Voting Maching Fraud – Bruce Funk Needs Our Help

Kathy Dopp is nationally known for her work in exposing voter machine fraud. Kathy is running for Summit County Clerk for the Desert Greens Green Party of Utah. She aims to win and work towardsa more equitable voting system.

Kathy has been sending out notices on the recent fallout over voting machines in Emery County:

Help Please if you can. Bruce Funk “really” needs our support right now (see
http://utahcountvotes.org)

What a con job Diebold has done to bill $40,000 to Emery County to “fix” the damage that the best security experts in America did by examining two voting machines. Yet our state election director, Michael Cragun, is colluding with Diebold after they sent Utah falling apart, mixture of new and old rejected machines from other states, with printers without paper guides that are designed to fail, and a system that one might imagine is deliberately designed for undetectable tampering! I’m amazed at how many times Diebold has defrauded our election officials who keep colluding with Diebold against the interests of Utah voters! Anyone with a smidgeon of knowledge of computer security understands that the biggest security threat comes from the insiders (i.e. Diebold itself) not a nationally renowned security firm! Our state election director, Michael Cragun is, as we speak, giving Diebold access to the storage facility to tamper with the voting machines at Carr Printing in Bountiful, perhaps so that they can cover up the evidence of their fraudulent sale!

Costly fallout in Emery over vote machines By Josh Loftin Deseret Morning News

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635194949,00.html

Concerns about potential tampering with electronic machines have come back to those making the accusations: the Emery County clerk and an independent election security firm.

Now, the county will have to pay to bring in technicians to reinstall the software on approximately 40 electronic voting machines after the clerk let security experts from Black Box Voting, a national elections security watchdog group, test the machines. The cost to the county could be upward of $40,000, according to Joe Demma, the chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert.

The primary problem is that by allowing the machines to be tested by somebody unaffiliated with the state elections office or Diebold Elections Systems, which built the machines, the county voided the warranty on the machines.
Additionally, because the independent testing was not authorized by the state and there are reports that the independent experts were not directly supervised the entire time, the state is requiring that the machines be recertified.
“We don’t know what they did to the machines,” Demma said. “For all we know, they could have these set up so that they fail on Election Day, so he could then point the finger at us for the problems.”
The irony of the state’s fear of possible errors being programmed into the machines is that Emery County Clerk-Auditor Bruce Funk had them tested because he had the same fears after he discovered discrepancies in available memory. For help, he called in Black Box Voting, which informed him that there were significant problems with the machines, ranging from lack of ballot security to unsafe plugs.
Diebold has since claimed that the differences of memory are attributable to varying sizes of the font files installed on each computer, and that they are working to address the concern. They have said that no illicit programs are present on the machines and that the machines received by Utah are all new.
County commissioners never agreed to the independent testing, and they have since changed the locks on the storage areas holding the machines and have not given Funk a key. Last week, he voluntarily handed over his keys to the previous locks and told commissioners he did not want responsibility for them because he felt they were unsafe.
Monday, Funk said that he did not regret his actions. Since he is not running for re-election, he said that the testing was not politically motivated but done because he is seriously concerned about the security of the new machines.
“I think I have a duty and responsibility to the public to make sure these machines will work,” Funk said. “I have deep concerns, and I didn’t want the stewardship of these machines. They (the commission) need to have that control.”
E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com
———————————————–

Distribute to your lists, blogs, as you see fit (must link to
http://www.blackboxvoting.org) — and be sure to scroll down to see “The Dot Protest”

* * * * *

DIEBOLD TRIES OUT VARIOUS EXPLANATIONS FOR DEFECTS, TRIES TO GET RID OF ANOTHER COUNTY ELECTIONS OFFICIAL

On March 18, Black Box Voting released the first part of findings from an examination of the Diebold TSx touch-screen machines in Emery County, Utah.

Diebold has responded. Harri Hursti and also Security Innovation Inc. have rebutted Diebold’s initial explanation. Diebold then came up with a new explanation, while trying to maneuver Emery County’s elections chief into resigning.

Bruce Funk, the elected official who has run elections in Emery County for 23 years, noticed a critical shortage in flash memory/storage in seven of his 40 brand new Diebold machines. He arranged for an independent evaluation, a right granted to Utah county officials in the Diebold contract. Black Box Voting secured the services of Harri Hursti and also Security Innovation, Inc. for the Emery County evaluation.

The initial assessment was not encouraging: The memory was so low it appeared likely to compromise elections held on the affected machines, and the most likely explanations were all pretty bad: 1) Different programs on the machines
2) Data already residing on the machines from use elsewhere 3) Flash memory near the end of its life cycle.

1. DIEBOLD CLAIMS LOW MEMORY DUE TO FONTS

According to the Deseret Morning News, Diebold spokesman David Bear claimed that the critical shortage in memory was due to different fonts loaded on certain machines.

“Spokesman David Bear said that some of the machines were programmed with more font options than other machines, which is accounting for most of the discrepancy in available memory, although the types of tests run on the machines before shipping could also take up memory.

The Deseret Morning News went on to say, in the context of the David Bear interview but not as a direct quote: “What is happening is that the machines are hosting illicit programs that could affect the performance or, in the worst case, actually change election results. They are not used machines.”(1)

Diebold has not explained why some machines would have different fonts than others.

Actually, the memory discrepancies were as large as 20MB, and the low memory triggered text on the TSx machine to flip to RED, clearly an alert that there was a problem. Hursti and Security Innovation cast doubt on the font
explanation:

HURSTI: “Fonts, which there are only few, can explain few 100 kilobytes [each] at the most, not 20 meg we have.”

SECURITY INNOVATION, INC.: “I went into the tool that builds Windows CE and after adding ALL of the fonts that it contains they *totaled* to 4 megs. Harri is right in that each font individually was small with the largest being a meg but most being like 30k-60k. There exists the possibility that they created a custom font but I don’t know why…The only one that’s any where near big enough (22meg) is a UNICODE one that can represent things like Japanese characters, Chinese characters.

(Note that Emery County Utah does not have a Japanese/Chinese population sufficient to warrant such special fonts, and even if it did, if such fonts use up memory to the extent that machines experience critical storage problems, that is a significant defect. The existence of Asian language fonts on Utah machines would be consistent with taking delivery on machines previously used in California.)

2. NEW DIEBOLD EXPLANATION: “There is an A, B, and C version”

On Monday Mar. 27, Diebold attended a meeting in Emery County and here they claimed there were actually several versions delivered to Utah. Now, bear in mind that all are the TSx 4.6.4, but in this tape recorded meeting, Diebold stated that within this there is an A, B, and C version.

The main question, of course, is:

Is it the A, B, or the C version that is the certified version?

IN THE MEAN TIME, DIEBOLD IS HOPING BRUCE FUNK WILL HURRY UP AND RESIGN

Diebold’s immediate response to Funk’s decision to have his machines independently tested was to threaten to charge over $1,200 to check the machines tested to make sure they were suitable for elections.

This brings to mind the question — why did Diebold deliver machines with memory so low they were not suitable for elections in the first place? The backup election file is 7.9 MB; Note in the photograph above, this “new” machine had only 4 MB of storage left.

And, if the Deseret News report above is correct, if some machines were “hosting illicit programs which could affect performance or in worst case, affect election results,” why were they delivered in the first place and why should Emery County pay to have the defects corrected?

Nevermind that, Diebold has now upped the ante to $40,000. The testing involved only two machines, and at $1,200 per day, it is difficult to imagine how it can take 33 days to evaluate two machines, or even 40 machines, which is the total number of machines delivered to Emery County. In a county like San Diego with 10,000 machines, would it take 8,500 days for Diebold to evaluate the machines?

Black Box Voting has requested a copy of the itemization for this $40,000 threat from Diebold. The Emery County Commissioners are, understandably, experiencing some heartburn over Diebold’s extortion. Their initial response was to encourage Bruce Funk to resign. A more appropriate response would be to wait for the findings in the upcoming report detailing the security problems found in Emery County machines.

Utah is a state where it is traditional to acquiesce to authority figures. Just how a for-profit vendor managed to gain “authority” over public elections and an ELECTED OFFICIAL is a question that deserves further examination.

This marks the second time that Diebold has attempted to control the actions of an official elected by the people. When Ion Sancho, elections supervisor of Leon County, Florida, opted to have his machines independently evaluated, Diebold refused to provide him with the HAVA-required upgrades that he had already paid for. A Diebold rep stated in a meeting with other Florida election officials that Diebold would honor its contract with Leon County if Ion Sancho [the official elected by the people of Leon County] would step down.

STICK-ON DOTS MEAN DEFECTS

One of the things that prompted Bruce Funk to look at the memory on his machines was his observation that some of the machines were tagged with small yellow stick-on dots. Those machines were especially prone to problems like low memory and problems with the screens.

Black Box Voting has been interviewing other county officials who recently took delivery on Diebold TSx machines, and this is what we have learned: Diebold marks the machines that fail acceptance testing with stick-on dots.

Why Emery County was expected to go into an upcoming election with machines marked with defect dots has not been explained by Diebold.

Now is the time for all good men — and women — to wear dots on their foreheads

THE DOT PROTEST

Suggest wearing stick-on dots on your forehead when attending meetings about Diebold.

Citizens forced to vote on Diebold machines: Wear a dot on your forehead when you go to vote.

When people ask about the dots, explain that Diebold marked its defective machines with dots, and you are marking its defective elections with dots.

County officials should examine their machines for stick-on dots. Contact Black Box Voting for non-invasive diagnostic tests which can be performed to evaluate whether you have received defective voting machines. The tests are simple, like booting up the machine and writing down specific information that appears. Keep records yourself of the serial numbers and defects.

NOTICE: During the course of interviews for this article, Black Box Voting has learned that Diebold has been traveling to various counties and swapping the motherboards in its voting machines. Why the entire motherboard would need to be replaced on brand new machines is a question that should be explored. Since this procedure enables a complete replacement of firmware and the insertion of hardware like wireless communications devices, any such actions need to be fully documented.

Activists are encouraged to ask questions locally as to any such changes.

(1) Secure? Vote is no; Deseret Morning News, 26 March 2006

WE ARE AWAITING MORE FORMAL REPORTS ON SIGNIFICANT SECURITY DEFECTS FOUND ON EMERY COUNTY’S TSx MACHINES. NOW THE QUESTION IS: WHICH VERSION WERE WE LOOKING AT — THE A, THE B OR THE C?

Kathy Dopp
http://electionarchive.org
———————————
GO to DailyKos – Login, and recommend my diary entry at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/28/134521/609

Please pass this on to anyone you know who is registered at DailyKos. This is THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY of getting national Attention and Support Bruce.

Patriotic Republican County Official is being SHUT DOWN for trying to protect voting rights in Utah. http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

This event puts Utah in the company of other Hero’s in California, Florida, Georgia, MO, and NC.

Black Box Voting explains details here http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
“Bruce Funk, the elected official who has run elections in Emery County for 23 years, noticed a critical shortage in flash memory/storage in seven of his 40 brand new Diebold machines. He arranged for an independent evaluation, a right granted to Utah county officials in the Diebold contract. Black Box Voting secured the services of Harri Hursti and also Security Innovation, Inc. for the Emery County evaluation.”

Clifford Lyon
http://www.OneUtah.org
801 . 274 . 0882