Voting Machines Count Backwards in Oklahoma
Bob Nichols - Nov 27 2004
57 Rural Counties Affected - Vote Fraud Suspected
Rural Oklahoma Voting machines know how to count backwards. That's right. Voting machines counted Senator Kerry's votes backward - downward - in Oklahoma, contributing to George Bush's apparent victory in Oklahoma.
All 77 Oklahoma counties used the Optech Eagle voting machines and Tabulator's made by ES&S...
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27 November 2004
23 November 2004
Election Angst Update: Clark Kent Vs the Media Wimps
Maureen Farrell - November 23, 2004
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. While some in the mainstream media were finally paying attention to an important story as it was unfolding (rather than waiting three years, ala the New York Times), others were taking the usual safe and tired tact.
It all started on Monday, Nov. 7, when, inspired by a Cincinnati Enquirer story on how Warren County Ohio officials had "locked down" the administration building on election night and restricted open access to the vote count there, Keith Olbermann began reporting on voting irregularities across the country. "We have heard the message on the Voting Angst and will continue to cover it with all prudent speed," Olbermann later wrote on his blog, and sure enough, Countdown with Keith Olbermann doled out nightly nuggets -- not only concerning Votergate, but regarding the media itself.
Read More >>
Maureen Farrell - November 23, 2004
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. While some in the mainstream media were finally paying attention to an important story as it was unfolding (rather than waiting three years, ala the New York Times), others were taking the usual safe and tired tact.
It all started on Monday, Nov. 7, when, inspired by a Cincinnati Enquirer story on how Warren County Ohio officials had "locked down" the administration building on election night and restricted open access to the vote count there, Keith Olbermann began reporting on voting irregularities across the country. "We have heard the message on the Voting Angst and will continue to cover it with all prudent speed," Olbermann later wrote on his blog, and sure enough, Countdown with Keith Olbermann doled out nightly nuggets -- not only concerning Votergate, but regarding the media itself.
Read More >>
22 November 2004
Hanging Chads and Hanging Participles
Keith Olbermann - November 22, 2004
NEW YORK - You don’t have to wait for the Ohio Presidential Recount to get confused. Just pay attention to the recasting of news releases from the Ohio Democratic Party.
Early Monday afternoon, Ohio Chairman Dennis White released a comparative bombshell inside the still tiny world of the Recount-Conscious. It bore the headline “Kerry/Edwards Campaign Joins Ohio Recount” and advised that “assuring Ohioans receive an accurate count of all votes cast for president has prompted the Democratic Party to join the initiative to recount the results of the November 2 presidential election.”
But by 8 PM Eastern, a second press release was out, with two notable tweaks. Now the headline read “Kerry/Edwards Campaign Participates In Ohio Recount,” and the lead sentence read “…has prompted the Democratic Party to participate in the initiative to recount the results…”
The switch from “join” to “participate” reduces the Democratic commitment from virtual co-sponsorship to nearly the level of acquiescence. In late afternoon, Ohio Dems’ spokesmen Dan Trevas told us that the remains of the national Kerry/Edwards campaign had approved the original press release and “gave us the authority to proceed with this. Tomorrow we expect to have a letter from them to Kenneth Blackwell” which would ask Ohio’s Secretary of State to proceed with a recount.
Read More >>
Keith Olbermann - November 22, 2004
NEW YORK - You don’t have to wait for the Ohio Presidential Recount to get confused. Just pay attention to the recasting of news releases from the Ohio Democratic Party.
Early Monday afternoon, Ohio Chairman Dennis White released a comparative bombshell inside the still tiny world of the Recount-Conscious. It bore the headline “Kerry/Edwards Campaign Joins Ohio Recount” and advised that “assuring Ohioans receive an accurate count of all votes cast for president has prompted the Democratic Party to join the initiative to recount the results of the November 2 presidential election.”
But by 8 PM Eastern, a second press release was out, with two notable tweaks. Now the headline read “Kerry/Edwards Campaign Participates In Ohio Recount,” and the lead sentence read “…has prompted the Democratic Party to participate in the initiative to recount the results…”
The switch from “join” to “participate” reduces the Democratic commitment from virtual co-sponsorship to nearly the level of acquiescence. In late afternoon, Ohio Dems’ spokesmen Dan Trevas told us that the remains of the national Kerry/Edwards campaign had approved the original press release and “gave us the authority to proceed with this. Tomorrow we expect to have a letter from them to Kenneth Blackwell” which would ask Ohio’s Secretary of State to proceed with a recount.
Read More >>
19 November 2004
BuzzFlash News Analysis Update
Study released Thursday indicates the probability is that electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000 - 260,000 or more in excess votes to Bush in Florida
Read More >>
Hard Data from Berkeley Study Showing That Tens of Thousands of Bush Votes in Florida Don't Appear Legitimate
Working Paper: The Effect of Electronic Voting Machines on Change in Support for Bush in the 2004 Florida Elections
by Michael Hout, Laura Mangels, Jennifer Carlson, and Rachel Best
Read More >>
Study released Thursday indicates the probability is that electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000 - 260,000 or more in excess votes to Bush in Florida
Read More >>
Hard Data from Berkeley Study Showing That Tens of Thousands of Bush Votes in Florida Don't Appear Legitimate
Working Paper: The Effect of Electronic Voting Machines on Change in Support for Bush in the 2004 Florida Elections
by Michael Hout, Laura Mangels, Jennifer Carlson, and Rachel Best
Read More >>
18 November 2004
'Stinking Evidence' of Possible Election Fraud Found in Florida
Thom Hartmann - November 18, 2004
There was something odd about the poll tapes.
A "poll tape" is the phrase used to describe a printout from an optical scan voting machine made the evening of an election, after the machine has read all the ballots and crunched the numbers on its internal computer. It shows the total results of the election in that location. The printout is signed by the polling officials present in that precinct/location, and then submitted to the county elections office as the official record of how the people in that particular precinct had voted. (Usually each location has only one single optical scanner/reader, and thus produces only one poll tape.)
Bev Harris of www.blackboxvoting.org, the erstwhile investigator of electronic voting machines, along with people from Florida Fair Elections, showed up at Florida's Volusia County Elections Office on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 16, 2004, and asked to see, under a public records request, each of the poll tapes for the 100+ optical scanners in the precincts in that county. The elections workers - having been notified in advance of her request - handed her a set of printouts, oddly dated November 15 and lacking signatures.
Bev pointed out that the printouts given her were not the original poll tapes and had no signatures, and thus were not what she'd requested. Obligingly, they told her that the originals were held in another location, the Elections Office's Warehouse, and that since it was the end of the day they should meet Bev the following morning to show them to her.
Bev showed up bright and early the morning of Wednesday the 17th - well before the scheduled meeting - and discovered three of the elections officials in the Elections Warehouse standing over a table covered with what looked like poll tapes. When they saw Bev and her friends, Bev told me in a telephone interview less than an hour later, "They immediately shoved us out and slammed the door."
In a way, that was a blessing, because it led to the stinking evidence.
"On the porch was a garbage bag," Bev said, "and so I looked in it and, and lo and behold, there were public record tapes."
Thrown away. Discarded. Waiting to be hauled off.
Read More >>
Thom Hartmann - November 18, 2004
There was something odd about the poll tapes.
A "poll tape" is the phrase used to describe a printout from an optical scan voting machine made the evening of an election, after the machine has read all the ballots and crunched the numbers on its internal computer. It shows the total results of the election in that location. The printout is signed by the polling officials present in that precinct/location, and then submitted to the county elections office as the official record of how the people in that particular precinct had voted. (Usually each location has only one single optical scanner/reader, and thus produces only one poll tape.)
Bev Harris of www.blackboxvoting.org, the erstwhile investigator of electronic voting machines, along with people from Florida Fair Elections, showed up at Florida's Volusia County Elections Office on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 16, 2004, and asked to see, under a public records request, each of the poll tapes for the 100+ optical scanners in the precincts in that county. The elections workers - having been notified in advance of her request - handed her a set of printouts, oddly dated November 15 and lacking signatures.
Bev pointed out that the printouts given her were not the original poll tapes and had no signatures, and thus were not what she'd requested. Obligingly, they told her that the originals were held in another location, the Elections Office's Warehouse, and that since it was the end of the day they should meet Bev the following morning to show them to her.
Bev showed up bright and early the morning of Wednesday the 17th - well before the scheduled meeting - and discovered three of the elections officials in the Elections Warehouse standing over a table covered with what looked like poll tapes. When they saw Bev and her friends, Bev told me in a telephone interview less than an hour later, "They immediately shoved us out and slammed the door."
In a way, that was a blessing, because it led to the stinking evidence.
"On the porch was a garbage bag," Bev said, "and so I looked in it and, and lo and behold, there were public record tapes."
Thrown away. Discarded. Waiting to be hauled off.
Read More >>
Scholars on the votes, Ohio undervotes (Keith Olbermann)
November 18, 2004
SECURE UNDISCLOSED LOCATION— We return to Academic Dueling In Our Time, already in progress.
A UC Berkeley sociology professor, director of his school’s Survey Research Center, is scheduled to conduct a news conference at 1 p.m. ET today at which his “research team” will report that “irregularities associated with electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000-260,000 or more excess votes” to President Bush in Florida.
[...] And stay tuned for the latest disaster from Ohio.
For 40 years, the Dayton Daily News reports this morning, Shirley Wightman has worked at polling places on election days. Two weeks ago, she says, turnout was high - 611 voters - and she and her colleagues paid careful attention to their punch-card, chad-filled, voting stations in Washington Township, Ohio.
“We checked the machines periodically,” Ms. Wightman told the paper, “and I could see nothing wrong with them.”
Yet when the votes were tallied, 168 of the 611 voters had made no choice for president. Unless these were the famed undecideds we heard so much about in the closing weeks of the campaigns, something went terribly wrong. 27 and a half percent of the voters in that “Washington X” precinct in Montgomery County officially didn’t have a presidential preference.
This was the high point of the Daily News’ investigative analysis of the still-unofficial voting results in its county— or more properly, perhaps, the low point. The paper discovered that of the 284, 650 votes in Montgomery, a total of 5,693 registered no valid vote for president. And the percentages were significantly higher in the 231 precincts that wound up voting for Kerry (2.8%) than did the 354 that wound up voting for Bush (1.6%).
Besides Washington X, a second County precinct exceeded 27% ‘undercount,’ as the election professionals, such as they are, call it. Washington X, Kettering 3-A, and five of the other top ten ‘undercount’ precincts by percentage wound up supporting Bush.
Since, as the papers note, political scientists suggested that the poor and the lesser-educated are presumed to have more trouble with punch card voting, there are several logical disconnects here. Given the outcomes in those two precincts, Washington X and Kettering 3-A, were those mostly Bush voters who managed to blank out more than a quarter of their own ballots, or did the precincts wind up voting for Bush because more than a quarter of the ballots had no valid presidential vote?
What happened in the voting precincts in Moraine, Ohio? 2,557 votes were cast at seven sites there. The President won the city by 2%. The number of ballots without a valid presidential vote was 5.6%.
[...] The Associated Press today carries a report of 2,600 ballots in nine precincts around Sandusky, Ohio that were counted twice— as that paper puts it— “likely because of worker error.” The Clyde precinct showed a voter turnout of 131%, to the dismay of the head of the elections board, Barb Tuckerman.
Read More >>
November 18, 2004
SECURE UNDISCLOSED LOCATION— We return to Academic Dueling In Our Time, already in progress.
A UC Berkeley sociology professor, director of his school’s Survey Research Center, is scheduled to conduct a news conference at 1 p.m. ET today at which his “research team” will report that “irregularities associated with electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000-260,000 or more excess votes” to President Bush in Florida.
[...] And stay tuned for the latest disaster from Ohio.
For 40 years, the Dayton Daily News reports this morning, Shirley Wightman has worked at polling places on election days. Two weeks ago, she says, turnout was high - 611 voters - and she and her colleagues paid careful attention to their punch-card, chad-filled, voting stations in Washington Township, Ohio.
“We checked the machines periodically,” Ms. Wightman told the paper, “and I could see nothing wrong with them.”
Yet when the votes were tallied, 168 of the 611 voters had made no choice for president. Unless these were the famed undecideds we heard so much about in the closing weeks of the campaigns, something went terribly wrong. 27 and a half percent of the voters in that “Washington X” precinct in Montgomery County officially didn’t have a presidential preference.
This was the high point of the Daily News’ investigative analysis of the still-unofficial voting results in its county— or more properly, perhaps, the low point. The paper discovered that of the 284, 650 votes in Montgomery, a total of 5,693 registered no valid vote for president. And the percentages were significantly higher in the 231 precincts that wound up voting for Kerry (2.8%) than did the 354 that wound up voting for Bush (1.6%).
Besides Washington X, a second County precinct exceeded 27% ‘undercount,’ as the election professionals, such as they are, call it. Washington X, Kettering 3-A, and five of the other top ten ‘undercount’ precincts by percentage wound up supporting Bush.
Since, as the papers note, political scientists suggested that the poor and the lesser-educated are presumed to have more trouble with punch card voting, there are several logical disconnects here. Given the outcomes in those two precincts, Washington X and Kettering 3-A, were those mostly Bush voters who managed to blank out more than a quarter of their own ballots, or did the precincts wind up voting for Bush because more than a quarter of the ballots had no valid presidential vote?
What happened in the voting precincts in Moraine, Ohio? 2,557 votes were cast at seven sites there. The President won the city by 2%. The number of ballots without a valid presidential vote was 5.6%.
[...] The Associated Press today carries a report of 2,600 ballots in nine precincts around Sandusky, Ohio that were counted twice— as that paper puts it— “likely because of worker error.” The Clyde precinct showed a voter turnout of 131%, to the dismay of the head of the elections board, Barb Tuckerman.
Read More >>
Ohio Finds Possible Double Votes, Counts
Jay Cohen, AP - Nov 18, 2004
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Election officials in one Ohio county found that about 2,600 ballots were double-counted, and two other counties have discovered possible cases of people voting twice in the presidential election.
Prosecutors were trying to determine Wednesday whether charges should be filed against a couple in Madison County accused of voting twice. In addition, Summit County election workers investigated possible double votes found under 18 names.
In the other case, Sandusky County election officials discovered that about 2,600 ballots from nine precincts were counted twice, likely because of worker error, elections director Barb Tuckerman said.
Tuckerman believes the votes were counted twice when they were mistakenly placed alongside a pile of uncounted ballots. The room where the ballots were being fed into optical-scan machines on election night was so crowded that ballots had to be placed on the floor, Tuckerman said.
"It was totally hectic," she said.
The problem was discovered when Tuckerman found that one precinct showed 131 percent of registered voters had cast ballots.
Read More >>
Jay Cohen, AP - Nov 18, 2004
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Election officials in one Ohio county found that about 2,600 ballots were double-counted, and two other counties have discovered possible cases of people voting twice in the presidential election.
Prosecutors were trying to determine Wednesday whether charges should be filed against a couple in Madison County accused of voting twice. In addition, Summit County election workers investigated possible double votes found under 18 names.
In the other case, Sandusky County election officials discovered that about 2,600 ballots from nine precincts were counted twice, likely because of worker error, elections director Barb Tuckerman said.
Tuckerman believes the votes were counted twice when they were mistakenly placed alongside a pile of uncounted ballots. The room where the ballots were being fed into optical-scan machines on election night was so crowded that ballots had to be placed on the floor, Tuckerman said.
"It was totally hectic," she said.
The problem was discovered when Tuckerman found that one precinct showed 131 percent of registered voters had cast ballots.
Read More >>
Democrats take up fight over ballots
Bill Sloat - November 18, 2004
Cincinnati - Seeming to brush aside John Kerry's concession speech, the Ohio Democratic Party has launched a federal court fight over nearly 155,000 provisional ballots by contending a proper accounting of those votes might decide who really won.
In Ohio, Bush now holds a lead of about 136,000 votes over Kerry.
County officials across the state began tabulating provisional ballots Friday.
"Given the closeness of the presidential and other elections," Ohio's provisional ballots "may prove determinative of the outcome," Democrats argue in a legal filing made public Wednesday by the U.S. District Court.
The lawsuit asked U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson to order Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell to impose uniform standards for counting provisional votes on all 88 counties. Democrats want the judge to take action quickly - before the results of the election are certified.
Watson, who was appointed by Bush, has not set a hearing.
Read More >>
Bill Sloat - November 18, 2004
Cincinnati - Seeming to brush aside John Kerry's concession speech, the Ohio Democratic Party has launched a federal court fight over nearly 155,000 provisional ballots by contending a proper accounting of those votes might decide who really won.
In Ohio, Bush now holds a lead of about 136,000 votes over Kerry.
County officials across the state began tabulating provisional ballots Friday.
"Given the closeness of the presidential and other elections," Ohio's provisional ballots "may prove determinative of the outcome," Democrats argue in a legal filing made public Wednesday by the U.S. District Court.
The lawsuit asked U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson to order Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell to impose uniform standards for counting provisional votes on all 88 counties. Democrats want the judge to take action quickly - before the results of the election are certified.
Watson, who was appointed by Bush, has not set a hearing.
Read More >>
WAS IT HACKED?
Alan Waldman - 11/18/04
Despite mainstream media attempts to kill the story, talk radio and the Internet are abuzz with suggestions that John Kerry was elected president on Nov. 2 – but Republican election officials made it difficult for millions of Democrats to vote while employees of four secretive, GOP-bankrolled corporations rigged electronic voting machines and then hacked central tabulating computers to steal the election for George W. Bush.
The Bush administration's "fix" of the 2000 election debacle (the Help America Vote Act) made crooked elections considerably easier, by foisting paperless electronic voting on states before the bugs had been worked out or meaningful safeguards could be installed.
Crying foul this time around isn't just the province of whiny Democrats. Consider that The Wall Street Journal recently revealed that "Verified Voting, a group formed by a Stanford University professor to assess electronic voting, has collected 31,000 reports of election fraud and other problems."
Read More >>
Alan Waldman - 11/18/04
Despite mainstream media attempts to kill the story, talk radio and the Internet are abuzz with suggestions that John Kerry was elected president on Nov. 2 – but Republican election officials made it difficult for millions of Democrats to vote while employees of four secretive, GOP-bankrolled corporations rigged electronic voting machines and then hacked central tabulating computers to steal the election for George W. Bush.
The Bush administration's "fix" of the 2000 election debacle (the Help America Vote Act) made crooked elections considerably easier, by foisting paperless electronic voting on states before the bugs had been worked out or meaningful safeguards could be installed.
Crying foul this time around isn't just the province of whiny Democrats. Consider that The Wall Street Journal recently revealed that "Verified Voting, a group formed by a Stanford University professor to assess electronic voting, has collected 31,000 reports of election fraud and other problems."
Read More >>
University researchers challenge Bush win in Florida
'Something went awry with electronic voting in Florida,' says the lead researcher
Dan Verton
NOVEMBER 18, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, said today that they have uncovered statistical irregularities associated with electronic voting machines in three Florida counties that may have given President George W. Bush 130,000 or more excess votes. The researchers are now calling on state and federal authorities to look into the problems.
The study, "The Effect of Electronic Voting Machines on Change in Support for Bush in the 2004 Florida Elections," was conducted by doctoral students and faculty from the university's sociology department and led by sociology professor Michael Hout.
Hout is an expert on statistical methods at the Berkeley Survey Research Center and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to the study, counties with electronic voting machines were significantly more likely to show increases in support for Bush between 2000 and 2004 compared to counties with paper ballots or optical scan equipment. This change cannot be explained by differences between counties in income, number of voters, change in voter turnout, or size of the Hispanic/Latino population, said Hout.
In Broward County, for example, Bush appears to have received approximately 72,000 excess votes, Hout said, adding that the research team is 99.9% sure that these effects are not attributable to chance. The other two counties that experienced unexplained statistical discrepancies in the vote are Miami-Dade and Palm Beach. The three counties revealed the most significant irregularities and were the most heavily Democratic counties in the state. Smaller counties that showed strong support for Bush didn't produce any statistical anomalies, Hout said.
"For the sake of all future elections involving e-voting systems, someone must investigate and explain the statistical anomaly we found in Florida," Hout said at a news conference today.
Read More >>
'Something went awry with electronic voting in Florida,' says the lead researcher
Dan Verton
NOVEMBER 18, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, said today that they have uncovered statistical irregularities associated with electronic voting machines in three Florida counties that may have given President George W. Bush 130,000 or more excess votes. The researchers are now calling on state and federal authorities to look into the problems.
The study, "The Effect of Electronic Voting Machines on Change in Support for Bush in the 2004 Florida Elections," was conducted by doctoral students and faculty from the university's sociology department and led by sociology professor Michael Hout.
Hout is an expert on statistical methods at the Berkeley Survey Research Center and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to the study, counties with electronic voting machines were significantly more likely to show increases in support for Bush between 2000 and 2004 compared to counties with paper ballots or optical scan equipment. This change cannot be explained by differences between counties in income, number of voters, change in voter turnout, or size of the Hispanic/Latino population, said Hout.
In Broward County, for example, Bush appears to have received approximately 72,000 excess votes, Hout said, adding that the research team is 99.9% sure that these effects are not attributable to chance. The other two counties that experienced unexplained statistical discrepancies in the vote are Miami-Dade and Palm Beach. The three counties revealed the most significant irregularities and were the most heavily Democratic counties in the state. Smaller counties that showed strong support for Bush didn't produce any statistical anomalies, Hout said.
"For the sake of all future elections involving e-voting systems, someone must investigate and explain the statistical anomaly we found in Florida," Hout said at a news conference today.
Read More >>
17 November 2004
Complete US Exit Poll Data Confirms Net Suspicions
Full 51 State Early Exit Poll Data Released For The First Time
By Scoop Co-Editor Alastair Thompson
17 November 2004
Scoop.co.nz is delighted to be able today to publish a full set of 4pm exit poll data for the first time on the Internet since the US election. The data emerged this evening NZT in a post on the Democratic Underground website under the forum name TruthIsAll.
The new data confirms what was already widely known about the swing in favour of George Bush, but amplifies the extent of that swing.
Read More >>
Full 51 State Early Exit Poll Data Released For The First Time
By Scoop Co-Editor Alastair Thompson
17 November 2004
Scoop.co.nz is delighted to be able today to publish a full set of 4pm exit poll data for the first time on the Internet since the US election. The data emerged this evening NZT in a post on the Democratic Underground website under the forum name TruthIsAll.
The new data confirms what was already widely known about the swing in favour of George Bush, but amplifies the extent of that swing.
Read More >>
Ballots missing in Casar
Amelia Townsend
CASAR — Precinct officials in Casar searched the volunteer fire department for 120 missing ballots last night, but none were found.
Democratic and Republican Party leaders said election certification is a two-tiered process, with the vote tallies from each precinct being compared to what was reported to the Board of Elections on election night. This is called the canvass and is usually done about a week after the election.
The second part, called certification, counts the actual ballots and compares them against the canvass totals. They counted Casar’s on Monday and discovered the discrepancy.
Read More >>
Amelia Townsend
CASAR — Precinct officials in Casar searched the volunteer fire department for 120 missing ballots last night, but none were found.
Democratic and Republican Party leaders said election certification is a two-tiered process, with the vote tallies from each precinct being compared to what was reported to the Board of Elections on election night. This is called the canvass and is usually done about a week after the election.
The second part, called certification, counts the actual ballots and compares them against the canvass totals. They counted Casar’s on Monday and discovered the discrepancy.
Read More >>
Vote fraud investigators visit Volusia Daytona Beach News >>
INDICTMENTS FILED FOR VOTER FRAUD AGAINST TWO MEN IN EL PASO >>
Snow, Carpenter race should be decided Nov. 17 Waynesville Smoky Mountain News, NC >>
Panel OKs recount in House race lost by Hill Indianapolis Star, IN >>
123 allegations of voter fraud from around the nation: vote2004. ... Collective Bellaciao, France >>
INDICTMENTS FILED FOR VOTER FRAUD AGAINST TWO MEN IN EL PASO >>
Snow, Carpenter race should be decided Nov. 17 Waynesville Smoky Mountain News, NC >>
Panel OKs recount in House race lost by Hill Indianapolis Star, IN >>
123 allegations of voter fraud from around the nation: vote2004. ... Collective Bellaciao, France >>
16 November 2004
Three More Indiana Counties Report E-Vote Errors
Franklin Co. equipment trouble wasn't an isolated incident
Pam Tharp - November 16th, 2004
Franklin County isn't the only Indiana county that had programming troubles with optical scan voting equipment this year.
Ripley, Brown and Carroll counties each had a different problem, ranging from handcounting a race because the software program didn't comply with Indiana law to 63 unvoted ballots in one precinct, according to the scanner's tally tape.
Read More >>
Franklin Co. equipment trouble wasn't an isolated incident
Pam Tharp - November 16th, 2004
Franklin County isn't the only Indiana county that had programming troubles with optical scan voting equipment this year.
Ripley, Brown and Carroll counties each had a different problem, ranging from handcounting a race because the software program didn't comply with Indiana law to 63 unvoted ballots in one precinct, according to the scanner's tally tape.
Read More >>
The Mother of all Vote Frauds
Vote suppression. Residents turned away from polls. Shortages of voting locations and ballot forms. Foreign monitors 'barred' from polls. Global monitors find faults. Unmatched exit polls/actual results - actual results always skewed to Republican candidates. CNN drastically changed Ohio exit poll page. Masses of e-Voting software "glitches". Computers lose votes. Presidential votes miscast on e-Voting machines throughout the US. More votes than voters. Republicans gain by 128.45% in Florida counties using optical scan voting machines while Democrats show 21% loss - some districts show gains of over 400% while one, Liberty County, gained over 700% for Republicans.Warren County officials locked down the county administration building on election night and blocked anyone from observing the vote count as the nation awaited Ohio's returns. Bush's 'incredible' vote tallies.
7% turnout in Cleveland precinct? Cuyahoga County: different towns have the exact same number of "extra" votes. Several Republicans win by exact same number of votes. And on, and on...
Details >>
Vote suppression. Residents turned away from polls. Shortages of voting locations and ballot forms. Foreign monitors 'barred' from polls. Global monitors find faults. Unmatched exit polls/actual results - actual results always skewed to Republican candidates. CNN drastically changed Ohio exit poll page. Masses of e-Voting software "glitches". Computers lose votes. Presidential votes miscast on e-Voting machines throughout the US. More votes than voters. Republicans gain by 128.45% in Florida counties using optical scan voting machines while Democrats show 21% loss - some districts show gains of over 400% while one, Liberty County, gained over 700% for Republicans.Warren County officials locked down the county administration building on election night and blocked anyone from observing the vote count as the nation awaited Ohio's returns. Bush's 'incredible' vote tallies.
7% turnout in Cleveland precinct? Cuyahoga County: different towns have the exact same number of "extra" votes. Several Republicans win by exact same number of votes. And on, and on...
Details >>
Bushnazis trying to force Wikipedia to delete 2004 vote fraud page
Click Here to Vote NOT to Delete!! >>
I just posted the following a little while ago, and later found that this is targeted for deletion:
Evidence of electronic voting bias
Note: As with all statistics, it is very important to consider other causes of apparent anomalies, and to provide verifiable and neutral source data that can be checked in a neutral way by third parties. All the information and sources below appear prima facie to be statistically reasonable in terms of both analysis and assumptions, and to be based upon verifiable public data.
Read More >>
Click Here to Vote NOT to Delete!! >>
I just posted the following a little while ago, and later found that this is targeted for deletion:
Evidence of electronic voting bias
Note: As with all statistics, it is very important to consider other causes of apparent anomalies, and to provide verifiable and neutral source data that can be checked in a neutral way by third parties. All the information and sources below appear prima facie to be statistically reasonable in terms of both analysis and assumptions, and to be based upon verifiable public data.
Read More >>
Three More Indiana Counties Report E-Vote Errors
Franklin Co. equipment trouble wasn't an isolated incident
Pam Tharp - November 16th, 2004
Franklin County isn't the only Indiana county that had programming troubles with optical scan voting equipment this year.
Ripley, Brown and Carroll counties each had a different problem, ranging from handcounting a race because the software program didn't comply with Indiana law to 63 unvoted ballots in one precinct, according to the scanner's tally tape.
Read More >>
Franklin Co. equipment trouble wasn't an isolated incident
Pam Tharp - November 16th, 2004
Franklin County isn't the only Indiana county that had programming troubles with optical scan voting equipment this year.
Ripley, Brown and Carroll counties each had a different problem, ranging from handcounting a race because the software program didn't comply with Indiana law to 63 unvoted ballots in one precinct, according to the scanner's tally tape.
Read More >>
More Ohio votes rejected
Mark Williams
COLUMBUS -- Most of the presidential election provisional ballots rejected so far came from people not registered to vote, election officials said on Monday.
Those people typically thought they were registered to vote in another county or another address, officials said.
Other reasons some of the 155,337 ballots were rejected included missing information such as addresses or signatures and people voting in precincts where they do not live.
"Some people thought because they had changed their mailing address at the post office, or had changed their utilities, that they had done everything necessary to be eligible to vote," said Nancy Moore, deputy director of the Belmont County Board of Elections in eastern Ohio. "They still have to change their address at the board of elections. We're not mindreaders."
"They swear up and down they're registered to vote and they're not," said Bill Thompson, deputy elections director in Pike County.
Read More >>
Mark Williams
COLUMBUS -- Most of the presidential election provisional ballots rejected so far came from people not registered to vote, election officials said on Monday.
Those people typically thought they were registered to vote in another county or another address, officials said.
Other reasons some of the 155,337 ballots were rejected included missing information such as addresses or signatures and people voting in precincts where they do not live.
"Some people thought because they had changed their mailing address at the post office, or had changed their utilities, that they had done everything necessary to be eligible to vote," said Nancy Moore, deputy director of the Belmont County Board of Elections in eastern Ohio. "They still have to change their address at the board of elections. We're not mindreaders."
"They swear up and down they're registered to vote and they're not," said Bill Thompson, deputy elections director in Pike County.
Read More >>
Lawsuit questions 'discovery' of 78,000 absentee votes in Broward
Linda Kleindienst & Sarah Talalay - November 16 2004
Opponents of slot machines at South Florida pari-mutuel venues have filed a lawsuit seeking an official recount of about 78,000 absentee ballots cast in Broward County on Amendment 4 in the Nov. 2 election.
The votes in question were counted late on election night after a glitch was discovered in the computers tallying absentees. About 94 percent of the new votes on Amendment 4 turned out to be "yes" and 6 percent "no" -- an outcome No Casinos officials claim is a "statistical anomaly" that calls the count into question.
"For the lay person, it is a million-to-one chance that this could happen by itself," said state Rep. Randy Johnson, R-Celebration, chairman of the Orlando-based No Casinos. "We'll have experts reflect on that. It's bizarre. It's easy to build the case for a conspiracy."
Read More >>
Linda Kleindienst & Sarah Talalay - November 16 2004
Opponents of slot machines at South Florida pari-mutuel venues have filed a lawsuit seeking an official recount of about 78,000 absentee ballots cast in Broward County on Amendment 4 in the Nov. 2 election.
The votes in question were counted late on election night after a glitch was discovered in the computers tallying absentees. About 94 percent of the new votes on Amendment 4 turned out to be "yes" and 6 percent "no" -- an outcome No Casinos officials claim is a "statistical anomaly" that calls the count into question.
"For the lay person, it is a million-to-one chance that this could happen by itself," said state Rep. Randy Johnson, R-Celebration, chairman of the Orlando-based No Casinos. "We'll have experts reflect on that. It's bizarre. It's easy to build the case for a conspiracy."
Read More >>
WE DO NOT CONCEDE COALITION
WE DO NOT CONCEDE Coalition urges you to continue to help get the word out - we are making a difference! Unite in your communities, protest in numbers, deliver petitions to your elected officials. Let your friends, family, email lists, and groups know about this growing coalition of concerned Americans who are questioning the results of the 2004 election. Write letters to the editor urging members of your community to NOT CONCEDE their votes. We must all do what we can to help get this issue out front and center in our communities! Check back here for continued updates and be prepared to take ACTION!
Read More >>
WE DO NOT CONCEDE Coalition urges you to continue to help get the word out - we are making a difference! Unite in your communities, protest in numbers, deliver petitions to your elected officials. Let your friends, family, email lists, and groups know about this growing coalition of concerned Americans who are questioning the results of the 2004 election. Write letters to the editor urging members of your community to NOT CONCEDE their votes. We must all do what we can to help get this issue out front and center in our communities! Check back here for continued updates and be prepared to take ACTION!
Read More >>
ES&S shannigans in Indiana
Brad Friedman has a lot more to say about ES&S shannigans in Indiana.
The series of reports from WISHTV earlier this year tell of ES&S employees surreptitiously installing illegal, uncertified software, into the voting and tabulating machines in Marion County, Indiana. They then ordered their regional ES&S project manager to lie about it to county officials. She refused. As had her husband in a previous ES&S incident, where he was also a project manager, in a different Indiana county. He was fired for his refusal.
ES&S, you will recall, is run by the Ahmanson family, which is heavily linked to Christian Dominionism. (The least we should expect of the people involved with running our elections is that they believe in democracy.)
Jeff Fisher: In the preceding post, we noted this letter on Fisher's page which purports to name the names of the individuals involved with Florida vote fraud. Allegedly, drug rehab centers were used as main offices by those hacking into the central system.
Fisher also personally asked Ken Blackwell to recuse himself in Ohio. That won't happen. Blackwell is partisan and ambitious, and Bush rewards his servants well.
Read More >>
Brad Friedman has a lot more to say about ES&S shannigans in Indiana.
The series of reports from WISHTV earlier this year tell of ES&S employees surreptitiously installing illegal, uncertified software, into the voting and tabulating machines in Marion County, Indiana. They then ordered their regional ES&S project manager to lie about it to county officials. She refused. As had her husband in a previous ES&S incident, where he was also a project manager, in a different Indiana county. He was fired for his refusal.
ES&S, you will recall, is run by the Ahmanson family, which is heavily linked to Christian Dominionism. (The least we should expect of the people involved with running our elections is that they believe in democracy.)
Jeff Fisher: In the preceding post, we noted this letter on Fisher's page which purports to name the names of the individuals involved with Florida vote fraud. Allegedly, drug rehab centers were used as main offices by those hacking into the central system.
Fisher also personally asked Ken Blackwell to recuse himself in Ohio. That won't happen. Blackwell is partisan and ambitious, and Bush rewards his servants well.
Read More >>
VotersUnite.org
VotersUnite! presents the following compilation of problems reported in the media about the 2004 general election. Starting with early voting, we are seeing a wide array of problems, some of which appear in multiple states. This page allows you to see how widespread the problems are as they accumulate.
Read More >>
VotersUnite! presents the following compilation of problems reported in the media about the 2004 general election. Starting with early voting, we are seeing a wide array of problems, some of which appear in multiple states. This page allows you to see how widespread the problems are as they accumulate.
Read More >>
Document reveals Columbus, Ohio voters waited hours as election officials held back machines
Bob Fitrakis - November 16, 2004
One telling piece of evidence was entered into the record at the Saturday, November 13 public hearing on election irregularities and voter suppression held by nonpartisan voter rights organizations. Cliff Arnebeck, a Common Cause attorney, introduced into the record the Franklin County Board of Elections spreadsheet detailing the allocation of e-voting computer machines for the 2004 election. The Board of Elections’ own document records that, while voters waited in lines ranging from 2-7 hours at polling places, 68 electronic voting machines remained in storage and were never used on Election Day.
Read More >>
Bob Fitrakis - November 16, 2004
One telling piece of evidence was entered into the record at the Saturday, November 13 public hearing on election irregularities and voter suppression held by nonpartisan voter rights organizations. Cliff Arnebeck, a Common Cause attorney, introduced into the record the Franklin County Board of Elections spreadsheet detailing the allocation of e-voting computer machines for the 2004 election. The Board of Elections’ own document records that, while voters waited in lines ranging from 2-7 hours at polling places, 68 electronic voting machines remained in storage and were never used on Election Day.
Read More >>
Conservatives rail against MSNBC's Olbermann for reporting election irregularities
November 16, 2004
Media conservatives have labeled MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann a "voice of paranoia" and accused him of perpetuating "idiotic conspiracy theories" for his sustained spotlight on the numerous local news reports of voting irregularities during the November 2 presidential election. Olbermann's emphasis during Countdown with Keith Olbermann on voting irregularities has been part of a critique of what he has called the "Rube Goldberg voting process of ours" -- as well as a criticism of the major media outlets' failure to report on the irregularities.
[...] But Olbermann has not suggested that the election was stolen. Discussing the possible causes of the bevy of reported voting irregularities from around the country, Olbermann offered this analysis on the November 10 edition of Countdown:
There are really only three possible explanations for all of this. The first is hoped for virtually unanimously by supporters of every candidate and every party -- namely, that all those elected last Tuesday got in because that's the way the people voted. The second is that some of them got in through manipulation of a series of insufficiently sophisticated, insufficiently secure computer voting machines that might be hacked into by the nearest 9-year-old. But the third possibility is actually more heart-stopping still, one that threatens the democracy in the way 100 terrorist rings could not -- that the president or the District 90 dog catcher or other Republicans or other Democrats were elected because a series of insufficiently sophisticated, insufficiently secure computer voting machines was affected by bad design, bad use, damp ballots, power surges, and/or static cling.
Olbermann's commitment to addressing voting irregularities has been coupled with commentary on the lack of media coverage they have received, which Media Matters for America has also noted.
Read More >>
November 16, 2004
Media conservatives have labeled MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann a "voice of paranoia" and accused him of perpetuating "idiotic conspiracy theories" for his sustained spotlight on the numerous local news reports of voting irregularities during the November 2 presidential election. Olbermann's emphasis during Countdown with Keith Olbermann on voting irregularities has been part of a critique of what he has called the "Rube Goldberg voting process of ours" -- as well as a criticism of the major media outlets' failure to report on the irregularities.
[...] But Olbermann has not suggested that the election was stolen. Discussing the possible causes of the bevy of reported voting irregularities from around the country, Olbermann offered this analysis on the November 10 edition of Countdown:
There are really only three possible explanations for all of this. The first is hoped for virtually unanimously by supporters of every candidate and every party -- namely, that all those elected last Tuesday got in because that's the way the people voted. The second is that some of them got in through manipulation of a series of insufficiently sophisticated, insufficiently secure computer voting machines that might be hacked into by the nearest 9-year-old. But the third possibility is actually more heart-stopping still, one that threatens the democracy in the way 100 terrorist rings could not -- that the president or the District 90 dog catcher or other Republicans or other Democrats were elected because a series of insufficiently sophisticated, insufficiently secure computer voting machines was affected by bad design, bad use, damp ballots, power surges, and/or static cling.
Olbermann's commitment to addressing voting irregularities has been coupled with commentary on the lack of media coverage they have received, which Media Matters for America has also noted.
Read More >>
15 November 2004
More Key Reporting by Media on Election Problems
There is no shortage of news about mishaps, cover-ups, and even fraud in the recent elections. Below are quick summaries of a number of excellent articles with links for those who would like to read the entire article. Read also about key members of Congress who have demanded an investigation. And at the end of this message, you will find links to two excellent petitions demanding more responsibility and accountability in our elections. Please take the time to sign these important petitions and pass this information on to your friends and colleagues.
Read More >>
What You Can Do. For starters, you can email your support to the above three members of Congress HERE
There are also two excellent petitions demanding an investigation which you can sign on the Internet. The first already had 36,000 signatures as of November 13th. The second, posted by MoveOn.org doesn't list numbers who have signed, though their membership numbers nearly 3 million.
Sign Petition >>
Sign MoveOn.org Petition >>
View Votergate Film >>
Votescam.com >>
There is no shortage of news about mishaps, cover-ups, and even fraud in the recent elections. Below are quick summaries of a number of excellent articles with links for those who would like to read the entire article. Read also about key members of Congress who have demanded an investigation. And at the end of this message, you will find links to two excellent petitions demanding more responsibility and accountability in our elections. Please take the time to sign these important petitions and pass this information on to your friends and colleagues.
Read More >>
What You Can Do. For starters, you can email your support to the above three members of Congress HERE
There are also two excellent petitions demanding an investigation which you can sign on the Internet. The first already had 36,000 signatures as of November 13th. The second, posted by MoveOn.org doesn't list numbers who have signed, though their membership numbers nearly 3 million.
Sign Petition >>
Sign MoveOn.org Petition >>
View Votergate Film >>
Votescam.com >>
Project Censored
"ES&S, Diebold, and Sequoia are the companies primarily involved in implementing the new, often faulty, technology at voting stations throughout the country. All three have strong ties to the Bush Administration along with major defense contractors in the United States. Some of the most generous contributors to Republican campaigns are also some of the largest investors in ES&S, Sequoia, and Diebold. Most notable of these are government defense contractors Northrup-Grumman, Lockheed-Martin, Electronic Data Systems."
Read More >>
"ES&S, Diebold, and Sequoia are the companies primarily involved in implementing the new, often faulty, technology at voting stations throughout the country. All three have strong ties to the Bush Administration along with major defense contractors in the United States. Some of the most generous contributors to Republican campaigns are also some of the largest investors in ES&S, Sequoia, and Diebold. Most notable of these are government defense contractors Northrup-Grumman, Lockheed-Martin, Electronic Data Systems."
Read More >>
Glibs reach their recount dough count (Keith Olbermann)
November 15, 2004
SECURE UNDISCLOSED LOCATION— A presidential vote recount in Ohio seems inevitable today with the announcement from Green Party candidate David Cobb that he and the Libertarians' Michael Badnarik have raised $150,000 in donations to meet filing fees and expenses.
That fund-raising goal was set last Thursday; on Cobb's website the two parties now say they're going to try to raise an additional $100,000 for "training, mobilizing, and per diem expenses" for those "thousands" who'll be involved in the statewide effort. They're also calling for volunteers from Ohio, and elsewhere, to be the Green/Lib observers in the county-by-county process, or house out-of-state volunteers.
Read More >>
November 15, 2004
SECURE UNDISCLOSED LOCATION— A presidential vote recount in Ohio seems inevitable today with the announcement from Green Party candidate David Cobb that he and the Libertarians' Michael Badnarik have raised $150,000 in donations to meet filing fees and expenses.
That fund-raising goal was set last Thursday; on Cobb's website the two parties now say they're going to try to raise an additional $100,000 for "training, mobilizing, and per diem expenses" for those "thousands" who'll be involved in the statewide effort. They're also calling for volunteers from Ohio, and elsewhere, to be the Green/Lib observers in the county-by-county process, or house out-of-state volunteers.
Read More >>
Sign the Moveon.org Investigate the Vote Petition
Six prominent members of Congress have requested an investigation into the integrity of the vote. The decision could come as soon as Monday. Sign our petition demanding a full investigation into whether the election was conducted honestly or not. Also, share your personal story if you have one -- members of Congress will use it in their call for an investigation.
Sign Petition >>
Six prominent members of Congress have requested an investigation into the integrity of the vote. The decision could come as soon as Monday. Sign our petition demanding a full investigation into whether the election was conducted honestly or not. Also, share your personal story if you have one -- members of Congress will use it in their call for an investigation.
Sign Petition >>
Interesting Maps and cartograms of the 2004 US presidential election results
Michael Gastner, Cosma Shalizi, and Mark Newman
University of Michigan
Read More >>
Michael Gastner, Cosma Shalizi, and Mark Newman
University of Michigan
Read More >>
Evidence of Electoral Fraud in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election: A Reading List
Michael Keefer - www.OpEdNews.com - 15 November 2004
This reading list has been prepared with the aim of making a wide range of readings on the subject of the integrity—or the lack of integrity—of the recent U.S. presidential election readily available. I have sought to facilitate analytical use of the texts listed here by dividing them into five groups under the following headings:
1. The Openness of New Voting Technologies to Fraud;
2. Allegations and Evidence of Fraud in Recent U.S. Elections;
3. Advance Warnings of Fraud in the 2004 Presidential Election;
4. Allegations and Evidence of Fraud in the 2004 Presidential Election;
5. Allegations and Evidence of a Cover-up of Electoral Fraud.
Read More >>
Michael Keefer - www.OpEdNews.com - 15 November 2004
This reading list has been prepared with the aim of making a wide range of readings on the subject of the integrity—or the lack of integrity—of the recent U.S. presidential election readily available. I have sought to facilitate analytical use of the texts listed here by dividing them into five groups under the following headings:
1. The Openness of New Voting Technologies to Fraud;
2. Allegations and Evidence of Fraud in Recent U.S. Elections;
3. Advance Warnings of Fraud in the 2004 Presidential Election;
4. Allegations and Evidence of Fraud in the 2004 Presidential Election;
5. Allegations and Evidence of a Cover-up of Electoral Fraud.
Read More >>
An Open Letter to the New York Times
(and by implication) the Rest of the US Media Who are Trying to Whitewash the 2004 Presidential Election Scandal
Lilian Friedberg - OpEdNews.com
Dear New York Times, etal,
As a long-time subscribed reader of your publication—one I have always staunchly defended one of the best in the world--I am incensed by your dismissive handling of what is one of the most significant breaking news stories since Watergate.(your Nov.12 article,Vote Fraud Theories, Spread by Blogs, Are Quickly Buried)
[...] These studies do not involve a the kind of fuzzy math implied by the Times’ report of “blog-to-e-mail-to-blog”—they involve a diligent, however frenzied, study of the actual data produced by exit polls versus actual results. These so-called “internet conspiracy theorists” are credentialed professionals engaged in hard research--most of which is beyond my grasp as a classically literary-minded PhD, but which clearly reflects solid research conducted by people who, by virtue of their professional training in precisely the fields required to analyze this data, are hard at work doing the job of the entire nation right now. They are doing your job, and they deserve your support and gratitude, not disdain, derision and dismissal.
Read More >>
(and by implication) the Rest of the US Media Who are Trying to Whitewash the 2004 Presidential Election Scandal
Lilian Friedberg - OpEdNews.com
Dear New York Times, etal,
As a long-time subscribed reader of your publication—one I have always staunchly defended one of the best in the world--I am incensed by your dismissive handling of what is one of the most significant breaking news stories since Watergate.(your Nov.12 article,Vote Fraud Theories, Spread by Blogs, Are Quickly Buried)
[...] These studies do not involve a the kind of fuzzy math implied by the Times’ report of “blog-to-e-mail-to-blog”—they involve a diligent, however frenzied, study of the actual data produced by exit polls versus actual results. These so-called “internet conspiracy theorists” are credentialed professionals engaged in hard research--most of which is beyond my grasp as a classically literary-minded PhD, but which clearly reflects solid research conducted by people who, by virtue of their professional training in precisely the fields required to analyze this data, are hard at work doing the job of the entire nation right now. They are doing your job, and they deserve your support and gratitude, not disdain, derision and dismissal.
Read More >>
Activists question accuracy of optical vote-scan machines
Katharine Webster - November 15, 2004
CONCORD, N.H. -- New Hampshire, home of the first state presidential primary, is about to become a test case for the accuracy of optical scan vote-counting machines -- thanks to third-party presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
Nader has asked for a recount in 11 precincts that use Diebold Inc.'s Accuvote optical scanning machines. Based on the results, his campaign could ask for recounts in other states, spokesman Kevin Zeese said Monday.
Nader doesn't expect to change the outcome: In New Hampshire, Democrat John Kerry defeated President Bush, 50 percent to 49 percent, while Nader got less than 1 percent.
But the former consumer advocate wants to address concerns that the machines are inaccurate or can be tampered with, and New Hampshire is the perfect place to do that because state law requires paper ballots, Zeese said.
"New Hampshire is a smart enough state to have a paper trail," is experienced at recounts and the process is inexpensive, he said.
More than 2,000 people and organizations begged Nader to request a recount after a statistical analysis posted on the Internet showed some New Hampshire precincts using the Accuvote machines gave President Bush up to 15 percent more votes than expected, based on exit polls and the 2000 presidential vote.
The recount either will allay people's fears about voting fraud or help spur reforms, Zeese said.
Read More >>
Katharine Webster - November 15, 2004
CONCORD, N.H. -- New Hampshire, home of the first state presidential primary, is about to become a test case for the accuracy of optical scan vote-counting machines -- thanks to third-party presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
Nader has asked for a recount in 11 precincts that use Diebold Inc.'s Accuvote optical scanning machines. Based on the results, his campaign could ask for recounts in other states, spokesman Kevin Zeese said Monday.
Nader doesn't expect to change the outcome: In New Hampshire, Democrat John Kerry defeated President Bush, 50 percent to 49 percent, while Nader got less than 1 percent.
But the former consumer advocate wants to address concerns that the machines are inaccurate or can be tampered with, and New Hampshire is the perfect place to do that because state law requires paper ballots, Zeese said.
"New Hampshire is a smart enough state to have a paper trail," is experienced at recounts and the process is inexpensive, he said.
More than 2,000 people and organizations begged Nader to request a recount after a statistical analysis posted on the Internet showed some New Hampshire precincts using the Accuvote machines gave President Bush up to 15 percent more votes than expected, based on exit polls and the 2000 presidential vote.
The recount either will allay people's fears about voting fraud or help spur reforms, Zeese said.
Read More >>
Recount in Ohio a Sure Thing
Green Party Campaign Raises $150,000 in 4 Days, Shifts Gears to Phase II
WASHINGTON -- November 15 -- There will be a recount of the presidential vote in Ohio.
On Thursday, David Cobb, the Green Party’s 2004 presidential candidate, announced his intention to seek a recount of the vote in Ohio. Since the required fee for a statewide recount is $113,600, the only question was whether that money could be raised in time to meet the filing deadline. That question has been answered.
“Thanks to the thousands of people who have contributed to this effort, we can say with certainty that there will be a recount in Ohio,” said Blair Bobier, Media Director for the Cobb-LaMarche campaign.
“The grassroots support for the recount has been astounding. The donations have come in fast and furiously, with the vast majority in the $10-$50 range, allowing us to meet our goal for the first phase of the recount effort in only four days,” said Bobier.
Bobier said the campaign is still raising money for the next phase of the recount effort which will be recruiting, training and mobilizing volunteers to monitor the actual recount.
The Ohio presidential election was marred by numerous press and independent reports of mis-marked and discarded ballots, problems with electronic voting machines and the targeted disenfranchisement of African American voters. A number of citizens’ groups and voting rights organizations are holding the second of two hearings today in Columbus, Ohio, to take testimony from voters, poll watchers and election experts about problems with the Ohio vote.
Read More >>
Green Party Campaign Raises $150,000 in 4 Days, Shifts Gears to Phase II
WASHINGTON -- November 15 -- There will be a recount of the presidential vote in Ohio.
On Thursday, David Cobb, the Green Party’s 2004 presidential candidate, announced his intention to seek a recount of the vote in Ohio. Since the required fee for a statewide recount is $113,600, the only question was whether that money could be raised in time to meet the filing deadline. That question has been answered.
“Thanks to the thousands of people who have contributed to this effort, we can say with certainty that there will be a recount in Ohio,” said Blair Bobier, Media Director for the Cobb-LaMarche campaign.
“The grassroots support for the recount has been astounding. The donations have come in fast and furiously, with the vast majority in the $10-$50 range, allowing us to meet our goal for the first phase of the recount effort in only four days,” said Bobier.
Bobier said the campaign is still raising money for the next phase of the recount effort which will be recruiting, training and mobilizing volunteers to monitor the actual recount.
The Ohio presidential election was marred by numerous press and independent reports of mis-marked and discarded ballots, problems with electronic voting machines and the targeted disenfranchisement of African American voters. A number of citizens’ groups and voting rights organizations are holding the second of two hearings today in Columbus, Ohio, to take testimony from voters, poll watchers and election experts about problems with the Ohio vote.
Read More >>
14 November 2004
I swear: I'm on vacation (Keith Olbermann)
November 14, 2004
SECURE UNDISCLOSED LOCATION — Golly, I’ve never been the subject of a conspiracy theory before.
Yet, there it is, flying around the Internet under the byline of a Peter Coyote: that when I attempted to break the “lock-down” of coverage of the voting irregularities story in the media during Friday night’s edition of Countdown, I was fired, and left the studio in the middle of the program.
Um, no, actually.
I’m on vacation— it’s been scheduled since August; I’ll be blogging in the interim; Countdown will continue to cover the story in my absence; I not only wasn’t fired for ‘mentioning’ the story - but we covered it five nights in a row; and, I’ll be back on television on the 22nd (earlier, if developments warrant).
[...] I suspect the coverage is going to go through the roof as the news spreads that Nader has gotten his recount in New Hampshire, and that the Greens and Libertarians are actually going to get their Ohio recount. When reporters discover what Jonathan Turley pointed out to us on Tuesday’s show, namely that 70% of Ohio’s votes were done with punch cards and as Florida proved in 2000, in court, a lot of those punch cards— as Jon put it— “turn over,” I suspect there will be long-form television on the process. As an aside: as of earlier today, the Green/Libs— should we just go ahead and call them the Glibs?— were at $118,000 towards their Ohio war-chest goal of $150,000. I’ve gotten a peck of e-mails about why neither party’s Website has details, and it turns out the site you want on this is VoteCobb.Org.
Read More >>
November 14, 2004
SECURE UNDISCLOSED LOCATION — Golly, I’ve never been the subject of a conspiracy theory before.
Yet, there it is, flying around the Internet under the byline of a Peter Coyote: that when I attempted to break the “lock-down” of coverage of the voting irregularities story in the media during Friday night’s edition of Countdown, I was fired, and left the studio in the middle of the program.
Um, no, actually.
I’m on vacation— it’s been scheduled since August; I’ll be blogging in the interim; Countdown will continue to cover the story in my absence; I not only wasn’t fired for ‘mentioning’ the story - but we covered it five nights in a row; and, I’ll be back on television on the 22nd (earlier, if developments warrant).
[...] I suspect the coverage is going to go through the roof as the news spreads that Nader has gotten his recount in New Hampshire, and that the Greens and Libertarians are actually going to get their Ohio recount. When reporters discover what Jonathan Turley pointed out to us on Tuesday’s show, namely that 70% of Ohio’s votes were done with punch cards and as Florida proved in 2000, in court, a lot of those punch cards— as Jon put it— “turn over,” I suspect there will be long-form television on the process. As an aside: as of earlier today, the Green/Libs— should we just go ahead and call them the Glibs?— were at $118,000 towards their Ohio war-chest goal of $150,000. I’ve gotten a peck of e-mails about why neither party’s Website has details, and it turns out the site you want on this is VoteCobb.Org.
Read More >>
Ohio Voters Tell of Election Day Troubles at Hearing
Reginald Fields - Cleveland Plain Dealer - 14 November 2004
Tales of waiting more than five hours to vote, voter intimidation, under-trained polling-station workers and too few or broken voting machines largely in urban or heavily minority areas were retold Saturday at a public hearing organized by voter-rights groups.
For three hours, burdened voters, one after another, offered sworn testimony about Election Day voter suppression and irregularities that they believe are threatening democracy.
The hearing, sponsored by the Election Protection Coalition, was to collect testimony of voting troubles that might be used to seek legislative changes to Ohio's election process.
The organizers chose Ohio because it was a swing state in the presidential election as well as the site of numerous claims of election fraud and voter disenfranchisement.
Read More >>
Reginald Fields - Cleveland Plain Dealer - 14 November 2004
Tales of waiting more than five hours to vote, voter intimidation, under-trained polling-station workers and too few or broken voting machines largely in urban or heavily minority areas were retold Saturday at a public hearing organized by voter-rights groups.
For three hours, burdened voters, one after another, offered sworn testimony about Election Day voter suppression and irregularities that they believe are threatening democracy.
The hearing, sponsored by the Election Protection Coalition, was to collect testimony of voting troubles that might be used to seek legislative changes to Ohio's election process.
The organizers chose Ohio because it was a swing state in the presidential election as well as the site of numerous claims of election fraud and voter disenfranchisement.
Read More >>
13 November 2004
Others raised red flag over Gaston turnout
Commissioners want to know why oversight went unnoticed for days --A state elections official e-mailed Gaston Elections Director Sandra Page on Friday to question the county's election results, four days before Page announced that she had discovered the results were wrong. It was one of at least four inquiries Page received before her Tuesday announcement that 12,000 early votes were accidentally [sic] omitted from the results.
Read More >>
2 N.C. candidates request recount
Feds to check out flaws in Mecklenburg, other N.C. counties --With all except a few thousand votes across North Carolina counted Wednesday, two Council of State candidates asked for a recount and one of the races was still close enough that it could force a new statewide election. Meanwhile, federal authorities intend to look into election troubles in Mecklenburg and coastal Carteret County to determine whether any activity warrants a criminal investigation, the Observer learned Wednesday.
Read More >>
'Patriot' Vote Machines in S.C. Malfunction Lancaster County counts by hand after malfunction
1,600 absentee ballots could affect some races (Thu., Nov. 04, 2004) Huddled in the basement of the Lancaster County Administration Building, election officials late Wednesday were manually tallying results of about 1,600 absentee ballots. A malfunction with Patriot [LOL!] voting machines stopped the computerized tally late Tuesday night about a third of the way through, and elections officials said they were unable to restart the procedure.
Read More >>
And so the sorting and discarding of Kerry votes begins
by Bob Fitrakis
"Are the provisional ballots in Ohio being thrown out? A new rule for counting provisional ballots in Cuyahoga County, Ohio was implemented on Tuesday, November 9 at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon, according to election observer Victoria Lovegren. The new ruling in Cuyahoga County mandates that provisional ballots in yellow packets must be 'Rejected' if there is no 'date of birth' on the packet. The Free Press obtained copies of the original 'Provisional Verification Procedure' from Cuyahoga County which stated 'Date of birth is not mandatory and should not reject a provisional ballot.' The original procedure required the voter’s name, address and a signature that matched the signature in the county’s database."
Read More >>
Kerry attorneys investigating Ohio vote count
Lawyers for the John Kerry campaign are on what they call a fact-finding mission in Ohio, where the Democratic candidate 'lost' by 136,000 votes. The lawyers don't plan to challenge the election results but they want to make sure all of the estimated 155,000 provisional ballots cast Nov. 2 are counted, the Cleveland Plain Dealer said.
Read More >>
Last five links and summaries from:
Citizens for Legitimate Government >>
Commissioners want to know why oversight went unnoticed for days --A state elections official e-mailed Gaston Elections Director Sandra Page on Friday to question the county's election results, four days before Page announced that she had discovered the results were wrong. It was one of at least four inquiries Page received before her Tuesday announcement that 12,000 early votes were accidentally [sic] omitted from the results.
Read More >>
2 N.C. candidates request recount
Feds to check out flaws in Mecklenburg, other N.C. counties --With all except a few thousand votes across North Carolina counted Wednesday, two Council of State candidates asked for a recount and one of the races was still close enough that it could force a new statewide election. Meanwhile, federal authorities intend to look into election troubles in Mecklenburg and coastal Carteret County to determine whether any activity warrants a criminal investigation, the Observer learned Wednesday.
Read More >>
'Patriot' Vote Machines in S.C. Malfunction Lancaster County counts by hand after malfunction
1,600 absentee ballots could affect some races (Thu., Nov. 04, 2004) Huddled in the basement of the Lancaster County Administration Building, election officials late Wednesday were manually tallying results of about 1,600 absentee ballots. A malfunction with Patriot [LOL!] voting machines stopped the computerized tally late Tuesday night about a third of the way through, and elections officials said they were unable to restart the procedure.
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And so the sorting and discarding of Kerry votes begins
by Bob Fitrakis
"Are the provisional ballots in Ohio being thrown out? A new rule for counting provisional ballots in Cuyahoga County, Ohio was implemented on Tuesday, November 9 at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon, according to election observer Victoria Lovegren. The new ruling in Cuyahoga County mandates that provisional ballots in yellow packets must be 'Rejected' if there is no 'date of birth' on the packet. The Free Press obtained copies of the original 'Provisional Verification Procedure' from Cuyahoga County which stated 'Date of birth is not mandatory and should not reject a provisional ballot.' The original procedure required the voter’s name, address and a signature that matched the signature in the county’s database."
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Kerry attorneys investigating Ohio vote count
Lawyers for the John Kerry campaign are on what they call a fact-finding mission in Ohio, where the Democratic candidate 'lost' by 136,000 votes. The lawyers don't plan to challenge the election results but they want to make sure all of the estimated 155,000 provisional ballots cast Nov. 2 are counted, the Cleveland Plain Dealer said.
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Last five links and summaries from:
Citizens for Legitimate Government >>
How to Hack the Vote: the Short Version
Nov 13, 2004
For anyone who is curious, I have put together this shortened document that will show you exactly how easy it is to break into Diebold’s GEMS software, which is the software used to tabulate regional voting results. This software runs on regular Windows machines and counts the votes from multiple precincts that may have used touch screens (which have their own problems), optically scanned punch cards, or other balloting methods. It is responsible for the accurate reporting of tens of millions of votes cast using many different types of ballots. That’s right – even if you used the older systems like punch cards, your vote can still be Hacked when the numbers all come together. Wanna see how easy it is?
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Nov 13, 2004
For anyone who is curious, I have put together this shortened document that will show you exactly how easy it is to break into Diebold’s GEMS software, which is the software used to tabulate regional voting results. This software runs on regular Windows machines and counts the votes from multiple precincts that may have used touch screens (which have their own problems), optically scanned punch cards, or other balloting methods. It is responsible for the accurate reporting of tens of millions of votes cast using many different types of ballots. That’s right – even if you used the older systems like punch cards, your vote can still be Hacked when the numbers all come together. Wanna see how easy it is?
Read More >>
For some, Ohio still is not decided - Kerry voters demand investigation of count
Carl Weiser - November 13, 2004
WASHINGTON - You thought the presidential election was over in Ohio?
President Bush, Sen. John Kerry, the Ohio secretary of state, and both national and state Democratic and Republican parties certainly think so.
But on the Web, in e-mails, on radio and on television, a mounting chorus of Kerry supporters is pushing the notion that Bush won Ohio through fraud, conspiracies or voting machine malfunctions.
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Carl Weiser - November 13, 2004
WASHINGTON - You thought the presidential election was over in Ohio?
President Bush, Sen. John Kerry, the Ohio secretary of state, and both national and state Democratic and Republican parties certainly think so.
But on the Web, in e-mails, on radio and on television, a mounting chorus of Kerry supporters is pushing the notion that Bush won Ohio through fraud, conspiracies or voting machine malfunctions.
Read More >>
12 November 2004
Presidential Race Still Undecided in New Mexico
Nov 12, 2004
SANTA FE, N.M. (Reuters) - Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry has conceded, President Bush has laid out his plans for a second term and New Mexico still does not know who won the election in the sparsely populated state.
New Mexico is the only state that does not have a clear-cut winner in the presidential vote, and state officials were red-faced over the slow count. The state had vowed to speed up counting ballots after it took about a month to tally the vote in the 2000 presidential race, where Democrat Al Gore beat Bush by 366 votes.
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Nov 12, 2004
SANTA FE, N.M. (Reuters) - Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry has conceded, President Bush has laid out his plans for a second term and New Mexico still does not know who won the election in the sparsely populated state.
New Mexico is the only state that does not have a clear-cut winner in the presidential vote, and state officials were red-faced over the slow count. The state had vowed to speed up counting ballots after it took about a month to tally the vote in the 2000 presidential race, where Democrat Al Gore beat Bush by 366 votes.
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Rolled up papers at fifty places (Keith Olbermann)
November 12, 2004
SECAUCUS— You know it's bad when the two sides start throwing professors at one another.
Two conflicting scholarly studies on the variance between the national exit polling and the presidential election results, are flying across the Internet, eating up your e-mail storage capacity.
One, from the University of Pennsylvania, reminds us that exit polls are used as 'audits' on the elections in places like Germany and Mexico, and suggests the actual statistical odds that the exit polling was that wrong in the battleground states were 250,000,000 to one.
The other, from a voting project managed by CalTech and MIT, says that while the incorrectness of national exit polling can't be explained by the proverbial 'margin of error,' on a state-by-state basis, it actually was within that margin.
Craig Crawford joins us tonight to try to make political sense of the theory-laden scholarly research.
Read More >>
November 12, 2004
SECAUCUS— You know it's bad when the two sides start throwing professors at one another.
Two conflicting scholarly studies on the variance between the national exit polling and the presidential election results, are flying across the Internet, eating up your e-mail storage capacity.
One, from the University of Pennsylvania, reminds us that exit polls are used as 'audits' on the elections in places like Germany and Mexico, and suggests the actual statistical odds that the exit polling was that wrong in the battleground states were 250,000,000 to one.
The other, from a voting project managed by CalTech and MIT, says that while the incorrectness of national exit polling can't be explained by the proverbial 'margin of error,' on a state-by-state basis, it actually was within that margin.
Craig Crawford joins us tonight to try to make political sense of the theory-laden scholarly research.
Read More >>
Minnesotans kicked off voter registration lists asking why
November 12, 2004
Maybe she made a mistake when she registered to vote while renewing her driver's license in 2002, but 25-year-old Alissa Doth doesn't think so.
When she went to vote in 2002, she wasn't on the roster. She had problems in 2003 and again this year.
``I made sure to verify that I was filling out the correct spot, the signature on the right-hand side of the form,'' said Doth. ``I verified with people at the county service center, and showed up to the polls and was not registered.''
Minnesota has same-day voter registration, so Doth was able to sign up to vote at her polling place. But she was angry.
``I called a bunch of friends and said, 'I'm a disenfranchised voter. I finally understand what that's like to be a disenfranchised voter,''' said Doth. ``And everyone's response was, 'But you got to vote, so why does it matter?' I kind of feel like yes I got to vote, but there still are plenty of people who maybe show up at the polls and maybe didn't have the proper ID, and wouldn't be able to vote.''
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November 12, 2004
Maybe she made a mistake when she registered to vote while renewing her driver's license in 2002, but 25-year-old Alissa Doth doesn't think so.
When she went to vote in 2002, she wasn't on the roster. She had problems in 2003 and again this year.
``I made sure to verify that I was filling out the correct spot, the signature on the right-hand side of the form,'' said Doth. ``I verified with people at the county service center, and showed up to the polls and was not registered.''
Minnesota has same-day voter registration, so Doth was able to sign up to vote at her polling place. But she was angry.
``I called a bunch of friends and said, 'I'm a disenfranchised voter. I finally understand what that's like to be a disenfranchised voter,''' said Doth. ``And everyone's response was, 'But you got to vote, so why does it matter?' I kind of feel like yes I got to vote, but there still are plenty of people who maybe show up at the polls and maybe didn't have the proper ID, and wouldn't be able to vote.''
Read More >>
Major bugs found in Diebold vote systems
Washington, DC, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- The voting machine controversy likely will linger after a look at the systems source code software from Ohio-based Diebold yielded reports of numerous bugs.
Diebold was one of three companies -- including Election Systems & Software and Sequoia -- that provided updated technology for the 2004 election.
Computer Science Professor Avi Rubin of John Hopkins University analyzed Diebold's 47,609 lines of code and found it uses an encryption key that was hacked in 1997 and no longer is used in secure programs.
Rubin said Diebold has said it repaired the security flaws in subsequent programs, but that the company has not produced the code for analysis.
Diebold did return a call for comment.
The Digital Encryption Standard 56-bit encryption key used can be unlocked by a key embedded in all the source code, meaning all Diebold machines would respond to the same key.
Rubin, his graduate students and a colleague from Rice University found other bugs, that the administrator's PIN code was "1111" and that one programmer had inserted, "This is just a hack for now."
The implication is that by hacking one machine you could have access to all Diebold machines.
Read More >>
Washington, DC, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- The voting machine controversy likely will linger after a look at the systems source code software from Ohio-based Diebold yielded reports of numerous bugs.
Diebold was one of three companies -- including Election Systems & Software and Sequoia -- that provided updated technology for the 2004 election.
Computer Science Professor Avi Rubin of John Hopkins University analyzed Diebold's 47,609 lines of code and found it uses an encryption key that was hacked in 1997 and no longer is used in secure programs.
Rubin said Diebold has said it repaired the security flaws in subsequent programs, but that the company has not produced the code for analysis.
Diebold did return a call for comment.
The Digital Encryption Standard 56-bit encryption key used can be unlocked by a key embedded in all the source code, meaning all Diebold machines would respond to the same key.
Rubin, his graduate students and a colleague from Rice University found other bugs, that the administrator's PIN code was "1111" and that one programmer had inserted, "This is just a hack for now."
The implication is that by hacking one machine you could have access to all Diebold machines.
Read More >>
Kerry Won Ohio
Greg Palast - In These Times - 12 November 2004
Just count the ballots at the back of the bus.
Most voters in Ohio chose Kerry. Here's how the votes vanished.
This February, Ken Blackwell, Ohio's Secretary of State, told his State Senate President, "The possibility of a close election with punch cards as the state’s primary voting device invites a Florida-like calamity." Blackwell, co-chair of Bush-Cheney reelection campaign, wasn't warning his fellow Republican of disaster, but boasting of an opportunity to bring in Ohio for Team Bush no matter what the voters wanted. And most voters in Ohio wanted JFK, not GWB. But their choice won't count because their votes won't be counted.
The ballots that add up to a majority for John Kerry in Ohio -- and in New Mexico -- are locked up in two Republican hidey-holes: "spoiled" ballots and "provisional" ballots.
Read More >>
Greg Palast - In These Times - 12 November 2004
Just count the ballots at the back of the bus.
Most voters in Ohio chose Kerry. Here's how the votes vanished.
This February, Ken Blackwell, Ohio's Secretary of State, told his State Senate President, "The possibility of a close election with punch cards as the state’s primary voting device invites a Florida-like calamity." Blackwell, co-chair of Bush-Cheney reelection campaign, wasn't warning his fellow Republican of disaster, but boasting of an opportunity to bring in Ohio for Team Bush no matter what the voters wanted. And most voters in Ohio wanted JFK, not GWB. But their choice won't count because their votes won't be counted.
The ballots that add up to a majority for John Kerry in Ohio -- and in New Mexico -- are locked up in two Republican hidey-holes: "spoiled" ballots and "provisional" ballots.
Read More >>
Judge Sides With Democrats In Ballot Dispute
November 12, 2004
SEATTLE - A judge on Friday ordered King County elections officials to turn over the names of 929 voters whose provisional ballots are in dispute. State Democrats said they planned to contact those listed to ensure their votes count.
In tears, Democratic Party chairman Paul Berendt said volunteers would work through the weekend to contact the voters.
"We're up to it," he said, his voice breaking. "We've had hundreds of people volunteer to help."
Every vote is crucial in the state's tight race for the governor's mansion. Republican Dino Rossi was leading Democrat Christine Gregoire by just hundreds of votes Friday, and King County voters lean heavily Democratic.
Read More >>
November 12, 2004
SEATTLE - A judge on Friday ordered King County elections officials to turn over the names of 929 voters whose provisional ballots are in dispute. State Democrats said they planned to contact those listed to ensure their votes count.
In tears, Democratic Party chairman Paul Berendt said volunteers would work through the weekend to contact the voters.
"We're up to it," he said, his voice breaking. "We've had hundreds of people volunteer to help."
Every vote is crucial in the state's tight race for the governor's mansion. Republican Dino Rossi was leading Democrat Christine Gregoire by just hundreds of votes Friday, and King County voters lean heavily Democratic.
Read More >>
I Smell a Rat
Colin Shea - FreezerBox.com - 12 November 2004
I smell a rat. It has that distinctive and all-too-familiar odor of the species Republicanus floridius. We got a nasty bite from this pest four years ago and never quite recovered. Symptoms of a long-term infection are becoming distressingly apparent.
The first sign of the rat was on election night. The jubilation of early exit polling had given way to rising anxiety as states fell one by one to the Red Tide. It was getting late in the smoky cellar of a Prague sports bar where a crowd of expats had gathered. We had been hoping to go home to bed early, confident of victory. Those hopes had evaporated in a flurry of early precinct reports from Florida and Ohio.
By 3 AM, conversation had died and we were grimly sipping beers and watching as those two key states seemed to be slipping further and further to crimson. Suddenly, a friend who had left two hours earlier rushed in and handed us a printout.
"Zogby's calling it for Kerry." He smacked the sheet decisively. "Definitely. He's got both Florida and Ohio in the Kerry column. Kerry only needs one." Satisfied, we went to bed, confident we would wake with the world a better place. Victory was at hand.
The morning told a different story, of course. No Florida victory for Kerry - Bush had a decisive margin of nearly 400,000 votes. Ohio was not even close enough for Kerry to demand that all the votes be counted. The pollsters had been dead wrong, Bush had four more years and a powerful mandate. Onward Christian soldiers - next stop, Tehran.
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
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Colin Shea - FreezerBox.com - 12 November 2004
I smell a rat. It has that distinctive and all-too-familiar odor of the species Republicanus floridius. We got a nasty bite from this pest four years ago and never quite recovered. Symptoms of a long-term infection are becoming distressingly apparent.
The first sign of the rat was on election night. The jubilation of early exit polling had given way to rising anxiety as states fell one by one to the Red Tide. It was getting late in the smoky cellar of a Prague sports bar where a crowd of expats had gathered. We had been hoping to go home to bed early, confident of victory. Those hopes had evaporated in a flurry of early precinct reports from Florida and Ohio.
By 3 AM, conversation had died and we were grimly sipping beers and watching as those two key states seemed to be slipping further and further to crimson. Suddenly, a friend who had left two hours earlier rushed in and handed us a printout.
"Zogby's calling it for Kerry." He smacked the sheet decisively. "Definitely. He's got both Florida and Ohio in the Kerry column. Kerry only needs one." Satisfied, we went to bed, confident we would wake with the world a better place. Victory was at hand.
The morning told a different story, of course. No Florida victory for Kerry - Bush had a decisive margin of nearly 400,000 votes. Ohio was not even close enough for Kerry to demand that all the votes be counted. The pollsters had been dead wrong, Bush had four more years and a powerful mandate. Onward Christian soldiers - next stop, Tehran.
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
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Evidence of electronic voting bias
Note: As with all statistics, it is very important to consider other causes of apparent anomalies, and to provide verifiable and neutral source data that can be checked in a neutral way by third parties. All the information and sources below appear prima facie to be statistically reasonable in terms of both analysis and assumptions, and to be based upon verifiable public data.
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Note: As with all statistics, it is very important to consider other causes of apparent anomalies, and to provide verifiable and neutral source data that can be checked in a neutral way by third parties. All the information and sources below appear prima facie to be statistically reasonable in terms of both analysis and assumptions, and to be based upon verifiable public data.
Read More >>
Dirty work at Philly polls
Margie Burns - Online Journal Contributing Writer
November 12, 2004—In Philadelphia, the Republican Party hired local people including down-and-out addicts as neighborhood poll watchers, paid the poll watchers to challenge their neighbors' voting, and sent visiting teams of burly enforcers in window-tinted vans in a mixed strategy of intimidation, pay and misinformation to suppress voting on November 2, according to a Brooklyn law student who worked as a poll monitor.
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Margie Burns - Online Journal Contributing Writer
November 12, 2004—In Philadelphia, the Republican Party hired local people including down-and-out addicts as neighborhood poll watchers, paid the poll watchers to challenge their neighbors' voting, and sent visiting teams of burly enforcers in window-tinted vans in a mixed strategy of intimidation, pay and misinformation to suppress voting on November 2, according to a Brooklyn law student who worked as a poll monitor.
Read More >>
Democrats Sue Wash. County Over Ballots
PEGGY ANDERSEN, AP - Nov 12, 2004
SEATTLE - Washington state Democrats, fearful their candidate for governor might narrowly lose because of disputed ballots, sued election officials Friday in the state's largest county.
The lawsuit would block election officials in King County, home to Seattle, from discarding about 900 provisional ballots. Party officials hoped they could get a decision later in the day.
"We have one objective: Count every vote," said Paul Berendt, the state party chairman.
The legal wrangling is the result of the closest gubernatorial race in state history. As of Friday morning, Republican Dino Rossi led Democrat Christine Gregoire by about 3,600 votes out of over 2.7 million counted. The count could drag on into next week.
Counties estimated they have about 85,000 ballots left to count, mostly provisional ballots such as those that are the subject of the Democrats' lawsuit. King County has about 25,000 ballots left to count, mostly provisionals — which are essentially backup ballots that are cast when a resident's registration is in dispute.
Democrats demanded that King County not discard hundreds of provisional ballots and give the party — and the voters — a chance to fix technical problems, such as not signing the ballot envelope.
The move was criticized by Republicans, who said Democrats threatened to turn the gubernatorial election into "another Florida."
Thus far, the county has declined to count about 900 provisional ballots because they did not include a proper signature. The voters were being notified of the deficiency and have until Tuesday to submit the proper signature verification.
Also Friday, election materials from a southern Indiana congressional district were impounded after Democrats requested a recount amid concerns that optical-scan voting systems did not work properly.
Three-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Baron Hill lost the 9th District to Republican challenger Mike Sodrel by 1,485 votes, but questions arose about whether the machines correctly recorded some straight party-line votes.
The Indiana Recount Commission called an emergency meeting Friday to impound election materials. Hill sought the districtwide recount Thursday after a recount in Franklin County showed about 600 straight-Democratic Party votes had gone to Libertarians in initial tabulating.
Franklin County is not in the 9th District, but three counties that are also used optical-scan voting systems provided by the same manufacturer.
"I think legitimate questions have been raised," Hill spokesman Stefan Bailey said. "We need to make sure the voters know the final and legitimate outcome of this election."
The problem was caused by an error in an election-tabulation database that assigned straight-party Democratic votes to Libertarians and vice versa, Franklin County Clerk Marlene Flaspohler said.
Read More >>
PEGGY ANDERSEN, AP - Nov 12, 2004
SEATTLE - Washington state Democrats, fearful their candidate for governor might narrowly lose because of disputed ballots, sued election officials Friday in the state's largest county.
The lawsuit would block election officials in King County, home to Seattle, from discarding about 900 provisional ballots. Party officials hoped they could get a decision later in the day.
"We have one objective: Count every vote," said Paul Berendt, the state party chairman.
The legal wrangling is the result of the closest gubernatorial race in state history. As of Friday morning, Republican Dino Rossi led Democrat Christine Gregoire by about 3,600 votes out of over 2.7 million counted. The count could drag on into next week.
Counties estimated they have about 85,000 ballots left to count, mostly provisional ballots such as those that are the subject of the Democrats' lawsuit. King County has about 25,000 ballots left to count, mostly provisionals — which are essentially backup ballots that are cast when a resident's registration is in dispute.
Democrats demanded that King County not discard hundreds of provisional ballots and give the party — and the voters — a chance to fix technical problems, such as not signing the ballot envelope.
The move was criticized by Republicans, who said Democrats threatened to turn the gubernatorial election into "another Florida."
Thus far, the county has declined to count about 900 provisional ballots because they did not include a proper signature. The voters were being notified of the deficiency and have until Tuesday to submit the proper signature verification.
Also Friday, election materials from a southern Indiana congressional district were impounded after Democrats requested a recount amid concerns that optical-scan voting systems did not work properly.
Three-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Baron Hill lost the 9th District to Republican challenger Mike Sodrel by 1,485 votes, but questions arose about whether the machines correctly recorded some straight party-line votes.
The Indiana Recount Commission called an emergency meeting Friday to impound election materials. Hill sought the districtwide recount Thursday after a recount in Franklin County showed about 600 straight-Democratic Party votes had gone to Libertarians in initial tabulating.
Franklin County is not in the 9th District, but three counties that are also used optical-scan voting systems provided by the same manufacturer.
"I think legitimate questions have been raised," Hill spokesman Stefan Bailey said. "We need to make sure the voters know the final and legitimate outcome of this election."
The problem was caused by an error in an election-tabulation database that assigned straight-party Democratic votes to Libertarians and vice versa, Franklin County Clerk Marlene Flaspohler said.
Read More >>
Computer Glitch Changes Election Result
November 12, 2004
BROOKVILLE, Ind.
A hand recount of ballots cast using optical scanning technology gave a Democrat enough extra votes to bump a Republican from victory in a county commissioner's race.
The erroneous tally was caused when the Fidlar Election Co. scanning system recorded straight-Democratic Party votes as votes for Libertarians in southeastern Indiana's Franklin County.
The recount Thursday pushed Democrat Carroll Lanning from fifth to third in the three-seat commissioners race, while Republican Roy Hall fell to fifth.
Democrats had suspected a glitch after preliminary election results included a Libertarian congressional candidate winning 7.7 percent of the vote in Franklin County, more than four times better than he did across the entire district.
Fidlar workers said no programming problems were found in the Accuvote 2000 ES system, but said the Rock Island, Ill.-based company is going over its programming elsewhere in the state and in Wisconsin and Michigan, which, like Indiana, have straight-party voting.
Fidlar national sales manager Bill Barrett on Friday called the glitch an "isolated incident" and said no other election results were in question.
A spokeswoman for the Indiana secretary of state's office said state officials were waiting to learn more from the company and Franklin County. Pre-election tests had found no problems, Kate Shepherd said, and the state was unaware of other similar troubles.
Read More >>
November 12, 2004
BROOKVILLE, Ind.
A hand recount of ballots cast using optical scanning technology gave a Democrat enough extra votes to bump a Republican from victory in a county commissioner's race.
The erroneous tally was caused when the Fidlar Election Co. scanning system recorded straight-Democratic Party votes as votes for Libertarians in southeastern Indiana's Franklin County.
The recount Thursday pushed Democrat Carroll Lanning from fifth to third in the three-seat commissioners race, while Republican Roy Hall fell to fifth.
Democrats had suspected a glitch after preliminary election results included a Libertarian congressional candidate winning 7.7 percent of the vote in Franklin County, more than four times better than he did across the entire district.
Fidlar workers said no programming problems were found in the Accuvote 2000 ES system, but said the Rock Island, Ill.-based company is going over its programming elsewhere in the state and in Wisconsin and Michigan, which, like Indiana, have straight-party voting.
Fidlar national sales manager Bill Barrett on Friday called the glitch an "isolated incident" and said no other election results were in question.
A spokeswoman for the Indiana secretary of state's office said state officials were waiting to learn more from the company and Franklin County. Pre-election tests had found no problems, Kate Shepherd said, and the state was unaware of other similar troubles.
Read More >>
Bush Campaign Accused of Suppressing Black Vote
Charlene Drayton - November 12, 2004
An elections supervisor in Tallahassee, Florida has accused the Bush Campaign of taking steps to suppress the Black vote during last week's election. The supervisor, Ion Sancho, has been an elections supervisor for 16 years. He has gone public recently, charging the Bush campaign with using a little known Florida law that allows political party operatives working inside polling stations to stop voters from obtaining a ballot. The law, allows operatives to challenge whether a voter is eligible to vote based on certain criteria. Voters are allowed to only vote "provisionally" after they agree to sign an affidavit validating their legal status. However, Sancho says not one challenge had been made to a voter in the 16 years he has been supervisor of elections. He called this year's sudden challenges "intimidation." Sancho first made his claims to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) news show "Newsnight." Newsnight also claimed to have knowledge of secret documents and e-mails from the Bush campaign head quarters that suggested a plan to disrupt voting in Florida's African-American voting districts. According to the report, e-mails and documents prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in Florida, contained a 15-page "caging list" of nearly 2,000 names and addresses for voters in predominantly Black neighborhoods throughout Jacksonville.
"The only possible reason why they would keep such a thing is to challenge voters on Election Day," Sancho said to News night. "Quite frankly, this process can be used to slow down the voting process and cause chaos on Election Day, and discourage voters from voting." Federal law prohibits targeting voters for challenges if race is a factor. A republican spokesperson denied any wrong doing and told Newsnight the "caging list" was only a record of returned mail from fundraising solicitations or returned letters sent to newly registered voters to verify an address. Mindy Tucker Fletcher, a republican state campaign spokeswoman, told Newsnight the list was not put together "in order to create" a list of voters to challenge, but Fletcher refused to deny the list would not be used for that purpose.
Read More >>
Charlene Drayton - November 12, 2004
An elections supervisor in Tallahassee, Florida has accused the Bush Campaign of taking steps to suppress the Black vote during last week's election. The supervisor, Ion Sancho, has been an elections supervisor for 16 years. He has gone public recently, charging the Bush campaign with using a little known Florida law that allows political party operatives working inside polling stations to stop voters from obtaining a ballot. The law, allows operatives to challenge whether a voter is eligible to vote based on certain criteria. Voters are allowed to only vote "provisionally" after they agree to sign an affidavit validating their legal status. However, Sancho says not one challenge had been made to a voter in the 16 years he has been supervisor of elections. He called this year's sudden challenges "intimidation." Sancho first made his claims to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) news show "Newsnight." Newsnight also claimed to have knowledge of secret documents and e-mails from the Bush campaign head quarters that suggested a plan to disrupt voting in Florida's African-American voting districts. According to the report, e-mails and documents prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in Florida, contained a 15-page "caging list" of nearly 2,000 names and addresses for voters in predominantly Black neighborhoods throughout Jacksonville.
"The only possible reason why they would keep such a thing is to challenge voters on Election Day," Sancho said to News night. "Quite frankly, this process can be used to slow down the voting process and cause chaos on Election Day, and discourage voters from voting." Federal law prohibits targeting voters for challenges if race is a factor. A republican spokesperson denied any wrong doing and told Newsnight the "caging list" was only a record of returned mail from fundraising solicitations or returned letters sent to newly registered voters to verify an address. Mindy Tucker Fletcher, a republican state campaign spokeswoman, told Newsnight the list was not put together "in order to create" a list of voters to challenge, but Fletcher refused to deny the list would not be used for that purpose.
Read More >>
Beyond "conspiracy theories," election irregularities get scant media attention
November 12, 2004
On November 9, the Los Angeles Times reported a voting irregularity during the November 2 presidential election in Youngstown, Ohio, where equipment initially recorded a negative 25 million votes for one precinct. In the 24 hours following the story's appearance, only one television news show -- MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann -- mentioned the incident.
Though articles about the prevalence of Internet-based "conspiracy theories" regarding voting irregularities have appeared in several major newspapers -- including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe -- these articles focused on general speculation about voter fraud rather than on the voting irregularities that actually occurred. Media Matters for America previously noted the failure of most television and cable news networks to report on the glitch in one suburban Ohio town's electronic voting system that resulted in 3,893 extra votes for President George W. Bush; the three media outlets cited above did cite that glitch as an incident that has fueled speculation about vote fraud, but each ignored the negative-25-million-vote episode and other irregularities.
Read More >>
November 12, 2004
On November 9, the Los Angeles Times reported a voting irregularity during the November 2 presidential election in Youngstown, Ohio, where equipment initially recorded a negative 25 million votes for one precinct. In the 24 hours following the story's appearance, only one television news show -- MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann -- mentioned the incident.
Though articles about the prevalence of Internet-based "conspiracy theories" regarding voting irregularities have appeared in several major newspapers -- including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe -- these articles focused on general speculation about voter fraud rather than on the voting irregularities that actually occurred. Media Matters for America previously noted the failure of most television and cable news networks to report on the glitch in one suburban Ohio town's electronic voting system that resulted in 3,893 extra votes for President George W. Bush; the three media outlets cited above did cite that glitch as an incident that has fueled speculation about vote fraud, but each ignored the negative-25-million-vote episode and other irregularities.
Read More >>
A Legitimate Recount Effort in Ohio
Steven Rosenfeld - 12 November 2004
An effort led by Common Cause and the Alliance for Democracy is underway in Ohio to conduct a statewide recount.
Efforts to launch an official statewide recount of the Ohio presidential vote are underway. While it's unclear if a recount will result in a Kerry victory, it's likely to highlight many flaws in Ohio elections that may have tilted results toward Republicans and against Democrats.
Read More >>
Steven Rosenfeld - 12 November 2004
An effort led by Common Cause and the Alliance for Democracy is underway in Ohio to conduct a statewide recount.
Efforts to launch an official statewide recount of the Ohio presidential vote are underway. While it's unclear if a recount will result in a Kerry victory, it's likely to highlight many flaws in Ohio elections that may have tilted results toward Republicans and against Democrats.
Read More >>
$100,000 Reward for Evidence of Vote Fraud
November 12, 2004
Justice Through Music, www.jtmp.org, which strongly supports the democratic principles of transparency and honesty in the electoral process, is offering at least a $100,000 reward to any person or persons who provide conclusive and verifiable evidence that the results of the 2004 presidential election were not correctly tabulated because of one or more of the following reasons:
1) hacking into the voting machines;
2) software or coding problems with voting or tabulating machines;
3) multiple counting by machines or humans,
4) improperly implanted codes in voting machines;
5) tampering with voting machines, voting cards or final tabulation numbers;
6) officials or machines not counting all the votes or adding votes;
7) official influence which changed vote totals, or
8) other problems with vote tabulation not noted here.
All information and evidence should be submitted to reward@jtmp.org. Questions should be submitted to questions@jtmp.org.
In order to receive the reward, the evidence provided must be sufficient to affect the outcome of the presidential race, and evidence from more than one state can be used for that purpose. If a person who provides the information desires confidentiality for any reason including a fear of retribution, he or she should indicate that in their submission. A board of five persons will determine the disbursement of the reward on or before February 1, 2005.
Persons who want to make a tax-deductible contribution to this reward fund can do so through the secure PAYPAL donation button on the website. We want to provide the strongest incentive possible for people to come forward with substantial inside information, so make your donations generous. In the event no one meets the criteria for the reward, all funds donated to the reward fund shall be used to insure that all future votes are verifiable through a countable paper trail.
Read More >>
November 12, 2004
Justice Through Music, www.jtmp.org, which strongly supports the democratic principles of transparency and honesty in the electoral process, is offering at least a $100,000 reward to any person or persons who provide conclusive and verifiable evidence that the results of the 2004 presidential election were not correctly tabulated because of one or more of the following reasons:
1) hacking into the voting machines;
2) software or coding problems with voting or tabulating machines;
3) multiple counting by machines or humans,
4) improperly implanted codes in voting machines;
5) tampering with voting machines, voting cards or final tabulation numbers;
6) officials or machines not counting all the votes or adding votes;
7) official influence which changed vote totals, or
8) other problems with vote tabulation not noted here.
All information and evidence should be submitted to reward@jtmp.org. Questions should be submitted to questions@jtmp.org.
In order to receive the reward, the evidence provided must be sufficient to affect the outcome of the presidential race, and evidence from more than one state can be used for that purpose. If a person who provides the information desires confidentiality for any reason including a fear of retribution, he or she should indicate that in their submission. A board of five persons will determine the disbursement of the reward on or before February 1, 2005.
Persons who want to make a tax-deductible contribution to this reward fund can do so through the secure PAYPAL donation button on the website. We want to provide the strongest incentive possible for people to come forward with substantial inside information, so make your donations generous. In the event no one meets the criteria for the reward, all funds donated to the reward fund shall be used to insure that all future votes are verifiable through a countable paper trail.
Read More >>
47 State Exit Poll Analysis Confirms Swing Anomaly
By Jonathan Simon
" In the 12 critical states (CO,FL,MI,MN,NE,NV,NH,NM,OH,PA,WI,IA) the average discrepancy was a 2.5% red shift (= total movement of 5.0%), nearly twice that in the safe states. "
Introduction by Scoop Co-Editor Alastair Thompson
By the time of the close of polls at around 5pm EST on election day the buzz on the world wide web – including here at Scoop - was that Kerry had was a shoe in for election 2004. Slate Magazine and the Daily Kos had published the swing state exit polls before the polls had even closed. The news was very good for Kerry supporters.
According to the exit polls Kerry was showing a 1% popular vote margin over Bush. But more importantly he was shown leading by a nose in Florida and a solid 4% in Ohio. Because of the way the Electoral College system works this meant that he had almost certainly won.
The polls have significant sized samples in all states and ask actual voters who they actually voted for and so are traditionally very accurate.
As we now know they weren't very accurate once midnight came and went.
Or were they?
Read More >>
By Jonathan Simon
" In the 12 critical states (CO,FL,MI,MN,NE,NV,NH,NM,OH,PA,WI,IA) the average discrepancy was a 2.5% red shift (= total movement of 5.0%), nearly twice that in the safe states. "
Introduction by Scoop Co-Editor Alastair Thompson
By the time of the close of polls at around 5pm EST on election day the buzz on the world wide web – including here at Scoop - was that Kerry had was a shoe in for election 2004. Slate Magazine and the Daily Kos had published the swing state exit polls before the polls had even closed. The news was very good for Kerry supporters.
According to the exit polls Kerry was showing a 1% popular vote margin over Bush. But more importantly he was shown leading by a nose in Florida and a solid 4% in Ohio. Because of the way the Electoral College system works this meant that he had almost certainly won.
The polls have significant sized samples in all states and ask actual voters who they actually voted for and so are traditionally very accurate.
As we now know they weren't very accurate once midnight came and went.
Or were they?
Read More >>
The Perfect Election Day Crime
Steven Rosenfeld - November 12, 2004
In Ohio, questions persist about intentional or accidental voting mishaps. Which voting problem cost Kerry the most votes may never be known. Kerry's fate aside, Air America's Steven Rosenfeld's investigation found the inadequate supply of polling machines in Ohio shows a system badly in need of reform.
[...] Americans are learning there are many ways to tilt and take elections.
That’s the only clear conclusion since John Kerry’s concession speech. We now know there are as many ways to manipulate the vote as there are types of voting machines and different communities that can be targeted by those who want to intimidate voters and suppress turnout. But the big unanswered question of Nov. 2, 2004, is which tactic, technical breakdown or error lost the most votes.
[...] What Wasn't There
Across Ohio’s minority-rich cities, there were fewer voting machines than during past elections, including March’s presidential primary. As the number of voters grew by as much as 50 percent in some precincts, according to pro-Kerry field organizers, the number of voting machines on Election Day shrank by a third. Precincts that usually had five machines only had three.
The lack of voting machines was a disaster.
Read More >>
Steven Rosenfeld - November 12, 2004
In Ohio, questions persist about intentional or accidental voting mishaps. Which voting problem cost Kerry the most votes may never be known. Kerry's fate aside, Air America's Steven Rosenfeld's investigation found the inadequate supply of polling machines in Ohio shows a system badly in need of reform.
[...] Americans are learning there are many ways to tilt and take elections.
That’s the only clear conclusion since John Kerry’s concession speech. We now know there are as many ways to manipulate the vote as there are types of voting machines and different communities that can be targeted by those who want to intimidate voters and suppress turnout. But the big unanswered question of Nov. 2, 2004, is which tactic, technical breakdown or error lost the most votes.
[...] What Wasn't There
Across Ohio’s minority-rich cities, there were fewer voting machines than during past elections, including March’s presidential primary. As the number of voters grew by as much as 50 percent in some precincts, according to pro-Kerry field organizers, the number of voting machines on Election Day shrank by a third. Precincts that usually had five machines only had three.
The lack of voting machines was a disaster.
Read More >>
Worst Voter Error Is Apathy toward Irregularities
Donna Britt - The Washington Post - 12 November 2004
Is anyone surprised that accusations of voter disenfranchisement and irregularities abound after the most passionately contested presidential campaign in memory? Is anybody stunned that the mainstream media appear largely unconcerned?
To many people's thinking, too few citizens were discouraged from voting to matter. Those people would suggest that not nearly enough votes for John Kerry were missed or siphoned away to overturn President Bush's win. To which I'd respond:
Excuse me -- I thought this was America.
Read More >>
Donna Britt - The Washington Post - 12 November 2004
Is anyone surprised that accusations of voter disenfranchisement and irregularities abound after the most passionately contested presidential campaign in memory? Is anybody stunned that the mainstream media appear largely unconcerned?
To many people's thinking, too few citizens were discouraged from voting to matter. Those people would suggest that not nearly enough votes for John Kerry were missed or siphoned away to overturn President Bush's win. To which I'd respond:
Excuse me -- I thought this was America.
Read More >>
Washington Post's Sloppy Analysis
Sam Parry - November 12, 2004
The Washington Post and the big media have spoken: Questions about Nov. 2 voting irregularities and George W. Bush’s unusual vote tallies are just the ravings of Internet conspiracy theorists.
In a Nov. 11 story on A2, the Post gave the back of its hand to our story about Bush’s statistically improbable vote totals in Florida and elsewhere. While agreeing with our analysis that Bush pulled off the difficult task of winning more votes in Florida than the number of registered Republicans, the Post accuses us of overlooking the obvious explanation that many independents, “Dixiecrats” and other Democrats voted for Bush.
Mocking us as “spreadsheet-wielding conspiracy theorists,” Post reporters Manuel Roig-Franzia and Dan Keating signaled their determination to put questions about Bush’s victory outside the bounds of responsible debate. Yet, if they hadn’t been so set in this agenda, they might have avoided sloppy mistakes and untrue assertions.
Read More >>
Sam Parry - November 12, 2004
The Washington Post and the big media have spoken: Questions about Nov. 2 voting irregularities and George W. Bush’s unusual vote tallies are just the ravings of Internet conspiracy theorists.
In a Nov. 11 story on A2, the Post gave the back of its hand to our story about Bush’s statistically improbable vote totals in Florida and elsewhere. While agreeing with our analysis that Bush pulled off the difficult task of winning more votes in Florida than the number of registered Republicans, the Post accuses us of overlooking the obvious explanation that many independents, “Dixiecrats” and other Democrats voted for Bush.
Mocking us as “spreadsheet-wielding conspiracy theorists,” Post reporters Manuel Roig-Franzia and Dan Keating signaled their determination to put questions about Bush’s victory outside the bounds of responsible debate. Yet, if they hadn’t been so set in this agenda, they might have avoided sloppy mistakes and untrue assertions.
Read More >>
The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy
11/12/04
BuzzFlash was forwarded a copy of a new research paper (271k PDF) on the exit polls from the 2004 election.
In "The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy," Dr. Steven F. Freeman says:
"As much as we can say in social science that something is impossible, it is impossible that the discrepancies between predicted and actual vote counts in the three critical battleground states [Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania] of the 2004 election could have been due to chance or random error."
The odds of those exit poll statistical anomalies occurring by chance are, according to Freeman, "250,000,000 to one." That's 250 MILLION to ONE.
He concludes the paper with this:
"Systematic fraud or mistabulation is a premature conclusion, but the election's unexplained exit poll discrepancies make it an unavoidable hypothesis, one that is the responsibility of the media, academia, polling agencies, and the public to investigate."
Read More >>
Get the PDF File >>
11/12/04
BuzzFlash was forwarded a copy of a new research paper (271k PDF) on the exit polls from the 2004 election.
In "The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy," Dr. Steven F. Freeman says:
"As much as we can say in social science that something is impossible, it is impossible that the discrepancies between predicted and actual vote counts in the three critical battleground states [Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania] of the 2004 election could have been due to chance or random error."
The odds of those exit poll statistical anomalies occurring by chance are, according to Freeman, "250,000,000 to one." That's 250 MILLION to ONE.
He concludes the paper with this:
"Systematic fraud or mistabulation is a premature conclusion, but the election's unexplained exit poll discrepancies make it an unavoidable hypothesis, one that is the responsibility of the media, academia, polling agencies, and the public to investigate."
Read More >>
Get the PDF File >>
Two N.C. Races Held Up by Voting Problems
Steve Hartsoe - 11/12/04
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A Florida-style nightmare has unfolded in North Carolina in the 10 days since Election Day, with thousands of votes missing and the outcome of two statewide races still up in the air.
The fiasco has not reached the proportions of what happened in 2000 in Florida - in part because the presidential race was not close here. But election observers say North Carolina has been the site of some of 2004's worst problems.
The biggest failure resulted from a computer glitch that wiped out more than 4,400 votes in one county, while other disputes have focused on how to count provisional ballots. In another county, 12,000 early and absentee votes were misplaced due to a procedural error, but later found.
Federal authorities said they plan to look into what happened in two counties that have had the most severe breakdowns.
Read More >>
Steve Hartsoe - 11/12/04
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A Florida-style nightmare has unfolded in North Carolina in the 10 days since Election Day, with thousands of votes missing and the outcome of two statewide races still up in the air.
The fiasco has not reached the proportions of what happened in 2000 in Florida - in part because the presidential race was not close here. But election observers say North Carolina has been the site of some of 2004's worst problems.
The biggest failure resulted from a computer glitch that wiped out more than 4,400 votes in one county, while other disputes have focused on how to count provisional ballots. In another county, 12,000 early and absentee votes were misplaced due to a procedural error, but later found.
Federal authorities said they plan to look into what happened in two counties that have had the most severe breakdowns.
Read More >>
The empire strikes back: Data and disinformation
November 12, 2004
Just when Professor Freeman's study gives new weight to the argument in favor of vote fraud, the New York Times and other major media outlets cover the story in a demeaning and unfair fashion.
[...] There's a word for a piece on potential vote fraud which stipulates a priori that the final results are unimpeachable: Propaganda.
Read More >>
November 12, 2004
Just when Professor Freeman's study gives new weight to the argument in favor of vote fraud, the New York Times and other major media outlets cover the story in a demeaning and unfair fashion.
[...] There's a word for a piece on potential vote fraud which stipulates a priori that the final results are unimpeachable: Propaganda.
Read More >>
11 November 2004
Recounts and retractions (Keith Olbermann)
November 11, 2004
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 New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General, meanwhile, told us at Countdown that negotiations are ongoing with Ralph Nader, who at a news conference yesterday not only demanded a recount in a minimum of four districts, but also added another bizarre touch to the proceedings by launching into a brief but surprisingly high-quality Richard Nixon impression.
[...] That Cobb and Nader between them could lead to a resolution of both Democrats’ doubts about the legitimacy of the election, and Republicans’ resentment that there are doubts, contains a delicious irony ...
Read More >>
November 11, 2004
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 New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General, meanwhile, told us at Countdown that negotiations are ongoing with Ralph Nader, who at a news conference yesterday not only demanded a recount in a minimum of four districts, but also added another bizarre touch to the proceedings by launching into a brief but surprisingly high-quality Richard Nixon impression.
[...] That Cobb and Nader between them could lead to a resolution of both Democrats’ doubts about the legitimacy of the election, and Republicans’ resentment that there are doubts, contains a delicious irony ...
Read More >>
Glitch causes Franklin Co. recount
Star report - November 11, 2004
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.
Read More >>
Star report - November 11, 2004
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.
Read More >>
Answers to Boston Globe's Dismissal of Voter Fraud Story
November 11, 2004
The Boston Globe and the Washington Post have run stories dismissing the questions about the legitimacy of the 2004 presidential election as just another Internet hoax. Here, thanks to Washington attorney Cynthia Butler, are six reasons why they are wrong, foremost among them that the journalists are covering this as a rumor rather than analyzing the validity of the central allegation.
Read More >>
November 11, 2004
The Boston Globe and the Washington Post have run stories dismissing the questions about the legitimacy of the 2004 presidential election as just another Internet hoax. Here, thanks to Washington attorney Cynthia Butler, are six reasons why they are wrong, foremost among them that the journalists are covering this as a rumor rather than analyzing the validity of the central allegation.
Read More >>
League of Pissed Off Voters
CALL FOR PUBLIC HEARINGS IN OHIO!
They might have conceded - but we haven't conceded our right to have our votes count.
The Ohio Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE-OH), Common Cause Ohio, Ohio Election Reform Now, Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism, WVKO Radio, and the Columbus League of Pissed Off Voters are calling for public hearings to investigate voting irregularities and voter suppression in Ohio surrounding the 2004 General Election.
THIS IS A NONPARTISAN STATEWIDE CALL TO ACTION. VOTERS AND POLL WORKERS FROM AROUND THE STATE ARE INVITED TO TESTIFY.
Read More >>
CALL FOR PUBLIC HEARINGS IN OHIO!
They might have conceded - but we haven't conceded our right to have our votes count.
The Ohio Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE-OH), Common Cause Ohio, Ohio Election Reform Now, Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism, WVKO Radio, and the Columbus League of Pissed Off Voters are calling for public hearings to investigate voting irregularities and voter suppression in Ohio surrounding the 2004 General Election.
THIS IS A NONPARTISAN STATEWIDE CALL TO ACTION. VOTERS AND POLL WORKERS FROM AROUND THE STATE ARE INVITED TO TESTIFY.
Read More >>
Rule by Theft: Reconstructing the Crime
The Black Commentator - 11 November 2004 Issue
Massive irregularities in the November 2 presidential vote count "will probably lead to congressional hearings in the Committee on the Judiciary," predicts Rep. John Conyers, the committee's ranking Democrat and longest sitting member of the Congressional Black Caucus. If tampering is found, said the Detroit lawmaker, "there will be prosecutions" under federal law.
Watergate first surfaced as a short, curious story about a break-in at Democratic Party headquarters, in the summer of 1972. A decidedly low-tech crime, the Watergate conspiracy unraveled slowly as the Republican malefactors turned on each other, finally leaving their president naked to the world, disgraced. The Great Vote Theft of 2004, on the other hand, was in part a series of high-tech crimes against numbers felonies designed to leave no physical trace, but which are evident through the patterns created by the perpetrators. Squads of dedicated sleuths are on the case some of them at the top of their technical game assembling data to reveal tell-tale patterns of massive vote fraud. There may soon be compelling circumstantial evidence of how the crimes were committed and, by deduction, the identity of the conspirators.
MUST READ!!! >>
The Black Commentator - 11 November 2004 Issue
Massive irregularities in the November 2 presidential vote count "will probably lead to congressional hearings in the Committee on the Judiciary," predicts Rep. John Conyers, the committee's ranking Democrat and longest sitting member of the Congressional Black Caucus. If tampering is found, said the Detroit lawmaker, "there will be prosecutions" under federal law.
Watergate first surfaced as a short, curious story about a break-in at Democratic Party headquarters, in the summer of 1972. A decidedly low-tech crime, the Watergate conspiracy unraveled slowly as the Republican malefactors turned on each other, finally leaving their president naked to the world, disgraced. The Great Vote Theft of 2004, on the other hand, was in part a series of high-tech crimes against numbers felonies designed to leave no physical trace, but which are evident through the patterns created by the perpetrators. Squads of dedicated sleuths are on the case some of them at the top of their technical game assembling data to reveal tell-tale patterns of massive vote fraud. There may soon be compelling circumstantial evidence of how the crimes were committed and, by deduction, the identity of the conspirators.
MUST READ!!! >>
Do-over (Keith Olbermann)
November 10, 2004
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.
Read More >>
A bunch of cats across the parking lot (Keith Olbermann)
NEW YORK - The election vote mess is like one of those inflatable clown dolls. You knock it down with your hardest punch, it goes supine, and then bounces back up, in the meantime having moved an inch or two laterally.
The punch, of course, is the explanation that the 29 more-votes-than-voters precincts in greater Cleveland appear to have been caused by the addition of Absentee Ballots. The total difference between registered voters and votes (93,000) might be explained by that process, but it does little for one’s confidence in the whole result from Ohio.
The problem is, the rubber clown immediately bounces back with the report that officials in Youngstown managed to catch a slight glitch in their voting there: a total drawn from all the precincts that initially showed negative 25,000,000 million votes cast. It evokes a Monty Python sketch (“Mr. Kevin Phillips Bong - Sensible Party - 14,352. Mr. Harquin Fim Tim Lim Bim Bus Stop Fatang Fatang Ole Biscuit Barrel - Silly Party -- minus 25,000,0000).
No reason to worry about the integrity of the outcome in Ohio, is there?
The most pleasing thing of the last three days of blogs and newscasts is the reassurance from political professionals that all of you (all of us) who have wondered about what went on a week ago yesterday are not necessarily nuts. We might not necessarily be right, but there are some very stodgy, very by-the-book folks who think we’re damned right to be asking.
Read More >>
November 10, 2004
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.
Read More >>
A bunch of cats across the parking lot (Keith Olbermann)
NEW YORK - The election vote mess is like one of those inflatable clown dolls. You knock it down with your hardest punch, it goes supine, and then bounces back up, in the meantime having moved an inch or two laterally.
The punch, of course, is the explanation that the 29 more-votes-than-voters precincts in greater Cleveland appear to have been caused by the addition of Absentee Ballots. The total difference between registered voters and votes (93,000) might be explained by that process, but it does little for one’s confidence in the whole result from Ohio.
The problem is, the rubber clown immediately bounces back with the report that officials in Youngstown managed to catch a slight glitch in their voting there: a total drawn from all the precincts that initially showed negative 25,000,000 million votes cast. It evokes a Monty Python sketch (“Mr. Kevin Phillips Bong - Sensible Party - 14,352. Mr. Harquin Fim Tim Lim Bim Bus Stop Fatang Fatang Ole Biscuit Barrel - Silly Party -- minus 25,000,0000).
No reason to worry about the integrity of the outcome in Ohio, is there?
The most pleasing thing of the last three days of blogs and newscasts is the reassurance from political professionals that all of you (all of us) who have wondered about what went on a week ago yesterday are not necessarily nuts. We might not necessarily be right, but there are some very stodgy, very by-the-book folks who think we’re damned right to be asking.
Read More >>
Who Counts in Ohio?
Steve Weissman | t r u t h o u t | 11 November 2004
Is Team Bush stealing the presidential election in Ohio? And, if it is, can the rest of us do anything to save our embattled democracy?
For those watching American TV or reading the dailies, and nothing more, my questions probably sound loopy, straight from the conspiracy theorists I so often criticize. For those surfing the Internet or scanning this week's flood of round-robin emails, the questions point to one of history's great crimes. The truth, as far as I can see it, falls betwixt, between, and beyond.
Read More >>
Steve Weissman | t r u t h o u t | 11 November 2004
Is Team Bush stealing the presidential election in Ohio? And, if it is, can the rest of us do anything to save our embattled democracy?
For those watching American TV or reading the dailies, and nothing more, my questions probably sound loopy, straight from the conspiracy theorists I so often criticize. For those surfing the Internet or scanning this week's flood of round-robin emails, the questions point to one of history's great crimes. The truth, as far as I can see it, falls betwixt, between, and beyond.
Read More >>
Suspicions stir belief that presidential election was hijacked
Greg Guma | Vermont Guardian | Posted November 11, 2004
BURLINGTON-- Could sophisticated CIA-style "cyber-warfare" have helped George W. Bush change a three percent defeat, as measured by exit polls, into a victory of about the same margin? Yes, at least in theory. But it would require hacking into multiple local computer systems, presumably from a remote location.
There is as yet no solid proof that such a cyber-attack occurred on Nov. 2. But suspicions are mounting that the U.S. presidential election results were manipulated to some extent. Voting analyses of selected precincts in Florida and Ohio have found surprisingly high percentages for Bush, and critics say that spoiled ballots and provisional votes, both disproportionally affecting minorities, made the difference in at least two states.
[...] Writing for Common Dreams. Thom Hartmann reports that Jeff Fisher, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 16th District claimed to have solid evidence that the Florida election was manipulated through information warfare.
Since the mid-1990s, "information warfare" has been a hot topic within the U.S. military. The Pentagon has even produced a 13-page booklet, "Information Warfare for Dummies."
Read More >>
Greg Guma | Vermont Guardian | Posted November 11, 2004
BURLINGTON-- Could sophisticated CIA-style "cyber-warfare" have helped George W. Bush change a three percent defeat, as measured by exit polls, into a victory of about the same margin? Yes, at least in theory. But it would require hacking into multiple local computer systems, presumably from a remote location.
There is as yet no solid proof that such a cyber-attack occurred on Nov. 2. But suspicions are mounting that the U.S. presidential election results were manipulated to some extent. Voting analyses of selected precincts in Florida and Ohio have found surprisingly high percentages for Bush, and critics say that spoiled ballots and provisional votes, both disproportionally affecting minorities, made the difference in at least two states.
[...] Writing for Common Dreams. Thom Hartmann reports that Jeff Fisher, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 16th District claimed to have solid evidence that the Florida election was manipulated through information warfare.
Since the mid-1990s, "information warfare" has been a hot topic within the U.S. military. The Pentagon has even produced a 13-page booklet, "Information Warfare for Dummies."
Read More >>
10 November 2004
Judge eyed on ballots
Shea Andersen - November 10, 2004
A Republican judge in one voting precinct has some explaining to do, Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera said this morning.
As the weary clerk's staff continued to examine provisional ballots, attention gathered on one batch in which the disqualified ballots all were Democrat and those that qualified were Republican, Herrera said.
Herrera's staff had been combing through 2,000 "questionable" ballots, which led to the certification of 1,400 of them.
Those that weren't certified bothered her staff. The main reason for disqualifying them, she said, was because an affidavit testifying to the voter's identity, which is supposed to be signed by a presiding judge, was not in the outer of two envelopes that are supposed to be turned in to election workers. That rule was prescribed by New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron.
Today Herrera said a Republican presiding judge in one particular precinct was in charge of several hundred bad ballots. The problem, Herrera said, was that the bad ballots, with affidavits inside, were largely Democrats. The good ones were for Republican voters.
"It made us kind of sick," Herrera said. "It was too obvious."
Read More >>
Shea Andersen - November 10, 2004
A Republican judge in one voting precinct has some explaining to do, Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera said this morning.
As the weary clerk's staff continued to examine provisional ballots, attention gathered on one batch in which the disqualified ballots all were Democrat and those that qualified were Republican, Herrera said.
Herrera's staff had been combing through 2,000 "questionable" ballots, which led to the certification of 1,400 of them.
Those that weren't certified bothered her staff. The main reason for disqualifying them, she said, was because an affidavit testifying to the voter's identity, which is supposed to be signed by a presiding judge, was not in the outer of two envelopes that are supposed to be turned in to election workers. That rule was prescribed by New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron.
Today Herrera said a Republican presiding judge in one particular precinct was in charge of several hundred bad ballots. The problem, Herrera said, was that the bad ballots, with affidavits inside, were largely Democrats. The good ones were for Republican voters.
"It made us kind of sick," Herrera said. "It was too obvious."
Read More >>
Warren Co. defends lockdown decision
Erica Solvig and Dan Horn - November 10, 2004
FBI denies warning officials of any special threat
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.
Read More >>
Erica Solvig and Dan Horn - November 10, 2004
FBI denies warning officials of any special threat
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.
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Election Fraud? You be the judge...
November 10, 2004
Since the presidential election, accounts of voter fraud and malfunctioning voting machines have flooded into local newspapers, to public-interest groups, to universities, and to weblogs.
This letter is an overview of those reports. The stories are summarized here, with links to the original publications. After seeing this evidence - and there is more still to be rounded up - you will most probably suspect that Bush did not win the election. Many accounts of election tampering are included, but a broad search has still to be done. The following is only what has been learned in the few days since the election. Clearly, an investigation is needed.
The following is a compilation of the initial research of one group of concerned journalists. It seems that there is enough evidence in the following to suggest that the electorate may have actually chosen Kerry for President. It cannot be known for sure unless...
Read More >>
November 10, 2004
Since the presidential election, accounts of voter fraud and malfunctioning voting machines have flooded into local newspapers, to public-interest groups, to universities, and to weblogs.
This letter is an overview of those reports. The stories are summarized here, with links to the original publications. After seeing this evidence - and there is more still to be rounded up - you will most probably suspect that Bush did not win the election. Many accounts of election tampering are included, but a broad search has still to be done. The following is only what has been learned in the few days since the election. Clearly, an investigation is needed.
The following is a compilation of the initial research of one group of concerned journalists. It seems that there is enough evidence in the following to suggest that the electorate may have actually chosen Kerry for President. It cannot be known for sure unless...
Read More >>
Serious Problems Remain With Voting System
November 10, 2004
Although major voting problems appear to have been avoided this year, serious issues remain in the nation's electoral system: electronic voting machine problems, long lines, confusion over provisional and absentee ballots and the lack of paper trails for lost votes. Computerized voter databases and upgraded technology, both mandated by the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) but so far under-funded and inconsistently enforced, should help resolve some of the problems by 2006. Some of the problems from this year's election include:
Electronic voting machines recorded "extra" votes. A voting machine in a suburban Columbus, OH precinct recorded an additional 3,893 votes for President Bush even though there were just 800 voters registered in the precinct. Similar glitches were discovered in e-voting machines across the country. There were as many as 10,000 extra e-votes cast in Nebraska and 19,000 mysterious "extra ballots" were added on electronic machines in Florida.
No paper trail for electronic machines meant some votes "disappeared." More than 4,000 early votes were lost in North Carolina's Carteret County because an electronic voting system could not store the volume of votes it received. This could have been avoided with a verifiable paper trail.
Long lines made voting difficult for millions of Americans. The most common problem of all in this year's election was long lines which caused hours-long waits in many precincts in the country. The problems appeared to be particularly acute in some low-income areas due to the lack of adequate numbers of voting machines.
Read More >>
November 10, 2004
Although major voting problems appear to have been avoided this year, serious issues remain in the nation's electoral system: electronic voting machine problems, long lines, confusion over provisional and absentee ballots and the lack of paper trails for lost votes. Computerized voter databases and upgraded technology, both mandated by the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) but so far under-funded and inconsistently enforced, should help resolve some of the problems by 2006. Some of the problems from this year's election include:
Electronic voting machines recorded "extra" votes. A voting machine in a suburban Columbus, OH precinct recorded an additional 3,893 votes for President Bush even though there were just 800 voters registered in the precinct. Similar glitches were discovered in e-voting machines across the country. There were as many as 10,000 extra e-votes cast in Nebraska and 19,000 mysterious "extra ballots" were added on electronic machines in Florida.
No paper trail for electronic machines meant some votes "disappeared." More than 4,000 early votes were lost in North Carolina's Carteret County because an electronic voting system could not store the volume of votes it received. This could have been avoided with a verifiable paper trail.
Long lines made voting difficult for millions of Americans. The most common problem of all in this year's election was long lines which caused hours-long waits in many precincts in the country. The problems appeared to be particularly acute in some low-income areas due to the lack of adequate numbers of voting machines.
Read More >>
Diebold Source Code!!!
by ouranos (dailykos.com)
"Dr. Avi Rubin is currently Professor of Computer Science at John Hopkins University. He 'accidently' got his hands on a copy of the Diebold software program--Diebold's source code--which runs their e-voting machines. Dr. Rubin's students pored over 48,609 lines of code that make up this software. One line in partictular stood out over all the rest: #defineDESKEY((des_KEY8F2654hd4" All commercial programs have provisions to be encrypted so as to protect them from having their contents read or changed by anyone not having the key... The line that staggered the Hopkin's team was that the method used to encrypt the Diebold machines was a method called Digital Encryption Standard (DES), a code that was broken in 1997 and is NO LONGER USED by anyone to secure prograns. F2654hd4 was the key to the encryption. Moreover, because the KEY was IN the source code, all Diebold machines would respond to the same key. Unlock one, you have then ALL unlocked. I can't believe there is a person alive who wouldn't understand the reason this was allowed to happen. This wasen't a mistake by any stretch of the imagination."
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by ouranos (dailykos.com)
"Dr. Avi Rubin is currently Professor of Computer Science at John Hopkins University. He 'accidently' got his hands on a copy of the Diebold software program--Diebold's source code--which runs their e-voting machines. Dr. Rubin's students pored over 48,609 lines of code that make up this software. One line in partictular stood out over all the rest: #defineDESKEY((des_KEY8F2654hd4" All commercial programs have provisions to be encrypted so as to protect them from having their contents read or changed by anyone not having the key... The line that staggered the Hopkin's team was that the method used to encrypt the Diebold machines was a method called Digital Encryption Standard (DES), a code that was broken in 1997 and is NO LONGER USED by anyone to secure prograns. F2654hd4 was the key to the encryption. Moreover, because the KEY was IN the source code, all Diebold machines would respond to the same key. Unlock one, you have then ALL unlocked. I can't believe there is a person alive who wouldn't understand the reason this was allowed to happen. This wasen't a mistake by any stretch of the imagination."
Read More >>
FLORIDA 2004 - CHECK OUT THE DATA IN YELLOW FOR 'BALLOT SCANNED' COUNTIES
11/10/04
It is clear that vast majority of independents and third parties voted for either Bush or Kerry. But, the second table below indicates that all the independents may have gone to Bush, PLUS there must have been a huge crossover of Democrats from Kerry to Bush - but only in counties that used computerized ballot scanners. The difference between touch screen counties and ballot scan counties is immense when looking at the % of votes cast for Bush based on Republican registration versus the % of votes cast for Kerry based on Democratic registration. Is there any rational explanation? I've contacted the Florida Democratic Party for a response.
Nov. 9, 2004: Last night Peter Jennings of ABC News suggested that "conspiracy theorists" have got it all wrong; that despite their registration, the voters in Lafayette County have always voted in enormous numbers for Republican presidential candidates. But how long has the county been using ballot scanners? These scanners have been around since 1964. The election results could have been routinely altered for decades, which is exactly what the late Collier brothers alleged in their book, VoteScam: The Stealing of America. The fact is that Americans don't count their own votes, they let companies owned by Republicans and foreigners do it for them. We will never know who really won the election.
Read More >>
11/10/04
It is clear that vast majority of independents and third parties voted for either Bush or Kerry. But, the second table below indicates that all the independents may have gone to Bush, PLUS there must have been a huge crossover of Democrats from Kerry to Bush - but only in counties that used computerized ballot scanners. The difference between touch screen counties and ballot scan counties is immense when looking at the % of votes cast for Bush based on Republican registration versus the % of votes cast for Kerry based on Democratic registration. Is there any rational explanation? I've contacted the Florida Democratic Party for a response.
Nov. 9, 2004: Last night Peter Jennings of ABC News suggested that "conspiracy theorists" have got it all wrong; that despite their registration, the voters in Lafayette County have always voted in enormous numbers for Republican presidential candidates. But how long has the county been using ballot scanners? These scanners have been around since 1964. The election results could have been routinely altered for decades, which is exactly what the late Collier brothers alleged in their book, VoteScam: The Stealing of America. The fact is that Americans don't count their own votes, they let companies owned by Republicans and foreigners do it for them. We will never know who really won the election.
Read More >>
Kerry may have given up, but Internet backers have not >>
Some ballots not yet counted >>
Many of Franklin County's provisional ballots will not be counted >>
Cuyahoga board deflates vote suspicions >>
Ortiz criticized for Election Day delays >>
Candidates are tired of waiting >>
Judge orders recount >>
State Senate race headed for recount >>
Frye denounces legal challenge to write-in candidacy >>
Mayor's race tally still undetermined >>
This group of links courtesy of AllHatNoCattle.net >>
Some ballots not yet counted >>
Many of Franklin County's provisional ballots will not be counted >>
Cuyahoga board deflates vote suspicions >>
Ortiz criticized for Election Day delays >>
Candidates are tired of waiting >>
Judge orders recount >>
State Senate race headed for recount >>
Frye denounces legal challenge to write-in candidacy >>
Mayor's race tally still undetermined >>
This group of links courtesy of AllHatNoCattle.net >>
2nd letter to the GAO from six members of Congress
2nd letter to the GAO from six members of Congress requesting an immediate investigation of the efficacy of voting machines and procedures used in the November 2nd Election. (PDF File)
Click Here for File >>
2nd letter to the GAO from six members of Congress requesting an immediate investigation of the efficacy of voting machines and procedures used in the November 2nd Election. (PDF File)
Click Here for File >>
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