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| Prison Records - John Elder |
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BBV Admin
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2783
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? 
Votes: 4 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 6:22 am: | 
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Ballot printing is now computerized, and because of their design, ballot printing is an integral part of the computer programming of a voting system.
Diebold has its own ballot printing plant, located in Everett, Washington. This plant produces ballots for much of the West Coast, and sometimes for Georgia and Maryland as well.
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 -- 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. Inserting malicious code is a concern.
Therefore, we certainly do not want convicted felons running the ballot printing plants. John Elder ran the Diebold ballot printing plant until shortly before the Nov. 2004 election.
He is a convicted narcotics trafficker. Here are his prison records:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/elder.pdf |
Catherine Ansbro
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Catherine_a
Post Number: 1205
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 7:50 am: |
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From p.12:
"He has 10 years of clerical and computer skills through past employment with Boeing. . . . He maintains vocational skills in computer technology and office management. . . " |
John Howard
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Harmonyguy
Post Number: 143
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 7:00 pm: |
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Ok, so I've seen the John Elder Criminal Record a few times before, and I frequently get him mixed up with the other convict Jeffrey Dean. One was drugs and one was embezzlement. One ended up with Diebold as a programmer and one sold them a ballot printing plant.
Tonight I saw something old, that I'd never checked on before.
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 tonight 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
Could this be just a coincidence?
What's the chance that the company (PSI Group) that hired John Elder, and had a contract with Jeff Dean's company (Spectrum Print) would have the same phone number and address as a business called Dean's Temporary Office Personnel Service, all these many years later?
Checking the Washington State Corporations site, I find no mention of "Dean's Temporary" anything.
Is Jeffrey W. Dean or Deborah M. Dean still in business out there, this time as a temp agency for/with PSI, the ballot mailing company?
Is this old news - has someone already been down this path?
HG |
BBV Admin
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2787
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 4:14 am: |
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PSI Group was, at the time it hired both Dean and Elder, run by Jeffrey Dean's brother, Neil Dean. Your findings are very interesting with regard to the other two companies.
By the way, it was Jeff Dean's ballot printing plant. It was mainly owned in his wife's name, since he had encumbrances from the embezzlement sentence. He and his wife, Deborah Dean, sold the ballot printing plant to Global Election Systems. At that time, Dean was put on the board of directors of Global (a public company) and was made head of Research & Development. Elder took over management of the ballot printing operation.
Another think you'll notice from comparing both men's prison records is that they knew each other in prison. They were assigned to firefighting assignments and so forth while in prison, and these assignments tended to be together.
PSI Group (originally out of Omaha, another fact that kind of nags at me) was sold to Pitney Bowes. Neil Dean went to manage a PSI Group operation in New Jersey under the new Pitney Bowes management.
Bev |
BBV Admin
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2788
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 4:19 am: |
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The Corgiat Dr. address is King County Elections.
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: 2789
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box?
Votes: 1 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 4:21 am: |
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Listings for Advertising Direct Mail... Psi Group Inc 1915 S Corgiat Dr Seattle, WA
Also - Global Services 1915 S Corgiat Dr Seattle, WA 98108-2818 (206) 766-9397
Dean's TOPS would be Dean's Temporary Office Personnel Systems.
Temporary workers are used in King County's absentee ballot processing operation. The question would be -- what is the date of that listing. There is no listing in Washington State Corporations for this entity.
I've been to this address many times. It is an industrial park-type building with a handful of businesses, not dozens or hundreds, but a handful. There was a big fire there in 1993, a door manufacturing company listed as being in the "northwest corner" of the industrial businesses burned to the ground. I'd say the King County elections facility would be characterized as northeast, but this is not a huge complex.
Great catch, HG.
By the way, the last I heard, John Elder was calling himself an elections consultant and was out of Lake Stevens, Washington. It's always interesting when problematic characters from the elections industry become consultants. We've had that discussion on another thread, but it calls into question (1) who their clients would be and (2) what their new consultant income stream is, and who it comes from. Becoming a consultant may be one way to explain payments.
As mentioned in one of the private forums, we have had multiple reports that Jeffrey Dean is still involved in some way.
Bev |
BBV Admin
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2790
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 4:45 am: |
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Here it is: Neil Dean, Jeffrey Dean's brother, owns or owned Dean's Office Personnel Systems. Here is an article from 1985:
The Seattle Times - 14 November 1985
TEMPORARY WORKERS BECOMING PERMANENT PART OF JOB SCENE -- BUT BLOOMING INDUSTRY CARRIES TROUBLESOME TRADE-OFFS
Brooke Canty and disaster travel together.
Nearly every time Canty shows up for work, it's because a crisis has befallen the company. Desks overflow with paperwork; a secretary has been struck down by the flu; a key employee just quit, leaving a trail of unfinished reports. And Canty is expected to saunter in, assess the damages and keep the company rolling.
Canty isn't a corporate troubleshooter or a high-priced managerial consultant. She's a $8.30 an hour office worker for Kelly Services, one of more than 4.5 million temporary-services employees and part of the third-fastest growing industry in the nation.
Companies are hiring more temporary workers than ever before, benefiting workers like Canty, who say they enjoy the flexibility, free training and the chance to shop around for a permanent job.
But the $10 billion temporary-services industry also poses tough trade-offs for employees, businesses and unions as the economic recovery changes hiring practices.
One reason for the temporary-employment boom is that employers are uncertain about how long business conditions will continue to improve. While temporary help is used largely as an emergency stopgap, many companies have begun to hire these workers to fill out a trim, year-round core of permanent employees, says Sam Sacco, vice president of the National Association of Temporary Services, an industry group of 400 agencies.
``Using temporaries is less traumatic for the company and for the individual than hiring and laying off,'' says Marie Medlin, manager of the Weyerhaeuser Co.'s internal temporary program. Weyerhaeuser circulates 45 in-house workers throughout the company, and outside temporary services supply an additional 10 to 15 employees each week, Medlin says.
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.''
The temporary services themselves are evolving, offering a broader array of skilled workers. No longer just havens for unemployed secretaries, temporary firms list accountants, technicians, nurses and engineers, in addition to stables of computer-literate office workers.
The Boeing Co., for example, uses software and electronics engineers to fill in during peak workloads. Companies facing their yearly audits are clamoring for extra accountants, and the sporadic electronics industry hires fleets of production workers when orders begin to pile up.
Temporary workers also come relatively cheap. Clients don't have to provide costly benefits, insurance coverage or severance pay, although temporary services tack a premium onto the employee's wages.
Companies will be charged an average 45 percent, for example, on top of an office temps' $6 to $12 an hour wage. A client who needs a crack word processor in a hurry can pay wages 20 percent higher than the market rate, plus markups ranging from 20 to 60 percent. Professionals usually garner the top scale; some engineers earn $40 and up per hour, excluding premium.
Unions, however, often take a dim view of temporary hiring when they suspect permanent jobs are being sacrificed.
``Some employers keep a rotating stream of temporaries coming through their companies'' rather than hiring permanent workers, said Maureen Bo, Seattle local business manager for Office and Professional Employees Union. That shuts out workers looking for long-term jobs, Bo says.
Temporary workers say the impermanent work life can bring on added stresses.
``There's no comfort zone. Permanent employees can get kind of lax,'' says Dean. ``The temporary is always on the line.''
Constant job changes nip office friendships and isolate even the most extroverted worker. Temporaries are often invisible employees, left out of office parties and lunch cliques.
``You're not really taken on as a member of the team,'' says Shelley Smith, a Parker Personnel temporary worker. ``You feel like a traveler, never really grounded.''
The absence of benefits, pensions or job security often overwhelms the temporary worker, contributing to the industry's 30 percent yearly turnover. Canty, at 39, says she has no pension or health insurance, and can't afford to buy her own coverage.
But temporary work also can be a good way to polish a resume, shore up a sagging bank account or find a permanent position while promising more flexbility than the average job, employees say.
``I like the opportunity to say no if I don't want to work for a week,'' says Carol Peet, 38, who used Manpower to re-enter the work force and supplement her family's income after spending seven years at home with her sons, age 14 and 20.
Smith, who alternates permanent employment with temporary stints, says she has been offered five jobs from Parker clients in the last year.
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: 2791
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 4:53 am: |
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Knight Ridder Tribune Business News - 12 January 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.
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Seattle Post-Intelligencer - June 24 1996
Mail reform brings good, bad news for businesses
The Postal Service modestly calls it "the biggest change in mail classification in well over 100 years," a sweeping rewrite in the rules and rates for business mail effective July 1.
For businesses, classification reform means new incentives, in the form of lower rates, for printing bar codes on the envelope and presorting envelopes, but it also means investment in software to meet the higher standards the Postal Service is requiring.
For consumers, it doesn't mean a lot, at least not directly. The cost of a stamp for your "thank you for the tie" note is still 32 cents, the stamp for your "wish you were here" vacation post card is still 20 cents.
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."
The Postal Service hopes it can do that, at least for a while, by using automation to cut costs. "It creates a structure in which we can maintain rates at a lower level longer," Postal Service spokesman Bob Hoobing said.
Mailers already get some incentives for taking advantage of automation, but classification reform increases those incentives. For example, a mailer who currently presorts and bar-codes mail down to the first three digits of the ZIP code can mail each piece (in a minimum of 500) for 26.4 cents; that will drop to 25.4 cents under the new system. There are even bigger savings for mailers who sort and bar-code mail down to five digits on the ZIP code (23.8 cents, 2 cents better than the old rate) or to the carrier route (23 cents).
Classification reform also gets rid of the designation third-class mail, which used to describe bulk-mail advertisements -- what people generally think of as junk mail. Third class will be combined with the old fourth class (parcels) into a new grouping known as Standard Mail. Standard Mail also includes new incentive rates for using automation.
"This is a major step in which the discounts are quite significant if you're able to automate your mail," Dean said.
...
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John Howard
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Harmonyguy
Post Number: 144
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 10:21 pm: |
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Did anyone ever figure if there was a connection between PSI Group the mail sorter, and PSI Net the (if I recall correctly) one time voting machine ITA? Shawn whatsisname and/or Jennifer somethingorother?
Wasn't there a PSI..... in the ITA business a while back?
HG |
BBV Admin
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2803
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 23, 2005 - 9:26 am: |
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Nope, don't think so. There is also a PSI Group from Ontario, but don't think that is related either.
I did find it interesting that PSI Group Inc. was founded in Omaha where ES&S comes from, and Urosevich comes from, and my brain is such a sieve sometimes I've forgotten the specifics, but there is a reason why so many roads lead to Omaha.
It has more to do with early infrastructure on key communications backbones and data transfer capabilities than any type of conspiracy. That early infrastructure was produced, in part, because of Offutt Air Force Base and in part because of the powerful Kiewit firm (transportation and fiber optics networks). |
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