EXCLUSIVE: MANUAL HAND COUNT REQUEST FILED IN BUSBY/BILBRAY ELECTION!

[BradBlog]

EXCLUSIVE: Manual Hand Count Requested in Busby/Bilbray Race! Registrar Quotes Fees to be Charged as High as $130,000!
A 'Buck a Vote' for Hand Count of Paper Ballots, Trails in U.S. House Election Which Used Uncertified Voting Machines…
Fees Far Exceed That Charged by Other Counties, Request Filed by Election Integrity Advocate 'on Behalf of Candidate Brian Bilbray'

Late Wednesday afternoon, a "Manual Hand Count Request under the Election Recount Provision" was filed at the San Diego County Registrar of Voters office by by CA-50 voter Barbara Gail Jacobson. The request is for a full manual hand count of all paper ballots and paper trails in the recent June 6th Busby/Bilbray special U.S. House election in which programmed, election-ready Diebold voting machines were sent home with poll workers for days prior to the election in apparent violation of new laws and provision by both state and federal authorities.

Jacobson's manual hand count request, as filed, is posted in full with the article linked below.

As California state election code requires that a candidate be named on whose behalf such requests are filed, Jacobson named Republican Brian Bilbray in her request...

FULL STORY, HAND COUNT REQUEST DOCS:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3036

[helderheid]

1. HOT DAMN!

Recommended!!

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I was worried they wouldn't have time to get it filed with this being a

holiday week and all.

[emlev]

3. Momentum is building--DUers are a big part of it

[mom cat]

25. This would make Andy very happy.

[mconvente]

36. yes we are keep up the great work DUers! n/t

[dogday]

4. 130,000 a vote....!!!!

:wtf: Isn't that just a little high to count votes... :shrug:

[Bandit]

9. A buck a vote

total of $130,000.

[gasperc]

20. what shit, they should challenge the fee as well

how can they get off charging $130k to do a re-count?

[dogday]

37. That's a whole lot better............nt

[redqueen]

5. *hopes*

[annabanana]

6. Do they need help funding this?

We should know if they do....

[helderheid]

7. yes, I'm sure DUers can hook 'em up!

:woohoo:

[BradBlog]

10. FUNDING HELP NEEDED!

I should have mentioned it in the original note...

Funds are being collected for the efforts associated with fighting the Busby/Bilbray battle at VelvetRevolution.us

PLEASE make donations here:
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/donate.php

Please spread that word, as a lot of funds are needed in a very short time! Credit Card, PayPal or Snail mail.

Please specify that your donation is for "CA50" when you donate via PayPal or Snail Mail (working to add a field to allow you to specify that when donating by CC, but right now, everything that comes in is generally being directed to that effort anyway!)

Brad

[JanusAscending]

11. Recount requested by Republican????

Shouldn't the petitioner pay for the recount? I'm sure he has lots of money !! Or am I misreading this? I would still donate, just to prove the results beyond a "shadow of a doubt", but....Really??? Edited to add....after reading the petition...Now I understand!! Go Brad, we're with ya! Rec/:kick:

[helderheid]

13. I'm on it! I'll make the donation in honor of Andy Stephenson!

[helderheid]

14. Done - sorry it couldn't be more!

[helderheid]

17. Kick for donations!

[annabanana]

24. done. . . . kick!. . . . . .n/t

[tiptoe]

35. done!

:kick:

[lostnfound]

48. Donating because Bradblog is asking me to..

and your site has done an awesome job of following these issues.
Thanks for all that you do.

[Gregorian]

56. You got it! Donation for democracy.

Nothing is more important.

[drfresh]

57. Sent some money for the recount -nt

[lindisfarne]

58. Donate! n/t

[helderheid]

8. KICK!

:kick:

[shance]

12. My one concern is the reality that the votes could now have easily been

manipulated (added/subtracted/erased)at this point.

I am glad to see someone taking the initiative to request a recount and taking positive action in our electoral process.

However, I am concerned it is energy potentially wasted?

There seems to be the reality with the legitimacy of recounts in general, not to mention of course the legitimacy of the original election itself.

How legitimate can any recount be, if the original election was already fraudulent, OR let me just say, the original election had the STRONG potential and open invitation for being tampered with.

What continues to be the reality I see is that the election, any election, appears to be illegitimate to begin with, because of the initial (potential manipulation) of votes, does it not?

Perhaps that is the core issue which might benefit us most in addressing.

I want to be positive, however I believe the energy in all of us is being so expended (ie. we're being drained*) these days and I think we need to use it as wisely and effectively as possible.

I wonder if we are truly best served by potentially setting ourselves up for another let down and would we not be better served to direct our energy towards the core issue of eliminating electronic voting and/or demanding a "re-election" instead of a "re-count?

Some things to consider.

[BradBlog]

19. This is a concern...so read the count request carefully...

Shane said:

There seems to be the reality with the legitimacy of recounts in general
...
I wonder if we are truly best served by potentially setting ourselves up for another let down and would we not be better served to direct our energy towards the core issue of eliminating electronic voting and/or demanding a "re-election" instead of a "re-count?

Please note that the manual hand count request demands a number of key documentation to determine the chain of custody for both the ballots themselves as well as the machines. That will be needed to determine if a manual hand count can even be legit (as you suggest) at this point. Thus, those items are included in the request to determine how to most efficiently move forward.

The administration of the Busby/Bilbray race -- using effectively decertified/illegal voting machines due to the 'sleepovers' in violation of brand new federal and state laws -- underscores the concerns about the way these machines are use *nationally*...and it does so *prior* to November.

*That's* why Busby/Bilbray is so important. It *does* deal with the core issues at stake for the entire country.

See my article: "A Line in the Sand: Why Busby/Bilbray Election Matters (or should) to the Entire Country" -- http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3002

Brad

[shance]

40. Thanks for the explanation Brad.

Am grateful to know there are some indicators that can help to verify if things (and ballots) go south*

[helderheid]

15. Kick for donations

[stepnw1f]

16. kick for Donations! (nt)

[NJCher]

18. Snail mail

I just tried to donate by PayPal but the way I understand it, it looks like Paypal is going to take nearly 25% of what I donate? Yeah, that's what it said: $2.43 out of $10.

Screw that. Snail mail for me.




Cher

[w4rma]

21. The right-wing is good at putting up as many hurdles as possible. (nt)

[robinlynne]

22. yes yes yes!!!! This is the single most important thing we can work on at

this moment. Everyone in LA, please come to the meeting next monday night, july 10 at 7PM at:
Venice center for Peace and Justice, 2210 Lincoln Blvd at victoria.

[Reckon]

23. Why make the request for Brian Bilbray?

What am I missing here?

edit: OK!.. I think I understand why. :)

[robinlynne]

27. that, my friend, looks like a bit of genius to me.

[Cameron27]

26. What exactly will they count?

I thought one of the big problems with Diebold machines was that there was no paper trail? Confused.

[robinlynne]

28. There is a paper trail here in california, thanks to legislation from

debra bowens. Most of the votes were done on paper, (inka-vote, i think), and scanned with deibold scanners for the counting. So one can look at the ballots, hand count, and check the counting. Even with the paper trail, you have to go to court in order to COUNt the paper trail.

[Cameron27]

31. Thanks for the info...

Makes sense now ...:-)

[robinlynne]

32. for clarity; some votes were done on diebold tsx machines, which have a

roll of paper, which can be counted. Others were done on ballots which were counted by diebold scanners, so either way the votes are counted by diebold. And either way, if they were not tampered with, you can count the paper by hand.

[BradBlog]

39. CA50 Busby/Bilbray was an All-Diebold Election...

It was a blended system of Diebold op-scan machines and Diebold touch-screen systems. They all were sent home for "overnights" with poll workers despite recently being found to be incredible hackable.

And most importantly, this was done SINCE the all-new federal and state security mitigation procedures were put in place to try to avoid the vulnerabilities discovered and confirmed recently in the Diebold systems.

When the machines were sent home with poll workers then, their state and federal certification was lost according to those new security mitigation requirements.

There is, however, paper ballots from the op scan systems and "paper trails" (as unreliable as they are for a number of reasons I won't go into here) from the touch-screen systems.

[cascadiance]

43. Brad, do they have recorded how many TSX votes were cast?

vs. how many went through the scanners? I hope that they have that data down, so that we don't suddenly have more TSX votes pop up to make up for "missing ballots" like they've had in Mexico the last day or so. If we have a definitive count of how many votes were cast through the scanners, then it will be a lot harder for that sort of tampering. Hope it's precinct specific too in terms of knowing these totals.

Also, are there people going to call us in on our pledges that we made last Wednesday at the Town Hall, or should we go ahead and submit them at some point through paypal someplace when this count is firm? I presume we were pledging for this recount, and not for litigation costs for any lawsuits that might come up.

[AntiFascist]

42. From what I read in this report from the CA Sec of State...

http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/voting_systems/security_analysis_of_the_diebold_accubasic_interpreter.pdf

it sounds like the memory cards used with the Diebold optical scanners are even less secure and more hackable than those used with the TSx systems.

K & R, btw.

Memory card attacks are a real threat: We determined that anyone who has access to a memory card of the AV-OS, and can tamper with it (i.e. modify its contents), and can have the modified cards used in a voting machine during election, can indeed modify the election results from that machine in a number of ways. The fact that the the results are incorrect cannot be detected except by a recount of the original paper ballots.

[Warren DeMontague]

29. Nice work, as always, Brad. I noticed Peter Schrag gave you a heads up

in his column the other day, too.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/schrag/

(unfortunately you need to register to read it)

:patriot: :patriot: :patriot:

You're doing some of the most important work out there, IMHO. THANKS & GOOD JOB.

[Dembo98]

30. Ante up!

I'm giving $100 and challenge everyone in here to do their part.

Funds are being collected for the efforts associated with fighting the Busby/Bilbray battle at VelvetRevolution.us

PLEASE make donations here:
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/donate.php

Please spread that word, as a lot of funds are needed in a very short time! Credit Card, PayPal or Snail mail.

Please specify that your donation is for "CA50" when you donate via PayPal or Snail Mail (working to add a field to allow you to specify that when donating by CC, but right now, everything that comes in is generally being directed to that effort anyway!)

[mimitabby]

33. done! kick

[bilgewaterbill]

50. WHOA!

Wish I could afford that! 138k to bust those bastards is worth it. Hope my 10 helps.

[karlrschneider]

34. Well, this part is very troubling:

"However, what isn't as well reported is the fact that there is no actual legal remedy if a variance from the official results are found during 1% hand audits. The audit may reveal the official count to be off by any percentage and there are no legal requirements or clear rules concerning what happens next in such an event."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

If there's no legal remedy, how much of a 'victory' would a different result really be? Maybe I'm dense but it seems a little pointless...?
:eyes:

[Pacifist Patriot]

38. I have found that point troubling for quite awhile. In 2001...

when the media consortium did a hand recount in Florida the point was made that even if it became absolutely verifiable by a wide margin that Gore had indeed received Florida's electoral votes, there were no procedures for remedy.

[WillyT]

41. WooHoo !!! - K & R !!!

:kick::woohoo::kick:

[annabanana]

44. kick!. . . . . . . n/t

[Rainscents]

45. I am in!!!

Yeah for democracy!!!

[Truthiness Inspector]

46. Woot!

Wow, this is GREAT stuff! Kicked/recommended and someone here with a Kos account should crosspost this, spread the news!

:yourock:

[FogerRox]

47. K 'n friggin ARE.

[stepnw1f]

49. Kick for Donation

[DFW]

51. Mailed in my donation

I sent $200, but even if you can only send $10, 13000 people sending $10 makes the cost as well.

Do you think it's worth a national effort to get this done? I do.

One concern: even if Diebold leaves a paper trail, if the voter doesn't see his paper slip
actually being printed, then even if there is one, if the machine is fraudulently giving
the vote to the Republican where the voter chose the Democrat, the voter will never know
it, paper trail or not. If the voter can't verify his vote against the paper receipt, then
the Paper trail is just as much a sham as the machine itself.

[John in Cincy]

53. According to the request filed...

San Diego county used both optical scan and touch screen machines from Diebold. Voters can verify their vote on the paper ballot to be scanned and see their vote printed behind the brown door (if they open it) on the touch screen.

In either case the voter has no way of verifying it has been *counted* as cast. The ONLY way to know that is a hand count, or a jurisdiction-wide valid random sample (which unfortunately the Holt Bill doesn't provide).

So, yes, since CA law permits individual voters to request a recount by all means this should be supported nationally. In Ohio, the individual voter has standing only on an issue, such as gay marriage. Since Ohio HB 3, a federal election cannot be challenged. Again, by all means support the CA 50 recount.

[eleny]

52. K&R

[annabanana]

54. kickin for mo' money mo' money a dollar a vote!

cheap at twice the price!

[tiptoe]

55. kicking for donations !

Funds are being collected for the efforts associated with fighting the Busby/Bilbray battle at VelvetRevolution.us

PLEASE make donations here:
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/donate.php

Please spread that word, as a lot of funds are needed in a very short time! Credit Card, PayPal or Snail mail.

Please specify that your donation is for "CA50" when you donate via PayPal or Snail Mail (working to add a field to allow you to specify that when donating by CC, but right now, everything that comes in is generally being directed to that effort anyway!)


A Line in the Sand
Why the Busby/Bilbray Election Matters (or Should) to the Entire Nation…
(HINT: It's not about Busby or Bilbray or San Diego or even California!)

My reporting here, and the concerns expressed about the Busby/Bilbray election results as announced, have little or nothing to do with Francine Busby or Brian Bilbray or even, in particular, the June 6th U.S. House special run-off election in California's 50th congressional district.

It has only a tiny bit more to do with San Diego. And only slightly more than that to do with California.

It has everything, however, to do with democracy. Across the entire country. As opposed to any one race in any one area.

If I've not been clear on that until now, please allow me to set the record straight.

The concerns I've reported — and will continue to report — over the blatant disregard for the rule of law and clear illegalities endorsed and encouraged by the SD County Registrar of Voters, Mikel Haas, and apparently approved at this point by California's Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, have everything to do with the future viability of democracy in this country in general, and a perhaps naive hope that there's a chance in hell that taking action now will help to salvage a shred of legitimacy for this November's election...

[lindisfarne]

59. See Msg #10; donations are needed. n/t

[tiptoe]

60. Latest updates from Bradblog:

Articles re Busby/Bilbray