December 01, 2004 | 11:25 p.m. ET

More than one kind of black box (Keith Olbermann)



NEW YORK - I’ve been avoiding this topic for four weeks now, but given what I understand are a lot of dropped jaws around the blogosphere, I think I better spill this.

I don’t think Bev Harris of Black Box Voting is doing anybody any favors.

I suggested as much tonight on Countdown and there were a lot of understandably surprised emails. Some profane, incidentally, which had previously been the exclusive province of those who notified me of their opposition to anybody covering anything about voting irregularities or especially Jesse Jackson’s F-Word.

Each and every day since our coverage of all this began on November 8, I have received a set of emails, some times a few, some times many, asking “Why don’t you have Bev Harris on Countdown?,” “Why don’t you run the Bev Harris videotapes?,” “Why don’t you show the voting tapes Bev Harris found discarded in the trash in Florida?”

Because she won’t let us.

I have not dealt with Ms. Harris directly, but my staff has, and though we have asked her on a regular basis to let us show these tapes on national television, she has declined.

We are running in risky waters as it is, offering a platform for tapes we can’t independently verify. But I have heretofore been convinced that she had credentials sufficient to make an interview segment with her both useful and reasonable.

My ample gut has lately sent me a different message, and her showdown with Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore on Monday seemed to buttress my instinct. She burst into LePore’s retirement ceremony, her cameraman rolling tape as she did so, and she raced to the podium to announce to the shocked room full of supervisors that she was “serving” LePore with papers as part of her lawsuits over what she claims are LePore’s evasions in providing records of the 2004 vote.

The usefulness of that videotape to the immediate issue at hand - were there widespread failures of the electronic voting systems in this country on November 2nd, and if so, were those failures enabledby any malfeasance - has an expiration date. If they show irregularities, if they show public servants at their worst, even if they’re guerrilla-style political confrontations, they have a public value - an urgent one.

Have you seen them?

What Ms. Harris has left herself open to is a charge that as much as any interest she has in the justifiable public concern over our most precious right - the right to a reliable, honest election - she may also have an interest in making her own documentary, on her own schedule, for her own purposes.

What Ms. Harris has also left herself - and by extension anybody who is advocating investigation, or merely covering the story - open to,is the charge of grandstanding, of tin-foil hatting, of being somebody who bursts in to a room and screams at public officials, videotape running all the time, artificially creating news.

Me - I think that can be justified. Guerrilla politics - even guerrilla news - isn’t pretty, but it’s often necessary, as long as it’s news you’re interested in. It’s necessary, as long as you take advantage of the opportunity to disperse what news you’ve gathered, promptly and professionally, especially if that opportunity can serve the public good, and comes with relatively few strings attached (“can we see it first so we know what the hell we’re broadcasting?” - the same thing we ask anybody with news videotape not shot by an NBC or affiliated camera crew, whether they’ve recorded a hurricane or a cat nursing a puppy).

It has been pointed out that Bev Harris was scheduled to be on Countdown back on November 8 but her appearance was cancelled. I haven’t addressed this before, either. But we didn’t cancel on her - we wanted, on that first night raising this touchy subject nobody else had previously covered, to have more mainstream guests. And we wanted her back another night. And since then we’ve wanted her to come back with her video. And she hasn’t.

I don’t know her motivations and I don’t know her bona fides. But I’m afraid at this stage, intentionally or by the simplest of communication failures, she isn’t helping illuminate this issue. And every step that attracts heat but not light is another step towards discrediting the entire process.

Thougths? Email me at KOLbermann@msnbc.com

Uh -- this is serious either way. Either Olberman is lying, or Bev Harris as some sort of weird agenda she's not telling us about. I think we better find the answer to this one.

Ya, I was doing some research on computer hacking for some members of Congress for the last few weeks and I had heard some things about Bev.

I posted as much in another forum here and got nailed for even suggesting such a thing.

sure you were

congress

i truly doubt it

See? Just like that. Of course, he had practice already, HE was one of the people who doubted what I said.

Keith seems to make some valid points here. Most certainly that Bev did not show any class with her act.

Yeh..I've been looking at her with a jaundiced eye myself. It has been 4 weeks and all we keep hearing, is the same story about Volusia County. She reminds me of employees I've had to deal with in my lifetime, who were always "working hard", made a lot of noise about it, but got nothing accomplished. She got a nice vacation to Florida on our contributions though. She was probably the "dog ate my homework" type as a kid.

I would like to know what's up as well. Hard to believe it's already December 2nd! 23 days till Christmas. Heh heh. The election feels like a century ago. What's going on? The EC will be voting soon and then it's the end.

I think Bev better address the Olberman article pretty darned quick, or maybe donators to BlackBoxVoting.org have some grounds for fraud themselves.

I'm with you and am very curious. It's so hard to know who to trust now days. Sometimes I wear my tinhat more then I should....

Keith makes excellent points. If Harris has the goods, she's been offered a forum to present them but she's not doing it. Unfortunately, while she may have the best of intentions, her execution is ruining the effect. She best walk her talk soon or risk being discredited.

It's great that her organization helped gather the information that is now being used but she needs some quick lessons in PR.

I agree. Olbermann is a serious reporter who (that I know of) is the first to talk about this so he'd be the perfect place to go. I wonder why they're waiting too. Maybe they're waiting for more proof or something? I dunno.

Well wouldn't that be disappointing to find out she's really making a documentary and hoping to cash in some Michael Moore dollars? I hope that's not the case, but at this point I'm putting my hopes and dreams on Ohio anyway.

That's how I am. I'm trying to move on but I'm still have some hope.

She's already responded on blackboxvoitng.org

Last updated: Thursday Dec. 2, 2004 -- Black Box Voting demands retraction from Keith Olberman. We have given him the option to correct his factually flawed editorial by having Bev Harris come the on his show (contrary to his assertions, neither he nor his staff have EVER asked Harris to show anyone the Volusia County tapes. (One Olberman's producers did ask Harris to appear on the Countdown show, twice, both times BEFORE Harris came to Florida or uncovered Volusia County irregulaties. In both cases, after Harris had cleared her schedule to appear, right before the show, Olberman's producers canceled the appearance without explanation. Harris has always agreed to go on Olberman's show, and Olberman is the one who canceled, not Harris. The Volusia County tapes were showed to CNN cameramen, but Harris has never been asked to show any Volusia County materials to Olberman, MSNBC producers, NBC producers, CNBC producers, or anyone else with that TV network or its affiliates. Also contrary to Olberman's claims, Harris is not making a documentary, but the makers of the Votergate documentary, an independent team who captured the Volusia County trash incident on film, are eager to interview Keith Olberman on camera to ask him why he produced this report.

....

My question: Who is more credible at this point?

Thank you for the update. Gar on Keith if this is true. <_<

Sorry, Bev has lost a lot of credibility with me. Her group BBV needs to be more
factual and punctual. The only person in media giving us any kind of info
support or coverage is Keith.

Again, Bev needs PR person running BBV show not her.

One of the below is definitely a fact:

1. Bev Harris is grandstanding.


2. Keith Olbermann is pandering.

3. Both of the above.

Hopefully this will lead to more information - Olbermann makes a credible argument - but if he's lying that's a problem - its also a problem if harris is grandstanding and doing all this for a documentary - which hides info form the public

Either she is interested in bringing truth to the issue and doing somehting to protect election rights and get the truth in this election - or she isn't...

There are no two ways...

Keith Olberman has nothing to gain or lose here... He went out on a limb by carrying the story and supporting it for almost four weeks now. I think he's calling Bev out.

She appears to be her own worst enemy. While Bev does have loyal supporters, her recent threat to take legal action against DU didn't gain her any friends.

Don't discredit Harris. That is obsurd. Considering the magnitude of what she is investigating, and those who will be exposed by the investigation, every step must be carefully calculated. I too wake up every morning, turn on NPR and hope and pray that today is the day that the story "breaks." But I would rather wait until the very last minute possible for change, if that means the change will be effective! And the fraud is verified!

If you begin to doubt yourself and what you believe to be true. Then it is over. Wade through the Nick and Jessica stories, the FCC stories, the shopping season stories, the Wal-mart stories, the Ukraine election stories, one day... and I hope its sooner than later... the 2004 Election Fraud will be the only story.

And let us pray that it does not come out like the actual Florida 2000 election count comes out, after the fact, when noone can do anything. BTW, since Bush didn't really win in 2000, even if, by what ever fraudulant means he receives the votes from the electoral college, shouldn't he have to forfeit this presidency, to account for his illegal 2000-2004 presidency? Oh, that's right, BushCo doesn't believe in accountability.

We have no way of knowing which one is telling the truth. But bottom line, this all points to the fact that there still is no credible evidence that there was massive, concerted fraud in the vote counting. Surely if Harris had something substantive she would have found some media outlet for it by now besides her own website.

Again I ask what's real? Only time will tell. Or will it? We may never know the truth about this election. I hope we do, but don't hold your breath. I just want the truth. These days it's an endangered species.

You are a wrong here. If there is no voter fraud, Keith will have to find an excuse for his reporting. This may be that excuse, and he gains big time.

Further down the page, and a bit off-topic, there's really strong arguments about vote rigging:



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240

As to black box, well, maybe Keith is just forcing Bev onto the show.

Let's say Valousia County is covering something up.... First of all, Kerry won in that county. Volusia totals = Bush:111,924 Kerry:115,519

source:
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/elections/.../2/04&DATAMODE=

Even if all of bushes votes go to Kerry, we still don't win.

if the bushies were consipiring to steal the vote in this county... they did a crappy job of it. (which is par for the course with this administration)

I disagree with your disagreement.... His reporting of the story has not been from a point of his belief that there was fraud. His tone has always been: here's the facts, you decide. My point here is that he had already built in a way out.

Maybe they weren't trying to steal the county. That would be to ovious. Votes added here would be part of winning the state and the twenty electorial votes. Spreading it out over many or all counties would raise less red flags and make it harder to detect. It's probably just one piece to a large puzzle.

Wouldn't you agree that his reporting breathed life into the story?

Absolutely... and he has been loyal to keeping it in the public eye or at least those of us who watch his show and or read his blog. But, it has kept his reporting unbiased. This has three benefits, 1. it makes the story credible, 2. let's him gain credibility from it validity if it developes and 3. If it flops, he doesn't lose credibility since all he did was report the facts without inference of opinion.

Therein lies the rub, all he did was report the facts . The "facts" are in question.

Are you talking about the same corporate-owned media that used to say "Bush way ahead in polls" with a 3 point lead, and "Kerry pulling even" when he had a 3 point lead? Are you talking about the same corporate media that failed to investigate the Swiftboat ads, but rather served to show them free to a national audience? Are you talking about Murdoch White House Talking Point Fox, General Electric NBC, Viacomm CBS, etc.?

Or are you talking about local TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers that are wholly owned by the above giants?

I take it you have not read the University of Pennsylvania report or the Berkeley Report on the gross statistical anomolies in the election results.

Yes - but if Bev is right and he is lying about inviting her on the show - maybe his editors finally got to him and want him to tone it down because the Bushies are getting rankled...

Last update: December 1, 2004 at 7:12 PM
David Cobb: Greens had good reason to ask for this recount
David Cobb
December 2, 2004 COBB1202
Minneapolis Star Tribune


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Something went seriously wrong in Ohio on Election Day.

On Nov. 13 and 15, hearings conducted by the Ohio Election Protection Coalition in Columbus featured oral and written testimony from a number of voters, poll workers, precinct judges and legal observers.

The testimony confirmed numerous complaints tracked by election-watchdog organizations and investigative journalists since Nov. 2. Those who testified told stories of the obstruction and disqualification of legitimate voters, malfunctioning computer voting machines, and prohibitively long lines for too few machines.

A pattern emerged: The complaints came disproportionately from blacks, young people and precincts where Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry had strong support.

As the Green Party presidential candidate, I have a statutory right to demand a recount of the presidential vote in Ohio. On Nov. 11, I announced my intention to invoke that right, joined by Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik. We were compelled to demand a recount by widespread reports of irregularities, to ensure that the final tally is accurate and to restore faith in the electoral process.

The grass-roots support from individuals and citizens' organizations for an Ohio recount has been overwhelming. Within four days following the Nov. 11 announcement, thousands of people in Ohio and across America responded by contributing the $113,600 required for the recount.

Neither Badnarik nor I has a partisan interest in seeing either Kerry or George W. Bush in the White House. But we do have an interest -- and a responsibility, as candidates and American citizens -- in ensuring the fairness of elections and integrity of vote counts.

Greens are already keenly aware of how our democracy has been manipulated and compromised -- how Democratic and Republican politicians have passed prohibitive ballot-access laws in many states to obstruct independent and third-party candidates, and how the two established parties took control of the presidential debates away from the League of Women Voters to exclude all other candidates.

Greens are especially concerned about the corruption of the political process by the influence of corporate campaign contributions and lobbyists. The Green Party does not accept corporate contributions.

Badnarick and I are also asking Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to recuse himself from any involvement in the recount. Blackwell supervised the presidential vote at the same time that he served as cochairperson of the Bush campaign in Ohio.

This is an unfortunate reprise of the 2000 fiasco in Florida, when Secretary of State Katherine Harris was also the chairwoman of the Bush campaign and the person responsible for counting the presidential vote. Votes should be counted by an independent election commission, not by overtly partisan politicians.

Like many Americans, I was, to say the least, disappointed that Kerry conceded the election so quickly on Nov. 3, despite his promise that all votes be counted. My disappointment stemmed not from a desire to see Kerry elected, but a desire to see that everyone who cast a ballot would have their vote counted.

For many Democratic Party leaders, on the other hand, the lesson of the 2000 Florida scandal seems to be that controversy must be avoided, even if votes go uncounted or serious allegations don't get investigated.

For those of us in the Green Party, however, the lesson of 2000 is that the fight for voting rights didn't end with the reforms of the civil rights movement. It goes on today, in Ohio and elsewhere.

Regardless of whether a recount changes the outcome of the election, we must protect the right to vote and the right for all votes to be counted. Either every vote is sacred, or democracy is a sham.

David Cobb, the Green Party's presidential candidate in 2004, wrote this article for the Providence Journal.

Posted on Thu, Dec. 02, 2004





Ohio certifies election results, but recount demands likely

By Steven Thomma

Knight Ridder


WASHINGTON - Ohio counties certified election results Wednesday, showing that President Bush won the pivotal battleground state Nov. 2 and with it a second term. But the certification did not seal the results, and disgruntled groups alleging vote fraud planned to contest the statewide result and demand a recount.

One coalition of voters and interest groups plans to seek a recount. Another plans to file a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court today contesting Bush's victory.

Despite these challenges -- and rampant charges on the Internet that Republicans stole the election for Bush in Ohio -- there is no proof of fraud, and there is no reason yet to think the election will be overturned. Other factors to consider:

• Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who conceded Ohio and the election Nov. 3 after his aides concluded there was no reasonable chance for him to overturn Bush's margin there of 136,000 votes, refuses to join the challenges.

Kerry's campaign has filed one legal brief, but it argues only that if there is a recount, it should include all Ohio counties. It does not call for a recount.

• A federal judge has blocked efforts to start a recount quickly.

• Any recount would not start until Dec. 11. That would leave about 24 hours to find enough invalid votes to reverse Bush's victory in Ohio before the state's presidential electors vote for him Dec. 13, which would seal his re-election.

Official results from the state's 88 counties were sent Wednesday to Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. He is expected to certify the tally Monday showing that Bush won the state.

The challenges are proceeding along two tracks. The first -- by the Green and Libertarian parties, whose candidates each polled less than 1 percent in Ohio -- seeks a recount.

``There were widespread reports of irregularities,'' said Blair Bobier, an Oregon attorney for the Green Party. ``They range from computer glitches that recorded more votes for George Bush than there were registered voters to people attempting to vote for one candidate and the screen showing they voted for another candidate.''

The second track is the group that plans to challenge the election, which said it would file a lawsuit today with the state Supreme Court. The group includes 25 Ohio voters and is backed by a Massachusetts-based interest group, Alliance for Democracy.

the latest from Keith Olberman:

One final note here. I should clarify what I wrote in this space last night about Countdown’s interaction with Bev Harris of Black Box Voting. My staff is not certain that any of our messages to Ms. Harris inviting her on the show since the week of November 15 have specifically asked her for permission to play the videotapes of her work trying to audit the Florida vote. We think so, but I’ve got only three people booking all the guests on this program, and they each probably make about 100 calls a day.

Complicating our effort is the fact that even as we hoped to provide a platform to publicize and illuminate her efforts, Ms. Harris had returned none of the messages left on her own voicemail by Countdown staffers since she spoke to our staffers briefly, twice, during the week of November 8. Only today did she even get back in touch with us, and was so belligerent, threatening, and demanding, that we have chosen to withdraw our invitation to her to appear, or to have videotape of her efforts played, on Countdown.

Threats against myself or my staff will not be tolerated. We are not only busting our humps on the voting irregularities beat, but we remain the only mainstream news organization to continue to cover this vital story. These are my people — they are running professional risks I can’t begin to describe — and I will stand up for them, first, last, and always.

Welcome to a microcosim view of our party: We all want to get to the truth and
proceed by shooting ourselves in the foot doing it!

I think Olbermann is full of crap....

First they say they invited her - then Olbermann clarifies and says well we can't we certain we ever actually asked for the tapes - and then he whips up this story that she has been so belligerent which he accused her of being with Theresa LePore - when there is a question of whether that occurred - and then they withdraw their invitation which it is not even clear they made - because if they can't determine whether or not they asked for the tapes - how can they tell whether they asked Harris to appear...she's been on other programs - why wouldn't she be on Countdown...

I think MSNBC is getting pressure from the White House and the FCC to kill this story dead - and the producers have said to Keith - you started this - you end it...so he's making things up...

Who has done more to advance the cause? I know Bev has been "working hard" but we can't say that she been instrucmental or even present with what's going on in Ohio. As for Florida, its all but a lost cause.

Keith's reporting of the story has done more to advance the story than Bev has...

Not if Keith is lying about what Bev's been doing...then he's actually working to kill the story not advance it...

Not if Keith is lying about what Bev's been doing...then he's actually working to kill the story not advance it...

Excuse me but how dare you promulgate this bogus commentary on Bev Harris?

She's done MORE than any single person in the entire country investigating and exposing voter fraud. Yet she is one individual citizen with a bare bones staff - she's been investigating voter fraud for over two years - do your homework and get your facts straight before making such spurious statements.

Wait a minute, did I hear (read) you correctly? How dare I voice my opinion?

First of all, there's no need to get so upset. I'm not suggesting that Bev is a fraud. I have looked for information about her efforts on various news boards... google , yahoo... and I just have not found anything from an independent source that backs up what she says she's doing. I was on the DU board when she posted that information would be coming out over the next couple of days... that was four weeks ago. I gave blackboxvoting.org money to support that effort.
All I know to this point is that she's filed a suit in Florida because a county failed to reply to her request for information.... Has she filed any suits in Ohio or any other states? I don't know and I can't find any info on it. If you have something from an indepenent source... post it.

It just seems that whenever someone says something about Bev, they get their heads bitten off. That's not right. Since she's asking th general public for money to support her efforts, she needs to held accountable.

Keith has provided a spotlight, that is all. Any boob with a blog, a microphone and a camera can do that.

The real "value added" is the work being done by by Bev Harris and the hundreds of analysts and researchers. Theirs is the work that will be used in the eventual trials. They are producting factual evidence that will be used to send these criminals to federal prison.

Well, he's the only boob we have at this point with a national spotlight.

Each may be doing work to promote the cause of investigating voter fraud, but if they can't play and work together, it does no one good. If I believed that my cause was just, and that it needed attention, I'd do anything to get media time. Fighting with the media is not what is needed at this time. Suck up pride and self-righteousness and do something beyond yourself. The work that is being done should be selfless, recognition should come from what is accomplished, that is - exposing vote fraud.

So bloggerman, who is telling the truth? Below is a post on blackbox voting forum Conferences General Discussion Questions for Bev, Andy, Kathleen Topic #3

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/cgi-bin/dcfo...m=DCForumID4410

"BevHarrisadmin
Member since Jul-11-03
1740 posts
Dec-03-04, 08:34 PM (PST)
Click to EMail BevHarris Click to send private message to BevHarris Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list
"The Keith Olbermann situation"

On Wednesday night, Keith Olbermann went on national television (MSNBC) and did an editorial saying that I was refusing to provide documents, or come on his show.

One of the items his editorial chided me for "refusing" to produce was a videotape of serving Theresa LePore a lawsuit, and while he was delivering this editorial, friends of mine who observed the show have reported to me that the videotape itself, which we had already provided to NBC affiliates in Orlando and Palm Beach, was playing behind him.

His editorial stated that I had refused, repeatedly, to come on his show, and had declined, repeatedly, to provide "the tapes." In fact, his producers now admit they never spoke to me.

We have three phone numbers listed on our Web site. None of us received messages from MSNBC.

Adding to the confusion was that there are three sets of tapes:

1) The videotape of me giving Theresa LePore a lawsuit. That video is owned by Black Box Voting, and we provided it to NBC affiliates, at their request, less than 24 hours after the event. Orlando and Palm Beach stations aired the video on the Dec. 1 news.

2) The videotape of going through the garbage at Volusia County. To complicate this situation, there are two videotapes, one of going through the garbage and pulling poll tapes out at the county elections warehouse, and one of going through the garbage and pulling poll tapes out at the elections division in downtown Deland. Most of this video was taken by the producers of Votergate (http://www.votergate.tv) and they own it, therefore it is not ours to give out to MSNBC. We were never asked for this video, and MSNBC never called the producers of Votergate to ask for it.

I offered to let an MSNBC producer speak to a producer of Votergate yesterday, but she declined. The producer, Robert Carrillo Cohen, then called and left a message, leaving his contact information and his willingness to cooperate. To the best of my knowledge, he has never been called back.

3) The poll tapes from Volusia County. There are about 900 pages of them, and selecting the ones that form the basis of our investigation, to showcase them on TV or the Internet, would compromise our investigation, since we would prefer not to have Volusia County know exactly which ones we are most interested in, and we are still interviewing poll workers.

These tapes have been examined by Lowell Finley, an attorney working with Help America Recount, and by Daniel Vaughan, an attorney working with plaintiff Susan Pynchon in the Volusia County lawsuit. I have also showed the stack of them, with orange tags on those with anomalies, to cameramen for CNN.

Though MSNBC never contacted me to ask for the tapes, I reached a producer yesterday. She told me they are not interested in the Volusia County poll tapes.

Regarding being invited to be on Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

I was invited to be on the show on Nov 5. I cleared my schedule. At the last minute, the producer, Katy Carp, cancelled without an explanation.

I was invited to be on the show on Nov. 8. I cleared my schedule. One hour before the show, I contacted producer Katy Carp, who had scheduled me, because I wanted to confirm the exact time. She had not bothered to call me to cancel, but casually, and with no explanation, said "oh that's been cancelled."

I have never spoken to any producer from Olbermann's show since Nov. 8 for any invitation to be on the show. We did not come to Florida for the Volusia County or Palm Beach investigations until November 12.

Regarding making "threats" or being "belligerent":

I called Olbermann's producers very early on Thursday morning when I saw the factually incorrect, and damaging, story that Olbermann had done. I've worked very hard to establish my reputation, and the allegations that I was making up news, or that I was refusing to show anyone the source documents, and that I refused repeatedly to appear on his show, especially when followed by editorializing telling people why they should not believe my reporting because I had "repeatedly declined" to appear on the show, were very damaging.

I asked the producers to issue a correction, the standard remedy in journalism. After two hours, and after leaving two messages, I still had not heard from them. I left more messages, saying that I would of course appear on the show, suggesting that we arrange that immediately, and that of course I would bring the materials they were asking for, at least the ones I own.

After seven hours I still had not heard from them. I called again, and yes, I was assertive and forceful that the situation had to be addressed, a correction needed to be issued, and that it was damaging and libelous.

I did insist that it was imperative that we address the issue, and I did say that if I did not hear from them, I would have to call my lawyer.

The closest thing to "threatening" his staff that I did was say I was going to call my lawyer. I can assure you that had I gone on national television and made statements as egregiously false and damaging about Olbermann as he did about me on Wednesday night, I would have found a libel lawsuit from Olberman on my doorstep the very next morning.

Two things, folks:

1. Women often are accused of being overly pushy when we simply use the same amount of assertiveness and forcefulness as men do.

2. You cannot allow nationally televised, incorrect, and damaging statements to be made without insisting on a correction. If you do, other media outlets will use the quotes and the whole false thing takes on a life of its own.

Now, another inconsistency is this: Olbermann described by handing the lawsuit to LePore as "crashing a retirement party" when in fact it was an event listed on the supervisor meeting program as a speech on "retention of records." He described the incident as "rushing" up to the podium and "screaming." In fact, there was no crashing, rushing, or screaming and this is born out by the videotape we gave the local NBC affiliates, which was apparently also provided to MSNBC.

================

I realize that Olbermann has been doing groundbreaking work. I have not yet been allowed to communicate with him directly. I do not know what his producers have represented to him, but I do know that the situation deserves to be mended.

I remain willing to go on his show, and remain willing to provide documents on our investigations, though we will certainly require some level of control, since litigation and investigations are still in progress.

I have sent a copy of this to Olbermann's e-mail, in hopes that he will agree that it is worth straightening this out.

My question: Why did this happen at all? I would like an explanation.

Bev Harris
Executive Director
Black Box Voting, Inc.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org"

Site Bars Black Box Voting Head

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,...tw=wn_tophead_5
By Joanna Glasner | Also by this reporter Page 1 of 1

12:30 PM Dec. 06, 2004 PT

Democratic Underground, a political discussion site that has been a popular forum for debate on the reliability of computerized voting machines, has barred one of its most prominent and outspoken contributors on the topic from further posting.

In a written statement, site administrators said Friday that they barred Bev Harris, founder of Black Box Voting, because her postings on the site "have made positive discussion of verified voting increasingly difficult."

Wireless Hot Spot Directory


Democratic Underground said Harris' postings have been belligerent at times to other members of the forum and that she used the website to threaten its operators with lawsuits.

"We no longer believe that it is productive to allow her to use DU as a platform to promote herself while simultaneously trashing us, our moderators and others who have been previously supportive of her cause," site administrators wrote in the statement.

Harris, a Washington-based publicist, became a leading critic of electronic voting machines after she discovered source code for a voting machine made by Diebold Election Systems on the internet in 2002. When Harris put out a call on the Democratic Underground site last year for help to examine the code, members who had technical expertise found numerous security flaws in it. Computer scientists at Johns Hopkins and Rice Universities then released a public report about the flaws, spawning a nationwide movement to demand more-secure voting systems.

She said she did not threaten to sue Democratic Underground but did complain that some participants in the forums were improperly using the phrase "Clean up Crew," which she said is a trademarked phrase of her Black Box Voting organization.

"They're calling me a con man," she said, referring to some postings on the site. "If I try to defend myself, I get warnings they'll ban me."

Democratic Underground members have long been supporters of Harris's work. But for every ardent admirer she has attracted on the DU site and elsewhere, she has also garnered many critics, some of whom dismiss her allegations of voting fraud as the rantings of a conspiracy nut. Other critics condemn her for a confrontational and aggressive style that has been directed as often at computer scientists, journalists and other voting activists as it has been at voting-machine makers and election officials.

Democratic Underground administrators said their decision to bar Harris from the site has nothing to do with her work investigating electronic voting.

"Internet discussion forums are by nature a chaotic and unforgiving medium of communication, and on moderated boards like ours people are frequently barred from posting for a variety of reasons," said David Allen, one of the administrators of Democratic Underground, in an e-mail. "The fact that Democratic Underground and Bev Harris have parted ways should not cast doubt on the integrity of her overall research into voting irregularities."

Harris' expulsion from Democratic Underground follows a disagreement she recently had with producers of MSNBC's show Countdown with Keith Olbermann, which, until now, has been supportive of Harris' work.

Last week Olbermann criticized Harris for not publicly releasing film footage said to reveal questionable vote-tabulating practices in Volusia County, Florida. The footage, which was filmed by a documentary crew that has been following Harris for a year, is said to show paper voting records from a bag of garbage that Harris obtained after scuffling with Volusia County election officials outside their offices. Harris has implied on her website and in other public statements that the records indicate actions that "are consistent with fraud."

Olbermann originally wrote that Harris should release the footage to back her claims and said that when his staff spoke with her after his initial blog entry about it, she was "belligerent, threatening and demanding" with them. Some members of Democratic Underground have speculated that Harris wants to hold onto the footage so the filmmakers can release it in their documentary and make a bigger publicity splash.

But Harris said she did not receive calls from the television program asking for the footage and is not able to release it to the TV station because it is being used in a lawsuit against the county. She also said the charge that she threatened Olbermann's staff is untrue.

But some members of Democratic Underground have noted that Olbermann's description of Harris' behavior is consistent with their experiences with her. And others have questioned whether she is the best public representative for the voting activist movement.

"No one denies she's done great work," wrote one forum member who goes by the name AmyCrat. "It's her PR skills that are potentially hurting the whole effort (and her own efforts). Good intentions aren't an excuse for unprofessional behavior."