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Departments Election Issues Important voter activism Cuyahoga Board of Elections has “decided” NOT to post election results at the polling place, despite the fact that: • Their May primary election debacle made national news, and voter confidence has plummeted. (Why else would there be record numbers of voters clamoring to vote absentee?) • The Election Science Institute revealed numerous discrepancies in vote counts among the different vote tallies (across the different media: paper, memory card, hard drive, etc.). • There is undisputed proof that electronic voting (especially Diebold equipment) is vulnerable to fraud, hacking, and other security breaches. • Judging by the Poll Worker Training Manual and numerous predictions, election day will be chaotic, with near impossible tracking of all election components. • The general public is VERY concerned about electronic voting machines and wants transparency in the vote counting (Zogby poll – 92%) • Beginning in April, we began asking CCBOE to post election results at the polling place. (one of their excuses is “it’s too late”) • The Cuyahoga Election Review Panel, which analyzed the May election problems, recommended that Cuyahoga BOE post election results at the polling place. • The board members, themselves (Bob Bennett, Sally Florkiewicz et al) , along with Director Michael Vu, said it was a good idea and very easy to do, in their May 1st, 2006 board meeting. (http://www.ohiovigilance.org/ProjectPost/CCBOEMay012006BdMtg.pdf ) • The additional work for poll workers to post election results amounts to two simple steps: (1) print another report, by hitting the "Yes" button, and (2) tape the report to the door. (http://www.ohiovigilance.org/ProjectPost/CCBOETrainingRocketScience.pdf ) • The Director of Election Services, Jacqui Maiden, and Director of Information Technology, Lou Irizari, state, on page 96 of the CERP Action Plan, that posting results would be very easy to do. (http://boe.cuyahogacounty.us/pdf/CERP_Recommendations_ALL.pdf) It sure appears like CCBOE doesn't want to give the public the means to verify that the election results from Cuyahoga’s Diebold touch-screen machines and central tabulator actually agree with the numbers derived by adding up the precinct results. California, Florida and other states require posting of election results, and Ohio did too, until Blackwell issued his own “overriding” ruling last year. Ohio's esteemed Secretary of State negated Ohio statute with his Special Notice in Oct 2005 which says counties should do vote tallying centrally (to avoid publically scrutinized sub-totalling and other auditing measures), and polling places need not post election results. Blackwell, in addition to his shameful efforts to suppress votes—wholesale purging of Democractic voters is just his "voter-suppression du jour"-- is draping a cloak of secrecy over the entire state, for those counties who wish to take him up on his generous offer of "unaccountability" from public scrutiny. Consider also: • Cuyahoga County is the LAST county one should trust with unverifiable secret vote counting. Mother Jones (Sept/Oct issue) named it one of the “worst places to vote and have your vote counted!” • Cuyahoga BOE chairman, Bob Bennett, is head of the Ohio Republican Party (Many believe he brought in Michael Vu to implement Diebold voting technology.) • The stakes are extremely high in many of Ohio’s contests: Governor (with Blackwell, aka “Katherine Harris on steroids” behind in the polls), Senate, Secretary of State, Attorney General and others! • Cuyahoga is the largest Democratic county in Ohio. • Cuyahoga BOE has a record of lying, secrecy and disdain for public opinion, pushing through Diebold e-voting despite overwhelming public opposition, denying public records and access, among other things. The excuses CCBOE has given us for their "decision" are weak and contradictory: "they might get wet, it might not be light enough, we might run out of paper, we’ve been doing it that way for years, it’s too late, it is too hard to ask our poll workers to do", etc. http://www.ohiovigilance.org/ProjectPost/CCBOEPostingDecisionHistory.pdf Watch for a soon-to-be-published video of Director Michael Vu “squirming” to avoid answering the “Why won’t you post?” question at a Town Hall Meeting on Oct 17 (to be posted on the www.ohiovigilance.org website.) We all know that the stakes of this election are extraordinarily high, and the ability to hack electronic voting machines is undeniable--we don't need further proof! So, we simply cannot let them get away with not letting us “see” the precinct results. Instead, they want us to wait until all the votes have been “processed” by the touch-screen machines and then the Diebold GEMS central tabulator. This is NUTS! Cuyahoga Board of Elections phone number is: 216-443-3200. Please contact Director Michael Vu and let him know that “we don’t want our votes counted in secret.” If the CCBOE decides to do the right thing, we will need people to help us Capture those election results—volunteers will need a digital camera, and we’ll provide them with the forms and instructions for submitting election results. They can do this "capture" at the END of the election day, so it won’t interfere with other election-day activities as: poll worker, election-day technician, observer, election protection, poll monitor, etc. (Note that we are not looking for results for all contests.) It will only take an hour of your time, and your efforts will give us invaluable information to identify “cyber” crimes IN REAL TIME, before the election is “called.” Post election audits have their place, but we need election-day verification. After a small window of time, anyone who contests/protests is labelled a "sore loser." (Surely we've learned that by now.) Other election-protection efforts are focused on procedural abnormalities and legal violations. No other effort focuses on catching computer-tabulation fraud, and, with electronic voting machines, we REALLY NEED this type of verification! Just think—Cuyahoga County can be a model of civic engagement for the purpose of detecting computer fraud. If you are interested in applying pressure to Cuyahoga Board of Elections to agree to posting results, we REALLY need your help, and we need it NOW. If we get them to post, we need help capturing and transmitting those election results to a central analysis “war room." Please sign up on the We Count website, www.wecount2006.org/postvolunteers or send an email to Victoria@wecount2006.org. Please spread the word to your friends concerned about the integrity of our elections, especially those within driving distance of Cuyahoga County. Remember: you can do your other election-day duties and then do the "Capture." Please be a part of “Project Post in Cuyahoga!” P.S. Lucas County is another county who will NOT post results. We need a team of “naggers” / “capturers” there as well. FYI. Lake County, Franklin County, and a number of others WILL be posting their results. Dennis Kucinich’s H.B. 6200 will require posting of election results at the polling place. |
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