Howard is worried about voter error/fraud by over-voting on
optical scanners, just like that other Republican, John Fund. He uses Fund’s
old scapegoat, the Florida 2000 voter, to illustrate his concern for over-votes
in NY.He never considers that corrupt
FL and NY election officials, by counting votes using rigged computers along
with faulty mechanical punched cards and levers, can be the cause of fraudulent
vote counts. Florida
2000 voters were not stupid; they did not over-punch. Much more likely,
corrupt election officials voided the 110,000 votes by maliciously double-and
triple-punchingthem
- after the polls closed. Approximately 70,000 were Gore votes.

At least with optical scanners, the paper ballots can be
counted, like they are in Oregon,
the only 100% mail-in paper ballot state:

Howard conveniently ignores the simple fact that NY votes
are cast on levers but counted on unverifiable central tabulators (computers).
He should know by now that the tabulators can be maliciously programmed to
switch and drop votes. And you can never prove it; there is no paper trail
for the levers or the tabulators. Howard never mentions the fact that
NY votes are cast on levers but counted on computers.

In 2000, Gore won NY by 60-35% with 5% to Nader/other third-party voters. In 2004, Kerry had just 58%
of the recorded vote. The NY exit poll indicated that Kerry won by 64-35%.
Let’s do some simple math.

Returning Nader voters broke 5-1
for Kerry. Therefore, assuming an equal turnout of returning Gore and Bush
voters, Kerry won NY by 63.5-35.5% - matching the exit poll. And that is
conservative. The 12:22am National Exit Poll indicates that 10% of returning
Bush 2000 voters defected to Kerry, while only 8% of Gore voters defected to
Bush. The 12% NY exit poll Within Precinct Discrepancy(WPD) was massive compared to the
National 7.4% WPD.

Either the exit pollsters screwed up royally in NY, or Bush
padded his 3 million recorded vote “mandate” there by
cutting Kerry’s margin 12% (900,000 votes). And that does not include thousands
of Kerry voters who did not even get a chance to vote.

New York
votes are extremely vulnerable to miscounts at the precinct and in Cyberspace.

Let us count the ways:1) Defective
levers were placed in the strong Democratic precincts

2) Too
few levers were placed in Democratic precincts (long lines).
3) Pre-set levers were stuck on Bush, none on Kerry –
discouraging voters
4) Lever totals are input to unverifiable central tabulators that
can easily be coded to switch and drop votes.
5) There can be nohand recounts because there areno paper ballots (except for late
absentee or provisionals)

6) In2000-2008, the
Democratic late paper ballot share was 7% higher than the Election Day (lever) share

7) The
late paper ballot share closely matched the exit poll.
8) According to the Census, there were over 300,000 net uncounted votes

Bottom line: Even if the levers worked perfectly -
which they don’t – the votes are counted on computers.

Howard, repeat over
and over again until it sticks in:

It’s not who casts the votes or even how the votes are cast, it’s who does the counting.