News From Underground
NO op-scans in New York!
July 09, 2008
As a friend of Bo Lipari, and longtime champion of New Yorkers for Verified Voting (NYVV),
I do regret that I must disagree profoundly with them on the matter of how New York casts
its votes. While they call for replacing this state's lever system with op-scans, I see op-scans
as unacceptable. As computerized machines, they don't permit the sort of open vote-count
that democracy requires, but only partial and belated audits--a lousy substitute for the
simplest and most honest counting method of them all: one that we can all observe together.
snip
As Andi Novick reminds us here, the hackability of op-scans was made crystal-clear in HBO's
great documentary Hacking Democracy (which, as she notes, will be screened this Sunday
in Poughkeepsie, for those concerned about the question of New York's voting system).
In the following open letter, Andi makes a powerful case against the use of op-scans in
New York.
MCM
snip
Dear friends and particularly the Voters of New York State,
New Yorkers are the only U.S. citizens who have a protected right to vote. Incredible but true. Almost every other American (except for those pockets of the country that hand count) are using software-driven DREs or Optical Scanners, both of which have been proven to vulnerable to undetectable tampering. So voting on them is a crap shoot- you have no idea if your vote will count. Speaking of crap- please go to
http://re-mediaetc.blogspot.com/2008/07/eyes-wide-shut.html to see what your state election commissioners think of this crap (crap is a direct quote from one of the commissioners).
So why are we abandoning our secure lever voting system for crappy, theft-inviting software-driven optical scanners? To ponder this further see
http://re-mediaetc.blogspot.com/2008/07/eyes-wide-shut.htmlAnd the answer is-- there is no legitimate reason to give up our safe, reliable lever voting system for this unsafe crap. That's why we have to sue the State and the State Board of Elections to stop computerized vote counting software from coming into our state. That's what I've been working on (and that's why you don't get quite so many emails any longer). Here's a two page summary of the complaint LitigationSummary.pdf. we'll be commencing WITH YOUR HELP. Unlike all the other times I've said we could really use your help- this time it's more important than ever. If it's not everyone of you and everyone you know supporting this litigation effort than who are we doing this for?
Software-driven systems can steal your vote and you'd never know. That's a fact and here are the 2 dozen scientific studies Sci Studies in 6-21v.doc corroborating how unsafe and unreliable this crap is. Forcing us to vote on undetectably mutable software is unconstitutional! It is the essence of disenfranchisement! If we're going to fight to preserve our sovereignty we all have to mobilize behind this litigation now.
I had hoped to send around a Petition tonight asking you all to circulate widely and to sign up as plaintiffs to the litigation, but the Petition on Line people have yet to get back to me, so for now- read and learn and in a few days I will hopefully be able to send out the Petition and more about what you can do to help.
In addition to the litigation summary and Eyes Wide Shut, read NY Loves Its Levers as New Systems Fail and LET'S CLEAR THE AIR- clarifying the misinformation out there, distilling the facts from the myths. And check regularly into our Re-Media Election Transparency blog
http://re-mediaetc.blogspot.com/ which we'll update to keep you apprised.
There's your homework assignment until the next email asking you to be a Plaintiff in this historic lawsuit and sending you the Petition to sign and circulate.
If you want to talk about this more, after you've read the articles linked above, I'll be at a showing of Hacking Democracy this Sunday at 2:00, July 13th, at the Muddy Cup 305 Main St, Poughkeepsie, NY.
For more information,
http://www.activistresource.org/calendar/cal_event.php?id=11078. If you haven't seen how an optical scanner can be rigged without detection, come out and see Hacking Democracy this Sunday. PLEASE CIRCULATE TO YOUR LISTS
thanks
andi novick
http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/2008/07/no-op-scans-in-new-york.html