Election Reform,Fraud on Sunday 08/27/06: Why is Rush Limbaugh irate?

[freedomfries]

Election Reform,Fraud & Related News Sunday 08/27/06:
Why is Rush Limbaugh irate at ALevine's Salon's Shameful Six ?

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:argh:

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:argh:
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:patriot:

[freedomfries]

1. Rush Limbaugh ranting about Art Levine's Salon's Shameful Six

Begala, Carville, Democrats Getting Nervous
Rush Limbaugh
August 23, 2006
RUSH: "Democrats Adopting Republicans' Voter-Turnout Techniques," according to the Cybercast News Service. "Without looking at the calendar, it's easy to tell that August is nearing an end, just by the number of fund-raising appeals coming from Democrat organizations. The latest batch warns Democrats that Republicans are about to do what they do best -- get voters to the polls on Election Day. 'As the end of summer approaches, there are some things you can count on,' says a group that works to elect Democrats to the House of Representatives.
...
"As the 'right-wing slime machine' gears up -- and presidential adviser Karl Rove works to turn out the GOP vote -- the DCCC said it is launching its Voter Turnout Fund to 'match the Republicans blow for blow and voter for voter.'" This is an interesting new technique here. I guess Democrats are going to give up on the free booze and cigarette schemes and the walk-around money that they give away and they're going to try a new technique to get people out to the polls. There's a related story in the stack here, the Democrats are charging that Republicans have a new strategery that is designed to keep Democrats away from the polls.

Here it's in Salon.com. It's quite lengthy and I'm not going to go through the whole thing, but the basic premise here is that there was Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. "Here are the six states where vote suppression could cost voters their voice and Democrats the election in 2006." Now, this is interesting because up 'til now, all we've heard about is the Democrats are going to take back the House. It's a done deal, it's a fait accompli, and they're going to take the Senate, too, and then the White House in '08. Now, all of a sudden Begala and Carville are writing about, well, you know, the Republicans starting the swift boat people, the attacks are going to start, we're going to keep up with them blow by blow. (You might call that the intern vote) and now Salon is out there saying, six states out there, ladies and gentlemen

Sorry. Six states out there where the Republicans are going to cheat by keeping Democrats from the polls. "Arriving in Arizona in January from Kansas City weakened by four heart attacks and degenerative disc disease, a woman by the name of Eva Steele discovered that without a birth certificate, she can't register to vote. Under a Draconian new Arizona law that supposedly targets illegal immigrants she needs proof of citizenship and a state issued driver's license or a photo ID to register, but her van and her purse were stolen in the first few weeks after she moved to Mesa and with her disability checks going to rent and medicine she can't afford the $15 needed to get her birth certificate from Missouri."

Come on! This is absurd. I don't see a whole lot of confidence in the Democrats now. Now they're starting already just now in August about how the Republicans are going to cheat, and I'll tell you what, if Art Levine wrote the story here for Salon.com, and if they don't think this immigration think is a real problem in Arizona, Art, let me tell you something. The fraud that occurs in elections in this country is by Democrats in Georgia, anywhere else, they don't want photo IDs because that will eliminate fraud. So you've got the Reverend Jackson and all the others in the Democratic Party campaigning that those photo ID requirements are racist and so forth.

At any rate... "Eva Steele is unable to overcome the hurdles thrown in her way and in the way of as many as 500,000 other Arizona residents by the state's Republican politicians. But Eva Steele's plight has gotten relatively little notice from pundits and progressive activists confidently predicting a sweeping Democrat victory in November. This fall, the favored GOP suppression techniques are new photo ID laws, the criminalizing of voter registration drives, and database purges that have disqualified up to 40% of newly registered voters from voting in such jurisdictions as Los Angeles County."
...
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_082306/content/truth_detector.guest.html

[freedomfries]

2. Re-Post: Art Levine: Salon's Shameful Six

Salon's Shameful Six
Art Levine
August 15, 2006
Posted here before, but worth re-posted and checking out thoroughly

There was Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. Here are the six states where vote suppression could cost voters their voice -- and Democrates the election -- in 2006.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/08/15/states/index_np.html

[freedomfries]

3. MO: Voter ID law may block 240,000 registered voters

Voter ID law may block 240,000 registered voters
St. Louis Business Journal
August 21, 2006

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan released a list Friday of about 240,000 registered voters who may not have the proper photo identifications they will need to vote in November under a new state law.

Carnahan's office generated a list of potentially affected voters by electronically comparing Missouri's voter registration database with the state Department of Revenue driver's and nondriver's license database. The secretary of state's office will make the newly generated list available to elected officials, businesses and other organizations as requested.

The list may contain some individuals who already have a photo ID, according to a release.

The new law, Senate Bill 1014, requires Missourians to show a valid federal or state-issued photo ID to vote this November.

Carnahan launched a public awareness initiative -- "Show Your Face at the Polls" -- late last month to promote the photo ID legislation, which Gov. Matt Blunt signed into law June 14. In a July release, Carnahan said the legislation might affect about 200,000 registered Missouri voters who currently lack the approved identification.

Under the law, the secretary of state's office must notify Missouri voters of the new ID requirement, and the Department of Revenue is responsible for issuing IDs to Missourians who need them.

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2006/08/21/daily1.html

[freedomfries]

4. CA: Zogby Poll : Americans Question Electronic Voting

Americans Question Electronic Voting
Angus Reid Global Scan : Polls & Research
August 24, 2006

- Many adults in the United States are disappointed with the way computerized electronic voting machines are being operated, according to a poll by Zogby International. 79.8 per cent of respondents think it is unacceptable for the votes to be counted in secret without any observers from the public.
...
Polling Data

With computerized electronic voting machines, votes are counted using proprietary or confidential software from corporate vendors that is not disclosed to citizens. Do you agree or disagree that it is acceptable for votes to be counted in secret without any outside observers from the public?

Agree
13.7%

Disagree
79.8%

Not sure
6.5%
...
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/12899

[freedomfries]

10. MO: Hearing held in voter ID lawsuits

Hearing held in voter ID lawsuits
Kelly Wiese
Associated Press
Re-Post: August 21, 2006

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Several election officials told a judge Monday that they expect to incur costs to implement a new voter identification law, from printing more ballots to hiring and training extra staff.

Their testimony was part of a daylong hearing before Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan on efforts to block and declare unconstitutional the law requiring people to show a Missouri or federal government-issued photo ID to vote. Most of the law takes effect in a week and will be in place for the November general election.

Callahan did not rule, but instead set another hearing for Sept. 7.

Those lacking photo IDs this fall can cast provisional ballots, which would count if they sign an affidavit, their signatures match those on file with election authorities and they're in the right polling place. In future elections, only the elderly, disabled and those with religious objections to carrying photo identification could vote without one, and only by provisional ballot.

One lawsuit by St. Louis and Kansas City Democratic officials argues the law is unconstitutional because it imposes costs on local governments without providing state funding, violating what's known as the Hancock amendment. A second suit by potential voters argues the requirement infringes on the fundamental right to vote. The two were consolidated, and the judge is considering them together.
...
"The right to vote has been a cornerstone of our democracy," attorney Don Downing, who represents the suing potential voters, said in opening remarks. "The act doesn't protect Missouri voters. It unduly burdens about 170,000 or more."
A disabled woman and plaintiff in the lawsuit, Kathleen Weinschenk, spoke about her difficulty getting proper identification to vote in November. She has cerebral palsy, which makes her signature change from one time to the next. She also needs someone else to drive her around and faces the extra hurdle of needing a birth certificate from Arkansas.
...
Secretary of State Robin Carnahan said Friday her office has determined that about 240,000 registered voters may lack proper identification for voting.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/15327854.htm

[freedomfries]

11. IL: Voter ID law to be introduced in Illinois

Voter ID law to be introduced in Illinois
Ann Knef
The Madison-St.Clair Record
August 22, 2006

Making voters produce a picture ID before they can cast a vote is not designed to pick on minorities, according to a veteran Illinois legislator.
...
Attorney John Kurowski of Belleville said he believes that any provision requiring a photo ID to vote is "likely unconstitutional."

Kurowski, who represents the East St. Louis Board of Elections Commissioners, said courts closely scrutinize cases involving access to the polls and have favored protecting the rights of poor people who may not possess a photo ID.

"It (the proposal) may be a violation of the Voting Rights Act," he said. "It may create a potential question whether the state would be in compliance with HAVA (Help America Vote Act)."
...
http://www.stclairrecord.com/news/newsview.asp?c=183313

[freedomfries]

13. OpedNews: An Exit Strategy for Electronic Voting

An Exit Strategy for Electronic Voting
Bruce O'Dell
http://www.opednews.com
August 24, 2006

Even though there are fundamental technical considerations which should rule out use of electronic vote tallying technology, some of my Information Technology colleagues are still trying hard to salvage it (see, for example,
the web site of the research group called ACCURATE).

When it comes to electronic voting technology, we do not
need a better mousetrap – we need an exit strategy.

I've done my best to explain why, in detail, elsewhere – but the main points bear repeating.

Voting systems are national defense systems (!) deserving the highest level of protection. Undetected compromise of our nation's voting systems is equivalent to our being invaded and occupied by a foreign power, since the American people lose control of their lives and destinies in either case - except that "coup by covert election manipulation" occurs under the reassuring guise of business as usual. I am ashamed that my profession has enabled voting systems to be deployed with mechanisms inadequate to protect mere financial transactions - much less, to safeguard the foundation of our national sovereignty.

Voting is inherently hard to protect. All the conventional techniques for electronic auditing of transactions rely on strong proofs of identity and complete transparency. We can conduct electronic financial transactions well enough that embezzlement is the exception and not the rule because all counterparties to a financial transaction are required to provide strong, legal proof of identity to the others, all parties to electronic financial transactions are strongly motivated to verify accuracy of results, and the laws regulating resolution of financial disputes are mature. None of these conditions apply to voting. Voting is private and anonymous. You cannot provide a voter with a record of her transaction sufficient to prove how she voted after the fact (or you enable sale of votes, coercion and a host of other problems...). But if you do not provide such an unambiguous receipt, all that electronic vote-auditing protocols can do is simply enshrine a computer's assertion that it recorded your touch on a screen or your mark on an optical scan ballot as you intended. Any program that generates an electronic audit trail - no mater how complex - can easily be programmed to consistently lie about what truly happened when your choice was presented to the machine for tallying. Electronic auditing of electronic vote tallying simply shifts the issue of trust from one suspect set of software to another.
...
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bruce_o__060824_an_exit_strategy_for.htm

[freedomfries]

14. Re-Post: Avi Rubin on Lou Dobbs

This excellent interview with Aviel Rubin, posted on August 21, deserves a re-post.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/08/22/e-voting-flaws-on-lou-dobbs

[PATRICK]

27. Computer ethics

If the medical profession went first to the ethics we would have national health care, if the legal profession..... Well, suffice it to say the majoirty within a closed group is loyal all too often to its parameters and careers and less, often critically, liably so, to its ethics.

I wish we could have this voice added to every bland astonishment and tempered criticism coming belatedly from the computer experts about failings that do not touch the fundamental flaws of applying e-voting to our elections in the first place- something of obvious and critical concern at least since 2000 but evident long before as well in optiscan tabulations. And the media is irrecoverably, invinciblty ignorant of any fact not handed to them from on high as a opinion directive.

Oddly, the civil society by and large is not as broadly stupid as a special interest instituion is fatally biased. And I mean stupid when dems in full bedget wrangling modes can't simply tell, as politicians, their pockerts are being picked as they they being bludgeoned to death with obvious systemic fraud.

But in five minutes or less any citizen not a moronic ideoogue, or liar, can be shown the basic flaws in electronic voting systems and voting integrity- the malleability and secrecy of vaporized, reassembled ballots and the many ways an insider or simple "glitches" can change vast numbers of tallies. then you can even get in to all the huge artillery barrage of smoking guns and scandals.

[freedomfries]

17. NY: 19 County Legislators Seek Voice on Voting Machines

Seeking a voice on voting machines
Carol DeMare
Times Union Albany, NY
August 25, 2006

19 county legislators sign letter asking that their views on new devices be heard by elections commissioners


ALBANY -- Nineteen county legislators have signed a letter to elections commissioners asking to be included in discussions on new voting machines to be purchased for next year's elections.
"We are simply asking, in a bipartisan way, for an opportunity to offer our opinion as representatives of the people of Albany County, as to which type of voting machine we prefer for Albany County," legislator Tim Nichols, a Latham Democrat, said in the letter hand-delivered earlier this month. "The Legislature should be fully engaged in this process that is at the root of our democracy. Any decision must include us."


County Democratic Elections Commissioner James Clancy said legislators would be included.

"There will definitely not be any decisions made in a vacuum," Clancy said.

For now, the matter is before the state Board of Elections, which must review and test machines and ensure they are in compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act.

"The state board has started taking applications from vendors," Clancy said.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=511409&category=ALBANY&BCCode=&newsdate=8/25/2006

[freedomfries]

5. NY: County embroiled in elections board dispute

County embroiled in elections board dispute
WSTM.com
August 27, 2006

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. A decision is expected this week in an elections dispute in Dutchess County, in the Hudson Valley.

Supreme Court Judge James Brands has agreed to move oral arguments up two days in the court case between the Dutchess County Board of Elections and County Executive William Steinhaus in order to try to settle the matter before the September 12th primary. Otherwise, say some county officials, many of the votes may have to be cast and counted by hand.

The county's elections commissioners have argued that Steinhaus and other officials obstructed the elections board's efforts to prepare for county-run elections this year, following newly established state guidelines to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act.

The elections board has faced a singular challenge in the towns of Beekman, Hyde Park and Poughkeepsie because voting machines in those towns are stored off site. The elections commissioners have complained of a lack of cooperation by some county officials in signing contracts with moving companies and in providing other assistance.
...
http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=5330935&nav=2aKD

[freedomfries]

6. MA: Former GOP councilor defects to unenrolled

Former councilor defects to unenrolled
John Laidler
Boston Globe
August 27, 2006

When Mitt Romney ran for the US Senate in 1994, Everett Republican Tom Ciulla was in his corner. In the gubernatorial election of 2002, Ciulla again campaigned actively for the Republican and his running mate, Kerry Healey.

The former Everett common councilor recently resigned his seat on the Republican State Committee and changed his affiliation to unenrolled. Ciulla also threw his support behind a Democratic candidate for governor, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly.

His defection is a loss for the GOP in a state where Republicans have struggled to compete with the Democratic majority. Ciulla stood out as one of the few active Republicans in a city that could play an important role in this year's governor's race. Republicans have relied on strong showings in traditionally Democratic enclaves like Everett to win the governor's seat the past four elections, a formula they will likely need to repeat for Healey to prevail in her bid for the seat this year.

Ciulla's statement called his action ``the result of mounting frustration and disappointment with the quality of leadership demonstrated by Governor Romney and Lieutenant Governor Healey toward our party and our state."

As a former city councilor, he said he was ``dismayed by the lack of concern and attention given to struggling cities and towns. Unresponsive and absentee leadership were an embarrassment to all of us who helped elect this Republican team."
...
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/08/27/former_councilor_defects_to_unenrolled/

[freedomfries]

7. MI: County board candidates bicker over recount

County board candidates bicker over recount
Schultz wants primary rechecked;
Simasko, Boggia file rare objections

Shannon Murphy
Times Herald
August 26, 2006


For the first time in St. Clair County election history, candidates are challenging a recount request.

Republican Randy Schultz, who lost in the August primary election for the 1st District seat on the St. Clair County Board of Commissioners, has requested a recount. Schultz lost by 34 votes to Steve Simasko who will continue onto the November election.
...
Simasko and Ron Boggia, who also lost the primary bid, both filed objections to the recount with the county clerk's office.

"This is a first for us," said county Clerk Marilyn Dunn. "We've had a number of recounts, but never any objections to it."

Simasko said he objected to the recount because of the unnecessary costs and time it would take to do one. He also said there is no reason to believe there was fraud or mistakes in the election.


http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060826/NEWS01/608260301/1002

[freedomfries]

8. IN: GOP County Director Fired For Signature Forgery

Signature misstep still in headlines
Benjamin Lanka
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
August 27, 2006

As the November day draws closer when Allen County residents will be asked to select a new sheriff, state representative and county council member, the county’s two largest political parties seem to be focusing a large amount of energy and effort on a handful of township races.

Last week, Republicans and Democrats both continued to discuss the 11 Republican township candidates who were removed from the fall ballot because of forged signatures on election paperwork.

Douglas Foy, former Allen County Republican executive director, was fired from his position this month after the election board discovered consent forms for 11 township-level candidates submitted just before the deadline had signatures forged by Foy.

Eight of the 11 candidates would not tell the election board whether the signature on the form was theirs during the preliminary investigation.
...
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/politics/15375098.htm

[freedomfries]

9. FL: Public records are easy targets for ID thieves

Public records are easy targets for ID thieves
Monika Hatcher
Miami Herald
August 27, 2006

The state's record keepers must delete sensitive personal information from government websites. Until that's done, many Floridians are in danger of having their identities stolen.

Forget lost or stolen laptops -- government websites are the real treasure troves for identity thieves, containing millions of searchable records brimming with Social Security numbers, dates of birth and all the ingredients criminals need to plunder bank accounts, ruin credit and wreck lives.

Recognizing the threat posed to citizens, the Florida Legislature passed a law four years ago requiring court clerks and county recorders to strike out personal information posted on the Web.

But the uncensored documents remain online, exposing hundreds of thousands of residents to identity theft, from schoolteachers and retirees to power brokers such as State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle and business mogul H. Wayne Huizenga.

The reason: Under pressure from the state's record keepers for more time, the Legislature has extended the deadline twice for completing the redaction, which was supposed to have been finished on Jan. 1. At the same time, the state set the same Jan. 1 deadline for photographic images of official records, including deeds, mortgages, liens, judgments and other public documents, to be available online.
The deadline to censor the online records is now Jan. 1, 2008.

A quick search of the Miami-Dade County Clerk's website, for instance, yielded the Social Security numbers of Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning and Miami Herald publisher Jesús Díaz Jr., among other community notables. The same is true on Broward County's website, where Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor's Social Security number is displayed.
...
That's not good enough, according to Bruce Hogman, a Broward County computer systems worker who is aghast at the lack of concern among public officials about the problem.

''If all the documents now in public view that contain identity data were on a stolen laptop, that would make front-page news,'' Hogman said.

``That the information is even more readily available to identity thieves and is paid for by our tax dollars is more incredible.''

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/15371751.htm

[freedomfries]

12. LA: Election Commissioners Needed

Election Commissioners Needed
KLFYTV10.com
August 24, 2006

The Lafayette Parish Clerk of Court's Office is still in need of about 30 people to man the polls on election days.

These volunteers, who are called election commissioners, open voting machines, ask for photo identifications and assist voters.

Anyone 18 and older can apply, as well as those who are 17 and full-time high school students.

You'll be asked to work a 14-hour day on election days.

The pay is $100.
...

http://www.klfy.com/Global/story.asp?S=5324157

[freedomfries]

15. FL: Election Reform Advocates Say 'No' To Early Voting

Election Reform Advocates Say 'No' To Early Voting

CBS4 News Miami
Gary Nelson
August 21, 2004

Early Voting Is In Effect Through September 3rd
Voting Is For 2006 Primaries

Even though the Miami-Dade County Elections Department is encouraging voters to take advantage of early voting for the 2006 primary elections, reformists of the system don’t want you to.

From Monday, August 21, to Sunday, September 3rd, voters have the choice to cast their votes at any of 20 regional sites located throughout the county, as long as they show a government issued photo id.

However, election reform advocates say this is a bad idea.

“These machines are flawed, they make mistakes,” said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff of the Miami-Dade Election Task Force. “We know they make mistakes; they made mistakes as recently as the November 2004 election.”

The problem, she says, is that the current touch-screen voting machines used in the county leave no paper trail or hard copy of your vote behind. So in the case of a computer meltdown, there is no way to recount your vote manually.
...
http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_233200847.html

[TheCowsCameHome]

16. If it angers Limbaugh it makes me happy.

[freedomfries]

18. Women's E-News: Anti-Incumbent Mood May Aid Women in 66 Primaries

Anti-Incumbent Mood May Aid Women in 66 Primaries
By Allison Stevens
Women'sE-News
Washington Bureau Chief
August 25, 2006
Re-Post from Truthout

On Saturday, Aug. 26--the anniversary of U.S. women's suffrage--dozens of women will spend the day in a fitting way: campaigning to win their primaries. Forty must win in September to break the record for major party nominations of women.


WASHINGTON (WOMENSENEWS)--On Saturday, August 26, as the 19th Amendment giving U.S. women the right to vote turns 86, several dozen women will mark the day in suitable style. They will be out campaigning for their party's congressional nominations in primary elections next month.

This year, more than 230 women--including 65 incumbents--have filed for party nomination to the House or Senate, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

So far, 112 have won their primaries: 102 for the House and 10 for the Senate. Three women have withdrawn from primaries and 51 others have lost their races. The 66 women who haven't been defeated yet will run in September primaries, 55 for House seats and 11 for the Senate.

If 40 of the women win next month--in races taking place primarily on the East Coast but also in the South, the Midwest and the West--they will break the record for the number of female nominees in the major parties in an election year.

The current record was set in 2004, when 151 women were nominated by major parties for the House and Senate, according to the center.
...
Making a "very, very cautious" prediction, Gilda Morales, program coordinator of information services at the Center for American Women and Politics, said women could net seven additional House seats and one or two more Senate seats in November. That would bring the total number of House women to 74 and Senate women to 16, or approximately 16 to 17 percent of the combined chambers.

"I don't think we'll ever have that year that everybody talks about," Morales said, referring to 1992, when women nearly doubled their ranks in both chambers. "But it's a very doable number to get to with the women that are in play right now."
...

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2863

[freedomfries]

19. AZ: Kolbe gone, Democrats finally have a chance

Kolbe gone, Democrats finally have a chance
Daniel Scarpinato
Arizona Daily Star
August 27, 2006

For more than two decades, Rep. Jim Kolbe has ensured that what is now Congressional District 8 remained in Republican hands.
So with Kolbe's career drawing to an end, it makes sense that for the first time in more than two decades, Democrats think they have a shot at the seat. The party is bolstered by national polls that show voters now are more inclined to want Democrats in charge of Congress.
But even with Iraq and health care major worries for Democrats, experts and observers say the party's primary race is less about issues and more about experience.
"The candidates have talked a lot about who can effectively beat the Republican candidate," says Democratic pollster Carol Zimmerman.
Since announcing her intention to run late last year, Gabrielle Giffords has been the candidate to beat. She has garnered a majority of union and Democratic interest group endorsements and has been a magnet for money.
As the only candidate with a voting history, Giffords is prone to highlighting her record on health care and education, not just her plans.
...
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/142863

[freedomfries]

20. IN: State wins $750,000 settlement from ES&S

Paying for democracy
Journal Gazette Fort Wayne
August 26, 2006

A settlement in the state’s case against the voting equipment vendor Election Systems & Software may be the best outcome that Hoosiers could expect. But it still leaves an unsavory whiff of incomplete justice in the air.

On Tuesday, Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita announced a settlement agreement with ES&S. The settlement means that there will be no fines or official judgments against the company as punishment for its faulty service to county election officials and Indiana voters.

The company made fundamental mistakes that endangered the integrity of the election results in the 27 Indiana counties that use ES&S software. The state filed a complaint against the Nebraska-based company before the May primary claiming that the vendor violated state law by providing defective election equipment and services.

The company agreed to a $750,000 settlement, with $245,000 of the money going in the state’s Voting System Technical Oversight Program, which provides technical support of election equipment. The rest will go directly to the 27 counties to pay for training videos, onsite support, ballot layout assistance and voter outreach programs.
...
Critics believe the mistakes warranted banning the company from selling its equipment in Indiana. But there are only three companies in the nation that provide voting equipment and further reducing election officials’ options in election equipment would not be in the best interest of voters.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/15366433.htm

[roseBudd]

21. Thankyou freedomfries...

What is aggravating is all the arguements I have had with DUers over photo ID to vote.

We are already asking the poor to participate in something (voting) that has little if any discernable benefit since the poor are not a constituency that politicians court.

People who can afford to drive cars should not have an innate advantage in franchise.

A person who drives a car doesn't have to do anything special to vote.

A person who does not drive does. Low income people move frequently, get evicted, live in blighted apartments that are more likely to experience fire or water damage, are burglarized or robbed, "stay with" rather than live at and DO NOT have transportation to zip to the Board of Health and the DMV to get the required ID to vote. Low income people lead disorganized, chaotic lives. Do we blame them and say, tough, you should have your shit together. Shame on you for not having your birth certificate. Shame on you for not having a bank account.

[freedomfries]

23. Hi rosebuds 57! Good to see you here!

You are absolutely right with your points.
The voter ID and the statewide databases can be just as devastating to election outcomes as out-and-out fraud, because they are "legal." Legalized mass disenfranchisement. Over 200,000 in Missouri. Similar impact everywhere where these measures have been pushed through.

[Algorem]

22. Ohio-Cuyahoga County recruiting gullible young nerds as poll workers

(naive,green geeks are also being sought out)

Summary Box: Recruiting young poll workers

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/politics-1/11565659558900.xml&storylist=cleveland

8/26/2006, 12:00 a.m. ET
The Associated Press

(AP) — NEED FOR YOUTH: Election officials are reaching out to high schools, colleges, corporations and service organizations to recruit a new crop of tech-savvy young people, who can take over a civic duty long performed by the country's World War II generation.

WHY THE NEED?: The average poll worker is 72 years old and election officials want to find young people both for their stamina to work a 15-hour election day and their comfort level with new electronic voting machines.

CONCERNS: Some election watchers are worried that teenagers don't have the experience to enforce election laws and might defer to older workers or voters.



Election officials cast for young poll workers

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/politics-1/11565659878900.xml&storylist=cleveland

8/26/2006, 12:00 a.m. ET
By JOE MILICIA
The Associated Press

FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio (AP) — High schooler Dan Garvey looked out of place at the polls, like a grandson among elders at an assisted living home.

Garvey wasn't there to vote. At 17, he wasn't old enough.

He spent the breezy summer day, all 15 hours, with people more than three times his age, serving democracy as one of suburban Cleveland's poll workers.

"People have said to me today, 'It's nice to see a young face,'" Garvey said...




Blackwell says signature collectors fell short on counties

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/politics-1/115654649847340.xml&storylist=cleveland

8/25/2006, 6:25 p.m. ET
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Backers of an issue that would keep key provisions of a law changing workers' compensation rules from taking effect have fallen short of the number required to make the Nov. 7 ballot, elections officials said Friday.

That means the backers, primarily the United Auto Workers and some trial lawyers, have 10 days to collect additional signatures and submit them to Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's office.

The issue could go to court before that because the group's lawyer said he had an agreement with Blackwell's office to delay issuing the 10-day notice until petition challenges were settled. Lawyer Don McTigue estimated there were still a half-dozen protests pending.

"It is directly contrary to what I was told by the secretary of state's office," McTigue said...



Counties rejecting signatures for minimum wage ballot issue

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-26/115654434114750.xml&storylist=cleveland

8/25/2006, 6:14 p.m. ET
The Associated Press

CLEVELAND (AP) — A second Ohio ballot proposal — this one to raise the minimum wage — might be in jeopardy because large percentage of signatures gathered are being rejected at election boards.

The high number of invalid signatures on minimum wage petitions have been found in some of Ohio's most populous counties. Elections boards are expected to report the petition numbers to the office of Secretary of State Ken Blackwell by the end of business Monday, said James Lee, spokesman for Blackwell's office.

A large number of signatures on petitions to expand gambling in Ohio have also been rejected in some counties, leading backers of that issue to worry whether that proposal will qualify for the ballot.

Lee said Friday a large percentage of invalidated petition signatures does not necessarily mean a potential issue is doomed, because organizers of issue petitions generally seek to gather up to twice the number of signatures needed...

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