sorry for the bad formatting. the content is worth it.
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Lopategui v. Vigil-Giron lawsuit update
Our initial discovery process is revealing startling evidence of serious
voting machine problems, top-to-bottom incompetence in the
administration of elections, cover-up by election officials of major
errors they know have gone uncorrected, and the ceding by election
officials of oversight and control over our elections to unaccountable
private companies.
Examples of this evidence, gleaned from two weeks of depositions,
include:
* A voting machine vendor has admitted under oath that the design of
machines used by many New Mexicocounties probably causes the
unintended erasure of presidential votes, contrary to the voter’s
intent.
* The owner of the private New Mexico company that has been paid
commissions by Sequoia Voting Systems on sales of their AVC Edge
touchscreen voting system to New Mexico counties testified that
the system lost votes in a Bernalillo County election and that he
is suspicious of Sequoia’s claims that all of the lost data was
successfully “recreated.”
* The state and county post-election canvass processes are
incapable of detecting most types of voting machine error or fraud.
* Contracting out key parts of the canvass process to unaccountable
private contractors and subcontractors has increased vote-counting
errors and heightened security risks.
* A closer look at the “independent audit” of the 2004 general
election touted by the Secretary of State reveals that:
- It consistently under-reports as single “errors” common mistakes and
irregularities even when the “error” results in the miscounting of
hundreds of votes.
- The audit examines only a small percentage of precincts, leaving
undetected -- and uncorrected -- similar widespread and large-scale
errors in between 80% and 90% of precincts statewide.
Our next step will be a thorough examination of several types of voting
machines and central tabulators used in the 2004 election by our
academic computer security and voting machine experts. Moving forward
is contingent upon securing additional funding. Later we will need to
take more key depositions, but the machines are our primary focus now.
Thanks for your continued support. Should you have any questions, always
feel free to contact
[email protected] Sincerely,
Holly Jacobson, Lowell Finley
& the entire Voter Action Team