Suspicious death & E-Vote machine w/paper audit trail 3/2004

[texpatriot2004]

Some people here may be aware of this. I just learned it yesterday. There was someone who knew we needed a "voter verified paper audit trail" and worked to get us one. His name was Athan Gibbs, Sr. He died in a "car accident" in early 2004. His machine the TruVote is described by Fitrakis in the article below as "...Gibbs’ TruVote machine is a marvel. After voters touch the screen, a paper ballot prints out under plexiglass and once the voter compares it to his actual vote and approves it, the ballot drops into a lockbox and is issued a numbered receipt. The voter’s receipt allows the tracking of his particular vote to make sure that it was transferred from the polling place to the election tabulation center." Read the article in it's entirety, it's interesting and it's Fitrakis.

Death of a patriot
By Bob Fitrakis
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031904Fitrakis/031904fitrakis.html

<snip>

“These machines are set up to provide paper trails. No business in America would buy a machine that didn’t provide a paper trail to audit and verify its transaction. Now, they want the people to purchase machines that you can’t audit? It’s absurd.”

Gibbs was in Columbus, Ohio, proudly displaying his TruVote machine that offered a “VVPAT, that’s a voter verified paper audit trail” he noted.

Gibbs also suggested that I look into the “people behind the other machines.” He offered that “Diebold and ES&S are real interesting and all Republicans. If you’re an investigative reporter go ahead and investigate. You’ll find some interesting material.”

<snip>

Another article about Athan Gibbs, Sr.

March 14, 2004
http://www.tennessean.com/obits/archives/04/03/48330576.shtml

"After more than 1 million votes went uncounted in the last presidential election, Athan Gibbs Sr. devoted his life to making sure voters in future elections would know their votes mattered..."

[americanwhothinks]

1. WOW....thank you for posting... this story should be common knowledge.

there should be an official "untimely death" count.

Does anyone know if Paul Wellstone was doing any electronic voting investigations?

[texpatriot2004]

2. Here's a good link for suspicious deaths including Wellstone

I don't know if Wellstone was working on the E-Vote issue. The link below and articles there do indicate him as a vocal and powerful opponent of B* and the status quo politics.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2826661

I agree that the information about Athan Gibbs, Sr. is very relevant to our current issue and people ought to know about it.

[texpatriot2004]

3. By the way, the link includes a B* body count and it's quite long

[rainbow4321]

13. Yet another list

http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display_printable/77479/index.php

[texpatriot2004]

14. I didn't know about these.

It is an interesting coincidence that Tim Klausitus, Lori's husband, worked on targeting technology for missiles, in light of the fact that Lori's body was discovered within a week of George W. Bush's much-ballyhooed missile defense test. Another interesting tidbit: Rep. Scarborough sits on both the Military Construction and the Research and Development Subcommittees. Scarborough has resigned and is leaving office in November, giving his family as the reason.

Dan Rocco
He died on April 1, 2002, in a plane crash in Gainesville, Georgia. He was an executive vice president at ChoicePoint, the firm that gained infamy with their faulty "felons" list supplied to Katherine Harris during the 2000 election in Florida. As a result of this list, thousands of voters (mostly African-American voters) were wrongly identified as felons and purged from the rolls.

Katherine Smith
She had been implicated in February in a phony documents scheme said to be related to the September 11 hijackers. One day before she was due in court, she was incinerated in her car after having hit a utility pole. An investigation revealed that the crash was minor and was not the cause of the fire that burned Smith beyond recognition. Who was really behind 9/11? Was Katherine Smith privy to that information? Why did she have to die, and who killed her? Katherine Smith was killed in an �automobile accident� when her vehicle reportedly crashed into a utility pole and burst into flames. Damage to the car was minimal and the gas tank was discovered to be full and intact. The death was considered as having occurred under the �most unusual and suspicious� circumstances. One report suggested that the car had been doused with gasoline and then ignited. The next day she was to be arraigned on charges that she had supplied five of the alleged hijackers with phony licenses.

[rainbow4321]

15. History of "suicides" and election fraud/current companies

LONG article on previous voting machine issues involving the CURRENT companies involved in the 2004 election fraud..hidden deep in this long bit is another, you guessed it,"suicide"...and a body count comments.

http://okimc.org/newswire.php?story_id=379


Tony Giambelluca, who held the keys to the warehouse where the election machines were kept, turned up an apparent suicide. He had chosen to take his life behind a garbage dumpster, which seems an odd decision. Given the choice, we figure most people would choose to end their existence in a slightly more scenic locale.

The discovery that the election scandal had already consumed lives certainly quickened our interest. The sad fact is that nothing becomes a true scandal in America anymore until after the bodies begin to pile up. Voting machine tests performed and videotaped by a suspicious local candidate immediately after this election demonstrated that votes Susan Barnecker cast for herself during the test were electronically recorded for her opponent.

[texpatriot2004]

16. I think I remember seeing a video segment about Susan,

Susan Barnecker where this changing of the votes was videotaped.

Regarding Tony G. it seems someone "suicidal" would choose a place much more private to take their own life. I have only heard of one person do this in public ever...the man who drove to ground zero after B* stole the election in 2004.

[momzno1]

27. just heard somewhere that ground zero guy was

suicided as well... he was a witness to the rob Georgia fiasco... let me see if I can find the post...

[zann725]

50. He did speak up in the Senate against going to War in Iraq...

either a day or two before the plane wreck. He was one of the few Senators who did not endorse it.

[texpatriot2004]

4. kick it for the curious

[americanwhothinks]

5. KICK

[americanwhothinks]

6. kick!

[merh]

7. Maybe send this on to Conyers, minus the suspicious death

comments (let them draw their own conclusions), so that the congressman (his staff) can see that other options are available and the excuse that this is what exists and what "has worked for years" won't fly.

[Kralizec]

8. Good post. Whether he died suspiciously or not, he left a good idea

behind, and I hope that it is re-evaluated and possibly replace the republican voting machines.

[NVMojo]

9. I've read that story here before but ...paper trails don't mean a thing

if they don't get all the uncounted votes off the cartridge ...that happened in my county in Nevada. over a month after the election, while responding to a request for totals in all precincts in the county, the county mysteriously found 271 votes on three cartridges from three papertrailed, brand spanking new Sequoias. One could postulate that the guy in your article could have been killed by a competitor instead. Paper trails are worthless if you don't cross reference your machine output with the voter sign in logs. And that is just one more way to steal an election. It starts at the precinct level.

[texpatriot2004]

11. It's not just a paper trail NVMojo it's AUDITABLE. Read it again.

It's a beautiful invention. No offense. I know where you are coming from but Athan created the TruVote machine after the 2000 fiasco he knew we needed to audit. He had a background in accounting and knew that a voting machine that could not be audited was unacceptable in our Democracy.

[Stevepol]

10. This seems even more strange coming at the same time as

the case of the lady from OH who had testified about the possible rigging of machines in one county being chased and driven off the street by a couple cars, one with Maryland license plates. Could he have been forced into the path of the semi by the same bunch of thugs who tried to do the lady in? She wasn't able to make out the license plates but gave her information to Conyers I believe.

[texpatriot2004]

12. Isn't it though. I wondered if his vehicle had been mechanically

tampered with. Your question about another driver is a good one.

[texpatriot2004]

17. kick it for Athan Gibbs Sr.

[Quakerfriend]

18. Does anyone remember a DU poster named "TealVeal"?

He seemed to disappear from the boards right after the election. His name came to my mind immediately when I heard of the death of Andrew Veal, who supposedly committed suicide at ground zero.

[texpatriot2004]

19. Hmm, I wasn't here before the election. I just mentioned

that suicide earlier here today, not knowing the name of the person. Do you think it was him? TealVeal?

[texpatriot2004]

36. I googled "TealVeal" and found them at KOS posting there

since the election. Don't know if it's the same one, but could be.

[Old Mouse]

20. Thanks for posting

This helps people understand the nature of what we're up against. Please urge everyone to notch their level of paranoia up a little more. There are people worse than freepers afoot.

[Quakerfriend]

21. Well, I was new at DU

and I do remember TealVeal posting often around the Oct-Nov time period.

After he died the family said that he did not leave a suicide note, but he had been "very upset about the election".

So sad. I remember hearing that he had a good job(computer pgmr, I believe) and was engaged to be married.

[texpatriot2004]

22. Are you in contact with the family?

It seems he could have been the one since being at DU would definitely give a person lots of info on the election. Were you talking about the possibility of it being stolen then too?

[Quakerfriend]

24. Sorry, I keep stepping away from the pc

No. I just remember hearing this on the news and wondering if could have been the same TealVeal from DU. And, now I realize that I haven't seen a single post from TealVeal since back @ 11/2. Perhaps, the name is just a coincidence. Kind of odd, though.

[texpatriot2004]

26. Yeah, odd, sometimes we intuitively know things too.

[texpatriot2004]

23. You ain't kidding. These people seem to have lots of dead

bodies in the wake. I just realized it. It is rather chilling. I am not usually one to look at this kind of thing. I mean, except for the JFK murder, outside of that I don't usually get into these issues. I wish I had known what Athan Gibbs Sr. was doing before his death. For some reason it is stuck in my craw. I just don't believe it was accidental. His machine seems fabulous. It's like the cars that they know how to build that would be so much better for the environment but they haven't built them in 20 years...is that where his voting machine is headed now?

[Quakerfriend]

25. You are so right, Tex!

Interestingly enough, I worked in academic medicine for many years doing clinical research for the NIH. And, then developed advanced cancer....To make a long story short, I decided to choose an alternative trmt and went to a tiny hospital in Mexico for this. They cured me in less than 5 weeks. That was 7 yrs ago. But, ever since I have read many books about people who have received death threats from gov. officials for railing against the med establishments use of trmts that don't really work. Of course, health insurance is a big money maker, particularly when almost no one ever gets cured! Govt. corruption has been around for a very long time!

[texpatriot2004]

29. I am stunned! I have been so naive. I mean I know there's

corruption, right, a little here, a little there, but it now seems like the dam has broken because the corruption is bigger than the trickles of the un-corrupt. Does that make sense? My mom is a cancer survivor. Our medical system is so invested in "treatment" not in prevention. What you said is shocking, albeit believable. Congrats to you. So you are cancer free now? My mom is cancer free now, some seven years or more. Tomoxifyn (spelling ?) she was on it for 5 years. Someday I may need to know of a place like the one you went to...hope not, but, well anyway, glad you are well now.

[Scout1071]

46. I have a friend who says we have insured Disease Care not

Health Care.

[Zan_of_Texas]

28. Four deaths

Keep your coincidence caps handy folks.

1. Dan Rocco -- April 1, 2002 -- ChoicePoint VP -- plane crash

He died on April 1, 2002, in a plane crash in Gainesville, Georgia. He was an executive vice president at ChoicePoint, the firm that gained infamy with their faulty "felons" list supplied to Katherine Harris during the 2000 election in Florida. As a result of this list, over 90,000 voters (mostly African-American voters) were wrongly identified as felons and purged from the rolls.
<<http://www.bk2k.com/bushbodycount/stolen-election/bodies.shtml>>


2. Wesley Vance -- April 26, 2003 -- Diebold VP -- plane crash

Pilot Killed In Plane Crash Was Top Exec At Diebold

April 28, 2003 10:50AM
<<http://www.wkbn.com/Global/story.asp?S=1253108>>
(Jackson-AP) -- The pilot of a single-engine airplane that crashed in southern Ohio over the weekend was the chief operating officer of Canton-based Diebold Incorporated.
The company says 45-year-old Wesley Vance of Canton was flying a private plane that crashed Saturday near the Jackson County Airport. ...The company says Vance joined Diebold in October, 2000, as president of its North America business unit. He was named chief operating officer in 2001. Chief Executive Walden O'Dell will assume the company's daily operational responsibilities until a successor is found for Vance. An airport spokesman says Vance was practicing takeoffs and landings in a six-seat Beachcraft A-36 when it crashed near the airport.

~~~

http://www.abqjournal.com/obits/profiles/vance05-02-03.htm
Vance was an Eagle Scout, elected to Boys State, and a church-going Mormon, married, father of five. He earned a degree from Brigham Young University. He was described as a confident person who people liked to be around. His senior class in high school voted him "favorite boy". He had been a pilot for over twenty years. He was named to Diebold's No. 2 position as COO in 2001, managing the company's global operations.


3. Anthony J. Celebrezze Jr. -- July 4, 2003 -- Diebold consultant -- cause of death not confirmed

Anthony Celebrezze Dies

<http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1057397985113640.xml>
07/05/03

Former Ohio Attorney General Anthony J. Celebrezze Jr., 61, died yesterday in an Urbana hospital. Champaign County Coroner Joshua Richards confirmed that Celebrezze died about 9 p.m. yesterday, but would not confirm a cause of death.

Celebrezze, a Democrat of Columbus, was a stalwart in Cleveland and Ohio politics.... He was 38 when he was elected secretary of state in 1978.

He was Ohio attorney general from 1983 to 1991, and Ohio secretary of state from 1979 to 1983. Celebrezze ran against George Voinovich for governor in 1990 but lost.

Wayne Hill, Celebrezze's longtime communications director during the 1978 campaign for secretary of state and then attorney general, was in shock at Celebrezze's death yesterday.

Hill said Celebrezze, who enjoyed racing cars, was at Shady Bowl Speedway in De Graff for a Fourth of July race when he felt ill. De Graff is west of Columbus.

"It's beyond a shock. Tony had a passion for racing," said Hill in a telephone interview. "It's unbelievable. It's not right."

...After his loss to Voinovich, Celebrezze joined the law firm of Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter, and recently was a consultant for Diebold Inc., promoting electronic voting machines.


4. Athan Gibbs, Jr. -- March 12, 2004 -- invented the TruVote system -- car crash
Was planning to present his new voting machine, and its verification features, to the Georgia legislature within a week of the crash.

[texpatriot2004]

30. Athan killed one week before...

For some reason I didn't know that Athan was killed a week before the presentation of the machine to the legislature.

Why would the Diebold people be eliminated?

[Zan_of_Texas]

32. Well, the deaths are fact. The reasons can only be speculation.

But, my guess on Vance -- he was an outsider, came from Utah to Diebold headquarters in Ohio, strong Mormon. He was over the Diebold Elections Division (which was bought as a unit, and based in Texas).

Maybe he found out what was going on -- or, even just objected to the incredibly amateurish quality of the stuff Diebold was selling.

People always ask, "Well, why didn't an insider SAY something?!?!"

And the answer is, well, they do. Some are transferred. Some are fired. Some are ridiculed. Some are allowed to stay on payroll, but isolated and given no work. Some are, well, they have accidents.

[texpatriot2004]

33. Yeah, well it seems alot of accidents happen in the bushes ; (

[eowyn_of_rohan]

49. Another suspicious death in Tennessee - Don Wiley (sort of off topic)

This was during the anthrax scare, and I remembered it today because the topic of anthrax is again in the news. Anyone remember this?

Surprisingly, this was written by Wayne Madsen:
"The reported "suicide" and then "accidental death" of noted Harvard biophysics scientist and anthrax, Ebola, AIDS, herpes, and influenza expert, Dr. Don C. Wiley, on the Interstate 55 Hernando De Soto Bridge that links Memphis to West Memphis, Arkansas, was probably a well-planned murder, according to local law enforcement officials in Tennessee and Arkansas.

After Wiley's friends and family discounted claims of suicide, the Memphis coroner concluded on January 14, 2002 that Wiley had "accidentially" fallen over the side of the bridge after a minor car accident.

....according to U.S. intelligence sources, Wiley may have been the victim of an intelligence agency hit."

www.rense.com/general25/thedeathofdrwiley.htm

[bobbieinok]

57. isn't there a list of a suspiciously hi # of dead biochemists??

discussed at DU after anthrax 'scare'

[eowyn_of_rohan]

58. I would love to see that list...I wasn't here then -nt

[BlueDog2u]

67. Yes

the mortality rate has been very high in that profession.


Not a good omen, whatever the reasons are.

[texpatriot2004]

64. Thanks eowyn_of_rohan...is that from Lord of the Rings? Which

character was that? I can't remember exactly. Thanks for that link. Pretty interesting, actually it does mention several others too who died suspiciously. They all knew about bio-weapons. Wierd. Kind of gives me the creeps. Kind of intriguing too.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

66. Yes, Eowyn is from LOTR

She wanted to go to the battle of Gondor and fight, but was told to stay behind and tend to the needs of the people of her community, which she thought was far less noble, so she dressed as a man, and went to fight anyway. She ended up slaying the Nazgul...I love Eowyn, and picked her right after 9/11 as a muse to help me get through it all. And she did :)

[Razorback_Democrat]

31. Unreal! Thanks for posting n/t

[BlueCentrist]

34. This is scary.

I think this is a dangerous time to be on the opposition of the B/C regime.

[texpatriot2004]

35. Yeah, and it seems they stop at nothing. n/t

[Karenina]

37. BINGO!!!

I think s/he's GOT IT!

[texpatriot2004]

38. Well, I think I am still trying to wrap my mind around it but I'm

getting it.

[Karenina]

42. It IS mind-boggling

Humor helps...

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/video/conspiracy.php

[texpatriot2004]

43. How funny and how true. Kind of like school house rock eh?

Thanks for sharing. Humor does help when you are living through the looking glass or on the funny farm or wherever we are now...maybe we are stuck in Kansas.

[In Truth We Trust]

62. I think it is more dangerous NOT to be their Opposition!!!

[texpatriot2004]

63. I agree with you on that and I love the Boston Red Sox too n/t

[garybeck]

39. yes, this was NOT a bloodless coup n/t

[texpatriot2004]

40. Not by a longshot from the looks of it. n/t

[texpatriot2004]

41. kick it again for Athan Gibbs Sr may he rest in peace

[texpatriot2004]

44. kick it for the night owl researcher types

[Turn CO Blue]

45. Kick. Thanks for posting this. n/t

[texpatriot2004]

47. There have been many people "suicided" l will count them up

[Carl Brennan]

48. Gibbs machine was a serious competitor with Diebold.

Here is a topic on this some time ago.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=203&topic_id=25601&mesg_id=25614

Brian Forrester


Nashville-based TruVote has partnered with technology powerhouse Microsoft Corp. to position the election voting software designer for nationwide distribution in a multi-billion dollar market.

As part of the agreement, Microsoft has given TruVote President and CEO Athan Gibbs access to its technology labs to test his product. Microsoft scrutinized coding and helped improve the TruVote software to industrial strength. Microsoft, run by Chairman Bill Gates, waived standard fees that would have totaled as much as $120,000 to gain access to the labs.

"We could see the potential in this tool," says Winston Smith, Microsoft Corp. director of supplier diversity. "It is the most robust use of Microsoft technology among electronic voting machines on the market."

TruVote also is working on alliances with global system integrators like Electronic Data Systems and Unisys.

TruVote recently received U.S. certification for its voting system. The certification will allow the Nashville company to approach state and local governments to test the product in an official election.

TruVote's product allows individual voters to audit their votes though printed receipts at the voting location. In addition, TruVote has the capability of displaying voting ballots in various languages on a visual computer screen, an advantage for precincts with numerous non-English-speaking voters.

TruVote has approached Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee to supply voting machines. The U.S. Congress passed a $3.9 billion Help America Vote Act in December 2002, and President Bush signed the bill in February 2003. Each state now can re-evaluate its voting systems, a potential floodgate of economic opportunity for TruVote.

"There's literally a view that there is a need to spend more than $5 billion to change out election equipment with problems that were highlighted by the problems of the 2000 election in Florida," Smith says.

Gibbs first met Smith while attending a conference in Memphis and struck up discussions about forming a partnership. Gibbs says he had tried unsuccessfully for 12 months to establish a Microsoft partnership.

"We were introduced to Winston Smith, who was hired by the president of Microsoft to come over and head up Microsoft's vendor diversity program," says Gibbs. "We were able to go through the proper channels and form this alliance. And it's been crucial."

Microsoft and TruVote have approached Los Angeles, the largest voting county in the United States, about purchasing TruVote software. A Los Angeles contract, which is 18 months from making such decisions, would be worth nearly $141 million.

"We're going to actively go after those California counties," Gibbs says.


Source: Nashville Business Journal

[Quakerfriend]

52. I had no idea Gibbs was this far along in his quest

Thanks for all this info!

[texpatriot2004]

53. Hey thanks for that. I had no idea that they had hooked up with

Microsoft. Man, that made them, like you said, a serious competitor.

[texpatriot2004]

54. I had no idea TruVote had hooked up with MicroSoft.

Microsoft. Man, that made them, like you said, a serious competitor.

[Carl Brennan]

59. It's weird. I was just thinking about Gibbs recently as the issue of

voting security comes back as a hot issue. I think he was killed to kill his product. It reminds me alot of what happened to the company INSLAW that was in competition with another company where Reagan's Attorney General Ed Meese was a key player. Meese did everything he could to "kill" the competition.

Glad to see you keeping on top of this. This voting machine could solve alot of problems.

[texpatriot2004]

55. Ooops

[zann725]

51. When I saw the story about Gibb's death, I thought it odd too.

I think it said his car was 'forced off the road' and rolled-over.
Sounds eerily like a Karen Silkwood-type accident.

[texpatriot2004]

56. Yeah, I know what you mean. I thought maybe the vehicle had

been tampered with to make it mechanically more likely to swerve somehow.

[texpatriot2004]

60. 11+ people "Suicided" - All VOCAL people

Between the 3 gens of B*
over several decades
from the little bit I have read
there are many, many plane accidents
one boating accident
many car accidents
one bombing
two "heart attacks"
and at least 11 "suicides" not including Andrew Veal the guy
who went to ground zero who happened to be researching elections for years, apparently knew there was a problem with 2002

[nashville_brook]

65. lots of bio-weapons researchers have also suicided

[texpatriot2004]

61. kick it for those who were silenced

[texpatriot2004]

68. kick it for Votes that would have been verifiable, thanks Athan

for caring about Democracy and for your efforts to have every vote count.