Evoting System Challenged, says UC Berkeley Study

[Guest guest]

Tammy

Thu Nov 18, 2004 10:38 am

Breaking, Evoting System Challenged, says UC Berkeley Study

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

BREAKING: Evoting System Challenged, says UC Berkeley Study

 

This press release was just forwarded to Denmark from a friend in the

Venetian Provinces...

 

Hello,

 

This is an invitation to a press conference taking place tomorrow,

11/18 at 10am PST/1pm EST about a UC Berkeley report that's

challenging e-voting in Florida.

 

Here's the story: A research team at UC Berkeley will report that

irregularities associated with electronic voting machines may have

awarded 130,000-260,000 or more excess votes to President George W.

Bush in Florida in the 2004 presidential election. The study shows an

unexplained discrepancy between votes for President Bush in counties

where electronic voting machines were used versus counties using

traditional voting methods. This is the first time that an academic

institution has formally challenged the e-voting system, and the

University is calling on local voting officials in Florida to

investigate. The research team – which comprises some of the top minds

in voter research – will disclose full results of the study and the

raw data at the press conference tomorrow.

 

Details about the press conference are included below. It will

take place on the UC Berkeley campus, but you can participate via a

dial-in number – please let me know if you are interested and I can

provide you with that information.

 

*** MEDIA ALERT ***

 

UC BERKELEY STUDY QUESTIONS

 

FLORIDA E-VOTE COUNT

 

RESEARCH TEAM CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION

 

When: Thursday, November 18, 2004, 10:00 am Pacific

 

Where: UC Berkeley campus, Survey Research Center Conference

Room—2538 Channing Way (intersection of Channing/Bowditch). Parking on

Durant near Telegraph.

 

What: A research team at UC Berkeley will report that

irregularities associated with electronic voting machines may have

awarded 130,000-260,000 or more excess votes to President George W.

Bush in Florida in the 2004 presidential election. The study shows an

unexplained discrepancy between votes for President Bush in counties

where electronic voting machines were used versus counties using

traditional voting methods. Discrepancies this large or larger rarely

arise by chance – the probability is less than 0.1 percent. The

research team, led by Professor Michael Hout, will formally disclose

results of the study at the press conference.

 

To attend the conference or request dial-in information, contact:

 

Erin Reasoner

Eastwick Communications

650-480-4031

 

Erica Pereira

Eastwick Communications

640-480-4024

 

Noel Gallagher

UC Berkeley Media Relations

510-643-7944

 

 

 

I have no other details yet.

 

But this could be -- well, big. You can read about the Survey Research

Center here. It looks like they've been studying and comparing voting

technologies a bit this year: " In response to national concerns about

voting systems, the Survey Research Center and the Institute of

Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley have

worked together to determine which voting systems do the best job of

recording and tabulating votes. The survey compares five voting

systems: direct record electronic (DRE), lever machine, optical scan,

paper ballot, and punchcard. " (This is NOT the survey that's being

released tomorrow, but instead another recent one dealing with similar

interests.)

 

A study from, bar none, the finest public insitution of higher

learning in the country, by people who have been studying voting

technologies, displaying a large discrepancy between counties with

electronic voting and those without.

 

This is big, big stuff. Godzilla big.

 

 

The presence on the email press release of a contact number for

Berkeley's media relations guy makes it clear: this is not some hobby

or side project by someone who happens to be a professor. This is a

University sanctioned study by people whose training lies in such

surveys and subject matter.

 

Did we mention earlier that the Electoral College isn't meeting until

December 13?

 

http://rottendenmark.blogspot.com/