http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4766
Monday 13th December 2004 (10h49) : Diebold vs. Porta-Johns
Open Letter to Mike Jacobsen of Diebold:
Two weeks ago I asked John Kerry to pull America out of the water. http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_15689.shtml
Now I am asking you, Director of Global Communications for Diebold -- and the one that I now realize has the real power -- to begin to fix America’s reputation that that has been tarnished by Diebold’s poorly designed voting systems, suitable for soiled diapers.
America is in the commode. Reach in. Our hand is up and we are sinking. Objects are flying, splashing all around us. Your voting machines are the Kevlar ( http://www.kevlar.com/ ) to our society. Protect us; un-flush us! Other countries look to our example. Why do you embarrass us so?
Let me rephrase this. Your machines may get banned, recalled, turned into Porta-Johns® ( www.toilets.com ) if you do not get your act together. Save your product line before we return to paper balloting and you lose 100% market share. If you do not know what I am talking about, please rent Steve Martin’s "The Jerk" to to what happend to his Opti-Grab "glasses holder." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079367/
Your machines have failed us on two levels. They have failed us perceptually, that is, they do not give the APPEARANCE of fair and honest elections and they have failed us empirically. Do we need more evidence than the negative 16,022 votes for Gore in Florida or a negative 25 million in Younstown, Ohio? Why do these things happen in battleground states? Forget states, results only need to be manipulated a dozen or so battleground COUNTIES! This can be done at a rate of 90 seconds per County. Please read REPUBLICAN Chuck Herrin’s website: http://www.chuckherrin.com/hackthevote.htm I also authored an article "How to Hack an Election in 90 seconds" for educational (not criminal) purposes.
You requested a retraction of my challenge in the eighth paragraph of my 12/9 "Catch-22 of Voting" article, which we complied with ( http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_16042.shtml ). Here is the retraction: http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_16087.shtml and I also made the change to: http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/12/con04543.html I have found no stray copies on the internet so we should be ok.
Nevertheless, rather than telling us you had no felon for check fraud in a high-level development position you wanted us to know this person was not the absolute top dog and was only there for a short time. Judging by Enron and Worldcom, we know the top dog doesn’t know what is going on with the company anyway and it does not take long to fudge the numbers. We can trust what CEO’s saaay, right?
So we are to feel better about your voting machines? Some nugget you tossed us. Here are the points you have NO trouble with:
"Naysayers (some voted for Kerry) are eerily quiet and sure aren’t ignoring or laughing at us in the tin foil hat crowd anymore. The light in the tunnel may be an oncoming train and my advice to the lovers of fantasy is to get out of the way. There is just too much evidence to say "we lost, blah, blah, blah." I say, prove the incumbent won! Give us a nugget like Republicans had to wait 5 hours to vote in Stepford County RED TEXAS LAND, or punch card ballots overwhelmingly favored Kerry, or Mitofsky used a new exit polling method that distorted Zogby’s analysis, or that Simon’s early exit poll numbers from CNN were hacked, or another example of late undecideds breaking for the incumbent, or one of the voting machine companies’ CEOs voted for Dukakis, or that an IT programmer at Diebold did NOT have a criminal record in check fraud using computers, or that Palm Beach County has a good reason for withholding "top-secret" election records, or there was a good reason why election officials in Volusia County to come in early to the warehouse - not their election offices -- on a Saturday morning after the election, or that Republican Chuck Hagel did not work at a major vote machine manufacturer shortly before winning his congressional seat. Please give us something besides "we won, look at the final vote total." We should be happy the majority felt it necessary to report a vote total at all!"
We would also hope you would worry less about the press and focus your efforts on making your machines at least give the appearance of FAIR and HONEST vote counting. Negative 16,022 votes in Volusia County for Gore, indeed! Negative 25 million in Youngstown, Ohio THIS TIME on an ES&S Votronic voting machine, which was discarded from official results, according to a Nov. 3 report in Youngstown’s Vindicator newspaper http://www.vindy.com/basic/news/281829446390855.php I am a human factors professional by training and would welcome a job at Diebold. Putting people like me on his staff would help his public relations image AND increase voters’ confidence.
Moreover, the FBI should focus an investigation on voter suppression and discarded ballots in Ohio (Franklin and Warren counties) while pinpointing electronic vote rigging and hacking in FLORIDA wherever non-paper trail voting machines are located (Broward? Palm Beach?). You, Mike, would not know what one of his programmers put in the code anyway or how easy it is to hack with legal and illegal backdoors. Remember, it only takes a few key battleground counties.... The fact that ANY of Diebold’s IT staff is partisan or has criminal record is a huge red flag, whether they worked one day or 10 years. Did Jeffrey Dean have passwords? Four lines of code could be inserted in one day. Was any of his GES work integrated, migrated? With printers in the precincts these guys would need to be a lot more clever at rigging these machines. Not that they do, but they COULD.
Some people heard my speech today at the State Capitol in Raleigh in which I quote the Grinch regarding my Christmas wish list: "No you may not have printers. They cost over $99 a piece which could add up to $250,000 dollars for your State. Besides the voting machines are infallible so you do not need printers (in the precincts). Merry Christmas.”
Well, turns out the David is beating Goliath after all, in breaking news: Gary Bartlett, Director of North Carolina’s State Board of Elections has suggested that: "North Carolina will become the third state -- following Nevada and California -- to put printers in precincts." Mr. Bartlett is also receptive to open source coding and wants more state authority in machine selection along with standards and training. Looks like Christmas is coming early!
Telling us the voting machines are infallible has gone down with the Titanic into the "commode o’ fiction." If we are nice, we will pull YOU from the water. Our first meeting for the North Carolina’s new Voting Study Commission examining the voting problems is this tomorrow at 10 am, room 641 in the the State Legislative Office Building. Time to compromise? Got any programmers willing to defend these swiss cheese systems?
Now was that so unreasonable? You should be glad, thus far, we have not YET pushed for complete removal of your machines at the voter level. One scenario indicates that the only machines needed are the op-scan readers to be used by bi-partisan election officials only at the end of the night (like in uncontroversial Canada). The results would be published at precinct level before transmitting to central tabulator. Another option is to return to hand-counting since we end up doing it anyway. However, I believe printers will make us more confident in your current system and keep Diebold’s market position secure if implemented properly.
Then I can get behind King George II and even buy Diebold stock.
So what is it gonna be? Flush or not to flush?
Robin Baneth, M.S., M.A. Computer Consultant Raleigh, North Carolina rbaneth@mindspring.comby : Robin BanethMonday 13th December 2004
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Diebold's growth in Middle East
It will be interesting to see how Diebold, builder of flawed easily hackable voting systems, has a great security story with its ATMs (all of which provide a paper trail). Add to the mix that they are making moves in the middle east, I have to wonder if Diebolds job was to provide insecure voting systems (perhaps with the cheapest talent money can buy) as a favor to the whitehouse in order that they get the best buisiness contacts abroad. Let's revisit this in six months and see what direction their buisiness takes them.
Diebold's stock price is still climbing nicely: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=DBD&t=5y
http://www.ameinfo.com/news/Detailed/50775.html
New Riyad Bank, Alhamrani agreements underline Diebold's growth in Middle East
Diebold, Incorporated (NYSE: 'DBD') has signed a deal with the Riyad Bank of Saudi Arabia to deploy 100 Diebold Opteva automated teller machines (ATMs) across the bank's network in a move that underlines the company's continued growth in the Middle East.
Diebold, Incorporated has signed a deal with the Riyad Bank of Saudi Arabia to deploy 100 Diebold Opteva automated teller machines.
The installations will be maintained and serviced by the Alhamrani Universal Company (Universal/AU) that has also just reinforced its exclusive distribution agreement with Diebold to extend its commercial reach in Saudi Arabia to other markets in the Gulf, including Dubai, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. One of the largest financial institutions in the Middle East, the Riyad Bank is a modern, financial-services company with a strong and growing retail and corporate banking franchise in Saudi Arabia and has a full-service approach, delivered through an accessible network of 200 branches, now including more than 650 ATMs. About 30 ATMs will be installed this month (December 2004) and the remainder during 2005. This will expand the bank's automated branch network, providing added convenience to its recently enhanced telephone, Internet and mobile banking services. Innovation, accessibility and convenience are all part of the Diebold Opteva family. Riyad Bank has purchased a mix of Diebold Opteva 720 advanced-function lobby ATMs and Opteva 740 advanced-function, through-the-wall, drive-up ATMs. Both run on Agilis™, Diebold's multi-vendor software platform. With the expansion of its ATM network, Riyad Bank will now provide its customers with a variety of options for electronic financial transactions (EFTs). When the bank implements Diebold's Deposit Automation solutions, its customers will also have the ability to deposit cash directly into their personal accounts without the need to wait for access to a bank teller. Diebold's Deposit Automation solution enables Opteva to count notes in bulk and read checks, processing both as a single-deposit transaction displayed on the screen and verified with a receipt. 'Our retail customers are attracted to the bank's innovative approach to consumer finance products and investment products alike,' said Riyadh Al-Zahrani, vice president and remote banking manager for Riyad Bank. 'For example, we offer the best deal on credit cards in the Kingdom as a result of an industry-leading initiative. Accessibility and convenience are also key benefits of being a Riyad Bank customer, and this was the reason for choosing Diebold Opteva ATMs. After a full evaluation of both our customers' needs and those of the bank, we picked Diebold's Opteva ATMs because of their unique functionality and potential for expansion.' Since the 1980s, Alhamrani has been Diebold's exclusive distributor of ATMs and physical and electronic security products in Saudi Arabia. Diebold ATMs are supported and maintained by Alhamrani's network of 20 service-support centres. More than 120 qualified technical and engineering staff members are deployed to service ATMs through the company's centralised ATM help desk in Jeddah. Diebold and Alhamrani are also both poised to further develop a more competitive and professional customer-service oriented business. They will expand their partnership by leveraging Alhamrani's expertise in the service area, strengthening Diebold support in the Gulf and Middle East region, when and where required. Diebold customers within the region can expect higher-quality maintenance and support for terminals and software in their ATM networks. The geographic proximity of Alhamrani's support centres will enable the company to provide faster response to requests for service. Response time will be optimized due to better availability of spares stock, shorter shipment distances for parts, access to a more sophisticated repair center and more qualified technical staff that are already familiar with and experienced in specific ATM configurations in the region. The expanded partnership, which comes as the result of years of collaboration between the companies, is intended to increase Diebold's business and consolidate sales operations in the region. The growing collaboration will provide considerable improvements in the support services available to customers in the Gulf and Middle East region, leveraging the infrastructures of Alhamrani and Diebold as reputable and well-positioned companies.
Diebold's stock price is still climbing nicely: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=DBD&t=5y
http://www.ameinfo.com/news/Detailed/50775.html
New Riyad Bank, Alhamrani agreements underline Diebold's growth in Middle East
Diebold, Incorporated (NYSE: 'DBD') has signed a deal with the Riyad Bank of Saudi Arabia to deploy 100 Diebold Opteva automated teller machines (ATMs) across the bank's network in a move that underlines the company's continued growth in the Middle East.
Diebold, Incorporated has signed a deal with the Riyad Bank of Saudi Arabia to deploy 100 Diebold Opteva automated teller machines.
The installations will be maintained and serviced by the Alhamrani Universal Company (Universal/AU) that has also just reinforced its exclusive distribution agreement with Diebold to extend its commercial reach in Saudi Arabia to other markets in the Gulf, including Dubai, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. One of the largest financial institutions in the Middle East, the Riyad Bank is a modern, financial-services company with a strong and growing retail and corporate banking franchise in Saudi Arabia and has a full-service approach, delivered through an accessible network of 200 branches, now including more than 650 ATMs. About 30 ATMs will be installed this month (December 2004) and the remainder during 2005. This will expand the bank's automated branch network, providing added convenience to its recently enhanced telephone, Internet and mobile banking services. Innovation, accessibility and convenience are all part of the Diebold Opteva family. Riyad Bank has purchased a mix of Diebold Opteva 720 advanced-function lobby ATMs and Opteva 740 advanced-function, through-the-wall, drive-up ATMs. Both run on Agilis™, Diebold's multi-vendor software platform. With the expansion of its ATM network, Riyad Bank will now provide its customers with a variety of options for electronic financial transactions (EFTs). When the bank implements Diebold's Deposit Automation solutions, its customers will also have the ability to deposit cash directly into their personal accounts without the need to wait for access to a bank teller. Diebold's Deposit Automation solution enables Opteva to count notes in bulk and read checks, processing both as a single-deposit transaction displayed on the screen and verified with a receipt. 'Our retail customers are attracted to the bank's innovative approach to consumer finance products and investment products alike,' said Riyadh Al-Zahrani, vice president and remote banking manager for Riyad Bank. 'For example, we offer the best deal on credit cards in the Kingdom as a result of an industry-leading initiative. Accessibility and convenience are also key benefits of being a Riyad Bank customer, and this was the reason for choosing Diebold Opteva ATMs. After a full evaluation of both our customers' needs and those of the bank, we picked Diebold's Opteva ATMs because of their unique functionality and potential for expansion.' Since the 1980s, Alhamrani has been Diebold's exclusive distributor of ATMs and physical and electronic security products in Saudi Arabia. Diebold ATMs are supported and maintained by Alhamrani's network of 20 service-support centres. More than 120 qualified technical and engineering staff members are deployed to service ATMs through the company's centralised ATM help desk in Jeddah. Diebold and Alhamrani are also both poised to further develop a more competitive and professional customer-service oriented business. They will expand their partnership by leveraging Alhamrani's expertise in the service area, strengthening Diebold support in the Gulf and Middle East region, when and where required. Diebold customers within the region can expect higher-quality maintenance and support for terminals and software in their ATM networks. The geographic proximity of Alhamrani's support centres will enable the company to provide faster response to requests for service. Response time will be optimized due to better availability of spares stock, shorter shipment distances for parts, access to a more sophisticated repair center and more qualified technical staff that are already familiar with and experienced in specific ATM configurations in the region. The expanded partnership, which comes as the result of years of collaboration between the companies, is intended to increase Diebold's business and consolidate sales operations in the region. The growing collaboration will provide considerable improvements in the support services available to customers in the Gulf and Middle East region, leveraging the infrastructures of Alhamrani and Diebold as reputable and well-positioned companies.
Diebold to Settle with California
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3449691
December 17, 2004 Diebold to Settle with California By Clint Boulton
A California court has approved a $2.6 million settlement between Diebold and the State of California and Alameda County. The state and county had sued Diebold for fraudulent claims about the security of its electronic voting machines.
Diebold, whose subsidiary Diebold Election Systems manufactures the voting machines at the heart of the suit, will pay the state $2.6 million, and Alameda County another $100,000.
The court ordered that $500,000 of the lump sum be used to help form a voter education and poll worker training program in California, coordinated through the University of California Institute of Governmental Studies.
Diebold has also agreed to certain technology and reporting obligations that will provide election officials with a better understanding of how to use its voting machines.
The settlement is the fruit of a suit filed in September by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who argued that Diebold was not truthful about the security and reliability of its electronic voting machines.
Lockyer, who earlier dropped a criminal probe into Diebold, claimed that Diebold provided Alameda County with software that was not certified by the government. Researchers earlier determined the machines contained dangerous flaws.
Researchers said the voting system could easily allow someone to cast multiple votes in the same election. Last April, California set stringent standards for electronic voting by ordering new security measures for e-voting machines.
December 17, 2004 Diebold to Settle with California By Clint Boulton
A California court has approved a $2.6 million settlement between Diebold and the State of California and Alameda County. The state and county had sued Diebold for fraudulent claims about the security of its electronic voting machines.
Diebold, whose subsidiary Diebold Election Systems manufactures the voting machines at the heart of the suit, will pay the state $2.6 million, and Alameda County another $100,000.
The court ordered that $500,000 of the lump sum be used to help form a voter education and poll worker training program in California, coordinated through the University of California Institute of Governmental Studies.
Diebold has also agreed to certain technology and reporting obligations that will provide election officials with a better understanding of how to use its voting machines.
The settlement is the fruit of a suit filed in September by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who argued that Diebold was not truthful about the security and reliability of its electronic voting machines.
Lockyer, who earlier dropped a criminal probe into Diebold, claimed that Diebold provided Alameda County with software that was not certified by the government. Researchers earlier determined the machines contained dangerous flaws.
Researchers said the voting system could easily allow someone to cast multiple votes in the same election. Last April, California set stringent standards for electronic voting by ordering new security measures for e-voting machines.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Election Fraud Software Whistleblower Update
http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2004/Dec/EEN41b862e1c8b9d.html
Election Fraud Software Whistleblower Update
Following up on a developing story reported in Elites TV two days ago, Clinton Curtis, the programmer who alleges that he was asked to develop vote tampering software by Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), has appeared in an extensive inteview with Air America, http://www.airamericaradio.com/ and spoke in person with staff members for the House Judiciary Committee's Democratic caucus.
A spokesperson for the House Judiciary's Democrats said that Curtis did meet with several of its staff people who have put in calls to attempt to corroborate his story. The spokesperson also verified that other members of the media, including reporters from the New York Times, were working on the story.
While Curtis' allegations do not specifically mention actual tampering with an election, if true they do point to interest by elected Republican officials into techniques by which voting totals from electronic voting machines might be altered. Moreover, it would suggest this interest, and the willingness to move past the theoretical stage, goes back at least four years to half a year or more before the disputed election of 2000. More reports on this developing story will appear here at Elites TV.
Steven Leser, stevenleser@walla.com
Election Fraud Software Whistleblower Update
Following up on a developing story reported in Elites TV two days ago, Clinton Curtis, the programmer who alleges that he was asked to develop vote tampering software by Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), has appeared in an extensive inteview with Air America, http://www.airamericaradio.com/ and spoke in person with staff members for the House Judiciary Committee's Democratic caucus.
A spokesperson for the House Judiciary's Democrats said that Curtis did meet with several of its staff people who have put in calls to attempt to corroborate his story. The spokesperson also verified that other members of the media, including reporters from the New York Times, were working on the story.
While Curtis' allegations do not specifically mention actual tampering with an election, if true they do point to interest by elected Republican officials into techniques by which voting totals from electronic voting machines might be altered. Moreover, it would suggest this interest, and the willingness to move past the theoretical stage, goes back at least four years to half a year or more before the disputed election of 2000. More reports on this developing story will appear here at Elites TV.
Steven Leser, stevenleser@walla.com
Election protest aimed at vote fraud
Election protest aimed at vote fraud
Dec. 22, 2004 12:00 AM
Regarding "Let's, unh . . . protest" (Editorial, Friday):
I participated in the rally for election reform at the state Capitol on Dec. 12. I painted the sign that keeps turning up in your coverage: "Rage against the voting machine."
But it's clear, from the misinformation and wild leaps to strange conclusions in your editorial, that you weren't there.
advertisement
Why drag Arizona into election fraud protests, your editorial asks? Simple answer: This event was only one of the 51 capitol marches that took place all over these United States on Dec. 12. Yes, even the "blue states" - because this was not a partisan protest.
All 50 states are united - as our nation's name suggests - and all are equally invested in our democracy. It's that simple.
Did we have fraud in Arizona? One of my college students registered to vote for the first time when he was approached by a canvasser at ASU last spring. He is an Independent, so imagine his surprise when his voter registration card arrived declaring him an Arizona Republican.
But his bigger shock came when he and his mother, a lifelong Democratic activist, went to the polls on Election Day, only to discover that the newly registered Republican was on the voter roster, but the lifelong Democrat had mysteriously vanished. She had to cast a provisional ballot, also known as an "electoral placebo."
My student is discouraged with the process, and so are many of his peers. Calling for repair of our broken system is necessary to restore their faith - and the faith of every American in all 50 states. It is the very opposite of cynicism, since it is based on faith that Americans can and will do the right thing once they see a problem.
Would you buy a lottery ticket or use an ATM or make a credit-card purchase without a paper receipt? Do you expect the phone company to correct that computer-generated error in your bill?
Demanding integrity and competence in our election processes doesn't make us "bitter-enders." It makes us patriots and keeps us free. - Linda Evans, Gilbert
Dec. 22, 2004 12:00 AM
Regarding "Let's, unh . . . protest" (Editorial, Friday):
I participated in the rally for election reform at the state Capitol on Dec. 12. I painted the sign that keeps turning up in your coverage: "Rage against the voting machine."
But it's clear, from the misinformation and wild leaps to strange conclusions in your editorial, that you weren't there.
advertisement
Why drag Arizona into election fraud protests, your editorial asks? Simple answer: This event was only one of the 51 capitol marches that took place all over these United States on Dec. 12. Yes, even the "blue states" - because this was not a partisan protest.
All 50 states are united - as our nation's name suggests - and all are equally invested in our democracy. It's that simple.
Did we have fraud in Arizona? One of my college students registered to vote for the first time when he was approached by a canvasser at ASU last spring. He is an Independent, so imagine his surprise when his voter registration card arrived declaring him an Arizona Republican.
But his bigger shock came when he and his mother, a lifelong Democratic activist, went to the polls on Election Day, only to discover that the newly registered Republican was on the voter roster, but the lifelong Democrat had mysteriously vanished. She had to cast a provisional ballot, also known as an "electoral placebo."
My student is discouraged with the process, and so are many of his peers. Calling for repair of our broken system is necessary to restore their faith - and the faith of every American in all 50 states. It is the very opposite of cynicism, since it is based on faith that Americans can and will do the right thing once they see a problem.
Would you buy a lottery ticket or use an ATM or make a credit-card purchase without a paper receipt? Do you expect the phone company to correct that computer-generated error in your bill?
Demanding integrity and competence in our election processes doesn't make us "bitter-enders." It makes us patriots and keeps us free. - Linda Evans, Gilbert
Video Supporting Ohio Vote Fraud Claim Revealed
Video Supporting Ohio Vote Fraud Claim Revealed
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Report
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books - 'War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know' and 'The Greatest Sedition Is Silence.'
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Report
Thursday 23 December 2004
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Truthout has come into possession of video from Hocking County, Ohio. The video was recorded by a documentary film crew that was reporting on the Ohio election. The crew interviewed a technician from Triad Systems. In a report released by truthout on December 15, 2004, we reported on an affidavit filed by Sherole Eaton, Hocking County deputy director of elections. In her affidavit, Eaton stated:
On Friday, December 10 2004, Michael from TriAd called in the AM to inform us that he would be in our office in the PM on the same day. I asked him why he was visiting us. He said, "to check out your tabulator, computer, and that the attorneys will be asking some tricky questions and he wanted to go over some of the questions they maybe ask." He also added that there would be no charge for this service.
He arrived at about 12:30PM. I hung his coat up and it was very heavy. I made a comment about it being so heavy. He, Lisa Schwartze and I chatted for a few minutes. He proceeded to go to the room where our computer and tabulation machine is kept. I followed him into the room. I had my back to him when he turned the computer on. He stated that the computer was not coming up. I did see some commands at the lower left hand of the screen but no menu. He said that the battery in the computer was dead and that the stored information was gone. He said that he could put a patch on it and fix it. My main concern was - what if this happened when we were ready to do the recount. He proceeded to take the computer apart and call his offices to get information to input into our computer. Our computer is fourteen years old and as far as I know had always worked in the past. I asked him if the older computer, that is in the same room. could be used for the recount. I don't remember exactly what he said but I did relay to him that the computer was old and a spare. At some point he asked if he could take the spare computer apart and I said "yes". He took both computers apart. I don't remember seeing any tools and he asked Sue Wallace, Clerk, for a screwdriver. She got it for him. At this point I was frustrated about the computer not performing and feared that it wouldn't work for the recount. I called Gerald Robinette, board chairman, to inform him regarding the computer problem and asked him if we could have Tri Ad come to our offices to run the program and tabulator for the recount. Gerald talked on the phone with Michael and Michael assured Gerald that he could fix our computer. He worked on the computer until about 3:00 PM and then asked me which precinct and the number of the precinct we were going to count. I told him, Good Hope 1 # 17. He went back into the tabulation room. Shortly after that he (illegible) stated that the computer was ready for the recount and told us not to turn the computer off so it would charge up.
Before Lisa ran the tests, Michael said to turn the computer off. Lisa said, " I thought you said we weren't supposed to turn it off." He said turn it off and right back on and it should come up. It did come up and Lisa ran the tests. Michael gave us instructions on how to explain the rotarien, what the tests mean, etc. No advice on how to handle the attorneys but to have our Prosecuting Attorney at the recount to answer any of their legal questions. He said not to turn the computer off until after the recount.
He advised Lisa and I on how to post a "cheat sheet" on the wall so that only the board members and staff would know about it and and what the codes meant so the count would come out perfect and we wouldn't have to do a full hand recount of the county. He left about 5:00 PM.
My faith in Tri Ad and the Xenia staff has been nothing but good. The realization that this company and staff would do anything to dishonor or disrupt the voting process is distressing to me and hard to believe. I'm being completely objective about the above statements and the reason I'm bringing this forward is to, hopefully, rule out any wrongdoing.
The video of the technician buttresses her claims, and further reveals that the Triad representative acted in the same manner in several other counties besides Hocking.
The revelation of this video has motivated Rep. John Conyers, ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, to post a letter to Brett Rapp, President of Triad Systems. In the letter, Conyers states:
I have just reviewed a tape prepared by the documentarian Lynda Byrket of the hearing held by the Hocking County Board of Elections on December 20, and based on that tape I have more questions and concerns than ever about the conduct of your firm in connection with the Ohio presidential election and recount. In particular, I am concerned that your company has operated - either intentionally or negligently - in a manner which will thwart the recount law in Ohio by preventing validly cast ballots in the presidential election from being counted.
You have done this by preparing "cheat sheets" providing county election officials with information such that they would more easily be able to ignore valid ballots that were thrown out by the machines during the initial count. The purpose of the Ohio recount law is to randomly check vote counts to see if they match machine counts. By attempting to ascertain the precinct to be recounted in advance, and than informing the election officials of the number of votes they need to count by hand to make sure it matches the machine count is an invitation to completely ignore the purpose of the recount law.
The mounting evidence of election tampering by Triad representatives has motivated 2004 Presidential candidate John Kerry to join with Green Party and Libertarian Party representatives in their Ohio recount effort. John Kerry will file today, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, papers in support of the Green Party/Libertarian Party recount effort. Specifically, Kerry will be filing a request for expedited discovery regarding Triad Systems voting machines, as well as a motion for a preservation order to protect any and all discovery and preserve any evidence on this matter.
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books - 'War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know' and 'The Greatest Sedition Is Silence.'
Monday, December 13, 2004
Former US Congressman Jailed When Attempting to deliver a letter
Former US Congressman Jailed
http://www.onnnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=2668654&nav=LQlCTzoL
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A former US congressmen went from the halls of congress to the halls of justice and was jailed in Columbus after attempting to deliver a letter about voting irregularities to Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.
Dan Hamburg was a California congressman in the early 1990s. This week Hamburg and his wife have been part of a group watching the latest developments in the Ohio recount.
Columbus police arrested Hamburg and his wife, Carrie, Wednesday for trespassing after refusing to leave a private downtown building that houses the secretary's office. Hamburg was an elected democrat, then a green and then a libertarian candidate in California.
The political activist and a small group with him said they wanted Blackwell to answer questions about voting problems from the November election.
Blackwell's office says it was private tenants in the building who asked security to call the officers.
Hamburg did not have an appointment with Blackwell and refused to leave a restaurant.
From Selma to Ohio: A Report from the Conyers Hearing
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/120904W.shtml
Author's Note | To read my blog report from the hearing today, please go here. Statements made and then placed on the record during the hearing can be found here. - wrp
From Selma to Ohio: A Report from the Conyers Hearing
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Report
Wednesday 08 December 2004
It looked for all the world like a real hearing. Along the far wall were arrayed Congressional Representatives from the Judiciary Committee. Before them at a long table sat witnesses and experts in front of microphones, prepared to give testimony on the record. Behind the witnesses sat row upon row of everyday citizens who came out to watch the proceedings; the crowd was so large that an overflow room needed to be opened on another floor. Along both walls were arrayed more than a dozen television cameras.
It looked like a real hearing but it wasn’t, because despite the issuing of invitations by the Democratic Minority members to their GOP Majority brethren on the Judiciary Committee, not one Republican congressman bothered to show up or give their blessing to the proceedings. Judiciary staffers from the Minority office told me the GOP majority would not even allow this hearing to be videotaped on the television equipment that came with the hearing room, and so they were forced to pester C-SPAN into showing up. They did, along with a number of other media outlets, but the effect was a quieting of the entire event.
In the official sense, then, this was not a true Congressional hearing. It bore no weight in law. One cannot overstate, however, the importance of what took place in room 2237 of the Rayburn House Office Building today. In this place was discussed the very future of participatory democracy in America, and the serious problems that future holds if the allegations of vote fraud in Ohio and elsewhere which were the subject of this hearing, are not dealt with in immediate and dynamic fashion.
It all began with a letter from Rep. John Conyers to Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell. In that letter, Conyers described a long series of irregularities in the Ohio Presidential election that amounted to an accusation of fraud. The letter was the basis for today’s hearing, and made sure to invite Blackwell to participate. It is worth noting that Blackwell did not show up today.
The hearing itself was a showcase for both fact and passion. The witnesses, the Representatives before them, and the crowd that filled the room lit the place up with a concerned electricity. Some believed the irregularities and outright fraud which marred the Ohio vote require immediate redress, a successful completion of which could come to overthrow the results of last month's election. Others saw the hearings as a gift to their children and the future, a means to ensure that any and all elections to come will not suffer the kind of nonsense that afflicted both November of 2004 and November of 2000.
Jon Bonifaz, general counsel for the National Voting Institute, is bringing a lawsuit against Secretary of State Blackwell in order to bring about a full recount of the vote in Ohio. He said of the hearings today, "I think this moves the ball forward with respect to demonstrating that people in this country, throughout this nation, demand a full accounting of what happened on election day, and demand that all votes be properly counted. Until we get to that point of all votes being properly counted, we cannot declare this to be a legitimate election."
Some scattered observations from my notes of the proceedings:
Rep. Nadler: The right to vote and to have the votes counted is indispensable. Confidence in our election processes is on the wane, and the stability of our government is threatened. We do not have the luxury of waiting to fix all this, as the next national election comes in two years.
Rep. Scott: The complaints were not limited to Ohio. In his state of Virginia, some 500 complaints were made by voters. In his own district, voters were given ballots that did not have his name on them.
Rep. Watt: The basic premise of our democracy is the vote. If it is broken, it must be fixed, and we must institutionalize a process that continually evaluates the way we run elections. If we can deliver ballots to rural voters in Afghanistan on the backs of donkeys, surely we can make sure our elections are free and fair here in America.
Ralph Neas (President, People for the American Way): In Cuyahoga county, Ohio, there were fewer voting machines available to the voters during the Presidential election than there were during the primary election. Secretary of State Blackwell, he of the paper-weight obstructionism, wins the Katherine Harris award this time around. There should be prosecutions over all this, and people should go to jail.
Cliff Arnebeck (Chair, Common Cause Ohio): The fraud must be fixed. It must be fixed now, and not in the future. People cannot and will not accept a fraudulent election for the office of President. The best precedent that can be set is to state flatly that people will not tolerate fraud, and will not ‘move on’ until the problems are repaired. How can we, with a straight face, talk about democracy in Iraq when we cannot guarantee democracy here at home?
Shawnta Walcott (Zogby Inc.): This election has created an unprecedented level of suspicion that things did not go as they should have. Zogby Inc. wants to see a blue-ribbon panel created immediately to investigate the claims made at this hearing.
Rep. Jackson: We must have a standardized national voting process and take the matter out of the hands of individual states, which can keep the process "separate and unequal." We must have a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote. How can people argue that the right to own a gun is implicitly stated in the constitution, and then turn around and say it is acceptable to have the right to vote only be ‘implicit’ in the constitution?
It was this last point, made over and over again by Reverend Jesse Jackson, that drew the most applause from the audience and attention from the Congressmen. In demanding a constitutional amendment cementing the simple right to vote, Jackson spoke of the long line that reached from Selma, Alabama to Ohio, and into this room. "This is not about who won or lost," he said. "This is about participating in democracy. The 2004 election is not past-tense. We are not whining. It is time to take this struggle to the streets and fully legitimize this struggle."
The importance of the presence of Reverend Jackson was described best by Cliff Arnebeck. "If you look at who was here," said Arnebeck, "you had leaders from the generally white political reform movement, and leaders from the black civil rights movement. This is a powerful coalition. We are not talking about one group having dominance over the other, but a real partnership of the traditional political reform community with the traditional civil rights community, and Reverend Jackson is the one that proposed it, has initiated the organization of it."
"Jesse Jackson, as you could see today, is giving tremendous moral leadership to this," continued Arnebeck. "He has tremendous credibility. This is a man who walked with Dr. Martin Luther King in the long civil rights struggle that we honor so much in our history now. This is the man who was holding Dr. King when he died. I was sitting right next to him when he talked about the fact that there aren't members of Congress with children dying in Iraq, and tears were in his eyes. This is a man who feels this stuff deeply, and when he talks about what is at stake, he means it in the deepest part of his being. It shows, and people respect that, and I feel privileged to be associated with him in this struggle."
The hearing today took place in a unique moment in our history. Election fraud and voter disenfranchisement are not new in our history, but have been as much a part of the process as campaign buttons and baby-kissing. The fact that the electorate’s voting habits are becoming more clearly drawn, and the fact that so many were watching like hawks after Florida in 2000, means that the standard-issue fraud which has always existed now has a bright light shining upon it, and means the new kinds of fraud involving electronic machines and computer tabulators are likewise suffering intense scrutiny. In this moment, that bright light means the problems, both new and old, can and must be addressed, repaired, and purged from our democratic process.
Aspects of the hearing could have been better. There was a lot of heat from the panelists and from the crowd, but not nearly as much cold data delivered. Had the forum presented that cold data, had the forum made an irrefutable case, the process to come would have been better served. The data was there – the panelists came armed with reams of paper and facts – but needs to be more fully delivered to the public at large. There were also grumblings among the assembled about why it was that Dennis Kucinich was not in attendance, about why Howard Dean chose this day to hold a press conference that sucked some of the media oxygen out of the hearing room, and about why no Kerry campaign people or Senate staffers made any kind of public appearance at the event.
There was also a moment of deep frustration when the Representatives opened the floor to general questions from the audience. This led to something that always seems to happen when liberals and progressives get in a room together. Person after person came to the microphone not to ask questions, but to pontificate at length on whatever crossed their minds. As usual, this stole time from people who actually had questions, and led to a watering-down of the information at hand. When Conyers gently prodded people to move it along, some got openly aggressive and angry, despite the fact that they were riding roughshod over the stated process. Rep. Frank finally had to lay down the stomp on the quickly-unwinding process. The open forum could have been a beneficial addition to the hearing, but became in the end a waste of valuable time.
At the end of the day, the hearing was a beginning, a chance for those fighting this fight to look upon one another and know they are not alone. Rep. Conyers and his fellow Congressmen are to be commended for putting the process in motion. The most striking moment came when the hearing ended, and all of the people assembled began embracing one another. They had made their voices heard, they knew they were not alone, and it smelled like vindication in there when all was said and done.
The hearing was a beginning. There will be more, especially in Ohio. The lawsuits will continue. Rep. Conyers intimated today that he might object to the seating of the Ohio Electors when the certification process begins. The protests will continue to grow across the country. Perhaps, if we can follow through and accomplish the cleansing of our democratic process, we will look back on this day in room 2237 of the Rayburn House Office Building and know that yet another popular movement towards achieving that more perfect union began here, in this time, and in this place.
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and international bestseller of two books - 'War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You To Know' and 'The Greatest Sedition is Silence.'
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
A Stolen Election, The View From My Black Helicopter
A Stolen Election
The View From My Black Helicopter
by Greg Palast
in The Nation
29 December issue
I'd just stepped out of my black helicopter to read that one of my favorite journalists, David Corn, had attacked my analysis of the vote in Ohio as the stuff of "grassy knoll conspiracy theorists." ("A Stolen Election," The Nation, November 29 issue.)
Oh, my! And all because I wrote that the uncounted ballots in Ohio -- more than a quarter million designated "spoiled" or "provisional" -- undoubtedly contain enough votes to overturn George Bush's "victory" margin of 119,000 out of over 5 million cast.
Corn says, "Palast wrongly assumes that an overwhelming majority of these ballots contain votes for Kerry." Now why would I think such a thing? Maybe because the precinct-by-precinct analysis of "spoiled" votes (those which machines can't count) by Professor Mark Salling of Cleveland State University, the unchallengeable expert on Ohio voting demographics, concludes that "spoiled" punch cards in Ohio cities come "overwhelmingly" from African-American neighborhoods.
The Republican Secretary of State of Ohio does not disagree, by the way; he intends to fix the Jim Crow vote-counting problem in Ohio ... sometime after the next inaugural ball.
The second group of uncounted ballots, "provisionals," were also generated substantially in African-American areas, the direct result of a Republican program to hunt down, challenge and suppress the votes cast in black-majority precincts.
What happened in Ohio is one-fiftieth of a nationwide phenomenon: the non-count of African-American votes, about a million of them marked as unreadable in a typical presidential race. (See, Palast, "Vanishing Votes," The Nation, March 17, 2004.)
I will admit, David, I can't tell you exactly how each of those disenfranchised voters would have cast their ballots. Indeed, one Republican statistician claims these uncounted ballots are cast mostly by African-American supporters of George Bush.
Nevertheless, most of us conspiracy nuts on the Grassy Knoll hold to our wild belief that most black citizens whose ballots were spoiled or rejected tried to vote for the tall guy from Massachusetts.
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Greg Palast is the author of, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy." Get the latest on Palast's investigation of the vote at www.GregPalast.com Palast's documentary for BBC Television, "Bush Family Fortunes," is now available on DVD. If you donate to support the completion of our investigation into the election, the author will send you a signed copy of the book, audio book (read by Jim Hightower and friends) or the DVD. Go to www.GregPalast.com/store.htm ============================================
If you would like to have your e-mail address removed from this mailing list. Cut and paste the following URL into your browser address bar. This will automatically remove from the mailing list and you will receive no further mailings. http://www.gregpalast.com/emailremove.cfm?id=37802
The View From My Black Helicopter
by Greg Palast
in The Nation
29 December issue
I'd just stepped out of my black helicopter to read that one of my favorite journalists, David Corn, had attacked my analysis of the vote in Ohio as the stuff of "grassy knoll conspiracy theorists." ("A Stolen Election," The Nation, November 29 issue.)
Oh, my! And all because I wrote that the uncounted ballots in Ohio -- more than a quarter million designated "spoiled" or "provisional" -- undoubtedly contain enough votes to overturn George Bush's "victory" margin of 119,000 out of over 5 million cast.
Corn says, "Palast wrongly assumes that an overwhelming majority of these ballots contain votes for Kerry." Now why would I think such a thing? Maybe because the precinct-by-precinct analysis of "spoiled" votes (those which machines can't count) by Professor Mark Salling of Cleveland State University, the unchallengeable expert on Ohio voting demographics, concludes that "spoiled" punch cards in Ohio cities come "overwhelmingly" from African-American neighborhoods.
The Republican Secretary of State of Ohio does not disagree, by the way; he intends to fix the Jim Crow vote-counting problem in Ohio ... sometime after the next inaugural ball.
The second group of uncounted ballots, "provisionals," were also generated substantially in African-American areas, the direct result of a Republican program to hunt down, challenge and suppress the votes cast in black-majority precincts.
What happened in Ohio is one-fiftieth of a nationwide phenomenon: the non-count of African-American votes, about a million of them marked as unreadable in a typical presidential race. (See, Palast, "Vanishing Votes," The Nation, March 17, 2004.)
I will admit, David, I can't tell you exactly how each of those disenfranchised voters would have cast their ballots. Indeed, one Republican statistician claims these uncounted ballots are cast mostly by African-American supporters of George Bush.
Nevertheless, most of us conspiracy nuts on the Grassy Knoll hold to our wild belief that most black citizens whose ballots were spoiled or rejected tried to vote for the tall guy from Massachusetts.
----------
Greg Palast is the author of, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy." Get the latest on Palast's investigation of the vote at www.GregPalast.com Palast's documentary for BBC Television, "Bush Family Fortunes," is now available on DVD. If you donate to support the completion of our investigation into the election, the author will send you a signed copy of the book, audio book (read by Jim Hightower and friends) or the DVD. Go to www.GregPalast.com/store.htm ============================================
If you would like to have your e-mail address removed from this mailing list. Cut and paste the following URL into your browser address bar. This will automatically remove from the mailing list and you will receive no further mailings. http://www.gregpalast.com/emailremove.cfm?id=37802
WHY HAVEN'T THEY COUNTED A QUARTER MILLION VOTES IN OHIO?
WHY HAVEN'T THEY COUNTED A QUARTER MILLION VOTES IN OHIO?
Live nationwide on Pacifica radio and at KPFT.org
Jesse Jackson and Greg Palast
On Saturday, from 6pm-9pm EST, Rev. Jackson joins investigative reporter Greg Palast to ask what happened to nearly a quarter million votes, overwhelmingly from African-American precincts, not counted in Ohio.
For BBC Television, Palast uncovered the fake felon list that swiped the election in 2000; this year, his report on BBC television broke the story of the secret Republican "caging" lists that bent the November race.
The smell of Black ballots burning is hard to ignore. We need your help to continue this investigation into the votes not counted in Ohio, New Mexico and Florida. Behind the by-line "Greg Palast" in Harper's, The Nation and the Guardian is an investigative team that is now running perilously low on funding. While Greg Palast has donated 100% of his royalties from his bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, to the effort, we're still in the red.
We're asking you to keep this investigation going by making a $50 tax-deductible donation to the Palast Investigative Fund ... in return we'll send you as a thank you, the blistering documentary, "Bush Family Fortunes" on DVD, signed by reporter Palast. The film is taken from Palast's award-winning investigate broadcasts for BBC Television - the story of the Bush-Bin Laden connection, the shoplift of the vote in Florida, the secret plans for "Operation Iraqi Liberation" and other reports that you can't see on your Fox-ified TV. Donate at http://www.gregpalast.com/store.htm Donate before December 10 and receive your signed DVD before Christmas via first class mail.
Catch the new flash animation from Bush Family Fortunes at http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm
This is the film Jesse Jackson says, "You must see." That Senator John Edwards calls "Important and disturbing." Katherine Harris says Palast's reporting is, "Twisted and maniacal." Maybe that's why Noam Chomsky says Palast, "Upsets all the right people."
Other gift choices in return for your tax-deductible donation, all shipped within a week of donation via first class mail:
The Book: "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: New Special Election Edition," (Penguin 2004) signed by the author, for a minimum $50 donation.
The Cards: "Joker's Wild: Dubya's Trick Deck" - Tarot-sized four-color cards ... the illustrated satirical version of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, for a minimum donation of $25, signed by the author.
The Audio Book: The five CD set from Penguin books of "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" read by the author with Ed Asner, Alec Baldwin, Jello Biafra, Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, Amy Goodman, Jim Hightower, Cynthia McKinney, Alexandra Paul and Shiva Rose -- for a minimum donation of $100.00
The Whole Enchilada: For a minimum donation of $200, we'll send you a signed copy of the Special Election Edition of the book plus a signed copy of the cards, plus a signed copy of the 5-CD audio book, plus a signed copy copy of the DVD, "Bush Family Fortunes."
We don't take corporate money. We don't have big funders. Our readers keep us alive. Please donate now at http://www.GregPalast.com/store.htm
============================================
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Live nationwide on Pacifica radio and at KPFT.org
Jesse Jackson and Greg Palast
On Saturday, from 6pm-9pm EST, Rev. Jackson joins investigative reporter Greg Palast to ask what happened to nearly a quarter million votes, overwhelmingly from African-American precincts, not counted in Ohio.
For BBC Television, Palast uncovered the fake felon list that swiped the election in 2000; this year, his report on BBC television broke the story of the secret Republican "caging" lists that bent the November race.
The smell of Black ballots burning is hard to ignore. We need your help to continue this investigation into the votes not counted in Ohio, New Mexico and Florida. Behind the by-line "Greg Palast" in Harper's, The Nation and the Guardian is an investigative team that is now running perilously low on funding. While Greg Palast has donated 100% of his royalties from his bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, to the effort, we're still in the red.
We're asking you to keep this investigation going by making a $50 tax-deductible donation to the Palast Investigative Fund ... in return we'll send you as a thank you, the blistering documentary, "Bush Family Fortunes" on DVD, signed by reporter Palast. The film is taken from Palast's award-winning investigate broadcasts for BBC Television - the story of the Bush-Bin Laden connection, the shoplift of the vote in Florida, the secret plans for "Operation Iraqi Liberation" and other reports that you can't see on your Fox-ified TV. Donate at http://www.gregpalast.com/store.htm Donate before December 10 and receive your signed DVD before Christmas via first class mail.
Catch the new flash animation from Bush Family Fortunes at http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm
This is the film Jesse Jackson says, "You must see." That Senator John Edwards calls "Important and disturbing." Katherine Harris says Palast's reporting is, "Twisted and maniacal." Maybe that's why Noam Chomsky says Palast, "Upsets all the right people."
Other gift choices in return for your tax-deductible donation, all shipped within a week of donation via first class mail:
The Book: "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: New Special Election Edition," (Penguin 2004) signed by the author, for a minimum $50 donation.
The Cards: "Joker's Wild: Dubya's Trick Deck" - Tarot-sized four-color cards ... the illustrated satirical version of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, for a minimum donation of $25, signed by the author.
The Audio Book: The five CD set from Penguin books of "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" read by the author with Ed Asner, Alec Baldwin, Jello Biafra, Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, Amy Goodman, Jim Hightower, Cynthia McKinney, Alexandra Paul and Shiva Rose -- for a minimum donation of $100.00
The Whole Enchilada: For a minimum donation of $200, we'll send you a signed copy of the Special Election Edition of the book plus a signed copy of the cards, plus a signed copy of the 5-CD audio book, plus a signed copy copy of the DVD, "Bush Family Fortunes."
We don't take corporate money. We don't have big funders. Our readers keep us alive. Please donate now at http://www.GregPalast.com/store.htm
============================================
If you would like to have your e-mail address removed from this mailing list. Cut and paste the following URL into your browser address bar. This will automatically remove from the mailing list and you will receive no further mailings. http://www.gregpalast.com/emailremove.cfm?id=37802
Missing votes found in machines
Missing votes found in machines
By DAVE WOODSON, Free Press Staff Writer
http://www.elkodaily.com/articles/2004/12/08/news/local/news1.txt
ELKO - Elko County Clerk Win Smith said 271 votes in November's general election were not counted because of a "computer glitch" with the new touch-screen machine system.
Smith said three result cards from machines used at the Elko Convention Center, the voting location for the City of Elko, were found to have had problems.
However, she said those votes have since been recovered from the computer cards and added to the final totals.
"The good thing is that they found it," Elko County Manager Rob Stokes said.
Smith said the recovered votes did not impact any election results.
"No votes were lost," she said. "No races were changed."
Smith said the missing votes were discovered late Thursday when county employees inputting voter history into the system discovered that the number of voters and the number of votes did not match.
"We found out all the votes were not counted," she said.
Smith said she contacted Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., the Oakland, Calif.-based hardware and software firm that provided the touch-screen system, and the company provided assistance in finding and correcting the problem.
"We walked it through," she said. "We easily got the votes out of those cartridges."
Smith said the ability to quickly correct the problem was a positive aspect of the new machines, which were used for the first time this year.
"It proves that this system was very reliable," she said.
Smith said the Nevada Secretary of State's office has been notified. She also said an amended vote canvass would have to submitted.
Stokes said the county board will meet in special session at 1 p.m. Thursday at the county courthouse to approve the amended canvass results. He said those results would then be sent to the Nevada Secretary of State so statewide totals also can be amended.
In only two races did the losing candidate pick up more votes than the winning candidate, but it was not enough to alter the outcome of the balloting.
In the contest for Elko County School Board of Trustees District 4, Gordon Fobes added 129 votes to Bill Wilkerson's 58 additional votes.
Despite Fobes cutting into Wilkerson's margin, Wilkerson still won the seat with 7,399 votes to Fobes' 5,981 votes.
In the Elko Civic Auditorium race for Seat C, winner Dave Huckaby added 122 votes while John Collett collected 123 votes. Huckaby still won the seat by a 6,081 to 5,225 margin.
With the amended results, President George W. Bush's winning margin in Elko climbed by .5 percent to 77.98 when he picked up an additional 204 votes while Democratic challenger John Kerry added 55 votes to his total. Bush carried Elko County with 12,142 votes over Kerry's 3,106.
Incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Harry Reid picked up 107 additional votes but Republican Richard Ziser added 135 votes.
Ziser continued to carry the county with 8,047 votes in his losing bid to unseat Reid, who polled 6,191 votes.
GOP Rep. Jim Gibbons gained 199 votes in his near landslide win over Democrat Angie Cochran, who added 42 votes, with the final total showing Gibbons with 12,008 to Cochran's 2,324.
State Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, mainted his lead over Independent American Party candidate Thomas Jefferson, when Rhoads added 198 votes to Jefferson's 68 votes.
Rhoads' winning margin was 11,794 to Jefferson's 3,060.
State Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, who ran unopposed, upped his ballot total by 206 votes to 12,030.
Also running unopposed was Elko County Commissioner Democrat Mike Nannini for his fourth term from District 1, who picked up an additional 215 votes to bring his total to 11,536.
Incumbent Republican John Ellison in District 3 added 191 votes while his challenger, IAP candidate Dorothy Jefferson, added 72 votes that gave Ellison a margin of 11,313 to Jefferson's 3,413 ballots.
Another incumbent Republican, Warren Russell, in District 5, collected an additional 176 votes while his challenger IAP's Michael Smith added 80 votes for a final tally of Russell with 10,347 votes to Smith's 4,305 votes.
In the Elko County School Board of Trustees race in District 3, winner Annette Kerr picked up 157 votes while Jerry Williams added 50 votes to make the final total Kerr with 7,651 to Williams' 6,045.
Incumbent District 7 school board member Lou Basanez added 160 votes while her challenger Mary Polish picked up 97 votes. Basanez defeated Polish by a 7,653 to 5,863 margin.
Ohio election fraud uproar blasting to new level
Ohio election fraud uproar blasting to new level
by Steve Rosenfeld, Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
December 7, 2004
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/975
by Steve Rosenfeld, Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
December 7, 2004
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/975
The bitter battle over the stolen November 2 election in Ohio has turned into a rapidly escalating all-out multi-front war with the outcome of the real presidential vote count increasingly in doubt.
In Columbus, major demonstrations on Saturday, December 4, have been followed by an angry confrontation between demonstrators and state police at the office of Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, the Bush-Cheney state chairman who is also officially in charge of certifying the election, at least for now. Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson has called on Blackwell to recuse himself from dealings with the election, saying his role as Bush-Cheney chairman has compromised his objectivity in delivering fair election results.
New revelations about voting machine allocations in Franklin County emerged on Tuesday, December 7. William Anthony, Chair of the Franklin County Board of Elections, told WVKO radio listeners that the Board begins “stationing voting machines four weeks out” before Election Day. Security questions were raised after a machine in Gahanna Ward 1B at the New Life Church recorded 4258 votes for Bush where only 638 voters cast ballots.
Cornell McCleary, former minority director of the Republican Party of Ohio, argues that it would easy for computer hackers to hack directly into the machines: “The two points of vulnerability are setting up a computer and hacking directly into the machine, or the line that goes directly down to the Board of Elections.” He dismissed the Gahanna incident as a “prank.” Prank or not, Kerry’s decision to concede early on November 3 was based in part on these imaginary votes that were either a prank, a computer glitch, or a deliberate effort to boost Bush’s total in Ohio.
Anthony also conceded that some voters in Franklin County waited up to “five or six hours’ in order to vote. He admitted that the Board of Elections usually holds back “a truckload of voting machines"--- 75---in case there’s a truck accident." He blamed this on the lack of machines and the fact that 77 voting machines malfunctioned on Election Day. Two affidavits from voters obtained by the Free Press report that voting machine maintenance people came out to fix machines and their technique seemed to be to continually plug and unplug, or reboot, the electronic machines until the machines functioned again.
Anthony also confirmed that the Board only delivered 2741 of its 2866 machines at the opening of polls on Election Day. He said Board of Elections workers later placed an additional 44. This would put the total number in use at the “close of polls” at 2785, leaving 81 machines sitting unused. Anthony further said Election Day problems were the result of utilizing essentially 4800 volunteers with minimal training, paid a small stipend. Some poll workers have testified they repeatedly called the Board of Elections for additional machines as lines stacked up at their inner city precincts but got no response.
In addition, new evidence has continued to surface of widespread voter fraud throughout the state. Among other things, a letter from Shelby County election officials dated December 2 confirmed that the county discarded "tabulator test deck reports" from the November 2 vote count "to reduce paperwork and confusion with official results." As this county's response is the first of 88 to come from Freedom of Information Act filings, it seems likely other controversial practices could surface.
Moreover, new computer tabulation errors – first reported locally after Election Day – have resurfaced, and are of a magnitude suggesting Bush’s margin over Kerry---now 118,775 votes or 2 percent of the total votes cast in the state, according to Blackwell---could easily have been manipulated.
One precinct in Youngstown, Ohio, recorded a negative 25 million votes (that's not a typo) on an ES&S Votronic voting machine, which was discarded from official results, according to a Nov. 3 report in Youngstown’s Vindicator newspaper http://www.vindy.com/basic/news/281829446390855.php. Machine malfunctions combined with human error to create the massive negative vote count. “That led to some races showing votes of negative 25 million, Munroe said,” quoting Mark Monroe, the Mahoning County election chief. "The numbers were nonsensical so we knew there were problems." The website www.VotersUnite.org lists dozens of voting machine errors, voter intimidation reports and other problems – from the very large to very small – that were reported in the Ohio press. At the very least these errors, many of which are detailed below, add up to a scathing indictment of a statewide election. On December 6 White House Spokesman Scott McClellan called the election “free and fair.”
But even the www.VotersUnite.org list does not contain some of the biggest errors that will be cited in an election challenge filed Tuesday, December 7 by the Ohio Honest Elections Campaign in Ohio Supreme Court. It does not cite two non-partisan Election Day exit polls, by CNN and Zogby, which found Kerry leading by mid-afternoon. The Ohio Honest Election Campaign filing also describes abnormal patterns in the votes for statewide Democratic candidates – with Kerry receiving fewer votes than obscure candidates – could point to computer vote shifting. The Honest Election Campaign is seeking to investigate these abnormalities.
On Wednesday, Dec. 8, Rev. Jesse Jackson and many people associated with recounting the Ohio vote and challenging the election returns, will brief Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington.
Rev. Jackson has repeatedly traveled to Ohio, demanding at packed, angry rallies that the Ohio Supreme Court consider setting aside Bush's victory in Ohio and that Congress should investigate how Ohioans voted. Among other things, the call for a re-vote as in Ukraine has become a consistent theme among disgruntled Ohio voters.
Jackson’s involvement comes as other national public-interest groups are pursuing their own litigation. For example, People for the American Way is trying to stop the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in Cleveland from rejecting 8,099 of the 24,472 provisional ballots cast there. The ballots were thrown out because voters did not properly complete them or cast them at polling places that were not their own.
(EDITOR’s NOTE: What follows is an excerpted list http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp of voting errors in Ohio compiles by VotersUnite.org. They are placed in the following categories: malfeasance, canvass anomalies, machine malfunction, vote suppression, provisional ballots, fraud, absentee ballot errors, and others. The link to the original news report follows.)
-- Lucas County. An extensive housecleaning in the Lucas County elections office was announced yesterday with Elections Director Paula Hicks-Hudson resigning and four other officials suspended pending investigation into problems with the official count of the Nov. 2 election. http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20041204/NEWS09/412040418
-- Some groups also have complained about thousands of punch-card ballots that were not tallied because officials in the 68 counties that use them could not determine a vote for president. Votes for other offices on the cards were counted. http://www.nbc4i.com/politics/3953104/detail.html
-- Cuyahoga County. 8,099 provisional ballots (about 1/3 of those cast) have been ruled invalid because the voter wasn't registered or was registered in the wrong precinct. In 2000, about 17% were ruled invalid. http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1101205815101550.xml
-- Mahoning County. 20 to 30 ES&S iVotronic machines that needed to be recalibrated during the voting process because some votes for a candidate were being counted for that candidate's opponent. http://www.vindy.com/basic/news/281829446390855.php
-- Lucas County, Toledo. Throughout the city, polling places reported an assortment of problems, ranging from technical trouble with Lucas County's leased optical-scan voting machines to confusion about precinct boundaries and questions over provisional balloting. http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20041103/NEWS09/411030355/-1/ARCHIVES30
-- Lucas County (Toledo). Technical problems snarled the process throughout the day. Jammed or inoperable voting machines were reported throughout the city. http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20041103/NEWS09/411030355/-1/ARCHIVES30
-- Lucas County Election Director Paula Hicks-Hudson said the Diebold optical scan machines jammed during testing last week. http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20041103/NEWS09/411030355/-1/ARCHIVES30
-- Cincinnati. Problems with punch card voting machines delayed the start of voting for up to an hour Tuesday morning at a suburban precinct. Voters were unable to slide their punch-card ballots all the way into any of the six voting machines that had ALL evidently been damaged in transit. http://www.wcpo.com/news/2004/local/11/02/machineprobs.html
-- In Franklin County, Columbus, overcharged batteries on Danaher Controls ELECTronic 1242 systems kept machines from booting up properly at the beginning of the day http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041102evoteprobs/
-- Auglaize County In a letter dated Oct. 21, Ken Nuss, former deputy director of the County Board of Elections, claimed that Joe McGinnis, a former employee of ES&S, the company that provides the voting system in Auglaize County, was on the main computer that is used to create the ballot and compile election results, which would go against election protocol. Nuss was suspended and then resigned http://www.theeveningleader.com/articles/2004/11/06/news/news.01.txt
-- Franklin County, Columbus. A Danaher ELECTronic 1242 computer error with a voting machine cartridge gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in a Gahanna precinct. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. A cartridge from one of three voting machines at the polling place generated a faulty number at a computerized reading station. Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections said the cartridge was retested Thursday and there were no problems. He couldn't explain why the computer reader malfunctioned. http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10103910.htm?1c
-- Warren County. Citing concerns about potential terrorism, officials locked down the county administration building on election night and blocked any independent observers from monitoring the vote count as the nation awaited Ohio's returns. County Emergency Services Director Frank Young explained that he had been advised by the federal government to implement the measures for the sake of Homeland Security. The Warren results were part of the last tallies that helped clinch President Bush's re-election. James Lee, spokesman with the Ohio Secretary of State's Office in Columbus, said Thursday he hasn't heard of any situations similar to Warren County's building restrictions. http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/05/loc_warrenvote05.html
-- Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell said voters could not cast provisional ballots despite not receiving their absentee ballots in time. A judge overruled him, calling his statement a "failure to do his duty" and saying that the federal Help America Vote Act requires that people who claim to be eligible voters must be allowed to cast provisionals regardless of the reason they are not on the rolls or are challenged. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=3652
-- Cuyahoga County. In precinct 4F, located in a predominantly black precinct, at Benedictine High School on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Kerry received 290 votes, Bush 21 and Michael Peroutka, candidate of the ultra-conservative anti-immigrant Constitutional Party, received 215 votes. In precinct 4N, also at Benedictine High School, the tally was Kerry 318, Bush 21, and Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik 163. The Constitutional and Libertarian tallies were entirely implausible for the precinct. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/257365p-220441c.html
-- Sandusky County. What appeared to be an overcount resulted when a computer disk containing votes was accidentally backed up into the voting machines twice by an election worker. http://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/news/stories/20041125
/localnews/1649165.html
-- Sandusky County elections officials discovered some ballots in nine precincts were counted twice. [ES&S optical scan] The county doesn't yet know how it happened http://www.thenews-messenger.com/news/stories/20041116/localnews/1601347.html
-- Polling places in Northeast Ohio had half the number of voting machines that were needed. This caused a bottleneck at polling stations, and many people left without voting. http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1100428444286470.xml
-- Columbus. Sworn testimony shows a disparity between the number of voting machines provided to different precincts. With record turnouts, some inner city precincts had fewer machines than in previous elections. http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/917
-- Columbus. Carol Shelton was the presiding judge at a Columbus precinct with three machines for 1,500 registered voters. At her home precinct in Clintonville, she said there were three machines for 730 voters. "I called to get more machines and got connected to Matt Damschroder, and after lots of hassle he sent a fourth machine," she said. "It did not put a dent in the long lines." http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10176004.htm
-- In Franklin and Knox counties, where voters use touch-screen units, long lines developed and voters turned to a federal judge for help as the time grew near for polls to close. To speed the voting, some of those voters were given paper ballots http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041103/NEWS09/411030355/-1/ARCHIVES30
-- Cincinnati. "We've had reports that poll workers aren't doing a very good job putting people in the right lines for their precincts," said Molly Lombardi, a spokeswoman for the Election Protection Coalition. "People stood in line for over an hour in the rain in some places only to find they were in the wrong line. A lot of them gave up and went home." http://www.enquirer.com/midday/11/11032004_News_mday_voting03.html
-- Knox County. Kenyon College student Maggie Hill appeared on the "Today Show" Wednesday morning. She was one of hundreds of students and other Gambier residents who waited for up to 10 hours to cast their votes. Observers in the Gambier precinct said there were only two voting machines for 1,300 voters. Each machine, they said, is designed to handle 20 voters per hour. http://www.newsnet5.com/news/3889129/detail.html
-- Stark County (Canton). The Election Board reluctantly followed the law and rejected provisional ballots cast at the wrong precinct in the right polling place. Up until this year, they remade a ballot that was cast in the wrong precinct, meaning that the person’s vote would be put toward the appropriate races in the correct precinct. http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=193617&Category=9
-- Of the 11 counties that have completed checking ballots, 81 percent, or 4,277 out of 5,310 ballots, are valid, according to a survey Monday by The Associated Press. Most of the counties are in rural areas. "They swear up and down they're registered to vote and they're not," said Bill Thompson, deputy elections director in Pike County. http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/news/stories/20041116/
localnews/1599347.html
-- Montgomery County. Two precincts had 25% presidential undervotes. This means no presidential vote was recorded on 1/4 of the ballots. The overall undervote rate for the county was 2%. The undercount amounted to 2.8 percent of the ballots in the 231 precincts that supported Kerry, but only 1.6 percent of those cast in the 354 precincts that supported President Bush. http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/
daily/1118undercount.html
-- A woman sued elections officials Tuesday, December 7, on behalf of Ohio voters who claim they did not receive their absentee ballots on time, seeking permission for them to be able to cast provisional ballots at the polls. SoS office said state law says that if a board of elections sent someone an absentee ballot, that person cannot try to vote at a polling place. http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/10075572.htm
-- Lake County. Some voters received a memo on bogus Board of Elections letterhead informing voters who registered through Democratic and NACCP drives that they could not vote. Election officials referred the matter to the sheriff. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12514-2004Oct30.html
-- Cleveland, unknown volunteers began showing up at voters' doors illegally offering to collect and deliver completed absentee ballots to the election office http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12514-2004Oct30.html
-- Cleveland. Voters received phone calls incorrectly informing them that their polling place had changed. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12514-2004Oct30.html
--
Steve Rosenfeld is a producer for Air America radio. Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are publisher and senior editor of www.freepress.org.
Check your absentee votes Washington!
Either way, you may be interested in checking whether your absentee vote has been counted at all. If you have your voter registration number, there is a list of voter registration numbers (those that have been counted and confirmed) at
Today I called elections, the lady said my vote has been counted. If you know your voters registration number (yeah right) you can get a list of what numbers voted at this site:
http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/2004nov/ballotsreceived.htm
Washington Slips Black Box Voting Systems beneath the radar
If you voted absentee in the election on Nov 2nd, your vote was counted with a Diebold Accuvote system. If this pisses you off, then you will be happy to know that Rep. Washington Secretary of State, Sam Reed, is on his way out because he slipped this one in even under my radar.
The state of Washington ordered 80 Diebold Accuvote (or accufraud?) machines and the last reports I heard was that they were deployed in Yakima among other places in western Washington. No worries, I thought, because they are going to count a lot of Republican votes. But NO.
They used them to count absentee ballots--a worker checks the signature, rips open the envelope and checks the ballot, then hand enters the ballot result into the touch screen system.
WOW! We just handed 40% of our votes to Diebold Co., an unabashedly partisan Republican company. This could explain the close Gubenetorial race with Dino Rossi in the lead. And this is why the hand count operation is very important to confirm whether these machines hosed with our votes. See the blog posting just before this to see how this could happen. And adding invisible buttons is only one way. If you understand Information Technology, you should know that Accuvote machines are the clients that report vote totals to a server. This server could also be used to misreport what is being reported to it. There are so many levels that this is wrong, and the only reason we can even DO a hand recount is because WE HAVE A PAPER TRIAL.
Either way, you may be interested in checking whether your absentee vote has been counted at all. If you have your voter registration number, there is a list of voter registration numbers (those that have been counted and confirmed) at
Today I called elections, the lady said my vote has been counted. If you know your voters registration number (yeah right) you can get a list of what numbers voted at this site:
http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/2004nov/ballotsreceived.htm
Scroll the page to the bottom past the Chinese characters and click on the link that represents your district. There is a bunch of numbers there, so you will want to do a control-F to get a search box, and type in your voter registration number. If the number is there, then you voted but who knows if the Accuvote machine decided you were Bush or Kerry.
Any State election official that supported black box voting equipment doesn't care about the integrity of accurate voting. They do it because
* The Republican party wants them to.
* Millions of dollars of public money is used to support black box voting companies put into place or managed by the Republican party.
* They get nice future kickbacks. Just as Senator Katherine Harris of Floriday. She is still being rewarded for rigging the 2000 election (http://www.issues2000.org/downloads/120500amendedharrisbrief.pdf, http://www.issues2000.org/Florida_Recount.htm). If being a congress woman isn't reward enough, she just got $50 million in projects from her district. http://harris.house.gov/
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