ThePete.Com / Democracy Still in Danger: A Stack of Stories Since Tuesday

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, DID08, election 2008, election irregularities, politics, Politricks, voting irregularities | $ |

Democracy Still In Danger! It’s Not All About the President!

by ThePete 5:47 pm 2008-11-05

QUICK NOTE:

IN CASE YOU HAD TROUBLE VOTING ON ANYTHING YESTERDAY, PLEASE CALL ONE OF THE FOLLOWING NUMBERS: 877-GOCNN-08, 866-OUR-VOTE, 866-MYVOTE1 and then make sure to tell others about your experience!

OK, now, on with the post!

Wow, well, as I’ve already said, it’s great that Obama won, but we have a HUGE landslide to thank for that. If 7 million American voters weren’t so motivated to demand change, we’d be having a different conversation right now. However, the conversation about our very fallible election system still needs to be had.

What happens in 2010 or hell, even today with a few races still left undecided at this point? It seems like Al Franken is pretty close to losing or winning (more on this in a bit) and Prop 8, out in California, is still up in the air (more on this, too). The point is, when things are tight–when you have either two lame candidates (as in 2004) or two really good ones, the American people often end up splitting right down the middle. This means that every last vote needs to be counted–especially yours! And you know who I’m referring to–YOU–every damn YOU out there deserves to have a vote that is counted.

All that given, let’s have a look at some headlines and links to stories about voting irregularities that I’ve found at a couple of my favorite web-based digs:

Felony Disenfranchisement and the Right to Vote: Democracy Now!’s Mike Kimber Casts a Ballot for the First Time
As tens of millions head to the polls today, we take a look at the issue of felony disenfranchisement, the practice by state governments of barring people convicted of a felony from voting, even after they have served their time. What many don’t realize is that while a few states have permanent felony disenfranchisement laws, many allow those with a felony record to eventually rejoin the voter rolls. Democracy Now!’s Mike Kimber discusses his experience casting a ballot for the first time in his life after realizing he was allowed to vote in New York.
www.democracynow.org/2008/11/4/felony_disenfranchisement_and_the_right_to
I took a law class in high school that taught us that when you are convicted of a crime all of your rights go out the window–including the right to vote. Apparently, that’s not true in many states. It’s this very gray area that often ends up being a source of disenfranchisement for voters around the country. If you have a criminal record, don’t assume you have no voice!

50,000 Report Voting Problems
Overall, more than 50,000 voters called the Election Protection hotline Tuesday to report problems at the voting polls.
www.democracynow.org/2008/11/5/headlines#6
This is just DN reporting on the same story 866ourvote.org reported on yesterday (I reported on it, too!).

FEENEY FLAMES OUT
FL-24 Congressman, Election Integrity Enemy, Defeated
www.bradblog.com/?p=6628
This is a very important (and GREAT) thing to note, so here’s a longer excerpt from this post at BradBlog.com:

Congressman Tom Feeney, rated by nonprofit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (C.R.E.W.) as one of the “most corrupt members of Congress” for three years straight, has been defeated in Florida’s 24th district. Regular Brad Blog readers know Feeney as the man who allegedly asked computer programmer Clint Curtis to write vote-flipping software in 2000 and escaped all accountability in an investigation stacked with Jeb Bush loyalists.

Yeah, pretty crazy, huh? What’s hilarious is that Curtis ran against Feeney for his seat and lost. GEE, I wonder how THAT HAPPENED! (Could it be the software Curtis wrote for ya, Tom?) Oh, and it’s not “allegedly” since Curtis testified under oath that Feeney asked him to make the vote-flipping software–Curtis even passed a polygraph.

Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap
Glitches, Problems and Irregularities, Oh, My
Obama Won, But that Doesn’t Fix Our Broken Electoral System
www.bradblog.com/?p=6631
This post at BradBlog.com (written by BB guest-blogger Jim Cirile) covers reports of voting irregularities from all over the damn place: Vermont, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Iowa, Florida, and California. These reports cover everything from screwy ballots, to Republicans harassing voters, to Ink-A-Vote “machines” being stolen in Los Angeles.

Franken Good Enough, Smart Enough
And Gosh Darn It, About Half the People Like Him
UPDATE: AP ‘UNCALLS’ RACE, NOW ‘TOO CLOSE TO CALL’, WILL TRIGGER AUTOMATIC RECOUNT…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6634
So, remember how comedian Al Franken was running for office in one of those “real” America states? Well, in the senate race between Franken and Norm Coleman in Minnesota is apparently in a dead heat. The AP actually reported that Franken had lost, but because he had lost by less than half of a percentage point, by law, a recount must now be done–so they un-reported the Franken loss. This is a classic example of why our election system needs to be solid. In cases like this, where it’s neck and neck, it is excruciatingly obvious why every last vote matters.

How’s this for ironic:

VIDEO: Actor Tim Robbins Denied Right to Vote
Seeks Judge’s Order to be Returned to Roll After Being Purged in NY…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6636
Yep! After being Mr. Super-Hyper-Democrat-Liberal-Activisty-Guy, Tim Robbins gets purged incorrectly from the voter rolls. This is just going to make us hate him more because he is right when he whines about how our vote being precious and that anyone of us could fall prey to this kind of disenfranchisement. Hell, I got disenfranchised back during the primaries in February. If this citizen blogger (yours truly) can be a victim and so can that big Hollywood-liberal-elite-espresso-man, how do you know that YOU are safe?

Ah, fear-mongering is fun! Too bad it’s justified…

And finally, the most depressing story of the day, Prop 8 has yet to LOSE.

California’s Prop 8: Too Close To Call!
While the Yes on 8 Hate Mongers Declare Victory, No on 8 Campaign Understands Need to Wait For Complete Vote Count
Marriage Rights Hang in the Balance
www.bradblog.com/?p=6637
This is a HUGE deal because it’s effectively a ban on gay marriage, so here’s an excerpt from that post at BradBlog.com:

California’s proposition 8 currently has more “yes” (to discrimination) votes than “no” votes tallied, 52.2% to 47.8%, according to California Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s website. This represents a difference of 434,830 votes. But according to the No on 8 campaign, three to four million votes remain uncounted.

Gotta love that, man. I wish I had known about Prop 8 sooner or I would have added that to my mix of topics here at ThePete.Com. You can bet I’ll be blogging on it soon.

Regardless, this is a great example of why every vote counts. If this law fails, gays across the state of California will still be able to get married. If it passes, gays across California will NOT be legally recognized by the state as being in a spiritual/domestic partnership with another person. Regardless of which side of this issue you fall, isn’t it obvious how important it is to count all the votes?

Of course, laws should be about protecting rights, not removing them.

Just my 2¥, as always!

by ThePete 5:47 pm 2008-11-05 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags Al Franken, election 2008, election irregularities, politics, Politricks, Prop 8, voting irregularities | $ |

Long Night–Democracy Safe… For Now… Toast to PEBHO

by ThePete 3:32 am 2008-11-05

OK, so me going down to Times Square to stream live video was largely a bust. If it weren’t for the wonderful personal experience of going down there I’d have wished I’d stayed at home. That said, I did get some video streamed and other video shot on a still camera that shoots video. I also took a bunch of pics. I’ll post those all tomorrow.

But don’t think that just because Obama won that our election system is somehow perfect and not in need of serious overhaul!

There is still PLENTY wrong with our system and the ONLY reason and I mean the ONLY REASON we can trust that Obama really won was because there was a serious lead–4.5 million more voters wanted Obama than wanted McCain. That’s a clear win and no one could fake that many votes. Once again, there is still an awful lot that can and did go wrong in this election and I’ve got the links to prove it. However, I’m too damn tired after having shared this cathartic evening with a few thousand fellow New Yorkers jammed into Times Square. Want to see some of the footage I was able to stream? Head over to 12seconds.tv/channel/ThePete for a few 12 second chunks or head to qik.com/thepete for longer chunks. I’ll post better video and more video (and edited down video) tomorrow along with more links to stories about voting irregularities.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a few 12seconds.tv video clips:

Qik Video on 12seconds.tv

TOAST PRESIDENT OBAMA pt1 on 12seconds.tv

A TOAST TO PRESIDENT ELECT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA on 12seconds.tv

by ThePete 3:32 am 2008-11-05 In TheNews, Politricks, TV.ThePete.Com, ThePete.Com | Tags election 2008, election irregularities, musings, NYC, PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, ThePeteTV, Times Square, toasts, voting integrity, voting irregularities | $ |

Democracy In Danger Election Day News Update #4

by ThePete 6:15 pm 2008-11-04

Wow, things have kind of gotten busy. I’ll just get straight to the headlines and links in the order in which I find them in my browser tabs:

Votes being tallied in Williamson County
Williamson County election report error
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) - Williamson County Elections is reporting an error that could affect the outcome of the election. An error in electronic poll books for Election Day means some voters got the wrong ballots. There are reportedly 16 precincts impacted so far.
www.kxan.com/dpp/home/Williamson_County_election_report_error

City Voters Face Long Lines, Great Stakes
The city expects a record voting turnout today, as voters elect a new president and will determine which political party will dominate the State Senate.

Balmy weather and clear skies have made waiting in line less difficult. Polls opened at 6 a.m., and many voters experienced long lines filled with people who had wanted to avoid such lines. After an early morning rush, the lines decreased with the start of the 9 a.m. workday.

Many city residents told NY1 that they waited for as long as an hour to vote. Some lines were made up of hundreds of people and stretching blocks.

However, one voter in Bushwick, Brooklyn e-mailed NY1 to say that there was no line at the neighborhood poll and wish that more neighbors had turned out.

Another voter, who identified herself as Michelle from Manhattan’s Lower East Side, e-mailed NY1 to say that she arrived at the poll at 6:15 a.m., waited 45 minutes and then encountered faulty voting booths.
www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/88343/city-voters-face-long-lines–great-stakes/Default.aspx

Over 1,000 calls from Georgia
As of 12 p.m., Georgia Election Protection has received 1,034 phone calls from voters. The most common problems are issues with the registration rolls - such as voters being told they are not on the rolls - and polling place problems.
blog.ourvotelive.org/?p=274

50,000 calls to Election Protection
We just passed a milestone: today alone, 50,000 voters have called the Election Protection hotlineWe are receiving many reports from frustrated Ohio voters who have been inexplicably dropped from the lists of registered voters.

Voters in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) and Franklin County (Columbus) are reporting that:

after voting from same address for years, they suddenly have disappeared from the list at polls
they received a voter registration card/notice of registration and precinct, as recently as this fall — yet are not on the poll registry
they are on the statewide database (DB) but not on the poll registry
www.866ourvote.org/newsroom/news?id=0154
That sounds seriously shady…

Breaking news from Georgia: Federal observers sent to monitor controversy over college student registrations
Election Protection is working in Bleckley County, Georgia to ensure that students at Middle Georgia College are able to vote today after voting officials apparently extended, then suddenly withdrew, a deadline that would have ensured students were registered in time to use a regular ballot.

Federal observers have been sent to monitor the situation.

The controversy stems from a registration drive by the Obama campaign at the college, where 90% of the students are African-American.
www.866ourvote.org/newsroom/news?id=0149

And here are a couple more stories from BradBlog:

VA: ‘Massive’ Machine Malfunctions, Illegal Provisionals, Last Minute Pollsite Moves ‘Plague’ Voters
Groups Calls For Extended Voting Hours Due to Voters Turned Away from Polls
Virginia Tech Students Sent Miles to Remote Location to Vote…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6622
Wow–this one is a big post. Seems like Virginia is a mess–scores of folks are being turned away from polling places due dead ballot machines and students at Virginia Tech are apparently getting maps that direct them away from their polling place.

AR: Pre-Election Tests Not Performed Correctly on Touch-Screens, Not Enough Paper Ballots, Voting Delayed
Voting Machines were not zeroed out after testing leaving votes on them
www.bradblog.com/?p=6623
YAY, MORE INCOMPETENT ELECTION OFFICIALS!

OK, that’s all for now. Sheesh…

by ThePete 6:15 pm 2008-11-04 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags election 2008, election integrity, election irregularities, Politricks | $ |

Democracy In Danger Election Day News Update #3

by ThePete 4:12 pm 2008-11-04

Well, I knew it couldn’t last.

Upon returning from my own adventure voting, I came across a post from fellow New Yorker Steve Isaacs in the FriendFeed US Politics room where he said that “Everyone here in New York is saying the voting is a nightmare. Hours of waiting.” Of course, I’m not–my voting experience was a breeze. No line, ten minutes in line and voila.

Of course, not everyone is as lucky as us NorMas (North Manhattanites) and leave it to good old BradBlog.com to come through with the stories. Check ‘em out:

Machine Problem Reports Increasing in VA, PA, FL…
‘Extensive Reports’ Coming in to Problem Hotline of Machines in Philly ‘Simply Not Working’…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6619
Wow–seems CNN and 866-myvote1 are reporting that a number of malfunctioning machines are being reported in…

key states, like Pennsylvania, Virgian and Florida,” And yes, as predicted, problems in Philadelphia where “there are extensive reports of machines simply not working.

Lovely.

108 Hart InterCivic Voting Machines Removed from Service by Judge in KY
Order Follows Straight-Party Ballot Failures Reported to be Affecting ‘Tightly Contested State Senate Race’…
www.bradblog.com/?p=6620
This is interesting because it reminds us this isn’t just about the White House. It could be your senator or congressperson who might lose thanks to election irregularities.

Amazingly, here comes CNN.com with a couple stories:

Scattered problems reported in historic U.S. vote
Virginia, North Carolina scanners can’t read damp ballots
Scrambled registrars’ books quickly reprinted in Kansas City, Missouri
Some incomplete ballots rejected in Palm Beach County, Florida
Ohio secretary of state’s office anticipates 80 percent turnout rate
www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/voting.problems/index.html
The headline’s use of the word “scattered” makes the instances seem not that big a deal. However, when you read just the story highlights, it’s obvious things have been pretty messy in a few different places.

Did I say CNN had a “couple” stories? I meant ONE story. Ugh. Thank goodness they’ve spent time reporting on “The inventor behind CNN’s election ‘Magic Wall’,” though. PULITZER FOR CNN PLEASE (or not).

Luckily, we have MSNBC that actually did supply a couple stories on folks having trouble voting today:

‘I have never seen anything like this’
Historically high turnout expected as some wait hours to cast their ballot
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27531033/
Amazingly enough LOTS of people are voting today! Some polling places are unprepared. Silly polling places!! Elections are for voters!! Someone must really invent an emoticon for rolling eyes.

Polling officials deal with early glitches
Electronic voting machines faulty in N.J.; wet ballots in Virginia
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27534128/
Haven’t you heard? NEVER get your ballots wet and NEVER FEED THEM AFTER MIDNIGHT! They’ll only spawn recounts!! Sorry, just trying to stay light ^_^ Seems MSNBC is covering the same story as CNN, but using different words. ;) That’s a good thing since more people are hearing about the same instances.

There are a few new posts over at bbvforums.org but not as much as I was expecting.

MSNBC.com does have some nice pics on their main page of various polling places (including one set up in a laundromat). You might also check out videothevote.org/video to watch videos of people voting (or trying to vote).

by ThePete 4:12 pm 2008-11-04 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags election 2008, election irregularities, politics, Politricks | $ |

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 Democracy in Danger, DID08, election 2008, election irregularities, politics, Politricks, voting | $ |

Daily Democracy in Danger: MSNBC.com’s “10 Choke Points” Disected

by ThePete 8:20 pm 2008-11-01

In yesterday’s DID post, one of the articles I linked to was called “10 Choke Points for Election Day” and it was written by Alan Boyle. Now, color me a bit biased, but I feel like he’s MUCH too trusting of technology–especially for being the “Science editor” of MSNBC.com. So trusting that I decided to take his article apart, piece by piece, and point out how he and others in the media downplay the dangers of election irregularities in subtle, but effective ways. As always, the original article is italicized and my comments are smart-assy.

Here we go:

10 choke points for Election Day
What could go wrong? E-voting glitches, legal challenges and more
By Alan Boyle
Science editor
updated 10:32 a.m. ET, Fri., Oct. 31, 2008

So far, so good…

In the year 2000, we suffered through Florida’s hanging chads and lingering lawsuits.

Ain’t democracy a bitch?

So, we “suffered” through “hanging chads and lingering lawsuits,” did we Mr. Boyle? What we quite literally suffered through was a misapplication of the Constitution that ended with the American people not having definite numbers from the 2000 election. Not having definite numbers means not being sure that the guy in the White House is even supposed to be there.

Just think about all the things Bush has screwed the pooch on and now think about the odds of someone else screwing up as badly. Yeah, Boyle, you MIGHT have left a few things out there in your lovely attempt at alliteration there.

In 2004, we agonized over the long lines at polling places, plus Ohio’s provisional ballots.

Once again, was that all we agonized over? It wasn’t the mysterious terrorism-related evacuation order claiming to be from the DHS that eventually denied having been given? It wasn’t the exit polls that literally inverted the results of the election?

What about when a handful of people in Congress tried to get the election investigated but everyone else shrugged them off?

That was agonizing to me–and not just because I voted for Kerry but because I want to know for sure who ever gets into the Oval Office deserves to be there! Isn’t that the whole point of democracy?

On Election Day this year, what problems will emerge as the choke points for the voting process?

Oh, Election Day! How many ways can you screw up? Let me count the ways! 1, 2, 3…

Damn, Boyle only came up with 10?

The bad news is that glitches have been popping up for weeks, during an early-voting period that has almost overwhelmed some election officials. The good news? Election officials have now had weeks to see exactly what kinds of problems are popping up, and to take care of them before the big day on Tuesday.

The badder news? Election officials have had YEARS to research, test, implement and FIX these election systems and they’re such morons they STILL haven’t pulled it off.

I’m just SURE in the remaining THREE DAYS before the election they’ll be able to suss out all the problems and make sure every American’s vote is counted!

O_O

“If there are problems on Election Day, it will be because of something unexpected, not because of a lack of preparation,” said Doug Chapin, director of Electionline.org at the Pew Center on the States.

Well, let’s hope the Pew-man is right. Though, logic would dictate that he’s not. Scores of experts and regular joes like me have been pointing out the problems with these machines for years–if any of them pop up on Election Day we will not consider them “unexpected.”

One problem that’s totally expected will be long lines at polling places. “We knew that by midsummer,” said Douglas Jones, a computer science professor at the University of Iowa who serves as a researcher and consultant on voting technologies.

Voter registration levels have risen to what appear to be historic proportions. If it weren’t for the expanded use of early voting and vote-by-mail schemes, polling places might well have experienced the logistical meltdown that some observers feared.

Give them a chance! Why do you assume that early voting has completely averted the meltdown, sir?

I fully expect that the meltdown has been lessened by the early voting, but not every state has done early voting as far as I know.
More…

by ThePete 8:20 pm 2008-11-01 In TheNews, Politricks, TheDistractainment, ThePete.Com | Tags election 2008, election irregularities, election tech, MainStream Media, media, MSM, MSNBC.com, politics, Politricks, vote flipping, vote switching, voter suppression | $ |

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!!

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 Brad Friedman, BradBlog.com, Democracy in Danger, DID08, election 2008, election irregularities, vote switching, voter suppression, voting irregularities | $ |

Democracy In Danger: Election Irregularity News

by ThePete 7:23 pm 2008-10-30

This crap is NOT going away. The good thing is that the MSM is sort of hobbling along, trying to at least pay lip-service to the incredibly serious issue of election irregularities.

I mean, it’s only our democracy, right?

ANYway, so, amazingly enough, CNN.com actually did report on voting problems–kinda. If you have a look at that screengrab there, you’ll see the headline as being worthy of the "Duh Award". Come on, guys–you think something might go wrong when half-the-country votes for president next week?

GOSH YOU’RE SMART, CNN.COM! Geh…

All that said, here are some links and headlines for election irregularity coverage around the web today:

Voting machines could bring Election Day glitches
http://www.cnn.com/…index.html

More than 3,000 registered Coloradans barred from voting
Thousands of Coloradans have been denied the right to vote because of a policy that may violate federal law.

Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman has authorized county clerks to purge newly registered voters under the so-called 20-day rule. Here, county clerks must send non-forwardable letters to newly registered voters. If the mail bounces back to the clerks, then they must remove the voter applicants’ names from the rolls.
http://coloradoindependent.com/…coloradans
This is some scary stuff–it’s been going on for years–even back in 2004. It’s called "voter caging" and whether it’s illegal or not, it’s a form of voter suppression and because we humans are imperfect and make mistakes, so does this system and plenty who should be able to vote end up not being able to. (Though voter caging really is an absurd and unfair way to judge whether a person has registered legally or not.)

Listen Up Karen Handel!
http://www.ireport.com/…DOC-129137
This is a video of a voter in Atlanta waiting in line for hours to vote. Isn’t that great? HOURS. I’ve missed one presidential election in my entire adult life and have never spent more then 40 minutes in line.

Lawsuits, Machine Malfunctions and Missing Absentee Ballots Among Voting Rights Issues Facing Jittery Election
Early voters across the country are reporting long lines and problems with electronic voting machines. Republicans, meanwhile, continue to file lawsuits that could stop thousands from voting. We speak to Harvey Wasserman of Free Press and Brad Friedman of the Brad Blog.
http://www.democracynow.org/…g_absentee
Good stuff from yesterday’s Democracy Now broadcast. They interview two guys who know a LOT about election irregularities–both having appeared in a documentary I helped with called "Stealing America". Check it out (in full!) at StealingAmericaTheMovie.org.

Court Backs Penn. Voter Rights Suit on Electronic Machines
A federal judge has ordered state election officials to provide emergency paper ballots if half or more electronic voting machines become inoperable at any polling site in the state.
http://www.democracynow.org/…/headlines
Personally, I don’t get why we shouldn’t all have the right to vote on paper over a machine if we so choose. It seems like it would be unconstitutional to force us to use voting equipment we don’t trust. Still this is good news–just a shame that Penn voters need to wait until half of the machines fail to get to vote with something more trustworthy.

Speaking of which, here’s another story on this from BradBlog.com:

Federal Judge Rules in Favor of Plaintiff Demand for Emergency Paper Ballots in PA
http://www.bradblog.com/
According to this post, PA law says county clerks can give out paper ballots if just one machine fails. Though this ruling seems to supersede that law. Still, this ruling is better than nothing. Though if it inspires voters to "discover" their machines "break"ing down violently, we know which judge to blame for not going far enough. ;)

Not that I’m endorsing any violent acts, of course.

Election Protection by Amy Goodman
http://www.truthdig.com/…rotection/
This is a blog post from Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman and it focuses on all of the issues facing us regarding our ability to vote. Whether you agree with her or not, it’s just good people are having this discussion.

Tool Developed to Detect Possible Fraud in Election Tabulating Software
Pima County, AZ Election Integrity Group Creates Software to Analyze Diebold GEMS Databases, Wants to Share Capability With Others…
http://www.bradblog.com/
This is more good news–software has been developed that can scan databases from Diebold-brand voting machines and find errors. For now it’s only used in Arizona–why this software hasn’t been developed sooner is anyone’s guess. However, I’m going to guess that it’s because Diebold always claimed their technology was proprietary (aka they could tell us, but then they’d have to charge us a lot of money).

Vote-Flipping Diebold Machine Removed, Quarantined in CO
Karen Long, Adams County Clerk Takes Action After Voter Sees Vote Flip Repeatedly to Republican Candidate in State With Long History of E-Voting Failures
http://www.bradblog.com/
Won’t our leaders ever learn? Or maybe they have and like this kind of confusion? While this is good news, it points out serious issues with our leaders’ ability to decide what is right for us. If Colorado has had a history of e-voting problems, why are they failing to learn from that history? OH yeah, it’s all part of the "All History Left Behind" program spear-headed by the White House. Bush ignored his own father’s history in a war with Iraq, so I suppose it’s contagious to other government types, too.

In closing this post, I’d like to point out a couple new sites I’ve come across that are concerned with election irregularities:

http://www.projectvotecount.com/
http://voteraction.org/

Check out both sites if you had trouble voting or if you want to get involved.

WHEW. This stuff is tiring! I hope all of these problems magically go away on November 4th!

For more links to coverage of election irregularities and commentary on the situation, please check out ThePete.Com. I’ve been working my ass off :)
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by ThePete 7:23 pm 2008-10-30 In TheNews, Politricks, ThePete.Com | Tags DID08, election 2008, election irregularities, MainStream Media, MSM, politics, Politricks, ThePete.Com Democracy in Danger, vote switching | $ |

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. Replies.

by ThePete 3:38 pm 2008-10-30 In TheNews, Politricks, TV.ThePete.Com, ThePete.Com | Tags Democracy in Danger, DID08, disenfranchisement, election 2008, election irregularities, video, voting | $ |

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, DID08, election 2008, election irregularities, MainStream Media, MSM, politics, Politricks, vote switching | $ |

Democracy in Danger: the Voting Dramacracy Continues

by ThePete 3:20 am 2008-10-29

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 Democracy in Danger, election 2008, election irregularities, vote switching | $ |

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