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Update: Despite continued and strident calls for a revote, the Sarasota Elections Commission, with Paul Mercier heading it up, certified what is probably the most clearly defective election in florida.
This just in from a correspondent in Sarasota Florida - Steve Runfeldt -
Hi,

The following photos document incidents in Sarasota County at precincts 4 and 22 on November 7, 2006. There were four main incidents.

1. The opening tape for pct 22 that was posted on the door of the polling place showed that only three machines had been zeroed that morning. 10 machines were in use during the day. At the end of the day the closing tapes showed that the remaining seven machines had been zeroed at about 6:30 am, about 45 minutes prior to the three machines shown on the opening tape. The poll clerk was instructed not to speak to me, the elected Democratic Precinct Committeeman, and the County Supervisor of Elections refused to answer direct questions about the anomaly. The following day, in a press conference, Supervisor Kathy Dent stated that the battery in an activator had died and so they switched to a new activator. None of this information was forthcoming on Nov. 7.

2. One machine in precinct 4 (same polling place) had an open date of “01/45179/1994″ and later in the day, a closing date of “11/07/2006″. While seeking information on the precinct 22 anomaly, the pct 4 clerk mistook me for the person sent over from the Supervisor’s office and started to lead me to the “broken” machine, which was in use at the time. She asked me if I was going to fix it. I told her that I was the Democratic precinct captain and was not there to fix the machine. I asked what the problem was and she told me that the date was off and they were waiting for someone to come and fix it. Someone must have done so, because on the closing tape the date was now correct. But this raises the question of who was given access in the middle of the election day to “fix” the date in the machine? How do they give someone access to the date and time stamp in the machine without giving that person access to the ballot database?

3. On a return visit with a Democratic election attorney and cameraman, Richard van Slyke (http://www.roamingvideo.com - http://www.therighttocount.com/ ) we encountered Supervisor Kathy Dent leaving the building. I politely asked her if we could speak with her and if she would wait until we had the camera set up. She asked me what I was doing there and I replied that I was the Democratic Precinct Committeeman for that precinct and I had a question about the discrepancy in the number of machines that had been zeroed out and the number that were in use. I had personally observed all 10 machines in use. She told me “You know what is going on? I personally put 64,000 votes for Vern Buchanan in those machines. You can quote me.”, apparently trying to be sarcastic. I told her that I simply wanted to know what the reason was, that I had had a call from a voter and wanted to know what to tell her. Ms Dent then told me that she was not required by law to post the opening tape. I told her that I did not care whether she was required to post the tape or not, I just wanted to know why there were only three machines on the tape when ten were in use. Ms Dent refused to talk to me further and started toward her car. Our Democratic Election Attorney, Jim Keeney, then approached Ms. Dent and asked to speak with her. He asked her, “Could you just answer a couple of questions?” She replied, “Not to you.” and got into the car, which was being driven by a Sarasota deputy. The car then sped to the far end of the parking lot.

Jim and Richard and I then met up in the parking lot along with Julian Koss of the Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections (SAFE), Cheri Potts, my co-captain in precinct 22 and a couple of Democratic poll greeters. We all expressed astonishment at Ms.Dent’s rudeness and her joke about the planted votes. We then noticed that she and the deputy were still sitting in the car at the end of the parking lot. Jim, Richard and I started walking toward her car.

The car with Kathy Dent and the deputy started driving toward us at an increasing rate of speed. We were walking in the lot and waving for them to slow down so that we could speak with Ms. Dent. Instead of slowing down, the car increased its speed. I jumped out of the way and the car narrowly missed Jim Keeney, striking the clipboard that he was carrying under his arm, with a loud ping sound. The car stopped short and the deputy emerged. Placing his hand on his holstered pistol he shouted at Jim, “Don’t you hit my car.” I shouted back, “You are in a vehicle, he is a pedestrian and this is a parking lot. You are the one who has to make sure you don’t hit anyone.” Jim and I then attempted to ask Ms Dent again if we could speak with her, and if she could explain why there were 10 machines being used and only three certified. The deputy got back in the car and they sped off toward the street.

4. Voters reported that an editorial article by Ms. Dent opposing the Paper Trail ballot county charter amendment had been copied and was being distributed to voters at precincts 4 and 22. A complaint was made and the flyers were removed.

The photos below document the information above. I have full size photos available for reproduction. I also have photos available that cover the entire opening and closing tapes showing the votes in all precinct races.

The first three photos show Sarasota Democratic Attorney Jim Keeney attempting to ask Kathy Dent about the anomalies in the Precinct 22 electronic voting machines. When asked “Would you mind answering a few questions?” Ms Dent said “Not to you.”. Jim was clearly identified as both an elected precinct captain and as an election attorney. The white car is the car that minutes later attempted to speed past the small group and hit Jim’s clipboard.

This photo is of the early and late tapes for Precinct 4, the red highlights the “Opened” date as “01/45179/1994″ in the second tape from the end of the day, the date has been clearly changed to read “11/07/2006″ for the “Closed” date. Kathy Dent has clearly stated that no one has access to the voting data during the election process on Election Day. It is impossible to allow date and time stamp access to a computer without also allowing database access. Who fixed the machine and who monitored their activities?

This photo is of the early tape from Precinct 22, showing clearly that only 3 terminals were opened. The machine numbers are listed with the opening 0 counts. This photo was taken about noon on Nov. 7.

The next photo shows the end of day or closing tape for Precinct 22. Now 10 terminals are shown as “Opened”. From this tape it appear that 7 machines were opened around 6:30 am on Nov. 7. The three machines that were shown as open on the opening tape appear to have been opened starting at 7:18 am, about 45 minutes later. What happened during those 45 minutes? Were the seven machines actually cleared and zeroed at 6:30? And, most importantly, why were poll workers instructed to not talk about the error with the Democratic Precinct Captain for that precinct or with the certified election attorney?

I have professional size copies of all of these photos. Please let me know if you want the full size images.

If you have any further questions, please call me at 941-927-3939.

Thanks,

Steve Runfeldt