Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday 01/15/06

[MelissaB]

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

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

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x409162

All previous daily threads are available here:

http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm

[MelissaB]

1. County sells off freedom

County sells off freedom

By: PAUL JACOBS - For the North County Times

Freedom is priceless, but democracy in Riverside County just sold for $12 million-$14 million.

At last Tuesday's meeting, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to purchase new election machines to bring the county up to 2002 technology requirements.

The decision was a foregone conclusion. Right before the item came up, Supervisor Bob Buster volunteered that he was approving the purchase. A public hearing is a mockery when decisions are made in advance, which is precisely why the Brown Act forbids prearranged decisions. Yet, public servants from the White House to the Board of Supervisors chambers know that rules, regulations and laws are things to be ignored and worked around.


From the day Riverside County purchased electronic voting machines, the registrar of voters has had to get a waiver to ignore the part of the state code that requires posting preliminary results at each precinct at the end of the election day.

This was the only way citizens could independently audit an election. Patriots have fought and died for this great democracy that we are stupidly allowing to be bamboozled away by putting our blind trust in three private corporations with secret voting software.



More: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/01/15/opinion/jacobs/19_45_481_14_06.txt

[MelissaB]

19. discussion

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x409284

[MelissaB]

2. THE PILOT LIGHT: Moore GOP Host 6th District Meet

THE PILOT LIGHT: Moore GOP Host 6th District Meet

Moore County Republicans showed off their voting machine progress and political prowess for the 6th District GOP Thursday night.

John Owen, chairman of the Moore County Republican Party, said it was the county’s turn to host the district, and about 40 people from the six counties in the district attended the meeting held at Board of Elections offices in Carthage.

A highlight of the meeting was a presentation by Elections Director Glenda Clendenin on the county’s handling of the voting machine dilemma that faces all 100 counties in the state. The Moore County Board of Elections has recommended purchase of new equipment that will fully comply with a new state law requiring a paper trail for all voting machines, effective with the 2006 elections.

...snip

VOTING MACHINES — The Moore County Board of Commissioners will be asked to award a contract for those new voting machines during the Tuesday, Jan. 17, meeting.

The board will convene at 6 p.m. in the historic courthouse in downtown Carthage. The board will be acting on a recommendation from the Board of Elections.


more: http://www.thepilot.com/news/011506PilotLight.html

[MelissaB]

3. Registrars want total vote-by-mail election

Registrars want total vote-by-mail election

By Kevin Yamamura -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, January 15, 2006
Story appeared on Page A1 of The Bee

Cutting-edge electronic voting was supposed to solve ballot-box flaws in the wake of the 2000 presidential election. But now some California registrars believe that good old-fashioned snail mail is the best way to go.

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors last week opted to pursue state legislation to conduct its entire June election by mail, setting off a fervor among registrars in other counties to pursue the same path.

The idea remains a long shot because it would require two-thirds support from a historically resistant Legislature.

But county registrars believe conducting the June primary election entirely by mail would best enable them to meet 2006 federal requirements for providing access to voters with disabilities. They also say vote-by-mail would boost turnout in a time-starved society while reducing the costs of running elections.


More: http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14077247p-14907772c.html

[Stevepol]

4. Trying to keep the voting process SAFE: fair elections

The campaign to restore democracy in America continues to grow! FROM: John Gideon VotersUnite

Publication:Venice Gondolier; Date:Jan 13, 2006; Section:Front; Page Number:11


Trying to keep the voting process ‘SAFE’


BY KINDRA MUNTZ GUEST COLUMNIST

This is to announce the formation of the Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections, a nonpartisan political committee whose purpose is to gather petitions and raise money to support verified voting for all voters in Sarasota County.

It is quite clear the American people are not getting the message through to our state and federal legislators and even the federal courts: We demand verified elections.

We don’t want unreliable direct record electronic voting machines. Printers on DREs would not solve the problem because, like the voting machines themselves, they are proprietary and not independent of the machines. They only provide lip service without providing verification.

We need optical scanners. They are 40 percent cheaper to use than touch-screen machines, have low error rates and, most important, provide the verified paper ballot we need to audit machine tallies at the precinct and at the central tabulators.


http://www.sunonline.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=U0NWLzIwMDYvMDEvMTMjQXIwMTEwMQ==&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom

[Stevepol]

8. Portsmouth, NH: Election Reform Debated

John Gideon: VotersUnite





Election reform debated

By Elizabeth Kenny
[e-mail]


PORTSMOUTH - In many ways, City Councilor John Hynes could be called the "poster boy" for the four recount bills that have surfaced in Concord.
The bills, co-sponsored by a few local lawmakers, would require paper ballots throughout the state and are meant to make candidates and voters feel comfortable calling for a visual recount during close elections.


Link:

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/01142006/news/82829.htm

[Stevepol]

5. Billings MT: Paper Ballots to Back Up Votes

People are starting to get the message around the country. FROM: John Gideon and VotersUnite



Paper ballots to back up votes
By JIM GRANSBERY
Of The Gazette Staff

The paper ballot is still in style.

It is seen as the necessary backstop for an election recount.

Although video voting machines are about to make an entrance, Montana voters will still place a paper ballot in the box.


That is the way the Montana Legislature wants it, Secretary of State Brad Johnson said.

The 2005 legislative session approved a bill requiring that votes “be tallied from a paper ballot,” Johnson said.

“I want a paper ballot record because there is too much potential for manipulation with a totally electronic voting machine,” he said.


Link:

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2006/01/13/build/local/36-ballots.inc

[MelissaB]

18. Thanks so much, Stevepol!

:hi:

[Stevepol]

20. And thanks to you even more MelissaB for your tireless work!

[MelissaB]

6. Paperless voting opens door for election stealingBY FRED GRIMMfgrimm@heral

Paperless voting opens door for election stealing

BY FRED [e-mail]

Ion Sancho worries about an inside job.

Sancho, Leon County's supervisor of elections, allowed a couple of computer scientists to try hacking into his voting system last year. With the same access as one of Sancho's election workers, the scientists were able to switch around votes willy-nilly.

''I'm positive that an eighth-grader could do this,'' computer science professor Herbert Thompson told The Miami Herald after he redirected 5,000 votes from one hypothetical candidate to another.
In another test last month, Sancho's employees staged a mock election. They voted 6-2 ''NO'' -- that Finnish computer expert Harri Hursti couldn't hack their system. The vote count registered 7-1 ``YES.''

`NO EVIDENCE'

''The most amazing thing,'' Sancho said, was that the scientists erased all signs that they had tampered with the computer code. ``There was no evidence that anything was wrong unless you counted the paper ballots.''

The key words here: paper ballots. Sancho had refused to join the rush to the paperless touch-screen systems that Florida's larger counties embraced after the 2000 hanging chad debacle. Leon County voters mark a paper ballot to be scanned and counted by computer.

Diebold, the manufacturer of Leon's optical scan system, roundly denounced Sancho, suggesting he had slipped the hackers the company's secret computer code. The scientists countered that they had plucked the code off the Internet.


More: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13622609.htm

[MelissaB]

7. Trademark political shenanigans

Trademark political shenanigans

Exclusive | A Web pioneer lays out the drawbacks of American-style copyright laws
Jan. 15, 2006. 01:00 AM
CORY DOCTOROW
SPECIAL TO THE STAR


Worrying about the Americanization of Canada is practically a national sport, and nowhere is it more prevalent than in politics. Recently, two-term Liberal MP Sam Bulte (Parkdale-High Park) has followed her American counterparts down the path of rewarding her entertainment-industry campaign backers by throwing her support behind U.S.-style copyright laws for Canada.

...snip

While it has caused a minor stir in Toronto, this kind of thing is par for the course if you're an American lawmaker. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, for example, earned the nickname "The Senator from Disney" in the 40-some years he represented South Carolina in the U.S. Senate. Hollings raised a fortune, in campaign after campaign, from corporations whose interests were thousands of kilometres from his constituency, and worked tirelessly to introduce one-sided laws — including a proposal to require all new entertainment technologies to be approved by Hollywood studios and recording companies — to the benefit of his financiers.

Until Jan. 1 of this year, I was in the employ of an American activist group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which works to uphold the public's side of the copyright bargain. I moved from Toronto to San Francisco in 1999 and witnessed first-hand the damage the corporate-driven American copyright system wrought on U.S. politics and on the American people. If there's one thing more poisonous than the undue influence of moneyed interests on the U.S. government, it's the laws that result from these cozy arrangements, and copyright is a shining example of that.

...snip

The DMCA, passed in Congress with no debate, represents a kind of farcical wish list for rights holders who don't want to have to reinvent their business to accommodate the digital age. It lets anyone who claims to be an infringed-upon copyright holder demand the censorship of Internet materials without showing any evidence that any infringement has taken place.

This has been a boon to bullies like the Church of Scientology and the beleaguered, fumbling voting-machine manufacturers Diebold.

Diebold was successfully sued by my former employer after sending out hundreds of DCMA "takedown" notices to people who reproduced an internal memo detailing the failings of the company's voting machines. The company didn't pursue the matter as a trade-secret case, which would have required producing evidence; instead, it argued that the memo was a copyrighted work. Trade-secret accusations require a judge and an injunction. Copyright accusations are self-enforcing.



More: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1137279034770&call_pageid=970599119419

[MelissaB]

9. Face it, the pols again proved they don't need you; they control the votin

Face it, the pols again proved they don't need you; they control the voting machines

By Bev Conover
Online Journal Editor & Publisher


Jan 15, 2006, 01:35

Email this article
Printer friendly page


To the Republicans' glee, following 18 hours of worthless show hearings, the Democrats say they can't stop Samuel Alito's confirmation for a seat on the US Supreme Court. Hogwash!

The truth is that they don't want to make the effort to block the slippery, ultra-rightist Alito, even if it costs the people -- "rabble" as John Adams called them -- what little is left of their freedoms. After all, George W. Bush said that "the constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper."

It's not that the Dems fear the reaction of the people if they attempt to filibuster Alito's confirmation or manage, with the help of any sane Republicans, to deny Alito a seat on the highest court. Why should they? After all, there is that elephant in the room that too many people refuse to acknowledge: computerized voting equipment -- touch screens, optically scanned ballots, even punched cards that are tabulated by easily rigged computers. The two things the Democrats fear is angering their fascist power brokers who pony up the campaign money that fattens the pockets of the corporate media and whatever dirt Bush has on them, thanks to the illegal snooping of the FBI, the CIA and the NSA.

The other wing of the party, the Republican, falsely claims the occupant of the White House, as long as he/she is a Republicrat -- whether installed there legitimately or illegitimately, as in the case of George W. Bush -- is entitled to his/her appointments. Where is that written in the Constitution of the United States?


More: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_421.shtml

[MelissaB]

10. Feds Threaten To Sue NYS For Non-Compliance With HAVA

Feds Threaten To Sue NYS For Non-Compliance With HAVA

ALBANY---Saying that New York State "is further behind" every other state in complying with requirements to modernize its voting system, the U.S. Department of Justice has threatened to sue the state.

The state has failed to comply with bringing new voting machines to the state and other requirements of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). So far, the state hasn't even decided what kind of voting machines will be certified and it is doubtful that decisions will be made in time to implement the new machines for the fall's primary elections.

There was a deadline of Jan. 1 for the state to create a statewide database of registered voters. The state missed it.

A letter to state officials by DOJ said that the federal agency had authorized a lawsuit against the state for failure to comply with the law. According to the letter, DOJ said it hoped to settle the matter by negotiating a court order with the state rather than go to court but that they were "prepared to file a complaint if the matter is not resolved expeditiously.

A sum of $2.3 billion in federal aid was awarded to the states and territories to modernize voting machines and update the elections process. The changes to improve the voting system was made following the 2000 presidential elections and recount which was necessitated.


More: http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/011406HAVANoncompliance.html

[MelissaB]

11. Victor Landa: Take voting rights for granted, and they'll start to disinte

Victor Landa: Take voting rights for granted, and they'll start to disintegrate

Web Posted: 01/15/2006 12:00 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News

The irony of all worthy causes is that their success can be measured to the degree that they're taken for granted.

Such is the fate of liberty or the right to vote. It can be said of practical things as well, such as running water, ice or the television remote control. We are placid users of the technology of convenience, until we can't find the clicker, not even between the sofa cushions. Then we become obsessive to the edge of all that is rational. We'll turn over furniture, accuse our loved ones and hold the dog under suspicion. Who took the remote?!

What if we misplaced our right to a just and speedy day in court? What if someone took our right to vote? Would we notice?

Every year around this time, we pause to honor the memory of one of our nation's greatest civil rights leaders. We march with arms locked, we sing, we listen to speeches and celebrate the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We honor his life and work, and we remember the struggle that took place just a stone's throw away in time.

...snip

There is hardly a perceptible voice of dissent against the reauthorization of the emergency provisions of the Voting Rights Act. The president and most members of the House and Senate are in favor of the extension. But complacency, again, could prove costly.


More: http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/columnists/vlanda/stories/MYSA011506.3H.landa.1b9d589b.html

[MelissaB]

12. Our options for voting machines are better than BOE says

Our options for voting machines are better than BOE says

By John Bonitz
Posted Saturday, January 14, 2006

Silk Hope, NC - A couple weeks ago I wrote a letter to the Chatham Chatlist entitled “Why Should I Care About Voting Machines?” A few days later nearly a hundred people showed up at a poorly advertised forum on voting machines. After watching the salesman demonstrate his machines, the forum was opened to questions & answers. The Board of Elections were unwilling to talk about the cost of these machines until after the Q&A period. Many in the audience felt they were being deceived and didn't hesitate to vocalize this feeling. (Quite a few of those upset citizens were aware of the many studies showing Optical Scanners and paper ballots are the least expensive option.)

Audrey Poe, chair of the BOE, eventually began revealing some of the costs to the clamoring audience. She acknowledged that the Board did not have all of the costs, did not have a budget prepared, and were unable to compare the costs of the different machines. One audience member was so incensed; Ms. Poe threatened to remove him from the meeting.

The forum included an opportunity to vote – on paper ballots – as to which system the attendees preferred and why. A later tally of these blue ballots showed that attendees rejected the computerized "touch-screen" machines 3 to 1.

Two days later, the Board of Elections met, reviewed a cost comparison prepared by staff, and decided to propose purchase of a system of computerized touch-screen machines. Shockingly, the basis for their decision was that a system of touch-screen machines would be less expensive. Copies of the BOE Cost Comparison were distributed to the citizens attending the meeting.


More: http://www.chathamjournal.com/weekly/opinion/myopinion/voting-machines-60114.shtml

[MelissaB]

13. Election officials vote for opti-scan machine

Election officials vote for opti-scan machine

- 1/14/06


Frank Galizia with Print Elect demonstrates a
touch-screen voting machine Thursday during a demonstration
of the types of machines available for purchase by the county.
At far left, is a ballot-machine for use by voters with
disabilities. In the middle is an optical scan machine,
similar to the style the county has been using, and the
Person County Board of Elections has recommended purchase
of that style.

Shortly after hosting a demonstration of state-approved voting machine options available for use in the 2006 elections, the Person County Board of Elections on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution favoring a machine-style most similar to the machines already familiar to Person County voters.

The elections board’s recommendation will be presented to the Person Board of County Commissioners during the latter’s regularly scheduled 9 a.m. meeting Tuesday.
The cost of replacing the county's current voting machines with the preferred new machines is estimated at $237,550, according to Elections Director Brenda Whitlow. A federal Help America Vote Act grant of $219,000 is available to cover the bulk of the expenditure, leaving the county to pick up a balance of just over $18,000.

Frank Galizia of Print Elect, which serves as a sales representative for Election Systems & Software (ESS) in the Carolinas and Virginia, was on hand Thursday afternoon in the Person County Office Building auditorium to demonstrate the voting machine options available to the county. ESS is the lone voting machine vendor currently approved for sales in the state.

More: http://www.roxboro-courier.com/newsnowstories/ts011406-1.htm


(Anybody know anything about Frank Galizia?)

[MelissaB]

14. Online voting system faulty

Online voting system faulty
Software loophole would pad ballots
By: Brian Hudson, University EditorIssue date: 1/13/06 Section: UniversityArticle Tools: Page 1 of 1

Days before campaigning begins for February's campuswide general election, a loophole in online voting procedure has come to light that would allow for fraudulent ballot stuffing.

Members of the UNC Board of Elections revealed earlier this week a glitch in software that would allow a student voting online to cast two votes for a candidate on the ballot.

Election officials discussed the potential for ballot stuffing Tuesday with members of Student Congress, many of whom will be running for office in the general election Feb. 14.

The glitch allows one vote to be cast for a candidate on the ballot, while another could be cast for the same candidate with a write-in vote, said Jim Brewer, vice chairman of the elections board.


More: http://www.dailytarheel.com/media/paper885/news/2006/01/13/University/Online.Voting.System.Faulty-1369616.shtml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.dailytarheel.com

[MelissaB]

15. Advocates urge adherence to North Carolina voting code review

Advocates urge adherence to North Carolina voting code review

Date 2006.01.15 7:00
Author Jay Lyman
Topic
http://trends.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/01/13/1759225
Advocates for transparency in electronic voting systems praise North Carolina's Public Confidence in Elections law that requires rigorous review of the code used in the state's certified elections software. They just wish North Carolina elections officials would adhere to the legislation.


The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has sued the state's Board of Elections and Office of IT Services on behalf of voting integrity advocate Joyce McCloy for certifying Diebold systems for use in the state without the legally required review.

While they concede the legislation is perhaps the most rigorous review of e-voting code required in the US -- it requires code review based on nine criteria, including code and application security -- transparency proponents fear that North Carolina lawmakers will fold under pressure from e-voting system vendors, including Diebold, and undo the requirements.

"The election code is very good on the transparency side," EFF staff attorney Matt Zimmerman told NewsForge. "It shouldn't be thrown out because a company can't comply, and I hope elections officials don't cringe. This is a very stringent election code -- the most stringent in the country. Part of the problem with new systems is that the law, in a lot of places, simply hasn't caught up to the technology."

Despite Diebold's arguments that the North Carolina law is overly broad, Diebold Director of Marketing Mark Radke told NewsForge the company has not fought a thorough review of its systems and code. "In fact, just the opposite is true," Radke wrote in an email. "Our systems have been reviewed more than any other electronic voting system in the marketplace, and are viewed as secure and reliable."


More: http://trends.newsforge.com/trends/06/01/13/1759225.shtml?tid=136&tid=147

[MelissaB]

16. FL: Voting-machine firm backs out

Voting-machine firm backs out

Suspicious, Sancho consults lawyers
By Bill Cotterell
DEMOCRAT POLITICAL EDITOR


A reluctant turndown, recorded on Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho's cell phone, and a holiday greeting from a corporate giant that he'd chosen to provide Leon County's voting machinery are the latest twists in Florida's long-running struggle with election reform.

Faced with a deadline this month to comply with handicapped-access provisions of federal law in time for the September primaries, Sancho got the County Commission to dump the old ballot scanners late last year and let him bring in a new company to include a laser-printing system. But the new company, Election Systems & Software, has backed out of the plan - leaving Sancho suspicious of its motives and consulting lawyers.

Sancho said ES&S has been seeking Leon County's business since 2004. He said Diebold Election Systems, which provided the current system, had violated its agreement with the county by refusing to upgrade software unless he signed a new contract and agreed never to link Diebold equipment to any other machinery.

Sancho wanted to couple his 160 Diebold scanners with the "Automark" system that is marketed by ES&S.

Sancho said Friday he will negotiate with Diebold and ES&S first, but has consulted attorneys about taking legal action to make them come to terms.


More: http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060114/NEWS01/601140324/1010

[MelissaB]

17. This is a few days old...

It's been a long trek since Nov. 2, 2004 -- now getting shorter

by Robert Lockwood Mills
January 11, 2006

Dear Friends: It took the downfall of a lobbyist who dresses like a Hasidic rabbi one day and a baseball coach the next to make it happen. But if looks as if our 14-month-long effort to expose the fraud in Ohio that gave the 2004 to Bush is bearing fruit at last.

Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) was one of the architects of HAVA (Help America Vote Act). In that role he worked with Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and others to reform certain election procedures that had arisen from the controversial 2000 election. But where electronic voting machines were concerned, the HAVA architects neglected accusations that they were "hackable" and focused instead on lesser issues, in particular making it easier for blind people to vote.

Diebold, Inc., from Ney's home state of Ohio, is the leading company in electronic voting machines. In response to public demand dating back to 2000 for verifiable paper trails to accompany its machines (similar to their ATM machines' transaction receipts), Diebold argued that it wasn't practical. Ney, using his Congressional clout, blocked every piece of legislation that would have mandated such paper trails, even after the 2004 election and reports from Ohio and elsewhere that hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of votes had been flipped from Kerry to Bush. As many of you know, I witnessed this very thing in Florida as a pollwatcher.

When Jack Abramoff began to spill his guts in connection with the charges against him as a crooked lobbyist, Ney's name surfaced immediately as one who received money and favors from him. One of Ney's more recent free trips abroad, financed by Abramoff, he struck it rich, winning $34,000 on a single $100 bet...quite convenient, because his credit card bills at that point had risen to over $30,000.

Well, it turns out that Ney's former chief of staff, one David DeStefano, became a Diebold lobbyist after leaving Ney's employ. He's a chatty sort, it seems. DeStefano bragged about access to "hard to reach public officials" (might he possibly have meant Ney?), after which Diebold paid at least $275,000 to Abramoff's former firm (they severed ties with him), Greenburg Traurig, for "lobbying services." Meanwhile, Ney was telling Abramoff's Indian tribe clients that he would insert "gambling language favorable to them" in HAVA.


More: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/20/2006/1702

[Wilms]

21. FL: Broward Election Reform Coalition Meet - Clint Curtis Keynote Speaker

“Achieving Election Reform in Broward County!”

January, 18, 2006
7-9:30 PM

Leonard Weisinger Community Center
6199 N.W. 10th St., Margate, FL 33063
Phone: [phone]

Whereas the Declaration of Independence refers to the Consent of the Governed as the self-evident truth from which Government derives "just Power";

When elections are conducted under conditions that prevent conclusive outcomes, the Consent of the Governed is not being sought. Absent this self-evident source of legitimacy, such Consent is not to be assumed or taken for granted.

We are excited to have as our first Keynote Speaker

Clint Curtis!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electionreform


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x409326

[Wilms]

22. Any recommendations on how to get recommendations?

[FogerRox]

23. asking for some late kicks & recommendations here