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Programmer Built Vote-Rigging Demo for Florida Politician
Syre writes "therawstory reports that a programmer named Clinton Curtis says in a sworn affidavit (mirror) that he developed prototype vote-rigging software at the request of then-Florida state representative Tom Feeney. The affidavit has been turned over to the House Judiciary Committee, of which Feeney is now a member. Should we call for inspection and disassembly of all the voting machine code to see if it contains any of these secret vote tampering functions he was asked to include in his prototype?" A follow-up interview is available. A point to emphasize: he's not making any claims of actual fraud occurring in the Florida elections.
Something about this story bothers me. If Curtis has been involved in a long running dispute with Feeney ranging back to 2002, why would Feeney have anything to do with him? I mean, this would not be the first example of foolishness in politics, but it would certainly be the dumbest.
Perhaps Feeney was trying to set Curtis up?
M
This isn't just a dupe of a previous story... it's not just a dupe of the top story... it's a dup of an incredibly outrageous story that makes the radical right's Clinton Suicide scandals look almost sane.
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that the right-wingers are astroturfing the 'net with outrageous vote-rigging stories. This helps ensure that the real story of the Green/Libertarian recount in Ohio won't be taken seriously. Karl Rove is probably laughing his butt off.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
this is hardly journalism. www.therawstory.com is obviously a left wing biased publication and I would not trust it further than I would Rush Limbaugh's website. However, there needs to be a full investigation. I would like to see a little more than one person's testimony befor curcifying this guy. If the request for developing this software took place in a meeting, who else was there and what do they have to say about this?
This is an extraordinary claim. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Who is Clint Curtis? What is his background? Criminal history? Most importantly, what evidence does he bring to the table? Is it his word against someone else's?
Can he produce call logs? Appointment books? Witnesses? Tapes or memos? Can he demonstrate an extraordinary knowledge of voting systems in the state of Florida?
There is a troubling taint of money on this: a "$200,000 award being offered by the nonprofit group Justice through Music for proof of voting fraud..." He is claiming he doesn't want the reward; money may have nothing to do with it. But we may have a grifter going after a score, directly or indirectly, by telling people what they want to hear. I am not saying either one: we simply don't know until more facts come out.
I fully believe we have arrived at a stage in american politics where a politician (yes, sure, a Republican politician) would tamper with an election. There is already plenty of documented funny business. I'm speaking of the felon purging in FL, stop-and-search roadblocks in OH, for instance.
Let's not forget the real moral of this story, illustrated by one thing Clint says certainly rings true regardless of the rest of his claims:
"I can't believe the Democrats were stupid enough to allow [this]," he says. "I can't imagine anyone going to a bank and not getting a receipt. But yet we have our voting machines that way. It strikes me as really odd that machines like that could even exist."
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It can't hurt the citizens, but it could hurt the voting machine companies and elected officials. If there is something funny going on I am sure that they will quickly put an end to any disassembly. If the people found that someone had cheated their way into office that someone would get the boot awfully fast. (p.s. cheat means rig, not slander your opponent or create misleading TV spots, that is perfectly OK because everyone does it ... sigh)
Philosophy.
Do they mean this fella?
I saw this link a few days ago. Unfortunately he removed much of his more hilarious tin-foil hat content. The guy would actually do screen prints of sorta-related newspaper stories, then black out the names to make it look scandalous.
His demonstration program is underwhelming. You could make the same kind of thing to show any program could be trojaned.
Don't get me wrong, the e-voting situation is crazy and needs substantial reform, examination, and a general fixin'. But this guy is just another conspiracy guy trying to sell a book.
Stuff like this does NOT help address the real problems in e-voting.
Even though I fully believe that the Republicans have engaged in vote fraud and vote rigging in this last election and the 2000 election please look at this VERY carefully before jumping on the bandwagon. This report is oh so very convenient and looks suspiciously like the setup Dan Rather walked into a while back regarding Bush's military record. The Republicans are playing very dirty these days and this has a bit of a "smell" to it. There are plenty of other real examples out there already of vote tampering the most obvious being the voting machines with NO audit trail using CLOSED SOURCE software that we CAN'T look at because of IP and trade secret laws and central tabulators created by Bush supporting companies.
I read this story here and my brother (somewhat computer illiterate) begged me to submit it but I thought against it because of all of the political overtones. For those that are interested in more details, including some possible conspiracy theories, you should read it. It discusses where the financing came from and links it directly back to the Bush family. It further alledges that President Bush's money trail has been exposed by the CIA in retaliation for his recent house cleaning there. It also mentions several elections that were adjusted during the testing phase of the illicit program.
Restore America: Dr. Ron Paul for President!
I've already ranted on this shitty story:
1 90 9&cid=11014994
http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=13
In a nutshell, I spent about an hour going through goolge links of a few of the people involved in this story (either posting it or writing it or making it up) the URLs are in my original post. Anyway, they all have long histories of being politically biased, and spewing liberal FUD.
some points to consider:
- Would a undetecable application that is mneant to be cross platform be written in VB?
- why would a journalist, that is former NSA, and supposedly has all these tech credentials use an AOL addres? Fine it may work, and he might like it, but an AOL email address takes away a lot of credibility IMHO. (see original reply).
- If this had any validity, why was it not brought up sooner? There were articles on it back in 2002. It seems like the main stream Dems would have been all over this two or three years ago, if they thought there was any truth to it.
What I find disturbing is that slashdot would run this story twice. Clearly every article and source is biased, a quick google search quickly verifies that fact.
So what we get here is supermarket fluff and liberal FUD. We won't tolerate MS FUD, but leftwing FUD must be soooo MmmMmm Good that we get a double dose!
From archive.org, we have the original story. It looks like the voting machine part was added to bring this back into the newspapers. This wouldn't be hard, considering his original job was programming for the FDOT ... *and* Yang, his *prior* employer.
Thank you, archive.org:
Sunday, June 09, 2002
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Feeney's role in FDOT contract dispute questioned
By LAURA ZUCKERMAN (laura.zuckerman@news-jrnl.com)
Staff Writer
TALLAHASSEE -- Clint Curtis thought he was doing the state a favor last May when he alerted investigators at the Florida Department of Transportation about what he claimed was fraudulent billing by an Oviedo computer firm represented by House Speaker Tom Feeney.
Today, Curtis is still adding up the personal and professional costs for doing what he calls "the right thing" and what Florida law requires of anyone who suspects mismanagement or the waste of public funds.
"I can't believe this is how it's supposed to work," says the veteran computer programmer who worked as a technology consultant for FDOT. "I thought I was doing my duty; now I wonder if I was just stupid."
Last May, Curtis "blew the whistle" on what he believed were violations of state law by Yang Enterprises of Oviedo in an $8 million technology contract with FDOT. Curtis worked for Yang prior to being hired by FDOT, and based some of his allegations on his involvement with the state contract while at Yang.
In the filing with FDOT's inspector general, who is charged with investigating suspected misdeeds, Curtis said Yang engaged "in a practice of false billing" and employed an illegal alien, a violation of state law and cause for the immediate cancellation of the contract.
More than a year after they were lodged, the allegations only now are being fully investigated by FDOT. The delay stems in part from the fact that FDOT shifted the focus of its investigation from Yang to Curtis and the FDOT manager who approved his hiring, Mavis Georgalis.
Curtis says the shift was prompted by Yang and its allies, including Feeney, to quiet Yang's critics.
Yang's attorneys say that's not true. They deny any instances of overbilling and say the character and conduct of Curtis and Georgalis are suspect.
The charges and countercharges have touched off a series of events and repercussions that are still being felt.
The tale stretches from Seminole County to the state capital, encompassing everything from lawsuits over intellectual property to claims of influence peddling by Feeney and culminating in the firing of Curtis and the resignation of Georgalis, who was in charge of the Yang contract.
It is the kind of drama best viewed through the high-powered lens of politics, for on its fringes stands Feeney, one of the state's most well-connected players, and at its center are questions raised by Yang and its defenders about the motives of Curtis and Georgalis.
The story is laced with conspiracy theories and conflicting commentaries, much of which is spelled out in court documents and other public records examined by The News-Journal during the course of a weeks-long investigation.
ALLEGATIONS ALL AROUND
Curtis says he now believes Feeney used his position as House speaker to stifle any investigation of Yang by FDOT, which, if true, would be a violation of state ethics laws.
But Feeney, an attorney whose clients include Yang Enterprises, denies he used his influence to benefit Yang and says he played no role when the firm secured an eight-year contract with FDOT in 1999 -- with a price tag not to exceed $8 million -- to provide a computer program to manage large volumes of information.
The relationship between Feeney and Yang predates the Oviedo Republican's rise to power two years ago as House speaker, with its origins traced as far back as the 1980s, when Tyng-Lin Yang, the company's co-owner, wor
Dave,
You consistently post on every slashdot article having anything to do with voter fraud that the election wasn't stolen. I would like you to explain exactly what proof you have that it wasn't.
That rant aside, I agree with the rest of your comment, that we should amend the HAVA to include a paper trail and expose the source code.
~Jaeson
Black Box Voting, a group researching voting fraud, is basically in agreement with you.
They are very concerned about stories like this that may derail public outrage from legitimate investigations to unrealistic conspiracy theories that are easily discredited.
They are looking for recommendations on migrating their forums to something more secure, and to a better service provider, since they have been compromised several times. If anyone on slashdot could recommend solutions to them, I think they'd appreciate it.
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Incite and flee.
Tell you what, why don't you ignore this case, because it probably isn't "as true" as you hope it is. Certainly a prototype was produced and handed over, and apparently the people who requested it did so for dishonorable reasons, but whether or not the intended actions were ever carried out is up in the air.
Instead, focus on the cases where it really is true, like Volusia County's egregarious records tampering this year. (kind of puts their "computer error" negative vote for Gore in 2000 in a new light, doesn't it? Odd that the same people were involved both times.)
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
And I know that until you can personally inspect every line of source code in every Sequoia, ES&S, and Diebold machine, you just won't believe they're not somehow rigged.
And they bloody shouldn't, either. Why the hell should anyone trust results counted by insecure machines sold by privately owned corporations who have expressed their support for the Republican Party, and two of which are led by siblings?
The reason it's 'so hard to accept' is because it should not be accepted. Ukrainians did not accept their rigged election, and neither should you.
Interesting points, but perhaps the evidence is obvious because the cheaters in the Ukraine are used to a heavy-handed lack of sublety.
Perhaps it's just more refined in the U.S.?
> Why is that so hard to accept?
Some are still optimistic about the human race. Others are aware of the horror(s) a human being is capable of.
'A bill has been introduced to amend HAVA. H.R.2239 and its twin Senate counterpart S.1980, discussed further here, will amend the Help America Vote Act such that there is "a voter-verified permanent record or hardcopy" attached with each and every ballot cast by every voter, and that "any voting system containing or using software shall disclose the source code of that software to the Commission, and the Commission shall make that source code available for inspection upon request to any citizen". Additionally, the three electronic voting manufacturers already have the ability to add permanent, individual voter-verified paper audit trails to their products. Some e-voting critics make it seem like vendors are resisting. However, it is the local election boards that are resisting (as well as the slow march of bureaucracy). The e-voting vendors will build - and sell - whatever municipalities will buy.' Thanks for the links to these Bills, its a little bit too though late eh? You say that the election wasnt "stolen", you simply dont know this. I agree with the slow march of bureacracy (which is exploited by the powerful), but Im definitely not inclined to believe that the 2 sister companies who create these voting machines are to be trusted at all until there is more disclosure suggesting otherwise, especially when you consider all the circumstancial evidence.. http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/6 .html/
http://www.bartcop.com/110904votes.htm/
FACT: Rep. Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska ran the first "field test" of the voting software, running for senate while
still CEO of ES&S. His company counted the votes and his victory, in a predominantly black and Democratic district which had not
voted Republican in a hundred years, and involving a multi-point swing from pre-election polls, was considered by the press "an amazing upset."
Here's the link proving it...
l l.pdf
http://www.appliedresearch.us/sf/Documents/ExitPo
Soon there will be a "Programmer made up fraud story" headline and the public will go Ahhh...see...it wasn't any vote fraud going on...just some wacko guy and a bunch of tin foil hats
Cred poisoning has been used for ages all around the world with great success.
This smacks of classic Carl Rove tactics, similiar to the planted story that drummed Dan Rather out of the news business. While these two examples may or may not be examples of Carl Rove's poisonous politics, there are numerous, documented examples of similiar Credibility Poisioning initiatives that he has engaged in to great success. It is quite possible we are witnessing yet another.
How better to steal an election that to create a climate where those presenting evidence of election fraud will not be believed, no matter how telling the evidence.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
There is no evidence of substantial fraud in America's voting, however painful the feeling of defeat may be to the Democrats (themselves known fraudsters in the past, BTW). Your champion conceded. This article -- and even the Slashdot write-up -- make a point, that the programmer in question makes no accusations.
First off, I don't believe this story (it don't smell right), but voter fraud is rampant in America. The democrats use to do it through ballot stuffing, the republicans now have the computers, hence their ascendency. I have no real opinion on the 2000 election, and there's no difference between Kerry & Bush to me, so I have no bias between the two.
That being said, this was a rigged election. Kerry may have been a bad candidate, but that's because he was throwing the election. However, throwing the election isn't enough when you have a candidate as bad as Bush. The same arguments we've been using against Ukraine are directly applicable to our election. The exit polls were just too far off and only in those places that went digital. Exit polls aren't like pre-election polls, they're normally very accurate.
People really need to wake up and start seeing this country for what it is, and not just what the rhetoric says it is. We are probably the most corrupt nation out there right now. You can say, in country (insert backwater here), you can bribe a cop to look the other way in a murder case. But that kind of stuff is small time. It's like when people tell me what a good liar Bill Clinton was and I say, no he's a bad liar because everyone knows he's a liar. People like Bush are good liars because he can get both the left and right believeing that he's a man of deep Christian faith despite belonging to a Luciferian death cult like Skull & Bones. If the corruption is naked and on the surface, it won't get too far. We in the west have much more sophisticated means of controlling the public and hiding our corruption in plain sight. It's more than just rigging some votes, it's making sure the opposition is actually on your side, so that they'll throw it or at worse continue the same criminal policies if they manage to get elected, and it's keeping the media in line so that they don't investigate the fraud.
Either way, we're left with no choice at the end of the day. Whoever gets in office will continue full-steam ahead with the looting of the middle class and the transfer of wealth out of this nation. We will always be going to war with someone every couple of years, our civil rights will continue to erode (and won't ever make a comeback), and eventually the economy will completely collapse and we'll be left with the bill and no jobs to pay it. In an open dictatorship, people would have probably revolted by now. In America, people blame themselves because they're told they choose the government. This is the nature of the 21st century dictatorship. Convince the people they're free and you can commit any atrocity against them, including making them pay for those atrocities through their own tax dollars. This is the system they're trying to put in place for the rest of the world right now. Our only hope is for people to start realizing this on a mass scale so that when things do start crashing down around us (we're well beyond being able to fix things), we'll be able to avoid the same mistakes next time around.
I am astounded at this statement: "I can't believe the Democrats were stupid enough to allow [this]," he says. "I can't imagine anyone going to a bank and not getting a receipt. But yet we have our voting machines that way. It strikes me as really odd that machines like that could even exist.?"
Why not, the goons keep beer and gas prices down, and let loose the dogs of dumbed down drooling mediocrity in the form of bread and circuses "entertainment". That's all the herds of mouth breathers REALLY care about, and it's obvious as can be.
Here's the deal as "raw" as I can make it.
The government of the US was hijacked by globalist insiders who are members of the loosely termed "military industrial complex" as coined by president Eisenhower on his retirement speech. This is a fact, time to grow up and deal with it.
They control the top levels of the D and R party through bribery, intimidation, blackmail and extortion. Everything from honeytraps to bags of cash and everything in between, plus the implied threat of ultra violence should one priveleged enough to attain that status seek to go against their wishes and mandates. There is no crime they will not commit, or haven't committed. None.
The two parties cooperate and run the US as a massive profits center, after all the US is the worlds wealthiest nation (so far) and it's worth a LOT OF MONEY to control the government, so they cooperate in this junta, and it IS a sophisticated police state junta.
High level Military officers and the (paramilitary)Police are also in on the deal, is is more common that not for them to finally pension out then immediately become "officers" in various Transnational industries. This is "normal" and an expected part of the payout.
High level intelligence agents/bosses are chronic serial abusers of the law and got their fingers in any number of legal and illegal profitable pies, such as drug and aarms smuggling, bankruptcy court shenanigans, stock manipulations (you think echelon isn't valuasble economic intel?). Google CIA corruption for a starter. The current head cheese Goss is "gross" in that respect, as a "for instance".
High level Governmental Bureaucrats are in on the deal, And lower level governmental employees/normal workers know full well you NEVER "rock the boat" or you will definetly get into trouble, whistleblower statutes not withstanding. I imagine that can be confirmed right here on this thread from any number of "nom de forume" named posters who work for uncle sugar.
The "vote" has been rigged for a LONG time now, google "votescam".
The latest electronic voting methods are just a smoother way to control the vote, and the election process is a joke, the "nominees" are picked in advance and the primaries are a dog and pony show to keep the rubes and rabble amused and faked out that they actually have a "vote" that means anything other than the military industrial complex maintaining control. Nothing that would jeopardise that is allowed to occur.. For instance, several internet-researchable references knew that edwards would be the dems VP pick well in advance,and publically predicted it, because it followed a pattern,i.e; those who get the sacred invites and blessings to the bilderberger conferences get the election nod. The shrub attended as well this past year when he went to coincidentlly "visit the pope" during the same exact time that the conference was being held reasonable close by. He got his next set of marching orders then. This happened and is again, googleable. And kerry got picked because out of the pack, he was the other skull and bonesman, and do not neglect that factoid in its importance and it is part of this mans "wonderment" about why the "dems aren't pushing it hard". It's because it was rigged so that the dem K guy wouyld take a fall after a "close and valiant and hotly contested election", again, part of the dog and pony show..He took a dive on purpose. The grassroots got suckered again. The el
Reasonable people can have concerns about the election results without being complete whackos.
Reading this affidavit, I remember the odd disparity between exit polling and the offical results. It also seemed like an interesting coinicidence that Bush won Florida and Ohio and the election, with 51%, the number which the software was designed to produce.
I wonder if it is possible that the compromised source code (if it existed) is still on the voting machines. Wouldn't a savvy election-thief remove the evidence after the election?
There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
There are two bills before the US Congress that have been buried in committee since their introduction. Both these bills would require the use of open source software on voting machines and an auditable paper trail.
House: House Bill Senate: Senate Bill
I urge all US citizens to write their representatives requesting action on these bills.
In my searches for open source voting software the best I've found comes from The Open Voting Consortium.
It is time to _stop looking back. It is time to take action for positive change in the US system.sign me "Concerned Citizen"