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  1. #1
    Doctor of Scentology DrSmellThis's Avatar
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    Default News item: Hoping your vote counts*

    visit-red-300x50PNG
    http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLI

    TICS/08/08/international.observers/index.html


    Jeez, I hope all that somehow helps...

    Today, to beat

    the 100 degree heat here in Oregon, I bought some ice cold grapefruit juice at my neighborhood supermarket with a

    credit card. Three separate pieces of paper were handed to me to document the purchase. (The clerk, I assume,

    documented it thoroughly for the store as well.) I was looking at the paper, thinking "God, think about the

    deforestation caused by all of everybody's purchases, from as small as a pack of gum. I wonder whether all this

    paper is really necessary for every trivial purchase? Then, it struck me -- this is three more pieces of

    paper than will document 1/3 of the votes in the upcoming presidential election!"

    Currently, it looks

    like about two thirds of our total votes will be merely counted by computer, while roughly 1/3 of our total

    votes (about half of the 2/3) will be recorded and entered electronically as well. So although the

    first portion is certainly vulnerable to fraudulent counting in a variety of ways, the latter portion will leave

    no paper trail whatsoever. Therefore there will be no way to truly trace, verify or recount the votes.

    I

    sure hope the four private e-voting corporations involved will be ethical about all this! (The stated

    corporate guiding behavior principle of "maximizing shareholder wealth" exactly = everyday human ethics anyway,

    right?) Two have documented ties with the Republican party, and the other two have had problems with malfunctions in

    elections before (e.g., in California).
    Last edited by DrSmellThis; 08-10-2004 at 11:56 AM.
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  2. #2
    Moderator Mtnjim's Avatar
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    "Two have documented ties with the

    Republican party, and the other two have had problems with malfunctions in elections before (e.g., in

    California)."

    Guess GW is in, no need to continue the "campaign"!!
    Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.
    --Lazarus Long

  3. #3
    Bad Motha Holmes's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DrSmellThis
    I sure hope the

    four private e-voting corporations involved will be ethical about all this! Two have documented ties with

    the Republican party
    , and the other two have had problems with malfunctions in elections before (e.g., in

    California).
    No need to worry about ethics, then.

    Ah well. F the

    vote
    .
    If a guy's a cocksucker in his life, when he dies, he don't become a saint. - Morris Levy, Hitmen

    Holmes' Theme Song

  4. #4
    Doctor of Scentology DrSmellThis's Avatar
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    Default

    *For further information and

    reference, see The Nation, August 15, 2004.
    DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)

  5. #5
    Moderator Mtnjim's Avatar
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    Default Kolwicz kicked out for submitting real election tests

    From "Risks Digest":

    Kolwicz kicked out for submitting real election tests

    Al

    Kolwicz, official representative to Boulder County's test of its new vote counting system, was asked by County

    Clerk, Linda Salas, to leave the test.
    When asked what happened, Kolwicz said, "we submitted sample ballots to

    test the security and accuracy of the county's new vote counting system."

    The sample ballots included tests

    such as - (1) what happens if a voter
    circles the box rather than filling in the entire box with a black pen,

    and
    (2) what happens if a voter marks over the ballot serial number in hopes that this will make the ballot

    secret. (Boulder County's new ballots are
    not secret.)

    Salas consulted with the Secretary of State,

    Donetta Davidson's office, by phone. Following their private conversation, Salas asked Kolwicz to

    leave.
    Kolwicz left immediately and went outside of the building to record some notes. Deputy P. Dunphy, who was

    in the room where the testing was being conducted, came out to find Kolwicz on a bench. He told Kolwicz that he was

    not to return to the building. "It looks like a sham is being foist upon the public", said Kolwicz. The tests

    prepared by Kolwicz are limited to things that can happen in this year's primary election.

    Al Kolwicz,

    CAMBER - Citizens for Accurate Mail Ballot Election Results
    2867 Tincup Circle, Boulder, CO 80305, 303-494-1540

    AlKolwicz@qwest.net
    www.users.qwest.net/~alkolwicz

    http://coloradovoter.blogspot.com
    Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.
    --Lazarus Long

  6. #6
    Moderator belgareth's Avatar
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    I'd worry about the ethics

    whether they had affiliations with any party or not because corporations have shown us that they are not to be

    trusted. Seems like most high level executives are up for the highest bidder. Is anybody in power honest any more?



    A well constructed counting system should have all sorts of checks and balances built in, including redundant

    machines located miles apart. It's probably safer than paper in reality. I don't know how they are building the

    data bases but know it can be done in such a way as to be very difficult to screw with, at least as hard as paper

    votes.

    As a slight degression, between his statements about pulling out of Iraq and stem cell research I feel

    like Kerry has a better grasp of real needs than Bush. The big question is whether he'll keep his word if

    elected.
    To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

    Thomas Jefferson

  7. #7
    Doctor of Scentology DrSmellThis's Avatar
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    Default

    The Nation article

    indicated that one of the university scientists who built one of the e-voting applications did remark that it would

    take one month to rig for one candidate or the other and get away with it; but that this would not be difficult for

    election officials to arrange.

    But we unfortunately don't know how the database program was built. As it turns

    out, all the program code is being kept secret from the public, "to protect voter privacy."

    I'm extremely relieved to hear that my government is suddenly so concerned about my privacy!

    Nonetheless, some mistrustful citizens think they have a right to know how their votes are being counted; or

    whether in fact they are. Silly conspiracy theorists!
    DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)

  8. #8
    Moderator belgareth's Avatar
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    Default

    ANYTHING, any system can be

    rigged. There's ample evidence that paper votes have been rigged time and again. The fact that there is evidence

    also helps to confirm the theory that something that big cannot be hidden for long. I read somewhere that when a

    conspiracy gets as many as three people the odds are even that one of the conspirators will talk about it. Then you

    have to figure out if they are telling the truth or just playing their own game.

    In the case of computer votes,

    how many of us would really understand how the votes are counted and kept secure even if they told us? Certainly not

    me and I work with computers. I doubt most would. A general overview yes, but not the important details that confirm

    the security arrangements. If the details are released, those that are qualified to understand them also would have

    more details about how to get through the security. You can't have it both ways and it isn't likely to remain in

    hardcopy, which isn't secure either, for much longer.
    To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

    Thomas Jefferson

  9. #9
    Doctor of Scentology DrSmellThis's Avatar
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    Paper votes can be rigged, but

    it's easier to monitor than e-voting. There would have to be some kind of independent screen capture and "keystroke

    recorder" or something to monitor e-votes. I doubt seriously the necessary checks and balances will be in place, but

    I hope I'm wrong.

    Not to be paranoid, but I also don't trust political polls these days. They can't have the

    polls saying one thing and the voting machines saying the other, if you get my drift. For example, it's extremely

    hard for me to believe that Kerry didn't gain anything in July-Aug, with F-9/11 and the successful convention

    happening.
    Last edited by DrSmellThis; 08-11-2004 at 08:34 PM.
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  10. #10
    Doctor of Scentology DrSmellThis's Avatar
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    Default Still seeking a fair vote in Florida, by Jimmy Carter

    http://michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=175



    "...some basic international requirements for a fair election are missing in Florida. The most significant of

    these requirements are:

    * A nonpartisan electoral commission or a trusted and nonpartisan official who will be

    responsible for organizing and conducting the electoral process before, during and after the actual voting takes

    place... Florida voting officials have proved to be highly partisan, brazenly violating a basic need for an unbiased

    and universally trusted authority to manage all elements of the electoral process.

    * Uniformity in voting

    procedures, so that all citizens, regardless of their social or financial status, have equal assurance that their

    votes are cast in the same way and will be tabulated with equal accuracy...

    Four years ago, the top election

    official, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, was also the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney state campaign

    committee. The same strong bias has become evident in her successor, Glenda Hood, who was a highly partisan elector

    for George W. Bush in 2000. Several thousand ballots of African Americans were thrown out on technicalities in 2000,

    and a fumbling attempt has been made recently to disqualify 22,000 African Americans (likely Democrats), but only 61

    Hispanics (likely Republicans), as alleged felons.

    The top election official has also played a leading role in

    qualifying Ralph Nader as a candidate, knowing that two-thirds of his votes in the previous election came at the

    expense of Al Gore. She ordered Nader's name be included on absentee ballots even before the state Supreme Court

    ruled on the controversial issue.
    Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, naturally a strong supporter of his brother, has

    taken no steps to correct these departures from principles of fair and equal treatment or to prevent them in the

    future.

    It is unconscionable to perpetuate fraudulent or biased electoral practices in any nation. It is

    especially objectionable among us Americans, who have prided ourselves on setting a global example for pure

    democracy. With reforms unlikely at this late stage of the election, perhaps the only recourse will be to focus

    maximum public scrutiny on the suspicious process in Florida."

    -- Former President Jimmy Carter, world's

    foremost expert on fair, democratic elections.
    Last edited by DrSmellThis; 10-07-2004 at 06:41 AM. Reason: *PLEASE NOTE ABOVE TEXT NEWLY ADDED AFTER POSTING BELOW ARTICLE*
    DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)

  11. #11
    Doctor of Scentology DrSmellThis's Avatar
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    Default Well Deserved Scrutiny from U.S. Voting Corruption Disgusts Republicans

    It's sad and embarrassing for America, but it has come to this:



    http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLIT

    ICS/10/07/election.observers.ap/index.html


    David MacDonald, a Canadian member of a team organized

    by the San Francisco human rights group Global Exchange, said observers were shocked to find that partisan officials

    run U.S. elections.
    Requiring election officers to be nonpartisan "is as close as you can get in democratic or

    electoral terms to a universal norm," MacDonald said after visiting Missouri, where Secretary of State Matt Blunt, a

    Republican, is the chief electoral officer and a candidate for governor. "There are some very serious problems that

    need to be addressed."

    ... The report said touch-screen machines that don't print paper ballots for use during

    a possible recount could delay the election outcome beyond November 2 and create more, not less, controversy.

    It

    faulted procedures with absentee and provisional ballots, cited reports of voter intimidation and

    disenfranchisement, and criticized moves by a few states to allow overseas and military voters to fax rather than

    mail completed ballots.

    The report also noted that many of the reforms envisioned by an election assistance law

    enacted after the disputed 2000 presidential election won't be in place by Nov. 2, and raised concerns that the

    right to vote "may not be evenly applied or protected throughout the country."
    Last edited by DrSmellThis; 10-07-2004 at 06:54 AM.
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  12. #12
    Doctor of Scentology DrSmellThis's Avatar
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    Default Four more Floridas

    * More

    voting corruption news, this time from Nevada and Oregon, both swing states:

    Nevada:

    http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2421595



    Oregon:

    http://w

    ww2.kval.com/x30530.xml?ParentPageID=x2649&ContentID=x47627&Lay out=kval.xsl&AdGroupID=x30530


    Recent

    anti-voting corruption has also been reported in the swing states of Ohio (where its secretary of state, Mr.

    Blackwell, has recently limited voting to within precinct instead of county-wide as it has been, and has pushed to

    disqualify ballots printed on thinner paper; making it harder to vote) and Wisconsin (where critical inner

    city ballot shortages exist in Milwaukee); but I could not produce working links.
    Last edited by DrSmellThis; 10-18-2004 at 12:58 AM.
    DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)

  13. #13
    Bad Motha Holmes's Avatar
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    If a guy's a cocksucker in his life, when he dies, he don't become a saint. - Morris Levy, Hitmen

    Holmes' Theme Song

  14. #14
    Doctor of Scentology DrSmellThis's Avatar
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    Default

    Keep the dream of Democracy

    alive!
    DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)

  15. #15
    Journeyman
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    Thumbs down

    I had a friend vote with a

    Franklin County Ohio ballot today. It was a complicated procedure with a punch card and pad. Three chads hung up and

    had to be removed with a kitchen knife. She required assistance and became frustrated with the procedure and the

    wording of the written ballots enclosed. There was a seperate paper explaining why Nader wasn't on the ballot but

    it looked like the other paper explanations except for color. It will be easy to file these absentee ballots in a

    circular file. Ohio voting is still pretty shakey folks.

    Elk

  16. #16
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    "Via chicagoprogressive at Dailykos,

    we have this report in the Albuquerqe Journal:

    Kim Griffith voted on Thursday— over and over and

    over.
    She's among the people in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties who say they have had trouble with

    early voting equipment. When they have tried to vote for a particular candidate, the touch-screen system has said

    they voted for somebody else.
    It's a problem that can be fixed by the voters themselves— people can

    alter the selections on their ballots, up to the point when they indicate they are finished and officially cast the

    ballot.
    For Griffith, it took a lot of altering.
    She went to Valle Del Norte Community Center

    in Albuquerque, planning to vote for John Kerry. "I pushed his name, but a green check mark appeared before

    President Bush's name," she said.
    Griffith erased the vote by touching the check mark at Bush's name.

    That's how a voter can alter a touch-screen ballot.
    She again tried to vote for Kerry, but the screen

    again said she had voted for Bush. The third time, the screen agreed that her vote should go to Kerry.


    She faced the same problem repeatedly as she filled out the rest of the ballot. On one item, "I had to vote five or

    six times," she said.
    Michael Cadigan, president of the Albuquerque City Council, had a similar

    experience when he voted at City Hall.
    "I cast my vote for president. I voted for Kerry and a check mark

    for Bush appeared," he said.
    He reported the problem immediately and was shown how to alter the

    ballot.
    Cadigan said he doesn't think he made a mistake the first time. "I was extremely careful to

    accurately touch the button for my choice for president," but the check mark appeared by the wrong name, he

    said.
    Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera said she doesn't believe the touch-screen system has been

    making mistakes. It's the fault of voters, she said Thursday.
    Cadigan, for example, could have "leaned

    his palm on the touch screen and it hit the wrong button," she said.
    In Sandoval County, three Rio Rancho

    residents said they had a similar problem, with opposite results. They said a touch-screen machine switched their

    presidential votes from Bush to Kerry.
    Bureau of Elections Manager Eddie Gutierrez also said he doesn't

    believe there are problems with the machines.
    But Gutierrez did replace one after someone complained—

    even though he found nothing wrong with it.
    "He (the voter) felt so strongly about it, that I shut it

    down," Gutierrez said.
    Herrera said she's heard stories from Democrats and Republicans. In some cases,

    when people have tried to vote a straight ticket, the screen has given their votes to every candidate in the

    opposite political party, she said.
    She believes it's a people problem. "I have confidence in the

    machines," she said. "They are touch screens. People are touching them with their palms, or leaning their hand. ...

    They're hitting the wrong button."

    It is outrageous to simply blame the people for this. e-Voting machines

    have long shown problems and this is a threat to

    democracy."

    http://vote2004.eriposte.com/

    also a nice compilation of voter fraud (so

    far):

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselection...331610,00.html
    Give truth a chance.

  17. #17
    Doctor of Scentology DrSmellThis's Avatar
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    Default

    Thanks. You beat me to it.

    I was going to post the same thing.
    DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)

  18. #18
    Doctor of Scentology DrSmellThis's Avatar
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    Default Missing Ballots in Florida

    Postal Experts Hunt for Missing Ballots in Florida
    By Michael Christie /

    [

    color=#0000ff]Reuters[/color]


    MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. Postal Service investigators on Wednesday were trying

    to find thousands of absentee ballots that should have been delivered to voters in one of Florida's most populous

    counties, officials said.

    The issue evoked memories of the polling problems that bedeviled the Florida election

    in 2000 and which the state has been trying to address before next Tuesday's presidential election, which is again

    expected to be a very tight race.

    Broward deputy supervisor of elections Gisela Salas said 60,000 absentee

    ballots, accounting for just over 5 percent of the electorate in the county north of Miami, were sent out between

    Oct. 7 and Oct. 8 to voters who would not be in town on election day.

    While some had begun to be delivered, her

    office had been inundated with calls from anxious voters who still had not received their ballots.

    "It's

    really inexplicable at this point in time and the matter is under investigation by law enforcement," Salas told

    Reuters.

    "It was basically our first major drop of the absentee ballots," Salas said. She said postal service

    officials had assured Broward elections supervisor Brenda Snipes that the ballots had moved out of the post office

    to which they had been taken by the elections office.

    U.S. Postal Service Inspector Del Alvarez, whose federal

    agency is independent from the U.S. Postal Service, said it had yet to be determined if the ballots reached the post

    office.

    "It's highly unlikely that 58,000 pieces of mail just disappeared," he said. "We're looking for it,

    we're trying to find it if in fact it was ever delivered to the postal service."

    In 2000 the race in Florida,

    on which the national presidential contest ultimately depended, was so close it prompted five weeks of lawsuits and

    recounts.

    The U.S. Supreme Court eventually halted the recounts, handing President Bush a 537-vote victory in

    Florida and the White House, and infuriating Democrats who insist their candidate Al Gore (news - web sites) won the

    popular vote in the state.

    The punch card ballots that were at the heart of the disputed 2000 election have

    been replaced by touchscreen voting machines in 15 of Florida's 67 counties, and just over half the state

    electorate will use them. The other counties will use optical scanning machines to read paper ballots.

    But poll

    watchers still fear another legal maelstrom if the race in Florida, or any other critical swing state, is close and

    there are suspicions that some voters were denied a ballot.

    Salas said the missing absentee ballot forms did

    not yet represent a major election problem because people had the option of voting early before next Tuesday, when

    Bush is being challenged by Democratic Sen. John Kerry.

    Poll workers will be able to cross-check through lap

    top computers hooked up to a central database whether voters had already sent in absentee ballots. On election day

    itself, those who requested absentee ballots will only be able to vote in person if they bring the blank absentee

    forms with them.

    "A lot of people are very concerned because they think that just because they requested an

    absentee ballot, now they're stuck in a limbo situation where they don't have their ballot and they can't vote,"

    Salas said.

    "So most definitely we want to get the message out that yes they can go to an early voting site and

    cast their ballot and that's what we would encourage them to do," she said.
    DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)

  19. #19
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    Doctor of Scentology DrSmellThis's Avatar
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    Default

    Judge temporarily halts

    hearings on Ohio voter registration challenges

    COLUMBUS (AP) — One voter picks up letters at the post office

    because trucks kept hitting his mailbox. Another serves in Iraq. Hundreds more are homeless, listing shelters as

    permanent addresses.


    [img]http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2004/1

    0/28/inside-ohio-vote.jpg[/img]The Republican Party

    is challenging Mary Sullivan's voter registration because she used to be

    homeless.By Jay LaPrete, AP

    All are among the

    35,000 whose eligibility has been challenged by the Ohio Republican Party. Since mail came back undelivered, the GOP

    says, those registrations could be fraudulent. Democrats say the GOP is trying to keep poor and minorities, who move

    more often, from voting.

    A federal judge put a temporarily halt to the challenges Wednesday, ruling in favor of

    Democrats who said the GOP was targeting new voters registered by political groups supporting Sen. John Kerry, the

    Democratic challenger to President Bush. U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott ruled that six county elections boards

    should stop hearings scheduled this week in Ohio, a hotly contested state in the presidential election.

    In

    southwest Ohio, Republicans challenged the registration of Surjo Panerjee, a fact his brother found unusual.

    Panerjee, 40, is an Army sergeant who is now in Fallujah in Iraq.

    Panerjee, also a veteran of the first Gulf

    War, uses his brother's house in Centerville as a permanent address even though he has lived around the world, said

    his brother, Dr. Partha Banerjee.

    "He would laugh it off," Banerjee said. "He would say, 'I never get picked

    for anything nice — why can't they give me a car or something?'"

    Republicans withdrew all 2,319 challenges in

    Montgomery County, including the one against Panerjee, after acknowledging several mistakes in its mailing.

    In

    suburban Franklin County, the registration of Raven Shaffer was wrongly challenged because he gets mail at a post

    office box, according to the federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by Democrats. The "family's mailbox has been repeatedly

    hit by delivery trucks," the lawsuit said.

    Also in Franklin County, 291 homeless people are being questioned out

    of the 2,370 total challenges, according to an analysis of the challenges by the Coalition on Homelessness and

    Housing in Ohio. In Cuyahoga County, 757 people of the 17,717 total being challenged are homeless.

    "We're very

    concerned that people that have chosen to participate in our democratic process, who took a big step in registering

    to vote and who were poised to go to the polls on Nov. 2, are going to be disenfranchised, and we may never get them

    back," said Bill Faith, COHHIO executive director.

    Mary Sullivan, 57, looked for work for a year after losing

    her job as a receptionist and prescription filler for a local drug maker in August 2003. She was evicted from her

    apartment after her money ran out this past June and spent two months at Friends of the Homeless, a shelter on

    Columbus' east side.

    "My vote has to be counted," Sullivan said. "Just because you're homeless doesn't mean

    you're stupid."

    Sullivan got a job caring for a 77-year-old widow at her suburban Columbus home in August. She

    had no idea her registration had been challenged.

    "I've been voting for presidents since I was old enough to

    vote," said Sullivan, a Kerry supporter. "Now they're taking away my constitutional right."

    It isn't just

    Kerry supporters who've had their registrations challenged. Roy Bottiggi, a 31-year-old registered Republican who

    plans to vote for President Bush, was confused when he got a call about a challenge to his registration. He has been

    a registered voter for 13 years, has lived in the same house for five years and voted in every election, general and

    primary, during that time.

    "I was a little bothered by it," Bottiggi, a resident of Willoughby in northeast

    Ohio, said Wednesday. "I never really had a problem until now."

    The Republican party withdrew its challenge

    after the Lake County Board of Elections documented his registration.

    Dlott, appointed by former President

    Clinton in 1995, said her temporary order would remain in effect until further rulings in the case. She scheduled a

    hearing in her Cincinnati court for Friday morning.
    DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)

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    Doctor of Scentology DrSmellThis's Avatar
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    Default

    Gov. Bush: Poll watchers

    can, should challenge voters


    His remarks come amid concerns that excessive scrutiny may put a

    damper on the election.

    By JONI JAMES and TAMARA LUSH
    Published October 28,

    2004




    TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday he would have no problem if Republican poll watchers

    challenge the eligibility of voters before they cast ballots on Election Day, despite growing concern that it could

    create gridlock and scare away qualified voters.

    "I don't think it will cause problems," Bush said. "I do think

    that people who are not eligible to vote shouldn't and the people who are should."

    The Florida Republican Party

    has not decided whether to instruct poll watchers to challenge voters Tuesday, spokeswoman Mindy Fletcher

    said.

    But Democrats say a GOP list of 2,663 newly registered voters in Duval County who appear to have incorrect

    addresses indicates Republicans are planning such a strategy.

    "It's despicable," Florida Democratic Party

    chairman Scott Maddox said. "Their goal is to harass people enough that they'll give up their right to vote or not

    go to the polls."

    Fletcher said the Duval list will not be used to challenge voters but to revise the

    Republicans' mailing list.

    Republicans and Democrats have signed up thousands of poll watchers who will be

    inside precincts to monitor voters. A rarely used provision of state law allows poll watchers to challenge an

    individual's qualifications to vote by writing a sworn affidavit. The challenge is resolved on the spot by election

    workers, or by having the voter cast a provisional ballot.

    In Pinellas County, for example, 275 Republicans and

    339 Democrats will work as poll watchers. In Hillsborough County, there will be 277 Republicans and 496 Democrats.

    In Pasco County, there will be 55 Republicans and 64 Democrats.

    "My big concern is that you are going to have

    people sitting in these polling places with their finger on a hair trigger because they want some action," said

    Pasco Elections Supervisor Kurt Browning, a Republican. "I would hope and pray that both parties think this thing

    through."

    Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson met with a John Kerry lawyer this week to discuss

    how to handle challenges from Republican lawyers.

    "We are hopefully going to rely on civility, and beyond that,

    we are going to rely on law enforcement," Johnson said.

    The concept of challenging voters isn't restricted to

    Florida. In Ohio, Republicans already have challenged the eligibility of 35,000 of Ohio's 800,000 newly registered

    voters.

    Florida Democrats on Wednesday released a memo sent to state and local election officials insisting such

    challenges should be rare, accompanied by irrefutable proof and not disruptive to other voters.

    The Democratic

    Party and Kerry's campaign said it will have 7,000 poll watchers in Florida on Election Day, including 1,500

    lawyers.

    "We made sure we are prepared for ugly tactics," said Christine Anderson, spokeswoman for the combined

    Democratic campaign. "It seems to us the Republicans are making a very proactive and blatant strategy to discourage

    turnout and deny citizens the right to vote."

    Republicans say they want to ensure that illegally cast votes do

    not dilute the power of legally registered voters.

    "What we're doing is looking at making sure that the law is

    enforced," Fletcher said. "We are in the process of looking at the (challenge) process and making sure we know what

    is the best way to make sure legal votes aren't disenfranchised by illegal votes."

    The GOP built its list of

    newly registered Duval voters who appear to have incorrect addresses by recording returned mail from a broad mailing

    the party sent out. Tucker Fletcher said the mailing was sent to all newly registered voters, regardless of

    party.

    The British Broadcasting Corp., which reported the list included voters in predominantly black precincts

    in Duval, suggested the list would be used to challenge voters.

    But Fletcher said that account was

    inaccurate.

    "The information created from this mailing will not be used in any way, shape or form to challenge,"

    Fletcher said. The Democrats find "anything they can and try to accuse us of intimidating or trying to suppress

    black voters, and it's just not true."

    In Jacksonville, where leaders of the African-American community

    successfully lobbied the county to increase the number of early voting sites, Pastor James B. Sampson was concerned

    that voters might be challenged at the polls.

    "Who would have ever thought that we would still be fussing and

    fighting, still be going through all this drama about voting in America?" asked Sampson.

    But Bush expressed

    frustration about the attention focused on election procedures.

    "These are all marginal issues. ... I hope people

    would keep it in the proper perspective: 99.9 percent of the people that are voting have already voted before in

    other elections," he said, "and every vote will be counted and it will be done fairly."

    Among other

    election-related issues Wednesday:

    * Bush said he has recused himself from the Election Canvassing Commission,

    which certifies the state's final vote.

    * In Broward County, officials searched for 58,000 ballots that have not

    been returned. Officials said they sent 126,220 absentee ballots on Oct. 7-8, yet half of those have not been

    received by elections officials. The U.S. Post Office denied any responsibility, and the Florida Department of Law

    Enforcement said its investigation found no criminal violations. Elections officials planned to send new ballots by

    overnight mail to any voter requesting a new form.

    * In Pinellas County, officials acknowledged that nearly 300

    St. Petersburg voters received absentee ballots that were missing the second of two pages.

    Supervisor Deborah

    Clark's office mailed the missing page to affected voters along with an explanation and a postage-paid

    envelope.

    * State elections officials urged county supervisors to post signs or put up ropes to ensure privacy

    for voting booths after reports of campaigning at early voting sites.

    * Computers used to check voter

    registrations were slow or malfunctioning in Broward, Duval and Hillsborough counties. On Tuesday, Hillsborough

    County's registration network went down for about 30 minutes. Workers used the telephone to verify

    registrations.

    * Long lines at early voting precincts were reported throughout the Tampa Bay area and the state.

    Hillsborough reported 43,000 early voters as of Tuesday. Early voters in Pinellas reported lines of more than two

    hours in some locations.

    - Times staff writers Steve Bousquet and David Karp and researcher Deirdre Morrow

    contributed to this report, which used information from the Associated Press.
    DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)

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    If a guy's a cocksucker in his life, when he dies, he don't become a saint. - Morris Levy, Hitmen

    Holmes' Theme Song

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    Default

    I hope that doesn't catch

    on...the "one-fingered victory salute" would completely ruin a thing called 'sportsmanship' and 'diplomacy' in

    sports and international politics, respectively.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Holmes
    Those who burn out the most brain cells are too often those who can least afford to.
    DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)

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    Default How to steal a presidential election: E-voting and Republican voter fraud

    Thirty-three percent of the 2004 vote was cast in electronic form.

    Thirty-four states used Diebold (an Ohio company with deep Republican ties) or ESS machines (whose former CEO won a

    Republican senate seat using his own machines in the election). At the beginning of this thread, before the

    election, we considered whether this might end up being a problem. Sadly, now that the "election" is over, it is

    starting to look like it was. Check out this breaking news from CNN:



    http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS

    /11/05/voting.problems.ap/index.html


    On November 2, 2004 in Ohio 5000 extra votes were "mistakenly"

    recorded for Bush, despite the fact that there were only 650 available voters in that area. This was not the only

    such incident. Despite the gentlemanly concession from Kerry, there may well be a huge scandal brewing. Here is a

    web site at the center of the developing e-voting scandal:



    http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

    This organization is sending out

    the largest freedom of information request ever, for the e-voting logs. They are also requesting the government to

    do the audit, and have documented quite a few abuses so far. They need donations to fund the audit. This is not

    trivial. So far, they already found a patch in the Diebold software for the State of Georgia that redirects

    votes
    . The name of the folder was "robgeorgia"! Diebold's website was hacked to get this information. Democrat

    Max Cleland (the amputee) apparently lost the senate race because of this patch in 2002. It was called "votergate"

    at the time. Here is a free documentary for download that addresses the Georgia "incident:"



    http://www.votergate.tv/

    In response, Democrats in Congress introduced a

    bill requiring a paper trail for votes. Republican Tom Delay blocked the bill.

    Florida (gambling measure) and

    North Carolina lost significant numbers of e-votes. And this is vague, but reports have it that there was a dropoff

    in Florida in votes counted based on Democratic locations. There have also been reports of relatively fewer voting

    terminals in known Democratic locations. I'll post more specific information as I get it.

    Over 1000

    problems have been reported to the voter hotline (of course the actual number of problems would be higher) with

    touch screen voting, including numerous incidents where voters selected Kerry and saw Bush selected on the

    confirmation screen
    , apparently too many incidents to suggest voter mistakes. College campuses, which typically

    vote democratic, were typically understocked with machies (booths), causing extremely long lines of several hours.

    If you do that at enough places it has a cumulative effect.

    Alaska, a traditionally Republican state, was

    trending toward Kerry, but Bush won. The same thing happened in Ohio and Florida. In general, exit polling in areas

    where paper balloting was used tended to match the ultimate results; whereas exit polls in e-voting areas

    tended to conflict with eventual results, or be "innacurate".

    Corporate America now owns voting!

    Therefore, corporations own democracy, and own all our rights, all of which depend on the right to vote. Should we

    trust these corporations with such precious and sacred parts of our lives?

    In Ohio, Diebold is the e-voting

    company. Their CEO Wally O'Dell promised in a letter to Republicans to "deliver Ohio" for Bush. (here is a link

    addressing the incident:

    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0828-08.htm

    ) One machine in Ohio read "negative 25 million votes" at one point on Tuesday. Similarly, in Florida a machine read

    "negative 12 votes," after being in operation for a while. Experts suggest that typical voter fraud software patches

    would instruct counters to start going backwards when the undesired candidate's tally reached a certain

    percentage.

    ESS Systems CEO Chuck Hegel manufactured and sold e-voting machines, then left his position. He then

    beat an incumbent Democratic governor in Nebraska in a tremendous upset (unseating an incumbent Democratic

    governor in 1996), in an election where his own machines were used. He had been expected to lose.

    I'm

    glad we got this thread going before the election. I don't know how much evidence will be recoverable, but America

    deserves answers on this.

    One of the prominent authors and authorities in this area is Bev Harris. She has a

    great book on black box voting. Here is an excellent article by her that demonstrates in detail how voter fraud can

    occur, and did occur in Georgia:



    http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00065.h

    tm


    Ralph Nader is being solicited by blackboxvoting.org to spearhead this investigation, since he is

    extremely good at this sort of thing. If you want to request him to "challenge the election results", please fax

    him at
    202-265-0092. Blackbox voting is asking all citizens to do this. Tell him you are requesting this

    as a "blackboxvoting.org activist". He will do it if enough people show interest. New Hampshire was particularly

    suspect, according to the blackboxvoting people. If they succeed in forcing an audit in New Hampshire, they can most

    probably do it in all 34 states. Americans deserve this information, be they Democrat or Republican. Even if you are

    Republican, is winning the election in the short term worth destroying your own democracy? I am outraged by the

    appearance of this.

    As all this is breaking news, I don't know how it will play out. But it might snowball into

    a scandal of historic proportions -- laying bare a profoundly serious felonious assault on America and her

    Democracy. Randi Rhodes, who has an evening show on Air America radio is actively following this body of

    news.
    Last edited by DrSmellThis; 11-08-2004 at 02:54 AM.
    DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)

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    "While the heavily scrutinized

    touch-screen voting machines seemed to produce results in which the registered Democrat/Republican ratios matched

    the Kerry/Bush vote, and so did the optically-scanned paper ballots in the larger counties, in Florida's smaller

    counties the results from the optically scanned paper ballots - fed into a central tabulator PC and thus vulnerable

    to hacking - seem to have been reversed.

    In Baker County, for example, with 12,887 registered voters, 69.3%

    of them Democrats and 24.3% of them Republicans, the vote was only 2,180 for Kerry and 7,738 for Bush, the opposite

    of what is seen everywhere else in the country where registered Democrats largely voted for Kerry.

    In Dixie

    County, with 4,988 registered voters, 77.5% of them Democrats and a mere 15% registered as Republicans, only 1,959

    people voted for Kerry, but 4,433 voted for Bush.

    The pattern repeats over and over again - but only in the

    smaller counties where, it was probably assumed, the small voter numbers wouldn't be much noticed. Franklin County,

    77.3% registered Democrats, went 58.5% for Bush. Holmes County, 72.7% registered Democrats, went 77.25% for

    Bush.

    Yet in the larger counties, where such anomalies would be more obvious to the news media, high

    percentages of registered Democrats equaled high percentages of votes for

    Kerry."

    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
    Give truth a chance.

  30. #30
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    To a statistician, that is

    some significant data, if true.
    DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)

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