Vote fraud investigators visit Volusia
November 18, 2004
Mr. Blackwell: what was going today in Volusia county (OH), when there is a FOIA document to cause you to turn over the records?
Here is the BOE results:
http://www.volusia.org/elections/110204results.htm
Registered Voters: 309,930
Absentee Votes: 43,750 (15%)
Unscanned: 19
Provisional: 621
Early Voting: 40,077 (12%)
Total Votes: 228,839 (73.8%) <- Pretty high turnout
How they voted:
Absentee: 24,780 (56.6%) Bush, 18,672 (42%) Kerry
Early Voting: 15,819 (39.4%) Bush, 24,064 (60%) Kerry
Why are there such huge discrepancies here?
Total County: 111,859 (48.8%) Bush, 115,484 (50.47%) Kerry
Precinct 215 Results:
Registered Voters: 2364
Votes Cast: 880 (37%)
Results: 520 (59.1%) Bush, 351 (39.9%) Kerry
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2704906#2712680
And then this from Bev Harris report (Blackboxvoting):
".....By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly threatening to charge us extra for the time we took looking at the real stuff they had withheld from us in our FOIA. Other lawyers appeared, phoned, people had meetings, Lana glowered at everyone, and someone shut the door in the office holding the GEMS server.
Andy then went to get the GEMS server locked down. He also got the memory cards locked down and secured, much to the dismay of Lana. They were scattered around unsecured in any way before that.
We then all agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit, discuss the hand count that Black Box Voting will require of Volusia County, and of course, it is time to talk about contesting the election in Volusia.
Bev Harris
Executive Director
Black Box Voting"
Why was the GEMS Diebold server being held hostage when all we seek to understand is what the vote was, Mr. Blackwell? Please advise: the country wants to know.
I would not be so concerned except the fate of the country is bound together, each state to the other. This is a UNION of states, Mr. Blackwell.
Sincerely,
Marsha V. Hammond, PhD
-------
Staff Report
Last update: November 17, 2004
For those who thought the 2004 election was over: Surprise.
Representatives of a Seattle-based organization investigating possible election fraud visited the Volusia County elections department Tuesday after being provided reprints of voting machine records instead of originals.
The activist group, Black Box Voting, is conducting investigations of voting records throughout the United States, said Bev Harris, its executive director. Volusia County is its first Florida stop.
"We just look at it as an audit," she said Tuesday afternoon as a British documentary crew filmed officials securing records for review today.
Harris said the group requested the receipt-like records, known as polling place tapes, late last week, but on Monday, Supervisor of Elections Deanie Lowe provided newly printed tapes. Depending on its inquiry, the group could request hand recounts in selected precincts or try to contest the election, Harris said.
County attorney Daniel Eckert said Lowe had reprinted records because she believed poll workers' signatures on originals were protected under public records law. He said the county is providing the records as requested.
-- James Miller
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Politics/Headlines/03PoliticsPOL03111704.htm
http://elemming2.blogspot.com/
Tuesday 16th November 2004 :
Mainstream media loses all credibility in attempting to cover vote fraud
9 comment(s).
The only power that the mainstream media has is that the American people trust them to tell us the truth. As more an more Americans realize that the mainstream media is spoonfed news bites that they want us to hear, their propaganda becomes less powerful.
Our democracy is based on a free press and fair vote and it is becoming obvious that in this country we have neither. As our supposed investigative reporters ignore the pile of vote irregularities favoring Bush, they are making their choice to support Facism. But the American people also have a choice to ignore them and become the media themselves which is exactly what is happening. More and more people are shutting their TV’s off and searching for real news on the internet.
As the vote fraud issues have become common knowledge, the mainstream media has taken to insulting bloggers on the internet, calling them conspiracy theorists and the like. I would like to suggest to these supposed reporters, that if they were doing their jobs in the first place, America wouldn’t be in this situation and bloggers wouldn’t have to do their jobs for them. American journalists have failed our country so many times, from lamely ignoring the lack of evidence for WMD’s before the war in Iraq, to helping prop up Bush every step of the way in his absurd agenda for our country. When it was discovered that Bush had something rectangular on his back in the debates, and was most likely wired and cheating, the media tried to pretend it didn’t happen. When that didn’t work, they explained it away as a wrinkle when everyone could see clearly that is was something more. Bush even stated on TV that he ’didn’t know what that was- uh- I mean it was a wrinkle’. Once again Bush blatantly lies to the American people and we are supposed to let it go? It is amusing that the mainstream media even expects us to trust them anymore.
I do believe in attempting to cover up this fraudulent election, American media has stooped to an all time low, but of course we all expected it. The fact is however, that we no longer need them. The people have the power to think for themselves and that is exactly what is happening. The American people see the truth, and we will rise to the occasion to save our democracy, with or without the help of the mainstream media.
’We shall know the truth and the truth will set us free’
by : Margaret Whitman
Tuesday 16th November 2004
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4384
http://www.johnkerry.com/index.html
Infortmant: Tammy Ballard
TUESDAY NOV 16 2004: Volusia County on lockdown
County election records just got put on lockdown
Dueling lawyers, election officials gnashing teeth, Votergate.tv film crew catching it all.
Here's what happened so far:
Friday Black Box Voting investigators Andy Stephenson and Kathleen Wynne popped in to ask for some records. They were rebuffed by an elections official named Denise. Bev Harris called on the cell phone from investigations in downstate Florida, and told Volusia County Elections Supervisor Deanie Lowe that Black Box Voting would be in to pick up the Nov. 2 Freedom of Information request, or would file for a hand recount. "No, Bev, please don't do that!" Lowe exclaimed. But this is the way it has to be, folks. Black Box Voting didn't back down.
Monday Bev, Andy and Kathleen came in with a film crew and asked for the FOIA request. Deanie Lowe gave it over with a smile, but Harris noticed that one item, the polling place tapes, were not copies of the real ones, but instead were new printouts, done on Nov. 15, and not signed by anyone.
Harris asked to see the real ones, and they said for "privacy" reasons they can't make copies of the signed ones. She insisted on at least viewing them (although refusing to give copies of the signatures is not legally defensible, according to Berkeley elections attorney, Lowell Finley). They said the real ones were in the County Elections warehouse. It was quittin' time and an arrangment was made to come back this morning to review them.
Lana Hires, a Volusia County employee who gained some notoriety in an election 2000 Diebold memo, where she asked for an explanation of minus 16,022 votes for Gore, so she wouldn't have to stand there "looking dumb" when the auditor came in, was particularly unhappy about seeing the Black Box Voting investigators in the office. She vigorously shook her head when Deanie Lowe suggested going to the warehouse.
Kathleen Wynne and Bev Harris showed up at the warehouse at 8:15 Tuesday morning, Nov. 16. There was Lana Hires looking especially gruff, yet surprised. She ordered them out. Well, they couldn't see why because there she was, with a couple other people, handling the original poll tapes. You know, the ones with the signatures on them. Harris and Wynne stepped out and Volusia County officials promptly shut the door.
There was a trash bag on the porch outside the door. Harris looked into it and what do you know, but there were poll tapes in there. They came out and glared at Harris and Wynne, who drove away a small bit, and then videotaped the license plates of the two vehicles marked 'City Council' member. Others came out to glare and soon all doors were slammed.
So, Harris and Wynne went and parked behind a bus to see what they would do next. They pulled out some large pylons, which blocked the door. Harris decided to go look at the garbage some more while Wynne videotaped. A man who identified himself as "Pete" came out and Harris immediately wrote a public records request for the contents of the garbage bag, which also contained ballots -- real ones, but not filled out.
A brief tug of war occurred, tearing the garbage bag open. Harris and Wynne then looked through it, as Pete looked on. He was quite friendly.
Black Box Voting collected various poll tapes and other information and asked if they could copy it, for the public records request. "You won't be going anywhere," said Pete. "The deputy is on his way."
Yes, not one but two police cars came up and then two county elections officials, and everyone stood around discussing the merits of the "black bag" public records request.
The police finally let Harris and Wynne go, about the time the Votergate.tv film crew arrived, and everyone trooped off to the elections office. There, the plot thickened.
Black Box Voting began to compare the special printouts given in the FOIA request with the signed polling tapes from election night. Lo and behold, some were missing. By this time, Black Box Voting investigator Andy Stephenson had joined the group at Volusia County. Some polling place tapes didn't match. In fact, in one location, precinct 215, an African-American precinct, the votes were off by hundreds, in favor of George W. Bush and other Republicans.
Hmm. Which was right? The polling tape Volusia gave to Black Box Voting, specially printed on Nov. 15, without signatures, or the ones with signatures, printed on Nov. 2, with up to 8 signatures per tape?
Well, then it became even more interesting. A Volusia employee boxed up some items from an office containing Lana Hires' desk, which appeared to contain -- you guessed it -- polling place tapes. The employee took them to the back of the building and disappeared.
Then, Ellen B., a voting integrity advocate from Broward County, Florida, and Susan, from Volusia, decided now would be a good time to go through the trash at the elections office. Lo and behold, they found all kinds of memos and some polling place tapes, fresh from Volusia elections office.
So, Black Box Voting compared these with the Nov. 2 signed ones and the "special' ones from Nov. 15 given, unsigned, finding several of the MISSING poll tapes. There they were: In the garbage.
So, Wynne went to the car and got the polling place tapes she had pulled from the warehouse garbage. My my my. There were not only discrepancies, but a polling place tape that was signed by six officials.
This was a bit disturbing, since the employees there had said that bag was destined for the shredder.
By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly threatening to charge Black Box Voting extra for the time spent looking at the real stuff Volusia had withheld earlier. Other lawyers appeared, phoned, people had meetings, Lana glowered at everyone, and someone shut the door in the office holding the GEMS server.
Black Box Voting investigator Andy Stephenson then went to get the Diebold "GEMS" central server locked down. He also got the memory cards locked down and secured, much to the dismay of Lana. They were scattered around unsecured in any way before that.
Everyone agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit, discuss the hand count that Black Box Voting will require of Volusia County, and of course, it is time to talk about contesting the election in Volusia.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
Mr. Blackwell: what was going today in Volusia county (OH), when there is a FOIA document to cause you to turn over the records?
Here is the BOE results:
http://www.volusia.org/elections/110204results.htm
Registered Voters: 309,930
Absentee Votes: 43,750 (15%)
Unscanned: 19
Provisional: 621
Early Voting: 40,077 (12%)
Total Votes: 228,839 (73.8%) <- Pretty high turnout
How they voted:
Absentee: 24,780 (56.6%) Bush, 18,672 (42%) Kerry
Early Voting: 15,819 (39.4%) Bush, 24,064 (60%) Kerry
Why are there such huge discrepancies here?
Total County: 111,859 (48.8%) Bush, 115,484 (50.47%) Kerry
Precinct 215 Results:
Registered Voters: 2364
Votes Cast: 880 (37%)
Results: 520 (59.1%) Bush, 351 (39.9%) Kerry
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2704906#2712680
And then this from Bev Harris report (Blackboxvoting):
".....By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly threatening to charge us extra for the time we took looking at the real stuff they had withheld from us in our FOIA. Other lawyers appeared, phoned, people had meetings, Lana glowered at everyone, and someone shut the door in the office holding the GEMS server.
Andy then went to get the GEMS server locked down. He also got the memory cards locked down and secured, much to the dismay of Lana. They were scattered around unsecured in any way before that.
We then all agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit, discuss the hand count that Black Box Voting will require of Volusia County, and of course, it is time to talk about contesting the election in Volusia.
Bev Harris
Executive Director
Black Box Voting"
Why was the GEMS Diebold server being held hostage when all we seek to understand is what the vote was, Mr. Blackwell? Please advise: the country wants to know.
I would not be so concerned except the fate of the country is bound together, each state to the other. This is a UNION of states, Mr. Blackwell.
Sincerely,
Marsha V. Hammond, PhD
-------
Staff Report
Last update: November 17, 2004
For those who thought the 2004 election was over: Surprise.
Representatives of a Seattle-based organization investigating possible election fraud visited the Volusia County elections department Tuesday after being provided reprints of voting machine records instead of originals.
The activist group, Black Box Voting, is conducting investigations of voting records throughout the United States, said Bev Harris, its executive director. Volusia County is its first Florida stop.
"We just look at it as an audit," she said Tuesday afternoon as a British documentary crew filmed officials securing records for review today.
Harris said the group requested the receipt-like records, known as polling place tapes, late last week, but on Monday, Supervisor of Elections Deanie Lowe provided newly printed tapes. Depending on its inquiry, the group could request hand recounts in selected precincts or try to contest the election, Harris said.
County attorney Daniel Eckert said Lowe had reprinted records because she believed poll workers' signatures on originals were protected under public records law. He said the county is providing the records as requested.
-- James Miller
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Politics/Headlines/03PoliticsPOL03111704.htm
http://elemming2.blogspot.com/
Tuesday 16th November 2004 :
Mainstream media loses all credibility in attempting to cover vote fraud
9 comment(s).
The only power that the mainstream media has is that the American people trust them to tell us the truth. As more an more Americans realize that the mainstream media is spoonfed news bites that they want us to hear, their propaganda becomes less powerful.
Our democracy is based on a free press and fair vote and it is becoming obvious that in this country we have neither. As our supposed investigative reporters ignore the pile of vote irregularities favoring Bush, they are making their choice to support Facism. But the American people also have a choice to ignore them and become the media themselves which is exactly what is happening. More and more people are shutting their TV’s off and searching for real news on the internet.
As the vote fraud issues have become common knowledge, the mainstream media has taken to insulting bloggers on the internet, calling them conspiracy theorists and the like. I would like to suggest to these supposed reporters, that if they were doing their jobs in the first place, America wouldn’t be in this situation and bloggers wouldn’t have to do their jobs for them. American journalists have failed our country so many times, from lamely ignoring the lack of evidence for WMD’s before the war in Iraq, to helping prop up Bush every step of the way in his absurd agenda for our country. When it was discovered that Bush had something rectangular on his back in the debates, and was most likely wired and cheating, the media tried to pretend it didn’t happen. When that didn’t work, they explained it away as a wrinkle when everyone could see clearly that is was something more. Bush even stated on TV that he ’didn’t know what that was- uh- I mean it was a wrinkle’. Once again Bush blatantly lies to the American people and we are supposed to let it go? It is amusing that the mainstream media even expects us to trust them anymore.
I do believe in attempting to cover up this fraudulent election, American media has stooped to an all time low, but of course we all expected it. The fact is however, that we no longer need them. The people have the power to think for themselves and that is exactly what is happening. The American people see the truth, and we will rise to the occasion to save our democracy, with or without the help of the mainstream media.
’We shall know the truth and the truth will set us free’
by : Margaret Whitman
Tuesday 16th November 2004
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4384
http://www.johnkerry.com/index.html
Infortmant: Tammy Ballard
TUESDAY NOV 16 2004: Volusia County on lockdown
County election records just got put on lockdown
Dueling lawyers, election officials gnashing teeth, Votergate.tv film crew catching it all.
Here's what happened so far:
Friday Black Box Voting investigators Andy Stephenson and Kathleen Wynne popped in to ask for some records. They were rebuffed by an elections official named Denise. Bev Harris called on the cell phone from investigations in downstate Florida, and told Volusia County Elections Supervisor Deanie Lowe that Black Box Voting would be in to pick up the Nov. 2 Freedom of Information request, or would file for a hand recount. "No, Bev, please don't do that!" Lowe exclaimed. But this is the way it has to be, folks. Black Box Voting didn't back down.
Monday Bev, Andy and Kathleen came in with a film crew and asked for the FOIA request. Deanie Lowe gave it over with a smile, but Harris noticed that one item, the polling place tapes, were not copies of the real ones, but instead were new printouts, done on Nov. 15, and not signed by anyone.
Harris asked to see the real ones, and they said for "privacy" reasons they can't make copies of the signed ones. She insisted on at least viewing them (although refusing to give copies of the signatures is not legally defensible, according to Berkeley elections attorney, Lowell Finley). They said the real ones were in the County Elections warehouse. It was quittin' time and an arrangment was made to come back this morning to review them.
Lana Hires, a Volusia County employee who gained some notoriety in an election 2000 Diebold memo, where she asked for an explanation of minus 16,022 votes for Gore, so she wouldn't have to stand there "looking dumb" when the auditor came in, was particularly unhappy about seeing the Black Box Voting investigators in the office. She vigorously shook her head when Deanie Lowe suggested going to the warehouse.
Kathleen Wynne and Bev Harris showed up at the warehouse at 8:15 Tuesday morning, Nov. 16. There was Lana Hires looking especially gruff, yet surprised. She ordered them out. Well, they couldn't see why because there she was, with a couple other people, handling the original poll tapes. You know, the ones with the signatures on them. Harris and Wynne stepped out and Volusia County officials promptly shut the door.
There was a trash bag on the porch outside the door. Harris looked into it and what do you know, but there were poll tapes in there. They came out and glared at Harris and Wynne, who drove away a small bit, and then videotaped the license plates of the two vehicles marked 'City Council' member. Others came out to glare and soon all doors were slammed.
So, Harris and Wynne went and parked behind a bus to see what they would do next. They pulled out some large pylons, which blocked the door. Harris decided to go look at the garbage some more while Wynne videotaped. A man who identified himself as "Pete" came out and Harris immediately wrote a public records request for the contents of the garbage bag, which also contained ballots -- real ones, but not filled out.
A brief tug of war occurred, tearing the garbage bag open. Harris and Wynne then looked through it, as Pete looked on. He was quite friendly.
Black Box Voting collected various poll tapes and other information and asked if they could copy it, for the public records request. "You won't be going anywhere," said Pete. "The deputy is on his way."
Yes, not one but two police cars came up and then two county elections officials, and everyone stood around discussing the merits of the "black bag" public records request.
The police finally let Harris and Wynne go, about the time the Votergate.tv film crew arrived, and everyone trooped off to the elections office. There, the plot thickened.
Black Box Voting began to compare the special printouts given in the FOIA request with the signed polling tapes from election night. Lo and behold, some were missing. By this time, Black Box Voting investigator Andy Stephenson had joined the group at Volusia County. Some polling place tapes didn't match. In fact, in one location, precinct 215, an African-American precinct, the votes were off by hundreds, in favor of George W. Bush and other Republicans.
Hmm. Which was right? The polling tape Volusia gave to Black Box Voting, specially printed on Nov. 15, without signatures, or the ones with signatures, printed on Nov. 2, with up to 8 signatures per tape?
Well, then it became even more interesting. A Volusia employee boxed up some items from an office containing Lana Hires' desk, which appeared to contain -- you guessed it -- polling place tapes. The employee took them to the back of the building and disappeared.
Then, Ellen B., a voting integrity advocate from Broward County, Florida, and Susan, from Volusia, decided now would be a good time to go through the trash at the elections office. Lo and behold, they found all kinds of memos and some polling place tapes, fresh from Volusia elections office.
So, Black Box Voting compared these with the Nov. 2 signed ones and the "special' ones from Nov. 15 given, unsigned, finding several of the MISSING poll tapes. There they were: In the garbage.
So, Wynne went to the car and got the polling place tapes she had pulled from the warehouse garbage. My my my. There were not only discrepancies, but a polling place tape that was signed by six officials.
This was a bit disturbing, since the employees there had said that bag was destined for the shredder.
By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly threatening to charge Black Box Voting extra for the time spent looking at the real stuff Volusia had withheld earlier. Other lawyers appeared, phoned, people had meetings, Lana glowered at everyone, and someone shut the door in the office holding the GEMS server.
Black Box Voting investigator Andy Stephenson then went to get the Diebold "GEMS" central server locked down. He also got the memory cards locked down and secured, much to the dismay of Lana. They were scattered around unsecured in any way before that.
Everyone agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit, discuss the hand count that Black Box Voting will require of Volusia County, and of course, it is time to talk about contesting the election in Volusia.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
Starmail - 18. Nov, 11:56
