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  • From: tom poe <tompoe AT amihost.com>
  • To: "Burk, Dan" <DBurk AT MAIL.co.washoe.nv.us>
  • Cc: Community Studios <community_studios AT lists.ibiblio.org>, sosmail AT govmail.state.nv.us
  • Subject: [Community_studios] RE: CEO of Diebold working for Bush's reelection
  • Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2003 22:33:51 -0000

Hi, Dan: Let's go point by point.

You DID NOT make that information available more than a month ago. Can
you point to the source? But, now that you have, thanks. I will follow
up.

Verification printouts after an election have nothing to do with voter
verification printouts called ballots. Verification printouts after an
election are called, election count printouts. The voters of Nevada are
in deep trouble, if you, our Registrar for Nevada, believes and
professes that verification printouts after an election are an
acceptable substitute for voter ballots.

Why would you bother to place post election count printouts in a vault
in Sparks? What purpose would that serve? Now, if you had
voter-verified printouts that could be placed in a vault in Sparks after
an election in June, that would be useful as the voters would be able to
avail themselves of a hand recount should they choose to do so.

DRE voting systems are closed, proprietary, and unable to be audited or
subjected to public scrutiny. There is no possible way to detect
whether fraud had or had not taken place. You know that. Why are you
trying to defend a system that eliminates voter verification?

SPECIAL***
"> We have checks and balances. We conduct pre and post-election testing,
> logic and accuracy testing and orientation testing prior to each election."

This may be the most troubling statement you have made, to date. Your
pre and post testing for logic and accuracy testing and orientation
[whatever that is] has no bearing whatsoever on what takes place during
the election. You know that. Why would you try to argue that such
testing constitutes certification of any voting system?

SPECIAL***
"> Why is it that people like you always think it's ok to make unfounded
> insinuations regarding public employees' "integrity"."

Dan, where is this coming from? Why are you acting as though you are
being attacked personally? If anything, it's the office of the
Registrar that is being attacked. And, you're the Registrar. You push
my request up to the Secretary of State's office, when, in fact, you
particularly have access to the certification reports requested. Why
not comply? Why the circuitous delay? It would seem we should both be
on the same side of this issue.

I read that one judge recently declared punch card ballots [used since
the 1930's?] unconstitutional. Bet that makes your twenty-six years
running elections feel pretty useless, eh? Well, don't be depressed.
At least with the punch card ballots, the public was involved, however
flawed the system was. With DRE voting systems, though, the public
loses any involvement other than going through a make-believe election
that is determined by a handful of individuals, and noone will know
their names. Just the possibility of such a scenario must be ruled out
through checks and balances. Let's hope you and the voters of Nevada
can make sure that happens.

Your friend, I remain,
Tom Poe
Open Studios
Reno, NV
http://www.studioforrecording.org/

On Tue, 2003-09-02 at 11:52, Burk, Dan wrote:
> You were told more than a month ago that the Secretary of State has the
> certification records from the Nichols Lab people who did the certification
> on our Diebold Election Tabulation System.
>
> We do have voter verification print-outs after every election. Their called
> ballots.
>
> Also, a copy of every ballot was printed and stored in our vaults after the
> touch screen election in Sparks in June.
>
> Any citizen in the district is eligible to ask for a recount of an election
> (provided their willing to pay for it)and/or to file a complaint with the
> Secretary of State challenging the administration of an election and laying
> out the basis of that challenge. If you have an issue then go ahead and
> file a complaint or after the next election "...stand up to the plate" and
> spend your money on a recount. Afterall we had one in 1998 in the
> Reid-Ensign race aand another in 2002 in the Gustavson -Smith race and guess
> what the numbers we recorded and the election results we reported on
> election night held up.
>
> We have checks and balances. We conduct pre and post-election testing,
> logic and accuracy testing and orientation testing prior to each election.
> Every election is conducted under the direction of a three-member citizen
> Certification Board (no staff members of my office or the county), which
> alone has the responsibility and perogative to say when and if they are
> satisfied with our administration of the election and the performance of our
> vote tabulation system
>
> Why is it that people like you always think it's ok to make unfounded
> insinuations regarding public employees' "integrity".
>
> And by the way I think I've already demonstrated my committment to upholding
> the Constitution and Bill of Rights through service in the U.S. Army during
> the Viet Nam War and twenty-six years of administering elections, without
> once having someone question my integrity, until now.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tom poe [mailto:tompoe AT amihost.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 11:37 AM
> To: Burk, Dan
> Cc: rtownsend AT sen.state.nv.us; dtitus AT sen.state.nv.us;
> rrawson AT sen.state.nv.us; wraggio AT sen.state.nv.us;
> bmathews AT sen.state.nv.us; aoconnell AT sen.state.nv.us;
> mmcginness AT sen.state.nv.us; bcoffin AT sen.state.nv.us; Joe Neal
> Subject: RE: CEO of Diebold working for Bush's reelection
>
>
> Hi, Dan: You need to send your comments below, to the fellow named Greg
> Dinger, as he is the one making the claims you refer to, not me.
>
> As for my comments below, they are directed at the specific issue of
> your refusal to provide copies of the certification reports, whether
> local, state, or federal that deal directly with DRE voting systems.
> Can you please make them available? Days have become weeks, have become
> months, now. At some point, it amounts to stonewalling by the Registrar
> of Nevada. Why? What are you hiding?
>
> Personally, I don't have any qualms about a CEO of a voting systems
> vendor supporting a political candidate, as long as that CEO is willing
> to subject her voting system to public scrutiny, and to provide voter
> verification printouts during elections. Now, if you would provide
> access to the certification reports on the DRE voting systems for
> Nevada, that would go a long way to reassuring the voters of Nevada,
> that your office is not engaging in conflict of interest activities as
> well. How about it, Dan? Ready to step up to the plate, and
> demonstrate that you are dedicated to preserving our nation's
> constitution and Bill of Rights? Voter verification-related issues are
> all about providing the public with checks and balances on our elected
> officials. Remove those checks and balances, and what name do we give
> our government?
> Respectfully,
> Tom Poe
> Open Studios
> Reno, NV
> http://www.studioforrecording.org/
>
> On Tue, 2003-09-02 at 08:52, Burk, Dan wrote:
> > So anyone who supports a political candidate in a partisan race is suspect
> > or should be ineligible to conduct an election or provide software or
> > hardware for elections administration?
> >
> > Give me a break!
> >
> > At what point exactly did the CEO at Diebold give up his political
> freedoms?
> >
> > According to your twisted reasoning every partican elected county clerk or
> > registrar in the United States would be ineligible to do his or her job
> > because they are members of a particular political party.
> >
> > It appears your e-mails to others are getting very select. You pass on
> > insignificant information about the Diebold CEO's political activity and
> > then overlook the fact that Mr. Rubin, head of the Johns Hopkins study
> that
> > slammed Diebold, [which just so incidentally was released two days rprior
> to
> > the larget vendor gathering in the U.S. (IACREOT Convention)] was first
> > confronted with the fact that he owned stock in Vote Here Inc. and
> responded
> > that "I forgot" and then a few days later it comes out that he is actually
> > on the advisory board of Vote Here Inc. and responded that "I really
> didn't
> > do much for them". Then three days later Vote Here announces that they
> have
> > reached a merger agreement with Sequoia-Pacific Elections , Diebold's
> chief
> > competitor in many states.
> >
> > A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and unfortunately you don't know
> > what to be worried about.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: tom poe [mailto:tompoe AT amihost.com]
> > Sent: Monday, September 01, 2003 3:42 PM
> > To: Greg Dinger "- Verified Voting.org
> > Cc: Community Studios; Dan; Richard Siegel
> > Subject: Re: CEO of Diebold working for Bush's reelection
> >
> >
> > 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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