Is the use of the VERY OLD mechanical ELECTION MACHINES an invitation to ELECTION FRAUD ? Has that been the plan all along ?

                          —    PART 1 IN A MULTI-PART SERIES   —   

HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT  —  State Senator Martin Golden openly boasted about the legislation he sponsored to allow the use of the NYC BOE’s archaic lever-operated voting machines in the upcoming primary elections 

What if the real purpose of  Golden’s voting machine legislation  —  AND his part in the City Council-BOE coup to change GOP Commissioners  —  AND his support for the “Republicans for Change” effort to take over the Brooklyn GOP were really part and parcel of somebody's attempt to steal the 2013 primary election and change the course of city politics for all the parties and the people of New York City?

Already there has been a dispute about when candidates would be given necessary information about reviewing the setup of the lever voting machines significantly ahead of their deployment for the September 10th  primary (See “NYC Board Of Elections Moving Closer To Deploying Old Lever Machines For Primary” by Celeste Katz, 8/20/13, Daily News/Daily Politics [http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/08/nyc-board-of-elections-moving-closer-to-deploying-old-lever-machines-for-prima]). The old lever machines -- which will sub for the recently used ballot scanners only for this year’s NYC  primaries and a likely runoff to follow -- will be distributed  to the polling sites on September 3rd and 4th,  about a week before the primary on September 10th .

The New York City Board of Elections, is getting thousands of voting machines out of storage and ready for primary day.  Each of these 50 years old monsters weighs about 850 pounds and should have about 28,000 parts, with 20,000 of them moving parts, to work properly. A six-story warehouse in Brooklyn is the storage space for rows and rows of the infernal lever voting machines  ( it should be noted, however, that a least one article about the old machines says that they are stored in two (2) warehouses in Brooklyn). Each machine had been wrapped in what looks like a huge condom, safe and secure, and  ready to go for whatever might pop up ( See “New York Turns To Old Voting Machines For Upcoming Primary” by Brigid Bergin, July 14, 2013, NPR/WNYC
[http://www.npr.org/2013/07/14/202124768/new-york-turns-to-old-voting-machines-for-upcoming-primary]).

>>>>  AS IF  —  that is what EVERYBODY wants  —  ie., that these machines would  work properly on primary day. <<<<    Stored silently in their Brooklyn warehouse, these mechanical monoliths appear somewhat less than ready to f__k the unsuspecting voting public, but that is about to change quickly.  ( I have suspected all along that there is a nefarious  purpose in this exercise of electoral  nostalgia that has been championed by Republican State Senator Martin Golden).

Shortly after Golden’s law was reluctantly signed by Governor Cuomo, after very strong opposition by "good-government" groups, State Senator Golden’s personal choice to serve on the NYC Board of Election felt obliged to make a public statement about the Board’s action in authorizing the use of the very old voting machines pursuant to Golden’s newly passed law. According to the New York Times, Simon Shamoun, the Republican elections commissioner from Brooklyn, somewhat cryptically said, “Obviously this process has been a wake-up call for us.” Then Shamoun added that the optical scanning machines “are not going anywhere.... We have four years to figure it out, and hopefully we’re not in this position next time around.” ( See “Lever Voting Machines and New Runoff Date Are Approved by Cuomo" by Thomas Kaplan, 7/9/13, NY Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/nyregion/cuomo-approves-the-use-of-lever-voting-machines.html?_r=0]).  "...four years to figure it out...." !  Really,   FOUR  YEARS  ! ! !  What's up with that ?

Interestingly,  Shamoun had been selected to be the Brooklyn Republican Election Commissioner by Golden as the result of a process in which Golden had no legal standing to participate. Since,and as a result of Shamoun's becoming a Board of Elections Commissioner, there have been several changes at the BOE, from executive appointees down to low level clerks. There have also been changes in what and how things are done at the Board, and by whom. The oft-repeated phrase, "There's a new sheriff in town..." has become a hallmark at the Brooklyn Board since Shamoun has been piped aboard.

Several candidates and other observers have already warned about the general unreliability of the archaic voting machines with dire prophecies concerning the 2013 primary . They have specifically  predicted widespread problems with machine breakdowns, especially in minority areas (See “This September May Be New York City’s Voting Apocalypse” by Hunter Walker, 8/15/13, Talking Points Memo [http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/08/nyc-voting-apocalypse.php]).

Of particular interest in the TPM article was the significant mention of a shortage of parts and the odd observation that “preventive maintenance” was being performed on the old machines some time before the legislation had passed to authorize their use for the 2013 primary ( See comments of Councilman Jumaane Williams in the article cited above). This is very important, because one of the ways to steal votes on the old machines is by specific fixes to some parts of  the machines by the technicians who maintain them up to and including on the day of voting. These are Board of Elections employees, ALL of whom are now under the executive and administrative control of another unexpected new sheriff in town —  who, incidently was put in place by a cabal subject to Golden’s influence.

>>>>  BTW:  Let’s not forget the episode earlier this summer about the petition that had been filed by Golden’s adversaries inside the Brooklyn GOP, which was shredded after filing by the BOE employee   because of a "mis-communication." <<<<

This post was a shorthand teaser of what I intend to cover about the events leading up to the current re-introduction of the old lever operated voting machines, as well as their use and abuse in past elections. This will take a few or perhaps several posts over the coming days and weeks. Several of my Baker Street Irregulars are digging up technical details and others have promised specific anecdotes. If you have something to contribute, there are many ways to do so.