[UPDATED WITH VIDEO]
And speaking of Tom Feeney and Clint Curtis, the man who made a number of alarming accusations about him; including (but not limited to) a vote-rigging conspiracy in 2000, protection of an undocumented alien who pled guilty to espionage charges related to sending restricted missile chips to Communist China, and much more…
Curtis released a statement last week in regard to the contest he’s filed in the U.S. House last December under the Federal Contested Elections Act following his House race against Feeney in Florida’s 24th district last November. (The statement is posted at end of this article.)
In an exclusive BRAD BLOG interview from early March, Curtis spoke about “hard evidence” gathered by his campaign showing that his votes were under-recorded — and/or Feeney’s over-recorded — on the paperless touch-screen voting systems used in the race. Their evidence has been gathered via a precinct-by-precinct, door-to-door canvass being carried out by the campaign volunteers.
“We have now found absolutely”¦more votes for Democrats than the official results show,” Curtis told us earlier this year. “Absolutely more votes. No trends, no guesses. More votes. That should never happen.”
The campaign’s news release claims that “In every precinct studied, the data shows that Curtis received 12-24% more votes than stated in the official result.”
The House recently announced the formation of a panel to investigate the contested election between Christine Jennings and Vern Buchanan in Florida’s 13th district, but has failed to take similar action on the other three contested Sunshine State elections which “remain in limbo,” according to Curtis’s campaign. Another House race from Louisiana has also been contested in Congress. All of the contests were filed last year under the federal act meant to carry out Congress’s Constitutionally specified mandate as the final arbiter of the seating of its members.
“Only an official independent investigation, backed by the authority of the U.S. House, can dispel lingering questions regarding the accuracy of the 2006 election results,” in Florida’s 24th district and the other contested races, the campaign says. They are calling for the immediate formation of a panel in Congress to “determine the accuracy of the electronic voting systems in question, and ensure legitimate representation for the voters in those districts.”
Drawing a contrast with the FL-13 contest, which Curtis’s campaign aptly notes is based on largely circumstantial evidence — though a mountain of it — at this time, his group of volunteers in South Florida claim to have “gathered hard evidence” in the form of sworn affidavits from voters, which show “exactly where the election results are inaccurate.”
“The evidence that the election integrity group has gathered can be independently reproduced and can determine whether or not the voting machines recorded accurately,” the campaign contends.
UPDATE 4/26/07: Here’s a video, courtesy of Ginny Ross of the Election Defense Alliance, featuring an interview with Curtis detailing his campaign’s efforts “Walking for Democracy” efforts to canvass the district:
The complete press release from the Clint Curtis campaign is posted in full below…
For Immediate Release
Information Contact: Ms. Marty Ward, Campaign Manager
(954) 732-1112, marty1948@rcn.com
Four Contested Congressional Races in Florida Remain In Doubt, Awaiting U.S. House
April 17, 2007
Titusville, FL ““ Candidate Clint Curtis, Democratic challenger for Florida’s 24th Congressional District, today called for an independent investigation into election irregularities in his race to unseat incumbent Republican Tom Feeney in the 2006 Mid-term election last November. Four Congressional races remain contested in the state of Florida, pending further investigation by the U.S. House.
Curtis did not concede the race because the 16% loss did not reflect the Zogby Poll taken just weeks before the election nor the polling conducted by the online vote verification tool www.VoteNow2006.net . Instead, he enlisted a dedicated group of grassroots election integrity volunteers who have been Walking For Democracy by canvassing the 24th District since November. They have interviewed individual voters and gathered data. In every precinct studied, the data shows that Curtis received 12-24% more votes than stated in the official result. Unlike Christine Jennings in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, which has 18,000 missing votes that can not be verified, the group has gathered hard evidence that shows exactly where the election results are inaccurate.
A House panel is set to investigate the highly-publicized massive undervote rate in Sarasota in Florida’s 13th District, yet the three other contested races in Florida remain in limbo. Numerous scientific reports and studies, from respected institutions, such as the Brennan Center for Justice and Princeton University, have demonstrated that electronic voting machines are extremely vulnerable to hacking, highly prone to mechanical failures, and recording and tabulating errors. The evidence that the election integrity group has gathered can be independently reproduced and can determine whether or not the voting machines recorded accurately.
Curtis contends that only an official independent investigation, backed by the authority of the U.S. House, can dispel lingering questions regarding the accuracy of the 2006 election results in his district, determine the accuracy of the electronic voting systems in questions, and ensure legitimate representation for the voters in those districts.
Curtis is currently profiled in five current documentaries: Truth in the Booth: The Clint Curtis Story; Eternal Vigilance; and Stealing America Vote by Vote. To see trailers, please go to: www.EternalVigilance.us Eternal Vigilance and www.TruthInTheBoom.com. For more information, please visit www.clintcurtis.com, www.brennancenter.org, and www.bradblog.com.
Clint,
i ran a campaign in Palm Beach County (Yes, PB Cty)for a Balck man for Mayor. We thought we had won the race only to find out that we lost by 200 votes. We went to the offical Precinct Books and counted the number of people that offically voted only to find that they had undercounted the number of voters in the 5 Black Precincts by 400 votes. Obviously we won by 200 votes. At the time we took it to the newspapers and they felt it was too explosive to make charges and asked us to back off. Unfortunately, my candidate agreed and didn’t make any charges.
You are doing exxactly what you need to do. Count the official record of the number of voters in each precenct and then go door-to-door and get an offical poll. Make sure the numbers correspond. Also, make sure you have a neutral party with you to verify.
Clint, you are a frickin’ genius, and a real American Hero!
Would it not help for people to contact their representatives in Congress and urge them to act on Clint’s request for an investigation into their cases. I plan to do that by writing to my rep.
RE #1youngharry
Too bad the corporate media talked your candidate into sitting silent. I’m not surprised. By remaining silent (like Kerry in Oct 2004) the voters have not been represented.
We’ve been verifying the vote since Thanksgiving (November thru March). It takes lots of dedication to return to homes (again and again) when voters are not home on a particular Saturday at 10am or on a Sunday at 3pm when the volunteer affidavit gatherer arrives the first time (or the 2nd time, or the 3rd time). The affidavits are signed by the voter and witnessed by the volunteer. A neutral party would be a luxury that we did not have.
An advance letter was sent to these voters to let them know that a volunteer would be visiting.
Some people want to discuss the issue further before they will sign.
Some are waiting for you when you arrive, so glad that we were doing this undertaking.
Others are happy that the election system is “fixed” (although they do not say this) and that their guy “won;” they smile like they have a load in their diaper, and they say, “No offense, but NO!”
I think of all the demographics that I have met, the people I dislike the most are the ones who boast that they are in the computer/technology industry, and they state that computers are very secure. What a bunch of crap!
I like it when someone fights for justice. We need more people like Clint in public office. Hopefully he take his rightfully earned place in Congress.
Here is a video I made about the Walking for Democracy project a few months ago. Pass it around! Raise some funds and some noise about this important effort. Clint is a hero of democracy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkLUO9Fgz3Q
Thanks for the awesome coverage, Brad!
Ginny Ross
Portland, OR
I wrote an email to my congressman.
Dear Congressman Ellison,
Could you please support the efforts of the Florida congressional candidate Clint Curtis. He has uncovered startling evidence that votes for his election bid were under counted most likely due to either electronic voting machine error or intentional misconduct.
Here is a link to some information.
https://bradblog.com/?p=4460
I would appreciate it if you could help Clint Curtis in any way possible. Right now there is an investigation looking into another Florida congressional election’s vote counting. I believe it’s Christine Jennings that is contesting the election? I think that it would be more than fair for congress to investigate Clint’s election results as well.
By now, I hope that you yourself are aware of the problems that electronic voting has caused. This style of voting system is poorly designed and very vulnerable to hacking.
Thank you,
Isn’t the US Department of Justice really really concerned about voting issues? I thought that’s why they fired the prosecutor in Washington state – for not doing enough about election integrity.
Maybe someone should give Mr. Gonzales a ring.
re; “…the people I dislike the most are the ones who boast that they are in the computer/technology industry, and they state that computers are very secure.”
Every time I get a call from someone that boasts “they know computers”, they don’t. Simple as that. And after fixing their problem, over the phone, it’s always due to them NOT knowing computers. For anyone to say that computers are secure shows they know absolutely nothing!
Try googling “Offensive Security 101”. Anybody that has taken this course or is in ‘the biz’ knows that most computer security is a joke, little more than a soothing balm on the cancer of the internet.
Hi, this is Tyler from the Clint Curtis campaign. I love reading these comments. I am into computers too, formerly an Apple Computer dealer, so I am hugely aware of how they can be used to manipulate data. Any letter to any of our Tallahassee and Washington politicians can have an impact, so please keep writing! The data that we have gathered in the field is just amazing, as Julie has stated earlier. I want to see all Americans truly represented in all elections! The corruption has got to be stopped!
YOU GO CLINT!!!!
(We’ve missed you around here! BTW – how’s the pup?)
Washington is calling!
Clint has proven he is truly a worthy candidate for any democratically elected office.
How much money would it take I wonder to do this all over America.
If anyone has a spare 30 million it might be money well spent.
Why isn’t the Democratic Party funding this sort of verification so that they can see the real majority they should have in the senate and congress.
I wonder if that majority would have been enough to override Bush’s veto of the war funding pullout bill. If the machines had correctly counted votes would Bush have his veto power in tact. E.g. numbers in the senate. You have to wonder.
I guess in that other races the results may not have been as clear-cut so would be statistically much more difficult to prove. Could Clint or someone else (Clints busy enough) design a program that is more sensitive, assess the cost of implementing it then suggest it to the Democratic Party.
Maybe that’s an impossible pipe dream.
The Dems need to realise they have been cheated again.
They have access to the sort of money needed to get to the urgently needed truth of how much rigging took place last november.
Any analysis needs to cover voting method so the scanners can be implicated or otherwise.
Sally,
1.) What Clint Curtis is doing is needed… as an emergency measure. But it should only be regarded as an emergency measure. Exposing people’s votes is potentially dangerous to them. People living with the expectation of having their votes exposed is fatal to free and independent voting.
2.) Not enough Senate seats were up for reelection to override a veto.
Thanks Zapkitty for clarifying that about the senate.
However showing the elections were more widely corrupted would help get paper ballot legislation through. Surely that would change the Dems position on paper ballots.(Dream on Sally) This is urgently needed for the 2008 election.
It may also help towards getting the perpetrators of the fraud jailed.
People Clint Curtis’s group “walk for democracy” approached were happy to help and may believe that its worth it for the future of democracy.
It is after all optional.
“It is after all optional.”
Until it ain’t… and unfortunately the results are the same whether the disclosure is mandated by law, backchanneled through data mining, … or imposed by peer pressure.
“Sure I’ll sign… I know we were ripped off and it’s got to stop!” slides into “We all need to do this because we can’t trust the other side!” which then becomes “Why would you object? What have you got to hide?”
Curtis is doing this off the cuff and on his (donated) dime, and I have no problem with it… at this stage.
The second any party takes up a similar call for organized efforts along those lines then I declare war and I will not give up until either I’m dead or the idea is dropped.
Having seen so many other concepts that were dystopian science fiction ideas in my youth become part of a partisan political reality before my disbelieving eyes in the past several years I know that people who take the secret ballot lightly don’t have the slightest clue as to the nightmare they are trying to unleash.
The secret ballot was a needed reform when it was introduced. With the varied array of powers that governments now wield, powers unimaginable when the reform was introduced, the secret ballot has now become an absolute necessity.