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Has anyone heard anything about fraud in Pennsylvania?

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kitkat65 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 08:52 PM
Original message
Has anyone heard anything about fraud in Pennsylvania?
At the Columbus rally today, a speaker said three state with cases of fraud: Florida, Ohio and .... (New Mexico, I was thinking) Pennsylvania. This is news to me.
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hopein08 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 08:57 PM
Response to Original message
1. Not me...
And I'm in PA (granted I get most of my news here) but there hasn't been anything on the Pennsylvania board.
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AmerDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 08:59 PM
Response to Original message
2. this is a first for me also
I would think NM as you have. slip of the tongue?:shrug:
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osaMABUSh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:00 PM
Response to Original message
3. I'm here in PA and nada - but the exit polls had Kerry way up
Kerry trounced Shrub in PA but it took until 11 PM to call it for JK. There was indeed fraud in my state but I've never read anything about it in the local press.
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keepthemhonest Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:09 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. I remeber on election night
how bush would get his red little states maked no probelem but Kerry states was like pulling teeth and they would not ever let Kerry be ahead, at all the whole night.
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newscott Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:33 PM
Response to Reply #6
12. Virginia and South Carolina
Were too close to call for a long time.

Those should have been slam dunks for Bush, but the exit polls were saying otherwise.

I distinctly recall a right-wing Boston radio personality say that if SC was not called right away for Bush that he may not make it.

He was real nervous when it wasn't.

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keepthemhonest Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 08:43 AM
Response to Reply #12
55. He (Bush) you mean?
was nervous? got proof. It was not nervous one bit.Not one bit.
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Cheswick2.0 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 10:59 AM
Response to Reply #3
59. the reason that they would not call Pa until late in the evening
They wanted the results to look like a Bush landslide and giving Kerry all those Pa electoral votes early in the evening wouldn't have helped with the illusion needed to convince us all that we were wrong about Kerry's momentum.
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genieroze Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:05 AM
Response to Reply #3
60. The exit polls and the actual vote we off by 15%. They called it
for Kerry but it was padded for *. IMHO
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Quakerfriend Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:00 PM
Response to Original message
4. I'm in PA too.
I think this must be a ref. to the fraud pointed to by Dr. Freedman's research, at Upenn. He specifically reports stats on OH, FL, and PA.
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kitkat65 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:03 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. Sticking to solid numbers perhaps?
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Yellow Horse Donating Member (462 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:10 PM
Response to Original message
7. I'm in PA and I have worried about this since Election Night.
When I took my precinct results to the County Courthouse (I'm a pollworker) it was the weirdest feeling I ever had there... usually the Courthouse is a happy place on Election Night as the returns come in, but THIS time it was like somebody's funeral. Nobody speaking, nobody smiling... my mother (Judge of Elections) and I both got the creeps big time.

BOTH of us said something is WRONG here, horribly wrong.

OK that's not scientific proof of fraud, but intuition CAN be right sometimes!
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:30 PM
Response to Reply #7
23. Deleted message
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
Yellow Horse Donating Member (462 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:47 PM
Response to Reply #23
30. WTF? I worry sick that there is fraud so that makes me a Freep??
Have been working my hind end ever since on this issue. I hope that you are doing the same, if you really care.
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femme.democratique Donating Member (969 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:49 PM
Response to Reply #30
32. Sorry I meant to respond to the whole thread.... no offense eom
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enough Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:38 PM
Response to Reply #7
25. What county?
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lenidog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:17 PM
Response to Original message
8. The only thing I heard
was a glitch on election day in Philly. I Republican realized that even before the polls were open that the machines alreay had several thousand votes for Kerry. The explanation was the machines were like odometers and talled all the votes that Kerry had gotten during the primary but they wouldn't be counted because everyone knew the difference. I just hear it once on the radio and nothing more so I guess the guy was right.
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kitkat65 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:25 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. That's unsettling. Makes you wonder.
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lenidog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:29 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. For me no
its Philly, either its a screwup or its ballot box stuffing. Either one in that neck of the woods isn't suprising. What would be suprising is if NOTHING strange happened. Then it would probably be a sign of the apocalypse.
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BurgherHoldtheLies Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:32 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. There are supposedly 2 counts on the machines...
One keeps a tally of all the votes entered on a machine over years of service(like an odometer)and another is cleared for each election cycle. The machine in Philly was misread by some Republican poll watcher who looked at the lifetime numbers instead of the election day counter. The matter was resolved quickly.

That's the only problem (not even a real problem) with respect to my state of PA.
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demodonkey Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:39 PM
Response to Reply #11
14. This is true. One is the "public counter", one the "protective counter".
The public counter records the number of voters who voted THAT day. Public counter MUST be at zero in the AM, and yes it is reset for each election.

The protective counter is like a lifetime odometer. NEVER goes back to zero (well, until it "turns over" like in a car hitting 100,000 miles).

Easy to mix these up, especially if you are a new pollworker or a new pollwatcher.
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eowyn_of_rohan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:27 PM
Response to Reply #8
22. This is IT
I had worried, what if "they" pulled a whammy, along the lines of what they did to Dan Rather, by creating some incidents of "fraud" (or facilitating some actual Dem fraud), so that once the election was over the Reptilicans would have this info for blackmail... Would be a good reason for Kerry, Teddy, et al not to talk. It is all pretty sickening to think about...
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Yupster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 10:48 AM
Response to Reply #8
56. First time I ever read about election fraud was in Philly
It was in a book "Senator" by Senator Ted Kennedy's Chief of Staff(?) or press agent or something who turned against him and wrote this book. If I remember right his name was Burke, but it's been a lot of years. Anyway,

He said the first election he was ever in was in 1980 when he was still in college or just out. He was a Kennedy volunteer and was sent on primary day to a precinct in Philadelphia.

When he got there he noticed there were hundreds of votes already on the voting machine before the polls opened. He told it to the other watchers from the Carter campaign who were from a union group. They told him to mind his own business, which he thought he better do.
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Pacifist Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:34 PM
Response to Original message
13. I heard Jesse Jackson say that on AAR this morning. I was suprised.
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Not a Sheep Donating Member (199 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:40 PM
Response to Original message
15. I'm in PA and haven't heard anything about fraud here. /eom
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Verve Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:41 PM
Response to Original message
16. Haven't heard of it before. n/t
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femme.democratique Donating Member (969 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:41 PM
Response to Original message
17. Wow, I'm in PA too and have heard NOTHING! eom
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Kerry fan Donating Member (351 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:17 PM
Response to Reply #17
20. How about the Senate race in Pa?
Think it was between 7 and 8 pm, Joe hoffel was stomping Spector. Hoffel had over 60%, Spector in the 30 something %. Next day I saw Spector had won and I was totally stunned. Friends and family saw the same thing.
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demodonkey Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:23 PM
Response to Reply #20
21. That was the famous Pennyslvania "T"
T-shaped conservative region (northern half and south-central part of PA) that usually gets their results in much later than the more progressive areas near the big cities of Philly and Pittsburgh.

Been that way for years... when a Dem is winning they always say wait for the T to come in and THEN see if you're still winning...
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BurgherHoldtheLies Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:33 PM
Response to Reply #21
24. Chris Mathews referred to the rural 'T' as Pennsyl-tucky. nt
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Machiavelli05 Donating Member (335 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:49 PM
Response to Reply #24
33. I dont think it was Chris Matthews...
I'm almost positive it was James Carville... but I might be wrong.

I do know Carville said PA is Pittsburgh in the West Philly in the East and Alabama in the middle.
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Machiavelli05 Donating Member (335 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:56 PM
Response to Reply #21
35. This is exactly right
The "T" has basically as many Rural republicans as the anchors on each side have in Dem voters

However, cities in the T, such as Harrisburg, Lancaster, Stat College, etc etc are starting to offset the "T" GOP.


PA, I think, will soon be a safe blue state, much like NY has become.
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seaclyr Donating Member (182 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 12:43 PM
Response to Reply #21
72. Here's how the "T" shows up in the votes

Kerry at first has a big advantage over Bush but it drops off later. I'm still not sure that this isn't skewed pro-Bush in 2004, though.
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 09:44 PM
Response to Original message
18. Listening to C-SPAN over the weekend, I heard someone say
"outright fraud, like Ohio or vote padding, like PA". But can't help, can't remember speaker or program. :(
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mulethree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:15 PM
Response to Original message
19. Voter intimidation in philadelphia
I was collecting examples for you and came across this link which seems to have already collected them.

Recall that in the 2003 Philadelphia Mayor race the repubs did massive blatant intimidation. Thugs masquerading as Gov't agents patrolling in dark cars. There were various groups informing voters and watching out this year. The District attorneys issuing press releases about how visciously they would be investigating and prosecuting all claims of voter suppression.

http://vote2004.eriposte.com/swingstates/pennsylvania.htm
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blue neen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:43 PM
Response to Original message
26. There were many cases of fraudulent voter registrations in Pittsburgh.
At the Univ. of Pittsburgh, people working for the Republican party switched students' voter registrations from Dem to Repub by telling them they were signing petitions to legalize marijuana. All the students who signed the petition (and put their address down) got new registration cards in the mail--they were now Republicans! It happened to a friend of mine.

This is voter intimidation. Allegheny County and Pittsburgh had major problems on Nov. 2 because of this.
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Machiavelli05 Donating Member (335 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:44 PM
Response to Original message
27. I was at a campaign HQ and also visited a few precincts (approx 15)...
in PA on election day. A few were in urban areas, a few in working class areas and a few in GOP dominated suburbs.

There were some alerts here and there. There were some suspicions... and of course there were charges of some voter intimidation and misdirection (this has ALWAYS been the case in urban areas... sometimes its just unintentional unintelligence on the part of the poll workers, other times it seems intentional but nothing concrete). Nothing widespread.


However, if there are suspicions someone NEEDS to investigate it. Contesting the election results in a state we won would really make some headway in credibility. Seriously, I dont think theres much to find - but look anyway.
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seaclyr Donating Member (182 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:46 PM
Response to Original message
28. Exit polls showed Kerry up by 8.6 percent
but the final vote tally showed just a 2.5% Kerry lead, a difference of 6.1 percentage points, far outside the margin of error of the exit poll as Freeman indicated. Very large swings occurred over election night; by the time 50% of the vote was in Kerry led Bush by 400,000 votes but this dwindled down to 144,000 votes when all the votes were in. Also odd is the fact that Kerry's final margin of 2.5% was less than Gore's in 2000 (4.17%) given how much local support there was here for Kerry. (If you believe the numbers, Bush actually got 60,000 more votes relative to Kerry than relative to Gore in 2000.) It's my impression PA has gotten less attention than other states with significant differences between vote tallies and exit polls (OH, FL and NM, for example) because in this case the projected winner was unchanged by differences between the exit poll and the vote count. If Bush had won the state very likely specific problems would have seemed more salient and investigated more fully. Failing that, Pennsylvania falls in the category of just another state where one can say that fraud if it occurred didn't change the outcome. However, it definitely seems part of a widespread pattern of highly suspicious vote tallies that favored Bush and padded the popular vote. NY is another example, by the way, with an exit poll - vote tally difference of 7.6% which may have helped Bush pick up 350,000+ votes relative to 2000 but which didn't affect the outcome.
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NewYorkerfromMass Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:27 AM
Response to Reply #28
63. I did a very extensive look at Pa. counties for '00 and '04
The map shows where Kerry improved over Gore- that is, where Kerry's share of the vote increased, or where he lost support by less than 1% and more than 1%.



I was looking for any sign of fraud. All I found was that- while Kerry got a lot of new voters, Bush got a lot more.

The full results are here: http://home.earthlink.net/~nashionale/id4.html
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seaclyr Donating Member (182 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 12:25 PM
Response to Reply #63
71. Thanks for posting, that's really interesting.
And that seems to be the pattern across the country (at least in close to 40 states, as I recall). Where Kerry gains, Bush gains more.
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mzmolly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:47 PM
Response to Original message
29. Saw a blurp on google. Surprised it hasn't had more publicity.
:shrug:
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KaliTracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:47 PM
Response to Original message
31.  the statement was that the exit polls were "off" only for OH, FL, PA
(showed Kerry ahead, but then, the vote tallies didn't show this)

it was implied there were reasons behind it, though.
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bunny planet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:53 PM
Response to Original message
34. I think Pennsylvania was one of the states, like NJ, that even though it
went blue, had numbers for * that just didn't add up. Perhaps it was one of the states 'shaved' to get the popular vote 'mandate'. I know NJ was supposedly in 'play' and I know it was never going to go anything but blue. It made me suspicious of the final tallies for my state, and Pennsylvania too.
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Machiavelli05 Donating Member (335 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 10:58 PM
Response to Reply #34
36. NJ has the potential for being dangerous ground for Dems...
Im somewhat worried about NJ... I would like to see what happens in the off year election and theres a gov race there too (is it in 05? Im not sure!)
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bunny planet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 11:37 PM
Response to Reply #36
45. I'm worried too. Especially since there are going to be all touch screen
machines coming on line in the next election (not sure if it's by 2005 or 2006). I'm going to start trying to get people motivated to protest that in a letter writing campaign very soon. I like my old lever machine just fine thank you, but if they insist on putting in touch screen machines they have to be true vote machines, ones that print out two receipts, one for the voter to keep that they verify is correct before touching another button and getting another paper printout deposited in a lock box. These machines exist. Christie Whitman is disgusted with the Bush administration, perhaps she can earn back our respect by helping in the fight for verifiable paper ballots in NJ, let us be an example for the rest of the country that it can be done. No more Jersey jokes then.
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Machiavelli05 Donating Member (335 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 11:57 PM
Response to Reply #45
47. As long as there is Jersey, there will be Jersey jokes.
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bunny planet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 12:06 AM
Response to Reply #47
48. Yes I'm afraid you are right.
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fearnobush Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 12:22 AM
Response to Reply #45
50. I believe our old lever machines do have a paper trail in them.
The old computer hole punch tape.
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bunny planet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 12:29 AM
Response to Reply #50
51. They plan on replacing them irregardless. We better start agitating now.
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genieroze Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:15 AM
Response to Reply #34
62. In Ocean county NJ a so called repuke county. In 2000 50% went to
* and 48 went to Gore and 2% other including Nader. In 2004 something like over 40% went to Kerry and 60% went to *? Ten point gain for * and a eight point loss for Kerry? THIS IS BULL! Sounds more like Ocean KKKounty RepubliKKKlan KKKrooked voting machines to me.
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madison2000 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 11:03 PM
Response to Original message
37. I've heard it mentioned but no specifics, perhaps because it went to Kerry
anyway. I have my doubts about WI for that matter. Kerry won by 15000 votes but it should have been much more. I think its probable that there were questionable activities in all the swing states, even the ones that went to Kerry.
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k8conant Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 11:03 PM
Response to Original message
38. In Pittsburgh, many, many college students were told by Republicans...
Edited on Mon Jan-03-05 11:04 PM by k8conant
that they could vote anywhere in Pennsylvania no matter what their home precinct was. (My son says there were reports of this in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette) Also in Mercer County the lever machines were malfunctioning in one precinct and they were down to a single machine in that precinct.

The major discrepancies between the exit polls and the election "results" have also frequently been mentioned.

edited for grammar
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blue neen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 11:08 PM
Response to Original message
39. Voter registration fraud story.
Edited on Mon Jan-03-05 11:20 PM by blue neen
"In the face of mounting reports from college students who say they have had their party registrations and POLLING PLACES switched by apparent political scam artists, Gov. Ed Rendell yesterday said his office will refer allegations of possible voter registration fraud to the state attorney general's office.
<snip>

Among those who found themselves on the Allegheny County voting rolls as registered Republicans were clearly ineligible voters, including a 17-year-old Squirrel Hill student and a Chilean graduate student who is not a citizen of the United States.
<snip>

To date, officials in Indiana, Montgomery, and Allegheny counties have indicated that hundreds of college students were tricked by teams of petition canvassers who did not identify their employer, except for one who said he was being paid by the REPUBLICAN PARTY."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04301/402432.stm


edited for typo

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seaclyr Donating Member (182 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 11:17 PM
Response to Original message
40. Padding likely in many states
It's my guess padding occurred in many "safe" states, both blue and red, for two related reasons. First, you can't just add on 6% or so for Bush in a few key states and have it go unnoticed, so you have to add on 6% in other places too. Second, if you do this, you wind up with a comfortable popular vote margin of 3 million votes - up 3% from 2000.
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berniew1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 11:19 PM
Response to Original message
41. Important! Which counties had touchscreens in Pennsylvania??
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berniew1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 11:21 PM
Response to Original message
42. Look on the www.votersunite.org web site; they have stuff (Penn)
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blue neen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 11:28 PM
Response to Reply #42
44. Is it the counties in bold letters
under the E-fraud section?
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BarbinMD Donating Member (97 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 11:25 PM
Response to Original message
43. PA on 11/2
Although I live in Maryland, I went to PA on 11/2 to volunteer for ACT. What I witnessed wasn't huge, but it really bothered me. I was in the Harrisburg area, working in the poorer, minority section of the city (I believe they call it "up the hill"). What I saw was subtle, but obviously meant to slow down the voting process.

Backing up a bit...when I voted that morning before driving up, I walked in, gave them my name, signed the book and voted. In PA, a voter would give their name and after it was found in the book, they were then asked for ID...first a drivers license and when that was produced, they were asked for their voter registration card. I watched one woman who quite obviously knew what they were doing, because after she had provided two pieces of ID and was then asked for a current bill to show she really lived where she said she did, she whipped out her phone bill and smacked it on the table. I wanted to applaud! Anyway, I was going from precinct to precinct (I was supposed to call in if any lines were getting out of hand) and there really seemed to be a concerted effort to just slow things down.

Fraud, no...suppression? I'd say so.
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insane_cratic_gal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 10:56 AM
Response to Reply #43
57. I did that as well
I Live in pa, we moved here from VA.. Because of that I called to be sure I could vote. In addition I brought my voting card, 2 forms of ID, and 3 recent bills.

When i got there wouldn't you know it, they didn't ask me for ID. Just my voting card. I got pissed about that, "how do you know it's me?" I threw my stuff on the table anyway and told them to check it anyway! I wasn't giving them any excuse to not count my vote. I made dang sure I grinded that punch card where Kerry's name was lol.
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Cheswick2.0 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:38 AM
Response to Reply #43
66. first of all......thank you so much for coming to PA for ACT
We did a good job here and it could never have happened if not for the out of state people.

Secound, I believe that we are justified in saying that supression is fraud.
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mulethree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-05-05 03:46 AM
Response to Reply #43
73. not here
The voter card says on it that it's useless for proving you're
registered. You're not supposed to need it at the poll.

I got my driver license out because the guy in front of me did, but they didn't ask for ID.

Slowest part was the 80 year old lady finding people in the poll book. She should have worn reading glasses instead of bifocals.

As I understand it there's no ID required, unless you registered by mail and are voting for the first time.

This in
Levittown, Bucks county
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berniew1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-03-05 11:54 PM
Response to Original message
46. Looks like Mercer County had vote machine fraud!!
Default to Bush pattern appears to have been one problem; and default to blank, etc. Multiple problems in this county:

Mercer
11/11/2004 Machine malfunction PA Mercer County. Director of elections and director of technology said a computer software problem (not voters incorrectly touching the screen) caused Unilect Patriot touch-screen voting machines to malfunction in about a dozen precincts. They said repeated calls to the manufacturer failed to resolve the problem. On some machines, voters were required to vote backwards, starting on the last page of the touch-screen system and
working back to the front page, in order for their votes to be counted.
11/6/2004 Machine malfunction PA Mercer County. Problems shut down Unilect Patriot electronic voting machines for all or most of the day.
11/6/2004 Machine malfunction PA Mercer County. Accuracy of the Unilect Patriot machines are in serious question. One machine recorded 51 votes for president out of 289 ballots cast. The
county's Web site reports that 51,818 people cast ballots but 47,768 ballots were recorded in the presidential race, including 61 write-ins. About 4,000 votes could be unaccounted for
11/6/2004 Machine malfunction PA Mercer County. Glitches with electronic touch-screen voting machines occurred in about a dozen precincts in the county's southwestern corner
11/3/2004 Machine malfunction PA Mercer County. Computer software errors caused Unilect touch-screen voting machines to malfunction in about a dozen precincts Tuesday. Some machines never operated, some offered only black screens and some required voters to vote
backwards, starting on the last page of the touch-screen system and working back to the front page. Some of those systems never came back on line 12/9/2004 Fraud (misc) PA Mercer County. James Bennington, Mercer County's director of voter registration and elections, admitted he programmed some of the computers incorrectly and
failed to test properly. One of the most significant voting problems found in the county was the recorded undervote, which is when the number of votes cast is lower than the number of people
who voted. Across Mercer County, there was a 7.29 percent undervote.
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benfranklin1776 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 12:16 AM
Response to Reply #46
49. Appears to be a distinct possibility.
Edited on Tue Jan-04-05 12:22 AM by benfranklin1776
"Most of the reported problems were in 12 precincts in the county's southwest
region. Coincidentally, all of those precincts have a Democratic majority.

As of this past spring, Bennington was registered Republican, but Michael
Coulter, a Grove City College professor and the chairman of the review
committee, doesn't believe any of the errors were purposeful.

At its first formal meeting on Monday, the election review committee asked to
speak to Bennington, who spent about 90 minutes answering questions.

He admitted programming some of the computers incorrectly, Coulter said, and
failing to adequately test the machines.

One of the most significant voting problems found in the county, Beader said,
was the recorded undervote, which is when the number of votes cast is lower
than the number of people who voted. Across Mercer County, there was a 7.29
percent undervote.

Typically an undervote of even 2 percent leads to candidate challenges, Coulter
said."



http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04344/424081.stm
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berniew1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 12:39 AM
Response to Original message
52. Vote machine fraud and voter suppression of Dems in Mercer Co. Penn
046290 11/02/04, 3:54 PM PST Machine problem Case Avenue School, Sharon, Mercer County, Pennsylvania After caller voted, a screen appeared that showed all of his selections. All of his
candidates appeared except for his vote for a presidential candidate. Caller tried several times to go back and cast another vote for a presidential candidate but could not get his selection to
register on the machine. After speaking with his wife and daughter, caller discovered that they ahd also had the same problem,
060 455 12/27/04 , 6:51 AM PST Machine problem Mercer
County, Pennsylvania Reported via e-mail: I thought you should know about my experiences on Nov. 2. I was a field organizer for the
Kerry/Edwards Campaign in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, and
I witnessed severe problems with the voting system there. The
following is a brief summary: 1. Thirteen precincts encountered
complete or partial failures of electronic voting machines.
Many of these machines were deemed "unrepairable" be
technicians, and were out of service all day long. All of them
were in Democratic-majority precincts. Many of them were in
African-American precincts that have historically voted up to
90% in favor of democrats. 2. Of these precincts, many of them
lacked paper-ballot backups, and those that had paper ballots
were unprepared to handle them, often issuing improper or
illegal instructions. 3. Countless numbers of people were told to
go home once, then returned later in the day, hoping that the
system would have been fixed, and were told to go home again.
Some even went to vote three times and were told to go home
each time. There is no way to accurately estimate how many
people simply never got to vote, but it is at least in the
hundreds, if not thousands. 4. Out of 51,800 voters who signed
in to vote on the electronic machines, only 47,700 actual votes
for president were registered. In one highly-democratic precinct,
Farrell 1-2, 289 people signed in to vote, but only 48 of them
actually succeeded in registering votes for president (45 for
Kerry, 3 for Bush). This points to a reasonable estimate that
nearly 4,000 votes in the county were not recorded. Again, it
appears that most of this disenfranchisement occurred in
democratic-majority precincts. Since Pennsylvania was won by
Kerry/Edwards, it has been difficult to get the proper degree of
attention focused on this problem. However, the fact that these
events did not directly affect the outcome of the election should
not distract anyone from the fact that what happened in Mercer
County was a complete disaster and a total disgrace. From their
comments in the local papers, it appears that Mercer County's
election officials fail to understand the gravity of 4000 lost
votes and the disastrous affect that can have on peoples' faith in
democracy. Such accidents cannot be swept under the rug.
Anything short of a complete investigation into this matter
should be unacceptable, and will be seen as unacceptable by the
residents of Mercer County. Any pressure you can bring to bear
to see that a full investigation goes forward will be greatly
appreciated. Please call or write back. I have a stack of signed
complaints that our office collected on Election Day. I am
willing to help in any way to expose all the facts regarding this
important matter.


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NewYorkerfromMass Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:54 AM
Response to Reply #52
69. Interesting. Mercer is the only Pa. county Kerry LOST support from 2000
Kerry's 2004 totals were 4.64% less than Gore's. A true rarity in this election of record turnout.

http://home.earthlink.net/~nashionale/id4.html
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berniew1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-05-05 08:53 PM
Response to Reply #69
74. About 4000 of Kerry's votes weren't counted; suppression and fraud
The votes of most voters in minority precincts weren't counted. Huge level of fraud and suppression.
http://www.flcv.com/mercerco.html
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Twist_U_Up Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 12:46 AM
Response to Original message
53. Heres one
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PaIndependent Donating Member (10 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 12:51 AM
Response to Original message
54. Crawford County
You'll all love this one. I'm compiling precinct-level voter registration and election numbers for www.uscountvotes.org and the Clerk of Elections in Crawford County is telling me that they can't supply me with the data yet because they are "still recording the vote from the 2004 General Election" ?!?!

WTF!!!

Ummm, I think they're a little bit late.
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k8conant Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:37 AM
Response to Reply #54
65. I'll need to ask my son about this...
he was in Crawford County (Allegheny College, Meadville, PA).
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NewYorkerfromMass Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:42 AM
Response to Reply #65
67. Kerry outperformed Gore in Crawford
That is. Kerry's vote share improved over Gore's from 2000-

GORE, AL (DEM) 13,250 41.3% KERRY, JOHN F. (DEM) 15,856 42.1% 0.9%2,606 new voters (16.44% increase)

BUSH, GEORGE W. (REP) 18,858 BUSH, GEORGE W. (REP) 21,785 2,927 new voters (13.44% increase)

http://home.earthlink.net/~nashionale/id4.html
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Cheswick2.0 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 10:57 AM
Response to Original message
58. I imagine there was plenty of fraud and supression in Pa
I think it was planned and innacted just like in Ohio, Fl, NV and NM. There was a big difference between the exit polls and the final results. I think it's just that the GOTV efforts here were more sucessful and because we have a Democratic Governor the election theives were not as emboldened.

There were massive line at the polls in Philly.
Where I live in Lackawanna county, 21 polling places in heavily democratic precincts were moved about a week before the election.
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gotitans2 Donating Member (21 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:05 AM
Response to Reply #58
61. Why and Who?
Why were the polling places moved and who let that happen? We must fight suppression and fraud no matter where it occurs.
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Cheswick2.0 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:48 AM
Response to Reply #61
68. for the first time in many many years, maybe ever, the repugs have a
majority of the 3 county commision seats. The county is heavily republican in the suburbs and rural districts and heavily democratic in the cities. The commisioners said they changed the polling places in order to comply with the voters rights act. In fact some of these placed did not have handicapped access. But the thing is people had voted in these places for 25 years and had found ways around the supposed problems. In some cases the polling places were in garages (lol, only in Scranton, Pa could that happen).

What they did was move the polling places to the most inconvenient places in the precinct like to the top of hills etc... The democratic party contested it and they all came to the agreement that the republicans had to make sure there were signs at all the old places telling people where to go. I think many of the spots also had drivers ready to take people if they showed up at the wrong place.
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Stevepol Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:29 AM
Response to Original message
64. Freeman's figures indicate clear evidence of fraud in PA.
I'm sure this is the source for the statement that there was fraud in OH, FL, and PA. Freeman gives the statistics this way: In FL, the differential (given on a somewhat dubious later exit poll after an only slightly earlier poll had predicted a Kerry win by 2%) predicted by the exit polls was 0.1% for Bush; Bush won the state by 5%, a 4.9% difference in Bush's favor. According to Freeman, the chances of that happening given the size of the sample and so on, was less than two in a hundred (.0164). In OH, the differential predicted by the exit polls was Kerry by 4.2%. Bush won by 2.5%, a differential of 6.7% for Bush. The odds of this happening by chance: less than one in a hundred (.0073). In PA, the differential predicted by the exit polls was Kerry by 8.7%. Kerry won by 2.2%. The differential between the exit polls and the actual tallies was in Bush's favor by 6.5%. The chances of this happening by chance: slightly more than one in a hundred (.0126). The chance of any two of these statistical anomalies coccuring together are 5,000 to 1; the chance of all three occurring together, he gave as 662,000 to 1. However, his original final calculation was 250 million to one. He supposedly tacked on a "design" adjustment or something like that to lower the final result. But mathematically speaking, as I understand it, there's no reason to put that on there. It's just done becausee, I guess, of the supposed or alleged unreliability of social science data like this.
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vlad Donating Member (62 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 12:11 PM
Response to Original message
70. Here in Pa.
Hi All-
I'm here in Blair county Pa(part of that fun T), and I was making GOTV calls, and checking to see if they knew where to vote,etc... a small amount of them had told me they had already been called by us Dems. , which could have been true, but they told them a wrong voting place- I wrote those down as to call that day(Nov2) again, and probably get them a ride there. One little older lady was told she can vote in 4 years because she has to re-register.. She told me she knew it was those Shuster people and she hung up on them...

I also wrote to our Secretary of the Commonwealth to ask which counties had remote access to counting machines or tabulators, and which of those had direct feed to the media people.. Still waiting on a response to that...
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