BBV ALERT: Massachusetts, New England memory card custody issue

An alert Massachusetts citizen named Lisa asked her town elections official today what will happen to the Diebold voting machine memory cards after the election. The clerk replied that she will give the memory cards back to a private vendor, LHS Associates, the day after the election! The memory cards are the ballot box, in all New England voting machine locations. This is a very serious matter.

LHS Associates, from Methuen Mass., programs ALL the memory cards for Diebold systems in Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Maine. A member of the key management staff of LHS, Kenneth Hajjar, is a convicted narcotics trafficker. We have Hajjar's criminal record documents posted on our Web site. He is in charge of "sales and marketing" for elections for all of New England. In a radio interview, he admitted he drives around with memory cards in the trunk of his car. It is an unacceptable practice to have LHS controlling voting machine programming in New England, but it is outrageous that LHS is trying to collect its memory cards before the election is even canvassed or certified, not to mention before recount and contest periods have expired.

REMINDER: The New England "Protect the Count" actions are contained in this 8-minute video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV4M12w6tY4
The video above shows how to spot memory card tampering (when it is done clumsily; if done skillfully it leaves no trace). Capture the evidence.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT: Lisa called the Massachusetts Secretary of State, who informed her that it is ILLEGAL for towns to let LHS Associates take custody of the memory cards before 30 days has elapsed. Lisa's town clerk has now agreed not to let LHS do that.

WHAT TO DO: If you live in Massachusetts, place a call to your town clerk and ask what they are planning to do with their memory cards. If they say give them back to LHS report this to Black Box Voting and to hotlines like 1-866-OURVOTE and to the secretary of state, and tell the election official this is illegal unless they wait 30 days. If you live in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine or Connecticut, you may want to make some phone calls to ask about this.

WHAT BLACK BOX VOTING IS DOING: In addition to issuing a general alert, we are faxing every town clerk in Massachusetts to remind them that it is illegal to give their memory cards to LHS before 30 days has elapsed. This will be more effective if local citizens also call, because they'll know people are watching. No New England election official should give the memory cards back to LHS before canvassing, certification, recount and contest periods have expired!

LONG TERM: The situation with secret vote counting on computers programmed by LHS needs to be resolved. After Nov. 4.

Grab a buddy (because it's more fun that way), don't worry about blanketing every area or organizing the whole state. Just pick a place and do it. I guarantee it will be a fascinating and important experience and could provide crucial evidence.

Bev Harris
Founder - Black Box Voting
http://www.blackboxvoting.org