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| The Election Center: The Fox Guarding the Hen House |
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| By Joyce McCloy, Coordinator, N.C. Coalition for Verifiable Voting | |
| August 26, 2005 | |
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Editor's Note: The Election Center influences the actions and
decisions of state election directors across the country. In this
article, originally published on VoteTrustUSA.org in June, 2005, Joyce
McCloy takes a close look at the organization. New photos
supplied by John Gideon. How long will "The Election Center" be allowed to act as an educator, trainer and advisor of election officials? How long will it continue to give bad advice to North Carolina election officials?
The Election Center viewed from the East  According to its listing at www.guidestar.org The Election Center is a it is non-profit agency,a 501 C whose job is to " EDUCATE/TRAIN ELECTION OFFICIALS" "The Election Center” has financial ties to the top 3 voting machine companies: Doug Lewis admits that "The Election Center" received money from Diebold, and ES&S as well: "Its executive director, R. Doug Lewis, confirmed this week that the center had taken donations from makers of electronic voting machines - Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. of Oakland, Calif., and Electronic Systems & Software Inc. of Omaha, Neb. In addition, donations came from "probably Diebold" Inc. of North Canton, Ohio, Lewis said. Article  The Election Center's international headquarters is behind this strip mall. On the Voting Machine Makers' Tab - As doubts have grown about the reliability of electronic voting, some of its loudest defenders have been state and local election officials. Many of those same officials have financial ties to voting machine companies. While they may sincerely think that electronic voting machines are so trustworthy that there is no need for a paper record of votes, their views have to be regarded with suspicion until their conflicts are addressed. New York Times article Election Center Tax Forms show - Donations from Sequoia, maker of voting machines: Proof that "THE ELECTION CENTER" accepted $40,000 from voting machine vendor Sequoia Pacific. SEE FOR YOURSELF: If you go to www.guidestar.org and look up The Election Center, then check their 990 filing for the year 2001. Go to page 13 and you will see the contributions they have listed from Sequoia Pacific: 1997 $10,000 1998 $10,000 1999 $10,000 2000 $10,000 "Diebold Wines and Dines Officials", by David Corn, blog in The Nation, August 26, 2004; http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=1708 "The Election Center's" August 24, 2004 conference for election officials, agenda reads like an advertisement for Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia: Dinner Cruise on the Potomac for election officials is sponsored by Sequoia Voting Machine Company - The names Sequoia, Diebold, and ES&S are listed on the bulletin for the August event. This is a form of endorsement by association. Election center link The Election Center allowed the following 3 voting machine vendors to play a large part in the ceremonies:
 A picture-perfect facade The lectures inc luded topics such as:
"The Election Center" says that paperless electronic voting is safe: In May of 2003, R. Doug Lewis of the Election Center widely distributed a letter stating that DREs cannot be tampered with. Doug Lewis's opinion carries a great deal of weight with election officials. According
to Dr. David L. Dill, of Stanford University, this letter by Lewis
demonstrates profoundly disturbing complacency and a serious lack of
understanding of computer security, and, indeed, computer technology,
by the very organization that is supposed to ensure the integrity of
the systems we are worried about. article The
Election Center opinion is refuted point-by-point by David
Jefferson, a computer scientist who is also an expert in electronic
voting (there is a .doc file and a html file). This
response is essential reading for anyone who needs to know about the
security of DRE machines. Please distribute it your state and local
election officials, especially if they've seen the Lewis letter  Across the street from The Election Center How "The Election Center" Influences North Carolina Election Officials:
Does this violate the intent of its statement of purpose? What are the ethics? Gary Bartlett, The Executive Director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections sits on the Board of Directors of "The Election Center". This can be verified at the Election Center's website Gary is also on this committee: Election Center National Task Force on Voting Accessibility: Election Center article NC B.O.E. website Gary Bartlett pushing the state towards paperless DREs: "It seems like every jurisdiction that has purchased (DREs) loves them," Bartlett said. "The optical scan is old technology, and there are more issues with it, like not following ballot instructions, residual votes and a host of other issues..... North Carolina will receive about $66 million once the funds are completely distributed, Bartlett said. About $11 million is being held up while the Elections Assistance Commission finalizes accessible voting equipment standards." Jackson Daily News article March
26, 2004 - The NC BOE won't certify new machines - new machines create
voter verified paper ballot! New Bern Sun Journal article March 26, 2004 AccuPoll Receives Federal Qualification For Electronic Voting System Johnnie
McLean, Deputy Director for Administration of the N.C.
BOE is on the "Election Center National Task Force on
Election Reform". Election Center Link McLean claims that if DREs had paper ballot, would lead to vote selling: "The possibility of vote buying is one of the reasons North Carolina elections officials balk at requiring voting machines that have a verifiable paper trail." "'Nobody wants to say that because that's not a popular thought now,' said Johnnie McLean, deputy director for administration of the North Carolina Board of Elections, while discussing the pros and cons of various voting machine systems available and in use in the state." "But the elections board has thought of that. There is a fear that if there is a verifiable paper trail, it would open the door to vote buying," she said. New Bern Sun Journal article George
Gilbert, Director of Guilford County Board of Elections, is on the
"Election Center National Task Force on Election Reform".
Election Center link Guilford
County has approximately 1,100 ES&S Votronic DREs. Gilbert is
totally opposed to a Voter Verified Paper Ballot. He is a
member of SAAFE, a coalition "opposed to current bills
that would require that all Direct Record Electronic voting
systems produce a contemporaneous paper replica (“CPR”),
euphemistically referred to as a 'voter verified paper record.'” Article Tammy Polk Hinton, Mecklenburg County North Carolina Project Manager BOE link Meckelburg County Election Director Bill Culp was convicted of Accepting Bribes from Microvote Salesman Ed O'Day. For a full history of the bribery: Bill James Blog and Charlotte Observer article Mecklenburg County spent over $5 Million on Microvote DREs. (defective ones at that). Glenda
M. Clendenin, CERA, Director Moore County Board of Elections is on the
"Election Center National Task Force on Election
Reform". Election Center link Moore
county has DREs: Danaher Electronic 1242(DRE). They also had a fairly
un-eventful election this November 2004, unlike many other DRE counties. Election Center Honors and Recognition Committee:Kathie
Chastain-Cooper, Forsyth County Director of Elections - has a link
to Election Center on the Forsyth County BOE website. Kathie is
pro-DRE, especially the paperless kind. Wants to "get rid of the
paper". Forsyth County has $3.1 Million for purchase of new voting
machines. Forsyth is a punch card county at this time. Cherie Poucher, Wake County Board of Elections Info:
Wake tested the infamous ES&S iVotronic, which hit the news when it
dropped 436 votes in a 2002 election during early voting. Cherie sent
the machines back to the vendor, Wake county is the exception, they are sticking to their optical scanners.
Ironically, North Carolina's state capitol is in Wake
County. Cherie is the only NC Official on this list that
is opposed to the DREs at this time. Wired News article Election Center honors list Like asking the Fox to guard the "hen house" - It
is important to know that the SOS of California is considering criminal
charges against Diebold, and in Indiana, Election Officials have
referred to ES&S representatives as "derelicts". Some
counties are refusing to pay ES&S for their machines as the company
lied to them about their machines being properly certified. Flaws in
software of the iVotronic have been identified by Florida
authorities, and most likely affect the same machine in other
states. The Election Center will continue to influence election officials until it is charged with an ethics violation or otherwise discredited.** The North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting is a grassroots organization fighting for clean and verified elections. Contact Joyce McCloy, Coordinator, N.C. Coalition for Verifiable Voting - phone 336-794-1240 - email: website: http://www.ncvoter.net Join our group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ncverifiablevoting/ Comment on This Article
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