IPFS News Link • Voting - Election Integrity
Trial begins Friday, September 10th 2010 at 8:30AM. So Folks, please be with us in court.
• http://audit-az.blogspot.com/HONORABLE JUDGE ROBERT OBERBILLIG
· Pollworkers don't sign polltapes per illegal orders.
CIVIL PRESIDING JUDGE
OLD COURT HOUSE
COURTROOM 309, 3RD FLOOR
125 W. WASHINGTON,
PHOENIX, AZ 85003
So far the score is even: our request for a jury was canned, their motion for summary judgment has been ignored.
We’re even on points, no knockouts; round three is the main event.
This case is
about forcing Maricopa County Election to follow the law – nothing
more, nothing less. As such, most of the issues are going to be of
limited benefit outside of Arizona, although the basic concept of this
sort of suit (Mandamus action) is possible across the nation.
The one
major except is the use of uncertified software - that points a finger
through Maricopa County back to the state and national-level voting
system certification processes. Arizona bars the use of voting system
software that isn't federally certified to the standards promoted under
HAVA. While those standards are weak, they still scared Sequoia into
dodging them completely on a key part of their product line – a part
that can subvert the outcome of elections and produce data that both
Maricopa County and Sequoia want to bar us from having. This part of
the case is at the cutting edge of election law issues – the
intersection of the rights of election software producers to maintain
trade secrets versus the right of the people to know how our vote is
counted.
This
part is complex, but in a nutshell: Sequoia created an entire section
of their election system that they didn’t submit for testing like they
should have – in direct violation of AZ law. They then needed to hide
the extent of the security breach that resulted. To do THAT, they
needed to make sure the data files altered by this illegal module don’t
see the light of day and to make sure, they labeled the data files as
“containing proprietary trade secret software”. Right. In the data.
So we couldn’t get it via public records. Well that was a mistake,
because there’s no possible way the data files could conform to the
rules on “election software”, which isn’t supposed to change from
election to election. The data files do. So it’s gonna be comical: if
they still claim the data contains “software”, they admit to a class 5
felony for installing uncertified software (the data) on a certified
system. If they blanch at the idea of confessing to a felony and call
the data “just data”, we get it via public records and per our insider
tipster (did I mention him yet?) we get to prove the program that
produced the data damn well should have been certified. It’s the
world’s dumbest catch-22 and they’ve already walked right into it. At
stake is yet more proof that the voting system vendors have been
systematically “gaming” the voting system test process nationally – and
that is the big enchilada in exposing the insanity of the US election
system.
Out
of a total of four national voting system test labs ever approved,
three have been thrown out for poor performance and let back in only
with conditions. The two worst labs (Wyle and Ciber) are based in
Huntsville AL where we hope they do better working on military
aerospace flight systems for the Redstone National Arsenal, their main
business. The one lab not thrown out (iBeta) obviously specializes in
more important matters: they’re mainly a video game tester. We wish we
were kidding. This is the fig leaf of sanity used to rationalize all
electronic voting in the US: “don’t worry, the test labs are
watching”. This is what we’re about to strike a blow against.
At the local
level, Maricopa County has overreached. They've designed a complete
election process tuned for fraud. Take a look at this one chain of
destruction:
Soon after the hand count audit bill passed in late 2006 Maricopa stopped having pollworkers sign these tapes above. |
· Also
per illegal orders, pollworkers don't put one set of polltapes (signed
or otherwise) into the “official returns envelope” also know as the
conflict envelope, a signed and sealed clear envelope that election
officials can't get into without major effort such as a court order or
a special election team monitored by multiple political parties.
· Pollworkers are illegally told not to allow observers to see the precinct totals after the polls close.
· Ballot
materials are transported by just one person instead of the two
required by law from opposite parties. You guessed it. Illegal.
· Operations
at the central tabulator computer are barred from any functional
observation of any sort. Even when observers spotted obviously illegal
activity, the county's response was to deny the use of cameras to
document it and then tampered with the evidence.
Specifically,
what we saw was a Sequoia employee running a Sequoia-owned laptop
connected to the central tabulator. The laptop in turn had a cellular
modem plugged into it, allowing an easy cross-connection between the
cellular internet connection and the central tabulator station.
Internet and outside connections to the central tabulator are flat
banned. The county's response to an immediate complaint was to deny
the use of cameras to document it and then tampered with the evidence.
This happened on 08/23/10, just one day before the election with over
230,000 ballots all ready counted.
As a final
insult, the county rigged the selection of precincts for the 2% hand
audit, by refusing to publicly commit the results as per the law or
anybody else what the individual precinct results were beforehand.
They illegally released "combined results" only. This allowed them to
rig the rest of the precincts to whatever degree they want. Once they
get the list of precincts selected for a count, they could "un-hack"
those in the central tabulator database of votes and shift any hacking
in the selected precincts to the unselected keeping the previously
reported "combined results" intact. Arizona's hand-count law (new in
late 2006) was designed to block this sort of thing. Maricopa County
subverted it. They purchased the Sequoia system after that law was
passed.
As a final
insult, the county rigged the selection of precincts for the 2% hand
audit, refusing to publicly commit the results as per the law or
anybody else what the individual precinct results were beforehand.
They illegally released "combined results" only. This allowed them to
rig the rest of the precincts to whatever degree they want. Once they
get the list of precincts selected for a count, they could "un-hack"
those in the central tabulator database of votes and shift any hacking
in the selected precincts to the unselected keeping the previously
reported "combined results" intact. Arizona's hand-count law (new in
late 2006) was designed to block this sort of thing. Maricopa County
subverted it. They purchased the Sequoia system soon after that law was
passed and stopped having the polltapes signed.
We're going to take it back.
This is our
fight for our rights. Join us. Popcorn is unfortunately not allowed
but otherwise, this is going to be the best show in town.
****
The
links below are for reports prepared as part of the California
Secretary of State’s “Top-to-Bottom Review” of state-certified voting
systems.
Their
findings on the Sequoia voting system were very disturbing. These
reports include a source code review team; a red attack team, which
performed security tests on the Sequoia system’s hardware and software.
Those teams have submitted separate reports on their findings.
Link to reports:
Security Evaluation of the Sequoia Voting System Public Report
Review of the Documentation of the Sequoia Voting System:
Source Code Review of the Sequoia Voting System1:
WITHDRAW AL OF APPROVAL OF SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS, INC.,
(October 1, 2009 Revision)