BBV files Public Records lawsuit against Palm Beach County and
Kerry Team Seeks to Join Fight to Get Ohio County to Recount
NOV 30 2004: Today's lawsuit was filed naming Teresa LaPore as defendant, citing her for failure to comply with the Black Box Voting public records request of Nov. 2, 2004.
Black Box Voting filed the lawsuit this morning in Palm Beach County, served it per Florida law on LaPore's attorney. Black Box Voting then made a surprise visit to the podium at the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections meeting held today in Orlando, where LaPore was scheduled to make a speech on records retention.
Black Box Voting has identified 13 Florida counties who have earned litigation due to failure to comply with public records requests.
more - http://www.blackboxvoting.org/#lawsuit2
Black Box Voting files Public Records lawsuit against Palm Beach County
Summary of allegations
a. The Supervisor of Elections has unreasonably delayed providing information.
b. The certification was based on inadequate and incomplete information regarding the election results.
- Some or all of the information requested on Nov. 2, 2004 by Black Box Voting is still missing from 59 of the 179 voting precincts, including portions of or all of the voting machine tapes for those 59 precincts, which are a vital part of official paper record of the election results from those precincts.
- Complete information on problems with the voting machines prior to and during the election has not been provided.
- Complete information relating to memory card failures during the election has not yet been provided.
- Only a partial list of the transmission logs from the Accu-Vote optical scan server has been provided. Despite repeated requests, the Elections office has refused to provide to the Volusia County Democratic party the official election results, now stating that those results will not be available until December 1, 2004.
- The Elections office has provided incomplete data regarding Early Voting and Absentee ballots. The Supervisor of Elections, for example, reported that the total number of absentee ballots and Early voting ballots, combined equaled 89,999 votes, yet the published figures for those totals is 84,100 votes, leaving over 5,800 votes unaccounted for.
- In addition to the pattern of delay in providing the requested information, the true election results are in doubt because of numerous violations of election law procedure and unanswered questions concerning the results.
- The polls were opened early and closed late during Early Voting.
- Many public records, including one signed results tape from a voting machine were found in the trash. Many of the requested records not furnished by the Elections office have been found in the trash. Results from the tapes found in the trash do not match the results of the copies of tapes furnished.
- An email from Mark Earley, of Diebold Elections Systems, Inc., to the Elections office was provided which asked the recipient for an explanation of why Volusia County had more memory card failures than all of their other Florida customers combined, and then asked why the 17 memory card failures which the Elections office reported on November 3, increased to 25 before November 12, 2004.
- The reported memory card failures were significant and troubling and included reporting zero votes after one week of voting, requesting permission to upload votes before the voting began, and messaging whether the card should be reformatted.
- According to a statement by the Supervisor of Elections on November 17, 2004, the GEMS computer is not networked, and is "stand alone." The furnished computer logs show evidence of at least two attempts to remotely access the GEMS central tabulator, which is claimed to be secure. A computer screen shot printout on November 17, 2004 (found in the trash) shows that the GEMS computer at that time had two networked hard drives.
Info on Theresa LePore
One indicator of the dire state of electoral affairs in Florida is the fact that Theresa LePore, the election supervisor who designed the infamous butterfly ballot, will once again be on the job. It was Ms. LePore's ballot that awarded the votes of thousands of elderly Jews in Palm Beach County to Pat Buchanan, arguably costing Al Gore the election. Given the multitude of other failures in the state's voting system, that's the good news
Voting Irregularities Overview
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_U.S._Election_controversies_and_irregularities
voteprotect.org
Memory Card Failure On Optical Scan Machines
13,000 Ballots Rushed From Voting Site, Must Be Recounted
... is forcing election officials to recount about 13,000 ... blame for the failure of the memory card
http://www.local6.com/news/3879408/detail.html
Something very strange happened in Volusia County on election night November 2000, the night that first Gore won Florida, then Bush, and then as everybody can so well remember there was a tie. ... chance of the memory card being corrupted and still ... place in many Florida counties come November 2004, should such events ... get her memory card out of election mode
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0310/S00211.htm
Poll Tapes
A "poll tape" is the phrase used to describe a printout from an optical scan voting machine made the evening of an election, after the machine has read all the ballots and crunched the numbers on its internal computer. It shows the total results of the election in that location. The printout is signed by the polling officials present in that precinct/location, and then submitted to the county elections office as the official record of how the people in that particular precinct had voted. (Usually each location has only one single optical scanner/reader, and thus produces only one poll tape.)
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1118-22.htm
History - Florida 2000
http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/vote2000/report/ch1.htm
Voting System Controls and Failures
To ensure that every eligible citizen in Florida has an opportunity to exercise his or her right to vote, the state established a system of checks and balances that extends from the governor to the local poll worker. This system of control is codified in many of the provisions of the election laws of the state of Florida and, in part, is intended to help guarantee the rights granted to voters by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 will be protected. During the November 2000 election, a wide range of errors, including the insufficient provision of adequate resources, caused a significant breakdown in the state's plan, which resulted in a variety of problems that permeated the election process in Florida.
First-Hand Accounts of Voter Disenfranchisement
http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/vote2000/report/ch2.htm
Although statistics on spoiled ballots and voter purge lists point to problems in Florida's election, perhaps the most compelling evidence of election irregularities the Commission heard was the first-hand accounts by citizens who encountered obstacles to voting. The following chapter presents individual accounts of voting system failures.
Much more interesting Government info here
I am glad Bev Harris is working to find out the what happened to our votes. Perhaps she may use some showmanship in getting the job done, but she appears to be one of the true heroes in this election investigation. Without Bev do you think there would be any investigation at all?
So thank you Bev for telling us about election fraud for many years. Unfortunately these issues were not resolved before the election, but there is still time with all our help to make sure our votes are counted . Now is not the time to blame the Democrats for failure to recognize the depth the Republicans would go to win an election. Now is the time to use this information to make sure there is a full investigation into the voter suppression and voting irregularities. NOW, not when it happens again in the next election cycle.
John Kerry and the Democratic Party have heard the call to count/recount our votes cast. It was great news today to hear that the Kerry Team Seeks to Join Fight to Get Ohio County to Recount. I have faith they will also investigate the voter suppression. I am confident that Mr. Kerry knows that he cannot run in 2008 without having done everything he could to honor the voters intention this year.
The RWCM may have a lockdown on reporting the truths about this election, but I hope that there are a few more heroes willing to risk their jobs, to do what I am sure their conscience is telling them to do. There are many questions about this election that need to be answered.
Let's make some more noise so the Media can hear us ( or not ignore us)!