Video Supporting Ohio Vote Fraud Claim Revealed
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Report

Thursday 23 December 2004

Truthout has come into possession of video from Hocking County, Ohio. The
video was recorded by a documentary film crew that was reporting on the
Ohio election. The crew interviewed a technician from Triad Systems. In a
report released by truthout on December 15, 2004, we reported on an
affidavit filed by Sherole Eaton, Hocking County deputy director of
elections. In her affidavit, Eaton stated:

On Friday, December 10 2004, Michael from TriAd called in the AM to
inform us that he would be in our office in the PM on the same day. I asked
him why he was visiting us. He said, "to check out your tabulator,
computer, and that the attorneys will be asking some tricky questions and
he wanted to go over some of the questions they maybe ask." He also added
that there would be no charge for this service.

He arrived at about 12:30PM. I hung his coat up and it was very heavy. I
made a comment about it being so heavy. He, Lisa Schwartze and I chatted
for a few minutes. He proceeded to go to the room where our computer and
tabulation machine is kept. I followed him into the room. I had my back to
him when he turned the computer on. He stated that the computer was not
coming up. I did see some commands at the lower left hand of the screen but
no menu. He said that the battery in the computer was dead and that the
stored information was gone. He said that he could put a patch on it and
fix it. My main concern was - what if this happened when we were ready to
do the recount. He proceeded to take the computer apart and call his
offices to get information to input into our computer. Our computer is
fourteen years old and as far as I know had always worked in the past. I
asked him if the older computer, that is in the same room. could be used
for the recount. I don't remember exactly what he said but I did relay to
him that the computer was old and a spare. At some point he asked if he
could take the spare computer apart and I said "yes". He took both
computers apart. I don't remember seeing any tools and he asked Sue
Wallace, Clerk, for a screwdriver. She got it for him. At this point I was
frustrated about the computer not performing and feared that it wouldn't
work for the recount. I called Gerald Robinette, board chairman, to inform
him regarding the computer problem and asked him if we could have Tri Ad
come to our offices to run the program and tabulator for the recount.
Gerald talked on the phone with Michael and Michael assured Gerald that he
could fix our computer. He worked on the computer until about 3:00 PM and
then asked me which precinct and the number of the precinct we were going
to count. I told him, Good Hope 1 # 17. He went back into the tabulation
room. Shortly after that he (illegible) stated that the computer was ready
for the recount and told us not to turn the computer off so it would charge
up.

Before Lisa ran the tests, Michael said to turn the computer off. Lisa
said, " I thought you said we weren't supposed to turn it off." He said
turn it off and right back on and it should come up. It did come up and
Lisa ran the tests. Michael gave us instructions on how to explain the
rotarien, what the tests mean, etc. No advice on how to handle the
attorneys but to have our Prosecuting Attorney at the recount to answer any
of their legal questions. He said not to turn the computer off until after
the recount.

He advised Lisa and I on how to post a "cheat sheet" on the wall so that
only the board members and staff would know about it and and what the codes
meant so the count would come out perfect and we wouldn't have to do a full
hand recount of the county. He left about 5:00 PM.

My faith in Tri Ad and the Xenia staff has been nothing but good. The
realization that this company and staff would do anything to dishonor or
disrupt the voting process is distressing to me and hard to believe. I'm
being completely objective about the above statements and the reason I'm
bringing this forward is to, hopefully, rule out any wrongdoing.

The video of the technician buttresses her claims, and further reveals
that the Triad representative acted in the same manner in several other
counties besides Hocking.

The revelation of this video has motivated Rep. John Conyers, ranking
minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, to post a letter to Brett
Rapp, President of Triad Systems. In the letter, Conyers states:

I have just reviewed a tape prepared by the documentarian Lynda Byrket
of the hearing held by the Hocking County Board of Elections on December
20, and based on that tape I have more questions and concerns than ever
about the conduct of your firm in connection with the Ohio presidential
election and recount. In particular, I am concerned that your company has
operated - either intentionally or negligently - in a manner which will
thwart the recount law in Ohio by preventing validly cast ballots in the
presidential election from being counted.

You have done this by preparing "cheat sheets" providing county
election officials with information such that they would more easily be
able to ignore valid ballots that were thrown out by the machines during
the initial count. The purpose of the Ohio recount law is to randomly check
vote counts to see if they match machine counts. By attempting to ascertain
the precinct to be recounted in advance, and than informing the election
officials of the number of votes they need to count by hand to make sure it
matches the machine count is an invitation to completely ignore the purpose
of the recount law.

The mounting evidence of election tampering by Triad representatives has
motivated 2004 Presidential candidate John Kerry to join with Green Party
and Libertarian Party representatives in their Ohio recount effort. John
Kerry will file today, in the United States District Court for the Southern
District of Ohio, papers in support of the Green Party/Libertarian Party
recount effort. Specifically, Kerry will be filing a request for expedited
discovery regarding Triad Systems voting machines, as well as a motion for
a preservation order to protect any and all discovery and preserve any
evidence on this matter.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/122404X.shtml