GAO Report Confirms 2004 Stolen Election Findings

[Amy6627]

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05956.pdf

The non-partisan GAO report has now found that, "some of
concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have
caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and
miscount of votes."

The United States is the only major democracy that allows private
partisan corporations to secretly count and tabulate the votes with
proprietary non-transparent software. Rev. Jesse Jackson, among
others, has asserted that "public elections must not be conducted on
privately-owned machines." The CEO of one of the most crucial
suppliers of electronic voting machines, Warren O'Dell of Diebold,
pledged before the 2004 campaign to deliver Ohio and thus the
presidency to George W. Bush.

Bush's official margin of victory in Ohio was just 118,775 votes out
of more than 5.6 million cast. Election protection advocates argue
that O'Dell's statement still stands as a clear sign of an effort,
apparently successful, to steal the White House.

Among other things, the GAO confirms that:
1. Some electronic voting machines "did not encrypt cast ballots or
system audit logs, and it was possible to alter both without being
detected." In other words, the GAO now confirms that electronic voting
machines provided an open door to flip an entire vote count. More than
800,000 votes were cast in Ohio on electronic voting machines, some
seven times Bush's official margin of victory.
2. "It was possible to alter the files that define how a
ballot looks and works so that the votes for one candidate could be
recorded for a different candidate." Numerous sworn statements and
affidavits assert that this did happen in Ohio 2004.
3. "Vendors installed uncertified versions of voting system software
at the local level." 3. Falsifying election results without leaving
any evidence of such an action by using altered memory cards can
easily be done, according to the GAO.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05956.pdf

[AX10]

1. KICK

The truth comes out!

:kick:

[flpoljunkie]

2. And has the been reported in the M$M? Not that I can find! Disgusting!

[Peggy Day]

26. I agree!

[snowbear]

3. If only this made news... it would sure solve a LOT of problems..

Just oust the SOB and allow the real winner to step in for a full 4-year term.

We'd have to give Kerry 06 through 09 to make it up to him.

But yeah.. :eyes: ...like this would ever really happen.. The media keeps ignoring these stories.

[napi21]

4. WOW! How can we get this into the MSM?

O know the Pubs would freak, but I'd love to see them publicly slamming the GAO!!!!

[snowbear]

5. That report was finished 2 months ago and not a peep from the media...

It's dated September 2005 ..

[Neocondriac]

6. C.C.O.

Carter, Conyers and Olbermann. They will drive it. Get a opine out to your local paper.

[ClassWarrior]

8. That's a great idea - but PLEASE don't call them "the MSM!!"

There is NOTHING "mainstream" about their twisted agenda of greed and manipulation. Please call them what they are - The Corporate Media.

NGU.

[kster]

7. K&R.NT

[stillcool]

9. its so frigging sad...

.... the truth finally is spoken, but it's a whisper.

[Uncle Joe]

10. The truth will set us free,

if the corpwhorate owned MSM ever report the truth/news about the corpwhorate owned vote counters. Kicked and nominated!:kick:

[Tiggeroshii]

11. I say if we can't beat em we join em.

Make sure we get the right guys out there interfering with the vote counts. IF we can jsut turn enough of the Sec. of State elections, we can easily steal the election in 08... Or at least ensure a fair vote count.

Oh yeah, it seems like Harry's grown some balls. Think this might be somethin we should bombard the Senator's fax machine, mail/email box and telephones with?

[Tactical Progressive]

12. If Clinton had stolen an election this way

it would be the only thing they talked about for months on end. He wouldn't have the 'political capital' to target tax cuts, start a war based on the truth let alone a pile of blatant lies, or appoint anybody to the Supreme Court. In fact, he wouldn't have had the political capital to do anything but resign in disgrace.

The Corporate Media Establishment doesn't just tilt the political playing field a few degrees, they turn it upside-down and inside-out. An extra-marital infidelity is a two-year non-stop Constitutional crisis. Stealing elections, purposely letting America get attacked by terrorists and lying non-stop to invade another country are, if mentioned at all, only referred to with Reublican 'character and integrity' expressed or implied at every turn.

American journalism is the terrorism that this country faces. Arab extremists aren't even a distant second as a threat.

[Liberal Gramma]

13. Re-enact the Boston Tea Party

Throw all those Diebold machines into Boston Harbor.

[Wilms]

14. kick n/t

[Febble]

15. It's an excellent report

but where does it say the election was stolen?

It certainly says it was stealable, which is extremely important, and it makes some vital recommendations - but "confirms 2004 Stolen Election Findings" seems a stretch, unless I've missed a bit. The word "fraud" appears five times according to my Adobe search, none in the context of saying it happened. "Ohio" appears six times, none in the context of saying that Ohio was stolen. "Stolen" appears not once. Nor, sadly, does "suppression".

Can someone point me to a page number?

[Febble]

17. OK, thanks to Foo_Bar

Got it straight. It is Fitrakis who is making the connection:

The GAO findings are particularly damning when set in the context of an election run in Ohio by a Secretary of State simultaneously working as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign. Far from what election theft skeptics have long asserted, the GAO findings confirm that the electronic network on which 800,000 Ohio votes were cast was vulnerable enough to allow a a tiny handful of operatives -- or less -- to turn the whole vote count using personal computers operating on relatively simple software.

And:

But the GAO report now confirms that electronic voting machines as deployed in 2004 were in fact perfectly engineered to allow a very small number of partisans with minimal computer skills and equipment to shift enough votes to put George W. Bush back in the White House.

Given the growing body of evidence, it appears increasingly clear that's exactly what happened.

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1529

Interesting, but the news does not seem to be that the GAO report "upholds Stolen Election findings" but that Fitrakis considers it does when taken in the context of the reported irregularities.

And he may be right.

[ROH]

19. Febble, thank you for your informative, well-written posts in this forum.

I have been scanning some of the earlier posts here, and I would like to mention one of them specifically:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=389901&mesg_id=389901

containing the following remarks between A and B at the Bronx Zoo, as reported by TIA, with your additional comments in italics:

---------------
A- I read that 16 states deviated beyond the Margin of Error for Bush and the odds are 1 in 19 trillion.
B- Voodoo math - based on invalid assumptions. Bush exceeded the MoE in only 3 states. Remember, you must multiple the standard MoE formula by 1.6. Design effect.

No, the math is fine. The MoE doesn't matters much, because so many states went the same way. The odds of that happening by chance probably really are in the trillions. That antelope get some stuff right

A- But all 22 Easter(n) time-zone states deviated to Bush, regardless of MoE. The odds of that are 1 in 4 million.
B- Sometimes, shit happens.

Yep, it looks like there's something about those Eastern States. Mostly Democratic territory, no?
---------------


Do you think that these points are important flags?

For example, you wrote: "The odds of that happening by chance probably really are in the trillions." However, that highly unlikely (in terms of it occurring due to chance alone) event did actually occur, so would you consider the occurrence of that event to be a major flag?

Undisputable evidential proof is a different matter of course, but sometimes flags might be so large and bright that they could be considered to support a case 'beyond reasonable doubt' particularly when viewed in the light of all of the other evidence?

[Febble]

20. Thanks for that!

To answer your questions:

I think the discrepancy is a flag certainly. But probability estimates are a very poor proxy for the size of an effect. There is no doubt that the discrepancy was not due to chance. A second question is: was it significantly greater than in previous years (when it was also much bigger than could be attributed to chance) - and the answer is, probably.

But none of these probabilities in themselves point to fraud, as there are well known non-chance factors that can bias exit polls. In fact there are text books written about "non-sampling error" in surveys (i.e. error that is not due to the fact that you are interviewing a sample of a population rather than the whole population).

What, to me, was a flag, was a) its size b) the fact that after 2000 I was frankly expecting trouble and c) the pre-election polls had given me cause to hope that the "undecideds would break for the challenger".

So I certainly thought (and think) that fraud was worth investigating. And I think the evidence is clear that Kerry lost votes that he "should" have had, if the election had been just, or even legal. It is not so clear (to me) that the election was definitely stolen, though I would not be surprised to find evidence that Kerry "should" have won Ohio (and I think he "should" have won New Mexico). But my current reading of the exit poll story (and I am pretty familiar with it by now) is that it is at most a red herring. I don't think it is good evidence for fraud, certainly not of massive fraud, and if anything, the most straightforward interpretation of what we now know is that it suggests that massive vote-switching did not occur. I have a few caveats, but I think the most parsimonious explanation for the exit poll discrepancy is the notorious "rBr".

But I do think that the GAO is a good report and would heave a sigh of relief if its recommendations were enacted before the next presidential election. If 2004 wasn't stolen electronically, it looks as though it could have been, and that future elections might be, and the very fact that we don't know for sure who was elected is itself a massive indictment of the system. A democracy needs to know who won.

And I also think that voter suppression was massive in Ohio, probably illegal (or at least in violation of Civil Rights legislation), and may alone have cost Kerry Ohio. I'd like to see him fight for the rights of not only his black voters but all Ohio's black voters, whether he is convinced he won Ohio or not. I think he owes them at least that.

[ROH]

21. Thank you, I appreciate your reply.

You wrote: "If 2004 wasn't stolen electronically, it looks as though it could have been, and that future elections might be, and the very fact that we don't know for sure who was elected is itself a massive indictment of the system. A democracy needs to know who won."

Agreed. Do you think that all-paper voting is the best way? Would voting machines be acceptable as long as they *always* have a paper trail?

You wrote: "And I also think that voter suppression was massive in Ohio, probably illegal (or at least in violation of Civil Rights legislation), and may alone have cost Kerry Ohio."

Do you have any comments about Florida in 2004? I remember reading several posts here prior to the election suggesting that Florida might be out of contention for the Dems in 2004 for fraudulent reasons.

Have you looked into the 2004 US Senate or House races at all?

I believe I read in one of your earlier posts that you hadn't investigated the 2002 US Senate races, but I know some observers are very suspicious about some of the 2002 results. Clearly both the 2002 and 2004 elections impact upon the current composition of the Senate and the House. Even if Kerry was now the President, on the basis of the other results he would find his power considerably limited by Dem minorities in the Senate and House.

[Febble]

22. FWIW

Hand counted paper ballots work in the UK, Australia and Canada, and are quick and cheap. Most importantly, the count is conducted under the scrutiny of bipartisan volunteers, and open to TV cameras and members of the public (UK anyway). If candidates are not happy with the result, there is an immediate full hand recount. I don't really begin to understand why any country would want to vote by machine. It's complete unecessary. It's even quick. We install our new government the day after the election.

I did have a look at the relationship between machine type and voting patterns in Florida, but I didn't find anything conclusive. But there is no particular reason to suppose that fraud was confined to one machine type.

I haven't looked at Senate or house races, I'm afraid. But I agree, it wouldn't be much fun to be president with your party in a minority in Senate and House. I still wish Kerry was president though.

[ROH]

23. I think hand-counted paper ballots have many advantages

"Hand counted paper ballots work in the UK, Australia and Canada, and are quick and cheap. ... I don't really begin to understand why any country would want to vote by machine."

I think hand-counted paper ballots have many advantages.

Objectively what are the perceived benefits of voting machines? It might be reasonable to conclude that the voting machines' counting procedure should be less expensive (programmed counting by computer rather than hand counting by humans), but that is offset (at least to some degree) by the machines' production/maintenance costs, and what price is worth paying for accountable democracy after all?


"I haven't looked at Senate or house races, I'm afraid."

There is an interesting comment at http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/110505.html :
------------
Democratic activists also cited the disparity between exit polls, which showed Kerry winning by about 3 percentage points nationwide and carrying key swing states, and the official count, which flipped the results giving Bush wins in most swing states and a national popular vote margin of about 3 percent.

Some defenders of the election results argue that the exit-poll discrepancies could be explained by Bush’s supporters just being less willing to answer questions from pollsters after leaving the voting booth. According to this argument, Bush voters disdained the “liberal media” which they saw represented by the exit-poll questioners.

That explanation, however, doesn’t explain why ... the 2004 exit polls were on target when it came to the results for Senate candidates, while off the mark on the presidential race. Presumably, if conservatives were ducking the exit pollsters, there would be a similar percentage shift for statewide races.
------------

Do you think that is a reasonable point if the 2004 exit polls were "on target" for Senate races?


"But I agree, it wouldn't be much fun to be president with your party in a minority in Senate and House. I still wish Kerry was president though."

Leaving aside the House, if the 2004 Presidential election was fraudulent, and if some of the 2002 / 2004 Senate races were fraudulent, Kerry might rightfully be the President with a Dem majority in the Senate. As US Senators serve for six-year terms, today's Senate is made up of Senators elected in 2004 and 2002 (and earlier years).

Comments from http://healthandenergy.com/election_fraud.htm :
------------
The American vote-count is controlled by three major corporate players - Diebold, ES&S, and Sequoia - with a fourth, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), coming on strong. ... These glitch-riddled systems - many using "touch-screen" technology that leaves no paper trail at all - are almost laughably open to manipulation, according to corporate whistleblowers and computer scientists at Stanford, John Hopkins and other universities.

The technology had a trial run in the 2002 mid-term elections. In Georgia, serviced by new Diebold systems, a popular Democratic governor and senator ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Cleland ) were both unseated in what the media called "amazing" upsets, with results showing vote swings of up to 16 percent from the last pre-ballot polls. In computerized Minnesota, former vice president Walter Mondale - a replacement for popular incumbent Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash days before the vote - was also defeated in a large last-second vote swing. Convenient "glitches" in Florida saw an untold number of votes intended for the Democratic candidate registering instead for Governor Jeb "L'il Brother" Bush. A Florida Democrat who lost a similarly "glitched" local election went to court to have the computers examined - but the case was thrown out by a judge who ruled that the innards of America's voting machines are the "trade secrets" of the private companies who make them.
------------

[foo_bar]

16. you quoted Fitrakis's article without attribution, not the GAO report

The United States is the only major democracy that allows private partisan corporations to secretly count and tabulate the votes with proprietary non-transparent software. Rev. Jesse Jackson, among others, has asserted that "public elections must not be conducted on privately-owned machines." The CEO of one of the most crucial suppliers of electronic voting machines, Warren O'Dell of Diebold, pledged before the 2004 campaign to deliver Ohio and thus the presidency to George W. Bush.

Bush's official margin of victory in Ohio was just 118,775 votes out of more than 5.6 million cast. Election protection advocates argue that O'Dell's statement still stands as a clear sign of an effort, apparently successful, to steal the White House.

Source: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1529

[grannylib]

18. Let's all send it to Olbermann, the national treasure....he'll report on

it.
"I believe, Sir, that's my JOB."
he gets it.

[radio4progressives]

24. Please reference page numbers when sending to media..

When sending to the media please include specific excerpts noting page numbers such as these two below:

page 30

"Regarding key software components, several evaluations demonstrated that election management systems did not encrypt the data files containing cast votes (to protect them from being viewed or modified).

"Evaulations also showed that, in some cases, other computer programs could access these cast vote files and alter them without the system recording this action in its audit logs. Two reports documented how it might be possible to alter the ballot definition files on one model of DRE so that the votes shown on the touch screen for one candidate would actually be recorded and counted for a different candidate. In addition one of these reports found that it was possible to gain full control of a regional vote tabulation computer - including the ability to modify the voting software - via amodem connection. More recently, computer security experts working with a local elections supervisor in Florida demonstrated that someone with physical access to an optical scan voting system could falsify election results without leaving any record of this action in the system's audit logs by using altered memory cards. If exploited, these weaknesses could damage the integrtity of the ballots, votes, and voting system software by allowing unauthorized modifications. "

page 31:

"Regarding access controls, many security examinations reported flaws in how controls were implemented in some DRE systems. For example, one model failed to password-protect the supervisor functions controlling key system capabilities; another relied on an easily guessed password to access these functions. In another case, the same personal identification number was programmed into all supervisor cards nationwide-meaning that the number was likely to be widely known. Reviewers also found that values used to encrypt election data (called encyrption keys) were defined in the source code. Several reviews reported that smart cards (used to activate the touch screen on DRE systems) were not securedby some voting systems. Reviewers exploited this weakness by altering such cards and using them to improperly access administrator functions, vote multiple times, change vote totals, and produce false election reports in a test environment. Some election officials and security experts felt that physical and procedural controls would detect anyone attempton to vote muliple times during an actual election. Nevertheless, in the event of lax supervision, the privileges available through these access control flaws could allow unauthorized personnel to disprut operations or modify data and programs that are crucial to the accuracy and integrity of the voting process. "


http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05956.pdf

[philb]

25. Documentation that Kerry won Ohio & national vote in 2004

Documentation that Kerry won Ohio & national vote in 2004
http://www.flcv.com/ohiosum.html
http://www.flcv.com/summary.html
http://www.flcv.com/fraudpat.html

[Peggy Day]

27. How depressing

We knew he won, and can't do a thing about it.