Voting Machine Programmer A Convicted Felon
So Called Convicted Felons can't vote in America, Yet a convicted Felon can programme your voting machines, and have a key to the commutor room. DEMOCRACY AND HYPOCRACY IN ACTION.
Sunday, November 21 2004 @ 02:49 PM EST
Contributed by: Lise This has been out since December of 2003. I would not normally do this, but I feel it's so important that this information get out, that I'm going to quote a big chunk of a longer article. I'll make the main point in a nutshell -- the man who programmed Diebold's voting systems is a convicted felon who specializes in computerized theft. He has done time. It' really not funny.
From Bev Harris, Black Box Voting:
In King County, an individual named Jeffrey Dean obtained a contract to program the voter registration system. According to sources within the King County elections office, Dean also had a key to the computer room, the passcode to the GEMS computer, and 24-hour access to the building. Dean sometimes urged upgrades to new, uncertified software right before elections.
So here’s a man with access to our personal information and access to the programs that count 800,000 votes. He also had involvement with the Windows CE operating system used by the touch-screens:
From: Ian S. Piper, October 20, 2001: “I don’t know the outlook for implementing WinCE 3.0. Jeff Dean would be the person to make an inquiry to on that matter.
From: Larry Dix, October 20, 2001: “ Can anyone other than Jeff give an update on this? Any idea when CE will be available ...”
Jeffrey Dean was largely responsible for programming the 1.96 version of the optical scan software, which is used not just in Seattle, but throughout the U.S. (1.96.4 was certified in May 2003).
From: Jeff Dean, 23 Feb 2001: “What we are doing is certifying a firmware release that is backward compatible with the 1.94, 1.95 spider’s web of uncertified features currently in use ... let’s get 1.96 tested and certified.”
Jeffrey W. Dean was the senior vice president of Global Election Systems and a director of the company in 2000 and 2001. He had access not only to King County, but to the entire suite of optical scan software used in 37 states, and the security-sensitive Windows CE program for the touch-screens. Jeffrey Dean had access to our votes, but what he is not allowed to have is access to handling any checks.
That is because his criminal sentence for twenty-three counts of felony Theft in the First Degree forbids him to handle any checks, now that he has been released from prison. According to the findings of fact in case no. 89-1-04034-1:
“Defendant’s thefts occurred over a 2 1/2 year period of time, there were multiple incidents, more than the standard range can account for, the actual monetary loss was substantially greater than typical for the offense, the crimes and their cover-up involved a high degree of sophistication and planning in the use and alteration of records in the computerized accounting system that defendant maintained for the victim, and the defendant used his position of trust and fiduciary responsibility as a computer systems and accounting consultant for the victim to facilitate the commission of the offenses.”
Diebold told The AP wire that Dean left the company when they took over, but in fact, Diebold retained him as a consultant:
From: Steve Moreland, 4 Feb 2002: “I am pleased to announce that effective today, John Elder will be assuming the role of General Manager of the Printed Products department of Diebold Election Systems, Inc. John brings a wealth of knowledge along with a passion for success to this role which will be essential as we strive to gain market share and improve profitability. Jeff Dean has elected to maintain his affiliation with the company in a consulting role, reporting to Pat Green. The Diebold Election Division management team greatly values Jeff’s contribution to this business and is looking forward to his continued expertise in this market place.
Diebold also cannot say that the voting machines it built had nothing to do with Jeffrey Dean. Though Diebold actually purchased Global Election Systems in January 2002, they contracted to build machines for Global in 2001. This was because Diebold had loaned money to Global, planning to buy the firm, and Global had sold 500 machines that it did not have the liquidity to manufacture.
While in prison, Jeffrey Dean met and became friends with John Elder, who did five years for cocaine trafficking. At the time of this writing, Elder is still on Diebold’s payroll; in fact, he manages a division and oversees the printing of both ballots and punch cards for several states. Punch cards, remember, can also be rigged, by selectively die-cutting so that some chads dislodge more easily than others. Diebold’s printing division also bids on printing for Sequoia.
King County contracts the mailing of its absentee ballots out to Elder’s division, and Elder’s division subcontracts with a firm called PSI Group Inc. to sort the incoming absentee ballots — the most high-risk security point for absentee ballots. You see, we know how many absentee ballots we send out, but we have no idea how many are filled out and sent back in, especially if they pass through a middleman before being counted by elections officials. The elections division may tell you they count the ballots before outsourcing for precinct sorting, but in major metro areas, up to 60,000 ballots arrive in a single day and they are simply not staffed for this. It makes no sense to count ballots by precinct and then send them out for sorting.
According to a 2001 SEC document, our felon friends had contracted for absentee and ballot processing for the following counties:
King County Records and Elections-Ballot Production 7/15/98
King County Records and Elections-Absentee Process 7/10/98
Fresno County Elections-Ballot Production 2/28/99
Fresno County Elections-Absentee Process 2/28/99
Tulare County Elections-Ballot Production 9/03/99
Los Angeles Elections-Absentee Process 8/01/00
Santa Clara County Elections-Absentee Process 9/12/00
Sacramento County Elections-Absentee Process 9/05/00
Purchase Orders based upon Spectrum's ballot
production and absentee Statements of Work
Santa Barbara County
San Luis Obispo County
Marin County
Lassen County
Siskiyou County
Humboldt County
Trinity County
Jeffrey Dean was released from prison in August, 1995 and Elder was released in November 1996. In their prison release documents, both wrote that they had lined up employment at Postal Services of Washington, Inc., the firm that sorts 500,000 mail-in absentee ballots for King County.
Jeffrey Dean, when released from prison, had $87 in his inmate account. He was ordered to pay $385,227 in restitution for his embezzlements. For most of us, this would be a crushing financial blow, and we would find it difficult to bankroll a business, yet somehow Dean (and his wife, Deborah M. Dean) managed to become the owners of Spectrum Printing & Mailing. In 2000, Dean’s printing and mailing firm was purchased for $1.6 million by Global Election Systems.
So when we try to find out what software is actually authorized, we get the buffalo shuffle. We’ve got a cocaine trafficker printing our ballots, an embezzler programming our voting system, and our absentee ballots are being funneled through a private company that hires people straight out of prison.
I don’t believe there is a certification program in existence that can protect us from inside access. We need criminal background checks and robust, fraud-deterring audits.
Read the rest here: Embezzler Programmed System To Connect Ballots To Voter by Bev Harris
Link Here
Sunday, November 21 2004 @ 02:49 PM EST
Contributed by: Lise This has been out since December of 2003. I would not normally do this, but I feel it's so important that this information get out, that I'm going to quote a big chunk of a longer article. I'll make the main point in a nutshell -- the man who programmed Diebold's voting systems is a convicted felon who specializes in computerized theft. He has done time. It' really not funny.
From Bev Harris, Black Box Voting:
In King County, an individual named Jeffrey Dean obtained a contract to program the voter registration system. According to sources within the King County elections office, Dean also had a key to the computer room, the passcode to the GEMS computer, and 24-hour access to the building. Dean sometimes urged upgrades to new, uncertified software right before elections.
So here’s a man with access to our personal information and access to the programs that count 800,000 votes. He also had involvement with the Windows CE operating system used by the touch-screens:
From: Ian S. Piper, October 20, 2001: “I don’t know the outlook for implementing WinCE 3.0. Jeff Dean would be the person to make an inquiry to on that matter.
From: Larry Dix, October 20, 2001: “ Can anyone other than Jeff give an update on this? Any idea when CE will be available ...”
Jeffrey Dean was largely responsible for programming the 1.96 version of the optical scan software, which is used not just in Seattle, but throughout the U.S. (1.96.4 was certified in May 2003).
From: Jeff Dean, 23 Feb 2001: “What we are doing is certifying a firmware release that is backward compatible with the 1.94, 1.95 spider’s web of uncertified features currently in use ... let’s get 1.96 tested and certified.”
Jeffrey W. Dean was the senior vice president of Global Election Systems and a director of the company in 2000 and 2001. He had access not only to King County, but to the entire suite of optical scan software used in 37 states, and the security-sensitive Windows CE program for the touch-screens. Jeffrey Dean had access to our votes, but what he is not allowed to have is access to handling any checks.
That is because his criminal sentence for twenty-three counts of felony Theft in the First Degree forbids him to handle any checks, now that he has been released from prison. According to the findings of fact in case no. 89-1-04034-1:
“Defendant’s thefts occurred over a 2 1/2 year period of time, there were multiple incidents, more than the standard range can account for, the actual monetary loss was substantially greater than typical for the offense, the crimes and their cover-up involved a high degree of sophistication and planning in the use and alteration of records in the computerized accounting system that defendant maintained for the victim, and the defendant used his position of trust and fiduciary responsibility as a computer systems and accounting consultant for the victim to facilitate the commission of the offenses.”
Diebold told The AP wire that Dean left the company when they took over, but in fact, Diebold retained him as a consultant:
From: Steve Moreland, 4 Feb 2002: “I am pleased to announce that effective today, John Elder will be assuming the role of General Manager of the Printed Products department of Diebold Election Systems, Inc. John brings a wealth of knowledge along with a passion for success to this role which will be essential as we strive to gain market share and improve profitability. Jeff Dean has elected to maintain his affiliation with the company in a consulting role, reporting to Pat Green. The Diebold Election Division management team greatly values Jeff’s contribution to this business and is looking forward to his continued expertise in this market place.
Diebold also cannot say that the voting machines it built had nothing to do with Jeffrey Dean. Though Diebold actually purchased Global Election Systems in January 2002, they contracted to build machines for Global in 2001. This was because Diebold had loaned money to Global, planning to buy the firm, and Global had sold 500 machines that it did not have the liquidity to manufacture.
While in prison, Jeffrey Dean met and became friends with John Elder, who did five years for cocaine trafficking. At the time of this writing, Elder is still on Diebold’s payroll; in fact, he manages a division and oversees the printing of both ballots and punch cards for several states. Punch cards, remember, can also be rigged, by selectively die-cutting so that some chads dislodge more easily than others. Diebold’s printing division also bids on printing for Sequoia.
King County contracts the mailing of its absentee ballots out to Elder’s division, and Elder’s division subcontracts with a firm called PSI Group Inc. to sort the incoming absentee ballots — the most high-risk security point for absentee ballots. You see, we know how many absentee ballots we send out, but we have no idea how many are filled out and sent back in, especially if they pass through a middleman before being counted by elections officials. The elections division may tell you they count the ballots before outsourcing for precinct sorting, but in major metro areas, up to 60,000 ballots arrive in a single day and they are simply not staffed for this. It makes no sense to count ballots by precinct and then send them out for sorting.
According to a 2001 SEC document, our felon friends had contracted for absentee and ballot processing for the following counties:
King County Records and Elections-Ballot Production 7/15/98
King County Records and Elections-Absentee Process 7/10/98
Fresno County Elections-Ballot Production 2/28/99
Fresno County Elections-Absentee Process 2/28/99
Tulare County Elections-Ballot Production 9/03/99
Los Angeles Elections-Absentee Process 8/01/00
Santa Clara County Elections-Absentee Process 9/12/00
Sacramento County Elections-Absentee Process 9/05/00
Purchase Orders based upon Spectrum's ballot
production and absentee Statements of Work
Santa Barbara County
San Luis Obispo County
Marin County
Lassen County
Siskiyou County
Humboldt County
Trinity County
Jeffrey Dean was released from prison in August, 1995 and Elder was released in November 1996. In their prison release documents, both wrote that they had lined up employment at Postal Services of Washington, Inc., the firm that sorts 500,000 mail-in absentee ballots for King County.
Jeffrey Dean, when released from prison, had $87 in his inmate account. He was ordered to pay $385,227 in restitution for his embezzlements. For most of us, this would be a crushing financial blow, and we would find it difficult to bankroll a business, yet somehow Dean (and his wife, Deborah M. Dean) managed to become the owners of Spectrum Printing & Mailing. In 2000, Dean’s printing and mailing firm was purchased for $1.6 million by Global Election Systems.
So when we try to find out what software is actually authorized, we get the buffalo shuffle. We’ve got a cocaine trafficker printing our ballots, an embezzler programming our voting system, and our absentee ballots are being funneled through a private company that hires people straight out of prison.
I don’t believe there is a certification program in existence that can protect us from inside access. We need criminal background checks and robust, fraud-deterring audits.
Read the rest here: Embezzler Programmed System To Connect Ballots To Voter by Bev Harris
Link Here
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 5:28 PM
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