by Susan Rowe [courtesy of Blog for America]

California Progress Report publisher, Frank Russo reported...

Our Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who led the nation in challenging the reliability of electronic voting systems, has been named as one of three individuals who will receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award™. Bowen will be presented with this award by JFK’s daughter Caroline Kennedy and his brother, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, at a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston on May 12.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who challenged the reliability of electronic voting systems in a bid to ensure the integrity of the vote in California has been named a recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, it was announced today by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Bowen, along with Ohio's Secretray of State, will be presented the prestigious award for political courage by Caroline Kennedy and Senator Edward M. Kennedy at a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston on Monday, May 12.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo
Based on information from the Kennedy Library

Our Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who led the nation in challenging the reliability of electronic voting systems, has been named as one of three individuals who will receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Bowen will be presented with this award by JFK’s daughter Caroline Kennedy and his brother, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, at a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston on May 12.

Jennifer Brunner, Secretary of State of Ohio will also receive this award and a special Profile in Courage Award for Lifetime Achievement will be presented to former Mississippi Governor William Winter for his leadership in championing racial equality and educational opportunity in Mississippi.

Announcement of the award was accompanied by the following statement about Bowen from the Kennedy Library:

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Lift the Shroud of Secrecy from Electronic Voting Systems and Restore Confidence in Our Elections

By Paul Krekorian
Member
California State Assembly

On November 4, 2008, millions of Californians will go to their polling places to cast their votes using electronic voting machines. By the end of that evening, we will know who will take office as our next President. What we will not know that night – what we may never know with certainty – is whether our votes were in fact properly counted by those electronic voting machines.

After the debacle of the election of 2000 focused the nation’s attention on “hanging chads” in Florida, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act, which encouraged the wide use of electronic voting machines. Since then, corporate vendors of these machines, such as Diebold, have actively promoted them throughout the country. Many county registrars are investing heavily in this new technology in an effort to streamline the voting process, and to provide greater opportunity for some disabled citizens to vote independently.

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Michelle Gabriel

Good people, many of them county elections officials, ask why election integrity advocates don't trust vendors and elections officials. There are many reasons and examples.

The statement by the Sequoia Voting Systems official after California Secretary of State Bowen’s hearing on Monday on the reports by computer experts on the vulnerability of electronic voting machines is just one example. In Alameda County we tried for months to get a real attack test on the Sequoia equipment prior to it being purchased. Sequoia and the county elections officials blocked it. There was even law suit to get some real testing done!!! But the Board of Supervisors backed down and listened to the Registrar of Voters. Instead, we once again had people sitting in a room examining documents and thinking about possibilities. Even this study came up with a number of serious security issues.

Yet here is what the Sequoia representative said:

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

In recent “tests” established by the Secretary of State, all of California’s electronic voting machines “failed” security tests designed to see if computer hackers could break into the various systems.

The Secretary of State has a short time to decide whether or not to decertify the machines for use in next years (early) Presidential primary.

There is a cadre of activists joined together through internet blogs and labeled (by elections officials), the “black bag” people. Outraged by Republican tactics in Florida where George W. stole the election (with a little help from a Republican Supreme Court), these activists are now paranoid about what the GOP might do to stay in power.

One of the electronic voting systems used in California – Diebold – had a CEO who contributed to George W. Sufficient evidence to some that Diebold was putting in the fix in the factory to stack the cards against the Democratic nominee.

When no evidence for that scenario was uncovered, the next logical step was to assume that the systems were made “insecure” to allow hackers to alter the results from the outside.