[ale] OT Fwd: The Fate of Electronic Voting is Being Debated: Informed Testimony is Urgently Needed!
James P. Kinney III
jkinney at localnetsolutions.com
Tue Jul 24 15:21:03 EDT 2007
GAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!
I read the bill S1487. At least as much as I could. These people have no
ethics at all. Either party. It is basically a "we run everything and
that's the way we like it" bill.
We could eliminate the foreign oil dependency by hooking up electrical
generators to the flywheels formed by Ben Franklin and Thomas
Jefferson's graves.
They should all receive faxed images of the gaping-asshole guy from the
remote wireless exploit at the last blackhat briefings.
It is disgusting to think that those people make more than 95% of the
population and that's the best they can do.
On Tue, 2007-07-24 at 14:21 -0400, aaron wrote:
> In case you were going to be bored in the next couple hours...
>
> ---------- Forwarded Message ----------
> Subject: The Fate of Electronic Voting is Being Debated:
> Informed Testimony is Urgently Needed! [ed]
> Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 10:47:32 -0000
>
> Citizens have until 5:00 PM Tuesday, July 24th, to fax / email their
> testimony to the Senate Rules Committee on S1487, Senator Diane
> Feinstein's weak election reform bill, which threatens to eliminate
> the ban on paperless electronic voting contained in Rep Rush Holt's bill,
> HR 811. Georgia election officials oppose HR 811 because it threatens their
> Zero-Evidence system of paperless electronic vote fruad in Georgia;
> Defenders of Democracy supports HR 811 for the same reason.
>
> Take These Actions NOW
>
> 1. Submit your public testimony to Senator Feinstein for the Wednesday, July
> 25th, Rules and Administration Committee Hearing on S 1487. Testimony MUST
> be received by Tuesday 5PM and it will be included in official record.
>
> Send email to: sue_wright at rules.senate.gov
> or fax to: Sue Wright 202 224 5400
>
> State BEFORE your comments that you are providing testimony or comments for
> submission into the record of S1487 hearings. Including your name,
> organization, address, and other pertinent contact information, and be sure
> that it is submitted by 5 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday.
>
> Please include this list of recommendations for amendments to S1487.
> Remember that the MOST CRUCIAL thing for 2008 will be the independent
> audits - sufficient manual counts of voter verifiable paper ballot
> records. Items 6-14 will be crucial in providing secure, fair, and
> auditable elections procedures now completely unavailable in Georgia,
> though items one through six are necessary as well. Email and fax
> these recommendations to the Rules Committee Members and to your own Senators:
> http://electionmathematics.org/em-legislation/S1487Amendments.pdf
>
> 2. Contact Senator Feinstein's office now regarding the shortage of credible
> participants with the appropriate expertise in math and computers science
> testifying in the hearing panels.
> Senator Feinstein's number is 202/224-3841.
>
> The above information is a short list of a detailed set of actions items
> suggested
> to amend the bill with meaningful standards. The complete action list,
> together
>
> with a list of Senators and their live contact links can be found at:
>
> http://www.defendersofdemocracy.com/drupal/node/188
>
> as well as below. Contact information for key Senators, including Georgia's
> Saxby
> Chambliss, who is on the rules committee, are included.
> -------------------------------------------
>
> Action Alert: Please Act Now to Save Our Democracy!
>
>
> What is Happening in the US Senate?
>
> Wednesday July 25th S1487 Senate Hearing -
>
> Tuesday Deadline to Submit Testimony
>
> The National Election Data Archive is sending out this first in a two-part
> alert, to let people know that election reform is endangered in both the US
> House and US Senate; and to ask everyone to make a small effort this week
> and next week to achieve integrity in the 2008 election.
>
> According to The New York Times, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of
> California and the chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee, said she has
> decided against seeking any major changes in voting equipment before 2010.
>
> "My sense is there's no way to get this thing in place by the election of
> 2008," Ms. Feinstein said. "Without adequate time, we could cause real
> problems in the election."
>
> On July 25th, 2007, at 10:00 AM, the Senate Committee on Rules and
> Administration will hold hearings on S. 1487, the Ballot Integrity Act.
>
> The Senate Rules Committee hearing scheduled for July 25 has a very
> unbalanced list of participants. The list is heavily weighted with
> unapologetic opponents of voter verified paper ballots. They selected
> Michael Shamos to give testimony while ignoring more respected experts in
> computer science and mathematics. Shamos is noted for saying, "...I believe
> I and the republic will survive if a president is elected who was not
> entitled to the office."
>
> The Senate hearings fail to include any recognized experts who support a
> tangible record of the vote. For the hearing to have any balance at all,
> recognized electronic voting experts should be included. Creditable voting
> system experts who should be included in this panel: Dr. David Dill of
> Stanford, the founder of the Verified Voting Foundation and
> VerifiedVoting.org, and Dr Barbara Simons, former President of the
> Association for Computing Machinery, the world's largest association of
> computing professionals.
>
> Wednesday witnesses for Senate Hearing
>
> The hearing will consist of 2 panels, with the following witnesses
> testifying:
>
> Panel 1:
>
> The Honorable Deborah L. Markowitz, Vermont Secretary of State, Montpelier, VT
> (Representing National Association of Secretaries of State)
>
> Mr. George N. Gilbert, Director, Guilford County Board of Elections,
> Greensboro,
> NC
>
> Ms. Wendy Noren, Boone County Clerk, Columbia, MO
> (Representing National Association of Counties)
>
> Dr. Michael I. Shamos, Professor, School of Computer Science, Carnegie
> Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
>
> Mr. Ray Martinez, Policy Adviser, The Pew Center on the States, Former
> Member, Election Assistance Commission, Austin, TX
>
> Panel 2:
>
> Ms. Mary Wilson, President, League of Women Voters, Washington, DC
>
> Mr. Doug Lewis, Executive Director, The Election Center, Houston, TX
>
> Ms. Tanya Clay House, Director of Public Policy, People for the American
> Way, Washington, DC
>
> Talking Points
>
> According to the NY Times, Congress is considering postponing the
> replacement of any existing flawed DRE equipment (even paperless DREs) until
> 2012 which means that no manual counts of Voter verifiable paper ballots can
> be required to check machine counts until 2012.
>
> The MOST CRUCIAL thing for 2008 is to require independent audits - manual
> counts of voter verifiable paper ballot records. Without 2008 deadlines for
> replacing paperless DREs and requiring valid manual audits, New Mexico would
> be the only state which conducts independent manual checks of unofficial
> machine outcomes in 2008. A few other states, like California and North
> Carolina, would conduct some publicly held hand counts to check the accuracy
> of their machine vote counts. A few other states conduct election audits
> after the outcomes are certified or conduct internal sham audits which do
> not verify the accuracy of the unofficial tallies.
>
> Moving all HR811's deadlines to 2012 would leave us wide-open to vote fraud
> and miscount switching who wins office in 2008. Software disclosure is
> complex and takes many years to accomplish in any meaningful way and could
> be properly addressed in federal legislation in 2009 and beyond if election
> results in 2008 are accurate.
>
> DRE voting machines:
>
> 1. are more expensive to use than opti-scan machines. Some the DRE
> paper-printers come at a price tag of some $2000 apiece. DREs w/ printers
> cost much more than paper ballot opscan systems. The costs for adding
> cash-register receipts to current DRE voting systems exceeds the costs of
> replacing DRE voting systems with opti-scan paper ballot voting systems
> within 4 years.
>
> 2. do not provide accessibility for as many disabled voters as ballot
> marking devices like the AutoMARK,
>
> 3. do not provide the ability to verify the accuracy of paper ballot records
> for disabled voters
>
> 4. create longer lines
>
> 5. violate all voters' privacy by storing ballot records in sequential
> order, the same order as voters enter each polling booth. It particularly
> violates the privacy of voters with disabilities who must all vote on the
> same DRE machine outfitted for voters with disabilities and have all their
> ballots stored on the same DRE paper roll.
>
> 5. subject voters to Denial of Service attacks
>
> 6. make elections vulnerable to touch-screen calibration and touch-screen
> delay problems which switch votes to the wrong candidates
>
> 7. can be used by hackers to subvert election audits
>
> 8. make elections vulnerable to electronic failures, power outages, and
> hacking
>
> 9. have been shown in every independent audit so far to inaccurately record
> votes
>
> 10. paper-roll ballot records fail to accurately record votes according to
> recent tests in New Jersey, "Tests Find Flaws in Printer Performance, Could
> Jeopardize Election Accuracy". "If a mechanical error or malfunction occurs
> (such as a paper jam, running out of paper, paper torn in half, or paper
> inserted improperly), the DRE displays an error message on the screen to the
> voter, but no warning signals are sent to notify the election officials at
> the polling place. The DRE does not suspend voting operations. The voter has
> the opportunity to continue voting and cast the vote but the paper record is
> not printed. The vote is, however, electronically recorded....
> "print-and-disappear-from-view" feature. E-voting systems can print
> erroneous paper records to match erroneous electronic records, despite every
> effort of voters to ensure that it does not. Here is how it works in
> practice on New Jersey: When you are just about ready to cast your vote
> after marking your choices on the electronic voting machine, the system
> prints a voter-verifiable paper record -- so that you can review it, and
> affirm that your choices were accurately recorded. If you felt it was
> incorrect, you can "cancel" that record and go back to any of the contests
> on the ballot using the electronic machine, and re-select. Ready again to
> cast your ballot? Checking the paper record, you see it still doesn't
> reflect what you want. You cancel a second time. Now you're on your last
> try, so you mark your choices carefully. You're ready to cast, but the
> voter-verified paper record prints -- and then quickly drops into the locked
> receptacle, too quickly for you to have the opportunity to review it."
> https://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6488
>
> 11. are susceptible to malicious undetectable subversion of elections in
> ways even audits cannot detect, and
>
> 12. inaccurately record votes as shown in every independent election audit
> so far
>
> Just why do our election officials want us to pay for a computer for doing
> what takes able-bodied voters 10 minutes perhaps once/year.
>
> Not requiring paper ballots because some voters have disabilities that
> prevent them from seeing and verifying paper ballots, would be like banning
> fire hydrants because fire hydrants are not accessible for persons with
> disabilities.
>
> We need YOU to ACT NOW to ask that there are 2008 deadlines for replacing
> paperless DRE voting machines and for requiring independent manual audits.
>
> Talking Points
>
> Elections must
>
> 1. be publicly verifiably accurate, and
>
> 2. allow all legally registered voters a convenient opportunity to vote
>
> We need election reform that requires:
>
> 1. Pre-printed paper ballots and paper sign-in systems for all voters at
> polling locations in case of electronic failures
>
> 2. Independent manual counts of voter-verified paper ballots sufficiently to
> ensure correct machine counts of election outcomes
>
> 3. Public scrutiny of ballot security procedures
>
> 4. Public access to election records necessary to verify the integrity of
> independent manual counts
>
> It is JULY 2007. The November 2008 election is 16 months away. It takes
> from 6 months to one year to replace voting systems. Almost every
> jurisdiction already uses opti-scan paper ballots for mail-in absentee
> ballot and overseas voting, so training requirements would be minimal. (1)
> there is enough time and (2) there is enough equipment.
>
> Take These Actions NOW
>
> 1. Submit your public testimony to Senator Feinstein for the Wednesday, July
> 25 Rules and Administration Committee Hearing on S 1487 - MUST be received
> by Tuesday 5PM and it will be included in official record -
>
> fax Sue Wright 202 224 5400 or send email to:
> sue_wright at rules.senate.gov
>
> stating before your comments this is for the record and including your name,
> organization, address, and other pertinent contact information, and that it
> should be submitted by 5 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday.
>
> Indicate that you are providing testimony or comments for submission into
> the record of S1487 hearings.
>
> Please include this list of recommendations for amendments to S1487. These
> are ordered from the most widely supported election reform measures
> beginning on page one. So simply print and fax as many pages as you agree
> with, to the Rules Committee Members and to your own Senators:
> http://electionmathematics.org/em-legislation/S1487Amendments.pdf
>
> and these arguments against some of S1487's current provisions:
> http://electionmathematics.org/em-legislation/BallotIntegrityActAnalysis.pdf
>
> 2. Contact Senator Feinstein's office now regarding the shortage of credible
> participants with the appropriate expertise in math and computers science
> testifying in the hearing panels.
> Senator Feinstein's number is 202/224-3841.
>
> http://rules.senate.gov/hearings/2007/072507hrg.htm
>
> 3. Attend the Hearing to receive testimony on S. 1487, the Ballot Integrity
> Act (Sen. Feinstein) if you can make it to Washington DC, 10 am EDT on
> Wednesday, July 25th 2007. . Travel to Washington DC to speak with your
> Senators and with the Senators on the Rules Committee.
>
> Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 10:00 a.m.
> Hearing to receive testimony on S. 1487, the Ballot Integrity Act of 2007
> http://rules.senate.gov/hearings/2007/072507hrg.htm
>
> http://rules.senate.gov/hearings/
>
> "....Hearings are held in Room 301, Russell Senate Office Building (unless
> otherwise noted), 1st Street and Constitution Avenues, North East,
> Washington, DC 20510. Seating is available on a first come, first serve
> basis. Eastern Time Zone listed. Times and location are subject to change.
>
> Map of Russell Senate Office Building surrounding area
> http://rules.senate.gov/exit.php?eurl=http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=1s
> t+St+NE+%26+Constitution+Ave+NE,+Washington,+DC+20002&t=h&ll=38.891985,-77.00589
> 9&spn=0.011958,0.027122&t=h
>
> http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=1st+St+NE+%26+Constitution+Ave+NE,+Washi
> ngton,+DC+20002&t=h&ll=38.891985,-77.005899&spn=0.011958,0.027122&t=h
>
> 4. View Wednesday's Hearing Live "TODAY'S
> http://rules.senate.gov/hearings/live.ram hearing. (available on July 25th
> at approximately 9:50 a.m. ET) ...."
>
> If you want any shield against election fraud that could put the wrong
> persons in control of Congress and in the President's office in 2009, now is
> the time to call your US Representative to support HR811 with 2008 deadlines
> for replacing all paperless DREs and conducting independent checks of
> election results;
>
> 5. Contact your Senators, the Bill Sponsors, and the Senate Rules committee
> members and tell them what you want or tell them that you want these
> amendments to S1487:
>
> http://electionmathematics.org/em-legislation/S1487Amendments.pdf
>
> Ask your US Senators now to require 2008 deadlines for replacing paperless
> DREs and implementing independent valid manual election audits are preserved
> in HR811 and that S1487 is amended to match HR811.
>
> Call one of these free numbers and urge both your Senators to support
> meaningful election reform:
> 1 (800) 828 - 0498 or
> 1 (800) 614 - 2803 or
> 1 (866) 338 - 1015 or
> 1 (877) 851 - 6437 for the Capitol Switchboard Operator Ask for your
> senator, for ex., Senator Hillary Clinton or Barak Obama, or Diane
> Feinstein, etc. Ask to speak to or leave a message for your Senators'
> legislative staffers who handle election reform legislation issues; and
> please mail, email, or fax copies of "21 Suggested Amendments" to their
> legislative staffers who handle election reform legislation, hopefully after
> speaking with them. Tell the office staff that you are a constituent of the
> Congressperson - give them your name, address and phone number - then urge
> them to work for meaningful election reform in 2008.
>
> If you are not sure who your senators are, go to
> http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
>
> If you want to citizen control over U.S. elections and have honest, accurate
> elections - ACT NOW. If you do not act soon, it could be too late for the
> 2008 federal election, and perhaps for restoring our democracy and control
> of Congress in 2009 could revert to those who want to preserve paperless
> un-audited elections where insiders have utter freedom to undetectably
> tamper in the most states.
>
> Please make this small effort to preserve our US democracy.
>
> Thank you for this small effort on your part. They need to hear from all of
> us. Please call and write today, then send this email to all the people you
> know who care about democracy. Thanks again.
>
>
> Whom to Contact
>
> Contact the Co-sponsors
>
> Boxer, Barbara D-CA,
> http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.Home
>
> Brown, Sherrod, D-OH, http://brown.senate.gov/contact.cfm
>
> Clinton, Hillary Rodham D-NY, http://clinton.senate.gov/contact/
>
> Dodd, Christopher J. D-CT, http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/3130
>
> Inouye, Daniel K. D-HI, http://inouye.senate.gov/
>
> Kennedy, Edward M. D-MA, http://kennedy.senate.gov/senator/contact.cfm
>
> Leahy, Patrick J. D-VT, http://leahy.senate.gov/
> senator_leahy at leahy.senate.gov
>
> Menendez, Robert D-NJ, http://menendez.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm
>
> Obama, Barack D-IL, http://obama.senate.gov/contact/
>
> Sanders, Bernard, I-VT, http://sanders.senate.gov/comments/
>
> Contact the Senate Rules Committee Members
> Committee members can make the recommended amendments while the S1487 is
> being considered in committee
>
> Robert C. Byrd, D-WV, http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_email.html
>
> Daniel K. Inouye, D-HI, 202-224-3934 or http://inouye.senate.gov/
>
> Christopher J. Dodd, D-CT, http://dodd.senate.gov/
>
> Charles E. Schumer, D-NY,
> http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/contact/contact.html
>
> Richard J. Durbin, D-IL, http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm
>
> E. Benjamin Nelson, D-NE, http://bennelson.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
>
> Harry Reid, D-NV, http://reid.senate.gov/contact/
>
> Patty Murray, D-WA, http://murray.senate.gov/contact/
>
> Mark L. Pryor, D-AR, http://pryor.senate.gov/contact/
>
> Ted Stevens, R-AK, http://stevens.senate.gov/public/
>
> Mitch McConnell, R-KY, http://mcconnell.senate.gov/contact.cfm
>
> Thad Cochran, R-MS, http://cochran.senate.gov/contact.htm
>
> Trent Lott, R-MS, http://lott.senate.gov/public/
>
> Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-TX, http://hutchison.senate.gov/contact.html
>
> C. Saxby Chambliss, R- GA, http://chambliss.senate.gov/public/index.cfm
>
> Chuck Hagel, R-NE, http://hagel.senate.gov/
>
> Lamar Alexander, R-TN, http://alexander.senate.gov/
>
> More Information
>
> Shamos Rebuttal by the Open Voting Consortium
> http://electionarchive.net/docs_other/dopp/Shamos-rebuttal.pdf
>
> The Ballot Integrity Act of 2007
> http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.01487:
>
> A reliable, verifiable vote in 2008, Governor Bill Richardson
> http://thehill.com/op-eds/a-reliable-verifiable-vote-in-2008-2007-06-19.html
>
> HR 811: Separating Truth from Fiction in E-voting Reform, Electronic
> Frontier Foundation, June 13, 2007
> http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005308.php#005308
>
> The Campaign for Secure Elections (HR811), Lawrence Norden, June 13, 2007
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-norden/the-campaign-for-secure-e_b_51986.
> html
>
>
> The "Ballot Integrity Act" Sponsor is Feinstein, Dianne, D-CA,
> http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.Home
>
> S1487 Text
> http://electionmathematics.org/em-legislation/FeinsteinDoddER-bill.pdf
>
> National: Hearing to receive testimony on S. 1487, the Ballot Integrity Act
> by David Kibrick
> http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6486
>
> Costs Comparison for Maryland: The costs for adding cash-register receipts
> to current DRE voting systems exceeds the costs of replacing DRE voting
> systems with opti-scan paper ballot voting systems within 4 years.
> http://electionmathematics.org/em-voting-systems/cost-DRE-vs-OpScan/CumulativeCo
> stscolor11_27_05.pdf
>
> http://electionmathematics.org/em-voting-systems/cost-DRE-vs-OpScan/
>
> Letter to Congress asking for publicly verifiably accurate election outcomes
> that is signed by over 200 citizens:
> http://electionarchive.org/ucvInfo/US/Letter2Congress.pdf
>
> Experts who can provide details and answer questions regarding
> "Recommendations for Federal Legislation to Ensure the Integrity of our
> Democracy"
> http://electionarchive.org/ucvInfo/US/ExpertsList.pdf
>
> Concept Proposal for Federal Election Reform
> http://electionarchive.org/ucvInfo/US/EI-FedLegProposal-v2.pdf
>
> Disability advocacy leaders co-signed this pro-paper statement on Voter
> Action.
> http://www.voteraction.org/Accessible_AND_Secure_Voting.htm
>
> How Long Does it Take to Change a Voting System? By Verified Voting
> http://electionmathematics.org/em-voting-systems/VotingSystemChange.pdf
> http://verifiedvoting.org/downloads/VotingSystemChange.pdf
>
> Accessibility Isn't Only Hurdle in Voting System Overhaul
> By Christopher Drew The New York Times Saturday 21 July 2007
> http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_072107E.shtml
>
> Overhaul Plan for Vote System Will Be Delayed
> By Christopher Drew The New York Times, Friday 20 July 2007
> http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_072007M.shtml
>
> Congress puts off fixing touch-screen voting, Salon.com blog by Farhad
> Manjoo
> http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/07/21/voting_machines/index.html
>
> ESI Audit Shows 10% of cash-register-receipt type ballot records compromised
> "The Coming Paper-Trail Debacle?" by Dan Seligson, electionline.org August
> 18th, 2006
> http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6383
>
> First U.S. Scientific Election Audit Reveals Voting System Flaws
> But Questions Remain Unanswered - Critique of the "Collaborative Public Audit"
> of Cuyahoga County Ohio's November 2006 Election. May 7, 2007 by Kathy Dopp
> http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/OH/CuyahogaElectionAudit.pdf
>
> New Jersey: Tests find flaws in printer performance, could jeopardize
> election accuracy
> by Pamela Smith, Verified Voting Foundation, July 22nd, 2007
> https://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6488
>
> ------------------
> Contact:
> Kathy Dopp
> Executive Director, National Election Data Archive
> kathy at electionarchive.org
> 435.658.4657 (office)
>
> EM
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>
--
James P. Kinney III
CEO & Director of Engineering
Local Net Solutions,LLC
770-493-8244
http://www.localnetsolutions.com
GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
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