The issue of democracy versus money: accountability versus profibility

[AnIndependentTexan]

Posted at commongroundcommonsense online forum by Activisms

Please read these accounts and reports and decide for yourself, what is right and what is WRONG. We the citizens can not afford to let all our rights, even your rights be decided by faulty machines and possible rigged hacked votes, at that point all our choices are LOST.

"SAN FRANCISCO California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has announced
a two-point-six (m) million dollar settlement with Diebold (DEE-bohld)
-- resolving a lawsuit alleging that the company sold shoddy voting
equipment in the state.

...

Diebold also agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to partially reimburse
Alameda, San Diego and other counties for the cost of paper backup
ballots, ink and other supplies in last week's election.

California's secretary of state banned the use of one type of Diebold
machine in May, after problems with the machines disenfranchised an
unknown number of voters.

According to the settlement, the North Canton, Ohio-based company must also upgrade ballot tabulation software that Los Angeles County and others used Nov. 2. Diebold must also strengthen the security of its paperless voting machines and computer servers and promise never to connect voting systems to outside networks."

http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=2549709

http://shadowbox.i8.com/stolen.htm#sites

Zogby speaks out:
"It is important that people know how accurate random sampling of
historical events can be in order for them to understand how unlikely
it is that the exit polls were wrong. So if you want to fight the
battle correctly, you must get more statisticians and forensic
accountants involved as well as the lawyers. These statisticians can
show with great credibility the probability of manipulation within the computer programs used for counting the ballots. They do this kind of work all the time to uncover fraud based upon computer manipulation in commercial and corporate activities. And these types of expert analyses are admissible in a court of law. The problem with all of this is determining who is going to fund such an investigation. Where will the money come from? Perhaps the Kerry/Edwards campaign fund has some surplus that can be used. It is possible that the DNC has some excess funds. How about the 527s and PACs who spent millions on ineffective political ads, coming up with a few million? In addition, who is going to lead the process of getting this done? This kind of an effort requires solidarity along with an organized coordinated effort. It's easy to come up with the forensic and technical people to get this done, but we need a strong leader and solidarity. Leadership and
funding-- these are the two real challenges that must be dealt with in
the coming days. We have a Watergate story here that could give the
media a post election explosive news story that could make the 2000
Florida vote debacle look like small potatoes. We need to get the
media to see that votergate 2004 is huge news and we need to quickly
fund the investigation and get Democratic leaders behind it.

Sheldon Drobny is CPA and Venture Capitalist and co-founder of Air
America Radio.

(11/9/2004)
- By Sheldon Drobny, Op-Ed News "
http://www.zogby.com/Soundbites/ReadClips.dbm?ID=10385

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_U.S._Election_controversies_and_irregularities#Evidence_of_electronic_voting_bias

"As Voting Machines Are Checked, Spano's Lead Shrinks

POSTED: 10:42 am EST November 9, 2004

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- After the first hours of a two-week vote
recount, Democrats claimed Monday that their candidate for the state
Senate from Yonkers had wiped out almost all of her unofficial deficit
and moved within 288 votes of the powerful Republican incumbent,
Nicholas Spano.

The GOP's election lawyer, John Ciampoli, acknowledged some gains for
Democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins but said, "None of this means anything
until all the recanvass of the machines is done, over and finished."

The count was partial, with just 15 percent of the machine vote
checked by late afternoon. But the quick recovery buoyed the forces of
Stewart-Cousins, a Westchester County legislator who took on the
Senate's assistant majority leader and a nine-term veteran.

"If this trend holds, we are confident that Andrea Stewart-Cousins
will be the next state senator from the 35th Senate District," said
the Democrats' election lawyer, Henry Berger, who was at the recount
in a machine storage warehouse in Yonkers.

A Spano defeat would mean a third seat whittled from the 38-24
majority Senate Republicans had earlier this year.

The unofficial vote total, with 99 percent of the precincts reporting,
gave Spano a lead of 1,674 votes. He had 54,120 votes, or 51 percent,
to Stewart-Cousins' 52,446 votes, or 49 percent.

Ciampoli said Republicans knew that gap was inflated and added, "I am
neither surprised nor panicked."

The two sides have traded allegations about irregularities in the
voting, with Republicans claiming voters were imported from New York
City and Democrats claiming voters were harassed and voting machines
were tampered with. All machines and records were impounded by judges.

The county Board of Elections disclosed Friday that seals on 22
machines were damaged or missing.

As the recount progressed on Monday, election workers, closely watched
by representatives of the campaigns, compared vote totals recorded on
machines with the tallies reported by poll workers on Election Night.

Jonathan Rosen, director of the state Democrats' campaign committee,
said Berger told him that nearly every machine had a higher count for
Stewart-Cousins than was recorded. However, Spano also gained votes,
including 80 from one machine, Rosen said.

All machines in Yonkers -- and in portions of Greenburgh and Mount
Pleasant that are in the Senate district -- are scheduled to be
recounted by Wednesday.

Meanwhile, election workers also are opening and counting absentee
ballots that had been received before Election Day. Rosen said too few
had been counted by midday Monday to show any trend.

Absentee votes received on Election Day or later, and the votes filed
with affidavits by those whose registrations could not be found, will
be scrutinized afterward.

Both sides and the election board commissioners are due in court Nov.
17 to report their findings to Administrative Judge Francis Nicolai."

http://www.wnbc.com/politics/3902820/detail.html

Dear secretaries of state, please bring this issue up officially
before your boards. This issue is a serious problem across all fronts,it should be treated as bi-partisan. When is it enough, when statesstart suing the very manufacturers of these machines? When is it enough, when money no longer matters because our democracy is at risk? Please look at this up and down, and don't let them stay in your jurisdiction. Fight to get rid of these faulty rigged machines for the sake of, any and all who take this country seriously. No matter what, it can go either way and someone can lose their seat and lose the game because of e-Voting replacing our fundamental civil rights. I implore you to search deep within and address this.
Goodbye.

Signed,
A very concerned voter.