Help recount Washington's 8th Congressional District

[eridani]

I got this email from out PDA coordinator for Washington state. My feeling is that in EVERY SINGLE RACE, regardless of whether it is as close as this one, needs to be audited. Our current state law mandates audits for DREs, but most actual tabulation is central optical scanning--perhaps this could be a stimulus for getting auditing of opscan into the law, where it really ought to be. Judith is more into "gut feelings" than I am--I'm into hard primary data.

The group doing the exit polling is a local voter integrity effort, and their results from just a single precinct don't really mean anything by themselves. That's why we should be framing this as a model for audits that need to be done as a matter of course all the time. That this is not done creates uncertainty about all outcome. As David Dill has said. "It is not enough that elections BE accurate. We have to KNOW that they are accurate, and we don't." If this turns out to be like the 2004 gubernatorial contest, where votes are added to the totals for each candidate, then the poll will have to be regarded as a statistical anomaly.

________________________________________

In addition to the information detailed below, I have spoken with Dwight Pelz, state chair of the Democratic Party. Mr. Pelz has indicated that should evidence of vote fraud come to him, that the party would be far more likely to look at doing a district wide recount.

If you think about it, it's understandable that the party is reluctant to go after a recount without evidence. Given the recent governor's race recount, and the likely rerun of Dino Rossi next time around using the issue of Democrat's having stolen the last race the party is reluctant to pursue this without some pretty strong evidence.

This is being put together rather quickly and last minute. Please see that the last date to donate to the recount effort is tomorrow. You can donate with a credit card as indicated in the body of the text below.

The more donated, the more precincts can be recounted. I'm hoping to be able to have enough to recount about a dozen precincts, widely spread throughout the 8th CD. There is enough at the moment to do about 3 precincts.

So, while e goal of those who have initiated this effort is very worthwhile, it would be even nicer to motivate the party to take a serious and hard look at the integrity of the vote and perhaps find that Darcy really did win. (That, BTW, is my gut feeling about this race.)

Additionally, we'll need some signatures of those who live in the 8th by Thursday evening. If you'd like to sign the petition and live in the 8th, give me a call. 425 830 2323

All the Best,
Judith

From: Hannah McFarland <writehm {at} comcast.net>
To: <judith_shattuck {at} hotmail.com>
Subject: Recount
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 11:18:12 -0800

Hi Judith,
Thanks so much for getting involved in our re-count effort!!

Here is the info we have sent people.

Voters for Democracy in America to request re-count.

Funds sought for additional precincts to be re-counted

Ten election integrity activists at a meeting on Sat. Nov. 25, 2006 decided to organize, fund and request a re-count for the Dave Reichert/Darcy Burner election. Enough funds, $760, were raised at the meeting to fund a re-count for at least one precinct.

In order to fund re-counts of additional precincts more funds are needed.

The main purpose of the re-count is to compare the re-count results with the official vote count. There is considerable speculation regarding the accuracy of the official count in this race and congressional races nationwide. Please see the following article:

http://electiondefensealliance.org/book/export/html/658

This re-count effort will help to highlight the many problems in our current voting system such as a lack of tranparancy.

An additional reason for the re-count is to compare it with an election verification exit poll that was conducted by the group that is requesting the re-count. This exit poll showed a 4% difference in favor of Darcy Burner from the official vote count taken from the machines at the end of the day at the polling place where the exit poll was conducted.

The name for this newly formed group is ³Voters for Democracy in America²

People who wish to contribute to the re-count effort can donate by check or credit card.

Checks can be mailed or otherwise provided to:

Jan Dixon
2125 ­ 1st Ave W
Seattle, WA 98119
dixonjc {at} yahoo.com
206 285-2537
Make the check out to: Jan Dixon


To donate via credit card contact:

Hannah McFarland
writehm {at} comcast.net
206 526-8687

Donations received by the end of Wed. Nov. 29 will be used for the current re-count effort. Donations received after this date will be used for future re-count or voter integrity issues. The deadline for submitting the re-count request is Friday Dec. 1, 2006 at 4:30 PM.

Please do not submit donations via check after Dec. 15. Contact Hannah McFarland for donations after Dec. 15 or to donate by credit card.

[eridani]

1. Signature gathering

Dear Friends,

If there is anyone in the 8th District interested in signing on to a recount of the latest Congressional election please contact one of these names today. Signatures are being taken today here on the east side.


Richard Yount: cell - 206.351.1150

Hannah McFarland: [phone]


There has been some suspicious vote counts in this race. The exit polling does not match the vote count and other such things. Please call this morning

Thanks for your patriotism…..



Michael Tivana

425.454.4865

[philb]

2. What counties were involved in this race?? Suspicious rulings & dirty tricks

EIRS irregularity reports by voters to hotline

http://eirs.cs.net:8080/EIRS_WEB/Reporting/displayUSReport.do

strange goings on in recounts?

5213 Polling Place Problem Spokane Washington Yes Entire county uses mail ballot. Caller raises two issues, one she questions signature varification as being arbitrary. She is also concerned about the process of "remaking" ballots that could not be read. Election officials mark a new ballot based upon a decision about who the voter indended to vote for. This process is continuing. She has no hard evidence that anythingis improper, but is suspicious of this process because it has led to a Republican surge since election day figures. One (Dem) candadates lead has so far shrunk from 5000 to 1700, another's from 2000 to 550. In the race for which she is a candadate, she has gone from a lead of 900 to being behind by 3000 votes.

Some votes apparently being lost:
4288 Polling Place Problem King Washington No Voter noticed that the counter of the scanning machine did not change when he inserted his paper ballot. He confirmed that the counter did change when the voters behind him inserted their ballots. He informed the poll worker who said that he was not sure whether the counter supposed to change with every ballot the machine scanned.

2977 Polling Place Problem King Washington He overheard that some candidates were not listed on absentee ballots, but did not observe it himself.
2718 Polling Place Problem King Washington No the polls in western washinton are flooded. Needed help to find out how to vote

Dirty tricks by Dr. Laura
3415 Other Problem King Washington No Laura Ingram (Dr. Laura?) is on the radio encouraging listeners in the Seattle, WA area to jam the lines of Election Protection with crank calls according to this voter.

Dirty Tricks by Repub Party - RoboCalls

3607 Voter Intimidation Problem King Washington Tuquila Community Center No Caller reports this is the second incident of this kind. She received an automated call from someone purporting to be Maria Cantwell. Then a man's voice came on directing her to vote at an incorrect polling place. The call originated from [phone]. She called that number but it was busy.

3258 Voter Intimidation Problem King Washington Southern Heights School Yes At 9:12 Am voter recieved call from candidate Maria Cantwell- during the call, a male voice broke came on a gave a change in polling place location. Voter's husband listened to message. voter knew information was wrong because they had dropped their absentee ballots off at their polling place that AM. the polling place is located on their block. voter rec'd same call yesterday, when it was repeated today, she wanted to report it to us. voter wrote down number of caller which is 206-706-2650 - called it, was not valid call back no. voter did not recall exact address of false polling place but it was on grant street. there is no grant street in her area.

2941 Voter Intimidation Problem King Washington Yes Voting Judge Aaron Turner from Washington state at precinct 43 telephoned to inform us that voter with last name of Kunz reported that he had received a voicemail from a woman purporting to be Maria Cantwell who said on his answering machine that vote should go to precinct 43. However, voter actually registered to vote in precinct 36.

2821 Voter Intimidation Problem King Washington Yes Voter received a call last night with Sen Cantwell's voice and then a man came on and told the voter her polling place, except that it was incorrent. He said it quickly so she did not hear it precisely. She heard this morning that another voter called in on radio to describe a similar incident and the Cantwell campaign said they were not giving out voting locations on such calls. This voter voted absentee.