Guest Blogged by Emily Levy of VelvetRevolution.us
Notorious electronic voting company Diebold, which has been hiding its election division under the name Premier Election Solutions, has bilked California taxpayers out of more than $100 million dollars for its failed, faulty, illegally certified electronic voting systems.
Velvet Revolution has now launched a new campaign: Diebold: Return Our Money! at DieboldReturnOurMoney.com and we hope you’ll sign on in support.
California officials recently discovered that ALL of Diebold/Premier’s voting systems violate federal, and thus state, certifications guidelines! These systems do some or all of the following in violation of those certification standards and laws:
- delete ballots without notice
- allow the “permanent” audit log records to be deleted
- fail to properly record deletion of ballots
- insert incorrect time stamps on audit log items.
Yet Diebold has falsely claimed, for years, they their systems meet all federal voting system standards. Accordingly, VR demands that:
1) DIEBOLD: RETURN OUR MONEY!: Diebold/Premier has accepted well over $100 million in county, state and federal taxpayer funds in California for services which the company knew it could not perform. With California’s devastating budget shortfall of $ 45.5 billion dollars, we demand the return of these funds from Diebold. The purchase price for hardware, software licenses, and maintenance fees should be returned to the State within 90 days. If Diebold’s announced sale to Election Systems and Software, Inc. (ES&S) becomes final, California must be fully reimbursed nonetheless, whether from Diebold or ES&S.
2) SOS DEBRA BOWEN: DECERTIFY DIEBOLD!: Diebold/Premier products, currently used in 20 California counties (and some 34 states across the country, by the way), violate federal voting system standards and must be immediately and permanently decertified for use in the state by Secretary of State Debra Bowen.
3) AG JERRY BROWN: PROSECUTE DIEBOLD!: California’s Attorney General Jerry Brown must immediately launch a comprehensive criminal investigation into Diebold/Premier’s knowing use and sale of faulty election systems that have undermined our elections. Further, unless Diebold/Premier, within 90 days, refunds to California all monies paid for its fraudulent software and equipment, we call on the State of California to file suit against Diebold/Premier seeking the return of funds for breach of contract and fraud.
Visit the campaign page at DieboldReturnOurMoney.com to send a quick email to Diebold (c/o the aptly-named company rep Chris Riggall), SoS Bowen and AG Brown. Over 400 emails have already been sent in the first 48 hours of this campaign…
As you may have heard, Diebold has recently been purchased by ES&S, its larger competitor. This purchase adds to the myriad problems with electronic voting yet another: one company’s near monopoly on the industry. With the purchase of Diebold, ES&S will control approximately 85% of the nation’s votes. An antitrust suit has been filed by Hart Intercivic, election watchdog BlackBoxVoting.org has filed a letter of complaint with the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, and yet another antitrust suit has now been filed by the e-voting legal eagles at VoterAction.org.
Velvet Revolution’s demands for a refund of CA’s money paid to Diebold, whether it comes from the Diebold Corporation or from ES&S.
Help us build momentum by supporting this campaign. Tell your friends about it! Join us on Facebook! (Become a fan of Velvet Revolution and DieboldReturnOurMoney.) Follow us on our brand new Twitter feed at vr_tweet, and please help by donating to Velvet Revolution!
VR is joined in the “Diebold: Return Our Money!” campaign by these fine organizations:
After Downing Street
Black Box Voting.org
Citizens for Legitimate Government
Democrats.com
Election Defense Alliance
The Free Press
Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution
Progressive Democrats of America
Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles
Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains
Protect California Ballots
Ruckus Society
SavElections Monterey County
SAVE R VOTE
True Vote
Other California groups or national groups operating in CA are invited to join by sending us an email.
[Disclosure: The BRAD BLOG is a co-founder of VelvetRevolution.us]
“These people do not investigate themselves.” -George Carlin when asked if he thought there should be a new investigation into 9-11.
I don’t generally like pointing out when fellow progressives are making a mistake on a campaign, but I think you guys are here.
I don’t think many understand that we currently have a corporation with a monopoly on the voting machine business. Election integrity is now falling on one corporate CEO.
I think we need to expend all or energy one this. I think pointing attention in the direction of now unused former name of a corporation is a luxury we have too few resources to waste any focused anywhere but on the ES&S monopoly.
Adam503 – if the efforts against Diebold/Premier are successful, it should have a great impact on ES&S’ transparency as the company that handles our votes. The American public is by and large woefully undereducated about the perils of electronic voting systems and the laws surrounding transparency, accountability, and security of voting. Brad has been poking holes in the dam for many years, but just as with the Sibel Edmonds story, eventually something has to give. Someone in Congress will catch on, it will spread, and soon enough we are staring ES&S in the face and telling them that their monopoly isn’t going to fly, and in the end it will affect how all machines are certified, how votes are handles, and with a little luck perhaps we’ll end up back at hand-counted paper ballots.
This is where the story is.
Now if only we could take the Tardis back to Nov 2000 and hand this revelation to Al Gore and the Supremes.
I’d like to see more on the privatization of our computerized voter registration rolls and states counting process.
I think voting for the registered non-voter, by hack, is of greater concern than anything.
I saw Bevs site touched on it late last year by some of her posters, but her site is too damned confusing for me to get anything meaningful out of it.
…This is why I’m concerned about that, there has been a big push in the States to register voters when you go to sign up for something, whether it be license, food stamps, etc., thats cool and all but how many people that sign up actually vote? If you don’t state party affiliation at that time, they automatically turn indy…how many turn R?
What makes it fishy is that the Repubs down here think it’s great, that’s enough for me.
[ed note: I don’t know what about this comment sent you into limbo, Flo, but I fished you back out quick as I could…. The software just seems to go on these little over-vigilant trips betimes, and I never know when it’s going to hit…. –99]
murderation 😛
Really! New threat to all rule trashers! Clean up yer act or get sent to the murderation queue! I love it!
Ugh Ohhh! 🙂
Hey Flo, do you think we dare ask the election assistance committee to look into that type of scam? Has there been any transparency brought to the commission since idiot boy and blow your face off have slunk back under their rocks?
An oh yeah, I wonder what they have to say about California’s righteous request.
i applaud velvet rev for going after the money and i hope you demand an answer from the cali ag…afterall it is his job to investigate and prosecute people or corps that defraud taxpayers
i also applaud bevs anti trust complaint
but flo has hit the nail on the head when he says the big problem we face now is in the electronic registerys and the middleman reporting systems,specifically soe software by
Contact Info
SOE Software
Corporation
5426 Bay Center Drive
Suite 525
Tampa, FL 33609
Phone: 813.490.7150
soeinfo@soesoftware.com
we have the dreaded soe software in bloomington illinois so first we have the unreliable “precinct tape results” and then we get an “official” report from a florida company(run by a neo con)that differs from the tape results…constant shifting of numbers
thats the whole problem with electronic numbers..they are nothing but font on a screen and can constantly be moved
we found this in the new hampshire recount…numbers changing on the sos website,with no documentation but now with electronic poll books it is much easier for the “reporters” to move numbers around as they have a larger area to hide in
hey whatever did happen to the kucinich new hampshire recount??????
The thing is, the Diebold products were CERTIFIED as being compliant with the Federal guidelines (they are guidelines, not standards). The folks in charge of the certification have always been affiliated with NASED (the State Election Directors). So follow that arrow to the problem.
Johnboy #11 Kucinich threw in the towel after a couple of days counting.
The real story happened after Bev left town. Ron Paul won in a landslide for the GOP. Except his votes were rejected as “statistical anomalies”.
Cause you know a traitor like McCain was just so much more electable.
And besides who ever heard of the Federal Reserve anyways?
OK, I went to that Black Box Voting site and had to stop reading. It was making my blood boil even more.
I think my medical plan will soon claim BradBlog as a pre-existing condition.
Thank you Brad and others for all the hard work on this elections stuff. I keep telling people about this and the Sibel Edmonds story. They’ll believe me one day.
When election watchdogs attempted to provide citizen oversight during the 2008 Primary recount, they were met with intimidation and obstructionism. Afterwards, the legislature, at the urging of the Scretary of State, responded by tacking on a rider to pending legislation in order to tighten the noose around our democratic processes and make recounts more difficult to obtain.
When citizens attempted to provide oversight to the central tally following the 2008 General Election, the state responded by locking them out and warning them to stay clear of where the counts were being conducted in “nonpublic” rooms within the offices of the Secretary of State.
that was a quote from nancy tobi
Johnboy W (#11) ~
Thank you so much for asking!! Actually, it turns out the Diebold machine count in NH had a failure rate 163 times greater than allowed by federal election law.
http://www.wethepeoplefoundatio...2008-02-23.htm
VIDEO:
“Manchester Ward 5: Inflated Vote Totals”
http://www.youtube.com/user/jea...11/GYz9O_SvIJI
And yes, my beloved Tunga, while Kucinich did drop the fight early, (it was a very, very expensive one – 60,000 clams for the less than half the wards and townships? Isn’t that right, Karen from Illinois?) thanks to a strange, lesser known, Republican candidate, Albert Howard (funded by a well-organized army of Ron Paul backers), the recount went state-wide. This allowed Black Box Voting’s crew of citizen watchdogs to better document the utterly farcical chain of custody procedures in a wildly entertaining and eyeopening series: “Election Reality TV”.
VIDEO: BBV: NH Chain of Custody Sham
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHL_YMBolRs
and
http://www.youtube.com/user/jea.../3/PKQEQ7qHvgM
Personally, I thought the above videos should have been mandatory viewing for every American before voting in the primaries.
It’s also important to note, Johnboy W., that in just one day of filming NH’s (sincerely glorious) hand count procedures, I caught FOUR ballot sequence anomalies on video that baffled and stunned the veteran state employees doing the count:
“NH Sequence Anomalies”
http://www.youtube.com/user/jea...14/LPLFhCq1XnA
After what we saw from the horrific chain of custody procedures; the unacceptable conditions of the ballot boxes upon arrival at the State House -(which we had been warned about by the ever astute Nancy Tobi of Democracy for NH)we were not shocked by how many “mysteries” were uncovered in the count.
FYI, all – Karen from Illinois has meticulously documented many of these electronic voting “shifts” / middleman attacks all over the country and has become quite the heavyhitting statistician/ magician / resource for such irregularities. She has a stunning rep for accuracy.
(BBV citizen group playlist of the videos we compiled from the New Hampshire recount for the public record – you’re welcome, public! – here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/jea...CEABC09579F656)