5-6-04: $45m (Diebold?) contract flyi...

Author Message   admin Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 441 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box?  Votes: 11 (A keeper?) Posted on Friday, May 6, 2005 - 12:12 pm:    by Bev Harris & Kathleen Wynne Black Box Voting conducted interviews of highly placed sources in Chicago last week, who revealed that Cook County is likely to purchase new machines within the month. More information, and documents, will be provided soon on who those sources are, who they are involved with, and exactly how much they have been paid. One of the key players indicated to us that he expects Diebold to be the winner. He referred to both Cook County and the Chicago Elections Board. Chicago is in Cook County, but although the source lumped the two together for a price tag of $45 million, two different election administration entities are involved. Cook County and/or Chicago's new voting machines will begin with optical scans (with touch-screens for visually impaired voters* but the thinking is to later convert the whole system to touch-screens.) The total contract is reported to be in the $45 million range, and we have received reports that it will be awarded within 30 days. See video and size up for yourself whether he means both Cook County and Chicago, and how imminent the decision seems to be. VIDEO CLIP: Source spills the beans (2 minutes) Internal documents from Diebold refer to the project variously as "Cook County" and "Chicago." Black Box Voting has submitted formal public records requests. As of the posting of this story, we had not received any response. However, within an hour after this story was posted, we did receive a response, printed below, from Cook County Clerk David Orr. We made requests to the Cook County Clerk's office and to the Chicago Board of Elections, pertaining to procurement of the new voting system. We requested documentation as to when and where the public notice of the formal reading of the bids was published, the minutes of the required public meeting with the reading of the bids, and a copy of the formal recommendation for purchase, as well as the dates of the county commissioner's meeting where the contract will be approved, and a copy of the contract. We were told that Jonathan Williams, Manager of Policy & Planning for Cook County Clerk David Orr, heads the decision committee. *see related story on how adding Diebold touch-screens into optical scan-based system increases remote access hacking vulnerability: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/5512.html) NOTE: This story has ties also to Ohio procurement. More on Monday. Black Box Voting recommends a spending moratorium on new voting systems and components until multiple problems with election system design and integrity are addressed.   admin Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 442 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box?  Votes: 2 (A keeper?) Posted on Friday, May 6, 2005 - 2:53 pm:    RESPONSE FROM DAVID ORR: Dear Ms. Harris, I am in receipt of your document request, received by my office yesterday, May 5, 2005. I understand that you have sent a parallel request to the Board of Election Commissioners of the City of Chicago. I expect that you already know that my office administers no elections in Chicago. The City Board of Elections and my office are two separate entities, and my office administers elections in suburban Cook County. Let me assure you that no decision has been made in my jurisdiction regarding any aspect of the purchase of election equipment. This short note is not to be taken as a response to your Freedom of Information request, which has been referred to our attorney, the State's Attorney of Cook County. But I wanted to send you a quick reply regarding your mistaken impression of our current status. Sincerely, David Orr, Cook County Clerk

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