FReepers Against Voter Fraud

"The right of citizens to vote and have their vote count is the cornerstone of our democracy - the necessary precondition of government of the people, by the people and for the people. Enforcing the laws that guarantee voting rights and punish voting fraud is the duty of the Department of Justice. More than mere law enforcement, our responsibility to protect the access to and integrity of elections is the responsibility of upholding freedom itself.

America is a nation whose founding documents and most inspired words uphold the ideal of democratic self-government as a model for the world. The opening phrases of the Declaration of Independence declare that governmental power, if it is to be just, must be derived from the consent of the governed. The Constitution begins, purposefully and deliberately, with these three words: "We the people . . ."

America has failed too often to uphold the right of every citizen's vote, once cast, to be counted fairly and equally. Votes have been bought, voters intimidated and ballot boxes stuffed. The polling process has been disrupted or not completed. Voters have been duped into signing absentee ballots believing they were applications for public relief. And the residents of cemeteries have infamously shown up at the polls on election day.

Today, it is more important than ever before that we embrace the privilege that makes us unique among the peoples, nations and societies of human history. Our way of life is not a given, and our freedom is not an accident. Liberty is a rare gift for which millions have worked and suffered and sacrificed and died. It now falls to us to guard this gift from those who would destroy it. It falls to us, the free, to ensure that the cornerstone of our freedom - government of the people, by the people, and for the people - does not perish from the earth."

It has been quite a month and overall a victorious one for Republicans. The new year looms bright on the horizon with the promise of much needed changes taking place now that we have the majority in both the House and Senate and with the opportunity to finally have some conservative judges seated who will uphold the Constitution rather than legislating the socialist agenda of the Democrats from the bench and Tiny Tommy Daschle and his obstructionist thugs have been spanked soundly and sent to their room in a manner of speaking.

While we had several days of delirious gloating, drunk on the thrill of a hard earned and well-deserved victory, we know all too well that the election and the events leading up to it were not without incident and once again the deck was stacked against us as the Democrats tried every trick in the book in a shameless effort at stealing yet another election. With the blatant disregard for the law so characteristic of them when it obstructs their designs, they managed to get a liberal kangaroo court to uphold the replacement of Torricelli on the ballot in New Jersey beyond the legal deadline for doing so for no other reason than having determined that the scandal and corruption surrounding Torricelli rendered him incapable of winning. In Minnesota, prior to Paul Wellstone's ill-fated final flight, a plan was uncovered that had Democrats busing in students from out of state to take advantage of Minnesota's same day voter registration and vote illegally for Paul Wellstone. Even as this was being revealed, the campaign was underway to push a similar same day registration legislation in Colorado and California, thereby opening new opportunities for illegal voting in those states. In South Dakota Democrat operatives (sorry, I cannot bring myself to use the word "Democratic") paid a field worker in excess of $12,000 over a period of 3 months to register native Americans on the reservations. It was later discovered that many registration cards that had been turned in by that worker had been written in the same handwriting. Among the newly registered was at least one who was recently deceased. This and other irreglarities that were uncovered in South Dakota has led to 1 out of 10 ballots there being under investigation. Fish need water, plants need sunshine, an addict needs a fix and Democrats need power and these three cases are just samples of the extent to which they will go to get it.

The idea for this thread was born following the Arkansas Hog Wild FReepers' discovery of organized intimidation tactics on the part of Democrat and NAACP operatives in Jefferson County, Arkansas as relayed by FReeper, stop_the_rats, a Republican poll watcher who gained undesired and unfair national notoriety during early voting, and by a Republican campaign worker who "infiltrated" the Clinton led, pre-election campaign "event" there. The original story was posted as part of the after-FReep report with more detail added in a post-election update. The story generated such outrage that the thread turned into a FReeper brainstorm as we labored over how we might counteract the dishonest methods employed by the Democrats to hijack elections. The effort yielded an abundance of references and it was generally agreed that voter fraud is, or at least should be, of great concern to all of us. There is a strong probability that the South Dakota election was stolen and in Arkansas the fraud machine was spinning out of control and may well have cost Tim Hutchinson his senate seat as well, despite the shadow cast over him in the wake of his divorce and remarriage. Chances are that we'll never know. Thankfully neither of these races ended up being the tie-breaker that would determine the balance of power in the Senate, but either could have been and had that been the case, you can bet it would have gotten really ugly and may have produced an entirely different outcome.

Even as the Democrats are still licking their wounds and wondering what on Earth happened on November 5, they are already scrambling and scheming and conniving as to ways to prevent our intercepting their next power grab in 2004. This is revealed in their ongoing efforts to block any attempt to validate a voter's legitimacy whether it be by requiring a legal form of ID at the polls, the repeal of motor voter legislation, cracking down on absentee balloting and early voting, doing away with same day registration or by the presence of poll watchers at polling places. In every case they play the race card crying "black voter intimidation" when in reality they are simply thrashing against the net that could trap those guilty of voting illegally thereby inhibiting travel on their familiar roads of voter fraud. Thankfully, Republicans were more diligent this year and undoubtedly made an impact. More questionable ballots were challenged, more questions raised, more accountability called for and more light shed on irregularities. Until recently, prosecution for voter fraud has been virtually unheard of, but that is starting to change. There have been hundreds of stories published over the past several weeks relating to voting irregularities and credible allegations of fraud. Some have led to criminal charges being filed and still others have led to investigations which are ongoing. While it is unlikely that all election fraud can be stopped, it is much harder for it operate under a spotlight, which is exactly why we must each do our part to make sure that the spotlight stays on those "shadowy" recesses where voting machines mysteriously vanish, ballot boxes are obscured from view and the demons of electoral darkness run amok.

It was suggested that the opening remarks of Attorney General John Ashcroft be used as the basis of our mission statement for this thread. In these precarious times when we are at war and we are threatened daily by terrorism, our liberty has become more precious than ever and we must be vigilant to protect it not only from foreign invaders, but also from those who would erode it from within by compromising the integrity of our elections. In order to succeed in a battle it is essential to know the enemy and attack at the point of greatest vulnerability. Included here is a list of links, which while by no means exhaustive, can serve to enlighten. Many of these stories are from Arkansas only because this was the springboard for this thread and we look forward to other FReepers adding stories from their own areas as well as any based in personal experience. The original thread also produced a wealth of resources as we discussed who we should contact if we became aware of voting irregularities or suspected fraud. Again the list of links is far from comprehensive and additions are welcome. Of course the whole point of this exercise is to get more conservative voters involved in changing the laws to close loopholes which make it easy to cheat, to promote the enforcement of existing election laws and to take part in the election process at the local level all with the goal of intercepting future fraud campaigns. In other words our goal is to STOP THE RATS FROM HIJACKING THE ELECTION PROCESS AND TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK!

Many thanks to all the wonderful FReepers who contributed their time, energy and ideas to produce the foundation for this thread:

Awareness- know thy enemy! If any of these links become outdated many of these articles are posted on the original FReep thread. If you let me know via FReepmail, I will make editorial adjustments accordingly before renewing the thread.

Access One reason the Democrats get away with as much as they do is because they make a lot of noise. It is time WE make some noise of our own. There are a number of individuals, organizations and media sources who support our Constitution and seek to protect the integrity of our elections. Here are a few of them. Rather than clutter the body of this thread with a long list of email addresses, I will post the websites. Most of these have contacts and email addresses on them.

Election Law Below is a very brief list of some election laws and guidelines which we have referenced recently. I am sure this section will grow considerably as others add their contributions.

Action What can FReepers do? For starters we can identify states that will have key races in the 2004 election. Is your state one of them? Let's start getting important information about the race, the candidates, the electoral history of the state, the laws in that state and how open they may leave the process to tampering, history of voter fraud in the state, conservative media outlets there, and whatever else you can think of that might be relevant to equip the electorate to head off problems in advance.

Democrats LIE! Their biggest and most effective lie is that Republicans are deliberately trying to prevent blacks and/or other minorities from voting. In effect, they're calling us racists. The truth is that it is them who seem to consider blacks and other minorities so inferior and ignorant and lackiing in initiative that they are incapable of voting without the benefit of THEIR "guidance" and "protection". Their greatest fear is that blacks will recognize how badly they've been duped and insulted by these people and leave the party in droves. We need to work with that. Black conservatives have perhaps the greatest responsibility for telling other black voters the truth about the Democrat party, although it is certainly something we should all work on.

Talk about election fraud. Bring it up whenever an opportunity presents itself. Keep a notebook at all times and if someone tells you anything pointing to vote fraud, get more details. Write down such things as county, precinct, candidates in the race, name of the witness and whatever else you can think of. If it seems credible, report it to someone.

Take part in the process. Here is a list of suggestions that stop_the_rats posted on another thread:

1. Plan to take election day off in 2004.
2. Be a poll worker. You get paid for this.
3. Be a poll watcher. Call your local Republican headquarters or the campaign office of one of your Republican candidates and volunteer to be a poll watcher.
4. Count absentee ballots. You get paid for this also.
5. Be a poll closer. It's a long day. Some people who can't poll watch because of work, could agree to come after work for 2 hours and close the polls to give poll watchers a break. Get final counts and make sure no "late" voters turn up.
6. Take lunches to poll workers and poll watchers.
7. Man the headquarters so if problems arise, poll workers or watchers have a place to call for help. Have a list of numbers: local election officals, state officals.
8. Find a person who will agree to "be in charge" of all the rules poll watchers and poll workers need to follow. Each state has rules and in some cases, state election representatives will come to your city and give a presentation.
9. Encourage others to get involved.
10. Smile; we have them worried!

Some might want to take it a step furthur, if that is an option in your area, and be an election judge. Or you may have specific talents and training that you could donate to the cause, such as legal assistance and advice.

Finally; ask questions. FReepers have an uncanny ability to ask the right questions in most any situation AND to find answers and we have an inexhaustable resource right here on Free Republic. Here are just a few questions to start with.

"How do we work to get cooperation between poll watchers and workers and clarify expectations on all sides BEFORE an election?"

"How can you prove fraud? What is legal in a given state (photos, tape recording, witness statements, compiling a list of names, video taping)?"

"If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)

FReepers; your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get out there and STOP THE RATS!

What about them skins?....I haven't heard anything. Here is a good article:

Can we trust the vote count anywhere? In any race? In any election?

By Thomas Penn
Online Journal Contributing Writer

November 14, 2002—Do you think that our voting system could be corrupted? Not in little ways, such as "dead people voting," or people voting twice, but by people behind the scenes not counting our votes or substituting other numbers for the vote count that our selections on election day should mandate. Even worse, could a computer programmer working for a private company adjust the tallies for candidates and propositions in ways which might not be detectable? Although I am only beginning to research this topic, I am already beginning to find answers that are rather unsettling.

I located an article originally published in "Relevance" in November, 1996 (Vol. III, No. V) edited by Philip M. O'Halloran. An editor's note at the beginning of the article states:

"Ed. Note - When we began researching the integrity of the election process, we wanted to believe that the talk of "votescam" was just overblown hype. However, we have discovered that the computer voting system in this country is a veritable can of worms, so open to tampering that if there is no organized election fraud going on, the criminals are falling down on the job."

In a section of that article, entitled "Secret Ballot–Secret Tally - Electronic Voting on Trial," the author(s) goes on to state, "The counting of 70% of our votes goes on inside a literal and figurative black box by a technical process that you have no legal right to inspect. The results from that black box are then counted by local election officials who send their results to the state, where they are later certified as accurate and honest. However, these election officials have no legitimate means of certifying that the results are indeed "accurate" and "honest." In fact, in numerous interviews, we found that no individual at the state, county, city or township level has had any meaningful insight (or even a clear understanding) into the vote counting process at the crucial level of the election computers in each jurisdiction."1

"When the polls close, the voting tallies feed out from the back of the machine on a strip of paper that looks like a cash register receipt. These slips are then sent to the county, the state and the media for further counting. In many heavily-populated areas, the Votomatic Punch cards or optical scan ballots are taken to a central counting site where they are fed into from one to 12 larger computers called tabulators at the rate of up to 1,000 per minute."2

The computers which tabulate the votes cannot be examined by anyone with a direct interest in a fair election. Neither voters, nor poll workers, city clerks, county election supervisors, state elections directors or even federal election officials are permitted to view or examine the "source code," the computer programming instructions (software) that direct the computers in the tabulation of the votes in all of the races.

The "source codes" are deemed proprietary, i.e. a "trade secret," and hence the only people who are allowed to view or examine them are the companies that make the computers and their agents.

But this is not the half of it. Not only are we not able to examine the computer program which "tabulates" our votes. We can't even find out if there are felons or ex-felons working for (or owning or managing) the companies which produce the voting machines, election equipment and software. The major companies which make most of the equipment (and software) involved in the election process are private companies which are not required by law to disclose ownership information. In fact, research indicates that not only are there questions of criminal activity (vote fraud, obstruction of justice) on the part of present or past members of these firms, the ties of these companies to extreme right wing political operatives are becoming more and more apparent.3

Beverly Harris is a courageous and persistent woman who is determined to find answers to these questions. (See Talion.com, 2002 Election) She has catalogued more than 30 instances of serious election irregularities, computer glitches and charges of voter fraud that have occurred in many U.S. jurisdictions and overseas that call into question the integrity and reliability of the voting equipment, especially the vote-counting machines.4

She also attempts to penetrate the maze of companies and shell companies, owners and investors that make up the constellations of organizations that make up, control, own, have agreements with or are subsidiaries of the vote-counting firms. She found that there were four companies in this business, but for all intents and purposes the fourth (Shoup Voting Solutions) has had its personnel and machines merged into the other three:

Election Systems and Software (ES&S), the largest company making vote-counting equipment, was founded by Todd and Bob Urosovitch, and was originally financed largely by the politically active Ahmanson family, a facilitator and financier of many extreme right-wing political causes.

Sequoia Pacific shares technology and software with ES&S under a shared licensing agreement.

Global Election Systems (now part of Diebold) is headed by ES&S co-founder Bob Urosovitch, brother of ES&S's vice president.4

Given all the irregularities that have resulted from voting "snafus," "computer glitches" and other mistakes connected with the electronic vote-counting process, it is amazing that this has not become a scandal of national proportions. It appears that the media have had a hand in diverting the public's attention away from this. The rare times they do report incidents in this arena are usually very local, unless there is an unavoidably newsworthy breakdown such as occurred during the Florida presidential circus in 2000. However, these kinds of snafus and irregularities have been going on for decades, along with other types of shenanigans and voting barriers, such as those experienced by many minorities during that Florida vote, which have had the effect of discouraging many would-be voters and creating cynicism in the minds of many more. What is even more insidious is that any reasonably sophisticated vote fraud in the tabulation equipment and software would not even be noticed, much less investigated and proven.

With all the "improvements," "refinements, and "standardization" as a result of all the election glitches during Florida's vote-counting two years ago, we now have a host of new creative possibilities for those who might wish to commit vote fraud. There is now a plethora of new voting machines which do not leave a paper trail. This means that we do not have any way of re-counting those votes at the source, and no back-up record of how the voters voted at the precinct level.

In addition, we now have modems installed in a goodly number of voting machines. People have observed voting machine company employees re-booting a voting machine by merely dialing a number on a cell phone. Central counting facilities can also "talk" with the precinct voting machines and thus establish intermediate tallies. If outside computers can "talk with machines inside the precincts, they may also influence their electronic signals, and thus potentially alter the vote count totals stored at the machine or the central counter level.

There is a story in the book "Votescam," by James and Kenneth Collier, relating how George H. W. Bush, during the 1988 Presidential Primary season, lost to Bob Dole in the Iowa caucuses and was behind 8 percentage points in the New Hampshire Primary in the week before the voting. He made a telephone call to computer expert and Governor John Sunnunu, and—lo and behold—when the polls closed on primary night the pollsters were dumbfounded. Bush won by 9 percentage points. It has been theorized that anyone knowing the proper phone number, using a machine that can output a precise series of frequencies, could input a new set of counting instructions into the state's vote-counting machines.

VNS

On the next level, we need to consider VNS, the Voter News Service, founded as News Election Service (NES) in 1964. According to James Collier, co-author of Votescam and a 20 year student of computer vote fraud (especially in Florida), this vote projection service monopoly came about as a result of a meeting between representatives of the CIA, the FBI and the powers behind the media, who met in secret and hammered out a deal. If the heads of the major media would acquiesce in the Warren Commission's lame conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the "lone nut" gunman in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, then they would be given a great deal of power in the selection of the winners in future elections. This one organization conducts all the election day exit polling and does all the reporting of the vote-tallying from the major counting centers on election night, and forwards their tabulations to all the major media.5

What if the people who controlled the election night exit polling, projections, and vote tabulations were able to intelligently (and corruptly) collaborate with the vote-counting equipment (and software) manufacturers, which program and adjust the voting equipment? Could Candidate A, who in reality has received 60 percent of the vote over Candidate B, find the numbers reversed when the networks announce that the exit polling and the vote tabulations agree that Candidate B has won out over Candidate A by a 60/40 margin? Could this happen? What recourse would anyone have if it did? What proof could anyone offer to decide the case one way or the other?

I am not saying this has happened, is happening or will happen. I am asking the question: Why couldn't it happen? There is enough conflict of interest, potential for manipulation, lack of disclosure and secrecy involved in the vote-counting process that it leaves me wondering if we can trust the vote tallies and vote totals in any electoral district in the country.

There are a number of partial solutions bruited about for some of the big questions and doubts about the integrity of the electoral process. However, there is only one solution consistently cited by people who have really studied this issue—one solution that eliminates the possibility of vote tampering through proprietary source code software alterations, outside input through modems, and "computer glitches" caused by weather, electrical surges or other factors.6

It involves going back to a simpler era. It is just this. Hand counting all ballots at the precinct level by the election workers under the watchful eyes of the community, and the posting of the results at each precinct station, plus the saving of the individual ballots so that they may be reviewed or re-counted at any time.

This might appear to many as an extreme Luddite solution. But I submit that it has much more going for it than do the insincere and self-serving arguments used by James Baker and the Bush forces during the process of their stealing of Florida's electoral vote and the presidency in 2000. I remember Baker saying something to the effect, "It is un-American to count votes by hand after they have already been counted by machine."

I contend that the forces which would use offensive and irrational arguments such as the one above, who would send their own operatives by bus to Miami-Dade County Election Headquarters asking them to behave like thugs, bullies and "storm troopers" in order to frighten election workers into stopping their vote-count, who would pressure other election workers into counting obviously invalid absentee votes sent from overseas, and who would commit all sorts of other heinous, ugly, unjust and criminal acts just to ensconce their candidate in the White House—would be very happy to have computer programs and polling numbers adjusted to facilitate the "right result" in local, state, and national elections.

I do not believe the situation is hopeless. On the contrary, I really believe the statement of Michael Ruppert, who has been a rock in the efforts to bring out the truth of what really happened on September 11, 2001. He stated, "When you have had the game rigged in your favor for a long time, you tend to get stupid." So let us stay cool, intelligent and observant. Let's go to the polls and vote, hopefully for Democrats, Greens, Libertarians, independents—people of conscience and creativity. At the same time, let us observe very carefully everything we see happening during the election process. Then I request that you write up your observations and send them to http://www.votewatch.us/. We need to document as much of the process as possible.

At some point we need to challenge both the right of these companies to hide the names of their owners and employees, and whether they have conflicts of interest, criminal records, etc, and the right to keep the source codes private and unexamined by election officials, neutral parties and representatives of the voting public. I think that there is an argument that voting is a sacred right and thus the "proprietary" right to view the computer "source code" lies with the public and their "honest representatives," not with the firms which may have economic interests in a dishonest and clever count.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Penn111402/penn111402.html

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