Michael Keefer
Evidence of Electoral Fraud in the 2004
Mon Nov 15, 2004 23:38
64.140.158.14

Evidence of Electoral Fraud in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election:
A Reading List
by Michael Keefer

http://www.OpEdNews.com

15 November 2004
This reading list has been prepared with the aim of making a wide
range of readings on the subject of the integrity—or the lack of
integrity—of the recent U.S. presidential election readily
available. I have sought to facilitate analytical use of the texts
listed here by dividing them into five groups under the following
headings:
1. The Openness of New Voting Technologies to Fraud;
2. Allegations and Evidence of Fraud in Recent U.S. Elections;
3. Advance Warnings of Fraud in the 2004 Presidential Election;
4. Allegations and Evidence of Fraud in the 2004 Presidential
Election;
5. Allegations and Evidence of a Cover-up of Electoral Fraud.
Some important writings which deal with more than one of these issues—
among them Bev Harris's ground-breaking book Black Box Voting, Andrew
Gumbel's assessment of the threat to democracy posed by the new
voting technologies, and Steven Freeman's analysis of exit poll
discrepancies—appear under more than one of the five headings.

Even at this early stage, less than two weeks after the presidential
election, a growing accumulation of evidence points to the conclusion
that the official vote tallies (listed by The New York Times at
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/elections2004/2004President.html), were
produced by a massive and sustained project of electoral fraud.

The efforts of the Republican Party to purge African Americans from
voters' lists, to frighten voters with conveniently timed `terror
alerts' (complemented by Osama bin Laden's late-October Jack-in-the-
Box act), and to `suppress' the Democratic vote, wherever possible,
by reducing the numbers of polling stations and voting machines in
working-class precincts, have been widely reported and analyzed. But
the materials gathered here suggest very strongly that these crass
maneuvers were supplemented on November 2nd by less conspicuous—and
yet decisive—manipulations of the machines that recorded and
tabulated the votes.

How precisely this apparent manipulation may have been carried out in
different jurisdictions—by rigging machines in advance to mis-record
or delete votes, by configuring proprietary software so as to
allow `back-door' access for unrestrained vote-tampering, or by
hacking into the notoriously insecure vote-tabulation systems—remains
as yet undetermined. However, statistical analyses of the kind
provided by Steven Freeman can clarify the scale of the vote-theft in
key states. And further work of the kind Brandon Adams has
undertaken—he notes striking divergences among Florida voters
according to the machines they used—can identify key areas for
focused Freedom of Information Act demands, and for more detailed
subsequent analysis.

Such explorations, one can anticipate, will produce interesting
results. Clumsy late-night alterations of exit-poll data (strongly
suggestive of an attempt to cover up vote-tally manipulations) were
made on November 2nd: these gave several observers an initial
indication that large-scale fraud had occurred. Expert study of
other textual and material evidence, where further forms of
clumsiness are already manifest, should bring to light some of the
details of what the exit-poll fiddling was designed to conceal.

But this work should not lose sight, in its care and scrupulousness,
of the larger context.

The government of George W. Bush has made no secret of its scorn for
the American Constitution and Bill of Rights, its hostility to any
notion of international law, its contemptuous dismissal of the decent
opinion of humankind both at home and abroad, its contempt, in the
broadest sense, for truth.

Bush has claimed that the 2004 election gave him `capital'—which he
now will not hesitate to spend. But as the evidence is revealing
with growing clarity, this election was not a victory for Bush, but
rather the occasion for an insolent usurpation.

A `president' who takes office through fraud and usurpation can make
no legitimate claim to exercise the stolen power of his office.

As the knowledge of his offence becomes ever more widely
disseminated, he may yet come "[to] feel his title / Hang loose upon
him, like a giant's robe / Upon a dwarfish thief."

Michael Keefer, Associate Professor, School of English and Theatre
Studies, University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada)

1. The Openness of New Voting Technologies to Fraud


CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project. "Immediate Steps to Avoid
Lost Votes in the 2004 Presidential Election: Recommendations for the
Election Assistance Commission." July 2004.
http://www.vote.caltech.edu/Reports/index.html.


Collier, James M., and Kenneth F. Collier. Votescam: The Stealing of
America . Victoria House Press, 1992. ISBN 0963416308.


Collier, Victoria. "Computerized Election Fraud in America : A Brief
History." Votescam (25 October 2003),
http://www.votescam.com/abriefhistory.php.


Conover, Bev. "Computerized voting systems cannot be made secure."
Online Journal (20 October 2003),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/102003Conover/102003conover.html.

------. "Voting: When low-tech beats high-tech." Online Journal (25
June 2004),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/062504Conover/062504conover.html.



Equal Justice Foundation. Vote Fraud and Election Issues. Last
updated 27 September 2004.
http://www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting.htm#fraud.


Harris, Bev. Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st
Century. Renton , WA : Talion Publishing/Black Box Voting, 2003.
ISBN 1890916900. Free internet version available at
http://www.blackboxvoting.org.
------. "Inside a U.S. Election Vote Counting Program." Scoop (8
July 2003), http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00065.htm;
Truthout (July 2003), http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/voting.shtml.


Hartmann, Thom. "If You Want to Win an Election, Just Control the
Voting Machines." Common Dreams News Center (31 January 2003).
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0131-01.htm; Scoop (31 January
2003), http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00009.htm; Online
Journal (6 February 2003),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/020603Hartmann/020603hartmann.htm
l.
------. "Now your vote is the property of a private corporation."
SmirkingChimp.com (11 March 2003),
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=10536; Online Journal (13
March 2003),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031303Hartmann/031303hartmann.htm
l.


Internet Policy Institute. Report of the National Workshop on
Internet Voting: Issues and Research Agenda. March 2001. 62 pp.
Sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Conducted in
cooperation with the University of Maryland and hosted by the Freedom
Forum. http://www.nsfe-voterprt.pdf.


Jones, Douglas W. Voting and Elections. Course on Computers in
Voting, 22C:196, Fall 2001, Department of Computer Science,
University of Iowa . http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting.
------. "The Diebold AccuVote TS Should be Decertified." ESENEX
Security Symposium, Washington DC (6 August 2003),
http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/dieboldusenix.html.


Kohno, Tadayoshi, Adam Stubblefield, Aviel D. Rubin, and Dan S.
Wallach. "Analysis of an Electronic Voting System." IEEE Symposium
on Security and Privacy, Oakland CA , May 2004.
http://avirubin.com/vote/analysis/index.html.


Kocher, Paul, and Bruce Schneier. "Insider Risks in Elections."
Inside Risks 169, CACM 47, 7 (July 2004),
http://www.csl.sri.com/users/neumann/insiderisks04.html.


Landes, Lynn. " Mission impossible: Federal observers & voting
machines." Online Journal (26 November 2002),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/112602Landes/112602landes.html.
------. "Voting machines violate Constitution: Who will launch legal
challenge?" Online Journal (15 April 2003),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/041503Landes/041503landes.html.
------. "Offshore company captures online military vote." Online
Journal (21 July 2003),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/072103Landes/072103landes.html.
------. "Internet Voting—The End of Democracy?" 27 August 2003.
http://www.ecotalk.org/InternetVoting.htm; Online Journal (4
September 2003),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/090403Landes/090403landes.html.
------. "Republicans and Brits will count California 's recall
votes." Online Journal (6 October 2003),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/100603Landes/100603landes.html.
------. "NIST ignores scientific method for voting technology."
Online Journal (16 December 2003),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/121603Landes/121603landes.html.


Mercuri, Rebecca. Electronic Vote Tabulation: Checks and Balances.
Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Computer and Information Systems, School
of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania ,
2001. Available from http://www.umi.com (Thesis # 3003665).
------. Electronic Voting.
http://www.notablesoftware.com/evote.html.
------. Press Release (24 September 2002): "MIT vs. Mercuri.
Rebecca Mercuri rebuts recent MIT/CalTech voting systems analysis and
calls for moratorium on new electronic balloting equipment
purchases."
http://www.notablesoftware.com/Papers/MITvsMercuri.html.
------, and Peter G. Neumann. "Verification for Electronic Balloting
Systems." Chapter 3 of Secure Electronic Voting, ed. Dimitris
Gritzalis. Advances in Information Security, vol. 7. Boston :
Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002. ISBN 1402073011.


Norr, Henry. "The Risks of Touch-Screen Balloting." San Francisco
Chronicle (4 December 2000),


Rubin, Aviel. " Testimony , U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Dr.
Aviel Rubin, Professor of Computer Science, May 5, 2004."
http://avirubin.com/vote.


Saltman, Roy G. Accuracy, Integrity, and Security in Computerized
Vote-Tallying. NBS Special Publication 500-158. Institute for
Computer Sciences and Technology, National Bureau of Standards.
Gaithersburg , MD 20899 , August 1988.
http://www.itl.nist.gov/lab/specpubs/500-158.htm.


Schneier, Bruce. "Voting and Technology." Crypto-Gram Newsletter
(15 December 2000), http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0012.html.


Sludge, C. D. " Sludge Report #154: Bigger Than Watergate! How to
Rig an Election in the United States ." Scoop (8 July 2003),
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00064.htm; Truthout
(July 2003), http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/voting.shtml; also
published under the title "Bald-Faced Lies About Black Box Voting
Machines and the Truth About the Diebold Rob-Georgia File." Equal
Justice Foundation (July 2003), http://www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting-
25.htm#rig.


Thompson, Ken. "Reflections on Trusting Trust." Communications of
the ACM 27.8 (August 1984): 761-63.
http://www.acm.org/classics/sep95.


Zetter, Kim. "Time to Recall E-Vote Machines?" Wired News (6 October
2003), .
------. "E-Voting Undermined By Sloppiness." Wired News (17
December 2003), .
------. "E-Vote Still Flawed, Experts Say." Wired News (29 January
2004), http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,62109.00,html.




2. Allegations and Evidence of Fraud in Recent U.S. Elections


Collier, James M., and Kenneth F. Collier. Votescam: The Stealing of
America . Victoria House Press, 1992. ISBN 0963416308.


Collier, Victoria. "Your stolen vote—the missing piece of the
puzzle." May 2000; republished by Online Journal (8 February 2001),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/020801Collier/020801collier.html.

------. "Computerized Election Fraud in America : A Brief History."
VoteScam (25 October 2003),
http://www.votescam.com/abriefhistory.php.


Conover, Bev. "Once again, the media try to con the people into
believing Bush won." Online Journal (5 April 2001),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/040501Conover/040501conover.html.

------. " Florida 's `fixed it' farce." Online Journal (11 May
2001),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/051101Conover/051101conover.html.



Democratic Investigative Staff, House Committee on the Judiciary.
How to Make Over One Million Votes Disappear: Electoral Sleight of
Hand in the 2000 Presidential Election. A Fifty-State Report
Prepared for Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (Ranking Member, House Committee
on the Judiciary; Dean, Congressional Black Caucus. 122 pp.
Washington , DC : U.S. House of Representatives, August 20, 2001.
http://www.electionreport.pdf.


Equal Justice Foundation. Vote Fraud and Election Issues. Last
updated 27 September 2004.
http://www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting.htm#fraud.

VOTEGATE 2004
http://www.apfn.org/APFN/VOTEGATE.HTM

Gumbel, Andrew. "All the President's votes? A quiet revolution is
taking place in U.S. politics. By the time it's over, the integrity
of elections will be in the unchallenged, unscrutinised control of a
few large—and pro-Republican—corporations. Andrew Gumbel wonders if
democracy in America can survive." The Independent (13 October
2003), http://www.news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?
story=452972; also available at Common Dreams News Center,
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/103301.htm.


Harris, Bev. Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st
Century. Renton , WA : Talion Publishing/Black Box Voting, 2003. !
SBN 1890916900. Free internet version available at
http://www.blackboxvoting.org.


Landes, Lynn. "2002 elections: Republican voting machines, election
irregularities, and `way-off' polling results." Online Journal (8
November 2002),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/110802Landes/110802landes.html.

------. Election Fraud and Irregularities—BY YEAR.
http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingMachineErrors.htm.


Mercuri, Rebecca. "Florida 2002: Sluggish Systems, Vanishing
Votes." Inside Risks 149, CACM 45, 11 (November 2002),
http://www.csl.sri.com/users/neumann/insiderisks.html#149.


Zetter, Kim. "Did E-Vote Firm Patch Election?" Wired News (13
October 2003),



3. Advance Warnings of Fraud in the 2004 Presidential Election


Allen, David. "Inside An E-Voting Whitewash Conference Call." Scoop
(23 August 2003),
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0308/S00175.htm.


Boyle, Alan. "E-voting firm reports computer break-in." MSNBC.com
(29 December 2003), http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3825143.


Fitrakis, Bob. "Diebold, electronic voting and the vast right-wing
conspiracy." The Free Press (24 February 2004),
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/834.
------. "Death of a patriot: no more." The Free Press (17 March
2004), http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/853.
------. "E-Voting: The new battle hymn of the republic." Online
Journal (11 September 2004),
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/091104Fitrakis/091104fitrakis.htm
l.
------, and Harvey Wasserman. "Diebold's Political Machine."
MotherJones.com (5 March 2004),
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html.


Goodman, Amy, et al. "Will Bush Backers Manipulate Votes to Deliver
GW Another Election?" Democracy Now! (4 September 2003), available
at Common Dreams News Center,
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0904-10.htm.


Gumbel, Andrew. "All the President's votes? A quiet revolution is
taking place in U.S. politics. By the time it's over, the integrity
of elections will be in the unchallenged, unscrutinised control of a
few large—and pro-Republican—corporations. Andrew Gumbel wonders if
democracy in America can survive." The Independent (13 October
2003), http://www.news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?
story=452972; also available at Common Dreams News Center,
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1033-01.htm.


Harris, Bev. "Voting industry insiders hold secret meeting to hire
PR firm to sell electronic voting to public." O