Florida Voting Equipment Fails Test
From: Al Kolwicz [mailto:alkolwicz@qwest.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 6:59 AM
To: 'Jonathan Tee'
Cc: Colorado Voter Group (ColoradoVoter@googlegroups.com)
Subject: Voting Equipment Inadequately Designed and Developed
Hello Jonathan,
Florida reports that they too have discovered flaws in their voting equipment. I’ve collected some links for you below.
While Florida’s and California’s tests prove conclusively that the voting equipment was inadequately designed and developed, it must not be assumed that these tests have detected all of the flaws. We are confident that they have not.
Remedies involving “trustworthy staff” are not acceptable. The only acceptable remedy is a top-down redesign of the equipment starting with a comprehensive specification of the requirements and specific measures that must be met. These specifications must be developed in conjunction with and agreed to by independent election system advocates, such as the Colorado Voter Group.
Has Colorado detected these flaws? The secretive nature of the ongoing voting equipment certification activity continues to increase our level of distrust in the process.
We have provided the framework of a specific plan that would (1) significantly reduce the risk that Colorado’s election results will be compromised by voting equipment flaws, while at the same time (2) meet the HAVA objective of permitting disabled voters to use flawed voting equipment if they so choose. We do not believe that our proposal has been given careful consideration. To the contrary, we believe that simplistic, bureaucratic negatives have been offered that disproportionately influence the decision to properly examine and work out problems with our proposal.
We ask again, please encourage Mr. Coffman to enter into a dialog with us to protect Colorado voters. The election system belongs to the people, not the vendors, and not the bureaucrats.
Florida references:
August 1, 2007 -- Florida's top elections chief has found Diebold's voting machines could be
compromised easily by hackers and is demanding a quick fix.
http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/188769.html
July 31 2007 -- Study finds Florida optical scan voting machines still flawed
www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-bk-votemachines-073107,0,6998799.story
July 27, 2007 – Software Review and Security Analysis of the Diebold Voting Machine Software
http://oss.dos.state.fl.us/communications/press-releases/SAIT%20Report.pdf
June 14, 2007 -- Engagement Plan for Review of Voting Equipment Used in Florida’s 13th
Congressional District During the 2006 General Election
http://gop.cha.house.gov/FL13/FinalFL-13EngagementPlan.pdf
Al Kolwicz
Colorado Voter Group
2867 Tincup Circle
Boulder, CO 80305
303-494-1540
AlKolwicz@qwest.net
www.AlKolwicz.net