Democracy Crisis: A Briefing for Democrats - Will All Votes Count?

[IndyOp]

This is the content of a handout I've created for people who are just starting to wake up to the reality of the U.S. Democracy Crisis.

Democracy Crisis
Election 2006: Will All Votes Count?

The One-Two Punch: Disenfranchise Voters & Miscount the Votes
A. Disenfranchisement: Suppress the Vote!
B. E-Voting Problems: Many Different Systems, Different States, Different Elections
C. What You Can Do
D. Voting Systems: Election integrity requires openness & transparency.
E. The Elephant in the Room
F. Common Cause Recommends
G. Online Videos & Interactive
H. Books
I. The BEST Websites & Online Resources

A. Disenfranchisement: Suppress the Vote!
Information in this section, except where noted, is from Greg Palast’s “Armed Madhouse"

Over 3 million votes were cast but never counted in the 2004 presidential election. Millions more were lost because voters were prevented from casting their ballots – including those illegally denied registration or wrongly purged from the registries. The new black boxes played their role… but the principal means of the election heist – voiding ballots, overwhelmingly of the poor and Black, Native Americans and Hispanics – went unexposed, unreported and most importantly, uncorrected and ready to roll out on a grander scale in 2008. (All information on this page, except where noted, is from Greg Palast’s “Armed Madhouse”).

Provisional Ballots Rejected: About 1.1 million. Provisional ballots are given if there are problems with the voter’s registration or ID, if there is an error in the voter rolls or if they are “challenged” by GOP. Provisional ballots should be counted unless there is evidence the voter was lying – which is extremely rare.

Spoiled Ballots: About 1.4 million punch-card, optical scan, and e-vote ballots were cast but not counted. About ¾’s of a million African-American votes were not counted, about ¼ of a million Hispanic and Native American votes were not counted. Remaining 400,000+ uncounted votes belonged overwhelming to the poor.

In New Mexico the margin of victory for the Presidential race was 5,988 votes. E-voting machines in Kerry-leaning precincts failed to properly register a presidential vote on more than 20,000 ballots.

Absentee Ballots Rejected: Over half a million in 2004. In swing states, absentee ballot shredding was pandemic. (Florida conveniently labels the voter’s party on the ballot envelope).

In Arapahoe County, Colorado, three times more absentee ballots mailed to Democrats “failed to return” as compared to Republican ballots. Voters from Kerry precincts were 265% more likely to have their absentee ballots tossed out when they did arrive at the clerk’s office.

Voters Barred from Voting: Incompetence and trickery that prevented people – primarily racial minorities, low-income voters, and Democratic voters - from voting included: Destroying voter registrations * Failing to process registrations in a timely manner * Illegally re-registering Democrats as Republicans
* Illegal purges of voter rolls * GOP challenges to voter registrations via ‘caging’ * Voter intimidation and misinformation campaigns * Forgot to mail absentee ballots in Florida, Ohio, and to nearly 3 million Americans living abroad * Phone-jamming Democratic candidate lines provided to help voters having problems on election day * Creating impossibly long lines at the polls as a result of GOP challenges to voters; too few functioning voting machines; changing polling station locations; merging polling stations to save money * GOP volunteers ‘picked up’ absentee ballots from Democratic voters.

In what may be the single most astounding fact from the election, 1 in every 4 Ohio citizens who registered to vote in 2004 showed up at the polls only to discover that they were not listed on the rolls. (Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., “Did Bush Steal the 2004 Election?” Rolling Stone)

B. E-Voting Problems: Many Different Systems, Different States, Different Elections.
Dozens and dozens of instances of electronic voting machine malfunctions & instances of malfeasance have occurred and are catalogued at VotersUnite.Org and VoteTrustUSA.org. Just a few are listed here:

1. New Elections Needed after Electronic Voting Failures.

A memory limitation on paperless Unilect Patriot voting machines caused 4,438 votes to be permanently lost in North Carolina (2004).1

AVS WINVote computers at some polling places failed to start up, others overheated and broke down during the election in Mississippi (2003).1

2. “Phantom” Votes Added by Electronic Voting Machines.

After the 2004 General Election, phantom votes (more votes than voters) were reported in Florida, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Washington. In North Carolina Microvote DREs showed nearly 3,000 more votes than voters; in New Mexico Sequoia AVC Edge DREs showed over 2,700 early voting phantom votes.1

Hart Intercivic machines in Tarrant County, Texas recorded an additional 100,000 votes that were never actually cast in 2006 Primary Election (Formal challenge to results has been filed).1

3. Bugs!

ES&S vote-tallying software counted to 32,767 and then counted backwards in November 2004 elections: 70,000 votes temporarily disappeared in Broward County, Florida; 8,400 votes in Orange County, Florida; and 22,000 votes in North Carolina.1

4. Votes Jump to the Opponent on the Screen

In the November 2004 hundreds of votes jumped from Bush to Kerry in New Mexico (Sequoia), Maryland (Diebold) and elsewhere. Some voters could correct the problem, some did not.1

5. DRE’s Present Incorrect Ballots to Voters

In March 2004, the US Senate contest in Maryland was omitted from ballots in three counties.1

6. Negative Votes Added to Tally

In Volusia County, Florida in 2000, Al Gore’s count dropped by 16,022 votes, while an obscure Socialist candidate picked up 10,000 votes at 10:30 PM on election night. Global Election Systems explained that two memory cards had been uploaded; there should have only been one memory card uploaded; the second card caused the problem. (BlackBoxVoting.org).

7. DREs Pass Pre-Election Testing, Fail on Election Day

In Mercer County, Pennsylvania all 250 UniLect Patriot machines had been checked and rechecked. On election day some machines never operated, some offered only black screens.1

8. Programming Errors Give Votes to the Wrong Candidate (Vote Switching)

Ballot programming determines how a touch on a screen or marks on a ballot are translated into votes counted by the machine. In November 2000, 67,000 absentee and early-voting ballots were counted incorrectly by a Diebold optical scan machine in New Mexico. ES&S machines miscounted votes in North Carolina in 2004; in New Mexico in 2002; in Kansas in 2002.1

9. Voting Machines Present a Default Candidate (Electronic Version of a Pre-Marked Ballot).

Election officials in Travis County (Austin) Texas, set up Hart Intercivic eSlate DREs so that voters who voted straight party Democratic ticket and pressed ‘enter’ on the next screen – caused their Kerry/Edwards vote to be changed to the default candidate -> Bush/Cheney.1

10. Voting Machines Do Not Count Some Votes

Voters claimed that machines failed to register votes for incumbent school-board member, Rita S. Thompson ( R ), who lost an election in Fairfax, Virginia by 1,662 votes. Election officials observed that one of the questionable machines appeared to subtract a vote from Thompson for about one out of every 100 attempts to vote for her.2

1. VotersUnite.Org: “Facts About Electronic Elections”
PDF File: http://www.votersunite.org/info/ElectronicVotingInBrief.pdf

2. Common Cause: “Election Reform: Malfunction and Malfeasance”

C. What You Can Do

1. VOTE! GET ALL ELIGIBLE VOTERS YOU KNOW TO VOTE! We are most likely to detect malfunction or malfeasance if there is massive voter turnout. Let’s top the turnout from 2004!

2. Contact election officials in your county or state by email, phone, private letter or LTTE to tell them your concerns and to tell them what you want.

3. Watch videos and/or read more about election malfunction and malfeasance (& how to ensure free and fair elections) on the excellent websites & books listed at the end of this document. Educate your family and friends. Print out the best material and take it to your local political party, candidates, and progressive groups and activate them!

4. Check for organizations that may already be active in your area and join them! In Indiana: NAACP, People for the American Way, Common Cause, and League of Women Voters should all be working to enfranchise eligible voters and make sure all votes are counted.

5. Contact your local political party and local progressive organizations to educate and activate them!

6. Help register eligible citizens to vote and educate them about their rights & responsibilities.

7. Participate in elections as a poll-worker or poll-monitor.

8. Conduct exit polls or parallel elections.

9. Learn about election laws and policies in your county and state. Then collaborate with/challenge election supervisors in your county/state to ensure that voters are not disenfranchised, and to ensure that votes are cast and counted accurately.

10. BE PREPARED TO TAKE ACTION AFTER ELECTIONS. If our government truly derives its power from the consent of the governed, then we the people must not allow the results of tainted elections to stand. Elections are not about profit and loss; they are not about which party or candidate wins or loses; they are about the essence of democracy. There are lives in the balance.

D. Voting Systems: Election integrity requires openness & transparency.

Election integrity cannot be assured without openness & transparency. Yet, computerized voting systems prevent even election supervisors from observing all aspects of an election.

What do we want?
VVPBs (Voter-Verified Paper Ballots) & MMRAs (Mandatory Manual Random Audits)!

:-) :-) Paper Ballots, Hand Counted: The gold standard for openness and transparency! A 2001 CalTech/MIT study concluded that hand-counted paper ballots have the lowest average incidence of spoiled, uncounted, and unmarked ballots. While this sounds like going back to the dark ages - it may be the most realistic option for November 2006 for all counties that have electronic voting machines without paper trails.

:) Precinct-Count Optical Scan Systems: Once voters mark their paper ballots, they insert them into the optical scanner at their precinct. Ballots that cannot be read are rejected and the voter gets a fresh ballot, virtually eliminating spoiled ballots. Votes are counted in the scanner’s (computer) memory. Ballots are stored in an attached, locked metal box, available for automatic, random audits to check for programming and tallying accuracy and recounts.

:( Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) Voting Machines with VVPB: A voter’s choice is captured both internally, in electronic form, and printed on a paper ballot. The ballot can be checked by the voter before being submitted. The paper ballots would count as the actual votes, taking precedence over any electronic counts and would be available for audits and recounts. (Warning: About 1/3 of voters do not check the printed ballots, assuming that they must be accurate. Not true!)

:( :( :( "Direct Recording Electronic" (DRE) Voting Machines without VVPB: The ballot appears on a display screen and votes are captured and stored electronically. An election without Voter-Verified Paper Ballots cannot be open and transparent. When election officials state that they are satisfied with the accuracy and reliability of DRE voting systems, they are able to do so only because there is virtually no way to detect errors or deliberate election-rigging without VVPBs.

E. The Elephant in the Room

The history of elections in the U.S. not a source of pride. To learn more, read "Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America" or "Deliver the Vote: A History of Election Fraud, an American Political Tradition 1742-2004".1

If we had a color scheme to express how dirty elections have been over time, I would argue that right now we are experiencing a CODE RED, because a small, fanatical group of Republicans, spread out across the U.S., encouraged by right-wing think tanks, is using economic and racial discrimination to get away with disenfranchising millions of voters and neglecting or manipulating the voting systems to steal elections.

Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the Heritage Foundation and the Free Congress Foundation was taped while speaking in private, at a church, to Republican activists: “How many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome? Good government! They want everybody to vote! I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections, quite candidly, goes up as voting populace goes down.” 2

Mr. Weyrich sounds different in an article entitled “Easy Voting Brings Low Participation”: "Former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter have come up with a series of recommendations aimed at increasing participation in national elections. Among the proposals the former presidents have put forth are (a) to hold elections on a national holiday, such as Veterans Day; (b) to make convicted felons eligible to vote after they have served time; (c) to permit people who aren't on the voter rolls on Election Day to vote, sorting out their eligibility in the days after the election…. I am glad that Pres. Bush’s reaction has been lukewarm…. The truth is simply this: The easier we have made it to vote, the lower the voter participation.” 3

Jeff Horwitz reports: “One recent Sunday, at Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute, a dozen students meet…. All are earnest, idealistic and as right wing as you can get. They take careful notes as instructor Paul Gourley teaches them how to rig a campus mock election. "Can anyone tell me," asks Gourley, "why you don't want the polling place in the cafeteria?" Stephen, a shy antiabortion activist sitting toward the rear of the class, raises his hand: "Because you want to suppress the vote?" The students, strait-laced kids from good colleges, seem unconvinced. The lesson -- that with sufficient organization, the act of voting becomes less a basic right than a tactical maneuver -- doesn't sit easy with some students at first. Gourley, a charismatic senior from South Dakota and the treasurer of the College Republican National Committee, assures them: "This is not anti-democracy. This is not shady. Just put somewhere where you might have to put a little bit of effort into voting." The rest, Gourley explains, is just a matter of turnout. Yet Blackwell's foundation, the Leadership Institute, is not a Republican organization. It's a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) charity… Despite its legally required "neutrality," the institute is one of the best investments the conservative movement has ever made. Its walls are plastered with framed headshots of former students -- hundreds of state and local legislators sprinkled with smiling members of the U.S. Congress…. Thirty-five years ago, Blackwell dispatched a particularly promising 17-year-old pupil named Karl Rove to run a youth campaign… Over the last 25 years, more than 40,000 young conservatives have been trained at the institute ” 4

Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita: “It is difficult to say exactly why Americans are so apathetic about voting. Some suggest that the processes of registering and voting are too difficult or confusing. I disagree. In recent years, the acceptance of procedures such as early voting and voting by mail have made it even more accessible to Americans. But an increase in the promotion and use of these techniques has not been followed by an increase in voter turnout. Just the opposite is true.” 5

1. Read a condensation of Deliver the Vote: A History of Election Fraud, an American Political Tradition 1742-2004. http://www.bloomingtonwilpf.org/agenda.html

2. Audio played on The Thom Hartmann Radio Show, syndicated by Air America Radio

3. Easy Voting Brings Low Participation - http://www.freecongress.org/commentaries/2001/010806PWfcc.asp

4. My Right-Wing Degree - http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/05/25/blackwell/index.html

5. IN SoS Press Release 9/5/04 - http://www.in.gov/sos/press/old/09052004.html

F. Common Cause Recommends...

I've abbreviated the Common Cause recommendations about Free & Fair Elections. If you are going to fight the battle about securing the voting machines you need to read much more about the systems at VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.org...

TO ENSURE FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS, Common Cause recommends:

Reduce Partisanship and Conflict of Interest in Election Administration.

Enforce Laws Prohibiting Voter Suppression/Intimidation: State and local governments need to make strong statements about protecting the rights of voters and to enforce existing laws and prosecute illegal activities. Establish transparent, fair, statewide standards for challenges, including penalties for partisan or otherwise frivolous challenges.

Voter Education: Voters should receive written information about their voting rights and location of their polling place prior to Election Day or any early voting period. New registrants should receive timely notification of their registration status after registering to vote. Correction of errors in registration should be allowed up to and including Election Day. Poll-workers should be trained thoroughly so that they provide accurate information to voters.

ID Requirements and the Voter Databases: The process of establishing and maintaining the databases must be open to the public. A voter cannot be purged from voting rolls unless there is direct communication from the voter, the registrar of another state, or from the courts. Voters should easily be able to confirm their presence on the voter rolls by phone or on the Internet.

Develop Uniform Statewide Provisional Ballots Standards: Every provisional ballot cast by an eligible voter should be counted and the HAVA-required notification system should be implemented.

Fix, Replace, Test and Maintain Voting Machines Ballot definition files are not independently tested prior to the election. Extensive pre-testing could reduce the possibility of malfunction or malfeasance.

TO ENSURE SECURE AND RELIABLE VOTING MACHINES, Common Cause recommends:

The US Congress should immediately pass HR550, “The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2005” and/or states should pass laws or adopt regulations that: (1) require all voting systems to produce a VVPB, (2) mandate that the VVPB is the ballot of record, (3) establish a requirement for mandatory manual audits in at least 2% of randomly-selected precincts, and (4) establish funding to implement VVPB voting systems. (5% to 10% precinct audits would be better!)

State election officials should, wherever possible: immediately retrofit DREs with printing systems to produce a VVPB, and use those ballots in audits – OR - decertify DREs that cannot provide VVPB and turn to other voting systems such as optical scan machines for the November elections.

Election officials should take necessary steps to safeguard machines prior to Election Day.

Voters should be encouraged to vote on paper whenever possible. If facing the prospect of voting on paperless DREs in November, they should advocate for change with local election officials well before the election. If that does not work, where possible, voters should vote by absentee ballot / early voting.

Regardless of the voting equipment in a jurisdiction, citizens should VOTE. While there is a chance that a vote won’t be counted if cast on a paperless DRE, not voting at all will assure that it is not.

G. Online Videos & Interactive

Votergate: The Movie
http://www.votergate.tv

CNN's Lou Dobbs' coverage of e-voting
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1406&Itemid=27

Catherine Crier - CourtTV
http://www.ameratsu.com/media/2006/0606/CrierWireDem621Production_01_320x240.flv&width=320&height=240&OrigWidth=320&OrigHeight=240">Defending Our Democracy I
http://www.ameratsu.com/media/2006/0607/w2/crt_ccl_bilbray_busby_rigging_060711a_320x240.flv&width=320&height=240&OrigWidth=320&OrigHeight=240">Defending Our Democracy II

Mark Crispin Miller speaks at U. Mass.
http://www.archive.org/details/mark_crispin_miller

ACLU Freedom Files: Voting Rights
http://www.aclu.tv

ACLU Virtual Voting Booth
http://www.aclu.tv/votinggame

Democracy’s Ghosts
http://www.democracysghosts.org

H. Books

Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them) by Mark Crispin Miller

Armed Madhouse: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf? China Floats, Bush Sinks, The Scheme to Steal '08, No Child's Behind Left… by Greg Palast

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy by Greg Palast

Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America by Andrew Gumbel

I. The BEST Websites & Online Resources

VotersUnite.org http://www.votersunite.org
E-VOTING 2006: The Approaching Train Wreck * Excellent Reports: Mythbreakers: Facts About Electronic Elections * Voting system failures by vendor * Vote-Switching and Ballot Definition Problems

VoteTrustUSA.org http://www.votetrustusa.org
Daily News * State-by-State News Archive * Election Integrity Weekly Newsletter * Poll Monitors’ and Poll Workers’ Guide to E-Voting

VerifiedVoting.org http://www.verifiedvoting.org
Resolution on Electronic Voting * Election Administration Project: Best Practices for Reliable Election Systems. * Election Incident Reporting System (EIRS) * Election Protection Questionnaires: Local & State Election Officials, Pre-Election Testing

Common Cause http://www.commoncause.org
Excellent report: “Election Reform. Malfunction and Malfeasance – A report on the electronic voting machine debacle.” Vote for America, a non-partisan voter education and mobilization program.

People for the American Way: Civic Participation http://www.pfaw.org
Election Protection Program offers: volunteer poll monitors; civil rights lawyers and advocates who expose and prevent voter intimidation; work with election officials to identify and solve problems with voting machines, technology and ballot forms.

League of Women Voters: Election Reform http://www.lwv.org
American Democracy at Risk: Agenda for Renewal and Repair includes recommendations for election reform and advocates nonpartisan redistricting, safeguarding civil liberties.

Brennan Center for Justice http://www.brennancenter.org
Excellent reports: “The Machinery of Democracy: Protecting Elections in an Electronic World” & “Verification Processes for Voter Registration”

Voter Action http://www.voteraction.org
Provides strategic and legal support to ensure verifiable, accurate and transparent voting systems. Has supported lawsuits in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania.

Dedicated to DU's own Perfectlady - Your Advice Keeps Me Going! :hi:

Big Old Hat Tip To THE MAN - BradBlog!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. It won't matter if no one does anything

kick

[IndyOp]

11. If "no one" - who is "no one"? You are "some one." What are YOU doing?

The purpose of the post is to NUDGE people into taking action. Take one step! Donate to the organizations - links shown near the bottom of the post, look up the names & addresses of your local election officials and contact one. Just one step... YOU. Every ONE reading this post.

DO ONE THING.

WHO is supposed to do 'something'?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

22. you wanted a kick... I gave you a kick

and, oh, I am doing something allright, don't you worry

[IndyOp]

34. Okay, thanks for the kick and thanks for the reassurance you are

working the problem. I am surrounded by people who are passive in their despair - so - I tend to see that in everyone.

:hi:

Of course, your funny-faced avatar also makes you seem like a ne'er do well joker - JUST KIDDING!!

I LOVE YOUR AVATAR!

:hide:

:rofl:

[Orrex]

2. kick, because my precinct when digital this time around

For all I know, I voted for Pac-Man.


k/r

[Divine Discontent]

53. well, you at least voted for a good guy!

"For all I know, I voted for Pac-Man" ----


I voted for Blinkie... of course that means Shrubya and that of course means I voted in Florida and they flopped my Kerry vote over in this God-forsaken Repuke county!!!





www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<<--- check them and others out!

[The Straight Story]

3. Kicked by the mighty shoe of Straight Story :) (nt)

[acmavm]

4. Bookmarked for morning. Too much information to process right now,

but thank you.

We'd all better get motivated soon or we'll have a republican House and Senate again (no matter how the voting goes).

[librechik]

5. fantastic work--dpn't forget to post it in Election Reform

it'll stay up longer

[bleever]

6. This is exactly the kind of thing I wish I could have handed

to Amy Goodman when I got to meet her (briefly) this weekend.

Fantastic work!

[IndyOp]

8. Geez! Shi-ite bleever, I wish I would've known!

I could've emailed you the doc with the cute pics!

:(

[bleever]

10. Okay,

I'm gonna follow up with an email to her more about DU and our focus on key issues, starting with Election Reform, and I'll give her a link to this as an excellent synopsis of two and a half years of work.

:thumbsup:

[emlev]

25. How about a followup email to her? EOM

[Boxmaker43]

43. If you could get her email, you could...

still pass it on to her as a follow-up to having your earlier conversation.

Just a suggestion.

[lonestarnot]

7. Yes Indyop! Excellent job!

Will keep it kicked!

[durrrty libby]

9. K & R Thank You n/t

[msongs]

12. any way to get the democratic party INC of the USA involved in this issue?

like, doing something about it?

going to the democracyfest in San Diego tomorrow for 3 days.

any way to copy all this in an organized manner to make a sign or something?

Msongs
www.msongs.com/6for2008.htm
likely dems in 2008

[IndyOp]

15. DemocracyFest - sounds like fun!

Make a sign? I would just put bullet points on a sign.

If you want the Word doc to print handouts - PM me with your email and I will email it to you.

The handouts I would be most likely to take with me are the "maps" handouts from VotersUnite.org...

PDF http://www.votersunite.org/info/mapVoteSwitch.pdf

And the "U.S. Election 2004" handout here: http://www.votersunite.org/info/flyers.asp

[emlev]

26. Check out the CA50 Action Committee table at DemFest EOM

[Justice Is Comin]

13. With this, Brad Friedman and Clint Curtis,

we're off to the revolution.

[Bill Bored]

14. kick. BTW, B. 9. may be ballot programming too. :) nt

[IndyOp]

17. Number 4 could be ballot programming as well -

The ballot definition files contain information about how the screen reacts to touch and how the votes are counted -- they are intertwined.

You were the man who got me to READ about the ballot programming issue. You 'Da Man!

:kick:

[Bill Bored]

61. Thanks! I think screen calibration is separate but

the layout of the screen is ballot definition.

Here's another kick for your thread!:dem:
(Gee I hope that donkey isn't running downhill!)

[IndyOp]

64. BillBored - Could you explain 'calibration' to me?

I used to program touch-screen technology and 'calibration' had to do with mapping the 'touch' area to the graphic that appears on the monitor in XY coordinates.

So one candidate's name appears on a square with coordinates that stretch from (0,0) to (30,30) and a second candidate's name appears on a square that stretches from (40,0) to (70,70).

Once that is programmed, then even if the machine is 'jarred' during set up or use there is just NO WAY that those co-ordinates would shift by more than 1-2 units. From (0,0) to (30,30) --> (1,2) to (31,32).

WHAT the HECK is up with this 'we have to adjust the calibration' bull-pucky?

:eyes:

[Bill Bored]

71. Beats me. Have you ever seen anything like this?

http://www.embedded.com/story/OEG20020529S0046

Perhaps you are just talking about the software and not the hardware?

[IndyOp]

72. I am talking about changing the software to adjust for a change

in hardware. Think of a picture in a frame. It is nicely centered behind the glass. You take it down to clean it and the picture shifts relative to the frame - it is crooked. It can't slip very far, but it can slip a little.

A touch screen is like a picture frame around the computer monitor (it is embedded in the plastic case that holds the computer monitor). At the production facility it is placed carefully around the monitor because the software expects certain touch coordinates to match up with certain images on the monitor. If the touch screen slips a little during shipping, we may need to change the co-ordinates so that the computer knows which touch areas match up with the pre-programmed images.

The page you listed is a good description of 're-calibration' as I know it - you have to tell the piece of equipment that a touch to "Area X" should result in Operation 1; a touch to "Area Y" should result in Operation 2.

The extent to which jarring the hardware will cause a need to 're-calibrate the touch screen' depends on the piece of equipment.

A touch screen device with a tiny screen (think PDA-sized) and tiny 'buttons' might be affected a lot.

A touch screen device the size of a voting machine (or computer monitor) should not. The touch buttons on a voting machine are BIG, and based on my understanding of touch screen technology, there is no way that 'jarring' the voting machine during the move from warehouse to the polls is going to cause the touch pad to be shifted so far off that recalibration is necessary.

Based on my experience writing software for touch screens, voting machines should virtually never need recalibration - particularly not in the middle of election day.

What I am saying is that I call "bullshit" when the vendors blame problems with the machines on the need to 'recalibrate'.

I could be wrong - it is just that what they are saying does not make sense to me.

[Bill Bored]

74. 2 possibilities or 3:

One is that the reports are really ballot definition problems, esp. if they are delayed switches. I.e., a vote cast in one race on the ballot causes switching in votes previously cast in another race.

Instant switches can be attributed to electrostatic discharge (ESD).

The federal voting systems standards have very poor MTBF requirements for both DREs and Scanners -- only 163 hours! Surely you are aware that this is essentially junk when it comes to hardware. It would result in 9.2% of machines failing on election day, and it has in real life. One of those failure modes includes the need to recalibrate the touch screen. So if you accept that one possible answer is that these machines are just made like crap, that's a good explanation.

The ESD spec is also inadequate for conditions of low humidity and/or carpeted polling places. So you could have vote switching due to static discharge when the voter gets near or touches the screen.

Another possibility is that some of these reports are bogus. They are made up by Republican operatives to take the machines out of service and create long lines in Democratic precincts. They say votes are switching from Kerry to Bush, as reported in EIRS. The machines are shut down pending a service call, and the voters have to queue up and wait even though maybe there's nothing wrong with the machines. The low standards makes the problem believable even though it may not be happening. It's a denial of service attack! I think I read it one of the recent reports. Brennan Center maybe. Never thought of it before, have you?

[bleever]

16. .

[bear425]

18. kickity kick and k/r

[Reckon]

19. This is something I've talked about before.

"Absentee Ballots Rejected: Over half a million in 2004. In swing states, absentee ballot shredding was pandemic."

That's why I do not recommend voting absentee. The same goes for provisional ballots, neither are counted before a winner is announced.

"Illegal purges of voter rolls" I would think anyone that stops a legal voter from voting would be held accountable. Isn't that illegal?

[IndyOp]

35. About absentee & provisional ballots & purging the voter rolls...

IF voting in-person on election day means that you are voting on a system that gives voter-verifiable paper ballots (with MMRA's) then avoid absentee ballots and vote in-person on election day.

IF voting in-person on election day means that you are voting on a DRE system - without VVPB's -
AND if you have confidence that absentee ballots are counted fairly in your county - then vote absentee. There can be all kinds of partisan dirty-work in regards to mailing absentee ballots, getting the absentee ballots back to the clerk's office through the mail, and deciding which absentee ballots to accept and which to reject. Voters should be notified whether their ballot was accepted or rejected for any reason by the clerk's office and they should be allowed to vote again if there was a problem (providing their ballot arrives well before election day).

In my jurisdiction, voting 'absentee by mail' or 'absentee in-person at the clerk's office' is a pretty safe bet. There is one woman who is in charge of handling and counting the ballots and she is fair.

Provisional ballots - AVOID them. This is hard though, because with new ID laws and with partisan (or untrained) pollworkers people are given provisional ballots left and right and the decisions about which to count and which not to count can be made by biased officials. In my area there were will be a team of lawyers on call all day to drive from precinct to precinct to file the necessary document on behalf of any voter who is challenged - and who would be likely to have to use a provisional ballot. Not all areas will have teams of lawyers or help phone lines - and casting a provisional ballot is better than nothing. Voters who have cast provisional ballots should be notified whether their ballot was accepted or rejected for any reason.

Illegal purges of the voter rolls - definitely illegal. The Florida 'felon purges' of 2000 - which disenfranchised 91,000 voters who never committed any crime - were litigated. Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris and company had to pay a BIG $$$ to the NAACP, but the NAACP is prohibited from discussing the case. The Ohio and Colorado purges of 2004 were okayed by or actually performed by the Secretary of State... It seems that the current US Attorney General isn't going to press charges against anyone who disenfranchises people who would have most likely voted against his boss.

:kick:

[IndyOp]

37. We *must* demand that candidates DO NOT CONCEDE until

ALL votes are counted - absentee and provisional. Your point is a *very* important one!

:applause: :applause:

[Boxmaker43]

45. That exact point is why I finally gave up on the Democratic Party...

and am now supporting the Green Party. Kerry rolled over. So what exactly happened? Did he do it on his own? Did Rove pull out some sleazy piece of information from history and wave it under Kerry's nose? Did some CIA operative threaten Kerry's life or the life of a family member? It doesn't really matter now. He rolled over.

[IndyOp]

59. We must USE the Democratic Party to get what we want - we

pressure the current Dems until they do what we want. We elect new Dems who are far better representatives of what we need. Once we've elected Dems then we PUSH them to change election law so that we have instant run-off voting and CAN elect Greens all over the nation. It won't happen until we USE the Democratic Party...

Work for them, vote for them, and continue to make demands!

Right now the Dems are in a sad state because the conservative right-wing - via the DLC - decided that if they could get people in power in the Dem Party they could create 2 Republican parties and that is what we have right now.

DLC Peddles Right-Wing Talking Points; Christian Coalition Official in DLC

As just one example, take Marshall Wittman. This ultra-right-wing former Christian Coalition official is now employed at the Democratic Leadership Council, and purports to speak for Democrats. He is one of the most odious icons of Washington's bought-off bipartisan Establishment - and has made a name for himself peddling right-wing talking points, narratives and storylines wholly at odds with actual facts. Last week was no exception. He told the Los Angeles Times that the Connecticut primary "is a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party" because "it will have repercussions for the 2008 presidential campaign and whether centrists will feel comfortable within the Democratic Party."

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/IndyOp/18

We progressives have to stand up and TAKE the Democratic Party back!

[robinlynne]

20. IndyOp, as always spectacular post! This one is a keeper. I will save it.

[lonestarnot]

21. kick and read, kick and read, kick and read, kick and read!

[rumpel]

23. Great Job!

This should be on the front pages, period!

:yourock:

[Wilms]

24. Great! KnR n/t

[autorank]

27. What a post!!! Amazing. Get it to DNC and your locals. K&R!!!

[INdemo]

50. Has the DNC really done anything?

With all the talk about insuring that all votes will count, what has been done by those that have the power to change it? I mean here we are 115+ days away from the election and as far as we know the same problems exist as in 2004 with these machines. we have had almost 2 years to make changes but as far as I'm concerned those that have the power to perhaps do something have been sitting there as if they are waiting for the winning lottery numbers with that $1.00 ticket clutched in their hand...

[emlev]

28. More on "what you can do"

So much of this work is happening over the internet that it's not really necessary to limit your involvement to organizations active in your area. If you're here on DU clearly you have at least some internet access. Choose an organization whose work you appreciate and contact them about how you can help. If you describe your skills and/or what you'd like to do, you're more likely to get a positive response.

[livvy]

29. Nicely done! K&R

I hope you don't mind that I've saved a copy. I'd like to be able to print it out for any doubting Thomases I might encounter, and also to pass along to my email list. If you'd rather I didn't, just let me know.

[IndyOp]

38. PLEASE PASS IT ON ! Yes! Yes! Thank You for taking the time to do so!

Anything I post online I hope will be taken and re-posted and printed and...

It is PUBLIC DOMAIN now!

(Especially since I pulled extensive content from other sites...)

:hi:

[livvy]

51. Kick n/t

[mod mom]

30. Will the Dems demand the votes be counted? Let's hope so this time.

Thanks IndyOp for a very informative post!

[mod mom]

31. More Books:

How the GOP stole America's 2004 election and is rigging 2008, by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

:The "Woodward & Bernstein of the 2004 Election"
-- Rev. Jesse Jackson

A Special Investigative Report Revealing Massive Voter Theft, Fraud and Illegalities in Ohio's Presidential Balloting

The theft of the 2004 election has been catalogued, footnoted and thoroughly documented in more than 180 bullet points compiled by the Ohio-based investigative reporters in their shocking new compendium. The special digest may serve as the touchstone for all future coverage of the 2004 campaign and vote count in the lead-up to 2008.



Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election? Ohio's Essential Documents, by Bob Fitrakis, Harvey Wasserman and Steve Rosenfeld (767 pages) -

This collection of news analysis, legal documents and sworn statements from suppressed and disenfranchised voters may very well tilt the balance in revealing the election fraud in Ohio during the 2004 election. Foreword by Rev. Jesse Jackson.

[tom_paine]

32. K&R

[Febble]

33. Kick n/t

[IndyOp]

40. This is still my favorite picture: Look at the happy people

counting votes!

[Febble]

44. yeah, I know

Our votes are simpler of course. But one thing I have been thinking recently is:

Presidential elections have nothing to do with state representation, right? And should surely be decided on the basis of the popular vote, which, at a stroke, would make stealing presidential elections much harder (no targeting swing states, for instance).

And IF the president was elected by popular vote, it could be an entirely separate, and simple election. Which means you could do it our way.





Oh well, it was a nice dream.....

(And another pic for your collection.)

[Catbird]

36. Great summary. Thanks. nt/

[mom cat]

39. Wow! ... Just WOW!

:dem::smoke::smoke::smoke::bounce::bounce::toast::yourock::toast::bounce::bounce::smoke::smoke::smoke::kick:

[DirtyDawg]

41. What do they have to lose?

I've said for some time that so long as the only penalty for voter fraud conspiracy is not much more than you might lose an election, this will go on forever. I still believe that demos should get behind our own 'wedge issue' of a systematic overhaul of the election process, with federal standards that call for both dems and repigs to sign on to and an administration that signs the bill without keeping his fingers crossed. I don't care what the final process may be so long as it includes major penalties for conviction of a whole array of offenses that make up just such conspiracies and actions. I'd be for penalties in the same range as treason, murder and/or manslaughter. If these 'little Eichmanns' running around doing their bosses bidding for a few thousand dollars knew that they might go to jail for 20 plus years - hell, it's probably a big game for most of these hackers - my guess is that there would be damn fewer of them. Particularly if there were handsome rewards - say in the neighborhood of a million dollars - offered for those that turned in the bastards that hired them to do it in the first place.

Short of that, then we may have to take the law into our own hands.

[IndyOp]

42. In a sense, we do have to take the law into our own hands - we

You are sooo right that we need *much* better election laws across the nation. Even with better laws, we still have to remain on the alert to make sure that the laws are enforced.

Here is one criminal off the streets:

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3043">13-Year California Election Official Facing 43 Criminal Charges!

Now-Former Monterey County, CA Registrar of Voters, Tony 'Trust Me' Anchundo, Told Brad on Air that Voters Need to 'Have Trust and Faith' in Election Officials…

He Now Faces Charges of Forgery, Misapplication of Funds, Embezzlement, Falsification of Accounts and Grand Theft to the Tune of $70,000…

"There is obviously going to have to be some trust and faith in the elections official, or in this case, it's me." – Then Monterey County, CA Registrar of Voters, Tony Anchundo on the Peter B. Collins radio show, 10/24/05

"Anchundo to face 43 criminal charges DA: Ex-registrar spent $70,000 on personal purchases"
– Headline of the Salinas Californian, 7/6/06

[Boxmaker43]

46. Exactly what I've been wondering for years...

Why do we not have the strongest penalties for messing with the voting process? Why do we not go to great effort to enforce the penalties we already have?

Is there something for each of the two parties to be gotten from the rigging even if the other party wins? If not, then why doesn't a winning party that gains control of Congress ram this kind of legislation through?

The usual answer to these kinds of questions is to be found in the money trail. So, does anyone understand this game? How does the losing party benefit by maintaining an easily corruptible system?

[KnaveRupe]

47. B 4....isn't that backwards?

I was under the impression that votes intended for Kerry votes were being switched to Bush, not the other way around.

Otherwise, wow! Nice job of compiling this!

[IndyOp]

48. Yes - It should be from Kerry to Bush. Yikes!

It is too late to edit the post now, but I will correct my doc.

:hi:

[INdemo]

49. Lets be realistic here

I can take action writing LTE,informing other voters and even referring them to this article etc,etc..Keep in mind all that voters want to do is have their vote counted and not all these voters are that enthused..If voting becomes this complicated people will just not show up at the polls period..Look its very difficult in many cases to even get a voter to register for fear of being called to jury duty..(number one obstacle).
Ok,,here is a great example..Talking to voters about supporting a primary candidate 99.9% of the time this was their reaction.."Well I hope he gets it but I dont think my vote will count anyway."
Unless the electronic voting machines are suspended from use it will continue.

[BeFree]

54. You are so right ....

People do fear registering, and people do fear that their votes don't matter.

That is what bushco feeds on. It is what keeps them on top. It is part of why we had to fight to get womens' suffrage, and the voters' rights act.

Now, since those measures kept them from winning all the time, they have stooped to wholesale theft by using $4 billion in tax dollars to buy the country these machines... machines that by any reasonable standard are very good election-burglary tools.

[redqueen]

52. Thank you and bless you...

:yourock:

:kick:

[blue4barb]

55. k/r Thanks! Bookmarked/great reference for upcoming elections.

[file83]

56. Kick.

:kick:

[Time for change]

57. Thank you for publicizing this much needed information

Just one question: You state:

"hundreds of votes jumped from Bush to Kerry in New Mexico". I have information of several reports that indicate it was the other way around, jumping from Kerry to Bush. Not hundreds, but quite a few reports, and the actual number could be hundreds. Anyhow, did you mean to say from Kerry to Bush?

[IndyOp]

58. I did mean to say FROM Kerry TO Bush - My mistake.

There were instances in Indiana where votes jumped from Bush to Kerry... but they were really, really rare.

[chaska]

60. Did you say this was a handout?

I applaud your efforts (really, I do), but I suspect that anyone who is so uninformed on this issue as not know about this stuff won't read it.

The majority of people in this country read at a 7th grade reading level, and the rest vote Dem anyway. It's too long. It should be a quarter as long with a link to a website to learn more.

Just a little constructive criticism.

Maybe you could add a very brief introduction to what you have here. That would get the message out in case someone only had the time or patience for the upshot, while still givng the full story for those who want it.

Just trying to help.

[IndyOp]

62. You - anyone - are welcome to use just one section or

parts of a few different sections as you wish.

It is longish, but with pictures, and nicely laid out as a word doc it is working for me. It is what I am giving out to people who come to listen to me talk about the issue. This is a handout for people who are coming to a 30-45 minute talk on the subject.

The purpose of my handout is to bring together different 'streams' of information that I haven't seen pulled together anywhere else: Voter disenfranchisement; problems with e-voting; voting system recommendations; Common Cause recommendations about free/fair elections; Rethuglican statements that reveal who they really are; and where to go for more information...

It isn't a handout for people at the county fair -- I have a friend who is working on that one.

I don't mind your constructive criticism. One size doesn't fit all. Feel free to modify as you wish! Or if you will go to http://www.votersunite.org - you will find some lovely, brief handouts with the 'paper ballot message' and with maps of the problems across the country.

:hi:

[chaska]

63. Whew, thanks for that. Ya had me worried.

In that case, kudos!

[Cleita]

65. So instead of waiting for a recount by independent activists

after a contested election, shouldn't we start organizing volunteers at a precinct level to hand count the votes as soon as the official tally is made?

I envision volunteers from both parties or separate organizations each hand counting the votes and matching them to the official numbers. This is no different than what is done at the bank when they total the ATM. They go in and hand count all the deposits and withdrawals twice to compare them to the journal and ledger tapes. If they don't come close to being the same, they recount until they find the discrepancies.

It seems something as important as our votes should be given the same scrutiny as our money. So here you will have totals from two different independent auditors that should match the official tallies. If this were done at a precinct level it could be done quickly and efficiently and we will know for sure who was elected and who lost.

[IndyOp]

67. What do you mean 'contested' election?

We must have mandatory manual random audits (MMRA) after *every* election. Randomly selected precincts that total at least 2% (I would prefer 5% or 10%) of each county's population and count all ballots in those precincts to make certain that the machine count exactly equals the hand audit count. If there is any discrepancy in the counts, then the entire county is counted by hand.

If you are suggesting mandatory 100% hand counts of paper ballots after every election, then I am with you. I think that would be IDEAL.

:hi:

[Cleita]

68. Yes, that is what I'm suggesting. Sorry I wasn't clear.

What I meant was it seems these kinds of auditing counts aren't conducted unless there is a contested election and then it's too late because the cheating candidate has already been sworn into office.

[IndyOp]

69. I am *with* you completely and entirely - I would love to see 100%

hand counts of paper ballots. Using precinct-based optical scan machines means that there would be a very low rate of spoiled ballots and 'machine count' results would be released quickly. The hand count results could be released the next day, perhaps.

I think that hand counting 100% of the paper ballots in the precincts would nip attempts to commit fraud in the bud - hand counts of 2% or 5% or 10% still leaves the system open to fraud. It should help - but the system can still be 'gamed'.

Keep in mind that *no* system is perfect. There is no way to design a system that totally prevents fraud so we can all relax completely. The price of liberty really is eternal vigilence.

:-)

[cal04]

66. Thank you IndyOp

for all your hard work and posting this, the MOST important issue

:hi: :yourock:

[Nabia2004]

70. Flyers like this need to be mailed/handed out nation wide!

So how does one fund such a grand scale operation?

[BeFree]

73. Kick

Great piece of work, IndyOp.