First the Impossible, Now the Improbable, in NY-23

Source: Gouverneurtimes.com [4]

2nd in a series
Click NY23 tag [5] to see all related stories.

First the Impossible, Now the Improbable, in NY-23

Northern NY News
by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.  
Friday, 27 November 2009 12:14

Editor's Note: Based on additional information provided by the St. Lawrence County Board of Elections, Dr. Phillips revised this article to improve clarity and accuracy.

CANTON, NY – As reported last week, impossible numbers were found in the St. Lawrence County election results for the special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District.  Ninety-three (93) “phantom votes,” more votes counted than the number of ballots cast, were reported in six election districts, and negative numbers reported for the “blank ballots,” or “undervotes.”

These were not the certified results.  The author deeply regrets having said that they were.  The numbers, which the Board of Elections attributes to data entry errors, have since been corrected.  However, scrutiny of the certified election results reveals numerous districts (precincts) where the results, although not always mathematically impossible, are not credible.

'The court-ordered 'pilot' election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District was an utter failure . .

. . . the time-tested lever machines were much more reliable.'

On Friday, November 6, three days after the election, one of the involved campaigns obtained from the Board of Elections a spreadsheet of the preliminary (unofficial) election results, precinct by precinct.  Absentee ballots had not yet been counted.  This serves as an important “snapshot” with which to compare the final (certified) results.

As previously reported, voting machine failures at eight polling places in St. Lawrence County caused the Board of Elections to hand count those ballots.  Realistically, there was no other choice but to do so.  According to the Board, the locked voting machines were transported to a warehouse in Canton where the ballots were counted by hand.  The problem with this procedure is that it is illegal under § 9-100 of New York State Election Law, which requires that the votes be counted at the polling place:
§ 9-100  At the close of the polls the inspectors of election shall, in the order set forth herein, lock the machine against voting, account for the paper ballots, canvass the machine, cast and canvass all the ballots, canvass and ascertain the total vote and they shall not adjourn until the canvass be fully completed.

Onondaga County optical scanner

An audit of the poll books and absentee voter lists for three of these eight polling places reveals that the preliminary hand count could not have been correct. In Louisville, there were 885 actual voters at the polls, but only 691 votes were counted for Congress on Election Night.  In Waddington, there were 754 actual voters at the polls, but only 347 votes were counted for Congress on Election Night.  In Rossie, there were 138 actual voters at the polls, but only 94 votes were counted for Congress on Election Night.  53 votes were counted later.  Bill Owens got 50 of them.

Ballots Should Be Counted in Public

One possible reason for the short counts on Election Night is that the Sequoia/Dominion ImageCast machines have two slots and two bins for ballots.  There is a slot which sucks a ballot into the optical scanner, much like a dollar bill is sucked into a vending machine, and after the ballot is scanned it drops into a locked box.  There is another slot in the front of the machine which can be opened when the scanner breaks down and emergency paper ballots need to be segregated and counted by hand; these ballots drop into a separate locked box.  It is possible that the Board of Elections initially counted the ballots from one box but not the other.  But this is precisely why § 9-102.3(b) of New York State Election Law requires that the ballots be counted in public at the polling place, and why § 9-108.1 requires that the number of ballots be cross-checked with the poll books to be sure that all the ballots have been counted.

§ 9-102.3(b)  Paper ballots and emergency ballots cast during voting machine breakdowns which have been voted shall then be canvassed and tallied, the vote thereon for each candidate and ballot proposal, announced and added to the vote as recorded on the return of canvass.

§ 9-108.1  The board of inspectors, at the beginning of the canvass, shall count the ballots found in each ballot box without unfolding them, except so far as to ascertain that each ballot is single, and shall compare the number of ballots found in each box with the number shown by the registration poll records, and the ballot returns to have been deposited therein.

Another problem with these voting machines is that it is mechanically possible to open both ballot slots, and both locked boxes, even while the optical scanner is operating.  This opens the possibility that ballots could be deposited into the wrong ballot box, inadvertently or deliberately, and never be counted.  An eyewitness who voted at the only polling place in Russell told me that she was not allowed to place her own ballot in the machine; a poll worker examined her ballot and placed it into the machine for her.  This caused her to be concerned about both the privacy of her vote and the security of the vote count.

Blank Ballots Beyond Belief

As previously reported, the number of “blank” ballots, or “undervotes,” is calculated by subtracting the number of votes counted for a given office from the total number of ballots cast.  In the Congressional race, the highest percentage of “blank” ballots anywhere in St. Lawrence County was in Russell’s 2nd district.  According to the poll book there were 590 actual voters at the polls, and there were 11 absentee ballots, for a total of 601, in Russell’s 1st and 2nd districts combined.  According to the certified results there were 338 ballots cast, of which 23 (6.8%) were blank, in the 1st district, and 262 ballots cast, of which 27 (10.3%) were blank, in the 2nd district.  It is highly unlikely that 10.3% of the voters made no choice among three candidates in one of the most hotly contested races in the nation.

The second-highest percentage of “blank” ballots for Congress was in Hammond.  According to the poll book there were 569 actual voters at the polls, and there were 67 absentee ballots plus one special federal ballot, for a total of 637.  According to the certified results there were 637 ballots cast, of which 51 (8.0%) were blank – again, a highly unlikely percentage for a hotly contested race. 

In Hammond, the preliminary (unofficial) results had shown 305 votes for Owens, 206 for Hoffman, and 37 for Scozzafava.  The final (certified) results show 298 votes for Owens, 228 votes for Hoffman, and 60 votes for Scozzafava.  The difference, which should represent the 67 absentee ballots, is minus 7 for Owens, 22 for Hoffman, 23 for Scozzafava, and, by subtraction, 29 blanks.  Whether the drop in Owens’ vote total is an error or a correction is unknown.  But there is simply no way that 29 (or even 22) of 67 voters who took the time and effort to cast an absentee ballot made no choice for Congress.

Post-Election Vote Loss

Hammond is not the only polling place where one candidate or another managed to lose votes subsequent to Election Day.

    * In DeKalb’s 1st district, where there were 355 actual voters at the polls, the preliminary (unofficial) results had shown 201 votes for Owens, 128 for Hoffman, and 26 for Scozzafava.  The final (certified) results show 189 votes for Owens, 132 votes for Hoffman, and 34 votes for Scozzafava.  The difference, which should represent 15 absentee ballots, is minus 12 for Owens, 4 for Hoffman, and 8 for Scozzafava – a net increase of no votes at all.

    * In Lisbon’s 1st district, the preliminary (unofficial) results had shown 146 votes for Owens, 149 for Hoffman, and 13 for Scozzafava.  The final (certified) results show 121 votes for Owens, 159 for Hoffman, and 19 for Scozzafava.  The difference, which should represent 19 absentee ballots, is minus 25 for Owens, 10 for Hoffman, and 6 for Scozzafava – a net decrease of nine votes.

    * In Massena’s 9th district, the preliminary (unofficial) results had shown 108 votes for Owens, 87 for Hoffman, and 2 for Scozzafava.  The final (certified) results show 119 votes for Owens, 69 for Hoffman, and 4 for Scozzafava.  The difference, which should represent 14 absentee ballots and one special federal ballot, is 11 for Owens, minus 18 for Hoffman, and 2 for Scozzafava – a net decrease of five votes.

Post-Election Vote Gain

There are also places where more, not fewer, votes were added to the totals than can be explained by the reported number of absentee ballots.  In most cases the discrepancy was only one or two votes, which could easily be due to corrections made during recanvassing of the vote totals as required by law.  But some examples are not so easily explained.

    •    In Ogdensburg’s 1st district, where there were 305 actual voters at the polls, the preliminary (unofficial) results had shown 141 votes for Owens, 103 for Hoffman, and 10 for Scozzafava. The final (certified) results show 167 votes for Owens, 119 for Hoffman, and 16 for Scozzafava.  The difference, which should represent 9 absentee ballots, is 26 for Owens, 16 for Hoffman, and 6 for Scozzafava – a net increase of 48 votes.  Even now, there are reportedly 13 blank ballots out of 315, or 4.1% of the total.  But more importantly, the electronic vote count on Election Night was short by 39 votes, or 12.8% of the actual total of 305.  Either these were initially counted as blanks, or not counted at all, or some combination of the two.

    •    In Lisbon’s 2nd district, the preliminary (unofficial) results had shown 114 votes for Owens, 110 for Hoffman, and 9 for Scozzafava.  The final (certified) results show 116 votes for Owens, 133 for Hoffman, and 12 for Scozzafava.  The difference, which should represent 6 absentee ballots, is 2 for Owens, 23 for Hoffman, and 3 for Scozzafava – a net increase of 28 votes.  Thus the electronic vote count on Election Night was short by 22 votes, or 8.3% of the actual total.  (The poll books do not reveal the precise number of voters at the polls, because Lisbon was a multiple-precinct polling place, as were Massena’s 9th and 10th districts).

More examples, with somewhat less egregious numbers, could be cited for all of the categories presented in this article.  But it suffices to show that there were suspiciously high percentages of “blank” ballots reported in Russell’s 2nd district and in Hammond; extraordinary declines in the vote totals subsequent to Election Day in DeKalb’s 1st district, Lisbon’s 1st district, and Massena’s 9th district; and lost votes on Election Night in Ogdensburg’s 1st district and Lisbon’s 2nd district.  Each of these corruptions of the vote count can be attributed to electronic vote tabulation. 

Together with the breakdown or freezing of the Sequoia/Dominion ImageCast voting machines at eight polling places, there is more than enough evidence in St. Lawrence County to show that the court-ordered “pilot” election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District was an utter failure, and that the time-tested lever machines were much more reliable.

Gouverneurtimes Online Poll: Hand Count Paper Ballots?

 
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D., is one of the leading election fraud investigators in the United States.  His book on the 2004 Ohio election, Witness to a Crime: A Citizens’ Audit of an American Election [6], based on examination of some 30,000 photographs of actual ballots, poll books, and other election records, is available at http://www.witnesstoacrime.com [7]

Last Updated on Friday, 27 November 2009 15:12
 

NY-23: False Vote Counts in Four Counties

Source: Gouverneurtimes.com [8]

3rd in a series
For related articles, click topic link NY23 [5]

Hoffman Votes Switched to Other Candidates

False Vote Counts in Four Counties in NY-23

Northern NY News [9]
by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
Dec. 3, 2009
  
CANTON, NY – It is now widely known that zero votes were initially reported for Doug Hoffman in numerous election districts in New York’s 23rd Congressional District.  What has not been previously reported is that these votes were shifted to other candidates.  While most of these counts were corrected during recanvassing, they never should have been reported in the first place.

This vote switching is best illustrated in Madison County, where the Board of Elections (to its credit) released, for each election district (or precinct), its preliminary results, before the recanvass, and its final results, as certified to the State.  A comparison of the two reveals what really happened on Election Night.

In the initial vote count, Hoffman got zero votes in three election districts in Madison County.  In Fenner, the count was 157 for Owens, 248 for Scozzafava, and zero for Hoffman.  In Hamilton’s 3rd district, the count was 75 for Owens, 79 for Scozzafava, and zero for Hoffman.  In Sullivan’s 2nd district, the count was 173 for Owens, 251 for Scozzafava, and zero for Hoffman.

Somebody should have noticed this.  On Election Night, Scozzafava was awarded 578 of 983, or 58.8%, of the votes in these three districts, while winning only 583 of 16,770, or 3.5%, of the votes in the rest of the county.  This illustrates perfectly why election results need to be released at the precinct or district level.

These numbers were corrected during recanvassing of the results, and absentee ballots have since been added to the totals.  In Fenner, the certified count is 159 for Owens, 242 for Hoffman, and 21 for Scozzafava.  In Hamilton’s 3rd district, the certified count is 76 for Owens, 77 for Hoffman, and 4 for Scozzafava.  In Sullivan’s 2nd district, the certified count is 174 for Owens, 250 for Hoffman, and 11 for Scozzafava.  This amounts to a gain of 4 votes for Owens, a gain of 569 votes for Hoffman, and a net loss of 542 votes for Scozzafava.

Vote Counts Were Switched

The Board of Elections has attributed the false initial numbers to human error.  Poll workers mistakenly read the wrong line on the computer tape, or so the story goes.  But votes were not only denied to Hoffman; they were delivered to Scozzafava.  What obviously happened is that vote counts were switched.  Hoffman’s tallies on the Conservative Party line were given to Scozzafava, and Scozzafava’s tallies on the Independence Party line were given to Hoffman.  If all of Scozzafava’s 36 rightful votes in these three districts were on the Republican Party line, the result would be false tallies of zero votes for Hoffman.

Thus, for the “human error” explanation to be true, poll workers in three different polling places must have made the same two mistakes.

Also in Madison County there were two other districts with egregious errors that somebody should have noticed:

    * In Nelson’s 1st district, Hoffman was awarded 100 extra votes on Election Night.  This is obvious because, after the counting of absentee ballots, Hoffman’s count has decreased by 93 votes; and because the revised total of 336 votes counted for Congress more closely resembles the other contests in this district, the next highest number of votes counted being 333 votes for County Sheriff.  Unfortunately, the numbers for “blank” ballots are not reported, so we have no way of knowing the number of actual voters without auditing the poll books and the absentee voter lists.

    * In Georgetown, all the votes were double-counted on Election Night.  This is obvious because the initial count was 178 for Owens, 28 for Scozzafava, and 284 for Hoffman; and the certified count is 91 for Owens, 16 for Scozzafava, and 149 for Hoffman.  If the initial count is divided in half and subtracted from the certified count, the remainder represents the absentee ballots: 2 for Owens, 2 for Scozzafava, and 7 for Hoffman.  By comparison, the certified count is 256 votes for Congress, and 260 for County Sheriff.

Countywide, the initial count for Madison County, reported on the morning after the election by the Watertown Daily Times, was 7743 for Owens, 8110 for Hoffman, and 1128 for Scozzafava.  With corrections and adjustments made, and absentee ballots counted, the final (certified) count is now 8290 for Owens, 9155 for Hoffman, and 724 for Scozzafava.  Thus, Hoffman’s lead of 367 votes on Election Night has grown to 865 votes – a net gain of 498.

For Oneida County, at 11:50 P.M. on Election Night, the Albany Times-Union posted these vote tallies: 3510 for Owens, 2432 for Hoffman, and 274 for Scozzafava.  Owens was reportedly winning Oneida County by 1078 votes, with 56% of the total.  The next morning, the Watertown Daily Times reported very different numbers: 2024 for Owens, 2779 for Hoffman, and 362 for Scozzafava.  Owens was now losing Oneida County by 755 votes, with only 39% of the total.  This represents an overnight reversal of 1833 votes.  But by that time, Hoffman had already conceded the election.

Preliminary precinct results obtained a few days after the election contained no votes from Lee’s 2nd and 5th districts.  The partial results from elsewhere in the county match what was reported in the Watertown Daily Times, so these were the only two districts not reporting.

But even the corrected partial results were incorrect.  In Camden’s 2nd district, the Board of Elections was still reporting 100 (74%) for Owens, 23 (17%) for Scozzafava, and 12 (9%) for Hoffman.  Somebody should have noticed this.  By comparison, Hoffman’s lowest percentage anywhere else in the county was 43% in Boonville’s 4th district.  In Camden’s other two districts, Hoffman received 66% and 67% of the vote. 

Vote-Switching Methodology

The Camden example demonstrates clearly the methodology for vote switching.  Hoffman was awarded 12 votes, not zero.  These votes had to come from somewhere.  The simplest explanation is that Hoffman’s tally on the Conservative Party line was given to Owens, and Owens’ tally on the Working Families Party line was given to Hoffman, who suffered a net loss of at least 75 votes.  If these votes were shifted not to Scozzafava but to Owens, the other leading candidate, the margin was affected by 150 votes.

Whether these numbers from Camden’s 2nd district have been corrected is not certain, because Oneida County has not released its final precinct results.  The final countywide results show 2243 for Owens, 3225 for Hoffman, and 459 for Scozzafava, which represent, since the corrected partial results reported the morning after the election, gains of 219 votes for Owens, 446 votes for Hoffman, and 97 votes for Scozzafava.  Either way, Hoffman’s countywide percentage has grown from 39% on Election Night to 54% today.

The Oneida County Board of Elections has confirmed that optical scanners were used only in the Town of Marcy.  Lever machines were used elsewhere.  Thus it seems likely that the numbers from Camden’s 2nd district would have been corrected during recanvassing, because the true ballot positions that correspond with the vote tallies are plainly visible on a lever machine.

In Jefferson County, Sean M. Hennessey, Democratic elections commissioner, said that poll inspectors in four districts reported that Hoffman had received zero votes after inadvertently reading the wrong line of the poll system’s printout.  Hennessey said that results in some other districts were either incorrectly relayed by the poll worker or incorrectly typed by the part-time staff answering phones at the Jefferson County Board of Elections office.

'Altogether, vote switching in four counties
altered the reported margin between Owens and Hoffman by an estimated 2,650 votes.
And this is only what we know about. . . .

With concealed electronic vote counting, partial shifts of the vote count
could occur without a trace, and not be readily apparent in the election results. 
And yet the New York State Board of Elections is expected to certify these election results
and the untrustworthy machines that produced them.'

Jefferson County election officials blamed the mistakes on “chaos” in their call-in center, and on inspectors who read numbers incorrectly when reporting results over the phone.  “The machines were not at fault,” said Jerry O. Eaton, Republican elections commissioner for Jefferson County.  “It’s all human error that happens every election.”  Jefferson County has not conducted a hand count of the paper ballots from the election districts where the zero vote counts were reported.

The initial vote count reported in the Watertown Daily Times was 9996 for Owens, 9439 for Hoffman, and 1155 for Scozzafava.  By the time the Jefferson County Board of Elections provided its preliminary precinct results to one of the involved campaigns, three days after the election, the zero vote counts had been corrected in all four districts.  The corrected preliminary results were 10,238 for Owens, 10,358 for Hoffman, and 1179 for Scozzafava.  This represented net gains of 242 votes for Owens, 919 for Hoffman, and 24 for Scozzafava, and a change of 677 votes in the countywide margin.  The combined increase of 1185 votes (5.8%) indicates that not all districts had reported their results when the Watertown Daily Times went to press, and suggests that vote shifting had altered the margin by about 640 votes.  But more importantly, the ratio of the newly counted votes (Hoffman got 78% of them, Owens 20%, and Scozzafava 2%) indicates that, in the four districts with the zero vote counts, most of Hoffman’s votes had gone to Owens.  The “tally sheets” from these four election districts should tell the tale.

But even the corrected preliminary results were not correct.

    * In Wilna’s 5th district, the count was 122 for Owens, 154 for Scozzafava, and 7 for Hoffman.  Apparently, Hoffman’s tally on the Conservative Party line was switched with Scozzafava’s tally on the Independence Party line.  In Wilna’s other four districts, Scozzafava got only 5.2% of the vote, but in Wilna’s 5th district she got 54% (of 283), suggesting that about 140 votes were switched from Hoffman to Scozzafava.

    * In Watertown’s 15th ward, 4th district, the count was 92 for Owens, 5 for Scozzafava, and 3 for Hoffman.  Apparently, Hoffman’s tally on the Conservative Party line was switched with Owens’ tally on the Working Families Party line.  In the other four districts of the 15th ward, Hoffman got 43% of the vote, but in the 4th district he got only 3% (of 100), suggesting that about 40 votes were switched from Hoffman to Owens, thus affecting by 80 votes the margin between them.

Perhaps those numbers have been corrected.  A second corrected preliminary count was posted in the Watertown Daily Times, still prior to the counting of absentee ballots.  This, the third count, was 10,460 for Owens, 10,884 for Hoffman, and 1179 for Scozzafava.  This represented net gains of 222 votes for Owens, 526 for Hoffman, and zero for Scozzafava.  The combined increase of 748 votes appears inexplicable; the precinct results previously given by the Jefferson County Board of Elections contained numbers for all 91 election districts in the county.  But the ratio of the newly counted votes (Hoffman got 70% of them, Owens 30%, and Scozzafava zero), indicates that adjustments had been made.

Now the absentee ballots have been counted in Jefferson County, and the final (certified) results are 10,902 for Owens, 11,354 for Hoffman, and 1414 for Scozzafava.  Hoffman was reportedly losing Jefferson County by 557 votes on Election Night, and ended up winning by 452 votes – a turnaround of 1009.

In Oswego County, according to the Valley News, “problems with the reporting of numbers on election night led the Oswego County Board of Elections to remove the results from its web site on Wednesday, the day after the election.”

On Election Night, Hoffman was reported to lead by only 500 votes (exactly) with 93% of the districts (115 of 124) reporting, but inspectors found that Hoffman actually won by 1748 votes – 12,748 to 11,000 (exactly) – and that Scozzafava had received only 950 votes.  These corrected unofficial numbers, reported on Saturday, November 7th, included 100 percent of the districts in the county.

The initial count had been 10,882 for Hoffman, 10,382 for Owens, and 1339 votes for Scozzafava.  Thus the recanvass resulted in a net gain of 1,866 votes for Hoffman, a net gain of 618 votes for Owens, a net loss of 389 votes for Scozzafava – and an increase of 1248 votes in Hoffman’s countywide margin.

Because Oswego County has not released their precinct results for any stage of the vote counting, we do not know if Hoffman received very few votes or zero votes in the districts with the false numbers.  But we do know, from the countywide comparisons posted online by the Valley News, that the initial point spread was 2.21%, and that the corrected point spread was 7.07%, which is 3.2 times higher.  This suggests that the reported 500-vote margin should have been 1600 votes.

We also know that Scozzafava’s initial percentage was 5.93%, and that her corrected percentage was 3.85%, suggesting that her initial count should have been about 870 votes (not 1339), and that about 470 votes had been shifted from Hoffman to Scozzafava.  As this does not account for the entire discrepancy, some votes, probably about 315, must have been shifted from Hoffman to Owens in order to bring the false margin down to 500 votes.  Inspection of the tally sheets from the affected polling places should tell the tale.

Both the initial count and the corrected count should be viewed in light of a statement made by Oswego County Democratic Elections Commissioner William Scriber, as reported in the Palladium-Times.  Scribner said: “No votes changed from election night, to election morning, to the day after, right up to today.”  Note that Hoffman’s reported lead of 500 votes on Election Night had became 1748 votes four days later, so Scribner’s statement, reported on Friday, November 20th, is not correct.

We have carefully preserved all the newspaper articles cited above, lest they disappear from cyberspace.

Now the final results have been certified by the Oswego County Board of Elections.  The certified countywide totals are 11,552 for Owens, 13,300 for Hoffman, and 1158 for Scozzafava.  The certified absentee ballot count is 437 for Owens, 461 for Hoffman, and 208 for Scozzafava, for a total absentee ballot count of 1106 (emergency ballots, and affidavit, or provisional ballots, have been added to the totals also).  According to Scriber, as reported in the Palladium-Times, 1145 absentee ballots were received in Oswego County, so 39 (3.4%) of them must have been blank, void, or write-ins.  Countywide, Oswego County is reporting 1338 blank ballots for Congress out of 27,394 ballots cast, or 4.9% of the total.

Actually, the posted election results are intended to reveal very little.  Not only is there no district by district breakdown, but we do not know the number of ballots cast at the polls or the number of absentee ballots, because any blank, void, or write-in ballots are listed as such and are not included in the numbers for “machine” or “absentee.”  But some things are nonetheless revealed.

Most importantly, the total number of ballots cast adds up to 27,462 countywide.  The ward totals and the town totals tally up to 27,462.  The total number of ballots cast in the 25 districts of the Oswego County Legislature tally up to 27,462.  The same number is given in the .pdf file posted by the Board of Elections for total ballots cast in three countywide races, to wit: County Treasurer, Proposal Number One, and Proposal Number Two.  The total number of ballots cast for State Supreme Court Justice is exactly twice this number, 54,924, because voters were choosing two candidates, not one.  But the total number of ballots cast for Congress, countywide, is reportedly 27,394, and 30 of these are “special federal” ballots cast for Congress only (being the only federal office on the ballot), so the count of ballots cast for Congress is short by 98, unless there were fewer ballots cast for the special Congressional election than for the general election.

What the data for “emergency” paper ballots tell us is the locations where the voting machines broke down.  There were 85 “emergency” paper ballots, and all but one was cast at four locations: Fulton City’s 4th Ward, Oswego City’s 2nd Ward, Oswego City’s 4th Ward, and the Town of Hastings.  There are no more than 22 “emergency” paper ballots listed for any town or ward in the county.  This cannot be the cause of the “problems” on Election Night that caused the Board of Elections to rescind the election results posted on its own web site.  How hard can it be to count 22 paper ballots?  There were only seven contests on the ballot in Fulton City and Oswego City, and ten in the Town of Hastings.

In summary, switching of votes from Hoffman to other candidates occurred in four counties in New York’s 23rd Congressional district.  In Madison County, about 540 votes were shifted from Hoffman to Scozzafava in three districts.  In Oneida County, about 75 votes were shifted from Hoffman to Owens in one district, and a mysterious 1833-vote alteration of the margin, to Hoffman’s detriment, was reported on Election Night.  In Jefferson County, votes were shifted from Hoffman to other candidates, mainly to Owens, in six districts, thus altering the margin by about 860 votes.  In Oswego County, about 470 votes were shifted from Hoffman to Scozzafava, and about 315 votes were shifted from Hoffman to Owens, in an unknown number of districts.  Altogether, vote switching in four counties altered the reported margin between Owens and Hoffman by an estimated 2,650 votes.

And this is only what we know about.  These are the districts, or precincts, where the entire vote counts on the Conservative Party ballot line were shifted to other candidates.  With concealed electronic vote counting, partial shifts of the vote count could occur without a trace, and not be readily apparent in the election results.  And yet the New York State Board of Elections is expected to certify these election results and the untrustworthy machines that produced them.

For the record, here is the comparison of the initial results reported on Election Night, and the final results certified to the State, for Jefferson, Madison, Oneida, and Oswego counties:
  
                






























Related coverage [10]
___________________________________

Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D., is one of the leading election fraud investigators in the United States.  His book on the 2004 Ohio election, Witness to a Crime: A Citizens’ Audit of an American Election [11], based on examination of some 30,000 photographs of actual ballots, poll books, and other election records, is available HERE [12]

NY23 Collected Coverage by Northern NY News

Source: Gouverneurtimes.com

[10]Northern NY News [9]
Written by Nathan Barker

Tuesday, 01 December 2009

A Summary of our coverage of the problems and pitfalls in New York's 2009 Special Election.  ImageCast electronic voting machines were used in many districts under a New York State "Pilot Program" causing myriad errors and problems with the election results.  Our exclusive coverage of these issues, in chronological order:

Virus in the Voting Machines: Tainted Results in NY-23 [3] by Nathan Barker

Voting Machines Used were Not Certified [14] by Nathan Barker

Statement from the NYS Board of Elections [15]

Fact Check: The Gouverneur Times vs. NYS Board of Elections [16]

Ghost in the Machine [17] by Scott A. Reddick

Updated December 2nd, 2009: Impossible Numbers Certified in NY-23 [18] by Richard Hayes Phillips Ph.D.

First the Impossible, Now the Improbable in NY-23 [4] by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.

NY-23, Sequoia, and the Private Corporate Takeover of your Once-Public Democracy [19] by Brad Friedman

Letter to the Editor on NY-23 Election Results [20] by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.

December 1st, 2009: Because Your Vote Should Count [21] by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.

December 2nd, 2009: False Vote Counts in Four Counties in NY-23 [8] by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.

Possible Recount in Questionable NY-23 Contest

Source: Washingtontimes.com [22]

Hoffman Considering Recount Claim

By Maria Stainer

EXCLUSIVE:

Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman said on Friday he is considering filing a recount claim in light of computer irregularities that have been reported. He has until Monday to make that decision.

Mr. Hoffman conceded the New York's 23rd Congressional District race to winner Democrat Bill Owens on Election Night, but has had second thoughts.

Three voting computers were shown to have had a virus and had to be reprogrammed, Mr. Hoffman told The Washington Times' "America's Morning News" radio show.

"If I had this information on Election Night, I would not have conceded," he said

Mr. Owens, a Plattburgh lawyer, won over Mr. Hoffman, a CPA, in a race that captured national headlines after Republican candidate and one-time frontrunner Dede Scozzafava bowed out of the race and threw her support behind Mr. Owens.

"What your listeners need to know is that on Election Night, we're shown to be down by 6,000 votes and through recanvassing, they discovered computers that were giving the wrong information and polling sites that reported the wrong information -- and that lead dropped down to less than 3,000 votes by this week," Mr. Hoffman said, referring to Election Board officials who are investigating.

"And now they are counting the absentee ballots that were scheduled to come in no later than Monday of this week."

Mr. Hoffman said he doesn't think the three voting machines were tampered. He does, however, ask: "Why didn't they look at all of the machines when they knew the three had a particular computer problem."

The WatertownDailyTimes.com reported Friday that with just 3,072 votes left uncounted, Mr. Owens' win is mathematically insurmountable.

"It's a long shot, but we're waiting for every vote to be counted," Mr. Hoffman told The Washington Times.

"We have people that are looking into this and we have until Monday to make that determination and file a recount claim," he said. "At this point, we're still anxiously waiting to find out what the final count comes down to be and, at that point, what the gap is."

Updated 23rd District Election Counts, 11-16-09

Source: Gouverneurtimes.com [23]

Updated 23rd District Election Counts

Northern NY News
Written by Nathan Barker  
Monday, 16 November 2009 15:36

GOUVERNEUR, NY - Today (Nov. 16th) was the final day for absentee ballots to be received in New York's 23rd District Special Congressional Election.  Already three counties have completed the final vote counts, and Hamilton County has already certified those counts to the State Board of Elections.

* - These counties are reporting final counts with absentee ballots included.

With three counties' absentee ballots included, Doug Hoffman now trails Bill Owens by 2,856 votes.

Our counts as of this afternoon show an additional 5798 absentee votes as yet uncounted.

Jefferson County began counting their 1304 returned absentee ballots this morning.

Clinton and Essex Counties have begun counts and expect to have final results before Friday.

Franklin County, St. Lawrence County, and Oswego County do not anticipate a completed absentee count until early next week.

Fulton County results are now included.

Lewis County Board of Election representatives were unavailable early this morning.

Check this page daily for the most current results available.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 November 2009 16:14