BREAKING: E-MACHINES FAIL! TX PRIMARY RECOUNT HALTED BY SEC OF STATE!

[BradBlog]

BREAKING: Texas Primary Recount Halted By Secretary of State!
Hart Intercivic Touch-Screen Voting Machines in Tom Green County Fail To Print Ballots for All Votes in Mandated Recount!
REPORT: 'Electronic machines not providing all info', 20% Discrepany Between Recount and Election Night Results!

Just reported by San Angelo (TX) Standard Times is information that the Texas Sec. of State has stepped in and stopped the recount of ballots being printed from the Hart Intercivic "eSlate" Direct Recording Electronic (DRE), touch-screen, voting machines. The stoppage of the recount is due to failure of the voting machines to print all ballots cast in the state primary two weeks ago.

On orders from the Texas Secretary of State’s office, the recount for the Tom Green County Court-at-Law No. 2 race has been suspended midway through its second day.

About 1:30 p.m. today, county Republican Chairman Dennis McKerley stopped the recount after workers found discrepancies of as much as 20 percent between what was counted Monday and what was reported Election Night.

"We’re having some trouble with the electronic equipment," McKerley said...

COMPLETE STORY:
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002583.htm

ADDITIONAL BRAD BLOG BACKGROUND STORIES...
-- Sec. of State Was Warned: Hart InterCivic Whistleblower's 2004 Report
-- Trouble in Tarrant County: 100,000+ Extra Votes on Hart Machines in Tarrant TX Primary
-- March 7, 2006 TX Primary: Loads of E-Voting Problems Across State

[NMDemDist2]

1. K & N n/t

[IndyOp]

2. Hail Mary, full of grace...

When I am scared and hopeful and in need of miracle - I revert to my Catholic upbringing.

:scared: :bounce: O8)

[EFerrari]

12. I do, too. And it usually involves asking a woman to bail me out.

Lol

[lavendermist]

23. I just keep thinking of Andy when I read this

:cry:

[MissWaverly]

28. I dreamed about him the other night

I dreamed that he dropped down out of the ceiling onto my couch. I saw him and started
laughing, I said I heard of people dropping in but you are ridiculous. He laughed and
said, tell me what's going on at DU. I don't remember what I said, but I remember
laughing a lot.

Miss Waverly
:-)

[lavendermist]

30. I'll bet he knows

:)

[MissWaverly]

35. Yes, I think he does

:-), Andy truly loved the people here!

[EFerrari]

37. What a great dream.

:)

[MissWaverly]

38. Thanks!

[Trevelyan]

81. I think of Andy a lot. Especially with that cute picture of him as a

child taking a bath. It is good to remember our heros. :patriot: :grouphug:

[MissWaverly]

82. whenever we get tired of the bushbots remember Andy

Andy who passionately believed that our voting system could be saved.

:-)

[EFerrari]

36. Sweetie, I talk to Andy every day. He's still on our side.

:hug:

[MissWaverly]

40. Well, you know he liked to talk!

:-)

[EFerrari]

44. Andy was a great teller of stories. lol

[MissWaverly]

73. Yes, he left a legacy of kindness and a crusade for

voter verified paper ballots

[Donailin]

78. You know it's funny. .

but all I keep thinking is that the effort to make the public aware and change the entire privatized voting process by us -- the people who spend countless hours paying close attention -- won't compare to the effect of a massive malfunction that will occur when the evil-doers who steal elections get plain sloppy.

THAT'S when the issue will be front and center on the evening news. It's just true: liars and cheaters and murderers always get caught not by whistleblowers, but by their own carelessness because they get over confident.

[malaise]

79. I think a lot of interested parties

were quietky reading about the "Liebold" (or Bold lie) machines and are watching very carefully. They will not get away with 2004 again.
Edit -sp and add.

[MissWaverly]

22. 5 Hail Mary's and 5 Our Fathers

the standard Catholic penance, though I think since we have had Lent since November of
2000, 1 Hail Mary is enough.

:-)

[goclark]

26. the Lord is with US too nt

:bounce:

[Teaser]

3. Tom Green County?

figures.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. On the contrary. I'm sure they're working as planned.

Nothing to see, move along.

[MissWaverly]

42. In Chicago, they are working fine too

one machine counted every Republican vote, it counted none of the Democratic votes
so out of 57 votes in a heavy Democratic precinct the total is

Republicans = 7
Democrats = 0
Total votes = 57
they are going to take all the Democratic votes in a lock box done to central office
to be tabulated.

Of course when we said things went blooey in 2004, we were just left wing lunatics.

[ooglymoogly]

67. who could have anticipated this, i'm shocked i tell you

thanx to brad blog for shinning a light under the rocks these treasonous bstrds climb out from under. k&r

[MissWaverly]

72. Thanks to all who continue to fight this fight

They thought we would roll over in 2004 just like 2000, we did not, we will never give up
and we will never give in. Still fighting for election reform.

[Richard Steele]

71. Yup, all is well!

[Botany]

5. Trouble with the equipment ....

.... so that is what the kids are calling it.

I guess having an extra 100,000 votes in one precinct or county (?) might have
been a tip.

How about for 06 we write down our votes on paper and put the paper in a box
and count the votes 2 the end of the day?

[SammyWinstonJack]

57. Like we used too do? Great Idea, but then how would the repugs

"win" any elections? :evilgrin:

[Ready4Change]

6. So, any discrepancies on WHICH votes aren't being printed?

Wouldn't happen to be dropping any specific person or parties votes, would they?

[nini]

7. God Dammit.. I can fucking write something that works right

what total bullshit this is.

It's not that hard to write a reliable program that checks itself. Why in holy hell can't we get a bipartisan group to create, monitor and take care of this?????? I know why - they can't steal the elections this way - it just makes me nuts they try and act like it's so difficult to create a method that works and is reliable.

fuckers.. every god damned one of them.. :grr:

[niallmac]

27. Exactly! We can put a satellite in orbit around Mars but we can't

count votes reliably? Is this feat more difficult than the Manhattan Project?
Has mankind finally met it's match?
Or is it just too effing obvious the machines are intended to finesse democracy away from the people?
Enter Joe Blue Collar Republican (god help us) and he says "say what's with the voting machine probs?"
Enter Joe Republican Party Leadership: "Hey, look over there. Gay people are trying to live in peace! Kill them."

[nini]

49. ATMs are pretty accurate

geeeeee.... I wonder how they ever got that to happen?

I only hope this wakes some people up. I'll keep my fingers crossed this will be a blessing in disguise.

[LeftHander]

59. They are programmed to what tthey are supposed to....

To allow for the manipulation of election results.

The big problem is that to write a honest system is not hard. To write a system designed to cheat adds a lot more complexity.

[woodsprite]

61. Because all of them get "suicided" before they patent/market it. n/t

[Pacifist Patriot]

68. I'll be happy to make a fortune selling them a system that works.

[uppityperson]

8. good

[katinmn]

9. Wow. Bet you are gearing up for a long night. Primaries in many states

Imagine there will be lots more stories of machine failures tonight and tomorrow.

[Immad2]

10. So- did tom "I am the government" delay actual win his primary challenge?

Is there going to be a recount??

[Sydnie]

14. Please let it be that he can't prove he won!

That would be sawwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeet!

[Jane Austin]

32. Tom Green County is in West Texas. Delay's district is in Southeast Texas.

n/t

[Peace Patriot]

11. "Houston, we have a problem..."

'We’re having some trouble with the electronic equipment,' McKerley said."

About to be another famous understatment, I think.

-----

Just announced--breaking news:

www.VoterAction.org is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the Diebold "certification".
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496

-----

Some other resources for American Revolution II:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors). http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Also of interest:

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy!)
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Bob Koehler's latest: "Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

------------------------------------------------

Throw Diebold, ES&S and all election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:

[Rainscents]

13. What a fucking mess!

What else is new with these machines?

[C_U_L8R]

15. A 20 Percent Discrepancy !!!!! Holy Cow !!

There's no defending that !!
What a fucking mess INDEED !!!

[mom cat]

20. Even for Texas, that is kind of obvious.

:bounce:

[Dinger]

39. That's HOLY FUCKING Cow!!

Whee!!! Well, let's go with ti folks! In the words of KKKarl,"Fuck 'em hard, fuck 'em till they bleed."


The pugs that is.


Can't remember where he said this. I think it was when he was giving a lecture at a university somewhere. Sorry, I don't have a link, but I did read this once.

[BrightKnight]

16. NBC reported that a Machine had been stolen in Dallas.

They reported this before the election. They said that it had been disabled at the Central tabulator and could not be used to hack the election. That sounded like a bold claim to me with no explanation. The station normally just reports Repug talking points.

-----
The SOS placed a number of ads before the election glowing about how great the new technology was. I am not sure why the SOS would need to use tax revenue to sell a secure system.

-----
I have an interesting letter from Kay Bailey Hutchison. She explains that she is on the elections committee and is in favor of election reform but is concerned about doing anything that might expose the anonymity of the voter. I am not sure why she would throw a straw man at me.

[MissWaverly]

24. wasn't it preloaded with memory cards

couldn't they be reprogrammed and fed in on the sly to other machines?

[BrightKnight]

47. It plugged into the top of the last black box I used.

It would be very easy to replace the cartridge in a private voting booth.

[MissWaverly]

77. Of course, with any predetermined total they wanted

[babylonsister]

17. May this fly through the state! Another rec'd! nt

[HuffleClaw]

18. merely an 'unfortunate glitch' or two, or three, or four...

nothing to worry about folks, move along, move along.

[many a good man]

19. Twenty percent discrepancy!!! That's ballsy.

That means they flipped 10%. Normally they play it safe and stick to 1-1.5%, or a handful per precinct.

They are bolder in Texas, I guess.

[0007]

48. Lot of moxie here in Texas, nothing but a bunch of straight up and down

asshole trying to fuck themselves even.

[AndyTiedye]

50. They Flipped 30% in Ohio Last November

2-1 FOR real elections in Ohio
got turned into
2-1 AGAINST.

Biggest discrepency in the history of polling and nobody batted an eyelash.

[IndyOp]

58. How in the world do you know normal is 1-1.5% ? Not to jump on you...

Just to challenge your thinking -> The greater the percentage of votes they move, the less the risk of having an automatic recount triggered or requested, right?

So, if a race is close 48%/52% -- they can flip it to 52%/48% or to 58%/42%.

The bigger the shift, the less likely the recount, and if voter verified paper ballots don't exist or are not audited (counted no matter the outcome) there is nothing anyone can do after the fact.

The 'old rules of thumb' about stealing elections don't apply to the electronic systems.

:grr:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

21. I hope this is the beginning of getting the truth out about....

...our elections since the 2000 presidential election.

[caligirl]

25. Just forwarded the info to Cali.'s SOS who recently approved these

remember, McPhearson uses Friday afternoons for dumping news he doesn't want us to know about. CC'd state Sen. Debra Bowen

Fortunatly he is getting sued for this .

[NYC]

31. California Sued Over Diebold Voting Systems.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032106R.shtml

Excerpt:

"In certifying the Diebold machines, the secretary has sidestepped his duty to deny certification to voting systems that violate state and federal standards," Dolores Huerta, a co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America and plaintiff in the case, said in a statement. "Diebold systems have failed in security tests and in communities around the country."

The lawsuit seeks to block the purchase of the TSX systems and a reversal of the secretary of state's certification.

[caligirl]

34. Just sent all the info to a politics and gov' reporter,JBrewer, in

Sacramento for the San Fran. Chronicle. Included a link to McPhearson's pdf announcement of approval for these Hart dre's.

[NYC]

29. This is welcome news.

I hope for more of it.

[Patsy Stone]

33. Excellent!

K&R

[iconoclastNYC]

41. If the Ohio recount is any guide

They'll have to call in the vendor to "recalibrate" the machines, "cheatsheets" in hand. And the recount will show that election night results were a-ok.

[antigop]

43. Yet-- Star-Telegram article says "deadline passes w/o recounts requested"

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/14149644.htm

>>
Despite lingering concerns about electronic voting, no local candidate sought a recount of the March 7 primary election results by Monday's deadline, local officials said.
Several candidates had indicated that they were considering asking for a recount, which could
cost up to $4,500 for a countywide race, after a computer programming glitch on election night counted some votes multiple times and boosted the tally in both primaries by as much as 100,000 votes.
>>

[alfredo]

45. Crapola! Those are the machines we are using here.

The county just bought them.

[Mrspeeker]

46. Thanks again Brad

love your Blog!

[Wilms]

51. K&R

[loudsue]

52. Let's keep this kicked & bookmarked....and everytime the damned

naysayers show up to say "oh cummon, tinfoilhatters, elections ARE safe!", we can just post this link and let 'em suck on it.

Of course, if any of them bothered to read (if they know HOW to read) they wouldn't be naysayers, now, would they?

:kick::kick::kick::kick:

[Up2Late]

53. Yeaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaah!

:toast: :woohoo: :spray: :rofl: :popcorn: :applause: LOCK EM UP!

[liberal N proud]

54. How do we stop them from using them elsewhere?

We can't let these machines use to continue.

[cat starbuck]

66. knock 'em over?

"oh dear....WHOOPS!!"

[BlueCollar]

55. 11 of us voted against certifying the results in Tarrant County

but we lost 68-11.

I feel vindicated now.

[rman]

56. E-voting is not rocket science

You got to put in some effort to not have it work as it should.

[Toots]

60. Stopping the recount...Doesn't that sound familiar?

It doesn't say they are throwing the election out only the recounts. I believe the recount was showing the Republican wasn't really rhe winner so the recount had to be stopped. When they throw the machines in the bay and go with complete Paper Ballot counted by human beings then I will know there is fairness. Not until.

[MissMillie]

62. Why has this not been picked up by any news outlets?

I'm even looking for online newspapers in TX, but I can't find the story anywhere.

[Arugula Latte]

63. Those Texans must be too dumb to vote.

:eyes:

(Not trying to start anti-Texas thing -- It's just a comment on what they said about Florida voters)

[davekriss]

64. Biggest traitors in American history

Whoever is behind the voting "gliches" that we see here and elsewhere mysteriously almost always in Republican favor, these people are actually the most serious traitors in American history. When discovered, from the lowly programmer to the highest executive to complicit elected officials, all whould be punished accordingly. As I don't believe in the death sentence, life in prison without parole is in order. Why?

Because the sanctity of the vote is the lynchpin upon which liberal democracy stands!

Without it we become just one more banana republic serving our corporate overlords.

[donkeyotay]

65. Remember all the giggling tee vee personalities going on about chads?

Ho. Ho. Hanging chads. Yes, Merca, you need to spend your money to let Republican defense contractors count your votes. It'll be so modern! No more of those embarrassing hanging chads.

[BrightKnight]

69. suppressing the vote, demoralizing campaigns, and fund raising

I fear that actual fraud is only part of the e-voting problem.

It could be used to suppress the vote, demoralize campaigns, and cause fund raising problems.

---------

It could also backfire and have the opposite effect. Help the underdog because those guys are playing with a stacked deck. This is just another symptom of the culture of corruption.

[TheMadMonk]

70. Are (some) of these latest glitches cover-ups?

What we have to be careful of is that these latest "glitches/teething problems" are not a mask for earlier/other "anomolous" vote counts.

BlackBox et al need to do what they can that these fresh "results" don't become credible bricks in the edifice built by the defense in real vote fraud cases.

And another thing. Surely some of us here are decent programers. How about instead of just bitching about these useless/unreliable/dodgy/untrustworsth/etc machines, we do something constructive about it?

Let's collectively write/design an open source electronic voting system. Here's what I think is a minimum framework neccessary to build a tamperproof system.

[BrightKnight]

74. ISO or IEEE standards for processes and open source systems.

The open source voting system design idea is a good one.

I would feel much more comfortable with a global peer reviewed open source solution. Democracy is not just a US problem.

If nothing else it would save a fortune in licensing fees.
-------------

A major international standards committee like IEEE or ISO should get involved in developing standards for voting equipment and all aspects of the voting process.

Even if the standards are not adopted directly thy will put pressure on governments worldwide to assure free and fair elections.

[TheMadMonk]

76. Whatever works

[jsamuel]

75. elections with theses machines are a farce

[Trevelyan]

80. Thank you Brad for keeping on this story. NOTHING MATTERS IF OUR VOTES

DON'T COUNT!!

[MetaTrope]

83. Will Texas ATMs hand out 20 percent more cash than you're withdrawing?

That might make Texas worth visiting...as briefly as possible.

[goforit]

84. Hmmmm....will this affect El Tomo DeLay???