BBV: Dominoes falling: Evoting systems scrapped by Ireland, Venezuela, C

[BevHarris]

I was doing a whole series of interviews with Irish media about 3-4 weeks ago -- on radio, in newspapers, helping them overcome the onslaught of talking points used to defend the touch screen system put in place for June elections in Ireland, with systems built by a manufacturer from the Netherlands.

Now get this (posted 17 hours ago by a subscription only Irish news service):

Cullen e-vote fiasco leaves €50m bill

"(Irish Minister of the Environment) MARTIN Cullen was accused last night of wasting over €50 million after his electronic voting plans were scuppered by a devastating independent report.

"The bill for the Minister for the Environment's e-voting rollout was labelled a scandalous waste of taxpayer's money that could have covered the cost of the Government's "Savage 16" social welfare cuts.

"The Government was left reeling after the damning report confirmed all the warnings, despite the minister's combative dismissal of any criticism of the system's security and reliability.

"Fighting off calls for his resignation, Mr Cullen said electronic voting will not be used in the local and European elections in June, but added he still intended to introduce it for future polls.

"Voter confidence in this system is absolutely essential. That is why we have pulled the system. At best there would be a lot of confusion," he said.

"The Commission on Electronic Voting's report prompted the Government to pull the plug on e-voting after it found the system's reliability could not be established to its satisfaction.

"In a severe blow to the minister's endorsement of the system, the commission also said testing identified a software error that could lead to incorrect results and that it was easy to bypass security measures to manipulate the count.

"...The minister was reckless, arrogant, dismissive, abusive, he misled the Dáil repeatedly, he wouldn't consult and he wouldn't listen. This is nothing short of gross negligence," he said.

"As his party colleagues described the fiasco as a scandalous waste of money and contrasted the €52 million budget to the €58 million social welfare cuts, Labour environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore said someone had to take responsibility for a mistake that had cost the taxpayer so much

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And now, Venezuela : They have decided to scrap the Election Systems and Software (ES&S) voting system they've had for a new company based in Florida. More on this, I'm nosing around a bit more...

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We all know about California: They have decertified ALL touch screen machines, but some can try to get recertified, only after they prove that they will follow a lengthy set of security upgrades. Mischelle Townsend, from Riverside County, when called by the press yesterday, had not formulated a response yet. The TSx looks like it is dead in the water, as do all the Diebold touch screens, because one of the requirements is that the RABA report recommendations be followed to the last gnat's eyelash, and those recommendations, specific to Diebold, recommend some things it will be impossible for Diebold to comply with.

The Secretary of State's report is devastating. I will have it posted at BlackBoxVoting.org shortly.

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Watch the dominoes fall...
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Bev

P.S.: More dominoes: 4 lawsuits pending http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1510113

and still more dominoes: 2 criminal investigations pending http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1510082

[FreakinDJ]

1. Philippines also scrapped the Evoting machines

Took their Supreme court only 2 weeks to hand down an order requiring the machines not to be used.

It says quite alot for a country as cash starved the Philippines to do this. They had already invested Billions of pesos into the venture

[BevHarris]

3. Outstanding. Do you have a link or a reference on that?

I'd like to get that to the press here.

Bev

[FreakinDJ]

5. Here is the link Bev

SUPREME COURT VOIDS COMELEC'S AUTOMATION CONTRACT

MANILA, January 14, 2004 (STAR) By Aurea Calica And Jose Aravilla - The Supreme Court (SC) nullified yesterday a P1.249-billion contract that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) awarded to a private consortium in April last year to provide automated ballot counting machines for the May 10 elections.

Voting 9-3-2, the SC ruled that "though the Philippines needs an automated electoral process, it cannot accept just any system shoved into its bosom through improper and illegal methods."

Prohibiting the Comelec from implementing any other contract on automated ballot counting machines, the tribunal forced the Comelec to revert to the slow manual vote count that has often resulted in fraud and violence in the past.

http://www.newsflash.org/2003/05/hl/hl019652.htm

There is a lot more to the story as the head of Comelec had to step down and I think he is now facing bribery and cooruption charges.

I have to run errands for a little while but check back later I'll have some links discussing how these companies were bribing the government officials there.

I think the American people need to know just how unscrupulous these E-voting folks are

[BevHarris]

6. Thank you! Yes,

and there will be more:

As in, why, about 20 years ago, did a CIA report say that their second biggest budget expenditure was influencing elections in foreign countries?

And why, around 1984, did the CIA use a controversial law to appropriate the voting machine software of the then-biggest voting machine vendor (objected to by congress, but they rammed it through anyway).

I think you get the picture. Lynn Landes and I were working these angles waaaaay back in October and November 2002, but the U.S. media just wasn't ready for these kinds of questions.

Bev

[RedEagle]

9. California

I'd swear one of the early stories had to do with Reagan sending out the CIA to California to look into one of the voting companies.

I've googled since with no luck.

[yowzayowzayowza]

16. Perchance...

Didya have any discussions with Mike on these issues? BBV as blowback; ugly, ugly, ugly.

[Political_Junkie]

2. Damn, this is good news!

Let's hope it spreads.

[FreakinDJ]

4. The question should be...

If these countries can figure out the problems with E-voting machines then what is wrong with America.

I still hope we can gather enough momentum to challenge the use of the machines in front of the supreme court before the November elections

[bemildred]

7. Vheadline had a couple stories on the Florida system

that Venezuela is adopting, they have studied it carefully
from what I can tell (not much) and I have been speculating
they want it as an enabler for less educated voters, which
in Venezuela works for Chavez and the current regime.

[RainDog]

8. It cannot be said enough

so I'll say it again.

Thank you Bev, and all who have worked so hard and against such huge obstacles to bring some truth about the absolute corruption at the heart of the Republican machinary.

You and people like you are the only reason I have any hope for my country anymore.

That you have also done so much for democracy in other countries should earn you a place in the history books.

[ParanoidPat]

10. Damn Bev, you're an expensive date!

But worth every cent! :evilgrin: :thumbsup:

:kick:

[leftchick]

11. :kick:

Go Bev!

:kick:

[LynzM]

12. Excellent...

More and more in the news, and starting to make 'mainstream' (MSNBC, etc) news. Bev & Co., you guys totally rock, and thank you all for your incredible hard work!! :bounce:

[FreakinDJ]

13. Here is the additional information I promised you Bev

Here Bev
This is the additional information on the E-voting machines being tossed out of the Philippiines

SC voids P1.3B deal, orders Comelec probe
by Ron Arriola
The Supreme Court declares the P1.3 billion contract between the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Mega-Pacific eSolutions null and void, thus making manual counting of votes the only option to determine the winners in the May 10 elections.
In a strongly worded resolution, the High Court rules that the Comelec violated the law and its own bidding rules in order to award the contract to a non-existent consortium for the supply of automated counting machines, “which turn out to be highly defective and vulnerable to election fraud on a massive scale. . . .”
The Supreme Court votes 9-3-2 to nullify the contract. It also orders the Ombudsman to prosecute all those involved in the questionable transaction and the Solicitor General to recover the P849,167,697.41 already spent. Three justices dissented while the two others asked for more time to study the case.

accepted the computers and the programs, “which had failed to pass eight critical requirements designed to safeguard the integrity of the elections.”

The counting machines, the High Court observes, failed to detect previously downloaded results and prevent them from being inputted again in several tests conducted to determine their performance accuracy. They were found incapable of showing the audit trail of the count/canvass at different levels, which is necessary to trace and verify the identities of operators who make the entries and download the results as well as the time when such entries and downloads are made.


http://www.philippinestoday.net/2004/February/coverstory2_204.htm




MegaPacific Consortium is composed of Mega-Pacific e-Services Inc., ePLDT, election.com, WeSolv Philippines and SKC&C.

Seems like election.com is a name you should be familure with. Here are some excerpts from their own web site
Election.com…… in the United States, we are helping states develop strategic plans to meet federal requirements, implementing Statewide Voter Registration Systems and building the Defense Department's 2004 Internet voting solution for military and overseas citizens

http://www.ifesbuyersguide.org/detailtest.php?id=67&title=Equipment&subtitle=Eq_CompSoft_NetSecurity

and here are the criminal charges being handed down to the officials involved in the Philippines.

Republic of the Philippines )
Quezon City, Metro Manila ) S. S.


COMPLAINT - AFFIDAVIT


I, AQUILINO Q. PIMENTEL, JR., Filipino, of legal age, with office address at 6th Floor, Senate, Pasay City, Philippines, after having been sworn in accordance with law, hereby depose and state that:

1. I am a Filipino taxpayer and a Senator of the Republic.

2. I am charging before the Office of the Ombudsman the following Commissioners of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), namely:

* Benjamin Abalos, Jr. (the Chairman);
* Luzviminda Tancangco;
* Ralph Lantion;
* Mehol Sedain;
* Resurreccion Z. Borra;
* Rufino Javier;
* Florentino Tuason, Jr.;

with the crime of violation of Sections 3(e) and 3(g) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Rep. Act No. 3019)1 committed as hereunder narrated.

3. The above-named respondents may be served with summons and other processes of this Office at their respective offices located in the Commission of Elections Main Office, Intramuros, Manila.

The statement of facts is rather interesting. These are the findings of the Philippine supreme court…

• " also accepted the proferred (sic) computer hardware and software even if, at the time of the award, they had undeniably failed to pass eight critical requirements designed to safeguard the integrity of elections." (See page 2, Decision)

http://www.nenepimentel.org/news/20040121_Ombudsman_Complaint.asp

[BevHarris]

15. Thanks so very much -- your info is in the lead story at BBV now

BlackBoxVoting.org is getting a face lift, to work towards removing the confusion the press has between the .com and .org. The .org site is the ONLY one that represents my recent writing, and it is the only one I'm affiliated with.

Anyway: The falling dominoes is the subject of this weekend's article. It also contains the original reports for the Ireland report, the RABA report, the California reports, and others.

Thanks so much for helping me with the Philippines information, FreakinDJ!

Bev

[AgadorSparticus]

14. i just posted on needing some inspiration. wow. here it is! THANK YOU!!

I appreciate all your efforts, Bev Harris. You, and people like you in the trenches fighting the fight, are a heroes to me.
:kick:

[loudsue]

17. Bev, you are WONDERFUL WONDERFUL!!!!! WONDERFUL!

:yourock: This is GREAT news!!! :yourock:

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for all you have done to save our country! Throughout history, there only a few real heroes that change the course of things for the better....AND YOU'RE ONE OF THEM!

And thanks, also, to all the BBV Patriots that are helping with research and activism to help bring all this together. I wish all armies in the world were as honorable!!!

O8)Prayers for your continuing safety and success!!O8)

:kick::kick::kick::kick:

[RedEagle]

18. Kick!