Contributions are tax-deductible, :much needed, and very much appreciated Dear Patriot, Upcoming presidential primaries in Massachusetts will use Diebold/Premier Accuvote optical scan voting machines, with some locations using systems by ES&S. Here's something you should know about the Global/Diebold/Premier optical scanners: In 2000, at 2:09 a.m. on Election Night, minus 16,022 Volusia County, FL votes were inserted into news totals from this voting system. Seven minutes later, networks called the election for George W. Bush. In 2003, e-mails from voting machine programmers at Diebold were leaked to Black Box Voting. According to notes written by Diebold programmers, an original memory card, "card #0," had the correct votes, but was replaced by "card #3" with minus 16,022 votes for A1 Gore. According to the leaked e-mails, "card #3" is now missing. According to an internal CBS report obtained by Black Box Voting, the 16,000-vote "error" is what caused networks to incorrectly call the election. Gore telephoned Bush to concede, then learned of the bogus totals just minutes before he was scheduled to concede to the nation. He pulled-back- his concession. Had the false totals remained undiscovered just a little bit longer, there might never have been a Florida recount at all! Here's something you should know about ES&S optical scanners: In 2004, in Broward and Orange counties (FL), ES&S optical scanners miscounted votes. The Broward machines counted backwards when they hit 32,000 votes. The Orange County miscount problem was only revealed when activists got their hands on a letter written by an official to the state of Florida about this. 1. Massachusetts Chain of Custody Project - Massachusetts citizens are about to learn more about the strange Diebold/Premier chain of custody in New England: A private contractor, LHS Associates, has unsupervised inside access to both voting machines and memory cards for 81% of New Hampshire votes and a very large percentage of Massachusetts votes. This opens up two problem areas: access to the programming on the memory cards and, during maintenance, access to the easily reprogrammable chips that act to control each machine. Tampering with either one can invalidate the legitimacy of computer totals. In the detective story that unfolds in the 2006 Emmy nominated HBO documentary Hacking Democracy (see below), Black Box Voting shows one way votes can be altered with paper ballot systems when chain of custody is breached. We need your help to address the privatized chain of custody for the machines serviced by LHS. 2. Massachusetts Bug Check Project - Has the ES&S miscount problem has been addressed in Massachusetts? What about the issues some ES&S scanners have in reading certain kinds of ink? 1. Massachusetts Chain of Custody Project 2. Massachusetts Bug Check Project 3. Donate! Use enclosed envelope. Tax deductible. Help 2008 Election Protection efforts! Black Box Voting is a small organization that packs a huge punch for election protection. Our budget is less than 1/20`b that of other national organizations, yet we consistently deliver the goods. We are funded entirely by citizen donations; the more support, the more we can do. To make a democratic system work, each of us should walk the walk. I believe this, I act upon this, and I hope you ill join me in this. Sincerely, . Bev Harris , Black Box Voting P.S. All donations of $45 or more will get the Hacking Democracy DVD as a free gift (unless you specify otherwise.) Please use enclosed envelope for support and input.
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