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REMEMBER THE ELECTION CENTER TESTIMONY BEFORE FLORIDA TASK FORCE?? Los Angeles Times A Place in
Politics for Salesmen and Wares Monday, December 11, 2000 ...Bribes and kickbacks are extreme examples of what
can go wrong. But the market is heating up. In the wake of Florida's election problems, federal and state lawmakers are suggesting
special funds to help localities upgrade their equipment. This month alone, counties in Washington, Indiana and Ohio began
discussing replacing their voting systems. Next year, companies think, the rush will begin in earnest. "I think
this [confusion] is absolutely terrible for the country," said Tom Eschberger, vice president of national accounts for Election
Systems & Software Inc., the leading distributor. ...Four hundred convention guests dined aboard a Hornblower yacht
cruising San Francisco Bay, partly financed by $10,000 from the Sequoia Pacific vote supply firm. The meeting was organized
by the Election Center, a nonprofit information resource for states, counties and cities. R. Doug Lewis, the executive director,
said the businesses contribute for the exposure, not to curry favor. A Place in Politics for Salesmen and WaresLos Angeles Times Monday, December 11, 2000 REMEMBER THE FLORIDA FELONS WHO MAY HAVE VOTED 343 were cast by
Democrats and 62 by Republicans Guess what, none of them were challenged or contested! 452 Broward felons voted Hundreds
of other ballots in doubt BY LISA ARTHUR, GEOFF DOUGHERTY AND WILLIAM YARDLEY Miami Herald Friday, January 19, 2001 larthur@herald.com
Friday, January 19, 2001Miami Herald MEANWHILE MORE SKULLDUGGERY... Friday, January 19, 2001 Miami Herald Many voted illegally
in Palm Beach, report states As many as 150 voters may have voted illegally in Palm Beach County, a preliminary review
shows. Many voted illegally in Palm Beach, report states Friday, January 19, 2001 Miami Herald MIAMI HERALD STUDIES CONTINUE TOO Friday, December 22, 2000 Machines
didn't pass polling test But all were in use on Election Day December 22, 2000ANDREA ROBINSON 
PALM BEACH POST SERIES
Election Recap: Did PB County's butterfly ballot decide the presidency?
37
Days That Changed History
http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/news/election2000_pbcvote.html
Who Lost Florida?
By Jacob Weisberg
Posted Monday, Dec. 4, 2000
Last weekend the Miami Herald ran a fascinating story about what might have happened in a "flawless" Florida
election. The article highlights a study done for the paper by Stephen Doig, a journalist-turned-academic who specializes
in computer-assisted research. Based on Doig's precinct-by-precinct analysis of 185,000 uncounted Florida votes, Al Gore would
have defeated George W. Bush in Florida by 23,468 votes if ...
Thus the Herald article may have answered the question of which candidate should have won the presidency in
an ideal world of perfect elections. But it fails to answer the more immediately relevant question of which candidate might
win the election in the increasingly unlikely event of all legally valid votes being counted.
To try to answer this question, you have to do pretty much the opposite of what the Herald study does. You have
to start by tossing overboard the overvotes, which represent approximately two-thirds of the 185,000 uncounted ballots. Then
you must focus on the undervotes, which may or may not contain a legally valid vote for president.
Who Lost Florida?Monday, Dec. 4, 2000
JACOB RETRACTS HIS OWN ANALYSIS AFTER EMAILS POINT OUT HIS ERRORS
Recount!
By Jacob Weisberg
Posted Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2000
...
And I think it also explains something that yesterday's erroneous prediction didn't, namely why the Gore
side was so insistent on employing Broward County's dimpled-chad rules for the recount. Using that standard statewide, there's
good reason to think Gore would win the election. Using any other standard, there's reason to think he would lose.
RecountTuesday, Dec. 5, 2000
Tuesday, December 12, 2000
Justices strike down hand-recounts in Florida
In a historic opinion,
a majority of the justices said the recount violated the Constitution's equal protection clause and that it was too late to
find a uniform standard under which the ballots could be fairly counted.
The justices noted the Dec. 12 deadline-which
expired just two hours after the high court issued its own ruling-for states to certify their electors.
Tuesday, December 12, 2000 Justices strike down hand-recounts in Florida
postnet.com
postnet.com's series Election 2000
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
One Nation Divided
Sunday, December 17, 2000
One Nation Divided Sunday,
December 17, 2000
Voters using Data Punch machines were three times more likely to cast an invalid vote, a Palm Beach Post study showed.
Countywide, voters in black precincts were 130 percent more likely to have their ballots thrown out for double
punched ballots or under-votes, a Palm Beach Post study showed.
Black voters angered by hurdles
By Joel Engelhardt,
Palm Beach Post Staff
Writer
Sunday, December 10, 2000
http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/sunday/news_2.html
...
Voters
in that precinct used a different kind of punch-card voting machine. Instead of Votomatics, the larger, more costly machines,
they voted on Data Punch machines.
That meant no lights built into the machine. Data Punch machines often are used
in big precincts with a lot of voters because they don't need to be plugged in. No plugs means no electric lines running back
and forth.
But in the dark cathedral of Greater Bethel Church, that made it difficult for voters to see.
The
Data Punch machines are smaller. They hold fewer chads -- the tiny perforations that voters punch out of the ballot to record
their vote, said precinct worker Grace Minns-Atkins.
As she set up the machines that morning, Minns-Atkins saw chads
falling out the side. They fill up fast during the day, she said. That, some experts say, promotes under-votes, where the
ballot is not punched.
"That stuff does jam up and once they jam up you cannot get your stylus in there," Minns-Atkins
said, repeating an argument Democratic lawyers introduced to the nation in a Tallahassee courtroom.
Voters using Data
Punch machines were three times more likely to cast an invalid vote, a Palm Beach Post study showed.
...They show,
stunningly, that 15 percent of the people who cast their vote in the race for president at Greater Bethel Church in Riviera
Beach -- 240 proud voters -- threw out their suffrage by punching two holes on the slim computer card. Another 4 percent,
60 more voters, cast no vote for president.
Four years ago, only 47 people voted for two or more presidential candidates
and only 44 for no candidate at all in Precinct 66.
And even though the numbers show that 222 more people voted at
Greater Bethel in 2000 than in 1996 and about 2,000 more voters showed up at the county's 38 largest black precincts, they
also show the horrible truth: 2,562 voters in those 38 precincts -- 12 percent -- cast votes for two or more presidential
candidates. Those votes were thrown out.
Countywide, voters in black precincts were 130 percent more likely to have
their ballots thrown out for double punched ballots or under-votes, a Palm Beach Post study showed.
Why? What happened?
Gwen Johnson of Wellington said that in the weeks before the election, she used an absentee ballot to show hundreds
how to vote. She warned them it would be confusing because the 10 presidential candidates were spread over two pages. But
the pages didn't face one another on the absentee ballot as they did on the ballot in the polling places.
She told
them at churches and meetings of community groups to punch the second hole on the ballot -- the hole for Gore. But on Election
Day, that hole would count for Buchanan.
And Mikel Jones knows that many black voters believed they had to vote for
both Gore and Lieberman. Thus, they voted twice and spoiled their ballot.
Some undoubtedly will become disillusioned
and give up, black leaders admit. But most, they say, will be ready to fight. They'll remember the slights of November 2000.
They will keep the newly rekindled coalitions with organized labor and the Jewish community. And they'll focus their anger
on Republicans.
"Two years from now we're going to knock on the same doors. We're going to do it again," Jones said...
December 10, 2000Black voters angered by hurdles
Reproduction:Monday, December 10, 2000
reproduction Black voters angered by hurdles
Reproduction:Monday, December 17, 2000
reproduction Black voters
No Black Voter Denial Found
NewsMax.com
Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2000
No Black Voter Denial FoundWednesday, Dec. 20, 2000
December 20, 2000
Florida probe finding no evidence of black disenfranchisement
Jerry
Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/default-20001220225948.htm
Florida probe finding no evidence of black disenfranchisement December 20, 2000 washingtontimes.com
Salon Politics
In the Salon Politics article "Eliminating Fraud or Democrats?" it was incorrectly stated that the Voting Integrity Project sent in a team of investigators to Robert Dornan's election contest
in 1996. Those investigators were actually sent by Dornan, not VIP. The story also said that Helen Blackwell was the founder
of the group. She is actually the chairwoman of the board. Salon regrets the errors. [Corrections made 12/11/00]
TRACK WHO IS INVESTIGATING WHOM
Anthony York Dec. 8, 2000Eliminating Fraud or Democrats
Anthony York Dec. 8, 2000Eliminating Fraud or Democrats part 2
Anthony York Dec. 8, 2000Eliminating Fraud or Democrats part 3
Anthony York Dec. 8, 2000Eliminating Fraud or Democrats part 4
Credibility of voter purging questioned
By Robert P. King and Joel Engelhardt,
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 6, 2000
...
In June, Database Technologies handed the state a list 173,142 registered voters suspected of having died, moved away or been
convicted of felonies. That included 57,770 possible felons...
Credibility of voter purging questionedDecember 6, 2000
Reproduction: December 6, 2000Credibility of voter purging questioned
Hunt for fraudulent voters triggered anger
By Robert P. King, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 11, 2000
Two years ago, the state began a computerized hunt for felons and corpses on its voting rolls. But the search for fraudulent
voters also:...
Those in charge of the search say they or local election officials caught those errors before any damage occurred.
But as the glitches mounted, tempers grew short among state officials, election supervisors in several counties, and Database
Technologies, the Boca Raton company being paid $4 million to compare Florida's voter rolls with myriad other databases throughout
the country...
A spokesman for ChoicePoint, an Atlanta-area company that bought Database Technologies in May, said last week that it had
done exactly what its contract required: The company identified people who might be ineligible to vote. Then, it was the counties'
job to verify the information and give voters a chance to challenge the data.
The most publicized glitch was the company's admission last summer that it had identified nearly 8,000 people as felons when
they had been convicted of misdemeanors. The company blamed inaccurate data from Texas and said it quickly corrected the error...
December 20, 2000 Florida probe finding no evidence of black disenfranchisement By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON
TIMES Accusations that Florida blacks were denied access to polling places as part of what the Rev. Jesse Jackson called
"a systematic plan to disenfranchise black voters" remain under investigation, although no evidence so far has surfaced to
support the charges. ... But in the two specific cases cited as part of the suspected conspiracy, both involving the
presence of police near black polling sites, so far there is no evidence to support the accusations. Joe Bizzaro, spokesman
for Florida Attorney General Robert A. Butterworth, said the State Highway Patrol dismissed accusations that a police roadblock
set up near a predominantly black precinct near Tallahassee, was aimed at intimidating blacks. He said an internal investigation
determined that the roadblock had been set up in the same spot a month earlier and was routinely designed to conduct inspections... In
the second incident, a Florida radio station reported that black voters had been denied access by police to a predominantly
black polling site near Tampa, but it was later determined that law enforcement officers had moved into the area as part of
an ongoing robbery investigation. A roadblock set up near the site detained only one man. In addition to those incidents,
the Associated Press reported last week it erred when it said in an earlier story that a company hired by Florida officials
to compile a database of potentially ineligible voters was only required to match a person's name with the name of a felon.
The state required Database Technologies of Boca Raton to use a person's name as well as address, date of birth and Social
Security number, if available, to determine who would be on the list. Mr. Jackson had charged that black voters were
mistakenly labeled as felons and taken off the voter rolls because of the firm's selective database... A roadblock
set up near the site detained only one man. In addition to those incidents, the Associated Press reported last week
it erred when it said in an earlier story that a company hired by Florida officials to compile a database of potentially ineligible
voters was only required to match a person's name with the name of a felon. The state required Database Technologies of Boca
Raton to use a person's name as well as address, date of birth and Social Security number, if available, to determine who
would be on the list. Mr. Jackson had charged that black voters were mistakenly labeled as felons and taken off the
voter rolls because of the firm's selective database. Several Florida officials, community leaders and law enforcement
authorities said that while voting problems did occur, accusations that blacks and others were illegally denied access to
polling sites as part of a coordinated scheme were unfounded. They said logistical problems caused by an unexpectedly
large turnout of black voters were to blame for most of the controversies, along with flawed registration lists, faulty ballots
and voting equipment, and a flood of telephone calls to precinct offices that clogged many of the available lines. Florida probe finding no evidence of black disenfranchisement washingtontimes.com
Protections Against Fraud Should Be Detailed and Tough How to Make 'Every Vote Count' By Phyllis Schlafly We
want to count only one vote per person. We want to count only votes cast by citizens eligible to vote. We want to count only
ballots containing votes that can be objectively read, not votes that permit election officials to speculate about or "discern"
(in David Boies’ word) what may have been in the voter’s mind. We do not want to count phantom votes or
re-created votes. And, of course, we want a scrupulously honest count monitored by observers from both political parties. Phyllis Schlafly How to Make 'Every Vote Count
BEWARE STUDY AUTHORED BY KIMBALL BRACE, REMEMBER HIM?Thousands of ineligible voters still are
registered By THOMAS HARGROVE Scripps Howard News Service December 14, 2000 http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=BADLISTS-12-14-00&cat=PP
Official registration lists in the United States have become so faulty that scores of counties claim to have more
voters than actual adult population. Sloppy bookkeeping led 190 counties and the state of Maine to appear to be more
than 100 percent registered in the 1996 presidential election, according to a Scripps Howard News Service study of election
records in 3,189 counties and voting districts. The study found that at least 167,968 people in these areas were still
eligible to cast ballots even though they had died or moved away.... Election experts agree that any county with an
apparent voter registration rate of 90 percent or greater almost certainly has ineligible voters on their rolls. (In 1996
the national registration rate was 74.6 percent, or 146.5 million registered voters out of a voting-age population of 196.5
million.) This means there are at least 681 counties and voting districts with suspiciously large voter rolls. "A
bad list can cover up any sort of fraud that could be going on," said Kimball Brace, president of Election Data Services,
which advises election supervisors nationwide. His group assembled the data used in the Scripps Howard study. "And a bad list
can be indicative of sloppy procedures." Scripps Howard News Service Thousands of ineligible voters still are registered
Punch cards down, not out By Jeff Ostrowski, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Friday, December 15,
2000 http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/friday/news_13.html Punch-card ballots might be on the
endangered list, but they won't be extinct in time for a round of municipal elections early next year in Palm Beach County. November's
disputed presidential election raised tough questions about the reliability of punch cards and brought calls for a better
system. But there are no plans to replace the county's Votomatic machines before residents go to the polls again, as
soon as January in South Palm Beach... Elections officials say a flood of media reports about dimpled, hanging and
swinging chads will leave voters better-educated about the arcane punch cards. "Hopefully they'll know how to vote
now and check the back of the card," said Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore.... Some say punch
cards are unreliable whether the ballot is simple or not. Herb Asher, a political science professor at Ohio State University,
argues that a hand recount is the only way to ensure the accuracy of any punch-card balloting. "Punch-card voting inherently
has problems that don't exist in other voting systems," Asher said. Asher prefers high-tech touch screen systems or
lower-tech optical scan systems, where voters fill in circles with a pencil, exam-style. Others say the problems lie
not in faulty machines but in overworked and understaffed elections supervisors. Elections supervisors lack the resources
to do their jobs, said Gary MacIntosh, state elections director for Washington and president of the National Association of
State Elections Directors. Many need more workers and better training. "In my opinion, there has been far too much
discussion about systems and not enough about management of the systems," MacIntosh said.... Next year's voting will
be done on old-fashioned Votomatics. The county brings out its Data Punch machines only for elections with heavy turnouts,
such as last month's presidential balloting. County workers will make sure to empty old chads from the machines, said
Tony Enos, Palm Beach County's voting systems manager. But, he added, chad buildup was not a problem in the presidential voting,
in spite of media reports that said chads lodged in machines prevented proper voting. Replacing punch-card voting won't
be cheap. A computer touch-screen system for Palm Beach County would cost $15 million to $25 million, Enos said... Punch cards down, not out December 15, 2000
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