This report by Kathy Dopp, Green Party member and an election integrity expert and activist from Utah.
http://kathydopp.com/serendipity/
U.S. Election Problems May Affect Nov. 4 Election Outcomes
Recent news articles have reported:
I. Tens of Thousands of Eligible Voters Purged from Electronic State Voter Rolls
II. Purged Voters Must Use Provisional Ballots That Are Not Necessarily Counted
III. Electronic Pollbook Problems Prevent Voters from Voting, or Force Voters to Use Provisional Ballots
IV. Straight Ticket Voting Causes Vote-Flipping & Undervotes
V. Discernible Touch-screen Vote Flipping
VI. Indiscernible Vote-Flipping - No Rational Reason to Trust the Integrity & Accuracy of U.S. Election Results
VII. Voting Machines Not Working
VIII. Voter Intimidation & Dirty Tricks
IX. Unequal Allocation of Voting Resources
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I. TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ELIGIBLE VOTERS PURGED FROM ELECTRONIC STATE VOTER ROLLS
"Some voters 'purged' from voter rolls"
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/26/voter.suppression/index.html
... more than 50,000 registered Georgia voters who have been "flagged" because of a computer mismatch in their personal identification information. At least 4,500 of those people are having their citizenship questioned and the burden is on them to prove eligibility to vote.
"What most people don't know is that every year, elections officials strike millions of names from the voter rolls using processes that are secret, prone to error and vulnerable to manipulation," said Wendy Weiser, an elections expert with New York University's Brennan Center for Justice.
Thousands Face Mix-Ups in Voter Registrations In New Databases, Many Are Wrongly Flagged as Ineligible
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/17/AR200810...
Block the Vote - Will the GOP's campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president?
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/23638322/block_the_vote
USA Today cited "accusations of voter fraud and voter suppression" but omitted examples of voter suppression
http://mediamatters.org/items/200810170017?f=h_latest
States' Attempts to Clean up Voting Lists Result in Unlawful Voter Purging and Suppression
http://www.civilrights.org/library/features/033-voter-purge.html
Voter Reinstated After State Purges Her Registration Colorado Voters Fight For Their Voices This Election Cycle
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/17824470/detail.html
Treasure Coast officials calling residents on 'no match, no vote' list
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/oct/18/officials-calling-no-match-no-vot...
Judge Rules Michigan Voter Purging Program Illegal
http://www.ombwatch.org/article/blogs/entry/5453/53
Ohio GOP loses fight to contest new voters, The Supreme Court on Friday threw out a lawsuit brought by the Ohio Republican Party that could have made it easier to challenge tens of...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/presidentialrace/2008281507_campdi...
The Real Issue Isn't Voter Fraud, Its Vote Suppression (Joe Rothstein's Commentary)
http://uspolitics.einnews.com/article.php?nid=561852
Update on voting rights cases
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stori...
Voter Database Glitches Could Disenfranchise Thousands
By Kim Zetter Email 09.17.08
http://www.wired.com/print/politics/onlinerights/news/2008/09/voter_regi...
Some voters 'purged' from voter rolls
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/26/voter.suppression/
Courts are packed with cases of people whose voter registrations aren't on file for some reason By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau
http://timesunion.com/TUNews/author/AuthorPage.aspx?AuthorNum=82
Brennan Center: 2008's Voter Suppression Incidents So Far
http://www.alternet.org/election08/104413/brennan_center:_2008%27s_voter...
Democratic Party questions voter cancellations
http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/politics-0/1225231457...
Democrats allege voter purge
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/politics/33486504.html
Florida counties split over voter verification
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/741884.html
White House Asks for Scrutiny
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/24/AR200810...
Lawmakers Urge DOJ Not to Intervene in Ohio Voter Dispute
http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/428-lawmakers-urge-doj-not-to-inter...
Coffman sued over voter purge
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_10815894
Colorado Faces Suit on Voter Purges
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/us/politics/25brfs-001.html?_r=2&ref=u...
Ohio group drops lawsuit over voter ID
http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/20081024/UPDATES01/81024025/-1/new...
Bush Orders DOJ To Probe Ohio Voter Registrations, October 25, 2008
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/esk/2008/10/bush-orders-doj-...
Over 1,500,000 NYS Voters Purged, October 21st
Have you been purged from New York State’s database?
http://www.nyvv.org/boblog/2008/10/21/over-1500000-nys-voters-purged/
Some voters 'purged' from voter rolls
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/26/voter.suppression/
12,165 now on Florida's 'no match' vote list
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/state/article877094.ece
Tipping the Scales -- Up to 10,000 Registrations Deemed Incomplete in Colorado
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-markovits/tipping-the-scales----up_...
Voter rolls at center of clerk's race
http://www.northjersey.com/news/njpolitics/33344799.html
Colorado Secretary of State sued over voter purges
http://www.koaa.com/aaaa_top_stories/x1589514438/Colorado-Secretary-of-S...
Federal judge will hear voter purge case Wednesday
http://www.examiner.com/a-1659209~Federal_judge_will_hear_voter_purge_ca...
Latest developments on Colorado voting issues
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/oct/28/latest-developments-on...
Voting rights group sues Colorado secretary of state over purges
http://coloradoindependent.com/12872/voting-rights-group-sue-colorado-se...
CNN: Error purges 50,000 Georgia voters from rolls
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/10/cnn_er...
Court: ‘Flagged’ citizens may vote
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/10/27/voters_verific...
Colo.'s Katherine Harris threatens '08 election [another attempt to disenfranchise voters on a technicality]
http://www.politicswest.com/32023/colorados_katherine_harris_threatens_0...
Lawmakers Urge DOJ Not to Intervene in Ohio Voter Dispute
http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/428-lawmakers-urge-doj-not-to-inter...
II. PURGED VOTERS MUST USE PROVISIONAL BALLOTS THAT ARE NOT NECCESSARILY COUNTED
Provisional Ballots Get Uneven Treatment
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122515651921374669.html?mod=googlenews_w...
Increase in provisional ballots could stress election systems
Eligibility questions may delay results
http://news-press.com/article/20081024/NEWS0107/810250424
Watchdog Groups Urge Voters to Reject Provisional Ballots Groups hope to settle challenges at polls; feds will monitor fraud claims
http://www.wibc.com/News/Story.aspx?ID=101696
Rockingham County - 79 Rockingham voters given provisional ballots
http://www.news-record.com/content/2008/10/28/article/79_rockingham_vote...
III. ELECTRONIC POLLBOOK PROBLEMS PREVENT VOTERS FROM VOTING OR FORCE VOTERS TO USE PROVISIONAL BALLOTS
Voters turn out in force for historic campaign
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6068201.html
Among the problems was a malfunction in the machines that scan voters' identification … where about 300 people stood in line waiting to cast ballots.
Long lines, glitches reported during early voting
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/24/voting.problems/?imw=Y&iref=m...
Your vote faces challenges like never before
http://www.times-standard.com/othervoices/ci_10820484
Early voters overwhelm poll workers
But touch-screen machines functioned just fine, county election official says
http://www.parkrecord.com/todaysheadlines/ci_10808045
Glitch reported in early voting in Park City
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4631731
Summit County residents show up at polls only to find they've already voted
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10830698
Card glitch snarls early voting
http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20081021/NEWS01/81021005
Long lines, few machines [and Diebold’s crashing poll books] hamper voting in Georgia county
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/georgia.voting/
IV. STRAIGHT TICKET VOTING CAUSES VOTE-FLIPPING & UNDERVOTES
NC: Watch out for a separation between the straight-party vote and the presidential vote on your ballots!
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/79161
Straight Ticket Voting Causing Problems
http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/straightticket.asp
Confusing North Carolina Ballot Leaves off Votes for President
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-tucker/confusing-north-carolina_b_13...
Vote Count Error Caught in New Mexico Machines
By Kim Zetter October 07, 2008
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/vote-count-erro.html
Officials find, fix glitch in New Mexico voting machine
http://www.rep-am.com/news/elections/370744.txt
Day before early voting, glitch found with machines
http://www.dailymail.com/News/election08/200810140217
V. DISCERNIBLE TOUCH-SCREEN VOTE FLIPPING – mostly on ES&S machines in SC, WV, MO, TN, and TX
Law Center Sends Letter to States About Vote-Flipping Machines
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/law-center-send.html
Citizens face major problems when polling machines malfunction
http://www.elon.edu/pendulum/Story.aspx?id=1198
Texas county's machines causing concern for some voters
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/28/tx-countys-machines-caus...
Tennesseans report voting problems
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081025/NEWS0206/8...
Early e-voting results in vote flipping in three states so far
http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/10/27/early_voting/
Good with Crayons? Then you can vote in Kanawha County
http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200810240716
W. Virginia Gave E-Voting VP an Award While Machines Were Malfunctioning
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/w-virginia-give.html
Votes being stolen from Obama in Early Voting, October 23, 2008
http://realhistoryarchives.blogspot.com/2008/10/votes-being-stolen-from-...
Some early W.Va. voters angry over switched votes
Jackson County touch-screens switched votes, 3 residents say
http://wvgazette.com/News/200810170676
More W.Va. voters say machines are switching votes
In six cases, Democratic votes flipped to GOP
http://wvgazette.com/News/200810180251
Vote Flipping in Davidson County, Tennessee
http://uncountedthemovie.com/blog/2008/10/20/vote-flipping-in-davidson-c...
Voting Machines Switch Votes; Officials Blame Voters
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/voting-machine.html
Voters in W.Va. Say Electronic Voting Machines Switched their Obama Votes to McCain
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-mckay/voters-in-wva-say-electro_b_1363...
Voting Is a Touchy Business
Some machines showing wrong choices in W.Va.
http://www.news-register.net/page/content.detail/id/515728.html
Early-voting problems in Putnam, WV
Touch-screen votes switched, then corrected
http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200810200711
W. Virginia Gives E-Voting [ES&S] VP an Award While Its Machines Malfunction
http://popmartian.com/techpile/2008/10/28/w-virginia-gives-e-voting-vp-a...
W. Virginia Video Testimonials of Vote Flipping
http://videothevote.org/video/?state=WV&tag=&year=2008&search=Search
Early Voting Can Be Fun! And Crowded! And Confusing! Also, Troubling!
Tue Oct 21, 2008
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2008/10/voting_is_fun_and_con...
Vote Flipping in Davidson County, Tennessee, 21 October 2008
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0810/S00304.htm
Problems with Voting Machines
http://www.ktsm.com/news/local/33423489.html
Testing OKs touch screen voting machines
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/briefs/x1125636459/W-Va-Testing-OKs-...
Voting Rights Watch: One company's machine behind vote-switching reported in early balloting across the South
http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/10/voting-rights-watch-one-c...
Voters using e-voting machines urged to check printouts to verify their choices
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&...
Voters turn out in force for historic campaign
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6068201.html
Letter to Secretaries of State re: iVotronic “Vote Flippingâ€
http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/letter_to_secretaries_of_s...
Concerns raised over electronic voting
http://www.mineralwellsindex.com/local/local_story_298161535.html
Problems Plague Early Voting System
Elections Commission Says Blames Calibration
http://www.wsmv.com/politics/17803172/detail.html
Voters confused about presidential vote on TN county's machines
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/26/voters-confused-about-pr...
Surprise, Surprise: E-Voting Glitches Found In Early Voting
Techdirt - USA
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081024/1456192641.shtml
In this case, the machines are supplied by ES&S whose machines (like both Sequoia and Diebold) have a relatively long history of screwing up at election ...
This demo by a voting official shows what can happen when a machine’s touchscreen isn't calibrated. Then to make his point that a properly calibrated machine works perfectly, he calibrates the machine, then he votes straight republican and the machine votes for Ralph Nader probably because his prior vote for Nader can not be overwritten afterwards by voting the straight party option.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q9NSVUu8nk
VI. INDISCERNIBLE VOTE-FLIPPING EASY - NO RATIONAL REASON TO TRUST THE INTEGRITY & ACCURACY OF U.S. ELECTION RESULTS
There is motive and ample opportunity for insider vote manipulation in all current U.S. voting systems. The elections industry may be the only major U.S. industry that is not subjected to independent auditing. No human being, not even the most skilled computer scientist, can tell after an election what instructions executed on current U.S. voting machines during elections, so the only way to check the accuracy of US election outcomes is by manual counts of voter-marked ballots.
E-Voting Made Scary
[Nice summary of the work of UCal Santa Barbara’s Computer Security Group]
http://www.independent.com/news/2008/oct/23/e-voting-made-scary/
NY Times: Casting a Ballot, and a Wary Eye
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/business/media/27link.html?_r=1&oref=s...
Interactive Map of US - How Hackable is your State's Voting System?
http://dvice.com/voting/index.php
7 scariest problems with today's voting machines
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/10/seven_scary_fac.php
Electronic Voting Machines Leave Room For Manipulations, Warns Europe's Biggest Hacker Group
http://blogs.dw-world.de/acrossthepond/michael/1.7275.html
Part1 to 3: hack a Sequoia Advantage with Andrew Appel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxM_QNGF1dE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NHQHMXca9E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA3J9qlVuBM
Princeton Warning on E-Voting Machine Hack Shows Human Touch Can Be a Good Thing
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Princeton-Warning-on-EVoting-Machine-H...
SC Voting Machines Prone to Problems, Warns USC Computer Science Chairman
http://www.wspa.com/spa/news/local/article/sc_voting_machines_prone_to_p...
A Vote for More Secure Elections (discusses hackability of optiscan voting machines)
http://advice.cio.com/seisenstadt/a_vote_for_more_secure_elections
Princeton report rips N.J. e-voting machines as easily hackable
Vendor challenges research, says its machines are safe and reliable
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&...
E-Voting Complaints Heat Up With Early Voting
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/government/showArticle.jhtm...
South Carolina among 10 least ready for voting glitches
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/102108/met_480256.shtml
Did Washington waste millions on faulty voting machines?
http://www.bnd.com/breaking_news/story/508139.html
While flagging illegal practices, don't overlook machine error
http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1...
VII. VOTING MACHINES NOT WORKING
Voting machines absent on first day of early voting
http://www.pro8news.com/news/local/31328619.html
Boulder County - Greenlee: Will our votes count?
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/oct/26/will-our-votes-count/
Optical Scan Machines Not Working but at least there are paper ballots that could be counted if candidates contest and if state laws allow manual counts to check the machine tallies.
Ballots not being recorded at two Leon County polling places
http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20081020/BREAKINGNEWS/81020024
Early Voting off to Rough Start
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/breaking/news-article.aspx?storyid=12...
optical scan readers - those machines were indicating the ballot was too long.
Film, panel highlight errors in electronic voting machine software
http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=63924&comview=1
VIII. VOTER INTIMIDATION & DIRTY TRICKS
Denounce dirty tricks: Ensuring a fair vote is a responsibility, too
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20081027_Denounce_dirty_tricks__E...
New Mexico GOP Sued For Voter Intimidation
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/27/new-mexico-gop-sued-for-v_n_138...
Phony flier says Virginians vote on different days
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/10/phony-flier-says-virginians-vote-differe...
Civil rights groups file suits on voter harassment
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Civil-rights-groups-file-s...
GOP lawyer refuses to deny private eye visits (updated)
Two in ACORN controversy say investigator's visits were intimidating
http://newmexicoindependent.com/6457/nm-gop-accused-of-voter-intimidatio...
Voter Suppression Hits the Web
E-Mails Sow Disinformation As Voting Groups Prepare To Monitor Polls With Web Apps, Twitter And Mobile Video
http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/no_20081027_9705.php
IX. UNEQUAL OR INSUFFICIENT ALLOCATION OF VOTING RESOURCES
NAACP Sues Officials over Vote Preparations
High-Minority Areas Affected, Group Says
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/27/AR200810...
A Voting Rights Disaster?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/27/AR200810...
Some states are not providing adequate voting equipment, machines, stations and staff
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1331/t/6410/campaign.jsp?campaign_K...
Election Watchdog Group Warns of Ballot Shortage
http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7743482&v...
U.S judge hears Pa. ballot lawsuit
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20081029_U_S_judge_hears_Pa__ballot...
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Not all election problems are reported by voters or officials. Unfortunately, in most states there is no requirement for poll workers to report problems to county and township election officials, no requirement for county election officials to report problems to the state election officials and no requirement for anyone to report election problems to the US Election Assistance Commission or to the public.
An independently compiled similar list of news articles also organized by voting problems occurring in this 2008 November election is available here: ELECTION COMPLAINTS ARE POURING IN October 28, 2008 http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/2008/10/election-complaints-are-po...
Review in real-time reports of voter assistance calls made to 866-OUR-VOTE, Election Protection's toll-free hotline. http://www.ourvotelive.org/home.php
SUMMARY
U.S. election problems are extensive enough to possibly cause candidates to be certified for office that were not accurately elected by voters in U.S. presidential, congressional, and state election contests.
US election officials have, in the past decade, turned over vote reporting, vote counting, and even vote casting, in the case of electronic ballots, to private vendors using trade-secret software. Election officials close relationships with voting machine vendors may explain why some officials are resisting the public cry for increased public transparency and public control over elections, including ballot security that is necessary to ensure accurate election outcomes.
Independent scientific manual post-election audits and public oversight would ensure that voters decide who governs.
It is only by protecting the right to vote for everyone, that any individual’s right to vote can be protected because the secret ballot prevents any voter from being able to check that his or her own vote was counted accurately and thus makes elections very difficult to secure.
Thanks in large part to the Daily Voting News efforts of John Gideon for alerting election integrity advocates to many of these articles.
Due to the large number of voters wrongly purged from voting rolls who will be forced to count on provisional ballots that are not usually counted until weeks after the election, and due to the unaudited nature of machine counts, candidates should not concede any election contest until after all provisional ballots have been counted and after detailed election data has been obtained from election officials by open records requests and analyzed to detect any anomalous patterns consistent with vote miscount.
I will follow-up this email with another giving advice to voters, including how to report the problems that you experience during this election.
Kathy Dopp
The material expressed herein is the informed product of the author Kathy Dopp's fact-finding and investigative efforts. Dopp is a Mathematician, Expert in election audit mathematics and procedures; in exit poll discrepancy analysis; and can be reached at
P.O. Box 680192
Park City, UT 84068
phone 435-658-4657
http://utahcountvotes.org
http://electionmathematics.org
http://electionarchive.org
How to Audit Election Outcome Accuracy
http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/paper-audits/VoteCountAuditBil...
History of Confidence Election Auditing Development & Overview of Election Auditing Fundamentals
http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/paper-audits/History-of-Electi...
