Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday, March 17, 2007

[livvy]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.



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

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

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

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

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

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



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

[livvy]

1. Campaign Reform Bill Has Major Loophole

Campaign reform bill has major loophole
Saturday, March 17, 2007

STATE GOVERNMENT reformers should hold the applause for the House-passed ban on hiding the source of campaign donations by routing them through a thicket of political action committees.

The 103-0 vote on banning PAC-to-PAC transfers is a step toward more open and honest politics in Alabama, but lawmakers need to leap out of the unsavory past with legislation that makes campaign cash totally transparent. The bill approved by the House is fine as far as it goes; it just doesn't go far enough to ensure that big-dog political contributors can't cover their tracks.

Gov. Bob Riley gave the House all due credit for approving the PAC-to-PAC ban. However, he noted that it "contains an unfortunate loophole." Indeed it does have a loophole large enough to allow a truckload of virtually untraceable campaign cash to pass through it.

If the House bill becomes law, you can bet that reformers will soon be casting a critical eye on "candidate-to-candidate transfers."

As part of his agenda for ethics reform, Gov. Riley proposed banning both PAC-to-PAC transfers and the practice of transferring donations from one candidate to another. In candidate-to-candidate transfers, a donor may give to Candidate A's campaign committee with the expectation that he or she will pass it on to Candidate B. The net effect is the same as a PAC-to-PAC transfer: It conceals the real source of campaign donations.

>more

http://www.al.com/opinion/press-register/index.ssf?/base/opinion/117412311368430.xml&coll=3

[livvy]

2. NJ: Atlantic County Repub. Blee Considered, But Rejected Party Switch

Atlantic County Republican Blee considered, but rejected party switch

By PETE McALEER Statehouse Bureau, [phone]
(Published: March 17, 2007)

TRENTON — Assemblyman Frank Blee said Thursday he gave serious consideration to switching parties and running for re-election as a Democrat but ultimately decided against it to spend more time with his family.

In an interview on the Assembly floor, the longtime Republican also said he would “absolutely” support Democrat Assemblyman Jim Whelan if he decides to run for state Senate. The normally soft-spoken lawmaker then leveled some strong jabs at new state Sen. James “Sonny” McCullough, who defeated Blee in a special Atlantic County Republican Committee election for the open 2nd District Senate seat last month.

“Philosophically, I can not support the direction that certain leaders are taking the Atlantic County Republican Party,” Blee said in the interview. “As a member of the Republican Party in Trenton, I fought against things like dual office holding and pension padding and for ethics reform and accountability to the public. Those are all issues the Republican slate must deal with immediately, and so far I haven't seen any indication that they're going in the direction I'd like to see them go.”

Asked if he were referring to McCullough, Blee said flatly, “Yes.”

>more

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/story/7324456p-7220474c.html

[livvy]

3. WI: Green's Campaign Lawsuit Settled

Green's campaign lawsuit settled

Funds OK for other races, board rules

By SCOTT BAUER
The Associated Press March 17, 2007

MADISON — A lawsuit over nearly $468,000 in campaign funds Republican Mark Green had wanted to use in his unsuccessful race against Gov. Jim Doyle was settled on Friday.

Under the agreement reached with the state Elections Board, Green is prohibited from using the money for another run for office, but he can tap into it to pay for legal fees and make contributions to other candidates.

The case had been pending before the state Supreme Court.

Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the Elections Board, said the board and Green had "agreed to disagree about the law," but the settlement allows both sides to move on.

>more

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070317/GPG0101/703170587/1207/GPGnews

[livvy]

4. How About a Little Democracy For a Change?....

There is a lot in this article and interview that would lend itself to some interesting and, I'm sure, lively debate. It's probably worth an independent post in GD or elsewhere, as it is much broader in focus than simply election reform.




How about a little democracy for a change? "Revolution is the Solution"
Joel Hirschhorn interviewed by Jason Miller

>snip of beginning
...My interview with Joel Hirschhorn, writer and political agitator, put things into perspective.

Joel provided me with a sober reminder that unless one has been dwelling under a pile of boulders in a cave reaching deep into the bowels of the Earth, it is painfully obvious that the United States and its nearly countless victims around the globe are in desperate need of a “new beginning.”

>large snip


Miller: Your homepage for your book mentions that you offer practical solutions for peacefully repairing our broken republic. Would you briefly summarize some of these solutions?

Hirschhorn: "One of the most important is to spread the use of the Clean Money/Clean Elections approach for providing government funding for political campaigns; we must get big private money out of political campaigns. As an advocate for third parties, this policy approach is crucial to make third party candidates competitive with candidates from the two major parties. There are also a host of electoral reforms that we need to make voting easier and more widespread, such as making Election Day a national holiday. I also advocate making ballot initiatives and measures more widespread – among the states and at the federal level. This is a crucial element of direct democracy and because our representative democracy has failed the public interest, we desperately need some forms of direct democracy."

>large snip

Miller: What are your thoughts on electronic voting machines?

Hirschhorn: "I have always had a Luddite streak in me. And so I have always been skeptical of the trustworthiness of electronic voting. We need absolute transparency in our voting system to maximize trust in it. I have such a negative view of the two major parties that I think they (and their rich supporters) are quite capable of using any available dirty tricks to win elections. It may sound crazy, but if no can stop damn Internet spam and Microsoft can’t make reliable software, then why should we trust electronic voting?"

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2007/03/17/p15269

[livvy]

5. Taking Democracy Seriously- Joel S. Hirschhorn

Taking Democracy Seriously
Written by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Published March 17, 2007


Imagine this dialogue:

American citizen: "So you mean that if you Australians don’t vote, you get a fine?"

Australian citizen: "Yeah, and when you Americans don’t vote, you get George W. Bush."

As surely as politicians lie, citizen apathy produces democracy atrophy. Much more than a right – in a democracy voting is an irrevocable civic duty. No mental gymnastics can help you jump over this ugly reality: Voter turnout in all American elections averages markedly less than half of eligible voters. This disgrace must be fixed.

Here are my proposed solutions: We should make voting mandatory, give voters the option of “none of the above,” make Election Day a national holiday, provide same day registration everywhere, and lower the voting age to 16.

>more

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/03/17/045210.php

[livvy]

6. WA: King County To Probe Alleged Fraud

Saturday, March 17, 2007

King County to probe alleged fraud
Group may have forged voter registration cards

Mike Carter
Seattle Times
March 17, 2007

SEATTLE – King County prosecutors are investigating apparent voter-registration fraud in the 2006 general election.

Dan Satterberg, chief deputy to King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng, confirmed late Thursday that attorneys from his office will meet next week to brief their federal counterparts regarding evidence that hundreds of voter-registration cards submitted in King County were forged.

Satterberg said "there are significant irregularities" among a batch of more than 1,800 voter-registration cards submitted to the county by canvassers for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, a national group that represents the interests of low- and moderate-income citizens.

County prosecutors, aided by King County sheriff's investigators, have been looking into the allegations of forgery since an election official noticed that hundreds of the cards submitted by ACORN canvassers appeared to be in the same handwriting. A King County election spokeswoman noted the potential fraud in February.

>more

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/nation_world/story.asp?ID=179813

[Kurovski]

7. Happy St. Pat's to you, and thanks, livvy!

:hug:

[livvy]

8. Fla. Secrtary of State: No More Elections Embarrassments

naplesnews.com
Fla. Secretary of State: No more elections embarrassments

Associated Press

Saturday, March 17, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - The Department of State keeps a list of all businesses, promotes and preserves the state's history and culture and maintains the state archives.

But the office doesn't receive much attention unless a presidency is decided by 537 votes or a congressional seat is decided by 369 and its role overseeing the state's elections pushes it into the spotlight. And it's that unkind glare Gov. Charlie Crist wants to avoid by appointing Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Kurt Browning as secretary of state.

"I love his attitude, I love his base of knowledge, I admire his integrity," Crist said. "His expertise in the elections arena is second to none."

And when Crist's transition office called Browning and the governor later hired him, he was given this simple mission: Don't let Florida be embarrassed by another questionable election.

"He made it very clear to me that he wanted me to deal with elections. No bones about it," Browning said. "He said, 'I don't want any problems with elections. I just don't want any problems.' I told him, 'It is my goal to make elections nonevents in Florida.'"

>more

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/mar/17/fla_secretary_state_no_more_elections_embarrassmen/?latest

[livvy]

9. NJ: SCI Requests County Voting Machine Files

SCI requests county voting machine files
Saturday, March 17, 2007

By OSHRAT CARMIEL
STAFF WRITER

The State Commission of Investigation has asked Bergen County to produce volumes of paperwork about voting machine and absentee-vote-counting scanner purchases.

The March 13 request also was sent to at least two other counties, Union and Essex, election officials say.

"Nobody can understand what it's all about; we have no idea," said Dennis Kobitz, deputy administrator of the Union County Board of Elections, who spoke with his counterparts in other counties.

In Bergen County, Elections Superintendent Patricia DiCostanzo said Friday that she sent the request to the county's legal counsel for review. Officials at the SCI declined to discuss the letter Friday and declined to say how expansive their document request is.

"We can't comment," said spokesman Lee Seglem.

The letter sent to Bergen County is "in lieu of a subpoena," it reads, and casts a wide net for any and all records about the purchase of voting machines, equipment and software from Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. and its subsidiaries.

>more



http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MDYmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcwOTQzOTYmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXky

[livvy]

10. OpEdNews: Another Redirection

Not specifically an ER piece, but I liked the reminder about the deceptive tactics consistently employed by this regime and their enablers.

OpEdNews

March 17, 2007

Another Redirection

By Kenneth Anderson

With windlasses and with assays of bias, By indirections find directions out.
- Polonius

The rolling pin of White House scandal continues to splay out an ever widening pastry of malfeasance, fraud, jobbery and inequity. No sooner had VP Chief of Staff Lewis Libby been convicted on four counts of perjury and obstruction of justice than out rolled the next scandal à la mode: the US Attorney purge. While merely demonstrating the painfully familiar standard operating procedure of the White House -- federal departments exist to serve the interests of the GOP and their generous donors -- the attorney purge is notable for its timing and what it has displaced as the discussion du jour: the FBI's likely illegal abuse of National Security Letters, the Walter Reed scandal with its associated meme that the Bush administration doesn't really care about about the troops and the Libby verdict and that event's potential to further expose the Vice President's office, not only in the outing of Plame, but in Cheney's and other neocons' roles in cooking pre-invasion WMD intelligence. It appears the White House thought attentions would be better directed toward the purge of US Attorneys -- something that is probably not illegal -- and away from a far more dangerous direction. If Gonzales takes the hit, well, he won't have been the first to go down covering for Cheney and Rove.

Indeed, we have seen this scandal-bump-issue pattern often enough. Just as various congressional committees were gearing up for hearings surrounding the Libby trial, with Fitzgerald and Plame on tap to testify, and more outrage yet again generated by police state practices run amok -- this time at the FBI -- suddenly Congress is consumed by investigating the attorney purge. Not that this isn't something that should happen, but it is certainly far less serious than any of those simmering issues.

Notable also now is the conveniently timed release of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's recorded confession to the 9/11 plot, garnered during a secret military tribunal to which no press or witnesses were allowed access. But the Pentagon says this guy confessed, so, by god, that's good enough. Though hardly a stunning revelation -- Mohammed's involvement has been long asserted, despite sufficient doubts -- the story served another and far more important purpose: bring back pained memories of 9/11, remind of us of the evildoers' evilness, and suck up the big headlines (see how that draws the eyes) while a picky Congress frets about a few lawyers getting fired. Suddenly, FBI malfeasance, Scooter Libby, Walter Reed and White House intelligence manipulation are relics of long, dusty, forgotten past.

Within this larger redirection, though, there exists what we have all come to recognize as the painfully familiar media snow job, this time surrounding the attorney firings. Rather than examining the issues that no doubt were of considerable concern to both the Republican party and the White House and which likely led to the dismissals -- especially of Carol Lam -- the American public are, once again, treated to disingenuous discussions about what Clinton did or did not do. The usual suspects have lined up to poo-poo Bush's unprecedented mid-term firings as common; The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, The Washington Times and even NBC's David Gregory have called the bulk discharge of USAs no big deal or at least have questioned its import. With the exception of Gregory -- who appears more hapless than determined -- these same GOP tools had been previously engaged in the disinformation campaign about the Libby trial, disgorging the worn and tired White House talking points about Plame and Wilson and calling, if not demanding, a pardon for Libby.

>more



http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kenneth__070316_another_redirection.htm

[livvy]

11. OpEdNews-Another Voting System Accident? REALLY?

OpEdNews

March 17, 2007

Another voting system accident? REALLY?

By Bill Bucolo

My, my, my... How non-partisan to identify yet another GOP favoring programming or hardware error as only an "error." This time it is a seconds long delay between voter input and the ES&S iVotronic's posting of data as "problems with a smoothing filter," possibly affecting data entered into fields at the top of the monitor in the Sarasota Jennings/Buchanan race last November.


And that's supposed to be IT? I don't think so.


Our good non-partisan friends apparently have the patience of Job, and I admire their intentions but I must say that while the best minds in our voting integrity movement seem committed to remaining non-partisan, the rest of us who are compelled to be less detached in our approach to this issue must wonder: It was a long ballot. Why the error with THAT particular race? Is it really just bad luck again?? Really???


Well I'm not buying it, and neither should you, good readers. Does anyone have an idea how many machine or software errors in elections have occurred around the country favoring GOP candidates? I bet you that 99% of them fell to the GOP. That's statistically impossible if it's really chance, but they do. Check the hundreds, perhaps thousands of errors documented on DRE systems around the country (thanks mainly to John Gideon's Daily Voting News) and note that results after errors nearly always favor GOP candidates.

>more

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bill_buc_070315_another_voting_syste.htm

[livvy]

12. Some quotes and toasts for your St. Paddy's Day pleasure.

The lying man has promised
Whatever thing he could
The greedy man believes him
And thinks his promise good


May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full
moon on a dark night, and the road downhill all
the way to your door.

- An Irish blessing


An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold
onto one blade of grass to keep from falling off
the earth.

- Irish Saying

Author Unknown
In heaven there is no beer...
That's why we drink ours here.

Oscar Wilde
I can resist everything except temptation.

Oliver Herford
The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scotts as a joke, but the Scotts haven't seen the joke yet.

Irish Saying
There are many good reasons for drinking,
One has just entered my head.
If a man doesn't drink when he's living,
How in the hell can he drink when he's dead?

They say the sun never sets on the
British empire --- well, baby, it's setting.
Frank McCourt

We haven't gone away yet.
Francie Mackey

Not a Republic as in the United States, where the power of the purse
has established a new tyranny under the forms of freedom.
James Connolly

Everyone, Republican or otherwise, has their
own particular part to play. No part is too great
or too small, no one is too old or too young to do
something.
Bobby Sands

A joke:

An Irish Pub Joke...
An Irish man shows up in a pub one day and orders three pints of Guinness. He takes sips from each glass until they are empty and calls the bartender for three more. The bartender says, 'Sure it's up to yourself, but wouldn't you rather I was bringing them one at a time? Then they'll be fresh and cold.'

'Nah...' your man says, ' I'm preferrin' that ye bring 'em three at a time. You see, me and me two brothers would meet at a pub and drink and have good times. Now one is in Australia, the other in Canada and I'm here. We agreed before we split up that we'd drink to each other's honour this way.'

'Well,' says the bartender, 'that's a grand thing to do, all right. I'll bring the pints as you ask.'

Well, time goes on and your man's peculiar habit is known and accepted by all the pub regulars. One day though, he comes in and orders only two pints. A hush falls over the pub. Naturally, everyone figures something happened to one of the brothers. A group of the regulars corner the bartender and finally persuade him to find out what happened. With a heavy heart, the bartender brings the two pints and says, 'Here's your pints... and let me offer my sincerest condolences. What happened?'

The Irish man looks extremely puzzled for a moment, and then starts laughing.

'Oh, no, no, no! 'Tis nothing like that. You see, I've given up drinking for Lent...'

And finally a few drinking toasts:

I drink to your health when I'm with you,
I drink to your health when I'm alone,
I drink to your health so often,
I'm starting to worry about my own!

There are good ships,
and there are wood ships,
The ships that sail the sea.
But the best ships, are friendships,
And may they always be.

May you have the hindsight to know where you've been,
The foresight to know where you are going,
And the insight to know when you have gone too far.


Have a good one!

[bleever]

13. Time to drive the snakes out!

[Kurovski]

15. Hee hee.

Good one. :D

[freedomfries]

14. thanks for the fun St Pat thread livvy!