San Diego Press Conf Report on Busby Suit - Lehto on EdShultz - 5:30 EDT

[autorank]

This is great stuff. I just got it off BradBlog. If it's a dupe, sorry, just merge it or whatever.
PAUL LEHTO WILL BE ON ED SCHULTZ AT 5:30 TODAY, EDT.

Notes from the San Diego Press Conference on Busby/Bilbray Lawsuit Contesting the Results of the Election…
Posted By Brad On 31st July 2006 @ 11:48 In Busby/Bilbray, Diebold, Election Irregularities, California | No Comments
Blogged by Brad from the road…

BradBlog Link: http://tinyurl.com/lwdgr

I was able to listen in via cell phone to the Press Conference just held outside the San Diego courthouse where Attorney Paul Lehto has filed a lawsuit to contest <1> the results of the Busby/Bilbray election.

I wasn't able to hear everything…but here are a few quotes as transcribed as best as I could from speakers Lehto, Judy Hess, Barbara Gail Jacobson and Mimi Kennedy…

LEHTO: "This action is to send a message to the country that these voting machines are getting out of control, security is being ignored, and election officials need to take these issues seriously…especially when dealing with voting machines where one person can tamper with a machine effecting every other machine in the race and nobody would ever be able to tell…"

LEHTO: " Mikel Haas cannot prove that Bilbray won this race….We're calling for a count of all of the ballots."

LEHTO: "We want the public to be involved in the voting which they can't when these machines are used and that's a threat to democracy."

LEHTO: "This action focuses on the Busby/Bilbray race…we'll likely file another action that focuses on November."

Q: Do you want to end electronic voting? Yes or no?

LEHTO: "Personally, I do, but this action has nothing to do with that. It's about accountability in the Busby/Bilbray election"

Judy Hess, organizer of the CA50 Action Group, introduced the speakers and pointed out herself, in response to media questions about how the machines should be deployed (since Haas has claimed in several media interviews that "sleepovers" with poll workers are the only way he can think of to deploy all of the voting machines on Election Day) that in Washington state, where Lehto is from, they serve half a million voters and deploy all of the voting systems on the morning of Election Day with just nine trucks.

Mimi Kennedy (national chair of PDA <2>) spoke about the need to maintain security on these systems in this, the first year that the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) is giving states and counties $3.8 billion to encourage them to "upgrade" to these systems.

Barbara Gail Jacobson, who filed the hand count request which was stymied <3> by Mikel Haas spoke: "I filed this not for any partisan reason, but because the public deserves accountability in elections. We are drawing a line in the sand…America needs to know that their votes are counted the way they intended."

San Diego television channels 10, 8, 7 and several print media were on hand I was told. "About a dozen media" as it was reported to me. I hope to get a copy of the suit as filed today posted here at The BRAD BLOG <4> as soon as it's made available.

Lehto is confirmed to appear on the nationally syndicated Ed Schultz Show at 5:30pm ET (2:30pm PT) today.

[Amy6627]

1. Thanks for the update! K&R

[napi21]

2. GOOD! I'll be listening. JUST MAYBE the coverage of this will

be enough to motivate the rest of the country!

[LA lady]

3. I don't get it

While I appreciate the fight I wonder if it would benefit us more to put our efforts into Novemebr. I am reading that Bilbray is now polling WAY ahead of Busby for the election in just 3 months. NO national media is touching this recount story.
Can you help me out here? I am more than willing to admit if I am wrong.

[autorank]

4. Sure. Every screwed up election we let go by gets us more screwed up

elections. The Ohio election in 2004 was an unmitigated disaster and it had to be challenged. That was difficult because the Democratic Party was silent. In this case, Dean came out to San Diego and and slammed the lousy policies of the local officials, which endorses the criticism. The suit is brought by citizens, you and me, people who are the ultimate guardians of democracy.

As for efforts - not everybody works on the same thing so the folks here are doing something very important, making a point that we're not taking any more garbage. It's not like they'd be working for Francine Busby's 11/06 contest if they were not doing this.

As far as polling goes, I have not seen any recent polling. Two things, one of the polls prior to this most recent election was all over the place on demographics and it was a well known one so I'd not worry too much about that. 600-700 people sampled can sometimes produce misleading results.

Whatever poll there was didn't pick up on Bilbray supporting off shore drilling. Even Cunningham opposed this, lead a coalition to stop it.

Ultimately, we have a right to know that those declared the winner of elections actually won. With secret vote taking and counting, we have no way of knowing because the touch screens/optical scans are computers which either (a) don't keep the ballots (touch screens) and (b) do their little work in secret (election officials, etc. are not allowed to peak inside the machines period, by contract).

That's the issue - show us the results, how you arrived at them, the ballots because WE HAVE QUESTIONS and we're the citizens. It has to be more than "trust me" to prove election.

Without the ability to do this, there is no reason to think that ANY of these folks were actually elected and no reason to provide CONSENT to their rule.

Here is how we got here http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0604/S00233.htm

It's a struggle just to get those in power to grasp the simple concept that the public is really irritated and doubtful of their motives and legitimacy. Elections that end up close and involve electing workers taking machines home for "overnights" do not inspire confidence.

Hope this helped.

[LA lady]

5. OK, but....

I work the polls every election and I am not as convinced of widespread problems as are others. We are meticulous and even handed. I wish more Dems would work polls (I actually make over 100$ at it!!)I am sure it is more prevalent in certain areas.
Why is there NO media about this? When I mention it at Democratic meetings, people look at me like I lost a screw.

Here is the poll I saw:

Analysis: In a general election held today, 7/12/06, in California's 50th Congressional District, incumbent Republican Congressman Brian Bilbray defeats Democrat Francine Busby 51% to 40%, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for KGTV-TV San Diego. Bilbray, who beat Busby by 4 points in a special election 6/6/06 to win the seat, now wins by 11 points. Bilbray wins among male voters by 27 points. Women prefer Busby by 5 points, a 32-point "gender gap". Bilbray wins 9:1 among Republicans. Busby wins 10:1 among Democrats. Independents are tied. Among those who approve of President Bush's job performance, Bilbray is preferred 20:1. Those who disapprove of Bush's performance prefer Busby 4:1. Busby's vote is strongly correlated with education level: the more education a voter has, the more likely to vote for Busby.

http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=3d3b3749-b790-4643-816e-859dd5db2440

[autorank]

6. K, well

...ok, read the article I sent you, then look at RFK Jrs article on Ohio 2004, the absolute manifestation of the goal described in my art ice (the first one, I'm that guy Michael Collins).

Then, if you think it's just Ohio, take a look at this, a great natural study of 2004 problems in Washington State by the attorney making the challenge in San Diego, a DUer article .pdf.

If all else fails spend some time grazing here www.electionfraudnews.com. While your there, look (in "Resources") at how over 300,000 ballots went missing in the CA Recall<. link:tinyurl.com/jlqxb|What the heck!>. CalTech did a study showing that this occure predominently in minority districts and that the only variable explaining the differences is that they're miniority districts. Here are some quotes from the article on the missing/uncounted/unrecorded votes):

Harvard University research fellow Dr. Rebbecca Mercuri, who conducted the other study, concluded that many of the 383,000 ballots that didn't answer the recall question had their selections erased by malfunctioning machines."

"They were playing with fire in this election, and it's a good thing the margins weren't close," said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the ACLU of Southern California. "I hope this puts to rest claims that these (punch card) machines have any place in a democracy."

The 9% "undervote" for these punch card machines is spectacular. It's usually less than 2% in any race. Why go vote on the recall if you don't vote on the recall?

We don't know what's really wrong because we don't challenge this stuff but the "really wrong" stuff, the losses in "squeakers" are almost always our losses. Odd...

That's why those who do "court" should do it in our behalf as voters.

The Survey USA results you're referring to are from a small sample, I'm pretty sure. They did a pre-election survey, cited in FruitsandVotes.com where minorities favored Bulbray, which raises some questions. I think the one you're referencing has Bilbray ahead with Latinos. That may be the case but doesn't sound right.

Everyone who can should be a poll worker or a precinct worker on election day. I've poll watched and run a prescient on election day for the Democrats. It's a great experience. My precinct even let me watch them tally votes (which was a joke since there were no ballots, only computer tapes). It was highly instructive. There is a big shortage of poll workers, so what the heck, and they do pay you (for working the polls, not working the precinct as a Dem;)

[BradBlog]

11. Let me help...

While I appreciate the fight I wonder if it would benefit us more to put our efforts into Novemebr. I am reading that Bilbray is now polling WAY ahead of Busby for the election in just 3 months. NO national media is touching this recount story.
Can you help me out here? I am more than willing to admit if I am wrong.

You're wrong. :-)

This *is* about November. NOT about Busby or Bilbray. Now that dozens of newly discovered vulnerabilities have been confirmed in these Diebold op-scan and touch-screen systems used in 37 states, new security requirements have been enacted at the federal levels.

The voting machine "sleepovers" in the Busby/Bilbray race will likely be repeated *everywhere* come November unless they are stopped NOW.

Read my piece called "A Line in the Sand" to understand why the fight for accountability in Busby/Bilbray CA50 is about November. We're fighting for electoral integrity here...so we don't have to fight for it everywhere this November:

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!)
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3002

As to your comment that "NO national media is touching this recount story" -- I've heard from (amongst many others today) both Reuters and AP, in addition to previous coverage by CNN's Lou Dobbs, Court TV's Catherine Crier and on national radio with Schultz, Malloy, Randi and others. FWIW. So yeah, I think you may be missing something here :-)

Brad

[dusty64]

7. Kick!

:kick:

[happydreams]

8. I just listened to his interview. HOT!! K&R

Lehto has his stuff wired in series! He also was instrumental in doing away with electronic voting here in WA State after the 2004 Governor's race.

[mod mom]

9. Excellent news. A very determined Landshark photo at site. So glad this

is getting news coverage! GO Paul!

[Kurovski]

10. K&R(nt)