[Voterescue] VoteRescue makes local online news re: Commiss. Court!

[Vickie Karp]

  Thanks to Debbie Russell who sent this to Karen.  The heading makes
  it seem as if we (VR) filed the lawsuit, but the text clears that
  up.  We will be sending out an announcement in the next 24 hours as
  to whether we will be returning to Commissioner's Court next Tuesday
  or not.  If so, we'll need YOUR HELP!  We may need to wait just a bit
  longer (a week or two) to continue this effort for various reasons. 
  The Commissioners were very interested in hearing about the
  whistleblower lawsuit against Hart InterCivic. ~ Vickie

  FW: from In Fact Daily

  April 30, 2008


  County to check voting machines after group files suit

  By Kimberly Reeves

  County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir said she has no problem looking into the
  allegations raised about Hart Intercivic eSlate machines in a recent
  whistleblower’s lawsuit brought to the commissioners’ attention
  Tuesday morning by the group Vote Rescue.

  Not everyone may want to go as far as Vote Rescue would propose --
  designate the District Attorney to investigate the allegations;
  return the Hart Intercivic eSlate machines for refunds; and count the
  ballots by hand in November – but DeBeauvoir said she already has
  started a point-by-point checklist on those items that former Hart
  Intercivic employee William Singer raises in his lawsuit.

  “I don’t know that I have any comment on the validity or viability of
  the claims,” said DeBeauvoir, reached on Tuesday evening. “I’ve
  already read the lawsuit today, and I went through point-by-point and
  picked out all of the items they are concerned about and started a
  point-by-point checklist on each of those items. These are questions
  that needed to be raised, and we need to check them out.”

  According to Singer’s claims, Hart wanted a piece of the $4 billion
  pie created by the Help America Vote Act. Because of that greed,
  according to the lawsuit, Hart didn’t completely alpha test and
  didn’t beta test its software at all; it created dummy machines and
  dummy reports to pass certification in Ohio ; and that Hart hid
  software patches intended to cover up invalid entries to conceal
  design flaws from customers in Ohio .

  Vote Rescue founder Karen Renick, joined by Vote Rescue members
  Vickie Karp and Jenny Clark, told commissioners that Singer’s lawsuit
  certainly left room for reasonable doubt as to the reliability of the
  eSlate system. Renick said there was now abundant evidence that votes
  could now not be trusted to eSlate machines.

  “Travis County should close its purse strings to Hart Intercivic, set
  aside the machines and make plans to hand county the November
  elections,” Renick told commissioners, minus absent Judge Sam Biscoe.
  Commissioner Margaret Gomez ran in the meeting in Biscoe’s absence.

  During citizens’ communications, members of Vote Rescue focused on a
  hand-count of the November election but clearly the imminent
  situation is the May 10th Council election. DeBeauvoir said she had
  found nothing in the report that would raise a flag on the May
  election.

  Vote Rescue would be prefer to see hand ballots or an AccuMark system
  that marks paper ballots. That doesn’t seem imminent in Travis County
  , although DeBeauvoir promises a thorough review of the concerns over
  the eSlate.

  Clark, concluding testimony for the group, recommended a District
  Attorney’s investigation and hand-ballot counting. She noted that
  promises from Council Member Daryl Slusher were that the eSlate was a
  temporary, rather than a permanent, system.

  DeBeauvoir said she had received and read the lawsuit on Tuesday.
  Already, she had created a checklist of concerns, plus information
  that she had requested from Hart Intercivic. DeBeauvoir said she had
  worked closely with members of Vote Rescue and would continue to do
  so.

  “I think this is what they would expect me to do, and I do intend to
  check it out,” DeBeauvoir said. “It’s still very early in the
  process. We’re just beginning this.”
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