Articles By: John Gideon

'Daily Voting News' For March 27, 2006

By John Gideon on 3/27/2006 5:24pm PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Today we learn that maybe we should worry about the ownership of Sequoia. Some of us have been talking about this for months; now the MSM may be interested. The folks in Chicago are worried and now threatening to withhold payment to Sequoia. We also learn that Michael Shamos is going to be evaluating the Sequoia Advantage for use in Pennsylvania and that Jim Dickson and the AAPD are actually against the use of the Advantage....

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

Share article...

( 8 so far... )

Article Categories: Daily Voting News

Daily Voting News' - Top 5 Stories from the Past Week!

By John Gideon on 3/26/2006 4:29pm PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The March 20 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

Share article...

( 7 so far... )

Article Categories: Election Irregularities, Daily Voting News

'Daily Voting News' For March 25, 2006

By John Gideon on 3/25/2006 5:01pm PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

The news was slow today. Two counties announced that they had ignored, or were unaware of, what has recently happened in Illinois as they get closer to having Sequoia voting machines. Another Pennsylvania county has switched from AVS to Diebold due to AVS's inability to provide voting machines on time. And the votes are still being counted in Texas....

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

Share article...

( 3 so far... )

Article Categories: Daily Voting News

'Daily Voting News' For March 24, 2006

By John Gideon on 3/24/2006 5:22pm PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

ES&S gave officials in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania an ultimatum, "Either accept 50 percent of your order by 5 p.m. (Wednesday) or get nothing." Buyer beware! I guess. Buyer beware, indeed. The folks in Cook County and Chicago are beginning to wish they had been better aware of what they were doing when they made deals with Sequoia. Now they are threatening to withhold any further funds from contracts due to the machines that did not work as advertised. For their part Sequoia did what the vendors always do; blame the voter and the poll workers for everything. ...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

Share article...

( 5 so far... )

Article Categories: Daily Voting News

Rawstory Covers Clint Curtis Run For Congress

Also Mentions Steve Smith Texas Election Challenge

By John Gideon on 3/24/2006 12:28pm PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Today our friends at Rawstory posted an article about Clint Curtis giving his background and more about his run for the House of Representatives from the Florida.

To Republicans, Clint Curtis is a traitor; a back-stabbing liar with an imagination that rivaled Jack Abramoff's influence over Congress.

To liberal Democrats, Curtis is a hero; a stand up guy who blew the whistle on computer voting fraud, testifying before a group of U.S. House Committee Judiciary Democrats after the 2004 presidential election.

And to the man himself, the Republican-turned-Democrat is nothing but a computer geek who purports to have found himself smack in the middle of a brazen political plot to tamper with elections in Florida, where fact can be stranger than fiction and politics as shady as swampy underbrush.

Also in the article is a bit about Supreme Court candidate Steve Smith of Texas who is considering challenging the election from earlier this month in which some strange numbers were posted. This was covered by BRAD BLOG earlier this week.

In the Texas case, Republican Steve Smith is preparing a challenge after losing in the state's Supreme Court Justice primary election earlier this month. In Winkler County, Texas, where Smith respectively received 74 percent and 65 percent of the votes in the 2002 and 2004 elections, he received zero votes in the recent primary.

And in Smith's home county, Tarrant, where he outperformed statewide results by 13 percent in 2004, he underperformed statewide results by 23 percent earlier this month.

Smiths' opponent, Don Willet, has close ties to President Bush. Willet served as a special assistant to the president in Bush's quest for faith-based initiatives.

Clint is enjoying the help of some avid supporters.

"Karyn Altman, a freelance writer and hospitality marketing professional in Miami, is one of a small, but dedicated team of volunteers throughout the country working to get Curtis on the ballot. Other volunteers are in New Jersey and California.

"Clint needs to raise $10,000 by April 7th so we can get him on the primary ballot," said Altman, who is in the process of organizing fundraisers for Curtis in South Florida.

Like many Democrats, Altman started becoming disillusioned with politics after the 2000 Florida fiasco in which the Supreme Court voted to put Bush in the White House. In 2002, after the computer voting machines were introduced in Florida, she says it took her three attempts for her vote to register for her Democratic candidate.

"When I discovered afterwards that I was not the only one who'd had this experience, I became obsessed with learning about electronic machines and the ways they could be manipulated without detection," she said.

"I find it outrageous that in spite of all of the evidence, the mainstream media refuses to cover this story," she said. "And the Democratic Party refuses to even consider, at least publicly, the possibility that fraud and election rigging could be taking place.""

For more info on The BRAD BLOG's continuing investigative series on
The Clint Curtis/Tom Feeney/Yang Enterprises Vote-Rigging Scandal series, please see:
- A Quick Summary of the story so far.
- An Index of all the Key Articles & Evidence in the series so far.

Share article...

( 26 so far... )

Article Categories: Tom Feeney, Clint Curtis

'Daily Voting News' For March 23, 2006

By John Gideon on 3/23/2006 5:02pm PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Today a federal court told New York state to present a HAVA plan by April 10. The court also found that intervention of LWV, NYVV and others would not be allowed. Essentially the court found in favor of chaos. Meanwhile the disaster in Illinois is continuing with thousands of votes still to be counted. Sequoia has done a good job of deflecting the machine failures into personnel errors and 'glitches'. At the same time election officials are saying that Sequoia should have to pay for the myriad equipment failures. The editorials and articles coming from Maryland are all pointed toward the state changing their voting system now....

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

Share article...

( 8 so far... )

Article Categories: Daily Voting News

IL E-VOTE MELTDOWN: 414 Memory Cartridges Missing In Chicago and Cook County!

Poll Worker Training Blamed

By John Gideon on 3/23/2006 6:27am PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

At noon Wednesday, Chicago was missing 252 memory cartridges, 93 from machines that scanned in paper ballots and 159 from touch screens. County officials couldn't find 162 memory cartridges from suburban precincts--68 from optical-scanning machines and 94 for touch-screen balloting.

The problems led midday to the sight of Cook County Director of Elections Clem Balanoff--his tie loosened and eyes bleary--rifling through blue duffel bags at a county warehouse for precinct returns for uncounted votes on missing memory cartridges.

It was only early last month that the state of Illinois certified the Sequoia voting system that was used in the Illinois primary in Chicago and suburban Cook County this week. In that 6 week period over 23,000 election judges had to be trained to set-up and use the voting machines and they had to learn a completely new set of procedures for opening and closing the polls.

The county and city failed to do that training or failed to do enough of it for those who were trained at all. According to this morning's Chicago Tribune:

Langdon Neal, chairman of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, further said that 4,000 of Chicago's 14,000 election judges attended no training and instead relied on a judge's manual that was sent in the mail and was written in a complicated and confusing manner.

Training for county judges emphasized videos and not hands-on instruction. None of the 9,600 election judges in suburban Cook County had ever touched the scanning device used to process paper ballots, said Cook County Clerk David Orr.

This clear lack of training and the introduction of new, un-reliable voting machines has caused what amounts to a disaster in vote counting. Three days after the voters went to the polls votes are still being tallied. In fact, memory cartridges were still being located as of Wednesday afternoon.

Not helping with all of the chaos were the machine failures reported all around the city and county:

"A high-tech voting system in Chicago and suburban Cook County provided plenty of frustration and confusion for voters during its first test Tuesday, as election officials dealt with missing power cords and ballots, jammed equipment and broken electronic voting machines." LINK

"As voting in today's primary election nears an end, some of the new, multi-million dollar voting machines were a hi-tech headache for voters." LINK

"As election officials closed the polls Tuesday evening, reports of glitches from throughout the day continued as both voters and election officials learned how to deal with a new, high-tech voting system in Chicago and suburban Cook County."LINK

So this week's Illinois primary has been a disaster with machine breakdowns, procedural errors, lost memory cartridges and a complete lack of training. They have to be able to learn from this and make changes; right? Well actually, as reported by VoteTrustUSA, they are going to take all of those Sequoia voting machines used in Chicago and suburban Cook County and they are shipping them all to Clark County, Nevada. Meanwhile, Chicago and Cook County will be getting another brand-new Sequoia voting system that has never been used in any election. Let's hope they can take just a little more time to train their poll judges because November will be here soon.

Share article...

( 31 so far... )

Article Categories: Election Irregularities, Sequoia Voting Systems, Illinois, Election 2006

'Daily Voting News' For March 22, 2006

By John Gideon on 3/22/2006 8:12pm PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

It has been a busy day��.. the day that saw a lawsuit in California. �.the day that saw elections failures in Illinois. �.the day that saw Sequoia counties in California celebrate because the SoS certified their voting machines. �..the day that saw Summit Co., Ohio threaten a law suit against ES&S. �.the day that a recount in Tom Green Co., Texas is stopped by the SoS. And, the day that a potential challenge of the Texas primary is announced. Of course Sequoia decided that all of their problems in Cook Co., IL. were "operator error" typically not taking any responsibility for lack of training and poor machines....

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

Share article...

( 4 so far... )

Article Categories: Daily Voting News

Summit County Ohio Threatens Legal Action Against ES&S

Electronic Voting Machine Vendor is accused of doing the work of three men, 'Larry, Curly, and Moe'

After 30% Failure Rate of Memory Cards Revealed, Still More Problems Surface...

By John Gideon on 3/22/2006 8:51am PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Summit County has recently had problems with failed memory cards as related by BRAD BLOG on March 9 and March 10. The problems in Summit County concerned a 30% failure rate found in pre-election testing for those cards. That problem alerted folks in North Carolina to test those same cards on their own ES&S machines where they discovered last week that more than 1000 of them failed to work!

Now that those problems have been in the media (Yes, even the MSM has reported the problems) the vendor has decided to not be cooperative with Summit County, OH.

The ES&S on-site project manager was not allowed by the company to attend a board of elections meeting to explain why there were problems with memory cards. Board members have also complained that ES&S staffers installing the system have suddenly become cold and getting any information is "like pulling teeth".

The Akron Beacon Journal also reports on other problems the board is having:

Delays in getting copies of the May 2 primary ballots to proofread, which has resulted in the board missing the date on its timeline for ordering ballots from the printer.

``They won't give us the opportunity to proofread the ballot,'' [Board Director] Williams said. He explained that the board, working in teams of Democrats and Republicans, routinely triple-checks the rotation of names on the ballots, but ES&S won't provide copies of the ballot to do that.

[Board Deputy Director] Donofrio said in early copies the rotation --- the order in which the candidates' names appear on the ballot --- was incorrect.

Williams said ES&S' attitude has been that the extra checking ``was not necessary,'' but the problems the board had with the company's performance have proven that it is.

He said the board hoped to order the ballots on Monday. ``We'll be lucky to have them ordered by the end of the week,'' he said.

However, that does not mean that ballots will not be printed in time for the May 2 election.

And in addition:

ES&S staffers, while training local poll workers, have actually broken three handicapped voting machines when they inserted the memory cards incorrectly.

Donofrio said she intends to ask the company to replace the broken equipment.

[Republican Board member] Arshinkoff accused ES&S of ``doing the job of three men --- Larry, Curly and Moe.''

``This is inexcusable. I think ES&S has failed in their capacity as a vendor. If this doesn't work in the May primary, we're going to have to make real hard choices,'' he said.

Meanwhile, SoS Ken Blackwell's office has, in effect, just shrugged their shoulders and said that they hope both sides can get along and adhere to their obligations. Of course it was Ken Blackwell who chose ES&S as the vendor for Summit County.

We will be sure to keep an eye on this situation and report back when there is more to pass on.

Share article...

( 9 so far... )

Article Categories: (Uncategorized)

'Daily Voting News' For March 21, 2006

By John Gideon on 3/21/2006 5:07pm PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Today a lawsuit was announced in California against 18 counties who are planning on using Diebold, and the state. Also announced is a possible lawsuit in Arizona. In the mean time the media reports a slow primary election in Illinois with a smattering of glitches. Meanwhile, not in the media is that one election official has said that unofficially 50% of the machines in the state have not worked at one time or another during the day. And the Texas SoS has stepped-in and halted a recount in Tom Green Co., because the eSlates will not print all ballot images. The recount is mandated by state law but may not be possible unless Hart can figure out how to fix their problem....

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

Share article...

( 5 so far... )

Article Categories: Daily Voting News

'Daily Voting News' For March 21, 2006

By John Gideon on 3/21/2006 5:02pm PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

Share article...

Comments Off

Article Categories: Daily Voting News

BREAKING: E-VOTE FAILURE! Texas Primary Recount Halted By Secretary of State!

Hart Intercivic Touch-Screen Voting Machines in Tom Green County Fail To Print Ballots for All Votes in Mandated Recount!

REPORT: 'Electronic machines not providing all info', 20% Discrepany Between Recount and Election Night Results!

By John Gideon on 3/21/2006 2:53pm PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Just reported by San Angelo (TX) Standard Times.

The Texas Sec. of State has stepped in to stop the recount of ballots being printed from the Hart Intercivic "eSlate" Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, touch-screen) voting machines during a mandated election recount. The stoppage of the recount is due to failure of the voting machines to print all ballots cast during the Texas state primary two weeks ago...

On orders from the Texas Secretary of State's office, the recount for the Tom Green County Court-at-Law No. 2 race has been suspended midway through its second day.

About 1:30 p.m. today, county Republican Chairman Dennis McKerley stopped the recount after workers found discrepancies of as much as 20 percent between what was counted Monday and what was reported Election Night.

"We're having some trouble with the electronic equipment," McKerley said.

Apparently, McKerley said, new electronic voting machines provided by vendor Hart InterCivic are not printing ballots for every vote cast on the machines. During recounts, which must be done by hand, the machines are designed to print out separate ballots for every vote.

A Hart InterCivic representative is expected to arrive Wednesday morning, McKerley said, to determine whether or how to retrieve the remaining printouts.

The problem affects early votes cast in what appears to be every precinct, McKerley said. All of commissioner's Precinct 1 was affected, he said, as were all the randomly selected voting precincts in other parts of the county.

Although sign-in sheets match the counts provided by the machines on Election Night, he said, the number of printouts does not match the sign-in sheets.

More than 3,000 early votes were cast in the race between Assistant County Attorney Julie Hughes, incumbent Judge Penny Roberts and former prosecutor Dan Edwards, meaning the problem likely affects more than 600 votes of the 9,500 cast early and on Election Day.

Just 12 votes separate third-place finisher Edwards from second-place finisher Roberts to see who will face Hughes in the April runoff election. Edwards requested and paid for the recount."

This is another instance where a voter verified paper ballot would have saved the day for voters and voting officials.

If we hear more we will pass it on.

ADDITIONAL BRAD BLOG BACKGROUND...
-- Sec. of State Was Warned in 2004: Hart InterCivic Whistleblower's Report
-- Trouble in Tarrant: 100,000+ Extra Votes on Hart Machines in TX County
-- March 7, 2006 TX Primary: Loads of E-Voting Problems Across State

Share article...

( 26 so far... )

Article Categories: Election Irregularities, Hart InterCivic, Texas, Election 2006

'Daily Voting News' For March 20, 2006

By John Gideon on 3/20/2006 5:00pm PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

More news is breaking about the inspection of the Diebold TSx machines in Utah. I imagine the reports will be coming out for another week or so. Tuesday (tomorrow) is the Illinois state primary and most counties are using new voting technology. ...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

Share article...

( 4 so far... )

Article Categories: Daily Voting News

Daily Voting News' - Top 5 Stories from the Past Week!

By John Gideon on 3/19/2006 4:18pm PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The March 13 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

Share article...

( 10 so far... )

Article Categories: Election Irregularities, Daily Voting News

'Daily Voting News' For March 18, 2006

By John Gideon on 3/18/2006 5:10pm PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Today has been a slow day for voting issues news. Humboldt Co. has taken one step closer to getting Vote-PAD for their voters with disabilities. Mississippi SoS Clark is traveling the state touting his choice of Diebold TSx. Soon the counties will realize they were duped into buy a voting system that will end up costing them large amounts of money in technical and maintenance fees....

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

Share article...

( 29 so far... )

Article Categories: Daily Voting News

Total Pages (88):
« Newest ... « 73 74 75 76 77 [78] 79 80 81 82 83 » ... Oldest »

BARCODED BALLOTS AND BALLOT MARKING DEVICES BMDs pose a new threat to democracy in all 50 states...
VIDEO: 'Rise of the Tea Bags' Brad interviews American patriots...	'Democracy's Gold Standard' Hand-marked, hand-counted ballots...

ONE TIME ONLY any amount you like... $	MONTHLY SUPPORT any amount you like... $
Or by Snail Mail Make check out to... Brad Friedman 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028