CT: Secretary of state says voting machine company misled her

Secretary of state says voting machine company misled her

By Keith M. Phaneuf, Journal Inquirer

01/05/2006

snip

"It took some very pointed questions from my staff" during contract negotiations just before Christmas to learn Danaher Controls hadn't yet filed an application with the federal Election Assistance Commission, Bysiewicz said.

Specifically, the company still hadn't sought federal approval for a key function of its machine: the ability to produce a paper receipt showing all ballot selections made by any individual voter.

snip

Both in paperwork given her office last spring shortly after the workshop, and later through comments made to her staff, Danaher Controls indicated it had applied for federal certification for the paper receipt function within its machines, Bysiewicz said.

"They misled us," she said. "We did not have any information about these misrepresentations until we sat down at the negotiating table" on Dec. 21.

snip

http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15875939&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=6

That the Abramoff scandal will give the Dems the majority before the elections long enoguh to change things back the way they were and fix things in time for the 06 elections. That might happen from enough Representatives resigning like Cunningham due to activities with Abramoff and others. If that happens, we can rest assured that Ohio will have a fair election for once and that the democrats may be able to maintain the House in 06. We'll see how things go.

Ken Blackwell is the Secretary of State of Ohio.

You think a few scandals elsewhere (not to mention the Gov. of Ohio admitting to some crimes already) will assure clean elections in Ohio next time?

Exactly what evidence do you have to support this?

associated with Abramoff,the Dems will have the majority before the 06 elections. With this majority, they can investigate Blackwell and the entire government of Ohio and it's election cycle. This will probably result in a number of officials going to jail and a revamp in the election process in Ohio. IF the Dems had the Majority, it would also be easier for them to propose and enact legislation getting rid of the error prone and inherently vulnerable machines we have around right now. Just a wishful thinker, not a druggy ;-)

so Abramoff can bring down plenty of Repubs, before nov. 2006. But we wont see DEM replacments

Senators are appointed by Govs. in case of resignation.

Congressmembers resigning are replaced through a special election, such as will be the case in CA this April when they elect a replacement for "Top Scum" Puke Cunningscam.

At least here in cali, they haven't replaced congresspeople who have retired before an election year, they just schedule a special election. So if they all happened at the same time, we'd have a short period with Dem rule.

I'm not so sure. If he does, will he live long enough to get out of prison?

We only need IIRC - what? 16 seats in the house?

Again, it's very wishful thinking, but only time will tell what the Democrats can gain from this situation the Republicans got on their themselves...

with vendors, etc. Just getting dems in office isn't going to solve the problem. They would have to be honest Dems who care about clean elections.

our only hope would be conyers, who despite not having majority chairmanship powers, has done practically everything he can to investigate the matter. He would need the majority powers to get anything done, but it would be hard to get all the other dems to go with him. He just wouldn't have the barriers he has now. He really is one of the few. i honestly think if the Dems weren't teh way they were, we might already be a long ways with the issue...


:sigh:

Officials Decry Time, Effort Wasted On Voting Machine Debacle

By John Voket

They chose their words carefully, but every local official who commented on the latest development in Connecticut's electronic voting machine folly expressed frustration or dismay that the process had temporarily ground to a halt. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz had pulled the plug, at least temporarily, on plans to buy high-tech voting machines for the 2006 elections.

The secretary of the state said the finalist in the bid process, Simsbury-based Danaher Controls, misled the state and had not yet sought proper certification to meet state and federal requirements. Ms Bysiewicz's office made the discovery during final negotiations with the company.

Other voting machine companies, she said, also failed to meet the state's needs. Eight firms responded to the state's request for proposals.

"Unfortunately we were unable to find qualified vendors," she said, adding that no company could provide a certified electronic machine that displays a voter's entire ballot and provides a paper receipt that he or she can verify.

During his report to the Legislative Council later Wednesday evening, First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said that the secretary of the state had finally acted on a recommendation that had been suggested to her by the state Registrars of Voters Association some time ago. Mr Rosenthal said he was somewhat relieved that Newtown and other Connecticut communities would not be rushed to budget, purchase, acquire and train voting officials and poll workers in short order for the 2006 elections.

"It would have been quite an effort to get all that changed over before the election," Mr Rosenthal said.

The first selectman echoed comments from Town Clerk Cynthia Simon, who was somewhat more pointed in her observation of the process to date.

"When I think of all the time, all the energy... and now they are back to square one," Ms Simon said. "If I was the secretary of the state, right now I'd be sitting there with egg on my face."

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http://www.newtownbee.com/News.asp?s=News-2006-01-05-15-15-25p1.htm

Steven P.

reporter in CT on the voting machine issue.

Transparent elections NOW!

No more secret programming NOW!

Restore our right to vote NOW!

Freedom NOW!

Or never!

"'It took some very pointed questions from my staff' during contract negotiations just before Christmas to learn Danaher Controls hadn't yet filed an application with the federal Election Assistance Commission, Bysiewicz said."

You mean like "Where's the fucking paper?"

How pointed is that?

No wonder Chris Dodd wants to privatize elections with morons like this running them in CT.

They must be drinking too much nutmeg in the egg nog state...or something!

I know they're underfunded but perhaps they'll answer the phone.

And look! There's even a Toll Free number!



United States Election Assistance Commission
1225 New York Avenue N.W., Suite - 1100
Washington, DC 20005

Telephone
(202) 566-3100

Toll Free
(866) 747-1471

Fax
(202) 566-3127

E-mail Address
HAVAinfo@eac.gov