While democracy is taking hold in Iraq, it might be a good time to look at matters…errr…. closer to home….? Ehh?

Miami Herald.com: 12/15/05: New tests fuel doubts about vote machines: Ion Sancho, Leon County’s election chief, said tests by two computer experts, completed this week, showed that an insider could surreptitiously change vote results and the number of ballots cast on Diebold’s optical-scan machines. After receiving county commission approval Tuesday, Sancho scrapped Diebold’s system for one made by Elections Systems and Software, the same provider used by Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The difference between the systems: Sancho’s machines use a fill-in-the-blank paper ballot that allows for after-the-fact manual recounts, while Broward and Miami-Dade use ATM-like touchscreens that leave no paper trail.

SecurityFocus: 12/15/05: Diebold troubled by e-voting security: Computer scientists have questioned both the reliability and security of the systems, as well as pointing out that the confusing and secretive certification process made testing of the systems is essentially meaningless.

Yahoo! Press Release: 12/14/05: Stull, Stull & Brody Announces Class Action Against Diebold Inc.: The complaint alleges that defendants violated provisions of the United States securities laws causing artificial inflation of the Company’s stock price.

BlackBoxVoting: 12/13/05: Devastating hack proven: Finnish security expert Harri Hursti, together with Black Box Voting, demonstrated that Diebold made misrepresentations to Secretaries of State across the nation when Diebold claimed votes could not be changed on the “memory card” (the credit-card-sized ballot box used by computerized voting machines.

Slashdot: 12/13/05: Diebold CEO Resigns Under Cloud: Discussion on his resignation.

AP: 12/12/05: O’Dell Resigns As Diebold CEO, Chairman: Diebold Inc., a maker of automatic teller machines, said Monday that Chairman and Chief Executive Walden W. O’Dell has resigned “for personal reasons.”

philly: 12/05/05: Diebold in North Carolina II: Updates from Albert on North Carolina

EFF: 12/8/05: North Carolina Sued for Illegally Certifying Voting Equipment: The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Thursday filed a complaint against the North Carolina Board of Elections and the North Carolina Office of Information Technology Services on behalf of voting integrity advocate Joyce McCloy, asking that the Superior Court void the recent illegal certification of three electronic voting systems.

Wired: 11/29/05: Another Blow to E-Voting Company: One of the nation’s leading suppliers of electronic voting machines may decide against selling new equipment in North Carolina after a judge declined Monday to protect it from criminal prosecution should it fail to disclose software code as required by state law.

philly: 11/29/05: Diebold in North Carolina: Albert’s thoughts on what was occuring in North Carolina at the time.

Metafilter: 11/16/05: Deafening silence over GAO e-voting report, new evidence of abuse: Ultimately, there is no real security on these machines; the report shows that overturning election results would not be at all difficult for even a single moderately skilled attacker.

Brad Friedman: 11/3/05: Mainstream Media to American Democracy: Drop Dead:t’s been a full two weeks now since the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO came out with their 107-page report [PDF] confirming what so many of us have been trying to ring the bell about for so long: The Electronic Voting Machines which are proliferating counties and states across America even as I type, are not secure, not accountable, not recountable, not transparent, not accurate and not adequately monitored or certified by anybody.

truthout: 10/21/05: GAO Report Finds Flaws in Electronic Voting: GAO report summary