Its extremely easy to manipulate vote totals in DRE counties; & its happened frequently

[philb]

An example of how easy it is: Shelby County Tennessee in 2006

Computer Software found on Shelby County DREs and compilers enabling manipulation of vote counts:

http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/1954/44242.html
has the full report of what was learned in Shelby County.
This site should link you to depositions and affidavits filed there.

"Shelby County ran its August 3, 2006 election in a fashion that violated all basic security procedures.... Evidence from election official declarations and discovery documents obtained in litigation reveals that:

- Illegal and uncertified Lexar Jump Drive software was loaded onto the Diebold GEMS central tabulator, enabling secretive data transfer on small USB "key chain" memory devices.

- Other uncertified software of various kinds was loaded onto the system and, according to the event logs examined, was used. This opened the door for hand-editing of both vote totals and the reporting of election results.

- Evidence of actual attempts to manipulate election reporting results was found.

- Shelby County election officials opened the central vote totals repository to widespread network connections via the internet from all county government computers and, through them, from the internet.

- PC Anywhere, a software program which would allow opening the central tabulator to remote outside control and manipulation, was found on the central tabulator, and no explanation was given for the presence of this uncertified and highly risky software on the tabulator.

- MS-Office 2000 Professional software was also loaded on the central tabulator. One of the software programs contained therein, MS-Access, can be used to change vote totals on the software used by the tabulator without leaving traces that these manipulations had occurred."

This is only a small taste of what has been found in Shelby County through
discovery that indicates that every county using Diebold equipment in
is ripe for (undetectable) election fraud in our general election.


Know anyone who thinks DREs are safe and reliable?

[philb]

1. Touch screen switching, disappearing votes, glitches throughout U.S. in 2006 & 2004 &

There was widespread touch screen switching and disappearing votes, as well as "glitches", "compiler problems and inaccuricies", malfunctioning machines, long lines, millions unable to vote, etc. in 2006 and 2004.

One well known example is the the 15,000 disappearing votes in the Sarasota, Florida Dist 13 Congressional race
www.flcv.com/sarasot6.html

but there were even more disappearing votes in the Florida Attny General race in several counties than in Dist 13,
www.flcv.com/Florida6.html

and likewise large amounts of touch screen switching and disappearing votes and glitches and compiler problems throughout the U.S.
www.flcv.com/eirstss6.html

And in 2004, several states appear to have had so much manipulation that substantial evidence supports that the Presidential race was swung, as well as likely many other races.
Ohio
www.flcv.com/ohiosum.html
Florida
www.flcv.com/fraudpat.html
www.flcv.com/fla04EAS.html (estimate of swing by county with supporting evidence)
New Mexico
www.flcv.com/newmex.html

[philb]

11. Apparently some aren't aware that DREs can be audited effectively

in many ways and in most cases. The Public and candidates just haven't insisted that the audits happen,
even though there has been a lot of evidence of manipulation.

DREs have a memory, they have a record of the votes(or in some cases the manipulated votes)

But although there is no link to an individual voter(except perhaps in Georgia)
there is a record of each persons "recorded" votes.

You can determine which machines had high undervotes and look at the voting pattern of the voters on that machine
If several who voted all Dem in general show a Repub vote in a close race, that might be suspicious (or vise versa)
If mostly Dems(or Repubs) have undervotes that might be suspicious.
And since there are Election Protection hotline reports by voters, this can be compared to the votes by precinct to see
if the reports explain the suspicious results.

Manipulation can happen at the individual vote level or at the compiler level; and there have been many hundreds of cases
of caught compiler glitches (see www.votersunite.org
How many do you think weren't caught? Do you think all of the "glitches" were caught
A fraudulent "glitch" in Volusia County on opti-scan cards played a major role in Gore's 2000 stolen election
even though it was caught.

An audit recompiling the individual records using software known to be (safe/accurate) would catch "glitches" and
compiler manipulation.

And looking at individual screen layouts, ballot definition files, PEBs, etc. of machines that were reported as
giving unusual results could likely determine the reason why:
biased ballot design layout, improperly programmed BDF or PEB, etc.

DREs can be audited usefully, and many manipulations or glitches documented.

[Vincardog]

2. Time for the DemocratIC leadership to drive a Stake thru the DRE monster's heart.

First order of business Paper Ballots.

[drm604]

3. KICK KICK KICK & Recommended!

People PLEASE kick and recommend this. This is extremely important. The PC Anywhere software, the USB memory device driver, the presence of HTML editing software (along with logged attempts to use it), the presence and use of MS Access, the network connections, etc. are DAMNING evidence! People should be screaming about this. This is a SMOKING GUN!

This needs to be in the media. Everyone needs to be talking about this.

[Melissa G]

4. Off to greatest with you! n/t

[IndyOp]

5. Go Lawyers! Informed, determined candidates and lawyers will

OUT the SOBS at Diebold -- and in the parties and in the election administration offices...

:kick:

[philb]

8. I've been less than impressed with the lawyers; we've had lots of stolen, manipulated

election races- and the documentation was there that it was happening,
but the Dem party leadership and the lawyers were afraid that if they talked about it they would be labeled

"Sore Losers"

Look at the Dem leadership reaction to this major discovery in Tennessee. See the Tennessee thread
And similarly with the huge amount of evidence of manipulation in Florida and Ohio in the 2004 election.
The Dem leadership and the lawyers were afraid to say anything, or ask for audits of the machines
that were documented by voters to be commonly switching and disappearing votes,
and the very strange election results in various precincts and counties
in Ohio, Florida, Missouri, Georgia, etc. that were extremely contrary to exit polls and
pre-election polls.

[philb]

9. Local activists can do a lot to document or prevent manipulation

The public should be aware that in the current election process there is a lot of partisan manipulation going on.
The problems aren't all with the machines.

The public has allowed SOS's to institute election rules that were clearly biased and partisan that have been used to
swing large numbers of races. True the Dem leadership was totally ineffective in dealing with this, but
the public should not totally depend on politicians to take care of major problems.

There is a lot that local activists can do to document and prevent manipulation. Local audits should be happening
to some degree in all precincts- especially where there are close races- which is where the most manipultion goes on.

For each precinct in at least close races someone should check whether the numbers signing the poll books to vote matches
the number of official votes. A lot of discrepiencies have been noted in Ohio and Florida in looking at the EIRS reports and recount in Ohio. Check undervotes, check for more votes than voters, why provisional votes were rejected, etc. these have been commonly happening.

Someone should be checking the unofficial and official results posted to SOE web sites
for undervotes, patterns of irregularity in absentee ballots, followup on unusual patterns, etc.

And where there is widely reported switching or disappearing votes going on, those machines should be
audited to find out why.

An audit can almost surely determine the reason for the switching. And its clear this isn't random miscalibration.


And also in areas with opti-scan ballots, there should be a lot more hand recounts of random precincts to keep the system honest. Compilers are trivial to manipulate by partisan officials or machine contractors, only an audit and checks & balances system can insure the results are likely valid.

And especially in areas where "official results" don't match the poll or exit poll data or seem unusual, local activists
should request and participate in recounts of selected precincts, until the system has the proper checks and balances
built in- which may be never.

There were a lot more races than the one in Sarasota with high undervotes this time, and in 2004,
and no one bothered to do an audit. It is virtually certain that stuff would have been found if more had been done.
And some "official results" called into question.

[Febble]

12. Great list

except that I'd add: check for anomalous patterns of "swing" - changes in vote-share from a previous election. Much more useful than an exit poll, which you won't have data for at precinct level unless you have conducted your own poll, and even then, won't be able to tell you anything terribly useful or convincing.

[philb]

13. I did a detailed comparison by precincts in Palm Beach Co for 2000 and 2004

looking especially at the precincts where switching and long lines(too few machines, most machines broken)
were reported by the voters
I think the URLs are: www.flcv.com/pbpranal.html
and www.flcv.com/pbsum.html

as a part of my analysis that estimated that about 300,000 votes appeared to have been swung in Florida in 2004 election by
manipulation, purges, etc. www.flcv.com/fla04EAS.html


What I found in this analysis was that in precincts with reported switching there was a significant swing in party vote
percent in a race with switching reported, compared to that precinct when switching wasn't reported (or to a similar precinct Demographically)

Likewise I found that in precincts that reported long lines, late opening polls, too few machines, most machines broken

there was a significant decline in "official voter turnout" compared to the previous election when this didn't occur
(or to similar precincts demographically) (I had party and race, even religion- some heavy Jewish areas in S. Florida)

[Febble]

14. Did you see my

Franklin County analysis here:

http://uscountvotes.org/ucvAnalysis/OH/FranklinCountyReport_v2.pdf

One of the (many) reasons I am anti-DRE is simply because expensive resources will always be rationed and the people with the least political clout will get the rawest deal.

ETA: Thanks for the links. Checking them out.

[Febble]

10. At the risk of sounding like

a stuck record, this is the reason I keep trying to sift good arguments from bad ones. Bad arguments can much more easily be dismissed as the gripes of sore losers, but a good argument is much harder to dismiss. This is the reason why I'd like to see the exit poll arguments completely sidelined. There is far too much good evidence for pro Democratic bias in exit polls for it ever to be the basis of a good case, and some of the arguments based on exit poll discrepancies have simply been wrong.

That's why I'd like to see all these cases of flipped or disappearing votes, or broken seals, or long queues, or robocalls, or push-polls, as well as clear statistical arguments for systematic undervotes (as in Sarasota) pursued relentlessly, whether or not Democrats were the winners or losers.

"Extremely contrary to exit polls" is meaningless. "Switching and disappearing votes" isn't - it means that American citizens were - or risked being - disenfranchised, which is a denial of their rights as citizens.

[Stevepol]

6. KKK&&&RRR!!!

[rumpel]

7. and another kick

plus r.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. No unexplained jargon please. Explain DRE = ? to us not in your circle.

[Heywood J]

16. A DRE is an electronic voting machine

Something like "digital recording equipment", if memory serves. Touchscreens, mostly.

[OnTheOtherHand]

17. "Direct Recording Electronic," for what it's worth (same idea) n/t

[Patsy Stone]

18. Recommended

No one who is reality-based thinks they're safe and reliable.

[MasonJar]

19. We must insist that Congress give us a paper verification; next

to global warming the vote verification is the most important issue facing our democracy. Any DCite against a paper trail should be exposed and voted out. And that is a period!