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You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Venality / Lawsuit Filed Today Seeks Injunctive Relief and Removal of “Software Patches” in Ohio Voting Machines

Lawsuit Filed Today Seeks Injunctive Relief and Removal of “Software Patches” in Ohio Voting Machines

by Imani Gandy (ABL)|  November 5, 20128:27 pm| 109 Comments

This post is in: Republican Venality, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It

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I’m stepping into Kay’s territory here, but The Columbus Free Press is reporting that the chair of the Ohio Green Party has filed a lawsuit seeking injunctive relief and the removal of shady software patches which Secretary of State John Husted ordered installed into voting machines in several Ohio counties (Democratic strongholds like Cleveland and Columbus, obvs.). The hearing is at 9 am tomorrow.

Talk about cutting it close:

At 9am Election Day, a federal judge will decide whether untested and uncertified secret software will remain on Ohio’s vote tabulation and reporting systems in 39 counties. Bob Fitrakis, in his capacity as the Chair of the Ohio Green Party, filed suit at approximately 12:30pm on Monday, November 5 against Ohio Secretary of State John Husted and Elections Systems and Solutions for their clandestine installation of uncertified and untested software. Judge Frost, U.S. District Court Southern District Court of Ohio, agreed to the hearing to be held Tuesday, November 6.

The suit seeks immediate the injunctive relief of removing the untested, uncertified software from all county tabulators.

Should there be insufficient time or resources to remove said software from the tabulators, those tabulators will not be used and all ballots will be counted by hand if either the state or federal judge grants the injunction.

The Columbus Free Press’ investigation has discovered that the office of the Secretary of State has, at the last minute, contracted for special untested reporting software. Brandi Seske, Elections Council to John Husted, has penned legal memos justifying the skirting of federal and state elections law.

Since this story broke, the spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office, Mathew McClellan, has made false and contradictory statements to the press about the nature of the software and its legality.

Husted’s office has made every attempt to circumvent the law in order to suppress and now apparently steal the vote on behalf of the GOP.

If you haven’t been following this story, read this article “Ohio Secretary of State Accused of Installing Suspicious Software on Voting Machines” by Ugonna Okpalaoka at The Grio.

Long story short, John Husted is fucking up Ohio’s program in a desperate effort to hand Romney a Ohio victory.

Surprise!

[via Cleveland Free Press via Daily Kos]

[cross-posted at ABLC]
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Reader Interactions

109Comments

  1. 1.

    Jerzy Russian

    November 5, 2012 at 8:34 pm

    Can’t someone kick John Husted in the junk, and then throw him in jail?

  2. 2.

    redshirt

    November 5, 2012 at 8:34 pm

    Anyone know the nature of this installed software? And why it was installed in some places, and not others? Their reasons, not necessarily the truth.

  3. 3.

    The Dangerman

    November 5, 2012 at 8:34 pm

    Why is it the Green Party and not the Democratic Party that’s suing?

    This shit will stop when people start getting tossed in jail.

  4. 4.

    Cargo

    November 5, 2012 at 8:35 pm

    THIS is what worries me. All the shit about “skewed polls” is cover for this. Why did they suddenly start delegitimizing Nate Silver? Because unless he is delegitimized then they can’t nudge the totals into the R column in Ohio and say “Oh, the POLLS were wrong!”

  5. 5.

    Punchy

    November 5, 2012 at 8:36 pm

    This is what I suspected when I hear righty bloggers so assuredly claim that Ohio is going to Romney. Im going to suspect the software deletes votes rather than changes them, to make it more diff to trace?

  6. 6.

    Haydnseek

    November 5, 2012 at 8:38 pm

    @The Dangerman: Yeah, if the inmates are the Dick Cheneys, rather than the Scooter Libbys.

  7. 7.

    Peter

    November 5, 2012 at 8:39 pm

    Jesus christ this better end in Ohio going to Obama and Husted going into a fucking jail cell

  8. 8.

    RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist

    November 5, 2012 at 8:39 pm

    Jeebus H Christ on a reality show! What do they have to do to stop this guy, clap him in irons?

    11D meta-motive speculation: If they can’t win the Ohio popular vote, throw the election into doubt long enough to allow the GOP’s legal eagles to steal it by other means.

  9. 9.

    aimai

    November 5, 2012 at 8:41 pm

    Best thing the greens have ever done. Good for them. Its simply obscene that any SoS would have the nerve to change the rules, the regulations, the software, the organizational system for voting during an election which has already begun. Why isn’t there a blanket regulation or federal requirement that no novel processes, practices, rules or regulations can be instituted less than three months from the start of voting?

    aimai

  10. 10.

    James E. Powell

    November 5, 2012 at 8:41 pm

    Was there any court ruling today on the provisional ballot issue? In the articles I read over the weekend, it seemed to be important.

  11. 11.

    Punchy

    November 5, 2012 at 8:41 pm

    Also…..um…maybe this shoulda been filed last week, or did Husted JUST install this this weekend? If true, then it really does smell of something nefarious

  12. 12.

    Viva BrisVegas

    November 5, 2012 at 8:42 pm

    I gotta say that from a logistical standpoint the US electoral system seems fucked up in such peculiar and perverse ways that it’s a wonder to behold.

    You know what tool is the best guarantor of democratic integrity? The pencil.

    Putting machines in the way of the voter and the tabulator is a recipe for disaster. Why do it?

    Democracy is not difficult people. Why try to do it while playing the piano and balancing a watermelon on your head at the same time?

    Go look at some third world country to see how elections could be run better. Or even better take a few looks at how some first world countries get it done.

    Sorry for the rant, but what you guys do over there just sounds crazy.

  13. 13.

    RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist

    November 5, 2012 at 8:42 pm

    @Punchy:

    Im going to suspect the software deletes votes rather than changes them, to make it more diff to trace?

    Wouldn’t even have to do that. The software could be inoperative or benign. Just the fact that it’s there raises doubts about the outcome. Then the lawsuits start, a la FLA 2000.

  14. 14.

    PeakVT

    November 5, 2012 at 8:42 pm

    Here’s an update on the provisional ballot identification issue.

  15. 15.

    presquevu

    November 5, 2012 at 8:43 pm

    A new poll shows likely suppressed voters 99% for Obama, and likely fraudulent votes 100% for Romney.

  16. 16.

    Haydnseek

    November 5, 2012 at 8:44 pm

    @RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: It worked in 2000. You run the same play until the defense shows it can stop it. We haven’t stopped it yet….

  17. 17.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    November 5, 2012 at 8:45 pm

    This asshole has basically been telling Federal Judges to kiss his lily white ass for months now, at what point is a Federal Judge going to grow a pair and throw his ass in jail for contempt, how much more evidence do they fucking need?

    BTW could I please ask the front pagers that if (when) we win in a landslide tomorrow that they post the “Forward” video loud and proud front and center? Pretty Please. KTNXBAI.

  18. 18.

    Peter

    November 5, 2012 at 8:46 pm

    Should there be insufficient time or resources to remove said software from the tabulators, those tabulators will not be used and all ballots will be counted by hand if either the state or federal judge grants the injunction.

    This honestly sounds like the best possible result. And what they should be doing all the time. Fuck tabulators and voting machines, they’re expensive and unnecessary pieces of shit.

  19. 19.

    JWL

    November 5, 2012 at 8:46 pm

    And if Husted does effectively subvert the election results?

    To paraphrase Sean Connery in The Untouchables: “What are we prepared to do”?

    Recall that in 2000 the democratic party’s answer to that question was: “We’re prepared to eat shit”.

  20. 20.

    pseudonymous in nc

    November 5, 2012 at 8:48 pm

    @Viva BrisVegas:

    You know what tool is the best guarantor of democratic integrity? The pencil.

    But that would mean the results would take a little bit longer to calculate, and cable news is very impatient. So there.

  21. 21.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    November 5, 2012 at 8:48 pm

    @aimai:

    There are rules, but Husted is choosing to ignore them, time and time again, and yet not one Judge has been willing to step up and throw his ass in jail for contempt.

  22. 22.

    Haydnseek

    November 5, 2012 at 8:49 pm

    @aimai: Where did you get the idea that the repubs gave a single fuck about “blanket regulations” or “federal requirements?” In the unlikely event that such things are even a blip on the radar, massive applications of money, influence, and expensive legal talent makes it all go away……..

  23. 23.

    Mnemosyne

    November 5, 2012 at 8:49 pm

    @RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:

    Wouldn’t even have to do that. The software could be inoperative or benign. Just the fact that it’s there raises doubts about the outcome. Then the lawsuits start, a la FLA 2000.

    Weirdly, I almost wonder if you’re right and the “patch” doesn’t actually do anything other than give Romney the grounds to sue if Obama wins Ohio because the R’s are out of ideas.

  24. 24.

    Roger Moore

    November 5, 2012 at 8:49 pm

    @Viva BrisVegas:

    Putting machines in the way of the voter and the tabulator is a recipe for disaster. Why do it?

    Because many of us are voting on literally dozens of separate questions in a given election, and hand counting the ballots becomes an extremely challenging exercise in that case. The problem is with turning the election over to partisan hacks who are willing to break the law to give their team the victory. No technology, advanced or simple, can overcome that. Only human control can do that, and it will work as well with a well designed machine count as with a hand count.

  25. 25.

    Cermet

    November 5, 2012 at 8:50 pm

    Read the Salon story and discover what they DID do in Ohio in 2004; the courts demanded that all data be saved/bsllots but too many were destoried to determine if, in fact, the electon WAS stolen by a company based TN that was reading and writing, in real time to all the voting machines. UFB! Why this was not common knowledge proves that the media is under rightwing control.

  26. 26.

    lamh35

    November 5, 2012 at 8:51 pm

    twitter is gonna be a madhouse tomorrow.

    On a good day you have any number of dead celebrity breaking news or in this case some breaking news that just ain’t true followed by mea culpas from the perpetrators of the myths.

    Some leftwingnutor rightwingnut just spreading false shit.

    Ugh can’t wait.

    can we institute a try to institute a “keep info well-researched” for any news coming from the precincts tomorrow?

  27. 27.

    PsiFighter37

    November 5, 2012 at 8:51 pm

    Husted is proving to be even more openly contemptuous of the law than Ken Blackwell ever was. What the fuck is wrong with Republican SoS in Ohio?

    The people of Ohio better remember this in 2 years and make taking out this shitbag just as high a priority as throwing out Kasich.

  28. 28.

    AlladinsLamp

    November 5, 2012 at 8:52 pm

    Documents show Georgia’s Secretary of State knew of Diebold patch

    Diebold first claimed no patch was applied. Then later admitted a patch was installed, but cliamed it was Microsoft approved.

    Funny, the patch was only needed for voting machines in Fulton and Dekalb counties, ie largest Dem and minority areas in the State.

  29. 29.

    slippy

    November 5, 2012 at 8:52 pm

    Frog march this mother-fucker into a dark prison cell, lock the door, shove feces through the slot, and leave him there to rot.

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    November 5, 2012 at 8:53 pm

    @JWL:

    You may want to Google “Obama Alice Palmer” before you start screaming about how the Democrats are inevitably going to roll over if something goes wrong. And it was all 100 percent legal and by-the-book.

  31. 31.

    jwb

    November 5, 2012 at 8:56 pm

    @lamh35: Good luck with that. Rumors what to rumor.

  32. 32.

    Democrat Partisan Asshole

    November 5, 2012 at 8:58 pm

    So Ohio likely won’t be called for weeks. This was his plan all along. No wonder these fuckers have been so confident.

    Hope Team Obama can pull 270 votes without Ohio. Period. Because the second it’s announced that they can’t pull a clean result out of Ohio, if Obama doesn’t have 270 in his pocket I will bet money the House goes back into session and declares Romney the winner.

    Which they can do. Legally.

  33. 33.

    PeakVT

    November 5, 2012 at 8:59 pm

    @Viva BrisVegas: Why do it?

    I think the original reason for machines of any kind was to get results quickly, basically. After 2000, the stated reason for pushing high-tech voting machines was so that interpreting intent would not be an issue in the future. The real reason was government pork. 190,000 precincts times 20 machines per precinct = $$$.

  34. 34.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 5, 2012 at 9:01 pm

    @Punchy:

    Not discounting the possibility of voter fraud, but righty bloggers who crow about it are blowing smoke up everyone’s ass, especially their own. Like libertyfreedompatriot.blogspot.com really has fucking ‘inside information’ from state-level Republican parties?

  35. 35.

    MikeJ

    November 5, 2012 at 9:02 pm

    @Democrat Partisan Asshole:

    Because the second it’s announced that they can’t pull a clean result out of Ohio, if Obama doesn’t have 270 in his pocket I will bet money the House goes back into session and declares Romney the winner.

    Not until after the EC has actually voted.

  36. 36.

    jpe

    November 5, 2012 at 9:02 pm

    via Rick Hasen at election law blog, this is a sorta crazy lawsuit. makes sense to me, since the attorney that filed it has been attacking windmills for the last 8 years trying to sue to get someone to listen to his theory that Karl Rove murdered some political operative.

  37. 37.

    Peter

    November 5, 2012 at 9:02 pm

    @Democrat Partisan Asshole:

    Because the second it’s announced that they can’t pull a clean result out of Ohio, if Obama doesn’t have 270 in his pocket I will bet money the House goes back into session and declares Romney the winner.

    That’s…not how it works.

  38. 38.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 5, 2012 at 9:03 pm

    I also think that Obama will win Ohio anyway. It would be one thing if he was up by 0.3 right now, but he’s been up 2 or 3 on average, for a long time. Of course Republicans will cheat and lie and steal. It’s what they do. Doesn’t mean it will work.

  39. 39.

    BGinCHI

    November 5, 2012 at 9:03 pm

    I propose that we check these machines by dropping Jack Welch off a tall building.

    If he hits the ground, then everything will be fine.

  40. 40.

    joel hanes

    November 5, 2012 at 9:06 pm

    Michael Connell died before he could tell us the truth about Ohio vote counting.

    These fuckers are desperate; they’re not joking around.

  41. 41.

    tratclif

    November 5, 2012 at 9:06 pm

    Do note that this has been dismissed on the GOS as a conspiracy theory. The security gurus that have looked at it say it’s not on the voting machines themselves, but an upgrade to the vote-counting software that lets it report results in a different format.

  42. 42.

    MikeJ

    November 5, 2012 at 9:08 pm

    @Viva BrisVegas:

    Putting machines in the way of the voter and the tabulator is a recipe for disaster. Why do it?

    So Democrats will say, “no point in voting, they won’t count it any way.”

    They don’t have to actually do anything, just make noises like they will and the black helicopter brigade will eat it up.

  43. 43.

    jeff

    November 5, 2012 at 9:09 pm

    If it were a real problem, the Democrats, not some weird cult, would be raising the alarm.

  44. 44.

    radical empiricist

    November 5, 2012 at 9:09 pm

    I have no use for Husted, but there is also no good evidence yet that this software is intended to steal the election so ABL, please back off of alarmist speculation stated as a conclusion:
    “Long story short, John Husted is fucking up Ohio’s program in a desperate effort to hand Romney a Ohio victory.”

  45. 45.

    Schlemizel

    November 5, 2012 at 9:10 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    Fuck jail! This:
    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G5V-UFbdlms/UBmXfajEYCI/AAAAAAAABM8/IdN6TAZUGs8/s1600/guillotine.jpg

    PS – do not be fooled by the URL – you really need to see the image 8-{D

  46. 46.

    Yutsano

    November 5, 2012 at 9:10 pm

    @BGinCHI: I like the cut of your jib good sir!

  47. 47.

    jwb

    November 5, 2012 at 9:10 pm

    @Spaghetti Lee: On the other hand, I always presume projection when it comes to wingnuts, so that means I presume the GOP is planning voter fraud. The only question is whether it stops with voter suppression efforts or whether they are going all in on the voting machines this time around. Many signs point to the GOP having planned to rig the voting machines this year except for the fact that they have not done a great job of preparing it with the polls—or couldn’t, for whatever reason, produce enough polls to make the case plausibly in the era of the aggregators. That makes me think they may try to fuck around with Ohio but won’t go further than that. I also predict that Husted will leave office through arrest—the man is crooked to the bone and not very subtle so if it is not this something else will get him.

  48. 48.

    gnomedad

    November 5, 2012 at 9:14 pm

    Constitutionally-mandate paper trail, bitchez! Enough of this horseshit.

  49. 49.

    lamh35

    November 5, 2012 at 9:14 pm

    Speaking of Ohio, I’ve been wondering why Romney would be campaigning tomorrow in Dem-leaning areas like Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

    Well some conservative guy tweeted this to Dave Weigel (h/t DKOS):

    @daveweigel
    RT @kerpen: @daveweigel Cleveland and Pittsburgh?? Messing up traffic and logistics in D strongholds.

    So just in case the OH SoS’s voter suppression tactics don’t work, the Romney camp will help to cause disarray. Wouldn’t surprise me in the least!

  50. 50.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 5, 2012 at 9:14 pm

    Husted needs to be disbarred and locked up.

    For a very, very long time.

    This is outrageous.

  51. 51.

    Cermet

    November 5, 2012 at 9:14 pm

    @tratclif: Yet they refused, at first to aknowledge it. Even lied, why? Only after a number attempts did they admitt it. Why just a few days before the electon and only mostly democratic districts … a lot of issues here. Trolls for the thugs appear to be trying to cover this, why?

  52. 52.

    BGinCHI

    November 5, 2012 at 9:15 pm

    @Yutsano: I saw Cantor on MSNBC today (before I could race to the remote and change the channel) and I think dropping him would be useful too.

  53. 53.

    Joel

    November 5, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    @jpe: I, too, am skeptical of all this. Can we please drop the pearls already?

  54. 54.

    Southern Beale

    November 5, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    Why isn’t John Husted in jail?

    Rehtorical question. I don’t expect an answer to that. But maybe if he did get sent to jail Ohio Republicans would stop behaving this way.

  55. 55.

    BGinCHI

    November 5, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Which means he’s a good candidate for Governor of IL.

  56. 56.

    Hill Dweller

    November 5, 2012 at 9:19 pm

    Nate just bumped Obama up to 91% for winning EC.

  57. 57.

    Randy P

    November 5, 2012 at 9:19 pm

    @Punchy: Here is one story I recall from either 2000 or 2004 involving Diebold machines: There were strong indications in 2000 that the machines would start out with +X votes for the Republican and -X for the Democrat. +8000 and -8000 for instance. The “check” for whether it was properly initialized was whether the total number of votes was 0.

    And then immediately after the election, a “technician” waltzed in, announced he was recovering all memory cards and simply took them from the places where counting was happening. So there was no record of any software modifications or anything else about the vote.

    I also recall that Ohio had some records which were supposed to be part of the public record but that Ken Blackwell refused to release them, and nobody ever succeeded in recovering them.

    There was at least one computer audit that showed clear suspicions of a hack that changed the tabulation at the county level, and then deleted the access records.

    The Black Box Voting organization collected a number of stories like this that will raise your hair.

    There will be lots of this going on. Hopefully somebody in the press or public will care. Meanwhile, we just have to have enough margin to beat it. It will be a close thing in Ohio since Husted is so determined and has so many games going on.

  58. 58.

    LD50

    November 5, 2012 at 9:20 pm

    Husted knows that if Romney wins, he’ll never be prosecuted. I assume Romney would give him some plum job in his administration.

  59. 59.

    mai naem

    November 5, 2012 at 9:20 pm

    HOLY SHEET, NATE SILVER’S GOT OBAMA AT 91 PERCENT AND ROBME AT 8.6 PERCENT.

  60. 60.

    JWL

    November 5, 2012 at 9:21 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Not quite.

    It was “100% legal”, all right. But not “by the book”.

    By the hook-and-crook was more like it.

  61. 61.

    Elias

    November 5, 2012 at 9:21 pm

    Is there anything Romney can’t fix?

    The polls are looking bad. Real bad. So bad, in fact, that the Romney released their ‘internal polls’. Romney wins NH by 4! OH by 2! And is in a dead heat for WI and PA! No hope for Obama! The wingnuts are raving about it.

    These people are inventing their own reality. They are absolutely insane.

  62. 62.

    Michael2

    November 5, 2012 at 9:22 pm

    Does anyone have the feeling that this will work? I just had a poor sinking feeling of watching Ohio get flipped into Romney’s column, and the subsequent freakout. I’m not saying Romney would win, and the President would likely seek a legal contest over the result.

    But still, can’t you see Romney and Husted actually executing something according to plan?

    (shit, I just realized I’m trolling myself. Sorry.)

  63. 63.

    Eric U.

    November 5, 2012 at 9:22 pm

    ok, this is it for me, going non-political until tomorrow night.

  64. 64.

    Raven

    November 5, 2012 at 9:23 pm

    Jesus what a bunch of babies.

  65. 65.

    MikeJ

    November 5, 2012 at 9:23 pm

    @Elias: OH by 2? Good, Nate says internal polls tend to have a 6 point house effect.

  66. 66.

    Hill Dweller

    November 5, 2012 at 9:25 pm

    @Elias: Axelrod asked people to keep those numbers, because they’ll become a source of amusement tomorrow night.

  67. 67.

    Dave

    November 5, 2012 at 9:25 pm

    The Truth About Voting Machines

    Well, Fitrakis and Bello really seem to be getting widespread play this year for some reason. I can’t tell you how many otherwise smart and discerning people have asked me about both their two recent stories on “Romney owns voting machines in Ohio” and this new “scary last-minute software update” one. The frustrating part is that in other times of the year people like myself would have time to carefully debunk this well-manufactured drivel, but at the moment I’m too concerned with real issues, like making sure voters on election day and volunteers in the field have the information they need, however mundane or technical, to make sure all registered, eligible voters can cast a ballot.

    As with most of ABL’s hysterical posts, this is almost certainly bullshit.

  68. 68.

    Spaghetti Lee

    November 5, 2012 at 9:27 pm

    @Michael2:

    But still, can’t you see Romney and Husted actually executing something according to plan?

    When you put it that way, I actually feel more confident.

  69. 69.

    tam

    November 5, 2012 at 9:28 pm

    OT: Why does Rachel like Dan Rather? I don’t get it.

  70. 70.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    November 5, 2012 at 9:30 pm

    My fantasy boyfriend Nate has Obama at a 91% Obama electoral college win. I am gonna be playing that “Forward” youtube on a loop between now and tomorrow night. “Keep this country forward”…… Whooooooot!

  71. 71.

    Raven

    November 5, 2012 at 9:30 pm

    @tam: Cuz he’s better than Brokaw.

  72. 72.

    Joel

    November 5, 2012 at 9:31 pm

    I think it merits updating this post.

  73. 73.

    jwb

    November 5, 2012 at 9:33 pm

    @Randy P: Yes, but it is also really easy to generate these sorts of stories out of whole fiction as well. That’s one reason the whole issue is so fraught. You’d have to be naive not to suspect some shenanigans but that recognition is not easily checked this side of falling deep into the conspiratorial abyss.

  74. 74.

    mai naem

    November 5, 2012 at 9:35 pm

    @tam: Cuz he got set up by the Bushes/KKKarl. Also, he didn’t sell out like Brokaw did to Welch’s GE culture.

  75. 75.

    Hill Dweller

    November 5, 2012 at 9:36 pm

    OT: Bourdain’s final show(Brooklyn) is on right now. He has on a variety of guests, including Omar(Michael K. Williams) and Talib Kweli.

  76. 76.

    sparrow

    November 5, 2012 at 9:37 pm

    @Dave: your post is not reassuring at all. ” I don’t have time to look into it is not debunking.”

  77. 77.

    Hill Dweller

    November 5, 2012 at 9:39 pm

    Nate Silver on Twitter: Obama gained an average of 1.5 points between 12 national polls published today. Big sample sizes. That’s a pretty big deal.

  78. 78.

    MattMinus

    November 5, 2012 at 9:42 pm

    @Dave:

    That’s racist!

  79. 79.

    jwb

    November 5, 2012 at 9:43 pm

    @Dave: That was a most helpful link.

  80. 80.

    some guy

    November 5, 2012 at 9:43 pm

    Silver made FL a blue state on his map, and O with 314 votes.

    hooray for the Sunshine State

  81. 81.

    Joel

    November 5, 2012 at 9:44 pm

    @sparrow: The guy works on voting issues for a living. He’s a better advocate for our cause than pretty much anyone flaunting these conspiracy theories, in my opinion.

  82. 82.

    jwb

    November 5, 2012 at 9:45 pm

    @some guy: Funny, given that Nate was recommending that Obama not put any more resources in the state, what, 10 days ago.

  83. 83.

    Randy P

    November 5, 2012 at 9:45 pm

    @jwb: The people at BBV are pretty careful to have evidence for their allegations. But you’re right in that it’s not enough to prosecute in many cases. In particular I remember the audit trail for the hacking story.

    I’m not going to get all tinfoil about this, but this stuff definitely does happen, and Ohio seems to have a tradition of it.

  84. 84.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 5, 2012 at 9:46 pm

    Democrats need to make it job #1 to get Husted out of office ASAP.

  85. 85.

    PsiFighter37

    November 5, 2012 at 9:46 pm

    Where’s our favorite in-house troll after these numbers?

    Is he furiously weeping in the corner?

    Is he furiously rubbing one out while listening the Mittens’ 47% video?

    Is he just furious, outright?

    I cannot WAIT to drink that little shithead’s tears tomorrow. I’ve been saying it repeatedly, but ambrosia and nectar, friends. Ambrosia and nectar.

    PF37 +3, because it wouldn’t be Election Day without a little pregaming

  86. 86.

    mainmati

    November 5, 2012 at 9:50 pm

    @aimai: Because the original Constitution left voting rules up to the states and it has only been because we got the Voting Rights Act in 1965 about depriving the right to vote that we have any kind of a sliver of democratic rights nowadays. The GOP are savages. Husted should be indicted by the DOJ if that’s possible (don’t know about the federalist aspect since he is a state elected official). Anyway, Kasich’s BS administration (trying to stay out of BJ jail) is a disgrace and I hope the voters eventually get rid of the GOP as a power. Probably not for many years.

  87. 87.

    priscianusjr

    November 5, 2012 at 9:59 pm

    Anybody who is surprised at what Husted and Rick Scott are pulling just hasn’t been following this guy:
    http://www.nationalreview.com/battleground-ohio/332045/could-ohio-be-next-florida-interview-hans-von-spakovsky-robert-alt#

  88. 88.

    Doug Danger

    November 5, 2012 at 10:00 pm

    Why is it that these voting machine ‘patches’ – produced and distributed by actors with a partisan agenda – are subject to less scrutiny than the run-of-the mill software we used to develop for a certain Space Agency?

  89. 89.

    AA+ Bonds

    November 5, 2012 at 10:02 pm

    @Viva BrisVegas:

    You know what tool is the best guarantor of democratic integrity? The pencil.

    Sure thing buddy, you use your pencil on that piece of paper and I’ll make sure it gets to the right place in my truck after a completely accurate count happens

    (winks) Don’t you worry about a thing!

  90. 90.

    priscianusjr

    November 5, 2012 at 10:03 pm

    @Michael2:

    But still, can’t you see Romney and Husted actually executing something according to plan?

    Yes, and this is the guy who wrote the plan:
    http://www.nationalreview.com/battleground-ohio/332045/could-ohio-be-next-florida-interview-hans-von-spakovsky-robert-alt#

    But I don’t think it’s going to work.

  91. 91.

    Hungry Joe

    November 5, 2012 at 10:08 pm

    I cannot fathom why we don’t use paper ballots for everything. So some longer, more complicated ballots might take a day or two, or even three, to tally — so what? It’s not as if winners take office immediately. The media wants results now, of course, but in a word (or rather, two), fuck them. We can check paper ballots. We can re-count. This what democracy looks like.

  92. 92.

    AA+ Bonds

    November 5, 2012 at 10:14 pm

    @Hungry Joe:

    Because if election officials are in the bag and get past the courts, it’s also pretty easy to tamper with totals with paper ballots; the ballots just need to ‘disappear’, for which you need a couple cardboard boxes, a truck, and a court system that doesn’t give a fuck

    Not to mention that long counts provide more means to tamper with elections each and every minute and hour they go on

  93. 93.

    Hungry Joe

    November 5, 2012 at 10:20 pm

    @AA+ Bonds: And a better method is … ?

    I guess we could do away with the secret ballot: Everyone stands before the community and declares his/her preference(s). That’d be easy enough to check. Some real drawbacks, though …

    Not trying to be snarky/flip/a jerk (though sometimes it does happen); paper just seems to me the easiest to control, though far from foolproof.

  94. 94.

    JGabriel

    November 5, 2012 at 10:25 pm

    @tratclif:

    The security gurus that have looked at it say it’s not on the voting machines themselves, but an upgrade to the vote-counting software that lets it report results in a different format.

    That’s my understanding too, but, without certification and testing, we can’t can’t really know that it doesn’t enable other less savory functions.

    .

  95. 95.

    jwb

    November 5, 2012 at 10:28 pm

    @PsiFighter37: UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH, BITCHEZ! VICTORY!

  96. 96.

    burnspbesq

    November 5, 2012 at 10:36 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Husted needs to be disbarred and locked up.

    It’s difficult to disbar someone who is not a member of any bar.

  97. 97.

    FlyingToaster

    November 5, 2012 at 10:37 pm

    @Hungry Joe: I can tell you, they work; and even Diebold scanner machines (if monitored) are fantastic for tabulating.

    About 12 years back, when I lived in Somerville, there was an alderman’s office where the election was down to 3 votes apart. Tabulated on a creaky old diebold scanner.

    The election officials took the 3 precinct boxes of ballots down to the floor of the high school, and live on SCATV, recounted the damn ballots by hand. And the winner won by 3 votes.

    What you do need is election officials of integrity, and some effing oversight. Cameras are nice that way.

    I’d love to lend Ohio our Prince of Darkness, but he’s going to be presiding over the traditional “where are the votes from Palmer? where are the votes from Fairhaven?” mishegas up here in the Bay State.

  98. 98.

    burnspbesq

    November 5, 2012 at 10:39 pm

    Neither the Columbus Dispatch nor the Cleveland Plain Dealer seem to be saying anything about this supposed litigation.

    I suppose it would be silly of me to wonder whether ABL went on PACER before hitting “Publish” and verified that it really exists.

  99. 99.

    Shalimar

    November 5, 2012 at 11:26 pm

    I live in a heavily Republican county in Florida. Based on the thoroughness of the OFA effort here, I’m assuming they basically know every single person who is voting Dem in areas of Ohio where the vote could be rigged and will be able to tell precinct by precinct if the totals are changed enough to affect the outcome. Which I hope means that the Justice Department is ready to swoop in and protect evidence if there is even a hint of fraud in the vote count. I’m not worried right now and won’t be tomorrow night even if there is a miraculous win for Romney in Ohio. Later in the week if no news comes out, maybe.

  100. 100.

    Shalimar

    November 5, 2012 at 11:29 pm

    @burnspbesq: Would it be silly of others to assume you could have gone on PACER yourself before questioning her integrity?

  101. 101.

    pseudonymous in nc

    November 5, 2012 at 11:53 pm

    The security gurus that have looked at it say it’s not on the voting machines themselves, but an upgrade to the vote-counting software that lets it report results in a different format.

    That’s sort of beside the point. It’s an absurdity to have the machinery of elections operate on a county-by-county and even a precinct-by-precinct basis. If you proposed that for a country moving to democracy from dictatorship, you would be laughed out of the room.

    We have enough trouble with fucking county board presidents in bumfuck who — oopsie! — forgot to put one set of results in the Excel spreadsheet..

  102. 102.

    TenguPhule

    November 6, 2012 at 1:23 am

    Since this story broke, the spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office, Mathew McClellan, has made false and contradictory statements to the press about the nature of the software and its legality.

    I’m sorry, what does it take to get a CIA kill team here? Does the man need to start devouring live babies on TV?

  103. 103.

    joel hanes

    November 6, 2012 at 1:29 am

    Brad Friedman, writing at Salon, has picked up the story

    It certainly smells like a rat to me.

    But what do I know?
    I’m just a computer engineer with 30 years experience.

  104. 104.

    joel hanes

    November 6, 2012 at 1:35 am

    @FlyingToaster:

    The beauty of rigged computer voting and tabulating equipment is that you can set it up to work perfectly accurately when people are watching, but to alter the vote and erase its footprints when that seems safe to do.

    Even if the system is open source, including the ROMS, and certified and vetted by computer scientists, this possibility still exists.
    See Reflections on Trusting Trust, Ken Thompson’s 1984 Turing Award Lecture

    The shorter : never use computers for vote entry or tabulation. The sophistication and depth of the possible hacks is effectively infinite; there really is no way to guarantee the integrity of the vote.

  105. 105.

    MTiffany

    November 6, 2012 at 3:02 am

    @redshirt: This, I think: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/10/27/gop-rigging-elections-for-romney/

  106. 106.

    Thlayli

    November 6, 2012 at 4:00 am

    I really hope Obama carries Ohio, for no other reason than to stop this “Diebold” shit every time.

    Are there issues with electronic machines? Sure. Is there room for a reasonable discussion of them? Sure.

    But all this “ZOMG THE OHIO MACHINES ARE RIGGED THEY’RE STEALING THE ELECTION BLARG ! ! 1 !” I’m done with it.

    Clearly the Democrats in Ohio aren’t bothered enough by this to elect a Dem SoS.

  107. 107.

    kay

    November 6, 2012 at 6:15 am

    I don’t think this legit and worse, if it succeeds (hopefully it won’t) all it would do is delay the count and give them an opportunity to contest ballots.

    Hopefully it fails.

    Whose brilliant idea was it to file a lawsuit to STOP vote-counting? Mitt Romney’s? Come on. We don’t need this here right now.

  108. 108.

    BobS

    November 6, 2012 at 8:02 am

    @Thlayli: Wouldn’t the same machines be used to elect the Ohio SoS?

  109. 109.

    BattleCat

    November 6, 2012 at 8:30 am

    @joel hanes:

    Code that compiles itself would,

    A: be obvious to anyone doing a code review,
    B: no longer match its own specified MD5 or SHA-1 hash,

    making any modifications to the deployed binary file immediately obvious to anyone performing site verification.

    This is no new technique — its the same system that’s been used by p2p networks for years, and FTP-based file distribution before that.

    The only security problem in a properly designed open source vote tabulation system is that you have to trust the people who have physical access to the hardware after the software on it has been deployed.

    Root is always king, after all.

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