It's Official: Election stolen

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COLUMBUS, Ohio - An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said.

Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. Bush's total should have been recorded as 365.  [AP/Yahoo]

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ATLANTA - A national voting rights group said Friday it documented hundreds of voting irregularities affecting poor and minority voters in seven Southern states — from long lines and faulty equipment to deliberate voter intimidation.

A systems software glitch in Craven County's electronic voting equipment is being blamed for a vote miscount that, when corrected, changed the outcome of at least one race in Tuesday's election.

Then, in the rush to make right the miscalculation that swelled the number of votes for president here by 11,283 more votes than the total number cast, a human mistake further delayed accurate totals for the 40,534 who voted.  [AP/Yahoo]

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Ohio State Senator Teresa Fedor said today: "There was trouble with our elections in Ohio at every stage. It's been a battle getting people registered to vote, getting to the ballot on voting day and getting that vote to count. There is a pattern of voter suppression; that's why I called for [Ohio Secretary of State] Blackwell's resignation more than a month ago. Blackwell, while claiming to run an unbiased elections process, was also the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio.  [Accuracy.org]

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Most voters in Ohio thought they were voting for Kerry. At 1:05 a.m. Wednesday morning, CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent.  The exit polls were later combined with—and therefore contaminated by—the tabulated results, ultimately becoming a mirror of the apparent actual vote. Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent. Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state.  [Greg Palast]

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Early Thursday, as Broward County elections officials wrapped up after a long day of canvassing votes, something unusual caught their eye. Tallies should go up as more votes are counted. That's simple math. But in some races, the numbers had gone . . . down. Officials found the software used in Broward can handle only 32,000 votes per precinct. After that, the system starts counting backward. Why a voting system would be designed to count backward was a mystery to Broward County Mayor Ilene Lieberman.  [Palm Beach Post]

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States with electronic voting machines gave Bush mysterious 5% advantage; bloggers do the math that broadcast networks fail to follow...  [News Target]

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Surprising Pattern of Florida's Election Results [Us Together]

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COLUMBUS, Ohio - A computer error with a voting machine cartridge gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in a Gahanna precinct. Franklin County's unofficial results gave Bush 4,258 votes to Democratic challenger John Kerry's 260 votes in Precinct 1B. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct.  [Ohio.com]

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JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - More than 4,500 votes have been lost in one North Carolina county because officials believed a computer that stored ballots electronically could hold more data than it did. Scattered other problems may change results in races around the state. Local officials said UniLect Corp., the maker of the county's electronic voting system, told them that each storage unit could handle 10,500 votes, but the limit was actually 3,005 votes. Expecting the greater capacity, the county used only one unit during the early voting period. "If we had known, we would have had the units to handle the votes," said Sue Verdon, secretary of the county election board. Officials said 3,005 early votes were stored, but 4,530 were lost.  [AP/Yahoo]

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LEBANON - Citing concerns about potential terrorism, Warren County officials locked down the county administration building on election night and blocked anyone from observing the vote count as the nation awaited Ohio's returns. County officials say they took the action Tuesday night for homeland security, although state elections officials said they didn't know of any other Ohio county that closed off its elections board. Media organizations protested, saying it violated the law and the public's rights.  [Cincinnati Enquirer]

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Three congressmen sent a letter to the General Accounting Office on Friday requesting an investigation into irregularities with voting machines used in Tuesday's elections. The congressmen, Democratic members of the House of Representatives from Florida, New York and Michigan, cited a number of incidents that came to light in the days after the election. One was a glitch in Ohio that caused a memory card reader made by Danaher Controls to give George W. Bush 3,893 more votes than he should have received. Another was a problem with memory cards in North Carolina that caused machines made by UniLect to lose 4,500 votes cast on e-voting machines. The votes were lost when the number of votes cast on the machines exceeded the capacity of the memory cards.  [Wired]

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Too many voting ’irregularities’ to be coincidence  [Bella Ciao]

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said. Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct.  [CNN/AP]

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Why Did CNN Change Their Exit Poll Data for Ohio After 1:00 AM?  [BuzzFlash]

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Evidence Mounts That The Vote Was Hacked -- When I spoke with Jeff Fisher this morning (Saturday, November 06, 2004), the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 16th District said he was waiting for the FBI to show up. Fisher has evidence, he says, not only that the Florida election was hacked, but of who hacked it and how. And not just this year, he said, but that these same people had previously hacked the Democratic primary race in 2002 so that Jeb Bush would not have to run against Janet Reno, who presented a real threat to Jeb, but instead against Bill McBride, who Jeb beat.  [CommonDreams]

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Palm Beach County Logs 88,000 More Votes Than Voters -- According to the official election results posted on the Palm Beach County election website, 542,835 ballots were cast for a presidential candidate while only 454,427 voters turned out for the election (including absentee). This leaves a discrepancy of 88,408 votes cast for the presidential candidates.  [Washingtgon Dispatch]

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Broward County corrected a computer glitch Thursday that had miscounted thousands of absentee votes, instantly turning a slot-machine measure from loser to winner and reinforcing concerns about the accuracy of electronic election returns. The bug, discovered two years ago but never fixed, began subtracting votes after the absentee tally hit 32,500 -- a ceiling put in place by the software makers.  [Miami Herald]

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A systems software glitch in Craven County's electronic voting equipment is being blamed for a vote miscount that, when corrected, changed the outcome of at least one race in Tuesday's election. Then, in the rush to make right the miscalculation that swelled the number of votes for president here by 11,283 more votes than the total number cast, a human mistake further delayed accurate totals for the 40,534 who voted. The glitch occurred Tuesday night as absentee ballot totals for one-stop early voting at three Craven County locations and ballots mailed-in were being entered, said Tiffiney Miller, Craven County Board of Elections director. The Elections Systems and Software equipment had downloaded voting information from nine of the county's 26 precincts and as the absentee ballots were added, the precinct totals were added a second time. Precincts affected were Havelock East, Havelock West, River Bend, Cove City, Ernul, Fort Totten, Grover C. Fields, Glenburnie and West New Bern.  [Sun Journal]

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[Exit Poll Vs Actual Vote: Paper Ballots]

 

[Exit Poll Vs Actual Vote: Electronic Machines]

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How to Rig an Election in the United States on Diebold Machines -- a step by step tuturial with data and screen-captures.  [TruthOut.org]

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House Judiciary Committee letter to GAO regarding voting machines...

November 5, 2004

The Honorable David M. Walker
Comptroller General of the United States
U.S. General Accountability Office
441 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20548

Dear Mr. Walker:

We write with an urgent request that the Government Accountability Office immediately undertake an investigation of the efficacy of voting machines and new technologies used in the 2004 election, how election officials responded to difficulties they encountered and what we can do in the future to improve our election systems and administration.

In particular, we are extremely troubled by the following reports, which we would also request that you review and evaluate for us:

In Columbus, Ohio, an electronic voting system gave President Bush nearly 4,000 extra votes. "Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes," Associated Press, November 5.

An electronic tally of a South Florida gambling ballot initiative failed to record thousands of votes. "South Florida OKs Slot Machines Proposal," Id.

In one North Carolina county, more than 4,500 votes were lost because officials mistakenly believed a computer that stored ballots could hold more data that it did. "Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes," Id.

In San Francisco, a glitch occurred with voting machines software that resulted in some votes being left uncounted. Id.

In Florida, there was a substantial drop off in Democratic votes in proportion to voter registration in counties utilizing optical scan machines that was apparently not present in counties using other mechanisms.

The House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff has received numerous reports from Youngstown, Ohio that voters who attempted to cast a vote for John Kerry on electronic voting machines saw that their votes were instead recorded as votes for George W. Bush. In South Florida, Congressman Wexler's staff received numerous reports from voters in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade Counties that they attempted to select John Kerry but George Bush appeared on the screen. CNN has reported that a dozen voters in six states, particularly Democrats in Florida, reported similar problems. This was among over one thousand such problems reported.

Excessively long lines were a frequent problem throughout the nation in Democratic precincts, particularly in Florida and Ohio. In one Ohio voting precinct serving students from Kenyon College, some voters were required to wait more than eight hours to vote.

We are literally receiving additional reports every minute and will transmit additional information as it comes available. The essence of democracy is the confidence of the electorate in the accuracy of voting methods and the fairness of voting procedures. In 2000, that confidence suffered terribly, and we fear that such a blow to our democracy may have occurred in 2004.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this inquiry.

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr. / Jerrold Nadler / Robert Wexler Ranking Member / Ranking Member / Member of Congress House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution

cc: Hon. F. James Sensenbrenner Chairman
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Outrage in Ohio: Angry residents storm State House in response to massive voter suppression and corruption -- Toledo, Ohio Hundreds of angry Ohio residents marched through the streets of Columbus—Ohio’s Capital—this evening and stormed the Ohio State House, defying orders and arrest threats from Ohio State Troopers. "O-H-I-O ! suppressed democracy has got to go,"they chanted. After troopers pushed and scuffled with people, nearly a hundred people took over the steps and entrance to the State’s giant white column capital building and refused repeated orders to disperse or face arrest.  [Michigan Independent Media]

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A band of patriots have exposed  the electronic voting machines -- manufactured by three U.S. companies -- as both  extremely vulnerable to hacking and having their vote results rigged.  The machines are also manufactured by companies with strong Republican  ties. In fact, Wally O'Dell, the CEO of Diebold, which is headquartered  in Ohio, penned a letter earlier this year pledging  his commitment to "helping  Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President." Just what exactly did Wally mean? Well, we'll give  you one guess, and it has to do with a quote supposedly from Stalin: "Those  who vote decide nothing, those who COUNT the votes decide everything."  [BuzzFlash]

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Glitch Found in Ohio Counting -- An electronic voting machine in hotly contested Ohio added 3,893 votes to President Bush's tally in a suburban Columbus precinct, even though there are just 800 voters there.  [NY Times]

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Votersunite.org -- a compilation of problems reported in the media about the 2004 general election. Starting with early voting, we are seeing a wide array of problems, some of which appear in multiple states. This page allows you to see how widespread the problems are as they accumulate.  [Voters Unite]

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Abraham Goldman did exactly what he was told — and still had his vote tossed out. Goldman, 79, of Boynton Beach, suffered a stroke and lost his sight from glaucoma two years ago, but he was determined to vote in Tuesday's presidential election.  Goldman has trouble writing so he and his wife, Rita, said they went to the county elections office in Delray Beach and asked how he should sign his absentee ballot. Rita Goldman said they were told he could just make an "X" and she could write a note about his stroke. However, Abraham Goldman's vote was one of at least 200 absentee ballots rejected by the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board because his signature did not match the one on file.[Palm Beach Post]

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12,000 votes uncounted in Gaston -- About 12,000 votes cast in Gaston County have not yet been counted, elections director Sandra Page said Tuesday. Page said most early and absentee votes were not included in the county's unofficial election results because of a procedural error. The inclusion of the votes in the county's results, expected Tuesday afternoon, could change the outcome of several local and statewide races. Page emphasized that the votes are still in the computer system. She said officials failed to release the votes from the machine on which they were stored into the database where votes were tallied.  [Charlotte Observer]

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New Mexico clerks continue to process provisional ballots -- ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - County clerks around New Mexico continue to process provisional ballots from Tuesday’s election. There are roughly 17,360 provisional ballots outstanding statewide, according to an Associated Press survey of the state’s 33 county clerks. Some counties are in the process of deciding how many of those would count. Bernalillo, the state’s largest county, had 11,200 provisional ballots. Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera called both political parties together to discuss ground rules on how to qualify those ballots but there was some disagreement. Herrera’s office has asked the secretary of state for clarification, but she says the county still planned to begin the provisional-review process Saturday morning. The secretary of state has not set exact criteria for which provisional ballots are valid.  [AP/KBOTV]

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House Dems Seek Election Inquiry -- Three congressmen sent a letter to the General Accountability Office on Friday requesting an investigation into irregularities with voting machines used in Tuesday's elections. The congressmen, Democratic members of the House of Representatives from Florida, New York and Michigan, cited a number of incidents that came to light in the days after the election. One was a glitch in Ohio that caused a memory card reader made by Danaher Controls to give George W. Bush 3,893 more votes than he should have received. Another was a problem with memory cards in North Carolina that caused machines made by UniLect to lose 4,500 votes cast on e-voting machines. The votes were lost when the number of votes cast on the machines exceeded the capacity of the memory cards.  [Wired]

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Another Rigged Election? The Elephant in the Voting Booth -- On election night, Peter Jennings looked measurably surprised when he  learned that President Bush had provided a tape of himself, sitting in  the White House, commenting on his impending victory. It was an unprecedented  move. No sitting president had ever addressed the nation while polls  were still open. It was just not done. But there was George, exuding  confidence, offering an election day reminder of our leader's legitimacy.  [BuzzFlash]

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From: XXXXXXX
To: mail@democraticunderground.com
Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 2:43 PM
Subject: Re: Cuyahoga County

I have looked at the data posted by the county, and saw something really unusual - different municipalities have the exact same number of "extra" votes.

I sent the following commentary to the author of the original article:
------------------ Looking over the posted turnout data, I have several observations that you may already have made:

* Typically, the "extra" votes appear in the totals for the municipality. Where the municipality is broken down by ward, the sum of the wards does not match the total for the municipality.

* If we use the sum of the wards as the turnout, the numbers are reasonable (about 60%). I suspect the ward counts are accurate.

* The sum of the wards and the reported total for the municipality DIFFERS BY THE SAME AMOUT IN MULTIPLE MUNICIPALITIES. That is to say, differnent towns have the exact same number of "extra" votes.

Examples:

Bedford
registered voters: 9942
votes cast - municipality: 14465 (145% turnout)
votes cast - (sum of wards): 5912 (59% turnout)
difference between ward and municipality: 8553

Warrensville Heights
registered voters: 10562
votes cast - municipality: 15039 (142% turnout)
votes cast - (sum of wards): 6486 (61% turnout)
difference between ward and municipality: 8553

Fairview Park
registered voters: 13342
votes cast - municipality: 18472(110% turnout)
votes cast - (sum of wards): 8524 (64% turnout)
difference between ward and municipality: 9948

Westlake
registered voters: 25627
votes cast - municipality: 25173 (98% turnout)
votes cast - (sum of wards): 15225 (59% turnout)
difference between ward and municipality: 9948

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Votergate 2004; We Don't Need Paper to Prove Fraud, But We Do Need Money and Leadership, NOW. Since last Tuesday there has been a justifiable uproar about the major differences between the exit polls in Ohio and Florida and the actual results. Democrats and Republicans, who both saw the same exit polls that showed an electoral landslide in favor of Kerry, have confirmed this. Investigative reporter Bob Parry confirmed from his sources that the Bush campaign was convinced they were going to lose. George H. W. Bush also confirmed this in an interview with The Today Show. So why have the exit polls been so wrong in the last two elections? It is clear that there must have been manipulation in the voting machines. While there's been a lot of talk of problems with not having paper trails, computer fraud is uncovered most of the time without paper trails.  [Zogby International]

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From Democratic Underground:

In Duval Co. Fl 219,251 votes for Bush, only 190,111 registered Republican

I've been reviewing numbers for the past few days, and this one struck me as a little odd.

Duval County in Florida was the scene for a lot of accusations in the 2000 vote, mostly for voter suppression. So it certainly deserves some scrutiny. Add to that the County Supervisor for Elections resigned suddenly for health reasons just prior to the 2004 elections. Duval County is considered to be Republican country, however the voter registration numbers do not bear that out. Here are the numbers for 2000 and 2004.

Republican

2000 Regs....152,008...36%
2004 Regs....190,111...41%

2000 Votes...152,098...58% / 98 more votes than registered Republican.
2004 Votes...219,251...45% / 29,140 more votes than registered Rep.

Democrat

2000 Regs....211,762...50%
2004 Regs....238,264...46%

2000 Vote....107,864...41%...Only 51% of Reg Dem count.
2004 Vote....158,121...42%...66% of Reg Dem count.

I know there are crossover voters, but the total turnout for Duval was 74% of registered voters. Republicans get 115% of their registration, while Dems get 66%. Doesn't seem right to me. But someone with a little more political statistics savvy should take a look.

Couple of other issues jumped out at me all in Florida:

Highlands County had 7,495 more votes than turnout.
Collier County had 943 more votes than turnout.
Miami-Dade had 51,979 more votes than turnout.
Palm Beach had 90,774 more votes than turnout.
Osceola had 18,589 more votes than turnout.
Volusia had 19,306 more votes than turnout.

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[% of Change from Projections on Optical Scan Readers]

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Evidence is mounting that the 2004 presidential election was stolen in Ohio. Emerging revelations of voting irregularities coupled with well-documented Republican efforts at voter suppression prior to the election suggests that in a fair election Kerry would have won Ohio. Democratic hopeful Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts conceded on November 3, based on preliminary postings by the highly partisan Republican Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell. These unofficial results showed Bush with 136,483 more votes than Kerry, although 155,428 provisional ballots, 92,672 “spoiled” ballots, additional overseas ballots, and some remaining absentee ballots remained uncounted. The day after his concession, Kerry drew 3,893 votes closer to Bush when a computerized voting machine “glitch” was discovered in an Ohio precinct. A machine in ward 1B in the predominantly Republican Gahanna, Ohio, recorded 4,258 votes for George W. Bush when only 638 people cast votes at the New Life Church polling site. Buried on page A6 of the Columbus Dispatch, the story also reported that the voting machine recorded 0 votes in a race between Franklin County Commissioners Arlene Shoemaker and Paula Brooks. Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matt Damschroder told the Dispatch that the voting machine glitches were “why the results on election night are unofficial.”   [Bayou Buzz]

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The exit polls that showed a sweeping victory for Sen. Kerry on Nov. 2 were right. Unfortunately, the 2004 presidential election was cleanly stolen by Bush & Co. How, you say? With the help of Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia and SAIC, four interlocked secretive right-wing electronic voting machine manufacturers. We have entrusted the most important election task, that of actually counting and tabulating the vote totals to extremist organizations with secret proprietary vote-counting computer software with no auditable paper trail for hand recounts. How very convenient, how very clean, how very slick and with all the evidence of election rigging is buried deep on their computer hard drives.   [Berkely Daily Planet]

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Evidence is mounting and being talked about everywhere that this Presidential election was stolen. The huge difference between the exit polls and the election results. The computer voting machine "gliches". The Diebold Company, making 30% of computerized voting machines, owned by a major Bush supporter who told Bush personally that he "would deliver the votes". [Boston herald]

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The stolen election of 2004: welcome back to hell -- Using a variety of criminal methods that they have perfected over the past four years, the George W. Bush-Dick Cheney-Karl Rove syndicate stole another election, and extended their illegal occupation of the White House. Experienced, informed and unblinking observers were not fooled by any aspect of this utterly predictable goose-step towards full dictatorship. But to those who are "shocked" as they watched the election night numbers mysteriously slip away amidst controversy; those who are struggling to understand "what happened", let this cold realization serve as bracing edification. Welcome to hell. Welcome to the horrifying reality that whistleblowers have suffered and fought through every day, over lifetimes. No more illusions. This is reality.  [From the Wilderness]

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Reign of Mad King George -- Now that I think more about "selection 2004" . . . I am getting angrier. It's the third stolen election since George W.Bush ascended the throne of the most powerful leader of the "free world."  John Kerry conceded the election to Bush even before all the votes were counted. He gave us the "kiss of fascism." How did he know the Republican Ohio election officials were telling the truth about the number of uncounted ballots? Al Gore did that and after the votes were all counted, they found out he won. Kerry trusted the Ohio Republican election officials to tell him the truth about the number of uncounted ballots? Why would the Democratic National Committee and Kerry do this? It doesn't make sense to me.  I don't care about what the DNC leadership wanted. I want all votes counted. As Americans living in a democracy we deserve this before Bush takes office again. Record numbers voted early. They stood out in the cold or heat in long lines to vote; they cast absentee ballots and provisional ballots to remove this president. Now this? We did our part, they  failed to do theirs.  [Online Journal]

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Glitch could force state to vote again -- More than 4,500 votes irretrievably lost in coastal Carteret County could trigger a new statewide election if the official margin of victory in two Council of State races is close enough, state election officials said Monday. The problem, which one expert called one of the worst election glitches nationwide, occurred on a machine that wasn't set correctly. "This is one of the few cases in which the votes were totally lost," said David Dill, founder of the Verified Voting foundation. The votes, all early ballots, could affect the races for superintendent of public instruction and agriculture commissioner, both too close to call Monday. Counties will add totals from as many as 75,000 provisional ballots to their returns today. If the final margin in any race is within 4,532 -- the number of lost votes in Carteret -- the losing candidate can file a protest with the N.C. State Board of Election.  [Charlotte Observer]

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A quick and haplessly generic answer now to the 6,000 emails and the hundreds of phone calls.  Firstly, thank you.  Secondly, we will indeed be resuming our coverage of the voting irregularities in Ohio and Florida -- and elsewhere -- on this evening's edition of Countdown {8:00 p.m. ET}. The two scheduled guests are Jonathan Turley, an excellent professor of law at George Washington University, and MSNBC analyst and Congressional Quarterly senior columnist Craig Crawford.  [Keith Olbermann/MSNBC]

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Computer error at voting machine gives Bush 3,893 extra votes -- COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A computer error with a voting machine cartridge gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in a Gahanna precinct. Franklin County's unofficial results gave Bush 4,258 votes to Democratic challenger John Kerry's 260 votes in Precinct 1B. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, said Bush received 365 votes there. The other 13 voters who cast ballots either voted for other candidates or did not vote for president. Damschroder said he received some calls Thursday from people who saw the error when reading the list of poll results on the election board's Web site.  [Ohio News]

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Collection of illegal voter suppression flyers sent out by the Republican Party  [SolarBus.org]

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As Voting Machines Are Checked, Spano's Lead Shrinks -- After the first hours of a two-week vote recount, Democrats claimed Monday that their candidate for the state Senate from Yonkers had wiped out almost all of her unofficial deficit and moved within 288 votes of the powerful Republican incumbent, Nicholas Spano. The GOP's election lawyer, John Ciampoli, acknowledged some gains for Democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins but said, "None of this means anything until all the recanvass of the machines is done, over and finished." The count was partial, with just 15 percent of the machine vote checked by late afternoon. But the quick recovery buoyed the forces of Stewart-Cousins, a Westchester County legislator who took on the Senate's assistant majority leader and a nine-term veteran. "If this trend holds, we are confident that Andrea Stewart-Cousins will be the next state senator from the 35th Senate District," said the Democrats' election lawyer, Henry Berger, who was at the recount in a machine storage warehouse in Yonkers.  [WNBC]

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California settles electronic voting lawsuit against Diebold -- SAN FRANCISCO California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has announced a two-point-six (m) million dollar settlement with Diebold (DEE-bohld) -- resolving a lawsuit alleging that the company sold shoddy voting equipment in the state. Some critics are characterizing the settlement as a slap on the wrist. Diebold also agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to partially reimburse Alameda, San Diego and other counties for the cost of paper backup ballots, ink and other supplies in last week's election. California's secretary of state banned the use of one type of Diebold machine in May, after problems with the machines disenfranchised an unknown number of voters.  [KESQ News]

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Diebold settles e-voting lawsuit -- Diebold Inc. shook loose an expensive albatross Wednesday, agreeing to pay California $2.6 million to end a lawsuit over electronic voting. If the settlement is approved in court, it would put to rest rounds of finger-pointing that began back in November 2003. It also would let the Green-based company escape a trial. The plaintiffs were seeking as much as $57 million in damages. "This is just our effort to put these issues behind us so we can move forward," Diebold spokesman Michael Jacobsen said. In the lawsuit, the state of California accused Diebold of making false claims about the security and certification status of its electronic voting machines and tabulation systems. As a result, six counties were misled into buying the machines, the state said.  [Ohio.com]

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The OSCE won’t issue a final report for another six weeks, but its preliminary findings (available HERE) are a litany of "questions of possible conflict of interest," "widespread ... allegations of electoral fraud and voter suppression," "significant delays ... [that] may restrict the right to vote," "considerable confusion ... regarding the use of provisional ballots," "occasional faults and breakdowns of DRE [direct-recording equipment] machines," "concerns ... regarding the secrecy of the vote." Not only that, but "it was not clear that poll workers had generally received sufficient training to perform their functions." On the plus side, the election "proceeded in an orderly and peaceful manner," the OSCE says. And according to many news reports, America was awfully glad, above all else, that there was no untidiness with this election. Once John Kerry conceded, it seemed, concerns about voter suppression, intimidation, and fraud could be safely ignored. The mainstream media refocused their attention on the Scott Peterson trial, while Internet bloggers chased phantom conspiracy theories into the void. But there are at least two valid reasons why we should keep our eyes trained on November 2. First, a Phoenix analysis suggests that more Ohioans may have tried to vote for Kerry than for Bush, and couldn’t — in which case by rights W. should be packing his bags and shredding his files, rather than plotting his second-term agenda.  [Boston Phoenix]