NM '04 Election Lawsuit discovery blocked: voting machines show vote shift

[Amaryllis]

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002008.htm

Plaintiffs Blocked During Discovery Phase of New Mexico '04 Election Lawsuit
Kept From Inspecting Voting Machines as Promised
Process So Far Has Revealed Votes Changed from One Candidate to Another, Disappearing All Together...

We've failed to report too terribly much on it to date, but there is a very important law suit quietly proceeding in New Mexico which is challenging the results of...

We've failed to report too terribly much on it to date, but there is a very important law suit quietly proceeding in New Mexico which is challenging the results of the 2004 Presidential Election there. The final result of that election was very close, and Election Reform advocates -- and indeed a great deal of evidence -- suggests that something was amiss there. Michael Collins wrote a good article about the suit a couple of weeks ago for New Zealand's SCOOP.

Yesterday, VoterAction.org sent out an email about some roadblocks that the plaintiffs are suddenly facing in the discovery phase of the trial. They were supposed to have been allowed to have experts inspect -- for the first time -- the Electronic Voting Machines that were used in the '04 Election, along with the actual results that they gave.

All of a sudden, Voter Action says, the county clerks have flat-out refused to permit the inspections by the plaintiff's experts. That, after some interesting evidence has already been found by the experts during discovery, like tests where they were able to see votes for one candidate being registered for their opponent (as has been so widely reported as happening in so many elections of late!) and ballots being confirmed with NO choice for President at all, which wasn't supposed to have been possible on at least one of the machine types being looked at.

Voter Action didn't post the article from their email on their website, so we'll post it here in its entirety. Check it out...

[Wilms]

1. "proprietary information"

snip

"Ms. Hanhardt also refused to allow plaintiffs experts to examine or copy electronic files containing the results of the November 2004 presidential election that were stored in the machines redundant memories. The reason? The machines store the results of public elections in a secret, proprietary format that ES&S claims as its private property. According to Ms. Hanhardt, allowing plaintiffs experts to see those results in their original form would violate the countys contract with ES&S, which prohibits disclosure of proprietary information."

snip

[Skip Intro]

4. oh bullshit - the integrity of the vote outweighs any crafty, devious

contract by these effin' snakes.

Did whoever approved these machines for NM, whatever body said ok, and whoever had the final ok - did any of them examine the contract? How could they sign something putting the the final ok on the vote to a corporation that sought/demanded the final ok on the vote? Didn't anybody ponder this before allowing it?

I agree, this should be on the font page, and should be the lead story for Monday night on all the corp media stations.

If it happened in NM, it happened all over, especially in 04, but probably in 02 as well. 00 was blatantly stolen. Kerry fucking won - he won huge.

Goddamn these enemies of democracy.

[lonestarnot]

35. Damn straight he won! President Kerry just no damn backbone!

[Quixote1818]

2. This should be put on the homepage.

This is too important to be put on the back burner.

[FogerRox]

3. keep it kicked

[Twist_U_Up]

5. nothing to see here please move along.

pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

[OG Yankee Patriot]

26. Obstruction? Denial? Non-compliance?

Sounds like Katherine Harris and Mr. Blackwell have a hand in this.

[Gregorian]

6. You cannot privatize democracy.

When the mechanism that is used to tally the votes is secret, then democracy is potentially jeopardized.

Electronic voting can work, if it is subjected to the same security standards that we expect from a bank. A nonpartisan review and mutual acceptance of rigorous standards. We got to the moon. We can vote with confidence.

Those several states that lingered well after the election night was over were the ones that have plagued us ever since. We knew...

[Porcupine]

21. They just did Brudda. And that's the truth. n/t

.

[Nothing Without Hope]

7. Related thread on this important development in the Election Forum:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x401174
Thread title (11/12, Election Reform forum): BradBlog: Plaintiffs Suddenly Blocked in New Mexico '04 Election Lawsuit

The Voter Action email, given in its entirety in the post at BradBlog, is a MUST-READ. As I see it, the fact that this sudden block of access to the voting machines AFTER the examining experts were able to duplicate "glitches" like those rreported from the 2004 presidential elections show that the paydirt is THERE. This is not the end of this, oh no indeed.

[BanzaiBonnie]

8. How do we keep this post up and running

where everyone can see it?

This is too important to let it slide anywhere. This is where our efforts must be focused.


How many places are there actual lawsuits going on? Does Rep. Conyers know about this?

[BradBlog]

9. Yup, Keep it Kicked...

...and more is on the way. So don't let 'em forget about it!

Brad

[Warpy]

39. Thanks, Brad

because here in New Mexico, we're only getting "oh and by the way" mentions of the suit on our local "news." People here know something stinks out loud about the state election commission, the local boards, the DLC governor, and everybody else who was involved in buying those stupid machines and doesn't want to get caught doing something that dumb.

When 17,000 people apparently left their toasty warm houses to go stand in line to vote for judge but skip the national election, and when Democrats swept the judge races but Bush was reported to have "won" by a margin of about 4,000 votes, we knew we'd been robbed.

Keep up the good work. It's what we live for, these days.

[blm]

25. Three in Ohio. I'm shocked that Richardson would be doing this.

Is this what Kerry was faced with from his own party? Did they tell him that night that they wouldn't cooperate?

It is just so hard for me to fathom that other Dems would be fine with machine fraud.

[Amaryllis]

33. biggest adversaries: Cathy Cox, GA. Conny McCormick, CA. Dems both.

Just heard Mark Crispin Miller speak today...the DEms are either complicit, being paid off, or in denial.

[Amaryllis]

32. If it's on Bradblog, Conyers knows. He and Brad are tight. Bradblog is

where Conyers goes when he wants to get the word out on anything.

[Tuesday_Morning]

10. K & R!

Wasn't Bill Richardson instrumental in stonewalling the effort to get a recount in NM?

[confuddled]

34. You better know he was!

And, as far as I'm concerned, he wasn't the only Democrat who allowed this fraud to happen.

[Warpy]

40. yes, he flatly refused to allow it

I keep trying to warn this board about him. He's DLC. all the way, and should NEVER be considered for the top job in Washington.

He'd make a dandy Secretary of State. Just keep him the hell away from real power.

[confuddled]

43. Bingo! n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

11. I refuse to believe New Mexico is a red state. nt

[burrowowl]

16. Well the

SE part is registered mostly Dem but the petroleum interests have them saacred for some reason. Northern NM dfinitely very Dem. ABQ has had an influx of retired Repugs looking for cheap houses from CA and elsewhere.
But, I know the early voting machines, in ABQ were Sequoias and very much defaulting to Bu$h. Whilst wearing out shoes for Kerry heard many stories from people who had already voted who managed with difficulty to vote for Kerry or who weren't sure. Many called the NM Dem Party to take action.

[DeepModem Mom]

18. Thanks for your info and insight, burrowowl -- I've only visited NM. nt

[kansasblue]

12. Australia uses open source code that the public can view.

[texpatriot2004]

13. But America doesn't, go figure. n.t

[DearAbby]

14. Kickin this important information

:kick:

[leftchick]

41. imagine that!

the USA is the only modern nation I am aware of using electronic voting machines that does not. :(

[fearnobush]

15. A must read.

And a must send to your friends and local media whores who will do nothing but hide it from the public. May be Keith O would take a peek?

[rosesaylavee]

17. We had to have some from NEW ZEALAND

break this story? Where are OUR journalists?

Spineless wonders - all of them.

[ClintonTyree]

28. Because the media doesn't want to touch it..........

just like the bushistas expected....or ordered. The MSM doesn't want to go near that can of worms and never will. We're just supposed to "accept it" and "move on"....."forget about it, there's nothing that can be done now". :eyes: Well, we COULD do that, the last election is over with and they would never change the results. But it's the NEXT election we're concerned about and the one after THAT! This shit has to stop, NOW!

[Melissa G]

19. Thanks Amaryllis! K-n-R! n/t

[Spiffarino]

20. Keep this kicked

:kick:'d and recommended. This is yet another crack in the facade of free and fair elections in the U.S. Let's steamroll the bastards.

Thanks for keeping us informed, Amaryllis.

[wisteria]

22. Face it, Richardson was already looking ahead to 2008 and

his bid for the presidency, he had no interest in helping out Kerry or even making sure the vote were counted correctly.

[bleever]

23. K&R. The machines, the machines, the machines...

[Wilms]

24. kick n/t

[freedomfries]

27. kick & rec

[Botany]

29. can somebody post 00 data vs 04

I have heard that every county that had opti scan went to bush even
the ones that went to Gore in 2000 and had more registered dems
in 04.

Some much shit went down nationally all we need is to out one and
the whole house of cards will come down. Although * is sinking even
without the election fraud story being on the front burner.

[Independent_Liberal]

30. We MUST kill the goddamn machines!

We must kill every last one of them if we ever want to have a real election again!

You hear me folks? Work your asses off now!

[Land Shark]

38. Roger, will do, see URL votersunite.org / info/ lehtolawsuit.asp

[randomelement]

31. NO.YOU.DON'T!

I'm beginning to think the kids gloves are going to have to come off for this one.

If they think they can hide vote fraud behind "proprietary secrets", they've got another thing coming. There are many things I'd like to say at this point (beyond the fact that my blood is boiling), but these things, unfortunately, fall in the realm of "where we dare not go" .....

The DNC simply CANNOT allow this to continue into 2006. They either challenge well before the next election OR these "HAVA your way" machines will have to become expensive boat anchors. Either way, they have to go!

Let's face it - without a real vote, this country is gone!

I've outlined in previous posts what I think should be done. They (Diebold, ESS, etc) can keep all the proprietary secrets they want regarding how they handle the machine's presentation to the voter (disadvantaged or otherwise) as long as the machine spits out a paper ballot in the end AND they make no attempt to tabulate the vote. Just add a printer (like every damn ATM Diebold sells) and disable the counters. NO.BIG.DEAL!

And if the various Supervisors of Elections throughout the country have trouble with that (counting the ballots), then they need to find another GD job!

If Canada can do it, so can we!

My two cents

[Land Shark]

36. To even DESIRE to count votes secretly is corrupt, correct totals or not.

[lonestarnot]

37. Shit my dogs could do a better job at counting the ballots than those

damn cheating machines. I would even volunteer to train some monkeys.

[Amaryllis]

44. Vote counting MUST be transparent in a democracy. No proprietary

software, period!

[randomelement]

45. Wanted to clear up a misconception

Amaryllis - please read my post again. I don't want the machines to count the vote - period. The entire idea behind HAVA was to make it easier for the disadvantaged and/or the non-English speaking members of our country to easily cast their ballot. To that end, what Diebold, ESS, Sequoia, etc have done is fine (hence my comment about their keeping their proprietary software for the "presentation to the voter"). But, I DO NOT want these machines to count the vote AT ALL - just spit out a VVPB that can then be placed in the ballot box (same as it always was) to be counted by hand later. It's something that can easily be done and won't require massive replacement of these expensive boxes (which is sure to be a complaint if/when we try to have them tossed out wholesale).

Just so we're clear - I'm with you. I don't want some damn machine tallying things up behind the scenes (I've been in software development for 25 years - I don't trust these machines as far as I can throw them, but I'm trying to chart some sort of win/win where we can all come out where we need to be)

[brindis_desala]

42. Look for fraud wherever there is a high concentration of minority voters

[Al-CIAda]

46. .