California Activists Call the Cops on Diebold (Shout out to GuvWurld)

California Activists Call the Cops on Diebold

Sunday, 25 December 2005, 8:07 am
Opinion: Michael Collins

California Activists Call the Cops on Diebold:
The Campaign to Unite California Election Reformers

Movement for legal action against officials who allowed unauthorized software changes to voting machines starts in Northern California. Strong local support.
Special Report by for "Scoop"
Michael Collins
December, 2005

Humboldt Co., CA. A major challenge to election equipment maker Diebold Corporation began in California last week. Dave Berman is a nationally known internet activist who blogs under the name GuvWurld. He is calling on all Californians to ensure election integrity by holding public officials accountable for what he argues are gaping security holes and illegal alterations of Diebold voting machines. One part of the plan asks local activists to demand investigations of unauthorized changes to voting machines by the beleaguered election systems company. The plan has strong local support in a major Diebold territory, Humboldt County. Humboldt County includes Eureka, Arcata and Humboldt State University and is at the very top of the California coastline.

Concerns about Diebold practices in California

Berman cites multiple concerns about Diebold business practices but focuses on the combination of unauthorized installations of Diebold software patches in as many as 17 California counties and the acquiescence of local election officials to that practice, clearly barred by California code. Berman asked the following pointed questions:

Who allowed Humboldt's voting machines to have uncertified software installed in them? Was someone in the Humboldt county elections department complicit in this crime or merely negligent? Is this person still employed by the elections department, and if so, why?

Prior to the March 2004 California presidential primary, Diebold was scrambling to make its machines meet the needs of some large county customers. In this process, Diebold wrote several letters to then California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. The letters claimed that Diebold was about to get approval for new voting machine software from the Federal government. Diebold used this to request provisional certification allowing their equipment to be used in the primary.


More: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0512/S00246.htm

Pursuing legal action against election officials is a VERY important step in ending this overturning of our democracy.
The pattern has consistently been to blame machines when voting irregularities are glaring.
The use of these effing machines has allowed the removal of personal accountability from the equation -- and it MUST be restored.
"Oops, must have been a computer glitch," CANNOT cut it any longer. Individuals must be held responsible for this deliberate fraud.

to protest alleged election fraud over there, but not one American citizen is standing outside a Diebold office to protest proven or potential fraud here. Why is that?
We Dems deserve the dickin' we get! It's not Chucklenuts the Chimp's fault if elections get stolen, it's ours!

There are psychological differences between first nation inhabitants and colonial populations, particularly Northern European ones. This is one of them.

Who needs to protest on this particular issue. We've go the law on our side. If the law doesn't support us, then it's the laws problem and shame.

The lack of protest over 2004 is stunning. Let me remind everyone that there were stunning protests at the 2000 and 2004 inaugurations. The 2000 one was amazing and not covered. 2004 was pretty damn hot too, uncovered also.

More has to happen. It would really help if the DUNC and others in the DINO wing of the Democratic party would get off their asses or declare themselves part of the Whig - Democratic Party faction.

My emphasis has always been election conditions, not data or fraud. Current conditions guarantee inconclusive outcomes that will never receive unanimous acceptance by We The People. I've been making this point for a long time and recently an abundance of overwhelmingly compelling and credible evidence has emerged to support it. In publicizing the new proof about election conditions, the understandable and palatable message is "these conditions are unacceptable and we have to improve them."

Who is in a position to be most responsive to this message? It is the head of the local elections department and the County Supervisors who authorize her spending requests. More than anyone else, we want to work with these people and influence their decisions. This campaign gives us leverage in several ways.

For starters, we have this easily accepted message about needing to improve conditions. We are framing this as the only appropriate attitude for elections and elected officials. This is our line in the sand. We want to work with these people to make improvements; but those who continue to defend current conditions and deny there are problems cannot be worked with and must be confronted. It is important that we not be unilaterally hostile, but that we take a stand on behalf of the reality-based community.

In addition, the uncertified software installed by Diebold leaves all of these decision makers vulnerable to investigation. And we should press on this button for more leverage. Plus it is only the right thing to hold our public servants accountable. If they haven't been vigilant or perhaps honest enough to defend the integrity of our past elections why should they get a free pass going forward?

Finally, even as we limit those targeted for confrontation, and even while the confrontations can build to rather than start with calling for resignation, our ability to successfully induce resignation is not a measure of our success. Simply taking this approach will change the overall shape of public discussion. We are redefining the appropriate attitude required to work in the elections department. This will impact the candidates running for Registrar and make it impossible for anyone to campaign without a serious election reform platform, such as the one found in the Voter Confidence Resolution.

You're an inspiration!!!

:dunce: :nopity: :dunce: :nopity: :dunce: :nopity: :dunce:
Happy Holidays to all!

K&R

in the 17 CA Diebold counties to do the same. His reasoning in impeccable. The CA Code says you cannot modify voting machines without authorization and you cannot do so without reporting the same. The Secretary of State, CA, report documents that this was done in 17 counties in 2004, without authorization or reporting. GuvWurld says that since this violates the law, election activists need to report the violation to local law enforcement and also demand that election officials who allowed this to happen resign or face action; and that Diebold, having violated the CA Code should face legal action. So yes the "cops", i.e., law enforcement authorities, have been and will be called.

This native Californian appreciates you!

Peace.

It's always close to my mind...and I have that old attitude that California is truly the center of the universe and the place all things begin (when I lived in NYC, it was hard thinking that thought about both places but I tried;).

:hi:

I like it. I am glad that someone figured out how to get standing and use legal process to bust this inane & incompentent voting machine company. I like it a lot.