Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Friday, 9/23/05

[Wilms]

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

If you can:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233

3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.


If you want to know how post "News Banners" or other images, go here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=371233#371391

Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x394433


Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page (it's the link just below).

[Wilms]

1. Election Assessment Project: Preliminary Report of Findings

Election Assessment Project

September 22, 2005
For Immediate Release
September 22, 2005
Contact: Seth P. Johnson 212-543-4266

Thursday, September 22 marks the release of a Preliminary Report of Findings for the Election Assessment project. The report documents characteristics of elections for which voters expressed concern in wide-ranging testimony and submissions received for a public hearing convened on June 29, 2005 in Houston, Texas.

Testimony and analysis presented at the Houston hearing represented voters of at least five major and minor political parties, and described numerous problems and irregularities in the conduct of American electoral processes.

The Election Assessment project seeks to foster the use of established professional methods for the effective improvement of election processes by administrators, policymakers, standards bodies, advisors and other voting stewards and participants. Ongoing goals of the project include capture of the voice of the customers of the electoral process (the voters) and addressing the measurement of the process, the analysis of root causes for defects, and the controlled implementation of improvements.

-snip/more-

The report may be accessed at http://www.electionassessment.org/downloads/EAH_Customer_Voice_9-22-05.pdf.

Discussion thanks to Demodonkey:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x394502

[Wilms]

2. Texas Counties Select AccuPoll Voting System

September 22, 2005 12:54 PM US Eastern Timezone

Texas Counties Select AccuPoll Voting System; Hartley and Sherman Counties to Benefit from Latest in Voting System Technology and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail

TUSTIN, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 22, 2005--AccuPoll Inc. (OTCBB:ACUP), a developer of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting systems, today announced that Hartley and Sherman Counties have selected the AccuPoll Voting System to meet their needs for a HAVA-compliant voting system. Hartley and Sherman Counties will be the third and fourth counties to implement the AccuPoll Voting System in the state.

"We're pleased that Hartley and Sherman Counties have chosen to implement the AccuPoll Voting System," said William E. Nixon, president and CEO of AccuPoll. "AccuPoll's Voting System is one of the most advanced available and the voters of Hartley and Sherman Counties will benefit greatly."

AccuPoll designed their electronic voting system to feature a voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT), which allows voters to verify - via an immediately printed paper audit trail - that their vote was accurately recorded at the time it is cast. As a result, AccuPoll's VVPAT system fully empowers voters to independently ensure that their vote is correct at the time it is cast, allowing for an accurate recount and audit capability should the need arise.

About AccuPoll Holding Corp.

With headquarters in Tustin, AccuPoll (OTCBB:ACUP) is the developer of a federally qualified electronic voting system featuring an intuitive touch screen input and a voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) that can be confirmed by the voter at the time the ballot is cast, creating a permanent paper audit trail as mandated in the "Help America Vote Act of 2002" (HAVA). The AccuPoll Voting System has been qualified under the 2002 Federal Election Commission (FEC) Voting System Standards.

-snip/more-

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050922005628&newsLang=en

Thanks to FogerRox for posting:
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050922005628&newsLang=en

[Wilms]

3. NJ: Attorney general addresses claims of voter fraud

Attorney general addresses claims of voter fraud

Published in the Asbury Park Press 09/22/05

BY MICHAEL SYMONS
GANNETT STATE BUREA

TRENTON — Attorney General Peter C. Harvey has forwarded voter-fraud allegations leveled last week by state Republicans to election officials in the 21 counties, according to a letter sent Wednesday to the GOP's lawyer.

Harvey said that the state will have a centralized, statewide voter registration system in place Jan. 1 but that for now, reviews of such charges begin with county commissioners of registration. Any improprieties uncovered would be reported.

Harvey said that his office will help any county that requests assistance and that state officials will work to ensure that eligible voters have "unimpeded access to the ballot" and that people who aren't eligible don't vote.

-snip/more-

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050922/NEWS03/509220543/1007

[Wilms]

4. WI: Man charged with voting twice says he filled out extra card by mistake

Man charged with voting twice says he filled out extra card by mistake

By GEORGIA PABST

[e-mail]
Posted: Sept. 21, 2005

A 25-year-old Milwaukee man charged with voting twice in the Nov. 2 presidential election said Wednesday he filled out two on-site voter registration cards that day by mistake, but only voted once.

Testifying in his own defense, Enrique Sanders said he couldn't remember for whom he voted, though he knew it wasn't President Bush.

After irregularities appeared in Milwaukee's vote, a joint state and federal investigation led to illegal voting charges against more than a dozen people. Sanders is one of the first to go to trial.

"There's no evidence he was paid to vote and he's not even sure who he voted for," his attorney, Brian Mullins, told jurors during closing arguments. He said Sanders has a learning disability and has trouble reading and remembering.

-snip/more-

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/sep05/357575.asp

[Wilms]

5. PA: State reinforces voting machine stand

State reinforces voting machine stand

By Alison Hawkes, For the Herald-Standard

09/22/2005

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortes reasserted Wednesday that 24 counties, including Fayette County, must spend millions of dollars to replace their decades-old lever voting machines with electronic ones by the end of the year, even if they'd prefer not to.

Cortes said the determination came out of a U.S. Election Assistance Commission advisory released two weeks ago, which states that lever voting systems "have significant barriers which make compliance difficult and unlikely."

The reasons include a lack in ability to produce a paper record for a recount and a failure to meet requirements for the disabled. The EAC advisory was a review of compliance standards set in the 2002 Help America Vote Act, which on its own does not specifically outlaw lever machines.

The advisory was in response to ongoing national debate that's also hit some Pennsylvania counties, including Fayette, about whether tried and true lever machines with years of life left in them, must go. Voting integrity advocates have been fighting to keep levers under the claim that they are harder to tamper with on a larger scale than electronic machines.

-snip/more-

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15255094&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6

[Wilms]

6. NY: Fights Ensue Over Voting Machine Selection

Fights Ensue Over Voting Machine Selection
Municipalities Must Choose Between DRE and Optical Scan Machines
By Amanda Erickson
Spectator Staff Writer

September 22, 2005

As New York City gears up for the mayoral race on Nov. 8, the State and City Board of Elections are preparing for a much bigger challenge: figuring out what machines voters will use to cast their votes in the future.
While the state legislature’s “Help America Vote Act,” passed late in this session, provides federal funds for states to update their voting equipment once they develop a plan to implement the changes, it has left the major issue of what type of voting machines the city will buy.

Under the state’s new rules, each municipality, including the City, will be able to choose what type of machine to use. This choice has concerned several legislators and good government groups, who worry that not regulating machine choice will result in certain counties choosing less secure machines.

Barbara Bartoletti, executive director of the New York State League of Women Voters, is pushing the state to purchase optical scan machines, which require voters to fill out a paper ballot and then scan it into a machine, creating a verifiable paper trail.

-snip/more-

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/09/22/43324d53bee23

Thanks to Foger for posting:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x394511

[Wilms]

7. NY: Altmann Supports Paper Ballot

September 23, 2005

Altmann Supports Paper Ballot
Optical Scanner Voting Machines

They Are Less Costly and Leave a Paper Trail
Nassau County Legislator Lisanne Altmann (D-Great Neck), announced her support for Paper Ballot Optical Scanner (PBOS) voting machines to become part of Nassau County's movement to comply with the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA). Altmann was joined by New York State Assemblyman Chuck Lavine; the Long Island Progressive Coalition; the League of Women Voters; Democracy for Long Island; and Reachout America,

By next year's primary election, Nassau County, like all New York State counties, will be required to upgrade its voting technologies and replace the old lever voting machines with one of two machines: ATM-style touch screen Direct Record Electronic (DRE) machines or PBOS voting machines.

Altmann urged her fellow Nassau lawmakers to demand the purchase of the PBOS voting booths because, unlike DRE machines where votes will be recorded and counted on a computer, they cannot be tampered with or hacked. Optical scanning systems have also proven to be less costly.

-snip/more-

http://www.antonnews.com/manhassetpress/2005/09/23/news/voting.html

[Wilms]

8. CT: Feds Order New Voting Terminals

Rosenthal Wants State To Pay-

Feds Order New Voting Terminals

By John Voket

(This report continues The Bee's ongoing series on Newtown's and the state's eventual transition to new electronic voting machine technology.)

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal was on the front lines today as state officials gathered to discuss ways state municipalities could either delay the replacement of, or seek outside revenue to fund the purchase of new electronic voting machines.

The initiative was thrown into overdrive in recent days as Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz learned that Connecticut would likely be forced to replace all 3,300 lever machines currently in service by January 2006 instead of by Election Day in November 2007, a more manageable deadline that was previously discussed by her office.

While Connecticut and the rest of the nation was looking at the prospect of gradually incorporating computerized voting systems that would bring states in compliance with the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), a recent inquiry by Pennsylvania's secretary of the state resulted in a ruling from the Federal Election Assistance Commission.

The US Election Assistance Commission (EAC) was established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002. The commission serves as a national clearinghouse and resource for information and review of procedures with respect to the administration of federal elections.

-snip/more-

http://www.newtownbee.com/News.asp?s=News-2005-09-22-14-27-26p1.htm

[Wilms]

9. GA: Paper trail for e-votes back in play

Paper trail for e-votes back in play

By CARLOS CAMPOS, JAMES SALZER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/21/05

Georgians may soon get to see paper evidence of how they voted on electronic machines each election day.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle Tuesday endorsed the idea of providing voters with a paper trail confirming their choices. Among those agreeing was Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox, who had previously opposed the idea.

The issue has simmered since touch-screen voting was introduced statewide in 2002, with some Georgians worrying that there is no proof their votes are being correctly tallied.

Several respected computer security experts have suggested the machines' software can be tampered with to change the outcome of elections. Cox and others have argued that they have security measures in place to prevent such electronic chicanery. Still, academics and activists have suggested that paper receipts verifying a voter's choices would help ease some of that suspicion.

Cox, the state's top elections official, announced Tuesday that her office is working toward such a system.

-snip/more-

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0905/21papervote.html

[Wilms]

10. NY: Election changes could prove costly to towns

Election changes could prove costly to towns

By Hallie Arnold, Freeman staff09/21/2005

TOWN OF ULSTER - Municipal election expenses could as much as triple when local elections are entirely taken over by counties starting Jan. 1 under the federal Help America Vote Act.

Implementing the legislation commonly known as HAVA, which, among other things, centralizes election operations in counties rather than in municipalities, will more than double the Ulster County department's budget, an increase that is likely to be passed on to the towns, county elections commissioners say.

The Ulster County Board of Elections budget, which is $454,095 this year, will increase by $600,000 next year, according to projections. Town-by-town estimates were derived by apportioning the total increase based on voter enrollment in the towns.

"What we're giving you here is just something to budget for, to cover the bases," Republican Election Commissioner Tom Turco told a Tuesday breakfast meeting of the Ulster County Supervisors Association at the Kingston Family Restaurant on state Route 28. "What the county Legislature decides on to charge back, and what our final budget is, could be entirely different. However, by the time we have those numbers, your budget process could be over, and you need to have something in the budget to prepare for HAVA."

-snip/more-

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15247431&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=74969&rfi=6

[Wilms]

11. FL: Some counties still holding out for paper ballots

09/21/05

Some counties still holding out for paper ballots

By Jack Gurney

Pelican Press

Volusia County on Florida's east coast and Leon County -- Tallahassee -- may temporarily violate federal and state deadlines for the purchase of electronic voting machines that meet disabled access guidelines until certified new equipment that provides paper ballots for manual recounts becomes available.

Sarasota County spent $4.7 million to meet its disabled access obligations in 2001 with the purchase of 1,615 Elections Systems and Software iVoltronic touch-screen machines that don't provide paper ballots for manual recounts.

June 23, the Omaha, Neb., company announced it has been cleared by federal elections authorities to sell a new product called the AutoMARK, an electronic voting machine that scans ballots and accommodates all voters, including the disabled and visually impaired.

Unlike the touch-screen iVoltronic machines, which do not provide a paper ballot for manual recounts, the AutoMARK machine optically scans ballots in a way that provides the privacy, accessibility and paper verification many voters' organizations have called for.

-snip/more-

http://www.venicegondolier.com/NewsArchive3/092105/vn7.htm

[Wilms]

12. MD: State 'receptive' to idea of paper trail for voting machines

State 'receptive' to idea of paper trail for voting machines

By Tom Stuckey
ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 21, 2005


ANNAPOLIS -- A recommendation from a national bipartisan commission is putting new pressure on Maryland officials to revise the state's electronic voting machines system to provide a paper trail.

The commission led by former President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a Republican, issued a report Monday with 87 recommendations. These include the recommendation that states should use machines that leave a paper trail as a way of increasing voter confidence in the election system.

Henry Fawell, a spokesman for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., said after the report was issued that the governor "is receptive to the idea of a paper trail."

"He will be appointing a commission to review Maryland election laws in the near future, and they will be giving careful consideration to this issue," Mr. Fawell said.

-snip/more-

http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20050920-102929-4056r.htm

[Wilms]

13. Op-Ed: Carter-Baker's Risky Scheme

Op-Ed: Carter-Baker's Risky Scheme

9/22/2005 1:13:00 PM

To: Opinion Editor

Contact: Christy Hicks of The Century Foundation, 212-452-7723

NEW YORK, Sept. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is an op-ed by Tova Andrea Wang, democracy fellow at The Century Foundation:

Carter-Baker's Risky Scheme

by Tova Andrea Wang

After the 2000 election, the National Commission on Federal Election Reform, cosponsored by The Century Foundation and co-chaired by former presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, conducted a massive fact-finding mission and led a national discussion to produce a report that led to important election reform. The 2004 elections made clear that there was more work needed to improved elections, so a new commission was formed. The 2005 National Commission, co-chaired by President Carter and James Baker, with an entirely different membership and sponsorship than the one of 2001, and a more limited examination process, has again brought the need to further improve our electoral system to the attention of the American people. However, while some of the recommendations in the new commission’s report are likely to improve our electoral system, several of them would be severely damaging.

Most dangerously, the Commission suggests that there be federal legislation requiring all voters to present the already very controversial REAL ID card (or some other state-wide "template" ID) in order to vote. This ID requirement would be even more draconian than the recently enacted and widely criticized Georgia law that requires all voters to present government issued photo ID. In addition to potentially disenfranchising voters, there is negligible evidence of the type of voter fraud that an identification requirement would prevent. That's why The Century Foundation's recent working group report on election reform cautioned against going beyond the Help America Vote Act's ID provisions before more facts are known.

There are many people who do not have driver's licenses or other equivalent identification, and these people tend to be the poor, elderly, disabled and minorities. The Carter-Ford Commission of 2001 pointed out that an estimated 6 percent to 10 percent of voting-age Americans does not possess a driver's license or a state-issued non-driver's photo ID. In 1994, the U.S. Department of Justice found that African-Americans in Louisiana were 4 to 5 times less likely to have government-issued photo ID than white residents. A June 2005 University of Wisconsin study found that less than half of Milwaukee African American and Hispanic adults have a valid drivers license compared to 85 percent of white adults outside Milwaukee.

To vote under the Carter-Baker scheme, here is what these Americans would have to do now -- in addition to registering -- in order to vote. Under the REAL ID Act, as of 2008, to get this type of identification, an individual must, as a pre-requisite, present documented proof of name and date of birth, social security number, name and primary address, and citizenship. Aside from the financial cost of having to obtain these required evidentiary documents, it may not be so very easy for people who work more than one job or have small children to take the time during business hours to wait on line to get necessary identification. As a practical matter, it simply will be impossible for the government to ensure all eligible voters have access to such identification.

-snip/more-

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=53876

[Wilms]

14. Opinion: Carter-Baker reforms imperiled by its partisan voter ID mandate

September 22, 2005 edition -

Carter-Baker election reforms imperiled by its partisan voter ID mandate

By Richard L. Hasen

LOS ANGELES - The United States is in desperate need of serious election reform. We had an election meltdown in Florida in 2000, and a near-meltdown in Ohio in 2004 that was narrowly averted. Fortunately for the country, there were too many votes separating candidates Bush and Kerry in Ohio to make election litigation over the state's many problems worthwhile. Nonetheless, voter confidence in our election system is declining. And in the increasingly polarized US electorate, the possibility of another razor-thin presidential election ending up in court in 2008 is far from negligible. Indeed, the number of election cases in courts have more than doubled in the period since 2000 compared with the period right before 2000.

From this perspective, the National Commission on Federal Election Reform headed by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker looked perfect: a high profile, bipartisan effort to identify ways to fix America's decentralized, increasingly politicized, and underfunded election system. Unfortunately, by taking sides in a fight over voter identification requirements, the Carter-Baker Commission squandered its political capital, perhaps even setting back the cause for reform. That is unfortunate for the country.

There is much good in the Carter-Baker report, issued Monday. Most important, the commission recommended a move toward nonpartisan election administration. (The US is one of the few democracies that use partisan election officials to run their elections.) Carter-Baker endorsed a suggestion I offered in testimony to the commission that states remove election responsibilities from partisan elected secretaries of State, placing them instead in the hands of professional election administrators appointed by governors and approved by a supermajority vote of state legislators. The supermajority requirement ensures that there is true bipartisan support for the election administrator. At the very least, state election officials should promise to abide by a code of conduct that keeps them out of the business of campaigning for other candidates or ballot measures.

The commission also correctly recommended ways to improve voter registration, including the requirement that states take proactive roles to register voters. Registration reform could significantly lower the chances of post-election meltdown; my study of the post-2000 election litigation shows that many of the court cases involved problems with registration rules.

-snip/more-

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0922/p09s01-coop.htm

[Wilms]

15. Equal Vote Blog on Carter/Baker and ACVR

Equal Vote

Tuesday, September 20

Little Confidence in "Building Confidence"

The Carter-Baker Report "Building Confidence in U.S. Elections" has generated an enormous amount of attention since its release yesterday. My impression is that the response has been overwhelmingly critical, primarily as a result of its recommendation to require voters to show "REAL ID" if they wish to have their votes counted. Here's a summary of some of the opinion so far:

The only enthusiastically positive response I've seen comes from inaptly named "American Center for Voting Rights." As I've previously discussed here, this group published a report in August that -- based mostly on unconfirmed news reports -- attempted to paint the picture that fraud is rampant in the black community. So it should come as no great surprise that ACVR is one of the few unqualified supporters of the report, calling it "a real step forward in the election reform debate." With friends like those . . .

-snip-

When one looks carefully at the collected stories that form the bulk of ACVR's report, it quickly becomes apparent that there's much less there than meets the eye.

-snip/more-

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/blogs/tokaji/2005/09/little-confidence-in-building.html


and


Wednesday, August 3

Vote Suppression, Fraud, and Photo ID

Since the 2004 election, there's been considerable attention devoted to election practices that served as obstacles to voting. That attention has focused on such problems as unreliable voting equipment, restrictive rules for counting provisional ballots, photo ID laws, and barriers to registration like Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's now-infamous directive requiring that registration forms be on heavy-stock "80 pound" paper weight. The DNC has issued a lengthy report documenting the problems encountered by voters in Ohio, which found that minorities and other Democratic-leaning groups were especially hard hit.

It was inevitable, then, that right-leaning advocacy groups would strike back with their own take on Election 2004. And so they have with this report entitled "Vote Fraud, Intimidation & Suppression in the 2004 Presidential Election." The report has been put out by a group calling itself the "American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund," a group led by Mark P. "Thor" Hearne who was National Election Counsel to Bush-Cheney 2004.

-snip/more-

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/blogs/tokaji/2005/08/vote-suppression-fraud-and-photo-id.html

[Wilms]

16. VelvetRevolution: Is Diebold the Next Enron?

VelvetRevolution: Is Diebold the Next Enron? Corruption, Incompetence and Infighting Pummell the Company Name and Stock

9/22/2005 2:28:00 PM

To: National Desk

Contact: Ilene Proctor of VelvetRevolution, 310-271-5857

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- VelvetRevolution.us 'VR' has been waging a six-month campaign to help expose Diebold's secretive and dangerous business practices. The threat that this company and its practices pose to democracy is now becoming clear to the American populace and Diebold shareholders as well. In the last week, the company has begun imploding, their stock value has dropped some 20 percent in the last week, and top officials are jumping off the sinking ship.

Last week, VR co-founder, Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com, announced that a Diebold insider, 'Dieb-Throat,' was spilling the beans on many of the company's shoddy practices. In short, that high-level whistleblower compares Diebold to Enron, and says that the Diebold voting machines are "one of the greatest threats ever to our democracy." The source disclosed that a branch of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a Cyber Alert two months before last November's election about a serious flaw in Diebold's central vote tabulator software which allows for a modification of vote totals through "an undocumented backdoor" that is otherwise undetectable. Despite this Cyber Security Alert issued more than a year ago, nothing was apparently done about it, and the results of the election have been suspect ever since.

Just yesterday, Diebold President and COO Eric Evans resigned. The resignation came on the heels of the resignation last month of CFO Gregory Geswein. Also, Thomas W. Swidarski left the elections division and was replaced, according to Dieb-Throat, by VPO David Berg, who has very little experience in the field.

If this wasn't enough bad news, two states using Diebold voting machines, Maryland and Georgia, this week indicated that they want voter verified paper ballots. However, the Diebold machines they have do not work with paper ballots, as discovered by California officials in July, when they rejected Diebold machines which failed a full 20 percent of the time in a recent massive test by the Republican Secretary of State. It looks like Diebold will lose millions in these two states alone.

-snip/more-

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=53885

[Wilms]

17. Free Press: Carter/Baker Report can't face how the GOP stole

The Free Press

Carter/Baker Report can't face how the GOP stole America's 2004 election & is rigging 2008

by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
September 20, 2005

The stolen elections of 2000, 2002 and 2004 are nowhere to be found in the milquetoast Carter-Baker Report now passing for wisdom on America's broken electoral system.

And unless the public is ready to face the reality that we no longer live in a nation with credible elections, the 2008 balloting is all but over.

As investigative reporters and registered voters living in central Ohio, we witnessed firsthand the outright theft of the 2004 election. We also endured the unwillingness of the Democratic Party to face up to a carefully choreographed "do everything" strategy that gave the presidency to George W. Bush for a second time, and which could make all elections to come virtually moot.

The just-issued report of a special commission headed by former President Jimmy Carter and Bush family consigliore Jim Baker is of little real value.

-snip/more-

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1462

[Wilms]

18. CA Secretary of State issues special election directives to counties

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

CA Secretary of State issues special election directives ( http://www.ss.ca.gov/executive/press_releases/2005/05_106.pdf ) to counties
Last Friday California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson issued

directives to the state's counties establishing conditions on the use of voting equipment in the Nov. 8 statewide special election. These directives reflect a continuation of the security requirements implemented by the previous secretary of state, Kevin Shelley, during the 2004 election.

Secretary McPherson is continuing to require California's electronic voting counties to have a supply of paper ballots available in polling places for those voters who prefer not to vote on touchscreens.

Unfortunately, these ballots can and most likely will be treated as provisional ballots, which means that voters exercising this right will have to complete a provisional ballot envelope and may worry that their right to cast a secret ballot may be compromised or that their ballot may not get counted at all.

CVF is urging California voters who are concerned about using electronic voting machines to request a paper, absentee ballot and vote by mail or drop it off at the polling place on election day.

See CVF's voting systems map ( http://www.calvoter.org/issues/votingtech/currentmap.html )to find out which California counties will be using electronic voting machines on November 8.

[Wilms]

19. TGDC Plenary Meeting September 29, 2005

TGDC Plenary Meeting

When: 9 am- 5 pm MDT, September 29, 2005

Where: NIST-Boulder Laboratories
325 Broadway, Building 1, Main Auditorium
Boulder, Colorado 80305-3328

Purpose: To review and approve an outline plan to establish recommendations for future voluntary voting system guidelines. A preliminary agenda is available.

Topics: Help America Vote Act requirements. Preliminary material to be discussed at the meeting is available for public review.

Status: The meeting is open to the public. No registration fee is required. Persons planning to attend should notify NIST via e-mail: [e-mail]. Include affiliation and contact information for pre-registration purposes.

Summary: The Technical Guidelines Development Committee (the “Development Committee”) has scheduled a plenary meeting for September 29, 2005. The Development Committee was established to act in the public interest to assist the Executive Director of the Election Assistance Commission in the development of the voluntary voting system guidelines. Further details are available in the Federal Register Notice.

-snip-

Web Cast: This meeting will be web cast at http://www.westream.tv/nist/.

-snip/more-

http://vote.nist.gov/tgdc_plenary20050929.htm

[Wilms]

20. Tony SnowJob covers the ACVR Voting Fraud Report

Fox News Radio Anchor Tony Snow covers the ACVR Voting Fraud Report

Listen:
http://www.ac4vr.com/audiovideo/tonysnow.mp3

[AtomicKitten]

21. Repubs Suddenly Interested in Voting Fraud * snigger *

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--voterfraud0921sep21,0,3448394.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey

[Wilms]

22. Director’s Note: The Carter-Baker Report – Behind and Beyond the Headlines

electionline Weekly – September 22, 2005
electionline.org

In Focus This Week

Director’s Note: The Carter-Baker Report – Behind and Beyond the Headlines
By Doug Chapin, Director

On Monday, the second National Commission on Federal Election Reform co-chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker III (the “Carter-Baker Commission”) released Building Confidence in U.S. Elections, its final report, after six months of public hearings and private deliberations. electionline.org assisted with the Commission’s work in the form of research support and I had the opportunity to sit in on the Commission’s deliberations leading up to the final report.

Since Monday’s release, there has been considerable reaction to the Carter-Baker report and its recommendations. Rather than simply rehash it all, I thought I would make several observations that go behind and beyond the reaction elsewhere:

-snip/more-

http://www.electionline.org/Newsletters/tabid/87/ctl/Detail/mid/643/xmid/153/xmfid/3/Default.aspx

[Wilms]

23. CT: State hurries to meet federal voting machine requirements

State hurries to meet federal voting machine requirements

By Tobin A. Coleman
Staff Writer

Published September 23 2005

Connecticut is waiting to hear whether its lever-operated voting machines will be illegal in the 2006 elections.

Local and state officials met Wednesday with Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz for the first time since a ruling that mechanical machines cannot be used in next year's federal elections.

Representatives from the state attorney general's office, legislative leaders who oversee election laws and local officials discussed how much money and effort will be needed to comply with the 2002 Help America Vote Act.

-snip/more-

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-machines6sep23,0,49613.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines

[Wilms]

24. Help Give a Free Election Truth CD-ROM to Everyone at the Portland Event

We are working to give a free copy of the Election Truth CD-ROM to everyone who comes to the Election Summit in Portland next weekend. At this point we have recieved a donation that will cover about half the copies we need.

Please consider making a small donation to the Solar Bus which will go directly to providing free copies of the Election Truth CD-ROM to everyone at the Summit.

Every 75 cents you donate will provide for one free copy to a participant at the Summit. At this point we need just $125 dollars more to have enough copies.

Below is a PayPal donation link:

http://tinyurl.com/9hgyb

For more information on the Summit:
http://www.summit.oregonvrc.org

For more information on the Election Truth CD-ROM:
http://www.solarbus.org/election/cd


The Solar Bus Election Justice Center

Discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x394615

[Wilms]

25. NYT Op-Ed: Voting Reform Is in the Cards

September 23, 2005

Voting Reform Is in the Cards

By JIMMY CARTER and JAMES A. BAKER III

-snip-

Here's the problem we were addressing: 24 states already require that voters prove their identity at the polls - some states request driver's licenses, others accept utility bills, affidavits or other documents - and 12 others are considering it. This includes Georgia, which just started demanding that voters have a state-issued photo ID, even though obtaining one can be too costly or difficult for poor Georgians. We consider Georgia's law discriminatory.

Our concern was that the differing requirements from state-to-state could be a source of discrimination, and so we recommended a standard for the entire country, the Real ID card, the standardized driver's licenses mandated by federal law last May. With that law, a driver's license can double as a voting card. All but three of our 21 commission members accepted the proposal, in part because the choice was no longer whether to have voter ID's, but rather what kind of ID's voters should have.

Yes, we are concerned about the approximately 12 percent of citizens who lack a driver's license. So we proposed that states finally assume the responsibility to seek out citizens to both register voters and provide them with free ID's that meet federal standards. States should open new offices, use social service agencies and deploy mobile offices to register voters. By connecting ID's to registration, voting participation will be expanded.

-snip-

In arguing against voter ID requirements, some critics have overlooked the larger benefit of government-issued ID's for the poor and minorities. When he spoke to the commission, Andrew Young, the former mayor of Atlanta, supported the free photo ID as away to empower minorities, who are often charged exorbitant fees for cashing checks because they lack proper identification. In a post-9/11 world, photo ID's are required to get on a plane or into a skyscraper.

-snip/more-

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/23/opinion/23carter.html?ei=5088&en=1e7272543db383e1&ex=1285128000&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

Thanks to HomerRamone for posting:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x394621

[Wilms]

26. Election Reform Commission Urges Secure E-voting

Election Reform Commission Urges Secure E-voting

EFF Applauds Commission Recommendations But Opposes National ID Card Endorsement

September 21, 2005

Washington, DC -

-snip-

"The Commission joins a growing chorus of concerned groups and citizens urging that electronic voting technology and related procedures be overhauled," said Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "This high-level, bipartisan panel confirmed that e-voting has introduced an unacceptable amount of uncertainty into voting, which should be the most trusted task performed by government. Congress and the states need to move quickly to ensure that another election doesn't go by with the same systemic flaws. Luckily, on the federal level, HR 550 could help us reach some of those goals by mandating a voter-verified paper trail and mandatory audits."

Zimmerman noted that while most of the Commission's recommendations were on-the-mark, others -- such as permitting states to decide for themselves whether paper or electronic ballots would rule in the event of disparities -- didn't go far enough.

EFF strongly opposes the Commission's privacy-invasive recommendations regarding voter identification, however. The report suggests that voters should be required to present the National ID card mandated by the recently passed Real ID Act at the voting booth.

-snip/more-

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_09.php#003993

Thanks to Eridani for posting the discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x394659

[Wilms]

27. kick n/t