The Archive is for storage of documents used primarily for in-depth research or previous versions of documents which can be found on the Resources page. This is also a place where news articles can be stored as many links expire after a period of time and a permanent reference is often desired. Use the index immediately below to jump to a particular section and the "Top" arrows to return here.

  Voting Machine Failures
  IBIP News Releases
  News and Commentary
  Black Box Voting
    Reports & Resources
  IBIP White Papers
  California Secretary of State
  Daily Voting News


Diebold in the News. (185 KB) - From Voters Unite
Sequoia in the News. (183 KB) - From Voters Unite
Sequoia in the News. (134 KB) - 3 page text version
ES&S in the News. (281 KB) - From Voters Unite
Hart InterCivic in the News. (97 KB) - From Voters Unite
Danaher in the News. (87 KB) - From Voters Unite


October 28, 2008 (Chicago/Cook County/State)
March 3, 2008 (DuPage County)
February 7, 2007 (Chicago/Cook County)
February 6, 2007 (Chicago/Cook County/State)
October 12, 2006 (DuPage County)
October 3, 2006 (DuPage County)
September 21, 2006 (DuPage County)
June 29, 2006 (DuPage County)
March 1, 2006 (DuPage County)
March 1, 2006 (Correction - Chicago/Cook County)
February 25, 2006 (DuPage County)
February 25, 2006 (Chicago/Cook County)
December 14, 2005 (Diebold)
October 22, 2005 (GAO Report)
October 17, 2005 (Sequoia)


October 29, 2006. DuPage County Election Commission Rapped over Conflict of Interest    Daily Herald.  By John Zimmerman, Daily Herald Editorial Columnist. Local paper questions links between Commission chairman, Diebold distributor and "new" ballot printing company.

October 27, 2006. DuPage County Election Site Penetrated    Chicago Tribune. The public site of the DuPage County Election Commission has twice this week been open to unknown persons who have manipulated text to make fanciful changes to voter requirements.

October 25, 2006. City withholds voting machine pay - Officials concerned about past glitches    Chicago Tribune.

October 23, 2006. Security Flaw Found in Chicago Voter Registration Database!  Personal information of more than 1.5 million Chicago voters at risk. IBIP Press Release. See it at BradBlog. This security vulnerability and how it could be exploited was the work of Peter Zelchenko. Peter has a very informative and important statement. Read it Here. News Coverage:   FOX   ABC   Chicago Sun-Times  Chicago Tribune   CBC    ABC (national)    CBS-2  The story was covered by Associated Press and picked up by numerous outlets, including the   Guardian (UK)  As of Tuesday evening, more than 160 news outlets had covered the story. See an updated list at   Google News.

October 19, 2006. Voting glitches feared on Nov. 7th  Chicago Tribune.   Is it possible that MSM is starting to get it? "Nick-O-Time" certification holds potential for problems with new Sequoia equipment in Chicago and Cook County.

October 17, 2006. Deforest Soaries Speaks!   Transcript of a September 2006 interview with the Bush appointed chair of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission telling us what's wrong with the system. Finally, someone on the "inside" is willing to tell the truth. Courtesy of BradBlog. See the archived version as an IBIP News Release.

October 13, 2006. Special Showing of Stealing America: Vote by Vote with Harvey Wasserman!   IBIP will sponsor the event at 7:00 pm on Sunday, October 22nd. News Release. For more information Click Here

October 12, 2006. More Hijinks at the DuPage County Election Commission   Former Fidlar VP starts lucrative home business "printing" DuPage County ballots. News Release. IBIP Press Release picked up by BradBlog, ignored by local media.

October 5, 2006. Appellate court blocks enforcement of Arizona voter ID law .  Arizona Star  :9th Circuit says ID not required to vote and proof of citizenship not required to register.

October 5, 2006. Former recorder accused of conflict of interest over party.  When friends threw a retirement party two years ago for DuPage County Recorder J.P. "Rick" Carney, Fidlar Election Co. picked up the $9,000 dinner tab.

But Carney, who now is chairman of the DuPage Election Commission . . . More -  Daily Herald - IBIP News Release and printable version of the story.

October 5, 2006. The Headless Crisis Tribune Media Services Bob Koehler writes on election integrity. Read it at Election Defense Alliance.

September 28, 2006. Will The Next Election Be Hacked? Rolling Stone RFK, Jr's new article in the October 5th issue of Rolling Stone. Fresh disasters at the polls -- and new evidence from an industry insider -- prove that electronic voting machines can't be trusted See the video of RFK, Jr. discussing the article on MSNBC's "Hardball".

September 27, 2006. LAVA Gains Traction in House and Senate New York Times Democratic Senators have introduced emergency paper ballot legislation. While the Senate Resolution is weak and only calls for a sense of the Senate, it's a start. Rush Holt (D-NJ) has introduced a House Bill that will provide funding for "contingency" ballots as an amendment to HAVA, adding a new Section 257.

See the video of the Senate Bill, the "Confidence in Voting Act," introduced by Senators Boxer, Dodd and Feingold. Story here: San Francisco Chronicle. The proposed Senate bill would provide 75 cents for each backup paper ballot that local officials print. If ballots are printed for half the 27 million voters expected to use touch-screen machines, the cost would be no more than $10.1 million. The Holt Bill introduced on September 27th provides such funds from HAVA.

September 24, 2006. The Big Gamble on Electronic Voting The New York Times Main Stream Media (MSM) finally starting to get it - Diebold hack by Princeton gets real coverage! See also the BradBlog article on another NYT article. Or read the article here: Officials Wary of Electronic Voting Machines

September 21, 2006. DuPage County Election Commission Cited for Alleged Illegal Destruction of Records Press Release

September 21, 2006. Maryland Governor Backs Paper Ballots in November! Washington Post Governor Robert Ehrlich calls for replacement of Diebold AccuVote-TS system.

September 20, 2006. BradBlog introduces LAVA, Calls for Paper Ballots in November! BradBlog Activist Brad Friedman calls for paper ballots in November and introduces LAVA, the Let America Vote Act of 2006.

September 13, 2006. THE MOST IMPORTANT TOUCH-SCREEN SECURITY VIDEO EVER! The Princeton Center for Information Technology has just released papers and a Demonstration Video on how to successfully hack a Diebold Accuvote-TS ® touch-screen, leaving no trace and insinuating a virus into the system that will spread to other machines! This is a MUST WATCH piece. The technical papers have been archived and are available at the links below. Watch this video NOW! Scroll down and click the "Click to Start Video" command TWICE to activate the video.

View, Print or Download the "Princeton Paper". Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine by Ariel J. Feldman, J. Alex Halderman and Edward W. Felten.

September 13, 2006. Avi Rubin Blogs the Maryland Primary Avi Rubin Johns Hopkins professor and author of Brave New Ballot writes about his experiences with Diebold while an election judge yesterday.

More on the e-voting trainwreck in Maryland at Brad Blog, the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun.

September 5, 2006. Electoral Acuracy Questioned Read the New York Times editorial opinion "In Search of Accurate Vote Totals" New York Times which highlights continuing problems in Ohio.

September 1, 2006. Two former governors call for back-up plan for electronic voting machines. Read the editorial opinion by Dick Thornburgh and Richard Celeste in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

August 23, 2006. Zogby International Poll finds 92% of Americans want election transparency. Read the Zogby News Release and the Zogby Poll. IBIP, along with other organizations, contributed to the funding of the poll. Read IBIP's News Release

August 23, 2006. DYSFUNCTION AT THE DNC: Brad Addresses the DNC on Election Integrity, But Is Anybody There Listening? Brad Blog. Brad Friedman recaps his experiences at the DNC on August 18th and 19th with a nice mention and link to IBIP.

August 22, 2006. Republican legislator to introduce Voter ID Law in Illinois. Madison St. Clair Record State Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Greenville) will introduce a proposal requiring state-issued identification cards be presented by voters at the polls.

IBIP opposes Voter ID requirements in Illinois as a denial of equal protection under the Constitutional because they discriminate against the poor, elderly and disabled who make up the majority of the estimated 570,000 Illinois voters without photo IDs. Read the IBIP News Release.

August 17, 2006. TAKE BACK THE VOTE! Rally to be Webcast starting at 2:00 pm (CT) on Saturday, August 19th! Listeners were able to hear the audio portion of the program, view PowerPoint and Video presentations and participate in the forums through web conferencing.

August 14, 2006. Brad Friedman of BradBlog will join us in Warrenville August 19th. Brad will act as MC for the event and moderate the panel disussion with participants from IBIP following Bob Fitrakis of FreePress.

August 3, 2006. Mark Crispin Miller to speak in Warrenville August 19th.

July 22, 2006. Mark Crispin Miller to speak in Highland Park August 18th. For more information see the IBIP Calendar Page.

July 18, 2006. No �trade secrets� if electronic voting to succeed (Jul 19 in New Zealand) Computer World U.S. computer expert calls for impact statements - no secret software.

July 18, 2006. First Reports of Diebold Meltdown in Georgia WW4 Blog Diebold DREs switching votes, voters not in pollbook, machine malfunctions reported.

July 18, 2006. Democracy in Crisis - An Exclusive BRAD BLOG Interview with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Brad Blog

July 13, 2006. Electronic voting machines come under legal attack from activists USA Today

July 13, 2006. Groups file lawsuit challenging Georgia electronic voting AP Wire (via Columbus (GA) Ledger Inquirer). Activists seek to stop the use of state's $54 million paperless Diebold system.

July 11, 2006. Hacking the Vote Chicago Tribune - Editorial on the release of the Brennan Report

June 29, 2006. DuPage Officials Under Fire for Fees. Daily Herald IBIP has criticized the DuPage County Election Commission for it's arbitrary and capricious $1 per page coying fee that hinders access to records. - By Robert Sanchez.

June 28, 2006. Unstuffing the Ballot Box. Utne Magazine The right is working to change voting rules. Advocates and ordinary citizens are pushing back. - By David Brauer - July / August 2006 Issue

June 27, 2006. Brennan Center Releases Report on E-Voting Machines. Press Release. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University has released a report by its Task Force on Voting Security. The report, "The Machinery of Democracy: Protecting Elections in an Electronic World," details examples of voting machine vulnerability and mitigation strategies. The report finds all major systems vulnerable, especially those with wireless communications. According to the experts who worked on the report for more than a year, most states have yet to implement proper procedures to protect the vote. You can read the Executive Summary here.

June 26, 2006. Critics: Scrap Voting Machines. Atlanta - Channel 11. Litigation announced against Georgia's paperless DREs.

June 21, 2006. Manipulating Votes. Brattleboro Reformer. This editorial commenting on the RFK, Jr. article is a good read.

June 9, 2006. IBIP Presents Recommendations to CBA. Link to PowerPoint Presentation. This is a large (8.8 MB) file and will take some time to download. The presentation examines how Chicago and Cook County chose Sequoia and presents IBIP's recommendations to the Chicago Bar Association Committee on Elections.

June 1, 2006. Rolling Stone Calls for National investigation of Diebold. Editorial

June 1, 2006. A great list of resources and links on election fraud. Sources and Commentary on "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?"

June 1, 2006. Was the 2004 Election Stolen? Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s well-documented article is here: LINK

May 3, 2006. Arkansas to vote on paper as ES&S fails to deliver voting machines Arkansas News Bureau

April 30, 2006. Georgia's Paperless Voting Machines Look Old Atlanta Journal-Constituiton (subscription) Having spent $75 million on Diebold machines without VVPAT, State looks a retrofitting.

April 29, 2006. Paper Ballots Return to North Carolina Asheville Citizen-Times. When all else fails - do what works!

April 27, 2006. IBIP Submits Statement on Primaries to Cook County Commissioners PDF Here's an extensive review and analysis of what went wrong on March 21st and IBIP's recommendations to the Cook County Board. (325 KB - 44 pages)

March 30, 2006. Voting Machines hit snag in Allegheny County Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Sequoia goes back to the drawing board.

March 30, 2006. Faith-based Voting The Free Press. Tribune Media Services writer, Robert C. Koehler, discussed our "trust" in computers as "faith-based" voting.

March 29, 2006. Counsel Says City Needs Evidence of Breach Chicago Tribune. The CBOE's counsel says City needs evidence of machine failures to withhold payments.

March 29, 2006. Is the MSM getting it? The Free Press. Opinion from Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman. Finally, the MSM is getting half the story - now about fraud?

March 28, 2006. Aldermen: No payments to machine company Chicago Sun-Times. Four influential aldermen demand $16 million be withheld from Sequoia.

March 28, 2006. Week later - Almost all votes counted Chicago Tribune - And the beat goes on with the Chicago and Cook County debacle election debacle.

March 25, 2006. Ion Sancho Under Fire Washington Post Fairly good MSM coverage.

March 24, 2006. Voting Machine Maker Blasted Chicago Tribune

March 24, 2006. Chicago, County Rip Sequoia Chicago Sun-Times

March 23, 2006. New Voting System Needs Fixing Chicago Tribune

March 23, 2006. Ballot Madness Chicago Tribune

March 23, 2006. Officials Blame Sequoia Associated Press (via The State)

March 23, 2006. Vote Snafu Chicago Sun-Times

March 23, 2006. New Machines, Poor Training Slowed Count Chicago Tribune

March 23, 2006. Machine Woes Slow Illinois Count Washington Post

March 22, 2006. Poll Workers Need Training Chicago Tribune

More News on Illinois Primary Problems.

March 22, 2006.California Secretary of State Sued Over Diebold Certification LINK A group of California voting activists, including Voter Action has filed suit seeking a mandate from the Court to reverse the February 17th certification of Diebold's TSX DRE. The suit alleges serious security, verifiability and disability access problems. A complete reproduction of the suit filed can be accessed by the five links below:

CA Law Suit - Part 1
CA Law Suit - Part 2
CA Law Suit - Part 3
CA Law Suit - Part 4
CA Law Suit - Part 5
Read CA State Rep Debra Bowen's comments HERE

March 21, 2006. High Tech Voting Woes Chicago Tribune

March 20, 2006. A Close-up Look at Diebold's "Toilet Paper Roll" Take a look at how this poorly designed "add-on" printer really works LINK.

March 16, 2006. How to Steal on Election See how Las Vegas Security beats Electronic Voting Machines Washington Post.

March 10, 2006. ES&S Memory cards "improve" to 10% failure rate in Ohio testing. Akron Beacon Journal   PDF   More at BradBlog

March 7, 2006. Maryland House close to voting for paper ballots. Baltimore Sun   PDF

March 7, 2006. E-vote pioneer will return to paper ballots. Alameda County ditches Diebold. Oroville Mercury Register  PDF.

March 6, 2006. Another letter from Maryland's Governor. PDF

March 1, 2006. "DuPage County Voters Cast Ballots on Untested Machines in Early Voting" News Release by IBIP. County failed to conduct Logic & Accuracy tests mandated by Illinois law. PDF

Feb 25, 2006. "Will DuPage County Voters Get "Scrunched" in Early Voting?" Editorial comment by IBIP. LINK   PDF

Feb 25, 2006. "City, County Voters Warned to Check for Undervotes" News Release from IBIP. PDF   LINK. March 1, 2006 - Correction: The February 25th version erroneously stated Chicago voters would use paper ballots in early voting. Not so, they're using the Sequoia AVC Edge DRE. Here is the corrected release: PDF

Feb 23, 2006. "Planning an Escape From Electronic Voting Machines", A Montgomery County (Maryland) legislator has taken steps to ditch the state's electronic machines for the coming election and switch to paper ballots. By Ann E. Marimow and Matthew Mosk, Washington Post,
LINK   PDF.

Feb 22, 2006. Text of California State Senator Debra Bowen's Letter requesting reversal of Diebold certification. PDF.

Feb 17, 2006. Diebold Certified in California Diebold Election Systems won approval Friday to sell its latest voting machines in California, despite findings by computer scientists that the software inside is probably illegal and has security holes found in earlier Diebold products. LINK  PDF

State Senator Debra Bowen fires back at California Secretary of State McPherson LINK   PDF

Feb 16, 2006. Ohio Exit Polls A new Report from the National Election Data Archives, "Why Ohio's 2004 Exit Polls Matter," was released on this date.

The Report summarizes: "If common sense measures to detect and correct vote count errors are not employed, then we cannot expect votes to be counted the way voters intend; and our republican form of government may cease to exist. To make sure that U.S. votes are accurately counted, independent vote count audits, more detailed election data reporting and analysis, and public exit polling data are needed . . ."

This report follows the NEDA's January Report on Ohio, "The Gun is Smoking" of Jan 17, 2006.

Feb 15, 2006. MUST READ! Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich blasts Diebold, electronic voting and the Maryland Board of Elections. PDF   Read the MD SBE response to Governor Ehrlich: PDF

Feb 11, 2006. "No more chads: City gears up for punch-free primary" by Tribune Staff Writer John McCormick. touch-screens come to Cook County.

Feb 10, 2006. "Voting Rights Under Siege" Editorial from the New York Times.

Ohio. Revote in Ohio After More Votes Than Voters Recorded on Diebold Touch-Screen Voting Machines! From BradBlog February 6, 2006. Ohio continues to be of interest. Here's a link to an archive of evidence of LINK.

Diebold. Diebold Agrees to Waive Proprietary Rights to Vote Information. GEMS database files should now be available for inspection in DuPage County. From Black Box Voting. Feb 6, 2006 Vote Fraud.

Wisconsin approved the Vote-PAD Assistive Device for use by their counties and townships. The state conferred with the U.S. Dept. of Justice. According to the Vote-PAD press release and The BradBlog article, "Wisconsin State Elections Board executive director, Kevin Kennedy, announced the state�s approval of the Vote-PAD after "considerable time" spent conferring with U.S. Dept. of Justice attorneys. The response, he said, after examining the device, was that the DoJ saw nothing "that should stop Wisconsin from proceeding with approval" of Vote-PAD for use in the state."

Vote-PAD - The low-tech alternative to touch-screen (DRE) machines - Is this a solution? From BradBlog 25 Jan 2006.

The DuPage County Board of Elections doesn't want to give out documents, they just want to spend money on lawyers to find reasons not to answer FOIA requests. Jan 27, 2006 LINK.

Read all about the Harri Hursti Hack in Leon County Florida. January 21, 2006. From Vote Trust. An eyewtness view.

Diebold AccuVote-OS hacked in Leon County, Florida. Miami Herald - 15 Dec 2005.

Californai warns ES&S about security. 23 Dec 2005 - Archived from San Luis Obispo.com

Diebold selects St. Clair County. How Diebold's distributor performed the "evaluation" of voting machines for St. Clair County. Archived from the Belleville News-Democrat - 29 Sep 2005.

Electronic voting firm, VoteHere, claims hacker break-in - Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 30, 2003

Hackers show how to break into Maryland�s voting machines. - National Public Radio, January 29, 2004 (7.5-minute audio)

Sen. Charles Hagel's votes counted by his own company - Source: Washington, D.C., publication The Hill - January 29, 2003.

ES&S Voting Glitches in Lake County. Archived from the Chicago Tribune - 4 April 2003

"Black Box Voting Blues" by Steven Levy, November 3, 2003, Archived from Newsweek.

"How Safe is Your Vote" By Steven Hill and Rob Richie, January 7, 2004 - Baltimore Sun.

Archive of voting related stories from Wired News.

"How They Could Steal the Election This Time" by Ronnie Dugger, The Nation, August 16, 2004

"Out of Touch" by Wyatt Olson, The New Times, April 24, 2003


Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century (Paperback - 2004) by Bev Harris, sometimes available at Amazon.com. You can download this important book (chapter-by-chapter) at Black Box Voting. Or, we've put a copy in our archive (PDF) here:

Part 1 Chapters 1-5 (171 KB)
Part 2 Chapters 6-9 (299 KB)
Part 3 Chapters 10-12 (196 KB)
Part 4 Chapters 13-14 (110 KB)
Part 5 Chapters 15-16 (238 KB)
Part 6 Appendix/Footnotes/Index (115 KB)


California is "Ground Zero" in terms of what's going on in elections. With the suit filed on March 20th against the Secretary of State seeking to overturn his certification of Diebold, the action has heated up. The SOS site has a number of important resource documents on Sequoia, ES&S, Hart InterCivic, Diebold and other systems. Staff and consultant reports, volume testing and certification results are all Here.

 
California decertifies DREs - April 30, 2004(536 KB)

California - Press Release decertifying Diebold AccuVote-TSX - April 30, 2004 (132 KB)

GAO Report (1.36 MB) and accompanying News Release (16 KB)

The Hopkins Report the seminal report - Dr. Avi Rubin & three others look at Diebold source code. (117 KB)

The SAIC Report confirms finds of the Hopkins Report and expands the issue of Diebold Security. (1.3 MB)

Compuware DRE Report of November, 2003, confirming security flaws - LINK (1.2 MB)

RABA - Trusted Agent Report - Diebold Security LINK (171 KB)

Diebold AccuVote-TSX fails volume testing in California on July 20, 2005. LINK (42 KB)

Diebold Security Alert - Harri Hursti report (BBV) on optical scan security problems. July 4, 2005 (1.1 MB)

Myth Breakers Picks up where Black Box Voting (above) leaves off. Version 2, released January 2005. Includes cost analysis of the various voting strategies, and machine performance in the November 2004 election. (885 KB)

Ellen Theissen reports on the "Top 20" Reasons that elctronic voting machines aren't secure and why a VVPAT isn't enough.

A statistical analysis of the Ohio Exit Polls in the 2004 General Election. (501 KB)

A study of the increased costs of DREs in Florida. December, 2005 (68 KB)

Advantages of Paper Ballots & Optical Scanners (32 KB) From New Yorkers for Verified Voting

Contract between Sequoia and Cook County for electronic voting machine equipment. (128 pages - 1.2 MB)


The following documents consist of White Papers and other resource material prepared by the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project. Most documents are in PDF and can be downloaded. Each will open in separate window. Close the new window to return to this page.

The Case Against DREs (407 KB) - 22 Jan 2006 - Explores the many disadvantages of Direct Record Electronic (touch screen) voting machines and suggests some alternatives. LINK

IBIP Diebold White Paper - 12 Dec 2005 LINK

IBIP Response to Diebold Presentation at SBOE meeting of December 20, 2005 LINK

The Diebold Q&A
These three documents include a set of "16 Questions and Information Requests" from the Illinois State Board of Elections, propounded to Diebold Elections Systems on December 1, 2005, Diebold's Response of December 29, 2005 and IBIP's Comments of January 9, 2006. See Diebold bob and weave.

Diebold Online Demo
"How to Undervote on a Diebold TSX" Demo - submitted to the SBOE - 16 Jan 2006. More Diebold errors.

About Paper Trails
"Paper Trails: Gambling on Recounts" Why VVPAT isn't good enough.
"Paper Trails: Paper Ballots vs. Paper Receipts." The difference between a paper ballot and a paper ballot-receipt.
Commentary on the legality of barcodes under the Illinois Election Code.

Statistical Methodology - Precinct Sampling
Sampling Methods Explores statistical relevancy for precinct sampling. June, 2005 (257 KB)
Implementing Precinct Sampling in 2006. Resolves some difficulties with districts that cross election jurisdictional lines. August, 2005 (245 KB)

Sequoia
IBIP opposes Sequoia 16 Oct 2005 (132 KB)

IBIP - "The Primary Election of March 21, 2006 - Analysis and Recommendations." On April 27, 2006, the IBIP presented an anlysis of the March 21st Chicago and Cook County Primary disaster. This 44-page in-depth analysis shows what went wrong and details twelve specific recommendations. Available in PDF.




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