Asked @125 judges if confident every vote counted...no hands went up

[Wilms]

Election called a mess

Losing candidates, GOP say tallies still aren't accurate

By Josh Noel
Tribune staff reporter

April 14, 2006

Claiming that scores of votes from last month's Cook County primary still haven't been accurately counted, a group of Republicans and losing candidates called for several unprecedented fixes Thursday, ranging from an audit of ballots to an entirely new election.

snip

Avila, a lawyer, said he has lined up close to 30 plaintiffs, mostly Democratic primary losers, for a possible federal lawsuit to seek recounts in every race.

Fueled by concerns about "poor management and organizational incompetence," Maureen Murphy, vice chair of the county GOP and a member of the county Board of Review, said she has met with about 200 suburban election judges who detailed a litany of problems from the March 21 primary.

Among the issues, she said, were a touch-screen voting machine that "blew up like an M80" and had to be unplugged; machines showing votes that hadn't been cast; and machines not working at all. In one meeting she asked about 125 judges how many of them were confident that every vote at their polling place had been counted, and no hands went up, she said.

snip

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0604140270apr14,1,1410675.story?coll=chi-newslocalchicago-hed

[stellanoir]

1. the cost of three national elections stolen. . .

the loss of democracy. the fact that 125 judges have finally noticed. . .? Priceless

Sorry I never thought I'd adopt a mastercard commercial style of writing but couldn't resist.

[Patchuli]

2. The Repubs won't whine unless

they are on the losing end. I think the whole electronic machine thing needs to be tossed. No guarantees? No machines. Paper ballots, hand counted. It worked for many many years without problem.

[Peace Patriot]

3. The latest in Bushite voting technology--exploding touchscreens!

That's even better than touchscreens that change Kerry votes to Bush votes! It gets to the heart of the problem--the very act of voting itself, which could be dangerous to fascists and war profiteers. Why mess with having to insert lines of code? Why not just have the machines blow up?

Or maybe the machines themselves are beginning to rebel, and blow themselves up, so disgusted are they at the "trade secret," proprietary programming they are forced to run on. (It's Windows-based, after all. What respectable machine wouldn't throw up at that?)

Ever see that old s-f movie, "Colossus: The Forbin Project"? The machines get real disgusted with us, and coordinate among themselves to keep us from blowing ourselves to smithereens. Great old flick.

[Wilms]

5. Your vote will self destruct in ten seconds.

[Amaryllis]

8. I saw that movie...it made an impression on me.

[GuvWurld]

4. K&R

Good find Wilms :thumbsup:

[Kip Humphrey]

6. They don't call 'em Die-bold for nothin'!

Exploding DREs may turn voting into a life-threatening experience!

[EFerrari]

22. LOL! At last, a laugh on them.

:)

[Amaryllis]

7. WOW! And this is MSM! Good find, Wilms! Does it sound funny to say

this is great news? This is exactly what is needed to graphically demonstrate what garbage these machines really are and raise awareness in the general public.

[Wilms]

9. Oh, it's ripe.

Local calls for auditing. Dem primary candidates seeking recounts. And, of course, exploding DRE's.

So it seems there are other liability issues relative to e-voting.

[Amaryllis]

11. Exploding machines are much harder to ignore than citizens complaining

about proprietary software.

[mopinko]

10. welcome to cook county

where the vote thieves have always been dems.
if this all comes unglued here, in the town synonymous with democratic vote stealing, it will be one of the most poetic occurrences in american political history.
understand the local politics of this a little before you get tooooo excited, tho. the trib is having a little fun, covering this. and the threat to withhold payment is a matter of city and county sniping at each other. however, this is just the kind of jealousy and territorial feuding that the founding fathers assumed would keep us safe, so.......

[EFerrari]

23. Didn't we win a Kennedy election in Cook county?

:)

[mopinko]

25. so they say.

although i have heard that denied and debunked a couple jillion times. i was a wee kiddie at the time. (ok, not that wee. but still.)

[EFerrari]

28. I was 4.

:)

[shenmue]

12. Holy crap! *The machine 'sploded?!?*

:scared:

'Splodin' vote machines! I'm scared!!

I'll have to call a SWAT team just to use one of the stupid things!

[mopinko]

13. this MUST be a lie.

"A standard recount of 5 percent of the ballots, done last week, was "right on the money," said Langdon Neal, chairman of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners."

he is either lying through his teeth, or that recount was rigged. at the city council hearing about the primary, on april 7, alderman after alderman stood up to announce how many precincts were still not counted in their wards. so, right on the money? whose money, i say.

[loudsue]

16. "Right on the money" is the KEY to election stealing. $$$, that is.

It's all about the party of $$ stealing elections. Pay the elections supervisors or board of elections enough $$, and they'll install the Diebold, Sequoia, Triad machines and central tabulators....

It's time for paper ballots, hand counted, IN PUBLIC.

:kick::kick::kick:

[LSK]

19. the recounts were rigged in Ohio in 04

I'd believe anything and everything at this point.

[mopinko]

26. yup

[Stevepol]

14. There must be some mistake with this article.

Every rep for the companies claims there are never any errors with these machines and they are about 99% accurate, with no under- or over-votes, very clean and efficient.

Look for some good photo-ops and some wonderful authoritative statements from the manufacturers coming soon. We can't have people feeling uneasy about their election system. People might begin to suspect the democracy is flawed.

[thereismore]

15. GOP: eat yer own medicine! nt

[TankLV]

17. Now that there are FINALLY overwhelming Democratic victories that even the

use of cheating machines can't fix for them, the repukes are JUST NOW wailing like a stuck pig.

Good - call their bluff - back to PAPER BALLOTS with PEN & INK and HUMAN tabulators all UNDER GUARD, IN THE OPEN, IN PUBLIC and with WITNESSES to guard against REPUKE CHEATING!

Are our so-called democratic "leaders" up to this challenge?

[mopinko]

27. is this a rove trap, tho???

popped into my mind when i went to bed last night. how many opportunities are they going to get to play their usual- blame us for what they are doing trick?? dems are doing it too, nah nah nah nah na nah.
i mean really, cook county is probably the only place in the country they can pull this, and not trap themselves. and we know kkkarl was setting this up at the lawyer's conference the other day.

[Imagevision]

18. Even Diebold isn't going to help the GOP this time around

Because of a Democratic landslide this November, Diebold will rise to the occasion and boast of how accurately their machines performed...!

[Mr_Spock]

20. Good - lets have fair elections

it's good for all

[pat_k]

21. Stamp Out Notions that Aid and Abet Election Thieves

http://january6th.org/files/stop_stolen_elections_now.html

[twaddler01]

24. K&R

crazy stuff...

[In Truth We Trust]

29. Paper ballots and Hand counts NOW!!! Democracy NOW!!!

[Wilms]

30. I wish our election system was as reliable as you!

:hi:

[In Truth We Trust]

31. Thanks, you made me chuckle a bit. Good original post btw!