Dori Smith aired the first of a four part series on voting integrity yesterday at 5:00 PM on WHUS. I highly recommend listening to the audio and reading the transcript while also marking your calendar for next week.
This segment really brings home the dangers and implications of the incident last fall when LHS violated election protocols. Although I was familiar with the incident from Dori’s earlier reporting, this broadcast really demonstrates the risks strongly and clearly.
Interviews with voting officials demonstrate a lack of training in the procedures on the part of registrars and the lack of concern for violations on the part of the Secretary of the State’s office.
Our continued investigations through 2007 revealed that little had been done to hold LHS accountable. We wrote to the Deputy Secretary of State with further information but heard nothing for months. In light of that, we phoned Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz during her appearance on NPR where she denied that anyone had made a ‘complaint’ about memory card problems during the 2006 election. Again, we drafted letters and made calls.
John Silvestro, President of LHS, our voting machine vendor, has emphasized that he hires employees without computer knowledge (a questionable goal and perhaps easily violated) . This is clearly demonstrated in an interview with one of his employees who believes that Diebold Preminer AccuVote-OS optical scanners cannot be compromised without a memory card. (Hint the optical scanners contain general purpose computers with operating systems, general voting programs, memory which can be changed – states and statutes go to great lengths to certify and protect the versions of software running on those machines).
All these points are driven home by the many embarrasing statements (my characterization) by LHS and voting officials. An interview with Professor Michael Fisher, President of TrueVoteCT, provides details of the security risks represented by inadequate procedures or by violating/ignoring procedures.
