By Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, 03/31/04
Today the L.A. Times reports that Mischelle Townsend, Riverside County Registrar of Voters, is being accused of illegally accepting $1,080 in travel and lodging from Sequoia Voting Systems, the county's electronic voting equipment supplier. Riverside county's gift limit is $340. Community activist Art Cassel filed the complaint against Townsend, which also alleges that Towsend failed to file conflict-of-interest discosure reports from 1998-2002, as well as her husband's income.
Excerpt:
Townsend said her trip was for a Public Broadcasting Service series called "American Business Review" hosted by Morley Safer.
She said she may have improperly filled out the forms, but she believes that the show was for the public good.
"I filled it out rather hurriedly," she said. "If I put it on the wrong schedule, I'll look into that. I firmly believe it was worthwhile to provide information on our experience.... I didn't receive compensation for it. There was nothing personally gained from it. It was just my role to provide information about issues being debated about the voting system we use."
A Sequoia spokesman questioned whether the complaint was politically motivated.
"Mischelle has been a leader in electronic voting issues across the country, and there are a number of people politically opposed to electronic voting," said Alfie Charles, a spokesman for Sequoia.
"As someone who has worked with Mischelle for several years, I have always known her to be one of the most ethical officials in government, to the point of making sure when we go out to a meal together, the check is split so there's never any question of impropriety."
Riverside County was the first large jurisdiction in the nation to switch to electronic voting, and used it in the 2000 presidential election. Townsend has often been quoted about the system's accuracy.
The company's equipment is used in more than 35 states, with 48,000 of its electronic machines in use across the nation, according to Sequoia's website.
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Monday, March 29, 2004
County should look at alternatives to Diebold
Oakland Tribune editorial, 03/27/04
Excerpt:
It appears that Alameda County residents are destined to cast their ballots Nov. 2 on Diebold Election Systems' heretofore unreliable touchscreen voting system, but that shouldn't preclude officials from considering what else might be available.
For if the touchscreens, encoders, software, hardware and other gizmos it takes to operate Diebold's system aren't nigh-on flawless, it may be time for the county to opt out of its $12.7 million purchase.
If Diebold's electronic child is not trouble-free by Nov. 2, there are an abundance of reasons why Alameda County should not hesitate to sever its relationship with the firm. Among them are the fact that the malfunctioning system caused voting problems at 200 precincts during the March 2 primary, that none of its equipment had been adequately tested or certified prior to the past three elections, and Diebold has been less than candid in its dealings with Alameda County and the press.
Excerpt:
It appears that Alameda County residents are destined to cast their ballots Nov. 2 on Diebold Election Systems' heretofore unreliable touchscreen voting system, but that shouldn't preclude officials from considering what else might be available.
For if the touchscreens, encoders, software, hardware and other gizmos it takes to operate Diebold's system aren't nigh-on flawless, it may be time for the county to opt out of its $12.7 million purchase.
If Diebold's electronic child is not trouble-free by Nov. 2, there are an abundance of reasons why Alameda County should not hesitate to sever its relationship with the firm. Among them are the fact that the malfunctioning system caused voting problems at 200 precincts during the March 2 primary, that none of its equipment had been adequately tested or certified prior to the past three elections, and Diebold has been less than candid in its dealings with Alameda County and the press.
Diebold vows to fix e-vote problems
By Ian Hoffman, Alameda Newspaper Group, 03/25/04
Diebold executives and Alameda county election offiicals held a closed-door meeting to discuss the numerous problems the county experienced with Diebold's voting equipment on March 2.
Excerpt:
Diebold's voting system also inexplicably gave thousands of Democratic votes in the Oct. 7 recall election to a Southern California socialist. The firm has failed to obtain timely state approval of hardware and software.
For Super Tuesday, Diebold supplied scantily tested devices that failed in 200 Alameda County polling places and more than 560 in San Diego County.
The devices, a kind of voter-card encoder called the PCM-500, eventually were to revamp the polling place. Diebold and the counties planned as early as 2005 to program voter-registration lists into the PCM-500s, eliminating the need for paper pollbooks and making polling places virtually paperless.
On Wednesday, Diebold representatives said they didn't know they had to have such "peripheral devices" tested and certified for an election until late December.
State officials say that's not true.
"Elections officials were very clear in October in letting Diebold representatives know that anything related to their systems had to first be certified," said Doug Stone, spokesman for the California Secretary of State's Office.
Diebold executives and Alameda county election offiicals held a closed-door meeting to discuss the numerous problems the county experienced with Diebold's voting equipment on March 2.
Excerpt:
Diebold's voting system also inexplicably gave thousands of Democratic votes in the Oct. 7 recall election to a Southern California socialist. The firm has failed to obtain timely state approval of hardware and software.
For Super Tuesday, Diebold supplied scantily tested devices that failed in 200 Alameda County polling places and more than 560 in San Diego County.
The devices, a kind of voter-card encoder called the PCM-500, eventually were to revamp the polling place. Diebold and the counties planned as early as 2005 to program voter-registration lists into the PCM-500s, eliminating the need for paper pollbooks and making polling places virtually paperless.
On Wednesday, Diebold representatives said they didn't know they had to have such "peripheral devices" tested and certified for an election until late December.
State officials say that's not true.
"Elections officials were very clear in October in letting Diebold representatives know that anything related to their systems had to first be certified," said Doug Stone, spokesman for the California Secretary of State's Office.
County calls out Diebold execs
By Ian Hoffman, Alameda Newspaper Group, 3/24/04
Alameda county election officials are the first in the state, and perhaps in the nation, to invoke the peformance clause of their voting equipment contract with Diebold.
Excerpt:
After his phone inquiries to Diebold went unanswered, Alameda County Registrar of Voters Bradley J. Clark wrote a letter Monday invoking the performance clause of the county's $12.7 million contract.
He demanded Diebold deliver within 10 days a written plan to correct multiple problems, foremost of which was forcing the county to use poorly tested, uncertified voter-card encoders that broke down in 200 polling places March 2.
Diebold executives agreed to a meeting today. The company did not respond to inquiries Tuesday.
Alameda County Counsel Richard Winnie shied from talk of legal action. "We're going to take this step by step," he said. "We're very serious about making sure we don't have problems like this in the future."
Clark's letter revealed a greater array of problems with Diebold equipment and ballot-printing services than the county previously has acknowledged.
The most serious and well-known -- the large-scale failure of electronic devices used to produce ballot-access cards for voters -- delayed Super Tuesday voting at 200 polling places in Alameda County and more than 560 in San Diego County. When paper ballots ran out, hundreds of voters were turned away.
Diebold officials have blamed the encoder failures on drained batteries. Yet poll workers have told the Oakland Tribune and Clark's office that they kept the encoders fully charged only to see them fail for varying periods of time on the morning of the election.
For the first time, Clark's letter suggests Alameda County also had unspecified "programming problems" in the Democratic and American Independent Party presidential primaries. The registrar did not respond immediately to inquiries Tuesday about those problems.
Clark also made note of "absentee ballot problems," a reference to a glitch in the Oct. 7 recall election that mysteriously awarded thousands of absentee votes for Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante to Southern California Socialist John Burton. A Diebold technician changed the votes based on examination of the paper ballots and scanned ballot images.
"I am sure that it was fixed because of the hand counts that we did," Clark said in a recent e-mail, "but I was not satisfied with the answers as to why it happened."
Diebold's explanations have ranged from a corrupted candidate database to a bad vote-counting server.
Alameda county election officials are the first in the state, and perhaps in the nation, to invoke the peformance clause of their voting equipment contract with Diebold.
Excerpt:
After his phone inquiries to Diebold went unanswered, Alameda County Registrar of Voters Bradley J. Clark wrote a letter Monday invoking the performance clause of the county's $12.7 million contract.
He demanded Diebold deliver within 10 days a written plan to correct multiple problems, foremost of which was forcing the county to use poorly tested, uncertified voter-card encoders that broke down in 200 polling places March 2.
Diebold executives agreed to a meeting today. The company did not respond to inquiries Tuesday.
Alameda County Counsel Richard Winnie shied from talk of legal action. "We're going to take this step by step," he said. "We're very serious about making sure we don't have problems like this in the future."
Clark's letter revealed a greater array of problems with Diebold equipment and ballot-printing services than the county previously has acknowledged.
The most serious and well-known -- the large-scale failure of electronic devices used to produce ballot-access cards for voters -- delayed Super Tuesday voting at 200 polling places in Alameda County and more than 560 in San Diego County. When paper ballots ran out, hundreds of voters were turned away.
Diebold officials have blamed the encoder failures on drained batteries. Yet poll workers have told the Oakland Tribune and Clark's office that they kept the encoders fully charged only to see them fail for varying periods of time on the morning of the election.
For the first time, Clark's letter suggests Alameda County also had unspecified "programming problems" in the Democratic and American Independent Party presidential primaries. The registrar did not respond immediately to inquiries Tuesday about those problems.
Clark also made note of "absentee ballot problems," a reference to a glitch in the Oct. 7 recall election that mysteriously awarded thousands of absentee votes for Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante to Southern California Socialist John Burton. A Diebold technician changed the votes based on examination of the paper ballots and scanned ballot images.
"I am sure that it was fixed because of the hand counts that we did," Clark said in a recent e-mail, "but I was not satisfied with the answers as to why it happened."
Diebold's explanations have ranged from a corrupted candidate database to a bad vote-counting server.
Sunday, March 21, 2004
CA Secretary of State Voting Systems Panel Meeting, March 30, 2004
Meeting Agenda
On Tuesday, March 30 the California Secretary of State's Voting Systems and Procedures panel will meet at 1 p.m. in Sacramento. The agenda includes only two items -- ES&S' ranked choice voting system for San Francisco's instant-runoff balloting, and "Other Business". The meeting is open to the public.
On Tuesday, March 30 the California Secretary of State's Voting Systems and Procedures panel will meet at 1 p.m. in Sacramento. The agenda includes only two items -- ES&S' ranked choice voting system for San Francisco's instant-runoff balloting, and "Other Business". The meeting is open to the public.
Movie clip of closed-door Texas certification meeting
Texas Safe Voting clip
Verified voting activists in Texas have a new web site featuring a short movie clip of a closed-door meeting of state certification authorities and Diebold. The clip highlights several security issues that arose during the e-voting demonstration. The Texas Safe Voting coalition includes a wide range of organizations working toward transparent and safe voting systems and calling on the Texas Secretary of State to hold certification meetings in public.
Verified voting activists in Texas have a new web site featuring a short movie clip of a closed-door meeting of state certification authorities and Diebold. The clip highlights several security issues that arose during the e-voting demonstration. The Texas Safe Voting coalition includes a wide range of organizations working toward transparent and safe voting systems and calling on the Texas Secretary of State to hold certification meetings in public.
Thursday, March 18, 2004
CA Secretary of State Kevin Shelley releases draft paper trail standards
Secretary of State News Release, 03/18/04
Today California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley released draft standards that will be used to facilitate the development and certification of an "accessible voter verified paper audit trail (AVVPAT)".
In releasing the draft standards, Secretary of State Shelley said they "will be used by voting system manufacturers to help develop the next generation of California's electronic voting machine."
He invited the public to comment on these draft standards over the next thirty days, through April 19, 2004. Comments may be submitted:
In writing: Secretary of State Kevin Shelley
Attn: AVVPAT Draft Standards
1500 11th Street, 5th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
Via email: AVVPAT@ss.ca.gov
Via fax: 916-653-3214
Today California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley released draft standards that will be used to facilitate the development and certification of an "accessible voter verified paper audit trail (AVVPAT)".
In releasing the draft standards, Secretary of State Shelley said they "will be used by voting system manufacturers to help develop the next generation of California's electronic voting machine."
He invited the public to comment on these draft standards over the next thirty days, through April 19, 2004. Comments may be submitted:
In writing: Secretary of State Kevin Shelley
Attn: AVVPAT Draft Standards
1500 11th Street, 5th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
Via email: AVVPAT@ss.ca.gov
Via fax: 916-653-3214
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