Wisconsin's faith-based voting machines attract more notice

[midnight]

Submitted by Man MKE on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 10:51pm


'It's not the people who vote that count; it's the people who count the votes' -- Josef Stalin
Last Friday we blogged here about the need to stop thinking about how progressive and Democratic electioneering has failed us, and think harder about how the disloyal opposition has been busy tinkering with our elections. And perhaps not just by suppressing and de-legitimizing voters.
I'm now indebted to the Motley Cow blog for a great online find. Bob Fitrakis, a Green Party congressional candidate in Ohio, also happens to hold a doctorate in statistics. After Wisconsin's disastrous recall election, Fitrakis posted on his campaign blog about the urgent need to investigate the rigging of voting machines, here and in other states.
According to Fitrakis, the discrepancies in the ultimate reported vote totals and exit polling in Wisconsin and elsewhere simply have been too broad and widespread to discount the possibility that someone has been tampering with voting machines to rig outcomes.
It's hard to get traction on this, because even though skeptics and experts have been sounding the alarm for much of the past decade, it just sounds too much like a bad spy movie, too outlandish and over the top. But science and mathematics in particular force no other conclusion. Fitrakis:

http://www.uppitywis.org/blogarticle/wisconsins-faith-based-voting-machines-attract-more-notice

[elleng]

1. Fitrakis knows a few things.

Fitrakis was a Democratic candidate for Congress in the 12th district in 1992, running against Congressman John Kasich, and for the Columbus School Board in 1995. He was the elected Democratic Ward committeeperson in the 55th ward from 1996-2000. He currently serves as a Columbus Near East Area Commissioner. Fitrakis ran for Columbus City Council in the primary of 2003. and Columbus School Board that same year, endorsed by the Central Ohio Green Party. In 2008, Fitrakis brought suit on behalf of the Green Party of Ohio to place the Party on the ballot in the state, and served as the election attorney for Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney that year.

Fitrakis ran for Governor of Ohio in 2006 on the Green Party ticket with his running mate, Anita Rios. Together they garnered 40,965 votes for 1.02 percent of the vote. [1]

In 2012, Fitrakis is running for Congress in the 3rd district, central Ohio, in the Green Party primary Match 6, 2012. He serves on the Central Committee of the Franklin County Green Party and is Co-Chair of the Ohio Green Party. He also serves as legal counsel for Occupy Columbus

The Fitrakis Files: Cops, Coverups and Corruption"
"As Goes Ohio: Election Theft Since 2004—Best of the freepress.org (with Harvey Wasserman), CICJ Books, 2008
What Happened in Ohio? A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election (with Steven Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman)
How the GOP Stole America's 2004 Election & Is Rigging 2008 (with Harvey Wasserman)
Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election? Essential Documents (with Harvey Wasserman and Steve Rosenfeld

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Fitrakis

[midnight]

7. I would love to see this documentary:

"The Right to Count: Democracy vs. Electronic Voting" produced by Richard Van Slyke


Thanks for the link...

[pacalo]

2. Recommended reading.

I noticed during the two televised debates that Scott Walker looked too smug, considering all the odds against him.

[msongs]

3. the democratic party inc cares not about this, based on its behavior nt

[AnotherMcIntosh]

4. Odd, isn't it?

[HiPointDem]

5. +1

[bvar22]

8. One would think....

... that after the stolen election in 2000,
and the "questionable" election in 2004,
that Transparent, Verifiable Voting would be a red hot issue with the Democratic Party leadership.
It is only supported by over 92% of the American people.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x446445

An EASY WIN/WIN

...but NO!
Only silence from the Party leadership on this issue fundamental to democracy.
You have to go way out on the Wacko Left Fringe of the Democratic Party to find anyone willing to talk about this,
and HE got "re-districted".


Some things that should NEVER be "privatized" in a democracy:

*Vote counting & reporting

*Prisons

*Armed military "contractors"

*Public Schools

*Health Insurance

*Administration of our Commons

[midnight]

9. Land Shark has done some great work to help us understand the need for

transparency. And I agree with your list of things that should not be privatized... But I would like to add the banks to the list too...

[limpyhobbler]

6. What's a more important issue than being able to verify election results?

Maybe nothing more important. Democratic politicians should talk about this more.

[ewagner]

10. Just verified with our clerks

During the recount all paper ballots were hand-counted. The totals matched the reports from the ESS machines exactly.

No local exit polls to compare.

[midnight]

11. I wonder if removing the exit polling helps to keep the paper ballots and machine totals

compatible?


"Command Central Makes Its Move—A Shady Deal With WI County Clerks
Last September, Election Integrity investigators discovered that unbeknownst to average citizens of Wisconsin, Command Central sent those 46 districts an offer: trade out your old Optech Insight Scanner for two DRE Touch Screen models, at no charge. The Optech machine is the one that paper ballots are fed through to read and register the votes.

While these machines are also susceptible to hacking (see Rep. Pridemore explain how to game the machine) in the case of a recount, it is possible to physically monitor the paper ballots as they are fed through the machine to see if they match the machine totals."

[ewagner]

12. I don't think it's possible to alter the paper ballots

to conform to the machine totals.