GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@greens.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders urged the mainstream media to cover evidence, including a report from the
non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), which found that electronic voting machines can be manipulated
without detection, along with other evidence of election fraud and obstruction.
"Why won't the media cover the GAO report?", asked Gwen Wages, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "Just as major newspapers and broadcast media ignored indications that intelligence of Iraqi WMDs and collusion between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda had been cooked before the U.S. invaded Iraq, they're now ignoring the destruction of American democracy."
After Election Day, 2004, Green presidential candidate David Cobb
<http://www.votecobb.org> led efforts to investigate widespread reports of vote obstruction and manipulation by Republican and Democratic officials in Ohio and New Mexico, especially targeted at African American and young voters. Unlike 2000, the major U.S. media dismissed evidence compiled in 2004 by the Cobb campaign and revealed during hearings led by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) that Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and other Republican election officials used various means to fix the election's outcome.
Greens cited recent news about election manipulation, covered in independent print and Internet media:
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The GAO's 107-page report, released publicly on October 20, confirms that electronic voting machines are not secure, can easily be hacked, and often use secret, in-house software that is neither certified nor adequately inspected. The report supports many claims widely dismissed as 'conspiracy theories' that George W. Bush was placed in the White House through a fixed election in 2004, repeating the 2000 election theft. Mainstream media ignored the report's release.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05956.pdf
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Voter Action <http://www.voteraction.org>
reports that New Mexico election officials have refused to allow the voter plaintiffs in a law suit challenging the results of the 2004 Presidential Election (Patricia Rosas Lopategui v. Rebecca Vigil-Giron, et al.) to inspect electronic voting machines. ("Plaintiffs Blocked During Discovery Phase of New Mexico '04 Election Lawsuit", The Brad Blog, November 12,
2005.
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002008.htm
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Investigations by journalists Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman exposed electronic vote manipulation to prevent passage of four election reform proposals on the ballot in Ohio, after the outcome on November 8 was inconsistent to the point of statistical impossibility with polls of voters conducted by The Columbus Dispatch. ("Has American Democracy died an electronic death in Ohio 2005's referenda defeats?", The Free Press, November 11, 2005.
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1559
The Green Party has called for voter-verified paper ballots to provide an auditable record of votes cast on computer voting machines, and for voting machine source code designed to be open for public inspection and verification before and after an election.
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1711 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
"Federal Efforts to Improve Security and Reliability of Electronic
Voting Systems Are Under Way, but Key Activities Need to Be Completed"
United States Government Accountability Office, September 2005
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05956.pdf
http://www.gao.gov/htext/d05956.html
"Deep-rooted Voting Irregularities Persist, Watchdogs Say"
By Catherine Komp, The News Standard, November 10, 2005
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=2585
"Powerful Government Accounting Office report confirms key 2004 stolen election findings"
By Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman, Axis of Logic, November 1, 2005
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_19846.shtml
"None Dare Call It Stolen: Ohio, the election, and America 's servile press"
By Mark Crispin Miller, Harper's Magazine, August, 2005
http://harpers.org/ExcerptNoneDare.html