NEED HELP IN NJ RECOUNT.SOFTWARE GLITCH!

[flyarm]

I live in two states but vote in FLA..and am a Fla dem delegate..but i need help for the people where i live in NJ..i was contacted today by the Dem Club in the SE "shore" area of NJ

i am going to put the article of what happened in the vote here...

i need to know who to call and who to get hold of..the dnc in this area is in a bit of fracture from what i understand...so the local dem club which is very active ..and on top of stuff needs help...this is the first time they have used the voting machine dre's

who should we call?? and how should we proceed in first steps??

i need your help..thank you du'ers!!

fly


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http://www.ocobserver.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006611100318

"Software glitch" results in recount
Posted by the Ocean County Observer on 11/10/06
BY DON BENNETT
STAFF WRITER
TOMS RIVER — All of the electronic voting machines used in the mid-term election in Ocean County will be rechecked Tuesday after a suspected "software glitch" counted 75 votes in both Barnegat and Lakewood for state and county candidates.

At an emergency meeting yesterday, the county's Board of Elections authorized the attorney general to ask a judge to order the recheck. A complaint had already been prepared by the attorney general's office, and was enroute to Superior Court Judge Joseph Foster by mid-afternoon, said George Gilmore, the chairman of the board and Ocean's Republican County Committee.

Although the Sequoia electronic machines were used in 18 of the state's largest counties and in many states across the country Tuesday, Gilmore said the only "glitch" reported to the company he was aware of was the one involving the Lakewood and Barnegat vote totals.

The outcome of no race was changed, he said, just the margin by which candidates won or lost.

The software used this year was new, so earphones could be used to assure the machines were voting.

A new software package has been certified by the federal government, and is awaiting state certification.

But Lakewood Rabbi Yisroel Schenkolewski, a Republican commissioner on the board, wants the version of the software used this year fixed if it is found to be to blame for the double counting of the Barnegat votes.

During the probe that led to the recheck request, he said the Election Board staff found that municipal clerks could have accessed the results before they were processed by the Board of Elections.

"That part scares me more than the first part," he said.

Robert Giles, the Republican supervisor for the board, said the clerks have never accessed the results, and were unaware they could have., Nonetheless, the board is asking Sequoia to cut off that access in its software.

Schenkolewski said there are "checks and balances," at the Election Board, where Republicans and Democrats watch one another as the totals are recorded from electronic voting machine cartridges.

There are none of those safeguards in municipal offices, he said.

Security is another concern, he said.

Gilmore said at the first sign of a problem late Tuesday night he called Dover Township Police Chief Michael Mastronardy. who posted an officer around the clock at the board office.

Freeholder John P. Kelly said the county will pay for that detail and the cost of the recheck Tuesday.

Secretary-Commissioner Al Santoro, a Democrat, said every candidate will be notified of Tuesday's recheck so they can witness it.

"We'll hand carry notices to them, if we have to," he said.

Gilmore said the board's staff had rechecked the results once, and again found only the problem was that the Barnegat votes from District 10 were showing up in Lakewood's 25th District.

Is the recheck an "overreaction?"

"The integrity of the election process is the bedrock of our country," he replied.

"It's a software glitch, we believe," Schenkolewski insisted.

"The problem has to be fixed," he added.

Barnegat was among five communities with razor thin margins among candidates for local office, but those races were apparently not impacted by the suspected software, according to board members.

Gilmore said he expects recounts in all five communities. In addition to Barnegat they are Tuckerton, Seaside Park, South Toms River, and Lavallette.

click above link for full article..

[drm604]

1. Poorly written article.

How did it get past an editor? I'm not sure I understand what exactly happened with the votes. Is it saying that the same votes were added to the tally for 2 different districts?

And this sentence makes no sense at all:
"The software used this year was new, so earphones could be used to assure the machines were voting." :shrug:

All that aside, maybe you should contact Bradblog or Velvet Revolution. They may be able to point you in the right direction.

[philb]

11. Example of multiple voting(ballot stuffing) on Sequoia touch screens in Florida in 2004

Overvotes (From EIRS reports) (there are other cases of overvotes as well)

055899 11/02/04, 7:44 AM PST Machine problem; Other St John Fisher Church(#7034) Palm Beach County, Florida Poll worker counted 682 votes. Machines tabulated 696 votes. There was chaos early. But in the last half hour, there were 14 more votes on the machines than counted by the poll worker as signed in on log books.


It is known and documented that if you know how (and I do) one can vote as many times as you like on a Sequoia touch screen. The information is available on the web on how to vote multiple times on Sequoia touch screens.
It can be done by voters, or clerks, or ?

for instructions on how to vote multiple times, see the other Sequoia thread

[philb]

2. They should revote on different equip. U can vote as many times as want on Sequoia equip.

Here's how to vote as many times as you want. Or for a pollworker to do so or allow it.


How to hack Sequoia voting machines
Nov 2, '06 11:07 PM
for everyone
Here is how the "Yellow Button Hack" is done:

1. Go to the back of the voting machine. Press and hold the yellow activate button (about 3 seconds). Release when the screen says "waiting for next voter".

2. Press and hold the yellow button again until the screen says "change to manual activation?"

3. Touch the "Yes" button on the screen.

4. At that point there will be a message on the screen that says "Manual activate voting enabled" (this is just displayed briefly)

5. Next message will read "Waiting for the next voter" When you see that you touch the message that says "start voting" or "resume voting" located in the lower right of the screen The AVC Edge is now set up for poll worker activation mode.

Here is the sequence:

If it's regular voting (as opposed to provisional)

a. Once you've touched the start or resume the "waiting for next voter" appears

b. Activate the ballot by pressing and releasing the yellow activate button

c. Activate the correct party for the voter AND press the yellow activate button using the keypad on the display screen

d. Select the voter's language if appropriate

e. Vote. (Once the voter has completed voting and cast their ballot. Prepare the Edge for the next voter. If the next voter is a regular voter repeat step B and D above.

You can now vote as many times as you want to.

This information was obtained in a public records request

You will find it in the AVC Edge with VeriVote Printer Poll Worker's Guide Booklet 5 Troubleshooting Document version 2.01 with date Dec. 29 2005.
http://discodaddyo.multiply.com/journal/item/28

[philb]

6. Someone audit the precincts involved

check the number of official votes (total) for each precinct against the number who signed the precinct log book.
If someone voted more than once and stuffed the ballot box as in Ohio in 2004, the number of official votes will be
more than the number of voters who signed in.
The precincts should have counted the number of who signed in on election day by now.
But if not you can do some precincts.

Also lots of elections are swung by manipulating absentees.

check the percentages by candidate for absentees vs regular voting
also when did they get requested and received if numbers are unusal
did a big group come in all at one time?
were a large number signed in the same handwriting (has happened a lot in Florida)
look at absentees and provisionals rejected; unusual numbers or pattern? bias/balance?

[philb]

3. CALLING SEQUOIA VOTERS -- Affidavits Needed

Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 2:37 PM
Subject: CALLING SEQUOIA VOTERS Affidavits Needed


> CALLING ALL Sequoia Voters: You can help crack
> Sequoia wide open if you will give me an notarized
> affidavit of you first hand experience and knowledge
> of Sequoia product and or managerial defect. I am
> suing Sequoia Voting Machines Systems for product
> defect and property damage resulting in the loss of my
> vote which I allege to be my valuable and personal
> private property. I base my suit on documented Wyle
> Laboratory evidence of Sequoia AVC Edge with VeriVote
> Printer product defect. I am asking for more than
> $10,000.00 in damages which I will forfeit for the
> remedy of public testing and fixing of all Sequoia
> Machines in my county of Washoe County, Nevada. I
> have already filed the case and I can amend my
> pleading one time without the permission of the court
> and or the defendant, Sequoia. Your affidavit would
> be entered into the amended complaint and could help
> win this case. You can establish a precedence for
> winning litigation to come. If you really know that
> Sequoia is no way to run an election; please put it in
> writing, notarize it, and send it to me asap. You can
> help win Sequoia V Axelrod for all of us.
>
> I will need to talk with you first so please call me
> at 775-787-1909 and also email reply with your phone
> number. PLEASE POST TO ALL APPROPRIATE WEB-SITES
> Lawsuit /exhibits upon request.
>
> Patricia Axelrod
> 775-787-1909 leave message

[Pab Sungenis]

4. "The outcome of no race was changed"

HOW DOES HE KNOW?!

[nicknameless]

5. Maybe contact DU's FogerRox.

He works hard for clean elections in NJ.

[FernBell]

7. k&r

[FogerRox]

8. I think it was human error, at the tabulator level

Not at the voting machine level. Swapped memory cards, poor chain of custody, etc. Is my guess. NJ uses precinct level tabulation, IIRC and then results are tabulated at the county level. SO the obvious point of swapping would be when the 2 towns results physically end up in the same building at the County Supervisor of Elections.

The reason 75 votes probably don't make any difference is that at the level of County Freeholder races, we are talking about 120 k vote being cast. And in the Senate race 75 votes aint doing TOm Kean Jr any good. Since Municipal candidates races get tabulated at the Municipal level, there is little chance these races would be involved.

BUT.... vigilance, ya never know.

[flyarm]

9. sorry i didn't get back to you all..but things happened fast...

I contacted VoteTrustUSA and they were incredible...
we had a court hearing yesterday...and we bought time until tommorrow at 1:30 for a second court hearing..

the difference in votes is, we had 3 candidates who supposedly lost by 10, 11 and 18 votes respectfully.
A court order was issued last Thursday..and each candidate was supposed to be notified of the Monday morning hearing immediately..and they were supposed to recieve an affidavit by court order.

Well none of the effected candidates recieved this info until late Saturday.

Just try to get a lawyer and representation on a Sunday!!

VotetrustUSA got on the ball immediately when i contacted them..

We had Three ladies from the League of Womens voters there all day yesterday..
the NJ VoteTrustUSA gal did an incredible job with the lawyer who was clueless about the machines..she did a Voting machine 101 class with this lawyer with incredible speed and accuracy.

The first judge had to recuse himself..because of conflicts..

The Board of elections people were ready for this , and unfortunately the candidates were not.this is the first time they were dealing with these machines..and quite a job was done by the board of elections lady..she was a pitt bull (in my opinion)..

But the League of women voters prior to election had lunch with these election board members and they were speciafically told what happened here ..could never ever happen...

The lawyer was able to get a delay until wednesday ..because the candidates did not recieve the court ordered information they needed for representation.

So now Votetrust is getting us the representation the candidates need..and experts who will over see the opening of the machines after the court case.


we have gotten time to get the right people there ..to check the machines!

Election recounts delayed

http://www.ocobserver.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061114/NEWS01/611140325&SearchID=73262935194869&GID=gceWMR6yx403RqgsSmBKluPZDDOKCEY6sGKX4AAJlxg%3D


but we also have a problem with the provisionals..as the bag the ballots go into at end of election are supposed to be sealed..it just so happened ( hmmmm) that the bag with these candidates provisionals were in was not sealed..so the county is attempting to throw out these provisional ballots..

of which these candidates would have won the election!


Poll worker mistake could eliminate ballots

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/story/6931874p-6795035c.html


anyway..we have it now pretty under control..

and I thank you all for your ideas and help with this matter!!

and my sincerest thanks to VoteTrustUSA..they were incredible..and so fast to get us help!! ( on a Sunday!!)

fly

[Bill Bored]

10. What? You expected democracy to be closed on Sunday? nt

[flyarm]

12. LOL..NOOOO BUT ALL THE EXPERTS ARE IN FLA!! LOL

ALL OUR NJ experts went to Fla ..the irony escapes me!!
we had another court day starting at 1:30 UNTIL 5 PM....and the judge let the machines be opened and re -run the tapes from election day..but we fought hard to be guaranteed the machines would not diagnostically correct themselves..when turned on...

so the state had to get an afidavit for the judge that a diagonostic program whould not correct itself when turning the machines back on..
so we finished in court at 5 pm and then went to the warehouse and we had the machines opened to run off new run offs from the machines to compare to election night..

we went from 5 pm end of court until 10 pm..so i am just too tired to write anything else..

if this makes no sense ..sorry i am exhausted!

fly