Colorado Election Lawsuit --Rocky Mountain News article

[bobbolink]

Keep your fingers crossed for us in CO, that we can get a favorable ruling from this judge, and reclaim our elections! This group of people have been working so hard on this, and we're _this_ close...

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/elections/article/0,2808,DRMN_24736_5007194,00.html

"Fear of fraud in the November election will be confronted head-on in a Colorado courtroom today when a lawsuit goes to trial on whether computerized voting machines should be banned because they are too susceptible to tampering.
The state will argue that voting on computer screens is safe because a person's ballot also is recorded on a printout, allowing spot checks for fraud and miscounts after the polls close."
snippage

"The controversy in Colorado is part of a growing nationwide clamor over the possibility of election fraud, fueled by continuing anger over problems from the 2000 presidential election, which George W. Bush won by only a few hundred votes in the deciding state, Florida, and after a Supreme Court decision. "

more snipping
"In today's lawsuit, a bipartisan group of voters is arguing that Secretary of State Gigi Dennis used an unqualified staffer to certify the machines and that he did little security testing as required by state law.
Princeton University computer experts last week released a study, saying they can reprogram machines made by Diebold to distort votes with just a screwdriver, a tiny flashdrive loaded with software and one minute of time."

[Realityhack]

1. Good luck n/t

[Warpy]

2. There are lawsuits crawling through the courts in many states

The one in NM was embarrassing enough it shamed our governor into signing a bill mandating 100% paper optical scan ballots statewide. Yes,the scanners can still be hacked, but hand recounts are now possible.

Good luck to all of you in Colorado!

Paper ballots! Anything else is tyranny!

[bobbolink]

3. And people think Richardson would be such a great pres.

:crazy:

I'm so glad that "the people" made him accountable.

I'd enjoy it if he had to eat some paper ballots. :hi:

Here's to New Mexico! :toast:

signed...

former Los Alamosian.. :hi:

[Kurovski]

4. K&R.

Thanks for posting this, bobbolink.

Why do they state "fear" of fraud? Why not just say "the possiblity" of fraud if they don't want to go out on a limb and just say "fraud"? the press drives me nuts.

"Fear of fraud in the November election will be confronted head-on in a Colorado courtroom..."

[bobbolink]

5. Why? Simple. Cuz it's all us crazies, full of fear and venom, with

nothing better to do than to raise a stink, and upset the poor SoS.

:evilgrin:

Cereally, the Rocky Mountain News is RW--I refer to it as Rocky Mountain Pravda. So, we were actually lucky to get the coverage they gave it. It was headline and all.

The Denver Post hasn't covered it, that I saw.

OK, I'll look it up, and post what I find from the post.

Post-toasties. :silly:

[bobbolink]

6. Here's an article from the Post today..

but it's not the one I see in the paper. sigh..
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4374791

"Denver District Judge Lawrence Manzanares refused, saying testimony had already established that officials were under political pressure to approve the machines.

"The question is not their motivation but whether those motivations led them to fail to follow the statutory requirements," Manzanares said.

A computer scientist testified for the plaintiffs today that none of the four electronic machines identified in the lawsuit can be used by voters who are both deaf and blind, and two are inaccessible to paraplegic voters.

after snipping..

"Witnesses called by the plaintiffs' attorneys have testified that some of the electronic voting machines are easily tampered with. The attorneys suggested John Gardner, the secretary of state employee who examined and certified the machines, was unqualified.

On the stand, Gardner acknowledged he had no formal computer science training and overrode some of the test results of his assistants, one of whom had a master's degree in information technology."

[bobbolink]

7. Here's the other one... seems to side with the state.. sigh...

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4370714

State goes to bat for vote machines
Officials defend in court the electronic devices that plaintiffs claim can be hacked. That's unlikely, election authorities says.

"State officials defended their approval of four brands of electronic voting machines for Colorado in district court Wednesday, saying that at least 18 other states have also approved the machines and that fears of hackers and fraud are overstated.

The state is trying to fend off a lawsuit by 13 citizens claiming state officials improperly certified the machines without adequate documentation or attention to security.

The state relied on security guarantees from the manufacturers, the plaintiffs said.

Testifying for the plaintiffs, Doug Jones, a computer expert at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, said it would be easy to reprogram one of Colorado's electronic voting machines.

"You could turn it into a Nintendo machine," Jones said. "

Nintendo machine... :rofl:

[Kurovski]

8. How can this be?

"... saying that at least 18 other states have also approved the machines and that fears of hackers and fraud are overstated."

"Overstated"? Either you can hack a machine or you can't.

And we've seen that you can, So all you need are people who would WANT to hack them.

Do we have people who would steal elections if they could? Gosh, do people want to do things like that in America?:rofl:

[bobbolink]

9. Geez, Kurovski, you read these things too carefully! ~~gigglesnort~~

Of course our fears are "overstated".

Except.. well, the fear of terraism.. that's reasonable and logical...

:hi:

[BeFree]

10. Cool, that's some excellent news!

At the very least, after the election, these people are gonna look like prophets.

Then the lawsuit to collect damages from the makers of the crappy machines oughtta put them out of business once and for all.

[bobbolink]

12. From your lips to the ears of the Goddess!

I've been through too much garbage to have tons of hope, but... I would really like to see you be exactly on target with this one!

:thumbsup:

[BeFree]

13. My pleasure...

..."Let me whisper in your ear, all the things you want to hear"

Really, you know these people are spot on, so put away the doubts and hope for the best. Things are coming our way.

[eleny]

11. Here's the Voter Action update that just arrived in email

Voter Action is the organization that is sponsoring the lawsuit.

"Colorado Voting Machine Lawsuit Update
September 21, 2006
Dear Friends,

Today is the second day of the Voter Action-sponsored trial for the Colorado voters' lawsuit to halt the use of electronic voting in that state. Voter action Co-director Lowell Finley is on-site in Colorado, and is cautiously optimistic about the proceedings so far.

Regardless of the outcome of this case, one thing is clear; a light is shining on the lack of checks and balances in the voting systems that we rely on for our most basic democratic right- the right to vote and have that vote counted as cast.

Computer security expert and professor Doug Jones appeared yesterday as an expert witness for the voter plaintiffs and delivered thorough testimony on the inadequacies and high security risks of the electronic voting systems approved by the state.

The state voting machine expert , John Gardner, also took the stand yesterday. A previous deposition of Mr. Gardner taken in the case revealed that he has no technical expertise with electronic voting systems, but relied on the vendors to provide the systems’ certification requirements.

The lawsuit in Colorado also exemplifies the inadequacies of the federal certification process, and that the “federal testing” touted by the Secretary of State’s office is actually conducted by private labs whose customers are the vendors that manufacture the machines.

Today, testimony is being heard from plaintiff’s experts Noel Runyan, a disability access technology engineer with over 30 years professional experience and Professor Dan Wallach from Rice University. Below please find today's article on the trial from the Rocky Mountain News.

Thank you for your support, and we will provide another update by the end of the week.

Sincerely,
Holly Jacobson
Co-director, Voter Action www.voteraction.org"