Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Monday 06/02/08

[tbyg52]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Monday 06/02/08

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[tbyg52]

1. States nt

[tbyg52]

8. MI: More fraud, forgery claims filed in Dillon recall

Opponents of the effort to recall House Speaker Andy Dillon filed more challenges against the fizzling campaign Monday, saying it was riddled with forgery and fraud.

Supporters of the Democrat from Wayne County's Redford Township challenged the validity of several hundred of the signatures that were collected by the recall group and said that state officials should launch a criminal investigation against its organizers. Recall supporters, meanwhile, said that people affiliated with the Michigan Democratic Party planted false names on petitions to try and sabotage the recall campaign.

The troubled recall effort already faced long odds to succeed. State elections officials said last month a preliminary review indicated the recall group fell 500 signatures short of the 8,724 registered voters needed from within Dillon's House district to qualify the recall for the August ballot. Hundreds more signatures could be tossed out because of the challenges.

More:
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/news-54/1212434942307750.xml&storylist=newsmichigan

[tbyg52]

9. CA: Sacramento Man Charged With Misusing Petition Info

A Sacramento petition circulator faced arraignment Friday on charges that included misusing address information from petitions to pursue a woman without her consent, Secretary of State Debra Bowen reported Friday.

John Edward James of Sacramento is accused of one count of misusing petition signatures and another charge of perjury for allegedly falsifying the signature collection date on one of his petitions, Bowen said in a release.

The secretary of state said the allegations against James first came to light last month, when a petition management company contacted the state Election Fraud Investigation Unit to report the woman’s complaint. The company said James, one of its contract employees, had tried to pursue a romantic encounter with a woman who had signed some of his petitions outside a bank.

The fraud unit reported that James and the woman had recognized each other as fifth-grade classmates and started chatting while in line at the bank. Once outside, the woman signed five initiative petitions James was circulating.

More:
http://www.metnews.com/articles/2008/jame060208.htm

[tbyg52]

12. Montana and South Dakota Snapshot

Montana

Montana holds a Democratic Party Presidential primary on June 3. A Republican caucus was held February 5. The primary is open to all voters.

snip

South Dakota

South Dakota will hold closed primaries for both the Democratic and Republican parties on June 3. The state has over 550,000 registered voters.

More:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2879&Itemid=113

[tbyg52]

15. NJ: Groups want state to offer solutions for voter problems

One man claimed the electronic voting machine recorded his vote even before he touched the console.

Another 64 people were turned away from the polls all together, including 30 mistakenly registered with the wrong political party.

The Voter Protection Project responded to 140 mishaps and complaints Feb. 5 when Hillary Clinton won the Democratic presidential primary in New Jersey, according to a report expected to be released today, the eve of the primary election for Senate, Congress and local offices.

More:
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-10/121238133026640.xml&coll=1

[tbyg52]

16. LA: Two measures would improve voting

The issue: Two bills before the governor.

We suggest: Please sign them.

There are two proposals under consideration in Baton Rouge that, together, would facilitate voting and encourage heavier turnout for some elections.

If there is a good chance they can do that, these two bills both deserve strong support.

More:
http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20080602/OPINION/806020302/1030/opinion&title=Two_measures_would_improve_voting

[tbyg52]

17. FL: Activists Fear Problems With New Election Machines

With the presidential elections just five months away, there are fears that the nation could see a replay of the voting debacle of 2000.

And critics of the current voting system say South Florida is at the center of the concern.

Instead of hanging chads, critics say this year's presidential election could be jeopardized by jammed scanners and confused voters.

Lester Sola, supervisor of Miami Dade's Elections Department, showed the CBS4 I-Team how the new optical scan system will work in the November general election.

More:
http://cbs4.com/local/election.machines.miami.2.738763.html

[tbyg52]

19. MS: Felons deprived of voice at ballot box in and outside prison

When asked about his favorite candidate in this year's presidential race, 31-year-old Steven Hubbard didn't hesitate to say, "Obama's my man."

That's where his political voice ends. Hubbard, a convicted felon from Tupelo, is one of nearly 150,000 inmates and convicted felons in Mississippi who've lost their right to vote, nearly 7 percent of the state's adult population.

Although he doesn't deny guilt for the forgery conviction that caused him to lose his right to vote, Hubbard said denying him the right to vote after prison is un-American.

"I committed a crime, and I paid my debt to society for that crime by serving time in prison," Hubbard said. "But when I was released, my punishment didn't end. Being stripped of the right to vote is not fair to convicted felons who pay their debt to society and serve the time given to them by the courts. It's almost like I was exiled from the country. If I can't vote, then I can't be an American, right?"

More:
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080602/NEWS/806020329/1001/news

[tbyg52]

20. MS: Touch-Screen Voting Failure "Should Not Have Been Possible," Says Official

By all means, let's not pay attention to this report until after November.

This is a follow-up to several previous items we ran recently (here, here and here) on a number of elections in Arkansas where the outcome was reversed after the lucky discovery of mistallies on the ES&S electronic voting system which failed widely in a number of counties during local primary elections there the week before last.

Here's the latest explanation, most notable passages excerpted below, on what went wrong in Faulkner County's very low turnout election for their District 45 State Representative Democratic Primary in which voters casting ballots in the Cadron Township Constable race had their votes recorded erroneously for the Dist. 45 State Rep race instead.

While these same touch-screen voting systems, the ES&S iVotronic, are widely used across the country, and have failed notoriously in a number of races over the years, and thus, theoretically prone to the same or worse failures this November when the turnout will be far higher, the full article by Joe Lamb in Arkansas' Log Cabin Democrat notes two more additionally chilling points:

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-friedman/touch-screen-voting-failu_b_104753.html

[tbyg52]

30. GA: Challenge to photo ID law tries again

Anyone thinking the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on a recent voter ID law settled the matter would be wrong. The Georgia Democratic Party has launched a state and a federal assault last week by filing a new lawsuit in Fulton Superior Court, and a revival of an old one in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The same Atlanta lawyer, Emmet J. Bondurant filed both.

He found encouragement in the nation's top court decision to uphold a voter ID law from Indiana.

"The Indiana case is actually favorable," he said. "... Those principles, if applied in the Georgia case, lead to the invalidation of the Georgia law."

More:
http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/680/public/news906648.html

[tbyg52]

35. MI: Fieger acquitted in Detroit campaign finance violations case

A federal jury found Geoffrey Fieger not guilty of campaign finance violations because the government failed to prove the outspoken lawyer knew he was breaking the law, one of the jurors said.
Advertisement

For Fieger, Monday's verdict was the latest episode in a controversial career dating back to his defense of assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian.

"I feel very grateful for this jury having sat here for five weeks and listened to this case," Fieger said, beaming as he stood next to lead defense attorney Gerry Spence.

Fieger admitted, however, that he was scared during the trial. A conviction, he said "would have been the end of my career, the end of my family as I know it. It would have been the end of my firm and the 60 people who work for me."

The U.S. District Court jury in Detroit acquitted Fieger on all 10 counts listed in an August 2007 indictment and his law partner Ven Johnson on all five. The nine-man, three-woman jury deliberated for parts of four days before returning its verdict Monday afternoon.

More:
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080602/NEWS01/806020352/1001/RSS

[flashl]

38. RI: 2 Men Long Confined as Insane Regain Their Right to Vote

BOSTON — The Rhode Island Board of Elections has restored the voting rights of two men who were stripped of them last year because they were found two decades ago to be not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

The Cranston Board of Canvassers voted in 2007 to bar the two men, William Sarmento, now 41, and John A. Sarro, 53, from voting in the city, where they are confined to a psychiatric center.

Lawyers for the men appealed to the state board, which handed down its decision on Wednesday. Its executive director, Robert Kando, said Thursday that the finding of insanity applied only to “a brief period of time” and that “since it covers a brief period of time, it didn’t seem to persuade the Board of Elections that the men should lose their right to vote.”

...

Rhode Island law bars from the polls both convicted felons and those “lawfully adjudicated to be non compos mentis” — that is, not of sound mind. Lawyers for Mr. Sarmento and Mr. Sarro argued that though they were impaired at one time, they no longer were, and noted that in fact both had been found competent to stand trial.

NY Times

[tbyg52]

2. National nt

[tbyg52]

21. VA refuses to help vets register to vote

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs last month said it would refuse to abide by a 14-year-old presidential directive requiring it to help register veterans to vote.

On May 1, California officials asked the VA to help register veterans, citing a 1994 executive order by President Bill Clinton requiring federal agencies to undertake the responsibility if a state's top elections official makes the request.

The VA's May 19 refusal provides the latest sign that the VA is vigorously resisting organized voter registration drives on its property.

More:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5813258.html

[tbyg52]

22. Court ruling on constitutionality of Voting Rights Act promotes democracy

"In what is arguably the most important voting rights case this year, a three-judge federal court in Washington, D.C. upheld a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that prevents states and local governments from enacting discriminatory voting practices. The provision at issue is Section 5, which applies to states and localities with a history of racially discriminatory voting practices. Entities covered by Section 5 are prohibited from changing their election laws unless the Attorney General or a three-judge federal court has “pre-cleared” or approved the change. Section 5 has been a cornerstone of the Voting Rights Act since it was originally passed in 1965 and has been repeatedly extended, most recently, in 2006 for 25 years.

Plaintiff in the case, an Austin water utility district in Travis County, Texas, sought a statutory exemption from Section 5 and ultimately challenged the constitutionality of Section 5, claiming that it exceeded congressional authority and improperly intruded into state sovereignty. The court first concluded that the utility district did not qualify for any exemption and then determined that the voluminous legislative record documenting recent racial discrimination in elections provided Congress with the rational basis it needed to enact Section 5 in order to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment. The court also concluded that Section 5 was constitutional pursuant to congressional authority to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment.

More:
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/hotline/2008/06/court-ruling-on-constitutionality-of.php

[tbyg52]

27. GoLeft's 'Raw Replay': Let Fox 'News' Know About Ann Coulter's Voter Fraud Felony

Our friends at GoLeft.TV and RAW STORY have picked up on our call from late last week to help the folks out at Fox "News" by letting them know about Ann Coulter's voter fraud. Last week, Fox asked viewers for help in their "voter fraud special investigation."

Be sure to let them know about Coulter's several felony acts down in Palm Beach County, Florida, (well-documented at the link above) by writing to them at their super-special tipster address: [e-mail].

More:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6033

[tbyg52]

3. Foreign nt

[tbyg52]

14. EU urges Macedonia to address election concerns

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn urged Macedonia Monday to deal with concerns over violence-scarred weekend elections and investigate all incidents raised by international monitors.

"It is essential that the authorities address these findings and the recommendations which shall follow," said Rehn, who is a key player in deciding whether and when Macedonia can start long-awaited European Union membership talks.

"I expect the authorities to duly investigate all reported incidents and bring the perpetrators to justice," he said in a statement.

More:
http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1212423455.26

[tbyg52]

25. Is Thailand Heading for Another Coup?

A tense weekend stand-off between riot police and anti-government protesters in Bangkok has rekindled fears of politicial instability in Thailand, possibly culminating in another military coup.

Many of the social forces and faces in the mix are the same as those behind the street protests that ended in the September 2006 coup by royalist elements of the military against telecommunications billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra.

However, the picture is much murkier than two years ago, with a staunchly pro-palace Prime Minister in charge of an avowedly pro-Thaksin cabinet after a December election won comfortably by Thaksin proxies despite a vigorous counter-campaign by the army.

Here are some possible scenarios, compiled by Reuters on the basis of interviews with analysts and Bangkok-based diplomats:

More:
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-6-2/71307.html

[tbyg52]

26. Violence Erupts in Macedonian Election

Macedonia’s aspirations to join the European Union and NATO suffered a heavy blow on Sunday when violence and allegations of fraud marred parliamentary elections.

One person was shot dead and nine people were wounded in the country’s ethnic Albanian areas during voting that had been seen as a test of Macedonia’s democratic credentials as it seeks to join the European Union and to overcome a recent rebuff in its attempt to join NATO.

Instead, the country’s reputation as a problem child of the Balkans was underscored. Violence erupted between rival ethnic Albanian groups, and accusations of election fraud included broken or missing ballot boxes and stolen voting materials.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/02/world/europe/02macedonia.html?ref=world

[tbyg52]

4. Blogs, Editorials, LTTEs, etc. nt

[tbyg52]

7. CA: Election Fraud Watch in SF on Prop G-2d 49er Stadium Swindle

We now have a prediction of a "narrow victory" for Prop G, which can only happen with election fraud, as this second stadium swindle is promoted by the same fascist gang that promoted the first 49er Stadium Swindle on June 3, 1997, which also "narrowly passed" with election fraud.

We now have a prediction of a "narrow victory" for Prop G, which can only happen with election fraud, as this second stadium swindle is promoted by the same fascist gang that promoted the first 49er Stadium Swindle on June 3, 1997, which also "narrowly passed" with election fraud.

More:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/06/02/18503868.php

[tbyg52]

10. Protect America’s Ballot Box

Last week, we recapped examples of the misdeeds - and often the outright fraud - perpetrated by individuals, groups and other entities on America’s ballot box and thus our country. We sounded the klaxon to alert America’s citizens to the ongoing danger in every voting district across the nation; while pointing out the duty every American citizen has to fulfill in order to effectively protect, and solemnly secure, America’s ballot box from the vote manipulators, which includes certain rogue officials, so-called activists, and others – who have been undermining our system.

And, we introduced as a rallying cry, for all committed American citizens, the guiding principle of "One Citizen, One Vote, One Time!” (If you missed it, or would like a reference copy, go online to this newspapers website column archive or send me an email.) Today, let’s look closer, and deeper, into the principle of: "One Citizen, One Vote, One Time!”

Committed citizens everywhere can use this preeminent principle to guide their efforts to uniformly and effectively secure voting everywhere in the United States. Faithful adherence to this singular principle provides elegant clarity for anyone, who wants to understand both the spirit ‘of the voting right’ and the simplicity needed in consistent enforcement of the voting franchise offered to every American Citizen.

First, to frame the context in general, let’s reference some points of view we often hear and read about.

More:
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?ba01b7ad-b068-455d-a4b9-7f92395ecaf8

[tbyg52]

11. 'Uncounted' reveals missing voting truths

Voters in Democratic-leaning precincts across the country who were disenfranchised in the 2004 and 2006 elections might be again in 2008, according to the documentary film, “Uncounted.”

The film’s director, David Earnhardt, said his documentary exposed the problems of racially based voter suppression and intimidation, under-voting and electronic voting security problems. He interviewed politicians, voters, journalists and electronic voting machine workers.

“College students should care because of the transient nature of college students,” Earnhardt said. “They are a demographic highly affected by confusing registration rules as well as Election Day shenanigans like improper voter registration purges and last-minute precinct changes.”

Voting fraud is not a new issue in American society, but electronic voting machines have made it easier because of the lack of a paper trail.

More:
http://www.kansan.com/stories/2008/jun/01/uncounted/

[tbyg52]

13. The Secret Ballot = Election Fraud & Violation of Our Civil Rights

The secret ballot is a secret no longer. We have found out that when we use a secret ballot, corruption rules. We know from history that identification of the voter with their ballot corrupts the voter. Today, we are struggling with the dilemma of wanting to verify how our vote was really counted and identify the recording and tabulation of our vote in the totals and data base used to determine the election results, and our freedom from persecution by employers, coworkers, or any other public or personal individuals who do not like the way we voted.

I propose we make our society of women and men of all races and cultures who also suffer from various incidents of sexism, racism, and rejection because of their race or gender part of our election reform fight. Civil rights are keyed to the protections of our individual Constitutional rights. The right to vote privately is not a protection of our privacy or identity, but a reaction to our fear of having our Constitutional rights violated. The secret ballot is the choice to protect the offender who would violate the voter’s right to verify how their vote cast was counted. Now, as in the sense of justice and liberty are always an immediate and present right, now as much in the past and in currently in the present, is the need we have now to have our rights protected with clear consequences for violation of our Civil Rights and our right to govern ourselves through elections, as stipulated in the Constitution.

More:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Secret-Ballot---Electi-by-Casey-Reed-080531-717.html

[tbyg52]

24. More on the Politics of ID, the Politics of Carter-Baker

Heather Gerken and I have commented on Bob Pastor’s recent defense of the Carter-Baker Commission’s work, particularly its endorsement of voter ID as a measure linked to enhanced state voter registration programs. We suggest that political compromise may have its virtues in a host of contexts, but in this instance, on the ID issue, political bargaining did not serve the public well.

This is not an unqualified indictment of Carter-Baker, which made worthy contributions to the election law reform debate, but the Commission’s urge to achieve a political settlement of the ID issue was unfortunate. Its position has become a citation, taken by the Supreme Court in Crawford v. Marion County Board of Elections, lending the false impression of substance to a case weakly argued on the merits—meaning, also, on the data, of which there was virtually none. The best the Commission could do was bow to public fears of fraud, and these, too, were overstated and cannot support, without more, the imposition of an ID requirement.

More:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2878&Itemid=26

[tbyg52]

29. LTTE: Diebold, not illegals, source of election fraud

Dear Editor: Patrick O'Loughlin would have us believe that it's those nasty illegals who are disrupting our elections. Does anyone really believe that illegals are coming out in droves to vote and at the same time risking detainment or deportation?

The only real fraud that has been taking place in the last two elections (2000, 2004) has come in the form of voter suppression and voter fraud, the idea put forth on the GOP agenda 10 years ago by conservative Paul Weyrich. It has worked beautifully, with the blessing and assistance, of the CEO of Diebold! Yes, our last two contests were decided by narrow margins because of the "help" Diebold provided, giving George Bush eight years of presidency that he did not win fair and square nor deserve!

More:
http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/letters/289048

[tbyg52]

32. What's the matter with Los Angeles when it comes to elections?

Recent events during and after the California Primary suggest Los Angeles is in the midst of an electoral crisis. And a crisis for Los Angeles is a crisis for California. With the largest concentration of voters in the State, 18 Congressional Districts are partly or wholly contained in the County, along with 14 State Senators and 26 Assembly-members. The votes cast and counted in Los Angeles County significantly affect the outcome of every state wide election and initiative.

So what’s the problem? Let’s begin with the now infamous “double bubble ballot” responsible for the initial disenfranchisement of over 60,000 “decline to state” (DTS) voters in the February primary. The ballot was designed by former County Registrar Conny McCormack – a woman with close ties to Diebold and an overt hostility to the electoral reforms advocated by Secretary of State Debra Bowen (recent recipient of the John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage” award).

How could a ballot (designed by the acting Registrar) disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters – in numerous recent elections - without being detected? McCormack has said it was just “an unfortunate, unanticipated result," which "no one could have predicted." Directly contradicting this assertion is the fact that a staggering 44% of “DTS” voters that used the same “double bubble ballot” in elections prior to the February Primary – and administered by Connie McCormack - never had their vote counted either!

Why didn’t McCormack rectify this problem as Registrar? And why quit her job one month before the largest primary in recent memory without sounding the alarm bells?

More:
http://www.today.com/external.php?url=http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/06/whats_the_matte_1.html&reffurl=http://www.today.com/view/what%E2%80%99s-the-matter-with-los-angeles-when-it-comes-to-elections/id-2066924/

[tbyg52]

33. Diebold Sues Cuyahoga County BOE and SOS Brunner (?)

Posting it in this category because this is from a blog, not the news - couldn't find anything there (yet).

Just got an email indicating that Diebold and its subsidiary Premier Elections Systems, the manufacturer of electronic voting systems, have just filed suit in federal court in U.S. District Court in Akron against the Cuyahoga County Commission, Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, requesting a judicial declaration that their touch-screen voting system and voting services conformed to the defendants' requirements and therefore Diebold is not responsible for voting mishaps in Cuyahoga County.

More:
http://www.ohiodailyblog.com/content/diebold-sues-cuyahoga-county-boe-and-sos-brunner

[tbyg52]

34. CA: Contra Costa Times continues campaign finance coverup

The Contra Costa Times continues to allow its political reporter, Lisa Vorderbrueggen, to avoid full disclosure concerning her complete refusal to cover the subornation of the electoral process in Contra Costa County by special interest Independent Expenditures. In an comment (#34) posted on her blog, Lisa Vorderbrueggen does nothing but dissemble and tell tall tales to avoid admitting the truth that she was either played by campaign managers posing as her friends or she is a bent reporter that lets her political bias inform her decisions about what to write about or not.

In her defense for not writing about the fortune being spent by special interests to reelect incumbent Mary Peipho, Vorderbrueggen says:

- she was going to get to it
- she has written hundreds of stories about Independent Expenditures
- her deadline kept her from getting necessary documents
- “professional journalists” don’t work weekends before an important local election
- “I’m just one person”

More:
http://halfwaytoconcord.com/contra-costa-times-continues-campaign-finance-coverup/

[tbyg52]

5. Campaign Finance nt

[tbyg52]

23. WI: A quiet death for campaign finance reform

With all the focus on budget repairs at the Capitol, Jay Heck with Common Cause in Wisconsin says nobody noticed when a special session on campaign finance reform was ended last month without any action from lawmakers. Leadership in both the Assembly and Senate ended the special session quietly, without even having most members on the floor.

The Governor called the special session last November to take up issues such as public financing for Supreme Court races and disclosures for special interest spending. Heck says those are issues leadership wanted to avoid. However, he says it's a "tragic and cowardly act" to let those issues die for the year without even giving lawmakers a chance to debate or discuss them. The Senate did act on parts of the special session bill, but they never made it to a vote in the Assembly.

More:
http://www.wrn.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=4AE09D6F-BE19-F6ED-F7ECFA95CFB8A1BA

[tbyg52]

31. CA: Second Environmental Ad Campaign Naming Pelosi Tests Finance Rules

A second television advertising campaign pressing for action on climate change may have run afoul of legal requirements governing ads mentioning political candidates shortly before an election, according to campaign finance lawyers.

Last week, the Environmental Defense Action Fund launched a $4 million effort to press federal lawmakers to move aggressively against global warming as the Senate prepares to consider legislation to impose a so-called cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions.

"Some in big oil and coal will do anything to drive this bill into the ground," a man says in one jarring spot as he is apparently driven into the earth by oil barrels being dropped from the sky.

More:
http://www.nysun.com/national/second-environmental-ad-campaign-featuring-pelosi/78942/

[tbyg52]

6. The Youth Vote nt

[tbyg52]

18. Youth Voter Project founder thinks out of (ballot) box to get teen votes

Fewer New York City 18-year-olds are registered to vote than their suburban counterparts and cars are a big reason.

Suburban kids are usually champing at the bit to get behind the wheels of their parents' cars unsupervised. They turn 18 and head to the local State Department of Motor Vehicles office - and can register to vote at the same time.

Most city kids, like their parents, don't drive or own cars.

The Youth Voter Project has been working to register eligible high school students since February.

It's the brainchild of Manhattan Hunter Science High School history teacher Kevin Froner and was run as a nonpartisan class project with students Pavel Borisenko, Lily Chiu, Jenneida Cruz, Alaa Ebid, Andy Liu Fu, Sharrie Huang, Rebeca Huntt, Nicholas Iacovino, Yonnette Joseph, Olga Kirshenbaum, Damla Oral, Hector Santiago, Amy Shen and Didi Shum.

More:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2008/06/02/2008-06-02_youth_voter_project_founder_thinks_out_o.html

[tbyg52]

28. Youth Movement: Local and national politics seeing a rise in teenage participation

This fall, Utah County voters will rely on the political expertise of a handful of teenagers who have inserted themselves into a small group that gets a first crack at candidates.
The likes of 17-year-old Hannah Lockhart and 18-year-old Tony Cortese were elected as county delegates earlier this year and helped narrow the Republican field for the general elections in November. Delegate seats are normally won by core members of the party, those who make time to show up at the neighborhood caucuses in March.

But Lockhart, Cortese and others like them are among the vanguard of a new youth movement in the political process.

Participation in politics for 18-24-year-olds bottomed out in 2000, but the thinking now is, "Holy cow, every vote does count, every vote does matter," says Dan Shea, a political-science professor at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. Shea, who focuses primarily on youth participation, said there are a number of reasons for the increase, including the glut of information available online and the ability of teens to pass it along at previously unheard-of speed.

More:
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/268554/17/

[tbyg52]

36. That's all, folks! nt

[livvy]

37. Thank you, tbyg52!

Another fine thread!