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View Article  The Death of Democracy: End-game Ohio
The Death of Democracy: End-game Ohio

by Caroline Vernon

US Democracy would appear to be a fiction, not only because of the war, but because of the mounting evidence of the election theft in Ohio, and other parts of the nation.
 

Here are excerpts from a long and detailed article on the subject.
 

Interesting that we have to go to Canada to get this article.  If you listen to US news only, you might just end up accepting the fiction that Bush was democratically elected President.

------


The Strange Death of American Democracy: Endgame in Ohio

by Michael Keefer

University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) Associate Professor of English Michael Keefer writes: So who ever thought the 2004 US presidential election had the remotest chance of being honest and democratic?

. . . . Ohio was the swing state of swing states on November 2nd, 2004, the one whose twenty Electoral College votes decided the outcome of the US presidential election. It is therefore a matter of some significance that the testimonial evidence of corruption in the Ohio election is corroborated by statistical evidence which shows the election in this state - and nationwide - to have been not just corrupt, but stolen.


The evidence in both categories is massively complex. But thanks to the no less massive analytical labors over the past two months of citizen pro-democracy activists, of social scientists, of mathematicians and statisticians, of computer programmers, and of alternative-media investigative journalists, it can nonetheless be conveniently summarized.


You want smoking guns? Here they are, starting with the evidence that John F. Kerry, and not George W. Bush, won the state of Ohio.


1. Uncounted punch-card and provisional ballots.


Well over 13,000 Ohio provisional ballots were never counted, and 92,672 regular punch-card ballots were set aside by vote-counting machines as indicating no choice for president. Thus, even after Ohio's supposed recount, a total of over 106,000 ballots remained uncounted--though there was  no legal reason for not inspecting and counting each of these ballots.  But there seems to have been a very good political reason for not doing so: the uncounted ballots came disproportionately from places like the cities of Cincinnati, Cleveland and Akron, all of which voted overwhelmingly for the Democrats.


2. Fraud through default settings on touch-screen voting machines.


Some 15 percent of Ohio's votes were cast using the new touch-screen voting machines. In the city of Youngstown, in Mahoning County, there were repeated complaints about what election observers referred to as  vote-flipping  by the ES&S Ivotronic touch-screen machines used there. This flipping  phenomenon, also widely observed in other states, typically appeared to poll watchers  like a mere computer glitch, no different than a super market checkout machine that records an incorrect price for lettuce.


But what was happening, in the vast majority of cases, was no  glitch.  As Dom Stasi notes,  The laws of probability demand that multiple random errors trend toward even distribution, but only if they are truly errors.  Yet in all of the published accounts of vote flipping, the  errors  consistently favored Bush: voters who were trying to vote for Kerry found their votes being given to Bush, transferred to third-party candidates, or simply erased. The Chairman of the Mahoning County Board of Elections is reported to have stated that  20 to 30 machines [...] needed to be re-calibrated during the voting process.  He is not quoted as saying that any action was taken, or could be taken, to compensate for the machines' one-way errors - and there is evidence that many other machines were left uncorrected.


To read the entire article: Click Here



View Article  Iowa and the Death of Democracy
Iowa and the Death of Democracy


Culver Asks Iowa Legislature to Pass Elections Bill

(DES MOINES, IA)  Secretary of State Chet Culver [Monday] released data submitted by county officials showing that nearly half of Iowa’s counties will purchase touch-screen voting machines as part of statewide efforts to upgrade voting machines and make election system improvements as required by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

The data shows that 47 counties are likely to purchase [the extremely unreliable, highly-riggable] touch-screen voting machines, known as Direct Recording Devices (DREs).  That widespread use, Culver said, reinforces the position he and Governor Vilsack have taken as they’ve urged legislators to pass an elections bill that includes a requirement for a voter verified paper trail with touch-screen voting machines.

“The timing is critical,” Culver said.  “Legislators have put together an elections bill that has many outstanding provisions, but legislators have not yet voted on the bill.  I urge them to do so.  County supervisors and election officials are dealing with election reforms right now and are ready to purchase new voting machines, which means proposed changes in state law will do the most good if they can take effect this year.”

Earlier in the session the Iowa Senate voted 48-0 in favor of a voter verified paper trail.  Some lawmakers raised concerns about the technology, which has improved to take effect as Iowa and other states prepare for new voting systems that must be in place by 2006.  Culver said he has been assured by voting equipment manufacturers that the technology is available to meet a paper trail requirement.  

For added reassurance, Senator Jeff Danielson of Cedar Falls proposed an amendment to the bill that would put the onus on equipment vendors and the Secretary of State’s office to complete certification for touch-screen voting machines with paper trail features by no later than August 15, 2005.  

“If the requirement doesn’t become law now, it may be another decade or more before counties purchase new voting equipment.  Furthermore, HAVA provides our counties with a one-time use of federal dollars to support a large share of the equipment costs,” Culver said.

Supporters of the elections bill include the League of Women Voters of Iowa, AARP, Democracy for Iowa, I-Vote, and other citizen groups.   In addition to the paper trail issue, the elections bill includes other provisions that Culver said will give local officials more flexibility and a greater ability to reduce local election costs.



Myth Breakers: A non-partisan national grassroots resource for fair and accurate elections!

We believe in the power of facts.

Download free:

Myth Breakers: Facts about Electronic Elections
2nd edition

Information is power. Learn the facts.
Myth Breakers...

- Corrects HAVA misconceptions
- Describes HAVA-compliant alternatives to DREs
- Gives general pricing information
- Speaks about myth vs. misinformation

The second edition includes...
- Malfunctions from the 2004 General Election
- More about testing and certification
- Details about software complexities

Myth Breakers is a tool for citizen activists. Myth Breakers will enable you to speak with confidence about the issues. Then ... Spread the Truth! Deliver "Myth Breakers: Facts about Electronic Elections" to your local election officials and legislators. Give them the information they need to make wise decisions.

Participants have confirmed that the first edition ("Myth Breakers for Election Officials") has been delivered to 838 local election officials (including, in 2004, all 99 Iowa counties, which makes it all the more heartbreaking that so many Iowa county auditors have chosen to ignore the disturbing facts).



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