• Inadequate procedures to preserve and secure ballots, voting machines and other voting materials;
• Inadequate standards for the random selection of the initial 3% of the statewide votes to be hand counted in the recount;
• The absence of procedures to conduct a recount of votes cast on electronic voting machines; and
• Inadequate procedures to ensure uniform and proper treatment throughout the state of access by recount observers to provisional, absentee, and spoiled ballots, to poll books, to voting machines and to other materials.

• The entire certification process is hidden from the public.
• Procedures used to conduct testing, the tests themselves, and the results of such testing should be available to the public should be in the regulations.
• We are primary stakeholders, and deserve to be included.
• The State Board should not be allowed to “waive” any testing at its discretion.
• The revised regulations do not prohibit wired networked connections; just this week we learned about infared wireless connectors on Diebold voting machines.
• Independent security experts must be able to petition the Board to perform tests.
• Penalties to vendors for installing uncertified code should be spelled out.
• Controlled disclosure of source code to independent experts to evaluate source code for vulnerabilities and flaws MUST be allowed.
• Require for a professional “Red Team” test, whose reports would confirm the accuracy and security of the voting system.
• We need volume testing; some outlines for comprehensive testing including “Mock Election Tests”.
• Essential and explicit security standards and specifications are absent.

“This deal wouldn’t go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America.”
G. W. Bush, source

(Good on-line discussion here.)

Two items:

I.
New York Times
February 23, 2006
Voter Groups See Flaws in Plan to Upgrade Balloting
By JENNIFER MEDINA

ALBANY, Feb. 22 Voter advocacy groups contended on Wednesday that New York was moving forward with a flawed proposal to modernize its voting system that could lead to widespread security problems on Election Day.

Next week, the State Board of Elections is scheduled to discuss proposed regulations for the brands and types of voting machines that will be certified for this fall’s elections. Legislation passed last year allows local election boards to choose their own machines as long as they meet the state board’s standards.

But the advocacy groups said the measures did not require enough tests to see if the machines would work or independent tests to determine if hackers could penetrate the machines’ security systems. Tests conducted by other states, including California, have found that nearly 20 percent of the machines tested did not count votes properly, said Bo Lipari, the executive director of New Yorkers for Verified Voting, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Read more.

II

The proposed Final Voting Systems Standards do very little to improve the many serious weaknesses present in the Draft Standards. It is troubling that the detailed technical commentary the State Board received from our organization and other experts was simply ignored in this latest revision.

New Yorkers for Verified Voting finds the proposed Final Standards in their present form to be unacceptable. Approving these standards as written will jeopardize the integrity of our vote in New York. It is incumbent upon theNew York State Board of Elections to guarantee each citizen’s right to vote, and to prove to the public that they can be confident that their votes will be accurately counted. The Final Standards fail in this regard. We need to do better.

Attached (below) is the introduction to our commentary on the Final Standards. Because so few changes were made to the draft regulations, we feel the only adequate response to the Final Standards is to resubmit our original commentary to the Draft Standards.

The full version submitted to the NYS Board of Elections contains NYVV’s complete commentary for the Draft Standards.

-Bo Lipari

The Life and Death of Public Records
By Terry Allen, In These Times
Posted on February 21, 2006, Printed on February 21, 2006

Sometimes it’s the small abuses scurrying below radar that reveal how profoundly the Bush administration has changed America in the name of national security. Buried within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 is a regulation that bars most public access to birth and death certificates for 70 to 100 years. In much of the country, these records have long been invaluable tools for activists, lawyers and reporters to uncover patterns of illness and pollution that officials miss or ignore.

In These Times has obtained a draft of the proposed regulations now causing widespread concern among state officials. It reveals plans to create a vast database of vital records to be centralized in Washington and details measures that states must implement — and pay millions for — before next year’s scheduled implementation.

Read more.

Bush’s Mysterious ‘New Programs’
By Nat Parry
February 21, 2006

Not that George W. Bush needs much encouragement, but Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a new target for the administration’s domestic operations — Fifth Columnists, supposedly disloyal Americans who sympathize and collaborate with the enemy.

“The administration has not only the right, but the duty, in my opinion, to pursue Fifth Column movements,” Graham, R-S.C., told Gonzales during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Feb. 6.

“I stand by this President’s ability, inherent to being Commander in Chief, to find out about Fifth Column movements, and I don’t think you need a warrant to do that,” Graham added, volunteering to work with the administration to draft guidelines for how best to neutralize this alleged threat.

“Senator,” a smiling Gonzales responded, “the President already said we’d be happy to listen to your ideas.”

In less paranoid times, Graham’s comments might be viewed by many Americans as a Republican trying to have it both ways – ingratiating himself to an administration of his own party while seeking some credit from Washington centrists for suggesting Congress should have at least a tiny say in how Bush runs the War on Terror.

Read more.

From: Lisa Pease
To: ‘Voting Activists’
Subject: Tell the LA Times about Diebold

Lloyd Dent had an excellent idea – see his note below. If you have time tomorrow, take a minute to draft a note to the LA Times. You can talk to them in three ways:

1. Send email to letters[at]latimes.com
2. Submit a comment to the Readers Representative on the LA Times (our alleged advocate) at latimes.com
3. You can post on their message board.

Key points to consider:

The Times is not giving the latest moves regarding our vote adequate coverage.
Diebold has not passed Federal Qualification criteria, yet our Secretary of State gave Diebold what is essentially a green light for CA.

Our County registrar is not responsive to the expressed wishes of the community she allegedly serves.

Then don’t forget to call the SoS’s office on Tuesday per the earlier message. If you need a copy of that again, let me know and I’ll resend to any who ask.

—–Original Message—–
From: LLOYD DENT
To: Lisa Pease
Subject: RE: ACTION ALERT! SoS has certified Diebold

Dear Lisa

There is something we can do right now! Neither Doris nor I have seen any mention of the certification of Diebold machines in the LA Times (Sat or Sun). We can write letters to the Editor about this. We have been told by another group that you are more likely to get a letter published if the Times get a lot of letters on a subject, thereby showing general interest. I will write a letter, and I recommend that you send a message to your group encouraging as many as possible to also send a letter. The letters should not be a form letter, but rather have different approaches.

More information is available at the Secretary of State’s website: http://www.ss.ca.gov/ under Voting Systems Information. Friday’s Press Release is there, with the Conditions of the conditional certification at the very end of the document.

Lloyd

2004 Election: Why we must not get over it is an interactive CD-ROM that contains videos and documents relating to the 2004 election and the problems with electronic voting.

Order it for free or download it and share it.

It contains MCM’s CSPAN interview.

http://www.solarbus.org/election/cd/