Well, today's the day. If it feels like this has been a really really long election season, it has. That's good in a lot of ways, but it's also good to see it come to an end.
If you're in Harris County and you want to know where to vote, go here and enter your address. For other locations in Texas, try Local Voter or your County Clerk webpage. It looks like we're in for nice weather today, so get there early, as you may encounter lines. Polls are open from 7 AM to 7 PM. Vote now or forever hold your peace.
Posted by Charles Kuffner on November 07, 2006 to Election 2006 | TrackBackSome observations from early morning voting from precinct 439 in Harris County (CD7).
Unlike the primary, there were no supporters with signs testing the distance boundaries.
I arrived at the opening and the line was about half as long as I had seen normally and was about 80% men on arrival and it was over 95% Anglo.
The polling place was understaffed by at least 2 people but the length of the ballot allowed enough time to compensate.
That is one looong ballot and I hadn't thought about it until the guy in front of me mentioned it but he wondered if that would encourage people to vote a straight party ticket. I hope not. I think a discerning voter realizes that not one party has the best candidates in every race.
The lady behind me said to me that she was happy that so many people were out voting and that she hoped everybody would go out and vote....but she was sure glad that it would be over soon.
But I'm concerned that I may have had the wrong ballot because I must have missed a race or two because I didn't find George W. Bush or Rumsfeld or John Kerry anywhere on the ballot. Wierd.
Posted by: Patrick on November 7, 2006 8:40 AMA co-worker was not on the voter rolls this morning. His wife is, but he was turned away and not allowed to vote. He has voted at the same location for the last 8 years. I tried to look him up in the online database and sure enough only his wife shows up. He is listed in HCAD's database for 2006 property taxes. Does he have any recourse? Shouldn't he bel alloed to at least cast a provisional ballot?
Posted by: texans_fan on November 7, 2006 10:42 AM1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683)
1-866 My Vote-1 (1-866-698-6831)
Take your cell phone and the above phone numbers, if you run into a problem the following legal support will try to get your problem fixed while you wait so that you can then vote.
However, some problems will not be fixable then and there, but it will be important to record the difficulty for possible action later.
http://www.markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/
Document and report. If you encounter difficulties, or see others experiencing difficulties (excessive lines, voter harassment, malfunctioning machines, etc.), make a detailed record. Get all the facts you can-location, names, specific problem.
We recommend two nationwide networks where you can report problems. One is 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683), which will have volunteer lawyers in 15 locations standing by to provide assistance. The other is 1-866 My Vote-1 (1-866-698-6831), which will record your problem by voicemail, then forward your call to your local board of elections. Both will enter the information you provide into a database to use to support challenges to problem elections now and demands for reform in the future.
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If you witness fraud that effects the outcome of an election:
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/electionstrikeforce/2006/10/reward_fund.html
VelvetRevolution is offering a $500,000 reward for information about election fraud and manipulation in the November 7th mid-term elections. That’s half a million dollars to the persons or persons who provide us with definitive and conclusive proof that a United States House or Senate election has been rigged by illegal means. The information must result in an overturning of a congressional election and a conviction of the person or persons responsible for the fraud. We want whistleblowers to come forward and to provide us with evidence, documents, tape recordings, and admissions. Send to tips[at]velvetrevolution.us. Or call our hotline at 1-888-VOTETIP. This hotline is for fraud tips only. All other reports of electionproblems should be made at 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
Note: This reward was originally announced as $250,000 and has now been increased to $500,000!
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http://www.markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/
How Anyone, Anywhere Can Defend The Vote!
Please Blast This Across the Nation
How Anyone, Anywhere Can Defend The Vote!
ElectionDefenseAlliance.org announces
National Precinct Tally Capture (NPTC)
Write Down Voting Results from Your Precinct
Upload Results for Real-Time Election Forensics on Election Night!
Go to http://www.electiondefense.net
(1) Download and print data collection form
(2) Go to your local poll at close of election, and copy data from the posted poll tally tapes
(3) Return to electiondefense.net, enter your data in webform, and send
Election Day Rapid Response Data Analysis Project
will compare precinct results to county tabulator results and flag discrepancies
RELATED DATA COLLECTION ACTIONS:
To assist real-time election night data forensics
by the Election Data Analysis Project
of ElectionDefenseAlliance.org
How You Can Help
At the County Election Centers:
For Election Returns by Vote Type form and instructions, go to http://www.electiondefense.net
From Your Computer:
For County Election Returns Download instructions, go to: CaptureCountyReturns
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Big broadcast on Election Night
SPECIAL ELECTION NIGHT INTEGRITY MARATHON BROADCAST
TO BE CO-ANCHORED BY RADIO HOSTS PETER B. COLLINS
AND ELECTION INTEGRITY ADVOCATE/JOURNALIST BRAD FRIEDMAN
LIVE Team Broadcast to be Carried over Multiple Radio Networks, Stations, Internet Outlets -- All Invited to Carry Program Free All Night Long!
Coverage will focus both on continuing, growing election problems around the county, as well as the "horse race"
Beginning Tuesday, Nov. 2nd at 3pm PT (6pm ET) and continuing
until 1am PT or as long as events on the ground warrant
Peter B. Collins (host of the daily syndicated Peter B. Collins radio show) and Brad Friedman (radio personality, investigative journalist at BradBlog.com, election integrity advocate and co-founder of VelvetRevolution.us) are announcing plans for a coast-to-coast Election Night Marathon Broadcast to be carried LIVE over multiple air affiliates via the Jones satellite feed and multiple streaming internet outlets. The landmark broadcast is as a joint effort of Collins, Friedman and VelvetRevolution.us' Election Protection Strike Force effort in coordination with a number of national organizations and sponsors to be announced soon.
All interested networks, air affiliates, and Internet networks are invited to carry this special one-of-a-kind programming free of charge all evening!
This special broadcast is available to any radio station in the country, and stations are welcome to carry as much of the broadcast as they wish. The satellite feed will be on the Jones Starguide system, channel Jones 1 left. For the program clock and traffic information, contact Collins Media Services at 415-258-9467 or email pbcsf@pacbell.net.
While the rest of the media will likely be focusing on the "horse race" on Election Night, Friedman and Collins' special coverage will focus on the issues of election integrity and the massive trouble expected at polling places with new, untested, electronic voting systems -- found to be vulnerable to both failure and tampering -- which now litter the nation's electoral landscape for the first time this year.
Drawing on Collins' and Friedman's considerable knowledge, sources and expertise on these issues, the program will feature live, as they break reports from a raft of high-profile guests, election integrity activists on the ground and callers around the nation. As well, regular reports on the incoming numbers will featured on a regular basis each hour during the broadcast.
The co-hosts will be working with and interviewing many of country's foremost experts on Election Integrity issues across the county, hoping to draw from their team of colleagues and sources including Thom Hartmann in OR, Greg Palast in NY, Bev Harris in WA, Bob Fitrakis in OH and many many more.
Breaking news and interviews will be featured side-by-side with the "horse race" numbers and featured guests will come not just from the Election Integrity Advocacy movement, but also from among the nation's top politicians, newsmakers, journalists and bloggers.
Beginning during Collins' regular daily broadcast on Tuesday (starting 3pm PT, 6pm ET), the special LIVE programming will continue throughout the night until 1am PT (4am ET), or as events warrant and will likely feature live cross-over simulcasts with other Election Night programming as both Friedman and Collins will be interviewed on other networks throughout the night as well. Collins' will be working out of his San Rafael, CA studios and Friedman will be broadcasting from Los Angeles.
We'll soon be announcing some of the air affiliates and Internet networks -- such as WhiteRoseSociety.org in Chicago and KPFTX.org in Houston -- who will be adding capacity and streaming our special live coverage. We expect to be announcing several late-joining sponsors for this revolutionary broadcast shortly as well. Please contact Info@VelvetRevolution.us if you're interested in being a sponsor.
For more detail, please see Velvet Revolution.us' Election Protection Strike Force page at: http://VelvetRevolution.us/ElectionStrikeForce or the Peter B. Collins Radio Show website at: http://www.PeterBCollins.com
..............
Another update this one courtesy of my boss voting out in Pecan Grove in Fort Bend County (CD22).
He said that he was in line for 35 minutes and when he asked about the turnout. According to the polling officials the 35 minute wait was as short as it had been all morning but it was because it was taking people longer to vote than normal. The speculation was that writing in some candidates was slowing people down.
Take that FWIW.
Posted by: Patrick on November 7, 2006 12:22 PMfrom:
Sequoia may help Bush & Co. win
It's possible that Bush & Co. may use Sequoia not just to depict the Democrats as the main perpetrators of election fraud, but to invalidate the elections altogether.
Please skim through this entire post.
I. There is a huge security defect in Sequoia's DRE machines.
snip
(better check those vote totals against the number of voters!!)
snip
This information was obtained in a public records request
You will find it in the AVC Edge with VeriVote Printer Poll Worker's Guide Booklet 5 Troubleshooting Document version 2.01 with date Dec. 29 2005.
II. This defect is nothing new: Sequoia has known about it for some time, according to attorney Paul Lehto, who sued successfully last year to get Sequoia's DREs largely banned in Snohomish County, Washington. Paul writes:
The yellow button issue has been known to Sequoia since it existed (because it's a feature of their system -- manual mode) but even if the implications escaped them when I sued them in April 2005 on, inter alia, the yellow button they certainly were on notice of the issues. See Complaint link at bottom of page at www.votersunite.org/info/lehtolawsuit.asp and look at paragraphs 5.20 to 5.24 (on yellow button facts and allegations)
III. Now, computer expert Bruce O'Dell reveals still more details about Sequoia, and connects the dots:
WARNING
I'm not issuing this warning lightly, but I think it deserves urgent consideration by the EI movement.
Consider the following facts:
1. On November 1 an election judge volunteer in Arapahoe County, CO reported that in their training session, their Sequoia rep was warning about electoral manipulation, especially that BBV (!) was planning election fraud (original note attached below). He specifically used the phrase "mess with the election"!
2. BradBlog and others have reported the Sequoia "Yellow Button" vulnerability http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3714 - to enable switching a machine to allow multiple voting - is exposed and available on Sequoia equipment.
3. NYT and other mainstream media recently emerged from their long slumber to focus on.... Sequoia's ties to Venezuela (read Chavez).
Here's what kept me awake last night - combine all those facts above with the following nightmare scenario:
4. Suppose Democrats win some, even many races by surprising margins; many but not all of these counties turn out to have Sequoia equipment. We are all initially surprised, and before we can figure out what's happening...
5. Anecdotal reports of "people messing with the machines" surface in those jurisdictions, and so suspicion is immediately cast on Democrat "zealots", and, of course - get this - by implication the people who've demonstrated they knew about the vulnerability all along by actually writing about it, and thereby also being open to accusations of "publicizing" the attack to their "followers"!
6. Bottom line: the EI movement would be publicly discredited in a firestorm of vengeful right wing round-the-clock spin, or even forced to attack Democrats who would have won an honest election, but apparently won via a tainted election. And EI's findings about other more serious problems elsewhere would go unheard and we would be taken out of the debate in the crucial post-election debate in either case.
This kind of reverse double-whammy - making Democrats who would have won anyway in an honest count, look guilty of fraud by manipulating the vote too much in their favor - would generate the illusion of a stolen election; one stolen by the Democrats. This is the inverse of what happened in 2000, 2002 and 2004 - which involved generating the illusion of electing their own candidates. Obviously it's the last thing the public expects; even most of the EI movement would be taken by surprise.
The pattern of using an opponent's strengths against them, to enlist them to advance your own cause - while short circuiting theirs - is so. totally. the. MO. of. Karl. Rove. Just ask Dan Rather.
So what do I think we should do? I think pre-emption is our only option.
Raise an immediate publicity and legal campaign to file an injunction to require Sequoia to physically secure the "yellow button" before any of their machines can be used tomorrow!
-Bruce
IV. Remember that the Bush regime is now "investigating" the alleged connection between Sequoia and Venezulea's Huge Chavez:
http://www.nytimes.com
October 29, 2006
U.S. Investigates Voting MachinesÕ Venezuela Ties
By TIM GOLDEN
The federal government is investigating the takeover last year of a leading American manufacturer of electronic voting systems by a small software company that has been linked to the leftist Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez.
The inquiry is focusing on the Venezuelan owners of the software company, the Smartmatic Corporation, and is trying to determine whether the government in Caracas has any control or influence over the firm's operations, government officials and others familiar with the investigation said.
V. Here is where Sequoia's product will be used throughout the nation on Election Day--and, therefore, where the pending Democratic victories may well be NULLIFIED:
As of October, various machines from Sequoia were certified for use in Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THIS DANGER FAR AND WIDE RIGHT NOW
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