Election Reform, Fraud & Related News Wed 8/16/06 - Rethugs In Panic Mode

[kpete]

Election Reform, Fraud & Related News Wed 8/16/06 - Rethugs In Panic Mode





The reason Rove and the rethugs are so panicked about Ned and Connecticut is because they don’t have their Diebolds in place there.



If this was Ohio, we’d be looking at a whole different reaction: smug, dismissive, swaggering confidence.

A New Study Finds Irreparable Voting Problems In Ohio (AP)

"The election system in its entirety exhibits shortcomings with extremely serious consequences, especially in the event of a close election," wrote Steven Hertzberg, director of the study by the San Francisco-based Election Science Institute.

more at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060816/ap_on_el_ge/ohio_vo...
http://www.cuyahogacounty.us/bocc/GSC/pdf/esi_cuyahoga_...

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

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

1. U.S. needs to lead the charge so service members' votes count

Posted on Tue, Aug. 15, 2006
U.S. needs to lead the charge so service members' votes count
By Brian Darling

``Freedom isn't free,'' say bumper stickers supporting our troops. Waging civilization's fight for survival, members of our armed services are willing to risk paying the ultimate price. But there's something they shouldn't have to sacrifice: the right to have their votes counted.

Scandalously, about one in every four of our military personnel serving overseas will be disenfranchised this year. The National Defense Committee estimates that 24 percent of all military absentee ballots filed this year will be lost, spoiled or otherwise made pointless by government interference or incompetence.

The problem is nothing new. Remember Florida 2000, when late-arriving ballots became a divisive issue in the fiercely contested presidential race. Teams of lawyers flooded the state to fight over ballots cast by military and other would-be voters overseas. In the end, some were counted, others disqualified.

Typically, military ballots were challenged on technicalities. Did the envelope lack a stamp? (Postage is generally free for those serving in combat zones.) Did it arrive a day after the Florida deadline (even if the ballot was clearly mailed weeks ahead of Election Day)? Such ``problems'' are well beyond the control of military voters and wholly divorced from concern about fraudulent ballots. Yet in many cases, it was enough to get military votes tossed.

more at:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/15276907.htm

[kpete]

2. Still Battling Voter Suppression

Still Battling Voter Suppression

By Jabari Asim
Monday, August 14, 2006; 12:00 AM

"It was not a difficult walk. It was for a good reason."

Those were the words of Besisa Mbaguna, a Congolese man who last month walked barefoot for two and a half hours to reach his polling place and cast his vote in his country's elections. Considering Congo's troubled history and its oppressive ruling class, it's fair to marvel that people such as Mbaguna got to vote at all. One can also wonder whether those votes will actually count, despite the best efforts of United Nations officials who oversaw the elections.

It's easy to imagine, for instance, that in such a country, Mbaguna could have been stopped short of the polls and turned away for some untenable reason -- say, lack of a photo ID. In Congo, sure, but certainly not in the good ol' U.S. of A.

Or so one would like to think. But the efforts of Republican lawmakers in Georgia, Indiana and, most recently, Missouri seemed aimed at making it as difficult to vote beneath our spacious skies as it is in war-torn Third World nations. Missouri, my home state, became the third member of this notorious trio in June, when Gov. Matt Blunt signed into law a requirement that voters show government-issued photo IDs at the polls starting in November.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/13/AR2006081300767.html

[kpete]

3. Hart InterCivic Agrees to Comply with Future Open Source Mandate

Hart InterCivic Agrees to Comply with Future Open Source Mandate
By Open Voting Foundation
August 16, 2006

Hart InterCivic became the second voting machine vendor to agree to comply with any requirement to publicly disclose technical information about how their voting machines work should that become a requirement of state or federal law. At today's San Mateo County Board of Supervisors meeting, where the contract was approved, Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder Warren Slocum stated that the contract was worded to make it clear that Hart InterCivic would comply with any future voting system requirements that become law including, "open source."

In June, Alameda County made a similar stipulation in their contract with Sequoia Voting Systems. These developments are significant because the main objection to AB 2097 (Goldberg, D-Los Angeles), sponsored by Open Voting Consortium, was that vendors might leave the state rather than comply with public disclosure of their voting system technology. "One-by-one, we will remove the obstacles to our goal," said Alan Dechert, President of Open Voting Consortium. "Voters have a right to know how their votes are counted. For some reason, Legislators feared that our bill could lead to a situation where no voting machine vendors would want to do business in California, or it might lead to a sole source. Today, we have proof that multiple vendors, if not all, will cooperate."

Open Voting Consortium is a nonprofit non stock California corporation that seeks to bring about voting systems where your ballot is secret, but all other aspects of election administration are subject to public review in a regular and systematic way.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1679&Itemid=51

[kpete]

4. Insecurity Through Obscurity

Insecurity Through Obscurity
By Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA
August 15, 2006

I was asked yesterday in a CNN interview how I felt about the fact that voting equipment was available for purchase on EBay. My response (which didn't make it into the 15 second soundbyte) may have surprised the interviewer. I think it's great that the equipment is available on EBay - right now, this is just about the only way this equipment ever gets any truly independent review.



The question was prompted by news of the purchase of a Diebold touchscreen voting machine by Open Voting Foundation (OVC) last month. Their access to the equipment allowed them to discover yet another egregious security vulnerability in this system (reported in the article "Worst Ever Security Flaw Found In Diebold Touchscreen Voting Machine"). The Diebold TS has successfully gone through what passes for a federal testing and certification process and used in elections - yet the appalling security flaws in this system have been well documented. Similar flaws may very well exist in equipment produced by other vendors. However, because of the secrecy that shrouds the testing certification process, which is funded by the vendors and operates without public oversight, the voters who are forced to trust these systems aren't allowed to know.

more at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1676&Itemid=26

[kpete]

5. PA - Dems: Santorum Staffers Faked Signatures

Dems: Santorum Staffers Faked Signatures
By Paul Kiel - August 15, 2006, 2:21 PM
So it continues.

As part of their ongoing challenge of the signatures gathered for Green Senate candidate Carl Romanelli, the Pennsylvania Democrats are analyzing them for fraud. And William J. Ries, a forensic document examiner working for them, has found that a petition signed by John Michael Glick, a Santorum staffer (of duck costume fame), has four "questionable" signatures.

The signatures belong to family members of another fellow staffer, Julianne George, Santorum’s Deputy Director of Coalitions. You can see a side by side comparison of the signatures here.

“The writing expert’s findings raise serious questions, not only about the illegal financing of the petition drive paid for by Santorum backers but how he authorizes the use of campaign staff for apparent fraud," Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman T.J. Rooney said.

Democrats say that more than 69,000 of the approximately 100,000 signatures gathered by Santorum staffers and JSM, Inc., a private company hired by the Greens with Republican money, are fraudulent.

more at:
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001348.php

[kpete]

6. Pa. Sued Over Electronic Voting Machines

Aug 15, 10:04 PM EDT

Pa. Sued Over Electronic Voting Machines

By PATRICK WALTERS
Associated Press Writer


PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Voter advocates filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to stop Pennsylvania counties from using "paperless" electronic voting machines, saying that such systems leave no paper record that could be used in the event of a recount, audit or other problem.

The suit asks the state's Commonwealth Court to decertify machines used in 58 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties. The other counties use optical scanning systems, in which voters fill in bubbles on paper forms that are counted in scanning machines; the plaintiffs say such systems should be in use statewide.

more at:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/ELECTRONIC_VOTING_LAWSUIT?SITE=NHPOR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[kpete]

10. Voting machines facing court challenge

Voting machines facing court challenge
BY ROGER DUPUIS II
STAFF WRITER
08/16/2006

Officials in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties were standing by their electronic voting machines Tuesday, even as a voter advocacy group mounted a statewide court challenge against the technology for lacking an adequate paper trail.


“The Pennsylvania Constitution guarantees the secrecy of the ballot, and a paper trail isn’t compatible with that,” said Charles Spano, deputy director of voter education for Lackawanna County.

Until the state changes that position, “that’s how we look at it,” Mr. Spano said.

more at:
http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17059027&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=416046&rfi=6

[kpete]

14. PA: One of the Most Important pro bono Cases Our Firm Will Ever Do

8.15.2006
One of the Most Important pro bono Cases Our Firm Will Ever Do

There was huge electronic voting news out of Philadelphia today as a diverse groups of voters announced a lawsuit against the commonwealth of Pennsylvania to halt the use of electronic voting machines that do not create a permanent physical record of each vote. This is a hopeful and significant development for Pennsylvania voters as well as the country.

The lawsuit was announced at the offices of Drinker, Biddle and Reath, which will be taking on the suit on a pro bono basis. The title of this post is from the closing statement of the Drinker, Biddle representative who ran the press conference today. He said that this suit will affect the rights of everyone in the room as well as everyone in the state. It was a very powerful moment.

more at:
http://blogs.phillyburbs.com/blog.php?p=7265&cat=8

[kpete]

7. MEXICAN ELECTORAL FRAUD WINS ROUND ONE - ROUND TWO NOW BEGINS

August 15, 2006 at 05:25:28

MEXICAN ELECTORAL FRAUD WINS ROUND ONE - ROUND TWO NOW BEGINS

by Stephen Lendman


http://www.opednews.com

Mexican Electoral Fraud Wins Round One - Round Two Now Begins - by Stephen Lendman

It was no surprise on Sunday that the Mexican Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) ruled its partial recount of about 9% of the ballots cast in the disputed presidential election held on July 2 showed ruling National Action Party (PAN) candidate still the winner. In doing so, the IFE ignored the clear evidence of election irregularities and blatant fraud uncovered by losing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The IFE ignored the need for a total ballot recount Obrador justifiably demanded and instead relied on the small partial one it chose in areas of known Calderon strength making it unlikely from the start it would find enough of a change in the final tally to change the election result. Lopez Obrador aides cited evidence of overwhelming fraud in at least one-third of the polling stations and that any failure to do a recount in all of them would show clear IFE bias toward its announced winner on July 6 and would not be accepted without a concerted fight. Let the battle begin.

The fraud uncovered so far showed the preliminary vote totals were manipulated to allow PAN candidate Felipe Calderon to be the winner. In addition, three million votes were never counted at first and only in hindsight were 2.5 million of them added to the totals. Further, 900,000 supposedly void, blank and annulled ballots were declared null, discarded and never included in the official totals; 700,000 additional votes disappeared from missing precincts; thousands of voters were denied their franchise in strong Obrador precincts; there was evidence of ballot stuffing; and in about one-third of the polling stations only winning party PAN observers were present allowing ample opportunity for vote manipulation as has happened routinely in a country known for its history of electoral unfairness and where political dirty tricks and hardball tactics may have been invented. It takes no stretch to know it was no different this time, and Lopez Obrador now demands this injustice be addressed and corrected.

more at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_stephen__060815_mexican_electoral_fr.htm

[kpete]

8. Mexico: 'Siege' warning to Mexico rival

'Siege' warning to Mexico rival

Police have ringed off Congress following protests

Supporters of Mexico's left-wing presidential candidate have pledged to place his rival "under siege" if he is declared winner of the disputed poll.

A spokesman for Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's party said Felipe Calderon would not be able to operate outside his office if he was made president.

Mr Lopez Obrador disputes the official results which give a narrow victory to his rival and wants a full recount.

A partial recount has been completed, but the results are not yet known.

If declared the victor, Mr Calderon "will be a president under siege... he will not be able to operate outside his office", said Gerardo Fernandez, of the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4797113.stm

[autorank]

18. Mexico: Leftist protesters refuse to move encampments

Leftist protesters refuse to move encampments in Mexico City

By Ioan Grillo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
6:20 p.m. August 15, 2006
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20060815-1820-mexico-elections.html
Associated Press

Mexican police officials construct a metal barricade surrounding the Mexican Congress in Mexico City on Tuesday.

MEXICO CITY – Supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged Tuesday to place conservative Felipe Calderon “under siege” if he is declared the winner of the disputed presidential elections.

Supporters of Calderon, who holds a slight advantage in official vote counts on the July 2 race, meanwhile accused Lopez Obrador of wanting to make blood flow in the conflict.


Associated Press
Mexican police officials construct a metal barricade
surrounding the Mexican Congress in Mexico City
on Tuesday

The heightened rhetoric came one day after the first violent incident in a month of protests police saw protesters clash with police outside the Congress building in Mexico City; the leftists plan another march on Congress on Sept. 1, and also plan to continue blockading some streets in Mexico City through Sept. 16, the date of the traditional Independence Day parade.

“He will be a president under siege ... he will not be able to operate outside his office,” Gerardo Fernandez, spokesman for Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party, said of Calderon.

[autorank]

19. Mexico: Other Resistance to Right Wing Rule in Mexico

ZNet
Scenes from the Oaxaca Rebellion

by John Gibler

August 04, 2006
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=59&ItemID=10708
On Tuesday, August 1, about 3,000 women marched through downtown Oaxaca City banging metal pots and pans in an oddly melodious cacophony that served as the background for their chants demanding the ousting of governor Ulises Ruiz. They stopped by a hotel where state senators are rumored to hold sessions (the state legislative building has been surrounded by protestors for over a week) and taped black ribbons on the closed doors before pelting the glass panes with raw eggs. There was not a security guard or a uniformed police officer in sight.

Once gathered in the central town square—where teachers and other protestors have been camping out since May 22—the women decided to take over the statewide television and radio company known by its Spanish initials as CORTV. Some women walked, others hopped on buses. Thousands of them met at CORTV’s broadcasting headquarters outside the colonial town center, where they walked right in, and took it over. Not a shot was fired. Not a punch was thrown. While the station’s director had fled, the women gathered the station’s employees and demanded that they hook up the cameras for a live broadcast. Outside the building, about 50 women and a handful of men with clubs (one had two nails sticking out of it) guarded the entrance. They would not let any men enter the building (with a few exceptions of well-known reporters who were escorted in by groups of women). When reporters from the national television station Televisa arrived on the scene, the men and women gathered at the gates marched them right back to their cars shouting: “Get them out!” and “Liars!” The three reporters walked dejectedly back to their cars with their faces drawn long, followed by a rowdy crowd of about a hundred.

[kpete]

9. NV: Carter's son wins Nevada Senate primary

Carter's son wins Nevada Senate primary
By SCOTT SONNER, Associated Press Writer

RENO, Nev. - Presidential son Jack Carter easily won the Democratic primary to challenge U.S. Sen. John Ensign (news, bio, voting record), while Nevada voters set up an intriguing governor's race and delivered a razor-thin victory to a GOP candidate vying for an open U.S. House seat.


Former President Carter's son easily advanced to the November general election, drawing 78 percent of the vote in Tuesday's Democratic primary.

He accused Ensign of being too cozy with the White House. "You know, he's voted for the Bush administration 96 percent of the time," Carter said.

Five-time U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons won the state's GOP gubernatorial nomination, and state Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus won a raucous Democratic contest with 54 percent of the vote to Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson's 36 percent.

more at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060816/ap_on_el_se/nevada_primary

[Stevepol]

11. I am #5!!

[livvy]

29. Oh, yeah?? Well, I'm number 12. I'd prefer to be 13, but 12 will do. :)

:kick:...ity... :kick:
Nice thread!

[kpete]

12. Electronic voting machines prompt security questions

Electronic voting machines prompt security questions
Supes still approve implementation for November election
By Rebekah Gordon, STAFF WRITER

REDWOOD CITY — The county's voters will go high-tech with new electronic voting machines in the November election, but some residents and software experts claim the machines have potential security holes.

"The certification process for these systems is seriously broken," said Alan Dechert, president and CEO of the Granite Bay-based Open Voting Consortium. "When we look at these machines in depth, we find more and more things that are troubling."

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors approved Tuesday the installation of electronic voting machines in time for November's election despite a host of speakers who tried to persuade the board to delay its decision on the machines and spend more time testing them for security.

The board unanimously approved purchasing more than $10.4 million worth of eSlate voting machines, manufactured by Austin, Texas-based Hart InterCivic, for the county's 472 polling places. The vast majority of the expense will be split between funds from Proposition 41, the Voting Modernization Bond Act, and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), both passed in 2002.

The county has used the Optech Eagle optical scan system for voting since 1992, but it is now obsolete under new regulations. Under that system, voters filled out a paper ballot that was then fed through a machine, which tallied the vote.

more at:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_4188967

[kpete]

13. N.Y. pushes back deadline for new voting machines to 2007

N.Y. pushes back deadline for new voting machines to 2007

ALBANY — The state Board of Elections yesterday approved a plan to have the state comply with the federal Help America Vote Act by September 2007 — a year late.

And even that schedule could easily slip back to 2008, officials acknowledged.

"This is what really should have been done by this agency a year ago," said board member Douglas Kellner. "This holds our feet to the fire."

The Elections Board approved a schedule that calls for testing and certifying new voting machines by the end of this year so that counties can order new ones and have them up and running in time for primaries on Sept. 11, 2007.

more at:
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060816/NEWS05/608160345/1021

[kpete]

15. Focus on the Family Plans Drives in 8 Battleground States

Group to Rally Evangelical Voters
Focus on the Family Plans Drives in 8 Battleground States

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 16, 2006; Page A04

Conservative Christian radio host James C. Dobson's national organization, Focus on the Family, said yesterday that it will work with affiliated groups in eight battleground states to mobilize evangelical voters in the November elections.

In targeting individual churches the way political organizers traditionally pinpointed certain wards, Focus on the Family is filling a void left by the near-collapse of the Christian Coalition and stepping into an area where recent Republican Party efforts have created resentment among evangelicals.

As a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization, Focus on the Family is barred from endorsing candidates. Tom Minnery, vice president of the Colorado-based group, said its efforts would be nonpartisan.

During the 1990s, the Christian Coalition distributed millions of voter guides through churches and played a major role in mobilizing evangelicals. After the Christian Coalition suffered financial and management problems, the Republican Party directly organized conservative Christian congregations in key states in the 2004 presidential race.

more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/15/AR2006081501098.html

[kpete]

16. CA: Electronic voting machines get green light

http://www.examiner.com/a-222625~Electronic_voting_machines_get_green_light.html
Electronic voting machines get green light

Edward Carpenter, The Examiner
Aug 16, 2006 2:00 AM (6 hrs ago)


REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Electronic voting machine opponents on Tuesday protested the county Board of Supervisors’ approval of controversial new voting machines, saying they put the democratic will of citizens at risk.


More than 20 people — many known to one another through their common resistance to electronic voting — pleaded with supervisors to delay approving funds for new Hart InterCivic voting machines. Some cited security and voter fraud concerns and news reports of irregularities in other states using Hart machines, to no avail.

“Much of the public has become bitter and skeptical about the outcome of our elections,” said area resident Margaret Timothy. “Please don’t erode our confidence by adopting these controversial machines at this time.”

David Dill, a Stanford professor and founder of the nonprofit Verified Voting (www.verifiedvoting.org), echoed Timothy’s sentiments. Area voting activist Cheryl Lillienstein said that because eSlate machines, owned by Hart, count votes using proprietary software, to which the public has no access, citizens have no assurances that votes will be properly tallied.

http://www.examiner.com/a-222625~Electronic_voting_machines_get_green_light.html




CA: San Mateo County Chooses Hart Intercivic Machines — Raging Grannies Vow To Rage On!
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3247

[kpete]

17. GA: Cynthia McKinney - Electronic Voting Machines Are A Repub Plot

Posted Aug. 16, 2006 – Cynthia McKinney, the fiery Georgia Democrat who was ousted in the congressional primary last week, said Tuesday that electronic voting machines are a Republican plot to deprive Black folks of their voting rights.

Speaking during the National Dialogue and Revival for Social Justice in the Black Church, sponsored by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, McKinney said that Black voters should oppose the machines, which she added are designed to steal elections.

"You won't know who won as long as we have , with the problems that have been manifested by them," McKinney said.

Last week, McKinney lost her bid for a seventh term in Congress to Hank Johnson, a Black attorney and former DeKalb County commissioner .

Johnson defeated McKinney by more than 12,000 votes; he garnered 59 percent of the vote to McKinney's 41 percent.

McKinney, who had a serious run-in with a Capitol Hill Police officer earlier this year, also blamed her defeat on the media.

http://www.bet.com/News/mckinneyvotingmachines.htm?wbc_purpose=Basic&WBCMODE=PresentationUnpublished&Referrer=%7B03CE5360-2620-42CB-AD7E-77E4249C5FB7%7D

[Kurovski]

20. Why is it that that kpete person always posts such terrific threads?

Thank you, kpete!:bounce:

I'm an open blast furnace, and I love it!!:bounce::rofl:

[kpete]

21. open blast furnace?

welcome to the fire...

[Kurovski]

24. Fueled by the ERD!

*roar* :-)

[Algorem]

22. Cleveland elections employees' trial stalls; new judge named

Elections employees' trial stalls; new judge named
Schedule conflicts point to Jan. start

http://www.cleveland.com/election/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/isele/1155727979203290.xml&coll=2

Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Jim Nichols
Plain Dealer Reporter

The election-rigging trial of three Cuyahoga County Board of Elections employees that was to start this week now could stall for months after the judge stepped aside amid the prosecutor's claims of bias.

Judge Judith Kilbane Koch recused herself last week after Special Prosecutor Kevin Baxter complained that she has political vendettas that led her to prejudge the case in favor of the defendants.

Presiding and Administrative Judge Nancy McDonnell reassigned the case to Judge Peter Corrigan on Monday, the day the trial was set to begin.

Corrigan has scheduled a pretrial conference for Friday. But Roger Synenberg, lawyer for one of the three defendants, said schedule conflicts make him unavailable to try the case until January...

[Algorem]

23. "...whether Hayes, a jogging and traveling companion of Vu's..."(WTF?)

Lottery chief to oversee vote
Cuyahoga sidesteps firing Vu

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1155285972120170.xml&coll=2

Friday, August 11, 2006
Joseph L. Wagner
Plain Dealer Reporter

The confrontation over the future of elections Director Michael Vu has subsided with the decision to hire Ohio Lottery Director Tom Hayes to oversee the general election.

The two Democrats on the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections said Thursday that they would drop their drive to dump Vu and his deputy, Gwen Dillingam, both blamed for problems with the May 2 primary.

Hayes was hired by the Cuyahoga County commissioners. His compensation will be determined later.

His hiring, however, raised questions about who is in charge of the board and whether Hayes, a jogging and traveling companion of Vu's, is too close to him to be objective...

[Kurovski]

25. Since voting has turned into something of a lottery,

That kinda makes sense. :crazy:

What exactly is a "traveling companion"?

[Algorem]

28. is it a euphamism for 'really,really close'?

[Kurovski]

30. "Hands in each other's pockets'" close?

:shrug:

[Algorem]

35. it would be funny if true because the head of the anti-gay Ohio Republi-

can Party/head of Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Bob Bennett would therefore have appointed the boyfriend of Vu to keep an eye on Vu.

[Kurovski]

38. I detect the plot of a farce worthy of Moliere.

Wheee!

[Algorem]

37. Hayes is brought back to oversee fall election

http://www.sunnews.com/news/2006/part2/0817/ACHAYES.htm

By Ken Baka
Staff Writer

Aug. 17, 2006

...Hayes is to start Monday as a project manager hired out by LNE Group, operated by former commissioner Lee Weingart(REPUBLICAN."...Lee Weingart, former Cuyahoga County commissioner and consultant to the Cuyahoga County Republican Party..." http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Lee+Weingart%2CRepublican&btnG=Google+Search ), on a contract with commissioners for $48,000...

Hayes is retiring Friday as director of the Ohio Lottery to take the job but said he has no intention of displacing Vu, a friend and jogging companion.

"Under no circumstances would I come to work in government service," he said. "No. 2, I would never take a position at the expense of Michael Vu. Michael Vu is a good director and a friend of mine."

In another development, the county appointed the Center for Election Integrity at Cleveland State University as a monitor of the elections board, of implementation of recommendations made in a recent report, and of an action plan by the board.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kurovski]

32. A link that's worth bookmarking.

So says me.

[Algorem]

27. Ohio-Republican caught trying to infiltrate Democrat's campaign

Foltin's Faker

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/

Sean Hicks, a member of Lorain Mayor Craig Foltin's congressional campaign staff, used fake names in an awkward attempt to infiltrate the campaign of Foltin's opponent, Betty Sutton.

Foltin and Sutton are running for the 13th congressional district seat, which is now held by Rep. Sherrod Brown, who is not seeking reelection.

Hicks, 23, used the alias "Nick Brinda" to sign up as a Sutton campaign volunteer. He attended a recent Sutton campaign event wearing a Sutton campaign sticker on his chest and had his photo taken as he talked with Sutton - who was told at the time that Hicks, or Brinda, was a new volunteer for her campaign.

Someone from the Sutton camp later recognized Hicks, who also communicated via e-mail with the Sutton campaign - signing one e-mail "Cheers, Nick."...

[Kurovski]

31. Kick back up to the top!

:kick:

[Algorem]

33. Ohio Democrats want answers,DAMMIT!

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Only 84 days to go


Jennifer Brunner, the Democratic candidate for secretary of state, criticized Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett today, accusing them of failing to address the numerous problems that led to Cuyahoga County's chaotic primary election in May.

Brunner and Rep. Dan Stewart, a Columbus Democrat, called a news conference to discuss Tuesday's report by the San Francisco-based Election Science Institute, which concluded that employee blunders and discrepancies between the electronic memory cards in the county's Diebold touch-screen voting machines and the paper receipts would have made a recount in a close race impossible.

Stewart, a member of the House Elections and Ethics Committee, said he would ask committee Chair Jim Hughes, a Republican from Columbus, to hold hearings on the findings in the ESI report.

Brunner said Bennett's dual roles as state GOP chairman and chairman of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections are interfering with Blackwell's responsibility to investigate the fiasco because Blackwell is the party's candidate for governor...

[Algorem]

34. Ohio officials: Fair election in Cleveland area a must

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-26/1155777281163560.xml&storylist=cleveland

8/16/2006, 9:02 p.m. ET
By M.R. KROPKO
The Associated Press

...

If electronic voting can't be made reliable, then paper ballots could be considered, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones said.

"We have an obligation to the people of Cuyahoga County to assure that there is a fair election in November and we must do whatever it takes to see that occurs," she said.

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich said voters "have to be concerned" about their votes in Cuyahoga County and about the fact that Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, the Republican candidate for governor, is overseeing the November election.

Tubbs Jones and Kucinich, both Cleveland-area Democrats, spoke after a news conference on issues House Democrats intend to pursue leading up to the 2008 presidential election...

[Algorem]

36. Diebold: Elections report conclusions simply wrong'

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1155804618289971.xml&coll=2

Thursday, August 17, 2006
Joan Mazzolini
Plain Dealer Reporter

The maker of Cuyahoga County's touch-screen voting machines, Diebold Election Systems, issued a stinging rebuttal of a report that examined the accuracy of voting machines used in the May 2 primary.

"The initial review and conclusions reached by ESI (Election Science Institute) . . . simply are wrong," said the statement, attributed to Mark Radke, director of marketing for Diebold Election Systems. Radke called the testing procedures by the San Francisco-base company flawed.

The Cuyahoga County commissioners contracted with ESI before the disastrous May primary to assess whether Diebold's touch-screen machines accurately tallied votes.

The consultants compared the paper receipt with votes recorded on memory chips inside the machines as well as on removable memory cards...