Because Your Vote Should Count

Source: Gouverneurtimes.com [2]

Click NY 23 tag [3] for related articles

Commentary

by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.  
Tuesday, 01 December 2009

For nearly a century, as long as most of us can remember, lever machines have been used for voting in elections throughout New York State.  They have proved durable and reliable.  The votes have been counted at the polling place, in public, with the tallied numbers in plain view for all to see.  Any errors in reporting have been easily corrected by simply looking at “odometers” on the machines.

This fall, for the first time, as a “pilot” program, optical scanners were substituted for lever machines in much of the state, including most of the 23rd Congressional District, and problems with the vote count emerged on an unprecedented scale.

In at least four counties, the initial vote counts reported on Election Night were so far from the truth as to cause a candidate to concede prematurely.  Having never before witnessed such unreliable numbers, he doubted not the vote count, but his own ability to draw enough supporters to the polls.

'All of the shifting of votes from one Congressional candidate to another

hurt Hoffman and helped an opponent. 

So far as I know, the vote shifting that occurred in these counties

was never once to Hoffman’s benefit.'

But when the reported numbers were examined district by district, patterns began to emerge that were easily concealed at the county level.  In numerous election districts in Jefferson, Madison, Oneida and Oswego counties, the entire vote count for Doug Hoffman on the Conservative Party line was shifted to other candidates.  Sometimes Hoffman received the few votes of his opponents on the Independence or Working Families party lines, and sometimes he was left with no votes at all.

It is not entirely clear how this vote switching happened.  The Boards of Elections tend to blame the poll workers for misreading the computer printouts.  But votes were not only denied to Hoffman; his votes were delivered to his opponents.  For the “human error” explanation to be true, poll workers in more than a dozen polling places must have made the same two mistakes.

Perhaps the machines themselves reported the false numbers, or perhaps the votes were deliberately shifted in an attempt to run up a high enough margin on Election Night to get Hoffman to concede.  A forensic examination of the computer tapes and the “tally sheets” from the affected polling places should tell the tale.

This is not idle speculation.  The vote counts in these districts make clear that thousands of votes were affected.  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.

Most, perhaps all, of the false counts reported on Election Night may have been corrected during recanvassing, especially in Oneida County where lever machines were still used.  But that is not the point.  The results reported on Election Night should never have been so terribly wrong in the first place.

Perhaps these alterations of the vote count were not of such magnitude as to reverse the outcome of the election.  But that is not the point.  Thousands of votes were not counted as cast.  We were denied our most fundamental right in what passes for a democracy.

The short-term remedy is to call this federally funded, court-ordered, “pilot” election

an utter failure, and bring back the lever machines that served us so well for so long.'

Auditing elections is a difficult task.  Rarely does an election investigator have access to all the information needed to determine how many votes there were, and if all the votes were counted.  So few people have experience in the field that peer review is difficult to obtain in a timely manner.  All of this has to be done during a very short period of time within which an election can be challenged.  Mistakes are just as inevitable in an election audit as in the actual counting of votes.

But I have seen enough to be convinced that not all of the false numbers can be attributed to “human error.”  All of the shifting of votes from one Congressional candidate to another hurt Hoffman and helped an opponent.  So far as I know, the vote shifting that occurred in these counties was never once to Hoffman’s benefit.

The short-term remedy is to call this federally funded, court-ordered, “pilot” election an utter failure, and bring back the lever machines that served us so well for so long.  If a states’ rights movement is required to bring this about, so be it.

The long-term remedy is to question the very system that presumed to tell us how to run our elections.  This country belongs to the people, not to the federal government.  All New Yorkers, regardless of party affiliation, should demand a transparent, reliable vote count.  Our only power is our right to vote.  And if our votes are not counted as cast, then we have nothing.  We are powerless and disenfranchised, and we don’t live the lives we think we do.
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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 [4], based on examination of some 30,000 photographs of actual ballots, poll books, and other election records, is available at http://www.witnesstoacrime.com [5]

Judge Rules Michigan Voter Purge Violates Federal Law

Source: The Advancement Project [6]
UNITED STATES STUDENT ASSOCIATION FOUNDATION v. LAND
Download the Court Order [7]

Judge Rules Michigan Voter Purge Program Violates Federal Law

October 14, 2008
In a major victory for voting rights, a judge yesterday ruled that Michigan's voter removal program violates federal law and ordered the state to stop illegally purging voters from the rolls.

The decision comes in a lawsuit filed last month by Advancement Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Michigan, and the law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP.

"We are gratified that the judge ordered the state of Michigan to halt its unlawful purge program," said Bradley Heard, senior attorney with Advancement Project. "This decision protects thousands of Michigan residents' voting rights from being infringed upon during this important and historic presidential election, and beyond. It is now up to the state of Michigan to afford these voters the protections that federal law requires."

Judge Stephen J. Murphy of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan ruled that one of Michigan's voter removal programs violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

In question was a Michigan state law requiring local clerks to nullify the registrations of newly-registered voters whenever their original voter identification cards are returned by the post office as undeliverable. Detroit elections officials report that nearly 30,000 voters per year in that city alone are removed from the rolls as a result of this state election law.

The NVRA permits voters to remain on the voter rolls for at least two federal elections after voter registration cards are returned.

TERRI LYNN LAND, Michigan Secretary of State; CHRISTOPHER M. THOMAS, Michigan Director of Elections; and FRANCES MCMULLAN, City Clerk for the City of Ypsilanti, Michigan, in their official capacities, Defendants.

Judge Murphy ordered that state to "immediately discontinue their practice of cancelling or rejecting a voter's registration based upon the return of the voter's original voter identification card as undeliverable."

The plaintiffs in the case are the United States Student Association (USSA) and the ACLU of Michigan. The parties have asked the federal court to schedule a hearing as soon as possible and to enter an immediate temporary injunction barring further purges under these programs. Attorneys in this case are Heard of Advancement Project; Bell-Platts and Neil Bradley of the ACLU Voting Rights Project; Moss and Michael Steinberg of the ACLU of Michigan; and Matthew J. Lund, Mary K. Deon and Deborah Kovsky of Pepper Hamilton LLP.

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From the Order:

'WHEREFORE, it is hereby ORDERED that the defendants Michigan Secretary of State and the Michigan Director of Elections:

(1) Immediately discontinue their practice of cancelling or rejecting a voter's registration based upon the return of the voter's original voter identification card as undeliverable;

(2) Remove the "rejected" marking in the QVF from the registrations of all voters whose original voter IDs have been returned as undeliverable since January 1, 2006 until the present, unless rejection was warranted for some other lawful reason;

(3) Make no other designation, including but not limited to "cancelled," in these voters' registration records in the QVF or elsewhere, that will prevent their ballots from being counted if they appear at the polls and give whatever further proof of Michigan residence is required or permitted under applicable state and federal law; unless such a designation is warranted by written notice from the voter or for some reason other than change of residence;

(4) Preserve and not destroy until after December 31, 2009, any and all records relating to maintenance of Michigan's voter registration files that have, since January 1, 2006, resulted in the cancellation of the registration of voters who have applied for out of state driver’s licenses, or the cancellation or rejection of voters’ registrations based upon the return of original voter identification cards ; and

(5) Give no order, direction, or encouragement that any other government official or any other person engage in activity hereby prohibited to them. It is further ORDERED that the defendants Michigan Secretary of State, the Michigan Director of Elections, and the Ypsilanti City Clerk file an answer to the complaint in this action no later than fourteen days from the date of this Order.

SO ORDERED. s/Stephen J. Murphy, III STEPHEN J. MURPHY, III United States District Judge

Download the Court Order [7]

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CASE DOCUMENTS Source: ACLU [8]

News 
Advancement Project And ACLU Sue Michigan Secretary Of State Over Unlawful Voter Purging [9] (9/18/2008)

Legal Documents 
United States Student Association Foundation v. Land - Order [10] (10/13/2008)
United States Student Association Foundation v. Land - Complaint [11] (9/17/2008)
United States Student Association Foundation v. Land - Ex Parte Motion [12] 9/17/2008)
United States Student Association Foundation v. Land - Motion for Preliminary Injunction [13] (9/17/2008)
United States Student Association Foundation v. Land - Request For Expedited Consideration [14] (9/17/2008)

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USSAF_v_Land_order.pdf [7]	130.44 KB