Change.org & Greg Palast with Dennis J Bernstein / The Election Crimes Bulletin – 2016-06-08 21:03:40
https://www.change.org/p/bernie-sanders-bernie-sanders-must-contest-arizona-election-results-and-address-systemic-election-rigging
Watch as Malfunctioning Voter Touchscreen
Screens Out Bernie Sanders in June 7 California Primary
(June 7, 2016) — Computer malfunction or intentional software shenanigans? Either way, we need to fix America’s infrastructure, starting with voting machines!
Government Programmer Testifies
Voting Machines Are Rigging Elections
ACTION ALERT: Petition the Bernie Sanders Campaign to
IMMEDIATELY Address Systemic Democratic Primary Election Fraud
Sign onto Petition at Change.org
(June 7, 2016) — Open Letter to Bernie Sander’s Campaign from Supporters:
We, as your supporters/volunteers/donors and advocates for the People’s movement are DEEPLY concerned about what appears to be systemic election rigging within the Democratic primary and the failure of the Sanders’ campaign to address problems as they have revealed themselves.
State by state, we have witnessed serious issues with caucus rigging (video evidence emerging showing Clinton staff miscounting votes/allowing Clinton voters to go into caucuses unregistered, misinforming caucus participants of rules resulting in invalidating Sanders votes).
The violations were so severe in Iowa that the editorial board of the newspaper that endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Presidency, the Des Moines Register called for an independent audit and full investigation to determine what went wrong.
In Nevada, we have video of Clinton supporters being allowed to vote in the caucus unregistered and miscounting vote. The concerns about manipulations by the Clinton campaign in Nevada resulted in Nurses United (the Nurses’ union that endorsed Senator Sanders) to request independent polling monitors be brought in to oversee elections in remaining primary states.
In addition, we have seen a consistent trend of exit polling not matching election outcomes in Arizona, Massachusetts, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois indicating wins for Senator Sanders in these states. Additionally, exit polls in other states indicate much closer outcomes than reported results.
In Massachusetts, we witnessed unadjusted exit polls indicating a double-digit win for Bernie Sanders and hand counted precincts in Massachusetts going to Senator Sanders by 17% over Hillary Clinton.
In Arizona, exit polls conducted by the Daily Courier indicated Sanders winning by 62% over Clinton’s 37% yet current results are indicating an inexplicable double-digit win for Clinton. Exit polling has been consistently correct in predicting Republican primary outcomes from the same outlets conducting the Democratic polling. This is a major red flag.
We also have video evidence that Bill Clinton broke the law by campaigning INSIDE Massachusetts’s polling places and shutting down polling stations for several hours as he canvassed these precincts. Despite this being against state law, the severe disruption in voting that occurred, and a petition of over 100,000 people demanding that the state take legal action against Clinton for these violations, nothing was done.
This emboldened Bill Clinton to repeat the same behavior in precincts in Illinois, and Hillary Clinton was seen campaigning at a precinct in North Carolina during voting on that state’s primary day. Voters felt enormously disrespected that the Clinton’s interfered with our voting process and upset the Sanders campaign did not hold them to account for illegally disrupting our voting process.
Additionally, there is a serious concern about purged voter rolls with voters in every primary state thus far reporting incidents where individuals were either removed from the rolls or did not have their registration update changes in status that would have allowed them to participate in the 2016 Democratic primary.
Florida and Arizona was the most egregious in voters reporting removal from the rolls with many citizens being denied the vote entirely or only allowed to vote on provisional ballots.
Additionally, in Arizona we witnessed mass suppression of the vote as the state provided only sixty polling places for participation in contrast to the 200 that were available for the 2012 uncontested Democratic primary election. Voters reported waiting in lines for up to six hours.
The mainstream news media predicted a victory for Clinton with available exit polling data indicating a Sanders win and thousands of voters still waiting in line to cast a vote. This reeks of wag-the-dog politics, and we have zero faith that the outcome in Arizona is any way indicative of the actual results of that election.
Additionally, we are finding that vote by mail and absentee ballot registration is consistently favoring Hillary Clinton THREE to ONE and this is occurring EVEN in states where Sen Sanders is winning in double digit blow out margins over Clinton.
This is a short list of the issues and problems that have been reported in the Democratic primary thus far. Please refer to this blog for sources, videos, documentation, and video evidence compiled by state. The claims made in this petition are documented on this site. https://electionfraud2016.wordpress.com/
As supporters of this movement, we are troubled by the failure of the campaign to address these issues as they have arisen. We are puzzled why hand recounts of sample precincts were not requested in states where exit polls and election outcomes did not match. The machines we vote on are subject to tampering and remote hacking and election results have been shown to change by simple calibration of these machines.
We are disturbed that the campaign failed to follow up with recounts in Missouri when exit polls showed a clear Sanders win in this state, and election precinct totals showed statistically improbable changes to favor Clinton in larger voting areas such as St Louis. If the campaign did not want the voters to incur the cost for a full recount in this state, it would have been prudent to request hand recounts of ballots in precincts that presented red flags.
Our concern in Missouri, and indeed all the primary states, is not to pick up one or two extra delegates, but reveal what we believe could be mass election fraud.
Given the amount of evidence, it has come to the point of irresponsibility by the campaign to continue to ignore this issue. Volunteers and supporters have given literally hundreds of thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars in donations to drive this campaign to success. We have a right to expect the campaign will employ every possibly means of safeguarding our vote. Therefore, we request the campaign:
Fully contest the election results in the state of Arizona. The amount of voter suppression and problems in this state demand a full revote.
File for hand counts in states where exit poll results did not match election outcomes where it is legally allowed. If the campaign does not want to pay or recount entire states, we implore the campaign to request counts in states that presented red flags in reporting statistically improbable changes that favored Hillary Clinton. (St Louis in Missouri, Chicago in Illinois, etc). Immediately pursue any redress available in Massachusetts to the full extent of the law
Conduct exit polling in future primary states and immediately request sample hand counts of precincts if election outcomes do not match polling results to document for any possible fraud and challenge results wherein such fraud is documented.
Immediately respond to any future illegal behavior from the Clinton campaign (Bill Clinton illegally canvassing polls, video evidence of caucus rigging from Clinton campaign) and reports of mass voter purging or vote suppression by pursuing any/all legal avenues to provide redress.
It is the campaign’s duty to ensure that they utilize every avenue available to protect our vote and ensure that our movement to elect a People’s representative to the Presidency isn’t thwarted by illicit or illegal tactics from any entity.
Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan
Confirms Voter Fraud in 2016
(March 30, 2016) — She also has confirmed first priority is to cross referencing registered voters to those given provisional ballots and “making those count.”
URGENT UPDATE: After the Arizona debacle with reports of thousands of Sanders supporters being purged from the voter rolls, voters in upcoming primary states started double checking their registration status. We are getting reports from voters in Wisconsin, New York, California, Washington, and other upcoming states and some have had their party affiliation changed from Democratic to another status or found they are no longer on the rolls.
If you are voting in an upcoming primary or caucus state, DOUBLE CHECK your voter registration status and bring documentation to the polls of your eligibility. If you are purged, also contact the Sanders campaign. The Sanders campaign should make available an immediate hotline for reporters to report this issue AND issue a statement to warn voters to check their registration status.
UPDATE 2: As the campaign now continues to ignore the signatures of over 13,000 people, we have reports of ballot stuffing and irregularities in Wyoming. In Laramie County alone, Sanders had 689 votes to Clinton’s 111 votes at the caucus however Clinton ended up winning 620 votes were added in absentee surrogate ballots.
We implore the campaign to get representatives on the ground to examine the ballots to determine if these were legitimately cast votes. It is IMPERATIVE that the campaign address this issue as officials in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania have ordered 300,000 absentee ballots for the upcoming Democratic primary election.
Absentee ballots in primary elections for this county in PA typically run about 3,000! Just printing this grotesquely excessive amount should be a HUGE red flag. ADDRESS immediately:
“More than 2,900 ballot requests have been received so far, including a few hundred already sent overseas to comply with a federal law. That far outpaces the 1,922 and 1,176 requests seen in the 2012 and 2014 primaries.”
UPDATE 3:
The New York State Democratic Primary election was a blatant exercise in voter suppression and fraud. A very SMALL sampling of issues that occurred in New York: In Brooklyn, 126,000 voters were purged from the registration rolls (dropped or party affiliation changed from Democrat to different party), a fourteen percent drop in that one city alone. Registration purging was reported across the state.
Polling locations in Brooklyn reported broken machines, lack of full compliment of machines, and one polling location opened hours late after it was failed to be staffed.
CNN exit polling showed a four percent difference between Clinton and Sanders for the final results. Clinton is now currently holding a sixteen point lead with the majority of precincts now reporting. CBS exit polls showed a five point difference between the two candidates. CNN exit poll had a margin of error of 2.6 percent.
Exit polls are a reliable mean of ascertaining election outcomes and are used as a means globally to detect for suspicious results. New York is just the latest in a long series of states where reported results do not match the reported results (MA, IL, AZ, MI). A hand count is necessary to ensure the machine tally provided accurate results. Sanders must step up and demand that a hand count sample audit of precincts be conducted in New York State.
Issues were so severe that the New York City comptroller called for a full audit of the Election Board due to ‘hundreds of thousands of reported problems’. Unfortunately, there is a serious conflict of interest with Scott Stringer (NYC comptroller) leading an audit; he is the top delegate for Hillary Clinton on the New York State primary ballot.
See our Election Fraud Blog for all the New York updates at:
https://electionfraud2016.wordpress.com/ for MUCH more complete information.
Placebo Ballots: Stealing California From
Bernie Using an Old GOP Vote-Snatching Trick
Greg Palast with Dennis J Bernstein / The Election Crimes Bulletin
(June 1, 2016) — Alert! California poll workers have been told to give all independent voters “provisional” ballots if they want to vote in Democratic Party. That’s illegal — and will insure that Sanders voters’ ballots end up in the garbage, uncounted.
A special bulletin for California voters. And for the rest of you, how this same trickery — shifting voters to provisional ballots which are rarely counted — can steal the White House and Congress for the GOP in November.
Here’s the 411. If you’re registered as an independent voter in California, you have the right to vote in the Democratic Presidential Primary. Just ask for the ballot. But look out! Reports out of Orange County are that some poll workers have been told to give “No Party Preference” (NPP), independent voters, PROVISIONAL ballots as opposed to regular ballots.
Voter, BEWARE! Do NOT accept a PROVISIONAL BALLOT! They’re really “Placebo Ballots” — they give you the satisfaction of feeling like you’ve voted, without the inconvenience of anyone actually having to count them!
And for our readers in the other 49 states: You can bet that the GOP will be shunting voters to these placebo provisional ballots in November. In the last election, over two MILLION voters, overwhelmingly voters of color, were shifted to these rarely-counted ballots. That’s how you steal elections.
No, I’m not promoting Bernie, nor Ernie, nor anyone. I’m promoting democracy. Let’s make sure your vote counts. Read on (or listen in) while Dennis Bernstein and I take you through that ugly sausage factory calling the American voting system . . . .
Placebo Ballots: Stealing California from Bernie
(May 25, 2016) — TRANSCRIPT
Dennis Bernstein: Greg, welcome back. This week we’ll focus on what Greg calls placebo ballots, which are incredibly relevant to the upcoming California primary.
Greg Palast: Glad to be here for the bulletin. But I want to call it the alert, because I want people to wake up, get alert, and find out what’s happening in California and nationwide so you don’t lose your vote.
DB: You’ve done a lot of research on the provisional ballot.
Palast: If you don’t know what a provisional ballot is, you are probably white. I call them placebo ballots. They were created by George Bush and Karl Rove after they swiped Florida in 2000. The Congressional Black Caucus was very upset that people were not able to vote because they were falsely removed from the voter roles for all kinds of cockamamie reasons. So they said, “If your name is not on the voter roles, you should still be able to vote provisionally. They can check your records and count your vote later so you don’t lose your vote.”
They passed the provisional ballots through the Help America Vote Act. You can imagine, Dennis, what happens when George Bush says he’s going to help us vote. People won the right to a provisional ballot, but we didn’t win the right to have them counted. They rarely are. That’s why I call them placebo ballots. They say you can’t vote here, but you can fill out a provisional ballot. You think if you filled out a provisional ballot, sign it and stick it in the envelope, it’s counted. It isn’t. The chances they’ll count it are minimal. It’s like voting, but it’s not voting.
What does that have to do with California? I am currently reporting from Southern California, and there’s an Ashley Beck, who is a poll worker in conservative Orange County. She was being trained with other poll workers, and they were given some very strange information.
In the California primary, the independent voters registered as NPP, or no party preference, can vote in the Democratic primary. They can ask for a ballot and they are allowed to vote. The Orange County poll workers were told if NPP voters ask for a Democratic Party ballot to vote for Bernie or Hillary, they are not to be given regular ballots, but provisional ballots. This shook up Ashley:
“I was told that all NPP voters are to be given provisional ballots. I was bothered by that, because I was always told that NPP voters in California can vote for Democrats and their vote would be counted. I was a little worried that he was telling all 18 of us poll workers to give all NPP voters provisional ballots. We all know what happens most of the time with provisional ballots. They are not being counted.”
They are not being counted. Here’s the trick: Overwhelmingly, all polls show that NPP, or independent voters, are Bernie Sanders voters. Regular registered Democrats tend to slightly favor Hillary Clinton in the polls. So if you knock out the NPP voters by giving them placebo ballots — provisional ballots — that’s one way to steal the primary in California on June 7.
DB: The poll worker says that everybody knows these ballots don’t get counted, so there’s some awareness this is another Bernie fake-out.
Palast: The polls show an overwhelming preference of NPP/independent voters for Sanders versus registered Democrats who slightly favor Clinton.
And listen up: If you are in Nevada, Utah or Florida, you are not safe going into the voting booths either, because provisional ballots are everywhere in the USA under federal law. People are being given provisional ballots like candy. In 2008, 2.1 million voters were shunted to provisional ballots. They might as well have written their vote on bubbles. 2.1 million voters.
Who gets these ballots normally? I was on a book tour in Palm Springs and there were about 200 white folk and two people of color in the audience. I said, “Has anyone here ever gotten a provisional ballot?” The only two Black voters in the room both raised their hands, and that was it. Black people know what provisional ballots are, and they probably know that if they fill one out, the chance of it getting counted is slim. If you are given a provisional ballot, don’t take it. Demand adjudication — say that independents are entitled to regular ballots in the Democratic primary. This is a nationwide problem.
DB: Give us some history. Tell us about the Laguna and Acoma pueblos in New Mexico, south of Albuquerque. Tell us about what happened to this indigenous community and those who called this into question and defended people’s right to vote.
Palast: I went to the Acoma pueblo in New Mexico with my investigations team. The Native Americans who live in the pueblo were voting for city council in droves because they are very concerned that their land is being poisoned by the uranium mines — which are going to expand . . . . Because they didn’t want their lands poisoned, they had a motive to vote. There was also a reason for people to not let them vote. The people that wanted the mine didn’t want the natives to vote. What did they do?
They told the pueblo residents, “You are not properly registered.” In Native American communities, they say things like “Your address is incorrect because it says ‘home next to the Post Office.'” That’s often the only address in a pueblo, but it’s not a street number, so their registration is challenged.
There were 200 people in the pueblo who had their registrations challenged, and they were given provisional ballots. “Don’t worry. If you overcome the challenge, we’ll count your vote. Fill out the provisional ballots and put them in the envelope.”
The county took the ballots and threw them all away because they said they were in the wrong envelopes. They were the envelopes the government had given them, knowing they were the wrong envelopes they could then throw out. That’s how this game is played.
No one is hit with more provisional ballots than Native Americans. They are one of the most Democratic Party-leaning groups there are. If you are wondering if this is a one-party steal system, it was the Democrats who took away votes of their fellow Democrats at the pueblo because they didn’t like who they were voting for in the primary. This is typical, as we are seeing in California right now.
DB: In Arizona, you write about a John Brakey, who worked with Audit Arizona. What happened to him?
Palast: He’s a great vote theft and election manipulation investigator. He’s well known in our field and works with a great team of attorneys. He was a poll watcher in Arizona, and they were taking Hispanic voters, especially young men, and automatically sending them over to provisional ballots — which wouldn’t get counted.
They’d say, “What’s your name?” “Jose Juarez.” “Well your name isn’t on the voter roles.” Why? When they looked for Juarez, they looked under “W” — I kid you not! When Brakey complained, the state of Arizona called in the state cops, not to stop the theft of the vote but to arrest John Brakey, the poll worker. This is the type of games that are played.
In California, with the attempt to steal votes by giving independent voters provisional ballots, for the first time there are a lot of white people, Bernie voters, who are being treated as if they are Black, Hispanic or Native American voters.
This is the typical treatment for voters of color in America, under our apartheid provisional ballot system we have. Two million ballots in 2008 were provisional and most were thrown in the garbage. We are heading into a primary where poll workers are going to try to shunt the independent voters to the provisional ballots and get their votes thrown away. If you take a provisional ballot and you are an NPP voter, it will 100% be thrown away because you’re not allowed to use that ballot even if they give it to you.
Protect your vote. Go to GregPalast.com and download 7 Ways to Beat the Ballot Bandits. One is don’t vote provisionally. You can say, “I want a polling judge to determine that I get a real ballot.” In California, an independent NPP has a right to vote in the Democratic primary.
DB: Is there somebody like a polling judge around? Do they legally have to produce that person? How does that process work? Many people might want to fight for their vote but they might be intimidated. They might be threatened that they are causing problems. They could be threatened with violations of getting in the way of the vote that’s taking place. How do you fight this at the front line?
Palast: You do have a right to ask for an adjudication of your vote. There should be a poll judge who is assigned to each poll.
I would give advice that everyone should have a lawyer, but that’s not possible. This is how it’s coming down in America. It’s unfortunate and sad.
Also, outside California, if you can, do “early voting” in November. If your name is not on the voter rolls, don’t wait until Election Day to find out. It’s better to vote early so you can find out if there’s a problem. In California, you don’t have that choice in the primary. You’ve got to go in and stand up for your rights. The ACLU and Rock the Vote and others will have numbers for the general election. We’ll find out what’s available for voter protection in the June 7 California primary. I was hoping California would be a little bit cleaner, but it looks filthy already.
DB: How many votes could be at stake in California?
Palast: There are well over a half million NPP independent voters in California who all have the right to vote in the Democratic primary. Over half a million is real numbers in my neighborhood. The Republican Party is closed to the NPP voter.
DB: The difference in New York is that the independents were not allowed to vote in the Democratic primary. Hillary says she has more voters, but it’s because independents can’t vote. But in California, independents have the right vote in the Democratic primary, and nobody should tell them differently.
Palast: 100%. If you are in the American Independent Party you need to vote for them. But if you are truly an independent voter, registered as an NPP, you absolutely have the right to a real Democratic Party ballot to vote in the Democratic primary for the president of the United States. That’s California law. There is no reason for a provisional anything. In California, please check and make sure you are registered. If not, you will get a provisional ballot that will go to the shredder.
Greg Palast has been called the “most important investigative reporter of our time – up there with Woodward and Bernstein” (The Guardian). Palast has broken front-page stories for BBC Television Newsnight, The Guardian, The Nation Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Harper’s Magazine. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, Armed Madhouse, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, and the highly acclaimed Vultures’ Picnic, named Book of the Year 2012 on BBC Newsnight Review. His books have been translated into two dozen languages. His brand new film of his documentary reports for BBC Newsnight and Democracy Now! is called Vultures and Vote Rustlers.
Dennis J Bernstein is the executive producer of Flashpoints, syndicated on Pacifica Radio, and is the recipient of a 2015 Pillar Award for his work as a journalist whistleblower. He is most recently the author of Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom.
America’s Voting Machines Are F**ked
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
