D_Raay
04-11-2005, 03:06 PM
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/04/09/State/Blogs_spin_tale_of_co.shtml
TALLAHASSEE - Democrats around the country have accused Republicans of stealing the last two presidential elections in Florida.
Now some Internet Web sites that traffic in conspiracy theories have fashioned something of a political thriller out of a series of apparently unrelated events they say prove the elections really were stolen.
The tale reaches far beyond elections to include a dead investigator for the state Department of Transportation, a $210 red Coach purse, gambling trips to Las Vegas and Biloxi, Miss., a Chinese computer expert charged with illegally shipping computer chips to Beijing and an Oviedo computer firm accused of overbilling the state.
And the villain? U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, an Oviedo Republican elected to Congress in 2002 after spending two years as state House Speaker.
To the Internet blogs - short for Web logs - the hero of this tale is Clint Curtis, a 46-year-old computer programmer and self-styled book author, who says Feeney asked him to come up with an undetectable system to fix elections.
No one has proven anything, and no serious investigation appears to be under way, but the blogs are lighting up with the news and suggestions for proving corruption.
They have seized on an affidavit Curtis wrote Dec. 6 about his allegations of vote fraud. The affidavit was initially published the same day on bradblog.com. On March 3, Curtis passed a lie detector test given by Tim Robinson, retired chief polygraph operator for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Curtis swore in the affidavit that he was at a meeting in Oviedo in September or October 2000 when Feeney asked if he could develop a program to alter vote tabulations on touch screen voting machines.
At the time, Feeney was general counsel for Curtis's employer, Yang Enterprises, an Oveido computer company. Curtis says he initially thought Feeney was concerned Democrats might try to fix elections. Later, Curtis said his boss told him Feeney wanted to fix voting machines in South Florida to help Republicans.
Curtis said he developed a program that included invisible buttons on touch screen machines that could alter vote totals, but he does not know whether it was ever used. He said he gave the program to one of his bosses, Li Yang, but did not keep a copy.
Feeney says he doesn't recall ever meeting Curtis and never had a conversation with anyone about fixing elections.
Feeney also points out that touch screen machines were not even contemplated before November 2000, when widely used punch card machines contributed to 36 days of uncertainty over the presidential election.
"All I can tell you is I didn't do any of the illegal things Curtis says I did," Feeney said, "and I didn't lead the purple Martian invasion of Earth either."
Early editions of the book and complaints Curtis filed with state agencies zeroed in on Feeney's influence on behalf of Yang Enterprises and his ties to Republicans like Gov. Jeb Bush, who tapped Feeney as his running mate in his losing 1994 bid for governor.
Yang had a contract with the state DOT that was the subject of an internal investigation regarding overbilling.
A DOT investigator, Ray Lemme, was found with his wrist slashed in a bathtub at a Valdosta, Ga., hotel July 1, 2003. Friends say Lemme had serious health problems, and police ruled his death a suicide.
But Curtis is convinced Lemme was killed by someone who didn't like what Lemme had uncovered.
Lemme, an investigator for DOT's inspector general, said he "tracked the corruption all the way to the top," Curtis contends. Lemme's supervisors say it is unlikely the cautious Lemme would have made such disclosures to anyone.
Lemme left a note saying he loved his wife and family and apologized for his actions saying: "I am depressed and in pain." DOT officials told police Lemme had completed his investigation of the Yang overbilling case and had no other cases concerning Yang or election scams when he died.
Curtis, who says he keeps an AK-47 near his front door and fears for his life, says he has caught trespassers near his house at Woodville, a small community south of Tallahassee.
The polygraph test Curtis passed was paid for by Kevin Walsh, a private investigator from Washington, D.C., who says he has been hired to prove election fraud. Walsh refused to identify the client.
Curtis said he wrote the affidavit after reading about a reward for anyone who could verify vote fraud. He didn't want the money, Curtis insists, but wanted to prove the elections had been stolen. He presented copies of his affidavit to several congressional staffers and testified before a Democratic committee looking at fraud allegations in Ohio.
TALLAHASSEE - Democrats around the country have accused Republicans of stealing the last two presidential elections in Florida.
Now some Internet Web sites that traffic in conspiracy theories have fashioned something of a political thriller out of a series of apparently unrelated events they say prove the elections really were stolen.
The tale reaches far beyond elections to include a dead investigator for the state Department of Transportation, a $210 red Coach purse, gambling trips to Las Vegas and Biloxi, Miss., a Chinese computer expert charged with illegally shipping computer chips to Beijing and an Oviedo computer firm accused of overbilling the state.
And the villain? U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, an Oviedo Republican elected to Congress in 2002 after spending two years as state House Speaker.
To the Internet blogs - short for Web logs - the hero of this tale is Clint Curtis, a 46-year-old computer programmer and self-styled book author, who says Feeney asked him to come up with an undetectable system to fix elections.
No one has proven anything, and no serious investigation appears to be under way, but the blogs are lighting up with the news and suggestions for proving corruption.
They have seized on an affidavit Curtis wrote Dec. 6 about his allegations of vote fraud. The affidavit was initially published the same day on bradblog.com. On March 3, Curtis passed a lie detector test given by Tim Robinson, retired chief polygraph operator for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Curtis swore in the affidavit that he was at a meeting in Oviedo in September or October 2000 when Feeney asked if he could develop a program to alter vote tabulations on touch screen voting machines.
At the time, Feeney was general counsel for Curtis's employer, Yang Enterprises, an Oveido computer company. Curtis says he initially thought Feeney was concerned Democrats might try to fix elections. Later, Curtis said his boss told him Feeney wanted to fix voting machines in South Florida to help Republicans.
Curtis said he developed a program that included invisible buttons on touch screen machines that could alter vote totals, but he does not know whether it was ever used. He said he gave the program to one of his bosses, Li Yang, but did not keep a copy.
Feeney says he doesn't recall ever meeting Curtis and never had a conversation with anyone about fixing elections.
Feeney also points out that touch screen machines were not even contemplated before November 2000, when widely used punch card machines contributed to 36 days of uncertainty over the presidential election.
"All I can tell you is I didn't do any of the illegal things Curtis says I did," Feeney said, "and I didn't lead the purple Martian invasion of Earth either."
Early editions of the book and complaints Curtis filed with state agencies zeroed in on Feeney's influence on behalf of Yang Enterprises and his ties to Republicans like Gov. Jeb Bush, who tapped Feeney as his running mate in his losing 1994 bid for governor.
Yang had a contract with the state DOT that was the subject of an internal investigation regarding overbilling.
A DOT investigator, Ray Lemme, was found with his wrist slashed in a bathtub at a Valdosta, Ga., hotel July 1, 2003. Friends say Lemme had serious health problems, and police ruled his death a suicide.
But Curtis is convinced Lemme was killed by someone who didn't like what Lemme had uncovered.
Lemme, an investigator for DOT's inspector general, said he "tracked the corruption all the way to the top," Curtis contends. Lemme's supervisors say it is unlikely the cautious Lemme would have made such disclosures to anyone.
Lemme left a note saying he loved his wife and family and apologized for his actions saying: "I am depressed and in pain." DOT officials told police Lemme had completed his investigation of the Yang overbilling case and had no other cases concerning Yang or election scams when he died.
Curtis, who says he keeps an AK-47 near his front door and fears for his life, says he has caught trespassers near his house at Woodville, a small community south of Tallahassee.
The polygraph test Curtis passed was paid for by Kevin Walsh, a private investigator from Washington, D.C., who says he has been hired to prove election fraud. Walsh refused to identify the client.
Curtis said he wrote the affidavit after reading about a reward for anyone who could verify vote fraud. He didn't want the money, Curtis insists, but wanted to prove the elections had been stolen. He presented copies of his affidavit to several congressional staffers and testified before a Democratic committee looking at fraud allegations in Ohio.