Oakland Tribune article about Berkeley report

[kitp]

Oakland Tribune article on UCB report.

and my letter to the author:

I am writing in response to your article. In that article you state "there could have mistakenly awarded up to 260,000 votes to President Bush. The discrepancy, reported Thursday, is insufficient by itself to sway the outcome of the presidential race in Florida"

However, later in the article you say, "260,000 'ghost votes' for Bush -- votes that either weren't cast by voters or were registered for a candidate other than the one intended by the voter."

If the latter is true, 260,000 votes intended for one candidate (Kerry) were given to Bush, that would not only change the election results in Florida, but would make Kerry the president-elect. Bush's victory in Florida was ~500,000 votes, take away 260,000 from him and give them to Kerry and Kerry is the president.

How can you say that "The discrepancy, reported Thursday, is insufficient by itself to sway the outcome of the presidential race in Florida"?

[sunnystarr]

1. Thanks for the article

and the heads up. I also emailed him. Maybe if he gets enough emails he'll do a follow up with accurate information.

[Fortunato]

2. Here's why:

The votes that Bush got aren't necessarily "Kerry votes that went to Bush" but simply "votes added to Bush's total outside of the election" -- i.e., votes that were not actually cast but simply added.

So taking away 260K votes does not mean that they would be given to Kerry. In fact, they probably would not be because you can't prove they were Kerry's in the first place; you can't prove they were "actual votes" rather than just a tabulation mistake.

So Bush is still ahead by 130K votes.

[njnop]

3. Are there any other west coast papers

that have picked up on this study and published it?

[go west young man]

4. I just emailed him.

Its funny how all the press refuses to even speculate that the election was stolen. That in itself is proof to me it was.

[mary195149]

5. This could bring the numbers so close,

and not to say there are not other things that are being looked at in Florida that look suspicious. We need to gather everything and then see what the numbers are. It may not be one thing that turns this election, but many inconsistencies are very likely. Let's make sure we count all votes properly!!

[sunnystarr]

6. Hoffman emailed me back

What do you think of his response?

But first here's my email to him:

­In reference to your article: Study finds Fla. 'ghost' e-votes Cal trio: Results showing a Bush boost may help stop future snags By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER

First you say "The discrepancy, reported Thursday, is insufficient by itself to sway the outcome of the presidential race in Florida,.."

But you report that "...as many as 260,000 "ghost votes" for Bush -- votes that either weren't cast by voters or were registered for a candidate other than the one intended by the voter."

If you subtract 260,000 votes from Bush and put them in the Kerry column then that amounts to a 520,000 difference in Kerry's favor and he would be president today.

Please correct your implications.

Thank you for your attention to what is really the 2004 Election Fraud. If you took the time to look at all the issues in this election you'll find the real story. Do you have the courage?

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/Story.asp?ID=4688 will give you an overview.

Angela XXXX
Nashville, TN

Here's his response:

Angela,
Thanks for your interest. I plead guilty to being inexact on deadline, so let's dive in now:

The Berkeley study mathematically infers 130,000 aberrant votes. It's not clear where they came from. It is not yet established that they came from the touchscreens (the data includes a very large absentee vote, which is optically scanned even in the e-voting counties.) But let's assume they did originate with the touchscreens. They then either either appear in the machines without the involvement of a voter (perhaps added before or after voting began) or they represent an incorrect recording of real voters' choices (i.e., they wanted Kerry and the machine voted them for Bush.) In the latter case, the impact on the outcome is doubled. That's where the 260,000 comes from. Assuming the votes are misawarded, and we give them back
to Kerry, the Berkeley folks only would take 130,000 from Bush and give them to Kerry. That's not enough to change the outcome in Florida.

Ian M. Hoffman
Staff Writer
Oakland Tribune/ANG Newspapers
Cell 510.301.8064
Oakland office 510.208.6458

ANG Newspapers publishes a chain of Bay Area daily newspapers, including the Oakland Tribune, Alameda Times-Star, Daily Review, Argus, San Mateo County Times, Tri-Valley Herald, San Ramon Valley Herald and Vallejo Times-Herald.

Is he accurate? If not what would be a good response?

[kitp]

7. okay...weird

I got a response from him as well...

exactly the same!

Thanks for your interest. I plead guilty to being inexact on deadline, so let's dive in now:

The Berkeley study mathematically infers 130,000 aberrant votes. It's not clear where they came from. It is not yet established that they came from the touchscreens (the data includes a very large absentee vote, which is optically scanned even in the e-voting counties.) But let's assume they did originate with the touchscreens. They then either either appear in the machines without the involvement of a voter (perhaps added before or after voting began) or they represent an incorrect recording of real voters' choices (i.e., they wanted Kerry and the machine voted them for Bush.) In the latter case, the impact on the outcome is doubled. That's where the 260,000 comes from. Assuming the votes are misawarded, and we give them back to Kerry, the Berkeley folks only would take 130,000 from Bush and give them to Kerry. That's not enough to change the outcome in Florida.

---

Is this an auto-reply?



Oh, forgot to mention...yes, he is correct. The Berkeley report mentions 130K votes that are either 'ghost' votes, appeared from nowhere, or votes that were cast for someone else and were attributed to Bush.
If all 130K were Kerry votes switched to Bush, that would be a change of 260K, not enough - by itself - to change the outcome of FL.

From the report:
The state-wide impact of these disparities due to electronic voting
amount to 130,000 votes if we assume a “ghost vote” mechanism and twice that – 260,000 votes – if we assume that a vote misattributed to one candidate should have been counted for the other.

[floridadem30]

8. What about the ballots that have been found? They were not counted

[sunnystarr]

9. He probably answered your email then

got mine and just did a quick copy/paste lol I really doubt it was an auto-reply. In any event it was nice of him to take the time to reply. I almost never get any with all the emails I send out. Altho I would like to send him a reply citing other problems that amount to lost votes. Did that study he cited involve only the new machines? The bigger problem would lie with the optical scan ones.

[Fiendish Thingy]

10. Was this article in the print version or just online? n/t