Michigan’s Voting Equipment Can Be Hacked in Minutes

This is from Michigan Liberal:

Terri Lynn Land blocking random hand audits – Michigan voting machines hackable in minutes
by: bfealk
Thu Nov 02, 2006 at 16:51:40 PM EST

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MEDIA ALERT
For Immediate Release

Contacts:
Jan BenDor 734/ 822-3122 or 217/417-6306
Bruce Fealk 248/652-8781
Jayne Hamilton 248/335-0021 or 248/909-1493
Lesley Mara, Deputy Secretary of State/Connecticut
- through Dan Tapper, Communication Director for Connecticut Secretary of State 860/509-6259

Michigan’s Voting Equipment Can Be Hacked in Minutes
Random Hand-Counted Audits Recommended by Voter Groups
Michigan Secretary of State Won’t Comply

• Demonstration and photos of hacking available

1) Michigan is relying on extremely vulnerable 1970s-era optical scan devices to count our votes.
October 30, 2006, a University of Connecticut team of researchers released a report which exposes the Diebold AccuVote Optical Scan (AV-OS) Voting Terminal to be vulnerable to hacking including that it can be unlocked by a paper clip, bypassing the security seal on the program memory. Michigan uses the Diebold AV-OS in 1244 precincts and the model serves 1,727,131 registered voters. By extension because of the similarity of the equipment, the ES&S M100 is equally vulnerable. The M100 serves 4,130,618 million people in 2,961 precincts. In Connecticut, the Secretary of State’s office asked the University of Connecticut to conduct a security audit of the M 100 optical scan machines so that any security issues could be addressed.

The report’s bottom line recommendation is that we conduct manual audit counts.

http://voter.engr.uconn.edu/voter/Reports.html

2) Fourteen states will conduct hand count audits on Nov. 7. Michigan isn’t one of them.
Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA
October 29, 2006

Fourteen states will be conducting random hand counted audits of their electronic voting machines this November. This is the single most powerful action that a state election administrator could take to demonstrate their commitment to accuracy and security. Citizen concern about electronic voting machines is not only motivated by fear of hacking or tampering – there have been dozens of cases of ballot programming errors that have affected election results.

Conducting a publicly-observed manual hand count of a meaningful percentage of paper records is a win-win proposition. If the audit shows that the electronic tallies were accurate, then voters are reassured. If the audit uncovers irregularities, then further audits should be undertaken and the cause of the irregularities should be investigated. Either way, you have established that your top priority is the accuracy of the election results.

http://votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1940&Itemid=26

3) The Secretary of State’s Bureau of Elections is blocking local clerks from conducting random hand count audits in Michigan

Michigan Secretary of State Bureau of Elections Director Chris Thomas in August telephoned Washtenaw County Clerk Larry Kestenbaum and told Kestenbaum he would sue if Kestenbaum carries out a citizen-initiated project to have sworn officials conduct random hand count audits on Nov. 7. We understand that some county clerks have received a letter with similar cautions from Thomas. Thomas has failed to respond to a certified letter from the Washtenaw Audit Count Coalition and a FOIA from a member of the Michigan Election Reform Alliance, requesting his legal justification for banning hand count audits. This week Thomas’s staff is calling local clerks to bully them.

November 1, 2006, Sue McRill of the SOS Bureau of Elections called Pittsfield Township, Michigan, Clerk, Feliziana Meyer, to tell her not to conduct any hand count audits of the vote. This call came out of the blue. The Pittsfield Township Clerk’s office had neither initiated the topic nor received any previous phone directives from the SOS. McRill stated that a clerk who has a machine problem would have to get permission from the SOS to conduct a manual count.

However, that restriction has no grounding in Michigan law, and any new rule would have to be promulgated through the State Administrative Procedures Act. The authority of the local clerk to conduct manual counts is very clearly expressed in:

MCL 168.798b Electronic tabulating equipment; unofficial and official returns; manual count.:
MICHIGAN ELECTION LAW (EXCERPT)
Act 116 of 1954

Before the conduct of the official count, the clerk may conduct an unofficial count in order to provide early unofficial returns to the public. Upon completion of the count, the official returns shall be open to the public. The return of the electronic tabulating equipment, to which have been added the write-in and absentee votes if necessary, shall constitute, after being duly certified, the official return of each precinct or election district. If it becomes impracticable to count all or a part of the ballots with tabulating equipment, the clerk may direct that they be counted manually, following as far as practicable the provisions governing the counting of paper ballots.

History: Add. 1967, Act 155, Imd. Eff. June 30, 1967 ;– Am. 1990, Act 109, Imd. Eff. June 18, 1990
Popular Name: Election Code

4) The Board of Canvassers also has the authority to conduct a manual count of the vote:

168.823 Board of county canvassers; power to summon and open ballot boxes; correction of errors; summoning of election inspectors.
“If it is found, upon the convening of the board of canvassers, that the returns from any of the boards of election inspectors of the several election precincts are missing, incomplete or incorrect, or for any other reason it is found necessary, then the board of county canvassers shall have power to adjourn from day to day until the returns shall have been procured or corrected. The board of canvassers are empowered to summon the persons having the boxes containing the ballots cast at the election and the keys and seals of the boxes, or having the returns or the poll lists or tally sheets used and made at the elections, to bring the boxes, keys, seals, returns, poll lists and tally sheets before the board, and the board of canvassers are authorized to open the boxes and take therefrom any books or papers bearing upon the count and return of the election inspectors of the election precincts, but they shall not remove or mark the ballots therein. The board of canvassers shall correct obvious mathematical errors in the tallies and returns and, when deemed necessary for a proper determination, may summon the election inspectors before them, and require them to count any ballots which they failed to count, to make correct returns in case, in the judgment of the board of canvassers after examining the returns, poll lists or tally sheets, the returns already made are incorrect or incomplete, and the board of canvassers shall canvass the votes from the corrected returns. When the examination of the papers is completed, or the ballots have been counted, they shall be returned to the ballot boxes or delivered to the persons entitled by law to their custody, and the boxes shall be locked and sealed and delivered to the legal custodians thereof.”

http://www.legislatu…(dsoow5jocligcy5523knyh45)/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=mcl-168-823

5) SOS Terri Lynn Land has refused to comply with the State Administrative Procedures Act to promulgate rules.

Not one of the orders by Michigan’s current Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land has ever been legally promulgated. The last time any election rules were correctly promulgated was in 1977 under Richard Austin, when rules for punch cards were issued.

MCL 168.797b Rules says that “The secretary of state shall promulgate rules pursuant to the administrative procedures act of 1969 governing the tabulation of ballots, certification of results, delivery of ballots and certified results, and sealing of devices and ballot boxes after the polls are closed.”

What are they trying to hide?

Jan BenDor Bruce Fealk Jayne Hamilton
State Coordinator Director State Coordinator
MichiganElectionReformAlliance.org Citizens for Fair Elections Michigan Volunteers for
The 2004 Ohio Recount
734/822-3122 W 248/652-8781 248/335-0021
217/417-6306 248/909-1493

Research Source
Contact Lesley Mara (Connecticut Deputy Secretary of State) through Dan Tapper (Communication Director for Connecticut Secretary of State)
860-509-6259