Prosecutor: No evidence of election tampering from computer repair

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10461553.htm

I'd like to know how they would by pass this violation.

Doug Jones, Iowa's chief examiner of voting equipment and a computer scientist at the University of Iowa who has been a leading critic of electronic voting machines, said the matter was less likely a case of election tampering than poor election procedures and oversight. But he added that even if no one tampered with votes, the fact that someone had unsupervised access to tabulating equipment before the recount was a breach of security procedures and might even violate Ohio election law.

"The tabulating room should be viewed as a secure computer systems site where nobody goes in there unsupervised, but the affidavit suggests there was no supervision in the tabulating room," Jones said. He said that suspicions of tampering are just as destructive to the integrity of an election as actual tampering and laws prohibiting unsupervised access to voting equipment should be enforced.

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,66072,00.html?tw=rss.TOP

What about this in the affidavit?

The affidavit refers to § 3505.32

Moreover, bringing in Triad officials into other Ohio Counties would also appear to violate Ohio Revised Code § 3505.32, which provides that during a period of official canvassing, all interaction with ballots must be “in the presence of all of the members of the board and any other persons who are entitled to witness the official canvass,” given that last Friday, the Ohio Secretary of State has issued orders to the effect that election officials are to treat all election materials as if they were in a period of canvassing .and that "Teams of one Democrat and one Republican must be present with ballots at all times of processing."

THAT is the $7.8 trillion dollar question. This needs to be seriously looked into and we hear NOTHING. :argh:

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:hi:

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a voting system that isn't idiotic/insane, by full transparency of the counting and auditing processes, and by hiring election officials with at least an ounce of ethics/integrity.

and didn't have access to the equipment to see if tampering occurred.
Is that correct?
No security there and manufactuer reps have free licence to do whatever they want?
And no one checking on what they are doing or what they have done?

See other threads.

Or am I mistaken?

the part of the article you posted refers "Doug Jones, Iowa's chief examiner of voting equipment and a computer scientist at the University of Iowa". I refuse to register for access to this article, will you please provide me the name of the prosecutor?

:thumbsup:

Associated Press

LOGAN, Ohio - Prosecutors and local police found no evidence of election tampering when they watched Monday as a technician repeated a repair to a tallying computer that led a congressman to request an FBI investigation.

Observers including Green Party representatives who requested a presidential recount agreed the procedure did not alter the hard drive where data are stored, Hocking County Prosecutor Larry Beal said.

"Everybody felt better," he said.

Elections officials, a Green Party representative, prosecutors and the Logan patrolman who investigates computer crimes were among the observers as the same technician repeated the repair and answered questions. He had to do it twice because only half the group could fit in the room.

Cliff Arnebeck, the lead attorney challenging the Bush win, said he wasn't satisfied because the entire vote counting system "is subject to hacking."

"People are turning functions over to computer technicians and basically trusting them not to manipulate the system in an improper way," he said.

Green Party representatives told Schwartze on Monday they would challenge the recount because the county did not use a truly random procedure in selecting 3 percent of ballots for a hand count as required under state law.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10461553.htm

But I see no indication anyone did any investigation as to whether the hard drive or compiler settings had been changed or tampered with when the first "recalibration" was done. What was the purpose of the technicians previous work on the computer?

oops--I see someone already mentioned this below

Jeez, they can't get someone with some ACTUAL IMPARTIAL computer knowledge in on these things?

We're supposed to take it on the word of some local COP who investigates computer crimes? WTF???????

Who is in CHARGE down there? It's like a freaking three-ring circus. What a JOKE. Sorry I wasted my money on this shit.

:thumbsdown:

So if the technician was asked nicely, I'm sure he'd be happy to repeat his fraudulent behavior in front a prosecutor and several witnesses.

Prosecutor: "Well then, what DID you do that evening?"
Defendant: "I was at home, watching TV."
Prosecutor: "Can you please repeat that behavior for me? I'm having a hard time believing you."

<Accused sits in front of TV for 5 hours>

Prosecutor: "Whew. Guess you didn't do it. I feel a lot better now."

"He advised Lisa and I on how to post a "cheat sheet" on the wall so that only the board members and staff would know about it and and what the codes meant so the count would come out perfect and we wouldn't have to do a full hand recount of the county."

That issue is not addressed at all. And then the issue of the techinican asking which precinct would be counted. Wired.com, in link in original message, says:

<snip>
Rapp said that once Barbian fixed the computer, he tested all of the precincts and showed the election officials that the computer and tabulator were counting correctly. Then election officials ran their own test to make sure the machine was counting properly.

Rapp said he believed Barbian asked about the hand-counted precinct because he was trying to make sure the election officials, who had never conducted a recount before, understood what they were doing and which precinct they were going to count.

"He was trying to help them make sure the process went smoothly," Rapp said.

<end>

Rapp said he believed Barbian asked about the hand-counted precinct because he was trying to make sure the election officials, who had never conducted a recount before, understood what they were doing and which precinct they were going to count.

"He was trying to help them make sure the process went smoothly," Rapp said.


Such a nice guy to spend 3 hours and not charge a dime

saying you gave them cheat sheets that blows away your alibi. Ahh.. just act out your evening in front of the TV. We'll be satisfied.

Cliff Arnebeck, the lead attorney challenging the Bush win, said he wasn't satisfied because the entire vote counting system "is subject to hacking."

"People are turning functions over to computer technicians and basically trusting them not to manipulate the system in an improper way," he said.

From his Statement to the Congressional Black Caucus, 10/7/2004
Reliability of US Voting Systems:
An assessment in the light of recent changes

Public attention also plays a role. Both error and fraud thrive where there is no close scrutiny. If the public are alert and watching closely, as they are now, alerted by the events of 2000, many normally careless election workers will take extra care, and many who might have been tempted to cheat will not do so.

Because of this increased scrutiny, I believe that the upcoming election may well be among the most accurate elections in recent history. On the other hand, we may never know this because increased scrutiny in a close election will certainly uncover problems that would normally go unnoticed.

http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/%7Ejones/voting/cbc2004.shtml

Jeez, some people are so naive....


BTW, there is a site packed full of info about e-voting in the US by a UK consultant, http://www.louiseferguson.com/resources/evoting-us.htm. It's interesting how many e-voting experts don't seem to like the F-word.

stabbed themselves to death. A horrified Speck described each of the grisly suicides before the judge and prosecutor thanked him for his testimony and let him go.

Wild eyed accusations of murder from the nurses families were quickly dismissed as baseless calls for revenge by relatives who could not cope with the obvious truth."

Is the Bush/Cheney/Rove way of life. What wonderful "values" they've brought to us!

You know which one I'm talking about, the one that most of the people in the room fell off of.