Issues
101 Issues - Voting Integrity Part 1
This is a developing series so
stay tuned for more
If there is no assurance
of integrity in the voting process itself,
nothing else matters -
not issues, not personalities, not delegates.
The integrity of the voting process must be our first task,
no matter which candidate we support.
And that integrity has
been shattered!
McCain Wins Election With 48%!
The video above is a comedy satire, but it underscores a
growing uneasiness with the voting process, as polls show one thing and
within hours the "results" show the opposite - by wide
margins.
For example, polls in Ohio's Democrat primary showed a
dead heat, but then Hillary Clinton suddenly won by a huge margin. Who
was wrong - the polls or the vote?
The videos you will see below on this page offers stunning and
convincing proof that America's new electronic voting procedure is a
hoax and a crime. Two companies basically control the manufacture of all
the voting machines and software in America - and at least one of them
is a heavy Republican contributor.
It appears that the 2004 presidential elections were a
dress rehearsal for a nationwide fraud involving the new voting
machines. It apparently started in Ohio, using that state as a
"pilot project" to boost the profits of a company heavily
aligned with the Republican party and with organized crime. George W.
Bush was sufficiently confidant of his own re-election that those behind
this unprecedented fraud believed they could carry out their scheme
without ever getting caught, and with protection at the highest levels
of government.
The weak link in the process is the removable memory
card, similar to those used in digital cameras. These are small, compact
and easy to hide and switch. In New Hampshire, for example, these cards
are kept and programmed by LHS Associates. It costs as little as $700 to
gain access to these cards so they can be re-programmed to alter the
election results. LHSD Associates is also a "data mining"
company, hired by political parties or candidates for opposition
research to find out who lives where, what they do, and what voters are
likely to support or oppose specific candidates or parties. One such
company in Florida, Choicepoint, removed 94,000 voters from the rolls in
the 2000 election who were felt to be likely Democrat voters. (See video
on page 2).
This may seem to be an outrageous claim, but check out
the virtual encyclopedia of supporting evidence. The scheme has evolved
to include both Democrats and Republicans, as both parties have now
joined the top-secret Money Battle to control the machines that
determine the election. None of this is known to the public.
Following the Money Trail
Large payments from Diebold are fueling
influence-peddling for a $45 million Cook County/Chicago voting machine
contract. Diebold has been lobbying both Ohio and Cook County/Chicago
through a small corporation called ACG Group LLC, formed by a Republican
and two well-connected Democrats. According to one of ACGs partners,
Diebold is making payments directly to the individuals and payments are
also flowing through ACG. These payments are then paid out to others.
When asked what the payments to others are buying, Black Box Voting was
told by Andrade that the Diebold funds pay “subcontractors.” We
asked what the subcontractors do, and were told that they do “largely
persuasion.”
Election reform advocates are noticing
something: Neither Republicans nor Democrats seem to have much interest
in real reform. Black Box Voting has been looking into the process of
voting system procurement. What we are finding explains a lot. Both
Republicans and Democrats have been cashing in, and both parties may
have become too beholden to take effective corrective action. Instead of
real efforts to get at the truth, we are seeing attempts to control the
message, with “investigations” and “reform” actions that appear
to be little more than window dressing.
In 2001, Anthony Celebrezze Jr. -- a former Democratic Ohio secretary of
state and attorney general -- met with a powerful Republican, John
Sununu, to discuss a project selling Global Election Systems (now
Diebold Election Systems). Sununu is a former governor of New Hampshire
and was White House Chief of Staff under George H.W. Bush.
Sununu disappeared from the paperwork. In June 2003, Celebrezze formed a
corporation with Pasquale “Pat” Gallina, a close associate of late
Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) Republican Chairman Robert E. Hughes.
Gallina had also been the campaign manager for former Republican
Cleveland Mayor Ralph Perk. Together, Celebrezze and Gallina set out to
sell Diebold machines to the state of Ohio, but a few weeks after
forming the corporation, Celebrezze died of heart failure.
Diebold’s surviving Ohio lobbyist, Pasquale “Pat” Gallina, has
quite a checkered past. His earlier business partners include Andrew
Shission and Joseph LoConti -- both targets of federal investigations
because of alleged links to organized crime. Shission was an accountant
for the Hell’s Angels who had been indicted for two murders, but was
acquitted. He then went to jail on tax evasion and obstruction of
justice. Joseph LoConti was convicted of failure to file tax returns on
time.
A third partner, Dr. Juan Andrade Jr., joined Gallina and Celebrezze to
form a Diebold sales entity, called “ACG Group, LLC.” Andrade, a
national pillar of the Hispanic community, founded the U.S. Hispanic
Leadership Institute (USHLI). He is closely connected to the Democratic
power structure, and is the recipient of the prestigious Presidential
Citizens Medal, bestowed by President Bill Clinton. Andrade is an
outspoken critic of the Bush Administration, and donated heavily to John
Kerry in 2004.
Timeline:
Dec. 2001: Sununu, Celebrezze and Gallina met in Columbus to
discuss selling voting machines to the state of Ohio. (8) We could not
find any of them on the Ohio “List of Legislative Agents” registered
as lobbyists for Diebold. (9)
June 2003: Andrade, Celebrezze and Gallina formed “ACG Group
LLC,” to sell Diebold voting machines to Ohio and Cook County/Chicago.
(10) According to Andrade, “ACG Group” stands for Andrade,
Celebrezze and Gallina. (11) Ohio corporate documents show that it was
registered under “Pat Gallina Consulting.” The name ACG reflects
involvement of Andrade.
July 2003: Anthony Celebrezze died suddenly, reportedly of a
heart attack. (12)
Aug. 2003: “Pat Gallina Consulting” was registered with the
state of Ohio, (13) two months after it was listed as the incorporating
agent for ACG Group LLC. Corporate documents are signed by Pasquale A.
Gallina.
Dec. 17, 2003: ACG group was registered in the state of Illinois
(14), with Andrade as corporate agent and Gallina’s address listed as
the repository for corporate documents.
CORRECTION: This article originally stated that Andrade was formerly
partners with two convicted felons, naming LoConti and Shission. LoConti
was convicted of a misdemeanor, not a felony. According to Joseph E.
LoConti, in correspondence to Black Box Voting on June 22, 2005, he has
not been convicted of a felony. What he was convicted of was two(2)
counts of failure to file 1983 and 1984 Federal Tax Return on time. Not
failure to file tax returns.
Supporting information:
(1) Illinois
and Cook
County requirements for lobbyists
(2) USHLI
Web page from May 9, 2005: Dr. Juan Andrade Jr., Executive Director
and President
(3) Corporate
documents, Ohio League of Hispanic Affairs
(4) Mar. 24 1991 - The Cleveland Plain Dealer "Cabinet
pick's ties to Hell's Angel probed in '86"..."Gallina
was the personnel director for the Ohio Lottery Commission until his
resignation in December 1978, after he was named in a lawsuit that
prompted federal, state and local officials to investigate alleged
contract kickback schemes at the commission."
(5) Jul. 5 2003 - The Associated Press: "Obituaries in the
News" "Celebrezze Jr. was elected as a
state senator in 1974. In 1978, he was elected secretary of state and in
1983 he was elected attorney general."
(6) Illinois Sec. State corp docs: Note that all three entities have the
same number, meaning they are the same entity with a name change: Midwest
Voter Registration & Education Project Midwest/Northeast
Voter Registration & Education Project U.S.
Hispanic Leadership Institute
(7) Diebold internal communications obtained by Black Box Voting
(8) Dec. 6, 2001: Cleveland Plain Dealer, “Tubbs Jones for governor
not very likely”
(9) Ohio Lobbyist listings 2000-2005: 2000200120022003current
(10) Corporate documents from Ohio
Secretary of State for ACG Group
(11) Videotaped interview, Apr. 28 2005, by Black Box Voting: 2-min
clips video
clip 1 video
clip 2 video
clip 3
(12) News article about Celebrezze death: Jul. 5 2003 - The Associated
Press: "Obituaries in the News"
(13) Corporate documents from Ohio Secretary of State for Pat
Gallina Consulting
(14) Illinois
Secretary of State, corporate information for ACG Group LLC
Our bibliography contains
hundreds of articles from The Columbus Free Press in Columbus,
Ohio relating to Diebold, voting machines and fraud. It's a virtual
treasure trove of information most of America has never seen. This
section you're looking at now contains dozens of videos providing even
more supporting evidence.
This cautionary documentary exposes the vulnerability of
computers - which count approximately 80% of America's votes in county, state
and federal elections - suggesting that if our votes aren't safe, then our
democracy isn't safe either.
Electronic
voting machines count 80% of the votes cast in America today. But are they
reliable? Are they safe from tampering? From congressional hearings to
persistent media reports that suggest misuse of data and even outright
fraud, concerns over the integrity of electronic voting are growing by the
day. And if the voting process is not secure, neither is America's
democracy.
In the 2000 presidential election, an electronic voting machine
recorded minus 16,022 votes for Al Gore in Volusia County, Fla. While
fraud was never proven, the faulty tally alerted computer scientists,
politicians and everyday citizens to the very real possibility of computer
hacking during elections.
In 2002, Seattle grandmother and writer Bev Harris asked officials in
her county why they had acquired electronic touch screen systems for their
elections. Unsatisfied with their explanation, she set out to learn about
electronic voting machines on her own. In the course of her research,
which unearthed hundreds of reported incidents of mishandled voting
information, Harris stumbled across an "online library" of the
Diebold Corporation, discovering a treasure trove of information about the
inner-workings of the company's voting system.
Harris brought this proprietary "secret" information to
computer security expert Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins University who
determined that the software lacked the necessary security features to
prevent tampering. Her subsequent investigation took her from the trash
cans of Texas to the Secretary of State of California and finally to
Florida, where a "mini-election" to test the vulnerability of
the memory cards used in electronic voting produced alarming results.
As the scope of her mission grew, Harris drew on the expertise of other
computer- science experts, politicians and activists, among them: Andy
Stephenson, candidate for Secretary of State in Washington state; Susan
Bernecker, Republican candidate in New Orleans; Kathleen Wynne, an
activist from Cleveland; Hugh Thompson, director, Security Innovations,
Inc.; Ion Sancho, Florida's Supervisor of Elections; and Harri Hursti, a
computer-security analyst. Academics, public officials and others seen in
interview footage include: Deanie Low, supervisor of elections, Volusia
County, Fla.; Mark Radke, marketing director of Diebold; David Cobb,
presidential candidate, Green Party; and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones of
Ohio.
Diebold software, or other software like it, is installed in thousands
of counties across 32 states. David Dill, professor of computer science at
Stanford, says the problem is that there are "lots of people involved
in writing the software, and lots of people who could have touched the
software before it went into that machine. If one of those people put
something malicious in the software and it's distributed to all the
machines, then that one person could be responsible for changing tens of
thousands of votes, maybe even hundreds of thousands, across the
country."
In Florida, Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho presided over a trial
"mini-election" to see if the vote could be hacked without being
detected. Before votes were actually cast, computer analyst Harri Hursti
"stuffed the ballot box" by entering votes on the computer's
memory card. Then, after votes were cast, the results displayed when the
same memory card was entered in the central tabulating program indicated
that fraud was indeed possible. In other words, by accessing a memory card
before an election, someone could change the results - a claim Diebold had
denied was possible.
Ultimately, Bev Harris' research proved that the top-secret
computerized systems counting the votes in America's public elections are
not only fallible, but also vulnerable to undetectable hacking, from local
school board contests to the presidential race. With the electronic voting
machines of three companies - Diebold, ESS and Sequoia - collectively
responsible for around 80 percent of America's votes today, the stakes for
democracy are high.
HACKING DEMOCRACY was produced by Simon Ardizzone, Russell Michaels and
Robert Carrillo Cohen; executive producers, Earl Katz, Sarah Teale and
Sian Edwards; edited by Sasha Zik. For HBO: supervising producer, John
Hoffman; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.
This cautionary documentary exposes the
vulnerability of computers - which count approximately 80% of
America's votes in county, state and federal elections - suggesting
that if our votes aren't safe, then our democracy isn't safe either.
The documentary exposes the dangers of voting machines used during
America's mid term and presidential elections. Electronic voting
machines count approximately 90% of America's votes in county, state
and federal elections. The technology is also increasingly being
used across the world, including in Canada, the United Kingdom,
Europe and Latin America. Filmed over three years this exposé
follows the investigations of a team of citizen activists and
hackers as they take on the electronic voting industry, targeting
the Diebold corporation.
"Hacking Democracy" uncovers incendiary evidence from the
trash cans of Texas to the ballot boxes of Ohio, exposing secrecy,
votes in the trash, hackable software and election officials rigging
the presidential recount.
Ultimately proving our votes can be stolen without a trace
"Hacking Democracy" culminates in the famous 'Hursti
Hack'; a duel between the Diebold voting machines and a computer
hacker from Finland - with America's democracy at stake.
The two Ohio election staff who feature in "Hacking
Democracy" were sentenced on March 13th 2007 for rigging the
2004 presidential recount. Incriminating footage from the
documentary was used in their court case as evidence. http://www.hackingdemocracy.com/
A scary clip from Fox News showing how Jeb Bush and others in the GOP
establishment don't want testing of Diebold voting machines that they cannot
control.
Intended as both an
introduction to the subject and a call to action, "Electronic Elections:
Vote Fraud in the 21st Century" is a short-format viral video designed to
draw attention to one of the many urgent problems surrounding our modern voting
system - the clear and present danger of electronic vote fraud.
"Electronic Elections" contains clips* from the following
documentaries:
*All footage contained in this film constitutes 'fair use' of copyrighted
material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material is distributed without profit for
research and educational purposes.
