Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Friday 11/25/05

[MelissaB]

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

:hi:

Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x402535

All previous daily threads are available here:

http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm

[MelissaB]

1. Ohio's Diebold Debacle: New machines call election results into question

Ohio's Diebold Debacle: New machines call election results into question

by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
November 24, 2005

Massive Election Day irregularities are emerging in reports from all over Ohio after the introduction of Diebold's electronic voting in nearly half of the Buckeye State’s counties. A recently released report by the non-partisan General Accountability Office warned of such problems with electronic voting machines.

E-voting machine disasters

Prior to the 2005 election, electronic voting machines from Diebold and other Republican voting machine manufacturers were newly installed in 41 of Ohio’s 88 counties. The Dayton Daily News reported that in Montgomery County, for example, “Some machines began registering votes for the wrong item when voters touched the screen correctly. Those machines had lost their calibration during shipping or installation and had to be recalibrated. . . .”

Steve Harsman, the Director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections (BOE), told the Daily News that the recalibration could be done on site, but poll workers had never performed the task before.

The city of Carlisle, Ohio announced on November 22 that it is contesting the results of the November 8 general election as a result of Montgomery County vote counting problems. Carlisle Mayor Jerry Ellender told the Middletown Journal that the count on the city’s continuing $3.8 million replacement fire levy is invalid “since they are not sure if Carlisle voters received the right ballots on the new electronic voting machines.”

...snip

Amidst these massive glitches, Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, who personally negotiated the deal for the Diebold machines that he called the “best in the nation,” insisted through his spokesperson Carlo LaParo that “The new touch-screen systems went well.”

Odd results for election reform initiatives

The Reform Ohio Now (RON) campaign saw polls throughout the state showing two of its four election reform to be passing easily. Both the Columbus Dispatch and University of Akron Bliss Institute polls predicted victories for Issue 2 and Issue 3, only to see them go down to sudden and statistically unexplainable defeat. Issue 2 allowed for early voting in Ohio and Issue 3 reduced the amount of money an individual can give a candidate from $10,000 to $2,000. Both were predicted to pass with 59% and 61% of the vote, respectively.


More: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1593

[MelissaB]

2. Ohio: Decision nearing on vote machine

Decision nearing on vote machine

By Lisa A. Abraham

By the end of the month, Summit County will know what kind of voting machines it will get, and by January, those machines should be at the Board of Elections.

It was a tie when the board voted in September on whether county voters would use touch-screen voting or pencil-marked paper ballots fed into optical- scan machines.

Democrats voted for the touch screens made by Diebold Election Systems of Green, while Republicans chose optical-scan machines by Election Systems & Software of Nebraska. It's up to Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to break that tie, which is expected ``very soon,'' according to Blackwell's spokesman Carlo LoParo. ``By the end of November, the tie will be broken on the local voting machines,'' LoParo said.

At a meeting last week, Summit elections board director Bryan Williams said he had heard that a directive may be coming from Blackwell's office forbidding the use of punch-card ballots after Jan. 1.

More: http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/living/community/13231276.htm

[MelissaB]

3. Democracy in America Has Officially Become a Privatized Circus

Democracy in America Has Officially Become a Privatized Circus
Pollster Mark Blumenthal Joins the Crowd of Folks Who Simply Don't Get It or Otherwise Just Don't Care

"Mystery Pollster" Mark Blumenthal follows up his recent post on the matter of the extraordinarily questionable results of Ohio's November 8th, '05 Elections. All four of the Election Reform initiatives...

"Mystery Pollster" Mark Blumenthal follows up his recent post on the matter of the extraordinarily questionable results of Ohio's November 8th, '05 Elections. All four of the Election Reform initiatives on the ballot that day mysteriously and spectacularly failed to win approval in stark opposition to the pre-election polling by the historically accurate Columbus Dispatch which had predicted most of them would win by large margins.

That they lost by large margins instead, has been the subject of some controversy. We've blogged about it (here and here) and responded (here) to Blumenthal's analysis of tweaks in the Dispatch polls methodology that he feels "might" have skewed their findings this time around. Despite the major changes in the "methodology" used to gather the actual Election Results in Ohio this year (44 of Ohio's 88 counties installed all-new Touch-Screen Electronic Voting Machines for the first time ever) Blumenthal's presumption is that it must have been the tweaks in the Dispatch poll's methodology rather than any problem with the Election Results as gathered by these all-new, untested, unaccountable, untransparent and demonstrably prone-to-failure Electronic Voting Systems.

In his latest article on the matter, he follows up by suggesting that citizens in Ohio take advantage of Public Records Laws in the state which -- according to Blumenthal's information gathered from the Ohio attorney general website -- allow for the examination of "paper ballots" 60 days after Election Results have already been certified by the state. Says Blumenthal:

That means that in early January, any Ohio citizen (or reporter) can request access to the paper ballots and conduct their own audit. An enterprising voter or investigative reporter should be able to check the ballot paper trail in any of the 82 of 88 counties to look for inconsistencies between that paper record and the official count.

While Blumenthal later calls for "more formal routine audit procedures with far more transparency," he stops short of accepting my previous invitation that he join those of us calling for a truly transparent democracy by ending the use of Electronic Voting Machines employing secret software protected by the Voting Machine Companies who have claimed that examination of their source code by the public would violate "proprietary trade secrets". So the privatization of our Public Elections by private (and partisan) corporations, paid for with our tax dollars is presumably just fine for Blumenthal. Which is good, because billions of tax-dollars are now being given to those corporations to do exactly that, even though millions of us agree with the non-partisan GAO that reported recently on how all of this is a threat to our democracy.

Beyond that, there are apparently a number of points the Mystery Pollster mysteriously doesn't seem to understand about all of this, or that he simply does not wish to acknowledge when he calls for "an enterprising voter or investigative reporter" to "check the ballot paper trail" in Ohio. For example...


*Such requests by citizens groups have been made in the past, and Boards of Election in Ohio, as well as the partisan Sec. of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell have made every effort -- often successfully -- at keeping those records unavailable to those who'd like to examine them.


*The "ballots" he refers to are not ballots. They are "paper trails" and there is a big difference. A ballot is the official, legal record of a voter's preference. A "paper trail" such as those produced by Diebold Voting Machines on a three-inch wide "toilet-paper" thermal roll of cash register paper has neither legal standing, nor is it any indication of how the voter actually voted.


*Does Blumenthal understand that a magnifying glass is actually provided by Diebold with those machines so voters might be able to read the tiny writing on those thermal rolls before they become "voter verified"?


*Does he understand that those "paper trails" are so meaningless to voters that on several of Lucas County, OH's busiest Voting Machines last Nov. 8th, a number of those thermal rolls were discovered to be entirely blank after the polls closed that night???


*Does he understand that on Diebold's machines (and many others) in use in at least half of Ohio's counties, that "paper record" stays on the same roll with all the other records, including the "spoiled" ones and rolls back into the machine?


*Does he understand that even if a voter is able to see that tiny record, and understand it, and verify it as accurate, that there is no way to verify that another record hasn't also been added to that same roll, effectively cancelling the voter's intended vote?


*Does he understand that for any audit of such "paper trails" the pollbooks from the precinct must also be available so that there is something to actually check against?


*Does he understand that -- though vigilance is necessary by all citizens to maintain our democracy -- citizens without funding should not be forced to fight to receive public records and then pore through such records after each and every election just to ensure their integrity?


*Does he understand that 60 days after an election has already been signed, sealed, certified and (yes) delivered by the Secretary of State before any such citizen is even able to begin requesting access to such records -- even if they eventually did find anything questionable -- is so impossibly long after an election that such an audit could likely never change any results of such an election?


*Does he remember that in 2000 George W. Bush went to the Supreme Court to argue that simply counting every ballot during the official counting period would result in irreparable harm to Bush since the media had already declared him the "winner" of the election based solely on early results and exit polling? And that the Supreme Court agreed?!


*Would he have suggested that the citizens of Ukraine last year wait for 60 days after their election had been certified by Government Officials before they began finally making requests for Public Records from those same officials so that they could then check the validity of their vote? (If so, that would be in contradiction to George W. Bush and Colin Powell who used the results of the Exit Polls the very next day after the election in that country -- Exit Polls performed by the same company who peformed them in this country last year -- who felt those Exit Polls demonstrated fraud and the need for an immediate new election!)


*And finally...does he realize how difficult it is to uncover systematic fraud and other anomolies through such selective audits of any records that anybody is actually ever to receive access to, given that just 6 votes -- 6 votes! -- flipped from Kerry to Bush in each Ohio precinct last November would have been enough to give Bush the votes he was officially "certified" as receiving and thus "winning" the state of Ohio?


More: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002063.htm

[MelissaB]

10. Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5449368

[MelissaB]

4. Evangelist leads political effort in Ohio

Evangelist leads political effort in Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Evangelist Rod Parsley - head of a 12,000-member suburban church, vocal opponent of equal marriage rights and a critic of Islam - is the most high-profile conservative pastor to date to enter the political arena in this battleground state.

The goal of what he calls Reformation Ohio: convert 1 million people to Christianity, help the poor and register 400,000 new voters.

His critics say it's impossible to separate the goals of Reformation Ohio from Parsley's work on a successful election campaign to ban equal marriage and his ties to Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a conservative leading many polls in his run for governor next year. In his new book, Parsley thanks Blackwell for his support, and Blackwell spoke briefly at the Statehouse rally.

In the book, "Silent No More," Parsley questions the biological basis for homosexuality and argues that the "gay lifestyle" is morally and physically damaging to homosexuals. He also calls Islam an "anti-Christ religion" that intends to use violence to conquer the world and writes that Allah is a demon spirit.

Link: http://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=16646

[MelissaB]

5. Black-on-black race baiting

Black-on-black race baiting

By MIKE HARDEN
Scripps Howard News Service
23-NOV-05

In a season in a nation where politicians of color ought to remember that they stand as candidates because Rosa Parks sat down, a half-century of triumphs over intolerance and racism is being sullied in some quarters by heirs to the spoils of the struggle.

Black-on-black political fraggings have been recorded in both Maryland and Detroit of late.

In Ohio, a state in which both parties likely could field black candidates in next year's general election for governor, Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has already taken a torpedo from the Rev. Al Sharpton, a black Democrat who disparaged Blackwell as "Ken Whitewell."

In Maryland, attacks by black Democrats on Republican Lt. Gov. (and U.S. Senate candidate) Michael S. Steele became so ugly that an appeal was made to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean to denounce the racism.

More: http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=HARDEN-11-23-05

[MelissaB]

6. Expert to try to hack into electronic voting machines as part of test

Expert to try to hack into electronic voting machines as part of test

Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A computer hacker will try to break into one of California's electronic voting machines as part of a security test initiated by the state.

Harri Hursti, a computer security expert from Finland, has been given the go-ahead by Secretary of State Bruce McPherson to attempt to infiltrate one of the voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems next week.

The company is one of the nation's largest manufacturers of electronic voting systems and is trying to get its new system approved for use in California.

The tests will use a randomly selected voting machine from one of the 17 counties that currently use a Diebold system.

More: http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/state/13256183.htm

[MelissaB]

7. PA: Election challenge planned

Election challenge planned
An outgoing Dover school board member blames a faulty vote tally for his loss.

By MICHELLE STARR
Daily Record/Sunday News

James Clymer, attorney for outgoing Dover Area School Board member James Cashman, said he plans to officially challenge election results for his client on Monday.
Cashman lost to Bryan Rehm, the Dover CARES candidate who won the four-year seat by 99 votes. County officials are investigating a voting machine malfunction in one precinct that might have incorrectly tallied votes for Cashman.

Clymer said he wouldn't specify what his client would request as a way to resolve the vote discrepancy at the machine at the Friendship Community Church in Dover Township.

Cashman said Wednesday they were still deciding the details, but he was leaning toward requesting a judicial ruling in the hopes of holding a re-election.

More: http://www.ydr.com/doverbiology/ci_3251187

[MelissaB]

8. Hacker gets blessing to hole democracy (Inquirer, UK)

Hacker gets blessing to hole democracy

Finn to demonstrate gaps in Diebold

By Nick Farrell: Friday 25 November 2005, 08:42

A FINNISH computer hacker is going to break into the Diebold Election System with the blessing of California's secretary of state.
Harri Hursti, a computer security expert from Finland, will show how it is possible to turn over the the Diebold Election System and put who ever you want in power.

Secretary of State Bruce McPherson has already refused Diebold certification after 20 percent of the new, voting machines malfunctioned during a July test, however now he wants to make sure that the machines are secure.

Last May, Hursti tested a Diebold system and changed the voting results. He also inserted a new program that flashed the message "Are we having fun yet?" on the computer screens.

He confirmed that if someone has the same access as an employee of the election office it was possible to enter the computer, alter election results and exit the system without any physical record. Now McPherson wants to see this test for himself.

More: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27932

[MelissaB]

9. Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x402624

[MelissaB]

11. FYI: This is Bev Harris, BBV

The California test will use a randomly selected voting machine from one of the 17 counties that use a Diebold system -- either touch screen or optical scan machines. The original plan for the test would have used a machine provided by Diebold, something opposed by the state and the critics of the company.

"We want to test a machine that's already been used in a California election,'' said Jim March, an investigator for Black Box Voting, the consumer group bringing in Hursti for the test. "We want to avoid a so-called 'lab queen,' a voting machine specially rigged for the test.''

...snip

Diebold has been a popular target, for those worried about the security of electronic voting and for Democrats complaining about the company's links to the Republican Party.

In 2003, the head of Diebold's parent company, a major backer of President Bush, wrote a fund-raising letter to Republicans, saying he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."


Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/25/VOTING.TMP

[MelissaB]

12. GA: Brodie sues to overturn District 6 vote

Brodie sues to overturn District 6 vote

Court petition asks Fulton judge to grant recount, runoff

By ANDREW KEEGAN
Friday, November 25, 2005


Steve Brodie sued in Fulton County Superior Court Monday seeking to overturn his five-vote loss to incumbent Anne Fauver in the District 6 race for the Atlanta City Council.

“I owe it to my thousands of supporters to make sure this election will be decided by the results and by the law,” Brodie said in a prepared statement. “We are confident that we will prevail with our petition and I am proceeding with plans to campaign in a runoff election.”

Brodie asked a judge to set aside the results of the election and hold nine write-in ballots cast in the race as valid, as well as order a recount and a run-off in the contested race between the two gay candidates. Brodie’s attorney, Michael Coleman, filed the petition, which names two elections officials and Fauver as defendants.

At press time, Brodie said the petition had not been heard and due to the Thanksgiving holiday, he expected Nov. 28 to be the earliest possible date for any court action.

...snip

Write-in ballots disqualified
Brodie’s court petition challenges the decision by elections officials to disqualify nine write-in ballots cast in the District 6 race. If the ballots are included in the vote total, Fauver received 49.97 percent of the vote, just shy of the 50 percent plus one vote threshold needed under Georgia law to avoid a runoff.

More: http://www.southernvoice.com/2005/11-25/news/localnews/localnews_brodie.cfm

[FogerRox]

13. Richmond- Panel defers decision on voting audit trails

Panel defers decision on voting audit trails

BY TYLER WHITLEY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Nov 23, 2005

A legislative subcommittee studying new voting equipment deferred a decision this week on whether to recommend paper audit trails on new voting equipment.


This came after Jean R. Jensen, the secretary of the State Board of Elections, cautioned members to wait before adopting new technology.

It also followed testimony that paper trails cause more problems than they solve.

There has been a nationwide push to refigure new voting machines so people can see how they voted and so election officials can have a paper trail to determine election-result accuracy. Twenty-five states have adopted a voter-verified paper trail, following California's lead.

more-
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128768316817&path=!news&s=1045855934842

[Algorem]

14. Lou Bartulovic says Blackwell's done nothing wrong

Doggedly Seeking Truth

Reader bites editor -- that's news:

I am not a big fan of either John McCain or Ken Blackwell. However, you accuse Blackwell of suppressing the vote in the last election . What is the proof of this? Please provide a list of people who were suppressed (other than the occasional slug who did not make it to the polls on time). Where are the pictures of rabid dogs preventing people from entering the polls?

People in the media really need to do real reporting when accusing someone of wrongdoing. You simply state, "Blackwell suppressed the vote," and it is up to him to disprove this, when he did nothing wrong. Truth is neither Republican nor Democrat, and it does not take sides. It does, however, make an issue very clear. Readers are getting to the point where they demand that you provide a modicum of truth in your comments. Your political bent should not dictate your writing.

Lou Bartulovic
Twinsburg

http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/mostrecent/letters.html


We're @&%$#@!
A preview of the coming chaos and depravity.
By Pete Kotz...

Governor Blackwell?

August 1, 2006 -- Ken Blackwell all but named himself governor today when he ruled that none of his opponents had legally qualified for the election.

The secretary of state, who constitutionally oversees Ohio elections, said he has yet to decide why rivals Betty Montgomery and Jim Petro are ineligible to run. "But I'll think of something."

Joking with reporters, Blackwell said he learned a tough lesson from his attempt to invalidate voter registration forms that weren't submitted on the proper paper. "That didn't work very well, did it?" he laughed.

This time, he plans to cite "spelling mistakes on their application forms, or maybe something about grammar. I think you'll see us getting much more creative." ...

http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2005-11-23/news/feature.html