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| Question/double votes shown on voter'... |
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beka stevens
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Beka
Post Number: 1
Registered: 9-2012
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - 12:29 am: | 
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On the WA state Sec of State website I was checking voter records and found several "double" entries for "General Elections". For example: "General Election of 2008" was listed twice. Since there can only be one vote per general election, does this indicate tampering to sneak more ballots into the system? (Obviously from the inside.)
When I called my local county elections office, she assured me that there was a fail-safe to prevent a double entry. Despite her confidence, there are many double entries that are hence "impossible".
I have printed off some of the instances, and am willing to research to find others, if it would help to prove fraud. |
Kurt Bellman
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Realkurtb
Post Number: 149
Registered: 6-2011
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - 6:40 am: |
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Beka,
PLEASE UNDERSTAND that I cannot vouch for how WA uses their voter database, but in Accenture/Election.com based systems there are two voter history fields for each election. One is merely a binary "voted/didn't vote" checkbox and the other identifies the type of ballot used (in precinct / absentee / counted provisional).
In the data export, the checkbox shows as a alphabetic character, I think an "X". I don't recall specifically. Point is, there can be more than one entry for something that seems only single data point worthy at first glance. Since WA uses all mail-in, it MIGHT be something like "ballot sent / ballot received". |
beka stevens
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Beka
Post Number: 2
Registered: 9-2012
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - 2:39 pm: |
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Kurt,
Interesting idea. If that were the case, I would think all entries would show up twice, though. Here is an example of a voting history:
"Elections in which I voted"
2012 Special Election
2010 General Election
2010 Primary
2008 General Election
2008 General Election
2006 General Election
I have found some histories to show a double entry for only the General Election 2008, 2010, or 2011, but the rest of their record does not have doubles. |
beka stevens
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Beka
Post Number: 6
Registered: 9-2012
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Saturday, September 22, 2012 - 3:33 pm: |
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The available Washington State voting records online are from the year 2005 to current. Here is a sampling of some doubles--there are plenty more.
Pierce County--shows 2 entries for "2011 General Election" & 4 entries for "2008 Special Election". The other entries are singles.
Benton County--shows 2 entries for "2008 General Election" and 2 entries for "2008 Special Election", although there could have been 2 specials in one year, I think. The other entries are singles.
King County--shows 2 entries for "2011 Primary". The other entries are singles.
Franklin County--All entries are singles. I added this one as a reference point.
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Bev Harris
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 11725
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? 
Votes: 2 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Friday, October 5, 2012 - 10:15 am: |
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For the record, Washington State has been using a customized database that, as far as I know, is not used anywhere else. Unless something has recently changed, it was designed in house, by a man named Paul Miller working for the elections division.
I have had various citizens call me with concerns about the system. Washington has many problems, among them: tracking votes; yes, they place ballot identifiers on the ballots that tie back to the voted ballots to connect who voted them. And forced absentee voting; voting at the polls is not permitted. And an incestuous chain of secretaries of state, all from Thurston County, who basically self-propagate each new candidate. And each secretary of state pushes hard for Internet voting. One of these in the chain, former sec. state Ralph Munro, violated Washington ethics law to immediately step into chairman of the board position at an Internet voting/ballot tracking company, Votehere, while his protege Sam Reed pushed for Internet voting and ballot tracking.
There is absolutely no reason to trust anything about Washington state elections -- not the voter list, not the record of who supposedly cast ballots, not the count and not the chain of custody.
The public must be able to see and authenticate these four essential steps for an election to be public, democratic, and valid: (1) Who can vote (voter list); (2) Who did vote (3) The original count; (4) Chain of custody.
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Tim White
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Tim_white
Post Number: 3
Registered: 6-2012
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2012 - 1:38 am: |
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This is excellent research, critical findings.
There are other problems with the MyVote system, not least of which are laid out in last week's NY Times article. I've elided down to core issues; see full article at link:
Voter Registration Rolls in 2 States Are Called Vulnerable to Hackers
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/13/us/politics/cracks-in-maryland-and-washington-voter-databases.html?_r=2&
New York Times
By NICOLE PERLROTH
Published: October 12, 2012
In the last five years, Maryland and Washington State have set up voter registration systems that make it easy for people to register to vote and update their address information online…
Computer security experts and voting rights activists argue that a hacker could … change a person’s address online to ensure that the voter never receives a ballot in Washington, where voting is now done entirely by mail…
Rebecca Wilson, co-director of Save Our Votes, a voting rights nonprofit, said her organization did not initially track how states set up their online systems. “We thought, ‘How badly could you mess that up?’ Well, we learned,” Ms. Wilson said. “Now, anyone in the world can write a computer program that commits absentee ballot fraud on a mass scale.” …
Washington officials point out that voters who do not receive their ballots can still print them online, and they say, they have never received a complaint about an address being unknowingly changed… |
Tim White
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Tim_white
Post Number: 4
Registered: 6-2012
Best of Black Box?
Votes: 1 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2012 - 3:34 am: |
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On Sept 20 in Friday Harbor I attended a disturbing presentation on systemic Hispanic disempowerment in central WA, by attorney David Perez, sponsored by the local League of Women Voters. I was inspired to look online at my own MyVote in other languages, and discovered shocking defective Spanish voting materials in the MyVote system.
Officially issued downloadable, votable Spanish language ballots lacked most ballot lines, targeting WA Latinos for disenfranchisement
The faulty materials were only discoverable when I compared my online MyVote ballot in English (MyBallot) and in Spanish (MiBoleta), and also the voting materials constituting the English and Spanish language voter pamphlets.
The English ballots and supporting materials were complete and correct.
The Spanish ballots and materials omitted all but statewide ballot lines! Even US Representative races were expunged from the Spanish ballots.
The truncated Spanish ballots were in both the downloadable versions: overseas/military ballots and regular replacement ballots.
The disastrous flaws extended to all Spanish materials in some 34 counties using the MyVote system.
Systematic exclusion of US Representative, state Legislative and all county and local races and measures appears to have been standard practice on Spanish ballots and voting materials in all elections in these counties since at least the 2010 General.
On Monday Sept 24 I demonstrated the faulty ballots to county officials, and the next day to my state Rep. Horrified that their own candidacies were stripped from the Spanish ballots, they immediately started pressing San Juan County and Skagit County Auditors, and Sam Reed’s Office of Sec of State. The combination of their pressures prompted initial attempts to excuse and cover up, then minor corrections just on San Juan County ballots, then a new caveat in the Spanish introduction to MiBoleta, and finally significant improvements, though the Spanish language ballots are still faulty, and neither the current English nor current Spanish overseas/military ballots meet state law requirements. Take a look.
Contacting the ACLU, Latino and Voter Rights orgs in WA prompted them to join in writing the powerful letter to Reed delineating remaining problems (attached).
With OSOS employing MyVote operator Nicholas Pharris with a doctorate in Linguistics, and Attunix Corporation IT contractors at well over $100/hr (Contract #T09-MST-025), it begs the question whether Reed and staff have been merely grossly incompetent and unconcerned with Hispanic citizen voting rights, or criminally conspiring to deprive them of their right to vote.
Unlike the systematic caging and poll-site voter ID targeting in other states, WA’s MyVote cyberly disenfranchises our mail-voters one-by-one by ethnicity or perhaps by which Initiative and Referendum petitions they’ve signed.
MyVote only issues your ballot after you select a language and then enter a name and birthdate. Try your own, and then try, in Spanish and in English (or Vietnamese or Chinese):
Sam Reed 1-10-1941
Kimberley Wyman 7-15-62
(Both birthdates are freely available as top Google hits. Restrain yourselves from updating their official registration addresses to McNeil Island.)
Closely examine the MyVote functions, materials and ballots in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese, and you’ll find illegal defects even now.
Correcting problems and enfranchising voters always takes first precedence.
But what about accountability?
What about notifying those who have already viewed faulty incomplete voter pamphlet info?
And what about the defective ballots downloaded and already voted or about to be voted?
Shouldn’t MyVote prominently announce the corrections made, and warn previous visitors to the system NOT TO VOTE the ballots they’ve downloaded???
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beka stevens
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Beka
Post Number: 11
Registered: 9-2012
Best of Black Box?
Votes: 1 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Friday, October 19, 2012 - 3:10 am: |
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Double votes update: Argh! I rechecked the "double vote" entries today on the SOS website, and guess what? They have been "fixed". How is this even possible? The three shown above were from different counties, and I did not give the identify of the people. I can only assume that someone wrote a program that went through the entire system, erasing all duplicate entries. All that did was erase the evidence of possible fraud. I don't mean to be a a paranoid person, but I am so upset!
Timeline:
06-18-12 "double entries" found for several people
09-09-12 contacted local Party Leader
09-09-12 Party Leader contacted Matt Beaton, Franklin County Auditor
09-22-12 emailed Party Leader requesting follow up, but haven't heard back
10-19-12 rechecked the "double entries", and found them changed
10-19-12 emailing Party leader, and will let you know if I hear anything
I printed off the new documents and have the original ones showing "double entries". What should I do? |
beka stevens
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Beka
Post Number: 12
Registered: 9-2012
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Friday, October 19, 2012 - 3:13 am: |
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Tim: Very interesting article in the NY Times. The info needed to check anyone's voter record on the WA SOS state can be found for free online. Anyone can hack! |
beka stevens
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Beka
Post Number: 13
Registered: 9-2012
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Friday, October 19, 2012 - 3:36 am: |
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Tim: Good work on spotting the Spanish errors. I am concerned that any "printed" ballot could get bumped into the "problem child" pile for later investigation, if the auditor's computer doesn't read it properly. Would these votes even be counted in the election?
There are a multitude of problems arising with vote by mail and computer scanning of ballots.
Not trying to offend you, but our state should only print ballots in English. A citizen needs to be able to speak and read English to become a citizen. Therefore, any ballot printed in a foreign language suggests a ballot for use by an illegal alien. |
Kurt Bellman
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Realkurtb
Post Number: 190
Registered: 6-2011
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Friday, October 19, 2012 - 2:25 pm: |
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Beka,
No, no, no! There's an entire community of people who are full United States citizens, from birth, whose entire educational system is taught in Spanish, not English, by US Congressional mandate. These people are Puerto Rican. The United States is BY FEDERAL LAW, a multilingual nation. There is no more barrier to a Spanish-speaking only Puerto Rican being in Washington than, say, an Oregonian.
Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act contains a decenially updated list of every jurisdiction that must provide ballots in other languages, and in which languages they must. Los Angeles County, CALIFORNIA "leads the league" with 9 languages, last time I looked.
In the city where I grew up, and where I spent most of my career, including the election director part, EVERY ballot is bilingual in English and Spanish. There are no single language ballots there. |
beka stevens
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Beka
Post Number: 15
Registered: 9-2012
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Friday, October 19, 2012 - 10:25 pm: |
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Kurt: I have never heard of a federal law stating that we are a multilingual nation. I searched, but found nothing. Do you have a link? As far as I know, any ballots printed in a language other than English is a state's decision.
The current citizenship test is taken in English only. "You will be given two opportunities to take the English and Civics tests and to answer all questions relating to your naturalization application in English."
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=dd7ffe9dd4aa3210VgnVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=dd7 ffe9dd4aa3210VgnVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD#Exceptions
There is an exception for people over 50, in some cases.
One language in a country binds us together, multiple languages cause division. |
Kurt Bellman
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Realkurtb
Post Number: 191
Registered: 6-2011
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Monday, October 22, 2012 - 6:43 am: |
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For over a century, Puerto Rico has been REQUIRED BY FEDERAL LAW to conduct the entirety of its educational system in Spanish. It was an item of controversy, at the time we obtained Puerto Rico as a Commonwealth. Many sought to mandate the Anglicization of Puerto Rico, some sought to make them bilingual by law. The winning vote was to keep Puerto Rico monolinguistically Spanish. And ALL Puerto Ricans are full blown United States citizens at birth, no less than you or I are.
Here is the link to the law explaining how jurisdictions ARE REQUIRED BY FEDERAL LAW to print ballots in languages other than English:
http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/sec_203/203_brochure.php
Here is the current list:
http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/sec_203/2011_notice.pdf
Specifically, counties in the State of Washington required to print ballots in langauages other then English are:
Washington:
Adams County ................................................................................... Hispanic.
Franklin County .................................................................................. Hispanic.
King County ....................................................................................... Asian (Chinese).
King County ....................................................................................... Asian (Vietnamese).
Yakima County .................................................................................. Hispanic.
Sorry, but it would seem that "as far as you know" isn't very far at all. It needs rapid expansion. In addition to THESE jurisdictions, due to the so far unoverturned status of the case of United States v. Berks County, 250 F. Supp 2d 525 (E.D. Pa 2003), courts have the unfettered power to order jurisdictions not even on the Section 203 list to ALSO do bilingual ballots. How do I know this? I was a named defendant in that case. Judge Robert Baylson admitted he was making new law from the bench. At the time that case ran, my county was not on the Section 203 list. Since the 2010 census, it now is.
Enough "links" for ya'?
As far as a single language being necessary for binding a nation together, yeah, you're right, Switzerland (4) and Canada (2 plus Native American langauges) are surely doomed failed experiments, right?   |
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8 Voting Rights orgs letter to Reed on MyVote defects 10-5-12