Confirmed installation of uncertified last minute election tabulation reporting software in Ohio

[Melinda]

The Free Press confirms installation, secret justification of uncertified last minute election tabulation reporting software in Ohio

by Gerry Bello and Bob Fitrakis

November 2, 2012

The Free Press has obtained internal memos from the senior staff of the Ohio Secretary of State's office confirming the installation of untested and uncertified election tabulation software. Yesterday, the Free Press reported that "experimental" software patches were installed on ES&S voting machines in 39 Ohio counties. (see Will "experimental" software patches affect the Ohio vote?).

Election Counsel Brandi Laser Seske circulated a memo dated November 1st renewing the already shaky justification for installing software made by Election Systems and Solutions on vote tabulation equipment used in 39 Ohio counties. The letter to Ohio Secretary of State personnel Matt Masterson, Danielle Sellars, Myra Hawkins, Betsy Schuster, and Ohio's Director of Elections Matthew Damschroder, clarified the dubious justification for not complying with the legal requirements for the examination of all election related equipment.

Seske begins by explaining what she purports to be the purpose of the software patch: "Its function is to aid in the reporting of results that are already uploaded into the county's system. The software formats results that have already been uploaded by the county into a format that can be read by the Secretary of State's election night reporting system."

According to the contract between the Ohio Secretary of State's office and ES&S, this last minute "experimental" software update will supposedly transmit custom election night reports to the Secretary of State's office from the county boards of elections, bypassing the normal election night reporting methods.

FreePress.org

Because, this is the PERFECT TIME to EXPERIMENT on the machines that count the votes!!!!

[flamingdem]

1. Fingers crossed that someone can get inside of that machine

and figure out what exactly that program does.

If it sends voting totals to the Secretary of State that alone is suspicious, it has been described as such, a way to do this more quickly. When the SOS has those numbers quickly they can determine where to get away with flipping, in my outsiders opinion. Somehow I doubt they left "evidence" in the machines but the strategy is to work with several ways of changing, disappearing, invalidating votes.

[alfredo]

3. Blackwell had unsupervised access to the main tabulator in 2004.

[alfredo]

2. Georgia did the same thing earlier in the century and Republicans won.

[Melinda]

5. Anyone with $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education can hack a Diebold

salon.com

Voting machines used by as many as a quarter of American voters heading to the polls in 2012 can be hacked with just $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education, according to computer science and security experts at the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The experts say the newly developed hack could change voting results while leaving absolutely no trace of the manipulation behind.

“We believe these man-in-the-middle attacks are potentially possible on a wide variety of electronic voting machines,” said Roger Johnston, leader of the assessment team “We think we can do similar things on pretty much every electronic voting machine.”

The Argonne Lab, run by the Department of Energy, has the mission of conducting scientific research to meet national needs. The Diebold Accuvote voting system used in the study was loaned to the lab’s scientists by VelvetRevolution.us, of which the Brad Blog is a co-founder. Velvet Revolution received the machine from a former Diebold contractor.

This shit's gone on far too long.

[alfredo]

6. I've been involved in the anti black box movement since 2001.

[Melinda]

8. Interesting and dark years on DU.

Notice how many fewer people on DU seem to care anymore? Yeah, me too.

[lobointexas]

11. I care !!

But, I agree that fewer people do. I was a lurker in 2004 and I fully believe that the 2004 election and the 2000 election (Florida) were both stolen. I would have expected hundreds of replies on the threads regarding Robme's vote flipping in the primaries.

[John1956PA]

13. +1

[alfredo]

15. I was very interested in what machines our county purchased. I voiced my concerns and

found they shared them. The state presented three machines for selection and our county picked the best of the not very good choices.

[Supersedeas]

4. Florida and Ohio...by hook or crook...Republican at it again

[jenw2]

7. We need to get Microsoft involved

No other software company is as trusted as they are. Over 95% of people trust their software on their computers. Instead, we're trusting fly by night companies like Diebold that make ATMs with important data. We shouldn't do that.

[lobointexas]

9. How is this legal ?

"dubious justification for not complying with the legal requirements for the examination of all election related equipment."

There is no justification for not complying with legal requirements.
I remember 2004 all to well and you would think that something would have been done by now.

[gkhouston]

10. Who says it is. Take 'em to court. It should be settled in a couple of years. n/t

[HarveyDarkey]

12. Just finished reading this & came to post when I saw this

They're not even trying to hide it now.

[argiel1234]

14. Here it comes!

yet NO ONE in either party is willing to discuss electronic voting fraud. WHY IS THAT?

fuck this shit.

We have had FOUR years to look into electronic voting hijinks by the Repuke fuckfaces, yet not a peep out of either President Obama or anyone in Congress.

I hope the international election monitors and the rest of the world is watching.