Voting Machines? In Middleboro?

When the Middleboro Town Clerk presented her budget for public discussion with the BOS this evening, one of the issues discussed was the purchase of VOTING MACHINES to comply with HAVA at a cost of $45,000.

In the course of the discussion, the lack of information was truly pathetic and embarrassing.

One must wonder if MUSHROOM FARMING pervades.

The Electronic Touch Screen machines WITH NO PAPER TRAILS are unreliable and hackable with no trace, but I won't dally with technical details.

Below is a list of some articles quickly located, but additional will be posted.

In the 2004 Presidential Election, densely populated, heavily minority communities experienced statistically impossible UNDERVOTES. In other words, voters went to the polls, voted for city councilor, state offices, BUT DID NOT VOTE FOR PRESIDENT. Anyone find that vaguely plausible?

In New Mexico, complaints were made that voters selected John Kerry, but George Bush's name was highlighted. They were unable to vote for John Kerry.

The list of voting irregularities experienced by other states, the lawsuits and the swirl of complaints has been endless. Sorry the Middleboro BOS haven't heard!

More to follow!

NH: "First in the nation"
(with corporate controlled secret vote counting)
81% of New Hampshire ballots are counted in secret by a private corporation named Diebold Election Systems (now known as "Premier").
The elections run on these machines are programmed by one company, LHS Associates, based in Methuen, MA.
We know nothing about the people programming these machines, and we know even less about LHS Associates.
We know even less about the secret vote counting software used to tabulate 81% of our ballots. People like to say "but we use paper ballots!
They can always be counted by hand!" NH
Check the Vote compares the votes between Paper Ballots and Machine Ballots.
Hillary Clinton, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 39.618%
Clinton, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 34.908%
Barack Obama, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 36.309%
Obama, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 38.617%
Machine vs Hand: Clinton: 4.709% (13,475 votes)
Obama: -2.308% (-6,604 votes)
Mitt Romney, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 33.075%
Romney, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 25.483%
Ron Paul, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 7.109%
Paul, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 9.221%
Machine vs Hand: Romney: 7.592% (17,946 votes)
Paul: -2.112% (-4,991 votes)

Will Your Vote Be Counted in 2008? Electronic Voting Machines and the Privatization of Elections DemocracyNow

With less than a month before Super Tuesday, every vote counts. But will every vote actually be counted? One-by-one, states across the country are finding critical flaws in the accuracy and security of electronic voting machines. We speak with Clive Thompson, the author of a New York Times Magazine cover story titled “Can You Count on Voting Machines?”

The cat that controls New Hampshire election programming
By Bev Harris
John Silvestro and his small private business, LHS Associates, has exclusive programming contracts for ALL New Hampshire voting machines, which combined will count about 81 percent of the vote in the primary. And as to Super Tuesday and beyond: Silvestro also has the programming contracts for the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont.
.
The exact same make, model and version hacked in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County is used throughout New Hampshire, where about 45 percent of elections administrators hand count paper ballots at the polling place, with the remaining locations all using the Diebold version 1.94w optical scan machine. Online Journal

Was the New Hampshire vote stolen?
The Web is abuzz with allegations of fraud, and Dennis Kucinich is asking for a recount. The charges don't hold water, but this problem is not going away.
By Farhad Manjoo Salon

Can You Count on Voting Machines? NYT

Election IssuesThe GOP's cyber election hit squadby Steven Rosenfeld and Bob Fitrakis
TheFreePress

Security Of Electronic Voting Is Condemned
Paper Systems Should Be Included, Agency Says WP

EFF search results found 662 articles regarding just voting machines

"Hacking Democracy"

People who have been following the debate surrounding electronic voting -- Salon and other tech and political outlets began covering the issue in 2002 -- might find much of "Hacking Democracy" a rehash. But if you're new to the dangers of electronic voting, the film is sure to blow your mind. In a nutshell, the case against touch-screen voting systems -- on which about 40 percent of Americans will cast their ballots this year -- boils down to this: You can never really know what's going on inside. In most other voting systems -- even those that use computerized counting machines, like punch-card and optical-scan machines -- paper acts as a record of last resort. If officials ever need to recount the vote, they can always examine the ballots by hand (provided, of course, that Antonin Scalia approves). But paperless touch-screen machines store their votes on hard drives and memory cards, rendering recounts impossible. If the computer hasn't recorded people's votes correctly in the first place, or if someone has weaseled into the database and shifted around the totals, the true count will be lost to all forever. Salon

New Laws and Machines May Spell Voting Woes NYT

The following is no longer archived by NYT: New Laws and Machines May Spell Voting Woes By Ian Urbina The New York Times TO

The following is several years old and originally included numerous links that were no longer valid. It provides an overview and additional links:

Did you know....
1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold
2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm



3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/ht...te_company.html

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."


5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.
http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.
http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm

10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm

11. Diebold is based in Ohio.
http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm

12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as senior managers and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html

13. Jeff Dean, Diebold's Senior Vice-President and senior programmer on Diebold's central compiler code, was convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

14. Diebold Senior Vice-President Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.
http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html


16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it! (See the movie here .)
http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190

17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.


18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.p...article&sid=950
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm

19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.

20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html
http://uscountvotes.org/
- Rhonda Bailey, NURSE (December 04, 2004; Tuscumbia, AL)

Town Residents PER TOWN EMPLOYEE

The following list has been circulated, posted, and widely misunderstood.

The list represents TOWN RESIDENTS PER TOWN EMPLOYEE.

This means Middleboro, with a 2006 Population estimated at 21,305, has 1,217 EMPLOYEES or 17.5 TOWN RESIDENTS PER EMPLOYEE.

THAT FIGURE INCLUDES CHILDREN.

We have little other than comparisons with other towns to indicate how poorly Middleboro is being managed.

In other places, those who would continue to excuse POOR MANAGEMENT sputter and spew about well, we have BETTER town services or we have a G&E, or they fabricate information.

The Annual Town Report indicates that the G&E has 52 employees. Do your own math. Not significant!

The DOR Report indicated that Middleboro HAD MORE THAN ENOUGH EMPLOYEES.

It was not for the DOR to tell you, the voter that there are places that can be cut.

Look around you.

Is this more MUSHROOM FARMING by a Board of Selectmen that prefers to keep you in the dark and fed a diet of manure?

Municipality 2006 Population Estimate Total Employees Population Per Municipal Employee

MIDDLEBOROUGH 21,305 1,217 17.5

ABINGTON 16,378 833 19.7

ACTON 20,586 1,041 19.8

BELMONT 23,308 1,426 16.3

BOURNE 19,224 981 19.6

BRIDGEWATER 25,695 401 64.1

BURLINGTON 24,895 807 30.8

CANTON 21,772 1,082 20.1

CARVER 11,578 361 32.1

DANVERS 25,833 851 30.4

DEDHAM 23,615 1,199 19.7

EASTON 23,031 783 29.4

GARDNER 20,805 867 24.0

HINGHAM 21,784 1,410 15.4

HUDSON 19,447 575 33.8

LUDLOW 21,951 891 24.6


MANSFIELD 23,096 793 29.1

MARBLEHEAD 20,231 1,121 18.0

MARSHFIELD 24,836 773 32.1

MELROSE 26,666 956 27.9

MILFORD 27,523 788 34.9

MILTON 25,902 625 41.4

NEEDHAM 28,368 888 31.9

NORTH ANDOVER 27,196 1,276 21.3

NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH 27,946 1,700 16.4

NORTON 19,242 588 32.7

PEMBROKE 18,739 484 38.7

READING 23,086 845 27.3

SANDWICH 20,508 1,246 16.5

SAUGUS 27,107 1,259 21.5

STONEHAM 21,471 803 26.7

STOUGHTON 26,901 1,291 20.8

WAKEFIELD 24,588 1,260 19.5

WALPOLE 23,165 630 36.8

WAREHAM 21,324 978 21.8

WINCHESTER 21,092 676 31.2

YARMOUTH 24,354 680 35.8

11/26/07 Selectmen's Meeting Agenda

Did anyone notice that no Selectmen's Agenda was posted for the 11/26/07 Selectmen's Meeting?

As I recall, Bob Dunphy showed Diane Henault, the Selectmen's previous secretary (you remember the one who was paid $68,000 a year?) how to 'post' the Agenda on the Town's Web Site.

Perhaps Mr. Dunphy would be kind enough to show the IT Director (who BTW is paid $85,000 a year) how to do it, so that the Director can show others? Or maybe one of the 'computer geeks' already on the town's payroll would start participating if asked? It certainly appears that the School Department and the Library have figured out how to post information for the public.

BTW, where's the Calendar that was to be posted on the Town's Web Site? Wasn't it supposed to be added in October?

Or is it just the Selectmen's desire to continue to deny townspeople information?

Ahhh! Mushroom Farming all over again!