“More evidence tonight that the security of our elections, the integrity of our democracy are at risk from electronic voting machines. A county in Iowa has just come close to putting the wrong candidate in office because of a massive programming error.”
This Dobbs report underscores the problems in the Busby/Bilbray CA50 election fiasco, as the candidates shown as losing the election based on the optical-scan count in Iowa were later found to be winners — but only after the ballots were actually counted by hand to determine if they were counted accurately by the machine! They were not.
By way of ironic side note, the Iowa Republican primary election in question, as we’ve noted here many time before, took place on June 6th — the same day as the flawed Busby/Bilbray election…in which nobody has yet bothered to count the op-scan votes in order to find out if the results were reported accurately. Election integrity, it seems, is more important in some states than in others, we guess.
Says Dobbs in his closing remarks to Kitty Pilgrim: “If this message is not getting through that’s emanating from every corner of the country using these voting machines, I don’t know what it will take.”
Video in Streaming Flash format…
Video in Windows Media format…
(Hat tip David Edwards for the video, John Gideon for the transcript and tracking, etc.)
The complete text transcript of the Lou Dobbs/Kitty Pilgrim report follows…
Kitty Pilgrim has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): On June 6th, in Iowa’s Pottawattamie County, the early electronic vote tally showed a popular 23-year incumbent losing to a 19-year-old college student. Highly suspicious, the auditors stopped the electronic count and started counting by hand. The electronic machines made by ES&S, one of the three major voting machine companies in the country, had miscounted every race on the ballot.
LOREN KNAUSS, POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY SUPERVISOR: The discussion that we had afterwards as we started doing our review, the company, ES&S, misprogrammed the computers. And then on our side, the tests were not thorough enough. So it was — we’ll just say it was a 50-50 mistake on their side and ours.
PILGRIM: Knauss was running against 10 people in a Republican primary, and according to the voting machines, he was coming in ninth. After the manual recount, he came in first. He says without a paper trail, the election would been completely botched by the electronic machines.
Electronic voting experts have come to a conclusion over what went wrong with the ES&S machines.
JOHN WASHBURN, VOTERTRUST USA: What happened in Pottawattamie County is that they have a rule that the paper ballots, the names from precinct to precinct, have to rotate. So, while I might be at the top of the ballot in precinct one, I’d be number two in precinct two, number three in precinct three, and so on.
What the machinery did, though, is the programming didn’t take into account this rotation on the paper ballots. And so, regardless of whatever name was on the top of the ballot, it would always accrue for a single candidate.
PILGRIM: Computer experts point out in this case how the ballot was programmed was a mistake. But misprogramming ballot tabulation could also be done on purpose if someone wanted to tamper with an election.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: The Iowa Secretary of State says the programming by the vendor was done incorrectly. So the state is going to pay more attention to the pre-election testing of the machines.
But ES&S issued a statement saying the issue was not related to the reliability of the machines, rather error in the way the ballots were coded. It was a human error, they say.
All of this goes to prove, you really do need this paper trail.
DOBBS: Went from ninth to number one. If this message is not getting through that’s emanating from every corner of the country using these voting machines, I don’t know what it will take.
PILGRIM: I know. And when you talk to county after county after county that have these problem, they all come to the same conclusion, you must have a paper record, it seems.
DOBBS: And I love the electoral officials in these counties and districts, and in some cases states, saying we’re going to pay closer attention this time. Wouldn’t you pay close attention every time?
PILGRIM: One would hope so. It is an election.
DOBBS: Kitty, thank you very much.
Kitty Pilgrim.
This is one of those nights in which one has to shake your head. It’s just one thing after another.
Thank you.
“Election integrity, it seems, is more important in some states than in others, we guess.”
Maybe it’s just that election integrity is more important when the results would favor a republican?
Well, the message is not getting thru to Santorum.
He does not realize he could hack the vote.
His latest strategy, short of that, is that he wants to support the Greens (and Indys, Libertarians, etc?) for the moment:
(link here, bold added).
Hey, this is a good sign. They realize that there is so much focus on these dastardly machines that such measures should only be used if the greens, libertians, indy’s, and the rest, go against their wishes and vote for the party that opposes Santorum.
Santorum is a part of the republican dictatorship, and for whatever reason, true or false, thinks it can win with the Greens … because if Santorum “supports Greens” they will support the republican dictatorship over Democrats.
I ask the Greens, et. al., … is that true?
Lou, do you have the guts to say this:
“You know what, maybe the 2004 exit polls WERE right, and maybe the 2004 election WAS stolen.” Can you say that?
Thank you for covering e-vote fraud, I sincerely mean that, Lou.
Actually, anyone who knows that electronic vote machines can be easily compromised, and by one person, KNOWS the 2004 election was stolen, and doesn’t have to say it.
Thanks again to Lou, Kitty and CNN. The consistant fobbing off by election officials and the e-voting companies when it comes to anyone mentioning keeping paper records speaks volumes. I can see Lou is starting to feel the sheer exasperation I feel and that Bradbloggers must feel much more than I. If this were New Zealand I’d be really desperate.
I read somwhere recently that the extremist side of the republcan party are now keen to rid themselves of of the moderates in the party who might not support some of the things they would like to do.
Its time for moderate republicans in congress and the senate to move against Bush before he has fixed the numbers with too many extremists for it to be possible. He wants to dismantle social security etc and knowing how relentlessly persistant he is he will do his best to weed out any dissent within his own party. Yes the voting machines may be used against moderates in the Republican party.
Even after Bush has gone in 2008 it will be the extreme right wing who long to abandon the poor and social security, who are in control of the machines.
So the time to jump ship would seem to be as soon as possible. Give the Democrats the numbers they need to get fair elections and your countrymen and women will love you. Otherwise you will either have to condone policy you are against or the extreme right will get rid of you via rigged elections.
Bushes popularity is pretty low so you can ignore the extreme right when they start Hollering.
“…anyone who knows…the 2004 election was stolen…doesn’t have to say it.”
Ohhhhhh….yes, you do, m’friend..! Out loud and often.
Get Noisy, folks!!
Contact your local election boards and your county supervisors -whoever the hell needs to be slapped awake to this truly terrifying threat.
Make them take their jobs -and our basic rights -seriously.
My thanks to Lou Dobbs, as well, and Brad, and all the folks here in CA fighting like angry badgers, with passion and conviction, for Election Protection. And speaking of election integrity in CA – help make Debra Bowen our new Secretary of State.
Hats off to Lou Dobbs!
I’m glad they covered this story. It’s easy to understand and very interesting.
Thank you, Lou.
Lou, do you think the 2004 election was stolen???
“Maybe it’s just that election integrity is more important when the results would favor a republican”
QFE!
Or to clarify.. we only care to “super duper verify the count” when a DEM wins (by any margin). If a Pug wins, “everything is fine, nothing to see.. move along”..
When will people wake up and get angry about the loaded dice we’re playing with?
The reason Santitorium wants the Greens on the Ballot is because he hopes to split the Dem vote, get the hippies that lost us the 2000 race to vote for Green and deny those votes to the Dem the other choice for a hippy.
Geepers, Mike.. you make it sound like being a “hippy” is a bad thing.. You know, the guys that support “peace” and “love” and getting along and taking care of the planet so it continues to take care of us?
I guess I don’t see how that’s bad, considering the alternative in our political arena. Exploit and destroy (resources and lives) for profit.. suffering and war generate profits, so they are valued..
I’d rather be a hippy than a corporate raider any day.
And I suppose you are right.. The Republicans know they suck and people know it, and hope to get as many people in the race as they can to “divide and conqure”, nevermind the “I’mma uniter, not a divider” spewed in the incessant stream of shit from Shrubby’s mouth.
We would never of heard about this if it was a Democrat. Are we ever going to get our democracy back.
Thanks again Blad Blog for keeping us informed.
Mike #10
You’re a coward Mike!
You only criticize hippies because you think they’re weak and won’t fight back. The hippies, (who, by the way no longer exsit), fought the government and big business. The corporations feared them so much they started a 40 year campaign while hiding in the shadows to harass and antagonize even the good parts of the 60’s youth movement.
You prissy little cowards would rather see everything in this country destroyed, rather then admit you were wrong!
Pathetic!
You’re right about that, Larry. The hippies were traumatic to the “establishment”, so much so that it is still doing all it can to cut off or usurp any even minor resurgence (or honest – as opposed to rose-colored nostalgic – memory) of the honesty and subversive creativity they brought to U.S. culture.
BTW, many people don’t realize that in the early days of hippiedom there was endless discussion of what was a hippie, what it meant to be a hippie. It was more of a conscious movement than some people realize, at least in the initial stages.
Mike, of course, is just a run-of-the-mill bigot.
Mostly Greens tend to be people who were once Democrats, Republicans – it’s true – Libertarians, or Independents who have had their fill of corporatism and who see being Green as being honest about their own convictions. Many are well-educated, most are off the grid of corporate culture and are committed to building a society that takes into consideration the condition of the earth and the richness of healthy communities.
#2 Dredd – In reply to your question: no, that’s not true. I don’t deny there are stupid, short-sighted Greens. Unfortunately, there are. And many harbor a not unreasonable loathing for the Democratic strategy of trying to keep Green candidates off state ballots and the neverending work to keep Greens out of candidate debates. I will wager, however, the most PA Greens will vote to remove Santorum and not vote for the Green candidate. (This is Rick Santorum, for god’s sake 🙂 Sen. Santorum might be working on a strategy, but I don’t think it will garner him many votes, relatively speaking. I believe the vote for the Green candidate will be negligable. I think Big Dan is on to something. None of us know the details, of course, but the big Republican election strategy, including election fraud, will obviously be to make the numbers appear as close as possible during election day so they can get that 1% with as plausible an explanation as possible.
Another subject — why doesn’t Lou Dobbs use a segment for that ridiculous election situation in Alaska? When talking to newcomers on the election integrity issues, I always bring that subject up. It always leaves them shaking their heads.
Time for Lou and Kitty to cover the election fiasco in Riverside County, CA on June 6th.
From the refusal to post the results at the precincts to the entering of paper ballot votes into DREs by election staff, to the loss of 17 memory cards, to baring official Election Observer Panel members from any meaningful observation, it is quite clear there is SOMETHING to hide.
And let’s not forget the $13 million spent for new Sequoia Edge II machines when Napa, Shasta and Tehama Counties made do quite nicely with Edge Is.
The still water runs deep, and this case needs to get more daylight from the media.