Carteret County Resolution

The NC State Board of Elections has made a decision regarding the Nov. 2nd election problems in Carteret County, where a voting machine did not record thousands of votes. Memory set incorectly. They have "voted 4-1 to allow allow participation in the special  election by early voters whose ballots were lost, along with those  who did not vote Nov. 2."

By a 3-2 margin, board members initially
voted down motions to allow a revote by the Carteret voters whose
ballots were lost and to hold a new agriculture commissioner election
in that county.

Board members then voted 3-2 in favor of calling
a new statewide election for agriculture commissioner. But because four
votes were required for passage of that measure, it also failed.

That left the board at an apparent impasse and members called a recess. They
later returned and cast the final vote in favor of the special election
in Carteret County.

This is good news. No full North Carolina re-vote. Will only happen in Carteret County, and, in my opinion, that is the way it should be. Furthermore:

The board also rejected a protest over
ballots cast outside voters’ precincts and unanimously certified
Democrat June Atkinson as the winner of the race for state
superintendent of public instruction. Atkinson led her race by 8,535
votes over Republican Bill Fletcher.

However, it is going to be a long, drawn out court battle on that one.

Cross posted, no spin, same story, at the Pirate’s Cove.

Republican Dino Rossi Certified As Winner Of Washington's Gubernatorial Election

The Associated Press reports that Dino Rossi was certified as the winner of Washington’s race for governor, but the contest isn’t over:

“A recount is almost a certainty,” said Secretary of State Sam Reed, the state’s chief elections officer.

Reed declared Rossi defeated Democrat Christine Gregoire by just 42 votes out of 2.8 million cast. But on Friday, the Democrats are expected to request a hand recount of some or all of the ballots. That could extend the uncertainty until Christmas.

From California Yankee.

Tom Ridge Resigns - Updated

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is resigning, FOX News confirmed Tuesday. He is expected to announce his decision at a 2:45 p.m. EST press conference.

In an e-mail circulated to senior Homeland Security officials, Ridge praised the department as “an extraordinary organization that each day contributes to keeping America safe and free.” He also said he was privileged to work with the department’s 180,000 employees “who go to work every day dedicated to making our company better and more secure.”

Government officials, speaking on grounds of anonymity because a formal announcement was pending, confirmed his resignation.

Ridge was responsible for the implementation of the Homeland Security Advisory System.

The Bush administration - since its Nov. 2 presidential election victory - has already accepted the resignations of Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Commerce Secretary Don Evans, Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

Update:

Among those mentioned as possible candidates for Ridge’s replacement are Bernard Kerik, interim Minister of the Interior for Iraq and former New York City police commissioner, former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt and White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend. Others are also believed to be interested in the job, including Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation security in the Homeland Security Department.

Carlos M. Gutierrez Nominated For Commerce

The New York Times reports that President Bush nominated Carlos M. Gutierrez to be Secretary of Commerce:

President Bush on Monday nominated Carlos M. Gutierrez, among the most prominent Hispanic business executives in the United States, to be his commerce secretary, as the president continued with what Republicans said would be a broad overhaul of his cabinet.

Mr. Gutierrez, 51, has been chief executive of the Kellogg Company, the cereal maker, for more than five years, and has built a reputation as an innovative and forceful business leader with broad international experience. But he has little background in public policy, leaving him largely unknown in political circles and untested by the demands of a high-profile job in Washington.

“He understands the world of business, from the first rung on the ladder to the very top,” Mr. Bush said, with Mr. Gutierrez at his side in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. “He knows exactly what it takes to help American businesses grow and to create jobs.”

From California Yankee.

11/29 Irregularities roundup

David Cobb (G) and Michael Badnarik (L) have filed to recount NM and NV.

There’s a detailed count of the provisional OH ballots (not related to the OH recount) here.

The GAO has agreed to investigate election irregularities.

AP’s Ohio Election Still Contested

(Same report here as “One Month Later, Fight Over Ohio Continues”; Keith Olbermann comments here.)

Olbermann’s previous report (11/21) includes the following concerning the Berkeley study:

Also, a less biased source might want to investigate the claims made in “Voting Machines Count Backwards in Okla.”

And, from NE’s WOWT: “Sarpy County election officials are trying to figure out how they ended up with more votes than voters in the general election. As many as 10,000 extra votes have been tallied and candidates are still waiting for corrected totals… Johnny Boykin lost his bid to be on the Papillion City Council. The difference between victory and defeat in the race was 127 votes.” An interesting computer error may be involved.

Friends of John Kerry

The Boston Globe reports that John Kerry plans to set up a federal campaign committee, Friends of John Kerry, which would allow him to seek a fifth term in the US Senate in 2008 while not precluding another run for president that year.

The Committee will be a vehicle for fund-raising for either campaign.

According to the Globe, Kerry transferred all the money from his previous committee to his presidential campaign committee after retaining his Senate seat in 2002 and Kerry could do the same should he decide against seeking reelection in favor of a second bid for the presidency.

From California Yankee.

Elections Certified (mostly)

The State Board of Elections certified nearly all results from the Nov. 2 election on Tuesday, but withheld approval of the outcome of two statewide races that are the subject of protests.

In a five-minute teleconfernce, the board members signed off on the final results for scores of races, including President Bush’s victory over John Kerry and wins by Gov. Mike Easley and Richard Burr for U.S. Senate.

The board declined to make final the results in the races for agriculture commissioner and superintendent of public instruction. Also still pending are certified outcomes of two District Court races and one legislative race.

Here is the kicker:

Protest hearings on those and other contests have been set for Nov. 30. The elections board could call for a new election, either just in Carteret County or statewide, to resolve the disputed Council of State races. The board also could seek a re-vote by people in Carteret County whose ballots were lost.

A new election would not be held until late February at the earliest.

Considering that a new statewide revote would cost over $3 million, let’s go for a re-vote in only the disputed areas, particularly Carteret County. And, it looks like a re-vote will only include the positions that are disputed. It will not be a general election.

Cross posted (exactly the same, not spinning this, rather cut and dry) at me Dreadnaught.

Bush I Avoids Jet Crash

A private jet that was en route to Houston to pick up former President Bush clipped a light pole and crashed Monday as it approached Hobby Airport in thick fog, killing all three people aboard.

The Gulfstream G-1159A jet, coming into Houston, went down about 6:15 a.m. in an undeveloped area 1½ miles south of the airport, officials said. The former president had been scheduled to travel to Ecuador for a conference.

“I was deeply saddened to learn of the plane crash this morning,” Bush said through spokesman Tom Frechette. “I’d flown with this group before and know them well. I join in sending heartfelt condolences to each and every member of their families.”

Read more..

Academic Freedom?

From the Boston Globe:

SALISBURY, N.C. — A community college instructor who was suspended for showing “Fahrenheit 9/11” in class the week before the presidential election is offering no apologies and says he was unfairly punished.

Davis March showed the Michael Moore documentary critical of President Bush to his film class. Administrators pulled the plug on the movie with about 20 minutes left when March tried to show it to English composition students.

“This story is now about academic freedom . . . the movie is ancient history,” said March, who served a four-day suspension and returned Nov. 2 to Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, about 45 miles northeast of Charlotte.

School officials said March disobeyed orders by refusing to meet with administrators before showing the film, but March said no instruction to seek permission had been issued.

Was this even legal to show it? There is a disclaimer on the video that restricts “unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or exhibition of copyrighted motion pictures, videotapes, or videodisks.”

Cross posted with spin at me Corsair.

Berkeley researchers: "Irregularities May Have Awarded 130,000 - 260,000 or More Excess Votes to Bush"

From their press release:

ComputerWorld has a report similar to the press release here. The study gets dismissed here.

The study itself is available here. Perhaps someone who’s familiar with statistics can weigh in.

UPDATE: CalInsider publishes a reader email about the study here. Keith Olbermann discusses the study here.

UPDATE 2: Wired has a report including a few quotes here. The blog Who Really Won? is covering these topics. The 11/20 entry here (no permalink) raises potential problems with the study. This says the CalInsider letter is from Dafydd ab Hugh, an author. There’s a MetaFilter thread on the study here.

The study is discussed from a statistics perspective here; perhaps someone who’s familiar with the field could give a summary. That last link includes several other links, charts, etc.

Potential statistics-oriented problems are presented here, here, here, and here.

The AP’s report is “Academia still fixated on November 2”. CNET reports on two academics have different views of the study in “Report: Florida data suggests e-voting problems”

Specter Wins Judiciary Panel Chairmanship

Conservative Republican senators on Thursday unanimously supported moderate Republican Sen. Arlen Specter as the next chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, ending a grueling campaign Specter waged both publicly and privately to guarantee his seat.

The effort followed a weeks-long controversy that erupted when Specter made comments concerning judicial nominees that seemed to suggest President Bush would have a hard time getting his choices confirmed.

“Arlen Specter will be our next chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. We are pleased to support Arlen in this matter,” said outgoing chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

Read more..

Just when you thought the election was over...

From Drudge: Ohio To Go Through Statewide Vote Recount After All

A statewide recount of the presidential vote appears inevitable after a pair of third-party candidates said they have collected enough money to pay for it.

The recount would be conducted after the election results are certified in early December.

Libertarian Michael Badnarik and the Green Party’s David Cobb said on Monday they raised more than $150,000 in four days, mostly in small contributions.

Ohio law requires payment of $10 per precinct for a recount, or $113,600 statewide.

Badnarik and Cobb said they aren’t trying to overturn President Bush’s 136,000-vote victory in Ohio, but just want to ensure that all votes were counted properly in the face of concerns about Election Day irregularities.

Turns out that the recount will cost the counties (and thus taxpayers) about $1.5 Million. Awesome!

Sarcasm aside, given 5.5 million votes in Ohio, it’ll cost each voter 27 cents (less when you consider that voters < taxpayers), I figure this is a reasonable amount to pay - as long as the process highlights the need for a more reliable, honest, and accountable voting system.

UC Berkeley To Challenge E-Vote In Florida

This from a PR agency email:

Here’s the story: A research team at UC Berkeley will report that irregularities associated with electronic voting machines may have awarded 130,000-260,000 or more excess votes to President George W. Bush in Florida in the 2004 presidential election. The study shows an unexplained discrepancy between votes for President Bush in counties where electronic voting machines were used versus counties using traditional voting methods. This is the first time that an academic institution has formally challenged the e-voting system, and the University is calling on local voting officials in Florida to investigate. The research team – which comprises some of the top minds in voter research – will disclose full results of the study and the raw data at the press conference tomorrow.

I’m not going to be able to make the press release, but we’ll try to have it covered …

Do Over!

It looks like there is a possibility that a faulty voting machine in Carteret County, NC (if you are looking at a map, it is a county just to the north of where Jacksonville, NC is) could cause a new state wide election:

Elections workers and reporters crammed themselves into a tiny storage room Tuesday and angled for their best views of a black metal box the size of a large briefcase.

And then they studied a three-word electronic message — “Voter log full” — that some in the room, deep down, had hoped wouldn’t appear.

The warning message indicated that a computer tallying votes in coastal Carteret County had reached its limit at 3,016 electronic ballots.

If only someone had seen the same message a few weeks ago, when the votes actually mattered.

Tuesday’s exercise was the latest in an investigation into an embarrassing, and possibly costly, voting problem. Because of problems with the county’s voting machine, North Carolina may have to hold another statewide election to pick an agriculture commissioner.

Should make those who are calling for recounts, and yelling “fraud!” on the leftist websites, such as the DU, mucho happy. But, and there is always a “but,” it seems like that most of the votes lost were Republican votes. Many have gotten a kick out of the company who made the faulty machine, UniLect Corp. Plus, it could cost $3+ million, and may include a full revote for all positions, including President, Senators, Gov, etc.

Cross posted with some spin over at me sloop, the Pirate’s Cove.

It's official, Dino Rossi has won

The closest governor’s race is now at end. The Secretary of State has certified Dino Rossi as the winner of the 2004 Governorship Election for the State of Washington. He won over Attorney General Gregoire (who works in Vancouver where I live) by 261 votes. Of course, under Washington State law if the vote is less than a 2,000 vote margin, there must be a mandatory recount. Now I’m expecting the Democrats in my state to get into a fit over this.

Meanwhile, I’m glad that Dino Rossi won. Because I know Gregoire’s reputation and it’s not that great to me. My friend used to work for her office and he was fired for wrong reasons. Thus giving me one of the reasons to vote against Gregoire for the Governorship. Plus the Democrats have too long controlled the governorship of Washington and I feel that there needs to be a change to a Republican Governorship which there hasn’t been one since 25 years ago.

Now, I would assume Lonewacko will go find some DU stuff about “Irregularities” in the Washington State Governorship. As I’m assuming he has the notion that all elections are perfect but 2004/0 and there has been no history of voter fraud. Psst, my mother works for the election in Washington State. And as evident by his blog, I’m assuming he’s going to keep doing the “Irregularities” post going until Bush is sworn in.

Funny thing about Washington’s Election was that Clark County had a history of voting for Democrats overwhelmingly over Republicans but this election proved that otherwise. Since that most Republicans are in the country area surrounding Vancouver/East Side vs the Democrats in the cities/North/West/South Side

2000 Election Locke won Clark County 54.2-43.3, Bush won 49.6-45.6
2004 Election (See Clark County)
Rossi won 52-44, Bush won 52-46

So it was quite a turnaround from a Leaning Democrat County to a Leaning Republican County.

11/18 Irregularities roundup

From the press release UC Berkeley Study Questions Florida E-Vote Count: Research Team Calls for Immediate Investigation

See the link for the call in number.

Ohio provisional ballots seem legitimate: Of the 11 counties that have completed checking provisional ballots, 81 percent of the ballots are valid, according to an Associated Press survey Monday. Counties that have completed partial tallies also said most of the provisional ballots were being counted…

Ohio finds possible double votes, counts

Lawsuit questions ‘discovery’ of 78,000 absentee votes in Broward

Bush won Iowa by 10,000 votes

“Vote fraud investigators visit Volusia [County FL]”: Representatives of a Seattle-based organization investigating possible election fraud visited the Volusia County elections department Tuesday after being provided reprints of voting machine records instead of originals. The reprints issue is explained in the “Volusia County on lockdown” section here.

From 11/1’s “Computer Chip Blamed For Voting Problem In Volusia County”: A computer chip is getting the blame for some voter problems in Volusia County. Those ballots will have to be re-fed. The defective chip was found Monday morning as poll workers fired up the machine for the last day of early voting… The chip was escorted by deputies to Daytona Beach and is in use right now.

Conspiracy Theories Abound After Election quotes a spokesman for a trade organization: “The fact is, electronic voting machines worked great … this is an enormous success story.” It also quotes John Fund of the WSJ: “There are 200,000 precincts in this country … there are going to be problems. You know, there was a computer in North Carolina that actually ate 4,500 votes… There are genuine problems but we shouldn’t be distracted, if we can, by Internet fantasists.”

Did lawyer-observers on Election Day miss fraud incidents? says Kerry lawyers were only trained to look for voter intimidation and similar incidents, not possible computerized fraud.

Justice through Music is offering a $100,000 reward for evidence of vote fraud. See the site for the fine print.

33,000 ballots lost in shuffle:

UM Regents results: off by two.

The University of Michigan Board of Regents results are wrong. The State of Michigan received wrong results from Washtenaw County. Washtenaw County inaccurately tallied the results of Ann Arbor’s Ward 5 Precinct 9.

This is because our County Clerk failed to modify electronically reported results based on improper writein votes. A larger problem is that Ann Arbor does not train election inspectors to look for such modifications.

I spoke about the votes in question here. (FYI, I spoke about the election experience here and here.) Here’s what happened:

• One voter did not quite understand the instructions. Instead of connecting arrows to the right of candidates’ names, (s)he crossed out entire candidate names. One of the lines (s)he drew to vote for a candidate in the right column strayed into an arrow in the center column. The arrow errantly marked indicated a vote for a writein candidate for UM Regent. That voter also selected two valid candidates in that vote-for-two office.
  
• The voter fed his/her ballot into the vote tabulator. The machine saw three votes in the vote-for-two category of UM Regent. It made a unique beep, spit the ballot back at the voter, and printed a message indicating that the ballot was overvoted for the office of UM Regent. We told the voter that s/he overvoted UM Regent and that the machine would not tally that office. We asked whether the voter would prefer a fresh ballot or would prefer to cast the ballot as-is. The voter chose to cast the ballot as-is. We pressed the “3” button on the keypad; the machine accepted the ballot and counted all the votes except for the UM Regent votes.
  
• Upon closing, a member-of-another-party and I studied the machine tape printout. We also examined all the ballots with writein votes. One of the ballots we studied was the ballot mentioned above. We determined that the machine saw three votes for UM Regent on that ballot. We noticed that one of the overvotes was for an invalid writein candidate. As per Michigan Law (in the Special Handling section, near the bottom), we “undid” that writein vote. We noted that the machine was wrong; the ballot was not overvoted. We wrote “+1” on the official machine tape printout next to the names of two candidates selected by that voter.
  
• We sealed everthing up and delivered our materials to City Hall. The City Clerk sent the tape to the County Clerk.
  
• The County Clerk’s office loaded the electronic results from our machine’s memory pack. They modified those electronic results based on the “+1”s on our tape printout. They failed to notice our manually written “+1”s in the office of UM Regent.
  
• The County Board of Canvassers examined our tape. They certified the election without catching the County Clerk’s omission.
  
• The county sent the incorrect results to the state.
  

Two votes may not seem like much, but to me these two votes are symptomatic of a structural flaw in the system which needs to be corrected.

One structural flaw is at the precinct level. Election day is long enough as it is, and election inspectors make enough mistakes without having to examine writein votes. The city did not train us to examine them October 28 and likely will not train us to examine them in the future. My guess is that Ann Arbor tallies were off by 200-250 votes. IMO, barring a change in the law, I would expect this error to continue.

Note: this is 200-250 total votes. Many of these “lost” votes canceled each other out. Many of these are probably in offices where the incumbent ran unopposed. Further, I arrived at the 200-250 estimate by multilpying the number of precincts in Ann Arbor, 48, by the number of write in votes we found, 5. If other precincts did look for invalid writeins, this number is overstated.

Another structural flaw is at the county level. I spoke with people in the County Clerk’s office. They examined the official tape marked with the “+1”s and agreed that the results were off. (They also printed out a copy of my most recent Command Post post to assist their efforts.) IMO, I expect them to change their procedures to guard against such mistakes in the future; this may prompt Ann Arbor to change their policies.

Warren Mitofsky Confirms "No Evidence" of Voter Fraud

Today at Colby College, Mayflower Hill conducted an exclusive interview with Warren Mitofsky— one of the architects of the National Election Pool Exit Polls— about the questions surrounding this year’s numbers, leaks to bloggers, computer voting machines that don’t leave paper trails, and more.

What is important is that Mitofsky puts the conspiracy theories to rest by declaring- categorically- that after extensive analysis, he believes his numbers were off and sees NO EVIDENCE of systematic voter fraud.

The full interview is here.

Mystery Pollster is also covering Mayflower Hill’s interview here.

Kerry Campaign Slammed On Hispanic Outreach

The Associated Press reports that Simon Rosenberg, founder and president of the centrist New Democrat Network says, “John Kerry did not compete adequately for Hispanic votes, period. If we don’t reverse the gains that President Bush made, we can forget our hope of being a majority party again.”

Rosenberg also complained that “the Kerry campaign and the DNC lacked a national strategy for Hispanics and did not spend enough money on advertising or enough time campaigning in Hispanic communities and did not employ enough people on the get-out-the-vote effort.”

From California Yankee.

Bush Chooses Spellings as Education Secretary

President Bush has tapped another Texan to be his education secretary.

Bush on Tuesday chose Margaret Spellings, his domestic policy adviser, to succeed Rod Paige as head of the Education Department, administration officials said.

Spellings, a graduate of Houston’s Sharpstown High School and the University of Houston, was a major force behind the No Child Left Behind Act, the president’s first big domestic legislative victory.

Spellings, 46, has worked for the president since 1994, when he was running for governor of Texas. She served as his senior adviser for six years and was responsible for developing and implementing his education policy. That policy later became much of the groundwork for the No Child Left Behind legislation.

Spellings took her first political job in 1980, when she worked on the failed presidential campaign of former Texas Gov. John Connally.

Read more…

It's Official: Rice Tapped for Secretary of State - Updated

Condoleezza Rice will be nominated to lead U.S. diplomatic efforts during President Bush’s second term, replacing Colin Powell as secretary of state, FOX News has confirmed.

An official announcement from Bush himself was expected at 12:30 p.m. EST Tuesday.

Powell announced his resignation on Monday, saying he had never intended to stay more than one term but would stay on until a replacement was named.

Updates after the press conference

Update:

President Bush this afternoon officially nominated Condoleezza Rice, his national security adviser and a longtime confidante, to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state.

“During the last four years, I’ve relied on her counsel, benefited from her experience and relied on her sound and steady judgment,” Bush said in announcing the nomination Tuesday at the White House.

Counting Questionable Ballots

From WRAL:

Election officials began the tedious task of looking at questionable ballots from Tuesday’s election by hand on Thursday.

The ballot instructions showed voters how to complete the arrow on the ballot, but hundreds of people scribbled dots, drew double lines or put the line in the wrong place. The voting machines could not read those ballots.

Interesting question: if the instructions weren’t followed, should they be counted. I know my opinion, but posts are no spin.

11/15 Irregularities roundup

The Greens have raised enough money to recount Ohio (also here).

11/11: 2 N.C. candidates request recount: “Feds to check out flaws in Mecklenburg, other N.C. counties”

How to Hack the Vote: the Short Version gives step-by-step directions, including screen shots. See also the pre-election Scientists worry about reliability of e-voting.

The NYT editorial “About Those Election Results” (also here) discusses various problems with eVoting, mentions the blogosphere, and suggest reforms to make the process more trustworthy.

There’s a 10Meg video of Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and the NYT’s John Schwartz on Charlie Rose here. Nadler was one of the congressmen who sent the letter to the GAO requesting an investigation of voting irregularities.

This unconfirmed report on Taos County, NM says: For the early voters on the paper trail/optical scanner machine, 100% of the voters cast a vote for President. For the Election day voters on the no-paper-trail machine, 14+%, about one in 7, showed no vote for president…

Warren County, Ohio is reportedly doing a recount. This was the county that prevented reporters from observing the initial ballot counting due to a supposed terrorism threat.

On 11/5, the AP reported 22 voting machines have less-than-intact seals: seals were missing or broken on 22 impounded voting machines… This is for a NY state Senate race in Yonkers between powerful incumbent Republican Sen. Nicholas Spano and Democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins in the 35th District… On 11/9 came As Voting Machines Are Checked, Spano’s Lead Shrinks. On the same day came With most machines recounted, Spano trails Democrat. On 11/13 came “Spano maintains lead over Stewart-Cousins in 35th District”. The counting continues.

In Keith Olbermann news: he gets dissed here; includes a few additional links. See also Keith Olbermann’s Dan Rather moment. Olbermann reports on his supposed firing here.

Sources: Condi to Replace Powell

White House officials said Monday they expect President Bush to name Condoleezza Rice to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state, sources told FOX News on Monday night.

If nominated and confirmed, Rice would be the second woman and the second African American to be the nation’s top foreign policy representative.

Changes to Bush’s cabinet:

RESIGNED OR EXPECTED TO RESIGN

Secretary of Agriculture
Ann M. Veneman

Secretary of Commerce
Don Evans

Department of Justice
John Ashcroft

Secretary of Education
Rod Paige

Secretary of State
Colin Powell

Secretary of Energy
Spencer Abraham

Secretary of Health & Human Services
Tommy Thompson

Source: Fox News

Sources: Powell Resigns - Three Other Cabinet Members to Resign [Updated -4-]

Breaking on Fox:

Secretary of State Colin Powell announced his resignation to his staff during their Monday morning meeting, a State Department source told FOX News.

President Bush is expected to make the official announcement. The source suggested that Powell is likely to stay in place until a replacement is confirmed.

More details as we get them.

Update:

Powell reportedly handed in his resignation Friday. But the president has not yet accepted his resignation.
CNN reported that there is a lot of speculation that Condoleezza Rice will be offered Powell’s position.

More:

The White House was preparing an announcement to confirm Powell’s resignation. According to one official, Powell expects that his departure date will be sometime in January. It was not immediately clear whether he will leave before Bush’s second inauguration on Jan 20.

Most of the speculation on a successor has centered on U.N. Ambassador John Danforth, a Republican and former U.S. senator from Missouri.

Update:

Various other news services reported that Agriculture Secretary Anne Veneman, Education Secretary Spencer Abraham and Education Secretary Rod Paige had also told President Bush of their intentions to leave the administration.

Update:

This makes it look pretty definite that all those mentioned will be resigning.

More here…

North Carolina, Meet Florida

From WRAL.com:

A Florida-style nightmare has unfolded in North Carolina in the 10 days since Election Day, with thousands of votes missing and the outcome of two statewide races still up in the air.

The fiasco has not reached the proportions of what happened in 2000 in Florida — in part because the presidential race was not close here. But election observers say North Carolina has been the site of some of 2004’s worst problems. (empasis mine)

The biggest failure resulted from a computer glitch that wiped out more than 4,400 votes in one county, while other disputes have focused on how to count provisional ballots. In another county, 12,000 early and absentee votes were misplaced due to a procedural error, but later found.

Federal authorities said they plan to look into what happened in two counties that have had the most severe breakdowns.

Might want to check WRAL’s politics section, lots of interesting stuff on the recounts and who is effected. Nothing is being mentioned that would affect the National or Governor counts, though.

Republicrescendo

After four years as education secretary, bringing President Bush’s signature law on education to classrooms across the nation, Rod Paige plans to leave the cabinet in the near future, administration officials said Friday.
..following the resignations of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans earlier this week.

Is this a build up to the resignation of the only respectable figure on the cabinet, Colin Powell? It seems he has been awfully busy for a man about to leave, with a rencent trip to Asia and regular interviews ( most recently ) with Arab journalist, Powell’s agenda is now lined up with
plans to meet with the new Palestinian leaders soon.

Recently with the power of a phone call to Mexico’s left Presidential runner

Powell’s tacit seal of approval will help López Obrador undermine his critics’ assertions that he is an irresponsible leftist populist.

Powell is Bush’s man of the world, in my view it would be fitting that he eventually leave. He is too good of a man who has earned too much respect to be associated with such a crowd, but on the other hand I feel a lot more comfortable with Powell keeping an eye on Bush, its a real quagmire.

There needs to be a debunking of Voting Irregularities.

Now Lonewacko wants to debunk this article by saying he’s a Newsmax editor. However the man does have good points. With the election over now and President Bush is still clearly the winner of the 2004 Election, Democrats left and right have been coming up with accusation except for one thing they lacked. Which Howard Troxler points out: Evidence.

Lonewacko wants Kerry President as evident in his blog however I still stand with the stance that Kerry conceded and lost the election to a War Incumbent which no President has ever been voted out during a war (Jefferson [Tripoli War], Madison [War of 1812], Lincoln [Civil War], Roosevelt [World War II], Johnson [Vietnam War]). Kerry also lost to a President that won by more than 3.9 million votes and 286 electoral votes. Especially the fact that the last 3 Democrat Presidents (Arkansas, Texas, Georgia) came from the South which Democrats are saying “Forget the South, we can win without them”. One thing has been put to rest. The Redskin Football game which they lost and the incumbent should lose, Bush won.

I’ll mention a couple strong points from the article I linked.

CLAIM: Kerry really won Ohio.

Furthermore, there also were 93,000 “spoiled” ballots in Ohio that, had they gone to Kerry by a miraculously large margin . . . uh, well, still wouldn’t have been enough. By the way, there were fewer undervotes and overvotes than in 2000.

CLAIM: A machine in Franklin County, Ohio, recorded an extra 3,893 votes for Bush.

At the risk of being labeled part of the plot, I want to point out that they caught this obvious mistake. You can’t “stuff’ the ballot box. There is a signed, independent record of how many people voted.

And Kerry conceded in the election and there is no way he can get the Presidency even if Kerry won by some miracle. When Inauguration Day comes, the voting irregularity will simply fade away.

Interesting thing I heard today, in Ohio, provisional ballots matter for Kerry but apparently in Washington, those provision ballots didn’t matter for the Democrat Candidate Gregoire. So those provisional ballots were thrown out by a judge which the Democrat Party contested and took to court which they won. Since that Gregoire is losing by a slim margin of 2,000+ to Dino Rossi and is expected to increase as more provisional ballots gets counted. Oh Washington Government is the source of the votes counted which is accurate. If you’re looking at USA Today, Fox News, or CNN, they’re outdated

You be the judge.

11/13 Irregularities roundup

From 11/13’s “State election officials approve Nader recount”: State election officials agreed Friday to a last-minute recount of the presidential race requested by Ralph Nader. Nader asked for a recount in 11 wards last week…Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese said the campaign would consider requesting additional recounts after reviewing the results of the initial 11. (A “ward” appears to correspond to a precinct or similar, not a county.)

From “Democrat wins council seat after election error corrected”:

And, from Fidlar admits election blip: …Fidlar officials went to Franklin County on Wednesday to assist in a recount and told Flaspohler a programming error was the culprit. After adjusting the program, the ballots were run again, and more than 600 votes that previously went to Libertarians were added to Democratic tallies…

This post contains several links about possible voting fraud from the 1980’s. That links to 11/9’s “Carteret ballots are gone forever”: The problem was blamed on misinformation supplied by the manufacturer. Unilect told elections officials that the early voting unit’s storage capacity was 10,500 votes when, in fact, the actual limit was 3,005. On Nov. 6, Carteret Board of Elections Chairman L.E. Pond said all early votes cast after No. 3,005 were lost… Pond also said the problem could have been avoided with a single keystroke of the county’s central computer, which would have increased the storage capacity. Elections officials attributed that mistake, too, to Unilect. UniLect, which acknowledged the problems, said this is the first time any of its customers has lost votes in an election - and, further, that the equipment operated just as it was set up to do…

11/9’s “Voter fraud uncovered in New Mexico” discussed several instances of double voting and other forms of fraud in Bernalillo County. On Friday, that county’s results were certified: …[after the certification] the president retains a statewide lead of 6,120 votes in an Associated Press unofficial tally late Friday that did not include final numbers from a few other counties.

To put some perspective on Howard Troxler’s “Internet post-election rumors missing one little thing: evidence” (also here as “‘Bush Stole Election’ Conspiracy Theories Debunked”), he’s also the author of July 25, 2004’s “Touch screen opponents are great at ignoring facts”. On the other side, see “Worst Voter Error Is Apathy Toward Irregularities”

On the completely unconfirmed and quite possibly wrong side, see: “Unofficial Audit of NC Election: Comprehensive Case for Fraud” and “Bush stole Ohio through absentee ballots”.

And, from Broward County 11/13: “Inquiry urged after 30 voters tried to cast ballot twice”

(Lonewacko comments: Anyone who attempts to completely dismiss the possibility of fraud committed through eVoting probably isn’t a computer programmer.)

GOP Headquarters vandization Con't

From WRAL:

RALEIGH, N.C. — One of the people accused of vandalizing the GOP headquarters in Raleigh is out of jail.

Vanessa Zuloaga was released on a $50,000 bond from the Wake County Jail.

When some of the other Raleigh area news sites provide a bit more info, I will update this post. Any update will be in the evening.

Prozac, anyone?

Others have blogged about this happening in other parts of the country, now we have "support groups" and therapy for the "anybody but Bushers," now we have it in the Triangle.

In fact, group therapy may be on the way.

Irene Kennedy, a Raleigh clinical social worker, is trying to assemble a support group for pained voters who cannot seem to move beyond the loss of their candidate, John Kerry.

"If you’re starting fights with people in the supermarket, you have to stop and think, ‘What’s going on?’ " Kennedy said. It’s Election Day plus 10. If your side lost and you are still feeling angry, sad or bewildered, take heart: You have lots of company.

I have removed the spin from the post I wrote on my blog. This is a no spin zone at the Command Center Election 2004. Ok, just a little spin. Even the N&O knew what this election was about:

Radios are tuned to music, not talk. Newspapers with front-page pictures of the victor get flipped over quickly to hide what those in the anybody-but-Bush crowd refer to as “that smug mug.”

Cross posted at the Pirate’s Cove, where I spin like a top.

Posted by Porter G at 07:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

11/12 Irregularities roundup

“Washington Post’s Sloppy Analysis” takes issue with “Latest Conspiracy Theory — Kerry Won — Hits the Ether”.

There’s a brief interview with a Cincinnati Enquirer concerning Warren County Ohio here. All of that information appears to have already been covered in that reporter’s article.

The NYT’s “As Fast as Blogs See Vote Fraud, Web Is Proving Rumors Wrong” is mainly a “wacky bloggers with wacky theories” piece.

The Caltech-MIT/Voting Technology Project has a few reports on the 2004 elections which have been referenced elsewhere including in the last article. Unfortunately, as discussed here, they appear to be advocates for electronic voting or they at least have such articles at their site.

The PDF at “The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy” by Steven F. Freeman, PhD apparently attempts to answer the exit poll report from the latter source.

“Glitch causes Franklin Co. [IN] recount:” Election equipment counted straight-party votes for Democratic candidates as Libertarian votes, an error that could affect election outcomes in as many as nine counties, the Richmond Palladium-Item reported today.

(Editorial content: The Caltech-MIT group appears to be located somewhere on the continuum between impartial observers and a trade group. I only looked through a few things on their site, but I only saw the upside of eVoting. I’d imagine within a 1 mile radius of Caltech there are hundreds of hackers who could spend all day thinking up ways to hack into eVoting, and I didn’t see anything about, for instance, security at the Caltech-MIT site. The report Voter Verifiable Audio Audit Transcript Trail by one of their principals makes the suggestion that a three-head tape recorder should be used as part of the audit trail of voting machines. One can only imagine all the problems inherent in this idea. Jammed tapes, tapes having to be changed, tapes being recorded over, tapes not being changed when they had to be, poll workers forgetting to put the tape in, poll workers running out of tape, the cost of the tape, transporting, cataloging, and archiving the tapes, copying over the tapes on a yearly basis to guard against deterioration, putting the wrong type of tape in, the mechanism not working, the power plug to the mechanism failing, the mechanism spontaneously combusting… you get the picture.)

11/11 Irregularities roundup, Part 2

From today: Kerry campaign lawyers checking Ohio vote. According to Kerry’s Ohio counsel: “[this is a] fact-finding mission… We’re not expecting to change the outcome of the election…” And: “Green & Libertarian Presidential Candidates to Demand Ohio Recount”

This unconfirmed report says:

Changing the rules after the election might be a violation of state or federal law. Yesterday’s “Even without national scrutiny, counting Ohio’s provisional ballots a tough job” has more on the counting, but doesn’t mention the supposed new rule.

That pesky 16-bit bug has unconfirmed instances of “short vs. long” overflows previously described here. These concern Franklin County, Ohio rather than Broward County as did the other suspected incident.

For big media coverage, see 11/09’s “Election conspiracy theories persist”, 11/10’s generally content-free “Ignore voting conspiracies and move on” and 11/11’s “Internet post-election rumors missing one little thing: evidence”. The latter discusses specific claims, some of which have been shown to be false and some true. This Hardblogger post discusses exit polling and rehashes yet again the Dixiecrat effect previously shown here in table form. Wired News also has several articles in this category.

Paige plans still in the air - Education chief hasn't told friends or staff if he will resign

HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Paige plans still in the air - Education chief hasn’t told friends or staff if he will resign

When former Houston schools Superintendent Rod Paige accepted President Bush’s offer to join his Cabinet as education secretary four years ago, he told friends he didn’t want to work past his 70th birthday.

Now 71, Paige has kept quiet about whether he’ll join the list of Cabinet members who won’t be around for Bush’s second term.

Bush has asked Cabinet members to let him know whether they plan to stay by week’s end, and some of them, including Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans, have resigned.

Paige’s friends in Houston said Wednesday they wouldn’t be surprised to see Paige back in town soon, since he’s accomplished his mission of implementing the controversial No Child Left Behind Act.

“If I were him, I would,” said Don McAdams, who along with Paige served on the Houston school board that ushered in the reforms that led to No Child Left Behind.

Technically, he could take his old job back at HISD…

UPDATE:
Rumors have been that he is leaving, official announcement to follow shortly.

Clinton Blames Gay Marriage For Kerry's Loss

The Utica Observer Dispatch reports that former president Clinton put much of the blame for Kerry’s loss on gay marriage:

“Gay marriage was an overwhelming factor in the defeat of John Kerry,” Clinton told the audience at the Margaret Bundy Scott Field House.

[. . .]

“There was astonishing turnout among evangelical Christians who were voting on the basis of moral values,” he said. “I do not believe either party has a monopoly on morality or truth.”

Clinton said Democrats had a story to tell about abortion and gay marriage. They didn’t tell it. Abortions declined during his terms in office, he said, because of policies encouraging adoption and rewarding mothers.

Democrats should have emphasized that gay marriage should be up to the states — and that state sovereignty is a traditionally Republican value.

“Gay marriage was an overwhelming factor in the defeat of John Kerry,” Clinton said. “With one decision of one Supreme Court, all of the sudden we have a constitutional amendment designed, I think, to whip people up, to inflame them, make them stop thinking about other issues.”

From California Yankee.

11/11 Irregularities roundup

The WaPo’s Latest Conspiracy Theory — Kerry Won — Hits the Ether attempts to pour some cold water on the various conspiracy theories. Tenor sample: Even as Sen. John F. Kerry’s campaign is steadfastly refusing to challenge the results of the presidential election, the bloggers and the mortally wounded party loyalists and the spreadsheet-wiel