Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News TUESDAY, 11/08/05

[autorank]

I am dedicated to free and fair elections and the elimination
of election fraud. I wand easy access to registration and voting
for myself and others. I want to cast my vote for Tim Kaine, D, VA
(Governor) knowing that it will count and that all others who
do so will know the same. Autorank, Precinct captain, VA

VOTE VIRGINIA…

Early, Midday, Late…Volunteer Too!

Never forget the pursuit of Truth.

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

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News TUESDAY, 11/08/05

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).

[autorank]

1. CA: San Diego City Attorney Questions “accuracy and security” of election

Well, this is the City Attorney of one of our largest cities. He thinks it stinks. I agree.

City attorney says he wants observer
Aguirre writes to registrar over security of balloting
City attorney says he wants observer

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20051105-9999-7m5election.html

By Leslie Wolf Branscomb
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

November 5, 2005

Just four days before the statewide special election, San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre has sent a letter to the county Registrar of Voters expressing "concerns" about Tuesday's voting.

"While I am not a conspiracy theory proponent regarding this issue," Aguirre wrote, "I do believe that legitimate questions exist about the accuracy and security of the canvassing process."

Among his requests, Aguirre wants a deputy city attorney to observe the vote counting Tuesday night.

<snip>

There were some computer glitches with electronic touch-screen machines during the March 2004 primary election, which caused some polling places to open late. Touch-screen machines won't be used again in California until 2006 at the earliest.

[autorank]

2. OH: Toledo Blade on Issues 2,3,4,&5—Bid Day for Ohio

I hope people in Ohio go out and vote. Let them try to steal this. There will have to be an Ohio Election Forum if that happens

ISSUES 2, 3, 4, & 5
Election-reform admendments draw definite battle lines in state

ttp://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051106/NEWS09/511060315

Jim Provance
Colombus Bureau
COLUMBUS - Four far-reaching proposed constitutional amendments on Tuesday's ballot are portrayed by supporters at every opportunity as a referendum on Gov. Bob Taft and what they characterize as a pay-to-play atmosphere in the Republican-controlled Statehouse.

Opponents portray it as a power play by largely out-of-state interests seeking to use the Ohio Constitution to get Democrats back into a game voters have repeatedly decided they should sit out.

Either way, the ballot issues represent the most sweeping changes to Ohio election law in decades, affecting congressional and legislative redistricting, election oversight, absentee ballots, and campaign contributions.

As of Oct. 19, both sides have reported raising more than $5 million for the petition campaign that put the questions on the ballot in the first place and the ad wars that have followed.

<snip>

He took issue with the characterization by the opposition of Reform Ohio Now as a liberal Democrat effort driven largely by money from Washington, California, and other states frustrated over Ohio's role in keeping George W. Bush in the White House.

"We have over 12,000 volunteers on this campaign, and we had over 500,000 people sign petitions to put these issues on the ballot," Mr. Rusnak said. "We're a very strong, home-grown, grass roots effort."

[autorank]

3. MI: Detroit Election Official Still Under Scruitiny

This has implications for Democratic politics. Bears watching.


Caution: Don’t be shocked by the masthead which says “freep/news/Michigan” – the “freep” here stands for Free Press not you know what.

Allegations of election fraud, racism surface in days before Detroit election

http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw123797_20051107.htm

November 7, 2005, 6:20 PM

DETROIT (AP) -- Allegations of racism, biased judges and improprieties that include dead people on the voter roll have surfaced in the weeks before Tuesday's hotly contested city election.

On the eve of the vote, the focus was on City Clerk Jackie Currie and her "Project Vote" program, which sends ambassadors to help the elderly and disabled fill out absentee ballots.

Last week, a judge ordered state and Wayne County election officials to oversee absentee voting after ruling that Currie has been breaking state law in how she handles absentee ballots and supervises the ambassadors.

In late October, The Detroit News reported that Currie's handling of absentee ballots was questionable. The newspaper found that people cast ballots even though their addresses were abandoned nursing homes or in one case, a vacant lot.

[autorank]

4. VA: Bush Must Love VA—He Showed Up to Endorse Rep. Gov Candidate

His ratings in VA—41% positive-56% negative. Thanks George W., you may have pulled off a clean sweep for the DEMOCRATIC TICKET!!! VOTE!!!

Bush campaigns in Virginia governor's race

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/07/bush.kilgore.virginia.reut/

Monday, November 7, 2005; Posted: 10:02 p.m. EST (03:02 GMT)

RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) -- President Bush took a detour to Virginia on his way back from Latin America Monday to try to give Republican Jerry Kilgore an election-eve boost in his deadlocked race for governor.

Despite his own political woes and declining popularity, Bush hoped to rally Republicans to vote Tuesday in a contest that polls show is too close to call and in which turnout could be crucial for Kilgore and his Democratic rival, Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine.

<snip>

Kaine and Kilgore, a former state attorney general, were battling to succeed incumbent governor and potential 2008 Democratic presidential contender, Mark Warner, in the Republican-leaning southern state.

With Bush's poll numbers plummeting and beset by problems like the war in Iraq, the bungled federal response to Hurricane Katrina and the indictment of a senior White House aide in the CIA leak probe, Democrats hoped the president's 11th-hour appearance for Kilgore would instead motivate their own supporters.

<snip>

Late last month, Kilgore avoided a Bush speech on anti-terrorism in Norfolk, Virginia, a move that was widely regarded as a sign that the president might do more harm than good in a close race.

[autorank]

5. Nation: More Criticism of Carter-Baker Voter ID

It's almost unanimous. National Voter ID sucks!

Wonder if that Carter-Baker commission thought we’d fall for the Voter ID. Not so. It’s Jim Crow all the way.
http://www.tcf.org/list.asp?type=NC&pubid=1133


Tova Andrea Wang, Jonah H. Goldman, The Press-Enterprise, 11/6/2005
The national Commission on Federal Election Reform, led by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, had a good opportunity to examine the systemic problems facing the American electoral system.

Unfortunately, the commission failed to live up to its mission by refusing to objectively analyze all of the available evidence. The result is a mixed bag, with the recommendations that will buttress confidence in American elections being overshadowed by provisions that will lead to widespread and unnecessary disenfranchisement.

The recommendation that most suffers from the commission's fatal methodological flaws is the proposal that all voters present a nationally uniform driver's license, the REAL ID card, in order to vote. Requiring universal government-issued photo IDs at the polls is a modern day poll tax and will not solve the problems of fraud and misconduct that occasionally plague our electoral system.

The Carter-Ford commission of 2001 on federal election reform pointed out that an estimated 6 percent to 10 percent of voting-age Americans do not possess a driver's license or a state-issued photo ID.

The citizens who do not have photo identification are mostly poor, minority, elderly, disabled and young voters.

This is largely the case because these voters cannot afford the requisite fees for obtaining photo IDs, and they are less likely than other voters to own a car or regularly drive. Case in point, a June 2005 University of Wisconsin study found that less than half of Milwaukee African-American and Hispanic adults have valid licenses compared to 85 percent of white adults who live outside Milwaukee who have licenses.

The disenfranchising effect of the commission's photo ID proposal is made worse by the fact that it will not solve any real problems. The ID proposal is purportedly intended to prevent fraud by voters who misrepresent their identity at the polls. In fact, the evidence shows that the incidence of this type of fraud is extraordinarily small.

[autorank]

6. NM: ACLU Sues to Stop More Jim Crow Voter ID Laws

NM is not falling for the Voter ID. The Republicans put it on the ballot and made it look like it was to protect against election fraud. Well, not so. They will now learn that they voted to take away Hispanic, Native American and poor people’s votes through stupid requirements. Thank you ACLU.

The Albuquerque Tribune

http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_local/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19858_4194141,00.html

ACLU sues clerk over city's new voter ID rule

"What you're looking at is disenfranchising people on the basis of their wealth." Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU of New Mexico

By Erik Siemers
Tribune Reporter
October 28, 2005

Early voting for the Nov. 15 District 9 council runoff started Wednesday.

Four of the district's 29,000 registered voters have shown up. All have shown photo identification, as required by a barely three-week-old city ordinance. Nobody has complained about it, said City Clerk Judy Chavez.

But somebody is.

The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday sued Chavez in federal court, saying the photo voter ID requirement that voters passed on Oct. 4 is unconstitutional.

"Our basic concern here is that this law threatens to create a dual class of voters in Albuquerque," said Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU of New Mexico.

More than 58,000 voters supported the measure on election day, giving it 73 percent of the vote.

But Simonson said the ballot language didn't adequately explain that it doesn't apply to absentee voters.

[GuvWurld]

7. Thread to track Parallel Elections

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x400452

[Wilms]

8. CA: O.C. to Roll Out New and Improved Election Tracking

O.C. to Roll Out New and Improved Election Tracking

Better technology -- including a warehouse Webcam -- will keep watchers updated.

November 7, 2005

By Jean O. Pasco, Times Staff Writer

Tallying results on election night has long been an embarrassment to Orange County, which has been plagued for years by slow counts, compared with other urban counties. But that may start changing Tuesday.

Thanks to new strategies and better technology for ballot handling, officials said, voters may soon get final returns faster and get more information about what's happening behind the scenes as they wait.

And for political junkies who thrive on bits of polling data, precinct turnouts and voting patterns, the system will provide a wealth of up-to-the-minute information in the hours before the final numbers come in.

"We've had all of this information all along, and now we're finally going to let people see it," said Mark Denny, chief of staff to Supervisor Bill Campbell, whose office encouraged the upgrade.

snip/more

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-ocvote7nov07,0,4036923.story?coll=la-home-politics

OC Registrar Site:
http://www.ocvote.com/live

[Wilms]

9. Denying the Vote in Arizona

Monday, November 7


Denying the Vote in Arizona

by Dan Tokaji

Today's L.A. Times has this excellent report on Arizona's Proposition 200, which requires voters to establish their citizenship and present identification in order to vote. Though ostensibly designed to prevent undocumented immigrants from voting, election officials say that it will in reality prevent tens of thousands citizens from voting on election day. In Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, election officials say that over 10,000 people have been rejected because they couldn't prove their citizenship. In Pima County, where Tucson is located, it's reported that 60% of those who tried to registered were at first rejected.

Defenders of the law argue that it's been "too easy" for people to vote. But how many of those people were undocumented immigrants?

snip/more/link to LAT story

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/blogs/tokaji/2005/11/denying-vote-in-arizona.html

[Wilms]

10. Virginia: GOP's latest dirty trick

by Ed Still

November 7, 2005

Virginia: GOP's latest dirty trick

Kos has an MP3 of a call supposedly made by Tim Kaine, Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia: So here's the deal -- the Republicans took statements Kaine has made and spliced them together to put together this out-of-context call. The horrible music in the background is there to mask the splicing.

This call is being played in liberal areas. A different spliced version of the call, talking about how liberal he is on choice and all those other hot-button social issues, is being played in conservative areas.

And it's all being funded by the Republican Governor's Association, as Bob at the Swing State Project has noted. -- Daily Kos: VA-Gov: Dirty tricks, the robo call

The Kaine campaign tells me that they have filed a complaint with the State Election Commission regarding this and earlier dirty tricks by the GOP.

snip/more/links

http://www.votelaw.com/blog/archives/003495.html

[Wilms]

11. CA: KHUM Radio Interview re Parallel Election

Thursday, November 03, 2005

KHUM Radio Interview re Parallel Election

link

http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2005/11/khum-radio-interview-re-parallel.html

[Wilms]

12. CT: Worth A Vote Of Confidence?

Worth A Vote Of Confidence?

by Michele Jacklin

November 6, 2005

Having abandoned her quest for governor, Susan Bysiewicz has returned to the business of running the secretary of the state's office. Tops on her to-do list is resolving the voting-machine problem that's been dumped in her lap, a problem that was aggravated by the Bush administration's stalling tactics and the Justice Department's lassitude.

Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002 to force states to upgrade their voting technology and eliminate hanging chads and other snafus that undermined the integrity of the 2000 presidential election. It took the Bush administration a year to begin drafting standards and two more years for the somnolent Justice Department to rule that the mechanical lever machines used by many states, including Connecticut, are substandard.

snip

The biggest thorn in Bysiewicz's side has been TrueVoteCT, a group of computer scientists and academics concerned about the sanctity of elections. They believe the state's bid specifications were rigged to allow only for touch-screen, ATM-style machines that can be infected with viruses and otherwise corrupted. They say the most reliable system is an optical scanner used in conjunction with a ballot-marking device called AutoMark. And they fought hard to ensure that whatever system is adopted, voters are given a paper record to verify the accuracy of their choice. That requirement was approved earlier this year by the legislature.

snip

Although TrueVote and Bysiewicz are working toward the same goal, their relationship has become adversarial. In a recent exchange of letters, Bysiewicz accused TrueVote of acting as a front for one company.

snip/more

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-jacklin1106.artnov06,0,3265526.column?coll=hc-utility-news-politics

[Wilms]

13. Brad Friedman Interviews Whistleblower Clint Curtis

Brad Friedman Interviews Whistleblower Clint Curtis

At the National Summit to Save Our Elections on Sept. 30, 2005 in Portland, Oregon



http://summit.oregonvrc.org/node/292

[Wilms]

14. GOP tries to disenfranchise WA voters with false challenges

GOP tries to disenfranchise WA voters with false challenges

by nwprogressive

Sun Nov 06, 2005 at 11:37:06 AM PDT

Introduction: This is a followup on an earlier diary by N in Seattle.

They never quit, do they?

King County is the latest setting for the newest series of Republican dirty tricks.

Using the 2004 gubernatorial election saga as an excuse, the Republicans have filed challenges to nearly 2,000 voter registrations within King County - Washington State's most populous county, and a Democratic stronghold.

Just days before this Tuesday's general election, thousands of voters have received letters in the mail informing them that their right to vote is being challenged by the Republican Party of King County. The story broke a few days ago and has been since covered extensively by the local media (more links below the jump).

It's an outrageous attempt to harass and intimidate King County voters from going to the polls or mailing in their absentee ballots. The Republicans are filing these challenges now in the hopes of influencing this year's race for King County Executive, which pits progressive Democrat Ron Sims (the incumbent) against Republican challenger David Irons.

snip/more/links

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/11/6/13376/7516

[Wilms]

15. OH and TN Election Result Links

http://www.electionsonthe.net

Thanks to skids

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x400447

[Wilms]

16. TX: Allegations of early voting fraud tear up Forney

Premature Election

Allegations of early voting fraud tear up Forney

By MATT PULLE

Published: Thursday, October 27, 2005

Last May, the city of Forney, a tiny but growing bedroom community 20 miles east of Dallas, played host to a election for mayor that featured switched ballots, confounding results and the undue influence of a crony of the incumbent. If not that, then challenger and self-made millionaire Rick Wilson has manipulated the testimony of nearly 200 voters and an election judge, masterfully concocting a scandal that's polarizing an otherwise friendly Texas town. This is a not a case where the truth is likely to lie somewhere in between.

On May 7, the day of the election for mayor and city council, Wilson, the owner of a thriving fabrication company in Forney, expected to eke out a close victory. Informal surveys pointed to a tight contest. The electorate seemed divided between Darrell Grooms, the folksy, pro-development incumbent, and the reluctant challenger who supporters enlisted to check what they saw as the unbridled growth of their city. But that night, voters handed Grooms an easy re-election, startling Wilson and his supporters.

On the evening of the election, Gene Albright, an election official who helped tabulate the early and general election votes, ran into the chastened challenger outside Forney's school administration building. He was rather cryptic, but he said there was some sort of problem with the returns, although he was not ready to discuss them yet. He wanted to head home and review the election data first.

Earlier that morning, Albright began his first day as an election judge after being prodded by an elderly, civic-minded woman named Betty Hatley. At 8 a.m., the city secretary and police chief delivered the box of early votes. Although he didn't think much of it at the time, Albright would later remember that there was no seal on the ballot box.

snip/more

http://www.dallasobserver.com/Issues/2005-10-27/news/news.html

Thanks to Tanyev
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5296936

[Algorem]

17. Ohio-Officials confident of new touch screen ('Noe' County)

Absentee problems believed fixed

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051108/NEWS09/511080421/-1/NEWS

...Kelly spent much of yesterday meeting with poll workers and rovers - who travel to different polling locations on Election Day - to discuss potential problems they could encounter with the new Diebold electronic voting machines.

Poll workers have been trained to make sure none of the machines have been tampered with before Election Day. The elections board has extra machines to take to polling locations should the need arise, she said...

Hundreds of voters still had not been sent the absentee ballots as of early last week...

In the region, Wood, Fulton, Henry, and Defiance counties are also using new electronic voting equipment for today's election. Erie, Ottawa, and Sandusky counties are using optical-scan machines. Seneca and Williams counties are using a punch-card system...


RECENT RELATED ARTICLES

• Voting machine maker drops Blackwell suit | 08/05/2005
• Elections chief punished for taking check | 07/19/2005
• Voters to get a chance to try touch-screen device | 07/06/2005
• Wood County votes for touch screens | 05/19/2005
• Ohio panel certifies 1st touch-screen voting machine | 05/11/2005

[Algorem]

18. Americans want voting practices to change-poll(weekend voting,snore)

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051108/NEWS09/511080370/-1/NEWS

By ANN McFEATTERS
BLADE WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

WASHINGTON - Results of a bipartisan poll released yesterday, the eve of Election Day, found that nearly two-thirds of those surveyed think the American way of voting needs to be changed, but no majority emerged in favor of weekend voting.

Polled from Sept. 27-29, 1,000 adults were asked by the Tarrance Group, run by Ed Goeas, a Republican, and Lake Snell Perry Mermin/Decision Research, led by Celinda Lake, a Democrat, for their opinions on various proposals for changing the way the nation votes.

Since the election of 2000, when the Supreme Court in effect decided George W. Bush had won, various commissions have made proposals for change, including requiring photo IDs, voting on weekends, and holding voting open for two days instead of one. In 2002, the major reason given for not voting was "too busy/schedule conflicts."

In all, 57 percent said they liked the idea of drop-by voting, with voters able to cast their ballots within a three-week window at designated polling stations. Also, 56 percent said voting by mail was a reasonable proposal. Forty-nine percent said they favored providing all workers with a half-day off or paid leave to vote. Only 31 percent favor online voting, and 46 percent said they would go along with establishing a national voting holiday...


RECENT RELATED ARTICLES

• Ballot issues just politics, not reforms | 11/03/2005
• Democrats ratchet up heat on election-related reforms | 11/03/2005
• Our chance to reform redistricting | 11/02/2005
• Blackwell urges poll workers not to enforce 5-minute rule | 11/02/2005
• Issues 1-5 mean higher taxes for Ohio | 11/01/2005
• Lt. governor, local leaders push Issue 1 | 11/01/2005
• No on State Issue 2 | 10/28/2005
• Funds flow to Ohio election issues | 10/28/2005
• Redistricting plan touted as mandate for competition | 10/25/2005
• Issue 4 gathers West Coast backing | 10/22/2005
• Lawmaker drops plan to authorize judicial recalls | 10/21/2005
• Ohio House endorses no-fault absentee voting | 10/20/2005
• Ohio Senate GOP approves own bill for absentee ballots | 10/19/2005
• Schwarzenegger backs Ohio's Issue 4 reform initiatives | 10/19/2005
• Foes of redistricting plan in Ohio warn of disaster | 09/30/2005
More related articles »

[Algorem]

19. Ohio-Long issues confuse some voters; some new machines started late

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-20/113145924336980.xml&storylist=cleveland

11/8/2005, 12:12 p.m. ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Voters complained Tuesday they had a hard time understanding five lengthy statewide ballot issues, and a some people left without voting at a small number of polling sites with problems getting new electronic voting machines running.

Election officials said the transition was mostly smooth in 44 counties that installed new voting machines for the election that had voters deciding on proposals to change the way Ohioans vote and a disputed jobs and road repair issue.

A few polling sites opened late because machines weren't working. Some people left when the touch screens weren't ready in about five Toledo precincts.

Elections Director Jill Kelly said the poll workers should have offered paper ballots until the machines were running...

[Wilms]

20. NY: Group rallies in support of paper ballot option

Tuesday, November 8, 2005
Group rallies in support of paper ballot option
Machine companies favor electronic models

By Jay Gallagher
Journal Albany bureau

ALBANY — The state could be on the verge of making an historic mistake by failing to give counties a chance to buy voting machines that count paper ballots and forcing them instead to buy electronic machines, a group of lawmakers, union members and activists said Monday.

"We want our vote to count as we cast it, That's a guarantee electronic machines simply can't provide," Bo Lipari, head of New Yorkers for Verified Voting, told a group of about 50 people outside the state Capitol.

"This should be a choice for the people of New York state," said Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, D-Ithaca. "I'm afraid counties won't have a choice."

At issue is the kind of machines the state should use to replace the lever devices set to be replaced next year. The lever machines are considered outmoded because they are hard for some handicapped people to use.

snip/more

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051108/NEWS01/511080314

[Wilms]

21. NY: Group dismayed at state's voting machine choice

Group dismayed at state's voting machine choice

Jay Gallagher
Albany bureau chief

(November 8, 2005) — ALBANY — The state could be on the verge of making a historic mistake by failing to give counties a chance to buy voting machines that count paper ballots and forcing them to buy electronic machines, a group of lawmakers, union members and activists said Monday.

"We want our vote to count as we cast it. That's a guarantee electronic machines simply can't provide," Bo Lipari, head of a group known as New Yorkers for Verified Voting, told a group of about 50 people outside the state Capitol.

"This should be a choice for the people of New York state," said Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, D-Ithaca. "I'm afraid counties won't have a choice."

At issue is the kind of machines the state should use instead of the lever devices, which are scheduled to be replaced next year.

snip/more

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051108/NEWS01/511080329/1002/NEWS

[Wilms]

22. Canada: Elections boss worried by polling problems

Elections boss worried by polling problems

Nov 8 2005 08:31 AM EST
CBC News

Quebec's chief electoral officer says electronic balloting may not be the best voting system for bigger cities.

Computer glitches and other problems delayed balloting and voting results for Sunday's municipal elections in Quebec City and Montreal.

The electronic voting systems were supposed to bring results minutes after polls closed. But results in parts of Montreal and Quebec City were delayed for up to 24 hours.

snip

Company officials blame delays on a few defective balloting machines and a crash of the computer networks used to transmit results.

snip/more

http://www.cbc.ca/montreal/story/dgeqpollingprobs-051108.html

[Wilms]

23. GA: Voting Problem Plagues Sandy Springs Polling Place

Voting Problem Plagues Sandy Springs Polling Place

Touch-screens Cause Problem In One Precinct

Voters at High Point Elementary in Sandy Springs got quite a surprise when they went to vote in the city's very first election. It seems three touch-screen voting machines were malfunctioning. Several voters say they selected one candidate, but their vote was cast for another candidate.

Fulton County election officials have shut off the three malfunctioning machines, and say they will not affect the outcome of any races.

One candidate tells Channel 2, the discrepancy may force a race into an unnecessary run-off.

snip/more

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/5278743/detail.html

[Wilms]

24. OH: Technical difficulties with voting machines

Technical difficulties with voting machines

By Gina | Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 12:08 PM

Election Day got off to a rough start Tuesday in some precincts in Montgomery County, where new touch-screen voting machines are being used for the first time.

The machines, which officials said are more accurate and are expected to speed up the vote-counting process, are being used in about half of Ohio’s 88 counties, including Greene and Miami.

Sporadic problems were reported throughout Montgomery County, including Miamisburg, Washington Twp. and Dayton. Mike Petkus, 47, of Dayton said that when he went to cast his ballot at Kiser Middle School in north Dayton, he had the Northridge school board candidates on his touch screen rather than the Dayton school board.

He thought, ‘I don’t have time to play games but this isn’t right,’ ” he said. As he was leaving the polling place to get to work, he said, “another guy was raising that same red flag.” “I think there was some very poor checking,” he said. Montgomery County Board of Elections Director Steve Harsman acknowledged there were some expected and unexpected problems, though he was pleased overall with the way things were running.

snip/more

http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/election/entries/2005/11/08/voting_machines.html

[Wilms]

25. OH: Problems setting up equipment delay polling sites

UPDATE: Problems setting up equipment delay polling sites

November 8, 2005

BY Edd Pritchard REPOSITORY STAFF WRITER

Some voters ran into problems when they arrived at the polls early today, as poll workers ran into delays setting up new electronic voting equipment.

Assorted precincts opened late for a variety of reasons, said Jeffrey Matthews, director of the Stark County Board of Elections. In past elections, one polling site might encounter a problem and open late, he said.

Matthews and his staff anticipated problems because of new equipment, but things were worse today than expected.

“It’s a people problem, not a machine problem.”

snip/more

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=251749&r=0&Category=11

[Wilms]

26. VA: VA: Internal Polls from Virginia

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

November 08, 2005

Internal Polls from Virginia

In Virginia, Hotline On Call reports that internal campaign polls for Jerry Kilgore (R) show the race at a dead heat while Tim Kaine's (D) internals have him up by four points.

The Virginia Pilot says "the possibility of a nail-biter was enough for Kaine to recruit help in preparing for a possible recount of election results."

To prepare for a recount, both campaigns will "post attorneys at the polls to watch for any irregularities." In addition, campaign leaders will "instruct field officers and poll workers to write down anything unusual -- such as a large number of absentee ballots or voters being turned away from the polls."

According to Virginia law, if the margin is less than one percent, a candidate can request a recount at his own expense. If the margin is less than a half percent, local elections officials assume the full cost.

The wildcard: Capital News Service says there is some "apprehension" by election workers that "touch-screen machines do not emit a receipt. Without such a paper trail, some critics say it would be impossible to recount votes."

snip/more

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2005/11/08/internal_polls_from_virginia.html

[Wilms]

27. OH: Akron woman accused of election fraud in 2004 campaign

Akron woman accused of election fraud in 2004 campaign

11/8/2005

The Associated Press

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A woman accused of filling out phony voter registration cards during last year's hotly contested presidential campaign has been charged with fraud.

Ohio was a major battleground state in the 2004 presidential race. Political parties, outside groups and others spent months trying to register voters here. Some paid people per voter card, and some election officials have said they believe contributed to widespread fraud.

The Summit County Board of Elections in Akron received more than 800 faulty registration cards — many with false addresses and fake names filled out in the same handwriting.

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Last week, a Summit County grand jury indicted Shannon Marie Davis, 27, of Akron, on charges of voter registration fraud, a felony. She was released on a $2,500 signature bond.

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http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-20/1131479347109880.xml&storylist=cleveland

Thanks to Algorem

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[Wilms]

28. .