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Departments Election Issues View from Another Planet I wasn’t surprised. We’ve been painted as conspiracy theorists and worse by Democrats and Republicans alike, and even the liberal arm of the press has steered clear of this issue. But when I arrived at the Jefferson Street Baptist Church in Nashville, my doubts about the election were reinforced by a community of sober professionals, none of whom seemed overtly loony. I met David Griscom, a retired physics prof who had spent months with his colleague John Brakey poring over election tapes, signature rosters and “consecutive number registers” from Brakey’s Tucson, AZ home precinct. They audited and verified, one by one, the 895 votes in the precinct, and here’s what they discovered: 12 innocent, and unsuspecting voters had had their names duplicated on the roster and their votes for Bush counted twice. There were 22 ‘undervotes’ where the machine had failed to register a preference for president, and these had been dutifully and meticulously converted to 22 votes for Bush. The “Republican” and “Democratic” co-directors of the polling place were a local fundamentalist preacher and his wife. 39 of their parishioners from another precinct had cast provisional ballots, which had been (illegally) converted on the spot to regular ballots and passed through the vote counter, all 39 for Bush. The net result, Dr Griscom figured, was that Bush got 394 votes when he was entitled only to 336, a swing of 13%. I met Richard Hayes Phillips, a PhD geologist from New Hampshire who was invited to Ohio as a volunteer to study the integrity of the vote count, then gradually realized that a complete inventory of lost and miscounted votes was needed, and committed himself to the task. To date, Phillips has analyzed 15 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and by his most conservative estimate – the counts he can actually prove – has found 101,000 uncounted Kerry votes. 136,000 is the margin by which Bush officially defeated Kerry. I heard Clint Curtis talk about working in 2001 as a programmer for Yang Enterprises in Florida. He was assigned, one day, to a meeting with State Senate Speaker Tom Feeney, who asked to have a program written into the software that controls voting machines so that the totals could be manipulated without leaving a trace. Curtis, the whistleblower, is now unemployed. Feeney, the politician, is now the U.S. Representative from Florida’s 24th Congressional district. I was inspired to hear the travails of Ohio Attorney Cliff Arnebeck. After the Green Party raised $200,000 and obtained authorization for a recount in Ohio, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell staged a charade, in which every State rule about the conduct of the recount was thrown out, and two hand-picked precinct captains emerged from behind locked doors to report that yes, indeed the numbers were exactly right and all was hunky dory. Arnebeck was lead attorney in a lawsuit to expose this sham, and demand a real recount. The suit was dismissed by Supreme Court Justice Thomas Moyer, who ruled on the case despite the fact that his own re-election in 2004 was part of the challenge. Arnebeck has continued to pursue the case while he fights on the side for his legal life: State Attorney General Jim Petro has brought an action to discipline Arnebeck for bringing a frivolous lawsuit that wastes the precious time of the Ohio court. I was in Nashville to present the work of Steve Freeman, a Penn professor who was the first to point out that we do have a way to pull these horror stories together, and to know how much effect all these little scandals have had in the aggregate. The National Exit Poll by the Edison/Mitofsky consortium interviewed 70,000 voters fresh from the voting booth on November 2, and asked for whom they had just cast their ballots. 51% of them said John Kerry, and 48% said George Bush. Now it’s Monday morning. I’m safely returned from Planet Nashville, back home in the land of ABC-CBS-NBC-FOX-AP-UPI. I find it reassuring to remember that if any of this had really happened, the Democrats in Congress would be screaming about it. I’d read about it on the front page, and it would be all over the network news. Yes, I can be sure that Nashville was just a bad dream. The reality is that President Bush won the election, and it’s time to move on. Time to move on. It was all just a dream. Yes, it’s time to move on. --- Josh Mitteldorf lives in Mt Airy and teaches math and statistics at Temple University. |
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Recent Election Issues Articles An open letter to the Election Assistance Commission Diebold hack proven in county test! Diebold Inc. in a tailspin after resignation of CEO and filing of a class action fraud lawsuit Orr thinks machines make voting simpler, more secure Diebold "hack test" - Sec. State / Black Box Lawyer square off With new legislation, Ohio Republicans plan holiday burial for American Democracy Important daily voting news Poll shock Ohio's Diebold Debacle: New machines call election results into question Diebold attempts to evade election transparency laws Supreme Court stabs another GOP knife into US democracy by upholding ex-felon vote ban Has American Democracy died an electronic death in Ohio 2005's referenda defeats? What John Kerry definitely said about 2004’s stolen election and why it's killing American democracy Scrap the "secret" ballot - return to open voting Clarification of NEDA's withdrawal of Ohio exit poll paper Clarification of NEDA's withdrawal of Ohio exit poll paper Watergate-style money laundering indictments stoke Ohio's stolen election fires Powerful Government Accountability Office report confirms key 2004 stolen election findings Did you erase your own vote? Why can't the left face the Stolen Elections of 2004 & 2008? Carter/Baker Report can't face how the GOP stole America's 2004 election & is rigging 2008 Two Steps Forward, One Step Back FEMA Chief Brown Paid Millions in False Claims to Help Bush Win Fla. Votes Ohio recount lawsuit set for trial; election workers indicted Ohio Governor's ethics violations expose money trail to stolen 2004 election Diebold's failure in California Did the GOP steal another Ohio Election? Conyers-Kaptur seek special counsel for Noe probe Dramatic new charges deepen link between Ohio's "Coingate," Voinovich mob connections, and the theft of the 2004 election None dare call it stolen - Ohio, the election, and America's servile press Civic Engagement and the Restoration of Community from a voter activist’s view My report from Hocking County, July 5, 2005: An update on Sherole Eaton's unfolding Story Handbook for Ohio Voter Activists, Version 2.0 Direct testimony: Presented to Election Assessment Hearing Log Cabin Republicans in Ohio With a limp election theft report, Dems prove why they're unworthy Voting problems and uncounted votes in Lucas County, Ohio The DNC 2004 Election Report: An indictment of incompetence Corporate control of the election process Introduction: Did George W. Bush steal America's 2004 election? Voter Confidence Committee Calls For Rejection of CA Special Election Activists from 25 states lobby for paper ballots on June 9 and 10 Fear of riffraff Electoral Politics and the War: Lessons from 2004 and What the Anti-War Movement Should do in 2006 Optical scan machines hacked in Florida Does ES&S really want to sell the Automark machines? Attack on election board whistleblower and leaked Blackwell threats re-fire Ohio's election theft scandal Franklin County, Ohio Election Procedures – April and May 2005 Carter Gets It – But Will His Electoral Commission? Voter Perceptions and Political Deceptions: Federal, Ohio and Knox Electoral reform groups call for James Baker's resignation from electoral reform commission National Conference on Election Reform Opens with Civil Rights Panel View from Another Planet Democrats! Paper “Trails” Aren’t Good Enough. Count The Damn Ballots! Democrats, Paper ‘Trails’ Aren’t Good Enough; Count The Damn Ballots! Scientific Analysis Suggests Presidential Vote Counts May Have Been Altered As Blackwell Says, Ohio’s in 2004 was a National Model Understanding the difference between paper ballots and paper audit trails Save Our Democracy Republicans maneuvering to get Voting Rights Act killed Legal filing highlights Blackwell's hypocrisy in Ohio recount case Selma 40 Years Later Exit Poll Madness - Analyst Steve Freeman & Company Offer False Choice Libertarians To Testify in Ohio House: Modernize Ohio's Election Laws The New Voting Rights Movement Begins Here Today Voting in America The Mighty Texas Strike Force Blackwell presidential election sanctions briefs Representative Conyers and others file amicus brief in Ohio Supreme Court Congresswoman Tubbs Jones Outraged at Blackwell's Failure to Appear During House Administration Hearing Ohio Attorney-General's attack on election protection attorneys draws mountain of documentation on state's stolen election, including new study on exit polls Prominent Statisticians Refute 'Explanation' of 2004 U.S. Exit Poll Discrepancies in New Edison/Mitofsky Report and Urge Investigation of U.S. Presidential Election Results The last man to concede... Report on Washington DC, January 6, 2005 Arkansas in 2004: Did Bush Really Win? New links Voting Problems and Uncounted Votes in Lucas County, Ohio Plan B: Parallel Elections & Signed Ballots Open Letter to Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro from Representative John Conyers, Jr. Open Letter to Warren Mitofsky and Larry Rosin from Representative John Conyers, Jr. Ohio's GOP Attorney General launches revenge attack on Election Protection legal team What are they hiding in New Mexico? In the Shadow of Dr. King, counting the vote remains a civil rights issue Did the “Liberal Media” Get the 2004 Election All Wrong?
'COUNT EVERY VOTE. EVERY VOTE COUNTS' Moss v. Bush moves on and movement continues Rally Continues Drive for Democracy Estimated vote count in Ohio January 6 Washington, D.C. rally report Together, we moved three mountains What the election challenge means Progressive Democrats lead historic voting rights protest as Congress ratifies flawed 2004 Electoral College tally Arnebeck letter to Congress re Presidential Electoral Challenge Senator Barbara Boxer, D-CA and Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-OH contested the election The "Crime of November 2": The human side of how Bush stole Ohio, and why Congress must investigate rather than ratify the Electoral College (Part Two of Two) Status Report of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff Seven key reasons why the vote must be challenged at the electoral college Ten preliminary reasons why the Bush vote does not compute, and why Congress must investigate rather than certify the Electoral College (Part One of Two) Verified election contest petitions and documents in Ohio Supreme Court Distribution of voting machines by county in Ohio Did We Bounce An Election? Presidential election congressional hearing transcript Read Election Issues Articles by Year: |
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