To Protect Voting, Use Open-Source Software By R. JAMES WOOLSEY and BRIAN J. FOXAUG. 3, 2017
Although Russian hackers are reported to have tried to disrupt the November election with attacks on the voting systems of 39 states, the consensus of the intelligence community is that they were probably unsuccessful in their efforts to delete and alter voter data. But another national election is just 15 months away, and the risk that those working on behalf of President Vladimir Putin of Russia could do real damage — and even manage to mark your ballot for you or altering your vote — remains.
Since the debacle of the 2000 election (remember hanging chads?) American election machinery has been improved to reduce the chances of mis-tallying votes, outright fraud and attacks by hackers. These improvements brought with them a new concern: lack of software security. Most voting machines’ software can now be easily hacked. This is in large part because the current voting systems use proprietary software based on Microsoft’s operating system.
One post-2000 change — a useful one — was to move away from all-electronic touch-screen balloting, with no paper record indicating how someone voted. Nearly half of voters are registered in jurisdictions that use optical-scan systems that read marked paper ballots and tally the results. But one-quarter of voters still use direct-recording electronic voting machines, which produce no paper trail.
At polling places where voting machines don’t provide this backup record, there’s no way for election officials to run an effective recount if the electronics are hacked.
That’s why the National Association of Voting Officials is leading a movement to encourage election officials to stop the purchase of insecure systems and begin to use software based on open-source systems that can guard our votes against manipulation.
But there’s resistance to this obvious solution. Microsoft and companies that bob along in its wake don’t want their proprietary voting systems replaced by open-source software balloting systems, have aggressively lobbied against them.
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Open-source software is simply software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. In the case of voting, open-source software systems would be overseen by public-private partnerships between counties and vendors.
Open-source systems are tried and tested. A majority of supercomputers use them. The Defense Department, NASA and the United States Air Force all use open-source systems, because they know this provides far more security. Every step in our voting process should use software that follows these examples.
Despite its name, open-source software is less vulnerable to hacking than the secret, black box systems like those being used in polling places now. That’s because anyone can see how open-source systems operate. Bugs can be spotted and remedied, deterring those who would attempt attacks. This makes them much more secure than closed-source models like Microsoft’s, which only Microsoft employees can get into to fix.
One reason for the software companies’ resistance is the belief that it’s impossible to make a profit from open-source software. This is a myth. Businesses that use open-source software still need all of the other things that software companies provide. Many major companies use open-source software in their products.
Open-source systems are already playing a role in some elections. New Hampshire has used them to allow disabled voters to fill out ballots online or on their phones, while Travis County in Texas, San Francisco and Los Angeles have allocated funds to move toward open-source voting systems.
If the community of proprietary vendors, including Microsoft, would support the use of open-source model for elections, we could expedite progress toward secure voting systems.
With an election on the horizon, it’s urgent that we ensure that those who seek to make our voting systems more secure have easy access to them, and that Mr. Putin does not."
R. James Woolsey is a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Brian J. Fox, the creator of the Bash open-source software, is the lead technologist of the National Association of Voting Officials and the California Association of Voting Officials, which develop open-source voting systems for use in public elections.
WTF!?
That is the worst, most awful unfair shooting I have ever seen. I almost don't want to have to tell you SCOTUS said it wasn't a federal crime, when the whole phenomenon violates the very Eighth Amendment, against Cruel and Unusual punishment. My heart goes out to all The families of young black men and women cut down this way.
Elsewhere, I thought Sandy Hook was gonna be a turning point and I thought wrong.
Once again, since 2004, the Electoral College could not constitutionally be certified. But the Congress did it anyway. This time the illegality is more widespread than in 2004 when only Ohio with its ruthless voter suppression couldn't be certified and Bush won anyway. I know it doesn't change anything: I doubt they'd have elected Colin Powell in the Congress but you know, just saying. Gore won but did not handle it well. Hillary won...the popular vote. I admit she did NOT win the electoral.
We have a lot of GOP gerrymandering at the state legislative level because Dems do not pay much attention to small elections, college kids abandoned Obama in the TwentyTen midterms and the GOP are always angry. So now the GOP Congress has just started repealing the ACA AKA Obamacare a couple of nights ago at One Thirty AM while we were asleep. Sixty-first time is a charm for the dark lords, I guess!
So I also think Gore won in 2000, and the GOP may even have let Obama win in 2008 so the Dems could take the blame for the MidEast Wars but mainly the impossible financial mess. The Onion News joked that this was a Karl Rove stratgy. But who knows that it may not have been true? Also Obama agreed to shield Bush and Cheney from future prosecution of their MidEast war crimes so they somehow eluded the ICJ but I think Bush and Cheney are still not allowed at the Hague.
The extraordinary President Obama surprised many with his activist and steadfast optimism for the USA's potential. 5 Days until the country's in total withdrawal, ready or not. Goodbye, Thank you, Go Well, and Bravo to this investigative journalist Steven Rosenfeld.
In any case alternet.org had this sensational story(although Sam Bee has made fun of people blogging at this level of typepad.com as dancing in obscurity. Still): You know it must be really sensational because you have to copy and paste it. It is a simple call to action. You read this story and all you gotta do is act.
Oh well here is the whole story. (Sorry to my one reader for this being late!)
Now that this story failed to generate much action, it's harder to argue.
ELECTION 2016
At Least 50 Trump Electors Were Illegitimately Seated as Electoral College Members
More evidence surfaces as calls mount to challenge congressional ratification of Electoral College vote.
By Steven Rosenfeld / AlterNet January 4, 2017
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Photo Credit: twitter.com/transition2017
More than 50 Electoral College members who voted for Donald Trump were ineligible to serve as presidential electors because they did not live in the congressional districts they represented or held elective office in states legally barring dual officeholders.
That stunning finding is among the conclusions of an extensive 1,000-plus page legal briefing prepared by a bipartisan nationwide legal team for members of Congress who are being urged to object to certifying the 2016 Electoral College results on Friday.
“Trump’s ascension to the presidency is completely illegitimate,” said Ryan Clayton of Americans Take Action, who is promoting the effort. “It’s not just Russians hacking our democracy. It’s not just voter suppression at unprecedented levels. It is also [that] there are Republicans illegally casting ballots in the Electoral College, and in a sufficient number that the results of the Electoral College proceedings are illegitimate as well.”
“Republicans like to talk all the time about people voting illegally,” Clayton continued. “We have a list of a bunch of Republicans that allegedly voted illegally in the Electoral College. Pam Bondi is the attorney general of the state of Florida and the Florida Constitution says that you cannot hold two offices. And she holds the office of Attorney General and she holds the office of federal elector in the Electoral College. That is a violation of the law. That is a violation of the Constitution. And the vote that she cast in this election is illegal.”
A joint congressional session is scheduled to ratify the 2016 Electoral College vote this Friday. While there have been calls to challenge that certification—including one women-led effort saying Trump's victory is due to voter suppression targeting people of color—the analysis that scores of Trump electors were illegally seated, and the additional finding that most states won by Trump improperly filed their Electoral College "Certificates of Vote" with Congress, is unprecedented.
Their research and report grew out of the legal activities surrounding the December 19 Electoral College meeting, where Clayton and others urged Republican electors to reject Trump saying they had a constitutional responsibility to pick a more qualified president.
Clayton is hoping that sufficient numbers of Republicans in Congress will not vote to ratify the Electoral College results, thus depriving Trump of the 270 Electoral College votes he needs to win the presidency. If that transpires, the House would then decide between the three top Electoral College vote-getters—Trump, Hillary Clinton and Colin Powell, he said. (Colin Powell got several electoral college votes—write-ins—while Gary Johnson got none. The Powell votes were from the Democratic electors academics call "faithless electors.")
But before any of that can happen, there needs to be a formal challenge to ratifying the 2016 Electoral College results in Friday’s joint session of Congress, which is where the research finding that scores of Trump votes were illegally cast comes in.
“We have reason to believe that there are at least 50 electoral votes that were not regularly given or not lawfully certified (16 Congressional District violations and 34 Dual Office-Holder violations),” the executive summary of the Electoral Vote Objection Packet said. “The number could be over a hundred. We urge you to prepare written objections for January 6.”
“The compiling of the laws and evidence in this Electoral Vote Objection Package was completed by a national team of roughly 15 pro bono attorneys, law students, and legal assistants who represent no client or entity,” the summary said. “We are non-partisan—Democrat, Republican, and Independent. We live in different parts of the country, urban and rural, red states and blue states.”
Challenging the Electoral College
The Electoral College’s results have only been challenged twice since 1877. The most recent was in 2005, when an objection to Ohio’s Electoral College votes was filed by Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, D-OH, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA. While that effort did not stop President George W. Bush's reelection, it did force both chambers of Congress to debate for two hours before the Electoral College vote was ratified. Tubbs-Jones and Boxer used the podium to rail against GOP efforts to suppress the vote and disqualify ballots in communities of color.
The process for challenging the Electoral College vote is two-fold. First, a House member has to file a formal challenge and objection. Then one House member and one senator have to sign on, prompting each body to retire to their chambers for the two-hour debate.
The Electoral Vote Objection Packet briefing cites two main areas where 2016 Electoral College members were illegally seated and a third where their votes electing Trump were improperly sent to Congress.
“Specifically, at least 16 electors lived outside the congressional districts they represented in violation of state statutory residency requirements, and at least 34 electors held dual offices, in direct violation of statutes prohibiting dual-office holding,” the briefing's executive summary says, noting this violates two sections of the U.S. Constitution.
The first group of illegitimate electors amounts to political carpetbagging. “In North Carolina, for instance,” the briefing says, a state law, “NCGS 163-1(c) states, ‘One presidential elector shall be nominated from each congressional district…’ Yet, we have voter registration cards showing that numerous North Carolina electors lived outside the congressional districts they represented.”
The report lists the following states and their number of illegitimate electors: Arkansas (two from outside its congressional district); Indiana (one), Louisiana (one), Michigan (one), North Carolina (seven), Oklahoma (one), and Texas (three).
The second group of illegitimate electors is based on the fact that presidential electors hold a federal office, however short-lived, and that directly conflicts with states that ban elected officials from holding more than one office at a time. Florida’s state constitution, for example, bars dual-office holding. Its Supreme Court has issued rulings that further define what constitutes an officeholder. And the state legislature has passed other laws treating them as public officials, such as reimbursing them for travel costs.
“Ironically, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has issued a number of Advisory Legal Opinions on dual-office holding, was a presidential elector,” the briefing said. “Her name was on the Governor’s certification list of Republican electors, and also Attorney General Bondi cast her electoral ballot on December 19. Joe Negron, who also cast an electoral vote, is currently president of the Florida Senate.”
The report lists the following states and their number of illegitimate electors based on dual-office holders: Alabama (two), Florida (12), Georgia (four), Iowa (two), Kansas (four), Kentucky (one), Michigan (one), Missouri (one), Nebraska (one), North Carolina (one), Ohio (one), Oklahoma (two), Pennsylvania (two), South Carolina (one), South Dakota (three), Tennessee (two), Texas (four), Utah (one), and West Virginia (three). This tally, which adds up to 49 electors, was taken from a spreadsheet accompanying the briefing and is a larger number than what was cited in the report’s executive summary, which is quoted above.
Finally, there is another area of concern. Apparently, 23 states—out of the 31 that cast Electoral College votes for Trump—did not properly report separate vote counts for president and vice-president to Congress. That violates the 12th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and a federal law requiring presidential electors in each state to “provide ‘two distinct lists of votes,’ one for the president and the other for the Vice President,” the briefing said. “Of 31 states, only eight states followed that law," the report said. "Some states codify the federal law into their own state law regarding presidential electors. Of those, 15 states did not provide two lists of signatures on their Certificates of Vote.”
“We are not providing any legal advice,” the briefing’s disclaimer says. “We strongly suggest that members of Congress employ their own legal teams to verify our work.”
It may be that the efforts to convince Congress to challenge the ratification of the 2016 Electoral College amounts to little more than a Hail Mary aimed at derailing a Trump presidency. As of late Wednesday, Clayton thought there would be House members willing to object to certifying the Electoral College vote, but he was less certain about finding a senator willing to go along.
But even if a challenge is mounted and fails, it underscores the illegitimate basis of Trump’s presidency and the deep opposition to it, and refutes the GOP’s outrageous claim that it has a mandate for dismantling government programs across the board.
“We have a list of 50 illegal electors,” Clayton said. “That puts Donald Trump below the threshold that he needs to be elected president. Let’s debate it in an open session. According to the Constitution, the Congress, if nobody wins on the first round of balloting, picks from the top three candidates. That will be Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Colin Powell.”
Steven Rosenfeld covers national political issues for AlterNet, including America's democracy and voting rights, campaigns and elections, and many social justice issues. He is the author of "Count My Vote: A Citizen's Guide to Voting" (AlterNet Books, 2008).
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The ex-British spy who helped bring down FIFA prepared Trump dossier0:40
-Is fleeing for his life! What does that tell us?-
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Jackie Borchardt, cleveland.com By Jackie Borchardt, cleveland.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on November 07, 2016 at 1:15 PM, updated November 07, 2016 at 2:06 PM
VOTE!
Ohio voters who have problems at the polls can call a toll-free hotline, 866-OUR-VOTE, run by nonpartisan organizations. (Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer/file photo)
Jackie Borchardt, cleveland.com By Jackie Borchardt, cleveland.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on November 07, 2016 at 1:15 PM, updated November 07, 2016 at 2:06 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Voters across Ohio will cast ballots on Election Day at their neighborhood polling place.
And while voting rights advocates don't anticipate major problems, recent lawsuits and concerns about the election being rigged have all on alert for issues at the polls.
Here's what officials say voters should do if they witness an issue or have a problem voting on Tuesday.
If your name isn't in the poll book and you're sure you are a registered voter
Check your polling place at myohiovote.com, the county board of elections website, national League of Women Voters site vote411.org, or by calling 866-OUR-VOTE. That's a toll-free national hotline staffed by volunteers from nonpartisan groups including the League of Women Voters, Common Cause and American Bar Association.
You can also text POLLOH to 864237 to have your polling place sent to your phone.
If you are at the right polling place, it's possible your registration was cancelled in recent years through the state's supplemental process for determining ineligible voters. Because of a federal court ruling, provisional ballots cast by voters purged from the rolls will be counted if they still live in the same county where they were registered.
October: Ohio voters improperly removed from rolls can vote in November election, court rules
Provisional ballots aren't counted until after the election, once election officials can verify identities
Carrie Davis, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, said she expects to see more provisional ballots cast this year because of the court ruling. She said voters should not leave polling places without casting a ballot, even provisionally, and carefully fill out all fields required for a provisional ballot to make sure it counts.
If you see voter intimidation, harassment or other behavior disrupting voting
Alert the polling location manager.
Report problems to the Ohio secretary of state's office at 877-767-6446.
Call the Election Protection hotline, 866-OUR-VOTE. Voter advocates and attorneys at the hotline will work with the county board of elections to resolve the problem.
Additional help
In addition to the hotline, voter advocates will have more than 400 volunteers at polling places across the state. Many will be in areas that have experienced problems in the past.
Disability Rights Ohio will also have a toll-free hotline to help voters with disabilities experiencing difficulty voting: 800-282-9181 or (TTY) 800-858-3542.
General reminders
The election is Tuesday, Nov. 8. Polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m in Ohio. State law requires polling places to stay open until everyone who is in line at 7:30 p.m. has voted.
Made you look? That's the New Whitney building on Gansevoort St. in Manhattan.
Anyway, The Daily Skimm newsletter is not all I read but it's an important part of the news for me. Four years old, it suddenly published this guide today(please copy and paste):
http://www.theskimm.com/2016-election/how-to-vote
Voting can be difficult in some states these days. This feels like a handy guide. I looked up.what the form read for the states of Florida(trouble in 2000) and Ohio(trouble in 2004) and I think it looks good. Find yours if you need to!
Sorry I can't make links live anymore on this blog. Thanks Typepad.com you're a real free-speech, FOIA liberal:/ I'm not sure it registered me, but I found out my deadlines!
(We just got postcards in the mail that we couldn't vote because we had not filled out the Census, but we never got the Census. So I felt like "Whaaaa?"
Here's something else. Yesterday in the NY Times, although it's great that TX, NC and WI have been brought to justice by federal court, nevertheless in some small counties and towns anti-minority voter intimidation was attempted and worked, unfortunately
(please copy and paste) but(from The Daily Show 8-18-16): Baltimore Police making a black woman take all her clothes off for a broken tail-light was somatically worse and I'm convinced that what happened next was rape! Trevor Noah reports that they had "Black Male" pre-written in all their arrest forms, etc. Now please see:
That is a formidable 7/31/16 article. Let's watch this! And protest to those leaders.
Historical Footnote: It was discovered later that Nixon's War on Drugs specifically targeted both blacks and hippies: "Let's see....What do they both have in common?"
There was a cab driver in NY nicknamed Top o' the Head who could rhyme anything. "Just give me a line and I'll rhyme it!" I ended up riding with him twice!
A: What do you think of the Iraq War?
T: I don't like the Iraq War. My nickname is Al Gore.
A: Can you sing in tune?
T: I don't know if I can sing in tune. My wife lives in Rangoon.
Anyway here's "We did Inaugurate the Wrong Guy" from Salon.com
Email-Gate! I worry what will happen. But this whole post explains why Rove's email cover-up was much worse than Hillary's. I think it's 30,000 but when I went to Google the number, what I found were Conservative sites still screaming about Benghazi :/ Great day for news! Next on Voting Rights:
Protest-Leader standing in front of Chase Manhattan Bank a while back.
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