Dear Chuck….
Since
I first posted the HackTheVote demo on
www.chuckherrin.com/hackthevote, I have received many thousands
of emails from people in NC, all over the
US, and a few
from Americans and others overseas who are GREATLY alarmed at
electronic voting.
To see such a
response to ‘some guy’s’ little website with no publicity or
advertising underscores how strongly people feel about this issue.
Counterbalancing
the overwhelming support, I have received 1 message saying “Get over
it looser”, and one saying “Those Democrat losers think you’re
really on to something.”
That’s over
99.9+% agreement among Republican, Democrat, Green, Libertarian,
Reform, and Independent voters. This is unprecedented on ANY
issue.
It’s clear
what the will of the people is. I hope that our elected officials
will do the will of the people and restore our faith in Democracy,
and I assure you, gentle reader, that legions of motivated people’s
eyes will be closely watching any official who votes against vote
integrity. The experts and citizens have spoken, and we wait with
unbearable tension and unwavering resolve to be heard.
(Email addresses
have been replaced with nospam.com to protect these folks from the
scum of the Internet)
Here’s a sample
of what they’ve been saying, and I still have 503 unread emails in
my inbox right now…..
Dear Chuck,
I wanted to say
that I have battled electronic voting machines since November of
2002. I was up against a couple of serious obstacles at the time, no
one knew anything about the machines and no one wanted to believe
me. I began consulting with computer scientists, technicians and
researching these vendors and their machines. What I found was
startling, as have you.
I launched a
campaign in Arkansas to prevent the purchase of a uniform statewide
system of touchscreens and managed to persuade the Sec. of State to
file a waiver, delaying the purchase for 2 years and also to provide
paper ballots on the machines.
Much to my
dismay upon continuing research, I discovered that optical scan
machines with paper ballots are just as easy to manipulate and mis-program
paper ballots on the machines will not help us. Throwing the e
voting machines in the nearest river and voting only on hand counted
paper ballots will save us now. You would not believe how many
people I contacted about voting machines, from the county level to
the federal level-then took it to the people. That was my best bet
because election officials will not listen.
Thanks for the
work you are doing on this issue. Some of my colleagues include the
folks at VotersUnite.org and Verified Voting.org. I have worked
with Bev Harris and Dr. Rebecca Mercuri for 2 years. If you don't
already know these wonderful souls, you might want to get in touch
with them and join forces. Dr's Avi Ruben and David Jefferson are
also a part of this effort.
Best of luck
with your efforts,
Lisa Burks
National
Coordinator
National
Coalition for Verified Voting
Dear Chuck,
You Rock. Bev
and I were just purusing your website. Outstanding job I must say.
Thanks so much for stepping up and verifying what up to this point
has only been a "conspiracy theory". The impressive assortment of
alphabet soup after your name is quite impressive. Thank you so
much!!!
Hope this finds
you well.
Sincerely
Andy and Bev (Bev
Harris and Andy Stephenson of Blackboxvoting.org)
Dear Mr. Herrin,
I wanted to
compliment you on a most excellent primer on the problems with
e-voting. I appreciate your ability to see that accurate,
transparent vote tabulation is truly a non-partisan issue. I've been
following the investigations into potential fraud in the 2004
election with great interest as a concerned citizen, and this is the
first time I've encountered someone from the right who so clearly
values systemic integrity more than "winning". (Your insight --
"empathy training" -- into why, at least superficially, there don't
seem to be many Republicans with the same priorities, has the ring
of truth.) Although I lean left on most social issues, I recognize
that there are many laudable conservative ideals that contribute to
the spirited public debate that is vital to a living democracy. Even
the possibility that a tiny group of radicals could render such
debate meaningless is as sobering as it is unacceptable. Good luck
with your efforts to take your party back -- your web site is a
great start!
Best Regards,
Brian Mohr
IT Director
Department of
Geosciences
Princeton
University
Comments:
A very helpful
and compelling site. Thank you for your efforts re: digital voting.
Ian H. Solomon
Associate Dean,
Yale Law School
ian.solomon@yale.nospam.com
Hi Chuck,
This is a most
excellent site. It is helpful to me as I write an article on voting
"irregularities" in the 2004 election for a monthly magazine called
Chronogram, which is published out of the Hudson Valley area of New
York state. My article is due on Tues. Nov. 16. May I interview you
for this piece? I have already interviewed Bev Harris at BBV.
My name is
Cheryl Gerber as you can see from my email but the one I use more
frequently is
chergerber@nospam.com. You can call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx to verify
but DO NOT give out this telephone number to anyone else. I trust
you because if you weren't honest, you wouldn't be trying to get out
this information.
I would need to
interview you on Mon. Nov. 15 (tomorrow) and in case you are on the
west coast, it's OK with me if it's in the early evening.
Best regards,
Cheryl
It's 1:45 AM and
I have just read your Hack The Vote piece. You just made me sicker
than I already was. Someone needs to put you and someone in your
profession with similar skills in the same room and put up a
$1,000,000 prize if you're wrong. Then expose this to every media
outlet in the world.
Why isn't this a
bigger story today? Why aren't I outside right now, standing on my
lawn shouting this to the world?
Thank you for
keeping me up tonight... probably every night from now on.
Sincerely,
Richard Grano
Thanks, Chuck,
for explaining how election vote manipulation is possible.
Given the 2004
election results, I believe that fraudulent activities did occur.
I have thought
of a way to detect such activities, but (of course) the existing
voting system(s)
must first be modified to include (and retain!) better records.
We must get a
system in place, such that voters can verify their own voting
choices against
the official (and detailed) voting records. For more information
about this
change, just visit .....
http://home.earthlink.net/~rgraeser/id1.html
Once again, I
appreciate your site and hope that many will now better under-
stand, how
"hacking the vote" is accomplished.
Sincerely,
Rick Graeser
Really, just
thank you!!! I'm certainly spreading the word. I wish I could be
more effective- I know Pacifica Radio's "Democracy Now" is covering
these issues, but I don't see much else on the airwaves yet.
Bernie Sirelson
bsirelson@
nospam.com
Dear Mr. Herrin,
I want to thank
you for your hacking demo I've just followed at
http://www.chuckherrin.com/hackthevote.htm.
Brilliant
exposé. I'm no cyberwhiz, but could track your steps just from being
a home user of MSOffice and having poked thru the Administrator
functions for Win2000-Pro and now XP-Pro, which I have more or less
by accident (rather than the Standard/Home versions).
You make it look
so easy. What have the Dieboldistas said in response to your demo? I
know they're monitoring work like yours, because here in our tiny
San Juan County, WA, with a pop of 14,000 in a
ferry-served archipelago adjoining Canadian waters, a Diebold
spokesman responded to an anti-blackbox column in our small online
paper (our two onpulp papers are weeklies) with a Letter to the
Editor--without identifying himself or his location. We don't use
blackbox voting here.
Here's the link
to the Diebold spokesman's letter:
http://www.sanjuanislander.com/letters/response/2004.shtml
I include Tom's
email below. If Diebold cares enough about us to write such a
letter, what are they doing about you?
FYI:
Janet was in Ohio
as a voters rights advocate during the election.
Tom is my
plugged-in buddy who googled Michael Jacobsen to discover his role
with Diebold.
Ben (no relation
to me) was the Green Party candidate for County Commissioner here.
Herb Meyer
is the lead local Republican, former Deputy Director of the CIA
under Wm Casey in the Reagan Admin, and a failed Repub primary
candidate for US Congress here in 2002.
Thanks for your
work for democracy!
Sincerely,
Tim White
timwhite@
nospam.com
This is REALLY
great!!! Is this also on other threads?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=201x3572
I just posted
this on your Voting Issues thread but I wanted to make sure you get
this request. I will help kick it if you post it on other threads.
Thanks for you hard work.
Lil
(This
may have been the first time I had ever heard of Democratic
Underground. Seems funny now :-)
)
Chuck,
Great work!
Any problem with
me forwarding your post to a few different places?
______________________________________
Dave Kleiman,
CISSP, CISM, CIFI, MCSE
www.SecurityBreachResponse.com
Right on, Chuck!
My Gramma done
warned me bout u tarheels: She said just what u say. Bev Harris has
been featured on Seattle KIRO-AM talkshow--an excellent
presenter for
the truth spoken to power. Jim March sounds like one heavy
caliber patriot: "Bring em on, make my day..." to an outfit named
Die-bold? You guys' cyberdumdum may enter so neat and clean, but
blasts this business with an exit hole big enuf to raise our hands
thru.
Peace. Justice
too.
Be well.
Yours, Tim
Chuck!!
Excellent
Report!! By chance do you have it in PDF format? I'd like to
distribute that amongst our local Press and Political Office
holders.
It's been a
while since we communicated. I incorporated and changed the name of
my business over the summer. In August I moved into a new office. I
recently published another Whitepaper. "How to make the "Perfect"
P.B.&J." You can download it at my new website.
www.fullertoninfosec.com. I'd be interested in hearing your
comments about it.
Chuck Fullerton
CEH,OPST,CISSP,CSS1,CCNP,CCDA,CNA,A+
CEO, CISO, Lead
Security Consultant
Fullerton
Infosec, Inc.
I wish I had
read your report on Hacking the vote before I wrote this little
paper:
http://www.auburn.edu/~gundljh/Baldwin.pdf
Please take a
look at it and let me know what you think.
Jim Gundlach
Chuck----Isn't
there some way you can get this information to the media? Have you
tried to connect with any of them....how about Keith Olbermann?
Little people like me can't do anything...but YOU can. You have the
answers. Isn't there anybody out there who will listen? God bless
you!
Sincerely,
Ann Thomas
Arlington,
Texas
I am so glad
there's an honest American out there willing to speak for what is
right. This is definitely a non-partisan issue. You are truly a
righteous human being.
Dana Bailey
db777@
nospam.com
Comments:
Hi Chuck,
Thank you for
your excellent information on this site regarding the Diebold system
flaws. I'm just computer together enough to set up and maintain my
home network - after that, God help me. But I understand the
majority of what you say because of your clarity. May I repost some
of your findings or relay them to Senators? I'm seeing more and more
evidence surfacing, and frankly it scares me. But it's better to be
scared and save the nation, than to allow this to go unchallenged.
Again, thank you for your patient explanations and for taking a
stand for our country. You're so right - this isn't about party
affilitation. You are just the Republican - and patriot - this
Democrat was hoping for.
Daniel Koenig
jmjf@ nospam.com
Comments:
Chuck - thanks
for your terrific site. I appreciate all of your insights into
e-voting and the computer security thereof.
A question -
given that the 2004 election results are now known to be fraudulent,
and that the results were most likely hacked at the tabulation
stage, would it be possible to re-tally the results with a recount?
Or is the original voting data lost at this point?
craig
vanderborgh
craigv@
nospam.com
Comments:
Hi chuck.
Thanks for your work and insight.
i am wondering
if you are familiar with the open voting consortium (http://openvotingconsortium.org)
and would be interested in helping them to create open source and
voter-verified voting software. i am on the discussion lists and
also help out with maintaining the website. they have some skilled
people working on the project, but more energy and knowledge never
hurts ;)
Anyway, thanks
for helping bring to light this grossly inadequate software.
Erik Hopp
erik@ nospam.com
Comments:
Hello Again,
Chuck...
One more comment
I forgot in my last message to you. With all of this election
stealing, widespread criminal behavior, and Bu$hCo fascism... why
are you still a Republican?
craigv@
nospam.com
Chuck,
Thank you for
your response. Concerning the recent election fraud (let's call it
what it is!), I have already contacted my congressman...and my
daughters have done the same for theirs. I have signed every
petition I can find...and have forwarded all of these to every
liberal friend (even a few freedom-loving Republican friends!) I
have as well as many of my ex-students. (I am a high school
teacher...now retired and have a huge e-mail list of former
students...anywhere between the ages of 18 and 50!) I have
contacted several of the big newspapers and all of the cable news
programs as well as the national news stations. I will go back and
request that they take a look at your article as well as Bev's
website...and yes, I will also send them a donation! I am truly
sickened. Thank you for having the courage to fight evil with the
truth. (Has the FBI been knocking at your door?)
Ann T
Comments:
Just MORE of the
hard work we need to have done to show the gullible that it can be
done and quite easily. Blessings and THANK YOU!! The only place I
want to move to is FLORIDA because I am fed up being here in FLORI-DUH.
I want my RESPECT back!
Aprille Terzieff
APE131313@
nospam.com
Comments:
Thanks so much
for being an American before being a Republican (or Democrat, for
that matter). If you're wondering why the media is being so nice to
Bush, here's why: 1) Big media corporations benefitted from his tax
cuts, and 2) he pushed gutting the FCC's anti-trust laws. These
laws were put in place to try to guarantee a wide variety of
sources, instead of just one giant Media Borg. And media
concentration has accelerated over the last two decades. A handful
of corporations are responsible for most of what we see and hear as
news every day. It's a little bit better with newspapers, but most
folks don't read papers -- they get their news from radio or TV.
Tamara B
khafara@nospam.com
Comments:
Hello-I found
your website thru a link posted on dailykos.com It was very
concerning and enlightening to read your take on possible voter
machine fraud. I've read opinions on both sides of this subject and
it is obvious that the system has serious flaws that may have been
exploited in this and other elections. You don't appear to one of
those "tinfoil hat" caricatures that the media keeps promoting as
the ones questioning the votes. As a matter of fact, you seem to be
very reasonable, rational and credible, the perfect person to be
heard from in the media. I did a little internet research and you
definitely have credibility in the business community. So why
haven't we heard your voice in the mainstream? Perhaps you have and
I just haven't been able to find it? If not, do you have any media
contacts that could give you a forum for your views? We need to hear
more viewpoints like yours in our media, both local and national.
Write on!!
Kelly Lane
kelfrylane@
nospam.com
Comments:
We need credible
techies from both parties weighing in on the fraud issue.
And if the
election flips, Google for Kerry and BCCI--you'll feel a lot better
about Kerry.
C. Christensen
chriscol@
nospam.com
Comments:
A Republican
with class and real values. What a rarity.
For what it's
worth, I'm an attorney.
I recently ran
across this comment from Mussolini.
"Fascism should
more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of
state and corporate power."
Given his
definition, could you think of anything more fascist than having
corporations run the voting machinery and hacking the vote?
davidgmills
mmillsas@
nospam.com
Chuck –
I
am a fellow IT man who played with GEMS and was shocked. You are
absolutely right about how insecure the system is. I had heard the
stories and had to check it out for myself. This is ludicrous. And
the worst part is that they have taken advantage of that weak link
in the IT world – the end user. You try to explain this to a lay
person and you get glossed over stares. That was part of the beauty
of this con job. Thank god for the votergate.tv video. I am going to
forward everything I have to my state reps and senators. I will post
your site wherever I can. Thank you for putting this site together.
2006 is already on my mind and I don’t want this to happen again.
Thanks,
Nathan J. Tumulty, MCSE, CCNA
i-DesignFX, Inc.
Comments:
Thank the Lord
for you! Really, what if the situation was reversed, wouldn't the
Republicans be up in arms? I care way more about the integrity of
our elections system than the outcome of this race, just want to
know it's legitimate!
Nicole
nicole__martini@
nospam.com
Comments:
Good for you!
Keep up the good work. I always knew there were still a lot of
ethical Republicans out there (I just haven't heard much from them
lately). Thanks for restoring some of my faith in humanity.
Julia
writejulia@
nospam.com
Comments:
I am first of
all thankful that you have taken the time to have your site up and
available more so for 'us non-IS people.'
Secondly, I as
of Nov 3, 2004 have followed the charges of voter fraud...and yes I
believe that it did happen this time!
However I am not
an IS person, (I do understand Access). Your site with it's Q & A
format has helped me to understand in simply terms how stealing
and/or adding votes on Nov 2 was possible....so thanks for giving me
more infor that I can now pass on to others...and of course provide
a link to your site.
rayya
sismuslim@
nospam.com
Comments:
I just wanted to
give you a million thanks for doing what you're doing. Keep it up,
and keep encouraging others to keep on fighting too. I sure hope you
get to testify far and wide. :)
Kaja Rebane
krebane@
nospam.com
Comments:
Dear Chuck,
I cannot tell
you what a huge relief it is to read the words of a Republican that
is level-headed, smart, fair and not spewing nasty bile. Any help
that you can give to this effort to count the votes fairly and get
this mess cleaned up for the future are so deeply appreciated; not
only by myself but by millions of disillusioned voters across this
country and many, many millions of millions of people around the
world. God Bless You from a raging Democratic, Liberal, Bleeding
Heart, Blue State New Yorker.
Sandra
Whiteknact
New York City
Comments:
Thank you so
much for your efforts...
I can deal with
Kerry losing. I CANNOT deal with our votes being manipulated. We
need dogs like you out there. Keep up the great work.
I wish I were
not unemployed and about to lose my house, were things different, I
offer you a large donation.
Jenny Morgan
jmorganix@
nospam.com
Comments:
Thank you ver
much. This is highly credible. This means that the US democracy is
moribund. We do not even have the right to vote and be counted. I
believe we should start using the F word (fascism) and make sure
that Americans know the difference between one party authoritarian
fascism and multi party diverse interests balanced by democracy and
democratic representation through voting.
We need for
everyone to read and think about what you are saying.
And we need to
do a lot of educating.
Talk to as many
Republicans as you can. IF they believe in democracy, they need to
denounce the current conspiracy that is in the White House and
taking over all our democratic institutions.
This is NOT
partisan politics... this is a struggle for democracy and democratic
values against fascism and authoritarianism.
Thank you.
Keep up the good
work. Try to find allies within the Republican Party, conservatives
who believe in democracy.
I will send this
link to friends and colleagues.
mukinduri@
nospam.com
Comments:
Dear Chuck,
Thanks for your
article. It's really hard to make people listen to you when one is
spouting numbers and statistics - they just go blank....
I have a MS in
mathematical modeling and I've never been accused of being a
crackpot in my life but never have I been so frustrated as now. I
have to sit and watch a blatant theft of democracy go down and the
majority of the people just don't get it.
So thanks for
your writings (and honesty and courage). I am including a link to
you on my page at
http://nightweed.com/angrygirl.html
I would also
like to use your quote about Enron and the whistleblower crackpots.
Again, you seem to have a knack of putting things in a simple way
that most people can understand.
Rock on!
Alicia
aka Angry Girl
angrygirl@
nospam.com
Comments:
Wow, thanks for
that. i wish more people realized that this issue is bigger than the
results of this one election. the integrity of all our election from
now on is at stake. it's like the republicans don't realize these
security holes could be used against -them- next time around.
question: do you
think there's any way the fraud audit in
florida
could turn up actual evidence of tampering? i mean, if the hackers
were smart enough to edit the audit log, then will anything besides
a manual recount of all ballots show the discrepancy?
holly
holly.mills@
nospam.com
Comments:
Hi,
I read your site
w/ great interest, and passed it along to a few fellow tech friends
who are bigger geeks than I. One quick thing -I can think of no
better way for the complacent public/media/law enforcement(!) to get
off it's collective butt than for someone, somewhere to hack some
Diebold/ES&S machines in 2006 and just blow the lid off this thing
once and for all before any more damage is done. Will the White Hat
Hackers save American democracy?
Respectfully,
Paul Morstad in
Fayetteville, AR
Hi
Chuck...
pleased to meet
you.
i did a
documentary on the friendly folks in the election co. inc. business
4 yrs ago. Was planning on doing a book to follow, and went to
ireland a couple times to poke into the guy they'd parked sequoia
pac with... and i'd tracked e s & s to a guy a friend of mine
confirmed was 'tied' to the nsa, from like 1964 on, if i recall
correctly, named esping.
diebold wasn't
on my radar.
and then sept 11
happened, and i turned my attention elsewhere. when i read something
today sourcing you as saying that there are felons at diebold...
i said, be
still! my beating heart!
i'll be reading
your page with interest this evening.
daniel hopsicker
Great
explanation on hacking the GEMS software. Keep up the good fight.
I have been sending the following to every organization,
Congressman, and fellow Progressive Liberal that I can think of. We
have to keep this problem in front of people - until something is
done.
Richard and
Carolyn Brown
Chuck.
You are doing a
great service for the American people!
If you really
consider it, we here in
Canada,
stand to benefit from your work too, as does the rest of the world.
I wish you all
the best in getting the word out!
-= Alistair
James Morton =-
-= Peapod
Studios Inc .=-
-=A Rare Medium,
Well Done.=-
Comments:
Keep up the good
work!
This is a
non-partisan/bi-partisan issue. If there's even a whiff of election
fraud, we should all be deeply concerned. If I were a Republican,
I'd want to know we'd won fair and square.
Ruth Lyons
Comments:
Thank you for
the detailed explanation and demonstration of how easily hacked our
voting system is. Hopefully we can lean on the media a little
harder to get them to actually cover this stuff. It is absolutely
unconscionable that our votes are less safe than our money.
Alexis Adair
alexisact@
nospam.com
Comments:
Chuck, I like
your site and the hack the vote info. As a 20 year technologist
myself with some hacks under my belt I like your site. I wanted to
ask you some questions about the CEH program.
Check out my
site at
www.amilabs.com see the case studies section on some security
stuff.
jsicuran@
nospam.com
Comments:
Thanks for your
article on the ease of hacking into Central Tab systems and GEMS.
I'm glad also to
see that at least one person can see beyond the temporary political
gain to the danger that unverified voting poses to the republic. Our
major national strength is the consent of the governed, and if no
one knows if that consent has been given...
Comments:
God bless you,
friend. My Dad was Hispanic. My Mom was Irish. I was raised in
Louisiana (think east Texas). Talk about an outsider. I went to a
catholic grade school and a public high school. I was the only
Hispanic in my high school. It's no surprise that my best friends
were white. But it was never about color or politics or anything
else where my real friends were concerned. It was about, are you
"cool" or not? And cool meant getting along, never lying or stealing
or cheating your friends or anybody else, sharing your stuff,
basically just treating everybody with respect. I didn't know I was
being liberal. I just thought it was the cool thing to do. I've been
a Democrat all my life. But you know what? It was never about
Democrats or Republicans with me. It was about picking the person
who was going to do the right thing, the person who was most like
Christ (since He's the ultimate role model). And I also knew that
whoever it was I voted for was going to occasionally mess up (just
like everybody else) and it was going to be ok, as long as he or she
admitted the mistake and fixed it. Christ said to love and take care
of each other. It's that simple. At least it is for me. If you're
lying, cheating, hurting and taking advantage of innocent people
(and that includes babies, women and the poor and uneducated) don't
call it Christianity. Christians who hate are blind to the truth of
Christ. Even so, I don't hate them. I just wish they would stop
hating me.
Michael
mdharold@
nospam.com
Comments:
Chuck,
I'm a forty six
year old Progressive divorced mother of two sons that are rapidly
approaching draft age. I've always considered myself a centrist
more than anything. Thank you so much for your rant. Although
I've never considered myself a Republican, I can remember when they
did stand for the morality you speak of .....geez I hate to even use
the word 'morality' anymore. What it's come to stand for now makes
me sick. The right wing fanatics who have hijacked the Republican
Party bear no resemblance to me to a lot of people I know who
consider themselves Republicans. It gives me hope to read your
rant. Yes, I believe in God and Jesus and the Golden Rule and your
Bible verses are welcome. God Bless You and I hope there are others
out there like you. Sincerely and Respectfully, Helen Gamble
Helen Gamble
zel_in_tn@
nospam.com
Comments:
I'm not that
swift on computers but I understood enough on how to hack an
election from your explanation, even if I do live overseas. I ran
across your site by pure accident and was delighted, yet a bit
shocked. I wonder if my absentee ballot ever made it. You seem to
be adding more evidence to what investigative reporter Grep Palast
has already stated. Now I wish this would go further, go more
public, get Americans more outraged over what might have possibly
happened. Do you know anyone with enough clout to make this a
national issue, as hard as it is too prove? Have there been any
feature articles written about what you have discovered?
Michael
snooze14@
nospam.com
Comments:
THANKYOU
THANKYOU THANKYOU!!!!!!
I have never
been more disturbed by anything that happened in this country,
besides the waste of human life that is
Iraq.....And
you're right it is not a partisan issue, it is an AMERICAN issue! Be
careful, best regards,
Gayle Thorley,
Syracuse, NY
Quick Followup:
I have forwarded
your "Hack the Vote" piece to Senator Boxer and Feinstein as well as
Keith Olbermann at MSN.com and numerous colleagues and blogs. UC
Berkeley had a press conference today calling the Florida results
into question using statistical analysis:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041118/sfth040_1.html
I appreciate so much your obvious sincerity in trying to maintain
our democracy. I was very moved as well by your "rant":
So....What Happened To The Truth? : The Crushed Optimism of a
Young Republican.
This is not the Jesus my parents taught me about. Not even close.
God bless you,
Daniel Koenig
Thanks for a
GREAT demo page!
And all this
time I didn't think I could hack (no pun intended) the math to be a
programmer/hacker! Now all I need is a small tropical island with a
democratically elected populist leader -MWA HA HA!
Deda Divine
Austin, TX
Comments:
Thanks Chuck.
What a
remarkable and refreshing presentation that explains with absolute
clarity what I have been suspecting for some time.
As a technical
writer of twenty years who started out studying computer science, it
hardly seemed to me that a suspicion the election could be stolen
electronically was the same thing as wearing a tin foil fedora, but
the Web and general media seem to abound with just such accusations
these days, and while I don't mean to be grumpy, most of them seem
to know zip about computers.
That's one
reason finding a link to your site meant so much to me. After
reading these same accusations over and over, I began to wonder,
"Does everyone believe that thinking election fraud could occur
means you're crazy?" Fact is, historically fraud has occurred in
this country, and people didn't need computers to execute it. But as
with many chores, computers just make the job simpler. And when the
code is being developed by specialists with criminal histories for a
company held by partisans...well, that's exactly the sort of
temptation folks ought not have to try to resist. I mean it kind of
undermines democracy.
You might win
back considerable respect for the Republican party with your
honesty. I had almost forgotten there might still be genuine,
honest, fiscal conservatives left. And that was pretty stupid of me
because naturally honest people exist everywhere--just like theives.
Best regards,
Laurie Rowell
I have already
written my senators and congressmen with pointers to your web site
(a couple of days ago) Since you are already "public" with your
hacking, do us all a favor and send a short message to Anne
Applebaum
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55691-2004Nov16.html
telling her to get her facts straight before writing a column.
Such people are
dangerous because they are truly misinforming the public and might
as well be working for Diebold.
We all
appreciate efforts like yours to clean up the election process.
There has always been an attempt to cheat at elections, but the
technology has never before allowed cheating on such a grand scale.
Republican,
Democrat, it doesn't matter. It's the country we want to preserve,
right?
A recount is
underway in NH. We'll see what that exposes.
Thanks for your
quick responses.
Alex
Comments:
First--thank you
so much, Mr. Herrin. I unreservedly applaud your integrity and
energy in pursuing and posting this information (in such a thorough
and understandable manner to boot). You give me some hope for the
human race--and even Americans.
That's the main
thing I wanted to say--thanks & double-thanks.
As a minor note,
I'd like to add that I'm puzzled and perplexed by your political
affiliation. I admired the morals of the late Senator Goldwater and
I think William Jennings Bryan was misunderstood, but both of these
relatively noble individuals were, imho, rare beasts in possessing
equal measures of morality, intelligence, and dedication to the GOP.
Even more bizarre, you seem to have a sense of humor--almost
anathema for the pillage and rape crowd (although I understand
Attila was quite the joker, too). Anyway, you can skip this
rant--it's certainly not meant to be as insulting as I now see that
it's becoming. But if you have the time and interest to respond and
clue me in about this oxymoronic sensibility of yours, I'd be most
interested.
Absolutely,
though, best wishes and best of luck--you've got MY vote.
Alec Rowell
alecfree@
nospam.com
Comments:
Chuck you are
the man again. Thanks for posting that great piece about the voting
machines. It really really seems that these "blackbox" voting
machines were rigged or hacked or something.
You are proof
that some Republicans think for themselves. :)
Keep up the good
work. One of these days I'll get there too.
Eric Johnson
sojurn23@
nospam.com
Hurrah! You have
restored (somewhat) my faith in humanity. You are the first
Republican I know (other than myself) who seems to be able to
transcend the obvious partisanship of who got elected, to grasp the
awful truth about these voting machines. They undermine the very
foundation of our republic. No matter who wins, we must have
confidence in the outcome. Otherwise, all our "winners" will lack
legitimacy. It affects us all. I can't forgive the criminal behavior
of Delay and Hastert in barring a vote on requiring paper ballots. I
despaired of ever hearing a Republican who "gets it" speak out
against this system.
Having said
that, I must go further to say that I advocate a complete return to
paper ballots, hand-counted. I have been an election judge in
3 presidential elections (but not the last 2). In the first one we
were still using paper ballots and counting by hand. We had 4 Rep.
and 4 Dem judges. (I was a Republican judge). We counted and
cross-checked until everyone was satisfied and everything checked
out. We sealed the results and each signed our names over the seal.
Two of us (1 Rep and 1 Dem) delivered the results to the county in
the back of a squad car. It took time, but not as much as jury duty!
It was great, and we all could honor the result. There is nothing
wrong with that system. It requires precincts of a certain
manageable size, and citizen volunteers to be election officials. It
costs much less than the crazy machines.
I greatly
appreciate your techno savvy being brought to bear on this most
vital issue. We should all be aware that the attacks on the
integrity of our voting system are a greater threat to our democracy
than the attacks on 9/11 (and certainly a greater threat than Iraq
ever was!). And what are our troops fighting for anyway? We dishonor
their sacrifice if we do nothing to protect democracy here at home.
11/2 > 9/11
Thank you for
your work. Please do not let up! This must be a bipartisan act of
patriotism.
Cynthia Ahlgren
Comments:
Chuck, have your
heard of our website
www.ncvoter.net ?
Also, we have a
yahoo message board for the NC Coalition for Verified Voting. Would
be great to have you aboard. 2 of our members will be on the
Electronic Voting Commission appointed by the General Assembly.
I am not a
computer programmer or systems engineer, but I would never buy
computer systems based merely on the recommendations of my friends
Diebold, ES&S, and Sequoia. Or any of the others. I have 6 years
banking operations experience, and also as many in purchasing. I
can't believe the junk they call voting machines in NC, and that we
are supposed to trust these machines. Bunk. If banks operated like
this, we would all be putting our money in our mattresses.
Hope you will
join us or otherwise assist.
Joyce McCloy
jmc27106@
nospam.com
Dear Mr. Herrin,
As one who has
been on the internet MANY times a day since the election, I just
began reading your article (for the second time) and would like to
question the following statement (which I did not recall seeing the
first time):
"Author’s Note –
Did our votes count? More importantly, will they count next time?"
There may never
be a "next time," either because Bush may accelerate his destruction
of the country or else because he simply does away with elections.
To me, neither of these possibilities should be dismissed.
Regards,
George
Colman georgecolman@
nospam.com
Comments:
I want to give
you my heartfelt thanks for doing the hack check. My grandfather was
a Republican. I am a Democrat. He was the most honest man I knew. We
disagreed on some things, but we loved and respected each other
enormously. Every year, he asked me to read the Declaration of
Independence, on Fourth of July. Thank you for being an honest
Republican. I have been deeply dismayed at the lies, and suppression
of news in the press that I have seen in this election. I am
beginning to feel that Americans are throwing their integrity out
the back door. Our two parties may disagree, but I hope that more of
us find a way to work together to save our Democracy, as honest
Americans first, and partisans second.
Or as Thomas
Paine said, " I may not agree with what you say, Sir, but I will
fight to the death for your right to say it."
Again,
Thankyou
Lisa Hoag
mustardseed@
nospam.com
Comments:
Thanks for being
a patriot. Divided as we are, it's great to find someone from the
"other side" that is as alarmed about e-voting as I am.
I found out
about your site from a Yahoo message board post tonight.
I webmastered
www.verifiedvoting.org, and other related sites.
How about
joining us at
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=201
and trying to figure out what (if anything) really did happen on the
election. We'd appreciate it, and would like very much to have you
join us.
Greg
greg@ nospam.com
Hi Chuck--
Thanks--I really
appreciate your response. You have answered my question, but my
concern is that this distinction between the touch screens and GEMS
(and, as you point out, between Diebold and ES&S--thanks) is a
crucial piece of information for getting the public to recognize the
nature of the problem and that this distinction is not being clearly
made on websites and in media reports addressing the problem. I
have, in fact, already been convinced that there is a serious
problem with the vote, and I've read all the major websites on the
issue, and it was beginning to bother me that I couldn't find
anything clearly stating whether or not this software issue is even
relevant to the Ohio election.
For example, the
Ohio Democratic Party's website
http://www.ohiodems.org/index.php?display=ReleaseDetails&id=197428
, which is doing a good job of providing news about the count of
provisional ballots, states "No Ohio County used Diebold Electronic
Voting Machines . . . Ohio did not use modern electronic voting
machines in this election. Six counties use an older form of
electronic voting, which has a means of verifying the accuracy of
the vote." (In fact, until the past few days, this message was one
of the first things a visitor to the website would read). I
actually get the feeling that Ohio Democratic party, which has even
initiated legal challenges related to the provisional ballots (http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/110077402787
