Vote Company Strong-Arm Succeeds in NJ

Voting Machine Company Strong-Arm Tactics Succeed in Blocking New Jersey Investigation (So Far)
Legal Threats from Sequoia Voting Systems Force County to Cancel Plans for Independent Analysis of the State's Own Voting System
Livermore Labs Scientist Urges Readers to Contact NJ AG to Ask for Technical Review of Same Flawed Machines Set to be Used Next Month in PA...

Sequoia Voting Systems' legal threats against Princeton computer science professors and New Jersey election officials, as we reported in exclusive detail last night, have apparently had their intended effect.

The strong-arm email sent to professors Ed Felten and Andrew Appel was apparently accompanied by a two-page letter to Union County, New Jersey Clerk Joanne Rajoppi who originally discovered a tally failure in Sequoia's AVC Advantage touch-screen voting machines after the February 5th Super Tuesday election. The same error was subsequently discovered in at least five other counties.

Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami-Covello tells the New Jersey Times that Sequoia's decision to block an independent analysis of its touch-screen voting machines makes no sense if the firm is confident that they work properly.

"I think it's unfortunate that they're not letting an independent investigation take place," Sollami-Covello tells the paper this morning. "They should have no problem with having a third party investigate the product if they are confident in their product."

The latest developments, in the almost mind-numbingly incredible, developments in your democracy, now fully and completely in the hands of privatized corporate America, follow at the link below...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5820

Related from last night...
EXCLUSIVE: Voting Machine Company Threatens Princeton Profs
Sequoia Voting Systems Threatens Princeton Computer Scientists with Legal Action if they Carry Out NJ Commissioned Analysis of the Company's Touch-Screen Voting Machines
VP Edwin Smith Warns Scientists, in Email Obtained by The BRAD BLOG, of Plans to Take 'Appropriate Steps to Protect Against Publication of Software, Its Behavior or Reports Regarding Same'

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5814

I wish more people were paying attention.

...I share your wish. While everyone is enjoying the horse race, they continue to forget to keep an eye on the track conditions.

Please help them. Make noise. K&R at the very least. And take note of the call for contacting the NJ AG on this to demand an investigation (link in the original story).

If you not you, (the reader of the this comment), then who?

Perhaps a citizen can sue either the company or the state, using perhaps, ironically, the same disenfranchisement argument that bush used to steal the 2000 election.

Also, is there any way to start a PR campaign? I saw the original test on a Youtube clip from one of the networks.

K&R'd

give Sequoia 24 hrs to agree to the test and if they do not, tell the local printers to fire up the presses.


K&R...

Hey, it works for DickieGeorge. Every damn time.

For Crying Out Loud.

The GOP thinks of the technology in military terms. Whether you're looking at voting or spying or investing or healthcare, you'll find the GOP own the platform and what they do with it and how they profit from it is a secret.

Amazingly (or perhaps, not so much at this point), Union County's attorneys folded to the pressure from the company, which claimed that Election Officials in NJ --- who spent millions on the voting systems --- are not legally allowed to examine them independently because "the voting machine software is a Sequoia 'trade secret' and cannot be handed over to any third-party."

does the State and Counties own the voting machines, or does the company. If the company does not own them, then they have no standing to interfere with an independent analysis intended to ensure the accuracy and safety of the machines. I find this whole ordeal analagous to Microsoft stopping by your door and telling you they will sue you unless you stop tinkering and tweeking it. Once the property passes over to the State, then the company can't do shit, because it is not their property. A person is allowed to tinker for their own reasons as long as it is not for financial gains.. And I doubt anyone would say that auditing voting machines has a financial purpose. It is time to REJECT closed-source voting machines. Transparency is a must.