BRAD BLOG: Busby/Bilbray Election in Doubt: The Silence is Deafening...

[BradBlog]

My entire article -- a followup/update to yesterday's report (http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002924.htm) on the Busby/Bilbray Election Results in doubt -- is posted below.

As I said yesterday, it's airtight, no matter how unsettling it may be. There has not be a single contention in my reporting challenged to date. More will be forthcoming.

-- Brad

URL FOR THE FOLLOWING STORY:
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002928.htm

URL YESTERDAY'S REPORT:
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002924.htm

--------------------------------------------------------

Busby/Bilbray Election in Doubt: The Silence is Deafening...
AP, ABC, et al Run Unverifiable Reports on Results of Tuesday's Special Election
There is NO BASIS for Confidence in the Reported Election Results. Period.


ABC News is featuring this AP story on their website:

Republican Wins Bellwether House Race

Ex-GOP Congressman Wins California Race for Scandal-Rocked House Seat As 8 States Hold Votes

By ROBERT TANNER - The Associated Press

- A former Republican congressman narrowly beat his Democratic rival early Wednesday for the right to fill the House seat once held by jailed Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a race closely watched as a possible early barometer of next fall's vote.

Republican Brian Bilbray emerged victorious after a costly and contentious special election race against Democrat Francine Busby, a local school board member who ran against Cunningham in 2004.

Okay, AP. Prove it. I dare you. You can't.

Not without a 100% manual, hand-count of all the optically-scanned paper ballots and touch-screen "paper trails" from Tuesday's CA 50th Congressional district race for the U.S. House of representatives. And even then, depending on the margin of difference after the op-scan ballots are hand-counted, you will be unable to prove that the race was decided correctly if it should turn out the number of votes cast on touch-screen machines was more than the margin of difference after the op-scan ballots are actually counted (by hand!)

The deafening, dumbstruck silence after I posted my article yesterday, headlined "Results of Close Busby/Bilbray U.S. House Special Election in Doubt!," (http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002924.htm) is deafening.

Yes, I know the headline is unsettling. As are the implications of the piece. I will hope, however, that most of you who know what I report at The BRAD BLOG also know that what I report, I source with independently verifiable information. So you don't need to trust me. And you shouldn't. No more than you should trust the words of San Diego County's Registrar of Voters.

The arguments presented in yesterday's article are airtight. The have been vetted by a number of election experts and computer scientists. So far, not a single human being has presented me with a flaw in my logic or contentions.

Mind you, I have never reported that any election was "stolen." Not even the 2000 Presidential (which wasn't stolen, as much as given away by the Supreme Court), nor the 2004 Presidential Election, which evidence shows would most likely have gone to Kerry had the votes actually been counted. But I have never claimed that election was "stolen" either, because we simply do not know. Until there is evidence, I do not report it as such.

I am not saying, in my article yesterday, that the Busby/Bilbray election was "stolen" either.

Nor have I charged there has been any fraud. This is (for now) about confidence in verifiable results in an American election. So far, there is no basis to have any.

Nor am I one of those who believes that legitimate elections can only be carried out on 100% hand-counted paper ballots.

This one, however, given the specific machines in use, which have been proven to be easilly tamperable and hackable, without a trace being left behind, (and admitted as such by even the company who makes them!) is a different matter. Add to that, security measures were completely comprimised by sending the machines home with poll workers, in some cases, for weeks at a time, prior to the election and we've got a no confidence case on our hands.

The burden is now on elections officials -- who we pay to run accurate elections -- to prove the race was counted accurately. Let's see them do it.

I do not champion, nor traffic in, "conspiracy theories," as those of you who know my work likely already understand. What I reported in yesterday's story was not editorial or "conspiracy theory," but plain scientific fact, resting on an enormous body of peer-reviewed, undisputed, scientific evidence. The contention offered in the piece then is summarized thusly -- presuming the integrity of the chain of custody for the paper ballots and the "paper trails" is still demonstrably secured:

Unless every optically-scanned ballot is counted by hand -- and only if the resultant margin after that count is larger than the number of votes cast on the touch-screen systems -- can there be any confidence that the results of the U.S. House race for CA's 50th congressional district are accurate.

I challenge anybody to prove otherwise. Anybody. It cannot be done.

I welcome any and all questions about the logic or accuracy of my contentions. So far, I have received none.

If, after reading yesterday's article in full -- and asking any questions of me concerning the logic or evidence (I will try to keep an eye on comments left here) -- you still do not understand what's going on here, and what's at stake in your elections, then you are simply heading into November while whistling past democracy's graveyard.

That goes for you, AP. (And ABC, since you're running the article on your site and yet have failed to run extremely important stories on American election integrity issues which, unlike AP's story, are demonstrably provable and feature actual evidence.)

Do you both, AP and ABC, stand behind this report? If so, I dare you to prove the contentions made in your article are backed up with any verifiable evidence. You can't. And you won't. The contentions made in my article, however, certainly are. I feel it's my responsibility to be sure of that when I file a report. Why don't you?

Elections should be verifiable and provable. This one, at least as of now, is most decidely not.

--------------------------------------------------------

URL FOR THE ABOVE STORY:
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002928.htm

URL TO YESTERDAY'S REPORT:
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002924.htm


---
Brad Friedman
THE BRAD BLOG - The uprising continues...
http://www.BradBlog.com
VELVET REVOLUTION - The revolution begins...
http://www.VelvetRevolution.us

[fooj]

1. Thanks for everything you are doing to protect our democracy!

Send this to Lou Dobbs...he's been on fire lately.

[deaniac21]

2. and the Hindenburg was sited this afternoon in NJ...

[robinlynne]

3. Brad, have you spoken with Francine? and are there in fact still 65,000

uncounted votes in dan diego?

[BradBlog]

8. Yes, 65,000 uncounted in SD still

Yes, there are 65,000+ votes (provisional and absentee, and she made a huge effort of telling folks to vote absentee) uncounted in San Diego.

Mind you, that's all of SD County, which is a larger number than just the 50th district subset.

Brad

[ebayfool]

14. Not all of the 68,500 would be part of that race count.

From the OP link:
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002924.htm#35


(highlighting is mine)
snip/

Furthermore, if there are 68,500 uncounted absentee and provisional ballots in San Diego County, only a fraction of them would apply to the CA-50 race, given that CA-50 is one of 5 congressional districts represented in the county. It appears that CA-50 accounted for about 1/3 of the total votes cast (120,000/330,000) (note further that far more than 355,000 voters were registered in SD county ... that number probably only applies to CA-50 registrations), implying that roughly 25,000 uncounted votes were cast in the district, maybe up to 35,000 if you believe the wealthy CA-50 residents were significantly more likely to vote absentee. Running with the higher number, for those votes to make up the difference between Busby and Bilbray, they would have to come out at least 57-43% in favor of Busby ... a stretch by most measures.

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. Is the sound at the Busby campaign headquarters "deafening"?

How do they feel about the election results?

Have you interviewed any of the poll workers involved in taking home voting machines?

Are there any other news organizations verifying that poll workers took VOTING MACHINES home with them?

[BradBlog]

9. Yup.

Wow...Vinnie acting like he cares about this for some reason? Okay...I'll play along for now:

>>How do they feel about the election results?<<

No public comment at this time.

>>Have you interviewed any of the poll workers involved in taking home voting machines?<<

Yes.

>>Are there any other news organizations verifying that poll workers took VOTING MACHINES home with them?<<

Yes. And it's confirmed. I'd suggest you pick up the phone and call the San Diego County registrar of voters yourself, but I know you don't like to do those sorts of things.

Nonetheless, the number is: [phone]

Ask them yourself. While you're calling, ask them if they can PROVE that Bilbray won. Ask them if they can show you any evidence to that effect, if so.

[Kostafarian]

31. Interesting

Why would you insinuate the poster was acting when he seems to ask reasonable questions.

>>How do they feel about the election results?<<

No public comment at this time.

--

Did Busby concede?



>>Have you interviewed any of the poll workers involved in taking home voting machines?<<

Yes.

--

Are any of them willing to go on the record?



>>Are there any other news organizations verifying that poll workers took VOTING MACHINES home with them?<<

Yes. And it's confirmed. I'd suggest you pick up the phone and call the San Diego County registrar of voters yourself, but I know you don't like to do those sorts of things.

--

Which news organization? Yes is pretty definitive.

How do you know vinny doesn't like to do your background checking? Don't most reporters get officials on the record instead of giving out phone numbers?

[garybeck]

5. THERE IS ACTION WE ALL CAN TAKE ON THIS. READ THIS THREAD>>

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x432435

[shance]

6. Thanks for this info. Will do and will pass on.

n/t

[robinlynne]

10. yes I think everyone should call busby's office as a start.

If she gets hundreds of calls right now, that may get her moving.
And we should be ready to do whatever needs doing, i.e. asking for a recount.

[Dushegubkiy]

29. Thanks! Wouldn't have seen it otherwise. nt

[autorank]

7. Brad, your reporting is air tight. Here's the deal with the "silence"

that's deafening.

What do you expect, that someone will actually speak out against this horror.

It's all one "corporate entity" called "those in power." To speak out about the system that put all of them in power is to challenge their legitimacy. Therefore, if they admit that maybe this one or that one was cooked, they raise the question that theirs was cooked.

Let's see, stick my nose into something that has nothing to do with me but could question my right to power OR remain silent...mums the word.

It will continue this way with a few exceptions like the Congressional Black Caucus and other members of the House (no Senator has spoken up on election fraud).

The Corporate Media (CM) is in a triple bind:

1) They're a division of EWPI. (Excessive Wealth & Power, Inc.). EWPI can't turn on itself any more than a dog can ever catch it's tail. EWPI owns CM; CM is the employee here. Not prudent to question the boss and call him a crook.

2) If they do report on this and a torrent of stories emerge, there will be questions as to how all this could have happened without CM knowing; people will quickly realize that they did know since the "blackout" will be one of the stories. Not prudent, looking like a bunch of media whores.

3) If they do report, they've bitten their masters generous hand that feeds them and they've admitted, de facto, that they sat on the story of our lifetime. The net result is that they'd be without jobs, unemployable in the future in this trade. Not prudent to give up between $0.2 and $10.0 million a year for sitting on your ass and reading the script according to Rove.

That, I submit, is why the silence is deafening.

Keep up the great work. The story will be told, is being told, and there will be a reckoning.

K&R

[In Truth We Trust]

11. Nail meet head! Heres to the reckoning. Hand counted paper ballots NOW!!!

[leftchick]

15. god damn I admire you all!

do you really feel there will be a reckoning? I have very grave doubts about that. I am so uncertain I am planning to leave this fascist country permanently!

:(

[redacted]

12. Has Greg Palast of BBC News weighed in on this situation yet?

He's on tour promoting his book "Armed Madhouse," and last night he was supposed to have been speaking at a university near Santa Rosa, CA, according to his tour schedule. One would think that he would be on Air America Radio, Democracy Now, etc., talking about the media blackout. Has anybody heard comments from him yet? If not, does anybody know how to reach him?

[McIntyre]

19. Palast in San Diego This Saturday!

Investigative Reporter Greg Palast 6/10/2006
Saturday 2:00:00 PM until 4:00:00 PM
Location: 4190 Front Street,Hillcrest Area of San Diego (opposite the UCSD Medical Center). CA

Greg Palast will discuss his new book, Armed Madhouse, which is about schemes to seize little nations with lots of oil, the hidden program to steal the 2008 election, and the media biases that keep it unreported. Presented by: Peace and Democracy Action Group, First Unitarian Universalist Church and Activist San Diego. $5 – $10 donations requested. Info. [email protected] or 858-459-4650 \

I have a DU friend who is attending -- I'll call her ASAP!

[redacted]

21. Thank you McIntyre!

That's great. Meanwhile, I would think that California Election Protection Commission activists from across the state would be on their way to San Diego to raise hell. At least I would hope so.

[redacted]

13. What about Oakland?

Brad, what about Oakland? 30,000 ballots remain to be counted in the hotly contested Oakland mayor's race, and I haven't heard any news organization declare a winner in that case.

So how is it that with 67,000 ballots remaining to be counted in San Diego, how can that race be over while Oakland's could continue for days?

[redacted]

22. What about Sonoma County?

Here, ONE-FIFTH of the electorate cast votes that have to be hand-counted. That's 20,000 votes. And we have two races that currently have less than 2500 votes separating the candidates. Nobody around here has called the election for any candidate. They're saying it's going to take at least 3 weeks.

So how in hell can anybody prove that there's a winner in San Diego? Nobody can. And that includes ABC News and AP. THEY CAN'T PROVE IT.

So it's apparent that there are several close California races that are not decided because of uncounted votes. Why is this race in San Diego the big exception, at least as far as the press is concerned?

[shance]

16. Who's in San Diego and wants to do something about this?

I'm in Los Angeles and would be happy to help in whatever way I can.

We have to have every vote counted in this election and every other one.

Until then, there is no winner.

[McIntyre]

17. I was an assistant precinct inspector in charge of equipment

during this election (I'm in the 50th District). I had my two Diebold machines for seven full days before the election (I was dumbfounded). The chain of custody is abysmal. There is a seal on the machines (which are locked) but I am the one who sets up/breaks down the equipment and breaks the seal at the end of the day. The machines were reserved specifically for disabled voters but could have been used if a voter insisted on using it instead of the scanner. I registered zero votes and assume most of the 1,646 precincts in the county had very little use but don't know for sure. I had no key to unlock the memory card (except during election day)but if I were motivated and had "friends" of like mind it would have been extremely easy.

The November election will use only the touchscreen machines (the scanners will not be used at all). I will encourage voters to look at the paper and make sure their votes are registered properly there but still, what's the guarantee?

I attended a small breakfast with Francine a week or so before the election and she said if the vote was close she would demand a recount. I'll follow your advice and give her office a call.

I'm happy to talk with you (Brad) more -- there are other issues of concern to me.

[Kurovski]

18. Kick.

Previously recommended.

[femrap]

20. I've emailed Dobbs and Olbermann....

now I'll phone Busby. Come on Californians...you can do it. RECOUNT. Living in Ohio, I know how important this is.

Don't let Busby out of this! Make her demand a Recount!

[redacted]

23. Thank you femrap!

YOU ROCK!

[Rex]

24. Bloggers deal swiftblow to the MSM.

The Legion of Doom (CNN/Fox) should get busy on this news.

[Patsy Stone]

25. They've counted 2000 since last night.

Last night 68500: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1377756&mesg_id=1378221
Tonight 66500: http://www.sdvote.org/election/primary.xml

[Wilms]

26. K&R n/t

[Kurovski]

27. Kick.(nt)

[Dushegubkiy]

28. The Pug machine is set to High Fraud

Beyond a shadow of any doubt, the Pugs stole the seat.
They're just warming it up for the next jackass after this one joins his predecessor in crime.

[farmboxer]

30. Republican right wing corporate mainstream media does not

want to report the truth. They want to do what is best for the rich Republicans, the Hell with "We The People"! Ted Turner, where are you??? Come back!!!!!!!!!

[rumpel]

32. Wasn't there an interview in the previous election in Bev' s documentary

where a lady in San Diego actually showed all the machines in her living room?

I can not believe that a County Registrar blatantly continues this practice after all the subsequent vulnerability reports. Resignation at once, and yes a hand recount is needed. Utter negligence at best.

Those "tamper proof seals", if still the same, are a joke - they are stickers that can be reapplied. My jaws dropped then - I am fuming now.

Take my eyes off of DU for a day and I am completely in the dark. What's wrong with MSM! Don't answer that - I know.

[Senator]

33. kick