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.
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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.
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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. 
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On February 14^th 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. 
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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 2^nd. 
 
On March 6, 2006, the Governors office responded, saying that due to the California testing, Maryland needs to retest their voting machines independently.