Straw Poll Voting Machine Failures

Marc Ambinder

AMES -- The announcement of tonight's straw poll results has been delayed due to what one informed source says was a voting machine malfunction. About 4,500 ballots had to be re-run.

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The results were delayed due to a voting machine failure. Oh gee! Isn't this what we were trying to tell people BEFORE the straw poll? These machines are not reliable. No one wanted to listen, but maybe they will now. Paper ballots put in clear boxes is the MOST reliable method out there.

Since we know what the unofficial results are the large number of votes that needed to be re-run is quite significant. That is 32% of the votes and let's not forget Romney only got 4516 votes... Therefore, 4500 votes is quite significant no matter how you look at it.

Judge okays use of machines for straw poll

DesMoinesRegister.com

A federal judge shot down a request from a group of Iowans who distrust computerized voting machines and wanted ballots at today’s Republican straw poll to be stored in clear plastic containers then hand counted.

U.S. District Judge James Gritzner of Des Moines denied their request Friday for a temporary restraining order and an injunction against the straw poll’s use of the Diebold machines. The judge said there are no previous legal rulings that an unofficial straw poll offered by a private political entity is a public election that would be entitled to Constitutional protections.

The group of voting machine watchdogs oppose the Iowa Republican Party’s Presidential Straw Poll’s use of Diebold Election Systems machines. California elections officials decertified Diebold machines last week after a “top to bottom” security review found fundamental weaknesses. The California machines can still be used in that state, but new security measures are in place.

The machines at the straw poll are owned by Story County; 71 counties in Iowa use Diebold machines.

The watchdog group thinks the machines leave voting “ripe for fraud or machine failure – or even sabotage,” according to a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court.

The plaintiffs included five Iowans: Jennifer Maki of Dubuque, Pam Wagner of Homestead, Troy Reha of Des Moines, Ginger Corbett of Maquoketa and Roger Leahy of Fairfield. Three other plaintiffs, James Condit Jr. of Ohio, founder of Citizens for a Fair Vote Count; Robert L. Schulz of New York, leader of an organization called We the People; and Walter Reddy of Connecticut purchased the $35 tickets to the event but are not qualified to vote in the straw poll.

The complaint was filed against Story County election commissioner Mary Mosiman, Iowa Republican Party Chairman Ray Hoffman, the state of Iowa, Story County, and State Auditor David Vaudt. Voting will take place on the Iowa State University campus and be overseen by Mosiman’s office, with assistance from the state auditor’s office.
Mosiman on Friday expressed confidence in Story County’s machines, saying testing shows they’re counting the votes correctly.

“This is a very secure process and we wouldn’t want a machine that wasn’t functioning properly,” she said. (emphasis mine)
--End Article--

Let's not forget that Mary Mosiman is on Romney's Leadership Team.

I wonder who she wants to win? According to this article on IowaGop.net, it is interesting that she is one of several people who have full access to the machines.

"The Global Election Management System (GEMS) computer is used to prepare ballots and voting equipment programs, and to compile and report election results. The GEMS shall not be used for any other function. The GEMS computer is not and shall not be linked to the Story County network or to the Internet. Access to the GEMS computer is limited to the Story County Auditor, Assistant Auditor, Deputy Auditors, and designated election staff member(s)."

Well I think someone is going to be shamed today and it's going to be Ron Paul and his supporters. Action should have been taken earlier to correct this potential disaster.

Iowa Straw Poll Is Here

Well today is the day. It's everything we have been waiting for these past few months! The voting in the Iowa Straw poll will open at 10am and continue until 6pm. Ron Paul needs to show he has a large amount of real offline support or it will hurt him significantly. I can see the headlines now if Ron Paul finishes poorly...That's why this straw poll is so important and I think in some ways it is more important to this campaign than the others.

There will be tons of media anxiously awaiting for the events of the day and of course the final voting results. According to this website, there were 600 journalists from more than 250 news media organizations on hand at the 1999 straw poll. That's why we need a good showing. All eyes are on Ron Paul! I certainly hope Ron Paul's campaign can pull this off for the future of our country.

I have butterflies in my stomach because of the latest developments with the conflict of interest. However, I am trying to give everyone involved the benefit of the doubt. All we want is a fair vote and if Ron Paul gets 5th in a honest, fraud free vote, then so be it! However, if he gets last place and there is evidence of fraud, I will be extremely upset. I may have to change my focus from Ron Paul to the voter fraud because Ron Paul will NEVER get the nomination if these electronic machines are in place.

If I were supporting another candidate, I would still be as concerned as I am right now. This has nothing to do with what candidate I am cheering on the sidelines. It has everything to do with the idea that if our elections are fraudulent then our country is already gone. If we cannot elect leaders of our choosing, then we live in a dictatorship. Simple as that!

Today I will be watching the news and first hand accounts from people on the ground in Iowa.

For those of you interested in the official schedule, you can view that here.

Rick Beltram: Small number of people on the Ron Paul bandwagon

Goupstate.com which is the website for Spartanburg Herald Journal, is reporting there will be a low turnout for the Spartanburg County Ron Paul rally being hosted by Rick Beltram. Now Rick hasn't been the most friendly person in the past. Perhaps he is being hit by some blowback. He really should have listened to Ron Paul in the debates or he would have seen this coming.

In an article previously published in the Spartanburg Herald Journal, Rick Beltram stated:

"He can stay home," said Beltram, who for months held that this county would welcome all Republican candidates.

"Well, the door's closed for him."

"I'm not going to extend him an invitation to come here because he has managed to insult and in many ways abuse Republican activists with his strident lingo. When he attacked Bush, that we created 9/11 - that's an absolute lunatic talking," Beltram said.

"I can't put up walls to keep him out, but I don't have to invite him here to a county function."

Rick, why do you think Ron Paul supporters want to pay your county's republican party $25/ person to see Ron Paul, when they can see him for free in the next town over in Greenville?

However, I know exactly what Beltram will do and if Ron Paul's support is larger than anticipated, it won't be reported or it will be overlooked. Beltram won't look to see who comes to Greenville. He will only see those willing to fork out $25 to support his county and to invite other candidates that don't even want to talk about the Constitution or our freedoms. That is why I personally could never go to that rally in SC. I know the type of people it is indirectly supporting.

I don't think this will be another "Iowa" because of the cost involved. Jesse Benton from the Paul campaign thinks the "low" turnout has to do with the cost as well.

We will have to wait and see what happens.

Ron Paul in Pittsburgh!

Since I am from the Pittsburgh area, I am excited to report that Ron Paul will be in Pittsburgh on August 3rd! He will actually be where I grew up and where my parents still reside, which is Cranberry Township.

I plan on having my camcorder and Ron Paul T-shirt on me. Ready to partake in a historical Presidential rally. This is the type of thing I will be telling my children about!

If you are within driving distance and want to see Ron Paul in person, please consider coming to the area. The Western PA Meetup group has a message board you can visit to help organize. It's very likely we will be meeting up with people from West Virginia and other parts of PA. There are MANY hotels available in the area ranging from the cheap rooms to very expensive, so you can spend the night while not breaking the bank.

Please come and hear Dr. Paul talk about freedom, peace and prosperity in the city that helped shape him in his youth and taught him the importance of family and work ethic.

The event will be held at the Four Points Sheraton North.

The address of the hotel is: 910 Sheraton Drive, Mars, PA 16046. The phone number is 724-776-6900.

The event will be free of charge, contributions are welcome.

The main campaign is asking for people to RSVP, which you can do here.

Ron Paul Tops In Military Donations

With the second quarter numbers finally publicized, Ron Paul takes the lead in military donations. This comes as a surprise for some people because we keep hearing them beat the war drums. However, it seems that the very people who are serving this country, like what Ron Paul is saying and dare I say agree with him on his foreign policy!

This is great news because it just shows more proof that his support is the real thing.

Here are the numbers listed below. All credit is given to thespinfactor.com

RON PAUL: 23,465 [6,975] [6,765] [4,650] [5,075]
McCain: 15,825 [6925] [6305] [1795] [800]
Romney: 3,551 [2,051] [0] [1500] [0]
Rudy: 2,320 [1,450] [370] [250] [250]
Hunter: 1000 [0] [1000] [0]
Huckabee: 750 [250] [0] [500]
Tancredo: 350 [350] [0] [0]
Brownback: 71 [71] [0] [0]
Thompson: 0 [0] [0] [0]

Units are contributions in dollars by employees of the respective military organizations.

In-Fighting Is Dividing Us

Since Ron Paul was on Alex Jones show on Thursday, the chatter on the web has become that of Ron Paul being a conspiracy theorist or a "9-11 truther". I can understand this coming from the Old Media because they love to smear his name and his character. However, what I cannot believe is the amount of chatter I am seeing on the web from fellow Ron Paul supporters. What's the deal here?

Ron Paul has been a guest on Alex Jones' show many many times over the years and just because a man likes to talk to Alex's audience does not mean he is a 9-11 truther. There is no proof or evidence to this statement other than him speaking on Alex Jones' show. If we want to start creating weird connections like this, then anytime Ron Paul goes on the Old Media shows does that then make him a neo-con? A Bush supporter? Or perhaps a Liberal? As Ron Paul has said, we need to come to our senses here. Why are we allowing the media to undermine the growing movement of Ron Paul?

Can't we all just agree that the Old Media is intentionally using this as an excuse to smear Ron Paul? There is no basis to these claims because the interview in which Ron Paul spoke, I don't recall hearing anything about 9-11. In this article on infowars.com, there is no mention of 9-11 either. Now it does say that Ron Paul believes we are in danger of false-flag terror. Did we just forget a few days ago Michael Chertoff said that he had a "gut feeling" we would be hit by al-Qaeda. So it's okay for the Homeland Security chief to use his instincts to predict terrorist attacks-mysteriously not being able to stop them though-but it's not ok for Ron Paul to say a similar thing?

The media is doing a very good job of creating conflict internally within the Ron Paul grassroots. They are experts at dividing people and are using this intentionally. If Ron Paul thought it was a bad idea to go on the Alex Jones' show, then he would not have done so. Since he went on the show on his own accord, the blame should not be placed on the Alex Jones' audience. The 9-11 movement, Alex Jones, and even Ron Paul is improperly being blamed for something that have no control over. And as it seems a good portion of the Ron Paul supporters are pointing fingers to anyone who gets in the way or who speaks about a topic that differs from their belief systems. This is a dangerous mindset and attitude we have embraced and it's causing in-fighting.

We can't afford to be fighting with each other if we want Ron Paul as our next President.

Who's Really Hurting Ron Paul's Campaign?

I used to be a regular visitor to www.ronpaulforums.com but have decided to never visit this place again. You may be asking, why? Well let me give you a little background information so that you can understand.

Ron Paul believes in freedom of the individual. He knows that our civil liberties are vanishing rapidly all in the name of the "War on Terror". Ron Paul understands that you must protect all speech whether or not you may agree with it because that is what we are guaranteed by our Constitution, The Bill of Rights and our Creator. We have these documents to guide us through out our lives and to keep tyrannical governments at bay. Well recently our government has become more and more tyrannical and Ron Paul knows this.

As we know the media attempts to smear Ron Paul's name on a daily basis by constantly adding "longshot candidate" to every article written about him. They take his words out of context and intentionally attempt to link him to movements that have a bad connotation associated with them. The media is not hurting his campaign at all in my eyes because their attempts to cover up his message is actually stimulating more support. Human beings are naturally attracted to things we are not allowed to do or see. So when the mainstream media smears or tries to completely ignore a presidential candidate, it encourages people to look into Ron Paul on their own.

Well when a person begins to do research on the matter, they may find themselves on one of the Ron Paul forums that are run by Ron Paul supporters. This is exactly what happened to me. I was looking around for more Ron Paul information, news articles, and video clips and came across ronpaulforums.com

Now this forum is an excellent resource for campaign materials and it's a great place to see information that is not indexed in the Google search engines. However there is a significant attempt at censoring those who talk about any other subjects that the admin does not agree with.

It is a private forum, but it scares me that a Ron Paul forum, a man who believes in individual freedom, is attracting supporters that wish to censor any discussions of a new investigation of how our government failed us on 9-11.

It does not matter if you agree with the official story or another theory, people are allowed to speak about what they wish. Just the mere talk of this is not hurting the campaign. The discussions are not in the general forum and are moved to a section where anyone lurking knows they are heading into an area where there will be debates.

The real people who are hurting Ron Paul's campaign are ourselves. The in-fighting that is currently going on within the Ron Paul grassroot campaign is shameful. Completely shameful! We all want Ron Paul to win the presidency. Our personal reasons behind why we want him to win may be slightly different. However, at the end of the day we ALL want our rights back. We ALL want the government out of our lives. We ALL want to live our lives without having to worry about being wiretapped, video taped or harassed by police on a daily basis.

For those who are trying to stifle free speech on Ronpaulforums.com I urge you to dig within yourself to see why you do not want debates and discussions to take place? Why are you sending a chilling effect to those who are proud, big time supporters of Ron Paul? Those of you trying to stop free speech are driving people away from the forums.

So who's really hurting the Ron Paul campaign? We are! Yeah that's right.

The media does not need to destroy us because we are destroying ourselves by going against the fundamental ideas of this campaign; Individual freedoms.

Ron Paul Moves Into the Top Tier, Suggesting All His Support is Real

From Gambling911.com

Gambling911.com Special Contributor Jennifer Reynolds has a lot to say about 2008 Presidential candidate Ron Paul and the continued "disrespect" he is receiving in the media, a "disrespect" not shown by online oddsmakers who give Ron Paul a respectable 15 to 1 odds of winning the 2008 US Presidential Race.

Ron Paul continues to be among the most sought after subjects on the Gambling911.com website. His political web-based strategy has caught the attention of other politicians across the US from Hillary Clinton - who incorporated a brilliant online video taken from the Sopranos finale - right down to local political races including those in Gambling911.com's own stomping grounds of Miami Beach where preservationist mayoral candidate Matti Bower is planning a major YouTube-focused campaign while Commissioner Michael Gongora (running for re-election) already is.

"Paul at his age is the last person you would think to be Internet savvy," says Gambling911.com's political analyst, Carrie Stroup. "For all we know, he may not even be able to log onto a computer. But he's got great people behind him that are pushing the online initiative and it is working in a major way. The appeal is to a younger, more Internet experienced audience whereas the mainstream media tends to gather opinions from a much more mature segment of society who may not be quite as familiar with the Internet." Continue here

VIDEO CLIP:Ron Paul on This Week with George Stephanopoulos

Ron Paul Wins Big in First New Hampshire Straw Poll

Press Release: Ron Paul Wins Big

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 7, 2007

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – Presidential candidate Ron Paul today won the Coalition for New Hampshire Taxpayers (CNHT) straw poll at their annual picnic in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. Dr. Paul received 182 of 294 votes cast, or 65 percent. In second place was Rudy Giuliani with 24 votes, or 8 percent.

"Today's strong victory is further proof that Dr. Paul's message is resonating throughout New Hampshire," said campaign manager Lew Moore. "Dr. Paul is the only candidate in this race truly dedicated to smaller government and lower taxes for all Americans."

CNHT is a statewide, grassroots organization dedicated to reducing the size of government at all levels, stopping judicial activism, providing students and parents with a choice of educational opportunities, expanding job markets, and protecting property rights.

Gathering Ron Paul Materials

I have been trying to get together some Ron Paul materials, so I can hand out business cards and bumper stickers to people willing to listen to me. It is truly amazing how quickly this stuff all adds up. 1 t-shirt, 3 oval stickers, 1000 bumper stickers and I am already spent about $150. Thankfully the meetup group I am in is helping with the costs of the bumper stickers, but it's still a lot of money this early on. We haven't even gotten into mass production of signs, yard signs, or large amounts of literature. It is so easy to spend $1000 on all this stuff.

Once you hit $1000 if I am not completely misunderstanding the law, you are supposed to form a PAC. In this day and age, $1000 is nothing. Shouldn't this amount be changed with the rise of inflation! haha I am not law student or lawyer so hopefully someone can set me straight on these PAC rules. From what I understand you have to file and it's a big deal. This is all the more reason why we need Ron Paul in office. These campaign rules only hurt the little guy. These big organizations just hire some $6/hr college student to handle all this unnecessary paperwork.

I am very excited about this campaign. I think everything is going fairly well with exception to some of the bad publicity these reporters are digging to make up.

Well that's all for today. I have been slacking a little with the blog and I apologize. My health hasn't been the greatest.

Tomorrow is a HUGE day in the RP campaign. He will be at Iowa!