Tribune Media: MSM Failed to Note 'Hackable Diebold Red Flags' in New Hampshire Primary Results

[BradBlog]

Source: Tribune Media Services, BRAD BLOG

Tribune Media: MSM Failed to Note 'Hackable Diebold Red Flags' in New Hampshire Primary Results
Syndicated Columnist Robert Koehler Writes for Tomorrow's Papers: 'Possibility of Tainted Results, a Prospect Most of Media Can't Bear'
Notes Problems With NH's Diebold Machines 'Remain Unsolved'...

Syndicated Tribune Media Services columnist Bob Koehler bumps up our serious concerns (http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5530 ) about last night's wholly untransparent, and still-uncounted (by anything but a hackable Diebold computer, and a company with a questionable past, to say the least) New Hampshire Primary election results, from "blogger conspiracy theory" to mainstream media concern.

Here are the first few grafs of his column, set to run in tomorrow's editions of subscribing mainstream media papers...

PRIMARY CONCERNS
By Robert C. Koehler
Tribune Media Services

As the breathless sports coverage of the presidential primaries bursts around me this morning, I’m doing my best to resist surrendering to the contrived drama about “comeback kids” and the flying shrapnel of numbers and hold onto my troubled skepticism about the electoral process, or at least most of it.

First of all, before we get too enthusiastic about feminist solidarity or wax knowingly about New Hampshire Democrats’ traditional soft-heartedness toward the Clinton family, let’s ponder yet again the possibility of tainted results, which is such an unfun prospect most of the media can’t bear to remember that all the problems we’ve had with electronic voting machines — and Diebold machines in particular, which dominate New Hampshire polling places — remain unsolved.

Did the Hillary campaign really defy the pollsters? She had been trailing Barack Obama by 13 percentage points, 42 to 29, in a recent Zogby poll, as election watchdog Brad Friedman pointed out. And the weekend’s “rapturous packed rallies for Mr. Obama,” as the New York Times put it, “suggested Mrs. Clinton was in dire shape.”

So when she emerged from the Tuesday primary with an 8,000-vote and 3-percentage-point victory over Obama, perhaps — considering the notorious unreliability, not to mention hackability, of Diebold machines — the media might have hoisted a few red flags in the coverage, rather than immediately chalk the results up to Clinton’s tears and voter unpredictability. (Oh, if only more reporters considered red flags patriotic.)

The fact is, whatever actually happened in New Hampshire voting booths on Tuesday, our elections are horrifically insecure. For instance, Bev Harris, of the highly respected voting watchdog organization Black Box Voting, recently wrote that the Diebold 1.94w optical scan machines used in some 55 percent of New Hampshire precincts (representing more than 80 percent of the state’s voters) are “the exact same make, model and version hacked in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County (Florida)” a few years ago. They haven’t been upgraded; the security problems haven’t been fixed.

National, or at least media, denial about this situation doesn’t say much for the strength of our democracy…

URL: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5532


Read more: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5532

[Occulus]

1. Can we please bring an end to the false claims of 'sour grapes' now?

Please?

[Marrah_G]

30. By using Bev Harris as a source? No thank you

[mod mom]

33. Bob Koehler was willing to take the time to look at the evidence after '04 and came

away as a valuable advocate for election integrity.

[Marrah_G]

34. While that may be true - he is praising a con artist and thief- Perhaps his judgment is a bit off

[mod mom]

35. so you'll discredit MCM, Brad, Howard Dean, and anyone else who have ever associated w

Bev? Not too rational in my estimation.

[Marrah_G]

36. It's not past association- he is praising her right now

[mod mom]

38. Whether you like some of her past financial dealings or not, she is considered

to have made a significant contribution to election integrity.

I have worked with both Andy and Bev, as have most ER folks in Ohio. Andy lived with my friend Susan while he worked here. Both have contributed greatly to bringing integrity to elections. Not everything is black or white, or good and evil.

[Marrah_G]

39. I disagree with you on this topic- I do not trust her one bit.

But beyond that- Thank you for what you do!

:hi:

[terisan]

2. Bev Harris--DU just again stated that she is untrustworthy and is officially banned?

"For instance, Bev Harris, of the highly respected voting watchdog organization Black Box Voting, recently wrote that the Diebold 1.94w optical scan machines used in some 55 percent of New Hampshire precincts (representing more than 80 percent of the state’s voters) are “the exact same make, model and version hacked in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County (Florida)” a few years ago. They haven’t been upgraded; the security problems haven’t been fixed".



Which is it head of highly respected Black Box Voting or unreliable banned DUer ?

[fascisthunter]

9. that is strange (nt)

[defendandprotect]

15. All DU'ers should give that some thought --- right away . . . !!!!

I've heard this before about Bev Harris ---

Is this yet one more of the administration's "tin foil hat" issues ---

which, btw, keep many important subjects AWAY from DU'ers attention --- !!!

[Marrah_G]

31. Bev- Is that you?

No this is not a tin foil hat issue- this is an issue of Bev Harris being a con artist and a thief. No I am not providing you links- search DU yourself, the info is all there.

[Occulus]

23. All of us really really should not defend her or her history

and, please trust, that troll has a HISTORY.

And I do mean troll, grifter, etc. She roped ME in, but thankfully I didn't donate to her line her pockets.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=340188 (this would be called a definitive compendium)

She cannot be forgiven, mostly because she's the Energizer Bunny. She keeps going and going and going, and not in a good way.

[blondeatlast]

47. And returning--she's in this thread.

Believe it.

[FREEWILL56]

3. It seems to me that if the machines were tampered with that there

would be a discernable difference between the areas using those machines and the areas not using those machines. I don't know if they give the breakdowns for the different areas or not for that state and maybe somebody could say one way or another.
edit to add:
If you know what areas have the diebold machines in question here's the link to the results.
http://www.sos.nh.gov/presprim2008/index.htm

[Tuesday_Morning]

8. Here's something.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x488942


Where Paper Prevailed, Different Results


By Lori Price

http://www.legitgov.org/nh_machine_vs_paper.html

2008 New Hampshire Democratic Primary Results --Total Democratic Votes: 286,139 - Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008

Hillary Clinton, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 39.618%
Clinton, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 34.908%

Barack Obama, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 36.309%
Obama, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 38.617%

Machine vs Hand:
Clinton: 4.709% (13,475 votes)
Obama: -2.308% (-6,604 votes)

2008 New Hampshire Republican Primary Results --Total Republican Votes: 236,378 Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008

Mitt Romney, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 33.075%
Romney, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 25.483%

Ron Paul, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 7.109%
Paul, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 9.221%

Machine vs Hand:
Romney: 7.592% (17,946 votes)
Paul: -2.112% (-4,991 votes)

[FREEWILL56]

10. Thank you for that information and the link.

I never liked those damn machines and now my area has them too(no paper trail). I guess you can't say foul just yet, but the trend would be worthwhile in following to see the results in other areas with and without the paper trails. I gave your thread a rec btw.

[defendandprotect]

16. There have often been LARGE discrepancies in these stolen elections . ..

do you think there is a powerful force following these clues?

No --

[Omaha Steve]

4. How about the questions of auditing Bev

Last I remember she had not filed required non-profit papers etc... An update would be nice, since as a subject she isn't banned.

[defendandprotect]

17. Bev Harris would seem to be an invaluable poster/ally for DU ---

whatever the problems, wouldn't it be advantageous to all of us to get them corrected?

THIS issue of stolen elections is probably one of our most urgent and important issues --- !!!

[Marrah_G]

29. Are you fucking insane? Seriously... please go look at the history

She is a liar and a thief and a con artist.

[troubleinwinter]

42. No, she is not "invaluable", nor an "ally". She burnt down our election reform allies KO & RR

You don't "correct problems" of someone lying in your face repeatedly, smearing and attacking good people and organizations, picking peoples' pockets, harassing and mocking a sick man, undermining election reform, stealing others' work and credit, cozying up to freepers, touting Bush as her fan, threatening to sue activists and DU, alienating cooperative officials and media from the cause... by anything other than warning others with the truth so that they won't get sucked into the vortex of Bev's sociopathic sewer.

EarlG ADMIN (1000+ posts) Fri Dec-03-04 12:31 PM
Original message
Statement on the Bev Harris situation
Over the past two years Bev Harris has received a great deal of support from the members of Democratic Underground, in her research, publicity efforts, and fundraising. In return we have played host to an 18 month-long squabble between Ms. Harris and other verified voting activists, and have even been threatened with lawsuits by Ms. Harris herself. Despite this, we have publicly remained mostly silent on the verified voting squabbles.

We believe verified voting is a topic of crucial importance, and have been uncomfortable taking sides on an issue which, frankly, we should all be on the same side of anyway. Therefore we have kept most of our correspondence with the various factions private and attempted to cool things down behind the scenes. Like all issues discussed at DU, we have tried to focus the discussion of verified voting on the topic at hand, and not on the personalities of the participants. However, in light of the recent troubles, we feel compelled to make a statement.

In 2003 Bev Harris, along with a few other verified voting activists, were banned from DU for engaging in personal squabbles on the message board after they were repeatedly instructed to stop. Around that time, Ms. Harris threatened us with a libel lawsuit, claiming that we could be held responsible for comments made by other message board members who doubted the credibility of her project. She never followed through on this threat and we never heard from her lawyers.

Ms. Harris was reinstated shortly afterwards, after agreeing to put an end to the problems that got her banned in the first place. Nonetheless, those problems periodically recurred after her reinstatement. A few weeks ago, Ms. Harris again used our website to threaten DU with lawsuits, in her postings, in private messages to other members, and in rude alerts she sent to the moderators.

We sent a message to Ms. Harris telling her to stop hassling our moderators and members, and informing her that if she had a legal concern, she needed to contact us directly. We also let her know that her continued participation on this message board was dependent upon her behavior. The legal threats stopped, but we received no response from either Ms. Harris or her lawyers.

This is our personal experience with Ms. Harris. We cannot confirm or deny the veracity of claims made by others, including many former colleagues, her former publisher, and Keith Olbermann. But we can confirm that the claims made by others about Ms. Harris are not inconsistent with our own experiences.

We have remained as patient as possible in our dealings with Ms. Harris because we believe that the topic of verified voting is a crucial one. We were prepared to sacrifice a certain amount of tranquility on the message board if verified voting was being discussed in a generally positive manner.

Ms. Harris's recent spat with Keith Olbermann has made positive discussion of verified voting increasingly difficult on DU. For over a year and a half, our members have been split into pro- and anti-Bev factions, and recent events have only exacerbated that division. Yet this morning Ms. Harris returned to DU and started posting as if nothing had happened, while making liberal use of the alert button to complain to the moderators about our enforcement of the message board rules. At this point our patience finally ran out.

The fact that the disruptions have continued, despite repeated warnings from the administrators, leaves us with no other option but to bar Bev Harris from posting on this website. We no longer believe that it is productive to allow her to use DU as a platform to promote herself while simultaneously trashing us, our moderators, and others who have been previously supportive of her cause.

We still remain firmly committed to promoting discussion of verified voting, and we wish Ms. Harris well in her efforts to shed light on this important issue. From now on, we encourage all of our members to focus on discussing the verified voting issue itself, rather than the personalities involved.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2639940#2650434

[blondeatlast]

45. Again--you dodged the clearly stated issue.

that tactic seems strangely familiar...

[balantz]

5. From what I gather, and correct me if I'm wrong,

there are the Diebold voting machines, and there are also Diebold paper ballot scanners. If that is correct, where are these scanners being used?

[winga222]

6. Bev Harris? You've got to be kidding me

And, yes, I'm sorry to say but it's still sour grapes.

[blondeatlast]

48. For me it's outright acidic bile and I didn't even send her a dime.

What she did to Andy... :cry:

[kikiek]

7. Funny that the MSM allegedly suspects this now but not during two suspect general elections.

[defendandprotect]

18. Two "general" elections could turn the world upside down . . . primaries . .. "not so much!" ---

[kikiek]

27. The two did with the magnitude of a nuclear bomb. Literal or not yet to be determined.

[bleever]

11. Help me, Brad:

What we have here is a potentially very straightforward analysis, but I can't trace the info back to the source data.

All we need are official stats on counting methods by township/precinct, and vote totals.

Tracing the story back, I keep getting stuck at either BBV or a Ron Paul site, and I want public domain info from the state itself.

We should be able to either make a clear demonstration here, or to disprove this story about the exit polls not matching in NH very easily.

[hedgehog]

12. If these are optical scan machines, does that mean that somewhere there is indeed

a paper trail?

What about the ballots that were reportedly supplied late in the day? Is there a chance that htye were misread?

[defendandprotect]

19. I think the paper trails are still tallied by the machines . . . anyone know?

[Pastiche423]

13. Why, why, why

are you quoting bev harris? You do realize, don't you, that she has been banned from this site twice by the Admin for, among other reasons, threatening to sue DU?

[defendandprotect]

20. Because Bev Harris has been the truth-teller re Diebold and these machines . . .

since the suppressed story of VOTESCAM --- "The Stealing of America" was also suppressed --- !!!

PLEASE . . . see VOTESCAM . . . Jim & Ken Collier and their 26 year investigation of
computer steals!!

[Pastiche423]

21. bev harris is a liar, a grifter , a fraud and filth!

She has been banned from this site TWICE for, among many other reasons, threatening to sue Skinner.

There is nothing truthful about her.

Please read the following to educate yourself about that scum!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=340188

[Occulus]

24. LOL

The more that thread resurfaces, the better.

EVERYONE ought to know how bad she is, and how adept.

I said upthread, and I'll say it here: I think she's a plant to discredit the verified voting movement, and as such, she's had stunning success.

[Pastiche423]

26. Hey!

We must be vigilant. There are lots of new DUers that missed the horror that is bev.

What I don't understand is why Brad doesn't know. (Or maybe doesn't care?)

[Marrah_G]

32. Wow you are just a Bev Harris Cheerleader!

[spotbird]

40. Bev Harris is not a truth-teller

about anything. She is a manipulator, statements like yours allow her to continue her scam.

[Whisp]

43. and Diebold's machines are honest.

they don't manipulate and they don't scam. ??

I'm getting really confused here.
we talking personalities here instead of Diebold's checkered record of vote fixing?

[spotbird]

44. False dilemma.

One does not impact the other, in least not in a way that will aid a positive outcome for honest voting.

Bev is a crook. Diebold's machines aren't reliable. In fact, because Bev is a crook, a lying thieving snake, she hurts the slim possibility that voting problems will be corrected.

[blondeatlast]

49. Bev Harris and Diebold machines are equally evil.

Educate yourself--the definitive thread is linked upthread. Read it.

[Kurovski]

14. Good. K&R. (nt)

[McCamy Taylor]

22. Tribune now owned by Sam Zell billionaire Republican, sold soul to Bush FCC

to get an FCC federal media ownership exemption in December. The exemption he got has a loophole---he has to challenge an FCC order in court and the FCC has to delay filing its response and has to deliberately loose what should be a cut and dried case for the US government for Zell to keep his holdings.

That means that Zell can tell his Tribune staff to write RNC propaganda all this year or else they will be without jobs.

This article stinks like last week's sushi.

More to come in my next journal that I am going to write now .

[truthisfreedom]

25. So the pollsters were "stumped," the pundits were "shocked," and nobody could see this coming...

bushco making sure that Hillary is the contender?

[Marrah_G]

28. Can we stop stirring the shit pot by quoting that con artist?

[Junkdrawer]

37. WOW...I'M Totally willing to OVERLOOK THE FACTS if Bev (gulp) Harris is involved...

:sarcasm:

[spotbird]

41. If Bev is involved the facts will not be found. nt

[blondeatlast]

46. Nor will the money or integrity. nt