Post by ChuckMSRDPost by KKTActually, it's "if you can't get the facts right, you're not well
informed." The problem is that you disagree without knowing what
you're talking about
KKT
LOL. Gee what a surprise response. You back up my statement very
well. Facts according to you is all there are. If it is not known or
affirmed by you it is not true... what an ego trip.
How is that voter fraud accusation going? Oh that was another one of
your "facts" debunked.
Vote Fraud Found in Volusia, Florida
BreakForNews.com, 17th Nov 2004
by Bev Harris, BlackBoxVoting.org
Dueling lawyers, election officials gnashing teeth, Votergate.tv film crew
catching it all. Here's what happened so far:
Friday: Black Box Voting investigators Andy Stephenson and Kathleen Wynne
popped
into [Volusia County Dept. of Elections] to ask for some records. They were
rebuffed by an elections official named Denise.
Bev Harris called on the cell phone from investigations in downstate
Florida,
and told Volusia County Elections Supervisor Deanie Lowe that Black Box
Voting
would be in to pick up our Nov. 2 Freedom of Information request, or would
file
for a hand recount.
"No, Bev, please don't do that!" she exclaimed. But this is the way it has
to
be, folks. We didn't back down.
Monday: Bev, Andy and Kathleen came in with a film crew and asked for the
FOIA
request. Deanie Lowe gave it to us with a smile, but I noticed that one
item,
the polling place tapes, were not copies of the real ones, but instead were
new
printouts, done on Nov. 15, and not signed by anyone.
I asked to see the real ones, and they told us for "privacy" reasons we
can't
have copies of the signed ones. I insisted on at least viewing them
(although
refusing to give us copies of the signatures is not legally defensible,
according to our attorney). They said the real ones were in the County
Elections
warehouse. It was quittin' time and we arranged to come back this morning to
review them.
[Elections Director] Lana Hires, an employee who gained some notoriety in a
Diebold memo, where she asked for an explanation of minus 16,022 votes for
Gore,
so she wouldn't have to stand there "looking dumb" when the auditor came in,
was
particularly unhappy about seeing us in the office. She vigorously shook her
head when Deanie Lowe suggested we go to the warehouse.
Kathleen Wynne and I showed up at the warehouse at 8:15 this morning. There
was
Lana Hires looking especially gruff, yet surprised. She ordered us out.
Well,
we
couldn't see why because there she was, with a couple other people, handling
the
original poll tapes. You know, the ones with the signatures on them. We
stepped
out and they promptly shut the door behind us.
There was a trash bag on the porch outside the door. I looked into it and
what
do you know, but there were poll tapes in there. They came out and glared at
us.
We drove away a small bit, and then videotaped the license plates of the two
vehicles marked 'City Council' member. Others came out to glare and soon all
doors were slammed.
So, we went and parked behind a bus to see what they would do next. They
pulled
out some large pylons, which blocked the door. I decided to go look at the
garbage some more. Kathleen videotaped this. A man came out and I
immediately
wrote a public records request for the contents of the garbage bag, which
also
contained ballots -- real ones, but not filled out.
A brief tug of war occurred, tearing the garbage bag open. We then looked
through it, as Pete looked on. He was quite friendly.
We collected various poll tapes and other information and asked if they
could
copy it for us, for our public records request. "You won't be going
anywhere,"
said Pete. "The deputy is on his way."
Yes, not one but two police cars came up and then two county elections
officials, and we all stood around discussing the merits of my public
records
request.
They finally let us go, about the time our film crew arrived, and we all
trooped
off to the elections office. There, the plot thickened.
We began to compare the special printouts given to us with the signed
polling
tapes from election night. Lo and behold, some were missing. We also found
some
that didn't match. In fact, in one location, precinct 215, an
African-American
precinct, the votes were off by hundreds, in favor of George W. Bush and
other
Republicans.
Hmm. Which was right? Our polling tape, specially printed on Nov. 15,
without
signatures, or theirs, printed on Nov. 2, with up to 8 signatures per tape?
Well, then it became even more interesting. Lana Hires took it upon herself
to
box up some items from an office, which appeared to contain -- you guessed
it -
-
polling place tapes. She took them to the back of the building and
disappeared.
Then, voting integrity advocates from Volusia and Broward, decided now would
be
a good time to go through the trash at the elections office. Lo and behold,
they
found all kinds of memos and some polling place tapes, fresh from Volusia
elections office.
So, we compared these with the Nov. 2 signed ones and the "special' ones
from
Nov. 15 given to us, unsigned, and we found several of the MISSING poll
tapes.
There they were: In the garbage.
So, Kathleen went to the car and got the polling place tapes we had pulled
from
the warehouse garbage. My my my. There were not only discrepancies, but a
polling place tape that was signed by six officials.
This was a bit disturbing, since the employees there told us that bag was
destined for the shredder.
By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly threatening to
charge us extra for the time we took looking at the real stuff they had
withheld
from us in our FOIA. Other lawyers appeared, phoned, people had meetings,
Lana
glowered at everyone, and someone shut the door in the office holding the
GEMS
server.
Andy then went to get the GEMS server locked down. He also got the memory
cards
locked down and secured, much to the dismay of Lana. They were scattered
around
unsecured in any way before that.
We then all agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit, discuss
the
hand count that Black Box Voting will require of Volusia County, and of
course,
it is time to talk about contesting the election in Volusia.
Bev Harris
Executive Director
Black Box Voting
Together with Andy, and Kathleen
BREAKING -- MONDAY NOV 22 2004: Florida counties stonewall records requests.
While some Florida counties have been attentive to the public interest and
have
promptly complied with our public records requests (scroll down for the Nov.
2
records request, for critical audit diagnostics), other counties have
stalled,
stonewalled, failed to comply in a timely manner, or outright refused to
provide
the records. Stay tuned for who they are and what happens next.