BBV - California senate committee votes to ban all touchscreens NOW

[BevHarris]

This is not the final vote, but is a very strong vote, because it has very heavy Republican support, including some powerful Republican senators. Indications are, since these guys voted to ban the touch screens, it's going to pass. The bill is on the fast track.

This is especially interesting in light of the reaction to California secretary of state Kevin Shelley's decision last Friday to decertify all touch screens, letting only some of them recertify and only if they jump through about 23 hoops.

Some touch screen counties are already saying they will just go to optical scan and paper ballots, because it will be to onerous to jump through the security hoops. Riverside County (our favorite, Mischelle Townsend) has vowed to sue the secretary of state's office saying he doesn't have the authority. Well, it's like this: One of the hoops involves letting the secretary of state examine their system, source code and all. Sounds like they don't want that. I wonder why?

But suing the secretary of state won't get Townsend far if the senate votes to ban the touch screens.

Bev Harris

[lovedems]

1. Congratulations Bev. I know you have been working hard on this cause

and I am glad to see that you are finally get some results. I know it has been an uphill battle but you have certainly put up a good fight. I hope this trend continues and congratulations again!

[FreakinDJ]

2. Bev...I mean WONDER WOMAN

I Luv U

You are the greatest girl

You hear this all you historians. I expect to see this patriotic hero's name in my Grandchildren's US history books

[ramblin_dave]

3. Regarding the optical scan counties

Is there any hope that robust auditing will be in place for the election?

[BevHarris]

14. Yes. It's a matter of timing -- that can be put in place quickly

But getting voter verified paper ballots carries a longer timeline, thus that is the thrust right now. Without the auditing, it won't help much, though.

Bev

[blondeatlast]

4. YES. YES. YES. nt

[senseandsensibility]

5. Thanks from a Californian

:-) }( I've been really worried that with the Gropinator in the house, the *cartel would be able to steal our mega electoral votes.
It's really been making me apathetic about the election, although of course I will vote, contribute to, and campaign for Kerry. Thanks Bev. If there's a fair election in California,it's due to you.

[BevHarris]

18. Not due to me. If I had to pin it on someone

obviously, there are a lot of people, not the least of whom are Kevin Shelley, Senators Johnson and Perata, and Kim Alexander. But one of the most effective lobbyists, who has made a tremendous difference, is Jim March.

- He knows lobbying strategy. He's been a professional gun lobbyist for quite a while. He lives directly across the street from the state capitol in Sacramento and has made more visits to officials than anyone I know.

- He's a staunch Republican, and he relates well to the Republicans in the California legislature. He's been very, very effective this way.

- He's a computer programmer who can speak plain English, colorful English full of sound bytes, and he is very clever about getting the message across.

- He's been the perfect collaborator for the leaks, witnesses, and documents that I've unearthed, and we've worked very closely now for many months. Each time I find something, we figure out something devastating to do with it. There are stories I wish I could tell...

- He works the media very effectively.

- He's physically imposing, cuts a real spectacular figure and getting noticed is part of the deal. He's a computer geek who is about six foot five and 280 pounds, wears boots, a cowboy hat and a bolo tie.

- He's fearless. Remember, it was Jim March who came up with the "rig-a-vote" CD which he put on his web site for download and took around California demonstrating to reporters and politicians. He taught a radio talk show host to hack GEMS on the air. He was the first to defy Diebold on a cease and desist -- when they tried to shut him down, he said "Go ahead: Make my day. Sue me, and I'll see you in discovery."

The guy is an activism alloy: He has ironclad ethics and balls of steel.

Take your hat off to him.

Bev Harris

[hunter]

21. Yes!

This is not a Democrat vs. Republican, black vs. white issue. This is housecleaning.

[RedEagle]

22. Hats Off to Jim!

And ya gotta wear those boots when you need to kick "it" out of the way.

California, time to contact your state representatives and senators and let them know how you feel. It's certain that a lot of the county election officials will be crying and lobbying to stop all this nonsense about paper.

Back Shelley, back the ban on paperless voting.

[AP]

26. Can you suggest the names of any politicians who have been out front on...

...this issue to whom it would make sense to donate a few dollars (in CA, particularly).

You know, I wouldn't be above sending a donation of $2 to a good republican on this issue, along with a note saying that I never thought I'd never give money to a Republican, but for this issue it is worth making an exception.

[revcarol]

27. You can always donate to Kucinich, out there in front as always.

Sadly, in a couple of major DK strongholds in CA, there just happened to be power outages, denying people the right to vote in the primary.

So he doesn't live in CA...just in swing state OHIO....

[AP]

28. I want to reward politicans who are actually exercising power to change

the law, not just the ones who are talking about it.

I'm not saying that Kucinich isn't providing a valuable service. But I'm not made of money, and I want to get some bang for my buck.

There are some politicians in CA right now who are doing much more than talking.

[BevHarris]

48. What precincts were those? Privately if you like

send info on anything you know about power outages in the primaries to [e-mail]

[BevHarris]

46. Good guys

Ross Johnson - Republican - sponsored the bill
Don Perata - Democrat - cosponsored the bill

I've got more info on http://www.blackboxvoting.org.

There's a problem person too, the lone dissenter. A senator from Los Angeles County. Conny McCormack territory. Somebody straighten her out. Her name is also on the blackboxvoting.org site.

Bev

[ParanoidPat]

32. Thank You Jim!

The rest of you Californians can do your part by contacting your local elections officials here!
Tell 'em Bev sent ya'! :evilgrin:

[PROGRESSIVE1]

6. Gropenfuhrer that he was going to have a "Reichstag Fire" in...

Cali....

hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Forget It.!


:kick:

[newsguyatl]

7. when will be the final vote?

[BevHarris]

50. It's fast-tracked, meaning it will skip appropriations

but it will need 2/3 to pass -- and that is looking like about a 50/50 shot right now. So get busy. Call your legislators!

[wryter2000]

8. Whooo-whooo!

You save my vote, Bev Harris

:yourock:

[alfredo]

9. Great news.

Let's see this through to the end.

[feminazi]

10. thanks from another californian

this is great.

[TacticalPeek]

11. California? This could become a fad, and sweep the country!

Pet Rock the Vote.

:toast:

[Andy_Stephenson]

31. Keep you eyes on....

Washington State...May 14th...My Suit comes to trial. Sam reed is gonna be shaking in his shoes.

[tinanator]

12. what is the security level with opti-scan?

simply the ballots themselves? Will they be handcounted to verify? My friend ran one local precinct and his machines were the ONLY ones that worked at all, and it sounded like the whole election process was screwed.

[BevHarris]

15. The biggest security risk with both touch screen and optical scan

Is the central count -- but there are several audit methods to help with that, and none are time consuming or expensive. Except, possibly the old Sequoia/ES&S systems. I'm not sure they can produce a polling place count.

The simplest and one of the most important things to do, though, is what my editorial in the Seattle Times this week says: Insist on posting the full results tape at the polling place before those votes go anywhere, and compare the tallies with what shows up at central count.

Bev

[Bushfire]

56. Does the memory card for ES&S Optech Eagle III-P have the ability

to print results? My election precint captain refused to allow the press, or citizens view the results after she read them off when the polls closed. Thus no results were posted either at my voting place which happened to be a public library. Per the Secretary of Elections in my state, "Current optical scan systems, such as the optical scan voting equipment in (my city), were approved for use by the State Elections Board under the 1990 FEC voting systems standards. New voting systems will have to be qualified against the 2002 FEC voting systems standards before the State Elections Board will consider approving them for use pursuant to S. 5.91, Wis Stats, and ElBd Chapter 7, Wis. Adm. Code. I am greatly concerned since the manufacturer ES&S was recently caught using illegal software in Marion County Indiana just last April 2004.

http://www.indystar.com/articles/2/139985-5092-009.html

Conveniently an ES&S rep has the password to our central computer as well.

[spanone]

13. Very Encouraging News. Once again,Thanks Bev!!

[hunter]

16. This was very much directed towards Riverside...

It was like "So, you want to sue Health Inspector/Secretary of State Kevin Shelley? Okay, let's just turn on these kitchen lights and see what happens..."

Yep, sure enough, the food is uncovered and the roaches are running away.

[Zinfandel]

17. Watching Greg Palast this morning he said BBV works perfectly

in white areas, but in black voting areas there are all kinds of screw ups, ballot tossing, misreads, fraud, etc...

Which makes perfect sense to me...if they work perfectly well in the white areas, most people will assume they work well everywhere and if it ever does get reported in the republican owned corporate media, most again, will just assume it's minor.

Very slick work by these right-wing fucks, no one really cares about how they voted in the black communities, but the republicans know it's over 90% democrat, and they will just get rid of those votes and cruise to victory everywhere they have the BBV in place, in black precincts.

So low keyed they are trying to be about it...However, thanks to the author of this thread (and Palast, Meria Heller and others) it's slowly being blown out of the water.

[BevHarris]

19. Actually, no way it works perfectly in white areas.

As my husband says: "They've always messed with us. It's just that now they're messing with the white folks too. How's it feel?"

They're messing with all of us now. Just ask Georgia.

Bev

[Andy_Stephenson]

30. Rob Georgia that is.

the patch Makes "interesting changes to the system" I wonder how accubasic works with the whole system.

[MoonRiver]

20. Bev,

:loveya: beyond words!

[RedEagle]

23. By the way....

...I was told that the PBS News Hour did 15 minutes on BBV.

Anybody got a report? Heard that Dill was on- but also that non-paper Shamos- who is computer scientiest but NOT a security expert. He's one of two in the country they go to to PR paperless voting.

[loudsue]

24. This is GREAT news! I just got here...late, and went searching

for Bev Harris & BBV issues! How did this thread slide off page one??

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

:yourock:GOD LOVEYA, BEV!!! :yourock:


You're the greatest!! And a big thanks to Jim March, wherever you are!

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

[RedEagle]

25. Nothing Changes if WE Don't Change It

This is the base.

Act now.

The news stories won't change until we take back our right to have our votes counted as cast.

[Andy_Stephenson]

29. Oh Mischelle........

you gotta be replaced...hopefully with an elected official...you know, accountable to the people you work for.

[ParanoidPat]

33. Contact Mischelle Townsend.....

....Here! :evilgrin:

Riverside (33) -------- Sequoia AVC Edge --------- touchscreen / DRE
Mischelle Townsend, Registrar of Voters
2724 Gateway Drive
Riverside, California, 92507-0918
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm

Let her know if she doesn't represent you, her days as an elections representative are numbered! :)

:kick: Who's Vote? OUR VOTE!:kick:

[ParanoidPat]

34. Contact Mischelle Townsend.....

....Here! :evilgrin:

Riverside (33) -------- Sequoia AVC Edge --------- touchscreen / DRE
Mischelle Townsend, Registrar of Voters
2724 Gateway Drive
Riverside, California, 92507-0918
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm

Let her know if she doesn't represent you, her days as an elections representative are numbered! :)

:kick: Who's Vote? OUR VOTE!:kick:

[ParanoidPat]

35. Contact Mischelle Townsend.....

....Here! :evilgrin:

Riverside (33) -------- Sequoia AVC Edge --------- touchscreen / DRE
Mischelle Townsend, Registrar of Voters
2724 Gateway Drive
Riverside, California, 92507-0918
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm

Let her know if she doesn't represent you, her days as an elections representative are numbered! :)

:kick: Who's Vote? OUR VOTE!:kick:

[ParanoidPat]

36. Contact Mischelle Townsend.....

....Here! :evilgrin:

Riverside (33) -------- Sequoia AVC Edge --------- touchscreen / DRE
Mischelle Townsend, Registrar of Voters
2724 Gateway Drive
Riverside, California, 92507-0918
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm

Let her know if she doesn't represent you, her days as an elections representative are numbered! :)

:kick: Who's Vote? OUR VOTE!:kick:

[ParanoidPat]

37. Contact Mischelle Townsend.....

....Here! :evilgrin:

Riverside (33) -------- Sequoia AVC Edge --------- touchscreen / DRE
Mischelle Townsend, Registrar of Voters
2724 Gateway Drive
Riverside, California, 92507-0918
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm

Let her know if she doesn't represent you, her days as an elections representative are numbered! :)

:kick: Who's Vote? OUR VOTE!:kick:

[ParanoidPat]

38. Contact Mischelle Townsend.....

....Here! :evilgrin:

Riverside (33) -------- Sequoia AVC Edge --------- touchscreen / DRE
Mischelle Townsend, Registrar of Voters
2724 Gateway Drive
Riverside, California, 92507-0918
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm

Let her know if she doesn't represent you, her days as an elections representative are numbered! :)

:kick: Who's Vote? OUR VOTE!:kick:

[ParanoidPat]

39. Contact Mischelle Townsend.....

....Here! :evilgrin:

Riverside (33) -------- Sequoia AVC Edge --------- touchscreen / DRE
Mischelle Townsend, Registrar of Voters
2724 Gateway Drive
Riverside, California, 92507-0918
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm

Let her know if she doesn't represent you, her days as an elections representative are numbered! :)

:kick: Who's Vote? OUR VOTE!:kick:

[ParanoidPat]

40. Contact Mischelle Townsend.....

....Here! :evilgrin:

Riverside (33) -------- Sequoia AVC Edge --------- touchscreen / DRE
Mischelle Townsend, Registrar of Voters
2724 Gateway Drive
Riverside, California, 92507-0918
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm

Let her know if she doesn't represent you, her days as an elections representative are numbered! :)

:kick: Who's Vote? OUR VOTE!:kick:

[nolabels]

47. As a Riverside County resident I can say she never did and never would

The Republicans from this county live in their own little world most the time.

Once in while their houses burn down and they ask for help or something from outside, but mostly they are a state within a state.

This will be very cute if the whole of California does an end around on them :D

[dusty64]

41. Kick!

:kick:

[RedEagle]

42. Support the sponsors of this legislation in California

And write/email/call/fax the others and let them know you want ONLY PAPER!

Paper in 2004!

And lots and lots of auditing!

Voting belongs to the PEOPLE!

[leftchick]

43. Excellent News!

:)

[ramblin_dave]

44. In another forum a Californian said

a vote in some Senate committee means nothing. They put out all kinds of stuff just for show. He is convinced that Shelley does not want to ban touchscreens in the heavily Democratic counties.

[BevHarris]

51. Well I differ with that. These people are pissed.

Read the secretary of state's report. In it, he shows that Diebold was found to use uncertified software in October, then he prints the letter from Diebold from December saying they are terribly, dreadfully sorry and will never never do it again, then they do it again and try to hide it from him.

The folks in California have had enough.

Bev

[BevHarris]

45. COLORADO legislature is getting on board.

From Al Kolwitz, CAMBER
Colorado legislators have passed a resolution, not law yet, but heading in the right direction. They have gone on record to support verifiable vote recording and verifiable vote interpretation and counting. In its final day of the session, Colorado’s House joined the Senate and resolved to officially recognize that “paperless voting systems are a source of concern to its citizens” and to put on record that the legislature “requires that voter-verifiable paper ballots must be deemed to be official ballots”.

The resolution was unanimously passed in the Senate. It was passed in the House on a bi-partisan 59 YES, 6 NO vote.

Resolution, SJR04-010 -- Concerning paperless voting systems, can be read in its entirety at http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics2004a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/EE30664863D3275787256DDE0076626B?Open&file=SJR010_rer.pdf

Sponsors: Senator Keller (D); and Representative Jahn (D)

Co-sponsors: Representatives Clapp (R), Cloer (R), Lundberg (R), Madden (D), McFadyen (D), Merrifield (D), Mitchell (R), Paccione (D), Plant (D), Rhodes (R), Schultheis (R), Williams S (D).

While a resolution does not have force of law, it does place Colorado squarely on record as acknowledging that, “The mechanisms of DRE equipment are invisible and concealed from voters and election officials as well as parties of contending interest, thus making verification, recount, or audit that is independent of such paperless DRE utterly impossible”.

Please let legislators know that we deeply appreciate their support of this resolution.

Al Kolwicz
Executive Director
CAMBER
Citizens for Accurate Mail Ballot Election Results
http://coloradovoter.blogspot.com

[mopaul]

49. woo woo!!! go bev go

[hunter]

52. Specifically SB 1723

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/sen/sb_1701-1750/sb_1723_cfa_20040504_100937_sen_comm.html

[BevHarris]

53. OK -- this will be on Lou Dobbs today - I'll be on it

I think they have me scheduled for around 6:40 Eastern

[LynzM]

54. Kick!

Good stuff to hear!! :bounce: Can we get a little of that in Indiana? ES&S here, still...

[loudsue]

55. That's GREAT, Bev! I'll be watching!

:hi: I am SOOOO proud of all you are doing for our country! Good luck on Lou Dobbs! This is the kind of thing I think will really matter to him!:hi:

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

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

[RedEagle]

57. Kick!

[Gin]

58. great work Bev...thank you..

Agent Mike...take a hike!

[natrat]

59. never in my wldest dreams

did i think this country would come to this-thanks for the links-i will contact my reps and tell them no paperless voting-very surreal