A Murder?

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[FONT size=7]Voting Paper Trail Advocate
Dies In 'Tragic Accident'
[/FONT][FONT size=+1]By Bob Fitrakis
Senior Editor
The Free Press
3-20-4
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 [TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=555 border=0] [TBODY] [TR] [TD width="100%"] [DL] [DT][FONT size=+1]The subject line on Tuesday's email read: "Another mysterious accident solves a Bush problem. Athan Gibbs dead, Diebold lives." The attached news story briefly described the untimely Friday, March 12, death of perhaps America's most influential advocate of a verified voting paper trail in the era of touch screen computer voting.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Gibbs, an accountant for more than 30 years and the inventor of the TruVote system, died when his vehicle collided with an 18-wheeled truck which rolled his Chevy Blazer several times and forced it over the highway retaining wall where it came to rest on its roof.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Coincidence theorists will simply dismiss the death of Gibbs as a tragic accident.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Gibbs' death bears heightened scrutiny because of the way he lived his life after the 2000 Florida election debacle. I interviewed Athan Gibbs in January of this year. "I've been an accountant, an auditor, for more than 30 years. Electronic voting machines that don't supply a paper trail go against every principle of accounting and auditing that's being taught in American business schools," he insisted.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]"These machines are set up to provide paper trails. No business in America would buy a machine that didn't provide a paper trail to audit and verify its transaction. Now, they want the people to purchase machines that you can't audit? It's absurd."[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Gibbs was in Columbus, Ohio, proudly displaying his TruVote machine that offered a "VVPAT, that's a voter verified paper audit trail" he noted.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Gibbs also suggested that I look into the "people behind the other machines." He offered that "Diebold and ES&S are real interesting and all Republicans. If you're an investigative reporter go ahead and investigate. You'll find some interesting material."[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Gibbs' TruVote machine is a marvel. After voters touch the screen, a paper ballot prints out under plexiglass and once the voter compares it to his actual vote and approves it, the ballot drops into a lockbox and is issued a numbered receipt. The voter's receipt allows the tracking of his particular vote to make sure that it was transferred from the polling place to the election tabulation center.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]My encounter with Gibbs led to a cover story in the Columbus Free Press March-April issue, entitled, "Diebold, electronic voting and the vast right-wing conspiracy." The thesis I advanced in the Free Press article is that some of the same right-wing individuals who backed the CIA's covert actions and overthrowing of democratic elections in the Third World in the 1980s are now involved in privatized touch screen voting. Additionally I co-wrote an article with Harvey Wasserman that was posted at MotherJones.com on March 5. Both articles outlined ties between far right elements of the Republican Party and Diebold and ES&S, which count the majority of the nation's electronic votes.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]As I wrote in the Free Press article, "Proponents of a paper trail were emboldened when Athan Gibbs, president and CEO of TruVote International, demonstrated a voting machine at a vendor's fair in Columbus that provides two separate voting receipts."[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]In an interview on WVKO radio, Gibbs calmly and methodically explained the dangers of "black box" touch screen voting. "It absolutely makes no sense to buy electronic voting machines that can't produce a paper trail. Inevitably, computers mess up. How are you going to have a recount, or correct malfunctions without a paper trail?"[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Now, the man asking the obvious question, and demonstrating an obvious tangible solution is dead in another tragic accident, a week after both articles were in circulation.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]When I called TruVote International to verify Gibbs' death, I reached Chief Financial Officer Adrenne Brandon who assured me "We're going on in his memory. Weíre going to make this happen."[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Every American concerned with democracy should pledge to make this happen. To beat back the rush for state governments to purchase privatized, partisan and unreliable electronic voting machines without verified paper trails.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Gibbs' last words to me were "How do you explain what happened to Senator Max Cleland in Georgia. How do you explain that? The Maryland study and the Johns Hopkins scientists have warned us against 'blind faith voting.' These systems can be hacked into. They found patches in Georgia and the people servicing the machine had entered the machines during the voting process. How can we the people accept this? No more blind faith voting."[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]- Dr. Bob Fitrakis also is a political science professor, and author of numerous articles and books.[/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1][/FONT]  [DT][FONT size=+1]Copyright © 1998-2004 Online Journal. All rights reserved. [A href="vny!://onlinejournal.com/evoting/031904Fitrakis/031904fitrakis.html"]vny!://onlinejournal.com/evoting/031904Fitrakis/031904fitrakis.html[/A] [/FONT] [/DT][/DL][/TD][/TR][/TBODY][/TABLE]

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 [DIV class=ItemHeadline]ES&S MELTDOWN: More Problems Now Emerge in West Virginia

[DIV class=ItemSubHeadline]Company Technician Uses Old Version of Software To Program Voting Machines

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

[img hspace=6 src="vny!://www.bradblog.com/Images/ESS_Meltdown.gif" align=left vspace=3 border=0]On top of [A href="vny!://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002742.htm"][FONT color=#60bf00]Brad's earlier report today[/FONT][/A][FONT color=#60bf00] [/FONT]on the ES&S meltdown in Texas, and loads of other states, we find out that still more problems with ES&S have been encountered in West Virginia.

On Thursday the Associated Press [A href="vny!://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/14444273.htm"][FONT color=#60bf00]reported[/FONT][/A][FONT color=#60bf00] [/FONT]that a software "glitch" has delayed testing in 11 counties. The reason?

Though electronic ballots on the ES&S iVotronic Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines are programmed and seem to recorde votes accurately during testing, it's taking six hours or more to tabulate all the results. That is a huge problem for machines sold on the premise of accuracy and speed.

But the larger concern? "Version control". Apparently an ES&S engineer programmed the machines using outdated software. The company seem to not bother to ensure the correct version of software is being used and installed on the machines. And counties are not watching to ensure ES&S is keeping their machines current.

Ben Beakes, the chief of staff for WF Sec. of State Betty Ireland, explained:

 [DIV class=media]"All the votes on the paper trail are correct. All the votes inside the machines are correct. It will just not recognize them when it's time to tabulate the results," Beakes said.[/DIV]

That said, was the software version used federally qualified with the hardware and firmware version being used by those 11 counties? Do the states or counties even care? Maybe not but they should because not all versions of software will work with all versions of firmware. That's why there are version numbers.

And that's just one more reason why we're headed for an electoral train wreck.  

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[FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffcc00"]Friday, April 28th 2006 [/FONT]

[A href="vny!://www.bradblog.com"]www.bradblog.com[/A]

 BREAKING: More ES&S Meltdown

 [DIV class=post] [DIV class=ItemSubHeadline]Indiana Files Formal Complaint; Legal Action To Be Filed In West Virginia

[DIV class=ItemSubSubHeadline]One WV County Withholds Their Payment [/DIV]
 [img hspace=6 src="vny!://www.bradblog.com/Images/ESS_Meltdown.gif" align=right vspace=3 border=0]Just[FONT color=#00bf60] [/FONT][A href="vny!://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/14453623.htm"][FONT color=#00bf60]reported[/FONT][/A] by the Associated Press is a report that Indiana Secretary of State, Todd Rokita has filed a formal complaint Friday against Elections Systems & Software (ES&S) for violating state law by providing defective equipment and services.

An [A href="vny!://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article%3FAID%3D/20060428/NEWS01/60428026/1008&cid=0"][FONT color=#00bf60]article[/FONT][/A][FONT color=#00bf60] [/FONT]in the Louisville (Kentucky) Courier-Journal goes on to say:

 [DIV class=media]Rokita already had been investigating problems that counties have had with the company — which include delays in the delivery of crucial voting equipment and ballots and errors in programming. But his action Friday launches a formal process that could result in fines of $300,000 for each violation of state law.

He has scheduled a 9 a.m. hearing on May 8 to consider evidence and testimony.

"Hoosiers deserve voting systems that comply with the high standards mandated by Indiana law," Rokita said in a written statement. "The May 8th hearing is a mechanism for voters, election administrators, and vendors to know that Indiana will hold accountable, where appropriate, those who wrongly put at risk the integrity of our voting process."

ES&S spokesman Ken Fields said in a statement that the company "will vigorously defend against the allegations."

According to Rokita's complaint, ES&S provided defective voting system equipment, software and services to Johnson, St. Joseph and Marion counties. Election officials in other counties have complained of similar problems.

Last week, during a preliminary hearing Rokita had to gather evidence, ES&S Senior Vice President John Groh apologized for what he called service problems but said they were not violations of state law.

Fields said in his statement Friday that Rokita's complaint "fails to include many important facts about the election readiness services and support process in Indiana."

"We intend to make sure that all of the facts are considered as a part of the review of this situation," he said. "Those facts will demonstrate that our company has worked hard to assist Indiana counties in meeting their obligation to conduct fair and accurate elections."[/DIV]

Also just out this morning is a[FONT color=#00bf60] [/FONT][A href="vny!://www.dailymail.com/news/News/200604288/"][FONT color=#00bf60]report[/FONT][/A] in the Charleston Daily Mail. The Daily Mail reports that Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper has taken a check for $1.2M that represents payment for the counties ES&S voting machines and has locked that check up in a his desk drawer. This is all on top of yesterday's[FONT color=#00bf60] [/FONT][A href="vny!://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002747.htm"][FONT color=#00bf60]report[/FONT][/A] about outdated software being installed on ES&S machines in the state.

Mr. Carper is reported to have told other members of the commission:

 [DIV class=media]"(The company) has embarrassed themselves," Carper said. "I got a feeling this will get their attention."[/DIV]

Also announced is that the County Commissioners Association of West Virginia announced on Friday morning it was filing legal action against the company with help from the Secretary of State's office and Attorney General's office.

It appears that a lot of the money that ES&S is raking in will be paid back out to attorney's who will have to go to court to try to defend the poor work of the company that counts more American votes than any other.
  [DIV class=BloggedByMain]Blogged by [FONT color=#00bf60]John Gideon [/FONT]on 4/28/2006 @ 11:20am PT...[/DIV]

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[SPAN class=cu]Read About Brave American Hero Athan Gibbs[/SPAN]  [DIV class=ct]A Chilling Story of an Apparent State-Sponsored Murder

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[DIV class=ct]Athan Gibbs was an African-American businessman and inventor who had been through the Jim Crow and civil rights eras.  After Florida 2000 he was so distressed about the election fraud disenfranchising Black Floridians that he invented an electronic voting machine that not only produced a paper trail, but a tracking number that would allow a voter to check online or through a phone call whether their vote had ultimately been accurately recorded.  It was called Tru-Vote.  It garnered great reviews and to facilitate revving it up for widespread implementation he partnered with Microsoft to get it ready for the 2004 elections.

[P class=ct]Then in March 2004, days after demonstrating the system at a trade show, Athan Gibbs was killed in a car accident on his way to work--struck by an 18-wheeler and killed.   [P class=ct]Now despite promises by Gibbs' family to continue his work, the Tru-Vote company is languishing, while Diebold, ES&S, and Sequoia have gotten the multi-million dollar contracts to provide electronic voting equipment to a number of states.   [P class=ct][A href="vny!://www.commonground.ca/iss/0410159/cg159_USvote.shtml"]An article that gives the overall story
[/A] [P class=ct][A href="vny!://sweetliberty.blogspot.com/2003_12_28_sweetliberty_archive.html"]A report on TruVote before Gibbs' death
[/A] [P class=ct]Obituaries about him:
[A href="vny!://www.bartlettexpress.com/articles/2004/03/25/business/02gibbs.txt"]here[/A] and [A href="vny!://www.arral.org/news/wow/saved_5849.html"]here.[/A] [P class=ct]Bob Fitrakis interviewed Gibbs--in fact, apparently it was Gibbs that put Fitrakis on the whole e-voting story, including the insecurity of the other e-vote systems and the unsavory political connections of their owners, [A href="vny!://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031904Fitrakis/031904fitrakis.html"]here[/A] and [A href="vny!://www.opednews.com/fitrakis031804_silkwood_evoting.htm"]here[/A]   [P class=ct]I know most people in this country aren't ready to face it, so we must be careful how we communicate on this issue--but we must not kid ourselves that it's not really that bad. All the more reason not to give up. Let's not let Athan Gibbs be forgotten.