Senator Feinstein letter requesting GAO investigation of e-voting systems

[eomer]

Senator Feinstein Asks Government Accountability Office
To Investigate Sarasota County Electronic Voting Systems

Senator Feinstein wants investigation in wake of Sarasota County undervote

February 14, 2007

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today asked the Government Accountability Office to launch an investigation of the electronic-voting system used in Sarasota County, Florida, in last year’s midterm election.

The following is the text of Senator Feinstein’s letter to David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States:

February 14, 2007

The Honorable David M. Walker
Comptroller General of the United States
U.S. Government Accountability Office
441 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20548

Dear Mr. Walker:

I am writing to request that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) undertake an investigation of certain models of Direct Recording Electronic voting systems that are used in federal elections, but do not produce voter-verified paper ballots.

I am particularly concerned about the voting system used in Sarasota, Florida, where there was an 18,000 vote undercount in the past election – the ES&S iVotronic System utilizing the Unity Election Management Software – and would like a top-to-bottom investigation of this system.

In conducting this investigation, I would like you to consult with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Election Assistance Commission, and other appropriate government agencies that study or certify voting systems.

Your investigation should also include the following: the Avante Touch Screen, the Diebold TSX that utilizes the GEMS System, the Sequoia/Smartmatic HAAT (Hybrid Activator, Accumulator & Transmitter), and the Sequoia AVC Edge System that utilizes the WINEDS Election Management Software.

Should the GAO become aware of any systems that are prone to software malfunctions, are susceptible to fraud, or use hardware design that would lead to voting system problems, I would request that you also inspect those systems.

Among other issues, I request that the GAO address the following factors:

(1) Problems. Identify whether the DREs exhibited any problems or irregularities, including human error, malfunctions, source code errors, malicious tampering, fraud, major security vulnerabilities or software bugs while in use during the Federal elections conducted in 2004 and 2006. Please also consider any interaction between the vendor-­provided software and local inputs to the voting system.

(2) Reasons. If problems or irregularities occurred, identify the circumstances under which the problems or irregularities occurred and the potential reasons why they occurred.

(3) Location. Identify the state and local governments where the problems or irregularities occurred, if any.

(4) Results of Problems. Identify the impact, if any, the problems or irregularities had on the final outcome of the Federal elections involved.

I also request that you examine several commonly used “paper record printers.” While more than half the states now require a paper trail or paper record, there have been concerns with the proper operation of these printers and the durability of the paper they produce.

For example, the Election Science Institute study of the thermal paper records in 2004 election in Cuyohoga County, Ohio, indicated that paper jams or printing problems caused approximately 10% of the paper records to be spoiled.

Please study the hardware and functionality of the Diebold Accuvote TSX with paper printer , the ES&S iVotronic Touch Screen with paper trail, and the use of reel-to-reel thermal paper trail technology in other printers.

I also request that you report on other paper record printers that the GAO believes should be examined. Please also compare these systems with paper record printers that have had limited reported problems.

Since this matter is of importance to the Rules and Administration Committee, it would be greatly appreciated if the study is completed as soon as possible. With the 2008 Presidential election fast approaching, time is of the essence.

If there are any questions regarding this request, please feel free to have the GAO staff contact the Rules Committee staff -- Howard Gantman, Staff Director, Veronica Gillespie, Elections Counsel, or Adam Ambrogi, Counsel.

Thank you for your cooperation and assistance in this matter.

Sincerely,



Dianne Feinstein
Chairman

http://feinstein.senate.gov/07releases/r-e-voting-fl.htm

[Peace Patriot]

1. I can't say that I'm sorry to see this happen, but why am I not weeping with

joy?

This is why, I think: Because I see how easy it is for the people who have colluded in creating the Bush Junta to now score points with the left, by pretending to be ignorant of how it was done.

Diane Feinstein VOTED FOR the "Help America Vote for Bush Act" of 2002, that SET UP these new electronic voting systems, run on "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls--and that fast-tracked non-transparent vote counting all across the land with $3.9 billion in boondoggle funding and lavish lobbying.

And NOW she wants a GAO investigation--in FLORIDA? What about CALIFORNIA, Sen. Feinstein? What about YOUR election? What about the Democratic Secretary of State who sued Diebold THERE, prior to the 2004 election, and got "swift-boated" out of office for his trouble--with the California Democratic Party leadership HELPING to get rid of him?

And then there's Christopher Dodd--a chief architect of the "Help America Vote For Bush Act"--who colluded with the biggest crooks in the Anthrax Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney--and who, like Feinstein, voted for the Iraq War as well, and who is now shocked...SHOCKED!..at all the torture going on, and who is now running for president, because he is so shocked...SHOCKED!...at all this lawlessness.

I mean, I just want to vomit.

The "shocked, shocked" line, of course, comes from the movie "Casablanca," and is spoken by the corrupt Vichy French commandant of the free city, who kisses Nazi butt. He is the apotheosis of hypocrisy. But kind of lovable, too--as portrayed in the movie. A good guy, at heart. Something of a whitewash of Nazi collaborators.

That's my read on Diane Feinstein and Christopher Dodd--Vichy collaborators, making post-war claims of having been patriots all along. Maybe "good guys," at heart--who can say? (This ain't no movie, after all.) But they were the ENABLERS of stolen elections, of torture, and of illegal, unjust, heinous war. They were the ENABLERS of Bush's lies. They were the ENABLERS of a fascist coup in this country.

Now coming on all virtuous.

What this OP tells us--this action by Feinstein asking the GAO to investigate FL-13 (a blatant case of election theft by electronic voting machine)--is that we've won. We, who have said this all along--that the electronic voting machines are the culprit--HAVE WON. If Diane Feinstein is compelled to score points with us, WE HAVE WON. The war is over. The war for our democracy, that is. And the only question is, what do we do with the collaborators? Let them pretend to be patriots?

I dunno. One of the great heroes of the election reform movement--TruthIsAll--chose an on-line name that must give us all pause, as we try to work with this very compromised, and not very representative, Congress, to inch our way back towards real democracy, and real government, of, by and for the people. Truth. Is. All. So I'm telling it here, as well as I can see it. And I don't really know the answer--as to letting politicians like Feinstein and Dodd capitalize on the difficult and dangerous work the rest of us have done to restore our democracy. War profiteers. Corporatists. Liars. Hypocrites. Vichy Democrats. They get to profit from it--to promote themselves and their corporatist agenda? Maybe so. For the sake of peace. For the sake of all who have been harmed. For the sake of restoring lawful government. For the sake of healing our broken country.

In saying that "we have won," I don't mean that the struggle is over. It is far from being over. But if hypocrites like these feel compelled to descry torture and stolen elections, we have reached an important milestone in re-empowering our fellow and sister citizens, and in making the views and the interest of the American people count for something.

It is a good moment. But we do have to consider how we got here, how much democratic and progressive ground has been lost, and how UN-democratic the corporate agenda, and the war profiteer agenda, are. And, of course, we still have fascist tyrants in the White House, bent on more war, and there is still little chance that a true peace-minded president can be elected (or stay alive) in this country. This is what everyone wants--a decent, peace-minded, and, hopefully, brilliant and visionary president--and it is STILL not very possible. Most likely, we get a Vichy President, for all our trouble. Hillary Clinton (much akin to Feinstein and Dodd). An improvement over Bush and Cheney. But then, that seems to have been the Corporate Ruler plan. To make a Corporate/War Democrat seem like an improvement.

Ah, me.

[Kurovski]

2. Kick.

I love to read your posts, Peace.

[EFerrari]

3. DiFI has a lot in common with Condi Rice: 'No one could ever

have imagined these machines that I voted to impose on voters all over the country . . ."

That's her schtick. They must all use the same writers. :shrug: