11-6-05: Two state elections heads re...

Author Message   BBV Admin Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 2631 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box?  Votes: 10 (A keeper?) Posted on Saturday, November 5, 2005 - 11:34 am:        The most high-profile resignation is Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood, who announced Nov. 2 that she is resigning, effective Nov. 21. Hood says she is leaving to spend more time with her family. The most important resignation is Florida State Elections Division Voting Systems head Paul Craft, who has been a kingpin on the national certifications committee, the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) Voting Systems Panel. His resignation becomes effective Nov. 30. Craft's resignation creates some real questions. He says he is leaving to start Paul Craft, Inc., his own consulting firm. If Craft's consulting firm evaluates voting systems, it will represent an interesting use of talent -- in his capacity as voting systems advisor he missed or withheld information on security defects the size of Carnival cruise ships. Missing in action -- Craft's comments on: 1) The Diebold optical scan design flaw allowing manipulation through removable, credit-card-sized "memory cards," which appears to violate the 1990 FEC standards to which he certified the system. This flaw has been characterized as "the mother of all security holes." Hursti's report 2) The GEMS defect, which has now been acknowledged by Diebold, allows anyone with access to manipulate both ballot design and votes in the central tabulator. Black Box Voting has recently learned that this defect puts mail-in ballots at especially high risk. This defect is considered so serious that Diebold has taken steps recently to locate third party software to reduce the risk. The GEMS defect is easy to spot, simple to confirm, and was exposed publicly on July 8, 2003. More on the GEMS defect Did Craft not know of these defects, or did he just choose not to say anything? On Oct. 6 and 7, Craft met with Harri Hursti, the author of the memory card study. Hursti's study was also cited in the Oct. 21 GAO report. But Craft knew how grave the memory card vulnerability was much earlier: On July 28, Craft received correspondence from M.I.T. security expert Ronald Rivest, characterizing the Hursti-identified defects as "stunning" and "startling." Rivest wrote that he had forwarded the report to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), recommending replication. If the findings turn out to be true, Rivest indicated, the system should never have been certified, as it would indeed violate even 1990 FEC standards. Paul Craft was, of course, one of the individuals who certified the system. Rivest letter Thirty of Florida's 66 counties use the Diebold optical scan system containing the memory card problem, along with the defective GEMS tabulator. In Washington D.C., at the time of the National Institute of Standards & Technology NIST) "Threats to Voting Systems" conference, Craft indicated that the state of Florida would soon set up an independent testing entity for its voting machines. The next question is: Will the state of Florida contract with Paul Craft, Inc., to test its voting machines, and if so, how can that be justified? These security and accuracy problems were exposed by others (see the Aug. 18, 2004 independent report by CompuWare). This report confirms the GEMS defect, but for some reason was withheld from the public by Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell until 2005. Blackwell failed to implement its recommendations to mitigate the GEMS defect risks rated as "high, high, high" by CompuWare. Black Box Voting has submitted public records and Freedom of Information requests to find out whether Blackwell passed the information along to the EAC, as fiduciary duty would require. We find no evidence that either Blackwell or Craft told any elections supervisors about the defects, nor have we seen any evidence that either distributed information on steps to mitigate these known risks. Sinking ship, meet rats Thus begins the most massive butt-covering operation in elections history, as the truth about computerized voting systems becomes undeniable. Many eyes are now fixed on R. Doug Lewis, the enigmatic director of The Election Center. "I feel like hanging myself," said Lewis at the Oct. 7 NIST "Threats to voting systems" conference. Lewis helped choose, and continues to run interference for, the Independent Testing Labs (ITAs), primarily Wyle Labs (Jim Dearman) and Ciber, Inc. (Shawn Southworth). These ITAs are being paid by the vendors to evaluate their defective voting systems. Time after time, ordinary citizens uncover staggering defects, and machines choke during elections. Time after time, the ITAs issue clean bills of health. What we are seeing now is an effort to let everyone bow out gracefully, without (yet) really acknowledging the gravity of what these bogus certifiers, complicit secretaries of state, timid congressional investigators, and corrupt vendors have wrought upon this country. The overseers of elections for the most powerful nation in the world are lining up to receive their free passes. Perhaps now is a good time for someone to ask: Is anyone going to be held accountable?   John Howard Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Harmonyguy Post Number: 137 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Saturday, November 5, 2005 - 2:15 pm:        Paul Craft Inc. Incorporated October 3, 2005 http://www.sunbiz.org/COR/2005/1004/30991533.Tif or http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/cordet.exe?a1=DETFIL&n1=P05000134533&n2=OFFFWD&n3= 0001&n4=P&r1=&r2=&r3=&r4=&r5=&r6=&r7=CRAFTPAUL&r8= HG   BBV Admin Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 2633 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Saturday, November 5, 2005 - 2:35 pm:        Wow, John, that was quick. Not much info, he doesn't list any corporate officers. So he knew he was resigning before the NIST conference. Three things occur to me 1. He plans to set himself up as the testing agent for the newly formed testing division which he himself has created in his public official capacity 2. or ... take a look at the trend here with problematic elections officials: Mischelle Townsend - resigned - became an elections consultant Scott Konopasek - resigned - became an elections consultant John Elder - terminated by Diebold with a slow parachute kiss-off and a nondisclosure - became an elections consultant Paul Craft - resigned - became an (elections?) consultant Jim March was describing something called the Pentagon pattern, or some such name. It is a delayed payoff mechanism whereby public officials get delayed payments by setting themselves up as consultants and then getting payments from entities they used to oversee, regulate, or steer procurement deals to. The consulting firm makes a nice way to explain cash. How many elections consultants can there be? Who are their clients? What are they needed for? The only three categories of clients we could think of for elections consultants are: - candidates - vendors - state/local elections offices Payments by the first and third are findable through public records requests, but it would take a lot of time. 3. I also noticed that election consulting entitites are sometimes considered for "auditing" of troubled elections. You know, come in, give a clean bill of health to your former buddy's elections. In King County, the very messy 2004 election was audited and one of the consultants they were reportedly considering using was Scott Konopasek's new firm. (They ended up getting their clean bill of health decision from The Election Center). Nice setup - you have a problem, you call the guy you already know had a few .. uh .. issues before. He comes in in a shiny suit with a professional consulting firm and pronounces everything on the up & up. ------------------------------------- The resignation, timing, new incorporation all stimulate questions. The only way to get real answers, given the private-to-private structure of most of these kinds of deals, is discovery in connection with litigation.   John Washburn Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Johnwashburn Post Number: 235 Registered: 04-2005 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Saturday, November 5, 2005 - 2:57 pm:        Jim March was describing something called the Pentagon pattern, or some such name. In Japan the phrase used translates into English as "Descent from Heaven" In Liberty, John Washburn   Jim March Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Jimmarch Post Number: 58 Registered: 01-2005 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Saturday, November 5, 2005 - 11:38 pm:        Well let's add to the list, shall we? Lou Dieder: worked for the California SecState's office, went to work for ES&S after specifically NOT mentioning an ES&S security flaw: http://www.equalccw.com/sscomments3.pdf (Note that the response to the PRAR was "we have no such documents.) Deborah Sieler<sp?>: also worked for the California SecState, hired by Diebold. Alfie Charles: also worked for the California SecState, hired by Sequoia. We could list a bunch more, I know there's at least two more in California. ------------- What this CAN be is a form of "delayed payoff" - the sin you perform for some vendor today nets you a lucrative job or contracting deal tomorrow. VERY common among generals and admirals in military procurement; SAIC is infamous for it, Lockheed-Martin plays that game too, both of those are sniffing around the edges of voting machines...   BBV Admin Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 2635 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Sunday, November 6, 2005 - 5:11 am:        On the issue of elections officials setting up business entities to recieve income, Britain Williams (former Georgia, Maryland, Virginia voting machine examiner) also has a small corporation now, "The Williams Group, Inc." This information can be found in a corporations search at the Georgia secretary of state site.

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