Computer error at voting machine gives Bush 3,893 extra votes

[kskiska]

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.

more…
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10103910.htm

[GregD]

1. Demand a thorough investigation

These stories are all over the place.

Investigation now!

[lanparty]

64. Too late!!!!!

You see if Kerry had challenged the election, he could have forced this issue to the front page of newspapers!!! Now it will be buried along with the countless OTHER stories of colossal fuckups by electronic voting machines.

As a programmer, I can tell you this is NOT an error. It is 100% INTENTIONAL!!! The logic to present a ballot and record choices is pretty simple stuff. The fact that Diebold has fucked it up so badly can only be attributed to malfeasance!!!!!

[LeighAnn]

70. "... not surrender until every vote is counted..."

Huh? What?

[symphony]

104. so, is it all over , then?!?

Despite everything that has come to light? This is a civilized country, people shouldn't be able to get away with this kind of stuff...

Well, in a perfect world may be.

So, can Kerry challenge at this point?

[Deja Q]

107. Quite. Diebold's paperless sham was obvious; yet Kerry outright ignored it

We Dems were duped.

America was duped.

Diebold, a company that works for the banking industry, knows damn well that you WANT a paper trail.

Unless votes are trivial compared to the almighty dollar...

[Sleepless In NY]

96. Its on Yahoo..Please Rate it a 5! Thank You!

Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes

COLUMBUS, Ohio - An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush (news - web sites) 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush (news - web sites) 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041105/ap_on_el_pr/voting_problems

Its on Yahoo's home page too,..Please rate it a 5..as many times as you can, maybe it will get some attention.

[symphony]

105. done

[wjsander]

2. Has anyone heard of a computer error going in JOHN KERRY's favor?!

Because I sure as hell haven't.

[Carolab]

3. Is anyone here from Ohio?

Have you entered a formal complaint?

[realisticphish]

8. we are working on it

the OSU ACLU is working hard on gathering complaints, and submitting them, and I'm sure the Ohio ACLU is doing the same

:hippie: The Incorrigble Democrat

[Buddyblazon]

10. Well...would it help you if we circulated the story...I've got a great big

address book.

[realisticphish]

11. it probably would, yes

its not getting any local news coverage, and we can only canvass so much of the city

:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[Buddyblazon]

12. Okey doke....

Have you sent out this story? Much easier than canvassing. I have a list of people that promise to forward stuff on. I call it "FORWARD AT WILL". Short and sweet...and your address book will most likely get it (because...we're us...and not them). Show 'em its NOT the bloggers fault (can you believe they're blaming US now?).

A.....mazing.

Well...here you go. I just forwarded to 13 people. The entire story and a link. And included my own note:

"A gentlemen working with a team of people from OSU in Ohio has personally asked me...to ask you...for your help. They need you to do your thing. Read it, understand it, spread it around. So the rest of the country knows.

"They've been chipping away through raw local canvassing. Starting to get some local press. Letting everybody in the...ahem...afflicted area know. Thats their job.

"OUR job (yours and mine) is to make sure enough people see AND hear this story around our country. And make their efforts easier.

"SOOoooooooo

FORWARD AT WILL!!!!!!"

_______________________

Hope that does the trick.

[realisticphish]

13. thanks a LOT

obviously, weve just started on this, but the more people who find about this right away, while everything is fresh in their minds, the more likely it is that we can really get something done. thanks!

:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[Buddyblazon]

14. hey, we're all wearing hip waders now.

[lanparty]

65. WHY CONVER IT?????

KERRY CONCEEDED!!!!! The subject is fucking moot!!!!

If Kerry had CHALLENGED the Ohio vote like his aide's advised, we could have made a LOT of progress on all these electronic voting machines that stole this election!!!!

Kerry doesn't have the balls to do what it takes. He's not willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good. Thats what leaders must be able to do!!!! Kerry is dead to me now!!!!!

[stevietheman]

73. Concession doesn't equal dropping out of race

If investigations lead to a Kerry victory, he can still be installed to the Presidency.

[realisticphish]

83. this isnt about kerry

hell, this isnt even about parties, or politics at all. this is about the fact that thousands and thousands of people's votes were fucked up. fraud is fraud, and i refuse to let the pukes off the hook, just because they won the election. we need election reform with or without kerry

:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[Contrary1]

79. One Word: Oberman

n/t

[trag]

47. I'm sending it out too!

I have a huge family in Ohio. And the best part, they are all Dems!

[BQueen]

36. What can I do to help?

I have some interesting info on a rural county that ACLU/BBV may be able to make use of, not sure where it could lead, but raised my eyebrows.

I have a cunning plan for grassroots involvement, which I have outlined in this thread - haven't had time to look into the legal issues further, but the more people involved, the better.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2590721#2600318

I'm very familiar with Columbus and politics in that area, but now live near Lima. (about 1.5 hours from Dublin) PM me if you want to confab or have a particular individual you think I should contact. I'll go to the Ohio ACLU site as soon as I get back from walking the dogs.

[mountainvue]

71. Is there anything I can do to help? n/t

[realisticphish]

75. if you're from ohio

the best thing to do is to independantly write to the dispatch, or other newspapers about this, try to get letters to the editor. also, gathering individual stories of fraud is extrememly important. If you're not from ohio, then you can still help gather stories, perhaps from different sections of DU, blogs, that sort of thing. The more we have, the more likely it is that anything will get done. Thanks!


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[mountainvue]

90. I'm in Colorado

but have already written to Dennis Kucinich to ask him to ivestigate. Please let me know if there is anything else that I can do to help you.

[aquart]

4. If their clever, there will be ONE.

But I think they're just greedy.

[TankLV]

46. Gee, why am I so NOT surprised?! Good point.

Another amazing cooincidence!

[FlaGranny]

48. I heard of ONE case

where in a precinct when the machines were turned on they held some votes for Kerry. I believe it was taken care of before voting began though. I don't remember where I saw this, probably right here somewhere.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

52. Thank you!

[w13rd0]

5. Cool...

...let's do some real-time revisionism of our own yall! FIGHT THE FRAUD-select!

[Cobalt Violet]

6. What kinda computer error is that?

:argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh:

[w13rd0]

7. Yeah...

...kinda "odd", ain't it? Maybe Jesus was helping coordinate the fixing of the election. Telling good zealots to help God help Bush or something. A little moral ambiguity to keep that baby killing gay Kerry out of office, I'm sure God would smile on such good works, right?

[DBoon]

72. Jesus causes computer errors?

That's a new one. As a sometime programmer, I will have to use that one on certain fundie supervisor. I'm sure it will make everything OK.

</sarcasm>

[symphony]

109. heee heee heee ROFLOL

:toast:

[trogdor]

30. I'll tell ya.

It was the kind of error produced by the worst Rube Goldberg device ever invented. I was talking with a friend of mine yesterday, and we both agree we could implement a reasonable computerized voting system that runs in Perl on an antique 486 computer running Netscape 2.0, and have it ready to go in a week. It ain't rocket science; it's the kind of computer programming exercise kids in middle school could do.

My kid says he could probably implement it with a couple dozen lines of Visual Basic code. I believe him.

[librechik]

57. the kind of error we can expect to see repeated over and over

since it benefits the pukkkes

[yowzayowzayowza]

9. Better link:

http://www.onnnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=2524952

[strizi64]

15. Ok, let's do some work

use these samples:

[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]

[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]

and blast the media

[KayLaw]

16. Oh, for Pete's sake

When we vote on these machines, we're casting our votes as surely as my sons are steering the" cars " at Disney World.

[chelaque liberal]

22. Good analogy. I felt like I was at an amusement park.

In eastern TN we had a machine with flashing lights next to the names. When you made a choice the light stopped flashing and when you pressed the button to enter the vote it played a little tune. It was like a toy.

My husband and I left there saying, "Wasn't that bizarre?"

[LisaL]

24. Was the tune-

Na-na-na-na-nana? I am stealing this election?

[demjomr313]

32. lol -

kick!

[daleo]

68. After the election, they can use it as a gambling machine

That's probably all it really was anyway.

[Bullshot]

17. This was posted on this website last night.

A local did some digging and came up with the discrepancies.

It's great that it's being picked up by AP. Maybe some other news outlets will follow.

This can hardly be an isolated case, given the high correlation between exit poll discrepancies in precincts using electronic voting machines that has been reported in earlier posts.

At first, I didn't want to go there. I've tried to accept the contention that Bush drew more voters because they campaigned on emotional issues which attracted more voters. But it's becoming increasingly difficult to do, given the steady news of voting discretions in Ohio alone. What about Florida and some of the other swing states?

[Sperk]

18. Exhibit A

print this out and the comming reports (praying there are some)
and carry with you-share with all you can

[Ganja Ninja]

19. Correct me if I'm wrong but Ohio results have not ...

been certified yet have they? Is there a recount underway?

[LisaL]

25. There is no re-count. This was an obvious error because

it's impossible for Bush to get more votes than there were actual voters. Are there any more errors that are not so obvious?

[Chimpanzee]

20. A comuter error? The bastards have already covered

their tracks on this one. All media will believe the story (alot of people are computer-phobic so this explanation will work just fine for them.

[chelaque liberal]

26. Everyone (Repugs included) should be concerned

that our voting system is accurate. Voting is the basis of the Democracy that we feel obligated to spread to the rest of the world.

[FlaGranny]

50. I have a sneaky suspicion though that

if Diebold was owned by a group of Democrats who promised to "get the vote" for a Democrat, Republicans would get very interested.

[iowa_democrat]

21. how come

computer errors never favor democrats? or just voting errors in general? you never hear of ballot problems in repub precincts. spoiled ballots, etc. oh. that's why. never mind.

steve

[LisaL]

23. Well, I wonder-how many such erroneous voting machines are

in Franklin county? Other counties? And even paper ballots can be stolen because in the end everything is counted by the tabulator (computer). Without a re-count, how do we know?

[Gman]

27. Nothing to see here...

keep moving.

You! Papers! Your papers, NOW!

[maddezmom]

28. what kind of machine was used?

[LisaL]

34. Electronic voting machine.

[maddezmom]

38. sorry, I meant which type of electronic...UniLect, Diebold, etc

:)

[LisaL]

42. It's some old electronic voting machine.

Danaher electronic voting machine
Not Diebold. But it's still paperless and a computer.
And if just one voting machine can give Bush almost 4,000 extra votes-well, think about it.

[maddezmom]

99. thanks, lizzy

weird isn't it, so far haven't heard any reports of a + in the Kerry column. :shrug:

[YDogg]

29. Computer error ...

... only error is that is was discovered, probably. Bastards. This may have been repeated nationwide.

[LisaL]

40. It was discovered because it's impossible to get

more votes than there are actual voters. If there were more voters, we would never know. Still trust those paperless electronic voting machines?

[lanparty]

66. Republicans are like card cheats ...

They do it rampantly, and when they're caught it's just an "error" or a "mistake"!!!!

[symphony]

108. well put

"the only error is that it was discovered" :yourock:

[Renew Deal]

31. Can we have the whole joint recounted now.

:wtf:

[Sara Beverley]

33. If everything on those E-voting machines were checkout Bush will not

have won the popular vote. Believe it!

[Spangle]

35. Great Job!

A fast find and you got the media to print it. Those two things are amazing! This is exactly what we gota do folks. Gather the data and report it.

[Roland99]

37. I sure hope bbv.org's FOIA suit moves quickly!

[lefthandedskyhook]

39. For the sake of humanity...

may this be the tip of the iceberg that overthrows these monsters.

[LisaL]

41. There is no way to prove-no paper receipt.

But all those paper ballots in OH could have been re-counted. They are still in the end added up on a tabulator (a computer) so don't think just because it's a paper ballot, it can not be stolen.

[lanparty]

67. Quit saying RECEIPT!!!!

Countless slips of paper distributed in random places do us NO FUCKING GOOD. It is a paper printed BALLOT authenticated by the voter that we need!!

[VegasWolf]

110. Actually maybe! I have my receipt from my polling place and

printed on it is the number my ballot was assigned.
It would be fantastic if i could look at the tabulated vote
associated with that number. If it says awol, I
could scream bloody hell.

[lizzieforkerry]

43. Does anyone have the data that shows exit polls for

punch card counties vs electronic counties in Ohio? Or know where I can find it? We're down to 133,000 votes now! Does anyone know if they have counted the absentee ballots yet? I think we can still win Ohio or at tleast get the lead down to where they have to do a state recount and then get sued in court because of the electronic voting.

[TahitiNut]

44. Danaher (Guardian) ELECTronic 1242

Name / Model: ELECTronic / 1242 (a/k/a Shouptronic 1242)
Vendor: Guardian Voting Systems, Inc. (division of Danaher Controls, Inc.)

Federally-Qualified Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail Capability: None.

November 1998: Ohio. In Franklin County, “Votes for congressional candidates were incorrectly tabulated in 95 of the county's 735 voting precincts because memory cartridges did not match ballot faces for 371 voting machines.”

June 1992: Ohio. 40 out of 758 machines used in Franklin County had problems that required service. Seven memory cartridges could not be read and were entered in by hand. Finally, there were problems combining DRE results with hand-entered lever machine results.


http://www.verifiedvoting.org/article.php?id=5179

[LisaL]

60. Yep.

I voted on one of those monstrosities.

[SmokingJacket]

45. Iceberg. Tip of. n/t

[berni_mccoy]

49. The DON'T EXPLAIN THE ABSENTEE Ballots

There were two distinct "districts" of ABSENTEE ballotts, both favoring Bush and Both with Identical values (and it looked like on other election issues, the numbers were purposely modified by 1 vote to not raise suspicioun). go to page 34 of the PDF file and you'll see what I mean.

[RuleofLaw]

51. Computer errors

I am not a computer expert, but something is not right.
When most people hear computer error, they properly think like, me to their own experience with a computer, i.e a crash.

But this is not a crash. This is a miscalculation. I have never experienced with my computer that it turns out an incorrect result!

Has anyone ever experienced a computer error where the calculation is wrong?

And this is pretty simple calculation. Its one simple function: addition!

[TexasChick]

53. No, this is not a crash. These were all programmed. Computers do what

you program them to do. And, I can't remember the type of voting machines these were, but the CEO was jailed for voter fraud one year. So, what does that tell ya?

[demjomr313]

54. i am a computer systems manager -

for a small company - i work with programmers and definitely had my doubts about the electronic voting machines. people call me paranoid - i say i am just informed and the three rules:

#1.QUESTION EVERYTHING
#2.TRUST NO ONE
#3.BE PARANOID
#4.THERE ARE ONLY THREE RULES

AND the more we say on this site, and the more brilliance that radiates from it - the more the righties are going to STEAL - so be very cautious about revealing your "smarts"

[peekaloo]

61. Welcome to DU.

:hi:

Me hopes the righties are too busy rolling in their own smugma to take us seriously.

[Straight Shooter]

80. "smugma"

Bwahahahahahahaha! First smile I've had today. Still not laughing yet.

thanks, peekaloo

[berni_mccoy]

63. I'm a enterprise software systems consultant

And I wholeheartedly agree.

If we don't change this voting system... we are truly screwed.

[anotherginger]

111. I'm just a programmer....

and even I know enough not to trust these machines... at work we would *never* depend on just raw numbers without some kind of process/numbers to back them up.

Why do we have lower expectations of our government?

oh, never mind......

[Tight_rope]

55. A man voted straight Democratic ticket twice and it still showed up

that he voted for Bush. This happened here in Houston, TX. This election was stolen again. I'm totally convinced.

[demjomr313]

56. the plain and simple fact -

that there was to be no paper trail - is absolutely LUDICROUS
(sp?)

[lanparty]

69. It's ludicrous that Kerry conceeded ...

Kerry could have vaulted this issue to the front page. Instead he tucked his tail like a typical Democratic coward and ran under the pretense of dignity!!!

Kerry is dead to me now!!!!

[henslee]

58. KICK. Is this not the opening needed to count the votes?

[CrispyQ]

59. More of the same . . .

http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/1104-07.htm

[0007]

62. Its leaking slowly...how many more can we find?

[oasis]

100. kick

[kwolf68]

74. OK

I have been avidly promoting the idea that DU was just sour grapes and we had no reason to suspect this election was fixed.

I have ignored everything I have seen up to this point. But THIS...has me back to thinking.

[realisticphish]

77. same here

even if it turns out there wasnt any fraud, though i think it is highly possible, there certainly needs to be a drastic and sweeping change of electoral methods

:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[Starlight]

86. Exactly. We need a voting system we can trust.

There shouldn't be a need for us to have doubts about election results. We shouldn't have to question our vote was counted or whether some people voted multiple times or whether the computer software was preprogrammed for a certain result or whether minority voters were turned away. This isn't even about *this* election; it's about *every* election. Do we EVER want to have fair elections? Then we have to act. NOW! BEFORE another election is stolen from us. BEFORE more disenfranchised voters totally give up & stop voting. We can't waste any more time waiting for the government to fix the problem. They've made it very clear that they don't want fair elections. It's up to us to FORCE a change in the system if we ever want to have a voice in our own lives.

[Quadrajet]

78. Same here....I was skeptical but now being swayed a bit.

[delete_bush]

76. Why does it take a citizen reading the results

two days after the election to discover the error? Shouldn't there be a part of the process or program that flags a precinct that produces more votes than voters? Aren't there any checks and balances? I mean, besides the checks from the RNC made out to the election commissioners.

[CBHagman]

81. There were problems in Florida, too.

I have anecdotal evidence of a machine relentlessly registering a ballot for Bush, despite the voter's intention to vote otherwise. I don't know how they corrected it, but the error was obvious.

[Dancing_Dave]

82. SAME SHIT ALL OVER THE COUNTRY!!!

Especially wherever the vote was expected to be close!

Disenfranchizement and electoral fraud are not new in American politics, but this is by far the largest and most systematic criminal campaign of it ever! :grr: :tinfoilhat:

[MyUncle]

84. Red Herring Alert.

Find a few little problems. DECLARE THEM. "Fix" them. Show how thorough they are and how the system "works". No results are reversed, Bush stays President.

Sigh.

[fryguy]

85. how many more "errors" are out there?

kee-rist!

[XNGH]

87. What a friggin wuss

What the hell is wrong with Kerry. He should have fought this to the end. When the repugs' stole 2000 at least there was a fight ... what the FUCK is this not fighting now

[dhinojosa]

88. WHY THE FK DID KERRY CONCEDE!!?!?!?!

GAH!

Time for one last flip-flop!

[Nordic]

89. kick

[Guaranteed]

91. Make that a 132,500 vote difference, now. nt

[Polly Glot]

92. Please rate this story a 5 on Yahoo!

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041105/ap_on_el_pr/voting_problems

Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes

COLUMBUS, Ohio - An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush (news - web sites) 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 (news - web sites)'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.


* * * * * *

If this story is else where in LBN, I apologize, but I didn't see it. Please please rate it, it's only at 3.55 now.

[BlueNomad]

93. Excellent!!!!

A caller just brought this very issue up on TALK OF THE NATION, NPR --88.95(east coast right now, show on electronic and black box problems...)

[Carolinian]

94. What? No errors in Kerry's favor??? I don't believe it!!!!

Not

[dhinojosa]

95. Multiply the approx error of 4000 by the 25 counties

and you have 100,000 votes removed from Bush's favor. A thorough investigation needs be on its way.

[Sleepless In NY]

97. Its on Yahoo..Please Rate it a 5! Thank You!

Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes

COLUMBUS, Ohio - An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush (news - web sites) 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush (news - web sites) 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041105/ap_on_el_pr/voting_problems

Its on Yahoo's home page too,..Please rate it a 5..as many times as you can, maybe it will get some attention.

[dhinojosa]

98. I CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH>>>MAKE NOISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look we need to make noise about this like the republicans often does. I have sent a request to CBS News <60 minutes> to investigate. I recommend that everyone make noise to 60 minutes, MSNBC, you local stations, hell even FOX. The louder we are the less we are ignored.


Here are a couple of the links posted on DU that show the same behavior about these voting machines, and I think we will find more.

http://www.newbernsj.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=18297&Section=Local
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10103910.htm

[BUSHOUT]

101. what's an "official canvass"?? Used in this sentence:

"He said the error would have been discovered when the official canvass for the election is performed later this month."

What is that and is it going to be done everywhere?

[President Kerry]

102. DONATE to Bev Harris NOW!! We owe it to ourselves

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

$5 EACH .. COME ON!!!!! We're not going to watch this monumental injustice done to us now, ARE WE????

Thanks

[B Calm]

103. This election was stolen! I use to love this country!

Damn this makes me sick to my stomach.

[Deja Q]

106. This incident should force a nationwide investigation.

Oh, wait, this is America: Land of immoral fascists. They sure as hell won't do what's right because they'll lose their jobs.