Daily Election News Thread....Wednesday March 15, 2006

[stillcool]

All members welcome and encouraged to participate


http://homepage.mac.com/rcareaga/diebold/adworks.htm

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

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=203x371233
3. 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.

Please
"Recommend"

[Botany]

1. Miami Herald does a piece on election fraud

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/14100465.htm

this should be front page of the NY Times and lead the national news.

[kpete]

2. Hi

Saved for DU


Election


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4807756.stm

http://www.offthekuff.com/mt/

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/14100465.htm

http://www.bobharris.com/content/view/870/1/

[stillcool]

3. Texas.....adds "snafu" to "glitch"

Vote spike blamed on program snafuBy ANNA M. TINSLEY and ANTHONY SPANGLERSTAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITERS

An undetected computer glitch in Tarrant County led to inflated election returns in Tuesday's primaries but did not alter the outcome of any local race, elections and county officials said Wednesday.
The error caused Tarrant County to report as many as 100,000 votes in both primaries that never were cast, dropping the local turnout from a possible record high of about 158,103 voters to about 58,000.
Because the errors added votes equally for each candidate, the glitch did not change the outcome of Tarrant County races but narrowed the margin of victory in some statewide races. In the close Republican primary race for Texas Supreme Court, for example, incumbent Don Willett edged past former Justice Steve Smith by only about 1 percentage point with the corrected vote tallies.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/14056065.htm

[stillcool]

4. BEAUMONT Election officials try to work out bugs

Election officials try to work out bugs
By: Beth Gallaspy, The Enterprise 03/15/2006

"There were only a handful of counties where we saw any problems occur and most of those involved tabulation of vote totals," Haywood said by telephone. "We are working with the counties and the vendors to ensure that we do increase training and increase communication to try to prevent this from happening in the future."

ES&S agreed to absorb the estimated $8,000 cost of the recount.

ES&S also has been blamed for election problems in Webb County. Webb County Commissioners Court blasted the company Monday for programming errors and lack of training of county staff, the Laredo Morning Times reported.

Webb County votes had to be tabulated using flash cards from each electronic voting machine rather than personal electronic ballots, which store all results for a precinct, due to a programming error, according to the Laredo newspaper.

Even after the recount, the number of ballots was 368 higher than the number primary voters shown in voter registration records. Guidry attributed that to human error in not marking voters on the voter registration list.

[e-mail]
[phone], ext. 425
http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16305289&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6

[stillcool]

16. Hidalgo County/Elections administrator sends complaints to state office

March 14,2006
Victoria Hirschberg
The Monitor

McALLEN — It’s been a week since the primary, but politics continue as usual.
Since Friday, March 10, Hidalgo County Elections Administrator Teresa Navarro has sent three letters to the Secretary of State regarding questionable incidents. In all three cases, she is requesting assistance and possible investigations by the Attorney General’s office.

Much of the noise is about the close county judge race between incumbent Ramon Garcia and Juan de Dios "J.D." Salinas. Unofficial numbers show that Salinas won by about 300 votes.

During early voting, Eddie Roux and Ricky Roux — who volunteered for Garcia — collected about 400 signatures from students who claim they voted early at the University of Texas-Pan American library. Eddie Roux said he collected signatures because Elections Department numbers first indicated that 302 people voted Feb. 23, but then only showed 73 voted.

Navarro said there was an initial mistake in tallying the vote, but 73 is correct. Also, she said many of the people who signed are not registered voters.
Eddie Roux said Navarro didn’t give him a straight answer on the matter. Also, Roux said it doesn’t help that Navarro is the sister of Alma Walzer, who worked as Salinas’ campaign manager. Previously, Walzer worked as a Monitor reporter and for Garcia’s 2002 campaign.
"We stand by our signatures," Eddie Roux said. "We know we didn’t do anything wrong. (Navarro’s) numbers were the ones that alerted us. All we did was take a poll."

In another case, Navarro also requested state assistance and possible investigation into Garcia’s public claims of voter irregularities and voting machine malfunctions. She also writes that an election worker said he was intimidated after Garcia sent representatives to his home to ask questions about the election.
Garcia denies that allegation and said Navarro is being "overly sensitive."

Victoria Hirschberg covers Hidalgo County government and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at [phone]. For this and more on local stories, visit www.themonitor.com.


http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=12046&Section=Valley

[stillcool]

5. Ohio....Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman re: Blackwell

Why did J. Kenneth Blackwell seek, then hide, his association with super-rich extremists and e-voting magnates?
By Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Mar 14, 2006, 00:56

The man who stole the 2004 election for George W. Bush -- Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell -- has posted a picture of himself addressing the white supremacist ultra-right Council for National Policy (CNP). He then pulled the picture and tried to hide his participation in the meeting by removing mention of it from his website, kenblackwell.com.

First discovered by a netroots investigator (uaprogressiveaction.com), Blackwell's photo at the CNP meeting was found on Blackwell's website on Monday, March 6. Then it mysteriously disappeared.

Blackwell has ample reason to hide his ties to the CNP. When the Free Press investigated the CNP and its ties to the Republican Party, Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates told the paper that the CNP included "a former Ku Klux Klan leader and other segregationist policies." Berlet emphasizes that these "shocking" charges are easy to verify.

Berlet describes CNP members as not only traditional conservatives, but also nativists, xenophobes, white racial supremacists, homophobes, sexists, militarists, authoritarians, reactionaries and "in some cases outright neo-fascists."

Some well-known figures affiliated with the CNP include Rev. Jerry Falwell, anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly and the Rev. Pat Robertson. But it's the lesser-known CNP mainstays that are more indicative of the organization's politics. They include:

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_592.shtml

[stillcool]

6. Pennsylvania:...Luzerne County

Voting machine talks break down
By Tom Long
Staff Writer

Jilted by the company it chose to upgrade its voting machines, Luzerne County now finds itself in a $3 million bind.

County Director of Elections Leonard Piazza III told the county elections board Tuesday morning that Electronic Systems and Software had apparently backed out on an agreement to provide 750 electronic voting machines, along with the training to use them.

Negotiations with Omaha, Neb.-based ES&S have “broken down,” a frustrated Piazza told the board. The blow puts the county in serious danger of failing to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act, which is tied to a $3 million grant for buying new machines.

The company had consistently assured the county it would be able to provide machines, said Piazza, who was echoed by majority Commissioners Greg Skrepenak and Todd Vonderheid.

But last Wednesday, an ES&S representative abruptly said the company would be unable to provide training for the machines — a requirement under HAVA. Two days later, a Pittsburgh-based printing company that contracts with ES&S told Piazza it couldn’t provide the machines, either, and recommended the county look elsewhere.

http://www.citizensvoice.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16306329&BRD=2259&PAG=461&dept_id=455154&rfi=6
[e-mail]

[stillcool]

7. Centre Daily: Vote Fraud.....Stop the Election Day cheating....

VOTE FRAUD Stop the Election Day cheating -- or it will spread further
ROBERT STEINBACK

If you bet on a race horse, and later heard about serious allegations that the winning horse may have been illegally doped to gain an advantage, would you demand an investigation?
You know the answer. It would depend on whether or not you bet on the winning horse.
That's what has made much of America so hesitant to demand accountability regarding a growing ledger of allegations that the November 2004 election was so badly tainted that one could fairly question the outcome of the biggest race of all -- the one for the Oval Office. Anyone who questions the reliability of the election is assumed to be a sour-grapes bad sport who has fallen into the thrall of aluminum-foil helmeted conspiracy theorists. And the media, ever tremulous about affirming their critics' allegations of liberal bias, would sooner remove a hot radiator cap than make a mission of investigating the anomalies.
But the anomalies were real. Many have been documented. They kept thousands in swing states from voting, and prevented thousands of ballots from being counted.
Not incidentally, most of the 2004 anomalies benefited one party.
What stands out in the analysis of 2004 voting practices in the critical state of Ohio, says Columbus State Community College professor Bob Fitrakis, ``is the asymmetrical nature of the anomalies. Virtually every single anomaly tends to favor Bush, just overwhelmingly.''
Fitrakis, a lawyer who holds a Ph.D in political science, has done considerable research into the critical Ohio election, which Bush officially won by 118,599 votes to recapture the presidency. Fitrakis will present his evidence in a book, What happened in Ohio: A documentary record of theft and fraud in the 2004 election, coauthored by Harvey Wasserman and Steve Rosenfeld, to be released in September.
Among their findings:
• Four percent of the 5.6 million votes cast in Ohio -- some 224,000 ballots -- were not counted for various reasons. Nearly two-thirds of those disallowed votes came from urban, heavily Democratic districts.

There's good reason for Bush supporters and rock-ribbed Republicans to demand corrective action to prevent the anomalies that surely compromised the 2004 election: The risk that failure to curb the abuses will encourage the competition to resort to similar tactics. The last thing anyone wants is a cheater's arms race. Either you stop the cheating, or you encourage more of it.

more at link...
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/opinion/14100465.htm

[kpete]

9. 13 people arraigned Tuesday in Appalachia election fraud case

13 people arraigned Tuesday in Appalachia election fraud case
A special grand jury released an indictment alleging more than 1,000 election law violations.
By Mike Allen

Thirteen people were arraigned Tuesday in Wise County Circuit Court on charges stemming from allegations that the May 2004 town election in Appalachia was riddled with fraud.

Everyone who was arraigned, including Appalachia Mayor Ben Cooper and police department Capt. Ben Surber, entered a not guilty plea, said special prosecutor Tim McAfee.

Also arraigned Tuesday were town council member Owen "Andy" Sharrett III and five of his family members: his father, Owen Anderson "Dude" Sharrett Jr., director of parks and recreation; his mother, town bookkeeper Belinda Carolyn Sharrett; his brother, Adam Brody Sharrett; and two brothers of Dude Sharrett, Kevin Lee Sharrett and Dennis Martin "Boogie" Sharrett.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-56764

[stillcool]

8. Bucks County

Candidates, Public Come Out for Voter-Verified Paper Ballots
Last night, I took part in an educational forum, sponsored by the Coalition for Voting Integrity. On short notice, we had about twenty five people come to Doylestown Borough Hall to learn the ins and outs of the Help America Vote Act, electronic voting and what that all means for Bucks County.

The Coaltion for Voting Integrity will not be satisfied by any system that doesn’t provide a voter-verified paper ballot. Polls show that we have the people on our side. I’ve stood outside the Doylestown courthouse twice now with signs that say “Honk for Paper Ballots!” I can tell you that the honking doesn’t stop. Tom Ulrich, who organizes those demostrations, has reported the same thing. The people are on our side.

There are a bunch of candidates who get that. Yesterday evening, before the forum, I held a sign and stood for half an hour in the wind and cold outside the Doylestown courthouse next to U.S. Congressional candidate, Andy Warren, as we and about twenty other citizens encouraged drivers honk for paper ballots, which they did enthusiastically.
Andy has been on this issue since it started up in Bucks. He’s among the seven former county commissioners who signed onto the resolution to support voter-verified paper ballot legislation in Bucks County. He knows what’s at stake in this fight. As we chatted about politics and voting, I asked him what he as a commissioner would have thought of CVI and the demonstrations. He said he would have loved it and that as an elected official he had to know what the public wants. He said that phone calls and demonstrations do that. He also agreed that it’s been made clear over the last several months that the people of Bucks County want to vote with a voter-verified paper ballot.

You can read about the paperless system I’m afraid the commissioners are favoring, which is the Danaher touchscreen here and here.

http://blogs.phillyburbs.com/blog.php?p=4679&cat=8

[stillcool]

13. PA: West Chester/County changing voting system?

R. JONATHAN TULEYA, Staff Writer

WEST CHESTER -- Two weeks after the Chester County commissioners unanimously agreed they would retain the county’s punch-card voting system for the upcoming primary, there apparently has been a change of plans.
The commissioners have scheduled a meeting of the county board of elections for Thursday at 10 a.m. to vote on the voting system that will be used for the May 16 primary and special elections.
At a public hearing on Feb. 28, the commissioners and Lawrence J. Tabas, the county’s special counsel for election laws, said because of pending lawsuits at the state and federal levels and the amount of time left before the primary, they believed it best to keep the punch-card voting machines and supplement them with one new handicapped-accessible machine at each polling place.
Two days after making that announcement, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on a case in Westmoreland County that Tabas said cleared the path for the county to move ahead and purchase new machines

This latest development has alarmed members of the Chester County Coalition for Voting Integrity, a grassroots organization that has been vocal throughout the selection process.
Marian Schneider, a co-founder of the coalition, suspects the commissioners are being pressured to make a decision by an outside force, whether it be local officials or someone at the state level.
In the meantime, she said she feels she and her supporters have been shut out of the process.
"The commissioners will not respond to me or the members of the coalition," Schneider said. "I don’t know exactly what they are going to do on Thursday. To have these machines rammed down their throats is just unconscionable."

http://www.dailylocal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16305974&BRD=1671&PAG=461&dept_id=17782&rfi=6

[stillcool]

10. Florida.....Complaints about snags mark municipal voting

Complaints about snags mark municipal voting
By Bob King

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Electronic cards got stuck in voting machines.

Pricey touch-screen gizmos weren't working when voters showed up to cast their ballots.

Just call it election day in Palm Beach County.

Amid low turnout, a scattering of glitches marred an otherwise calm round of municipal voting Tuesday in the county that threw the mother of all botched elections six years ago. The foul-ups left some voters frustrated, though they came nowhere near the epic scope of 2000's presidential meltdown.

"On the whole it was very successful," said Supervisor of Elections Arthur Anderson, who expressed one disappointment: "I would like to have seen some lines."

Meanwhile, card errors frustrated voters such as William S. Piispanen, a Pahokee resident who yelled at the top of his lungs to insist on his right to vote — prompting Fire Chief Gary Burroughs to ask him to calm down or leave.
Piispanen said his problems started when one machine repeatedly spit out his card, a second machine called the card "invalid," and then poll workers claimed he had voted when he asked for a new card.
Lake Worth City Commission candidate Cara Jennings said she got a similar "invalid card" error when she first tried to vote. Voting reform activist Echo Steiner said she saw other voters having the same problem at the polling place on Lucerne Avenue.

Steiner said poll workers prevented people who distrust the touch-screen machines from casting paper "provisional" ballots. Kelly said the provisional ballots are solely for people who lack identification or whose eligibility to vote is in question.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2006/03/15/s11a_Glitches_0315.html

[stillcool]

14. Palm Beach County/Another Election Day without a paper trail

Howard Goodman

Published March 14, 2006

Theresa LePore lost her post as elections supervisor in 2004 on a wave of paper-trail fever. Voters picked Arthur Anderson, a mild-mannered educator who had zippo experience in running elections, but who said all the right things about the drawbacks of electronic voting.

Anderson promised to "ensure that there is an auditable paper trail for all touch-screen voting machines."
Well, he's been supervisor of elections for more than 14 months now. And there's no auditable paper trail.
And Anderson seems to have lost his voice as an advocate for one.

And now the ball-of-fire elections chief says the touch-screen machines aren't so bad, after all. "I feel they can vote on the touch screens with confidence," he told me Monday, referring to the public.

Adding a printout capability to the county's existing machines is not pie-in-the-sky. The manufacturer, Sequoia Voting Systems has invented a shoebox-size attachment to the county's crop of machines.
It's now required in Nevada. It's been adopted in 19 California counties. It will be used next week in primary elections in Chicago and Cook County, Ill., in addition to an optical-scan system -- which may be an even more accurate way to go.

Howard Goodman's column is published Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. He can be reached at [e-mail] or 561-243-6638.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/sfl-phoward14mar14,0,7544996.column?coll=sfla-news-col

[kpete]

11. DFA Finally Jumps Into the Electoral Integrity Game!

DFA Finally Jumps Into the Electoral Integrity Game!
'Democracy for America' Creates Flash Video, Petition Calling for Paper Ballots!
We're tempted to ask, "What took ya so long? Your name is Democracy for America, after all!"

But we'll not look a gift horse in the mouth now that DFA (formerly: Dean for America) is finally using their huge resources to promote the "horse sense" of demanding paper ballots when we vote in our American democracy.

Watch their new flash video, sign their petition to your elected officials, spread the word...
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002551.htm


Call for Paper Ballots


Watch the movie, then sign the petition: http://tools.democracyforamerica.com/petition/paperballot/



My Election Officials,

[stillcool]

12. California....Alameda County

ready to shop for new voting system



Supervisors divided over how to handle future elections
By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER

Four years after buying new Diebold voting machines for $12 million, Alameda County is headed back into the market to negotiate for up to $17.8 million of new voting machines.
With an impassioned debate spanning two days, county supervisors anguished over sagging public confidence in voting and uncertainty in the technology, then found themselves divided over how to handle elections for coming years.

County elections and contracts officials will negotiate with Allen, Texas-based Diebold Election Systems Inc. and Oakland-based Sequoia Voting Systems, the two voting-machine makers rated highest by a panel of voting advocates, residents and county officials.

Yet the migration to fully computerized voting, fueled with billions in federal grant dollars, has collided with concern over vote manipulation and computer breakdowns.
Alameda County was a pioneer in both electronic voting and its problems, as Diebold's first large customer on the West Coast. Since 2002, county officials have seen computers award thousands of votes to the wrong candidates and voters walk away as e-voting components broke down in large numbers.

In June, for the first time in four years, the overwhelming majority of ballots cast in Alameda County will be on paper, and while Diebold remains highly rated as a vendor, its local political stock is low.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_3604067

[kpete]

15. FRAUD-Stop the Election Day cheating

VOTE FRAUD
Stop the Election Day cheating
-- or it will spread further
ROBERT STEINBACK

If you bet on a race horse, and later heard about serious allegations that the winning horse may have been illegally doped to gain an advantage, would you demand an investigation?

You know the answer. It would depend on whether or not you bet on the winning horse.

That's what has made much of America so hesitant to demand accountability regarding a growing ledger of allegations that the November 2004 election was so badly tainted that one could fairly question the outcome of the biggest race of all -- the one for the Oval Office. Anyone who questions the reliability of the election is assumed to be a sour-grapes bad sport who has fallen into the thrall of aluminum-foil helmeted conspiracy theorists. And the media, ever tremulous about affirming their critics' allegations of liberal bias, would sooner remove a hot radiator cap than make a mission of investigating the anomalies.

But the anomalies were real. Many have been documented. They kept thousands in swing states from voting, and prevented thousands of ballots from being counted.

Not incidentally, most of the 2004 anomalies benefited one party.

What stands out in the analysis of 2004 voting practices in the critical state of Ohio, says Columbus State Community College professor Bob Fitrakis, ``is the asymmetrical nature of the anomalies. Virtually every single anomaly tends to favor Bush, just overwhelmingly.''

Fitrakis, a lawyer who holds a Ph.D in political science, has done considerable research into the critical Ohio election, which Bush officially won by 118,599 votes to recapture the presidency. Fitrakis will present his evidence in a book, What happened in Ohio: A documentary record of theft and fraud in the 2004 election, coauthored by Harvey Wasserman and Steve Rosenfeld, to be released in September.

Among their findings:

more at:http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/14100465.htm

[kpete]

17. Diebold whistleblower needs our help

Diebold whistleblower needs our help
Voting & Debates
Wednesday, 15 March 2006

You might notice in the upper left a new cause du jour around here, Stephen Heller, courtesy an email alert from an old friend who knows him. Short version:

Temp worker, regular guy with a wife and a dog and a mortgage and all, stumbles across legal documents indicating that Diebold looks way fishy re California elections. Like their-own-attorneys-thought-it-was-criminal fishy. (Incidentally, since Democrats simply cannot be elected nationally without California, this is a national issue. Big time.)

So guy blows the whistle, sends the papers to the California secretary of state, calls the newspapers, tries to protect the most fundamental aspect of our democracy. Like that.

Our friend seems to have pissed off the big boys royally. Now he's facing three felony charges.

Read up, do your own thinking, and see if you agree: check out the LA Times, LA Weekly, Tribune Media Services, and the Oakland Tribune. Also, with a little more attitude, Kos and the Huffington Post.

Bottom line: I'm no expert, but it seems pretty clear. Dude deserves a medal, not jail.

As it is, the guy's family is being financially wiped out. And that's even if he doesn't do time.
more at"


http://www.bobharris.com/content/view/870/1/

[kpete]

18. Sancho gets OK to seek a deal

Sancho gets OK to seek a deal
Elections chief gets vote of confidence
By Julian Pecquet
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER


He came in prepared for a grilling, but embattled Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho left the Leon County Commission chambers Tuesday with a unanimous vote of confidence.

The commissioners gave Sancho a green light to pursue a deal with a Louisville, Ky.-based company to provide voting equipment for disabled people. The company, IVS, was the last option on the table that would make Leon County compliant with federal elections law come the September primaries.


The motion drew sighs of relief from more than a dozen Sancho supporters who had come to the workshop worried that Sancho would come under attack from certain commissioners for his failure to sign a contract for voting equipment for the disabled, a delay that has already cost the county about $500,000 in withheld state funding.

"There's a wide-ranging group of people throughout the county worried that . . . the supervisor of elections has been under attack," said Vince George, who came to the meeting with a yellow “I support Ion” placard and a “Fight Truth Decay” button

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060315/NEWS01/603150336/1010

[kpete]

19. NYT & Chic Sun-Times Endorse Nat'l Pop Vote Plan

NEW YORK TIMES AND CHICAGO SUN-TIMES ENDORSE NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE PLAN TO ELECT THE PRESIDENT NATIONWIDE EVERY VOTE EQUAL

March 14 - The New York Times today endorsed National Popular Vote's recently plan for nationwide popular election of the President saying: "National Popular Vote ...is offering an ingenious solution. ...There is an innovative new proposal for states to take the lead in undoing the Electoral College. Legislatures across the country should get behind it." Editorial

A Chicago Sun Times editorial (March 1) said: "The Sun-Times News Group backs the concept and applauds the National Popular Vote group for thinking outside the box. ...It's time to make the change with this innovative plan." Editorial

National Popular Vote's plan was announced on February 23 at a press conference featuring former Congressmans John Anderson (R-Illinois and Independent presidential candidate), and John Buchanan (R-Alabama), former Senator Birch Bayh (D-Indiana), and Common Cause President Chellie Pingree. They released a book describing its plan entitled Every Vote Equal: A State-Based Plan For Electing The President By National Popular Vote. National Popular Vote's advisory board includes former Congressman Tom Campbell (R-California), former Senator David Durenberger (R-Minnesota), and former Senator and astronaut Jake Garn (R-Utah).

State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins (D) has introduced National Popular Vote's state-based plan for nationwide popular election of the President. Chief co-sponsors include Senator Kirk W. Dillard (R, Chair of the DuPage County Republican Party) who said this about the plan, "This isn't a Democratic or Republican issue to me. It's important that people have faith that in the election of the most important office in the world that their vote will count. I'm proud to sponsor legislation that will hopefully result in presidential candidates showing up and working to meet voters in my state." Said Sen. Dillard. Co-sponsors include Senators James T. Meeks (Independent). Take a look at the bill: SB 2724

The National Popular Vote plan will be introduced in additional state legislatures in the near future.

more at:
http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/npv/index.php?option=npvcontent&task=viewContent&content_id=46

[kpete]

20. Another E-Voting Whistleblower Steps Forward

Another E-Voting Whistleblower Steps Forward -- This Time Deep in the 'Hart' of Texas!

How many more will it take before the Mainstream Media begins to understand -- or at least investigate -- what the hell is going on here?!

Continuing in what is -- unfortunately -- a nearly-exclusive BRAD BLOG series of Voting Machine Vendor and Election Fraud whistleblowers, another insider, from yet another voting machine company, has now come forward to reveal a myriad of known problems inside both the company and in several states and counties with whom they do business.

This time, the whistle is blown in the State of Texas (as well as Ohio), where last week's Primary Elections were riddled with scores of "computer glitches" -- as voting officials and electronic voting machine vendors like to refer to them.

Many of those "glitches" occurred on electronic voting equipment manufactured and supplied to various counties in Texas by the Hart InterCivic company. The latest whistleblower, William Singer of Fort Worth, who had attempted to warn officials back in 2004 about the impending problems, was a Hart InterCivic employee.

more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-friedman/another-evoting-whistleb_b_17361.html

[JimDandy]

21. IL: One of the first jurisdictions to use Diebold TSx machines

DuPage County, Illinois is one of the first jurisdictions in the country to use Diebold's TSx machines (touch-screen machines with a VVPAT)in a county-wide election. It also appears to be the first jurisdiction in the U.S. to use those machines for early voting. Early voting for DuPage County's primary elections began on Feb. 23rd and will conclude in less than twenty-four hours.

Undoubtedly, county election officials, as well as Diebold itself, are nervously monitoring and managing every aspect of this election knowing that it will be highly scrutinized by other jurisdictions around the country. The state of Utah, for example, will be using more than 6,000 of Diebold's TSx machines statewide, for the first time, during early voting in their June primary elections.

And, undoubtedly, election integrity activists across the country, also will be noting every failure, glitch, slip-up, error, or malfunction of DuPage County's Diebold machines.

---------------------------

Paper or plastic? Choose between conventional or touch-screen voting
By Kathy Cichon


snip

Tried technology
A number of the 732 Diebold TSX touch-screen machines purchased by the county have already been used by voters in DuPage who took advantage of early voting. During the primary election Tuesday, any voter can choose to use the touch-screen terminals or the more familiar optical scan ballot at any precinct in the county.

But the use of electronic voting booths have prompted outcries from activists across the country who fear the technology leaves the security of votes cast on the machines in jeopardy.

"I do believe there is a time when electronic voting can be secure and accurate," said Jean Kaczmarek, co-chair of the DuPage chapter of the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project. "It's just not there yet. Our electoral process is too meaningful and precious to give up to anything less than a completely reliable and accurate system."

Election officials say they continue to address voters' concerns about the safety and accuracy of votes cast on such machines. Bob Saar, executive director of the DuPage County Election Commission, said some of the concerns can be addressed, others cannot.

"I'm not going to have an answer to satisfy people who want to turn back the clock 30 years," Saar said.


X marks the spot
"There is a group of people that are concerned about any electronic voting," Saar said. "They want to go back to the days of marked paper ballots."

"Sounds good to me," Kaczmarek said. "Most democracies do it that way and it works for them. I would take humans over computers any day. I'm in favor of hand-counting on the precinct level and studying how other countries involve the people in the community in the process."

If there were more people involved in the process and they took shifts at the precincts, it could be done efficiently and at a fraction of the cost of electronic voting, she said.

"We just have to ask citizens, 'Would you be willing to wait a few extra hours for results that you can trust?'" Kaczmarek said. "I would be."

Paper ballots, Saar said, "are not even an option."

snip

Leaving a trail

snip

"The electronic device will print a paper ballot for the voter to review and verify the accuracy," Saar said of DuPage's touch screen machines. "That is a paper ballot audit trail that is physical ... That's an important safeguard."

The paper audit goes back into the machine and can't be pulled out, Saar said. Once the roll of paper is full, it is kept in a sealed canister.

snip

Melisa Urda, who serves with Kaczmarek as co-chair of the local Illinois Ballot Integrity Project, said the paper audit trail does not alleviate her concerns. Problems can arise with the paper record that in some instances could invalidate someone's vote, she said.

"The only thing that means is there's a paper ballot," Urda said. "We still don't know how that machine is interpreting our vote."

snip

To ensure accuracy, activists would like to see a 100 percent hand count of a randomly selected 5 percent of the precinct vote, Urda said.
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A 'voter-verified paper audit trail' (VVPAT) is useless without conducting an actual hand-counted audit of a randomly selected, significant sample of the vote counts. For those jurisdictions that are temporarily stuck with black-box voting systems, the next big push must be to pass legislation to audit the vote!

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/sunpub/naper/news/n15evoting.htm