Scoop says NC's 8th like FL's 13th

["Margit Johansson" <margitjo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Wrong Winner Chosen Twice by Same Voting Machine
Monday, 15 January 2007, 4:42 pm
Article: Michael Collins

Congress Seats Two Clear "Losers"

Wrong Winner Chosen Twice by Same Voting Machine

Examining Florida 13th and North Carolina 8th
Congressional Districts Leaves Little Doubt
Michael Collins
Part 2 of a Series Part 1
Washington, DC.

The Election Contest filed by Democrat Christine Jennings and her
attorney Kendall Coffey creates complications that could blow the
electronic voting world to pieces. In the simplest terms, the Jennings
Florida 13th Congressional district case requires a review of the
Kissell loss in North Carolina's 8th Congressional district. And that
spells disaster for e-voting.

Why? Because both the Florida and North Carolina districts used
iVotronics touch screen voting machines. These voting machines
produced very similar levels of counting errors. The errors cost both
Democrats thousands of votes. Ultimately, both Democratic candidates
were denied a victory by less than 400 votes.

While Jennings makes a very strong case for a voided election and new
vote in Florida, the case becomes virtually unassailable when
reviewing results from North Carolina. At the same time, the North
Carolina 8th results, reviewed in the context of the election contest
analysis of Florida's 13th, makes it abundantly clear that the loser,
Kissell, should have won in almost any scenario other than voting
machine malfunction.

In both districts, the iVotronic touch screen voting machines produced
undervote rates at or above 15%. What this means is that supposedly
one in seven voters cast ballots but left out a choice for the most
important election (an unmarked race on an otherwise marked ballot is
called an undervote). The only culprit in both the Florida 13th and
North Carolina 8th elections is voting machine malfunction. The facts
supporting the case for losers winning don't allow for much debate in
these Florida and North Carolina races. They're simple and a review
leads to conclusions that devastate any trust in electronic voting.

ADVERTISEMENT
The Florida election contest brief filed in Congress looks at data
within the 13th Congressional district and data from other Florida
districts. Coffey notes that the undervote rate in Sarasota County is
six times the undervote rate in surrounding counties in the same
district. How did that happen? These are contiguous counties and part
of the same congressional district.

Coffey performs a rhetorical slam dunk by looking at undervotes for
the two types of early voting in Sarasota County. Early voting by mail
required voters to mark their choices on optical scan paper ballots
then mail the ballots to the elections board where they were totaled
using optical scan readers. Mail in early voting undervotes were at
2.6%. In person early voters came to central locations and voted on
iVotronic touch screens like those used in the general election.
Undervotes by that method ran 17.6%. There is no reason for a
difference of 15 points other than the one provided by Coffey in the
Jennings case: voting machine malfunction by the iVotronics. As a
result, 14,000 Sarasota County voters lost their constitutional
rights. The election should be voided and a new one held.

Mecklenburg County, NC and the End of Electronic Voting

One might argue that this is an exaggerated claim but review the facts
and decide yourself.

Any serious evaluation of the Jennings election contest by Congress
leads right to North Carolina's Mecklenburg County. iVotronic touch
screens were used in the Jennings race and three Congressional races
in Mecklenburg. That county holds the answers to both the Jennings
contest and a resolution of another 2006 travesty, the loss of
Democrat Larry Kissell in that North Carolina's 8th Congressional
District.

As a result of voting problems in 2004, North Carolina requires a
paper trail for touch screen voting machines. Right now there are
paper receipts for each vote cast in these three districts. The test
is simple. Total the votes for Congress on paper trail receipts in
each Congressional district and compare those totals to the vote
totals from the iVotronic touch screens. If paper receipts show more
votes for Congress than reported by the touch screens, the variance
points clearly to an iVotronic machine error. If Jennings could
provide such data, this would add a compelling new level of evidence
added to her case.

If the paper trail receipts are available and examined, they represent
a smoking gun that validates the Florida case. Even without the paper
receipts, there is strong support to argue that the same class of
touch screens used in Florida, iVotronics, produced exceptional, no
unbelievable rates of undervotes in North Carolina not evident in high
visibility races.



Click for big versionsiVotronic voting machines were used in
Mecklenburg County in 2006. The county contains part of three
Congressional Districts. The graph on the left shows very high
undervotes in the 8th and 12th. In the 8th, Democrat Kissell lost by
329 votes with an undervote rate close to that in the Jennings race.

A preliminary look at 2006 and 2004 undervote rates shows that the
2006 undervote rate in Mecklenburg County, NC indicates that the
iVotronic machines throw away votes. Using the county as a whole, in
2006 the average Congressional undervote rate (for all three races)
was 11%. In 2006, the Congressional race was the lead or one of the
lead races. In 2004, with vote totals for President as the baseline,
the undervote rate in Mecklenburg was 2.6%. Thus, undervotes increased
by a factor of four from 2004 to 2006.

By investigating Jennings claims through the use of the highly
pertinent and available data from North Carolina, it becomes
abundantly clear that Democrat Kissell lost that contest due to
machine malfunction – by the very same type of machines used in the
Jennings race. Since the undervote rates in these distant and
disparate counties were almost the same, the data on Kissell supports
Jennings claims.

Below you see the electronic nightmare created by analysis of the
North Carolina race. The graph on the left shows 3,199 undervotes
(16.6%) in Democrat Kissell's stronghold in Mecklenburg. On the right,
the victory margin district wide for Republican Hayes is shown next to
the undervotes for just Mecklenburg where Democrat Kissell won by a
two to one margin. The North Carolina 9th and 12th races were blow
outs. The 8th was not. In the very area where Kissell was strongest,
le lost 3,199 voters, many of whom would have voted for him.



The undervotes in the Mecklenburg portion of the 8th were more than
nine times the victory margin for the entire district and they
occurred in a voting area that went 68%
to 32% for the Democratic Party candidate, Larry Kissell.


Let's assume a typical rate of undevotes at a generous 3%, or 579
votes, and Kissell's Mecklenburg share of 68% of the votes couted. The
math is easy. Kissell wins. Presume that Kissell's undervote rate of
16.6% is the final proof (with or without recounting the paper trail
voting receipts) of voting machine malfunction in Jennings' Florida
district. It's easy, Jennings wins. These numbers won't go away.

We now have two members of Congress seated as a result of elections
decided by less than 400 votes. A simple analysis of current and
historical data for expected undervotes shows that the double digit
undervote rates in each candidate's stronghold resulted in lost votes;
votes that would have lead to a victory by either of the now
designated losing candidates. The first shall be last, once again.

Stay tuned.




Data Sources:
Mecklenburg County Board of Elections 8th District 11/30/06
Mecklenburg County Board of Elections 9th District 11/30/06
Mecklenburg County Board of Elections 12th District 11/30/06
Screen Shots of Districts 8, 9, 12 Mecklenburg


*****ENDS*****
(c) Copyright. Please feel free to reproduce and distribute this in
any fashion you feel suitable with an attribution to the author,
Michael Collins, and the publisher, "Scoop" Independent News, plus a
link to the article.







THIS ISSUE Lead NZ News NZ Politics World News Features

Comment & Opinion

FULL COVERAGE: Comment & Opinion On Bush's Iraq Troop Surge Plan -
One of the key architects of President Bush's disastrous Iraq war
policy was responsible for writing the president's new plan calling
for an increase in US troops in the region. See… Jason Leopold: The
Architect of Mr. Bush's Plan
MORE COMMENT ON BUSH SURGE PLAN:
Paul G. Buchanan - On the subject of the Draft
Norman Solomon - The Headless Horseman of the Apocalypse
New York Times - Editorial: The Real Disaster
Stan Goff - Open Letter To Congress - A Tactic
Greg Palast - Waist Deep In The Big Muddy
Dennis Kucinich - Out of Iraq - Back to the American City
Ramzy Baroud - One Last Chance for Sanity in Iraq
PRE ANNOUNCEMENT COMMENT:
David Swanson - Mr. President, Surge This
John Cory - Three Thousand Plus One
Dan Phillips - Anti-war Conservatives vs. Foreign Policy Realists
Ann Wright - The History of Surges
Jason Leopold - Democrats Divided on War Remedy
William Rivers Pitt - Bush Extends Hand With Fingers Crossed
William Fisher - This Strategy Is New?
Cindy Sheehan - 3,000 Dead: So Who's Counting?
Bernard Weiner - Surging Towards Bethlehem
Israel/OT: A Compendium Of News & Views From The Holy Land - A new
order issued by the GOC Central command bans the conveyance of
Palestinians in Israeli vehicles. Such a blatant violation of the
right to travel joins the long list of humans rights violations
carried out by Israel in the [Occupied] Territories. See... Shulamit
Aloni: There Is Apartheid In Israel
MORE NEWS FROM ISRAEL:

Middle East News Service - Hamas Of. Accepts Israel, But Short Of Recognition
INSS Insight- UNSC Resolution 1737: Too Little, Too Late
Guest Opinion - Shame in Andover
Uri Avnery - What Makes Sammy Run?
INSS Insight - The Olmert-Abbas Summit: Tactics and Strategies
Iran: Russ Wellen On The Architect (& Tactics) Of War In Iran - First
the Republicans lost their majority status in Congress. Then the Iraq
Study Group sent the White House its report card and gave it a failing
grade. It looked like Dick Cheney had finally been put in his rightful
place –- the ceremonial office vice presidents have traditionally
occupied. See... Cheney's Got His Teeth Sunk into Iran
MORE ON THE POSSIBILITY OF WAR WITH IRAN:

Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar - The Plan for Economic Strangulation of Iran
Robert Parry - Bush's Rush to Armageddon
Between The Lines - U.S. Iran Tensions Rise – 2nd Carrier To Gulf
Michel Chossudovsky - The Demonization of Muslims and the Battle for Oil
Mexico: Julie Webb-Pullman Reports On A Zapatista Congress In The Mist -
By New Year's Eve the two thousand of Day One had swelled to four
thousand, and over the next two days low cloud reduced visibility to
about three feet – when it wasn't raining. Occasional wind gusts
swirled the mist away to reveal a landscape changing by the minute, as
new arrivals pitched tents and tarpaulins on every spare square inch.
See... Julie Webb-Pullman: The End of the Encuentro & Julie
Web-Pullman: More Zapatista Encuentro Pics . Earlier… Best And Worst
Of Zapatista Conference

American Coup: Florida 2000 & Florida 2006 - Understanding Florida
2000 is central to understanding where we stand today as a nation. Al
Gore's clear victory in the popular vote was obscured immediately by
the last minute drama of the Florida vote count. The extended
melodramatics of the ... See... M. Collins: Six Years After Florida,
Where Are We?
MORE FLORIDA-13 NEWS:

Michael Collins - Arguments to Void Florida-13 Congress Election
Warren Stewart - Sarasota County and the Debate Over "Paper Trails"
American Coup: Ciber E-Vote Certification Lab Closed Down - Moving
the ball forward a bit in regard to New York Times' stunning report
last week that Ciber was refused interim accreditation last July. I've
been able to learn a bit more about the existence of the paperwork
concerning that denial of accreditation. See... EAC Now Admits 'The
Ciber Report' Does Exist & NYT: Ciber Lab Dumped From Evote ITA Ranks
MORE AMERICAN COUP NEWS & VIEWS:

John Gideon - Daily Voting News For January 10, 2007, January 3-9,
2007 & December 29-30, 2006
Bob Fitrakis - Missing Votes In Ohio Call Races Into Question
Houston Chronicle - Link: Electronic Voting Led to Errors, Report Says
Law: President Bush Vs The Rule Of Law - As some people learned from
the minimal and abusive media coverage, on December 8, 2006,
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney introduced Articles of Impeachment
against President George W. Bush, making him the 10th president of the
United States ... See... Cynthia McKinney Makes the Case for
Impeachment
MORE BUSH Vs RULE OF LAW NEWS CLIPS:

Associated Press - US Launches Two Airstrikes in Somalia
The Real News Project - Scoop Link: Bush Senior Early CIA Ties Revealed
Associated Press - Dems to Hold 11 Separate Hearings on Iraq War
afterdowningstreet.org - Video: Impeachment Forum Nat. Press Club D.C.
The Hill - New Cmtte. to Monitor Bush Admin. Info Suppression
New York Daily News - Bush Claims Right To Open US Mail Without Warrant
MORE SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION:

Russell Brown & Ors. - Public Address 11/01/07 - The New Boss & Public
Address 10/01/07 - The Suicide Note
Richard S. Ehrlich - Shinawatra's Passport Cancelled, Son Interrogated
Martin LeFevre - Meditations: Sunset Illumination
Evelyn Pringle - FDA Runs Protection Racket For Big Pharma
Sherwood Ross - Sun, Wind & Tidal Power Obviate Nuke Plant Need
R. Walrath & P. Johnson - U.S. Health Care 2007
COHA - John Negroponte, Latin America's Real "Mr. Danger"
Kyle F. Hence - Democrats Perpetuate 911 Commission Betrayal
Bill Berkowitz - End Times For The Christian Coalition? &Pacific Legal
Foundation On Wrong Side Of History
Narconews - AP's Oaxaca Correspondent in Conflict-of-Interest
Maryann Keady - Thoughts From America: The New Cold War
Sam Smith - Retrieving The Democrats' Reason For Existence
William Fisher - Goodbye to a Year of Ironies
Kelpie Wilson - 2006 Top Green Tech Ideas
INSS Insight - 6th Bio. Weapons Conv. Review A Partial Success
New York Times - Editorial: Protecting Internet Democracy
Jason Leopold - The Court-Martial of Ehren Watada Begins
William Rivers Pitt - Hussein the Rabbit
William Fisher - Here Are the Christians!
Ernest Partridge - Snobocracy: When 'The Right People' Run Washington
Sherwood Ross - Companies Refusing To Reveal Biotech Research
M. Shahid Alam - Has Regime Change Boomeranged?
Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar - Saddam's Execution and the coming Campaign
David Swanson - Democrats' Open-Mic Press Conferences
Lawrence R. Velvel - What The Media Have Not Said Upon Ford's Passing
William Fisher - Religious Leaders Push Back Against Rep. Goode
Genevieve Cora Fraser - US's New Cold War: from a Legacy of Assassinations
South Asia Comment:
Dr. Chandrakala - Rings Of Pain "Maoists Atrocities Are Continuing"
Siddhi B. Ranjitkar - Siddhi B. Ranjitkar: Change - Not Status Quo
M.R. Josse - SPAM Combo's Zany Adventures In Blunderland
Shashi P.B.B. Malla - Fractured Peace, Imperious Govt., Bleeding Nation
Hari Bansha Dulal - Bhutanese Refugees: Trapped and Tantalized

CLICK HERE FOR MORE RECENT COMMENTARY SEARCH JOBS @ SEEK.co.nz Search
Businesses - findA MORTGAGE Calculators NZ REAL ESTATE Online Used
Cars For Sale - finda One FREE Day with AVIS FREE Online Life-PLANNER


Top Scoops
Most Read
1 Arguments to Void Florida-13 Congress Election

2 Wrong Winner Chosen Twice by Same Voting Machine

3 Zyprexa Judge - Which Media Have 1st. Amd. Rights

4 The Bush Dictatorship Revealed: L'etat C'est Moi

5 Mazur: Hecht's Partner On The Roman Bronze Boy

6 Can Hugo Chavez Beat The Devil?

7 UNSC Resolution 1737: Too Little, Too Late

8 Toni Solo: John Negroponte and Tupac Katari

9 PM's Top Press Secretary To Call It A Day

10 Scalpers Making a Killing






Hair Loss Treatments - Growth & Restoration.


Rabobank No Fee S