August 18, 2008
MOVIE EXAMINES VOTING IRREGULARITIES ON THE EVE OF THIS STATE'S PRIMARY ELECTION DAY
NEW FILM EXAMINES VOTING IN AMERICA
"For more than 20 years, exit polls accurately predicted U.S. election results.
Over the last 10 years, that reliability has progressively disappeared.
What’s going on?
The last two presidential elections both came down to a relatively small number of votes, and in both elections the integrity of the voting process has been called into question. With the upcoming election looking to be similarly close, the time has come to ask the questions: what happened in 2000 and 2004; what has changed since; and what can be done to ensure a fair and honest tabulation of votes in 2008?
STEALING AMERICA: Vote by Vote brings together behind-the-scenes perspectives from the U.S. presidential election of 2004 – plus startling stories from key races in 1996, 2000, 2002 and 2006. Unbiased and nonpartisan, the film sheds light on a decade of vote counts that don't match votes cast – uncounted ballots, vote switching, under-votes and many other examples of election totals that warrant serious investigation.
Throughout STEALING AMERICA, we hear from voters who experienced a wide range of problems, including those whose votes flipped from one candidate to another and those whose polls didn't have enough machines to serve the number of voters. Investigative journalists describe how their reportage on election fraud was sidelined. First-person citizen testimonies speak of waiting in line nine hours to vote. We hear how polling experts’ requests for essential information – such as precinct voting data necessary to examine irregularities – had been rejected, while ballots were being systematically destroyed, making audits impossible.
In an effort to create the least biased and most balanced picture of this contentious issue, filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman has called upon experts from across the political spectrum.
STEALING AMERICA unveils patterns of anomalies at every level of the electoral process. Controversial partnerships perpetuate a secretive environment, as relevant facts and figures remain hidden from view. As a result, most Americans have no real sense of the threat to free and fair elections. As seemingly unrelated pieces of the puzzle come together, a chilling picture emerges of widespread, artfully crafted "glitches" that, in the final tallies, have the capacity to alter election results."
THIS FILM IS COMING TO PUGET SOUND
Sept 5th thru 11th at the Varsity 3
4329 University Way NE
Seattle, WA
Conspiracy theories are fun, but they don't generally hold together under the microscope. Liberals think because polls predict better results than their guy gets the voting must be rigged. A simple and logical explanation is that pollsters get the responses that they want and people vote differently. I expect that this election Obama will show higher poll numbers that he will get votes. Conservatives believe that without identification voting will occur when it shouldn't. That probably doesn't happen much either. My son, (the progressive) tells me that if poor people voted proportionate to their numbers we would have a much more progressive government. No doubt that is true. There are many ways to count votes, none perfect. In close elections the looser won't be happy. Nixon probably had a better cause to gripe than Gore. You want to talk about naked cheating, anybody remember how long it took Mayor Daily to report the votes from Cook County in 1960 and 1968 ?
Lets celebrate our democracy with all its flaws.
Bill Owen
While what you say may have merit, Bill, this just was released TODAY!
Ohio's Election Stolen Again?
http://www.truthout.org/article/ohios-election-stolen-again-state-may-face
Advancement Project and Project Vote: "Based on publicly available information nearly 600,000 eligible voters could be placed on a caging list and challenged on Election Day, which could then result in their removal from the voter rolls without due process, in accordance with Ohio law. Ohio counties with largest numbers of returned notices prior to March 2008 Presidential Primary are Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas and Summit. In 2005, Ohio's General Assembly introduced legislation, House Bill 3 (H.B.3) that overhauled Ohio's election system. H.B. 3, in part, requires voter information mailings and amends Ohio's challenge statute(s). In particular, it requires that 88 county boards of election mail all Ohio registered voters a non-forwardable notice 60 days before the election. Each board must compile into a list any notices that are returned as undeliverable. These lists, in turn, are available as public records to any individual or group seeking to use the list as a 'caging list' to challenge voters."
The bottom line is fair elections and people at the local level who care enough to watch for them. I'm not clear why John McKay was fired and his deputy murdered in Seattle, but have hope that Washington State will reflect honest elections at all levels from both parties.
While Mr. Owen may be skeptical about "conspiracy theories", there is plenty of documentation - from all sides of the aisle - to demonstrate the problems that exist in the current state of the electoral process. The advent of electronic voting machines that don't provide any hardcopy backup of the citizen's vote, as pressured into extensive use by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), really does pose a danger to our country's ability to elect the people's candidate.
There are a number of recognized experts in this field, including Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org, Dr. David Dill of VerifiedVoting.org, Dr. Rebecca Mercuri, Avi Rubin, and others, many of whom have examined the equipment and found serious problems with a number of models from various manufacturers. Some of these concerns have also caused some Secretaries of State to decertify them for use.
Personally, I have been in the computer software industry for over 3 decades, and errors, bugs, and problems - whether accidental or deliberate - crop up at the most unexpected times. Creating a technological system that counts our votes - without our being able to verify its validity and authenticity - is actually over-kill for the process. We wait for days for the counts to come through, many times delayed due to equipment malfunctions, while in other countries, the votes are counted at the polling place in full public view, and the results are available - and verified - that night. Many of these countries also have "instant runoff" ballots, which adds to the complexity of the process, but the results are still available on short order.
Granted, the final results here are dictated by state law regarding canvassing late-arriving mail-in ballots. Yet, the problems that arise from injecting proprietary, computerized, "black-box" systems into the mix seem overly burdensome.
I would also recommend the documentaries that have been produced regarding these situations. An excellent one is "Hacking Democracy", available through the Timberland Library System, or directly from BlackBoxVoting.com.