6-24-2005: Black Box Voting Litigatio...

Author Message   admin Board Administrator Username: admin Post Number: 620 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box?  Votes: 9 (A keeper?) Posted on Friday, June 24, 2005 - 6:11 am:        Black Box Voting founder Bev Harris, awarded $76,111.11 from Diebold Election Systems on a California false claims case, has donated $68,500.47* to Black Box Voting, to be used specifically for litigation in the area of election integrity. Cases under consideration: (1) Litigation related to specific computerized voting machine issues (2) Public Records litigation, two jurisdictions may be selected for obstruction of public records law (3) Litigation support for disability groups fighting touch-screen machines The Black Box Voting Litigation Fund will work with pro bono lawyers, covering expenses and helping to support costs for researchers. Litigation projects selected will be chosen on the criteria that the problems represent systemic issues affecting elections in many jurisdictions at once. The funds launching the litigation project are modest. Black Box Voting is counting on the support of pro bono work and additional donations for the litigation fund to get as much leverage as possible out of the funding. About the false claims lawsuit In November, 2003, a Qui Tam (false claims) lawsuit was filed against Diebold Election Systems on behalf of Alameda County, California by Bev Harris, Executive Director of Black Box Voting, and Jim March, a board member of Black Box Voting. The case was filed by Harris and March as individuals, before the nonprofit Black Box Voting entity was formed, and therefore the compensation was paid personally to Harris and March. A settlement was announced by the California attorney general in late 2004. Funds were released and disbursed to Harris and March in late May 2005. There are two types of Qui Tam actions: One which requires that both the evidence and the existence of the case be sealed until the attorney general opens it to the public, and another where the evidence is made available to the public immediately, and only the existence of the case itself is kept sealed until the A.G. opens it. The whistleblowers that file the Qui Tam case (in this case, Harris and March) are generally entitled to compensation, in an amount of up to 15 percent if the government joins the case. However, when evidence is made public instead of keeping it under seal, the government usually tries to withhold whistleblower compensation. Therefore most contingent fee attorneys refuse to take Qui Tam cases unless all evidence is kept sealed, something that Harris and March were unwilling to do. Election law attorney Lowell Finley accepted the Qui Tam case despite the condition that Harris and March would refuse to seal the evidence, thereby jeopardizing both his compensation and their own. The California Attorney general's office did act, at first, to withhold the whistleblower compensation based on Harris and March's refusal to seal the evidence in the case. Finley prevailed in negotiations, citing precedent and public exigence for the information, resulting in payment of $76,111.11 each to Harris and March, after attorneys fees. Harris has been a strong advocate of public access to information on election integrity cases, and has maintained the consistent position that any litigation for election integrity which withholds evidence from American citizens is unethical. She participated in the case only under the terms that no evidence whatsoever would be withheld from the public, and at the outset committed the funds to a nonprofit voting integrity group, which had not been founded at the time the case was filed. Harris founded Black Box Voting in June, 2004. The California Attorney General joined Harris and March in the false claims suit in September 2004, Diebold announced its intent to settle in November 2004, and the case was formally settled in March 2005. Funds were not immediately disbursed by the state, for reasons that are unclear. Harris then donated the proceeds of the suit to Black Box Voting, Inc., a nonprofit 501c(3) organization.** About Jim March Jim March serves as a voluntary board member for Black Box Voting, and has worked for election reform since August 2003. He has made Diebold program files available on his Web site, and refused to remove them despite a cease and desist DMCA order from Diebold. He has kept the materials up nonstop, prevailing against Diebold bullying tactics. March, a Republican gun lobbyist, simply grinned when Diebold attempted to threaten him into removing the materials. "Go ahead Diebold," he said. "Make my day. I'll see you in discovery." March refers to himself as a devout capitalist, and is known around California as an irrepressible and outspoken character. He wears a cowboy hat, sports a bolo tie, and drives a motorcycle around California's capitol city. March invested some of the proceeds from the Qui Tam suit in a brand new motorcycle bearing the following message on each rear fender: "Paid for by LieBold." (When he parked it prominently outside a recent hearing attended by Diebold executives, a request was made to tow the cycle, but a public official warned him in time to rescue his bike.) March frequently testifies, writes position papers, conducts new research, and works with public officials on election reform issues. About Bev Harris Turf wars and gossip among competing activism groups are not unusual in any reform movement, and the election reform movement is no different. Some individuals have used the Internet to allege that Harris made millions of dollars on the lawsuit and through fund-raising. However, the facts don't support those claims. All funds raised always go solely to the nonprofit corporation, with required accounting on the annual 990 form. It would be lovely if Black Box Voting could raise "millions of dollars," however, we have yet to hit the first million. Black Box Voting, Inc. pays founder and Executive Director Bev Harris a salary of $60,000 per year. Upon founding the Black Box Voting nonprofit, Harris donated rights and proceeds to her Black Box Voting book to the organization and provided a small amount of seed money. Black Box Voting frequently donates the books to local election integrity organizations, to help them raise funds for local public records efforts and community education. Harris, and her husband Sonny Dudley, a Boeing employee, have supported voting integrity work nonstop since October 2002 and neither has ever profited from work on election reform. They have raised four teenagers and are certainly not wealthy by any financial standards -- like many Americans, they consider wealth to be the blessings of family, God, and community. These values drive thousands of advocates in the election reform movement. Sonny Dudley, whose family represents five generations of activists in African-American voting rights and civil rights, will join Black Box Voting as a volunteer beginning in July, to assist with community outreach for election reform in the African-American community. Current situation with Alameda County Alameda County is seeking to purchase new equipment, and will hold a hearing at the end of this month to evaluate new voting systems. Current situation with California The state of California is currently evaluating whether to certify any new Diebold equipment. Both Harris and March continue to be involved in advocacy for election reform in California, and are currently fighting to have the Diebold memory cards inspected on both optical scan and touch-screen systems for all versions in use. The Black Box Voting organization will provide Alameda County and the state of California with a new technical report next week, containing a critical security alert for Diebold optical scan systems. * Of the total award, Harris tithed $7,6.111.64 to her church (A.M.E. Zion church), in accordance with her belief system, and contributed the remainder to launch the litigation fund. ** Black Box Voting is a 501c(3) nonprofit corporation, not a foundation. Funding for Black Box Voting derives solely from public contributions. Prior to Harris's donation of $76,111.11, the average donation size was $39 per donation. The organization has received many small grants. The largest grant, prior to Harris's donation, was $10,000. One entity has made three $10,000 grants over a one-year period. Black Box Voting has focused on fund-raising with a large number of small donations, instead of a few large grants, in order to retain full independence from any vested interest, to allow consumer protection work to be as unfettered as possible.   Bev Harris Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 3507 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Friday, February 3, 2006 - 8:22 am:        Just received response to Qui Tam public records request. We had asked for the investigation records to see whether they actually did any investigation. Specifically, we provided information on defects and false claims regarding GEMS, votercard security, and WinCE and more. Our request for records on our own lawsuit was denied, and they told us to go back to our own lawyer for the portions we already know about. The California Attorney General's Office has refused to provide any records whatsoever on the Diebold false claims investigation, nor on the criminal investigation of Diebold requested by Sec. State Kevin Shelley.

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