Computer programmer Clinton Curtis testified at the December 13th, 2004 Congressional hearing in Columbus, Ohio naming Republican Congressman Tom Feeney as the person who hired him to prepare vote-rigging software.
The programmer claims that he designed and built a "vote rigging" software program at the behest of then Florida Congressman, now U.S. Congressman, Republican Tom Feeney of Florida's 24th Congressional District.
Clint Curtis, 46, claims that he built the software for Feeney in 2000 while working at a sofware design and engineering company in Oviedo, Florida (Feeney's home district).
Curtis, in his affidavit, says that as technical advisor and programmer at Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI) he was present at company meetings where Feeney was present "on at least a dozen occasions".
Feeney, who had run in 1994 as Jeb Bush's running-mate in his initial unsuccessful bid for Florida Governor, was serving as both corporate counsel and registered lobbyist for YEI during the period that Curtis worked at the company.
Feeney was also concurrently serving as a Florida state congressman while performing those services for YEI. Feeney would eventually become Speaker of the Florida House before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002. He is now a member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.
At an October 2000 meeting with Feeney, according to the affidavit and BRAD BLOG interviews with Curtis over the past three days, Feeney inquired whether the company could build a "vote fraud software prototype".
At least three YEI employees are said to have been present at that meeting; Curtis, company owner, Mrs. Li Woan Yang, and her executive secretary, Mike Cohen. Two other YEI employees may have come in and out at different points of the meeting according to Curtis.
Curtis says that Feeney "was very specific in the design and specifications required for this program."
"He detailed, in his own words, that; (a) the program needed to be touch-screen capable (b) the user should be able to trigger the program without any additional equipment (c) the programming to accomplish this needed to stay hidden even if the source code was inspected."
Though there was no problem with the first two requirements, Curtis explained to the Congressman that it would be "virtually impossible to hide such code written to change the voting results if anyone is able to review the uncompiled source code"
Nonetheless, he was asked at the meeting by Mrs. Yang to build the prototype anyway.
Curtis, "a life-long Republican" at the time, claims that it was his initial belief that Feeney's interest was in trying to stop Democrats from using "such a program to steal an election". Curtis had assumed that Feeney, "wanted to be able to detect and prevent that if it occurred."
Upon delivery of the software design and documentation on CD to Mrs. Yang, Curtis again explained to her that it would be impossible to hide routines created to manipulate the vote if anybody would be able to inspect the precompiled source code.
Mrs. Yang then told him, "You don’t understand, in order to get the contract we have to hide the manipulation in the source code. This program is needed to control the vote in South Florida."
Mrs. Yang then took the CD containing the software from Curtis, reportedly for later delivery to Feeney.
In other meetings with Feeny prior to the 2000 elections, it became clear to Curtis that Feeney had plans to suppress the vote in strong Democratic precincts. In the affidavit, Curtis claims that in those meetings Feeney had "bragged that he had already implemented 'exclusion lists' to reduce the 'black vote'." Feeney also mentioned that "proper placement of police patrols could further reduce the black vote by as much as 25%."
Curtis says that he submitted his resignation to YEI effective December 2000, but stayed on until they had found someone to replace him in February of 2001. He eventually became employed by the Florida Dept. of Transportation (FDOT) after leaving YEI.
37 Comments
oxdottirWhen was this recording taken? And who is the questioner?
Constitutional_PatriotOxdottir, check the video description for those details. Looks like erik updated it.
blankfistThis further confirms what we've already known. And, I fear that candidates like Kucinich and Paul won't get a fair shake at presidency because the election will be fraudulent. Here's a great book I read back in 2003/2004 called Buying the President 2004, which had a very informative section in the front about how the Bush/Gore election was or could have been rigged. It's a great book, because it shows all politicians for what they really are, but the indepth look at Florida's ties to the Bushies was staggering. Worth a retrospective read from me.
blankfisteric3579, I believe you have a top 15 video on your hands.
ThylanComputers do whatever a programmer tells them. If the programmer tells them to lie, they will. There's no transparent honesty in a concealed procedure (embedded code execution).
Cloaking the mechanics of vote counting is undemocratic.
CaveBearI just don't trust many people anymore...
blankfistYou can trust me, CaveBear. You can trust me. [blank stare]
RyjkyjStupid gay Democrats with your crybaby church of liberal environmentalism.
Can't all you terrorists just have a little faith in the system your forefathers set down?
RyjkyjI mean seriously, I don't even know what you're talking about!
Decompiling hacked machines? Source code? Congress?
Get over it already!
blankfistI wish I knew when this video was recorded. When was this hearing? Does anyone know?
PeroxideRyjkyj, you my friend are an idiot.
Chaucersays...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clint_Curtis
Looks like 2001
eric3579Changed the video description. It should answer most of the questions about the video.
Soupskinsays...I doubt the authenticity of this clip. However, if it were true we have every right as Americans to take up arms and reclaim this country as ours.
I pray this is a sick joke.
Constitutional_PatriotRyjkyj is obviously a dupe account by someone that doesn't want to speak from their primary account because it exposes their true nature or they are trying to stir the pot to get heated responses. Just ignore these empty accounts like this that have no vids or very few and are long time members. It's blatently obvious.
You might also notice similar accounts like his that have very few vids posted that take absolutely no brain activity to watch. This onslaught of mindless entertainment distracts people from important issues.
TrancecoachIt appears that this video takes place on or around December 13, 2004 before the US Judiciary Members in Ohio.
blankfistI'm sorry, I log in as Ryjkyj from time-to-time just to blow off steam. My therapist tells me it's healthy to be a real worthless, unimaginative jerk sometimes.
wax66I can't wait for the day that politicians aren't technophobes and can hire companies that will do the job right the first time. 100 lines of code for a $var++, sure, but that's SUCH a small part of the issue. Encryption of transfers, written data, memory, detailed and possibly remote checksummed logging, all of that needs to be part of it, and probably more that a proper security guru would know.
As for those of you that think it's a sick joke, I seriously doubt it. I too know how easy it would be for them to rig an election in this way.
dgandhiThe worst part is that the tech to run a fair and transparent election exists. Using GPG and script kiddy level coding it's possible to implement a full voting system with redundant cryptographic checksums to multiple servers (run by each party + as many "impartial" observers, or more).
The system could even use commodity hardware and public code, instead of these expensive security-through-obscurity boxen that diebold and clan turn out.
The only thing stopping a squeeky clean election system is money and power (possibly tech illiteracy, but I don't really give these cats the benefit of the doubt on that one).
I'm not saying that a purely technical solution exists. Messing with other aspects of the election, like voter roles, can be just as destructive to democratic intent.
Moving the "is the vote count even valid" question in to the strong "yes" category would help, but it's not a panacea.
RyjkyjPlease allow me to apologize guys. I'm sorry for offending anyone. I was just trying to use humor as a way of expressing my outrage to the way people react to certain videos. You show something that has anything to do with a problem in govornment and you get the latest diatribe from some nutcase that they got from the back of an Ann Coulter book. I just love that phrase: "the church of liberalism." It offends me on so many levels that it's hard not to burst a blood vessel.
A lot of us saw Florida voters get laughed out of congress for even suggesting that they might have been prevented from voting. All the credible evidence is there. For anyone who beleives that this hearing never happened, just look it up. For anyone who believes that diebold voting machines aren't flawed, go ahead and look that up too. Researchers from both Princeton and MIT did it in minutes: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/11/diebold-voting-machi.html
Again, I'm sorry if I offended anyone, I just need a grain of salt with these videos sometimes and for me, that means a little humor to gloss over such an aggravating subject.
And if you still don't get the joke...
RyjkyjOh, and by the way...
I voted this video up before it even got out of the unsifted pile.
And as far as being a dupe, I don't have a computer at home. I get 1 half hour a day to watch and comment, which doesn't leave me any time to post.
viewer_999It's amazing to me how clueless the audience (and the leadership, and the system, and the...) is as to how easily this can be accomplished today. When he mentions that code in a module can erase itself (basically: a computer program can do just about anything you can imagine, duh), the crowd actually gasps. Time to get with the 21st century, dinosaurs.
Edit: To clarify my sentiment a bit: I realize that those not in technology fields, and often simply those of older generations, will not be very informed with regard to, for instance, today's computer technology, but c'mon folks. This isn't about a toothbrush with a microchip; this type of technology is shaping your world. Get involved, read, and learn. In the meantime, we really need to put a lot more tech-savvy people in positions where their knowledge can help.
*gasp!* You mean, someone can use a computer to do bad things?! *facepalm*
RottySorry, this guy is a fucking idiot armed with a few buzz words. These days, anyone with any self-respect would call themselves a "Software Engineer" at least, not a "computer programmer". He is distracting the questioners with basic conepts rather than solutions as to how to accomplish the feats they are inquiring about. Someone needs to really uqstion him, not these political hand-puppets.
sl666says...Its a real easy fix - have all the code published under the GNU - as long as they can prove that the machine has not been tampered, GNU linux box, BIG encryption to identify itself (so it would take too long to brute force)
strip the OS down to the minimum it needs to survive.
bamdrewThis guy's wiki page notes how he ran for Congress and lost... would have made a way cooler story if he had won, by 100% of the vote, maybe by using his l33t programming skillz.
arrendekComputer programmer is exactly the sort of thing you say you do to someone like a congressman, or your mother.
I wouldn't know anything about that though... no no, not me.
quantumushroomNo suggestions of "vote tampering" from the drive-by media when victicrats won back Congress in 2006. Guess the machines are only rigged when conservatives win.
If this clip was relevant, 60 Minutes or the New York Jihad would have made it Prime Time/Front Page. Apparently, nothing was proven.
Just file this away in the Leftist Alternate History Archive. Bush 'stealing' the 2000 election is one of the nexus points of the fantasy.
aidosthey have a great system in venezuela. you place your vote electronically and it prints out a receipt that you check and put in a box. obviously all the electronic votes are counted and a big percentage of the paper ones to verify that the electronic one makes sense.
xxovercastxxsl666, you mean the GPL. I'd say the GPL is probably a bit restrictive for this. In a case like this, you want that code to be completely unfettered and available for any citizen with the interest and/or desire to view it. I want to say it should be plain old Public Domain, though I haven't given it significant thought.
doremifaIf this program is still available then expect Romney to be the next president.
oxdottir*engineering
siftbotAdding video to channels (Engineering) - requested by oxdottir.
Constitutional_Patriot*promote
gorgon and qm.. why the downvote on this? it exposes the fact that ppl were lied to and cheated their votes by corrupt officials. Only a neocon shill would oppose and oppress the truth!
siftbotPromoting this video back to the front page; last published Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 2:09pm PST - promote requested by Constitutional_Patriot.
ElJardineroGreg Palast did some great investigative journalism about the Florida election and published a book in 2003, 'The best democracy money can buy', I highly recommend it. The first 100 pages are a bit boring but that's because he's going over all the voting statistics, after that the book gets very juicy.
Were touchscreens used in Florida in 2000?
11714is anyone else wondering why we never heard any big political smoking gun stories about this? I mean they can and clearly did rig an election... And what exactly has been done between then and now to prevent it from happening again?
Constitutional_Patriot>> ^ElJardinero:
>Were touchscreens used in Florida in 2000?
I dont' think so.. I believe they were all paper ballots.
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