11-22-2005: Updates on felons - Jeffr...

Author Message   BBV Admin Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 2792 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box?  Votes: 2 (A keeper?) 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.   BBV Admin Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 2793 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 8:54 am:        FOOTNOTE (1) (1) http://www.metrokc.gov/exec/news/2000/110900ma.htm Nov. 9, 2000 - Absentee ballot tabulation for King County King County Elections will be tabulating absentee ballots today and Veteran's Day at the County Mail Ballot facility in Georgetown. This tabulation is exactly on track in accordance with the Elections Office planned schedule, published two weeks ago in the media kit. The Elections Office will be conducting a media tour and explanation of the process. The tour and explanation will take place: Today, Nov. 9th 1:30 p.m. (meet and greet starts at 1 p.m.) Mail Ballot Operations Site (MBOS) 1915 S. Corgiat Dr., in Georgetown, near the King County Airport Please see driving directions below or call (206) 296-1565 Records and Elections Division Manager Bob Bruce and Superintendent of Elections Julie Anne Kempf will be on hand to explain and discuss the verification and tabulation process for absentee ballots and to provide on-camera interviews. There will be some activity at MBOS this morning, which will include tabulation of small batches, comparison of tabulation figures as part of the checks and balances process, clean-up for the big tabulation push, and a refresher course in tabulation for tabulators returning after a few months' absence. This activity will not be an especially dynamic visual story, although a media representative for Elections will be on hand. No interviews, on-camera or otherwise, will be given in the morning, although still photos and B-roll may be shot. The afternoon will be bustling with activity, as the second major tabulation of the week gets under way. This will be a very visual story, with all of the County's tabulation devices counting the ballots opened on Wednesday and Thursday morning. This tabulation will continue all day Friday, with new results posted at 4 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 10th. Directions to Mail Ballot Operations Site (MBOS) From Downtown Seattle, travel Southbound on I-5, take the Swift-Albro Exit. At the bottom of the exit, continue straight through the light onto a small two-lane road. This is Corgiat Dr. Drive to the end of Corgiat, there will be warehouses to the left and right. Turn left onto a driveway and park safely. Look for the signs: MBOS is at the southern end of this warehouse. Media Note: For further information on this story, contact Bob Bruce, Records and Elections Manager, at (206) 296-1540, or Julie Anne Kempf, Elections Superintendent, at (206) 296-1519 or (206) 769-3391. Link to: King County Elections web site Updated: Nov. 9, 2000   BBV Admin Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 2794 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 9:00 am:        FOOTNOTE (2) (2) The Seattle Times - 14 November 1985 Temporary workers becoming permanent part of job scene - but blooming industry carries troublesome trade-offs ... Layoffs sap employee morale, and companies often lose good, permanent employees who won't tolerate such a battlefield atmosphere, says Neil Dean, owner of Deans Temporary Office Systems in Seattle. ``People are still talking about the Boeing layoffs, and that was 15 years ago,'' he says. ``Think of how much better off they'd be had they used temporary workers.'' ... ``There's no comfort zone. Permanent employees can get kind of lax,'' says Dean. ``The temporary is always on the line.'' ... Dean predicts a healthy 15 to 20 percent growth for Puget Sound temporary-service firms next year. He says be believes that continued economic growth should attract several new national firms to Seattle. ``Everybody's making a living now, so the next wave is coming,'' Dean says.   BBV Admin Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 2795 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 9:09 am:        FOOTNOTE (3) (3) Seattle Post-Intelligencer - June 21, 1996 Major mail changes ahead for business New incentives and higher requirements ... But there are some indirect implications. "Their charter is to maintain the price of a 32-cent stamp," said Neil Dean, vice president at Postal Services Inc. of Washington, a Seattle company providing mail services to business. "They want Aunt Millie to be able to send a Christmas card for 32 cents." ... "This is a major step in which the discounts are quite significant if you're able to automate your mail," Dean said. Those discounts don't come for free, however. The Postal Service has published detailed specifications about addresses, preparations of trays of mail and the accuracy of address lists. "If you choose to handwrite mail or use a font style that is graphically appealing but not consistent with the standard, you will not benefit from the incentives," Dean said. ...   BBV Admin Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 2796 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box?  Votes: 2 (A keeper?) Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 9:17 am:        FOOTNOTE (4) Knight Ridder Tribune Business News - Jan. 12, 2001 Omaha, Neb., Mail-Sorting Firm Lands Vestcom Contract PSI Group Inc. of Omaha has acquired the mail pre-sorting operations of Vestcom MidAtlantic Inc. in West Caldwell, N.J., a subsidiary of Vestcom International Inc., for an undisclosed amount. PSI has been managing Vestcom's mail-sorting operation since Dec. 21 and expects to move the Vestcom office to a new location this spring. The acquisition gives PSI 12 operating centers with the capacity of handling 10 million pieces of mail daily, about 5 percent of the nation's automated first-class mail. The office is the company's first operating center in the New York City area, said Robert F. Krohn, chairman and chief executive of PSI, and eventually will handle 2 million letters a day. Neil Dean, a PSI senior vice president, is now general manager of the New Jersey operation. Vestcom sold the operation so it can focus on its core businesses of providing communications and marketing support to businesses, said Brendan Keating, CEO of Vestcom.   BBV Admin Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 2797 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box?  Votes: 3 (A keeper?) Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 9:32 am:        FOOTNOTE (5) (5) Omaha World-Herald - 27 August 1998 Architect Irving Dana is Dead at 71 Irving R. Dana Jr., a founder of the fifth-largest architectural and engineering firm in the country, died Tuesday at his home in Valley. Dana had battled cancer for the past several years. He was 71. Dana joined with William Larson and James Roubal in 1966 to form Dana, Larson, Roubal & Associates, today known as the DLR Group, which has more than 500 employees in 18 offices nationwide, including Omaha and Des Moines. A third-generation Lincolnite, Dana graduated from Lincoln High School in 1944 and joined the Navy during World War II. After the war, Dana studied architecture at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and graduated with a degree in architectural studies in 1951. Dana began his architectural career with the firm of Leo A. Daly Co. and remained with the company until 1962. He then formed his own business, known as Irving R. Dana and Associates, which focused on school, church and American Indian housing projects in western Nebraska. In 1991, Dana founded PSI Group Inc., now the second-largest private mail-sorting business in the country. The company, which organizes mail for clients before it is sent to post offices, has seven locations nationwide and sorts 5 million pieces of mail a day. Dana remained a consultant to DLR Group and PSI Group until his death. Dana received many professional honors, including distinguished service awards from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Alumni Association and College of Architecture. He was named distinguished architect by the Nebraska Society of Architects and was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. He was named an honorary chief of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and a ceremonial blood brother of the Omaha tribe. Dana served on numerous boards for UNL, Nebraska Arts Council, Nebraska Endowment for the Arts, Boy Scouts of America, American Diabetes Association, Immanuel Charitable Foundation and Douglas County Bank & Trust. Survivors include his wife, Ann; daughter Dawn Dana of Fairway, Kan.; sons Irving Dana of Omaha and William Dana of Valley; sister N. Jean Sinclair of San Gabriel, Calif.; and eight grandchildren. Services will be at 10 a.m. Friday at Presbyterian Church of the Cross, 1517 S. 114th St. Note from BBV admin - The corporate family tree of PSI Group could use a little additional work to make it more complete. PSI Group's acquisition chain might be of interest. The firm sold its imaging assets to Standard Register company in 1997, and sold other assets to Bellevue, Washington-based Fiserv Inc. in Feb. 1998.   BBV Admin Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 2798 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 9:37 am:        FOOTNOTE (6) (6) PR Newswire Pitney Bowes to Acquire PSI Group STAMFORD, Conn., June 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI) today signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the stock of PSI Group, Inc. (PSI), the nation's largest mail pre-sort company, for $130 million. PSI prepares, sorts and aggregates mail to earn Postal discounts and expedite delivery for its customers. The company will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pitney Bowes, continuing to operate under its current management and focusing solely on providing pre-sort mail services. "The acquisition of PSI is an outgrowth of our commitment to delivering shareholder and customer value," said Michael J. Critelli, Chairman and CEO of Pitney Bowes. "PSI's knowledge and expertise in helping high-volume mailers reduce the costs and speed the delivery of mail complements our existing businesses and will help us better serve our high-volume customers. For our shareholders, this transaction is an example of how we plan to strategically expand our participation in the integrated mail and document stream." PSI employs approximately 900 people in its twelve operating centers across the U.S. and in its headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. PSI's certified operating centers have met the very stringent requirements of the U.S. Postal Service's Mail Preparation Total Quality Management Program, making them the pre-sorter of choice for large first-class mailers and their service providers. The mailing industry benefits from pre-sort operations and workshare partnerships as they help to keep postage prices lower, improve speed and accuracy of service and ultimately enhance the overall value of mail. "We view this transaction as a very positive step towards further enhancing PSI Group's position as the premier pre-sort mail partner of choice," said Robert F. Krohn, Chairman and CEO of PSI Group, Inc. Subject to the completion of certain conditions, the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter 2002. PSI Group, Inc. was established in 1995 and is a leading pre-sort company with approximately a 5% share in the $1.2 billion outsourced pre-sort services market. The company, which is headquartered in Omaha, has Operating Centers in Cedar Rapids, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Lincoln, Omaha, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle and Pine Brook, New Jersey. Pitney Bowes is a $4.1 billion global provider of integrated mail and document management solutions headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. The company serves over 2 million businesses of all sizes in more than 130 countries through dealer and direct operations. For more information please visit http://www.pb.com.

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