UPDATE ON VOTING MACHINE PROBLEMS IN NC

Voting Irregularities


The North Carolina Republican Party has been diligently investigating problems associated with voting machines, in particular iVotronic touch-screen voting machines in our state. These types of machines are in use in 35 of North Carolina’s 100 counties.

Reports began to surface last week of voter’s intentions not being properly registered by these machines. The specific incidents that first came to our attention were those who were attempting to cast a straight-ticket Republican vote but the machine was verifying that a straight-ticket Democratic vote had been registered. Fortunately, these initial voters were diligent in the verification process and after repeated attempts, called the problem to the attention of poll workers who assisted in making sure that the voter’s intentions were properly tallied.

Reports of similar problems began to come in from other parts of the state and at the time of this correspondence, (5pm October 28) we now have complaints from the counties New Hanover, Craven, Cumberland, Rutherford, Lenoir and Mecklenburg. I want to stress that there may indeed be similar issues in other counties using these same machines. To date, all documented voter issues involve attempts to cast votes for Republicans and at least one voter was a registered Democrat who was attempting to vote a straight-ticket Republican ballot.

Attorneys working on behalf of the NCGOP have been in contact with the State Board of Elections as early as last week in hopes of rectifying this issue and clarifying the causes of these problems. To date, it is our opinion that sufficient effort or progress has not been made by the State Board of Elections to ensure the integrity of the voting process.

For example, on Wednesday, October 27 the State Board of Elections conducted a informational session to instill voter confidence in Craven County, one of the first to report these problems. Concerned citizens came to hear information on the documented reports of machines engaging in what is known as “vote flipping”, registering for the opposite party or candidate than the voters intention. Instead they were given a remedial demonstration as to the operation of the touch-screen machine.

When one citizen expressed frustration about the lack of answers to the obvious concerns of the majority in the room, he was told by the State Board of Elections official that she was only there to demonstrate the machine and if he didn’t like that, he could leave.

Just today in Craven County, two republican poll workers were fired for talking to the media about the voting irregularities and what they claim was elections officials failure to properly address the issue.

Additional skepticism surrounds this situation due to the fact that the company responsible for the sale, distribution and maintenance of these machines has made headlines recently for questionable dealings in obtaining state contracts. Knowing that the ownership of the company in question, Printelect, has strong ties to the North Carolina Democratic Party and that the company itself holds a virtual monopoly on ballot printing and equipment maintenance for the state has only fueled suspicions.

This morning, NCGOP attorneys delivered a letter to the State Board of Elections demanding corrective action be taken immediately.
Appearing that the State Board of Elections has no intentions of taking corrective action, the NCGOP is contemplating proceeding to Federal Court on Friday to seek appropriate action to ensure the validity of the voting process in North Carolina. A total of 65 counties in our state use paper ballots tabulated by optical scanners; universally considered to be highly accurate and efficient. It is not equitable that those voters leave the polling place with a higher level of confidence that the votes have been accurately recorded than those using touch-screen machines.

Make no mistake; the NCGOP will not stand idly by and watch one of the most important rights we hold as Americans become subject to at best, a random game of electronic chance and at worst, an effort to subvert the political process.


Paid for by the North Carolina Republican Executive Committee.
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

http://www.ncgop.org/

Election Questions

SUN JOURNAL NEW BERN, LETTER TO THE EDITOR:   Election questions

August 11, 2010 10:09 PM


For the past few days, The News & Observer has carried articles about cozy and questionable dealings among State Board of Elections Chairman Larry Leake, Director Gary Bartlett, Gov. 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. Large campaign contributions to Gov. Perdue’s campaign, lavish parties for elections officials, Printelect’s ballots costing as much as double (33 cents per ballot vs. 12 to 19 cents per ballot) what the four counties who use other printers pay are all in the mix of this unfolding drama.

It doesn’t sound good, does it?

Call me paranoid if you must, but after reading three of the articles and mulling it all over for a while, I began to wonder if only the tip of the iceberg has been exposed. It sounds like 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?

I’m sure we taxpayers pay too much for our ballots. I hope our ballots are counted fairly and accurately, but I don’t have confidence that they are. I sincerely hope that the reporters who are following this story will keep investigating until they peel back the last layer of the Board of Elections questionable practices onion.

Raynor James, New Bern, NC

Note:  PrintElect is building another "PrintElect/Office Solutions" location at Trent and Morton Rds, New Bern

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