Here we go again. in Memphis, Tennessee is reporting that some electronic voting machine "smart cards" are missing. The GOP is upset, and rightfully so:
Several electronic voting cards, used to cast ballots, are missing froma polling place in Memphis, according to the Tennessee RepublicanParty.
In a letter to the Shelby County Election Commission, state GOPchairman Bob Davis Jr. charges the "lack of oversight and control" overthe so-called Smartcards "has created a situation which could allow forvoter fraud."
He said the missing cards could lead to illegal votes being cast in Tuesday’s election.
"Once cast, an illegal vote made with the reprogrammed Smartcardwould be indistinguishable from a legally cast vote," Davis wrote.
Maybe Bob Davis Jr. should also write a letter to the Republican Party and thank them for endorsing Diebold in a number of states. Since 1998, Diebold has $300,000 to GOP candidates.
There was a very serious story this morning in the Miami Herald about Sequoia voting machines that are used in 17 states, including four pivotal counties in Florida. Sequoia might be secretly controlled by the Venezuelan president, according to a that has been launched:
Federal officials are investigating whether Smartmatic, owner ofOakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems, is secretly controlled byVenezuelan President Hugo Chávez, according to two people familiar withthe probe.
In July, a Treasury Department spokeswoman disclosed that aTreasury-led panel had contacted Smartmatic, and a companyrepresentative said his firm was ''in discussions'' with the panel. Atthe time, those discussions were informal. The government has nowupgraded to a formal investigation, the two sources said.
Sequoia's electronic voting machines operate in 17 states. InFlorida, the machines are used in four counties: Palm Beach, IndianRiver, Pinellas and Hillsborough.
Miami-Dade and Broward use other technology.
Concerns about Smartmatic are keen on the eve of the Nov. 7election, given fears that someone with unauthorized access to theelectronic system could create electoral chaos. Some critics believethat if the Venezuelan government is involved, Smartmatic could be a''Trojan horse'' designed to advance Chavez's anti-American agenda.
This just came out today. I will post any more information once I get it. But keep in mind that investigators have found no direct evidence that Chavez is able to manipulate any of these machines.
However, in my view Hugo Chavez does benefit from Bush and the Republican Congress being in power because their policies feeds into the nationalism that helps Chavez stay in power and makes him a world icon among outlaw regimes.
With most the attention focused on Tennessee, I am not surprised that this kind of thing crept up on us in Virginia. In three Virginia cities, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Jim Webb will be his last name on the final page of the electronic ballots:
DemocraticU.S. Senate nominee Jim Webb of Falls Church is one of severalcandidates whose full names have been cut off the final page of theelectronic ballot voters will use this year in Charlottesville, FallsChurch and Alexandria.
Electionofficials said it’s possible that some confusion may result when votersreach the summary page of the ballot but stressed that it will notcause votes to be cast incorrectly and that Webb’s full name appears onthe ballot’s first page, where voters choose for whom they vote.
...Webb’s name onthe summary page will be listed only as “James H. ‘Jim’†and RepublicanU.S. Sen. George Allen’s party affiliation also will not appear on thesummary page in the three cities using Hart InterCivic electronicvoting machines. Alexandria has 225 of the machines and Charlottesvillehas 72 already fully programmed for the Nov. 7 elections.
“Because ofspacing limitations on the summary page, candidates’ names aretruncated in some instances,†the signs to educate voters will state.
Yeah, let's confuse the heck out of people in three towns in which a large chunk of the population are senior citizens. It only determines the fate of the entire U.S. Senate. Great thinking guys!
If this race is decided by a few thousand votes, you can expect a court battle to erupt. And yes, this sort of ballot change CAN make a difference.
There are growing signs that November 7th will be a long night, and that the fate of the U.S. House and Senate majorities might be placed into the hands of the courts.
When I cover every close House and Senate race on election day, I will also keep a close eye on the issue of voter fraud. It happened in 2000 and 2004, and the media was late reporting it. So if something happens on election day, I will put the story on this site immediately. Judging from what has happened these last few days, there is a growing likelihood that we will be having this discussion on November 7th and in the days and weeks following.
First, a group has exposed a security lapse in Chicago's voting system that allows anyone to gain access to the records of more than 1.5 million voters -- increasing the risk for identity theft and voter fraud. A group called the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project (IBIP) discovered this flaw in the system, and was able to to the records of individual voters:
IBIP members say they were able to not only get full editing access tothe online database, but also found they could modify the records forregistered voters, setting them to inactive and otherwise changingaddresses and other key information fields.
Second, in Maryland the FBI is the theft of software developed by , the number one supplier of electronic voting equipment throughout the country:
The FBI is investigating the possible theft of software developed bythe nation's leading maker of electronic voting equipment, said aformer Maryland legislator who this week received three computer disksthat apparently contain key portions of programs created by DieboldElection Systems.
Cheryl C. Kagan, a former Democratic delegatewho has long questioned the security of electronic voting systems, saidthe disks were delivered anonymously to her office in Olney on Tuesdayand that the FBI contacted her yesterday. The package contained anunsigned letter critical of Maryland State Board of ElectionsAdministrator Linda H. Lamone that said the disks were "right from SBE"and had been "accidentally picked up."
Lamone's deputy, Ross Goldstein, said "they were not our disks," but heacknowledged that the software was used in Maryland in the 2004elections. Diebold said in a statement last night that it had nevercreated or received the disks.
In the state of Ohio, for example, Diebold's election system is used in most of the state's 88 counties. Here is a . In the Ohio Senate race, Democrat Sherrod Brown leads GOP Senator Mike DeWine by a comfortable 52% to 45% margin, according to a taken a few days ago. So if on election day the exit polls put Brown out in front while the actual totals show DeWine ahead, coupling that with the fact that the faulty Diebold systems are in place, then something has probably been changed. And if you thought it couldn't get any more suspicious, Ohio's Secretary of State Ken Blackwell just so happens to be running for Governor even though he is the sole individual that certifies all the votes in that state.
I have always tended to steer clear of conspiracy theories. I intend to do the same thing on election night, and I encourage other blogs not to report voting fraud cases unless they can back them up with credible evidence. I will be as objective as possible. But if I see something out of line, and I know that it happened for a fact, then it will be reported. The sooner it gets out, and the greater the scrutiny, the more likelihood that such cases will face a full and careful investigation.
Lastly, today a lawsuit was filed against Ken Blackwell and other Ohio officials for enacting a rule that forces certain voters to re-register. Read .
A number of Hispanic voters in California have received a in the mail warning them that they will immediately be deported if they show up to vote on election day. The California State Attorney General's Office is now investigating the matter:
"It's a very malicious and degrading letter. It's to pull Latinosdown and make them afraid," said Benny Diaz, who is running for CityCouncil in Garden Grove. He said his wife and five other people heknows had received the letter.
The letter, written in Spanish, tells recipients: "You are advisedthat if your residence in this country is illegal or you are animmigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result injail time."
The truth is that immigrants who become naturalized citizens can legally register to vote.
Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for state Attorney General BillLockyer, said the letter was "something we are investigatingaggressively right now." He said the sender could be charged with afelony and receive up to three years in state prison.
Several of the people who received the letters appeared to benaturalized citizens, said John Trasvina, interim president and generalcounsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the letter was sent out by the -- although the group denies they did.
Even California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger the letter:
"Whoever sent these letters committed both a despicable act ofpolitical intimidation and a hate crime, and should be prosecuted tothe fullest extent of the law," Schwarzenegger said.
A on the Houston Chronicle web site reminds everyone that "immigrant" does not necessarily mean "non-citizen". Duh!
Here we go again. In 2004 it was black voters being to get out of line in Ohio, and now this. Can we please just have a normal election for a change? Or are we really that incapable?
If this is true, Democratic strategist James Carville has a ton of explaining to do. On page 344 of Bob Woodward's book , Woodward reports that Carville tipped the Bush Campaign off to the Kerry Campaign's initial decision to contest hundreds of thousands of provisional ballots:
On page 344, Woodward describes the doings at the White House in theearly morning hours of Wednesday, the day after the '04 election.
Apparently, Kerry had decided not to concede. There were 250,000 outstanding ballots in Ohio.
So Kerry decides to fight. In fact, he considers going to Ohio tocamp out with his voters until there is a recount. This is the lastthing the White House needs, especially after Florida 2000.
So what happened?
James Carville gets on the phone with his wife, Mary Matalin, who is at the White House with Bush.
"Carville told her he had some inside news. The Kerry campaign wasgoing to challenge the provisional ballots in Ohio -- perhaps up to250,000 of them. 'I don't agree with it, Carville said. I'm justtelling you that's what they're talking about.'
"Matalin went to Cheney to report...You better tell the President Cheney told her."
Matalin does, advising Bush that "somebody in authority needed toget in touch with J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican Secretary ofState in Ohio who would be in charge of any challenge to theprovisional votes." An SOS goes out to Blackwell.
The rest is history.
Does something about this story stink to high heaven!
That's right -- the rest is history. Ohio's Secretary of State Ken Blackwell prevented those provisional ballots from being counted, and certified the election. If you may recall, Blackwell was also the head of the Bush/Cheney Campaign in the state of Ohio.
According to a column by magazine, 1/4 of all registered Ohio voters who showed up to vote on November 2, 2004 were turned away because their names were not on the rolls. This does not count all the provisional ballots that weren't counted as well.
As for Carville, we can't be sure yet whether this phone call ruined Kerry's chances of contesting the 250,000 provisional ballots. On the same token, it would be nice for Carville to explain this story. Remember, James Carville is a long-time friend to the Clinton family, and is currently a strategist for Hillary Clinton. Did he want Kerry to lose so that Hillary could run in 2008? Remember, I am not claiming that is what happened. I am only posing the question.
Today, senators Russ Feingold (R-WI) and John Kerry (D-MA) introduced to force state and local election officials to have backup voting systems just in case the electronic ones break down on election day. It also demands that for each vote cast, there be a paper ballot receipt. The legislation will .
This follows a that faults Diebold voting machines for being easy to hack. The Princeton group even released a video showing how easy it is to . Keep in mind that this year 40% of the country will be using .
This bill needs to get passed immediately. The 2006 legislative session ends at the end of the week, so our time is numbered. An almost identical bill has been proposed in the House. Everyone reading this needs to please e-mail their and two and tell them to vote 'yes' on this paper ballot measure. For every vote cast, there needs to be a paper receipt to prevent fraud. That is what this bill does.
The vote tampering that took place on election day might explain why Senator Max Cleland's five-point lead in the polls just days before the vote all of a sudden vanished.
, a former consultant with , is admitting that he and others from that company went in and tampered with voting machines on the election morning of 2002:
According to Hood, Diebold employees altered software in some5,000 machines in DeKalb and Fulton counties - the state's largestDemocratic strongholds. To avoid detection, Hood and others on histeam entered warehouses early in the morning. "We went in at 7:30a.m. and were out by 11," Hood says. "There was a universal key tounlock the machines, and it's easy to get access. The machines inthe warehouses were unlocked. We had control of everything. Thestate gave us the keys to the castle, so to speak, and they stayedout of our way." Hood personally patched fifty-six machines andwitnessed the patch being applied to more than 1,200 others.
The patch comes on a memory card that is inserted into a machine.Eventually, all the memory cards end up on a server that tabulatesthe votes - where the patch can be programmed to alter the outcomeof an election. "There could be a hidden program on a memory cardthat adjusts everything to the preferred election results," Hoodsays.
Although it was not certain what was on each memory card, the last minute tampering of those voting machines seemed to pay off:
But the tally in Georgia thatNovember surprised even the most seasoned political observers. Sixdays before the vote, polls showed Sen. Max Cleland, a decoratedwar veteran and Democratic incumbent, leading his Republicanopponent Saxby Chambliss - darling of the Christian Coalition - byfive percentage points. In the governor's race, Democrat Roy Barneswas running a decisive eleven points ahead of Republican SonnyPerdue. But on Election Day, Chambliss won with fifty-three percentof the vote, and Perdue won with fifty-one percent.
... read 's full article on this story
This adds merit to the recent Princeton study that shows how to . All you need to do is either pick the lock or have one of the thousands of keys in circulation. ---------------------------------------- Other progressive sites blogging about this issue: , , , , , , , , .
A new law passed by the House GOP will require voters by 2008 to present even more photo identification than just a drivers license. This will force many Americans to spend $95 buying a passport. But does a polling tax contradict democracy?
How far are we going to let this go? In the six years since the 2000 vote, the grassroots mobilized to wage a concerted effort to prevent voter disenfranchisement. "Never again," we said, referring to what happened in Florida. But in the state of , one out of every four registered voters were moved from the rolls, and one million Ohio votes were discounted by faulty voting equipment. This year, as a shows, the electronic Diebold voting machines that are now being used in many states for the first time can be .
In 2008, thanks to the latest legislation passed by the House, all voters must show up to polling places with proof that they are a U.S. citizen. This means that drivers licenses won't cut it. So most citizens who want their votes counted will need to bring a U.S. Passport to the polling location.
But as the explains, the cost of buying a passport may end up preventing tens of millions of low-income Americans from voting:
It costs $85 to get a passport, not counting the costof photographs. And a passport isn’t something that a lot of Americanshave. Indeed, the State Department says only 27 percent of Americanspossess one.
Actually, on the web site, it says that the total cost of a passport for those 16 and older costs $95. Also, why do voters have to prove their citizenship at the polling places if they already did that when they ? Why can't any photo ID be sufficient on election night?
In reality though, this has nothing to do national security. The bill that was passed will help Republicans in two ways. First, it will mean less low-income voters showing up to vote, allowing elected representatives to get away with refusing to enact economic policies that benefit the working class. Secondly, the bill will help Republicans politically because they can portray themselves to their conservative base as tough on immigration -- even though this bill has nothing to do with that at all.
The . It now heads to the Senate, where it is expected to pass by a very slim majority. We can prevent that from happening. Please in your state and tell them to vote no on the Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006. Tell them this bill is not help democracy. -------------------------------------------------- Other progressive sites blogging about voter fraud: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .
With this mid-term election expected to be extremely close as the last two presidential elections were, the fate of Congress might be decided by an all too common variable: voter fraud. Just as 2000 was plagued by and in 2004 by in minority neighborhoods, the 2006 election might later be remembered as the year of the glitch.
The explains what happens when you combine never-been-used-before electronic voting machines and workers without any computer experience:
Already this year, glitches have occurred inArkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania,Texas and West Virginia. Maryland became the latest on Tuesday, whentechnical problems, human errors and staff shortages led officials tokeep some polls open an extra hour.
The fall elections shape up as the mosttechnologically perilous since 2000, election officials say, because30% of the nation's voting jurisdictions will be using new equipment.They include large parts of Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia,scenes of key Senate races. "If you're ever going to have a problem,it's going to be that first election," says Kimball Brace, president ofElection Data Services.
Since 2000, nearly half of U.S. counties haveswitched from punch cards, lever machines and paper ballots toelectronic voting or optical-scan ballots read by a computer. Theycontinue to rely on poll workers who are on average 72 years old andlack computer experience.
Since 2002, the federal government has givenstates $3 billion to upgrade registration and voting systems. Somestates, however, still don't have statewide voter registrationdatabases or equipment that people with disabilities can useindependently.
Even more appalling than anything else, this year only one more state requires a paper trail than in 2004. You want to know how Rick Santorum and George Allen will survive? Just ask Diebold, the that is supplying the machines.
Meanwhile, here are some more worries about the voting systems that will be used this November:
A group of a number of flaws in the Diebold voting systems, including the ability for someone to use modern technology to tamper with votes. In their test, the computer science experts said they were able to "modify all of the records, audit logs, and counterskept by the voting machine, so that even careful forensic examinationof these records will find nothing amiss." Now that, my friends, is a recipe for trouble.
The group called Indiana told citizens at last night's public meeting in Monroe County, Indiana that the electronic voting system being used in the state is not reliable and.
We might not know the fate of the House and Senate until weeks after the election. To minimize the potential that the Republicans will get away with this again, we need a heavy turnout all across the country.
Still not concerned? Watch .
--------------------------------------------------- Other sites blogging about this issue: , , , , , , .
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