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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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!

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.

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

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/

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?

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

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

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