Seattle Weekly Breaks Washington state voter fraud story

[Land Shark]

Though the headline "can't prove it" is inaccurate, especially given the statement later in the article that a forensic audit (denied by the county and Sequoia Voting Systems) would probably settle the fraud evidence claims one way or the other, this is nevertheless, on balance, a better MSM performance on an election irregularity issue than most.
http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0504/050126_news_snohomish.php
The last paragraph is inaccurate in that John Gideon of Votersunite.org has always been clear as opposing all forms of electronic voter verification as smoke and mirrors. But it gives a correct impression that many proposals for reform are just the next ticket to election fiascos.

[understandinglife]

1. Congratulations!!

Here's the message I sent Senator Reid, et al., yesterday:

Paper; pen; people and lots of cameras -- beginning to end.

Nation-wide, standard paper (counterfeit protected) ballot for all Federal elections.

Same format paper, but separate ballot, for State and local level elections.

National holiday for national election.

State holiday for State/local elections (separate from National election).

Signature across receipt stub and ballot (as suggested above).

Hand counted -- precinct level -- big enough room for lots of observers and CAMERAS.

Paper ledger tally sheet delivered to County by specially hired for the occasion UPS, FEDEXP, or other commercial shipping company with a police escort and as many citizens as would want to join the procession.

County tally on paper ledger. Same protocol for delivering county ledger to State capital.

State level tally, on paper.

All materials used -- registration, poll books, ballots and tally ledgers, archived (for National elections the archives should be part of the Library of Congress and a line-item in the annual federal budget would cover the cost of storage and retrieval for study purposes).

It should be a felony offense for any State Secretary of State to have any role in the campaign of any person other than their own campaign.

Peace.


BE THE BUSH OPPOSITION;24/7 (aka TBO;24/7)

[Land Shark]

3. Ok but remember on the issue of a national holiday for election day

NOTHING matters, and it is only misleading, if we can't COUNT the votes correctly and fairly. First and foremost, we need a transparently accurate and fair vote counting process. Without that, other improvements are a mirage.

[understandinglife]

4. I think I'm rather clear on how meticulous the methods for registering,..

...confirming the identity, casting the ballot (paper), counting and recording and tallying the votes from the ballots (all done on paper by people, being observed by other people) need to be.

Stating the need for adequate time (be it a holiday or an extended period of 'early voting' or a combination of both) to vote as to avoid voter suppression at the polls, is also essential, as the recent 2004 national election fiasco demonstrated.

Thank you for asking for clarification.

TBO;24/7

[Peace Patriot]

9. $3.5 billion in HAVA money...

...that's what we're up against. Plus all the money that changed hands that we never saw.

I think that's why some Dem leaders have been silent on this matter. (Silent on BushCon companies owning secret, proprietary source code that counts all our votes! Go figure.)

Anyway, we should keep this in mind, when we run into resistance.

They just happened to miss, to NOT NOTICE, this turnover of our election system to BushCon companies, who will make sure we never have another progressive Congress, or another Democratic president, ever again? Right.

[KatieB]

12. Need hand counting all the way-central tabulators controlled by Diebold

as well.

[NationalEnquirer]

2. Very interesting! n/t

[L. Coyote]

5. Paul R. Lehto and Jeffery Hoffman article linked from Free Press

Evidence of Election Irregularities in Snohomish County, WA by Paul R. Lehto and Jeffery Hoffman

"The chances that 2/3 of the vote would show a Democrat lead of 97044 to 95288 votes, while the remaining 1/3 of the vote on touch sreens would show a Republican lead of almost 5% .. as a result of voters randomly choosing to vote by paper ballot or by touch screen is about 1 in 1 trillion, a true impossibility."

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1068

[Land Shark]

7. incorrect link? n/t

[L. Coyote]

18. Sorry. Good Links on this article and study are ....

The study PDF:
http://www.votersunite.org/info/SnohomishElectionFraudInvestigation.pdf

Summary at:

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/01/307675.shtml

[tandem5]

6. its a good start - I hope it keeps going. nt

[jburton]

8. kick nt

[WHAT]

10. I wrote Seattle Weekly...

to thank them for an article they published on the vote recount process. I then mailed them a link to this study so I feel good if it helped them examine the voter process. To me the process from registration to tally to confirmation needs to be revamped and I particularly liked the response of the first poster. People are not that stupid and it doesn't make sense to me to have such an ugly, clumsy voting mess unless it is intentionally weighed for vote rigging.

I know this is a partisan board but this isn't a partisan issue. I think Washington state would be a perfect starting point for a people's initiative revolution to give back the vote...and the country...to all her citizens.

[sepia_steel]

11. excellent! nt

[Land Shark]

13. agreed! nt

[New Earth]

14. it's not voter fraud

it's election fraud. the election was fraudulent, not the voters.

sorry :(

[understandinglife]

15. Keep at it Faye; it'll sink in eventually!! And, in case anyone wants...

....to reflect on the consequences of not one, but two, of OUR FAILED, INVALID, CORRUPT AMERICAN ELECTION SYSTEM, then do so while taking a look at the following:

http://www.zonaeuropa.com/01467.htm

I've altered the title to read "an enduring american legacy: The Children of Iraq."

Peace.

BE THE BUSH OPPOSITION; 24/7 -- ANYONE GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT NOW.........:grr:

[Land Shark]

16. I think you are right, but is "voter fraud" always wrong?

The fraud is on the voters, because a specific factual representation is made (Republicans won by X votes) that is false, yet we are relying on these representations to our detriment. That's fraud. Jurisdictions then differ on whether you need to prove that the "fraudfeasor" (the one who commits the fraud) must have intended the deception (traditional common law fraud) or whether the fact that a reasonable person would be deceived makes it fraudulent AS TO THAT PERSON regardless of whether the fraudfeasor intended it or not.

I do business law and consumer fraud cases. There is visa fraud, immigration fraud, etc. Yet, it is not the consumers, visas, or immigration that is the fraudfeasor, just as it is not the voter who commits the fraud in voter fraud.

So, while I would agree that election fraud is a PREFERABLE term, and perhaps "business fraud" would be a term preferable to consumer fraud, I assure you that I have not been using an outright incorrect term my entire legal career to describe my practice. Consumer fraud (the consumers are deceived) or voter fraud (the voters are deceived) can be understood as coherent terms, even if the other names would be preferable.

Sorry, you Faye are WRONG, even though I agree your wording is PREFERABLE. Have a nice day!

[New Earth]

17. read this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x306119

[Land Shark]

19. Election Fraud

I read the link above, and still say Election Fraud is the preferable term because it is more likely to be understood correctly and is more precise, but that "voter fraud" is not a grammatically incorrect term, it's a potentially but not necessarily misleading frame. But I'll be careful to say election fraud, election cheating, election irregularity, etc from now on.