Junkies Speak

NC Democrats are blessed to have two so able contending for it. From the point of view of a county party officer, it seems to be a choice between continuing as Raleigh-centered or restructuring to involve local organizations. While Ed has excellent national connections, Jerry has made an extraordinary effort to help local organizations, such as ours. I fear that if Democrats do not change the way we do business, we are doomed to fatal erosion.

Jerry Meek is our best bet right now: it is his skill set and philosophy the Party needs.

Tar Heel Teacher is furious with the fools in this administration. Yes there can be no other word for it. The only ones with any sense at all have left or are leaving.

Our President George W tells us the Social Security is in crisis, maybe down the road yes if this administration and the Republican congress keep giving tax breaks to the rich, promoting policies that take away good paying US jobs and spending untold trillions of dollars in a country that we tore apart and are now trying to put back together.. The people of Iraq are more than likely going to elect a government representative of the majority ethnic and religious faction which is associated with Iran. This is just a brilliant strategy for the United States to spend trillions of dollars and worst of all US lives and limbs and end up with a government friendly to Iran.

Anyone with any sense sees what this Bush is trying to do eliminate the social safety net of social security and give all the loot to his Wall Street buddies and big corporations. [I]t really is Robin Hood in reverse. I have no problem with younger workers putting money in an investment account from their payroll even before taxes, as long as they continue to contribute in the usual or necessary manner to the social security system.

If Bush really wants some immediate domestic problems to tackle they are many and complex: funding for our schools, health care for all Americans (not some sham that benefits the insurance and drug companies), children in our foster care system, and jobs and job training for our citizens.

Junkie: Tar Heel Teacher has got it. Bush is trying to “fix” a system that is not broke while largely ignoring staggering other problems facing Americans. Tar Heel Teacher calls Bush’s Social Security policy Robin Hood in reverse. TPJ published an article with exactly that title in January 2004 on the rising cost of energy:

Junkie: Jerry Lobdill is responding to TPJ’s article “Ohio” that appeared on December 19^th. Click on the blue hyperlink to read that article.

Steve Rosenthal's analysis assumes that the Ohio election was a proper process, providing all voters with equal access to the polls, involving no tampering during voting or afterward in processing ballots, no election fraud in counties where Diebold or other vote counting or paperless balloting machines were used, no partisan decision making regarding what votes to count and/or recount, and so forth.

Worse, it seems that TPJ accepts this conclusion without consideration of the on-going saga in Ohio that produces one Republican roadblock after another to stymie a full and open investigation that would assure the integrity of the vote. After a rhetorical nod to the question of a stolen election, no further mention of the issue is offered in your piece on OHIO.

What about the polling stations where the waiting time was as long as three to eight hours? These were in heavily Democratic precincts. Is this not suspicious? What about the many other issues that have been raised and are still unanswered?

In a democracy the integrity of the vote is of paramount importance. And it goes without saying that the importance of the public perception of that integrity is the most critical issue that must be addressed whenever and wherever it arises. Without an overwhelming majority of voters believing in the integrity of the system a democracy is doomed.

So please answer the question: Why shouldn't the election process be suspended until a satisfactory number of voters are satisfied that the results are correct? Surely you are aware that scolding the protesters or ignoring them and repeating the mantra that the election was "lost" will not satisfy the requirement those voters must be confident that the voting process is honest and accurate.

Junkie: TPJ appreciates Jerry’s thoughtful letter. An attempt to answer the question posed follows. The answer is long, but given the serious topic an equally serious answer is required.

First, Junkie Editor Michael Carmichael has published several articles for TPJ questioning the election results. TPJ has been following the situation in Ohio and continues to do so.

Second, As noted by Lobdill, Steve Rosenthal, ACT’s coordinator for Ohio, did not contend in his article that the Ohio election was stolen for Bush. Rosenthal is a professional and was intimately immersed in the Ohio election process. If Rosenthal suspected voter fraud one would reasonably assume that he would be the first to have cause to state his case for that fact.

Third, Congressman Conyers is asking all of the right questions and raising the right issues. As of this writing he will object to certifying the Presidential Electors from Ohio. The question is whether any US Senator will join in the objection. -- Truthout Readers should carefully note that Conyers is NOT stating that Sen. Kerry lost Ohio because of election fraud. In a letter to fellow Congressmen, he states (emphasis added):

“I and a number of House Members are planning to object to the counting of the Ohio votes, due to numerous unexplained irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote, many of which appear to violate both federal and state law."

Conyers is simply stating that a number of irregularities existed that they have not been explained and, therefore, the Ohio Presidential Electors should not be certified until the irregularities are answered. That is a far different proposition than claiming that fraud by election officials occurred.

Fourth, Rev. Jesse Jackson is more direct in his assessments of the Ohio vote in a recent interview. He outlines his position:

Rev. Jesse Jackson : In Columbus, Cincinnati, Akron, Youngstown, Cleveland, where I was, you had blacks standing in line for six hours in the rain. That’s a form of voter suppression.

Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell says that machines were allotted based on turnout in past years, and that he didn’t realize they’d need more machines until it was too late.

He had to know it because registration was up. Blackwell may have had to deliver for Bush and [Vice President Dick] Cheney and he got a lighter rap than [former Florida Secretary of State Katherine] Harris got. But Ohio may have been more stacked than Florida was.

So you think Blackwell stole the election for Bush?

It was under his domain to have enough machines; the machine calibration, tabulation issue. You could rig the machines. We have reason to believe it was rigged.

What is your evidence?

Based on distrusting the system, lack of paper trails, the anomaly of the exit polls. In Ukraine, there’s an exit poll gap, they say, "Let’s have another election."

EVERYTHING that Jackson says is correct but does not represent all of the facts or analysis that is required to responsibly contend that election officials committed fraud. Take the points in turn:

IF there was a conscious decision by Secretary Blackwell or any other election official to deliberately decrease voting machines in predominately black precincts, that intention would constitute election fraud. Blackwell’s assertion should be easy to verify. One would simply have to map the distribution of voting machines in Ohio in 2000 as compared to 2004. To date, no one has presented the facts on which to render judgments.

True. But, governments buy voting machines; requiring the appropriate governmental authority to authorize purchase of machines. Anyone associated with the election process understands that purchasing voting equipment is usually a relatively low priority for most governments and sufficient funds are never available to purchase all of the voting machines that may be needed. By the time that Blackwell or anyone else understood the increase in turnout, it was too late.

If you read Jackson’s comments carefully, he is NOT saying that the voting machines in Ohio were rigged. Jackson states that they could have been rigged and there are suspicions because of the lack of a paper trail and exit polls suggesting the outcome should have been in Sen. Kerry’s favor.

The inconsistent exit polls are of concern. However, the exit polls in a number of states showed Sen. Kerry performing better than he actually did. Simply stated, exit polls, as all other forms of polling have margins of error. The AVERAGE error in 2004 was 1.9% in Sen. Kerry’s favor. The explanation of exit poll error is beyond the limits of TPJ’s reply here. Readers can see a wonderfully detailed explanation here: -- Mystery Pollster

Ohio’s “recount” has satisfied no one, including TPJ. Shortly after the election, TPJ published an open letter to Secretary Blackwell urging, in effect, a forensic examination of the electronic voting machines used in Ohio. The letter is reprinted as TPJ’s recommendation remains viable even today:

You, Sir, are responsible for overseeing the election process in Ohio. You are a Republican. The decisions you make over the next eleven days accords an opportunity to heal the nation or condemn it to another four years of suspicion that the election process in America is fundamentally untrustworthy.

Ohio will determine the next President of the United States. Bush leads in the State by slightly more than 100,000 votes, yet 250,000 “provisional ballots” remain to be counted. America has again witnessed a close election in terms of the Electoral College.

Secretary Blackwell, your concise response election night to the natural questions surrounding the counting of the provisional ballots was precisely correct. You assured a waiting nation that the law of Ohio commands a procedure for the correct counting of provisional ballots and you assured a divided citizenry that the law will be followed. As a stalwart Democrat and former Chairman of the Board of Elections in a major North Carolina County, I believe that your response elevated the public’s right to integrity in the election process above the partisan political battle that remains engaged.

My service on a Board of Elections leads to a conclusion that the probability of Sen. Kerry achieving a victory in Ohio is problematical but not entirely impossible. The issue that now rests with terrible weight upon your shoulders transcends the actual vote count; the issue is whether the general populace accords the final result in Ohio credibility.

You must understand that Democrats are appropriately suspicious of the Ohio result. Following the divisive Florida 2000 result, the president of Diebold, the manufacturer of Ohio’s voting machines and a partisan Republican, cast doubt on the Ohio election process. It is a matter of public record that he promised partisan Republicans that he would do everything in his power to ensure Ohio’s electoral vote would be delivered to President Bush. His promise naturally fueled Democrats’ suspicions that the integrity of the vote count in Ohio would be corrupted. Now, Ohio becomes the state that will determine the election.

Secretary Blackwell, the ludicrous statements made by the president of Diebold are certainly not attributable to you. The public perception of your actions in completing the election count in Ohio will occur indisputably within the context of the corrupt intent implied by his statements.

Today, public opinion polls suggest that the nation is almost evenly divided as to the legitimacy of President Bush’s 2000 election. Consider that these same public opinion polls document that the body of citizens who believe in the legitimacy of President Bush’s first election has declined every year since 2000.

Secretary Blackwell, a very practical and common sense proposal can spare the nation of another four years of doubt and perhaps avert irreparable distrust of the election process in America for generations to come. First, ensure that the provisional ballots that should be counted are in fact counted as you assured the nation last night. Every effort should be made to determine why each of some 250,000 Ohio citizens believed they were registered to vote but their right to vote could not be confirmed by election officials on Election Day. Avoid the partisan instinct of your own Party to use highly technical and largely immaterial mistakes in completing voter registration forms, if they were completed, to invalidate otherwise legitimate votes.

Second, invite Republicans and Democrats to appoint equal numbers of qualified experts to inspect the programming of the voting machines to verify that the integrity of the vote count produced. The bipartisan committee should operate under your direct supervision with adequate safe guards to protect the votes in the electronic voting machines yet ensure the vote count was honestly produced. You should demand that Diebold produce the programming codes for inspection by this bipartisan committee with assurances that the proprietary rights of Diebold to the non-disclosure of the codes are protected.

In return, President Bush and Sen. Kerry should agree to forgo potentially protracted and divisive litigation and abide by the provisional vote count and findings of the bipartisan committee.

If the Republicans and Democrats can, at this moment, rise above the partisan political interests of both their Parties and with absolute transparency in the completion of the election results, the nation may win much more than a President who gained the right to hold office but a President who gains the far more fundamental and necessary ability to lead a divided nation with the legitimacy of public confidence in the election that gave that President the right to office.

Democrats, such as myself, will continue to oppose the policies of any second Bush administration – our right and duty as citizens. However, the question of whether or not President Bush legitimately holds the office to make those policies should not be at issue.

Secretary Blackwell, you have the opportunity to bestow the next President of the United States with moral authority and restore public confidence in its own election process. It is an opportunity that a divided and anxious nation deserves.

Fourth, nothing has appeared to date which leads to a factual conclusion that the voting machines in Ohio were rigged or that Secretary Blackwell, or other election officials, intentionally manipulated the election process. As mentioned previously, Junkie Editor Michael Carmichael has been actively engaged in the Ohio election results. Carmichael wrote Congressman David Price, North Carolina, and received this thoughtful response:

Thank you for contacting me with your concern about the reliability of the 2004 election.

Although there were problems with the 2004 election, the results were not mired in the level of controversy that many feared, in part because the outcome was not nearly as close as in 2000. But the risk of disenfranchisement in future elections is still very real, and there were clear problems that arose in this past election that must be addressed. For example, there are still loopholes in the election laws that could allow voters to be purged from voter rolls without their knowledge or ability to appeal. And although the electronic voting machines (which still are not required to produce a verifiable paper record) generally worked better than some people feared, they did make some serious mistakes, including one in North Carolina that resulted in the permanent loss of over four thousand votes.

I am a supporter of Congressman Conyers' request that the GAO investigate election irregularities in the 2004 election. I am also glad to hear he has held hearings on the matter. The fact that this election was not as close as 2000 does not reduce our responsibility to ensure that the final tallies are accurate and that every vote was counted. We need to monitor elections on an ongoing basis so that we can address problems and restore public faith. I am hopeful that the results of the GAO investigation, which are due out some time next year, will help move us closer to that goal.

Along those lines, I have introduced HR 4250, the Protect American Voters Act, to address another need in election reform. As you know, the 2000 presidential election was decided by a mere 547 votes in Florida. A number of factors contributed to the close margin. In particular, weeks before the election, just over half of Florida precincts purged their voter rolls of supposed felons. After the election, it became clear that thousands of Floridians had been wrongly removed from the rolls. This travesty occurred because of a loophole in the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) that allows states to purge felons and the mentally incompetent from the voter rolls without following NVRA notification and appeal guidelines. The result is that eligible Americans can be denied their constitutional right to vote.

The Protect American Voters Act would establish basic protections to ensure that people who are incorrectly listed for removal are not denied their constitutional right to vote. The bill would require states to notify individuals who are being removed from the voter rolls; allow voters to appeal their removal; rule on appeals within 10 days; and provide provisional ballots to voters with appeals still pending at the time of the election. My bill has 23 original cosponsors and has been referred to the Committee on House Administration.

I have also introduced the Count Every Vote Act, HR 5191, which would establish a contingency date for the meeting of state electors in all states when a challenge to a state's presidential election results remains unresolved as of three days prior to the Electoral College meeting date defined in current law. HR 5191 provides 59 days - 24 days more than current law - to complete a recount. This would take the pressure off states to rush through recounts and reduce the chance that courts would feel obligated to step in and end a recount before a definitive decision had been made.

I am a cosponsor and have spoken on the floor in support of HR 2239, which would amend the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to require the use of voting systems capable of producing a paper record in all federal elections. HR 2239 also would require that electronic voting systems be provided for persons with disabilities by January 1, 2006, one year earlier than currently required by HAVA, and would mandate surprise recounts in 0.5% of domestic and overseas jurisdictions.

I was disappointed that the House Republican leaders did not allow a vote on these bills during the 108th Congress, but I will continue to fight to pass them 109th. The integrity of our elections is too important to do otherwise.

I hope that this information is helpful. Thank you again for contacting me, and please continue to keep in touch on issues of concern.

Fifth, the fact that election fraud in Ohio has not been proven to date is NOT the point. It is Secretary Blackwell’s duty to ensure that the election process in Ohio is transparent to the citizens he serves and America as well. He has failed miserably.

The recount of provisional ballots in Ohio was completed properly and witnesses by representatives of the Democratic and Republican Parties.

Secretary Blackwell has not produced the facts to support his contention that voting machines were not allocated to disenfranchise Black voters. His failure to do so leaves a cloud over the election process that may now engage Congress in the election process.

Secretary Blackwell has not permitted a forensic examination of the electronic voting machines as TPJ recommended. The lack of transparency threatens unanimity in the public’s confidence that Bush won Ohio.

Ultimately, Secretary Blackwell is adding to the growing doubts surrounding the integrity of the electoral process in America. It is a tragedy than transcends the victory of any candidate.

Sixth, we should exercise responsible caution and adhere to the principal of integrity in research.

Immediately after the election, reports of election fraud surfaced from Florida, Ohio and other states. Several researchers and writers prolifically produced “research” demonstrating voting fraud. These reports were widely circulated on the internet and appeared on a more limited basis in the main stream press.

Subsequent investigation has dispelled the vast majority of the allegations. These are just a few examples:

Kathy Dopp, a Utah Web sleuth with a master's degree in mathematics, raised red flags when she posted her findings soon after Election Day. She claimed some counties showed bizarre disparities between party registration numbers and presidential election returns, listing a dozen or so counties in which she felt Bush had far too many votes.

Several major Florida newspapers examined her findings and concluded that the counties, mostly in the state's conservative Panhandle, had had a recent history of Democrats voting Republican.

Beverly Harris of blackboxvoting.com, (a separate site from blackboxvoting.org,) has filed public-information requests demanding electronic-voting records from all 67 Florida counties. She claims to have found discarded computer tape from voting machines outside the elections office in Volusia County, site of problems in the 2000 election. She has not produced it.

Experts at the University of California in Berkeley used statistical modeling to conclude that electronic voting machines gave Bush up to 260,000 extra votes in Florida. They, too, offered no proof, and even that worse-case scenario is fewer than his 380,978 victory margin in the state.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: An Internet-inspired partial recount produced no significant changes in the election tally. – News and Observer

If Secretary Blackwell deserves approbation for failure to make the Ohio result truly transparent, those making allegations irresponsibly or without providing proof of their assertions deserve equal approbation.

Additionally, the reports of those researchers who HAVE checked the facts are not being given equal publicity by those who have circulated the irresponsible allegations. For example, how many TPJ readers are aware of these studies?

Few credible analysts claim the problems sank to the level of corruption or fraud as some Internet bloggers claim. And none say for certain that the problems were significant enough to erase President Bush's victory over Sen. John Kerry, especially in the large swing states of Ohio and Florida on which the outcome hinged.

A joint analysis out of California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found "no evidence that electronic voting machines were used to steal the election for President Bush."

The Verified Voting Foundation, a group founded by Stanford University computer science professor David Dill, tracked more than 38,000 reports of irregularities but said it had "not seen convincing evidence of either fraud nor of a major error in the presidential election." – News and Observer

Seventh, Lobdill asks why the election certification by Congress should not be suspended until a “satisfactory number of voters” are satisfied that the vote was accurate.

The opinion poll that follows, while not precisely on the issue of the Ohio results, gives some indication that most Americans believe the election was valid.

The Harris Poll. Nov. 9-14, 2004. N=1,014 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3 (for all adults).
						.
"Overall do you think that the election process for the presidential election was or was not conducted fairly?"
						.
		Was	Was Not	Unsure
		%	%	%
	ALL	81	16	4
	Republicans	95	4	1
	Democrats	68	27	4
	Independents	83	15	2
						.
"Do you think that there are many, some, only a few or no attempts to intimidate or prevent legitimate voters from voting?"
						.
		Many	Some	A Few	None	Unsure
		%	%	%	%	%
	ALL	8	23	26	39	4
	Republicans	2	15	31	50	2
	Democrats	12	26	24	35	3
	Independents	10	27	25	35	4