Lawrence County Ohio gets new optical ballot scanning machines

Scanning paper ballots, that is a step in the right direction because it creates a physical piece of voting evidence that can later be recounted. However, in this style of system, the weakest point that allows fraud is the tabulator, a computer that keeps track of the votes run through the system. Now it could be constructed so that it is hard to tamper. They purchased the equipment from ES&S (see previous post) and I believe this is the model. As a computer expert, I'd have to get my hands on one to decide if I'd trust my vote to this machine. So right now, I'm unsure. The fact that the secretary wouldn't tell me the name of the CEO makes me even more wary.

source: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060426/NEWS02/604260325/1001/NEWS

New voting system goes countywide

Most voters will use optical scan balloting for first time in primary

By DAVID E. MALLOY
The Herald-Dispatch

IRONTON -- For the first time in 28 years, Lawrence County voters will not be using the punch card voting system. Voters will be using a new optical scan system when they go to the polls Tuesday.

Under the new optical scan system, voters will be given a ballot where they are being told to completely fill in an oval beside the name of the candidate they want. When they finish, voters can then scan their ballots and be able to see immediately if their votes have been counted, said Mary "Sis" Wipert, director of the Lawrence County Board of Elections.

"It is simple," Wipert said. "Voters just have to read the screen and follow the instructions. The poll workers have had up to three hours of training on the (new voting) machines."

The machines were used for the first time in February by voters in the special Ironton School levy election. The optical scan system will get their first test countywide in the primary election, Wipert said.

Mac Davis, a Republican poll worker in South Point 5 precinct, has been trained on the new system and likes it. "I think it's a good thing," Davis said Tuesday. "The primary will be a good test for the workers and voters."

"It's 2006," Davis said. "Let's move on to something better. People have a resistance to change."

There will be a little confusion with the new system, he said. Despite that, it's time for a new voting system, Davis said.

Marilyn Bradley, a Democratic poll worker in Chesapeake, is planning to get her training later this week. She said that while the new system is simple, some voters, especially older voters, will be apprehensive. "I'm anxious to see how it works," she said. "Our job is to try to help people. I thought the punch-card system was just fine."

Meanwhile, the new machines should make it easier to cast a write-in vote on the new voting machine, said Craig Allen, chairman of the county's Democratic executive committee. Voters already will have a pen in their hands to fill in the oval in front of the name of the candidate they want.

"It's a two-step process," he said. "Voters will have to fill in the oval marked "write-in," and then write in the name of the candidate they want, Allen said.

"We've used it before for the Ironton School levy and it worked fine," he said. "Everyone seemed happy with it. I think it's much better. If people are open-minded, they''ll like it."

Voters will decide on issues like state offices, including a governor's race, a primary for the congressional seat being vacated by Ted Strickland. The Ironton school levy is back on the ballot and voters also will decide on a replacement levy being sought by the Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. There also is a three-way race for the Republican nominee for Lawrence County Common Pleas judge.

Another related story: http://www.irontontribune.com/articles/2006/01/22/news/news196.txt

When elections are privatized, this is what you get for $4.5 million dollars

You'd think for $4.5 million dollars you would get quality that would last more than one election. Well, it turns out that $4.5 million get you equipment that breaks more easily than a paper ballot voting system every did. Thank goodness this election official in Summit county Ohio has the good sense to record his peoples' votes with paper ballots. As long as they don't destroy the ballots, they'll have an auditable voting system.

On the other hand, maybe I'm glad this hardware is breaking. It's too bad about the $4.5 million, though I'm sure the CEO of Election Systems & Software (ES&S) is thanking the Ohio public for making him rich. The CEO, by the way, isn't listed on the website so I tried to find out who this mysterious man is by calling Rob Palmer, the media contact of ES&S. My call rang over to the secretary. When I asked her who the CEO was, she wouldn't tell me, but that Rob would have to call me back.

Now my question wasn't difficult, I just asked for the CEO's name which any other company would be proud to say, or even promote on their website. But she wouldn't say. She kept saying "Rob would have to call me back." Imagine that? She isn't allowed to tell me this simple piece of information.

Do you want an organization like this counting your votes?

source: http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=4793756&nav=menu34_24_1_12

Election Director Expects Problems with Voting Machines
April 20, 2006 05:09 PM

AKRON, OHIO (AP) -- Malfunctioning memory cards have an elections director predicting voting machine problems May 2. Omaha, Neb.-based Election Systems & Software, however, is assuring the Summit County Board of Elections that the optical scan voting system will work properly. "We are working very hard to ensure it is a trouble free election," Jill Friedman-Wilson, a spokeswoman for ES&S said Wednesday.

The voting system uses paper ballots, marked in pen by the voter, that are fed into a scanner. The elections board has been having problems in practice runs with the machines' memory cards, which are inserted into ballot scanners to record and tabulate those votes. Some of the cards' batteries have run out and other cards have broken. "One card is physically coming apart at the seams," said elections chief Bryan Williams.

Also not working properly is the main ballot tabulator, called the election reporting manager or ERM. It's supposed to read the memory cards and report totals but has been dropping off dozens of races for Republican candidates for precinct committee members.

The machines the county purchased to accommodate disabled voters also are having problems. Those machines are supposed to have a computer say candidates' names for voters but the names are being mispronounced, or the ballot is being misread or not read at all.

Still, county officials say they have some comfort because residents vote on paper ballots, and the ballots can be counted by hand if the electronic portion of the system fails. "The bottom line is we're going to have a fair election in Summit County. The problem is we're going to have to count a lot of ballots," said Wayne Jones, a Democratic board member who said the county spent $4.5 million on the machines.

Friedman-Wilson said Summit County is the only one of the 27 Ohio counties using the system that is experiencing problems. Of 525 memory cards that will be used in Summit on Election Day, "only 11 at this point have demonstrated any issues. We're replacing those cards and putting the replacements through vigorous testing," she said.

The cards are made by Vikant Corp. and began experiencing problems when the company moved its manufacturing from Asia back to the United States. Allan Benek, vice president for ES&S, gave repeated assurances to the board at a Monday meeting that the system would work on primary day. He said the company may call for upgrades of the system as early as next year to a newer type of memory device.

That angered Republican board member Alex Arshinkoff. "If it doesn't work, we're either going to ship it back and go into litigation or you're going to retrofit it," Arshinkoff said. "The manure is going to hit the fan on this."

Benek said the company is working on the issue. "We know what's at stake here," he said. ES&S officials believe they have corrected the problems with the ERM, which appeared to be caused when information for New Franklin was reprogrammed to reflect that it is now a city, not a village.

Benek said the needed changes to the voice files for the disabled voters machines are being made and he expects it will work on Election Day. He said ES&S would have several hundred troubleshooters in Ohio on May 2 to deal with problems as they arise.

Posted by AEB

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Fixing Elections--A meeting in Seattle April 25

Fixing Elections: Who Did Your Voting Machine Vote For

April 25th, 2005 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM
HUB Auditorium on the University of Washington Campus

An exciting bipartisan panel discussion on Election Reform with Live Music and Refreshments.

Transparent elections are a cornerstone of a democratic society. Our
elections have been outsourced to private companies such as Diebold,
ES&S and Sequoia. As a result, our elections are no longer transparent
or verifiable, and the private companies claim they are not subject to
the laws that protect openness in government.

Come learn more about this
important issue and have fun doing it. Live Jazz Music and free
refreshments round out the evening.

With panelists:
Holly Jacobson, from Voter Action
Paul Lehto, attorney and nationally known voting rights activist
Toby Nixon, Washington State Representative
Richard Borkowski, computer consultant and voting rights activist

Sponsored by: Associated Students of UW, Washington Citizens for Fair Elections, and Seattle Thunder.

Ohio election workers accused of fudging `04 election recounts

Here it comes. Two years later we are finally starting to see how George W. Bush (may his name live on in infamy) won his second presidential election despite precinct polls showing that he was going to be sent packing.

It's funny how the news article makes references to irregularities then says there is no evidence of election fraud. I like how Micheal Vu, an election worker, states that they have no motive for fraud. Well, when interviewing the accused what else are they going to say. Funny. I would have thought that manipulating what precincts were used to test the election's recount criteria is exactly that--fraud.


Visit the source or read below.

Workers accused of fudging ’04 recount

Prosecutor says Cuyahoga skirted rules

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Joan Mazzolini

Plain Dealer Reporter

After the 2004 presidential election, Cuyahoga County election workers secretly skirted rules designed to make sure all votes were counted correctly, a special prosecutor charges.

While there is no evidence of vote fraud, the prosecutor said their efforts were aimed at avoiding an expensive - and very public - hand recount of all votes cast. Three top county elections officials have been indicted, and Erie County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter says more indictments are possible.

Michael Vu, executive director of the Cuyahoga County elections board, said workers followed procedures that had been in place for 23 years. He said board employees had no objection to doing an exhaustive hand count if needed, meaning they had no motive to break the law.

Internet bloggers have cried foul since 2004 about election results in Ohio, one of the key states in deciding the election. They have been tracking Baxter's investigation with online posts about the indictments.

Baxter's prosecution centers on Ohio's safeguards for ensuring that every vote is counted.

Baxter charges that Cuyahoga election workers - mindful of the monthlong Florida recount in 2000 - not only ignored the safeguards but worked to defeat them during Ohio's 2004 recount.

Candidates for president from the Green and Libertarian parties requested the Ohio recount. State laws and regulations specify how a recount works.

Election workers in each county are supposed to count 3 percent of the ballots by hand and by machine, randomly choosing precincts for that count.

If the hand and machine counts match, the other 97 percent of the votes are recounted by machine. If the numbers don't match, workers repeat the effort. If they still don't match exactly, the workers must complete the recount by hand, a tedious process that could take weeks and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But the fix was in at the Cuyahoga elections board, Baxter charges.

Days before the Dec. 16 recount, workers opened the ballots and hand-counted enough votes to identify precincts where the machine count matched.

"If it didn't balance, they excluded those precincts," Baxter said.

"The preselection process was done outside of any witnesses, without anyone's knowledge except for [people at] the Board of Elections."

On the official recount day, employees pretended to pick precincts randomly, Baxter says. Dozens of Cuyahoga County election workers sat at 20 folding tables in front of dozens of witnesses and reporters.

They did the hand and machine count of 3 percent of the votes 34 of the 1,436 precincts and when the totals matched, the recount was completed by machines.

The recount gave Kerry 17 extra votes and took six away from Bush.

But observers suspected that the precincts were not randomly chosen and asked a board worker about it, said Toledo attorney Richard Kerger. The worker acknowledged that there had been a precount.

Kerger wrote a letter to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, complaining and asking for an investigation. Mason recused himself, and Baxter was appointed special prosecutor. He brought elections workers before a grand jury to find out what happened.

"They screwed with the process and increased the probability, if not the certainty, that there would not be a full countywide hand count," Baxter said.

Everyone expected the recount to "be conducted in accordance of the law," he said.

Vu said the precincts were chosen as they had been in the past, by a Democrat and a Republican in the ballot department.

Because of Baxter's investigation, Vu declined to comment on whether the board's longtime procedures involve precounting precincts before the recount.

Vu acknowledged that the selection of precincts was not completely random because precincts with 550 votes or fewer were not used.

Nor were precincts counted where the number of ballots handed out on Election Day failed to match the number of ballots cast.

Vu said the board also had asked for legal opinions from the prosecutor's office before and after the election to ensure all rules were followed.

Kathleen Martin, who headed the civil division at the prosecutor's office and worked with the board on the issues, has since died.

"If Kathleen Martin was still alive, she could put so much light on this," Vu said.

Regardless, he said, the board was prepared for a full hand recount.

"Why do all that work to prepare for the election, conduct it, audit it, canvass and then not meet this last obligation?" Vu said.

"Our plan was to regroup after Christmas and just work through it."

Baxter has said he can't understand why the three people indicted all managers - continue to work at the election office. None has the same duties they had in 2004.

Kathleen Dreamer was manager of the board's ballot department. Rosie Grier was assistant manager. Jacqueline Maiden was Elections Division director and its third-highest-ranking employee. All have been charged with misdemeanor and felony counts of failing to follow the state elections law.

A May 8 trial date is set for Dreamer and Grier, but Baxter wants to combine all three cases, including Maiden's, who was indicted later.

Kerger said he was surprised by the charges.

"We wrote, not to have any criminal charges, but just to find out what happened," he said. "The special prosecutor has the ability to conduct an investigation and not file any charges."

Kerger said he believes there are two reasons, generally, why an elections board would precount before a recount. The first is to change the results of the vote, which he does not believe happened.

The second, he speculated, was that "the workers were so tired and didn't want to hassle with doing a hand recount."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jmazzolini@plaind.com, 216-999-4563

Lobby your congress person for Verifiable Voting

Voters want the elections to be run in a fair manner whether they are Republican or Democrat. The leaders in Congress are a different matter, especially Republican's who own stock in or sit of the boards of voting machine companies. Contact your congress people and tell them that you want democracy rather than an election system which can be rigged on a large scale by any one person (regardless of party affiliation).

The public release I recieved says:

Thursday and Friday are H.R. 550 Lobby Days in Washington D.C. Since not all of us could travel to D.C. to talk with legislators, it would be a good idea if each every one of us contact our legislators and ask them if they are supporting H.R. 550. Regardless of their response, we then need to tell them that we want them to vote for H.R. 550.

H.R. 550 HR 550 would require a voter verified paper record of every vote, establish mandatory random hand counted audits to verify the accuracy of electronic tallies, and prohibit the use of secret software and wireless communication devices in voting machines.

Here are three toll-free numbers to call your Senator and House Representative. Just tell the switchboard your senator or representative’s name. 888-355-3588, 888-818-6641 and 800-426-8073

As alternative to calling, you may complete an on-line letter here.

Click here to tell your member of Congress to support HR 550! (will take you to a form on the Electronic Frontier Foundation website)

Yours Truly,

Elizabeth Walter

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." (Joseph Stalin)

"It's already over. The elections over. We won. It's all over but the counting and we'll take care of the counting." (N.Y. Congressman Pete King, 2003, referring to the upcoming 2004 presidential election, while attending garden party on the WH lawn)

Our current political leaders would suffer greatly if either house of Congress changed hands in 2006, or if the presidency changed hands in 2008. The lids would come off all the simmering scandals, from the selling of the Iraq war to profiteering by politically connected companies. The Republicans will be strongly tempted to make sure that they win those elections by any means necessary. And everything we've seen suggests that they will give in to that temptation. (Paul Krugman, NYT)

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell owns stock in Diebold

Remember my postings in 2004 about how State Secretary of Ohio sent voter registration forms out to democrat voting counties via the newspaper, then turn around and say they didn't count because the forms cut out of the newspapers wasn't printed on heavy enough paper. He was also the guy who reduced the number of voting stations in democratic voting counties.

Well, our rightwing friend Blackwell is running for governor of Ohio and it has been uncovered that he owns stock in Diebold. How tidy his alibi is that his portfolio manager purchased the stock without Blackwell's knowledge. Ever hear of plausible deniability? Do you think that anyone would let their portfolio manager to just purchase any old stock? Would Blackwell risk accidentally owning stock in Heinz, a company in the hands of a democrat family?

Hell no! GOP insiders like Blackwell are going to hold stock in Diebold, Haliburton, Bechtel, and Carlyle. They have their boys in the government throwing public money at these companies. Blackwell didn't became a millionare by passing up sure investments.

Blackwell has graced the virtual pages of Voting Abuse too many times for anyone to believe that this Heritage Foundation member is just a guy who is trying to serve the public:

Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio GOP Election Operative, is still dancing the dance

From Selma to Ohio: A Report from the Conyers Hearing

Former US Congressman Jailed When Attempting to deliver a letter

Will John Kerry Report for Duty?

Re-Vote Ohio

It's up to the people of Ohio to send this bum packing! Send a message to people like Blackwell that enriching yourself through your position isn't going to be tolerated.


Here is the Source.

Will Diebold misstep hurt Blackwell? Experts unsure

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Mark Niquette and Joe Hallett

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell hit a pothole of his own making this week in the Republican race for governor, but experts say it remains to be seen whether his campaign has been slowed.

As officials consider the possible legal ramifications of Blackwell’s revelation that he held stock in voting-machine vendor Diebold, political observers said the controversy might turn some undecided voters against the frontrunner for the May 2 nomination against Attorney General Jim Petro.

Gene Beaupre, a political scientist at Xavier University in Cincinnati, said he does not think the news will affect the hard-right conservatives who comprise Blackwell’s GOP base, "but if the primary election is close it could be a factor."

"It can’t help him; it can hurt him," Beaupre said. "I think he’s handled it well so far and come clean and said what the story is and tried to move on from it, but certainly his opponents won’t let that happen."

Petro said yesterday he doesn’t plan to exploit the episode.

"I don’t think it was an intentional judgment by Ken and I’m not going to run a negative ad on it," Petro said. "He might if the shoe were on the other foot, but I’m only saying that because I’ve seen some of his ads. We are really striving to run a very respectful and civil campaign."

Even so, Petro’s campaign manager has called for an investigation, as have Ohio Democrats.

Blackwell said Monday that unbeknownst to him, he owned $9,553 of stock in North Canton-based Diebold at the same time critics say he favored the company for state business.

The secretary of state’s office signed a contract with Diebold last year to provide its touchscreen system to 47 counties, including Fairfield and Licking, and an optical-scan system to Scioto County.

Franklin and several other counties and rival vendor Election Systems & Software sued Blackwell last year, arguing he was steering business to Diebold because the deadlines he set meant only Diebold’s machines would qualify for counties that wanted touch screens.

Blackwell said he learned he held the stock last weekend when he reviewed his financialdisclosure filing for the Ohio Ethics Commission, and that his investment manager with Credit Suisse First Boston bought the stock without his knowledge. It since has been sold at a loss, Blackwell said.

Yesterday, Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo downplayed the revelation, calling it "an embarrassment."

But he would not make public any records of the stock trades or the names of Blackwell’s financial manager and accountant, who will face no repercussions. LoParo said that information would be given to the Ethics Commission if requested.

Officials with the commission, which handles the annual disclosure filing, declined to comment specifically on Blackwell’s situation yesterday.

His filing will be reviewed with the others, and any questions raised will be examined as part of the commission’s normal procedures, Chairwoman Sarah M. Brown said.

Ohio ethics laws prohibit public officials from having an interest in public contracts with which they are connected, and from using their offices to secure a contract in which they or a family member or business associate has an interest.

But according to a 1993 advisory opinion, as long as there is no bribery or fraud, there is an exemption if the public official has no other connection to the company, owns less than 5 percent of its outstanding stock and discloses the holding.

Blackwell’s 178 shares fall far short of that threshold; Diebold had 68.6 million shares outstanding as of February.

In fact, Diebold is a widely held stock, with about 375 institutional investors and individuals — including the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System — owning 1,000 shares or more, financial records show.

Still, questions linger. Democrats and others question Blackwell’s assertion that he checked his stock holdings only once a year, for example, and why others who might have reviewed the statements for him didn’t notice the conflict.

Herb Asher, an Ohio State University political-science professor emeritus, Democratic activist and former member of the Ethics Commission, said the episode at least makes Blackwell look sloppy or hypocritical. Blackwell has criticized Petro’s ethics as well as the lack of oversight of state investments.

"Even if everything is perfectly legal, it doesn’t pass the sniff test," Asher said.

LoParo said such talk is overblown, arguing Blackwell never intended to buy the Diebold stock, sold it immediately after he discovered it and lost money on the investment.

"We’re moving forward," he said.

Blackwell said his investments were handled "similar to a blind trust" but that he now is moving his multimillion-dollar portfolios to a true blind trust — which requires that investors are not told of holdings.

He listed stock in 126 companies on his disclosure report but isn’t required to say how many shares he has or what his holdings are worth.

Blackwell became a millionaire through his interest in a company that owned radio stations in Ohio.

Petro, who also reported significant stock holdings, said his wife, Nancy, handles all of their investments and "if she sees something that could be dicey, she asks me."

Petro said he stays updated on their investments so he can avoid conflicts of interest. For example, he said he told his wife not to buy Ohio bank stocks because as attorney general he is a member of the State Board of Deposits, which selects banks for state business.

U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland of Lisbon, the leading Democratic candidate for governor, listed no stock and only an individual retirement account and federal pension as his investments.

Gov. Bob Taft doesn’t personally handle his investments and uses a professional manager, but it isn’t a blind trust, spokesman Mark Rickel said.

President Bush, like most presidents since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, has placed his assets in a blind trust.

Dispatch Washington bureau reporter Jack Torry contributed to this story.

mniquette@dispatch.com

jhallett@dispatch.com