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| 11-29-07: MOONSHINE AMERICA Collaps... |
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Bev Harris
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 7178
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? 
Votes: 8 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 6:57 am: | 
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In 2007, Black Box Voting embarked on a year-long investigative series examining elections in what we call the Moonshine territories reputedly the most corrupt local governments in America. What we found has staggering implications for the design of American election systems as a whole. Our current system only works if we trust every human link in the chain. In this report we will knock the concept of trust-based elections out the window.
What follows begins with our examination of the "Trust Me" election model as it is implemented in locations like Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. What we found in these locations quickly unravels into an indictment of faith-based elections in all 50 states.
The very core of the voting machine controversy is not paper trails or spot check procedures. The essence of whether an election system can be trusted is whether it allows the owners of the government, The People, to view the counting and the chain of custody. Votes counted in secret, and secret chain of custody can never work unless we change human nature itself.
MOONSHINE ELECTIONS Part III: Collapse of the "Trust Me" model
Fraud follows presidential primaries like a hound on a scent. Most people don't pay much attention, because they are distracted by the main event: the general election, the Democrats vs. the Republicans.
During the 1996 presidential primary an elections official in Logan County, West Virginia sold his own vote. County Clerk Glen Dale "Hound Dog" Adkins pocketed an impressive $500 for it, higher than normal -- but then again, maybe votes cost extra when you buy them from someone who also has inside access to adjust ballots and voting machines.(1)
Conspiracy theory? That's half right. The Logan County sheriff and the city of Logan's police chief also pleaded guilty to election fraud, and six officials in nearby Lincoln County also got nailed. Conspiracy yes, but not a theory.
For the past five years citizens have looked on in amazement as public officials perform contortions of reason to justify why our votes should be counted in secret by insiders, with a chain of custody so indecipherable only a criminal defense lawyer could love it.
"After all, you have to trust someone," they tell us.
TRUST ME. BUT YOU CAN'T WATCH ME.
THE NEW MOTTO FOR AMERICAN ELECTIONS
Such a concept turns citizen sovereignty on its head, giving government insiders ultimate power over the will of the citizenry rather than the other way around. It's a relatively new model for elections, and of course the concept is laughable, yet they feed it to us with a straight face.
In May 2005, Fulton County, Kentucky election official Lesia LaRue resigned. Two of her deputies bit the dust as well. County Clerk LaRue was indicted for falsifying records and missing funds.(2)
In January 2007, former Morgan County, Tennessee election official Tim Steelman pleaded guilty to stealing more than $10,000 from his office and was sentenced to four years probation. Steelman resigned after prosecutors issued an ultimatum: he must plead guilty and resign, or face an ouster lawsuit and criminal prosecution.(3)
FAITH BASED ELECTIONS
Voting machine manufacturers admit that using their equipment requires citizens to suspend any ability to make sure results are accurate.
quote:"There has to be faith in their local election boards," said James Ries Jr., president of Microvote, one of the voting machine providers for the moonshine states. "It's one of those areas of a leap of faith. That you really do have to have a faith in your local jurisdiction, that they are conducting equitable elections in the best faith of the voters."(4)
You have to trust your elections official, but that's not all. The weakest link in the human chain can destroy the integrity of the election simply by swapping a memory card or popping in a USB memory stick. The human chain includes the programmers at the company that manufactures the voting machine; the subcontractors who maintain and service the machines; each person who has access to the warehouse that stores the voting machines (which may include the janitor, the sheriff, and the transportation crew); employees of the elections division; and the designated elections administrator.
In June 1998, a mistrial was declared for Bowie County, Texas Clerk Marylene Megason. She had been charged with two counts of abuse of official capacity, dummying up payments to her son's company for work that was actually performed by employees of her office and county jail inmates. In Bowie County, the County Clerk is responsible for voter registration. (5)
In August 2006, prosecutors filed charges against the Greene County, Arkansas Election Commission Chairman Karl Horton on two counts of financial identity fraud.(6) A scary thought: Due to voter registration requirements, elections officials have access to the social security number and signature of every voter in their jurisdiction.
In August 2000, Kentucky State Auditor Ed Hatchett released the audit of former Floyd County Clerk/elections chief Carla Robinson Boyd. She had already been convicted of theft, sentenced to five years probation and directed to pay restitution in the amount of $26,822. (7) Carla Robinson Boyd's uncle, C. Ollie Robinson was a Floyd County clerk before her.
"Floyd County will probably have to sue the estate of the late county clerk C. Ollie Robinson, " wrote the Floyd County Times. Robinson reportedly owed the county $51,047 according to a state audit of Ollie's financial transactions, after which the state of Kentucky assumed control of Floyd County spending for a time. (8)
Carla Robinson Boyd's husband, Joe Bolton, has programmed the Microvote machines for Floyd County and 22 other locations for more two decades. Now he's her ex. He seems like a nice guy, but Joe Bolton programs machines that count nearly 200,000 Kentucky votes, all while sitting in the privacy of his own home. So whether or not you trust whoever replaced Carla, you also have to trust Joe. In the secret chain of custody that controls the secret counting of your votes, one broken link can invalidate everything.(9)
Another Microvote county is Elliott County, Kentucky. In 2006, the state auditor found that $12,515 was missing from the county clerk's fee account, in addition to more than $28,000 already owed from previous years. Elliott County Clerk/elections official Reeda Stinson Ison blamed the prior years' deficits on an employee in the clerk/elections office who stole from the account. A local grand jury wound up indicting the deputy clerk for theft, and Ison herself for official misconduct. Ison suggested that other county officials conspired against her. (10)
quote:"It's one of those areas of a leap of faith," Microvote president James Ries Jr. says. "Quite frankly it's very difficult to convince somebody how do I know my vote counted." (4)
In May 2006, State Auditor Crit Luallen released two audits, covering calendar years 2004 and 2005, of Owsley County, Kentucky elections official Sid Gabbard's office, formally disclaiming any opinion because he did not maintain adequate accounting records to allow the auditors to verify the revenues and expenditures. The 2004 audit uncovered a $61,876 shortfall; receipts were received by the Clerk's office but not deposited into any of the office's accounts. A surprise cash count conducted by the Auditor's Office on August 31, 2005 showed a shortage of nearly $50,000. A cumulative shortage of over $65,000, partially offset by personal and unidentified deposits, was discovered at the end of 2005. (11)
Those in control of the counting and chain of custody for secret vote counting are the very same public officials caught in financial cheating. And should we really be surprised? Human nature is imperfect. The founders of this nation realized that, and precisely for that reason, envisioned a system based on distrust, not trust.
quote:"If once [the people] become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions."
Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787
And yet, The People are not entirely inattentive. Ever the rascals, politicians decided (without our consent) to implement "Trust Me" election systems. Vendors (who perhaps get a bad rap in all this because after all they can't sell what government insiders don't want to buy) cooperated in the manufacture of computerized systems based on trusting insiders. The People realize this setup is bogus, but despite many efforts, have so far been unable to dislodge the Trust Me system.
KENTUCKY FRIED POLITICS
Before moving on to other Moonshine states and the rest of America, I'll mention that Kentucky has a political history so colorful it actually does inspire awe. Kentucky's most powerful elections official in 1900, Secretary of State Caleb Powers, was prosecuted and convicted (three times) for the murder of Gov. William J. Goebel and spent eight years in prison. (12) In April 2002, one Pulaski County candidate shot and killed the other candidate.(13) And in Kentucky, it's not unusual for the sheriff to be the drug dealer.
Kentucky was one of the first places in America to install Trust Me voting systems. They began using paperless touchscreens with secret software programmed by private individuals back in 1986. We can point at Kentucky, or we can learn from Kentucky. When votes are counted in secret, The People, who own the government, can only displace their governors if the insiders who control counting and chain of custody are honest. This system will lead to a government that is progressively more corrupt. If we continue with secret vote counting and a secret (or indecipherable) chain of custody, America will become one big Kentucky.
THE "AL CAPONE" CLEAN-UP METHOD
Kentucky has also provided an excellent example of corruption clean-up using the Al Capone strategy. When the feds couldn't get at Capone for his other gangland activities, they investigated him using financial audits. Kentucky currently has an especially tough-minded state financial auditor, Crit Luallen. When you read the audits performed by her division, you find both a no-nonsense, no excuses approach and a willingness to turn things over to prosecutors. Some of the crookedest officials in Kentucky were brought down not for their drug deals, but using their financial records.
The Kentucky state auditor formally disclaimed any opinion on financial doings in Knox County audit, referring the 2003-04-05 audits to multiple agencies for prosecution, citing $2.7 million in questioned expenditures. County payments were being cashed or deposited into accounts of companies other than they were made out to, owned by relatives of county officials. (14)
Nearby Knott County had nearly $13.5 million cited in questioned costs. The audit detailed 23 findings and questioned expenditures and was referred for criminal prosecution to the US Attorney, the FBI, the Kentucky State Police, the Kentucky Department of Revenue, and several other law enforcement agencies. (15)
When you think about it, any time an elections official would forge a document, it pretty much blows today's election model out of the water.
In 1999, former Fayette County, Kentucky Deputy County Clerk Stacia Johnson entered a guilty plea to one count of Theft and one count of Forged Instrument. The Theft count arose from her taking more than $41,000; the Forged Instrument charge resulted from the alteration of an internal document in an attempt to hide the theft. Johnson was sentenced to serve 30 days in jail and then probated for two years. (16)
In Oct. 2007, a candidate for the position of Boone County Clerk/elections chief pleaded guilty to second degree forgery. Ed Moore dropped out of the county clerk's race after news surfaced that he forged documents and inflated his military record, but still nearly won the race. Democrat Rena Ping squeaked by him to prevail. (17)
Kentucky may have a culture of corruption, but no-nonsense audits and a willingness to prosecute are getting some traction on cleaning it up. But in the end, you can't prosecute your way out of corruption. You still need the front-end protection against corruption: elections controlled by The People. The public needs to be able to see the counting and the chain of custody needs to be kept simple, and in the public view, at all times.
For some reason with elections, we allow excuse after excuse. When records are missing and safeguards botched, as in Ohio 2004, public officials do not hold election officials accountable. The same officials who concocted a fake homeland security alert in Warren County Ohio in 2004 are still in office, as are those who destroyed elections records in violation of a court order. The Ohio secretary of state shows no willingness to hold anyone accountable. Contrast that with this statement in the Knox County audit:
quote:The Auditor of Public Accounts was engaged to audit the financial activity of the Knox County Fiscal Court for fiscal year ended June 30, 2003, and we have issued a disclaimer of opinion thereon.
Based on our assessment of fraud risk, we determined the risk for fraud to be too high and we were unable to apply other procedures to overcome this fraud risk. In addition, the Fiscal Court had weaknesses in the design and operation of its internal control procedures and accounting functions. Furthermore, management elected to override the internal control procedures that were in place...The significance of these issues, in the aggregate, prevents us from expressing an opinion and we do not express an opinion on the financial activities of the Knox County Fiscal Court.
And the auditors took it right to the prosecutors, at the local, state AND federal levels.
OTHER MOONSHINE STATES
While he didn't match Kentucky's former secretary of state in audacity by murdering a governor, Arkansas Secretary of State during the Clinton years, William James McCuen also known as Bill McCuen admitted to accepting kickbacks in connection with voting machine procurement, and conspiring with a political consultant to split money embezzled from the state. He was indicted on corruption charges in 1995, sentenced to 17 years in prison and fined.(18)
The voting machines are supposed to go through various levels of standards-setting, evaluation, and certification. Yet even the kingpins in these areas admit that insiders can alter election results with computerized voting. In a recent deposition, which will likely be released to the public very soon, one of the most powerful governmental authorities stated that the idea that insiders might tamper is "a frightening thought."
quote:"If that happens, we've got a lot bigger problem than elections," he stated in sworn testimony.(19)
News flash to the kingpins: The problem has arrived.
The 1980s featured Mississippi Operation Pretense, with at least 71 Mississippi county officials pleading guilty to corruption charges in 26 counties. (20) And lest you think human nature has changed in Mississippi since the mid-80s, note that two Tunica County sheriffs have been convicted of various crimes in recent years and have been sentenced to jail terms and a new election was ordered in Tunica County in Nov. 2007 after ballots were seized following a search warrant issued for the Tunica County Circuit Clerks office. (21)
The current system uses a chain of custody so convoluted it can collapse when a single document disappears. Example: Election officials will tell you they put seals on the voting machines to make sure no one changed anything. What they don't tell you: Public records obtained by Black Box Voting show that these seals frequently arrive with mismatched seal numbers, or broken, or missing, blowing up the chain of custody. And what about this: Have election officials ever falsified a document?
In June 2005, Benton County, Tennessee Clerk Rosanne Ward and her husband Jerry were indicted on two charges, one being a felony and the other a misdemeanor in relation to the audit findings from the State Comptrollers office. The audit concluded that the county clerk and her husband had falsified documents. (22)
In many jurisdictions the local sheriff holds a key to the chain of custody (literally). Besides the fact that sheriffs are quite often running for office at the same time they are protecting the election, the sheriff position has a history of corruption. Sheriffs control contraband, like drugs and guns, and they sign off on traffic studies needed by land developers for multi-million dollar deals. When someone suspects a voting machine might have been tampered with, the report is dealt with (or not) by the sheriff; in some locations the sheriff's department transports the ballots, and in some states the sheriff, by law, is on the board of elections.
Tippah County, Mississippi Sheriff Gary Mauney was so scandal-ridden that he was asked to appear on the Montel Williams show in 1996. One of four Mississippi sheriffs elected in 1996 who had been convicted of felony crimes, Billy McGee, president of the Mississippi Sheriffs' Association lamented that the state of Mississippi should hang its head, and the Mississippi Attorney General tried to purge the felonious four, succeeding with only three. Gary Mauney refused to step down. (23)
In August, 2007 Mississippi State Attorney General Jim Hood announced the 14th arrest since a vote-buying investigation began during the weeks before the August primary. Arrests continued to mount; among the arrested was sheriff candidate Clint Moffett and Benton County Supervisor Tate King. (24)
Have you ever been called a conspiracy theorist? Check this out:
In August, 2007, Jennings B. White, the chief elections official in Clay County Kentucky pleaded guilty to involvement in a major drug ring. He had been busted for drug running, extortion, arson and bribery and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
White had served two terms as county clerk. He was arrested in 2006 in connection with a drug ring headed by Kenneth Day, a former Clay county election commissioner and local businessman. Day admitted that he had bought votes at times.
Elections chief White pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including that he laundered money for Day, taking drug cash and giving Day a check from White's business that could be deposited. Other charges against White included conspiring to distribute drugs and conspiring to offer a bribe. White also acknowledged that between May 2004 and October 2006, he took part in extorting kickbacks. (25)
The word "bribe" is in the dictionary because people do it. The word "conspiracy" is in every RICO prosecution in America. "If once [the people] become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves," said Thomas Jefferson. It is your civic duty to oversee your own public affairs.
MOONSHINE AMERICA
Excerpt from videotaped interview; Kathleen Wynne, with Ray Martinez, former Vice Chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission:
quote:Wynne: We want non-secret elections. The secrecy is taking priority over transparency.
Martinez: I really can't argue with that, Kathleen. My only retort to that is, I elect local administrators in Texas
I place my faith in casting a vote for my local county clerk who I know is also going to be my local election administrator. And when I vote for her I'm voting for her integrity... Integrity to me means putting trust in people I elect or who eventually get appointed to important positions like county clerk. I'm perfectly comfortable with my definition.(26)
Martinez, now a lobbyist, may be perfectly comfortable with a "Trust Me" elections model, but evidence indicates this is quite a foolish position. Voters have no way of knowing whether a public official has integrity or not, and even when they learn of problems, and question appointments, they are rebuffed. How, and with what authority can citizens displace convicted felons even if they discover them?
Jeff Carbajal was a crook, and Jeff Carbajal was an elections official, but citizens did not prevail when they questioned his position with the Bernalillo County, New Mexico elections bureau, despite Carbajal's sentence on embezzlement charges. Carbajal pleaded guilty to the charges, which stemmed from his time in the Grant County Clerk's Office. He was sentenced to probation and paid $11,000 in restitution.(27)
In December 2006, Monterey County, Calif elections chief Tony Anchundo was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 180 in home confinement, plus five years probation, for after pleading "no contest" to 43 criminal charges. He had embezzled $84,000 on county-issued credit cards.(28)
In 2003, Twin Falls, Idaho County Clerk Robert Fort entered a guilty plea to a felony charge of misuse of public funds. The county clerk position in Twin Falls handles elections; the complaint against Fort states that he appropriated over $60,000 to his own use or to the use of another." (29)
Kathleen Wynne, who interviewed the EAC's Ray Martinez on videotape, also caught two Cuyahoga County, Ohio elections workers admitting on videotape that they broke the law during the recount. Thanks to her videotape, they were convicted of rigging the 2004 presidential recount, and sentenced to 18 months in jail. In Nov. 2007 they managed to plead it down to "no contest" and their jail time was converted to public service. One of the convicted was the election board's third-ranking staff member Jacqui Maiden; the other was middle manager Kathleen Dreamer. Each pleaded no contest to negligent misconduct and failure to perform official duties during that November general election. The charges are, respectively, a felony and a misdemeanor; while the two women were convicted, their supervisor, Michael Vu, went on to run elections in San Diego County, Calif. (30)
Is this what it's going to take?
Citizens running around with video cameras trying to catch public officials on tape as they admit their crimes? What if they don't admit them?
Even the law enforcement guys tend to tiptoe
Even the feds tend to tiptoe around public officials who break the law. In 2006, federal authorities announced that a Sangamon County, Illinois cocaine investigation was complete after nine indictments, but also forwarded the names of six other people to the state's attorney's office for possible prosecution. The feds pitched the ball, they said, because five of the six had connections to county government or law enforcement. The state's attorney's office referred the cases to the state appellate prosecutor's office. Among the six: Sangamon County Clerk Joe Aiello. (31)
What are citizens supposed to do when known felons are hired?
And if the government official hires convicted felons without even knowing it, how are voters supposed to judge "integrity"?
When Brennan A. Enos filled out a Dallas County, Texas employment application during the summer of 2005, he dutifully noted that he had a criminal record for involuntary manslaughter. But somehow that bit of information didn't make its way to County Clerk Cynthia Calhoun. Enos made a good enough impression in his interview to get hired. He started work Aug. 26 as a special assistant. A Palm Beach Post article laid out many instances in which Mr. Enos padded his rιsumι with titles, responsibilities and awards that he did not hold. Dallas County Human Resources Assistant Director Kathy Shields said the county clerk's office did not ask for a background check on Mr. Enos. However, someone within the clerk's department checked out Mr. Enos' work experience. (32)
"It was not a perfect system for hiring," said Calhoun. I guess not.
In Dallas County, elections administration doesn't appear to cross paths with the Dallas County Clerk's office, but that doesn't mean hiring practices don't go through the same human resources department. A broken link in the elections chain of custody can include any employee, vendor, technician, or county employee with access.
When county officials ignore their own knowledge of criminal histories in the elections division, isn't it putting an unreasonable burden on the citizenry to police it for them?
He became the Kane County, Illinois elections director even after courts found David Bruun guilty of misappropriating bank funds and stealing from a disabled man. He was turned down for jobs as a teacher, bus driver and real estate agent because of his criminal record. But in 2004, Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham hired Bruun to ensure politicians in the county get into office honestly. As the county's election director, Bruun helped oversee vote tabulations for elections up through 2006. Bruun had been convicted in 1985 of misappropriating bank funds by writing checks for a client on a trust account backed by stolen bearer bonds, and of theft in 1998. (33)
Public officials in cahoots with vendors
In 2006, a Peoria County, Illinois commissioner pleaded guilty to a felony in connection with voting machine purchasing. Eugene J. Wittry never revealed that he owned several thousand shares of stock in Populex, nor that he was also on the Populex advisory board at the time it was submitting proposals to the commission. According to the prosecutor, Wittry took information gleaned from the competitors' bids, relayed that back to Populex instructing them how to resurrect their bid and modify it to make it superior to their competitors. Populex Corp., run by one of Wittry's relatives, was deemed an improper purchase in Peoria but despite the bid-rigging in Illinois, managed to secure contracts in 11 New York counties. (34)
Are we supposed to memorize every rap sheet?
And are voters, in order to make sure their elections officials have "integrity", supposed to memorize the rap sheet of every convicted felon in America?
At the time of his arrest in 1999, Dutchess County, New York Republican county elections commissioner William Paroli Sr. was also serving as chairman of the county Republican committee and chairman of the largest town GOP committee in Dutchess. After serving time in federal prison on corruption charges in a conspiracy sting that netted four other Poughkeepsie public officials, the appropriately-named Paroli was released. He promptly re-entered local politics by filing a petition to secure a spot on the Dutchess County GOP committee. Petition signers, when interviewed, said they didn't realize he was a felon. (35)
And then there's nepotism
What about when a crooked politician gets elected with a crooked elections official who happens to be his wife?
On Sept. 9, 2006, Victoria Doyle pleaded guilty to a felony count of falsifying a report in her losing bid for Marion County, Oregon clerk in 2004. Meanwhile, her husband Dan Doyle, an Oregon state representative, pleaded guilty in Marion County Circuit Court to 11 felony counts of falsifying items on his 2002 and 2004 reports. Doyle was his own campaign treasurer and signed the reports. Prosecutors alleged that he diverted as much as $150,000 in campaign contributions to personal use. Had they both won their elections, Marion County elections would have had mail-in votes counted in secret by the felonious wife of a felonious politician. (36)
Just how far does this go?
And does this "Trust me" model mean ordinary citizens are expected to chase down the arrest records of the recruiters and trainers of election officials? Citizens did that; On a tip from other extraordinary citizens like Susan Pynchon and Pokey Anderson, Kathleen Wynne drove to the county records office in Houston to check out R. Doug Lewis, Executive Director of The Election Center, a powerful entity that recruits and trains elections official, and a strong advocate for Trust Me voting systems. It turns out he, too has a rap sheet. He pleaded no lo contendre to indecent exposure charges in in 1996. (37)
Shall we trust the lawmakers who got the bright idea to turn America's elections into a Trust Me model? Voting machines were forced into 50-state use by the Help America Vote Act, co-sponsored by convicted felon Bob Ney, at the time a U.S. representative from Ohio. Ney pleaded guilty to making false statements, conspiracy to commit fraud, and violating US lobbying restrictions. (38)
A COLOSSAL DESIGN BLUNDER
"Trust me."
Human nature.
A stupendously flawed elections model that only bureaucrats, crooked politicians and academics living in ivory towers could dream up.
SOLUTIONS
'When the solution is simple, God is answering.' Albert Einstein
In recent years we've seen election systems turn into millions of lines of programming code, overlaid with supposedly CIA-proof encryption, hundreds of pages of often-conflicting procedures and regulations, an entire industry full of compliance experts, consultants, ancillary device vendors, complexifying the system so much that We, the People, can't even recognize it anymore, much less control or even oversee it.
'Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler.' Albert Einstein
Elections have three basic attack vectors:
1. Access to voting (voter registration polls, purges, and stuffing)
2. Fairness (dirty tricks like sending people to the wrong polling place, or putting out false campaign literature)
3. Counting (correctly counting and adding up votes, and keeping the chain of custody intact)
'It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.' Albert Einstein
Two ways to simplify and remove inside attacks from vote counting:
1. Chain of custody: Voter marks ballot. Voter deposits ballot in a translucent ballot box that sits in full public view all day. When polls close, ballots are removed from ballot box in full public view. Before being transported anywhere, they are counted in full public view.
2. Counting: Ballot counting is physically positioned so that members of the public can view ballot faces as they are counted, with a zoom lens if needed. Allow the public to videotape each ballot face if they wish.
Simple ways to count in public:
Method A. Position real people such that observers can see the face of each ballot they count. Allow the public to videotape ballots as they are counted at the polling place.
Method B. For technology fans: Place each ballot, one by one, into optical scan machine. Scan them only when polls close, while still at the polling place. Position the scanner and the feed tray so that the public can capture close-up view of each ballot as it is fed into the scanner, one by one.
Counting method A, with no technology, can be done right now in every small jurisdiction in America, and with planning and recruitment, can be done in large jurisdictions if there is a public and governmental will to do so.
Counting method B, using technology, can be done right now with no extra cost outlay in every jurisdiction that has optical scan machines.
Simple adjustments need to be made to achieve public counting with public chain of custody:
- In some states, it is against the law to count in public with public chain of custody. (Really.) Laws can be changed.
- Mail-in voting has special chain of custody issues and needs to be examined more carefully.
- Some states use double-sided ballots. Ballot layout or procedures need to be slightly adjusted in this case.
- Some states prohibit videotaping after the polls close. The public needs a way to document with meaningful evidence. Prohibitions on videotaping the vote-counting need to be rolled back.
1. Out of clutter, find simplicity.
2. From discord, find harmony.
3. In the middle of difficulty lies harmony. Albert Einstein (his three rules of work)
Footnotes:
(1) The Associated Press - Dec. 30, 2005: " Sixth Lincoln resident pleads to election fraud", by Lawrence Messina
(2) Louisville Courier-Journal - May 6, 2005: "Charges weighed after Fulton audit"; also, Kentucky State Auditor's Office, 2005 audit of county clerk's office.
(3) The Oak Ridger - Jan. 15, 2007: "Former Morgan County clerk sentenced to four years probation"
(4) Transcript of WISH TV (IN) - Nov. 21, 2004:"MicroVote Interview" http://www.lists.opn.org/pipermail/org.opn.lists.local_activists/2004-November/0 01244.html
(5) Lubbock Online - June 21, 1998: "Mistrial declared for Bowie county clerk accused of abuse of power" http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/062198/LD0874.002.shtml
(6) The Commercial Appeal - Sept. 1, 2006: " Chair charged in ID theft"
(7) States News Service - Nov. 1998: "Floyd Clerk Indicted"
(8) Floyd County Times - Apr. 20, 1983: " Floyd County will probably have to sue " http://www.rootsweb.com/~kyfloyd/our_yesterdays/our_yesterdays_20.htm
(9) Black Box Voting - Sept. 6, 2007: "The Hunt for Joe Bolton" http://www.blackboxvoting.org/moonshine1.pdf
(10) Herald-Leader - Oct. 28, 2006: "Problems of 2 sent to Attorney General; Audits of Carter, Elliott and Scott counties found unorthodox contracts, a deficit that a county clerk blames on theft and bookkeeping errors, and over $18,000 forgotten in a safe."
(11) Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts: Owsley County KY - 2004 Audit, 2005 Audit
(12) Source: Political Graveyard. "Caleb Powers (1869-1932) of Barbourville, Knox County, Ky. Born in Whitley County, Ky., February 1, 1869. Republican. Lawyer; secretary of state of Kentucky, 1900; U.S. Representative from Kentucky 11th District, 1911-19; delegate to Republican National Convention from Kentucky, 1916. Prosecuted and convicted for murder of Gov. William J. Goebel, eight years in prison; pardoned in 1908 by Gov. Augustus E. Willson. Died July 25, 1932. Interment at City Cemetery, Barbourville, Ky. See also: congressional biography."
(13) New York Times Mar. 4, 2003: "Life sentence in sheriff's death"
(14) Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts: Knox County KY - 2003-04-05 Audit
(15) Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts: Knott County KY - 2006 Audit
(16) LexingtonProsecutor.com Archived Court Cases No. 2; www.lexingtonprosecutor.com/archivedcourtcasesno2.htm
(17) Cincinnati Enquirer - Oct. 10, 2007: "Candidates for Secretary of State clashing over voting procedures"
(18) The Baton Rouge Advocate Feb. 5, 2002: "Bill McCuen: Guilty plea to felony charges of bribery, tax evasion and accepting kickbacks
(19) Currently unreleased testimony, sworn and stated in 2007. Will release this to the public when available.
(20) Clarion-Ledger Mar. 16, 2003, "Operation Pretense by Dr. James Crockett"
(21) Eyewitness News Everywhere Aug. 13, 2007: "Possible Voter Irregularities in Tunica"
(22) Comptroller of the state of Tennessee: Benton County audit; 158 Part II, Findings Related to the Financial Statements. www.comptroller.state.tn.us/ca/county/2004/003find.pdf
(23) Dallas Morning News Mar. 3, 1996: "Badges and rap sheets; Mississippi has felons serving as sheriffs"
(24) Clarion-Ledger Aug. 31, 2007: "Investigation into vote fraud in Benton County nets 14th arrest"
(25) The Lexington Herald Leader Aug. 4, 2007: "Vote-buying allegations added to Clay case; Assistant police chief charged in conspiracy"
(26) Aug. 2007: Excerpt from a videotaped of Ray Martinez, former Vice Chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, interviewed by Kathleen Wynne: Ray Martinez answers questions from a citizen. Stay tuned...more to come on this. In the ongoing release of excerpts from the interview it will be shown that Martinez assured Wynne that the EAC would be requiring all voting systems to be upgraded (read: repurchased)
(27) Albuquerque Journal Feb. 28, 2006: "Convicted government worker to keep job"
(28) The Californian Dec. 21, 2006: "Anchundo gets plea deal"
(29) Government press release Aug. 13, 2003: "Former Twin Falls county clerk enters guilty plea"
(30) Cleveland Metro News Nov. 5, 2007: "Elections board workers take plea deal"
(31) The State Journal-Register Oct. 17, 2006: "Drug probe nets eighth guilty plea"
(32) The Dallas Morning News Jan. 4, 2005: "County clerk faults hiring system; Dallas official says she never saw application"
(33) Chicago Daily Herald Mar. 30, 2006: "Election Director's Record"
(34) Copley News Service May 5, 2006: "Peoria man admits charges of enrichment; Former election commission member was Populex stock owner"
(35) Poughkeepsie Journal July 26, 2005: "Many signers didn't know Paroli history"
(36) Statesman Journal Mar. 28, 2006: "Doyle freed after serving five months"
(37) Harris County arrest records obtained by Kathleen Wynne: Lewis pleads no lo contendre to indecent exposure charges
(38) ABC News Sept. 15, 2006: "Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, Agrees to plead guilty in congressional corruption probe"
Printer-friendly PDF version of this report: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/moonshine3.pdf
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Kathleen Wynne
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Kathleen_wynne
Post Number: 282
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box?
Votes: 4 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 8:36 am: |
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Bev,
Excellent article and you have hit the nail on the head in describing the core problem that is eroding our elections process -- the "Trust Me" method. IMO, this elections model must be eradicated at all costs, if we ever want to have an election that we CAN trust actually reflects the will of the people.
With regard to the turn of events involving the two election officials getting a "free pass" from the court, so to speak, I did speak with the prosecuting attorney, Kevin Baxter, in depth as to why and how a jury verdict of "guilty" could so easily be overturned without the benefit of any new evidence being presented to the court. As soon as I compile my notes of that 30 minute conversation wherein Baxter explains the shocking details involving the legal loopholes made available to the defense by the newly appointed judge, not to mention the obvious cronyism and influence defense counsel had with this new judge, which ultimately led to Baxter's agreeing to the "no contest" plea deal.
By that I mean, the behind the scenes wheeling and dealing between the new judge and the defense counsel has proven to be just another huge red flag displaying what I mean when I say "you can't fix a broken system, with a broken system...the system has already been "fixed" and, therefore, cannot -- must not be trusted.
Kathleen
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V. Kurt Bellman
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Formerelecdir
Post Number: 1670
Registered: 4-2006
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 9:23 am: |
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Bev,
When you get done with the "Moonshine elections", you really DO need to look into the "Guido elections" pretty much scattered throughout the northeast.
While in "Moonshine country" the worst corruption is usually rural and the cities are usually a little more clean, due to a somewhat more diverse population, I believe you'll find that in the northeast, the opposite is true. This is because in many cities in the northeast, the problem is not a clique or clan, but an unchallenged power structure based on ethnicity or "membership", sometimes but not always "labor union". The cities are so "diverse" that they're NOT diverse any more. They become monolithic in their ethnically motivated power structure abuses.
SOMETIMES, the corruption is "pro-a-certain-ethnicity" and sometimes it is "anti-a-certain-ethnicity". Ask any Latino community leader in Passaic, NJ or Lawrence, MA, or Reading, PA, and although the severity of the problem varies, they will know what I mean. Speaking for my backyard, it was the "old Democrats" who were the main problem for the "new potential Democrat" Latinos.
This Moonshine work is all good stuff. But there are "other stories in the Naked City", too. |
Bev Harris
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 7179
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 10:40 am: |
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Kurt,
Right on. The Moonshine series research is done (not all written up though) and I have already begun researching what I'm calling the "Godfather Election" series.
Any and all information on the urban election crime models will be helpful, just e-mail tips and point me at articles.
Bev |
Bev Harris
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 7180
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 10:44 am: |
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Kathleen,
Your work has been so very crucial to proving what's really going on in America. The Martinez video also has some pretty horrifying statements pertaining to the EAC's plans to, once again, get rid of paper and also to force yet another round of spending on elections officials.
I look forward to the inside scoop on what the heck happened in the Cuyahoga trial. I imagine there are a lot of people sitting in prison that would like to go out and renegotiate their sentence. Polical connections sure do help. |
V. Kurt Bellman
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Formerelecdir
Post Number: 1672
Registered: 4-2006
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 11:24 am: |
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Bev,
Your point about this whole deal being why "trust me" doesn't work is a good one.
I think where we (you and I) differ is that I believe there is a short duration "window of opportunity" here where the local ability to cheat is quite temporarily hampered by the installation of these new technologies.
There are people, like Philadelphia's Committee of Seventy, ( http://www.seventy.org ) who believe, incorrectly I believe, that the "window of technologically enforced honesty" is persitent and lasting. I am not QUITE that naive.
Every cycle a jurisdiction uses any given election methodology is one more cycle that they can incrementally identify little "cracks in the armour" of any system. Most of the "cracks" I identified in the Danaher system were not "large scale", but just as "retail" as low-tech fraud methods.
But when I heard from you that there were jurisdictions not using the EMS software, but rather using each machine completely stand-alone and manually aggregating, I realized they have DISABLED the VAST majority of fraud preventions that DO exist in the system.
What's even WORSE (believe it or not) than using a fundamentally flawed system, is using HALF of it. It takes election fraud from the "technically difficult but deadly if done" category, right into the "easy as hell" category. |
Mark E. Smith
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Mymarkx
Post Number: 233
Registered: 7-2005
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Friday, November 30, 2007 - 9:31 pm: |
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I trust counting method A.
But with counting method B, how can the public know that what they see being fed into the optical scanner is being recorded accurately on the scanner's memory card (See Hursti Hack), or that what the memory card records will be tallied accurately by the GEMS central tabulator? |
Tom Courbat
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Leftisbest
Post Number: 72
Registered: 6-2006
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Saturday, December 1, 2007 - 5:48 am: |
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Bev,
This has been a terrific series and you have uncovered issues common to every county in this country. I commend you on your dedication and thoroughness.
Now everyone needs to jump on board your new project - the chain of custody project for 2008 starting right now!! |
Bev Harris
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 7181
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Saturday, December 1, 2007 - 7:06 am: |
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Mark - dead on.
With counting method B, the results tape needs to be printed out from the machine at the polling place and the public needs to be able to video the results tape so they can compare it to the video evidence of the actual ballots.
The official record needs to be the polling place results, rather than something that goes through another centralized computer.
In the event of a discrepancy between video evidence of the actual ballots and the voting machine results, procedure needs to be to pull all the ballots and count them.
Tom, thanks for bringing up the chain of custody projects. Any member of the public who wants to get involved should just email me (use the email on home page of this site) -- I'll send VERY simple instructions.
The Chain of Custody project helps identify each human link in the chain, as well as check up on the document links in the chain. We haven't found an intact chain of custody yet, but we've found a lot of broken ones. |
Marian Beddill
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Uu7thprinciple
Post Number: 102
Registered: 8-2005
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Saturday, December 1, 2007 - 7:27 am: |
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About counting (Method B. For technology fans: Place each ballot, one by one, into optical scan machine. Scan them only when polls close, while still at the polling place. Position the scanner and the feed tray so that the public can capture close-up view of each ballot as it is fed into the scanner, one by one.)
I support also a hand-count double-check of the ballots - at least a sample subset. In the Precinct OpScan, it may be a little tricky to randomly select a subset of ballots (perhaps 100 out of 1000), in such a way that the machine-count is known for the hand-counted subset. I emphasize the need for randomness, also. Don't pick the first 100 or the last 100.
Marian
http://NoLeakyBuckets.org
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Bev Harris
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 7184
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Sunday, December 2, 2007 - 5:33 am: |
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A follow up:
WKYT News - Nov. 30, 2007
Knott County Judge, Other County Officials
http://www.wkyt.com/wymtnews/headlines/11966611.html
Four Eastern Kentucky officials are arrested on fraud charges.
Prosecutors say Knott County Judge Executive Randy Thompson, two deputies in his office, and a magistrate were involved in a vote buying scheme. It's the second time in a row that a Knott County judge executive has been indicted on federal vote buying charges. Former Judge Executive Donnie Newsome was convicted of the crime in 2003. There's mixed reaction in Hindman about possible abuse of public funds again.
As Knott County Judge Executive, Randy Thompson brought a lot of tourism focused projects to the county such as an ATV training center, a skate park, and a multi-million dollar sportsplex.
"I've known Randy for 30 years. In that time, I've never known of Randy doing anything wrong. Randy's always been a big dreamer and a hard worker and when you do that, you've got a winner and Knott County had a winner in Randy Thompson for the last few years," said Sportsplex Director Rhett Gibson.
Back in July, federal agents shut down four county offices taking boxes of paperwork. That's when more questions stirred about just how the first ever Republican judge executive got elected.
"If he done wrong, lets straighten this county out. Lets make this a nice county to live in where we can all live in it and do right and quit the wrong. It's been that way for years and it's not getting any better," said Knott County Resident Roy Jent.
Following the visit from the feds, the state auditor reported numerous questionable county records including nearly $800,000 dollars in county road expenses that couldn't be validated.
The indictment accuses Judge Thompson, Deputy Judge Executives Phillip Champion and Mac Combs, as well as Magistrate Ronnie Adams of conspiring together to pave private driveways and build more than ten bridges to connect private and public roads all in exchange to vote for Thompson in the November 2006 election. All four men pleaded not guilty to the charges and were released on their own recognizance. As part of the conditions of their release, the men must stay in Eastern Kentucky and must not have any contact with victims or possible witnesses in the case.
A trial date for all four men was set for February 5th.
Officials would not comment on whether more arrests will be made in the case. |
Rick Curry
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Rick3ry
Post Number: 2
Registered: 4-2005
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Sunday, December 2, 2007 - 2:54 pm: |
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Bev,
Thank you for your tireless pursuit of this essential aspect of our democracy.
Some time ago, I put together a method for allowing citizens to review how their vote was counted while maintaining the secrecy of the ballot. The proposal is fairly technical, and it is still available online here:
http://www.whereismyvote.com/
I found that I received very little interest in the proposal. Part of this may be that I do not represent a large company and/or significant cash to contribute to a politician's campaign.
However, I believe what is more significant is that any such system points out when chicanery has occurred. There seems to be a predominant assumption that chicanery will always occur, and that any system that points this out will only serve to erode trust in elections. In other words, the policy seems to be: don't ask, don't tell, don't talk about it. |
Marian Beddill
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Uu7thprinciple
Post Number: 103
Registered: 8-2005
Best of Black Box?
Votes: 2 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Sunday, December 2, 2007 - 3:16 pm: |
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Rick;
I can tell you one reason your idea has little traction - you have presented it "anonymously", behind an unsigned domain, whose registration is also near-anonymous. The address which is publicly available by domain-search tools is
2211 Corinth Ave; Suite 100; Los Angeles 90064 - in a business district.
But on the technical side, it is full of places where computers interconnect, and steps requiring "trust-me-to-verify-the-program". ("Me" being the local operator.)
Sorry, but I don't buy it.
Marian
http://NoLeakyBuckets.org
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Rick Curry
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Rick3ry
Post Number: 3
Registered: 4-2005
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Thursday, December 6, 2007 - 10:37 am: |
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Marian,
Thank you for your assessment.
While there is an email contact, I have indeed hidden my identity at the web site to limit the amount of spam and other noise that a public web site can generate. It hadn't occurred to me that would be a disqualification; thanks for pointing it out.
I'm a little bit confused about what you have termed "trust-me-to-verify-the-program" steps. The system is designed so that the software would be publicly available for review rather than requiring trust. Anyone would be able to look at the source code to the system. The only secret things are the encryption keys.
Also the system does not preclude the retention of a paper copy, and in addition allows any voter to verify that their vote was recorded correctly after an election by allowing the voter see what the election authority has recorded for them (the unique concept of this system). The entire point of the system is that anyone who suspects election fraud would be able to validate the system in his or her instance.
Rather than require trust, the system expects a certain amount of distrust on the part of voters in order to perform a public audit. Most computer systems (and even paper systems) are vulnerable to tampering, the simplest form being to "lose" the ballots. The system I proposed provides an immediate acknowledgment of the receipt of the vote, and provides a mechanism for catching "bad" operators. I believe this public audit capability of how votes are recorded is crucial to guaranteeing honest elections. |
Marian Beddill
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Uu7thprinciple
Post Number: 107
Registered: 8-2005
Best of Black Box?
Votes: 2 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Thursday, December 6, 2007 - 11:57 am: |
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"Rick",
So, reducing possible SPAM allows you to stay anonymous, while proposing that you and your likely associates - all unidentified - tell us that your system is trustworthy because you say it is. And that the other folks in the local elections office will also always give us clean elections, and that we should trust them? Or, that any citizen should be able to muck around with the EXE files that ran last week's election, to try to confirm that they are the same as some other EXE files saved somewhere else by somebody who says they are the right ones and we have to trust them, too?
That's part of what I mean by "trust-me-to-verify-the-program". ("Me" being the local operator.) Motive, means, opportunity.
On yet another track, the offer to have source code available sounds nice, but is itself full of tamper-channels and other failures. Which version? What got changed later? Who has the authority to muck around on the actual machine running the software? How can undocumented, added machine-language routines that will revise exe-code on the fly, be caught?
How long does it take to review source code? Who does that review, and how does the general public trust them?
Who can be sure that the report of the voters' selections reported to the voter, post-election, is derived from the same dataset that was used to tally the votes -- and that the mathematics of the tally, even if the ballot-copies are valid, is added up right?
And suppose that a citizen believes that the report given by your system is wrong? What recourse does she have?
Sorry, nice try, but the only system I (a long-time programmer since the days of assembler) can be sure of, is a hacopaba one, with teams of opposing interests sharing the count, in the view of citizen observers.
Marian
http://NoLeakyBuckets.org
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