Election Reform, Fraud, & Updates Thread for Tuesday

[Melissa G]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Updates Thread for Tuesday

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 posting news items!
Thanks,
Melissa G

Link to previous thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371787

[Melissa G]

1. Ruling protects right to challenge elections

Editorial
Ruling protects right to challenge elections
05/23/2005
Justice was properly served last week when Chief Justice Thomas Moyer of the Ohio Supreme Court dismissed an attempt by Attorney General Jim Petro to have four lawyers sanctioned for filing "a meritless claim" against the vote that gave President Bush a victory in Ohio in the 2004 presidential election.
Petro, representing Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and Ohio's 20 members of the electoral college, had sought sanctions against attorneys Cliff Arnebeck, Robert Fitrakis, Susan Truitt and Peter Peckarsky.
The attorneys had said the challenge they filed on behalf of 37 voters included enough evidence of voting irregularities to back up their allegations of widespread fraud.
Presidential challenger John Kerry's campaign and the Ohio Democratic Party were not part of the challenge, which was later withdrawn.
Petro sought sanctions which, if granted, would have forced the four attorneys to repay attorney's fees and court costs.
Moyer asserted that the claims by the four of election fraud were "at best highly improbable" and "devoid of logic." Nevertheless, he rejected the request for sanctions because the lawyers dismissed their case before it went to trial.
Moyer thus left in place the solid principle that citizens are free to challenge the outcome of elections without fear of reprisal - an important element of freedom in a country which prides itself on holding free and open elections.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14571828&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=21846&rfi=6

[Melissa G]

3. GOP focuses on election "fraud"

GOP focuses on election "fraud"

By David Postman

ELAINE THOMPSON / AP

Workers stack and sort documents yesterday morning as they get ready for trial in Chelan County Superior Court over the fate of the 2004 governor's election. The trial began with Republicans trying to persuade a judge to nullify the election of Gov. Christine Gregoire.

WENATCHEE — The first-ever trial to settle a disputed Washington governor's election opened yesterday with Republicans launching a broad and bold attack on King County, alleging that "sinister" fraud and corruption "up the food chain" robbed Dino Rossi of the governor's office.

Judge John Bridges was quick to rein in such talk. He said fraud charges, which could make it easier for Republicans to get the November election thrown out, have not been part of the Republican case and can't simply be added now.

Bridges said he would allow Republicans to introduce evidence against King County, but as of now it won't be considered fraud in his courtroom. That matters because a fraud claim would not require Republicans to show that King County's actions specifically cost Rossi votes or gave Democrat Christine Gregoire her winning margin of 129 votes.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002286230_trial24m.html

[Melissa G]

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

Post Below Thanks to Wilms..
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.php?az=view_all&address=203x3712333.
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.


If you want to know how post "News Banners" or other images, go here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233

[EFerrari]

4. This would be a good day to contact our election reform guru

as his date has been moved to tomorrow, fyi.

[Melissa G]

5. New 2004 Exit Poll shows 60% Asians vote for Kerry

New 2004 Exit Poll shows 60% Asians vote for Kerry

Thanks to Dzika for post and discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x372086
May 23, 2005



Multilingual Exit Polls Show How Asian Americans Voted in 2004


SOURCE: The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)

Many exit poll respondents in the poll encountered serious voting barriers, with hundreds of voters directed to the wrong poll site and hostile or poorly trained poll workers making racist remarks to Asian American voters.



In the 2004 national election, Asian American voters, despite diverse backgrounds and languages, voiced common concerns across ethnic lines, citing the economy /jobs as the most important factor in their vote for President and civil liberties as the most important civil rights issue. More than one-third (38%) of those polled were first-time voters, and almost one-half (46%) needed language assistance in order to vote.

(...)

The organization's publication, "The Asian American Vote 2004: A Report on the Multilingual Exit Poll in the 2004 Presidential Election," provides a snapshot of the voter preferences of Asian Americans in 20 cities in 8 states: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The five largest Asian groups surveyed in 2004 were Chinese (46%), South Asian (25%), Korean (14%), Southeast Asian (6%), and Filipino (5%). Of this group, 82% were foreign born and 29% had no formal US education. More than a third (38%) were first-time voters. The report contains numerous tables and charts that describe the party enrollment, English proficiency and issue preferences of first-time voters, foreign-born voters, women voters, and young voters.


Specific highlights of the report include:


Asian Americans were largely Democratic voters. Almost 60% of Asian Americans were registered Democrats, over a quarter were not enrolled in any political party, and only 1 in 7 Asian Americans were registered Republicans. By a 3 to 1 margin, Asian Americans favored Senator John Kerry over President George W. Bush, 74% to 24%, with 2% voting for other candidates. Among first-time Asian American voters, 78% voted for Kerry, 20% voted for Bush, and 2% voted for other candidates.


Economy/jobs was the most important issue to Asian Americans in voting for President. Overall, the most important issues for voters were Economy/Jobs (26%), followed by the War in Iraq (16%), Terrorism/Security (16%) and Health Care (14%). Asian Americans who voted for Kerry were most influenced by the Economy/Jobs (29%), followed by the War in Iraq (18%) and Health Care (15%). Among Bush supporters, the most important factors influencing their vote for President were Terrorism/Security (33%), Economy/Jobs (18%), and the War in Iraq (11%).


Asian Americans shared common political interests, even across ethnic lines. Regardless of ethnicity, almost all Asian ethnic groups voted as a bloc for the same candidates and identified common reasons for their vote. Civil Liberties was the top choice for each ethnic group, when voters were asked to select the most important civil rights/immigrants rights issue from the following choices: Affirmative Action, Civil Liberties, Deportation/Detention, Hate Crimes, Immigration Backlogs, Language Barriers to Services, Legalization of Immigrants, Racial Profiling, Voting/Political Representation, and Workers’ Rights.


(...)

Based on findings from the 2004 exit poll and AALDEF’s election monitoring efforts over the past decade, AALDEF will be advocating for the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act in 2007, including expanded provisions for language assistance under section 203; more voluntary assistance in jurisdictions with growing Asian American populations that are limited-English-proficient; and the removal of barriers that deter new citizen voters from exercising their right to vote, including the discriminatory application of ID requirements under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).


more here

http://www.aaldef.org/images/04-20-05_exit_poll_pr.pdf

Complete 23 page Exit Poll Report (PDF)

http://www.aaldef.org/images/04-20-05_exit_poll_pr.pdf

[MelissaB]

6. Veteran Democrat raises worries on civil liberties, 2002 Iraq attack plan

In an interview with RAW STORY, Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) raised concerns about a document which suggests President Bush may have knowingly misled the country into war and expressed serious worries about the ebbing of civil liberties.

“There’s a dictatorial flavor that comes into this matter,” Conyers said, speaking of efforts of the current Bush Administration. “This chipping away from what we thought we had and what was in stone: the Civil Rights Act, the Voter Rights Act, the ability of states to process their own judicial cases without federal intervention—all of these things mean we’re not where we were; we’re slipping back and what we’re slipping back into in the cumulative sense is something a little bit scary.”

>>>snip

On the issue of civil liberties, RAW STORY raised a question some readers have asked, whether the congressman thought it was a reach to imagine the turn by the current Administration to infringe about personal privacy could result in something as drastic as martial law.

“I’m not so sure that there’s a lot of reaching necessary,” he remarked. “In totality, we’re moving into a different kind of country under different kind of law. For a president who has won each of his two elections by two states and each time the state that provided him with the margin had the most violations and irregularities of voting procedure of any other state in each election – obviously Florida and Ohio – he’s acting as if he had a mandate.”

More: http://rawstory.com/exclusives/alexandrovna/conyers_memo_iraq_interview_524


Discussion here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3721824

[MelissaB]

7. Discussion

here, too: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x372264

[MelissaB]

8. Public, Press Attitudes Differ on Accuracy

Public, Press Attitudes Differ on Accuracy

By WILL LESTER

WASHINGTON - Two-thirds of Americans say they think that when journalists make a serious mistake, most news organizations either ignore it or try to cover it up, a survey found.

>>>snip

A congressman who organized a panel to examine the role played by the media said Tuesday that news organizations have drifted toward tabloid journalism and have been intimidated from reporting about the war in Iraq.

"The vast majority of the mainstream media is not only unwilling to accurately report on the failings of the administration, but the few who do have fallen victim to scapegoating and retribution," said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. "We have turned from breaking stories like Watergate and the Iran-Contra scandal to celebrity journalism."

The congressman released an analysis by Congressional Research Service which found that reports in the British media about the United States and Great Britain secretly agreeing to invade Iraq received very little coverage on major cable TV outlets in the days after it was published in Britain.


More: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2005/05/24/ap/entertainment/d8a9puj80.txt


It's good to see Conyers is getting coverage on media reform.

[Melissa G]

9. ES&S Demonstrates New Method To Sabotage An Auditable NY Vote

Thanks to althecat
Original message
J. Gideon - ES&S Demonstrates New Method To Sabotage An Auditable NY Vote


http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0505/S00311.htm
Does ES&S Really Want To Sell The Automark Machines?
By John Gideon
www.votersunite.org

Elections Systems and Software (ES&S) has a marketing agreement with AutoMARK Technical Services (ATS) to be the sole purveyor of the AutoMARK voting machine. ATS can market the system, but pricing and contracts are all handled by ES&S. In March of 2004, when ES&S announced the agreement, Aldo Tesi, ES&S president and CEO said, "we recognize the incredible responsibility we have in supporting the democratic process and ensuring it is open and accessible to all voters."<1>
A few months later, when ES&S representative Mike Devereaux praised the AutoMARK over touch screens, it appeared that ES&S had partnered with ATS in order to take advantage of the growing demand for paper ballots.<2> The company's subsequent business decisions seem to say otherwise.

ATS describes their AutoMARK voting system as “a ballot marking system designed to provide privacy and accessibility to voters who are blind, vision-impaired, or have a disability or condition that would make it difficult or impossible to mark a ballot in the usual way. In addition, it provides language assistance to voters who are more comfortable speaking an alternative language or who have reading difficulties. The AutoMark voter assist terminal has been developed with input from election authorities and disability organizations, and meets all of the requirements of “The Help America Vote Act of 2002.”” The system marks a ballot that is inserted into the machine. That ballot is then either read by a precinct based optical scan machine or is put into a ballot box and read, later, by a central count optical scan machine; or by hand.


MORE:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0505/S00311.htm


Discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x372291

[Algorem]

10. Score of counties join suit on vote-machine deadline

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1117013789110440.xml&coll=2

Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Associated Press
Columbus

-- At least 20 counties have joined a voting-machine maker's lawsuit to extend the state's deadline for qualifying touch-screen systems and the judge in the case has given other counties until Friday to join it.

Joining Election Systems & Software's lawsuit will extend the participating counties' deadline for picking a voting system until June 3.

So far, 42 counties have chosen Diebold Election System's electronic touch screen systems, equipped with a state-required paper record so voters can verify their choices, said Carlo LoParo, spokesman for the state's elections chief, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.

Three counties will get ES&S optical scan, electronic machines that read marks that voters make on paper, while two will have Diebold optical scan...

[Algorem]

12. "Dems need to win in Ohio, not in D.C."

Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Thomas Suddes
Plain Dealer Columnist

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/thomas_suddes/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1117013683110440.xml&coll=2

Sooner than anyone expects, Campaign '06 will parade across Ohio's TV screens, giving the state's Democrats two choices: They can do what they usually do - lose - or they can think strategically, which means leaving Washing ton to the Washingtonians.

Time out of mind, Ohio Democrats put way too much energy into congressional and White House contests and not enough into Statehouse races. There used to be good reasons for that (union labor's quest for federal fairness in labor law) and bad ones (a taste for U.S. Capitol pomp and, during the Clinton presidency, joy rides on Air Force One).

But Congress will never repeal the Taft-Hartley Act, and Congress and the White House will remain Republican preserves for a while. Back home, however, Republicans are handing Democrats a juicy state scandal to ballyhoo - a ludicrous "investment" in old coins by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, an "investment" managed by a GOP insider who (just a coincidence you understand) has bankrolled Ohio Republicans big-time.

Business people, who've shrieked for years about the supposed cross of Ohio workers' compensation costs, should be marching on the Statehouse armed with pitchforks and pikestaffs: The Party of Thrift may have betrayed Ohio's bean-counters...

[Algorem]

13. Coin scandal reaches Taft office

Governor's aides, ex-aides linked to Toledo dealer under investigation

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1117013887110440.xml&coll=2

Wednesday, May 25, 2005
T.C. Brown
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus - The investigation into the influence wielded by politically powerful Toledo coin dealer Tom Noe landed at state government's peak Tuesday - right in Gov. Bob Taft's office.

Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles asked for telephone records, e-mails and personnel re cords of four of Taft's former and current top aides dat ing to 1999.

Noe, a major Republican fund-raiser, or chestrated and managed a $55.4 million investment in rare coins for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation since 1998. He has been the target of recent investigations by six government agencies, including the FBI, over campaign contributions and 121 missing coins.

"During the course of our investigation, information has come to light that certain members of the Governor's staff may have received lodging accommodations and other items by Mr. Noe," Charles wrote in a letter sent Monday...

[merh]

11. GD thread about Andy

He is in surgery as I type this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3724871