Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Possible RTA election fraud focus of lawsuit
Arizona Daily Independent
This week Pima County administrator Chuck Huckleberry claimed that a law forward by State Representative Terry Proud and signed by the Governor, HB2408, was retaliatory. The law calls for an audit of the Pima County Bonding disbursements. Huckleberry and an editorial in the newspaper, the Arizona Daily Star, argued that if Proud wanted the information, all she had to do was ask for it.
However, for over 4 years, various interests have asked Huckleberry for information regarding the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) election on May 16, 2006. At the time of the election, questions arose regarding the election results almost immediately. They persist in the form of a lawsuit in Arizona Superior Court.
The stated goal of a lawsuit filed in Arizona Superior Court by Tucson attorney Bill Risner on behalf of the Libertarian Party is “to protect the “purity of elections” in the future, starting with the 2012 elections. The lawsuit is based on two facts; “At the present time it is easy to cheat using our election computers and impossible to challenge a rigged election.”
The lawsuit alleges that “Pima County, through the direction and control of its county administrator C.H. “Chuck” Huckelberry, has systematically subverted critical controls required to protect the purity of elections. The elimination of those controls has permitted county management to take advantage of the ability to cheat presented by defects in our computerized election system.”
The central allegation in the suit is that “county management fraudulently rigged the Regional Transportation Authority election.”
The Pima County Democratic Party had previously taken on the issue. It was through the Discovery process in that effort, that the current suit bases its allegations. In papers filed with the court, lawyers claim that from “three other lawsuits involving the Pima County Democratic Party and Pima County,” a path was provided “for future discovery that must be followed in this lawsuit.”
The Libertarian Party argues that “The ease of cheating when matched with the impossibility of challenging any specific election requires court intervention in order to protect the purity of elections and ensure that we will have free elections.” They cite three Arizona Constitution sections as the basis of their claim, including Arizona Constitution Art. 2 § 21, which requires all elections to be “free and equal
Lawsuit highlights:
It Is Easy To Cheat With Pima County’s Computerized Election System
The most important legal and factual building block of this lawsuit is the agreed upon fact that it is very easy to cheat with our election computer software. The ease of cheating may be counterintuitive, especially among those least familiar with computers, but it is a fact. The ease of cheating may be a surprise even to those who are familiar with computers but whose familiarity was derived from securely developed programs. Our election computer system has quite simply been built to cheat and, at least for that goal, it has succeeded.
However, for over 4 years, various interests have asked Huckleberry for information regarding the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) election on May 16, 2006. At the time of the election, questions arose regarding the election results almost immediately. They persist in the form of a lawsuit in Arizona Superior Court.
The stated goal of a lawsuit filed in Arizona Superior Court by Tucson attorney Bill Risner on behalf of the Libertarian Party is “to protect the “purity of elections” in the future, starting with the 2012 elections. The lawsuit is based on two facts; “At the present time it is easy to cheat using our election computers and impossible to challenge a rigged election.”
The lawsuit alleges that “Pima County, through the direction and control of its county administrator C.H. “Chuck” Huckelberry, has systematically subverted critical controls required to protect the purity of elections. The elimination of those controls has permitted county management to take advantage of the ability to cheat presented by defects in our computerized election system.”
The central allegation in the suit is that “county management fraudulently rigged the Regional Transportation Authority election.”
The Pima County Democratic Party had previously taken on the issue. It was through the Discovery process in that effort, that the current suit bases its allegations. In papers filed with the court, lawyers claim that from “three other lawsuits involving the Pima County Democratic Party and Pima County,” a path was provided “for future discovery that must be followed in this lawsuit.”
The Libertarian Party argues that “The ease of cheating when matched with the impossibility of challenging any specific election requires court intervention in order to protect the purity of elections and ensure that we will have free elections.” They cite three Arizona Constitution sections as the basis of their claim, including Arizona Constitution Art. 2 § 21, which requires all elections to be “free and equal
Lawsuit highlights:
It Is Easy To Cheat With Pima County’s Computerized Election System
The most important legal and factual building block of this lawsuit is the agreed upon fact that it is very easy to cheat with our election computer software. The ease of cheating may be counterintuitive, especially among those least familiar with computers, but it is a fact. The ease of cheating may be a surprise even to those who are familiar with computers but whose familiarity was derived from securely developed programs. Our election computer system has quite simply been built to cheat and, at least for that goal, it has succeeded.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Battle Over Ballots
Tucson Weekly
Mari Herreras
Almost five years after the RTA election, a group of activists keeps fighting for election integrity
Tucson attorney Bill Risner stood before a Pima County Superior Court judge earlier this month and asked the court to take another look at the 2006 Regional Transportation Authority election.
Risner said there was enough apparent foul play involved for the court to change how ballots are counted in the county.
Yes, folks: The election-integrity battle rages on.
In the May 2006 RTA election, voters approved a 20-year, $2.1 billion transportation plan funded by a half-cent increase in the sales tax, with 60 percent of voters supporting the plan, and 58 percent supporting the half-cent sales tax.
Risner and other critics questioned the results when the plan passed, citing conflicting polls and precinct reports, and pointing out that the growth lobby had a lot to gain in a $2.1 billion plan to pay for roads and improvements.
Among other things, activists asked the state Attorney General's Office to look at anomalies detected in computer software that the county used to track votes. The anomalies issue led to a successful public-records lawsuit in 2010 that gave the Pima County Democratic Party access to the computer database for the RTA election.
The next legal challenge: asking the court to allow the public to look at the RTA ballots and other elections materials still in storage. Before that hearing ended, then-Attorney General Terry Goddard had the ballots inspected and counted, and determined there was no foul play. Critics, however, contended that a forensic analysis of the ballots should be done, and that key election reports were missing.
Mari Herreras
Almost five years after the RTA election, a group of activists keeps fighting for election integrity
 |
| Bill Risner: "We want an order to keep them from cheating in the future. This court does have jurisdiction to see that the Constitution is followed in Arizona." |
Risner said there was enough apparent foul play involved for the court to change how ballots are counted in the county.
Yes, folks: The election-integrity battle rages on.
In the May 2006 RTA election, voters approved a 20-year, $2.1 billion transportation plan funded by a half-cent increase in the sales tax, with 60 percent of voters supporting the plan, and 58 percent supporting the half-cent sales tax.
Risner and other critics questioned the results when the plan passed, citing conflicting polls and precinct reports, and pointing out that the growth lobby had a lot to gain in a $2.1 billion plan to pay for roads and improvements.
Among other things, activists asked the state Attorney General's Office to look at anomalies detected in computer software that the county used to track votes. The anomalies issue led to a successful public-records lawsuit in 2010 that gave the Pima County Democratic Party access to the computer database for the RTA election.
The next legal challenge: asking the court to allow the public to look at the RTA ballots and other elections materials still in storage. Before that hearing ended, then-Attorney General Terry Goddard had the ballots inspected and counted, and determined there was no foul play. Critics, however, contended that a forensic analysis of the ballots should be done, and that key election reports were missing.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Arizona Election Fraud: Attorney Bill Risner's Argument Reaffirms the Need for Election Integrity
In Tucson, Arizona, today's hearing had two remarkable features. First, the lack of substance behind Pima County's motion to dismiss and, second, Bill Risner's argument reaffirming the purpose and significance this court case has for future elections. Here's is Bill Risner's argument on behalf of the trial itself:
The whole point of the appeal won by the Libertarian party was that courts do have jurisdiction to issue orders to ensure fair, transparent elections when the legislative branch and the executive branch fail to do so. In an obvious stall tactic, Pima County decided to make the same arguments that were lost in the appellate court decision.
"You don't have subject matter jurisdiction for that" argued Pima County's private attorney Ronna Fickbohm in reference to ballot scans, a remedy proposed by the Libertarian party. Currently practiced in Humbolt County, California, ballot scanning is the measure making optical scans of the ballots available for public perusal. Fickbohm continued to argue against the appellate court decision by insisting that proposed remedies can only be handled by the legislature. The Libertarian party already established the failure of the legislative branch to offer a timely remedy and won the appeal based on that argument.
Additional points made by Pima County seemed to involve technicalities where none really existed. Ronna Fickbohm makes the argument that the plaintiff doesn't "say there's an ongoing problem of election fraud in the future." The judge may not appreciate this argument given the fact that removing Pima County's ability to cheat was the basic, implicit underpinning of the case for prospective relief.
Finally, Pima County attempted to rewrite recent history by suggesting that previous statements recorded in their last records trial are taken out of context and never meant to indicate that their software system was a security issue.
Here is Pima County Attorney Chris Straub (replaced by the pricier private counsel, Ronna Fickbohm) clearly making the argument on behalf of the plaintiff. You can decide whether it's taken out of context:
Here is today's entire hearing:
Video shot and edited by John Brakey
The whole point of the appeal won by the Libertarian party was that courts do have jurisdiction to issue orders to ensure fair, transparent elections when the legislative branch and the executive branch fail to do so. In an obvious stall tactic, Pima County decided to make the same arguments that were lost in the appellate court decision.
"You don't have subject matter jurisdiction for that" argued Pima County's private attorney Ronna Fickbohm in reference to ballot scans, a remedy proposed by the Libertarian party. Currently practiced in Humbolt County, California, ballot scanning is the measure making optical scans of the ballots available for public perusal. Fickbohm continued to argue against the appellate court decision by insisting that proposed remedies can only be handled by the legislature. The Libertarian party already established the failure of the legislative branch to offer a timely remedy and won the appeal based on that argument.
Additional points made by Pima County seemed to involve technicalities where none really existed. Ronna Fickbohm makes the argument that the plaintiff doesn't "say there's an ongoing problem of election fraud in the future." The judge may not appreciate this argument given the fact that removing Pima County's ability to cheat was the basic, implicit underpinning of the case for prospective relief.
Finally, Pima County attempted to rewrite recent history by suggesting that previous statements recorded in their last records trial are taken out of context and never meant to indicate that their software system was a security issue.
Here is Pima County Attorney Chris Straub (replaced by the pricier private counsel, Ronna Fickbohm) clearly making the argument on behalf of the plaintiff. You can decide whether it's taken out of context:
Here is today's entire hearing:
Video shot and edited by John Brakey
Friday, March 2, 2012
Arizona Election Fraud: Access Tucson Breaks Media Blackout
Dear Citizens Against Rigged Elections:
PLEASE, be in court with us, we need a big presence to show that this is a critical case and “we the people” are paying attention and we expect the judge to do the same.
Monday March 5th- 11:00 AM
Judge Kyle Bryson’s Courtroom, Fifth Floor,
Pima Superior Court: 110 W. Congress, Tucson, AZ
For those who can’t make it, we will be video recording and will upload to our AUDITAZ’s YouTube channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/AUDITAZ/featured
Last Friday we did Stewart Thomas TV show (above) called World Harmony: Can It Happen? (a program that tries to bring more peace and human harmony into our world)
Tonight's Topic - ELECTION INTEGRITY: AN UPDATE WITH NATIONAL IMPLICATIONS!
Our guests:
- Bill Risner, Attorney
- Jim March, Board Member of Black Box Voting
- John Brakey, Election Integrity Activist with AUDIT AZ stands for “American United for Democracy Integrity and Transparency in elections Arizona
PROTECTING THE PURITY OF ELECTIONS
THE INITIAL DISCLOSURE STATEMENT FILED BY PLAINTIFF ATTORNEY BILL RISNER ON 1/12/12 IS A GREAT COMPREHENSIVE STATEMENT OF FACTS: http://tinyurl.com/LPFiling
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Arizona Election Fraud: Pima County Continues to Delay Forensic Exam of RTA Ballots
Editor's Note: This crucial court case is currently experiencing a media blackout among local Tucson press. This includes the Arizona Daily Star and the Tucson Weekly. This case is a textbook example of a battle waged by the growth lobby against the will of the population. The reason why the county is using such extreme measures to stop this trial is that the plaintiff, the Libertarian Party, may conduct discovery which includes a forensic exam of the RTA ballots to demonstrate to the courts that the 2006 RTA election calling for a two billion dollar twenty-year sales tax hike was rigged. This is the prerequisite for the courts to grant prospective relief for rigged elections.
If they felt they would be exonerated, Pima County would welcome the scrutiny. Instead, it appears that Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry is pushing his attorneys to use all conceivable tactics to delay and obstruct the procedure, which would ultimately benefit the nation as a precedent-setting court case aimed at improving election integrity.
AUDITAZ
John Brakey
Video of Court Hearing: http://youtu.be/yGALqZGvaRs
THE INITIAL DISCLOSURE STATEMENT FILED BY PLAINTIFF ON 1/12/12 IS A GREAT COMPREHENSIVE STATEMENT OF FACTS: http://tinyurl.com/LPFiling
PROTECTING THE PURITY OF ELECTIONS
IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
THE STATE OF ARIZONA IN AND FOR
THE COUNTY OF PIMA
CASE NO. C20085016
HEARING ON JAN 30, 2012 2:30 PM
COURT ROOM OF THE HON. KYLE BRYSON
RAW FOOTAGE RUNS 37 MIN
Defendant Pima County's Attorney Ronna Fickbohm, files and gets "emergency hearing" based on false certification to request the court to stop deposition of Pima Co’s Election Director Brad Nelson. UPDATE: DEPOSITIONS GET GREEN LIGHT FROM JUDGE TO GO FORWARD.
Plaintiff's attorneys, Bill Risner and Ralph E. Ellinwood file Motion to Strike and Sanction Pima County for misleading the Court, filed:1.27.12: http://tinyurl.com/7krbr4c
Plaintiff also filed a motion in response to Defendant Motion for Protective Order filed 1.30.12: http://tinyurl.com/83qk3mq
Pima County is doing everything possible to stop this case from going forward including filing motion based on deception. http://tinyurl.com/7krbr4c
The case is as fundamental as it gets. What we're seeking "prospective relief" so they cannot cheat in the future. ANDREA WITTE "THE CONNECT THE DOTS LADY" has connected the dots into a 10-Point Quick Summary of The Fact pattern in this gripping saga of power and deceit. And we propose a remedy that is easy, inexpensive and doable. Link to Flyer: http://tinyurl.com/7amy6ff
Since our saga began over five years ago, more and more people across America are becoming aware of the serious security flaws in computerized voting systems. They are systems designed to cheat, and they are everywhere. As the political scene heats up with the Presidential election, all eyes will be on Tucson as ground zero for exposing these flaws in open court and proposing reasonable checks and balances in the system. We must protect the purity of elections and public confidence in election results — a cornerstone of our democracy. That's what this case is ultimately about. http://fatallyflawedelections.blogspot.com/
BACKGROUND: AUDIT-AZ, the Pima County Libertarian Party and other interested citizens of multiple parties for years have been investigating election processes in Pima County. In previous actions, the Democratic Party took the lead in winning public records lawsuits and revealing the extent of the problems, including poor security practices on "designed to cheat" systems, election results that consistently did not add up, missing or falsified paper, and election officials and staff who continuously flout the law.
AUDIT-AZ will be running the pool camera and if you can't make it to court you can watch the proceeding on our AUDITAZ's Channel on YouTube the next day: http://www.youtube.com/user/AUDITAZ/featured
If they felt they would be exonerated, Pima County would welcome the scrutiny. Instead, it appears that Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry is pushing his attorneys to use all conceivable tactics to delay and obstruct the procedure, which would ultimately benefit the nation as a precedent-setting court case aimed at improving election integrity.
AUDITAZ
John Brakey
Video of Court Hearing: http://youtu.be/yGALqZGvaRs
THE INITIAL DISCLOSURE STATEMENT FILED BY PLAINTIFF ON 1/12/12 IS A GREAT COMPREHENSIVE STATEMENT OF FACTS: http://tinyurl.com/LPFiling
PROTECTING THE PURITY OF ELECTIONS
IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
THE STATE OF ARIZONA IN AND FOR
THE COUNTY OF PIMA
CASE NO. C20085016
HEARING ON JAN 30, 2012 2:30 PM
COURT ROOM OF THE HON. KYLE BRYSON
RAW FOOTAGE RUNS 37 MIN
Defendant Pima County's Attorney Ronna Fickbohm, files and gets "emergency hearing" based on false certification to request the court to stop deposition of Pima Co’s Election Director Brad Nelson. UPDATE: DEPOSITIONS GET GREEN LIGHT FROM JUDGE TO GO FORWARD.
Plaintiff's attorneys, Bill Risner and Ralph E. Ellinwood file Motion to Strike and Sanction Pima County for misleading the Court, filed:1.27.12: http://tinyurl.com/7krbr4c
Plaintiff also filed a motion in response to Defendant Motion for Protective Order filed 1.30.12: http://tinyurl.com/83qk3mq
Pima County is doing everything possible to stop this case from going forward including filing motion based on deception. http://tinyurl.com/7krbr4c
The case is as fundamental as it gets. What we're seeking "prospective relief" so they cannot cheat in the future. ANDREA WITTE "THE CONNECT THE DOTS LADY" has connected the dots into a 10-Point Quick Summary of The Fact pattern in this gripping saga of power and deceit. And we propose a remedy that is easy, inexpensive and doable. Link to Flyer: http://tinyurl.com/7amy6ff
Since our saga began over five years ago, more and more people across America are becoming aware of the serious security flaws in computerized voting systems. They are systems designed to cheat, and they are everywhere. As the political scene heats up with the Presidential election, all eyes will be on Tucson as ground zero for exposing these flaws in open court and proposing reasonable checks and balances in the system. We must protect the purity of elections and public confidence in election results — a cornerstone of our democracy. That's what this case is ultimately about. http://fatallyflawedelections.blogspot.com/
BACKGROUND: AUDIT-AZ, the Pima County Libertarian Party and other interested citizens of multiple parties for years have been investigating election processes in Pima County. In previous actions, the Democratic Party took the lead in winning public records lawsuits and revealing the extent of the problems, including poor security practices on "designed to cheat" systems, election results that consistently did not add up, missing or falsified paper, and election officials and staff who continuously flout the law.
AUDIT-AZ will be running the pool camera and if you can't make it to court you can watch the proceeding on our AUDITAZ's Channel on YouTube the next day: http://www.youtube.com/user/AUDITAZ/featured
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Arizona Election Fraud: Pima County's Desperate Arguments Against the Court's Protection of Evidence
J.T. Waldron
Whether they are denying statements made in a hearing four days ago or they are claiming that the Libertarian party's motivation for prospective relief is to "make a movie", Pima County appears to be in a state of panic. After the Arizona Libertarian Party won their appeal for prospective relief for rigged elections, last week's initial hearings were prolonged by the county's absurd arguments against rudimentary measures to protect evidence and to learn how evidence was previously handled.
The evidence in question rests in cardboard boxes at an Iron Mountain storage facility, which is holding poll tapes, summary reports, ballots and other paperwork involving the 2006 Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) election.
Pima County's private attorney Ronna Fickbohm claimed last Friday, "Pima County has never said, 'we object to simply asking Beth Ford to get a certified statement from Iron Mountain listing who's accessed the records since the day they came to them and show it to you.'" Fickbohm contradicts her own testimony from the previous Monday. Bill Risner, an attorney working with the Libertarian party, promptly reminded Judge Kyle Bryson last Friday, "At the last hearing, where we were talking about deposing Iron Mountain and Ronna Fickbohm was arguing, Pima County was arguing against that. Her argument talked about how 'in front of Judge Borek, she was successfully able on behalf of Pima County to prevent us from obtaining information about what happened to those boxes. '"
Pima County's other private lawyer assigned to represent Treasurer Beth Ford, John Richardson, introduced a procedure making Beth Ford an inextricable part of the process designed to protect the ballots. Rather than making ballot custody an impartial process by removing all parties and leaving any orders to the judge, both Richardson and Fickbohm presented arguments about how such a court order could potentially implicate Beth Ford by suggesting there is good cause to protect the ballots.
As Bill Risner states last Friday, "The good cause is that it's important evidence that needs to be protected. That's the good cause...it was stunning what was done with this court's vault, which simply heightens the need for it to be clear to Iron Mountain...much better than a complicated order that relies on Ford's communication ... They repeatedly say that 'Gee, Ford's done this really great job', but if she did such a great job, how come Iron Mountain says 'No one ever told us'."
On May 18th, 2007, Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry (who sets the county treasurer's budget) issued a memorandum instructing his legal team about the need to secure all evidence involving the 2006 RTA election. Later testimony confirmed, however, that no actual action or enforcement was implemented. According to testimony by an Iron Mountain employee, no specific instructions concerning the handling of the ballots were delivered to Iron Mountain. Pima County's private attorney Ronna Fickbohm goes to great lengths to dispute Bill Risner's reference to the memo as a press release. She says, "It wasn't a press release. It wasn't directed to Mr. Risner somehow Mr. Risner got a hold of it. It doesn't matter. It wasn't a big secret."
Fickbohm is correct in stating that it wasn't a big secret because that 'memo' was released to the local press at the end of the day. Reading the memo, the public's last impression comes from the final sentence, "We need to take action to ensure that all documentation, ballots, electronic files and other information sources are secured so they cannot be altered, tampered with or destroyed as I am sure an accurate independent review of this material will verify that the allegations made by Mr. Risner are absolutely untrue." This document can formally be labelled a memo, but it was clearly an exercise in public relations.
Initially, Pima County's refusal to disclose electronic public records for the RTA election sparked a lawsuit by the Democratic party. Pima County spent over one million dollars in their failed attempt to prevent public disclosure of election data, which eventually was released to the Democratic party.
This release, however, was marred by Pima County employee John Moffatt's violation of the court order requesting the transfer of the data to both parties at the same time. Moffatt managed to gain possession of the data from the county vault prior to the Democratic party finding out about the order. This acquisition occurred with no signature or paper trail.
In the following trial for prospective relief, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard grabbed the boxes of ballots the moment it was established that the Democratic party would gain access to the poll tapes that are included in the boxes. The Democratic party had experts ready to examine them for fraud. In addition to grabbing the poll tapes, Goddard's apparent purpose was to count the ballots in an attempt to vindicate Pima County. At this point, the Democratic Party abandoned their legal pursuit of prospective relief, but continued to fight for access to the poll tapes.
The Libertarian Party remained and succeeded in obtaining a precedent-setting ruling on behalf of prospective relief for elections so the court can intervene once there is a failure of existing laws and law enforcement (Goddard's investigation) to protect election integrity.
In the previous records case, Pima County admitted that software security is so bad, altering the outcome of an election is easy. In fact, the county is estopped from arguing otherwise in this current case for prospective relief. The county may eventually find itself in a similar position if they continue to make statements inferring that the RTA election was not rigged.
The Libertarian party intends to get a forensic examination of the RTA ballots to determine whether the cardboard boxes have been 'stuffed' with ballots generated by an ink-jet ballot-on-demand printer owned by Pima County. Terry Goddard refused such an examination despite the fact he was aware of the incident with John Moffatt and the Pima County vault. Another peculiar omission in Goddard's very public recount of the ballots behind glass was his refusal to incorporate basic auditing procedures. No sufficient audit took place because there was no comparison of the ballot totals to the precinct totals or poll tapes.
The Democratic party battled on for another year of litigation to gain access to the poll tapes. Over one third of the tapes were missing. Another 10% of the the poll tapes do not match the precincts they were supposed to match. The missing and errant poll tapes correspond to the precincts that had problems with memory card uploads. Problems with memory card uploads indicate attempts to reprogram the cards using an industrial farmer's crop scanner, a device that the Pima County Elections Division possessed during the RTA election.
"What this is really about, Judge, is the creation of new film footage for their commercial enterprise." said Ronna Fickbohm to Judge Bryson last Friday, "If you go online and Google fatallyflawedthemovie.com you will see a documentary that Mr. Brakey had asked you to film today put together starring Mr. Risner that was commercially available over the internet for twenty bucks a pop and it was even screened at the Loft."
John Brakey of CARE and AUDITAZ was operating the camera for the press pool footage of last Friday's hearing embedded at the end of this article.
Edited together with no narration or talking head interviews, the completed documentary, "Fatally Flawed" enables its audience to relive the experience of those who cared about the integrity of elections in Pima County. It has proven to be an important tool for the public interest to help educate viewers about what transpired between Pima County and election integrity advocates in pursuit of election transparency. It also contains important video evidence, like the footage of John Moffatt's county court shenanigans. This type of documentation makes the revision of past events much more difficult.
In addition to what's in the movie, there is footage of an array of tables behind glass at Goddard's recount.
Continuous running footage of one table's entire process of counting the RTA ballots shows identically sized cardboard boxes filled to the top edge with approximately 1600 ballots. Additional footage shows another table's complete count filling the same-sized box to the same level with approximately 1000 ballots. One of the crucial specifications in any print job is the paper thickness, especially when ballots are involved. This could be a troublesome dilemma for any last minute attempts at 'correcting the situation' by accessing the boxes a second time and replacing ballots for the purpose of passing a forensic exam. A successful switch would require ballots of the same quantity of different sizes to fit in the same number of equal sized boxes in exactly the same way they were filmed during Goddard's recount.
Referring to the boxes of evidence, Bill Risner tells Judge Bryson, "Whatever's in them needs to be protected. We certainly can't trust Pima County. The games in terms of that sort of stuff need to stop... It's hard to have faith, really, in any storage in view of what Pima County did to the vault of this court. That is out of my comprehension that someone can simply walk in and walk out, but they did it and that was a demonstration of incredible authority and power within the system. Demonstration of who's in control. Phenomenal. "
Pima County's desperate measures will not distract from the Libertarian party's primary goal behind this litigation - to ensure fair transparent elections for the future and prevent cheating by Pima County in upcoming elections. This case for prospective relief through the courts is a major milestone that could help with election transparency across the nation. Hopefully, Pima County will abandon or exhaust all delaying tactics and approach a timely outcome within this election year. There is far too much at stake.
Whether they are denying statements made in a hearing four days ago or they are claiming that the Libertarian party's motivation for prospective relief is to "make a movie", Pima County appears to be in a state of panic. After the Arizona Libertarian Party won their appeal for prospective relief for rigged elections, last week's initial hearings were prolonged by the county's absurd arguments against rudimentary measures to protect evidence and to learn how evidence was previously handled.
The evidence in question rests in cardboard boxes at an Iron Mountain storage facility, which is holding poll tapes, summary reports, ballots and other paperwork involving the 2006 Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) election.
Pima County's private attorney Ronna Fickbohm claimed last Friday, "Pima County has never said, 'we object to simply asking Beth Ford to get a certified statement from Iron Mountain listing who's accessed the records since the day they came to them and show it to you.'" Fickbohm contradicts her own testimony from the previous Monday. Bill Risner, an attorney working with the Libertarian party, promptly reminded Judge Kyle Bryson last Friday, "At the last hearing, where we were talking about deposing Iron Mountain and Ronna Fickbohm was arguing, Pima County was arguing against that. Her argument talked about how 'in front of Judge Borek, she was successfully able on behalf of Pima County to prevent us from obtaining information about what happened to those boxes. '"
Pima County's other private lawyer assigned to represent Treasurer Beth Ford, John Richardson, introduced a procedure making Beth Ford an inextricable part of the process designed to protect the ballots. Rather than making ballot custody an impartial process by removing all parties and leaving any orders to the judge, both Richardson and Fickbohm presented arguments about how such a court order could potentially implicate Beth Ford by suggesting there is good cause to protect the ballots.
As Bill Risner states last Friday, "The good cause is that it's important evidence that needs to be protected. That's the good cause...it was stunning what was done with this court's vault, which simply heightens the need for it to be clear to Iron Mountain...much better than a complicated order that relies on Ford's communication ... They repeatedly say that 'Gee, Ford's done this really great job', but if she did such a great job, how come Iron Mountain says 'No one ever told us'."
On May 18th, 2007, Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry (who sets the county treasurer's budget) issued a memorandum instructing his legal team about the need to secure all evidence involving the 2006 RTA election. Later testimony confirmed, however, that no actual action or enforcement was implemented. According to testimony by an Iron Mountain employee, no specific instructions concerning the handling of the ballots were delivered to Iron Mountain. Pima County's private attorney Ronna Fickbohm goes to great lengths to dispute Bill Risner's reference to the memo as a press release. She says, "It wasn't a press release. It wasn't directed to Mr. Risner somehow Mr. Risner got a hold of it. It doesn't matter. It wasn't a big secret."
Fickbohm is correct in stating that it wasn't a big secret because that 'memo' was released to the local press at the end of the day. Reading the memo, the public's last impression comes from the final sentence, "We need to take action to ensure that all documentation, ballots, electronic files and other information sources are secured so they cannot be altered, tampered with or destroyed as I am sure an accurate independent review of this material will verify that the allegations made by Mr. Risner are absolutely untrue." This document can formally be labelled a memo, but it was clearly an exercise in public relations.
Initially, Pima County's refusal to disclose electronic public records for the RTA election sparked a lawsuit by the Democratic party. Pima County spent over one million dollars in their failed attempt to prevent public disclosure of election data, which eventually was released to the Democratic party.
This release, however, was marred by Pima County employee John Moffatt's violation of the court order requesting the transfer of the data to both parties at the same time. Moffatt managed to gain possession of the data from the county vault prior to the Democratic party finding out about the order. This acquisition occurred with no signature or paper trail.
In the following trial for prospective relief, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard grabbed the boxes of ballots the moment it was established that the Democratic party would gain access to the poll tapes that are included in the boxes. The Democratic party had experts ready to examine them for fraud. In addition to grabbing the poll tapes, Goddard's apparent purpose was to count the ballots in an attempt to vindicate Pima County. At this point, the Democratic Party abandoned their legal pursuit of prospective relief, but continued to fight for access to the poll tapes.
The Libertarian Party remained and succeeded in obtaining a precedent-setting ruling on behalf of prospective relief for elections so the court can intervene once there is a failure of existing laws and law enforcement (Goddard's investigation) to protect election integrity.
In the previous records case, Pima County admitted that software security is so bad, altering the outcome of an election is easy. In fact, the county is estopped from arguing otherwise in this current case for prospective relief. The county may eventually find itself in a similar position if they continue to make statements inferring that the RTA election was not rigged.
The Libertarian party intends to get a forensic examination of the RTA ballots to determine whether the cardboard boxes have been 'stuffed' with ballots generated by an ink-jet ballot-on-demand printer owned by Pima County. Terry Goddard refused such an examination despite the fact he was aware of the incident with John Moffatt and the Pima County vault. Another peculiar omission in Goddard's very public recount of the ballots behind glass was his refusal to incorporate basic auditing procedures. No sufficient audit took place because there was no comparison of the ballot totals to the precinct totals or poll tapes.
The Democratic party battled on for another year of litigation to gain access to the poll tapes. Over one third of the tapes were missing. Another 10% of the the poll tapes do not match the precincts they were supposed to match. The missing and errant poll tapes correspond to the precincts that had problems with memory card uploads. Problems with memory card uploads indicate attempts to reprogram the cards using an industrial farmer's crop scanner, a device that the Pima County Elections Division possessed during the RTA election.
"What this is really about, Judge, is the creation of new film footage for their commercial enterprise." said Ronna Fickbohm to Judge Bryson last Friday, "If you go online and Google fatallyflawedthemovie.com you will see a documentary that Mr. Brakey had asked you to film today put together starring Mr. Risner that was commercially available over the internet for twenty bucks a pop and it was even screened at the Loft."
John Brakey of CARE and AUDITAZ was operating the camera for the press pool footage of last Friday's hearing embedded at the end of this article.
Edited together with no narration or talking head interviews, the completed documentary, "Fatally Flawed" enables its audience to relive the experience of those who cared about the integrity of elections in Pima County. It has proven to be an important tool for the public interest to help educate viewers about what transpired between Pima County and election integrity advocates in pursuit of election transparency. It also contains important video evidence, like the footage of John Moffatt's county court shenanigans. This type of documentation makes the revision of past events much more difficult.
In addition to what's in the movie, there is footage of an array of tables behind glass at Goddard's recount.
Continuous running footage of one table's entire process of counting the RTA ballots shows identically sized cardboard boxes filled to the top edge with approximately 1600 ballots. Additional footage shows another table's complete count filling the same-sized box to the same level with approximately 1000 ballots. One of the crucial specifications in any print job is the paper thickness, especially when ballots are involved. This could be a troublesome dilemma for any last minute attempts at 'correcting the situation' by accessing the boxes a second time and replacing ballots for the purpose of passing a forensic exam. A successful switch would require ballots of the same quantity of different sizes to fit in the same number of equal sized boxes in exactly the same way they were filmed during Goddard's recount.
Referring to the boxes of evidence, Bill Risner tells Judge Bryson, "Whatever's in them needs to be protected. We certainly can't trust Pima County. The games in terms of that sort of stuff need to stop... It's hard to have faith, really, in any storage in view of what Pima County did to the vault of this court. That is out of my comprehension that someone can simply walk in and walk out, but they did it and that was a demonstration of incredible authority and power within the system. Demonstration of who's in control. Phenomenal. "
Pima County's desperate measures will not distract from the Libertarian party's primary goal behind this litigation - to ensure fair transparent elections for the future and prevent cheating by Pima County in upcoming elections. This case for prospective relief through the courts is a major milestone that could help with election transparency across the nation. Hopefully, Pima County will abandon or exhaust all delaying tactics and approach a timely outcome within this election year. There is far too much at stake.
Arizona Election Fraud: Pima County Loses Bid to Stop Ballot Custody Depositions
J.T. Waldron
The Libertarian party may depose employees at the Iron Mountain storage facility in an effort to determine who in Pima County had access to the ballots for the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) election since 2006.
Previous depositions indicate that Pima County employees were able to access the RTA ballots since they were delivered after the election in 2006. The depositions were part of the hearings that ultimately led to the Libertarian party's successful pursuit of prospective relief for rigged elections. This court case was first triggered by the Pima County Treasurer's pursuit of a declaratory judgement over the ballots for the 2006 RTA election.
Originally, Pima County attorneys advised County Treasurer Beth Ford to sue the political parties (those charged with monitoring elections in Arizona) to "get a decision on what to do with the RTA ballots". The original idea was to provide an opportunity for Pima County to destroy the ballots before true auditing or a forensic examination of the ballots could take place. This idea backfired when the Libertarian party made a successful counterclaim for prospective relief from the courts.
A favorable ruling for prospective relief means the courts can intervene when there is a failure of existing laws as well as a failure to enforce existing laws designed to keep elections transparent and accurate.
Fighting Tooth and Nail over Rudimentary Disclosure
Pima County has taken elaborate, evasive measures that exceed what is legally customary when requests are made for public records, discovery, depositions and other seemingly innocuous items that could provide a clearer picture of election security.
RTA Ballot Custody Still a Major Concern
The county's most recent efforts at blocking disclosure involved the request by the Libertarian party to depose employees of Iron Mountain, the storage facility that held the ballots since 2006.
What reason did the county provide? Concern over the costs of the depositions. An ironic position given the exorbitant private attorneys hired by Pima County to litigate the case initiated by their Treasurer's office. Previously, Pima County attorneys handled the electronic records lawsuit over the RTA's database files. In addition to cost, Pima County's private attorney Ronna Fichbohm claims that the Libertarian party hasn't shown good cause for the need to find out what happened to the ballots.
Pima County employee John Moffatt, however, was all the cause needed to justify this line of inquiry. During the RTA records hearing, Moffatt had managed to take possession of a box in the county vault that had a court order specifically instructing that both parties be present when the box is released. This box contained two hard drives: one intended for the county and the other for the Democratic party. In violation of the court order, John Moffatt obtained possession of both hard drives before the Democratic party was aware they were available.
The Democratic party had publicly announced its intention of using software developed to pick up certain anomalies in the electronic database files soon to be released through a court ruling. Apparently, the county wanted a little 'extra lead time' with both hard drives while they were still in the process of developing their own software aimed at detecting what the Democratic party might detect.
The following clip shows the precise moment when John Moffatt was caught with his hand in the evidence cookie jar. Notice the free pass provided by AZ Daily Star's obedient reporter, Erica Meltzer:
Unfortunately, it's not just the county that disrupts the chain of custody of crucial evidence. The very same RTA ballots were removed from Iron Mountain's facility in February of 2009 by Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard for his criminal investigation of the RTA election. While his appearance of upholding the law was initially appreciated, Terry Goddard played the unfortunate role of demonstrating why prospective relief is needed through the courts. In addition to the refusal to conduct a proper audit or a forensic investigation of the ballots, the chain of custody seems to be completely unaccounted for during the ballots' 5-6 week hiatus with Goddard's staff.
John Brakey, Co-founder of AUDIT-AZ and CARE (Citizens Against Rigged Elections) was on location at Maricopa's Elections Division as the ballots were rolled out in a cart to be counted.
" The boxes were an absolute mess, Boxes were already opened, tape looked like it was removed and reused. I kept asking myself and others 'How could the Attorney General take evidence without securing it?'"
Around this time, John Brakey gained notoriety for being falsely arrested through the request of Pima Elections Director Brad Nelson. Brakey discovered mislabeling of ballots earmarked for a hand-count audit and was promptly arrested when he brought the discrepancy to the attention of the Pima Elections Division. Charges were dismissed once it was made clear in the courts that Brakey did not disrupt the process.
This court case is set to continue this Friday, because Pima County is delaying the hearing to determine if the courts should obtain custody of the ballots during the case. Those familiar with this case know the answer to that question. The following initial disclosure statement is a great comprehensive statement of facts: http://tinyurl.com/LPFiling
All are invited to attend this historic hearing.
Friday, January 20th, 2012- 11:00 AM
Judge Kyle Bryson’s Courtroom
Fifth Floor, Pima Superior Court: 110 W. Congress
Tucson, Arizona USA
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| Citizen's Agains Rigged Elections Left to Right: John Kromko, Gayle Hart, Dick Kaiser, Gigi Nitka, Ralph Ellinwood Esq, two dudes. Sherry Mann, John R Brakey, Mary DeCamp, Arlene Leaf, Ben Love, Bill Risner Esq., New member, "the connect The Dots Lady" Andrea Witte, New member, Raymond Graap, Jim March, Radio show host Jack Fitzgerald Photo by Lee Stanley |
Previous depositions indicate that Pima County employees were able to access the RTA ballots since they were delivered after the election in 2006. The depositions were part of the hearings that ultimately led to the Libertarian party's successful pursuit of prospective relief for rigged elections. This court case was first triggered by the Pima County Treasurer's pursuit of a declaratory judgement over the ballots for the 2006 RTA election.
Originally, Pima County attorneys advised County Treasurer Beth Ford to sue the political parties (those charged with monitoring elections in Arizona) to "get a decision on what to do with the RTA ballots". The original idea was to provide an opportunity for Pima County to destroy the ballots before true auditing or a forensic examination of the ballots could take place. This idea backfired when the Libertarian party made a successful counterclaim for prospective relief from the courts.
A favorable ruling for prospective relief means the courts can intervene when there is a failure of existing laws as well as a failure to enforce existing laws designed to keep elections transparent and accurate.
Fighting Tooth and Nail over Rudimentary Disclosure
Pima County has taken elaborate, evasive measures that exceed what is legally customary when requests are made for public records, discovery, depositions and other seemingly innocuous items that could provide a clearer picture of election security.
RTA Ballot Custody Still a Major Concern
The county's most recent efforts at blocking disclosure involved the request by the Libertarian party to depose employees of Iron Mountain, the storage facility that held the ballots since 2006.
What reason did the county provide? Concern over the costs of the depositions. An ironic position given the exorbitant private attorneys hired by Pima County to litigate the case initiated by their Treasurer's office. Previously, Pima County attorneys handled the electronic records lawsuit over the RTA's database files. In addition to cost, Pima County's private attorney Ronna Fichbohm claims that the Libertarian party hasn't shown good cause for the need to find out what happened to the ballots.
Pima County employee John Moffatt, however, was all the cause needed to justify this line of inquiry. During the RTA records hearing, Moffatt had managed to take possession of a box in the county vault that had a court order specifically instructing that both parties be present when the box is released. This box contained two hard drives: one intended for the county and the other for the Democratic party. In violation of the court order, John Moffatt obtained possession of both hard drives before the Democratic party was aware they were available.
The Democratic party had publicly announced its intention of using software developed to pick up certain anomalies in the electronic database files soon to be released through a court ruling. Apparently, the county wanted a little 'extra lead time' with both hard drives while they were still in the process of developing their own software aimed at detecting what the Democratic party might detect.
The following clip shows the precise moment when John Moffatt was caught with his hand in the evidence cookie jar. Notice the free pass provided by AZ Daily Star's obedient reporter, Erica Meltzer:
Unfortunately, it's not just the county that disrupts the chain of custody of crucial evidence. The very same RTA ballots were removed from Iron Mountain's facility in February of 2009 by Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard for his criminal investigation of the RTA election. While his appearance of upholding the law was initially appreciated, Terry Goddard played the unfortunate role of demonstrating why prospective relief is needed through the courts. In addition to the refusal to conduct a proper audit or a forensic investigation of the ballots, the chain of custody seems to be completely unaccounted for during the ballots' 5-6 week hiatus with Goddard's staff.
John Brakey, Co-founder of AUDIT-AZ and CARE (Citizens Against Rigged Elections) was on location at Maricopa's Elections Division as the ballots were rolled out in a cart to be counted.
" The boxes were an absolute mess, Boxes were already opened, tape looked like it was removed and reused. I kept asking myself and others 'How could the Attorney General take evidence without securing it?'"
Around this time, John Brakey gained notoriety for being falsely arrested through the request of Pima Elections Director Brad Nelson. Brakey discovered mislabeling of ballots earmarked for a hand-count audit and was promptly arrested when he brought the discrepancy to the attention of the Pima Elections Division. Charges were dismissed once it was made clear in the courts that Brakey did not disrupt the process.
This court case is set to continue this Friday, because Pima County is delaying the hearing to determine if the courts should obtain custody of the ballots during the case. Those familiar with this case know the answer to that question. The following initial disclosure statement is a great comprehensive statement of facts: http://tinyurl.com/LPFiling
All are invited to attend this historic hearing.
Friday, January 20th, 2012- 11:00 AM
Judge Kyle Bryson’s Courtroom
Fifth Floor, Pima Superior Court: 110 W. Congress
Tucson, Arizona USA
Election Fraud: Arizona's Ticking Time Bomb Set to Reverberate throughout the Nation
Precedent setting court case could improve election transparency in the United States.
The Libertarian party's pursuit of a remedy against Pima County's criminality and incompetence can have nationwide implications for disenfranchised voters throughout the country. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled favorably on behalf of the Libertarian party, who argued that the courts must intervene when there is a failure of existing laws as well as a failure to enforce existing laws designed to keep elections transparent and accurate.
Today's press conference marks the beginning of the Libertarian party's request through the courts for changes to Pima County's election procedures, which have been found to be woefully inadequate.
Like most voting districts throughout the country, Pima County uses electronic voting machines now infamous for their numerous security flaws and errant outcomes. Unique to Pima County is the mounting evidence of election fraud surrounding one specific election that took place in 2006. This was a taxpayer-funded road construction measure worth two billion dollars. This Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) initiative contained two "yes/no" questions which was part of a simple ballot design that contained only a total of four "yes/no" questions. Part of the initial suspicion was fueled by this simple ballot initiative's unusual number of anomalies and malfunctions during the tally process, which was unmatched by any of the other more complex ballots counted in Pima County.
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| Bill Risner helped set the foundation for prospective relief in this case. |
This case eventually demonstrated the failure of existing state laws to enable a timely challenge of election results due to a five day limit. This problem seemed to be complemented by the failure of law enforcement, which was highlighted by the incompetent criminal investigation conducted by Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.
In short, Terry Goddard refused to conduct an audit by comparing one set of numbers (the ballots) to another set of numbers (the precinct totals or the poll tapes). Goddard's team refused to conduct a forensic check of the ballots (which are still in existence) despite the suspects' (Pima County's) access to them throughout the period of litigation.
Today's press conference is marked by the filing of the Libertarian party's initial disclosure statement, which contains the most comprehensive and comprehensible list of facts, legal theories and evidence surrounding the rigged 2006 RTA election.
Additional discovery will take place in this suit to complete the picture of election fraud and to further understand the shortcomings of existing election procedures in Pima County. Apparently, Pima County is offering stiff legal resistance to the plaintiff's request for a list of people who visited the storage facility for access to the ballots in question during the period of litigation.
Since HAVA (Help America Vote Act) election fraud is rampant throughout the United States. The Libertarian party's victory in obtaining prospective relief through the courts means that a court can issue orders that effect the transparency and accuracy of elections. This case is precedent-setting and may be applicable to other election court cases throughout the country.
J.T. Waldron
Here is the press release info (which has a livestream link):
Press Conferences: The Pima County Election Fraud Case Heads to Back to Court
Just released; will be filed Thursday morning. “Statement of Facts” Election Fraud Pima County: http://tinyurl.com/76lgzvy
Contacts: John R. Brakey, 520 339 2696 AUDITAZ@cox.net, Bill Risner 520 622 7495, bill@risnerandgraham.com, Jim March, 1.jim.march@gmail.com
When: Thursday January 12th, 2:30 pm
Where: Armory Park Senior Center
220 S. 5th Avenue, 220 S. 5th Avenue, Tucson AZ
Tucson, AZ: Since our saga began over five years ago, more and more people across America are becoming aware of the serious security flaws in computerized voting systems. They are systems designed to cheat, and they are everywhere. As the political scene heats up with the Presidential election, all eyes will be on Tucson as ground zero for exposing these flaws in open court and proposing reasonable checks and balances in the system. We must protect the purity of elections and public confidence in election results — a cornerstone of our democracy. That’s what this case is ultimately about.
BACKGROUND: AUDIT-AZ, the Pima County Libertarian Party and other interested citizens of multiple parties for years have been investigating election processes in Pima County. In previous actions, the Democratic Party took the lead in winning public records lawsuits and revealing the extent of the problems, including poor security practices on "designed to cheat" systems, election results that consistently did not add up, missing or falsified paper, and election officials and staff who continuously flout the law.
The Democratic and Libertarian Parties jointly filed suit years ago to ask a court to order reforms to the process. One local judge decided that his court was unable to do so no matter how obvious the problems might be. After that, the Democratic Party dropped out. The Libertarian Party did not: They appealed and won. Pima County appealed that decision to the AZ Supreme Court and lost. The courts have now ruled that if it can be proven that elections are being handled poorly, a local judge can indeed order Pima County to institute reforms.
IT’S GAME TIME: So after years of effort, we are “game on.” We plan to prove wide-ranging abuses of basic election security in Pima County Arizona and to obtain court-mandated improvements in the election process that could serve as a national model for how to do electronic voting properly and securely.
We have connected the dots into a 10-point quick summary of the fact pattern in this gripping saga of power and deceit. And we propose a remedy that is easy, inexpensive and doable. Let us share that and more with you. We promise a very interesting time.
***30***
· RTA Fraud Slides for Press Conference 1/12/12 .pdf: http://tinyurl.com/872o8sn
· Flyer for Press Conference 1/12/12 pdf: http://tinyurl.com/85ddblt
· Just released: “Statement of Facts” http://tinyurl.com/76lgzvy
· For more info: http://audit-az.blogspot.com or: http://seekingjusticeauditaz.blogspot.com
Occupy Rigged Elections with C.A.R.E
If you can’t make it you can hopefully watch on line: starting at 2:30pm tomorrow you'll be able to watch it online at: Occupy Rigged Elections Tucson:
http://www.livestream.com/occupyriggedelections
You may have to sit through one short ad first, after that we're on.
Hope, Peace and Occupy with C.A.R.E. Care stands for Citizens Against Rigged Elections
John R Brakey
We are "news blind" - Tucson media ignore news
William Heuisler
Tucson Crime Prevention Examiner
1) Neither the Arizona Daily Star nor local TV news has demanded to know who is responsible for the hundred million dollars missing from “Rio Nuevo” projects.
2) Neither the Arizona Daily Star nor local TV news has mentioned Superior Court case # C 20085016 where Pima County admitted under oath to wrongdoing and security lapses in the two billion dollar Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) election.
3) No media outlet has bothered to mention how Brian Crane, chief computer tech for Pima County Elections, admitted buying “election flipping” software, called Crop Scanner, prior to the largest, most expensive bond election in Pima County History.
4) No one reported when Pima County affirmed in testimony that the RTA election was a, "discrete incident of past wrongdoing” (Ford v. Dem. etc, 2010).
5) No one questioned Attorney General Goddard who first had “sufficient cause to investigate” but changed his mind a week later. Not one reporter wants to know why Attorney General Horne, “…declines to initiate another (?) investigation”.
Our Constitution protects press freedom. Shield laws in 30 states protect journalists from compelled production of confidential/unpublished information. The press is protected. What about the press’s duty to protect the public with information?
And newspapers knew about the corruption back in 2007. Garry Duffy, reported for the Tucson Citizen: “No one seems to know what happened to a computer tape record of the May 16, 2006 (RTA) election… The county elections director made the revelation in his testimony Wednesday in a Pima County Superior Court trial... The case goes to the heart of the democratic process – the security of voting and vote counting…” (Duffy, 2007)
Advertisement
The Citizen is gone. The “heart of democratic process” story is forgotten. Not a printed peep now about an ongoing civil suit and Pima County’s admissions of “wrongdoing”. Nothing is reported about a two billion dollar fraud on the taxpayers of Pima County.
Two billion is how much from each county taxpayer?
Do local TV and newspapers have a duty to inform their public when millions and billions of tax dollars are lost, or when official corruption occurs? Are the news media in Tucson malingerers? Are they willfully blind, or have they just taken sides against taxpayers?
Duffy, G. (2007. Tucson Citizen. Record of votes in ’06 RTA election missing.
http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2007/12/06/70793-record-of-votes-in-06-rta-election-missing/
Ford v. Democrat Party of Pima County (2010). Justia.com US Law. Arizona Court of Appeals, Division two, unpublished decisions. Case # C 20085016
http://law.justia.com/cases/arizona/court-of-appeals-division-two-unpublished/2010/cv20100001memo.html
Tucson Crime Prevention Examiner
2) Neither the Arizona Daily Star nor local TV news has mentioned Superior Court case # C 20085016 where Pima County admitted under oath to wrongdoing and security lapses in the two billion dollar Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) election.
3) No media outlet has bothered to mention how Brian Crane, chief computer tech for Pima County Elections, admitted buying “election flipping” software, called Crop Scanner, prior to the largest, most expensive bond election in Pima County History.
4) No one reported when Pima County affirmed in testimony that the RTA election was a, "discrete incident of past wrongdoing” (Ford v. Dem. etc, 2010).
5) No one questioned Attorney General Goddard who first had “sufficient cause to investigate” but changed his mind a week later. Not one reporter wants to know why Attorney General Horne, “…declines to initiate another (?) investigation”.
Our Constitution protects press freedom. Shield laws in 30 states protect journalists from compelled production of confidential/unpublished information. The press is protected. What about the press’s duty to protect the public with information?
 |
| Garry Duffy, the Citizen reporter who actually did report about the missing data tape at Pima Elections. |
Advertisement
The Citizen is gone. The “heart of democratic process” story is forgotten. Not a printed peep now about an ongoing civil suit and Pima County’s admissions of “wrongdoing”. Nothing is reported about a two billion dollar fraud on the taxpayers of Pima County.
Two billion is how much from each county taxpayer?
Do local TV and newspapers have a duty to inform their public when millions and billions of tax dollars are lost, or when official corruption occurs? Are the news media in Tucson malingerers? Are they willfully blind, or have they just taken sides against taxpayers?
Duffy, G. (2007. Tucson Citizen. Record of votes in ’06 RTA election missing.
http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2007/12/06/70793-record-of-votes-in-06-rta-election-missing/
Ford v. Democrat Party of Pima County (2010). Justia.com US Law. Arizona Court of Appeals, Division two, unpublished decisions. Case # C 20085016
http://law.justia.com/cases/arizona/court-of-appeals-division-two-unpublished/2010/cv20100001memo.html
Arizona Election Fraud: Attorney Bill Risner Interviewed by Tucson's Radio Host, Jack Fitz 1/16/12
Includes interviews with John Brakey of CARE and AUDITAZ.
Attorney Bill Risner Interviewed by Brad Friedman on on the Mike Malloy Show over Missing RTA Polltapes
Brad Friedman breaks RTA Missing Polltape Story on the Mike Malloy Show. Interviews Bill Risner and provides great coverage of the RTA saga:
Watch for more coverage on BradBlog.com
Goddard: A Compromise We Cannot Afford
Terry Goddard has failed in his most important case as an Attorney General. Why should we promote him to governor?You might have been aware of an investigation his office conducted into the 2006 RTA election Question 1 and 2 in Pima County. Here, investigators discovered that the current elections division in Pima County manipulated the electronic database files for this May 2006 election. This discovery ultimately led to the successful three-year lawsuit against Pima County that reaffirmed electronic database files as public records and collected a very large amount of evidence suggesting that the 2006 RTA election was rigged.
Attorney Bill Risner represented the Pima County Democratic Party in this case. When a substantial amount of evidence was discovered, he fulfilled his duty as an officer of the court by reporting this potential crime to Attorney General Terry Goddard.
A reasonable expectation one has when reporting a crime is for law enforcement to contact the person filing the report to find out what happened. This elementary step is especially helpful in complex white collar crimes like the manipulation of data in an elections system.
In the spring and summer of 2007, Terry Goddard chose to do precisely the opposite. Instead of talking to the people who made the discovery so that he could find out what happened and where to look, he began working with the suspects - Pima County. Interviewing the suspects and collecting facts from the suspects is essential. Allowing the suspects to suggest what to investigate, however, invites a huge conflict of interest with a strong potential to manipulate the outcome [pdf].
Did those who first discover and report this situation have an opportunity to point out what they found and explain its significance? Absolutely not. In fact, the results of the first investigation were withheld from the people who made the complaint until the day of the press conference. The suspects, however, were informed of the results of the investigation and given an advance report.
At the press conference, Attorney General Terry Goddard stated that the resulting report exonerated the Pima County Elections division. This was patently false. It was excruciatingly clear that Terry Goddard participated in an exercise in public relations designed to falsely reassure the public about the reliability of the Pima Elections Division and the RTA election itself. It was also evident that, in coordination with local corporate press, a campaign began to undermine the efforts of the election integrity movement by confusing the public further about the issues surrounding this case and casting members of the election integrity group in a negative light.
It was at this moment in time that the Democratic Party was made well aware of what had taken place and of Terry Goddard's role in this activity. There was ample time to choose a more ethical candidate for Governor of Arizona.
Adding insult to injury, Terry Goddard behaved in a similar manner when he finally exercised his authority to examine the RTA ballots in 2009. After years of dragging his feet and denying his authority to examine the ballots in this white collar criminal investigation, Attorney Bill Risner informed Terry Goddard by mail that the Pima County Democratic Party was currently in a civil case to retrieve the poll tapes from that election. These poll tapes are significant because they offer a snapshot signed by poll workers of what the results should be by each precinct. In this letter (pdf), Risner informs Goddard that his client has obtained an expert willing and able to examine the poll tapes for their authenticity and that these poll tapes are with the ballots.
At this moment, before the Pima County Democratic Party can retrieve the poll tapes and examine them, Terry Goddard obtains a secret court order and whisks the ballots away from the secure local Iron Mountain storage facility to an undisclosed location. This chain of custody is monitored by and depends solely on the Attorney General's office for a full month. The public is still uncertain about where these ballots were stored prior to the examination.
Despite countless pleas to examine the poll tapes, Terry Goddard refuses to examine the poll tapes.
Despite countless pleas for Terry Goddard to provide a rudimentary, no-cost, non destructive forensic check of the ballots to see if any were generated with a laser printer, Terry Goddard refuses to perform this forensic check.
Despite countless pleas for Terry Goddard to perform a precinct-by-precinct analysis of the ballots, Terry Goddard refuses to perform this analysis.
Instead, Terry Goddard hires Maricopa County to perform a "recount" to determine whether the ballots indicate the same results as in the election. No other meaningful audit or examination took place.
Once again, it was painfully clear that Terry Goddard participated in an exercise in public relations designed to falsely reassure the public about the reliability of the Pima Elections Division and the RTA election itself. The poll tapes were then resealed and sent back to the Iron Mountain Storage facility in Pima County. Attorney Bill Risner is continuing to work on behalf of the Pima County Democratic Party to retrieve the poll tapes which are now hung up in the Pima County Treasurer's newly introduced obscure and expensive protocols for examination. It is clear that the Democratic Party is, to this day, being discouraged from looking at the poll tapes, which were very recently and easily acquired from other past elections.
So the recent mass emailed solicitation on behalf of Goddard is problematic. Some elements of the Democratic Party seem to have this idea that it's "better to have our crook in there than their crook". That's not good enough.
It's ironic that Terry Goddard is collecting money for a clean elections campaign when, thanks to his efforts, we will never know for sure who will win his own election.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
EXCLUSIVE: Poll Tapes, Other Evidence Discovered Missing in Long-Disputed, 'Fixed' Arizona Election
Brad Friedman
Material sought by Election Integrity advocates from Pima County's 2006 RTA election no longer in 'secured' facility
AZ AG Terry Goddard failed to examine evidence during his criminal investigation hand-count of ballots last year...
- Special investigative report by Brad Friedman, The BRAD BLOG
The mystery surrounding a long-questioned and allegedly "fixed" non-partisan 2006 Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) bond election in Pima County, AZ continues to deepen as troubling new details have now emerged. The resolution in this matter --- should it ever come --- could spell trouble for supporters of paper-based optical-scan electronic voting systems, since indications are that if the election was rigged, it was done with insiders via the electronic central tabulating computers.Late last week another new twist was discovered in the years-long election fraud investigation by Democratic and Libertarian Election Integrity advocates in Tucson. The revelations come to light in what was thought by many to have been a settled election, at last, following a long-sought hand-count of paper ballots carried out last year by the office of AZ's Democratic Attorney General Terry Goddard. The AG had announced in April of last year that his criminal investigation hand-count had "affirmed" the original results of the election were correct.
As it turns out, The BRAD BLOG, which has been covering this bizarre matter for years, plays a small role in this latest development, as a promise that Goddard's office made to us last year concerning the "poll tapes" --- remarks which he was asked about during a press conference at the end of the hand count [see the remarks on video below] --- may have now boomeranged on him.
Given that Goddard is now the likely Democratic nominee to face Republican Gov. Jan Brewer in this fall's Gubernatorial race, this revelation couldn't have come at a much worse time for him.
After many years of litigation, Election Integrity advocates have now finally been allowed to review the long sought-after poll tapes in question. What they've discovered is disturbing and, so far, without legitimate explanation.
Out of 368 precincts, 112 poll tapes are completely missing. Moreover, 102 of the "yellow sheets" --- certified precinct reports, signed by poll workers, detailing corresponding summary information, such as numbers of ballots received, cast and spoiled, as helpful for important auditing functions at the precinct level --- are missing as well.
Furthermore, of the poll tape records that are not missing, 50 of them do not match the results as recorded in the final canvas of the election, according to the Election Integrity advocates who have compared them to the original electronic database numbers...
The background, the anomalies, the whistleblower and the 'fixed' election
Some background is in order to explain the significance of the rather disturbing new discovery in the case, which we revealed in an on-air exclusive late last week during an interview with Pima County, AZ attorney Bill Risner while guest hosting the nationally-syndicated Mike Malloy Show. [Audio of the complete interview with Risner is available at the end of this article.]
Without getting into too many of the weeds --- and there have been many along the way --- the RTA bond measure, or ones like it, had been on the ballot several times in Pima, and had always been defeated. In 2006, however, the initiative was said to have finally passed. Ironically, at least in hindsight, the Democratic Party had actually supported the measure at the time in order to help see new roads built in the Tucson area.
The election was run in Pima County (Tucson) on Diebold's paper-ballot based optical-scan machines, the same ones seen being hacked in HBO's Emmy-nominated 2006 documentary Hacking Democracy (video of that hack here). Election Integrity advocates from AUDIT-AZ (Americans United for Democracy, Integrity and Transparency in Elections - Arizona) and BlackBoxVoting.org became suspicious about the election results after the measure had passed, and set about investigating various red flags in the contest.
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