The Green and Libertarian party efforts to raise funds for their jointly requested recount demands in Ohio have been successful! They've raised the initial $150,000 in just four days from over 3,000 American citizens!

Now, they are raising funds to mobilize for the effort, with a goal of $100,000 by November 22nd. If you can help, click here to donate.

Additionally, they are also seeking folks in Ohio to act as "witnesses" to the recount. If you can help them out, be sure to click here to volunteer!

In the meantime, it seems to me that the Mainstream Media is once again taking a nap. I'm not sure that it's yet hit them that a complete recount of Ohio's 11,306 precincts in 88 counties will soon be taking place. Some 70% of those counties, as I understand it, are punch-card ballots, which means we'll soon be counting hanging chads again. Oh, well, they'll figure it out eventually.

For the record, unlike Florida in 2000, there is a specific statewide standard in Ohio for determining the eligibility of a vote on a punch-card ballot. If two corners are detached, it counts as a vote, so the ridiculous argument of "equal protection" that Bush was able to argue to the Supremes in 2000 shouldn't work here. Though I'm sure they'll be coming up with something...Stay tuned...

UPDATE: Looks like someone's finally waking up to what the Greens and Libertarians are up to! The graphic above appears broken as of this update because there is either incredibly high traffic over at the Green Fundraising website (where the graphic comes from) or someone is attempting to hack the site. Either way, looks like their little Cooperative 3rd Party "coup" is finally getting some attention!

According to the Nashua, NH Telegraph it appears that Ralph Nader's demand for a recount in New Hampshire will in fact occur:

While Rush Limbaugh told his listeners this morning about the "really great news" in Fallujah, some folks may see it differently.

In case you haven't been paying attention (and the media, as usual, hasn't much helped), we've now lost 1189 1194 U.S. troops in Iraq since the who charade began. 68 died in the 11 days following the election alone at the rate of nearly 7 dead U.S. troops per day.

So far this month, troops are dying at a higher rate than any since the invasion of Iraq in March of 2003.

As to the "really great news" in Fallujah, Bilal Hussein, a photographer from AP didn't see it quite that way. The story of his harrowing escape from Fallujah is recounted in this AP report. Here's a highlight of some of the "really great news" from that report, like the incident where U.S. forces shot a family of five as they tried to escape the onslaught:

Yes..."Liberty is spreading". And it's all "really great news", isn't it?

Windows Media Player Version · QuickTime Version · Other Versions...

May not be safe for work...though it depends where you work.

(Via Oliver Willis)

According to an article in the Columbus Free Press, perhaps thousands of valid provisional ballots in the Buckeye State are now being rejected due to a "new ruling" in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

The margin separating Bush and Kerry in Ohio was approximately 136,000 with some 155,000 provisional ballots still to be counted, along with absentee and U.S. overseas votes as well.

The article also gives an excellent description of rules involved in any potential recount procedures in Ohio. Given the Green/Libertarian Party's efforts to demand a recount there (latest reports show that as of Sunday morning, they have so far raised $121k of the $150k they are now seeking to fund the effort) that information may be useful in understanding how such a recount may unfold.

As well, the article also gives some interesting information on anomaly related to the late-reported vote totals in Miami County, OH. It refers to a report earlier in the week pointing out some 19,000 votes added to the totals after "100% of the precincts" had reported in:

Whether those 19,000 additional votes were absentee ballots added later to the Election Night totals --- as had been the reason given for a similar case of more votes than voters in Cuyahoga County --- I'm not able to determine. The identical percentages of those votes to the earlier tallies, however, is notable to say the least. One would think that percentages would change by at least a few hundreths or tenths with the addition of a full 19,000 votes to the tally!

UPDATE: An item in yesterday's Cincinnati Enquirer speaks to the matter of the provisional ballots rejected for missing date-of-birth:

Let's hope that's the definitive word on that particular matter!

BlackBoxVoting.org has issued the following items on their website today:

See their website for more info, explanations, and if you are able to help in either Georgia or Nevada as requested.

According to The Albuquerque Tribune, in one Bernalillo County, New Mexico precinct, the judge assigned to determine the validity of provisional ballots, has determined that all the Democratic ballots cast in that precinct are invalid, while declaring that all of the Republican provisionals cast there may indeed be counted!

From what I am reading, the "standards" for determining acceptance/rejection of provisional ballots across the countries, seems haphazard at best. If anyone wishes to provide more info in comments on how validity is determined in various areas, it would be most welcome.

The current difference in the popular vote for President in New Mexico, according to AP, has George W. Bush leading John Kerry by just 6,061 votes. The total number of rejected provisional ballots in Bernalillo County now stands at 6,600.

(Thanks again to tipster Ryan for this one!)

As I've previously mentioned, I'm currently a bit snowed-under working on some background stuff related to all of this mess. So my ability to report the latest here is somewhat hobbled for the (hopefully) very short term. I hope it'll soon prove to have been worthwhile however.

I am still keeping an eye on everything however, and will report the most notable stuff as it comes up.

That said, lemme just throw out a raw link to this Democratic Underground posting which presents a potentially very troubling analysis of the results data in regards to the North Carolina Presidential and Senatorial races there.

I highly recommend you give it a look. It's a detailed post and analysis, demonstrating some disturbing results. I have gotten into the habit of waiting to report such analysis until all the "debunkers" have had there go at things, just to make sure the analysis is solid, and then have attempted to summarize the key pieces.

For now though, since the story is holding up for the moment, and I'm pulled over to related work, I'm just giving you the link to look at without my own analysis for now. I hope to have some, along with a summary, later for you.

From The Salt Lake Tribune:

I should note that this is the first story of it's kind that I've come across, where such an error actually seems to have hurt the Republicans more than it did Democrats. While, for now, this error does seem to be just a "glitch", it adds to the growing body of evidence that our counting systems and software in this country is a pure and unadultered mess which needs strict reform and oversight by non-partisan, non-political officials!

(Thanks reader Katrina W. for the heads-up on this one!)

This story has been percolating in the blogosphere for some time, but I've yet to report it here as I've been trying to look into it to make sure that it held up first.

It's big. And now that The Washington Times(!) --- the Bush Administration's #1 mouthpiece in the print media, in other words, the Fox News of newspapers --- has admitted and reported the problem via this breaking UPI report, I'm happy to take that as confirmation of the huge and hackable security hole smack dab in the middle of Diebold's proprietary vote-counting software source code that those "reckless conspiracy-theorists (American citizens) in the blogosphere" have been reporting for some time!

The story also notes that "Diebold has said it repaired the security flaws in subsequent programs, but that the company has not produced the code for analysis." In other words, they claim that they've fixed the software they said was secure in the first place, but wouldn't allow anyone to verify it. The security hole was only discovered in the first place when BlackBoxVoting.org discovered thousands of Diebold's "secret" source-code files sitting out in the open on a publically-accessable internet file-transfer site. Somehow or another, they are legally allowed to keep their source-code secret and unverified by any oversight committees!

I should also note that while the fact that their vote-counting software could be hacked, it doesn't necessarily mean that it has been hacked. However, the disturbing admission now in the Mainstream Media --- confirming what so many have been "running around with their hair on fire" warning people about for so long --- that the private, Ohio-based corporation and huge Republican supporter Diebold, Inc. has created hackable software to manage the bulk of our country's electoral system, and all without governmental and/or nonpartisan oversight is a startling milestone in this matter.

For data-heads interested in more of the actually geeky background details on this gaping, hackable, security hole in Diebold's software, please see this discussion over at DailyKos where they've been reporting, discussing and examining it for some time.

This is now --- officially --- very major and very notable news!

(Thanks Desi for the tip on the UPI/Washington Times breaking news report on this!)

The great Freeway Blogger strikes again this weekend with an all-out effort to bring the issue of voter irregularities in Ohio and Florida to the attention of the American people on November 13th & 14th.

Please check out this page for how you can help raise awareness for the issue over the weekend, have a bit of guerrilla fun and do something positive for your country --- wherever you may live in America! Whether it be Red, Blue or Purple!

It's your country! And your democracy! And it's not gonna save itself!

Sorry...had been meaning to report this here previously...(Thanks reader Ryan for the reminder!)

From AP yesterday:

I'm working on a few different things at once for the moment, and thus, posting today has been a bit quieter than usual. Hopefully I'll have more information on some organizational efforts I'm trying to pull together soon...

To that end, if you happen to be or know Attorneys, Web Design/Management organizations, Fundraising groups, PR groups and/or Political/Activist organizations who are interested (and/or aggravated) by everything that has been going on concerning the various Voting Irregularities issues, and who may be willing to invest time, resources and/or energy into the effort for positive change --- and quickly --- please have them contact me by email right away.

For the moment, only seeking folks and/or organizations with serious credentials in any of the above areas, as opposed to citizen do-gooders who want to help out. If we're able to move things forward as I hope, we'll much need all the citizen do-gooders! But for the moment, I need people or organizations with the above creds who might like to come onboard in building a centralized effort for so much of what is going on. I can discuss further details via Email if you contact me.

In the meantime, here's a quick round-up of a few notable items from the last 12 hours or so...

As usual...more to come...

UPDATE: 11/15/04 Green/Libertarian Party Ohio Recount fundraising goal has been met! Now seeking funds for "mobilization" costs and also volunteers to serve as "recount witnesses"! Click here for more info...

With the very real possibility of an Ohio recount as announced yesterday by the new coalition of the Green and Libertarian Party candidates, I hope you'll take a look at this excellent article by David S. Bernstein in The Portland Phoenix. It's one of the best, most comprehensive overviews I've read of the situation, as it stands for the moment, on the ground in Ohio.

It pulls together the bulk of the most troubling reports of mistabulation, voter intimidation and suppression and potential chicanery in the registration, voting and counting processes.

Bernstein may have buried the lead though, because it's not until page 2 that he gets to the most scandalous nugget at the heart of the entire stinking mess there, and the systematic way in which the man in charge with regulating Ohio's election, Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell (who also just happened to serve as the Bush/Cheney '04 Campaign Chair in Ohio!) suffocated the minority vote through the invidious gaming of voter management and supression at the precinct by precint level.

Ohio received some $133 million from the Federal Government's "Help America Vote Act" earmarked to pay for new electronic machines in state.

To pave the way for these machines, which, the theory goes, were to have been more efficient (and more expensive), the state narrowed down the number of voting precincts. Closing and consolodating many of them largely, of course, in minority areas.

But at the last minute, after the precincts had already been gerrymandered, Blackwell decided the technology in the E-Voting machines was not proven secure.

So the $133 million stayed in the bank, but the plan for the reduction of the number of polling sites in minority areas stayed in place! Game over.

And what do you think happened next? Bernstein explains...

Mission accomplished. Infuriating. Our own electoral systems --- the very basis of our democracy --- are now officially and systematically gamed to within an inch of their life for the pure maximum partisan advantage of those in charge.

So when will we see reform of the electoral system so it's run by Nonpartisan Elections Boards instead of Partisan Party Hacks? As long as those who've benefited from the hackery are still in charge and entrusted with regulating the system, I'm guessing that day may not come any time soon.

Unless, of course, you're in the mood for a velvet revolution.