Accountability

[Zaftig]

Voting without auditing. (Are we insane?)

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON Nov 3 2004 -- Did the voting machines trump exit polls? There’s a way to find out.

Black Box Voting (.ORG) is conducting the largest Freedom of Information action in history. At 8:30 p.m. Election Night, Black Box Voting blanketed the U.S. with the first in a series of public records requests, to obtain internal computer logs and other documents from 3,000 individual counties and townships. Networks called the election before anyone bothered to perform even the most rudimentary audit.

America: We have permission to say No to unaudited voting. It is our right.

Among the first requests sent to counties (with all kinds of voting systems -- optical scan, touch-screen, and punch card) is a formal records request for internal audit logs, polling place results slips, modem transmission logs, and computer trouble slips.

An earlier FOIA is more sensitive, and has not been disclosed here. We will notify you as soon as we can go public with it.

Such a request filed in King County, Washington on Sept. 15, following the primary election six weeks ago, uncovered an internal audit log containing a three-hour deletion on election night; “trouble slips” revealing suspicious modem activity; and profound problems with security, including accidental disclosure of critically sensitive remote access information to poll workers, office personnel, and even, in a shocking blunder, to Black Box Voting activists.

Public Records Request - November 2, 2004
From: Black Box Voting
To: Elections division

Pursuant to public records law and the spirit of fair, trustworthy, transparent elections, we request the following documents.

We are requesting these as a nonprofit, noncommercial group acting in the capacity of a news and consumer interest organization, and ask that if possible, the fees be waived for this request. If this is not possible, please let us know which records will be provided and the cost. Please provide records in electronic form, by e-mail, if possible - crew@blackboxvoting.org.

We realize you are very, very busy with the elections canvass. To the extent possible, we do ask that you expedite this request, since we are conducting consumer audits and time is of the essence.

We request the following records.

Item 1. All notes, emails, memos, and other communications pertaining to any and all problems experienced with the voting system, ballots, voter registration, or any component of your elections process, beginning October 12, through November 3, 2004.

Item 2. Copies of the results slips from all polling places for the Nov. 2, 2004 election. If you have more than one copy, we would like the copy that is signed by your poll workers and/or election judges.

Item 3: The internal audit log for each of your Unity, GEMS, WinEds, Hart Intercivic or other central tabulating machine. Because different manufacturers call this program by different names, for purposes of clarification we mean the programs that tally the composite of votes from all locations.

Item 4: If you are in the special category of having Diebold equipment, or the VTS or GEMS tabulator, we request the following additional audit logs:

a. The transmission logs for all votes, whether sent by modem or uploaded directly. You will find these logs in the GEMS menu under “Accuvote OS Server” and/or “Accuvote TS Server”

b. The “audit log” referred to in Item 3 for Diebold is found in the GEMS menu and is called “Audit Log”

c. All “Poster logs”. These can be found in the GEMS menu under “poster” and also in the GEMS directory under Program Files, GEMS, Data, as a text file. Simply print this out and provide it.

d. Also in the Data file directory under Program Files, GEMS, Data, please provide any and all logs titled “CCLog,” “PosterLog”, and Pserver Log, and any logs found within the “Download,” “Log,” “Poster” or “Results” directories.

e. We are also requesting the Election Night Statement of Votes Cast, as of the time you stopped uploading polling place memory cards for Nov. 2, 2004 election.

Item 5: We are requesting every iteration of every interim results report, from the time the polls close until 5 p.m. November 3.

Item 6: If you are in the special category of counties who have modems attached, whether or not they were used and whether or not they were turned on, we are requesting the following:

a. internal logs showing transmission times from each voting machine used in a polling place

b. The Windows Event Viewer log. You will find this in administrative tools, Event Viewer, and within that, print a copy of each log beginning October 12, 2004 through Nov. 3, 2004.

Item 7: All e-mails, letters, notes, and other correspondence between any employee of your elections division and any other person, pertaining to your voting system, any anomalies or problems with any component of the voting system, any written communications with vendors for any component of your voting system, and any records pertaining to upgrades, improvements, performance enhancement or any other changes to your voting system, between Oct. 12, 2004 and Nov. 3, 2004.

Item 8: So that we may efficiently clarify any questions pertaining to your specific county, please provide letterhead for the most recent non-confidential correspondence between your office and your county counsel, or, in lieu of this, just e-mail us the contact information for your county counsel.

Because time is of the essence, if you cannot provide all items, please provide them in increments as soon as you have them, and please notify us by telephone (206-335-7747) or email (Bevharrismail@aol.com) as soon as you have any portion of the above public records request available for review.

Thank you very much, and here’s hoping for a smooth and simple canvass which works out perfectly for you. We very, very much appreciate your help with this, and we do realize how stressful this election has been.

If you need a local address, please let me know, and we will provide a local member for this public records request. In the interest of keeping your life simple, we thought it best to coordinate all records through one entity so that you don’t get multiple local requests.

# # # # #

We now have evidence that certainly looks like altering a computerized voting system during a real election, and it happened just six weeks ago.

MONDAY Nov 1 2004: New information indicates that hackers may be targeting the central computers counting our votes tomorrow. All county elections officials who use modems to transfer votes from polling places to the central vote-counting server should disconnect the modems now.

There is no down side to removing the modems. Simply drive the vote cartridges from each polling place in to the central vote-counting location by car, instead of transmitting by modem. “Turning off” the modems may not be sufficient. Disconnect the central vote counting server from all modems, INCLUDING PHONE LINES, not just Internet.

In a very large county, this will add at most one hour to the vote-counting time, while offering significant protection from outside intrusion.

It appears that such an attack may already have taken place, in a primary election 6 weeks ago in King County, Washington -- a large jurisdiction with over one million registered voters. Documents, including internal audit logs for the central vote-counting computer, along with modem “trouble slips” consistent with hacker activity, show that the system may have been hacked on Sept. 14, 2004. Three hours is now missing from the vote-counting computer's "audit log," an automatically generated record, similar to the black box in an airplane, which registers certain kinds of events.

I pulled this info from www.blackboxvoting.org.

There's much more interesting information in there. I'd copy and paste it all but it would be too much. Go there and read for yourself. Good stuff.

[Zaftig]

step BUMP, step BUMP BUMP

Smarty, have you read this?? Heard of this??

[priceyfatprude]

He's not back from Ft Lauderdale yet. But this'll piss him off.

[Zaftig]

psst. . .http://zefrank.com/bulletin/showthre...990#post223990
He just barely got back. . . or am I all confussed?

Hence the bump. . .???

[priceyfatprude]

He rarely comes in fast chat. You might want to Pm him a link to this thread.


Or for the low low price of $5,000 American, you can get his cell phone number PM'd to you by me.

[Smartypants]

Thanks, I did hear about this. As I said in another thread, after seeing firsthand what went on in Florida, I am CONVINCED this election was stolen.

Why are people not rioting in the streets over this? I am dumbfounded.

[Zaftig]

Damn it Smarty! I just wired her the money! Piss and Vinegar!


Another thing, the day before elections thousands of absentee ballots from over seas unfortunately couldn't make it on time so they had the "opportunity" to vote electronically.

All these people who voted Bush's way are getting worked up over this vote counting business saying, "You're only making a big deal out of nothing because your candidate didn't get elected." Which is BS. If I were running for president, regardless of if I were elected, if there was any question in the legitmacy of the votes that got me where I was I would want a thorough investigation conducted, unless I had something to hide.

[Aphrodite]

I have to ask a question.
Please keep in mind that I don't know much about politics because I have only recently earned the right to vote.

Why did Kerry conceed?

On the TV here it was reported that they were very close. It was going to be very close at the polls.
Then I saw the news on election day and they were running very close then too. Something like Bush 272 and Kerry 254. Now, I don't know what total number they are each trying to reach, but unless it is 273, it looks like Kerry still had a shot. With 11 days to get all the votes in, and start some confusing legal battle that may change the outcome, WHY did he just change his mind?
There were already some known voting station issues, and miscalculated ballot issues. You don't compete for Presidency to give up the afternoon after judging begins. It reminds me of a sports event. 9th inning and the score is 3 to 5. Possible foul call on the winning team, and you throw down the ball and decide to quit playing.

Please explain.

[madasacutsnake]

US system requires 270 votes to hold an electoral college majority.

The final results from state of Ohio (with 20 votes) were still outstanding, but Bush was leading there with 51% of the primary vote and there was little chance that Kerry could win. Kerry could have asked for the provisional votes to be counted. However, the margin was such that Kerry would have needed five out of every six of those votes - highly unlikely to have happened. Also, the law says that the provisional votes may not be counted until 11 days after the election - an unnecessary delay given that he had no realistic chance of winning.

[Aphrodite]

Thank You very much.

[sparticle]

Originally posted by madasacutsnake
US system requires 270 votes to hold an electoral college majority.

The final results from state of Ohio (with 20 votes) were still outstanding, but Bush was leading there with 51% of the primary vote and there was little chance that Kerry could win. Kerry could have asked for the provisional votes to be counted. However, the margin was such that Kerry would have needed five out of every six of those votes - highly unlikely to have happened. Also, the law says that the provisional votes may not be counted until 11 days after the election - an unnecessary delay given that he had no realistic chance of winning.

Thank you. I live in Ohio and I have heard this and taken it in and fully understand it. It sucks, but there is nothing to be done for it.

I really wish my friends in the rest of the country would not keep emailing and calling me and saying "What the HELL happened?!?!?!?!?" as if I were personally responsible not only for the decision of the electorate but the functionality of the process.

And I wish that asshole in Washington would quit going around braying that he was elected by a "mandate". Makes me wonder when he's going to commission a crown and sceptre for himself.

Where are Cassius and Brutus when you need them?

I'm sorry; I take that back. Shrubman is no Caesar. He has no charisma, no imperium, no dignitas and absolutely not the first clue about military strategy. He would fvck up a one-car funeral if he didn't have an evil machine behind him.

[bealeblues]

hey sparty, what the hell happened?

[sparticle]

Originally posted by bealeblues
hey sparty, what the hell happened?

How did I just KNOW......

[Avalon]

Originally posted by sparticle
Thank you. I live in Ohio and I have heard this and taken it in and fully understand it. It sucks, but there is nothing to be done for it.

I really wish my friends in the rest of the country would not keep emailing and calling me and saying "What the HELL happened?!?!?!?!?" as if I were personally responsible not only for the decision of the electorate but the functionality of the process.

And I wish that asshole in Washington would quit going around braying that he was elected by a "mandate". Makes me wonder when he's going to commission a crown and sceptre for himself.

Where are Cassius and Brutus when you need them?

I'm sorry; I take that back. Shrubman is no Caesar. He has no charisma, no imperium, no dignitas and absolutely not the first clue about military strategy. He would fvck up a one-car funeral if he didn't have an evil machine behind him.

This would be my fault I told everyone to ask you and that it was alllll your fault. You just werent' passionate enough dammit

[sparticle]

Originally posted by Avalon
This would be my fault I told everyone to ask you and that it was alllll your fault. You just werent' passionate enough dammit

Awright, goddammit, that did it! I am getting on 90 West NOW.