Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday 10/15/05

[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=203x397093

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=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=396962&mesg_id=396962


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

[Wilms]

1. Blackwell's (Ohio SOS) Attorneys Could Be Sanctioned

A Franklin County judge is asking the Ohio Supreme Court to sanction attorneys for Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, saying they filed a frivolous complaint.

The motion, filed on behalf of Common Pleas Judge Dale A. Crawford, that the Secretary of state was trying to avoid sworn statements from being taken from Blackwell, his campaign consultant and others in a dispute over counties choosing new voting machines.

Even so, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien’s office issued a notice yesterday to depose Blackwell; Dana Walch, Blackwell’s former director of legislative affairs; Judy Grady, his director of elections; and Norm Cummings, a consultant in Blackwell’s bid for governor next year.

According to the motions for sanctions and attorney fees filed Thursday, Blackwell’s attorneys cited no legal cases that supported their position.

snip

The courthouse is buzzing over this one. Judge Dale Crawford is a Republican and had to be throughly pissed off by Blackwell's antics to grant this motion and send it to the Supreme Court.

snip/more

http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2005/10/15/20051015-B1-03.html&rfr=nwsl

Thanks to farmbo for posting:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1851544

[Wilms]

2. NYT Editorial: Voting Rights, Human Rights

Voting Rights, Human Rights

October 14, 2005
NYT Editorial

The United States has the worst record in the democratic world when it comes to stripping convicted felons of the right to vote. Of the nearly five million people who were barred from participating in the last presidential election, for example, most, if not all, would have been free to vote if they had been citizens of any one of dozens of other nations. Many of those nations cherish the franchise so deeply that they let inmates vote from their prison cells.

Courts outside this country are actually expanding the rights of prison inmates to cast ballots, on the theory that the right to vote is a basic human right that should be abridged only after careful deliberation and under the rarest circumstances. That message was underscored last week in a strong ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which has jurisdiction in the nations that are parties to the European Convention, a rights charter drafted more than a half-century ago...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/14/opinion/14fri4.html

Thanks to AtLiberty for posting:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x397109

[Wilms]

3. MO: Clay seeks investigation of voter registration law implementation

Thursday, Oct 13, 2005 - 05:23:57 am CDT

Clay seeks investigation of voter registration law implementation

By CHRISTOPHER LEONARD
Associated Press Writer

ST. LOUIS (AP) - The U.S. Department of Justice should investigate whether Missouri state agencies have violated federal voter registration laws, said U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo.

Clay held a press conference Monday morning in front of a state-run career center, saying such agencies have failed to register their clients to vote.

”The state of Missouri has thumbed its nose at the National Voter Registration Act,“ Clay said, referring to the 1993 federal law designed to increase voter rolls.

Sometimes called the ”motor voter“ law, the act requires state agencies to offer voter registration to clients. State workers can do this by asking clients if they are registered to vote, and by keeping registration materials on hand. A national study released last month indicates that public assistance agencies are registering fewer people to vote now than they did a decade ago.

snip/more

http://newstribune.com/articles/2005/10/13/news_state/0101305034.txt

[Wilms]

4. New California voting technology map, directory now online

Friday, October 14, 2005

New California voting technology map, directory now online

The California Voter Foundation staff have updated our voting technology map and county-by-county directory of voting systems for the November 8, 2005 statewide special election.

The new map shows that 68 percent of California's registered voters reside in counties that use paper ballots at the polls (optical scan and Data Vote combined); 26 percent reside in paperless, electronic voting counties; 5 percent reside in counties that will use electronic voting machines with voter-verified paper audit trails (VVPAT); and one percent reside in Monterey, which will use a blended system of both optical scan and electronic with VVPAT balloting systems.

snip/links

http://calvoter.org/news/blog/2005_10_01_blogarchive.html#112933546729725814

[Algorem]

5. Cuyahoga Co.,OH. public meeting Monday on planned change to e-voting

Cuyahoga Co.,OH. public meeting Monday on planned change to e-voting
Edited on Sat Oct-15-05 01:37 PM by Algorem

Meeting on voting changes

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections is holding a public meeting Monday on the planned change to electronic voting. Board of Elections officials will discuss preparing for the 2006 implementation. A representative from Diebold Inc., the manufacturer of the new equipment, will take part in the presentation. The meeting begins at 10 a.m. The public comment session will be from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. The free event will be at the Myers University Club, 3813 Euclid Ave., Cleveland.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1129368687179170.xml&coll=2

http://boe.cuyahogacounty.us/BOE/default.htm

[Wilms]

6. OPINION: Good Reason Not to Trust All November Vote Results

OPINION

Good Reason Not to Trust All November Vote Results

Thursday, October 13, 2005

By Tom Elias

Skeptics began warning that vote-counting might not be reliable in some parts of California this fall almost as soon as it became clear that plenty of counties will be using electronic voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems in the November special election.

Never mind that no one has ever proven a single electronic vote was ever stolen or hacked anywhere in America.

Because many machines in use this fall lack voter-verified paper trails and have not been certified by Secretary of State Bruce McPherson for use in next year’s primary election, citizen groups like the California Election Protection Coalition warn any results this fall will be unreliable, no matter what county officials may say.

That would be especially true if there were any repeats of what happened in July in San Diego, where poll workers took home optical scan voting machines with removable memory cards for several days prior to that city’s mayoral primary election.

[Wilms]

7. And now, this important message.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5066921

[Wilms]

8. Azerbaijan: Battle of the Pollsters?

http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/home.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=137

Battle of the Pollsters?

by Khadija Ismayilova
10 October 2005

Debate over exit polls threatens confidence in Azerbaijan's election results.

snip

However, opposition leaders suspect that both Mitofsky and Saar Poll were recruited by representatives of the Aliev administration to supply exit polls whose results would compete with those of the U.S.-funded poll. “Nobody knows the companies which invited these pollsters . I would not be surprised if one of our oligarchs would appear as the client of these two pollsters,” said Fuad Mustafaev, deputy chairman of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan. “Anyone can register a company in either Switzerland or Great Britain.”

snip/more

http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=136&NrSection=3&NrArticle=15175

[Wilms]

9. ME: Grassroots Efforts to Stop Discrimination

10/15/05

Grassroots Efforts to Stop Discrimination

Maine Won’t Discriminate Trains Over 100 Volunteer Leaders
to Mobilize Volunteers and Contact Voters

PORTLAND, MAINE – Over 100 volunteer leaders were trained across the state today amidst rainy weather as part of Maine Won’t Discriminate’s comprehensive grassroots plan to mobilize thousands of volunteers and voters leading to election day on November 8. The “Countdown to Victory Organizing Conventions” were held in Augusta, Bangor, Biddeford, Lewiston and Portland.

“Citizens across Maine are energized to stop discrimination,” said Jess Knox, field director for Maine Won’t Discriminate. “These trainings are the beginning of a comprehensive grassroots strategy to reach tens of thousands of Maine voters opposed to discrimination, and we were overwhelmed by their show of support today. People traveled far distances in the rain to participate in our conventions and left ready to lead their community in defeating Question 1.”

Speaker of the House John Richardson kicked off the training in Lewiston and House Majority Leader Glenn Cummings addressed the participants gathered in Portland. The trainings focused on strategies to recruit more volunteers and contact voters through phone banking and door-to-door canvassing.

snip/more

http://business.mainetoday.com/newsdirect/release.html?id=2270

[FogerRox]

10. Thanks Wilms--

I had a hardware problem--- Im just getting back online now-

[Wilms]

12. No sweat.

:hi:

[Wilms]

11. Severe Illinois Loss

Severe Illinois Loss

October 13th, 2005

On October 13, U.S. District Court Judge Jeanne Scott, a Clinton appointee, upheld Illinois ballot access law for independent candidates for the legislature. The law requires a petition signed by 10% of the last vote cast, due in December of the year before the election.

Judge Scott made no mention of the numerous court precedents that have declared petition requirements higher than 5% to be unconstitutional. Such cases are from Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio and South Dakota. She also made no mention of a summary US Supreme Court opinion from 1977, striking down an April petition deadline for an independent candidate for the legislature. Nor did she mention court precedents striking down early petition deadlines for non-presidential independent candidates, from Alabama, Alaska, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

snip/more

http://ballot-access.org/2005/10/13/severe-illinois-loss/