[Voterescue] Austin Plans 'Point-by-Point' Review of Hart InterCivic E-Vote System in Light of Federal Fraud Lawsuit

[Margaret]

VoteRescue's efforts highlighted on BradBlog!

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http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5957

Austin Plans 'Point-by-Point' Review of Hart InterCivic
E-Vote System in Light of Federal Fraud Lawsuit

>From Friday's Austin Chronicle:
County ClerkDana DeBeauvoir said she is committed to a point-by-point
review of the county's eSlate machines, in the wake of a federal
whistle-blower's lawsuit alleging that Hart InterCivic overpromised
and underdelivered on the machines. The organization Vote Rescue was
on hand at Tuesday's Commissioners Court meeting to provide copies of
Hart technician William Singer's lawsuit, which alleges that Hart
stretched reports of the performance of the eSlate in Ohio in order to
secure its share of the $4 billion set aside in the Help America Vote
Act. DeBeauvoir said she's not yet willing to pull the plug on the
machines but would if she found significant problems in light of the
lawsuit's allegations. Vote Rescue would prefer the county return its
machines and choose to count ballots by hand.
[http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A618823]


Singer's futile July 2004 efforts, attempting to notify the
Secretaries of State in both Texas and Ohio, were originally reported
in exclusive detail by The BRAD BLOG in March of 2006.

Following discussions we had with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after our
report, he and his radio co-host, Florida attorney Mike Papantonio,
filed a federal qui tam whistleblower suit [PDF] on behalf of Singer.

The complaint charges fraud and other violations of the False Claims
Act by Hart, including allegations the company failed to test its
products properly, and frequently at all; withheld information from
prospective clients about the potential loss of votes in its voting
systems; dummied-up machines, reports, and test results presented to
clients in sales presentations; and much more in an attempt to win
state and county contracts and the federal money that came with
them...

Singer's stunning suit was finally unsealed two years later by a
federal judge last March, after the U.S. Dept. of Justice finally
declined to join the suit.

Short of several excellent reports (see here and here) by Dan Campana
of the Beacon News, based in Kane County, IL (where they also use the
same, faulty Hart e-slate systems), there has been little coverage of
the suit, other than by The BRAD BLOG. But what else is news?

Vote Rescue, as mentioned in the Chronicle's coverage, is a
non-partisan Election Integrity organization based in Austin. In
addition to their on-the-ground EI efforts, the group has a two-hour
weekly Sunday radio program on We The People Radio, hosted by members
Vickie Karp and Karen Renick, featuring reporters (such as ourselves)
and other EI advocates and whistleblowers.

Hart is currently attempting a hostile take-over of competitor Sequoia
Voting Systems. Hanging in the balance, among other things, a new $100
million contract recently struck between Sequoia and New York state to
supply them with new optical-scan voting systems in time for this
November's general election.

So far, we've been unable to receive comment from NY authorities in
regard to any concerns they may have about doing business with Hart, a
company with a federal fraud lawsuit hanging over their head, instead
of Sequoia who they recently chose, instead of Hart, for their
massive, new state contracts.