Caught in a Lie: Using Uncertified Voting Systems

The Kentucky Attorney General, Greg Stumbo, has announced that during their investigation of the state's voting system usage, as reported several weeks ago by The BRAD BLOG, a suprising result has been discovered.

Just prior to the AG's investigation, Diebold Elections Systems, Inc. (now re-named Premier Election Solutions) sent a letter to Jefferson County, KY election officials to tell them that they had been using an uncertified voting system for the last three elections.

At the beginning of the investigation Stumbo had contacted the Secretary of State, Republican Trey Grayson who is rumored, like Stumbo, to be a Gubernatorial candidate. SoS Grayson assured him that only certified systems were being used in the state.

Grayson was wrong...

As reported in today's All-American Patriots Stumbo had asked Grayson, on August 7, to confirm that all voting systems used in the state were certified for use by the state. In response to that request Grayson had said responded, "All systems in use in Kentucky today were unanimously certified by the State Board of Elections pursuant to KRS 117.379 and comply with the federal voting system guidelines in place at the time of certification."

On August 27, Diebold/Premier Election Systems notified Jefferson County, the most populous county in the state, that they had been using an uncertified voting system for the past three elections at least.

This letter has led to a letter from the AG who is now demanding answers from the SOS after the Secretary lied to him.

• 1. When did the state Board of Election and/or your office first become aware of the lack of certification for the Jefferson County electronic voting system?
  
• 2. How is it possible that the Accu Vote Optical Scan (“OS”) units sold and deployed in Jefferson County were not state-certified?


• 3. What safeguards and protections will be implemented to prevent future recurrence of this failure?


• 4. Why did you office fail to advise OAG upon receipt of the Diebold/Premier letter admitting to a lack of certification?


• 5. Why were the OS units not upgraded to meet the 2002 Voting Systems Standards (“VSS 2002”) promulgated by the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) on April 30, 2002?


• 6. Were any federal funds authorized under the Help America Vote Act (“HAVA”) used to purchase these OS units? Were any federal funds made available to Jefferson County to bring it into compliance with HAVA and VSS 2002? If not, why?

All good questions that can lead to more investigation.

Of course, the county elections office, state Board of Elections and the Secretary of State's office all say that no votes were lost in any of the elections where the illegal voting system was used.

And as reported by the Louisville Courier-Journal today Les Fugate, spokesman for the state Board of Elections has stated, "We are disappointed that instead of working to improve elections in Kentucky, the attorney general's office is more interested in headline chasing and uninformed rhetoric. Kentucky law makes it abundantly clear that the power to purchase voting equipment" is the purview of counties.

Fugate never does ask why the Secretary of State lied to the Attorney General in the first place.

The Attorney General has promised to continue his investigation into the state's voting systems.

John Gideon Co-Director and Information Manager www.VotersUnite.Org www.votersunite.org

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