000 presidential election. The investigation was reportedly related to his work as the commissioner general of the United States Pavilion at the 1998 World Expo. As a result, Tony resigned as Gore's campaign manager.

More mixed signals keep coming from the Dems...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan04/Landes0113.htm

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Introduction to e-petitions

Introduction to e-petitions Petitions have long been sent to the Prime Minister by post or delivered to the Number 10 door in person. You can now both create and sign petitions on this website too, giving you the opportunity to reach a potentially wider audience and to deliver your petition directly to Downing Street.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Hacking Democracy

Check it out.

HBO's special, Hacking Democracy. Finding out how America counts its votes.

The Carbolic Smoke Ball: MAN SWEARS ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINE UPGRADED HIS AIRLINE SEAT FOR BUSINESS TRIP

Voter Machine Tampering -- Didn't duck!

WFMZ-TV Online Man Arrested for Allegedly Smashing Up Voting Machine

A citizens watchdog group says a national hotline set-up to report voting issues has received the biggest number of phone calls from Pennsylvania. And at least one polling place in our area got quite an unexpected jolt today. WFMZ's Jaccii Farris reports.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

There are two pages that are useful to those of you who want to help us to detect electronic vote miscount by obtaining the detailed election results needed to detect vote miscount in your location tomorrow. The data can be collected two ways:

1. through open records requests for official records, and

2. during the election and vote counting process

(laws in each state and practices in each county may differ)

http://www.electiondefense2.net/

and

http://electionarchive.net/public/ucv_select_info.php

Here is an explanation of why election data forensics analysis is needed:

http://electionarchive.org/ucvInfo/US/WeCount2.pdf

Volunteers may now register to upload election data documents here:

http://electionarchive.net

We have recently done some updates, so everything should be ready to go for volunteers to upload the data to our public archive for this election.