Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked

Holy Cow...forgot that was there LOL.

1265 Lombardi Ave...must be Lambert Field, huh?



<That's according to da idiot>

<Going to remove all references to idiots from sig line LOL>

Yeah, and he owes the state around a year's worth of his Senatorial Salary ... believe it or not, there's a performance clause in there ... ya gotta show up, or ya don't get paid. Meanwhile, poor North Carolina now has another unemployed middle-aged white guy with a family to deal with.

Timber...can you say Merck?

<As in Vioxx lawsuit> LOL

It doesn't seem to increase my popularity any when I say it... but when it comes to that ambulance chaser, I can't help it.
SCUMBAG!

O'Bill in '06

<I could be your one-person focus group>

LOL

O'Bill in '08 ... I like it. I'm in.


Ain't lookin' for no Cabinet post, though; I wanna be "An Un-Named Senior Advisor" ... those guys is way cool.

A two-person focus group!!! Strength in numbers LOL.

Whoa dude. Slow down... I'm not even an actor... how are we gonna do this?... Hmmmm I got it!



If I can get the brain behind "The Brain" on my side, we'll be unstoppable!

I know, earlier in this thread I said that the conspiracy theorists should just let this one go, but hey, I love a good conspiracy thread, so in the interest of throwing gasoline on the fire, check this article out:

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/Story.asp?ID=4688

Despite mainstream media attempts to kill the story, talk radio and the Internet are abuzz with suggestions that John Kerry was elected president on Nov. 2 - but Republican election officials made it difficult for millions of Democrats to vote while employees of four secretive, GOP-bankrolled corporations rigged electronic voting machines and then hacked central tabulating computers to steal the election for George W. Bush.

The Bush administration's "fix" of the 2000 election debacle (the Help America Vote Act) made crooked elections considerably easier, by foisting paperless electronic voting on states before the bugs had been worked out or meaningful safeguards could be installed.

Crying foul this time around isn't just the province of whiny Democrats. Consider that The Wall Street Journal recently revealed that "Verified Voting, a group formed by a Stanford University professor to assess electronic voting, has collected 31,000 reports of election fraud and other problems."

University of Pennsylvania researcher Dr. Steven Freeman, in his November 2004 paper "The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy," says that the odds that the discrepancies between predicted [exit poll] results and actual vote counts in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania could have been due to chance or random error are 250 million to 1. "Systematic fraud or mistabulation is a premature conclusion," writes Freeman, "but the election's unexplained exit poll discrepancies make it an unavoidable hypothesis, one that is the responsibility of the media, academia, polling agencies, and the public to investigate." Unlike Europe, where citizens count the ballots, in the United States employees of a highly secretive Republican-leaning company, ES&S, managed every aspect of the 2004 election. That included everything from registering voters, printing ballots and programming voting machines to tabulating votes (often with armed guards keeping the media and members of the public who wished to witness the count at bay) and reporting the results, for 60 million voters in 47 states, according to Christopher Bollyn, writing in American Free Press. Most other votes were counted by three other firms that are snugly in bed with the GOP.

250 million to 1? How do you explain that?

Easy: "It wasn't the exit polls, it was the stupid."

I don't see how that explains it. The fact that the numbers came out early doesn't have anything to do with the chances (250 million to 1) that they were wrong due to chance or error.

Freeman's hypotheis was based on the "discrepancy" shown by the early, incomplete, limited-sample leaked figures. By the end of the day, the exit polls were telling a very different story, a story which led Kerry himself to face reality, though it took another half a day for him and his advisors and his army of lawyers, lookin' desperately for any shred of hope, to come to grips with the fact it was a done, clean, settled deal. It should be noted that as the evening worked its way across the country, as state after state began reporting preliminary vote counts, at no point did Kerry have a lead either in electoral or popular vote.

UC Berkeley Research Team Sounds 'Smoke Alarm' for Florida E-Vote Count; Irregularities may have awarded 130,000 - 260,000 or more excess votes to Bush in Florida

Statistical Analysis - the Sole Method for Tracking E-Voting - Shows Irregularities May Have Awarded 130,000 - 260,000 or More Excess Votes to Bush in Florida

Research Team Calls for Investigation

BERKELEY, Calif., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the University of California's Berkeley Quantitative Methods Research Team released a statistical study - the sole method available to monitor the accuracy of e- voting - reporting irregularities associated with electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000-260,000 or more excess votes to President George W. Bush in Florida in the 2004 presidential election. The study shows an unexplained discrepancy between votes for President Bush in counties where electronic voting machines were used versus counties using traditional voting methods - what the team says can be deemed a "smoke alarm." Discrepancies this large or larger rarely arise by chance - the probability is less than 0.1 percent. The research team formally disclosed results of the study at a press conference today at the UC Berkeley Survey Research Center, where they called on Florida voting officials to investigate.

The three counties where the voting anomalies were most prevalent were also the most heavily Democratic: Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade, respectively. Statistical patterns in counties that did not have e-touch voting machines predict a 28,000 vote decrease in President Bush's support in Broward County; machines tallied an increase of 51,000 votes - a net gain of 81,000 for the incumbent. President Bush should have lost 8,900 votes in Palm Beach County, but instead gained 41,000 - a difference of 49,900. He should have gained only 18,400 votes in Miami-Dade County but saw a gain of 37,000 - a difference of 19,300 votes.

"For the sake of all future elections involving electronic voting - someone must investigate and explain the statistical anomalies in Florida," says Professor Michael Hout. "We're calling on voting officials in Florida to take action."

The research team is comprised of doctoral students and faculty in the UC Berkeley sociology department, and led by Sociology Professor Michael Hout, a nationally-known expert on statistical methods and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the UC Berkeley Survey Research Center.

For its research, the team used multiple-regression analysis, a statistical method widely used in the social and physical sciences to distinguish the individual effects of many variables on quantitative outcomes like vote totals. This multiple-regression analysis takes into account of the following variables by county:

* number of voters
* median income
* Hispanic/Latino population
* change in voter turnout between 2000 and 2004
* support for Senator Dole in the 1996 election
* support for President Bush in the 2000 election
* use of electronic voting or paper ballots

"No matter how many factors and variables we took into consideration, the significant correlation in the votes for President Bush and electronic voting cannot be explained," said Hout. "The study shows, that a county's use of electronic voting resulted in a disproportionate increase in votes for President Bush. There is just a trivial probability of evidence like this appearing in a population where the true difference is zero - less than once in a thousand chances."

The data used in this study came from public sources including CNN.com, the 2000 US Census, and the Verified Voting Foundation. For a copy of the working paper, raw data and other information used in the study can be found at: http://ucdata.berkeley.edu.

By Jay Cohen / Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Election officials in one Ohio county found that about 2,600 ballots were double-counted, and two other counties have discovered possible cases of people voting twice in the presidential election.

Prosecutors were trying to determine Wednesday whether charges should be filed against a couple in Madison County accused of voting twice. In addition, Summit County election workers investigated possible double votes found under 18 names.

In the other case, Sandusky County election officials discovered that about 2,600 ballots from nine precincts were counted twice, likely because of worker error, elections director Barb Tuckerman said.

Tuckerman believes the votes were counted twice when they were mistakenly placed alongside a pile of uncounted ballots. The room where the ballots were being fed into optical-scan machines on election night was so crowded that ballots had to be placed on the floor, Tuckerman said.

"It was totally hectic," she said.

The problem was discovered when Tuckerman found that one precinct showed 131 percent of registered voters had cast ballots.

President Bush won the election by taking Ohio with 136,000 votes more than Democrat John Kerry, according to the unofficial tally.

The couple who voted twice in Madison County cast absentee ballots in October, then voted in person on Election Day, county elections director Gloria Herrel said. The couple said election workers told them their absentee votes were lost, prosecutor Steve Pronai said.

In Summit county, typically the votes were made by absentee ballot or in person, and then a second vote was cast with a provisional ballot in another precinct, elections director Bryan Williams said.

Under Ohio law, people who vote twice could be charged with election fraud, falsification or illegal voting, according the Secretary of State's Office. The maximum penalty for the most severe charge is 18 months in prison.

Double votes could have affected the result of a local schools income tax request that failed by one vote in Madison County.

In Illinois, thousands of provisional ballots cast on Election Day did not count, in most cases for lack of evidence the voters were actually registered. The Associated Press count was based on checks of several election jurisdictions. State officials were still gathering information Wednesday on provisional ballots cast statewide, a day after the deadline to count them.

Two precincts had high undercounts, analysis shows

By Ken McCall and Jim Bebbington

Dayton Daily News

DAYTON | Two Montgomery County precincts had extraordinarily high numbers of ballots cast Nov. 2 with no presidential vote counted, and the county's overall rates of such undercounts were highest where Democratic hopeful John Kerry did best.


Undercounts are ballots that do not register a vote for a particular race, in this case for president. Two precincts ?- one in Kettering and another in Washington Twp. ?- had undercounts of more than 25 percent, according to a Dayton Daily News analysis of the county's unofficial results.

Overall in Montgomery County, 5,693 or 2 percent of the ballots cast registered no valid vote for president.

As predicted by political scientists, who say the poor and less-educated are more likely to have problems with punch card voting, the rate of so-called undercounted presidential ballots was higher in Democratic areas of the county than in Republican strongholds.

The undercount amounted to 2.8 percent of the ballots in the 231 precincts that supported Kerry, but only 1.6 percent of those cast in the 354 precincts that supported President Bush.

"That again, certainly, is torture," said Dennis Lieberman, the Montgomery County Democratic chairman.

Across the state on Nov. 2, counties that used punch-card voting, as Montgomery County did, had a higher rate of undercounted ballots than counties that used optical scanning technology or electronic voting machines, which had the lowest undercount.

With punch cards, undercounts can occur when a voter:

• Inadvertently votes for two candidates in the same race.

• Decides not to vote in the race.

• Does not sufficiently puncture the punch card to eliminate a "hanging chad." Hanging chads can make it impossible for machines to read the punch cards.

The highest undercount rate in Montgomery County was in precinct Washington X, around Paragon Road and Spring Valley Pike in Washington Twp.

In the precinct, 168 or 27.5 percent of the 611 ballots cast did not have a good presidential vote. That was followed closely by Kettering 3-A, near Stroop Road and Far Hills Avenue, where 121 or 27.3 percent of the 444 ballots cast were undercounted.

Both of those precincts supported Bush, as did seven of the 10 precincts with the highest rate of undercounted presidential ballots. That's despite the county's overall trend, in which precincts where Kerry did well tended to have above-average undercounts, while precincts where Bush won had lower-than-average undercounts.

County elections officials said they have no reports of any problems at either Washington X or Kettering 3-A. The punch-card voting stands, checked Wednesday using demonstration ballots, appeared to work appropriately.

The presiding judge of Washington X, Shirley Wightman, a 40-year veteran of working polling places, said voters in her precinct encountered no problems.

"We checked the machines periodically and I could see nothing wrong with them," she said.

Wightman said turnout was high that day and there were 16 provisional voters at the precinct, a higher-than-normal number. But those provisionals do not account for the under-votes and won't be tabulated until next Monday, after officials confirm the registration of those voters.

One voter reported having trouble pushing her ballot into the slot in the voting machine, but she had not pushed the card in far enough and a poll worker helped her, Wightman said.

"Other than that things went pretty smooth," she said.

Two Washington X voters said they checked for hanging chads on their ballots before turning them in and found none.

"I personally checked mine and it punched the number I wanted," said Heather Baarlaer of Washington Twp.

Rates that high show something must have gone wrong, said Larry J. Sabato, a political scientist from the University of Virginia. Undercounts during presidential elections are typically between 1 percent and 2 percent, he said.

"It is very difficult to believe that a quarter of the people would not vote for president, especially in a year like this," Sabato said. "If I were the election officers in those areas I would be doing some very extensive checks of those machines."

Moraine had the highest presidential undercount of all the county's jurisdictions: 5.6 percent of the 2,557 votes cast in the city's seven precincts had no valid presidential vote. It was followed by Germantown with 3.6 percent undercount, Trotwood with 3.1 percent and Dayton with 2.8 percent. Both Moraine and Germantown supported Bush, with margins of 2 percent and 34 percent respectively, while Trotwood and Dayton went heavily for Kerry by margins of 60 percent and 45 percent.

Montgomery County, along with the rest of the state, is moving away from punch-card voting systems, but efforts to buy computer-based machines this year stalled as the state legislature added requirements that machines used in Ohio also create a paper-copy of the votes cast.

That was in response to concerns that computer-based voting systems could be hacked or corrupted and, without a paper trail, there would be no way to verify the vote.

The county has until January 2006, to replace its machines to qualify for federal funds to help pay for the switch.

Steve Harsman, deputy director of the county board of elections, said Congress is expected to take up the debate over voting systems again and if it does that deadline could be pushed back even further.

Next year, local voters will decide school board, township and municipal seats, including Dayton mayor.

"I think the (Nov. 2) results certainly justify the replacement of the machines but I don't know that at this stage an extra effort is going to accomplish anything," Lieberman said.

"It's going along pretty quickly. These results work against any argument for delay."

Sabato said results like those found in Montgomery County reinforce why proposed electronic voting systems should have included in them a mandatory paper record of the votes cast.

Some problems with punch-card voting systems did crop up Nov. 2. In a West Carrollton precinct a voter tried to use a sharpened pencil to punch their card instead of the metal stylus chained to the voting booth. The pencil broke off in the machine and would have blocked other voters from punching through a vote for Bush, according to county Republican Chairman John White.

The voter told poll workers what had happened and the machine was fixed.

"This has been a problem since the beginning of time with everything but paper ballots," Sabato said. "We need to keep in perspective a very important fact: There has never been a perfect election. Never. Not in the United States, not in any country in the world. It is impossible to run a perfect election with this many people voting in a 16- to 20-hour period, and it's amazing we get it done at all."
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TUESDAY NOV 16 2004: Volusia County on lockdown

County election records just got put on lockdown

Dueling lawyers, election officials gnashing teeth, Votergate.tv film crew catching it all.

Here's what happened so far:

Friday Black Box Voting investigators Andy Stephenson and Kathleen Wynne popped in to ask for some records. They were rebuffed by an elections official named Denise. Bev Harris called on the cell phone from investigations in downstate Florida, and told Volusia County Elections Supervisor Deanie Lowe that Black Box Voting would be in to pick up the Nov. 2 Freedom of Information request, or would file for a hand recount. "No, Bev, please don't do that!" Lowe exclaimed. But this is the way it has to be, folks. Black Box Voting didn't back down.

Monday Bev, Andy and Kathleen came in with a film crew and asked for the FOIA request. Deanie Lowe gave it over with a smile, but Harris noticed that one item, the polling place tapes, were not copies of the real ones, but instead were new printouts, done on Nov. 15, and not signed by anyone.

Harris asked to see the real ones, and they said for "privacy" reasons they can't make copies of the signed ones. She insisted on at least viewing them (although refusing to give copies of the signatures is not legally defensible, according to Berkeley elections attorney, Lowell Finley). They said the real ones were in the County Elections warehouse. It was quittin' time and an arrangment was made to come back this morning to review them.

Lana Hires, a Volusia County employee who gained some notoriety in an election 2000 Diebold memo, where she asked for an explanation of minus 16,022 votes for Gore, so she wouldn't have to stand there "looking dumb" when the auditor came in, was particularly unhappy about seeing the Black Box Voting investigators in the office. She vigorously shook her head when Deanie Lowe suggested going to the warehouse.

Kathleen Wynne and Bev Harris showed up at the warehouse at 8:15 Tuesday morning, Nov. 16. There was Lana Hires looking especially gruff, yet surprised. She ordered them out. Well, they couldn't see why because there she was, with a couple other people, handling the original poll tapes. You know, the ones with the signatures on them. Harris and Wynne stepped out and Volusia County officials promptly shut the door.

There was a trash bag on the porch outside the door. Harris looked into it and what do you know, but there were poll tapes in there. They came out and glared at Harris and Wynne, who drove away a small bit, and then videotaped the license plates of the two vehicles marked 'City Council' member. Others came out to glare and soon all doors were slammed.

So, Harris and Wynne went and parked behind a bus to see what they would do next. They pulled out some large pylons, which blocked the door. Harris decided to go look at the garbage some more while Wynne videotaped. A man who identified himself as "Pete" came out and Harris immediately wrote a public records request for the contents of the garbage bag, which also contained ballots -- real ones, but not filled out.

A brief tug of war occurred, tearing the garbage bag open. Harris and Wynne then looked through it, as Pete looked on. He was quite friendly.

Black Box Voting collected various poll tapes and other information and asked if they could copy it, for the public records request. "You won't be going anywhere," said Pete. "The deputy is on his way."

Yes, not one but two police cars came up and then two county elections officials, and everyone stood around discussing the merits of the "black bag" public records request.

The police finally let Harris and Wynne go, about the time the Votergate.tv film crew arrived, and everyone trooped off to the elections office. There, the plot thickened.

Black Box Voting began to compare the special printouts given in the FOIA request with the signed polling tapes from election night. Lo and behold, some were missing. By this time, Black Box Voting investigator Andy Stephenson had joined the group at Volusia County. Some polling place tapes didn't match. In fact, in one location, precinct 215, an African-American precinct, the votes were off by hundreds, in favor of George W. Bush and other Republicans.

Hmm. Which was right? The polling tape Volusia gave to Black Box Voting, specially printed on Nov. 15, without signatures, or the ones with signatures, printed on Nov. 2, with up to 8 signatures per tape?

Well, then it became even more interesting. A Volusia employee boxed up some items from an office containing Lana Hires' desk, which appeared to contain -- you guessed it -- polling place tapes. The employee took them to the back of the building and disappeared.

Then, Ellen B., a voting integrity advocate from Broward County, Florida, and Susan, from Volusia, decided now would be a good time to go through the trash at the elections office. Lo and behold, they found all kinds of memos and some polling place tapes, fresh from Volusia elections office.

So, Black Box Voting compared these with the Nov. 2 signed ones and the "special' ones from Nov. 15 given, unsigned, finding several of the MISSING poll tapes. There they were: In the garbage.

So, Wynne went to the car and got the polling place tapes she had pulled from the warehouse garbage. My my my. There were not only discrepancies, but a polling place tape that was signed by six officials.

This was a bit disturbing, since the employees there had said that bag was destined for the shredder.

By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly threatening to charge Black Box Voting extra for the time spent looking at the real stuff Volusia had withheld earlier. Other lawyers appeared, phoned, people had meetings, Lana glowered at everyone, and someone shut the door in the office holding the GEMS server.

Black Box Voting investigator Andy Stephenson then went to get the Diebold "GEMS" central server locked down. He also got the memory cards locked down and secured, much to the dismay of Lana. They were scattered around unsecured in any way before that.

Everyone agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit, discuss the hand count that Black Box Voting will require of Volusia County, and of course, it is time to talk about contesting the election in Volusia.

www.blackboxvoting.org

Margin of victory: 3.5 million

Illegally registered voters due to Democratic Motor Voter bills: 300,000 estimated............IN NEW YORK ALONE.

Arrests for voter fraud: 0

The satisfaction of listening to losers complain: PRICELESS


John Kerry had one thing right, throw in the towel or look ridiculous.

That is a lie, MaryM!

First I've heard of it. You have a link?

http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-js031401.html

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1238939/posts


The elderly among us will remember that it was required to reregister if one missed 4 or so elections in a row. I know of some people (to whom I am married) who has not voted for 6 years and whose name still is right there on the list above mine.