From the Styx by Peggy Tibbetts

Here’s the latest news in Colorado’s voting machine calamity:

EXCLUSIVE: ES&S CERTIFICATION TESTING SUSPENDED IN COLORADO

Letter from Sec. of State, Obtained by The BRAD BLOG, Says America’s Largest E-Voting Vendor Failed - Yet Again - To Deliver Required Materials to State Testing Board Company Previously Decertified After Lawsuit Found Little or No Testing Performed by State in 2006…

Once again, the country’s largest voting machine vendor, Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S), has failed in yet another state certification process, The BRAD BLOG has learned.

In a letter faxed to the company yesterday, Colorado’s Secretary of State Mike Coffman informed the Omaha, Nebraska, company that the state has suspended the certification process of ES&S’s voting systems due to a failure to provide required documentation and other materials needed to complete testing. That, after several previous deadline extensions had been granted …

Here’s a PDF of the full text of Coffman’s letter to ES&S.

Coffman keeps setting deadlines and ES&S keeps ignoring them. So is Coffman just a great big wuss? Or are voters getting swindled – again?

There’s so much about this ES&S mess that <sniff-sniff> smells kinda politically corrupty.

This little tidbit was also in the Brad Blog piece:

Of additional note, during the VoterAction.org lawsuit, John Gardner, the man responsible for certifying/rubber-stamping the systems originally on behalf of the state, under then-Secretary of State Gigi Dennis, admitted during his deposition that he had no formal training in computer science and that he was not an expert in the areas required by state law.

Curiously enough, however, according to the notice sent to ES&S, it seems that Gardner is still in his post, as Coffman concludes [in his 10/24 letter]: “If you have any questions regarding this request, please feel free to contact John Gardner directly.”

As for our gal Donetta who made this big fat mess in the first place, she proved The Peter Principle: In a hierarchy, every employee tend to rise to his level of incompetence.

Of additional additional note, the SoS who initially oversaw the entire fine Colorado certification mess, prior to Dennis, was Donetta Davidson.

Davidson would leave her post in 2005 when she was tapped by George W. Bush to become a commissioner on the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC). In 2006, she became their chairwoman. The EAC is responsible for overseeing federal certification of e-voting systems for the entire country.

You can read all about my run-in with SoS Davidson via class action lawsuit in The Perfect Crime. Ms. Davidson is not the least bit interested in assisting voters and voting rights. With her in charge of the EAC, it certainly explains why we’re in this fiasco. And why there’s no reason to believe Coffman will get the job done right this time.

Gee, if only our democratic led state legislature had the cahones to seize this opportunity to get rid of the damn machines and switch to an all mail ballot system. Mail ballots are not 100% secure, but they’re far better and less expensive than voting machines. Voters can make the choice themselves right now. You don’t even need to contact your legislator – just vote by mail at every election. That sends the message loud and clear.

In the midst of all this, Mesa County Clerk Janice Rich — who evidently lives in a cave — is planning to buy even more uncertified voting machines: Mesa County Looks To Add Voting Machines.

Unbelievable!

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