For some, Ohio still is not decided (cincy enquirer, DU mentioned)

[FatSlob]

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041113/NEWS01/411130389

a small excerpt is below. click on the link for the full story.



WASHINGTON - You thought the presidential election was over in Ohio?

President Bush, Sen. John Kerry, the Ohio secretary of state, and both national and state Democratic and Republican parties certainly think so.

But on the Web, in e-mails, on radio and on television, a mounting chorus of Kerry supporters is pushing the notion that Bush won Ohio through fraud, conspiracies or voting machine malfunctions.

"We know there have been way too many voting irregularities for this to be a glitch," said Lisa Kelly, 45, of Middletown, Del., one of the army of Kerry supporters calling and e-mailing anyone she can to reopen the election in Ohio. "I think it is a concerted effort to affect the outcome of the election in a fraudulent manner."

[jdj]

1. AT ANY TIME they could interview any of a number of

computer scientists about this

Dr David Dill, Stanford; Dr. Avi Rubin, Johns Hopkins; Dr. Rebecca Mercuri, Bryn Mawr...

Dr. Dill's resolution was signed by something like 1200 computer science professionals but somehow this is just an internets conspiracy among democrats?

edit: Woohooo! they posted links to DU and BBV.org. That is the first time I have ever seen that done, that is awesome

[indigolady]

17. so...the public will be reading these posts, so watch your swear words!

[Octafish]

32. Have them read this: VotersUnite.org

Hundreds of DOCUMENTED instances of voting "problems" nationwide. As the site demonstrates, some are due to computer "glitches." Lots of them are in Ohio.

http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp

Edit: Tippo

[krkaufman]

33. But they linked to DU as *.org

I didn't realize DU had also grabbed the .org namespace. However, the graphics don't seem to be working over on the .org side.

[Star]

2. "reopen the election in Ohio"?

Has the election in Ohio been certified yet?

How can you reopen an election that hasn't been closed yet? Or, am I wrong about this?

[jdj]

3. Today is the eleventh day, so I guess the pbs start getting

counted today.

the head of the dem party there sounds like an idiot, even though his quote was vague and maybe taken out of context.

[nodictators]

12. Bad news. Blackwell changed the rules

http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/985

Columns
Bob Fitrakis

And so the sorting and discarding of Kerry votes begins
November 10, 2004

Are the provisional ballots in Ohio being thrown out? A new rule for counting provisional ballots in Cuyahoga County, Ohio was implemented on Tuesday, November 9 at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon, according to election observer Victoria Lovegren.

The new ruling in Cuyahoga County mandates that provisional ballots in yellow packets must be “Rejected” if there is no “date of birth” on the packet. The Free Press obtained copies of the original “Provisional Verification Procedure” from Cuyahoga County which stated “Date of birth is not mandatory and should not reject a provisional ballot.” The original procedure required the voter’s name, address and a signature that matched the signature in the county’s database.

Lovegren described the clerks as “kind of disturbed” after the new ruling came down. She said that one of the clerks told her, “This is new. This just came down. They just changed it in the last thirty minutes.” According to Lovegren, 80 yellow-jacketed provisional ballots piled up in the hour and 45 minutes she observed. By Lovegren’s tally, three provisional ballots were rejected because the registered voters’ registration had been “cancelled.” The rest, she said, were being discarded because of no date of birth.

In 2000, an estimated 9% of Ohio’s provisional ballots were rejected and not counted, according to Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. Many election observers are predicting the number will be much higher this year due to directives from Blackwell’s office.

[jdj]

13. the sidebar to the linked article says that is not true about DOB

" Rumors that provisional ballots that don't include a date of birth were being thrown out. New or less-educated voters, who were more likely to be Kerry supporters according to exit polls, would be disproportionately disenfranchised.

Explanation: There was some confusion, but Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's office has ordered that lack of a date of birth on a provisional ballot can't be used to throw it out. "There is a place on the paperwork for a provisional ballot for voters to write in date of birth. It is optional, and it does not nullify a ballot," said James Lee, a Blackwell spokesman."


http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041113/NEWS01/411130389

[FatSlob]

4. Hasn't been certified, hasn't even had the canvass yet.

[jdj]

9. here's a link for letters to editor.

http://www.enquirer.com/editor/letters.html

I pointed out how stupid it was to run this article with that gray sidebar next to it that contradicts everything it says..

here's mine

Dear Editor,

While I appreciate your linking to websites concerned with discrepancies in OH, I am apalled at the headline of your story on the OH vote debacle, and the tone of the article. Today is the eleventh day after the election, OH law requires the prov. ballots to be counted beginning on the eleventh day. If I know this, and I live in NC, then surely your writers must know it. Although the side bar rationally explains why the ballot count in OH is not finished (because the prov. ballots have not been counted and the vote has not been certified), I find it very strange that you would run these two items side by side when they clearly contradict each other, and the main story is somewhat patronizing. When one's eyes stray to the right and begin reading what is ironically "the gray area" the writer's tone appears more and more foolish the further one reads.

While you have pat explanations for the "glitches" that occured in OH (not to mention nationwide) if anyone is interested in an in depth explanation of why the people who are use computers the most trust them the least when used in conjuction with tabulating votes, then I suggest reading opinions regarding electronic voting from the following people: Dr. David Dill, computer science professor at Stanford; Dr. Aviel Rubin, computer science professor at Johns Hopkins; and Dr. Rebecca Mercuri, computer science professor at Bryn Mawr. Dr. Dill's resolution on electronic voting was signed by over 1200 computer science professionals, and the main thrust of this movement is that voters want a paper ballot with which to verify their votes and perform recounts.

I don't know what OH law is regarding DREs which do not suppy a paper ballot, being that you mostly at this time use optical scan machines, but here in NC, the NC administrative code section 08.0109 states that manual hand to eye recounds are not possible using direct record electronic voting machines (DREs). That is unacceptable to me as a voter, and on that basis these machines should be rejected.

Thank you for your informative article and for posting links to some of the better websites dealing with electronic voting. I would rather you had posted links to the websites of some of the computer scientists I mentioned that have expressed reservations about these machines, but you can't have everything.

And by the way, I read this article on the internet, hope that doesn't make the authors into "conspiracy theorists".

Sincerely,

(me)

[roseBudd]

22. Please cc your letters to these people:

The Letters to the editor email addy goes to the inbox of a news aide, not a reporter. Chances are no one of importance will see your letter.Even better call the people below.

Editors:

Bill Cieslewicz
(M-F, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.) Local News [e-mail] 513-768-8398

Julie Engebrecht
(M-F, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.) Local News [e-mail] 513-768-8147

Dianne Gebhardt-French
(M-F, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.) Local News [e-mail] 513-768-8409

Debra Jasper Local News (Columbus) [e-mail] 614-224-4640

Ron Liebau
(M-F, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.) Local News [e-mail] 513-768-8396

Byron McCauley
(M-F, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.) Editorial [e-mail] 513-768-8473

David Wells
(M-F, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.) Editorial [e-mail] 513-768-8310

Reporters:

Sheila McLaughlin
(M-F, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.) Government [e-mail] 513-755-4154

Erica Solvig
(M-F, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.) Warren County community affairs [e-mail] 513-755-4155

Dan Horn
(M-F, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.) Federal agencies, courts [e-mail] 513-768-8619

Spencer Hunt
(Columbus bureau) Ohio political issues [e-mail] 614-224-4640

Carl Weiser
(Washington, D.C. Bureau) National politics [e-mail] 202-906-8100

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST

Howard Wilkinson
(M-F, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.) General assignment [e-mail] 513-768-8388

When I think of a Woodward & Bernstein type reporter, I picture Wilkinson.

[jdj]

35. done, thanks for the links

[Maraya1969]

43. OK dumb question

What exactely do we say to these people. Just that we demand a count of the provisional ballots?

[roseBudd]

44. I think we need to talk about exit poll anomalies, and that the 93,000

ballots that are uncounted due to under/overvoting need to be examined. Ask the Enquirer to analyze the distribution of the "spoiled" ballots.

We need to point out that all the so-called "glitches" favored the incumbent. Talk about all the things Blackwell did to suppress minority voting.

Remind them that newspapers are an investigative media who owes the public the truth, and that they should be asking questions about the absentee vote also. That means the overseas civilian (ex-patriot) and military vote.

[jdj]

49. by law the pb's have to be counted

it's just that they are wiggling around about which ones they get to trash.

the more they can trash, the better, because since challengers are mainly republicans challenging people most likely to be dems (minorities and students, and any registered dem they know of) then it is most likely dems that are forced to vote on prov. ballots. And the more people that let them know they are being watched, the better.

I feel that in this article the media drone is just spinning that famous right-wing cheer "nothing to see here, move along..."

[glitch]

29. Excellent!! Esp. noting computer professionals. Also I love your ending..

"And by the way, I read this article on the internet, hope that doesn't make the authors into 'conspiracy theorists'."

[indigolady]

18. NO ELECTION HAS BEEN CERTIFIED YET!

[SoCalDem]

5. Drop Carl a line and remind him WHY it counts...

keep it light on the :tinfoilhat: fraud stuff.. but perhaps a reminder about who the scientists are.. Maybe he could actually contact them instead of dismissing this..methinks carl is a repube :)


mailto: [e-mail]

[halobeam]

7. I emailed him

He really needs to hear from a large number of people, otherwise, it will in no doubt be ineffective for him to do anything that takes "hard work", i.e. researching his own material and contacting the computer scientists.

[RyomaSakamoto]

6. University of Pennsylvania: The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy -Freeman

http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/04/11/Unexplained_exit_poll_discrep_v00l.pdf
http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/04/11/ale04090.html

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

11/12/04 4:48 PM Update: PDF link goes to version "00l."

In "The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy," Dr. Steven F. Freeman says:

"As much as we can say in social science that something is impossible, it is impossible that the discrepancies between predicted and actual vote counts in the three critical battleground states of the 2004 election could have been due to chance or random error."

The odds of those exit poll statistical anomalies occurring by chance are, according to Freeman, "250,000,000 to one." That's 250 MILLION to ONE.

He concludes the paper with this:

"Systematic fraud or mistabulation is a premature conclusion, but the election's unexplained exit poll discrepancies make it an unavoidable hypothesis, one that is the responsibility of the media, academia, polling agencies, and the public to investigate."

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/04/11/ale04090.html


Steven F Freeman (University of Pennsylvania) - Curriculum vitae ...
http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11068805

[jdj]

11. I am so glad you posted these links

I think we need succinct talking points, and I can remember a number like that. I wish you would start a thread in general discussion on this is someone hasn't already and use "250 million to one" as the header, so more people will pick this up.

My personal mantra post-election is "death to the mandate" and with little snippets like this we can instill just enough doubt in kool-aid drinkers to deflate their party balloons.

one talking point at a time.

[WiseFawn]

8. I'm finally a member!

I've been trying to get on here for days! I live in Ohio. I'm sitting here with a flyer that told my neighborhood to go to a voting place that is six miles from here, when all we had to do was walk to the school behind us. I was told by a volunteer from the Ohio Election Protection that people voting provisional ballots in Franklin County, had to use blank hanging chads and vote off of the electronic machines. I was also told that the decisions made by the Franklin County Board of Elections, where to place machines, how many machines, not to print a paper ballot,had been outsourced to a private firm. She'll be making statements at the public meetings being held in Columbus. Sorry if this is off topic, but I'm glad to be here and able to post on a subject about Ohio!

[SoCalDem]

10. We're glad to have you.. Please post your info in the "report voting p

Please post your info in the "report voting problems" forum too..:hi:

I saw a piece on the news last nigh that pissed me off big.. a college (a liberal college) had TWO machines for the whole college..

and ladt week I saw another piece that showed voting machines UNUSED, leaning up against a wall in a precinct that must have had 20 machines:grr:

[radiofreesrini]

14. you should scan this and put it up!

i want to see all these phony flyers the republicans put up! this flyer of yours might be HARD EVIDENCE!!!

[indigolady]

21. I don't understand that poster: "all your state are belong ot us"?

[MotownLew]

25. It's a Geek Joke

Here's the long story:
http://www.planettribes.com/allyourbase/story.shtml

Here's the short story:
A video game called Zero Wing was released in the US for Sega systems and they added an intro scene that wasn't part of the original. It was poorly translated from Japanese and included the phrase "all your base are belong to us."

It started getting posted to message boards and forums as a joke, with "base" being replaced by (insert topic here).

Now you're in on the joke. All your post are belong to DU.

[VolcanoJen]

19. Welcome to DU, Ohio Votes!!

Please continue to share your experiences, as SoCalDem suggested, with the DU Community. EarlG, one of our DU Administrators, has posted full instructions to help you report voting issues here.

Also, be sure to come to the DU Ohio Forum and introduce yourself! This forum is full of passionate Buckeyes and Buckeye activists, and we'd love to hear from more Franklin County residents!

:toast: :toast: :toast: Welcome to DU!:toast: :toast: :toast:

[roseBudd]

23. You also need to get your first person account and the evidence

you have (the flyer) to Representative Conyers:

Write to John Conyers (D - Mich), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee on the Constitution, who has requested a Congressional Hearing on the 2004 election. Tell him you support the request and that you want him to push for the hearing to be held as soon as possible. Contact Information for John Conyers: Washington DC E-Mail Address: [e-mail], Washington DC Web Address: http://www.house.gov/conyers/, Washington DC Web Mail Address: http://www.house.gov/conyers/letstalk.htm, Washington DC Web Mail Address: http://www.house.gov/writerep, Washington DC Address 2426 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515-2214, Phone: [phone], Fax: [phone]. You can also download the letter written to the GAO by several congressmen asking for an investigation of this election with several major complaints specified.

[newyawker99]

26. Hi OhioVotes!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[swingerrr]

15. ►WHY IS IT...

the only time the press seems to pay any attention to this most serious issue, is to throw cold water on it?!
truly our darkest hour.

[newyawker99]

27. Hi swingerrr!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Generic Other]

16. That article totally slammed us! I feel befouled! Ready to duel!

You sure did put a positive spin on that shit, Fatslob. I am surprised you haven't been offered a job with the Bush administration. You're good. Took a crappy ass article and tried to turn it into angelfood cake.

You probably could make a quagmire look like a Thanksgiving dinner!

Damn. That article was demoralizing as hell.

:)

[Chimpanzee]

24. All incidents have been explained!

All except:

https://voteprotect.org/index.php?display=EIRMapState&state=Ohio&cat=ALL&tab=ALL

[Eric J in MN]

48. Fatslob didn't write the article. He just posted an excerpt. (nt)

nt

[MADem]

20. Coup accomplit!! Right wing Moonie Times sez so!

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041112-112037-7263r.htm

Computer Science Professor Avi Rubin of John Hopkins University analyzed Diebold's 47,609 lines of code and found it uses an encryption key that was hacked in 1997 and no longer is used in secure programs.
...Rubin, his graduate students and a colleague from Rice University found other bugs, that the administrator's PIN code was "1111" and that one programmer had inserted, "This is just a hack for now."

When the Moonies cheerfully admit that the system is HOSED, but, hey, so WHAT!--we are living in a dictatorship. One of those cute, cuddly, friendly-kinda dictatorships, where they tell you that things are a complete cluster (let's blame the lib-ruls for that), but no one wants to do anything about it, 'cuz Porgie knows best, and it's silly for us to complain.

I guess we'll all be happier if we get with the program, agree to be lobotomized, sodomized and robbed, and sing happily from our enslaved positions!

[MaryBear]

28. One point made in the article,

"New or less-educated voters, who were more likely to be Kerry supporters according to exit polls,"

confuses me and makes me wonder how valid other points are. Have I been mistaken in my understanding that Kerry appealed to MORE educated voters?

[lizzieforkerry]

30. Apparently Kerry appealed to new voters,

less educated voters, highly educated voters, moderate voters, republican voters, liberal voters, women voters, young voters, and very excited voters. I don't know how he lost.

[sweetheart]

34. less educated for expecting their votes to be counted

Any person "properly" educated should expect their vote to be
trashed with the "wasteage".

[SoCalDem]

40. Count on repubes to always spin it as "the voter's fault"

They did it in Fl too.. Nevermind the tricks and chicanery.. It's just the "dumb" voter's fault :grr:

[Fovea]

53. Dressed like that

Ohio was asking for it.

[LaurenG]

31. The Cincinnati Enquirer ENDORSED Bush, what do we expect from them?

Sorry folks but I live here and feel its my right as well as my privilege to say the Enquirer is a republican newspaper. They make weak attempts at times to be fair but when the Crawford Texas paper wouldn't even endorse W you know how backwards Cincinnati is.

It's not explainable, I don't understand it and I will never fit in with the small minds that abound here. (Not everyone but many). Having grown up in the southwest but having ggg grandparents who were pioneers and settlers here in 1807, I expected an open minded, tough bunch of folks. So far and as I said before, not everyone here, but many, many are people with minds snapped shut. It's a split city and the folks with the money just care about holding on to more of it while average Joe will share the shirt off his back. I am sorely disappointed and saddened. I apologize for the thoughtlessness of my fellow city mates who made the world less stable by being afraid to vote Kerry.

[DUBYASCREWEDUS]

36. THE PLAIN DEALER is no better!

Don't feel too bad, Cincy, Cleveland isn't much better - and this area of Ohio votes almost always Democrat. This year 5 editors of The Plain Dealer wanted to endorse Kerry but the owner refused to allow it - he is a big Moron supporter and wanted to endorse the Idiot in Chief. I guess the other 5 editors put up a fuss and the end result was that The Plain Dealer - the largest newspaper (hell the ONLY newspaper) in Northeast Ohio (Cleveland area) would not endorse either candidate. The media has no guts under this Moron. They spent 8 years dogging Clinton on meaningless matters (no one died when Clinton lied) and yet they walk on eggshells when it comes to the DUMBEST PRESIDENT EVER. Someone please wake me up from this nightmare!

[lizzieforkerry]

39. Welcome Ohioblues!!!

I live in the cincy 'burbs (please stop rolling your eyes) and I am always excited to see other cincy liberals. I have taken a poll and everyone I know here that is liberal moved here from somewhere else. I'm with you in not understanding it. I have heard that the reporters at the CE were mostly all for Kerry but it was the editors that backed Bush. I hear the paper has a new owner though and people think she might be better than the past. Just wanted to let you know it might get better. We have all been calling the reporters at the paper trying to let them know that there are people in the area that are reading the voterfraud stories and looking for more of it. Please join us, the more they know we are out there the more they will write for us. Thanks!

[LaurenG]

55. Thank you LizzieforKerry, Rosebud57, and Dubyascrewedus

Thank you all three for your kind words and suggestions. I have to say I have never felt worse about the state of the Union in my life and so I lick my wounds alone wondering if we will ever again get a breath of fresh air. I am struggling with absolutely giving up on the media. I think that as the fourth estate they should have done better.

But in the meantime I will look for some positive outcomes to this. By the way any of you interested in seeing Ken Blackwell to the door? I think we should start now trying to find a way to keep him out of the governor's mansion. Again, thank you.

[roseBudd]

46. We have to realize that the newsroom is divided between the editorial

and the news faction. The publisher ultimately decides the endorsement.

My point is we cannot assume individual reporters are repug sympathisers. It is the news not editorial faction that we should be concerned with. however we should be pleased that the editorial on 11/12 did slam Warren County for the lockdown and did call them liars.

[goforit]

37. And we know who stole the election!!!!

[IndianaGreen]

38. Green and Libertarian Presidential Candidates to Demand Ohio Recount.

News Release

Green and Libertarian Presidential Candidates to Demand Ohio Recount.
David Cobb for President

November 11, 2004

Contact: Blair Bobier, Media Director
Stephen Gordon, Badnarik campaign

GREEN & LIBERTARIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES TO DEMAND OHIO RECOUNT

David Cobb and Michael Badnarik, the 2004 presidential candidates for the Green and Libertarian parties, today announced their intentions to file a formal demand for a recount of the presidential ballots cast in Ohio.

“Due to widespread reports of irregularities in the Ohio voting process, we are compelled to demand a recount of the Ohio presidential vote. Voting is the heart of the democratic process in which we as a nation put our faith. When people stand in line for hours to exercise their right to vote, they need to know that all votes will be counted fairly and accurately. We must protect the rights of the people of Ohio, as well as all Americans, and stand up for the right to vote and the right for people’s votes to be counted. The integrity of the democratic process is at stake,” the two candidates said in a joint statement.

The candidates also demanded that Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican who chaired the Ohio Bush campaign, recuse himself from the recount process.

The Ohio presidential election was marred by numerous press and independent reports of voter intimidation, mis-marked and discarded ballots, problems with electronic voting machines and the targeted disenfranchisement of African American voters. A number of citizens’ groups and voting rights organizations are holding hearings this Saturday in Columbus, Ohio to investigate voting irregularities and voter suppression in the Ohio 2004 general election. The hearings will be held from 1-4 p.m. at the New Faith Baptist Church, 955 Oak Street. Voters, poll workers, journalists and voting experts are invited to testify. A second hearing will be held on Monday at a location TBA, from 6-9 p.m.

The Cobb and Badnarik campaigns are in the process of raising the required fee, estimated at $110,000, for filing for a complete recount. The campaigns are accepting contributions through their websites.

The Cobb-LaMarche website is http://www.votecobb.org.
The Badnarik-Campagna contribution page is https://badnarik.org.

The Cobb and Badnarik campaigns have displayed a level of cooperation and civility rarely found in electoral politics. The campaigns jointly participated in and/or sponsored a series of independent debates. Cobb and Badnarik were also simultaneously arrested in St. Louis protesting their exclusion from the restricted, two-party corporate-sponsored debates.

To see an investigative report by Greg Palast, author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, which asserts that the Ohio vote was improperly decided, see http://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won.php.

For an article detailing a dozen ways in which the Ohio vote was potentially manipulated, see http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/810.

http://www.gp.org/press/pr_11_11_04.html

[I_like_chicken]

41. What I don't understand is why it matters if any of this sounds

conspiritorial. It doesn't matter how crazy the idea of Republicans stealing the election may be because elections should be a transparent process with absolutely no question of whether all the votes were counted. If there is even the slightest inkling that something is wrong, there should be a full investigation. Why the head dems are just lying down their arms and not contesting this is beyond me. If this happened to the Republicans, you can bet they wouldn't quit so easily.

[pauldp]

42. The Coup did not take place on election day

It actually occured the day the Republicans succeded in killing the paper trail initiiative in committee. I don't know what day that was, but that's when we lost our democracy. Now the Dems are saying "Doh!"

Why the hell the Dems didn't scream bloody murder to the media is beyond me, but here we are in a nation with no way of proving if our national election was free and fair. Last time I checked that doesn't qualify as a democracy.

God love Bev Harris and BBV

[shesemsmom]

45. Now what would be fraudulent about an investigation of machine

tampering and counting all the votes.

[Eric J in MN]

47. what a sickening article

A bunch of scummy apologists for slimy eleciton practices wrote it.

"(Warren County) did lock down the vote counting, claiming a terrorist threat. But there's no evidence either had any impact on the final vote count in the traditionally GOP county...Even without a single one of Warren County's 66,523 votes, Bush would have won Ohio."

According those journalists, it's ok if the Warren County officials lied about a terrorist threat to count the votes secretly, because those votes by themselves couldn't have changed the election.

If that was the only dubious aspect of the election in Ohio, that argument would make a bit more sense, but not much.

[Eric J in MN]

50. The article ignores that Matt Damschroder of Franklin County

diverted voting machines from the city to the suburbs to create long lines in the city and suppress the vote:

http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/983
"far fewer voting machines were present in predominantly black Democratic inner-city voting wards than in the recent primary election and the 2000 presidential election, with their lighter turnouts. The reduced number of machines caused voters to wait up to seven hours and wait an average of approximately three hours. One Republican Central Committee member told the Free Press that Damschroder held back as many as 2000 machines and dispersed many of the other machines to affluent suburbs in Franklin County."

[Eric J in MN]

51. The journalists seem to assume that whatever a Blackwell spokesman says

is true.

Concerning provisional ballots being thrown out for lacking a birthdate, they write:

--------------------------------------------------------------
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041113/NEWS01/411130389

Explanation: There was some confusion, but Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's office has ordered that lack of a date of birth on a provisional ballot can't be used to throw it out. "There is a place on the paperwork for a provisional ballot for voters to write in date of birth. It is optional, and it does not nullify a ballot," said James Lee, a Blackwell spokesman.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Where did this confusion come from, if no one in Blackwell's office told county officials to toss provisional ballots without bithdates in the first place?

Here is an article which cits a source NOT from Blackwell's office on this matter:
---------------------------------------------------------
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/985

Are the provisional ballots in Ohio being thrown out? A new rule for counting provisional ballots in Cuyahoga County, Ohio was implemented on Tuesday, November 9 at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon, according to election observer Victoria Lovegren.

The new ruling in Cuyahoga County mandates that provisional ballots in yellow packets must be “Rejected” if there is no “date of birth” on the packet. The Free Press obtained copies of the original “Provisional Verification Procedure” from Cuyahoga County which stated “Date of birth is not mandatory and should not reject a provisional ballot.” The original procedure required the voter’s name, address and a signature that matched the signature in the county’s database.

Lovegren described the clerks as “kind of disturbed” after the new ruling came down. She said that one of the clerks told her, “This is new. This just came down. They just changed it in the last thirty minutes.” According to Lovegren, 80 yellow-jacketed provisional ballots piled up in the hour and 45 minutes she observed. By Lovegren’s tally, three provisional ballots were rejected because the registered voters’ registration had been “cancelled.” The rest, she said, were being discarded because of no date of birth.
--------------------------------------------------------

[mom-mad-about-bush]

52. Does anyone have a list of important people to e-mail.

It would be nice if you could have a list of people and e-mails that we could as a group continue a campaign of asking for an investigation, etc. DOES ANYONE HAVE SOMETHING LIKE THIS?????

[Eric J in MN]

54. There is a form for emailing your Congressperson at

http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?ItemId=18055


and if you want to contact the Ohio ACLU or NAACP, go to their websites for contact info.

[jjenkins]

56. Ohio vote

Wasnt the company that made many of the voting machines in Ohio? I think I read that the owner is a big bush supporter. I bet they threw the election. When I went to vote here not ohio the election people tryed to get me to not vote. It was crazy but i stayed in line for three hours since I didnt have anything else to do.

[StephanieMarie]

57. A little press in the NYT today.

But still nothing about the exit poll discrepancy between paper states and e-states, "safe" states and "swing" states. That is what nails the coffin for me. But otherwise, it's good coverage:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/opinion/14sun1.html?ex=1101457002&ei=1&en=9f8ee574d41a9d0c

[StephanieMarie]

58. My letter to the NYT

I truly appreciate the coverage that you’ve been giving to the voting irregularities in our recent election. However, I wish you could do more. I read your paper every day, and I haven’t seen any coverage of the discrepancy between exit poll data and vote count itemized by state. THIS is where things start to look suspicious. In the twelve states that were considered swing states, the average difference between the intra-day exit polls and the vote count gave Bush an extra 2.5% of the vote. In the 35 states where who was going to win was not in question, the average difference between the intra-day exit polls and the vote count was an extra 1.4% for Bush. Just the fact that all the “error” favored Bush is suspicious enough, but the fact that there’s an extra 1.1% for Bush in swing states raise major red flags. None of your articles have addressed this. These small percentages actually amount to millions of votes, enough to change the outcome of the election.



Another issue that I would like you to bring to light is the exit polls as they reflect the absentee ballot vote tally and the vote tally on election day. A detailed analysis of North Carolina county by county showed that the intra-day exit polls mirrored within 1% the vote count of the absentee ballots, whereas the intra-day exit polls were “off” in Bushes favor by over 6%. The difference also showed up in the election day vote count for senators, but in all the other races, exit polls mirrored the vote count within 1%. This is incredibly suspicious, and points to fraud in the tallying stage of the election day votes.



Much more needs to be done to uncover the truth behind all these discrepancies. There are many websites keeping a running list of election day fraud, and the incidents number in the tens of thousands. You said in your latest article, “Making Votes Count: About Those Election Results”, that, “There is no evidence of vote theft or errors on a

large scale”. May I point out that several thousand small thefts of a few thousand votes in each case, would add up nationwide to enough votes to change the outcome of the election. That’s what it looks like to me. A few thousand here, a few thousand there. Easy to overlook, tough to prove, impossible to catch them all.



I applaud your call for a transparent, auditable voting system for nationwide elections. Without that, our democracy will die. As Stalin said, “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.” It’s time that we the people count the votes!

[KatieB]

59. Breaking News - BBV has launched voting fraud audits in FL, OH AND NM

REAKING -- SATURDAY NOV 13 2004: Black Box Voting has launched a fraud audit into Florida. Three investigators (Bev Harris, Andy Stephenson, and Kathleen Wynne) are in Florida right now. We will initiate hand counts on selected counties that have not fully complied with our Nov. 2 Freedom of Information request by Monday (Diebold counties) or Tuesday (other counties).

BREAKING -- SATURDAY NOV 13 2004: We have reports that both David Cobb (Green Party) and Michael Badnarik (Libertarian Party) will be filing for official recounts in Ohio. Black Box Voting is also launching a fraud audit in Ohio. Gotta be replaced: Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Please invoke the following name change on Blackwell immediately, as he is 2004's Katherine Harris. He should now be referred to at all times as "Katherine Blackwell." Please retain this moniker for any future runs for governor. How to be your own media. Spread the word. Latest Katherine Blackwell outrage: Failure to properly account for provisional ballots, and refusing to allow citizens to see the pollbooks.

BREAKING -- SATURDAY NOV 13 2004: Black Box Voting is implementing fraud diagnostics on the state of New Mexico. Information we recently received is indicative of widespread vote manipulation. We are not going to publicize the specifics here.

BREAKING -- SATURDAY NOV 13 2004: Black Box Voting is requesting legal assistance for a specific county in Georgia. Indications of corrupt voting processes, with possible criminal actions by local officials.

BREAKING -- SATURDAY NOV 13 2004: Black Box Voting is launching a fraud investigation on Pima County Arizona.

BREAKING -- SATURDAY NOV 13 2004: Black Box Voting is launching a fraud investigation on the state of Nevada. Pro bono legal help certified to practice in Nevada, needed immediately. Multiple irregularities. Need people to take affidavits from election workers, statewide.

BREAKING -- FRIDAY NOV 12 2004: Ralph Nader to audit Diebold machines in New Hampshire. According to Nader, the current situation with voting machines warrants investigation. Several elements make voting machines "probative" for investigation, according to Nader, a consumer affairs lawyer: proprietary ownership, secret code, vested interests, a high-value reward, and lack of any real consequences, or likelihood of getting caught, for vote manipulation. "We are told that shenanigans are just politics," said Nader at a press conference on Nov. 10. "Well, it's not politics. It's taking away people's votes."

SUNDAY Nov. 7 2004: Freedom of Information requests at http://www.blackboxvoting.org have unearthed two Ciber certification reports indicating that security and tamperability was NOT TESTED and that several state elections directors, a secretary of state, and computer consultant Dr. Britain Williams signed off on the report anyway, certifying it. Scroll down for more.

[DeadManInc]

60. SWEET!!!