Network Hosting Attorney Scandal E-Mails Also Hosted Ohio's 2004 Election Results

[Octafish]

Gee. What a coincidence.



From The Free Press via Alternet:

Network Hosting Attorney Scandal E-Mails Also Hosted Ohio's 2004 Election Results

Did the most powerful Republicans in America have the computer capacity, software skills and electronic infrastructure in place on Election Night 2004 to tamper with the Ohio results to ensure George W. Bush's re-election?

By Steven Rosenfeld and Bob Fitrakis, Free Press. Posted April 23, 2007.

The answer appears to be yes. There is more than ample documentation to show that on Election Night 2004, Ohio's "official" Secretary of State website -- which gave the world the presidential election results -- was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites, including the secret White House e-mail accounts that have emerged in the scandal surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's firing of eight federal prosecutors.

Recent revelations have documented that the Republican National Committee (RNC) ran a secret White House e-mail system for Karl Rove and dozens of White House staffers. This high-tech system used to count and report the 2004 presidential vote- from server-hosting contracts, to software-writing services, to remote-access capability, to the actual server usage logs themselves -- must be added to the growing congressional investigations.

Numerous tech-savvy bloggers, starting with the online investigative consortium epluribusmedia.org and their November 2006 article cross-posted by contributor luaptifer to Dailykos, and Joseph Cannon's blog at Cannonfire.blogspot.com, outed the RNC tech network. That web-hosting firm is SMARTech Corp. of Chattanooga, TN, operating out of the basement in the old Pioneer Bank building. The firm hosts scores of Republican websites, including georgewbush.com, gop.com and rnc.org.

The software created for the Ohio secretary of state's Election Night 2004 website was created by GovTech Solutions, a firm co-founded by longtime GOP computing guru Mike Connell. He also redesigned the Bush campaign's website in 2000 and told "Inside Business" magazine in 1999, "I wouldn't be where I am today without the Bush campaign and the Bush family because the Bushes truly are about family and I'm loyal to my network."

Ohio's Cedarville University, a Christian school with 3,100 students, issued a press release on January 13, 2005 describing how faculty member Dr. Alan Dillman's computing company Government Consulting Resources, Ltd, worked with these Republican-connected companies to tally the vote on Election Night 2004.

CONTINUED...

http://www.alternet.org/story/50941/

Small world.



And very, very bad.

[flyarm]

1. SOME COINCIDENCE, INDEED...THOSE SCUM BAGS!! K&R..EOM

[Octafish]

2. ''People don't steal elections to do good things.''

... words of a DUer from 2001.

The last six years have proven that good DUer correct and shown the Bushies to be nothing more than gangsters, NAZIs and traitors.

[mopinko]

12. .

[glengarry]

29. The Final Ohio Exit Poll was mainpulated to match the corrupt vote count

From the treasure-trove of 2004/2006 Election Fraud:
http://www.geocities.com/electionmodel/TruthIsAllFAQResponse.htm#Ohio

Ohio Exit Poll Analysis

Note the vote share anomalies between the 12:22am exit poll (1963 respondents) and the 2:06pm Final (2020 respondents). Just like in the Final NEP, vote shares changed abruptly and uniformly by 3% in favor of Bush.


1) Party ID: Democrat/ Republican 38/35 to 35/40, a 7.9% (3/38) shift. With the original 38/35 weights, Bush needed 17% of Democrats to match the recorded vote. He had 8%.

2) Ideology: Liberal/Conservative 21/32 to 19/34, a 9.5% (2/21) shift.With the original weights, Bush needed 23% of Liberals to match the recorded vote. He had 13%.

3) Senate race: Democrat/Republican 43/57 to 36/64, a 16.3% (7/43) shift. With the original weights, Bush needed 14% of those who voted for the Democratic senator. He had 7%.

4) First-time voters: Of the 14% who were first-timers 55% were for Kerry. Are we to believe that Kerry only won 47% of previous voters?

5) When Decided: Of the 21% who decided in the 30 days prior to the election, 62% voted for Kerry. Are we to believe that he only won 45% of the other 79%?

What pre-election poll had Bush leading in Ohio by 10 points prior to Oct 1?

more, much more.....

[blm]

44. Shhh...conspiracy watchers are demeaned while 'coincidence theorists' reign supreme.

Careful

[L. Coyote]

66. GOOD POINT. Coincidence Theorists are not helpful, and are very WRONG.

CAREFUL is certainly an appropriate warning here.

FIRST, before going into all the falsehoods promulgasted by the article, here is where the authors ought to focus, where there is direct evidence of vote-switching. Why did these authers distract from that evidence in 2004, and why do they continue to both ignore it and refocus attention elsewhere. They were wrong then, and they are wrong now. Here is the evidence they should focus on:

The 2004 Ohio Presidential Election: Cuyahoga County Analysis
How Kerry Votes Were Switched to Bush Votes

http://jqjacobs.net/politics/ohio.html

DU Discussion of same:

OHIO 2004: 6.15% Kerry-Bush vote-switch found in probability study
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x259620

======================

The article posts a question and does not even answer in the affirmative. Why, because the are WRONG!

"Did the most powerful Republicans in America have the computer capacity, software skills and electronic infrastructure in place on Election Night 2004 to tamper with the Ohio results to ensure George W. Bush's re-election?"

"The answer appears to be yes."

SO WHAT? Appearances mean nothing. These authors are making a career of ignoring real evidence in favor of distracting from it.

Let's discus the FACTS instead.

"... on Election Night 2004, Ohio's "official" Secretary of State website -- which gave the world the presidential election results -- was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites,

on Election Night 2004, Ohio's "official" Secretary of State website -- which gave the world the presidential election results -- was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites, ...."

WRONG: The Ohio SoS utilized a hosting service for their election night posting of results. It is not a coincidence that the GOP uses the same "hosting" service, but it is WRONG to infer that the State of Ohio was not directing the election results site w/o evidence beyond a coincidence.

WRONG: "On Election Night 2004, the Republican Party not only controlled the vote-counting process in Ohio, ..."

The vote counting/reporting was controlled by government entities at a county level as usual. The SoS only reports what is reported to that Ohio government office. In no way, shape, or form does the SoS count votes.

WRONG: "... the Republican Party ... also controlled the technology."

The vote counting technology was controlled by the State of Ohio and the counties.

WRONG: "...Privatizing elections and allowing known partisans to run a key presidential vote count ..."

The election was conducted by the county BOEs, not private, and counted by these government organizations. This rhetoric is both false and inflammatory. Why?

WRONG: "there is abundant evidence that Republicans could have used this computing network to delay announcing the winner of Ohio's 2004 election while tinkering with the results."

Now we also have "could have theorists" too!! How does that move anything forward except confusion?

WRONG: "On Election Night 2004, many of the totals reported by the Secretary of State were based on local precinct results that were impossible...."

The election night results gave Bush a substantial margin. Citing several precincts, a la Reagan's anecdotal logic, is now a tired old verse, discredited soon after the election, and proves nothing of substance even when true. A good analogy is Republicans using "voter fraud" to advance a different agenda.

WRONG: "... the facts are not in, but enough is known to warrant a serious congressional inquiry."

Not on this issue. The serious congressional inquiries underway since 2004 do not need to be misdirected by "coincidence theorists." The have real evidence to persue.

WRONG: "... for roughly 90 minutes the Ohio election results reported on the Secretary of State's website were frozen .... vote totals from these last-to-report counties ... were highly improbable and suggested vote count fraud to pad Bush's numbers."

"Improbable." "Suggested." Don't attorneys know how valueless such "proofs" are? Vote counts are always frozen on web sites, then a new result total is posted and they change. Bush was winning Florida in 2000, and the results moved Gore forward to a tie, for all practical purposes. The same fallacious logic would indicate Gore stole the last reporting counties in Florida.

WRONG: "... The most eyebrow-raising example to emerge from parsing precinct results was finding 10,500 people in three Ohio's 'Bible Belt' counties who voted to re-elect Bush and voted in favor of gay marriage, if the official results are true ... in Warren, Butler and Clermont Counties. The most plausible explanation for this anomaly ... was Kerry votes were flipped to Bush while the rest of the ballot was left alone. While we have some theories about how that might have been done by hand in a police-guarded warehouse, could full Republican control of the vote-counting software and servers also have played a role?"

This is easy to explain. These authors know of a plausible explanation and ignore it, as if part of the cover-up themselves. What happens when punch card ballots are switched between precincts with different ballot orders. Kerry votes can be switched to Bush votes while a distinct outcome may or may not result for other, down-ticket races with a different number of options. Warren and Butler Counties used punch cards, and Clermont used optical scanning, so all the ballots are still preserved.

WRONG: "Baiman compared the number of voters who signed in with the total number of votes attributed to precincts. He found hundreds of "phantom" votes, where the number of voter signatures was less than the reported vote total. That discrepancy also suggests vote count fraud."

This is a common problem when voters do not sign in, a well known problem with a well known cause. It does not suggest fraud in and of itself. This is iase argumentation.

WRONG: "... the highest ranks of the Republican Party's political wing, including White House counselor Karl Rove, a handful of the party's most tech-savvy computer gurus and the former Republican Ohio Secretary of State, created, owned and operated the vote-counting system that reported George W. Bush's re-election to the presidency."

This is just beyond ridiculous. Only those with no critical reasoning will not see the lie in this statement.

Laws of the State of Ohio created the system, the People of Ohio own it, and Boards of Election operated it. GET REAL!!

[Frustratedlady]

3. Surely this will make it into a hearing?

Please tell me yes!

I particularly got a kick out of page #3, para. 2. Wouldn't that frost them if they got tripped up on instances such as gay marriage? Serves them right.

This needs more discussion. Read the article all the way through. It is unreal.

[robinlynne]

4. This has been known for quite a while. at least a month now.

[Frustratedlady]

18. How did I miss it?

I've been busy, but I can't believe I missed this. I hope the media or Congress gets it out to the public and something is done. How much more do they need?

[FogerRox]

19. Good site, folks from DU & D-KOS, gettting together doin good work

http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/4/22/33926/1773

[Octafish]

21. Should a GOP consultant with a history of electoral fraud be a systems administrator for Govt IT?

What we're talking about:

Rove -ing emails: what else could go missing?

by Todd Johnston
Sun Apr 22, 2007 at 03:39:26 AM EST

Contributed by Todd Johnston and Luaptifer

As reported here, the Bush family's personal Internet strategist installed proprietary database, email, and web servers on the U.S. House of Representatives IT networks, less than three months after President George W. Bush took office in 2001.

Six years later, Michael L. Connell and his twin companies -- New Media Communications and Govtech Solutions -- have replicated that early success and spread throughout the federal government like one of New Media's award-winning viral marketing campaigns.

With one hand Connell fights to keep his party in power: exotic technologies that sync talking points for the RNC, Republican Governors Association, and 30 state GOP parties with his 'news' for hire clients like TCS Daily and Frontpage Mag.

And yet with the other, Mike Connell designs and maintains databases that run computer software at the White House, the Departments of Justice, Energy and State, and the most hermetic committees on Capitol Hill like Intelligence and the Judiciary.

Whether the conflict of interest is real or apparent matters little, because so far no one has even asked the question: should a top campaign consultant with a history of electoral fraud be a systems administrator for federal government IT networks?

CONTINUED...

http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/4/22/33926/1773

Thanks, FogerRox!

[FogerRox]

23. IReal good stuff... caught the article @ KOS earlier

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/23/32116/0526

[Mister Ed]

40. Wow. This blows me away. It should be in its own new thread. n/t

[Qutzupalotl]

70. Sounds like they could easily eavesdrop on Democrats in Congress'

electronic communications with such a system. That would be big-time illegal.

Bush and Gonzales have never said definitively that they never spied on their political opponents; they simply dodged the questions or over-qualified their answers. This could be why.

In the past, a Republican congressional majority could have used such information to head off any investigative efforts by Democrats, since they set the agenda. Without their majority, all they can do is watch as we get closer to uncovering their secrets.

[Frustratedlady]

24. How scary.

[Octafish]

6. Coincidence, I'm often told.

From your keyboard to Moon's ear.

I believe this is the paragraph:

http://www.alternet.org/story/50941?page=3

The most eyebrow-raising example to emerge from parsing precinct results was finding 10,500 people in three Ohio's 'Bible Belt' counties who voted to re-elect Bush and voted in favor of gay marriage, if the official results are true. That was in Warren, Butler and Clermont Counties. The most plausible explanation for this anomaly, which defies logic and was not seen anywhere else in the country, was Kerry votes were flipped to Bush while the rest of the ballot was left alone. While we have some theories about how that might have been done by hand in a police-guarded warehouse, could full Republican control of the vote-counting software and servers also have played a role?

Thanks for caring, Frustratedlady.

[watrwefitinfor]

42. "10,500 people... voted to re-elect Bush AND voted in favor of gay marriage

Talk about something needing a post of its own! I don't remember hearing about this before.

http://www.alternet.org/story/50941?page=3

The most eyebrow-raising example to emerge from parsing precinct results was finding 10,500 people in three Ohio's 'Bible Belt' counties who voted to re-elect Bush and voted in favor of gay marriage, if the official results are true. That was in Warren, Butler and Clermont Counties. The most plausible explanation for this anomaly, which defies logic and was not seen anywhere else in the country, was Kerry votes were flipped to Bush while the rest of the ballot was left alone. While we have some theories about how that might have been done by hand in a police-guarded warehouse, could full Republican control of the vote-counting software and servers also have played a role?

Thanks to Octafish and FrustratedLady and everybody else who is still digging this stuff up. There seems to be a never ending supply. When will it ever get mass exposure?

Wat

[blm]

78. Thanks - hadn't seen that one.

.

[jwirr]

51. There is a going to be a special counsel investigating Rove

activities. Surely the "lost emails" and this coincidence is worthy of being part of that investigation.

[robinlynne]

60. The special counsel is one of Rove's own. see other posts.

[fooj]

5. Know your BFEE!

These rat bastards have their treasonous paws on EVERYTHING!

[Octafish]

73. Netcraft Shows SMARTECH Running Ohio Election Servers

Slashdot.org has the dope with LINKS:

Netcraft Shows Smartech Running Ohio Election Servers

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday April 24, @02:02PM
from the something-rotten-in-the-state-of-Ohio dept.
goombah99 writes

"Netcraft is showing that an event happened in the Ohio 2004 election that is difficult to explain. The Secretary of State's website, which handles election reporting, normally is directed to an Ohio-based IP address hosted by the Ohio Supercomputer Center. On Nov. 3 2004, Netcraft shows the website pointing out of state to a server owned by Smartech Corp. According to the American Registry on Internet Numbers, Smartech's block of IP addresses 64.203.96.0 – 64.203.111.255 encompasses the entire range of addresses owned by the Republican National Committee. Smartech hosted the recently notorious gbw43.com domain used from the White House in apparent violation of the Presidential Records Act, from which thousands of White House emails vanished. Can anyone suggest a good explanations for this seemingly dubious election-eve transfer?"

SOURCE with LINKS:

http://politics.slashdot.org/

DU, we have a problem.

Thanks for caring, fooj!

[The Count]

7. Didn't the Diebold spokesman said once that no one would want to do bad things?

or some nitwitty statement like this. gee, ya think Diebold was aware of this RNC connection?

[Ghost in the Machine]

8. Is *THIS* enough to finally get these snakes for TREASON???

My god! What MORE is it going to take?? Can we start calling for recall elections of Congressional Dems if the don't start doing the bidding of WE, THE PEOPLE??

Screw Impeachment, ARREST THESE CRIMINALS AND GET THEM OUT OF OUR GOVERNMENT.....

NOW!!!

oh... and K&R! :kick:

[DemReadingDU]

9. I'm from Ohio

I figured Bush didn't really win this state in 2004.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

10. He Didn't

He also didn't win Florida in 2000.

It's a shame the majority of this country will never truly know just how ILLEGITIMATE a leader it had for these 8 years.

Like everything else they do which is devastating for their side, it will all be covered up, evidence destroyed, and skeptics marginalized. They did it with JFK, this won't be a problem.

I'm guessing the deception is unbelievable, and the scope will never be proven enough to make people realize....or care....about the TREASON perpetrated.

[DemReadingDU]

11. More info about Mike Connell

3/28/07 Who is Michael L. Connell? Part I: The Atwater School of Politics
http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/3/28/143050/889

4/2/07 Who is Michael L. Connell? Part II: Behind the firewall.
http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/4/2/6328/14926

[Ghost in the Machine]

13. MORE from this article - - - -

Did Ohio Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell or other GOP operatives inflate the president's vote totals to secure George W. Bush's margin of victory? On Election Night 2004, many of the totals reported by the Secretary of State were based on local precinct results that were impossible. In Clyde, Ohio, a Republican haven, Bush won big after 131 percent voter turnout. In Republican Perry County, two precincts came in at 124 percent and 120 percent respectively. In Gahanna Ward 1, precinct B, Bush received 4,258 votes despite the fact that only 638 people voted for president. In Concord Southwest in Miami County, the certified election results proudly proclaimed at 679 out of 689 registered voters cast ballots, a 98.55 percent turnout. FreePress.org later found that only 547 voters had signed in.

"These strange election results were routed by county election officials through Ohio's Secretary of State's office, through partisan IT providers and software, and the final results were hosted out of a computer based in Tennessee announcing the winner. The Cedarville University releases boasted the system "was running like a champ." It said, "The system kept running through the early morning hours as users from around the world looked to Ohio for their election results."

All the facts are not in, but enough is known to warrant a serious congressional inquiry. Beginning with a timeline on Election Night after a national media consortium exit poll predicted Democrat John Kerry would win Ohio, the first Ohio returns were from the state's Democratic urban strongholds, showing Kerry in the lead.

This was the case until shortly after midnight on Wednesday, Nov. 5, when for roughly 90 minutes the Ohio election results reported on the Secretary of State's website were frozen. Shortly before 2am EST election returns came in from a handful of the state's rural Republican enclaves, bumping Bush's numbers over the top."

Treason, dare we speak thy name? This should be enough by now, dammit! It's time to frog march this whole criminal administration out of OUR House and declare the RNC as an enemy combatant to our Constitution. This is an organized gang of criminals if I've ever seen one.

http://www.alternet.org/story/50941?page=2

Edited: To add link

[blm]

15. Lest we forget Mr. Carville's role in election night thievery....

and the mysterious actions of others throughout the 2004 campaign.

http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=13354

Whom does the biographer think his subject will pick as a running mate? Not Hillary Rodham Clinton. "There's really two different Democratic parties right now: there's the Clintons

and Terry McAuliffe and the DNC and then there's the Kerry upstarts. John Kerry had one of the great advantages in life by being considered to get the nomination in December. He watched every Democrat in the country flee from him, and the Clintons really stick the knife in his back a bunch of times, so he's able to really see who was loyal to him and who wasn't. That's a very useful thing in life."



http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/oct/07/did_carville_tip_bush_off_to_kerry_strategy_woodward

[mod mom]

28. Yes the TPM link is one of my favs to post when someone is attempting to promote

Carville.

I had the pleasure of talking to a nice woman who was solicitating for his PAC and I sure gave her an earful (done with respect) on why they will NEVER receive a cent from my household.

[blm]

43. Could BushInc steal elections without help from Dem insiders?

.

[mod mom]

45. One only has to look at the Ohio Investigation they issued and the fact they

ignored evidence (like signed affidavits from public hearings etc.) Did they bother to go into BOEs and actually look for evidence like activists did? They they do their own investigations into such noted anomalies sucha as the extra 3,800 + votes for bu$h in Gahanna, or the "level 10" homeland security lockdown in Warren County? Did they offer a cent to the activists who willing to search, fighting for their base voters?

There is a wing of the Dem Party, in which Carville belongs, that wishes to be able to control the vote. It is why, as seen in the TPM blog you posted, we see collusion. It is wy the DLC still thinks Gore lost in 2000 due to his shift from supporting the DLC to becoming a populist. This is why I will never vote for supporters of the group.

[mod mom]

46. BTW here is the account of the denial of Gore's win in 2000:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/mod%20mom/5

[blm]

52. Perception management - Pile on with the GOP that Gore and Kerry are losers

and tell the party they HAVE to run the ONLY Dem who can win - a Clinton.

The centrist Clinton forces needed the perception that both Gore and Kerry lost every bit as much as BushInc did.

So, they work with the afterspinners from the GOP to set the conventional wisdom - Gore 'lost' because he distanced himself from Clinton. Kerry 'lost' because he was too liberal and couldn't be trusted on national security.

And the Dem strategist and consultant class pound these memes home till most Dem voters believe they HAVE to move right on these issues and will accept a more centrist, compromised candidate under the idea that only "THEY" can win.

And election fraud gets obscured and denied by our most influential Dem 'leaders' who also manage to get the most airtime from the networks.

[mod mom]

59. Ding, ding, ding...we have a winner. You hit the nail on the proverbial head.

:hi:

This is why we need to branch off of DU on to other sites not so well informed and spread the word. I am always amazed how poorly informed folks are. I also leave info in waiting rooms, and other areas where they just might be picked up and read, stimulating thought. I have to say the issue of the stolen election has really taken off since my early days thinking we would get 100,000 folks in Ohio after the election to protest. At first many thought I wazs a total kook, but now...not so much. ;)

[Diane R]

38. Seeing Hillary knife Kerry in the back in Oct. 06 convinced me that I will never vote for her.

[MagickMuffin]

14. Time to Bring Out My Research Again: Jeffrey Scot Averbeck, SmarTech CEO

Jeffrey Scot Averbeck,


ZoomInfo Web Summary: Jeff Averbeck

1. Business 2.0 :: Online Article :: Future Boy :: Technology Equals Democracy
www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,692392,00.html
Published on: 2/28/2005   Last Visited: 2/28/2005

Jeff Averbeck, CEO of Smartech, which is running the Republican websites, says, "Politics today is getting people to get up and do something." More than 1 million volunteers and 6 million e-mail and letter-writing activists have signed up for the Republicans this year over the Web.

All those people make a good test bed for sophisticated database marketing techniques. "When we send out an e-mail," Averbeck says, "I can tell immediately how it was received -- whether it was opened, forwarded, or discarded.

2. Bush campaign Web site blocks overseas access - Computerworld
www.computerworld.com/developmenttopics/websitemgmt/story/0,10801,9695
Published on: 10/28/2004   Last Visited: 10/28/2004

SmarTech President Jeff Averbeck said he was unaware of the international blocking, adding that it wasn't originating from SmarTech. "All we do is host the site. I have no control over what's being done outside our servers," he said.

Web performance monitoring firm Keynote Systems Inc. also confirmed access restrictions on the Web site. Senior Internet analyst Roopak Patel attempted to reach GeorgeWBush.com using several of Keynote's computers around the world. He found that the Web site is available from the U.S. and Canada, but not from many other locations, including Oslo, Brussels, London, Amsterdam and Lisbon in Europe; Tokyo, Taipei, and Sydney in the Asia-Pacific region; and Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro.

Patel said the 403 message is a fairly specific error description. "It is more definitive than the 404 type of error where you can't tell what is going on at the server side," he said.

3. Enews: February 11, 2005
www.tennvalleycorridor.org/news/news_detail.html?news_id=14
Published on: 4/1/2004   Last Visited: 7/7/2005

The Chattanooga company founded by a former executive of the video streaming company st3, Jeff Averbeck, has dedicated six Web servers to handle the business. Mr. Averbeck already is negotiating for more broadband capacity to handle the growing demand for electronic political information.

When the Bush-Cheney campaign launched its first major television commercials Wednesday, nearly 100,000 Internet users simultaneously began downloading a version of the advertisements from the Web site.

"We were pushing more than 250,000 megabytes per second, which is far more than any previous outbound data transmission ever in Chattanooga," Mr. Averbeck said. "We were all astonished by the response." Mr. Averbeck,s company hosts both the Bush-Cheney campaign Web site (www.georgewbush.com) and the Internet site for the Republican National Committee (www.GOP.com). When Republicans convene in New York City for their convention in late summer, Mr. Averbeck,s firm will be video streaming images from different caucuses and convention events throughout the day.
...
But Mr. Averbeck insists the Bush-Cheney Web site has far surpassed other political Internet addresses in the variety of options, information and services offered to users.

The Bush-Cheney campaign and the Republican National Committee supply the content for their respective Internet sites from their suburban Washington, D.C., headquarters. But SMARTech handles the broadcast, data retrieval and transmissions of the Internet sites and e-mails from Chattanooga. The Republicans already have a list of nearly five million supporters who regularly receive e-mails as requested from the Bush-Cheney campaign, via the equipment at SMARTech.

As a railroad hub city, Chattanooga is a transit point for a huge amount of Internet fiber lines, Mr. Averbeck said. SMARTech has fiber links outside of Chattanooga along Sprint, BellSouth and Qwest lines, officials said.

"Because we have so much fiber and our cost of living and congestion is much less than many bigger cities, this is actually a very good site for this type of business," Mr. Averbeck said.

The SMARTech founder, who also operates tAirNet Group Inc., said he is working with Chattanooga officials to help use Chattanooga,s abundant fiber capacity to help connect the Tennessee Technology Corridor along Interstate 75, including the Oak Ridge National Laboratory; the NASA facilities in Huntsville, Ala.; and the Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tullahoma, Tenn.

Mr. Averbeck said he backed into the political work when he was asked to help resolve an Internet problem for the Republican National Committee in 2000. Mr. Averbeck said his skills are technical, not political. But he said he also is learning the art of politics to help propel Chattanooga,s fledgling video streaming and Internet industry.

"We want to make this the new research triangle," he said.

Spallation Neutron Source To Hold Open House April 2
...
Six DOE national laboratories -- Argonne, Brookhaven, Jefferson, Lawrence Berkeley, Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge -- are collaborating on the design and construction of the facility. ORNL is managing the partnership and is integrating each of the respective laboratories' contributions into the facility.

4. Business 2.0 :: Online Article :: Future Boy :: Technology Equals Democracy
www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,692392,00.html
Published on: 9/3/2004   Last Visited: 9/9/2004

Jeff Averbeck, CEO of Smartech, which is running the Republican websites, says, "Politics today is getting people to get up and do something." More than 1 million volunteers and 6 million e-mail and letter-writing activists have signed up for the Republicans this year over the Web.

All those people make a good test bed for sophisticated database marketing techniques. "When we send out an e-mail," Averbeck says, "I can tell immediately how it was received -- whether it was opened, forwarded, or discarded.

5. 2000 Meeting Notice Archive
www.chattanoogaengineersclub.org/archive00.html
Published on: 11/19/2004   Last Visited: 10/5/2006

Mr. Jeff Averbeck, President/CEO of Smartech, and Mr. Shane Sexton, Network Manager of NextLec

ZoomInfo Cached Page
Chattanooga Takes Center Stage In Connecting Voters For President ?Chattanooga Times Free Press, Dave Flessner?03/19/04

Along the information superhighway, the road to another term in the White House for George Bush begins in Chattanooga.

From a secondstory suite in the Pioneer Bank Building on Broad Street, millions of Internet connections and e-mail blasts by the president’s reelection campaign are regularly broadcast by SMARTech Inc. The Chattanooga company founded by a former executive of the video streaming company st3, Jeff Averbeck, has dedicated six Web servers to handle the business. Mr. Averbeck already is negotiating for more broadband capacity to handle the growing demand for electronic political information.

When the Bush-Cheney campaign launched its first major television commercials Wednesday, nearly 100,000 Internet users simultaneously began downloading a version of the advertisements from the Web site.

"We were pushing more than 250,000 megabytes per second, which is far more than any previous outbound data transmission ever in Chattanooga," Mr. Averbeck said. "We were all astonished by the response."?
Mr. Averbeck’s company hosts both the Bush-Cheney campaign Web site (www.georgewbush.com) and the Internet site for the Republican National Committee (www.GOP.com). When Republicans convene in New York City for their convention in late summer, Mr. Averbeck’s firm will be video streaming images from different caucuses and convention events throughout the day.

The Internet entrepreneur who first began working as a consultant for the Republican National Committee in 2000 has tapped into a revolutionary time for political campaigns on the Web, experts predict.

"This is the first presidential campaign in which the Internet has become an essential tool for candidates to get their message out, to raise money and to regularly interact with their supporters," said John Horrigan, a senior research specialist for the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in Washington, D.C. "We’re already seeing the share of people going to the Internet for political information as high as it reached just before the midterm elections in 2002."

A new study by the Pew Center found that 22 percent of all Internet users have gone online already this year to learn more about the presidential campaign and its candidates. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean attracted record amounts of donations and volunteers for his campaign from his Web site.

"The Dean campaign really showed that you can get a big bang for the buck on the Internet," Mr. Horrigan said.
But Mr. Averbeck insists the Bush-Cheney Web site has far surpassed other political Internet addresses in the variety of options, information and services offered to users.

The Bush-Cheney campaign and the Republican National Committee supply the content for their respective Internet sites from their suburban Washington, D.C., headquarters. But SMARTech handles the broadcast, data retrieval and transmissions of the Internet sites and e-mails from Chattanooga. The Republicans already have a list of nearly five million supporters who regularly receive e-mails as requested from the Bush-Cheney campaign, via the equipment at SMARTech.

As a railroad hub city, Chattanooga is a transit point for a huge amount of Internet fiber lines, Mr. Averbeck said. SMARTech has fiber links outside of Chattanooga along Sprint, BellSouth and Qwest lines, officials said.
"Because we have so much fiber and our cost of living and congestion is much less than many bigger cities, this is actually a very good site for this type of business," Mr. Averbeck said.

The SMARTech founder, who also operates tAirNet Group Inc., said he is working with Chattanooga officials to help use Chattanooga’s abundant fiber capacity to help connect the Tennessee Technology Corridor along Interstate 75, including the Oak Ridge National Laboratory; the NASA facilities in Huntsville, Ala.; and the Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tullahoma, Tenn.

Mr. Averbeck said he backed into the political work when he was asked to help resolve an Internet problem for the Republican National Committee in 2000. Mr. Averbeck said his skills are technical, not political. But he said he also is learning the art of politics to help propel Chattanooga’s fledgling video streaming and Internet industry.
"We want to make this the new research triangle," he said.

Mircosoft's Call to Action?
Microsoft Announces Beta Availability of Small Business Server 4.5
New Version of Leading Small Business Server Solution Designed to Meet Needs of Technology Providers




REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 11, 1999
Microsoft Announces Beta Availability of Small Business Server 4.5: New Version of Leading Small Business Server Solution Designed to Meet Needs of Technology Providers

"With this new release we expect to double our business, thanks to the new generation of technology-provider-focused tools and increased support for up to 50 workstations," said technology provider Jeff Averbeck, president and CEO of SMARTech. "Microsoft really listened to us and incorporated our top feature requests in Small Business Server 4.5."
New features to support technology providers include the following:

• Enhanced setup engine offers an automated and flexible installation process with interactive help, hardware confirmation pages, a progress bar and the ability to specify installation directories for applications.

• Small Business Server Internet Connectivity Wizard allows easy configuration of Small Business Server with any ISP using the broadest range of connectivity options, including ADSL, cable modem, ISDN and other high-speed solutions.

• Server Status tool delivers scheduled server status and log reports via e-mail or fax.

• Enhanced Remote Administration tool utilizes Microsoft NetMeeting® conferencing software version 2.1 to allow technology providers to administer and manage Small Business Server sites remotely.

•Two no-charge telephone support incidents and unlimited free online support will be available at product release to make it easier for technology providers to support their customers.

• The maximum number of licensed client workstations has increased from 25 to 50.

• The separate Small Business Server with Office Pro SKU now features a fully integrated version of the Office 2000 business productivity software suite.

Technology providers can receive in-depth technical information about Small Business Server 4.5 by attending a no-cost Direct Access event in their area. More information about these briefings is available at http://www.microsoft.com/directaccess/events/default.asp .
Small Business Server 4.5 is a comprehensive and integrated suite of server applications designed to provide small businesses with the powerful networking and application server capabilities of Windows NT Server 4.0, as well as internal and external e-mail functionality, a relational database, fast and secure Internet access, fax- and modem-sharing services, and an easy-to-use console for basic server administration.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" ) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

[Eurobabe]

16. So, why do you think those scumbags at Warren Co, BOE FAKED a terra alert?

I think some day we will know. Hopefully sooner, than later.

Welcome President Pelosi!

[OnyxCollie]

32. Impound the servers. Impeach the Decider.

All your emails are belong to us.

[tanyev]

17. K & R !!!!!

[bleever]

20. Election night 2004, in the White House dining room:

Karl Rove (seen here with Susan Ralston) bragged of having precinct-level data at his disposal.

Disposal to do what? I think we know.

[paparush]

25. In that pic - Two guys on their Blackberries...betcha those emails

didn't come/go through whitehouse.gov

[dmr]

34. I was looking for that picture earlier today in my files

and couldn't find it (must be on a cd). Thanks for posting it.

Though it's business as usual for this gang, they are not innocently gathering election data in that dining room. It is a glimpse at another coup in the making.

Each and every hour of every day I feel such despair for our future.

[Morgana LaFey]

22. Isn't this, like, THE smoking gun on election theft for 2004??

I realize my own standards of proof are different from that required in a court of law, but ... isn't this THE smoking gun????

[mod mom]

26. As someone who has worked in Ohio on the election investigation, this is only

another of many smoking guns. They were never even allowed to present their evidence in court, in fact they were threatened with sanctions for bringing an attempt. The Ohio Supreme Court is so tilted to the right, that there isn't much hope in getting heard.

As for the possibility of Ohio's US Attorneys bringing up action, well, just look how the Noe/Coingate Scandal was suppressed before the '04 election:

Seems like Rep Conyers and Rep Kaptur had concerns about Ohio US Attorney. In a letter in August of 2005 (link at bottom) to AG Gonzales, they write this regarding the Noe investigation:

OF SPECIAL INTEREST NOTE THESE PARAGRAPHS:

"As a matter of fact, the numerous delays in the investigation have already raised the specter of political favoritism. From documents that have been made public, we know that the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, Gregory White, who is leading the federal investigation, had prior knowledge of the losses before the 2004 presidential election, as did the Governor of Ohio and other officials.16 At the same time, no investigation was initiated on these matters until spring of this year.17

The fact pattern present in this case, particularly with the new disclosure that the lead federal prosecutor may well have gotten his job as a result of a political appeal by Governor Taft's office to Karl Rove, make it abundantly clear that a special counsel is necessitated. We urge you to make such a designation immediately to help restore public trust in this very important investigation. "

That letter came after a early July 2005 letter from Rep Conyers to OH US Attorney Gregory White:

Dear Mr. White,

I write to you because of my very serious concerns regarding the manner in which your office has handled the investigation into alleged federal campaign finance violations involving the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign and other Republican candidates. In particular, I am concerned that your office delayed investigating this very serious matter until after the 2004 presidential election and as a result prejudiced the government's ability to pursue justice in the case.

It is my understanding that on October 13, 2004, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio was provided evidence from Lucas County grand jury proceedings suggesting extensive federal campaign finance violations took place involving Tom Noe, the leading Bush-Cheney campaign official in the region for the 2004 campaign. On the same day, it was reported that your office shared this information with the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, and that later that day, the Section e-mailed to the U.S. Attorney's Office authorization to investigate the matter. Two days later, on October 15, it was reported that the local prosecutor's office gave their evidence to the FBI.

It has been further reported by the Toledo Blade that you began your investigation into the case around early March 2005. Subsequent news reports stated that federal grand jury proceedings occurred on June 1, 2005, well after the presidential election and approximately seven-and-one half months after the Department was notified of the potential violations.

If this series of events is accurate, the delay may have violated federal guidelines as well as bar rules of professional conduct requiring impartiality and promptness in criminal investigations. First, federal law directs that each United States Attorney "shall prosecute for all offenses against the United States." The U.S. Attorneys' Manual reiterates this requirement and further explains that "their professional abilities and the need for their impartiality in administering justice directly affect the public's perception of federal law enforcement." While I am well aware that the principle of prosecutorial discretion grants your office latitude in determining which cases warrant prosecution, that doctrine in no way permits political considerations—including the fact of a high profile and closely contested election—to intrude on the prosecutorial process....

-snip
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/govt_docs/2005/3228conyers_ohio_ltr.html


Lucas County, OH Prosecutor Julia Bates presented US Attorney Gregory White with evidence on Tom Noe on October 13, 2004 (22 days before the November 2, 2004 Presidential Election)!

[mod mom]

27. Forgot to add, Tom Noe's wife was needed at the Lucas County OH BOE:

There is a connection with this interference and the fact that Tom Noe's wife Bernadette Noe was Chair of the Lucas County BOE, (Lucas County is a Democratic stronghold) a county that incurred so many issues that OH SOS was forced to issue this report on the county after the '04 election:


OH SOS Investigation of the Lucas County BOE after 2004 Election

includes the fact that REPUBLICAN VOLUNTEERS were allowed UNSUPERVISED ACCESS to UNSECURED BALLOTS prior to the election, as well as this list:

*failure to maintain ballot security
*Inability to implement and maintain a trackable system for voter ballot reconciliation .
*failure to prepare and develop a plan for the processing of the voluminous amount of voter registration forms received.
*issuance and acceptance of incorrect absentee ballot forms.
*manipulation of the process involving the 3% recount.
*disjointed implementation of the Directive regarding the removal of Nader and Camejo from the ballot .
*failure to properly issue hospital ballots in accordance with statutory requirements.
*failure to maintain the security of poll books during the official canvass
*failure to examine campaign finance reports in a timely manner.
*failure to guard and protect public documents ....etc.


-One-half of the ballots printed and used in the 2004 general election in Lucas county were stored in an open space on the fhird floor of the county warehouse with no security measures in place.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation on Lucas County BOE page 4



-Live ballots were delivered to polling locations a week in advance of the election. Although the ballots were retrieved, one board employee who was assigned to the warehouse informed the SOS staff that he did not believe all the ballots were successfully retrieved.
SOURCE; SOS Investigation, page 5



-Lucas County BOE failed to record or retrieve ballot stub numbers of absentee voters’ ballots as required by statute OH Revised Code 3505.23. It was reported by an elector that her mother had received not one, but three absentee voter ballots. there was no way to determine if similar incidents occurred and if so how many.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation, page 7




-October 4, 2004 was filing deadline for new voter registrations. At that point there were approximately 20,000 unprocessed voter registration applications with less than a month before the election. One mail tray containing 4,500-7,000 (estimates vary) unprocessed “Project Voter” registrations were discovered on or about October 18,2004.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 10

***Of interest here is information obtained from the SOS website entitled ElectionsVoter/results 2003 and 2004 which show the # of registered voters number change from ‘03-’04 was 11,947 in Lucas County: reg voters 2003 in Lucas=288,190 ; registered voter in 2004=300,137.



-In late September or early October an employee of the Ohio Republican Party contacted Sam Thurber (*involved with politician wife Maggie Thurber in Noe scandal.) wanting to inspect and have copies made of all recently returned voter registrations, Ohio Republican Party offered to furnish volunteers to assist with copying postcards. No one at the Lucas County BOE can confirm that anyone was assigned to supervise Republican volunteers. On their second day of copying, a BOE employee, Jennifer Bernath, Democratic Booth Official) saw republican party volunteers peeling off the yellow return stickers applied by the post office. (Violation of RC 149.43 (B) (I) , and agruably a violation of 149.351.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation, pgs 18-19



-The Swanton 3 poll book turned up missing and has never been recovered.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 16


http://www.solarbus.org/election/docs/lucas.pdf

[blm]

49. That's the rub - they had LEGAL COVER IN PLACE long BEFORE election day.

And THAT is what the national Dem party ignored for the four years they were charged with securing the 2002 and 2004 elections.

[Morgana LaFey]

79. Thanks for the lengthy and informative reply. nt

[lovuian]

30. 2000 Election stolen with support of US Supreme Court

and 2004 stolen by computer fraud all over country

America was taken over by the evil regime long ago

[Judi Lynn]

31. Important thread, Octafish. Going to have to save this one for future reference. Thanks. n/t

[HowHasItComeToThis]

33. REPUBS CORRUPT ALL THEY TOUCH

IS THERE AN EXTRA HOT PLACE IN HELL? :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[grasswire]

35. from post #21

"Mike Connell designs and maintains databases that run computer software at the White House, the Departments of Justice, Energy and State, and the most hermetic committees on Capitol Hill like Intelligence and the Judiciary."

Is there any chance in hell that there is no back door in these operations? Damn! Damn! We can only hope that our committee heads are savvy about this possibility.

[EFerrari]

41. That's what I thought, too.

:(

[blm]

57. I think they are being discouraged from confronting this because certain influential

Dem (DINOs) needed the perception that both Gore and Kerry lost to continue their push to the right and the 'perception' within the party that only Clintons and their team know how to win.

[grasswire]

58. that's a very interesting and sickening inference

Gah! Could it be? Gah!! :cry:

[blm]

61. Well, why didn't the McAuliffe's Office of Voter Integrity work to counter all the

tricks and measures the RNC and GOP operatives were putting in place in Ohio throughout those 4 years? He promised that election fraud would be countered by that office after the 2000 hearings.

Yet, somehow the fraud worsened in 2002 and 2004. McAuliffe had done NOTHING but allow the party infrastructure in crucial states like Ohio to go into further collapse.

After 2000 was stolen, the Democratic voters and candidates were promised by the Office of Voter Integrity that any attack on the integrity of the voting system would be countered.

How did they do?

McAuliffe: Kerry was a bad campaigner. Gore and Kerry should have won by 10% but they weren't likeable like George Bush. Nobody wanted to have a beer with them.

Trust Terry?

[grasswire]

64. no

A pox on Hillary, on Carville, on Begala, on Harold Ford, on all of them. And I guess we have to admit that Bill Clinton's genius is off limits to us if it is accompanied by globalism and collusion with the enemies.

[blm]

65. imo, it's past time the Dems let the anti-corruption, open government wing

take control for a decade or so, to right this nation's wrongs with a large dose of sunshine and truth.

Seriously - read these links and note the sources - these are CREDIBLE voices drawing credible conclusions:

http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=13354

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/oct/07/did_carville_tip_bush_off_to_kerry_strategy_woodward

http://consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk1k0nUWEQg

[Kurovski]

36. K&R (nt)

[Diane R]

37. This is devastating. I remember being in a ballroom full of dems, watching that election turn.

[EFerrari]

39. I was on the phone with my mom. We were both so mad

we couldn't even talk to each other.

[IWantAChange]

47. Have forwarded ot every broadcaster, newspaper and legislator in my address book.

For if there is any validity to the facts and suppositions presented in this article our very Democracy has been challenged and it is of supreme importance that the time be taken to thoroughly investigate same.

[SarahB]

48. The Ohio results were bullshit.

Not surprised.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

50. Exit Polling

Remember how the pundit class trashed exit polls after they showed Kerry winning and were "obviously wrong" because their results didn't match the final total? Turns out the exit polls were correct, after all. Think any MSM outlets will retract their statements.

I'm not holding my breath on that one.

[SarahB]

54. I remember wondering at the time

If we were even going to have exit polling in 2008?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

56. Not if BushCo can help it...

At the time, Jimmy Carter noted that exit polling is essentially how the UN monitors the fairness of elections and prevents fraud. So clearly the conservatives wouldn't want something like that going on.

[underpants]

63. On the same day that we are getting ON THE RECORD the Lynch and Tillman stories

exposed not only as lies but the media is shown to be fully and completely compliant and now this.

BTW- Bill Moyers "Buying the War" airs tomorrow night at 9 PM as well as 1AM and 4 AM. 90 minutes long. Check your local PBS provider.

[blm]

67. The same Pat Tillman who planned to CAMPAIGN in 2004 for John Kerry, right?

Gee - would people planning to steal another election, also plan to get rid of someone who would be campaigning against Bush and for Kerry on every sports network and channel in the country?

[underpants]

68. Preachifying to the choir

I sad that since the day I read the interview with his mother in the SF Chronicle.

Even if word got out that Tillman was meeting with Chomsky and how Pat felt about W and Iraq etc. the whole ESPN/NFL crowd could have gone away and the fix would have looked ridiculous.

Olbermann and Dan Patrick interview Mary Tillman 7:37 just in case you haven't seen/heard it before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdNmQfidr9Q

[blm]

77. That's the motive right there - the fix would have been even more difficult to believe

and more difficult for their media pets to spin.

[mile18blister]

53. What about the RON initiatives?

Was the same setup used for the Reform Ohio Now initiatives (clean-up Ohio elections)?

Polls had them ahead 60-40% but they lost 40-60%.

The servers were the RNC's trump card. The long lines, civil-rights abuses and vote flipping DRE's provided a cover story.

[Joe Chi Minh]

55. Brilliant photo and quote, Octa! You must have it on tape. I can

seldom remember quotes verbatim, however memorable. "Small world. And very, very bad!!!!!"

[Divine Discontent]

62. I'm actually starting to get nauseous

between this, seeing Mel Martinez (senator from my state) cheated a ton to beat his wonderful Democratic challenger in 04, and wrote as the RNC election head on how to get election points from the Schiavo travesty makes me believe they're devoutly...... EVIL.
God please help the Democratic leaders to have some balls & ovaries to get these cheating, lying, no good, cultish, SOB's out of power.

www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<-- check it out, top '08 stuff

[Pacifist Patriot]

69. Oh do I know the queasiness. I have absolutely no doubt...

Mel "won" by cheating. And I have my concerns about more than a few house seats here in Florida as well.

[Divine Discontent]

71. Ah!

Did you get the flademocrats email today? I didn't know he was socked with 100,000 in fines... dirty sob. I question all but a handful of repubs

[Pacifist Patriot]

72. Geez, you're more generous with them than I am. I'm not sure I could...

come up with a handful. ;)

[Divine Discontent]

74. lol

I like Sen. Warner, Sen. Voinovich, Sen. Specter, and Sen. Hagel to an EXTENT. They kiss bushbutt too much, but they have also lambasted the administration many times more than the right wingers have... and Warner decried the gay bashing from the General, when Obama and Clinton had to go ask their handlers first how to respond to questions about it... that pissed me off. Edwards also attacked the comments immediately. I want Gore, Clark, or Edwards in that order, and as of right now, Edwards is the only one running from that 3. Peace!

[Recursion]

75. Can someone explain to a humble IT guy what the outrage is here?

I've seen like 10 threads on this and I still don't get why anyone cares.

The RNC contracts its web hosting services to Smartech, a hosting company.

The Ohio secretary of state, needing a high-volume web server for election night, contracted with the same company, a company he (or more likely his IT manager) was probably familiar with from their work for the RNC.

Why does this matter?

I have some servers up in a datacenter with some of Google's servers, on the same netblock. Does that mean anything?

If the OH SoS wanted to do anything nefarious (which he no doubt did), how does using the same hosting company as the RNC help him? How would using a different hosting company hinder him?

[Divine Discontent]

76. well..

privacy to do all their misdeeds without a hosting company not watching what they were doing. Every aspect of the run up to the election in Ohio was controlled by Bush's people --- Blackwell knocked people off the rolls who shouldn't have been, less booths for Dems to vote on, too many in small Republican areas, precinct changes to confuse Dem voters, then when the ones that do make it to their precinct and aren't turned away get to vote, they vote on a DIEBOLD machine, then their vote is counted and sent through a Republican Secretary of State's system, where that very same Secretary of State overseeing the election vote in Ohio is ALSO the Bush 04 campaign manager in Ohio, then to top it all off, the votes are rerouted through the Tennessee server that runs all the Republican websites.... sorry, too damn dirty for me - elections are supposed to be transparent - there's nothing transparent about ANYthing they did.

I can see them sitting down in Tennessee with their IT experts who are wizzes and figuring out ways to send back info to the originating computers in counties changing the vote totals immediately as they are counted so no one can figure anything out. If anything it shows THEY ran the elections, and the last time I looked, the voting process is not supposed to be ran by the candidate running...

Someone with more IT experience will hopefully give detailed info how it could be used to be negligent.