Massachusetts machines and Tuesday's Diebold selection...

[mother earth]

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7650
Easily Hacked Diebold Systems to Decide 'Toss-Up' U.S. Senate Special Election in MA on Tuesday
My full coverage is now posted at Upstate NY's Right-leaning Gouverneur Times...
Since writing today's piece for Upstate New York's right-leaning Gouverneur Times, a new poll has come out this morning showing the Republican Scott Brown now leading the Democrat Martha Coakley by 4 points in the race for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by a Democrat named Kennedy for nearly 60 years.

As of last night, when I filed the story with them, the latest survey from a Democratic-leaning pollster showed Coakley up by 8, though a day or two earlier, Republican Rasmussen had Brown down only by 2 points.

Suffice to say it's now officially "a toss-up," at least according to the Rothenberg Political Report, and to all the Dems and Reps now sweating out what was previously thought to have been an easy Democratic win.

With the 60th "filibuster-proof" Senate seat now hanging precariously in the balance, I'm sure you'll be delighted to hear that the winner will now be whoever Diebold declares it to be. The near-entirety of the state will vote next Tuesday on paper ballots to be counted by Diebold op-scan systems. The same ones used dubiously in the New Hampshire Primary in 2008, and the same ones notoriously hacked --- resulting in a flipped mock election --- in HBO's Emmy-nominated Hacking Democracy.

And to make matters even worse, the notorious LHS Associates --- the private company with the criminal background that has admitted to illegally tampering with memory cards during elections, and which has a Director of Sales and Marketing who embarrassed himself with obscene comments here at The BRAD BLOG some years ago, resulting in his being barred from CT by their Sec. of State --- sells and services almost all of MA's voting machines along with those in the rest of New England.

Read my detailed coverage of the entire sad affair over at Gouverneur Times today. And yes, here we go again...


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Don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but our democracy has long been dead. I make the prediction that Brown will be triumphant, no matter how many of us vote in the democrat. Our vote is not counted, our vote has been rigged, for how long...who knows? But there has been not one thing done to prevent or acknowledge the vulnerability of the vote. Why? Because the gov't has been hijacked, along with everything else we value.

[Ian David]

1. There's an ES&S Machine sitting at Caffree Towers in Brockton, plugged-in and unsupervised. n/t

[mother earth]

2. No rocket science, but when there are no exit polls there is

no democracy. We've been robbed once again, and we sat and watched it all take place right here in the bluest of states and around the country, we scorned Coakley for her vacation, hell, she could've brought out all the guns, gone at it hot and heavy, and we still would've been robbed from her. They came out in droves, just like they did for Gore, just like they did for Kerry. When are we ever going to learn, that he who counts the vote holds all the power. Those machines are weapons of mass deception.

This is what we get because we have not demanded election reform. We deserve the screwing we got, and expect more.

The teabagging has just begun, and the joke is on all of us. They gave that group it's hideous sexual slang name, because it is the one thing that is transparent, teabagging us all, the whole gullible country.

[Kat45]

3. Exit polls were never planned and set up because no close race was expected

Everyone really did think it would be a Democratic cakewalk until a couple of weeks ago.

[mother earth]

4. The lack of exit polling after two stolen presidential elections

is the most idiotic thing ever. Have we developed amnesia? There has not been one thing to ensure the sanctity of the vote.

Bev Harris is reporting Coakley won in areas where handcounts were done.

I can't even begin to believe how f'd up our thinking has become, how complacent we have become, looks like we got a huge (well deserved) slap in our amnesiac faces.

We knew this was going to be close, we knew it and Coakley knew it. I feel like even the lack of exit polls here in MA, is yet another example of how we believe in the illusion of democracy, heck we are ALL about illusion. We don't actually practice it, we like to look like we do. WTF? That's all I can say, and maybe it's necessary for a true awakening, to realize how much like sheep we have become. I guess it's all gotta fall, so that we can learn what real democracy is & what a real economy should be, what really being represented means.

It breaks my heart that Ted Kennedy's seat is going to be occupied by the selected. This is the real reason many people don't vote, because no matter what you do, we are controlled by TPTB & we don't yet get it, with all the proof that's available, right in front of our faces. The previous eight years we were ruled by the selected president, have we forgotten that?

WOW, how f'd are we? Major denial, what's it going to take?

[pipi_k]

5. "Bev Harris is reporting Coakley won in areas where handcounts were done. "

Well, she's not entirely correct. Handcounts were done in my town. I'm sorry to say that Brown won by a large margin here, which was surprising, but I don't suspect anything sneaky happened here...


:shrug:

[mother earth]

6. Read this info, I don' know about your precinct...

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
Back to Massachusetts, I think you have a right to know that Coakley won the hand counts there.

That's right.

According to preliminary media results by municipality, Democrat Martha Coakley won Massachusetts overall in its hand counted locations,* with 51.12% of the vote (32,247 hand counted votes) to Brown's 30,136, which garnered him 47.77% of hand counted votes. Margin: 3.35% lead for Coakley.

Massachusetts has 71 hand count locations, 91 ES&S locations, and 187 Diebold locations, with two I call the mystery municipalities (Northbridge and Milton) apparently using optical scanners, not sure what kind.

ES&S RESULTS

The greatest margin between the candidates was with ES&S machines -- 53.64% for Brown, 45.31% for Coakley, a margin for Brown of 8.33%. It looks like ES&S counted a total of 620,388 votes, with 332,812 going to Brown and 281,118 going to Coakley. Taken overall, the difference -- 8.33% Brown (ES&S) added to 3.35% Coakley (Hand Count) shows an 11.68% difference between the ES&S and the Hand Counts. Of course, as Mark Twain used to say, there are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics. These statistics don't prove anything, and probably shouldn't be discussed without a grain of salt handy before examining more detailed demographics.

As a point of reference, however, in the Maine gay marriage issue recently there was no significant overall difference between machine count and hand count locations.

DIEBOLD RESULTS

Diebold's results are 51.42% for Brown, with 791,272 Republican votes counted by Diebold, vs. 47.61% for Coakley, with 732,633 Democratic votes counted by Diebold, for a spread of 3.81% favoring Brown.

LATE-REPORTED RESULTS

It's always interesting to watch hand counts beat machine count results to the newspaper.

In the Massachusetts special senate election, results from six of 71 hand count locations were reported about 2 1/2 hour... More

[mother earth]

7. The interesting thing is that she was way up in polls until very

recently. Had you ever heard of Scott Brown before this? Been here my entire life and this bozo comes out of nowhere.

I'm sorry, but without exit polls there's no safeguards in place.

[pipi_k]

9. How many people had heard of Barack Obama before he surged in the polls?

Things like that happen.

Really...if I even suspected a hint of a scam, I'd be right there along with you raising a ruckus.


They won, we lost.


Maybe Brown will be a decent Senator...we don't know that. If he's not, we'll get rid of him with insulting quickness.

:)

[pipi_k]

8. I don't have a precinct...

I live in a rural town with +/- 1300 residents.

At the end of the voting process, it was shown that less than 400 voted.


It took hand counters 2 1/2 hours to count the votes. I have no reason to mistrust the integrity of the vote counters...

:shrug:

[mother earth]

10. No, not for the hand counts, the machines, that's the problem.

Now tell me where do the hand counts get turned in? Are they added by the machines, to their machine tallies? There was nothing to prove the integrity of the vote, even if some of it was legitimate, all it takes is what it took to win.

Watch Hacking Democracy, and tell me if you believe in the integrity of the vote. I don't, and I never will until it is an issue that is proven, complete with audit trails and accountability. Accountability is something we are lacking everywhere & in every thing in this country...By design.