Voter Fraud and Craven County, NC

CCTA Member Hal James sent the following letter to all the Craven County Board of Commissioners:

August 9, 2010

Dear Sirs and Madam:


I write to you because I have deep concern about the integrity of our vote in Craven County.

The News & Observer carried articles on August 5th and August 7th written by Benjamin Niolet and Michael Biesecker about cozy and questionable dealings among State Board of Elections Chairman Larry Leake, Director Gary Bartlett, Governor Beverly Perdue, Election Systems & Software (the company that sells and maintains all the voting machines in North Carolina), Printelect (the company that prints ballots for all but four of North Carolina's counties), and its owner, Owen Andrews. The stories mentioned large ($50,000 from Andrews and his wife) contributions to Governor Perdue's campaign (half) and to the Democratic Party, lavish parties, boat rides, and fishing trips for Elections officials, Printelect's ballots costing as much as double (30 cents to 33 cents per ballot vs. 13 cents to 19 cents per ballot) what the four counties who use other printers pay are all in the mix of this unfolding drama.

Printelect’s Owen Andrews says they charge so much for ballots because Elections Systems & Software (ES&S) requires them to buy paper stock from ES&S on which to print the ballots and requires them to pay ES&S a royalty on all the ballots printed. How did ES&S get that much power?

After reading the articles in The News & Observer and another that came out in the Sun Journal yesterday and thinking about what I had read, I concluded that it’s probable that only the tip of the iceberg has been exposed so far.

Election Systems & Software handles all our voting machines. Do they count the votes, too? What if an election is close and a recount is done, does ES&S handle the recount? Are there computer literate representatives of both parties present and cognizant of the process? Or does the possibility of our vote's being tampered with exist? My guess is it does. In fact, if I were a betting man, I’d bet that close elections have been routinely “tipped” to the party in power since ES&S came on the scene.

What I am sure of is that we are being charged too much for our ballots in Craven County. Having specifications for paper and printing that make them compatible with our voting machines is one thing. Forcing a printer to buy paper from and pay a royalty to ES&S is unacceptable.

I respectfully request that you do two things.

First, that you request the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to discover how deep the improprieties go and whether we have been victims of voter fraud.

Second, that you request generic specifications from ES&S and put our ballot printing up for competitive bids.

Thank you for your attention to my requests.


Very truly yours,


Hal James
CC: Randy Foster, Managing Editor, Sun Journal
Michael Biesecker and Benjamin Niolet, Staff Writers, The News & Observer