Wisconsin Wire: Update on Governor Office Writing Election Software, Two Recalls Stolen?

As you may recall, last week we released a bombshell news story on our elections here in Wisconsin.  As was explained and released here, it was recently found that the Department of Administration has people on hand that can read election programming code and that write certain election related software.  As some people know and some do not, the DOA is run by the Secretary of the Department of Administration, a position directly under the Governor.  So, in short, the Governor, whom most Wisconsinites do not trust nor approve of has the ability to dip his hand in elections to some extent.  Despite every precaution ever made to make it impossible for any partisan interest to influence elections, we come to a point where this may be exactly the case.  We demanded a statement stating what involvement the DOA has in elections software and who writes the software, among other things.  We demanded this statement by 1PM today, September 6, 2011.  We went to the DOA at 2:30, met by six police officers in the lobby.  They handed CJ and I an envelope with the statement we had requested copied verbatim as follows:

CJ and Jeremy;

I am responding to your note from last week.  I believe your questions stemmed from a Q&A with Kevin Kennedy as to whether the Government Accountability Board (GAB) has the in-house ability to evaluate the code in electronic voting equipment.  Kevin’s response was no, but that in the event the GAB did decide to evaluate the code, GAB could use experts at the Department of Administration (DOA), the University of Wisconsin or outside consultants to assist them.  DOA is only working on the Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS) and other in-house applications – not voting equipment. There is no connection between SVRS and voting equipment.  Voting equipment programming is the responsibility of local election officials, who either rely on their IT staff or hire a vendor to do it.

Christopher P. Schoenherr
Office of the Secretary
Department of Administration

The decision was made to leave the building and ask for further details.  We didn’t get a single question answered really.  We were asking about elections software, not necessarily the equipment programming itself.  As you will also see he uses the term “other in-house applications” which we would assume include the software Kathy Nickolaus, the Waukesha County Clerk uses for compiling election results.  While this does not answer our questions by any means and in no way shows the DOA cannot influence elections, we did decide that it left more questions and therefore we decided to respond with further questions.  Our response is as follows.

First, I would like to thank you for your timely response to our questions.
We were extremely pleased to have our concerns addressed, however we have a
couple of additional concerns. We were under the impression after viewing
the Kevin Kennedy Q&A that the GAB contracted with the DOA in order to write
the software used in Kathy Nickolaus’ election software. If this is true we
would like to make a public records request for that software at this time.
If that is not the case we would like to know what agency would be able to
provide us with a public copy of that software. We would also like to know
exactly what “other in-house applications,” alludes to. We would also like
to know why, if the DOA is only working on the SVRS, which has no connection
to the voting software, does the DOA have staff on hand capable of reading
the election software. Thank you again for your swift reply and for helping
us try to untangle how our elections are held. It is of the utmost
importance to us to try to figure out how to best include the public and
make sure our elections work and are as transparent as possible and your
assistance is extremely appreciated.

CJ Terrell and Jeremy Ryan

PS: Also, on a personal level, I would like to know the status of Ron Blair’s
employment with the DOA. I have heard nothing about this, and it concerns
me. The mans temper is troubling and there have now been a couple of
incidents in which he has become physical with peaceful law-abiding citizens
in their capitol building. I would like to know if he is still suspended and
how the DOA is planing on handling the end of his suspension. I feel
personally that having him back in the Capitol without first addressing his
anger issues with some sort of treatment is irresponsible and potentially
dangerous. If you could please respond once again at your earliest
convenience over the course of the next three business days it would be
wonderful.

We will also not assume the DOA response, although vague, is even accurate.  Remember this was the same agency that said there was $7.5M worth of damage to the Capitol, later admitting the figure was only in the thousands and almost all general wear and tear and maintenance.  But we have some legitimate questions and I encourage all Wisconsin residents to also ask their local clerks who they use for each software system or program they use.  As we can see, the elections are far from transparent.  I will keep all updated, but this seems to be the beginning of what could easily become Walkergate.

On a separate note, Richard Charnin uncovered some very interesting information, just as important today.  It turns out that two of the WI recall elections were likely illegitimately won.  The information comes from exit polls which have long been known as very accurate.   It turns out the discrepancies between exit polls and reported poll numbers were abnormally high to the point that there is credible statistical basis to say that these elections were most likely won by means of election fraud not popular vote.  For this story please click here.  We have a lot of work to do but if we keep fighting ONE DAY LONGER and ONE DAY STRONGER, we will win!  SOLIDARITY!

Jeremy Ryan

Executive Director

Defending Wisconsin PAC

jryan@defendingwisconsin.org

Note: Segway Jeremy Ryan has become a full-time member of the protests at the Wisconsin State Capitol. Formerly a businessman, he gave up his business to join the fight for the middle class in the State of Wisconsin. Through videos and writings he has informed hundreds of thousands of people of what was going on at the Wisconsin State Capitol once the mainstream media had mostly abandoned the protests. His full-time activism is completely funded by the people. If you would like to help out please click here.