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Zeese Criticizes Lamone for Phony Security Study |
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Friday, 02 June 2006 |
"We need real election security, not fake reviews by Diebold allies"Selection of Pro-Diebold Firm Shows Lack of Confidence that Maryland's Election System Can Withstand Real Scrutiny
For Immeidate Release: June 2, 2006
Montgomery County, MD: U.S. Senate candidate, Kevin B. Zeese, today criticized the State Election Administrator, Linda Lamone, for selecting well-known Diebold and paperless voting advocates to conduct a security study of Maryland's voting system. "This review will not restore the confidence of Maryland's voters. It will be shocking if the firm selected by Ms. Lamone does anything but approve of the voting system. It is a shame that rather than taking these concerns seriously Ms. Lamone continues to seek to cover-up the problems. Maryland needs real election security, not fake reviews by Diebold allies."
Over the last six months there have been repeated reports of serious security problems with the Diebold election system. These concerns have included the possibility of manipulating the outcome of an election through the software on the PCMCIA cards, which store the votes, as well as through serious security holes in the Diebold voting machines. See: http://kevinzeese.com/content/view/134/47/ and http://kevinzeese.com/content/view/122/47/. Zeese has also pointed to repeated problems with the way the Diebold and its voting system has performed in Maryland. See: http://kevinzeese.com/content/view/108/45/
In testimony before the Maryland Board of Public Works in May, Kevin Zeese urged the Board of Elections to have a real review of these security problems. Zeese urged the State to ask critics of the system to conduct the review, and suggested people like Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins University and Harri Hursti, the Swedish security expert who discovered recent security problems. Zeese pointed out "By having critics review the system the State has the chance to regain the confidence of voters and those running for office. We need to face up to the very real security problems in the paperless Diebold voting machines and solve those problems, rather than claim everything is fine."
Sadly, Ms. Lamone has hired Freeman, Craft, McGregor Group, Inc. to conduct the review. "This firm is led by advocates for paperless voting who have been consistent cheerleaders for Diebold. The fact that Ms. Lamone had to hire a group that supports her review, rather than one that will be truly independent demonstrates her lack of security in the voting system. If she had confidence in the system she would have hired a firm that had shown more independence from Diebold."
For more information on the firm hired to conduct the review see: http://truevotemd.org/content/view/474/82/
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