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Election official “must have mis-heard” about patch installed on computer
and other unknown news about the very odd 2004 election
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Democrats' lawyer asks Blackwell for investigation of TRIAD tampering
Dec. 15, 2004
Excerpt: Given the information that has come to light regarding activity that took place on December 10, 2004 at the Hocking County Board of Elections, the integrity of using the Board's computerized tabulating system to conduct the recount of the presidential election has been seriously compromised. I assume that by now your office is fully aware of the affidavit by the Deputy Director of the Hocking County Board of Elections regarding what she observed and heard. Badsed on this affidavit, I hereby request that you conduct a thorough investigation of the matter. In the meantime, the tabulating system should not be used for the recount and I hereby request that you order the Hocking County Board of Elections to conduct a full hand recount of the ballots and not use the tabulating system for the recount. I also request that you immediately impound the tabulating equipment and programming, preserve it in its present state, and prohibit access to the same.
I also request that your office immediately review with all other boards of elections whether representatives of any company that may have been employed to program or prepare their tabulating equipment for the recount were made aware of the precinct or precincts that would be included in the three percent hand recount. If such is the case, i Iequest that you take corrective action, including ordering full hand recounts or allowing the candidates to have the systems tested by outside independent experts.
As the State's Chief Elections Official, you have both the authority and the responsibility to take these actions. Time is of the essence and your immediate attention is required. I look forward to your response.
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On this page:
Democrats' lawyer asks Blackwell for investigation of TRIAD tampering
Kerry-Edwards '04, 12/15
Congressman implicated in vote fraud
Seminole Chronicle [Oviedo, FL], 12/16
Recount continues in Ohio
as vote machine company
makes odd "service calls"
Associated Press, 12/16
Recount observer not allowed
to inspect machines
The Advocate [Newark, OH], 12/16
Ohio Justice throws out election challenge
Associated Press, 12/16
Ohio election officials obstruct
recount, say Greens
Press release, Green Party, 12/17
Kerry, Bush pick up votes in Ohio
Associated Press, 12/17
"Please, please, please, count all the votes"
The Plain Dealer [Cleveland], 12/17
Election challenge refiled by activists
Associated Press, 12/18
“Everyone felt better” after
technician “repeated a repair”
Associated Press, 12/20
Election official “must have mis-heard” about patch installed on computer
Wired, 12/20
Votes ought to be counted
Editorial, The New York Times, 12/20
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Congressman implicated in vote fraud
by Alex Babcock,
Seminole Chronicle [Oviedo, FL]
Dec. 16, 2004
Republican Congressman Tom Feeney of Oviedo asked a computer programmer in September 2000, prior to that year's contested presidential vote in Florida, to write software that could alter vote totals on touch-screen voting machines, the programmer said.
Former computer programmer Clint Curtis made the claim Monday in sworn testimony to Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee investigating allegations of voter fraud in the 2004 presidential election involving touch-screen voting in Ohio.
In his testimony, Curtis said that Feeney, then a member of the Florida House of Representative, met with Curtis and other employees of Yang Enterprises, an Oviedo software company, and asked if the company could create a program that would allow a user to alter the vote totals while using the touch-screen machine. The program had to be written so that even the human-readable computer code would not show its illicit capabilities, Curtis recalled.
Curtis said he wrote a prototype program for Feeney, and that he believed the program might not only be usable on touch-screen voting machines, which some counties - predominantly in South Florida - now use, but also on optical-scan machines, which most of the state's counties used in the 2004 elections.
Feeney could not be reached for comment.
Michael O'Quinn, an attorney for Yang Enterprises, said Curtis' claims are outrageous and that Feeney never discussed such a program with the company. He said Feeney's only relationship with the company was as its legal counsel. Feeney worked at the law firm with O'Quinn until 2002, when he resigned after being elected to Congress.
"I immediately assumed that he was trying to keep you guys from cheating," Curtis told Democrats at the hearing Monday. Curtis further said that Li Woan Yang, a co-owner of the company, told him that, "We need to hide the fraud in the source code, not reveal the fraud, because it's needed to control the vote in South Florida."
Curtis, who formerly lived in Oviedo, quit the software company in December 2000, after the November 2000 election that preceded Feeney rise to become speaker of the Florida House.
"I left because all of the meetings with Feeney let me know I wasn't in a situation I wanted to be in," he said in an interview with the Chronicle. "He's in there selling contracts, telling us how to bid them, special little formulas being employed, how you get right point structure. They were going to limit how many vendors could apply to government contracts so only connected vendors could get on the approved list."
O'Quinn confirmed that Curtis resigned, but said he told the company he got a job in another state. Curtis ended up working for the Florida Department of Transportation. O'Quinn also disputed the allegation that Feeney helped work on government bids, saying Feeney was careful to avoid such work because of ethics rules. Feeney "played no role whatsoever" in helping Yang secure government contracts, O'Quinn said. The company currently does work for NASA, the state Department of Transportation and other companies.
Yang Enterprises, in a statement released to the public, said Curtis' allegations are "categorically untrue."
Democrats and independent groups are challenging presidential election results in Ohio, and have claimed that irregularities in some precinct results might have been caused by tampering with electronic voting machines.
Curtis said he has been trying to get attention drawn to his claims since shortly after leaving Yang Enterprises, but has had difficulty until this year. After watching a news report about voting machines in Florida being installed at precincts without having their software inspected, he said he redoubled his effort to get public attention.
"People finally care," Curtis told the Chronicle. "Coming forward isn't the problem, it's people caring."
The Democrats are listening, as is a non-partisan government watchdog group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The group, which began working with Curtis in early December, is working to verify elements of his story.
Curtis says he is also working with the FBI to investigate another claim he has made against Yang, that the company is spying on NASA. In its response, the company said that the man named by Curtis as the recipient of NASA-related information has never worked for the company.
The company also says Curtis' claims are based on a grudge he has with the company. O'Quinn said he's also being motivated by money.
The Justice Through Music Project, a nonprofit organization that engages young people about political issues, has offered $200,000 for proof of election fraud in 2004.
Curtis said he has not pursued that money, which has not been offered to him.
Published by
Seminole Chronicle
Recount continues in Ohio
as vote machine company
makes odd "service calls"
by John Nolan, Associated Press
Dec. 16, 2004
CINCINNATI -- In a scene reminiscent of Florida circa 2000, two teams of Republican and Democratic election workers held punch-card ballots up to the light yesterday and whispered back and forth as they tried to divine the voters' intent from a few hanging chads.
Observers for the presidential campaigns of John Kerry, President Bush, and Green Party candidate David Cobb kept watch from chairs a few feet away.
The scene is being repeated statewide this week in a recount in the state that put Bush over the top in last month's election.
Officially, Bush beat Kerry by 119,000 votes in Ohio, but two third- party candidates collected the required $113,600 for a recount they claim will show serious irregularities. The Kerry campaign is supporting the recount, though it has acknowledged that the re- tallying of votes will not change the outcome.
The recount began this week. At least 35 of Ohio's 88 counties had completed new tallies or were starting yesterday, according to a survey by the Associated Press. Some of the tallies will not be complete until next week.
''It takes a lot of work, a lot of hours," said Kerry campaign observer Jeannette Harrison, 63, a real estate agent. ''This is a job that has to be done."
In Cincinnati, the Hamilton County workers examined the ballot holes up close -- a scene that called to mind the five-week recount in Florida that made the terms ''pregnant chad" and ''butterfly ballot" famous.
Statewide, about 92,000 ballots cast in last month's presidential election failed to record a vote for president, most of them on punch- card systems.
Hamilton County workers wrote their results on tally sheets as they counted ballots from 30 precincts randomly selected from the county's 1,013 -- a total of about 13,000 of 433,000 ballots cast in November in the county.
Under Ohio law, workers must hand-count 3 percent of ballots. If the results match the certified results exactly, all other ballots can be recounted by machine. If the totals are off, all ballots must be counted by hand.
Also yesterday, Representative John Conyers of Michigan, a senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, urged the FBI to investigate possible election tampering in Hocking County involving an employee of TRIAD Governmental Systems Inc., the company that wrote the voting software used in 41 of Ohio's counties.
According to a sworn statement from Sherole Eaton, the county's deputy director of elections, a TRIAD representative told her on Friday he wanted to inspect the county's tabulating machine. She said the employee then told her that ''the battery in the computer was dead and that the stored information was gone."
''He proceeded to take the computer apart and call his office to get information to input into our computer," Eaton said.
Conyers said similar TRIAD visits have been reported in other Ohio counties.
TRIAD President Brett Rapp told The New York Times that preparing machines for a recount was standard procedure and said he welcomed any investigation.
Also, a federal judge in Akron on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union alleging the punch-card voting system is error-prone and ballots are more likely to go uncounted than votes cast in other ways. The ACLU also claimed Ohio violated the voting rights of blacks, a large number of whom live in punch-card counties. However, US District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. disagreed, saying, ''No one is denied the opportunity to cast a valid vote because of their race."
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Massachusetts-based Alliance for Democracy are backing a request on behalf of 40 voters asking the Ohio Supreme Court to reconsider the election results, accusing the Bush campaign of ''high-tech vote stealing."
Published by
Associated Press
Recount observer not allowed
to inspect machines
by Kent Mallett,
The Advocate [Newark, OH]
Dec. 16, 2004
NEWARK -- The presidential election recount began Wednesday at the Licking County Board of Elections, but it didn't begin the way one candidate's representative had hoped.
Mary Lewin, the recount observer for Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik, wanted to inspect the voting machines as part of the recount, but her request was denied.
"They threatened to have me thrown out of the recount because I raised certain questions," Lewin said. "We felt we had a right to look at the machines. You can't look at the ballot in isolation of the ballot assembly."
Mary Jo Long, director of the Licking County Board of Elections, said the voting machines must be sealed for 60 days after the election, when the machines could then be inspected if a contest of election lawsuit is filed.
An election contest was filed Wednesday in the 5th District Court of Appeals, but the lawsuit came instead from Domestic Relations judge candidate Paul Harmon, of Granville, who was also denied a request to inspect the machines before his recount. Harmon lost to Craig Baldwin of Newark in that race.
Lewin said the machines must be inspected to check the rotation of candidates' names on the ballot from one precinct to another. If the rotation on the ballot pages differs from the program for the computer tabulation, then a punched hole next to one candidate's name could be counted for another candidate.
"The punch card is only half the ballot," Lewin said. "We feel we have a legal right to view the machines, and we're not getting a fair and accurate recount without viewing the ballot machines."
Lewin said other Ohio counties are being more cooperative.
Chris Abbruzzese, a spokesman for the Secretary of State's office, said he did not not know if any counties have allowed inspection of the machines.
"We're not aware of any, but it's subject to their interpretations," Abbruzzese said. "It's up to their discretion."
The recount of Licking County's 80,000 ballots will probably last into next week, Long said. The ballots are first inspected by representatives from the Board of Elections and each candidate, followed by a hand-count of 3 percent run through the ballot counter.
Observers were present representing Badnarik, Green Party candidate David Cobb, Democrat John Kerry and Republican President George W. Bush.
Published by
The Advocate
Ohio Justice throws out
election challenge
by Andrew Welsh-Huggins,
Associated Press
Dec. 16, 2004
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The Ohio Supreme Court's chief justice on Thursday threw out a challenge to the state's presidential election results.
The 40 voters who brought the case will likely be able to refile the challenge.
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer ruled that the request improperly challenged two separate election results. Ohio law only allows one race to be challenged in a single complaint, he said.
The challenge was backed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Cliff Arnebeck, a Columbus attorney for the Massachusetts-based Alliance for Democracy, who accused Bush's campaign of "high-tech vote stealing."
Claiming fraud, the voters cited reports of voting- machine errors, double-counting of ballots and a shortage of voting machines in predominantly minority precincts as reasons to throw out the results.
Ohio and its 20 electoral votes determined the outcome of the election, tipping the race to President Bush. The state declared Bush the winner by 119,000 votes, but counties are in the middle of a recount - requested by two minor party candidates and supported by John Kerry's campaign.
The complaint questioned how the actual results could show Bush winning when exit-poll interview findings on election night indicated that Kerry would win 52 percent of Ohio's presidential vote.
Without listing specific evidence, the complaint alleges that 130,656 votes for Kerry and John Edwards in 36 counties were somehow switched to count for the Bush-Cheney ticket.
The allegations are based on an analysis comparing the presidential race to Moyer's Supreme Court race against a Cleveland municipal judge.
But nothing in state law or any previous court decision allows challenges to be combined, Moyer said.
"Were this court to sanction consolidation here it would establish a precedent whereby twenty-five voters could challenge, in a single case, the election results of every statewide race and issue on the ballot in any given election," Moyer wrote.
Messages seeking comment on the court decision were left for Jackson and Arnebeck.
Published by
Associated Press
Ohio election officials obstruct recount, say Greens
Press release, Cobb-LaMarche '04
Dec. 17, 2004
Columbus, OH - Reports from throughout Ohio present a clear and disturbing pattern of state and local election officials obstructing the recount of Ohio’s 2004 presidential vote, according to the Green Party’s presidential campaign which initiated the recount and is monitoring the process.
"Ohio election officials are violating both the spirit and the letter of the law governing the recount," said Cobb-LaMarche Media Director Blair Bobier.
In two counties, Monroe and Fairfield, election officials have refused to do a full hand recount, as required under Ohio election law, when hand and machine tallies don't match. They instead have opted to get new machines to count the votes.
In the vast majority of counties, election officials have pre-selected precincts to be sampled, rather than chosen them randomly, as required by law. In Cuyahoga County, the pre-selection of precincts eliminated those which reported the most problems on Election Day, thwarting the intent of the recount and raising serious concerns about the integrity of the process.
"Ohio’s partisan vote-counter and Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell, presided over the most error-ridden election in the country, and he is now intent on preventing the people of Ohio from scrutinizing those results. We have asked Mr. Blackwell to establish uniform standards and guidelines for the conduct of the recount and he has refused," said Bobier.
In at least two counties, Montgomery and Coshocton, the recount has discovered that the state certified the wrong vote totals.
Other problems with the recount range from volunteers being told they couldn’t ask questions, to an allegation of tampering with voting machines.
Reports from the recount are being filed by Green Party monitors on a daily basis. They can be found on the Cobb-LaMarche website at www.votecobb.org/press/.
Published by
Cobb-LaMarche '04
Kerry, Bush pick up votes in Ohio
by John Nolan, Associated Press
Dec. 17, 2004
CINCINNATI - Hanging chads that came loose when punch-card ballots were handled again or rerun through tallying machines explain most of the additional votes President Bush and Democrat John Kerry are picking up in Ohio's recount, election officials said Friday.
With 65 of Ohio's 88 counties reporting final recounts to The Associated Press on Friday, including the large urban counties of Cuyahoga, Hamilton and Franklin, Bush has gained 395 votes and Kerry has gained 554 votes.
The running tally accounts for 4.4 million votes cast, or about 74 percent of the total certified vote from the Nov. 2 election.
Neither campaign expects the recount to change the outcome. Bush won Ohio's 20 electoral votes by a margin of about 119,000.
Franklin and Cuyahoga counties were among the many reporting little or no change from the recount. In Cuyahoga County, home to Cleveland, Bush lost six votes while Democrat Kerry gained 17, which election workers attribute to hanging chads and worker error.
The largest change was in Hamilton County, which includes metropolitan Cincinnati, where Bush gained 212 votes and Kerry 180. Kerry also picked up 125 votes in Mahoning County.
The biggest loss to date was for Bush in Knox County, where he dropped 13 votes. Kerry lost 8 votes in the central Ohio county.
Pamela Swafford, deputy elections director in Hamilton County, attributed the differences to chads falling out of punch-card ballots during re-handling.
Observers from the Bush, Kerry and third-party campaigns have been watching as teams that each include Democratic and Republican election workers inspected ballots with loose chads to determine voter intent.
"Just barely touching them, they pop, they come out," Swafford said. "That's not unusual. When you're talking about that many ballots, that's bound to happen."
Libertarian and Green party presidential candidates who received less than 0.3 percent of the Ohio vote requested the statewide recount and paid $113,600 for it, saying they were concerned about reports of election irregularities and wanted to ensure that all votes were counted.
The Kerry campaign supports the recount, while Republicans have called it a waste of time.
Ohio law requires an election board to manually recount a randomly selected 3 percent of ballots. If the totals match certified results for those precincts, all the county's votes are then machine-counted. If the hand count is off, a county must manually recount all its ballots.
Election officials said the 3 percent hand-counts matched in virtually all the recounts done so far.
Election officials also attributed changes to voter error in filling out paper ballots for optical-scan voting machines, and election worker error in hand-recounting of stacks of ballots.
A spokesman for the third-party candidates said in a statement Friday that elections officials were obstructing the recount, including charges that observers were told they couldn't ask questions and an allegation of voting machine tampering.
"Ohio's partisan vote-counter and Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell, presided over the most error-ridden election in the country and he is now intent on preventing the people of Ohio from scrutinizing those results," Blair Bobier said.
A messages seeking comment was left with a Blackwell spokesman. A message also was left for the director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, which Bobier accused of preselecting the precincts to be recounted rather than choosing them at random.
In Ashland County in northern Ohio, Bush gained 38 votes and Kerry 20 because election workers examined optical scan ballots by hand that weren't read by the machines, elections director Kathy Howman said. The ovals on those ballots were filled in with ink instead of the required pencil.
"Most of these were absentee ballots, and maybe people did not read the directions," Howman said. "But the voter intent was clear, so the board decided to count those ballots."
The recount revealed other trends in the many counties with little or no change.
Bush gained one vote in Delaware County, also likely due to a hanging chad, elections director Janet Brenneman said, making his final victory there 53,143-27,048.
The county had 632 ballots with no vote for the office of president and another 89 where two or more candidates were punched, invalidating the vote.
"If they don't like any of the candidates, they'll punch them all out so that no one can mess with their ballot," Brenneman said.
Elections officials in two counties where the vote totals were unchanged by the recount said they hope it shows the reliability of Ohio's election procedures, despite criticism by activists over reports of voting machine shortages and lines at polling places in some areas.
"We were just thrilled that there were no discrepancies. Actually, the punch-card system is a pretty good system," said Donna Moore, director of the Noble County Board of Elections in Caldwell. Bush's total stayed at 3,841 and Kerry's at 2,654 after the recount.
"We're feeling pretty proud of ourselves, to prove to some of these people how wrong they were," said Margaret Hansen, director of the Monroe County Board of Elections in Woodsfield. Her county's recount left the totals unchanged for both major-party candidates, with Bush at 3,424 and Kerry at 4,243.
Hansen said Friday night there was no basis for Bobier's claim that Monroe County refused to do a required full hand count. She said a machine failed on Tuesday, but it was replaced Wednesday after consulting with Blackwell's office and the recount was completed without incident.
Bobier said in a telephone interview he was not familiar with all the allegations in the statement he released.
"Those come from our observers, based on daily reports," he said.
Published by
Associated Press
"Please, please, please, count all the votes"
by Diane Suchetka,
The Plain Dealer [Cleveland]
Dec. 17, 2004
The election is over and the Electoral College has officially chosen George W. Bush as America's president, but doubters are still scrutinizing nearly every aspect of the controversial vote.
Dozens of them went to the offices of Cuyahoga County's Board of Elections Thursday to try to find the flaws for themselves as witnesses in Ohio's recount.
Losing candidates from the Libertarian and Green parties - who have requested a presidential recount across Ohio - don't expect it to result in a new president.
What they're doing, they say, is making sure every vote cast in America counts.
At least on Thursday, in Cuyahoga County, it was not exciting work.
It took place at 20 folding tables in two long rows in a nondescript room.
Six people sat at each table; two election workers on one side facing four witnesses on the other -- one witness each for the Democratic, Green, Libertarian and Republican parties.
One of the two workers picked up a punch-card ballot and looked for the number next to the hole the voter punched back in November.
"Six," she said aloud.
Then she handed the card to the election worker next to her, who held it up, too.
"Six," the second worker said in confirmation.
Then the second worker turned the card around and held it up so each witness could see that hole six really was the one punched. And she put the card in a pile with other sixes to be counted later.
That's how it went -- 500 or 600 or 700 times -- until shoulders began to slump and hands rested on chins and eyelids drooped. And that was just the morning session.
Workers had 20,618 ballots to count by hand.
Three video crews captured it all on tape: the library voices everyone spoke in, the occasional laugh when a worker held up a ballot with his finger over the hole, the weariness as the day dragged on.
"Look at the determination in their faces," said R.J. Robinson, an independent documentary filmmaker from Los Angeles. "They're still determined to make a difference in the election, six weeks later."
Ohio election procedures stipulate that a recount begin with workers counting 3 percent of ballots by hand and then by machine. If the two counts match, workers recount the remaining ballots by machine. If they don't, every ballot must be counted by hand.
After more than 10 hours of recounting Thursday, Cuyahoga County election workers will return today to finish the job. They expect to be done by early afternoon.
After that, Cuyahoga, and the other 87 county boards of elections, must certify the results and send them to Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who will amend the state's official results when every county recount is in.
It's not clear when that will be.
"We would hope that the process will conclude no later than Dec. 23," said Blackwell's spokesman, Carlo LoParo. "But there are so many circumstances that come into play that are out of election officials' hands."
Tabulating machines could be malfunctioning, for example, or all ballots might have to be counted, which could take weeks.
Those witnessing Cuyahoga's recount Thursday praised the process.
"The board of elections staff could not be more professional," said Candace Hoke, a professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law who monitored the process. "There has not been one incident of heated dispute or discourteousness."
But she and others had several concerns.
They wanted the absentee and provisional ballots previously ruled invalid to be reconsidered, for one.
Cuyahoga County elections director Michael Vu said that wouldn't happen. Ballots not counted in the first place can't be recounted, he said.
Hoke also raised questions about the way the 3 percent sample was chosen only from those precincts where 550 or more ballots were cast.
The law, she said, specifies that they be chosen randomly.
But Vu pointed out that the board had used the process in the past, including in local November elections, and worried that changing procedures now would cause even bigger problems.
"When we conducted this recount we knew that anything we did there were going to be critical remarks regarding it," Vu said.
Leaving the board offices Thursday night, witness Mike Anthony said he felt part of something bigger, an effort that might convince America's leader to put meaningful election reform into place.
"As a partisan Democrat, I just want to feel secure that all the votes are counted," said Anthony, who drove from Long Island with his wife, Ann, to witness the recount.
"Please, please, please," the retired hospital financial officer said, "count all the votes."
Published by
The Plain Dealer [Cleveland]
Election challenge refiled by activists
Associated Press
Dec. 18, 2004
COLUMBUS, OHIO -- Voters who claim that problems with Ohio voting machines Nov. 2 indicated fraud refiled a request Friday with Ohio's Supreme Court to overturn the presidential results.
The voters group cites reports of machine errors, double-counting of some ballots and a shortage of voting machines in predominantly minority precincts as reasons to throw out the election results.
The challenge is backed by Jesse Jackson Sr. and Cliff Arnebeck, an Ohio lawyer for the Massachusetts-based Alliance for Democracy, who accused President Bush's campaign of "high-tech vote stealing."
Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer threw out their initial complaint Thursday, saying the plaintiffs improperly included a second election challenge in the complaint.
Ohio and its 20 electoral votes were the difference in the presidential race.
Published by
Associated Press
“Everyone felt better” after
technician “repeated a repair”
Associated Press
Dec. 20, 2004
LOGAN, Ohio - Prosecutors and local police found no evidence of election tampering when they watched Monday as a technician repeated a repair to a tallying computer that led a congressman to request an FBI investigation.
Observers including Green Party representatives who requested a presidential recount agreed the procedure did not alter the hard drive where data are stored, Hocking County Prosecutor Larry Beal said.
"Everybody felt better," he said.
A deputy elections director in the southeast Ohio county had said in a sworn statement that a technician with the county's computer vendor took apart the computer attached to the main punch-card ballot tabulator. The repair worried her because the computer needed to be working before last week's recount.
Ohio and its 20 electoral votes determined the outcome of the election, tipping the race to Bush when Democrat John Kerry conceded the next morning. The state declared Bush the winner by 119,000 votes, and counties are in the middle of the recount, which the Kerry campaign supports.
Activists challenging President Bush's election win in Ohio used the deputy elections director's statement Friday in asking the Ohio Supreme Court for an emergency order for elections boards to impound all data and vote tabulating equipment. The court hasn't acted on the request.
And U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat compiling examples of voting irregularities in Ohio, asked the FBI to confiscate the computer and investigate "likely illegal election tampering."
The agency hadn't yet decided whether to open an investigation, said agent Michael Brooks, FBI spokesman in Cincinnati.
"We welcomed the challenge because we knew nothing was going to be found wrong," county elections director Lisa Schwartze said Monday after the demonstration.
Elections officials, a Green Party representative, prosecutors and the Logan patrolman who investigates computer crimes were among the observers as the same technician repeated the repair and answered questions. He had to do it twice because only half the group could fit in the room.
Brett Rapp, president of Xenia, Ohio-based elections vendor TRIAD Governmental Systems Inc., explained that the 14-year-old computer's internal battery needed for rebooting was low. The technician swapped the hard drive to a newer machine to read the information needed for reboot before reinstalling it in the original.
"The actual votes are stored on the punch-card ballots," Rapp said. "The machine simply counts the votes. During this whole process, the ballots were locked up."
Messages seeking comment were left Monday with Conyers' Washington office.
Cliff Arnebeck, the lead attorney challenging the Bush win, said he wasn't satisfied because the entire vote counting system "is subject to hacking."
"People are turning functions over to computer technicians and basically trusting them not to manipulate the system in an improper way," he said.
Hocking completed its recount last week - Bush and Kerry each gained one vote, preserving Bush's 762-vote win in the county.
Green Party representatives told Schwartze on Monday they would challenge the recount because the county did not use a truly random procedure in selecting 3 percent of ballots for a hand count as required under state law.
The county picked from only the five precincts that each had enough ballots to equal 3 percent, instead of randomly picking from all precincts until there were enough to equal 440 ballots.
With 76 of Ohio's 88 counties reporting final recounts to The Associated Press as of Monday, including the large urban counties of Cuyahoga, Hamilton and Franklin, Bush had gained 425 votes and Kerry has gained 570 votes.
The running tally accounts for 4.8 million votes cast, or about 86 percent of the total certified vote from the Nov. 2 election.
Published by
Associated Press
Votes ought to be counted
Editorial, The New York Times
Dec. 20, 2004
Every vote is supposed to count in America, but candidates too often maneuver to disqualify votes that they think might go to the other side. A month and a half after Election Day, battles are still raging in Washington State and in San Diego over whether to count all of the votes that were cast. The answer to that question must be yes.
In Washington's gubernatorial election, Dino Rossi, a Republican, and Christine Gregoire, a Democrat, finished in a virtual dead heat. With nearly 2.9 million votes cast, Mr. Rossi initially led by 261 votes. A machine recount took his lead down to 42. Ms. Gregoire requested a hand recount. During it, King County, a heavily Democratic area that includes Seattle, found 723 absentee ballots that had not been counted because election workers made errors like failing to verify the voters' signatures.
Republicans, fearing that those ballots would throw the election to Ms. Gregoire, have gotten a lower court judge to prevent them from being counted, at least temporarily. But there is no reason these ballots and other valid ballots that have turned up during the recount should not be counted. The right to vote cannot be taken away because an election official did not do his or her job correctly.
In San Diego, the No. 2 choice of the voters for the mayor's job may be headed to City Hall. Donna Frye, a write-in candidate, came within 2,108 votes of defeating Mayor Dick Murphy. But Ms. Frye's vote total does not include more than 5,500 ballots on which voters wrote her name, but failed to darken a bubble next to it. There can be no doubt that those voters, who would easily give Ms. Frye a majority, tried to vote for her, but were tripped up by poor ballot design. The voters' intent should be recognized.
In Ohio, where a recount of the presidential election is under way, it is becoming clear that as important as recounts are, they are not enough to ensure the integrity of our elections. Representative John Conyers Jr., a Democrat from Michigan, has charged that an employee of a company that makes vote-counting software used across the state may have tampered with one county's vote tabulator after the election to make the recount come out right. If people other than election officials have free access to the tabulation software, it can make a recount an empty gesture.
Clearly the American election system needs significant improvement, starting with voter-verified paper trails for every vote cast electronically. In the current flawed system, the best chance we have of producing accurate results is to be on guard for manipulation of electronic voting machines and tabulation software, and to conduct conscientious recounts when the outcome is at all in doubt.
Published by
The New York Times
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There's much more than this at Unknown News.
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Latest related reports from our archives:
Dec. 20, 2004:
Global Election Systems email proves
they knew votes were not all countedExcerpt: "One more interesting thing to note: the AccuVote knows that it has dropped the ballot. So the question has always been, should we increment the card counter, and should we log the event. Currently we do neither. There are two schools here. One says we should notify the voter, log it, add a dropped ballot counter, send an incident report to the secretary of state, etc etc. The other is to increment the counter and send the voter on their ignorantly blissful way. Right now we kind of split the difference."
# So, they didn't increment the counter, they didn't log the event, and they sent the voter on his/her ignorantly blissful way? What if they put these machines in places with Democratic majorities? =Underground Panther in the Sky=
Dec. 18, 2004:
An introduction to ... The stolen election of 2004
Dec. 18, 2004:
Ohio vote count battles escalate amidst new evidence of potential criminal activity
Dec. 18, 2004:
Cuyahoga County ballots
seemed “pre-sorted” to volunteers
Dec. 15, 2004:
Proof of Ohio election fraud exposed Excerpt: TRIAD is owned by a man named Tod Rapp, who has also donated money to both the Republican Party and the election campaign of George W. Bush. TRIAD manufactures punch-card voting systems, and also wrote the computer program that tallied the punch-card votes cast in 41 Ohio counties last November.
... A representative from TRIAD Systems came into a county board of elections office un-announced. He said he was just stopping by to see if they had any questions about the up-coming recount. He then headed into the back room where the TRIAD supplied Tabulator (a card reader and older PC with custom software) is kept. He told them there was a problem and the system had a bad battery and had "lost all of its data". He then took the computer apart and started swapping parts in and out of it and another "spare" tower type PC also in the room. He may have had spare parts in his coat as one of the BOE people moved it and remarked as to how very heavy it was. He finally re-assembled everything and said it was working but to not turn it off.
He then asked which precinct would be counted for the 3% recount test, and the one which had been selected as it had the right number of votes, was relayed to him. He then went back and did something else to the tabulator computer.
The TRIAD Systems representative suggested that since the hand count had to match the machine count exactly, and since it would be hard to memorize the several numbers which would be needed to get the count to come out exactly right, that they should post this series of numbers on the wall where they would not be noticed by observers. He suggested making them look like employee information or something similar. The people doing the hand count could then just report these numbers no matter what the actual count of the ballots revealed. This would then "match" the tabulator report for this precinct exactly. The numbers were apparently the final certified counts for the selected precinct.
Dec. 14, 2004:
Zogby insists polls were "very,
very good, extremely accurate"
. Professor says vote numbers
don't add up
. Congressman wants 'raw' exit poll data
. Who did voters pick on Nov. 2?
In some cases, we'll never know
. Former Congressman jailed
for confronting Blackwell
. Ohio Supreme Court won’t
block certification?
. Some voters hold out hope
for Kerry victory
. Ohio counties dealing differently
with Kerry recount requests
. FBI, Congressional staffers curious
about self-described
vote fraud programmer
Dec. 13, 2004:
Ex-Congressman’s account of arrest
for speaking to BlackwellExcerpt: So at around 10 am, Carrie and I went to the front desk with a copy of the Conyers letter and presented our driver's licenses. We were told to wait while the receptionist called the Secretary of State's office, which told her "someone will come down and get the letter."
At that point, we retreated to Zuppa's, a very untrendy cafe located on the north side of the lobby. We ordered orange juice and sat down at a table. Within minutes, security was all over us.
"You must leave this building now,” said an exasperated Borden security cop, his hands shaking quite visibly.
“What’s the charge?” I asked. “Are we trespassing or do you just ‘reserve the right to refuse service to anyone?’”
“You must leave this building now,” he repeated. ...
Dec. 10, 2004:
Media account of Ex-Congressman’s arrest
Dec. 13, 2004:
Ohio vote fraud battle heats up
by Katherine Yurica, Axis of Logic
Dec. 13, 2004:
Startling new revelations highlight rare Congressional hearings on Ohio vote
Dec. 12, 2004:
20 amazing facts about voting in the USA
Dec. 12, 2004:
Ohio absentee vote inflated
Dec. 12, 2004:
Blackwell's "locked-down" Ohio
poll records left in unlocked building
Dec. 11, 2004:
Complete original exit polls from 2004 election
Dec. 11, 2004:
Diebold pays $2.6-million
to settle California lawsuit
Dec. 11, 2004:
Ohio election investigation thwarted
by surprise Blackwell orderExcerpt: On Friday December 10 two certified volunteers for the Ohio Recount team assigned to Greene County were in process recording voting information from minority precincts in Greene County, and were stopped mid-count by a surprise order from Secretary of State Blackwell’s office. The Director Board of Elections stated that “all voter records for the state of Ohio were “locked-down,” and now they are not considered public records.”
Dec. 10, 2004:
Blackwell locks out recount volunteers,
claims voter records not public documents
Dec. 10, 2004:
Uncounted votes in Ohio's Montgomery County
Dec. 9, 2004:
Trouble counting votes in Ohio
Dec. 7, 2004:
Florida e-vote study debunked by statisticians
Dec. 7, 2004:
As questions keep coming,
Ohio certifies its vote count
|
. New round of challenges in Ohio vote
. Kerry team finally, halfheartedly joins Ohio recount fight
. LePore served with lawsuit at elections meeting
. Greens, Libertarians seek recounts in New Mexico, Nevada
|
Dec. 7, 2004:
Nation editor spars with
reporter over election questions
Why, it's David Corn -- who also
dismissed questions about September 11
Dec. 7, 2004:
Evidence dramatically raises
suspicion of election tampering
"The bigger the prize, the bigger the discrepancy"
Nov. 6, 2004:
Democrats launch investigation
of voting problems in Ohio
Dec. 6, 2004:
Democratic Underground bars
Black Box Voting's Harris
Dec. 5, 2004:
Evidence of fraud in the 2004
U.S. Presidential election: A reader
Dec. 5, 2004:
Dec. 4, 2004:
Slow-rolling democracy in Ohio
by Robert Parrt, Consortium News
Dec. 3, 2004:
News editors poo-poo election fraud rumors
Dec. 3, 2004:
FBI refuses to accept complaint
alleging Ohio vote fraudExcerpt: In a November 30 article titled "Nearly a Month Later, Ohio Fight Goes On," detailing the controversy in Ohio over the results of the November 2 election, the Associated Press correctly identified J. Kenneth Blackwell -- who, as Ohio's secretary of state, oversees the election process -- as "a co-chairman of Bush's re-election campaign in Ohio." But two large news organizations, FOXNews.com and the Chicago Sun-Times, omitted that reference from their versions of the story.
Dec. 1, 2004:
Major media hints at nationwide voting problems
Dec. 1, 2004:
Voters to challenge Ohio election
Dec. 1, 2004:
FOXNews.com, Chicago Sun-Times
deleted connection between Ohio official,
Bush campaign from AP story
Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 2004:
Something's fishy in Ohio
by Jesse Jackson, syndicated columnist
and Jackson column draws heat
from Ohio Secretary of State's Office
Nov. 30, 2004:
BlackBoxVoting sues Palm Beach County
Nov. 30, 2004:
Where there's smoke, there's fire
Electronic voting and the legitimacy
of the 2004 Presidential election
Nov. 30, 2004:
People for the American Way sues to have Ohio provisional ballots counted
|
. Nearly a month later, fight over Ohio count goes on
(with comments by Helen & Harry Highwater)
. Jesse Jackson seeks voting probe
. More questions raised about Ohio vote
. Judge says Ohio recount must wait
until after election is certified
. Florida group sues over election results
. Kerry picks up 1,070 more votes in Ohio
. Commission says voting problems were widespread
. Concerned locals push for presidential election fraud probe |
Nov. 29, 2004:
How to take back a stolen election
by Thom Hartmann, Common Dreams
Nov. 26, 2004:
Odds for red shift in 16 states:
One out of 4.5 billion
Nov. 26, 2004:
Grass-roots movement tries to trick CNN
into practicing journalism in Ohio
Nov. 25, 2004
New Ohio voter transcripts feed floodtide of doubt about Republican election manipulation
Nov. 24, 2004:
US offers hypocritical response
on Ukraine election
# with comments by 100 Watts and H&HH
Nov. 23, 2004:
Greens, Libertarians sue to stop
stonewalling on Ohio recount
|
. Lawsuit challenges
Nevada’s Republican electors
. Ohio Finds at least 2,600 ballots counted twice
. Lingering doubts about 2004 election |
Nov. 22, 2004:
Widespread election fraud in Cleveland?
Nov. 21, 2004:
Help wanted: Last chance to count Nevada vote
Nov. 18, 2004:
Research team sounds
'smoke alarm' for Florida e-vote count
Nov. 18, 2004:
"Something is definitely wrong," says Zogby
Nov. 18, 2004
Voting machines count backwards in Oklahoma
Nov. 17, 2004:
Consistant swing from exit polls
to Bush vote unexplained
Nov. 17, 2004:
Minority precincts were deliberately shortchanged on voting equipment
Many people waited hours to vote ...
while many more gave up and left
Nov. 16, 2004:
Ohio vote to be recounted
Greens and Libertarians fund re-count together
# with comments by Angry Annie
Nov. 16, 2004:
While the news networks were covering Scott Peterson's trial ...
|
. Election stolen, group suspects
. Hackers rigging voting machines a real possibility
. Complaints of election theft quickly, efficiently dismissed (with comments by H&HH)
. Wacky turnout totals just another glitch
. Computer glitch elects wrong candidate in Indiana
. Minnesotans kicked off voter registration lists are still asking why
. Nader seeks limited recount of optical-scan vote in New Hampshire
. Worst voter error is apathy toward irregularities |
Nov. 16, 2004:
What can we do about the stolen election?
by Atomicktom and Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News
Nov. 12, 2004:
Major bugs found in Diebold vote systems
Nov. 11, 2004:
Kerry lawyers eye Ohio recounts
but insist effort isn't aimed at challenging results
Nov. 11, 2004:
Republican Party wants to end exit polls
Nov. 11, 2004:
Green, Libertarian candidates
demand Ohio recount
Nov. 10, 2004:
Florida e-vote fraud? Unlikely
Nov. 9, 2004:
Bush's 'incredible' vote tallies
Nov. 8, 2004:
The e-vote factor:
Kerry conceded but did he really lose?
Nov. 8, 2004:
Media blackout on vote fraud allegations
Nov. 7, 2004:
With 638 votes cast, Bush leads 4,258 to 260
... and other amusing anecdotes
from the stolen election of 2004
|
. Absentee votes draw Florida eye
. Kerry leads in Ohio exit polling
. Newspaper denied access at polls
. Foreign monitors 'barred' from US polls
. Journalist beaten, arrested outside Florida polling place for violating secret rule
. Countless other frauds occurred ...
. Defective software 'lost' votes
|
Nov. 6, 2004:
Evidence mounts that the vote
may have been hacked
Nov. 5, 2004:
Should America trust the results of the election?
Editorial, The Washington DispatchExcerpt: Without question, the evidence presented thus far should raise suspicion among honest individuals. While maintaining a calm and reasonable demeanor, the results of the Novermber 2nd election should be fully investigated simply for the sake of the nation and our future confidence in the democratic process.
Nov. 5, 2004:
Something amiss in Ohio
Nov. 4, 2004:
Was the Ohio election honest and fair?
Press release, Progressive NewswireExcerpt: Ohio State Senator Teresa Fedor said today: "There was trouble with our elections in Ohio at every stage. It's been a battle getting people registered to vote, getting to the ballot on voting day and getting that vote to count. There is a pattern of voter suppression; that's why I called for [Ohio Secretary of State] Blackwell's resignation more than a month ago. Blackwell, while claiming to run an unbiased elections process, was also the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio.
Nov. 4, 2004:
First of all, this election was definitely rigged
by Mark Crispin Miller, Salon
Nov. 4, 2004:
States with electronic voting machines
gave Bush mysterious 5% advantage
Nov. 4, 2004:
More votes than voters?
Nov. 4, 2004:
Kerry won. Here's the facts.
Nov. 4, 2004:
Evidence of fraud is indisputable
... but there is no accountability
Nov. 4, 2004:
4,000+ votes vanish in one countyExcerpt: The county's technical consultants contacted UniLect Corp., the manufacturer of Carteret County's electronic voting system, had given misinformation about how many votes the system can store.
The county was told its units could store up to 10,500 votes when, in fact, the limit is 3,005 votes.
Nov. 4, 2004:
Computer glitch still baffles county clerk
Nov. 4, 2004:
Were the absentee ballots lost or stolen?
Either way, it's a crime.
Nov. 3, 2004:
Photo shows voter fraud in Ohio?
Nov. 3, 2004:
Florida numbers don't add up
Nov. 3, 2004:
America is screwed: Election stolen againExcerpt: In most states, the returns were pretty much as predicted by the last polls. Florida seems the odd exception -- the last polls were for Kerry, 49-44%, but the returns are running 52-47 Bush.
So in just one day -- and in just one state -- Bush went from five points down to five points ahead?
Nov. 3, 2004:
All exit polls matched results
... except Ohio, Florida
Nov. 3, 2004:
Graph:
Exit polls vs. E-vote tallies
Nov. 3, 2004:
Where did Bush get
8,000,000 new voters?Statistical analysis:
Bush's 8 million
new votes found
Nov. 3, 2004:
Votes lost in cyberspace
Nov. 3, 2004:
Presidential votes miscast on
e-voting machines throughout the country
Nov. 3, 2004:
CNN just changed their Ohio exit poll page
Nov. 2, 2004:
BlackBoxVoting files fleet of FOIA requestsExcerpt: At 8:30 p.m. Election Night, Black Box Voting blanketed the U.S. with the first in a series of public records requests, to obtain internal computer logs and other documents from 3,000 individual counties and townships. Networks called the election before anyone bothered to perform even the most rudimentary audit.
... Among the first requests sent to counties (with all kinds of voting systems -- optical scan, touch-screen, and punch card) is a formal records request for internal audit logs, polling place results slips, modem transmission logs, and computer trouble slips.
An earlier FOIA is more sensitive, and has not been disclosed here. We will notify you as soon as we can go public with it.
Nov. 2, 2004:
Group tallies more than 1,100 e-voting glitches
Nov. 2, 2004:
Watchdogs spot e-vote glitches
Nov. 1, 2004:
One million Kerry votes
stolen before election day
Oct. 28, 2004:
58,000 absentee ballots lost in Florida
Oct. 26, 2004:
E-voting companies reveal some software to feds
# with comments by CactusPat
Oct. 26, 2004:
New Florida vote scandal feared
by Greg Palast, BBC News
Oct. 22, 2004:
Some early voters say
machines mark incorrect choices
Oct. 20, 2004:
Republican-backed group allegedly involved
in Pennsylvania vote registration fraud
# with comments by CactusPat and H&HH
Oct. 16, 2004:
Florida's Bush ignored advice to
'pull the plug' on flawed felon voter list
Oct. 12, 2004:
Republican-backed group allegedly involved
in vote registration fraud in Nevada and Oregon- Republicans phone voters to discourage Democrats' voting
Oct. 9, 2004:
Republican
dirty tricks in Ohio
Sept. 8, 2004:
November surprise: Electronic voting machines add uncertainty to close election race
Aug. 30, 2004:
Florida fixed again? Absentee ballots go AWOL
Excerpt: Although 37,000 citizens have requested absentee ballots, Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore says she'd only received 22,000 when she began the count. Where are the others? Don't ask: though she posts the names of requesters, she won't release the list of those who have voted, an eyebrow-raising deviation from standard procedure.
Aug. 26, 2004:
Diebold central tabulator
contains stunning security holeExcerpt: By entering a 2-digit code in a hidden location, a second set of votes is created. This set of votes can be changed, so that it no longer matches the correct votes. The voting system will then read the totals from the bogus vote set. It takes only seconds to change the votes, and to date not a single location in the U.S. has implemented security measures to fully mitigate the risks.
This program is not "stupidity" or sloppiness. It was designed and tested over a series of a dozen version adjustments.
Public officials: If you are in a county that uses GEMS 1.18.18, GEMS 1.18.19, or GEMS 1.18.23, your secretary or state may not have told you about this. You're the one who'll be blamed if your election is tampered with.
Aug. 23, 2004:
Vote count at mercy of clandestine testing
Aug. 16, 2004:
Is Florida facing a new electoral crisis?
by Linda McQuaig, The Toronto StarExcerpt: Concerns about the lack of a paper trail have prompted some states to ban the machines in the November election. But Jeb Bush has brushed aside such concerns, refusing to even allow independent audits of the machines in Florida.
Aug. 6, 2004:
Government makes sure soldiers' votes count (the rest of us are on our own)
# with comments by Madeline Zane
Aug. 4, 2004:
Computerized voting systems proven insecure
Aug. 3, 2004:
A new variation on voter fraudExcerpt: Today, around lunchtime, I went with my parents to the polls to vote in our primary election. When I got there, I found that I had somehow been removed from the books, and hence could not vote.
July 25, 2004:
New citizens in Florida are
unknowingly registered as Republicans
July 16, 2004:
A bigger threat to November's election
than any terrorists' attack
by Madeline Zane, Unknown News
June 20, 2004:
Stage set for repeat of 2000 presidential vote fraud
May 19, 2004:
Feds threaten subpenna against activist for honest vote counts
May 18, 2004:
The people's paper trail
by Carlos Pecciotto Jr., Unknown News
May 6, 2004:
Officials warn against
receipts for electronic ballots
# with comments by Phil
April 30, 2004:
California Secretary of State
bans electronic voting
April 28, 2004:
Two companies & two brothers will count 80% of U.S. ballots
April 23, 2004:
Diebold may face criminal charges
April 22, 2004:
Diebold apologizes for
disenfranchising California voters
April 13, 2004:
E-voting probe finds no reason for Diebold glitches
March 14, 2004:
Designer of verified vote system
dies in unlucky accident
March 4, 2004:
A deafening silence as democracy expires
Feb. 24, 2004:
Diebold, electronic voting and
the vast right-wing conspiracy
Feb. 15, 2004:
Would you like a receipt with that election?
Technologists advocate a paper trail
for electronic voting machines
Feb. 6, 2004:
Michigan plans internet vote
despite hacking risks
Feb. 6, 2004:
Company lied about voting machine's reliability
Jan. 30, 2004:
This week in vote fraud
Jan. 20, 2004:
Company with worst e-voting security record produces machines with wireless capability
Jan. 17, 2004:
This week in U.S. election fraud
Dec. 17, 2003:
Yeah, let's put Diebold in charge of elections
Dec. 14, 2003:
Vote system provides receipt, verification that your vote was counted
Dec. 2, 2003:
Diebold backs off legal intimidation
Nov. 10, 2003:
More election machine problems
Nov. 6, 2003:
Electronic voting machines cause problems nationwide
Nov. 4, 2003:
Diebold sued over cease-and-desist tactics
Nov. 3, 2003:
New York Times briefly awakens from long nap, notes controversy, goes back to sleep
Nov. 3, 2003:
When votes don't count
by Madeline Zane, Unknown News
Oct. 24, 2003:
Diebold memos disclose
Florida 2000 e-voting fraudBackground information :
Election 2000: Our final tally
Oct. 22, 2003:
Electronic Frontier Foundation
to Diebold: Bite me
Oct. 14, 2003:
The hand that counts the ballots ...
Oct. 13, 2003:
Did Diebold patch Georgia election?Excerpt: Republican candidate Sonny Perdue managed to unseat Democratic incumbent Roy Barnes with only 51 percent of the vote. It was the first time an incumbent governor had not won his second term since Georgia law allowed back-to-back terms in 1978.
Sept. 24, 2003:
Diebold feels the heat,
sends out attack lawyers
Sept. 23, 2003
Italian Diebold memo website, BlackBoxVoting.org shut down
Company claims hyperlinks are
'illegally' linked to leaked memos
Sept. 19, 2003
Democracy's vanishing act
by Chris Floyd, The Moscow [Russia] Times
Sept. 17, 2003:
Diebold's vote-tally software -- Security review instructions# This is a page with instructions on downloading & using Diebold's GEMS program. It's the REAL Diebold program, with step by step instructions on how to hack into it and alter the vote counts. Altering the vote counts is child's play for those who have Microsoft Access, a part of Microsoft Office Suite, the most common business application software package available. =Joe F.=
Sept. 12, 2003
Diebold confirms U.S. vote vulnerabilities
Sept. 11, 2003
Strange case of an election tally that
appears to have popped up on
the Internet hours before polls closed
Sept. 3, 2003:
Bush's "solution" to vote fraud funds massive switch to insecure computerized voting systemsExcerpt: It seems fitting that a president who was brought into office because of a scandalous election would enact a law to overhaul the electoral process to make it easier for people to choose their leaders the second time around.
But that's not what the Omnibus Appropriations Bill, signed into law by President Bush in October 2002, will do. Instead, the law will force most states to switch from paper balloting to a fully computerized system -- one that is currently rife with programming flaws and is incapable of being audited -- that could call into question the legitimacy of future local and national elections and put the wrong candidates into office.
Aug. 28, 2003
President of voting machine company
says he's "committed" to Bush re-election
Aug. 26, 2003:
Voting industry insiders hold secret meeting to hire PR firm to sell electronic voting to public
Aug. 8, 2003
How George W. Bush won
the 2004 presidential election
by Sandeep S. Atwal, Infernal Press
Aug. 7, 2003
New security woes for computer-voting firm
Aug. 5, 2003
Lawsuit to block voting
machines gains momentum
Aug. 1, 2003
Experimental web program
opens voting to overseas military
July 30, 2003:
Electronic voting rife with problemsTheft of your vote is just a chip away
July 24, 2003:
Computerized voting open
to easy fraud, says study
July 24, 2003:
Original study:
Analysis of an electronic voting system| REQUIRES ADOBE ACROBAT READER |
July 8, 2003
The 'walk right in, sit right down, and compose your own tally' vote counting system
by Bev Harris, Scoop
"When I found that Diebold Election Systems had been storing 40,000 of its files on an open web site, an obscure site, never revealed to public interest groups, but generally known among election industry insiders, and available to any hacker with a laptop, I looked at the files. Having a so-called security-conscious voting machine manufacturer store sensitive files on an unprotected public web site, allowing anonymous access, was bad enough, but when I saw what was in the files my hair turned gray. Really. It did.
"The contents of these files amounted to a virtual handbook for vote-tampering: They contained diagrams of remote communications setups, passwords, encryption keys, source code, user manuals, testing protocols, and simulators, as well as files loaded with votes and voting machine software."
Jan. 31, 2003:
How Chuck Hagel stole a seat in the Senate
Nov. 12, 2002:
Three Republicans in one Texas county each win election by 18,181 vote margin
May 11, 2001:
Election 2000: Our final tallyFAQ about our tally
Latest related reports from our archives:
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Election official “must have mis-heard”
about patch installed on computer
by Kim Zetter, Wired
Dec. 20, 2004
As a statewide election recount got underway in Ohio last week, a Democratic congressman called on the FBI to impound vote-tabulating computers in at least one county and investigate suspicions of election tampering in the state.
Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan), ranking Democrat of the House Judiciary Committee, sought the investigation after an Ohio election official disclosed in an affidavit that an employee of TRIAD Governmental Systems, the company that wrote voting software used with punch-card machines in 41 of Ohio's 88 counties, dismantled Hocking County's tabulation computer days before the recount and "put a patch on it."
Conyers called the action "inappropriate and likely illegal election tampering." A spokesman for the Green Party, one of the parties requesting the recount, called it "compelling evidence" of deliberate tampering. A public hearing in Ohio on Monday will determine if there is cause for an investigation.
But Sherole Eaton, a Democrat and the deputy director of elections for Hocking County who wrote the affidavit, said her words have been blown out of proportion. She doesn't think TRIAD tampered with the votes and is a little angry that the Green Party and others have spun her words to imply that they did.
Eaton's story came to light only when members of the Green Party contacted her before the recount to discuss the procedures and asked who had access to the counting software. When Eaton mentioned TRIAD's recent visit, the Green Party took the information to Conyers and presented it at an ad hoc Judicial Committee hearing in Ohio as evidence of possible vote tampering.
Eaton said that after the Green Party started spreading the information around, she decided to write the affidavit to get her account on record so that it would not be distorted or misinterpreted.
Doug Jones, Iowa's chief examiner of voting equipment and a computer scientist at the University of Iowa who has been a leading critic of electronic voting machines, said the matter was less likely a case of election tampering than poor election procedures and oversight. But he added that even if no one tampered with votes, the fact that someone had unsupervised access to tabulating equipment before the recount was a breach of security procedures and might even violate Ohio election law.
"The tabulating room should be viewed as a secure computer systems site where nobody goes in there unsupervised, but the affidavit suggests there was no supervision in the tabulating room," Jones said. He said that suspicions of tampering are just as destructive to the integrity of an election as actual tampering and laws prohibiting unsupervised access to voting equipment should be enforced.
According to Eaton's affidavit, Michael Barbian, a technician for TRIAD, called Eaton on Dec. 10 to say he'd be coming to the office to "check out" the elections computer before the recount Dec. 14. When he arrived to examine the machine, a 14-year-old Dell PC, the computer wouldn't boot up. Barbian told Eaton the computer's internal battery was dead and that "stored information" on it was "gone."
Barbian told Eaton he "could put a patch on" the computer and "proceeded to take the computer apart and call his office to get information" to put into the computer. When the computer was fixed, Barbian asked Eaton which precinct the county planned to hand-count, then returned to the tabulating room. When he came out again, he said the computer was ready and told them to reboot it once to reset the internal clock, then leave it on so the battery could recharge.
Voting activists have seized the detail about the "patch" and the precinct as proof that Barbian rigged the machine. Under Ohio's recount law, a county must first hand-count 3 percent of ballots and then run them through a machine count. If the hand tally matches the machine tally, the county can recount the remaining ballots by machine only. But if the hand and machine counts differ, the county must hand-count all ballots.
So activists say Barbian asked about the precinct so he could set the machine to record only those ballots correctly, while tampering with votes in other precincts.
Hocking completed its recount Wednesday, and the results differed from the certified results by only three votes. President Bush and Sen. John Kerry picked up an additional vote each when pregnant chads fell out of two ballots that had previously shown no vote in the presidential race. A second extra vote went to Kerry from a previously uncounted absentee ballot. Bush won Hocking County with 6,935 votes to John Kerry's 6,173.
In the end, the county hand-counted a different precinct from the one Eaton told Barbian it would count. The county changed the precinct after members of the Green Party expressed concern that Barbian knew which precinct was planned. The results of that precinct matched the original certified results.
Brett Rapp, president of TRIAD, said Barbian visited the Hocking County elections office before the recount because the state had mandated that only the presidential race would be recounted and Barbian had to set up the computer to count and report only that race on punch cards.
"All Ohio counties had to do that," Rapp said. "Not just ... counties (using TRIAD software)."
He said that when the computer experienced "a CMOS error," indicating that the rechargeable battery on the motherboard had died, the computer had lost stored information about the hard drive's specifications, which it needed to make the computer boot up. No other data on the machine was lost.
He said Barbian took the case off the computer to identify the hard drive's make and model.
"He called our office, told us the model and we obtained the hard drive parameters by looking them up on the internet," Rapp said. "That's the information we gave him over the phone. He installed no patches on the computer system. He did not tamper with it. He simply fixed a piece of equipment that was broken." He said that Eaton must have misheard Barbian say he was going to put a patch on the machine.
Rapp said that once Barbian fixed the computer, he tested all of the precincts and showed the election officials that the computer and tabulator were counting correctly. Then election officials ran their own test to make sure the machine was counting properly.
Rapp said he believed Barbian asked about the hand-counted precinct because he was trying to make sure the election officials, who had never conducted a recount before, understood what they were doing and which precinct they were going to count.
"He was trying to help them make sure the process went smoothly," Rapp said.
Eaton and Lisa Schwartze, director of elections for Hocking County, confirmed that they ran a test to make sure the machine was counting properly. But Eaton took issue with Rapp's assertion that she misheard Barbian say he mentioned placing a patch on the computer, which, in computer terms means to install computer code on a machine.
"I wouldn't just come up with that. I don't use that term or know what it means," she said. She added that Barbian used the same word with the 70-year-old chair of Hocking County's elections board, who she said also wouldn't have come up with the term on his own.
Still, she does not believe that Barbian tampered with the machine.
"I have had, and still do have, complete trust in TRIAD," Eaton said. Eaton, who is 65 and by her own admission not computer-savvy, did not understand much of what Barbian did, and said that when he asked if he could take apart the computer, he had to ask for a screwdriver from one of the office workers. "He brought no tools with him," Eaton told Wired News, "which indicates to me that he wasn't planning on working on the machines."
She also said that Barbian's office visit wasn't out of the ordinary since TRIAD "ran" the county's primary and general elections this year.
"A lot of the (election) boards hire the company that (makes) their program to come in on election night and do all of the computer work and run the tabulators and do that type of thing," Eaton said. "We pay them for that."
Voting activists have long criticized the practice of allowing voting company employees to run tabulation equipment during elections. Iowa's Doug Jones said the practice allows for the possibility of vote tampering and should be stopped.
"If access is being permitted that even allows for manipulation, that's a serious problem," Jones said. He said he hoped that the issue in Ohio will prompt legislators and election officials to re-examine the practice and strengthen laws that would control access to voting equipment.
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