Investigate Prop 8 vote count, VR urges CA SoS
Investigate Proposition 8 Vote Count
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 25, 2008, California
On behalf of the people of California, Velvet Revolution (”VR”) has called on California Secretary of State Debra Bowen to order an immediate investigation into the accuracy of the vote count on Prop 8, the ballot measure to amend the state’s Constitution to repeal marriage equality.
VR believes an investigation is warranted due to witnessed failures in election auditing procedures, complaints from voters and election monitors, equipment failures, and more, including:
Exit poll discrepancy. The exit poll conducted by Edison/Mitofsky produced initial results indicating defeat of Prop 8. Edison/Mitofsky later “adjusted” the exit polls to match the announced vote count, thus destroying their usefulness in flagging possible election irregularities. However, the Election Defense Alliance made screen captures of the initial exit poll results, documenting a predicted defeat of Prop 8.
Premature ‘calling’ of the election. Prop 8 was announced to have passed when, according to the Secretary of State’s official website, an estimated three to four million votes remained uncounted. The margin of passage for Prop 8 was reported to be approximately 435,000 votes. As of this date, many votes still have not been counted!
Extremely high stakes. The passage of Prop 8 creates a dangerous precedent of subjecting the rights of a minority to a popular vote. Quite frankly, that is unconstitutional and un-American. Because of this, we believe that the California Secretary of State has an even greater responsibility than usual to ensure that the election results are accurate.
VR believes there are enough indications of potential problems with the Prop 8 vote count to warrant a thorough statewide investigation by the Secretary of State, and we request that such an investigation begin at once. This investigation should be transparent, auditable, and performed in a manner that can be independently overseen, so the voters of California can be assured that the announced election results are accurate. Voters should not have to simply trust that the reported election results are correct.
Should the investigation reveal that the election results on Prop 8 or any other contest or ballot initiative were incorrect, swift and decisive action must be taken to make the true outcome official.
The people of California deserve no less.
The full text of VR’s letter to Secretary Bowen can be viewed at
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/electionstrikeforce/2008/11/its_official_velvet_revolution.html
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Peter B. Collins now live in Boston!
“The Peter B. Collins” now on the air in New England!
MCM
1510 AM, WWZN Boston 50,000 watts
Live 6-9pm EST Mon-Fri
Call in at 1-888-5PeterB (888-573-8372)
live streaming: www.1510theZone.com
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Please spread the word to all your friends in New England!
Franken camp finds 6,400 uncounted absentee ballots
Also see below for RFK, Jr.’s campaign to keep Minnesota ‘08 from turning into Florida ‘00.
MCM
Franken camp finds 6,400 uncounted absentee ballots
11/25/2008 @ 2:56 pm
Filed by Nick Juliano
With the recount in the razor-thin Minnesota U.S. Senate race continuing into its second week, Democratic candidate Al Franken’s campaign says it has uncovered 6,400 rejected absentee ballots and will ask a state board to count at least some of those votes.
Campaign attorney Marc Elias said Tuesday that the campaign received the rejected ballots from 66 of the state’s 87 counties, according to the Associated Press. In some instances, clerical errors or oversight caused the ballot to be improperly rejected.
Franken is running to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman. Elections officials have recounted nearly 80 percent of the more than 2 million ballots cast in the Senate race.
Coleman’s lead has shrunk since election day but still stands at 211 votes, according to figures compiled by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Franken’s campaign, meanwhile, estimates the lead is less than half that and says their candidate is just 84 votes behind.
Putting the bailout in perspective
From ritholtz.com, via Earl Katz.
MCM
Whenever I discussed the current bailout situation with people, I find they have a hard time comprehending the actual numbers involved. That became a problem while doing the research for the Bailout Nation book. I needed some way to put this into proper historical perspective.
If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars. People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history.
Jim Bianco of Bianco Research crunched the inflation adjusted numbers. The bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures - combined:
* Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
* Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
* Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
* S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
* Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
* The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
* Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
* Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
* NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billionTOTAL: $3.92 trillion
More on the Ohio RICO suit and Georgia…
Diebold Touch-Screen Memory Cards and Other Documents Sought for Retention as Allegations of Racketeering Scheme ‘to Corrupt Elections in the U.S. Over the Course of This Decade’ Spread to Encompass ‘02 and ‘08 Senate Races in the Peach State…
Guest blogged by Steve Heller of Velvet Revolution
The lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the civil RICO lawsuit King Lincoln v. Blackwell in Ohio has served a document hold request to Georgia Sec. of State Karen Handel in advance of the December 2nd run-off election between incumbent U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R) and his opponent, Jim Martin (D).
Today’s letter from attorney Cliff Arnebeck (posted in full at the end of this article) requests “any records of official investigation of the reported use of uncertified patches by Diebold in two Democratic Georgia counties in 2002, reported by former Diebold consultant Chris Hood.”
It also requests “protocols, inspection and audit procedures that have been prescribed to protect against other introductions of uncertified patches into federal elections in Georgia.”
Latest on MN, GA, Prop 8 (from Brad Friedman)
BRAD BLOG ALERT
November 25, 2008
Every Vote Matters in MN’s U.S. Senate Hand-Count. Every. Single. One.
Missing Ballots, Uncounted Absentees and the GOP PR Battle That May Trump Both…
With math/statistics/poll-wiz Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com predicting the U.S. Senate race between incumbent MN Sen. Norm Coleman (R) and challenger Al Franken (D) could result in a 27 vote win for Franken, every ballot “counts” more than ever.
But while ballots have now turned up “missing”, and absentees have been tossed from the hand-count, the GOP seems to be preparing for a FL 2000 PR gambit to “win” at all costs…
FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6698
Related yesterday
MN U.S. Senate Hand-Count: A Vote for McCain Must be a Vote for Coleman, Says Coleman Camp
Ballot Challenges Being Made on Basis that Voting for the Republican Presidential Nominee Must Be Indication of ‘Voter Intent’ for Republican Senate Candidate…
Incredible, but true…
FULL STORY, VIDEO: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6694
‘Document Hold’ Served by OH Attorney to GA SoS in Advance of State’s U.S. Senate Run-off Election
Diebold Touch-Screen Memory Cards and Other Documents Sought for Retention as Allegations of Racketeering Scheme ‘to Corrupt Elections in the U.S. Over the Course of This Decade’ Spread to Encompass ‘02 and ‘08 Senate Races in the Peach State…
FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6696
Concerns About CA’s Prop 8 Election Prompt Calls for Investigation, Official Complaints, Fraud Tips
Guest blogged by Emily Levy of VelvetRevolution.us
Following reports of concerns from voters, election monitors, observers, and election integrity advocates about the voting equipment and procedures used during the November 4th election in which Prop 8 — a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality for all Californians — is said to have passed, Velvet Revolution is requesting that official complaints from citizens be filed with the CA Sec. of State, by Monday if possible. Any voters who may have witnessed unusual activity, or problems with voting equipment that may have affected the casting or counting of votes on Proposition 8, are asked to contact SoS Debra Bowen’s office as soon as possible. More details are posted here…
Additionally, VR is posting a $100,000 reward for information leading to arrest and conviction for election fraud related to Prop 8. See this post for details…
URL: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6692
—
Brad Friedman
Publisher/Editor, The BRAD BLOG
http://www.BradBlog.com
The wisdom of Thomas Friedman
From Bruce J. Miller:
Thomas Friedman’s Wise Words
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has always struck me as a buffoon. I know it’s unkind to comment on his double chin, but, with the Thanksgiving holiday on the horizon, his resemblance to the holiday bird, particularly when he shakes his head for emphasis and the ample neck follows, eager to be in agreement with its headmaster, is hard to ignore.
I saw him on Meet the Press November 16th, appearing as part of a round table with Katty (can you believe that name?) Kay, Tavis Smiley, and some others. I didn’t see the entire segment, but it seemed as though Tom the Friedman took more than his allotted time. Tom the Brokaw was happy to let this media-anointed wise man gobble gobble on as long as possible, so the languid former TV anchorman could pass meet-the-press-muster without undue stress. Thus the Toms did their two-step.
Thomas Friedman had come to mind that same morning, just before I spotted him on TV, as I was reading an article in the New York Times about Danny Boyle, the British director whose new film, “Slumdog Millionaire” was just released. The writer of the piece, Somini Sengupta, tells us that Mumbai, where the film was shot, “is not only crowded, it is also a city where tens of thousands of people live on the streets.” Thus, filming outside of a studio is rare, unsafe, and unpredictable. I thought of Friedman because he has spent so much air time mouthing the grandiloquent cant of free trade. “Tens of thousands on the streets, but the streets are paved and there are port-o-potties where before the resplendent call centers there were 100 times as many and nary a latrine” he might have said.
SPOONAMORE SUITS EXTENDS TO GEORGIA
Ohio Attorney Requests Handel Hold E-voting Docs, Equipment
Election protection attorney Cliff Arnebeck in Ohio, who’s been working on the E-voting issue for years, has issued a document hold request to Georgia Secretary of State, Cathy Cox, for all voting equipment in the current election, for use in an upcoming E-voting lawsuit in Ohio. Arnebeck also requests documents related to the Diebold patch or patches applied during the 2002 election, which have been previously reported by Atlanta Progressive News. The letter states that federal law requires Handel to hold the documents for 22 months.
***********************
Secretary of State Karen C. Handel
RE: Public record and document hold request
Dear Secretary of State Handel:
We are in the process of preparing a racketeering claim under the Ohio Corrupt Practices Act against Karl Rove as the principal perpetrator, and other individuals acting in association with him, to corrupt elections in the United States over the course of this decade.
Ground zero for this activity in 2000 was Florida, in 2004 was Ohio, and in 2002 was Georgia. In each case exit polling, the international gold standard for detection of vote count fraud, indicated fraud in the officially recorded vote for President or for the US Senate, in the case of Georgia 2002. Furthermore, the direct recording electronic voting machines, that have been used in Georgia since 2002, are the election burglary tool of choice because of the multiplicity of avenues they provide for wholesale election fraud.
This is to request any records of official investigation of the reported use of uncertified patches by Diebold in two Democratic Georgia counties in 2002, reported by former Diebold consultant Chris Hood. Also, we request protocols, inspection and audit procedures that have been prescribed to protect against other introductions of uncertified patches into federal elections in Georgia.
We also request information as to the availability for inspection of the memory cards, tapes and all electronic records and hard drives on which these were originally recorded, for the November 2008 election.
Finally, we request your confirmation that all such records for the runoff election will be retained for the federally prescribed 22 month period.
Please regard this as a public records request, as a well as a document hold notice in connection with our planned litigation.
Sincerely yours,
Clifford O. Arnebeck, Jr.
Attorney at Law
Unsigned absentee forms thwart Republicans in GA
COBB COUNTY: Ballot requests run into a glitch
By Kent A. Miles
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saturday, November 22, 2008
A Republican-generated effort to get out the vote for the Dec. 2 runoff election has hit a snag as thousands of requests for absentee ballots have been denied because the applications were not signed.
County elections officials are contacting voters by mail, directing them to print applications from county or state election Web sites and fax them in by Wednesday.
Many of the unsigned requests came in the form of cards printed by the Republican National Committee and mailed to voters. Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss is in a tight battle to retain his seat by beating Democratic challenger Jim Martin.
US to lend as much as $7.4 TRILLION….?
Bloomberg: US could lend as much as $7.4 trillion
Published: Monday November 24, 2008
“The U.S. government is prepared to lend more than $7.4 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers, or half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, to rescue the financial system since the credit markets seized up 15 months ago,” according to an estimate by Bloomberg News.
Financial institutions have purportedly already tapped $2.8 trillion in credit lines from the Treasury. The loans are the largest provided in an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, in the wake of the Great Depression.
“Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before the crisis,” the wire notes.
