What happened in Clay County, FL, on Election Day, 2004

What happened to me in Clay County, FL, on Election Day, 2004
by Nobby
Tue Feb 28, 2006 at 06:13:05 PM PDT
I have said several times on DKos that I saw fraud on election day. I have been asked by a fellow poster--a courteous skeptic--to tell that story.

This is the story of what happened to me on Election Day, Nov. 2, 2004, in Clay County, FL

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At 7:00 p.m., when the polls closed, the kitchen phone did not work. The poll workers were unable to modem their results in to the Supervisor of Elections.

They began discussing what to do. I was shocked to see the man who had been in the kitchen with the phone bending over the open voting machine. It was only then that I found out that he was--at least purportedly--a voting machine technician rather than a poll watcher.

An argument ensued between the technician and the clerk of the precinct. The tech wanted to take the memory card from the machine immediately, take it down to the Supervisor of Elections' office, and get the information off of it. The clerk said, "That might be right from a technical standpoint, but it's not right from an Election Boards standpoint." (I don't know the law in other states, but in Florida, no one other than the clerk of the precinct is supposed to be alone with that data until it reaches the SOE.) The clerk would not allow him to take the card. Both the clerk and the tech got on their cell phones to the Supervisor of Elections' office, trying to get authorization for their positions. Meanwhile, I got on the phone to HQ trying to find out what to do, because we had not prepared for a situation such as this--our default mode was, stay with the paper ballots, but the situation seemed very fishy, and I didn't like the idea of letting the guy just walk away with the card. I left Kate to monitor the situation while I called.......

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As a human being who sat in that precinct and saw these events, I have no doubt whatsoever that fraud happened in that precinct in that county, and that the Supervisor of Elections was either willingly complicit in it or getting her arm twisted until she cooperated. That is my opinion, based on the evidence, and it is firm. It is not an accusation, because an accusation requires proof, and to get proof, an investigation of these events was needed. It never happened.

much, much more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/2/28/20135/0408

I should just post directly to you next time.

That happens sometimes. One little kick of a sunken GD thread and the next thing you know, it's on the greatest page.

Very interesting read, and I am not at all surprised.