House Committee votes unaminously to throw out 4 of 5 federally contested house elections

Source: BradBlog

Hundreds of Sworn Voter Affidavits Collected by Curtis Campaign, Suggesting Inaccurate Counts on Electronic Voting Machines in FL-24 Race Against Feeney, Disregarded as 'Not Enough Evidence'...
But Without Access to the Machines or Source Code What Other Evidence Could There Be?

In addition to voting Rep. Rush Holt's dangerous Election Reform bill out of committee today (see this late Tuesday story for details), the U.S. House Administration Committee on Tuesday also unanimously voted to dismiss four of the five U.S. House races from last November which had been challenged in Congress under the Federal Contested Elections Act.

Only the contested Jennings/Buchanan race in Florida's 13th district --- which has gotten a great deal of mainstream media coverage for the 18,000 undervotes recorded by Sarasota's touch-screen voting systems in the election decided by a 369 vote margin --- will move forward. Late last week, the committee voted on party lines to send that contest to the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) for investigation.

Read more: http://www.bradblog.com/

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I got together with John Russell (one of the contesters)for a few beers this evening. Nobody knew anything yet. We talked with the attorney who filed the case, and John called Clint Curtis. Still no word at the time. We were fairly optimistic that we might prevail in the attempted whitewash. But when I got home I checked BradBlog, which has been covering the story extensively, and found out we lost.

We still have a few avenues to pursue the case, but it appears the elections won't be overturned. We never expected that anyway. But we do plan on going around the state and showing people the affidavits vs the official results, which are way off.

Election reform, and ballot integrity are the real issues. That's what it's all about.

Thanks a lot, fellow Dems on the Administration Committee. You're as complicit as Tom Feeney et al in the election fraud. You refused to even look at the hard evidence of a crime. All in the name of political expediency.

You'll never find the missing 18,000 votes in Sarasota County. But, we gave you hard evidence of fraudulent "official results". I hope you're satisfied.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4527

...In case it's not at the top of the blog by morn.

I just forwarded the article to John.

:mad: :puke: :puke:

corporations "counting" all our votes under a veil of corporate secrecy.

There is already a lot of evidence that they are. But their failure to look into only the most blatant and publicized election theft-- FL-13--not to mention their slowness in that case and these others, and the wretched HR 811--add to my conviction that we are on our own, as citizens of this country. We have no advocates. Those whom we have elected, by outvoting these goddamned machines, have as little regard for democracy and the will of the people as the Bushites do--they just disguise it better.

I am in a total state of disgust tonight--but not daunted. Never daunted. I will never lose hope that this great democracy can be restored and reformed. We just have to do it from the bottom up, like so many other countries have had to do--I'm thinking principally of the remarkable political developments in South America--after suffering a fascist coup.

That WAS the coup, in my opinion. October 2002. The "Help America Vote Act" (aka, the "Help America Vote for Bush's War Act").

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See Steven Freeman's letter to this committee on FL-24.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x472327

back during the 2000 Florida recount? Those people were identified by name, and they should be prosecuted. Why give those fascist another pass to their lawbreaking?

keeps them in power just like the rethugs. Although they might pretend to fight one another it's more of a loose coalition of power brokers. Kinda like the Mafia they have their territories and if you don't mess with me I won't mess with you. If you're stupid or greedy enough to give me an opening I'll stab you in the back, all I have to do is to keep protecting myself. If I go along with enough bullshit the corporations will keep my coffers full so I can be "elected" again. Works the same for both Dems and Repugs.

The answer is to eliminate corporations, nationalize any commodity that is essential to life, IE all energy, gas, oil, electricity, car and health insurance, food, water and basic housing. That's not to say there isn't lots of room for luxury in all of these commodities and everyone knows there's room enough in the billions of the other junk stuff we buy to make a living for everyone.

Term limits are essential as is public funding of elections. Harsh penalties for malfeasance of office and other crimes committed while in office or to get into office may be a deterrent to cheaters. But the best deterrent would be a one term and out forever term limit. How much damage could one do if she/he were only elected to one term. Bush/Cheney and their team of criminals would be gone or if terms were extended (six years for prez) this would be his last year. Sure some great folks would be gone but their replacements might be even better.

There's no doubt in my mind that the system is broke, but I think it could be repaired and America could be a beacon of JUSTICE for the rest of the world to envy and emulate.

A serious roadblock to the necessary repairs to our system is the "elected" officials occupying our offices. The privatization of this "war" is only practice for the corporations. It's not too hard to suspect their long term aim is to control the US and then the world through the use of corporate mercenaries.

I have thought for a very long time that they were all in on it together. It makes me want to fucking puke. There is no end to greed, ever. No amount of money is ever enough, no matter what. It's fucking sickening.

We are a Corporate Oligarchy. Both sides are complicit in the crimes being committed.

There are currently over 80 PMC's and anywhere from 30 to 60 thousand armed corporate mercenaries in Iraq. All getting plenty of experience. Just wait till they come back here and start the next phase....

Thanks for the post...

it's like when it's brought up people go "oh please.... let's move on!", even our leaders. The fact is campaign connected Republicans pretended to be 'outraged Florida voters' to end the recount. They need TRIED. I feel my vote for Clint was changed. He has more votes promised through sworn affidavits than what the final vote states... that's pretty odd. And the northern Florida case is more damning imo. ARRRRGGGHHHHH! Are we alone? No. But, we're outpowered it seems. We need more stand up guys like Feingold & Kerry who stick there neck out in the Senate and seem to have no one back them, at least this time, there's several backing Feingold ending the war, but they need to answer for ALL of this mess.

www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<-- check it out, top '08 stuff

He ignored the election irregularities and refused to investigate them when he ran for prez. S&B loyalty trumps "democracy".

Except the coup was 12/12/2000, every move since has been to solidify that opening act of Treason.

But, the judge has been dragging his feet. We think he'll now use the house committee action as pretext to throw it out.

Wrote this to the committee members:

My name is Cat Sullivan and I am a constituent in the 47th district in Seattle Washington. I am writing to you today to urge you all to consider the investigation into the voting discrepancies happening in Florida especially but also in Louisiana, OH, NH, as well as other places. The very idea you would even consider a bill certifying voting machines is beyond absurd, it is downright frightening. I worked with Andy Stevenson and Bev Harris around these voting machines and as a network administrator familiar with programing and computer hardware, I can tell you, paper ballots and hand counting is by far the most accurate and fair way to ensure every vote counts. In Canada, where ballots are hand counted, they are able to publish accurate returns a few hours after the polls close with every vote counting, why is this so hard to consider?

Also the contested race in Florida has some serious evidence that you really should consider, do not sweep it under the rug. Citizens have signed their names to eye witness accounts, and if you refuse to listen to your own citizens, then whom do you represent? I ask this question in all seriousness because if you refuse to consider sworn testimony, then it is clear to the American people the sacred right vote is not taken seriously enough by you as our sworn representatives who SAID they would uphold the Constitution. I remind you; people have DIED for this right and you have a sworn duty to look into every nook and cranny of this issues, it is your job!

VERY Sincerely Yours,
Catherine L. Sullivan
Address, phone and email included

We can't look like sore losers, can we? They might tell us to get a life. We'll get 'em next time. Keep our powder dry. Don't upset the apple cart. :sarcasm:

It's all so damn discouraging.

The problems with the election machines CONTINUES!!! Scientists have estimated that we won an ADDITIONAL 20 +/- seats in 2006, but the machines came up with tallies that didn't make sense, just like the ones in these cases.

These cases that were brought before the courts were NOT ALL OF THE ONES where there were problems!

Rove, and the republican-run government & its evil little foot-soldiers in counties and states, are NOT going to let the Dems win enough races to put the criminals behind bars in 2008. It's NOT going to happen!!

We have very narrow margins in Congress -- not enough to overcome a veto, not enough to stop the war, not enough to bring impeachment against gonzo or bush, or to MAKE rove & co. testify before congress. Plus, these damned machines keep electing DLCers to the Dem side of the aisle, and these people are NOTHING but republican infiltrators, who INSURE that the repukes will walk free.

It's time for an all-out assault on our state government legislatures to OUTLAW the frikkin' voting machines. It's NOT TOO LATE, if we start now. Washingtonians will NOT stop the mess!!! They are benefitting from it!!

We can't all march on washington, and even if we did, it hasn't done any good in stopping the war or anything else. But we can certainly march on our state capitols!!!

We MUST do this!

:kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick:

We have to organize local volunteers to get ready by 2008, where there are close races, to do exit polls, legal help for Jim Crow tactics, poll watchers to report voting irregularities, whatever else necessary. This would be a gigantic effort, but doable. Organization like MoveOn, League of Women voters, PFAW, PDA, etc. should join together for this big push.

If everyone walked off their job at the same time, it;d take about 15 minutes to get the kind of government we wanted.
It's a nice old IWW wobbely dream that most likely will never happen, but it's nice to dream sometimes about a time when
most everyone did the right thing. Sigh!

Florida... WE ARE TALKING corruption and major "fuzzing" going on! It's been a fight for so long now I can't remember when it wasn't!!!!

We even had people VOTE for a paper trail and our local WITCH STIll says she's not happy with it and basically is thumbing her nose at ALL OF IT!!

HEY, CHAWLIE CRIST...GYST, NOW!!!

They couldn't even manage to take hard evidence dropped in their laps and simply pass it on for proper investigation.

Here are the targets. If any of these are "your cross to bear," get busy finding a primary challenger.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Chair: Rep. Robert A. Brady, PA-1st
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, CA-16th
Rep. Mike Capuano, MA-8
Rep. Charles Gonzalez, TX-20
Rep. Susan Davis, CA-53

And remember, it doesn't matter how "good" they are on other issues if they're not going to ACT (even in futility) on something a vital as election protection. They're just beltway-bound, GOP/Euphemedia pets.

--

egad, not another gonzalez.

hearings? Remember Jesse Jackson,jr promising to put through a Bill for "Citizens Right to Vote?" Anyone remember the promises made? What about Barbara Boxer who stood up?

Where are they? Why is election reform not on the table? What about John Kerry who must know by now that he won Ohio.

Why the silence?

Thanks Brad and others for keeping on this!

We could get the ear of the mainstream media. I know they're doing investigations, but the VOTE is the one that everything else turns on.

:kick::kick::kick:

on my local race! Christine Jennings, THE ONLY one left!!

I've long since gotten over how "lite" she is, she still has a "D" after her name and BUCHANAN is a WEEAAASSSSELL!!

We need to have proper procedures and results.

Every county in a state must use the same format and procedures!!!!

I took a look at the first 3 counties in the 13th district and each of them do their reporting DIFFERENT. That has to stop!! At the least, the states should mandate each county in the state generates their reports all the same. It should also require each state to generate reports on absentee votes, early voting, election day, and provisional. In addition, it should include over votes and under votes. I noticed a couple of the counties had no results for over or under votes but had something called blank votes.

was even DIFFERENT than the other counties in the 13th! Those of us who live here KNOW what is going on, but NOTHING seems to work!

KATHY DENT needs to go, that much I know!!! She's had so many run-ins of various types, but still.... here we sit! And each time, those who contest need more and more money and I get hit up all the time. I WANT to win fair and square, but I'm not even sure I'm middle class anymore and MONEY is the only thing that keeps it going. I can't give anymore myself. I'm trying to contribute something to our National Elections and issues regarding STOPPING the War, but I swear EVERYONE has my name and I get email after email asking for money! It's really sick!

AND THE BEAT GOES ON!!!!

Do you have supervisors from each party in the office?

If you call the office... it's KATHY or nobody and she's not pleasant when or IF you get to speak to her!

I know we had some meetings at the Jennings Hdqrs to discuss how we would proceed after the election and we got several pages of "rules" on how to conduct ourselves when we were supposed to be able to be involved with the "recount!"

That little escapade was a JOKE!! I would have needed Superman's eyes to catch a mistake because you had to stand behind a rope to watch!

Election Day over votes were 13.9%

Early Day over votes were 17.6%

Absentee over votes were 2.5%

Election Day and Early Day voting I would believe to be on the machines.

Absentee voting would be I believe on paper ballots. BIG DIFFERENCE even BIGGER DIFFERENCE with Election Day and Early Day if they are on machines. Only explanation I can derive from that is the Early Voting machines had different programming.

How about the difference between the Early Voting and Absentee Votes?
Early Voting had 25,399 votes counted out of 30,832 with 5,433 over votes (17.6%)
Absentee Votes had 22,047 votes counted out of 22,613 with 566 over votes (2.5%)

If all things are equal there should had been about 770 over votes in the Early Voting. Right there is 4663 valid votes not counted.

Of the Election Day votes 76549 were counted out of 88,927 with 12,378 over votes (13.9%) There should had been about 2,223 over votes instead of 12,378. That is 10,155 votes not counted.

Total votes that may have been deliberately not counted... 14,818 votes.

Trying to get it through to some people is THE PROBLEM!! They just want to wear Jennings down or make her declare bankruptcy so she'll stop fighting. It's an old STORY here!

Most usually don't even jump into the fray! Jennings was once a Repuke... she may have inside track information and is unwilling to quit because of it. I will have to stick with her because of it! I voted for Schneider in the Primary so wasn't on board from the beginning. I have worked for her since though.

Besides, this place has been so "dominated" by Repukes for as long as I can remember so it's probably much too hard for anyone in POWER to believe that perhaps a Democrat should be allowed to get elected!!!

SARASOTA SUCKS is a common phrase here!!!

DREs and electoral fraud did not go away on Election Day 2006, folks.

Are you POSITIVE, swear-on-a-stack-of-Bibles, absolutely certain that it wasn't 18.181 undervotes?

That's a very important number because four Repukes won in 2000 by that exact margin.

I once thought i was living a life of illusion before DU but now knowing that so many other people are also seeing what i am seeing life just makes so much more sense. Those that think any politicians will follow the laws that enforce justice and equality have just gotten so much more egg on their face. Those with power will concede nothing unless it is forced, so we were told and so it has been shown :shrug:

Congressional Democrats can easily ammend the Holt Bill to make it fix the problem---

if enough concerned citizens make their concerns known to their Democratix represenatives .

For more on PFAW's insidious disinfo campaign, which seems to underscore their stated preference for touch-screen DRE systems instead of countable (and counted!) paper ballots, see this story from yesterday:

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4526

which is that electronic voting is too dangerous to leave as it is (and that Republicans can not be trusted). I think that Dems are wise to concentrate on this sure win case of election fraud. Rather than looking as if they are abusing their power by seeking to overturn a bunch of elections they will be shining the spotlight on a glaring obvious example of GOP hubris gone wild.

The public will end up equating RNC election politics with fraud before the Dems are over. And E-voting will be seen as such a bog threat to our Democracy that W. will not be able to veto the bill that Congress will write outlawing it.

If we had a functioning Department of Justice, they would be all over E Vote fraud all across the country. Of course, if anyone but Gonzo was the AG, the Repugs would never have been so bold last election.

and I hope to be part of that jaw.

:mad:

like watching a terrible train wreck we couldn't stop and my mom was on the phone with me when they flipped OH. We couldn't even SPEAK to each other.

I want to note the members that bailed on this. Just for the record. :mad:

Ooops, way wrong word.

I don't know, I was having a good day in my busy little technoworld.

Roughly speaking this completely ignores fact (oh and I am a statistician) ... but ... so?

I received something in the mail this pm from a vedic astrologer, he said the next 18 months (paraphrased) will only be worse than anything you've seen yet.

It appears we shall go to the mat. Maybe after executive powers are declared. Thanks Nancy.

Love & peace from the last Democratic stronghold, the Pacific NW

(and the land of blackboxvoting, we tried, maybe in another life)

Makes me really think our Democratic Representatives are extremely short sighted. This is what our democracy is all about, what the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were created for...the VOTE. The most important issue we should fight to defend. This is what the oath of office is taken for...defending our right to vote. How could the Dems we elected fail on the most important of issues. They should fight tooth and nail, to the last man to keep election fraud out of the process. What does it take to get these people mad as hell and not willing to take it anymore. This is the battle line. The Repukes have already stolen two elections from us. They are dead serious with this agenda and are very much planning to win in '08 by any means available. Why do they not see this? Are they complacent? Bought off? How do they possibly justify doing this? Like Pelosi taking impeachment off the table gave Bush/Cheney the ok to do anything they wanted because now they no longer had to worry about being impeached. By not fighting to investigate this election fraud we are just enabling them to continue doing it but now just becoming more cautious. How could they betray the voters like that? We trusted them to stand up for us. We desperately need a third party, someone unafraid to strive for justice in spite of politics. I just quit the democratic party.