VOTE: New Mexico Lawsuit Looks Into Voteing Machines, page 1

posted on Nov, 6 2005 @ 04:38 PM

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A little known lawsuit called Lopategui et al versus the State of New Mexico has called attention to the irregularities and performance issues of voting machines, state and local election officials, employees of the voting machine vendor, Sequoia. The lawsuit so far shows that race may have been a factor in "under votes" or votes that where not counted.

www.scoop.co.nz
If you were a Hispanic American or Native American voting in New Mexico on November 4, 2004, you may have experienced some of the following:

The most likely problem was simply to find out that your vote for president or other offices was not counted. Ballots with missing votes are called “under votes.” In New Mexico there were around 23,000 under votes out of a total of about 750 thousand votes cast. That is a rate of 3.0% for the state, or six times the expected rate of under votes in a presidential election. In Hispanic and Native American precincts under votes range from 6% to as high as 49%. One poll worker described watching 141 voters come to the precinct, enter the polling booth where a voting machine awaited, stay for a short period, and leave. At the end of the day, there was only one vote counted for president. That’s a 99% plus rate of under votes for that precinct.

In another scenario, called election machine “vote switching,” one voter describes a scene that occurred throughout the state. The voter was choosing between Republican Heather Wilson and Democrat Richard Romero in the 1st Congressional District, near Albuquerque, NM. She recounts the frustrating story as follows:

"I voted for Richard Romero. The check did not appear in the box. I tried three more times to vote for Richard Romero, making sure that I was not touching the screen in any other place. The vote never registered. The fourth time that I tried to vote for Richard Romero, a check appeared in the box by Heather Wilson's name."

For the next 45 minutes, the voter sought help from an election official. None one was available. When help finally arrived, “The monitor came and cleared the machine and stood watching me as I voted again.” It finally seemed to take her vote for Democrat Romero. Describing the one hour ordeal to cast just one vote in one race, the voter said, “I have no idea if my vote was processed correctly.”

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

It's about time that these lawsuits started to happen. It's obvious that there was something funny (maybe not THAT funny, future of our children and all) about the 2004 elections. This lawsuit will hopefully not only show that, but also to help ensure our future votes are counted and accurate.

[edit on 6-11-2005 by cownosecat]

[edit on 6-11-2005 by cownosecat]

ChemicalLaser

posted on Nov, 6 2005 @ 09:46 PM

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There were a lot of irregularities with the 2000 election as well. Votes were magically found in toolboxes; voting machines with votes still in them were found in warehouses, etc. etc. Gore won by an incredibly small number of votes in 2000.
I heard about some of the problems described in the story last year but didn't realize it had ended up as a lawsuit; I'm not sure where the Hispanic issue plays into it. How does a machine tell the race of the voter? Another ongoing fraud in NM elections is related to the registration process. Hundreds upon hundreds of forged registrations have been filed with the state elections officials. Because New Mexico has no requirement for identification at the polls, I think the state actually encourages fraud.
A lot of problems that the story described are easily avoided by taking advantage of the early voting stations. Why wait for election day and risk the problems when you can go in 2 or 3 weeks early, and get a receipt showing how you voted? For example, my boss at the time of the 2004 elections was a Kerry fan. To prove my point about the crappy laws related to identification, I threatened to go to his district on election day and claim to be him and vote for Bush. We both voted early so that no one could disenfranchise us.
As far as Heather Wilson vs. Romero, the Dems have targeted that seat for the last 4 elections, if not more. They spend an enormous amount of money, but as far as I have been able to tell, have put up the weakest candidates I have ever seen. Wilson has never carried the seat by more than a few % points.
While the electoral politics have been amusing for the last 8 years, I'm really glad I'm getting out of this ridiculous state.

Nygdan

posted on Nov, 7 2005 @ 07:28 AM

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An undervote will register tho if you go into a booth and fill out, say, just the selection for president, and nothing else, or leave any positions unchecked.

LazarusTheLong

posted on Nov, 7 2005 @ 11:39 AM

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I actually went back to my college political science teacher and pointed out all the amazing "firsts" that happened in the 2000 election...
(as well as a poke at the "never say never" rule)

first off, here are some amazing facts that will surprise you r.

Who will win the presidential election has never been unpredictable...
thru various consistancies, we used to be able to predict the president with almost perfect accuracy... well before the campaign...
the winning factors:

the most money spent (always the winner)
the election polls have only been wrong once before...(before 2000)
the exit polls have never been wrong within margin of error...(close races might not show)

the last 2 elections have revealed to me, that the election system is flawed/corrupt... and no longer accurate, and thereby, no longer predictable.

Full Metal

posted on Nov, 7 2005 @ 02:36 PM

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It isn't flawed or outdated, it's just the republicans are evil. Why do you think no mistakes supported Gore? No, every mistake went to supporting Bush. Now, say there are 100 mistakes, you'd think at least 1 would be in favor of Gore.

Not to mention republicans putting up flyers in black neighborhoods telling them that the elections were on the wrong day. But in the words of Bush Bot/Carseller4

"If you ain't cheatin you ain't trying!"

cownosecat

posted on Nov, 7 2005 @ 02:51 PM

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Thanks for the replies! This was my first ATSNN submission. How do I edit it? I want this to get approved and have thought of a better title, etc. thanks!

LazarusTheLong

posted on Nov, 8 2005 @ 05:47 PM

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Just an additional note...
blackboxvoting.org is a clearing house for election fraud info...
I hope that the mods dont have a problem with giving out this important link...

they show that in 2000 Gore got negative votes in many precincts...
that can't happen unless there is a glitch...
and that of course favors you know who...

they also show many very suspicious connections that can't be made in a thread like this...

good researching to ya...
vote for the honest party in 2008 (when we finally start one)