Those of us who have demanded transparent voting systems because we understand that only the ability for complete citizen oversight and transparency can effectively counter those who would game elections, have been disingenuously criticized over the years as somehow questioning the integrity of the hard-working, honest election officials out there.
The fact is, those who know anything about computer security understand that it is the insiders who are, by far, the greatest threat to security on such systems, as even the phony, GOP-operative-created Baker/Carter National Election Reform Commission determined in its final report: “There is no reason to trust insiders in the election industry any more than in other industries.”
The best election officials in the country, however, will underscore that point, and agree that there is no reason any citizen should ever have to simply “trust” them.
Over the years, we’ve detailed the arrests and other unsavory behavior of many of the not-so-good election officials who, we were told, should simply have been trusted (our “favorite” has always been the case of Monterey CA’s Tony Anchundo, who told us on air we should “trust” him, just a month or two before being arrested on 43 counts).
Well, now we’ve got a whole passel of still more crooked officials to add to the list. Moreover: The Kentucky officials arrested and indicted today, “including the circuit court judge, the county clerk, and election officers” of Clay County, have been charged with “chang[ing] votes at the voting machine” and showing others how to do it!
Hello?!…
From Lexington, Kentucky’s NBC affiliate this afternoon:
The 10-count indictment, unsealed Thursday, accused the defendants of a conspiracy from March 2002 until November 2006 that violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). RICO is a federal statute that prosecutors use to combat organized crime. The defendants were also indicted for extortion, mail fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to injure voters’ rights and conspiracy to commit voter fraud.
According to the indictment, these alleged criminal actions affected the outcome of federal, local, and state primary and general elections in 2002, 2004, and 2006.
The article goes on to list some of the criminal actions listed in the indictment. Among them [emphasis added]:
- Clay County Clerk, Freddy Thompson, 45, allegedly provided money to election officers to be distributed by the officers to buy votes and he also instructed officers how to change votes at the voting machine.
… - Election officer William E. Stivers, 56, allegedly marked votes or issued tickets to voters who had sold their votes and changed votes at the voting machine.
… - Paul E. Bishop, 60, allegedly marked voters or issued tickets to voters who sold their votes and he also hosted alleged meetings at his home where money was pooled together by candidates and distributed to election officers, including himself. He was also accused of instructing the officers how to change votes at the voting machine.
In addition to the absurd charge that those of us who believe in transparency are unduly “attacking” election officials, the latest PR line from e-voting vendors, and election officials alike, is that there is no proof that any election has ever been manipulated electronically.
Setting aside that we disagree — wholeheartedly — with that oft-used bit of propaganda, the above indictments would seem to give us a very specific allegation of exactly that, manipulation of electronic votes.
Clay County uses the horrible ES&S iVotronic system for all of its votes at the polling place. The iVotronic is a touch-screen Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) device, offering no evidence, of any kind, that any vote has ever been recorded as per the voter’s intent. If the allegations are correct here, there would likely have been no way to discover, via post-election examination of machines or election results, that votes had been manipulated on these machines.
ES&S is the largest distributor of voting systems in America and its iVotronic system — which is well-documented to have lost and flipped votes on many occasions — is likely the most widely-used DRE system in the nation. It’s currently in use in some 419 jurisdictions in 18 states including Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
We will certainly continue to follow this story as it develops…
UPDATE: Complete indictment now posted here [PDF]…
FURTHER UPDATE: Having now reviewed the indictment, as linked above, here are some additional details on the alleged conspiracy which included election fraud though the buying and selling of votes to be cast in a certain way, with the aid of one of the defendants who served as a poll worker during the Early Voting period. Also, at the polling place on Election Day with aid of poll workers, drafted as both Democratic and Republican judges, to elect a slate of candidates — some of them bribed — the conspirators would manipulate the votes of “qualified voters” at the voting machines themselves. [Update 3/23/09: More on the political affiliations of the conspirators now posted here.]
Many of the voters, it seems, had no idea that their votes were manipulated after they’d left the touch-screen voting machine. While the Early Voting scheme involved finding voters who might wish to be paid to have their vote cast a certain way, the Election Day scheme, carried out in primary and general elections in at least 2004 and 2006, was accomplished by taking advantage of a “feature” on all DRE (usually touch-screen) voting systems and “voter unfamiliarity with new voting machines.”
Essentially, they tricked voters into leaving the ‘booth’ after pressing the “Vote” button on the ES&S iVotronic. That button, does not actually cast the vote, as one might think (and as these voters were told), but instead, it brings up a review screen of the voter’s “ballot.”
Instructing the voters that they were done, the conspirators then, after the voter had left, would change the voters’ votes as they saw fit, before finally pressing the “Cast Ballot” button.
Here’s the explanation of how they did this on Election Day, according to the indictment:
4. It was part of the conspiracy that WW serve as the Democrat election judge in the Manchester Precinct. It was further part of the conspiracy that CW serve as the Republican election judge in the Manchester Precinct. Both WW and CW were instructed by Defendants Freddy W. Thompson and Charles Wayne Jones to tell voters that when they had pushed a button labeled “Vote” that their votes had been cast, when, in fact, that function merely provided a review screen of the voter’s selections in each race, and that the further step of pushing the “Cast Ballot” button was required. This review screen gave the voter the opportunity to change any candidate selections prior to casting the ballot.
5. It was part of the conspiracy that when the misled voters left the voting booth after pushing the “Vote” button, WW and/or CW entered the booth, changed their votes to candidates selected in part by Defendant Russell Cletus Maricle and cast the ballot by pushing the “Cast Ballot” button.
As mentioned, the voters in question were all “qualified voters”. The fraud could not have been accomplished without the conspiracy carried out with the aid of the insiders at the polling place, who changed election results on the voting machines, as needed.
“Many of the qualified voters duly voted for one or more of the aforesaid candidates and their votes were counted and certified as part of the total number of votes cast for such candidates,” the indictment reads. “Other voters had their votes destroyed by the Defendants and their co-conspirators.”
The Early Voting scheme, which included vote buying and selling, also required the aid of insiders, stationed at the early voting location:
9. It was part of the conspiracy that the Defendants discussed and agreed that in order to implement the method of corrupting the voting process described above, it would be necessary to cause to be appointed as precinct workers for both major parties persons who were in the conspiracy. It was further necessary that their assignment to respective precincts be coordinated so that no one outside the conspiracy would be in place to observe their actions.
…
11. Over numerous days during on or about a date in January 2006 to on or about November 7,2006, a list of voters who agreed to sell their votes was compiled by Defendants Russell Cletus Maricle and William E. Stivers and other co-conspirators made
arrangements with these persons for voting and payment. On numerous occasions, voters were brought to the courthouse during normal voting and the early voting period for absentee voters and paid to vote for candidates on “the slate” by Defendants William E. Stivers, William B. Morris, and Debra L. Morris.
12. On or about May 16,2006, and November 7,2006, Defendants William E. Stivers, William B. Morris, and Debra L. Morris paid voters to vote for members of “the slate,” as described above. They informed these voters to ask for assistance from selected precinct workers who then took them into the voting booth and selected the votes for them.
Of course, to accomplish all of this, the defendants had to be able to draft poll workers who would do what they needed. Three of the named defendants, circuit court judge Russell Cletus Maricle, Clay County Superintendent of Schools Douglas C. Adams, and election officer Charles Wayne Jones, all had among their powers on the election board the ability to “exert influence over the selection of precinct workers” for local elections.
Election officer Jones, it’s alleged, is the one who “instructed other election officials…how to change votes at the voting machines.”
“Part of the scheme to defraud,” according to the indictment, also included that “defendants instructed election officers to assist the voters who sold their votes and to destroy voter assistance forms which may have resulted so as to not report the number of people they assisted at the voting polls as required by law.”
So will the voting machine company representatives out there (and that includes many election officials who have forgotten for whom they work) continue to report that no election has ever been manipulated via an electronic voting system?…
CLARIFICATION: The original report quoted above from Lexington’s NBC affiliate described “Five Clay County officials” being arrested, but, according to the indictment, it was actually a total of six officials, out of eight total arrested (two were a local husband/wife business team, rather than officials.) The original NBC report seems to have left out Charles Wayne Jones who “served on the Clay County Board of Elections during the election cycles of 2002, 2004 and 2006” according to the indictment.
Great article, Brad. Clay County is even more notorious than Bullitt County. It’s former election official is in jail for arson and election-rigging, as are several of its leading citizens.
You can find more about Clay County in my special report “Moonshine Elections 3” –
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/moonshine3.pdf
Excerpts on Clay County KY:
In August, 2007, Jennings B. White, the chief elections official in Clay County Kentucky pleaded guilty to involvement in a major drug ring. He had been busted for drug running, extortion, arson and bribery and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
White had served two terms as county clerk. He was arrested in 2006 in connection with a drug ring headed by Kenneth Day, a former Clay county election commissioner and local businessman. Day admitted that he had bought votes at times.
Elections chief White pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including money laundering for Day and taking drug cash. Other charges against White included conspiring to distribute drugs and conspiring to offer a bribe. White also acknowledged that between May 2004 and October 2006, he took part in extorting kickbacks.
And in my “Moonshine Elections 2” report:
http://blackboxvoting.org/moonshine2.pdf
Excerpt, mostly from Wall Street Journal article:
NEPOTISM GONE WILD
And then there’s Clay County, Kentucky. You won’t get far researching Clay County before you bump into a half-dozen Sizemores, who exist in abundance on both sides of the law. I just can’t top this article, written by Bryan Burrough. It illustrates the pitfalls of family-run government so eloquently you simply must read these excerpts — and bear in mind that ol’ Crawdad Sizemore won his latest election in May this year:
In Clay County, Ky., It Takes Some Doing To Avoid a Sizemore
The Wall Street Journal
. . . Meet the powerful Sizemore clan, whose grip on this isolated mountain county is surpassed only by the violence that clings to its name. Bombings, murders, alleged jury tampering, bootlegging — the saga of the Sizemores weaves together all the strange and troublesome themes of politics in Appalachia’s hamlets.
There is Sheriff Harold Sizemore, whose father and predecessor as sheriff was killed in a backwoods hollow by a sniper’s bullets in 1969. There is County Judge Carl “Crawdad” Sizemore. There is Constable “Black Jack” Sizemore, whose father was shot in the back by a county sheriff in 1922. And the tax assessor is James Sizemore, called a “double Sizemore” because his parents were both Sizemores.
. . . Indeed, with control over the two largest sources of jobs — the schools and the county payroll — the Sizemores hold sway over much of Clay County’s populace. Few folks hereabouts, including the Sizemores’ political opponents, will criticize them
. . . To understand Clay County’s contradictions, one must first understand the Sizemores — which isn’t easy since many Sizemores can’t untangle their own family tree.
“There are about four or five sets of us, but as long as you’re a Sizemore, you’re a Sizemore, no matter what,” says Black Jack Sizemore, the constable. “Above all, we stick together.”
. . . They first came into prominence hereabouts because of what is now known as the great Sizemore feud of 1931. . . And before the killing stopped, family members recall, nine Sizemores were dead, including a deputy sheriff ambushed by his two first cousins in an argument over election results.
Even today, their critics say, the Sizemores preserve their special brand of justice in Clay County. Consider the murder trial of Stevie Sizemore, a wealthy coal operator arrested in 1980 for gunning down two union organizers on a back road before a crowd of witnesses.
. . . From the first pound of the gavel in the cramped mountain courtroom, the Sizemores were as thick as the fog here on a spring morning. Escorting the jurors was Sheriff Harold Sizemore. Handling the records was a county clerk who was married to a Sizemore.
. . . That apparently wasn’t enough for some clan members. According to investigators and affidavits filed with trial testimony, some family members waged a campaign to influence jurors.
. . . Looking about the courtroom, state prosecutors knew they were in trouble. So when the jury deadlocked with only a single guilty vote, despite four eyewitnesses who identified Mr. Sizemore as the killer, Ms. Goodman, the prosecutor, says she considered the single guilty vote a victory
. . . No member of the Sizemore clan admits to jury tampering, but one senior family member,
Granville Sizemore, acknowledges the practice isn’t unknown in Clay County. “It’s what we down here call, ‘knowing the jury,'” he says.
Spread this everywhere. This is the future. This is the revolution type shit that is needed to be confronted and fixed.
And thanks guys for doing all the work on this stuff. It is so appreciated.
Thanks, Bev. Had a feeling you’d be the first one to jump into comments on this one! 🙂
BTW, I’ve now updated the article with details from the indictment itself, explaining how exactly they pulled off this scheme, using unsuspecting voters and the ES&S iVotronic…
Brad – any idea how many votes were actually altered? Did they turn the election through this scheme?
Jeez, the wingnut conspiracy theorists were….correct!
And still the sheeple will sleep.
I can give this to a girl I work with, and she will still insist that this is an isolated incident and no one else in the country should even think about it. She will refuse to incorporate new facts into the bubble she lives in; I know because I’ve asked her about many things after giving her examples, and she keeps running in circles trying to get her head around the absolute oppositeness of what she’s hearing to what she has painted the world as.
In short, she would dismiss this “factual example of how problematic these machines are” as some kind of fiction, even if she watched these people doing it (she would simply say “but, this is just them showing us.. this can’t really happen on election day”)
Cognitive dissonance is going to destroy (if it’s not already) America.
But great post Brad! 😀
Brad there is more in the indictment.
In addition to the manipulation individual iVotronics, the defendants also create bogus reports using the “features” of the UNITY suite. The specific wording from the indictment is:
This case sheds new light (FINALLY!) on the exit-poll results from the 2004 Presidential election in Ohio, which Edison-Mitofsky attempted to explain away as being due to simple, innocent “within-precinct error”, caused by voters in certain predominantly Republican counties deciding to lie about how they voted to the exit-pollsters.
Note that if Edison-Mitofsky had been doing exit-polls in Clay county, they would have said this was just another case of “within-precinct error”, nothing to see here, move along.
Only now we know that it was a conspiracy of a small group of people on the inside, who had access to the machines, who skewed the results.
Perhaps now, some leverage can be brought to bear on prosecutors in Ohio, or perhaps the DOJ could now be induced to require Edison-Mitofsky to turn over the precinct-level data from 2004 for investigation at the federal level.
Because now we know that election fraud can and does happen. It has happened. So may we please now, finally, get some investigations and some justice?
For the love of truth,
John Dowd
One of the defendants in this case, named Maricle, piques my curiosity. I took a look into the money laundering mechanisms used to launder bribes in that horrible Luzerne County Pennsylvania judge corruption case, where they were sentencing kids to lockup for bribes. One of the bribery or kickback principles in that case is, as I remember it, Maricle Construction. Not a very common name, and Eastern Kentucky is not all that far from Western Pennsylvania. Wonder if they’re related?
Also, there is an indictment in Monroe County Pennsylvania now alleging tampering with machines to add or change votes on the Danaher/Shoup 1242 DREs.
Brad, I so appreciate your coverage of this story, and the context you provide — insider fraud is real. We are finally breaking through the great taboo — it used to be considered rude and “inappropriate” for us to even suggest that an elections official could be corrupt.
The other crime here is that a certified voting system had, according to the indictment you quote in the article, a button labeled “vote” that didn’t cast a voter’s vote.
Somehow, at e-commerce sites, sellers have managed to figure out how to let you know when you’ve completed your transaction. But not voting machine vendors.
Greg D @ 4 asked:
The indictment doesn’t say, and none of the stories that cover it mention that either. So no, don’t have any of that info yet. But if they did it in so many successive elections, as the indictment states, one would think it would have altered/turned the election results.
Either that, or they were just in it for the money, but it seems a pretty risky scheme to run for not much money.
John Washburn said @ 7:
I thought what you thought, but I’m not sure from the indictment. Having read it all the way through, my sense is that the fraudulent report was the one submitted at the end of the night to officials, which were knowingly incorrect (since they had changed votes themselves, and had destroyed the “assistance reports”).
That’s my sense for the moment, anyway. Happy to learn otherwise, of course. If you’re able to find any additional info there, please let me know!
Well correction. The Pennsylvania case involves Mericle Construction Inc., Robert K. Mericle; this is Russell Cletus Maricle, different spelling. Assuming these guys can spell their own names, that is.
Mericle, Maricle, Goldberg, Iceberg, what’s the difference.
Seriously, both Brad and Bev should get medal of Freedom awards for your work on this issue for many years now.
Meanwhile a friend who I sent this story to wrote back to ask, “Wow, has this news made it out of KY local news and the blogs”?
Maybe we could get “The Daily Show” interested?
John
People in Kentucky are allowed to vote?!?!!
I’ve been reading your blog for a while now, and I must say that you’re doing a great job both generally, and on this matter in particular.
Thank you very much for educating me and so many others on this issue so thoroughly. Please keep up the good work!
I wonder how the investigators found out what was going on. Did somebody “squeal”?
And why did the criminals steal the election this way rather than just changing the results inside the machine?
It would be interesting to see if the voting machine audit logs show how many times the vote was changed from the original vote to the checking of the final ballot.
Who benefited from the rigged elections? Which sitting officials were selected by fraud and a gang, not by the people? Was it “nonpartisan”, where either party would suit whoever was getting installed by this fraud? Democrats or Republicans?
I’m surprised the articles and questions haven’t answered or asked that most basic question yet.
Looking forward to finding out what happened in the 2008 elections in Kentucky.
In 2006,where most of the elected Kentucky officials were Democrats,there was one notable exception. The Secretary of State elected was a Republican. As we know,the SoS is responsible for the integrity of elections in most states of which one,I assume, is Kentucky. So it will be interesting to see if,for instance, the election victory of Mitch McConnell was really on the up and up. Possibly the trail will be or already has been in the process of being obliterated.
Hmmm… I found the occupations of three of the arrestees:
a circuit court judge, a school superintendent, and a government employee — I wonder which party they belonged to….
Gee, that’s a tough one.
Since none of the news media identified the party affiliation of any of the elected officials, but the Democratic Party County Chairman was one of those arrested, I think the party affiliation of the remainder should be pretty clear.
Am I right, Brad? All (D), all the time?
I lost my election in Boyd County in 2006 by less than 300 votes. The interesting thing was that by summing the highest Republican total for County Judge with the highest Democratic total one got a greater number of votes cast than voters. We were told it was a “computer error” which was then “corrected” so that the numbers matched. My, my.
Many thanks; got dropped in here through a link from Orly Taitz’s site DefendOurFreedoms.us. And no I am not surprised.
There is only One Party, the Power Party. Its makeup is similar to the back-to-back Male/Female restrooms in most office/mall/store buildings. They appear segregated on the outside – but the output is combined and spread over all of us!
It’s long past time to go back to Paper Ballots that allow true verification, and mandate that all voters must vote at their Precincts, with very limited, Medically-necessary and/or Notarized submission of Absentee Ballots, and “Motor-Voter” fully repealed!
If you can’t be bothered to follow the minimal requirements to cast your vote, you don’t deserve to.
David @ 20 asked:
Nope. Not as far as I can tell so far. There were both Republican and Democratic election judges involved here. It could be that they were simply in it for the money for electing the “slate” of candidates (who had paid them bribe money) of any party. It could be that they were pushing on behalf of one of those two parties, but had infiltrated the other. It could be that these “Democrats” were actually old time “Dixiecrats” who vote Republican instead, or DINOs in that they wanted to affect primary elections by electing the weakest Democrat to go up against the Republican.
So, barring more info as I’m able to find it, I don’t know which of the two major parties benefited most here and, ultimately, I actually don’t really care.
UPDATE: I forgot to add, that Clay County is a hugely Republican county. So if these folks were Democrats, gaming election after election, year after year, it doesn’t seem as though they were particularly successful at it. Yet, they kept doing it anyway, suggesting that this was likely about money more than politics. But that too is speculation.
Hey Brad…great reporting!
Is there a chance that these KY crooks will spill on the RNC schemes, or name names?
And meanwhile over at the Great Orange Ostrich Haven someone tries to spread the news… but someone else we’re familiar with explains in the comments that this event actually shows that elections with e-voting are safe… no. I’m not kidding.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2...oting-machines
http://www.dailykos.com/comment...3636/7272/2#c2
J. Stewart Schneider @ 21 said:
Boyd uses a combination of Hart-Intercivic’s eSlate (a DRE machine) and Hart’s eScan (a precinct-based paper-ballot scanner).
Presuming your description of what happened is accurate, I’d suggest that both you — and more importantly, the voters — got screwed.
If you can’t see it, and add it up for yourself, there is no reason to trust it. If it doesn’t add up, it’s probably because it doesn’t add up.
Looks like a bunch of these folks were Democrats. How about that? Strange, huh?
According to the indictment, Democratic election commissioner Charles Wayne Jones and election officer William E. Stivers helped extort money from candidates. In some cases, candidates were apparently asked to pool money so votes could be bought.
Correct me if I am wrong, Brad, but sure seems as if you are trying to blame Republicans, when it appears as if everyone involved is a Democrat.
Correct me if I am wrong, Brad, but sure seems as if you are trying to blame Republicans, when it appears as if everyone involved is a Democrat.
I don’t see that, are you just assuming that?
Hey Brad….
Have you seen this yet?
A Nebraska-based voting machine maker has agreed to pay California $3.25 million to settle 2007 allegations that it sold unapproved voting systems to the state’s counties, the secretary of state said Thursday.
http://www.sacbee.com/capitolan...y/1715255.html
I must give credit to Bev and Brad for shining a beacon on this issue for the last five years and hopefully these indictments will open the door even wider to dispel the notion that election officials and the machines they use are above reproach!
This is treason, we are a country at war. Execute them for treason. Firing squad, although garroting with piano wire would make more of a statement.
WIlliam Teach @ 27 said:
Okay, then I’m correcting you. You’re wrong. Among those involved was the REPUBLICAN election judge. But more importantly, as I noted in comment #23 above, I can’t figure out who these guys were actually supporting, and who — if anyone, other than themselves — they were representing in this scam.
So, as I couldn’t report that, I didn’t. So, yeah, you’re wrong. If you have evidence to support your wrong theory, please feel free to share it with us.
The scheme had to effect the outcome of elections, otherwise there would be no point. Furthermore, the conspirators had to be able to prove to the beneficiaries that they were worth the money. Whether that evidence still exists is an open question, but there had to have been evidence at some point of what the conspirators had accomplished. One simply does not bribe election officials to throw elections one is going to win anyway.
The article reports that the money involved is small. There should be little surprise. In my limited experience in state and municipal government, the cost of “favors” is often shockingly small – a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for a municipal official, low five figure numbers for state officials. The rule of thumb used to be no more than 10% of the benefits would be split among all the conspirators.
Identifying who got the benefit of this scheme should be easy, but convicting them will be hard. Corruption is an equal opportunity crime especially prevalent where a single party is in control for a long period. Who controls the County? There is no need to describe why there will be no smoking gun.
I think school superintendents are elected in that part of the country.
Also, the superintendent would control quite a few jobs in the school district. Therefore, it’s a lot more powerful position than you would suspect. Same would go for judges and sheriffs in that area.
Looks like a transition from pure votebuying to vote manipulation is occurring there. Which is a loss to the people who made money by selling their vote to the highest bidder.
A little background from someone who grew up in that part of the country:
The party is irrelevant. Many, if not most rural Kentucky counties are registered 95% one party or the other. It’s a self perpetuating system, if you grew up there, you register the majority party because all the elections are decided in the primary elections. Many counties do in fact have competitive elections, the “reform” factions and “status quo” factions operate under the same party registration. At the local level, there’s very little (if any) ideological difference in the Republican and Democratic counties, it’s really just a name. Frequently, the ruling faction has control over the party apparatus of the other party, which makes it easier to control an election because you can field both election judges in a given precinct.
School superintendents are extremely powerful in rural Kentucky. In the more corrupt counties, it’s a powerful position of political patronage, frequently the biggest employer in a poor, small county. I don’t think it’s an elected position, but appointed by the school board. That’s why some of the most highly contested elections are for school board.
I think Clay is a Republican County. I’ve seen this pattern repeated many times in rural Kentucky, and as i’ve said before, party affiliation is completely irrelevant.
I am from Clay County, Kentucky and know each of the people arrested. I also knew the officials previously convicted who are in prison now (former mayor Daugh White, former county Clerk Jennings White, former Asst. Chief of Police Todd Roberts, former 911 Director Vernon Hacker, former Manchester Fire Dept. Chief Charles “Dobber” Weaver, and former city councilman Darnell Hipshire). There will likely be more to follow the current group arrested. Clay County is roughly 90 percent Republican, including ALL of the eight arrested this week. They registered as Democrat and took leadership roles in the local party to control precinct officer seats, ensuring all officers at the precinct were hand picked. Notice that all of the elections in question are PRIMARY elections. It’s common knowledge that if you win the Republican primary in Clay County you will win the general election. If you want just check the political registration of the county and the party affiliation of current and former elected officials. I can’t attest to the guilt or innocence of any of those most recently arrested but I know for a fact that Clay County is very much a Republican county. By the way, Jennings White’s attorney prior to his guilty plea was David Williams, the Republican President of the Kentucky Senate. Look it up. It’s all public record.
these people should be tried for treason and hopefully executed
Were these folks not smart enough to hire a computer expert to flip the elections the easy way, with a virus or a worm?
Unfortunately, we are still waiting for evidence of that…
shw
I still say we should be putting homeless veterans in these positions; they have already literally put their lives on the line for real democracy. Just let the criminals try to corrupt that true honor and see how many more stories like this show up!
I would like to know in which states were voters fraud proven? If there were voter fraud was parties or just one party? What about ACORN were they involved in voter fraud? If there were voter fraud how many states, what party and who benefited (President, Congress Senators) Is there an ongoing investigation into voter fraud
… Bill said…
Actual voter fraud? Good luck with that as it’s very rare.
I know… that’s not what Republicans etc say but it happens to be the truth.
Despite Brad’s attempts at even-handedness the imaginary specter of “Rampant Voter Fraud!” is a Republican concoction… so much so that it has become a de facto plank of the Republican party.
Unfortunately for the Republicans there has been precious little evidence of actual voter fraud, aside from Ann Coulter and “Joe the Plumber” that is 🙂
And most of what little is left, besides Rethug hypocrites, has turned out to be unfortunate immigrants and felons who had made honest mistakes… and who were then crucified for “voter fraud” even in the cases where bureaucrats admitted that they had given incorrect (wrong) voting eligibility information to the defendants.
Guilt innocence or intent did not matter in these political prosecutions… only that there was something that the Rethugs could point to and scream “VOTER FRAUD!!!”
And in the end even instances of this brand of fiasco of justice was so few and far between that it doesn’t even register statistically in the total electorate.
And in the even fewer cases where non-Rethug celebrity, non-honest-mistake voter fraud is found… it’s so scarce as to be nigh-nonexistent.
There isn’t a voter fraud problem in real life… but the Republicans sure lie a lot about it to themselves and everybody else they think will listen. So much so they think it’s the truth.
And ACORN? More imaginary BS by the Republicans.
ACORN was defrauded by some workers who turned in lists of imaginary voters. But ACORN was required by law to turn in ALL lists collected… even those they knew were fraudulent.
So ACORN turned in the lists, as required by law, along with alerts to the government as to which list were known to be problems. And Rethugs being Rethugs and the U.S. Department of Justice being overrun by political hacks… the circus started.
A media circus that it turns out had been planned long in advance by the Rethugs and the DOJ. They knew, you see, they already knew that ACORN would be required to turn the bad lists over along with the good lists… and they screamed and they leaped. And in so doing the DOJ, at the behest of and on the behalf of the Rethugs, defrauded the American taxpayers of however much the ACORN investigations cost.
Because they knew, you see, they knew all along that ACORN was innocent and that ACORN had in fact obeyed the law at each step.
ACORN was defrauded by a few people padding their lists with imaginary voter signups.
The American public was defrauded by a politicized Department of Justice that knew in advance that ACORN was innocent.
And there was never a chance that those few lists of imaginary voters would have actually shown up at the polls… so “voter fraud” never came into the equation at all.
There are real problems to solve with America’s voting process… and “voter fraud” doesn’t rank high on the list of real problems. In fact it doesn’t rank at all on any reasonable scale.
I still want to know what happened to Mike Gibbons of Kwaidan infamy…how did he croak?
Through all of these crazy years of high election officials and voting machine vendors saying and doing unbelievable things that just couldn’t pass the smell test, I could never figure out why they would take such huge risks with their integrity; not to mention their freedom.
I’ve always imagined that somebody told them that nobody has ever been arrested or jailed for election fraud, so go for it!
I think one of the reasons Obama won this time is because of the little people who finally got sentences in Ohio. This is a great victory, because now, more then ever, it will be obvious that things have changed.
It could not have happened without the voting integrity movement started by Beverly Harris and carried out by Brad and all the others.
Thank you, thank you!
The first thing that strikes me is how extremely primitive this hack is – in other words, more or less zero technical knowledge needed and only a basic understanding of the voting machines.
The level of “insider tech knowledge” is about what you’d get simply doing a normal test election…zero coding or even operating system knowledge is required.
I suspect we can divide electronic vote tampering (including optical scan systems in places where no hand count is allowed or at least common) into three broad categories:
* Really simple “hacks” that any idiot could pull off. This qualifies in spades.
* More complex “local hacks” performed by moderately savvy local elections officials/staffers or their local consultants. I strongly suspect the Pima County RTA race of 2006 would fall into this category, as would something done by a local outsourcing agency such as LHS Associates serving New Hampshire and the surrounding New England area. The well-documented Volusia County 2000 hack (14,022 I think it was “negative votes” in one precinct) is so far the best proven example. In these attacks, somebody has studied the voting system but doesn’t have full-on “manufacturer level knowledge” of how they work.
* “Manufacturer-level hacks” are so far theoretical and the most frightening of all.
I am from Clay County,Ky. First of all,for the people who sold their vote,you are to me as guilty as these alleged schemers. For those of us who can read and write and for the people who can’t read or write, who didn’t sell their vote, we are the true victims in all of this. We didn’t know how these new machines worked and we entrusted these officals to help us and look at what happened. My heart truly goes out to those honest people who can’t read or write like my dad. My mother goes in with him to help him cast his vote. Whose to say though after she help him that this vote was altered.I hope a thorough investigation is done on who sold their vote and didn’t. For those who went to the polls honestly and whose vote was changed, I think the citizens of Clay County should get together and file a personal law suit against those who allegedly changed votes. Whether we get a $1.00 or nothing, maybe this will be an example to these elected officials sworn to do their job responsibly-maybe the next appointed election officials will stop and think about what they’re doing. This corruption needed to be exposed even though it’s embarrassing for our county.
I would like more information about the indictment of someone in Monroe County, Pennsylvania for fixing the Danaher 1242 electronic machines as I like in Bucks County PA where the same machine is used. It is also used in Philadelphia, Delaware, Berks, and Dauphin counties.
Maybe they could buddy up with an EI activist and a Winter Soldier.
Floridiot, #42,
Mike Gibbons is dead? When did that happen?
hmmmm….
shw
Reply from my uncle in Lexington,KY. to this article….
The article didn’t mention the most frequent vote buying technique used in Eastern Kentucky. They have people get absentee ballots and the vote buyer either fills out the ballots or helps the voters fill them out before sending them in. Then the voters get paid
OT
WAKE UP AMERICA THIS IS THE SHIT!:
http://www.democracynow.org/200...inite_debt_how
http://www.democracynow.org/200...xon_valdez_oil
The best revenge is Democracy!
I’ll have yinz know me daughter was born in AK during the ex Valdez. I’d been fishing and working there for a while. Get this, a friend of mine came up with idea for the boom to surround the oil. Somebody took the idea and patented it. He got nothing and the creep who did that made bunches of money. He was a Kodiak fisherman, trying to help save his livelihood.
“….with the aid of one of the defendants who served as a poll worker during the Early Voting period”
They get more bang for the buck when they use a guy who works through the entire early voting period, rather than just one day at the polls. Because he might be changing small amounts of votes EACH DAY, it makes it harder to spot a statistical trend than if it’s all done on one day. This will have to be looked into now that early voting is the wave of the future. Many, many more opportunities for VOTE FRAUD by the slicksters.
“Brad, I so appreciate your coverage of this story, and the context you provide — insider fraud is real. We are finally breaking through the great taboo — it used to be considered rude and “inappropriate” for us to even suggest that an elections official could be corrupt. ”
Also, we need to keep on the Obamacrats to ensure they continue to pursue evoteing. I mean, not take it for granted. We should all pressure the hell out of Al Franken to take it up as a cause. It looks like Justice Dept may be starting to target unjust acts, hopefully.
OMG,this is huge news! What news outlets have you approached to report on this? Have you talked to Olbermann? Has Hartmann reported it?
Let’s go and spread this! This is the proof we have been waiting for!
Larry Bergan said on 3/22/2009 @ 12:53 am PT…
Hate to break it to you, but after much seemingly highly “connected” legal machinations, for which taxpayers were still paying – just like for the election and for the 2004 “recount-show from whence the convictions emanated,” the two women found guilty of a felony and misdemeanor were put on 6 months of a special probation in Cuyahoga County called “diversion”for first-time offenders, no jail time needed. “Their sentences” were thus dealt away, their records were expunged, and all trial evidence was eventually sealed last September. Everyone, including the mid-level managers’ bosses, Vu and Bennett, just walked away. And their “defense” attorney now even characterizes them as “innocent”! He in many ways seems to want to pretend the whole thing never happened – except when it comes to getting his “defense” fees…from Cuyahoga taxpayers!
Further, in May-June, ’08, when I called around to find out when/if the women’s previously scheduled, “end-of-diversion” probation hearing was to be, all with not much warm reception, I found out finally, from a woman who identified herself as the head of the diversion probation program, that she had never even seen the two women…. once…A-hem…..Seems like no peeing in a cup was even necessary either…..
Then right before last Christmas, on 12/22/08, their “defense” attorney, Synenberg, even had the chutzpah to show up at the CCBOE, representing one of the two woman, Kathy Dreamer, to 1) ask the board to recommend to Commissioners (the county funds controllers) that the taxpayers/voters/victims(!) pay his legal “defense” fees for her ($140K); and 2) that the Dreamer get her job back at the CCBOE….in the ballot department!
See film of that unabashed, unconscionable chutzpah – in 4 parts here:
http://video.google.com/videopl...67382440228330
http://video.google.com/videopl...12972493754624
http://video.google.com/videopl...97286403782265
http://video.google.com/videopl...30550281465445
The whole, winding story is very long, and to me thoroughly ugly – more shocking than we want to know about.
Bottom line, the CCBOE essentially declined to make the recommendation to have the County Commissioners pay the “defense” fees from taxpayer coffers (though as you can hear on the video Synenberg was rattling to sue the County if they didn’t bend over easily (- even more usurption of taxpayer dollars!)
(Synenberg – the “defense”lawyer, who seemed to make sure that the “defense” did not include asking or showing who ordered these 2 mid-level managers to unseal, pre-select, and precount the 3% sample recount ballots to make sure everything matched up neatly with what recount witnesses were shown, so not another ballot had to be exposed – is also a former CCBOE “R” board member. Synenberg, in fact sat for a while alongside Bob Bennett,on the board, the latter being the R Chair of the CCBOE board when the debacle 2004 election and big recount-show occurred.)
If Synenberg will be able to cut a deal with the Commissioners, or if he’ll end up suing for us to pay Dreamer’s defense fees is yet to be seen…. (yes… from 2004, “yet to be seen” in 2009.)
On the matter of giving the jury-convicted Dreamer back a job at the CCBOE(!!), made worse in this time of very few jobs to be had anywhere…and made even bizarrely worse because when she voted in last March’s primary she “crossed-over” to vote as a D (though I don’t know her motivation, it’s like what was suggested by Limbaugh-types for that election.) Besides the morale and “confidence” shatter of such an employment return, if she were to come back, she by OH law would need to be a “D” bringing the constant question when serving to provide 2 party balance in board duties – is she really an “an R in D clothing.” (Sounds like the name of a soap opera, and almost looks like one too.)
On this “re-employment” question, the board vote broke along party lines – the two R’s for, the 2 D’s against. Per OH law that Feb.2,’09 board tie went to the SoS for the deciding vote.
According to what I’ve been told, as of today, 3/26/09, SoS Brunner (who is now also running for OH Senate) has not broken that tie yet. Hmmmm…
From my perspective on the world,from Cuyahoga County, before we start getting too comfortable thinking much good change has happened, I think that may just signal the time to dig down into facts even further, where things get slimier, uglier and a bit more uncomfortable than what we ever wanted to believe about “reality.”
I think there is still much, and the most essential work to be done in this election arena.
Adele Eisner:
Thanks for the information. That is certainly disturbing. I’m going to have to reign in my optimism, again!
How could they be so brazen as to try and give this woman her job back. Like I said though, she is one of the little people. I’m more angry that Michael VU got to move on to California as if nothing happened. He used to work here in Utah before messing things up in Ohio.
What a small world it is. We have a senator named Bob Bennett who happens to be working on making “voter fraud” an issue. They just don’t stop, do they? Here is a silly comment he made that I had to report on, since the newspapers won’t.
Yes what a small world! Could it be that projecting their “problems” (and diverting the public’s attention and disdain) onto voters comes along with the DNA of those named Bob Bennett?
I here refer you to a link to yet another film demonstrating one form of the oft made same “Bob Bennett” “projection” here – that all the voters are the liars (…while to be assumed,of course, that all election officials are perfect and trustworthy and to be(greatly) honored and believed….)
“Our” Bob Bennett, the head of OH R party, former Chair of the CCBOE board, stated and immediately inferred that same sentiment very often (he too often referred to the issue of “voter fraud”) – in fact he diverted to that tact almost every time someone tried to point out another systemic cluster f___ or political “problem” at the CCBOE.
This film – though it’s around 30 minutes, represents only a small part of of the 6+ hour meeting the CCBOE board held that election day, 11/7/06; the same kind of meeting/use of board staff time they did every election day, mainly it seems, for the edification of the press, as Vu and Bennett and all their dutiful troops, dutifully reported how perfect the election was going, how any problems were being caused by voters and activists,or even such things as groups getting a referendum issue on the ballot – making the ballot “too long”, thus causing the “too long” lines (as Diebold machines were still crashing ad jamming all round) & putting a wrench in their smooth election show….)
The film is worth a watch. It depicts one small part of the entire 11/06 “smooth election” meeting show, which was extremely important to Vu’s image/job, since the previous May,’06 primary in Cuyahoga with the then-brand new whiz-bang Diebold DRE’s and scanners was such a debacle….a confluence of Vu’s huge incompetence, the board’s constant covering up of all problems instead of solving them, and of course, Diebold, their crashing,vote hopping,printer jamming, @!%^#^ DRE’s and scanners improperly progammed and not tested, so they could not count the tens of thousands of absentee ballots. (That too is a too long a story for here.)
So at this November ’06 meeting, it began with (false) reports of how few polls opened late, how the ballots was “too long”causing the lines, etc.
Then people started showing up reporting huge problems at the polls (again!) at which, each time, Bennett tried to make it sound as if it were just another isolated “accident” to their “pretty good election” – though another “cluster f___” was clearly evident to everyone watching.
Here, you’ll see “our” Bob Bennett (white hair up at the board table, leading the discussion;)the late Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, amazed at what she was witnessing again, not letting them get away with it; and of course, Larry, you can revisit seeing Michael Vu again, before he “resigned” the following Feb. to get to his Utah/San Diego “mentor” for his $130k/year there. Poor San Diego….
I titled the film from a quote from the film, “Now Mr. Bennett Are You Ready to Eat Your Words?” made in direct response to Bennett’s assertion that the problem set before him then was not really a problem, inferring it was just another voter lie and/or possibly one isolated “accident.” When proved wrong, and as even in the “proving” the board revealed far bigger, major systemic problems going on, (if it weren’t so sad, it would be funny) which Bennett essentially would not admit, that’s what the election protection lawyer said in return.
Could it be in the Bob Bennett DNA 🙂 ? Even down to the time-consuming story-telling about one little incident that he would use to try to infer that all voters are bad, and must be suffered through and brought to task, as found on your blog, Larry, from “your” Utah Bob Bennett.
Here is the link to the film from 11/7/06 CCBOE 6+ hour, election day meeting, slated to be about the CCBOE’s, (according them) “pretty good elections,” featuring our Bob Bennett.
http://video.google.com/videopl...05289138511060
Adele Eisner:
Sorry, but I missed a couple of days on the internet because I plugged my mp3 player in at the wrong time and did something to my operating system.
Are those your videos?
I made a few videos myself and though the people being videoed don’t seem too concerned, you just know they’d like to kill you, but I think it’s important to make them feel as uncomfortable as possible while talking complete nonsense.
I once heard Michael Moore say that he hates his job and I can really identify with that. It makes me hugely uncomfortable to point any camera at somebody, but what else can we do?
If they’re your videos, good for you!
Yes, they are my videos. I have 4 years of them – many board meetings, and through weeks of official counting of 3 primaries and 4 general elections, and more recently of (what are called) “audits.”
I have mostly filmed public proceedings, and activities where an “Observer” is “allowed” “in” – and have consequently faced situations where I’ve been placed behind poles or high stacks of boxes allowing no “seeing” of what I was allowed to “watch”; attempts to confiscate the camera; and even threats to me, a grandmother, personally as in “I’m gonna get you” or “You’re gonna find a ‘little surprise” if you keep it up (- the latter of which I got on film….) by a more sensitive “election official” who wants no one watching or documenting him as he does what he does…on his $100+K publicly paid salary in public service….
I’ve posted many, but a only small percentage at http://citizensboe.blogspot.com/until I stopped blogging mid last year – mostly because rather than inspiring others to also come forward, my intent, it appeared that all my time, expense, energy and the guff I was taking by being there and posting about it, was being used to either attack me, or to want me to provide more (!) mostly by other activists, some of who seem to be standing more for their own glory, funding, following, etc. than truly as interdependent, inter-supportive peers, to be able to jointly cause the many positive changes needed get to fair elections that are assuredly representative of the voters will.
I will start blogging again soon, possibly with a different tact.
The current administration of Cuyahoga BOE, however, is actually pretty tolerant of the camera/understands these are public proceedings, and expects to see me with it. I have been, however, also careful not to point it in anyone’s face without their permission; I’m open about when I’m filming or not; and have not taken it/pointed it where not allowed (as in an obvious one, a voter voting)- which has been very few places.
Many of the Cuyahoga working staff has actually shown appreciation that their immensely long, tiring detailed work is being filmed so others can understand.
To finish this missive about videoing –
1. I think it’s extremely important – one never knows how important, sometimes until later – as “institutional memory” in this elections arena seems almost planned for quick of memory loss, as even activist attention gets dragged around in superficial circles, away from the essential problems/solutions.
2. The Ohio legislature is again in the process of discussing quick passage of an election Observer law that prohibits videoing and audio recording.
and
3.It was Kathleen Wynne’s, (formerly of BBV,) video of the 2004 Cuyahoga recount, that actually got the ’04 CCBOE Recount matter to a trial/not just blown off – even if the “non-public grand jury” did indict “the little people” to be kept quiet, not the “big people” who were really responsible. (I was “just a” witness to that shocking election and recount, at the start of my way to EI activism.)
In proof of the above, (and how important it is to document the public processes that so few are able to see,) I close with yet another video clip. This one is at the end of a (recount) trial day in January ’07, after “the defense rested” – when Michael Vu and the deputy director (the tall blond) showed up – as if they were going to testify, but since they never were called to the stand, seemingly there was really no “defense” plan for them to testify (under oath and cross examination) about the situation to save the women.
This clip is almost 11 minutes long. If you want to start at about minute 8:30 you’ll see what I mean. Statements from the defense attorney like “Put away that camera…. That’s how we got into this trouble…”
http://video.google.com/videopl...36287936211023
It’s obvious that there were other large cameras there that I assume were deployed by the media. I assume that nothing of importance was revealed to the public at large from their television records.
I am ashamed to admit that I live in Utah, and have not done more to expose the obvious folly of our election system here. As somebody who could not possible know anything about you, other then what you have told me here; I commend you deeply for your tenacity and courage. It always seems to be women who go out on a limb to inform the pubic. Maybe it’s the motherly instinct. I can at least claim that I, sometimes, have that kind of intuition about what’s going on around me!
You have my utmost respect for what can be called an attempt at giving the people of your state an UNPAID equivalent to C-Span or what I hope C-Span’s original intent was; to just put what is going on in the people’s name in the record.
Thank you!
I think the people in Putnam County,Ottawa ,Ohio have experienced courrption on their Board of Elections just like Kentucky.What can we do to get this investagated?
Our BOE,drag out their meetings to 3 hours.When the public want to talk,3 board members walked out.With the meeting being so long several people left.What can the public do about this injustice?Also board has been having secret meetings,leaving out one board member.Our county,Putnam County,Ohiom is so courrpt.Please give advise what to do,where to start.Thank you