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Author Message   BBV Admin Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 2792 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box?  Votes: 2 Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 7:29 am:    Black Box Voting has posted the prison records of embezzler and voting machine programmer Jeffrey Dean, and narcotics trafficker/ballot printer John Elder. Here is an update, including new information from what we will refer to as our "Dieb-Throat Choir" -- multiple inside sources in four separate Diebold Election Systems locations -- with what we have learned in follow up investigations on Diebold felons: First, give a shout out to BBV member John Howard, who contributed the following piece of information after looking into some of the information on the prison records we posted. "Tonight I saw something ..." John Howard writes. "When John Elder was released from prison he went to work for PSI Inc., 1915 S. Corgiat Drive, Seattle. 206-768-0415 (see http://www.bbvdocs.org/elder.pdf p12 of 24) "So I Googled 206-768-0415, and the first item that came up was: Deans Temporary Office Personnel Service, (206) 768-0415, 1915 S Corgiat Dr, Seattle, WA 98108 along with Psi Group Inc, (206) 768-0415, 8030 S 216th St, Kent, WA 98032 and DEAN'S TOPS INC, 1915 S CORGIAT DR 98108, (206) 768-0415" We picked up John Howard's tips and did a little more research: [note from admin: INTERRUPTED BY BREAKING NEWS. AM STILL POSTING LINKS TO NEW PIECES OF DOCUMENTATION, SOME OF WHICH TAKE A WHILE TO UPLOAD. WHEN THEY ARE ALL UP, THIS MESSAGE WILL BE REPLACED WITH A "PERMISSION TO REPRINT NOTICE" -- BEV HARRIS] King County, Washington -- Elections connection Dean's TOPS (Dean's Temporary Office Systems) is or was located in the same complex as King County Elections "MBOS" facility, the facility where absentee ballot handling is done.(1) Dean's Temporary Office Systems was listed in a 1985 Seattle Times news article (2) as being owned by Neil Dean, who later became a vice president for Postal Services Inc. of Washington, which became known as PSI Group, Inc. Neil Dean is Jeffrey Dean's brother According to a well-placed source, Jeff Dean went to work for his brother when he got out of prison. This appears to be true -- From Jeffrey Dean's and John Elder's prison records, you can see that when they were released from prison, they both list PSI Group as their planned employer, and the manager at that time was Neil Dean. (http://bbvdocs.org/dean.pdf pg 12 and http://bbvdocs.org/elder.pdf pg 13) Who is PSI Group? PSI Group handles absentee ballot mailing and processing for King County Elections. In a 1996 news article (3), Neil Dean is listed as a vice president for Postal Services Inc. of Washington. In a 2001 news article (4), Neil Dean is listed as a senior vice president for PSI Group, and takes over management of operations in New Jersey. PSI Group was founded in Omaha, Nebraska,(5) and was sold to Pitney Bowes a few years ago.(6) After Jeffrey Dean and John Elder worked for PSI Group, where did they go? Jeffrey Dean and his wife, Deborah M. Dean, somehow shrugged off an unpaid liability of $385,277.05 plus interest accrued from 1991, restitution required in connection with Dean's 23 counts of embezzlement (http://bbvdocs.org/dean.pdf pg. 16), and they somehow capitalized and became owners of Spectrum Print & Mail. John Elder got a job at Spectrum Print & Mail under Jeffrey Dean. About Spectrum Print & Mail About the same time King County bought its optical scan system from Global Election Systems (1998), Spectrum Print & Mail got the ballot printing contract for King County. In fact, it was this printing contract that led to the exposure of Jeffrey Dean's felony record. A competitor in the bid tipped off someone in King County elections. "You should check into the backgrounds of some of the people at Spectrum," was the tip. The individual who received the tip passed it up the ladder, but King County executives reportedly did not follow up. Global Election Systems buys Spectrum Print & Mail In Sept. 2000, Global Election Systems bought ballot printer Spectrum Print & Mail. (See SEC documents on acquisition) At this time, former embezzler Jeffrey Dean was moved up the ladder. He became a member of the board of directors for Global Election Systems in 2000 [link] and was assigned to oversee voting machine programming shortly before the presidential election[link]. When embezzler Jeffrey Dean took his positions with Global Election Systems, narcotics trafficker John Elder took over management of Spectrum, the ballot printing plant. Jeffrey Dean and GEMS central tabulator Within a few weeks of Jeffrey Dean taking the positions with Global Election Systems, GEMS went through several changes. Before Dean was employed by Global, GEMS had one set of books. Jeff Dean began his positions with Global in Sept. 2000; the GEMS program immediately went through several iterations, and by October 2000, shortly before the presidential election, a second set of books had appeared in GEMS.[links to GEMS iterations] Access logs for King County Elections show that Jeffrey Dean had a key to the GEMS room and 24-hour access to the main elections building. Records do not show that he returned his key. Interviews with former elections supervisor Julie Anne Kempf confirm that Jeffrey Dean was given access to the King County GEMS tabulator. Kempf became increasingly uncomfortable with Dean, and urged King County to enact much stronger security, especially in the area of access to the GEMS tabulator. While Kempf was trying to tighten King County's GEMS security procedures, King County was trying to loosen it up. The 2000 pre-presidential GEMS alterations coincide with experimentation on Los Angeles County vote files. Black Box Voting has obtained Los Angeles County vote databases, in GEMS "gbf" format, from the fertile period of change around the 2000 presidential election.[link] It appears that Jeff Dean, or someone, was experimenting with configuring GEMS for large-scale implementation in Los Angeles. GEMS experimentation continued in Los Angeles, and on Feb. 27, 2004, records obtained by Black Box Voting show that Diebold sent its GEMS source code to Los Angeles County, apparently for customization work of some sort. Meanwhile, back to John Elder... John Elder was given management control over the ballot printing plant when Jeff Dean was moved into Global Election Systems' R&D department. Jeff Dean's son, David Dean, also took a job with the ballot printer, and John Elder's son Justin began working there too. John Elder's second wife, Lisa, also worked for the ballot printing facility. Ballot printing should be considered a high security task, for two reasons: 1) Ballot accounting is a critical component of the chain of custody. Election offices require poll workers to account for all voted, unvoted, and spoiled ballots. The reason for this is that you don't want someone stashing a hoard of unvoted ballots, filling them out, then substituting them at some point in the process. An under-regulated part of ballot printing is the ballot printer. According to documents obtained by Black Box Voting, Diebold's ballot printing facility routinely estimates a 25 percent spoilage rate [link] -- in other words, they expect to print as many as 25 percent more ballots than they deliver. This can represent a large number of unaccounted-for blank ballots, and there is no public accounting of this. 2) Diebold ballots contain code (a series of dashes along the bottom of the ballot) which gives instructions to the optical scan. This is normally for benign purposes, identifying the precinct and ballot style. However, through the work of Harri Hursti, Black Box Voting has learned that there are many kinds of "comments" in this code.[link] Inserting malicious code is a concern. The ballot printing division worked closely with PSI Group. After printing the ballots (and also the absentee envelopes and related elections materials), PSI Group would process and mail them. PSI Group then processed and sorted incoming absentee ballots, for King County, Los Angeles County, and several other locations.[link] Diebold acquires Global Election Systems Diebold acquired Global Election Systems in January 2002, and according to an internal announcement sent to employees[link], converted Jeffrey Dean into a consultant. Spectrum Print & Mail became Diebold Election Systems ballot printing plant. Diebold kept John Elder in charge. Elder remained in charge of ballot printing even after Black Box Voting exposed his criminal record, after the Seattle Times exposed it, after Vanity Fair exposed it. The Diebold ballot printing plant produces ballots for much of the West Coast, and sometimes for Georgia and Maryland as well.[link] Management issues under Diebold's watch While Diebold was hemorrhaging money in its elections division, it was also treating selected elections division employees to plush party-boat rewards, which included high stakes gambling. Our sources tell us that the elections division's then-president Bob Urosevich participated, as did many employees from the ballot-printing division. Extra-marital affairs blossomed during these parties, and upper management urged lower level employees to gamble, sometimes even offering them money to get them started. While Diebold Elections Systems partied, hourly employees struggled. The ballot printing operation often worked around the clock to hit deadlines, while night managers engaged in on-the-job drinking, and sometimes drug use. Meanwhile, press operators were poorly trained and overworked. For example: Diebold plant operators removed a safety shield from one of the high-volume ballot printing machines. This, in addition to the lack of adequate training, resulted in a temporary employee's finger was torn off. The young man with the now-mangled hand was not yet 18 years old. And: A laptop containing the King County voter registration database was stolen by another temporary employee. Police reports indicate that it was recovered. Diebold removes John Elder In mid-2004, Diebold gave John Elder a golden parachute. He, his wife, and other employees, were provided with paychecks for six months, under the condition that they shut up. Elder later became an elections consultant based out of Lake Stevens Washington, and Diebold's printing plant management was taken over by Alabama's David Ashworth. A rash of surprise drug-tests were performed in July 2004, resulting in termination of more employees. After Diebold shifted John Elder out of its ballot printing plant, they tried to find a way to fire his son. Internal planning documents [link] show that Diebold accused Justin Elder (inaccurately, according to our sources) of trying to unionize the ballot printing plant. It is true that there were efforts to bring the Diebold ballot printing plant under the protective arm of the Teamsters Union.[link] Diebold successfully fought this off. Included in their union-busting plans: Finding dirt on the Teamsters that could be used for leverage. When did King County learn of Dean and Elder's felony records? We broke the story on Jeffrey Dean when a source, former King County Supervisor of Elections Julie Anne Kempf, assisted us by providing the prison records she had obtained. According to Kempf, she reported the felon histories of Dean and Elder to King County executives, but they continued to grant access to King County ballots to John Elder, and took no action to remove Jeffrey Dean's keys. Public records (key logs) appear to confirm that Dean's keys were never returned to King County Elections. Shortly after Dean and Elder's prison records were exposed to King County officials, an absentee ballot delivery and mailing issue arose, ruining the career of King County Elections Supervisor Julie Anne Kempf. [link] Who controlled ballot printing? Jeffrey Dean's company, which had not yet been purchased by Diebold. Who controlled absentee ballot mailing? Jeffrey Dean's brother's company, PSI Group. Who provided the reason for the late ballots to Elections Supervisor Kempf -- the reason she repeated to her supervisors, who later accused her of making it up? John Elder's employees. Who caused the ballots to be late? Jeffrey Dean's prison buddy, John Elder. Kempf was fired, with blistering news coverage. Both the Seattle Times and the Post Intelligencer were provided with information on the felony records of Dean and Elder, but neither paper covered it until January 2004, after Black Box Voting broke the story (Dec. 2003), and the Associated Press and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote of it. Kempf was recently accosted by Seattle police, who hauled her to the station, released a story that she had been "arrested," over odd charges like stopping payments on a year-old public records check for records she says were incomplete, and a claim that she tried to run over a police officer with her car. [link] This was given first class treatment in the Seattle press, but what was not reported is that no charges were ever filed, and the matter was dropped after a quick smear. Where's Jeffrey Dean? After we broke the story on voting machine programmer/embezzler Jeff Dean, the mainstream press picked it up. A little matter of unpaid restitution arose, and Jeffrey Dean was put back in custody.[link] The press did a little sniffing about concerning his condo in Blaine, Washington and his son's ranch in Idaho, where he was reported to be staying at one point. Jeffrey Dean, according to several Diebold insiders, is still involved with Diebold in some way. Black Box Voting has confirmed multiple reports with Diebold insiders, but we have also confirmed that Jeffrey Dean is not on the Diebold's employee payroll, at least, under his own name. If he is being paid by Diebold, it would have to be under another entity. We have specifically been told that Dean is involved in the Diebold "VoteRemote"[link] program -- if so, it would make sense, given his experience with computers, mail processing, and ballots. Our initial investigations into the design of VoteRemote have not led us to Jeffrey Dean, however. One of the main contractors for VoteRemote is a firm called Ideas Inc., located in Ohio near Diebold corporate headquarters. A Bob Leonard or Lenord is associated with this firm, which appears to be involved with VoteRemote hardware production. Another VoteRemote contractor is Gary Lemmon, a programmer who works out of his home under the business name "Visicor."[link] One of the project managers for VoteRemote is Diebold's Jerry Wagoner. We don't find Jeffrey Dean, even though reports persist that he is or was recently involved.

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