Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday, June 18

[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=203x434566

[MelissaB]

1. RFK Jr. to bring lawsuits against Diebold and other e-voting vendors!

From organik here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=434686&mesg_id=434686


Just heard on Ring of Fire on Air America Radio.... sorry, no link.

Mike Papantonio's law firm, and RFK Jr. will be bringing lawsuits against Diebold and other electronic voting machine vendors in the coming weeks. Said they've got WHISTLE BLOWERS from Diebold & others.

From the description of this week's show:

Bobby, Mike and Matt Schultz, an attorney with Levin Papantonio, discuss their lawsuits against Diebold and the other electronic voting machine companies that helped the Republicans steal Ohio in 2004.

Also on Fire: Dave Lindorff, co-author of The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office...and Canadian broadcasting legend Moses Znaimer, who's hosting the Idea City conference next weekend in Toronto.

Pap Attack: "Ann the Man?"

Link: http://shows.airamericaradio.com/ringoffire/node/63

Schedule:

3 pm. - 5 pm.
Ring of Fire (rebroadcast)
Hosts: Mike Papantonio & Robert Kennedy Jr.

(I believe this is Eastern time.)

[MelissaB]

2. BBC Blows The Whistle: African-American Voters Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit

BBC Blows The Whistle: African-American Voters Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit List

Friday, June 16, 2006

Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati


The BBC got its hands on secret memos from the Republican National Committee on the exclusion of black voters. We saw this going on here in Ohio in 2004, but had no evidence that it was the result of a DELIBERATE, NATIONAL STRATEGY.

We do now.

Where, you might ask, was the vaunted “liberal” media that has rescued the Bush presidency repeatedly with a non-coverage worthy of the old Soviet media? Where, you might also ask, was the so-called opposition, the Democratic Party?

Good questions.

For the present, let’s again be grateful to “our cousins” for not being
asleep at the switch....

Mark Lause


More: http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com/index.php/news/comments/bbc_blows_the_whistle_african_american_voters_scrubbed_by_secret_gop_hit_li

and: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/6/17/23539/2916

and: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_greg_pal_060616_african_american_vot.htm



Thanks to kpete here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1452473

[MelissaB]

3. Critics chip away at Sequoia's roots

Critics chip away at Sequoia's roots
Fears arise because e-voting machine maker's owners are Venezuelan

By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER


For three years, the nation's two largest suppliers of voting machinery have driven feverishly for sales and shown the symptoms of overextension — missed deliveries, faulty equipment and breach-of-contract lawsuits.
Until recently, the supplier running a close third, Sequoia Voting Systems, kept a lower profile than competitors Diebold and Election Systems & Software while quietly snapping up sales of voting systems on both coasts, all of Nevada and Louisiana, and Chicago and Cook County, Ill.

With a $13.3 million contract signed Friday by Alameda County, Oakland-based Sequoia arguably became the dominant voting-system maker in California, having signed up more counties than any other company.

But a controversy regarding Sequoia's foreign ownership could upset its quiet, sell-what-you-can service strategy.

Politicians in the Windy City and CNN newsman Lou Dobbs suggested recently that the federal government was derelict in not having investigated Sequoia and its acquisition last year by Smartmatic, a Boca Raton, Fla., firm largely owned by Venezuelan businessmen.

After Chicago and Cook County were plagued with delays this spring in tallying votes for a primary, city alderman Edward Burke suggested Sequoia's voting machines were part of a conspiracy by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to manipulate U.S. elections.

"We may have stumbled across what could be (an) international conspiracy to subvert the electoral process in the United States of America," Burke told reporters.

...snip

Next to a television logo reading "Democracy for Sale," Dobbs said, "We know what we're dealing with, and it is a dysfunctional government that is trying to render our elections precisely the same."

The indignation has taken Sequoia executives by surprise, partly because the company has been foreign-owned for 24 years. The firm's roots go back to 1890.


More: http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_3952315

[MelissaB]

4. AR: Field set, lines drawn for statewide races in general election

Field set, lines drawn for statewide races in general election

Sunday, Jun 18, 2006
By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK - Absent the big personalities and long-tenured incumbents of the past, voters will for the first time years choose from among a fresh crop of office seekers to redraw the face of Arkansas politics in the November general election.

With the spring primaries over and the party tickets set, the biggest question remaining this election season is whether the state's political landscape will change in the process.

Voters will decide, in the first gubernatorial race in 28 years without an incumbent on the ballot, if being a Democrat carries clout any more in major statewide races after 10 years with Republican brethren Mike Huckabee and Win Rockefeller as two of the state's top officeholders, or whether Arkansas finally will follow the GOP path of its neighbors.

"The question will be, will Arkansas continue drifting toward the Republican Party or will it retain Arkansas' relatively unique status right now as one of the few Southern states that have generally resisted Republican rule?" said Hall Bass, political science professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia. "Will that pattern hold?"

Add to that the specter of state races with national prominence - a former key Bush loyalist leaving a top administration post to run for Arkansas governor and a former Clinton administration official vying for lieutenant governor against a Christian conservative who with the gay-marriage issue and a shoestring budget faired well in defeat against U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln and her $5 million campaign chest two years ago.

...snip

Voting problems have emerged as a central issue in the secretary of state's race, with Republican challenger Jim Lagrone of Benton blaming incumbent Democrat Charlie Daniels for glitches with electronic voting machines that delayed vote tallying after the May primary.

Daniels has largely blamed the failures on Election Systems and Software Co. of Omaha, Neb., which was awarded a $15 million to install new electronic voting machines in the state to comply with federal law.

Daniels said a review of ES&S performance is underway and all voting problems should be corrected in time for the November general election.


More: http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2006/06/18/News/336633.html

[MelissaB]

5. AZ: Dellums is Oakland's new mayor

Dellums is Oakland's new mayor

Associated Press
Jun. 18, 2006 12:00 AM


OAKLAND - After nearly two weeks of ballot counting, former Rep. Ron Dellums emerged as the winner of the Oakland mayor's race Saturday when his chief rival said he would not challenge the election results.

City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente called Dellums at home to concede, said Mike Healy, a spokesman for Dellums' campaign.

"Ignacio was very gracious," Healy said. "He said he wants to work with Ron for a better Oakland and that it was a great campaign." advertisement

The final ballot count released late Friday showed Dellums winning the simple majority needed to avoid a November runoff against De La Fuente.

Dellums secured 50.2 percent of the vote, while De La Fuente was in second place with 33.0 percent, according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.

City Councilwoman Nancy Nadel was a distant third with 13.1 percent. The three remaining candidates finished with less than 4 percent combined.

The county's return to paper ballots and a shortage of optical scanners to process them slowed the final count. Alameda County returned to low-tech voting after its new touch-screen machines failed to meet federal and state standards.


More: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0618oakland0618.html

[MelissaB]

6. PA: County set to decide on voting machines

County set to decide on voting machines
By Adam Smeltz
[e-mail]


BELLEFONTE -- The Centre County commissioners are slated to vote Tuesday on whether to equip the county's precincts with touch-screen or optical-scan voting machines.

...snip

Mary Vollero, a poll worker, has said the apparent voter preferences in the May primaries are unclear because some poll volunteers encouraged voters to try the iVotronic touch screens. She has also raised concerns about first-day glitches with touch-screen machines. In more than 40 percent of precincts, "zero tapes" from iVotronic devices were not printed on time.

Those tapes, required under state law, should be printed and posted before precincts open to the public. They are intended to demonstrate to the public that the machines started the day with zero votes logged.

...snip

Optical-scan systems will allow, but alert voters to, overvote errors, whereas touch-screen systems will not allow overvotes, Dershem said.

Exarchos noted that Pennsylvania voters historically have not been provided with a paper trail to confirm their votes. If voters would like touch-screen systems to be equipped with paper printouts, he said, they ought to lobby state legislators.

Ideally, Exarchos said, he would have preferred to have kept the county's old punch-card system. The federal government just won't allow it.


More: http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/14844698.htm

[MelissaB]

7. TN: Test of faith on the ballot

Test of faith on the ballot
Electronic voting, which has backers and detractors,gets first big test here in August voting

June 18, 2006

If Mississippi can hold an election with electronic voting machines, by golly, Tennessee can, too. And if that pep talk isn't persuasive, we can all cross our fingers and hope for the best.

...snip

If that puts a scare in technophobic hearts, it's important to remember that the Shouptronic machines that have been used in local elections for the past 20 years don't have paper trails, either.

Election officials insist that voters have no reason to suspect that their votes won't be counted, and it will be no easier than it ever has been to steal an election.

In other words, take all the scary chatter on the Internet about electronic voting machines with a grain of salt.

Nobody maintains any more that preprogramming a miscount is impossible. But they say that everything technologically possible is being done to thwart election skulduggery and prevent errors.

Somewhere around the state, there are going to be "some glitches," Thompson allows. But, "Any system has its pluses and minuses. It can be painfully difficult to count paper ballots. I think the security of voting systems is more than the machines themselves. It's the processes and procedures that county election commissions follow with respect to testing, security and all that goes with it."

More: http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/opinion_columnists/article/0,1426,MCA_539_4779970,00.html

[MelissaB]

8. GA: Voting machines become an issue

Voting machines become an issue

By Walter C. Jones | Morris News Service

Sunday, June 18, 2006 ATLANTA - Though Cathy Cox is running for a post that has nothing to do with elections operations, the topic of voting machines is always going to be a part of her campaign.

That's because as secretary of state, she served as Georgia's chief elections official. And, in that capacity, she lobbied for the state to become the first in the nation to replace all of its voting machines with electronic ones.

...snip

"It is inconceivable that the state of Georgia would buy $70 million worth of voting machines that do not offer paper receipts with the prospects that these machines are now obsolete and can never offer paper receipts even if we spend millions more to upgrade," he said.

...snip

Ms. Cox is also getting attacked by nonpartisan ballot-security groups who say she should step down as secretary of state to avoid a conflict of interest in overseeing the counting of the ballots in her own race for governor.

More: http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/061806/met_85770.shtml

[MelissaB]

9. Illegal Busby/Bilbray Election Spun by Fox in a Flash…

Illegal Busby/Bilbray Election Spun by Fox in a Flash…

The Fox 'News' Spin Machine Gets To Work…

HuffPo Presentation 'Balances' the Fox/RNC Propoganda, Helps Spreads the Real Story Instead!
The Fox 'News' Republican Spin Machine was up bright and early on the day following the Busby/Bilbray election (which was conducted on illegal/decertified voting machines) to ensure the predictable party line was heard loud and clear. No matter whether they had any actual facts to bear out their reporting.

BRAD BLOG commenter, "Stop_George" has put together a great Flash Presentation for Huffington Posts's "Contagious Festival" to help set the record straight.

Please watch it, and then use the "Send to Friends!" link at the bottom of the page to spread the word and help the presentation climb up the festival rankings so thousands of more Americans will see it and learn what went on here!

Brad Blog link: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=2972

Go here to watch the flash: http://stopgeorge.cf.huffingtonpost.com/

[Wilms]

29. Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x434661

[MelissaB]

10. Blacks are melting in the Melting Pot

Blacks are melting in the Melting Pot

By James Clingman, NNPA Columnist
June 19, 2006


What will it take for Black people to stand up against centuries of unfairness and mistreatment? I know we're tough and can take a lot of abuse, but c'mon brothers and sisters, we don't have to continue proving our toughness by submitting to and even participating in the destruction of our own people. Where is Chancellor Williams when we need him most? Have we not been hurt severely enough? Are we still waiting for the crucial blow that will finally make us fight back? Well, the longer we wait the less effective we become, and the smaller and more insignificant we become as well.

This melting pot thing has definitely played us for chumps. Every other group is doing its thing by building wealth for themselves. Black people are busy melting away, soon to become invisible and a "non-people" as Albert Cleage told us we would become if we continued down the yellow brick road of social integration without an economic foundation.

We are engaged in silly discussions about Democrats and Republicans, as if we have any say in what happens politically in this country, and as if the rulers of these parties care about what we think. They put us in political trick bags by inviting us to their parties and allowing us to run for office only after we have pledged allegiance to one party or the other, again, as if that means anything in terms of real political power for Black folks.

Some of our Black politicians are so scared of offending their White handlers that they never put forth any agenda that is pro-Black. In some cases they are even ashamed to be Black. They seek our votes and move into their plush secure political offices, while we melt away in a society that has two things on its mind: money and power.

The silly Black electorate goes along with these do-nothing politicians, both Black and White, by falling into the trap of endless and mindless dialogues about issues that mean absolutely nothing when it comes to the economic wellbeing of Black people. We engage in highbrow political conversations, again, as if our rhetoric will change things, and as if we have real political power in the first place.

We wrap ourselves in the agendas of others and subvert our own interests for the silliest and flimsiest of reasons. For instance, in Ohio the discussion is now centered on the governor's race. Like our neighbors in Pennsylvania, we are faced with a political choice between a Black Republican and a White Democrat, the Blacks being Ken Blackwell and Lynn Swann, respectively. I can't imagine what the rationale is in Pennsylvania for electing Lynn Swann, who said George Bush is the "most qualified and most credible candidate to fulfill the role as president of the United States." But in my hometown of Cincinnati, the rationale being promulgated in support of Blackwell is, "Let's make history." That's what they said about Doug Wilder. How are you Black folks in Virginia doing these days?

Black people should have had enough of just "making history" by now. Heck, Condoleezza made history, y'all, but what have we gotten from that? You would think Black people could come up with a better reason than that to elect a governor. Another silly political platform is gay marriage. What in the world does this issue have to do with the economic uplift of Black people? Nothing. But we will vote for someone simply because they espouse a Constitutional amendment that defines marriage.


More: http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20060619d

[MelissaB]

11. Ohio: Flip-flops part of summer politics

Flip-flops part of summer politics
In Ohio's gubernatorial race, voters are wondering: 'Didn't he once say that?'

By JIM TANKERSLEY
BLADE POLITICS WRITER


They're a staple of summer, on the beach and the campaign trail, and they're not just for John Kerry anymore.

Just a toe-dip into Ohio's 2006 general election for governor, the leading candidates are piling up "flip-flop" charges like an Aeropostale-lovin' teen with her stepdad's Visa.

Republicans say U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland flipped on border patrol and legalized gambling. Democrats say Secretary of State Ken Blackwell flopped on abortion and taxes. Trying to slate a series of debates this week, both campaigns traded charges of, well, you get the picture.

Flip-flops or partisan flaps? You make the call:


More: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/NEWS09/606180344

[MelissaB]

12. William Hershey: Blackwell, Strickland camps are already pushing each othe

Commentary
William Hershey: Blackwell, Strickland camps are already pushing each other

By William Hershey

Staff Writer

COLUMBUS | Ken Blackwell and Ted Strickland are kind of testy these days.

Here's Ken – J. Kenneth, to the formally inclined:

"The Strickland campaign press conference just smelled of foolishness."

Here's Ted:

"I'm not going to let this guy try to dictate my schedule."

Now, you may be focused on getting a tan, growing tomatoes or watching the Cincinnati Reds contend and the Cleveland Indians flounder.

Ken, the Republican, and Ted, the Democrat, are campaigning for governor in June with Labor Day fervor.

Ted's campaign recently had a press conference to ask Ken, the secretary of state and the person in charge of Ohio elections, to step down from running the Nov. 7 election in which Ken, obviously, is a candidate.

Ted's buddies — he didn't appear personally at the press conference — also said that rules Ken has proposed for running the election are aimed at suppressing the vote.

That's the "foolishness" Ken griped about.

Meanwhile, Ken says Ted's playing dodgeball — skipping important meetings such as last week's Ohio Hospital Association get-together in Columbus.

Ken asks, "Where is Ted?"

Ted, a U.S. House member from Lisbon, said he has been to plenty of meetings and that he, not Ken, will choose the ones that he attends.

There's also their debate about debates.

Ted admits he said he'd debate Ken "anytime, anywhere."

Last Monday, Ken asked him to start debating later that week and Ted said plans had to be made first.

This Monday, the campaigns are to discuss when to debate and under what format.

The charge that Ken's trying to suppress the vote — which he denies — has put the secretary of state on the defensive, a place he has seldom been. It's might even be unfair. Ken is just proposing rules called for in a law passed by his Republican buddies in the legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Bob Taft.

"Fair," however, hasn't always defined Ken's shoot-from-the lips campaign style. Ask Attorney General Jim Petro, the guy Ken crushed in the GOP primary for governor.


More: http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/columns/daily/0618hershey.html

[rumpel]

13. TN: Large number of voters show for Morgan primary

By Sheryl Marsh
DAILY Staff Writer
[e-mail] · 340-2437

Voter turnout in Morgan County primary elections was higher than in 2002 during a governor's election and 2004 during the presidential election.

Records show that Republican ballots cast were more than twice as many as Democratic ballots.

Unofficial, complete vote totals showed that 17,388 people voted in the GOP primary and 6,985 in the Democratic primary. Twenty-four nonpartisan votes were cast on a constitutional amendment.

Governor races led in the vote count in each party. The GOP race gleaned a total of 17,019 votes and the Democratic race got 6,751, according to unofficial totals.

Probate Judge Bobby Day said that during the 2004 primaries with presidential races topping ballots, only 12,406 of the county's more than 62,000 voters cast ballots.

Day speculated about the turnout.

"The rounded figure would be 20 percent for 2004 compared to right at 39 percent this year," said Day.

http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/060618/primary.shtml

[MelissaB]

14. Ohio: Candidates cash in beyond borders

Candidates cash in beyond borders
Out-of-state donors boost Blackwell, Strickland

Saturday, June 17, 2006
Mark Naymik
Plain Dealer Politics Writer

Three days after Ken Blackwell won the Republican gubernatorial primary in May, he received five checks totaling $50,000 from the Taylor family of Salinas, Calif.

The head of the household, Steven Bruce Taylor, former CEO of vegetable-processing giant Fresh Express, bundled his $10,000 check with one from his wife, Kathryn, and one from each of their three adult children - all described as students.

Their checks made Salinas one of the most profitable cities for Blackwell's gubernatorial campaign.

And they helped make Cal- ifornia Blackwell's greatest source of contributions outside of Ohio. Donors from the Golden State contributed more than $300,000.

Blackwell, who as secretary of state oversees elections in Ohio, has raised about 25 percent of his $6.1 million from out-of-state donors, according to a Plain Dealer analysis of campaign finance reports.

Texas and Pennsylvania round out Blackwell's three most generous states other than Ohio.

Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said that conservative Republicans all over the country are opening their checkbooks because of the race's high profile and importance in national politics.


More: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1150533122181290.xml&coll=2

[rumpel]

15. SC: State Election Commission orders two primary recounts

(Columbia-AP) June 17, 2006 - The State Election Commission has ordered recounts in two House races from this week's primaries. In each race, the incumbents won by just nine votes.

The Election Commission met Saturday to certify results for other races and ordered a recount for the Republican primary for House District 37 in Spartanburg County between incumbent Ralph Davenport and Steve Parker.
On the Democrat side, a recount was ordered for House District 49 in York County between John R. King and incumbent Bessie Moody-Lawrence.
In South Carolina, recounts are automatically ordered if the margin of victory is less than one per-cent of the vote.

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5044493

[rumpel]

16. IN: Recount still not finished

Gannett-Indiana

Committee in charge of Franklin Co. judge's race needs more time
BY PAM THARP
CORRESPONDENT

BROOKVILLE, Ind. -- Recounting votes in the Franklin County Republican judge race moved a little faster Saturday than on Friday, but finishing the recount before fatigue was declared the winner looked doubtful.

The three-man recount commission began at 6:30 a.m. Saturday. If the commission was unable to complete the recount late Saturday, it probably won't resume until June 26, the next full day all three members could get together again.

And even when the recount is done, the outcome of the race between incumbent Judge Steven Cox and Deputy Prosecutor Troy Werner may not be decided. By mid-afternoon Saturday there were already more than 50 exhibits for Senior Judge Robert Reinke of Richmond to consider, with the possibility of as many as 100 exhibits when the recount's over.

"I don't think we'll know when we're done who has won," said Nick Fankhauser, chairman of the recount commission. "We want to keep counting as long as we are able to give it our full attention and do a good job."

Some ballots were disputed because of missing initials or missing affidavits for absentee ballots. The votes in some whole precincts may be challenged because there were more ballots than signatures on the poll book. Some of those could be accounted for by counting the number of Democrat ballots, because the voter was marked as a Democrat but got a Republican ballot, Fankhauser said.

http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/NEWS01/606180305/1008

[rumpel]

17. NJ: Depositions set to begin in challenge to A.C. BOE vote

By MICHAEL PRITCHARD Staff Writer, [phone]


Published: Sunday, June 18, 2006
Updated: Sunday, June 18, 2006
Press of Atlantic City

ATLANTIC CITY — A hearing in Board of Education candidates George Crouch and John Devlin's challenge of the April 18 board elections has been set for July 24 and depositions in the case are set to begin.

Among those to be deposed in the case are City Council President Craig Callaway, who participated in collecting about 1,500 absentee ballots — which included about 900 messenger ballots — in the election.

Crouch and Devlin, along with board member Shay A. Steele, appeared to have a substantial lead at the polls April 18, but they ended up losing to Callaway-backed candidates Pam Jones, Scott Evans and Joel Nunez after the absentee ballots were counted.

A later recount then gave Steele a seat over Nunez.

Crouch and Devlin have charged fraud in the handling of the absentee ballots, especially messenger ballots, which are used to allow people too sick to reach the polls to vote.

This week, Crouch and Devlin's legal team began examining those ballots. A civil management order in the case also outlines 28 members of Callaway's political organization, comprised of family and friends who collected the ballots and can be deposed. Also named for depositions are Evans, Jones and Nunez.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/story/6444595p-6300218c.html

[rumpel]

18. MI: ROCHELLE RILEY: Facts, fiction, votes

Detroit Free Press

June 18, 2006

BY ROCHELLE RILEY
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

Former Detroit City Clerk Jackie Currie is an outlaw.
Wayne County Chief Circuit Court Judge Mary Beth Kelly discriminates against black voters.
The new Detroit city clerk, Janice Winfrey, is Marshal Matt Dillon.
The head of the League of Women Voters of Detroit is a rabble-rouser who tried to skirt the law.
None of those statements is true. But judging from reaction to things that each woman did between last fall and last week, you'd be hard-pressed to change the minds of some people about them.
After Kelly ruled last September that Currie could no longer send absentee ballot applications to voters unless they asked for them, Currie sent out 130,000 anyway, earning a contempt citation.
Kelly followed an outdated Michigan law that forbids unsolicited ballot mailings.
Problem solved
Winfrey, well, all she did was clean up Detroit's voter rolls, which had been littered for years with nonresidents and dead people.
"We have identified more than 75,000 names to be purged, including 33,000 that we will be able to purge by November," she said. That means Detroit's new rolls, with about 500,000 actual voters, are closer to fact than the fiction that once was, and the future elections will cost Detroit less to coordinate.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/OPINION02/606180556/1122

[MelissaB]

19. Got Democracy?, Democracy for Sale?, ACLU Freedom Files: Voting Rights

It's a heck of a day on Link TV starting NOW!

This is 375 on Direct TV. Go set that TiVo.


Schedule here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x434673

[rumpel]

20. VA: Cooper resigns from Appalachia council

The Roanoke Times

Saturday, June 17, 2006
The former mayor's attorney said the decision was not in response to the council's vote last month to begin legal steps to have Cooper removed from office.
By Laurence Hammack

In the three months since his indictment on corruption and election fraud charges, Ben Cooper's title has been constantly changing.

First, he resigned as the acting town manager and mayor of Appalachia, but stayed on town council. Then he changed his mind and stayed on as mayor. Then he resigned as mayor, but stayed on council.

Now, he's calling it quits for good.

Members of Appalachia Town Council learned of Cooper's decision to leave the council Thursday night from his attorney, Patti Church, who told them the decision was not in response to their vote last month to begin legal steps to have him removed from office.

Church questioned the council's action, considering that most of its members were in office during the time covered by a 300-page indictment alleging widespread corruption and police misconduct.

"If all of the allegations of police corruption are true," Church said Friday, "where were these people in the last two years?"

snip

Cooper and 17 others are accused in a scheme that included buying votes in the 2004 municipal elections with beer, cigarettes and even pork rinds. And in some cases, absentee ballots were stolen from the mail and fraudulently cast for a slate of candidates that included Cooper, the indictment alleges.

http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/69882

[rumpel]

21. CA: Oakland's next mayor: Ron Dellums

Posted on Sun, Jun. 18, 2006

PAPER BALLOT COUNT FINALLY ENDS
Mercury News

By Terence Chea
Associated Press
OAKLAND - After nearly two weeks of ballot counting, former Rep. Ron Dellums emerged as the clear winner of the Oakland mayor's race Saturday when his chief rival said he would not challenge the election results.

City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente called Dellums at home Saturday morning to concede the race, said Mike Healy, a representative for Dellums' campaign.

``Ignacio was very gracious,'' Healy said. ``He said he wants to work with Ron for a better Oakland, and that it was a great campaign.''

Speaking to reporters from the back porch of his Oakland home, De La Fuente confirmed that he placed a concession call to Dellums, but refused to answer any questions.

``This morning, I called Ron Dellums to congratulate him and pledge I will continue working very hard on those issues that got me into this mayor's race,'' he said.

The final ballot count released late Friday showed Dellums winning the simple majority needed to avoid a November runoff against De La Fuente.

Dellums secured 50.2 percent of the vote, while De La Fuente was in second place with 33 percent, according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/14847609.htm

[rumpel]

22. Could this be why vets got letters? - DU General Discussion

High Five for lonestarnot for this post!

Here’s how the scheme worked: The RNC mailed these voters letters in envelopes marked, ‘Do not forward’, to be returned to the sender. These letters were mailed to servicemen and women, some stationed overseas, to their US home addresses. The letters then returned to the Bush-Cheney campaign as “undeliverable.”

The lists of soldiers of “undeliverable” letters were transmitted from state headquarters, in this case Florida, to the RNC in Washington. The party could then challenge the voters’ registration and thereby prevent their absentee ballot being counted.

One target list was comprised exclusively of voters registered at the Jacksonville, Florida, Naval Air Station. Jacksonville is third largest naval installation in the US, best known as home of the Blue Angels fighting squandron.

< See this scrub sheet at
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=160156893 >

more

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1454119

[rumpel]

23. MO: Dispute on sharing voter data is over.

Columbia Daily Tribune

Agreement is a victory, Noren says

By JASON ROSENBAUM of the Tribune’s staff
Published Sunday, June 18, 2006
Boone County Clerk Wendy Noren yesterday declared victory in her contest with Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan over joining a statewide voter registration database.

"We are doing it exactly the way I wanted to do it from Day One," Noren said.

The database was established to allow election officials to check whether a voter changed address, died or has a felony record. Noren had argued the secretary of state’s system is incompatible with the county’s computer apparatus, and she refused to go along with it unless the state paid for computers to implement the new system.

Noren said the county would keep its current system and transmit voter registration data to the state’s database. "Instead of the taxpayers paying thousands of dollars for equipment, we’re getting exactly the same thing for no cost," she said.

Stacie Temple, a spokeswoman for Carnahan’s office, said the agreement satisfies the concerns of her boss and Noren.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/Jun/20060618News003.asp

[rumpel]

24. Vote tabulation problem hits Wall Street shareholders

CCH Wall Street

NYSE Fines Big Firms More than $1M For Proxy Missteps

By Aaron Seward
June 16, 2006

NYSE Regulation has fined and censured UBS Securities, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse Securities for their sloppy handling of shareholder votes.
The severity of the fines varied according to the duration and seriousness of the proxy mishandling. The regulator fined UBS $600,000, Goldman Sachs $500,000, and Credit Suisse $250,000.
According to the NYSE, the three firms put their shareholders at risk of disenfranchisement by, among other things, over-voting. NYSE rules require that member firms pass proxy materials to shareholders, then collect and transmit to the stock’s issuer the shareholders’ votes.
The function is typically outsourced to a proxy-service provider, who distributes proxy materials and collects and transmits the voting instructions to a transfer agent, or vote tabulator. The tabulator then compares the proxy votes submitted with the number of shares on the record at the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation on that date. An over-vote occurs if a member firm submits votes for more shares than are shown on record.
There are no standard industry procedures that govern a tabulator’s approach to dealing with over-voting. Depending upon the procedure implemented by the tabulator, certain customers’ votes may not be represented as originally given, putting shareholders at risk of disenfranchisement.
While some voters may have been disenfranchised or had their votes diluted, NYSE enforcement’s investigations have not uncovered any instance in which an over-vote improperly affected the outcome of a proxy vote, the regulator said.

http://www1.cchwallstreet.com/ws-portal/content/news/container.jsp?fn=06-16-06

[rumpel]

25. OR: Campaign to center on voter registration, application

Oregon Live

6/18/2006, 9:00 a.m. PT
By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER
The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Hispanic advocates are joining a national push to produce 1 million new voters across the country between now and the Nov. 6 election in hopes that the contentious immigration issue will mobilize a sector that often doesn't cast ballots.

It includes a push to get millions of eligible residents to apply for citizenship so they can vote later if not this year.

Aeryca Steinbauer of the Oregon group CAUSA said the hope is that enough new voters can be mobilized "to hold public officials accountable."

Oregon's farmworkers' union, the Woodburn-based Treeplanters and Farm Workers of the Northwest United, also is taking part.
Figures from the Department of Homeland Security indicate interest in citizenship is rising.

In 2005 the government approved 600,366 naturalization applications, said Sharon Rummery, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman in San Francisco. This year it is projected to be 685,000.

A total of 259,041 citizenship applications were approved in the first half of fiscal 2005, she said. In the first half of fiscal 2006 it was 316,557.

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-15/1150646958245650.xml&storylist=orlocal

[rumpel]

26. Bulgaria: BGN 50 Bribe to Vote for Specific Candidate in Town of Peshtera

18 June 2006 | 14:30 | FOCUS News Agency

Peshtera. Two people have filed complaints with the Central Election Commission (CEC) of attempts to be bribed, FOCUS News Agency correspondent informs. The complaints were filed by two citizens and they read that during election day open agitation is going on in the town of Peshtera which includes giving money to the people to vote for one of the Mayor candidates – Vassil Filev. The sum which one the people was offered was BGN 50, one of the complaints reads.
The signals are addressed to CEC but the Municipal Election Commission will also be approached. It is expected that an investigation will be made on the spot.
According to the people incidents like these happen all around town but the situation was worse in the Roma neighbourhoods.

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=84&ch=0&newsid=90588

[rumpel]

27. Kuwait: Kuwait at crossroads between reform, corruption

By B Izzak
KUWAIT: Opposition candidates continued yesterday their campaign against what they called "corruption despots", warning voters that Kuwait was at a crossroads between reform and corruption. "The confrontation today is between the Kuwaiti people and corruption despots. In this situation there will be only one result: a victory for the people," leading opposition figure Ahmad Al-Saadoun said at the inauguration of the election headquarters of outgoing MP Faisal Al-Muslim.
"Corruption despots have placed Al-Muslim in the list of candidates whom they want to lose, but they will never succeed," Saadoun stressed. "We and the Kuwaiti people will not allow to leave the country a hostage in the hands of the corruption symbols," the three-time former speaker, who is bidding for a record-breaking ninth Assembly term, said at a large gathering in which up to 4,000 people attended.
Muslim, who became an MP for the first time in 2003, is bidding for re-election from the 14th constituency of Khaitan. He was one of three former MPs who submitted a request to quiz the prime minister days before the National Assembly was dissolved on May 21. Saadoun said the country is facing many problems, especially the water shortage crisis, and "corruption symbols and certain ministers are interfering in the elections". He also warned that the opposition will confront the ministers of energy (Sheikh Fahd Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah) and information (Mohammad Al-Sanousi) and the state minister for cabinet affairs (Dhaifallah Sharar). "These ministers are trying to destroy this country. We will confront them," Saadoun said.

http://www.kuwaittimes.net/Navariednews.asp?dismode=article&artid=1593187939

[Kurovski]

31. At a crossroads, just like the US.

[rumpel]

28. Bangladesh: No polls before CEC resigns

Sun. June 18, 2006

Insists opposition combine
Staff Correspondent

The Awami League (AL)-led 14-party opposition combine yesterday vowed to resist any polls before resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) MA Aziz and two other "politically" appointed commissioners and implementation of electoral reforms.
An emergency meeting of the opposition line-up also asked the BNP-Jamaat alliance government to form a supreme judicial council to terminate the controversial commissioners if they do not resign on their own.

Chaired by city 14-party coordinator Mofazzel Hossain Chowdhury Maya, the meeting decided to gather at three locations-- Russel Square and Dhanmondi 27, Agargoan met office and Mohakhali rail gate-- on June 20 for its EC siege programme.

The opposition combine will simultaneously lay siege to the district election offices across the country on the same day to realise its demands.

The opposition alliance will demonstrate in the capital today and conduct mass communication tomorrow in every ward to drum up support for the siege programme.

The meeting accused the alliance government of arresting and harassing hundreds of opposition workers ahead of the agitation programme.

http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/06/18/d6061801096.htm

[rumpel]

30. PHILIPPINES: Senate finds massive cheating in ’04 election

First posted 03:53am (Mla time) June 15, 2006
By Juliet Labog-Javellana
Inquirer



Editor's Note: Published on Page A1 of the June 15, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

INITIAL findings of the Senate defense committee’s inquiry into the “Hello Garci” controversy indicate “massive cheating” occurred during the 2004 election and that this benefited President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Senator Rodolfo Biazon said yesterday.

Biazon also said his committee’s initial findings showed that the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) had wiretapped former Commission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano’s cell phone. It remained unclear, however, why and who ordered the wiretap. Biazon declined to answer these questions.

In an exclusive interview with the Inquirer, Biazon said oral and written evidence submitted to the committee during its five hearings last year showed that at least 662,000 votes were added in favor of Ms Arroyo.

“Was there massive cheating?” Biazon, committee chair, asked rhetorically.

“Why, yes!” he exclaimed, pointing to the alleged padded votes. “There was cheating and definitely beneficiary was the cheater.”

Biazon shared with the Inquirer the gist of what the interim report would have contained had he issued it before the Senate adjourned on June 8.

He said the testimonies of witnesses and an examination of election documents showed that the cheating was concentrated in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Some officials of the Comelec and the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) also testified in the committee hearings.

In a privilege speech on Dec. 8, 2005, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said Ms Arroyo made as many as 15 calls to Garcillano between May 26 and June 10, 2004. As a result of those calls, he said, Ms Arroyo gained a “fabricated margin of 1,063,777 votes” against her nearest rival, the late movie star and presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr.

The committee began its hearings on Sept. 28, 2005. It was unable to complete its inquiry after Ms Arroyo issued Executive Order No. 464 forbidding government and military officials from testifying at congressional hearings.

The Supreme Court has declared the gag order unconstitutional, but state lawyers have filed a motion for reconsideration. In the meantime, Malacañang has held its ground, maintaining that the hearings were meant to subvert the Arroyo administration.

http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=79172

[MelissaB]

32. Why I Woke Up to the Reality Of Stolen Elections (Daily Kos)

Why I Woke Up to the Reality Of Stolen Elections

by Steven D
Sun Jun 18, 2006 at 07:52:01 AM PDT
Front paged at Booman Tribune and My Left Wing

This is a long story about a long journey.

A journey I think many of us have made over the last few years. A journey to the realization that things are not as we've been led to believe regarding our politics, our politicians, but most importantly our elections. You remember elections, don't you? They're the basis for calling our nation a representative democracy.

So where do I begin my story? With what is most fundamental about myself.

I'm a white American male.

...snip

One of the last phone calls I fielded was from a volunteer who had witnessed some election officials carrying the official ballot box at her precinct into a room where no one else could see what was going on. When she was prevented from following she called me. I asked her if any Democratic poll watchers had been present as the box was carried off. She said she wasn't sure but that she'd try to check. She called back in a little bit to say she couldn't be sure, but that now the ballot box had been taken out to someone's car and placed in his trunk. She had noticed that the official seal had been broken before the man got in his car to leave.

It doesn't seem right. Should I follow him? she asked me.

It was late. I knew she's been there all day in the rain. I knew the early reports had Kerry winning Ohio (and much of the rest of the country) based on the exit polling. Most of all I was tired and ready to get back to my Hotel and get some dinner. I made an executive decision.

No, don't worry about it, I told her. I'm sure one of the Democratic Party observers knows what's going on. Come on back.

Are you sure? She asked. Yeah, I'm sure. Just write up a report when you get back.

She said okay, and hung up.

Later that night, sitting on my hotel bed, watching TV as the "official" returns came in, I got a sick feeling in my stomach. Miraculously, stunningly, what had appeared to be an easy Kerry victory was fading away leaving behind a bitter taste in my mouth, as state after state switched from the Kerry column to the Bush column. I kept remembering that last phone call. A gnawing anxiety, fueled by my guilty conscience, began worming its way through my gut. I'd made the wrong decision. I'd fucked up big time. I finally turned off the television around 1:00 a.m. too depressed to keep watching.


Much more: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/6/18/10521/5585

[MelissaB]

34. discussion

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x434837

[Algorem]

33. Cleveland paper>Rest assured, we checked out Election 2004 thoroughly

http://www.cleveland.com/readers/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1150619659219900.xml&coll=2

Rest assured, we checked out Election 2004 thoroughly

Sunday, June 18, 2006
Ted Diadiun
Plain Dealer Columnist

Atop the June 15 issue of Rolling Stone magazine you will find the following, in white capital letters on a black background: "DID BUSH STEAL THE 2004 ELECTION? How 350,000 Votes Disappeared in Ohio."

Yes, he did, writes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a long, exhaustively footnoted piece that flows over 16 pages in the magazine.

The early exit polls that showed John Kerry winning the election; the stories of lost, delayed and denied voter registration cards; the long lines and other problems at many polling places; and the presence of Secretary of State Ken Blackwell as an overarching malevolent Republican presence all led Kennedy to conclude that a vast and wide-ranging series of conspiracies resulted in Kerry losing an election that the majority of Ohio voters wanted him to win.

So why, some readers have asked, hasn't The Plain Dealer written anything about this story? More importantly, why has Ohio's largest newspaper forced readers to depend on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Rolling Stone for the real story about what happened in the 2004 election?...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=434720&mesg_id=434720

[Wilms]

35. VoteTrustUSA: Key Component of Voting System Undergoes No Review

Please read this and post questions on the discussion thread if you don't understand something.

As Bill Bored said, this is "How to STEAL an Election -- for real!"

Key Component of Voting System Undergoes No Review

By VotersUnite.org
June 18, 2006

http://www.votersunite.org/info/BallotProgramming.pdf">Detailed reference information about ballot programming (.pdf)

Every voting system includes a key component, called the ballot definition file (BDF), that is never subjected to an outside review. Given that BDFs determine the way votes are recorded and counted, the lack of independent oversight of these files is a major security vulnerability. If BDFs are incorrectly prepared, the wrong candidate could be elected. Furthermore, while BDFs may be primarily data, they also include logic and perhaps even other software that could change the outcome of an election.

BDFs are unique for each election and define all the races and candidates for each precinct. BDFs tell the voting machine software how to interpret a voter's touches on a screen or marks on an optical scan ballot (including absentee ballots), how to record those selections as votes, and how to combine them into the final tally.

snip

Some election districts lack the technical expertise to prepare BDFs, and instead depend on the vendor or outside programmers for the preparation. Others prepare the BDFs themselves. In both cases, however, BDFs undergo very little testing and no independent audit before being used to determine the results of an election. Little wonder that many serious election disruptions have been caused by ballot definition errors. Other BDF errors have probably gone unnoticed, and some may have affected election outcomes.

snip

Since DREs (electronic voting machines) without an accurate voter-verified paper record provide no way to conduct an independent audit of the results, BDF errors on DREs are virtually undetectable. Given the known problems with BDFs on optical scan voting systems, it is reasonable to assume that similar but undetected errors have also occurred with DREs.

snip

The extreme complexity of election definition data, the complete lack of security procedures used to create them, the hopelessly inadequate testing: these problems raise serious questions about the accuracy of electronic vote counting — on both DREs and optical scanners.

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1401&Itemid=26


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x434895

[FogerRox]

36. 24, hours, around the clock, news service, the ERD, RATE THIS UP, KNR