New Hampshire recount update

this was taken from www.blackboxvotin.org
An original investigation by Black Box Voting

Last week, I described a way to alter ballots using the techniques used to remove ink from old, archival paper documents and old books. Archivists and custodians of rare books and documents are generally familiar with these techniques, because they are needed to restore documents.

These techniques have been adapted by modern-day criminals to "wash" the writing off of checks, and this is why it's dangerous to send checks by putting them in your mailbox with the little red flag up. Criminals have learned that they can remove the ink -- the amount written and the payee -- without disturbing the information printed on your check by the bank.

BALLOT WASHING

Archivists know this technique as a document repair method, criminals know it as "check washing." If you have the right chemicals, can you remove votes from ballots, allowing election-riggers to "re-vote" the ballots before they are counted, recounted, or audited?

Yes. We have been able to remove votes marked in ink from ballots without leaving a trace. Using this technique, insiders can alter votes on ballots.

HAVE INSIDERS EVER ACTUALLY BEEN CAUGHT TAMPERING WITH BALLOTS?

Yes. We now know that an aide to Maine Speaker of the House John Martin, together with a legislative aide, pleaded guilty in 1994 to rigging ballots in a recount structured almost identically to the New Hampshire presidential primary recount. Ballots had been packed up in cardboard boxes "sealed" with tape (a practice that the media called "an invitation to ballot-rigging") and transported to a central location for a recount.

The state attorney general and the Maine secretary of state were criticized for stonewalling the investigation after the insiders were caught red-handed, and the speaker of the house was not prosecuted, though he was alleged to have had inside information. The ballot-riggers got a few months in jail, a $2000 fine, and a sentence for community service. At least one of the perps did not pay all of his fine nor complete his community service requirement. Next time you're told to "trust" election insiders, laugh at that, ignore the advice, and keep asking sensible follow up questions!

In response to this "ballot-gate" scandal, the state of Maine invested $60,000 in more secure ballot boxes and changed policy to store them in an evidence vault used to secure evidence in pending criminal cases.

New Hampshire has known of this incident for at least 14 years, but failed to act to secure its own ballots.

New Hampshire ballot boxes - Presidential primary, 2008

THIS EXPERIMENT IS RELEVANT TO MAIL-IN VOTING, CENTRAL COUNT SYSTEMS, AUDITS, AND RECOUNTS

If it's possible for insiders to "wash" the votes off of paper ballots, all systems which give insiders access to ballots before they are publicly counted are at risk. The special risk is that ballot washing would enable vote alteration even when all ballots are accounted for. In other words, instead of substituting one ballot for another, ballot washing allows votes on the SAME ballot to be changed.

We have been experimenting with this. We learned that Premier/Diebold sells Eberhard-Faber black felt tip pens. We were not allowed to buy the Accuvote pens from Premier/Diebold because we do not have an account with them, but we purchased the same pens from another supplier.

Jim March and John Brakey came through with some genuine Diebold ballots, extras that had been used for a private election. In addition, Black Box Voting has a few Diebold ballots from the famous garbage raid outside the Volusia County, Florida warehouse. These ballots are not the same as New Hamshire presidential primary election ballots, which appear to be on thinner stock, with a colored bar along the top. We have thus far been unable to obtain a specimen ballot for New Hampshire.

WE WANT TO FIND OUT:

a) Which pens put your vote in the most jeopardy

b) Which pens have ink that is most difficult to remove

c) What effect different kinds of paper and paper coating have on ability to remove the vote mark from the ballot.

d) How the "official" pens and ballots fare when someone attempts to wash the votes off the ballots.

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

I'll be posting a formal report with photos and a video when we've completed all the tests. Preliminary tests indicate more work is needed and we are awaiting a shipment with additional materials for this project. Here's what we've found so far:

INK FROM BALL POINT PENS CAN BE LIFTED RIGHT OFF THE BALLOT

Both blue and black ball point pen can be removed easily with denatured alcohol. The amazing thing about removing ink with denatured alcohol is that even if you spill solvent all over the ballot it leaves NO EVIDENCE that the paper was ever wet. Of course, slopping solvent on the paper is not necessary because all you need is a plastic applicator bottle and bits of paper towel for easy, quick removal of the vote. The ink lifts off the page with the only evidence being slight indentations -- and those only exist if the voter pressed hard with his pen.

CONCLUSION: Ball point pen should never be used to mark ballots. In reality, this means mail-in votes are in special jeopardy, because it will be nearly impossible to stop people from picking up whatever pen is handy. Even in the polling place, some people may choose to use their own pens, thinking any black pen will suffice -- and for most modern optical scan voting machines, those marks will be read just fine. The problem is, the marks can be lifted right off the ballot leaving no trace, and insiders can re-mark the ballots.

We understand that banks are now using a special coating when printing some checks, which reveals the presence of solvents if they are applied. We should learn more about that to see if such a coating does indeed exist and whether it could be used for absentee ballot paper stock.

FELT TIP PENS, SHARPIES, "PERMANENT" MARKERS

We were able to lift BIC "Mark-It" fine point black "permanent marker" with denatured alcohol, but not completely. There was still some evidence that the mark had been made, though it was much lighter and "bled" to leave visible evidence. And it took two applications of solvent to get the marks half-way lifted.

We were not able to lift Sharpie fine point permanent marker at all. However, it is unlikely that this pen will be chosen to mark ballots by any election administrator, since it sometimes bleeds through the paper which would be undesirable for two-sided ballots.

This brings us to the Eberhard-Faber black felt tip pen sold by elections vendors for the purpose of marking optical scan ballots.

http://www.premierelectio...

Accuvote marking pen

http://www.amazon.com/Ebe...

Eberhard Faber(R) Porous Point Pens

Amazingly, this pen fails the "spit test" -- when we got the pens we ordered, before doing any official tests we marked a cardboard mailing container, moistened a fingertip with saliva, and part of the mark came off! It did leave a smear and was by no means removed altogether, and spit is a poor choice of solvent because unlike denatured alcohol, it leaves a watermark.

When we applied denatured alcohol, however, the Eberhard-Faber pens performed better than any of the other brands. The denatured alcohol had no effect whatsoever on the mark. Marks made by the Eberhard-Faber pens appeared to be indelible, impervious to the standard check-washing solvents.

NOT SO FAST -- "SPIT" WORKED BETTER THAN SOLVENT?

If you can lift part of the mark with plain ol' spit, but denatured alcohol leaves it entirely intact, it seems logical that the chemicals in Eberhard-Faber ballot marking pens may respond to a different approach. Indeed, that proved to be the case.

In a much more pleasant experiment (denatured alcohol, acetone and the like are toxic, flammable and nasty to work with) -- it turns out that Old Spice "Whitewater" after shave lotion partially lifted the Eberhard-Faber ink, and a second application lifted it further. But if you have to manipulate a lot of votes, it wouldn't be efficient to do repeat applications, and the ballots would come out with a telltale scent. Old Spice after shave lotion provided clues, but not answers. Based on the Old Spice after shave result, we've ordered some new substances to see if they lift Eberhard-Faber ink from ballots.

WE HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO THE PAPER STOCK YET

All of the above experiments were done on uncoated cardstock, and it stands to reason that coatings on the paper might make the ink easier to "wash".

AND NOW, A WORD ABOUT CARTING FLAMMABLES AROUND IN BALLOT TRANSPORT VANS

Ordinary solvents can be used to lift the ink off of any ballot marked with ball point pen, and this will include many of the absentee ballots, some of the polling place ballots, and many of the hand counted ballots. But how practical is it to tote tins of flammable solvents with toxic fumes around in a ballot transport van in the winter?

You've probably seen what these cans look like. Paint thinner, turpentine, what have you -- these chemicals are sold in square cans with a screw-on cap on the flat top surface. Glug-glug-glug-- not the kind of thing you want to splash around with in the passenger seat.

A quick visit to the hardware store nearest the archive building, where the New Hampshire recount ballots were being counted, did yield an unexpected result: While the shelves were fully stocked for all the other supplies, someone had purchased FIVE CANS of denatured alcohol during the last days of the Republican recount.

5 large cans denatured alcohol purchased in hardware store near New Hampshire recount

I asked the clerk how often they restock the shelves, and he said they do so every couple days. During the last days of the Republican recount, they were counting a lot of hand-count ballots, which are more likely to have marks made with ball point pen, so this did raise our eyebrows.

We followed this discovery up with a public records request for invoices, receipts etc. for purchases of products like this; the cost would have been about $75. We have not yet received those documents.

SOLVENT APPLICATOR BOTTLES?

We learned, as anyone else would who needs to remove stray ink marks from archived documents or old books, that it doesn't matter whether you are in a vehicle or not -- the most convenient way to remove marks with solvents is to keep the solvent in small plastic applicator bottles. These small plastic bottles have a nozzle that shuts off air flow when not in use -- necessary both to eliminate fumes and to reduce evaporation, because these chemicals evaporate quickly when the air hits them.

As an extra precaution, if carrying solvent applicator bottles in a vehicle, you'd want to keep them in a ziplock bag.

Here are two photographs taken by Susan Pynchon in the New Hampshire ballot transport van on Jan. 17, 2008. We are interested in getting your input on what you see inside the ziplock bag. Post away.