Monday, November 5, 2012

DEMS Need to Act NOW to Ward off OHIO THEFT!

 IN the wake of a bevy of new polling data showing President Obama's lead in swing states increasing, and also nationally, the degree of the Right-Romniacs' desperation has become ever more apparent. They are now prepared to not merely lie in their ads, but do a full court press to eliminate Democratic votes wholesale in the critical states of Florida and Ohio. THIS is the only way these disreputable turds can win tomorrow because they know a minority of Americans - mostly yahoos from the Old Confederacy, and rich 0.1% fucker-Plutocs-  accept their policy positions of "less government".

In two previous blogs I discussed at length the modus operandi for voter suppression at work in Florida, relying mainly on cutting the early voting days and thereby generating immensely long voter delay times which try voters' patience and lead all but the most determined and hardiest to bail out. With wait times in some Broward and Dade precincts as long as EIGHT hours, who in their right mind could expect a disabled voter, or one who's 7 or 8 months pregnant to stand in line so long, or one 75 or older. My mom, a frail 90, and unable to even walk two steps without a walker, has had to forego her franchise because of the long delays, times. This is not right.

Now, enter Ohio, which I warned in an earlier blog could be the scene of voter theft via electronic voting machines, e.g. http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/10/how-rove-romney-co-can-steal-election.html

While some dimwit bloggers on the Right have snidely dismissed this as "conspiracy theory"  (actually comparing it to the Oswald double in the JFK assassination), the fact is that these machines - as I showed - do have the potential to snatch votes or surreptitiously shift them using specially designed program file cards inserted in the machines. Anyone who'd dispute this is either in massive denial or a consummate dope who doesn't aprpeciate the nuances or design of many of these machines.

Now, as if to underscore this, we learn that the OHIO Repuke Reich has instigated the installation of a new "computer patch" which is uncertified and is being installed at the last minute on electronic vote tabulation systems in 39 Ohio counties. Enough to enable special program files in the "patches" to switch votes (see my description of how this can be done in the previous blog link) and toss the election to Romney. Along with Florida in his kit bag, he stands to steal this election. This we cannot allow!

How can this be? It can be because Obama's campaign and the Dems have kept their eyes off the ball. While mesmerized with ever more optimistic polls since Hurricane Sandy's arrival, they've forgotten that the only poll that really counts is the one actually counted tomorrow. It doesn't really matter then what Nate Cohn's or Nate Silver's (538 blog) models show, in terms of the probabilities increasing for an Obama victory, if the poll numbers don't translate into actual VOTE numbers - Obama loses. It's plain and simple!

Thus far, as with other reports and documents associated with machine hijinks, the national corporate media (other than tiny enclaves of the liberal and libertarian spectrum) haven't  picked up on this. I personally will be wartching Rachel Maddow tonight to see if she reports it, and I believe she will.

In the meantime, Bob Fitrakis and Gerry Bello at FreePress.org   already reported on what they described as “uncertified ‘experimental’ software patches” being installed in Ohio.  The story included a copy of the contract [PDF] between Republican Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s office and ES&S, the nation’s largest e-voting system manufacturer, for a new, last-minute piece of software created to the custom specifications of the secretary of state.

The contract itself (please DL the .pdf, and read from p. 17  on)  describes the software as “High-level enhancements to ES&S’ election reporting software that extend beyond the current features and functionality of the software to facilitate a custom-developed State Election Results Reporting File.” subsequent story at the Free Press the following day included text said to be from a Nov. 1 memo sent from the Ohio secretary of state’s Election Counsel Brandi Laser Seske to a number of state election officials confirming the use of the new, uncertified software on Ohio’s tabulator systems.

Then on Friday evening, Huffington Post journalist Art Levine followed up with a piece that advanced the story by breaking the news that Fitrakis and his attorney Cliff Arnebeck were filing a lawsuit for an immediate injunction against Husted and ES&S to “halt the use of secretly installed, unauthorized ‘experimental’ software in 39 counties’ tabulators.” Levine also reported that Arnebeck had referred the matter to the Cincinnati FBI for criminal investigation of what the Ohio attorney describes as “a flagrant violation of the law.”

As Attorney Arnebeck declared (and which all the simpletons who postulate "conspiracy theories" need to note):

"Before you add new software you need approval of a state board. They are installing an uncertified, suspect software patch that interfaces between the county's vote tabulation equipment and state tabulators."

Meanwhile, Jim March, a longtime Libertarian election integrity and software expert, as well as a member of the Pima County, Ariz., Election Integrity Commission and a founding and current board member of BlackBoxVoting.org, is highly suspicious of the last-minute installation of software. In an affidavit [PDF] submitted to Fitrakis and Arnebeck for their legal case, March says he believes “that this custom software is not necessary for the conduct of elections and is in fact highly dangerous.” (Note again, this is a Libertarian speaking, NOT a liberal!)

March has been involved in numerous cases involving suspicious elections and election software. In 2005 he received part of a multimillion-dollar settlement from Diebold as the result of a qui tam case with the state of California, after it had been discovered that the company had secretly installed uncertified software on its voting systems in the state. The secretary of state decertified the systems as a result.

“What ES&S has chosen to do here is extremely dangerous and exactly what you’d want to do if you wanted to plant a ‘cheat’ onto the central tabulator,” March declared in his affidavit.


But the spin from these thieving Repuke Ohio miscreants just keeps on keeping on! Matt McClellan, a spokesman for Secretary of State Husted's office, told theGrio blog site that "no patches were installed", describing instead a reporting tool software meant to "assist counties and to help them simplify the process by which they report the results to our system.’”

McClellan’s reported claim that “no patches were installed,” but rather it was simply “a reporting tool software” to assist counties, is in direct contradiction with the contract itself. (See .pdf)

At the bottom of Page 17, the contract states explicitly  that:

 “the current ES&S ERM Results Export Program (EXP) product version 2.0.6.0″ will be “MODIFIED to meet the Customers request.”

The contract goes on to say that it “shall be modified” into two different EXP versions, 2.0.7.0 and 3.0.1.0, to work with two different versions of the ERM software variously installed in different Ohio counties.

While it's not entirely clear how this new version of EXP will differ from the existing one, the contract does specify the older version created XML-formatted files instead of plain-text CSV files. The new version of the EXP program is installed onto the tabulation computing systems of the Ohio counties, which use the ES&S system, so this updated version is a new version of the existing software. Hence, it is either a “patch” or an upgrade or a new installation. Distinguishing between those descriptions, in this case, seems to be a distinction without a difference made by McClellan.   In either case, it’s new software being applied onto the existing central tabulation system computers, without either state or federal certification, just days before the 2012 presidential election.  


Only a total moron would not be suspicious of this move, given the desperation of the Romneyites and the fact that Husted was a Rove hireling when Ohio was also stolen in 2004 via electronic voting machines. (See the documentary 'So Goes the Nation').  

Anyway, Democrats - I am talking of the rank and file of the Obama campaign and administration (including top advisors like Plouffe and Axelrod), and even the Justice Department - ought to be getting involved right now, right this day. If not, and Obama loses both Florida and Ohio because of Repuke hijinks, the powers that- be,  counting exclusively on voter turnout,  will have missed the fact they also need votes  COUNTED and will have only themselves to blame for missing the opportunity to stop Mittens and the 'Pukes from succeeding in a well-orchestrated coup via black box electronic machines!

Remember that tomorrow - if Ohio falls to Romney - the 'smoking gun' will be the exit poll tally. If you see Obama has won the exit poll, but Romney has taken the state's 18 electoral votes - then you will KNOW something is rotten in Denmark.....errrrr......Columbus!

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