Under one roof, a galaxy of Progressive heroes assembled at
the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Monday, November 5, including Harvey
Wasserman, famed environmental and election integrity activist; Clint Curtis,
the lionized early whistleblower who outed illegal manipulation of e-voting
systems in Florida in 2000; and Jill Stein, presidential nominee of the Green
Party.
Also sharing the
podium were EI experts Sara Mansky, of No More Stolen Elections and Laurie
Grace, director of the Institute for Electoral and Democratic Integrity.
Attorney,
activist, and author Bob Fitrakis participated via a cellphone placed next to a
microphone--he had to remain in Columbus to push forward an injunction against
the secretary of state of Ohio, Jon Husted, at the U.S. district court in
southern Ohio. #2:12CV1015, a temporary restraining order, was filed today by
Fitrakis to be tried as an emergency hearing. Judge Greg Frost has already been
assigned to the case. The crucial and extremely time-sensitive brief requires
SoS Husted to remove the untested and uncertified "experimental" software put
in place by Ohio's BOE in twenty-four of the Buckeye State's eighty-eight
counties, including the cities of Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati.
The FBI has also
been alerted and asked to investigate the situation.
Litigants allege
that the software, or patches, was added at the
"experimental" level secretly, at the last minute, to get around the
requirement that all such additions must be tested and certified prior to being
used in upcoming elections. But such actions are legal only when conducted in
only a few precincts in each county, according Fitrakis, and illegal at the
state and federal levels. Moreover, the structure of the additions is eerily
reminiscent of the "man in the middle" venue by which many claim that the 2004
election was stolen, in Ohio and other battleground states.
The software is
said to update programming already installed in twenty-five counties, all of
whom use ES&S systems, at the level of the central tabulator, a location
far more critical to the voting process than a single voting machine or a
precinct-level central tabulator. It is said to eliminate the need for
keypunchers to input data into the system. Instead, the data are directed to a
thumb drive whose contents are sent to the office of SoS Husted. Use of the new
software is not directly involved in tabulation and therefore does not require
certification, according to internal memos.
But, in the mind
of this digitally challenged writer and many others, lots can happen within
this intermediary said to make the transfer process more efficient.
According to
Fitrakis's latest report to OEN: "This uncertified and untested software could
easily malfunction and corrupt votes on the central tabulation machines, thus
destroying any electronic record of the actual votes by citizens. This
"experimental' software, as outlined in the contract, has no security
protocols."
And why, in the name of all the deities in
control of the election process, is experimental equipment being auditioned for
the first time in a historically crucial presidential election? Why not first
at the dogcatcher level??? No offense intended.
More than four
million voters, or around 80 percent of Buckeye State voters will be affected,
according to information leaked from the office of the SoS. The "3C" cities,
where the majority of the Buckeye State's population is concentrated, are all
involved: Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati.
"People need to
draw a line in the sand," said Fitrakis, "to demand that it [the software] be
taken off of the machinery."
Had the issue
surfaced sooner, I am sure that results may have been different, a reality that didn't seem to have occurred to
the judge nor influenced his decision
*****
Later in the day: Fitrakis reported that the judge ruled
against him but will keep an open mind about holding another hearing if the
evidence warrants it. Let's hope that that scenario is unnecessary. Weird that
the software paid for by the SoS can be obtained online for free. Weird.
Almost as weird
as payment of as much as $8,000 for a DRE and then finding it for sale a year
later at thirty-some dollars (see my just-published GGPP for some relevant
anecdotes.)
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