New Years Day Election Reform News & Related events 2006

[MelissaB]

Happy New Year!

:party: :toast: :party: :toast: :party: :toast: :party: :toast: :party: :toast: :party: :toast: :party: :toast: :party: :toast:

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407036

All previous daily threads are available here:

http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm

[MelissaB]

1. Stand or Fall, State your Peace Tonight

Stand or Fall, State your Peace Tonight

My friend RJ Eskow, writing both at his own place as well as at HuffPo, has started a little 'thing', wherein he asks us to be self-critical. Starting here he says:

Some Democrats would rather be victims than losers, like those who wrote me angry emails after this recent piece.In it, I call Democrat leaders "perennial losers" who lack nerve and don't act tactically. Democrats don't lose, say my correspondents, they win - only to have the elections stolen from them by Diebold, a crooked Supreme Court, and other conspiracies
Fellow HuffPoster Jane Smiley responds thus:


I was thinking that the spy scandal was being expertly taken care of without my input, what with Martin Garbus, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, and Barron's magazine hot on the "president's" tail. My plan was to continue reading Les Rougons-Macquart in peace, but then I read RJ Eskow's blog about the Democrats, and while I thought it was insightful and well-argued, there was one thing I disagree with, and that is that the point of the whole spy scandal, now that Bush has been caught and has admitted breaking the law, is not whether the Democrats can find a way to be electable, it is whether the Republican Party is a criminal enterprise, and whether average Republicans, both in and out of the government, are going to countenance and support unnecessary and shamelessly unlawful behavior.

Not being one to give up without a bit of contrast, RJ answers back here:


Jane Smiley has posted an eloquent and well-written piece in response to one of mine entitled "Democrats: Losers or Victims?" In it, she suggests we not concentrate on the Democrats, but on the venality of the GOP, the "winners and perpetrators."

Jane summarizes the lawless and immoral state of the Republican Party well - but, then what?

Who's going to defeat them and take their place? There's no effective and meaningful opposition party. We may agree on who the villains are, but there's no hero in sight. And that means we know how the story's going to end.

...snip

So as a form of New Year's Resolution, I ask/challenge any and all, readers, commentors, fellow bloggers, to state our goals. What exactly do we stand for? And if you do it in a clever CNN-ready sound bite, what the heck, go for it. Let's have some big ideas.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-anderson/-stand-or-fall-state-you_b_13109.html

[MelissaB]

2. Utah: Herbert discusses goals, accomplishments

Herbert discusses goals, accomplishments

Alan Choate | DAILY HERALD

| DAILY HERALD

</01 Byline 1>
Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert was a Utah County commissioner for 14 years
before being elected along with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. He sat down with The Daily Herald at the end of his first year in office to discuss Utah County's influence in the Capitol, opportunities and challenges facing the state.


Q: Some electronic voting machines made by Diebold -- the supplier chosen by Utah -- have been shown in Florida to be vulnerable to hacking. Do you have the same concerns here?

A: I don't know that there's any system that's absolutely perfect. Something of this magnitude, of collecting and counting votes on multiple different kinds of ballots, is a pretty humongous challenge. The problems that I've heard about ... had to do with optical scan, as opposed to touchscreen (which is the kind of machine chosen for use in Utah).

These pieces of equipment are under lock and key, under a security guard now. They will be turned over to the counties, who will also have them under lock and key. They are tested on a random basis. They are tested before, during and after the election. When you show up to the voting booth, they say, 'Here's your card, go over here,' if you're not back out in 10 minutes we're probably going to send out the search party. The process doesn't allow you to go in and spend a couple of hours hacking into something.

You can hack into the system today, with paper punchcard ballots. We wouldn't be having this discussion today if punchcards were the end all and be all of voting.

We've done it right, we have a consensus that this is the right approach. ...We have other states that are interested in how we were able to do it. This really is an example of where Utah is a leader. I think Utah really is a leader in many ways and can be a leader in many more.


More: http://www.newutah.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=72245

[MelissaB]

3. NC: Gaston CountyOn display: New voting machine

Gaston CountyOn display: New voting machine

Gaston County residents will be able to see the voting machine chosen by the county's Board of Elections at a public forum planned for Wednesday.Board members decided Dec. 22 to recommend that Gaston County commissioners buy optical scan machines from Elections Systems and Software. The decision came after the other state-approved vendor, Diebold Election Systems, withdrew its bid earlier that week.

County residents can learn about the machine and see a demonstration at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Gaston County Courthouse, 325 N. Marietta St. -- Jefferson George

More: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/states/north_carolina/counties/gaston/13527362.htm

[MelissaB]

4. The Best of The BRAD BLOG 2005...

This is a great post with lots of links. Check it out.

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002221.htm

[Wilms]

26. .

[MelissaB]

5. Voting 2.0: Will Your E-Vote Count? (NY)

Voting 2.0
Will Your E-Vote Count?

By Cheryl Gerber | Illustrations By Dash Shaw

Imagine this: A Trojan Horse unleashes thousands of illegitimate votes and disappears without a trace, election commissioners bypass laws, uninvestigated computer glitches and easily picked locks in voting systems, no federal oversight holding e-voting vendors accountable—yes folks, elections can be stolen.

Since the 2000 Presidential election, problems stemming from the use of electronic voting machines have called into question the foundation of American democracy—the US voting system.
At the forefront of concerns are security issues surrounding the use of Direct Recording Electronics , better known as touch screen computer voting machines, and their lack of a paper trail in the form of an auditable paper ballot. Widely reported irregularities from voting districts around the US have alarmed many and opened claims of stolen elections. Some even doubt the legitimacy of the outcome of recent US elections. A team of top computer scientists has been working diligently to resolve the many underlying design problems in the e-voting system that leave it open to cheating. Stalled by the federal government, and with doubts about e-voting continuing to spread, these scientists have instead turned to state governments and the National Science Foundation for help.

"Maryland, where I live, uses Diebold DREs, which are an ideal opportunity for cheating," said Dr. Avi Rubin, Technical Director, Information Security Institute, Johns Hopkins University. "In fact, you couldn't come up with a better opportunity for cheating. There's no ability to audit or recount, and the entire process takes place inside the computer, which is not transparent."

In May 2004, Rubin co-authored an analysis of electronic voting systems, raising concerns about lack of security, for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world's largest professional organization for technical standards. He also served in 2004 as a poll worker and election judge in Baltimore County, Maryland, where he lives. These and other experiences have only served to raise his concerns about the possibility for cheating via the use of electronic voting machines.

Efforts to Secure E-voting Stalled
Apprehension about the lack of security in Diebold's DREs and other touch screen computer voting machines spurred David Dill, a Stanford University computer science professor, to establish the Verified Voting Foundation in November 2004. According to Dill, when federal legislators tried to create a law that would address e-voting security problems, it was "blocked by a committee chairman, so we focused on state legislation."

...snip

Yes Folks, the Election Can Be Stolen
With the old lever machine method of voting, election fraud could only be committed on a local, or possibly a regional basis without high risk of getting caught. But now it would take only one well-placed programmer creating malicious code to rig a national election. "How do you know what software is running on Election Day?" asked Simons. "You could easily add a last-minute software patch to do something on Election Day, then immediately erase itself."

More: http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2006/01/news/

[Wilms]

17. Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407188

[MelissaB]

6. Illinois will miss deadline for federal voting reform

Illinois will miss deadline for federal voting reform

By JOHN O'CONNOR
The associated press


SPRINGFIELD - Even though they'll miss a Jan. 1 deadline to have voter fraud-busting measures in place, Illinois' top election official says current systems safeguard against abuse and authorities are making progress in complying with the federal Help America Vote Act.

The law, passed three years ago after the 2000 presidential-election snafu in Florida, requires states to have comprehensive voter-registration databases working by Sunday to ease authorities' search for duplicate names, removal of outdated registrations and other anti-deception measures.

Illinois is in a precarious position when it comes to complying with election laws, given its history. The adage, "Vote early and often" originated in Chicago, where decades of machine politics managed to get dead people to the polls and spawned the legend of thousands of votes for Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election resting at the bottom of Lake Michigan.

...snip

A National Association of Secretaries of State survey showed that of 43 states and territories responding, 19 would not be in compliance by the first of the year. But 17 of those would be ready before their first federal election, spokesman George Munro said.

Having a two-way database is important to fight voter abuse, officials believe. When voters move to new counties, it's technically their responsibility to cancel their old registration as well as sign up in their new homes.

"With this new system, they'll be able to register in the new county, and that should automatically make it so their old registration is canceled," Munro said.


More: http://www.southernillinoisan.com/articles/2006/01/01/top/10002993.txt

[MelissaB]

7. LTTE: An individual's vote deserves good machine

An individual's vote deserves good machine

First published: Sunday, January 1, 2006

I read with interest in the Dec. 17 Times Union that the state Board of Elections hasn't mandated that companies offer optical scan voting machines as well as the more expensive and less reliable electronic voting machines.
Apparently the board finds it more important to cater to the private companies producing these proprietary machines than giving our local governments a choice in purchasing voting machines.

Our vote is too important to be cast on a machine that could be tampered with and does not provide a paper trail to verify votes. If you agree, let the state Board of Elections know this by sending an e-mail to [e-mail]. A draft of the proposed regulations may be obtained by calling 474-1953.

ANN BRANDON

Delmar


Link: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=435039&category=OPINION&newsdate=1/1/2006

[MelissaB]

8. From Volusia: Democracy demands integrity

Democracy demands integrity

Last update: January 01, 2006


It seems so simple, so obvious. Elections should be fair and reliable. Voting machines should be accurate and failsafe. Elections officials should be careful and unbiased. Voters' interests should come first.

Florida residents watched all these tenets crumble over the past five years. The 2000 election scandal focused at first on flawed recount procedures, with state officials stalling and partisan operatives rioting to stop vote-verifying procedures. Soon, attention turned to the infamous "purge list" that stripped rights from thousands of voters, many by mistake.

National attention soon died down, but the problems continue. The state abandoned another voter-roll purge attempt in 2004, but the possibility of a repeat remains. Florida still clings to a lifetime voting ban for former felons who have paid their debt to society, refusing to abandon a counterproductive policy.

Nationwide, many state legislatures seem more concerned about stopping "fraudulent" voters than about securing the integrity of the polling place. Their measures seem related and driven by partisan motives: Reduce the number of low-income and minority voters. They should move in the other direction, making it easier to register and vote in elections. Some ideas that have worked in other states include elections by mail and voting-day registration.

But a far bigger threat to the integrity of the polling place looms in the shape of electronic-only voting machines pushed by Republican leaders who willfully ignore their flaws.


More: http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Editorials/03OpOPN67010106.htm

[MelissaB]

9. Discussion

Here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407202

[MelissaB]

10. BOOK REVIEW: Vote fraud is a serious problem, despite jokes

BOOK REVIEWVote fraud is a serious problem, despite jokes

By Reviewed By Al SmithSPECIAL TO THE HERALD-LEADEROne of the problems with crooked elections, for all but the losers, is our habit of joking about them. Stories like the one Ed Prichard told about the Logan County Democratic boss, Emerson "Doc" Beauchamp, are so comical they render us insensitive to the darker truths of persistent corruption undermining our democracy.

Receiving a phone call from a henchman that the Election Day opposition was stealing the Bucksville precinct, Beauchamp calmly reassured him, "That's all right. We ain't counting the Bucksville precinct."

...snip


So what to do about buying votes, stuffing or destroying ballots, moving poll locations, transposing results, importing illegal voters, and suppressing and sometimes killing voters? Campbell, an associate professor of history at the University of Kentucky, offers these suggestions:

• Make absentee ballots "the rare exception." Our civic life is nourished by voting in public places, rather than by Internet or mail.
• Abolish the Electoral College and its "winner-take-all" opportunity for fraud at the presidential level.
• Expand campaign-free zones around precincts to discourage buying or intimidation.
• Insist that the courts energetically dismiss illegal votes and understand that fairly counting votes is as much a civil right as casting them.
• Finally, beware of any claims that technology offers a foolproof shield against fraud. As Doc Beauchamp hopefully suggested when voting machines were introduced in Kentucky: "What we need now is fewer precinct workers and more mechanics."

More: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/entertainment/books/13513320.htm

[MelissaB]

11. Ga.'s Black lawmakers fight voter ID card law

Ga.'s Black lawmakers fight voter ID card law

Errin Haines
Associated Press
Jan. 1, 2006 12:00 AM

ATLANTA - At the end of a losing battle during the past legislative session, Georgia state Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan burst into the civil rights anthem Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around to protest a law requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls.

In the next session, starting Jan. 9, the 27-year-old Black Democrat says she will not be moved in her fight to get the law repealed.

"It's whatever it takes," Morgan said. "I'm putting on the armor. Nothing they can do will fix the bill. It's a bad law and it needs to be repealed." advertisement

Thomas and other Black lawmakers know they are in for a battle as Republicans stand determined to defend the law, which requires voters who do not have a driver's license to buy a state-issued ID card for $35. Critics say the fee hurts the poor, people older than 65 and minorities.

...snip

Republican Cecil Staton, the legislation's chief Senate sponsor, is proposing to amend the law during the next session. He said that he is willing, among other things, to make the state-issued IDs free.

"I don't want there to be a hardship any more than necessary for voters, but I don't think it's too much to ask that when you come in to vote, you help us see that you are who you say you are," Staton said.

However, Black legislators are promising to fight any plan that does not repeal the law, and they are getting support from AARP, the League of Women Voters, American Civil Liberties Union and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"This is a fight that has to be fought. A whole lot of folks have expended a lot of blood, sweat and tears to protect voting rights. It's a fundamental issue," said Sen. Vincent Fort, an Atlanta Democrat.

The measure heightened racial tensions in the Legislature last spring. Many Black lawmakers were distressed when their stories of Blacks deprived of the right to vote in the South during the Jim Crow era fell on deaf ears, and most of them walked out of the Capitol when the bill passed in March.

...snip

According to the National Council of State Legislatures, voters in 20 other states are asked to show ID before voting. In Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, South Carolina and South Dakota, voters must show photo ID; the 15 other states accept other forms of identification. Indiana will require photo ID beginning today.

More: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0101voterID.html

[MelissaB]

12. Best of Raw Story 2005

http://rawstory.com/contact/bestof2005.htm

[Melissa G]

13. Best of Election Reform 2005

Thanks to Foger Rox for the thread and Discussion.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5724686
Pleas to the DU administration to put us back on the Front Page
where folks can find us and help with this important issue!

Happy New Year! May 2006 be the year we see the backside of the **** cabal and all their cronies especially Tom "The BUG-man" Delay!!

[Melissa G]

14. Political Plays of the Year

Political Plays of the Year
Message of 2005: Plays are rarely predictable

Friday, December 30, 2005; Posted: 8:35 p.m. EST (01:35 GMT)


U.S. Rep.Tom DeLay fell victim to one of the top five political Plays of the Year.

What Is This? (CNN) -- Before auld acquaintance is forgot, let's bring to mind the political Plays of the Year, for auld lang syne.

Play No. 5 is Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle bringing the hammer down on "The Hammer" Tom DeLay, announcing that the legislator conspired "to violate the Texas election code by contributing corporate money to candidates in the Texas Legislature."

It was a classic act of partisan score settling, as DeLay did not fail to observe, saying, "This act is the product of a coordinated, premeditated campaign of political retribution."

But it was also a brilliant decapitation strategy. DeLay stepped aside as majority leader. House Republicans fell into leaderless disarray, and Democrats saw a chance to make ethics a partisan issue.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/30/schneider.roundup/
Plays 4-5 involve Fitzgerald, Miers, McCain and Roberts.

[Melissa G]

15. Election fraud in Tennessee concerns voters

Election fraud in Tennessee concerns voters

Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press:

Unfortunately, there are increasing signs that the recent election to fill a vacant Tennessee state Senate seat was anything but ideal.

The vacancy in Senate District 29 occurred when state Sen. John Ford, 31 years a member of the Legisla-ture, resigned after being indicted on bribery and extortion charges.

His sister Ophelia Ford and Terry Roland ran in the election to fill the vacancy. When the ballots were counted, Ford was said to be the winner by the small margin of 13 votes.

But then, evidence of gross irregularities began to show up. The most striking point was the discovery that two of the “voters” were registered not only with the election commission but also on their tombstones in a local cemetery.

http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Opinion-story.asp?ID=2418

[Melissa G]

16. County wrestles with new voting machine law

The Citizens Voice

County wrestles with new voting machine law

By Elizabeth Skrapits, Staff Writer 01/01/2006



Under federal law, Luzerne County has to buy electronic voting machines, but uncertainty about whether the machines should have voter-verified paper records is complicating the decision.


snip
Federal law does not require the machines to produce paper records, but the issue has sparked debate and activism by members of all political parties.

Verified voting advocates say the paper trails will prevent fraud and restore voter confidence, eroded after the 2000 election in Florida and problems with electronic machines in Ohio and other states in 2004. In April, Pennsylvania officials barred Beaver, Mercer and Greene counties from using the UniLect Patriot touch-screen electronic voting machines after votes were cast but not counted on the systems during the November 2004 election.

snip
Luzerne County commissioner Todd Vonderheid, who is chairman of the county board of elections, said he received six e-mails on Thursday alone from local people asking him to ensure the county selects machines that produce paper trails.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15849244&BRD=2259&PAG=461&dept_id=455154&rfi=6

[Wilms]

18. CA: State quiet on voting machines

12/31/2005

State quiet on voting machines

Reporter Editor:

Before anyone breaths easier that the state won't be decertifying voting machines used in Solano County and 10 other counties ("Solano's voting machines OK," The Reporter, Dec. 30), don't voters have a right to know whether the machine's problems truly have been fixed?

Anyone who believes they are entitled to have their vote counted accurately should be concerned about the revelation that some Election Systems & Software machines didn't proper record people's votes in the November 2005 election. Despite being aware of the issue since mid-November, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson has yet to publicly disclose the problems with the machines or, more importantly, how ES&S plans to fix the problems and why voters should have confidence in those proposed solutions.

You do not build people's confidence in voting systems by refusing to talk about the problems with the machines in public and for the Secretary of State to continue to withhold this information is as outrageous as it is unacceptable. The decisions about the types of voting equipment Californians are going to use to elect their representatives and approve or defeat proposed initiatives need to be made in public, in the open, right here in California.

The Help American Vote Act was designed to make it easier for people to cast their ballots and improve the accuracy of the vote count. If the Secretary of State simply makes it easier to vote without ensuring every voter's vote will be accurately counted, California will have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars and pulled the rug out from under our democracy in the process.

Debra Bowen, Redondo Beach

The author, a Democrat, is the chairwoman of the state Senate Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee - Editor.

snip

http://www.thereporter.com/letters/ci_3360152

Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407208#top

[Wilms]

19. NYT: Conspiring Against the Voters

December 31, 2005 by the New York Times

Conspiring Against the Voters

Editorial

President Bush has announced four nominees for the Federal Election Commission, moving to keep the policing of campaign abuses firmly in the hands of party wheel horses. The timing of the announcement - the president waited until the Senate had gone home - is likely to allow the nominees to avoid the full hearing and confirmation process needed to evaluate them properly.

The most objectionable nominee is Hans von Spakovsky, a former Republican county chairman in Georgia and a political appointee at the Justice Department. He is reported to have been involved in the maneuvering to overrule the career specialists who warned that the Texas gerrymandering orchestrated by Representative Tom DeLay violated minority voting rights. Senators need the opportunity to delve into that, as well as reports of Mr. von Spakovsky's involvement in such voting rights abuses as the purging of voter rolls in Florida in the 2000 elections.

The need for a clean broom at the six-member election panel becomes clearer with each new round of decisions favoring big-money politics over the voters. But the newly nominated majority promises no improvement. In fact, the slate would mean an end to the service of Scott Thomas, the one incumbent praised for his independence by Senator John McCain, who has campaigned for a clean, hack-free Federal Election Commission.

Both parties suggested candidates; the Democrats include a union lawyer and a trusted political associate of the Senate minority leader, Harry Reid. By endorsing them, the president has finally shown his commitment to bipartisanship in the worst of ways: by installing another undistinguished group of factotums to referee the democratic process.

snip

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1231-01.htm

Discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5724376

[Wilms]

20. Fake voting rights activists and groups linked to White House

Fake voting rights activists and groups linked to White House

December 30, 2005

Top level Republican operatives with ties to the White House, Senate Majority Leader William Frist and the Republican National Committee (RNC) not only engaged in the suppression of poor and minority voters in the 2004 Ohio presidential election' but they spun the election irregularities into a story linking blacks to cocaine and voter fraud. Bush allies in Ohio are now using this myth of voter fraud to pass a repressive "election reform" bill.

In the month prior to and immediately after the 2004 presidential election' the Republican Party engaged in an orchestrated campaign to divert the mainstream media focus away from election fraud and irregularities in Ohio and manufactured the myth of "voter fraud."

According to a former Columbus Dispatch reporter' Ohio Senator Mike Dewine sent his spokesperson' Mike Dawson' to meet with the editorial board of the Dispatch and other Ohio newspapers. The primary talking point for the GOP was that there was no evidence of irregularities in Ohio.

The Republican state legislature used the "voter fraud" spin to introduce the draconian Ohio House Bill 3. The "election reform" bill has passed both Republican-dominated houses and is awaiting a conference committee at the start of the new year.

snip

http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2005/1289

Discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407181

[Wilms]

21. New Florida election laws in effect today

New Florida election laws in effect today

Democrats: Impact wasn't fully explained

By Linda Kleindienst
Tallahassee Bureau Chief

Posted January 1 2006

TALLAHASSEE -- Early voting hours will be cut and the spending limit for candidates for governor will more than triple -- to $20 million -- under a revamp of the state election law that takes effect today.

Democrats and government watchdogs charge the public had little opportunity to understand some of the election changes before the Legislature approved them last spring.

But Republican legislative leaders said the new voting rules will bring uniformity to the state's 67 counties and the increased spending limits are a reflection of financial reality.

The election changes are among a few new laws taking effect today. Others include an end to runoff primaries, a ban on lobbyist gift-giving to legislators and state officials, a requirement that lobbyists report how much they are paid, and the continued phase-out of the intangibles tax on investments, including stocks and bonds.

snip

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-fnewlaws01jan01,0,6417162.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

Discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2342750

[Wilms]

22. Holiday Movie Viewing --- Starring "The Voting Machine"!

Behind the Freedom Curtain (1957)
http://www.archive.org/details/Behindth1957


Election Updates

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Holiday Movie Viewing --- Starring "The Voting Machine"!

by Michael Alvarez

snip

Thanks to MIT colleague Ron Rivest, here is an old example of media developed by voting system vendors --- a 1957 film developed by the Automatic Voting Machine Corporation, "Behind the Freedom Curtain".

One interesting segment, about a third of the way through the film, shows voters making errors on a paper ballot, using a pencil. This follows with a segment that justifies the use of the lever machine being promoted in the film, based on how the voting machine helps prevent many of the voting errors shown for the paper ballots. Particularily interesting is the scene (about half-way through the film), where the election official opens up the lever machine from the rear, showing the mechanical workings of the device (the same scene is repeated about two-thirds through, when the election official opens the device again and shows the reporter the election results). There are also a couple of fun scenes of faceless election officials counting massive paper ballots, voiding many of them.

But most compelling to me was the final segment of the film, which pointed out the many ways in 1957 that American life was becoming increasing automated, modernized, and convenient. I found that the parallels between this segment, and the contemporary debates about precinct voting devices, worth the seventeen minutes it took to watch this film. The closing line and scene, where the reporter asks "can democracy compete with it's right hand tied to a hitching post" sums the film's argument into a single sentence.

snip

http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/2005/12/holiday-movie-viewing-starring-voting.html

Discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x406969

[Wilms]

23. GuvWurld, Mark Crispin Miller on KPFT - Listen Online 1/1/06

Houston's award winning Pacifica station is www.kpft.org

http://houston.kpft.org/site/PageServer

Visit the site and listen online, especially New Year's Day at 4pm PT when host Pokey Anderson (profile) will be interviewing me on her show Sunday Monitor.

We will be discussing the impending demise of Diebold and how the election integrity community is working to euthanize this corporate person who has outlived usefulness to democracy and society. For more on the organized resistance visit the GuvWurld Blog.

Also scheduled to be on the show is Mark Crispin Miller (blog), author of such books as: Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal The Next One Too," "Boxed In: The Culture of TV," "The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder," and "Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order."

For the happy, safe and peaceful new year, remember to keep your mind open, the future's coming.

snip

http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2005/12/listen-online-new-years-day-guvwurld.html

Discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407171

[bleever]

24. Should we take a day off from all of this? HELL, NO!

:kick:

[MelissaB]

27. "Hell, no!" is right!

This year I had Christmas day and New Years Day duty. This is too important to drop, and we've made a lot of progress this year. The corporate media must educate the masses about this. If they don't, we will.

:kick:

[bleever]

28. Best wishes, MelissaB, for a New Year full of crucial developments

in retaking democracy. Thanks for all your work on this ongoing thread.

:thumbsup:

[Melissa G]

29. Very Happy New Year to you MelissaB!

:loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :toast: :patriot:

[Wilms]

25. NM: A ban on electronic voting machines?

A ban on electronic voting machines?

By Erik Siemers
Tribune Reporter

December 31, 2005

California attorney Lowell Finley and Albuquerque attorney John Boyd have sued the secretary of state on behalf of eight New Mexico voters who believe the Sequoia machines malfunctioned in Bernalillo County and other counties last year.

The lawsuit seeks to prohibit the state from using Sequoia's touch-screen machines again. Neither attorney could be reached for comment Friday.

Critics have alleged the machines switched votes and lost votes in the 2004 election. They also contend they're difficult for disabled people to use.

They have called on the state to select the other state-certified system, the Automark, which uses paper ballots fed into an optical scanner.

Vigil-Giron is prohibited from purchasing the Sequoia machines until a temporary restraining order from the lawsuit is removed, said Ernie Marquez, the state's elections director.

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http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_local/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19858_4354785,00.html

[Wilms]

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