Angry Girl's Amazing Facts

[Anwaar]

Did you know....

by Angry Girl

Nightweed.com

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.
www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold



2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm

www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html



3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html

www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html



4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml

www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886



5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.
www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html

www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html



6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.
www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26

www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx

www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php



7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.
www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm

theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html



8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.
www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html

www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html



9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.
www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm

www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html



10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.
www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm

www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm



11. Diebold is based in Ohio.
www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm



12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.
www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html

portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml



13. Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.
www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0312/S00191.htm
www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how

www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf



14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.
www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how

www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf



15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.
www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html

www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html



16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it! (See the movie here: blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov.)
wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190



17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml



18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.
www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html

www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm

www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html

www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=950

www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm



19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.
www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html



20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.
www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm

www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,97614,00.html

www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html

www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm

www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html

uscountvotes.org/



The link to Angry Girl's amazing article is :

www.nightweed.com/usavotefacts.html

[GWB]

It's amazing to me that angry girl's amazing article will amaze anyone.

By the way, I've heard rumors that Bush and his pals are so proud of their successes that they've hired all sorts of people to attack and insult Bush. It makes them feel good, the rumor goes, to be insulted and attaacked by all those powerless people.

[dana]

See also:

Betavote.com: What if the world could vote in the US presidential election?

International internet results, 2004 presidential election:

Kerry: 88%
Bush: 11%

The poll can't be considered reliable or "scientific", but it does indicate a fairly straightforward, worldwide objection to Bush.

Looking at the results, last Fall, it occured to me that someone with a taste for statistical analysis could have a good time drawing correlations between US foreign policy and associated petrolium partners' interests and regional preferences for the candidates...

A few samples [ w / my commentary: I couldn't resist ]:

Croatia
Kerry 96 %
Bush 3%
[ total votes tallied: 3426 ]
**looks as though the Croatians have an axe to grind**

Canada
Kerry 89%
Bush 10%
[ total votes: 26 855 ]
**the Canadians don't like being the 51st state**

USA
Kerry 75%
Bush 24%
[ total votes: 71 406 ]
**when Diebold and ES&S aren't doing the counting**

Mexico
Kerry 83%
Bush 8%
[ total votes: 5261 ]
**the Mexicans don't want to be the 52nd state**

Niger
Bush 49%
Kerry 25%
[ total votes: 554 ]
**all those oil contractors sitting behind their computers with nothing better to do**

Turkmenistan
Kerry 53 %
Bush 46%
[ total votes: 52 ]
**close [ oil/natural gas ] call**

Western Sahara
Kerry 52%
Bush 47%
[ total votes: 38 ]
**'close [ oil ] call**

Mauritania
Kerry 56%
Bush 43%
[ total votes: 32 ]
**close: government recently deposed by US due to offshore oil**

. . .


The full list is worth a look.

betavote.com

[nadeem]

the statistics are impressive but howmany americans know about these

[anon]

si jeunesse savait, si viellesse pouvait--anon

fools rush in where angels fear to tread

[DT1]

I suggest three words for '06:
NOT ONE INCUMBENT!!!
It's past time for some serious housecleaning.
Example;I'll be voting against every dem who rolled over in the isle on the Bankruptcy Bill,and the credit card debacle.
In the meantime-
Got any recipies for roast duck?

[dana]

I agree, in principle, downtrodden. Only problem is that the US hasn't held free elections in a number of years. Unless we get rid of the voting machines and put a vice on lobbying, the 2006 mid-term elections will be little more than an exercise in futility [yet another].


But, for the optimists among us, two opinion pieces by Steve Moyer, who is running for Senate, from Vermont. He makes a few questionable affirmations, here and there [needs an editor] but, fundamentally, his ideas are sound; refreshing style, too:

Why the U.S. Must Stay in Iraq
by Steve Moyer

stevemoyer.us/stayiraq.htm

... "And that's the main reason that the U.S. must stay in Iraq. We are terrorizing the world into giving us more money to cover our increasing debts. The United States government is the biggest financial terrorist on the planet" ...


Although I do not agree with Moyer's view on Peak oil, his point that staying in Iraq is a financial imperative for the US is interesting; something I hadn't considered.

_________________________


Katrina Showed us our Ignorance
by Steven Moyer

Al-Jazeerah, September 14, 2005

tinyurl.com/8azb7

... "I am responsible for what happened in New Orleans. I knew that the Hurricane was headed there days before it landed and I did nothing. I could have sent email messages, called the White House, contacted the media or done any one of a thousand different things. But I did nothing. I watched and waited for the catastrophe to unfold before my eyes.

I apologize to all of America for my complicity. I ask your forgiveness. I am responsible. Will you join me in this place of responsibility? It's a vulnerable place. It's a scary place. But it's also a peaceful place. It's a place of truth and justice. It's a place of love and the possibility of a positive future for all humanity".

[A Non]

++++
--Les têtes sont rondes!?

--Oui, Madame.....Tranchées, ça se roulent à merveille.


++++++++

Enfants meurent...
Mères pleurent...
Que faire?
T’inquiète pas...
Te reste toujours ..........DISNEYLAND!

+++++

[james]

Are the heads round!?

-- Yes..Sliced Madam..., that are rolled to wonder.

Children die...
Mothers cry...
What to make?
Do not worry you...
Te remains always......... DISNEYLAND!

That's an interesting way to put it.

[leon]

This is something that should be distributed far and wide. Do you value what little freedoms you have left?
Well then ya darn well better do something about it the winds of change are blowing to a darker place and time, like nothing the world has ever seen before. This go around the mad man has all the cards it's not about if and how. It's about when and how long will it take before they can steal enough rights away to do as they please.
And from the looks of it that was yesterday look around at some the facts here relating to our freedoms things are looking bad, The Patriot act alone should make you shudder let alone the recent bird flu Marshall law preparation's President Bush has been contemplating, Look around folks the sheep are being prepared for slaughter, it is a mistake in the wake of the Katrina round up in New Orlin's to dismiss this as so much rhetoric.It's not about who votes in the election it's about who counts them!! The time is now stand up or be stood on the facts are in the jury's out. This was all based on lies. It is our responsibility to humanity To distribute the facts far and wide. Please do forward the fact's to those you love its a matter of millions of lives.

[michelle]

Last Night's Results

Published: November 9, 2005

It's always dangerous to read national sentiments in local election results, especially when the balloting is as scattered and sparse as it was yesterday. But a few things seem obvious. Negative campaigning lost its punch. And George Bush's political capital turned into a deficit.

The election of Jon Corzine as governor of New Jersey was no surprise, but the size of his victory was impressive, considering the battering Mr. Corzine had taken in a campaign that by the end seemed to revolve around the senator's failed marriage. Either the New Jersey electorate, which has been through way more than its share of sexual drama in recent years, is simply numb, or it was turned off by the negativity of the campaign. And in Virginia, the Republican, Jerry Kilgore, failed to gain traction with ads in which the father of a murder victim claimed that the Democrat, Timothy Kaine, would have opposed the death penalty for Hitler.

President Bush made a much-publicized last-minute campaign stop in Virginia to stump for Mr. Kilgore, but the effort backfired, or at least failed to make a dent. Everyone from political consultants to leaders of nations in the remote corners of Asia and Africa will be reading bad omens for the Republicans in what happened after Mr. Bush left.

The current president followed his father's political career attentively, and drew the lesson that whenever the first President George Bush had problems at the polls, they were caused by a failure to pay sufficient attention to
Republican conservatives, particularly the cultural right. That certainly wasn't the problem in Virginia, where the Republican candidate ran a hard-right campaign, harping on Mr. Kaine as a liberal on hot-button issues like capital punishment and immigration.

Democrats tried to tie their opponents to the White House, and the only place where that seemed to fail to have a negative impact was New York City. When Republican success is limited to as thin a party reed as Michael Bloomberg, the Bush administration has a lot to worry about.

www.nytimes.com/2005/11/09/opinion/09wed1.html?th&emc=th

ALSO: Click on for my feelings [in a snappy, upbeat kinda way] about those kooky, krazy right wingers who rule the "Homeland." Of course, in all fairness, this message could very well pertain to the Democrats especially if they follow the same lead to secure more votes in the future. www.bushflash.com/ihr.html

Happy Days Comrades!
Michelle

[michelle]

According to an October report from the Government Accountability Office, steps to improve the reliability of electronic voting "are unlikely to have a significant effect" in the 2006 off-year elections. I wouldn't call 2006 an off year for elections in Pennsylvania; Republican Senator Rick Santorum is up for re-election.

So far it looks like PA is steering all counties towards electronic touch screen (DRE) devices without any 'paper ballot' trail. As it stands now PA is explicitly requiring that counties purchase machines WITHOUT a paper audit trail (V-PAT) function. There are bills proposed in the state legislature, HB2000 and SB977, that aim to change this but there is resistance. Letters or emails to state legislators and LTEs urging support for these bills would be helpful.

In contrast some states do already have VPAT, e.g. Nevada where they apply to DRE voting machines the same standards of security and performance that they require of electronic slot machines. In PA it seems we don't care so much.
New York Times Editorial, June 13, 2004: Gambling on Voting
www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/opinion/13SUN1.html

The track record of poor performance of DREs in actual elections is well documented.

Odd isn't it that this is what PA prefers as long as there is no mechanism for auditing the performance of DREs by V-PAT!

For more info, PA voting integrity group:
www.coalitionforvotingintegrity.com/
and also:
www.pa-verifiedvoting.org/
www.votepa.us/actioncenter.html

Does anyone have current information from other states concerning voter integrity to share with others?........Michelle

Voting Machines Under Scrutiny
States Face a Jan. 1 Deadline to Meet Reliability Standards
By Brian Bergstein
Associated Press
Wednesday, December 7, 2005; Page A23

The potential perils of electronic voting systems are bedeviling state officials as a Jan. 1 deadline approaches for complying with standards for the machines' reliability.Across the country, officials are trying multiple methods to ensure that touch-screen voting machines can record and count votes without falling prey to software bugs, hackers, malicious insiders or other ills.

These are not theoretical problems -- in some states they have led to lost or miscounted votes.One of the biggest concerns -- the frequent inability of computerized ballots to produce a written receipt of a vote -- has been addressed or is being tackled in most states.An October report from the Government Accountabilit y Office predicted that steps to improve the reliability of electronic voting "are unlikely to have a significant effect" in the 2006 off-year elections, partly because certification procedures remain a work in progress.

continued: tinyurl.com/aj5b8

[michelle]

Demand Strict Inspection of Diebold Software

It has been proven that Diebold electronic voting machines use code that is prohibited by federal law, but that hasn't stopped them from selling their machines and states from using them!

Please let Federal Election Commissioners know that citizens want the FEC to uphold the law and insist Diebold comply. You can use this one link to send an email to all commissioners. Please let them know that we are paying attention!

tinyurl.com/bom9y


Open Letter to the Election Assistance Commission
By VoteTrustUSA
December 29, 2005
The following letter will be sent to the Election Assistance Commission and Brian Hancock, ITA Secretariat on January 5, 2006. To add your organization to the list of signers write to [e-mail]. Individuals are encouraged to send this letter as an email to the Election Assistance Commission by visiting the Email Action Page.

Commissioners, Election Assistance Commission and
Brian Hancock, ITA Secretariat
United States Election Assistance Commission
1225 New York Avenue N.W. Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005

We the undersigned request that the Federal Independent Testing Authority (ITA) who inspected, for federal qualification, the software used on Diebold Optical Scan and Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines be ordered to reinspect all source code, including any code used on memory cards, looking in particular for 'interpreted' code.

'Interpreted' code is expressly banned for use on any voting systems as per the 2002 Federal Election Commission Voting System Standards Volume 1; Section 4, Paragraph 4.2.2, yet Diebold Elections Systems Inc. has admitted, in California, that they use 'interpreted' code in their AccuBasic software and it may be used elsewhere in their code.

This revelation from Diebold representatives and from documents obtained by "Freedom Of Information Act" from various sources points to a failure on the part of the ITA to use due diligence in their inspection of Diebold source code and software.

It is because of this failure on the part of the ITA and Diebold's revelations that we ask that all Diebold software/source code be reinspected by the ITA. The ITA should then report back whether the software/source code includes any 'interpreted' code and if that is the case, as Diebold has admitted, the EAC must direct that all Diebold software be decertified until such time as they can show that they have removed all such prohibited software.

This action must not stop with the Diebold products alone, as there is ample evidence that other voting systems also contain 'interpreted' code.

It must be made clear that the Voting System Standards were written by experts in the field of computer sciences and elections. The ITA have been tasked with ensuring that the voting machine vendors follow those standards or be denied federal qualification. We demand that the rules be followed by everyone.

VoteTrustUSA
Arizona Citizens for Fair Elections
Broward Verified Voting (Florida)
California Election Protection Network
CASE Ohio
Citizens for Election Integrity (Minnesota)
Coalition for Peace Action (New Jersey)
Coloradoans for Voting Integrity
Count the Vote (Georgia)
Essex County Task Force on Voting (New Jersey)
Florida Fair Elections Coaliton
Gathering to Save Our Democracy (Tennesee)
GuvWurld (California)
Illinois Ballot Integrity Project
Illinois Ballot Integrity Project - DuPage Chapter
Las Vegas, NM Peace & Justice Center
Mercer County Citizens for Better Elections (Pennsylvania)
Missourians for Honest Elections - Kansas City
Missourians for Honest Elections - St. Louis
New Yorkers for Verified Voting
North Carolina Coalition for Verifiable Voting
Oregon Voter Rights Coalition
Palm Beach Coalition for Election Reform (Florida)
PA-VerifiedVoting.org
Scott for Congress Campaign (Illinois-6th)
TrueVoteMD
United Voters of New Mexico
Verified Voting New Mexico
VelvetRevolution.us
Virginia Verified Voting
VotePA
VoterAction (New Mexico)
VoteRescue (Texas)
VotersUnite
WheresThe Paper.org
Zeese for U.S. Senate (Maryland)
[Add Your Organization]

[michelle]

NEWLY DISCOVERED DIEBOLD THREAT DESCRIBED AS 'MAJOR NATIONAL SECURITY RISK'!
Lock-down on all Diebold systems in PA

Voting Systems in Question Were Used Last Week in Ohio Primary, Soon in Pennsylvania, So 'Serious' Few Details Are Being Released
All Diebold Touch-Screen Machines, In All States, Said to be Affected by 'Horrifying' Vulnerability, Systems 'Sequestered' in PA

Voting Systems in Question Were Used Last Week in Ohio Primary, Soon in Pennsylvania, So 'Serious' Few Details Are Being Released
All Diebold Touch-Screen Machines, In All States, Said to be Affected by 'Horrifying' Vulnerability, Systems 'Sequestered' in PA

We've now been able to gather a great deal of additional information concerning details about the story we first posted yesterday on the official Pennsylvania state warning issued about the...
We've now been able to gather a great deal of additional information concerning details about the story we first posted yesterday on the official Pennsylvania state warning issued about the new "security vulnerability" discovered in all Diebold touch-screen electronic voting machines.

That warning, which has now brought a lock-down on all Diebold systems in PA, where early absentee (non-machine) voting is about to begin prior to their upcoming May 16th primary election, was reported by the Morning Call yesterday. The warning says the serious security vulnerability could allow ''unauthorized software to be loaded on to the system."

Public details about the warning are still sketchy as those in the know have acknowledged that the problem is so serious, they are hoping to keep the info under wraps until mitigation steps can be taken to safeguard systems.
READ THE REST:
www.bradblog.com/archives/00002787.htm

[michelle]

Dear fellow PDA Activists,

I've been working, like thousands of you, on Election Protection for a year and a half.

PDA Advisory Board members Rep. John Conyers and his Sr. Legislative Asst. Joel Segal helped hold the first federal hearings on voter suppression and machine anomalies in Ohio that resulted in the historic challenge to the Ohio electors in the House of Representatives, backed by Senator Barbara Boxer.

PDA Board Member and Constitutional lawyer John Bonifaz appeared at those hearings on behalf of election integrity and understood the peril to democracy so deeply he is now seeking office as Massachusetts' top election official, Secretary of State.

Our two founding issues were opposing the war in Iraq and re-establishing honest elections in the U.S, because the elections that brought us this war had decisive anomalies that were never addressed.

Election integrity is under the microscope in San Diego County. The 50th U.S. Congressional seat was given there, in special election, to Brian Bilbray (R) over Francine Busy (D) by three percentage points. The vote was counted on Diebold software, widely publicized to be technically vulnerable to tampering. The machines, both opti-scanner and DREs, were not kept in proper custody before the election.

PDA insists the paper in this election - paper ballots and Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail --be counted to determine the accuracy of the machine count in this race. For this reason, we have issued the statement below. Please read below and take action!

Mimi Kennedy,
Chair Progressive Democrats of America

Progressive Democrats of America declares No Confidence in the machine tally results of California's 50th district June 6 Congressional special election.

PDA calls for a full hand-count of both the paper ballots and the Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail to determine the level of accuracy or error in the Diebold voting system used in this election.

The reason for this statement is that the Diebold machines, which have memory cards, were not kept in proper custody as prescribed in guidelines issued March 22, 2006, by Sandra Steinbach, Chair of Voting Systems Board of the National Association of State Elections Directors (NASED): "Every memory card requires at least the same level of protection as the ballot boxes and ballots used in the election. To prevent corruption of memory cards NASED hereby adopts an official addendum to the qualification of all voting systems that include a memory card that functions to store and transfer ballot images or tabulation data: 1. Throughout the life of the voting system, the election official shall maintain control of all memory cards and keep a perpetual chain of custody record for all of the memory cards used with the system.

Programmed memory cards shall be stored securely at all times with logged accesses and transfers.

The concluding statement of Steinbach's letter is this: "Failure to comply with this addendum negates the voting system's status as a NASED-qualified voting system."

This election had national significance to both major parties bitterly contesting balance in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The margin of difference in the unofficial results, with many votes still uncounted, is within 5 percent.

The San Diego Registrar followed practices, established before the arrival of computer voting, that create broad security risks now. Pollworkers were allowed to take home machines; were stored in unsecured locations such as cars and garages, for days and weeks prior to the election.

The machines are the easily-tampered-with Diebold systems which were publicly shown (by Harri Hursti, Dec. 13, 2006, and others) to be completely hackable in less than two minutes time, with no password required. San Diego's breach in security is in direct defiance of regulations both by the CA Secretary of State and the Federal oversight board who had warned against precisely such a breach.

Security risks are amplified by hidden programming errors. In Pottawattamie County, Iowa, on the same day as the CA-50 election, two Republican elections were counted on opti-scan systems and the results looked suspicious to the elections director. Were two popular incumbents really losing to two little-known challengers? The opti-scan was stopped and all the ballots were hand-counted. In a case of healthy suspicion serving democracy, the voters' intent was read by human eyes and the apparent "losers" were victors. Subsequently, technicians determined that the opti-scanner had not been programmed correctly for the ballots for those races, and was "reading" those ballots wrong.

We call on the candidates in CA's 50th to strengthen American democracy and support a hand-count of paper ballots and paper trail in this election.

The outcome of the hand-count, whatever it is, will reflect the voters' intent and verify the degree of machine accuracy or error, at least in this one election.

Let's honor the voters. The hasty swearing-in of the Republican candidate dishonored them. As the ceremony went forward, thousands of votes were not yet counted and the Secretary of State had not certified the election results. No wonder participation in democracy is at an all-time low: this haste sends a signal that, for many of our officials, a large percentage of voters are superfluous, unnecessary, and more or less a bureaucratic burden. Nobody likes to be a burden. So nice people - increasingly - not only don't engage in political debate - they don't vote!

ACTION: SIGN THE PETITION FOR A HAND-COUNT: www.velvetrevolution.us/content/busby-bilbray/busby-bilbray.php PDA calls for a hand-count of the paper ballots and paper trails in California's 50th district before recognizing the legitimacy of any announced winner. We make this statement for the sake of democracy at a time of technological transition more than for the sake of a particular candidate, party, or outcome. The outcome we wish is a determination of true voter intent, which, because of the custody breaches and well-publicized security vulnerabilities of the voting system used, cannot be determined by the machine tally in this race.

The full text of NASED Chair Sandra Steinbach's letter:
March 22, 2006 National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) Voting System Board Voting System Memory Card Issues Memory card security is an important issue that requires some additional attention. They are used in many voting systems, both optical scan and direct recording electronic. Among the systems using memory cards is the Diebold AccuVote optical scan system. On December 23, 2005, the Chairperson of the NASED Voting Systems Standards Board contacted representatives of CIBER, Inc.; Wyle Laboratories and Diebold Election Systems, Inc. with a request for additional information regarding the qualification testing of the Diebold voting equipment and the memory cards associated with those systems. The letter read, in part: It is clear the memory card and ABasic component of the Diebold voting system should have been tested, but were not. From Ciber and Wyle labs, NASED independent test authorities, I request a full, written explanation of how this happened and why. Please respond by January 3,
2006. I expect to make this report public and anticipate Diebold's cooperation.

In the intervening weeks NASED has received general responses from Wyle and CIBER, as well as detailed reports of security analysis of the Diebold memory card's ABasic Code by CIBER and one issued by the California Secretary of State in conjunction with its certification documentation. Both of these studies were performed in response to requests from the State of California to Diebold Election Systems.

Both the California and CIBER reports arrive at the same core conclusion:
Diebold voting systems which include the ABasic code on the memory card can be safely used in elections. Physical security measures should be used to mitigate risks to the system; but these security measures are practical procedures already in place in many election jurisdictions. Even without the additional explicit security measures, corruption of the election results in an official election would require the active participation of the election officials and a person with a detailed working knowledge of the voting system programs.

Memory cards are used in many NASED-qualified voting systems. The memory card function is to store and transfer ballot images or tabulation data. It is sealed inside the voting device and its presence is necessary for the operation of the equipment. Corruption of the memory card with the intent to change vote totals can only occur after the device has been set for election and before the first vote is cast.

March 22, 2006 Every memory card requires at least the same level of protection as the ballot boxes and ballots used in the election. To prevent corruption of memory cards NASED hereby adopts an official addendum to the qualification of all voting systems that include a memory card that functions to store and transfer ballot images or tabulation data:

1. Throughout the life of the voting system, the election official shall maintain control of all memory cards and keep a perpetual chain of custody record for all of the memory cards used with the system. Programmed memory cards shall be stored securely at all times with logged accesses and transfers.

2. Immediately after the memory card is installed in the voting station, the card shall be sealed against unauthorized access. The voting station shall not be set into election mode until after the memory card is sealed inside.

3. Use controlled serialized seals that are tamper resistant and resistant to inadvertent breakage along with verifiable seal logs.

4. In post-election mode, print the results report prior to removing the memory card from the optical scanner. If additional reports other than the results report are available, print these as well.

Failure to comply with this addendum negates the voting system's status as a NASED-qualified voting system.

Sandra J. Steinbach Chairperson NASED Voting Systems Board

Authorized and Paid for by Progressive Democrats of America.
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.