US Election Problems May Affect Nov. 4 Outcome

U.S. Election Problems May Affect Nov. 4 Election Outcomes http://kathydopp.com/serendipity/

Numerous recent news articles have reported:

I. Tens of Thousands of Eligible Voters Purged from Electronic State Voter Rolls

II. Purged Voters Must Use Provisional Ballots That Are Not Necessarily Counted

III. Electronic Pollbook Problems Prevent Voters from Voting, or Force Voters to Use Provisional Ballots

IV. Straight Ticket Voting Causes Vote-Flipping & Undervotes

V. Discernible Touch-screen Vote Flipping

VI. Indiscernible Vote-Flipping - No Rational Reason to Trust the Integrity & Accuracy of U.S. Election Results

VII. Voting Machines Not Working

VIII. Voter Intimidation & Dirty Tricks

IX. Unequal Allocation of Voting Resources

Summary

I. TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ELIGIBLE VOTERS PURGED FROM ELECTRONIC STATE VOTER ROLLS

"Some voters 'purged' from voter rolls" http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/26/voter.suppression/index.html

.. more than 50,000 registered Georgia voters who have been "flagged" because of a computer mismatch in their personal identification information. At least 4,500 of those people are having their citizenship questioned and the burden is on them to prove eligibility to vote.

"What most people don't know is that every year, elections officials strike millions of names from the voter rolls using processes that are secret, prone to error and vulnerable to manipulation," said Wendy Weiser, an elections expert with New York University's Brennan Center for Justice.

Thousands Face Mix-Ups in Voter Registrations In New Databases, Many Are Wrongly Flagged as Ineligible http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/17/AR2008101703360.html

Block the Vote - Will the GOP's campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president? http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/23638322/block_the_vote

USA Today cited "accusations of voter fraud and voter suppression" but omitted examples of voter suppression http://mediamatters.org/items/200810170017?f=h_latest

States' Attempts to Clean up Voting Lists Result in Unlawful Voter Purging and Suppression http://www.civilrights.org/library/features/033-voter-purge.html

Voter Reinstated After State Purges Her Registration Colorado Voters Fight For Their Voices This Election Cycle http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/17824470/detail.html

Treasure Coast officials calling residents on 'no match, no vote' list http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/oct/18/officials-calling-no-match-no-vote-list/

Judge Rules Michigan Voter Purging Program Illegal http://www.ombwatch.org/article/blogs/entry/5453/53

Ohio GOP loses fight to contest new voters, The Supreme Court on Friday threw out a lawsuit brought by the Ohio Republican Party that could have made it easier to challenge tens of... http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/presidentialrace/2008281507_campdig18html

The Real Issue Isn't Voter Fraud, Its Vote Suppression (Joe Rothstein's Commentary) http://uspolitics.einnews.com/article.php?nid=561852

Update on voting rights cases http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stories/DN-votingbox_28pol.ART.State.Edition1.4a98892.html

Voter Database Glitches Could Disenfranchise Thousands By Kim Zetter Email 09.17.08 http://www.wired.com/print/politics/onlinerights/news/2008/09/voter_registration

Some voters 'purged' from voter rolls http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/26/voter.suppression/

Courts are packed with cases of people whose voter registrations aren't on file for some reason By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau http://timesunion.com/TUNews/author/AuthorPage.aspx?AuthorNum=82

Brennan Center: 2008's Voter Suppression Incidents So Far http://www.alternet.org/election08/104413/brennan_center:_2008%27s_voter_suppression_incidents_so_far/

Democratic Party questions voter cancellations http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/politics-0/122523145756690.xml&storylist=topstories

Democrats allege voter purge http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/politics/33486504.html

Florida counties split over voter verification http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/741884.html

White House Asks for Scrutiny http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/24/AR2008102403659.html

Lawmakers Urge DOJ Not to Intervene in Ohio Voter Dispute http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/428-lawmakers-urge-doj-not-to-intervene-in-ohio-voter-dispute.html

Coffman sued over voter purge http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_10815894

Colorado Faces Suit on Voter Purges http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/us/politics/25brfs-001.html?_r=2&ref=us&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Ohio group drops lawsuit over voter ID http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/20081024/UPDATES01/81024025/-1/newsfront2

Bush Orders DOJ To Probe Ohio Voter Registrations, October 25, 2008 http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/esk/2008/10/bush-orders-doj-to-probe-ohio.php

Over 1,500,000 NYS Voters Purged, October 21st Have you been purged from New York State's database? http://www.nyvv.org/boblog/2008/10/21/over-1500000-nys-voters-purged/

Some voters 'purged' from voter rolls http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/26/voter.suppression/

12,165 now on Florida's 'no match' vote list http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/state/article877094.ece

Tipping the Scales -- Up to 10,000 Registrations Deemed Incomplete in Colorado http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-markovits/tipping-the-scales----up_b_138508.html

Voter rolls at center of clerk's race http://www.northjersey.com/news/njpolitics/33344799.html

Colorado Secretary of State sued over voter purges http://www.koaa.com/aaaa_top_stories/x1589514438/Colorado-Secretary-of-State-sued-over-voter-purges

Federal judge will hear voter purge case Wednesday http://www.examiner.com/a-1659209~Federal_judge_will_hear_voter_purge_case_Wednesday.html

Latest developments on Colorado voting issues http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/oct/28/latest-developments-on-colorado-voting-issues/

Voting rights group sues Colorado secretary of state over purges http://coloradoindependent.com/12872/voting-rights-group-sue-colorado-secretary-of-state-over-purges

CNN: Error purges 50,000 Georgia voters from rolls http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/10/cnn_error_purge.html

Court: 'Flagged' citizens may vote http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/10/27/voters_verificiation_ruling.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

Colo.'s Katherine Harris threatens '08 election [another attempt to disenfranchise voters on a technicality] http://www.politicswest.com/32023/colorados_katherine_harris_threatens_08_election

Lawmakers Urge DOJ Not to Intervene in Ohio Voter Dispute http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/428-lawmakers-urge-doj-not-to-intervene-in-ohio-voter-dispute.html

II. PURGED VOTERS MUST USE PROVISIONAL BALLOTS THAT ARE NOT NECCESSARILY COUNTED

Provisional Ballots Get Uneven Treatment http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122515651921374669.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Increase in provisional ballots could stress election systems Eligibility questions may delay results http://news-press.com/article/20081024/NEWS0107/810250424

Watchdog Groups Urge Voters to Reject Provisional Ballots Groups hope to settle challenges at polls; feds will monitor fraud claims http://www.wibc.com/News/Story.aspx?ID=101696

Rockingham County - 79 Rockingham voters given provisional ballots http://www.news-record.com/content/2008/10/28/article/79_rockingham_voters_given_provisional_ballots

III. ELECTRONIC POLLBOOK PROBLEMS PREVENT VOTERS FROM VOTING OR FORCE VOTERS TO USE PROVISIONAL BALLOTS

Voters turn out in force for historic campaign http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6068201.html Among the problems was a malfunction in the machines that scan voters' identification … where about 300 people stood in line waiting to cast ballots.

Long lines, glitches reported during early voting http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/24/voting.problems/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail

Your vote faces challenges like never before http://www.times-standard.com/othervoices/ci_10820484

Early voters overwhelm poll workers But touch-screen machines functioned just fine, county election official says http://www.parkrecord.com/todaysheadlines/ci_10808045

Glitch reported in early voting in Park City http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4631731

Summit County residents show up at polls only to find they've already voted http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10830698

(The Summit County, UT problem was apparently incorrectly reported and turned out to be making the voter access card - it had to be done manually.)

Card glitch snarls early voting http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20081021/NEWS01/81021005

Long lines, few machines [and Diebold's crashing poll books] hamper voting in Georgia county http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/georgia.voting/

IV. STRAIGHT TICKET VOTING CAUSES VOTE-FLIPPING & UNDERVOTES

NC: Watch out for a separation between the straight-party vote and the presidential vote on your ballots! http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/79161

Straight Ticket Voting Causing Problems http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/straightticket.asp

Confusing North Carolina Ballot Leaves off Votes for President http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-tucker/confusing-north-carolina_b_138073.html

Vote Count Error Caught in New Mexico Machines By Kim Zetter October 07, 2008 http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/vote-count-erro.html

Officials find, fix glitch in New Mexico voting machine http://www.rep-am.com/news/elections/370744.txt

Day before early voting, glitch found with machines http://www.dailymail.com/News/election08/200810140217

V. DISCERNIBLE TOUCH-SCREEN VOTE FLIPPING – mostly on ES&S machines in SC, WV, MO, TN, and TX

Law Center Sends Letter to States About Vote-Flipping Machines http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/law-center-send.html

Citizens face major problems when polling machines malfunction http://www.elon.edu/pendulum/Story.aspx?id=1198

Texas county's machines causing concern for some voters http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/28/tx-countys-machines-causing-concern-for-some-voters/

Tennesseans report voting problems http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081025/NEWS0206/810250366/1009/NEWS02

Early e-voting results in vote flipping in three states so far http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/10/27/early_voting/

Good with Crayons? Then you can vote in Kanawha County http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200810240716

W. Virginia Gave E-Voting VP an Award While Machines Were Malfunctioning http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/w-virginia-give.html

Votes being stolen from Obama in Early Voting, October 23, 2008 http://realhistoryarchives.blogspot.com/2008/10/votes-being-stolen-from-obama-in-early.html

Some early W.Va. voters angry over switched votes Jackson County touch-screens switched votes, 3 residents say http://wvgazette.com/News/200810170676

More W.Va. voters say machines are switching votes In six cases, Democratic votes flipped to GOP http://wvgazette.com/News/200810180251

Vote Flipping in Davidson County, Tennessee http://uncountedthemovie.com/blog/2008/10/20/vote-flipping-in-davidson-county-tennessee/

Voting Machines Switch Votes; Officials Blame Voters http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/voting-machine.html

Voters in W.Va. Say Electronic Voting Machines Switched their Obama Votes to McCain http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-mckay/voters-in-wva-say-electro_b_136332.html

Voting Is a Touchy Business Some machines showing wrong choices in W.Va. http://www.news-register.net/page/content.detail/id/515728.html

Early-voting problems in Putnam, WV Touch-screen votes switched, then corrected http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200810200711

W. Virginia Gives E-Voting [ES&S] VP an Award While Its Machines Malfunction http://popmartian.com/techpile/2008/10/28/w-virginia-gives-e-voting-vp-an-award-while-machines-malfunction-2/

W. Virginia Video Testimonials of Vote Flipping http://videothevote.org/video/?state=WV&tag=&year=2008&search=Search

Early Voting Can Be Fun! And Crowded! And Confusing! Also, Troubling! Tue Oct 21, 2008 http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2008/10/voting_is_fun_and_confusing_al.php

Vote Flipping in Davidson County, Tennessee, 21 October 2008 http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0810/S00304.htm

Problems with Voting Machines http://www.ktsm.com/news/local/33423489.html

Testing OKs touch screen voting machines http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/briefs/x1125636459/W-Va-Testing-OKs-touch-screen-voting-machines

Voting Rights Watch: One company's machine behind vote-switching reported in early balloting across the South http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/10/voting-rights-watch-one-companys.asp

Voters using e-voting machines urged to check printouts to verify their choices http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9117645&intsrc=news_ts_head

Voters turn out in force for historic campaign http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6068201.html

Letter to Secretaries of State re: iVotronic "Vote Flipping" http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/letter_to_secretaries_of_state_re_ivotronic_vote_flipping/

Concerns raised over electronic voting http://www.mineralwellsindex.com/local/local_story_298161535.html

Problems Plague Early Voting System Elections Commission Says Blames Calibration http://www.wsmv.com/politics/17803172/detail.html

Voters confused about presidential vote on TN county's machines http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/26/voters-confused-about-presidential-vote-on-tn-countys-machines/

Surprise, Surprise: E-Voting Glitches Found In Early Voting Techdirt - USA http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081024/1456192641.shtml In this case, the machines are supplied by ES&S whose machines (like both Sequoia and Diebold) have a relatively long history of screwing up at election ...

This demo by a voting official shows what can happen when a machine's touchscreen isn't calibrated. Then to make his point that a properly calibrated machine works perfectly, he calibrates the machine, then he votes straight republican and the machine votes for Ralph Nader probably because his prior vote for Nader can not be overwritten afterwards by voting the straight party option. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q9NSVUu8nk

VI. INDISCERNIBLE VOTE-FLIPPING EASY - NO RATIONAL REASON TO TRUST THE INTEGRITY & ACCURACY OF U.S. ELECTION RESULTS

There is motive and ample opportunity for insider vote manipulation in all current U.S. voting systems. The elections industry may be the only major U.S. industry that is not subjected to independent auditing. No human being, not even the most skilled computer scientist, can tell after an election what instructions executed on current U.S. voting machines during elections, so the *only* way to check the accuracy of US election outcomes is by manual counts of voter-marked ballots.

E-Voting Made Scary [Nice summary of the work of UCal Santa Barbara's Computer Security Group] http://www.independent.com/news/2008/oct/23/e-voting-made-scary/

NY Times: Casting a Ballot, and a Wary Eye http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/business/media/27link.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Interactive Map of US - How Hackable is your State's Voting System? http://dvice.com/voting/index.php

7 scariest problems with today's voting machines http://dvice.com/archives/2008/10/seven_scary_fac.php

Electronic Voting Machines Leave Room For Manipulations, Warns Europe's Biggest Hacker Group http://blogs.dw-world.de/acrossthepond/michael/1.7275.html

Part1 to 3: hack a Sequoia Advantage with Andrew Appel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxM_QNGF1dE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NHQHMXca9E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA3J9qlVuBM

Princeton Warning on E-Voting Machine Hack Shows Human Touch Can Be a Good Thing http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Princeton-Warning-on-EVoting-Machine-Hack-Shows-Human-Touch-Can-Be-a-Good-Thing/

SC Voting Machines Prone to Problems, Warns USC Computer Science Chairman http://www.wspa.com/spa/news/local/article/sc_voting_machines_prone_to_problems_warns_usc_computer_science_chairman/10365/

A Vote for More Secure Elections (discusses hackability of optiscan voting machines) http://advice.cio.com/seisenstadt/a_vote_for_more_secure_elections

Princeton report rips N.J. e-voting machines as easily hackable Vendor challenges research, says its machines are safe and reliable http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9118204

E-Voting Complaints Heat Up With Early Voting http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/government/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=211600865

South Carolina among 10 least ready for voting glitches http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/102108/met_480256.shtml

Did Washington waste millions on faulty voting machines? http://www.bnd.com/breaking_news/story/508139.html

While flagging illegal practices, don't overlook machine error http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1224017708102750.xml&coll=1

VII. VOTING MACHINES NOT WORKING

Voting machines absent on first day of early voting http://www.pro8news.com/news/local/31328619.html

Boulder County - Greenlee: Will our votes count? http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/oct/26/will-our-votes-count/

Optical Scan Machines Not Working but at least there are paper ballots that *could* be counted if candidates contest and if state laws allow manual counts to check the machine tallies.

Ballots not being recorded at two Leon County polling places http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20081020/BREAKINGNEWS/81020024

Early Voting off to Rough Start http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/breaking/news-article.aspx?storyid=121489&catid=17 optical scan readers - those machines were indicating the ballot was too long.

Film, panel highlight errors in electronic voting machine software http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=63924&comview=1

VIII. VOTER INTIMIDATION & DIRTY TRICKS

Denounce dirty tricks: Ensuring a fair vote is a responsibility, too http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20081027_Denounce_dirty_tricks__Ensuring_a_fair_vote_is_a_responsibility__too.html

New Mexico GOP Sued For Voter Intimidation http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/27/new-mexico-gop-sued-for-v_n_138199html

Phony flier says Virginians vote on different days http://hamptonroads.com/2008/10/phony-flier-says-virginians-vote-different-days

Civil rights groups file suits on voter harassment http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Civil-rights-groups-file-suits-on-voter-harassment#

GOP lawyer refuses to deny private eye visits (updated) Two in ACORN controversy say investigator's visits were intimidating http://newmexicoindependent.com/6457/nm-gop-accused-of-voter-intimidation

Voter Suppression Hits the Web E-Mails Sow Disinformation As Voting Groups Prepare To Monitor Polls With Web Apps, Twitter And Mobile Video http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/no_20081027_9705.php

IX. UNEQUAL OR INSUFFICIENT ALLOCATION OF VOTING RESOURCES

NAACP Sues Officials over Vote Preparations High-Minority Areas Affected, Group Says http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/27/AR2008102702289.html?hpid=topnews

A Voting Rights Disaster? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/27/AR2008102702405.html

Some states are not providing adequate voting equipment, machines, stations and staff http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1331/t/6410/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26109

Election Watchdog Group Warns of Ballot Shortage http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7743482&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

U.S judge hears Pa. ballot lawsuit http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20081029_U_S_judge_hears_Pa__ballot_lawsuit.html -------------

Not all election problems are reported by voters or officials. Unfortunately, in most states there is no requirement for poll workers to report problems to county and township election officials, no requirement for county election officials to report problems to the state election officials and no requirement for anyone to report election problems to the US Election Assistance Commission or to the public.

An independently compiled similar list of news articles also organized by voting problems occurring in this 2008 November election is available here: ELECTION COMPLAINTS ARE POURING IN October 28, 2008 http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/2008/10/election-complaints-are-pouring-in.html

Review in real-time reports of voter assistance calls made to 866-OUR-VOTE, Election Protection's toll-free hotline. http://www.ourvotelive.org/home.php

SUMMARY

U.S. election problems are extensive enough to possibly cause candidates to be certified for office that were not accurately elected by voters in U.S. presidential, congressional, and state election contests.

US election officials have, in the past decade, turned over vote reporting, vote counting, and even vote casting, in the case of electronic ballots, to private vendors using trade-secret software. Election officials close relationships with voting machine vendors may explain why some officials are resisting the public cry for increased public transparency and public control over elections, including ballot security that is necessary to ensure accurate election outcomes.

Independent scientific manual post-election audits and public oversight would ensure that voters decide who governs.

It is only by protecting the right to vote for everyone, that any individual's right to vote can be protected because the secret ballot prevents any voter from being able to check that his or her own vote was counted accurately and thus makes elections very difficult to secure.

Thanks in large part to the Daily Voting News efforts of John Gideon for alerting election integrity advocates to many of these articles.

Due to the large number of voters wrongly purged from voting rolls who will be forced to count on provisional ballots that are not usually counted until weeks after the election, and due to the unaudited nature of machine counts, candidates should not concede any election contest until after all provisional ballots have been counted and after detailed election data has been obtained from election officials by open records requests and analyzed to detect any anomalous patterns consistent with vote miscount.

I will follow-up this email with another giving advice to voters, including how to report the problems that you experience during this election.

Kathy Dopp

The material expressed herein is the informed product of the author Kathy Dopp's fact-finding and investigative efforts. Dopp is a Mathematician, Expert in election audit mathematics and procedures; in exit poll discrepancy analysis; and can be reached at

P.O. Box 680192 Park City, UT 84068 phone 435-658-4657

http://utahcountvotes.org http://electionmathematics.org http://electionarchive.org

How to Audit Election Outcome Accuracy http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/paper-audits/VoteCountAuditBillRequest.pdf

History of Confidence Election Auditing Development & Overview of Election Auditing Fundamentals http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/paper-audits/History-of-Election-Auditing-Development.pdf

© Scoop Media