Bada bing, bada bang, bada BOOM!

[whistle]

Response to GOP Questioning of Voting Equipment:

The below response is from a Republican friend
on the article at bottom of page.
Petch

**********
Hi Petch,

This issue is hitting close to home. Two days ago, a recording of the President was left on my answering machine urging me to get an absentee ballot. I was puzzled, but now it makes sense.

See you,
D.

========================================================================= (Sorry no link so here's the article)

St Pete Times GOP flier questions new voting equipment As Gov. Bush
defends touch screen machines, his party urges using absentee ballots to: "Make sure your vote counts."
By
STEVE BOUSQUET, Times Staff Writer
Published July 29, 2004
---------------------------------
BOSTON - While Gov. Jeb Bush reassures Floridians
that touch screen voting machines are reliable, the
Republican Party is sending the opposite message to
some voters.
The GOP urged some Miami voters to use absentee
ballots because touch screens lack a paper trail
and cannot "verify your vote."
That's the same argument Democrats have made but
which Bush, his elections director and Republican
legislators have repeatedly rejected.
"The liberal Democrats have already begun their
attacks and the new electronic voting machines do
not have a paper ballot to verify your vote in case
of a recount," says a glossy mailer, paid for by the
Republican Party of Florida and prominently featuring
two pictures of President Bush. "Make sure your vote
counts. Order your absentee ballot today."

The GOP tactic is the reverse of what Bush and state
elections experts have said as they have repeatedly
opposed Democratic moves, in the Legislature and
courts, to require a paper trail on the machines.
A coalition of liberal and civil rights groups have
filed a lawsuit seeking to force state elections
officials to create a system for manual recounts of
touch screen results.

Miami-Dade is one of 15 counties that switched from
punch-card ballots to touch screens after the 2000
recount. But absentee ballots are filled out on paper
and tallied on optical scan machines because theballot
is sent through the mail.

The Republican flier is part of a hard-fought GOP
primary for a state House seat in Miami where absentee
ballots could make a difference.

The mailing surfaced at the Democratic National
Convention Wednesday and stirred outrage by Florida
delegates and elected officials.

"I've seen that advertisement. It's appalling," said
Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.
"It is an acknowledgement that there are excessive error
rates with touch screens even by the party in power."
"That is awful.
That is disgusting.
Despicable," said state Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach.
"Why use dirty tricks to scare people?"
"It's unbelievable," said state Sen. Debbie Wasserman
Schultz, D-Weston.
"They're the ones who won't certify a machine to attach
a paper trail."

A Bush spokeswoman said the governor had not see the
flier beforehand and did not approve of the criticism
of the touch screen machines."The governor certainly
does not support that message," said Bush spokeswoman
Jill Bratina.
"People need to have confidence in these machines."
The Republican Party of Florida paid to send the
mailing to voters in a House primary in Miami-Dade
County, where Rep. Juan-Carlos Zapata, R-Miami, is
fighting to win a second term against challenger Frank
Artiles in District 119.

The party supports Zapata in the Aug. 31 primary.
The full-color mailer says,
"Support our Republican Party" and "every vote counts"
and shows a smiling President Bush giving a thumbs-up.
A tear-off absentee ballot request form, to be mailed
to the Republican Party of Florida's Miami office, shows
the president and Zapata side by side.
Republican Party spokesman Joseph Agostini initially
denied that the brochure was the work of the GOP.
But after he was shown the flier, he backtracked. He
confirmed it was a GOP flier mailed in response to an
Artiles flier that used the president's face without
permission.

Zapata did not return a call seeking comment.

"It's an astonishing level of hypocrisy," said Sharon
Lettman-Pacheco of the liberal People for the American
Way Foundation, which sued the state seeking to force
manual recounts for touch screen machines. "Which one
is it: Do the machines work, or do they know something
that we don't?"

But even as Democrats criticized the message, they
realized that Republicans were making the point they
have been making for months.

While not an official party position, some Democrats
are urging voters to use absentee ballots instead of
the touch screen machines.

Steve Henley, a Democratic candidate for Hillsborough
County supervisor of elections, makes the point on the
campaign trail.
"By voting absentee, you make sure your vote gets counted,"
Henley said. "And in the event there is a close election,
they have a physicalcopy of your vote."

- Times staff writers Alisa Ulferts and Tamara Lush
and researchers Kitty Bennett and Deirdre Morrow
contributed to this report.

[bain_sidhe]

1. On the other hand...

It could be a colossal fake-out, trying to make sure Dems vote by absentee because apparently, supervisors have more discretion about which ones to accept or reject:

(a post earlier today at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x792967 )

E-mail from Greg Palast: FL will be rigged again.

Edited on Sun Aug-29-04 08:02 PM by saywhat
Madame Butterfly Flies Off with Ballots
Florida Fixed Again? Absentee Ballots Go Absent
by Greg Palast

Sunday, August 29, 2004.

On Friday, Theresa LePore, Supervisor of Elections in Palm Beach, candidate for re-election as Supervisor of Elections, chose to supervise her own election, no one allowed. This Tuesday, Florida votes for these nominally non-partisan posts.

You remember Theresa, "Madame Butterfly," the one whose ballots brought in the big vote for Pat Buchanan in the Jewish precincts in November 2000. Then she failed to do the hand count that would have changed the White House from Blue to Red.

This time, Theresa's in a hurry to get to the counting. She began tallying absentee ballots on Friday in her own re-election race. Not to worry: the law requires the Supervisor of Elections in each county to certify poll-watchers to observe the count.

But Theresa has a better idea. She refused to certify a single poll-watcher from opponents' organizations despite the legal requirement she do so by last week. She'll count her own votes herself, thank you very much!

And so far, she's doing quite well. Although 37,000 citizens have requested absentee ballots, she says she'd only received 22,000 when she began the count. Where are the others? Don't ask: though she posts the names of requesters, she won't release the list of those who have voted, an eyebrow-raising deviation from standard procedure.


And she has no intention of counting all the ballots received. She has reserved for herself the right to determine which ballots have acceptable signatures. Her opponent, Democrat Art Anderson, had asked Theresa to use certified hand-writing experts, instead of her hand-picked hacks, to check the signatures.

Unfortunately, while Federal law requires Theresa to allow a voter to correct a signature rejection when registering, the Feds don't require her to permit challenges to absentee ballot rejections.

I know what you're thinking. How could Madame Butterfly know how people are voting? Well, she's printed PARTY AFFILIATION on the OUTSIDE of each return envelope. That certainly makes it easier to figure out which ballot is valid, don't it?

And dear Reader, please take note of the implications of this story for the big vote in November. Millions have sought refuge in absentee ballots as a method to avoid the dangers of the digitizing of democracy. Florida and other states are reporting 400%-plus increases in absentee ballot requests due to fear of the new computer voting machinery. Some refuge. LePore is giving us an early taste of how the Bush Leaguers intend to care for your absentee ballot.

More at the post link above.

**edited to add:

It seems even more likely that this is a fake out as I read of so many DEMOCRATS on this board getting calls from *bush telling them to vote absentee... MAYBE those calls are supposed to be going to republicans, and there's just a few Dems that mistakenly got on the list. Or MAYBE NOT.

[seabeyond]

2. gop see,s to do lots of things in florida bushie isnt aware of

and doesnt approve of once it comes out in the light of the day. and how many times are we suppose to sit back and swallow it