Concerned citizens around the country need to get off their duffs and do something to save our country. Namely go down to their polling places and ask that the modems be disconnected. Take a zoom camera and take pictures for evidence.

Bev Harris- THE authority on securing the vote =============

MONDAY Nov 1 2004: New information indicates that hackers may be targeting the central computers counting our votes tomorrow. All county elections officials who use modems to transfer votes from polling places to the central vote-counting server should disconnect the modems now.

There is no down side to removing the modems. Simply drive the vote cartridges from each polling place in to the central vote-counting location by car, instead of transmitting by modem. “Turning off” the modems may not be sufficient. Disconnect the central vote counting server from all modems, INCLUDING PHONE LINES, not just Internet.

In a very large county, this will add at most one hour to the vote-counting time, while offering significant protection from outside intrusion.

It appears that such an attack may already have taken place, in a primary election 6 weeks ago in King County, Washington -- a large jurisdiction with over one million registered voters. Documents, including internal audit logs for the central vote-counting computer, along with modem “trouble slips” consistent with hacker activity, show that the system may have been hacked on Sept. 14, 2004. Three hours is now missing from the vote-counting computer’s "audit log," an automatically generated record, similar to the black box in an airplane, which registers certain kinds of events.

COMPUTER FOLKS:

Here are the details about remote access vulnerability through the modem connecting polling place voting machines with the central vote-counting server in each county elections office. This applies specifically to all Diebold systems (1,000 counties and townships), and may also apply to other vendors. The prudent course of action is to disconnect all modems, since the downside is small and the danger is significant.

The central servers are installed on unpatched, open Windows computers and use RAS (Remote Access Server) to connect to the voting machines through telephone lines. Since RAS is not adequately protected, anyone in the world, even terrorists, who can figure out the server’s phone number can change vote totals without being detected by observers.

The passwords in many locations are easily guessed, and the access phone numbers can be learned through social engineering or war dialing.

ELECTION OFFICIALS: The only way to protect tomorrow’s election from this type of attack is to disconnect the servers from the modems now. Under some configurations, attacks by remote access are possible even if the modem appears to be turned off. The modem lines should be physically disconnected.

We obtained these documents through a public records request. The video was taken at a press conference held by the King County elections chief Friday Oct 29.

The audit log is a computer-generated automatic record similar to the "black box" in an airplane, that automatically records access to the Diebold GEMS central tabulator (unless, of course, you go into it in the clandestine way we demonstrated on September 22 in Washington DC at the National Press club.)

The central tabulator audit log is an FEC-required security feature. The kinds of things it detects are the kinds of things you might see if someone was tampering with the votes: Opening the vote file, previewing and/or printing interim results, altering candidate definitions (a method that can be used to flip votes).

Three hours is missing altogether from the Sept. 14 Washington State primary held six weeks ago.

The audit log is 168 pages long and spans 120 days, and the 3 hours just happen to be missing during the most critical three hours on election night.

Election officials: Disconnect those modems NOW. If you don’t: You gotta be replaced.
Reporters: Some election officials will lie to you. Show your kids what bravery looks like. Be courageous. Report the truth.
Citizens: Please help us by joining the Cleanup Crew. For now, e-mail crew (at) blackboxvoting.org to join, since our signup form has been taken out.
Candidates: Make a statement. Do not concede on Election Night. Wait until audits and records can be examined. Note that most voting machine problems will be found between Nov. 3-12, during the canvass, and a few weeks later, when public records requests are obtained.

More from Bev here, including a video they made of the chimp pushing some buttons to start a script to steal the vote. blackboxvoting.org/

=========== Anonymous:

It’s not just about the Presidential race, but the Bush and the neocons need to steal the House and Senate races too, or else they’ll be facing trial and Bush/Cheney impeachment. They know it- that’s why they’re going to steal it- unless we stop them.

Call all of your friends and family tonight, get organized to hit as many polling places as possible. Maybe you could each need to pick a location and keep an eye on them all day... got an ipod and/or boombox? Bring some inspirational music to make it a festive occasion ;)

www.benfrank.net/nuke/Free_Peace_mp3s.html (must get MOSH, MLK, Eddie Vedder)

Take the Day off Work Go down to your local polling places (ie google "toledo polling locations") and ask that the modems be disconnected. Bring a camera and take pictures for evidence. The phone lines need to be unhooked, anything less is unacceptable. We need to demand the the ’memory cards’ are driven to the central tabulator, and we need you to watch them box the memory cards, seal the boxes, follow their car as they drive it to the next location, where you can ensure the seals are intact and the number of boxes is unchanged.

If we want to reclaim our country, it’s going to be up to regular people like you and me to demand a secure system tomorrow. Think about it, if they steal this one, after four more years of Bush, will we ever have an honest election again?