ATTN ELECTION 2008: How the GOP Wired Ohio's 2004 Vote Count for Bush to Win

[helderheid]

How the GOP Wired Ohio's 2004 Vote Count for Bush to Win

By Steven Rosenfeld . Posted September 18, 2008

A Republican computer data security expert tells how cyber-partisans could have stolen the 2004 election.

An election http://www.alternet.org/democracy/94895/voting_machines_can_never_be_trusted%2C_says_gop_computer_security_expert/">whistleblowerwho is a Republican, a nationally known data security and computer architecture expert, and an Ohio resident has filed a sworn affidavit in federal court that describes how Republican Party consultants in 2004 built an electronic vote counting network in Ohio that could have stolen votes to re-elect the president.

The whistleblower, Stephen Spoonamore, who has run or held senior technology positions in six technology companies, and whose clients have included MasterCard, American Express, NBC-GE, and federal agencies including the State Department and the Navy, said Mike Connell, a longtime Republican Party computer networking contractor, "agrees that the electronic voting systems in the US are not secure" and told Spoonamore in 2007 "that he (Connell) is afraid some of the more ruthless partisans of the GOP may have exploited systems he in part worked on for this purpose."

"Mr. Connell builds front end applications, user interfaces and web sites," Spoonamore said in his September 17, 2008 affidavit. "Knowing his team and their skills I find it unlikely they would be the vote thieves directly. I believe however he knows who is doing that work, and has likely turned a blind eye to this activity. Mr. Connell is a devout Catholic. He has admitted to me that in his zeal to 'save the unborn' he may have helped others who have compromised elections. He was clearly uncomfortable when I asked directly about Ohio 2004."

The affidavit, which goes onto describe how a statewide computer network and vote-counting system in part built by Connell's firms in 2004 could have been used to steal votes to re-elect George W. Bush in 2004's final battleground state. It was filed in a federal voting rights suit brought in 2006 that in part sought to preserve ballots from the 2004 presidential election.

After a federal judge ordered those records be preserved, Jennifer Brunner, the Ohio Secretary of State elected in November 2006, discovered that ballots and other records that could determine the accuracy of the 2004 vote count had been destroyed in 56 of Ohio's 88 counties. Brunner is a Democrat; her Republican predecessor, Ken Blackwell, was targeted in the lawsuit. Brunner has since sought to delay action in the case until after the 2008 presidential election.

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http://www.alternet.org/story/99337

[midnight]

1. Why is action being delayed until after the election?

[helderheid]

2. That's what I want to know too!

[jimlup]

10. 'cause it is critical to depress democracy

If they did something before the election then the rabble might get a clue. After the election they will forget the importance of this story and ignore it.

[Bread and Circus]

3. Someday, we will have a smoking gun. But the MSM will never run with

this until it's ironclad proven.

BTW I marked this as a must read.

[helderheid]

4. Thanks!!

[helderheid]

5. vids

These are YouTube links from a different interview with Stephen Spoonamore with pretty much the same content and are more accessible than the big windows media file download. The 2nd may be the best single statement, then 5, and 7 is very good, 8 is his recommendation.
Segment 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbmiGCSHQ1c
Segment 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoPUZvaoyqw
Segment 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_PjPsteoqk
Segment 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti3MlNgeCRQ
Segment 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-sHsfze_Xo
Segment 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtUx0lyijXg
Segment 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_JdUZzgu9I
Segment 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xIZLizSnGc



On Sep 20, 2008, at 11:26 PM, Jim F. wrote:

I have been following electronic voting since May of 2000, when IT professionals first started raising the alarm about it at Planetwork.
We now have a very credible lifelong Republican who works in the world of financial data, explaining the problem in detail.
This is the link that people inside the Obama campaign (and all of us) need to see:
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/prosecute_rove/images/Spoon_Full.wmv

Its about a half hour long and does go off into technical detail, but if you want to understand the core issues around electronic voting tabulation (not just touch screen) this is the best single explanation I have ever seen. Except for the Velvet logo at the end the tone of this video is very neutral and low key, your conservative family members would probably even be comfortable with him, if not the implications.

However, I will also say that as much as this whole issue may be a source of fear and despair it is also an opportunity. These guys have been cheating and they are in the process of being caught. The most strategic place I can see to put money (after maxing out for Obama of course :^) is into the effort to put Rove on the defensive http://www.velvetrevolution.us/prosecute_rove/ through the Ohio lawsuit and other related efforts. http://www.velvetrevolution.us/donate.php

[ColbertWatcher]

6. Good stuff, helderheid. Thank you for posting. n/t

[helderheid]

7. thanks!

:hi:

[helderheid]

8. kickety!

[abumbyanyothername]

9. Not quite the smoking gun that the headline promises

but certainly questions worth pursuing.

I strongly felt OH was stolen based simply on discrepancies between exit polling and actual counts. NH was modified for reasons I don't understand but the steal was not successful. FL was also suspect based on exits polls vs actual count.

[bleever]

11. Thank you helderheid.

This will bubble through into the MSM if we stay on it.

[helderheid]

12. Hey bleever!

:hug:

[helderheid]

13. k