NevadaStolenElection: Legislators question need for new voting machines

Now remember, Bush took Nevada by about 21,000 votes and everyone from Reid to Guinn bragged that Nevada had brand new paper trailed Sequoias statewide ....what they didn't fully explain was the truth about the machines that were in the population epicenter of Las Vegas ...LIARS, LIARS, LIARS!!!

CARSON CITY -- A Senate panel Monday questioned the need for new voting machines in the Las Vegas-area and said the county's technology might not have to be replaced.

Secretary of State Dean Heller urged the Senate Finance Committee to pass Senate Bill 501, which would allocate $15 million to buy 4,400 machines with voter-verifiable paper trails.

Two-thirds of Clark County's machines, "full-face" models, store vote results on a cartridge that can be printed out later, but voters cannot see the results when they cast their ballots.

The rest are newer models that allow immediate review by voters, Heller said. Half of the county's voters last fall cast their ballots on the new machines, while the other half used the older ones. Nevada led the nation in use of the new devices.

more...

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/May-03-Tue-2005/news/26428993.html

Paper trail’ voting system used in Nevada
Electronic ballot machines equipped with printers

The Associated Press
Updated: 9:23 p.m. ET Sept. 7, 2004


CARSON CITY, Nev. - In what could become a model for other states, Nevada voters on Tuesday became the first in the nation to cast ballots in a statewide election on computers that printed paper records of electronic ballots.

A delegation of federal election officials monitored the equipment’s debut in the state capital Tuesday, touring precincts and talking to poll workers as residents voted for congressional candidates, state legislators, school officials and judges.

Nevada’s $9.3 million voting system includes more than 2,600 computers and printers deployed in every county. California, Washington and Illinois recently passed laws requiring a paper trail for electronic ballots, and at least 20 others are considering similar legislation.

Addressing e-voting concerns
The system, developed by California-based Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., aims to address concerns that paperless touchscreen votes cannot be properly audited or recounted. As many as 50 million Americans will cast ballots in the November presidential election on electronic machines that do not produce a paper receipt of the vote.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5937115/

And then we have the real problem with the old Sequoias!! Why wouldn't Nevada want to keep machines that have helped Kenny Guinn, Harry Reid and George W. Bush get elected and re-elected, all without papertrails! Read this!! This is how Bush became President again! If we had taken Nevada, we would be looking at a different election today!

When Suspicions First Arose

In 1994, I was asked to participate in an evaluation of voting systems being considered to replace the antiquated system then in use in Washoe County, Nevada. The second largest metropolitan area in our state was evaluating the products from four venders. Three of the venders offered systems that included paper ballot back up, and one did not. Our committee tested all the systems and concluded that the Sequoia Pacific should be disqualified because it did not have the necessary redundancy required to maintain voter confidence. In other words, Sequoia Pacific's equipment did not allow there to be a paper ballot recount in the event of a contested election.

Washoe County went on to purchase an optical scan system that utilized a paper ballot and a computer. It was chosen because if the computer failed, or if a recount was ordered, there were paper ballots available to verify the results of the election.

Following my participation in the evaluation process, I telephoned Clark County Commission Chairman Bruce Woodbury and Commissioner Don Schlesinger. I told them of the committee's findings and requested that Clark County carefully evaluate the purchase of an optical scan voting system and disqualify the paperless Sequoia Pacific system from contention.

In a letter written to the Washoe County Commission by Registrar of Voters Marlene Henderson, she stated "There is no way to conduct a 'recount' on the Sequoia AVC because there simply are no physical ballots to recount!"

She went on to say "The Sequoia costs 1000% more than the optical scan system and is incapable of processing absentee mail in ballots or challenged ballots forcing the purchase of a second system."

more...

http://www.americanmafia.com/Inside_Vegas/9-30-02_Inside_Vegas.html

I live in a lying ASS state!!

Now a computer counts our votes and there are no paper ballots available to examine in the event of a recount. If a recount is requested, the computer is again fired up and a download is made of the contested election's results. Therefore there is no way of physically verifying the accuracy of the election. How did this happen and who was responsible?

When questions arose in 1995 as to whether it was legal in Nevada to vote electronically in the absence of a paper ballot backup, our state's Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Pappa responded that the Sequoia Pacific computer produced what she called a "Functional Equivalent" of a paper ballot! She went on to say that such an equivalent was "exactly the same" as a paper ballot and that she therefore fully approved the paperless system.

Since Clark County has been using the Sequoia Pacific machines, several unusual things have occurred. The day before the election in 1998 when the ballot question regarding the quarter-cent sales tax increase to pay for a second water line to serve the needs of the casinos and developers was to be voted upon, the Las Vegas Review Journal and KTNV Channel 13 News conducted a poll. The results showed that 80% of those surveyed did not approve of the tax increase and it would go down to defeat by an 80/20 margin. The following day the vote took place and the quarter-cent sales tax increase passed by an 80/20 margin - the opposite result from the previous day's survey!

In 1999, the Las Vegas primary election had another anomaly. In the Ward One race, the early votes started 17 days prior to the day of the election. These early votes were reported on Cox Cable News beginning election night at 7:05 PM and indicated that the incumbent had 63%, his closest challenger had 23%, followed by three other candidates with 10%, 2%, and 2% each. At 10 PM all votes had been counted and the final percentages in Ward One again were 63%, 23%, 10%, 2%, and 2%. Unexplainably, no changes had occurred since 7:05 PM.

I have studied the Sequoia Pacific voting system for many years and I am convinced that its' paperless status is perfectly suited for mass vote manipulation. To quickly and inexpensively remedy the situation, the county should heed Sen. Bill O'Donnell's suggestion and install a printer on each voting machine. That way the voter could review the printout of his or her ballot and deposit it in a locked box next to the voting machine in the event it was needed for a physical recount to verify the results of the electronic ballots.

In the meantime, County Registrar Ferguson has resigned and gone to work for the paper ballotless voting machine manufacturer. Her assistant Larry Lomax was hired to replace her and additional ballotless voting machines have since been purchased from Ferguson's company.

more...

http://www.americanmafia.com/Inside_Vegas/9-30-02_Inside_Vegas.html

Washoe county (Reno) got their Sequoia's for free thanks to a Bush administration HAVA grant:
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/11/con04490.html

There's a case in NV that appears to make paper trails irrelevant because it strongly says nothing can impeach the official ballot. Don't have the cite right now but it appears that (1) paper trails are not actually checked at any time, not even by most voters, and (2) if they were, they wouldn't hold up in court.

Thanks for the post!
mg

saved him when John Ensign did a recount. These machines could not be recounted. He is not going to do anything about this. These machines are a rackett and Nevada should have expected this. It is not about the cost here. This is A REPUBLICAN who wants to keep these machines and other Las Vegas Senators. Crooked bastards.

Nevada has overtaxed itself and has a surplus right now of over 600 million. They can afford the $15 million to help people feel their vote is legitimate. Las Vegas is home to gambling on electronic machines, they regulate them, why are they afraid of verifying the vote???

And the whole country used Nevada as the gold standard during the Bush re-election for having paper trails. What a fecking joke.


$15 million on new voting machines sparks feud
By Cy Ryan
<cy@lasvegassun.com>
SUN CAPITAL BUREAU


CARSON CITY -- Republican Secretary of State Dean Heller tangled with two GOP senators from Las Vegas on Monday over whether the state should spend $15 million to buy new voting machines with paper trails for Clark County.

At times, Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, had to call for order during the Senate Finance Committee meeting as Heller and Sen. Bob Beers and Sen. Barbara Cegavske kept interrupting each other during the debate.

Using federal funds, Heller purchased voting machines with paper trails for the other 16 counties for the last election and intended to have the machines in Clark County retrofitted with printers for the next election.

snip....

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-gov/2005/may/03/518697880.html