Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Thursday 11/24/05

[Wilms]

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 All previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:

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).

[Wilms]

1. California Schedules Conference on Voting Systems Testing

California Schedules Conference on Voting Systems Testing

Nov 23, 2005 By News Staff

The California Secretary of State's Office has scheduled an invitation-only conference on Nov. 28 and 29 in Sacramento. The agenda includes participation by officials from the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Association of State Election Directors, the state of California, the private sector, universities and non-profits. The conference will be hosted by Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, and moderated by Chairman of the Voting Modernization Board, John A. Pérez.

A vendor panel includes Alfie Charles of Sequoia Voting Systems; Ian Piper of Diebold, Ken Carbullido of ES&S; and Michelle Shafer of Hart Intercivic

snip/more

http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php/97374

Thanks to rumpel

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x402488#top

[Wilms]

2. Diebold in CA: Machinations Behind Closed Doors

Diebold in CA: Machinations Behind Closed Doors

November 21, 2005.

Sacramento. Today was an exhilarating day in Sacramento. Deja vu of the last Diebold hearing, this new attempt to certify Diebold wares once again raised the near-unanimous ire of concerned citizens. The passion and dedication of the people attending was palpable. To witness more than 125 citizens, journeying great distances--on short notice and on a short holiday week--who all came together to defend the integrity of our democratic processes, was to witness the real "Patriot Act."

Without the dedication and vigilance of these activists, other concerned citizens would never have known that behind closed doors, the machinery of the Secretary of State’s office was in high gear ready to certify Diebold.

snip/more

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x402426#top

See Einsteinia's post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x402426

[Wilms]

3. CA SoS Accepting Public Comment on the Diebold TSx

CA SoS Accepting Public Comment on the Diebold TSx

The California Secretary of State's office will accept public comment on the certification of the Diebold TSx touchscreen voting machine until next week.


To submit a comment,

Visit http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections_vs.htm

Call [phone] or

Email http://[e-mail]


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x402401


Source:

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051122/NEWS01/511220337/1001

[Wilms]

4. CA SoS Promises Public Notice

This mail list will distribute notices for future meetings and other events related to voting systems.

Sign up here to receive automatic email notification of future certification hearings

http://mailman.ss.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/votingsystems

[Wilms]

5. CA: E-voting group invited to hack machines

E-voting group invited to hack machines

BY Michael Hardy

Published on Nov. 23, 2005

Critics of Diebold’s electronic voting machines will get a chance next week to prove their contention that the systems could be vulnerable to attack. California's Secretary of State has challenged Black Box Voting to try to hack the TSx machines that Diebold is trying to get California to certify.

The testing is set for Nov. 30. Black Box is an advocacy group that bills itself as an e-voting watchdog.

California officials decertified the TSx machines in 2004. However, after Diebold made some improvements, state officials performed further testing and concluded earlier this month that the system meets California's current standards, according to a report provided by Black Box.

For the challenge to the organization, the Secretary of State's office and Diebold provided a specific testing protocol. Black Box is still negotiating the procedures to be used.

snip/more

http://www.fcw.com/article91533-11-23-05-Web

Thanks to papau

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x402354

[Wilms]

6. Democracy in America Has Officially Become a Privatized Circus

Democracy in America Has Officially Become a Privatized Circus

Pollster Mark Blumenthal Joins the Crowd of Folks Who Simply Don't Get It or Otherwise Just Don't Care

by Brad

11/23/2005

"Mystery Pollster" Mark Blumenthal follows up his recent post on the matter of the extraordinarily questionable results of Ohio's November 8th, '05 Elections. All four of the Election Reform initiatives...

"Mystery Pollster" Mark Blumenthal follows up his recent post on the matter of the extraordinarily questionable results of Ohio's November 8th, '05 Elections. All four of the Election Reform initiatives on the ballot that day mysteriously and spectacularly failed to win approval in stark opposition to the pre-election polling by the historically accurate Columbus Dispatch which had predicted most of them would win by large margins.

That they lost by large margins instead, has been the subject of some controversy. We've blogged about it (here and here) and responded (here) to Blumenthal's analysis of tweaks in the Dispatch polls methodology that he feels "might" have skewed their findings this time around. Despite the major changes in the "methodology" used to gather the actual Election Results in Ohio this year (44 of Ohio's 88 counties installed all-new Touch-Screen Electronic Voting Machines for the first time ever) Blumenthal's presumption is that it must have been the tweaks in the Dispatch poll's methodology rather than any problem with the Election Results as gathered by these all-new, untested, unaccountable, untransparent and demonstrably prone-to-failure Electronic Voting Systems.

In his latest article on the matter, he follows up by suggesting that citizens in Ohio take advantage of Public Records Laws in the state which -- according to Blumenthal's information gathered from the Ohio attorney general website -- allow for the examination of "paper ballots" 60 days after Election Results have already been certified by the state.

snip/more

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002063.htm

Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5441881

[Wilms]

7. Tribune Columnist Koehler Questions Ohio '05 Election Results

Tribune Columnist Koehler Questions Ohio '05 Election Results...

Columbus Dispatch Editor Likens Pre-Election Poll to Explosion of Space Shuttle...Without the Follow-Up Investigation...

by Brad

11/23/2005

Tribune Media Service columnist Robert Koehler weighs in tomorrow on the Ohio's impossible '05 Election Results.

The latest piece from the courageously curious columnist who has been one of very few in the Corporate Mainstream willing to question the dangers of our increasingly crumbling democracy, includes a puzzling acknowledgment by the Columbus Dispatch public editor on their poll which went inexplicably awry for the first time in its history. It will also mark the first time a Corporate Mainstreamer has even acknowledged the existence of the recent GAO report confirming the unbridled dangers of Electronic Voting Machines in America. The piece ends thusly:

snip/more

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002064.htm

[Wilms]

16. Robert C. Koehler: POLL SHOCK

11/24/05

POLL SHOCK

By Robert C. Koehler

Tribune Media Services

One of the most wildly inaccurate pre-election polls in memory, which was off by over 40 points on some predictions, may prove to be deadly accurate as an indicator of the problems we face as a nation with our voting process - and democracy itself.

But you won't learn this by reading the Columbus Dispatch, the newspaper that conducted the poll just prior to Ohio's Nov. 8 election. The paper's public affairs editor conceded to me that the poll results the Dispatch wrote about, wrongly indicating massive public support for several proposed constitutional amendments, were, in essence, the journalistic equivalent of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

"Much like the American space program, both our triumphs and our shortcomings are out there for all to see," Darrel Rowland said in an e-mail. Unlike NASA, however, which did manage to find that faulty O-ring, the newspaper's powers that be don't seem particularly interested in learning how their big public flop occurred. "We'll certainly double-check the poll mechanics," he said, "but see no reason to discontinue a methodology that's proven accurate for decades."

And Rowland's right, as far as I can tell: The Columbus Dispatch's survey of voters, conducted by mail, has historically been a reliable poll; it has been cited for its precision in the scholarly journal Public Opinion Quarterly and is considered far more accurate than telephone surveys. There is no faulty O-ring, in other words; the methodology doesn't need changing.

And that's why there's a story here that must not be allowed to vanish.

snip/more

http://www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?custid=67&catid=1824

Thanks to kster and RamboLiberal

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x402545

[Wilms]

8. VA: Panel defers decision on voting audit trails

Panel defers decision on voting audit trails

BY TYLER WHITLEY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Nov 23, 2005

A legislative subcommittee studying new voting equipment deferred a decision this week on whether to recommend paper audit trails on new voting equipment.

This came after Jean R. Jensen, the secretary of the State Board of Elections, cautioned members to wait before adopting new technology.

It also followed testimony that paper trails cause more problems than they solve.

There has been a nationwide push to refigure new voting machines so people can see how they voted and so election officials can have a paper trail to determine election-result accuracy. Twenty-five states have adopted a voter-verified paper trail, following California's lead.

snip/more

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128768316817&path=!news&s=1045855934842

[Wilms]

9. GA: "I'm Shocked, Shocked..." ((Voter ID)

Wednesday, November 23

"I'm Shocked, Shocked..."

by Dan Tokaji

Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution has this op-ed from Rep. Cecil Staton, one of the chief supporters' of Georgia's recently enacted -- and even more recently enjoined -- photo ID law, HB 24. Rep. Staton's op-ed attempts to justify the law on the ground that it was needed to prevent fraud. He claims to be "deeply offended" by the suggestion that he or any other members of Georgia's legislature were motivated by racism. Rep. Staton's remark has the ring of Captain Renault's famously disingenous profession of shock in Casablanca, upon "learning" that gambling was taking place at Rick's Cafe. (The next line from the movie, incidentally, is "Here are your winnings, sir.")

In an effort to help Rep. Staton understand why anyone would make such a claim, let's take a look at what happened in Georgia:

snip/more

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/blogs/tokaji/2005/11/im-shocked-shocked.html

[Wilms]

10. GA: Congressman seeks hearing on voter ID

Congressman seeks hearing on voter ID

By BOB KEMPER , SONJI JACOBS

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 11/23/05

Rep. David Scott of Atlanta, backed by Democrats on the House Government Oversight Committee, is calling for a congressional hearing into whether the U.S. Department of Justice improperly approved Georgia's voter ID law.

Scott, in a letter to committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.), cited a Justice Department memo recently made public in contending that political appointees in charge of the department approved the law in August even though staff attorneys had recommended against it because they concluded it would deter black people from voting. The Justice Department said the memo was only a draft and that a final staff report recommended the law be approved.

"The committee should determine the impact of political appointees on a policy decision as important as whether Georgia's voter-identification law discriminates against voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act," wrote Scott, whose district includes a large African-American population.

A committee spokesman said Davis has made no decision on holding such a hearing. Democrats last week acknowledged it was unlikely the Republican chairman of the committee would agree to investigate the Republican-run Justice Department.

snip/more

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/1105/23metvra.html

[Wilms]

11. GA: Black Lawmakers Defy Voter ID

Black Lawmakers Defy Voter ID

11/23/2005

By ERRIN HAINES
Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) -- Several of Georgia's black lawmakers on Wednesday called for the withdrawal of the state's controversial voter ID law and condemned remarks by the bill's sponsor that blacks in her district typically only vote if they're paid.

The remarks attributed to state Rep. Sue Burmeister, R-Augusta, were first revealed last week in a Justice Department memo obtained by The Washington Post that indicated a team of agency lawyers and analysts were initially opposed to approving the Georgia law.

"She is the Trent Lott of the Republican Party of Georgia," said State Rep. Douglas Dean, D-Atlanta, referring to the Mississippi senator's 2002 comments that seemed to praise the late Sen. Strom Thurmond's segregationist past.

Burmeister, who is white, later apologized for her comments, saying, "While I do believe that voter fraud is rampant in our state, I in no way believe that African-Americans in my district or around the state only vote when they are paid to do so."

snip/more

http://www.11alive.com/news/usnews_article.aspx?storyid=72371

[Wilms]

12. PA: Many want voting machines that leave trail of paper

Many want voting machines that leave trail of paper

By:Gina Zotti

11/22/2005

WEST GOSHEN -- County residents urged the Voting System Task Force to pick a voting machine that would produce a paper trail.

"Reject the purchase of electronic voting machines if there's not a voter verifiable paper receipt," said Elizabeth Thomas of East Bradford, at a public hearing on Friday night. "Let's not give our electorate another reason to stay home on Election Day."

Thomas was one of about 50 residents who attended the hearing set up for voters to voice their concerns or opinions about which new voting system the county should buy when it abandons its punch-card system due to new state and federal regulations.

Congress ordered national changes in voting standards after problems in the 2000 presidential election.

While a majority of the speakers emphasized the need for the paper trail, many expressed that they were not willing to move to a computer voting machine or leave the punch-card system.

"If you take the human touch away, you put your trust into a system that's hackable," said Rick Davis. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

snip/more

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15621322&BRD=1678&PAG=461&dept_id=39386&rfi=6

[Wilms]

13. CT: No-Confidence Vote

No-Confidence Vote

A Trinity prof and the secretary of the state square off over new voting machines

by Adam Bulger

November 24, 2005

A demonstration of voting machines last week at the Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven in Woodbridge was genuinely strange. Although the center is a massive space, the actual demonstration was held in a cramped alcove. The six machines on display -- two each from the three companies that had made the cut for consideration, Avante, Danaher and Diebold -- were swarmed with people. There were no lines, no clear sense of order.

The event was the third of five statewide demonstrations of the three voting machines that had made the state's final cut for selection. Avante's and Diebold machines were high-tech touch-screen voting machines with interfaces clearly influenced by Microsoft Windows. The Danaher machine looked like the clunky lever voting machines that the new machines were supposed to replace. Each machine produced a hand-countable paper receipt, in accordance with a state bill passed last February.

"We have had 500 or more people on average at every demo this week," said Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz. It was more than she expected. "I was lying awake on Sunday night thinking 'What if no one comes?' Then we got to Buckland Mall and there were 75 senior citizens lined up early to try to check it out."

Last week's demonstrations were the culmination of a long, much-delayed voting-reform process. In 2004, Bysiewicz's office issued a Request For Proposal, or RFP, to voting machine vendors in order to begin replacing Connecticut´s approximately 3000 voting machines, and to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 which established standards on voter procedures. The state hopes to have the process completed by Jan. 1, the deadline set by Congress for HAVA compliance.

snip/more

http://hartfordadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:134741

[GuvWurld]

18. For an actual "no confidence" vote that you can use in your town, see...

The Voter Confidence Resolution adopted by Arcata, CA on 7/20/05. Who is next?

[Wilms]

14. IL: Election commissioner under scrutiny

Election commissioner under scrutiny

State's Attorney: Peoria grand jury probing ties between Eugene Wittry, voting machine vendor

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

By MOLLY PARKER

Of the Journal Star
PEORIA - A Peoria County grand jury is investigating alleged impropriety between a member of the Peoria Election Commission and an election machines vendor poised to receive a nearly $1 million contract.

State's Attorney Kevin Lyons said Tuesday the grand jury will spend several weeks investigating Commissioner Eugene Wittry, whose relative runs Populex Corp. The commission had planned to buy new electronic voting machines from the start-up company to meet new federal requirements for disabled voters.

Wittry owns stock and serves on the advisory board of Populex, which started at the behest of the Peoria Election Commission shortly after the 2000 presidential election. Wittry encouraged his cousin's husband, Sanford Morganstein, an inventor with numerous patents, to design a machine tailored for Peoria. Three other companies submitted bids, but the commission endorsed Populex.

The investigation will center on whether Wittry broke any of the laws that govern bidding and contracting, as well as whether he was "profiteering in a private capacity while performing a public function or other official misconduct."

snip/more

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/112305/TRI_B874V38K.007.shtml

[Wilms]

15. MO: Justice Sues Mo. for Alleged Voting Errors

Justice Sues Mo. for Alleged Voting Errors

By DAVID A. LIEB

Associated Press Writer

November 22, 2005, 9:31 PM EST

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Justice Department on Tuesday sued Missouri for alleged voting law violations, claiming that people who have moved or died may still be eligible to vote due to inaccurate and inflated registration rolls.

The lawsuit contends the state is violating a federal law that requires it to make reasonable efforts to remove ineligible voters. The state has wrongly delegated that duty to 116 local election jurisdictions, which are putting forth a shoddy and inconsistent effort, the lawsuit claims.

Some have left the names of dead people on the voter rolls, the Justice Department said. Others have failed to do meaningful reviews of voters rolls for people who have moved. Still others have taken voters off the rolls prematurely, the lawsuit says.

The Associated Press reported in October 2004 that voter registration rolls in numerous Missouri counties exceeded the number of voting-age residents -- a fact cited in the Justice Department lawsuit.

snip/more

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-voting-violations,0,5906888.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines


Up2Late posted this discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x402540

[Wilms]

17. Fooled Again Presents Careful Overview and New Election Fraud Evidence

Fooled Again Presents Careful Overview and New Election Fraud Evidence

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

By Mark Crispin Miller

November 23, 2005

It should come as no surprise that I was not much pleased by Farhad Manjoo's attack on Fooled Again. Manjoo charges that my book presents "no proof" that Bush & Co. committed vast election fraud last year. In fact, the evidence in Fooled Again is both abundant and precise; whereas Manjoo's review itself presents no evidence to back its central accusation. "Miller's many suggestions of fraud dissolve under close scrutiny," writes Manjoo--who then comes up with just one trivial and dubious example: my passing reference to a certain fishy bloc of pro-Bush ballots cast (or not) in Ohio's Miami County on Election Day. Manjoo treats this mere aside as if it were the basis of my argument, devoting two whole paragraphs to a laborious rebuttal. Meanwhile, he cites none of the extensive evidence that Fooled Again includes.

Indeed, Manjoo himself admits the comprehensiveness of my research: "To make his case, Miller cites hundreds of news accounts, online reports and videos, and postings from sites like Democratic Underground." And yet your readers could not know that Fooled Again includes, along with such a careful overview, much new information on Bush/Cheney's global frauds, from the computerized purge of Democratic voters from the rolls in Summit and Stark Counties in Ohio, to the pre-election break-ins at Democratic offices in Akron and Toledo (the thieves stole only those computers that contained election data), to the myriad statewide drives to disenfranchise black, Hispanic and Native American voters, to the stealthy criminal shenanigans of Sproul and Associates, which deftly disenfranchised countless would-be Kerry voters in at least half a dozen states across the country (a ploy that cost the RNC over 8 million dollars), to Bush/Cheney's grand subversion of the huge vote cast, or intended, by Americans abroad (a stroke that likely disappeared at least two million Kerry votes). The evidence of all such perfidy, and plenty more, is solid, copious and easily available, despite Manjoo's bizarre insistence that there's nothing there. (Indeed, I found some of that evidence in his own pre-election writings, which is why I thank him warmly on p. 349 of Fooled Again.)

Manjoo tries to build his case by lauding Mark Hertsgaard's attempt, in the latest issue of Mother Jones, to cast doubt on the "theory" that Bush/Cheney stole the election in Ohio. (Manjoo repeats Hertsgaard's canard that Fooled Again deals mainly with the fraud committed in that state.) I take no pleasure in reporting it, as Hertsgaard is an old friend of mine, but that piece too is full of holes. Those points of his that Manjoo finds especially compelling are in fact untenable.

snip/more

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/11/con05446.html

[EFerrari]

19. (Thank you for doing this today, Wilms.) n/t