[extropy-chat] [psl at acm.org: ACTION ALERT: Blackwell purged Ohio Voter Rolls Oct 1st.- Vote Early!]

[Eugen Leitl]

----- Forwarded message from Peter Langston <psl at acm.org> -----

From: Peter Langston <psl at acm.org>
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2006 18:43:42 -0700
To: Peter Langston <MiniFunPeople at psl.to>
Subject: ACTION ALERT: Blackwell purged Ohio Voter Rolls Oct 1st.- Vote Early!
Reply-To: psl at acm.org
User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.7 (Windows/20060909)

Forwarded-by: David Michael <harp at olympus.net>
[I guess October Surprise Season is officially open... -psl]

  Excerpt: "This doesn't eliminate the fact your Diebold System is
utterly hackable, but it certainly explains how Rove plans to drag all your
races into the margin of error so hitting the Diebold Button to steal the
election doesn't look so obvious."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/18/85915/109

  ACTION ALERT: Blackwell purged Ohio Voter Rolls Oct 1st.- Vote Early.
  by KStreetProjector
  Wed Oct 18, 2006 at 05:59:14 AM PDT

A friend, in a position to be present at lunches of GOP insiders here in DC 
called me on Thursday, they know of my ongoing efforts to make hackable 
voting end.

My friend was present as a group of Moderate GOP members with Ohio ties 
lamented how far the party had strayed. There was consensus at the table 
there was no way they should retain control. The table conversation began 
with the assumption they party would lose control in this election. The 
moderates started planning how to take back control of the GOP from the 
extremists.

Then, one insider, probably an extremist, but certainly very close to Mr. 
Ken Mehlman abruptly stopped the conversation. He told table that it was 
impossible they would lose either house. He also predicts an Ohio GOP sweep.

He informed the group that over the last year, in four critical states the 
GOP needs to hold, huge purges of the voter rolls have just been finished.

The insider did not say which four states, but did say Ohio was among them.

His claim was a new Diebold voter registry system had been installed over 
the last year. The last week of July and the first week of August a "test 
run" was made of the systems ability to purge ineligible voters. The purge 
generated names and test letters sent out to 1.2 million Ohio addresses with 
a focus on Universities, Apartment addresses with high turnover. He claims 
they made the letters seem just functionary, but they have an action 
component to avoid being purged from the rolls.

The Insider warmed and said that Blackwell was brilliant in how he did this.
The letter went on for a long time about changes in Ohio voting and security
and suggested people who might have any concerns about their voting status
could come by county offices and confirm their continued voting eligibility
before election day.

He further added, that since it was conducted as a "test" they only sent
letters to a limited number of suspect addresses and "I suspect Blackwell
chose criteria very very favorable for us."

Further the insider stated that Blackwell had only purged the lists after a
full 60 days was given for people to respond. Which means even if a voter
was on the "termination" list, they would still have been eligible to vote
in the primary.

He told they table they believe the purge has probably caught up "hundreds
of thousands of students, activists and wanderers with no real job" would
show up at the polls and have to vote provisionally.

He predicted to the table that tens of thousands of voters will show up on
election day, and once the provisionals are used up will simply not be able
to vote at all.

He also said that this "operation" (The Insiders word, my friend was
specific about this "had turned up a lot of additional fascinating
information including a number of Democrats in elected office who are
registered to vote in several places, and they may explore how to use this
information against them."

I am going to assume, Mr. Blackwell's "test" purge went to no-one registered
GOP. His criteria is something I am trying to get a copy of now.

Friday I called friends in Lorain County and Wayne County Ohio. I told
them this DC tale. Neither of them had voted yet and I asked them if they
could go on Monday to either early vote, or apply for an absentee ballot.
And if possible sit for in the Elections Office for an hour and determine if
anyone was expressing surprise they were no longer registered.

If the sample of 11AM-1PM in Lorain County Ohio and 10AM-11AM in Wayne
County Ohio are true. Then Ohio Democratic Voters had better go and Vote
Early if they plan to vote at all.

At Lorain County, my friend arrived to find a line of over 15 people, many
of whom had come back for a second time, all of them Democrats who had
arrived to vote and been told that Drivers License Information, or in one
case Home Ownership Information had not matched the address provided for
Voter Registration.

In one case a college student had been purged because he had changed dorms
on campus.

In another case a local blue-collar worker had been purged because his voter
registration had only his building address, but his drivers license included
an apartment number. This tiny difference in information had led to his
purging.

While everyone present seemed to have enough information to allow the
records to be updated, my friend told me it was being done by one and only
one clerk and was taking a very long time, about 5 minutes per person to
resolve. Everyone in line confirmed that several voters had given up in
frustration and left.

In Wayne County the sample is smaller, but during the one hour he stated 18
people arrived for absentee ballots or to vote early. Wayne County had 3
Diebold TSX Touch Screens set up for early voters. Of those who arrived
two of them had been provisionally purged. The first was again a student
from a local college, she was sent away and told she had to bring some ID
beyond her student ID to prove she was resident at the College. She was
wearing a Sherrod Brown button. The second was a local guy who owns two
houses on the same block. His drivers license is to the one house where
he keeps his cars, but his voter roll is in his house where he actually
sleeps four houses away. This got resolved with a series of steps that
included filling out two forms, and a clerk having to enter the corrected
information into two separate computers.

As an added bonus, My friend listened in and witnessed 8 retired ladies
getting instructions on how to be poll workers on the new TSX machines. The
instructor was a local elections board member. She was asked many
questions by one of the retirees and her answer to almost all of them was "I
don't know how it works, I just know how we are supposed to use it"

Get ready Ohio.

This story also may explain Mr. Blackwell's sudden discovery of the "two
homes and is he really a qualified Voter" now facing Strickland.

This Blackwell discovery of Mr. Strickland is actually "by-catch" of the
much larger net thrown to eliminate hundred of thousands of democrats from
the voting rolls.

ACTION: Get to your election boards, bring all the documentation you can.
Demand a paper absentee ballot. Alert everyone you know in Ohio.

Good luck out there. This doesn't eliminate the fact your Diebold System
is utterly hackable, but it certainly explains how Rove plans to drag all
your races into the margin of error so hitting the Diebold Button to steal
the election doesn't look so obvious.

He has taken away your right to vote based on any piece of mismatched
information in your state records.

I would expect that would be nearly everyone if the test was applied across
the board. But I suspect it was not done that way by Mr. Blackwell.

It might be worth other states starting to look at this issue as well.

They are very much in love with the power they have my friends. I am
increasingly afraid this one ends as another of my friends now says very
often: "By Feeding the Tree of Liberty."

----- End forwarded message -----
-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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