Check out all these unexpected deaths of people involved with elections

4.  Athan Gibbs, Jr.  -- March 12, 2004 -- invented the TruVote system -- car crash - collided w/ 18-wheeler

Was planning to present his new voting machine, and its paper verification features, to the Georgia legislature within a week of the crash.

"Death of a Patriot: No More 'Blind Faith Voting,'" by Bob Fitrakis  http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0318-02.htm

"Black Voting Machine Inventor Dies," by Hazel Trice Edney, The Call,

March 26, 2004  http://www.kccall.com/News/2004/0326/Community/081.html

Andy had worked for Black Box Voting and barnstormed around the country investigating and speaking.  It was Andy who uncovered (among other things) much of the story of Jeffrey Dean, the VP at Diebold who did software programming, who was a convicted felon whose crime had been embezzlement using computers.  Andy went to many of the nation's election hotspots, including Florida and Ohio.

In January 2005, Andy noticed he didn't feel well.  In April, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  He was eventually treated at Johns Hopkins, after the national election community raised $50,000 in eleven days for his treatment.  He died of post-surgery complications and a series of strokes.  He was 43.  His surgery had been postponed for two weeks due to the efforts of people who tried to monkeywrench Paypal and Johns Hopkins, and who spread nasty rumors that Andy wasn't really sick, and that this was all a scam.  Someone managed to shut down his Medicaid after the surgery, once again slowing things down.  One of his supporters in Baltimore had her car vandalized.

He had said a year earlier: "I've been threatened by these people [makers of voting machines].  I've been followed from my home to work.  The president of Diebold told me to back off or I would get a visit.  My phone's been tapped.  I've been ridiculed.  I've been called a conspiracy theorist.  You bet I'm going to demonize them.  It's wrong.  We're privatizing our elections.  It's something that should remain in the hands of the people...We need to take it back.  It's We the People."  "If they take our right to vote away, we're nothing but slaves.  I'm sorry.  I'm not willing to be a slave.  I'm not willing to go quietly into the night."  --Andy Stephenson, July 13, 2004 in an interview following a press conference next to the Austin State Capitol Rotunda.

6.  Rev. Bill Moss -- August 2, 2005 -- lead plaintiff in Moss v. Bush -- stroke

Columbus, Ohio resident Bill Moss was highly visible in the efforts to rectify the many wrongs of the November 2004 election in Ohio.  Elected five times to the Columbus Board of Education, Rev. Moss was an eloquent speaker.  He was considered a possible national spokesperson for the election reform movement, in an informal meeting held in Houston on June 30, 2005 after the Election Assessment Hearing.  Like Athan Gibbs, Moss was African-American.

7.  Mike Connell -- December 19, 2008 -- national GOP computer guru -- solo plane crash

"Pilot killed as plane crashes in Lake Twp."
By Jewell Cardwell, John Higgins and David Knox
Akron Beacon Journal staff writers
11:30 p.m. EST, Dec 19, 2008
http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/36482529.html

Connell was "a key witness in the King-Lincoln v. Blackwell lawsuit regarding fraud in the 2004 election in Ohio. That ongoing lawsuit led to Connell's deposition on November 3, 2008, the day before the general election. According to plaintiff's lead attorney Cliff Arnebeck, Connell was also threatened by Karl Rove in attempt to intimidate him into 'taking the fall' for Ohio election fraud."

Local firefighters and law enforcement personnel look over the wreckage of a small plane that crashed near a home at 2017 Charolais St. on Friday, Dec. 19, 2008, in Lake Township, Ohio. (Ed Suba Jr./Akron Beacon Journal)

http://media.ohio.com/images/plane+crash+01.JPG

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