Election Reform, Fraud & News Sunday 09/03/06 - Thank you Judge O'Malley!

[freedomfries]

Election Reform, Fraud & Related News

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

:patriot: :patriot: :patriot:

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

If you can:
1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.
:argh:
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=203x371233

:argh:
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.

:patriot:

Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page (it's the link just below).

[freedomfries]

1. OH: Federal judge throws out voter registration rules

Federal judge throws out voter registration rules
Vindy.com - AP news story picked up everywhere!
Saturday, September 2, 2006

CLEVELAND (AP) — A federal judge threw out new state rules governing voter registration drives Friday, saying they appear to violate the First Amendment and hurt efforts to sign up new voters.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen O'Malley issued an order from the bench immediately halting the enforcement of the registration rules. She said she planned to issue a detailed written order sometime next week.

A coalition of voter advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers sued the state, asking Judge O'Malley to throw out the regulations, which they claimed were intimidating and impaired their registration drives, particularly in low-income and minority areas, because the rules carry potential criminal penalties.
....
Judge O'Malley said she would have liked to have months to study the case but felt she had to make a ruling Friday ahead of the Labor Day weekend, which is traditionally a heavy voter registration drive time.

The judge said that, in light of her ruling, voters should ignore the references to the criminal penalties on forms used to sign up new voters. She gave the secretary of state's office five days to remove references to the rules and penalties on its Web site.

Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, the Republican candidate for governor, plans to comply with the order and not challenge it, said Larry James, an attorney for Blackwell's office who was in court Friday.

http://www.vindy.com/content/local_regional/327520925748423.php

[freedomfries]

2. UPI Jurist: Federal judge rejects Ohio voter registration rules

Federal judge rejects Ohio voter registration rules

Jurist - University of Pittsburgh
Joshua Pantesco
Saturday, September 02, 2006

A federal judge on Friday issued an order directing Ohio voters to ignore threats of criminal penalties on voter registration forms and instructions , saying that new state registration rules which took effect in May after the February passage of the controversial HB 3 election reform bill by the Republican-dominated Ohio Legislature may violate the First Amendment and unduly burden efforts to register voters. The rules authorize criminal penalties for "knowingly aiding or abetting any person to register in violation of the law," and other specified registration-related conduct, such as failing to submit registration forms by hand or by mail to the local board of elections. Plaintiff voting rights groups supported by Democratic Party legislators argued that the new rules unnecessarily discourage efforts to franchise new voters in violation of First Amendment free speech and association rights, while the state argued that the rules are designed only to deter voting fraud. US District Judge Kathleen O'Malley said she intends to release a full opinion supporting the order next week.

On Monday, a Florida federal judge struck down a voter registration law adopted by that state's Republican-controlled legislature that imposed steeply scaled fines on organizations and volunteers who failed to submit voter applications within specified time periods. The judge in that case ruled that the law "unconstitutionally discriminates in favor of political parties by excluding them from the definition of 'third party voter registration organization'" and that the law's stiff fines are unconstitutional because they "chill...First Amendment speech and association rights." AP has more.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/09/federal-judge-rejects-ohio-voter.php

[freedomfries]

3. OH: Text of Ken Blackwell's Voter Registration Instructions

http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/PublicAffairs/eVRinstructions.pdf

[freedomfries]

4. OH: Ruling erases election overhaul

Ruling erases election overhaul

Voter registration can continue as is, federal judge says

Mike Tobin
Plain Dealer Reporter
Saturday, September 02, 2006

A federal judge on Friday struck down parts of a controversial new Ohio election law that voter advocacy groups said would have made it almost impossible to conduct voter registration drives.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen O'Malley's ruling allows political groups to continue voter-registration efforts as the political season leading to the November election kicks off this weekend.

"The provisions greatly hinder the nationally articulated interest of registering all voters who wish to do so," O'Malley said. "Clearly, the voter registration drives can go forward."

A lawyer for Secretary of State Ken Blackwell said he would not appeal the ruling.

"The matter is now cleared up by this ruling," said Larry James, special counsel for the secretary of state.

Blackwell, campaigning Friday in Perrysburg, said, "Thanks to the judge for offering an opinion on the constitutionality of the law. The judge's ruling is a clear statement that the secretary of state's role is administrative. We are prepared to administer the amended law."

The General Assembly passed a wide-ranging law in January that overhauled Ohio elections. Supporters said the changes would close loopholes that could lead to voter fraud.

Several groups sued in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, claiming new registration and training requirements violated the free-speech rights of registrars by burdening them with the responsibility of personally returning registration cards and imposing potential felony penalties for failing to do so.

They also argued that several provisions of the law would disproportionately hinder voting in minority communities, where many residents don't have transportation and lack the technological skills to register online.
...
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/115718672842370.xml&coll=2

[freedomfries]

5. PFAW: Voter Registration Victory for Nonprofits in Ohio

Voter Registration Victory for Nonprofits in Ohio

PFAW Press Release
September 1, 2006

People For the American Way Foundation Fights HB3, Blackwell Rules

CLEVELAND—People For the American Way Foundation (PFAWF) today hailed a court victory in Ohio, where U.S. District Judge Kathleen O’Malley issued a preliminary injunction against portions of Ohio’s new voter law and Secretary of State Ken Blackwell’s restrictive interpretations of that law.

PFAWF and the other nonprofit organizations that brought the suit argued that Blackwell’s rules were hobbling efforts to register new voters, especially in minority and low-income communities. The Reverend Tony Minor, whose Community of Faith Assembly church in East Cleveland was a plaintiff in the suit, expressed relief.

“We’re overjoyed. Thanks to this ruling, we can hit the streets this Labor Day weekend, and redouble our efforts to register voters in time for this year’s election. The Secretary of State’s rules were really slowing us down with a lot of needless bureaucracy. The judge’s ruling today means that small churches without a lot of resources will still be able to reach into the community and sign up voters. That’s good for our community, and good for Ohio,” said Minor, whose church registers voters through PFAWF’s nonpartisan “Victory Through Voting” project.

PFAWF was plaintiff and co-counsel in the suit with Project Vote of Ohio, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), Communities of Faith Assembly Church, Common Cause Ohio, and the American Association of People with Disabilities.

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=22318

[freedomfries]

6. Nation: Katherine Harris' Comedy of Errors

Katherine Harris' Comedy of Errors

The former Florida secretary of state looks to be headed for a Senate primary win. So why is her own party laughing?
Barbara Liston
Time.com - CNN
Saturday, Sep. 02, 2006

Considering how much ridicule she endured from political opponents during and after the 2000 Florida presidential election recount debacle, it's almost astounding that Katherine Harris would willingly put herself in a position to be the butt of more jokes. But as a candidate in the absurd political circus that has been the Republican Senate primary race, that is just what the former Secretary of State and two-term congresswoman has done, and she now finds herself imploding on the eve of the primary election next Tuesday, painted as a bumbling, Starbucks-swilling, intolerant party pariah.

It is only thanks to her unknown and ineffective trio of opponents that Harris, 49, is nonetheless expected by many analysts and recent polls to win the primary — before undoubtedly losing the November election to incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. "It really has been a disastrous campaign of epic proportions," says Aubrey Jewett, political science professor of University of Central Florida in Orlando. "I don't think you've ever seen anyone fall from grace so fast in their own party."

How the normally disciplined Republican machine let their primary for such an important office turn into a laughing stock is grist for comedy shows and conspiracy theories alike. Abandoned early and publicly by both state and national party leaders — everyone from Jeb Bush to Karl Rove reportedly tried to recruit an alternative candidate — Harris's every campaign stumble and fashion faux-pas has eclipsed virtually all other issues, even her questionable dealings with Mitchell Wade, the defense contractor who funnelled $32,000 in illegal contributions to her 2004 reelection campaign and has also plead guilty to bribing California congressman Duke Cunningham. (Harris has said she is fully cooperating with the investigation into the illegal donations, and prosecutors say there is no evidence she knew they violated the law; Wade is cooperating with the investigation and has yet to be sentenced.)

Harris has incurred so many self-inflicted wounds that Democrats for the most part have kept quiet and stayed out of the way. Her campaign has suffered from two en masse walkouts of staffers who describe her as erratic and abusive to staff and who often go on to dish insider tales to the media. Her congressional office also has seen a lot of turnover. Harris believes she has been sabotaged by former staffers and the national party, who she said were "putting knives in her back," according to the Tampa Tribune.
...

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1531257,00.html

[freedomfries]

7. FL: Tom Feeney Evicts Clint Curtis From 'Public' Meeting! [Bradblog]

Tom Feeney Evicts Clint Curtis From 'Public' Meeting!

Curtis: 'Seems like Feeney is scared to death of the truth.'
Winter Patriot, Bradblog
September 1, 2006

According to usully reliable sources, Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL) flexed enough muscle on Monday night to have his potential November opponent, Clint Curtis, evicted from what was supposed to be a public meeting.

The meeting, at the Republican Club of North Brevard, in Titusville, FL, featured Feeney as a speaker. Curtis was sitting quietly in the audience when Feeney noticed him there. At that point, according to our sources, Feeney immediately turned bright red and started whispering to some of the people near him.

One of those people raised a point of order and pointed out that there was a Democrat in the room. She said she wanted him to leave because this was a Republican meeting and she did not feel it was appropriate to have a Democrat in the audience.

.....
Feeney jumped up and took over the podium. He stated that one of his opponents — Clint Curtis — was present.

Then Feeney said, "I have never met him before."

Regular BRAD BLOG readers will recognize this attempt at deception, which Feeney has used many times.
....
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3370#more-3370

[freedomfries]

8. GA: Voter ID law back - 300,000 could be disenfranchised!

Fight over photo ID resumes - Election board decision sends issue back to court

Carlos Campos
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
September 2, 2006

Georgia's effort to require voters to show photo identification at the polls is back on — for now.

The State Election Board on Friday agreed to launch an education campaign to let voters know they will need one of six forms of government-issued photo identification when they cast a ballot in special elections to be held later this month and the general election in November.

The issue is far from settled, since groups opposed to the requirement immediately pledged to go back to court to get the law tossed again.

Judges in both state and federal court halted enforcement of the voter ID law for the July primaries, saying there was evidence that the law posed an unnecessary impediment to voting. But those orders were temporary, and the judges have yet to rule on the merits of the law.

Election board members emerged from a short, closed-door session with the state's lawyers and announced they were ready to move forward with implementation of the photo voter ID law.
...
Emmet Bondurant, a lawyer representing Common Cause Georgia and other groups in a federal lawsuit challenging the law, said he will ask a judge to again stop enforcement of the law.
....

Beginning next week, voters will hear public service announcements on radio and TV letting them know about the change in the law. A brochure will also be mailed to 305,074 registered voters who might lack either a state-issued driver's license or identification card.

The secretary of state's office estimated in June that more than 676,000 Georgians lacked the most-shown forms of identification.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2006/09/01/0902metvoterid.html

[freedomfries]

23. IN: BMV Computer Upgrade to Ease Transition to National ID

BMV computer upgrade may be worth the pain
Could ease transition to national ID
Niki Kelly
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Sunday, September 2006

INDIANAPOLIS – Although it’s hard right now to see any upside to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles’ recent computer conversion, state officials say the new system will ease the expected transition in 2008 to a de facto national identification card.

A flexible – and clean – database system is just one of the things states will need to comply with the federal Real ID Act.

In that regard, Indiana is ahead of the game. But the state is limited in its groundwork while waiting for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to create the rules that threaten to change everything from how driver’s licenses are made to how they are delivered.

“It’s amazing to hear the different levels of preparation by states,” BMV Assistant Commissioner Steve Leak said. “We’ve had enough foresight to move forward on some things, but this is not going to be without pain. We know that.”

In May 2005 President Bush signed the law, which requires states to issue licenses and identification cards according to new national standards.

Residents of states that do not make the changes will be barred from using the cards for federal identification, which includes boarding an airplane and entering federal buildings.

States can issue non-conforming driver’s licenses and identification cards so long as a disclaimer on the face of the card states that the document may not be accepted for federal identification or any other official purpose. Some states are considering this as a way to issue driving privilege cards to undocumented immigrants.
...

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/15431843.htm

[freedomfries]

9. DC: Mailing "Glitch" Could Affect DC Elections

Mailing Glitch Could Affect D.C. Elections:
Voter Guides Contain Wrong Voting Locations

nbc4.com
POSTED: August 31, 2006
UPDATED: September 1, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics reported Thursday that some of the city's voter guides were mailed out listing the wrong precinct location.

The official voters' guide was mailed to about 250,000 city voters and is causing a lot of confusion.

Officials now warn that for voters who don't go to the right precinct, their votes will not count.

Poll workers for the city's 142 precincts have been completing detailed instructions on where to go and what to do Election Day. There's even an official tape measure to be sure political campaign workers legally stay 50 feet from polling places.
...

Elections Executive Director Alice Miller said the voters' guides cost about $50,000 to mail out, and the private contractor is going to spend about $40,000 itself to send out postcards correcting the mailing error.
...
http://www.nbc4.com/politics/9772205/detail.html

[freedomfries]

10. CA: Phony GOP voter forms prompt state investigation

Phony GOP voter forms prompt state investigation

SFGate.com
Robin Hindery, AP
Friday, September 1, 2006
SACRAMENTO

The secretary of state's office said Friday that it would investigate allegations that signature gatherers paid to sign up voters for the California Republican Party submitted registration forms containing fake names.

"If credible evidence of wrongdoing is found, we will work with local law enforcement to vigorously prosecute to the fullest extent of the law," Secretary of State Bruce McPherson said in a statement.

McPherson announced his investigation after the GOP said a routine screening of registration forms yielded some "questionable patterns."

"Together with the vendor, we figured out some kind of fraud was being perpetrated," said party spokesman Patrick Dorinson, referring to the party's principal, Southern California-based voter-registration firm, California Grassroots Mobilization.

The internal investigation found that several voter-registration workers from an unidentified Southern California subcontractor had created fake individuals in registration documents they submitted to party headquarters two weeks ago.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/09/01/state/n162322D02.DTL

[skids]

11. CNN: Warren Mitofsky, "father of exit polling," dies at 72

Mitofsky, 'father of exit polling,' dies at 72
September 2, 2006
From Keating Holland
CNN

WASHINGT0N (CNN) -- Warren Mitofsky, considered by many to be the "father of exit polling," died of heart failure in New York on Friday. He was 72.

Mitofsky changed the way the media covers elections by pioneering the use of exit polls to project winners in U.S. elections beginning in the 1960s. He also developed many of the telephone polling techniques still in use today.

Mitofsky worked for CBS News for nearly three decades before leaving in 1990 to head Voter Research and Surveys, the first network exit poll consortium.

When Mitofsky joined CBS in the 1960s, political pollsters relied on house-to-house interviews to project winners of elections in the coming days.

Mitofsky developed the technique of canvassing people soon after they voted into a staple of modern news coverage, changing the way elections were covered and "called" by network news....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/02/obit.mitofsky/index.html

LBN thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2491402

[freedomfries]

13. TIA: Ultimate Smoking Gun: Change in 2-Party Gender/Race Vote

Thanks skids!
TIA's eulogy?
TruthIsAll
Progressive Independent
Edit on Sat Sep-02-06 06:51 PM

Ultimate Smoking Gun: Change in 2-Party Gender/Race Vote (2000-2004)

Consider the Democratic RECORDED vote in 2000 and 2004. One would expect that female AND male 2-party vote shifts would be nearly equal. But the female vote shifts to Bush were dramatic while there was virtually no change in the male vote.

According to the 12:22am National Exit Poll, Kerry won a solid majority(57%) of those who did not vote in 2000 (mostly newly registered and female) and 70% of Nader 2000 voters, how could:

1) Over 10% (net) of white females who voted for Gore switch to Bush?
2) Over 4% (net) of black females who voted for Gore switch to Bush?
while
3) 1.4% (net) of white males who voted for Bush switch to Kerry?
4) 0.87% (net) of black males who voted for Gore switch to Bush?

These are the RECORDED votes, NOT the exit polls.

Can anyone explain the wide discrepancy between the male and female vote shares between 2000 and 2004?

TO BELIEVE THAT BUSH WON THE 2-PARTY VOTE BY 51.5-48.5%,
WE MUST ALSO BELIEVE THAT HIS 3% MARGIN WAS DUE ENTIRELY TO FEMALES WHO
a) VOTED FOR GORE or
b) DID NOT VOTE IN 2000 or
c) WERE FORMER NADER VOTERS.
...
http://www.progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=120&topic_id=3160

[Algorem]

22. Anthony S. Reissig, 59, was an election expert

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060902/NEWS0104/609020373/1060/NEWS01

BY REBECCA GOODMAN | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

MOUNT WASHINGTON - Anthony S. Reissig traveled the world teaching governments and people how to vote in free democratic elections.

An elections expert, he wrote guidebooks and helped plan elections and train poll workers in Ukraine, Serbia, Georgia, Hungary, Albania, Belarus and Bangladesh and other countries.

"Anywhere they would have free elections, he would go," said his friend, Standford Mendelson of Dayton. "He was one of the premier election officials in the world."


Here at home, Mr. Reissig was called to Washington, D.C., after the 2000 election to work with the National Institute of Standards and Technologies in setting standards for the country's voting equipment...

[freedomfries]

12. FL: Supervisor Of Elections Pays $24,000 For Silence

Supervisor Of Elections Pays $24,000 For Silence

Mark Holan
The Tampa Tribune
August 25, 2006

TAMPA - Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson this week bought the silence of his former spokesman with more than $24,000 in public money.

The separation agreement with the former public information director, Steven W. Holub, also shields Johnson and his office from a lawsuit by Holub.

....
In his July 31 resignation letter, Holub said he looks forward to working with Johnson again as an outside consultant "as we have discussed."

Johnson confirmed the conversation. "That's still an option. There's no barrier to that at all," he said.

"He is a fine individual," Johnson said.
...

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBAWTVZ9RE.html

[freedomfries]

14. Mother Jones Waking Up to 11 Worst Places to Cast Of Vote in US

Just Try Voting Here: 11 of America's worst places to cast a ballot (or try)

Machines that count backward, slice-and-dice districts, felon baiting, phone jamming, and plenty of dirty tricks

Sasha Abramsky
Mother Jones
September/October 2006 Issue

We used to think the voting system was something like the traffic laws -- a set of rules clear to everyone, enforced everywhere, with penalties for transgressions; we used to think, in other words, that we had a national election system. How wrong a notion this was has become painfully apparent since 2000: As it turns out, except for a rudimentary federal framework (which determines the voting age, channels money to states and counties, and enforces protections for minorities and the disabled), U.S. elections are shaped by a dizzying mélange of inconsistently enforced laws, conflicting court rulings, local traditions, various technology choices, and partisan trickery. In some places voters still fill in paper ballots or pull the levers of vintage machines; elsewhere, they touch screens or tap keys, with or without paper trails. Some states encourage voter registration; others go out of their way to limit it. Some allow prisoners to vote; others permanently bar ex-felons, no matter how long they've stayed clean. Who can vote, where people cast ballots, and how and whether their votes are counted all depends, to a large extent, on policies set in place by secretaries of state and county elections supervisors -- officials who can be as partisan, as dubiously qualified, and as nakedly ambitious as people anywhere else in politics. Here is a list -- partial, but emblematic -- of American democracy's more glaring weak spots.
...
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/09/just_try_voting_here.html

[freedomfries]

15. Common Cause: Another Late Awakening?

Malfunction and Malfeasance: A Report on the Electronic Voting Machine Debacle
http://www.commoncause.org/atf/cf/{FB3C17E2-CDD1-4DF6-92BE-BD4429893665}/MALFUNCTION%20AND%20MALFEASANCE%20REPORT.PDF

[DemReadingDU]

16. Good news for Ohio, Thank you for all these articles!

[freedomfries]

17. WI: Testing the new electronic voting system for Madison

Testing the new electronic voting system for Madison

Ithmus, Madison, WI
Kristian Knutsen
Thursday September 31, 2006

This week, the Madison City Clerk's Office is conducting a public test of this system. This test is in accordance with Section 5.84(1) of Wisconsin Statutes, which was enacted early this year.

A room on the first floor of the City-County Building has been buzzing all week, with many persons -- mostly from the City Assessor's Office -- helping the City Clerk's Office prepare for the September primary.

One major task was testing a ballot from each ward using the AutoMark Voter Assist Terminal, to make sure each scans properly. All 76 machines use a small flash drive -- similar to that in digital cameras -- that contains information on the particular ballot for the ward.

"All that's on that flash card is which candidates are on which ballot," says new Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl. "When you enter your ballot , it's reading the header code to download the ballot." (For example, the Democratic primary between incumbent David Travis and challenger Henry Sanders for the 81st Assembly District will only be on ballots in a few wards in north Madison.)

How did the new system perform?
...
http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/node/2121

[freedomfries]

18. The Free Press: Saving the ballot evidence from Ohio 2004

Saving the ballot evidence from Ohio 2004

Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
The Free Press
September 2, 2006

This weekend was to be "D-Day" in Ohio. It marked the September 2 deadline after which federal law allows the destruction of ballots from the 2004 election.

It didn't happen, at least on a statewide basis. But the fight to preserve that vital evidence is far from over.

Republican election officials here have been chomping at the bit to shred, burn or otherwise destroy the ballots and other related materials from the dubious vote count that gave George W. Bush a second term. Yet, in several rural southwest Republican-dominated counties, you have to trip over boxes of ballots and election material from earlier elections dating back as far as 1977 in order to see the stickers "Destroy on 9/3/06" on the 2004 ballot boxes.
...
The disturbing revelations of irregularities, theft and fraud continue to pour from the ballots still stored by election boards around the state. Statistician Dr. Richard Hayes Phillips has been instrumental in the research process along with a volunteer crew of election protection activists. This summer, Dr. Ron Baiman of Loyola has also been analyzing ballots and other election records from the 2004 election in a project funded by the CICJ. Many have spent countless hours pouring through and photographing piles of voter records and thousands of ballots, some of them stacked in filthy, leaky warehouses. Through this work, the evidence that the 2004 election was stolen continues to build. We will cover some of these new revelations in a future piece.
...
Until this past week, Blackwell has made clear his intent to rid himself of the remnants of 2004. Federal law says ballots must be preserved 22 months after a presidential election, which would have meant Blackwell and the BOEs could have shredded them all September 2.

But a week prior, a legal team including Columbus-based Clifford Arnebeck filed notice with Blackwell that action would be taken to preserve the evidence. The formal filing came Thursday, August 30, in the form of a civil rights action. In concert with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, Arnebeck and John Marshall, also of Columbus, asked the federal district court in Columbus to force Blackwell to order the 88 county boards of elections to preserve the ballots. The filing says the ballots are needed as evidence of official fraud, manipulation and discrimination that violated the rights of young and black voters.
...
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2006/2139

[freedomfries]

19. OH: Save the Ballots Campaign

Ohio’s 2004 Ballots – Saved For Now!

Savetheballots.org

Investigators seeking to understand what happened in Ohio’s 2004 presidential election have won a big victory – a pledge by Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to delay destruction of the election’s ballots by several months – instead of disposing of them after Labor Day, when they could be destroyed under federal law.

Blackwell told the New York Times that he would issue new rules on destroying the 2004 ballots in response to a civil rights suit filed Thursday, August 31, 2006, in federal court in Columbus, Ohio. The lawsuit claims minority voters were treated unequally by Blackwell and other officials in 2004, depriving voters of their right to vote and have those ballots counted.

The lawsuit was filed by civil rights attorneys in Columbus, Ohio and the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City. It sought to preserve the ballots and other local election records as evidence. It also asked the federal court to appoint a special master to oversee Ohio’s 2006 general election to ensure that Ohioans are not again deprived of their voting rights.

...
Here's what we do know: Across Ohio's cities, a deluge of voter suppression tactics kept more than 170,000 people who intended to vote from voting, according to the Democratic National Committee’s post-election report. And of those who voted, nearly 130,000 ballots were never counted, because they were rejected by computer voting machines, or disqualified by poll workers for reasons that included being turned in at the wrong table.

Meanwhile, in Republican-dominated rural areas, the voter turnout and returns that re-elected the president defied political logic. More than 10,500 people voted for Bush and in favor of gay marriage, if the official results are true. And John Kerry received fewer votes in 12 counties than an obscure Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice candidate, whose race drew 1.2 million fewer votes statewide.

The reporting, analysis and evidence gathered in the 20 months since the 2004 vote has been compiled into a forthcoming book from the New Press, “What Happened in Ohio: A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election,” by Robert Fitrakis, Steven Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman

http://savetheballots.org/

[freedomfries]

20. Mexico: [[LA Times] Lopez Obrador Shows Strength on 2 Fronts

Lopez Obrador Shows Strength on 2 Fronts: Mexico's presidential runner-up proves he commands authority within the legislature as well as on the streets to push for change.

Sam Enriquez
Los Angeles Times
September 3, 2006

MEXICO CITY — By delivering a symbolic but stinging blow to the government of President Vicente Fox, losing presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador clinched the first round in his fight for a nonviolent revolution to transform Mexico.

The leftist leader harnessed the full support of his party's congressional delegation to block Fox from delivering his nationally televised State of the Nation speech Friday, humiliating the president and raising fears over his apparent inability to exercise authority against a growing opposition.

"The question becomes, is Mexico on the brink of political crisis? And you could say after Friday that it's entered that realm," said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, a Mexico expert for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "There doesn't seem to be a willingness to negotiate or compromise…. It's like two trains on a head-on collision course."

Authorities deployed thousands of federal police at the Congress building Friday, anticipating a rush by Lopez Obrador supporters who want a recount of the July 2 election, apparently won by conservative Felipe Calderon by less than 1 percentage point.

But Lopez Obrador called off his army of street demonstrators in the late afternoon. Instead, invited lawmakers of his Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, rose from their seats that evening and took over the hall at a prearranged signal, presumably at the behest of Lopez Obrador.

The seizure of the congressional dais in the moments before Fox's speech revealed the twin strategies of Lopez Obrador to use street demonstrations and Mexico's legislature to hammer away at Fox, Calderon and their National Action Party, or PAN, analysts said

....
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico3sep03,1,1937732.story?coll=la-headlines-world

[freedomfries]

21. Mexico: [Boston Globe] Election crisis deepens in Mexico

Election crisis deepens in Mexico
Leftist's fiery talk prolongs the turmoil
Jo Tuckman
Boston Globe
Sunday, September 3, 2006

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's electoral tribunal has rejected his call for a recount, dismissed his claims of widespread vote rigging, and is widely expected to declare his rival to be the country's president-elect.
Instead, two months after he lost the official count to Felipe Calderón by a razor-thin margin, López Obrador is stepping up his campaign of ``non violent civil resistance" and vowing to challenge the very legitimacy of Mexico's institutional order for months, if not years, to come.

Such fiery talk has some analysts talking about insurrection, and others fearing a violent right-wing backlash.

Even those who predict the movement will fizzle out on its own expect a degree of political chaos at least until the handover of power in December.

``We have no respect for their institutions," López Obrador, the charismatic leftist and former Mexico City mayor, said during one of his recent addresses to supporters manning a huge sit-in protest in Mexico City. ``We are going to create our own institutions that belong to the people."
...
http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2006/09/03/election_crisis_deepens_in_mexico/
I

[Kurovski]

24. Kick to the top!

Thank you freedomfries, for deep-frying a hot batch of ERD we can all share!:thumbsup: