It appears that Election Integrity advocates have a staunch new ally in their fight for clean, legitimate elections in the United States of America. And he’s hardly a “lefty,” a “conspiracy theorist” or a “sour grapes” guy.
Conservative CNN anchor Lou Dobbs hammered on Electronic Voting machines and the company’s that own them for the third straight day yesterday on his show, Lou Dobbs Tonight.
Yesterday, his report led off with these clear words: “The security of our elections and the integrity of our democracy is in jeopardy.”
While Dobb’s initial focus for his reports concerns the foreign ownership of the Sequoia Voting Systems company (recently purchased by Smartmatic, a Venezuelan firm said to be tied to Hugo Chavez), his reports, and the guests he’s interviewed, also focus on the broader aspect of private ownership of all the voting machine company’s running our public elections, as well as the security vulnerabilities of the hackable and unreliable electronic machines.
We’re working on getting the video up (the video and transcript from the report the day before is here), but in the meantime, here’s the transcript from last night’s installment which featured Warren Stewart from VoteTrustUSA.org and computer security expert Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins University…
DOBBS: The security of our elections and the integrity of our democracy is in jeopardy. Nationwide, there is concern and even alarm that electronic voting machines are simply too easily compromised and vulnerable to fraud. And as we’ve been reporting on this broadcast for the past several evenings, there is a new threat, and that threat originates in the Venezuelan ownership of one of the country’s leading electronic voting machine companies.
Kitty Pilgrim reports…
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (voice over): In California, New Jersey, and New Mexico, some jurisdictions are using Sequoia voting machines. The voting machine company was bought in 2005 by Smartmatic, which bills itself as a Florida company, but Smartmatic is a private company owned by Venezuelan investors.
Election watchdog groups are alarmed by the fact that a foreign company now has proprietary software that it can claim is a trade secret for counting votes in a U.S. election.
WARREN STEWART, VOTETRUST USA: The broader issue of the fact that the software that counts our votes is considered a trade secret and is proprietary, and no one can review the source code or the ballot programming, not even the election officials, the secretary of state, that’s all kept secret from the voters.
PILGRIM: Some e-voting experts and members of Congress dislike the murky corporate structure of Smartmatic, a foreign-owned company, now deeply connected with U.S. elections.
AVI RUBIN, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: The problem that we’re in right now is that we’re using equipment to elect our president and our Congress and our local officials that cannot be audited, that are potentially under the control of foreign enties, and that are almost an ideal platform for rigging an election.
PILGRIM: Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney recently wrote to Secretary John Snow demanding the U.S. Treasury investigate the sale of the U.S. company Sequoia to Smartmatic in 2005. “Having a foreign government investing in or owning a company that supplies voting machines for U.S. elections could raise concerns over the integrity of elections conducted with these machines.”
Smartmatic was also involved in the 2004 recall election of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, an election in which Chavez clung to power but the results have been questioned by some outside observers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: And because e-voting systems are not entirely tamper- proof, some jurisdictions in the United States have opted to go back to paper ballots until they are more able to be monitored fully. But many election experts say it is right to question the fact that one of the top voting machines company in this country is now foreign owned — Lou.
DOBBS: Thank you very much, Kitty.
Please THANK Lou Dobbs for doing these reports, and ask him — no, BEG HIM, to stay on this issue.
Here is the link where you can send him a comment:
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?9
If we can get him to tackle this issue the way he’s tackled immigration, we just might get this problem fixed!!!
Please do it — it may be the single-most important thing you can do for this democracy right now.
Interestingly though, that only when it is revealed by a Republican that the vote system used in portions of our Nation is owned by foreign businessmen and a possible foreign country and the software is proprietary of said owners, that the issue gets spot lighted air time.
WHY IS THIS?
Possibly because Hugo Chavez is South America’s rival to Heir Bush? And we can’t have that, can we?
I don’t mean to belittle the facts, because they are just that, FACTS.
WHERE IS THE REPUBLICAN VOICE ON THE FAIRNESS OF THE CURRENT ELECTION PROCESS???
WOULD THEIR TOON BE DIFFERENT IF IT WERE REVERSED AND BUSH LOST IN 2000 AND AGAIN IN 2004???
IN STATES CONTROLLED BY A SEC. of STATE THAT WAS ALSO THE STATE’S PARTY CHAIRPERSON???
WHERE’S THE CONFLICT OF INTEREST LAWS????
They are alarmed about Venezuelan ownership, but they weren’t alarmed when they thought it was a Florida company? Florida’s reputation is much worse than Venezuela’s! 🙂
And what is so "American" about the other voting machines? The other machines may be sold by American-owned companies, but they are actually manufactured in Communist China.
And wasn’t there some news a few years ago about some guy from the former Soviet Union who programmed all of ES&S’s memory cards, and some other former USSR guy who programmed much of Diebold’s voting software?
So maybe if a leftist country owns this now…maybe, must maybe, will more Dems get "elected". 😀
Anonymous #3
And what evidence do you have for that?
Many of the chips in the computer you are using are made in foreign nations … the hardware.
That is not unusual.
But what is unusual is that we do not really know where the firmware and software is produced. How much is outsourced and to where?
We need disclosure laws on all of that.
The software is the focus of hackability for the most part, and secondarily, how the software can be replaced or modified.
All right, Max, good food for thought!
Just suppose that GWB was the one who mysteriously lost in Election 2000? And mysteriously lost a second time in 2004?
It all comes down to whose ox is being gored!
Quite possibly the republicans would be throwing a fit big time!
The Bradblog would be having competition with other blogs in the discussion of election hanky-panky around the USA!
Just thinking along the same lines as Max! Whose ox is being gored???
Dredd (#5), which part of my comment are you requesting evidence for? Florida’s bad reputation, or voting machines made in China, or former Soviet citizens in America’s voting equipment industry?
You can’t assume hardware is safe, because it’s "just hardware" and you only worry about software. Software can be hidden in hardware.
Even if you rip the hard disk drive right out of your computer, there will still be plenty of software in your computer, encoded in one or more chips. There could be malware in there, and even if you completely replaced your hard disk drive you would not get rid of the malware.
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/downloads/shamos-rebuttal.pdf
Brad: why don’t yer people talk to his people to talk to yer people? – kidding but why don’t you get in touch with him to see if he is interest in something more than a chunk of the iceberg?
Lou was the last MSM TV anchor I watched, before banning watching corporate controlled TV news, and switching to Democracy NOW! on LINK-TV & FSTV. I really thought Lou was the only unbiased major anchor, then I dropped him, too. I forget why. But, Lou is probably the only MSM anchor do be relentless on a subject. If he gets a bug up his ass about e-vote corruption exposure, they are DEAD! See "Broken Borders"…he’s like a relentless hound dog, if a topic gets on his show.
btw, in my car, I heard PBS talking about e-voting and DIEBOLD. WOW!!! And last night, Democracy NOW! had Dem candidates, and they were talking about e-vote machines. WOW!
If the machines use off the shelf hardware that runs Windows anyway, it doesn’t really matter what country manufactures it (aside from legal requirements which do not yet affect voting machines). I’m much more concerned about their choice of hardware for economic and security reasons. Why battery powered SRAM memory cards? Why PC hardware? Why Windows?
Clara: I wrote to Lou Dobbs. I think you’re right. It’s very, very important to write to Lou Dobbs about this.
Anonymous #7
You said "The other machines may be sold by American-owned companies, but they are actually manufactured in Communist China."
What proof do you have for that?
That would be Diebold and ES&S …
Lou Dobbs can be a pretty fair anchor, as far as corporate-controlled news goes. Brad should keep publicizing this, bigtime.
Done.
When the guillotines are erected, let’s hope Lou doesn’t lose his head.
Click HERE to say THANKS to Lou Dobbs!
Clara said on 6/7/2006 @ 11:55am PT…
AMEN! We should ALL write to Lou Dobbs IMMEDIATELY. You know good and well he’s hearing it from the ‘other side.’ Probably being threatened and called a liar, or told this is old news (why that should matter is beyond me). They don’t mince words and neither should we. He has to hear from our side.
I’m so glad that Warren Stewart of VoteTrustUSA mentioned the issue of "ballot programming!" You see, it takes a hacker, or some otherwise clever computer geek to rig an election via security flaws like the ones Hari Hursti exploited. But ANY IDIOT can rig an election with ballot programming! It’s just point and click! Thanks Brad, Warren and Lou Dobbs for putting this on the radar!
It seems pretty obvious to me that they are driving debate to the conclusion that only the STATE can be trusted to make voting machines.
WP thanks for the link. Its time for the 6 or 7 to get busy. Done!
#15 Winter Patriot is that you?
WP? Concierge…izzat you??
Dredd (#12): Sorry, I thought it was undisputed that all the touch-screen voting machines are made in China. But I just looked for evidence, and the best I could find is something the president of Election Data Services said to the Financial Times:
One problem is that many of the new voting machines that will be deployed are arriving from offshore manufacturing sites – mainly China – and are being rushed into service without adequate quality controls
That isn’t quite the same as what I wrote, so I apologize.
The solution is two part: paper ballots and the counting of those paper ballots as the polls close by the neighbors in each neighborhood precinct.
All the establishment, Democrat and Republican, and all the major media, and all the phony opposition groups — oppose these two elements being implemented together. Why? Because such a system makes the centralized rigging of elections impossible. And that’s what the corrupt Ruling Elite now in place WANTS.
Jim Condit Jr.
Lou is great. I watch him ever night and I did write him in thanks for taking up the issue yet I still wonder why he hasn’t mentioned Diebold (yet). Is that report coming soon? Is the rest of the MSM going to get on this for the people that don’t get their news anywhere else? Will Faux News mention it at all? Stay tuned folks. It ain’t over by a long shot. But we ARE making progress. There’s still hope.
Forgot to mention. Thanks a zillion Brad! You’re the best!
Keep up the fight, Mr. Dobbs. I hope you can prevent the loss of TRUST in american democracy.
Maybe you will also help us here in Venezuela and the rest of Latin America where much of the population has lost that trust and are now fighting maintain democratic societies.
That TRUST is also HOPE and FAIR PLAY among free people.
Smartmetic originally belonged to private Venezuelan citizens. Since 2003 was BOUGHT in more than 60% by the Venezuelan Government. The situation was published with public records by the Miami Herald, a few month ahead of the RR….a FRAUD by Chavez.
The Elections in the EEUU ALL done by Seouquia now under the same bundle of Companies to hide who’s the real owner (Hugo Chavez=Fidel Castro) had been plagued with problems and uncertainty.
4 Months ago Chicago was the latest American State to be hunted by the Smartmetic mess and the Mayor, who made the deal and with previous serious blunders by the same machines and same Company, discounting the incredible disaster in Venezuela Referendum REFUSED to investigate and as an excuse said the ‘accusation came from a right wing Blogger’ ….Alek Boyd, whom incidentally simply check the records on Companies! Incredible. Such relations has been denounced, published and scream for more than a year. And the RECORDS are legal, real and pathetic no one has done anything.
Lou Dobbs is once again MISS INFORMING the American Public with half truth. They said the Mayor acted as if he was a ‘victim’ and Smartmetic was not asked to present the papers by a Republican Representative long time ago. Not only where they asked, they also had to explain why where there 5 Venezuelans involved in the electoral process, without working permits, permission or even notification to the Chicago Authorities.
Perhaps Jimmy Carter is behind such deals, after all was not he only desperate to avail an incredible fraud in Venezuela, but kept on saying there where the cleanest Elections ever, much transparent that the American Elections….Mr. stone face Jimmy….
Lou Dobbs should ask his buddies at CNN why they have been telling the American Public so many lies on Venezuela (compulsive lies) for so long. But is going after ‘this Administration’ (his name….) misleading once more the real mess.
check vcrisis.com for legal documents.
Alek seem to be farther more efficient than so many so call ‘professional journalists” or American politicians, for whom corruption and the hate for Bush, seem to be the only important issue.
Thank goodness Lou Dobbs is reporting about the corruption of the electronic voting machines. It’s incredible to me that the main-stream media has ignored this story and allowed our country to be taken over by the few who control the black boxes. We won’t have a democracy again in the U.S. until our votes are not tampered with.
Now if Lou Dobbs would just stop kissing Ann Coulter’s skinny butt on CNN I might nominate him for Best News Personality on TV.
Dawn stated "Thank goodness Lou Dobbs is reporting about the corruption of the electronic voting machines. It’s incredible to me that the main-stream media has ignored this story and allowed our country to be taken over by the few who control the black boxes. We won’t have a democracy again in the U.S. until our votes are not tampered with."
So, where exactly in Dobbs "report" (with the lack of fact checking I hardly considerate true journalism) did he cite/proof/even speculate about corruption and vote tampering? Please, copy the text from the transcript. Oh wait, nevermind- you can’t because he didn’t.
Keeriste- bunch of xenophobic idiots… here are some *facts* to chew on- 1) Smartmatic is the parent company of Sequoia Voting Systems 2) All sequoia voting systems coding/firmware etc is done in the states. The main system was done by only a handful of… US Citizens…
Do you know who coded the software that flies/navigates/lands those airplanes that are constantly moving around the country. Perhaps some evil terrorist is planning to bring down all the planes at once… wait, wasn’t that die hard 2 or something?
Let’s get to building that wall around the entire US, keep out them damnable fore-ners…
Idiots.
Great Op-Ed piece from the Associate Publisher of the Seattle PI.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/273283_bunting09.html
"The blogosphere has been abuzz. But in the days since Rolling Stone magazine published a long piece that accused Republicans of widespread and intentional cheating that affected the outcome of the last presidential election, the silence in America’s establishment media has been deafening."
…
"One Whidbey Island resident e-mailed the news editors of the P-I and The Seattle Times simultaneously, asking "Which one of you has the honesty and guts to investigate and report about the charges that Robert Kennedy Jr. has written about in regards to stolen 2004 presidential election?
That someone could claim that our American electoral process was criminally thwarted should be BIG news."
…
"Despite the critical tone in his note to Aegerter and his Times counterpart, our reader, and others who have similarly complained, are right."
"It is news. It certainly deserves mention, at the very least in stories about the story, reaction to it or even ones debunking it. Any of those choices would be better judgment than simply ignoring it."
…
"Like most newspapers our size, the P-I relies on news services for most of its national and international news. Managing Editor David McCumber did what good editors at regional and midsized newspapers often do. He called The Associated Press and asked if a report would be forthcoming. He got back the predictable and disappointing response that the news cooperative’s Washington and national editors had looked at Kennedy’s report and determined there was "nothing new.""
Sorry, you guys are getting it all wrong on the Venezuelan elections and the Smartmatic voting machine. the real reason Smartec has been singled out is because they DO provide a paper record. I won’t hold my breath waiting for Dobbs to take on Diebold and ES&S. This is a smokescreen and a fraud. Nothing more than a sophisticated propaganda campaign to mislead and distract. Mark my words. I have e-mailed the following to FAIR and Media Matters, I hop they pick up on this one. Don’t let yourselves be fooled.
A recent piece on Lou Dobbs show provided false and misleading information on the Venezuelan recall elections and voting machines produced by Venezuelan company Smartmatic. The show claims that Smartmatic machines do not provide a paper record, which can be tabulated later. This is false, they do. The show also has on "experts" who are really members of the Venezeulan opposition. Ricardo Hausman, professor of economics at Harvard University, was Venezuelan Minister of Planing when the opposition was in power but you wouldn’t know this from the show. He claims to be able to demonstrate that the Venezuelan elections were stolen, but he relies on an exit poll commissioned by the opposition which, alone among exit polls by more reliable firms, appeared to show Chavez losing the elections. This show made several misleading and false statements and sins of omission to try and discredit the Venezuelan elections and Smartmatic voting machines. I contend that this is motivated by an attempt to distract from the inadiquacies of Diebold and ES&S machines that provide no paper record and are Republican owned firms.
Here’s the Lou Dobbs show:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Lou_Dobbs_Foreign_Owned_Voting_0608.html
Here’s how Smartmatic machines really work:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1197
Sorry, you guys are getting it all wrong on the Venezuelan elections and the Smartmatic voting machine. the real reason Smartec has been singled out is because they DO provide a paper record. I won’t hold my breath waiting for Dobbs to take on Diebold and ES&S. This is a smokescreen and a fraud. Nothing more than a sophisticated propaganda campaign to mislead and distract. Mark my words. I have e-mailed the following to FAIR and Media Matters, I hop they pick up on this one. Don’t let yourselves be fooled.
A recent piece on Lou Dobbs show provided false and misleading information on the Venezuelan recall elections and voting machines produced by Venezuelan company Smartmatic. The show claims that Smartmatic machines do not provide a paper record, which can be tabulated later. This is false, they do. The show also has on "experts" who are really members of the Venezeulan opposition. Ricardo Hausman, professor of economics at Harvard University, was Venezuelan Minister of Planing when the opposition was in power but you wouldn’t know this from the show. He claims to be able to demonstrate that the Venezuelan elections were stolen, but he relies on an exit poll commissioned by the opposition which, alone among exit polls by more reliable firms, appeared to show Chavez losing the elections. This show made several misleading and false statements and sins of omission to try and discredit the Venezuelan elections and Smartmatic voting machines. I contend that this is motivated by an attempt to distract from the inadiquacies of Diebold and ES&S machines that provide no paper record and are Republican owned firms.
Here’s the Lou Dobbs show:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Lou_Dobbs_Foreign_Owned_Voting_0608.html
Here’s how Smartmatic machines really work:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1197
Ian, tell me more about the Italian bingo machines procured by the CNE’s Jorge Rodriguez and please tell me more about Smartmatic since you seem to be so well informed…
http://www.venezuelatoday.net