Election Reform & Related News, Friday 4/6/07 VR BULLETIN: BAN DRE's

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Message from VR:

CONTACT CONGRESS TO BAN DRE
VOTING MACHINES AND AMEND HR 811

snip

An election in Orange County, CA was recently overturned in a recount. Absentee ballots were scrutinized for voter intent. Marks on those paper ballots convinced the Registrar in ten cases that the votes had been counted wrong, and the outcome flipped. The DRE paper trail was never used; the DRE votes were recounted electronically.

Despite California's paper-trail law for DRE audits, a manual recount of the paper trail was deemed too expensive and difficult, so the judge approved the electronic recount. Congressman Holt maintains that his bill would not have allowed this, but Californians thought the same thin g when they passed its paper-trail law. Americans must eliminate this situation altogether by banning electric ballots.

DREs can target neighborhoods and minorities for electronic disenfranchisement. Civil rights leader Dolores Huerta recently brought that message recently to Capitol Hill, bearing a study from New Mexico that showed undervote rates soaring when Native Americans and Spanish language voters used DREs. Rates were similar to that in Anglo communities when New Mexicans went to all opti-scanned paper ballots.

DREs, touted as necessary for special-needs voters, are as insecure for those voters' intent as for others. Touch-screen computers that do not tabulate but assist voters with disabilities and language needs to mark their ballots can restore security to those voters as they improve acessibility.


2 places where you can take action:

VotersUnite:
http://www.votersunite.org/takeaction/ban-e-ballots.asp

Progressive Democrats of America
http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=9406781

Velvet Revolution
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/

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

3. If you have information from an election reform activist organization outside of DU feel free to post (local or national)

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

5. Election related sources
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ...

6. If you want to know how to post "News Banners" or other images, go here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/forums/faq.html#im ...

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1. BradBlog: Democrats and Their Public Advocacy Group Supporters Continue to Fiddle on Election Reform

as Democracy Burns

BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 4/6/2007 9:35AM

Even While the Republican Governor of Florida (of all people and places) Restores Felon Voting Rights, Calls for a Ban on Touch-Screen DRE Voting and Otherwise Succeeds in Shaming the Democrats...

Florida's new Republican Gov. Charlie Crist continues to get far in front of Congressional Democrats concerning issues of Election Reform. Previously, he has called for the Sunshine State to replace all DRE touch-screen voting systems with paper-based optical scan systems (and touch-screen ballot marking devices for the disabled) and today, he succeeded in restoring voting rights for former felons to all but the most violent criminals after they've served their time.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4370

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2. MS: Justice Department backs Myers in dual offices case

Sun Herald

By JACK RYAN
Enterprise-Journal

McCOMB, Miss. --
A 28-page document filed in February by the U.S. attorney's office in Jackson supports David Myers' contention that only the Justice Department or a federal court, and not the Mississippi Supreme Court, can prevent Myers from holding both a seat in the state Legislature and on the McComb city board.

The Mississippi Supreme Court's ruling on the case last year said it is unconstitutional to hold two elected seats at the same time, and ordered Myers to vacate his city board seat immediately. Myers, however, has remained in both jobs under an injunction from a federal court.

The document, while far from a ruling on the case, continues the trend of Myers winning points in federal courts while the city of McComb wins in Mississippi courts.

It takes on further local interest because U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton, the former district attorney for Pike, Walthall and Lincoln counties, is a Republican appointee. Myers is a Democrat.

The document, written by Assistant U.S. Attorney Felicia Adams, argued that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 requires the Justice Department to determine whether the law allows Myers to hold two elected offices at the same time.

http://www.sunherald.com/306/story/25578.html

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3. IN: Monday last day to register (local=White County)

Kevin Howell
Reporter

Voters planning to cast their ballot in the May city elections are running out of time if they haven't already registered as the April 9 deadline to fill out paperwork approaches.
But options are available to make sure registration papers are in the hands of election officials by Monday, said White County Election Clerk Mary Reid.
"The main thing is if it's mailed it has to be postmarked by April 9," said Reid.
A second option is to head to the second floor clerk's office in the White County Building in downtown Monticello to fill out and hand the paperwork in personally, she added.

http://www.thehj.com/main.asp?SectionID=9&SubSectionID=32&ArticleID=20138&TM=21721.28

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4. FRANCE: Opposition to Electronic Voting System Grows in France

By ELAINE SCIOLINO
Published: April 4, 2007

PARIS, April 3 — For France’s Socialists, among others, the coming presidential election could descend into a nightmare like last fall’s in Florida.

This is the first presidential election in France to use paperless computer voting. As many as 1.5 million of the 44.5 million registered voters are expected to cast their ballots electronically in more than 80 municipalities around the country.

But with election day less than three weeks away, opposition to the electronic voting machines has grown, in part because a small percentage of them are made by the same American company whose machines were involved in a bitterly disputed Congressional election in Florida last November.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/world/europe/04france.html

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5. AL: Chapman seeking electronic voting for Alabama military

MONTGOMERY (AP) — Alabama's chief election official said Thursday she hopes to have a pilot project for electronic voting by Alabama's military overseas by the 2008 presidential election.

Secretary of State Beth Chapman made the comment after a conference call with key leaders of national military voting organizations to seek their help in developing a system to replace mailed absentee ballots for Alabama military and their families overseas.

Chapman talked with top officials from the Overseas Vote Foundation, the Federal Voting Assistance Program of the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and she expressed her support and the governor's for a more up-to-date voting method for Alabamians who are abroad at election time.

http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/070406/voting.shtml

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6. Publicly-Funded Campaigns Help Give Power to Everyday People, Not Special Interests

Guest Commentary

Date: Thursday, April 05, 2007
By: Kweisi Mfume, Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com

Having run last year for the U.S. Senate from Maryland, I know from firsthand experience that raising money -- lots of it -- is crucial for any campaign. In fact, money has increasingly become the main factor all too frequently in deciding who wins and who loses in statewide and district races.

Like most people, I don’t like the endless money chase, which often times starts again right after we elect someone to office. No candidate could possibly enjoy the constant dialing for dollars and asking for money at fundraisers over and over again.

In talking to voters across the nation, it is easy to understand why more and more say they are tired of the culture of corruption that hangs like a cloud over the system of privately funded elections. In the era of Jack Abramoff and other scandals, it is time to start taking power away from the special interests and returning it to the people.

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/sayitloud/mfume406

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7. WA: Registration deadlines are fine just as they are

HeraldNet

Published: Friday, April 6, 2007

We're for maximizing voter participation - as long as it doesn't interfere with the smooth running of elections.

That's the problem with a bill winding its way through the Legislature. Its aim is to get more citizens to vote, a laudable goal. Its mechanism for doing so - allowing voter registration up to election day - is misguided and should be rejected.

Registering to vote in Washington is already easy. You can do it when you renew your driver's license, you can do it by mail, you can do it at voter registration drives set up at various community events. Soon, you'll probably be able to do it online.

http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/07/04/06/100edi_editorial001.cfmHeraldNet

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8. MA: Professor lectures about electronic voting

The Massachusetts Daily Collegian

By: Andrew Trull, Collegian Correspondent
Issue date: 4/6/07 Section: News

As the United States approaches the 2008 presidential election, voting systems across America are under scrutiny. Controversy over electronic voting machines in past elections has led to skepticism over their reliability. Professor Ron Rivest of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department addressed an audience in the University of Massachusetts Amherst Computer Science building Wednesday on problems facing the system and potential improvements.

Electronic voting machines do not produce paper records of cast ballots and the absence of a tangible record can lead to tougher security issues regarding tampering and tallying accuracy.

For Professor Rivest and fellow electrical engineers and programmers, there are two main issues facing U.S. voting systems. The first is ensuring votes are "cast as intended" ? that the voter can easily cast and submit a correct ballot. The second issue is ensuring votes are "counted as cast" ? that the votes are tallied correctly.

http://media.www.dailycollegian.com/media/storage/paper874/news/2007/04/06/News/Professor.Lectures.About.Electronic.Voting-2827272.shtml

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9. OpED: Do election integrity activists want a "perfect" reform bill?

April 5, 2007 at 15:42:18

by Jody Holder Page 1 of 2 page(s)


Tell A Friend

Do election integrity activists want a "perfect" reform bill?

The term "perfect" or "perfection" is a distractive term from the main issues. What is "perfect" is relative to what is the goal and how to attain it. When it comes to elections in our country the perfect election would result in the winner of the majority of votes being sworn into office.

That will supposedly be a result of the citizens choosing their representatives by a deliberative process, the person best suited for the job. In the real world that does not happen very often. No human endeavor involving hundreds of thousands of people, multiple jurisdictions and laws, can ever arrive at "perfection".

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jody_hol_070405_do_election_integrit.htm

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10. OH: Voter registration for May primary due (local=Portage County)

Stater Online

Issue date: 4/6/07 Section: News
Originally published: 4/5/07 at 11:13 PM EST Last update: 4/5/07 at 11:12 PM EST

Monday is the deadline to register to vote in the May primary election. The Portage County Board of Elections will be open until 9 p.m. Monday night to accommodate those who wish to register.

Lois Enlow, director of the Portage County Board of Elections, said students who live in Portage County because they attend school here may register to vote either here or in their place of permanent residence.

"Out-of-state students should be cautioned that they should check with their home state before registering to vote here if they have a financial-aid package," Enlow said.

http://media.www.stateronline.com/media/storage/paper867/news/2007/04/06/News/Voter.Registration.For.May.Primary.Due-2827056.shtml

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11. The Nation: Protecting the Vote

(sorry requires - subscription)


posted April 5, 2007 (April 23, 2007 issue)

John Nichols

Election protection activists are already busy promoting legislative fixes designed to assure that all eligible Americans can vote and get those votes counted in 2008. It's vital work. But if we are serious about addressing what's wrong with our electoral system, we must look backward as well--to what happened in Florida's 13th Congressional District last year.

That contest was "decided" for Republican Vern Buchanan over Democrat Christine Jennings following a recount that put Buchanan up by 369 votes. What the recount did not resolve, however, were questions raised by apparent voting machine malfunctions in Sarasota County, a base of strength for Jennings. Machines manufactured by Election Systems & Software Inc. (ES&S) recorded 18,000 "undervotes"--ballots with votes cast for other positions but not for the House seat--in precincts that tended to favor Jennings.

http://www.thenation.com/docprem.mhtml?i=20070423&s=nichols

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12. GA: Voting location changes approved by Department of Justice

McDuffie Mirror

Special to the Mirror

Earlier this year, McDuffie County Elections Director Phyllis Wheeler, the Board of Elections Chairman and board members submitted requests to the Department of Justice to change several polling locations.

With the expected increase in voter turnout in 2008 some sites were changed to better accommodate voters and additional machines. Others were changed to meet state mandated Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.

The Department of Justice has approved the following changes:

- Pine Grove voters will move to the Airport Fire Station, approximately 750 voters;

- Board of Education voters will move to the new fire station on Salem Road, 2,102 voters;

- Happy Valley voters will move to Fort Creek Baptist Church, 450 voters;

- Shrine Club, 515 voters - will share space at Fort Creek Baptist Church with Happy Valley voters. This move was necessary to meet ADA requirements.

- City of Thomson Precinct C3 which was assigned to the Peach Corps classroom on Augusta Highway will move to the Human Development Center (Old Recreation Department Building) located at 808 Whiteoak Road.

more:
http://mirror.augusta.com/stories/040507/new_123361.shtml

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13. PA: Poll workers made mistakes in Nov. election

By JENNA PORTNOY
Bucks County Courier Times

BUCKS COUNTY - The November 2006 election was marked by inconsistencies in the way poll workers recorded vote totals, according to a preliminary report released Wednesday by a voting advocacy group.

“We're not criticizing anyone,” said coalition member Madeline Rawley, who wrote the report. “We wanted to get this out now because we thought it would be helpful in poll worker training.”

Electronic voting machines replaced Eisenhower-era lever machines in the last election.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-04052007-1325626.html

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14. AR: Poll workers to get refresher course

Times-Herald

Published: April 05, 2007

The St. Francis County Election Commission met briefly Wednesday afternoon, deciding that a “refresher” would be a good idea for poll workers in Tuesday’s special election.

Commission member Chris Oswalt said he felt most of the polling locations had at least one experienced member who could be counted on to do things right.

Frederick Freeman, the chairman, suggested that when poll workers come in to pick up the voting machines, they be given a review of how to start up and operate them. All the members thought that was a good idea, and they voted to have workers pick up the machines between 6 and 7 p.m. Monday before the election on Tuesday.

http://www.thnews.com/article.php?id=2091

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15. IN: Tests pave way for smooth vote

Chronicle-Tribune

Election officials expect no major issues come May
BY TERESA AUCH
[e-mail]

A test run of the new electronic machines went off without a hitch Wednesday, and county officials hope the same will be true come May 8 when all new machines will be used for the first time.

The Grant County Election Board tested three random Infinity machines, which the county is switching to, Wednesday afternoon at the Grant County Courthouse.

"Everything has looked like it worked perfectly," Administrative Election Assistant Bonnie Cartwright said.

The machines were tested to make sure they took votes properly, that they did not let people over vote and to ensure the computer system read the tally cards correctly.

http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/NEWS01/704050335/1002

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16. TPMmuckraker: Wisconsin Case Raises Eyebrows

By Paul Kiel - April 6, 2007, 1:27 PM

In the wake of what the U.S. attorney firings scandal has revealed about the Bush Justice Department, it's hard to imagine a more troubling scenario than this:

A Bush-nominated U.S. Attorney launches a corruption case during an election year that implicates the Democratic governor. He pushes the case, which targets an obscure state bureaucrat and obtains a conviction in June; she's sentenced to 18 months in prison in late September. The case is featured prominently by Republicans in attack ads against the governor.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002965.php

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17. NE: Supreme Court hears arguments challenging term limits law

Friday, April 6, 2007 9:38 AM CDT

Former state Sen. Dennis Byars of Beatrice hasn't given up hope that the Nebraska Supreme Court will overturn the state's term limits law.

The state Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday on a lawsuit challenging the law, although a decision could be months away.

“I always have a positive attitude, but I'm not feeling very hopeful,” Byars said in a telephone interview Thursday evening. “It's taken forever just to have the case heard.”

The lawsuit, filed by six constituents of Byars, as well as Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha and former Sen. Marian Price of Lincoln, says term limits violate voters' First Amendment free speech and association rights and 14th Amendment equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution.

The six voters are asking the high court to review last February's decision by Lancaster County District Court Judge Karen Flowers throwing out the lawsuit.

http://www.beatricedailysun.com/articles/2007/04/06/news/news3.txt

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18. Fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias Fighting Back

Associated Content -The People Media Company

We've all heard the case of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys in one fell swoop. It's turned almost entirely into a he-said, she-said case. Even a who-dunnit at one point as U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is still back-pedaling as if he had nothing to do with the firing. At least not several days ago. But as of late, he now agrees he was in that meeting but he doesn't recall "talking about specifics when discussing the firing of the eight U.S. Attorneys.

And if you haven't heard, never in the history of these offices has eight U.S. Attorneys ever been fired at one time. They are hardly ever fired for that matter.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/203509/fired_us_attorney_david_iglesias_fighting.html

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19. TPM: Under Bush, Civil Rights Division Works to Protect...

By Paul Kiel - April 6, 2007, 12:15 PM

The U.S. attorney firings scandal has laid bare the administration's -- and particularly Karl Rove's -- preoccupation with prosecuting voter fraud. But there's a flip side to this coin. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has virtually abandoned its traditional role, undertaken since the 1965 Voting Rights Act, of actively protecting African American voters from discrimination.

There's no greater demonstration of that fact than this simple fact: During the first five years of the Bush administration, the Justice Department's voting section only filed a single case alleging voting discrimination on behalf of African American voters. That's despite the fact that the section, part of the Civil Rights Division, was created mainly to protect African American voters from discrimination.

But during that same time period, the section managed to file the first ever "reverse" discrimination case under the Voting Rights Act.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002956.php