Broward County update

[bailey77]

http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/1954.html
Link also has an update on Orange County, FL.

Friday, Feb. 19 2005 Logic & Accuracy test at Broward County.

1. About 120 ES&S touch-screens were set up for voting. All were positioned so that not a single observer could see the screens (even with binoculars and a zoom lens).

2. Several computers were in an adjacent central tabulator room. None of the central tabulators used were positioned so that any observer could see any part of the screen.

Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes attended the meeting, along with the Broward County counsel, and Judge Fred Berman. Snipes also brought in her own attorney.

Activists Ellen Brodsky, who reported that she represents VerifiedVoting.org, Black Box Voting investigators Kathleen Wynne and Bev Harris, Votergate producers Russell Michaels and Simon Ardizzone, and Pedro Monteiro, a local computer programmer, also attended.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[Roland99]

1. Is this your story or is there a link to this?

Found a link:


http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/3506.html

[bailey77]

3. Sorry. Updated with link now.

:)

[fooj]

2. This is unacceptable! Again...where is the media?

This is what many of us suspected to be true-or we just plain knew...
Without the press REPORTING this, how will the other part of the population get the facts? It's maddening!

[bailey77]

4. I think they're going to post some video

These reports are happening elsewhere at L&A tests too, like Riverside California.

I agree. It is completely unacceptable. But Pedro is my hero.

Erin

[msongs]

5. Riverside CA person here, can you give details to your claim?

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

Riverside CA

[skids]

6. Astounding. Recommended for "greatest post."

The naysayers need to see the prelude to another election going down the tubes.

[fooj]

7. And I second that recommendation! This story needs to get out there!

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. This needs to be filmed and shown to the public

They have no idea that they no longer live in a democracy. These crooks are absolutely confident that no one will stop them.

[bailey77]

14. It was filmed and it will be posted on the Internet

Question: Does anyone have recommendations as to file compression and length of video clips to make it relatively easy to download the video info? The video of the meeting is 1-1/2 hours long, can be edited to shorter version (ie. 5-15 minutes) or to several very short clips.

There is video of this and also of Cuyahoga County recount, where officials admit that they counted the ballots in secret before they hand counted in public.

The BBV staff is entirely new to video editing or putting clips on the web -- before, had the chimp video professionally done. Now they are collecting so much video they have obtained the editing software, but tips on file compression and clip length would be appreciated.

[Nothing Without Hope]

15. That's good news.These films are excellent evidence that needs to be seen.

I myself am quite ignorant of the technical aspects of video files. However, I do recommend that you PM (personal message through the DU board) DUer dzika. He's a video capture maven at DU and would surely be able to answer some of your questions. My recommendation would be to PM him, then, after determining good protocols, perhaps posting some of your findings about the best way to go about video handling in a new thread in the Media forum. If you're not sure how to PM dzika, let me know by responding to this message and I'll PM him for you.

If you have any difficulty with this, or if you would like for me to post a new thread for you asking these questions (another alternative besides PMing dzika directly; your post number may be too low to start a thread yourself yet), feel free to PM me. Believe me, there's no lack of expertise at DU and in such a good cause there will be no lack of eager supporters. We just need to set up the contacts, and there are multiple ways to go about that.

You might also want to go to the Ask The Administrators Forum and post a message there asking Skinner (the guiding star of DU) for his advice in this issue.

What you describe is very valuable evidence that needs to be seen. I have no doubt you will find the help you need.

Oh, and welcome to DU!
:hi:

[anaxarchos]

19. Try VirtualDub... It is fairly powerful compression software

distributed under a GNU Open Source/GPL license (i.e. free). You can get it here:

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/showsoftware_virtualdub_346.html

The docs and website can help you with your compression decisions.

For compression, you will need a codec (compressor/decompressor). XviD and Divx are popular and you can get them for free (google it).

[dandrhesse]

9. Gee do you think the treatment Pedro received had anything to do with

him being hispanic? No, I'm probably just being paranoid, ha ha
This is absolutely ridiculous!

[FogerRox]

10. I worked for Kerry in Broward, Now back in NJ, This makes want to puke

.

[berniew1]

11. Broward was worst in Fla. regarding fraud, dirty tricks, manipulation

Broward was the worst county in Florida regarding vote machine fraud, dirty tricks, suppression, and manipulation of absentees and provisionals
http://www.flcv.com/fraudpat.html

[berniew1]

12. Pedro is very bright; very knowledgable programmer, etc.

And understands how the touchscreens work. And why they are unreliable. Thats why he was a problem. He's from Broward County.
Ellen who also got in trouble for doing almost nothing is also very knowledgable. Their sin was asking questions Snipes couldn't answer.

[Number_6]

13. Stalin with baggy pants

This peculiarly American style of blessing the sham
depresses me. There seems to be a thin line between
incompetent, irritable local yokels and the Perps, the spooks.
This also reminds me of any of a hundred stories from Ohio.

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. Did you notice one important thing missing?

Where's the Democratic Party? Where are our parties officials and lawyers? It looks like there are a lot of good people involved in this but without money and support from the DNC you are fighting a losing battle. As usual, the Repugs have all the aces and the little people get stuck holding the bag.

Good luck to the folks that are down in Broward trying to defend our right to vote. I really do appreciate all that you guys are doing. It's too bad most members of our own party could care less.

[bailey77]

17. Why depend on a political party to rescue the country?

The people themselves need to take back the vote. Political parties have always engaged in election manipulation of one kind or another.

It is up to us and we can do this.

Erin

[Peace Patriot]

23. bailey77, I understand what you're saying--we CANNOT depend on...

...the Democratic Party. God knows we just found that out in California (it was DEMOCRATS who led the shark on attack on our anti-Diebold Secretary of State). Not to mention the catastrophic malfeasance of nearly the entire Democratic Party leadership on the matter of Wally O'Dell and H.F. Ahmanson counting our votes in secret! (I mean, really...).

But it needs to be pointed out again and again! Many people still look to the Dem leaders--national, state, local--for their cues on this issue. Why aren't THEY concerned? Surely they would be, if there's a problem. Etc. Etc.

We need to hold them accountable--for their promises, for the vast sums of money they have collected from poor people in campaign contributions, for all the volunteer effort that was lavished on them--and they just let 4 to 8 million votes vanish into the electronic ether?! People need to understand what the hell is going on with the Disappeared Democrats.

And we need to hold their feet to the fire on FIXING THIS. All we can do is educate, and insist. We don't hold direct legislative power. I'm thinking state, local, right now--but it applies to any level. Some jurisdictions have public initiative/referendum laws, but the financial and legal barriers have been made immense for ordinary people. So we NEED the Party that has failed us time and again, to get back our right to vote.

Once we get it back, I hope we dismantle this Party top to bottom, rebuild it and re-name it (the "democratic" party, my ass! The name itself has become disreputable!).

End of rant. I just wanted to say, yeah, we DO need to keep asking this question. WHERE are the Democrats? But hell might freeze over if we stand around waiting for them to show up.

(No discredit to Howard Dean. He's the one hopeful sign. We'll see what the War Party permits him to do.)

[NationalEnquirer]

18. Whoa! Thats my county!

We are like the ONLY solidy Democratic county in Florida, and THIS happened under our noses? What the freak is wrong?

[kcass1954]

20. Important to remember about Brenda Snipes...

She is the Democrat elected SOE in November. BUT, she previously held the position after being appointed by Jebbie after he removed the former SOE (Miriam Oliphant) for incompetancy. That fact alone makes her immediately suspect. She's looking out for herself, and to hell with the voters.

Check out this article from August - http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1090180438131.

Can you say DINO?


I live in Broward too, and this is going to bother me until we get rid of the f*&^ing machines!

[Peace Patriot]

21. Floridians, are you aware of this UC Berkeley study?

(UC Berkeley statistics team headed by Dr. Michael Haut found 130,000 to 260,000 or more phantom votes for Bush in Florida's three main Democratic counties--Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade--with electronic voting as the culprit. Study at: http://ucdata.berkeley.edu. Here's their press release:)

NOVEMBER 18, 2004

UC Berkeley Research Team Sounds 'Smoke Alarm' for Florida E-Vote Count
Statistical Analysis - the Sole Method for Tracking E-Voting - Shows Irregularities May Have Awarded 130,000 - 260,000 or More Excess Votes to Bush in Florida

Research Team Calls for Investigation


BERKELEY, CA -- November 18 -- Today the University of California's Berkeley Quantitative Methods Research Team released a statistical study - the sole method available to monitor the accuracy of e- voting - reporting irregularities associated with electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000-260,000 or more excess votes to President George W. Bush in Florida in the 2004 presidential election. The study shows an unexplained discrepancy between votes for President Bush in counties where electronic voting machines were used versus counties using traditional voting methods - what the team says can be deemed a "smoke alarm." Discrepancies this large or larger rarely arise by chance - the probability is less than 0.1 percent. The research team formally disclosed results of the study at a press conference today at the UC Berkeley Survey Research Center, where they called on Florida voting officials to investigate.

The three counties where the voting anomalies were most prevalent were also the most heavily Democratic: Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade, respectively. Statistical patterns in counties that did not have e-touch voting machines predict a 28,000 vote decrease in President Bush's support in Broward County; machines tallied an increase of 51,000 votes - a net gain of 81,000 for the incumbent. President Bush should have lost 8,900 votes in Palm Beach County, but instead gained 41,000 - a difference of 49,900. He should have gained only 18,400 votes in Miami-Dade County but saw a gain of 37,000 - a difference of 19,300 votes.

"For the sake of all future elections involving electronic voting - someone must investigate and explain the statistical anomalies in Florida," says Professor Michael Hout. "We're calling on voting officials in Florida to take action."

The research team is comprised of doctoral students and faculty in the UC Berkeley sociology department, and led by Sociology Professor Michael Hout, a nationally-known expert on statistical methods and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the UC Berkeley Survey Research Center.

For its research, the team used multiple-regression analysis, a statistical method widely used in the social and physical sciences to distinguish the individual effects of many variables on quantitative outcomes like vote totals. This multiple-regression analysis takes into account of the following variables by county:

* Number of voters
* Median income
* Hispanic/Latino population
* Change in voter turnout between 2000 and 2004
* Support for Senator Dole in the 1996 election
* Support for President Bush in the 2000 election.
* Use of electronic voting or paper ballots


"No matter how many factors and variables we took into consideration, the significant correlation in the votes for President Bush and electronic voting cannot be explained," said Hout. "The study shows, that a county's use of electronic voting resulted in a disproportionate increase in votes for President Bush. There is just a trivial probability of evidence like this appearing in a population where the true difference is zero - less than once in a thousand chances."

The data used in this study came from public sources including CNN.com, the 2000 US Census, and the Verified Voting Foundation.

For a copy of the working paper, raw data and other information used in the study can be found at: http://ucdata.berkeley.edu .

CONTACT: University of California's Berkeley Quantitative Methods Research Team
Erin Reasoner/Eastwick Communications 650-480-4057
[e-mail]
Erica Pereira/Eastwick Communications 640-480-4024
[e-mail]
Noel Gallagher/ UC Berkeley Media Relations 510-643-7944
[e-mail]

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http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/1118-14.htm

[FogerRox]

22. During the early vote period--Hallandale had 8 machines-and 2 were spanish

language--In the area of Hallandale the 2nd most commonly spoken language is Haitian.But they gave 2 Spaish macines per location.

one town south--Aventura they had 30 machines