"Circuits" begins electronic voting series
David Pogue, who writes the "State of the Art" column for the New York Times' "Circuits" technology section, weighs in on the electronic voting controversy with "Has the Time Come for Touchscreen Voting?", the first of a series. (He's also involved in a parallel CBS "Sunday Morning" piece to be aired next weekend that will feature some of the big names in the controversy about these devices.) Pogue identifies procedural and technological solutions to many of the concerns about electronic voting. For example, regarding access to voting machine source code, Pogue writes:

The smart states, like Maryland and now California, insist on getting a copy of the machines' source code as part of their purchase deal. They can (and do) inspect the code, and they hold a copy in escrow in case anything suspicious happens. Unfortunately, not all states added this to their contracts. Even so, these machines are tested far more often than, for example, the Johns Hopkins security report would lead you to believe. I've posted Maryland's list of inspections, for example, here (http://www.davidpogue.com/vote.html). Given the number of checks and spot-tests, not to mention the scrutiny of polling-place workers, I imagine that evildoers would have a pretty difficult time hacking an election. [...]*

Several things here. First, "imagining" doesn't feed the bulldog. The Maryland process seems impressive, but the fact remains that without some "ground truth," voter-validated, physical returns to spot check your computer returns against, you're whistling in the dark if you claim you know they're accurate.

More generally, it's nice that there are some states that are facing and solving some issues with electronic voting. But this is a national presidential election that may well be close and may be only as successful as its weakest state link. If the election comes down to whether Diebold or other paperless voting machines functioned properly in even just one state, democracy will have been thwarted for the sake of a technology rush that was unnecessary and counterproductive.

Finally, Pogue either doesn't know or doesn't share with the readers that the Maryland State Board of Elections (SBE) -- whose chairman, Gilles Burger, provided the voting machine certification process linked above by Mr. Pogue -- is currently the target of a lawsuit by the Campaign for Verifiable Voting in Maryland (a.k.a. TrueVoteMD.org). The complaint calls for relief from the Maryland SBE for "improperly certifying the Diebold AccuVote-TS electronic voting machines used in Maryland, and then failing to either correct or decertify the machines -- as required by state and federal law -- once it became clear that the machines could neither preserve the security and reliability of the November 2004 election nor create a voter verified paper audit trail."

In particular, scathing assessments by SAIC and RABA** concluded that the Maryland-Diebold voting system required major improvements. From the the TrueVoteMD.org complaint:

Surprisingly, however, the State Board of Elections has ignored the clear warnings presented in these independent studies, even going so far as proclaiming that "the findings in the SAIC and RABA reports both confirm the accuracy and security of Maryland’s voting procedures and our voting systems as they exist today," and moved forward despite the potential consequences. ... Indeed, despite an earlier public acknowledgement by Ms. Lamone that "the machines could be upgraded by November" to implement RABA’s recommendations, the State Board of Elections has failed to either correct or decertify the machines in violation of state and federal law.
(p.4 of the complaint) (emphasis added)

TrueVoteMD.org seeks to have the state of Maryland implement an optical scanning voting system, have the Diebold electronic voting machines decertified, and stop work on implementing the Diebold electronic voting machine system.

To his credit, Pogue acknowledges that a paper trail is critical to assure accuracy and the perception of accuracy:

...a voter-verified paper trail is a killer form of reassurance. ("Voter-verified" means that, before touching the Cast Ballot button, you get to see a paper printout of your vote, under glass. Later, officials have a way to perform a manual recount if necessary.)

Unfortunately, experts on both sides say that there's virtually no chance of getting the printer attachments manufactured, federally approved, installed, tested and certified in time for November's election.

The bottom line: By 2006, every state that wants printers will have them. But this fall, only Nevada will have paper-trail voting machines statewide.***

I'd envisioned walking away with a receipt of my own as well, but that wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me -- I've never had one with regular voting machines, either. At any rate, Pogue concludes,

If your state will be using touchscreen machines this fall, and you're still freaked out by them, you can always vote using a paper absentee ballot. Just remember that it was paper voting that got us into trouble the last time around. (emphasis added)

That "freaked out" is a little patronizing, and I'd disagree that we should blame pieces of paper instead of Supreme Court justices for the Florida fiasco. But using absentee ballots is good advice (and practically trademarked by Southknoxbubba). There's another good reason to vote absentee ballot anyway: you simplify the GOTV ("get out the vote") efforts for your side as one less person they need to check up on during Election Day.

Pogue's piece is a decent summation of the difficulties and possible solutions with electronic voting as things stand today. He seems a little more complacent about some aspects of the issue than I think is warranted, and he could have dug deeper for criticisms of the Maryland electronic voting plan in particular. On the other hand, he clearly identifies the paper trail requirement, and he debunks a few industry myths about how hard that would be. I look forward to his next article on this subject.


=====
* Johns Hopkins report, initially published 7/23/03: "Analysis of an Electronic Voting System," Tadayoshi Kohn, Adam Stubblefield, Aviel D. Rubin, Dan S. Wallach: "We conclude that this voting system is unsuitable for use in a general election. Any paperless
electronic voting system might suffer similar flaws, despite any "certification" it could have otherwise received." However, according to SAIC (see below), the authors erroneously assumed that voting machines were directly connected to to a network.
** Science Applications International Corporation, 9/2/2003: "Failure to meet the minimum security requirements set forth in the State of Maryland Information Security Policy and Standards indicates that the system is vulnerable to exploitation. The results of a successful attack could result in voting results being released too soon, altered, or destroyed."
RABA Technologies, LLC, 1/20/2004: "[y]ou are more secure buying a book from Amazon than you are uploading your results to a Diebold server"; "Diebold basically had no interest in putting actual security in this system. It's not like they did it wrong. It's like they didn’t bother."
It bothers me that Pogue plays off the "Maryland [SBE] list of inspections" against the Johns Hopkins report. That report was released earlier than both the SAIC and RABA reports; its authors also didn't have the access to the Maryland SBE that the Maryland legislature granted to SAIC and RABA -- a point raised in the SAIC report.
*** The state of Washington announced today that all its electronic voting machines would provide a paper trail by 2006. (Via Southknoxbubba)

UPDATE, 9/22: Truevotemd.org has lost its appeal before the Maryland Court of Appeals, ending the opportunity to avoid electronic-only paperless voting before the November election.
posted by Thomas Nephew at 1:09:00 PM -- |    

 
How to make more Iraqis want to kill Americans
The German TV news show "Report Mainz" reports that American soldiers held children as prisoners in Iraq, and subjected some to abuse. An American soldier, Samuel Provance (U.S. Army intelligence) is one of several sources:

His superiors have strictly forbidden him to talk with journalists about what he experienced in Abu Ghraib. But Provance wants to talk about it anyway. His conscience bothers him. He tells us about a 16 year old boy, who he had to take to jail himself.

Samuel Provance, US sergeant:*
He was very afraid, very alone. He had the thinnest little arms I've ever seen. His whole body was trembling. His wrists were so thin that we couldn't even get handcuffs on him. As soon as I saw him for the first time and was escorting him, I felt sorry for him. The interrogation specialists poured water over him and put him in a car. They drove through the night with him, and at that time it was very, very cold. After that they smeared him with mud and showed him to his father who was also in jail. They were trying all these other interrogation methods on him. But he wouldn't talk. The interrogation specialists told me, after the father saw his son in this state, his heart broke. He cried, and promised to tell them everything they wanted to know.

Sgt. Provance can be seen about 1 minute into the video feed (RealPlayer). The second eyewitness interviewed by "Report Mainz" was Suhaib Badr-Addin Al-Baz, an Iraqi TV journalist who was jailed at Abu Ghraib; he saw 'hundreds' of children in Abu Ghraib and witnessed more outrages:

From his one-man cell in the adult section Suhaib hears a perhaps 12 year old girl crying. Later he learned that her brother was in the second story of the jail. One or two times he saw her himself.

They were with her in the cell at night. The girl screamed to other prisoners and called out her brother's name. [...]**

Suhaib Badr-Addin Al-Baz, TV reporter:
She was beaten. I heard her call: they've taken off my clothes. They've poured water over me.

Daily, said Suhaib, one could hear her screams and whimpers. Some of the prisoners cried because of it. Suhaib also reports of a sick 15 year old boy. They made him run up and down the corridor with heavy canisters of water. So long, that he collapsed from exhaustion, said Suhaib. Then they brought his captured father. With a hood over his head. The boy collapsed from shock again.

The news show found reports by UNICEF and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) support the case that children were in US military prisons in Iraq, if not the allegations of abuse. The ICRC was able to document 107 cases of children being jailed, but faced significant noncooperation by US military authorities -- so there are or were probably more ... apparently being held to loosen up their families, judging by these stories.

How proud I am. What a superb job we're doing. What a compassionate country we clearly are.

Imagine you're their father, or brother, or mother or sister. Imagine you learn they've been abused.

What a despicable outrage.


(Via a DCCC link to a post at "Sadly, No.")


=====
* My version of Provance's comments is partly a translation of the German transcript, and partly what I could hear when the German voice-over fell silent.
** The transcript then refers to a sketch drawn for British TV channel ITN; it was not released for the online German video.

UPDATE, 7/9: There's a more complete translation of the German TV transcript in a July 7 "Sadly, No" post; the translation looks good to me at first glance. posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:15:00 AM -- |    

 
Senator Mikulski confirms she'll vote against the FMA
Senator Mikulski confirmed today that she opposes the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA):

I will vote against the Federal Marriage Amendment.

It is not necessary, it is divisive and it is a distraction from what the United States Senate should be doing - making families stronger and safer.

A constitutional amendment is not about helping families. It is about helping George Bush get re-elected.

If the Bush Administration were serious about helping families, he would focus on jobs, healthcare, and the cost of college tuition. But the proposed amendment does not create one job, pay for one bottle of prescription drugs or send one child to college. It is an election year ploy to divide and conquer. With our country at war in Iraq, we do not need a cultural war here at home.

I am fighting to make families stronger by funding education and the college tuition tax credit and by ensuring access to health care.

The statement was similar to an older one* quoted by the Washington Post in February, but may have been intended to quell recent concerns that the Senator was reconsidering her opposition.

For my part, I wrote this to Mikulski's Senate e-mail web site:

Dear Senator Mikulski,
I'm writing to urge you to publicly oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment, which may come up for a Senate vote soon. I think our Constitution should not be abused to enshrine discrimination and prejudice against homosexual citizens. Frankly, I think if people want to marry, that should be welcomed, not opposed; at any rate, other people's choices to marry have no impact on my marriage. If you do oppose the amendment, and come under any kind of political pressure for that, I will join your friends in supporting you all the more.

Sincerely,
Thomas Nephew

I guess I'll have to write my Senators more often, it seems to work! :)

=====
* Via the February FMA nose count by Josh Chafetz at Oxblog posted by Thomas Nephew at 9:29:00 PM -- |    

 
Overtime pay take-away
Natalie Davis ("All Facts and Opinions") points out there's not much time left to speak out against Bush's new overtime pay regulations. The rules, which go in to effect on August 23, will widen employers' prerogatives to declare employees exempt from overtime protection, by defining more people as "executive, administrative, or professional" workers. According to the AFL-CIO,

Millions of salaried workers making between $22,101 and $65,000 who now are eligible to receive overtime pay could be reclassified as executives or administrative or professional employees—and would no longer qualify for overtime pay.

Relatively low-salary earners who have supervisory responsibilities or management-related responsibilities would be penalized, as would workers with advanced education or specialized training. Some of the jobs affected are police, firefighters, nurses, retail managers, insurance claims adjusters and medical therapists.

Employees not covered by the new rules also could be hurt: By reclassifying many of their workers as exempt from overtime pay, employers most likely would assign overtime only to them and eliminate overtime for other workers. Police and firefighters are among those potentially affected.

Anyone making $65,000 or more a year likely would lose overtime pay, effectively eliminating many middle-income wage earners’ much-needed extra pay.

You can register your opinion about the issue via the AFL-CIO's e-Activist overtime pay web site; it will help you send a free fax to your Senators and to President Bush about the issue.

Natalie's site, with its never-ending stream of links to "armchair" or "keyboard" activism, is both a resource and an inspiration for the rest of us. As a Kucinich and Nader supporter, she's skeptical of the Kerry-Edwards ticket -- and backs that up -- yet finds a way to split the difference by pointing to a MoveOn.org voter registration drive you can help from the comfort of your own home. Keep up the good work! posted by Thomas Nephew at 1:14:00 AM -- |    

 
Great choice!
Kerry has chosen John Edwards as his Vice Presidential running mate. From the e-mail I got this morning:

In just a few minutes, I will announce that Senator John Edwards will join me as my running-mate on the Democratic ticket as a candidate for vice president of the United States. [...]

I want you to know why I'm excited about running for president with John Edwards by my side. John understands and defends the values of America. He has shown courage and conviction as a champion for middle class Americans and those struggling to reach the middle class. In the Senate, he worked to reform our intelligence, to combat bioterrorism, and keep our military strong. John reaches across party lines and speaks to the heart of America -- hope and optimism. Throughout his own campaign for President, John spoke about the great divide in this country -- the "Two Americas" -- that exist between those who are doing well today and those that are struggling to make it from day to day. And I am so proud that we're going to build one America together.

Meanwhile, Michael D at Daily Kos displays the New York Post's modern version of "Dewey Defeats Truman." What else have they got wrong?

Re the other contenders: I hope there's a post for many of them in the coming Kerry administration. Gephardt would make an excellent cabinet member at Labor or HHS, I think. posted by Thomas Nephew at 9:27:00 AM -- |    

 
It's baaaack: Federal Marriage Amendment
I've learned via Glenn Reynolds that the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) is actually not quite dead yet. The proposed amendment seeks to limit the definition of marriage to male-female marriages only -- an insult to homosexual couples, and an affront to the proper uses of the Constitution.

To help drive a wooden stake through its heart, sign the Campaign to Protect the Constitution petition Reynolds links to. That may well be unsatisfying to some, since one of that organization's talking points is that the "Defense of Marriage" Act -- objectionable in its own right -- makes the FMA unnecessary. But at least it doesn't enshrine the discrimination in the Constitution. Still, for an alternative petition, head over to MillionForMarriage.org, run by the Human Rights Campaign. I found both sites to be valuable and educational. (There's also been some discussion of the FMA on this blog.)

Even if Reynolds is right that the coming Senate vote is just a ploy to embarrass Kerry, it's best not to take the coming Senate vote too lightly. It won't do to suddenly have an amendment fight on our hands as well as a presidential campaign. posted by Thomas Nephew at 2:15:00 AM -- |    

 
Reader mail: Drew Pooters on legal action against RentWay
Mr. Pooters was one of the principal people interviewed in a New York Times article that I mentioned a few months ago. The article was about the corporate practice euphemistically referred to as "time shaving." That's a fancy phrase for corporate theft from employees, and it's done by company managers just docking the number of hours they credit their employees for working.

Mr. Pooters wrote me last month, asking for help publicizing his efforts to pursue a lawsuit against RentWay, one of three(!) companies where he experienced time-shaving. I apologize for overlooking the e-mail at first; I obviously didn't check my inbox carefully enough after coming back from a vacation in early June. Better late than never, I hope; here is Mr. Pooters' e-mail:

Hello!
I read your blog, and I was hoping that I could ask a favor - that of letting people know they can turn to the team of lawyers (in Rentway's case) who can represent them in a forming case against Rentway in Michigan:

Calligaro & Meyering P.C.
20600 Eureka Rd, Suite 900
Taylor, MI 48180
(734) 283-2727 - Fax (734) 246-8635

The lawyer's name was Steven J. Chiasson, and met with him yesterday. I had everything from policy manuals to deliverysheets showing we (about five of us) were getting screwed from two Rentways.

In fact, this is just from last year (2003)[:]

RENT-WAY INC.: Employees Launch Suit Over Unpaid Overtime in PA
---------------------------------------------------------------
Employees for Rent-Way, Inc. filed a class action in the United
States District Court in Erie, Pennsylvania, accusing the
Company of not paying workers for all their overtime work, the
Times Leader report.

The Company allegedly asked store managers to reduce the number
of hours non-salaried workers logged to a maximum of 50 hours
per week, allowing it to save on wages for employees who work
over 50 hours per week. The Company also allegedly failed to
fully pay workers who logged more than 40 hours a week.

Former Beaver County assistant managers Justin Badgett and John
P. Leasha alleged that they worked for more than 40 hours per
week. They also worked in the capacity of account
representatives or sales associates. Sometimes, the two
employees reportedly logged more than 50 hours per week.

"We're not privy to all of Rent-Way's records, but we know this
happened in many of Rent-Way's stores and they have stores all
over the country," Pittsburgh attorney Harry Kunselman, who is
representing workers in the class action along with another
lawyer, E.J. Strassburger, told the Times Leader.

"We don't know how formal it is, but it appears (Rent-Way) at
least has an informal policy (to reduce wage costs)," Mr.
Strassburger said. "Whether they've sent a written directive,
we'll find that out."

An attorney for Rent-Way disputed the claim and said the company
will fight the lawsuit. "We've reviewed the complaint," Rob
DeMoss, Rent-Way's general counsel told the Times Leader.
"We've retained outside counsel and we intend to vigorously
defend against the complaint."

Funny how everyone remembers Mr, Reagan calling the Soviets "the Evil Empire" - well, just like his style, we should call these folks what they are: "Corporate Terrorists" - as they terrorize innocent people and keep them in virtual economic slavery. I spent 14 years fighting foreign enemies with the Air Force, why not spend another 14 fighting them right here in our own borders?

Any help would be appreciated in getting the word out.
(formatting added)

I'll do what I can, including contacting other bloggers who've mentioned this story. RentWay, meanwhile, claims "We are Family!":

As a RentWay Employee...
You're the heart of our family. You are the person our customers come to know as "RentWay," and we recognize that taking care of you is the best way we can take care of our customers...

Gosh, they seem so nice.


=====
THANKS VERY MUCH to James DiBenedetto, Greg Hlatky, Diana Moon, Brett Marston, Marc Brazeau, Southknoxbubba for helping draw attention to Mr. Pooters' legal efforts. Additional kudos to Mr. Brazeau, who provides a link to the Erie, PA lawsuit story in a class-action newswire dated June 13, 2003 (scroll down or find "Rent-Way"). posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:15:00 AM -- |    

 
What is NATO good for?
Ivo Daalder a couple of weeks ago (June 20) in the Washington Post: The 'Allies' Must Step Up:

It will be a deadly blow to transatlantic relations if NATO does not become involved in providing security in Iraq. Many Europeans believe their problem is only with the Bush administration. That's a dangerous miscalculation. If John Kerry wins in November, one of his first acts will be to request Europe's help in Iraq. If France and Germany are intent on saying no, then future American administrations, including Kerry's, will have to reconsider the value of the alliance. Do Europeans really want to sever their strategic ties to the United States? If not, they need to understand that the ball is now in their court.

Bear in mind this is not just some guy ruminating on the op-ed page. Despite his early backing of Howard Dean, Daalder is considered to be in the running for a major State Department or other foreign policy post should Kerry win. The word 'allies' in quotes from him sends a message.

Daalder's article came before the NATO summit; it will be interesting to learn how Daalder evaluates the relatively paltry aid to Iraq agreed to at that meeting.

Daalder's op-ed might be a sign of a "1/21" foreign policy strategy in the Kerry camp, and that's a good thing. Perhaps some of the comments by Pierre Lallouche, referred to here earlier, or the choice to seek them out by Irish TV, might be a direct and nodding response to Daalder's piece by some of Kerry's and Daalder's counterparts in Europe.

I'd disagree with Daalder only in that Iraq was so clearly controversial and not a matter of mutual defense that it's not really reasonable to expect substantial NATO help with Iraq. But there was a way NATO could have both done a job they'd accepted, and been of substantial, indirect help to the cause of Iraqi stability. But as The Australian's Bronwen Maddox observes, it failed in that as well:

For all the effort of the summit, it managed to squeeze out only a tiny band of soldiers to help quell the violence in Afghanistan. That was the only test NATO had to pass last week and it failed.

NATO decided to add about 3500 troops to the 6500 already in Afghanistan. But even so, NATO seems to be conceding most of Afghanistan to unrest, warlords, and the Taliban. Most observers believe that even with the reinforcements, NATO will be unable to ensure secure national elections scheduled for the fall.

Matthias Gebauer of the German newsweekly SPIEGEL is critical as well; in his article "Istanbul lip service," he lists many examples of NATO shortcomings in Afghanistan, and concludes:

The Istanbul decisions may at least serve as a fig leaf. But if the organization is serious about its statements, it will have to do a little more. On paper, it likes to describe the Afghanistan mission as the alliance's "first priority." But in reality cost cutting and the fear of too many soldiers out of country play a much more important role.

posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:08:00 AM -- |    

 
Happy July 4th!
Unfortunately, it's all but rained out around here.

Yesterday was great, though: got up late, mowed the lawn (I actually like that), set up the hammock, read a science fiction anthology, fell asleep after 15 minutes, woke up, went to our pool, and then off to a nice family Mexican-Salvadoran restaurant (Samantha's) that serves a ceviche mixto I can vouch for and, Crickey tells me, a highly effective margarita.

The pool -- Daleview -- is fast becoming the focus of the summer. Maddie just can't get enough. She's perfected an effective dog-paddle/face down glide that she can do two widths of the pool with. The place is kind of idyllic: a mid-sized pool with a lot of grass and woods around it, room for volleyball, a couple of ping-pong tables, and plenty of friends Maddie's age. If it weren't raining, we'd probably be there right now. posted by Thomas Nephew at 2:33:00 PM -- |