Defending the Truth

Touch-screen voting machines are not accessible to the majority of people with disabilities.

Copy of Devies' ADA Complaint Against The State of Florida

The 2000 Census lists 3.6% of the population as "sensory impaired," which is defined as a degree of loss of sight or hearing. The overall disabled population over age 16 but less than age 65 comprises 20 to 25% of the population, depending on the year for which the data was collected.

Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) devices, otherwise known as a touch screen machines, don't fully accommodate the sight-impaired portion of the 3.6% of sensory-impaired people because the Voter Access Card (VAC) required to activate the DRE voting process requires a specific orientation of the VAC when it is inserted into the DRE. There are no markings on the VAC to help these people orient it properly, so someone will need to assist them.

The National Federation of the Blind and the American Association for People with Disabilities (NFB and AAPD respectively) insist that to vote privately and independently (HAVA 301(a)(1)(A)(i)) a disabled person must be able to enter the polling place and vote without any assistance from anyone. The NFB and AAPD actively promote DRE's. It is obvious these so- called "disability experts" have not thought through the entire process. Read the Entire Article

Illinois: Much Ado...
by Robert A. Wilson, chair, Suburban Cook County Chapter, Illinois Ballot-Integrity Project - April 11, 2006


Chicago City Council Hearing Pursues "Venezuelan Connection" - Ignores Substantive Issues

Friday's joint hearings conducted by the Chicago City Council's Committees on Finance, Budget and Government Operations and Committee on Committees, Rules and Ethics failed to shed much light on the "events and problems that occurred during vote tabulation for the City of Chicago Primary Election held on March 21, 2006," as stated in the meeting's agenda.

Alderman Ed Burke (14th) led off the hearing with a statement expressing concerns and then proceeded with two hours of sharp questioning of Jack Blaine, president of Sequoia Voting Systems, Inc., the company that supplied the voting systems used in both the City of Chicago and suburban Cook County.

Occasionally joined by Alderman Richard Mell (33rd) and Alderman William Beavers (7th), Burke, chairman of the Council's Finance Committee presented a timeline chart relating to the acquisition of Sequoia by Bocca Raton, Florida-based Smartmatic Corporation in March 2005. Throughout, Blaine professed to have little knowledge of Smartmatic’s Board of Directors or principal investors or stockholders, even though he serves as president of Smartmatic as well as Sequoia. Blaine even professed ignorance of the price Smartmatic paid to acquire an 85% interest in Sequoia from De La Rue Cash Systems 13 months ago, stating only that it “was less than $20 million.” Of course, it was widely reported in the financial press at the time that the purchase price was $17.6 million, but apparently Blaine doesn’t pay much attention to details like major acquisitions his company might have made.

At issue was a disclosure affidavit which Sequoia had completed on August 3, 2005, as a part of the procurement process. The form, which requires the disclosure of officers and directors of the corporation and anyone having a more than 7-1/2 percent interest in the company is silent as to Smartmatic's majority interest in Sequoia. The affidavit, signed by then Sequoia president, Tracy Graham, lists only herself as president and "J. Blaine" as secretary. Blaine consistently deflected questions about the contract between Sequoia and the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, suggesting that Howard Cramer, vice president of sales, was responsible. At one point Blaine appeared to disassociate himself from the contract (actually a number of separate agreements) by indicating that Cramer might have been the signatory. However, some of the documents, signed only eight months ago, which Blaine claims he did not know about or did not remember, bear what purports to be his signature, but do not disclose his title as required. Read the Entire Article


Indiana ES&S Breaks State Law -- Again!
by John Gideon, VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA. - April 5, 2006


No Early Voting Ballots Provided, Just Electronic Touch-Screen Voting Machines that Don't Work

Paper Ballots Are Used in the Meantime as ES&S Succeeds at Failing Yet Again…

THE GOOD NEWS: A Local TV News Outlet That Reports Actual News!

This article was published on The Brad Blog and is reposted with permission.

Proving that local TV News stations actually can serve their viewers by actually investigating stuff that matters, and then reporting on it, Indianapolis' WISH-TV 8 does it again. In yet another report on local election problems, WISH-TV has been keeping their viewers informed with a series of stories on voting issues.

"Well, once again, a Voting Machine Company is breaking Indiana law and violating county contracts," the story by reporter Pam Elliot began.

Last night, WISH TV 8 reported on the failure of Elections Systems & Software (ES&S) to perform up to their contract with their customers. That contract: to provide ballots to voters and touch-screen voting equipment that actually works.

Johnson County Indiana was supposed to have their ES&S iVotronic DRE (touch-screen) machines set-up and in use for "absentee voting". However, contrary to their contract and, as WISH TV reports, in violation of state law, ES&S has failed to program the counties "smart cards" with ballot definitions. Which means the voting machines are of no use.

Also missing are printed paper ballots for Johnson County and nearly two-dozen other counties across the state. Which means that in order for these counties to conduct "absentee voting" they will have to copy paper ballots and provide those to the voters. Read the Entire Article

Maryland: Senate Democrats Defeat Verifiable Elections
by Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA - April 11, 2006



Maryland voters will vote on paperless touchscreen voting machines again this year thanks to concerted efforts by Democratic State Senate President Mike Miller and Senator Paula Hollinger, chair of the committee on Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs.

In a disappointment to election integrity activists nationwide, the Senate killed a bill that had passed unanimously in the Maryland House of Delegates that would have called for voter verified paper records and mandatory audits on thde last day of the legislative session. As sent to the Senate, the bill also included an amendment that called for implementing a paper ballot optical scan voting system for this year's elections. In addition to the unanimous support of the House of Delegates, the proposal also had the full support of Governor Robert Ehrlich, Jr. (R).

Senator Hollinger is running for the U.S. House seat currently held by Rep. Benjamin Cardin. Senator Hollinger has ensured that it will be impossible to independently verify the results of that election results and that the votes of Maryland citizens will be counted by propreitary software provided by Diebold Election Systems.

More ES&S Memory Card Problems Reported In Ohio
by John Gideon, VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA. - April 4, 2006


Also, Firmware Found to be Buggy on Their Electronic Voting Machines as Well

ES&S To Face Tough Questions From County Elections Board, Others States Need to be Notified of the Problems!

This article was posted at The Brad Blog. It is reposted with permission.

Summit County has recently had problems with failed memory cards as related by The BRAD BLOG on March 9 and March 10. As reported at the time, as many as 30% of the cards completely failed initial testing in the county. A few days later, corresponding tests in North Carolina found more than 1000 of the cards failed. The memory cards, amongst other things, store the vote tabulations from elections.

New tests now in Summit County have also revealed additional failures on both memory cards, and the voting machines "firmware" as well.

Today the Akron Beacon Journal has revealed that Summit County has discovered 28 more bad cards in a batch of what was supposed to be good cards as sent to them by ES&S specifically to replace the previous bad ones. Read the Entire Article

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Election Integrity News Editor: Warren Stewart
VoteTrustUSA Statement of Principles
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.ph...=124&Itemid=98