The AP has finally noticed the long-sought criminal investigation ballot count of the 2006 Pima County (Tucson), AZ, special election. State Attorney General Terry Goddard’s hand-count of the disputed Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) election was concluded, at least for now, in Phoenix on Wednesday. That’s when AP filed its report on the matter that we’ve been covering here at The BRAD BLOG in a number of special reports and exclusives, in great detail, this week, last week, and for several years prior.
AP’s coverage was fairly cursory (recent inside joke: AP didn’t report who the AG’s office had found to be the “leading vote-getter”), but it hit a few points worth noting, including one of the key take-aways from the entire, epic morality tale still playing out on behalf of the entire U.S., in Arizona:
…
What may be of even greater concern is the voting machines in Pima County, which includes Tucson, are similar to those used in 12 of Arizona’s 15 counties and in hundreds of jurisdictions across the country.
If it turns out the election was rigged by manipulating Diebold Elections Systems (now Premier Election Solutions Inc.) computer election programs, as some fear, it will show weaknesses in electronic balloting that could endanger the democratic process.
There you have it. That’s why this story matters, and why it’s far more than simply a “local story.”
It also matters on a still-broader level because, even if the 2006 Tucson RTA election wasn’t rigged — and it’s three years on, and nobody yet actually seems to know for certain — due to the god-awful, privatized, untested, hackable, oft-failed, secret vote-counting machines we now use in our public elections, it’s become virtually impossible to know if any elections counted on such machines were accurately tabulated.
AP notes that Goddard seems to finally be understanding that larger point, at least:
“These (Premier) systems are very, very bad,†Goddard said. “(They) are not state of the art in terms of security. They are not state of the art in terms of transparency.â€
The Arizona Republic’s Dennis Wagner pulled some details from AP’s cursory coverage and augmented it substantially for more lengthy, detailed coverage filed on Wednesday as well, which we’re happy to see and recommend.
In a related note: Tucson election integrity advocate John Brakey saw charges against him dismissed by a judge today, following his arrest ordered by Pima County election officials last year during a state-mandated, post-election hand-count — a statutory mandate that likely would not have existed were it not for Brakey’s advocacy for such post-election “audits.”
The county’s case against him was so bad Brakey wasn’t even required to put on his own defense before the judge dismissed the case entirely after hearing the county’s testimony. The recent criminal investigation hand count carried out by Goddard, and all of the issues discussed above, would also likely never have come to light in Arizona, had it not been for the tenacity, courage, and tireless determination of Brakey. Exclusive details on today’s dismissed charges against him posted earlier here…
Voters in Republican heavy Collin County, Tx have been voting on the Diebold DRE (paperless) touch screen voting system since the March 4, 2004 primary election. At least the Pima County election had paper ballots to recount – Collin County would have nothing to recount. Generally, Republicans in the county love the DRE’s and Democrats hate them. (Republicans have been winning big in the county for years, so why wouldn’t they like the DRE’s?)
Thank you for following this story so closely for so long. If Attorney General Goddard finds the official vote count differs significantly from the recount, then, maybe, finally, the issue of “privatized, untested, hackable, oft-failed, secret vote-counting machines” will break into the consciousness of all the national news organizations. Hopefully, that would help drive debate about the DRE’s in Collin County, where the Diebold/Premier company is headquartered.
jim march has posted an update at blackboxvoting.org and i just want to highlight what i think is the critical info from that post
“In order to contain 120,000 ballots, the precinct-vote boxes would have to pack over 1,500 ballots per box. The boxes don’t appear to be capable of holding 1,500 ballots.
Full boxes appear to average a tad over 1,200 ballots each. Each stack of 100 ballots is about an inch tall. We want to see an accounting of the ballot quantity. Missing ballots will need an explanation. “
Yeah, that’s the BIG thing the mainstream media is missing. We’re very confident that we’ll be able to prove that a large number of ballots are missing despite the AG’s office’s best efforts at blocking our access to that kind of info.
jim,
i know they blocked your foia requests but wondered,did u request a list of names that requested those absentee(early) ballots,is there any way to check that because 30,000 plus abs to raise taxes on themselves seems high to me
great job on this whole deal!!!!
OK, bravo. Now, what IS state-of-the-art for security and transparency, hmmmmmmm?
Let me see. In order to determine if an election is fair and accurate, it is necessary to do a … wait for it…. Hand Count.
Now, could it just possibly be that Hand Counting is state-of-the-art for security and transparency and a lot of other things?
Be still, my heart.
Somehow this Onion news report seems relevant:
“Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 08 Election”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBrDzZCOQtI
(from February 2008)
I wonder if John, Brad, and Bev will ever get the Congressional Medal of Honor they all deserve? Oh yeah, Bill Moyers deserves one too!
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/watch.html
well i answered my own question about why they have such high ab ballots…they have a perm ab list…they send ballots w/o peops asking for them…that system is ripe for fraud
ancient,great link
when they said “too big to fail” my first thought was,break em up,and turns out thats what the law demands
What? no Pensacola Jeff?
Karen ~ Whoa, WHA~?! You mean if I vote absentee in Arizona in ’08, the state (or the county) will automatically send me an absentee ballot in ’10? Cehheeerriiiiist. What kind of hot, fresh Stupid-Tsunami is that?!
This from state that upheld the voter identification laws in 2007, as I recall, with a hell of a lot of the usual clap trap, odd judicial posturing, and grand-standing-fanfar-ing blah blippity about sneeches with stars upon thars:
So, lemmee get this straight: show up at the polls where you’ve for years without the proper state approved Voter I.D. Du Jour, and oopsy! Too-bad-so-sad, go home. But! Vote absentee in your bathrobe from home just ONCE without EVER showing the state ANY proof of citizenship or identification, and you get a lifetime of ballots delivered to your door?? What an Easy Bake Fraud Vector THAT is.
Great questions, Karen, as always. I love the way you think.
Jim, John, Brad ~
This story is a fascination. A joy to see your years of dedication bearing such…big nuggets. Thanks for this strange magic. It’s is the “Susan Boyle” of election news.
Hey, I just realized…Susan Boyle and John Brakey practically look like brother and sister!
🙂
heheh Jim…yeah, they do. On the other hand, I’ve heard Brakey sing, and I assure you, there is no resemblance 🙂