Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News 05.30.06 - Voting Rights Edition

[autorank]

”Some say” that we should live in “gated communities” without liberties or freedom. Patrick Henry had a few words on this (form Bleevers post):

PATRICK HENRY:
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. ...be extremely cautious, watchful, jealous of your liberty; for instead of securing your rights, you may lose them forever."

"Those nations who have...been the victims of their own folly...lost their freedom."

"If our descendants be worthy of the name of Americans they will preserve and hand down to their latest posterity the transactions of the present times...to preserve their liberty."

While others sad on their asses, Bonifaz challenged Blackwell in court in Ohio of 2004, started the National Voting Rights Institute, helped lead the Patriots Day march 01.06.05 in DC protesting the 2004 election, and is now running for Secretary of State in MASS. He’s our GUY!!
Support BONIFAZ with your TIME, or your your MONEY.
He’s the FIRST CHANCE we’ve had to get one of us in the
Office that allows us to find out how the system works and how they steal elections.
Support BONIFAZ PLEASE.
John Bonifaz, Democrat, Secretary of State, Massachusetts.

Never forget the pursuit of Truth.
Only the deluded & complicit accept election results on blind faith.
Denying that 2004 was stolen is like denying global warming.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News May 30, 2006

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

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

1. USA: The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution-Election Fraud Matters

It wasn’t long after the 15th Amentment was ratified that the compromise of 1876 took place. Tilden, winner of the popular vote, was not selected by the electors and Hayes, a Democrat with sympathies and votes from the pro slave south, was installed as president. Until 1876, blacks in the south voted and elected officials. After the compromise, a stolen election not unlike 2000, the free vote vanished. Law enforcement officials in the south turned a blind eye to violence and murder at the polls. We began the long period of trials for failing to guard the vote for every American.

AMENDMENT XV

Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 1870.

Section 1.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude—

Section 2.
The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

After the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, southern blacks voted in numbers that on a per capita basis would probably exceed black political participation today. On both a per capita and absolute basis, more blacks were elected to political office during the period from 1865 to 1880 than at any other time in American history. Although no state elected a black governor during Reconstruction, a number of state legislatures were effectively under the control of a substantial African American caucus. These legislatures brought in programs that are considered part of government's duty now, but at the time were radical, such as universal public education. They also set aside all racially biased laws, even those prohibiting interracial marriage.

Despite the efforts of groups like the Ku Klux Klan to intimidate black voters and white Republicans, assurance of federal support for democratically elected southern governments meant that most Republican voters could both vote and rule in confidence. For example, when an all-white mob attempted to take over the interracial government of New Orleans, President Ulysses S. Grant sent in federal troops to restore the elected mayor.

However, after the close election of Rutherford B. Hayes, Hayes, in order to mollify the South, agreed to withdraw federal troops. He also overlooked poll violence in the deep south, despite several attempts by the Republicans to pass laws assuring the rights of black voters and to punish intimidation. To show the unwillingness of Congress to take any action at this time, even a bill that would have required incidents of violence only at polling places to be publicized failed to be passed. Without the restrictions, voting place violence against blacks and Republicans increased, including instances of murder. Most of this was done without any interference by law enforcement, and often even with their co-operation.

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2. USA: The Struggle of Women to Get the Right to Vote

Isn’t it rediculous that women had to fight for the right to vote. Just as ridiculous as the fact that black Americans had the vote then saw it taken away. It’s our history and we need to remember it.

Timeline of Women's Suffrage in the United States
see permission to reprint below
http://dpsinfo.com/women/history/timeline.html

Site Map for Women's Resources
1776 Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John Adams, asking him to "remember the ladies" in the new code of laws. Adams replies the men will fight the "despotism of the petticoat."
1777 Women lose the right to vote in New York.
1780 Women lose the right to vote in Massachusetts.
1784 Women lose the right to vote in New Hampshire.
1787 US Constitutional Convention places voting qualifications in the hands of the states. Women in all states except New Jersey lose the right to vote.
1792 Mary Wollstonecraft publishes Vindication of the Rights of Women in England.
1807 Women lose the right to vote in New Jersey, the last state to revoke the right.

Women Join the Abolitionist Movement
1830s Formation of the female anti-slavery associations.
1836 Angelina Grimke appeals to Southern women to speak out against slavery.
1837 The "Pastoral Letter of the General Association of Massachusetts to the Congregational Churches Under Their Care" is promulgated against women speaking in public against slavery, it is mainly directed against the Grimke sisters.
1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and other women barred from participating on account of their sex.
Women Begin to Organize For Their Own Rights
1848 First Women's Rights convention in Seneca Fall, New York. Equal suffrage proposed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton After debate of so radical a notion, it is adopted.
1850 Women's rights convention held in April in Salem, Ohio. First national women's rights convention held in October in Worcester, Massachusetts.
1850-1861 Annual Women's Rights conventions held. The last, in 1861, in Albany, New York lobbies for a liberalized divorce bill. Horace Greely opposes the bill, which loses.
1861-1865 Civil War. Over the objections of Susan B. Anthony, women put aside suffrage activities to help the war effort.
1867 Fourteenth amendment passes Congress, defining citizens as "male;" this is the first use of the word male in the Constitution. Kansas campaign for black and woman suffrage: both lose. Susan B. Anthony forms Equal Rights Association, working for universal suffrage.

Suffrage Movement Divides Over Black vs. Woman Suffrage
1868 Fourteenth amendment ratified. Fifteenth amendment passes Congress, giving the vote to black men. Women petition to be included but are turned down. Formation of New England Woman Suffrage Association. In New Jersey, 172 women attempt to vote; their ballots are ignored.
1869 Frederick Douglass and others back down from woman suffrage to concentrate on fight for black male suffrage. National Woman Suffrage Association formed in May with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as president. American Woman Suffrage Association formed in November with Henry Ward Beecher as president. In England, John Stuart Mill, economist and husband of suffragist Harriet Taylor, publishes On the Subjugation of Women. Wyoming territory grants first woman suffrage since 1807.

Civil Disobedience Is Tried
1870 Fifteenth Amendment ratified. The Grimke sisters, now quite aged, and 42 other women attempt to vote in Massachusetts, their ballots are cast but ignored. Utah territory grants woman suffrage.
1871 The Anti-Suffrage Society is formed.
1872 Susan B. Anthony and supporters arrested for voting. Anthony's sisters and 11 other women held for $500 bail. Anthony herself is held for $1000 bail.
1873 Denied a trial by jury, Anthony loses her case in June and is fined $100 plus costs.

Suffrage demonstration at the Centennial of the Boston Tea Party.
1874 Protest at a commemoration of the Battle of Lexington. In Myner v. Happerstett the US Supreme Court decides that being a citizen does not guarantee suffrage. Women's Christian Temperance Union formed.
1876 On July 4, in Philadelphia, Susan B. Anthony reads The Declaration for the Rights of Women from a podium in front of the Liberty Bell. The crowd cheers. Later, the suffragists meet in the historic First Unitarian Church.
1878 Woman suffrage amendment first introduced in US Congress.
1880 Lucretia Mott, born in 1793, dies.
1882 The House and Senate appoint committees on woman suffrage, both report favorably.
1884 Belva Lockwood runs for president. The US House of Representatives debates woman suffrage.
1886 Women protest being excluded from the dedication ceremonies for the Statue of Liberty. Suffrage amendment reaches the US Senate floor, it is defeated two to one.
1887 Utah women lose right to vote.
1890 The NWSA and the AWSA merge to form NAWSA. The focus turns to working at the state level. Campaign loses in South Dakota.
1893 Matilda Joslyn Gage publishes Woman, Church and State. After a vigorous campaign led by Carrie Chapman Catt, Colorado men vote for woman suffrage.
1894 Despite 600,000 signatures, a petition for woman suffrage is ignored in New York. Lucy Stone, born in 1818, dies.
1895 Elizabeth Cady Stanton publishes The Woman's Bible. Utah women regain suffrage.
1896 Idaho grants woman suffrage.

Suffrage Activism Enters the 20th Century.
1900 Carrie Chapman Catt takes over the reins of the NASWA.
1902 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, born in 1815, dies.
1906 Susan Brownell Anthony, born in 1820, dies.
1907 Harriet Stanton Blatch, Elizabeth's daughter, forms the Equality League of Self Supporting Women which becomes the Women's Political Union in 1910. She introduces the English suffragists' tactics of parades, street speakers, and pickets.
1910 Washington (state) grants woman suffrage.
1911 California grants woman suffrage. In New York City, 3,000 march for suffrage.
1912 Teddy Roosevelt's Progressive Party includes woman suffrage in their platform. Oregon, Arizona, and Kansas grant woman suffrage.
1913 Women's Suffrage parade on the eve of Wilson's inauguration is attacked by a mob. Hundreds of women are injured, no arrests are made. Alaskan Territory grants suffrage. Illinois grants municipal and presidential but not state suffrage to women.
1916 Alice Paul and others break away from the NASWA and form the National Women's Party.
1917 Beginning in January, NWP posts silent "Sentinels of Liberty" at the White House. In June, the arrests begin. Nearly 500 women are arrested, 168 women serve jail time, some are brutalized by their jailers. North Dakota, Indiana, Nebraska, and Michigan grant presidential suffrage; Arkansas grants primary suffrage. New York, South Dakota, and Oklahoma state constitutions grant suffrage.
1918 The jailed suffragists released from prison. Appellate court rules all the arrests were illegal. President Wilson declares support for suffrage. Suffrage Amendment passes US House with exactly a two-thirds vote but loses by two votes in the Senate.
1919 In January, the NWP lights and guards a "Watchfire for Freedom." It is maintained until the Suffrage Amendment passes US Senate on June 4. The battle for ratification by at least 36 states begins.
1920 The Nineteenth Amendment, called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, is ratified by Tennessee on August 18. It becomes law on August 26.

© 1995, Brooks and Gonzalez. The Women's History Project of Lexington Area National Organization for Women. This timeline may be distributed freely under the following conditions: that the use is not for profit; that it is distributed in complete, unchanged form; that this complete notice is intact and included in the distribution. Contact [e-mail] for additional information.

[kpete]

20. right on from the ladies...

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3. USA: RENEW the Voting Rights Act - No substitute. No more 1876's!!!

The Voting Rights Act is up for renewal. This is one of those moments like 1876 when the forces of atavism seek to turn the clock back and strip those deemed unquitable of their fundamental rights. There is a move, for example, to make the VRA a 50 state law. That will creat enforcement complications and is viewed by the coalition of supporting groups as a “poison pill.” The law needs renewal not Republican retrofitting to take us back to 1875

Renew the Voting Rights Act

Background on the Voting Rights Act – Why You Should care

The foundation of our democratic form of government is the right to vote. Voting is the most important tool Americans have to influence the policies the government adopts that affect every aspect of our lives - from tax policy, to preserving our environment, to protecting equal opportunity in housing and employment. In short, voting is power. Unfortunately, even today, many minority voters face impediments or barriers to voting.

Throughout much of our nation's history, large numbers of Americans have been denied the right to vote.
• Women were denied a federal right to vote until the Constitution was amended in 1920.
• Native Americans were denied the right to vote until 1924, when the Indian Citizenship Act granted them citizenship and the right to vote.
• Chinese Americans could not vote until the Chinese Exclusion Acts of 1882 and 1892 were repealed in 1943.
• Until 1952, first-generation Japanese Americans could not vote because of the racial restrictions of the 1790 Naturalization Law.
• African Americans in the South and Latinos in the Southwest were often systematically denied the right to vote until the enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 permanently outlawed direct barriers to political participation by racial and ethnic minorities, and required jurisdictions with a history of discrimination in voting to obtain federal approval before making any changes to voting practices or procedures.
• Language minority citizens were often denied needed assistance at the polls until the 1975 amendments to the VRA required such assistance be provided.

Despite these victories, discrimination in voting continues. Examples include:
• In 2004, in the City of Ville Platte, Louisiana, city officials attempted to perform a radical redistricting that would have reduced the number of districts in which the Black community had an opportunity to elect candidates of choice from 4 to 3, by packing Black voters into an overwhelmingly Black district and reducing Black population in a neighboring district to 38%. However, since Louisiana is covered by Section 5 of the VRA, the 2003 redistricting plan had to be submitted to the Department of Justice before it was put into effect. And because the Department concluded that the plan was discriminatory, it could not be implemented.
• In Texas in 2003, Bexar county officials sought to undermine Latino voting strength by failing to place polling places near those communities during a special election where a Constitutional amendment was on the ballot. Using the special provisions of the VRA, Latino advocates were able to obtain expedited relief from the local district court that prevented the Latino voters from being silenced in the election.
• As recently as last year, a federal court determined that South Dakota discriminated against Native-American voters by packing them into a single district to remove their ability to elect a representative of their choice to the state legislature.
• In 2003, Harris County elections officials failed to provide bilingual voting materials required under the VRA in Vietnamese until local advocates and the Department of Justice compelled them do so. A Vietnamese candidate later won a legislative seat there.

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4. USA: Project Censored: The Theft of the 2004 Presidential Election

Now we’re at another juncture in our history of elections. It’s all about gaining and retaining power…any path will do for some, even if it means that the tables can be turned on them at some point in the future. They’re nihilists, negativists, neo-fascists. There is no place for election theft here or anywhere else.

Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in elections news.

No Paper Trail Left Behind: the Theft of the 2004 Presidential Election*

http://www.projectcensored.org/newsflash/voter_fraud.html

By Dennis Loo, Ph.D.
Cal Poly Pomona
[e-mail]

In order to believe that George Bush won the November 2, 2004 presidential election, you must also believe all of the following extremely improbable or outright impossible things.1

1) A big turnout and a highly energized and motivated electorate favored the GOP instead of the Democrats for the first time in history.2

2) Even though first-time voters, lapsed voters (those who didn’t vote in 2000), and undecideds went for John Kerry by big margins, and Bush lost people who voted for him in the cliffhanger 2000 election, Bush still received a 3.4 million vote surplus nationally.3

3) The fact that Bush far exceeded the 85% of registered Florida Republicans’ votes that he got in 2000, receiving in 2004 more than 100% of the registered Republican votes in 24 out of 67 Florida counties, more than 200% of registered Republicans in 10 counties, over 300% of registered Republicans in 4 counties, more than 400% of Registered Republicans in 4 counties, and over 700% in one county. This could only be explained by a massive crossover vote in these specific counties by registered Democrats and/or Independents. Bush's share of crossover votes by registerd Democrats in Florida, however, did not actually increase over 2000 and he lost ground among registered Independents, dropping 15 points. Floridians were just so enthused about Bush and Cheney that they somehow managed to overrule basic math.4

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5. London: Voting Irregularaties Up at “Astonishing” Rate – Blairism !!!

The operative phrase below is “absolutely astonished” remaking on the charges. The English had a reasonable system of voting in place and the makings of an excellent one right now but the STAIN of Blair and Bush is covering the fine reputation of London elections.

Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in elections news.

This is Local London:
Election fraud inquiries in 14 boroughs

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/topstories/display.var.772810.0.election_fraud_inquiries_in_14_boroughs.php
By Martina Smit

Alleged fraud in the recent local elections is being investigated in nearly half of London's boroughs.

Between 25 and 30 offences have been reported in 13 boroughs, the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) revealed on Thursday.

MPA member Tony Arbour said his colleagues would be "absolutely astonished to find out that in half of all the London boroughs there have been complaints".

The Met's Special Branch is investigating allegations of fraud in Barnet, Bexley, Croydon, Ealing, Greenwich, Harrow, Hounslow, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Merton, Richmond, Southwark and Sutton.

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6. USA: Enron, the Patrons of the First Campaign- Uber Election Fraud!!!

This was the FIRST MAJOR SCANDAL of the Bush administration. But BEFORE THAT was stolen election 2000, Florida. Enron had people giving, working for, and taking from Bush. The Administration knew two months before the collapse that Enron was going down. What did they do? They developed the same strategy they employed for Katrina victims in NOLA, NOTHING!!!

Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in elections news.


Link: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0605/S00435.htm

{h3]Jason Leopold: George W. Bush and Kenneth Lay
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report
From: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/052906Z.shtml
Monday 29 May 2006

The Bush administration knew Enron was on a collision course two months before the high-flying energy company collapsed in a wave of accounting scandals that wiped out $60 billion in shareholder value and left thousands of company employees penniless.

It was August 15, 2001, when Enron lobbyist Pat Shortridge met with then-White House Economic Adviser Robert McNally, one day after Jeff Skilling made a stunning announcement that he was stepping down as president of Enron.

Shortridge confided in McNally that Enron was headed for a financial meltdown - one that could very well cripple the country's energy markets - and urged the White House economic adviser to alert President Bush about the company's financial problems so he could help put together a federal bailout, according to thousands of pages of documents about the meeting released by the government's Enron Task Force.

<snip>

When Bush announced his intention to run for president, Enron and its employees gave more than $1 million to Bush's 2000 election campaign, the Republican Party and the Bush Inaugural, and Bush aides used the Enron corporate jet during the post-election fracas in Florida.

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7. Oh, Canada: Campaign Finance Claim - Conservative Attempt to Jail Opponen

Things are getting nasty up North with the Conservatives, recently ascendant in elections, now want to put their opponents in jail. This is typical wing nut behavior…at least in Canada the have honest elections so we can actually blame the voters there for freely and fairly choosing these buffoons. Conservatives, chill, breathe in, breathe out…it’s all whatever.

Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in elections news.

CTV.ca
NDP wants Volpe leadership donations probed

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060529/volpe_probe_060529/20060529?hub=Canada
Updated Mon. May. 29 2006 11:22 PM ET

Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- The NDP has asked the federal elections commissioner to investigate whether Liberal leadership hopeful Joe Volpe deliberately circumvented the law banning corporate political donations.

MP Pat Martin filed a complaint with commissioner Raymond Landry on Monday, following a weekend report that Volpe received $54,000 in separate donations from the top two executives at generic drug manufacturer Apotex Inc., their wives and six children.

Martin doubted the children -- four of them teenagers -- would "choose to donate their life savings'' to Volpe's campaign.

"This is a deliberate and well-orchestrated fraud on the Elections Act donations limit rules,'' Martin told reporters outside the House of Commons.

(The Liberal Party fired back that the disclosure of names and the compliance with limits made the charges baseless.)

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8. World(Wilms): Paper Ballots, Hand Counted – “GOLD STANDARD” world wide!

Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in elections news.

Wilms Sun May-28-06 09:04 PM
Original message
Paper Ballots, Hand Counted, are the "Gold Standard" Around the World
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x430276
Software and Voting

http://home.tiac.net/~rjf/software-and-voting-ashfield-17jan06.html
by Robert J. Fleischer

This talk was given to a gathering of election officials in Ashfield, Massachusetts.

snip

Paper ballots, hand counted, are the "gold standard" around the world, and guidelines are published that make for reliable results even in those parts of the world where corruption is the norm. Paper ballot systems, especially ones that are hand counted, provide not only the fewest opportunities for tampering but are the most accurate as well. They are also the most open to public scrutiny, and they are the only systems that can be thoroughly audited.

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9. OH(MelissaB): Palast PROVES Ohio Stolen

Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in elections news.

MelissaB Sun May-28-06 08:32 AM
Original message
Greg Palast to visit Ohio, takes swipes at Ken Blackwell

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x430202

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060528/NEWS01/605280427/1056

...snip

On Friday, the Ohio Black Republicans Association begins a two-day conference in Columbus, co-sponsored by the Ohio Republican Party. It coincides with Saturday's visit by a prominent black Democrat, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Obama is the featured speaker at the state Democratic Party's annual dinner in Columbus.

On June 20, Greg Palast, a British reporter and bestselling author, will speak about a block away from Gov. Bob Taft's Bexley residence about his newest book, Armed Madhouse.

Palast takes several swipes at Ken Blackwell and his actions as secretary of state and co-chair of President Bush's 2004 campaign.

"What happened to the missing votes?'' Palast writes. "I'm not going to pretend this was the most difficult investigative story I've worked. We didn't need to call on Sherlock Holmes. In Ohio, the Black Stain of spoiled votes traced directly to bad punch-card machines in the ghetto.''

By Palast's tally, there were 239,127 uncounted votes in Ohio, more than the president's 118,599 vote margin over U.S. Sen. John Kerry.

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11. OH: Kerry Won. Here are the Facts!!!

Kerry Won.
Here are the Facts.

Friday, November 5, 2004


by Greg Palast

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=393&row=1

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10. USA(Kip Humphrey ) – The Death of Democracy

Voting rights and election fraud are incompatible.
"The ERD" -- The Gold Standard in elections news.

Kip Humphrey Mon May-29-06 11:36 AM
Original message
On this Memorial Day as we honor our dead, honor also our dead Democracy

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x430322

Edited on Mon May-29-06 11:36 AM by Kip Humphrey
Now is the time to find your courage and speak truth to friends, family, co-workers and strangers alike.

My father fought in WWII to rid the world of fascism. I am thankful he is no longer here to see its re-emergence in America. In memory of him, I will continue the struggle to regain our Democracy to you dying breath.



In memory of Andy Stevenson, a fallen hero and warrior in the defense of our Democracy.

[fooj]

12. You are a real treasure, Autorank.

I'm proud to call you friend.

It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from his government.--Thomas Paine

:kick:

[autorank]

13. Long time no see, like a few days...:)

O8):yourock: O8)

[autorank]

14. Go K&R Bleevers Great Post on Patrick Henry. Be there, or be square!

Here it is

[MelissaB]

15. One Man, One Vote, One Conspiracy Theory

One Man, One Vote, One Conspiracy Theory
Critics of electronic balloting are raising questions about a voting machine supplier

After the controversial 2000 Presidential election, the U.S. embarked on a campaign to replace paper ballots and their infamous hanging chads with electronic voting. But the new systems, many based on touch screens similar to bank ATMs, have become the bane of computer experts and some political activists on the Left.

Critics say the systems are riddled with security leaks that could allow corrupt companies or polling officials to steal elections. Now the complicated ownership of one of the nation's top three voting-equipment companies has attracted a new cadre of doubters.

The company, Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., sells machines in California, Illinois, and 18 other states. It has come under fire because its majority shareholders are Venezuelan. In the colorful imaginations of some, the Sequoia story is a tale that ends with Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chávez, a foe of the Bush Administration, in a position to manipulate American elections.

In Washington, Representative Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) has asked the Treasury Dept. to explain Sequoia's sale to the Venezuelans last year. "It doesn't seem like the deal...was vetted by our government, and I want to know why," she said in a May 5 letter.

Following a contentious Apr. 7 hearing on Sequoia's role in a recent Chicago primary, city Alderman Edward M. Burke, a relatively conservative Democrat, said: "We've stumbled on what we think could be an international conspiracy to subvert the electoral process in the United States." Burke offered no proof, and despite similar concerns expressed by other Chicago pols, the city and Cook County will continue to use Sequoia equipment.

DISPUTED ELECTION
Sequoia officials insist that neither Chávez nor the Venezuelan government has had any link to the company. "There is absolutely, unequivocally no connection," insists Sequoia Vice-President Michelle M. Shafer. But Sequoia's ownership is elaborate. The Oakland (Calif.) business was acquired for $16 million in March, 2005, by Boca Raton (Fla.)-based Smartmatic Corp. Smartmatic is owned by a Netherlands holding company, which in turn is owned by Smartmatic International Group, based in Curaçao.


More: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_23/b3987042.htm?chan=tc&chan=technology_technology+index+page_more+of+today's+top+stories

[MelissaB]

16. Remember Vote Fraud: A Review - Part 1

Remember Vote Fraud: A Review - Part 1
It’s Election Time, Don’t Let Your Guard Down

by Mark S. Tucker


http://www.opednews.com

On January 15, 2006, in OpEdNews, which has not been loathe to cover the issue, I wrote “Vote Fraud: Our #1 Concern - Exposing Lies Kills ‘The Fruit of the Poison Tree’ “, which can be read here:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mark_s___060115_vote_fraud_3a_our__231_c.htm

As June 6 draws near, however, the absolute silence in mainstream media on this issue should be causing extreme anxiety in most everyone. Not only is it the most important subject in our country, bar none (because nothing can proceed properly without a clean vote...nothing), but the indications of past prolificities of the debacle and the drop-dead likelihood of it occurring once again, when the conservative boat is in so precarious a position, is nearly 100%. The matter left to address, then, is: how widespread will it be?

This we cannot know until after all is said and done. Though I’m hoping for some scandalous exposés of fell activities caught amidships the very day of the elections, brought forth by zealous election watchers, with Republicans hip to the fact their scam is known, how much more sophisticated can we imagine the new wave of attack will be?

...snip

----------

In “Kerry Won”, by Greg Palast (Nov. 4, 2004 - TomPaine.com), we read that:

* Kerry won...Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry...CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent. Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent. Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state...Although the exit polls show that most voters in Ohio punched cards for Kerry-Edwards, thousands of these votes were simply not recorded.

* ...in Florida in 2000. Exit polls showed Gore with a plurality of at least 50,000, but it didn't match the official count. That's because the official, Secretary of State Katherine Harris, excluded 179,855 spoiled votes...Expert statisticians investigating spoilage for the government calculated that 54 percent of the ballots thrown in the dumpster were cast by black folks.

* In Ohio, Wisconsin, and Florida, the GOP laid plans for poll workers to ambush citizens under arcane laws-almost never used, allowing party-designated poll watchers to finger individual voters and demand they be denied a ballot. The Ohio courts were horrified...But our Supreme Court was prepared to let Republicans stand in the voting booth door.

* New Mexico. Hispanic voters in the Enchanted State, who voted more than two to one for Kerry, are five times as likely to have their vote spoil as a white voter. Counting these uncounted votes would easily overtake the Bush 'plurality.'

...snip

Allen L Roland’s “How The Election Was Stolen” showed this chilling stat chart:

* You may have seen the associated press story about the precinct in Cuyahoga county, Ohio that had less than 1,000 voters, and gave Bush almost 4,000 extra votes. But that turns out to be only the tip of a very ugly iceberg...In last Tuesday's election, 29 precincts in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, reported votes cast IN EXCESS of the number of registered voters - at least 93,136 extra votes total. And the numbers are right there on the official Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website:

Bay Village............................13,710 registered voters / 18,663 ballots cast
Beachwood..........................9,943 registered voters / 13,939 ballots cast
Bedford.................................9,942 registered voters / 14,465 ballots cast
Bedford Heights..................8,142 registered voters / 13,512 ballots cast
Brooklyn................................8,016 registered voters / 12,303 ballots cast
Brooklyn Heights.................1,144 registered voters / 1,869 ballots cast
Chagrin Falls Village..........3,557 registered voters / 4,860 ballots cast
Cuyahoga Heights..............570 registered voters / 1,382 ballots cast
Fairview Park .......................13,342 registered voters / 18,472 ballots cast
Highland Hills Village.........760 registered voters / 8,822 ballots cast
Independence......................5,735 registered voters / 6,226 ballots cast
Mayfield Village.....................2,764 registered voters / 3,145 ballots cast
Middleburg Heights.............12,173 registered voters / 14,854 ballots cast
Moreland Hills Village.........2,990 registered voters / 4,616 ballots cast
North Olmstead....................25,794 registered voters / 25,887 ballots cast
Olmstead Falls.....................6,538 registered voters / 7,328 ballots cast
Pepper Pike...........................5,131 registered voters / 6,479 ballots cast
Rocky River............................16,600 registered voters / 20,070 ballots cast
Solon (WD6)..........................2,292 registered voters / 4,300 ballots cast
South Euclid.......................... 16,902 registered voters / 16,917 ballots cast
Strongsville (WD3)................7,806 registered voters / 12,108 ballots cast
University Heights.................10,072 registered voters / 11,982 ballots cast
Valley View Village.................1,787 registered voters / 3,409 ballots cast
Warrensville Heights.............10,562 registered voters / 15,039 ballots cast
Woodmere Village.................558 registered voters / 8,854 ballots cast
Bedford (CSD)........................22,777 registered voters / 27,856 ballots cast
Independence (LSD).............5,735 registered voters / 6,226 ballots cast
Orange (CSD).........................11,640 registered voters / 22,931 ballots cast
Warrensville (CSD)................12,218 registered voters / 15,822 ballots cast



Lots more: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mark_s___060529_remember_vote_fraud_3a.htm

Discussion here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x430404

[MelissaB]

17. Washington Post: Debating the Bugs of High-Tech Voting

Debating the Bugs of High-Tech Voting
Test of Software in Machines Renews Security Concerns

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, May 30, 2006; Page A15

The already-cantankerous debate over high-tech voting machines, which have been installed in great numbers in recent years, is growing more intense and convoluted as primaries get underway and the midterm election nears.

A coalition of voting rights activists and prominent computer scientists argues that some of the machines are not sufficiently secure against tampering and could result in disputed elections, while voting machine vendors and many election officials say that view is exaggerated.

The latest dispute occurred several weeks ago after it was discovered at a test in Utah that someone with a reasonable knowledge of computer code could gain access to and tamper with the system software on a popular brand of voting machine manufactured by Diebold Election Systems. The developments prompted California and Pennsylvania to send urgent warnings to counties that use Diebold's touch-screen voting systems to take additional steps to secure them.

...snip

But Diebold spokesman David Bear said it was a "functionality" that company engineers had built into the voting machines so their software could be easily updated, and it only becomes an vulnerability if an unauthorized person gains unfettered access to the machine, and there are safeguards against that happening.


More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/29/AR2006052900816.html

[paineinthearse]

18. This post will be picked-up by AFTERDOWNINGSTREET.ORG

It will be posted as an append to existing post at Link

[autorank]

19. Thanks paine, it's a honor to be posted at such a great site. :)