It appears that Florida could still be a problem when it comes to the 2008 Presidential election. If it is as close as it was in 2000, there won’t be a hand recount of ballots because it is outlawed.

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Lou Dobbs reports one of the country’s largest voting machine companies, Premier Election Solutions, formerly Diebold, has admitted electronic voting machines make large errors.

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Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane
Raw Story
Sunday, July 20, 2008

A leading cyber-security expert and former adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) says he has fresh evidence regarding election fraud on Diebold electronic voting machines during the 2002 Georgia gubernatorial and senatorial elections.

Stephen Spoonamore is the founder and until recently the CEO of Cybrinth LLC, an information technology policy and security firm that serves Fortune 100 companies. At a little noticed press conference in Columbus, Ohio Thursday, he discussed his investigation of a computer patch that was applied to Diebold Election Systems voting machines in Georgia right before that state’s November 2002 election.

Spoonamore is one of the most prominent cyber-security experts in the country. He has appeared on CNN’s Lou Dobbs and ABC’s World News Tonight, and has security clearances from his work with the intelligence community and other government agencies, as well as the Department of Defense, and is one of the world’s leading authorities on hacking and cyber-espionage.

In 1995, Spoonamore received a civilian citation for his work with the Department of Defense. He was again recognized for his contributions in 2004 by the Department of Homeland Security. Spoonamore is also a registered Republican and until recently was advising the McCain campaign.

Spoonamore received the Diebold patch from a whistleblower close to the office of Cathy Cox, Georgia’s then-Secretary of State. In discussions with RAW STORY, the whistleblower — who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation — said that he became suspicious of Diebold’s actions in Georgia for two reasons. The first red flag went up when the computer patch was installed in person by Diebold CEO Bob Urosevich, who flew in from Texas and applied it in just two counties, DeKalb and Fulton, both Democratic strongholds. The source states that Cox was not privy to these changes until after the election and that she became particularly concerned over the patch being installed in just those two counties.

The whistleblower said another flag went up when it became apparent that the patch installed by Urosevich had failed to fix a problem with the computer clock, which employees from Diebold and the Georgia Secretary of State’s office had been told the patch was designed specifically to address.

Some critics of electronic voting raised questions about the 2002 Georgia race even at the time. Incumbent Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who was five percentage points ahead of Republican challenger Saxby Chambliss in polls taken a week before the vote, lost 53% to 46%. Incumbent Democratic Governor Roy Barnes, who led challenger Sonny Perdue in the polls by eleven points, lost 51% to 46%. However, because the Diebold machines used throughout the state provided no paper trail, it was impossible to ask for a recount in either case.

Concerned by the electoral outcome, the whistleblower approached Spoonamore because of his qualifications and asked him to examine the Diebold patch.

McCain adviser reported patch to Justice Department
The Ohio press conference was organized by Cliff Arnebeck and three other attorneys, who had filed a challenge to the results of that the 2004 presidential election in Ohio in December, 2004. That challenge was withdrawn, but in August 2006 Arnebeck filed a new case, King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell, alleging civil rights violations in the 2004 voting. The case was stayed in 2007. On Thursday, Arnebeck filed a motion to remove the stay and allow fresh investigation.

Individuals close to Arnebeck’s office said Spoonamore confirmed that the patch included nothing to repair a clock problem. Instead, he identified two parallel programs, both having the full software code and even the same audio instructions for the deaf. Spoonamore said he could not understand the need for a second copy of the exact same program — and without access to the machine for which the patch was designed, he could not learn more. Instead, he said he took the evidence to the Cyber-Security Division of the Department of Justice and reported the series of events to authorities. The Justice Department has not yet acted on his report.

Allegations surrounding Ohio in 2004
At the Ohio press conference yesterday, the former McCain adviser said Michael Connell, of the Republican Internet development firm New Media Communications, had designed a system that made possible the real-time “tuning” of election tabulators once Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell had outsourced the hosting of vote counting on the same server which hosted GOP campaign IT systems. He said he didn’t believe Connell was behind the alleged fraud, but that he should be considered a key witness.

Spoonamore also confirmed he’s working with Connell on overseas election issues and that Connell is now working as John McCain’s IT developer.

Connell has a long history with the Republican Party’s IT infrastructure. In 2001, for example, he set up MajorityWhip.gov for then House Majority Whip Tom DeLay. He also helped built georgewbush.com, as well as the Ohio GOP site Spoonamore referenced.

Sources close to Spoonamore said he was very concerned that he would lose his contracts as a result of coming forward and would take a “large financial hit.” These sources added that, despite his concerns, Spoonamore felt obligated to reveal what he knows to the public. “He felt he had no choice as an American citizen but to come forward, and he also knows the likely consequences of him doing so,” one source said.

An audio file of the press conference is available here.

Problems already reported with electronic machines as voting commences in 21 states

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, Feb 5, 2008

Problems have already been reported this morning with electronic voting machines in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Reports state that the two Sequoia AVC Advantage touch-screen voting machines at the Hoboken Fire Department Engine Company No. 2 on Washington Street would not work for about 45 minutes as the polls opened this morning.

The polling station happens to be the location where New Jersey Governor John Corzine was scheduled to vote. He was unable to cast his vote until 7:00am according to the reports, 45 minutes late.

The AP reported that voters were turned away until officials could get one of the machines working.

As the New York Times reported, there were no provisional ballots at the poll site, so voters had no choice but to wait for the machines to be fixed or to choose not to vote at all.

Similar problems with the machines were reported in Florida last week.

The New York Times reports today that New Jersey, along with Delaware and Georgia, are using only the paperless machines, which make “meaningful recounts … impossible.” The majority of polling stations in Tennessee and some in Arkansas are also using the unauditable machines.

California has decertified the machines in response to concerns and switched back to using paper ballots. Florida is following suit, with last week’s primary being the last time for at least four years that the machines will be used.

Vote fraud expert convinced chain of custody is corrupt, says “criminal enterprise” is at work

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Updated Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Fresh from her confrontations in New Hampshire during which public officials were grilled about slapdash chain of custody and ballot box tampering issues, Bev Harris told the Alex Jones Show that a “criminal enterprise” is running the primary recount and has called for Secretary of State William Gardner to resign and his assistant to be fired.

Harris was fundamental in the vetting and production of the HBO special Hacking Democracy, and has contributed towards bringing charges against vote fraudsters who cheated in Ohio in 2004.

Harris traveled to New Hampshire personally to discover for herself the disgraceful lapses in chain of custody for the memory cards and ballot boxes used in the recent primary.

Harris is featured in the video below asking public officials about slits in ballot boxes as they bizarrely deny that the slits are big enough to allow tampering, amongst a myriad of other disturbing questions about chain of custody. Follow-up questions are frowned upon and one official calls security to have Harris removed.

Following Republican candidate Albert Howard’s attempts to oversee the recount, Harris said “I knew that somebody needed to get to New Hampshire and protect or find out what they’re doing with chain of custody of the ballots….New Hampshire has the memory cards for 81 per cent of its votes counted by this one company – we found there was a convicted felon involved in that….that’s why I wanted to see what the chain of custody was”.

After hooking up with other vote fraud experts, Harris confronted public officials and asked pointed questions about chain of custody.

“The problem was we were either not getting answers or we were getting bizarre answers,” said Harris.

New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner was questioned on the whereabouts of the memory cards that hold electronic records of the votes.

“She kept asking him and ultimately he had to admit he didn’t know where they were, and this is days after the election,” said Harris.

One of the observers followed the ballots back to the vault where they were being stored overnight and noticed slits in the ballot boxes that had not been counted, a complete violation of federal election laws.

“I then came in the next day and asked the assistant Secretary of State David Scanlan – what about that slit in the end of the box?” said Harris, after which Scanlan attempted to dismiss the concern by claiming the slits weren’t big enough to allow tampering (an OJ tries on the glove moment, according to Harris).

One of the observers then proceeded to shame Scanlan by easily sticking her whole hand into the ballot box.

Officials then claimed that a special tape was in place to seal the box, bt as Harris proves in the video, the tape can easily be peeled off and re-applied.

“It’s a post-it note,” said Harris, “You can rip it on and off, on and off.”

Harris then discovered that the ballot boxes were not being transfered from state to state by police as should be the case, but by “Butch and Hoppy,” two truck drivers who raced around the state at high speed endangering people and and employing evasive manoevers to escape from observers who were following them.

“We caught them meeting up with a green jeep in the middle of nowhere half way through their route and we walk up to them and they drive off in a different direction,” said Harris.

“I wanted to see what the ballots looked like when Butch and Hoppy take them off the truck, well sure enough they didn’t have seals on them and some of them weren’t even closed – they had the box top open with big gashes and tears in them,” said Harris, who also revealed how officials left ballots in their offices and did not store them in secure vaults.

“Every way that it could break down it seemed to have broken down,” said Harris, “Even to the extent of just not following procedures”.

“How can you say that you can open someone’s ballot box without them present?” asked Harris.

Based on her experiences with the sham nature of the process, Harris called for the resignation of the Secretary of State Gardener and his assistant David Scanlan.

“I think assistant Secretary of State David Scanlan, who is actually their operations guy, should be dismissed from his position and the Secretary of State should resign, and they need to refund the money for both candidates and recount all those ballots in public,” said Harris.

“What they’re doing here is a criminal enterprise,” she added, “It has all the earmarks of it.”

Click here to listen to the MP3 interview.