For example, viewing totals from early electronic voting, or ballots cast before Election Day, is likely to be a larger and more accurate snapshot of voter sentiment than any pre-Election Day poll. Risner said he suspects the $2 billion transportation bond, which was opposed by the public in several past elections but favored by developers, could have been heading for defeat in 2006 -- and that would have been seen in glimpses of early results by county election officials. That knowledge could have prompted an election staffer to alter the vote-counting software to change the election outcome, he said.
"What is important politically here is the growth industry with the new subdivisions and land speculators," Risner said. "When you are looking at a simple flip reversal (of the voting results), one of the ways to do that is just simply have the machines read 'yes' votes as 'no' votes, and vice versa."
"In our state, 10 days before an election, you file with the secretary of state the ballot layout. We want to see that tape. That data has disappeared from the county. That data went to the one guy who ran elections, and it hasn't been seen since. It's gone."
The trial starts on Tuesday, Dec. 4.
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