JAMES BAKER
Many find election results hard to accept at face value
Sun Nov 14, 2004 23:09
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Many find election results hard to accept at face value

http://www.fosters.com/november_2004/11.14.04/news/su_11.14.04a.asp

November 14, 2004
By JAMES BAKER
Staff Writer

DOVER — When asked shortly after the election whether George W. Bush won the presidency fair and square, no less an authority than Jack Kerrigan, a veteran John Kerry advisor, had this to say:

"No one would be more interested than me in finding out that we really won, but that ain't the case. I get why people are frustrated, but they (Republicans) did not steal this election. There were a few problems here and there in the election, but unlike 2000, there is no doubt that they actually got more votes than we did, and they got them in the states that mattered."

Kerrigan's assessment notwithstanding, all one needs to do is check the Internet to find Web postings such as BlackBoxVoting.org to realize the conspiracy theory that Bush stole the election is alive and well.

The question is, is there any validity to the theory, or is it just a matter of sour grapes, possibly a carryover from 2000?

Mark Wrighton, an assistant professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, believes the voting margin between Bush and Kerry was large enough to remove doubt that Bush won the election.

"Anytime you're talking about millions of votes being cast, there's always going to be a small percentage of spoilage and even outright fraud. And that becomes more salient when the results are very close, but I don't think that was the case in this election."

Wrighton said that given the razor-thin margin between victory and defeat in the election four years ago, it's not surprising the conspiracy theory is still out there, albeit mostly in cyberspace.

"There's no question that what happened in Florida in 2000 colored this election and resurrected the notion that there was fraud involved, but it's not going to change anything. All eyes were on Ohio this election, and Bush had a decent enough lead that it's hard to imagine enough voting irregularities that could possibly change the outcome."

But Wrighton said this year's election was close enough that the outcome may further drive electoral reform.

Two years ago, Bush signed the "Help America Vote Act of 2002," aimed to improve the administration of elections primarily by creating a new federal agency to serve as a clearinghouse for election administration information and providing funds to states to improve election administration and replace outdated voting systems.

"Unfortunately there are some states such as Ohio that still use punch cards to tabulate votes, but I think that format is just about on the way out. As we move forward, I think you'll see more optical scanners and touchscreens to tabulate votes," Wrighton said.

Still, there are many out there who are convinced Kerry conceded the election far too soon and should have insisted on a thorough investigation.

A recent article in OpEdNews.com suggested that since the majority of touchscreens do not produce paper records, the machines could conceivably alter ballots without anyone noticing.

"What has most concerned scientists are problems that are not observable," said David Jefferson, a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Observatory in California.

"The fact that we had a relatively smooth election does not change at all the vulnerability these systems have to fraud or bugs."

Others, such as Susan Truitt, co-founder of the Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections, was quoted on her organization's Web site that seven counties in Ohio had electronic voting machines without paper trails, and scientific exit polls showed Kerry with the lead.

But verifying votes was impossible, according to Truitt.

"A recount without a paper trail is meaningless; you just get a regurgitation of the data. One poll worker told me (the morning after the election) that there were no tapes of the results posted on some machines; on other machines the posted count was zero, which obviously shouldn't be the case," she said.
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Black Box Voting has taken the position that fraud took place in the 2004 election through electronic voting machines. We base this on hard evidence, documents obtained in public records requests, inside information, and other data indicative of manipulation of electronic voting systems. What we do not know is the specific scope of the fraud. We are working now to compile the proof, based not on soft evidence -- red flags, exit polls -- but core documents obtained by Black Box Voting in the most massive Freedom of Information action in history.

We need: Lawyers to enforce public records laws. Some counties have already notified us that they plan to stonewall by delaying delivery of the records. We need citizen volunteers for a number of specific actions. We need computer security professionals willing to GO PUBLIC with formal opinions on the evidence we provide, whether or not it involves DMCA complications. We need funds to pay for copies of the evidence.

http://blackboxvoting.org