Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Tuesday 7/26/06 2+2=5 Edition

[kpete]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Tuesday 7/26/06 2+2=5 Edition





The Matrix
by Spencer Overton, Tue Jul 25, 2006 at 06:53:01 AM EST

The following ideas are from the introductory chapter of the book Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression.


"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it."

-George Orwell, Nineteen-Eighty Four


In The Matrix, thirty-something Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) plods through life as a software programmer at the megacorporation Metacortex. Neo intuitively suspects that something is amiss in the world. As the story unfolds, Neo is guided to Morpheus.



Morpheus eventually explains. "It's that feeling you have had all your life. That feeling that something was wrong with the world. . . . The Matrix is everywhere, it's all around us, here even in this room. . . . It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth."


But contrary to conventional perception, American democracy is not an organic, grassroots phenomenon that mirrors society's preferences. In reality, the will of the people is channeled by a pre-determined matrix of thousands of election regulations and practices that most people accept as natural: the location of election district boundaries, voter registration deadlines, and the type and number of voting machines at a busy polling place. This structure of election rules, practices, and decisions filters out certain citizens from voting and organizes the electorate. There is no "right" to vote outside of the terms, conditions, hurdles, and boundaries set by the matrix. http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/7/25/6531/89990



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.ph ...
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).

[kpete]

1. Smartmatic says “absolutely no ownership” by the Venezuelan government

Smartmatic says “absolutely no ownership” by the Venezuelan government

Financial Times UK (Stephanie Kirchgaessner): The takeover last year of a California-based voting machine company by a group with ties to Venezuela has caught the attention of the Treasury-chaired committee that investigates deals on national security grounds.

The revelation that the committee on foreign investment, or Cfius, has shown interest in the deal -- and could initiate a retroactive review -- underscores how dramatically the vetting process for foreign takeovers has changed following the furore earlier this year over the approval by the Bush administration of the sale of five US port terminals to a Dubai-controlled company.

The US Treasury Department said it had made contact with Smartmatic, a private Delaware-incorporated subsidiary of a Dutch company that is controlled by Antonio Mugica, a Venezuelan citizen, but declined to comment on whether Cfius was reviewing the deal.

In the years before the Dubai controversy put Cfius at the centre of a political storm, the panel, comprising 12 government agencies, generally reviewed transactions involving sensitive defense technology. But the uproar over the approval of the Dubai deal, which ultimately scuppered it, has prompted the administration to take a tougher approach, in part because it is fighting off attempts in Congress to give lawmakers more oversight of Cfius.

more at:
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=64230

[kpete]

2. Testimony of Dr. David Wagner before House Committee

July 25, 2006 at 20:43:05
Testimony of Dr. David Wagner before House Committee
by Dr. David Wagner

http://www.opednews.com

WRITTEN TESTIMONY OF DAVID WAGNER, PH.D.
COMPUTER SCIENCE DIVISION
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND COMMITTEE ON HOUSE
ADMINISTRATION
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 19, 2006

http://www.house.gov/science/hearings/full06/july%2019/index.htm

QUOTES:

1) "The federal qualification process is not working. Federal standards call for voting machines to be
tested by Independent Testing Authorities (ITAs) before the machines are approved for use, but the
past few years have exposed shortcomings in the testing process. The ITAs are approving machines
with reliability, security, and accuracy problems....."

2) "These failures have exposed structural problems in the federal qualification process:
• The ITAs are paid by the vendors whose systems they are evaluating. Thus, the ITAs are
subject to conflicts of interest that raise questions about their ability to effectively safeguard
the public interest.
• The process lacks transparency, rendering effective public oversight difficult or impossible.
ITA reports are proprietary-they are considered the property of the vendor-and not open
to public inspection..."

3) "• Testing is too lax to ensure the machines are secure, reliable, and trustworthy. The federal
standards require only superficial testing for security and reliability. For instance, Califor-
nia's tests have revealed unexpected reliability problems in several voting systems previously
approved by ITAs..."

4) "• Even if an ITA finds a serious security flaw in a voting system, they are not required to report
that flaw if the flaw does not violate the VVSG standards. Thus, it is possible to imagine
a scenario where an ITA finds a flaw that could endanger elections, but where the ITA is
unable to share its findings with anyone other than the vendor who built the flawed system...."

more at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_dr__davi_060725_testimony_of_dr__dav.htm

[kpete]

3. "Preserving and Expanding the Right to Vote: Ranked-choice Voting"

July 25, 2006
ACS Issue Brief: David Cobb, Patrick Barrett and Caleb Kleppner on
"Preserving and Expanding the Right to Vote: Ranked-choice Voting"

ACS is pleased to distribute an analysis by David Cobb, Patrick Barrett, and Caleb Kleppner, entitled "Preserving and Expanding the Right to Vote: Ranked-choice Voting." David Cobb is a lawyer who ran for president in 2004 as the nominee of the Green Party and a Fellow with the Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution. Patrick Barrett, Ph.D., is the Administrative Director of the A. E. Havens Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Liberty Tree Fellow. Caleb Kleppner is a founding partner of Elections Solutions, has written related legislation for cities, counties and states, and assisted with the implementation of instant runoff voting in San Francisco, CA and Burlington, VT.

The most widely used voting system in the Unites States, plurality voting, allows for a candidate that the majority opposes to be elected. While perhaps the most notable example of this occurred in the Florida presidential election in 2000, this situation happens not only on the federal level but in state and local elections as well. In this paper, David Cobb, Patrick Barrett and Caleb Kleppner advance an alternative to plurality voting that has been adopted by a number of localities across America. Ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank candidates in order of choice. If a single candidate receives a majority of first-place votes, that candidate wins; if not, second-place (and if necessary, third-place and further) votes are counted until one candidate receives a majority. If a voter’s first-choice candidate does not win the election, her next-most preferred candidate receives his or her vote. Cobb, Barrett and Kleppner argue that that ranked-choice voting presents a unique opportunity to improve our democratic structure by diminishing negative campaigning, improving voter choice, promoting greater discussion of the issues, eliminating the need for costly runoff elections and, ultimately, increasing the political power of all voters.

Cobb et al argue that:

The right to vote has been rendered increasingly meaningless by the institutional features of US elections.
. . . .

The result is a highly uncompetitive and undemocratic electoral system that has made the act of voting increasingly hollow and futile, and thus goes a long way toward explaining why the United States has one of the lowest voter turnouts in the world, why people of color, working people, and women are severely underrepresented, and why serious social problems that are successfully addressed elsewhere go unaddressed here. Indeed, because of restricted choice,rather than strengthening democracy, US elections have served to concentrate power in the hands of entrenched and unaccountable social and economic elites. They have also contributed to a political culture of cynical resignation, in which the majority of potential voters regard voting as completely irrelevant and most others believe that casting and counting ballots for lesser or greater evils is all there is – or can be – to democracy.

more plus links at:
http://www.acsblog.org/voting-rights-democracy-2962-acs-issue-brief-david-cobb-patrick-barrett-and-caleb-kleppner-on-preserving-and-expanding-the-right-to-vote-rankedchoice-voting.html

[kpete]

4. Thailand: Thai court sentences poll commissioners to jail

Thai court sentences poll commissioners to jail
Tue Jul 25, 2006

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai court sentenced three Election Commissioners to four years in jail on Tuesday for mishandling April's snap election, which was later annulled, in an attempt to clear the way towards a re-run in October.

The commissioners' lawyer said they would appeal against the decision by Bangkok's Criminal Court three months after revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej ordered the courts to clean up the mess left behind by the inconclusive and then voided poll.

The lawyer also said he was seeking bail, but bewildered commissioner Prinya Nakchattree, who said on Monday they would appeal if found guilty, told reporters: "We don't know what to do next."

The three were released temporarily pending a bail hearing.

more at:
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-07-25T055131Z_01_BKK299393_RTRUKOC_0_UK-THAILAND.xml&src=rss

[kpete]

5. Mexico: In Mexico, Strains Along Democracy's Path

In Mexico, Strains Along Democracy's Path
Contested Vote Puts Electoral Reforms, Institutions to Test

By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 25, 2006

..........................

"It's good that we have the institutions to channel the challenges," said Carlos Heredia, who became a leading adviser to candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas after his loss in the contested 1988 presidential election. "What has me concerned is whether the institutions have the confidence of the citizenry -- that's the big question in the air."

A huge López Obrador rally earlier this month suggested that at least some do not have faith in the process. The candidate's supporters lampooned the system, booing each time the name of the electoral institute's chief, Luis Carlos Ugalde, was mentioned. Homemade banners read "No to the Institute of Electoral Fraud," and a sign, accompanied by a traditional Mexican skeleton figure, said "Democracy is dead."

Meanwhile, demonstrators have accused President Vicente Fox, of Calderón's National Action Party, of siding with Calderón and trying to limit their free-speech rights. Fox and Ugalde have responded to the attacks by vigorously defending the integrity of the electoral system.

But there are serious questions about the integrity of the elections court. A month before the election, the court's chief magistrate, Leonel Castillo, told Milenio magazine that the court would reject any recount request, a statement that would likely have led to demands for a recusal in a U.S. case.

more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/24/AR2006072400991.html

[kpete]

6. Michigan: New voting machines may fail, clerk warns

New voting machines may fail, clerk warns
Jul 26, 2006
By CHARLES CRUMM
Of The Oakland Press

Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson is warning that faulty voting machines could mean delays in processing Aug. 8 primary results and possibly even delays in voting if there's a high failure rate in the machines.
Advertisement

New voting equipment - required under the federal Help America Vote Act and in use countywide for the first time in the August primary - had numerous problems and a 15 percent failure rate in the smaller May election that didn't involve all county communities, Johnson said.

"Voters may see some waiting because the machines break down," Johnson said Tuesday.

In a survey after the May election, local clerks listed a variety of problems with the machines, including LED displays failing, jamming in the machines, overheating and faulty programming. Johnson also said the vendor - Omaha-based Electronic Systems & Software - hasn't provided the local support that's needed.

She said she also blames Congress for rushing to pass the legislation in 2002 after the 2000 election's "hanging chad" controversy, resulting in vendors being overwhelmed.

"The machines were built so fast and the quality control is so low that the new machines aren't as good as the ones we had 10 years ago," Johnson said Tuesday. "It's a national problem. All over the country, they're having these problems."

more at:
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/072606/loc_2006072612.shtml

[kpete]

7. FL Speculation: What would happen if she (Harris) won primary, then quit?

Originally published July 26, 2006
Harris buzz growing a bit louder
Speculation: What would happen if she won primary, then quit?

By Larry Wheeler
DEMOCRAT WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - It may be wishful thinking, but some Florida Republicans are contemplating what could be the most bizarre turn yet in Rep. Katherine Harris' beleaguered run for the U.S. Senate.

According to their speculation, Harris would withdraw from the race if she wins the GOP primary Sept. 5. Harris has told reporters that she has no plans of withdrawing, but the speculation continues.


..........................

It would be more than a little ironic if Florida's revamped election laws were used to replace Harris' name on the ballot. She came to national attention in 2000 when, as secretary of state, she presided over flawed vote recounts in the contested presidential election and ultimately certified George Bush as the winner, giving him Florida's 25 electoral votes and the White House.

Harris is facing three relatively unknown candidates in the Republican primary. LeRoy Collins is a businessman and retired from the U.S. Navy Reserve as a rear admiral whose father served as Florida's Democratic governor from 1955 to 1961. Peter Monroe is a developer and former federal Department of Housing and Urban Development official. Will McBride is an Orlando attorney.

more at:
http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060726/NEWS01/607260328/1010

[kpete]

8. VA: Former GC Mayor Convicted on 16 Counts of Election Fraud

Former GC Mayor Convicted on 16 Counts of Election Fraud
Lisa Watson McCarty
Publisher

Charles S. Dougherty, Jr. was fined
$32,000 and handed down a 32-day
jail sentence. He is expected to appeal
the decision.
Last Friday Gate City’s former mayor was convicted of 16 counts of election fraud in relation to the May 4, 2004 municipal election.

Charles Dougherty Jr. was indicted by the Scott County Special Grand Jury in August 200 on 37 counts of election fraud dealing mainly with securing absentee votes. In February, the former mayor was acquitted on two counts of conspiring to interfere with voting rights.

He faces another 15 felony counts with the trial on those counts scheduled for October.

This time round the jury of six men and six women deliberated a little more than 90 minutes during their lunch hour on Friday, July 21 before rendering a unanimous guilty verdict.

more at:
http://www.virginiastar.net/articles/ar06_0726/gcfraud.htm

[kpete]

9. AZ: Use of voting machines not up to him, judge says

Tucson Region
Use of voting machines not up to him, judge says
By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.26.2006

Arizona counties won't have to get rid of touch screen voting machines they are purchasing for the blind and disabled.

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge late Monday threw out claims by four people who charged the machines, manufactured by Diebold Elections Systems and Sequoia Voting Systems are not reliable. The lawsuit said they are not secure and can be "hacked."

Judge Barry Schneider refused to let the case go to trial, saying it wasn't his job to decide which machines are usable in Arizona.

"In effect, (the) plaintiffs are asking this court to substitute its opinion for those experts and others who have participated in the process," Schneider wrote.

But attorney Michael Liburdi said Schneider was missing the point.

He said the issue was not whether the process of selecting Diebold and Sequoia machines was fair but whether they can produce accurate, and verifiable, results. Liburdi said an appeal is being considered.

more at:
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/139473

[kpete]

10. Intermission

[kpete]

11. Lawless Elections: Sleepovers, Voter Vault and San Diego

Mimi Kennedy
07.25.2006

Lawless Elections: Sleepovers, Voter Vault and San Diego

On June 6, the first federal election regulated by HAVA - the Help America Vote Act - was held in San Diego, CA between Francine Busby (D) and Brian Bilbray(R) to decide which would take convicted Randy "Duke" Cunningham's (R) House seat in CA-50. The election drew nationwide scrutiny as a "bellwether" for the November hopes of both parties.

Diebold counted the vote - opti-scanning paper ballots and recording directly on touch-screen machines with a paper trail. Both types of machine use memory cards to transfer their totals to a central tabulator. The memory cards can contain code that can manipulate votes if so programmed and are small enough to pocket. Because both types of machine had been hacked in highly-publicized tests, federal and state regulators issued emergency security procedures to protect them from tampering. San Diego Registrar Mikel Haas defied those regulations by sending home hundreds of the machines with volunteer pollworkers for unsecured 'sleepovers' days and weeks before the election. This speech was given to activists gathering to prepare legal action at an Emergency Town Hall in Oceanside, CA (San Diego County.)

Brad Friedman told me to stress the bi-partisan nature of this gathering by saying I'm waiting for the Progressive Republicans of America to show up.

A lot of Republicans did show up in San Diego county the weekend before the election, according to the LA Times Opinion section last Sunday. They 'poured in' to CA-50, wrote authors Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten - but I don't think those were progressives. However, Lou Dobbs is doing stories on machine fraud capacity - so there's hope.

The LA Times article is one of many burbling up in the mainstream media lately about voting machines - Newsweek, USA Today. The Washington Post's headline tells the problem: "ONE PERSON CAN SWING AN ELECTION."

The Op-Ed piece began: "Four days before the election, Republican strategists in Washington were worried."

Who were these 'strategists?' It didn't give their names. In fact, the whole article stated things that were unsourced.

much more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mimi-kennedy/lawless-elections-sleepo_b_25729.html

[kpete]

12. Can Polling Location Influence How Voters Vote?

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Can Polling Location Influence How Voters Vote?
July 2006

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS — What would you say influenced your voting decisions in the most recent local or national election? Political preferences? A candidate’s stance on a particular issue? The repercussions of a proposition on your economic well-being? All these “rational” factors influence voting, and peoples’ ability to vote, based on what is best for them, is a hallmark of the democratic process.

But Stanford Graduate School of Business researchers, doctoral candidates Jonah Berger and Marc Meredith, and S. Christian Wheeler, associate professor of marketing, conclude that a much more subtle and arbitrary factor may also play a role—the particular type of polling location in which you happen to vote.

It’s hard to imagine that something as innocuous as polling location (e.g., school, church, or fire station) might actually influence voting behavior, but the Stanford researchers have discovered just that. In fact, Wheeler says “the influence of polling location on voting found in our research would be more than enough to change the outcome of a close election.” And, as seen in the neck-to-neck 2000 presidential election where Al Gore ultimately lost to George W. Bush after months of vote counting in Florida, election biases such as polling location could play a significant role in the 2008 presidential election. Even at the proposition level, “Voting at a school could increase support for school spending or voting at a church could decrease support for stem cell initiatives,” says Wheeler.

Why might something like polling location influence voting behavior? “Environmental cues, such as objects or places, can activate related constructs within individuals and influence the way they behave,” says Berger. “Voting in a school, for example, could activate the part of a person’s identity that cares about kids, or norms about taking care of the community. Similarly, voting in a church could activate norms of following church doctrine. Such effects may even occur outside an individual’s awareness.”

more at:
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/pubpolicy_wheeler_pollinglocation.shtml

[rumpel]

13. Mexico: ALMO Claims Mexico Electoral Fraud Unveiled

ePluribus Media

by XicanoPwr
Wed Jul 26, 2006 at 09:29:01 AM EST

In Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's (AMLO) fight to demand a recount of Mexico's July 2 presidential election, Prensa Latina is reporting that Mexico's "Por el Bien de Todos" coalition is presenting additional proof that electoral violations took place. Among the proof to be shown will be broken seals that were illegally opened at the ballot boxes and proof that a "US daily published propaganda favoring ruling candidate Felipe Calderon three days before the election, an incident that violates the Institutional Federal Code and Electoral Procedures in Mexico."

http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2006/7/26/9429/78339

[rumpel]

14. DC: McKinney Hit for Missing Vote on Voting Rights Act Amendment

CivilRights.org

July 26, 2006

Jonathan E. Kaplan
The Hill

Rep. Cynthia McKinney's (D-Ga.) Democratic opponent is criticizing her for missing a vote on an amendment to a bill reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that opponents argued would have gutted the legislation.

"Once again, Representative McKinney was missing in action for a crucial vote. While her colleagues fought the good fight, she was planning for that evening's festivities in New York. She let others carry the load and came in at the last minute to take credit for a fight already won," DeKalb County Commissioner Hank Johnson Jr. said in a statement after he was informed about the missed vote.

It is unclear why McKinney might have been traveling to New York City; she did not respond to requests for comment.

McKinney and Johnson, who are both black, will square off Monday in a debate in which Johnson is likely to highlight her missed vote. He forced a runoff election, scheduled for Aug. 8, by holding McKinney to 47 percent of the vote in last week's three-way primary.

McKinney had extolled the importance of voting to reauthorize the historic act on the House floor and in a radio address two weeks before the vote.

http://www.civilrights.org/

[rumpel]

15. DC: Judiciary Committee Schedules Hearing on D.C. Voting Rights Bill

Channel 7 (ABC)

Wednesday July 26, 2006 8:14am

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - A measure that would give D.C. a vote in Congress will get a critical hearing in the House Judiciary Committee.

The bill would expand the House by two seats, giving one to D.C. and the other to Utah. The Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution has announced it will take up the bill September 14th.

The measure passed a committee vote for the first time in May when it won approval by the House Government Reform Committee.

D.C.'s nonvoting House member, Eleanor Holmes Norton (website - news - bio) , says that was a historic vote. And she says the hearing in the Judiciary Committee could clear the way for a vote by the full House.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0706/347532.html

[rumpel]

16. CO: Bruce Faces Allegations Of Violating Election Laws

Channel 4 (CBS)

Jul 26, 2006 5:09 am US/Mountain

(AP) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. Officials from a fire protection district that lost its bid to raise taxes allege El Paso County Commissioner Douglas Bruce and author of the landmark Taxpayers Bill of Rights amendment broke election laws during voting May 2.

In its complaint filed Thursday with Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, the Falcon Fire Protection District said Bruce crossed the 100-foot electioneering border and urged voters standing in line to defeat the measure.

"None of it is true," said Bruce. "I distributed fliers by standing at the driveway where the 100 foot signs were posted but I did not cross the line."

Voters in Falcon, a community east of Colorado Springs, solidly defeated measures to increase the mill levy and issue $7.5 million in bonds to build fire stations, a training facility and buy fire trucks.

The district wants Suthers to prosecute Bruce. An affidavit signed by Alex Donnell, the president of the district and designated election official, also said Bruce picked up unused ballots and told an election judge: "It's OK, I'm a county commissioner."

Bruce called those allegations "nonsense.'

http://cbs4denver.com/local/local_story_207071050.html

[livvy]

17. K&R

:kick:

[rumpel]

18. MO: State Revenue Officials Confident on Photo Voter ID

Missourinet.com

by John Davis

In the wake of the Secretary of State's concerns about getting enough photo identifications to voters in time for November's elections, state revenue officials are offering an explanation of how they plan to get the job done. The state Department of Revenue estimates that about 170,000 voting-age Missourians don't have the photo identifications they'll need to vote in November's election. The agency's Lowell Pearson says not all of them will need them. But Pearson doesn't know exactly how many still might need one and won't even offer a guess. And he doesn't know how many the 25 mobile photo ID labs going to nursing homes, senior centers, assisted living centers, and sheltered workshops will be able to do each day because no one has done this before. Pearson does says despite sending the mobile labs out, the best idea still is to go into a regular fee office if you need a photo ID.

AUDIO: John Davis reports (:62 MP3)

Tuesday, July 25, 2006, 9:40 AM

[rumpel]

19. TN: Clerk candidate says election error was ‘innocent’ mistake

The Ashland City Times

Wednesday, 07/26/06

By CANDIS ANN SHEA
THE ASHLAND CITY TIMES

A violation occurred during early voting last week when a candidate assisted a voter at the machine, officials said.
Peggy Hunter, a candidate for Cheatham County clerk, said it was an “innocent” mistake when she helped a 70-year-old friend at a voting station.

Hunter said she was just trying to help and did not know she was doing anything wrong.

“If I even thought it was a problem, I wouldn’t have done that,” Hunter said.

Hunter said when she arrived at the election office last Wednesday with longtime friend Junior Reeves, a worker recognized her as a candidate and questioned whether it was OK for her to help the man.

Election officials decided it was OK as long as the proper voter assistance paperwork was completed.

http://www.ashlandcitytimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060726/MTCN0101/307260037/1291/MTCN01

[rumpel]

20. WA: Voters get their say on electing auditor

Sims denounces council decision to put issue on ballot

By NEIL MODIE
P-I REPORTER

Touching off a political brawl, King County Council Republicans and a maverick Democrat said Tuesday that they'll give voters in November the option to turn the troubled elections department over to an elected county auditor.

County Executive Ron Sims, a Democrat whose appointees now manage elections, angrily slammed the plan, saying it is "full of irony, hypocrisy and inconsistency when you look at past statements, actions and inactions of council members.

"I believe this is politically motivated to create doubt about an elections system that has made a remarkable turnaround since the 2004 elections," Sims said. Those elections exposed numerous operational problems and led to months of litigation.

Republicans said amending the county charter to place elections under an elected official is an important reform for a flawed department. Democrats said it would politicize an operation that ought to be under a professional administrator.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/278863_election26.html

[rumpel]

21. SC: Voting Rights Act Is Pillar for Fairness

MyrtleBeachonline The Sun News

OTHER VOICES
Posted on Wed, Jul. 26, 2006

America has come a long way in race relations. Evidence for that was last week's unanimous Senate vote for renewing the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, a measure President Bush plans to sign.

In fact, the enthusiastic support for the act in both chambers of Congress and the White House could raise a question about the present need for a law that was narrowly passed during the death throes of Southern segregation. Yet, the participation of minorities is too important in America's politics today to accept any risk of erosion. Even if it serves primarily as a monument to what good law can do, the Voting Rights Act deserves to maintain a revered place in the statute books.

Jim Crow laws kept Southern black Americans from exercising their Constitutional right to vote for much of the 20th century. It took nonviolent civil disobedience by the victims of those laws to call the nation's attention to the injustice of poll taxes and literacy tests. The violent reaction of some Southern authorities produced a national revulsion that led to the Voting Rights Act and other reforms.

The act swept away the discriminatory obstacles by regulating states and local jurisdictions with a history of blocking votes. Nine states, mostly in the South, and local jurisdictions in five other states have been required to seek the federal Justice Department's approval before changing voting procedures.

One particularly insidious tactic for diluting minority vote strength - unfairly drawn congressional and legislative redistricting maps - has been countered by Justice Department reviews. Without that check, in tandem with federal court decisions, North Carolina would doubtless have fewer black representatives than it does today.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/news/opinion/15123852.htm

[rumpel]

22. CA: Election Hearings to be Held in Bakersfield (announcement)

Bakersfield Online

By: Bill Curtis
2:36 PM Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
Viewed 18 times. Rating: 0

Kern County voters who had problems on Election Day and want to share their stories with the newly-formed Senate Select Committee on the Integrity of Elections are encouraged to contact the committee about testifying at its first hearing at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, July 31st, in the Kern County Board of Supervisors chambers located at 1115 Truxtun Avenue in Bakersfield.

"This past June the primary election here in Kern County was fraught with confusion, delays, and reporting errors. To me that is simply unacceptable. The integrity of our voting system is one of the most important assurances that we live in a free and open society," said Senator Ashburn.

Voters who wish to testify before the committee, or simply want to provide information to lawmakers, are encouraged to e-mail the committee at [e-mail]. Or to call the toll-free Elections Integrity number [phone].

The three-member select committee – which includes Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield), Senator Joe Dunn (D-Garden Grove), and Senator Debra Bowen (D-Redondo Beach) – intends to hold hearings over the next two months to look at problems that arose during the June 2006 primary election and consider solutions to prevent them from recurring in November.

The public is invited to attend the hearing and a complete list of witnesses scheduled to appear before the committee will be made available in the coming days.

(entire announcement)

http://www.bakersfieldonline.us/news/read/2/86099

[rumpel]

23. MI: Chicken Littles and voting rights

Metrotimes

The notion that the Voting Rights Act was imperiled has been swirling around for years.
by Keith A. Owens
7/26/2006
Sometimes people forget.

When President Lyndon Johnson won passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it was because it had become painfully obvious by then that black Americans, particularly black Americans in the South, didn't stand a chance of being afforded the most basic and elemental American right — the right to vote — without heavy-handed assistance from the highest levels of government. Johnson, who had grown up dirt-poor in the Texas hill country, was good at being heavy-handed. Given his background it isn't exactly shocking that he had some racist attitudes of his own to wrestle with and overcome. But as someone who never forgot what poverty and degradation could do to a human being, he was probably better equipped than any president since to recognize what those ills could do to the nation.

http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=9466

[rumpel]

24. WA: "Best Practices", maybe. But only in a world of pitifully low

expectations (Commentary-blog)

Sound Politics
Sound Commentary on Current Events in Seattle, Puget Sound and Washington State

King County Elections announced today that it "receives top honors for excellence in mail ballot processing" from a national association of election officials. We should all be appalled that the standards of excellence in election operations could be this low.

This document explains that the award is specifically to recognize the relatively small reconciliation discrepancies between mail ballots and mail voters in 2005. It's commendable that Deanron didn't make as many ballot goofs in 2005 as he did in 2004, but 2005 had its own share of problems. As we've mentioned before, roughly 390 ballots from the 2005 primary were apparently never tabulated and there has never been a public explanation for this. In the 2005 general election, we found that the overall error rate on mail ballots was 20%. Many of these are systemic failures of mail voting that are not directly under the control of the elections officials (e.g. voter forgot to sign ballot). But there were also other election official errors, such as the number of prevenatable illegal votes that were improperly tabulated, that were not included in the calculation that was the basis for King County's so-called "award for excellence".

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 25, 2006 10:03 PM

[rumpel]

25. FL: Voting rights progress, but not enough to relax

Palm Beach Post Editorial

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Forty years have passed since the Supreme Court upheld the Voting Rights Act of 1965, saying: "Congress had found that case-by-case litigation was inadequate to combat widespread and persistent discrimination in voting, because of the inordinate amount of time and energy required to overcome the obstructionist tactics invariably encountered in these lawsuits. After enduring nearly a century of systematic resistance to the 15th Amendment, Congress might well decide to shift the advantage of time and inertia from the perpetrators of the evil to its victims." Because states, counties and towns still exploit time and partisanship to disenfranchise ethnic minorities and Americans who have limited English skills, the Voting Rights Act needed to be extended, as Congress decided last week.

The 25-year extension renews protections that were set to expire next year: requiring nine states with a history of discrimination and parts of seven others, including five Central and Southwest Florida counties, to get Justice Department or federal court approval of any changes to voting procedures; giving the federal government authority to send examiners and observers to those areas if there are attempts to intimidate minority voters at the polls; and requiring bilingual ballots and other language assistance in areas with large numbers of citizens with limited English proficiency.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2006/07/26/a14a_votingrights_edit_0726.html

[rumpel]

26. GA: AP newsbreak: State election job may switch from Worley to Riley

MONTGOMERY, Ala. Governor Riley may end up with the job of completing Alabama's new voter registration computer system after Secretary of State Nancy Worley failed to get the job done on time. The Justice Department has sued Worley over not finishing the job on time and a federal judge has decided to appoint a special master to complete it.

http://www.wtvm.com/Global/story.asp?S=5196659&nav=8fap

[rumpel]

27. WAPO: Tech Trouble in the Voting Booth

Washington Post

Jurisdictions May Not Be Ready for New Gear, Analysis Says
By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, July 26, 2006; Page A15

Last year, a report called "Asking the Right Questions About Electronic Voting" took a look at the issues surrounding the move by most of the country's election jurisdictions to electronic voting machines. The report's theoretical approach contrasted with the often bitter dispute about the security of the technology between activists and voting-machine vendors.

The report's authors -- a committee of National Research Council experts, including prominent computer scientists and two former governors -- then turned their attention to this year's elections. What they found, according to a council analysis released yesterday, is not reassuring:

"Some jurisdictions -- and possibly many -- may not be well prepared for the arrival of the November 2006 elections with respect to the deployment and use of electronic voting equipment and related technology, and anxiety about this state of affairs among election officials is evident in a number of jurisdictions."

More than a third of all of the nation's 8,000 voting jurisdictions will use new voting technology for the first time this year, according to Election Data Services.

"This is a moment of truth for electronic voting," said panel co-chairman Richard L. Thornburgh, a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania and U.S. attorney general. "You've got a lot of people who are working for the first time with the new technology. It should impart a greater note of caution than what you might normally attend to a regular election."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/25/AR2006072501355.html

[rumpel]

28. Verified Voting: Mandatory Manual Audits of Voter-Verified Paper Records

Map of States status- Front page

Help us complete the legislative push toward reliable, secure, verifiable, and transparent elections! Please visit our action center (click here) to turn the whole country green with voter-verified paper records and mandatory manual audits of those records. Click on the map to see our legislation tracking web page.

http://verifiedvoting.org/

[rumpel]

29. MI: Mandates lead to pre-election snags

Huron Daily Tribune

Kate Finneren, The Huron Daily Tribune
07/26/2006

HURON COUNTY -

With only 13 days left until the Aug. 8 primary, Huron County and its 30 precincts still are without the equipment needed to administer this year's election Huron County Clerk Peggy Koehler said it's a problem of "getting too much, too late."

"It's just too much new stuff at the final hour and it's been pretty crazy," said Koehler, referring to new ballot marking devices to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and new tabulators to compute results.

The Secretary of State and U.S. government is requiring each precinct in the state of Michigan to have the two new pieces of elections equipment - which combined cost more than $10,000 - by the Aug. 8 primaries, she said.

Unfortunately, the time window is shrinking and the problems are mounting.

http://www.michigansthumb.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16968784&BRD=2292&PAG=461&dept_id=571474&rfi=6

[rumpel]

30. Voting law hearing begins

Thanks to OmahaSteve

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2414444

[kpete]

31. OH: Democrats eye Ohio in quest for House gains

Democrats eye Ohio in quest for House gains

By Andrea Hopkins
Reuters
Wednesday, July 26, 2006; 2:06 PM

ROSS, Ohio (Reuters) - The last time John Cranley ran for Congress, George W. Bush was on his way to the U.S. presidency and Cranley, a 26-year-old Democrat, did not come close to unseating the Republican incumbent in southwest Ohio.

Six years later, Cranley is facing the same opponent, Rep. Steve Chabot, but the politics have changed. Republicans are burdened by bad news in Iraq, a gaping budget deficit and Bush's slumping popularity.

Cranley believes his district -- which, like the state, voted 51 percent for Bush in 2004 -- is ready for a new voice.

"We have a situation where if people want to register change, the only way they can register change is to vote for me," Cranley said as he campaigned at an amusement park outside Cincinnati.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which helps organize and fund key races, has labeled Ohio "ground zero" in its attempt to gain 15 seats and take control of the House of Representatives. It calls Cranley's race one of its three best chances to gain ground in Ohio, which decided the 2004 election for Bush.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072601118_pf.html

[kpete]

32. MOMENT OF TRUTH: New Report Highlights Danger Of E-Voting

New Report Highlights Danger Of E-Voting
By Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA
July 26, 2006

"This is a moment of truth for electronic voting" warns former Republican Governor of Pennsylvania and U.S. Attorney General, Richard Thornburgh


Report Blasts Cost, Inadequate and Compromised Testing of E-Voting Systems and Inappropraite Involvement of Voting Machine Vendors


A report released by The Committee on A Framework for Understanding Electronic Voting of the National Research Council has recommended that jurisdictions must ensure the availability of backup mechanisms and procedures for use in the event of any failure of e-voting equipment or related technology. This recommendation came as a result of the report’s determination that "Some jurisdictions - and possibly many - may not be well prepared for the arrival of the November 2006 elections with respect to the deployment and use of electronic voting equipment and related technology, and anxiety about this state of affairs among election officials is evident in a number of jurisdictions."



The report, a follow-up to a report issued last year entitled “Asking the Right Questions About Electronic Voting”, is yet another warning flag about the ongoing crisis that the widespread use of electronic voting technology has created. The committee, which included prominent computer scientists and two former Governors, heard testimony at a workshop held on May 12, 2006 from members of the Election Assistance Commission, and several state and county election officials, ranging from Maryland State Election Director Linda Lamone to Leon County Florida Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho.

The report confirmed many of the concerns that voter advocacy groups have been voicing for years and even acknowledged the influence that such groups have gained in the electronic voting debate. “Many of these groups focus on security issues and play an increasingly important role in focusing public attention on the conduct of elections and in stimulating state legislative action intended to mitigate security risks.”

The earlier report had already noted the unanticipated cost increase resulting from a switch to electronic voting systems. The new report comfirmed that “Jurisdictions are becoming more aware of the cost implications of deploying electronic voting systems. In particular, the fact that the initial acquisition cost of an electronic voting machines is only a fraction of the total life-cycle cost.” Since federal funding to “upgrade” voting systems from the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) did not include funding for ongoing maintenance and storage, many jurisdictions are facing the November elections without adequate financial resources.

much more at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1575&Itemid=26

http://www.votetrustusa.org/pdfs/NASReport

[Wilms]

41. Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x443578

[autorank]

33. Arguably the best ERD News Graphics Yet!!! K&R

[mod mom]

34. OH: Rove Confident GOP will Keep Gov & Senate in Ohio

You gotta wonder why is he confident:

Rove Revs up troops for GOP candidates
Presidential adviser calls on county parties to win election for Blackwell, DeWine
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH



Despite ominous early poll numbers and an Ohio political climate rocked by scandals, presidential adviser Karl Rove said he remains confident that Republicans can keep the governor’s office and a U.S. Senate seat this fall.

A Dispatch mail poll published Sunday showed Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell trailing by 20 points and Republican U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine by 8 points. But Rove said in a brief interview after a speech in Columbus last night that he thinks both still can win.

"I feel very good about both races," Rove said, adding that he spoke with Blackwell yesterday and DeWine in recent days. "They’ve got good campaigns, strong messages and the resources to get it done."

Rove was the featured speaker at the second-annual fundraising dinner for the seven central Ohio counties’ Republican parties at Villa Milano on the North Side. He thanked Republicans for helping to re-elect Bush in 2004 and urged them to repeat that effort this fall.



<SNIP>

http://www.ohioelects.com/?story=dispatch/2006/07/26/20060726-A4-01.html

[mod mom]

35. OH: Pressure Building on Elections Board (Cuyahoga Co)

Pressure building on elections board




Cleveland Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones and the North Shore Federation of Labor plan to stage a noon rally at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Friday to call for the resignations of board director Michael Vu and deputy director Gwen Dillingham.

They could be joined by officials from the Cleveland chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said Tubbs Jones spokeswoman Nicole Williams.

The rally follows last week’s release of a 400-page report detailing the extensive problems that led to the county’s disastrous May primary election, in which vote results were delayed for more than week.

The report largely blamed Vu and Dillingham. The four-member board remains deadlocked over whether to fire them.

<snip>
http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/

[mod mom]

36. More discussion on Cuyahoga's Vu at this DU link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1739266

[rumpel]

37. DU: Lou Dobbs did a piece on paper ballots and Diebold

Thanks to ZombyWoof

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1739639

General Discussion thread

:)

[kpete]

38. Chicken Littles and voting rights

Chicken Littles and voting rights

Sometimes people forget.

When President Lyndon Johnson won passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it was because it had become painfully obvious by then that black Americans, particularly black Americans in the South, didn't stand a chance of being afforded the most basic and elemental American right — the right to vote — without heavy-handed assistance from the highest levels of government. Johnson, who had grown up dirt-poor in the Texas hill country, was good at being heavy-handed. Given his background it isn't exactly shocking that he had some racist attitudes of his own to wrestle with and overcome. But as someone who never forgot what poverty and degradation could do to a human being, he was probably better equipped than any president since to recognize what those ills could do to the nation.


After the Civil War, African-Americans in the former Confederacy voted in record numbers. Naturally this made white folks nervous because they knew the power of the vote, and, with the withdrawal of federal troops in 1876, they set about putting black folk back in their place — as close to their former condition of slavery and as far from the ballot box as possible.



Poll taxes and literary tests were among the gentler barriers to keep blacks from voting; when those failed there were lynchings and other forms of violence.



Only after the civil rights movement of the 1960s did those barriers fall. Even with the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, years remained before black people could vote in the South without unreasonable fear of being harassed or intimidated. But vote they did, resulting in the election of record numbers of black officials.

more at:
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=9466

[kpete]

39. Something stinks in Alaska.

Something stinks in Alaska. John Gideon of Brad Blog has received some amazing facts about the 2004 vote in that state -- where the Secretary of State has tried to keep the info hidden:
The State of Alaska website shows 16 of 40 house districts with more than 200% voter turnout, Also, if you add up the vote totals from each district they come to more than 100,000 votes for state wide candidates than the summary reports show.

More than 7 months ago the Democrats asked for an explanation. The state said it could not release the data files because they were proprietary to Diebold.

Diebold gave the state permission to release the files.

The state still refused.

more at:
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2006/07/astounding-vote-fraud-news.html

[Wilms]

40. K & R n/t