Rethuglicans still working hard to cover up evidence of their latest stolen election

GOP doesn't want Ohio's voting machines tested

Why doesn't the GOP want Ohio's voting machines tested?

by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

By a 4-3 vote, Republicans on Ohio’s State Controlling Board blocked Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s proposed $1.8 million unbid contract for voting machine testing. Brunner had already set aside the $1.8 million for the test. Her specific request to the Controlling Board was a waiver for competitive bidding. Her office had hoped to complete all testing by November 30, 2007.

A former judge, Brunner is successor to the infamous J. Kenneth Blackwell, who helped engineer the theft of Ohio's electoral votes for George W. Bush in 2004. Brunner won election as a reform candidate, vowing to guarantee the public access to the polls--- and an accurate vote count---in 2008.

In California, Democratic Secretary of State Debra Bowen recently completed an extensive testing of that state's electronic voting machines. She decertified many of them and is on course to rework how America's biggest state casts and counts its ballots.

Brunner has not been quite so aggressive. When it was recently revealed that 56 of 88 Ohio counties illegally destroyed protected materials from the 2004 election, she showed little reaction. She has also stated publicly doubts that the irregularities that defined the Ohio vote that year could have affected the outcome or that the illegal destruction of more than 2000 ballots could have been intentional.

But in attempting to carry out her promise to test Ohio's electronic voting machines, Brunner has followed through on public demands that the ability of Ohio's electronic machines to deliver a fair and reliable vote count be proven. Tests and studies conducted by the federal Government Accountability Office, Princeton University, Johns Hopkins, the Brennan Center, the Carter- Baker Election Commission, John Conyer's House Judiciary Committee and others have all shown clearly that electronic voting machines are unreliable and easily rigged.

The New York Times has now joined that consensus, calling for an outright federal ban. "Electronic voting has been an abysmal failure," the Times said. "Computer experts have done study after study showing that electronic voting machines, which are often shoddily made, can easily be hacked. With little effort, vote totals can be changed and elections stolen."

Apparently, the Ohio GOP is not anxious to have a state study add to such conclusions. At a Monday hearing, State Senator Steve Stivers (R-Columbus) attempted to table Brunner’s request before she was allowed to speak. Only the procedural intervention of Controlling Board President Joe Secrest afforded Brunner the courtesy of presenting her controversial proposal.

Brunner’s plan calls for contracts with testing companies that are preferred by the voting machine vendors like SysTest Labs and computer security experts from various universities to inspect the machines under the management of the Battelle Memorial Institute.

But Senator John Carey (R-Wellston) angrily reacted to Brunner's mention of the tests conducted in California, saying they were the work of “leftists and extremists.” Both Stivers and Carey questioned the independence and objectiveness of the academics from Cleveland State, Penn State, and the University of Pennsylvania listed in Brunner’s plan.

Cleveland State University Law Professor Candace Hoke, who witnessed the California tests of e-voting machines for hackability, told the Controlling Board that “Within ten seconds to two minutes . . . they found thirty different ways” to hack the machines.

Both Brunner and Hoke stressed the lack of security measures now used at Ohio’s polling places. The issues of so-called “sleepovers” used in some Ohio counties, like Hocking, were cited. This practice involves often untrained poll workers to take hackable voting machines home with them the weekend before an Election Day.

Brunner repeatedly emphasized the need to establish a “chain of custody” concerning both the access and memory cards used in voting machines, the latter serving as an electronic ballot box. In recent elections, memory cards have gone missing for hours on election nights in both Toledo and Dayton.

State Senator Ray Miller (D-Columbus) declared that election security is “the most important issue that’s come before the Controlling Board.” He said, “It’s way beyond the building of buildings. It goes to the core of our democracy.”

But the attack on Brunner’s testing contract was initiated by Ohio Speaker of the House Republican John Husted in the morning prior to the September 10 Controlling Board meeting. He sent a letter to Brunner demanding she remove the requested contract proposal from the Controlling Board agenda. “At the present time, too many outstanding questions remain regarding the scope of this request and the intent of the study," he wrote.

Brunner responded by saying "our testing process allows for parallel independent testing of Ohio’s voting systems by both corporate testing entities and some of the nation’s best computer security research scientists, allowing them to collaborate as needed.

“I regret I cannothttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.italic.gif
insert italic tags accede to your request to delay," she added, "as I need information to prepare for the early March 4 primary election so that Ohio’s voters can trust that we have done all possible to ensure the safety, reliability and trustworthiness of our voting systems in Ohio.”

Early voting will begin here in late January. But the GOP clearly intends to delay the testing in Ohio and conduct yet another election on eminently hackable electronic voting machines.

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Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are co-authors of HOW THE GOP STOLE AMERICA'S 2004 ELECTION & IS RIGGING 2008, which is available via www.freepress.org, where this article first appeared.

Original article posted here.

George Dubya, the GOP and Jim Crow 2004: Don't let the Niggers vote, and "win" an election

Click on pic for larger view

But there's a lot more evidence than just that graph. Click here to get a much more complete picture of the theft that was Ohio.

The tip of the iceberg . . .

Prosecutor: Elections officials in Ohio county rigged 2004 presidential recount to avoid work

(AP) Three county elections workers conspired to avoid a more thorough recount of ballots in the 2004 presidential election, a prosecutor told jurors during opening statements of their trial Thursday.

Witnesses testified that, two days before a planned recount, selected ballots were counted so the result would be determined.

"The evidence will show that this recount was rigged, maybe not for political reasons, but rigged nonetheless," Prosecutor Kevin Baxter said. "They did this so they could spend a day rather than weeks or months" on the recount, he said.

Elections have fallen under greater scrutiny since the 2000 presidential election when recounts of paper ballots in Florida dragged on for weeks and the U.S. Supreme Court became involved.

Defense attorneys said in their opening statements that the workers in Cuyahoga County didn't do anything out of the ordinary.

"They just were doing it the way they were always doing it," said defense attorney Roger Synenberg, representing Kathleen Dreamer, a ballot manager.

Charged with various counts each of election misconduct or interference are Jacqueline Maiden, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections' coordinator, who was the board's third-highest ranking employee when she was indicted last March; Rosie Grier, assistant manager of the board's ballot department; and Dreamer. The most serious charge faced by each is a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison, Baxter said.

Baxter made no claim about whether mishandling the recount could have affected the presidential election.

Ohio gave President Bush the electoral votes he needed to defeat Democratic Sen. John Kerry and hold on to the White House in 2004. Statewide, Bush won by about 118,000 votes out of 5.5 million cast. Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik sought the recount and complained about its procedure.

In Cuyahoga County, a Democratic stronghold where about 600,000 ballots were cast, the recount did not have much effect on the results. Kerry gained 17 votes and Bush lost six.

Ohio law states that during a recount each county is supposed to randomly choose 3 percent of its ballots and tally them by hand and by machine. If there are no discrepancies in those counts, the rest of the votes can be recounted by machine.

If there is a difference, the county must randomly recount 3 percent of the ballots a second time. All the county's ballots must be recounted by hand if there is a second discrepancy, but if there isn't, all the ballots can be recounted by machine.

Baxter said testimony in the case will show that instead of conducting a random count, the workers chose sample precincts for the Dec. 16, 2004, recount that did not have questionable results to ensure that no discrepancies would emerge.

"This was a very hush operation," Baxter said.

It's unlikely another recount would be ordered because of the court case, which voting rights advocates have used as an example of flaws with the state's recount laws. There were allegations in several counties of similar presorting of ballots for the recounts that state law says are to be random.

Original article posted here.