Thanks to a great organization, BlackBoxVoting.org,
and other great sites information is breaking out about the great American
Patriot from Emery County, Utah, Bruce Funk. Funk found the Diebold
machines put into his care to be faulty, and brought in a third party
to check them out, finding them to be frought with problems. This has
brought down the wrath of the establishment in Utah against him, and
where is the Utah Media? Silent. Silent on critical issues.
Awake and Arise.org believes that we are in a deadly battle where traitors
from within are working to "overthrow the freedom of all lands,
nations, and countries." We beleive that as Ezra Taft Benson warned
"the strings of tyranny" will be put upon this people, he
stated:
"...the strings of tyranny [will] gradually and quietly entangle
us until, like Gulliver, we awake too late and find that while we
could have broken each string separately as it was put upon us, our
sleepiness permitted enough strings to bind us to make a rope that
enslaves us."
When the LDS people, coming from their lands in Illinois and Missouri,
where there was even an "extermination order" put out on them---when
they were driven out of the United States borders in the 1840's into
a wasteland frontier (Trapper Jim Bridger offered big money for the
first bushel of grain raised in Utah, not believing that the untried
soils and desert climate would provide any sustainability") ---yes,
at this time, after these pioneers of the "Mormon" faith came
to establish their religion free of strife and termoil, one who they
sustained as a Prophet, Seer and Revelator, President Heber C. Kimball,
counselor to Brigham Young stated prophetically something that most
back at the time would have found utterly fantastic to consider:
Yes, we think we are secure here in the chambers of these everlasting
hills . . . but I want to say to you, my brethren, the time is coming
when we will be mixed up in these now peaceful valleys to that extent
that it will be difficult to tell the face of a Saint from the face
of an enemy against the people of God. Then is the time to look out
for the great sieve, for there will be a great sifting time, and many
will fall. For I say unto you there is a test, a Test, a TEST coming.”
(Heber C. Kimball, 1856. Quoted by J. Golden Kimball, Conference Report,
October1930, pp. 59-60.)
Utahan's feel of this today. There are tests, and the power players
in the State of Utah are flunking, as they stand behind measures which
are dangerous to the protection of liberties in our once free Republic.
We get involved and sense traitors masquerading under guise of our own
religion, people who work treason. This voting scam is but one example
of what has been done, that the Utah Legislature caved to dark, perverse,
powers from the Federal level and spent $22,000,000.00 to bring in faulting
voting fraud machines to replace a perfectly viable system that worked
WITH A PAPER TRAIL. Yes, in Utah we've seen this damnable purchase of
these fraud machines, and the same takes place nationwide.
Utah's former Governor, Michael O. Leavitt, a traitor, sold out the
people of the State of Utah, and he knows what "high political
appointments" may come to those who willing to betray their oath
of office and do the bidding of the rising Federal Fascist government.
Micheal Leavitte, former Governor turned over information on every person
in the State of Utah to a huge database, called the MATRIX, and this
he did with funding given him (or might we call it a bribe) from the
Executive Branch of the Federal Government. After this occured, he won
political appointment to the Cabinet of George W. Bush.
Awake and Arise believes that we have traitors in Utah State Government
who work to undermine liberty, not to mention their devotion to the
dirty "oath bound" organizations which have near total management
of the National Government.
To listen to a radio show of Bruce Funk, please click here.
Here are excerpts from articles from Blackboxvoting.org
as well as which give details to this tyranny, Treasonous behavior from
the highest levels of Utah State Government, in the Executive and Legislative
Branches. They know who they are, and they should beware of the eternal
damnation that will be there unless they repent, if they choose to number
themselves with the secret bands who "conspire to overthrow freedom
and the US Constitution."
County
clerk refuses to conduct election with Diebold machines
By PATSY STODDARD
Editor
What started as a routine Emery County Commission meeting on March
21 ended in a flash of anger from Bruce Funk, Emery County Clerk. The
drama began last November when the Emery County Commission approved
the use of Diebold Election voting machines. The state of Utah voted
to use the Diebold as the machine of choice statewide. The state agreed
to foot the bill for the purchase of the machines for the counties.
Emery County took delivery of the Diebold machines on Dec. 27, 2005.
At the Feb. 7 commission meeting, Funk reported to the commission on
the testing of the Diebold election machines with Diebold personnel.
At that time he reported that six of 40 machines had failed and two
of those had been repaired and the other four sent back to Diebold.
Funk said the state was supposed to have tested the machines before
sending them to the county. Bad batteries and jammed printers as well
as machines with old elections stored on them were among the problems
cited. The state was supposed to send new machines to the county.
During the citizen concerns portion of the meeting on March 21, Funk
presented new information regarding the machines. He said as the county
clerk it is his duty and responsibility to make recommendations to the
commission and that is not an easy task. During the past year he has
done a lot of research regarding the Diebold machines. He was willing
to be part of the plan if the technology was good for Emery County.
He said on Jan. 31 Diebold sent four people down to do the testing
of the Emery County machines. Of the 40 machines tested, Funk rejected
six machines. Diebold repaired two machines on site and took four machines
back with them. With one of the machines the paper track was off which
causes paper jams.
Funk said he took one of the machines to the clerk’s office so
his staff could become familiar with the machine. This machine was among
the ones rejected. Funk also said with the machines being unplugged
for two weeks, he wanted to check the battery capacity of each machine
and also check the paper feature to make sure it was working properly.
He completed this process on 36 machines. Also he checked the machines
for backup storage. Some of the machines contained seven megabytes of
backup storage. The machines should hold between 25-28 megabytes of
storage. Seven of the machines had eight megabytes of storage or less.
Jeff Guymon, technology technician for the county checked the machines
and cleared out past elections and increased the storage space from
seven to 11 megabytes.
Funk was concerned about the past elections being on the machines,
which he said proved the machines are not new.
Funk said he has talked to many organizations who have concerns about
the Diebold election machines. He has read the reports of what happened
in Florida. He was in contact with Black Box voting and brought in technical
experts to assess the machines and reach determinations as to the accuracy
of the Diebold machines.
Funk also told of a report from California called the Berkley report
where in looking at the software no problems presented themselves, but
when they looked at the hardware there were problems.
One of Funk’s main concerns was whether the operating system
can be breached and tampered with which destroys the integrity of the
election. Reports allege that the systems are not tamper proof.
Voters are issued a voter identification card which is inserted into
the election machine. If someone were to illegally insert a voter identification
card of their own making a virus could be introduced to the machine
and machine results could be altered or destroyed.
Funk made the recommendation that the county conduct the next election
with the optically scanned ballots they have used in the past and order
nine AutoMark machines for the handicapped which would meet HAVA requirements
for handicapped voters. The cost of the nine machines would be approximately
$44,000, which Funk said he has available in his budget and would include
a five year lease/purchase agreement.
“I don’t feel comfortable with the machines,” said
Funk. Funk said he would not accept or use the Diebold machines as the
election official for the county. The ballot provider who has been used
in the past said they can’t provide the ballots for Diebold machines.
Funk said he doesn’t blame Diebold for the deficiencies, but
rather the state for the mandate they have placed on the counties.
Commissioner Ira Hatch said if the county is not HAVA compliant then
it risks being sued. Funk said with the AutoMark machines for the handicapped
it would bring the county into compliance.
Commissioner Hatch said, “If the machines didn’t measure
up, did you send them back.”
Funk said two of the four had been returned to Diebold. He feels he
has eight questionable machines.
Commissioner Hatch asked again if Diebold had the chance to fix the
machines. Funk said no. Funk replied that he is not accepting the machines
as official for Emery County.
Commissioner Hatch said, “Have you given Diebold the opportunity
to fix the machines? If we don’t have enough machines to run the
election we will have to contact Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert.”
Commissioner Gary Kofford wondered if the county is required in the
contract to use the Diebold machines in the election. County Attorney
David Blackwell was given the assignment to review the contract with
the state to see what obligations the county is under in regards to
the election machines.
Commissioner Kofford said he too thinks Diebold needs the opportunity
to fix the machines and satisfy the problems. He said he had been keeping
track of the machines Funk said had problems and calculated 13 machines
which Clerk Funk wouldn’t accept. Funk said he would not accept
any of the voting machines.
Commissioner Hatch said he thought the machines needed to be given
a try. How can the county approach the state about problems with the
machines without giving them a try?
Commissioner Drew Sitterud said he had attended a large voting machine
testing event and at this event the Diebold people packed a machine
out, but the AutoMark machine also had a failed machine which was packed
out. Also when the Diebold machine crashed, not one vote was lost.
Funk said the opportunity to purchase the AutoMark machines would be
lost if they weren’t purchased that day as AutoMark has oversold
their machines.
Commissioner Hatch wondered what is acceptable memory space to hold
an election. Funk didn’t know that answer. Diebold will have to
answer those questions.
Commissioner Kofford said training is needed for the loading of the
machines for an election. This program training will be held in June
and July. A different corporation does the training on the voice activated
machines. It is 90 days to the first election and Emery County is not
trained. Three or four people are going for training in the next week
or so for three-four days. The election judges need to be trained. The
question was raised if current election judges are capable of the training
involved. Commissioner Kofford wondered how far the trained people can
be stretched on election day with machines in nine locations. He also
thinks the state hasn’t addressed a lot of the questions involving
the machines.
Commissioner Sitterud said that Diebold personnel were going to be
here for the primary elections.
Attorney Blackwell said he felt Funk had tapped into a group, Black
Box Voting, that’s anti-electronic voting in general. Diebold
needs to address and answer questions. “You’ve pushed the
commissioners into a corner and it’s not fair to them. We’ve
not heard the other side,” said Blackwell. Funk said that as the
election official who runs the election, he is overwhelmed. He questioned
Blackwell, “As county attorney representing all of us, am I wrong
in what I’m requesting.”
Blackwell said he’s not sure it’s reasonable because, Funk
has not given Diebold or the Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, a chance to fix
the problem.
Sheriff Lamar Guymon said, “I cannot believe that with knowing
how Bruce Funk feels about the Diebold machines, that Lt. Gov. Herbert
would send defective old, used machines, I just can’t believe
that Lt. Gov. Herbert would send any faulty machines to the county.
Lt. Gov. Herbert has promised to have people available to help with
the election.”
Commissioner Hatch said that they need to get Diebold down here to
explain and deal with the problems. He then called for action on the
item brought up by Funk on purchasing the AutoMark machines. None of
the commissioners made a motion to take action on the item.
Later on in the meeting, Funk came back before the commissioners and
said he was turning over stewardship of the Diebold voting machines
to the commissioners. He gave them the key to the courtroom where the
machines are currently being stored. He said he would prefer not to
be involved in any dealings with Diebold in the future because of his
hostile feelings and he can’t be positive. Commissioner Hatch
said they needed the information about each of the machines provided
to them, so they can meet with Diebold concerning the faulty machines.
Commissioner Hatch said the key to the room where the machines are stored
will be locked in the safe. Commissioner Hatch said that Funk as the
county election official can’t just walk out on the election.
Editors note: In speaking with clerk Funk on Friday, he said he didn’t
want stewardship over the machines and that is why he turned the key
back to them. He has given the commissioners a letter since then explaining
what he feels is wrong with the machines. He suggested they could use
some of the Diebold machines to meet the HAVA requirements and still
use the optically scanned method. He feels the training is overwhelming
and the optical scanned method is so much easier. He feels he is just
a messenger to get possible problems with the machines addressed. Funk
feels he is within his rights as the official county election clerk
to have the machines tested. The commissioners weren’t aware that
any testing was going on, but Commissioner Sitterud came upon two women
in the storage room with their computers hooked up to the county’s
election machines. Funk also transported two of the machines to Salt
Lake where they were tested by personnel from Security Innovations Inc.
Their personnel were only available for one day so Funk made the call
to transport two of the county machines to be tested. Black Box Voting
videotaped the testing session. The report from these testing sessions
is due out in two-three weeks. Funk stated that the Utah Diebold company
has been excellent to work with. Funk feels it is essential to get the
report out from the independent testing to confirm or deny any problems
with the machines. Funk said he has not cared to talk to Lt. Gov. Herbert
about the situation as he feels Herbert is too close to the election
process. Funk said he feels totally comfortable with what he’s
done and he has offered to pay for any damages he may have caused. “I
have every right to check the machines if I have concerns,” Funk
said. He wants to know what any problems are before an election. He
said the training for the Diebold machines is so overwhelming. Funk
is proud of his track record as the election official and has been conducting
the elections in the county for the past 23 years. He said he has nothing
political to gain in the next election as he is not running for office
again. He feels he has conducted the elections with high integrity and
security controls in place through the years. He feels they are in a
tight spot with getting the proper training to operate the Diebold machines
and then training the election judges.
The money Funk proposed to use to purchase the AutoMark machines was
put into his budget for the operations of the 2006 election.
Commissioner Kofford said the extra money was put into the budget because
it is the first year with the Diebold machines and they weren’t
sure of the associated costs with the new election machines.
In an interview with Lt. Governor Gary Herbert he expressed concern
about the confidence the Emery County people have in the election process.
In light of recent allegations from County Clerk Bruce Funk about the
reliability and integrity of the Diebold machines, Lt. Gov. Herbert
is very distressed about Clerk Funk’s recent actions.
“The Emery County Commissioners made the decision to be part
of the statewide system. Mr. Funk didn’t like the brand change
and he is angry with the commission who decided to go with the new touch
screens. There are people out there who think anything electronic is
the devil’s tool and that outcomes of elections are in jeopardy.
They have a conspiracy theory. They don’t like the technology,
they don’t like the brand. They think Diebold is a Republican
tool and how George Bush got elected.
“Diebold is a very good company. We have had no problems with
them in the other 28 counties. There have been some hiccups and it is
a learning process. We have a transition help desk with highly trained
people working there. We have weekly conference calls and updates. Never,
not one time were we contacted by Bruce Funk. It is distressing he hasn’t
called with a question. Lt. Gov. Herbert said they wanted to also have
a paper trail in addition to the electronically counted vote and the
Diebold machines also have the votes recorded on paper. The person using
the machine can check to make sure their vote is recorded according
to their wishes before they submit the ballot. Any system is not perfect
any computer can be hacked into, but the election machines are to be
kept in a secure double locked room.
“The integrity of any election system is dependent on the integrity
of the Clerk’s office involved.The sky is falling mentality and
the scare tactics of some of these websites involve people with their
own agenda and Mr. Funk has bought into these conspiratorial attitudes.
“We cannot trust the election machines that have been tampered
with. They will all need to be recalibrated and tested. These Diebold
machines were all under warranty. Diebold would fix any defect or replace
the machine under warranty. But we didn’t receive not one call
involving any defective machines from Mr. Funk,” said Lt. Gov.
Herbert.
A special commission meeting was held on March 27 where the whole election
issue was discussed. Emery County Clerk Bruce Funk resigned his office.
More details will be in the April 4 issue of the Emery County Progress.
The
above Article was taken from www.ecprogress.com
------------------------------------------------------------
Black Box Voting : From BBV: Touch-screens fails security
test;
Diebold retaliates
------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by Bev Harris on Friday, May 05, 2006 - 08:52 pm:
This week, the state of Pennsylvania sequestered all Diebold
touch-screens to implement an emergency security measure. Several
more
states are expected to follow Pennsylvania.
The state of Utah has known that a critical security risk exists
in
its Diebold TSx touch-screens, but chose to punish the courageous
public official responsible for identifying the defect instead of
taking any efforts to learn what the problem is and correct it.
Below is an excerpt from a security alert faxed to the Utah Lt.
Governor, state elections director, Emery County attorney and Emery
County commissioners on March 24.
SHOOT THE MESSENGER
Utah officials ignored the warning entirely, and instead flew Diebold
attorneys to Emery County on the governor's airplane, where the
Diebold lawyers were allowed to sit into a private executive session.
In this session, a decision appears to have been made to block Emery
County Elections director Bruce Funk from executing his duties.
In Utah, the law requires that any employment decision be publicly
noticed (it was not) and the county attorney is the designated counsel
for county elections officials (County Attorney David Blackwell chose
to side with Diebold against Bruce Funk). According to a tape
recording of the public portion of the meeting, Bruce Funk repeatedly
requested an attorney, but this was denied to him.
Funk was an eye witness to the security testing by Harri Hursti and
Security Innovation, Inc. He knew first-hand that the machines
represented a significant security risk. County commissioners told
him
he was going to be required to use the machines anyway, Diebold
refused to provide a letter in writing indicating that machines it
sold weren't used or loaded with inappropriate software; Diebold then
told Emery County that it was going to cost $40,000 to check over
the
machines (the Diebold contract limits them to charging just over $1200
per day, Emery County has just 40 machines, and re-flashing all
machines with a new system takes no more than 10 minutes per machine).
Funk was told that he would not be permitted to watch Diebold
technicians work on the machines, and they had already "visited"
his
machines while he was out of town for a day.
LEGAL ISSUES
Because Funk was denied a lawyer, he didn't know that a little-known
1929 law in Utah was sometimes used by public officials to browbeat
each other out of office. If certain public officials gang up and
intimidate another public official, threatening punitive measures
and
dire consequences, urging resignation, if the targeted official
tenders even a tentative and conditional resignation, under some
interpretations that is held to stick. Diebold and the county
succeeded in browbeating Funk into temporary submission; he quickly
notified them in writing that he had no intention of resigning, so
they locked him out of his office.
Black Box Voting has assisted Funk in securing qualified legal counsel
and is underwriting the public policy legal actions to defend Funk
against Diebold's actions -- ironically, with Diebold's own money,
won
in a Diebold false claims suit in California. A $76,000 fee was paid
to Black Box Voting founder Bev Harris, and was subsequently
contributed as a restricted donation for public interest litigation.
The Diebold money is now helping support the fight by whistleblower
Stephen Heller, who is facing retaliatory action by Diebold's
attorneys. Diebold false claim funds are also underwriting legal
actions to help Bruce Funk fight Diebold's retaliation.
In Funk's case, the lack of public notice and failure to put his
employment matter on the agenda likely outweighs the 1929 law, as
does
the county's refusal to provide him with counsel, failure to allow
him
to sit in on the private meeting with Diebold lawyers concerning his
employment, and insistence that he take responsibility for elections
held on machines he knew to be insecure.
To date, Emery County has refused to provide Funk with either a
transcript or a tape or their behind-closed-doors meeting with Diebold
attorneys.
DIEBOLD'S BEHAVIOR WAS EVEN MORE PROBLEMATIC
Experts for the state of California and the state of Pennsylvanie
have
now confirmed the seriousness of the vulnerabilities discovered in
Emery County. Diebold was cornered by Pennsylvania voting system
examiner Michael Shamos, and was given the choice of telling the truth
or lying. Shamos had already sequestered one of the machines and was
prepared to examine it himself it Diebold lied. Only after this did
Diebold admit to knowing about the security vulnerability, which is
designed into the system.
Black Box Voting is completing reports with Harri Hursti and
subsequently with Security Innovation (which will serve as peer review
for Hursti Report II). The Hursti Report on findings from Emery County
will detail multiple back doors built into the system. This report
will be released to the public in redacted form on May 10. The
unredacted version will be provided to federal and state regulators,
including the Dept. of Homeland Security's "CERT" alert
system.
LETTER TO UTAH OFFICIALS
Here is a quote from the preliminary information which Utah officials
chose to ignore (except for locking Mr. Funk out of his office):
-------------------------------------------------quote:
To: Gary Herbert, Lt. Governor of the state of Utah
Cc: David Blackwell, Emery County Attorney
Bruce Funk, Emery County Elections
Emery County Commissioners
Michael Cragun, Utah State Elections Director
Mar. 24, 2006
Dear Sirs,
This is a formal notification that a security defect was found
in the
Diebold TSx system in Emery County, Utah by professional security
experts from Security Innovation, Inc. and Mr. Harri Hursti. Because
of the severity of the defects, the formal reports are being prepared
with sufficient precision to garner the attention of the appropriate
authorities with jurisdiction over this matter. These authorities,
of
course, include each of you who are receiving this notice, in addition
to federal authorities in the general area of computer security.
...
The security problems found in Emery County present potentially
catastrophic security defects for upcoming elections. The issue
extends outside of Emery County to additional states. The identified
security vulnerability appears to be:
1) Persistent, with the ability to survive through multiple elections;
2) Difficult to detect, not only for elections official but also
for
security experts and even for Diebold technicians;
3) Flexible, in that the exploit can selectively affect any particular
election, candidate or ballot question;
4) Accessible, in that no password, supervisor access or special
equipment is needed to invoke the exploit;
5) Difficult to eradicate with any patch, reinstallation, or cleaning
procedure;
6) Likely to be exploited, because the skills needed to exploit
the
hole are possessed by many programmers and the information needed
to
conduct the exploit is generally available to the public. The time
needed to exploit the security hole is in the range of a week's
planning time and 60 seconds for execution.
-------------------------------------------------
A PATTERN OF SECURITY FAILURES
The testing in Emery County follows another set of tests by Black
Box
Voting in Leon County, Florida, which documented security flaws in
the
GEMS central tabulator and the Diebold AccuVote optical scan system.
A PATTERN OF RETALIATION BY DIEBOLD
Like Bruce Funk, Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho faced
retaliation by Diebold and other voting companies. Diebold refused
to
honor its contract with Sancho, forcing him out of HAVA compliance.
The only other authorized vendors then blackballed Sancho, refusing
to
sell to him.
The Florida Attorney General is now investigating Diebold, ES&S
and
Sequoia for collusion and antitrust violations.
Diebold has also been participating in orchestrated smear campaigns
against Black Box Voting and its founder, Bev Harris, using fake
Internet "screen names," identity theft (posing as board
members of
Black Box Voting to post defamation), organizing fake news Web sites
smearing election integrity advocates in general and Black Box
Voting/Bev Harris specifically. Some Diebold employees tag-team with
the Diebold smear squad to point elections officials toward the
cyberlibel. The Diebold Internet smear squad also includes an
individual from North Carolina.
Black Box Voting, together with a team of volunteer researchers,
has
now obtained documents and photographs which directly tie these Internet
libel campaigns to Diebold. A more detailed article on the
Diebold Internet smearing, accompanied by documents and photographs,
will be published here after the dust has settled on the Diebold
touch-screen security failures.
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