"The Election Center"
The Fox Guarding the Hen House:
How long will "The Election Center" be allowed to act as an educator, trainer and advisor of election officials? How long will Sequoia, Diebold and ES&S be allowed to control the education that Election Officials receive from "The Election Center"?
This August 24-28, 2004, The Election Center will be holding their National Conference for Election Officials in Washington, DC. The Top 3 Voting Machine Companies will be hosting parties, awards and a "Dinner Cruise on the Potomac" for Election officials from around the country.
How long will it influence decisions made by North Carolina election officials?
How can North Carolina Election officials have the confidence of the citizens of N.C. when being indoctrinated by the Top 3 Voting Machine Companies and their puppet, "The Election Center" which says electronic voting is safe?
Latest development: Sequoia Voting Machine Company to sponsor Dinner on the Potomac for your Election Officials in August.
How long will it be allowed to maintain it's status as a non-profit?
The Election Center is a non-profit agency, a 501 C-3.
"The Election Center" says that paperless electronic voting is safe:
R. Doug Lewis of the Election Center has been distributing a letter stating
that DREs cannot be tampered with.
Doug Lewis's opinion carries a great deal of weight with election officials
According to Dr. David L. Dill, of Stanford University, This letter by Lewis demonstrates profoundly disturbing complacency and a serious lack of understanding of computer security, and, indeed, computer technology, by the very organization that is supposed to ensure the integrity of the systems we are worried about.
This letter is refuted point-by-point by David Jefferson, a computer scientist
This response is essential reading for anyone who needs to know about the security of DRE machines. Please distribute it your state and local election officials, especially if they've seen the Lewis letter
How "The Election Center" Influences North Carolina Election Officials:
- Key North Carolina Election Officials are members of this organization.
- Many NC county election directors are members and/or receive training and "education" from "The Election Center.
Gary Bartlett, The Executive Director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections
sits on the Board of Directors of "The Election Center".
Gary Bartlett pushing the state towards paperless DREs:
"It seems like every jurisdiction that has purchased (DREs) loves them,"
Bartlett said. "The optical scan is old technology, and there are more issues
with it, like not following ballot instructions, residual votes and a host of
other issues.....
North Carolina will receive about $66 million once the funds are completely
distributed, Bartlett said. About $11 million is being held up while the
Elections Assistance Commission finalizes accessible voting equipment standards."
March 26, 2004 AccuPoll Receives Federal Qualification For Electronic Voting System
McLean claims that if DREs had paper ballot, would lead to vote selling:
"The possibility of vote buying is one of the reasons North Carolina elections officials balk at
requiring voting machines that have a verifiable paper trail."
"'Nobody wants to say that because that's not a popular thought now,'
said Johnnie McLean, deputy director for administration of the North Carolina Board of Elections,
while discussing the pros and cons of various voting machine systems available and in use in the state."
"But the elections board has thought of that.
Tammy Polk Hinton, Mecklenburg County North Carolina Project Manager
Meckelburg County Election Director Bill Culp was convicted of Accepting Bribes
from Microvote Salesman Ed O'Day. For a full history of the bribery:
Mecklenburg County spent over $5 Million on Microvote DREs. (defective ones at that).
Election Center Honors and Recognition Committee:
Kathie Chastain-Cooper, Forsyth County Director of Elections - has a link to Election Center on the Forsyth County BOE website. Kathie is pro-DRE, especially the paperless kind. Wants to "get rid of the paper". Forsyth County has $3.1 Million for purchase of new voting machines. Forsyth is a punch card county at this time.
Cherie Poucher, Wake County Board of Elections
Info: Wake tested the infamous ES&S iVotronic, which hit the news when it dropped 436 votes in a 2002 election during early voting. Cherie sent the machines back to the vendor, Wake county is the
exception, they are sticking to their optical scanners. Ironically, North Carolina's state capitol
Implications:
- The NC State Board of Elections makes critical decisions on election procedures and technology in our state.
- This agency decides which machines can be certified for use in North Carolina.
- North Carolina has not certified any touchscreen machines that produce a Voter Verified Paper Ballot
- NC placed a moratorium on state certification of new machines March 27th, 2004.
- http://www.newbernsj.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=14521&Section=Local
"The five-member board voted unanimously to limit which voting
machines can be purchased by the state's 100 counties..."
- North Carolina has DREs (paperless electronic voting) in 40 of 100 of its counties.
- Only paperless DREs are certified in North Carolina at this time, although other options have Federal Certification
"The Election Center's" financial ties to the top 3 voting machine companies:
Donations:
PROOF THAT "THE ELECTION CENTER" ACCEPTED $40,000 FROM VOTING MACHINE VENDOR Sequoia Pacific.
SEE FOR YOURSELF: If you go to www.guidestar.org and look up The Election Center, then check their 990 filing for the
year 2001.
Go to page 13 and you will see the contributions they have listed from Sequoia Pacific:
1997 $10,000
1998 $10,000
1999 $10,000
2000 $10,000
Doug Lewis admits that "The Election Center" received money from Diebold, and ES&S as well:
"Its executive director, R. Doug Lewis, confirmed this week that the center had taken donations from
makers of electronic voting machines -
Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. of Oakland, Calif., and Electronic Systems & Software Inc. of Omaha, Neb.
In addition, donations came from "probably Diebold" Inc. of North Canton, Ohio, Lewis said.
The Election Center, which claims to be non-partisan, accepts money from voting machine vendors and then turns around and recommends the technology sold by those same people?
Does this violate the intent of its statement of purpose?
What are the ethics?
"The Election Center's" partnership with the top 3 voting machine companies, inclusion in conference agendas:
Dinner Cruise on the Potomac for election officials is sponsored by Sequoia Voting Machine Company -
Also, this August, the top 3 Voting machine vendors will be co-sponsoring a National Conference for Election Officials.
The names Sequoia, Diebold, and ES&S are listed on the bulletin for the August event.
This is a form of endorsement by association.
The Election Center is allowing the following 3 voting machine vendors to play a large part in the ceremonies.
- Diebold will be sponsoring the welcome reception.
- Sequoia will co-sponsor a dinner cruise on the Potomac and ?Monuments by Night Tour?.
- ES&S is sponsoring the graduation luncheon and awards ceremony.
There will be lectures about
Like asking the Fox to guard the "hen house" -
It is important to know that the SOS of California is considering criminal charges against Diebold, and in
Indiana, Election Officials have referred to ES&S representatives as "derelicts".
Some counties are refusing to pay ES&S for their machines as the company lied to them
about their machines being properly certified. Flaws in software of the iVotronic have been identified by Florida authorities, and most likely affect the same machine in other states.
The Election Center will continue influence election officials until it is charged with an ethics violation or otherwise discredited.
Please tell me, is "The Election Center" violating any laws regarding non-profits?
IS THIS ETHICAL? IS IT LEGAL? CAN IT BE STOPPED?
Write or email your County Election Director to see if they will be attending the August National Conference being held by "The Election Center". Advise them that you find this to be a conflict of interest if they are. Then, let your County Board of Elections Members know about this conflict of interest and waste of taxpayer's money:
The contact info for you county election director is here: http://www.app2.sboe.state.nc.us/about/directors.asp |
