Black Box Voting: Poll Tapes in the Trash

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Seth Johnson <seth.johnson () RealMeasures dyndns org>
Date: November 16, 2004 10:22:57 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Black Box Voting: Poll Tapes in the Trash


Dave, for IP if you wish . . .


Seth


> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php? 
> az=view_all&address=104x2704906

Dueling lawyers, election officials gnashing teeth, Votergate.tv
film crew catching it all. (Volusia County, Florida)

Here's what happened so far:

Friday Black Box Voting investigators Andy Stephenson and
Kathleen Wynne popped in to ask for some records. They were
rebuffed by an elections official named Denise. Bev Harris called
on the cell phone from investigations in downstate Florida, and
told Volusia County Elections Supervisor Deanie Lowe that Black
Box Voting would be in to pick up our Nov. 2 Freedom of
Information request, or would file for a hand recount. "No, Bev,
please don't do that!" she exclaimed. But this is the way it has
to be, folks. We didn't back down.

Monday Bev, Andy and Kathleen came in with a film crew and asked
for the FOIA request. Deanie Lowe gave it to us with a smile, but
I noticed that one item, the polling place tapes, were not copies
of the real ones, but instead were new printouts, done on Nov.
15, and not signed by anyone.

I asked to see the real ones, and they told us for "privacy"
reasons we can't have copies of the signed ones. I insisted on at
least viewing them (although refusing to give us copies of the
signatures is not legally defensible, according to our attorney).
They said the real ones were in the County Elections warehouse.
It was quittin' time and we arranged to come back this morning to
review them.

Lana Hires, an employee who gained some notoriety in a Diebold
memo, where she asked for an explanation of minus 16,022 votes
for Gore, so she wouldn't have to stand there "looking dumb" when
the auditor came in, was particularly unhappy about seeing us in
the office. She vigorously shook her head when Deanie Lowe
suggested we go to the warehouse.

Kathleen Wynne and I showed up at the warehouse at 8:15 this
morning. There was Lana Hires looking especially gruff, yet
surprised. She ordered us out. Well, we couldn't see why because
there she was, with a couple other people, handling the original
poll tapes. You know, the ones with the signatures on them. We
stepped out and they promptly shut the door behind us.

There was a trash bag on the porch outside the door. I looked
into it and what do you know, but there were poll tapes in there.
They came out and glared at us. We drove away a small bit, and
then videotaped the license plates of the two vehicles marked
'City Council' member. Others came out to glare and soon all
doors were slammed.

So, we went and parked behind a bus to see what they would do
next. They pulled out some large pylons, which blocked the door.
I decided to go look at the garbage some more. Kathleen
videotaped this. A man came out and I immediately wrote a public
records request for the contents of the garbage bag, which also
contained ballots -- real ones, but not filled out.

A brief tug of war occurred, tearing the garbage bag open. We
then looked through it, as Pete looked on. He was quite friendly.

We collected various poll tapes and other information and asked
if they could copy it for us, for our public records request.
"You won't be going anywhere," said Pete. "The deputy is on his
way."

Yes, not one but two police cars came up and then two county
elections officials, and we all stood around discussing the
merits of my public records request.

They finally let us go, about the time our film crew arrived, and
we all trooped off to the elections office. There, the plot
thickened.

We began to compare the special printouts given to us with the
signed polling tapes from election night. Lo and behold, some
were missing. We also found some that didn't match. In fact, in
one location, precinct 215, an African-American precinct, the
votes were off by hundreds, in favor of George W. Bush and other
Republicans.

Hmm. Which was right? Our polling tape, specially printed on Nov.
15, without signatures, or theirs, printed on Nov. 2, with up to
8 signatures per tape?

Well, then it became even more interesting. Lana Hires took it
upon herself to box up some items from an office, which appeared
to contain -- you guessed it -- polling place tapes. She took
them to the back of the building and disappeared.

Then, voting integrity advocates from Volusia and Broward,
decided now would be a good time to go through the trash at the
elections office. Lo and behold, they found all kinds of memos
and some polling place tapes, fresh from Volusia elections
office.

So, we compared these with the Nov. 2 signed ones and the
"special' ones from Nov. 15 given to us, unsigned, and we found
several of the MISSING poll tapes. There they were: In the
garbage.

So, Kathleen went to the car and got the polling place tapes we
had pulled from the warehouse garbage. My my my. There were not
only discrepancies, but a polling place tape that was signed by
six officials.

This was a bit disturbing, since the employees there told us that
bag was destined for the shredder.

By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly
threatening to charge us extra for the time we took looking at
the real stuff they had withheld from us in our FOIA. Other
lawyers appeared, phoned, people had meetings, Lana glowered at
everyone, and someone shut the door in the office holding the
GEMS server.

Andy then went to get the GEMS server locked down. He also got
the memory cards locked down and secured, much to the dismay of
Lana. They were scattered around unsecured in any way before
that.

We then all agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit,
discuss the hand count that Black Box Voting will require of
Volusia County, and of course, it is time to talk about
contesting the election in Volusia.

Bev Harris
Executive Director
Black Box Voting

Together with Andy, and Kathleen.

xxxooo

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