[Tfug] OT: Election update and plea for help...

[keith smith]

I hope you were able to obtain the equipment you needed.  What a mess.

------------------------

Keith Smith

--- On Mon, 8/23/10, Jim March <1.jim.march at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Jim March <1.jim.march at gmail.com>
Subject: [Tfug] OT: Election update and plea for help...
To: "Tucson Free Unix Group" <tfug at tfug.org>
Date: Monday, August 23, 2010, 11:00 PM

Does anybody have a micro-camcorder available for loan tomorrow, that I can pick up tomorrow AM?  Urgency is very high.  Basically, we caught Maricopa County elections in a felony today - cross-wiring the central tabulator to a non-secure laptop owned by Sequoia Voting Systems, complete with cellular modem card in there and live.  And I couldn't get a picture.  Need a micro-cam of some sort to get the proof.  See also my affidavit filed with our attorney today.


Remember: by law, the central tabulator system on what's supposed to be an isolated local network is completely unpatched - it's not allowed to be modified in any way since the day it shipped in 2006 or 2007.  Even if the Sequoia tech didn't cross-connect the cellmodem to the Ethernet (and both appeared to be live), he could have easily "pwned" the "secure" systems with any number of ancient script-kiddy exploits.


---




	 
	
	 
	



DECLARATION
OF JAMES “JIM” MARCH

I,
JAMES “JIM” MARCH, hereby declare: 


	I
	make the following declaration.  I have personal knowledge of the
	matters set forth below, and, if called upon to do so, would testify
	competently thereto.






	I
	am an election observer in Maricopa County for the Maricopa County
	Libertarian Party, as is John Brakey.  Both Mr. Brakey and I are
	connected with AUDIT-AZ, a statewide organization that evaluates
	election security matters.  We have been observers in Maricopa
	County before under either the Maricopa County Democratic Party or
	Libertarian Party.  I am a computer systems tech and system
	administrator of many years experience and currently serve as the
	Libertarian Party appointee to the Pima County Election Integrity
	Commission, a body that advises the Pima County Board of Supervisors
	on election matters.  My efforts in Maricopa (and the contents of
	this declaration) are not connected to my service in that venue.






	On
	Aug. 23rd
	2010 myself and Mr. Brakey were observing the mail-in vote scanning
	process in Maricopa.  More or less immediately upon entry, I
	examined the central tabulator room, which political observers such
	as myself are not allowed to enter, however we can look through
	large glass windows.  I realized that a lot of the wiring on the
	other side of the room was visible, and I went to retrieve my pair
	of low-grade binoculars (8x21 magnification).






	Using
	the binoculars I began tracing wiring.  I noted that Ethernet wires
	going into the ceiling panels were unplugged to anything and coiled
	up in a distinctive pattern.  I noted that the similar wires
	dropping down to each large central count optical scanner station
	were similarly coiled, and assumed that those wires led off to each
	central count scanner (used for processing mail-in votes).  I knew
	from prior election cycles that on election night those would
	connect the central tabulator station (and possibly it’s backup
	secondary central system) to the scanners to take in the final tally
	of the mail-in votes.  I also noted the color of these cables that
	would connect to the central tabulator: blue.






	Using
	the binoculars I found another blue color cable of the same type
	leading off to the right.  I noted that there were only three
	computers in that direction: a standard touchscreen voting system
	which did not appear to have an Ethernet cable running to it.  Past
	that was a pair of computers all the way around and near the glass
	window – a desktop and a laptop.  I checked the desktop first –
	there was no Ethernet cable going into it.  I then examined the
	laptop, which was a fairly large IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad of an older
	vintage, possibly a T60 or similar.  It had a blue Ethernet cable
	plugged into it. Also present in the laptop was a cellular modem for
	the Sprint network, I suspect a Pantech model PX-500 based on the
	characteristic skinny antenna and curved visual element.  I have
	used cellular modems for many years on the Verizon and Tmobile
	networks and am very familiar with the technology and models.






	I
	can state without question that with that laptop connected to the
	central tabulator, a cross-connection can be made allowing the
	sharing of the cellular Internet connection to other computers the
	laptop is connected to over Ethernet – including but not limited
	to the central tabulator station.  This would provide a way of
	connecting the central tabulator to the Internet at the discretion
	of whoever was operating the laptop.






	I
	noted that somebody was sitting there working at the laptop at that
	moment.






	I
	asked the lead Maricopa County elections tech (John Stewart) who was
	working at that laptop and who owned it.  He replied that the laptop
	was owned by Sequoia Voting Systems, and that the operator was a
	Sequoia employee.  I explained that what I was seeing was a
	connection between the central tabulator (also known as an “Election
	Management System” or “EMS”) and the general internet, and
	that per my understanding of AZ law via statute and the Secretary of
	State’s current edition of the state-standard election processing
	manual (May 2010), this cross-connection is illegal.  He shrugged. 
	I asked him to look and see what was happening; he refused saying he
	“couldn’t get involved”.






	I
	asked John Brakey to examine what I was seeing.  Lacking binoculars
	he could not confirm the link back to the central tabulator but he
	did examine and point at the cellular modem and Ethernet connection
	at the same laptop.






	I
	then asked permission to retrieve a camera and photograph what I was
	seeing.  This was angrily denied.






	After
	leaving I voiced my concerns to Colleen Conner, who I am told is an
	attorney for the Maricopa Attorney’s Office specializing in
	election-related matters.  She told me I had been reported as being
	“disruptive” and threatened me with being evicted if I continued
	being “disruptive”.  In tones I would describe as “sneering”
	she told me to call the police and report a crime.






I
declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of
Arizona that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed
this 23rd day of May, 2010 at Phoenix, Arizona.


				

												

						James
“Jim” March



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