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  • From: tom poe <tompoe AT amihost.com>
  • To: Greg Dinger "- Verified Voting.org" <greg AT verifiedvoting.org>
  • Cc: Richard Siegel <siegel AT unr.edu>, Community Studios <community_studios AT lists.ibiblio.org>, Dan <dburk AT mail.co.washoe.nv.us>
  • Subject: [Community_studios] Re: CEO of Diebold working for Bush's reelection
  • Date: Mon, 01 Sep 2003 22:27:48 -0000

Hi, Greg Dinger: Thanks for the update. I wonder if you have come
across any of the certification reports issued by any of the
certification firms, local, state, or federal level. These are
undoubtedly most revealing in their scope [lack of], and may be the best
evidence. Officials that believe the public should purchase a car
without a steering wheel, or brake fluid, and must prove the steering
wheel is missing, or the brake fluid is not there, knowing that the
windows are sealed in black, and the doors are locked, and there's no
key, are prima facie guilty of our country's "lemon laws" regarding our
Bill of Rights. We can flush these two bit hoodlums out, but I think we
need to start with a good look at the "certification reports", don't
you?

Dan Burk, registrar of Nevada, won't produce them per my request.
Apparently, he and the others on our state's election committee are
determined to force a Freedom of Information or court case in order to
get as far down the road as their slimy, yellow-bellied bodies can
slink. Please update Nevada's report to reflect lack of cooperation and
openness by state officials as of this date.

Let me know what you have.
Thanks, Tom

On Mon, 2003-09-01 at 13:19, Greg Dinger - Verified Voting.org wrote:
> Folks,
>
>
>
> An article came to my attention last night and I am deeply concerned about
> the comments stated in the article. I feel that every Democratic
> presidential candidate needs to be aware of this, so if anyone has contacts,
> please send it to the appropriate parties.
>
>
>
> As background, much news has surrounded the recently produced report by a
> team of professors and post-grads analyzed the software that runs Diebold's
> DRE (touch screen) election systems. Their analysis informed us that the
> software was clearly developed outside any sort of professional quality
> assurance standards, that it is a patchwork quilt of bug fixes, and that
> there are numerous "back doors".
>
>
>
> They discovered that the cryptographic key - the means by which the system
> is secured, is clearly documented within the program. This means that if
> someone has that key, they can access EVERY machine that Diebold
> manufactures and that uses this software. This is particularly appalling
> because the error was pointed out by Doug Jones
> (http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/) in 1997; he even mentioned it in
> Congressional testimony! But it was still there in 2003. (Doug serves
> on the Iowa Board of Examiners for Voting Machines and Electronic Voting
> Systems <http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/service.html>
> http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/service.html and is an expert on voting
> systems.)
>
>
>
> OK, so that is the background on Diebold, and it is rather damning - many
> who are reading this already know that part of the story... It got worse
> last night when I received an email with the following comments and attached
> article. The article itself is listed here in abbreviated form, and you
> will probably want to browse to the Cleveland site to read the whole story.
>
>
>
> Greg Dinger
>
>
>
> / / / / / / /
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> FYI, Diebold is the company that manufactured all of the DRE machines,
> machines used by the state of Georgia in the '02 election that resulted in
> the upset defeat of Democratic Sen. Max Cleland. Of course there was no
> recount - there couldn't have been, because there was nothing meaningful to
> recount. There were no voter authenticated paper ballots.
>
> http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1062071710780
> 40.xml
>
>
>
>
>
> >From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
>
> Voting machine controversy
>
> 08/28/03
> Julie Carr Smyth
> Plain Dealer Bureau
>
> Columbus - The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told
> Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is "committed to helping
> Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
>
> The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who
> has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted
> Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company
> to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election.
>
> O'Dell attended a strategy pow-wow with wealthy Bush benefactors - known as
> Rangers and Pioneers - at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch earlier
> this month. The next week, he penned invitations to a $1,000-a-plate
> fund-raiser to benefit the Ohio Republican Party's federal campaign fund -
> partially benefiting Bush - at his mansion in the Columbus suburb of Upper
> Arlington.
>
> The letter went out the day before Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell,
> also a Republican, was set to qualify Diebold as one of three firms eligible
> to sell upgraded electronic voting machines to Ohio counties in time for the
> 2004 election.
>
> [snip]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>






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