- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

[RRE]Florida recount
by Phil Agre 08 Nov '00

08 Nov '00

[Peter Orvetti <http://www.orvetti.com/>, whose site was easily the fastest and most reliable last night, says that a locked ballot box was found in a Democratic region of Florida. Missing ballot boxes are a Florida tradition, and I enclose a piece on the 1988 Senate election that Peter Neumann wrote for SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes. Reformatted to 70 columns.] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" option. For information about RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, see http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/rre.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

1 0

CDR: Lawsuit filed <sigh>
by William H. Geiger III 08 Nov '00

08 Nov '00

Well a lawsuit has been filed for a new election to be held in Palm Beach County. Jessy Jackson and the rest of the Carpetbaggers need to get out of our state. An interesting tidbit: Escambia Co., FL 71% of registered voters voted, 20% higher than the country average. :) -- --------------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.openpgp.net Geiger Consulting Data Security & Cryptology Consulting Programming, Networking, Analysis PGP for OS/2: http://www.openpgp.net/pgp.html E-Secure: http://www.openpgp.net/esecure.html ---------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

CDR: Re: A strange election scenario.
by Alan Olsen 08 Nov '00

08 Nov '00

At 11:28 AM 11/8/00 -0500, Trei, Peter wrote: >It looks like Gore has won the popular vote, and >that Florida is more likely to tip to Bush than to >Gore. If this happens, the show is not >necessarily over. > >If Bush wins Florida, and Gore wins Oregon, >the electoral college will stand at Gore 267, >Bush 271. You'd expect that King George >the Second would rule. But.... > >In most states, electoral college >electors are bound by law to cast their >votes in favor of the candidate who won >their state. But not all - in some states >(which ones? I don't know) electors can >legally vote their conscience. A Libertarian >presidential candidate got an electoral vote >a while back in this manner. > >If three of these 'unbound' electors are in states >which went to Bush, and decide to 'follow >the mandate of the national popular vote' >they can flip the election. > >Interesting times..... I am just wondering what they do if it comes down to an actual *tie* in Florida. Personally I would like to see the two candidates fight to the death in a tub of raw sewage with a couple of rusty sporks. (Not that they will do something sensible like that...) The coming gridlock could be the best thing to happen to the country though. --- | Terrorists - The Boogiemen for a new Millennium. | |"The moral PGP Diffie taught Zimmermann unites all| Disclaimer: | | mankind free in one-key-steganography-privacy!" | Ignore the man | | | behind the keyboard.| | http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com/~alan/ |alan(a)ctrl-alt-del.com|

1 0

CDR: Reports of Democrat Fraud on Absentee Ballots.
by William H. Geiger III 08 Nov '00

08 Nov '00

Listening to Luke McCoy on AM 1370 in Pensacola tonight there are reports comming in of absentee ballots that have been intercepted and fraudulently returned. One report from a Escambia Co. resident in Dade Co. had requested an absentee ballot. This ballot was never received and a second one was requested. The election board confirmed that the 1st ballot had not been processed and a second one was sent out. The second one was never received. On further investigation the 1st ballot was received after the 2nd was sent out. The signature did not match that of the voter registration form, and needless to say that the forged ballot was filled out for Gore. Another report of a woman who had an absentee ballot returned in her name from Canada, she claims that she has never been to Canada. Again a Gore ballot. For right now this is all just 4th party hearsay. I'll call the election board in the morning and see if I can get some confirmation. Things may get ugly down here before it's all over... -- --------------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.openpgp.net Geiger Consulting Data Security & Cryptology Consulting Programming, Networking, Analysis PGP for OS/2: http://www.openpgp.net/pgp.html E-Secure: http://www.openpgp.net/esecure.html ---------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

CDR: FL ballot box missing/found
by R. A. Hettinga 08 Nov '00

08 Nov '00

--- begin forwarded text

1 0

CDR: A strange election scenario.
by Trei, Peter 08 Nov '00

08 Nov '00

It looks like Gore has won the popular vote, and that Florida is more likely to tip to Bush than to Gore. If this happens, the show is not necessarily over. If Bush wins Florida, and Gore wins Oregon, the electoral college will stand at Gore 267, Bush 271. You'd expect that King George the Second would rule. But.... In most states, electoral college electors are bound by law to cast their votes in favor of the candidate who won their state. But not all - in some states (which ones? I don't know) electors can legally vote their conscience. A Libertarian presidential candidate got an electoral vote a while back in this manner. If three of these 'unbound' electors are in states which went to Bush, and decide to 'follow the mandate of the national popular vote' they can flip the election. Interesting times..... Peter Trei

1 0

None
by Peter G. Neumann 08 Nov '00

08 Nov '00

[...] ======================================================================== FROM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, January 1989, Peter G. Neumann: The latest item on the integrity of computers in elections relates to the November 1988 Senate race in Florida. *The New York Times* (Saturday, 12 Nov 88, page 9) had an article by Andrew Rosenthal on suspicions of fraud arising from the results. At the end of the Election Day ballot counting, the Democrat Buddy Mackay was ahead. After the absentee ballots were counted, the Republican Connie Mack was declared the winner by 30,000 votes out of 4 million. However, in four counties (for which B.R.C. provided the computing services), the number of votes counted for Senator was 200,000 votes less than the votes for President while in other counties and in previous elections the two vote totals have generally been close to each other. Remembering that punched card are intrinsically a flaky medium and easy to alter surreptitiously, and that the computer systems in question reportedly permit their operators to turn off the audit trails and to change arbitrary memory locations on the fly, it seems natural to wonder whether anything strange went on. Subsequent to the Times article, a recount was requested, but a selective recount of a few precincts apparently turned up nothing unusual. However, doubts linger about the essential subvertibility of the process -- particularly in the case of punched cards. In Texas, a law suit has been filed on behalf of the voters of the state challenging the entire election and requesting not a recount but an entirely new election. The grounds are that the State did not follow its own procedures for certifying the election equipment. --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

1 0

None
by Peter G. Neumann 08 Nov '00

08 Nov '00

[...] ======================================================================== FROM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, January 1989, Peter G. Neumann: The latest item on the integrity of computers in elections relates to the November 1988 Senate race in Florida. *The New York Times* (Saturday, 12 Nov 88, page 9) had an article by Andrew Rosenthal on suspicions of fraud arising from the results. At the end of the Election Day ballot counting, the Democrat Buddy Mackay was ahead. After the absentee ballots were counted, the Republican Connie Mack was declared the winner by 30,000 votes out of 4 million. However, in four counties (for which B.R.C. provided the computing services), the number of votes counted for Senator was 200,000 votes less than the votes for President while in other counties and in previous elections the two vote totals have generally been close to each other. Remembering that punched card are intrinsically a flaky medium and easy to alter surreptitiously, and that the computer systems in question reportedly permit their operators to turn off the audit trails and to change arbitrary memory locations on the fly, it seems natural to wonder whether anything strange went on. Subsequent to the Times article, a recount was requested, but a selective recount of a few precincts apparently turned up nothing unusual. However, doubts linger about the essential subvertibility of the process -- particularly in the case of punched cards. In Texas, a law suit has been filed on behalf of the voters of the state challenging the entire election and requesting not a recount but an entirely new election. The grounds are that the State did not follow its own procedures for certifying the election equipment. --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

1 0

CDR: deep messages from voteauction.de
by anonymous＠openpgp.net 08 Nov '00

08 Nov '00

Whether or not one likes it, the net is NOT a commercial playground a priori. It is an open space for ANY communication needs between any people. If you think it is hard to know for sure if our site was a game or a business, well, then thats a good lesson you have learned.

1 0

CDR: govt aerial photo privacy
by anonymous＠openpgp.net 08 Nov '00

08 Nov '00

Countys Aerial Photos Not for Public Sale Supervisors bow to residents concerns that the high-detail pictures would invade their privacy. By DAVID REYES, Times Staff Writer Bowing to privacy concerns, county supervisors backpedaled Tuesday by agreeing not to let the public buy the high-detail, digital photographs that will be taken during an aerial photo shoot of the entire county. County officials had considered selling the photos--a block-by-block sweep of the county--on the Internet to help defray the cost of the photo missions. "I think residents can rest assured that there wont be any pictures, any Big Brother efforts in the county," said Supervisor Tom Wilson, before all five supervisors voted to approve a $184,000 contract to Pictometry LLC, a New York-based corporation. Originally, the company won approval to fly over Orange County and take 60,000 photographs from an airplane flying at an altitude of 4,000 feet. The images would be stored in a county database and sold to cities and governmental agencies, including police and fire departments. To recoup its costs, the county was going to make photographs available for sale on the countys Web site for $15 to $25. Instead, supervisors were forced to reevaluate their decision after receiving hundreds of complaints by residents, upset that their privacy would be invaded or that the photos would tumble into the hands of criminals. As a result, supervisors modified Pictometrys contract so it would not include selling photographs to the public. The idea of having "Big Brother" peer into her backyard with a camera frightened Helen Pegausch of Santa Ana. She felt strongly enough that she missed work Tuesday to talk with supervisors. "I tell you having the county take photographs and then handing them over to cities so they can check for violations really bothers me," Pegausch said. "We are paying more and more in taxes and voting out more and more of our rights." Pastor Wiley Drake, an outspoken cleric on property rights issues, urged the supervisors to reconsider whether the county needed the project. "Is there a legitimate need for this type of photography?" Drake asked, as he sought anyone on the board with enough "intestinal fortitude" to move to postpone the proposal until his questions can be answered. What makes Pictometry different from scores of other aerial products is that, rather than being taken from directly overhead, pictures are taken at an angle that--once combined with the companys software--allows users to zoom in on neighborhoods and measure the height, width and length of any feature in an image, including gullies, buildings, trees, poles and roads. It makes the product perfect for county planners, said Brian F. Fitzpatrick, West Coast general manager for Pictometry, who was elated with the boards decision. Rather than having a developer show an artists rendering of a new shopping plaza, the digital software allows a planner to test the developers claims by immediately seeing how the site will look, he said. The product conceivably can be used by hundreds if not thousands of residents living in a coastal flood plain that extends through many cities as a result of the threat of a large flood from the Santa Ana River. "The $200,000 the county is paying can save thousands, even millions, of dollars to residents who may not have to pay for flood insurance," Supervisor Todd Spitzer said. Spitzer, an attorney who once worked in the district attorneys office, said the courts already allow police authority to fly over homes and take pictures. "This new proposal is an excellent balance." In other business, supervisors unanimously agreed on Lockheed Martin as the prime contractor for an 11-year, $260-million data-processing contract, which is believed to be the largest contract awarded by the county. The decision ends more than a year of procurement activity by the countys information and technology staff. Leo Crawford, the countys chief information officer, said a procurement team had recommended Lockheed over the other finalist, Science Applications International Corp., the largest private scientific research organization in the United States. http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20001108/t000106980.html

1 0