Knox Co. Elections Admin WILL NOT recommend Diebold!!!!

Yesterday, I read in the Knoxville News Sentinel that Diebold, ES&S and Hart were being considered in both Knox and Blount counties to replace aging equipment: http://www3.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_4443897,00.html (registration required) and felt deflated.

Today, with the help of Botany, I sent mainstream media links to both our Elections Administrator Greg MacKay and to the reporter, Michael Silence, who has been covering this story.

I expected that maybe they hadn't heard of these problems, but, lo and behold, MacKay had done his research!

Here's what he said back to me via email:

I have read all of this. For that reason and others I will not be recommending Diebold.
We have to chose from three companies that have been certified by the State Election Commission. They are Diebold, ESS and Hart Intercivic.
I am leaning toward Hart. They have security measures in place that were recommended by the Government Accounting Office(GAO) when they did a report last year for the Congress. The Hart E-Slate encrypts each cast ballot, has an encrypted audit log and has a paper trail.

I don't know much about Hart, and told him so in my email. I just know that I've not heard the complaints about them, which is a good thing.

I'll cross post on the regular boards so that people know that the word is getting out about Diebold and ES&S.

The only good news is that they may be no worse than the others. Greg Mackay may have done homework, but there's lots more to be done.

Hart-Intercivic And ES&S Up To No Good
Hart-Intercivic Tech Blows The Whistle In Ohio And Texas

By David Allen
blackboxvoting.com
I have come into possession of a pair of letters written by a former Hart-Intercivic technician to the Secretaries of State for Ohio and Texas. These letters detail a ''long history of concealing problems'' and a willingness to ignore potentially serious problems ''largely for the sake of corporate profit''.

When I read these letters, I contacted the writer to verify his story and authorship. The technician verified that he was the author and that the letters had been sent, but did not wish to have his name revealed as he had sent the letters privately to the two state Secretaries. He did not object to the details of the letters being revealed as he was concerned about whether the matter had been or would be addressed.

...

Since Compuware was supposed to audit Hart-Intercivic software we are left to wonder about these misleading claims. Either Compuware failed to look closely at the system or they simply accepted claims from Hart-Intercivic without question.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0409/S00309.htm

Damn, what can we do?

Thank you for spreading this and be sure to put it in GD too!