As reported in the Black Commentator, Rep. Conyers' letter asked Secretary Blackwell, among other things, why he had not investigated criminal acts committed on Election Day, such as intentionally misleading voters about the location of their polling place, thus increasing the number of provisional ballots found invalid.
Those of us particpating in the county recount process have seen Secretary Blackwell's presence in several key recount decisions so far. For example, in Fairfield County, a full recount should have been ordered when the 3% test sample did not match the official vote totals. Instead, based on what county officials said was a recommendation from Secretary Blackwell's office, the recount was "suspended" so that they would not have to do a full recount. In Champaign County, a precinct signature book, necessary to verify that the number of votes that were cast, will not be made available to our recount observers until after January 10 (four days after Congress has counted the Electoral College votes on January 6), per orders of the Secretary of State.
"Chain of Custody" Has Been Compromised
Another question we have for Secretary Blackwell is how he can say for sure that the state-wide vote totals are accurate, given that the "chain of custody" of vote tabulators and even paper ballots has been compromised by unsupervised access given to machine technicians. In Van Wert County, for example, our observer reported:
"When asked if Triad had serviced the machine, the deputy director and a board member stated that they had serviced the machine over the phone via modem on December 9th."
In Ashland County, there were other security issues:
"The cast ballots are stored by precinct in open cubicles along one wall of this room, completely open and visible to anyone who enters this room....Piled on top of the cubicles holding the vote are baskets, Doritos, paper plates, mugs, cleaning products, Fresh-n-Soft, Glad Wrap, etc."
These "chain of custody" issues are especially important when you consider that, as reported in the New York Times, "Voting machine companies and their supporters have been given a large say in the process
, while advocates for voters, including those who insist on the use of voter-verified paper receipts, have been pushed to the margins. The chairman of the working group preparing the standards for voting machines is a top executive of Election Systems and Software , a large and controversial voting machine maker."
http://www.votecobb.com
http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2004/12/blackwell-tries-to-avoid-testifying.html
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