Election Reform, Fraud & News Wed 2/21/07 OPEN HONEST ELECTIONS-The Basics

[kpete]

Election Reform, Fraud & News Wed 2/21/07 OPEN HONEST ELECTIONS-The Basics

Basic Principals:

1) One Person – One Vote
2) First Count = Real Count
3) People – Only Qualified to see
4) Vote Counting cannot be delegated.

Goals:

1) Enforce law
2) Teach Democracy Principals
3) Qualified officials
4) Simplify message
5) Independent Media
6) Community Based
7) Public Based strategy

OPEN AND HONEST ELECTIONS Mean:

1) Open = transparent
2) SEE the votes Counted
3) Follow Law
4) Verifiable – re-countable
5) Reliable – secure
6) Accessible

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

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

If you can:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.

Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page.

[kpete]

1. Hey ERD! Please go chat up auto's thread

Hey ERD! Please go chat up auto's thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=256420&mesg_id=256420

[kpete]

2. STEVEN FREEMAN - 2004 Election Results Questioned

2004 Election Results Questioned

Feb 14, 2007


2008 is just around the corner. Already, the field of presidential candidates is growing. We have Richardson, Clinton, Obama, Romney, Hunter, Biden, and Edwards declared. We have at least McCain and Giuliani preparing. There's no incumbent. There's no vice president heir apparent. It's shaping up to be a tough, expensive race with huge stakes. The good news is that it will be decided by the ballot box. But is that system still safe and fair? Can we trust the election results? Author Steve Freeman believes that we cannot. We'll examine his findings and his claim that the way U.S. elections are conducted threatens democracy.


Guest

Steve Freeman, author of Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?


KPBS interview from 2/14/07: http://www.kpbs.org/tv/full_focus?id=7358

[cal04]

3. U.S. Election Assistance Commission Research Finds Polling-Place ID Laws

U.S. Election Assistance Commission Research Finds Polling-Place ID Laws Reduce Minority Voter Turnout


Advocates expressed deep concern today over new data that suggests Latinos, Asian Americans, and African Americans are less likely to vote as a result of increasingly restrictive voter identification (ID) requirements. These findings are the result of preliminary research presented to the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC) by the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.

Researchers found that in the 2004 election, all voters, in states requiring voters to present documentation establishing their identity at the polls, were 2.7 percent less likely to vote than voters in states where no documentation was required. Latinos were 10 percent less likely to vote, Asian-Americans 8.5 percent less likely to vote and African Americans 5.7 percent less likely to vote.

"The study confirms that voter ID requirements keep more minority than white voters away from the polls," said Maxine Nelson, President of Project Vote, a national nonpartisan organization that supports voter registration and voter education programs "When you think about the many close races in the past two elections cycles, this documented disparity raises profound questions about the legitimacy of our democratic system."

"The biggest threat to the integrity of our electoral process is laws that prevent rather than encourage American citizens from casting a ballot," said Arturo Vargas, Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund, a national leadership organization dedicated to facilitating the full participation of Latinos in the American political process. "As the research suggests, restrictive voter identification laws are a potential threat to participatory democracy in the United States," concluded Vargas.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20070221/pl_usnw/u_s__election_assistance_commission_research_finds_polling_place_id_laws_reduce_minority_voter_turnout

[kpete]

4. Lower Voter Turnout Is Seen in States That Require ID

Lower Voter Turnout Is Seen in States That Require ID

By CHRISTOPHER DREW
Published: February 21, 2007
States that imposed identification requirements on voters reduced turnout at the polls in the 2004 presidential election by about 3 percent, and by two to three times as much for minorities, new research suggests.

The study, prepared by scholars at Rutgers and Ohio State Universities for the federal Election Assistance Commission, supports concerns among voting-rights advocates that blacks and Hispanics could be disproportionately affected by ID requirements. But federal officials say more research is needed to draw firmer conclusions about the effects on future elections.

Tim Vercellotti, a professor at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University who helped conduct the study, said that in the states where voters were required to sign their names or present identifying documents like utility bills, blacks were 5.7 percent less likely to vote than in states where voters simply had to say their names.

Dr. Vercellotti said Hispanics appeared to be 10 percent less likely to vote under those requirements, while the combined rate for people of all races was 2.7 percent.

more at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/us/21voting.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[kpete]

5. Professor: E-voting machines not secure

Professor: E-voting machines not secure
Bay Area-based manufacturer denies claims: 'This is not a real-world scenario'
By Michele R. Marcucci, STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated: 02/21/2007 06:11:37 AM PST


PRINCETON PROFESSOR Andrew Appel shows how he was able to hack a Sequoia Voting Systems' AVC Advantage electronic voting machine. Appel said he bought five of the machines from a government surplus Web site for $82. A Princeton University professor is claiming that some of Sequoia Voting Systems' electronic touch-screen machines can be easily manipulated to throw an election.
In a blow-by-blow on his school Web page and a separate filing for an electronic-voting lawsuit in New Jersey superior court, computer science professor Andrew Appel details how he was able to purchase five of the Oakland-based company's AVC Advantage machines off a Web site auctioning government surplus items, pry open the back and access the computer chips that control the vote count.

He said security features touted by the Oakland-based company on its Web site were not in place on the machines he bought for $82 from http://www.govdeals.com.

more at:
http://origin.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_5271727

[kpete]

6. TX: Lawsuit FIled By TX Dem Pty Concerned with Voting Machines

Duff wants more of vote machines under scrutiny
By STEVE SNYDER Examiner editor

Grimes County Elections Administrator Becky Duff wants the Grimes County Commissioners Court to buy her as many as 21 new voting machines.

But, a federal lawsuit filed by the Texas Democratic Party may want them to wait a little bit. The lawsuit, filed in Austin Feb. 13, claims that Hart InterCivic's eSlate voting machines, used by the county already and which the new machines would be, have glitches. The reported glitch is that when a voter votes a straight ticket, then tries to vote "inside the ballot" for one person of the other party, the eSlate doesn't count the ballot accurately. There are also concerns that when a person votes a straight ticket, then, whether wanting to "emphasize" his or her vote, or not trusting the machine, votes for one single person of the same party, his or her vote also may not be accurately recorded.

Elections Administrator Becky Duff presented the court with a request for as many as 21 new voting machines, at a cost of $2,500 each, in its Feb. 12 meeting.

"I know we need it; down at Todd Mission, some people stood in line 45 minutes," Commissioner Bill Pendley said.

"That is unacceptable, and some counties have been sued over that," Duff responded.

more at:
http://www.navasotaexaminer.com/articles/2007/02/21/news/news04.txt

[kpete]

7. Hack the Vote by Chuck Herrin

Hack the Vote by Chuck Herrin
Submitted by Joan Brunwasser


Very interesting website of a life-long Republican and a highly regarded IT security consultant. Lots of interesting information coming from a source not easily shrugged off as a lefty loony or conspiracy theorist.


Q: What's the most common rationale against using hand-counted paper ballots?

A: The most common statement is so stupid that I feel insulted to even have to refute it. People who are pro-DRE always say "We have a 200 year history of problems with paper ballots, and it has been shown over and over again that we cannot secure them from tampering".

Anyone with half a thimbleful of sense will realize that what they are saying is, "We have 200 years of rampant election fraud, and so far we have been unable to figure out how to keep fraudsters from having unrestricted physical access to our voting medium".

Can anyone possibly explain how adding networked, closed-source computers to the equation will make the process more open, auditable, and trustworthy? If you can't secure a big locked box holding a bunch of paper, where people have to change one vote at a time, can we reasonably expect you to secure a group of networked Windows PCs? Come on - nobody is really this stupid.

David Allen of BlackBoxVoting.com has a couple of great thoughts about paper:

"The fact that fraud has occurred on occasion with paper ballots does not invalidate the use of paper ballots any more than occasional counterfeiting invalidates the use of paper money."

And:

"According to the Justice Department, thieves and robbers made off with $45 million in paper money in 2003. According to the American Banking Association, computer thieves made off with $500 million in digital cash that same year."

"Explain to me again how paper is the problem?"

more at:
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkpg=http://www.chuckherrin.com/hackthevoteFAQ.htm&linkid=31118

[kpete]

8. HOW PRISONS AFFECT VOTE TOTALS

HOW PRISONS AFFECT VOTE TOTALS

MARIE GOTTSCHALK, LA TIMES - More than 2 million people, or nearly one out of every 100 adults, is sitting in a jail or prison in the United States - an incarceration rate unprecedented in U.S. history. The total number of prisoners is not in dispute. But how to tabulate them is emerging as perhaps the most vexing issue of the 2010 census.

The U.S. Census Bureau counts prisoners as residents of the towns and counties where they are incarcerated, even though most inmates have no ties to those communities and almost always return to their home neighborhoods upon release. . .

In California and 47 other states, imprisoned felons are barred from voting. Yet these disenfranchised prisoners are included in the population tallies used to draw legislative and congressional districts. This practice dilutes the votes of urban areas such as Los Angeles. Nearly one-third of the 172,000 inmates in California's state prisons come from Los Angeles County, but only about 3% are incarcerated in the county. . .

A provocative analysis by the Prison Policy Initiative estimates that if prisoners held in upstate New York were counted in their home neighborhoods, at least four state Senate seats - all Republican - would be in jeopardy after redistricting. Last May, a federal appeals court suggested that counting the thousands of black and Latino prisoners from New York City as upstate residents may be a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.

http://prorev.com/2007/02/how-prisons-affect-vote-totals.htm

[kpete]

9. Paper Trail or Paper Ballot?

Paper Trail or Paper Ballot?
By Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA
February 21, 2007

In a recent Washington Post article "Campaign Strengthens for a Voting Paper Trail" Zachary Goldfarb reports that legislation banning paperless electronic voting is inevitable in the new Congress. He quotes Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Rush Holt making the argument that, in the speaker's words, the new leadership is "committed to election-reform legislation that requires all voting machines produce a paper trail".

He also notes that Florida and Virginia are moving toward optical scan voting systems and discusses the situation arising from the unexplained undervotes in Sarasota County, Florida last November. Then he quotes Dan Tokaji as an voice of opposition:

"It could well create more problems in terms of both creating post-election litigation and creating administrative problems in counting these paper strips," Tokaji said. "We know they can be compromised, torn, crumpled," and have printing problems, he said.

But there is a disconnect here. A paper ballot optical scan solution to the problem of paperless voting would not have the results that Tokaji anticipates. He is speaking only of voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) printers attached to exis DREs. His concerns are valid. If Congress adopts a solution of spending millions on add-on printers, it may indeed have the results Tokaji describes. If Congress spends millions phasing out DREs and replacing them with paper ballot optical scan systems with ballot marking devices for disabled and language minority voters, it will not result in "compromised, torn and crumpled" printouts.

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

Whatever policy is reflected ultimately in the legislation that comes out of Congress this Spring, American voters will not be adequately served if there is no discussion of a proposal to establish a uniform currency of voting - a paper ballot marked, physically or electronically, by the voter on the paper ballot itself, with all electronic tallies derived from that paper ballot.

more at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2279&Itemid=26

[kpete]

10. We pretend to vote, they pretend to get elected - by Michael Collins

February 20, 2007 at 04:49:31

Can we work "within the system"? A response to those who think we can.

We pretend to vote, they pretend to get elected.

Michael Collins
Election Fraud News

Is it practical or useful to attempt to work within the current legislative system to change election processes and regulations? This is a critical issue for elections activists. This statement is my firmly held position. I do not intend to offend anyone. Rather, my goal is to focus on the abundantly clear realities we face and the directions we must take based on those realities.

On the issue that interests me the most, election fraud, we clearly need to work within the system to gather that data sufficient to determine if election fraud occurred in a given election. We have no ability to critique and judge the system if we lack access to the available data. This working within approach has been highly effective as evidenced by the work of TruthIsAll, Simon, Freeman, and ElectionArchive.Org/Baiman.

With regard to the other focus of the clean elections interest group, influencing the type of voting and tabulation systems in use, the legislative regulation of those systems, and the quality assurance component, post election audits, the choice is not as straight forward.

more at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_michael__070219_can_we_work__22within_.htm

[kpete]

11. The Conservative Case for D.C. Voting Rights

The Conservative Case for D.C. Voting Rights

Just as D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty cheered voting rights advocates with a new effort to lobby Congress for the right that all other Americans take for granted, and just as congressional Democrats were gearing up to show that they intend to be more aggressive on D.C. voting rights than the Republican leadership had been, along comes the Congressional Research Service with a whole new barrier.

The non-partisan Research Service concluded that giving D.C. residents a full, voting seat in the House of Representatives is probably unconstitutional. Suddenly, the air seemed to escape from the voting rights balloon.

Now, D.C. voting rights advocates are scrambling to reassert Congress's authority to create a House seat for the District. On the theory that the Democrats have more to gain from a D.C. seat than the Republicans, the new lobbying effort is aimed at persuading Republicans that this is not only the right thing to do, but a legally well-founded path as well. And who better to make that case than two solid citizens of the right, conservative legal scholars Kenneth Starr, the former Clinton impeachment case special prosecutor, and Viet Dinh, the Georgetown law professor and former Justice Department official.

Starr notes that the Constitution is silent on the matter of whether D.C. residents may vote. In the Founders' era, there was no expectation that people would live in the capital, which was then little more than an idea surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. But Starr says despite that silence, Congress has the authority to adapt to the fact that a full-fledged city grew up here; the Constitution expressly says that "The Congress shall have power ... to
exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever" over the District of Columbia.

more at:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2007/02/the_conservative_case_for_dc_v.html

[kpete]

12. Comment on "Paper-based voting Systems Winning Supporters"

February 21, 2007 at 13:07:44

Comment on "Paper-based voting Systems Winning Supporters"

by Stephanie Singer

Re: "Paper-based voting systems winning supporters"

As a mathematician who earned tenure at a respected Pennsylvania institution of higher learning and who has discussed with many thoughtful, intelligent, world-class scientists and computer scientists the merits and demerits of electronic voting, I am insulted and appalled by Michael Shamos' ad hominem attacks on opponents of electronic voting. Of course Shamos defends electronic voting -- he works for the PA Department of State!



It is simply a lie to say, as Shamos does, that "no scientific evidence is being presented" to Congress on this issue. And it is at best hypocritical for Shamos to chide other academics for moving "beyond their impartial roles as academics" when he has positioned himself as an attack dog on behalf of electronic voting.

I have tried to engage Dr. Shamos in reasoned, scientific discussion of the issues on which we disagree, and he always stops the conversation when the crux of the matter is reached. That is the tactic of a politician, not of a world-class scientist.

So why does Dr. Shamos get so much press? I'll bet it's because there are almost no other Ph.D holders who agree with him about electronic voting. Maybe soon the press will realize that the dangers of electronic voting are like the dangers of global warming -- acknowledged beyond a shadow of a doubt by the scientific establishment.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_stephani_070221_comment_on__22paper_ba.htm

[kpete]

13. Obama to headline voting rights march commemoration in Selma

Obama to headline voting rights march commemoration in Selma


WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will deliver the keynote address next month at the annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee that commemorates the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march, organizers said Tuesday.

Obama, a Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois who is black, is scheduled to speak at a March 4 service at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, the site in Selma where marchers gathered in the historic protest that gave blacks across the South greater access to the ballot.

Several dozen other members of Congress plan to attend, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, said Sam Walker, an event coordinator with the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, which sponsors the commemoration.

"I'm looking forward to giving my fellow Alabamians an opportunity to see firsthand the intelligence, vitality and leadership skills that I have recognized in Barack Obama for the last 17 years," said Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham.

more at:
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/070221/obama.shtml

[kpete]

14. Americans still not taking advantage of voting rights earned in 1960s

Americans still not taking advantage of voting rights earned in 1960s

By Stephanie Silvas
Star Columnist

The photographs of Matt Heron remind us of a long battle that now lives in vain.

Heron’s exhibit, Voting Rights: The Struggle in the South, which is on display in the Gallery of the Common Experience in the Lampasas Building, illustrates the struggle for the right to vote during the 1960s. It focuses on the Civil Rights movement in Selma, Ala., where only 2 percent of eligible black voters registered to vote.

The photos, which are chronologically spread throughout the gallery, should have evoked a sense of pride. Instead, they reminded me of a lower voter turnout than we experience today.

The exhibit displays the critical stepping-stones established during the Civil Rights era. The results of that era made it easier for all citizens to experience the rights guaranteed by our forefathers. With his camera, Heron captured heroic men and women who contested injustice.

The exhibit also displays photos and a summary that captures the marches that led to the Voting Rights Acts of 1965. The first march ended in bloodshed and two deaths after a battle with local officials. The second march was turned back by police. The third march, led by Martin Luther King Jr., was successful after President Lyndon Johnson sent U.S. troops into the South to protect it, according to the summaries on the photos.

The photos suggest a strong sense of perseverance. The right to vote was a huge victory in the Civil Rights movement, and the photos display men and women who fought that battle. But how far have we really come since 1965?


more at:
http://star.txstate.edu/content/view/2784/

[kpete]

15. WA: Possible King County double voting case found

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Possible King County double voting case found
60 other cases cleared following review of statewide voter registration database

By GREGORY ROBERTS
P-I REPORTER

An inspection of voter records statewide has turned up a possible case of double voting in the November election in King County, the office of Secretary of State Sam Reed said Tuesday.

The case, which has been referred to King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng, could not be resolved by investigators from Reed's Data Integrity Program, an operation that was set up last month to review the statewide voter registration database for evidence of double voting, duplicate registrations or other problems.

State officials looked into 61 indications of double voting but cleared 60 of them. In 59 cases, the registrations in question actually were for different people. In one case, the voter appeared to have voted in two counties, but in fact voted in only one.

The statewide voter registration database was created in January 2006, in line with a 2002 federal law requiring the states to establish statewide rosters. Previously in Washington state, each county maintained a separate voter roll.

During 2006, scrubbing the statewide database removed more than 176,000 names from the roll. They included:

more at:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/304474_voters21.html

[kpete]

16. OR: Oregon House Approves Constitutional Change to Voting Age

Feb-21-2007 06:48
Oregon House Approves Constitutional Change to Voting Age
Salem-News.com Capitol Watch
Amendment would eliminate outdated requirement for voting in school board elections.

Salem-News.com

(SALEM) - The Oregon House of Representatives has approved a change to Oregon’s constitution that would eliminate anachronistic age and literacy requirements for citizens who vote in school board elections.


While it is unclear whether those provisions could be enforced, they have not been in recent years.


The resolution, HJR 4, would explicitly remove that text from the constitution.


The discrepancy was discovered by students at Portland’s Grant High School.


In a letter to Secretary of State Bill Bradbury last March, the students pointed out the problem and asked Secretary Bradbury to propose legislation to correct it.

more at:
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/february212007/capitolwatch_022107.php

[kpete]

17. Ethical questions about Diebold personnel

Ethical questions about Diebold personnel

Jeff Dean, Senior Vice-President and Senior Programmer at Global Election Systems (GES), the company purchased by Diebold in 2002 which became Diebold Election Systems, was convicted of 23 counts of felony theft for planting back doors in software he created for ATMs using, according to court documents, a “high degree of sophistication” to evade detection over a period of two years.<2> In addition to Dean, GES employed a number of other convicted felons in senior positions, including a fraudulent securities trader and a drug trafficker.<3>

In December 2005, Diebold’s CEO Wally O’Dell left the company following reports that the company was facing securities fraud litigation surrounding charges of insider trading. <4>

————————————

Convicted of 23 felonies for computer crimes(1), Jeffrey Dean was sent to prison for four years. Shortly after release in 1995, Dean was awarded lucrative contracts to create elections software and print ballots. Programs developed by Dean are in use throughout the U.S.

Dean was convicted for a scam that took place in the late 1980s at the politically connected Culp, Guterson & Grader (CG&G) law firm. This small but powerful firm handled cases for King County (WA), and had some high profile partners. Watergate figure Egil “Bud” Krogh happened to be one of the CG&G partners during the time Jeffrey Dean did work for the firm. (2) Krogh had earlier headed the White House “Plumbers” unit that conducted political dirty tricks, invaded privacy to plug leaks and engaged in obstruction of justice which ultimately brought down the president of the United States in 1974.

In a 2003 deposition, Dean claims he was a scapegoat(3), left holding the bag in a series of unapproved payments from the law firm. Dean claims that he took the fall for other lawyers in the firm who were also involved in an illicit scheme. Signatures of two CG&G attorneys appeared on improper monthly checks written to Jeffrey Dean. These signatures were forgeries, according to prosecutors.

more at:
http://freddevan.com/wordpress/2007/02/21/ethical-questions-about-diebold-personnel/

[kpete]

18. WA: More than 176,000 names removed from voter rolls

More than 176,000 names removed from voter rolls
By Rachel La Corte

The Associated Press

OLYMPIA -- More than 176,000 names were removed from the state's voting rolls last year under a new statewide voter database that was developed to help counties find duplicate registrations and dead voters, Secretary of State Sam Reed said today.

The purge of illegal registrations is the result of the new system that has consolidated all 39 separate county systems into one database in January 2006.

Reed said that from Jan. 1, 2006 to Dec. 31, 176,373 names were removed from the state's database of about 3.2 million registered voters:

• 39,814 duplicate voter registrations. Reed said these often happen when a voter moves across county lines, forgets to notify the local election office and then reregisters somewhere else. Under the new database, screenings for duplicate registrations are automatically conducted each day, and reports of duplicate registrations are generated for the counties. The counties confirm each record before canceling the duplicate registration.

• 40,105 deceased voter registrations. The database searches daily for names of deceased voters against databases from the Department of Health and the Social Security Master Death Index.

• 4,500 felon voter registrations. A screening for the names of felons is conducted quarterly, using a list from the Department of Corrections to identify possible matches and notices from County Clerks to County Auditors. Potential matches generated from the Department of Corrections list receive a notification letter, giving the person 30 days to respond.

• 91,954 active and inactive voter registrations, because voters move to other states or request cancellations of their voter registrations.

more at:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003580693_webvoters20.html

[autorank]

19. K&R

[L. Coyote]

20. OHIO SoS Brunner establishes minimum qualifications for election officials

State pushes standards for election directors
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Mark Rollenhagen - Plain Dealer Bureau Chief
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/117205057944360.xml&coll=2

Columbus - Got a GED? You might qualify to run a county election board in Ohio, although you will probably also need some experience to land the job.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, Ohio's top election official, on Tuesday established minimum qualifications for county election boards to use when filling director and deputy director posts.

The qualifications lean heavily toward election experience and skills, saying that such experience should be given 50 percent more weight than general managerial experience and skills. ......

[L. Coyote]

21. MUST READ: Game tickets, flowers, liquor ‘Just bill my campaign fund’

Game tickets, flowers, liquor ‘Just bill my campaign fund’
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Joe Hallett and Darrel Rowland
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2007/02/18/20070218-A1-01.html

You find a politician you believe in, so you send along a check — $50, maybe $100 — to help pay for a 30-second TV ad or a yard sign, or just to keep the lights on at campaign headquarters.

But what would you think if that politician took your hard-earned money and spent it on booze at a lavish resort?