USA Presidential Election 2008 [Daily News]

winigwl · January 9, 2008

off to michigan

berrywoman · January 9, 2008

Major allegations of vote fraud in New Hampshire are circulating after Hillary Clinton reversed that mammoth pre-polling deficit to defeat Barack Obama with the aid of Diebold electronic voting machines.
While there are other cases of confirmed votes for Ron Paul in the Sutton district that were not even counted.

I'm sure this will not be the last we here of this....

I don't think there was fraud on that case... Obama v. Hill... but the Paul thing for sure.

New Hampshire and Iowa... two COMPLETELY different states... the people are so diverse.... and she's considered a local in that area now since she moved here.

Maldini · January 10, 2008

Richardson drops presidential bid

By BARRY MASSEY, Associated press Writer

SANTA FE, N.M. - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson ended his long-shot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday after poor finishes in the first two contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

He praised all of his Democratic rivals but endorsed no one. He encouraged voters to "take a long and thoughtful look" and elect one of them president.

Richardson said that although his support at the polls lagged the front-runners, many of his leading rivals had moved closer to his positions on such issues as the war in Iraq and educating young Americans at home.

"Despite overwhelming financial and political odds, I am proud of the campaign we waged ... and most importantly the influence we had on the issues that matter the most to the future of this country," he said.

On a less serious note, he estimated the long campaign had included 200 debates. He quickly amended that 24 but said "it felt like 200."

Richardson, 60, announced his decision at the state Capitol, saying he was returning to "the best job in the world" as New Mexico's governor.

With the New Mexico Legislature convening for its annual one-month regular session next Tuesday, he said with a grin to all those involved: "I'm back."

Richardson had one of the most wide-ranging resumes of any candidate ever to run for the presidency, bringing experience from his time in Congress, President Clinton's Cabinet as energy secretary, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in the New Mexico Statehouse as well as his unique role as a freelance diplomat. As a Hispanic man, he added to the unprecedented diversity in the Democratic field that also included a woman and a black man.

But Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama dominated the spotlight in the campaign, and Richardson was never able to become a top-tier contender, trailing well behind them and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

Richardson fell below 5 percent in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday and came in with just 2 percent in the Iowa caucuses last week.

Edwards congratulated Richardson, saying he had run a good race.

There was no immediate comment from the other campaigns.

"He was a very good candidate, a serious candidate," Edwards said in Columbia, S.C. "I congratulate him. He ought to be proud of what he's done. What's happened is, over time the race is becoming more focused. I think that's good for democracy. I think this thing's going on for a long time."

Richardson was easily elected to two terms as governor but will be forced from office by term limits in 2010.

Maldini · January 10, 2008

Former Dem nominee Kerry endorses Obama

By NEDRA PICKLER and ANDREW MIGA, Associated Press Writer

CHARLESTON, S.C. - John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, gave Barack Obama a timely endorsement Thursday, snubbing Hillary Rodham Clinton as well as his own vice presidential running mate.

Kerry came to South Carolina to embrace Obama, two weeks before the state's primary and with Obama needing a boost after Clinton's emotional victory over him in New Hampshire.

Quoting a black American hero in endorsing the man who hopes to be the first black president, Kerry told a cheering crowd, "Martin Luther King said that the time is always right to do what is right." Now is the time, Kerry said, to declare "that Barack Obama can be, will be and should be the next president of the United States."

The Massachusetts senator said there were other candidates he had worked with and respected but Obama was best able to bring Americans together.

"Who better than Barack Obama to turn a new page in American politics so that Democrat, independent and Republican alike can look to leadership that unites to find the common ground?" Kerry said. "That's what this is about."

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, the third contender in the Democratic presidential race, was Kerry's vice presidential running mate in 2004. Despite their political alliance, the two men were not close personally and differed behind the scenes on campaign strategy in a race that President Bush won.

Edwards responded to word of the endorsement with a diplomatic statement: "Our country and our party are stronger because of John's service, and I respect his decision. When we were running against each other and on the same ticket, John and I agreed on many issues."

Edwards defeated Kerry in the 2004 South Carolina Democratic primary. Kerry had considered running again but decided a year ago he would not.

Kerry dismissed Obama critics who say the Illinois senator lacks the experience to be president. And he took a swipe at Clinton, saying, "Some have suggested in this campaign that Barack is guilty of raising 'false hopes.' ... My friends, the only charge that rings false is the one that tells you not to hope for a better tomorrow."

In a debate in New Hampshire, the New York senator said in comparing her ability and Obama's to fulfill pledges to bring about change: "I think it is clear that what we need is somebody who can deliver change. And we don't need to be raising the false hopes of our country about what can be delivered. The best way to know what change I will produce is to look at the changes that I've already made."

Returning to the subject, Obama said when he took the microphone from Kerry: "In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."

Obama supporters were hoping the timing of Kerry's endorsement could give him a lift as he seeks to put his New Hampshire primary loss behind him.

Obama praised Kerry's Vietnam War service, calling him a patriot and a man of conviction.

Kerry was Obama's political benefactor once before, selecting the relatively unknown Illinois senatorial candidate to deliver the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. It was Obama's first turn in the national spotlight and helped launch him on a remarkable ascent that has made him one of two leading contenders for the party's presidential nomination only four years later.

Kerry had withheld his endorsement, hoping to have an impact on the race and avoid the fate of fellow Democrat Al Gore, the 2000 nominee who endorsed Howard Dean in 2004 shortly before the former Vermont governor's campaign imploded. Gore has made no endorsement so far this year.

While Kerry has been close to Clinton's husband, the former president, he was incensed in 2006 when she chided him after Kerry suggested that people who don't go to school "get stuck in Iraq." Aides said Kerry meant to jab at Bush and say "get us stuck in Iraq," and that he didn't appreciate Clinton piling onto the criticism he was already getting for the remark.

Kerry's own hopes to run for president this year fizzled with that botched comment. For many Democrats, his words revived bitter memories of his missteps in 2004. troop withdrawal deadlines. In another area, he has backed environmental causes, writing a book with his wife on the issue.

Kerry should be able to provide some organizational and fundraising muscle to Obama.

Since losing the 2004 race, Kerry has kept a national network of supporters intact. He has an e-mail network of 3 million supporters, according to aides. He also has traveled extensively raising millions of dollars for Democratic candidates nationwide.

The Republican National Committee was dismissive about Thursday's endorsement, branding Kerry and Obama "liberal soul mates."

GazeboflossUK · January 10, 2008

CNN Mention of Possible Vote Fraud Finds Memory Hole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcwdKBVt_Ew

This CNN section aired about 5:06am ET.

CNN repeats their "News" segments all the time.

However - all the other times Bill Snyder came on to repeat this segment, he never mentioned anything about possible fraud. Just this one, early in the morning.

""All the pollsters are unlikely to have made the same mistake so what could have happened? Something must have happened," Bill Synder

Hmm, indeed.

Media Struggles To Whitewash Clinton Vote Fraud Suspicions

Other Stories.

Clear Evidence Of Widespread Vote Fraud In New Hampshire

http://prisonplanet.com/articles/janu...

Ron Paul Votes Not Counted In New Hampshire District

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/...

C-SPAN: Possible Sutton County, NH vote fraud 1/8/0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBfmks...

New Hampshire District Admits Ron Paul Votes Not Counted

http://www.truthnews.us/?p=1601

Viewer Records NH VOTE FLIPPING from Ron Paul to McCain!

http://www.ronpaulwarroom.com/?p=774

Bev Harris: Iowa Caucus Had Vote Fraud

http://www.truthnews.us/?p=1579

NH RESIDENTS: What you can do to help with the recount

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/23684

Ron Paul Class lawsuit Former FBI IOWA Fraud

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUJZnK...

Voter Fraud Against Paul Confirmed in Sutton, N.H.

http://www.truthnews.us/?p=1587

GazeboflossUK · January 11, 2008

Citing "serious and credible reports, allegations and rumors" about the integrity of Tuesday's results, Congressman Dennis Kucinich is backing a full recount of ballots for the Democratic contest in New Hampshire, meaning that both party's primaries may now both be cast into doubt.........However, vote fraud expert Bev Harris has warned that it could all be a trap to validate Diebold electronic voting machines.

Black Rose · January 11, 2008

It's strange that he got a zero, not even a few votes made by supporters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bKeHqGqNZs

winigwl · January 11, 2008

^haha

GazeboflossUK · January 12, 2008

Votes cast in New Hampshire's Democratic and Republican presidential primaries will undergo a hand recount, after two candidates who garnered little support here questioned the results.

The state is now required to conduct a full hand recount of the nearly 240,000 ballots cast in Tuesday's Republican primary and the more than 285,000 ballots cast in the Democratic primary.

Maldini · January 15, 2008

Romney ahead in Michigan polls - maybe

Republican seeks first critical win in home state against McCain, Huckabee

By Russ Britt, MarketWatch

Last update: 10:32 a.m. EST Jan. 15, 2008

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Mitt Romney was ahead in most polls as the Michigan Republican primary got underway on Tuesday, but whether he actually ends up reaping the benefits of being a favorite son will have to wait for Tuesday's results.

At least two polls put Romney, the former Massachusetts senator, ahead of chief rival Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., but a third showed McCain slightly ahead in the days leading up to the primary battle.

Meanwhile, McCain and Romney were turning up the heat on their rivalry as their debate went from family values to the economy and Michigan's lingering employment woes. Romney promised to help turn around the ailing auto industry in a speech Monday, and accused McCain of being too much a Washington insider to help.

"Michigan can once again lead the world's automotive industry, but it means we're going to have to change Washington," Romney said. "We're going to go from politicians who say they are 'aware' of Michigan's problems to a president who will do something about them."

McCain, meanwhile, had sent out mailers saying that Romney had supported state funding of abortions while he was Massachusetts' governor.

A poll conducted last week by the Detroit Free-Press showed Romney ahead of McCain, 27% to 22%, with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in third place with 16%. A McClatchy-MSNBC poll puts Romney ahead of McCain, 30% to 22%, with Huckabee at 16%. That survey was conducted last week as well.

But a poll conducted by Reuters, C-Span and Zogby showed McCain narrowly ahead of Romney 27% to 24%, with Huckabee at 15%. That poll, released Monday, was taken over the weekend.

Polls, however, may not have the same credibility with voters this primary, given the difficulties with last week's New Hampshire primary. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was expected to handily beat Sen. Hillary Clinton for that state's Democratic delegates, but Clinton pulled out a narrow victory.

Needs a win

Pundits agree that Romney, though in the lead with delegate counts, desperately needs a win in his home state in order to be able to continue his quest to succeed President George W. Bush.

The nation's second presidential primary takes place in the state where Romney was born and raised, and where his father, George, served as governor. The elder Romney himself was a presidential hopeful in 1968.

After two second-place finishes in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, where he was expected to win at one point, Romney needs to show he can at least take one state. Romney came in second to Iowa winner Huckabee, and New Hampshire victor McCain.

"That's a must-win for him," Republican strategist Jon McHenry said.

Romney also needs at least one victory under his belt before heading into a massive 22-state primary sweep on Feb. 5, now known as "Super Duper Tuesday." The first few states of the presidential election season are considered critical momentum builders that help set the table for Super Tuesday and beyond.

Though he leads in total delegates thus far, it's not about those numbers just yet, says McHenry.

"People are looking at the wins," he said.

Primary crowding

A crowding of primaries around the beginning of the election calendar prompted the Democratic Party to penalize Michigan and Florida for holding their contests early without permission. As a result the party will not assign delegates based on the results in those two states.

Michigan, however, could be a symbolic victory or defeat for Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. She's the only remaining major candidate that remains on the ballot there as Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards have removed their names from the ballot. A large chunk of non-committed votes - one option on the Michigan ballot - could prove embarrassing for her.

Republicans also have cut the delegate size on those two states as well as Wyoming, New Hampshire and South Carolina. All five delegate contingents have been halved.

Those developments, plus the fact no clear front-runner has emerged for either Democrats or Republicans, means that while the weeks leading up to Super Tuesday could lay the foundation for a big win on Feb. 5. But these weeks won't make or break a candidate.

"My guess is they will once again be inconclusive," said Ethan Siegal, president of analysis group Washington Exchange.

chuck kottke · January 15, 2008

Rome fell because of greed.

Michigan's main problem is that it's always cloudy over there in winter - no wonder they're in a depression!:P

What really befelled Michigan was the unfair trade agreements, and trying to make the high-end auto lines. That, and the well-heeled live on investments; which, in a free-for-all type economy, helps them preferentially; thus the manufacturing sector goes whereever on the planet it can find the best deal (cheapest labor, socialized medicine, etc.). Maybe I'm a bit jaded, but from the upper midwest, that's how it looks to me..

So, honest gov't needs to be there representing the best interests of all the citizens, and acting as the referee in the economic game; making sure trade deals are fair for everyone, and the income disparities don't grow so out of proportion, as the average citizen has little control over real wages.

The founders of our Republic recognized the necessity of a strong, growing middle class to maintain the democratic institutions of government we have come to cherish. Wage stagnation for the middle does not bode well for a healthy Republic.

The way I see it, is that the tax breaks to the very wealthy (pioneered by the Republicans in the US congress & the white house via their clever kick-back schemes) helps the well-to-do at the expense of the working classes everywhere. Of course, Wall Street hedges their bets too - they contribute to the Democratic candidates as well; but to a lesser degree.

Thus, I would recommend to all - investigate the money trail, and make well-informed decisions based on where it's coming from, and how it affects the economy. We may never have a pure & honest government, but there's better and there's worse!

Maldini · January 16, 2008

Romney wins Michigan primary

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney greets supporters at a campaign rally on primary day in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The native son gets his first major victory in the race for the GOP presidential nomination.

By Michael Finnegan, Michael Muskal and Maeve Reston, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

7:28 PM PST, January 15, 2008

Southfield, Mich. -- Mitt Romney won his native state's presidential primary today, earning his first major victory in the Republican race, in which candidates seemingly win and then lose the leadership spot each week.

Romney, the son of a former governor and auto executive here, defeated a Republican field headed by Arizona Sen. John McCain, who won the New Hampshire primary last week, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the Jan. 3 caucus in Iowa.

With about 55% of Michigan's 5,385 precincts reporting, Romney was leading McCain, 39% to 30%. Huckabee was in third with about 15%.

At Romney's election night party in Southfield, a suburb of Detroit, several hundred supporters chanted, "Go, Mitt! Go, Mitt!" as they awaited the candidate in a hotel ballroom. Many waved red foam mitts, American flags and signs proclaiming, "Change Begins With Us."

"Tonight marks the beginning of a comeback, a comeback for America," Romney told several hundred cheering supporters.

With his beaming wife, Ann, at his side, and other family members behind him, the jubilant candidate said, "Tonight is a victory of optimism over Washington-style pessimism."

He then recited a litany of issues, from immigration reform to Social Security, that Washington politicians have left unsolved and asked the crowd who would fix them.

"Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!" it responded.

Carolyn Schmidt, 58, a hospital administrator and Romney supporter who lives in Grosse Pointe Woods, welcomed the former Massachusetts governor's first big victory of the campaign.

"If he wouldn't have won, it could have been disastrous for him," she said when Romney finished speaking. "But this is going to jump-start the rest of his campaign."

Both McCain and Huckabee called Romney and conceded moments after the polls closed. Each stressed that he had won other primaries and caucuses and was prepared to continue the fight.

"For a minute there in New Hampshire I thought this campaign might be getting easier," McCain said, speaking in South Carolina before a ceiling-high American flag, flanked by royal blue velvet curtains. "But you know what? We've gotten pretty good at doing things the hard way too, and I think we've shown them we don't mind a fight."

Huckabee pledged to campaign hard in South Carolina, with its larger number of evangelical votes, which are expected to go to the Baptist minister.

"I congratulate Mitt Romney. He won a great race. He worked hard. He, of course, has a great base there, but our hats are off to him for his victory there tonight," Huckabee said in a televised speech. "So it looks like that I won Iowa; John McCain won New Hampshire; Mitt Romney won Michigan. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to win South Carolina!"

In addition to giving him bragging rights, Romney's victory propelled the onetime national frontrunner into the winner's circle, from which he had been absent except for a brief stop after earning delegates in the barely contested Wyoming battle.

A loss here, in Romney's birth state, where his father was a popular governor, would have been devastating as the campaign moves to South Carolina for Saturday's GOP primary.

In stops across the state, Romney, a former executive who stressed his business acumen, often played the legacy card, reminding potential voters of his roots.

"Michigan is going to vote for a Romney again," he predicted earlier today in Grand Rapids.

It was those ties that proved to be key in the race, according to preliminary exit polls, taken for the Associated Press and several networks. About 40% of those who voted said Romney's Michigan ties were a factor in their decision.

Romney also ran strongly among those who cited the economy as a key issue. About 20% of Republican primary voters said the war in Iraq was the key issue

According to the exit data, McCain ran strongly among moderates, independents and Democrats, who could cross over and vote Republican in Michigan's primary.

The turnout was considered light, about 20%. The Democratic primary had no standing because no delegates were at stake.

Hillary Rodham Clinton was the only top candidate on the Democratic ballot. She and other Democrats debated in Las Vegas, where the party was preparing for its next test, Nevada's caucuses on Saturday.

It was a homecoming of sorts for the two leading Republican contenders in Michigan's primary, which had gone down to the wire. McCain won the state's primary in 2000.

Both he and Romney ran strong in a campaign that played to Michigan's economic woes. A weak economy has deflated the state's auto industry and pumped up its unemployment rate to 7.4%.

But it was Romney who faced the biggest test here, according to independent analysts and McCain advisors, who tried to build up expectations.

"It's a home-state win, a must-win for Romney," advisor Steve Schmidt said on McCain's campaign plane between Traverse City, Mich., and Ypsilanti.

If Romney can't win Michigan, "Where's he going to win?" he asked.

Schmidt, a former campaign advisor to President Bush and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said a McCain loss in Michigan would be a "quarter-step back," but he said he didn't expect the senator's lead to diminish in national polls if he finished second.

"It's an enormous deal for Mitt Romney. The stakes are very, very high for him," he said.

With the political leader changing after each race, the emotions at campaign camps have followed the ups and downs of the candidates' fortunes.

Last week, Romney's camp was crestfallen while McCain's was jubilant. Tonight in South Carolina, McCain supporters fought to lighten the mood.

There was an air of forced cheer at McCain's gathering at the Hibernian Society in downtown Charleston. Golden oldies, from "I'll Be There" to "Can't Hurry Love" to "Mr. Postman," blared from the speakers, but the crowd lacked the electricity of McCain's recent rallies. As the ticker on Fox News showed Romney ahead in early returns around 8:30 p.m., a group of young girls began the signature McCain cheer: "Mac is back," but it quickly petered out.

It took South Carolina Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell and Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster to shake the crowd out of its gloom.

"If Michigan had a history of picking our nominee for president, John would already be president, because he won that last time," McMaster said, noting McCain's 2000 Michigan victory. "We don't have to wait till November to win this presidential election.... We're going to pick the next president of the United States right here in South Carolina on Saturday and that president is going to be . . . ?"

"John McCain!" the crowd shouted back.

Fred Thompson, a former Tennessee senator, is also fighting hard in South Carolina, while former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has placed his big bet on the Florida primary on Jan. 29.

GazeboflossUK · January 19, 2008

Diebold Disparities Uncovered In New Hampshire Recount

Huge disparities between votes cast on Diebold electronic voting machines and actual hand counted tallies are emerging during the New Hampshire recount, with Hillary Clinton gaining the most from over a hundred unaccounted for votes in one Manchester Ward.

The recount in Manchester's Ward 5 revealed a disparity whereby establishment candidates received over a hundred 'black hole' votes between them that could not be tallied during the hand count.

At the moment there is no indication of where these extra votes came from, but the figures again cast the accuracy of Diebold voting machines into severe doubt and provide further evidence of the need for a return to hand counted paper ballots only in all federal elections.

Brad Friedman at The Brad Blog continues to provide great coverage of the recount, unlike New Hampshire's foremost news outlet WMUR, whose "only source seems to be whatever (New Hampshire Secretary of State) Gardner tells them," according to Friedman.

In addition, 550 ballots in Stratham were not read by the Diebold machines at all and were rejected as blank ballots.

Voting Rights attorney John Bonifaz also told Friedman of his deep concerns about the transparency of both the initial election as well as the recount.

"I'm very concerned that this is not a fully transparent process that is happening there," he said.

Diebold memory cards used in New Hampshire, which have been proven to be vulnerable to hacking and could easily be used to steal an election, are "missing" according to state officials.

Bonifaz, "Says he was told by Secretary of State William Gardner that his office doesn't get involved in tracking what happens to those memory cards. Some have reportedly been returned to LHS, and may have had their memory erased already," reports Friedman.

Federal law mandates that all materials from elections be preserved for 22 months thereafter, so if the memory cards have been wiped then LHS Associates, who it was revealed last week had hired a narcotics trafficker to a high-level executive position, would be facing criminal charges.

In another shocking development, vote fraud expert Bev Harris witnessed first hand that a majority of ballot boxes had 8 inch slits in their side. Election Defense Alliance's Sally Castleman followed the boxes back to the ballot vault and also noticed the cuts. Read Bev's report here.

winigwl · January 20, 2008

Nevada- Romney and Clinton

South Carolina- McCain

chuck kottke · January 20, 2008

Anybody but the big money hounds!!

Maldini · January 20, 2008

McCain Has Big Win in South Carolina; Huckabee Falls Short

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

John and Cindy McCain greeting supporters during an election night party at the Citadel in Charleston, S.C.

By MICHAEL COOPER and MEGAN THEE

Published: January 20, 2008

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Senator John McCain staved off a spirited challenge by Mike Huckabee to win the South Carolina primary on Saturday, exorcising the ghosts of the attack-filled primary here that derailed his presidential hopes eight years ago.

Mr. McCain’s victory here, on top of his win earlier this month in New Hampshire, capped a remarkable comeback for a campaign that was all but written off six months ago. In an unusually fluid Republican field, his aides said they hoped the victory would give Mr. McCain a head of steam going into the Jan. 29 Florida primary and the nationwide series of nominating contests on Feb. 5.

“It took us a while, but what’s eight years among friends?” Mr. McCain said at a boisterous victory celebration that broke out into shouts of “Mac is back! Mac is back!”

Mr. McCain did best among voters who said experience was the most important quality in a candidate, among those who said the Iraq war and terrorism were their top concerns and among the state’s veterans, who made up a quarter of the vote. He ran about even with Mr. Huckabee, who pressed a populist message here, among the many voters who said their top concern in the election was the economy. He also continued to draw strong support from independents.

Mr. Huckabee’s loss in a Southern state with a strong turnout of religious voters was a setback to his campaign as it heads toward potentially less hospitable states.

Nearly 60 percent of the voters in South Carolina identified themselves in exit polls as evangelical Christians, a group that was heavily courted by Mr. Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher. While Mr. Huckabee captured 4 in 10 of their votes, Mr. McCain also made inroads with the group, capturing more than a quarter of their vote.

The South Carolina primary has accurately predicted the Republican presidential nominee since 1980, and since 1988 it has often played a decisive role. The McCain campaign sought to highlight that history here this week, but he is still left facing a scrambled field of opponents, including Mitt Romney, whose lopsided victory in the lightly contested Nevada caucuses Saturday gave him his second win in a week. He defeated Mr. McCain in the Michigan primary on Tuesday.

In his concession speech, Mr. Huckabee praised Mr. McCain for running “a civil and a good and a decent campaign” and vowed to battle on.

“The reason that I want to encourage you tonight is to remind you that politics — and particularly this year, more than perhaps any other — this is not an event,” he said. “It is a process. And the process is far, far from over.”

With 94 percent of the electoral precincts reporting, Mr. McCain had 33 percent of the vote, Mr. Huckabee 30 percent, Fred D. Thompson 16 percent, and Mr. Romney 15 percent.

The distant third-place finish was a severe blow to the candidacy of Mr. Thompson, an actor and former Tennessee Senator. He had been counting on a strong showing in a Southern state to revive his fortunes, and gave a rambling speech in which he urged his followers to “stand strong.”

The primary also narrowed the field of Republican candidates, leading

Representative Duncan Hunter of California to drop out of the race.

For Mr. McCain, the victory was especially sweet. His presidential hopes were dealt a crippling blow here eight years ago when he lost to George W. Bush after a primary battle that was marked by vicious personal attacks on Mr.

McCain and his family. This time his campaign aggressively responded to the few attacks that were leveled at him in fliers and phone calls, both debunking them and using them to gain sympathy for Mr. McCain. The campaign also enjoyed the support of the political establishment in the state.

“You and I are aware that for the last 28 years, the winner of the South Carolina primary has been the nominee of our party for president on the United States,” he said at a victory rally at the Citadel, a military school, where he kissed his mother, Roberta, 95. “We have a ways to go, my friends, and there are some tough contests ahead, starting tomorrow in the state of Florida. But, my friends, we are well on our way tonight.”

The campaign now heads to Florida, where Mr. McCain faces another challenge: Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has been advertising heavily and campaigning nearly nonstop there. His campaign hopes a win there will rescue his faltering candidacy.

The South Carolina contest was crucial for Mr. McCain and Mr. Huckabee, who were trying to build on earlier victories — Mr. McCain in New Hampshire and Mr. Huckabee in Iowa — to establish their dominance in the still-muddled Republican field.

Mr. McCain had predicted that he would win the primary here, and, although many polls were close in the last week, he campaigned as if he were the strong front-runner, pressing his twin issues of military strength and fiscal conservatism. He never disparaged or engaged Mr. Huckabee, even in the face of a spate of phone calls and radio advertisements attacking him by independent groups supporting Mr. Huckabee.

Mr. McCain’s campaign tried to portray him as the one candidate ready to be commander in chief, a message it sought to drive home with a big rally at an aircraft carrier museum here and a visit Saturday morning to a company that makes armored vehicles for the troops. He traveled with current and former senators and prominent state officials.

Mr. Huckabee, meanwhile, tackled South Carolina as if it were his home ground, with a populist patter and a calculated sense of the state’s stress points. He leaned heavily on secular themes in his public appearances — delivering an I-feel-your-pain economic message — but was very much the ordained Baptist minister on the airwaves, embracing the evangelical belt in the Midlands and western hills. The one commercial he ran over the last three days focused on his Christian beliefs.

Mr. Huckabee also emphasized his Southern origins in Greenville and Spartanburg, urging listeners to “support a Southerner who has run a Southern state.”

And he seized on several issues to try to galvanize conservative voters. Although he made a point of being compassionate toward illegal immigrants as the governor of Arkansas, he took a resolutely anti-immigration stance in South Carolina, sending out a mailing on the subject and becoming the first presidential candidate to sign a pledge promising not to give amnesty to illegal immigrants.

Mr. Huckabee also dove into the murky waters of Southern cultural identity politics, raising a dormant issue Thursday when he said that it was not his business whether the state chose to fly the Confederate battle flag over the Capitol. (The state removed the flag in 2000.) That same day an apparently unaffiliated group, Americans for the Preservation of American Culture, began running radio advertisement criticizing Mr. McCain and Mr. Romney on the issue, while praising Mr. Huckabee.

The McCain campaign grew concerned Saturday morning when voting problems were reported in Horry County, which includes Myrtle Beach, where they had expected strong support.

Gary Baum, a spokesman for the South Carolina State Election Commission, said voting machines in 15 or 20 of the county’s 118 precincts were not properly set up for voting, forcing voters to use emergency paper ballots. Mr. Baum said there might have been some precincts that did not have enough paper ballots.

The McCain campaign said it had received reports that some voters were turned away from the polls without voting.

Mr. Baum said that the voting machines worked, but that elections workers had not properly cleared test votes, rendering it impossible to open the machines for actual voting. He said workers were sent to the precincts to fix the machines.

Despite pouring millions of dollars into South Carolina, Mr. Romney struggled in the state. So he abandoned the state to compete in the lightly contested caucus in Nevada.

Mr. Romney’s runaway victory in Nevada was powered to a large degree by Mormons, according to an entrance survey reported by The Associated Press. Mormons made up a quarter of Republican caucus participants, and 95 percent of them voted for Mr. Romney.

GazeboflossUK · January 22, 2008

From Black Box Voting

http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/1954/71456.html (please go here to see all the evidence!)

Sunday, January 20, 2008 - 5:50 am

The "seals" are not seals. The "chain of custody" is not a chain of custody. Ballots being transported by the "state police" are actually transported by Butch and Hoppy, who are not employed by the state police. Butch and Hoppy's real names are not really Butch and Hoppy.

In New Hampshire, it's all hidden in plain sight.

If you are on the home page of Black Box Voting, click "more" to see a brief photo essay for how this all works.

by Bev Harris

"Butch" and "Hoppy"

"Butch" is on the left, "Hoppy" is on the right.

This is the van that "Butch" and "Hoppy" drive. These two men pick up all the ballots in New Hampshire from more than 230 locations and bring them to one central location for the recount.

They are followed by a single state trooper.

"Butch" has a real name: Armand Dubois. He doesn't like to be photographed and in video after video, he ducks out of the shots. He wears a baseball cap and dark glasses. At one point he said "you're taking a picture of me?"

Perhaps he's shy, but this is an evaluation of chain of custody, which includes knowing the names and background for people who ride around the state inside a van containing the ballots for the presidential primary election.

According to "Butch", the real name for "Hoppy" is Peter, but we do not yet know the last name. "Hoppy" is not camera shy, but we would like to know his real name and background. (Do not post personal or speculative information here. It will be removed. E-mail privately to [email protected] )

"Hoppy"

aka "Peter"

Ballots are contained in a variety of cardboard boxes, with a few metal boxes thrown in from certain parts of Manchester. The New Hampshire secretary of state's office, which provides the labels for the boxes and provides the ballots for all the towns, claims they leave the decision up to the towns as to how to secure their ballots.

When people ask about the security of using old, used cardboard boxes to transport and store the official ballots for the presidential primary election, New Hampshire state officials quickly frame the issue as one of "frugality" and paint the problem over with rustic charm.

That doesn't address the problem. The random nature of the boxes enables both accidental and deliberate chain of custody breaches.

If the state of New Hampshire can provide the ballots and tell the towns what labels to use, they can tell them what container to store ballots in, or at the very least, publish guidelines for this.

Originally, the ballots were to be delivered to the state archive warehouse without notification to the public as to when they would arrive, and without permitting the public to photograph or videotape the ballot intake process.

The team assembled by Black Box Voting objected to this and insisted on public access to view the incoming ballot boxes and the intake process. We prevailed, at least temporarily.

So they have been bringing the ballots in the front door, taking them through the counting room, out the back door, through the electronically key-coded door into the archive warehouse, down the hall inside the key-carded warehouse, placing them in what they call a "vault" which is actually a small room with a lock that can be opened by a single key.

Ballots being transported from "vault" to counting room

Other items besides ballots have been kept in the "vault" as well:

Items left in ballot vault after transporting ballots, held in "vault" overnight, to the counting room.

Two other observations about the state archive warehouse:

They use the same bar code identification system for all items.

There are no windows and no way to observe what is going on in the warehouse. It has two loading bays in addition to the electronically key-carded door, and the counted ballots are NOT stored in the "vault" but rather, on shelves like all the other documents. Here is a photo of the loading bays:

As ballots are being transported back and forth to the warehouse "vault" and being counted in the counting room, boxes are being loaded and unloaded from the loading bay behind the building.

Shelves inside warehouse.

Ballot boxes photographed while being removed from the "vault":

Secretary of state Bill Gardner has several assistant and deputy secretaries of state. The assistant secretary of state in charge of ballots and ballot chain of custody is David Scanlan.

Here is David Scanlon (far end) moving a ballot cart with state archive employee Brian Burford.

Ballot box closeups:

The box below was shipped from the secretary of state TO the town clerk. The pinkish label is a shipping lable and so is the label next to it saying "deliver to":

The rebuttal provided by state and archive employees to concerns about the particular slit shown above is that the label on the top is the only thing that counts.

I'll post a closeup photo of the top label further down. On the top label are the signatures of the selectmen and information about location and information about the ballots inside.

I chose the above photo because it provides a clear image of the SHIP TO labels and also shows the label on the box top that is said to secure the ballot box. I cannot tell from this photo whether the clear tape is on top of that label or underneath it, but let's give the benefit of the doubt and assume the label on top is further secured with clear plastic tape.

This is not a chain of custody. There is absolutely no way for any observer to tell whether the clear plastic tape (if it's over the top label) was affixed on the night of the election, by the town clerk after the election, by Butch and Hoppy or a person they met enroute, or in the vault in the middle of the night.

It is easy to get distracted with off-topic questions like "are you accusing Butch and Hoppy?" or to take at face value someone's statement that the tape was put there on election night.

THAT IS NOT A CHAIN OF CUSTODY.

The only item that even remotely resembles a chain of custody is the signed label on the top of the box. Since we have no idea when the other tape was put on, or who affixed it, that tape cannot be considered part of the chain of custody.

Furthermore, this taping of the label was not a consistent practice from box to box or town to town.

I think we can all understand that the town clerk would slit open the end of the box to retrieve shipped ballots.

That explains the slits that ONLY slit the two original shipping labels.

That doesn't answer the chain of custody questions revealed by the above slit. The questions raised by the above photo in my mind are:

1) Can someone get their hand into the slit?

2) Was the box slit secured by tape or anything when it came out of the van?

3) Was the box slit secured in any way at the town before pickup?

4) Is there any record of what the box looked like on election night and also, before pickup? In other words, do the signatures even match, is the tape in the same places.

5) If there is no tape securing the label at the top, it would be the ONLY thing securing the box since the sides are slit. If this label is removed, does it leave telltale evidence?

6) Does the slitting of the labels upon receipt of original ballots explain all openings on all ballot boxes?

Let's look into that a little further.

Here is a ballot box that has been opened for counting.

Here is a ballot box that has been counted. It has both the lable affixed at the town with the selectmen's signatures on it, and a new label affixed to show it has been counted.

Here is an empty ballot box with the top label attached. The ballots are in the process of being counted. As Anthony Stevens, from the sec. state office, watched I checked to see whether the labels on the top of the boxes leave any mark if you remove and reaffix.

They stopped my experiment after I had peeled about two inches.

I now call these labels "Post-Its".

It is important NOT to allow referring to these labels as "seals" because they are not seals, they are removable labels. When writing about the chain of custody in New Hampshire, we should not refer to the boxes as being "sealed" by these labels, which are in many cases the only line of defense when the end of the box top is sliced.

These are labels. Not seals. A "seal" actually "seals" the container. These labels do not seal it.

The person with responsibility for making sure the seals are actually seals is Assistant Secretary of State David Scanlan. He chose labels that are not seals.

I asked Scanlan if he believed the ballot boxes were secure when slit at the end. He said the boxes are secure because of the label on the top. Here's a hand in the slit. You decide if you are comfortable with this.

He was referring to what I call the "PostIt" note.

After seeing the condition of the ballot boxes coming out of the vault, I was curious about the condition of the boxes as they were unloaded from the van. The photos below are of ballots unloaded from the van during the early afternoon of Thursday, Jan. 17:

Let's have a closer look at that last box coming out of the van:

Pat and Manny, the representatives for Kucinich, did not go back to the ballot vault with me. To the best of my knowledge, the only people who went back there were the Hillary Clinton observers.

The Kucinich representatives have said they are comfortable with the chain of custody. I did not see them take a single photograph, nor did I see them lodge any protest about this.

Republican ballots were also brought in, to the best of my knowledge, WITHOUT notifying the Republican candidate who has paid for a recount.

The next series of photos will be from the towns we visited to capture photos of the condition of the ballot boxes before they were loaded into the van. I will do that in a separate thread, perhaps later, and open this thread for discussion now.

In New Hampshire, the ballot chain of custody is a bunch of broken cardboard boxes with a post-it on top.

Okay, done for now. More later.

Scott Perry

Forum Participant

All,

Not sure if you already have this info. I just joined the forum today.

Found our friend Armand's contact info....

Go to this link for Armand Dubois contact information.

stDepts2=&btnSearchPeople=Search+by+Name

God bless

One more....

The only Peter in the SoS Records and Archives dept.

tDepts2=SECRETARY+OF+STATE&btnSearchPeople=Search+by+Name

Bev Harris

BBV participant Chris Reid has identified Hoppy.

His name is Peter Falzone. He provided a link to a state employee list with Peter "Pete" Falzone and an address for a Hoppy Falzone. He's a stock clerk.

Jenny L. Hurley

Forum Participant

Remember, White Pages has a lot of phone numbers, if you need that.

Scott Perry

Forum Participant

phone numbers are provided on the links above.

As well an email address for Hoppy.

Jason Reed

Forum Participant

So. They PAY for state police and get Peter & Armand? It seems some one AT LEAST, has a refund comming.

Great work, BEV et al! You're an assett to the people. Your investigation was well worth your effort. (BIG HUG!)

John Howard

Forum Participant

Seals

It's not clear from any of the photographs whether or not any of the so-called seals are actually numbered.

In Canadian Federal elections, the box seals are individually numbered and must be signed for and accounted for, even if the extras are unused. The numbers of the seals placed on the top AND bottom of the boxes, are recorded on the equivalent of the precinct summary report, and become part of the record of the election. Numbered seals are not removed, but are instead cut, so that if a box needs to be resealed for some legitimate reason (which must also be documented) there is a record of every seal placed on the box, to whom the numbered seal was issued, and by whom the replacement numbered seal was affixed.

Keep in mind also, that the consistently sized, numbered seals are made specifically for the consistently sized boxes that are used for the transport of the marked ballots. The supposedly 'frugal' use of inconsistent recycled boxes from heaven-knows-where simply isn't an option.

HG;)

(Message edited by harmonyguy on January 20, 2008)

christine c reid

Forum Participant

I myself didn't have a lens through which to evaluate chain of custody and election integrity questions, and thought it would be helpful to read the thinking of professionals whose job it is to protect and ensure the integrity of evidence -- criminal investigators.

For any novices also interested in such a point of comparison, I've excerpted a few quotes that related to Bev Harris's reports from the field.

The quotes are from this link:

%201/Physical%20Evidence%20Handbook%20Chapter%202.pdf

I cannot identify the original source or author from the actual PDF, but it appears to be M Bessett, Criminal Investigation Theory, Physical Evidence Handbook.

BEGIN QUOTES:

. . .In any criminal investigation, the validity of information derived from examination of the physical evidence depends entirely upon the care with which the evidence has been protected from contamination [CR Note: In the case of elections, the contamination is of election results, e.g. theft/substitution/ destruction/changing of votes on ballots or theft of ballot stock] In other words, if the evidence has been improperly collected, handled, or stored, its value may be destroyed and no amount of laboratory work [CR note: or election recounting] will be of assistance. Therefore, it is important that items of evidence be collected, handled, and stored in a way that will ensure their integrity. In doing so, the likelihood is increased that useful information can be extracted by examination and that the item will be considered admissible in court proceedings. It is important to properly collect, seal, and identify collected items for two reasons. First, you must be able to prove that the item introduced in court is the same item that was collected at the scene [CR note: or, in this case, whether the ballots being counted are the ones originally voted]. Second, you must ensure that the item is not altered or contaminated between the time it is collected and the time it is examined forensically or entered as evidence. These objectives are best achieved by proper packaging and sealing of evidence.

. . . On packaging materials: Packaging materials should protect the item from contamination, tampering, or alteration. To help select an appropriate packaging method,

ask two questions:

1. What information is sought from analysis?

2. What could cause the item itself or the sample sought to deteriorate?

With respect to the first question, ask yourself, “Why am I collecting this item? What piece of information might it give me that will

help prove this case?” Knowing what you’re seeking will help to identify unacceptable packaging methods.

Only new, unused materials should be used to package evidence. If the packaging has been previously used, trace evidence can be imparted to the item, negating the value of some examinations. [CR note: in this case, consider nonstandard box types, presence of multiple labels, old tape on the box that may render seal peelable (slick surface), and old box damage as contamination of evidence that no breaking of seals or opening of boxes has occurred from date and time of sealing] Common packaging materials include: paper, cardboard, plastic, metal cans, and glass. [CR Note: Author states that plastic is a surface to which some tamper evident tapes will not adhere. I have to ask if the metal boxes used were tested to ensure that the seals would adhere without undetectable removal. Both the material of the container and the compatibility of the selected tape -- seal and packaging tape -- are relevant and should be tested before using.]

D. Tamper-proof tapes. Tamper-proof tapes are destroyed by efforts to remove them. Traditionally, the security feature was created by a combination of a tenacious adhesive and a low tensile strength backing. Some new tapes change color or have words develop when disturbed. The tapes come both in long rolls and in short, individual strips. These tapes are advertised as providing tamper-proof seals on all surfaces. In reality, some brands of tape can be removed from plastic bags without evidence of tampering. [CR note: Important - take a cardboard box with "old" plastic tape over it, tape that seal over the plastic tape, and that seal even if tamper evident MAY peel right off.] Always check for permanence on an identical test object before using a particular tape. If the brand of tape or packaging is changed, retest. [CR comment: it is impossible to carry out this step when using NONidentical test objects -- boxes -- as a FEATURE of the election procedures]

[CR note: this is on the subject of taping boxes with e.g. filament tape]: always write your initials over the ends of the tape -- if it is removed, it will be nearly impossible to realign the initials.

One advantage of tamper-proof tapes is that they are designed to shred or tear when pulled or stressed. This advantage is a potential disadvantage, however, if a mechanically strong joint is required.

Unless somehow reinforced, the tape may spontaneously shred if stressed. When the tape joint may be strained, use another method to secure the joint (tape, staples, etc.) and then use tamper-proof tape across the joint. Some tamper-proof tapes will not adhere to very cold metal surfaces.

END OF QUOTE SERIES

Bob Fleischer

Forum Participant

The "seals" did not appear to have any numbering, either preprinted or hand written.

My impression is that, the couple of times I hired moving companies to move the contents of my home, they did a far more thorough job of numbering, describing, and documenting the pieces than did the people who packed and moved the ballots in NH.

Most if not all of the boxes I saw (on that one day, the first day of the re-count) had a separate label on them with an inventory control number and bar code.

Michael DiSalvo

Forum Participant

Where are we as far as CRIMINAL charges go in NH? I can think of at least 3 circumstances deserving of felonies for various officials involved. Are we going to play softball with these guys, giving them 1000s of dollars in a mock recount that doesn't make a difference or are we going to put these degenerates IN PRISON?

christine c reid

Forum Participant

John Howard - have you seen any electronic documents describing this Canadian protocol? I have gone through some electronic info from Canada that's quite interesting, but haven't yet found this protocol. I did find highly detailed descriptions of putting the cast, spoiled, and uncast ballots etc. in separate sealed envelopes before sealing all into the ballot box.

New Hampshire's Voting Procedures Manual is here:

http://www.sos.nh.gov/FINAL%20EPM%208-30-2006.pdf

NH election procedures protocol for state elections (not federal primaries) specifies putting votes into a container supplied by the NH SOS (quote to follow) - can anyone from NH clarify/enlighten on this point? Also, I would note that the manual is admirably detailed and in many ways an example. I am unable to find any reference to chain of custody as regards centralized recount procedures. Perhaps others can point it out.

BEGIN QUOTE

SEALING AND CERTIFYING BALLOTS. Ballots must be sealed immediately after the votes at a state election have been tabulated, the results have been announced, and the return prepared. The moderator or his or her designee, in the presence of the selectmen or their designee, shall place the:

• Cast ballots;

• Canceled ballots;

• Uncast ballots;

• Ballots from any additional polling places; and

• Successfully challenged absentee ballots

in containers supplied by the Secretary of State.

RSA 659:97. The container shall be sealed in public by the moderator with the sealer provided by the Secretary of State. RSA 659:97.

Bev Harris

We have a name for the green SUV -- which is actually a green jeep -- that rendevouzed with Butch and Hoppy on Thursday. It was brief - green jeep sitting by road waiting for them, one of them hops out and goes across the road to jeep, says something to driver of green jeep,

jeep turns north and Hoppy/Butch turn south for more pickups.

Again, do not post personal or speculative information here, but your emails have been quite helpful.

The jeep belongs to Carl E. Rowell Jr. of Lyndeborough. He does not appear to be a public official.

No personal information allowed to be posted here, remember, nor names of family members. We have name of wife.

Catherine Ansbro

Forum Participant

Thanks Bev for all this great work.

Those photos speak volumes. The NH "box" system is a disaster. The "chain of custody" is a joke. I won't bother commenting on the van and SUV drivers. The whole thing reeks.

NH staff, volunteers and voters should be hopping mad that a few weak links can so effectively and completely undermine their sincere efforts to run clean elections.

Catherine Ansbro

Forum Participant

They are followed by a single state trooper.

Where was the state trooper when you were following the white van and witnessed the rendezvous with the green jeep?

Steve Goettler

Forum Participant

What is it going to profit anyone if all of this evidence is just going to be ignored? Will any of these findings come to bear on the recount?

It seems that the SOS and the media are saying that nothing will be found to change the initial count, so who is going to care? How does anything that is found that is to be questionable going to matter?

Bev Harris

Directly behind the white van. Parked behind them for the rendezvous.

Catherine Ansbro

Forum Participant

Any idea who the lone state trooper was?

Bev Harris

We'll find out. And it would be fascinating if he was the same guy that followed Dubois and Falzone in 2004 with the Nader recount.

to Steve: I dunno. What's your suggestion? Why don't you get into the Citizens Tool Kit and pick a module and get busy. Let us know what you are doing to pull some weight on this.

Here's the Citizen's Tool Kit: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit.html

Pick something, take one action, let us know how it goes. Don't wait for others or sit criticizing on the sidelines. Trust your own common sense and get this information to where you think it will do the most good.

Bill Bowen

Forum Participant

It looks like Carl owns his own business in Lyndeborough, although what exactly the company does isn't listed:

This is public information.

http://www.ecspace.us/Business/%40New+Jersey/Rowell.Carl.Jr.%26.Gail/ODExODc3NQ

Timothy A. Balcer

Forum Participant

That's odd... Google maps puts that address in the middle of nowhere...

8&ll=42.885838,-71.790998&spn=0.003388,0.006888&t=h&z=17&om=0

John Howard

Forum Participant

Christine,

During training for each Federal election, each poll worker is issued a manual specific to their particular role. Unfortunately, none of those manuals appear to be available online, however the combined manual for Deputy Returning Officers and Poll Clerks have detailed, illustrated instructions showing what numbered seals to place where. There is also a Seal Control Sheet on which the numbered seals are listed and their use recorded.

Although not from the actual DRO manual, there is an excellent example of how boxes are sealed at the following link:

Placement of Seals on Elections Canada Ballot Box

This link is from an educational series that Elections Canada provides, called Election off the Shelf which is designed to facilitate University and College Elections. While not identical in every regard to the conduct of a real Federal Election, it IS VERY close, and serves as a good example of how to establish appropriate controls and chain of custody. It also includes a great assortment of sample forms.

Election off the Shelf

You may find it interesting reading.

HG;)

Bill Bowen

Forum Participant

I have found a similar, alternate business address for Mr. Rowell, but it looks like it may be the same as his home address. So I'm not going to post that here.

The odd part about the other two listings I found online under the business name list under business category: "None". And under business type, also: "None".

Jeremy Trudell

Forum Participant

Bev, I must say this is the stuff of legend. Fantastic, amazing work! I can't compliment you enough, you make the world a better place!

I'm happy to report in Colorado, for now, it appears we're going to all hand counted paper ballots. We have such a great team of people who attacked the issue from so many angles and I personally went along to serve the NCEL to our SOS, the Gov, and the AG. Their employees hated our cameras, it was hysterical and reminded me of bugs scurrying when you lift up a rock.

Thank you so much Bev for all that you do. If you're ever in Denver, look me up, drinks are on me!

Allegra Dengler

Forum Participant

I was an observer on Friday. I was surprised that old cardboard boxes were used- used Staples boxes, Quill boxes, boxes apparently reused for more than one election. I'm all for recycling, but this is a careless way to carry valuable paper. Would they transport and store boxes of $100 bills this way? The "seals" on the top were really labels, and much less securely attached than the label on a FedEx box I just got. Because the boxes were reused, there was a lot of tape of different kinds on the box. Forget about the top of the box with the "seal." Anyone could just flip the box over and cut open the bottom, then reseal and no-one would notice. I did not examine the bottoms of the boxes, since I only thought of that after I left. We were not allowed to touch the boxes or the ballots. I have pictures also.

Susan Lynn Patton

Forum Participant

To get an understanding of the scope of the machinery that might be interested in tampering with an election, you, and everyone, might want to read the following article:

http://www.newmediajournal.us/guest/k_miller/07212007.htm

be sure and click on the last link, which will take you to "The Parks Murder, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Free Republic.com"

Allegra--I too thought of what you mentioned...what good is a seal on the top when the box can be entered easily from the bottom.

I wonder why officials are so adamant that, "Everything's fine," when even the most casual observer can see the possibilities for tampering "in your face"!}

Bev Harris

Susan,

Welcome to Black Box Voting!

We are a nonpartisan site, and we usually segregate candidate mentions into the "talk politics" forum and even there, we can't permit anything that can be considered campaigning. Your post contains information that is procedure-based as well, so I couldn't easily move it to that section. It will help if you avoid using candidates names except in the talk politics section, and even there, no pro or con. I unfortunately had to edit out your candidate-based comments. Sorry, and glad you are here.

The link above also leads to investigative reporting discussing someone who is now a candidate. Black Box Voting has not vetted out that material and it does not necessarily represent the views of this site.

Allegra - very valuable report! Thank you for this. If you get a chance, email your photos or post them here. I have not photographed the bottom of the boxes and you make an important point.

Also - I have been thinking about the unsealed banker boxes they have in the vault. What's up with that? Why would you keep ballots in the vault and also other stuff in unsealed boxes?

Note that after we got this information they stopped letting citizens see anything in the vault or behind the warehouse doors.

GazeboflossUK · January 22, 2008

Also...

Fred Thompson is out of the race.

“Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people,” Thompson said in a statement.

Maldini · January 22, 2008

Fred Thompson Drops Presidential Bid

By Michael D. Shear

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, January 22, 2008; 3:27 PM

Former Tennessee senator Fred Dalton Thompson, whose candidacy fizzled after a summer of expectations, pulled out of the Republican presidential race today after disappointing finishes in all of the primary contests.

In a terse, three-sentence statement, the former actor and senator abandoned a candidacy that once seemed like it had everything a Republican could want: solid conservative credentials, Washington experience, Hollywood panache, southern charm and a commanding personality.

"Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States," he said. "I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people."

The statement was a diminutive end to a campaign that was born of hype. It was the image of Thompson as commander in chief -- a part he played in a movie once -- that seemed to hold such promise when the real-life former senator contemplated running for the White House last spring and summer.

Instead, the campaign became roiled in staff disputes that centered on his wife, Jeri, and was dogged by allegations that Thompson did not have the desire or energy to mount an aggressive presidential campaign.

That narrative was offered as soon as Thompson entered the race just after Labor Day. And as the campaign progressed, Thompson's actions affirmed it.

Last October, he took the stage at Florida's state GOP convention after his three main rivals gave energetic stemwinders before a throng of 4,000 conservative activists.

But when his turn came, Thompson mumbled for about five minutes and departed abruptly, leaving a stunned crowd to wonder whether he was even interested in running for president. The Miami Herald wrote the next day that "dozens of people asked: 'Is that it?' "

As the men competing for the GOP nomination head back to Florida before the state's primary on Jan. 29, Thompson will not go with them.

Thompson had said repeatedly that he needed a strong finish in South Carolina to stay in the race. He failed, ending up with 16 percent of the vote, behind Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, and just a point ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

In an election-night speech to supporters in Columbia, the normally laid-back Thompson thundered for 10 minutes about the less obvious accomplishments of his run for the presidency in what sounded much like a valedictory.

"We will always be bound by a close bond because we have traveled a very special road together for a very special purpose," he told supporters. "We'll always stand strong together ... We'll always stand strong together, and I can't thank you enough for that."

The road for Thompson began last March, when he assembled a small group of advisers to help him consider a presidential campaign. He began to raise money and formed an exploratory committee.

The former star of "Law & Order" and several big movies effectively teased the country for months in spring and summer while he considered whether to begin a White House campaign, becoming for a time the great hope for conservative Republicans frustrated with their other choices.

But his campaign was chaotic from the start, losing its manager and many of its senior staff members even before the Labor Day weekend announcement. And Thompson turned in a lackluster effort once in the race, making infrequent appearances and never lighting a fire under voters.

His best moment came when he launched his campaign. At the end of that week, he took the lead in the Republican field in national polls.

But Thompson saw his poll numbers plummet from the high 20s and low 30s in early September to single digits by the end of the year. His support in early-voting states such as New Hampshire declined so far that he barely campaigned in those battlegrounds.

He campaigned in Iowa more aggressively at the end, mounting a two-week bus tour of the state. He tied for third.

Campaign aides often worked hard to cover for their candidate's lack of enthusiasm, explaining his lack of campaign appearances -- he often had just one public event a day -- by saying Thompson was running a different kind of campaign that would harness the power of Internet communications and conservative talk radio.

Yet in the five minutes of that October speech in Florida, Thompson did the most to validate the chief criticism of his 2008 presidential bid: that he never had the fire in his belly to be a serious contender.

"His rivals would do more in a day than Fred would do in a month," said one disaffected Thompson insider. "He created the perception, fairly or not, that he was just going through the motions."

"Thompson never filled those huge shoes from last summer's polls, but he did manage to score well in the debates and get a respectful vote in South Carolina," said Scott Reed, who managed Robert J. Dole's 1996 presidential campaign.

Thompson was unable to unite the party's right wing around his candidacy. His refusal to support a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and questions about his lobbying for an abortion rights group raised questions for social conservatives. And his laid-back style and several early flubs on the campaign trail made others question his chances against an energized Democrat.

All that shut off the fundraising spigot for Thompson, who quickly ran out of money. After an initial stab at competing in Iowa and New Hampshire, he essentially dropped out of those contests and focused on winning the first state primary in his native South.

For two weeks, he toured South Carolina in what he called the "Clear Conservative Choice: Hands Down!" bus tour. Meanwhile, his campaign manager pleaded for cash in repeated e-mails. "We are $29,711 away from reaching our $1 million goal," one said.

Thompson used what little money the campaign could raise for a final television ad in South Carolina, hoping to appeal to the state's conservative Republicans.

"I grew up in a little town just like this," Thompson said in the ad. He "fought for tax cuts and conservative judges" as a senator, the ad continued. "And I'm proud to have had a 100 percent pro-life voting record." The ad ended with an announcer saying: "Strength, conviction, honesty. Fred Thompson, president."

For the first time, Thompson seemed more energized, campaigning aggressively across South Carolina. But the blitz did not produce an outpouring for Thompson, who was competing with Huckabee for conservative Southern voters.

After Thompson's South Carolina loss, advisers privately suggested that their candidate could throw his support to McCain, boosting McCain's hopes of defeating Huckabee, Romney and Rudolph W. Giuliani in the fractured GOP field. In the Senate, Thompson helped McCain pass campaign finance legislation, and the two are friends.

But one senior Thompson aide said he did not expect an endorsement of McCain anytime soon.

Maldini · January 25, 2008

McCain is using support for Israel to court Jews - and Christians

Republican presidential hopeful Senator John McCain attends a campaign event Thursday in Florida. (AP)

By Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz Correspondent Tags: John McCain, U.S. RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE: McCain is not the only Republican seeking Jewish support in Florida.

Thursday night may prove to have been the last time five Republican candidates appeared on the same stage. It was the final debate before the decisive Florida primary - a chance for John McCain to prove that he is the only candidate, for Mitt Romney to prove that he is still relevant, for Rudy Giuliani to finally become a candidate. Florida is the first state in which Giuliani is seriously competing - or as a popular joke puts it: "For Giuliani, primaries are kind of like marriages. The first two or three don't count."

All the Republicans candidates are courting Florida's Jewish voters. Romney has a new sticker - in Hebrew. Giuliani believes that the state's Jewish Republicans will support him. McCain is working hard to prove Giuliani wrong. On Wednesday, he became the second candidate - following the Democrats' Barack Obama - to write a letter about the events in Gaza. Obama sent his letter to America's ambassador to the UN; McCain's was to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In it, he wrote that "the United Nations charter, which makes clear the inherent right of self-defense against armed attacks, applies to all states - including the State of Israel." Just in case Rice - or more likely, the Security Council - had forgotten.

But it is not only the Jews who McCain is courting with such gestures. Asked about his chances of winning the Republican nomination despite his poor relations with evangelical Christians, he noted that an influential segment of this community is very committed to Israel, and "obviously I have been a very strong proponent to the State of Israel."

At a reception at the Israeli embassy Wednesday night in honor of new military attache Major General Benny Gantz, the talk was more of McCain than of Gaza. Some guests who were well acquainted with both the senator and his party spared no words in describing just how unpopular McCain was among his fellow party members. If he ends up as the Republican nominee, he will be welcomed with gritted teeth, not great joy.

But before the Republicans face their Florida trial, the Democrats have another stop on their route to choosing a candidate. Tomorrow's South Carolina primary is critical for Obama; he must win to position himself as a viable candidate in advance of Super Tuesday, February 5. In Florida, he is not really competing, and Hillary Clinton leads there by a large margin.

According to the polls, Obama has a 20 percent lead in South Carolina. But that is a double-edged sword: Should he end up winning by less than 10 percent, the Clinton campaign would be able to claim an achievement. And should he lose, it would probably deal his candidacy a death blow.

Clinton has already left the state to focus on the Super Tuesday contests, first and foremost California, where the latest poll shows her with a 10 percent lead. But since California is not a winner-take-all state, Obama could also gain a sizable number of delegates from this state. In Nevada, he won fewer votes than Clinton statewide but ended up with more delegates than she did.

South Carolina has a large number of blacks, who account for about half of all Democratic primary voters, and they will be decisive to the outcome.

Wednesday night was also the last installment of a major television documentary on the Jews of America, and much of the final episode was devoted to Jewish-black relations: how they soared during the civil rights movement, then soured afterward, to the point where some blacks exhibit anti-Semitic overtones - a topic Obama addressed in his Martin Luther King Day speech this week. One Jewish Obama supporter, comparing the widespread support for Obama among blacks and his difficulty convincing Jewish voters that he will not be hostile to Israel, said he saw a worrying potential for further erosion in black-Jewish relations as a result of this presidential campaign.

winigwl · January 25, 2008

^mccain is definately the best republican, and that is part of the reason, since i'm jewish.:D

GazeboflossUK · January 25, 2008

I couldn't disagree more...

McCain is out of his mind.

winigwl · January 25, 2008

apart from his finish the job crap stuff in iraq, i agree with a lot of what he has to say

Maldini · January 25, 2008

Obama criticized over efforts

to tout himself as a Christian

Some Jewish groups have voiced concern about this Obama campaign flier being sent out in South Carolina.

By Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Just a week ago, Jewish organizations stepped up to defend U.S. Sen. Barack Obama against an Internet campaign smearing him as a radical Muslim. Now some Jewish communal leaders feel the Democratic presidential candidate is going too far in touting his Christian bona fides.

The Anti-Defamation League has asked the campaign of the Illinois senator to clarify fliers distributed in South Carolina declaring Obama to be a "committed Christian." The flier features Obama posing in churches -- in one instance, in front of a cross -- and reassures the reader: "Guided by his Christian faith, Barack Obama is the leader we can trust to challenge the ways of Washington."

It also includes a passage quoting Obama on the "power of prayer," saying: "We’ve got to express those values through our government, not just through our religious institutions."

"It's one thing to say 'here's who I am,' " Abraham Foxman, the ADL's national director, told JTA a day after sending the letter requesting clarification from the campaign. "It's another to say vote for me because I am" Christian.

Obama's campaign said the fliers mailed to voters in South Carolina, which has its primary on Saturday, were aimed at addressing false e-mail rumors that Obama was a Muslim.

Eric Lynn, Obama's spokesman on Jewish matters, said he expected some understanding from Jewish leaders on the flier, knowing that Jews have been targets of the "Obama is a Muslim" campaign.

The e-mail campaign prompted two open letters -- one from nine organizational leaders, including Foxman, and one from seven Jewish senators -- repudiating the rumors as false.

"Barack Obama is not trying to introduce Christianity into the campaign," Lynn said. "This mailer's intent is to inform the voter about who Barack Obama is in light of the number of smears that have defined him incorrectly as a Muslim."

Such questions are especially sensitive in a state where voters in both parties are more apt to attend church than in other states.

Lynn drew distinctions between Obama's setting the record straight and Republican candidates such as Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, or U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who have suggested that Christianity is an American value.

Huckabee has further suggested that the U.S. Constitution is more malleable than the country's Christian character. McCain at one point described the United States as a "Christian nation," but later retracted that statement.

On Obama's Web site, a link entitled "Faith" emphasizes his outreach to believer, but also is unequivocal in his belief in the separation of church and state.

"The separation of church and state is critical and has caused our democracy and religious practices to thrive," it says.

Those distinctions were drawn as well by the National Jewish Democratic Council in a statement that nonetheless expressed discomfiture with the imagery on the fliers.

It said the council "would advise any candidate, including Sen. Obama, not to use this type of religious language and symbolism in campaign materials."

"Perhaps one can sympathize with the Obama campaign given that they have been forced to respond to right-wing, false claims about the candidate's religious faith. Moreover this ad's message is a far cry from John McCain's claim that the United States is a 'Christian Nation,' or Mike Huckabee's more exclusionary religious language," the organization said.

"Unlike the Republican candidates for president, Sen. Obama has an exemplary record on the separation of church and state."

Foxman was not convinced by such distinctions, seeing the Obama camp more in the context of a campaign season in which candidates have increasingly made religion an issue. In October, the ADL appealed to all candidates to de-emphasize religion.

"It's a competition of hawking their faith," Foxman said, "and it's so contrary to what we think or what America's about."

Obama's current controversy echoes that of Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and Republican candidate who drew Jewish criticism late last year for perceived overreaching. Romney, defending his Mormon faith, seemed to make belief in God a prerequisite for the presidency.

The Republican Jewish Coalition said in light of such controversies, a failure to target the Obama fliers underscored a double standard.

"Democrats seem to feel that our community will be more lenient when their candidates make explicit Christian appeals," said Suzanne Kurtz, the RJC spokeswoman. "Will those who complained about Republican candidates' messages apply a consistent standard now that the messenger is a Democrat?"

Foxman, however, had sympathy for Obama's predicament in continuing to have to make the case that he is indeed a Christian and not a "secret" Muslim. "We understand this is an issue that troubles him, but I'm not sure this is the best way to do it," the ADL leader said. "I would have been more comfortable getting eight ministers to say he's a good Christian."

GazeboflossUK · January 26, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQEQ7qHvgM

USA Presidential Election 2008 [Daily News]

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