[Mb-civic] Time to do some work to save democracy!

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Hi friends!  The following alert is forwarded from Black Box Voting, one of 
the most effective grassroots organizations working to stop the takeover of 
our electoral process by fraudulent electronic voting machines.  They rarely 
send action alerts--only when it is really crucial and needed.  If you live in 
California, you can do part or all of this, but you will have to spend a few 
minutes.  Stop and take a deep breath and think about how important this is to 
you and to your children, grandchildren, and all people everywhere.  You will 
need to cut and paste the emails, and do a bit more to prepare faxes and/or 
make 5 phone calls.  But it will feel good and it will make a difference.  If you 
don't live in California, read this anyway to understand the stakes (and 
perhaps forward it to folks you know who do live in CA).

--Mha Atma

PS-- If you request it by replying to this email, I can send you an attached 
Word document with the letters already formatted, ready to print and fax 
AFTER you add your own name and address at the top and your name at the 
bottom.


----------
FROM BLACK BOX VOTING

Please take action and forward to your contacts.

This has national implications.  For the first time ever, we have the
opportunity to subpoena key voting industry witnesses to get them under
oath in front of a senate hearing to investigate what the Sam Hill they
were doing when they created and recommended tamper-friendly voting
systems. 

We're sure by now you're aware that Calif. did  an about face and
certified Diebold's entire line of products -- hackable touch screens,
hackable optical scanners, and extremely hackable GEMS tabulators --
despite 100% public opposition and numerous attacks proving the sytems'
fatal flaws and insecurities. 

But this isn't just California. Get these people under oath in California,
and you get them questioned for the whole nation.

Everything is at stake.  

We are putting some very important phone numbers and emails here 
along with simple instructions for what we all need to do.

We have everything to lose if we don't all take a few simple steps 
immediately.  EVERY STATE is experiencing issues with secret, privatized
voting equipment examined by mysterious private contractors who won't
answer any questions at all about what they do. 

Here is the most efficient, easiest strategy to counteract shoving illegal
and insecure systems that we never asked for down our throats. This action
is the culmination of years of hard-core work by Black Box Voting and
others. JUST DO IT.  

Here are the simple, painless suggestions. See below for why they are so
important.  

This comes down to only FIVE emails, FIVE faxes, FIVE calls. 

Do you have one good excuse for not being able to make five contacts?  On
second thought-- don't think one up. Just do it, please.

Remember; your tax dollars are paying not only for this equipment, 
but for the voting machine examiners who refused to answer any 
questions in last week's Calif. Senate Elections Committee hearing.

WHAT'S DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS CALL TO ACTION:

1) All we need is three out of five senators.
2) All five are interested and willing to listen
3) This is the FIRST time Black Box Voting has issued a call to action.

We believe grass roots calls to action lose their punch when overused. We
have waited until now because, like the Black Box Voting Hursti project,
we know THIS effort is highly strategic and can create real change,
quickly.

WHO TO CONTACT:

California Senate Rules Committee. Only they have the power to 
authorize subpoenas. 

WHY DO WE NEED SUBPOENAS?

Key voting industry witnesses, including all federal testing lab
personnel, chickened out of Calif. Senate Election Committee's Feb. 16
hearing on how this stuff got certified in the first place. They don't
want to answer questions.

Subpoenas will legally compel them to show up so they can be questioned
under oath. Black Box Voting believes that perjury will follow. A plan is
in the wings for what to do if/when key witnesses perjure themselves.

By the way, documents can also be subpoenad - like the NONDISCLOSURE
AGREEMENTS signed by voting system examiners, which reportedly have
prevented them from telling what they know. And like the documents 
requested under Calif. public record law by the Senate Elections Committee
which the current secretary of state -- in violation of the law -- has
failed to answer or provide.

HERE IS THE CONTACT LIST FOR THE FIVE RULES COMMITTEE 
MEMBERS:

Urge support for subpoenas of election industry and certification
insiders. (Among those who chickened out of testimony on Feb. 16: Diebold,
ES&S, Sequoia and Hart Intercivic; Ciber labs, Wyle labs, and voting
system examiners).

IT'S ONLY 5 EMAILS/FAXES/CALLS. MAKE THEM ALL.

Senator Don Perata (Chair) D
(916) 651-4009  
District office (510) 286-1333
Senator.Perata at sen.ca.gov
Fax (510) 286-3885 Perata

Senator Jim Battin (Vice-Chair) R
(916) 651-4037 
Jim.Battin at sen.ca.gov
Fax: (951) 653-9524 Battin

Senator Roy Ashburn R
(916) 651-4018
senator.ashburn at sen.ca.gov
Fax: (661) 323-0446 Ashburn

Senator Debra Bowen D - She is on the rules committee and
is also the chairperson of the Senate Elections Committee.
EMAIL ONLY 
Debra at debrabowen.com - 
(Ms. Bowen is mounting this case and will be busy preparing, 
emails are welcomed-- See below*)
Fax (310) 318-6733 Bowen

Senator Gilbert Cedillo D
(916) 651-4022
Fax (916) 327-8817 Cedillo

This is about volume of calls logged, emails sent.  
Make the contacts and make sure this goes out to your list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WHAT TO SAY:

Be concise, be polite, be professional. Here's your message: 

You want Rules Committee support for subpoenas of election 
industry and certification insiders to answer the Elections Committee's
questions about voting machine programming, examination and certification.

A sample letter is provided below in this email.

That's it. Short and simple. Polite, professional, firm. Short clear
message. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WHO ARE THE KEY WITNESSES?

Diebold head programmers, federal testing labs (Ciber, Wyle) that 
repeatedly certified flawed systems, voting system examiners who 
took taxpayer money, spent hours on  so-called "security exams" on 
systems a 12-year old can hack, repeatedly recommending for 
certification.

BACKGROUND

The Calif. Secretary of State's office decided to certify Diebold -- again
-- despite the new UC Berkeley report. 

QUOTES FROM THE LATEST REPORT, COMMISSIONED BY THE 
STATE 
OF CALIFORNIA:

"Harri Hursti's attack does work: Mr. Hursti's attack on the AV-OS
(Optical scanner)is definitely real. He was indeed able to change the
election results by doing nothing more than modifying the contents of a
memory card.  He needed no passwords, no cryptographic keys, and no access
to any other part of the voting system, including the GEMS election
management server." 

 -- (Comment from Black Box Voting: Note that Diebold has lied repeatedly
to election officials and secretaries of state about this. We have
videotape and documents from Diebold documenting this posted at our Web
site) --

...and: 

"Interpreted code is contrary to standards: Interpreted code in general is
prohibited by the 2002 FEC Voluntary Voting System Standards, and also by
the successor standard, the EAC's Voluntary Voting System Guidelines due
to take effect in two years. In order for the Diebold software
architecture to be in compliance, it would appear that either the
AccuBasic language and interpreter have to be removed, or the standard
will have to be changed."

-- (Comment from Black Box Voting: Note that California can only run
software certified by the Federal ITA process, by state law. The "Berkeley
team" is saying flat-out that such certification was not done correctly.
It follows that the entire Diebold product line should be illegal under
state law.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WHAT'S ALL THIS ABOUT KEY WITNESSES CHICKENING OUT?

The Feb. 16 California Senate Elections Committee hearing on certification
was hit with no-shows by ALL FOUR major vendors (Diebold, ES&S, 
Sequoia
and Hart Intercivic). Representatives from Wyle and Ciber testing labs
also declined to appear.   The Secretary of State's office is now "legally
late" on a series of public records requests made by California Elections
Committee Chairperson Debra Bowen.  

Sen. Bowen has to get permission from the California Senate Rules
Committee to have subpoenas issued. 

Only three of the Rules Committee Senators are needed to invoke port
subpoenas.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SAMPLE LETTER 

Senator ____,
California Senate Election Committee

Dear Senator ____,

I urge you to take a courageous stand to issue port subpeonas to 
key representatives and officials from Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia and Hart
Intercivic, as well as Wyle and Ciber Testing Labs and state voting system
examiners who fail to appear for your hearings on this matter. 

I also urge you to subpoena documents as needed, including the non-
disclosure agreements signed between examiners and vendors, and
all other documents needed to assess the integrity of the certification
process. 

Voters must be able to ensure that voting systems are secure from
tampering, either by outsiders or by insiders. If the citizenry cannot see
for itself that elections are secure, that our votes are being counted as
we cast them, it is only a matter of time before the very fabric of our
nation is torn to pieces.

Flawed, hackable systems have been approved that violate FEC guidelines.
Some of these systems are so deeply flawed that they defy common sense. It
is imperative that the elections industry insiders who were party to the
design, examination and recommendation of these systems appear before
California's Senate Election Committee in open hearings under oath to
answer questions and address these serious concerns.

Sincerely,

[name]


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FROM CALIF. SENATE ELECTIONS COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON 
BOWEN:

"We are going to need an enormous amount of people power in the next
couple of weeks.   Together we can change this whole pathetic mess. Let's
stand up for our democracy RIGHT NOW."

"Email is great because it is easy for us to log and report -- and we can
actually prove how many emails we've received!"

"Please email me in support of issuing subpoenas rather than calling  you
will save my staff a great deal of time logging calls, and you know what
kind work we have to do right now.  You can always call and fax later!" 

Debra Bowen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THANKS EVERYONE, IN ADVANCE, FOR MAKING FIVE 
EXTREMELY 
IMPORTANT CONTACTS FOR DEMOCRACY.

Thanks to M.S. English for collaborating with Black Box Voting to craft
this message quickly and effectively. Her Web site is recommended for
those who want to get up to speed on the history of the voting machine
issue:

http://www.whoscounting.net

Recommend the Chapters on "Technology" and "The Companies" as a 
Primer.

For more information, see the free online chapters of Black Box Voting:
Available in .pdf format on the home page at http://www.blackboxvoting.org
(scroll down, look in right hand column)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HERE ARE MORE LINKS YOU MAY FIND OF INTEREST:

Here is a copy of the Diebold GEMS program. Thirty million votes will be
counted on GEMS in the brutal battle for control of congress in 2006. Be
your own "federal testing lab" -- see for yourself: 

http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/10519.html

(Is this not ridiculous? You could teach a pigeon to hack the audit
log. Your 12-year-old sister and all her giggly friends can change
administrative passwords and election results.)

Details: The true scariness of the Herbert Thompson GEMS hack:
With Visual Basic script, a one-minute access by anyone -- even
years ahead of time -- can implant a trojan horse. Thompson's
script demonstrated May 2 in Leon County, Florida was able to
make "intelligent guesses" to find names and ballot questions and
then manipulate them.

http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/19304.html?1140298038#
POST17
506

Article: Key Witnesses chickening out on hearing:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/10519.html

More extensive article on Calif. certification issues:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/19353.html

Voting system examiners blocked from telling what they know:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/17717.html

Electronic voting machines: Who cooked this turkey?
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/14337.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IF YOU WANT TO DO MORE:

Now comes gathering evidence in the form of public records.  

Black Box Voting will work with any who volunteer to send customized
public records request letters. We will help you learn the ropes, will
suggest strategic records to start collecting NOW to protect Election
2006.

This year, it is all about mentoring individuals to regain their power as
citizens. It takes no more effort to write a public records letter than to
write your congressman -- but when you write for public records, you end
up with something tangible: Evidence.

To participate in the 2006 Election Cleanup Crew, email 
crew at blackboxvoting.org. Please allow a few days to respond, due to 
our heavy schedules -- this is a one-on-one, personalized project, and we
are so very proud of the many citizens who are stepping up to the plate.

We are quietly developing leaders in "cells" throughout the country,
helping citizens learn the skills to oversee their own government. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Black Box Voting is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501c(3) organization 
that is teaching citizens how to take back oversight of our own
electoral process. 

We do not accept funding from any vendor or anyone associated
with any corporation that stands to benefit from electronic voting.
We are funded solely by citizen donations.

Our expenditures right now are dedicated to further work with 
Hursti and specific one-on-one empowerment and training of local 
citizens, mentoring how to take effective action to collect evidence that
will help protect Election 2006.

We need to make sure we can survive into the 2008 presidential 
election cycle. If you believe our work is important and should continue,
here's how:

To donate by credit card: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
To donate by check: 
Black Box Voting
330 SW 43rd St Suite K
PMB 547
Renton WA 98055


-Black Box Voting

-- 
You are currently on Mha Atma's Earth Action Network email list, 
option D (up to 3 emails/day).  To be removed, or to switch options 
(option A - 1x/week, option B - 3/wk, option C - up to 1x/day, option D - 
up to 3x/day) please reply and let us know!  If someone forwarded you 
this email and you want to be on our list, send an email to 
ean at sbcglobal.net and tell us which option you'd like.


"A war of aggression is the supreme international crime." -- Robert Jackson,
 former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice and Nuremberg prosecutor

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20060221/db28c09d/attachment.htm