WABC: Voting problems reported in NJ (Voters can't vote for GOP candidate!)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=elections&id=4737362

Voting problems reported in NJ

WABC By Dave Evans

(New Jersey - WABC, November 7, 2006) - The US Attorney for New Jersey has dispatched investigators to run down complaints of voting machine problems which are preventing voters from casting ballots for GOP Senate hopeful Tom Kean, Jr.

The counsel for the NJ Republican State Committee, Mark Sheridan, says he has four sworn affidavits and has received more than two dozen calls alleging that some of New Jersey's electronic voting machines were either "pre-voted" for Democratic incumbant Bob Menendez, or were otherwise inoperable when voters sought to cast votes for Kean.

Sheridan says complaints had come in from five NJ counties, some of the polling places affected are in Passaic, Paterson, Scotch Plains and North Bergen, though Sheridan refused to be more specific, citing a fear of depressing voter turnout in the affected locations.

Sheridan called the complaints a "disturbing" trend and threatened court action if election officials were unable to correct the problem and prevent its recurrence.

Sheridan said he'd received complaints of problems at more than seven locations affecting multiple voters at multiple and identical locations.

...

Added second story

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1994&Itemid=113

New Jersey: Widespread Problems with Voting Machines Calls Key Senate Race Into Question

By Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA
November 07, 2006

Voting Equipment: Sequoia Advantage push-button electronic voting machines

Reports of widespread machine malfunctions in Essex and Camden counties may effect the outcome of New Jersey's closely watched Senate race. Essex County was the last of New Jersey's counties to switch to computerized voting. At midday some precincts still did not have working machines and many had run out of emergency and provisional paper ballots.

As usual election officials were downplaying the problems. 1010 WINS reported:

Phyllis Pearl, Camden County elections superintendent, said the county had problems with about 30 of its 700 machines, but reported no major problems. Pearl said the problems did not affect voting.

David Wald, spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, said about 25 machines didn't work properly Tuesday in Irvington, East Orange, Montclair, Newark and West Orange in Essex County, which has about 600 voting machines.

In a race that could be decided by a few thousand votes. the failure of 5% of the machines in the stronghold of incumbent candidate Robert Menendez could easily call the election results into question.

[soleft]

1. Remember when Karl Rove bugged his own office?

Why does this remind me of that?

[LSparkle]

6. History repeats itself ...

KKKarl is desperate, folks, going back to an OLD playbook...

[KayLaw]

12. Sounds paranoid.

But I completely agree with you.

[Occulus]

24. Exactly: just because you see an enemy behind every Bush,

it does not follow that you are wrong.

:D

[rzemanfl]

18. Exactly, and the mean Dems chained a Kean worker into his

office in the middle of the night, too. Plus they are screaming about a "federal investigation" that doesn't exist, while half their fucking party is indicted or in jail.

[Hieronymus]

30. me too .. this sounds fishy.

[Zynx]

2. Rule #1: Democrats Do Not Lose Elections in New Jersey

Rule #2: In case of loss of election, see Rule #1.

:evilgrin:

[pnwmom]

37. I guess Christine Todd Whitman and Gov. Kean

didn't know about your rule.

[Wink]

3. First time this has happened as far as I can tell.

It's ALWAYS the other way around. I'd honestly have to see it to believe it.

[DoYouEverWonder]

32. Whoever was hacking the machine

must have screwed up.

[last_texas_dem]

42. I was thinking the exact same thing

I can't even think of how many times I've heard of the opposite happening (people trying to vote Democratic and it being counted for the Republicans).

[iconoclastic cat]

4. Now you're really gonna know what it's like, GOP. nt

[lazyriver]

5. Boo freakin' hoo

My heart weeps for Kean.:sarcasm:

But seriously, it will probably take a Repuke getting screwed by e-voting before any action is taken to get rid of the damned machines.

[iamjoy]

44. Yep, This Is Good

I'm GLAD this happened.

Win or lose I'm never really glad when there is the possibility of election fraud, but maybe now Republicans will realize the importance of paper trails and a better way of monitoring these machines.

[oasis]

7. After the Dems win 30+House seats and 7 in the Senate,Bush will

ask for a re-vote. Karl Rove's November surprise.

[crikkett]

47. "you don't get do-overs" said *

just this morning.

[bullimiami]

8. one report of repub problem and send out the cavalry.

dems have had myriad complaints over several elections and noone seemed to care that much.

[Evergreen Emerald]

34. that's exactly what I thought. We have been asking for help since 2000

And nothing was done. One yelp from bigfatliars and the world stops.

[Overseas]

9. Didn't you wonder when Repubs would wise up and make some glitches go the other way?

We have seen millions of spoiled Democratic votes but somehow Repub votes got through just fine. And I wondered when the Repubs would put in a few glitches that went against Repubs to make the vote manipulation less apparent. Well, this could be the beginning. We may begin to see a slew of reports and affadavits about Repubs being slighted, but it will be kind of late to pump in a whole bunch of anti-republican robocalls...

[merwin]

10. Gotta love double standards here in DU.

All complaints should be looked at and treated the same way. A problem from a Republican voter is just as valid as a problem from a Democratic voter. How does it look when we're talking about fair elections and saying things like 'now you know how it feels' to Republicans. That does nothing to help the cause at all. We should use it to our advantage and say things like 'This is reason we need to trash these electronic voting machines'.

I do think it's a bit odd that NJ dispatches investigators at the first sign of a Republican voter having problems, but not for Democratic voters, but that's a different issue.

[tkmorris]

14. And just where do you see a double standard?

Do you see a mass of DU'ers saying that if there is a genuine problem here that it should NOT be investigated? I don't.

[flowomo]

17. I see 7 of the first 13 posts in this thread....

dismissing the claim or laughing at it or blaming it on Rove. That's sad.

[rinsd]

38. No, I see a bunch of Duers acting like thos other guys

Poo-pooing allegations before any investigation.

[mconvente]

15. I agree

While we obviously know that voting machine "glitches" overwhelmingly favor rethugs, we should be concerned whenever it happens. I know a lot of us want revenge here, but we have to remain the civilized party and go for fairness - electronic voting machines are just not reliable - period. Take out any agendas from companies that make the machines, and they are still not reliable. Any instance where a computer error could prevent someone from voting is disenfranchisement, and that would never happen with paper ballots.

Now, we still have a long way to go to end rethug voter suppression, but let's get rid of the electronic voting machines now as well.

[coalition_unwilling]

22. "He who casts a vote decides nothing. He who counts the vote

decides everything." (From that noted Democrat Joseph Stalin who had, dare I say it, a great sense of humor :)

[KansDem]

28. Well, I'll bet THIS fraud accusation gets investigated--PRONTO!!!

There'll be no "ifs," "ands," or "buts" about it, the DOJ, FBI, and any other three-letter agency with a remote interest will be digging into this...

[Pab Sungenis]

35. And if they find the vote was hacked

then can we please investigate ALL the other elections on these machines? And admit that they're insecure and return to paper?

[flowomo]

16. agreed.

n/t

[BattyDem]

19. No double standard from us, but there is frustration about the existing double standard

Where was the media and the investigations in 2000, 2002 and 2004 when these same problems were happening all over the country to Democratic voters? :shrug:

I don't want anyone to be cheated out of casting their vote ... but I am a bit ticked off that it wasn't seen as a major problem until now, when the Republican voters have issues. :-(


edited: typo :blush:

[JerseygirlCT]

27. Completely agree with you. Secure elections are at the heart of

our democracy. They MUST be protected. Election fraud MUST be prosecuted and punished.

I don't care who's playing, it needs to stop.

[KamaAina]

48. It's the feds who are rushing to investigate, not NJ

I do think it's a bit odd that NJ dispatches investigators at the first sign of a Republican voter having problems, but not for Democratic voters,

It's the U.S. Attorney for NJ, thus a minion of Alberto "Torture Boy" Gonzales, who is rushing to the Batcave to investigate this. What a shocker. :sarcasm:

[Richard D]

11. If they can't vote repervlican . . .

. . . it's cause God doesn't want them to!

[BattyDem]

13. Kean, Jr. won't win in those areas

In 2004, Kerry overwhelmingly won North Bergen, Patterson, Passaic. I find it hard to believe that anyone would expect Kean, Jr. to win in those areas now. Kerry also won Scotch Plains, but it was very close.

Source: NJ divison of Elections
http://www.state.nj.us/oag/elections/2004results/2004_municipality_presidential_results.html

North Bergen (see Hudson County results)
Paterson and Passaic (see Passaic County results)
Scotch Plains (see Union County results)

[w4rma]

20. Maybe now Rethugs will join us in working to ban these throughout the nation. (nt)

[FlaGranny]

21. Good. This is what it will take to

get fair voting. As long as it only happens, or mostly happen to Democrats, they just call us whiners. When it happens to a Republican, you see, that's different and it will get investigated.

[SoCalDem]

23. All I have to say is....

[Dancing_Dave]

25. Now that's a first.

Finally, one machine failure that favors a Democrat.

But it favors a Democrat who would have won anyway, so it must just be some PR side show.

[buddysmellgood]

26. Wow! They move fast when repukes are involved. They will lose at this.

An analysis will just turn out more dem voters.

[AIJ Alom]

29. Is it cause of the machines or is it because they don't want to ???

The latter is probably true. It's hard holding one's nose and voting at the same time.

[Kip Humphrey]

31. Here comes the Karl Rove gambit...

May 2006: Karl Rove reveals strategy to claim election fraud in close elections

Sequoia Advantage voting machines default to Menendez which is difficult to change to Republican in Senate race

Menendez Race crucial to Democrats recapturing Senate

Sequoia Advantage = Venezuela = Hugo Chavez


Ipso facto, election being manipulated by a foreign government.

[ima_sinnic]

41. my thought exactly--how "ironic" that the one flipping to Ds is a Sequoia

these fucking slimeballs are so freaking obvious your brain would have to be made of cork not to see through them. Unfortunately, apparently that does describe the condition of a huge proportion of the sheeple. Will they meekly allow the NJ votes to be "overturned" while voting in many other states goes to hell in a handbasket?

[DrDebug]

43. Sequoia probably never changed ownership

De La Rue PLC, the British owner sold it to a Venezuelan software firm owned by a trust in Amsterdam which is itself owned by an entity in the Netherlands Antilles whose ownership resides in a private foundation in Geneva, Switzerland.

That is a so-called Dutch sandwich with a Swiss cherry. It is a construction which is used for people who want to make absolutely sure that nobody can ever find out who the real owners are. Sequoia never changed ownership. It is just a construction to blame Venezuela if goes wrong and make it literally impossible to ever find out that it is still owned by the same De La Rue PLC.

[natrat]

33. witness HAVA in all its' glory

[stepnw1f]

36. Well... do you Republican Voters Still Like Electronic Voting?

I don't.... no private company should ever have their greedy hands in charge of the vote counting process. NO FUCKING WAY!!!!

[Tanner_B.]

40. I seem to be missing

...a hotel minibar key. Oh, well, I hope someone puts it to good use!

I voted straight ticket today for the first time in my life. I took a snap of the confirmation screen with my phone like Thom Hartmann among others suggested.

Our Rush wannabe was warning his listeners about voter fraud, and a woman called in to say that she went to vote and a poll worker told her that her name couldn't be found, to which the Rush clone replied, "Now if you were a Democrat, you better believe they'd be able to find your paperwork!" The caller replied, "That's right!"

It's all just a big joke, isn't it - until the polls close tonight, that is.

[NashVegas]

45. Yeah, That's the Good News

This may be one thing both sides can agree on: computerized voting = bad.

[bunny planet]

39. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

I knew they were going to pull something here, to turn NJ into the new Florida/Ohio. I also thought they'd try the reverse ploy of having it be election fraud favoring the Dems. Guess the only solution is a statewide revote with paper ballots and a recount considering we don't have papertrails on the Sequoia machines until 2008!!!!!!!!!!

[happydreams]

46. Aren't those machines owned by that Venezuelan Co....

hee, hee.