18) Sleepovers

Democrats ask county to hold election hearings

www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/07/18/news/top_stories/22_09_197_17_05.txt

By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer, July 19, 2006

SAN DIEGO ---- The head of the local Democratic Party said Monday he will ask the San Diego County Board of Supervisors today to schedule public hearings to investigate the county's handling of the June primary, including its decision to send electronic voting machines home with poll workers several days before the election.

Jess Durfee, chairman of the San Diego County Democratic Party, said he will stress during a public comment period in the morning board meeting and in a press conference afterwards that election integrity was compromised by what he calls the "sleep over" policy. Durfee said it is his hope that a round of public hearings will yield a new set of reforms, including a ban on the practice.

“There have got to be some better security measures than letting voting machines, which are vulnerable to being tampered with, sit in someone's living room or garage," he said.

Mikel Haas, the county's elections chief, defended the county's decision to send the electronic voting machines home, saying it was a practical way of make sure the devices reached all of the county's 1,646 polling places on time. He said the alternative would a massive, time-consuming delivery process early

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

E-voting machines sent to homes for ’sleepovers’

http://wpblog.ohopinion.com?p=931

Question: How hard would it be to mess with an electronic voting machine, to help jigger an election outcome?

Answer: In several states, at least, it could easily be done in the privacy and comfort of a person’s own home.

You probably think these highly tamperable contraptions are securely stored and watched over before during and after voting takes place, to ensure an honest, valid election result. Well, you think wrong, as a shocking Monday report on “Lou Dobbs Tonight” makes clear:

In the upcoming midterm congressional elections, a little more than four months from now, a third of the nation will be casting ballots on electronic voting machines. Tonight, new questions about the extraordinary lack of security that results from the use of these machines. Kitty Pilgrim reports.

(Begin videotape)

Kitty Pilgrim, CNN Correspondent: In San Diego county Patty Newton volunteered as an election worker in the June 6th primary. After her training class for electronic voting machines, she got the surprise of her life.

Patti Newton, former poll worker: We were given slips of papers, had them stamped by one of the staff members and we were directed to drive across to the parking lot to pick up our voting machines and take them home. We all felt an ominous kind of responsibility. It was not something that we were told we would be doing.

BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman, 6/30/2006

www.bradblog.com/?p=3017

Yolo County, CA Registrar on Voting Machine Sleepovers: 'If E-Voting Systems can't be secured, perhaps they ought not be used at all. Period.'

Registrar Freddie Oakley Speaks Out on the Busby/Bilbray Controversy and the Crisis Concerning Deployment of Hackable Electronic Voting Systems…

In an email discussion yesterday among a group of Election Integrity advocates, in reply to the horrendous San Diego Union-Tribune coverage of the Busby/Bilbray issue, Yolo County, CA Registrar of Voters Freddie Oakley posted a crystal clear statement on the concerns of sending voting machines home with poll workers prior to elections.

"As an election official, I understand the practical issues involved here perfectly. I am strongly of the opinion that it is exactly this kind of practical issue that should give election officials serious reservations about deploying electronic voting machines," Oakley wrote.

"If, as a practical matter, [the electronic voting machines deployed prior to an election] can't be secured, then perhaps they ought not be used at all. Period. Until the impediment can be removed," her email statement read.

Oregon Voter Rights Coalition Says:

"Bilbray/Busby Election a Warning to the Nation"

www.votersunite.org/info/ovrcstatement.asp

The Oregon Voter Rights Coalition applauds election reform activist Barbara Gail Jacobson, who on Wed. July 5 filed a challenge to the June 6, 2006 California US House District 50 Special Election (San Diego County). We share her concerns that critical security problems in the administration of the election have led to an invalid election. It is significant to note that these procedural problems are by no means limited to just this election, but are illustrative of questionable procedures widely used in California and throughout the nation. This election illuminates the dire need for nationwide reform.

The most apparent methodological problem in this election is the use of "sleepovers" to ease the logistical problems of transporting and placing voting equipment. Voting machines were taken home by poll workers in the days and weeks prior to the election. Reportedly a practice used for decades, this procedure of sending voting machines home is antiquated in the modern age of computers. Computer technology lends itself to host of problems, not the least of which is the corruptibility of the operational software. Prior to their use in an election, access to these machines should be significantly and uniformly limited.