Has the 2004 election already been decided? Some believe that it has, due to difficulties with electronic voting. Early audits showed that the machines consistently gave republicans the edge when there were errors.
The main companies (Diebold and ES&S count 80% of the votes in the country) are heavily tied to key republicans. What follows are a few links for more information. (It’s surprising how many links are dead when doing a Google search for Diebold ownership. Were they taken off the air?)
- One central location for this information is at Verified Voting. They also have links to the Bev Harris book (Black Box Voting, in pdf format) which is based on the material that started a lot of the questions. Buzzflash has an interview with Bev. It is probably the shortest read that covers most of the ground. (Harris’ website was shut down by Diebold.)
- Uncertified software may have been installed on electronic voting machines used in one California county during the recent recall election, so California is halting the certification process for new voting machines manufactured by Diebold Election Systems.
Link to article - In the past few months, the computer- security community has been increasingly vocal on the problems of DRE [direct recording electronic] terminals. �I think the risk [of a stolen election] is extremely high,� says David Dill, a Stanford computer scientist.
Link to article - “I need some answers! Our department is being audited by the County. I have been waiting for someone to give me an explanation as to why Precinct 216 gave Al Gore a minus 16022 [votes] when it was uploaded. Will someone please explain this so that I have the information to give the auditor instead of standing here ‘looking dumb’.”
Link to leaked Diebold memos - Swarthmore students posted an email archive showing some problems with Diebold�s proprietary e-voting software engineering on the website of their student group. Diebold then threatened Smith and Pavlosky with a suit for copyright infringement and successfully squelched the emails.
Link to article and links - Diebold, manufacturer of election equipment, has issued a Cease and desist notice to the upstream provider of San Francisco Indymedia for having links to mirrors of a leaked internal Diebold memo. More than just a case of a leak, Diebold has been raising a lot of questions about the fairness and security of elections in the United States. The key here is that they don’t even have the information on their site, just a link to it.
Link to article. (Reminiscent of the illegality of posting links to the DeCSS code.) - New touchscreen voting machines caused problems last night in the suburbs of Washington D.C.. Several machines failed and had to be rebooted, and nine were actually removed from the site, repaired, and returned, in violation of election laws. The machines also failed to report their results correctly due to network problems.
Link to article - Volusia County Memos Disclose Election 2000 Vote Fraud. Gore’s count had dropped by 16,000 votes, while an obscure Socialist candidate had picked up 10,000–all because of a single precinct with only 600 voters.”
Link to article - DIEBOLD ELECTION SYSTEMS has brandished lawyers’ threats to take down that pesky citizens activist website blackboxvoting.org.
Link to article - Even more info that covers history in this area here.
Of course, this whole thing started for me with a BoingBoing link:
swarthmore�s weakness, swarthmore students� strength
So Diebold has hit new lows. After threatening anyone who posts information necessary to evaluate the claimed failure of their vote-counting machine, apparently Swarthmore is now caving to DMCA threats by forcing students to shut down mirror sites. Just the strategy for a company that�s trying to convince the world that they can be trusted with vote counting.
Here is more on the subject from the EFF, which is doing defense for some of those accused by Diebold. It was taken from their newsletter:
ISP Rejects Diebold Copyright Claims Against News Website
EFF Defends Right to Publish Links to Electronic Voting Memos
San Francisco – Defending the right to link to controversial information about flaws in electronic voting systems, EFF announced this week that it will defend an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and a news website publisher against claims of indirect copyright infringement from the electronic voting machines’ manufacturer.
“What topic could be more important to our democracy than discussions about the mechanics and legitimacy of electronic voting systems now being introduced nationwide?” said EFF Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer. “EFF won’t stand by as corporations like Diebold chill important online debate by churning out legal notices to ISPs that usually just take down legitimate content rather than face the legal risk.”
Links:
For the full release:
<http://www.eff.org/Legal/ISP_liability/20031016_eff_pr.php>Cease-and-desist letter sent by Diebold to OPG:
<http://www.eff.org/Legal/ISP_liability/cease_desist_letter.php>Security researchers discover huge flaws in e-voting system:
<http://www.eff.org/Activism/E-voting/20030723_eff_pr.php>Chilling Effects Clearinghouse on DMCA safe harbor provisions:
<http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/>
I managed to avoid politics for a while, but the notes were getting too long to not publish.
