PA Lawsuit: John Gideon and Joe Hall Illuminate

Joseph Hall's "Not Quite a Blog" provides this summary.

Voting Technology Suit in PA

04/14/06

snip

Claims include:

* violation of rights under HAVA as not all voters will be able to use the iVotronic DREs (some will have to use optical scan equipment);

* violation of due process under 14th A via purchasing flawed technology on the eve of a primary;

* violation of equal protection under 14th A via not vetting the technology adequately that will result in Allegheny County voters votes counting differently than other PA counties;

* violation of the ADA and Rehabilitation Act (different counts) via purchasing non-accessible DRE and optical scan equipment; and,

* violation by federal officials of due process under 5th A for treating PA differently than other states (specifically NY) and forcing a rush to purchase equipment with HAVA money.


They're asking the Court to:

* declare that the iVotronic and M650 machines are not HAVA-compliant, as described;

* declare that the Secretary of the Commonwealth's certification of these systems is null and void because of the non-compliance;

* preliminarily and permanently enjoin defendents from purchasing or using this equipment in elections for federal office;

* preliminarily and permanently enjoin defendents from using any non-HAVA-compliant voting technology for federal elections;

* preliminarily and permanently enjoin defendents from preventing the ongoing use of the existing lever system;

* require DoJ officials to not sue or threaten suit if no new voting system is adopted for the May primary;

* declaring that the use of lever machines in the primary provides no basis for DoJ officials to sue or threaten to sue in order to recoup HAVA money; and,

* awarding attorney's fees.

snip/links

http://josephhall.org/nqb2/index.php/2006/04/14/pfawfpa


John Gideon provides this analysis.

UPDATE: A Closer Look at the E-Voting Lawsuit Filed against a PA County and the U.S. Dept. of Justice

Seeks to Stop Last Minute Implementation of ES&S Voting Machines and to Push Back Unconstitutional Threats by the DoJ…

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

snip

The complaint asserts that the state certified Electronic Voting Machines made by Elections Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S) are not accessible by voters with disabilities -- contrary to the requirements of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 and the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Nonetheless, Allegheny County has selected their machines for use in upcoming elections. That, after previously hoping to go with Diebold, and then with Sequoia Voting Systems, until finally settling on ES&S after the first two choices fell apart either due to the politics of the companies involved and/or due to the discovery their Electronic Voting Systems were found to be hackable.

As mentioned, the choice to not use Diebold in Allegheny occurred, in no small part, because of the company's known hard-right partisan leanings. The lawsuit, however, points out the irony of finally choosing to go with ES&S…considering their own dubious partisan background…

snip

As Litman told the Post-Gazette, "We're trying to force the county to slow down, rethink and give Allegheny County a chance to pick a set of machines that can be used for the next 40 years."

A bit of sanity, we'd suggest, in a Democracy gone haywire in 2006 – as the DoJ is playing politics for keeps, and the bulk of the mainstream media is simply looking the other way.

snip

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002691.htm

That's only a month away!

The so-called "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA)--aka, the "Hack America's Vote Act," or the "Help America Vote for Bush Act"--was designed by the biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney, to corrupt and destroy our nation's election system, and it has largely succeeded in doing so. It should be REPEALED! We should eat our losses--$4 billion in misused, porkbarrel, Bushite-controlled funding--and go back to paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level, until we can clean all the corruption and rightwing Bushite corporations out of our election system.

What we have ended up with is "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls, in voting systems that are manufactured, serviced and controlled mostly by Diebold--whose CEO was a Bush/Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser-- and ES&S, a spinoff of Diebold (similar computer archetecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things). Diebold and ES&S have an incestuous relationship--they are run by two brothers, Tod and Bob Urosevich.

These are the people now "counting" our votes behind a veil of secrecy. That was the plan. THAT's how they destroyed our right to vote and remained in power in 2004. And that's who will continue to control our elections until we DO something about it!

But because this is a great big country, with a great big highly multi-cultural population, and with the states/counties still having some control over election systems, we can undo it, state by state, county by county!

The Pennsylvanians are challenging the very premises of HAVA, by which state officials are being bludgeoned, bribed, intimidated and corrupted into rash purchases of expensive, insecure, and extremely hackable electronic systems run by Bushites.

These Pennsylvanians are AWESOME! They are going after the PREMISES of this diabolical vote-stealing system.

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SOME RESOURCES FOR AMERICAN REVOLUTION II:

Hopeful signs - latest news:

California voters sue the state over Diebold:
www.VoterAction.org--just announced--is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal Diebold "certification" by Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496

Maryland rejects Diebold:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x418263

Florida - anti-trust accusations against Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia, re: heroic Florida election official Ion Sancho:
(FLA AG subpoenas the companies)
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,110192,00.html
http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/MGBKSY8W8LE.html
(info & discussion)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2183630

Utah county clerk fights back!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x419226

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More resources for American Revolution II:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections--they need donations)


(Activist sites with links to state activist groups or info)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.votersunited.org (good general info, and state links)
www.verifiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)

www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)

The Voter Confidence Resolution
http://tinyurl.com/rlnr2 (“We Do Not Consent”)
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com (GuvWurld blog main page)
http://tinyurl.com/amryg (Voter Confidence Resolution

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Congressional bills:

Russ Holt's HR 550 requires a real paper ballot, bans secret software in "voting machines", and has more than 170 co-sponsors, but the audit required is too weak, it promotes electronic voting and centralized power, and the secret software might be permitted to continue in the central tabulators (the bill is not clear). To sign the HR 550 petition: http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
At lot of discussion at DU of the loopholes/pitfalls in HR 550:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x422926
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x421136
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=422967&mesg_id=422967
(Note: Senate Bill-SB 330 and House-HR704 simply require a "voter verified paper audit trail" (VVPAT), which may be best for the moment.)


Also of interest:

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy!)
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Bob Koehler's latest: "Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

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Throw Diebold, ES&S and ALL election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:

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"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." --Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence