A Florida Style Nightmare - North Carolina Citizens Demand Verified Voting Measures
North Carolina "has the worst election problem in the country RIGHT NOW according to Dr. David Dill of Stanford University. Election Officials bamboozled by slick claims of voting machine salesmen, salesmen failed to warn of flaws and limitations that caused disaster on November 2
(PRWEB) November 17, 2004 -- "NC has the worst election problem in the
country RIGHT NOW." - November 11, 2004 Computer scientist Dr. David L. Dill of
Stanford University.
"A Florida-style nightmare has unfolded in North
Carolina in the days since Election Day, with thousands of votes missing and the
outcome of two statewide races still up in the air." Steve Hartsoe, AP Newswire,
Nov 13, 2004
How can we trust our key decision-makers when they ignore
the seriousness of the problem?
"Except for the lost votes in Carteret
County, Gary Bartlett, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of
Elections, called the problems 'easily remedied and lessons learned.' " AP
Newswire, Nov 13, 2004. This is definitely a rosy view to an election where
citizens votes were lost, public totals were mis-tabulated, thousands of
provisional ballots were generated, thousands of absentee and early ballots were
“misplaced“, and two state-wide races still unresolved.
North Carolina’s
election problems will not be so easily remedied as Mr. Bartlett says. The
degree and severity of problems in North Carolina’s election system indicates
the need for serious study. Many of the problems are compounded by the State’s
reliance on non-verifiable voting systems. Problems with voting machines,
central tabulators using outdated and secret software, registration confusion,
poll worker training, provisional ballots and absentee ballots are not easily
remedied. The Board of Elections must change its focus towards election
management. If the State insists on being dependent on electronic voting, when
it is clear that the officials know very little or nothing about
it.
Lost: 4,500 votes in Carteret County - this is the consequence of
e-voting without a proper paper trail.
Omitted: entire precinct of 1,209
votes in Gaston County left out of Nov 2 Count.
Missing: 12,000 votes not
reported by Diebold Software in Gaston County.
Bamboozled: In 2003
Guilford County bought vote tabulating software that used over a decade old
technology, it was already obsolete when purchased. This software released
presidential vote totals that were off by 22,000 votes.
More votes than
cast: Craven County reported 11,283 more votes for president than cast, voting
software same as in Guilford County.
In the past, the NC BOE has relied
on the advice of voting machine salesmen and turned a deaf ear to the good
advice and warning of thousands of computer scientists across the country. The
voting machine vendors gain access to some of our election officials via a
private organization called The Election Center. This is a private, non-profit
whose “mission” is to educate and inform election officials, yet this group
admits to accepting money from the voting machine companies.
Just this
August “The Election Center” hosted a conference for election officials. The
voting machine salesmen wined and dined election officials from across the
country, giving them parties, prizes and a dinner cruise on the Potomac. Gary
Bartlett sits on the Board of Directors of the Election Center, an ethical
situation that voting activists find troubling.
Who are we trusting our
democracy to?
In 2002, Tom Eschberger, then at Global Business Systems
accepted immunity in reward for his testimony in the bribery kickback conviction
of then SOS of Arkansas, Bill McCuen.
Eshberger went on to be a key executive
at the ES&S Voting machinery company.
In 1999, two Sequoia (Voting
Systems) executives, Phil Foster and Pasquale Ricci, were indicted for paying
Louisiana Commissioner of Elections Jerry Fowler an $8 million bribe to buy
their voting machines. Fowler, is currently serving five years in prison. Voter
advocate Bev Harris alleged that managers of a subsidiary of Diebold Inc.
(voting machines), included a cocaine trafficker, a man who conducted fraudulent
stock transactions, and a programmer jailed for falsifying computer records,
Jeffrey Dean, who served time in a Washington correctional facility for stealing
money and tampering with computer files.
In March of this year, the BOE
turned down the opportunity to certify for state use a voting system that did
provide a Voter Verified Paper Ballot and used the highly desirable open source
operating system.
Over 2000 technologists endorsed Verified Voting’s
resolution saying “Computerized voting equipment is inherently subject to
programming error, equipment malfunction, and malicious tampering...”
The
continued computer breakdowns and mis-counts prove the need for a voter verified
paper ballot. This is not a receipt that we ask for, but a paper printout of a
ballot to be verified by the voter and kept by the election officials in case of
recount, audit or computer breakdown. Any computerized voting systems must have
open source code that can be publicly examined by computer scientists who have
no financial interest in our voting equipment. Funding from the Help America
Vote Act can be used to fund this solution.
The North Carolina State
Board of Elections can do the right thing by consulting with recognized computer
scientists such as Dr. David Dill of Stanford University, Dr. Rebecca Mercuri of
the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Dan Wallach of Rice University,
Professor Doug Jones of the University of Iowa Computer Science
Department.
These computer scientists are world renown and have availed
themselves to election officials across the nation in advisory capacities
regarding electronic voting.
The State can institute real requirements
based on these recommendations, including a VVPB, and allow sufficient time for
a thorough review,to ensure that North Carolina’s voting system is the most
secure and trustworthy in America.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/11/prweb178812.htm