[announce-gpco] Re: GPUS vote fraud plea & Charlie "Being an election judge"

[Bruce McNaughton]

Thanks for your election judge story, Charlie.  Below is my report to Colorad-
oans for Voting Integrity (CFVI) on observing the Denver County Election 
Commission's central tabulation process on Election Day night.

I also participated in a `precinct survey' in the two days following Election 
Day, driving around Lakewood precincts collecting data from the voting 
machine `results tapes' that are required to be posted at each polling place for 
forty-eight hours after the polls close.  Data from Denver, Jefferson, Adams 
and Arapahoe Counties are now being analyzed by CFVI for evidence of 
machine malfunction, tampering, fraud, etc.  (see  http://www.cfvi.org   or call
303-444-6981 x5 Carolyn with electronic voting and counting machine
stories, or to volunteer.)  

BlackBoxVoting.org, a national group based in Seattle WA, is also working
on the very suspect results of Election Day 2004.  Using core documents
obtained through public information requests, insider information, and other
sources, BBV is engaged in a major electronic voting machine sleuthing
operation.  (see  http://www.blackboxvoting.org  for regular updates and
volunteer opportunities.)

FairVoteColorado.org had hundreds of poll-monitor volunteers at precincts
on Election Day helping voters with voting rights issues, misinformation,
voter intimidation, the Secretary of State's last minute rules changes, etc.
They have offices at the Bighorn Public Policy Center, 1700 Lincoln St.,
Denver CO 80203  (see  http://www.fairvotecolorado.org  )

Let's get corporations out of our elections.

BMcN

---

Denver County Colorado-- central tabulation process -- 2 Nov 04

I spent most of Election Day 2004 in the polling place at Denver precinct #534,
St John's Cathedral, 1350 Washington St.  The three Sequoia AVC Advantage
DRE voting machines were already set up and tested when I entered the room 
at 6:45 a.m. to be sworn in as a poll-watcher.

The four election judges present were friendly and competent.  There were long 
lines of voters all day.  There was about an hour wait to vote.  There were no 
machine problems while I was in the room.  I left the room at 4 p.m. to serve as
a poll-monitor for FairVote.org, at the entrance of precinct #534, and across the
street at precinct #532, Morey Middle School.

The Denver Election Commission Judge's Handbook tells workers to call 
303-698-4912 if there are troubles with voting machines.

At 7 p.m. I arrived at the Denver Election Commission offices at 14th & Bannock.
The lobby was packed with people still waiting to vote, media, volunteers and
election workers.  I was issued a badge and told to wait for the tabulation room
to open.

At about eight o'clock I was ushered into the tabulation room and told to stand 
only in the "bullpen" -- a cordoned area about four feet by ten feet at the back
(west) of the room.  Seated at the keyboard directly in front of me, his monitor 
screen facing me and about nine feet from me, was Rocky, the DEC's main techie.  
Rocky's machine collected the information from the four other computers in the
tabulating room.  Seated at a terminal to Rocky's left was Lisa, DEC's support rep 
from Sequoia Pacific, Inc., the voting machine outfit.  Her screen also faced me,
and collected data from another part of the building where absentee and early-
voting ballots were being processed, to be fed to Rocky's machine.  

Further to the front of the room (east) were two computers with peripheral ports 
into which data from the "results cartridges" being delivered from the individual 
voting booths in precincts all over the county were being downloaded by two 
women.  As soon as a cartridge was plugged into the port of one of the machines
its screen would show the cartridge number in the left hand column and a vote
total in the right hand column.  A porter was kept busy supplying trays of cart-
ridges (and the accompanying paper "results report" from each machine to the 
tally machine workers.

To the left of Lisa in the forground, with its screen at ninety degrees to Lisa and 
Rocky's machines, was another computer sitting against the north wall.  I surmised
its function to be for troublshooting, as it was used intermittently by Rocky, Lisa
and some techie manager type who popped in and out of the room giving orders
and decisions.

All in all the process appeared to go smoothly enough, with the tally workers pop-
ping cartridges in and out of the far two machines as fast as they could physically
handle the VHS-tape-sized storage devices.  There were regular "Summary Re-
ports" printed from the compiled data on Rocky's machine, and distributed to
everyone with a green "official Pass" badge: media, observers, etc.  The process
bogged down three times due, apparently to the tally machines being unable to
read a cartridge -- at which point, Rocky, Lisa and the manager type would huddle
around the what-I-call `troubleshooting' computer.  At one point, Rocky went over
to a tally machine at the far wall, came back with four cartridges and their paper
`results reports' and entered the tally information manually into his computer.

Because I couldn't read even the screens closest to me (Rocky's and Lisa's), I
broke out a pair of binoculars from my bag (thank you, Bev Harris), and was imm-
ediately landed on by two election officials who told me no binoculars or recording
devices were allowed in the tabulation room.  I was in there, I was told, to observe
the process, not to read the numbers, [and error codes, etc.]  All the information
was posted to the Denver Elections Commission website, they said, and would be
available in the morning in paper hardcopy at the main desk, a CD in a few days.
http:www.denvergov.org/electioncommission  

Sunny Maynard joined me in the tabulating room at about nine p.m.  We watched 
the process for a while, looked at the "Summary Reports" handed out by DEC
media-relations guy Allen evry fifteen minutes or so, and got chewed-out by 
Allen and elections official Karen Hatchett for asking questions of Rocky and Lisa.

All in all, I'd have to characterize the central tabulation-observing process as
fairly adversarial and minimally informative.  Sunny and I left the DEC building at
about ten-thirty p.m., in the dark.

Ralph was right.

Bruce McNaughton


  

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