Congratulations! By not rolling your eyes and ignoring this diary, you've decided to not "Fuck Ohio!" Glad you're still in the fight...
Below the fold is an update of news on the recount, alleged fraud, Triad machine fixin', dueling letters, etc.
Picture of the day:
Those blue counties are counties that used Triad machines. Just to put the scope of this into perspective.
Update below the fold...
- Blackwell responded to Conyers with a big "Screw You, You're Only a Congressman". Conyers bit back with a "Stop being an asshole and an obstructionist, pony up the answers". Read that letter here. Diaries on the letters can be found here and here.
- Rep. Conyers has asked the FBI to investigate the vote-rigging accusation. His letter to the FBI is here. Sixmoreweeks has a comprehensive document diary here. The letter is damn good. And it names names.
I have learned that Sherole Eaton, a Deputy Director of Board of Elections in Hocking County, Ohio, has first hand knowledge of inappropriate and likely illegal election tampering in the Ohio presidential election in violation of federal and state law.
I have information that similar actions of this nature may be occurring in other counties in Ohio. I am therefore asking that you immediately investigate this alleged misconduct and that, among other things, you consider the immediate impoundment of election machinery to prevent any further tampering.
On December 13, my staff met with Ms. Eaton who explained to them that last Friday, December 10, Michael Barbian, Jr., a representative of Triad GSI unilaterally sought and obtained access to the voting machinery and records in Hocking County, Ohio, modified the computer tabulator, learned which precinct was planned to be the subject of the initial test recount and made further alterations based on that information, and advised the election officials how to manipulate the machinery so that the preliminary hand recount matched the machine count.
The NY Times article on it is here. Looks like the SCLM could not ignore this story; a Congressman filing a letter of inquiry with the FBI can't be ignored, apparently. Make sure to stop by understandinglife's diary on it here.
3. Speaking of the SCLM, check out the Washington Post story (front paged on MSNBC) here, detailing Ohio's "lost" voters:
Electoral problems prevented many thousands of Ohioans from voting on Nov. 2. In Columbus, bipartisan estimates say that 5,000 to 15,000 frustrated voters turned away without casting ballots. It is unlikely that such "lost" voters would have changed the election result -- Ohio tipped to President Bush by a 118,000-vote margin and cemented his electoral college majority.
But similar problems occurred across the state and fueled protest marches and demands for a recount. The foul-ups appeared particularly acute in Democratic-leaning districts, according to interviews with voters, poll workers, election observers and election board and party officials, as well as an examination of precinct voting patterns in several cities.
4. Arnebeck appeared on FOX's Hannity & Colmes last night, discussing his lawsuit (diary with links to it is here. He did a stand up job, considering he was being interviewed by The Biggest Asshole On Earth. Hannity, in typical Rethug fashion, would barely let Arnebeck speak. He was extremely rude, completely unprofessional, and the more I watched, the more I thought: "Hahaha, the little jerk is scared!". Why else was he too afraid of Arnebeck opening his mouth? One of my favorite parts:
HANNITY: It's all part of your agenda...you want to disgrace the President...blah...blah...and WHY are you NOT in Wisconsin???
ARNEBECK: Um...because I'm an OHIO lawyer....
Classic.
5. Bev Harris got a tongue lashing on the Randi Rhodes show yesterday. Randi took her to town about "Why haven't you returned my calls?" "What are you doing with all the money we donated?" "Why the hell weren't you at hearings?" the higher critic diaried on it here.
Interesting piece of info though. Bev says that after some investigation, she discovered that some machines "called out" and she's trying to track the IP addresses. DU discussion on that here.
6. Ohio Diary round-up:
Why Ohio Matters, by ToqueDeville
Conyers wants 1 Million Emails, by Candice. <----- Have you sent your email to Conyers yet?
Fraud Finally Hits the Fan, by luaptifer
NCAAP letter about Ohio by understandinglife
Election Fraud: A Resource, an excellent summary diary by wont get fooled again.
Triad President Speaks, duke1983's exclusive conversation with the President behind the company involved in the alleged vote-rigging of the recount. My favorite part of it: "I can't believe he called me back!" :)
The Case Against "Fucking Ohio", a great rebuttal by quake of some "Fuck Ohio" comments.
7. TRIAD left unofficial vote totals on PUBLIC SERVERS. Read about their stupidity here.
Triad Governmental Systems, the firm accused by a county employee of tampering with tabulating machines and attempting to plant false information into the Ohio recount, left some unofficial results publicly available on their website, RAW STORY has learned.
The firm left the unofficial results of at least two counties – Lorain and Madison – available as text files on their corporate website. Both counties show “unofficial cumulative results” from the eleven p.m. to one a.m. hour on Election Day and Nov. 3.
The votes at those times closely correlate with the final reported results.
When told of the results, a Triad spokesman paused for several seconds before responding. The spokesman declined to give his name.
“Generally the only purpose of that on election night is that counties used to get inundated with calls,” he said. If someone calls, he said, “they say just look at the website and you’ll see what the unofficial count is.”
But the spokesman declined to answer why the unofficial results was posted on the firm’s website. When pressed, he hung up, saying, “have a nice day.”
And a great fucking day to you too, Mr. Spokesperson!
Things to Do:
- Sign the petition asking Senator Boxer to be the Senator that signs onto the House objection to the election.
- Did you email Conyers? Have I mentioned it before? ;)
- Show Arnebeck some love for putting up with Hannity's shit yesterday. Tell him we're behind him...and we're not even wearing tin hats! His email is arnebeck@aol.com
- Read this editorial. Apparently, we're went from "dissidents" to "zealots" who don't have a "grasp of reality" and who are "undermining the integrity of the vote system":
Unfortunately, there is a small, but very vocal, group of Americans who refuse to accept this reality. They argue that what appear to be routine technical glitches and human errors were in fact an elaborate conspiracy to skew the election results. They claim that long lines at a few polling places, the rather unsurprising result of high voter interest, were evidence of a systematic campaign to discourage participation. In short, having failed to get the outcome they wanted at the polls, they have decided to mount an irresponsible campaign aimed at undermining public confidence in the electoral system itself.
[snip]
Obviously, there were problems on Election Day. There always are. Elections are run by imperfect humans. Many individual polling places are in the hands of civic-minded neighbors with a few hours of training. Machines malfunction. Voters mess up ballots.
[snip]
Ohio's bipartisan elections system makes the kind of GOP conspiracy that some allege all but impossible to execute. Every county board of elections consists of two Democrats and two Republicans. So when Jackson and other national Democrats question Ohio's outcome, they demean their own allies. William Anthony Jr., the African-American who chairs both the Franklin County Democratic Party and its elections board, has been personally stung by Jackson's slander: "Why would I sit there and disenfranchise my own community?" he asks.
[snip]
Common-sense solutions can make a difference. Endless sour grapes will not.
You know what I thought when I read that: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." We're past the ignoring stage, and at the laughing stage. I can't wait for what's next :)
Gotta admit, it's fun reading! I like how he says elections are run by "imperfect humans" but refuses to recognize the propensity to cheat as part of that imperfection. Apparently, "imperfect" refers to poll workers being too stupid to run the voting correctly, but not to the head honchos being too smart and covering their own asses.
Speaking of asses, I wonder how much more ass this reporter has to kiss before Blackwell promotes him to a cushiony government job, like Director of Forest Preserves or something....
But we should read this editorial, because it exhibits what we know all along: people think we're arguing a "conspiray" between Dems and GOPers, so it's easy to cast our concerns aside. But the reality of computer fraud is that all it takes is one person, the man behind the curtain, if you will, to sneak something in and then everyone who thinks they are acting in accordance with the law are actually obliviously carrying out the fraud.
- Catch up on corroboration of the Curtis affidavit at Brad Blog. Yes, that Chinese man WAS shipping out electronic components to China. Whodda thunk THAT part of Curtis' allegation would be true?
- Pray that people keep cool about this. Ohio recount leader Katherina Summers (the one who exposed Blackwell for the lockdown) was run off the road by two dark blue SUVs with tinted windows. The closer we get to the truth about Nov. 2, the more desparate it seems they become.
Until the next update...
[Update]: This diary has been read by so many...and NO ONE calls me out on having the wrote date in the title? It's fixed now. :D
Beyond the typos, a real update. An Ohio judge
ruled that punch-card ballots did not deny voting rights to those that used them, including African -Americans:
The American Civil Liberties Union argued that the punch-card system is error-prone and ballots are more likely to go uncounted than votes cast in other ways. The group claimed Ohio violated the voting rights of blacks, who predominantly live in punch-card counties.
U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. disagreed.
"All voters in a county, regardless of race, use the same voting system to cast a ballot, and no one is denied the opportunity to cast a valid vote because of their race," Dowd said in his ruling Tuesday.
The ACLU's
background on the case says it was filed in 2002, and had a messy back and forth for a couple years. This could be a major blow to future litigation involving voter disenfranchisement by calculated dispersment of punch-card ballot machines to minority or poorer precincts.