Are we on the verge of another stolen election? Is anything being done about it

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Intervention Magazine

 

Article & Essay: More Voting Machines Problems

 

Are we on the verge of another stolen election? Is

anything being done about it?

By Elaine Kitchel

 

 

Something stinks in Riverside County, California, and

it’s not the local dump. The nasty odor assailing the

residents’ nostrils is the smell of rotten politics.

But it’s Riverside, so why should you care? Well

there’s just one reason. What’s happening in Riverside

County is a snapshot of what’s happening all over the

country, probably in your state. And this is a story

best told by a young man named Jeremiah Akin.

 

Jeremiah is a decent young man. He’s a skilled

computer programmer with a life and a home like most

of us. Soft-spoken and thoughtful, he loves his

country and decided to serve it by offering his

services as an informed observer on the Riverside

County Logic and Accuracy Observation Group. Jeremiah

never thought he’d be the nemesis of anyone,

especially the Riverside County Registrar of Voters.

But without really trying, he became just that.

 

Jeremiah was asked by the Riverside County chair of

the Peace and Freedom Party to attend a “logic and

accuracy” test of the new Sequoia electronic voting

machines purchased by Riverside County, California.

This test is supposed to be performed on each and

every electronic voting machine as a prerequisite to

certification. At least that’s how it ought to be, but

something far different happened in Riverside County.

 

One member from the Libertarian Party, one from the

Republican Party, two from the Riverside County Grand

Jury, one member of the League of Women Voters, along

with Jeremiah, made up the Riverside County Logic and

Accuracy Observation Group. “Their task was to review

sample ballots, attend a presentation by Mischelle

Townsend on electronic voting and polling sites. They

were then to watch a test of a sample vote and verify

its accuracy by signing a document,” said Jeremiah.

 

During this procedure, Mischelle Townsend, the County

Registrar, and a woman with no real-world computer

programming experience, made a point of telling the

testing observation group that people who questioned

the accuracy of voting machines were “ignorant” and

needlessly caused others to lose faith in the voting

process. She also emphasized that some other

manufacturer’s voting machines used Microsoft Windows

as part of their programming, thus leaving them more

vulnerable to tampering.

 

“When I asked Ms. Townsend if the Sequoia machines

could leave a paper trail that would verify the votes,

she stated that they did,” said Jeremiah. However, it

turned out that instead of printing out copies or

receipts of each vote, which could be verified by the

voter, then dropped into a bin for later use if

needed, the Sequoia merely prints out the information

stored in it at the end of the day. When Jeremiah

pointed out to Ms. Townsend that this was not a true

paper trail, she insisted that printers cannot be

trusted and paper receipts were a senseless

“duplication of effort.”

 

Right before lunch, the members of the testing

observation group were taken to a little room where

they were shown the Direct Recording Equipment card.

Jeremiah observed, “This is a little gray object that

looks roughly like a thick credit card.” This is the

piece of hardware on which the votes are stored. They

were told that once the card was plugged into a voting

kiosk, it could not be removed and plugged into

another kiosk.” If this occurred, the kiosk would shut

down. Each kiosk was to be paired with its own partner

card. “We watched as cards were loaded into several

kiosks. We were not allowed to verify the information

on the cards before insertion. We were told it would

take a while, so while the results were running, we

examined an optical scanning voting system which

worked very well in our presence, yet was scorned by

Ms. Townsend,” reported Jeremiah.

 

The process so far was a bit dry and boring, but the

drama was just about to start. When the group returned

to the kiosks to see how the electronic tests were

going, they were told it would take two to three hours

and they should go to lunch and come back at the

appropriate time. As each member of the group was

preparing to leave the room, they were asked to sign a

paper. No mention was made of what the document was,

and some probably assumed it was an attendance form

and signed it. But Jeremiah did not look at or sign it

at that time.

 

Jeremiah returned at the time specified for the

remainder of the test. He said, “I was taken to the

room where the kiosks were. None of the machines were

running then, and I was told the tests had been

completed and the cards removed.” When he questioned

this action, a Sequoia employee appeared, popped a

card into a machine, and printed out a paper ticket.

“I had no way of knowing if it was the same card I had

seen put into the kiosk before, nor did I know what

had been on the card in the first place, so I could

not verify the results,” said Jeremiah.

 

He began to ask some technical questions of Mr. Foss,

the person assisting him. “The answers I was getting

from Mr. Foss led me to the realization that the

Sequoia program used Microsoft Windows for its

tallying procedure. I questioned Mr. Foss about this,

explaining that this left the machines with the same

weaknesses Ms. Townsend had so criticized in other

brands. Mr. Foss would not look at me nor give me

answers,” stated Jeremiah.

 

“I then asked Mr. Foss why the Observation Group had

only been able to see part of the pre-election test

mode and none of the election test mode or

post-election test mode.” Not seeing the voting

machines in these modes meant that the test did not

cover what would typically happen on Election Day

during voting, or what would happen later during vote

tallying.

 

It was at this point that Jeremiah was asked to sign a

document. “I realized that it was a statement saying

that I had witnessed and verified the test. With

dismay I saw that the other five people had already

signed the document, even though none of them had

stayed to see the end of the test or the results.”

There was no place on the document for a person to

sign saying they had not seen the test completed

satisfactorily.

 

“What seemed particularly unnerving to me was that Mr.

Foss tried to avoid giving me answers to my questions,

would not make eye contact, and seemed very angry with

me for asking questions. Brian Foss tried to get me to

sign the document for a little bit.... I asked him for

a copy of the document that everyone had signed. He

told me that the only way I could get a copy of the

document is if I signed it. After I refused to sign

the document, he hissed at me,” stated Jeremiah. When

Jeremiah asked him not to hiss, Mr. Foss seethed,

“I’ll hiss at anyone I want.”

 

The whole experience troubled Jeremiah. He saw

firsthand the failings in the system and he wondered

what to do about them. He decided to do some research

and he found that the Sequoia system does indeed use a

Windows program, WinEds, to do the tallying procedure.

This means that, like the Diebold System, which uses

the Windows Access Program, in WinEds any unscrupulous

election staffer, voting machine system employee, or a

hacker can modify the system or any data they wish and

nobody will be the wiser. And “since the software used

in the Logic and Accuracy test was run with special

test settings, rather than the setting that would be

used in an actual election, there is absolutely no

guarantee that during a real election the voting

system will behave in the same way it did during the

Logic and Accuracy test,” Jeremiah said.

 

According to Jeremiah, “It is also known that in at

least one version of Sequoia’s WinEDS software, the

special test mode specifically avoids testing all the

parts of the voting software that run during an

election. Sequoia has been silent on this issue, not

telling anyone that they have made software that has a

test mode that does not exactly mirror what happens in

an actual election. Sequoia has also offered no

evidence that this problem has been fixed in later

versions of their software.”

 

Mischelle Townsend, in her presentation to the

Riverside Observation Group, stated that the Sequoia

system was secure because people outside the company

would not know how to hack into it. This philosophy is

known as “Security through Obscurity.” Jeremiah likens

“Security through Obscurity” to visiting a casino and

having your cards dealt to you under the table. Yes,

no one else can see your cards, but you have no idea

if the dealer is handling your cards honestly. This

philosophy makes no provision for what may happen if

the code falls into the hands of someone who knows how

to manipulate it. At least one version of WinEDS, a

program used in the Sequoia system, has been

discovered on the Internet. Even though the software

was supposed to be kept secret and secure by Riverside

County, it somehow ended up on a publicly accessible

site on the Internet in an unencrypted form. Secure

voting in Riverside? Think again.

 

Jeremiah has made all his experiences and findings

public:

http://www.exit.com/RiversideVoteTest/RiversideCountyTestObservationBoard.pdf

 

This action, along with his steadfast refusal to sign

the test verification document have triggered the ire

of Mischelle Townsend, who seems to be on a mission

not only to continue her cozy relationship with

Sequoia, but also to discredit Jeremiah. She has gone

so far as to use the word “dishonest” to describe him.

In the minds of many people, Jeremiah Akin is a

patriot. He’s a fellow who has taken a stand for an

honest election. Why would anyone disagree with that?

 

An attempt was made to contact Mischelle Townsend, but

she was not available for comment.

 

Why is this particular California county so important

to the vote of the entire country? Because it is an

example of what is going on all over the country. Only

Oregon, where all the votes are absentee, is truly

exempt from the security and software problems that

will plague the upcoming election. At VotersUnite.com

http://www.votersunite.org/info/previousmessups.asp

 

there is a list called “Mess-ups D’jour.” This is a

list of some of the hundreds of failures of electronic

voting machines in states all over the U.S. There is

only one solution to avoid these failures in the

upcoming election.

 

Ellen Theisen of VotersUnite.org reports, “If

electronic equipment is used to record and count the

votes for federal offices, there will be a

questionable election. Lawsuits will abound in every

key state, the delays will raise tension beyond the

breaking point, millions of citizens will object to

the final outcome, and the new President and Congress

will not have the support of the country.”

 

“There is a solution: All votes for federal offices

must be cast on paper and counted by hand. This will

avert a national crisis in November. Nothing else

will,” writes Ms. Theisen.

 

According to VotersUnite.org and other organizations

concerned with the validity of the upcoming election,

“This proposal is the only solution to our pending

national crisis, and we must immediately unite around

this goal.” They suggest each concerned citizen take

the following immediate actions:

 

1) Contact Congress and urge the introduction and

enactment of the Federal Paper Ballot Act of 2004:

Insist on Hand Counted Paper Ballots for Federal

Offices

 

2) Contact your county leaders in support of hand

counted paper ballots for federal offices: Emergency

Measures to Protect the 2004 Vote Count

 

You are just one person with just one vote. Do you

want your vote and the votes of your family and

friends counted? There is no guarantee they will be if

you take no action. The Congress will only respond if

you and I raise enough hell to get their attention,

and soon. The links are right here. Take just a moment

of your time, right now, to ensure our democracy

remains intact. Stand up with Jeremiah. Be a patriot.

 

Elaine Kitchel lives in the beautiful Ohio valley. She

has dedicated all her writing efforts toward the

preservation of the democracy that existed before the

failed government that sent nineteen-year-old Jonathan

Cheatham and nearly a thousand other well-loved

Americans to their deaths in Iraq.

 

Posted Sunday, August 22, 2004