THE BULLITT COUNTY RECORDS HUNT
Black Box Voting suggested some documents for Kathy to request. While she did that, we filed public records requests all over Kentucky. Black Box Voting got a good sampling of election-related records and responses from Boyle, Caldwell, Calloway, Carroll, Christian, Daviess, Franklin, Gallatin, Garrard, Grayson, Hardin, Henderson, Henry, Hickman, Hopkins, Jefferson, Laurel, Lawrence, Lewis, Meade, Menifee, Metcalf, Muhlenburg, Owen, Pulaski, Rockcastle, Trigg, Trimble, Warren and Woodford counties, but we never got a thing from Bullitt County.
Can you find a more vivid example for why citizens are right to be concerned about elections? If citizens can't get access to the records, we can't oversee our government! But Kathy Greenwell is nothing if not persistent. She finally got copies of the voting machine results tapes, only to find out that about half of them weren't signed by the poll workers as required. It gets more interesting. The results tapes that lack signatures correlate with the machines that had "special attention" from Harp Enterprises, the Kentucky subcontractor for Hart Intercivic. Harp employees had showed up the day after the election to correct "glitches."
And then it gets just plain odd: After calling County Clerk Kevin Mooney's attention to the fact that dozens of the results tapes lack signatures, Mooney "certified" them (even though he wasn't working there in 2006) and also gave Kathy copies of various pages of signatures (but not written on the results tapes). Mooney simply stuck copies of blank pages containing various signatures here and there within the results tape records he had "certified." KENTUCKY FRIED ELECTIONS In Kentucky, the same polling place typically features machines by two different manufacturers.
In Bullitt County, older purchases of ELECTronic 1242 touch-screen machines from Danaher/Shoup/Guardian are combined with newer purchases of e-Slate paperless touch-screens by Hart Intercivic. Bullitt County claims that nearly all of its poll workers signed the results tapes from the ELECTronic 1242s, and at the same time, nearly all the poll workers "forgot" to sign the results tapes from the e-Slate machines. Why would every poll worker in Bullitt County "forget" to sign results tapes only from one brand of machine?
In addition, Kathy noticed that while the ELECTronic 1242 results tapes all contained votes, some of the e-Slate results tapes had dozens (but not all) races with "zero" votes. Here is a copy of the poll results tapes and other information from Bullitt County Kentucky for Nov. 7, 2006: http://www.bbvdocs.org/KY/Bullitt-Nov06.pdf (large - 22 394 KB) And http://www.bbvdocs.org/KY/KY-Bullitt-2006.pdf (7,728 KB)
Kathy does not have access to the Internet. She's not been privy to the vast amount of information on how to audit elections. Still she persisted. She took the "certified" copies of the polling place results tapes to a friend with a computer. Together they spent hours entering every single result into an Excel spreadsheet. There were no election integrity groups nearby, no moral support network. Together Kathy and her friend added up every one of the numbers on every one of the poll tapes. They compared them with the official results provided by Bullitt County, including the absentee votes. They don't match. Here is a pdf copy of the Excel spreadsheet Kathy and her friend labored over, showing that the totals don't match: http://www.bbvdocs.org/KY/KATHY.PDF
So Kathy called Black Box Voting again, and she called the assistant secretary of state for Kentucky. But by the time Bullitt County gave her the records, no remedy under the law was available – even though the results don't match. State officials told Kathy they don't know what they can do for her. They told her she had to file a complaint within 14 days. That's not entirely true. It's true that the deadline for contesting elections has passed but the statute of limitations for fraud has not passed.
Kathy Greenwell has now expended hundreds of dollars for overpriced records missing their signatures which don't match the final tally, "certified" as accurate by a clerk that wasn't even working there in 2006. And now she's getting threats. Welcome to Bullitt County: http://www.bbvdocs.org/KY/welcome.jpg WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Bullitt County Kentucky will have another election this coming May. If you live in Kentucky (or even in Cincinnati, which is nearby), now would be a good time to put together a small group of citizens to help Kathy keep an eye on Bullitt County elections. IT WOULD HELP KATHY A LOT if she could communicate cost effectively with others, through e-mail.
If anyone in the Louisville or Cincinnati area could donate a computer that is Internet-capable, Kathy Greenwell would have a good home for it. If someone who is tech-savvy can visit to show Kathy how to use e-mail and the Web browser, Black Box Voting will contribute a year's worth of dial-up Internet access for her. (E-mail angels@blackboxvoting.org if you can help, and we'll make the introductions.) NOW ABOUT THOSE THREATS Because Kathy is involved in trying to ensure that local citizens are having their votes counted properly, including those of minority voters, any acts of intimidation may fall under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which would put prosecution under the auspices of the US Dept. of Justice.
If anything at all happen to Kathy Greenwell, we need to make sure we are just as persistent as Kathy is. Together with Ohio and Kentucky election integrity activists, we will urge immediate action by the state attorney general's office and/or the US Dept. of Justice. BULLITT COUNTY IS BEAUTIFUL IN MAY -- Right around election time. Link to image: Kentucky map with Bullitt County http://www.bbvdocs.org/KY/ky-map.jpg If a posse of friendly citizens would like to head over to Bullitt County to watch for Kentucky fried elections, this year might be a good time to do so. Bullitt County – 20 miles south of Louisville, about an hour from Cincinnati: http://www.travelbullitt.org/
For a story on Kentucky fried elections in another location, click here: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/32958.html (1) The Lexington Herald-Leader - Thin margins could prompt reviews of 4 legislative races, By Ryan Alessi And Jack Brammer; Nov. 9, 2006 (2) Courier-Journal Louisville, KY - Dishon investigation was rocky from start, trial shows, by Jason Riley; Feb. 3, 2003 (3) Courier-Journal Louisville, KY - Brooks' attorney says investigators ignored other suspects in Dishon slaying, by Jason Riley; Jan. 24 2003 (4) The Courier-Journal Louisville, KY - Charges dismissed in Dishon slaying, by Brian Moore and Jason Riley; Sept. 6, 2003 (5) The Courier-Journal Louisville, KY - W. Ky. crash kills man with linked to Dishon case, by Brandy Warren; Apr. 6, 2006 (6) The Courier-Journal Louisville, KY - Suit against ex-Bullitt sheriff dismissed, by Brandy Warren; Jan. 26, 2007 (7) The Courier-Journal Louisville, KY - BULLITT COUNTY; Vote machine problems create 'mass confusion', by Melissa Gagliardi and Brandy Warren; Nov. 8, 2006 # # # # #
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