(MI) 1/10 - DETROIT: CRIMINAL INVESTI...

Author Message   Bev Harris Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 10942 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box?  Votes: 4 (A keeper?) Posted on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - 2:05 pm:        Let's watch Detroit carefully, because today's request to prosecute election violations may help with a rotten elections culture elsewhere in the USA. Ex-candidate Tom Barrow has filed a formal request for investigation along with stunning documentation of chain of custody breach in the recent Detroit mayoral election. Black Box Voting has been in close contact with Barrow, and we will be reviewing additional documents related to this case. The allegations are fascinating. Detroit citizens executed watchdog actions brilliantly. One of my favorite tactics: They piled leaves in front of the back door, and went out to check frequently to see if anyone was sneaking in and out. The leaves showed that someone had entered through the back door. A security guard confessed to letting strangers in to the security area. There's more ... in fact, the full complaint and its accompanying Exhibit provides a pretty good primer for citizens and candidates who want to watchdog elections. But first, a word about how widespread this culture of violating chain of custody has become: NEW HAMPSHIRE CHAIN OF CUSTODY VIOLATIONS In New Hampshire, Black Box Voting documented ballot boxes with removable seals affixed with post-it note style adhesive, ballots arrived in the wrong boxes, ballot boxes arrived open, they placed ballots in an unlocked room outside the ballot vault and they refused to account for the blank ballots. The only investigation launched was into the citizens who videotaped these transgressions. ARIZONA CHAIN OF CUSTODY VIOLATIONS In Arizona, citizen observer John Brakey spoke up about broken and mismatched seals in Pima County. The only investigation done was into John Brakey himself, who was arrested, apparently for his loud utterances about the broken chain of custody. That got Brakey and his pesky observations off the premises while they proceeded to count; charges were later dropped. In Maricopa County, Black Box Voting board member Jim March revealed that they were ordering up to 10 copies of duplicate seal numbers (rendering seal numbers moot for chain of custody protection). GEORGIA CHAIN OF CUSTODY VIOLATIONS In Georgia, one poll worker after the next wrote down notes detailing missing, mismatched and broken seals. No action at all was taken, except to ridicule Cynthia McKinney, the candidate who had the backbone to ask for chain of custody records. MAINE CHAIN OF CUSTODY VIOLATIONS In Maine, the chief of staff for the state of Maine Speaker of the House was caught in the ballot vault tampering with ballots. The giveaway: He was smoking and someone thought there was a fire. No one prosecuted the speaker of the house. The perp caught red-handed was convicted and sentenced to community service and a fine. He didn't finish his community service and never paid the fine. OHIO CHAIN OF CUSTODY VIOLATIONS In Ohio, former Black Box Voting Associate Director Kathleen Wynne caught two Cleveland elections workers admitting to counting recount ballots secretly and out of public view, and then hand-picking the batches to count in public. They were convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison. They never served time; a judge stepped in and for no apparent reason, decided to suspend the sentence that had already been ordered. CALIFORNIA DODGEBALL In California, citizens have been circling 'round with formal written requests to try to pin down who prosecutes election law violations and under what circumstances. This would seem to be a simple task, but the answers they've been getting from the Calif. Attorney General's office have been dodgier than G.W. Bush at a shoe-throwing festival. WITHOUT ENFORCEMENT, LAWS AND 'CHECKS & BALANCES' DON'T PROTECT US What's going on in Detroit right now is incredibly important, because it provides an opportunity to consequate significant violations of chain of custody. We need consequences and we need enforcement, or passing all the laws in the world won't do a thing to improve election integrity. Already we have seen an unprecedented step: Due to breach of chain of custody, over 40,000 absentee ballots were excluded from the mayoral recount. This brings up two points: (1) With such a large number excluded (far more than the margin of separation between mayoral candidates), there can be no reasonable certainty at all about the election outcome. (2) Michigan has recently joined 25 other states in loosening up its absentee voting requirements, which will result in vastly more absentee ballots being cast, with fewer checks and balances than before. If you are a fan of the risky vote-by-mail craze, note that mismatched seals were primarily on the bottom of the absentee ballot boxes. The more vote-by-mail ballots there are, the more unsustainable the burdon on chain of custody becomes. Some Detroit officials are complaining about the cost of having all this looked into, blaming citizens, candidates, anyone but themselves for their own failure to adhere to their own rules and regulations. If Tom Barrow's Detroit actions can improve accountability and -- even better -- start undoing the culture of unaccountability we're seeing in elections administration, he will have performed an important service for us all. THE DETROIT COMPLAINT (Due to length, will post Exhibit 1 in separate post. It's pretty juicy.) To: Honorable Mike Cox, Michigan Attorney General G. Mennen Williams Building, 7th Floor 525 W. Ottawa St. P.O. Box 30212 Lansing, MI 48909 Dear Attorney General Cox: Pursuant to MCR 3.303, MCL 168.861, MCL 600.4501, MC L 4505 and MCL 600.4545, this letter is to formally request that you initiate Quo Warranto proceedings against the City of Detroit, Janice Winfrey, Detroit City Clerk in her official capacity, the Detroit Election Commission and Mr. David Bing, all for the purpose of removing David Bing as mayor of the City of Detroit where there exists no reasonable certainty that he was elected by the people of Detroit. Such proceeding would be based upon Mr. Bing's "usurpation" of the office of Mayor and is warranted due to the improprieties of absentee vote tampering, ballot box stuffing, electronic manipulation, gross error and employee malfeasance, of which Mr. Bing was the clear beneficiary. As a result, any reasonable certainty no longer exists as to the validity of the November 3, 2009 election results. Indeed, the findings of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers and the other countless irregularities, breaches, failures to adhere to protocol and or statutes, not to mention the possible illegalities, are so numerous as to make for nothing other than a completely uncertain outcome which requires remediation. In support of this request, the undersigned asserts that the facts supporting this request are those alleged below as well as those included in my formal "Complaint and Request For Investigation" filed with your office last week and attached hereto as Exhibit I. All of the facts are based upon events which occurred prior to the November 3, 2009 general election as well as those learned during the recently concluded recount by the Wayne County Board of Canvassers of December 23, 2009. These facts indicate that no reasonable certainty now exists that Mr. Bing has been validly elected. During that recount, the Wayne County Board of Canvassers unanimously took the historically unprecedented move and ordered that the following City of Detroit Absentee Counting Boards be disallowed and excluded from any recount: These one hundred disallowed Absentee Counting Board Precincts total 41,485 elector's ballots and represents 100% of the city's absentee ballots cast in the November 3, 2009 election. Similarly such disallowed votes represent 100% of the absentee ballots cast for the office of mayor and removes any reasonable certainty that Mr. Bing could have been truthfully elected. Moreover, these votes represent a commanding 35% of the 118,744 ballots which had been sought to be recounted. The independent Wayne County Board of Canvassers made their unanimous and unprecedented decision based upon the weighty evidence identified as a result of innumerable breaches of security seals, numerous security seal entries made by election night workers which did not match those reflected on the cases and in the poll books, repeated and recurrent poll book voter and ballot irregularities, missing ballots in cases which have been opened, and a general pattern of failure by the Detroit Elections Department to follow the Election Laws, regulations and statues of the State of Michigan relative to conducting secure and proper elections. All of the failures identified by the Board of Canvassers benefitted Mr. Bing and removes any reasonable certainty that he was properly elected but has usurped the office and must now be removed. Further evidence to be considered is that the improper or unlawful activity surrounding the absentee voter containers indicates clearly that the absentee ballots have been tampered with, valid ballots presumably removed and then replaced with new ballots, new seals applied, and thereby unlawfully affecting the outcome of the November 3rd election all to the benefit of David Bing. Beyond the disenfranchisement of Detroit's 41,485 absentee voters, the Board of Canvassers also unanimously ordered that the following neighborhood precincts be similarly disallowed and excluded from being recounted: The facts and events which led to the disallowance and exclusion of these additional 8,001 ballots were for reasons not unlike those mentioned surrounding the city's absentee ballots and raises the grand total of disallowed ballots to 49,486 and increases the total of disallowed votes of those selected to be recounted to 42% . Such findings effectively amount to a thwarting of the will of the people of Detroit and thereby allowed the beneficiary to usurp the office of mayor. These facts leave Detroit voters with nothing other than an uncertain outcome on which no one could be expected to reasonably rely. Further evidence of the gross error or possible fraud leading to the unreliability and uncertainty of the outcome is found in the fact that by the fourth day of the recount, Petitioner began to suspect that the source documents being viewed had been compromised. As a result, Petitioner asked and was permitted (going forward but not retroactively) to examine final tabulation result tapes printed at each polling site at the close of the polls and which comprise the "audit trail" contemplated by MCL 168.795 and MCL 168.795(1) and MCL 168.795(1)(j). These crucial tapes are the official record that shows the votes tallied by candidate as well as the date and time the affected poll was closed and is the sole evidence that the poll opened at 7am and closed at 8pm EST in compliance with MCL 168.720 and MCL 168.722. On said fourth day, the source tapes began to be examined and immediately it was discovered that the city of Detroit Elections Department was routinely violating MCL 168.720; MCL 168.722 and electronically closing many polls early. This would have been undetectable by the poll workers and the general public. The tapes of the precincts listed hereafter represent only a fraction of those examined during the recount because the gross errors and/or illegal activity only became palpable by said fourth day. Resultantly, numerous previously examined containers and their associated tabulation tapes which could represent an additional estimated 20,000 additional ballots were never examined. However, going forward the precincts below were examined and had closing times other than as required by statute at MCL 168.720: These precincts, represent an additional 9,649(1) votes which clearly violate MCL 168.720 and thus cannot be said to be in compliance with the statute(2). This would bring the number of questionable votes to 58,135 or approximately 51% of the ballots examined during the recount and approximately 46% of the total overall votes cast on November 3, 2009 all to the benefit of Mr. Bing and further removes any reasonable certainty of his valid election. Indeed, but for the inability to examine all of the tabulation tapes prior to the fourth day, the total number of votes which could have been deemed un-recountable and assuming only one-third of the 20,000 non-examined ballots were improperly closed, the number of improperly and early closed precinct's ballots, non-recountable and disallowed ballots could easily have risen to as high as 64,802(3 (20,000 times 33% or 6,667 plus the 58,135) votes or 57% of the voting precincts selected to be recounted and an astounding 50.2% of the total ballots cast on November 3, 2009. Summary The request for you to commence Quo Warranto proceedings challenging title to the office of mayor is fundamentally founded on the premise that the uncertainly of the outcome of this election is so great as to render it completely unreliable. The evidence shows that at a minimum nearly 50% of the ballots are tainted by an electoral process gone bad either through gross error, fraud, or illegality. So tainted is the vote that it seems your office has no other choice but to pursue a remedy for the voters of Detroit. You are reminded that the vast majority of these findings which caused the disallowance of votes and the effective disenfranchisement of up to 50% of Detroit’s citizens, were not Complainant's hysterical speculations, but were the findings and orders of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers. The gravamen of my argument to initiate such proceedings is found in the real fact that only 9,691(4) votes (70,166 minus 50,785=19,381 divided by 2) separated Mr. Bing and I. Further, given the uncertain outcome brought about by the breaches, disallowances, vote tampering, ballot box stuffing, violation of statutes and election worker malfeasance, there is no reasonable certainty that he was truthfully elected. Rather the will of the electorate of the City of Detroit has been thwarted and the office usurped by the clear beneficiary of the violations. In closing, the efficacy of Detroit's election process is at stake as the will of the people has been disappointed by person(s) unknown but has now been discovered. Your office is duty bound and sworn to protect the citizens of this state and the city of Detroit from the events which have led to these invalid and uncountable votes and which have incontrovertibly affected the outcome of the general election to the benefit of David Bing. This Petitioner respectfully requests that your office immediately initiate proceedings to challenge such title and to vacate the office of mayor of the City of Detroit; immediately seek a special election for the city's electors who are recorded as having voted in this contest and seek to permit a new election under the auspices of the Wayne County Clerk's Elections Department free from the tampering, ballot box stuffing, electronic manipulation and malfeasance set forth with particularity both above and supplemented by the attached Exhibit I. Because of the significance of these matters, I would respectfully urge your quick review, investigation and advice as to when and whether you will be initiating such a proceeding. The Detroit City Charter provides that in the interim, the Detroit City Council President will function as interim Mayor. ... Respectfully submitted, Tommy J Barrow, Candidate -Mayor of Detroit (1) as they were also found to have violations of other state statutes making them not recount able. (2) Importantly, the Election Inspectors assigned to these precincts signed "Election Inspector's Preparation Certification[s]" as required and adopted by the Michigan Secretary of State in its manual dated January, 2009 titled Test Procedures for Optical Scan Voting Systems and Automark Voter Assist Terminals. These documents certify that "All added] working order" P38 Indeed, Step 4 of that manual speaks directly to this crucial date and time synchronization requiring the Election Inspector to "Ensure that the date and time are properly set." P39;. Then to make sure that the clock's time is never lost even in an electrical failure, step 5 of that same manual requires the Inspector to "ensure that the battery is fully charged" P39. All had been breached and the integrity of the "audit trail" destroyed and the efficacy of election at those precincts compromised. Over Petitioner's objections and because there were so many (3) date and time violations, city elections department workers argued to the Wayne County Board of Canvassers that MCL 168.720 should somehow be inapplicable since it believed that because it had paid poll workers to work 13 hours of work on election day that that debatable fact alone satisfies its obligations as to compliance and, in their view, somehow proves that the polls were open from 7am until 8pm as required by MCL 168.720. Election Officials for the city argued that the requirements of MCL 168.720 can therefore be excused as long as the tapes can be shown to have a enough time that can be construed favorably as compliant suggests that there were at least 13 hours between an opening tape and the ending tape. Thus the board over Petitioner objection selected a statistically invalid 5 precincts and attempted to find an opening balance tape for comparison. Incredibly even using the incredibly invalid method, city officials could only find four of the five opening tapes, a 20% failure rate. However, Petitioner continued to object as to not only was the test invalid and in no way could anyone tell what 13 hours are being indicated, but the test itself was performed the day after the night that the location of the test site had been breached by persons unknown. See Exhibit I, pgs 22-23. (4) Taken from City of Detroit Election Commission web site’s official results. Black Box Voting will seek copies of and/or inspections of several additional records pertaining to this case.   Bev Harris Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 10949 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 - 1:24 pm:        Thanks for the excellent discussion points - the discussion has been archived to its permanent location in the Michigan - Wayne County section, and you can continue discussing there: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/150/80804.html

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