A
successful mock election hack in Leon County, Florida in December 2005
caused election officials across the nation to suspend, review or
withhold certification of Diebold Elections Systems voting equipment,
designating Diebold as unacceptable for use. On December 23, 2005
Maryland Elections Administrator Linda Lamone also responded with a strongly worded letter
to Diebold demanding immediate and daily briefings. This letter
recently came into the hands of TrueVoteMD and is attached.
In a letter
to Linda Lamone, TrueVoteMD.org urged de-certification of the Diebold
system as required by law and that all information be made public.
“Since
December 23, 2005 Ms. Lamone has known that the legality and
certifiability of our state’s entire voting system is in
question. Policymakers and the public must be immediately
informed on whether we are prepared for the September, 2006 primary
election or must we go into over-drive to procure a new system,” said
Linda Schade, Executive Director of TrueVoteMD.
“Election
officials in other states such as California regularly post press
releases and all technical reports on their public websites. The
Maryland State Administrator’s policy of secretive, back-room
administration of our state’s elections must come to an end NOW no
matter how embarrassing recent events have become. Openness is
not negotiable in a democratic society,” Linda Schade, Executive
Director of TrueVoteMD.org.
--------------
In a January 5, 2006 Diebold memo
to Pennsylvania officials, the company confirmed the hackable
interpreted code was found to exist on the memory cards of all its
equipment; the Diebold OS, TS, and TSX. The OS and TS are the machines
used by Maryland.
--------------
On January 27th 2006, Diebold sent this update to Linda Lamone
about what was happening arround the country. On February 1st
during the hearing on HB 244 in front of the Ways and Means Committee,
Lamone said she had not received anything from Diebold in response to
her December 23rd letter.
--------------
On February 14th
2006, the California Security Analysis was released, saying that many
of the possible hacks including the “Hursti Hack” could be mitigated as
long as a paper trail was in place.
--------------
Due to
the “Hursti Hack” in Leon County Florida, and the denial of problems by
the State Elections administrator, the Governor has formally come out
on the side of paper ballots. The first letter in support
of a paper trail from the Maryland Governors office to SBE on February 15, 2006, in which the governor first comes out with concerns about the issue of the “Husrti Hack”, Linda Lamone’s Letter to Diebold.
Later we obtained this letter from Senate President Mike Miller and House Speaker Mike Bush, sent February 16, 2006. This letter also expresses shared concern with the Governor, and issues of public confidence.
Linda
Lamone sent responses to the Senate and House Leadership on February
20, 2006. The responses match everything else that the
administrator has done on this issue, deny the problem, deny the
evidence, and deny the public concern. (This letter was split into two
sections due to its size.) [Section 1], [Section 2]
Gilles Burger sent a similar letter on February 28, 2006 to the Governors office as were sent to the House and Senate leadership.
TrueVoteMD put out this press release summarizing the California Security Analysis and its effect on Maryland on March 2nd.
On March 6, 2006,
the Governors office responded, saying that due to the California
testing, Maryland needs to retest their voting machines
independently.
