Voting-machine firm merger investigated -
Florida
- MiamiHerald.com
Florida's attorney general is investigating a voting-machine company merger that has voting-rights groups worried that the move will concentrate too much power over democracy in one private company.
BY MARC CAPUTO
HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is conducting an anti-trust investigation of a voting-machine company merger that would create a near-monopoly over the levers of democracy in Florida and much of the United States.
McCollum's office has issued at least six subpoenas covering every major voting-machine company as part of a civil investigation of Election Systems & Software's $5 million acquisition of Diebold Inc.'s elections division -- a merger that would give a private company too much power over the machines used to castvotes, voting-rights groups say.
``Our office engaged in this issue because anti-competitive behavior can seriously harm consumers,'' McCollum said in a written statement. ``Competitive behavior encourages the best products be available to consumers, including technology, particularly in a market as sensitive as the voting systems market.''
Under the state's 1980 anti-trust law, McCollum could persuade a court to levy fines against ES&S or prevent the company from operating in Florida. By next year, the company is expected to be the exclusive provider of voting machines and services in 65 of the 67 counties in Florida, the nation's most important swing state.
That means, under the acquisition announced Sept. 2, ES&S will provide election services to 92 percent of Florida's 11.2 million voters.
More broadly, ES&S's purchase of the competitor company gives it control of the voting machines in nearly 70 percent of the nation's precincts, according to a federal lawsuit in Delaware filed by a rival company, Hart Intercivic. The U.S. Department of Justice is conducting its own inquiry.
McCollum's investigation came to light Wednesday after eight voting rights groups sent him a letter urging him to open an inquiry -- unaware that his office had already opened its investigation Sept. 10. The first subpoena was sent out Oct. 2.
``I'm glad to hear there's an investigation. We need action now,'' sad Dan McCrea, president of the Florida Voters Foundation, one of the groups that sent the letter.
``Florida counties are negotiating their contracts now to prepare for the 2010 elections,'' McCrea said. ``They can suffer the potential damages for dealing with a monopoly now. So intervention needs to happen now.''
McCollum's spokeswoman, Sandi Copes, said the office could not comment on a pending investigation.
The subpoenas show that McCollum is searching for every type of document that the voting machine companies have, from ``pencil jottings'' to memos to canceled checks and even electronic images of websites.
Spokesmen and lawyers for ES&S, Diebold and the other voting companies could not be reached or would not comment on the case.
Documents show that the companies that received subpoenas are: ES&S, Diebold Inc., Hart-Intercivic, Sequoia Voting Systems, Scytl and Dominion Voting Systems Corporation.
In a Sept. 23 Herald/Times story about the initial concerns of the merger, ES&S offered assurances that the acquisition ``will result in better products and services for all customers and voters alike.''
But Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said monopolies are bad for voters and consumers.
``In a monopolistic situation,'' he said, ``price goes up, quality goes down and there's almost no innovation.''
Simon said a looming issue the Legislature will face next year: how toprovide better voting equipment for disabled people who can only use touch-screen voting machines.
``We can't have separate but equal,'' said Simon, who signed Wednesday's letter along with McCrea's group and the Broward Election Reform Coalition, Common Cause, Florida Consumer Action Network, Florida Council of the Blind, Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections and Voter Action.
In the Wednesday letter, the advocates suggested that McCollum's office cooperate with other states and the federal government, join the Delaware lawsuit filed by Hart-Intercivic and collect and submit data to the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, which is investigating as well.
Marc Caputo can be reached at mcaputo@ MiamiHerald.com
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Murder, Spies & Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story
Murder, Spies and Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story
This is from the official website for "Murder, Spies and Voting Lies"
Part 1
Part 2:
Go to the official website to buy the video and see more.
To get the DVD at discount see Amazon "My Favorites" widget below.
This is from the official website for "Murder, Spies and Voting Lies"
Part 1
Part 2:
Go to the official website to buy the video and see more.
To get the DVD at discount see Amazon "My Favorites" widget below.
CRIME SCENE PHOTOS: The Clint Curtis / Tom Feeney / Yang Enterprises, Inc. Vote-Rigging Scandal [Raymond Lemme Police Photos, Valdosta, GA]
CRIME SCENE PHOTOS: The Clint Curtis / Tom Feeney / Yang Enterprises, Inc. Vote-Rigging Scandal [Raymond Lemme Police Photos, Valdosta, GA]
Judge hearing Florida vote rigging case murdered and covered up
Judge hearing Florida vote rigging case murdered and covered up
KY Election Officials Arrested, Charged With 'Changing Votes at E-Voting Machines'
KY Election Officials Arrested, Charged With "Changing Votes at E-Voting Machines"
BradBlog
Circuit court judge, county clerk, and election officials among eight indicted for gaming elections in 2002, 2004, 2006
Used popular, unverifiable ES&S touch-screens to flip votes...
[Now updated at bottom with details from the indictments.]
Those of us who have demanded transparent voting systems because we understand that only the ability for complete citizen oversight and transparency can effectively counter those who would game elections, have been disingenuously criticized over the years as somehow questioning the integrity of the hard-working, honest election officials out there.
The fact is, those who know anything about computer security understand that it is the insiders who are, by far, the greatest threat to security on such systems, as even the phony, GOP-operative-created Baker/Carter National Election Reform Commission determined in its final report: "There is no reason to trust insiders in the election industry any more than in other industries."
The best election officials in the country, however, will underscore that point, and agree that there is no reason any citizen should ever have to simply "trust" them.
Over the years, we've detailed the arrests and other unsavory behavior of many of the not-so-good election officials who, we were told, should simply have been trusted (our "favorite" has always been the case of Monterey CA's Tony Anchundo, who told us on air we should "trust" him, just a month or two before being arrested on 43 counts).
Well, now we've got a whole passel of still more crooked officials to add to the list. Moreover: The Kentucky officials arrested and indicted today, "including the circuit court judge, the county clerk, and election officers" of Clay County, have been charged with "chang[ing] votes at the voting machine" and showing others how to do it!
Hello?!...
From Lexington, Kentucky's NBC affiliate this afternoon:
Five Clay County officials, including the circuit court judge, the county clerk, and election officers were arrested Thursday after they were indicted on federal charges accusing them of using corrupt tactics to obtain political power and personal gain.
The 10-count indictment, unsealed Thursday, accused the defendants of a conspiracy from March 2002 until November 2006 that violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). RICO is a federal statute that prosecutors use to combat organized crime. The defendants were also indicted for extortion, mail fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to injure voters' rights and conspiracy to commit voter fraud.
According to the indictment, these alleged criminal actions affected the outcome of federal, local, and state primary and general elections in 2002, 2004, and 2006.
The article goes on to list some of the criminal actions listed in the indictment. Among them [emphasis added]:
Clay County Clerk, Freddy Thompson, 45, allegedly provided money to election officers to be distributed by the officers to buy votes and he also instructed officers how to change votes at the voting machine.
...
Election officer William E. Stivers, 56, allegedly ...
cont'd
BradBlog
Circuit court judge, county clerk, and election officials among eight indicted for gaming elections in 2002, 2004, 2006
Used popular, unverifiable ES&S touch-screens to flip votes...
[Now updated at bottom with details from the indictments.]
Those of us who have demanded transparent voting systems because we understand that only the ability for complete citizen oversight and transparency can effectively counter those who would game elections, have been disingenuously criticized over the years as somehow questioning the integrity of the hard-working, honest election officials out there.
The fact is, those who know anything about computer security understand that it is the insiders who are, by far, the greatest threat to security on such systems, as even the phony, GOP-operative-created Baker/Carter National Election Reform Commission determined in its final report: "There is no reason to trust insiders in the election industry any more than in other industries."
The best election officials in the country, however, will underscore that point, and agree that there is no reason any citizen should ever have to simply "trust" them.
Over the years, we've detailed the arrests and other unsavory behavior of many of the not-so-good election officials who, we were told, should simply have been trusted (our "favorite" has always been the case of Monterey CA's Tony Anchundo, who told us on air we should "trust" him, just a month or two before being arrested on 43 counts).
Well, now we've got a whole passel of still more crooked officials to add to the list. Moreover: The Kentucky officials arrested and indicted today, "including the circuit court judge, the county clerk, and election officers" of Clay County, have been charged with "chang[ing] votes at the voting machine" and showing others how to do it!
Hello?!...
From Lexington, Kentucky's NBC affiliate this afternoon:
Five Clay County officials, including the circuit court judge, the county clerk, and election officers were arrested Thursday after they were indicted on federal charges accusing them of using corrupt tactics to obtain political power and personal gain.
The 10-count indictment, unsealed Thursday, accused the defendants of a conspiracy from March 2002 until November 2006 that violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). RICO is a federal statute that prosecutors use to combat organized crime. The defendants were also indicted for extortion, mail fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to injure voters' rights and conspiracy to commit voter fraud.
According to the indictment, these alleged criminal actions affected the outcome of federal, local, and state primary and general elections in 2002, 2004, and 2006.
The article goes on to list some of the criminal actions listed in the indictment. Among them [emphasis added]:
Clay County Clerk, Freddy Thompson, 45, allegedly provided money to election officers to be distributed by the officers to buy votes and he also instructed officers how to change votes at the voting machine.
...
Election officer William E. Stivers, 56, allegedly ...
cont'd
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
The Raw Story | Diebold voting system sported 'delete' button: report
Diebold voting system sported 'delete' button: "Wired's Zetter notes, 'The California report states that the 'clear' button, along with other problems with the auditing logs as well as the software flaw that caused the system to lose votes in Humboldt County (see below for more information on that flaw), should have been red flags to the testing laboratories that certified the system and should have been sufficient to 'fail' the system and prevent it from being used in any federal election.'"
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