By BEV HARRIS, founder of BLACK BOX VOTING
Black Box Voting forums, archives, documents shut down through denial of service attacks; also, see below for update on current indictments and law enforcement investigations pertaining to the voting machine industry and a tampered election.
OLD SITE HACKED
The vast, carefully-organized, and important ten-year work product at BlackBoxVoting.org was attacked by an unprecedented and relentless wave of denial of service attacks this month. At this time, the entire body of work has become inaccessible to the public except for a few articles on the new home page.
I had the body of the website redesigned and transferred it to a new hosting company, and I am in the process of transferring all archived material from the old site, using backup files, to a new location.
I ask for your special support with a donation: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
It would be a great shame to lose all the wonderful work submitted by so many dedicated election integrity advocates, and it will be a significant undertaking to rebuild the site.
Black Box Voting depends needs, and tremendously appreciates your support: Black Box Voting: 330 SW 143rd St Suite K, PMB 547, Renton WA 98057
It has been 9 years since Black Box Voting was attacked to deny access to our material. Frankly, I'm surprised that it has happened again, amazed at the level of vigor and the evidence of wave after wave targeted specifically Black Box Voting files.
THE SILVER LINING
After some thought, I realized there is a silver lining in this. It provides an important opportunity to review and synthesize all the random material that has accumulated over the last 10 years at Black Box Voting, to make it easily understood, better organized, and more accessible. The body of work for each state, when transferred from my backup files to the new location, will now include a brief 1200-word summary with a drill-down menu linking to all other material.
I'd like for you to see an example. As of midnight tonight, as the New Year begins, I invite you to see what we are doing to help protect 2014 elections. Take a look at the first sample state here: http://blackboxvoting.org/reports/wyoming2014/
I think you'll agree that, together with the over 100 files from our extensive archive which support the analysis, it is a significant improvement over our previous information delivery.
Now, if you have information you feel is important for any state, please send it to me directly:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
-- The next state to go live at the new Black Box Voting will be Texas, followed by Florida and then Illinois. Each state features an identical format:
(a) Brief analysis synthesizing all available material for that location;
(b) Special areas of concern for 2014;
(c) Solutions and positive progress for that state;
(d) Past irregularities;
(e) Link to complete body of archived research for that location, drawn from backup files for the extensive Black Box Voting archives.
Every report now has drill-down links for vendors, key people by name, organizations, concepts, voting system types, costs, and so forth. A master index will soon help you find whatever you need. Timelines help provide visual representations of the erosion of transparency, as well as the courageous efforts by citizens to fight for these rights.
After Wyoming, Texas, Florida and Illinois, and based on the calendar of next upcoming elections, the analysis and full archive for your state will appear in the following order, based on upcoming primary election calendars:
District of Columbia; Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Alabama, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, Maine, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Colorado, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, Utah, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Washington, Tennessee, Hawaii, Connecticut, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Alaska, Arizona, Vermont, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island.
So please, if you have information you want to see included for your state, now is an excellent time to send it along!
WHO'S GETTING ARRESTED?
Well, Diebold, for one. Diebold has been charged with corruption and bribery.
Black Box Voting was approached a couple years ago by yet another Diebold whistleblower, this one an ex-employee with knowledge of false invoicing for voting machine procurement and training. So that you can recognize false invoicing schemes near you, if you see them, I have included more information on kickback laundering techniques here: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/money/
We're not the cops. I provided the information to the Dept. of Justice through an intermediary, a former US DoJ investigator who I believed would carry more weight than I. At my urging, the whistleblower also provided the information to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the agency that doled out the funds, though I am skeptical whether that accomplished anything. What happened next? Diebold contacted the whistleblower with an offer to "help" him -- my interpretation of that: pay him to shut up. I never heard from him again, but his information has been propagated to where it needs to go.
I am aware of another Dept. of Justice investigation now, specifically targeting invoice fraud for one of the major vendors. I am currently collecting documents to help investigators with that.
In a 2006 case, Black Box Voting reported on a cover-up in a murder investigation, combined with apparent election fraud for a county sheriff's race. Black Box Voting worked with local citizens to improve election monitoring in that location, and the sheriff later won his election in 2010; I was on site for that election and assisted in training a team of election watchers. The "new sheriff in town" reopened the murder investigation in 2011 after taking office, bringing in a cold case specialist. The arrest for the now-10-year-old murder case took place this year, announced in October 2013. I hope to attend the trial, and when that happens, I will have the freedom to report more explicitly on this.
Why so vague with the details on law enforcement investigations? Because writing about it just helps the perp take evasive action. Both the Diebold case and the murder case are currently pending in criminal courts.
As you know, we are a very small, but important organization. I thank you for your support over the years and look forward to even more effective action throughout 2014.
I hope you will continue to support Black Box Voting.
Bev Harris
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
