User:Kizzle/smoke/voting machines/issues

Help America Vote Act (HAVA)
- Letter from Bob Ney to Howard Dean


 * Following the chaotic and contentious Florida recall fight that ended up sending the 2000 presidential election to the Supreme Court, Congress moved to prevent any repeat of the dispute ballots, accusations of widespread disenfranchisement and electoral uncertainty that marred the final vote. To remedy the situation, Congress drafted the Help America Vote Act, a federal law aimed at improving voting systems nationwide.


 * The Help Americans Vote Act, sponsored by Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Bob Ney, R-Ohio, passed Oct. 16, 2002, in the wake of the 2000 presidential election. President Bush signed the measure into law on Oct. 29, 2002.


 * "Florida was clearly the impetus," said the bill's chief sponsor, House Democratic Minority Whip Steny Hoyer from Maryland.


 * The law allows states and local governments to decide which technology to use.


 * Hoyer said voting technologies are available that will meet HAVA requirements, including "optical scan" machines and "direct recording electronic" machines or DREs.
 * Optical scan system: voters use a pen or pencil to fill out a paper ballot similar to standardized test answer sheets familiar to most Americans. A machine then reads each ballot and tallies the vote.
 * Direct Recording Electronic Systems (DREs): voters use electronic devices, somewhat similar to ATMs, to enter their ballot choices. Some DRE machines also include features, such as Braille instructions, headphones and tactile paddles, designed to allow disabled voters to cast a ballot unassisted.
 * Most DRE machines, however, do not leave an individual paper record of a voter's ballot.


 * In a furious effort to prevent its cash cow from becoming a sacrificial lamb, the industry contracted the lobbying powerhouse, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), to wage a bitter PR counter-offensive against its perceived enemies.*The industry has also found a quiet but effective partner in Doug Lewis and the Election Center, a 501 c-3 non-profit that helps train and regulate election officials and certify voting machines which has nevertheless accepted donations from the industry while assisting ITAA to develop talking points and lobby the very officials it trains.
 * As ITAA's senior VP of communications, Bob Cohen, said, ITAA's lobbyists arrived on Capitol Hill in 2001 to demonstrate DRE systems for members of congress and to push for a bill which would encourage states to replace their lever and punch-card systems with DRE's.


 * ITAA is America's premier information technology lobbying firm. On its website, it describes itself as "the only trade association representing the broad spectrum of the world-leading U.S. IT industry," an industry which, according to ITAA, represented over $800 billion in spending in 2001. ITAA has over 350 corporate clients including major defense contractors like Boeing and Silicon Valley giants such as EarthLink and Dell.


 * Though HAVA does not mandate that states replace punch-card systems with DRE's, it provides significant encouragement. For instance, HAVA requires that each polling place have a voting machine accessible to people with disabilities. Though there are various disability-accessible systems, many states found purchasing the easily available and aggressively marketed DRE's the easiest way to satisfy this requirement. But perhaps the best motivation state officials had to buy DRE's was HAVA's promise of heaps of federal money. This year alone, congress has earmarked $500 million under HAVA for states to buy new voting systems.


 * "The unfortunate thing about HAVA is it encouraged the states to buy new machines before any standards were put into place, so states tended to buy the shiniest equipment they could find – which was touch screen voting machines [DRE's], although they're not required," said David Dill, a Stanford University computer scientist and leading paper trail proponent.

Diebold

 * ''What is Diebold?
 * Approximately 33- 35% of U.S. computerized vote count (scanners and touchscreen)
 * Ownership: Diebold Inc.
 * Location: North Canton, Ohio
 * History:In 2002 Diebold accquired Global Election Systems http://www.diebold.com/news/newsdisp.asp?id=2840 - founded 1991, which itself acquired the AccuVote system the same year. "From the strength and security of the safes and vaults first manufactured by Charles Diebold in 1859, to the technology-based integrated systems, software, and service that the Company provides today.."  Diebold (and Canada-based Subco) acquire Global Election Systems (a Delaware corp, but always listed as having corporate offices in McKinney Texas) from Global, Canada corp.


 * Charles Diebold, a German immigrant, founded the Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1859. The business soon established a national reputation for high-quality safes and vaults. The Company held the patents on at least 67 different safes by 1870.  When disaster struck one of the nation's major cities in 1871, it turned into opportunity for Diebold. Following the Great Chicago Fire, 878 Diebold safes were discovered with their contents unharmed.  Orders soared as a result. The need for expansion sent the Company looking for a new site. In 1872, it moved to Canton, Ohio. Reasons for the move included favorable railroad facilities, opportunities for financial assistance, less expensive coal, high-quality brick building materials, sound banking facilities, an energetic group of merchants, the prior existence of many Diebold safes in the community, room for expansion, and a favorable labor situation.  During the 1880s and 1890s, the Company also made jails, jail corridor doors, hangman trap doors, and padded cells for asylums


 * In 1967, Diebold showed a prototype of the first multi-function ATM at the American Bankers Association Automation Conference. Diebold was a distributor of automatic banking systems from 1970 until 1973, when it introduced its own TABS 500 Total Automatic Banking System


 * 2002 Diebold enters the US self-service elections industry through the acquisition of Global Election Systems, a leader in touchscreen voting technology


 * ''What other products does Diebold manufacture besides voting machines?
 * Agilis ATM Software
 * Agilis® is an open software platform -- which means it's based on technology that's widely known and used -- instead of the proprietary technologies of the past. Agilis takes advantage of leading, industry-standard technology like XFS service providers, TCP/IP, INvolve® middleware, and more -- and runs in the ubiquitous Windows® operating system. (Commercial)
 * Optiva ATM Hardware
 * Since its introduction in 2003, more than 10,000 Opteva ATMs have been purchased by the world's leading financial institutions. More than 4,000 of these are installed. And demand remains high for our revolutionary brand of ATMs (Video on ATM Security)


 * ''Who is the president of Diebold?
 * ''What ties does Diebold share with politicians?
 * Walden O'Dell CEO of Diebold said he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral voes to the President . O'Dell has defended his actions, telling the Cleveland Plain Dealer "I'm not doing anything wrong or complicated." But he also promised to lower his political profile and "try to be more sensitive." But the Diebold boss' partisan cards are squarely on the table. And, when it comes to the Diebold board room, O'Dell is hardly alone in his generous support of the GOP.


 * One of the longest-serving Diebold directors is W.R. "Tim" Timken. Like O'Dell, Timken is a Republican loyalist and a major contributor to GOP candidates. Since 1991 the Timken Company and members of the Timken family have contributed more than a million dollars to the Republican Party and to GOP presidential candidates such as George W. Bush. Between 2000 and 2002 alone, Timken's Canton-based bearing and steel company gave more than $350,000 to Republican causes, while Timken himself gave more than $120,000. This year, he is one of George W. Bush's campaign Pioneers, and has already pulled in more than $350,000 for the president's reelection bid.


 * According to campaign finance records at OpenSecrets.org, of the over $240,000 given by Diebold’s directors and chief officers to political campaigns since 1998, all has gone to Republican candidates or party funds.


 * ''Does Diebold management have a criminal record?
 * Dec. 17 2003 - "At least five convicted felons secured management positions at a manufacturer of electronic voting machines, according to critics demanding more stringent background checks for people responsible for voting machine software.
 * "The programmer Jeffrey Dean wrote and maintained proprietary code used to count hundreds of thousands of votes as senior vice president of Global Election Systems, or GES. Diebold purchased GES in January 2002. According to a public court document released before GES hired him, Dean served time in a Washington state correctional facility for stealing money and tampering with computer files in a scheme that "involved a high degree of sophistication and planning in the use and alteration of records in the computerized ... system that defendant maintained for the victim." (23 counts of First Degree Theft, case 89-1-04034-1)


 * Jeff Dean was specifically involved in the King County voting system, and is also mentioned specifically in the Diebold memos in connection with programming optical-scan software and the touch-screen Windows CE versions. King County provided him with a key to the computer room, the passcode to the GEMS computer and 24-hour access to the building. Diebold have indicated that he left when they took over GES, however internal records show he was retained, and continued to act as a "consultant".


 * King County WA. is the same county which Diebold internal memos say "are famous" for illicit access to voting systems and where a 3 hour section is missing from a security log during the September 2004 Primary.


 * "The other reported felons included a cocaine trafficker [John Elder] and a man convicted of engaging in fraudulent stock transactions."

ES&S

 * ''What is ES&S and its history?
 * 56% of the U.S. national vote for the past four presidential elections.
 * Handle(s) more than 40,000 of the world's most important events and elections. In the U.S. 2000 general election, ES&S systems counted over 100 million ballots."
 * Established: 1999 (how can they have monitored last 4 presidential elections if they were established in 1999? Just a question :))
 * Ownership: The World Companies (a wholly owned subsidiary of the Omaha World-Herald Company), The McCarthy Group (an Omaha investment banking company whose primary investor is World Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Omaha World-Herald Co.), Business Records Corp. (BRC), and American Information Systems (AIS) employees.
 * In 1999, American Information Systems (AIS), purchased Business Records Corp (BRC) to become ES&S
 * AIS (1980) was formerly Data Mark (1979), both founded by brothers Bob and Todd Urosevich. Bob is currently president of Diebold (see below). Todd Urosevich is Vice President, Aftermarket Sales of ES&S.


 * AIS was primarily funded with money from Ahmanson brothers, William and Robert, of H.F. Ahmanson Co., holding company for the nation's largest savings and loan association and a group of Omaha-based insurance companies, at the time.


 * Howard Ahmanson belongs to Council for National Policy (hard right wing organization).
 * Howard Ahmanson also helps finance The Chalcedon Institute:
 * "Established in 1965, Chalcedon (kal-SEE-dun) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) and Christian educational organization devoted to research, publishing, and promoting Christian reconstruction in all areas of life... Our emphasis on the Cultural or Dominion Mandate (Genesis 1:28) and the necessity of a return to Biblical Law has been a a crucial factor in the challenge to Humanism by Christians in this country and elsewhere... A world that is increasingly pessimistic and disillusioned with the failure of secular Humanism is now feeling the impact of Christians who are exercising dominion and reclaiming lost spheres of authority for Christ the King."
 * The organization's purpose is to establish Old Testament Biblical law as the standard for society. Chalcedon promotes Christian Reconstructionism -- which mandates Christ's dominion over all the world.


 * Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) was Chairman of the Board of AIS (resigned 1995) and was also president of McCarthy & Company (resigned 1996). Michael R. McCarthy is Hagel's current campaign treasurer.


 * Hagel may still be an investor in the McCarthy Group, see


 * ''Who is the president of ES&S?


 * Chuck Hagel, current U.S. senator for Nebraska ('96)
 * Later joined McCarthy & Co.
 * 1981, Ronald Reagan nominated Hagel to serve as Deputy Administrator of the Veterans Administration, a nomination confirmed by the United States Senate.
 * 1971-1977, he was administrative assistant (secretary) to Congressman John Y. McCollister (R-Nebraska)
 * 1969, Hagel worked as a conservative talk show host with radio stations KBON and KLNG in Omaha, Nebraska.
 * Hagel served in Vietnam in 1968 with his brother Tom.
 * Jeb Bush's first choice for running mate in 1998 for Florida Gov.
 * ''Describe Hagel's run for congressThe Hill


 * In 1992, Investment banker Chuck Hagel, president of McCarthy & Co, became chairman of AIS. Hagel, who had been touted as a possible Senate candidate in 1993, was again on the list of likely GOP contenders heading into the 1996 contest. On March 15, according to a letter provided by Hagel's Senate staff, he resigned from the AIS board, noting that he intended to announce his candidacy. A few days later, he did just that.


 * 8 months after stepping down from AIS, Hagel surprised national pundits and defied early polls by defeating Benjamin Nelson, the state's popular former governor. It was Hagel's first try for public office.


 * Nebraska elections officials told The Hill that machines made by AIS probably tallied 85 percent of the votes cast in the 1996 vote, although Nelson never drew attention to the connection.


 * A request for a hand recount for the vote was rebuffed, because Hagel's margin of victory was so large.


 * In a disclosure form filed in 1996, covering the previous year, Hagel, then a Senate candidate, did not report that he was still chairman of AIS for the first 10 weeks of the year, as he was required to do.


 * As might be expected, Hagel has been generously supported by his investment partners at McCarthy & Co. -- since he first ran, Hagel has received about $15,000 in campaign contributions from McCarthy & Co. executives. And Hagel still owns more than $1 million in stock in McCarthy & Co., which still owns a quarter of ES&S.


 * When Bev Harris and The Hill's Alexander Bolton pressed the Chief Counsel and Director of the Senate Ethics Committee, the man responsible for ensuring that FEC disclosures are complete, asking him why he'd not questioned Hagel's 1995, 1996, and 2001 failures to disclose the details of his ownership in the company that owned the voting machine company when he ran for the Senate, the Director reportedly met with Hagel's office on Friday, January 25, 2003 and Monday, January 27, 2003. After the second meeting, on the afternoon of January 27th, the Director of the Senate Ethics Committee resigned his job.


 * Nebraska has a just-passed law that prohibits government-employee election workers from looking at the ballots, even in a recount. Now, the only machines permitted to count votes in Nebraska, [Charles Matulka] said, are those made and programmed by the corporation formerly run by Hagel.


 * ''What political ties does ESS&S have?


 * ''What happened to the Hill when it tried to publish a story detailing Hagel's conflict of interest?

Sequoia

 * ''What is Sequoia?
 * Ownership: 85% De La Rue  15% Jefferson Smurfit Group
 * "De La Rue (London, UK) is the world 's largest commercial security printer and papermaker, involved in the production of over 150 national currencies and a wide range of security documents such as travellers cheques and vouchers. Employing almost 7,000 people across 31 countries, the company is also a leading provider of cash handling equipment and software solutions to banks and retailers worldwide helping them to reduce the cost of handling cash. We are also pioneering new technologies including tailored solutions to protect the world 's brands through to government identity solutions in secure passports, identity cards and driver 's licences. De La Rue has a 20% shareholding in Camelot - the operator of the UK National Lottery."
 * "The Jefferson Smurfit Group... (Ireland) is one of the largest European-based manufacturers of containerboard, corrugated containers and other paper-based packaging products. In addition to wholly owned operations, the Group has interests in several associated companies, the principal of which is Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation (SSCC). Spanning 4 continents and 30 countries, JSG and its associates employ some 68,000 people and are significant players in Europe, Latin America and North America."


 * ''What is the history of Sequoia?
 * Sequoia bought Business Records Corporation's optical scan vote tabulation business as part of a 1997 Dept. of Justice anti-trust action. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REQUIRES VOTING MACHINE MANUFACTURERS TO SELL OFF VOTING TABULATION BUSINESS IN ORDER TO MERGE After the Department of Justice expressed concern about the possible anticompetitive effects of a merger between two voting machine manufacturers--American Information Systems and Business Records Corp.--Business Records agreed to sell its optical scan vote tabulation business to a third party. Optical scan vote tabulation equipment is used by state and local governments to run elections. Attorneys General from eight states--Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, Arizona, Washington, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania--participated in the investigation.Omaha, Nebraska-based American Information Systems and Dallas-based Business Records are two of only three manufacturers of optical scan vote tabulation equipment in the U.S.Sequoia Pacific Systems of Exeter, California, a division of St. Louis, Missouri-based Smurfit Packaging Corp., will buy Business Records' optical scan vote tabulation business. Sequoia Pacific is a leading maker of direct recording electronic vote tabulation equipment with substantial experience in the elections business.Under the terms of the divestiture, Sequoia Pacific will immediately be able to compete for sales of such products."State and local governments--like any other consumers-- rely on competition to get fair prices," said Joel I. Klein, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department's Antitrust Division. "This divestiture preserves competition for voting machines, which is the best way to ensure that taxpayers and voters are protected from high prices and low quality."Optical scan vote tabulation equipment electronically counts and records ballots. This equipment differs from other types of vote tabulation equipment in several respects, most notably in its use of paper ballots, and is viewed by many state and local governments to be the preferred way to record votes accurately. Like most products sold to public entities, optical scan vote tabulation equipment is generally sold through a competitive bidding process. Business Records Corporation had 1996 revenues in all of its product lines of about $100 million.American Information Systems is an unincorporated, wholly owned subsidiary of the Omaha World-Herald Company. American Information Systems' 1996 sales in all of its product lines were about $14.3 million.Sequoia Pacific Systems is a division of Smurfit Packaging Corporation, which is owned by the Jefferson Smurfit Group plc. Jefferson Smurfit Group is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland and had 1996 revenues of about IR£2,594,141,000, with its U.S. operations accounting for IR£185,054,000 of that total.The Department said that additional assistance was provided by the offices of the State Attorneys General of Oregon, Oklahoma, Michigan and Iowa. Working closely with state enforcers on matters of mutual interest has been a major priority of the Antitrust Division. Source:


 * ''Is there really a connection between Sequoia Pacific and criminal activity? (Need to find better sources for the following, DEFINETELY need to substantiate claims like this, but if true this is going to be a shocker!)


 * 1995 SEC litigation: SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION v. SEQUOIA SYSTEMS, INC., GABRIEL P. FUSCO, KENT R. ALLEN, KEITH D. JOHNSON, AND EDWIN J. HUDSON, JR., Civil Action No. 95-0321 (D.D.C. February 16, 1995). "The Complaint, filed on February 16, 1995, alleges that Hudson, a former Sequoia salesman, together with three former officers of Sequoia, engaged in a fraudulent scheme to inflate the revenue and pre-tax income reported by Sequoia in its periodic and annual reports and financial statements that were publicly disseminated and filed with the Commission. Sequoia is a Nasdaq-listed company headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts, engaged in the design, manufacture and service of fault-tolerant computer systems. Specifically, the Complaint alleges that Sequoia made materially false and misleading statements in all but one of its quarterly reports filed with the Commission during fiscal 1991 and 1992, as well as in its 1991 and 1992 annual reports. Sequoia recognized and recorded sales revenue notwithstanding the fact that the consummation of the sales transactions and Sequoia's receipt of payment for its products were contingent upon future events, or in circumstances where there was no binding sales contract."


 * The Big Louisiana Election Scandal of 1999-?: Sequoia has been plagued by scandal. And it has some of the earmarks of an outrun run by organized crime. In 1996 right wing Republican Woody Jenkins lost to (increasingly conservative) Democrat Mary Landrieu for U.S. Senate seat. Jenkin's investigation led to federal charges of bribery of election officials. Sequoia Pacific’s Regional Manager, Phil Foster, and their regional sales executive, Pasquale (Rocco) Ricci (also owner of New Jersey-based Independent Voting Machine Services), were indicted for paying out about $8 million in bribes to Louisiana Commissioner of Elections Jerry Fowler. Glenn Boord and Ralph Escudero, also involved, owned Uni-lect, which was associated with Sequoia Pacific. They pled guilty to conspiracy to compound a felony. According to Asst. Dist. Atty. Sandra Reber, "Foster’s hands-on involvement was Foster's recruitment of his own brother-in-law, Donald Philpot of Birmingham, Alabama, (owner of Election Services Inc.) to help launder the kickbacks." J. Herbert Webb, president of Electec, Inc. was also involved. Fowler may have paid as much as $8 million more than required to buy machines, parts and maintenance services from Pasquale Ricci and David Philpot. In all, 22 people were indicted on charges related to a department whose primary responsibility is warehousing and maintaining the state's voting machines. Nine have pleaded guilty. Ricci, amazingly, got a one year home detention. Fowler got over 50 months in prison. Sources:


 * Voting Machine Service Center, Inc.? address, 2 quotes to town supervisors, same owners?

Electec, Inc. electecinc@home.com 41 East Monroe Street, P.O. Box 79, Mount Holly, NJ 8060 Ph: [1] 609-265-8181 Sales Contact: J. Herbert Webb, President (electecinc@home.com) [1] 800-833-9912 Description: Sales and service of AVM and Shoup voting machines and Global Election Systems AccuVote electronic voting systems. Equipment sales and rental. Printing of digitized poll books using our easy-view binder system. Complete inventory of parts for both Shoup and AVM mechanical machines. According to Daniel Hopsicker, Harold and Herb Webb are twin brothers operating election service industry companies in New Jersey. These companies, Garden State Elections (Mt.Holly, NJ) and Elec-tec (Birmingham, AL - ), were used to conceal transactions involving election services industry giant Sequoia Pacific, according to court documents, which fingered that company last week for orchestrating a 10-year long bribery scheme involving the Commissioner of Elections for Louisiana. Did Louis Wolfson own Sequoia as alledged by Hopsicker? "Only a generation ago, (1969) Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas was compelled to resign after it was revealed that he had given private legal advice to financier Louis Wolfson and received payments from the Wolfson family foundation while on the high court. Fortas was a corrupt Democratic Party crony of President Lyndon Johnson, but he never took part in any case directly affecting Wolfson's interests, let alone his own family's, as Thomas and Scalia have done in Bush v. Gore." 


 * ''Hopsicker says that Ricci got his start from Shoup. Where's the proof?


 * ''Hopsicker says that Sequoia also makes slot machines. True?


 * Sequoia Pacific has a "long connection" with criminal activity, including connections to the Gambino Family.
 * "[In respect of Sequoia there is] clear and convincing evidence that the company has been run, perhaps for decades, as a Continuing Criminal Enterprise specializing in blatant and widespread bribery of public officials, with numerous felony convictions, Mob ties, and a history replete with stories of threats, coercion..."


 * Sample cases - (1) Sequoia attempted bribery at a luncheon hosted by Salvatore Reale, a Gambino underboss who later pled guilty to racketeering, New York City, (2) Company’s founder, Lloyd A. Dixon Jr. indicted by federal grand jury for bribing Buffalo election officials, (3) Company fined nearly $50,000 for bribing Texas and Arkansas officials, (4) Next owner of Sequoia Pacific, financier Louis Wolfson became convicted of bribing the only Supreme Court Justice ever forced to resign in disgrace, (5) Louisiana’s Commissioner of Elections Jerry Fowler convicted of taking as much as ten million dollars over a period of a decade from Sequoia’s Southeast Representative, a man named Pasquale "Rocco" Ricci, from New Jersey. (6) US Attorneys refused or unable to "confirm or deny" if Ricci was connected to organised crime.


 * Official action - Allegations of voting irregularities by Republican Jenkins led to a year-long investigation. The probe quickly came across evidence of massive bribery, which became the focus of the investigation that followed, leading to charges that an election officer (Fowler) had spent $8.6 million in state money on "worthless" election equipment, and taken kickbacks from voting machine contractors working for Sequoia Pacific, in a scheme engineered by that company's executives. Fowler sentenced to five years in prison. Media did not mention the name of the company on whose behalf he was being bribed, Sequoia Pacific.


 * It began its modern life as Automatic Voting Machine, spun off to shareholders of Defense contractor Rockwell in the 1960s. The company’s founder, Lloyd A. Dixon Jr. resigned as president and CEO on Jan. 10, 1973, and later went to prison, after being indicted by a New York federal grand jury for bribing Buffalo election officials.


 * The company was fined nearly $50,000 for bribing Texas and Arkansas officials.


 * Sequoia Pacific, financier and corporate raider Louis Wolfson. Wolfson was convicted of bribing the only Supreme Court Justice ever forced to resign in disgrace, “Dishonest Abe” Fortas.


 * Fortas cut himself a deal. He taped phone calls, at the FBI’s behest, with Wolfson, who was pleading with the Supreme Court Justice to dummy up. In the transcripts of these phone calls the word  ‘cover-up’ enters the American lexicon for the first time.


 * Dixon’s main competitor, Ransom Shoup, also got sent to the Big House, in 1979. The company which became E S & S, barely escaped a Justice Dept. investigation, but only after a change in Administrations in Washington.


 * “We had to get Ronald Reagan elected President to get this thing (the investigation) killed, “quipped E S & S’s President at the time.


 * We first learned of Sequoia Pacific’s penchant for greasing the palms of corrupt public officials from the well-publicized news accounts in the year 2000 about Louisiana’s Commissioner of Elections Jerry Fowler, convicted of taking as much as ten million dollars over a period of a decade from Sequoia’s Southeast Representative, a man named Pasquale "Rocco" Ricci, from Marlton, New Jersey.


 * Another discovery was that, like the CIA, Sequoia Pacific operates through a number of dummy front companies. For example, two Florida election execs, Glenn Boord and Ralph Escudero, pled guilty to conspiracy to compound a felony (public bribery), who had owned a paper voting-machine company called Uni-lect, which was just a front for Sequoia Pacific.


 * Pasquale "Rocco" Ricci's company, International Voting Machines, was also really Sequoia Pacific. So too was Harold Webb's Garden State Elections. (And also Herb Webb's Elec-tec.)


 * Webb, a New Jersey elections equipment executive who participated in the bribery and kickback scheme that resulted in the conviction of Fowler, also played a key role in the infamous Martin County, Florida drama over Republican absentee ballots in the 2000 election.


 * Long-time Louisiana Governor Earl Long once claimed that with the right elections commissioners he could make the voting machines play “Home Sweet Home.”


 * Palm Beach County uses machines from Sequoia Voting Systems. (The company which has so far received the most critical scrutiny, Cleveland-based Diebold Election Systems, has no touch-screen machines in use in Florida.)

Problems with Voting Machines

 * ''How secure are voting machines?
 * ES&S voting machines are attached to modems, so they can be operated/accessed from offsite locations.


 * ''Describe the incident where an alert poll worker noticed Gore's votes going down. Why did it occur?  Why did Diebold say this occured?  Is there explanation plausible?
 * ''What kind of bugs are associated with voting machines?
 * ''Who verified these bugs?
 * ''Were these bugs fixed?
 * ''Why was there only one password (1111)?
 * ''Why did a programmer insert "This is just a hack for now"?
 * ''Have voting machines been cracked before?


 * ''Did Diebold know that its product was certified and tested? Did it present them as such?[http:/www.equalccw.com/lewisdeconstructed.pdf]


 * Exhibit A, internal documents from lawyers for Texas-based Diebold Election Systems, Inc. In these documents, the attorneys concede that the company used uncertified voting machines during elections before January 28, 2004.
 * The memos also state that such actions would violate both California election law and, by extension, Diebold’s $12.7 million contract with Alameda County. The memos don’t specify a particular election that was mishandled.


 * These Diebold memos (see links below)were unearthed by the Oakland Tribune and became the basis for a Tuesday story by reporter Ian Hoffman. The source of the memos, the law firm Jones Day, went to court last week demanding a return of the documents. Jones Day also sought to prevent the newspaper from publishing additional articles based on the documents, raising the same First Amendment issues addressed most famously in the Pentagon Papers case. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered the newspaper to return some of them, but the matter is in limbo pending ongoing court motions.


 * Diebold has conceded that it violated California regulations by using uncertified software in the March 2 election. This misstep occurred even though the Diebold internal memos had previously warned the company precisely of this problem. These memos also talk of greater legal culpability if the company knowingly violated California election law. The documents offer a potentially damning indictment of a company that failed to fly right despite in-house warnings.


 * ''How verifiable/reliable are voting machines?
 * ES&S supplied the touch screens for Miami-Dade and Broward counties where the worst machine failures occurred. But the debacle was nothing new for ES&S. Associated Press (AP) reporter Jessica Fargen wrote in June 2000, "Venezuela's president and the head of the nation's election board accused ES&S of trying to destabilize the country's electoral process. In the United States, four states have reported problems with equipment supplied by the company. Faulty ES&S machines used in Hawaii's 1998 elections forced that state's first-ever recount." (Oh we HAVE to mention Venezuala recall now)


 * ''Why is there no paper trail?
 * ''What is the history in congress that deals with debate over paper trails?

Impact of Electronic Voting

 * ''What influence do electronic voting machines have over international elections?
 * Unisys has successfully implemented national voter registration, identification, and integrated electronic election systems for Brazil (100 million registered voters), South Africa (20 million), Malaysia (10 million), Dominican Republic (4 million), Costa Rica (2 million), and Panama (2 million). Unisys has also successfully implemented Internet-based election results real-time reporting systems for Rome, Italy and for the State of Minnesota. In partnership with Election Systems and Software (ES&S), Unisys has successfully implemented in the United Kingdom multi-channel voting pilot test systems -including touch-screen voting, kiosk voting, postal voting, Internet voting, telephone voting, and digital television voting. Unisys has offices in more than 100 countries."


 * ''How many votes were cast electronically in the 2004 Election?
 * ''In percentage of national votes
 * ''In percentage of votes in Ohio (and maybe Florida)