What if I told you that electronic voting machines previously decertified in California because of all of their security flaws had recently been re-certified by a Republican Secretary of State.

Suppose I then said that, even so, this GOP official, recognizing the danger that such flawed electronic voting machines could be easily tampered with, issued strict procedures that must be followed before they could be used in any elections. Assume that these requirements included keeping a strict chain of custody for, and the secure storage of, all programmable memory chips used by these voting machines, and that any failure to comply with such security protocols would result in their automatic de-certification, making them invalid for use in any election.

Now imagine that what I’ve described is precisely what happened in a special election to replace a Republican Congressman and convicted felon, and that, strangely enough, the Republican candidate defeated his Democratic rival by a few thousand votes. Further imagine that no official has expressed the least concern about the illegal use of these voting machines, including the very Secretary of State who issued the orders which were so flagrantly violated.

Unbelievable, right? Well, that’s exactly what Brad Friedman of Brad Blog has reported occurred in the election to replace Randall “Duke” Cunningham in CA-50.

(Cont. below the fold)

The electronic Diebold voting systems used in the special run-off election last week for California’s 50th U.S. House district were effectively ‘decertified’ and invalidated for use in the election after massive security breaches in the storage of those systems were sanctioned by the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, The BRAD BLOG can now conclude.

Based on the review of several different very specific state and federal requirements, laws and provisions, the unsecured overnight storage of Diebold voting machines and their memory cards in poll workers houses, cars and garages in the days and weeks prior to the closely watched election between Republican Brian Bilbray and Democrat Francine Busby violated several federal and state provisions which, if not followed, would revoke the certification of use for the voting systems in any California election.

In the wake of discussions yesterday with SD County Registrar Mikel Haas, who admitted to The BRAD BLOG that storage in poll workers’ cars could not be considered secure, it has now become clear that several violations of certified provisions of use for Diebold voting machines — which have been found and confirmed in the past several months to be highly tamperable by dozens of methods and by the company’s own admissions — occurred in last week’s race…

I have no way of knowing if indeed the election between the Democratic nominee, Francine Busby and her Republican counterpart, Brian Bilbray (who won the election by about 4000 votes) was affected by this strange and illegal behavior on the part of San Diego County and its Registrar of Voters, Mikel Haas, but at the very least, it calls into question the result of that election.

I strongly urge you to read the entire post by Brad Friedman of Brad Blog, because he provides a litany of problems that have ensued from the use of these optical scan and touch screen Diebold machines in districts across the country. He also lays out in detail the relevant California and Federal election laws that were violated by San Diego County when it permitted its poll workers to keep these machines at their homes, or in the cars, some for as long as a week prior to election day.

Yet when Brad Friedman spoke with the Registrar for San Diego County, Mikel Haas, he seemed remarkably unconcerned that his actions violated the strict security protocols issued by Secretary McPherson’s office and resulted in automatic de-certification of the very machines used in the Bilbray/Busby special election:

. . . When I asked Haas if that vulnerability alone might give him reason to be concerned about the integrity of the voting systems he then used in last week’s election, he rejected the suggestion.

Since a PCMCIA card can be inserted with the necessary files into that unsealed slot and the power button turned on (all that’s needed to overwrite the software) doesn’t that vulnerability trouble you, I asked him.

“I don’t know….I think it’s highly improbable,” he said.

“Improbable?” I wondered. “I’m not asking if it’s probable or not, but if it’s possible…”

His reply blew me away: “I don’t think so, because you’d have to want to commit a felony, which knocks out most of our poll workers.”

(Pausing here for effect to let you think about that.)

When I mentioned several cases were poll workers recently have been indicted for election fraud, he stated he was unaware of any such cases. I pointed him towards three officials recently indicted in Cuyahoga County, OH and explained the situation to him. He was unphased and seemingly uninterested.

“I’m sure they could stick something in the system…Whether it’s detectable or not, I’m pretty sure that it is. But again, you’re tampering with election equipment, so it seems unlikely.”

Odd, isn’t it, how unconcerned our election officials who use these deeply flawed machines always seem to be? Laws broken? No big deal. Possibility of that these easily hackable machines were tampered with? Dismissed. As Brad points out, California has previously experienced problems with Diebold machines as have officials in Iowa, and Utah. Diebold officials themselves have admitted that their machines contain computer code which can be easily tampered with (i.e., “Self-modifying, dynamically loaded, or interpreted code” prohibited by Section 1, paragraph 4.2.2 of the FEC Voting System Standards of 2002).

Syndicated columnist, Bob Koehler, in his most recent column, essentially declares that he has no confidence in the results of the Busby/Bilbray election because of the election irregularities involving these Diebold machines:

People across the political spectrum have begun waking up to the immense risks posed by electronic voting. For instance, conservative CNN commentator Lou Dobbs recently weighed in that, “The security of our elections and the integrity of our democracy is in jeopardy. Nationwide, there is concern and even alarm that electronic voting machines are simply too easily compromised and vulnerable to fraud.”

And Diebold machines, which were decertified in California at one point, are probably the most controversial of all. Computer experts given even brief access to a Diebold machine have demonstrated how easily it can be hacked, with election-changing results. A highly detailed “security alert” about Diebold, issued in May by the nonpartisan Black Box Voting, warns:

“Based on publicly available documentation, source code experts and testing performed with the system, there seem to be several backdoors to the system which are unacceptable from a security point of view. . . .

While many people argue that the machines shouldn’t be used at all, California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, who re-certified Diebold, at least acknowledges their security danger and has established strict “chain of custody” standards for each machine and memory card. No unauthorized person should ever be alone with them, and “Any breach of control over a memory card shall require that its contents be zeroed.”

Now then, fasten your seatbelts. In San Diego County, the voting registrar, Mikel Haas, apparently following time-honored custom (or whatever), sent machines and other equipment home with poll workers for as much as a week before the June 6 election, to be stored in living rooms, garages, etc., shattering all control over these insecure machines and opening up, in Harris’ words, “a huge gaping maw of an attack hole.” […]

A spokesman at Haas’ office subsequently confirmed the “sleepover” (as Friedman put it). And another spokesman, at McPherson’s office, who took the better part of two days to return my calls, refused to answer a simple, point-blank question: Were chain-of-custody requirements violated in San Diego County? Instead, she e-mailed me a copy of the secretary of state’s certification process, which seemed to confirm that indeed they were. Further calls to McPherson’s office have not been returned.

I don’t know whether the secretary of state’s allegiance is to partisan politics or just a quick count. But like others who have looked on appalled at the procedural sloppiness of this election, I have no confidence in Bilbray’s 4,732-vote “victory” over Busby. Worse, I fear that democracy in the electronic era is in the hands of people who regard it as more trouble than it’s worth.

It should go without saying that Mr. McPherson, California’s Secretary of State and the man who re-certified Diebold machines for use in California after their de-certification by his predecessor in office, is a Republican. Just like happened in Ohio in 2004 under its Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, and in Florida in 2000 under its former Republican Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, I expect a lot of “interesting” election results from California this year.

In other words, I share Bob Koehler’s sentiments when he says he fears our democracy is “in the hands of people who regard it as more trouble than it’s worth.”

I suggest that those of us who continue to value that democracy make every effort this year to oppose and expose the actions of state and federal officials who can’t be bothered with ensuring that every vote is counted. You can start by signing THIS
PETITION demanding a hand recount of the Busby/Bilbray election results.

Update [2006-6-15 11:35:24 by Steven D]: Further steps to take (via boofah at Dkos):

Join VerifiedVoting.org

Join VotersUnite.org