------------------------------Posted by Bev Harris on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - 2:02 pm:Jim March, John Brakey and Michael Shelby have pulled a coup inArizona.They have studied and reported on the presidential primary election inthe largest county in that state, Maricopa, with 56% of the AZ vote.The report they've published sets new ground in how to monitor thesecurity and sanity of an election.THERE ARE THREE REASONS TO READ THIS REPORT:1) Appendix A is a scathing indictment of the security and legality ofthe Sequoia product line. Taking advantage of material that wasn'tavailable to California Secretary of State Debra Bowen's top-to-bottomreview team, they've shown that Sequoia must now be considered theleast secure and most illegal black box voting system in America -"dethroning" Diebold. Appendix A is a standalone section that can beread independently of the full report.2) Also of national interest: this report forms a blueprint on how todo central tabulator observation missions, whether as a citizen orpartisan representative. By carefully observing the hardware beingused and asking pointed questions and public records digging, they'veshown that it's possible to pierce the veil of secrecy over election(mis?)conduct.Findings include the outsourcing of the entire mail-in vote processincluding the use of a private company to print, mail out, -=receive=-and scan the ballot signatures ... all by a private company outside ofthe scope of public records access and proper accountability.3) For any Arizona voter, the report is a must-read to see just howbadly an election can be run in the 4th largest county in America!It's also a message of hope - they can't get away with running asystem this sloppy without getting caught.The barriers these three faced in producing this document wereunbelievable. Arizona is one of the states where the rights of thecitizenry to observe and control their own elections are notrecognized by the government. Instead, you must be a political partyelection observer in order to observe. Turned down as observers by theMaricopa Republican and Democratic parties after a slander campaign bythe county elections department to both of those party chairs, Marchand Shelby were credentialed as observers by the MaricopaLibertarians...who by statute have observer rights. But since theLibertarian Party wasn't on the ballot, the county attempted to denythem credentials, which was reversed by a judge on election day in anemergency hearing called by attorney Michael Kielsky - the LP STATEparty chair.Based on what's come out in this report, the nation owes a debt to theArizona Libertarian Party.FULL REPORT:(5,769 KB)Maricopa County Elections:A Security Report for the MaricopaLibertarian, Republican and Democratic Partiesby Jim March, John Brakey and Michael ShelbyOVERVIEW AND EXECUTIVE BRIEFING