Election Reform, Fraud, & Updates Thread for Sunday

[Melissa G]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Updates Thread for Sunday

In order to organize and document MelissaB thought it would be a good idea to have a daily thread to place items related to reform, fraud, protests, and other items. This also make it easier to "catch up" when we are away from the computer for a while.

If you see something that isn't here post it with a link to the thread and a thanks to the author. MelissaB is busy for a while so I'm taking over and Need Lots of Help!
Thanks,
Melissa G

Link to previous thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x366951

[Melissa G]

1. Blair planned Iraq war from start

The Sunday Times - Britain
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1592724,00.html
May 01, 2005

Blair planned Iraq war from start
Michael Smith



INSIDE Downing Street Tony Blair had gathered some of his senior ministers and advisers for a pivotal meeting in the build-up to the Iraq war. It was 9am on July 23, 2002, eight months before the invasion began and long before the public was told war was inevitable.
The discussion that morning was highly confidential. As minutes of the proceedings, headed “Secret and strictly personal — UK eyes only”, state: “This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.”



In the room were the prime minister, Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general, and military and intelligence chiefs. Also listed on the minutes are Alastair Campbell, then Blair’s director of strategy, Jonathan Powell, his chief of staff, and Sally Morgan, director of government relations.

snip


“When the prime minister discussed Iraq with President Bush at Crawford in April,” states the paper, “he said that the UK would support military action to bring about regime change.”

[Melissa G]

2. Knight Ridder Covers Leaked British Document That Disputes Bush Claims

Editor and Publisher

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000912159

A New Memo-gate? Knight Ridder Covers Leaked British Document That Disputes Bush Claims on Iraq

By E&P Staff

Published: May 06, 2005 4:30 PM ET

NEW YORK For much of the week, much of the U.S. press paid little attention to the highly classified British memo, leaked to a British newspaper, which seems to reveal that President Bush decided by summer 2002 to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and was determined to ensure that U.S. intelligence data supported his policy.

That changed on Friday, when Knight Ridder circulated a lengthy report on the memo by Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott.

The memo was first disclosed earlier this week by the Sunday Times of London. It has not been disavowed by the British government. A White House official told Knight Ridder that the administration wouldn't comment on the leaked document.

Meanwhile, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has gained 88 signatures on a letter among fellow Democrats asking the White House for an explanation of the memo. Among other things, he wants to know: “Did the Administration lie to the American people about its intentions with respect to Iraq? Did the Administration deliberately manipulate intelligence to deceive the American people about the strength of its case for war?”

[Melissa G]

3. Florida voting machine turns up in resident's yard

Posted on Sat, May. 07, 2005


Florida voting machine turns up in resident's yard

By Dan Stober

Mercury News


Surprise! It's a voting machine!

Somehow, a Florida voting machine from the infamous hanging-chad presidential election of 2000 landed on a walkway outside John Harker's Palo Alto home Thursday morning.


snip
Down in the windowless evidence room, evidence technician Brad Herran unfolded the voting machine Friday afternoon.

He found a sticker and some documents that surprised him. Officials in Palm Beach County, Florida, ground zero for hanging chads in the Bush-Gore fight, had apparently sold the old machines as historic souvenirs.

It was true. The county sold 560 of them on eBay in late 2001. For $300, buyers received a voting machine, complete with the famously confusing butterfly ballot. Some buyers opted for the $600 package, which included a ballot box.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/11589231.htm

[Melissa G]

4. THE MOST UNFAIR ELECTION IN BRITISH HISTORY

http://www.sundayherald.com/img6906


THE MOST UNFAIR ELECTION IN BRITISH HISTORY

http://www.sundayherald.com/49600


The electorate left Tony Blair in no doubt what they thought of him last week. But with only 35% of the vote, Labour secured a projected majority of 66. The Tories took 32%, yet Tony Blair won nearly twice as many seats. And they call this democracy?
By Iain Macwhirter



AT least now we can wave goodbye to the pager clones. Those doggedly on-message New Labour MPs have gone the way of the device that used to deliver the “line to take”. Many of the most ardent Blairites were massacred on Thursday. Labour is now more like the party it was in the 1970s. The stage is set for a conflict between a leader who has lost credibility and a party that wants its ball back.
Two images sum up 2005. Stephen Twigg, the infant hero of Labour’s 1997 “people’s revolution”, biting his lip as he lost the seat he stole from the Tory minister Michael Portillo eight years ago. His rueful expression summed up the feeling that the New Labour project has come full circle.

Second image. Victorious George Galloway, the former Scottish Labour MP sacked for his opposition to the war, lambasting Tony Blair like an Old Testament prophet: “All the people you’ve killed and the lies you have told have come back to haunt you.” Not for the first time, Galloway had found the

[Melissa G]

5. Virginia, gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore wants more absentee voting

Sunday, May 08, 2005


Kilgore brings up absentee voting


The candidate says he sees potential participation; critics see a downside. Read previous stories about the Gate City election investigation.


By Laurence Hammack
981-3239
The Roanoke Times

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke%5C23160.html


To encourage voter participation in Virginia, gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore wants more absentee voting.

But according to the mayor of Kilgore's hometown, that could encourage the kind of irregularities that plagued last May's local elections in Gate City.

"I think the extension of an already abused system invites the opportunity for only more abuse," said Mark Jenkins, who raised questions about a town election in which 20 percent of the vote was cast by absentee ballot.

snip
According to Jenkins, part of the blame for last year's botched election lies with the Scott County voter registrar's office, which is run by Kilgore's mother, Willie Mae Kilgore

[Melissa G]

6. Glenda Hood says FL a leader in Election Reform

Posted on Sat, May. 07, 2005





Florida a leader in election reform


The April 29 editorial Election proposals aren't voter-friendly states that Florida's election laws are designed to discourage voters. To the contrary, Florida continues to lead in election reform. But today, as elections become more complex, provisions are necessary to prevent voter fraud.

Prior to the implementation of provisional voting, signing an affidavit was the only safeguard available to voters without identification on Election Day. With the advent of provisional voting, this step is unnecessary.

The danger with the previous method was that the voter was allowed to cast a ballot that could not be ''taken back'' even if it was later determined that the voter was not who he or she said they were. In current legislation, we provide provisional voters up to three days after the election to provide documentation and identification to the election supervisor to ensure that their vote will count. These provisions will reduce delays by allowing poll workers to assist voters, including those voting provisionally, rather than spend time collectively trying to determine a voter's eligibility.

snip
GLENDA E. HOOD, secretary of state, Tallahassee
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/11586772.htm

[snot]

7. Cd this daily thread include links to best blasters, too?

Or some other daily thread in this forum?

I solicit others to write letters or e-mails, and those blasters are a big help. It would be great to know I could always look here to find links to the best, most up-to-date versions for governmental reps and media (including college media, when that's ready).

Thanks!

[Melissa G]

8. Struggle over voter IDs evokes a bitter past

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0509/p02s01-uspo.html



Struggle over voter IDs evokes a bitter past

In Georgia and other states, legislative brawls break out over whether ID rules will prevent fraud or deter voters.

By Patrik Jonsson | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

LITTLE ROCK, S.C. – In this run-down South Carolina border town, up the street from the Repo Depo, Timothy Hardwick is padding his income by selling boiled peanuts from a propane burner on the back of a truck.
As with many Americans, what Mr. Hardwick is missing in wealth is in part eased by his ability to help steer the national body politic at the ballot box. But that sense of endowment, he says, is now at risk. Here in South Carolina and dozens of other states - often with large black or Hispanic populations - a campaign is under way to toughen the voting process by demanding that registered voters flash a picture ID in order to post a ballot.

[Melissa G]

9. Discrepancies found in 35 percent of Miami-Dade precincts

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=5984


Sunday 8th May 2005 (06h51) :
US Electile Dysfunction: Discrepancies found in 35 percent of Miami-Dade precincts

In the latest South Florida election mishap, workers in 35 percent of Miami-Dade County’s 749 polling places last November filed counts of voter signatures that differed from the number of ballots cast on the touch-screen voting machines, a new analysis has found.
On Nov. 2, election workers in 260 polling places submitted data to the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections office that did not match up with the total number of touch-screen ballots reported by the canvassing board, according to a study conducted by the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition, a nonpartisan watchdog group.

Out of those 260 polling places, 23 submitted totals that were off by more than 50 voters, while 68 submitted totals that were off by more than 10 voters. In one polling place, the difference was 1,284. That polling place was one of five that showed very large discrepancies. The coalition is studying those five for possible clerical errors.

Not including those five polling places, the percentage difference between the reported signature totals and the machine ballot counts varied from less than 1 percent to 34 percent. The differences included polling places where there were more reported signatures than ballots cast, and others where ballots cast exceeded reported signatures.

[Melissa G]

10. Push to replace voting machines spurs confusion

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-05-08-voting-machines_x.htm
Push to replace voting machines spurs confusion
By Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Election officials across the nation are scrambling to meet a Jan. 1 deadline to replace outmoded voting machines with equipment that is supposed to be more accurate. But a controversy over the reliability of computerized voting machines continues to cloud their decisions.

Voters use touch-screen machines in Wellington, Fla. Computerized systems are to be used nationwide by Jan. 1.
Mario Tama, Getty Images

"The people who are trying to get this done at the local level are just running blind," said Keith Cunningham, president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials. "I hope there's not a 'train wreck,' but that term is being used quietly in conversations among election officials."

There is a consensus among state and local election officials that any machine that relies on computer technology should have some kind of independent backup that voters can use to make sure their votes were recorded correctly and that could be used to verify results if a recount is needed, said Doug Chapin, director of electionline.org, a non-profit organization that monitors election policy.

[autorank]

11. Kick & Recommend

:kick: Thank you for doing this! :yourock:

[Melissa G]

12. Preparing for a paper-and-pencil primary

Preparing for a paper-and-pencil primary
BY JON STEVENS, Staff writer

[e-mail]

WAYNESBURG – Greene County voters might think they are going back in time when they are handed a paper ballot prior to entering a voting booth May 17.

Well, in a way they are, except the process of tabulating the ballots is slightly more advanced than the old hand-count system that was in effect prior to 1998.

Because the UniLect Patriot electronic voting system was decertified April 7 when it froze and malfunctioned during testing Feb. 15., the county opted to employ an optical-scan system for the primary, even before a second test was conducted April 22. The Unilect system failed that test as well.

But despite that, Frances Pratt, Greene County director of elections, stands by the touch-screen voting method

http://www.observer-reporter.com/286789855513909.bsp

[philly_bob]

13. Philadelphia Election Reform Panel Discussion

Next Sunday, there will be a panel discussion on Election Reform at the Philadelphia Ethical Society. Guests will include Josh Mitteldorf, Temple Univ. statistician who analyzed 2004 exit polls; journalist Lynn Landes; and votePA organizer Marybeth Kuznik.

Where: Philadelphia Ethical Society, 1906 Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia

When: 2PM - 4PM

There is no charge and there will be a period for public questions.

Here is link to a PDF poster announcing the event; it would be great if Election Reform folks in the area printed it out and posted it:

<http://www.phillyethics.net/site/eref3.pdf>

See you there!

Bob=Moore
Philadelphia Ethical Society