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01-06-2010, 06:05 PM
This is an important public education message going into 2010 elections watchdog season. Please feel free to reprint, forward, and quote from this article!

Let's watch Detroit carefully, because today's request to prosecute election violations may help with a rotten elections culture elsewhere in the USA.

Ex-candidate Tom Barrow has filed a formal request for investigation along with stunning documentation of chain of custody breach in the recent Detroit mayoral election. Black Box Voting has been in close contact with Barrow, and we will be reviewing additional documents related to this case. The allegations are fascinating.

Detroit citizens executed watchdog actions brilliantly. One of my favorite tactics: They piled leaves in front of the back door, and went out to check frequently to see if anyone was sneaking in and out. The leaves showed that someone had entered through the back door. A security guard confessed to letting strangers in to the security area.

There's more ... in fact, the full complaint and its accompanying Exhibit provides a pretty good primer for citizens and candidates who want to watchdog elections. Full details of the 79-point complaint, and you can discuss this story at this link:
[/URL]http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/8/80797.html (http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/8/80797.html)

But first, a word about how widespread this culture of violating chain of custody has become:

NEW HAMPSHIRE CHAIN OF CUSTODY VIOLATIONS

In New Hampshire, Black Box Voting documented ballot boxes with removable seals affixed with post-it note style adhesive, ballots arrived in the wrong boxes, ballot boxes arrived open, they placed ballots in an unlocked room outside the ballot vault and they refused to account for the blank ballots. The only investigation launched was into the citizens who videotaped these transgressions.

ARIZONA CHAIN OF CUSTODY VIOLATIONS

In Arizona, citizen observer John Brakey spoke up about broken and mismatched seals in Pima County. The only investigation done was into John Brakey himself, who was arrested, apparently for his loud utterances about the broken chain of custody. That got Brakey and his pesky observations off the premises while they proceeded to count; charges were later dropped.

In Maricopa County, Black Box Voting board member Jim March revealed that they were ordering up to 10 copies of duplicate seal numbers (rendering seal numbers moot for chain of custody protection).

GEORGIA CHAIN OF CUSTODY VIOLATIONS

In Georgia, one poll worker after the next wrote down notes detailing missing, mismatched and broken seals. No action at all was taken, except to ridicule Cynthia McKinney, the candidate who had the backbone to ask for chain of custody records.

MAINE CHAIN OF CUSTODY VIOLATIONS

In Maine, the chief of staff for the state of Maine Speaker of the House was caught in the ballot vault tampering with ballots. The giveaway: He was smoking and someone thought there was a fire. No one prosecuted the speaker of the house. The perp caught red-handed was convicted and sentenced to community service and a fine. He didn't finish his community service and never paid the fine.

OHIO CHAIN OF CUSTODY VIOLATIONS

In Ohio, former Black Box Voting Associate Director Kathleen Wynne caught two Cleveland elections workers admitting to counting recount ballots secretly and out of public view, and then hand-picking the batches to count in public. They were convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison. They never served time; a judge stepped in and for no apparent reason, decided to suspend the sentence that had already been ordered.

CALIFORNIA DODGEBALL

In California, citizens have been circling 'round with formal written requests to try to pin down who prosecutes election law violations and under what circumstances. This would seem to be a simple task, but the answers they've been getting from the Calif. Attorney General's office have been dodgier than G.W. Bush at a shoe-throwing festival.

WITHOUT ENFORCEMENT, LAWS AND 'CHECKS & BALANCES' DON'T PROTECT US

What's going on in Detroit right now is incredibly important, because it provides an opportunity to consequate significant violations of chain of custody. We need consequences and we need enforcement, or passing all the laws in the world won't do a thing to improve election integrity.

Already we have seen an unprecedented step: Due to breach of chain of custody, over 40,000 absentee ballots were excluded from the mayoral recount. This brings up two points:

(1) With such a large number excluded (far more than the margin of separation between mayoral candidates), there can be no reasonable certainty at all about the election outcome.

(2) Michigan has recently joined 25 other states in loosening up its absentee voting requirements, which will result in vastly more absentee ballots being cast, with fewer checks and balances than before. If you are a fan of the risky vote-by-mail craze, note that mismatched seals were primarily on the bottom of the absentee ballot boxes. The more vote-by-mail ballots there are, the more unsustainable the burden on chain of custody becomes.

Some Detroit officials are complaining about the cost of having all this looked into, blaming citizens, candidates, anyone but themselves for their own failure to adhere to their own rules and regulations. If Tom Barrow's Detroit actions can improve accountability and -- even better -- start undoing the culture of unaccountability we're seeing in elections administration, he will have performed an important service for us all.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE INTERESTING ITEMS FROM THE COMPLAINT:

#13 - Throughout the day, O'Hara, McDonald and Butler reported observing numerous individuals with large bags and back packs entering and remaining in the absentee counting station area. They also reported that at 8pm, the counting room security completely broke down and the general public was permitted to freely access the restricted access areas

# 23 - three people from ES&S, (the voting equipment computer company) had just signed in at 7:55 am along with one more individual from Premier.

[note that the location uses ES&S machines, but not Premier machines; why were technicians entering the building, and why was anyone from Premier there at all?]

# 36. County recount staff then proceeded to open the case but without looking at or verifying the bottom seal even though it too was recorded in the poll book by the election night workers.

# 37. Complainant challenged the failure to verify the 2nd seal and was vigorously and viciously verbally assaulted by recount election staff. Complainant was advised extremely harshly by Ms. Cynthia Hawthorne, Wayne County Elections Director, that "we never look at the bottom seal in a recount and are not about to start now just for you."

# 43. Subsequently, case after case was brought out and with Complainant on his knees [looking at seals on bottom], noting most of the seals did not agree with the poll book.

# 44. ... notwithstanding the seal differences, nearly all of the cases opened were disallowed and deemed not able to be recounted because there were significant discrepancies between the number of voters in the poll books and the number of voter ballots in the case along with other violations.

# 48. Now broadly suspicious, Complainant without anyone's knowledge created his own informal security system to reveal to him of any breaches to the building after hours.

# 49. In furtherance, he placed a large pile of leaves behind each of the three rear entry points of the building where the absentee voter containers were being stored during the recount. Each day before the days count began he checked the leaves for any disturbance.

# 74. Finally, on Monday, December 21, 2009, Complainant and his Team arrived at the recount location to obtain an explanation of why numerous time clocks on numerous polling computers showed dates and times which seemingly indicated that the polls had been electronically closed hours before the statutory required 8pm poll closing time.

# 75. However, before entering the building as was his daily ritual, Complainant did his normal walk around of the building but this time discovered that the rear door leaves had been pushed back and were now in a straight line. The door had been opened and the building had been entered!

# 76. Complainant immediately confronted county recount election staff who called the weekend security guard. After speaking with the guard in full sight of the room of observers, Ms Cynthia Hawthorne, explained to the room of over 30 people that the guard just admitted to her that 2 people had indeed come to the door, the door was opened and the guard invited the strangers in and allowed them to tour the "secure" area ...

Footnote # (10) Indeed, precinct 20-04 [certified as having hundreds of ballots] was an empty case with no voted, unused or spoiled ballots inside.

* * * * *

Black Box Voting is helping to bring attention to this case with the goal in mind to raise the bar on compliance and consequences. We have called for the Detroit election officials to be removed from their positions.

In addition, we will be arranging for examination of some specific public documents to put more light on the role the ES&S M100 and ES&S absentee counting voting machines may have played to cause discrepancies, and we will be looking into why a Premier voting machines technician got involved.

* * * * *

We thank you for your contributions to help us stay in business going into the important 2010 elections. If you missed the 2009 deadline, never fear, we will love you very much for your donation now that it is 2010! You can support us online:
[url]http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html (http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html)

or by mail:
Black Box Voting
330 SW 43rd St Suite K PMB 547
Renton WA 98057

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