Election Issues

Reporting from Election Protection Command Center: So far, we have not heard of any problems opening the polls. We have heard that people are showing up to vote at the Driving Park polling site with their voter cards from the Board of Elections, but their names did NOT show up on the voting rolls. Each one was made to vote provisionally.

Call 1-855-VOTING HELP (1-855-868-4644) if you experience any problems voting today.

Here's video from the November 5 National Press Club press conference:


YouTube

At 9am Election Day, a federal judge will decide whether untested and uncertified secret software will remain on Ohio’s vote tabulation and reporting systems in 39 counties. Bob Fitrakis, in his capacity as the Chair of the Ohio Green Party, filed suit at approximately 12:30pm on Monday, November 5 against Ohio Secretary of State John Husted and Elections Systems and Solutions for their clandestine installation of uncertified and untested software. Judge Frost, U.S. District Court Southern District Court of Ohio, agreed to the hearing to be held Tuesday, November 6.

The suit seeks immediate the injunctive relief of removing the untested, uncertified software from all county tabulators.

Should there be insufficient time or resources to remove said software from the tabulators, those tabulators will not be used and all ballots will be counted by hand if either the state or federal judge grants the injunction.

Why did Amy Searcy, Hamilton County Board of Elections director of elections, tell the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Washington Post that Hart InterCivic is not involved with operations or maintenance of their voting machines in Hamilton County -- when her signature is on a quote from Hart InterCivic for voting machine repairs? View the document as a PDF.

Through a public records request, the Free Press has obtained two invoices confirming that Hart InterCivic does, in fact, still maintain electronic election equipment in Hamilton County. Since the Free Press first broke the story of Hart InterCivic being owned by HIG Capital, a private equity firm founded by Bain alumni and closely tied to the Romney campaign, Searcy began a full frontal media counter offensive.

A Columbus press conference on election fraud risks with Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein, Vice Presidential candidate Cheri Honkala, and FreePress.org editor and Green senatorial candidate Bob Fitrakis at the Ohio State House, Oct. 2, 2012.



YouTube Link

Citizen concerns about untested software have multiplied since the Columbus Free Press broke the news that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted's office installed uncertified and untested software on the central vote tabulation machines in up to 39 counties in the state.

Memos circulated amongst senior staff at the Ohio Secretary of States' indicate that they consider this skirting of Ohio Election Law is justified because the software does not directly tabulate or communicate actual votes. Their statements to the mainstream press reveal a different set of facts about the software and a different justification.

In Columbus, Ohio, 9:00am Election Day marks the opening of a federal adjudication that could decide who next occupies the White House.

Heard by Judge Gregory Frost, the case is Robert Fitrakis vs. John Husted and Election Systems & Software. It revolves around an "experimental" software patch newly attached to the electronic voting systems in 39 Ohio counties. The patch is ostensibly meant to facilitate the transmission and analysis of the Ohio vote count as conducted on machines supplied by the E.S. & S. company.

Investigative reporter Harvey Wasserman lays out the ways in which the upcoming U.S. presidental could be stolen and what we can do about it. YouTube Link:
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WHAT IS TO BE DONE? - Wasserman Pt. 2

Investigative reporter and election protection activist Harvey Wasserman talks about how to repair our hackable election system.

YouTube Link: YouTube

Viewer Embed Code: [past into your web page so people can view it directly there]

SWING STATE: Investigating the Vote in Ohio

This is a proposal for production of an investigative video report on the Romney campaign's links to electronic vote counting in Hamilton County - a key county in the swing state of Ohio.

Indiegogo

There's mounting fall-out from reports, first broken by The Free Press, that a Mitt Romney-linked company owns the Hart Intercivic voting machines used in key counties in Colorado, Ohio and other states. The stories have stoked new fears about a "stolen" election.

UPDATE: Those worries about a rigged election were given new urgency today as The Ohio-based Free Press editor-in-chief Robert Fitrakis, also a Green Party candidate for Congress, announced plans to file a lawsuit later today seeking an immediate injunction against Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and the ES&S manufacturer to halt the use of secretly installed, unauthorized "experimental" software in 39 counties' tabulators in an alleged violation of state election law. His attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, has also referred the case to the Cincinnati FBI for a criminal investigation. Arnebeck says, "It's a flagrant violation of the law. Before you add new software, you need approval of a state board. They are installing an uncertified, suspect software patch that interfaces between a county's vote tabulation equipment and state tabulators."

The Ohio Secretary of State's office may be incorrectly removing thousands of legally registered voters from the voting rolls. The Columbus Free Press has obtained suspect election-related software contracts signed by the Ohio Secretary of State's office. These newly uncovered contracts, signed with Election Systems and Solutions (ES&S) and Triad Governmental Services, may be involved with Ohio Secretary of State John Husted's office erroneously, undetectably and possibly illegally removing thousands of registered voters from the voting rolls just prior to the presidential election.

"The purpose of this Agreement is to enable each BOE (Board of Elections) to accurately process BMV (Bureau of Motor Vehicles) Match Files," the contract reads. Under federal law, the so-called "motor voter bill" citizens are allowed to both register to vote and update their voter registration at state BMV offices. The election-related software appears to be built to help move the BMV voter information to 87 of Ohio's 88 county boards of elections.