Something  in Alaska stinks. Again. Not just an ordinary low tide smell. Not like something you'd blame on the dog. It smells like an infection. For me to plug my nose, I'd have to overlook some curious facts.
I've written another piece like this. It was after the last election. I said it the three elections before that. In the words of baseball great Yogi Berra, it's Déjà vu all over again! I'm writing and talking about the same thing, in what has become an even-year ritual: Alaska doesn't count votes properly and hasn't for years.  Alaska still uses the Diebold Accuvote Optical Scanners. The same Diebold machines California "decertified" because of the "Deck Zero" anomaly after the company admitted the software error plagues all versions of their paper ballot op-scan systems, deleting the first batch of scanned ballots under certain circumstances without alerting elections officials to the deletion.
I'm not a Joe Miller fan. My "horse" is out of the US Senate race in Alaska. It's not about any candidate. But has everything to do with my candidate, Scott McAdams' slogan: "It's about Alaska!" Specifically, it's about the bedrock of election integrity. If democracy were a religion, voting would be the sacrament. It's poisoned.
Here's some history:
The Democratic Party obtained the 2004 Diebold Global Election Management System (GEMS) database by suing the Division of Elections in State Superior Court. That suit was made necessary because the Division of Elections insisted that the database was not public record. The Division of Elections refused for more than nine months to release the GEMS database, but did so a few days before a hearing was scheduled to begin in Superior Court.
According to the Division of Elections' Diebold-produced vote reports for 2004, as posted on the Division's official web site, a far larger number of votes were cast than the official totals reported in the statewide summary. In the case of President George W. Bush's votes, the district-by-district totals add up to 292,267, but his official total was only 190,889-a difference of 101,378 votes. In that year's U.S. Senate race, Lisa Murkowski received 226,992 votes in the district-by-district totals, but her official total was only 149,446-a difference of 77,546 votes.
The Division's own posted data for 2004 shows that in 20 of the 40 State House Districts, more ballots were cast than registered voters. In 16 election districts, the voter turnout was over 200%.
A review of the audit logs of the GEMS database for the 2004 election shows that modifications were made on July 12th and 13th of 2006. The Division claims it kept no backup copies of that database after the 2004 election was certified. Â It was impossible to know who had made the modifications because the entire department HAD THE SAME USER NAME: ADMIN, AND THE SAME PASSWORD: PASSWORD.
The law says that public records must be produced "as soon as practicable, but not later than the 10th working day" following receipt of the request. Democrats requested the database on Oct. 30, 2006, and, through its counsel David Shoup, again on Nov. 3. In a response dated Nov. 27, Division of Elections Director Whitney Brewster told Shoup she would not respond to the Democrats' records request until Dec. 6, two days after the new Governor would be sworn into office on Dec. 4.Again, in 2006, the Democratic Party of Alaska had to sue the DOE to secure evidence."Loren Leman's reluctance to release this critical public information highlights the need for a Lieutenant Governor who will ensure the transparency of elections. We need someone in charge who doesn't agree withthe way Lt. Gov. Loren Leman has handled all this. Sarah Palin's running mate, Sean Parnell, says he'd handle it the same way as Loren Leman," Metcalfe said. Parnell said Oct. 12 at a public forum at the University of Alaska, Anchorage that he would handle the Democrats' request for information the same way Leman has - by offering to let them count the paper ballots. Parnell told the Anchorage Daily News in August of 2006 that the Democrats' lawsuit to get the 2004 electronic election data "smacks of political posturing more than a real desire to see a fair result." [Anchorage Daily News, August 17, 2006]
Sean Parnell is now the Governor. Â His concern with election integrity and the ability of citizens to oversee their own elections - otherwise known as self-governance - is completely flaccid.
In 2007, the University of Alaska began an audit of the Alaska election process. They followed in the footsteps of similar recommendations from universities in Florida and California. A "fix it" list was created that included replacing the software. To date, there has been no report on the suggested fixes.
Move along, nothing to see.
Fast forward to 2010.
Despite heavy national media coverage and historic Citizens United money spent on Alaska's hotly contested and much-watched three-way US Senate race, the results, if we are to believe them, were a surprisingly low voter turnout. In fact, this election was one of the lowest turnouts since they started tracking ballots cast versus registered voters in the mid-1970s.
It's strange that Anchorage appearances by both Rachel Maddow and Glenn Beck covering the high profile race had such a chilling effect on voters. It's curious that the forgotten gubernatorial race, reportedly, had several hundred more votes recorded than the attention-grabbing U.S. Senate race. Furthermore, as returns from around the state poured in on election night, the percentages between candidates in statewide races never changed throughout the evening-despite Juneau, for instance, being ideologically opposite of Wasilla.
Election chain of custody is the unbroken trail of overseeable accountability that ensures the physical security of our ballots during an election. Goldbelt Security Services was contracted by the Alaska Division of Elections to provide the security and transportation of the ballots to Juneau. Goldbelt is an Alaska Native Corporation with SBA 8(a) status-meaning they are eligible for sole-source, no-bid government contracts. The 8(a) program was relentlessly attacked by Joe Miller. The Alaska Native 8(a)'s unanimously backed Lisa and provided tremendous financial support in the bargain. As they transported the record of the state's future, Goldbelt Security had a tremendous stake in the outcome of the election. Imagine if the Alaska Division of Elections contracted Drop Zone Security to transport and guard the election ballots. How would the Murkowski camp react?
I'm not buying it. Â We are a small enough state that we should have hand counts. Based upon Alaska's documented and nefarious election history, we should, at the very least, be able to perform a basic audit of any precinct. We, the people, should be able to reconcile reported election results by reviewing the summary reports, signed by poll workers detailing total ballots received, total ballots cast, total ballots spoiled, leftover ballots and compare all of that to the poll tape and signed voter registries.
Apparently, Joe Miller's campaign is on the same page:
Anchorage, Alaska. November 16, 2010 --Â The Joe Miller campaign is pleased the Division of Elections will allow access to several precinct registers for review; however, the Division has not responded to the campaign's request to review the voting tapes generated by the voting machines at the polling places. These tapes tally the total number of votes cast.The Joe Miller campaign filed suit last Friday in state court in Juneau in order to compel the State to fulfill its legal obligations under the Public Records Act and allow inspection of the election registers from certain precincts that voters signed before casting their ballots. The Division of Elections had been unresponsive to the Miller request. The lawsuit simply asked that representatives from the campaign be given access to inspect the election registers.
Given the contested nature of the election, time is of the essence to ensure the vote count is trustworthy and that each valid vote is counted, and that there be no opportunity for fraud to taint the election results. Irregularities at polling places have been noted both Election Day and during the ballot review process including sworn affidavits testifying to unsecured ballot boxes and ballot envelopes arriving in Juneau presorted by the Senate race: these ballots are not to be handled in this fashion prior to the write-in review.
Miller Campaign chief counsel Tom Van Flein noted, "The campaign determined that inspection of precinct registers was an appropriate audit to spot check the process. The registers will provide data on the number of people who signed in to vote which can be matched with the number of votes tallied for each precinct."
Lisa Murkowski's campaign, funded by millions of dollars from corporate sugar daddies, will no doubt prevail. The Alaska DOE counted "Lesa Murcowshit" as a vote for Murkowski. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the voter's intent. Â Joe Miller has been criticized and mocked for challenging write-in votes. What he should be doing -and demanding- is a full scale election audit and reconciliation of every vote cast and every ballot not cast.
Some Alaskans will be bitter regardless of the outcome.
My point isn't about either one of them.
It's About Alaska.
Follow Shannyn Moore on Twitter: www.twitter.com/shannynmoore
THE SCANNERS WERE GOOD ENOUGH FOR JOE IN THE PRIMARY.
So all the points you raise become irrelevant now. This because with the point made above all we're talking about is the king of hypocrites here.
There is now nothing to say, nothing stinks except that Joe lacks enough grace to accept defeat.
THE SCANNERS AND THE ELECTION PROCESS WERE GOOD ENOUGH FOR JOE IN THE PRIMARY.
'nuff said.
You're pretty sure? If that's not a vote for Murkowski, then who was the voter actually voting for?
The real Lesa Murcowshit's campaign must be furious about this! Clearly, the voter intended to vote for Lesa!!
How many votes are in a batch?
What's the likelihood of a batch getting thrown out?
What are the "circumstances" in which the glitch occurs?
Unfortunately these days, when politicians lose, they complain that the election was somehow unfair, rather than accept defeat. Then, the lawyers try to dig up every possible flaw in election machines, the background of every voter, and try to find find flaws.
I trust my vote to a machine long before I trust it to the scumbag attorneys that made the complaint the author speaks of.
Of course, if we had electronic voting voting machines, we wouldn't have to deal with uncertainty in optical scanners. If voters werent technophobic and out of touch, we'd have more secure, efficient elections. Too bad they arent.
It's not just in Alaska that poll sites are so small that counting the votes by hand, publicly, would be the sane thing to do. Most polling sites in the U.S. are that small, BTW. What is infuriating is the imposition of opaque voting machines or opaque vote "counting machines" (if you choose to vote on "paper") in most precincts. Even in Europe some countries are following this model [horror!].
What to do, Shannyn? Stop voting --to shame them?
Somebody needs to be in an orange jumpsuit because of this.
In the immortal words of Dr. Evil: sshh. knock knock. Who's there? SShhhh! Let me tell you little story bout a man named sshhhh!
Frankly, as much as I despise Joe Miller's hypocrisy and what he stands for...I would rather have Joe in there than Lisa. Lisa is a goddamn corporate shill who will NEVER EVER not spend whatever is necessary to keep her senate seat. Joe will wind up in a scandal and resign within the first year. If Joe makes it six years, the voters will show him the door. That seat will be in play again.
Lisa voted for the credit card written Bankruptcy Bill of 2005, legalized torture and suspended habeas corpus in 2006, voted to let law-breaking telecoms off the hook in 2008 and argued to keep the $75 million liability cap in tact for NEGLIGENT oil corporations during the height of the Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe!
Give me a break. The AK GOP has benefited from the Diebold machines year after year. If it takes Joe Miller's campaign to audit every vote....SO BE IT!
I want EVERY VOTE TO COUNT...even if it means someone like Joe wins.
Truth is...we have no idea who won the election. Whoever REALLY won...doesn't matter as much to me as the accuracy and integrity of our election system.
"Miller" is easier to spell than "Murkowski".
This shows that write-ins can be inherently unfair and biased.
Just because a machine doesn't print out a piece of paper (which should ALWAYS be required, IMO), it doesn't mean that the votes can't be audited and recounted properly. If people realized that each and every vote is timestamped, contains a unique serial number, and the polling place and voting booth are inserted into each voters' ballot counts, then the claims that machines are wide open to fraud might not be believed so easily.
These simple audit trails eliminate many of the old tried-and-true vote count fraud schemes used for decades. Paper-only ballots are much easier to manipulate. The fraud based on Xerox copies of premarked ballots, for example, is now very risky for the perpetrators.
You might notice that a few states, Connecticut for example, experienced "adjustments" made by the Sec of State that were the result of errors that were detected and corrected using these audit techniques.
Obviously, Alaska and Connecticut have different procedures and rules and I'm not suggesting that the two are equivalent in any way. I'm just pointing out that the procedures have improved.
The louche factor is the un-verifiable electronic vote counting machine.
"Why should an opaque machine tell you the results of a race?" Because a machine is unbiased and far less erroneous than human beings. Not to mention they are faster.
Why would you call for a full recount?