Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: January 10, 2007 7:50:59 PM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: VoteScam Company Tells Congress to Butt Out
ES&S Moves to Strike U.S. House Admin Committee Letter
Voting Machine Company Claims Chairwoman's Missive 'An Attempt to
Intimidate, Unduly Influence' Florida Court
Plaintiff Attorney Says Claim is 'Remarkable,' 'Takes a Lot of
Chutzpah'
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4008
[1]Describing it as a "threat...intended to interfere with the
independence of the judiciary" in Florida's 13th Congressional
District election contest, one of the defendants in the case,
Elections Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S), has filed a motion to
strike a letter sent last week [2] to Florida's appellate court
from the Chair of the U.S. House Administration Committee, The BRAD
BLOG [3] has learned.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs describe the motion as "remarkable"
and "a blatant thumb in the eye of Congress."
In her January 5th letter [PDF] [4], the new Democratic chair of
the committee, Juanita Millender-McDonald, responded to a lower
court's decision at the end of the year refusing the release [5] of
the computer source code used on the paperless ES&S touch-screen
systems during last November's contested election. Circuit Court
Judge William L. Gary held in his decision at that time that the
proprietary "trade secrets" of ES&S took precedence over Florida
voters' right to know what actually occurred in their own U.S.
House election.
The plaintiffs in the case --- Democrat Christine Jennings and
several non-partisan election watchdog groups --- had requested
review of the source code to aid in an independent expert
investigation to help determine what went wrong when Sarasota's
touch-screen systems, made by ES&S, failed to report some 18,000
votes in Jennings's race for the U.S. House against the Republican
Vern Buchanan.
Buchanan was certified as the "winner" by the state of Florida
despite his 369 vote margin and questions about the contest based
on the extraordinarily high undervote rate on Sarasota County's
voting systems. The still-unexplained undervote rate in the county
was approximately five times higher than in the same race in
neighboring counties, and similarly much higher than the undervote
rate in the same race on the paper absentee ballots in the very
same county.
In today's motion [PDF] [6], obtained this afternoon by The BRAD
BLOG [3], ES&S demands the court strike Millender-McDonald's letter
from the record. They claim that it's an "unauthorized, non-party
response" and that her letter was a "thinly veiled attempt...to
intimidate this Court and unduly influence its deliberations in
order to give Petitioner [Jennings], a member of Millender-
McDonald's political party, an unwarranted advantage in this
election contest."
That, despite the fact that Jennings has challenged the election in
the U.S. House under the Federal Contested Elections Act and that a
letter [PDF] [8], similarly from the U.S. House Administration
Committee --- then under Republican rule --- sent to a California
court was instrumental and cited by the Judge in the dismissal [9]
of a contested U.S. House Special Election last summer between
Brian Bilbray (R) and Francine Busby (D) in California's 50th
district.
David Becker, a Senior Attorney at PFAW Foundation [10], one of the
groups supporting the voter plaintiffs in the case, tells The BRAD
BLOG [3] that the claims made by ES&S in their motion "take a lot
of chutzpah." ...
"The filing by ES&S is remarkable if only because it's such a
blatant thumb in the eye of Congress," Becker explained in an E-
mail this afternoon. "It's basically a request for the court, which
is staffed by experienced appellate judges, to ignore the letter
and pretend that they never saw it."
And yet, ES&S charges that "Millender-McDonald has no standing to
participate in the review of the trial court's order, and because
the Response itself is an improper attempt to influence this Court
by interjecting non-record matters into the proceeding."
Another source close to the plaintiffs was similarly outraged by
the latest move by ES&S and added that "on top of trying to prevent
expert scrutiny of the source code, ES&S apparently is trying to
keep everything else from the Court of Appeal."
While the fur continues to fly in the Sarasota case --- as a
direct, yet predictable, result of their use of uncountable and
unverifiable electronic voting machines --- Buchanan was seated
"provisionally" in the U.S. House on January 4th pending an
investigation into the matter. The election challenge in the House
has been championed by Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ), who has long
rallied for Election Reform legislation and more oversight for
electronic voting systems.
Four other 2006 House races have also been challenged in Congress
this year, as we reported late last week [12]. Four of those five
challenges are based on races in Florida, all due to tht state's
use of these god-awful, untested, thoroughly discredited electronic
voting systems.
NOTE: The BRAD BLOG [3] will also have an update on the
aforementioned, and ongoing, CA50 Busby/Bilbray case on Wednesday.
Stay tuned...
Article printed from The BRAD BLOG: http://www.bradblog.com
URL to article: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4008
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.bradblog.com/?cat=180
[2] sent last week: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3991
[3] The BRAD BLOG: http://www.BradBlog.com
[4] January 5th letter [PDF]: http://www.BradBlog.com/Docs/
FL13_HouseAdminLetter_Millender-McDonald_010507.pdf
[5] refusing the release: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3959
[6] today's motion [PDF]: http://www.BradBlog.com/Docs/
FL13_ESS_ReplyToMillender-McDonald_010907.pdf
[7] The BRAD BLOG: http://www.BradBlog.com
[8] a letter [PDF]: http://www.BradBlog.com/Docs/
CA50_HouseAdminLetter_Vinovich_082306.pdf
[9] the dismissal: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3353
[10] PFAW Foundation: http://www.pfaw.org/
[11] The BRAD BLOG: http://www.BradBlog.com
[12] we reported late last week: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3986
[13] The BRAD BLOG: http://www.BradBlog.com
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