Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News TUESDAY, 11/01/05

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”You can corrupt some of the government some of the time but you cannot corrupt all of the government all of the time.”

Never forget the pursuit of Truth.

Only the deluded & complicit accept election results on blind faith.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News TUESDAY, 11/01/05

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



All previous daily threads are available here:
http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm

Please

"Recommend"

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

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1. IL: County Faces Problems—BEST ARTICLE IN MONTHS--MUST READ

No narrative necessary, just check it out.

Earlier, easier voting comes at price for DuPage County
Security, cost debated in possible switch to yet another new system

http://www.dailyherald.com/search/searchstory.asp?id=112540
By Robert Sanchez and Marni Pyke
Daily Herald Staff Writers
Posted Sunday, October 30, 2005

By the spring 2002 primary, all DuPage County voters were using a state-of-the-art optical scan system.

The $4.3 million investment was lauded as a success, producing quick poll results with few glitches.

But the county election commission may soon scrap it for new voting machines that could cost up to $12 million.

New laws that extend early voting and require accessible machines for disabled residents are forcing them to consider switching to a fully electronic system, instead of the optical-scan method that uses paper ballots.

And that puts the commission on the horns of a dilemma.
The cost of the switch is giving budget hawks on the DuPage County Board ulcers. And some election watchdogs warn that electronic voting is vulnerable to tampering.

<snip>
Schultz Voots questions whether it’s worth it.
“You know how computers are,” she said. “They are obsolete in a couple of years.”

She also points out that none of the electronic voting devices are certified by the state. They can’t be used in an election until that happens.

Still, Cunningham says he’s “guardedly optimistic” that the devices Kane plans to use will be certified in early December.

Cunningham also has his own theory why counties with optical scanning systems might be reluctant to switch.

“If they put money into it already, it’s hard to justify getting off of it,” he said.

Security qualms

In the upcoming weeks, DuPage Election Commission officials will be visited by several voting machines vendors.

But a commission meeting last week, in which Diebold Election Systems demonstrated its AccuVote-TSX touch-screen voting machine, ended in a confrontation between Saar and residents skeptical about Diebold’s track record.

While Saar accused some residents of twisting the facts about Diebold, they countered the company was woefully unreliable.
Such doubts aren’t restricted to Diebold. Researchers with the Government Accountability Office concluded while electronic voting holds tremendous promise, it’s not tamper-proof.

<>
“The science to study how to do electronic voting correctly has not been done yet,” Rubin said. “We’re years away from being able to use electronic voting in any kind of secure way.”

While some characterize fears about voting security as paranoia and confined to a few special-interest groups, some see a larger problem.
“It’s not only the problem of cheating, but even if the election department is absolutely honest and scrupulous, there could well be large numbers of people who don’t believe it,” said Scott Peters, a political science professor at Illinois Institute of Technology.
“If they don’t believe the election, then the resulting government isn’t viewed as legitimate.”

But officials report no problems with electronic voting devices in Harris County, Texas, where they’ve been used for years.
In fact, Beverly Kaufman, the clerk in the county that includes Houston, says she believes the electronic system is more secure than traditional paper ballots.

“A vote is a vote,” she said. “No human hands are going to touch your ballot after you cast it and change it.”

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2. Nation: NEDA Challenges Edison-Mitofsky Apologies for Bush

Well, it happened on DU first but here goes. Another gem from Scoop. Anyone doubting “Math Logic” should keep in mind that Patrick Fitzgerald was a Math major at Amherst. He’s been very logical lately;)

Mitofsky Claim to "Rule Out Vote Fraud" is Bunk

Math Logic Proof Shows that ESI Analysis of Ohio and National Exit Poll Data is Bunk
-- Mitofsky and ESI's Claim to "Rule Out Vote Fraud" is Proven Incorrect

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0511/S00021.htm

Tuesday, 1 November 2005, 2:43 pm
Press Release: National Election Data Archive

The National Election Data Archive
http://electionarchive.org

Summary:

George W. Bush could have won the 2004 presidential election due to large-scale vote fraud without election data showing the patterns that the Election Science Institute (ESI) and pollster Warren Mitofsky claim must exist if vote fraud had occurred. The analysis that exit pollster Warren Mitofsky presented at the October 14, 2005 American Statistical Association fall conference has been proven mathematically useless for testing exit poll data for vote fraud.

Background:

In the 2004 presidential election, John F. Kerry won according to exit polls. Yet George W. Bush won according to the official election results. Exit pollster Warren Mitofsky in a January 2005 paper, stated that the discrepancy between election and exit poll results was caused by Kerry voters responding to exit polls more than Bush voters. From January to June, the National Election Data Archive (NEDA) used algebraic methods to show that this "reluctant Bush responder" explanation was refuted by the available exit poll data. However, in a June 2005 paper, and at the October 14 American Statistical Association fall conference, Mitofsky presented another hypothesis that he claimed "kills the vote fraud argument" in the 2004 presidential election.

Math Logic Proves that ESI's Latest Analysis Purporting to Rule out Vote Fraud Is Invalid

Mitofsky and Election Science Institute (ESI) argue that

"If systematic fraud or error in vote counting occurred in 2004 but not in 2000, then Bush would have done significantly better in those precincts in 2004 , and we would see larger exit poll discrepancies in those precincts."

That is, ESI claims that if precincts had vote fraud, then we would expect better Bush performance in those precincts in 2004 than in 2000. Mitofsky showed that precinct-level Bush vote increases from the 2000 election were not correlated with larger exit poll discrepancies, and concluded that vote fraud could thus be ruled out in the 2004 presidential election.

However, to cite just one possibility, what if the Democrats won the 2004 turnout battle big-time so that the effect of vote fraud in those precincts was to rescue Bush from a worse performance than in 2000 and bring him up to even?

The National Election Data Archive (NEDA) uses mathematical logic to prove that ESI's logic is incorrect and that any analysis of vote fraud based on it is meaningless. NEDA, in its proof, shows how Bush could win in 2004 due to large-scale vote fraud and yet have higher exit poll discrepancies where the Bush vote share is less in 2004 than in 2000 (not more as ESI claims).

In other words, no conclusion on the occurrence of vote fraud can be reached via the analysis used by Mitofsky with ESI.

Any mathematician utilizing the discipline of Math Logic can easily check the validity of NEDA's proof by reading “Mathematical Proof that Election Sciences Institute's Test to Rule Out Vote Fraud is Logically Incorrect” which can be found at

http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/exit-polls/ESI/ESI-hypothesis-illogical.pdf.

NEDA requests that:

1. Mitofsky and ESI please shoot only straight arrows into the fray from now on -- by logically and mathematically checking their hypotheses of the 2004 exit poll discrepancies before publicly releasing them. Time could better be spent on implementing a national election data archive system to analyze election data as soon as polls close; and

2. the polling firm Edison/Mitofsky release their arsenal of 2004 raw precinct-level unadjusted data for the entire United States, as was done for Ohio, so that independent researchers could statistically ascertain whether vote fraud probably occurred or not. Further, precinct identifiers are needed to allow investigation into the causes of some impossible election results in some precincts where the sum of all non-responders to the exit poll plus the number of all responders who said they voted for Bush is less than Bush’s official vote share.

Any valid comparison of the 2000 and 2004 elections to test for vote fraud would require 1) the unadjusted exit poll discrepancy data for the 2000 election, and 2) consideration of other issues such as the influence of third party candidates, voter turnout increases, and changing precinct demographic and geographic characteristics .

NEDA will release its own analysis of the precinct level Ohio exit poll data on November 2, 2005 in a report, “The Gun is Smoking: Ohio Precinct-level Exit Poll Data Show Virtually Irrefutable Evidence of Vote Miscount”.

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3. Nation: Ballot Initiative 2005 Round Up – Interesting Issues for Voters

The issues on the ballot around the country will be a belle weather for 2006 as much as the specific elections. California leads the pack. Arnnie will have go get that old Diebold mojo going. But watch out Spud-O-Lator, there are a bunch of extremely bright citizen activists and unions out there who know the drill. You will be exposed.

Off-year elections feature mix of issues

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/10/31/build/nation/90-elections.inc

Associated Press

Gay rights, teen abortion, Arnold Schwarzenegger's prestige. These and other volatile topics are adding spice to off-year elections in seven states where voters will be considering statewide ballot measures on Nov. 8.

As is often the case, California has the most intriguing mix of propositions - including four backed by Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor, to curb the power of the Democratic-controlled Legislature and the state's public employee unions. Another measure, notable in a state with liberal leanings, would require parents to be notified when a minor seeks an abortion.

Texas voters are expected to approve a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriages - a step already taken in 18 other states. In Maine, a conservative alliance is urging voters to quash a new law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.

In Republican-controlled Ohio, site of bitter wrangling in the 2004 presidential election, four election overhaul measures backed by Democratic-leaning groups are on the ballot. Voters will be asked if bipartisan boards, instead of elected officials, should draw lawmakers' districts and oversee elections; whether campaign contribution limits should be lowered; and whether all voters should be allowed to vote early by mail.

Doctors and lawyers in Washington state are spending heavily to support rival measures dealing with medical malpractice.

<snip>

Voters in New York are being asked to approve a $2.9 billion transportation bond and a measure that would give the Legislature, not the governor, the upper hand in writing a budget.

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4. MT: Centralized Registration Databased in Action – Very Important

Centralized registration databases offer states the opportunity to institute far more damaging routines to deny votes than even Jeb Bush imagined. Remember, the first election fraud of our era was the “felon purge” in 2000 by Jeb with a program from ChoicePoint that took 57,000 registered voters off the rolls. On election day 2000, none of them could vote. Coincidentially, they were almost all black Floridians. Not saying there’s a problem in MT but there are in FL, WI, PA and other states who have used Accenture to develop these registration databases.

10 counties test voter database

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/10/31/build/state/94-database.inc


Associated Press
HELENA - Ten counties in Montana will test a new database on Election Day that will lead to same-day voter registration.

Although voters won't notice any changes at the polls, the counties will be trying out a statewide list of registered voters that will be used in all Montana counties by next year.

"We'll get the real acid test directly," said Elaine Graveley, head of the Elections and Legislative Bureau in the secretary of state's office.

The statewide voter registration database will replace a patchwork of local systems and allow county election officials to check whether new voters are registered elsewhere in the state. It also will allow voters to register up to election day.
<snip>

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5. MA: Signatures for Sale for Massachusettes Ballot Initiaves.

This is a good example of election fraud the old fashioned way. Gues how the re-call Gray Davis, former CA Governor, were collected—with paid petition gatherers. Well, MA has the same problem. Takes an Oregonian to let them know.

Grassroots and big bucks

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/10/31/grassroots_and_big_bucks/
JEANNIE BERG

By Jeannie Berg | October 31, 2005

AS MASSACHUSETTS voters face another batch of citizens' initiative petitions, including one controversial anti-gay marriage petition, it's important to consider that petition drives in today's world are often the product of big-moneyed special interests, not concerned neighbors going door-to-door.

Oregon is perhaps the best example of the initiative process gone amok. During the last decade, Oregonians have voted on more than 100 ballot initiatives ranging from antitax petitions to measures regulating denturists and drugs. Most were not issues that bubbled up from the citizenry, but rather the efforts of well-heeled interest groups that hired out-of-state firms which pay a dollar for every signature collected. Not surprisingly, this led to rampant fraud and forgery, as paid signature gatherers sometimes said and did anything to make a bigger weekly check.

Oregon's response was to create the Voter Education Project in 2001, a nonprofit organization combating fraud in the petition process. What we found stunned even the most cynical: Two signature collectors, who were later prosecuted, turned in 30,000 signatures that were rife with fraud; tens of thousands of signatures were removed or invalidated, partly based on footage from our hidden cameras at key collections spots. One of the petitions they were caught carrying was a fake gas tax repeal designed to get the attention of potential signatories. As a result of their arrests, Oregon passed a law in 2002 barring payment for signatures collected on citizen petitions.

I believe the problems in signature-gathering in Massachusetts are just as vile. Even worse, there is no simple reporting or enforcement system that protects voters from being duped.

After testifying recently before the Massachusetts Legislature's Joint Committee on Election Law, I was impressed by the engagement of hundreds of voters who complained of signature fraud. By contrast, in Oregon we had to track down people who experienced these abuses because they were unaware. What I see happening in Massachusetts is serious abuse: voters complaining of signing multiple petitions when their objective was simply to support wine sales at their local grocer. Instead, signature gatherers asked them to sign a second or third page saying additional signatures were needed. Some saw the bait and switch right away and refused; others signed and only realized the trickery later.

<snip>

Jeannie Berg was director of Oregon's not-for-profit Voter Education Project from 2001 to 2003.

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6. Nation: Cynthia Tucker Points Out GOP Bill to Limit Voter Registration

"At long last, sirs, have you lost all sense of simple human decency? Haven't you done enough..."

GOP putting up obstacles to suppress minority vote

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/opinion/13038881.htm


Posted on Mon, Oct. 31, 2005

Last week, an ugly bit of business transpired in the GOP-dominated House of Representatives, where Republican hard-liners succeeded in passing a measure that would limit the ability of nonprofit groups to conduct voter registration drives. It was one of those moments when you don't have to wonder what the jihadist faction of the GOP is up to: They want to restrict the franchise to people who think as they do.

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a veteran of the civil rights movement, said the measure would "take us back to 1964 or 1965. I just think they (Republicans) want to be in a position to stifle the participation of poor people and minorities in the political process. They want to take us back to another period."

This heavy-handed step was of a piece with other Republican efforts to place obstacles in the way of voters they fear may favor Democrats. In Georgia, the GOP-dominated legislature passed a law earlier this year requiring all voters to have a state-sponsored photo ID, such as a driver's license. Happily, a federal court has ruled the law an unconstitutional impediment to voting.

In South Dakota, Republican legislators were more successful with their onerous voter ID requirement, passed in 2003 and apparently aimed at Native Americans, who also tend to support Democrats. Last year, though, two Republican senators, Kit Bond of Missouri and Richard Shelby of Alabama, failed in their attempt to sneak a provision into law that would have prohibited public housing sites from hosting voter registration initiatives and get-out-the-vote drives.

Last week's partisan power play took the form of an amendment tacked onto a piece of legislation intended to increase regulatory oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage financing companies recently plagued by accounting scandals. The House bill included a sorely needed provision to create a fund for affordable housing, prompted by calls for federal aid to rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

But to placate an ultraconservative group called the Republican Study Committee, an amendment was added that prohibits any nonprofit group from receiving any of the federal affordable-housing funds if it has conducted a voter registration campaign in the past year, even if it has used its own funds to do so.

This is not a poll tax; this is a poll ax. If this measure becomes law - the Senate has not yet acted on it - it will penalize countless organizations, including churches, that have run voter registration drives and also built high rises for the elderly and low-cost apartment complexes that accommodate store clerks, janitors and fast-food workers.

Republicans seem to think that residents of low-cost housing, especially black and brown residents, have a tendency - one they find troubling - to vote Democratic. You'd think the GOP would find a way to appeal to those voters. But that would require the party to forsake its allegiance to big business and the wealthy. So, instead, it has decided to try to suppress the vote among citizens of color.

Among the more than 600 nonprofits that protested the amendment was Catholic Charities USA. "Nonprofits with expertise in housing should not have to choose between two equally important missions: supporting full participation in our democracy and providing affordable housing," the Rev. Larry Snyder, president of the group, said in a letter to House GOP leaders. He also pointed out that the amendment didn't place any restrictions on for-profits that register voters. "We are puzzled and troubled by the double standard being applied to faith-based and nonprofit organizations," he wrote.

GOP backers of the amendment say all they're trying to do is make sure that federal funds are not used to support partisan political activities. There's just one problem: That's already illegal. Indeed, many nonprofits have been more careful about observing restrictions against partisanship since the Christian Coalition lost its tax-exempt status in 1999 over voter guides that it distributed in churches.

Cynthia Tucker is editorial page editor for the Atlanta Constitution, P.O. Box 4689, Atlanta, GA 30302. She can be reached by e-mail: [e-mail].

Cynthia Tucker

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7. Tanzania: Tear Gas and Water Cannons Greet Election Victors

Is this what they have planned for us? We’ll win one soon and when we show up, we get sprayed. What a mess. Are there any free and fair elections around the world?
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1826371,00.html

Cops disperse opposition

31/10/2005 09:44 - (SA)

Zanzibar - The Tanzanian army used teargas and water cannons on Monday in an attempt to disperse crowds of opposition supporters claiming victory following weekend presidential and legislative elections in the volatile offshore state of Zanzibar.

At least 60 supporters of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) chanted "Let us decorate CUF with flowers after our victory", and "We have defeated CCM; Bye bye CCM", a reference to the ruling Revolutionary Party (CCM) of Zanzibar President Amani Karume.

Separate elections for the president and parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania - made up of Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania - will be held in mid-December, later than scheduled because of the death of a vice-presidential candidate.

Vote counting under way

Zanzibar's opposition presidential candidate Seif Shariff Hamad claimed a strong early lead against Karume, although no official early results had been published.

Vote counting was under way after Sunday's elections were marred, like previous ballots, by violence and fraud.

At least seven people were injured, two by bullets and five by machetes or sticks, according to a doctor in Zanzibar and where both presidential and legislative elections were held on Sunday.

Monday morning's jubilant opposition supporters assembled near the central market in the capital, Stone Town.

An AFP correspondent watched as the army fired water cannons and tear gas towards the celebrating CUF supporters who took refuge in the town's narrow side streets before returning to the main street.

No celebrations before official results

A tense face off between troops and opposition supporters was continuing at 08:00.

At least five arrests were made.

The opposition supporters "have to wait for the official announcement of the results", before any celebrations, said a police official, Ramadan Kinyongo.

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8. Philippines: Now Illegitimate Pres. Arroyo’s Elect. Official has Vanished

WTF is this. The never ending saga of rotten election schemes. Now everybody in the Philippines knows Arroyo stole it, even her own party. The chief election official is missing and now the chief agricultural official. Seems there was a diversion of fertilizer funds to Arroyo’s campaign fund. How appropriate.

The disappeared

http://news.inq7.net/opinion/index.php?index=3&story_id=55016&col=84&published_site=25

First posted 00:34am (Mla time) Oct 31, 2005
By
Inquirer News Service

View full-size editorial cartoon

IT IS NOT ONLY LEFTIST ACTIVISTS WHO HAVE disappeared in increasing numbers; key officials or former officials of the Arroyo administration have also become scarce, albeit voluntarily. The most damning disappearance, of course, has been that of former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. Every day he continues to be missing, the administration sinks an inch deeper into its crisis of legitimacy.

But another former government executive is giving Garcillano a run for his money.

Jocelyn "Joc-Joc" Bolante was agriculture undersecretary for finance and administration from 2001 until after last year's elections. Today, he is the fourth-highest official in Rotary International; he is a member of the RI board of directors and treasurer of the worldwide humanitarian organization. In fact, he is the most senior Filipino Rotarian since Mat Caparas became the first Filipino president of Rotary International two decades ago. By all accounts he should be recognized for his achievement, and for the honor his elected position brings to a country of international achievers.

But instead he is almost a fugitive in his own country. Avoiding journalists and government investigators, he prefers to issue statements through a lawyer. He hosts an international conference of Rotarians in one of the country's leading hotels, but when members of the Senate staff arrive to serve him a subpoena, he is suddenly nowhere to be found. And last week, on the very day the Senate committee on agriculture resumed its investigation into the alleged election-related misuse of hundreds of millions in fertilizer funds, Bolante skipped town.

Bolante's deliberate elusiveness (he also "missed" the Oct. 6 hearing) may not be criminal, but it is certainly unRotarian.

The first spoke of Rotary's Four-Way Test, its famous wheel of guide questions, is about truth-telling: "Is it the truth?" Bolante's continuing and increasingly elaborate refusal to testify about the fertilizer funds, which he was chiefly responsible for when he was agriculture undersecretary, can only mean that he is failing the most fundamental Rotary principle of all.


<snip>

The issue facing Bolante is not a trivial one. The Commission on Audit has found that there is evidence to support the contention that part of the fertilizer funds was diverted to the Arroyo presidential campaign. "It was a well-planned project involving national and local officials and the DA itself, with its nationwide machinery, which ensured easy distribution throughout the country," a COA source told the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

[Wilms]

9. E-voting machines are not always secure

E-voting machines are not always secure

GAO Report: Federal Efforts to Improve Security and Reliability of Electronic Voting Systems...

Published on Oct. 31, 2005

More Related Links

Although electronic voting machines have become a regular feature at the ballot box, a growing number of critics have raised concerns about the machines' security, reliability and accuracy.

Proponents tout the machines' efficiency, ease of use and accessibility to voters with disabilities, but skeptics fear computer errors or fraud could disenfranchise voters or secretly change election results.

The critics found some vindication earlier this month in a Government Accountability Office report that showed some machines were insecure and unreliable, and their flaws have lost or miscounted some votes in recent federal elections.

Without identifying the specific voting systems involved, GAO reported that in some cases:

* Ballots already cast, ballot definition files and audit logs could be modified.
* Systems had locks that could be easily opened and unprotected power switches.
* Local voting officials misconfigured their machines.
* Voting systems failed while in use during elections.


snip/more/links

http://www.fcw.com/article91241-10-31-05-Print

[Wilms]

10. E-voting Grows Without Consensus

E-voting Grows Without Consensus

OCTOBER 31, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - State and local election officials, looking to meet federal voting regulations, are buying electronic voting gear despite a lack of best practices guidance and money.

The deadline for meeting the mandates of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which requires that an e-voting machine be installed at every polling location, is the first election after Jan. 1, 2006.

Governments are buying the gear in the midst of a continuing controversy over the reliability and security of e-voting machines, the lack of a so-called paper trail of votes from some systems, and the fact that there are few lists of systems and best practices certified by state or federal agencies.

Complaints last week from some election officials came days after the Government Accountability Office issued a report contending that questions about the security and accuracy of electronic voting systems are likely to continue into the 2006 elections.

snip/more

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,105802,00.html

[Wilms]

11. Louisiana to use same voting machines (Sequoia) in all 64 parishes

Dateline Alabama | APN

Louisiana to use same voting machines in all 64 parishes

The Associated Press

October 31, 2005

A California company has been chosen for a $35 million contract to supply Louisiana with 4,000 new voting machines, an upgrade that will lead to voters in all 64 parishes using the same type of touch-screen machine, the state's top elections official said Monday.

Louisiana voters now use one of three voting machines: old-fashioned lever machines or one of two types of touch-screens. Twelve parishes, including Orleans, Caddo and East Baton Rouge, already have the newer machines and need only minor upgrades, to bring them in compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, Secretary of State Al Ater said.

Ater said the contract is worth between $35 million and $40 million in money supplied by the federal government to help states upgrade their systems after election troubles in Florida and elsewhere in the 2000 presidential election.

Negotiations are underway with Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems, which would also supply about 500 new absentee voting machines. Ater said talks with Sequoia should be complete by the end of the year.

snip/more

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051031/APN/510310811&cachetime=3&template=dateline

[Wilms]

12. The Bronx Defenders and Impact Launch Election Protection Effort

The Bronx Defenders and Impact Launch Election Protection Effort

NEW YORK – The Bronx Defenders and Impact announce the launch of their 2005
nonpartisan Election Protection effort. To protect the integrity of the 2005 New York City
elections, hundreds of community volunteers, law students, and lawyers will be:

· Conducting nonpartisan outreach and voter education in parts of the Bronx before
Election Day.

· Providing trained nonpartisan poll monitors to educate and assist voters at targeted
polling sites in the Bronx on Election Day.

· Staffing a voter assistance hotline to assist voters and election monitors in resolving
voting problems.

· Documenting the problems that voters encounter to make recommendations to election
officials.

Voters who encounter any difficulties in casting their ballot, or who are unsure if they are
registered, or who need to locate their polling site, should call Election Protection’s national
hotline:

1-866-OUR-VOTE

According to Maggie Williams, an Open Society Institute Community Fellow at the Bronx
Defenders and former President of Impact, “Protecting the right to vote is not a civil rights issue
of the past; it remains an on-going struggle. We need community volunteers, law students, and
lawyers to get involved in any way they can to educate people about their voting rights.”

snip

The Voter Enfranchisement Project, the newest project at The Bronx Defenders, is developing
and piloting a role for holistic public defenders offices to play in the nonpartisan civic
engagement of their community and clients.

More information at http://www.bronxdefenders.org

Impact is a non-partisan national network of law students from more than 150 law schools
organized to ensure the integrity of the voting process. Impact is a member of Election
Protection, a non-partisan coalition including People For the American Way Foundation,
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund. Election Protection is committed to protecting the right of all citizens to
register to vote and cast a meaningful ballot.

For more information, check out http://www.Impactlaw.org

[Wilms]

13. Voter law bad for seniors, AARP says

October 30, 2005

Voter law bad for seniors, AARP says

GARY, Ind. -- The head of Indiana's chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons says a new state law requiring Hoosier voters to show an ID at the polls could put a burden on older, ailing Hoosiers who don't have driver's licenses.
State AARP director Nancy Griffin said a recent survey by the group found that 10 percent of registered Indiana voters age 60 and older lack driver's licenses.

She said the results "trouble" her because she worries the law passed this spring by lawmakers could "make it tough for our members -- particularly our older, sicker members -- to exercise their constitutional right to vote."
However, the law's author -- state Sen. Vic Heinhold, R-Kouts -- says AARP is "stacking their numbers" for dramatic purposes.

snip/more

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051030/NEWS01/510300541

[Wilms]

14. IO: Order allowing felons to vote upheld

Order allowing felons to vote upheld

The Muscatine County attorney had challenged Gov. Tom Vilsack's action to restore voting rights.

By THOMAS BEAUMONT

REGISTER STAFF WRITER

October 29, 2005

An Iowa court Friday upheld Gov. Tom Vilsack's executive order restoring voting rights to all felons who have served their state sentences.

Muscatine County Attorney Gary Allison challenged the July action by Vilsack, filing a petition to block it in District Court in Muscatine.

Vilsack, a Democrat, was criticized by Republicans for the move, which puts Iowa among 47 states that allow felons the right to vote.

Before Vilsack signed the order, felons could ask to have their voting rights restored but were subject to a lengthy process involving the state parole board and governor's office.

Republicans accused Vilsack of having a partisan motive for the action, which they said favored Democrats in the closely divided political battleground state.

However, GOP legislative leaders took no action to block the executive order, which Vilsack signed July 4. Only Allison, a Republican, pursued a legal challenge to the order.

snip/more

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051029/NEWS01/510290326/1002

[Wilms]

15. Deal Near on Democratic Presidential Schedule

Deal Near on Democratic Presidential Schedule

By Chris Cillizza
Special to the Washington Post
Sunday, October 30, 2005; Page A05

A plan to shuffle the 2008 Democratic presidential calendar -- placing several states between the traditional Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary -- is gaining momentum on a commission studying the party's nominating process.

A consensus is developing to recommend scheduling nominating contests in two or possibly three states in the days between Iowa and New Hampshire, according to some members of a Democratic National Committee panel looking at ways to revamp the nominating schedule.

"It is getting to be a done deal," said Mike Stratton, a member of the 40-person commission headed by Rep. David E. Price (D-N.C.) and former labor secretary Alexis Herman. The commission is to make a final recommendation to the DNC at its Dec. 10 meeting.

If such a recommendation were adopted, it likely would diminish the influence of two small states that for decades have enjoyed outsized influence in picking presidential nominees, and would cause aspiring presidential candidates to rethink their strategies about travel and spending, and potentially even their campaign messages, in pursuit of the nomination.

snip/more

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/29/AR2005102901078.html

[Algorem]

16. Lucas County,Ohio(Toledo)-Absentee ballots are absent for many

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051101/NEWS09/511010440/-1/NEWS

Article published Tuesday, November 1, 2005

ELECTION 2005
Absentee ballots are absent for many
Printing errors keep some voters waiting

By ROBIN ERB
BLADE STAFF WRITER

One week before Election Day, hundreds of Lucas County voters await their absentee ballots, unsure if their vote will be counted.

The problem: The printer of the ballots, Dayton Legal Blank, sent the ballots too late, and some arrived riddled with mistakes, said Jill Kelly, the director of the county's elections board...

Both Mrs. Gauthier and Mr. Lubell said county elections staff they contacted by phone about the delay blamed Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's office, a concern for Mr. Blackwell's spokesman, Carlo LoParo.

"It's very troubling," he said, and "it doesn't bode well" for a county that already is under administrative oversight by the state.



RECENT RELATED ARTICLES

• Bill aims to cut absentee voting woes Ohio | 05/18/2005
• House panel OKs election reform | 05/12/2005

[Algorem]

17. Ohio-Election officials(Blackwell) want voters to take their time (?)

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-20/11308745453730.xml&storylist=cleveland

11/1/2005, 2:41 p.m. ET
The Associated Press

CLEVELAND (AP) — The state is advising election officials to give voters plenty of time to make choices in voting booths next Tuesday because of the complexity of five proposed constitutional amendments.

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has discouraged enforcement of an Ohio elections law that sets a 5-minute limit for voters to complete ballots when polling places are busy and people are waiting in line, spokesman Carlo LoParo said.

Counties are taking extra steps to help voters get familiar with the lengthy amendments before they enter the booths. Some are publishing the issues and planning to have postings and handouts available at voting locations.

"We're not going to enforce a time limit by any means," said Michael Vu, director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections...

[FogerRox]

18. Scott County absentee records at issue -- again

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Scott County absentee records at issue -- again

When a Gate City attorney first sought copies of absentee ballot applications from the registrar's office in September, she was told the staff was too busy to provide the records.

By Laurence Hammack
981-3239
The Roanoke Times


When it comes to absentee voting in Scott County, there's no absence of controversy.

The latest dispute over the issue -- at least the third in the past two years -- involves access to records kept by the voter registrar, Willie Mae Kilgore.

Last week, the secretary of the State Board of Elections said she saw no reason why Kilgore's office should not have promptly provided records sought by Sherry Lee Wilson.

Wilson had accused the registrar of stonewalling her requests for information on who has been approved to vote by absentee ballot in next week's election and the rea
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son they stated for not being able to make it to the polls.

Wilson eventually obtained the information, which by state law is public record

more-

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-38694

[Wilms]

19. Law students release voting discrimination findings

Nov. 1, 2005

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Law students release voting discrimination findings; panel to discuss Voting Rights Act

DATE: 4-6 p.m., Nov. 10, 2005

EVENT: University of Michigan law students will release new research documenting nationwide voting discrimination since 1982. The findings will be posted on a Web site detailing judicial findings of voting discrimination under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Some provisions of this Act will expire by 2007 if Congress does not renew them.

Under the direction of U-M law professor Ellen Katz, these students comprise the Voting Rights Initiative of the Michigan Election Law Project.

In addition to publicizing its findings, VRI will host a lecture entitled "Documenting Discrimination in Voting: Judicial Finding under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act since 1982." Speakers include Chandler Davidson, member, National Commission on the Voting Rights Act; Debo Adegbile, associate director of litigation, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; Nina Perales, associate regional counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund; and Jon Greenbaum, voting rights project director, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

snip/more

http://www.umich.edu/news/?Releases/2005/Nov05/r110105b