Congressman calls for FBI investigation into Ohio election

[seemslikeadream]

Posted on Wed, Dec. 15, 2004

Congressman calls for FBI investigation into Ohio election

MALIA RULON
Associated Press


WASHINGTON - The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee asked the FBI on Wednesday to investigate an Ohio election worker's concern that a software company employee could have tampered with election results when working on machines before a ballot recount.

The company provides vote-counting software used in 41 of Ohio's 88 counties.

Rep. John Conyers of Michigan sent a letter to the FBI office in Cincinnati and Hocking County Prosecutor Larry E. Beal asking them to immediately confiscate election machinery in the southwest Ohio county.

According to a sworn statement from Sherole Eaton, the county's deputy director of elections, a representative of TRIAD Governmental Systems Inc. told her on Friday he wanted to inspect the county's tabulating machine. A company representative told Eaton he wanted to check the computer and go over "tricky questions" that attorneys might ask them about the recount started this week by county election boards at the request to two minor party candidates, she said.

The representative told her that "the battery in the computer was dead and that the stored information was gone," she said.

more
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10424719.htm


Conyers: "Maintenance" violates state and federal laws (Keith Olbermann)

SECAUCUS— Congressman John Conyers' request that the FBI investigates the actions of a voting equipment manufacturer in Hocking County, Ohio last week, includes the assertion that those actions may have violated two federal laws, and as many as four state statutes.

Conyers, who will appear live on tonight's edition of "Countdown," notes in his letter to the FBI (and the Hocking County Prosecutor), that "for a period of 22 months from the date of a federal election... it (is) a felony for any person to 'willfully steal, destroy, conceal, mutilate, or alter' any such record."

The Michigan representative also wrote that under Ohio law, "during a period of official canvassing, all interaction with ballots must be 'in the presence of all of the members of the board and any other persons who are entitled to witness the official canvass'." Conyers notes that just last week, Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell had declared that the so-called "canvassing period," which usually expires ten days after an election, had been extended to cover the period of the Ohio recount.

Conyers' office indicated there had not yet been a response from the FBI field office in Cincinnati, nor from the Hocking County Prosecutor's Office.

more
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6667405/

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Come on DU Tekkies! Help debunk this!

Stored information GONE??? All because of a DEAD BATTERY???

"He proceeded to take the computer apart and call his office to get information to input into our computer," Eaton wrote in the affidavit.

Something really stinks here...

[athenap]

2. How come my crappy little home computer...

...has a battery that's kept the clock running through *five years* of hard, everyday use, but this one futzes out a month and a half of a few days' use?

And why was a tech asking about the vote recount questions, anyway? If he was really there to fix the hardware, why was he asking software questions?

::puts her tinfoil hat on and admires the shiny point. Feels very festive::

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. Welcome to DU, athenap!

:hi:

[texpatriot2004]

7. I am admiring your shiny hat from here...good point about the

software questions when fixing the hardware. TEEHEE

[seemslikeadream]

5. about that dead battery

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=163291&mesg_id=163291

[Whoa_Nelly]

6. Thanks for the DU link, SLAD

Much good discussion and info causing even more head-scratching...what was that TRIAD tech really doing?

[leftchick]

9. they use these sorts of bullshit reasons on non'tech Election officials

because it works!

[gumby]

4. The FBI

All Belong To Bush.

[Quakerfriend]

8. No, not really.......

I've heard that Mueller is a good friend of Mr. Kerry.

[Just Me]

18. NO WAY!!! Are you kidding?

As much as Bush "wishes" both the FBI and CIA "belongs" to him,...he is delusional,...we all know he is delusional.

He may be pushing an "ownership" society,...but that does not include him "owning" those who ARE loyal to the American people. His cabal are loyal to no one but themselves. THAT kind of "loyalty" pisses off the vast majority of intelligence types who VALUE this country and its people.

Please, do NOT insult those who do commit themselves to something greater than this extremist cabal in Bush.

[haifagirl1]

10. FBI? wacky?

FBI??? yeah, right! They've already sent Conyers packing once, Come, give me a break! Even my parrot knows this move is insane!!!!

[Parche]

11. fbi

FBI, CIA there is no one we can trust anymore

[liberal N proud]

12. He is at least trying to get this thing in the MSM as much as possible

Maybe some one will pick it up and run with it.

[Carl Brennan]

13. Slick move by Conyers.

He forces the FBI to address the issue. What, if anything, they are doing behind the scenes will be made more complex by this and they will be forced to take sides, hee.

Very good move by Conyers, IMHO.

[goforit]

14. Yes Conyers is pretty sharp.

This is suspicious indeed.

[DeepModem Mom]

15. kick

[struggle4progress]

17. ... and kick again

:kick:

[Vidar]

16. Damned proud of Conyer's