BBV: Okay, I need help with this: Is anyone familiar with this process?

[BevHarris]

This was related to me by Peter of VotersUnite.org, a dynamite organization (http://www.votersunite.org) doing some very important work. Since I'll be in Texas shortly doing some investigations, I'm wondering if anyone can shed some more light on this. And to what extent is this process used elsewhere?

Houston, Texas:

"The absentee ballots are opened and counted by an "appointed" ballot board in Harris County, Texas. My first telephone call to find out about who was on the board was rebuffed by the election official. I will have to do a lot more reporting to find out just exactly who is appointed by whom to the "ballot board," if there are impartial observors, if the votes are even counted at all, and so on. These 'ballot boards' could be a great way to scam the election if the regular voting results are very close.

=======================

Very much related to this: My attorney, Lowell Finley, is an elections law specialist in California. He recently tried a case where they proved absentee ballot tampering. In many of the smaller races, and on many ballot questions, people leave it blank. Sometimes they just come in and vote the presidential race.

By doing an ink analysis, his legal team was able to prove that someone had grabbed the ballots with those races left blank and filled them in after the fact for their candidate.

Therefore, transparency in absentee ballot counting is of critical importance.

=======================

Anyway: Where do you know that appointed ballot counting boards count the absentee ballots? I'd like to get a list of counties so we can start making some phone calls, find out anyone who seems resistant to revealing names. Those would, obviously, be target counties for further scrutiny.

Bev Harris

[Don_G]

1. There Are 254 Texas Counties

Here's A List: http://proagency.tripod.com/ttxcounties.html

[KittyWampus]

2. Can't Help Except To

:kick:

[Senior citizen]

3. Another of my worst fears comes true.

:kick:

[Eloriel]

4. Can't help with that but just want to say again (slightly OT)

that absentee ballots are notoriously fraud-prone. In many cases they don't even get counted. They're easily lost, tossed aside, forgotten (accidentally or on purpose), and even fraudulently amended. It no doubt varies from state to state and jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

My first clue about all this was that in 2000 Jeb Bush and the FL GOP made an all-out effort to get Republicans in FL to vote absentee -- it just now occurs to me perhaps to avoid all the vote suppression techniques they had planned (among other things). What Jeb did was probably illegal (or at least IMO unethical), which was to send absentee ballots to all Republicans in FL -- with his picture, his Governor's seal and a strong encouragement to just go ahead and vote absentee.

I think a prominent Cuban American was guilty of massive absentee vote fraud in the Miami area, and he was also prominently involved in the FL GOP for 2000. I would recognize his name, I think, but don't remember it.

So I've always said that absentee ballots are NOT, IMO, a suitable alternative to voting on the damned machines.

[BevHarris]

14. Two situations re: fraudulently amending absentee ballots

The situation I've referred to elsewhere, in Napa County California March 2, proved fraudulently amended absentee ballots (but the election was not overturned, as the number of ballots found tampered was not sufficient to overturn the election). However, that matter has been referred for criminal prosecution in the California state government.

To recap -- many voters do not fill in all the ballot questions, leaving some they consider more minor blank. In Napa County, someone took a pen and voted their candidate into the ones voters had chosen not to cast a vote for. This was proven with ink analysis. Of course, when you vote at home, you get all kinds of different pens and pencils. So it is impossible to have a whole bunch of ballots with a different (but identical) ink on just one race.

=============

Potentially bigger fraud --

In all absentee -- and optical scan -- elections that I know of, the election workers are instructed to do something called "ballot enhancement."

According to Julie Anne Kempf, the former supervisor of elections in King County -- and a terrific lady who totally "gets it" about voting integrity -- there were thousands of ballots that required enhancement in each election. In her regime, these were ballots that the machine could not read -- one voter expressed his vote by dropping dabs of spaghetti on the ballot; another, by carefully cutting up the ballot so that each piece was a ballot question. Okay. In a county with a million voters, you get some weirdos, plus a lot of people who tear, overzealously fold, and otherwise mangle the ballot.

Her procedure, following state guidelines, was to have ballots recreated, saving all the mangled ones for audit, and this was done with a procedures of observers etc.

Diebold optical scans allow for automated ballot enhancement. In this case, instead of people physically taking pens and coloring in new ballots, the machine creates an enhanced ballot.

Ballot enhancement, in my opinion, is a bad idea -- even if there are 10,000 unreadable ballots. I think they should only be counted by hand.

It is simply asking for trouble to have people authorized to create replacement ballots, and having software that can create replacement "enhanced" ballots is not asking, but begging for fraud.

Bev Harris

[ParanoidPat]

5. Full Texas Election Code.....

.....in PDF and Word formats can be found here! :evilgrin:

I'll see what Title(s) / Chapter(s) / Section(s) cover this. :)

I'll get back to you shortly.

[the ether]

6. counting.....

1, 2, 3.......



me wants to know too.......

[tom_paine]

7. kick

:kick:

[RedEagle]

8. Kick

I get about three minutes on DU today, so this thread is going back up!

[loudsue]

9. Every time we turn over another rock, there are a bunch of maggots under

there!

Thanks for all you are doing, Bev. This is an issue that has been flying under the radar about Florida. There were MASSIVE republican absentee ballots.

I'm w/ Eloriel on this issue: there is, and has been, a great deal of opportunity for cheating on the absentee ballots by politically motivated workers....who are usually placed there, strategically by other politically motivated assholes.

:kick::kick::kick:

[harmonyguy]

10. Early Voting Ballot Board - Harris County

I believe that the Early Voting Ballot Boards are officially appointed by the Harris County Commissioners Court, which currently consists of:
Robert Eckels - County Judge
El Franco Lee - Commissioner Precinct 1
Sylvia R. Garcia - Commissioner Precinct 2
Steve Radack - Commissioner Precinct 3
Jerry Eversole - Commissioner Precinct 4


From reading numerous agendas of the HCCC, it would appear that whenever required, the County Clerk asks the HCCC
".....for authorization to appoint officials and approve expenses for the Central Counting Station for the joint runoff elections, and approval of publication of election notice and notice of equipment test, approval of payments for operation of the central counting station, approval of payments for election officials, staffing of the Early Voting Ballot Board, and delivery of voting equipment...."

Interestingly enough, there doesn't seem to be any 'list' of who makes up the board, either currently nor in the past - at least not that I've found - yet!

BTW, don't you just love the choice of words in the italicised section -

HG

[BevHarris]

15. Great work, Harmonyguy. And confirms the worst

What you've got is hand-picked cronies WHOSE NAMES ARE NOT MADE PUBLIC.

Thanks for the confirmation. I wonder how many other locations do this.

[TacticalPeek]

11. Kick night.

:kick:

[harmonyguy]

12. Couldn't sleep so had to kick something..... nt

HG

[Karenina]

13. And another...

:kick: