Iowa peace group endorses Richardson: Des Moines Register

[Carrieyazel]

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071107/NEWS/71107035/1001/archive


Now here's an endorsement that actually has some meaning.

[bigdarryl]

1. who are they and how strong are they getting out the vote. thats the important thing

[orleans]

2. they must not have heard how he likes to clean the voting machines

before recounts can be done...

"Vigil-Giron, along with Governor Bill Richardson, not only stopped any attempt at a recount directly following the election, but demanded that all the machines be wiped clean. This not only concealed evidence of potential fraud but destroyed it. In 2006, New Mexico's Supreme Court ruled the Secretary of State's machine-cleaning job illegal - too late to change the outcome of the election, of course."

from:
Recipe for a Cooked Election
By Greg Palast

http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/65/23443

this has forever marred my opinion of richardson. i think he's a total asshole for doing this.

[seasat]

3. The machines were cleared because they had an election in a few weeks.

The 2004 NM election was not challenged by the Democratic Party or the Kerry Campaign. NM represented only 5 electoral votes and the problems were in the electronic voting machines that were in place before Richardson was elected Governor. Downloading a digital record is going to give you the same number each time and wouldn't have changed the results.

The challenge asking for a recount was from the Green and Libertarian parties. NM state law requires that the state pay for the recount if there is a change in the election results but the challenging parties must pay for the recount if there is not a change in the result. The election commission asked for the Green and Libertarian parties to put up a bond that would cover the cost of the recount if the results didn't change. The Green and Libertarian parties balked at this request and challenged it in court. When the NM Supreme court upheld the state's request for a bond, the machines were cleared so they could be reprogrammed for the February school elections.

The machines were of several types from several manufacturers. In response to the problems with the machines, Gov Richardson pushed through legislation that required paper ballots with an auditable paper trail and required random audits to assure accuracy. He got this through in a poor state and had it in place by the 2006 elections.

I have the details along with supporting links in a journal article.

[orleans]

6. the five electoral votes don't matter--if a recount had been done,

if it was possible to show that there was problems with those machines it would have been a justification to take a serious look at OHIO. because we needed to recount OHIO.

[seasat]

7. There is no evidence a recount would have given a different number in NM.

If you download a digital record from a machine you are going to get the same number. It was obvious due to the under vote on them versus the counties with paper ballot there were problems with the electronic voting machines. If you look at the links in my previous post then you will see that they already knew the numbers from the machines. If they had proceeded with an expensive recount and the totals were the same (as was very likely) then it would have had the opposite effect on the possibility of a recount in Ohio. It would have provided a reason for not having it. That is one of the reasons why the Kerry campaign and the Democratic party did not challenge in NM. There was no evidence it would have helped their case and possibly would have hurt it.

New Mexico had a hodge-podge of machines of different types from different manufacturers. One of the common ones with the highest number of under votes was a push button machine. It would automatically select all candidates under a political party if you pushed the button indicating that was your party. However, if you then pushed a button for a particular candidate, it deselected the candidate so that you could select someone from another party. It obviously was a stupid setup and confused folks but without a completely new vote in New Mexico, there was no way to tell the intent of the voter if they made a mistake on this machine.

As it was, the Greens and Libertarians could have gone with a recount in NM. All they had to do was put up the bond to cover the recount in the case it didn't change the election. They had previously stated that money was no object in this case. Apparently, they weren't all that confident that it would since they didn't want to put up the money. IMHO, they were looking for cheap publicity more than they were interested in who won the election. Richardson had even reached out to both of those minor parties by putting a Green and Libertarian on the election commission in after he was elected in 2002.

The majority of the New Mexico population doesn't have problem with Richardson's handling of the 2004 election. They reelected him with 68% of the vote in 2006. He and Obama are the only two candidates that win their home states according to polls.

[orleans]

8. obviously you're right. that's what THEY must've thought when they

decided NOT TO BOTHER

wouldn't have been worth it. (after all--it's only four more years, right?)

[seasat]

4. He had some great responses to the questionare

Here's his page on their site.

There is no one root cause of terrorism. However, poverty is the basis of much violence, and the United States needs to lead the global fight against it. When we do, we build good-will: a powerful antidote to anti-Americanism and Jihadism. Through example and diplomacy, the US can encourage all rich coun­tries to honor their U.N Millennium goal commitments. A Commission on the Implementation of Sustainable Devel­opment Goals, composed of world leaders and prominent experts, should be created to recommend ways of meeting Millennium commitments.
...
12. What is your view regarding President Bush admitting at his December 16th 2005 press conference that he did order the NSA (National Security Agency) to spy on American citizens?

The Bush administration just doesn’t get it. Freedom is not weakness. Freedom is strength. Spying on citizens without a warrant is illegal, unnecessary and un-American.

Interestingly they endorsed Kucinich in 2004.

[mmonk]

5. I understand.

Diplomats are usually a good choice when looking for peace. Of course, DK has been a perennial peace candidate as well.

[youthere]

9. Good for Bill! That's great news and I'm glad to see him finally get some press.