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Democracy In Danger: Three Weeks Later, Election ‘08 is Still a Mess

by ThePete 3:18 pm 2008-11-26


This is a still from a video I shot about how my vote didn’t count in the California primaries this year. Watch it now.

Here are the latest election irregularity stories I’ve come across since last week:

Voting machines weren’t tested
Checks would’ve found straight-ticket error, panel told

FRANKFORT - Election officials in Kenton County and most of Kentucky have repeatedly violated state regulations that mandate testing of some voting machines before elections.

The tests were not performed in Kenton County or any of the almost 100 other counties - including Boone and Campbell counties - that use voting machines provided by Lexington-based Harp Enterprises, the company’s president told the Kentucky Board of Elections on Friday.

A test that local officials are required to perform would have almost certainly detected a programming error made by Harp Enterprises that rendered almost 80 of its E-slate machines incapable of tabulating straight-ticket voting on Election Day in Kenton County.
nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20081122/NEWS0103/811220364
Thanks to MikeAmundsen who posted a link to this on FriendFeed.

Concerns About CA’s Prop 8 Election Prompt Calls for Investigation, Official Complaints, Fraud Tips
Following reports of concerns from voters, election monitors, observers, and election integrity advocates about the voting equipment and procedures used during the November 4th election in which Prop 8 — a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality for all Californians — is said to have passed, Velvet Revolution is requesting that official complaints from citizens be filed with the CA Sec. of State, by Monday if possible. Any voters who may have witnessed unusual activity, or problems with voting equipment that may have affected the casting or counting of votes on Proposition 8, are asked to contact SoS Debra Bowen’s office as soon as possible. More details are posted here…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6692

Speaking of VelvetRevolution.us, here is a related story from their blog:

VR To California Secretary Of State: Investigate Proposition 8 Vote Count
VR has called on California Secretary of State Debra Bowen to order an immediate investigation into the accuracy of the vote count on Proposition 8, the ballot measure to amend the state’s Constitution by repealing marriage equality.

VR believes an investigation is warranted due to witnessed failures in election auditing procedures, complaints from voters and election monitors, equipment failures, and more, including:
www.velvetrevolution.us/#112608

Every Vote Matters in MN’s U.S. Senate Hand-Count. Every. Single. One.
Missing Ballots, Uncounted Absentees and the GOP PR Battle That May Trump Both…

Math/statistics/poll-wiz Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com predicts the race between incumbent MN Sen. Norm Coleman (R) and challenger Al Franken (D) could result in a 27 vote win for Franken. That’s right, just 27 votes.
www.bradblog.com/?p=6698

That last post links to another post at Politico which covers the Franken campaign’s contention that there are many missing ballots across the state. The post also claims to have possible photographic evidence of an uncounted ballot (suggesting more are uncounted):

Missing ballots concern Franken camp
Things are getting even dicier in the Minnesota Senate recount.

Al Franken’s campaign is contending that Minnesota election officials may have lost several dozen ballots across the state. Their basis for the charge is that the number of recounted ballots in certain counties does not match the total numbers of votes tallied on Election Day.
www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/1108/Franken_campaign_concerned_over_missing_ballots.html

The photo in question does not present any evidence as far as I can tell–it’s just a piece of paper sticking out of the back of what looks like a ballot machine.

You can follow the Minnesota recount fun on the state’s official unofficial recount results page here: electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/20081104/SenateRecount.asp

Here’s a little sumthin’-sumthin’ about the 2002 election–yep, some people just won’t let go! Especially when it comes to democracy! Go figure. Anyway, here you go:

Stealing Georgia - Let’s Hope Not Again
But How Would We Know? The State Uses 100% Unverifiable Voting Machines
America Needs to Wake Up to Election Reform…

Why Georgia? There’s strongly suggestive evidence that the 2002 senatorial election in Georgia was stolen. That was the first election in which Diebold DRE (Direct Recording Electronic, usually touch-screen) voting machines were used statewide. Republican Saxby Chambliss beat front runner Democrat Max Cleland, with an astounding 12-point reversal of the vote count compared to pre-election polls. A last-minute “patch” had been applied covertly by Diebold staff to multiple voting machines throughout the state.
www.bradblog.com/?p=6682

Catch a nice nutshell explanation of the Saxby Chambliss story in the following video clip from Stealing America (a documentary I helped make, in case you hadn’t heard ;P):

And here’s some of the aftermath of the Chambliss mess:

‘Document Hold’ Served by OH Attorney to GA SoS in Advance of State’s U.S. Senate Run-off Election
Diebold Touch-Screen Memory Cards and Other Documents Sought for Retention as Allegations of Racketeering Scheme ‘to Corrupt Elections in the U.S. Over the Course of This Decade’ Spread to Encompass ‘02 and ‘08 Senate Races in the Peach State…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6696

There are PLENTY more stories on the news page over at VotersUnite.org which you can check out here: www.votersunite.org/news.asp

There’s also BradBlog.com which, by now, you know I recommend, too.

The short of it all is that democracy isn’t pretty or even easy. However, shouldn’t we make it simple if we can? Why bother with machines and technology if we’re just going to have to second-guess everything when the machines screw up? Why not take a week to let everyone vote and just take another week and have humans hand count the ballots once all the voting is done?

Sure, making everyone vote on a certain day and having the ballots mostly counted by the end of that day is SO much more dramatic, but which do you want? A democracy or a drama-cracy?

Why are we all being so childish about this?

When a guy with a logo like mine calls you childish, you know it’s bad!

by ThePete 3:18 pm 2008-11-26 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags , , , , , , , , | $ |

Democracy in Danger: Hey, Until We Start Hand-Counting Paper Ballots…

by ThePete 12:45 am 2008-11-20

Yep, this is a topic I'm just going to track like a bloodhound–or as best as I can–until we stop using unreliable, untrustworthy, secretive computerized ballot machines.  Sure, Obama won, but as I've said many times before on ThePete.Com, there have been plenty of irregularities and even some serious strangeness.  First off, I'd like to once again point you to VotersUnite.org and BradBlog.com.  Both of these sites have been very good at posting news on problems people have had voting.  VU's "Daily Voting News" posts that they cross-post at BradBlog.com are particularly thorough.  In fact the post for November 14, 2008 includes a HUGE number of links to stories on the web covering various types of problems with elections.  This includes everything from recounts, arrests and a lot more–in short, things are still very much a mess.

But let me tell you about the stories I've come across.  Firstly, you've probably heard that Alaska spitfire Senator Ted Stevens has actually lost his senate seat to his Democrat challenger.  This could not have happened to a nicer guy.  This moronic loudmouth was just convicted of corruption and somehow thought he would win his seat for another term.  In fact, as of November 5, 2008, it looked like a win was actually in the bag for him.  Then they find 90,000 uncounted ballots and start counting them.  By the thirteenth of November, Stevens was losing the race by 814 votes.  Finally, yesterday, AP.org reported that Ted Stevens had lost his senate seat for sure.  WHEW!

Ironically, according to ADN.com, officials were surprised to see how low voter turnout was in Alaska–then it turns out that by this past Monday, there are so many votes counted that they came to believe that this may mark the highest voter turnout in Alaska history. 

Sorry, Ted!

Meanwhile, the recount in the Franken/Coleman race in Minnesota has commenced, while, in the background, loads of Republicans suddenly sounding like we election-integrity freaks spouting off about how funny things look.  Brad Friedman, of BradBlog.com, calls these guys tin-foil hat wearers based on their lack of proof, while I simply call them late to the party.  If they have hard evidence that the fix is in for Franken to win, I'd love to see it.  Apparently, they don't have any, however.

Here are another couple of stories from the BradBlog I thought were worth pointing out:

FL Election Integrity Advocate, Candidate For Election Supervisor Arrested at Direction of Election Supervisor, Opponent
Ellen H. Brodsky Jailed Overnight After Being Barred From Oversight Several Times by Incumbent SoE Brenda Snipes
Third Such Arrest of an EI Activist Since Summer…

A candidate for Supervisor of Elections in Broward County, FL, was arrested yesterday, following threats and orders from her opponent, the current Broward SOE, Dr. Brenda Snipes.

Ellen H. Brodsky, the county's first non-partisan candidate for SOE, had previously been barred from public counting and oversight on a number of occasions, at the county's official Canvassing Board site and voting machine warehouse in Lauderhill, Florida.

After being taken into custody yesterday afternoon by three uniformed police officers, Brodsky was held overnight at the Broward County Jail even though the $25 — that's twenty-five dollar — bail had been posted for her by her son by 8pm last night. She was finally released well after 5am this morning.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6668

Isn't it nice when indies running for office get messed with?  Seems like it's often the folks brave enough to be outsiders that get messed with.  Ah well.

Now, one of the promises of electronic voting, computerized ballot boxes, touchscreen voting, blah-blah-blah, and all that other voting technology, is that it's easier and will speed up the whole process so people can get back to work (because clearly, democracy is like fast food).  Well, it seems like that's not the case.  Here's a nice little headline, excerpt and link from the BB that reports the opposite:

Machine Problems Worsened 2008 Voting Woes
Voting Machine Issues, Confusion Compounded Delays Faced by Untold Thousands of Voters This Fall
Though Even That Number Fails to Reveal Untold Counting Errors on E-Voting Systems Across the Nation…

Guest blogged by Steven Rosenfeld of AlterNet

The electronic voting problems in the 2008 election are broader than recently-publicized snafus such as machines not turning on, voter databases omitting names, or touch screens not properly recording votes, according to an analysis of 1,700 incident reports from the nation's largest voter hotline.

Moreover, the voting machine issues and the confusion they caused among poll workers appear to have compounded the delays faced by untold thousands of voters this fall, a preliminary analysis of 1-800-OUR-VOTE reports by Joseph Lorenzo Hall, a researcher at Princeton University and the University of California, has found…
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6671

I really hope the Obama Administration gives this country's leaders on all levels an fracking enema.  I'm so tired of reading about how leaders across the spectrum of responsibilities are letting us down.  Is it me or is money causing more problems than it ever has in the history of our country?  All this money influencing our leaders–all this outsourcing our elections to private companies while all of these supposed leaders quite literally buy into the promise that technology is perfect and can protect democracy.  As I've been saying for years, now, anything can be hacked.  Simply anything.

It's like that old story about how NASA had to spend millions to develop a pen that would write in space while the Russians just used a pencil.  This is what we should be doing with our elections.  Paper and pencils and humans counting.  Sure, it'll take a long time, but I think knowing for sure who our leaders are is a good thing, don't you?

Posted by email from thepete’s posterous

by ThePete 12:45 am 2008-11-20 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags , , , , , , , , | $ |

Democracy In Danger: Alaska Edition

by ThePete 8:24 pm 2008-11-13

Well, if you don’t know who Ted Stevens is, I’m a little surprised. He’s the guy who wears his “Incredible Hulk” tie to the Senate floor when he is expecting to have to put up a fight to get a bill passed. Stevens is the brilliant mind who described the Internet as a series of tubes.

OH yeah, THAT Ted Stevens–ANYway, so he was recently convicted of corruption–a conviction he is appealing. In the meantime, there’s an election going on for his seat. Turns out, initially, he won. The catch? Ted Stevens, is now trailing his opponent, Anchorage Mayor, and Democrat, Mark Begich, by 814 points, according to an article at Reuters.com. But how did we go from disgraced-but-somehow-re-elected to losing by 800+ Alaskans?

Back on November 7, 2008, I linked to a post over at BradBlog.com called “SOMETHING SMELLS VERY FISHY IN ALASKA.” Here’s the excerpt from that article that I used in my post a week ago:

In Alaska, more people voted for George W. Bush in 2004 than for Sarah Palin on Tuesday despite an identical 61-36 margin of victory. Yes. Only four years ago 54,304 Alaskans got off their sofas and voted for Bush, but decided to sit home and not vote for Palin in 2008.

In turn, I have to ignore the 30,520 Alaskans who felt progressive enough in 2004 to vote for John Kerry, but weren’t inspired enough to get out and vote for Barack Obama.

Then, on October 10, BradBlog.com reported this:

Alaska Update: Thousands of Ballots ‘Found’, One-Third Remain Uncounted in the State’s Still-Fishy ‘08 Election
This just in from Alaska, where thousands of new ballots continue to be found each day, since it was first reported that turnout in 2008 was 11% lower than in 2004. Thousands of ballots, nearly a third of them, remain uncounted nearly a week after the election. Their numbers could explain the strange results so far in races — such as those of the felonious Sen. Ted Stevens (R) and the under-investigation Rep. Don Young (R) — for which pollsters had predicted decisive losses for the Republicans.
www.bradblog.com/?p=6654

Yeah, pretty neat, huh? Thousands of ballot turn up and they begin counting them. By last night, Keith Olbermann reported that Begich had inched ahead of Stevens by just three votes.

Yep:

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io


…THREE.

It turns out, according to another post at BradBlog.com, 90,000 ballots were in the process of being counted after they were found days after the election.

And by today, Reuters reported Begich’s lead over Stevens had reached 814 votes.

Perhaps the people of Alaska aren’t as dumb as we were led to believe? Sure, they elected Palin governor, but they seem to have been smart enough to vote out a very recently convicted Stevens. Now, if we could only find out why 90,000 ballots were left uncounted as Stevens was being reported as the winner of that race.

by ThePete 8:24 pm 2008-11-13 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags , , , , , , , | $ |

Democracy Still in Danger: A Stack of Stories Since Tuesday

by ThePete 3:56 pm 2008-11-07

Sorry about the lack of blog posts since Tuesday on the topic of voting irregularities–I needed a couple days off after all the election fun. I still have to do my election recap-post and talk about a few things I got wrong. It’s nice being wrong once in a while :) But that’s for another post. Here come the latest stories of irregularities, most of them from BradBlog.com. I did do find a few non-BradBlog-based stories that I found actually a little disturbing. Let’s get to those first:

Voting Problems Minimal on Election Day
For all of the worrying over voter fraud, voter suppression, and voting machine meltdowns, this year’s presidential election went surprisingly smoothly. That’s not to say that there weren’t any problems, but that simply problems weren’t widespread or severe enough to cause any doubt about the winner of the election.
www.switched.com/2008/11/07/voting-problems-minimal-this-election-day/
Switched.com is some sort of gadget blog–I’ve never heard of them before today, but they’re part of AOL’s network of blogs, so they’ve got to be reasonably accurate, I suppose. Sadly, this post, while factually accurate plays down the very problems it reports in the first paragraph of the post (excerpted above). So, voting problems not that big of deal? Then why are you covering them? I love this odd contradiction–there’s no story here, they just wanted to let us know that there was no story. Too bad there is a story here. And not everything is about the presidential races. Nice of the post to admit that there is still work to be done, though. Funny how he fails to mention the undecided races still out and about.

Again, this is about more than just the president.

Recount Reverses Results in Kent County District 29 Race
State Rep. Pamela Thornburg, a Republican lawmaker from Hartly who thought she lost her District 29 seat on election night, was told Thursday evening that she won.

The Kent County Court of Canvass overturned election results that initially gave the seat to Democratic challenger W. Charles “Trey” Paradee III.

…

… it appears to be that the Diebold scanners used in the District 29 race may be to blame for the initial miscount. She said an expert is being brought in from Tennessee to examine the problem.

“We’re waiting for an explanation as to why there is a problem,” she said.

Wright also noted that it seems that the problem with the scanners only occurred in the District 29 race and not with any other districts in the state.
www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S=9310325
See? It’s not just presidential elections that can suffer because of ballot machines gone screwy–and you should note that this story is about optical scanners–not touchscreen computerized voting. This is about the machine that scans the ballots and counts the votes. Yeah–if this kind of machine is fallible, can I just ask what’s so wrong with hiring people to do this counting? Sure, humans are fallible, too, but hiring people to count creates jobs and then we can hire an extra couple people to recount what the counters just counted. Sure, it will take longer, but that’s OK. As I’ve said before, I think our democracy is worth it.

Officials: State Experienced a Few Glitches on Election Day
Secretary of State’s Office reports county elections officials experienced no more problems than usual on Election Day despite worries about “vote flipping” on touch-screen voting machines.
www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=46508
Wow, start your article up with a blurb like that and your readers won’t keep reading! Why should they if there were “no more problems than usual”? And what the heck does that even mean? “no more problems than usual”? So, usually votes don’t get counted and it’s cool? No big deal? What about in tight races like the Franken/Coleman race in Minnesota? Coleman is ahead of Franken by 239 votes. Certainly the usual number of votes uncounted in an election wouldn’t matter in a case like that, would it?

RNC May Challenge Integrity of ‘Computerized Voting’
On Tuesday, Forensicon, a Chicago computer forensic company, said that it was contacted last week by a security firm last week to assist the Republic National Committee (RNC) in challenging cases of “computerized voter fraud.”

“If the election returns vary significantly from the polled numbers in any precincts that proves crucial to the election outcome, I expect that a legal struggle over the validity of the election results will ensue,” said Forensicon’s President, Lee Neubecker in a press release.

The move seems to indicate a future move by the RNC to challenge certain voting results, in some contradiction to past RNC actions regarding electronic voting, which includes recent legal actions in Pennsylvania.
www.pubrecord.org/component/content/470.html?task=view
This is interesting considering that the more prominent electronic ballot machine companies are owned by Republicans. The head guy in charge of Diebold, back in 2004, got in trouble for actually admitting in a campaign fund-raising letter that he was determined to deliver Ohio to George W. Bush. Odds are he meant “by raising a lot of money” but it does seem like a bad idea to put it the way he did when you’re running a company that provides computerized ballot machines to a buttload of America.

‘Daily Voting News’ For November 05, 2008
As we suspected tabulation of ballots has revealed problems with voting systems from all of the vendors. Hillsborough Co Florida is rethinking their contract with Premier/Diebold for $6M after having big problems counting votes. Manatee Co Florida also had a problem with Premier. Palm Beach Co had bad memory cartridges from Sequoia. Counties in Pennsylvania and South Carolina had problems with their ES&S system. We also have a run-off for senator from Georgia and a recount for senator from Minnesota.
www.bradblog.com/?p=6639
The post goes on to touch on a HUGE number of problems from various corners of the US.

Al Franken’s Razor-Thin MN Senate Race Counted on Flawed Optical-Scan Systems
PLUS: Details on ‘What in the Hell Happened in Alaska’ and Georgia and Oregon…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6641
This is the story I touched on above–only this BradBlog post is a couple days old. And yep, those optical scan machines are the same kinds of devices that went wrong in the Kent County story above. The added fun here is that when Franken was still on Air America Radio, he was the only AAR host who didn’t want to talk about voting irregularities. Two words: eye ronic.

All Diebold Touch-Screen Systems Impounded by Judge in PA County
Straight-Party Ticket Votes Failed to Allow Voters to Review Names of Presidential Candidates Before Casting ‘Ballot’
Same Flawed, Hackable, Unverifiable Machines Being Used in GA Senate Race, Elsewhere…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6643
I’ll just take the first paragraph from the post since it explains things just right:

All 185 of the completely unverifiable Diebold touch-screen voting machines used in Northumberland County, PA’s election were ordered impounded by a judge Tuesday night after complaints from both the Republican and Democratic parties. Officials from both parties had filed requested action following reports from voters that straight-party ticket votes were not showing voters the names of their selection for President on the summary screen near the end of the 100% faith-based touch-screen voting process.

Weeeee…?

SOMETHING SMELLS VERY FISHY IN ALASKA
Turnout Rate Reported as Lowest Ever in State, Down 11% From ‘04 Even With Both Palin and Obama on the Ballot
Hanging in the Balance in the Diebold State: Felon Ted Stevens’ U.S. Senate Race, Corrupt Don Young’s House Race & Much More…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6644
Check out this excerpt:

In Alaska, more people voted for George W. Bush in 2004 than for Sarah Palin on Tuesday despite an identical 61-36 margin of victory. Yes. Only four years ago 54,304 Alaskans got off their sofas and voted for Bush, but decided to sit home and not vote for Palin in 2008.

In turn, I have to ignore the 30,520 Alaskans who felt progressive enough in 2004 to vote for John Kerry, but weren’t inspired enough to get out and vote for Barack Obama.

It goes on, too–calling this “fishy” is understating it seriously. I’m going to try and keep an eye on this story–it seems like Alaskans got seriously shafted here.

BradBlog.com is the single best place to learn about election irregularities. Don’t wait for me to cover them–just head over there!

Those are all the stories I have for now. I’m sure there will be more.

So, I hope you have a good idea of why voting irregularities are still important things to pay attention to. In a presidential election like this one, with a massive landslide, it’s easy to see what the intent of voting Americans is. But in tighter races where every last vote counts, we need to have a system that does a much better, and much more reliable, job of counting votes.

Thanks for reading! Please pass this on to others!

by ThePete 3:56 pm 2008-11-07 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags , , , , , , | $ |

Democracy in Danger: Latest News Update #1

by ThePete 1:36 am 2008-11-04

Good morning to any East-coasters who are up for the middle-of-the-night-shift!

It is now officially election day and votes are already coming in! I’m not kidding–CNN has an article up about Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, which started voting at 12:01am, November 14–about 15 minutes ago (as I type this). I’ve been told by BNONews.com that they’ve already finished voting there. Hopefully, I’ll hear something before the end of this post.

In the meantime, we have DID news for you, sadly enough. That’s Democracy In Danger, for anyone just joining us. BradBlog.com is the only place I’ve found any new news on voting irregularities, so I’ll just go ahead and give you the low-downs headlines and links:

EXCLUSIVE: Obama/DNC Incident Report Database Reveals Startling, Wide-Spread Voting Machine Problems Across Nevada During Early Voting
Presidential Race Missing on Ballots; Machines Go Down; Votes Not Recorded; Printers Jam
Attorneys Decline to Take Action to Remove Machines From Service, Ensure Paper Ballots for Voters…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6616
This is the big story since early voting in Nevada has been going on for a week, I think. Why the Dem lawyers aren’t doing anything is beyond me.

ES&S Op-Scans ‘Yielding Different Results Each Time Same Ballots Run Through Machines’ in MI County
Failure Discovered During Pre-Election Testing on Systems Used Widely Throughout U.S.; Company Failed to Perform Maintenance
Letter Sent from County to Federal Officials Last Week; Has EAC Notified Other Jurisdictions as Per Their Federal Mandate?…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6613
Yee-haw, folks! Yee-haw! The machines are being flaky, blah-blah, messing up, blah-blah, scanning differently, big effing surprise!

NEXT:

Impossibly Long Lines for Elderly, Other Voters in FL, GA, Elsewhere
Amounts to ‘Elderly Abuse’, Says Emailer; ‘A Poll Tax’ Says MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6611
Maddow is right, I just wish she didn’t remind me so much of Keith Olbermann, sans penis, of course. I’m all for being pissed off, but this righteous indignation crap has gotten really old.

Earlier yesterday (Monday), DemocracyNow.org reported on this issue:

On Eve of Election Day, Is the Nation’s Voting System Ready? Reports of Irregularities Pour in from Across US in Record Early Voting
Election Day is one day away. Tomorrow, tens of millions of Americans will head to the polls. Is the nation’s voting system ready for the unprecedented turnout? In record early voting, more votes have been cast before Election Day than ever before. Already, reports of voting irregularities, long lines, malfunctioning machines and badly managed polling stations are pouring in from across the country. We speak to NYU professor Mark Crispin Miller, author of Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy.
www.democracynow.org/2008/11/3/on_eve_of_election_day_is
Mark Crispin Miller seems to really have his shit together. He’ll be on Democracy Now tomorrow when they do their special 5 hour live broadcast starting at 7pm ET–check out DemocracyNow.org to watch.

Also, if you prefer audio coverage, check out NovaMRadio.com where Brad Friedman (the “Brad” in “BradBlog.com”) will be hosting live coverage of the election starting 6pm and going until 3am ET.

Or just keep it here on ThePete.Com where I will be doing my best to bring you all the latest voting irregularity news, with posts and hopefully video (if my iPhone doesn’t crap out on me!). Wish me luck–but wish us all luck! I really hope we have a clear winner later today–all partisan crap aside, I’d really just like to be able to know for sure that the guy who ends up in the White House deserves to be there. If we all vote it’ll be really obvious. SO GO VOTE if you haven’t already or if your polls are even open. Mine don’t open for another five-and-a-half hours.

Oh, and Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, GOES FOR OBAMA. Thanks Michael over at BNONews.com for the info! I’ll be posting over there, too, btw. Check out their cover it live page: bnonews.com/elections/liveblog.html

OK, I’m outta here!

by ThePete 1:36 am 2008-11-04 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags , , , , | $ |

Democracy In Danger: What You Can Do to Save Democracy! VOTE!

by ThePete 3:22 pm 2008-11-03

OK, in a nutshell, with the election a day away, here’s what you should do if anything goes wrong with your vote or if you see something weird when you vote:

1) Shoot video of as much as you feel comfortable with, check out VideoTheVote.org to find links on how legal it is to shoot in your polling place.
2) Call one of the following:

877-GOCNN-08
866-OUR-VOTE
866-MYVOTE1

The above numbers are also listed at the top of my right sidebar on every page of the blog at ThePete.Com.

3) Go to all or one or all of the below sites and describe your experience voting:

bbvforums.org
866ourvote.org
Bradblog.com

4) If you did shoot video and witnessed anything but a smooth process (voting problems, long lines, machine breakdowns, etc), please visit VideoTheVote.org and upload your video! If you didn’t shoot video, check out the site anyway and see if it jogs your memory of anything that you may not have realized was wrong (this happened to me during the primary vote).

5) Do you MicroBlog? Do you use Twitter.com, Jaiku.com, Kwippy.com, Rejaw.com, etc, to express yourself? Be sure to post about your voting experience but make sure to include correct hashtags for your issue:

* #votereport
* #EP{two-letter state code} - e.g. EPNY for New York, EPOH for Ohio (for serious legal issues only)
* #machine - use this tag to signal a problem with a voting machine
* #registration - use this tag to signal problems with the registration process, people being turned away for paperwok reasons
* #wait:time - use this tag to signal a long wait. Add a colon and the wait time in minutes - e.g. #wait:30 for half an hour, #wait:120 for two hours

(source NotMyGal.com is.gd/4oiS )

A hashtag is a word preceded by a “#” that search engines use to spot microblog posts about specific topics. You can also check out TwitterVoteReport.com to read Tweets about the vote from around the country.

6) BLOG ABOUT IT. Don’t have a blog? Why not start one? Don’t want to start one? Please comment here, at ThePete.Com, or at some other blog that talks about voting problems–preferably BradBlog.com

For news about voting irregularities, don’t trust the mainstream news! They were wrong about the 2004 election so it’s possible they’ll be wrong again. Just go to BradBlog.com for news on election irregularities or just come here. I’ll be liveblogging election irregularity news all day (as I’m sure Brad Friedman will be at the BradBlog).

by ThePete 3:22 pm 2008-11-03 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags , , , , , , | $ |

Daily Democracy in Danger Post: 1 Day Left News Round-Up

by ThePete 2:03 pm 2008-11-03

It’s right around now when I get butterflies–tomorrow will be either the best Christmas ever–or the worst! Regardless, there is still plenty of coverage of voting irregularities out there, though it was a slow weekend (hence the lack of a Sunday “daily” DID post). Here is the latest news from around the web:

Even early risers see long lines for weekend voting
Hundreds stood in line Saturday in Plantation, Florida, before polling center opened
More than 23 million early ballots had been collected in 25 states by Friday
WRAL: Early-voting line four hours long Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina
www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/01/early.voting/index.html

Excitement, frustration as early voters brave long lines
Six-hour wait at early-voting center in Columbus, Ohio, caller tells CNN Voter Hotline
Some callers express surprise at waits around country; others frustrated
More than 4 million early ballots have been cast in Florida
CNN Voter Hotline,1-877-462-6608, will track voter problems through Election Day
www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/02/early.voting/index.html

If I can just jump in here–I don’t get why there are all these long lines–how do our leaders get off not supplying enough machines for early voting? The American people are finally working out how important this election is and this is how we are treated when we show up early? Sheesh. I am glad CNN is covering this, though. Kudos to them for, you know, doing their job.

Prepare for chaos: U.S. electoral system warned it ‘can’t cope’ as historic number of voters cast their ballot for McCain/Obama
The American presidential election could descend into electoral chaos on Tuesday as unprecedented numbers of voters turn out to cast their ballot in a system that is largely untested.

The United States has an electoral system that is not organised, designed or funded to cope with ‘anywhere near a 100 per cent turnout’, a director of a leading independent electoral reform group has said.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1082591/Prepare-chaos-U-S-electoral-warned-cope-historic-number-voters-cast-ballot-McCain-Obama.html

High Turnout May Add to Problems at Polling Places
Millions of voters will encounter an unfamiliar low-tech landscape at the polls on Tuesday. About half of all voters will vote in a way that is different from what they did in the last presidential election, and most will use paper ballots rather than the touch-screen machines that have caused concern among voting experts.
www.nytimes.com/2008/11/03/us/politics/03voting.html
Not sure what the heck the NYT is talking about here since from everything I’ve read it’s more likely to be the opposite–with more people using computerized balloting. Regardless, the NYT article begins with a picture of an 81 year-old man who says the machine on which he voted for Obama almost registered a vote for someone else. Vote Flipping–yaaaay! WAIT–I mean–BOOOOO!!

E-voting worries linger as Election Day nears
After a presidential election eight years ago that seemed like it would never end, politicians pledged to prevent a second round of hanging chads, manual recounts, and U.S. Supreme Court arguments. The idea was to spend up to $3.9 billion to replace punch card voting machines of the sort that Florida accidentally made famous.

By including strict requirements that newly purchased machines “be accessible” to blind and disabled voters, Congress all but mandated electronic voting machines with touch screens. But Washington politicians–not known for their tech-savvy in the best of times–neglected to include even rudimentary security and verifiability requirements.
news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10080863-38.html
Nice to see CNET covering this story, though I think that headline is pretty funny seeing as the article is dated today. REALLY, Mr. CNET Headline-Writer?? Is Election Day near? (It’s tomorrow!)

Obama: Do Not Concede!
Mark Crispin Miller said it: There are two types of people in the world; those who address election integrity issues, and the happy people.
www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-jay/obama-do-not-concede_b_140478.html
TELL me about it. I’ve been following this stuff just a bit longer than Michael Jay, the writer of the above-linked blog post at HuffPo, and yeah, it’s downright scary to realize that we have no hard numbers that prove Bush has been rightfully in the White House all of this time. Regardless of who wins on TV, tomorrow, I hope things are MUCH clearer than they were in 2000 and 2004, and if they aren’t I really hope the loser does not concede until we know for sure (even if it’s McCain).

Wow–what’s really scary is that I haven’t even gotten to the coverage over at BradBlog.com! Just do a Google News search for the phrase “vote flipping” and you’ll see just how many news sources (mainstream and not) are talking about this problem. But I digress:

Democrats Continue to Defend Their Indefensible Election Protection Efforts
Still in Denial, Obama’s Attorney Describes Serious Concerns About Voting Machines and More as ‘Hyperbole’
Argues ‘More Votes Lost From Incompetence Than Fraud or Oppression’…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6607
See, this is JUST like the Democrats to assume the best (that incompetence is more likely than straight-up fraud). Regardless, facts are facts, and computers can be programmed to do anything–including vote-flipping. I don’t know why the damn Dems are so trusting!! They trusted the system to work the last two presidential elections and look who “won”!! They trusted Bush to use the power to go to war wisely and look what happened! They trusted him when he said Saddam was a threat and look what happened. 911, Katrina, the economy?

W. T. F.

Judge Orders CO to ‘Cease And Desist’ Voter Purges, Demands Ballots Be Counted
Important Ruling Places Onus On Elections Officials to Prove Voter Ineligibility…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6602
Imagine that, the concept of being “innocent until proven guilty” still exists in America! I thought it had gone extinct! How nice of the Colorado state gov to assume you are telling the truth when you open your mouth.

How cynical a world do we live in??

What’s the Matter with Voting in Philadelphia? Answer: Marge Tartaglione (D)
Jesus. This is what/who voters in Philadelphia are being forced to deal with,
www.bradblog.com/?p=6606
The “this” Friedman refers to in that excerpt is Marge Tartaglione, the Dem who is, in part, in charge of elections in Philadelphia. This woman is a train wreck. Usually I just link to the stories at the BradBlog, but Brad includes a great video that features Tartaglione comparing voters waiting in line to vote to gadget freaks standing in line for iPods. That has got to be the modern equivalent to the phrase “let them eat cake.”

Anyway, so here’s the video so you can see for yourself just how frivolously this Pennsylvania election official takes the responsibility of voting:

That woman is the Wicked Witch of Philly!

Finally, on Friday, it seems that the mighty Oprah, herself, had trouble voting:

VIDEO: OPRAH SEES OWN PRESIDENTIAL VOTE DROPPED BY TOUCH-SCREEN VOTING MACHINE
‘I went back to check it, it had not recorded my presidential vote!’ Says Terrified, Potentially Disenfranchised Queen of Television…
NOW UPDATED With Much More Useful Info for Oprah and Others Who Do Not Understand These Voting Systems, or What to do If the Same Thing Happens To You…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6603
Yep, the Queen of all Media had trouble voting. Luckily, she was doing her job as a citizen and was paying attention when the machine didn’t show that she had voted for You-Know-Whobama. Eventually things were worked out and she was satisfied that she had her proper vote registered. Too bad she voted on a computerized ballot machine. This means there’s ultimately no way to know for sure her vote will be counted.

OK, that’s all for now! Please stay tuned for more election-related posts, including a post on what you should do if you have trouble voting.

by ThePete 2:03 pm 2008-11-03 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags , , , , , , , , | $ |

Daily Democracy In Danger Post (Brad Friedman Should Get a Pulitzer ed.)

by ThePete 4:57 pm 2008-10-31

If you haven’t noticed, a lot of the links in these daily “Democracy in Danger” posts I’ve been writing have sent you to BradBlog.com. The man behind the BradBlog is one Brad Friedman, a guy absolutely bent on protecting our democracy–but not by fighting terrorists or bailing out the banks, but by doing his best to call attention to voting problems.

Yep, voting is the most basic of rights we have in this country and is, quite literally, the way we make sure we get to keep all of our other rights. See, that’s the big myth our country is founded upon–the idea that there are certain inalienable rights granted to us by our creator. The reality is that our rights are actually granted to us by each other. That’s right–each one of us agrees that every human should be allowed to do certain things. You and I protect our own rights and the rights of each other. The way we make sure our government doesn’t take those rights away is by voting the right people into office. If the voting process itself is flawed someway, well, you can see how democracy can find itself in danger.

This is where Brad Friedman comes in. He has spent years covering voting irregularities here in the US. He’s done absurd amounts of research and dedicated nearly every post in his blog to presenting news and information regarding voting rights in America. Vote switching, voter caging and voter suppression in general are some of the specifics he covers. The man is an Internet superhero for voters across the country.

So, I don’t know if they give the Pulitizer Prize to bloggers, but if they do, Brad Friedman should get it for his dogged blogging on the topic of voting.

He is truly fighting the good fight and deserves to be recognized for it. Oh and he’s a fellow-independent–he goes after both parties for their tactics, even blaming the Democrats for not standing up for themselves as sections of America that are likely to vote Democrat have their votes threatened.

So, NOTE TO PULITZER PEOPLE: BRAD FRIEDMAN FOR THE PULITZER, PLEASE!

Brad Friedman is the Internet’s Edward R. Murrow for voting rights.

OK, now on to the news round up for today’s Democracy In Danger:

PA Counties Said Unprepared to Serve Voters, Meet Court Order for Emergency Paper Ballots
Election Official: ‘80 percent of Counties Do Not Have Emergency Ballots’…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6597
What this story boils down to is this: counties in Pennsylvania aren’t likely to have enough paper ballots should half of the electronic machines fail (as required by a recent directive). If that many machines fail, that means a huge number of people will be unable to vote with them. Think of this like not having enough lifeboats on the Titanic for everyone aboard.

Early & Absentee Voting Scandals in D.C. & L.A.
www.bradblog.com/?p=6594
It turns out that thousands of voters in DC never got their absentee ballots and will now have to vote in person. Meanwhile LA, “the world’s largest voting jurisdiction,” according to Friedman, has just a single early voting location. Well, if I were still an LA resident, you can bet I’d be heading over there right now to check it out. As it is, I don’t believe NYC does early voting, but I should look into it.

I couldn’t find anything new on voting irregularities as CNN.com this afternoon, so I checked out MSNBC.com instead and found a couple stories worth checking out. Here they are:

10 choke points for Election Day
What could go wrong? E-voting glitches, legal challenges and more
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27464554/
Sadly, while this article does talk about voting problems, it calls the intentional suppression of votes and illegitimate voters as “funny business,” also managing to make this a partisan issue, rather than pointing out that everyone should want all votes counted. The article goes on to show a serious lack of understanding of the challenges facing voters. The author seems to think of election laws as forces of nature, where the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) came down from On High, requiring states to use voter registration databases that can be matched to IDs. If there’s a typo in the database some “persnickety” states will not allow the voter to vote. The author of the article also seems to think “vote-flipping” is just a magical “phenomenon” that “will allocate your vote to the wrong candidate.”

Isn’t that neat? He calls it “misallocation” due to “miscalibrated” touchscreens–instead of calling it what it is: faulty technology. Once again, I fall back to my position that if my iPhone touchscreen doesn’t need calibration, why does American democracy’s touchscreen?

I think I’m going to have to tear that article a new one in a separate post. It serves well as an example of how the MSM (MainStream Media) thinks our democracy is not important. Why else would author, Alan Boyle, use words like “persnickety” to describe the states that take the HAVA seriously?

Here’s the other MSNBC.com article:

Voter registration smashes records
States say 188 million have signed up to vote — but experts add caveats
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27459551/
This article, while not directly reporting on voting irregularities, does provide a symbolic warning for all of us to expect MAJOR voting issues on November 4. Even if half of those 188 million new voters actually show up to vote on Tuesday, that means 94 million more people will be showing up at polling places compared to previous years. That’s a lot more pressure than those poling places are likely used to. Already (see above) we see that Pennsylvania won’t have enough paper ballots should more than 50% of their electronic ballot machines crash. This is going to be the messiest damn election EVER. Geh–that article is written by Alan Boyle, too. Sheesh–doesn’t MSNBC.com have anyone else on board to write about elections?? HEY! MSNBC.com! I’m looking for work! Why not hire me? I seem to know WAY more than this Boyle guy when it comes to elections!!

:P

Voter machine erratically switches selection
Equipment picks Ralph Nader when John McCain is chosen
worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=79565
This is more coverage of that video that shows a West VA election official demonstrating how sometimes touchscreen machines need to be recalibrated. The funny thing is, even after he recalibrates it, the machine still switches to a candidate other than Obama when Obama is touched.

Video spurs concerns over West Virginia voting machines
www.timeswv.com/westvirginia/local_story_304194135.html
Here’s more coverage of the video. However, this time it seems like West VA officials are claiming it doesn’t show anything wrong at all. The article refers to comments made by DepSecO’State Sarah Bailey who apparently explained that:

…the machines allow voters to select a straight ticket and then depart from that for individual races. She said Secretary of State Betty Ireland plans to complain about the video to the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

I’ve just watched the video again and I think I see what Bailey means here. For some odd reason the official touches the button for “straight Democrat” and Obama lights up–but then, without saying anything, he inexplicably hits the “Nader” button. Then he does something else, the screen flashes and then he sees the Nader choice and apparently forgets that he, himself just pressed it seconds ago. So, it’s possible that the machine works fine.

Of course, this still doesn’t excuse why an uncalibrated machine was actively taking votes during early voting. It also doesn’t explain why voting machines are so crappily made that they have touchscreens that need to be calibrated when technology as ubiquitous as the iPhone doesn’t. It also doesn’t excuse the fact that there is no way to prove you voted one way or another with an electronic ballot machine. You simply must trust the technology to not fail.

W. Virginia Gives E-Voting VP an Award While Machines Malfunction
A day after West Virginia secretary of state Betty Ireland held a press conference to address vote-switching problems with touchscreen voting machines made by Election Systems & Software, she presented an award of merit to an ES&S vice president, who had abruptly and mysteriously left the company in May after 11 years of service, according to the Charleston Gazette.
blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/w-virginia-give.html
This just shows you how absurd our leaders can be. Giving awards to people for designing generally untrustworthy machines that can’t provide absolute proof that a citizen voted one way or another.

So, that’s it for today regarding election irregularity news. I’ll post more later if anything new comes along, but today is Halloween so I may not hear about it until tomorrow. Either way, I’ll be posting about voting irregularities when ever I think it’s necessary.

by ThePete 4:57 pm 2008-10-31 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags , , , , , , , , | $ |

Why VideoTheVote.Org is So Important

by ThePete 3:38 pm 2008-10-30
Want to know what it’s like to be a disenfranchised voter? I can tell you–it kinda sucks. How do I know? Back in February of 2008 I was one.

See, I’m a registered independent. My vote in the Democrat primaries this year was not counted and it wasn’t because I’m not a Democrat–it was because the state of California added an extra hoop that I had to jump through in order to have my vote counted as an indy voter and I didn’t see the hoop, so I didn’t jump through it.

Want to see proof that I missed the hoop? Go here: http://tv.thepete.com/…feels-like

That’s a video of me failing to jump through the hoop accompanied by an explanation of how it happened.

All this was possible because I brought with me one of those still cameras that shoots video when I went to vote. I didn’t check the laws before I did it, either. I only pulled it out and started recording once I was safely ensconced in my "booth" where no one could see me and my camera could see only what I was voting. It was an invasion of no one’s privacy but my own. But why would I do such a thing?

Back in 2004, and before then in 2000, I had no problem voting for the guy I wanted to vote for. The catch was that loads of people DID have trouble voting. I became concerned that maybe I was too confident in the system–like I was just assuming that I’d notice it if something went wrong.

So, in 2008, I brought my camera along and I’m glad I did. Because the next day, when news came out that there was that extra hoop for us indy voters to jump through I immediately searched my own memory to see if I remember that extra hoop. I couldn’t remember one. So, I pulled up the video and voila–I saw it.

VideotTheVote.org is a website that will serve as a clearing house for videos like this during the 2008 election. So, when you vote, bring a camera!! Take video and then upload it to VideoTheVote.org and then go check out other folks’ vote videos at VtV’s YouTube page here: http://www.youtube.com/…deothevote

This is so important that you do this. Sure, some places don’t allow video cameras inside the polling places by law, but that’s absurd to me. As long as you shoot your own voting and don’t catch anyone else on camera, I don’t know why they should care one way or another.

BE AWARE: you still may get caught and suffer legal repercussions but, to me, the risk is worth it. This is our democracy we’re talking about here and each of our votes (regardless of who we vote for) is important.

Once again, that’s VideoTheVote.Org!

Mobile post sent by thepete using Utterli. reply-count Replies.

by ThePete 3:38 pm 2008-10-30 In TheNews, Politricks, TV.ThePete.Com, ThePete.Com | Tags , , , , , , | $ |

Democracy in Danger: USMSM Ignoring, Other Sources Not

by ThePete 6:47 pm 2008-10-29

The US Mainstream Media (USMSM) is sadly blowing off stories of voting irregularities. I just trolled CNN.com a few minutes ago and saw almost nothing regarding reports of vote-problems. Luckily, loads of online sources seem to be covering this story. Let’s hope it continues and let’s also hope CNN.com decides to do more than just offer their “voter problem” page (here: politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/category/voter-problems/ ). Talk about treating a problem improperly. What they do by putting all the stories about voting problems on one page and nowhere else is, essentially, ghetto-izing news about our democracy failing us.

If you think a few votes here and a few votes there are no big deal, you clearly don’t recall how tight the Bush wins were in 2000 and 2004. Also, a handful of reports can often be the tip of the iceberg. Not everyone is going to notice or be sure that they just had a problem voting. This is why it’s so important that election irregularities stay on the front page of EVERY news source on the planet (yes, the planet, since the guy running the USA tends to bomb a lot). If you know of election stories that aren’t being covered, why not start your own blog and post about it? Or email your favorite news sources and ask them why they aren’t covering these stories? It’s just our democracy in the balance.

All this said, plenty of stories are reaching the ‘net on non-USMSM sites. Here’s a nice round up for you:

Phony Flier Gives Va. Dems Wrong Election Date
In Virginia, a phony flier purporting to come from the state election board has circulated to prevent Democrats from voting on Election Day. The flier tells Democrats and independents to vote on November 5th, the day after the election.
www.democracynow.org/2008/10/29/headlines#4
How are we not supposed to blame the Republicans for something like this? (Mind you, I’m a registered independent.)

Report: Sequoia Voting Machine Prone to Hacking
a new Princeton University report… …says a machine made by the California-based Sequoia Voting Systems can be hacked in about seven minutes.
www.democracynow.org/2008/10/29/headlines#5
NICE! Sequoia were the blokes said to be behind the “hanging-chads” from 2000.

Your Last Chance to Pull That Big Red Lever
This Tuesday is supposed to be New Yorkers’ last chance to use the old-fashioned voting machines! That is, if everything goes as planned. New York state is already behind in the attempt to switch to newer voting technology in accordance with the Help America Vote Act. According to City Limits, “Using New York state’s old-fashioned lever machines is difficult for people who aren’t able to see the choices or flip the levers.”
idealistnyc.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/your-last-chance-to-pull-that-big-red-lever/
I was unaware of this–and I’m a New Yorker now. Sheesh. I should say that I think the argument using disabled voters as the excuse to switch entirely to electronic “ballot marking devices” (or BMDs) is a weak one since disabled voters are a fraction of the people who vote. Also, forcing them to use BMDs isn’t fair to them, either. Can’t we just create a job where someone is in charge of helping disabled folks vote?

ELECTION DAY TEST LOOMS FOR NEW VOTING DEVICES
Nov. 4 should be the beginning of the end for the city’s lever voting machines, as New York continues its belated effort to comply with the Help America Vote Act.
www.citylimits.org/content/articles/viewarticle.cfm?article_id=3643
This is a decidedly positive view of the same story from IdealistNYC. These guys seem to really only care about these complying with federal law and not with the possibility that these devices work or are at all trustworthy. It’s funny, I’m a total tech-head and I’d never trust technology with my democracy.

More Vote-Flipping in TX by Machines Other Than Those Made by ES&S
Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems Made by Hart InterCivic and Diebold Also Reportedly Now Flipping Votes From Democratic to Republican in TX…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6584
Previously, I’ve blogged about reports that all the vote switching has occurred on just one kind of machine from just one company–the iVotronic from ES&S (blogged here and here). However, according to BradBlog.com the problems are popping up in voting machines from a number of different companies, so no voter using an electronic/computerized voting machine is safe from this kind of “glitch.”

National groups laud W.Va.’s response to vote switching
A pair of national voting rights groups say other states should follow West Virginia’s lead when it comes to touch-screen voting machines.

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University and Verified Voting are touting Secretary of State Betty Ireland’s decision to urge counties to recalibrate their machines each morning.
wvgazette.com/News/200810290417
While this sounds like good news, it really isn’t. These machines shouldn’t need to be recalibrated EVER. As I blogged last night, my iPhone has a touchscreen, too and I never have to recalibrate it–why is it that American Democracy seems to have a crappier touchscreen than my iPhone?

The Vote Grab: Voting machines are unreliable and inaccurate
As early voting in the US presidential elections gets underway, ES&S iVotronics touch-screen electronic voting machines have been observed in four separate states flipping the votes – mostly from Barack Obama to John McCain but sometimes to third party candidates too. This has already occurred during early voting in the states of West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri and Texas.
blogs.independent.co.uk/openhouse/2008/10/the-vote-grab-1.html
This is somewhat old news, but at least they’re covering it. Also, just because it’s old news doesn’t make it untrue. What’s nice about this piece (written by Peter Tatchell) is that it goes into some nice detail into the background of these kinds of problems. This makes it a good primer for anyone who hasn’t been following this stuff for years.

So, while it’s nice to see some print and foreign news sources covering this stuff, it’s still not reaching as many people (or as many Americans) as it needs to. Back in 2004 a bunch of us screamed about it, but were ignored. We all need to scream about this stuff. Regardless of who “wins” on November 4, the win won’t mean a thing to anyone who respects the truth and the will of the American People.

I’m one of those people.

For the latest news on vote switching your best bet is to do a Google news search here:
news.google.com/news?q=vote%20switching

If you see any weirdness at your polling place please one or all of the following (especially the first two items):

Call 877-GOCNN-08 That’s CNN’s voter problem hotline

Call 866-MYVOTE1 That’s an independent hotline run by the guys behind www.infovoter.net/

Go here: www.votersunite.org/electionproblems_submit.asp and describe what you experienced.

Comment here at ThePete.Com or at any other blog covering election irregularities

Blog about it yourself

If you brought a camera with you to vote, take pictures or video and upload it to the VideoTheVote.org.

In the end, it’s up to every American citizen to not just vote, but to do their part in making sure that vote means something.

by ThePete 6:47 pm 2008-10-29 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags , , , , , , , , | $ |

Democracy in Danger: the Voting Dramacracy Continues

by ThePete 3:20 am 2008-10-29

Homer Votes Obama Wow, take a couple days off and the world keeps going without ya! Sheesh! Sadly, this includes voting irregularities. I was really hoping this would stop happening long before election day, but since the reports keep coming in, I can only assume what we’re seeing is the tip of the iceberg.

Why do I feel like our democracy is the Titanic…

Here’s the latest coverage on the ‘net, well, from my favorite sources, anyway:

VIDEOS: Vote Flipping on Touch-Screens in WV
Failure Seen Persisting Even After Election Official ‘Recalibrates’ Failed Machine!
www.bradblog.com/?p=6576
The second video in that post is pretty good, too–shows a guy demoing how flaky the touchscreen really is (though I’m not sure he means to). What ticks me off is how they talk about the screen needing to be “calibrated” after it is moved (this is the excuse given for why it comes up McCain when you touch Obama’s name). I never have to calibrate my iPhone’s touchscreen. Are you telling me democracy has a shittier touchscreen than my iPhone? Weeeeak!

FL Governor Extends Early Voting Hours
ALSO: Broward County Backs off on Strict ‘No Match, No Vote’ Voter Registration Directive…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6583
This is good news! Extended voting hours and backing down on NMNV means more people get to vote. WHEW!

Diebold’s ‘Express’ Voter Registration Computers (Again) Lead to Long Waits in GA’s Early Voting
www.bradblog.com/?p=6581
I love this new emphasis on “express” and how ultimately the systems crash and make everything take longer. Shouldn’t we take our time with our democracy so we make sure to get it right? Look what happened back in 2000? Can we ever be sure who really won? Wouldn’t you like to PROVE to me that your candidate was the man America wanted?

Too bad you can’t.

ES&S Touch-Screens Keep Flipping in WV, Now in At Least 6 Counties
Same ES&S iVotronics Flipping Votes from Democrats to Republicans (and others) in At Least 4 States
www.bradblog.com/?p=6572
So the reports of vote switching that were originally said to be isolated in two different counties in West VA, have now started coming in from SIX counties. That’s a LOT of isolated instances!

Election Unspun Oct 28 - Vote Switching At Voting Machines
In Nashville Tennessee, Patricia Earnhardt, attempted to early vote. On her electronic touch screen voting machine, she tried to vote for Barack Obama - but her vote didn’t register. Earnhardt requested the help of a poll worker, who tried to high light the Obama button but nothing happened. Finally, the machine chose selected Green Party Candidate Cynthia McKinney, whose name was located 5 rows below Obama’s. A poll worker helped her start the process over and her vote finally registered Barack Obama.
www.fsrn.org/content/election-unspun-oct-28-vote-switching-voting-machines/3635
I think the above story is important because it illustrates how much extra effort some voters have to go to in order to actually vote. Of course, since these are still touchscreen voting machines, we still have to worry about whether the vote itself will actually be counted by the machine (it call tell us one thing and then do another, in theory).

Voting Rights Watch: One company’s machine behind vote-switching reported in early balloting across the South
southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/10/voting-rights-watch-one-companys.asp
BradBlog.com reported it earlier this week, and SouthernStudies.org is now reporting that the iVotronic machine from ES&S continues to be the culprit in every case of vote switching reported across the American southeast.

Wondering what all this “election irregularity” stuff is? Wondering why I and so many other folks are worried about this election? Well, Lisa Rein (my good friend and SIL) has written a great primer that covers a great deal of the controversy. Check that post out here:

Voting Irregularities Starting Already - This Year, We’re All Detectives
www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/002836.php

Going to blog about VideoTheVote.org soon–I promise. Why wait for me? Go check it out for yourself!

by ThePete 3:20 am 2008-10-29 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags , , , | $ |

Vote Switching In More States

by ThePete 1:32 pm 2008-10-25
Not sure what "vote switching" is? The video clip above comes from a documentary called "Stealing America" and I snagged it from YouTube (here: http://www.youtube.com/watch ). It demonstrates the vote switching that occurred in the 2004 presidential election. See the end of this post for more info on "Stealing America."

Yep, Vote Switching is reportedly happening again and while all of the votes have been Democrat-to-Republican switches, it’s important to note that this is an AMERICAN issue–not a Dem or Repub issue.

If you’re a Republican, don’t you want to know for sure that McCain won fair and square? If you don’t want this, you should really take a second look at your morals since a fair democracy should be what everyone wants.

Aaaanyway…

BradBlog.com is reporting (here: http://www.bradblog.com/ ) on more instances of vote switching from Texas, Tennessee and Missouri on top of the so-called "isolated" cases in West Virginia.

From the BB post:

This is just getting worse and worse. Now it’s happening in Texas. (And in MO, if you read to the end of the article). And the vaunted "thousands of attorneys" from the Obama campaign and the DNC are still nowhere to be found.

With every incident so far reported of touch-screen vote-flipping during early voting in this year’s general election — from county to county in WV and in Nashville, TN) — it’s been the ES&S iVotronic touch-screen machine that has failed, flipping votes from one candidate to another not chosen by the voter. In most every instances (see update below), it’s been an attempted Democratic vote, flipped to a Republican, or another party.

Yep, it’s the same type/brand of machine that’s messing up–the ES&S iVotronic touch-screen machine. The BB post also says something interesting about electronic voting in general:

…no voter should ever cast a vote on a touch-screen machine unless they are forced to. There is absolutely no way that any vote ever cast on a touch-screen machine — with or without a so-called paper trail — can ever be shown as having been recorded accurately.

Brad is right–you have to have blind faith in technology and if you’ve used a PC or a Mac you know that even the best machines are still fallible. Why we can’t take our time by voting with pencil and paper is beyond me. This isn’t a pizza, we’re ordering–it’s a president.

The same post at BradBlog goes on to explain what to do if you see your vote switch:

* Call poll supervisors to observe the problem
* Fill out a problem report
* Refuse to vote on that machine
* Request that the machine be taken out of service
* Get a serial number of the machine if possible (may be unlikely in many cases)
* Tell other voters not to vote on that machine
* Call county/town election office
* Call local reporters
* Call voter problem hotlines (eg. 866-MYVOTE1 and 866-OUR-VOTE)
* Contact bloggers and Election Integrity websites.
* Raise holy hell.

Brad also mentions that the supposed legions of Democratic lawyers ready to defend Obama voters are nowhere to be found.

So, the Democrats are falling down on the job again.

If you didn’t follow this stuff back in 2004, this is a direct replay of those events–obvious irregularities ignored by almost everyone–including those Dems who would directly benefit from pursuing the truth.

Of course, every American benefits from knowing the truth.

The video clip at the top of this post comes from a documentary covering the irregularities surrounding recent elections. The movie is called "Stealing America" and is now on DVD and can also be watched entirely online at my website here:
http://thepete.com/…tch-it-now

Or check it out at the official site: http://stealingamericathemovie.org/

Also, when you go to the polls to vote, be smart and bring your camera. If something goes wrong, snap a picture or shoot some video. I’ll be posting more on this soon. Don’t want to wait? Check out http://VideoTheVote.org/

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by ThePete 1:32 pm 2008-10-25 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags , ,