In 2007, following official and unofficial reports of widespread problems with electronic voting machines across the nation which included reports of machine malfunctions, software tampering and fraudulent electronic vote manipulation, We The People Foundation initiated a federal lawsuit to eliminate ALL electronic and mechanical voting machines.

The legal basis for the action was the well founded assertion that the machines violate the Constitution’s mandate that the People must know how their votes are counted and that machines all count the votes using secret, concealed mechanisms including unknown and uncontrollable software algorithms.

After initial proceedings in 2008 narrowed the slate of plaintiffs and defendants involved, the U.S. District Court gave its approval for the lawsuit to proceed and the case moved into the discovery phase where evidence is exchanged prior to trial.

During 2009-2010 WTP waged a protracted legal battle to secure evidence from the State of New York, with the state claiming virtually every piece of documentary evidence it possessed was essentially “classified” and restricted from public examination.

In 2010, New York moved, a second time, to have the NCEL lawsuit dismissed on a legal theory of lack of standing. After delaying its decision for many months, in July 2011 the District Court abusively ordered the dismissal relying on a deliberate misapplication of law and significant misstatement of key facts in the case.

As of October, 2011 WTP stands ready to appeal the dismissal to U.S. Court of Appeals, but needs your help to fund the filing fees and research costs necessary to move forward.

PLEASE CONTRIBUTE. (See PayPal button below)

This lawsuit is the only voter rights case in the nation directly challenging the use of machines to count votes because of the inherent violations of the Constitution they pose, and the gross opportunities the machines pose for fraudulent, criminal vote tampering.

The lawsuit seeks a court order barring all vote counting machines and forcing New York State election officials to use hand-marked paper ballots and to count all such ballots, by hand, in full view of the public at each polling station.
Additional resources, election videos, etc.: The NCEL Information Center

Sunday, May 16, 2010

It All Started in Iowa

[Original Article: http://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/UPDATE/Update2007-08-15.htm ] 

August 2007 


Last Thursday, two days before the August 11th presidential Iowa Straw Poll, Bob Schulz and seven other Plaintiffs filed suit in federal court in Des Moines, Iowa seeking to permanently prohibit the state of Iowa from conducting any Straw Poll, Caucus, Primary, Special or General Election unless the voting and vote counting was open, verifiable, machine-free, and computer-free. 
Upon filing the suit, the Plaintiffs formally asked the Court for emergency injunctive relief, i.e., to order state election officials to modify the voting procedures for the Iowa Straw Poll to insure the validity of the voting process.

Specifically, the desired order sought to eliminate the use of Diebold voting machines that had been officially decertified by the state of California on August 3rd, to assure that the ballots were never out of public view, to force state election officials to publicly hand-count the ballots at each voting station and to announce the results and to conduct the tabulation of the vote station subtotals under full public observation. 
Besides the Complaint and the motion for emergency protection, a Declaration by James Condit, Jr. was also filed. Condit, familiar to many advocates of constitutional government, founded Citizens For A Fair Vote Count. He resides in Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Besides WTP's Schulz and Condit, the Plaintiffs include five citizens of Iowa (Jenneifer Maki, Pam Wagner, Troy Reha, Roger Leahy and Ginger Corbett) and one from Connecticut (Walter Reddy). 
Click here for a copy of the Complaint and the Motion to force a change in the voting procedures.  
At 8:00 am on Friday, the District Court telephoned the parties to say Judge Gritzner had ordered a hearing at 1:30 pm that day on Plaintiffs emergency request for a change in the voting procedures. 
Shortly after 10:00 am, the Defendants filed a Motion to Dismiss the case.

On Friday afternoon USDC Judge Gritzner heard arguments for two hours on the motion to change the voting procedures. He then issued his decision denying the motion. He did not dismiss the case. The case for a permanent injunction against elections in Iowa that are not open, verifiable, machine-free and computer-free will continue.

Click here for a copy of the transcript of the hearing and for a copy of the Judge’s decision.

Late Friday night, Schulz filed an emergency Appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis to issue the injunctive order.  On Saturday, the Appeals court likewise denied the request.
 
The Voting Machines Failed
As Plaintiffs had predicted, there were indeed significant problems counting the votes cast at Saturday's Iowa Straw Poll.

After delaying the release of the voting results an hour and a forty minutes beyond the planned 7 PM announcement time, state election officials were forced to admit repeatedly to the press that there were vote machine malfunctions and that (at least) 10% of the ballots had to be counted by hand.

By using the flawed Diebold machines and by tabulating the totals behind closed doors, Iowa election officials have caused significant confusion, frustration and distrust of the results.
Unfortunately, because the Straw Poll has been well established as an early and influential political event in culling the field of presidential candidates, the inability of Iowa election officials to secure a constitutionally verifiable vote will leave an enduring legacy upon our entire nation.
Here is just a sampling of the news reports detailing the machine failures and vote recounts:
Des Moines Register, United Press International, Chicago Tribune, CNN 

And for your further thought, consider this:

On Friday, April 13, 2007, Romney For President issued a press release announcing its Story County (Iowa) “Leadership Team.” The press release named Defendant Mary Moisman, the Story County Auditor, as part of its Leadership Team.
Mary Moisman and her staff were in charge of providing the Diebold voting equipment, as well as managing and auditing the operation and results of the Iowa Straw Poll, which was purportedly won by candidate Mitt Romney.

(Click here for the full article)
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)