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| 11-13-05: Detroit, Michigan elections... |
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Message |
    
BBV Admin
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2695
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? 
Votes: 4 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Sunday, November 13, 2005 - 11:40 am: | 
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Procedures in the city of Detroit broke down in at least 26 precincts on Nov. 8. Seven memory cards were left in voting machines, two were taken home by a poll worker, and thousands of bogus votes appeared in results totals.
This triggered an investigation by state elections official Chris Thomas. However, he has previously demonstrated an unfriendly stance towards the right of public citizens to oversee elections.
Meanwhile, the Michigan secretary of state's office has responded to election-related public records requests by charging the most ridiculous fees in the nation.
Black Box Voting has submitted the following public records request to obtain documents pertaining to the most recent anomalies in Detroit: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/13138.html
Missing memory cards
An article in the Detroit Free Press detailed problems with keeping track of electronic ballot boxes. These are called "MemoryPacks" by ES&S, the vendor supplying the Eagle Optech optical scan system used in Detroit.
"Detroit elections officials lost track of ballots in nine precincts -- or almost 3,000 votes -- in Tuesday's election, and did not count them until two days after polls closed," the article says.
What causes even greater concern, however, are the reported statements of an elections official and an IT worker that such misplaced votes are commonplace in Detroit.
"City elections officials acknowledged that a wayward poll worker took home the results from two precincts late Tuesday; and nonchalantly delivered them to election headquarters about noon Wednesday. Elections staffers discovered the results from seven other precincts inside locked ballot boxes after a fevered search.
"Detroit Elections Department Director Gloria Williams insisted Friday it was completely normal for poll workers to temporarily lose track of a few precinct results -- stored in computerized memory packs -- in a busy election, an assessment shared by Sean T. Smith, a computer consultant who oversaw the tabulation of the votes on hundreds of packs. Williams and Smith said there was no way anyone could tamper with the missing packs."
It remains to be seen whether anyone could tamper with the missing memory packs -- when Black Box Voting sponsored a study by Harri Hursti on the Diebold memory cards, he was quickly able to gain control over the vote reports, and in one experiment, the votes themselves, using the memory cards. No similar study has been performed on the ES&S Eagle Optech memory cards.
The votes didn't add up
"Further, vote totals failed to add up correctly when the votes were restored," reports the Detroit Free Press.
Apparently, neither the missing MemoryPacks nor the discrepancy in votes were disclosed by election officials, at first.
"The Thursday count added 2,959 votes to the total ballots cast. But when the city updated the totals, Kilpatrick somehow gained another 4,462 votes, while Hendrix gained 4,064 votes.
"I've gone over this and I'm not figuring it out," Smith, the computer consultant, said Friday evening after the Free Press pointed out the discrepancy."
According to a report from The Associated Press, the extra votes were caused by test votes which had not been cleared from voting machines in 17 precincts.
If so, that would violate two procedures.
According to documentation provided by ES&S, the manufacturer of Detroit's voting system, the first thing that happens when you plug in the voting machine at the precinct is that it prints a Zero Report Tape, showing there are no votes left in the system.
when the power cord is plugged in and the unit is keyed on, the Eagle automatically prints a Zero Totals Tape to indicate that no ballots have been cast and that no candidate or measure has any votes. All vote totals for all candidates and measures must be zero. The public counter on the voting machine will also display zero ballots cast. If the Zero Tape does not automatically print when the voting device is plugged in and turned on, a different electrical outlet should be tried, and if the Zero Tape still does not print, this must be reported to the election official.
The Zero Totals Tape is to be signed by two poll workers; this tape becomes a permanent record of the election.
Also, during poll closing activities, poll workers are to reconcile the number of votes with the number of voters who signed in.
"The number of ballots voted in the precinct shall be reconciled to the number of signatures in the Roster-Index, or poll book, and any discrepancy should be explained in writing on a ballot statement or similar accounting form, the ES&S procedures advise.
One has to wonder, then, how the Zero Tape did not reveal the extra votes, which had not been cleared before the election; who signed the tape, and why the end of day reconciliation of votes with voters did not reveal that there were far too many votes.
Enter State Elections Director Chris Thomas
An investigation has been launched.
""We cannot believe that in this climate that Detroit election officials wouldn't publicly disclose that all of the precincts were not counted," Thomas said.", according to the Free Press.
He may have his work cut out for him. Detroit Elections Department Director Gloria Williams was not shocked.
"Memory packs usually go missing in city elections, Williams said.
"It was Thursday when we found them all," she said. "That's normal. Very normal."
A document obtained by Black Box Voting indicates that Thomas may not be enthusiastic about a thorough audit of the election.
http://www.bbvdocs.org/correspondence/correspondence02.pdf
(this is 100 pages long, and the relevant document is page 86)
From: Thomas, Christopher M. (christophert@michigan.gov)
Jan. 31, 2002
"our administrative rules:
"Ballots used at an election may be destroyed after 30 days following the final determination of the board of canvassers with respect to the election, unless their destruction has been stayed by an order of a court or the secretary of state. Ballots shall not be released for examination, review or research unless prior approval is obtained by the board of state canvassers.
"Our board has never granted approval...
"The feds screwed us up. The concept is that elections should be final, as government needs credibility and needs to get to work. All of the administrative and judicial remedies for challenging an election are purposely written with very short deadlines after the final determination. With the 22 month retention (or whatever it is) this leaves the ballots available for this type of nonsense. The pitch should be elections are final..."
The 22 month retention period that Thomas is complaining about applies only to federal elections. It is likely that:
1) Thomas will block any effort by citizens to review ballots, based on his previous behavior.
2) He will recommend destroying the ballots within 30 days, since this is not a federal election.
This leaves only the less complete record, the audit trail documents requested by Black Box Voting.
Thomas will probably deliver a slap on the hand about procedures, but is likely to be thoroughly incurious about security defects in Detroit's voting machines.
Detroit also being investigated for irregularities in absentee ballot procedures
Outgoing Detroit City Clerk Jackie Currie is involved in legal proceedings over her absentee ballot program, which is under federal investigation.
Currie's lawyer was sanctioned on Nov. 11 by a federal judge for stalling to avoid a court order that Currie stop mailing absentee ballot applications that were not requested.
Public Records Obstruction
In addition to concerns about Thomas's attitudes on the right of the public to exercise oversight over elections, there are concerns about obstructiveness with public records.
When we asked Michigan to part with public documents relating to elections, the state tried to invoke outlandish fees.
Michigan wanted $125,000 for a request that was typically a few hundred dollars in other states. Michigan wanted over $4,000 just to look for a single letter from VoteHere, with no guarantee of finding it, a request for which other states charged less than $20.
A wake-up call for Michigan
Black Box Voting focuses on issues of voting machine security and accuracy, timely production of key elections public records, and citizen access to and oversight of the elections process. Michigan has managed to hit the trifecta, showing evidence of problems in all three areas.
This might be a good time for citizens of the state of Michigan to take an even more proactive stance towards monitoring elections, especially monitoring the tallying after polls close, perhaps modeling efforts on Ohio, Florida, San Diego, or Alameda County activist groups, who are making a real impact on election integrity.
Minority groups, traditionally the first to be disenfranchised by election shenanigans, are encouraged to contact Black Box Voting, which is a minority-governed organization. Black Box Voting can provide valuable tips for minority communities who want to get up to speed on the newest method of vote suppression: Computerized voting.
With more attention to monitoring results, more problems are likely to surface in Michigan. Election integrity, public access, and records production need to be significantly improved in Michigan before the 2006 election. |
From the Mailbag
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Mailbag
Post Number: 19
Registered: 10-2005
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Monday, November 14, 2005 - 8:22 am: |
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Damn right Michigan elections now a significant concern
Exit polls and the last public opinion polls before the election showed Freeman Hendrix ahead of Kwame Kilpatrick by about 10%.
Kilpartick -- a notoriously corrupt and very well-connected (his family has office holders in Congress and the city council) mayor -- won the official vote by 6%.
As a Detroiter, I smell a GREAT BIG RAT.
This is worse than 2000, 2004, and even the Ukraine.
F.B. |
Brant Lamb
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Brantl
Post Number: 148
Registered: 01-2005
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Monday, November 14, 2005 - 10:31 am: |
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I wish I lived there, so I would have 'standing' (little as that might be for a voter, it seems only candidates have 'standing'). Did Hendrix ever concede? |
Martin Schreader
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Mschreader
Post Number: 1
Registered: 11-2005
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - 9:28 am: |
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My wife was a candidate in the Detroit elections, and we both smelled a big fat rat almost as soon as the polls closed. We're doing some of our own investigating into the voter fraud going on.
Martin |
BBV Admin
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2740
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - 9:40 am: |
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Martin,
Nice to see you here. If you turn up anything you don't want to post publicly, but want advice on, you can email me privately: bev@blackboxvoting.org.
I hope you persevere on finding out more information. The explanations do not add up. |
Martin Schreader
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Mschreader
Post Number: 2
Registered: 11-2005
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - 9:54 am: |
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Thanks, Bev. BTW, today's Detroit News has another article on the voting mess. According to them, the audit has found 30 percent of precinct numbers, and 46 percent of AV district numbers, "don't add up". Also, they found one precinct box just yesterday that had not been counted.
My wife, Lisa, is looking at court remedy at this point.
Martin |
BBV Admin
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2741
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - 12:37 pm: |
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Good. Noticed that John Conyers's wife, Monica Conyers, was one of the candidates who won. We pulled some information on that, and found that he got into hot water a couple years ago, allegedly for using his congressional staff resources on some campaigns, including his wife's then-unsuccessful campaign for a state senate seat.
However, certain parts of the articles we found seemed to be handed over as news by some conservative or Republican groups -- of course, that is the way politics is played. Not being in Detroit, we were interested in getting the perspectives of some of the locals. Either publicly or privately, would like your take on the information about the local lay of the land, politically.
Bev |
Ronald March
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Seekerno1
Post Number: 1
Registered: 11-2005
Best of Black Box?
Votes: 1 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Saturday, November 19, 2005 - 5:56 am: |
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Dear Bev
My name is Ron March write-in canidate for Mayor of Detroit.As of this date 11/19/05 I
have heard nothing of my results. We had a slate
SAVE DETROIT SLATE(write-in)SDS. Ms Maureen Taylor
was our canidate for city council. She is the one that stated this Fed. Investigation.
I am afraid that Chris Thomas and company will sweep all of it under the rug.
Please foward any infomation that can help ensure that all votes be counted.
I am a talk show host (Thur3/5PM &Sat 4/6PM)
I would like to interview you or one of your reps.
HELP
Ron March |
Bev Harris
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Bevharris
Post Number: 24
Registered: 10-2005
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Saturday, November 19, 2005 - 6:30 am: |
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Ron,
We will get in touch with you as soon as possible, and if you will e-mail your phone contact to kathleen@blackboxvoting.org, she'll call you to discuss things on Monday.
In some jurisdictions, elections officials have a procedure of not listing write-in results if they wouldn't "make a difference in the outcome." They simply list the number of overall write-ins on the final detail statement.
One question here: Have they had the final canvassing meeting? This is the last meeting, where all documents must be present and they certify the election. It usually occurs about 10-14 days after the election. That is a public meeting, and we would like to have a citizen attend it with a video camera.
Thank you very much for writing. My husband, who has been involved in this issue with me since 2003, is especially interested in the Detroit situation, and has been compiling much more information that I'll go over this weekend. He is urging Black Box Voting to take a very close look at Detroit, and he has been a brilliant strategist and mentor. We will definitely elevate Detroit (again) in priority.
You will hear from Kathleen on Monday and me on Tuesday.
Thanks for writing, and welcome to Black Box Voting.
Bev Harris
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Tamara Howard
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Consciouscitizen
Post Number: 1
Registered: 11-2005
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 6:21 am: |
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In reference to your public records request #111305A, if the city clerk does not comply or blocks the BBV's efforts to produce the public information is legal action against the city office available? |
BBV Admin
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2802
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 23, 2005 - 5:16 am: |
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Yes. Refusing to comply with a public records request can be costly to the public agency that obstructs. Not only court costs, but attorney's costs have a precedent of being passed along to the offending public entity. |
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