Think About It:  Got Votes?

By

Mike Pulaski

August 18, 2007

Every South Dakota citizen should be thankful for Chris Nelson’s efforts as our Secretary of State.  His Department’s implementation of voting machine technology is an example of his excellent judgment and leadership.  As a result, South Dakota has become an example for other states that are looking to bring trustworthy technology to their own voting processes.

Not only did Chris bring electronic voting machines that were “bug free” and of the highest standards of security, but he brought in the technology for a rock bottom price for taxpayer benefit.

Kudos to Chris and also to Dan Burke, a member of Chris’s team, who spent many hours away from his family doing all the required field work, making the transition such a success.

I am greatly alarmed after reading Chris’s column in Friday’s Capital Journal, where he says that South Dakota’s new voting machine system might be declared obsolete by 2012 due to a US Congressional Bill currently under consideration.  However, it is not terribly surprising, considering the sordid politics involved in the development and sales of these machines nationally.

At the request of my Congresswoman when I lived in Georgia, I studied the voting machine business extensively since 2004 for her, and continue to follow it closely.  I have reviewed studies conducted by the faculties of NYU Law School, the mathematics and computer science departments at Princeton and the University of California, among my many sources.  I learned that the voting machine software of Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia Systems (who together account for nearly 90% of the market) can be easily penetrated and re-programmed in as little as two minutes, and would change election results.

Throughout my inquiry into voting machine technology, I repeatedly found that the system chosen by Chris Nelson – AutoMarks – is the best example of a secure, tamper-proof electronic voting machine.  No other system comes close.  Thanks again, Chris.

OK.  Think about it.  Why would a reputable, inexpensive voting machine technology be declared obsolete?

Josef Stalin, the ruthless dictator of the former Soviet Union, once said “It doesn’t matter that people can vote, what does matter is who counts the votes”. 

Let’s look at the “who” behind the major voting machine manufacturers.

Jeff Dean, Senior Programmer at Global Election Systems (GES) was convicted of 23 counts of felony theft for planting “back doors” in software he created for ATMs.  According to court documents, Jeff used a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of two years. In addition to Dean, GES employed a number of other convicted felons in senior positions, including a fraudulent securities trader and a cocaine trafficker, who was Dean’s cell mate in prison.

Bob Urosevich and his brother Todd started the company that was to become ES&S.  With the backing of billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who has contributed hundreds of millions to right wing causes, Bob and Todd bought GES from Jeff Dean and kept him and all his staff of felons on their payroll.

Later, Bob Urosevich left ES&S and became Diebold Election Systems’ CEO.  He took the software algorithms created by Jeff Dean with him, which he then used to program the Diebold voting machines.  Todd stayed with ES&S as its Vice President of Technology.

Thus, the brothers Urosevich, using programs developed by a convicted felon and money from a billionaire family connected to ultra right wing politics, control 80% of the voting machines in our country.

After Bob Urosevich left ES&S for Diebold, Chuck Hagel became ES&S’s CEO.  In 1996, Hagel ran for the US Senate and became the first elected Republican Nebraska Senator in 24 years when he did surprisingly well in an election where the votes were verified by – you guessed it – ES&S, the company he served as chairman and where he maintained a financial investment.

In both the 1996 and 2002 elections, Hagel’s ES&S counted an estimated 80% of his winning votes.  Confidentiality agreements between the State of Nebraska and ES&S kept this matter out of the public eye.  Hagel’s first election victory was described as a “stunning upset” by one Nebraska newspaper.  Hagel’s activities were later discovered, and the US Senate censured him as a consequence.

Sequoia Systems has about a 10% market share of the national electronic voting machine market. Simply stated, this company, through a series of off shore shell companies, is owned by a Venezuelan consortium that has direct ties to Hugo Chavez, the country’s President.  It is no secret that Chavez hates all things American, and has vowed to destroy us.

Thus, Chris Nelson, I am also very concerned by the new legislation aimed to make our voting machines obsolete.  Further, knowing what I do about the business, I strongly suspect that lobbyists who are interested in huge profits and fixing future elections are behind this change.