Vote counting company tied to Romney

[babsbunny]

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2012/4725

by Gerry Bello & Bob Fitrakis
September 27, 2012
Several Tanker trucks full of political ink have been spilled on Mitt Romney's tenure as a vulture capitalist at Bain Capital. A more important story, however, is the fact that Bain alumni, now raising big money as Romney bundlers are also in the electronic voting machine business. This appears to be a repeat of the the infamous former CEO of Diebold Wally O’Dell, who raised money for Bush while his company supplied voting machines and election management software in the 2004 election.

In all 234 counties of Texas, the entire states of Hawaii and Oklahoma, half of Washington and Colorado, and certain counties in swing state Ohio, votes will be cast on eSlate and ePollbook machines made by Hart Intercivic. Hart Intercivic machines have famously failed in Tarrant County (Ft. Worth), adding 10,000 non-existent votes. The EVEREST study, commissioned by the Ohio secretary of state in 2007, found serious security flaws with Hart Intercivic products.

Looking beyond the well-documented Google choking laundry list of apparent fraud, failure and seeming corruption that is associated with Hart Intercivic, an ongoing Free Press investigation turned its attention to the key question of who owns the voting machine companies. The majority of the directors of Hart come from the private equity firm H.I.G. Capital. H.I.G. has been heavily invested in Hart Intercivic since July 2011, just in time for the current presidential election cycle. But who is H.I.G Capital?

[malaise]

1. This is huge

Get thee to the greatest page

[babsbunny]

5. Dr. Bob has our backs!

Bob Fitrakis works very hard!

[malaise]

6. The great news this year is that everyone is

calling out their attempts to steal these elections very early.

[flamingdem]

80. Yes but if the machines aren't monitored effectively..

what can be done to prevent vote flipping?

I guess the polls, exit polls might help stop that but what a disaster to hear this news about the ownership and counters being Rmoney connected

[glinda]

59. Agreed! KICKITYKICK!

[annabanana]

2. HUGELY important post. The only way to keep them from cheating is to get

out in front of ALL the routes they've set up for themselves to game the election.

Kicking lots!

[jsr]

3. Out of 49 partners and directors, 48 are men, and 47 are white

Figures.

[Coyotl]

74. "Eleven of these men, including H.I.G. Founder Tony Tamer, were formerly employed at Bain"

Out of 49 partners and directors, 48 are men, and 47 are white. Eleven of these men, including H.I.G. Founder Tony Tamer, were formerly employed at Bain and Company

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. Post this more than once does the Washington Post know about this?

[surrealAmerican]

7. k & r

let's keep this kicked

[lonestarnot]

8. Fucking A

[northoftheborder]

9. k&r

[nc4bo]

10. Light and more light!! K&R! nm

[jackbenimble]

11. I wonder

Why electronic voting machines don't spit out a receipt and keep another receipt copy internally like cash registers do. When I check out at a store I look at my receipt to make sure I was charged correctly. If I have to use an electronic voting machine I want a receipt to show my vote was counted the way I intended it to be.

[valerief]

13. Because then they couldn't steal votes as easily. nt

[reformist2]

33. Let's just require PAPER BALLOTS ONLY, nationwide.

Maybe allow the old style voting machines. MAYBE. But I don't even trust them.

[JHB]

35. I agree, paper ballots are the way to go.

There are ways to abuse that system, but they are pretty well understood and have a number of physical requirements. They may take longer to count, but so what?

[kentuck]

39. True.

And there are no precincts in America that are too big to count by hand.

[glinda]

60. Wish an emergency Law would be signed this election for them! Especially given

how much corruption there is going on. I mean...how can anyone feel that this election will be accurate??????

[goclark]

62. keep kicked

[loyalsister]

42. Mine does

n\t

[Volaris]

65. Damn Straight...With a second hard copy that gets turned in to Election Officals

in case a hard copy is needed for a re-count. Both copies signed by BOTH parties, in agreement that they MATCH EXACTLY.
And it should be Federal LAW that the paper trail gets archived for at least 7 years-- If its good enough for Credit Reporting Agencies and the IRS, it should be just dandy for elections, as well.
Fuckers.
And if you are actually caught committing Election Fraud, (NOT voter Fraud, and there IS a difference) and your candidate WINS, your prison term should be not less than the term that "elected" official gets to serve in office. Yeah, you got your Man elected, but guess what? For as long he holds that office, YOU get to sit in Prison. Have fun with that.

And really, how hard can it be to build an electronic voting machine with a printer in it? Because the old saying about better mousetraps seems ABSOLUTELY true in this case....because if there are any takers, I'll pony up money to buy stock in a company hell-bent on helping keep America TRULY free...=)

[annabanana]

12. more kick . . . .PLEASE tweet & facebook. . . .n/t

[crazylikafox]

14. kicking

[Smilo]

15. Can someone send to MSNBC

K&R

[Rocky2007]

40. I just sent this on to Rachel

[Smilo]

83. Thank you n/t

[nycbiscuit]

16. this is the kind of thing

that really concerns me. Quite nervous between this, the false voter registrations, roll scrubbing...

Also, spoke with three friends yesterday, and all three did not know that their polling places had changed. I just learned myself that my own polling place had changed last week. There is going to be a lot of people who show up on election day to their old polls and wonder WTF.

[Frustratedlady]

17. Here is another article on the same subject

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/13716-focus-vote-counting-company-tied-to-romney

[JHB]

37. Actually, it's the same article.

RSN is an aggregator, with permission to reprint material from a number of sources, including this article.

[ashling]

18. For the record,

Texas has 254 counties - the article boldly asserts

In all 234 counties of Texas . . .

I agree that this is a truly alarming situation - the machines, et al., but if the authors cound'nt get the above easily verifiable number correct, what about the others?

[sulphurdunn]

45. Probably just a typo.

Digit errors can be hard to catch by an editor or a fact checker, especially when the difference is visually similar like 234 and 254. The important numbers are the ones you will never see after the votes have been flipped.

[ashling]

49. That's what I was thinking

but it is still troubling

OK, I admit that I teach Texas Government and so I deal with this number fairly frequently - which I guess is why it stuck out - but the number I recall having seen that number before used for Texas counties in asrticles cited on here.

[sulphurdunn]

91. The only number

I could find that refers to Texas counties and the number 234 referred to stock laws. It said basically that 234 of the state's 254 counties have stock laws and that the remainder are either partially or wholly open range.

[Firebrand Gary]

19. K&R

[valerief]

20. Here's what I got out of the link.

Hart Intercivic makes vote-flipping election machines. The majority of the directors of this firm come from HIG Capital. 11 of the 49 HIG partners were formerly employed at Bain Capital. 2 of that 11 are Romney bundlers, along with 1 former Bain employee and current HIG manager. 4 of the 11 were formerly employed at Booz Allen, maker of military voting machines and an American citizen data mining operation. Carlyle Group is an owner of Booz Allen.

HIG is the 11th largest donor to the Romney campaign ($338,000).

Scytl, Spanish company with ties to Booz Allen, will count 25% of the prez vote. Its US national corporate offices are at a house in Glen Allen, Virginia. Its sales office is a rent-an-office in Baltimore.

[SaveAmerica]

25. Well, isn't THAT special? (Church lady out)

[flamingdem]

78. This sounds like a set up

of some kind .. thanks for the synopsis

[McCamy Taylor]

21. In Tarrant County they had to offer paper ballots after the Hart scandal.

Voters in Ohio should demand the same thing.

[OKNancy]

22. I seriously doubt there will be a need for vote rigging in Oklahoma

I think we have all new machines. The old machines were good old workhorses. I'm sure some here will doubt them, but back in the 2004 primary there was a hand recount in the Democratic primary because Wes Clark and John Edwards were so close. The total figures with the machines vs the hand count were within 5 votes of each other.

Anyway, I'm not concerned about the Republicans cheating here in Oklahoma. It will be a win for them anyway.

[citizen blues]

23. I know it won't be popular, but

WE NEED MASSIVE NUMBERS OF INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS ON THE GROUND NOVEMBER 6TH!!!!!

These fuckers have poised themselves to STEAL another election. The Wisconsin recall was a dry run and a proving ground.

Much of the international community viewed the Supreme Court decision in 2000 as a Right Wing Coup. Looks like they might be right unless we can get enough people to simply overwhelm the rigging.

At times I'm hopeful about this election, and at other times I'm really pessimistic. This election will determine whether we have a democracy or go the way of Michigan - another proving ground.

[INdemo]

29. I agree..I wont be satisfied that we won until Romney gives his concession

speech..another example of Romney being in PA for fund raiser....and claiming he will win PA. With two pundits saying the race is within the margin of error..What? so are we being set up for a steal?..The same comments for Ohio and NC.

[porphyrian]

24. . n/t

[nenagh]

26. K&R

[Samantha]

27. Truly disturbing

I wonder if the Obama team knows about this?

Sam

[CrispyQ]

28. I'll never forget Ohio 2004.

This is just one reason why people chortling that Obama's going to win should shut the fuck up.

[nilram]

56. ditto that

[KauaiK]

30. I keep repeating - its who COUNTS the votes!!

[allan01]

31. re: Vote counting company tied to Romney

busted. this whole thing stinks . i want to see doj action on this . if no doj action , i want all bush era appointees released.this should be kicked and kicked and kiced .

on edit : i also want to see house and senate investigations as well.
i want to see a truley standerised voteing methold in place like they have in iraq.
your thumb is inked . then you vote w your thumb.

[reformist2]

32. This creeps me out so much... PAPER BALLOTS NOW!

[glinda]

61. YES!!!!!!

Seriously...we cannot wait.

[reformist2]

34. What does this even mean, to have Scytl "contracted to count 25% of the presidential vote"???

Counting the votes should be the job of the county clerks, not private corporations!

[flamingdem]

82. This is shocking on too many levels

why why why is this allowed?

[AzDar]

36. K & R

[beac]

38. I can hardly type... I feel SICK.

They really are going to do everything in their power to steal it, aren't they?

[Liberalagogo]

41. GOTV

(Sorry about the mirroring)

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[ruffburr]

43. I hate to be the i told you so guy but

Their smugness throughout this election is the biggest clue of all, Myself and several others have said and said that we are all being made schmuck's of by the R's and they have the fix in no matter what, Maybe this will stop it, VOTE and keep your voting number!!!!!! Look out all , We have to fight these a--hole's to the end!!!!! DAMMIT!!

[AllyCat]

68. That's what I keep thinking too. I get so excited every time a new poll

comes out in support of Dems. That lasts about 3 seconds, when I remember the damn voting machines. I think this is why RMoney isn't even trying to look like a good candidate. They are going to steal it. They know they will "win". And it will be by such epic proportions that few will be able to see it.

We saw this craziness in Wisconsin. How that happened is beyond explanation except for...they cheated.

[CrispyQ]

73. If Mitt wins, he'd better watch his back.

Maybe he shouldn't have picked a teabagger for veep.

[blkmusclmachine]

44. Ohio '04 ?

Operation Northwoods

[Snarkoleptic]

46. kickski

for visibility

[Dalai_1]

47. K&R n/t

[Th1onein]

48. H.I.G. owners are former Bain bundlers. Oh shit.

Out of 49 partners and directors, 48 are men, and 47 are white. Eleven of these men, including H.I.G. Founder Tony Tamer, were formerly employed at Bain and Company, and two of those men, John P. Bolduc and Douglas Berman are Romney bundlers along with former Bain and H.I.G. manager Brian Shortsleeve.

[Dalai_1]

50. This is devastating!

For so many republicans to have been negative about
rmoney's campaign( in the media) makes me think they are
all aware of this...even though the criticism was more
than warranted...

Thank you for posting this!

[liberal N proud]

51. That is why he is so confident that he will win!

This fucker owns the guys counting the votes.

[fun n serious]

52. K&R nt

[VPStoltz]

53. While it doesn't take anything away from this piece...

I believe Washington - if the writer is referring to Washington State - votes by mail.
Canada votes with paper, there is no muss, no fuss and the winner is announced the next morning (or as soon as it takes to count the paper ballots).

[LiberalLovinLug]

86. Actually in Canada..

The winning party is announced that evening. Maybe a few close races too close to call and up for a re-count, but the main results are over within the day. All with hand-counted paper ballots.

Someone once argued that "well the US couldn't do that because there are 10 x the population so its too big a job and they'd be counting for weeks". That is just not logical. The US also has (roughly) 10 x the number of polling stations and 10 x the number of temporary workers available to fill spots so that point is moot.

[demgrrrll]

54. kickety kick

[silvershadow]

55. just another legacy of Bushco. Bump n/t

[Blue Owl]

57. Hey Romney -- fuck you you fucking sack of shit

[Pakid]

58. We need to get rid of all computer run voting machines

Once and for all . Now how do we do it?

[dmr]

63. K&R

[snappyturtle]

64. K&R Kick! nt

[demgrrrll]

66. kick

[mecherosegarden]

67. Kick N/T

[horseshoecrab]

69. K&R! n/t

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

70. k & r

[porphyrian]

71. If we all vote and the votes are counted, the President will win. n/t

[Aerows]

72. Kick

This is extremely important.

[Coyotl]

75. Some overseas company secretly counts our votes and we don't know who they are? No problem, right?

This is America, land of the free, don't worry, be happy, and move on

[flamingdem]

76. Good grief I think I'm just going to go back to bed nt

[Fawke Em]

77. We use Hart in Knoxville, TN

It was chosen because of the three eVoting machine companies that provided quotes, Hart was the LEAST tied to one party.

So sad that all of the eVoting machine companies are all Republican-leaning.

[rwork]

79. Someone

get this to Rachael or Ed or Lawrence.

[Samantha]

92. Well, I sent it to the Obama campaign team last night when I read it

I knew I would not sleep at all if I didn't.

Sam

[rwork]

93. Thanks

Samantha.

[They_Live]

81. K&R

[hue]

84. One of the 99 RepubliCON ways to win an election....

It doesn't matter how stupid/ridiculous the Tea/Repub candidates are.
The 1% vote winning machine is in full force everywhere You look!!

[LiberalLovinLug]

85. For the life of me I cannot understand

...why this is NOT a high priority issue with Democratic lawmakers!

I just don't get the silence. After it was PROVEN that votes were changed, and that these machines CAN be hacked.
Its just damn puzzling and frustrating.

At the very least they should be working on a provision (maybe they are?) that the federal government has the right to the software of these machines. And the right to unannounced scrutiny. Bullocks about private company property! This is a national security issue if there ever was one.

[tarheelsunc]

87. Is the so-called "liberal media" picking up on this?

How would people react if there was widespread knowledge of what is going on here? The Republicans are fully prepared to rig the election if they are not in a position to win it honestly (as they are not). Isn't it very strange that they want to win that badly that they willingly defraud the system?

[Ninga]

88. Keep this kicked.....PLEASE!! n/t

[mahatmakanejeeves]

89. Vote absentee ahead of time on a paper ballot.

If you can.

[flamingdem]

90. K&R