Holy Shit ! Is Right

Volusia County election records just got put on lockdown

Dueling lawyers, election officials gnashing teeth, Votergate.tv film crew

catching it all.

Here’s what happened so far:

Friday Black Box Voting investigators Andy Stephenson and Kathleen Wynne

popped in to ask for some records. They were rebuffed by an elections

official named Denise. Bev Harris called on the cell phone from

investigations in downstate Florida, and told Volusia County Elections

Supervisor Deanie Lowe that Black Box Voting would be in to pick up our Nov.

2 Freedom of Information request, or would file for a hand recount. “No,

Bev, please don’t do that!” she exclaimed. But this is the way it has to be,

folks. We didn’t back down.

Monday Bev, Andy and Kathleen came in with a film crew and asked for the

FOIA request. Deanie Lowe gave it to us with a smile, but I noticed that one

item, the polling place tapes, were not copies of the real ones, but instead

were new printouts, done on Nov. 15, and not signed by anyone.

I asked to see the real ones, and they told us for “privacy” reasons we

can’t have copies of the signed ones. I insisted on at least viewing them

(although refusing to give us copies of the signatures is not legally

defensible, according to our attorney). They said the real ones were in the

County Elections warehouse. It was quittin’ time and we arranged to come

back this morning to review them.

Lana Hires, an employee who gained some notoriety in a Diebold memo, where

she asked for an explanation of minus 16,022 votes for Gore, so she wouldn’t

have to stand there “looking dumb” when the auditor came in, was

particularly unhappy about seeing us in the office. She vigorously shook her

head when Deanie Lowe suggested we go to the warehouse.

Kathleen Wynne and I showed up at the warehouse at 8:15 this morning. There

was Lana Hires looking especially gruff, yet surprised. She ordered us out.

Well, we couldn’t see why because there she was, with a couple other people,

handling the original poll tapes. You know, the ones with the signatures on

them. We stepped out and they promptly shut the door behind us.

There was a trash bag on the porch outside the door. I looked into it and

what do you know, but there were poll tapes in there. They came out and

glared at us. We drove away a small bit, and then videotaped the license

plates of the two vehicles marked ‘City Council’ member. Others came out to

glare and soon all doors were slammed.

So, we went and parked behind a bus to see what they would do next. They

pulled out some large pylons, which blocked the door. I decided to go look

at the garbage some more. Kathleen videotaped this. A man came out and I

immediately wrote a public records request for the contents of the garbage

bag, which also contained ballots — real ones, but not filled out.

A brief tug of war occurred, tearing the garbage bag open. We then looked

through it, as Pete looked on. He was quite friendly.

We collected various poll tapes and other information and asked if they

could copy it for us, for our public records request. “You won’t be going

anywhere,” said Pete. “The deputy is on his way.”

Yes, not one but two police cars came up and then two county elections

officials, and we all stood around discussing the merits of my public

records request.

They finally let us go, about the time our film crew arrived, and we all

trooped off to the elections office. There, the plot thickened.

We began to compare the special printouts given to us with the signed

polling tapes from election night. Lo and behold, some were missing. We also

found some that didn’t match. In fact, in one location, precinct 215, an

African-American precinct, the votes were off by hundreds, in favor of

George W. Bush and other Republicans.

Hmm. Which was right? Our polling tape, specially printed on Nov. 15,

without signatures, or theirs, printed on Nov. 2, with up to 8 signatures

per tape?

Well, then it became even more interesting. Lana Hires took it upon herself

to box up some items from an office, which appeared to contain — you

guessed it — polling place tapes. She took them to the back of the building

and disappeared.

Then, voting integrity advocates from Volusia and Broward, decided now would

be a good time to go through the trash at the elections office. Lo and

behold, they found all kinds of memos and some polling place tapes, fresh

from Volusia elections office.

So, we compared these with the Nov. 2 signed ones and the “special’ ones

from Nov. 15 given to us, unsigned, and we found several of the MISSING poll

tapes. There they were: In the garbage.

So, Kathleen went to the car and got the polling place tapes we had pulled

from the warehouse garbage. My my my. There were not only discrepancies, but

a polling place tape that was signed by six officials.

This was a bit disturbing, since the employees there told us that bag was

destined for the shredder.

By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly threatening to

charge us extra for the time we took looking at the real stuff they had

withheld from us in our FOIA. Other lawyers appeared, phoned, people had

meetings, Lana glowered at everyone, and someone shut the door in the office

holding the GEMS server.

Andy then went to get the GEMS server locked down. He also got the memory

cards locked down and secured, much to the dismay of Lana. They were

scattered around unsecured in any way before that.

We then all agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit, discuss

the hand count that Black Box Voting will require of Volusia County, and of

course, it is time to talk about contesting the election in Volusia.

Bev Harris

Executive Director