The Emery County Diebold Case. Gov. Huntsman Replies.

Yesterday Emery County Clerk Bruce Funk was locked out of his office by the county commissioners. Why was this elected official told to resign, and then locked out of his offices? Because he dared to hold the state's new Diebold e-voting machines to the standards laid down in state law.

This is all detailed here. I used the Utahcountvotes form letter, removing the incendiary unproven allegations, to send an email to Gov. Huntsman's office. Here is my letter:

Dear Governor Jon Huntsman:

I write to express my appreciation and admiration for the responsible actions that Emery County Clerk Bruce Funk took to uncover the fraudulent sale of flawed voting machines to Utah, including machines which were rejected from other states.

Please investigate this fraud and immediately bar Diebold from tampering with Utah's voting machines. Insiders pose the greatest security risk to any system, so Diebold's claim that they will restore the security of machines which were highly insecure, falling apart, and flawed when delivered, is preposterous. The security of systems depend on trusting no one, least of all insiders. We independently audit banks and churches but not our vote counts!

Security Innovation, a world-renowned security firm examined Emery County Diebolds at the request of Bruce Funk because the Utah Election Office never involved any experts in its process for evaluating voting systems; and ignored the written advice of Utah PhD computer scientists and Utah computer technicians.

The State of Utah should be thankful that they have a public servant of the quality as Bruce Funk. The entire country is watching to see what the reaction will be of the State to the information revealed in the expert examination of the Diebold TSx.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey D. Jonsson

And here is the Governor's Office reply. I will let you all pick it apart:

April 6, 2006

Dear Jeffrey :

Thank you for you for contacting the Office of the Governor regarding Diebold Election Systems, Inc.. I have been asked to respond on behalf of the Governor.

Your thoughts and opinions are very important to us and we appreciate the opportunity to reply.

Utah has purchased a new voting system from Diebold Election Systems, Inc. to meet the requirements of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 passed by the United States Congress. The voting system selection process started under Lieutenant Governor Olene Walker, continued through Lieutenant Governor Gayle McKeachnie's administration, and culminated under the direction of Lieutenant Governor Gary Herbert. As required by Utah Code 20A-5-402.5, the system was certified by an Independent Testing Authority to comply with Voting System Standards established by the F ederal Election Commission. Utah's contract with Diebold includes warranties that the hardware and software will perform as required by state and federal law.

On behalf of the Governor, thank you for writing.

Sincerely,
Gloria C. Hunt
Governor's Office of Constituent Services

Disingenuous Bureacratese. Did I expect anything less in this most red of red states? Not really...