How the government is merging your voter info with its other databases

[BevHarris]

Well, I've just gone through a 60-page document pertaining to implementation of the new computerized statewide voter registration system mandated under HAVA.

I'm not a technophobe; many of these systems will streamline operations and make things work better. But after watching what happened with electronic voting, I also think that not enough thought has been given to what can go wrong when you mix private for-profit corporations with secret software and multiple use databases, and then mix in the very method of gaining and keeping power: public elections -- into the brew.

Actually, on its face this sounds good. If anyone feels like hard thinking, I'd be interested in comments on what I'm seeing so far.

First, the vendor (ES&S, Diebold, Sequoia, Votec) gets access to the database, which, according to the RFP put out by the state, may include social security numbers. There were also references to possible access to credit card info. I never saw any definition of under what circumstances this access would be made available, or why it is necessary.

Next, the databases that will integrate include, of course, the driver's license database, the voter registration database, and the department of corrections database. In the state I'm looking at, voting rights are removed from felons, but they can reapply to vote immediately after being released, so the system is designed so that Dept. of Corrections records are made available to the managing entity for voter registration, who will have authority to purge and restore voter registrations from the database. The voter registration database will, in turn, interface with the voting machines via the voter encoder card, which selects your virtual ballot based on your voter registration data.

The computerized voter registration will have the following technical components:
- .NET Framework
- SQL Server 2000
- Citrix
- IIS
- Web services
- Winforms
- SOAP / XML
- Windows 2003
- Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM)
- Global Scape Secure FTP
- LeadTools' Imaging Software
- AESM 2004 Application
- Multi-use Network (MNT)

It is the Multi-use Network that interfaces your personal information with other state databases.

Now, I have no trouble visualizing the advantages of an integrated database with our personal information -- but I become a bit more troubled when I learn more about the other kinds of databases that are formed when information is combined. For example, voting redistricting. One of the board members of the new nonprofit entity, Black Box Voting, described to me just how detailed these computerized redistricting databases are.

They contain, down to the household, the political party and voting history of each unit, mapped out on a grid, along with demographic information like race and age. It can contain (like the database containing personal information on 310,000 Texans from Collin County, which I found on the Diebold FTP site), your school district, birthday, names of everyone living in your household, whether you vote in person, absentee, early, or provisional, and your apartment number.

The private companies that will have access to this data include Qwest Communications and, depending on which vendor is selected, Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia or Votec. I think that an outfit called Election Data Services, EDS, which compiles statistics on voting methods and sells redistricting software, also can get its hands on some of this stuff.

Is this a good thing? If not, what's bad about it? What are the dangers?

I fear this post may be too brain-intensive for general discussion, but it's bugging me and I thought I'd throw it out for discussion anyway, and then I'll watch it sink like a stone.

Bev Harris

[NMDemDist2]

1. kick

Big Brother?

[Goldom]

2. The voting machines are running Windows??

Now we KNOW it's gonna break!

Not to mention... there isn't even such a thing as Windows 2003...?

[BevHarris]

4. Yes, they run on Windows. But this is the voter registration system

not the voting machines themselves. However, the card encoders for touch screens interface with the voter registration system to select the "virtual ballot" which appears on the machine and yes, I think, without open source software there's a real potential that this feature can be used to eliminate voter privacy.

[punpirate]

9. I'd be worried about integration of the systems...

... because of the use of card readers. As I understand it, the electronic voter registration system would be used to vet the voter at the polls. If the electronic voter registration system then writes the access card, the access card is then inserted in the voting machine, there can be a randomly generated number attached which could be used to tag the vote itself--all that information could be retrieved with little difficulty, if the tag number were preserved anywhere in the system.

Right now, the poll worker would take a signature sign-in, compare it to the available written list, and then generate an access card. No interaction between card writing and the registration database. With the system proposed, the registration database could automatically code the access card, and retain that data.

Cheers.

[BevHarris]

14. Actually, the voting card already interacts with the database

The only one I'm not sure of is Hart Intercivic -- because, if their card interacts with voter registration to select the ballot, why did 7,000 voters get the wrong ballots on Hart machines in March 2004? Hart claimed that was because those voters showed up at the wrong polling places.

According to the Diebold transcript in an interrogation in Cleveland, the new Diebold encoders are designed to replace the sign-in poll book. And, as RedEagle pointed out to me -- even when they aren't already using the system, by designing it for that purpose, all they need to do is get a cooperative new county official in and presto, more auditing of the election disappears.

The Diebold voter card has too much memory on it. It has enough to hold an executable program -- if all it had to do was select the right ballot, based on voter registration info, all it would need would be enough memory for an 8-digit code number.

And we know that they are putting executables on the results cartridge, another place it doesn't belong -- at least, Sequoia has been doing that, with an uncertified program called "reverse.exe"

Okay, got off track. The voter card is risky for a number of reasons and auditing alone can't eliminate the risk of using the voter card to take away the privacy of your vote.

Bev

[JayS]

11. Windows 2003 = Windows Server 2003. n/t

n/t

[kiahzero]

19. Yeah, yeah there is

Windows 2003 Server.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/default.mspx

[shraby]

3. For one thing, any programs

associated with Microsoft will be outstandingly unsecure and unstable. The lack of privacy in the whole schmear is unspeakable. There goes the secret ballot idea down the drain. Might as well walk into a polling place, yell out who you're voting for and walk out.

[Misinformed01]

5. Hell I can do almost that much with GIS now (- SSNs).

Merging Lots/Accounts with Census, and voter, info is a snap.

[BevHarris]

6. question is, what additional information is in the Dept. of Corrections

database? The document refers to the Dept. of Corrections database containing 1,000 more databases.

It also refers to the network vendor having control over telecommunications as well.

[sangha]

26. Every state has it's own Dept of Corrections

I have access to NY States OCA (Office of Correctional Administration) database, so I might be able to detail some of the info in their database, but that would only apply to NYS. Based on my experience (I work for a public defender) I'd say those database are focused on prisoner's crimes, sentences, locations, and history within the prison system (meaning the prisoner's disciplinary record, etc)

[loudsue]

7. This is getting MORE out of hand, instead of more in line with privacy

And the fact that the repukes can gain access to this database when they're trying to do their famous "redistricting maps" is scarier than I even care to think about.

This is beyond big brother: This is Totalitarianism.

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

[mopinko]

8. just

:kick:

[cally]

10. I hadn't thought about this, but you

are so right to be concerned about this. They will now know how we vote and can link it to many databases. No private company should have access to this data.

[JayS]

12. Well, now y'all know one reason why...

...gunowners fight registration and vote against politicians that support registration or that are endorsed by organizations that support it, like the Brady Bunch.

Welcome to the club! :)

[Unperson 309]

15. Yet NOBODY kicks about CAR registrations!!

You'd be astounded at all the stuff you can find with drivers' licenses and registrations! With that and with credit card info, you can pretty much track a person 24/7. Where they go, what they buy, the whole schmear... but nobody EVER compl;ains about tHAT... and think about it... you have to have the reg *visible* in the car at all times, along with VIN and plates.....

A whale of a lot scarier than the gun reg thing!

309

[JayS]

17. We had some problems with vehicle registration here. It used...

...to be a lot easier to take a plate number and get the address. After multiple rapes and murders, our political heroes have started to try and plug the holes. It is a whack-a-mole game. I don't want to go down that road with firearm registration, not that we would comply with it here anyway.

[loudsue]

13. Keep up the good work, Bev!

:hi: You're awesome!! :hi:

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

[camero]

16. I wonder if this is linked to DARPA (TIA)

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=1917

Despite Congressional action cutting funding, and the resignation of the program’s controversial director, retired admiral John Poindexter, DARPA’s TIA program is alive and well and prying into the personal business of Americans 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“When Congress cut the funding, the Pentagon – with administration approval – simply moved the program into a ‘black bag’ account,” says a security consultant who worked on the DARPA project. “Black bag programs don’t require Congressional approval and are exempt from traditional oversight.”

DARPA also hired private contractors to fill many of the roles in the program, which helped evade detection by Congressional auditors. Using a private security firm like Cantwell, instead of the Federal Protective Service, helped keep TIA off the radar screen.

TIA’s mission was to build a giant computer database with real time access to bank records, credit card companies, airlines and other travel companies, credit bureaus and other data banks to monitor, in real time, the financial transactions and travel of Americans and foreign citizens with accounts at the institutions.

Under provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the banks and other companies were forced to allow DARPA to access their files, a move normally considered an invasion of privacy.

more

[AirAmFan]

18. They'll be able to manipulate voter turnout!

With much less information than this, companies can custom-tailor advertising messages to get us to buy whatever they're selling. It's a very short step to sending out marketing messages to encourage those who'd vote far-right Republican to actually get to the polls, or send out Ralph Reed's "Christian" legions to ring doorbells and get selected people to complete absentee ballots on the spot.

For Democrats or those who might lean away from the farthest-right candidate in a Republican primary, custom messages could be crafted to discourage voter turnout. Like the "Don't smoke" messages sent out to teenagers by tobacco companies. custom-tailored messages sent to "encourage" Democrats to vote would actually be engineered to get them to do the opposite.

With the level of detail you've described, there could be thousands of different messages for Republicans and thousands of different messages for Democrats. Each household would get a custom marketing campaign that would maximize pro-right manipulation of overall voter turnout, up for Republicans, down for Democrats.

[camby]

20. Two words: SECRET BALLOT

We all realize that with electronic voting our votes will be preserved -- but linked to our names, social security numbers and demographic data???? That whirring sound is Orwell SPINNING!

[Jackpine Radical]

21. The data can be used to build & refine predictive models

for voter behavior. Which (perhaps previously unsuspected or underappreciated) demographic variables predict a Dem or Repug vote? That information can then be used for various purposes.

[ContinentalOp]

22. Ouch.

The redistricting angle is particularly scary. With such accurate information on who votes where and for which party, there are a probably a lot of subtle ways they can manipulate redistricting, decide when to cheat and by what margin, when to count absentee ballots or not, which precincts should have "problems" with their machines, etc.

From a commercial point of view I don't know if this is any worse than what these database companies already know about us through credit card purchases, medical records, or supermarket tracking cards. I don't see any added value in marketers knowing who we vote for.

But from the other end the marketers who run campaigns can benefit greatly by knowing our lifestyle and purchasing decisions. They can probably find even better ways to target different demographic groups and pitch their candidates directly to certain niches.

And of course the fact that all of this data is privatized means it won't be available to both parties equally. So the benefits go entirely to the people controlling the data (i.e. Republicans).

[ConsAreLiars]

23. This is more than a "registration validation" database.

Once compiled, it becomes a part of a universal behavior tracking system that will enable those who control it (gov't agencies and private corporations) to add it into whatever operations they engage in, from marketing to "preventative" social control to "tweaking" voting outcomes.

Once upon a time, freedom from tyranny was possible to the extent that the cost of spying on the citizenry was relatively high. Following people around to see what they did and stealing their trash to see what magazines they read and talking to associates to learn their politics was possible, but the cost precluded doing this on a massive scale.

Databases like this WILL be incorporated into the BigBrother tech of the TIA. That is certain.

Whatever the upside in terms of assuring that the person showing up at the polls is properly qualified, it is nothing compared to the cost in terms of the loss of liberty that results.

Once upon a time, my social security number was useful only for recording income and paying taxes. Now it has become a tattoo mark associated with everything I do from driving to buying groceries. Extending this universal database to include voting habits is not consistent with democracy.

[dusty64]

24. Just great.

:kick:

[SarahB]

25. It keeps getting worse.

:( Double plus suckage.