Lots more also on Wired's website: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/03/diebold-admits.html
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/diebold-audit-l.html http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/03/ca-report-finds.html MCM Electronic Voting Flaw Eyed by California by Matt Williams http://www.govtech.com/gt/627337 [To get to this piece, Google "humboldt diebold govtech" and then click on the "cached"] link after the headline.] The California Secretary of State's Office held a public hearing Tuesday to gather testimony about a software flaw in electronic voting systems that <http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/624765>erased 197 vote-by-mail ballots in the Nov. 4, 2008, general election in Humboldt County, Calif. The 'Deck 0" flaw automatically deletes the first batch of tallied votes from optical scan paper ballots after they are scanned into Premier Elections Systems' Global Election Management System (GEMS) version 1.18.19, according to the Secretary of State's Office. (Premier was formerly known as Diebold.) The Secretary of State's Office also found problems with audit logs of version 1.18.19. It doesn't log important system events, records inaccurate timestamps, and contains a "clear" button that deletes logs. Justin Bales, western region general manager of Premier, testified Tuesday that 16 California counties are using an updated version that fixes many of those problems. Premier isn't opposed to California Secretary of State <http://www.govtech.com/gt/624854>Debra Bowen <http://www.govtech.com/gt/160985>decertifying the flawed software version, he said. The deletion of ballots was inadvertent and election security is of paramount importance to Premier, Bales said. Premier issued a workaround for the Deck 0 problem in 2004, but the Humboldt County elections worker who was informed about it left the county prior to the Nov. 4, 2008 election. Humboldt County Registrar of Voters Carolyn Crnich testified that the county has decided to move to a new vendor for its electronic voting, but will have to use Premier systems for its next election in May. Crnich and her office oversee the an innovative program called the Humboldt County Election Transparency Project that relies upon volunteers to use a high-end scanner in order to produce digital images of all ballots. The images are uploaded to the Internet and are also available on DVD. Kevin Collins, a volunteer for the transparency project, testified Tuesday that the vote tally inaccuracies in Humboldt County beg the question of many other elections in the U.S. have been unknowingly impacted by flaws in version 1.18.19. The software version is federally and state-certified. According to California Elections Code, the Secretary of State has the authority to withdraw approval of an electronic voting system if it's defective. The decision would go into effect after a minimum of six months. In 2007, Bowen ordered that California discontinue using <http://www.govtech.com/gt/624854>touchscreen e-voting technology. MJ On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Richard Salzman <<mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]> wrote: I don't suppose you happen to have copied that article? I can't believe that I had it on my screen just moments ago! Begin forwarded message: >From: Mark Crispin Miller <<mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]> Date: March 20, 2009 11:47:58 AM PDT To: Richard Salzman <<mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]> Subject: Re: Flaw in Diebold software used in 34 states I got to this, and it says they can't get to govtech. <http://ww23.rr.com/index.php?origURL=http://www.govtech.com/gt/627337>http://ww23.rr.com/index.php?origURL=http://www.govtech.com/gt/627337 Can you cut and paste? MCM --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [email protected] OR go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
