IRAQ 2005 ELECTION SPECIAL: Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News 10/18/0

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REPUBLICAN ELECTION SPECIAL

Election 2005


Election 2004

Never forget the pursuit of Truth.

Only the deluded & complicit accept election results on blind faith.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News TUESDAY 10/18/05

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1. Iraq 2005: High Iraq vote totals in some areas suggest possible fraud

How surprising! There may have been election fraud in Iraq. Could it be the Republicans are still as lousy at covering this up as they have been in the United States.

High Iraq vote totals in some areas suggest possible fraud

http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5674759.html

Dexter Filkins and Robert Worth, New York Times

Last update: October 17, 2005 at 9:16 PM

BAGHDAD - Iraqi election officials said on Monday that they were investigating "unusually high" vote totals in 12 Shiite and Kurdish provinces, where as many 99 percent of the voters were reported to have cast ballots in favor of Iraq's new constitution.

In a statement released Monday evening, the Independent Election Commission said that the results of the Oct. 15 referendum would be delayed "a few days."

The statement said that results were being re-examined to comply with internationally accepted standards. Election officials say that under those standards voting procedures should be re-examined any time a candidate or a ballot question receives more than 90 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, the American military said in a statement Monday that a series of U.S. air and ground strikes Sunday near Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, killed 70 suspected insurgents.

Yet Ramadi health workers and residents, including several purported eyewitnesses, said that 39 civilians were among the dead, including 18 children allegedly killed when an aerial bombardment targeted a U.S. Humvee that had been disabled by a deadly roadside bomb on Saturday.

Ahmed Fouad, a Ramadi resident, said children and others had gathered near the Humvee that had been struck by a roadside bomb. It is not uncommon for residents to gather to photograph such scenes. Insurgents also often videotape the results of attacks for propaganda purposes.

Just after 7 p.m. Sunday, warplanes bombed the area, killing 18 children, including Fouad's son and 8-year-old daughter, he said.

<snip>
It's difficult to imagine why any Shiite or Kurdish political leaders would feel that they needed to resort to fraud. Together, the two groups largely support the constitution and make up about 80 percent of Iraq's population.

None of the provinces cited for a closer look had Sunni majorities, the official said, although there were reports of similarly lopsided vote totals against the constitution in some Sunni areas.

"When you find consistently very, very high numbers, then that is cause for further checking," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the information. "Anything over 90 percent either way usually leads to further investigation."

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2. Ohio 2004: Possible evidence of voter fraud in Ohio

John Aravosis (AmericaBlog) was there at the beginning. Ballots from a Kerry friendly precinct are placed in the back of a truck (with a Bush – Cheney sticker). The driver stops at a school where something is done with them then proceeds to the Board of Elections. Hmmm, sounds like Iraq…but this isn’t Memento or is it?

Possible evidence of voter fraud in Ohio

http://americablog.blogspot.com/archives/2004_11_01_americablog_archive.html

AmericaBlog

by John in DC - 11/03/2004 02:56:47 AM



I just received a photo a Cincinnati poll manager took this evening, and it seems to be proof of some fishy actions with ballots in Ohio. Bottom line: Note the already-voted-with ballots in the back of the truck with the Bush-Cheney sticker in the back window. Does this prove fraud? Well, it certainly doesn't look good in a state that's already had lots of problems this election.


In a nutshell, Stefan Skirtz is a poll manager for the Kerry campaign in Cincinnati. His precinct is heavily made up of minorities and students (i.e., leans Kerry). One of the duties of the poll managers, Stefan told me in a phone call minutes ago, is to follow the poll workers to election headquarters as they drop off the ballots and ballot boxes. Stefan followed the poll workers who didn't go directly to the election headquarters. Instead, they went to a local public school where workers put the ballot machines into a semi trailer, and then the poll workers handed off the sealed bags containing the ballots to someone Stefan assumed was with the county board of elections.

The first problem he noticed was that there was no sign off of the transfer of the ballots. Nothing was written down and given to the poll worker as proof that the ballots were passed off to the county employee.

What's worse, Stefan noticed the pick-up truck of the supposed county board of election - the truck the ballots for 40 precincts were loaded into - had a big Bush-Cheney 2004 sticker in the back window. Stefan did say that he followed the truck to the election headquarters, though he didn't see what transpired after the truck pulled into the election hq parking lot.

As Stefan explains it, the poll managers had such an extensive list of voters rights and regulations that they had to follow, including it being illegal to have any partisan buttons etc. in the polling place, yet the ballots for voters in over 40 precincts were put in the hands of Bush-Cheney partisans.

I don't know whether the Bush partisans did or didn't play any games with the ballots they received, but it sure doesn't look good, and I wonder whether it's even legal. And let's not forget, this is a state that was already well on its way to becoming the new Florida of GOP election fraud.

Stefan says he has 6 or 7 witnesses who also saw the sticker on the truck. I have Stefan's contact info for members of the media.

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3. Iraq 2005: Possible fraud in Iraqi referendum

Wow, some Iraqi precincts are turning in 97-98% Yes votes on the new constitution; and it’s not just confined to one part of the country. 98% Yes, must have been at least 99% turnout since maybe 1% voted No. Those Iraqis can’t get enough of voting. The Neocons have inspired an entire nation to vote, not our nation but at least “a” nation.

Possible fraud in Iraqi referendum
Fox News and Associated Press

http://khon.com/khon/display.cfm?storyID=8135§ionID=1161

Posted: October 17, 2005 04:34 PM

Possible fraud in Iraqi referendum
Fox News and Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's election commission announced Monday that officials were investigating "unusually high" numbers of "yes" votes in about a dozen provinces during Iraq's landmark referendum on a new constitution, raising questions about irregularities in the balloting.

Word of the review came as Sunni Arab leaders repeated accusations of fraud after initial reports from the provinces suggested the constitution had passed. Among the Sunni allegations are that police took ballot boxes from heavily "no" districts, and that some "yes" areas had more votes than registered voters.

The Electoral Commission made no mention of fraud, and an official with knowledge of the election process cautioned that it was too early to say whether the unusual numbers were incorrect or if they would have an effect on the outcome.

But questions about the numbers raised tensions over Saturday's referendum, which has already sharply divided Iraqis. Most of the Shiite majority and the Kurds — the coalition which controls the government — support the charter, while most Sunni Arabs sharply opposed a document they fear will tear Iraq to pieces and leave them weak and out of power.

Irregularities in Shiite and Kurdish areas, expected to vote strongly "yes," may not affect the final outcome. The main electoral battlegrounds were provinces with mixed populations, two of which went strongly "yes." There were conflicting reports whether those two provinces were among those with questionable figures.

In new violence, the U.S. military said that its warplanes and helicopters bombed two western villages Sunday, killing an estimated 70 militants near a site where five American soldiers died in a roadside blast. Residents said at least 39 of the dead were civilians, including children.

A sandstorm also became a factor in the vote count, preventing many tallies from being flown from the provinces to Baghdad, where they are to be compiled and checked. The Electoral Commission said it needed "a few more days" to produce final results, citing the need for the audit.

At Baghdad's counting center, election workers cut open plastic bags of tally sheets sent from stations in the capital and its surroundings — the only ones to have arrived so far. Nearby, more workers, dressed in white T-shirts and caps bearing the election commission's slogan, sat behind computer screens punching in the numbers.

Election officials in many provinces have released their initial counts, indicating that Sunni attempts to defeat the charter failed.

But the commission found that the number of "yes" votes in most provinces appeared "unusually high" and would be audited, with random samples taken from ballot boxes to test them, said the commission's head, Adil al-Lami.

The high numbers were seen among the nine Shiite provinces of the south and the three Kurdish ones in the north, al-Lami told The Associated Press.

Those provinces reported to AP "yes" votes above 90 percent, with some as high as 97 and 98 percent.

But the official with knowledge of the counting process said the unexpected results were not isolated to the Shiite and Kurdish provinces and were "all around the country." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the count.

<snip>

"Bottom line, we can say that the whole operation witnessed interference from government forces," he said.

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4. Ohio 2004: Ohio election fraud uproar blasting to new level

Rationing voting machines in Democratic precincts, discarding vote record tapes, problems with tabulation…all over the state. The people of Ohio took to the streets and protested. Nobody much noticed outside of Ohio because IT WASN’T COVERED, thank you very much CM (corporate media). But we’re sure seeing CM cover Iraq election fraud.. I’m tired of these surrogate stories. How about out stories on CM for our own country.

Ohio election fraud uproar blasting to new level

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/975

by Steve Rosenfeld, Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
December 7, 2004

COLUMBUS -- The bitter battle over the stolen November 2 election in Ohio has turned into a rapidly escalating all-out multi-front war with the outcome of the real presidential vote count increasingly in doubt.

In Columbus, major demonstrations on Saturday, December 4, have been followed by an angry confrontation between demonstrators and state police at the office of Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, the Bush-Cheney state chairman who is also officially in charge of certifying the election, at least for now. Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson has called on Blackwell to recuse himself from dealings with the election, saying his role as Bush-Cheney chairman has compromised his objectivity in delivering fair election results.

New revelations about voting machine allocations in Franklin County emerged on Tuesday, December 7. William Anthony, Chair of the Franklin County Board of Elections, told WVKO radio listeners that the Board begins “stationing voting machines four weeks out” before Election Day. Security questions were raised after a machine in Gahanna Ward 1B at the New Life Church recorded 4258 votes for Bush where only 638 voters cast ballots.

Cornell McCleary, former minority director of the Republican Party of Ohio, argues that it would easy for computer hackers to hack directly into the machines: “The two points of vulnerability are setting up a computer and hacking directly into the machine, or the line that goes directly down to the Board of Elections.” He dismissed the Gahanna incident as a “prank.” Prank or not, Kerry’s decision to concede early on November 3 was based in part on these imaginary votes that were either a prank, a computer glitch, or a deliberate effort to boost Bush’s total in Ohio.

Anthony also conceded that some voters in Franklin County waited up to “five or six hours’ in order to vote. He admitted that the Board of Elections usually holds back “a truckload of voting machines"--- 75---in case there’s a truck accident." He blamed this on the lack of machines and the fact that 77 voting machines malfunctioned on Election Day. Two affidavits from voters obtained by the Free Press report that voting machine maintenance people came out to fix machines and their technique seemed to be to continually plug and unplug, or reboot, the electronic machines until the machines functioned again.

Anthony also confirmed that the Board only delivered 2741 of its 2866 machines at the opening of polls on Election Day. He said Board of Elections workers later placed an additional 44. This would put the total number in use at the “close of polls” at 2785, leaving 81 machines sitting unused. Anthony further said Election Day problems were the result of utilizing essentially 4800 volunteers with minimal training, paid a small stipend. Some poll workers have testified they repeatedly called the Board of Elections for additional machines as lines stacked up at their inner city precincts but got no response.

In addition, new evidence has continued to surface of widespread voter fraud throughout the state. Among other things, a letter from Shelby County election officials dated December 2 confirmed that the county discarded "tabulator test deck reports" from the November 2 vote count "to reduce paperwork and confusion with official results." As this county's response is the first of 88 to come from Freedom of Information Act filings, it seems likely other controversial practices could surface.

Moreover, new computer tabulation errors – first reported locally after Election Day – have resurfaced, and are of a magnitude suggesting Bush’s margin over Kerry---now 118,775 votes or 2 percent of the total votes cast in the state, according to Blackwell---could easily have been manipulated.

One precinct in Youngstown, Ohio, recorded a negative 25 million votes (that's not a typo) on an ES&S Votronic voting machine, which was discarded from official results, according to a Nov. 3 report in Youngstown’s Vindicator newspaper http://www.vindy.com/basic/news/281829446390855.php. Machine malfunctions combined with human error to create the massive negative vote count. “That led to some races showing votes of negative 25 million, Munroe said,” quoting Mark Monroe, the Mahoning County election chief. "The numbers were nonsensical so we knew there were problems." The website www.VotersUnite.org lists dozens of voting machine errors, voter intimidation reports and other problems – from the very large to very small – that were reported in the Ohio press. At the very least these errors, many of which are detailed below, add up to a scathing indictment of a statewide election. On December 6 White House Spokesman Scott McClellan called the election “free and fair.”

But even the www.VotersUnite.org list does not contain some of the biggest errors that will be cited in an election challenge filed Tuesday, December 7 by the Ohio Honest Elections Campaign in Ohio Supreme Court. It does not cite two non-partisan Election Day exit polls, by CNN and Zogby, which found Kerry leading by mid-afternoon. The Ohio Honest Election Campaign filing also describes abnormal patterns in the votes for statewide Democratic candidates – with Kerry receiving fewer votes than obscure candidates – could point to computer vote shifting. The Honest Election Campaign is seeking to investigate these abnormalities.

On Wednesday, Dec. 8, Rev. Jesse Jackson and many people associated with recounting the Ohio vote and challenging the election returns, will brief Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington.

Rev. Jackson has repeatedly traveled to Ohio, demanding at packed, angry rallies that the Ohio Supreme Court consider setting aside Bush's victory in Ohio and that Congress should investigate how Ohioans voted. Among other things, the call for a re-vote as in Ukraine has become a consistent theme among disgruntled Ohio voters.

Jackson’s involvement comes as other national public-interest groups are pursuing their own litigation. For example, People for the American Way is trying to stop the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in Cleveland from rejecting 8,099 of the 24,472 provisional ballots cast there. The ballots were thrown out because voters did not properly complete them or cast them at polling places that were not their own.

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5. Iraq 2005: Iraqi electoral commission to audit referendum's high #'s

All is well. The Iraqi (Neocon) government’s election commission is on its way to investigate. They’ll clear it out, just like the House of Representatives Republican dominated committee cleared it up, just like the U.S. Senate cleared it up, just like Baker-Carter Commission cleared it up. Get ready for the big white wash! Iraq elections give new meaning to the term, “battle ground state.” Check out Bush’s syntax at the end of the article: “deciding to go into a ballot box “ – just like America where the Republicans “go into a ballot box.”

Iraqi electoral commission to audit referendum's 'unusually high' numbers

http://www.940news.com/nouvelles.php?cat=24&id=101767

22:02 on October 17, 2005, EST.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's election commission announced that officials were investigating "unusually high" numbers of Yes votes in about a dozen provinces during Iraq's landmark referendum on a new constitution, raising questions about irregularities in the balloting.

Word of the review came Monday as Sunni Arab leaders repeated accusations of fraud after initial reports from the provinces suggested the constitution had passed.

Among the Sunni allegations are that police took ballot boxes from heavily No districts, and that some Yes areas had more votes than registered voters.

The Electoral Commission made no mention of fraud, and an official with knowledge of the election process cautioned that it was too early to say whether the unusual numbers were incorrect or if they would affect the outcome.

But questions about the numbers raised tensions over Saturday's referendum, which has already sharply divided Iraqis. Most of the Shiite majority and the Kurds, the coalition which controls the government, support the charter, while most Sunni Arabs sharply opposed a document they fear will tear Iraq to pieces and leave them weak and out of power.

Irregularities in Shiite and Kurdish areas, expected to vote strongly Yes may not affect the outcome.

But the main electoral battlegrounds were provinces with mixed populations, two of which went strongly Yes. There were conflicting reports whether those two provinces were among those with questionable figures.

In new violence, the U.S. military said that its warplanes and helicopters bombed two western villages Sunday, killing an estimated 70 militants near a site where five American soldiers died in a roadside blast.

Residents said at least 39 of the dead were civilians, including children.

<snip>

U.S. President George W. Bush said Monday that the vote was an indication that Iraqis want to settle disputes peacefully.

"I was pleased to see that the Sunnis have participated in the process," Bush said.

"The idea of deciding to go into a ballot box is a positive development.

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6. Ohio 2004: Voting machine error gives Bush 3,893 extra votes in Ohio

Looks likes somebody got the word to “go into a ballot box” in Ohio and put a few extra votes there. How industrious. As my father used to say, “A job once well done is twice done.” I know he didn’t have this in mind but you have to admire Republican diligence. Get the job done! Stuff those boxes, DRE’s, tabulators! Or as Starsky said, “Just do it.”

Voting machine error gives Bush 3,893 extra votes in Ohio

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/11/05/politics1149EST0515.DTL

JOHN McCARTHY, Associated Press Writer

Friday, November 5, 2004

An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said.

Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. Bush's total should have been recorded as 365.

Bush won the state by more than 136,000 votes, according to unofficial results, and Kerry conceded the election on Wednesday after saying that 155,000 provisional ballots yet to be counted in Ohio would not change the result.

Deducting the erroneous Bush votes from his total could not change the election's outcome, and there were no signs of other errors in Ohio's electronic machines, said Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell.

Franklin is the only Ohio county to use Danaher Controls Inc.'s ELECTronic 1242, an older-style touch-screen voting system. Danaher did not immediately return a message for comment.

Sean Greene, research director with the nonpartisan Election Reform Information Project, said that while the glitch appeared minor "that could change if more of these stories start coming out."

In the Gahanna precinct, multiple copies of each ballot were recorded: two on the machine and three to a removable cartridge, said Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections. When voting ends, each cartridge is taken to one of five zones in the county, where the results were loaded into a laptop. Those results were transferred by secure data lines to the county.

Damschroder said the malfunction occurred when one machine's cartridge was plugged into a laptop computer and generated faulty numbers in several races. He could not explain how the malfunction occurred. He had, however, ruled out a problem with software at the central vote collection office, as well as tampering.

"We tested if there was some possibility of human intervention and it was not possible," Damschroder said.
:rofl:

Kimball Brace, president of the consulting firm Election Data Services, said it's possible the fault lies with the software that tallies the votes from individual cartridges rather than the machines or the cartridges themselves.

Either way, he said, such tallying software ought to have a way to ensure that the totals don't exceed the number of voters.

<snip>

But in Perry County, a punch-card system reported about 75 more votes than there are voters in one precinct.

<snip>.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, a glitch occurred with software designed by Election Systems & Software Inc. for the city's new "ranked-choice voting," in which voters list their top three choices for municipal offices.

<snip>

When the San Francisco Department of Elections tried a test run Wednesday, some of the votes didn't get counted. The problem was attributed to a programming glitch that limited how much data could be accepted, a threshold that did not account for high voter turnout.

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7. Ohio 2005 - Oct. 17: Congressmen Raise Money to Fight Election Changes

And here is today’s lesson: they’re doing it again! Ohio citizens are trying to clean up their electoral system. They want a neutral administrator for elections, a neutral commission, a less partisan way of drawing congressional districts. AND WHO IS OPPOSING THIS EFFORT: THE REPUBLICANS. End of the lesson.

http://www.wcpo.com/news/2005/local/10/17/oh_ballots.html

Congressmen Raise Money To Fight Election Changes

http://www.wcpo.com/news/2005/local/10/17/oh_ballots.html

Reported by: A.P.
Web produced by: Neil Relyea
Photographed by: 9News
10/17/2005 9:24:30 PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A mostly Republican group seeking to defeat a plan to change how Ohio conducts elections is turning to Washington for help in fundraising.

GOP Rep. Paul Gillmor of Old Fort said he got the okay on Monday from the House Ethics Committee to raise money for Ohio First, after the group approached him for help.

"Of course I'll help," he said. "It's in the public interest that those things be defeated."

Among the constitutional amendments before voters on Nov. 8 is a plan that could endanger the job of every Ohio incumbent.

It would put the power to draw legislative and congressional districts in the hands of a bipartisan committee that would use a mathematical formula to ensure more elections are competitive.

Elected Republicans control the current redistricting process, done every 10 years after a U.S. Census.

The other three issues expand absentee voting, change political contribution limits and remove the election oversight powers of the secretary of state.

Sean Spicer, spokesman for Rep. Deborah Pryce of suburban Columbus, said Monday that the Republican congresswoman was raising money against the ballot initiative on redistricting.

Ohio First leaders would not confirm if other members of the Ohio delegation have been asked to help raise money.

"We're not going to talk about campaign tactics," said state Rep. Kevin DeWine, a Dayton-area Republican leading the campaign.

The office of U.S. Rep. David Hobson of Springfield referred questions to Tom Whatman, president of Strategic Public Partners, a Columbus firm raising money for Ohio First.

A message seeking comment was left on Whatman's cell phone.

Sen. Mike DeWine, a cousin of the state lawmaker, has been invited to fundraisers but has not made any calls on behalf of Ohio First, said Matt Carle, the senator's campaign manager.

"I think it's a sign of desperation for them," said Keary McCarthy, spokesman for Reform Ohio Now, the Democrat-leaning group that put the four issues on the ballot.

He also said it was unfair for Ohio First to criticize supporters for getting out-of-state support, then seek the same.

David Hopcraft, Ohio First spokesman, said members of the congressional delegation are from Ohio, not Washington.

Reform Ohio Now plans a joint event Tuesday in Columbus with a California group promoting that state's Proposition 77, which would change the redistricting process.

In California, the political picture is reversed -- it's the Democrats who control the legislative process and Republicans who want reform.

Both Ohio groups argue that if the other side wins, voters lose.

Reform Ohio Now says the amendments will make it easier to vote, create more competitive elections and limit corporate influence on elections.

Ohio First argues the issues invite election fraud, allow more special interest money in campaigns and take away the right to choose the elected officials who now oversee elections and draw district lines.