EFF sues Diebold and NC Board of Elections to stop evasion of law

[Kelvin Mace]

I will be posting more news on this as I get it at thoughtcrimes.org.



Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

For Immediate Release: Friday, November 18, 2005

Contact:

Matt Zimmerman
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
[e-mail]
415 436-9333 x127

<b>Diebold Attempts to Evade Election Transparency Laws</b>

EFF Goes to Court to Force E-voting Company to Comply With
Strict New North Carolina Law

Raleigh, North Carolina - The Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) is going to court in North Carolina to
prevent Diebold Election Systems, Inc. from evading North
Carolina law.

In a last-minute filing, e-voting equipment maker Diebold asked a North Carolina court to exempt it from tough new election requirements designed to ensure transparency in
the state's elections. Diebold obtained an extraordinarily broad order, allowing it to avoid placing its source code in escrow with the state and identifying programmers who contributed to the code.

On behalf of North Carolina voter and election integrity advocate Joyce McCloy, EFF asked the court to force Diebold and every other North Carolina equipment vendor to comply with the law's requirements. A hearing on EFF's motion is set for Monday, November 28.

"The new law was passed for a reason: to ensure that the voters of North Carolina have confidence in the integrity and accuracy of their elections," said EFF Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "In stark contrast to every other equipment vendor that placed a bid with the state, Diebold went to court complaining that it simply couldn't comply with the law. Diebold should spend its efforts developing a system that voters can trust, not asking a court to let it bypass legal requirements aimed at ensuring voting integrity."

On November 4, the day that voting equipment bids to the state were due, Diebold obtained a temporary restraining order from a North Carolina superior court, exempting it from criminal and civil liability that could have resulted from its bid. EFF, with the assistance from the North
Carolina law firm of Twiggs, Beskind, Strickland & Rabenau, P.A., intervened in the case on behalf of McCloy, the founder of the North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting. In a brief filed Wednesday, EFF argued that Diebold had failed to show why it was unable to meet various new election law provisions requiring source code escrow and identification of programmers. North Carolina experienced one of the most serious malfunctions of e-voting systems in the 2004 presidential election when over 4,500 ballots were lost in a voting system provided by
Diebold competitor UniLect Corp. Local officials were forced to re-run a portion of the election. The new transparency and integrity provisions of the North Carolina election code were passed in response to this and other documented malfunctions that have occurred across the country.

The North Carolina Board of Elections is scheduled to announce winning voting equipment vendors on December 1, 2005.

For the brief filed in the case:
http://www.eff.org/Activism/E-voting/20051117_Diebold_v_NC_Motion.pdf

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_11.php#004171

About EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and government to support free expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported organization and maintains one of the most linked-to websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/

[hedda_foil]

1. Thank you, Kelvin!

We just posted the release at VoteTrustUSA. You, Joyce and the gang absolutely ROCK!!!

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=1&Itemid=50

[Kelvin Mace]

7. Joyce deserves a medal

She has been relentless (much to the SBoE's great annoyance I am sure).

The fight goes on.

[hunter]

2. Everyone on DU needs to take a close look at their own state's elections.

If you don't have a voter verified paper ballot, you are trusting someone else to vote for you.

Do you really trust corporations such as Diebold to "Help America Vote?"

(BTW, cool new thoughtcrimes logo, and very appropriate now that the FEC has decided bloggers are "Journalists." http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5390205&mesg_id=5390298 )

[Wilms]

3. kick n/t

[dkofos]

4. If they can't comply,

pull the contract

[Kelvin Mace]

8. That was one of my thoughts about their complaint

They claim that unless granted relief from the law, they will suffer "irreparable harm".

No, that would be us, when they screw up our elections.

[Wilms]

5. Looks like their gonna have to turn over the software in CA.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x401851

[FreedomAngel82]

15. Oh really?

Nothing in Ohio yet?

[understandinglife]

6. Recommended!!!

Peace.

[SpiralHawk]

9. Many thanks to the EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation --

I want the t-shirt

[Kurovski]

10. Yes! May it become a trend...

recommended.

[Nothing Without Hope]

11. Too bad the DLC doesn't have the spine or - I believe - the integrity

to support and publicize the fight for democracy, or even to admit that electronic election fraud is an issue they need to combat.

Thanks goodness SOMEONE has picked up the slack.

Recommended.

[Kelvin Mace]

17. The Dems in NC are still pretty clueless

and we have to educate them (and elsewhere)

[rumpel]

12. Go EFF Go. Thanks for the info.

[Occulus]

13. Diebold: yet another reason to abolish corporate personhood.

I really don't mean to hijack this thread, so please, just skip me if you like, but if Diebold did not have personhood under the law, we could order their code open, by a statewide vote, or vote to shut Diebold down in the state, confiscate all its posessions, take the code, and forbid Diebold or any of its officers from ever doing business in the state again.

Diebold is not a 'person'. It is a corporation. It should have neither freedom of speech nor protections of copyright.

The myth of corporate personhood is directly contributing to the Diebold issue, and many many others. We need to address that before we can adequately address any other issue.

[texpatriot2004]

14. I agree 100% nm

[marions ghost]

16. Thank you Joyce NC Verifed Voting and EFF

:applause:

This is the only way it will happen. Challenge the system that continues to protect the interests of the voting machine vendors over the rights of the people to transparent elections.