[EM] CORRECTING Black box voting repost re how HAVA imploded

[Dave Ketchum]

Black box voting has done much good, encouraging us to look closer at 
election evils.

HOWEVER, this time their advice flunks.  They correctly point out that 
there are too many failures of voting equipment, but do not note:
      There are many failures for which DREs get blamed.
      BUT few, if any, of these involve REAL DREs!
      Most, if not all, involve equipment that the closest it got to being 
REAL DREs was to be sold claiming to be such!

HAVA should have provided for federal verification that what was sold as 
being DREs, actually was.  We are hearing more and more that the Feds were 
not really trying.

HAVA should have permitted validation by others to detect whatever the 
federal testing failed to catch, and seeing to corrective action.
      There are claims of need to protect company secrets.  This is truly 
a problem but, somehow, the information needs to get where it can do some 
good.
      There are claims that the information must not be available to those 
who would thus find weaknesses and use this information destructively. 
True, but there should not be such weaknesses, and the testing discussed 
above would help get them corrected before they did damage.

Step back, and think of the many places where we use computers BECAUSE, if 
designed and built to provide a service, they are the best way to get it 
done successfully:
      ATMs - any bank that was dumb enough to install something that was 
not a true ATM would fail to provide ATM services and/or get robbed as 
soon as the word got out.
      Air traffic control - it would not be possible to handle current 
traffic volume safely without depending on computers built to serve 
controllers dependably.
      Hospitals - would we dare enter a hospital that failed to have 
dependable computers for many tasks?
      etc. - we interface with computers in many aspects of our lives and, 
for many of those interfaces, a failing computer could mean great harm, up 
to and including death.

DWK

On Thu, 01 Feb 2007 02:47:07 -0000 warren_d_smith31 wrote:

> More good investigative research from BlackBoxVoting.  Which
> progressive organizations are still today supporting DRE touch-screen
> (invisible ballot) voting machines due to their former use of donor
> funds to push for US implementation of touchscreen DREs?
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Black Box Voting <blackboxvoting at worldnet.att.net>
> Date: Jan 31, 2007 4:46 AM
> Subject: From Black Box Voting: The road to Boondoggle is paved with
> good intentions
> To: kathy at truthisbetter.org
> 
> 
> (Warning: You might really hate this story.) This story represents
> months of original research by Black Box Voting. We went into this
> looking for the defense industry contractors we'd heard had lobbied
> for the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). That legislation has been blamed
> for the touch-screens (DREs) that showed up all over America. Well,
> that's not what we found. The real story on who was behind HAVA may
> come as a surprise to you. It was to us..
> 
> Permission to reprint and distribute granted, with link to
> http://www.blackboxvoting.org
> 
> THE ROAD TO BOONDOGGLE IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS:
> HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT (HAVA) LOBBYIST LIST
...

-- 
  davek at clarityconnect.com    people.clarityconnect.com/webpages3/davek
  Dave Ketchum   108 Halstead Ave, Owego, NY  13827-1708   607-687-5026
            Do to no one what you would not want done to you.
                  If you want peace, work for justice.