DOJ/FBI - Please Investigate This --- Tagg Romney Invested in Ohio Electronic Voting Machines

[kpete]

Oct. 18, 2012 If the Romney’s can’t win legally, they’ll take over Ohio’s electronic voting machines through investments.

The new owners of Ohio’s voting machines are owned by no other than Tagg Romney the son of one of the Candidates. By virtue of conflict of interest alone, this should be investigated by the DOJ preferably involving the addition of the FBI, Homeland Security and the CIA to ensure this connection will not endanger the vote in Ohio and other states.

As Lee Fang points out in his detailed analysis of the Romney investments

“Many of these private equity–owned companies rely on federal and state contracts, from HIG Capital’s Hart Intercivic, a voting machine company, to EnviroFoam Technologies, a biological and chemical decontamination firm that does business with the US military and is owned by Peterson Partners, a private equity firm listed in the Solamere prospectus.”

Solarmere’s tangled web of investments now includes Hart Intercivic voting machines which will be used in Cincinnati Ohio says Truth Out which could guarantee Mitt Romney the White House.

The State of Ohio is Ground Zero for the White House, in particular Hamilton County a repeat of the George Bush election in 2004

http://www.politicolnews.com/tagg-romney-invested-in-ohio-electronic-voting-machines/

The report was only released hours ago and Obama supporters already seem to be taking the news seriously. Change.org already has an online petition up and running that calls for "Attorney General Eric Holder: Investigate Tagg Romney owning voting machines in OHIO....".

Looks like things may get very interesting in the Buckeye state in the coming weeks.

http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/19137



MORE:
Guess who's counting the vote in Ohio election night??
Prominent partners and directors on the H.I.G board hail from Bain Company or Bain Capital both connected to Mitt Romney. H.I.G employees have contributed at least $338,000 to Romney's campaign. H.I.G. directors , John P. Bolduk and Douglas Berman are both major Romney fundraisers as is former Bain and H.I.G, manager Brian Shortsleeve.
http://truth-out.org/news/item/12130-will-hig-owned-e-voting-machines-give-romney-the-white-house#.
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2012/4693

The Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne Laboratory, which is a division of the Department of Energy, discovered this summer that Diebold touch-screen e-voting machines could be hijacked remotely, according to team leader Roger Johnston. Salon reported on it today, noting that as many as a quarter of American voters are expected to be using machines that are vulnerable to such attacks in the 2012 election.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20113063-245/e-voting-machines-vulnerable-to-remote-vote-changing/

[ProfessionalLeftist]

1. Where to send voting complaints to the DOJ:

http://www.justice.gov/crt/complaint/#nine

You can register a complaint, comment or send an email message to the Voting Section at [e-mail]

Chief, Voting Section
Civil Rights Division
Room 7254 - NWB
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20530

[sarchasm]

9. done

[inamatteroftime]

46. Done

[AzDar]

2. K & R & OMG

[IDemo]

3. The silence from Dems and the DOJ is chilling

This is why I won't be satisfied the election is in the bag for Obama until it's over and Binderman concedes.

[Maraya1969]

45. I just got home, read this and now I'm having a fucking panic attack.

I swear I trust the American people it's the repulicons that scare the shit out of me.

[nc4bo]

4. Done. nm

[porphyrian]

5. . n/t

[Botany]

6. If you are in Ohio .... vote early and vote on paper

n/t

[bullwinkle428]

7. So I guess little Tagg-meister is going to "take his swing" on Election night!

[sarchasm]

8. KnR!

Keep this on top DUers!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. The need for instant results is a disease. Get rid of ALL voting machines. Count paper ballots.

[beac]

11. The "but we need to start the transition!" argument infuriates me too.

No. Campaigns put together their "transition teams" months ahead of the results, so a few more days in hypothetical limbo won't hurt a damn thing.

Voting machines should be like grocery store checkouts. Vote, get a written receipt with all your choices printed on it, review and, when satisfied it reflects your intent 100%, drop it in a box on your way out. They could even be designed so the receipts could be optically scanned.


But then, it would make elections MUCH harder to steal.

[mfcorey1]

13. Kick!

[Liberalynn]

17. Exellent suggestion

[mopinko]

21. they should be glad for an excuse to take a couple days off

and get some sleep.

[DreWId]

26. WI does

In my district in Wisconsin, we get a paper printout of our electronic ballot to double-check the online summary with the printed paper ballot.
The ladies then tally those after everyone's voted and compare that to the electronic tally total.

Then again, my town is less than 2,000 people so it's a lot easier than most places to hand-count.

[beac]

32. Glad to hear it.

Hope you are the start of a naton-wide movement. Black box voting is democracy-killing.

[robinlynne]

49. can the op scan part.

[garthranzz]

12. Rachel Maddow did a segment on voter suppression & intimidation

last night.

I despise this stuff. Gore should not have conceded. Kerry should not have conceded. Tear the country apart? It's being torn apart.

We're back to the days of ghettoes if they get away with this.

This has to become a major issue. Everyone has to challenge this. Obama and Biden, Congress. Put Fox up against the wall: do they believe in America? Do they believe in the Constitution? The right of everyone to vote?

Call for an end to this crap.

Sorry, I am so angry about this.

[Blanks]

34. I would rather they catch them in the act.

The only way this is ever going to stop; is if the government catches someone in the act and prosecutes that group successfully.

If Ohio isn't enough for Romney to win it makes more sense to set them up to think they're going to get away with stealing Ohio. The Obama team wins the election; investigates the problem, tosses some folks in jail.

Republicans get a black eye from it; a better system is put in place by law. The tea party loses seats in the mid-term.

It's the best way.

[tonybgood]

14. OK, could someone please explain to me how any private citizen or corporation

can own voting machines? Shouldn't the county or the state where the machine is own them?

[mopinko]

22. often they sell them but keep

the "maintenance" contract.

[RC]

24. In Federal elections, beefed up Federal law needs to be followed.

There needs to be stringent rules and regulations on any voting/vote counting machines used in Federal elections. Private ownership needs to be forbidden. The maintenance and programing of any machines used in voting or counting votes, needs to be heavily supervised. The programing standardized and open sourced. The machines themselves need to be built to rigid standards. If those same companies can build ATM's and Los Vegas slot machines that can stand the rigid specs, why can't they do the same with voting machines?
Since these machines can also be used on local and State elections, this would also make those elections more foolproof.
Exit polls need to be reinstated. Anything more than a statical deviation between the vote count and the exit poll results, needs to be investigated.

Let other countries supervise our elections, as we insist we have the right to do in other countries.

Long prison terms for the miscreants engaged in election fraud. Break the generation to generation family organized Election fraud/crime so, prevalent in this country, since before 2000.

[femrap]

29. This is how far

Corporations have taken over our Democracy. I'm in Ohio and lived through 2004...it was horrible. We all learned then what the Corporate CEOs are willing to do.

The DOJ has to step up in OHIO. We have a TERRIBLE SoS....a disgusting Repugnant named Husted. Watch for his name. He has been trying all along to disenfranchise Black, elderly, and student voters. Hell, he just wants no Dems to be able to vote.

ETA: Welcome to DU. The world has turned upside down. These voting machines are so costly to begin with, then there is the storage costs, and the maintenance costs. Just give me a the ballot and a pencil. Thank you.

[tonybgood]

42. I'm in Ohio, also! Just decided to vote early so I can use a paper ballot!!!

[inamatteroftime]

47. Hope this news will be spread widely, demands made for paper ballots!

nt

[femrap]

53. Please tell all your friends

and family to vote early, otherwise on Nov. 6, they will forced to use the machines.

Have a 'Voting Party'...fill the car with friends, go vote, then have a party of food and BYOB!!!

Welcome to DU!

[mecherosegarden]

15. K&R N/T

[Liberalynn]

16. Bill Press and Current have picked this up

[usaf-vet]

18. Melissa Harris Perry MSNBC weekend show does....

...a voter suppression segment every weekend. Here are some of her contact addresses.
@MHarrisPerry @mharrisperry @MHPshow http://mhpshow.com

@MHPshow
The official Twitter of @msnbc's Melissa Harris-Perry (10-noon ET, weekends). Follow Melissa at @mharrisperry, and read her blog at http://mhpshow.com.

She is on both days on the weekend lets get the news out now! Time is short.

[Digit]

19. K&R

[Solly Mack]

20. K&R

[midnight]

23. No wonder the Republican party has been so busy making white noise with voter fraud allegations.

They believed that why all resources and eyes were forced to question the citizen's of this country, they could then enron the vote..

[begin_within]

25. Petition

[Berlum]

27. Darkness at the break of noon (R)

Eclipses both the sun and the moon.

[femrap]

28. Please everyone in OHIO...

VOTE EARLY! Our county votes on PAPER. I believe you can request paper if voting EARLY.

I don't think I can live through another 2004 stolen election.

DOJ should make PAPER BALLOTS MANDATORY in the state, given this conflict of interest.

[bamacrat]

30. I sent this to CNN and Maddow. n/t

[Rider3]

31. Buying an election

This guy should be nowhere near a voting machine in that capacity. The motto of the Rmoney family is LIE if it gets you what you want. They're good at it and practice it every day.

[Sunnyshine]

33. Easy for those who don't live in the areas where these machines count our votes,

to dismiss it as "paranoia and conspiracy" when in fact, we should be drawing attention to it! We know what happened under Ken Blackwell here in our state. I have spoken with people at the county election office... some of them had no clue!! So, what is the harm in speaking out about it? If anything it will increase awareness among the voters and officials, to be on the look out for potential serious problems. Our election officials in Cincinnati will now be extra vigilant of voting machine anomalies, as a result of talking about it openly. It would be harder to steal votes, if we all came out in force to point out the potential of fraud first, before it can happen. Instead of rolling eyes at it and dismissing it as nothing to see, like they did 8-10 yrs ago. Calling people names for taking action against this...now THAT is disheartening and counterproductive.

Ohio is the battleground state. They know it, we know it. Now fight like it matters!
I voted early, on paper.

[Tigress DEM]

50. I came to DU because I suspected Election Fraud in 2000

Read John Conyers "What Happened In Ohio"

Hate Ken Blackwell and his arrogant bs of not even showing up to court when he was sued for his mis-deeds.

I NOTICED that courts have been less likely to allow that to pass and not showing up has big time consequences for the haves as well as the have nots.

SOME things are getting better.

Everyone should vote on paper early and just get it done so it can't be stolen.

[flamingdem]

35. No wonder Taggster wants to deck Obama

Landslides are difficult to counter with vote flipping machines

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. Just one minor point CIA cannot be involved in CONUS

[KeepItReal]

43. Except when they *are* involved in CONUS

A CIA operative's unusual assignment inside the New York Police Department is being cut short after an internal investigation that criticized how the agency established its unprecedented collaboration with city police, The Associated Press has learned.

In its investigation, the CIA's inspector general faulted the agency for sending an officer to New York with little oversight after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and then leaving him there too long, according to officials who have read or been briefed on the inquiry. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the investigation. The CIA said last month that the inspector general cleared the agency of any wrongdoing.

The inspector general opened its investigation after a series of AP articles that revealed how the NYPD, working in close collaboration with the CIA, set up spying operations that put Muslim communities under scrutiny. Plainclothes officers known as "rakers" eavesdropped in businesses, and Muslims not suspected of any wrongdoing were put in intelligence databases.

The CIA officer cited by the inspector general for operating without sufficient supervision, Lawrence Sanchez, was the architect of spying programs that helped make the NYPD one of the nation's most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies. The programs have drawn criticism from Muslims as well as New York and Washington lawmakers.

http://online.wsj.com/article/APd99576f211314537b59503c1dc42a486.html

[jsmirman]

37. Has anyone contacted the Brennan Center?

I'd like to know what their take is on this.

[frylock]

38. not going to happen when the DOJ is focused on shutting down dispensaries..

priorities, people.

[Blue Owl]

39. He wouldn't invest in it without some kind of favorable "return," now would he?

Hmm, I wonder what that "favorable return" might be...

[burrowowl]

40. K&R!

[MelissaB]

41. K&R

[SammyBrown]

44. Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza

Lengthy but interesting read from The Nation. Link below.

http://www.thenation.com/article/170644/mitt-romneys-bailout-bonanza

[inamatteroftime]

48. The thought crossed my mind this could have very deep roots...

that we are only seeing the surface, what with the unusual inconsistencies in the polls, which, if they have tampered with the machines, would serve as a cover of sorts. At this point, I question everything. I'm pretty certain the GOP has a Plan B if it doesn't go their way. They most probably made a pledge to oust President Obama, hook or crook, which would require a Plan B.

[dchill]

51. Kick & Recommit!

[countryjake]

52. K&R!

[NOLALady]

54. K and R