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Norm's Soapbox- My corner of Hyde Park

Vote ! ! !     The only way you have any right to complain is is when you have done your part to prevent the problem. If you vote, you have taken part in the selection process, and know more how it works, and have a vested interest in it working.

I must go on the record now predicting major problems with the November 2004 National Elections. I do not expect it to go well or cleanly. I fear a partisan action to cause problems. I went on the record predicting that supporting Saddam against Iran would be regretted, and it proved so. These are some of the factors I believe point to problems. I encourage you to verify them. If you can think of a way of averting a problem, it is your duty to try to get it done, and we will all thank you.

• The voting machines have been evaluated by security experts, and found lacking . One examined one system for a very short time and found fourteen vulnerabilities, saying it would be silly to look for more although sure he could find more.
• Florida admitted six months late that they had lost the data from the voting machines from the election of Jed Bush in 2002. New York Times - Lost '02 Florida Vote Record
• I know of voting machine vulnerabilities.
• Dibold violated its contract with the State of California, a Republican headed company, using uncertified, unauthorized software in the last election.
• The Bush administration has been talking about possible delays in the general election.
• The terrorism alert has been raised based on pre- 9/11/2001 information on a computer that had some information "updated as late as last January".
• The sabers are rattled toward Iran, signaling another possible war.
• Actions taken by Bush follow plans (Richard Perle) made long before 9/11, proposed to others, which were claimed to be a response to 9/11.
• The Bush administration is now attacking (rather quietly) Chalabi, a felon they depended on to support the attack on Iraq and had intended to put in power. Statements by Democrats before the war on Iraq that he was not trustworthy were called groundless and unpatriotic.
• Members of the Bush administration have compromised our intelligence gathering ability by exposing an agent's identity in retaliation for bad news. Beyond selective fishing reports for what they wanted, they have threaten the lives of those who provide information they do not like.
• Bush opposed the 9/11 commission, tried to prevent the extension to allow it to complete its work, and now says it is fully behind it, but resists the most important, specific conclusions about fixing intelligence gathering.
• Attacks on Kerry that are condemned by Senator McCain are not condemned by Bush or his campaign (yet, after days).
• Bush has broken more treaties that any other American President.
• Every other Republican President after Eisenhower has received a pardon. I will not be suprised when he gets one.
• While saying he was supporting Veterans, Bush cut benefits.
• Known, published election crimes from 2000 have gone unprosecuted.
• The California Power Crisis is now known to have been criminal, but most of the perpetrators are still out of prison, with most of their money (that which has not been given to the Bush campaign). Bush stopped the FTC from limiting the profiteering and Justice Department from investigating at the time.

All these factors suggest to me that the Bush support, even if he is not, is corrupt enough to try manipulating the election. The Neo-Con "pragmatic" approach is at best hypocritical Machiavellian amorality, and is counter productive. The U.S. has supported, and later opposed, such luminaries as Hitler, Marcos, Mobutu, Suharto, Pinochet, bin Laden, Saddam, and Chalabi. With morals that allow that, I do not believe the election will escape fraud.

When you vote, you have just cause to know what happens in your venue and to demand integrity, and have done your patriotic duty to guide our government. (The Above posted 8/9/2004)

[09/07/2004]  The Diebold GEMS central tabulator security hole  Vote Tabulator Security Hole Exposed Please read about what was found to arm yourself. I cannot believe the tool in the production code did anything but provide for election fraud.

[10/19/2004] The voting has started in Florida, and so have the problems. The Press Conference to show the voting system off, billed as "the test", failed within a week of going live, and now has failed in real life, with the beginning of the vote. Reports of intimidation have started, and international reports of our election problems have started.

Did you know....
1.  80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies:  Diebold 
and ES&S.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold


2.  No federal agency has regulatory authority or oversight of the
U.S. voting machine industry. 
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html


3.  The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html


4.  The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and 
donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its 
electoral votes to the president next year." 
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3D1647886


5.  Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S.  He became 
Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html


6.  Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was 
recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics 
Committee. 
http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=3DNews&file=3Darticle&sid=3D26
http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php


7.  Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's 
vice-presidential candidates.
http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm
http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html


8.  ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts 
almost 60% of all U.S. votes.
http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html


9.  Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any 
votes.  In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of 
the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters. 
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html


10.  Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of 
which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail. 
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm


11.  Diebold is based in Ohio. 
http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm


12.  Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to 
help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes 
in 30 states.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml


13.  Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it 
was bought by Diebold.  Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of 
felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by 
Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning 
software now used in most of the United States.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0312/S00191.htm
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf


14.  Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in 
his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection
over a period of 2 years. 
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf


15.  None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls 
in Ohio.
http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html


16.  California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was 
so bad.  Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, 
a chimpanzee was able to do it!  
(See the movie here:  http://blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov.) 
http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190


17.  30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen 
voting machines with no paper trail. 
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml


18.  All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and 
reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html
http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm
http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=3Dmodload&name=3DNews&file=3Darticle&sid=3D950
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm


19.  Governor Jeb Bush of the state of Florida, is the President's brother.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html


20.  Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- 
have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further
investigation.
http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,97614,00.html
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html

http://uscountvotes.org/