From: Bevharrismail@xxxxxxx To: Bevharrismail@xxxxxxx Subject: Andy Stephenson's e-voting lawsuit got results Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 11:56:36 EDT
Here's a little inside information you might find interesting: Not exactly what we expected (King County is still using uncertified software) but Stephenson's lawsuit appears to have produced a useful result nonetheless:
David Elliott, state elections director, resigned. When Andy's lawsuit went
into discovery, Elliott took an extended leave of absence for "mental health
reasons" (the better to avoid a subpeona). But now he is out altogether.
Current secretary of state Sam Reed, who was being sued by Stephenson, was on
the hot seat over uncertified software. That case was dismissed, but not
until after it made local newspapers and the lead story on BlackBoxVoting.org, a
site frequented by all of the national press.
Now state elections director David Elliott, who oversaw certification -- and
actually wrote some of the certification standards on the federal level -- is
out the door.
This is a bigger deal than it may seem -- David Elliott was one of the
national kingpins who has been pushing invisible ballots. He sat on the National
Association of State Elections Directors (NASED) board for many years. He went up
against me and Black Box Voting board member Linda Franz many times in the
media, advocating touch screens, saying they were safe because they were so
carefully certified.
He was kind of a bully. You'd have to ask Franz for her own story on
Elliott's intimidation tactics (I don't have permission to tell it to you), but I'll
tell you mine. We were having great difficulty getting from him any list of
NASED certified software. Finally, in frustration, while I was testifying in
front of the Washington State legislature, I broke protocol and turned to ask him
for the list of certified versions, in front of all the senators. The senators
(and Franz, who is a skilled legislative lobbyist) admonished me for stepping
outside the rules of order, but it did get us the full NASED, and that list
proved that at least 10 states were using uncertified software.
After the hearing, Elliott (who is about 6 feet tall) stepped up to me (I'm
5'1") and pushed right up against me. "I'm NOT happy with you!" he growled
menacingly, practically shoving his his face right into to mine, glowering. A
crowd was gathering and he started marching me toward the wall. It irritated me so
much that I just stood up to 5'2" and pushed back against him. I said "David,
you don't want to go there with me. You've been using uncertified software
for six years in King County." By this time about 20 people were watching and
listening, and he turned and went away.
Well yes, Elliott had been overseeing the use of uncertified software and as
a former NASED certification board member, he certainly knew better.
Worse, according to two witnesses (and here's one reason we want to get him
under oath in a deposition), Elliott was present when King County called
Diebold's Talbot Iredale, up in Canada, during the middle of an election night. "You
don't want to see this," they said. Elliott and another person went into the
central tabulator room, shut the door, and downloaded a new version of the
GEMS software directly from Canada, right in the middle of the vote count.
Version number changes support this, but the King County internal memos were
destroyed when Andy's lawsuit became official -- King County ordered that all emails
in the elections division over 90 days old be destroyed!
Elliott went around the country touting touch screens, and around the state
pushing paperless voting, but now he's just puttering around the garden.
Congratulations, Andy, for your courage and leadership. I know it hasn't been
an easy nine months for you. Here's Andy Stephenson's email, if you'd like to
say hello: andy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Bev Harris
Now go take back your vote: http://www.blackboxvoting.org
Contact info: Bev Harris
330 SW 43rd St PMB K-547
Renton WA 98055
Bevharrismail@xxxxxxx
This is the correct Amazon address for book purchase:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/1890916900