Local election integrity activist Peter Johnson filed suit in federal court yesterday, July 11, against Edison Media Research Inc. (EMR), a New Jersey company that conducts exit polls that media outlets rely on to report election results. Exit Polls, despite academic efforts to discredit them, are considered to be the “gold standard” for judging the fairness of elections in all countries by both the United Nations and the United States, except when the actual elections are in the United States.

Johnson, represented by local voting rights attorney Robert Fitrakis, alleges that EMR “adjusted” their reporting to match results provided by the office of Ohio Secretary of State John Husted. Because of the close relationship between Husted's office and EMR, Johnson's suit is requesting EMR provide their unadjusted results as public records.

The simple seven page complaint is provided at the bottom of this article. It seeks an injunction to provide immediate access to the unadjusted exit polls and the court costs of bringing this action. The relief is sought under First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution so that the public may compare and discuss the actual scientific data collected about the election to the purported results.

EMR conducts the exit polls in 15 states in addition to Ohio. Included amongst those states is the State of New York, where over 126,000 voters registration information was “lost” in Brooklyn alone. Faced with the prospect of a similar suit prior to the California primary, EMR abruptly declined to conduct it's research there rather than release the unaltered there. Provisional votes are still being counted in California amid massive irregularities and voter reports of being misled and given incorrect ballots or being denied the vote.

The successful prosecution of this suit will provide journalists with a massive trove of data which could be used to substantiate or put the rest the widespread claims of fraud during the 2016 primary process. These claims are based on voter suppression not vote flipping, and the ultimate chain of evidence leads through a recently murdered DNC staffer, to the DNC itself, to the State Department and ultimately Clinton's IT guru Bryan Pagliano.

While Pagliano, who actually managed Clinton's illegal private email server, plead the fifth during questioning the FBI. Republicans, possibly rightfully, made scored a point or two on that. What was more interesting was Pagliano's role in managing the DNC's voter databases. On his watch the Sanders campaign noted that a breach could occur between his and Clinton's donor information. While reverse engineering this breach, a staffer was caught. Cross accusations were made and lawsuits filed then withdrawn. If the breach could occur in one direction it could occur in both, and events have proven that at a minimum Pagliano seems to play fast and loose with data and trust.

In order to engage in voter suppression, it is important to be very accurate in knowing which voters to suppress. The best possible way to compile such a list is to vet two or more separate databases against each other. Sanders had one, Clinton had two and the DNC had a third. We may never know the truth about the third because of a recent removal of a key potential witness from this mortal coil.

Sunday Morning July 10 at 4:19, Seth Rich, a key DNC staffer in charge of voter databases was murdered right outside his home in Washington DC. As Fitrakis, Johnson, other election integrity activists and their paralegals were exchanging final emails prior to filing Seth Rich was murdered. There are no witnesses, no suspects, his wallet and cellphone were recovered at the scene and the DC Metro police are “pursuing all possible motives.”

The official police report states “CIC reports the sound of gunshots at 2134 Flagler Pl. NW. Upon arriving to the scene, the decedent was laying in the Southwest corner of the intersection of W St. and Flagler Pl. NW. The decedent was conscious and breathing with apparent gunshot wound(s) to the back. The decedent was transported to local area hospital and was pronounced by attending physician at 0557 hours.”

A key potential witness in derivative litigation was shot multiple times in the back 31 hours before this suit was filed. Only a very bad reporter would not be curious. Fitrakis was not aware of Rich's death until after the filing, as this reporter discovered the suit had been filed while calling him for comment on Rich's murder. Fitrakis responded with “Wait what? Who? When?”

The basis of the suit is the public's right to know the accuracy and integrity of the electoral process. The public exercises this core democratic function primarily through the operation of a free press. The Mockingbird will report all relevant data to the public as it becomes available.