RECOUNT IN OHIO A SURE THING Recount is Funded!....more

[mom cat]

:bounce:


NEWS RELEASE



For immediate release: November 15, 2004

Contact: Blair Bobier, Media Director at 541.929.5755



RECOUNT IN OHIO A SURE THING

Green Party Campaign Raises $150,000 in 4 days,

Shifts Gears to Phase II



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. The hearing, from 6-9 p.m., will be held at the Courthouse, meeting room A, 373 S. High St., in Columbus. The Cobb-LaMarche campaign will be represented at the hearing by campaign manager Lynne Serpe.

A demand for a recount in Ohio can only be filed by a presidential candidate who was either a certified write-in candidate or on the ballot in that state. Both Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik will be demanding a recount. No other candidate has stated an intention to seek a recount and no other citizen or organization would have legal standing to do so in Ohio. The Cobb-LaMarche campaign is still exploring the possibility of seeking recounts in other states but no decision has been made yet.

The Cobb-LaMarche website is http://www.votecobb.org.

The website for the national Green Party is http://www.gp.org.

[KurtNYC]

1. Coolness

[mike_c]

2. where is the Democratic Party-- the only party who stands to gain

...and the opposition party with the largest fiscal resources? Why are Nader and Cobb/LaMarche the only ones trying to protect democracy (in the sense of being willing to demand and FUND recounts)? I certainly hope the Democrats remember this in the future!

xoxo
Mike "Prouder than ever to be Green" C.

[justa]

3. they deserve our everlasting gratitude

[northamericancitizen]

5. Great news. Made my day! nt

[Lone Pawn]

6. This is the best of all possible scenarios.

The recount happens, but the Democrats keep their hands free of desperation and crybaby-jeers. This way we get to find the truth, and the Dems' reputation (outside hard-liberal circles) doesn't get tarnished.

This is the kind of organization we want, guys. We need proper attack dogs. They have churches and the MSM. We have very little, and this is an encouraging sign.

[mike_c]

11. yeah, but it really pisses me off-- dems would not even do...

...lip service for the progressive agenda during the campaign, but now they "need proper attack dogs."

I'm proud of Nader and the Greens. I just wish the DNC wouldn't absorb all the campaign money and media focus, but leave the political heavy lifting to others.

[mom cat]

18. Contact the DNC and sound off! If they do not fight this real hard, there

might be a mass exodus.

[mom cat]

30. We have Randi!

[Lone Pawn]

36. I agree we should have fought harder during the campaign

But from Nov. 3rd on, I think having the Greens and Nader do our dirty work is a better idea.

[mom cat]

13. Contact the DNC and ask them. ...I am still awaiting a reply..

I know that I am going to remember who stepped up to the plate and who went AWOL. I have been a lifelong Democrat, but if they don't come out fighting soon, I will look for a party that will.

[seaj11]

19. still, the Dems have to consider

how the media will treat them. They still have their lawyers on the case.

[mom cat]

29. It is time that we stand up to the media. Anyway, they should be laying

groundwork in the media to begin preparing the public. Most of them think it is all over.

[Cat Atomic]

20. Don't worry- they won't.

When the next election rolls around, I'm sure we'll hear the same old "we can't afford you, Greens" bullshit.

[Blaze Diem]

4. Maybe this is what Kerry did with the leftover Money!!!

Rather than take it upon himself to stick his neck out and demand a recount, which the media would waste no time in lopping it right off, Kerry quietly moved the excess funds to the Green Party.

Maybe this is what came out of the Kerry/Nader meetup pre-election day. Nader still has Green Party connections I'm sure.

I'll hold onto this thought and believe that somewhere in the realm of election insanity some people were thinking ahead of the game..knowing that Diebold had already sealed the deal for Bush.

Maybe they were discussing PLAN B.

Hope some of MY donation $$$ went to the Green Party Ohio recount.
I can accept this.

Best of luck to you in the fight to stick it in their fundamental eye.

tks
Blaze

[mom cat]

12. It wasn't Kerry.. It was "We the People". Most were small donations

from all over.:bounce:

[Cleita]

7. Good news.

Thanks for posting.

[Liberal Mommy]

8. I donated to them last night

I'm really thankful for these guys. :)

[mom cat]

15. Hi! Momof 3in Texas...Good for you. It is not easy to give when you

are raising three kids. It's that kind of passion that will turn this country around.

[blue agave]

9. They still need more funds ... let's continue donatating

"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."

[HuskerDem]

33. I will just as soon as I make it out of the hole I spent myself into

traveling to Ohio to try and prevent some of this mess in the first place.

I will definately donate to the green party.

[Carl Brennan]

10. WOOOOOHOOO! Big Daddy is smilin'!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Nimble_Idea]

14. GOD BLESS THE GREEN PARTY!!

Cobb is now my Hero.

[mom cat]

16. I'm turning greener every day.

[Nimble_Idea]

24. Not me, I'm a Dem as far as I can see

Theocracy shouldn't be allowed. Only way to do that, is to have enough votes to prevent Falwell from being president.

[mom cat]

28. We have enough votes if the DNC will just fight for us. If they don't

we are going to have some kind of ocracy that is not a democracy anyway. I am a lifelong democrat, but I an not liking what I see now.

[elperromagico]

17. How exactly do you recount black boxes with no paper trail?

Not to piss on anyone's parade, but I'm curious...

[Cat Atomic]

21. That's my question, too.

What do they do? Hit "print" again?

[Fescue4u]

22. Most of Ohio is paper punchcards

just like Florida in 2000.

[annabanana]

23. that is partly the point..................those machines are illegal

and now it HAS to be recognised.
To tell the truth, I'm not looking forward to any change in the results of THIS election.. But I AM looking for a bipartisan push to fix the problems before '06

[elperromagico]

25. Bipartisan? Why would Repugs work to fix a "problem" that favors them?

They control those machines. And as long as they control those machines, the "problem" will favor them. Therefore, they have no reason to want to repair it.

[HuskerDem]

34. Ohio is mostly all Butterflies

The good news is they have universal rules in place for counting them. Not the mishmash of vague and changing "guidelines" that caused such chaos and confusion in Florida.

[Gordon25]

26. A note of caution

I, too, believe the recount in Ohio to be a good thing. But the following must be kept in mind. For the past ten years, Republican controlled state legislatures have been "reforming" state election law to make the machine count the official count in elections.

In Arizona election law, for example, an order for a recount means running the ballots back through the same optical scanners and central tabulators. It takes an order from the State Supreme Court to initiate a hand recount.

If this election was stolen through electronic manipulation of the vote count (among other means) as I believe it was, the most likely place for it to have been stolen is via the Diebold GEMS software run on county central tabulating computers, or on the ES&S comprable software. (The Diebold GEMS software and the ES&S central tabulating software share the same source code.)

This is the software which totals up the reports from all the precincts -- no matter what sort of voting devices the individual precincts are using. This is also the vote counting software which has the hidden second set of accounting books which can be accessed with a two digit code from within the program itself, or from within the Microsoft operating system over which the program runs, or remotely via modem or cell phone port access. It allows the creation of a new set of vote counts, the ability to substitute that count for the actual reported counts, and the ability to erase any trace of having done so.

It is also quite possible the code contains other hidden features to allow the manipulation of the vote count.

The point is simply this. If the Ohio recount amounts to no more than running the ballots back through the same fixed machines, with no hand counting to compare to the machine count, and no additional security monitoring of the central vote tabulating software to protect against unauthorized local or remote access, then the results will come out exactly the same. The end result will be not the exposure of fraud, but the validation of the phony count.

The same applies to the New Hampshire recount, and the possible Florida recount, though now that the vote totals in Florida have been "certified" it is doubtful whether or not a recount can be forced.

So congratulations all around for getting the recount. Please, now, let us now do it right and demand sample precinct hand counts to compare to the machine counts.

If there is anyone here who has connections to the Green Party Leadership, please try to get this data to them.

Gordon25

[HuskerDem]

35. What does Ohio elction code say about the method of recount?

anyone?

[RedEagle]

37. Gordon, I have seen no rule that says it has to be the Same manufacturer

If this is to be a machine recount, I'll bet you could get Avante in there to help do it.

Yes, they do voter-verified paper ballot touch screens- but they also provide options for optical scans, since some states would have used both.

I am just about sure that there is nothing in law that says it has to be THE machines that may have been the problem in the first place.

Hand count- if not hand count, then you simply have to use a different machine because it's not an audit if you don't.

Maybe Accupoll, too.

[mike_c]

41. the only way to insure against this is to run a known number...

...of ballots through the recount machines first and compare the tabulator results to the known starting count. This should be standard procedure whenever inaccurate counts are suspected-- it's better than a hand count in the sense that it actually tests the software for accuracy in addition to doing the recount. If you ran 1,000 optical scan ballots with a known distribution of 49% Bush, 49% Kerry, 1% Nader, and 1% Cobb it would be trivial to check the accuracy of the software BEFORE running the machine counts again on the actual ballots.

[RedEagle]

43. Reply to a couple posts here and correct my own

Punch cards can be counted by hand.

Machines that are certified in a state can count the ballots. Avante just happens to be certified in Ohio, assume that includes op scan unit but would have to check.

No, running a few ballots through the system will not detect fraud. What you describe is essentially the Logic & Accuracy test and we know how well that works. .:crazy:

If you wanted to commit fraud and knew that an L&A test was going to be run, you could simply program the system to be "good" for X amount of ballots. Since L&A tests are run virtually everywhere, assume the program is written to take this into account.

I witnessed a so-called functionality test (different from an L&A) that a program supposedly passed that then proceeded to fail on election day.

We still don't know if systems have any wireless in them or not and most election officials wouldn't know what to look for if they went looking for it.

[SammyWinstonJack]

27. Very good

Did they count all the votes to begin with?

[Walt Starr]

31. This is absolutely the only possible way for the election to change

Damn, would the Freepers be pissed if the Green Party wins this thing for Kerry!

[HuskerDem]

32. If the recount is done

I will contribute as I am able to for the next 2 years at least to the Green Party and I will be FOREVER grateful to them.

[0007]

38. I hope I hope!

[nancyharris]

39. A re-count of Ohio (if it indeed does happen)

will not be a hand recount. Most of the ballots in Ohio are punch cards that can only be read by machine. The re-count will vary from the official count (if for no other reason due to the fact that some punch cards have “hanging chads” that fall off with handling – the more the ballots are handled, the more hanging chads fall off – we learned this from Florida). Only punch card ballots that are rejected by the machine (due to incomplete punching or no punching at all) will be looked at by hand. Fortunately Ohio has a state-wide ruling on “hanging chads” so the courts are unlikely to get involved.

[mconvente]

40. this is MAJOR

What happens if voter fraud is revealed and/or votes were otherwise improperly counted and Kerry wins Ohio. That means he would win the Presdency - a concession is not legally binding, is it? Would he get back in the ring?

[tommcintyre]

42. THIS COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING - MAKE HISTORY!

--------------------------------------------------------
http://www.independentmediasource.com/evotingfraud.htm

[Hey Zeus]

44. will it do any good though? (nt)

[tommcintyre]

45. Time wiil tell, but at least we stand a chance now. n/t