UFO Blasts Pinellas County Elections Office with anti-technology-ray

Riddle me this: How else do you explain what you are about to read?

Here's the official story. In Pinellas County, ballots from 299 precincts were counted BY HAND between close of polling and 11 p.m.? Why BECAUSE NOTHING WORKED! The whole county. For a while there, about 90 minutes the rest of the county, state, nation, the planet, moved forward in time. Whereas the Supervisor of Elections Office and all its precincts and polling places, returned to the absolute native state. It's like a magical UFO swept over and using some sort of cosmic ray, blasted a hole in the technosphere ONLY on the Pinellas Supervisor of Elections office.

Because these glitch stories are pulled off of media web sites so damned fast after they are published, or the links are intentionally buried so hard you can't find them anymore, I have to screen capture this one since it is just so absurd. Here is the official word coming through Tampa Bay Online regarding the Pinellas County superglitch.

So, they hand counted ballots from 299 precincts between 7 p.m. when they discovered the problem and 11 p.m.? All those precincts? There are upwards of 300 ballots per precinct. Times 299 of them? How many choices per ballot? Hand counted, huh?

Or, is THIS more accurate or more complete, coming from Tampa Bay Times? Again, these links are getting buried by the hour, harder to find as the clock ticks, and even the explanation in this more complete story - one which will never ever ever be followed up on by a swill headed cowardly media - is so obscenely absurd as to defy belief. So too, the idea that they would long let anyone link to it for very long, well forget it. They'll kill this fast because their reporting makes no sense and they know it. So because of that, I will screen capture while the link still exists.

So once again, nothing downloaded. Perhaps having learned from what happened in Hillsborough they are keen not to mention any particular piece of equipment as being the culprit. It's all sort of a melange of half explanations. From the reporting you can't get a sense on whether the computers went dead or the network did, or the cards failed to upload. Again, someone tried to vote all over the county, and the votes registered on those machines because the ballots were fed through.

But we're on the other side of the state from Volusia County, and the SAME evil is creeping in here: they won't dare share how many ballots precisely are affected, even though with 299 precincts we're talking about thousands, tens of thousands. Hell, read it: they are talking about a complete top-to-bottom do-over. They took ALL the memory cards - they call them "memory sticks" in Pinellas - and once again, just like in the case of Hillsborough, they had to rush them around in the middle of the night under "emergency conditions" and in this case re-do it all over.

Again, the supervisor of elections voted the deciding ballots, not the voters. And this is neat because, this TOTALLY avoids a recount.

Worst case, this is disenfranchisement folks. Best case? Can you trust this result? At this time all results in all Pinellas races remain unofficial.

Someone seems to have a need to mess with votes in and around Tampa Bay. One poster at the Tampa Bay Online site said this was a "dry run" for the total disenfranchisement of the Pinellas vote in the general election. And, can you fault him for believing it?

In perhaps a related note as we face the general election, Pinellas County's elections supervisor has no problem displaying open partisanship on her FACEBOOK PAGE.

Ok so she "liked" a No-Bama page.  And then she left it there for all the world to see. Well there's a page for the DEC there too, just below it but, the first thing you see blazing out of the blue is this page "I will not vote for Obama in 2012" and she liked the page. Come on. That's pushing it. Especially in light of this monstrously huge screw up.

You have to wonder, if the voters of the state swallow this, if we don't get upset, isn't that the "steal sign" they are looking for from second base?

THE GLITCH, THE GLITCH IS BACK, IN VOLUSIA COUNTY FLORIDA

Volusia County, uh-GIN! More than ten memory cards fail to upload their data. Yes, Volusia County uses Dominion voting machines.

And now, Volusia's SOE Ann McFall must explain how, why this happened, if the slow media is inclined to get off the porch and hunt for answers (big if). You may remember McFail as the Florida election's supervisor who wasn't going all-in on the voter purge list. Though a republican, she told the Orlando Sentinel "you are more likely to find voter fraud than getting struck with a bolt of lightning." She also told Governor Rick Scott the list she got had so many inaccuracies, she purged the list, not the voters on it.

Are these two things related? Unknown at this time.

So now here's a glitch very reminiscent of the one in Hillsborough! Just look.

From the Daytona News Journal 8/15/12

Hillsborough's glitch of 2010 was allegedly the result of 12 memory cards failing to upload their data. Volusia's was 15. The failure in both cases allegedly was one of inability transmit through the secure network, But for some reason, the votes kept going through the machine on first go. I have been told by workers at the Brevard supervisor of elections that IF the ballot is going through the scanner, it IS being counted, face up, face down, it doesn't matter which. So, in both cases, the machine accepts the ballot but cannot feed the results over the network? Totally unacceptable. And, how can this happen? They were all made aware of the Hillsborough glitch during one of their secret meetings! Wouldn't this bug be worked out?

What was different in this case? Apparently, Volusia learned from Hillsborough's "mistake" if it is indeed that. In Volusia's case "replacement cards were tested and sent to the 18 affected precincts."  This, rather than suspiciously and haphazardly driving ballots around in the middle of the night, to one single location where the people ramming them through scanners have no idea whether or not they were indeed voted where they were supposed to be voted, or they were the result of a swap-out.

But WOW! 18 LOCATIONS? Again, this is a rescanning job of perhaps thousands of ballots. Which means, in this case, again, the ballots were "voted" not by the citizens, but by a poll worker, or a staff member, over and over again, until more than a thousand. Totally unacceptable.

Here, no numbers are given to the media. Apparently they have learned something evil from the Hillsborough case in that the idea is not to reveal precise-ish figures which may be shocking - albeit useful - to the citizens. Can't have that.

Obviously, we need to get into this one. And we are going to. Highly suspect. Same error as Hillsborough.

This photo shows the obvious lapses in custody chain that seem to plague the entire system, statewide. Note the personal vehicle of the worker. No one riding along with her to make sure no switcheroo? She just sort hands the ballot bag and the memory cards out? Is this how it works? And there's no chance this person is partisan one way or another, right? I mean just look at that bumper sticker. I support the troops too. But, this just makes me queasy.

From Daytona News Journal 8/15/12

The other weird thing about this glitch is this: the last paragraph of that news story: the number of signatures, and the number of ballots voted, didn't match up. What? Yes. They take your signature, as well as look at your ID here. Then they check to make sure the number of those match with the number of ballots cast. In one precinct, these didn't match. That means the machine was either miscounting, it started with fewer or more numbers on it, when voting began, or votes were added or subtracted during the count, or unregistered voters wandered in and voted.

You decide.

Meanwhile, Volusia wasn't alone. Even weirder, is what happened in Pinellas.

Citizen Exit Poll 2012

Citizen Exit Poll 2012’ first exit poll a great success!

Thank you to all that worked a shift at our poll today, you did a great job!

We are posting the Citizen Exit Poll 2012 raw data from the exit poll conducted at Precinct 310 in Melbourne, FL on Primary Election Day, August 14, 2012.

The exit poll went smoothly with no problems and we had a voter exit poll response of 62%.

A few voters were not quite sure they remembered who they had voted for and 4 voters checked off more candidates than allowed for an office, which have some effect on the accuracy of our totals.  However, from our raw data, our exit polls were very close to the official precinct totals when adjusted for the percent of voter response.

Since we had 62% of the voters respond to our exit poll, when we take 62% of the precinct official total votes, our results are fairly accurate.  Below is our raw data from our exit poll:

Candidate	Exit Poll total votes	Precinct total votes	62% of Precinct totals
US Senator
Glen A. Burkett	17	28	17
Connie Mack	34	52	32
Mike McCalister	7	20	12
Bill Nelson	57	92	57
Marielena Stuart	6	11	7
Dave Weldon	124	193	120

Candidate	Exit Poll total votes	Precinct total votes	62% of Precinct totals
State Rep. District 53
John Paul Alvarez	32	46	29
Edward (Ed) Lewis Geier	31	53	33
Tres Holton	37	50	31
John Tobia	99	153	95
Lauren Trent	16	32	20
County Judge Group 10
Judy Atkin	140	236	146
Sean C. Cutshall	38	51	32
Morris Richardson	53	88	55

This shows that exit polls are indeed an accurate and credible indicator of the accuracy of precinct official totals.

Are YOU a Fake Democrat? Do you know one?

Democrats defend democracy. This, is their first instinct.
The instinct to defend democracy rises above any and all partisan issues. It concerns itself not with the color of the signs nor the t-shirt when democracy itself is in peril. The instinct will gladly ignore temporal considerations, social calendars, fashion, gossip, less meaningful action, when the right to vote is in doubt.
Real democrats - not fake ones - rise immediately to the side of democracy itself; the sanctity and the right to vote, first, and always, when that right has been challenged, when it is in doubt.
The woman's right to choose, was only made possible, by the woman's right to vote. When the right to vote is then imperiled, protesting threats upon the right to choose, are meaningless. The vote will be subverted, followed by the right to choose, followed by the right to protest.
Fait accompli 
We are experiencing the joy of the election season! Hooray for us and our causes! It will be our last, and dearly and too late, will we bemoan the loss, when these elections are stolen from us.

Bev Harris going through the trash in the movie, "Hacking Democracy" at the Viera SOE office, in 2004

If you can believe it, if you dare stomach this dreadful truth; that they who take these seats of office,  determine for us everything from the fate of our lives, to our schools, to the condition of our infrastructure, to the very the survival of our military personnel, not to mention billions and billions of dollars. And because of this latter element, there are those - if you can for a moment live in the adult and sober world - who are paid informants, misleaders, fake protesters, and yes, even fake candidates.
By their actions you shall know them.
First and foremost fake democrats DO NOT defend democracy. Witness a radio broadcaster who refuses to discuss the substantive issues, or prevents perfectly logical arguments from flowing on his or her airspace. The radio and television airwaves are chock-filled with such misleaders, such fake democrats.
Do you know any?
Witness the protest organizer who leads the masses down a merry chase concerning issues which are gone, barely through one weekly news cycle. Leads them to bars thereafter to commiserate with the masses using damnable pity and self defeating talk, rather than urging they who follow to do anything about what is happening. The protest organizer who leads the group to a corner that no one cares about, or can even see:
Are these real, or are they fake democrats?
Witness any candidate who will hold up a sign for themselves, but will not urge you to vote; nor will they urge you to protect the vote.
Can these people be trusted? Are they real democrats or fake ones? Were they sent to us, are they being paid to say one thing, do another?
There are organizers who corral well-intended people, only to get in the way of the mission they allegedly purport to champion. Are they inept, or is something else going on?
The democrat defends democracy. First, foremost, always.

Harris wrestling a Volusia County election official for a trash bag containing  public records, evidence of an "error" in the election. By the way, she's from Washington...the state!

Exit polling defends democracy.  Real democrats DO exit polling. They participate in them.
There is no cynical side-mouthed slovenly argument that bears any scrutiny that the state of Florida enjoys actual democracy. Our voting history is the laughingstock of planet earth. There are problems with our machines, and our duly appointed officials set to monitor them. These can fill volumes and yet nothing, ever gets done. We have a state run by criminals, still, at the highest level.
Just, read!
Is it just those evil bad people again and again we whine and cry about, like so many miserable babies, in our slogans and our shirts and signs? Or have we like dutiful fake, false, hypocritical, non-democrats actually facilitated the evil through our cowardly refusal to see truth. Not fake, corporate truth fed to you by cheering mega-egos giving smidgens of light between car commercials, but real truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Are YOU a fake democrat? Are you?
The lazy sneering argument "all is well". Listen to it, and you would do well to watch from whose mouth it slips, if you actually value democracy. If you are a real democrat ask where they are coming from? All is not well. This is no simple matter. We are in a crisis.
It shouldn't be "weird" or "inconvenient" or "weirdly inconvenient" or kookoo to participate in, or even help conduct, an exit poll, in any county.
As a democrat - a true democrat, not a fake one - it should be your first instinct after voting itself.

Murders Spies Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story

Clear as Mud?

Basically, the supervisor of elections is going to provide no information on what is acceptable when it comes to operating an exit poll. Oh, but, you can do one, so there's really no problem.

Most exit polls require the proper collection of data. The organizer of the group I am working with suggests using a clip board with questions on it. Does the clip board require the use of paper? Yes. Is use of a paper and a clip board solicitation? The SOE won't get specific, but perhaps it is, which is a no-no.

Clue: if they catch you doing something which in their view is "disruptive" or "illegal" during your exit polling, they can shut you down and all your data is rendered meaningless. Good for them. No oversight to see if the election is being handled fairly and accurately. Why would they ever ever ever tell you what behavior specifically crosses the line? It's not in their best interest to behave in a manner that is even-handed!

Surely this is paranoid thinking you say. Is it?

In the previous post we see the attorney for the division urging the outreach coordinator to outreach to anyone wishing to conduct such a poll. His response is to contact the attorney, whose response is as follows.

Clear as mud? Not even.

Intimidation by other means

You're gonna want to be careful when you conduct an exit poll. If you've approached your county elections supervisor, county commission and asked about conducting a fair election - and let's say you've even mentioned the machines - you may be on someone's radar.

A group of loosely affiliated residents concerned for the sanctity of the vote has approached the supervisor about the voting machines. They want to conduct exit polling to ensure that the vote count isn't something totally different than the exit poling data. In Florida, as in the nation in the modern age, this is the ONLY legal way to capture ANY data whatsoever about how well, how fairly, the election was handled. The other way of course is blind trust; which, doesn't always work out in our favor.

I was surprised to see this correspondence between the assistant general counsel for the Florida Division of Elections, Bennett Miller and our SOE's public outreach coordinator, Eddie Thompson here in Brevard County.

If you look at the first paragraph, second sentence you read Miller telling Thompson "you advised you are concerned someone engaged in otherwise lawful exit polling, may also engage in picketing, voter education, or other disruptive behavior."

I just got off the phone with Mr. Thompson. After a little coaxing he admitted that the fact we were convinced "the machines were rigged" that he wanted to know what resources were at the office's disposal, what legal remedies could be used in assuring an election free of disruption.

I corrected him of course. I certainly never said all the machines were rigged or even that Brevard's "were rigged" I am convinced however, that they are "riggable." And, see the difference?

Cut to the chase: Mr. Thompson he didn't know precisely what constitutes legal exit polling. He did say he certainly thought what we were planning sounded legal, but he thought I should check with Mr. Miller and CC him the exchange so he would know too. Which I did.

There's two interesting points about this. One, Thompson is assuming worst case scenario which - I am sorry - isn't fair. Two, "voter education". You can't educate? If someone asks who I am and what this is about, I might just have to tell them the accuracy of the election is what I am there to ensure, if I can. Next natural question from them might be "why would you want to do that? Aren't they accurate and fair always?" And the answer is?

No. They are not. The machines, as we have said repeatedly, as has been borne out in the record of this blog through the example exposed in Hillsborough county, and hundreds more, are woefully unreliable, at best. Used to rig elections at worst.

They are riggable. They have been used to rig elections in this country, in this state. And there's no catching them because the machine companies, tied in to those who do the rigging, not only control the elections, but have exclusive rights to find the cause of the glitches, and erase all trace of the "errors." Only they can see what precisely went wrong because the code is protected under trade secrets. Vote goes in, result comes out. The rest is a black box, in the flow chart with a big red question mark on it.

Black Box Voting a well respected, honored resource on this sort of voting has taken its name from this concept: that, we the people, have no idea what goes on in there, and by strange turn of corporate-tames-government, we are denied, denied, denied the right to know. And it looks, feels, sounds, and tastes like they want to do away with our right to even ask.

Here, what I am sort of learning from Thompson in our brief conversation, I am drifting in the realm of "educating" the public when I explain why an exit poll is important. I certainly can't hand them any fliers telling them who I am. That's right out. But, sort of, according to Thompson, I may be drifting into illegal behavior by even explaining why I do what I am doing.

If you check the statute referenced in the email, you see that it gives the county the right and duty to park a deputy at these poling places. That deputy has the right and duty to control what happens there. In my county, the deputy has the right to control you pretty much anywhere, in practice. You ask them in your county and see if you don't get an honest, quick response. He can look at you, tell you to leave, and then arrest you if you don't, and you'll explain it to a judge.

We had four people at the meeting last night of those mildly if meekly interested in conducting exit polls in the county. This correspondence had its desired effect from the elections supervisors point of view.

"Look I can't afford to get arrested for this. I don't know..."

You like that? That's how intimidation works these days. Also, and I am no lawyer, but Mr. Thompson's initial line of inquiry has a whiff of something called "prior restraint" to it. Am I wrong? Prior restraint is when you go ahead and anticipate illegal behavior on the part of citizens. And it's still illegal as a means to begin curtailing their rights, ahead of time. Although it happens all the time with these "Free Speech Zones" and containment pens we see for protesters.

Think about it while I wait for a reply from the Florida Division of Elections concerning what is and what is not legal in the conduct of an election poll.

It may just come down to this. Any behavior - a wrong word, the bare utterance of "voting machines" or perhaps a sideways glance - the election supervisor "feels" is disruptive, will give him or her the pretext to end you little election exit poll right then and there. You'll be talking to a deputy who is pointing toward the highway behind you.

Which is just fine for the supervisor. They can look into the camera, smile real purty and say "everything here is running smoothly" and the lap-dog media will regurgitate it to the masses in between the car commercials.