Fwd: [HoCoDFA] FW: REPORT ON THE US VOTING SYSTEM

[Guest guest]

Hi, I'm sending this email from another group I belong to. It shows

clearly that there was voter fraud in Ohio. I conclude that

many potential Democratic voters were disenfranchised. This means

that the predictions made by many of the learned astrologers were

correct. Had the voters been allowed to vote with no fraud, Kerry

would be president. Breanna

Mon, 8 Nov 2004 08:12:51

-0500

[HoCoDFA] FW: REPORT ON THE US VOTING SYSTEM

HoCoDFA-owner

Hi, everyone. I thought you should all see this important

message from

Robin Pickering. Many of you know her as the person who so

tirelessly

organized all of those bus trips to West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

It's a

long message, but VERY important - please take the time to read it.

Thanks a lot!

Dawn

 

Robin Pickering

[robin.pickering (AT) verizon (DOT) net]

Sunday, November 07, 2004 10:53 PM

Pickering, Robin

REPORT ON THE US VOTING SYSTEM

Hi all

First, I want to thank everyone for everything that you did to try to

secure

a victory for John Kerry and for democracy in this election. I know that

all

of you gave whatever time, money, and effort you were able to, and I

thank

you from the bottom of my heart for participating in the greatest

grassroots

effort in history. We registered voters, delivered literature,

talked

face-to-face to voters, and talked to them on the phone. We walked

and

talked out hearts out and demonstrated our belief in our country and

the

principles upon which it was founded.

Unfortunately, the main thing that is clear to me after working in Ohio

for

the four days preceding the election is that we must now fight with the

same

commitment and passion to fix the complete shambles that is our

voting

system. It is a voting system that is so broken, in so many ways, as to

be

ineffectual, inaccurate, and subject to extreme doubt and skepticism.

Please

pass this information on to all of your contacts. The citizens of

our

country deserve to know what really happened.

In Ohio, it was clear that vote changing, voter suppression, voter

intimidation, and inadequate numbers of voting machines in poor,

minority,

and student population voting precincts had a lot more to do with

the

results of this election than anything legitimate. Voting machine

"malfunctions" including switched votes, unrecorded

presidential votes, and

crashed machines were numerous in these same voting precincts.

Here is what I can personally attest to:

RNC "workers" were in our hotel. They were not there to do

literature drops,

canvas, or to make sure that people knew where their polling places were,

as

we were. One of them tried to infiltrate one of our hotel rooms (I

removed

him) to gather information on our activities. He and another RNC

lawyer

followed some of the canvassers the next day to try to intimidate

them,

telling them that they were "putting them on notice, that what they

were

doing was breaking federal law" (among other more vile things). What

the

canvassers were doing was distributing ACT literature. These

"people" were

there to go inside the polls to challenge Democratic voters to

intimidate

them and suppress the Democratic vote.

After the polls closed, I talked to an Election Protection project

worker

who told me of the polling place in Youngstown where he worked that day.

It

had only three electronic touch screen voting machines. The lines

were

extremely (at the very least 3 to 4 hours) long. People were leaving

and

coming back multiple times trying to vote. Some were complaining that

they

had to work and could not miss the time from work or they would lose

money

that they could not afford to lose, or worse, lose their jobs. Youngstown

is

a very depressed, high-unemployment city.

He told me that the machines were flickering and bouncing around on

the

right hand side of the machine for at least half the day. He had

multiple

reports of people trying to vote for Kerry and it being recorded as

Bush.

The EP workers tried to get to everyone as they were going into the

polling

place to tell them that if they changed their vote three times, the

ballot

would be spoiled. They told them to get an election judge. Many did not

get

the message and/or they just could not wait around any longer. After

all,

there were only two other machines to go to if their machine would

not

record the vote properly. Finally, at around midday the voting

machine

company technicians came and "recalibrated" the machines. The

flickering

stopped. The vote changing did not.

Below are the findings from another Election Protection project lawyer

who

came on our bus. We were in Mahoning and Trumbull counties. These

are

heavily Democratic counties, which we did win by large margins, but it

looks

like we should have won them by far more from all of these

reports.

1. Too few polling machines, particularly

for rush-hour voting, poorer

areas/large numbers of people. (3 to 4 hours at the very least, some

waited

up to 8 and 9 hours)

2. Numerous calls reported, "There are

not enough machines. We need

more people."

3. Machines were breaking down. One polling

location had only two

machines for very large group. (9 calls)

4. There were many reports throughout the

day of non-functioning

machines. Many people were getting frantic. Others were leaving. Many

were

demanding that paper ballots be sent. This Election Protection

project

lawyer and the others at her calling center tried to call ES&S to

tell them

that machines were malfunctioning. The Board of Elections said the

machines

had calibration problems and someone would come out. The Board of

Elections

was inundated with calls about the machines malfunctioning.

5. There were numerous reports of voters

trying to select Kerry and

Bush was selected on the screen instead. The voters would try repeatedly

to

get Kerry to come up. Voters were only allowed three "pushes."

They were

told they could request a different machine, but of course by the time

they

were on the phone with the Election Protection project workers, it must

have

been too late.

6. There were also reports of voters

getting to the review screen and

seeing "No Selection." For president. This was often at the

same polling

places where machines were breaking down. Voters could not get their

vote

for Kerry for president to register.

7. Numerous reports of "Presidential

choice not selected." Ballot would

not register "Kerry".

8. There were also reports of many

Republican challengers at polling

locations and no Democratic challengers. This Election Protection

project

lawyer had at least one voter who was told by a Republican challenger

that

she was not on the list at her polling place. When she called the Board

of

Elections office they told her that she was indeed a registered voter in

the

proper precinct. An Election Protection project person had to make calls

to

ensure that the voter could vote. How many other voters allowed

themselves

to be turned away by the GOP challengers?

9. Another GOP challenger asked a voter for

a Green Card in order to

get a provisional ballot. The voter called in to find out what a Green

Card

is. Of course this was a trick. Voters must be citizens.

10. Machines at some polls had to be re-set after every voter. This

took so

long that people started to leave. This Election Protection project

lawyer

and her colleagues sent food out to the voters. They sent food out to

voters

at different precincts at least three times during the day to encourage

them

to stay in line.

11. Issue 1 "Defense of Marriage" was holding up line.

Voters did not

understand what the issue, Defense of Marriage, meant. (LOL, you gotta

laugh

at this one)

12. One Election Protection project lawyer bought 6 lamps and

extension

cords after numerous reports came in of a polling place that was so

dark

both inside and out that voters could not see to vote. It was gray and

dark

and raining for much of the day in northern Ohio. People were waiting

in

line for multiple hours in the rain.

13. Many people in one poor, black, polling location had their

water turned

off, if their bill was un-paid, coincidentally, on the morning of

the

election. The Water Department/utility told voters to stay home to

wait

until the matter was resolved, because the voters needed to let someone

into

their unit. The Zell Milleresque Democratic mayor of Youngstown

endorsed

George W. Bush. The Water Department/utility company did not come.

This

Election Protection project worker and colleagues went to the peoples'

homes

so some of the voters could vote.

14. Voters cars were being ticketed. Voters felt their cars were

properly

parked. This was reported in both Mahoning County and Trumbull

County.

15. No provisional ballot was offered to a man who filled

in/requested an

absentee ballot, but did not receive the absentee ballot. When he

arrived,

he could not get a provisional ballot.

Note: Reports are now coming out that many people in Ohio who

requested

absentee ballots did not receive them. Some of these voters who did

not

receive their absentee ballot were given a provisional ballot when they

went

to the polling place, others were not, still others had to have

Election

Protection project people fight to get them their provisional ballots.

How

many walked away disenfranchised?

Next is a report from an attorney who went to Columbus, Ohio to monitor

the

election. What he describes shows how widespread and organized the

Republicans' deception was:

I worked for 3 days, including Election Day, on the statewide voter

protection hotline run by the Ohio Democratic Party in Columbus,

Ohio.

I am writing this because the media is inexplicably whitewashing

what

happened in Ohio, and Kerry's concession was likewise

inexplicable.

Hundreds of thousands of people were disenfranchised in Ohio. People

waited

on line for as long as 10 hours. It appears to have only happened in

Democratic-leaning precincts, principally:

(a) precincts where many African Americans lived, and

(b) precincts near colleges.

I spoke to a young man who got on line at 11:30 AM and voted at 7 PM.

When

he left at 7 PM, the line was about 150 voters longer than when he'd

arrived, which meant those people were going to wait even longer. In

fact

they waited for as much as 10 hours, and their voting was concluded at

about

3 AM. The reason this occurred was that they had 1 voting station per

1000

voters, while the adjacent precinct had 1 voting station per 184.

Both

precincts were within the same county, and managed by the same county

board

of elections. The difference between them is that the privileged

polling

place was in a rural, solidly republican, area, while the one with

long

lines was in the college town of Gambier, OH.

Lines of 4 and 5 hours were the order of the day in many

African-American

neighborhoods.

Touch screen voting machines in Youngstown OH were registering

"George W.

Bush" when people pressed "John F. Kerry" ALL DAY LONG.

This was reported

immediately after the polls opened, and reported over and over again

throughout the day, and yet the bogus machines were inexplicably kept in

use

THROUGHOUT THE DAY.

Countless other frauds occurred, such as postcards advising people

of

incorrect polling places, registered Democrats not receiving

absentee

ballots, duly registered young voters being forced to file

provisional

ballots even though their names and signatures appeared in the voting

rolls,

longtime active voting registered voters being told they weren't

registered,

bad faith challenges by Republican "challengers" in Democratic

precincts,

and on and on and on.

I was very proud of the way so many Ohioans fought so valiantly for

their

right to vote, and would not be turned away. Many, however, could not

spend

the entire day and were afraid of losing their jobs, due to the

severe

economic depression hitting Ohio.

I do not understand why Kerry conceded and did not fight to ensure that

all

Ohioans would have a chance to vote, and for their vote to be

counted.

Ray

Ray Beckerman

Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP

99 Park Ave (Ste 1600)

New York, NY 10016

NOTE FROM Jackson Thoreau who sent this out over the PStreet :

There are many, many similar reports of fraud committed by

Republicans

throughout the country. The exit polls showing a Kerry victory were

RIGHT!

The election WAS stolen AGAIN! The question is: What are we going to

do

about it this time? For one, we have to keep seeking the truth on

this

election and exposing the Republicans' dirty deeds. We can't continue to

let

them get away with this. The only way this will stop is if we expose

their

dirty deeds to the light of day. --Jackson

Here are some Web sites for you to check out with more

information:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/#breaking

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1106-30.htm

http://www.vindy.com/basic/news/281829446390855.php

I believe it is time to have a LARGE meeting to discuss what can be

done

about this situation. In Baltimore, Kristina Heatherman is

spearheading

efforts to get this meeting set up for this Wednesday evening. I hope

that

those of you in Montgomery County and DC will do likewise. If you would

like

to attend a meeting this week in Baltimore to discuss these and

other

problems that have been uncovered in Ohio and other states, please

contact

Kristina at: Kristinaheather (AT) aol (DOT) com

At the very least, let's get this information into the mainstream press.

If

we scream loud enough maybe we can at least start to get our democracy

back!

Warm Regards,

Robin

 

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