Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News 03/21/06 -- CA Stunner Law Suit

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BradBlog Today: ***VoterAction.Org**** STUNS Diebold

Hard Evidence, Tough Law Suit

http://voteraction.org/Logos/va_logo.gi

Voter Action is a not-for-profit organization that provides legal, research and organizing support to ensure election integrity in the United States.

Our current focus is to protect as many jurisdictions as possible from the acquisition and use of privatized, electronic voting systems which have been shown to have the most severe security risks and records of inaccuracy and unreliability.

Never forget the pursuit of Truth.
Only the deluded & complicit accept election results on blind faith.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News March 21, 2006

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

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.

Please

"Recommend"

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

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1. CA – BradBlog:VoterAction.Org STUNS Diebold—Hard Evidence, Tough Law Suit

I don’t know what to say other than thank you VoterAction.Org and great reporting Brad Friedman.

Brad Friedman Blows it Away!!! BradBlog Exposes the Fraud of Diebold Ballots

BREAKING: LEGAL ACTION TO BE FILED IN CALIFORNIA TO 'HALT USE OR PURCHASE OF DIEBOLD VOTING MACHINES' IN STATE!

Lawsuit to Name Sec. of State Bruce McPherson, Alleges 'Severe Security Risk', Noncompliance with HAVA's Disabled-Voting Provisions, and Violation of CA State Law!
http://www.bradblog.com/


We've hinted of late at upcoming legal actions, in several states, against the use of Diebold voting machines. The BRAD BLOG can now reveal that such a legal action will be filed tomorrow morning in San Francisco's Superior State Court in response to Secretary of State Bruce McPherson's recent re-certification of Diebold Electronic Voting Machines in the state.

VoterAction.org is announcing their intention to file suit, on behalf of several plaintiffs, "aimed at halting the use or purchase of Diebold electronic voting systems" in the state.

The same group recently carried out a similar action in the state of New Mexico, in regard to the use of Sequoia Touch-Screen voting machines there. That suit ultimately led to the ban of use of such machines, and a bill which was recently signed by Gov. Bill Richardson requiring a paper ballot with every vote cast in the state.

Diebold's optical-scan and touch-screen systems were revealed last December to contain "interpreted code" which is banned by Federal Voting System Standards. It was that "interpreted code" which was exploited in the recent hack of a test election in Leon County, FL where the results of the election were completely flipped without a trace being left behind.

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17. OR: Oregon may run afoul of voter law

Tuesday, March 21, 2006
By The Associated Press
PORTLAND — The nation's only 100 percent vote-by-mail state is in danger of violating federal law because it likely won't have voting machines designed for people with disabilities in place for the May primary.

Under the 2002 Help America Vote Act, states must have a machine in every polling place that allows disabled people to vote independently and privately. At least 21 other states also missed the Jan. 1 deadline to offer the machines, according to electionline.org, a nonpartisan election database.

Federal officials haven't said what action they will take against states that violate the law.

In Oregon's case, the missed deadline was caused by a contract dispute with a supplier.

Oregon had planned to buy at least two AutoMARK machines per county. Each machine has a touch screen and Braille key pad. Voters with disabilities would feed their paper ballots into the machine, and then vote with the help of attached headphones, large print, or, for those with limited use of their arms or hands, a "sip/puff" tube.

The state was ready to spend nearly $1 million on 100 terminals, but supplier Election Systems and Software of Omaha, Neb., made a late request to change provisions in its contract, said Anne Martens, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Bill Bradbury's office.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002878800_voting21m.html

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2. VoterAction.Org – Real Action in Election Fraud Prevention

http://voteraction.org/whyvoteraction.html

Why Voter Action?

The 2004 general election saw tremendous gains in “Get Out the Vote“ (GOTV) efforts, voter registration and turnout. Historically, however, insufficient attention has been given to what happens once those ballots are cast.

In New Mexico, for example, analysis of the official November 2004 results has revealed an unusually high rate of “undervotes” (ballots cast but no votes recorded) and vote recording and counting errors on specific electronic voting equipment in certain communities. Native Americans and Hispanics were most affected. When voters in predominately Native American and Hispanic precincts voted on paperless electronic voting machines on Election Day, their votes were less likely to be recorded and counted. Presidential undervote rates as high as 37% plagued Hispanic and Native American precincts. Yet when voters from those same precincts voted on paper ballots in early or absentee voting, the undervote rate fell to less than 1%.

High numbers of vote switching incidents (a vote switch occurs when a voter selects one candidate but another choice appears on the screen of an electronic voting machine) and massive vote loss were also linked to specific brands and models of voting machines, mirroring other widely reported incidents across the nation. In fact, most ballots cast across our country are recorded and tabulated using secret, proprietary software with no substantial or meaningful independent testing or review process.

Identifying the causes of such irregularities and providing strategic and legal support to ensure verifiable, accurate and transparent voting systems across the United States is the focus of our work.

Team Bios

Leadership

Lowell Finley, Esq.,Berkeley, California. Mr. Finley has practiced election law for over 20 years. He is one of the few attorneys in the nation with experience litigating electronic voting issues, having successfully sued Diebold Election Systems, Inc. in a California False Claims Act case that resulted in a $2.6 million settlement. Past cases include blocking newly-elected California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from soliciting or using special interest campaign contributions to repay an illegal $4 million personal loan; representation of the California Assembly in redistricting cases before the California and United States Supreme Courts; winning ballot access for Chinese-American candidates in San Francisco and successfully suing an Orange County, California candidate for hiring uniformed security guards to intimidate Hispanic voters at the polls. Mr. Finley is a founding member and past president (1992) of the California Political Attorneys Association.

Holly Jacobson, Seattle, Washington. Ms. Jacobson has a background in marketing communications and as a producer and project manager working with clients that include Microsoft, United Way and the City of Seattle. She has produced award winning projects for a variety of media including film, television, print, online and digital. Ms. Jacobson has led teams to develop proprietary online products and content for the financial and educational industries. The majority of her time now is spent on voting rights advocacy focusing on electronic voting issues and the privatization of elections.

Advisory

Dr. Alexander Keyssar is the Stirling Professor of History and Social Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization at Harvard and has also taught at Brandeis University, Duke University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His 1986 book, Out of Work: the First Century of Unemployment in Massachusetts, was awarded several scholarly prizes, including the Frederick Jackson Turner Award of the Organization of American Historians; it was also named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times. In 2000, he published The Right to Vote: the Contested History of Democracy in the United States, which received the Beveridge Prize from the American Historical Association and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the LA Times Book Award, and the Francis Parkman Prize. He is a co-author of Inventing America: A History of the United States and has written widely on public policy issues in the popular press.

Research

Professor David L. Dill, PhD., Stanford, California. Professor Dill is a Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. He has authored over 100 academic publications on formal verification of systems, and is listed as a highly cited author by ISI. He was made a Fellow of the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) for his contributions to verification of systems. Professor Dill has served on the California Secretary of State's Ad Hoc Committee on Touch Screen Voting, the DRE Citizen's Oversight Committee for Santa Clara County California, and the IEEE P1583 voting standards committee. He has testified before the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform, the U.S. Senate Rules and Administration Committee, and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

Statistical Analysis: John Skelly, Ph.D., Sausalito, California. Dr. Skelly’s work has included all aspects of quantitative research including study design, instrument development, data analysis, report writing, and presentation. Graduating with honors from California State University, Long Beach, with a B.A. in Research Psychology, he was awarded a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at The Ohio State University. He has provided testimony as an expert in the application of statistical analytic methods to election result data in an election contest case.

New Mexico Team

John Boyd, Esq., Freedman, Boyd, Daniels, Hollander, Goldberg & Cline, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mr. Boyd has been practicing civil rights litigation, first amendment litigation, constitutional law and election law in Albuquerque for over 25 years. Mr. Boyd represented the Democratic Party of New Mexico in the “voter i.d.” litigation that preceded the 2004 election and has participated on behalf of Democrats in redistricting litigation. He has handled a number of cases as a cooperating attorney with the ACLU. He and his partner, Nancy Hollander, are currently representing the Santa Fe-based Uniao Do Vegetal in its free exercise of religion law suit which is now pending before the United States Supreme Court.

David Garcia, Esq., Garcia & Vargas, LLC, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mr. Garcia has been practicing law in New Mexico for the last 24 years. He helped lead the Kerry-Edwards legal team in Santa Fe in the 2004 general election and was co-counsel in the 2002 Redistricting Trials in New Mexico. He has been a member of the New Mexico Supreme Court Uniform Jury Instruction Committee, 1987-1994; Western Trial Lawyers Association (Board Member, 1988-); New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association (Board Member, 1991-1994).

Jaime Chavez Mr. Chavez is a long term New Mexico Community Organizer. He has been involved in organizing efforts associated with Native Communities in New Mexico for 25 years. In 2004 he was the lead organizer for the Southwest Voters Registration Education Proposal and under this program was responsible for the registration of 18,000 new voters across the state.

Santiago Juarez Mr. Juárez has worked with communities in north-central New Mexico as an organizer and facilitator for Re-Visioning since 1995. He maintains a private law practice, and has extensive involvement over two decades with the Chicano movement and organizing. Mr. Juárez holds a B.S. from Eastern New Mexico University, and a J.D. from the University of Washington.

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3. State Law Suits by VoterAction.Org: CA, NM, NY, PA, NJ

:patriot:

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4. CA: Dissatisfaction with CA’s Conditional Diebold Certification

Update

Voter Action Expresses Dissatisfaction with California's Conditional Certification of Diebold Voting Systems
http://voteraction.org/States/California/CA.html

San Francisco, Feb 23 – Voter Action, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing financial, legal, research and logistical support for grassroots efforts with the goal of ensuring the integrity of elections in the United States has serious concerns regarding California Secretary of State McPherson’s “conditional certification” of Diebold voting machines.

The Secretary of State is shirking his responsibility. By sidestepping his duty to deny certification to voting systems that violate federal and state standards, McPherson's "conditional" certification violates California state law and puts County Clerks and Registrars of Voters at considerable legal risk. McPherson's own Voting Systems Technical Assessment Advisory Board (VSTAAB) found that critical Diebold software code had not been properly inspected by federal independent test authorities, that it contained banned 'interpreted code', and that it was vulnerable to multiple types of undetectable tampering.

In a letter to Diebold last week, Bruce McDannold, the Interim Director of the California Office of Voting Systems Technology Assessment, stated, "The voting systems submitted to our office for certification had been through the federal testing process and had received a qualifying NASED number. However, the AccuBasic source code on the memory card in both voting systems had not been reviewed by federal testers. We believe that the failure by the ITA to review the source code was an oversight that had to be corrected. Accordingly, we directed you to transmit the source code back to the ITA with direction from this office regarding how that federal review should be conducted." An ITA, an acronym for Independent Testing Authority, is a federal level private testing company paid by a voting machine manufacturer to inspect its voting systems. The Secretary of State gave Diebold the green light even though the results of the ITA testing he ordered have yet to be delivered.

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5. NM: House stays past midnight to pass paper ballot proposal

House stays past midnight to pass paper ballot proposal
http://voteraction.org/States/New%20Mexico/NM.html
15 February 2006
Associated Press

SANTA FE (AP) - The House has approved a Senate-passed bill to require all counties in New Mexico to switch to a paper ballot voting system.

With the Legislature set to adjourn on Thursday, lawmakers are trying to wrap up work on the paper ballot bill.

The House approved the bill on a 38-24 vote and the proposal returns to the Senate for possible final approval.

Governor Richardson advocates the move to paper ballots for all voting statewide to help rebuild public confidence in elections.

The bill does not set a firm deadline for counties to move to paper ballot voting systems. Instead, the switch will be required once there’s enough money to replace existing equipment, obtain needed software, buy paper ballots for all counties and

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6. NM: Here’s where Voter Action Started Just a Few Months Ago

This law suit was just beginning in earnest on November 3, 2006. Between that time and February 15, 2006, VoterAction.Orgs law suit had such an impacdt, the state went to paper!!!

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0511/S00067.htm

New Mexico Law Suit Delves Inside Voting Machines
Thursday, 3 November 2005, 12:30 pm

Election Errors Threaten Future Voting Rights in New Mexico
Major Law Suit Under Way to Open Up “Secret” Workings of Voting Machines
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0511/S00067.htm

Special Report for “Scoop” Independent Media
First in a Series
By Michael Collins

Patricia Rosas Lopategui et al… “wishes to have her vote properly counted and weighted in any forthcoming elections.”

New Mexico rarely generates much national news. When it does, as in the Wen Ho Lee nuclear espionage investigation, it can be explosive.

Now a little-known lawsuit before New Mexico District Court Judge Eugenio S. Mathis has the potential to alter the face of American elections.

Lopategui et al versus the State of New Mexico is proceeding at a surprising pace, with the litigants currently in the “discovery” phase of the trial, the point at which lawyers are allowed to question key witnesses and dig for facts and opinions with wide latitude. The targets of discovery right now include Sequoia Elections, two of the big three voting machine companies; Rebecca Vigil-Giron, New Mexico Secretary of State; state and local election officials; and officials of the state’s voting systems support vendor.

Highly disturbing facts and allegations have already emerged in this well-run but under publicized case. For example, in one majority Hispanic precinct, the voting machines produced exactly zero votes for John Kerry. More issues will arise as the Plaintiffs’ legal team digs deeper into the highly irregular events of Election Day 2004. Remarkably, these events occurred at a much higher rate in predominantly Hispanic and Native American precincts.

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7. NY: NYVV Update on the Department of Justice vs. New York State lawsuit

Update NYVV Update on the Department of Justice vs. New York State lawsuit
http://voteraction.org/States/NewYork/NY.html

On Tuesday, 3/14/06 the Department of Justice (DOJ), New York State, New Yorkers for Verified Voting (NYVV), the League of Women Voters of New York State and the individual citizens who are requesting Intervenor status will have a first opportunity to appear together in court. The hearing will take place on 3/14/06 at 11 AM in the US District Court, Northern District of New York, in Albany NY.

On March 7, the DOJ filed for a preliminary injunction, which if granted would call for New York to quickly comply with Sections 301 and 303(a) of HAVA, and ordering the state to promptly present a plan to the Court on how they will bring the State of New York into compliance with these Sections. A copy of the brief can be found at http://www.nyvv.org/dojmove.shtml.

The New York State Board of Elections appears to be considering the so-called “Plan B” option (http://www.nyvv.org/PlanB.shtml) as a solution that will be acceptable to the DOJ and the Court. Last week the staff of the State Board of Elections distributed a memo to county commissioners asking for their comments on the Plan B solution.

At this point it is unknown if the DOJ, or disability advocates, who are actively supporting the DOJ’s lawsuit against the New York, will approve of Plan B, or push for another solution. In its original brief the DOJ called for a full implementation of HAVA, presumably including replacement of all lever machines by September 2006.

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8. NJ & PA: Proceeding

Click on “red” topics in each state section.

NJ

PA

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9. Belarus: European Observers – It Stinks!

Talk about stealing an election. This Russian favorite got 80% plus of the vote. His opponent got 6% or some ridiculous number. No wonder the people are pissed off. This is old style Communist election tactics. Just like like crazy. Saps the will of the people. Not this time.



Belarus Leader's Victory Rejected By U.S. as OSCE Finds Fraud
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a7LhETvO9zPc&refer=us#

March 20 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. joined European observers in rejecting election results in Belarus that gave President Alexander Lukashenko a third term, after concluding that the declared win was engineered through fraud and intimidation.

``This campaign was conducted in a climate of fear that included arrests and beatings,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said today. ``We call for a new election.''

Lukashenko won 82.6 percent of the vote, trouncing his main rival, the opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich, who garnered 6 percent, according to the Belarus Central Electoral Commission. The Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said about 400 observers found ``substantial empirical evidence'' of fraud. The elections were not ``free and fair,'' the group said.

Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has been assailed by the European Union, U.S. and United Nations for jailing opposition politicians, clamping down on the media, and changing the constitution to scrap a two-term limit for the presidency.

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10. Canada: Conservative PM “converts” Liberal PM Right After Election-Cleare

…of frustrating the voters intent. The had just elected former MP David Emerson as a LIBERAL candidate, he switches parties, and voila, the election is nullified. Oh! Canada, how could you. We’re so disappointed;)



Emerson, Harper cleared by watchdog
http://www.cbc.ca/bc/story/bc_emerson20060320.html

Last updated Mar 20 2006 11:36 AM PST
CBC News

Neither Prime Minister Stephen Harper nor International Trade Minister David Emerson broke any rules when Harper convinced Emerson to join the Conservative cabinet after the recent federal election, the country's ethics commissioner said Monday.

As Bernard Shapiro released his report on the matter, however, he called on Parliament to have a debate on the practice of switching parties.

"I believe that the discontent expressed by Canadians on this matter cannot be attributed merely to the machinations of partisan politics," he wrote in the report. "Fairly or unfairly, this particular instance has given many citizens a sense that their vote – the cornerstone of our democratic system – was somehow devalued, if not betrayed."

Three opposition MPs had alleged that Harper broke the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons by offering "inducements" to Emerson in the form of a cabinet position.

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11. Tremendous Resource. EPIC: Statewide Centralized Voter Reg. Databases.

This is a follow up from yesterdays thread on the Indiana centralized database fiasco. Learn more on this subject, use this as a resource, call you party and get something going to inquire about how your system runs, who runs it, and what their connections are.

Electronic Privacy Information Center
Statewide Centralized Voter Registration Databases

http://www.epic.org/privacy/voting/register/


http://www.votingintegrity.org/


ACTION ALERT

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission has provided to states voluntary guidelines on the creations of statewide-centralized voter registration databases.

Top News

* EPIC Opposes Georgia Voting ID Requirement. In comments (pdf) to the Department of Justice, EPIC has opposed Georgia's proposal that would require government-issued photo ID to vote in a state or federal election. EPIC said that the Georgia voting photo identification law encroaches on privacy, would discourage voter turnout, and is inconsistent with the federal Help America Vote Act. Under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Georgia is required to receive Justice Department approval before making any changes to its voting laws. For more information, see EPIC's Voting and Privacy page and the National Committee for Voting Integrity Web site. (July 29, 2005)

* The EAC's a Report on Voter Registration in 2004: The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) released a report on the impact of the Voter Registration Act of 1993 on voter registration in 2003-2004. This law is also known as the "Motor Voter Law" requires states to make voter registration available at state agencies such as their Departments of Motor Vehicle.(June 30, 2005)

* EPIC Voting Project Urges Privacy Safeguards for Voter Registration Databases. The National Committee for Voting Integrity has submitted comments to the Election Assistance Commission on the proposed creation of centralized statewide voter registration databases. NCVI said that the registration systems must assure voter privacy by adhering to fair information practices, and allow voters to verify information, correct inaccurate information, and be assured that the information provided will not be used for non-voting related purposes. For more information, see EPIC's pages on Voting and Voter Registration Databases. (May 25, 2005)

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12. Stop Election Fraud: How about a Pro Demmocracy Secretary of State.

Stop Election Fraud: How about a Pro Demmocracy Secretary of State
What if you could have a Secretary of State who was fully on board
to stop election fraud and to ensure the election integrity of EVERY
election. We have a chance in Massachusetts this year. There is not
one thing out of order about John’s campaign. It’s is entirely consistent
with real democracy.

And, btw, when he’s not fighting in Ohio, DC, MA, and elsewhere for our
right to vote, he’s doing things like starting AfterDowningStreed.Org.

LETS SUPPORT JOHN.

And copy and distribute the Voters Bill of Rights. Great Stuff

BONIFAZ, SECRETARY OF STATE, MASSACHUSETTS.

Please Contribute

Welcome to John Bonifaz

Voters' Bill of Rights

1. Count every vote

The right to vote includes the right to have our votes properly counted.

We must ensure that every citizen's vote will be counted. This includes a guarantee of open and transparent elections with verified voting, paper trails, and access to the source codes for, and random audits of, electronic voting machines. It also includes a guarantee that we the people, through our government, will control our voting machines — not private companies.

2. Make voting easier

We should enact election day registration here in Massachusetts, removing the barrier of registration prior to Election Day. Six states have election day registration. They have a higher voter turnout in their elections and have no evidence of voter fraud. We should be encouraging greater participation in the political process, starting with election day registration.

We should also ensure absentee voting for all, allow for early voting, and remove other barriers that make it difficult for people to vote.

3. End the big money dominance of our electoral process

In a democracy, public elections should be publicly financed. In Maine and Arizona, publicly financed elections has enabled people to run for office who would never have dreamed of running under a system dominated by big money interests. We, as voters, need to own our elections, rather than allow the process to be controlled by the wealthy few.

We also need to enact mandatory limits on campaign spending. In 1976, the Supreme Court wrongly struck down mandatory campaign spending limits for congressional elections. A federal appeals court in New York has recently revisited that decision and ruled that campaign spending limits in Vermont can be constitutional. That case is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Massachusetts should help lead the way with campaign spending limits for our elections.

4. Expand voter choice

Instant run-off voting: Voters should be able to rank their choices of candidates, ensuring majority support for those elected and allowing greater voter choice and wider voter participation.

Cross Endorsement Voting (Fusion voting): Voters should be able to cast their ballots for major party candidates on a minor party's ballot line, placing power in the hands of the people and broadening public debate on the issues of the day.

Proportional Representation: Voters should be allowed their fair share of representation, ensuring that majority rule does not prevent minority voices from being heard.

5. Ensure access for new citizens and language minorities

The right to vote does not speak one specific language. It is universal. No one should be denied the right to vote because of a language barrier.

6. Level the playing field for challengers

Redistricting reform — Incumbent legislators should not have the power to draw their own district lines. We must transfer this power to independent non-partisan commissions and create fair standards for redistricting, thereby promoting competition in our electoral process and improving representation for the people.

7. Ensure non-partisan election administration

The Secretary of the Commonwealth must be a Secretary for all of us, regardless of party affiliation. The Secretary should not be allowed to serve as a co-chair of campaigns of candidates. To ensuring the people's trust in the integrity of our elections, the Secretary must conduct the administration of elections in a non-partisan manner.

8. Make government more accessible to all of us

Democracy is not just about our participation on Election Day. We need to participate every day and our government needs to be accessible to us every day. This means a government that is open and transparent, that encourages people to make their voices heard, and that enlists citizen participation in addressing the major issues of our time.

9. Re-authorize the Voting Rights Act of 1965

We must continue the fight to protect the right to vote and to end voting disenfranchisement schemes. The Secretary of the Commonwealth must fight for congressional re-authorization of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

10. Amend the US Constitution to ensure an affirmative right to vote

One hundred and eight democratic nations in the world have explicit language guaranteeing the right to vote in their constitutions, and the United States — along with only ten other such nations — does not. As a result, the way we administer elections in this country changes from state to state, from county to county, from locality to locality.

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13. DUer, Snoopdog takes it to CA SOS McPherson

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417855

[kster]

14. DUer, Guvworld hits the airwaves again

Streaming online

I'll be talking with Mike Dronkers about Humboldt election conditions, our Board of Supervisors meeting tomorrow, the elections department recommendation to satisfy HAVA requirements using Vote-PAD instead of Diebold touch screens, and why this partial victory is really a false alternative if the votes are "counted" using illegal optical scanners and GEMS.



MP3
http://tinyurl.com/masfd

Discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417830

[FogerRox]

15. LETS VOTE THIS THREAD UP--

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16. IL: Low Turnout, Voting Machine Problems Reported

CBS2 Chicago

Rafael Romo
Reporting

(CBS) CHICAGO As voting in today’s primary election nears an end, some of the new, multi-million dollar voting machines were a hi-tech headache for voters.

CBS 2's Rafael Romo reports this was the big test for the machines that were meant to make the process easier. Now it’s back to the drawing board.

When election judge Hannah Dekker was called to a polling place in the 39th ward, the situation was turning into chaos.

“Nothing was really set up. Some of the judges were missing, so I basically had to go through everything and make sure they were all set up,” Dekker said.

It took four hours before the problem was fixed and voters could finally cast their votes.

“I would've thought that they would've been more prepared, you know, maybe an extra day of training, so that everybody is on the same page, so that there would be no problems,” said voter Paula Getman.

But this was not the only place that had problems.

“At the other location, the printer on the touch screen wasn't working, it was jammed, and we had to get someone to come in,” Dekker said.

http://cbs2chicago.com/seenon/local_story_080134211.html

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22. IL: High-tech voting hits snags

Chicago Tribune

By John McCormick and James Janega

Tribune staff reporters
Published March 21, 2006, 7:39 PM CST

As election officials closed the polls Tuesday evening, reports of glitches from throughout the day continued as both voters and election officials learned how to deal with a new, high-tech voting system in Chicago and suburban Cook County.

The learning curve for the new system, which combines optical-scan paper ballots and electronic touch-screen machines, left some missing the old days -- even if they included the notorious punch-card ballot and its hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads.

"It was easier to worry about hanging chads," said Daniel Fore, an election judge in Oak Park's Barrie Center polling place.

Even as election officials continued to deal with missing ballots, power cords and ballots, they were bracing for the next test of the more than $50 million system: Counting and reporting results to eagerly awaiting politicians, voters and reporters.

In the past few elections, officials said, they have typically been able to report results from more than 90 percent of precincts within an hour of the polls closing. They refused to predict how long the count would take this year, though they stressed it may take several hours more.

At Lowell Elementary School on the city's Northwest Side, the only touch-screen voting machine was locked up around 6 p.m. It had been that way since about 4:30 p.m. after a voter tried to use it and the message: "Election verify. Please wait" appeared on the screen.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-060321voterproblems,1,1831943.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

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29. IL: It's showtime for voting system

County clerk makes last-minute preparations for new technology

By Journal-Standard Staff

FREEPORT - On the day before election day, Stephenson County Clerk Vici Otte had plenty on her mind, not the least of which is the county's new electronic voting machines.

In a back room inside the crowded clerk's office, she gave election judge Sailor Wright, who will be manning the polls in German Valley Precinct 2, a crash course in the county's newest ESS machines.

It seemed simple enough, but Otte isn't taking any chances, checking and rechecking in hopes of ensuring that the county's first election without a paper ballot runs smoothly.

“I'll feel a lot better about it late tomorrow night,” said Otte, looking up from her row of new voting machines for a moment to address a reporter.

snip

Not only does Otte have the stress of rolling out a new voting system today, she too is seeking re-election. And while she is the clear favorite, her competition - in this election, Marianne Garvens - was seen doing some last-minute campaigning downtown Monday afternoon.

http://www.journalstandard.com/articles/2006/03/21/local_news/news02.txt

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31. IL: Coles County Election Problems

http://www.weiu.net/index.html
WEIU-TV 51

Posted: March 21, 2006
The spring season has brought inches of snow to East Central Illinois just in time for the General Primary Election.

While the thick layer of snow had some polling lines thinned out other polling locations in Coles County were faced with different problem.

Candidates in this year's primary election had a little extra competition at the polls Tuesday.

Polls for precincts two and four at St. Charles Catholic Church in Charleston saw thinner lines during Tuesday's elections and Election Judge Donna Mooday says it may be weather related.

But Precinct one in Ashmore says the mounds of snow have not effected their voter turnout.

A problem they have faced is with the new optical scan voting equipment.

Earlier this year the State of Illinois passed a law requiring every polling location to offer the use of an Optical Scan voting machine primarily to aid the visually impaired in the ballot process.

One election judge says the machines did not operate properly anywhere in Coles County.

Both Ashmore and St. Charles Catholic Church problems came with loading the paper into the printer of the machines.

http://www.weiu.net/news/archive/newsbuilder/2006/march/0321/coleselection.htm

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18. OH: Election board takes new voting machine to street

ChillicoThe Gazette

By JANELLE RUCKER
Gazette Staff Writer

The May 2 primaries are right around the corner and the Ross County Board of Elections is trying to get the word out about changes the voter will see when they go to cast their ballot.

To prepare voters for the biggest change - the new voting machines - the board is making the machine available for voters to practice on before the big day.
All day Monday, Mike Hackett, an independent contractor for Electronic Systems & Software provided demonstrations of the company's new iVotronic voting machine with the voter verified paper audit trail at Kroger on North Bridge Street.

Hackett performed about 50 demonstrations throughout the day, he said, averaging about two people per demonstration.
Board Director Nancy Bell was happy that so many people stopped by to view the machines.

The board hopes residents take advantage of the voter outreach.

"(We hope to accomplish) voter education," Bell said. "Which is the most important."

Bell remembers when the county first got its direct recording electronic machines about 10 years ago.

Voters had the same fears, she said, but they got over them.
http://www.chillicothegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060321/NEWS01/603210303/1002

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19. NY: Voting machine storage on hold

Finger Lakes Times


Tuesday, March 21, 2006
By CRAIG FOX
Finger Lakes Times


CANANDAIGUA — Ontario County officials said Monday they cannot make a decision on where new voting machines should be stored until the state comes up with a plan to replace the old ones.

The county had been considering renovating the old county jail at 74 Ontario St. to store the new electronic machines, but it was determined renovating that space would be too expensive, said Geneva City Supervisor Charles Evangelista, chairman of the Board of Supervisors’ Public Works Committee.

New York is the only state that hasn’t selected new voting machines as required by the federal Help America Vote Act, which was passed after the discrepancies of the 2000 presidential election. New machines were supposed to be in place for next November’s election, but it is too late for that to happen.

Now, county officials are studying whether to construct a warehouse-type building to store the 152 to 164 new machines it needs to buy, said Associate Planner Tom Harvey. The county could either construct the building at the county complex in Hopewell or purchase some property and build at that site, he said.

It’s a logistics problem for the machines to be stored at the old jail, Harvey said, adding that they would be used three times for elections each year and for practice elections another four times.

Getting the machines out from storage on the old jail’s second and third floors, down elevators and out to transport them would be a nightmare, Evangelista said.

“The state hasn’t finalized the rules . We don’t know what they’re going to do,” Harvey said.

http://www.fltimes.com/Main.asp?SectionID=38&SubSectionID=121&ArticleID=11341

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20. Secretaries of State Urge Their Own to Be Apolitical

CQ Politics.com

By Jesse Stanchak | 6:05 PM; Mar. 21, 2006
Secretaries of state, who in 39 states are the top supervisors of elections, tend to have a rather low profile — unless there is a major controversy over how an election was conducted. And those controversies tend to be magnified by the fact that, in all but five states, secretary of state is a partisan office held by an active member of the Republican or Democratic party.

The best-known such incident occurred in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. The controversial outcome in favor of George W. Bush was certified by Secretary of State Katherine Harris — then an open supporter of Bush’s White House bid and now a two-term House member who is running for this year’s Republican Senate nomination.

The fact that Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell oversaw the close 2004 presidential contest in the battleground state of Ohio raised some eyebrows. Blackwell, another strong Bush backer, had already stated his intention to run for governor in 2006.

And the same year, in Oregon, Democratic Secretary of State Bill Bradbury co-chaired the state presidential campaign of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who now chairs the Democratic National Committee.

But Bradbury now thinks that such overt partisanship on the part of a leading elections official was a mistake — so much so that he has joined with Bruce McPherson, his Republican counterpart in the neighboring state of California, on a proposal to depoliticize the position of secretary of state on a nationwide basis.

Bradbury and McPherson on Feb. 6 jointly pledged to carry out their duties in an “independent and non-partisan manner that is beyond question.”

Though the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) had made a similar fairness promise exactly a year to the day earlier, what made the Oregon/California pledge different was its degree of specificity. The secretaries promised, among other things, not to “serve in any ongoing official capacity on a campaign supporting any candidates.”

http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/03/secretaries_of_state_urge_thei.html

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21. MA: Lowell voting problems probed

Blue Mass Group

A Pattern of Voting Rights Violations in MA
by: Cos
March 21, 2006 at 16:48:50 EST
( - promoted by David)

(Disclosure: I am a volunteer on John Bonifaz's campaign)
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has a What's New page. If you go there now, you'll see five recent enforcement actions listed; one of those five is the consent decree signed with the City of Boston last year. The Civil Rights Division went to court only three times in 2005 for violations of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and brought only five cases under the minority language provision. Of a total of seven cases under the Voting Rights Act in 2005, Boston's was the only one that fell in both categories. Boston joined a handful of jurisdictions in the country where the conduct of elections is monitored by Federal observers.

Regular readers of Blue Mass Group are probably aware of a myriad of voting rights problems in the City of Boston. For example:

Cos :: A Pattern of Voting Rights Violations in MA
On the elections division web site, you can download "the state representative districts set forth in the remedial plan approved on April 16, 2004, by the United States District Court in the case of Black Political Task Force, et al v. William Francis Galvin, C.A. #02-11190-DPW, as being in compliance with the Voting Rights Act and the United States Constitution."
Almost exactly a year ago, Blue Mass Group covered voter challenges in Allston in the 18th Suffolk Special election - something the state's elections division never stepped in to address, as far as I am aware.
I have my own story of poor election practices by Boston, which changed the result of a Democratic State Committee election in 2004 by not counting write-in votes at all.
But in case you think this is limited to just one city, the DoJ case points to problems throughout our state. This Sunday, the Boston Globe published a story about a Justice Department voting rights investigation in Lowell, concerning poor accomodation of linguistic minorities. This is the same issue the DoJ sued Boston for, and it's also what they're already investigating in Springfield - where, according to a nonpartisan survey, "nearly one in 10 eligible voters could not vote on his or her first attempt" in 2004. And then there's that mess in Lawrence, which is reportedly also getting Federal attention. As the Globe reported,

http://www.bluemassgroup.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1756

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23. MO:Carnahan Warns of Fraudulent Voter Registration Calls

dbdigitalburg.com

Mar 21, 2006, 11:06
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Secretary of State Robin Carnahan today warned Missouri residents to beware of suspicious sounding phone calls regarding their voter registration status.

Reports to Carnahan's office indicate that some Missouri residents are receiving calls with a recorded message or live person asserting that there is a problem with their voter registration records. In some cases, residents are then asked to provide their Social Security numbers and other personal information.

So far, Carnahan's office has heard reports of such suspicious calls in Audrain, Carroll, Clinton, Maries, Perry, and Greene County.

"Missourians should be wary of anyone calling regarding their voter registration status," said Carnahan. "And, it's especially important that citizens never give their Social Security number or other personal information to a stranger over the telephone."

The Secretary of State's office encourages anyone receiving such calls to notify their county clerk, local election board, or the Secretary of State's office at 1-800-NOW-VOTE (1-800-669-8683).

http://www.digitalburg.com/artman/publish/article_1286.shtml

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24. NH: State Tests New Accessible Voting Machines

http://www.nhpr.org/banner/49

Reported by Dan Gorenstein on Tuesday, March 21, 2006.
listen:
The New Hampshire Secretary of State's Office has unveiled its new voting machine.

The federal Help America Vote Act requires all states to provide polling places with a voting system that is accessible to those with disabilities.

New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein reports that the dry-run during Bedford's town meeting revealed the state still has to work out a few kinks.

A rough transcript follows:

A committee of local and state election officials and people with disabilities has reviewed a variety of voting machines.

The purpose was to purchase a system that was accessible to as many people as possible.

Unable to find the 'perfect' machine- they settled on the Inspire system made by the Louisville, Kentucky firm IVS.

Sfx: Bedford gymnasium

The Secretary of State's Office decided to put Inspire to the test during Bedford's town meeting here at the McKelvie School.

A delegation of New York and Oregon officials had come specifically to see the new technology in action.

But Assistant Secretary of State Tom Manning had some bad news.

http://www.nhpr.org/node/10439

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25. MA: DOJ Confirms Voting Rights Violations in Massachusetts

OpEd News

March 21, 2006

by David Swanson

http://www.opednews.com


The race for Massachusetts Secretary of State has reached a new level of urgency. On March 10, the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) confirmed it is investigating Voting Rights violations in Springfield. Today, the DOJ confirmed that they are actively investigating Voting Rights violations in Lowell as well. In each city, the lack of voting assistance to Latino and Cambodian Americans, respectively, is at the center of the probes. But it doesn’t end there.


In 2005, the City of Lawrence sent letters to 15,000 mostly Latino voters declaring that they were on the inactive list just days before Election Day. Despite a federal judge demanding that the city reach out to these voters and inform them that they could still vote, Lawrence had its lowest turnout for a mayoral election in Lawrence in 30 years -- and this in a contested race with a Latino challenger.


Earlier the same year, the DOJ sued the City of Boston for Voting Rights violations against Chinese, Latino and Vietnamese voters. Boston entered into a consent decree with the DOJ as a result and has agreed to provide ballots and other voter information in multiple languages, including Chinese and Vietnamese. The DOJ will also continue to monitor elections in the state’s capital for the next few years.


These problems, as well as the lack of any true electoral reforms in the Commonwealth that promote our democracy, are just some of the reasons that John Bonifaz was the first person to step forward last year and officially declare his candidacy for Secretary of State. Massachusetts needs a Secretary who will work with cities and towns to ensure the voting rights of all voters before anything ever gets to the point where Federal intervention would be required.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_david_sw_060321_doj_confirms_voting_.htm

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26. NV: Heller Says Statewide Voter Registration System Will Be Ready for 2006

Asian Journal -Journal of The Filipino In America

March 21st, 2006

CARSON CITY —Secretary of State Dean Heller said today that despite some erroneous reports to the contrary, Nevada will have a federally compliant statewide voter registration system in place for the 2006 election.Heller said although they had incurred some problems with the original plan for implementing the system, the State has been working diligently for several months with Registrars of Voters and County Clerks on an alternate plan that will soon be operational.
Under provisions of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, each state was required to have a statewide voter registration list in place for use in the 2006 election.The system will help election officials eliminate potential voter fraud by gathering individual county voter registration information into one centralized data base, thus allowing registrars/clerks to determine if a person may already be registered in another county.

Heller said although some election officials have said his office chose the wrong vendor, there were many people and agencies involved in the process, including the registrars and clerks. "The Covansys contract to build the system was awarded through a collaborative effort of the county clerks and registrars that was administered by the Office of the Secretary of State, Attorney General and the State Department of Information Technology.At the time the decision to award the contract to Covansys was made, the company won a competitive bid with unanimous agreement among all participants in the process, except one clerk who preferred his own vendor.”

He added that his staff has worked closely with the clerks and registrars since concerns with the chosen vendor were first discovered.Further, Heller said that due to contractual obligations, he had to ensure that the problems were addressed in a manner that did not put the State in a precarious legal position."We had to be careful that the State was not put in financial jeopardy while at the same time preparing an alternate plan to ensure the State had a compliant system by the 2006 election."

Washoe County Registrar of Voters Dan Burk said that Secretary Heller and his staff have consistently included county election officials in the process along the way. “We all recognize that over the last 15 months a monumental effort has been put forward by the Secretary of State's office and the local elections officials. Although we may not always be in agreement, I strongly believe those of us responsible for running elections in our individual counties appreciate the efforts of the Secretary of State's office, and understand that we all share a commitment to developing the best system possible for the voters of Nevada. No one deserves to be criticized for the effort that has been put forward to date.”

http://www.asianjournal.com/?c=45&a=11471&sid=7a97112e551dd5c75315c7f34235be2e

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27. AZ: Voting machines for disabled assailed

Touch-screens lead to fraud, error, critics say
Pat Flannery
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 21, 2006 12:00 AM
Bob Kresmer never casts a secret ballot.

Every time the Tucson man walks into a voting booth, someone is with him. It used to be a poll worker. Now it's usually his wife, though he once took his young daughter.

Kresmer, who is blind, needs someone to read and mark his ballot for him. So, it is with great anticipation that he and many others have been looking toward the Sept. 12 primary. That's the deadline by which federal law requires every precinct in the nation to have at least one machine allowing citizens with disabilities, including the blind, to vote without assistance.

But meeting that requirement could become complicated in Arizona. The state soon could join a growing list of states fighting over touch-screen voting machines.

Voter Action, a non-profit advocacy group, recently sued New Mexico and prodded it into spending $25 million on an all-paper ballot system. In Maryland, the governor told his state elections board this month that he no longer has faith in touch-screen machines.

Now, Voter Action is ready to pick a legal fight with Arizona over some of the more than 2,100 touch-screen machines the state is ordering to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act.

Voter Action asserts that two of the most popular models of touch-screens, both of which are expected to come to Arizona, are unreliable and vulnerable to tampering. The group also distrusts the machines because they do not produce a marked paper ballot. Paper ballots read by optical scanners are less subject to technical manipulation or fraud, activists say, and easily can be recounted or audited in the case of a contested election.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0321votemachines0321.html

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28. PA: Training sessions for touch-screen voting under way

http://www.tribtotalmedia.com/

By David Hunt
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, March 21, 2006

It sounds simple enough: Touch a screen to choose a candidate.
After a 90-minute tutorial on touch-screen voting Monday, Ruth Gravely wasn't so sure. When the iVotronic voting system debuts at Westmoreland County's 306 precincts for the May 16 general primary, the concept may be a little tough to grasp, especially for the elderly, the Arona elections judge said.

Gravely is one of more than 1,500 poll workers learning how to use the iVotronic. Training began yesterday.

"I think they're going to be OK once you get used to them," Gravely said. "They're confusing right now."

Next door to the class at a downtown Greensburg warehouse sat hundreds of the levered machines used by Westmoreland voters for nearly half a century. A federal law destines them for the scrap yard.

County commissioners voted unanimously in December to purchase 750 iVotronic machines from Nebraska-based Election Systems and Software Inc. County officials say the move was necessary because of the Help America Vote Act, a four-year-old federal law passed in response to the vote-counting problems in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. The iVotronic is one of about a dozen electronic voting systems certified for use in Pennsylvania.

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/westmoreland/s_435289.html

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30. PA: Commissioners to make decision on voting machines today

Herald Standard, Uniontown PA

Commissioners to make decision on voting machines today
By Amy Zalar, Herald-Standard
03/22/2006

The Fayette County commissioners are slated to make a decision today regarding the purchase of electronic voting machines for use in the May 16 primary and beyond.

Under the federal mandate, the county must purchase new state-of-the-art machines or risk losing more than $1 million in grant funding that will be used to help fund purchase of the machines.

A special meeting on Tuesday ended without a decision when commissioners Angela M. Zimmerlink and Vincent A. Vicites adjourned the meeting until 10 a.m. today in the Public Service Building. Commissioner Joseph A. Hardy III did not attend Tuesday's special meeting.

Fayette is one of the few counties in the state that has not entered into a contract to purchase machines.

Zimmerlink made earlier estimates of a cost of about $1.6 million.

Neither Zimmerlink nor Vicites said which company they were leaning toward on Tuesday, with Zimmerlink merely saying the commissioners had been on the telephone with various vendors discussing the issue.

After calling the meeting to order, Vicites and Zimmerlink adjourned the meeting to go into the election bureau to speak with vendors.

Although the commissioners did not mention the vendors by name, three companies -ES&S, Diebold and Advanced - recently gave the second of two demonstrations in the county as potential systems. All three have been certified for use by the state.

The county currently has 211 lever machines for use at its 105 precincts.

Exactly how many electronic machines must be purchased remains to be seen.

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16348880&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6

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32. CA: Elections officer approves Sequoia voting machines

InsideBayArea

Article Last Updated: 03/21/2006 2:41 AM PST

FROM STAFF REPORTS

California's chief elections officer on Monday approved the latest voting machinery from Oakland-based Sequoia Voting Systems, freeing Alameda, San Francisco, Santa Clara and as many as 20 counties to purchase the machines for the 2006 elections.
The decision by Secretary of State Bruce McPherson closely resembles his approval last month of the latest voting system from Diebold Election Systems Inc., with tighter security rules for memory cards and other components shown vulnerable to vote manipulation.
McPherson's move could come too late for many counties to buy Sequoia's latest machines before the June primary, because the company has informed many counties it needs three or more months to deliver after a sale.

But it is likely Santa Clara and San Francisco counties will have the machines installed for the November elections, and Alameda County is weighing a purchase from either Sequoia or Diebold for that election.
The machines are crucial for counties trying to meet federal law requiring accessible voting devices for disabled voters, as well as state law requiring electronic voting machines to produce a printed record so voters and elections officials can verify the computerized balloting.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_3623630