Black Box Voting

Its time to bring out that old photo of a Florida voting machine, because Florida still can't count votes:

2 days after election Diebold still "counting" votes in Florida County. The governor of Florida has been asked to intervene in Hillsborough County Florida's elections. 

Election officials in Hillsborough County Florida are having to feed 80,000 ballots into optical scan machines made by "Premier Election Solutions" (Diebold).  The election also didn't go so well for Hillsborough Election Supervisor Buddy Johnson, whose election was tied to those uncounted ballots.  Johnson ended up conceding the election and county officials are considering a lawsuit against Diebold er I mean "Premier". (We're supposed to be fooled by the name change.)

Oh, and isn't it time that Florida started hiring or appointing election directors, instead of creating the conflict of interest of running their own elections?

Marybeth Kuznik, Director of VotePA is worried about the voting systems in Pennsylvania. She has good reason to be. In 2004, in Pennsylvania, 7 or 8 out of every 10 votes for President were thrown away in 41 precincts. Thanks to alot of hard work of Pennsylvania activists, two voting systems were decertified.  Unfortunately, the state has certified some different yet also unreliable voting systems to take their place. Marybeth, who is in the movie Uncounted, tells why you should see this movie, and why more of us need to host viewings of this movie:

Here in Pennsylvania, we have been using "UNCOUNTED" to grow our 
organization with new sign-ups for mailing lists, etc.

If this film can get citizens who otherwise wouldn't be aware of 
those problems to get involved and put pressure on our officials that 
results in improvement, it will have done us all a great service.  To 
that end, we are doing everything we can to get as many screenings as 
we can.

Pennsylvania has decertified two DRE systems since 2004 -- Unilect 
and WINvote....

Rady Ananda has posted a review of The Clint Curtis Story over at OpEdNews that has me heading right over to Link TV to watch it. It has appearances by Attorney Bob Fitrakis, computer security expert Harri Hursti, Gore Vidal, Mavis Georgalis, Cynthia McKinney, and Richard Hayes Phillips. Read Rady's view over at OpEdNews and you'll want to watch this movie.

I saw Clint in the movie Uncounted, so I know I want to see this movie.  Clint Curtis is a fascinating and compelling figure in the e-voting movement, a computer programmer, hired to develop some vote switching source code. He is notable chiefly for making a series of "whistleblower" allegations about his former employer and about Republican Congressman Tom Feeney, including an allegation that in 2000, Feeney and Yang Enterprises requested Curtis's assistance in a scheme to steal votes by inserting fraudulent code into touch screen voting systems.  Read the review and you'll want to see the movie.

Murder, Spies & Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story

WARNING:  Graphic images included. 

Released on DVD and now airing on Link TV, Murder, Spies & Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story, is the most explosive documentary produced in recent memory, involving murder, espionage, coverup, electoral cyber fraud and a United States Member of Congress with ties to the Bush Administration.... more at the link

Florida SOS Kurt Browning puts lipstick on a pig in his Oped Even the unverified can vote Browning is talking about decision to enforce the "No Match No Vote" law during the last few weeks of voter registration.  The "No Match No Vote" law orders that a registrant provide either a drivers license or the last four digits of their social security number, and then the Elections dept tries to match that against the DMV or the Social Security databases. 

By waiting until the last minute, Florida makes it harder for voters who don't match - to clear up the bureaucratic mess.

The law will only apply to the newest voters - only those registering after Sept 8 are singled out for this database "verification".  Many through no fault of their own will fail to match.  The law won't apply to the 10.7 million voters who registered before September 8. Arbitrary? Unfair? Bad Law? Exactly! Boneheaded!  45 other states either never adopted the "no match no vote" law, or abandoned it. Browning says that no one is disenfranchised because the those who didn't get the matching problem cleared up can always vote a "provisional ballot".  What Browning doesn't tell you is that provisional ballots are not counted on election day, in fact often arent counted for several days, or that as many as 30% are rejected and not counted. He didn't mention the recent report by the Advancement Project outlining how states like Florida and Ohio had disenfranchised voters by over using provisional ballots, ballots which often don't count!

Funny, Florida will let you clear this up BEFORE the election, or up to 2 days AFTER the election, but WON"T let you clear it up ON election day.  Your ID is not good enough! But you must have it or you can't vote!  Hipocrisy anyone?  Aribitrary law, anyone.

Provisional Voting – Fail Safe or Placebo? 

““Our investigation reveals that instead of functioning as a fail-safe means of voting, provisional voting often creates a serious risk of disenfranchisement,” Elizabeth Westfall, Voter Protection Program deputy director, Advancement Project.   

The Advancement Project just issued a report on how Provisional ballots, rather than helping voters, may in some cases be disenfranchising thousands of voters.  The report focuses on Florida and Ohio in particular, noting that there was an over use or perhaps an inappropriate use of provisional ballots in those states. In some states (Florida is one) a provisional ballot only counts if the voter is at the “right” precinct. In those cases, giving a voter who is at the wrong precinct a provisional ballot will disenfranchise them.  Many voters could vote a regular ballot instead of accepting a provisional ballot, if all they needed to do was go to the correct polling place or perhaps bring ID. Few voters realize that a provisional ballot will not be counted on election night, and will have to be reviewed and approved before it can be counted. Not all will be approved, and the rate of approval varies by state. 

Advancement Project Report Shows Provisional Ballots May Disenfranchise Voters

September 24, 2008 (September 24, 2008, WASHINGTON DC) — Today, Advancement Project, a leading voter protection organization, released “Provisional Voting: Fail-Safe Voting or Trapdoor to Disenfranchising Voters.”...

In John Gideon's Daily News today, he says the Palm Beach County Florida nightmare is FINALLY over.  I can't say it better than John, and frankly it was getting WAY too confusing, so here's John: 

"The election nightmare may be over in Palm Beach Co Florida. After seven
recounts, machine and hand, the election for a county circuit court seat
has been certified. The losing candidate, of course, is considering
legal actions. Still not explained is how ballots were lost then found
and how the machines just couldn’t seem to get an accurate count.
Sequoia should have some explaining to do beyond just “No, no, no, it
wasn’t us”.

Here's the latest media report:

Recount gives Abramson Palm Beach County Circuit Court seat Canvassing board certifies judicial race after third recount  By Brian Haas | South Florida Sun-Sentinel  September 24, 2008

Our long electoral nightmare is over.

Twenty-nine days after Palm Beach County voters actually went to the polls, members of the election Canvassing Board wiped their hands clean of a disputed judicial race and certified the election.

Challenger William Abramson unseated Circuit Judge Richard Wennet by 61 votes — the same margin Wennet was once winning by after one of three sets of recounts the election has endured. The board ended up not being able to account for only four votes, a far cry from the 3,500 that were thought to be lost in the days following the Aug. 26 primary.

"I'm overwhelmed," Abramson, a lawyer, said by phone Tuesday night. "This is why we're the greatest country ... We were faced with adversity and we all rose to the challenge."

I was getting overwhelmed too.  We tried to keep up with the Palm Beach counting and recounting fiasco here, but it got more and more frustrating:

September 12. 2008 Palm Beach Elections Goes from Missing Ballots to Having too Many This could all change, but here's the latest update on the Palm Beach Elections mess:

September 12, 2008 Palm Beach Fiasco: Officials Say Ballots Not Trashed Palm Beach County Florida still can't account for 3,400 missing ballots.

September 10. 2008 Florida Voters Coalition Calls on State to Secure Palm Beach Elections The Florida Voters Coalition, The League of Women Voters, and Democratic and Republican leaders call on the State of Florida to take emergency action to secure November’s General Election.

September 4. 2008 Palm Beach Election Desperation Part III - 2500 ballots missing now Well, things have just gotten worse, perhaps coming to a head. The new number of missing ballots as of today is 2,500. 

September 4, 2008 Palm Beach Election Fiasco - 2+2 now = 3 1/2: 2,700 ballots found overnight I guess someone checked the "lost and found" department last night, and discovered 2,700 of the 3,478 missing ballots we discussed yesterday...

September 3. 2008 Palm Beach Elections: 2+2 = 3 or The ballots are missing, so start finding answers In Palm Beach County Florida, 2 + 2 = 3 if you are counting votes, and it gets worse from there.  The editors of the Palm Beach Post want to know where the 3,478 missing votes went...

September 2. 2008 Oops - 3,400 votes disappear in Palm Beach County Fl recount Maybe Florida elecions are just plain cursed. Even with brand new paper ballot based machines in Palm Beach County Florida, they can't count votes.  In the initial contest, the two candidates in the judicial contest were a mere 17 votes apart...

So we should all thank John Gideon of www.VotersUnite.org for providing the best election integrity related news content in the United States.  You can receive the Daily News for free by emailing DVN@votersunite.org

Another puzzling McCain mailer.  This time it seems really strange.  The Florida Republican Party mailed an absentee ballot request (for a Sarasota Florida ballot) to a Democrat in Murfreesboro Tennessee. The form has one name, Mr. William R. “X” with the person having two addresses, one in Tennessee, and one in Sarasota Florida. In actuality, these are two different men with the same first and last name. They both use the same middle initial, but upon further research, they have different middle names. The Mr. X in Tennessee is William Randy X  .  The Mr. X  in Florida is William Rob X. Ms. "X" in Tennessee wondered if this was a scheme to somehow void voter registrations for some people.  (Last name and street addresses redacted for privacy. ).

See Ms. X's email and our findings after the jump:

Silence is not golden when it a federal agency knows but says nothing about voting machine failures.  The GAO reports that at least ten swing states will be using voting machines and electronic poll books with known defects in their systems. The ten states known to be affected are Colorado, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Virginia and Wisconsin.  These defects could skew the vote or disenfranchise voters.  The defects silence on the part of the EAC is disturbing. The Elections Assistance Commission knew but said nothing. 

State Election Officials Not Told Of Voting Machine Failures

Friday, Sep 19, 2008

A Government Accountability Office report on voting system testing shows many of the problems that plagued the last election still exist.  And Missouri is one of the states with remaining problems.

   CNN reports a study by Common Cause and the Century Foundation indicates that ten vital swing states have significant voting glitches that have not been addressed.

   It also shows that the Election Assistance Commission has failed to inform election officials around the country about electronic voting machine shortcomings....

Florida is at it again, not ashamed to knowingly throw people's votes away.  No Match? No Vote! Typos to keep voters off the rolls

Who needs voter caging when you have a legal way to block the vote?  In the 11th hour before registration windows close, Florida is again enforcing a arbitrary state law that will disenfranchise thousands. At issue - the state's law that requires a voters personal voter registration information to match up with the state Dept of Motor Vehicles and or the Social Security Dept's database.  The problem - many voters do not match, through no fault of their own. Something as small as a clerk's typo, another voter with same last 4 digits of social security number, or a different way of writing the name - could keep voters off the rolls.  Election supervisors are supposed to try to contact voters when this happens, but this is the busiest time of the year and they would have thousands of voters to contact. Florida is one of about 5 states that has mis interpreted the "Help America Vote Act" to mean "Block Vulnerable Floridians From Voting Act".

  VOTER REGISTRATION 'No match, no vote' law to be enforced A controversial voter registration law that requires Floridians to have their identification match up with a state or federal database will be enforced. Posted on Tue, Sep. 09, 2008 

...Secretary of State Kurt Browning sent notice to the state's 67 supervisors of elections on Friday that the 2006 law, which has been on hold for the last year pending court rulings, would take effect again Sept. 8.

The result is that voters whose identification doesn't match with state files on Election Day will be given a provisional ballot and two days to prove their identity for their ballot to count.

Crist defends the indefensible:

Crist defends "no match, no vote law", voters leader disagrees By Bill Cotterell • Florida Capital Bureau • September 18, 2008 the head of the League of Women Voters of Florida said the new requirement will disenfranchise thousands of legitimate voters. Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho called it a "partisan manipulation of the process," aimed at reducing the impact of new voters registered this month, and League President Marilynn Wills said it will place an "onerous" burden on inexperienced voters...

Many will fail to match through no fault of their own. In fact, state election officials in Wisconsin tested out the "no match no vote" rule on their own registrations.  Four of its six members' names failed to check when the members' names were run through new voter identification system as a test. (for a match).  More than half of the state Government Accountability Board's members failed when their names were run through new voter identification checks as a test.