Over the weekend, at least two reports out of mainstream Florida papers --- one in the Miami Herald and one in the Tallahassee Democrat --- report that Gov. Jeb Bush himself is now questioning the reliability of Florida's electronic voting system in light of the recent hack test in Leon County, home of the state's capitol Tallahassee. That security test, carried out last week, successfully flipped the results of a simple mock election test held on Diebold, Inc. voting equipment. The hack, which changed the results of an election from 2-6 to 7-1, left no trace of evidence behind.

After reports of the test were released, Florida's Sec. of State's office had initially criticized the messenger, Leon County's Director of Elections, Ion Sancho, suggesting that the matter was not the state's concern, but rather was an issue between Diebold and the county. That, despite the fact that it was the state of Florida who had certified the particular Diebold made machinery for use in the Sunshine State.

Acting FL Sec. of State David Mann also echoed Diebold's statement on the matter, criticizing Sancho himself because they believe that in allowing the hackers to gain access to the memory cards --- where a very short executable program capable of changing the election results had been secretly placed --- the test did not replicate 'real world' conditions.

Bush, who may be realizing the untenable position the state and their friends at Diebold now find themselves in, is at least taking the public stance that Sancho's findings and concerns should be taken seriously.

Quoting from the Herald coverage:

Over in the Tallahassee Democrat Sancho responds to the criticisms of the state and Diebold about granting access internally to the hackers, and the absurd charge that such things could never occur in a "real world" election:

Of course, we know that nobody in either Florida or Ohio or any other state in the union would ever try to rig an election from the inside.

Since the test, Sancho has announced that Diebold voting equipment will no longer be used in the county's elections and has requested funding to replace them with an alternate system that allows for recountable paper ballots and additional access for the disabled.

Earlier in the week, a Securities Fraud Class Action suit was launched against Diebold, in part, for failing to disclose flaws in their voting equipment.

Later in the week, after the test in Leon County, another Florida county, Volusia, decided against using the same unsecure Diebold machinery for their elections as well.

The BRAD BLOG has previously reported that even a branch of the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security has warned about security flaws in Diebold voting machinery, and a recent non-partisan GAO report which has further confirmed such concerns about all of the currently available electronic voting systems now being deployed around the country.

UPDATE 12/22/05: Miami Herald calls on Bush to retest all touch-screen and optical scan machines in the state!

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today was a relatively slow day when compared to the past week. Of course the news of the Diebold failures is still coming out of Florida. However, it is the little seemingly innocuous articles that, at times, provide important news. Today it was reported that in Ohio SoS Blackwell chose a new voting system for Summit County. Diebold TSx? No, he turned his back on Diebold and assigned them ES&S OpScans and AutoMARK for the disabled voters....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.org

Hans von Spakovsky. A German industrialist? A compatriot of artist Hieronymus Bosch? No. He is an attorney who is presently the head of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Voting Section. He is a member of the right-wing Federalist Society, and joined other Bush cronies in the Florida recount battle in 2000, and he is President Bush's newest recipient of a crony-nomination.

According to an article in today's Washington Post, von Spakovsky was nominated to the Federal Election Commission on Friday.

The nomination of von Spakovsky, a Republican, has already raised the hackles of some Democrats. According to WaPo:

WaPo added this:

It is clear that von Spakovsky had the ear of another "crony nomination" recipient, Alberto Gonzales, when it came to making decisions on the Georgia Voter ID issue and Texas redistricting, both of which had been recommended against by the Justice Departments' career professionals in the Voting Rights Division, but were given acceptance by the DoJ anyway.

The Georgia law has since been found unconstitutional as a "Jim Crow-era Poll Tax" by two Federal courts, and the Texas redistricting, concerning which former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay now faces indictments, has just been agreed to be looked at by the United States Supreme Court.

One other very notable point here. A Democrat, Robert D. Lenhard, has also been nominated to the FEC by Bush. As pointed out by Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake: "He's the husband of [Time Magazine reporter] Viveca Novak, whose testimony now provides the foundation for Karl Rove's defense in the CIA leak case."

As well, Lenhard was "quite helpful to the 1600 Crew as part of the legal team that challenged the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law," according to Jane.

Neither point, as Jane noted, was in either the White House Press Release or the WaPo's stenographic reporting of same.

Additional reporting on this story by Brad Friedman

CORRECTION: Our originally posted version of this story had reported von Spakovsky, instead of Lenhard, as the husband of TIME reporter, Vivica Novak. The BRAD BLOG regrets the error.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The news today, for a great part, was about Diebold and the lawsuits and Leon Co. test failure. The news day ended with the news that Volusia Co., Florida has decided to join Leon Co. in dumping their Diebold machines. How many counties will be joining in the march away from Diebold? The Ohio House of Representatives was not able to agree on part of the regressive HB3 legislation. It was not a disagreement over disenfranchisement of voters, or making it near impossible for anyone to request a recount, or restricting voter registration drives. It was a disagreement between Republicans over whether local government employees should be able to donate to their bosses political campaigns....

This just in...After various protracted legal battles (funded by the National Federation for the Blind, which had received a $1 million "donation" from Diebold previously) and along with the news out of Leon County, Florida, Volusia County has now come to their senses and also decided to dump Diebold voting machines!

Just out from the Orlando Sentinel...

A report received by The BRAD BLOG late last night from an activist down in Volusia in regard to the meeting anticipated today, summed it up thusly:

Well, three on the Volusia County Council still held out for Diebold. Fortunately, four didn't...and the vote wasn't held on paperless, hackable touch-screen machines, so it was transparent and reliable.

This report is yet another blow for Diebold coming on top of the resignation of their CEO, Walden O'Dell on Monday, along with a securities fraud lawsuit and the failed security test in Leon County on Tuesday. Quite a week for Diebold!

Our congratulations to the hard working citizen patriots in Volusia County and across Florida who have worked tirelessly on this issue for many months. Keep up the good work, folks! Democracy may not be dead yet!

Additional reporting on this story by John Gideon

The "hack test" of a mock election using Diebold voting equipment earlier this week in Leon County, Florida --- in which results of the election were completely flipped from 2-6 to 7-1 without even a trail of evidence left behind --- has continued to send shockwaves from Florida to Ohio to California and everywhere else in between.

The Director of Elections in Leon County, Ion Sancho reportedly proclaimed, after the stunning results of last Tuesday's test, that he would never use Diebold voting machines in any election in the county again.

Television news coverage began hitting last night in Tallahassee, the Florida state capital, which also happens to be in Leon County. And in a remarkable admission, Sancho now says he believes that such a hack occurred in the 2000 Presidential Election in Volusia County, Florida.

-- Here's a link to that video coverage...

Elections officials in Volusia County, by the way, are currently in the final throes of their decision of whether to go with Diebold's hackable voting machines, or whether they will go in a different direction. We may have more on that later today.

States and Counties across the country are continuing their last minute scramble to make decisions about new voting equipment many of them hope to acquire and have paid for by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. The deadline for that decision is Jan 1, 2006 and yet there are virtually no reliable Federal standards for any of the available Voting Machines currently on the market.

Litigation was filed against Diebold, Inc. earlier this week in Federal District Court in a Class Action Securities Fraud complaint based, in part, on their attempts at disguising the vulnerabilities and flaws of their Voting Machine equipment from investors.

Just curious, but at what point do those who've been called "conspiracy theorists" in pointing out the crimes of the dirty Republican party get recognized as geniuses since one Repub after another is being charged with and/or pleading guilty to charges of "conspiracy"?!

Adam Kidan, he the partner of Jack Abramoff in the SunCruz gambling boat scandal (and subsequent murder) has now pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges in a trumped-up deal which resulted in the acquisition of the 11 boat fleet in Florida for he and Abramoff. Not long thereafter, the previous owner, Guy Boulis, was murdered gangland-style in Miami allegedly by three mafia thugs who had been put on the SunCruz payroll by Kidan. Kidan had previous direct ties to the mafia himself. Oddly enough, Kidan, who appears to have ordered the murder, according to one of the guys now charged in the crime, hasn't yet been charged himself in connection to it. Even though his three mafia pals have been. We'll see if that changes.

What it means for now? Kidan's guilty plea goes along with an agreement to testify at Jack Abramoff's upcoming trial on this matter and Kidan is also likely to cooperate with prosecutors on several other Abramoff-related investigations as well. Several of them involving boatloads (pun intended?) of GOP pols.

As well, our old friend, not-yet-resigned Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), chair of the powerful House Administration Committee --- who held phony "hearings" last March on the 2004 Ohio Presidential Election "Irregularities" --- is also on the hook for his cooperation with Abramoff and Kidan in the SunCruz matter. Ney made statements on the House floor in support of Kidan and against Boulis as the deal was being played out. Apparently, Ney also received a few dollars in exchange.

Along with former Abramoff partner and one-time Tom DeLay staffer, the indicted Michael Scanlon, who has similarly agreed to testify against his old pals, we'd say Abramoff, Ney, and DeLay are all in hotter and hotter water to come. Where it stops...nobody knows.

And that's what happens when you participate in non-theoretical conspiracies.

From AP...

Please note that Tobin's crime occured in the 2002 election. He was known to be under investigation for the crime thereafter, but was hired anyway by Bush/Cheney '04 to run their NE campaign until he was indicted and the "honesty and integrity" campaign decided they better get rid of him. People might talk. More background on that particular GOP scandal here. And another update here, including info on the $722,000 that the RNC paid to defend their man, Tobin!

This is all counter, of course, to the horseshit put forth by the GOP front group calling themselves the "non-partisan" American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR). As you'll recall, they and their other Rightwing operative cronies had released reports, propaganda and all sorts of unsubstantiated claims about Democrats and various non-partisan Voter Registration groups such as ACORN having committed all forms of Voter Registration Fraud (which they tried to suggest was "Voter Fraud" --- which is something quite different).

You'll be surprised to learn, no doubt, that ACVR and friend were full of shit. It turns out that one year later, the organizations they scurrilously attacked --- in a transparent attempt to smokescreen the real Election Fraud that they were neck deep in perpetrating --- have been vindicated of the various bogus charges, as virtually all of the frivolous lawsuits and investigations the GOP liars made so much noise about have simply collapsed. See this for more [PDF].

Sorry for both the vulgarities and the terse report on both of these items. Too much to cover for the huge BRAD BLOG "Staff" (that would be me and an occasional helping hand from one or two similarly overworked and patriotic helpers!) that isn't adequately being covered by the "real" media. And that means I'm both way too busy, and way too cranky and just a little too foul-mouthed this evening. Don't fucking like it? Go read the fucking NY Times instead. By next week, they oughta have a great story on Wally O'Dell resigning from Diebold! (There, now I feel better).

For more information on the "non-partisan" tax-exempt ACVR scam and the snake-oil salesmen who invented it, Bush/Cheney '04 National General Counsel Mark F. "Thor" Hearne and RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke, please see BRAD BLOG's full Special Coverage of the "American Center for Voting Rights" at http://www.BradBlog.com/ACVR.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

It is apparent that the PR machine has been cranked up and is working overtime. The Associated Press picked-up the Leon County story and the always available David Bear of Diebold is suddenly refusing to speak. Diebold did speak through a letter to Florida and Ion Sancho in Leon County. Of course, they made it all Mr. Sancho's fault. Florida just threw up their hands and said they had nothing to do with anything. In California, two Diebold counties have come out in support of Diebold and say that it can't happen there. That message will surely be repeated in "Diebold counties" across the nation as Diebold and their customers try to save the day. In the meantime there is an excellent OpEd from Centre County, PA below....

Excellent detailed coverage of the Leon County hack situation, as discussed in the previous item in reference to AP's coverage and the scramble by both Diebold and Florida to cover their asses. Had I seen the Herald report prior to AP, I would have pointed to it instead. Has been a busy day...

Please read Miami Herald's excellent article therefore, before moving to my analysis of Diebold/Florida's attempted ass-covering in the previous BRAD BLOG item. Here's some of the key points from the Herald [emphasis added]:

That last graf is highlighted just so the folks at ES&S don't rejoice too much while Diebold is currently on the hook. Rest assured, ES&S folks, you are not off the hook by any stretch of the imagination...

(UPDATE: On the graf before that, in re: "many conservatives" and the "liberal ploy" please note the thoughts of real conservative John Cole on this same article...as opposed to the bulk of the phony "conservatives" littering the American political landscape these days.)

And then more actual common sense, spoken out loud by Elections Official (and American Democracy's latest hero!) Sancho:

And the heavens opened...and the light shined through...Is it morning again in America yet?

AP has finally taken note of the Leon County, FL hack test. The extraordinary test election which was entirely flipped last Tuesday as reported here previously.

In the bargain --- in light of that devasting test, after which the Elections Director of Leon County reportedly vowed to never allow Diebold's machine to be used in another election and has requested funds to replace all of Diebold's voting machines --- and along with the Securities Fraud suit that was filed against Diebold on the same day, Diebold's PR machine has kicked into overdrive. Though their normal spokesman, David Bear, normally in charge of lying about things having to do with their Voting Machines has been notably missing in action, Diebold has been issuing press releases and sending letters in an attempt to counter and distract from the devastating news of late. And the State of Florida is similarly scrambling to find someone else to blame as well.

From AP's report today on the Leon County hack, Diebold goes on the offensive and conjures up the gall to send a letter attempting to place blame for the incident on Ion Sancho, the Elections Director in the county who was wise enough to let the test move forward in hopes of determining if the machines were as vulnerable as many of us have been charging forever...

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Since 9/11, the Department of Defense has been authorized to expand the collection of information inside US borders.

NBC News is reporting that the Pentagon is watching "peaceful anti-war and counter-military recruitment groups." One example includes extensive information that was collected on a group who were meeting to discuss how to protest military recruiting at a local highschool.

A recent article in the The Palm Beach Post described the group. It consisted of about 20 people, including five Quakers and a 79-year old grandmother. This was only one of 1,500 "suspicious" incidents in the database.

The Christian Science Monitor also has a good article on the Bush Administration's current domestic spying and psychological operations activities.

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