CNN's Lou Dobbs: Democracy at Risk
For educational purposes.  Not for sale.




Volume 1



6-20-06
100% of Georgia is voting on Diebold machines.
John Fortuin--Defenders of Democracy- "I've had twenty years of computer programming, and the standards used in financial sector are missing in voting machines."
Conflict of interest -- Georgia Gov. candidate is certifying voting machines.
Donna Rice, Georgians for Verified Voting.

6-26-06
Lack of security for voting machines.
Patti Newton, former San Diego Poll Worker, about taking home voting machines.
Susan Pynchon, Florida Fair Elections Coalition

6-27-06
Larry Norden, Brennan Center Task Force: "All three voting systems have significant security, reliabilty and vulnerabilities which pose a real danger to integrity of national and state elections."
Rep. Tom David, R-VA

6-29-06
Machines easy to hack, infect with virus, etc. Brad Friedman, bradblog.com and Avi Rubin, Johns Hopkins University.

7-11-06
Government can't protect vulnerable machines: hasn't set standards yet. Existing standards are voluntary. "Acceptable Fairlure Rate" too high. Michael Waldman, Brennan Ctr for Justice: Deforest Soaries, Frmr Chrmn, Election Assistance Comm.: Johon Washburn, votetrustusa.

 
7-12-06
One in every 11 machines may break down on Election Day. Less reliable than ATMs.
John Washburn VoteTrustUSA
Rep. Jerrold Nadler
Paul Degregorio, Chrmn Election Assistance Comm.

 7-21-06
Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ)
Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R) 
"Standards not likely to be fully enforceable until 2010, and that's only in states that choose to adopt them." Boehlert
"Experts testify that virtually every electronic voting study has proven that a voter verified paper trail is the only way to make sure a vote is recorded accurately." Kitty Pilgrim

7-25-06
Sequoia sold to Smartmatic, a Venezuelan company. Vulnerable to hacking. Treasury Dept. in contact with company & "taking it very seriously".
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
Dan Wallach, Rice University. 

7-26-06
Half of the states are requiring a paper trail. Maryland Governor got a requirement for paper trail, had money in the budget, but was defeated by the state senate.
Linda Lamone, excuses for not requiring a paper trail.

7-27-06
More than half of the voters in Nov. will be voting on electronic machines. An election in Cuyahoga County, Ohio on May 2, using machines, was an "unmitigated disaster."
Rep. Stephanie Jones Cards left in machines not counted.
Judge Ronald Adrine Some absentee ballots couldn't be scanned.
 
7-31-06
Massive programming error in Pottawattamie County, Iowa on June 6, 2006 resulted in the wrong candidate almost winning. The machines miscounted the entire ballot.
Laren Knauss, Pottawattamie County Supervisor
John Washburn, VoteTrustUSA

8-9-06
Diebold defends against charges of hacking.
Marty Kaplan on Huffington Post explains how it can be hacked.

8-14-06
E-Voting Machine Parts on sale on Ebay. Of interest to watchdog groups and hackers.
Warren Stewart, VOTETRUSTUSA
Alan Dechert, Open Voting Foundation--"Number of ways to rig the vote. No tamper seals."

8-15-06
28 states have mandatory rules for paper record. 22 states "holding out". Activists are banding together and suing.
Lowell Finley Voter Action
Garland Favorito, VoterGA.org

8-21-06
Aviel Rubin, author, Johns Hopkins University
--No way voters can verify votes are recorded correctly.
-- No way to count votes in a publicly viewable fashion.
-- Meaningful recounts impossible.
-- Machines must be trusted not to fail.
-- Diebold machines had gross design and programming errors.
--Cannot determine quality of vendors machines because their code is
proprietory.

 
8-22-06
Testing the machines in Pinealas County, Florida, the results were not satisfactory.
Linda McGeehan, League of Women Voters
David Dill, verifiedvoting.org
Bill Bucolo, Voting Integrity Alliance

8-24-06
Different standards on the machines in different states. California decertified machines; Maryland tried to require a paper trail, but it was rejected by the state senate.
Debra Bowen, CA State Senate
Prof. Dan Wallach, Rice University

9-1-06
Preserving 2004 paper ballots in Ohio.
Cliff Areneback, Voting Rights Attorney
Proposed Federal Standards
Rep. Rush Holt
Tracy Warren, Election Science Institute

9-4-06
Major problems with the machines, Cuyahoga County, Ohio
Steve Hertzberg, Election Science Institute
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones

9-13-06
Maryland's primary a "debacle".
Shelley Fudge, TrueVoteMD
"Wasted all this money on machines that can't do a transparent recount. It's pretty embarrassing", Kevin Zeese, Maryland Senate Candidate
Avi Rubin

9-15-06
Princeton University scientists say election integrity cannot be guaranteed with the E-Voting machines.
Edward Felton, Princeton
Activists in CO suing. Paul Hultin, Wheeler Trigg Kennedy




Volume 2

20-Sep
E-voting systems end up costing 100 times original estimate. Poll: only 13% are very confident their vote will count in coming election.
Guests: Lawrence Norden, Brennan Center

21-Sep
Maryland Governor wants to scap E-voting machines.
Guests: Avi Ruben, Johns Hopkins University

22-Sep
Across the country there are efforts to decertify the machines.  California, New Mexico, have given up on paperless voting systems.  Judge rules Colorado Sec. Of State violated the law.
Guests: Paul Hultin, Attorney for Colorado voters; Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich

25-Sep
Many state governments are finally awakening to the threat that e-voting machines pose to upcoming elections.  Judge rules Colorado Sec. Of State violated the law, did not test machines as required.
Guests: Paul Hultin, Attorney for Colorado voters

26-Sep
Congressman Robert Wexler takes e-voting to the Supreme Court.
Guests: Congressman Robert Wexler

27-Sep
Emergency legislation proposed to demand paper ballot backups for all voters on election day.
Guests: Lawrence Norden, Brennan Institution
 
28-Sep
Congressional hearings on the problems of E-voting.  Experts testify the machines are vulernable to tampering, outright fraud, and political manipulation, and that they're uncertain millions of votes will be counted on election day.  Experts demonstrate to Congress how to hack a machine in one minute.

2-Oct
We Count 2006 Conference in Ohio.
Guests: Bev Harris, Bob Fitrakis

4-Oct
Public outcry over e-voting machines. Lausuits and investigations into e-voting.
Guests: Michael Vu, Cuyahoga Cty. Board of Elections.

5-Oct
Election officials are witholding payments to the manufacturers
Guests: Peter Silvestri, Cook County Commissioner; Wendy Noren, Boone County Clerk

6-Oct
Suffolk county, NY rejects e-voting machines

10-Oct
Officials expecting problems in the coming election.  Evidence of problems in Florida's recent Primary election. Newspaper requests records and finds them missing.  Both sides preparing for legal fights after coming election.
Guests:  Susan Pynchon, Florida Fair Elections Coalition

 
19-Oct
Princeton University demonstrates how easy it is to hack a Diebold machine to steal the election.  New poll shows 66% believe the voting machines will be used to alter election results.
Guests: Ed Felten, Princeton University

20-Oct
mad scramble to hire technicians to troubleshoot voting machines on election day

23-Oct
upcoming elections, problems anticipated
Guests: DeForest Sories
Ray Martinez, EAC

24-Oct
lack of properly trained staff will lead to confusion on election day. Ten states are on election watch for potential problems. ESS fined $750,000. Massive problems with new electronic pollbooks and people have found when they go to vote, they're not on the list.
Guests: Joan Krawitz, VoteTrustUSA
Doug Chapin, Electionline.org

25-Oct
efforts to find and train the 2 million workers needed for electronic voting machines are failing.  Maryland's disasterous primary, pollworkers had no idea how to use the machines.

26-Oct
laboratory that tests voting machines is hired and paid by companies who make them.  Election Assistance Commission holds hearings 12 days before election asking voting machine companies to reassure the election will work.  Voters are demanding to know why the entire process is so secret. 
Guests: Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA

27-Oct
vote flipping already seen in early voting. Electronic registration systems are inaccurate and unreliable. Central tabulators have malfunctioned.
Guests: Lawrence Norden, Brennan Institution

30-Oct
Investigation into the sale of a voting machine company (Sequoia) to a Venezuelan corporation.



Volume 3



October 31st.
Problems with early voting in Florida
Over 150 calibration errors found on machines. 
Power failures prevented hundreds of people from voting.
Jeb Bush says there's no problem with the machines.
Discussion of new film "Hacking Democracy"

Guests: Pamela Haengel, Voting Integrity Alliance; Reginald Mitchell, People for the American Way; Susan Pynchon, Florida Fair Election Coalition; Bev Harris, Black Box Voting; Susan Bernecker, candidate; Hugh Thomson, security strategist


November 1st
Government is in denial about the problem. Citizens and grassroots are focusing attention.


2-Nov
Button on back of machine allows voters to vote as many times as they want,
nationwide last minute problems found in many voting machines

Guest:  Lowell Finley, Voter Action


3-Nov
Monitors of early voting already finding problems, vote flipping and others.

Guests:	Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA, Susan Pynchon; Lawrence Norden, Brennan Center;


10-Nov
18,000 votes may have been lost by e-voting machines in Florida,
Undervotes are 10 times higher than normal

Guest: Kendall Coffey, Jenning's lawyer


14-Nov
Recount in Florida, with nothing to recount, 18,000 votes lost.	


29-Nov
Charges of vote flipping in 6 states.  Pending legislation to address the issue. Audit in Florida reveals discrepancies in election results

Guests: Doug Chapin, Electionline.org; Rush Holt


	
19-Dec
Jennings contesting election results.

Guests: Kendall Coffey, Jenning's lawyer


22-Dec
Investigation into the sale of a voting machine company (Sequoia) to a Venezuelan corporation.


2-Jan
Continuing coverage of FL-13 investigation	


4-Jan
Voting machine testing laboratory Ciber failed federal review, EAC knew about the problems 6 months ago but said nothing; Buchanan sworn in, seating is provisional pending an investigation into 18,000 missing votes