Now we're talking

Superior Court of New Jersey issued subpoenas a few hours ago for Sequoia's voting machine testing records, including in our own Ocean County.

Election officials in Bergen, Gloucester, Mercer, Middlesex, Ocean and Union counties were instructed to turn over the machines by April 15. Activists trying to persuade Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg that electronic voting machines should be discarded succeeded in convincing her that examining these counties' machines is critical to their case.


"In order to succeed in our case and show Sequoia machines are insecure and can be hacked into, we need to look at these machines," Venetis argued. Clerks in the six counties uncovered discrepancies in 60 machines when they doubled check the vote tallies after the Feb. 5 presidential primary.

The Star-Ledger is planning a full story in the morning, so we'll keep you posted.

Ed Felton on Friday posted on his blog that the discrepancies were worse than originally thought.

This week we obtained six new summary tapes, from machines in Bergen and Gloucester counties. Two of these new tapes contradict Sequoia’s explanation and show more serious discrepancies that we saw before.

I knew it!

As a country girl, I know my rural brethren are far wiser than smug urban/suburbanites think. Conservative, yes, but stupid, no.

So, I'm thrilled to see Michael Collins' report on stats that disprove the urban myth that rural America boosted George W. Bush over the top in 2004.

Bush had 2 million fewer votes from the paper-ballot rural sector in 2004 than 2000. The city turnout -- where votes were counted almost entirely on electronic black boxes and where Democratic precincts were shorted, even after RNC "caging" of minority voters -- rose 66% in 2004 and uncharacteristically increased support for Bush from 26% in 2000 to 39% in 2004.

Anyone who keeps a file on election or vote fraud will want to download this report.

Vote fraud tortoise and the hare

The tortoise won in that story, and so, it seems is presumed congressional loser Clint Curtis. The computer-programmer-turned-politician is coming out ahead in his actual voter-by-voter private recount of the Florida's 24th district and others. (And, thank you, Brad Friedman for finally changing your seizure-inducing green-on-black type scheme, phew!)

Looks like Rep. Tom Feeney got greedy. An intellectual, he is not. Curtis, who worked for Feeney in private industry back in 2000, when he says Feeney as a then-Republican lobbyist had Curtis write a vote-stealing program for the black boxes then in use, was running consistently even in polls with Feeney yet lost by 16 percent.

What would you do if that happened to you in a poll of 10 people in the room? I'd go ask the 10 people if they really voted for the other guy. That's what Curtis is doing, and affidavits already show statistical proof to back him up.

Back on Capitol Hill, will he be able to get the holes patched in N.J. Rep. Rush Holt's bill?: "They seem to be getting it in D.C. now. You know, Holt put out his bill. There’s a few things that need to be fixed. But there are several people that are willing to put the amendments out there."