This article has been posted to DoctorZin’s New News Blog! 
Posted on 08/17/2004 10:13:52 PM PDT by litany_of_lies
Former US President Carter Proposes Audit of Venezuelan Recall Election Results
Greg Flakus
Caracas
18 Aug 2004, 01:53 UTC
In Venezuela, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria say election officials have agreed to conduct a sample audit of the vote in Sunday's recall referendum. This follows a meeting with opposition leaders, who say they have evidence that the election results were manipulated through a computer program that limited votes to remove President Hugo Chavez and augmented votes in his favor.
President Carter says he and Mr. Gaviria have no reason to question the integrity of the electoral process in Venezuela or to doubt the accuracy of the results announced Monday that gave the victory to President Chavez. But, Mr. Carter says, they recommended the audit in order to address concerns raised by the opposition.
"This audit will remove any doubt about the accuracy of the electronically transmitted data, election results, as compared with the actual ballots that each voter looked at and deposited in the box at the time of voting," he said.
Mr. Carter said the audit, which will take place over the next two days, will not involve a count of all votes, but will rely on a random sample of 150 vote boxes, which are now being guarded at military garrisons around the country. He says both government and opposition representatives will be present when the paper ballots are removed from each box and counted.
Earlier Tuesday, opposition leaders presented the international observer mission with what they described as evidence of irregularities. Various opposition leaders also took to the airwaves denouncing what they called fraud.
But Jimmy Carter firmly rejected the use of the word. "There is no evidence of fraud and any allegations of fraud are completely unwarranted," he said.
Opposition leaders, however, persist in their condemnations. The president of the Democratic Action Party, Jesus Mendez Quijada, claims that the fraud was committed long before voters went to the polls Sunday.
He says there was a grand fraud planned in advance and that the election was fixed in favor of President Chavez through a software program that caused voting machines to misrepresent the votes being cast.
A political consultant sympathetic to the opposition, Juan Jose Rendon, appearing on Venezuela's Globovision television network, showed copies of several vote counts from voting machines each showing the exact same number of votes in favor of the recall, while the totals of the no votes varied. He said it was mathematically improbable that this was a matter of coincidence, suggesting that it was the result of a computer software program that put a ceiling on the number of yes votes, while allowing no votes to accumulate without limit.
Meanwhile, the Chavez government is calling on opposition leaders to stop their complaining and accept the election results. Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel says he is disappointed in the opposition attitude. He says he and President Chavez have offered dialogue in an effort to foster reconciliation, but that opposition leaders have yet to accept their invitation.
What, maybe 0.5% of the total vote? IMHO, this will prove nothing, and will give cover to the thugs who rigged the computers.
See this thread for more:
Venezuela’s Recall Fraud Has Been Unveiled
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1193460/posts
Seems like Chavez learned well from the Dims in Florida...
None of us knows at this point. The currency markets will tell the tale....if the currency strengthens, democracy has been served, if it weakens, it was a fraud, and the smart money has given up on their country.
Well, at least Carter has the dimwitted sense to notice massive election fraud. But like Bluto of Animal House, he'll go charging out the front door as the rest of the 'Rats zone out languidly in their broken sofa chairs.
Dear People of Venezuela,
About Carter, we are very, very, very sorry.
EVERY VOTE COUNTS JIMMY!!!
Not if you're a Venezualan, or US Military Personnel.
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, "Says the Wuss: Ma, He's Touching Me"
If you haven't already joined the anti-CFR effort, please click here.
Right, we're supposed to believe Jimmy Carter, friend of Fidel Castro. Tell Chavez to get real.
Talk about being "disenfranchized". Jimmah, you suck!
And how will this audit address the charges that voting machines were rigged to change Si votes to No and printed out a No receipt?
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