Rage Against The Machines

Greg Palast: "Kerry won Ohio"

2004-11-12T22:17:00.000-08:00

KERRY WON OHIO
JUST COUNT THE BALLOTS AT THE BACK OF THE BUS

This is the first time in four decades that a political party has systematically barred -- in this case successfully -- hundreds of thousands of Black voters from access to the voting booth. While investigating for BBC Television, we obtained three dozen of the Republican Party's confidential "caging" lists, their title for spreadsheets listing names and addresses of voters they intended to block on any pretext.

We found that every single address of the thousands on these Republican hit lists was located in Black-majority precincts. You might find that nasty and racist. It may also be a crime.But that didn't stop the Republicans of '04. Their legally questionable mass challenge to Black voters is not some low-level dirty tricks operation of local party hacks. Emails we obtained show the lists were copied directly to the Republican National Committee's chief of research and to the director of a state campaign.

(more)
http://www.gregpalast.com /

Olbermann: Recounts and Retractions

2004-11-11T17:55:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK— John Kerry or no John Kerry, there could still be recounts in Ohio and New Hampshire— courtesy of the two candidates who got far more grief than votes during the presidential campaign.

David Cobb of the Green Party told a California radio station late yesterday afternoon that he is “quite likely to be demanding a recount in Ohio,” with a final decision to be reached and announced during the day
. . .
The rationale for the bizarre “lockdown” of the vote-counting venue in Warren County on election night suddenly broke down when it was contradicted by spokespersons from the FBI and Ohio’s primary homeland security official.

County Emergency Services Director Frank Young said last week that in a face-to-face meeting with an FBI agent, he was warned that Warren County, outside Cincinnati, faced a “terrorist threat.” County Commissioners President Pat South amplified, insisting to us at Countdown that her jurisdiction had received a series of memos from Homeland Security about the threat. “These memos were sent out statewide, not just to Warren County, and they included a lot of planning tools and resources to use for election day security.

“In a face to face meeting between the FBI and our director of Emergency Services,” Ms. South continued, “we were informed that on a scale from 1 to 10, the tri-state area of Southwest Ohio was ranked at a high 8 to a low 9 in terms of security risk. Warren County in particular, was rated at 10.”

But the Bureau says it issued no such warning.

(much, much more)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6368819/#0411010c

Kerry campaign lawyers checking Ohio vote

2004-11-11T17:43:00.000-08:00

Associated Press

CLEVELAND - Lawyers with John Kerry's presidential campaign are in Ohio on what they describe as a "fact-finding mission" following the Democrat's election loss to President Bush last week.

Dan Hoffheimer, the statewide counsel for the Kerry campaign, said they are not trying to challenge the election but are only carrying out Kerry's promise to make sure that all the votes in Ohio are counted.

"We're not expecting to change the outcome of the election," Hoffheimer said.In unofficial returns, Bush outpolled Kerry by 136,000 votes in Ohio.

Hoffheimer said the goal is to identify any voting problems and quell doubts about the legitimacy of the Ohio election being raised on the Internet.

(more)
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/state/10152922.htm

IN: More Machine Malfunctions

2004-11-11T17:40:00.000-08:00

BROOKVILLE, Ind. - Election equipment counted straight-party votes for Democratic candidates as Libertarian votes, an error that could affect election outcomes in as many as nine counties, the Richmond Palladium-Item reported today.Democrats discovered the error in Franklin County, where ballots will be counted again tonight.

The county's election equipment vendor, Fidlar, notified officials Wednesday of the error.Libertarian candidates received 7 to 8 percent of the votes in Franklin County, which is about 30 miles south of Richmond.

http://www.indystar.com/articles/3/193880-4433-093.html

David Shuster: Ohio -- the recount of 2004

2004-11-11T17:28:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, I spoke with Blair Bobier, the attorney/spokesman for David Cobb, the Green Party's 2004 candidate for President. Bobier confirms that the press release floating on the net is legitimate. The Green Party is combining forces with the Libertarian Party to seek a statewide election recount in Ohio.

Whether you agree with a recount or not... the rules are the rules. And even a candidate like David Cobb, who received a total of 24 votes in Ohio, is entitled to a recount. So, let us all hope the process in the Buckeye state will be orderly, calm, and litigation free.

My friend and colleague Keith Olbermann has been all over this story.

On Friday night, "Hardball with Chris Matthews" (7 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET) will be jumping into the fray. You won't want to miss that. Plus, this weekend here on Hardblogger, I'll be posting some amazing national election numbers and demographic trends that may shock you. I've run some of the numbers past a few MSNBC political analysts, and everybody is calling it "a big deal."

(more)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6446237/#041111c

Hearings on Widespread Voting Irregularities that Call Thousands of Votes into Question

2004-11-11T17:18:00.000-08:00

This Saturday, Voters, Elections Officials, Voting Experts, and Legislators Unite to Address Systematic Voting “Irregularities" Faith in our Democracy at Stake

COLUMBUS, OH -- November 10 -- Public hearings to investigate voting irregularities and voter suppression will be held this Saturday, November 13th in Columbus, Ohio to address widespread reports of electoral fraud during last Tuesday’s elections. The hearing will feature testimony by voters from around the state of Ohio, elections officials, legislators, and national voting rights/election protection experts.

This week, several news sources, including MSNBC, USA Today and the New York Times have presented mounting evidence of electoral fraud in crucial states like Ohio and Florida. These reports call into question tens of thousands of votes, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of votes.

“Every eligible voter has the right to have his or her vote counted,” said Naina Khanna from the League of Young Voters. “This isn’t necessarily about disputing the results, it’s about disputing the process, which is clearly flawed. We have heard of widespread machine malfunctions, in addition to the thousands of reports received of people, particularly first-time voters, students and people of color facing problems at the polls."

(more)
http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/1110-22.htm

HELP AMERICA RECOUNT !!!!

2004-11-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

Comments: Please donate!! Our democracy depends on it!!
http://www.helpamericarecount.org

Getting out the vote is good, but getting a 123 percent turnout is too good to be true. This happened in Fairview Park, Ohio. In Broward County, Florida, voting machines can do the moon walk: They count back-wards, but only on certain ballot measures.
If you want to buy a recount in Ohio you don't need to live there...you do need to be a US citizen and you need to get out your check book. How much is Democracy worth to you...starting next week no one can stop us from auditing Ohio were gonna get em.

In New Hampshire, voting trends seemed to depend more on which voting machine was used than on what party voters were affiliated with. When asked to produce “zero reports” at poll opening, some Florida touch-screen machines reported votes were already in the system, apparent stuffing of the electronic ballot box. Gahanna, Ohio had thousands more votes show up than voters.

Accounting for provisional ballots has been murky, and anomalies have now surfaced in Cuyahoga County, Perry County, and Youngstown Ohio. Florida optical scan machines in 40 counties had statistically improbable results, which did not exist in Florida touch-screens. Technicians got inside access to a central tabulator in Collier County during the middle of the election, and modem security settings may have been disabled for Diebold machines.

As hundreds of anomalies pop up, citizens are thinking:
Who really won? Don’t know. Gotta audit!

http://www.helpamericarecount.org

OH: FBI denies warning officials of any special threat

2004-11-10T16:29:00.000-08:00

LEBANON - Warren County officials, facing scrutiny of their decision to lock down the administration building on election night, say they were responding to a terrorist threat that ranked a "10" on a scale of 1 to 10.

The information, which Commissioner Pat South said was previously deemed confidential, is coming out a week after the public was barred from viewing the Warren County vote count. The Ohio Secretary of State's office doesn't know of any other county in the state to impose such a restriction.

County officials initially said they feared that having reporters and photographers present could interfere with the ballot counting. They subsequently cited homeland security concerns.

Now, they say an FBI agent told them that Warren County ranked a "10" on a terrorism scale. However, state and federal homeland security officials said Tuesday they were unaware of any specific threat against the county.

(more)
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/10/loc_warrenvote10.html

Wikipedia: 2004 U.S. Election controversies and irregularities

2004-11-10T16:17:00.000-08:00

Outstanding documentation so far:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

About our Voting Machines

2004-11-10T16:11:00.000-08:00

VOTING SYSTEMS ORGS AND COMPANIES privatizing, monopolizing, & politicizing the voting process... around the world

The voting technology business is dominated by Republican-leaning U.S. and foreign corporations. Today, two Republican-controlled corporations, Election Systems and Software ( ES&S) and Diebold Voting Systems, and a British-based company, Sequoia, control about 80% of the vote count in the U.S.. But many other corporations are also involved in the elections industry (see below). Meanwhile, the long history of election upsets due to voting machine "glitches", that overwhelmingly favor Republican candidates, continues to grow.

(excellent article, must read)
http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingMachineCompanies.htm

NC: Glitch Could Force State to Vote Again

2004-11-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

"Counties will add totals from as many as 75,000 provisional ballots to their returns today. If the final margin in any race is within 4,532 -- the number of lost votes in Carteret -- the losing candidate can file a protest with the N.C. State Board of Election.

It's unclear what would happen in that case. Attorneys are studying whether the board could call a new election in Carteret County only, or even ask the disenfranchised voters to vote again. (Local elections officials have their names.)

But state law may not allow that: "The new election shall be held in the entire jurisdiction in which the original election was held," it says. That could mean the whole state."

(more)
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/10133265.htm?1c

Olbermann continues to cover voting problems

2004-11-10T15:34:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK— With news this morning that the computerized balloting in North Carolina is so thoroughly messed up that all state-wide voting may be thrown out and a second election day scheduled, the story continues.

Tonight on 'Countdown,' we'll examine the N.C. mess (which would not include a second presidential vote), new fuzzy math in Nevada, allegations against the Democrats in Pennsylvania, Ralph Nader's news conference, and the other voting developments as they occur. A Stanford computer expert will address the vulnerability of the Optical Scanning system (and answer the question: which is easier to hack, electronic voting or exit polls?), and Newsweek's Jonathan Alter will join me to report on the reporting.

In the interim, for the North Carolina situation, we refer you to the Website of the excellent newspaper The Charlotte Observer.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6368819/#0411010b

Comments: Keith Olbermann seems to be the only mainstream American journalist with integrity enough to discuss these election irregularities. Thank you, Keith, and keep up the good work.

Ralph Nader Holds Press Conference in Washington, DC 1:00 PM, November 10, 2004

2004-11-09T18:51:00.000-08:00

Was Every Vote Counted Accurately?
Nader/Camejo Goes Forward with Hand Recount in New Hampshire

Washington, DC: Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader will be holding a press conference at 1:00 in at 1616 P Street, NW, 7th Floor. The press conference will focus on widespread reports of voting problems that raise questions about vote counting. The United States needs to face up to serious shortcomings in its electoral process so that we can have trust in the results of the vote.

Nader/Camejo has requested a hand recount of the vote in New Hampshire because of reports of anomalies favoring President Bush in towns that used the Diebold AccuVote optical scan machines. A hand recount will either rule out the possibility of machine error or show a discrepancy in the Diebold machine and the actual vote—either way voters need to know. To review the request for a hand recount in New Hampshire visit www.VoteNader.org. Similar inexplicable results have been found in other states, including Ohio. Nader has called on John Kerry to demand that every vote be counted accurately. His campaign has remained strangely silent on the matter.

This election has highlighted the need for electoral reform including federal standards for federal offices and non-partisan administration of the elections from ballot access, through debate participation and to how the vote is cast and counted.

Where: 1616 P Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036

When: 1:00 PM, November 10, 2004

For more on this issue visit www.VoteNader.org

Votergate 2004: We Don't Need Paper to Prove Fraud, But We Do Need Money and Leadership, NOW.

2004-11-09T18:13:00.000-08:00

There's a huge difference between polling what WILL happen and polling something that has already happened. The reliability of polling something that has already happened is highly reliable vs. predictive polls, like Gallup or Zogby, which is very risky. The reliability can be, not plus or minus 4 percent as we see with predictive poplls, but rather a much more reliable plus or minus one half or one tenth of one percent with exit polls, because those are based on asking people who already voted. I would even say that if the exit polling were done in the key precincts of Florida and Ohio, which it was, then these results should be practically “bullet proof.”

It is important that people know how accurate random sampling of historical events can be in order for them to understand how unlikely it is that the exit polls were wrong. So if you want to fight the battle correctly, you must get more statisticians and forensic accountants involved as well as the lawyers. These statisticians can show with great credibility the probability of manipulation within the computer programs used for counting the ballots. They do this kind of work all the time to uncover fraud based upon computer manipulation in commercial and corporate activities. And these types of expert analyses are admissible in a court of law. The problem with all of this is determining who is going to fund such an investigation. Where will the money come from? Perhaps the Kerry/Edwards campaign fund has some surplus that can be used. It is possible that the DNC has some excess funds. How about the 527s and PACs who spent millions on ineffective political ads, coming up with a few million? In addition, who is going to lead the process of getting this done? This kind of an effort requires solidarity along with an organized coordinated effort. It's easy to come up with the forensic and technical people to get this done, but we need a strong leader and solidarity. Leadership and funding-- these are the two real challenges that must be dealt with in the coming days. We have a Watergate story here that could give the media a post election explosive news story that could make the 2000 Florida vote debacle look like small potatoes. We need to get the media to see that votergate 2004 is huge news and we need to quickly fund the investigation and get Democratic leaders behind it.

(more)
http://www.zogby.com/Soundbites/ReadClips.dbm?ID=10385

FL: 237,522 more votes counted than cast!!!

2004-11-08T13:46:00.000-08:00

Florida is reporting more votes in the presidential election than it is reporting citizens that turned out to vote. Adding all the presidential race votes reported by the Florida Department of State here yields a total of 7,588,422 votes. The Florida Department of State reports here that voter turnout totalled only 7,350,900. That's a difference of 237,522. 3.1% of Florida's presidential votes were in excess of the number of voters in the election. 380,952 votes separate the President and John Kerry in Florida. If we disregard the votes cast on the Model 100s and the Optech 3P Eagles, the difference between Bush and Kerry drops to 124,514. The votes cast on the Model 100s and the Optech 3P Eagles in conjunction with votes that cannot be tied to voters may have elected George W. Bush.

The 13 counties that report more votes than voters delivered 39.4% of the votes cast in Florida.

Excellent analysis & charts at:
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~adamsb6/elections

Kerry -- a look at exit polling discrepancies

2004-11-08T13:18:00.000-08:00

Exit polling data in states using PAPER ballots is accurate compared to the actual count:

But the states where ELECTRONIC voting is used show radical differences between the exit polling and "actual" results:

Is it a coincidence that exit polls were accurate everywhere except in the e-voting states?

Is it a coincidence that every e-voting machine "error" so far HELPS Bush?

Hours, Totals missing from election night audit logs

2004-11-08T13:08:00.000-08:00

3 hrs. (9:52pm-1:31am) missing from election-night primary -- Sept.14, King Co., Wash. Diebold GEMS audit log -- 24 insecure remote modems connected

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/auditlog.PDF

King County primary election summary totals now missing from audit log (just seven weeks ago!)

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/resultspages.PDF

It's OK to say the F-word: FRAUD

2004-11-08T13:05:00.000-08:00

BREAKING -- SUNDAY Nov. 7 2004: Freedom of Information requests at http://www.blackboxvoting.org have unearthed two Ciber certification reports indicating that security and tamperability was NOT TESTED and that several state elections directors, a secretary of state, and computer consultant Dr. Britain Williams signed off on the report anyway, certifying it.

Black Box Voting has taken the position that fraud took place in the 2004 election through electronic voting machines. We base this on hard evidence, documents obtained in public records requests, inside information, and other data indicative of manipulation of electronic voting systems. What we do not know is the specific scope of the fraud. We are working now to compile the proof, based not on soft evidence -- red flags, exit polls -- but core documents obtained by Black Box Voting in the most massive Freedom of Information action in history.

(more)
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

CNN "cooked the books" on election night

2004-11-08T13:03:00.000-08:00

On election night, CNN changed some exit polling data to more closely resemble the "official" results.

Details and screenshots:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1290765&mesg_id=1295180&page

Hot! Ohio precincts with more than 100% voter turnout!

2004-11-08T11:12:00.000-08:00

Impossible scenario in Ohio:

Also notice how the data for Cleveland Heights and Euclid are exactly the same.
Another clear-cut example of a seriously flawed, if not fraudulent, electoral process.

OH: Cuyahoga County records voter turnouts OVER 100%!!!

2004-11-08T11:07:00.000-08:00

Each precinct in Cuyahoga County, Ohio
Highlighted areas represent 90% (very VERY unlikely) and higher (up to 1160.78%) voter TURN-OUT! 29 are above 100%
Calculated from data on county page - http://boe.cuyahogacounty.us/BOE/results/currentresults1.htm

(Ballots Cast/Registered Voters) * 100 = % turn out.
Ballots Cast SHOULD NEVER be more than Registered, thus % should NEVER be higher than 100%

This amounts to 93,136 EXTRA votes beyond 100% in those precincts! This is just for ONE county!

No further evidence needed - a recount MUST be done - and possibly another national election using ONLY paper ballots, hand counts, and observers making sure all counts are valid. I don't trust these computers AT ALL! We should have the UN observe!

(more)
http://pages.ivillage.com/americans4america/id20.html

Prosecutor Investigates False Election Fliers

2004-11-08T10:36:00.000-08:00

Athens County Prosecutor C. David Warren said last week that while his office is looking into deceptive fliers that were distributed in Athens in an apparent attempt to keep Democrats from voting Tuesday, he doubts that he'll find the perpetrators unless he gets a voluntary confession or help from an informant.

"I haven't seen anything," Warren said. "The only way we're going to find out who was passing them out is if someone comes forward."

In an election season marked by dirty tricks, the flier was one of the more notable local examples. Distributed around town and on the Ohio University campus in the last few days before Nov. 2, it claimed that because of high anticipated voter turnout, Republicans should vote on Tuesday, and Democrats should vote on Wednesday. Of course, no voting places would actually be open on Wednesday.

(more)
http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=1...

FL: Wrongly Marked Ballots Rejected

2004-11-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

The Miami-Dade canvassing board, which scrutinizes questionable absentee, overseas and provisional ballots, spent a grueling week of 10-hour-plus days to complete most of its work.

Thursday afternoon, with most of it done, the canvassing board chairwoman, County Judge Shelley Kravitz, and a member, Commissioner Katy Sorenson, said they had learned one thing: Many voters do not follow directions, which forced them to throw out hundreds of ballots. The total number is unknown.

Among the most common ballot-rejecting offenses: failure to sign the absentee ballot or a signature that did not resemble the one on file at the elections department.

The two canvassing members -- the third is Elections Supervisor Constance Kaplan who breaks deadlocks -- sat in the canvassing room on the second floor of the elections department stamping ''reject'' or ''accept'' on ballots, as a legion of observers watched.

The task was Herculean for just two people, Sorenson said. ``I think state law on the rules of the canvassing board has to be addressed and changed.''

Sorenson cringed at rejecting any ballot. ``I just hated to throw them out after people took the time to send them in, but so many didn't follow directions.''

(more)
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/10125322.htm

Media Blacks Out Voting Problems

2004-11-08T10:13:00.000-08:00

The "mainstream" media has fallen down on the job by failing to cover efforts since November 2 to ensure that all votes in the presidential election are accurately counted. The conclusion by John Kerry that an investigation could not possibly reverse the election may quite possibly have been premature. But the question that both activists and the media should be asking is not whether there was enough fraud and errors to decide the election, nor even whether there was more than is usual, but whether there was any fraud or errors, where the problems occurred, how they can be prevented in the future, and -- in particular -- whether new kinds of fraud were permitted by new technologies and by the privatization of our election process.

The ILCA is particularly concerned, because of indications, detailed below, that fraud may have occurred in areas where there are heavy populations of workers, African-Americans, and other progressive voters that our member organizations represent. People deserve to have their votes counted, and the strategists who will spend four years studying the election results deserve to have the facts. Some citizens and independent media outlets are raising these issues, but the corporate media is AWOL. An investigation by the media would seem especially appropriate, since the 2000 election led to investigations in Florida that determined the loser was occupying the White House.

Evidence existed before this election that quite possibly "the fix" was in: the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio was running the 2004 election in that state and had for weeks been demonstrating every intention to disenfranchise Democrats; the head of a company manufacturing electronic voting machines for use around the country had announced his intention to help Bush stay in the White House. The weaknesses and susceptibility to abuse of electronic voting machines, including the machines that many people vote on and the machines that add up the votes from multiple precincts, had been well documented.

(more)
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=N...

Election stolen, group suspects

2004-11-08T10:04:00.000-08:00

Nationwide, there's a loose coalition of groups protesting the election, and news reports surface every day detailing problems with things like electronic voting, people waiting hours to vote and supposedly nonpartisan election officials making decisions that helped Republicans.

Three Democratic congressmen - U.S. Reps. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, Jerrold Nadler of New York and Robert Wexler of Florida - have asked the General Accounting Office to investigate.

Whether the election is overturned or not, said Phyllis Hasbrouck, it's key in the future to require paper ballots and to ban touch-screen voting. "If we don't do this, we'll never have a real election again," she said.

(more)
http://www.madison.com/tct/home/topstories/index.php?ntid=15673&ntpid=0

Olbermann breaks mainstream media's silence about voter fraud

2004-11-07T22:43:00.000-08:00

Nov.7 - Keith Olbermann (MSNBC) writes an extensive entry in his blog regarding voter fraud.

"Thus the majority of the media has yet to touch the other stories of Ohio (the amazing Bush Times Ten voting machine in Gahanna) or the sagas of Ohio South: huge margins for Bush in Florida counties in which registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans 2-1, places where the optical scanning of precinct totals seems to have turned results from perfect matches for the pro-Kerry exit poll data, to Bush sweeps."

"We will be endeavoring to pull those stories, along with the Warren County farce, into the mainstream Monday and/or Tuesday nights on Countdown. That is, if we can wedge them in there among the news media’s main concerns since last Tuesday:"

(more)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6368819/

Surprising Pattern of Florida's Election Results

2004-11-07T22:24:00.000-08:00

Statistically impossible scenario with more Republican votes than registered Republicans, ONLY in Florida optical scan counties:

http://ustogether.org/Florida_Election.htm

Voters Unite lists machine errors

2004-11-07T22:21:00.000-08:00

Voters Unite is managing a list of voting machine errors, malfunctions, and irregularities throughout the country.

http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp?sort=date&selectstate=ALL&selectproblemtype=Machine+malfunction

House Judiciary Committee letter to GAO regarding voting machines

2004-11-07T15:36:00.000-08:00

November 5, 2004
The Honorable David M. Walker
Comptroller General of the United States
U.S. General Accountability Office
441 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20548

Dear Mr. Walker:

We write with an urgent request that the Government Accountability Office immediately undertake an investigation of the efficacy of voting machines and new technologies used in the 2004 election, how election officials responded to difficulties they encountered and what we can do in the future to improve our election systems and administration.

In particular, we are extremely troubled by the following reports, which we would also request that you review and evaluate for us:

In Columbus, Ohio, an electronic voting system gave President Bush nearly 4,000 extra votes. "Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes," Associated Press, November 5.

An electronic tally of a South Florida gambling ballot initiative failed to record thousands of votes. "South Florida OKs Slot Machines Proposal," Id.

In one North Carolina county, more than 4,500 votes were lost because officials mistakenly believed a computer that stored ballots could hold more data that it did. "Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes," Id.

In San Francisco, a glitch occurred with voting machines software that resulted in some votes being left uncounted. Id.In Florida, there was a substantial drop off in Democratic votes in proportion to voter registration in counties utilizing optical scan machines that was apparently not present in counties using other mechanisms. http://ustogether.org/election04/florida_vote_patt.htm

The House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff has received numerous reports from Youngstown, Ohio that voters who attempted to cast a vote for John Kerry on electronic voting machines saw that their votes were instead recorded as votes for George W. Bush. In South Florida, Congressman Wexler's staff received numerous reports from voters in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade Counties that they attempted to select John Kerry but George Bush appeared on the screen. CNN has reported that a dozen voters in six states, particularly Democrats in Florida, reported similar problems. This was among over one thousand such problems reported. "Touchscreen Voting Problems Reported," Associated Press, November 5.

Excessively long lines were a frequent problem throughout the nation in Democratic precincts, particularly in Florida and Ohio. In one Ohio voting precinct serving students from Kenyon College, some voters were required to wait more than eight hours to vote. "All Eyes on Ohio," Dan Lothian, CNN, November 3, http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/blog/1...blog/index... ..

We are literally receiving additional reports every minute and will transmit additional information as it comes available. The essence of democracy is the confidence of the electorate in the accuracy of voting methods and the fairness of voting procedures. In 2000, that confidence suffered terribly, and we fear that such a blow to our democracy may have occurred in 2004.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this inquiry.

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr. / Jerrold Nadler / Robert Wexler
Ranking Member / Ranking Member / Member of Congress
House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution

cc: Hon. F. James Sensenbrenner
Chairman

David Cobb calls for investigation of voting irregularities

2004-11-07T15:02:00.000-08:00

11/5 - Green Party 2004 presidential candidate David Cobb today called for a thorough investigation of reports of voting fraud, suppression and disenfranchisement.

“It’s Florida all over again. Except this time, it’s Ohio where the person responsible for counting votes is chair of the state Bush campaign. Once again there are widespread reports of intimidation, mis-marked ballots and the targeted disenfranchisement of African American voters. It’s very possible the election has been stolen for the second time in a row and again the Democrats have conceded rather than standing up for the right to vote and the right for people’s votes to count,” said Cobb.

Seven counties in Ohio used electronic voting machines which didn’t produce paper trails, meaning that fraud would be difficult if not impossible to detect. A number of these counties’ voting machines were provided by Diebold, Inc., whose CEO is Walden W. O'Dell, a major contributor to the Bush campaign who promised, much like JEB Bush did with Florida in 2000, to deliver Ohio to President Bush. No Republican has ever been elected president without winning Ohio.

(more)
http://www.votecobb.org/news1/document.2004-11-05.8107345760

Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked

2004-11-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

When I spoke with Jeff Fisher this morning (Saturday, November 06, 2004), the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 16th District said he was waiting for the FBI to show up. Fisher has evidence, he says, not only that the Florida election was hacked, but of who hacked it and how. And not just this year, he said, but that these same people had previously hacked the Democratic primary race in 2002 so that Jeb Bush would not have to run against Janet Reno, who presented a real threat to Jeb, but instead against Bill McBride, who Jeb beat.

"It was practice for a national effort," Fisher told me.

And some believe evidence is accumulating that the national effort happened on November 2, 2004.

In Baker County, for example, with 12,887 registered voters, 69.3% of them Democrats and 24.3% of them Republicans, the vote was only 2,180 for Kerry and 7,738 for Bush, the opposite of what is seen everywhere else in the country where registered Democrats largely voted for Kerry.

In Dixie County, with 4,988 registered voters, 77.5% of them Democrats and a mere 15% registered as Republicans, only 1,959 people voted for Kerry, but 4,433 voted for Bush.

(more)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm

2002: Arkansas Secretary of State pleads guilty to taking bribes in computer voting equipment case

2004-11-07T14:47:00.000-08:00

February 5, 2002 — Arkansas Secretary of State Bill McCuen pleaded guilty to felony charges that he took bribes, evaded taxes and accepted kickbacks. Part of the case involved Business Records Corp. , a Dallas company that sold Arkansas computerized systems for recording corporate and voter registration records.

Eschberger got immunity from prosecution for his cooperation. Today, he's a top executive of ES&S.

(more)
http://www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting-64.htm

NH: Nader/Camejo Challenge Electronic Voting Results in New Hampshire

2004-11-07T09:42:00.000-08:00

Washington, DC: The Nader/Camejo campaign has filed a challenge to the voting results in New Hampshire after receiving numerous complaints from voting rights activits. Below is Nader's letter to New Hampshire requesting a recount. Also, below is Nader's view on electronic voting without a paper trial. In addition, the Nader/Camejo campaign offered our campaign to poll watchers who wanted to be credentialed to be inside to monitor electronic voting. Hundreds of democracy activists in Maryland working with TrueVoteMD.org were credentialed to monitor polling through the Populist Party which was created by Nader-Camejo supporters in Maryland.

(more)
http://www.votenader.org/media_press/index.php?cid=400

TX: Latinos' support for Bush debated

2004-11-07T09:06:00.000-08:00

At first blush, the numbers seem too significant to be believed. And in truth, they might be.

National exit polls show that President Bush received an impressive 42 percent of the nationwide Latino vote Tuesday, seven to 10 points higher than his first run and possibly unprecedented for a modern-day Republican candidate.
But a prominent Latino organization claims the numbers are as incredible as they appear.

"It ain't true," said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the Willie C. Velazquez Institute, which researches Latino voting patterns. "Their poll showed more Latinos voting than there are registered Latino voters. That tells you everything you need to know."

That national exit poll showed more than 10 million Hispanics voted, he said, but Hispanic voters groups estimated the number at more than 7 million.

(more)
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2886704

OH: Warren County's vote tally walled off

2004-11-07T08:37:00.000-08:00

LEBANON - Citing concerns about potential terrorism, Warren County officials locked down the county administration building on election night and blocked anyone from observing the vote count as the nation awaited Ohio's returns.

County officials say they took the action Tuesday night for homeland security, although state elections officials said they didn't know of any other Ohio county that closed off its elections board. Media organizations protested, saying it violated the law and the public's rights. The Warren results, delayed for hours because of long lines that extended voting past the scheduled close of polls, were part of the last tallies that helped clinch President Bush's re-election.

"The media should have been permitted into the area where there was counting," Enquirer attorney Jack Greiner said. "This is a process that should be done in complete transparency and it wasn't."

(more)
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/05/loc_warrenvote05.html

The Ultimate Felony Against Democracy

2004-11-07T08:11:00.000-08:00

The hot story in the Blogosphere is that the "erroneous" exit polls that showed Kerry carrying Florida and Ohio (among other states) weren't erroneous at all - it was the numbers produced by paperless voting machines that were wrong, and Kerry actually won. As more and more analysis is done of what may (or may not) be the most massive election fraud in the history of the world, however, it's critical that we keep the largest issue at the forefront at all time: Why are We The People allowing private, for-profit corporations, answerable only to their officers and boards of directors, and loyal only to agendas and politicians that will enhance their profitability, to handle our votes?

(more)
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1104-38.htm

FL: Broward machines count backward

2004-11-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

FORT LAUDERDALE — It had to happen. Things were just going too smoothly.

Early Thursday, as Broward County elections officials wrapped up after a long day of canvassing votes, something unusual caught their eye. Tallies should go up as more votes are counted. That's simple math. But in some races, the numbers had gone . . . down.

Officials found the software used in Broward can handle only 32,000 votes per precinct. After that, the system starts counting backward.

Bad numbers showed up only in running tallies through the day, not the final one. Final tallies were reached by cross-checking machine totals, and officials are confident they are accurate.

The glitch affected only the 97,434 absentee ballots, Broward Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes said. All were placed in their own precincts and optical scanners totaled votes, which were then fed to a main computer.

(more)
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/.../a29a_BROWVOTE_1105.html

NC: Election problems due to a software glitch

2004-11-07T08:03:00.000-08:00

A systems software glitch in Craven County's electronic voting equipment is being blamed for a vote miscount that, when corrected, changed the outcome of at least one race in Tuesday's election.

Then, in the rush to make right the miscalculation that swelled the number of votes for president here by 11,283 more votes than the total number cast, a human mistake further delayed accurate totals for the 40,534 who voted.

(more)
http://www.newbernsj.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=18297&Section=Local

Voting Group Finds Irregularities in South

2004-11-07T08:01:00.000-08:00

ATLANTA (AP) - A national voting rights group says it documented hundreds of voting irregularities affecting poor and minority voters in seven Southern states - from long lines and faulty equipment to deliberate voter intimidation.

Among their preliminary findings, the group listed a shortage of early voting locations in Duval County, Fla., one of the nation's largest counties in area and voting-age population, the failure of electronic voting machines in three South Carolina counties, and the loss of votes at a North Carolina precinct when too much information was stored on a computer unit.
The group plans to issue its more detailed, final report in about two weeks.

(more)
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-main-9-l1&flok=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20041105%2F1517861083.htm&sc=1110

Voters Across U.S. Report Nearly 1,100 Problems With Electronic Voting Machines

2004-11-06T21:18:00.000-08:00

Voters nationwide reported some 1,100 problems with electronic voting machines on Tuesday, including trouble choosing their intended candidates.

The e-voting glitches reported to the Election Protection Coalition, an umbrella group of volunteer poll monitors that set up a telephone hotline, included malfunctions blamed on everything from power outages to incompetent poll workers.

But there were also several dozen voters in six states particularly Democrats in Florida who said the wrong candidates appeared on their touch-screen machine's checkout screen, the coalition said.

In many cases, voters said they intended to select John Kerry but when the computer asked them to verify the choice it showed them instead opting for President Bush, the group said.

(more)
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=220927

Computer Voting Is Open to Easy Fraud

2004-11-06T21:15:00.000-08:00

The systems, in which voters are given computer-chip-bearing smart cards to operate the machines, could be tricked by anyone with $100 worth of computer equipment, said Adam Stubblefield, a co-author of the paper.

"With what we found, practically anyone in the country — from a teenager on up — could produce these smart cards that could allow someone to vote as many times as they like," Mr. Stubblefield said.

The software was initially obtained by critics of electronic voting, who discovered it on a Diebold Internet site in January. This is the first review of the software by recognized computer security experts.

(more)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/24/technology/24VOTE.html

NC: over 4,500 votes lost

2004-11-06T21:13:00.000-08:00

In one North Carolina county, more than 4,500 votes were lost because officials misjudged the amount of data that could be stored electronically by a computer.

(more)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29190-2004Nov5.html

"Kerry won. Here are the facts."

2004-11-06T21:08:00.000-08:00

Most voters in Ohio thought they were voting for Kerry. At 1:05 a.m. Wednesday morning, CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent. The exit polls were later combined with—and therefore contaminated by—the tabulated results, ultimately becoming a mirror of the apparent actual vote. Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent. Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state.

So what's going on here? Answer: the exit polls are accurate. Pollsters ask, "Who did you vote for?" Unfortunately, they don't ask the crucial, question, "Was your vote counted?" The voters don't know.

Here's why. Although the exit polls show that most voters in Ohio punched cards for Kerry-Edwards, thousands of these votes were simply not recorded. This was predictable and it was predicted. [See TomPaine.com, "An Election Spoiled Rotten," November 1.]

(more)
http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=392&row=0

OH: Angry residents storm State House in response to massive voter suppression and corruption

2004-11-06T21:02:00.000-08:00

November 3 - Toledo, Ohio

Hundreds of angry Ohio residents marched through the streets of Columbus—Ohio’s Capital—this evening and stormed the Ohio State House, defying orders and arrest threats from Ohio State Troopers. "O-H-I-O ! suppressed democracy has got to go,"they chanted. After troopers pushed and scuffled with people, nearly a hundred people took over the steps and entrance to the State’s giant white column capital building and refused repeated orders to disperse or face arrest. People prepared for arrests, ready to face jail—writing lawyers phone numbers on their arms, signing jail support lists and discussing non-cooperation and active resistance (linking arms, but not fighting back).

A freshly painted banner held on the steps read "ONE VOTE DENIED = DEMOCRACY IN TROUBLE! 100’S OF 1000’S OF VOTES SURPRESSED = DEMOCRACY FAILED" articulated the crisis.

(more)
http://michiganimc.org/feature/display/7644/index.php

Presidential Votes Miscast on E-Voting Machines Across the Country

2004-11-06T20:56:00.000-08:00

Voters from at least half a dozen states reported that touch-screen voting machines had incorrectly recorded their choices, including for president.

Voters discovered the problems when checking the review screen at the end of the voting process. They found, to their surprise, that the machines indicated that they voted for one candidate when they had voted for another. When voters tried to correct the problem, the machine often made the same error several times. While in most cases the situation was reportedly resolved, many voters remain uneasy about whether the proper vote was ultimately cast. Meanwhile, voting experts are concerned that other voters are experiencing the problem, but failing to notice that the machine is indicating the wrong choice on the "summary" screen.

(more)
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/4154

FL: Palm Beach County logs 88,000 more votes than voters

2004-11-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

According to the official election results posted on the Palm Beach County election website, 542,835 ballots were cast for a presidential candidate while only 454,427 voters turned out for the election (including absentee). This leaves a discrepancy of 88,408 votes cast for the presidential candidates.

Other election oddities occurred throughout Florida with some counties registering a 400% increase in expected voter turnout among Republicans while Democrats supposedly experienced a -60% decline in expected support within certain counties. The 50+ counties experiencing the high percentage fluctuations in expected turnout used optical scan voting machines on November 2nd.

(more)
http://www.washingtondispatch.com/spectrum/archives/000715.html

OH: computer error gives Bush 3,893 extra votes

2004-11-06T20:33:00.000-08:00

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A computer error with a voting machine cartridge gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in a Gahanna precinct.

Franklin County's unofficial results gave Bush 4,258 votes to Democratic challenger John Kerry's 260 votes in Precinct 1B. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct.

(more)
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10103910.htm?1c

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041105/ap_on_el_pr/voting_problems

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65609,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2

http://www.washingtondispatch.com/spectrum/archives/000712.html

Fixing the Vote

2004-11-06T20:15:00.000-08:00

"Electronic voting machines promise to make elections more accurate than ever before, but only if certain problems--with the machines and the wider electoral process--are rectified"

(more)
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=00018DD5-73E7-1151-B57F83414B7F0000

Messy Election 2004

2004-11-06T19:54:00.000-08:00

Despite mainstream media insisting that the 2004 United States Presidential Election went off without a hitch, there were in fact serious problems that are indicative of a severely flawed or deliberately corrupt system.

Most of these problems involve "black box" voting machines -- computers that simply accept votes, but provide no receipt or paper printout to verify. Aside from errors and malfunctions, there is much evidence showing that these machines can be easily manipulated or "hacked" to change the results.

These issues that need to be investigated and resolved immediately.

The first step to repairing the division in our country is to ensure a fair democratic process where officials are elected by the people, not by malfunctioning or rigged computers!