Talk Nation Radio for May 13, 2009
Pokey Anderson, Ellen Theisen, Brad Friedman, on John Gideon's work 2

We note the amazing enthusiasm John Gideon had for voting rights, but focus on the serious nature of problems that have been identified with electronic voting machines. Anderson, Theisen, and Friedman, on the crisis at hand.

Part 2, both stand alone
See part one.
www.archive.org/details/EllenTheisenAndBradFriedmanHonorJohnGideonWhoDiedInAprilOf2009

TRT: 29:36 (music fades 19 sec)
Produced by Dori Smith
Shannon Williford, with song Election Reform, download MP3 at Bradblog.com or TalkNationRadio.org
http://talknationradio.com/?p=352

We have been focusing on voting rights issues and the remarkable contributions of a voting rights activist named John Gideon who died in April of Meningitis at the age of 62. In part one people responded to Gideon's sudden passing and noted his major contribution to voting rights and voting machine security. This time we hear more clips of John Gideon and note his amazing enthusiasm for voting rights as we focus more on the serious nature of problems that have been identified with electronic voting machines. People like John Gideon have spent countless hours pouring over information from elections, and he did it for zero pay.

We hear from long time investigative reporter, Pacifica radio producer and researcher, Pokey Anderson. For six years she co-produced The Monitor Radio Show at Pacifica station, KPFT, in Texas.
www.votersunite.org/info/PeeringThruChinks.asp

We also hear from Ellen Theisen, Director of Voters Unite.
And Brad Friedman of Brad Blog.

These are just some of the people John Gideon worked with as he documented technical problems with voting machines and the growing security crisis for US voting systems in general. The body of his many thousands of pages of work is now a historical record on voting technologies, the many failures that have occurred during elections, what people using the machines or manning them at the polls said about them, many of the system failures, failures with oversight, challenges to bring a paper ballot to every state, challenges over profit minded vendors and manufacturers, and how activists like Gideon challenged the system and in some cases won the battle to restore voting integrity. There have been victories large and small in states like Florida, Ohio, and California. Secretaries of State all over the country have been rethinking Direct Record E-technology, the DRE or touch screen voting that has caused so many problems. For the moment many state officials find themselves stuck with costly machines and no money to replace them.

As of March 2009, one month prior to his death, John Gideon had analyzed a new bill put forward by Congressman Rush Holt that offers a time line for replacing all DREs with paper ballots or a non-tabulating ballot-marking device (BMD) in each polling place. Experts in the struggle for a verifiable paper ballot have been offering detailed critiques, and you can read the critique by John Gideon and Ellen Theisen online at votersunite.org. The goal is to allow voters to privately and independently verify and cast the permanent paper ballot, but there are still some difficulties with details on ballot handling. If it passes the bill will formalize a process that has been taking place on a state by state basis as officials learn the hard way that DRE technology is prone to failure and is unworkable if we are to have safe, verifiable elections, where any voter can readily see how the results were obtained.

John Gideon was not someone who you would expect to see become a high powered activist and expert on computer voting. He was a down to earth person, an avid fisherman, a good friend to other voting rights activists who enjoyed his indefatigable enthusiasm. The disabled Vietnam veteran did not take any income from his long standing, though his very intensive work as a voting rights activist became invaluable.

John Gideon was the author of the Daily Voting News, a newsletter documenting voting problems all over the country. His goal was to help voters, state officials, activists, and political leaders, see the extent of the problem. In our last program Brad Friedman explained that Gideon accomplished his goal in that many Americans and officials now realize that there is a serious problem.

John Gideon has been described as a voting rights hero by some of the very government officials he criticized, and he was an unusual political activist in that he was able to get a wide variety of people to listen to him and work with him. His research on voting machine failures and failures of the oversight system will live on, and now becomes a part of the body of history on America's e-voting crisis.

Thanks John!

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