2004 Election Debacle

[Former Wildcat]

I don't know if this is a debacle, but I couldn't believe it when I heard it. My brother-in-law was working at a polling place in Harrisburg. During the day, there was an official-looking van driving around the neighborhood giving voters false directions to the polling place. They chased the van away after learning about it. Now, this was in a heavily democratic neighborhood, but I would not doubt that the same thing happens all over the place. I just could not believe that anyone would choose to drive around lying to people to influence an election. Get a job or something.

[LionPride]

Hmmm, giving everybody the wrong directions to the polling place. How many people do you actually believe who voted at that particular polling place didn't know where to go? And those that didn't actually stopped this particular van to ask them, and only them for directions? Wow, and to think Kerry carried PA. Imagine the difference if these people weren't sent to the wrong place.

But on the other hand, I can make an arguement that slashing the tires of 30 GOP vans that were to take senior citizens to vote was slightly more drastic.

[HYNDMANWRESTLING]

well bush won so it really doesnt matter now

[LionPride]

You're right Hyndman. It's just so hard to "turn off" the switch of beating down a liberal. Wildcat - I wasn't referring to you as a liberal. I have no idea if you are or aren't.

[southpaw]

former puttycat: that was probably my cousin driving around Harrisburg terrorizing the liberals. He's not even conservative he's reactionary!

[Lemmy]

Lionspride... some info found today on Franklin County, Ohio and the registration totals....

There are about 815,000 Franklin County residents older than 18, according to the most recent census estimates, for 2003. As of yesterday, Franklin County Board of Elections officials counted more than 817,000 registered voters, and forms are still coming in at the rate of 8,000 per day as Monday’s registration deadline approaches.

Although voter-registration numbers in some Ohio counties have reached 90 percent or more of population estimates, surpassing the number is highly unusual.

One county official in Ohio called the Franklin County figures "bizarre."

One state official called them troubling.

Franklin County election officials called them easily explainable.

"It’s not a cause for alarm," said Board of Elections Director Matthew Damschroder. "It’s not an indication of fraud."

A 1993 federal law — often called Motor Voter — made it easier for Americans to register to vote, including when they renew their driver’s licenses. But the law also made it more difficult for elections officials to purge their lists of those who don’t follow through and cast ballots.

There are 200,000 people on Franklin County’s voter rolls who currently are classified as "inactive," Damschroder said, but it takes five years or more of non-voting to remove their names. No one is purged from the voter lists in federal election years, so the list won’t be pared down until mid-2005.

"It’s just a function of Motor Voter," Damschroder said.

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/electio ... D1-00.html

[Lemmy]

NEWS

Group tallies more than 1,100 e-voting glitches
vendor association calls problems minor



By Grant Gross, IDG News Service November 02, 2004



WASHINGTON - U.S. voters calling in to a toll-free number had reported more than 1,100 separate incidents of problems with electronic voting machines and other voting technologies by late Tuesday during the nationwide election.


In more than 30 reported cases, when voters reviewed their choices before finalizing them, an electronic voting machine indicated they had voted for a different candidate.

E-voting backers called the number of reported problems minor in the context of almost 50 million [m] U.S. voters projected to use e-voting machines on Tuesday.

In a majority of cases where machines allegedly recorded a wrong vote, votes were taken away from Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, or a Democratic candidate in another race, and given to Republican President George Bush or another Republican candidate, said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

[Lemmy]

In recent years, central Ohio has been transformed from a bastion of Republicanism into a Democratic stronghold. Six of Columbus' seven city council members are Democrats, as is the city's mayor, Michael Coleman. But no Democrat has been elected to Congress from central Ohio in more than 20 years, and the area around Columbus still includes pockets where no Democrat stands a chance. One such Republican pocket is Upper Arlington, the Columbus suburb that is home to Walden "Wally" O'Dell, the chairman of the board and chief executive of Diebold. For years, O'Dell has given generously to Republican candidates. Last September, he held a packed $1,000-per-head GOP fundraiser at his 10,800-square-foot mansion. He has been feted as a guest at President Bush's Texas ranch, joining a cadre of "Pioneers and Rangers" who have pledged to raise more than $100,000 for the Bush reelection campaign. Most memorably, O'Dell last fall penned a letter pledging his commitment "to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President."

O'Dell has defended his actions, telling the Cleveland Plain Dealer "I'm not doing anything wrong or complicated." But he also promised to lower his political profile and "try to be more sensitive." But the Diebold boss' partisan cards are squarely on the table. And, when it comes to the Diebold board room, O'Dell is hardly alone in his generous support of the GOP. One of the longest-serving Diebold directors is W.R. "Tim" Timken. Like O'Dell, Timken is a Republican loyalist and a major contributor to GOP candidates. Since 1991 the Timken Company and members of the Timken family have contributed more than a million dollars to the Republican Party and to GOP presidential candidates such as George W. Bush. Between 2000 and 2002 alone, Timken's Canton-based bearing and steel company gave more than $350,000 to Republican causes, while Timken himself gave more than $120,000. This year, he is one of George W. Bush's campaign Pioneers, and has already pulled in more than $350,000 for the president's reelection bid.

While Diebold has received the most attention, it actually isn't the biggest maker of computerized election machines. That honor goes to Omaha-based ES&S, and its Republican roots may be even stronger than Diebold's.

The firm, which is privately held, began as a company called Data Mark, which was founded in the early 1980s by Bob and Todd Urosevich. In 1984, brothers William and Robert Ahmanson bought a 68 percent stake in Data Mark, and changed the company's name to American Information Services (AIS). Then, in 1987, McCarthy & Co, an Omaha investment group, acquired a minority share in AIS.

In 1992, investment banker Chuck Hagel, president of McCarthy & Co, became chairman of AIS. Hagel, who had been touted as a possible Senate candidate in 1993, was again on the list of likely GOP contenders heading into the 1996 contest. In January of 1995, while still chairman of ES&S, Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald that he would likely make a decision by mid-March of 1995. On March 15, according to a letter provided by Hagel's Senate staff, he resigned from the AIS board, noting that he intended to announce his candidacy. A few days later, he did just that.

A little less than eight months after steppind down as director of AIS, Hagel surprised national pundits and defied early polls by defeating Benjamin Nelson, the state's popular former governor. It was Hagel's first try for public office. Nebraska elections officials told The Hill that machines made by AIS probably tallied 85 percent of the votes cast in the 1996 vote, although Nelson never drew attention to the connection. Hagel won again in 2002, by a far healthier margin. That vote is still angrily disputed by Hagel's Democratic opponent, Charlie Matulka, who did try to make Hagel's ties to ES&S an issue in the race and who asked that state elections officials conduct a hand recount of the vote. That request was rebuffed, because Hagel's margin of victory was so large.

As might be expected, Hagel has been generously supported by his investment partners at McCarthy & Co. -- since he first ran, Hagel has received about $15,000 in campaign contributions from McCarthy & Co. executives. And Hagel still owns more than $1 million in stock in McCarthy & Co., which still owns a quarter of ES&S.

If the Republican ties at Diebold and ES&S aren't enough to cause concern, argues election reform activist Bev Harris, the companies' past performances and current practices should be.


http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/c ... 3_200.html

[Lemmy]

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A computer error with a voting machine cartridge gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in a Gahanna precinct.

Franklin County's unofficial results gave Bush 4,258 votes to Democratic challenger John Kerry's 260 votes in Precinct 1B. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct.

Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, said Bush received 365 votes there. The other 13 voters who cast ballots either voted for other candidates or did not vote for president.

Damschroder said he received some calls Thursday from people who saw the error when reading the list of poll results on the election board's Web site.

[LionPride]

Here we go :roll: