Vote Switching Begins Early

[Joe]

Seems like the riggification of 08 has already kicked off

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/167683

And So It Begins: Some early W.Va. voters angry over switched votes

Gazette Mail
Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:47 UTC
Jackson County touch-screens switched votes, 3 residents say

At least three early voters in Jackson County had a hard time voting for candidates they want to win.

Virginia Matheney and Calvin Thomas said touch-screen machines in the county clerk's office in Ripley kept switching their votes from Democratic to Republican candidates.

"When I touched the screen for Barack Obama, the check mark moved from his box to the box indicating a vote for John McCain," said Matheney, who lives in Kenna.



When she reported the problem, she said, the poll worker in charge "responded that everything was all right. It was just that the screen was sensitive and I was touching the screen too hard. She instructed me to use only my fingernail."

Even after she began using her fingernail, Matheney said, the problem persisted.

When she tried to vote for candidates running for two open seats on the Supreme Court, the electronic machine canceled her second vote twice.

On her third try, Matheney managed to cast votes for both Menis Ketchum and Margaret Workman, Democratic candidates for the two open seats.

Calvin Thomas, 81, who retired from Kaiser Aluminum in Ravenswood in 1983 and now lives in Ripley, experienced the same problem.

"When I pushed Obama, it jumped to McCain. When I went down to governor's office and punched [Gov. Joe] Manchin, it went to the other dude. When I went to Karen Facemyer [the incumbent Republican state senator], I pushed the Democrat, but it jumped again.

"The rest of them were OK, but the machine sent my votes for those top three offices from the Democrat to the Republican," Thomas said.

"When I hollered about that, the girl who worked there said, 'Push it again.' I pushed Obama again and it stayed there. Then, the machine did the same thing for other candidates.

"Why didn't she [the polling clerk] tell me before I even used the machine that might happen? And how many people, especially my age, didn't notice that?

"Jackson County is a Republican county. I am a registered Republican, but I have been voting Democrat since the 1990s."

Thomas, who brought his daughter with him to the polls, said she had the same problem.

"After I finished, my daughter voted. When she pushed Obama, it went to McCain. It happened to her the same way it happened to me. If the poll worker knew that, why didn't she tell me before I even pushed the button?"

Deputy Secretary of State Sarah Bailey said, "When we received a call about this, we immediately called the county and told them to recalibrate the machines to make sure the finger-touch [area] lines up with the ballot.

"Sometimes machines can become miscalibrated when they are moved from storage facilities to early voting areas," Bailey said Friday. "We get a couple of calls about this each election year."

Most voting machines in most counties do work properly, Bailey added.

Jackson County Clerk Jeff Waybright said, "After we got a call from the Secretary of State's Office, we recalibrated the machine. We had already voted over 400 people with no problems."

Voting problems occur when voters touch the screen, Waybright said, but do not put their fingers inside boxes for their candidates.

Waybright blamed the problem on voters.

"People make mistakes more than the machines," he said, "but I went in yesterday and recalibrated the machines. We are doing everything we can not to disenfranchise anybody."

Matheney remains concerned.

"Leaving the polling place," she said, "I wondered how many voters might not have noticed that their vote was switched on the machine."

 

[gwb1995]

It would seem things are just as they have been for how many years now?!! I wonder when (if ever) we will see a honest election in this country. The US PTB only count the 'correct votes'. Thanks for posting and letting all know that it has started again. I do wonder if this election will even happen, as Bush and the PTB most likely will create something to declare Martial Law and take total control of the US. After all, they have created the laws and now all they need to do is 'USE' them.

Scary stuff for all of us who are paying attention. I wonder how many will wake up one day soon, to find that there freedoms have vanished, and wonder what happened, 'how is this possible', etc. The masses just don't know what has already happened to them and this kind of move will be the first thing that may begin to wake them up. Sorry, but it is to late to change reality.

 

[Joe]

Indeed! It seems that for Democrats or Republicans to be rigging votes in their favor is standard procedure at this stage, nothing really notable about it. But as you say, it is possible that there is a third option this time that would constitute them taking it to the next level of "undemocracy"

 

[DJM]

Cleveland Election Officials Launch Probe of ACORN

Here's a little more info about voter fraud taking place in the Land of The Free:

http://preprod.elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/13/cleveland-election-officials-launch-probe-acorn/

Cuyahoga County, Ohio, election officials on Monday called on the prosecuting attorney to investigate whether the community organizing group ACORN signed up people to vote multiple times.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Election officials in Ohio's most populous county have called on the prosecuting attorney to investigate alleged voter registration fraud by the community organizing group ACORN.

The bipartisan Cuyahoga County Board of Elections voted unanimously Monday to ask prosecutor Bill Mason to investigate four incidents of people signing multiple voter registration forms at the request of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform.

One of those voters, 19-year-old Freddie Johnson, told FOX News that he signed 73 voter registration forms over a five-month period.

The Cleveland resident said he was offered cigarettes and cash while trying to help paid ACORN solicitors collect signed registrations, but said he did not understand the proper voter-registration procedures.

The group was "trying to get signatures so they can make their money, and I was trying to help them," Johnson said.

ACORN's state director, Katy Gall, said the organization would fire anyone seeking to acquire duplicate registrations and is cooperating with the investigation..

ACORN -- which has a history of voter fraud allegations -- says it has signed up 1.3 million poor and working-class voters this year in a mass registration drive in 18 states. Some of those registration cards have become the focus of fraud investigations in Nevada, Connecticut, Missouri and other states.

Johnson, one of four people subpoenaed to testify over duplicate registrations in Cleveland on Monday, told FOX News that the sheriff's department had assured him that the investigation was aimed at ACORN solicitors, and that he would not face criminal charges.

During the board meeting, Johnson said he would sometimes get approached by six or seven ACORN voter-registration solicitors while waiting for a bus. Other canvassers stood 10 feet away while a solicitor approached him, he said.

"They never told me I couldn't stop signing them," said Johnson. He said the solicitors never indicated that he was doing something unlawful.

A second new voter, Christopher Barkley, a pizza delivery man from Cleveland, is also facing questioning for allegedly registering to vote 10 to 15 times through ACORN.

Barkley said he was approached multiple times by ACORN workers while sitting in a public square. He said the group's solicitors told him they were getting paid by the name to sign up voters.

"I 'd be like, 'No, I'm already registered,'" Barkley said. "Then they just asked me again, like, 'I need a job, I'm just trying to hold on to a job. So would you sign it for me? I need 25 or more. I need a certain amount of them.' So me being the kind-hearted person, I say, 'Yeah.'

"I didn't know that I'd have to be in here for this," Barkley said.

This again just goes to show how deep the corruption goes. IMO, it doesn't matter who gets elected as the end result will be the same. Besides, there's a pretty good chance the election will never take place.