BeFreeNow

Death of a patriot: No more

Sun Mar 21 18:42:08 2004
64.140.158.142

Why this is significant is contained simply in this animation
http://www.markfiore.com/animation/voting.html  .
I hope that TruVote is able to continue Gibbs' work. For more on the electronic vote fraud issue go to Black Box Voting: Ballot - Tampering in the 21st Century .
-Frodo
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Death of a patriot: No more
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/853

March 17, 2004

The subject line on yesterday’s email read: “Another mysterious accident solves a Bush problem. Athan Gibbs dead, Diebold lives.” The attached news story briefly described the untimely Friday, March 12th death of perhaps America’s most influential advocate of a verified voting paper trail in the era of touch screen computer voting. Gibbs, an accountant for more than 30 years and the inventor of the TruVote www.truvote.com/ system, died when his vehicle collided with an 18- wheeled truck which rolled his Chevy Blazer several times and forced it over the highway retaining wall where it came to rest on its roof.

Coincidence theorists will simply dismiss the death of Gibbs as a tragic accident – the same conclusion these coincidence theorists came to when anti-nuclear activist Karen Silkwood died in November 1974 when her car struck a concrete embankment en route to a meeting with New York Times reporter David Burnham. Prominent independent investigators concluded that Silkwood’s car was hit from behind and forced off the road. Silkwood was reportedly carrying documents that would expose illegal activities at the Kerr-McGee nuclear fuel plant. The FBI report found that she fell asleep at the wheel after overdosing on Quaaludes and that there never were any such files. A journalist secretly employed by the FBI, and a veteran of the Bureau’s COINTELPRO operation against political activists, provided testimony for the FBI report.

Gibbs’ death bears heightened scrutiny because of the way he lived his life after the 2000 Florida election debacle. I interviewed Athan Gibbs in January of this year. “I’ve been an accountant, an auditor, for more than thirty years. Electronic voting machines that don’t supply a paper trail go against every principle of accounting and auditing that’s being taught in American business schools,” he insisted.

“These machines are set up to provide paper trails. No business in America would buy a machine that didn’t provide a paper trail to audit and verify its transaction. Now, they want the people to purchase machines that you can’t audit? It’s absurd.”

Gibbs was in Columbus, Ohio proudly displaying his TruVote machine that offered a “VVPAT, that’s a voter verified paper audit trail” he noted.

The TruVote System

Gibbs also suggested that I look into the “people behind the other machines.” He offered that “Diebold and ES&S are real interesting and all Republicans. If you’re an investigative reporter go ahead and investigate. You’ll find some interesting material.”

Gibbs’ TruVote machine is a marvel. After voters touch the screen, a paper ballot prints out under plexiglass and once the voter compares it to his actual vote and approves it, the ballot drops into a lockbox and is issued a numbered receipt. The voter’s receipt allows the track his particular vote to make sure that it was transferred from the polling place to the election tabulation center.

My encounter with Gibbs led to a cover story in the Columbus Free Press March-April issue, entitled, “Diebold, electronic voting and the vast right-wing conspiracy.” The thesis I advanced in the Free Press article http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/834  is that some of the same right-wing individuals who backed the CIA’s covert actions and overthrowing of democratic elections in the Third World in the 1980s are now involved in privatized touch screen voting. Additionally I co-wrote an article with Harvey Wasserman that was posted at MotherJones.com http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html  on March 5, 2004. Both articles outlined ties between far right elements of the Republican Party and Diebold and ES&S, which count the majority of the nation’s electronic votes.

As I wrote in the Free Press article, “Proponents of a paper trail were emboldened when Athan Gibbs, President and CEO of TruVote International, demonstrated a voting machine at a vendor’s fair in Columbus that provides two separate voting receipts.”

In an interview on WVKO radio, Gibbs calmly and methodically explained the dangers of “black box” touch screen voting. “It absolutely makes no sense to buy electronic voting machines that can’t produce a paper trail. Inevitably, computers mess up. How are you going to have a recount, or correct malfunctions without a paper trail?

Now, the man asking the obvious question, and demonstrating an obvious tangible solution is dead in another tragic accident, a week after both articles were in circulation.

When I called TruVote International to verify Gibbs’ death, I reached Chief Financial Officer Adrenne Brandon who assured me “We’re going on in his memory. We’re going to make this happen.”

Every American concerned with democracy should pledge to make this happen. To beat back the rush for state governments to purchase privatized, partisan and unreliable electronic voting machines without verified paper trails.

Gibbs’ last words to me were “How do you explain what happened to Senator Max Cleland in Georgia. How do you explain that? The Maryland study and the Johns Hopkins scientists have warned us against ‘blind faith voting.’ These systems can be hacked into. They found patches in Georgia and the people servicing the machine had entered the machines during the voting process. How can we the people accept this? No more blind faith voting.”

Dr. Bob Fitrakis is Senior Editor of The Free Press http://freepress.org , a political science professor, and author of numerous articles and books.

Additional articles...

Nashville based company TRUVOTE GOES TO CALIFORNIA
http://www.thetennesseetribune.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=36271&sID=4

By: Staff Reports
Tennessee Tribune
Originally posted 12/16/2003

TruVote’s Voter Validation and Verification system answers and exceeds California Secretary of State’s call for new voter verifiable paper audit trial.

The system designer and TruVote President Athan Gibbs, Sr. recently demonstrated the revolutionary groundbreaking voting system to state and county elections officials in Sacramento, California.

The Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) was developed to protect the integrity of elections and to restore voter confidence in the electoral process. The demonstrations of TruVote’s system was given to the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials meeting. at the Hyatt Regency in Sacramento.

Gibbs, an accountant / auditor with 30 years auditing experience, pioneered and developed the TruVote Voter Validation and Verification system beginning in December 2000 after the November election and in early 2001. It was the first voter verifiable paper trail “self audit” methodology developed for Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting systems. TruVote’s DRE system utilizes touch-screen technology in the ballot booth.

On May 10, 2001 the Tennessee General Assembly and its Governor presented Gibbs with a Joint Resolution honoring and congratulating him on the development of the TruVote Voter Validation and Verification system.

The House and Senate Joint Resolution No. 332, reads,” ...Mr. Gibbs is the designer of the TruVote Voter Validation System, a tool that assures voters that their votes have been correctly cast and counted, while protecting against vote tampering: his remarkable system eliminates the likelihood of voter mistakes, vote exclusion, vote addition and vote switch. “

The NBC of State Legislators, members from 36 states, meeting in Atlanta in November 2001 was given a demonstration of the TruVote System and its Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Receipt features. NBC of SL unanimously adopted model state legislation on election reform, “Resolution 02-06” which would require among other things that all new voting systems provide a paper receipt. Members pledged to introduce this model legislation in their respective states. California and Illinois are the first two states to require all voting systems to provide a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trials (paper receipts).

A current bill in congress H. R 2239 sponsored by Representative Rush Holt of New Jersey would require all new voting systems to produce a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (paper receipt). The bill is gaining support both in congress and at the grassroots level.

Gibbs’ concern for the inadequacies of our elections system led him to design the TruVote system. His determination, coupled with his auditing background enabled him to create a system that provides an audit trail and gives each voter the ability to audit his or her own ballot. At the same time, the voter’s absolute anonymity and confidentiality is maintained.

Florida state senator, Tony Hill, after reviewing the system stated, “ The TruVote System stands head and shoulders above all of the voting systems that I have seen and I think I’ve seen them all.”

Alabama State Senator Charles Steel stated: “ once the American voters from any and all political persuasions, know that a system such as this exist, they will demand nothing less than a True Vote. We need to get this voting system before the court of “American Public Opinion “ as soon as possible. All voters need to see this self- auditing voting system that issues a receipt. —- “We get a receipt for all other transactions.”

“The paper trail serves three purposes,” Gibbs explained. “First, It provides a means to verify that the DRE voting system is accurately recording the voters’ intent. Secondly, it provides a means to manually recount votes in close elections. Thirdly, it gives voters confidence that their votes are being recorded and reported as they intended. The VVPAT eliminates blind faith voting.

On November 21, California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley announced that all touch-screen voting systems used in California after July 2006 must have a VVPAT.

“As the state progresses with new technology, all
Californians must have confidence that every vote cast is a vote counted,” stated Shelley. “ These new requirements will provide this confidence.”

In a letter to Ann Reed, president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials, Shelley informed the group of his decision. I am requiring that as of July 1, 2005, all local jurisdictions acquiring new DRE voting systems may only purchase certified DRE voting systems that contain a VVPAT feature which is fully accessible and allows every voter-including disabled voters and those speaking English as a second language-to vote privately and independently. Accessible means that the information provided on the paper printout from the VVPAT mechanism is provided or conveyed to voters via a non-visual method, such as through an audio component,” Shelley wrote in his letter. “As of July 1, 2006, DRE systems already in use on that date will have to be replaced or modified to incorporate an accessible VVPAT feature, if they do not already contain one,” he explained.

TruVote has an alliance with Microsoft and is currently in discussion with major systems integrators and others to quickly bring the TruVote system to market.
Some experts in the election industry hailed the TruVote System as the voting system of the future. It has been called the most comprehensive, yet simplistic voting system on the market.

John Seigenthaler, Sr, a member of the National Commission on Election Reform (headed by former U. S. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford), stated after reviewing the TruVote system: “You guys could set the standard for voting in America.”

Black Enterprise Magazine, in its April 2002 issue reporting on its conference with Microsoft featured The TruVote Voting system as: “The Technology To Watch”.

The TruVote system is federally certified and is also certified in Arkansas, Ohio and has been deemed qualified in Mississippi. The system uses commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware that is readily available, which increases speed to market.

The TruVote software developers, working with cryptology consultants have addressed all of the security issues raised by the John Hopkins University Report on voting systems’ security.


Microsoft and TruVote Form A Strategic Alliance

http://www.thetennesseetribune.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=27097&sID=13

By: Staff Reports
Tennessee Tribune
Originally posted 5/22/2003

After several months of persistence and consistent demonstrations, media attention, government meetings, TruVote, an African-American company owned by Nashvillian, Athan Gibbs, has finally crossed over into the final stages of assuring success.

Microsoft has formed a strategic alliance with TruVote to assure the success of this new innovative, audit proof product. TruVote is now being acknowledged by many Election Commission leaders in the country, as the best and most comprehensive auditing system ever built to cast any vote in this world.

Recently, Black Enterprise Magazine hosted this years Corporate & Executive Leaders Conference, which was sponsored by Microsoft Corporation. This year Microsoft agreed to form a strategic alliance with one of Nashville Business owners and new inventor, Athan Gibbs, President & CEO of TRUVOTE. TruVote is the only company from Tennessee to receive such support. To show support and commitment to the success of this project, Microsoft featured TruVote in their booth during the conference.

During this conference, many Nashville government officials publicly recognized TruVote as the proud company from Nashville, Tennessee that has created the best solution to an age old problem of casting and tallying votes.

TruVote is the only voting software that is completely built on Microsoft.

Microsoft has tested the product thoroughly and has allowed a team of employees from TruVote to come into their technical lab to test the product. In order for any person to come into the testing lab of Microsoft it would cost thousands of dollars per person. However, because of the astounding and creative product that has been invented by Athan Gibbs/TruVote, Microsoft waved all the fees for the testing. Microsoft also has formed this strategic alliance to assure its success.

This strategic alliance allows the TruVote team technical support needed from Microsoft to understand how to further utilize the space on the software, to assist in marketing the product to government officials where needed, for the Sales team of Microsoft to meet with customers purchasing the product to show how to maximize the use and understanding of the product, and it brings validity of Microsoft commitment to its diversity program.

A team of Microsoft executives have traveled with TruVote around the country during the demonstrations.

Sales representatives from Microsoft will be able to offer this new innovative product to all State and Local government officials. Microsoft is committed to the success of TruVote.

Now that Congress has passed the $3.9 billion Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in December, 2002 and President Bush has signed the bill in February 2003, each state is now in the position to financially correct the voting problems created by the last major election in this country.

TruVote, which has completed its Federal Certification is in the best seat to answer the voting problems in this country. The timing on this strategic alliance with Microsoft is icing on the cake needed to assure success.

Truvote Founder, Athan Gibbs, killed in an auto accident
http://www.thetennesseetribune.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=40618&sID=4

By: Ronald Weathersby Tennessee Tribune
3/19/2004

NASHVILLE, Tenn. —- Music City was stunned last weekend when it learned that Athan Lee Gibbs, Sr. founder of TruVote International was killed in a two-vehicle collision on 1-65 near Metro Cen

• ANOTHER "REAL" PATRIOT DEAD — RESEARCHER, Sun Mar 21 18:56
• [REPOST] Did Operation Ringwind, X - Quig — Anonymous, Sun Mar 21 19:03
• Truvote Founder, Athan Gibbs, killed in an auto accident — RESEARCHER, Sun Mar 21 18:46
• ...and when I die? — A Patriot, Sun Mar 21 19:18