Petition is here: The Trouble With Tabulators Part ll

[ChrisPhx]

Please visit and sign if you agree:

"Address The Biggest Threat To Our Democracy"

hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition
service, at:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/no4etabs/

Thanks
:toast:

[ChrisPhx]

1. Please help keep this visible

and ask folks to sign if they agree.

Thanks

[ChrisPhx]

2. Text of Petition Statement

Please visit and sign if you agree:
"Address The Biggest Threat To Our Democracy"

Petition Statement:

"We have grave concerns about voting in our Democracy. We believe the main threat to our Democracy is not currently being addressed.

Paper trails for ballots only matter if an election is close enough to "justify" a recount, and if an honest recount can be accomplished.

The Tabulators can be hacked into in order to create an artificially large difference in votes between candidates. So without a recount, the "paper trail," if it exists remains irrelevent.

If a recount is done, there is no guarantee it will be done openly and honestly (Ohio 2004), so again the paper trail may be irrelevant. Also recounts are costly as was seen this election cycle.

We have to get it right the first time, by addressing the Tabulator and Electronic voting problem. We need to get Electronic voting and hackable Tabulators out of our election system.

Until and unless they can developed with open source code and non partisan verification of their accuracy and security, we can not have faith in a system that relies on electronic voting and Tabulators.

Otherwise we see no point in taking part in any actions to demand a paper trail and/or deal with myriad types of vote fraud and intimidation. If we ONLY take care of all the other problems, we could easily find ourselves wondering again in 2006 and 2008 "what went wrong?"

We will not participate until and unless the Tabulator and Electronic voting problem is first or simultaneously addressed."


It is hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition service, at:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/no4etabs/petition.html

Thanks

Chris

[Melissa G]

9. done!

[Laurab]

12. Done and kicked n/t

:kick:

[roseBudd]

15. memme: Computers count the votes so no one CAN SEE, They claim

Bush won, I say PROVE IT to me.

it rhymes!

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Done n/t

[Wilms]

4. Done. Nominated. n/t

[ChrisPhx]

5. Bumping

is better than dumping.

Please sign.

[Trish1168]

6. I'm in

:)

[dzika]

7. done.

[annabanana]

8. done.....................kick, n/t

[feelthebreeze]

11. done and kick

[juajen]

10. Done

:kick:

[ChrisPhx]

13. re-booting

kick, bump, boot

[ChrisPhx]

14. again

[Peace Patriot]

16. I will sign but I have a big problem with the phrase "paper trail."

I wish it made the point somewhere in the text that we don't want a paper trail or a receipt, we want a...

Voter Verified Paper Ballot that takes precedence over electronic tallies in any recount.

I understand your point that that is not enough. But still, we need to keep making this point over and over, so people don't get fooled by paper "receipts" or whatever kind of paper "trail" that can just be discarded in a recount. (And actually, there need to be mandated random recounts comparing the VVPB with the electronic tally.)

I agree with your main point. It's absolutely absurd to have secret source code in these machines. It's the "elephant in the room." Seems like nobody's talking about it.

[ChrisPhx]

17. Paper ballots

Thanks for signing!

This petition doesn't really try to provide a solution in any specific way.

I would have changed it to paper ballot rather than trail if I'd gotten the input before we started the petition. Now I can't change it.

As you say, the main, major, sole point is that if we don't get the tabulator evoting problem dealt with, the rest matters not at all.

We're just fighting that one piece of the battle with this petition, but it is a HUGE piece, IMHO.

Chris

PS

(Vote this topic as "greatest" to give it more visibility)

[Amaryllis]

18. kick

[ChrisPhx]

19. Bumping

again

[ChrisPhx]

20. More on The Tabulator Problems

Excerpts from

"Risks to the Public in Computers
and Related Systems"
Peter G. Neumann and Contributors

January 2005 ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering

“• Diebold GEMS central tabulator contains a stunning security
hole: two-digit code alters results; this is a real doozer
(R 23 52)…”
“…• Earlier cases reported: New Mexico: at least 678 votes lost
in 2000 early voting, greater than the presidential margin (R
23 50, correction R 23 51); Lost records of 2002 Florida vote
raise 2004 concern (R 23 46); Alabama 2003, ES&S machines
reversed the governor’s race, not detected until long afterward!
Bev Harris records 51 cases in which voting machines
recorded the wrong outcomes, including Wayne County NC
(reversed in time); 100% error in Orange County in 1998 bond
issue (yes/no reversed) (R 23 51; more on Bev Harris’s crusade,
R 23 45 )…”

Most of the article is on my blog:

http://chrisphoenix.forclark.com/story/2005/3/2/1476/51760

[ChrisPhx]

21. Interesting article referred to above

computer science on tabulators, elections