Computer error at voting machine gives Bush 3,893 extra votes - Page 3

gldstwmn · #31 11-08-2004, 09:28 PM

http://www.local6.com/news/3883420/detail.html

Wet Ballots Found, Rejected By Voting Machines

SANFORD, Fla. -- Several hundred ballots in Seminole County, Fla., mysteriously got wet and were rejected by voting machines Tuesday, according to Local 6 News.

The wet ballots were apparently discovered unmarked Tuesday at the Community United Methodist Church in Casselberry, Fla.

The Supervisor of Elections, Dennis Joyner, said he does not know how the ballots became wet, Local 6 News reported. He said ballots were dry when the boxes were shipped out of the office, according to the report.

Also, the region has not seen rain this week.

"Some of the ballots were wet when they opened them this morning," witness Beth Anker said. "They were a little wet from something and were not going into the machine correctly."

Joyner told Local 6 News that anyone whose wet ballot was rejected by a voting machine was allowed to fill in a new ballot.

Complaints of voter intimidation were also reported at the same voting precinct, Local 6 News reported.

gldstwmn · #32 11-09-2004, 12:12 AM

http://www.legitgov.org/essay_front_...da_110704.html

On The Front Lines in Florida

Spurred by the unwillingness of the broadcast media to report voting problems during the 2004 election race, we want to alert our friends, family and colleagues to the widespread voter suppression and disenfranchisement that occurred in Broward County, Florida. We staffed the emergency hotline for the Kerry Campaign Headquarters in Broward County from late October through the election. All of us were devastated by the margin of Bush's win in Florida, particularly since polls predicted the race would be extremely close.

Many of the calls to our hotline were from voters who had pressed the "Kerry" button on their electronic voting screen, only to have "Bush" light up as the candidate they had chosen. In some cases, this would happen repeatedly until about the 5th or 6th time the voter pressed "Kerry" and eventually his name would light up. In other cases, the voters pushed "Kerry" but were later asked to confirm their "Bush" vote.

We had calls about a road block, put up by the police at 7am on November 2, which blocked road access to two precinct locations in majority black districts. There was no justification for the road block -- no accident or crime scene or construction.

Many of our calls dealt with voter suppression, or manipulation, of the Haitian population -- occurrences which seem too numerous, and their targets too indefensible as primarily poor first-time-voter Creole-speaking refugees, to be anything but systemic. In one example, a voter whose hands were bandaged could not press the touch-screen himself; he asked the nonpartisan election official to press "Kerry" for him, but the election official pressed "Bush" and sent his vote immediately into the machine. Many, many others were denied the right to vote and were not given provisional ballots, while others were refused assistance at the polls, even though provisional ballots and voter assistance are legal rights. Others were told they had already voted and were turned away, although they had never voted previously. This latter experience was a complaint not isolated to Haitians but also included other surprised voters with no recourse except their word against that of the Supervisor of Elections.

We spoke with hundreds of voters who were certain they had registered to vote in the past 6 months, well before the October 18 deadline, but were not on the rolls. And those were just the people who had the information to contact us.

The local paper, citing the Supervisor of Elections office as its source, told all people voting by absentee ballot that they could turn in ballots by hand to any of its seven offices by 5pm on Tuesday, November 2. Every single one of those offices except one was closed on Tuesday.

We had numerous calls from voters on November 2 whose precincts had closed, yet the Supervisor of Elections office had given voters no notification of the closure, and no notification of where to go to vote. Thousands of people were likely disenfranchised because of inexcusable mishaps such as this.

We had many calls from people who had been harassed by poll workers, who were turned away without being allowed the right to vote provisionally (another breech of voter rights). Other people were turned away because the address on their drivers license did not match the address on their voter registration card; again, this is in direct violation of election law.

All of these problems do not even take into account the 58,000 absentee ballots that had been "lost" by the Supervisor of Elections, in perhaps the most Democratic county in the state, disenfranchising thousands of people who were disabled, out of the country, or elderly and unable get to the polls. These events, and many others, have been documented and also reported to lawyers, but we fear they will not get the attention they deserve. This is what we witnessed in just one county. We believe that these "voting irregularities" raise serious concerns about the legitimacy of the results in Florida, and more broadly, about the health of democracy in this country.

Please circulate this widely.

amber · #33 11-09-2004, 01:08 AM

Thank, GDW. Will the creepy fascist horror never end? seriously, I feel that i'm now a part of some country where giant crowds of people will be killed and buried in mass graves, because they "don't support the gov't"

gldstwmn · #34 11-09-2004, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amber

Thank, GDW. Will the creepy fascist horror never end? seriously, I feel that i'm now a part of some country where giant crowds of people will be killed and buried in mass graves, because they "don't support the gov't"

It won't end unless we put a stop to it-we the people that is. It's up to us to do the heavy lifting now. How bad do you want it, America?

gldstwmn · #35 11-09-2004, 08:22 PM

http://homepage.mac.com/duffyb/nobus...heater256.html

heyjupiter678 · #36 11-09-2004, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

http://homepage.mac.com/duffyb/nobus...heater256.html

DeeGeMe · #37 11-09-2004, 10:08 PM

Holy ****! I hadn't seen that!

So please tell me why the mainstream media won't go near this story? ABC News did a story on it tonight but of course, they called us conspiracy theorists. Only Keith Olbermann has covered the story and he's really flogging away at it but he's the only one. The LA Times did do a small story today about Ohio but it wasn't page one news or anything.
Media whores.

gldstwmn · #38 11-09-2004, 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeeGeMe

Holy ****! I hadn't seen that!

So please tell me why the mainstream media won't go near this story? ABC News did a story on it tonight but of course, they called us conspiracy theorists. Only Keith Olbermann has covered the story and he's really flogging away at it but he's the only one. The LA Times did do a small story today about Ohio but it wasn't page one news or anything.
Media whores.

I don't know. I don't think their corporate masters will allow it. The concession didn't help matters.

gldstwmn · #39 11-09-2004, 11:14 PM

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/10133265.htm?1c

Glitch could force state to vote again

amber · #40 11-10-2004, 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeeGeMe

Holy ****! I hadn't seen that!

So please tell me why the mainstream media won't go near this story? ABC News did a story on it tonight but of course, they called us conspiracy theorists. Only Keith Olbermann has covered the story and he's really flogging away at it but he's the only one. The LA Times did do a small story today about Ohio but it wasn't page one news or anything.
Media whores.

Ha! too me that's like asking why you shouldn't sh** where you eat. Of course they won't go near it. media in this country has a long, long history of ignoring and censoring things. Politics is about money and resources, little else. oh, and power, power over money and resources.

gldstwmn · #41 11-11-2004, 09:15 PM

http://www.indystar.com/articles/3/193880-4433-093.html

Glitch causes Franklin Co. recount

Star report
November 11, 2004

BROOKVILLE, Ind. - Election equipment counted straight-party votes for Democratic candidates as Libertarian votes, an error that could affect election outcomes in as many as nine counties, the Richmond Palladium-Item reported today.

Democrats discovered the error in Franklin County, where ballots will be counted again tonight.

The county's election equipment vendor, Fidlar, notified officials Wednesday of the error.

Libertarian candidates received 7 to 8 percent of the votes in Franklin County, which is about 30 miles south of Richmond.

Franklin County Democratic Chairman Jim Sauerland questioned Clerk Marlene Flashpohler on Tuesday about the results after seeing information on the final tally he couldn't decipher, Flashpohler said. That's when Flashpohler contacted Fidlar, who agreed Wednesday there was an error.

The Franklin County Election Board agreed at an emergency meeting today to recanvass the ballots tonight. Noon Friday is the deadline to contest the election results.

Republican Chairman Bob Jewell said he has concerns about the procedures used when the error was discovered. He's hoping the deadline for contesting the election can be extended because of the Veterans Day holiday today. No party or state election officials can be contacted today for advice, he said.

"Hopefully (the recanvassing) won't change the outcome of the election," Jewell said.

Fidlar has optical scan machines in nine Indiana counties, including two in the 9th Congressional District, where Democrat Baron Hill was narrowly defeated.

Flashpohler said Fidlar officials have said Franklin County is the only county where a database error occurred.