The spectre of voting machine failure and voter fraud still lingers over the NY District 23 election between Doug Hoffman and Bill Owens.
The Gouverneur Times is reporting today, November 23, 2009.
“Ghost in the Machine”
“John Conklin, Communications Director for the New York State Board of Elections issued a statement Friday evening alleging that an article published by our on-line newspaper, The Gouverneur Times, was factually incorrect. This statement was reported Friday in the Watertown Daily Times.
Mr. Conklin’s rebuke is a very misleading press release issued on the behalf of the NY SBoE.”
“Below is a brief review of the November 3rd, 2009 elections…
In Lewis, Schuyler and Seneca Counties, ImageCast ballot scanners failed.
In Broome County, hand counts revealed the ImageCast ballot scanners in five voting districts had miscounted votes. In some cases the machines rejected valid ballots.
In Cayuga County, again ImageCast ballot scanners crashed. Some rejected valid ballots that other machines accepted.
In Fulton County, ImageCast ballot scanners were impounded after it was found they were not working properly.
In Steuben County, the ImageCast ballot scanner in the first ward malfunctioned.
In Oneida County, at the Vernon polling place, none of the three ImageCast optical scanners would operate.
In Jefferson County, inspectors from four districts claim that “human error” resulted in their “mistakenly” entering 0 votes for Hoffman in several districts, resulting in Owens leading Jefferson County on election night though a recanvas of the computer counts showed that Hoffman was actually leading.
In St. Lawrence County, machines in Louisville, Waddington, Claire, and Rossie “broke” early in the voting process on Election Day. Republican Commissioner Deborah Pahler said that the machines kept “freezing up… like Windows does all the time”. Frank Hoar, an attorney for the Democratic Party, initially ordered the impound of malfunctioning machines but released the order on Nov. 5th so that Bill Owens could be sworn in to Congress in time to vote on the House Health bill on November 7th.
Jude Seymour, a reporter for the Watertown Daily Times, declared the Gouverneur Times story on the ‘virus’ issue a ‘Hoax’. He referred to a prior article he had authored on the 13th of November, where he quotes Anna E. Svizzero, the state’s Elections Operation Director in her claims that the state’s pilot program “was very successful.”
The State elections on November 3rd, using the Sequoia/Dominion ImageCast machines were a ‘pilot program’.
Mr.Lipari states that the corrective action applied was modification of the configuration file; but according to a technician for Dominion, the owners of the ImageCast system, “the insertion of a line of code, into the source code of the machines” was the corrective action taken.
Regarding what was done to correct the ‘memory’ problem just days immediately prior to the elections; pursuant to State Election Law 7-202.2, “When any change is made in the operation or material of any feature or component of any machine or system which has been approved pursuant to the provisions of this section, such machine or system must be submitted for re-examination and re-approval pursuant to the provisions of subdivision one of this section”
Subdivision one states that… “The state board of elections shall cause the machine or system to be examined and a report of the examination to be made and filed in the office of the state board. Such examination shall include a determination as to whether the machine or system meets the requirements of section 7-202 of this title and a thorough review and testing of any electronic or computerized features of the machine or system…. Any form of voting machine or system not so approved, cannot be used in any election.”
“Given the now known number of machine failures that occurred on election day, due in part to the ‘known bug’ in the software, it is apparent that a thorough review and testing of the ImageCast machines utilized throughout the 23rd congressional district and other districts throughout the State of New York was not accomplished according to the explicit requirements of New York State Election Law.”
We in the 23rd were the subject of a ‘beta test, pilot program’, in the midst of a very important election. There were many problems as a result of this ‘test’. The integrity, credibility and voter confidence in this election is severely challenged as a result. A manual hand count needs to be accomplished in order to assure the voters that the Sequoia/Dominion ImageCast machines worked and worked accurately. Not doing so will forever taint the results of this ‘beta test’ election as well as future elections.
It is not a matter of who won or who lost… it is a matter of our constitutional right to a fair, open and honest election process without vendors protecting their interests (Sequoia), or a State covering their collective <actions>… at the expense of the voting process itself.
“We the people…”;
One person, One vote.”
Read more:
John Charlton of the Post & Email provides some background on the voting machines.
“COMPANY WITH TIES TO CHAVEZ UPDATED SOFTWARE DAYS BEFORE ELECTION TO “FIX” THE PROBLEM”
“Nathan Barker of The Gouverner Times has reported a series of facts which seemingly support Dough Hoffman’s allegations that there was massive Election fraud in the special election for the NY-23 House seat:
1. The software used in the voting machines is made by a company controlled by the Venezuelan dictator, Chavez;
2. A virus was found in the machines used in one district, only days before the election;
3. Other districts were not informed of the existence of the virus;
4. The voting machines lack security for introduction of multiple ballots at a time,
5. And election officials lack expertise to determine whether the company’s fix of the problems was done in a manner which returned the voting machines’ capacity to tally impartially election-night results.”
Read more:
I have been getting warnings about these voting machines, software and the ties to Chavez and Venezuela for at least a year.
We must demand an investigation.
Citizen WElls 