An Update on BlackBoxVoting.org's Continuing Florida Fraud Audit
By Brad Friedman on 11/24/2004, 10:24pm PT  

As promised, Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org has posted an update on the Fraud Audit she is now doing with a team down in Florida.

Last week she reported on their efforts to pick up the requested "Freedom of Information Act" documents at several Florida county election boards, and detailed a confrontation with election officials in Volusia County. She reported stonewalling from officials, incomplete records turned over, and having found official materials, including "polling tapes" in dumpsters outside election board offices. The "polling tapes" found showed discrepant numbers to the officially announced tallies. I've come to understand that "polling tapes" are the official records of who and how many voted at each precinct or voting machine as signed by poll workers before being handed off to officials for counting at the central tallying offices.

Today she reports that "Volusia County resident Susan Pynchon, with the help of Volusia County attorney Daniel R. Vaughen, P.A., filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, Nov. 23, seeking to set aside the Nov. 2, 2004 Volusia County election due to irregularities."

The full complaint is linked on her site, as well as a summary of the irregularities they've found in Volusia County to date. I've only had time to read the summary so far where many of the previously discussed issues are outlined. They are all troubling, worth reading. The last few in the list caught my eye...

13. Many public records, including one signed results tape from a voting machine were found in the trash. Many of the requested records not furnished by the Elections office have been found in the trash. Results from the tapes found in the trash do not match the results of the copies of tapes furnished.

14. An email from Mark Earley, of Diebold Elections Systems, Inc., to the Elections office was provided which asked the recipient for an explanation of why Volusia County had more memory card failures than all of their other Florida customers combined, and then asked why the 17 memory card failures which the Elections office reported on November 3, increased to 25 before November 12, 2004.

15. The reported memory card failures were significant and troubling and included reporting zero votes after one week of voting, requesting permission to upload votes before the voting began, and messaging whether the card should be reformatted.

16. According to a statement by the Supervisor of Elections on November 17, 2004, the GEMS computer is not networked, and is "stand alone." The furnished computer logs show evidence of at least two attempts to remotely access the GEMS central tabulator, which is claimed to be secure. A computer screen shot printout on November 17, 2004 (found in the trash) shows that the GEMS computer at that time had two networked hard drives.

There is much to be concerned about in her summary. That last item, if true, is a stunner!

As well, Harris posted a scathing indictment on Democratic Underground today about the failures of John Kerry and the Dems to take her many warnings seriously back when they could have made a difference in all of this. As well, she promises further upcoming actions.

We'll be watching.

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