[UPDATE] OHIO Recount [now with video!!!]

The other thread on this must be killer on those endagered 56K modems out there, so I thought I'd make a new thread on this.  

For those that want to check out the original thread, go here.  The are hundreds of (mostly) insightful comments, great links, explanations, etc.

Lots below the fold:

Here is the text of the Kerry letter.

December 10, 2004 Re: Presidential Recount

Dear Director and Deputy Director:

Enclosed please find a copy of a letter personally signed by John Kerry appointing me as his legal counsel with respect to the recount for President and Vice President of the United States, with full authority to act on behalf of him and John Edwards, including appointing witnesses to attend the recount. Also enclosed is a letter personally signed by John Kerry designating witnesses to attend the recount in your county.

On behalf of John Kerry and John Edwards I am making the following requests regarding the conduct of the recount:

1. The selection of precincts for the three percent hand count should be according to a scientifically valid random sampling method. I am aware that you have received a letter from Votewatch regarding this issue with an offer by that organization to provide resources to ensure that the sampling method is valid. We urge you to accept this offer of assistance or otherwise be able to demonstrate that the method employed by the Board to select the precincts for the three percent hand count is scientifically valid.

2. We request that each candidate be given the opportunity to select at least one precinct for a hand count, either as part of or in addition to the three percent hand count.

3. For those counties that use touch screen voting systems, we request that the three percent hand count include a hand count of three percent of the ballot images stored in the each of the redundant memories of the machines selected for the recount and on any paper trail for the machines.

4. We request that the Board provide the opportunity for candidates participating in the recount to have the programming and calibration of the tabulating system, scanners, and electronic voting machines verified by independent experts.

5. We request that the test used by the Board to verify the logic and accuracy of the computer tabulating program be performed for each precinct, including any separate absentee precinct. Further, the test should include testing for under and over voted ballots.

6. We request that computer printouts of the recount results include the under and over votes recorded in each precinct.

7. John Kerry and John Edwards hereby request to have their witnesses visually inspect all ballots for which your voting system has not recorded a vote for President and Vice President, i.e. the undervote and overvote ballots. If the Board does not agree to a visual inspection of these ballots, then we hereby request to visually inspect all ballots pursuant to R.C. § 3515.04 and OAG 74-103.

8. We request to inspect envelopes and related paperwork for all uncounted provisional and absentee ballots. This includes documents stating the reason or reasons that a ballot was not counted and the documentation to support the same.

9. In order to verify candidate rotation, we request to inspect the ballot page assemblies of all punch card voting devices and the ballot faces of all touch screen voting machines used at the polls or at the Board's office.

10. For those counties where the names of Nader and Camejo were visible to voters on the ballots, ballot pages or faces of voting machines, i.e. where the names were not covered over with a sticker or blacked out or the ballots were not reprinted without their names, we request to know whether any votes were cast for Nader and Camejo for President and Vice President.

11. We request that absentee ballots which were postmarked by election day, November 2, 2004, and were received by the board no later than November 12, 2004, be counted if the voter did not vote at the polls.

The above requests are in addition to any other requests that may be made by our witnesses. If you should have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Very truly yours, cc: Daniel J. Hofheimer Kerry-Edwards State Counsel, Ohio Donald J. McTigue

Things to do today:

1. Freep the yahoo article over here. AND makes sure to vote YES, there should be a recount over here.

2. Maintain cautious optimism. Yes, Ohio electors have, in a blatant disregard for the integrity of the electoral process, cast their 20 precious votes for Bush & Co. No, that does not matter. For two reasons.One, Arnbeck filed his lawsuit "hours earlier".  I think this means that there is an objection made by the deadline.  I am still looking up Ohio law on this though. Second, it doesn't matter that Ohio cast its votes.  Any action of a legislature or legislative body can be overturned, regardless of whether the body acted with the authority to do so.  If you have legitimate grounds, i.e. fraud, suppression, and it turns out that the electors are not legitimate, there are remedies available.

3. Catch the replay of the Conyers hearing at on CSPAN.  Last ditch efforts to fix machines, affidavits, and lots of other ear candy that will give you a head rush.

4. Check out images of protesters here. My favorite one:

5. Listen to the hearing in Pacifica Radio's Archives.

6. Get up to date on required reading:

Medina County Refuses To Cooperate In Recount

BOE Director Susan Strasser, BOE Chair Thomas E. Wolfe, and NE Ohio Field Representative for the Secretary of State, Madhu Singh all refused to allow further inspection of the ballots from Medina City that I requested to view in more detail. They stated that our purpose was to decide how the computer would count the vote, and not to determine the intent of the voter.

Bob Fritakis: Startling new revelations highlight rare Congressional hearings on Ohio vote (pronin2 diary on it here)

In one exit poll affidavit, Jonathan David Simon, an expert witness, notes that at 12:53 a.m. the exit polls altered the projected winner – even though the same number of votes had been cast. "Although each update reports the same number of respondents (872), the reported results differ significantly, with the latter (12:53 a.m.) exit poll results apparently having been brought into congruence with the tabulated vote results." In other words, the exit polls were made to conform to a political decision to declare Bush the victor.

Another exit poll affidavit, filed by Ron Paul Baiman, an economist and statistician at the University of Illinois and University of Chicago, said the swing in national exit poll results, recorded at 12:33 a.m., when Kerry was winning with 50.8 percent of the vote, to Bush winning with 51.2 percent, was, "in lay terms, impossible."

"This is more than a 100 percent swing in the other direction of the exit poll margin, he said. "There is less than a one in 25,000,000 (1/25,507,308) chance of this occurring."

Another affidavit by Richard Hayes Phillips, a geomorphology Ph.D. from University of Oregon with a special expertise in spotting anomalous data, found dramatic examples of erroneous voting patterns – with votes taken away from Kerry - that can only be explained by computer manipulation.

Brad Blog Exlusive:Clint Curtis 'Stunning' the Committee with 'Jaw Dropping' Testimony

Then, he asked curtis something like whether voting machines could be hacked. He said yes. Arnebeck asked him on what he based that opinion. He said because I wrote a program that could do it. Arnebeck asked when that happened. Curtis said feeney had asked him to design such a program at yang enterprises. Jaws dropped. Tubbs jones and waters looked shocked. Tubbs jones, waters and nadler asked questions. Waters asked him to repeat who asked him to do it. Congressman feeney, he said. Nadler asked him some questions, as did tubbs jones and a state senator. Curtis was asked what he would conclude if there was such a substantial deviation btwn exit polls and actual results. He said he would conclude the election had been hacked. Gasps. Could have heard a pin drop.

WIRED News picks up Curtis story and gives a shout out to DailyKOS (comlete with a link)!

Many questions have been raised about Curtis, the 46-year-old programmer, who said he doesn't know if anyone ever placed the prototype code on voting machines. But this hasn't stopped frustrated voters and bloggers from seizing his story. Daily Kos mentioned the allegations, and Brad Friedman of The Brad Blog has written extensively about them.

Cobb tells of RECOUNT fraud

Cobb cited one case detailed by an --as yet anonymous-- informant, that a Triad GSI employee had told staff at the Columbus County Board of Elections office to inconspicuously note a prepared recount result, then report this data irrespective of the actual recount. The Triad GSI representative had also tampered with Triad voting equipment in the offices. "This is going on, all over the state," Cobb told the hearing.

And, from the mouth of Bonifaz:

The nation is at a crossroads," Bonifaz told the forum.

"We can stand by while our democracy erodes around us, or we can stand up and fight," he said.

"For the dignity of our nation; and for the dignity of ourselves; and for the memory of those who struggled before us, we must choose to fight."

Eloquent words. This story is developing very quickly, so keep an eye out for links and post them here so we can keep up to date!

Update [2004-12-13 19:23:53 by georgia10]:Apparently, some diligent members of DU have uploaded video of today's hearing. Should be Curtis' testimony. Huge thanks to ohio_liberal and the rest of the DUers for getting this out there!

Ohio Hearing