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Judiciary Democratic Forum
Preserving Democracy - What Went Wrong in Ohio
December 8, 2004

Congressman Conyers hosted a forum on the Ohio Voting Irregularities.
A participant list and statements submitted for the forum are listed below

New Updates 12-10-04

Forum Participant List

Rep. John Conyers Opening Statement

NEW  Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Opening Statement   

NEW  Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones Opening Statement 

NEW  Statement of Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. 

NEW Statement of Steve Rosenfeld, Senior Producer, Air America Radio 

Statement of Professor Robert Fitrakis, Editor, The Free Press

NEW  Statement of Hilary Shelton, Director, Washington Bureau, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

NEW  Statement of Jon Greenbaum, Director, Voting Rights Project, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

The following statement were submitted for the forum record:

NEW 
Senator John Kerry's Statement on Election Reform

 Statement of Judith A. Browne, Acting Co-Director, Advancement Project

Statement of Melanie L. Campbell, Executive Director and CEO,National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Inc.

NEW  Statement of Norman Robbins and Judy Gallo, Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition

NEW  People for the American Way Foundation - Ohio Litigation and Advocacy Summary

NEW  Declaration of Intent Concerning Presidential Electors

One interesting statement was made by Mr. Conyers when asked. "Would you considered objecting to a Republican slate of electors sent to Washington based on the first Ohio vote If after the recount, that it shows that John Kerry actually won". Mr. Conyers answer, "We are now".

 

Items that were brought out are:

  1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.
        http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold
  2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
        http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm
        http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
  3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
        http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html
        http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
  4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
        http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml
        http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886
  5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.
        http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html
        http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html
  6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.
        http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26
        http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx
        http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php
  7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.
        http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm
        http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html
  8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.
        http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html
        http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
  9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.
        http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
        http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html
  10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.
        http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
        http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm
  11. Diebold is based in Ohio.
        http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm
  12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as senior managers and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.
        http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html
        http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml
  13. Jeff Dean, Diebold's Senior Vice-President and senior programmer on Diebold's central compiler code, was convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree.
        http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
        http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf
  14. Diebold Senior Vice-President Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.
        http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
        http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf
  15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.
        http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html
        http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html
  16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it. (See the movie here.)
        http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html
        http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190
  17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.
        http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml
  18. All - not some - but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.
        http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html
        http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm
        http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html
        http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=950
        http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm
  19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.
        http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm
        http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html
  20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida - again always favoring Bush - have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.
        http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm
        http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,97614,00.html
        http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html
        http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
        http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html
        http://uscountvotes.org

More to come

 

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