Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday, August 5, 2006

[livvy]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.



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

If you can:
1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407240

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).

[livvy]

1. AL: Reimbursement Iffy For Voting Machines

08/04/2006
Reimbursement iffy for voting machines
By: Patrick Johnston - Tribune managing editor

Every Alabama county but one should be reimbursed for purchasing new voting machines designed for disabled voters.
Barbour County is the one county that might not be reimbursed. Why? Because the county has not met standards set forth in the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"There was one county that had a problem. You want to guess which one it is?" county administrator Jackie Guthrie asked at Tuesday's commission work session. "It was because we were honest and said our polling places were not handicap-accessible."

According to the legislation, everything from wheelchair ramps to water fountains and handicap-accessible bathrooms must be provided at each precinct. Counties where facilities do not meet ADA standards risk not being reimbursed for some elections expenses, such as the machines. That means Barbour County might be out $140,000 for the cost of machines.

County commission chairman Earl Gilmore suggested the county look at closing some polling precincts. The county currently operates 20 precincts on an Election Tuesday, but many of those precincts are in small towns where only a few dozen voters go to the polls. In the most recent election for sheriff there were four precincts reporting fewer than 50 voters-the Texasville Community Center, Sutton's Restaurant, Elamville Volunteer Fire Department and Cowikee Volunteer Fire Department.

>more

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17013964&BRD=2235&PAG=461&dept_id=439676&rfi=6

[livvy]

2. AZ:County Supervisors OK Use Of Diebold Touch Screen Voting Machines

County Supervisors OK Use Of Diebold Touch Screen Voting Machines

By Jim Becker, KOLD News 13 Reporter

In spite of protests by several activists and political leaders, Pima County Supervisors have approved use of the Diebold TSx touch screen machines for use during September primaries and November general elections.

Some activists accuse the company of manipulating elections with so-called 'cheat codes' in the machines, and those attending a special public meeting are not convinced the county is equipped to prevent a fix.

"We're talking about a company controlling an election," said Rep. Ted Downing, a Democrat representing the 28th District.

There are other concerns about hacking into voting machines to change results.

Pima County staffers insist those concerns have been addressed.

>more

http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=5242736&nav=14RT

[livvy]

3. AZ: Diebold Voting Machines Subject of Fri. Morning Sup. Meeting

Published: 08.03.2006

Diebold voting machines subject of Friday morning supervisors meeting
Tucson Citizen

The use of a controversial voting machine in early voting will be the topic of a special meeting Friday morning of the Pima County Board of Supervisors.

The board has bought more than 400 Diebold touch-screen voting machines, which hve been criticized in Tucson and across the country as vulnerable to hackers.

Supervisors will meet at 9 a.m. Friday at the County Administration Building, 130 W. Congress, in the board's first floor hearing room.
Subscribe to the Tucson Citizen


http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/21381.php

[livvy]

4. AZ: Disabled Voters in Pima County Will Be Able To Vote Using Touch-Screen

County supervisors authorize touch-screen voting machines for disabled
By Erica Meltzer
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.04.2006

Disabled voters in Pima County will be able to vote using touch-screen technology in the September primary and the November general election.

A 3-1 vote of the Pima County Board of Supervisors Friday authorizes the use of the Diebold TS-X voting machines in the upcoming election. The vote brings Pima County in compliance with the Help America Vote Act, which requires that the disabled have the ability to vote in secret, rather than with assistance.

But dozens of political activists, most of them from the Democratic Party, said the decision actually jeopardizes the rights of the disabled. They say the machines have enough security flaws that the public cannot be sure votes will be counted as they are cast.

Pima County officials said they are taking every precaution possible. The supervisors called for an audit of all votes cast on the electronic voting machines.

>more

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/140799.php

[livvy]

5. CA: New Voters With Disabilities Suit in California

New Voters With Disabilities Suit in California

By Joseph Hall, University of California, Berkeley
August 03, 2006

This article was posted on Joesph Hall's Not Quite A Blog.

As Dan Tokaji and Cindy Cohn point out, a lawsuit was filed on Tuesday by advocates of people of disabilities against the Secretary of State in California and seven counties in California (See " Disability Rights Suit Over California Voting Equipment" and "Voting Security Attacked In Court Again"). Here is a searchable (OCR'd) version of that complaint.

Dan does a great job of summarizing the suit so I'll try not to be redundant with what he said. I do want to point out a few things that I found interesting.

First, it is interesting to note which counties are not named as defendants in the suit. A quick glance at the Secretary of State's list of voting systems used by each county in California's recent primary election shows that there are counties that meet the exact criteria of some of the defendants but that were not named. None of the twenty counties using the Sequoia AVC Edge DRE with VVPAT or the four counties using the Hart eSlate DRE with VVPAT were included despite the fact that neither of these systems read the contents of the VVPAT record to voters with visual disabilities. The suit names only three out of the eleven counties that used the AutoMARK for HAVA compliance. It also only names Alameda county as having violated HAVA by using the VVPAT-enabled version of the DESI AccuVote-TSx when there are ten other counties that used the same model (including the largest, Los Angeles County, where presumably many voters with visual and manual disabilities reside). The plaintiffs fault Yolo county for not having an accessible system at all, which Dan notes is a serious issue of HAVA non-compliance.1 However, the suit also claims in paragraph 13 that six other counties were in the same situation but does not name these counties as defendants (and the suit neglects to mention Nevada county which also had to rely on HAVA-non-compliant optical scanners). I'm unsure as to why the plaintiffs chose this particular set of defendants and didn't simply list every single county in California as violating their reading of the accessibility provisions of HAVA.

A second issue that Dan mentions concerns whether there exists a private right of action under HAVA. If the court finds that there is no private right of action, four out of the five claims -- the HAVA-specific ones -- will be moot. Dan points out that the 6th Circuit has ruled in Sandusky County Democratic Party v. Blackwell that there is no such private right of action under section 302 of HAVA. However, the accessibility provisions are from section 301 of HAVA, which broadly requires states to meet a minimum set of standards for voting technologies used in federal elections.

>more

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1632&Itemid=26

[livvy]

6. CA: E-Voting Security Under Fire In San Diego Lawsuit

E-voting security under fire in San Diego lawsuit
Machine practices, ballot reliability in doubt

Marc Songini

August 04, 2006 (Computerworld) -- A lawsuit has grown out of alleged breaches in security procedures around electronic voting machines in San Diego County after a hotly contested congressional election, throwing a spotlight on the reliability of the machines themselves.

The suit, filed on Monday, requests that a special election on June 6 to fill the 50th Congressional District seat be invalidated. It also seeks a complete hand recount of the paper ballots, said Paul Lehto, an Everett, Wash.-based attorney handling the case. The suit was filed in Superior Court in San Diego and names Mikel Haas, county registrar of voters, and Brian Bilbray, the winner of the seat, as defendants.

San Diego voters used AccuVote optical-scan and TSx touch-screen systems from Diebold Election Systems.

Whatever the specific merits of the suit, it could heighten some citizens' concerns about e-voting technology if critics' claims of the inherent security deficiencies get debated in court during the run-up to the fall elections.

>more

http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=standards_legal_issues&articleId=9002204&taxonomyId=146

[Stevepol]

7. TN county has ES&S glitch that gives the wrong result ala IA problem.

Looks TN may be getting a taste of the problems that Pottawattamie County IA had, maybe a ballot definition problem? Maybe just a "glitch" caused by all the lines of programming inserted to be used to throw elections wrongly interacting with one another and creating some strange result. Who knows. Courtesy VotersUnite



Friday, 08/04/06

Williamson County: Glitches may result in changes to original election results

By MITCHELL KLINE
& JILL CECIL WIERSMA
Staff Writers

FRANKLIN - When Williamson County Commissioner Mary Mills went to bed Thursday night, election results indicated she was the highest vote getter in her three-candidate race. When she woke up this morning, those results changed and she was at the bottom of the heap.

“I thought I’d won, then this morning it doesn’t look like that,” Mills said. “I want to be the one that wins but if I don’t, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

snip... Yadayadayada. The usual lame excuses.

Link: http://www.dicksonherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060804/COUNTY090101/60804024

[livvy]

8. CO: Boulder County-Use of DRE's Producing Mixed Reports

By RICHARD VALENTY Colorado Daily Staff Writer
Thursday, August 3, 2006 9:15 PM MDT

Boulder County's first foray into the use of Direct Record Electronic voting machines in a live election is producing mixed reports - of both user satisfaction and voting activist scrutiny.

Josh Liss, the county's elections coordinator, said Thursday that early voting activity for the August 8 political party primaries has been light to date. He said as of Wednesday, 807 total ballots had been cast, with 468 voters choosing to use the new Hart InterCivic “eSlate” electronic (DRE) machine and 339 voting on paper ballots.

The county leased more than 200 eSlates for the 2006 primary and general contests, in part because voters with certain disabilities can use the machines unassisted, but able-bodied voters are allowed to use the eSlate as well.

“It's actually been quite popular,” said Liss. “And one of the comments we've heard from voters afterwards is that it's a lot faster than filling out paper.”

>more including a description of Boulder County's "Sleepover" of machines

http://coloradodaily.com/articles/2006/08/03/news/c_u_and_boulder/news3.txt

[livvy]

9. CO: County Clerk Clarifies (Primary Voting Process)

County Clerk clarifies
By es for area voters

By CRYSTAL TERRELL

LDN Staff Writer

Friday, August 04, 2006 -

Early voting is already underway and for those who are unaware of the details associated with the process in voting in a Primary Election, a request was made for clarification on the subject by the .(deletion is theirs)

>snip

According to McCaslin, in the Primary Election voters must affiliate with either the Democratic or Republican party. McCaslin notes that currently the deadline to register as a Democrat or Republican has expired, nearly four weeks ago, on July 10th. Therefore if a person is listed as a Democrat or Republican they cannot change their party affiliation.

McCaslin reports that any Unaffiliated voter who chooses to vote in the Primary Election must go to the polls and at that time declare themselves to be either a member of the Democratic or Republican party.

Unfortunately, there are restrictions. For example if there are multiple candidates running on a ticket, such as the Prowers County Commissioners ballot, a Democrat cannot select among the Republican candidates, they may only select a Democrat. Furthermore, if no Democratic candidate is running on a ticket such as in the Prowers County Sheriff's ballot section, a Democrat cannot vote for one of the Republican candidates.

Any Unaffiliated voters however, would be able to select their party affiliation and vote accordingly.

>more

http://www.lamardaily.com/Stories/0,1413,121~7979~3361999,00.html

[livvy]

10. FL: Technology Will Make Early Voting Faster, More Accurate

Technology Will Make Early Voting Faster, More Accurate

POSTED: 7:00 pm EDT August 3, 2006
UPDATED: 8:10 pm EDT August 3, 2006
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- The deadline for registering for the September primary is Monday. Officials said that in contrast to two years ago when a close presidential race prompted huge voter signup drives, they are seeing no great rush to register.

Meanwhile, balloting begins in a little more than two weeks, when early voting kicks off. Elections officials pledged that there will not be the hours-long lines that bedeviled early voting last time.

In 2004, early voters had to be patient. Now, those who will staff early voting sites said that improved technology, including the voting machines themselves, should fix some big problems.

"Every single machine in every location will be able to get any ballot up," said Miami-Dade Elections Deputy Director Ivy Korman,.

>more

http://www.nbc6.net/news/9625894/detail.html

[livvy]

11. KS: Voters Ask For More Privacy-New Voting Machines Get Favorable...

Voters ask for more privacy - New voting machines get favorable grade after primary election

By STEVE SMITH Times Staff Writer
Published: Friday, August 4, 2006 9:25 AM CDT

All that homework - the kind done in some now vacated office space on the first floor of the historic Butler County Courthouse - paid off.

Tuesday's primary election marked the debut of new voting machines the county has purchased.

For the time being the new voting machines have been stored in the first floor courthouse office space formerly occupied by the county's engineering department.

That is where a county election department crew worked to have them in proper working order for Tuesday's primary and also trained polling precinct workers.

>more

http://www.eldoradotimes.com/articles/2006/08/04/news/news2.txt

[livvy]

12. MI: Detroit Announces New Election Policies

Detroit announces new election policies

BY MARISOL BELLO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

August 4, 2006

The city of Detroit’s director of elections on Friday announced changes to the way the city will handle elections that he says will eliminate many of the problems that arose during last year’s election and recount.

The office is using new voting machines that will replace the outdated ones used in elections past, said director Daniel Baxter.

Since January, when the new city clerk Janice Winfrey took office, the department has purged the city’s voter rolls of 23,000 people who have died, Baxter said. That brings the number to 611,000 registered Detroit voters.

Another 33,000 voters are expected to be purged after the November election, Baxter said.

>more

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060804/NEWS99/60804010

[livvy]

13. MI: Some Upset By Non-Voter Letter

08/04/2006
Some upset by non-voter letter
Stuart Frohm , Midland Daily News

Some Midland County residents recently got mail from East Lansing on blue paper, listing whether they and their neighbors voted in the primary and general election two years ago.

That disclosure bothered, irritated or angered some recipients and others here and elsewhere in Michigan.

Some might be discouraged from voting, Midland County Clerk Karen Holcomb said. "I don't understand what its purpose is."

East Lansing political consultant Mark Grebner isn't surprised by the hundreds of messages of objection and concern his company received after sending the mail.

He explained that:

* The mail, paid for with money provided through two Yale University professors, is part of a "huge study" of what motivates voter turnout.

* Four differing messages were sent, with 180,000 Michigan households getting one or another of them.

Approximately 1,800 of those households are in Midland County, Grebner guessed. Some of those got a version saying whether they and their neighbors voted in the 2004 primary, general election, neither or both.

>more

http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17014307&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472542&rfi=6

[livvy]

14. MO: Suit Seeks to Block Mo. Voter ID Law

Suit Seeks to Block Mo. Voter ID Law

Aug 3, 1:47 PM (ET)

By KELLY WIESE

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Opponents of a new state law requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification filed a second lawsuit Thursday, claiming it could discourage or prevent people from voting in November.

The challenge filed in Cole County Circuit Court seeks a preliminary injunction to block the law from taking effect Aug. 28 and wants the law declared unconstitutional.

Plaintiffs include several voters who say they lack an acceptable ID under the new law and therefore could not cast a regular ballot in the November general election.

Republican Gov. Matt Blunt has praised the new law as a way to build public trust in elections.

>more

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060803/D8J93E000.html

[livvy]

15. MO: Step Right Up To Your New Voting Future

Posted on Fri, Aug. 04, 2006

Step right up to your new voting future VIDEO
Forget the old punch-card booths used for decades — Jackson County introduces new machines.
By DAVE HELLING
The Kansas City Star

After nearly 30 years of casting votes by chad — hanging, dimpled, pregnant, or punched through — Jackson Countians will face a brand new way of voting Tuesday in the Missouri primary.

Election boards in Kansas City and Jackson County have spent the last two months inspecting, programming and testing hundreds of new electronic voting machines. The machines, paid for in large part by the federal government, are replacing hundreds of punch-card voting booths used here since the mid-1970s.

>snip

Inkavote
Jackson County voters outside of Kansas City will use a system called Inkavote, made by Election Systems and Software of Omaha, Neb.

>snip

Optical scan
Most Kansas City voters will use an optical scan machine made by Ohio-based Diebold. Each polling place will have four to eight booths, in which voters cast ballots by filling in an oval next to a candidate’s name or issue.

>snip

Touch screens
Diebold’s touch screen voting machines will be available in Kansas City for voters with disabilities or for those who choose to use the machines. The touch screen machines work much like an ATM: Voters touch a candidate’s name to register a choice.

>more

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/15193896.htm

on edit: oops...wrong state!

[livvy]

16. OH: Activists: Advisory Proves Blackwell Suppressing Vote

Activists: Advisory proves Blackwell suppressing vote
Friday, August 04, 2006
Ted Wendling
Plain Dealer Bureau Chief

Columbus -- Voting-rights activists on Thursday produced what they said is the most compelling evidence to date that Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell is trying to suppress the vote in November.

In an advisory that contradicts a provision in the voter-reform bill legislators passed last year, Blackwell's office informed county boards of election on June 5 that voters must present a photo ID "showing the voter's name and current address" to cast a regular ballot.

That conflicts with the new law, which permits a person to vote by regular ballot even if the ID -- typically a driver's license -- has the voter's former address.

After ignoring the activists groups' entreaties since early June -- even after they threatened to go public -- Blackwell's office sent an e-mail to all 88 county elections boards Thursday. It reiterated instructions the office sent in May that voters who present an ID with a former address may cast a regular ballot if they provide the last four digits from their ID card.

>more

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1154680349161840.xml&coll=2

[livvy]

17. OH: Court Affirms Blackwell Owes $65,000 in Legal Fees

Article published August 4, 2006

Court affirms Blackwell owes $65,000 in legal fees
Sandusky County Dems challenged voting directive

BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU

COLUMBUS — Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell must pay nearly $65,000 in legal fees incurred by the Sandusky County Democratic Party when it successfully challenged one of the chief elections officer’s directives over provisional ballots in 2004.

The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a court order that determined Mr. Blackwell would not have brought his directives into compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act if not for the lawsuit.

Prior to the 2004 presidential election, U.S. District Judge James Carr in Toledo determined Mr. Blackwell’s directives failed to say poll workers had to allow voters to cast provisional ballots even if they believed the voters were in the wrong precinct.

As a result, Mr. Blackwell sent revised directions to poll workers informing them that provisional ballots would be provided in such cases but only counted if subsequent investigation showed the voters were indeed eligible to vote.

>more

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060804/NEWS02/60804031

[livvy]

18. WI: Glitches Mean Lists Of Felons, Dead People Won't Be Checked

Posted on Sat, Aug. 05, 2006

Glitches mean lists of felons, dead people won't be checked
Associated Press

MADISON — Technical glitches and data problems will prevent the state's new voter database from being checked against lists of felons or dead people this fall, elections officials say.

And Wisconsin Elections Board spokesman Kyle Richmond said the database also will not be compared with the Department of Transportation's file of driver's license numbers before fall elections.

Election officials have said they plan to roll out the database to nearly all municipalities by the Sept. 12 primary.

But Richmond said that even when technical hurdles with the felons list are overcome, elections officials will be unable to use the list of felons provided by the Department of Corrections because it does not include dates of birth or valid addresses for many of the 63,000 felons on the list. A check of 7,000 entries found about half had problems, he said.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/15202359.htm

on edit: Wrong state again! Duh!

[livvy]

19. GA: Long Lines, Some Glitches With Teacher Gift Cards

Posted on Fri, Aug. 04, 2006

Long lines, some glitches with teacher gift cards

DOUG GROSS
Associated Press

ATLANTA - As Gov. Sonny Perdue traveled the state Friday to tout a $100 gift card for Georgia teachers, one day after the four-day period to spend the money began, office and school-supply stores reported long lines and emptying shelves.

The cards, approved by the Legislature this year, are designed to help offset the hundreds of dollars some teachers pay each year for classroom supplies their schools don't buy.

>snip

Critics, including some teachers, called the move an election-year gimmick by Perdue, a Republican, who will face Democratic Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor in November.

In addition to the five-city flyaround - a trip Taylor's campaign called the "Tour de Fraud" - a letter signed by Perdue was included with every gift card. It called the card "a small token of appreciation from me, the Legislature and the people of Georgia."

"Gimmicks instead of governing, that's what you get from Sonny Perdue," said Taylor spokesman Rick Dent. "Our teachers need higher pay, our classes are overcrowded and our schools are underfunded, and Sonny just sits and does nothing."

>more

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/15200767.htm

[livvy]

20. TN: Delays in Voting, Results May Recur in November

Saturday, 08/05/06
Delays in voting, results may recur in November

By TRENT SEIBERT,
MITCHELL KLINE
and JILL CECIL WIERSMA
Staff Writers

Voting machine foul-ups across the state during the primary election Thursday are sparking concerns that problems may not be worked out by the Nov. 7 general election.

Delays beset voters throughout the Midstate, including in Sumner, Rutherford, Hamilton and Coffee counties. Voters were concerned about lines, as well as a lack of privacy while they cast their ballots in a Davidson County precinct.

In Williamson County, officials got two different vote totals and are trying to reconcile them for a final count — particularly in two races where the difference affected the outcome.

>snip

Ann Beard, election registrar in Williamson County, said results that were reported at 9:09 p.m. Thursday did not match results reported at 2 a.m. Friday.

"It's more than likely a problem with the software or human error," Beard said.

>more

http://www.ashlandcitytimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060805/NEWS0206/608050345/1291/MTCN01

[livvy]

21. NJ: Penns Grove Dems' Court Fight Builds

Penns Grove Dems' court fight builds
Saturday, August 05, 2006
By CHRISTOPHER WEIR
Staff Writer

PENNS GROVE -- A local political organization has added more information to its complaint in Superior Court against a rival club that it says backs up its allegations of voter fraud in the June 6 Democratic Primary Election here.

Members of the Stevenson Club, a Democrat political action committee in Penns Grove, filed the complaint 10 days after the election, contesting its outcome.

In the June primary, Democrats John Scarpaci and Sonya Worley, who received 398 votes and 405 votes respectively, defeated fellow Democrats Richard A. Rowe and Robert T. Walters, who received 269 votes and 261 votes.

The four Democrats were competing for the two slots on the fall General Election ballot.

>more

http://www.nj.com/news/sunbeam/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1154760144227660.xml&coll=9

[livvy]

22. Mexico: Presidency Ruling Expected

Posted on Sat, Aug. 05, 2006


Presidency ruling expected
TENSE, MEXICO CITY AWAITS WORD SOON
By Christina Hoag
Miami Herald

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's electoral tribunal is expected to rule this weekend on whether it will order a recount of the razor-thin results of the presidential election that apparent losing candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador says was marred by fraud.

The tribunal's announcement Friday cast a pall of trepidation over the capital city, where several thousand López Obrador followers have blockaded a main thoroughfare with tents since Sunday to pressure the court to make a prompt decision.

The seven magistrates' ruling will determine whether the National Action Party's Felipe Calderón will maintain the victory he claimed after the July 2 vote or whether a partial or complete recount must begin.

Calderón won the initial count by 244,000 votes, less than 1 percentage point, and he contends that the election was free and fair. López Obrador maintains that in 173 of 300 voting districts, the ballot was riddled with fraud and tabulation errors.

At stake is not only Mexico's presidency, but also a possible ratcheting up of the protest by López Obrador's supporters.

>more

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/15205827.htm

[livvy]

23. Mexican Court to Rule on Fraud Claims

Mexican Court to Rule on Fraud Claims

By TRACI CARL
The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY —

Mexico's top electoral court begins ruling Saturday on dozens of fraud complaints from the disputed presidential election, mulling requests for a full recount that have prompted thousands of activists to set up protest camps in the heart of the capital.

In its first public session, the Federal Electoral Tribunal's seven judges will give this divided nation its first glimpse of how they plan to deal with leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's allegations of widespread fraud and dirty campaign practices.

>snip

Its judges will begin by ruling on 174 allegations of fraud filed by Lopez Obrador's lawyers. Those rulings will likely determine whether they will order a full or partial recount.

>snip

Gerardo Fernandez, a spokesman for Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party, said he expected the court to decide on the party's request for a recount sometime before Monday, but he added that party officials didn't have any indication of how the court would rule.

>more

http://www.niagara-gazette.com/feeds/apcontent/apstories/apstorysection/D8JA52OG0.xml.txt/resources_apstoryview

[livvy]

24. BREAKING: Donzella James Contesting Primary in Georgia

BREAKING: Donzella James Contesting Primary in Georgia

By Matthew Cardinale, News Editor and National Correspondent, Atlanta Progressive News (August 04, 2006)

(APN) ATLANTA -- US Congressional Candidate Donzella James has filed a legal contest of the results of her Primary race against US Rep. David Scott (D-GA), Atlanta Progressive News has learned. The suit has been filed in State Court in Fulton County, Georgia.

The lawsuit asserts Georgia’s election “results” are meaningless because they run on E-voting machines which have no verifiable paper trail or audit system.

“People know there’s a problem with auditing these machines. But no opponent has ever challenged after the race,” Donzella James told Atlanta Progressive News.

The lawsuit also lists instances of machine breakdowns and malfunctions in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District during the Primary. These instances are similar to those documented by US Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s (D-GA) Campaign in the 4th District, and discussed exclusively by Atlanta Progressive News.

>more

http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0076.html

[livvy]

25. An Evolution That Would Blow Darwin's Mind by Jason Miller

OpEdNews.com

August 4, 2006

An Evolution that Would Blow Darwin's Mind:

By Jason Miller

Of Moral Regression, Heartland Extremism, and Solidarity against the Wicked Witch

Forget the exploits of John Brown and Carrie Nation. Their violent efforts for virtuous causes are but distant memories in the Land of Oz. Here in contemporary Kansas, many socially conservative uber-patriots fastidiously and "peacefully" adhere to an American sociopolitical system which is becoming increasingly hostile to science, peace, human rights, the environment, and minorities. Yes, the "American Way" has become rife with many of the truly vulgar and destructive aspects of humanity.

Since 1998, pro-Evolutionary forces have been grappling with anti-Evolutionary forces for control of the Kansas State School Board. In the recent election, power changed hands for the fourth time in eight years as Darwinists reclaimed a 6-4 advantage on the board. It is virtually a foregone conclusion that the board will again re-write the science standards to restore Evolution to its proper stature. Thankfully, reason will again prevail in science classes from Overland Park to Dodge City.

>big snip

It is widely known that the Bush Regime has heavily courted radical Christian elements in the United States to garner much of its political support. Ostensibly bearing the cross of the Christian God who blesses only America, George Bush is on a sacred mission to fulfill Manifest Destiny around the globe.

With the backing of Diebold, Katherine Harris, the Supreme Court, and a heavily mobilized base of extremist Christians who stampeded to the polls to support Bush's eagerness to fulfill their apocryphal prophecies in the Holy Land, elect a degenerate individual many apparently believed was an Evangelical who manifested the virtues of Christ, and to empower a group willing to proclaim that Christianity is the official state religion, George Bush and his cronies blatantly subverted our Constitutional Republic by taking office twice without winning the electoral or the popular vote.

>more

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jason_mi_060804_an_evolution_that_wo.htm