Blackboxvoting.org Raises Vote-Audit FOIA Request

aacool writes "Blackboxvoting.org has raised the largest Freedom of Information request in history. At 8:30 p.m. Election Night, Black Box Voting blanketed the U.S. with the first in a series of public records requests, to obtain internal computer logs and other documents from 3,000 individual counties and townships. Networks called the election before anyone bothered to perform even the most rudimentary audit. Among the first requests sent to counties (with all kinds of voting systems -- optical scan, touch-screen, and punch card) is a formal records request for internal audit logs, polling place results slips, modem transmission logs, and computer trouble slips."

Comments

Before it's slashdotted, here is the request:

[Anonymous Coward]

Public Records Request - November 2, 2004
From: Black Box Voting
To: Elections division

Pursuant to public records law and the spirit of fair, trustworthy, transparent elections, we request the following documents.

We are requesting these as a nonprofit, noncommercial group acting in the capacity of a news and consumer interest organization, and ask that if possible, the fees be waived for this request. If this is not possible, please let us know which records will be provided and the cost. Please provide records in electronic form, by e-mail, if possible - crew@blackboxvoting.org.

We realize you are very, very busy with the elections canvass. To the extent possible, we do ask that you expedite this request, since we are conducting consumer audits and time is of the essence.

We request the following records.

Item 1. All notes, emails, memos, and other communications pertaining to any and all problems experienced with the voting system, ballots, voter registration, or any component of your elections process, beginning October 12, through November 3, 2004.

Item 2. Copies of the results slips from all polling places for the Nov. 2, 2004 election. If you have more than one copy, we would like the copy that is signed by your poll workers and/or election judges.

Item 3: The internal audit log for each of your Unity, GEMS, WinEds, Hart Intercivic or other central tabulating machine. Because different manufacturers call this program by different names, for purposes of clarification we mean the programs that tally the composite of votes from all locations.

Item 4: If you are in the special category of having Diebold equipment, or the VTS or GEMS tabulator, we request the following additional audit logs:

a. The transmission logs for all votes, whether sent by modem or uploaded directly. You will find these logs in the GEMS menu under "Accuvote OS Server" and/or "Accuvote TS Server"

b. The "audit log" referred to in Item 3 for Diebold is found in the GEMS menu and is called "Audit Log"

c. All "Poster logs". These can be found in the GEMS menu under "poster" and also in the GEMS directory under Program Files, GEMS, Data, as a text file. Simply print this out and provide it.

d. Also in the Data file directory under Program Files, GEMS, Data, please provide any and all logs titled "CCLog," "PosterLog", and Pserver Log, and any logs found within the "Download," "Log," "Poster" or "Results" directories.

e. We are also requesting the Election Night Statement of Votes Cast, as of the time you stopped uploading polling place memory cards for Nov. 2, 2004 election.

Item 5: We are requesting every iteration of every interim results report, from the time the polls close until 5 p.m. November 3.

Item 6: If you are in the special category of counties who have modems attached, whether or not they were used and whether or not they were turned on, we are requesting the following:

a. internal logs showing transmission times from each voting machine used in a polling place

b. The Windows Event Viewer log. You will find this in administrative tools, Event Viewer, and within that, print a copy of each log beginning October 12, 2004 through Nov. 3, 2004.

Item 7: All e-mails, letters, notes, and other correspondence between any employee of your elections division and any other person, pertaining to your voting system, any anomalies or problems with any component of the voting system, any written communications with vendors for any component of your voting system, and any records pertaining to upgrades, improvements, performance enhancement or any other changes to your voting system, between Oct. 12, 2004 and Nov. 3, 2004.

Item 8: So that we may efficiently clarify any questions pertaining to your specific county, please provide letterhead for the most recent non-confidential correspondence between your office and your county counsel, or, in lieu of this, just e-mail us the contact information for y

They do?

[daveschroeder]

First, no, the exit polls do not suggest that. They perfectly mirror the results.

Secondly, Diebold's CEO, Walden O'Dell, said that about only Ohio, because he lives and works in Ohio, and is a GOP backer.

Bad taste? Yes. "Interesting" that a CEO of a company is a Republican? Nope. Do I wish he would have had the scruples to stay out of politics since his company is making voting machines? Yep.

But please, take off your tinfoil hat. When he said he was committed to delivering Ohio to Bush, he meant that as a GOP campaigner, contributor, and backer. Not that he was going to secretly have a 13,000-employee company rig a presidential election.

Re:They do?

[Monkelectric]

First, no, the exit polls do not suggest that. They perfectly mirror the results.

Um, you weren't up last night were you? CNN and most of the other major networks *REVISED* their exit polling numbers to match the election around 1 or 2:00am (PST). The poll numbers all day indicated Kerry was going to win almost all of the swing states. Then he doesn't, then the poll numbers were revised... I don't get it either

Re:They do?

[prescot6]

> Mentioning the gay marriage thing I find it amazing that a state like Mississippi which voted to ban gay marriage by huge majority still had a comparably close race for president. So it must be something else.

You'd think the two would be related, but they're not. Kerry and Bush are for marriage being for "a man and a woman". And, here in Michigan, the vote for a constitutional ban on gay marriage passed by a pretty large majority despite being a Kerry state.

Re:They do?

[LuSiDe]

The exit polls were changed at some point by CNN.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/images/home pa ge/cnn_exitpoll1.gif
http://www.democraticundergr ound.com/images/homepa ge/cnn_exitpoll2.gif

See the difference? I know i do.

Re:They do?

[GOD_ALMIGHTY]

Specifically for blacks? This should be a good starter.
You could start with the record number of black appointments to Federal positions. Clinton connected with black Americans in a way that gave them hope, he made them feel like the promises of the Civil Rights movement would come true if he had anything to do with it. I'd say that's concrete, to make a person who feels like a second class citizen realize the their guarantees under the Constitution will be upheld. It's lasting as well. Bill Clinton gave Black folks hope, I don't know if you can measure how much that was worth, and nobody can take it from them.
Your qualifier of lasting is a bit difficult. Did a Republican Congress or Administration make a thing less lasting? Like Bush I's cuts to Head Start or his assault on Affirmative Action.
The general idea behind Clinton's policies was to preserve the programs, such as Affirmative Action and anti-poverty programs like Head Start, while creating a rising tide that would lift all boats.

Voting machines?

[palad1]

I live in a country where 36.6 million people are registered as voters.

Every 5 years, we vote for our president and sometimes mayors / deputies as well.

It takes roughly 3 hours after the closing of the voting offices before we know the name of our president, without room for contestations over the regularity of the vote.

How come we can achieve that by using such a primitive method as ballot-paper-goes-into-ballot-enveloppe-goes-into- sealed-urn ?

Re:Ohio and Florida

[CAIMLAS]

Here's one of the articles which talks about this case of fraud.

I can't believe they didn't require a paper trail. Simply can't believe it.

Re:Illegal!

[general_re]

A concession speech is not a legally binding construct - it is a political move, not a legal one. All the votes must still be counted, including the ones that haven't been counted a half-hour from now, when Kerry is in the middle of his speech. All Kerry is doing is signaling that he is not planning on pursuing recounts or legal strategies designed to bring about his victory - his campaign for president is ending as of 2:00 PM today.

If, however, it should turn out that he has won Ohio, for example, when all the ballots are counted, then he will still gain Ohio's electoral votes and, presumably, the presidency, in spite of the fact that he has conceded defeat. That is not going to happen, as a practical matter, but it is at least theoretically possible. Elections boards don't stop counting just because one candidate or the other admits defeat - they still have to have a final count for the records, if nothing else.

-1, Who Needs Facts

[Zeriel]

Speaking as a Kerry supporter...

#1, The election results were statistically similar to the exit polls in Ohio and Florida.

#2, only 20 out of 88 counties in Ohio (IIRC, I may be fudgy on the exact number) used Diebold machines, the rest were punch card ballots.

Re:We failed America

[orikerus]

They were polled entirely by Diebold machines.

What makes you think that? I live in a suburb of Cleveland and we had the same old paper ballots as previous years.

Re:Ohio and Florida

[rednip]

Troll. The CEO made no such promises

Even Diebold acknowledges their Executive's mistake

Re:Ohio and Florida

[Radar Guy]

I'm not so sure you understand correctly.... My family is from Ohio (Akron) and they didn't use the Diebold machines, but rather old punch card style machines. Friends in the Columbus area said the same thing. I voted on a Diebold machine in Maryland, which did not produce a paper receipt (well, it didn't produce one that I saw, anyway). However, http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/hava/index.htmlOhio state law *requires* a paper trail for electronic voting machines. This would seem to imply no Diebold machines in Ohio....

Civics lesson?

[JCMay]

I don't think these guys are going to get very far with a Federal FOIA request. As many people do NOT remember, the United States is not one country; it's fifty little countries that have bound themselves together to further the common good of commerce and defense.

There are no Federal elections in the United States; all elections occur at the State level or below. Since the Federal Government doesn't run elections, they won't have any documentmation about them.

As a matter of fact, it's a historical accident that the People vote for President at all:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

Perhaps it would be better for everyone if the State legislatures just nominated the Electors themselves instead of leaving it to the People.

Re:Not necessarily unreasonable...

[MooseGuy529]

...did it answer calls from every phone number in existence, or just the ones on an approved list?

Caller ID is certainly not a secure method of authentication, as evidenced by the many spoofing services currently available. A better idea would be real authentication--in this situation, symmetric encryption with pre-shared keys would work, assuming you assign someone trustworthy at each end of the connection. Public-key could be used if that is impractical.

Re:Fishy?

[Daytona955i]

I suggest you read: How to read exit polls and then go back and look at the exit poll data. Both Ohio and Florida went to Bush according to exit poll information.

it's comming (urgent)

[boston.george]

www.georgewbush.com
www.georgebush.com


Are == no longer == accesible from outside of the United States.

Another very happy news are looming out
just few hours after the election.

According to Reuters U.S. strategic military petroleum reserves are being filled causing mayor drain in normal oil flow (and driving price of oil sky high) inspite the fact that every driller is sucking crude like crazy, Reuters is predicting that "commander in chief" will be pretty agressive in the middle east soon.

Re:Not necessarily unreasonable...

[Stinking Pig]

I seem to recall a bunch of articles on this web site about easy methods for faking caller-id information...

Re:Ohio and Florida

[mdfst13]

I did vote on an electronic machine in Ohio, and I didn't see any paper trail. Elsewhere, I read something that suggested that they print the paper trail at the end of the night. Since the printed paper trail is never reviewed by the voter, this is essentially worthless IMO.

Exit poll shenanigans

[phliar]

It now appears CNN changed their exit poll numbers when it looked like they didn't match the vote counts. It also seems interesting that FL and OH were the states with the exit poll discrepancies... and they use the Diebold "blackbox" voting machines, the ones where vote totals can be changed without leaving a trace.

There's MUCH more going on than "Bush & Kerry

[JimMarch(equalccw)]

Speaking as a board member for Blackboxvoting.org:

This is indeed going to be a hell of a lot of data, but our resources are considerable.

We were going to do this no matter WHO won. Because it's not just about the top of the ticket: more money gets tied up in local bond measures, construction projects and the like than in the "top of ticket campaigns" in many states. Check out how much money went into the California propositions, for starters.

It's also not just about the races themselves: folks, there are legal standards for the use of electronic voting machines at both the Fed and State levels. The garbage put out by Deibold for sure and probably ES&S, Sequoia and others DO NOT meet those legal standards!

But we have to prove it. For that, we need data.

We've gotten one KEY piece already: proof that King County hacked into their audit log and destroyed three hours worth of records on election night during the WA state primaries.

The fact that they COULD (on a Diebold box) proves that the gear doesn't meet legal security standards. The remaining question is "why did they hack the log?". Two possible answers:

1) It's possible the vote tally box went massively wonky, it took 'em three hours to clean up, and they didn't want to admit it had puked so they edited the log. Still an illegal-as-hell destruction of records and the fact that it's even possible is a gross condemnation of the gear in question...

2) They actually rigged the race with some crude clueless technique that left an audit trail item - so they scrubbed the log.

------

Speaking generally, this sort of "broad net" approach to FOIAs that BBV.org is undertaking is a pain, but it's how you scoop up killer documents that blow the lid off. Go watch the mostly factual movie "Erin Brokavich" for a real-world example of this.

We have a new advantage in California - Prop59 just "supercharged" our version of the FOIA (California Public Records Act) by establishing a constitutional right to public records. That will have a positive effect on the California requests.

--------

Speaking personally, I'm pretty sure Bush won it fair overall. If I'm eventually proven wrong, I don't think it'll be in Ohio, it'll be in Florida.

Full disclosure: I'm a Libertarian-leaning Republican who supported Bush over Kerry despite reservations. But I'm also a flat-out enemy of concealed-source, zero-paper-trail voting systems.

Jim March

More on the BBV FOIA process...

[JimMarch(equalccw)]

Just got off the phone with Bev. She confirms that the PRARs started getting mailed *before* we had any clue at all whether Bush or Kerry was winning. Like I said, this was planned months ago (I oughta know, I helped plan it) and it's NOT about "crying foul over specific results".

We're more interested in the machines.

Let's be clear what's going on with this effort:

An "audit", when done properly, means using multiple pieces of information and matching them up to make sure the pieces fit right - and if they don't, figure out why.

We have basically three sources of info on what really happened last night for any given county:

1) Media reports;

2) Eyewitness reports from various election observers;

3) The FOIA (or state-level equivelent) data.

As just one example: media reports say that a Volusia County memory card went blotto last night. Observers saw the flurry of activity that surrounded this. There are also supposed to be "help desk trouble tickets" generated for any such malfunction, and the runaround needed to recreate the data (this was an optical scan Diebold county thank GOD!) should leave an audit trail.

So we'll be looking at this case from ALL angles. Carefully. The media report says it was a dead memory card, based on interviews with county elections officials. OK, no problem if true - with optical scan, you can go back to paper and recover, by hand if necessary.

But remember that in 2000, we *know* somebody attempted an inept hack of one of these same memory cards (PCMCIA). They duplicated a card, probably in a laptop on the way back from the field to county HQ and hacked the duplicate so it registered 16,022 negative votes for Gore and 4,000ish for Bush, in a precinct with 900-something voters tops.

Sure, it got caught and fixed, and somebody let Gore know in time for him to cancel his concession phone call - but the perpetrators were never caught and the county still has egg on it's face from this.

Did the same morons try something similar?

Dunno. But we'll find out. Bet on it.

Jim