For many of us, it took the destruction of the World Trade Towers and the deaths of 3,000 Americans before we paid any attention at all to the warning signs we'd been receiving about Terrorism.

And now, I feel the same way in regards to the warnings I'd been hearing about Electronic Voting machines and the Deibold company, etc. prior to the 11/2 Election.

I, frankly, was an idiot for not paying close enough attention to Bev Harris and the warnings she had been issuing about about Black Box Voting for the past year or more.

Guess what? I'm paying attention now.

I just finished watching the 30-minute "Presidential Election" version of VOTERGATE, a full-length documentary film being prepared for release on DVD, and the lump I'm now feeling now in the pit of my stomach is...to say the least...unsettling.

Unforutnately, the 30-minute version of VOTERGATE, previously available at VoterGate.tv was hacked a few days ago, according to their site, and their available versions were destroyed from the server. They claim to be attempting to repair the server, and upload replacements soon.

I don't doubt their claims, as this Blog also came under attack a couple of weeks ago while we were reporting on the White House Website Scrubbing scandal. And, frankly, that issue was nothing compared to what we may be looking at now.

In the meantime, I was able to watch a version here, but after I'd finished, and hoped to go back and get some screenshots for this article, I'd found that version also unavailable. I don't know if it's been hacked, or is just exceedingly busy at this point. If I find alternate versions for you to look at, I will update this item. (UPDATE: Found another version right here that seems to still be available! Go watch it! NOW!)

I CAN'T RECOMMEND THIS FILM ENOUGH at this point! It's absolutely horrifying.

In this special edition of the film, we follow Bev Harris as she demonstrates how --- in about 90 seconds --- she was able to change the results of an election on the central vote tabulating computer. It was something that anybody reading this could have done as easily.

We also see Mark Radke, the Marketing Director from Deibold Inc. (one of two private companies that count 80% of the nation's votes) explain how sorry they were that their CEO, Wallace O'Dell, sent out a Fundraising Letter to Republicans in August of 2003, telling them he was "committed to delivering the electoral vote in Ohio to George W. Bush next year".

That was the same month that O'Dell also met Bush, along with a bunch of benefactors, down at the ranch in Crawford! (Click here for some more on Diebold's $411,320 Republican political contributions.)

The Marketing Director, Radke, also assures us in the film that Diebold machines are "safe and reliable". Not long before Bev Harris demonstrates otherwise. Big time.

Among the documented evidence in this version of the film, is a candidate in an election (I believe it was in Georgia) who brought a video camera to the warehouse where the machines were stored after her 2002 election. She documents repeatedly how selecting her name on the touch-screen voting machine continually counted the vote as a vote for her opponent!. The proof is documented and shown on camera.

Furthermore, she interviews a San Diego poll worker who was asked to take home a dozen or so E-Voting Machines the night before the primary election. She was simply a volunteer and was required to pass no security checks to have access to these machines in her house all night long. The only security: An adhesive seal (a sticker actually) on each machine with a black and white graphic that was easily removed and restored without even tearing the seal.

As far as I'm concerned, 11/2 is becoming the 9/11 for democracy in this country, folks. And while I made the mistake of not paying close enough attention before, I will not be repeating that profoundly naïve error.

I'll update this item if I find additional versions of the film for you to watch...Developing...HARD...

From 2001 to 2003, Diebold gave $411,320 to Republican candidates and causes.

Their CEO promised, in an August 2003 Fundraising Letter to Republicans, to "deliver the Ohio electoral vote to President Bush" - Just days before he met with Bush and other bigwig supporters down at the ranch in Crawford, TX!

Along with ES&S, founded by the same founder as Diebold, those two companies alone count 80% of our nations ballots.

Click here to see the contributions they've made to the Republican party...

Like everyone else honest enough with themselves to see our country --- and our world with it --- being torn apart by George W. Bush, Andrew Veal, a 25 year-old employee at the University of Georgia recognized the disaster afoot in Iraq (where as of last night, they've officially declared Martial Law in the country --- more evidence of "catastrophic success", I guess).

Veal was an ardent John Kerry supporter and became despondent after Tuesday's results were announced.

He travelled to New York City on Friday --- home of the world's worst-ever terrorist attack and a city that voted overwhelmingly in favor of John Kerry to keep them safer in the future --- went downtown to the site of 9/11's "Ground Zero" and shot himself in the head with a .12-gauge shotgun.

Newsday reported yesterday that "Ground Zero remains a top tourist attraction" and that opinions of sight-seers later in the day varied about the latest tragedy to occur there.

One visitor was quoted as saying "Maybe he felt ineffective...You feel ineffective if you tried and it all failed" speaking of "many New Yorkers who are depressed over this."

An East Village artist and registered Democrat suggested the suicide was symbolic, "Obviously, this person was devastated. I can see why he would come here".

And from the Right, Bobbie Jensen, a 54 year-old "Republican from Pheonix" was compassionate enough to understand that Bush's victory must have been troubling to those who dislike him.

But, Ms. Jensen explained, "You can be upset about the war, about Bush, but this is a sacred place."

Apparently, for the compassionately conservative Ms. Jensen, Ground Zero is just an inappropriate place to blow ones brains out.

A must read article entitled "Evidence Mounts That The Vote Was Hacked" from Thom Hartmann at CommonDreams.org. Hartmann explains precisely how this election could easily have been hacked and claims that a U.S. House candidate in Florida has the evidence to prove it.

No doubt, the issues disclosed in this piece, are exactly what Bev Harris and BlackBoxVoting.org are basing their recent pronouncements of "fraud" upon. Teasing the first graf...

It's a very clear and convincing read. As I say, it's a must read! Please give it a look.

As Raw Story originally reported on Wednesday, the Exit Polling on the day of the Election showed Kerry ahead by robust margins in many states. By the time the day had ended Kerry's margin had been eclipsed by Bush's. But, notably, that only happened in states that do not have fully voter-verifiable paper trails (e.g. E-Voting machines that don't offer printed/verifiable paper receipts for the voter to confirm that their vote was recorded correctly).

Here are a couple of rudimentary graphics now to show the difference.

In the 10 states polled where there were voter-verifiable paper trails, the Final Results barely differed from the Exit Polls (which, until this year, have been widely regarded as highly accurate since they are taken as folks actually leave the polling place). The average change from Exit Poll to Final Results in these states was a tiny .8% gain for Bush. (Exit Numbers displayed in BLUE, Final Numbers in RED):

And now look at the data from states where there are no paper trails. Note the huge difference in Final Results that changed radically from the Exit Polling results. The average gain for Bush --- in these states only --- was 6.25% over the Exit Polling numbers!

What could possibly account for the huge differences there between the Exit Polls and the Final Results? And only in the Non-Paper Ballot States?

The numbers shown in these graphs seem to be taken from the "4pm Exit Polls" as shown on this chart. That chart is not particular user-friendly, but with a bit of close study, it makes sense.

Those "4pm Exit Poll" numbers however, match up with the "Final 6pm Exit Polls" as reported by Raw Story on the day of. So I'm not sure if the person who compiled the chart and the above graphics was in a different time-zone to account for the 4pm/6pm discrepancy. It doesn't really matter to be frank, as long as the numbers were correctly reported. Which they seem to have been.

It's my understanding that a major news organization is investigating this part of the story now. So we'll see what can be learned in the days ahead.

UPDATE: 11/9/04 Raw Story asked a former MIT "Associate Professor of Mathmatics" to look at these results, and his conclusion was that the probabilities of the Exit Polls all closing for Bush the way they did was approximately "1 in 50,000 or .002 percent". Nonetheless, that same Professor has looked closely at the available Exit Polling data and has "ruled out any significance of a variance between electronic balloting and paper ballot states" in the matter. That story is here.

I have spoken to Raw Story editor, John Byrne about this, and he stands by the report though he adds that to get any conclusive information on the matter we'd have to now take a look at the Exit Polling data on a county-by-county level. At this time, that information has not been released to the public, though apparently it is for sale somewhere. Not sure at this time how much it would cost to purchase for further analysis (and not sure why, at this point, it isn't simply made available to the public given all the troubling reports about this election!)

{NOTE: This page has been reformatted and updated in our new blogging software. Please visit the updated page here.}

ATTN: Mathematicians and Statisticians - Please see this item posted at eRiposte concerning how some of the reported voting numbers just don't seem to be adding up to the reported Final Results. I'd love if some of you could double-check those figures and let us know in comments if you find that their math holds up.

In the previous article, I outlined a report from July 2003 that described how to steal an election in America in 2004. Virtually everything in that list was "done" in time for the 2004 election.

The items concerning the corporate privatization of the vast majority of our "public" balloting and counting systems by companies who are very closely tied to the Republican party are described in this new article yesterday by Thom Hartmann in the Baltimore Chronicle & Sentinel. Read the whole thing if you can. Here's just a few of the troubling highlights:

The more I read this report/warning from July 2003 titled "Bigger Than Watergate!" - the more I feel like I did after 9/11. I'd heard all the warnings about bin Laden and Terrorism, etc., but I didn't take it all very seriously until after it was already too late.

The mindset is true for what I'd been hearing from BlackBoxVoting.org and others for years about the concerns about Electronic Voting machines. I was interested, but never took their dire warnings with much more than a grain of salt.

I was wrong.

Looking again at the story from July 2003, you'll find a chilling description of precisely what seems more and more to have happened in last Tuesday's election. For example, look at this passage explaining how one might steal an election in modern day America:

This is a precise description of what has happened in our country leading up to Tuesday's vote as foretold more than a year ago!

The onlyl place where reality varies from the scenario above is in the last step, "removing the risk of exit-polling showing up your shenanigans". It was, in fact, that apparent slip-up --- the reporting of exit-polling, and the way that final results ended up varying wildly from normally very precise exit-polling, but only in swing states where they have E-Voting that doesn't supply voter-verified paper trails --- that gave us all our first clue that something was amiss here. In all other states, the exit-polls were exceedingly accurate. And where the "errors" described occured, the final results always ended up swing in Bush's favor. Why wouldn't at least some of those errors show declines in Bush's support in some states?

Since the results of the Exit Polls tipped us off, we've been able to track down more and more evidence that begins to add up to an election stinking to high heaven. The BRAD BLOG will continue to stay on this story until the matter is appropriately resolved one way or the other.

Please check back frequently as this story unfolds, as it's important that action is taken quickly on this matter. Please see BlackBoxVoting.org for more information on how you can help, and make everyone you know aware of these problems ASAP in the meantime! It's important that this story begin to emerge to the American public as quickly as possible!

More soon...

This is the way dividers such as Sean Hannity, O'Reilly, Scarborough, Wall Street Journal etc. have been telling you that America looks today in hopes of continuing their hateful wedge of the American people for political gain:

This, however --- according to reality-based data --- is what America really looks like today:

Don't let the dividers and haters tell you otherwise!

And please see this previously posted map of what America really looks like as well.

Folks are beginning to pay attention, guys!

Wired Magazine is now reporting that three Members of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee are now calling for an investigation of the troubling incidents that we've been reporting concerning irregularities in Tuesday's vote counting!:

Click for complete story...

Keep up the noise, guys! They're starting to listen! I've had other unconfirmed reports about both Dems and the Kerry campaign beginning to take notice of all of this as well!

UPDATE: House Judiciary Committee Letter to GAO, as mentioned above, available here in PDF format. (Hat tip "Shari H-D" for the link!)

In a different North Carolina incident to the one we've already report where some 4500 votes were lost for good from a single NC E-Voting machine, The Sun-Journal is now reporting additional North Carolina E-vote errors:

This machine in question, by the way, was also an ES&S machine.

The story also notes that "a national Republican political consultant who had watched the returns and had some concern that other precincts were involved in the problem entered the office." --- Hello? Are there "national Democratic political consultants" out there who are watching this stuff as well?!

Thanks to all who have sent tips and links. I am looking into all of them even if I can't always reply!

Thanks also to those who have hit the "Support the BRAD BLOG" button in the last day or two! Your donations --- big or small, and if using credit card, no PayPal account is necessary! --- are helping a great deal to allow me to devote much more time on this than (clearly) I thought I would have to after Election Day!

So thanks for the tips, info and support! I hope to put together an "Executive Summary" of the major items here shortly! And possibly some "Action Items" to move forward! In the meantime, PLEASE let folks know about what is going on! More soon...

Miami Herald now reporting that 70,000 votes were "discovered" last night in Broward County, FL for a gambling initiative that reversed the previously announced outcome. [emphasis mine, and mostly notable to those who have been following along with previously reported items]:

Hello? Connect. The. Dots.

(For more on the Optical Scan oddities in Florida, and info on who ES&S is, see this previous item.)

I'm happy to report that folks are starting to catch on to all of this. Hunter over at DailyKos gives a very sober and detailed analysis of where things are at this point in regards to both counting votes and the serious potential fraud being looked at, much of it that we've reported over the last two days here in various items.

Lots of good and new information in that piece is offered as well. Including this little "anomaly" discovered in the released Franklin County, OH voting results in PDF format:

AP has now picked up that story, and some of the others I'd been telling you about over the last couple of days. But perhaps even more notably, Drudge(!) is also now pointing to that article!...So I guess it's now officially "news"!...DEVELOPING HARD...