From Democratic Underground
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. http://ustogether.org/election04/florida_vote_patt.htm
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. "Touchscreen Voting Problems Reported," Associated Press, November 5.
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. "All Eyes on Ohio," Dan Lothian, CNN, November 3, http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/blog/1...blog/index... ..
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
2 comments:
There are all sorts of problems with the bar chart images posted. One is, where is this data coming from? Two is that some of the states listed are not 100% paper/not paper. So to what degree did evoting influence the vote? Not sure. None-the-less it is odd that exit polls would be so good for some states and not others.
I don't know anyplace where the final exit polls are listed, against the final actuals. What we did here on the News Hour is that the exit poll people put out a warning that Kerry was too high in the exit polls. Apparently, they don't just ask "who did you vote for" but other questions that reflect on accuracy of who the vote was cast for. No, I don't have the questionaire.
And neither do I have the source code for the voting machines. Nobody does. Even then, I don't know how to verify what code was running on the machines.
Here's how you do it: the touch screen puts out coordinates of the touch point, and those signals go to two machines, from different companies: the two machines must match, vote for vote, all day. If the two machines do not get the same vote selection, it is flagged by each machine. Or stopped. And maybe, it beeps before it goes on. There was simply NO concern about accuracy. There was NO failsafe design.
Anyway, it seemed quite silly to rush to new voting machines, but then, I guess it wasn't silly at all. But there is a sure way to know who won: you go to the White House and see who's there. That's the winner.
From here, sure looks like George Bush.
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