Powerful Government Accounting Office report confirms key 2004 stolen
election findings
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
Source:  http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1529No 
October 26, 2005

As a legal noose appears to be tightening around the Bush/Cheney/Rove
inner circle, a shocking government report 
shows the floor under the legitimacy of their alleged election to the
White House is crumbling. 

The latest critical confirmation of key indicators that the election
of
2004 was stolen comes in an extremely powerful,
penetrating report from the General Accounting Office that has gotten
virtually no mainstream media coverage. 

The government's lead investigative agency is known for its general
incorruptibility and its through, in-depth analyses. 
Its concurrence with assertions widely dismissed as "conspiracy
theories" adds crucial new weight to the case that 
Team Bush has no legitimate business being in the White House. 

Nearly a year ago, senior Judiciary Committee Democrat John Conyers
(D-MI) asked the GAO to investigate electronic 
voting machines as they were used during the November 2, 2004
presidential election. The request came amidst 
widespread complaints in Ohio and elsewhere that often shocking
irregularities defined their performance. 

According to CNN, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee received "more
than 57,000 complaints" following Bush's 
alleged re-election. Many such concerns were memorialized under oath
in
a series of sworn statements and affidavits in 
public hearings and investigations conducted in Ohio by the Free Press
and other election protection organizations. 

The non-partisan GAO report has now found that, "some of [the]
concerns
about electronic voting machines have been 
realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in
the loss and miscount of votes." 

The United States is the only major democracy that allows private
partisan corporations to secretly count and tabulate 
the votes with proprietary non-transparent software. Rev. Jesse
Jackson, among others, has asserted that "public 
elections must not be conducted on privately-owned machines." The CEO
of one of the most crucial suppliers of 
electronic voting machines, Warren O'Dell of Diebold, pledged before
the 2004 campaign to deliver Ohio and thus 
the presidency to George W. Bush. 

Bush's official margin of victory in Ohio was just 118,775 votes out
of
more than 5.6 million cast. Election protection 
advocates argue that O'Dell's statement still stands as a clear sign
of
an effort, apparently successful, to steal the 
White House. 

Among other things, the GAO confirms that: 

1. Some electronic voting machines "did not encrypt cast ballots or
system audit logs, and it was possible to alter both 
without being detected." In other words, the GAO now confirms that
electronic voting machines provided an open door 
to flip an entire vote count. More than 800,000 votes were cast in
Ohio
on electronic voting machines, some seven 
times Bush's official margin of victory. 

2. "It was possible to alter the files that define how a ballot looks
and works so that the votes for one candidate could be 
recorded for a different candidate." Numerous sworn statements and
affidavits assert that this did happen in Ohio 2004.

   Read more.............:
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1529No 




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