Ploy by Cobb and Buchanan aims to lock Jennings' experts out of Sarasota audit

[eomer]

SOS Cobb and candidate Buchanan have apparently figured out how to lock Jennings' expert out of the audit. By not being able to find his own expert, Buchanan will give Cobb the excuse she needs to bar the Jennings expert and run the show all by herself.

But Jennings' attorney said Buchanan's strategy became clear when his team "boycotted" audit meetings with the state this week, making any cooperation impossible.

As a result, attorney Kendall Coffey said, state election officials would not approve the audit suggestions they had discussed with Jennings' experts because the state didn't want to appear to favor the Democrat.

Coffey claimed the state's position had effectively given Buchanan "veto power" over the campaigns' involvement in the audit.

In fact, state officials said late Thursday, if Buchanan's campaign does fail to produce an expert of its own to oversee the process, they will not allow Jennings' campaign to participate.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl-voteprobs1706nov17,0,4435768.story?coll=orl-news-headlines

[eomer]

1. If this approach stands then the audit will be run by Republican SOS Cobb

and her highly partisan expert.

I never doubted this would be a coverup, just wasn't sure exactly how they would go about it.

[Febble]

5. How can there possibly

be an justification for a non-bipartisan audit of a partisan election?

:wow:

[philb]

12. Audit should include tabulation of how many TSs had these biased ballot design described by voters

and poll workers.


from another thread

1. House race (among others) did not appear in the main voting screens but did appear in the review screen.

2.House race appeared in the main voting screens but was positioned in such a way that it was easy to miss.

3.House race appeared in the main voting screen at the bottom of one screen and then fell over into the following screen. Jennings was on the second of the two screens in a small font and was therefore very easy to miss.

4.Voter touched to select Jennings but no selection for that race showed up when arriving at the review screen.

5.Voter touched to select Jennings but Buchanan selection showed up for that race when arriving at the review screen.

Since these clearly biased ballot designs were enough to swing the election if commonly used as the voters seem to indicate, and the designs were chosen and approved by the SOE and SOS, its important to know exactly how many machines had them, how many voters would have used them,
and confirm the circumstances of who approved these designs and why.

[Febble]

13. Exactly. n/t

[seafan]

2. An audit is the LAST thing the GOP wants. It will unleash Pandora's Box of machine fraud.

Keep pushing, people.

[nicknameless]

3. Rethugs seem to manage to get machines impounded

and sue any individual who gets in their way.
What will the Dems do? Where are the Dem attorneys?
Rethugs always employ heavy-handed tactics. When will the Dems fight back?

[OnTheOtherHand]

4. wow... n/t

[Febble]

6. K&R

Sorry I forgot to R earlier - but that makes five.

[buddysmellgood]

7. Desperate moves...sounds like an admission of guilt. If Buchanan doesn't find one,

one should be appointed for him.

[philb]

9. Its obvious he could find one; no one could seriously suggest otherwise; its clear

that this is a simply a very transparent ploy to not have to do a serious audit.
but given the amount of evidence that a hack/glitch and apparently deliberate ballot design bias was responsible for
costing Jennings thousands of votes, this kind of tactic will only create ill will for a long time.
The truth needs to come out, whatever it is. Conspiring to cover up the obvious major problems in the election
would be a very bad idea, and should be abandoned by the Bush administation.
A major coverup of apparent corruption will be Jeb's legacy if they pursue this option.

[philb]

8. Cobb's suggestion is really absurd, since expertise is needed to determine complex

techinical issues and both sides clearly have access to experts.
This is clearly a partisan ploy to prevent serious investigation/audit of the machines and should not be accepted.
Its time to stand up to such obvious corrupt practices. No way should it be allowed.

[philb]

10. What about the obviously flawed and biased ballot designs that were approved by Dent and Cobb-

the SOE and SOS. Voters and poll workers have confirmed that many of the machines in Dist 13 used
ballot designs similar to the butterfly ballot design that stole thousands of Gore votes in several counties in 2000.

The voters and poll workers indicate that there were multiple versions of ballot designs that had clear bias in favor of
the Repub Buchanan and against the Dem Jennings. Since such designs have been widely publicized in Florida and are known to have a clear bias, the fact that they were approved by Repub SOE and SOS in a race where the Repub was clearly behind looks like obvious colusion and malfeasance.
What should be the punishment for such malfeasance, and is it being pursued?

Does it mean an automatic win for Jennings if there was clear colusion/bias in the ballot design approved by the Repub SOE and SOS? And is this a felony offense punishable by prision, etc?

Likewise for the apparent hack/glitch that was known about because of widely reported cases in Early Voting.
The SOE did nothing to correct the problems or warn the voters- as the poll workers have noted.

[philb]

11. Are there plans to audit to confirm the ballot design bias reported by voters

The ballot designs used on many of the touch screens as described by voters and pollworkers had clear bias.
Are there plans to determine the number of machines that had these biased ballot designs?
Is that part of the audit plans?