Help Black Box Voting Examine ES&S Software

Gottesser writes, "Bev Harris of Black Box Voting has asked for the help of the Slashdot community. She would like people to take a look at ES&S's central tabulator software and start reporting on their impressions of it. This is a past release of the software but it is similar to the applications in production. Sorry, no source code." Read on for Bev's request and pointers to the code repositories. Update 23:38 GMT by SM Bev has confirmed that blackbox1.org is indeed owned by BlackBoxVoting making both a comment in the discussion and a post on the front page of blackboxvoting.org to help assuage reader fear/doubt.

From Bev:

"ES&S 'Unity' central tabulator software.

Software stash: three zip files --
http://www.blackbox1.org/ems.zip
http://www.blackbox1.org/un5.zip
http://www.blackbox1.org/Unity.zip

User Manuals for ES&S software can be found here:
http://www.bbvforum s.org/forums/messages/2197/2864.html

This is the ES&S central tabulator software, the ES&S counterpart to the Diebold GEMS central tabulator software. No source code, sorry, and no software for the precinct machines. This is reportedly one generation back, but from what I'm told has significant similarities to the new stuff. I would appreciate it if you can provide me with feedback on your impressions after looking at it. You may want to Slashdot it or whatever.

Best,

Bev Harris
Founder
Black Box Voting

Comments

Legit? Yes

[kaan]

I just got on blackboxvoting.org and called the primary phone number, and Bev Harris answered the phone.

I spoke to her for about 5 minutes, explained that an article showed up on /. and there were questions about its authenticity. She said it was legit, they set up a new domain name so they don't hammer their primary server (they've gotten a ton of traffic lately). She said she could not disclose where she obtained the executable code, but that it was real software and she wanted feedback from the slashdot community.

This is not a phishing scam, it's really from Bev, and she's trying to solicit help from the /. community to dig into this stuff.

Oh, and yes, I'm posting this same comment in reply to all of the "is this real?" comments... Moderators: please do not mod me down without calling them yourself (go to blackboxvoting.org for phone number).

Kaan

story is legitimate, I just talked to Bev by phone

[kaan]

I just got on blackboxvoting.org and called the primary phone number, and Bev Harris answered the phone. This is legitimate. I talked to her for about 5 minutes, explained that an article showed up on /. and there were questions about its authenticity. She said it was legit, they set up a new domain name so they don't hammer their primary server (they've gotten a ton of traffic lately). She said she could not disclose where she obtained the executable code, but that it was real software and she wanted feedback from the slashdot community. This is really from Bev, and she's trying to solicit help from the /. community to dig into this stuff.

Kaan

Hi, I'm Bev Harris. There's nothing fishy here.

[Bev Harris at BlackB]

Our domain, blackboxvoting.org (and the forums, on bbvforums.org, and the document archives, on bbvdocs.org) are on one server. These ES&S program files are on another server entirely because they are quite large and would slow down our blackboxvoting.org site.

I won't say where they came from. I've checked them out to the extent possible, and they appear to be the real thing. In any situation like this you have to consider that the software might have changed significantly, or that someone could have left a honey pot out there, but I don't think this is a honey pot, not going to publish why on an Internet site. There is a good possibility that current versions have significant changes. Looking over these files should tell us a lot about how the ES&S programmers think, programming styles, etc. I haven't had time to look at the files at all, and I'm not a programmer. This program is designed to run on Windows, according to the user manuals, so I imagine you can just install it and start tinkering, as we did with the Diebold GEMS program. Some of the material refers to "Aero," which is definitely an older version that grew into the Unity program.

No source code was provided (no source code was provided for the Diebold GEMS program, either, remember). The software is only for the election management system/central tally system, and we have so far been unable to get programs for the precinct-based individual voting machines, nor for the ES&S equivalent of the memory card, which they call the "PEB".

Black Box Voting is receiving very credible reports of ES&S meltdowns in several states, though they always seem to have a temporary technician around to promise everyone their vote was not lost. Hard to explain, of course, since 18,000 votes are missing in action right now in Sarasota Florida, with about 300 votes separating the candidates for a U.S. House of Representatives race.

We are getting reports of ES&S anomalies from BOTH political parties.

If anyone has any questions, you can e-mail me at the e-mail address on the blackboxvoting.org Web site.

Best,

Bev Harris
Founder
Black Box Voting

FYI: This is now reported on Black Box Voting

[Bev Harris at BlackB]

Hopefully putting to rest any questions as to who is who. I posted this discussion at Slashdot as the lead story on blackboxvoting.org Cheers.

Ask and ye shall receive...

[Anonymous Coward]

It would help significantly if there were a post either on the home page of blackboxvoting.org, or in the bbvforums.org forums under your name. This way there would be some credible record that this information did truly come from Bev Harris.

Ask and ye shall receive... there's an update on their primary website
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/