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Latest Featured Reports | Saturday, April 5, 2025
'Mob Boss' Trump's Global Trade Sanctions Tank U.S., World Markets: 'BradCast' 4/3/25
So, what's their real purpose? Why did he leave out Russia? How does this idiocy end?; Also: Good news for voters from fed judges in PA, TX...
'Green News Report' 4/1/25
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Amid mass layoffs, nation's weather forecasters still at it, as extreme storms return; Trump cuts halt pollution, climate research; PLUS: Admin freezes funds to plug toxic, abandoned wells...
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Dems Step Up: Crawford Landslide in WI; Booker Makes History in U.S. Senate: 'BradCast' 4/2/25
Guests: Heather Digby Parton of Salon, 'Driftglass' of 'Pro Left Podcast'...
Judge Dismisses Long-Running Challenge to GA's Unverifiable, Insecure E-Vote System: 'BradCast' 4/1/25
Guest: Plaintiff Marilyn Marks; Also: Mass layoffs at HHS; Booker's record-breaking 'filibuster'...
'Green News Report' 4/1/25
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Trump Admin to dismantle FEMA ... in the middle of hurricane season; Trump/DOGE to cut coal mine safety offices; PLUS: Repub Congress reverses landmark methane pollution fee...
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Bad Court and Election News for Trump is Good News for America: 'BradCast' 3/31/25
Court ruling against Admin; LA voters reject GOP; Musk tries to buy WI, FL elections; Also: U.S. absent after Myanmar quake; Callers ring in...
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THIS WEEK: If only someone would send us a SIGNAL! ... Plenty of 'em, in our latest collection of the week's best toons!...
Vets Push Back at Trump, Musk Plan to Slash Health Care, 80K V.A. Jobs: 'BradCast' 3/27/25
Guest: Former Rep. Max Rose of VoteVets; Also: Stefanik nomination withdrawn amid Trump, GOP fears of special election losses...
'Green News Report' 3/27/25
  w/ Brad & Desi
Trump Admin omits climate change from U.S. National Threat Assessment; EPA's deadly rollback of air and water pollution rules; PLUS: SCOTUS kills landmark youth climate lawsuit...
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Signal Scandal Worsens for Trump, GOP; Big Dem Election Wins in PA: 'BradCast' 3/26
Also: Musk tries to buy WI, FL elections; Trump's attempted election Exec Order 'power grab'...
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More wildfires in Carolinas as Trump dismantles FEMA; Melting glaciers threaten global water supplies; PLUS: Fossil fuel industry is ready for payback...
USPS 'Belongs to the People, Not the Billionaires': 'BradCast' 3/24/25
Guest: American Postal Workers Union Prez Mark Dimondstein; Also: Journos sue to restore VOA...
Sunday 'Suddenly Conceivable' Toons
THIS WEEK: Kremlin Call ... Court Gestures ... Voiceless America ... Show Toons! ... And more! In our latest collection of the week's most imaginable toons...
'Green News Report' 3/20/25
Greenpeace ordered to pay hundreds of millions to fossil fuel co.; WMO climate report documents spiraling climate; PLUS: China unveils EV battery that charges in 5 mins...
BARCODED BALLOTS AND BALLOT MARKING DEVICES
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Hand-marked, hand-counted ballots...
Brad's Upcoming Appearances
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Media Appearance Archives...
'Special Coverage' Archives
GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal 2012...
VA GOP VOTER REG FRAUDSTER OFF HOOK
Felony charges dropped against VA Republican caught trashing voter registrations before last year's election. Did GOP AG, Prosecutor conflicts of interest play role?...

Criminal GOP Voter Registration Fraud Probe Expanding in VA
State investigators widening criminal probe of man arrested destroying registration forms, said now looking at violations of law by Nathan Sproul's RNC-hired firm...

DOJ PROBE SOUGHT AFTER VA ARREST
Arrest of RNC/Sproul man caught destroying registration forms brings official calls for wider criminal probe from compromised VA AG Cuccinelli and U.S. AG Holder...

Arrest in VA: GOP Voter Reg Scandal Widens
'RNC official' charged on 13 counts, for allegely trashing voter registration forms in a dumpster, worked for Romney consultant, 'fired' GOP operative Nathan Sproul...

ALL TOGETHER: ROVE, SPROUL, KOCHS, RNC
His Super-PAC, his voter registration (fraud) firm & their 'Americans for Prosperity' are all based out of same top RNC legal office in Virginia...

LATimes: RNC's 'Fired' Sproul Working for Repubs in 'as Many as 30 States'
So much for the RNC's 'zero tolerance' policy, as discredited Republican registration fraud operative still hiring for dozens of GOP 'Get Out The Vote' campaigns...

'Fired' Sproul Group 'Cloned', Still Working for Republicans in At Least 10 States
The other companies of Romney's GOP operative Nathan Sproul, at center of Voter Registration Fraud Scandal, still at it; Congressional Dems seek answers...

FINALLY: FOX ON GOP REG FRAUD SCANDAL
The belated and begrudging coverage by Fox' Eric Shawn includes two different video reports featuring an interview with The BRAD BLOG's Brad Friedman...

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Another visit on Thom Hartmann's Big Picture with new news on several developing Election Integrity stories...

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The GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal reveals insidious nationwide registration scheme to keep Obama supporters from even registering to vote...

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Scandal spreads to 11 FL counties, other states; RNC, Romney try to contain damage, split from GOP operative...

RICK SCOTT GETS ROLLED IN GOP REGISTRATION FRAUD SCANDAL
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) sends blistering letter to Gov. Rick Scott (R) demanding bi-partisan reg fraud probe in FL; Slams 'shocking and hypocritical' silence, lack of action...

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Breaking coverage as the RNC fires their Romney-tied voter registration firm, Strategic Allied Consulting...

RNC FIRES NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION FIRM FOR FRAUD
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EXCLUSIVE: Intvw w/ FL Official Who First Discovered GOP Reg Fraud
After fraudulent registration forms from Romney-tied GOP firm found in Palm Beach, Election Supe says state's 'fraud'-obsessed top election official failed to return call...

GOP REGISTRATION FRAUD FOUND IN FL
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The Secret Koch Brothers Tapes...


Now-Former Monterey County, CA Registrar of Voters, Tony 'Trust Me' Anchundo, Told Brad on Air that Voters Need to 'Have Trust and Faith' in Election Officials...
He Now Faces Charges of Forgery, Misapplication of Funds, Embezzlement, Falsification of Accounts and Grand Theft to the Tune of $70,000...
By Brad Friedman on 7/11/2006 8:05am PT  
"There is obviously going to have to be some trust and faith in the elections official, or in this case, it's me."
-- Then Monterey County, CA Registrar of Voters, Tony Anchundo on the Peter B. Collins radio show, 10/24/05

"Anchundo to face 43 criminal charges
DA: Ex-registrar spent $70,000 on personal purchases"

-- Headline of the Salinas Californian, 7/6/06

The astute BRAD BLOG reader may recall my appearance on the Peter B. Collins show last October when the good Peter B. had invited Monterey County, CA Registrar of Voters Tony Anchundo into the studio to demonstrate the county's brand-spankin' new Sequoia touch-screen voting machines that were slated for first time use in last November's special election.

That interview, both audio and complete text transcript, is right here...

After Anchundo's in-studio demo of how the new system is supposed to work, I pressed Anchundo to find out whether or not he actually intended to count the virtually uncountable "toilet-paper roll" voter-verified paper trails created by the Sequoia machines or if he would rely on the machine count. He committed on air that the county had planned to count "100%" of those paper trails.

Incredulous, but nonethless happy to have that promise on-air and on-the-record, I asked which count would be the official count in the case of a discrepancy; the paper count or the machine count. He said we'd have to trust him to make the best decision at the time. "Faith-based voting," in other words.

While I was skeptical that he'd even be able to count those paper trails at all --- or even that it could be done in reality, even if they'd wanted to --- he promised to come back to the show after the election to report on how the 100% count went and which count they ended up using.

Weeks and months went by and Peter B. and his producer attempted to book Anchundo, the 13-year Registrar, for the promised follow-up. It seemed the office was not eager to return calls or book a return appearance.

Then last April, Anchundo suddenly and mysteriously resigned --- just six weeks before the California primary elections --- leaving county officials "stunned", as the Monterey Herald reported it at the time.

And then finally, last Friday, a caller to Peter B.'s show, during my regular weekly appearance there, gave us a tip to this report from the Salinas Californian...

Anchundo to face 43 criminal charges
DA: Ex-registrar spent $70,000 on personal purchases

By CHRISTOPHER ORTIZ
The Salinas Californian

The Monterey County District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday it has filed 43 criminal charges against former Registrar of Voters Tony Anchundo, saying he spent more than $70,000 on personal purchases using county-issued credit cards, then tried to cover his tracks.

The charges include 25 counts of forgery, 14 counts of misapplication of funds, three counts of embezzlement and falsification of accounts by a public officer and one count of grand theft.

If found guilty on all charges, Anchundo could face 12 years in jail.

More details at the Californian, but all I can say is: "Trust and faith in the elections officials,"...indeed, Mr. Anchundo. A picture perfect lesson in why no elections officials should ever be trusted.

Just ask the heroic and legendary Ion Sancho, Election Director of Leon County, FL who said in a speech last May: "Trust no one. If it can't be verified, it can't be used."

Or ask the courageous Yolo County, CA Registrar-Clerk, Freddie Oakley, who smartly wrote recently about some of her election official colleagues: "They also argue that, 'We have to trust our poll workers…' To this I can only say…only if they are incorruptible."

Or finally, ask Oregon Secretary of State, Bill Bradbury, who delivered this knock-out speech last November:

We cannot simply react and play defense against a rising tide of legitimate public questions and concerns. Elections are the foundation of democracy, and our democracy cannot function without full public confidence in the fairness of elections. We must proactively offer the public an elections system that is clean, transparent, fair, and above reproach. We must be able to prove that all of our claims about elections are true.
...
We cannot ignore our constituents. It's not enough anymore to simply tell them "just trust us."
...
We believe that our elections are accurate, but we need hard evidence to show the public.

If only San Diego County Registrar Mikel Haas --- who has never heard of an indicted election official, and isn't concerned that a poll worker might try to tamper with a programmed election-ready voting machine when he allows them to keep them in their car, house or garage for weeks before an election --- would care as much about his voters as Sancho, Oakley or Bradbury... Unfortunately, Haas seems to be falling into the Anchundo category instead.

Trust me.

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First Case to be Filed Next Week, According to Attorneys Scheduled to Meet with U.S. Dept. of Justice Officials This Week
Insider Plaintiffs in Federal Fraud Suits Will be Familiar to BRAD BLOG Readers...
By Brad Friedman on 7/2/2006 6:34pm PT  

Since Bobby Kennedy, Jr. and attorney Mike Papantonio have now discussed this out loud on the air on their Ring of Fire radio program (where yours truly will be a guest next Saturday, by the way) and since this week's Rolling Stone references it, we may as well share a few more prevoiusly undisclosed exclusive details about the upcoming federal qui tam (false claims or fraud) lawsuits to be filed against two of the major American electronic voting machine companies.

As previously reported, The BRAD BLOG can confirm that those two federal whistleblower suits will soon be filed by RFK Jr. and Papantonio. They will be filed via Papantonio's Florida-based firm Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Echsner & Proctor, P.A.

The first of the two suits, The BRAD BLOG can now reveal, is scheduled to be filed late next week --- around the 13th --- according to the attorneys preparing the case. Representatives of the firm are scheduled to meet this week with officials at the U.S. Department of Justice to discuss some of the legal requirements of the first suit.

Because qui tam suits have very specific rules pertaining to public disclosure issues prior to filing, for the moment we can't say too much more about them, but regular BRAD BLOG readers will likely be familiar with some of the players involved in these suits.

Beyond that, we'll refer to Rolling Stone's coverage this week of Kennedy and Papantonio's plans --- with more to come, no doubt, on these very pages in the days and weeks ahead...

Kennedy, meanwhile, is preparing to up the ante on those he believes abetted the GOP's electoral theft. In July, the outspoken attorney plans to file "whistle-blower" lawsuits against two leading manufacturers of electronic voting machines. According to Kennedy, company insiders are prepared to testify that the firms knowingly made false claims when they sold their voting systems to the government --- misrepresenting the accuracy, reliability and security of machines that will be used by 72 million voters this November.

"This is a unique way to try and stop these vendors," Kennedy tells Rolling Stone. "In both cases, our whistle-blowers are familiar with security problems that were well known by the vendors but concealed from election officials during the bidding process. Because we're relying on 'inside' knowledge, it is a far more frightening prospect to the company than a traditional lawsuit might be. And if we prove our case, we will hit the corporations the only place they feel it: in their pocketbooks."

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Those Requesting Paper Ballots Had Privacy Violated and Votes Entered Into E-Voting Machines Anyway!
By John Gideon on 6/25/2006 2:33pm PT  

Guest Blogged by John Gideon while Brad takes care of other important business related to the Busby/Bilbray fiasco

Many Riverside County California voters went to the polls on primary election day, June 6, with the plan that they would use their right to request paper ballots instead of voting on the Sequoia Edge Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, touch-screen) voting machines.

Those voters will probably be surprised to learn that the county Registrar of Voters thumbed her nose at them. The paper/absentee ballots they were given --- Xerox copies of the ballot on 8 1/2×11 paper --- were then punched into the DRE's by election workers later. On the same touch-screen systems the voters had wanted to avoid by requesting a paper ballot in the first place. This was all done without their knowledge, without their permission, and without their ability to verify that their ballots were recorded as they had voted them.

Moreover, the voters were forced to attach their names and addresses to the ballots! So much for private voting in Riverside!...

UPDATE: Riverside County Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore responded to the story by Art Cassel with a 'Letter To The Editor'. See the text of the letter at the end of this article.

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

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(Much to the Dismay of Diebold Spokesmen and the San Diego County Registrar...Who Believe Election Workers Would Never Commit a Felony to Game an Election!)
By Brad Friedman on 6/22/2006 8:30am PT  

(Hat tip to "journalist" "Jeff Gannon" who thought we'd not be interested in covering this story! Wrong again, old boy! Thanks for the tip!)

Apparently, it's neither a case of "sour grapes" nor "sore losers" when Republicans challenge elections that they reportedly lost. That's only the case when Democrats charge irregularities or illegalities in an election. And, of course, when it's a Republican whose ox has been gored, the GOP uses every available means to fight the results of the election, and the courts and the legislatures usually play along. And nobody bothers to call them "tin-foil hat conspiracy theorists." Go figure.

Yesterday, in Tennessee, three poll workers were indicted for adding ballots to an election for the state Senate in which a Democrat won by 13 votes.

Of course, the GOP has fought that election tooth and nail, as the GOP, unlike Democrats, always do. And they've even managed to convince the state Senate to overturn the election due to their "allegations" of "irregularities."

As you'll see in the report from AP, the idea of poll workers gaming an election has once again occured. That, despite many absurd claims of late from Diebold spokesperson David Bear to NEWSWEEK, NYTimes and others to this effect...

"For there to be a problem here, you're basically assuming a premise where you have some evil and nefarious election officials who would sneak in and introduce a piece of software," [Diebold spokesman, David Bear] said. "I don't believe these evil elections people exist."

Believe it, bitch.

Or this equally absurd comment from San Diego County Registrar Mikel Haas who discounted concerns of sending easily-hacked Diebold voting machines home for overnights with poll workers just before the Busby/Bilbray election. Even though the machines are incredibly vulnerable to tampering, and storage in poll workers' cars cannot be considered secure --- by Haas' own admission --- there is little to worry about when it comes to fears of poll workers doing anything untoward. As he made clear to me, "you'd have to want to commit a felony, which knocks out most of our poll workers."

Despite plenty of recent examples of "evil and nefarious elections officials" who were more than willing to "commit a felony," it looks like the story out of Tennessee yesterday makes the case against Haas and Bear's feigned Pollyanna-isms. Again.

As reported by AP (emphasis added)...

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

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By John Gideon on 6/15/2006 5:18pm PT  

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

It has been a very slow news day even with "No Confidence" press releases from various groups in response to security breaches in San Diego Co. California during the recent state primary. / The one bit of news is a new "Quick Start Management Guide for New Voting Systems". The "Quick" in the title seems to point to how fast the document was rushed out. There is nothing there but a reminder of things most elections officials probably got in classes held by the Election Center. The EAC needed to look at the melt-down in recent primary elections and put out a guide to officials with emphasis on how to keep from being affected by poor vendor service....

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

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By John Gideon on 6/14/2006 9:11am PT  

The map at left shows recent ballot programming flaws across the country. (Click it for details). It is by no means indicative of all flaws. Just the ones we know about. So far.

These are just some of the places where there may be failures in Nov. 2006. How can companies that can't program a couple state's machines for a primary election do 20 to 40 states all at the same time?

Trainwreck ahead. Don't say we didn't warn you.

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By David Edwards on 6/13/2006 11:59am PT  

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com


Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...

Stephen Colbert had Robert Kennedy Jr. as a guest on last night's edition of the Colbert Report. With the show's more relaxed interview format, Kennedy was able to give a quick but meaningful overview of how Republican officials may have stolen the 2004 Presidential election in Ohio.

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By Brad Friedman on 6/10/2006 4:54pm PT  

Seattle Post-Intelligencer's associate publisher, Kenneth F. Bunting deserves high praise for his mea culpa in re: the lack of mainstream media coverage (including at his own paper) on RFK Jr.'s recent copiously detailed article in Rolling Stone on whether or not the 2004 Presidential Election was stolen.

His op/ed today is a breath of fresh air and a must read. A very few key excerpts are below.

More to the point, we'll ask then, if Bunting might like to give a story such as the Busby/Bilbray stuff we've been reporting on the attention that it deserves before it becomes too late and the subject of a later "we shoulda reported on it back then" editorial.

Bunting's posted email address is KenBunting@seattlepi.com. Mine is TheBradBlog@cville.com if you'd like to give it to him along with kudos for his piece. I'd be happy to speak with any and all media types about what's going on here and help point them to where the bodies may well be buried...This story could very much use a bigger boat right now...

The blogosphere has been abuzz. But in the days since Rolling Stone magazine published a long piece that accused Republicans of widespread and intentional cheating that affected the outcome of the last presidential election, the silence in America's establishment media has been deafening.

In terms of bad news judgment, this could turn out to be the 2006 equivalent of the infamous "Downing Street memo," the London Times story that was initially greeted by the U.S. media with a collective yawn.

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

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Machine Counts Halted in All Races After Hand Count of Absentee Ballots Finds 128 Vote Margin for Incumbant Instead of 20 Vote Margin for Challenger Reported by Op-Scan System!
By Brad Friedman on 6/8/2006 10:42am PT  

More shortly concerning my reporting on the questionable Busby/Bilbray elections results in the U.S. House special election to fill "Duke" Cunningham's CA 50th congressional seat. In the meantime, this article from yesterday's Daily Nonpareil in Iowa, about Tuesday's Republican primary there, underscores precisely what I was talking about in my report on Busby/Bilbray yesterday.

After optically scanning absentee ballots in a Republican Primary on Tuesday in Pottawattamie County, a popular, long-time incumbent was trailing a first-time college student candidate by 20 votes. Since that seemed odd, the County Auditor decided to count the absentee ballots by hand and indeed found that the incumbent had won the count instead!... By 128 votes instead of having lost it by 20!

Anybody beginning to get this yet? (...thump, thump...is this thing on?...)

In this case, the new optical scan computers being used for the first time were reportedly made by ES&S. (The ones used in Busby's San Diego race were made by Diebold). Here's more details...

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

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By Brad Friedman on 6/1/2006 11:43am PT  

As reported yesterday exclusively by BRAD BLOG, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s exposé "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" on the gaming of the 2004 Presidential Election is now live at Rolling Stone's website.

The online version of the article has detailed footnotes for sourcing, etc., which Rolling Stone tells us are not available in the published articles to hit stands tomorrow around the country. The issue is currently available on newsstands in both NYC and LA, according to an RS spokesman.

Here are extended excerpts from the article...

###

Republicans derided anyone who expressed doubts about Bush's victory as nut cases in "tinfoil hats," while the national media, with few exceptions, did little to question the validity of the election. The Washington Post immediately dismissed allegations of fraud as "conspiracy theories," and The New York Times declared that "there is no evidence of vote theft or errors on a large scale." But despite the media blackout, indications continued to emerge that something deeply troubling had taken place in 2004.

Nearly half of the 6 million American voters living abroad never received their ballots ? or received them too late to vote ? after the Pentagon unaccountably shut down a state-of-the-art Web site used to file overseas registrations. A consulting firm called Sproul & Associates, which was hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters in six battleground states, was discovered shredding Democratic registrations. In New Mexico, which was decided by 5,988 votes, malfunctioning machines mysteriously failed to properly register a presidential vote on more than 20,000 ballots. Nationwide, according to the federal commission charged with implementing election reforms, as many as 1 million ballots were spoiled by faulty voting equipment ? roughly one for every 100 cast.

The reports were especially disturbing in Ohio, the critical battleground state that clinched Bush's victory in the Electoral College. Officials there purged tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, neglected to process registration cards generated by Democratic voter drives, shortchanged Democratic precincts when they allocated voting machines and illegally derailed a recount that could have given Kerry the presidency. A precinct in an evangelical church in Miami County recorded an impossibly high turnout of ninety-eight percent, while a polling place in inner-city Cleveland recorded an equally impossible turnout of only seven percent. In Warren County, GOP election officials even invented a nonexistent terrorist threat to bar the media from monitoring the official vote count.
...
But what is most anomalous about the irregularities in 2004 was their decidedly partisan bent: Almost without exception they hurt John Kerry and benefited George Bush. After carefully examining the evidence, I've become convinced that the president's party mounted a massive, coordinated campaign to subvert the will of the people in 2004. Across the country, Republican election officials and party stalwarts employed a wide range of illegal and unethical tactics to fix the election.
...
In what may be the single most astounding fact from the election, one in every four Ohio citizens who registered to vote in 2004 showed up at the polls only to discover that they were not listed on the rolls, thanks to GOP efforts to stem the unprecedented flood of Democrats eager to cast ballots. And that doesn't even take into account the troubling evidence of outright fraud, which indicates that upwards of 80,000 votes for Kerry were counted instead for Bush. That alone is a swing of more than 160,000 votes ? enough to have put John Kerry in the White House.
...
Indeed, the extent of the GOP's effort to rig the vote shocked even the most experienced observers of American elections. "Ohio was as dirty an election as America has ever seen," Lou Harris, the father of modern political polling, told me. "You look at the turnout and votes in individual precincts, compared to the historic patterns in those counties, and you can tell where the discrepancies are. They stand out like a sore thumb."

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

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Article to Contend 350,000 Voters Disenfranchised in Ohio; 80,000 Votes May Have Been Fraudulently Shifted from Kerry to Bush in Rural Areas
By Brad Friedman on 6/1/2006 9:55am PT  

As The BRAD BLOG reported exclusively yesterday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Rolling Stone exposé on 2004's questionable Presidential Election is set to hit the stands tomorrow (Friday). The online version is promised for today and we will, of course, link up as soon as it's publicly available.

We're reviewing the final version of the article as published in RS right now and will have more on it later today, of course. In the meantime, Rolling Stone has issued their own press release with a few more details (posted in full below).

According to the release, the article will contend that "Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters --- the overwhelming majority of them Democratic --- from casting ballots or having their votes counted" on Election Night. Says Rolling Stone...

In a race decided by only 118,607 votes, [Kennedy] concludes, these votes could have been enough to put Senator John Kerry in the White House. In his article Was the 2004 Election Stolen?, Kennedy also uncovers evidence of outright fraud that may have shifted more than 80,000 rural votes from Kerry to Bush. The primary culprit behind the widespread barriers to voting was Ken Blackwell --- now the GOP candidate for governor of Ohio --- who used his powers as secretary of state to purge tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, create long lines in Democratic precincts, and oversee a rigged recount."

Myriad Election Night "irregularities" in the Buckeye State, along with a nearly-impossible late-night shift from Kerry to Bush in a full 10 out of 11 Exit Polls in battleground states are covered as well. Again, from RS's press release:

CNN had predicted Kerry defeating Bush in Ohio by a margin of 4.2 percentage points. Instead, election results showed Bush winning the state by 2.5 percent. Bush also tallied 6.5 percent more than the polls had predicted in Pennsylvania, and 4.9 percent more in Florida.

The complete text of the Press Release for the article follows...

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

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Voting Machine Company Fails State, Voters. Again. Even the State GOP Agrees!
As the State Sec. of State and Other Officials Ignore the Facts and Cover their Asses for the Future...
By John Gideon on 5/24/2006 7:19pm PT  

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, with Brad Friedman

Elections Systems and Software (ES&S) has finally shown us why they should not be in the elections business. The disgraceful primary election in Arkansas yesterday is a prime example. It was, and continues to be, an utter disaster today. The day after.

Brad and I both have been overwhelmed all day with the number of reports coming in on the complete failures by ES&S in the state yesterday. So much so, that it's difficult to even know where to begin. Thus, tonight's late report --- with general details and enough links to set you on your way to inform yourself about what the hell is going on here.

In our best (if fruitless) attempt at brevity, however...

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

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Another Election Day, Another Failure by America's Largest Voting Machine Company...
By Brad Friedman on 5/23/2006 11:54pm PT  

Another Primary Election Day. Another E-Voting Mess. This time in Arkansas.

Mind you, this comes on the heels of earlier announcements that several major counties in Arkansas would be forced to use paper ballots instead of electronic machines after ES&S failed to deliver ballots and programming on time for the start of elections (something like the 10th state in which this has happened with ES&S so far this year, as regular BRAD BLOG readers know. But shhh...don't tell anyone!)

On Monday, the day before the election, at least one county election director in Arkansas pleaded with voters to choose paper on Election Day. "Grab a paper ballot, vote it and put it in the ballot box. It will go smoother," Benton County's election coordinator told voters on Monday.

Well, now it looks like ES&S has failed even further (we're shocked, shocked!) as tabulators in some counties failed to work at all, so ballots can't be counted until tomorrow at the earliest. And now the AR Secretary of State wants some answers about all of it.

From AP tonight...

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

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By Brad Friedman on 5/17/2006 4:31pm PT  

Philadelphia Daily News: "Despite a couple hard-fought state House battles, on a light-turnout Primary Election Day, the only thing people wanted to smash were the voting machines. Hundreds failed across the city."

The report goes on to quote a city commissioner who says that between "200 and 300" of their voting machines broke down yesterday.

Working on a bunch of stuff...so more later...

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More Disasters for Pennsylvania, This Time on ES&S Machines, Following Earlier Similar Disasters on Machines in Philly
ALSO: Rick Santorum Locked Out of Polling Place, Unable to Vote This Morning
By Brad Friedman on 5/16/2006 7:55pm PT  

Following on our earlier report today, covering 100's of electronic voting machines in Philadelphia which failed to start up this morning for Pennsylvania's primary election, we now have a similar report from the other side of the state.

100's of machines in Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, also failed to work correctly today. If we're able to remember correctly (since the story doesn't name any voting machine company names), Allegheny County finally settled on voting machines made by ES&S, after they abandoned hopes of going with Diebold when their machines were found to be hackable, and then later found machines from Sequoia Voting Systems --- who they'd planned to use instead --- were discovered to be similarly hackable.

ES&S eventually won the prize, just weeks before today's primary --- we warned about going with a new system with so little time to prepare, but did they listen? --- yet appear to have lost the day for PA voters, according to this report from Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette...

The first Allegheny County election with electronic voting machines got off to a somewhat rocky start this morning, when more than 100 machines had problems. Surrounding counties reported almost identical problems.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato today said 120 machines wouldn't produce "zero-count" printouts to start the day confirming there were no votes registered in the machines.

Mr. Onorato said the elections bureau got 400 calls to start the day. By 11 a.m., there were still more than 20 polling places with problems.

There are more than 2,600 of the new machines spread over 1,314 precincts.

Mr. Onorato also said nine machines had their screens cracked during transit to the polling places.
...
Surrounding counties also were reporting problems with the zero-count printouts.

Larry Spahr said 20 or 25 of Washington County's 185 precincts reported problems. Mr. Spahr is director of elections.

More details on the failures in the Post-Gazette's story. Amongst those details, apparently Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) was locked out of his polling place when an election worker failed to show up to open it this morning.

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