Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday, June 17

[livvy]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News
THE
's
of REFORM, NEWS, AND ACTIVISM

All members welcomed and encouraged to participate.



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

If you can:
1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407240

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" for the Greatest Page (it's the link just below).


link to Friday's excellent ERD:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=434359&mesg_id=434359

[livvy]

1. Fl: Voter Registration Official Resigns

Published Saturday, June 17, 2006
Saturday, June 17, 2006

Voter Registration Official Resigns
With less than 90 days to go before the primaries, the project manager of the Florida Voter Registration System has resigned.

Sandford "Sandy" Brill said Wednesday the system is ready for the Sept. 5 primary, but Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho said the statewide database, which contains records of about 14 million voters, is still flawed.

Brill said he plans to take early retirement at the end of the month to become an independent contractor. Meanwhile, Sancho warned that incorrect information attached to voters' files still needs to be corrected and party affiliations verified.


http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060617/NEWS/606170396/1004


A is for

Americans have always pulled together during tough times to accomplish great missions. We can do it again. This time we need a moonshot for energy independence and good jobs. A crash program for sustainable energy independence would create three million good jobs, free the nation from imported oil, and promote a healthier environment. States and cities are leading the way toward a clean energy future. Now, the time has come for our nation to take up the challenge.
http://www.apolloalliance.org/

[livvy]

2. MI: Let the Coins Flow

Let the coins flow
Andy Rathbun
The Enquirer

The spigot on donations has been open for months in the 7th Congressional District's Republican primary, with hundreds of thousands of dollars pouring toward both Joe Schwarz and Tim Walberg.

However, as crunch time nears before the Aug. 8 primary, U.S. Rep. Schwarz, R-Battle Creek, has a good chance of pulling farther ahead than his challenger, thanks in part to the fact he is in Congress now.

"There is a bias in favor of the incumbent, a fundraising bias," said Craig Ruff, a senior policy fellow at the Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants. "People like to back a winner."

>snip

Walberg has relied on individual donors, many of whom live outside the state and have been directed to his campaign by the national anti-tax organization Club for Growth.

>more

(Boy, do we need campaign finance reform! I'm tired of people buying elections. And if they can't buy them, they steal them!)

http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060617/NEWS01/606170305/1002

B is for

http://www.bradblog.com/
and

http://www.buzzflash.com/

[livvy]

3. Opinion: Redefining What It Means To Protect America

ROBERT KUTTNER
Redefining what it means to protect America

By Robert Kuttner | June 17, 2006

ARE THE liberals dividing the Democratic Party once more and weakening Democrats' credibility on defense? Or are they stepping into a leadership vacuum?

The Democrats' schisms over Iraq were on display at this week's Take Back America convention in Washington. Senator Hillary Clinton, whose speech to the gathering was mostly applauded, got scattered boos when she declared that it was not ``smart strategy" to ``set a date certain for troop withdrawal."

The hawkish Senator Clinton, one senior Democratic strategist observed, is prematurely positioning herself for the 2008 general election. First she has to win her own party's primaries. At the rate she's going, she is fast alienating the party's overwhelmingly antiwar base.

Senator John Kerry quickly differentiated his position from hers. Speaking shortly after Clinton, Kerry won cheers when he pledged to introduce a Senate resolution calling for withdrawal of most troops by the end of 2006 (though several in the audience could be heard muttering words to the effect of, ``Where was he when we needed him?").

>more

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/06/17/redefining_what_it_means_to_protect_america/

C is for

http://www.c-span.org/
And

http://www.commondreams.org/

[livvy]

12. I forgot to add all the wonderful clips provided by....

http://www.canofun.com/cof/blogg/default.asp

[livvy]

13. self delete...dupe

[livvy]

4. IN: Franklin County Judge Recount To Resume Today

Franklin County judge recount to resume today
Voter margin still unchanged, but not all precincts in
BY PAM THARP
CORRESPONDENT

BROOKVILLE, Ind. -- The Franklin County Recount Commission was to resume counting ballots in the Republican judge's race at 6:30 a.m. today.

The three-man commission began work at 8 a.m. Friday, but by 4 p.m. only four of the county's 24 precincts had been hand counted. The commission planned to work until 10 p.m. Friday, then ballot bags and election equipment were to be loaded onto and locked inside an Indiana State Police trailer and taken home by a trooper for security.

After four precincts were counted, the 20-vote margin separating incumbent Judge Steven Cox and Deputy Prosecutor Troy Werner was unchanged. The commission threw out two absentee ballots that weren't initialed by clerks, but one vote was for Cox and the other for Werner.

Franklin County voted using optical scan paper ballots. A touch screen machine was used in only one precinct by about 70 voters.

>more

http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060617/NEWS01/606170307/1008

D is for

http://www.democracynow.org/index.pl

[livvy]

5. Oakland Mayoral Race Goes to Dellums

Posted on Sat, Jun. 17, 2006


Oakland mayoral race goes to Dellums
Former representative appears to have enough votes to avoid runoff
By CHRIS METINKO
Contra Costa Times

OAKLAND - Former Rep. Ron Dellums appeared to win the Oakland mayor's race outright late Friday, after the final ballot count showed he got the simple majority of votes needed to avoid a November runoff.

Officials, however, have 28 days to certify the election results.

Dellums was the top vote-getter with 50.2 percent, while City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente was in second place with 33.0 percent, according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.

City Councilwoman Nancy Nadel was a distant third with 13.1 percent.

The county's return to paper ballots and a shortage of optical scanners to process those ballots delayed the final vote count. The county went back to low-tech voting after 4,000 Diebold Election Systems touch-screen machines failed to meet federal and state standards for the June 6 primary.

>more


http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/14841806.htm

E is for

http://www.eff.org/

[livvy]

6. Praise For NY Assembly Committee on Election Law....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 16, 2006
2:34 PM


CONTACT: Demos
Timothy Rusch, Demos - [phone] Email: [e-mail]
Erika Wood, Brennan Center for Justice - [phone]
Glenn Martin, Legal Action Center - [phone]

Praise for NY Assembly Committee on Election Law for Passing the "Voting Rights Notification and Registration Act"


NEW YORK - June 16 - Today the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, Demos, and the Legal Action Center, three leading national public policy organizations, praised the New York Assembly Committee on Election Law for passing the Voting Rights Notification and Registration Act on June 14th, a bill that would reduce barriers to voting by individuals with felony convictions.

"We commend Chairman Keith Wright and the Committee on Election Law for passing this important piece of legislation and encourage the full Assembly to do the same within the coming weeks. This bill will effectively ensure that New Yorkers with felony convictions are informed of their voting rights and provided the opportunity to participate in the democratic process as they become reintegrated into our communities.

"While New York election law only disfranchises those individuals incarcerated or on parole because of a felony conviction, there is a widespread misunderstanding of the law among affected communities and elections officials. A recent report by The Sentencing Project found that close to 60 percent of New Yorkers under the supervision of the criminal justice system incorrectly believed that an individual on probation could not vote, and more than 60 percent reported that no one ever informed them of their voting rights.

"Additionally, a recent survey by the Brennan Center and Demos found that approximately half of New York's 63 local boards of elections were not aware of the eligibility requirements. Thousands of eligible New Yorkers may have been misinformed as a result.

>more

http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0616-04.htm

F is for

http://www.freepress.org/index2.php

[livvy]

7. Palast: African-American Voters Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit List

Massacre of the Buffalo Soldiers
by Greg Palast
As reported for Democracy Now!

Palast, who first reported this story for BBC Television Newsnight (UK) and Democracy Now! (USA), is author of the New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse.

The Republican National Committee has a special offer for African-American soldiers: Go to Baghdad, lose your vote.

A confidential campaign directed by GOP party chiefs in October 2004 sought to challenge the ballots of tens of thousands of voters in the last presidential election, virtually all of them cast by residents of Black-majority precincts.
Files from the secret vote-blocking campaign were obtained by BBC Television Newsnight, London. They were attached to emails accidentally sent by Republican operatives to a non-party website.

One group of voters wrongly identified by the Republicans as registering to vote from false addresses: servicemen and women sent overseas.

>more

http://www.gregpalast.com/massacre-of-the-buffalo-soldiers

G is for the many grassroots groups who work selflessly to get this country back on track.

[livvy]

8. Miller: Some Might Call It Treason: An Open Letter to Salon

06.16.2006
Some Might Call It Treason: An Open Letter to Salon

Mark Crispin Miller

Two weeks ago, Rolling Stone came out with "Did Bush Steal the 2004 Election?" -- a masterful investigative piece by Robert Kennedy, Jr., arguing that Bush & Co. stole their "re-election" in Ohio, and pointing out exactly how they did it. Primarily because of Kennedy's good reputation, and the mainstream credibility of Rolling Stone, the article has finally opened many eyes that had been tightly shut to the grave state of American democracy.

One week after Kennedy's article appeared, Salon posted an attack upon it by Farhad Manjoo, the magazine's technology reporter. That piece contained so many errors of fact and logic, and was throughout so brazenly wrong-headed, that several hundred readers sent in angry letters, many of them brilliantly refuting some of Manjoo's misconceptions and mistakes, and quite a few demanding that Salon cancel their subscriptions.

A few days later, Joan Walsh, Salon's editor, tried to calm the storm with a defense of Manjoo's writings on the theft of the 2004 election -- a theft that he had frequently addressed before, as he had been trying to "debunk"it ever since that infamous Election Day. Walsh did not answer any of the criticisms of Manjoo's attack, but merely re-asserted Salon's confidence in all his work for them.

At this point I decided to reply, both to Manjoo's piece (which, as I note below, had wrongly used my own work on election fraud to further slander Kennedy's) and to Joan Walsh's apologia. My point was not just to pile on (there was no need for that), but to attempt an explanation as to why so many reasonable people -- many of them self-described "progressives" -- keep refusing to perceive the copious and ever-growing evidence that this regime has never been elected. It was my hope that Salon might at least consider moderating its position on election fraud, which now demands more serious treatment than the magazine has thus far given it.

>more

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-crispin-miller/some-might-call-it-treaso_b_23187.html

H is for

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thenewswire/

[livvy]

9. FEC Questions Harris Donations

Article published Jun 16, 2006
FEC questions Harris donations

Her staff may have made coding errors when processing money
By JEREMY WALLACE

[e-mail]
The Federal Election Commission is questioning $60,000 in excess campaign donations to U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Longboat Key.

Harris, who was once in charge of Florida's campaign financing rules and twice has been singled out for accepting illegal campaign donations during previous runs for office, is examining her campaign reports after the FEC flagged donations above the legal limit.

"We are in receipt of the letter and are researching it," said Chris Ingram, spokesman for the Harris campaign.

Ingram said the FEC routinely sends out letters for additional information as part of its compliance efforts.

>more

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060616/NEWS/606160304/1006/SPORTS

I is for

Always sad news, but news we need to know. By the way, there have been 2501 American casualties in Iraq as of today, and 18,356 wounded.
http://icasualties.org/oif/

[livvy]

10. A Backdoor Plan To Thwart the Electoral College

from the June 16, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0616/p01s02-uspo.html

A backdoor plan to thwart the electoral college
Some states try to ensure that the winner of popular vote becomes president.

By Randy Dotinga | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

SAN DIEGO

Picture it: On election day in some future year, a presidential candidate ends up with the most popular votes but not enough electoral votes to win.

It's a repeat of the 2000 election in which one contender, Democrat Al Gore, took the majority of the national popular vote, while the other, Republican George W. Bush, clinched the most electoral college votes and, hence, the presidency.

But this time there's a twist: A bunch of states team up and give all their electoral college votes to the nationwide popular-vote winner, regardless of who won the most votes in their state. Then, the candidate who garners the most citizen votes in the country moves into the White House.

Legislative houses in Colorado and California have recently approved this plan, known as the National Popular Vote proposal, taking it partway to passage. Other states, too, are exploring the idea of a binding compact among states that would oblige each of them to throw its electoral votes behind the national popular-vote winner.

>more

http://csmweb2.emcweb.com/2006/0616/p01s02-uspo.htm

J is for Justice
and
the great reporting of Dahr Jamail

http://dahrjamailiraq.com/index.php

[livvy]

11. Repost: Bush and the Noe Factor in Ohio's Rigged 2004 Election

Elections & Voting
Bush and the Noe factor in Ohio's rigged 2004 election
By Evelyn Pringle
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Jun 12, 2006, 00:41

By late afternoon on November 2, 2004, nationally, all the exit polls showed John Kerry winning with 50.8 percent of the votes and showed George W Bush with 48.2 percent, meaning Kerry had a 2.6 percent lead over Bush.

But when the vote counts came in at the end of the day, Bush had 50.9 percent of the votes and Kerry had 48.1 percent, meaning Bush received 2.8 percent more votes than Kerry.

According to Ron Baiman, PhD, from the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois in Chicago, who has 16 years of experience teaching statistics to both graduate and undergraduate college students, there would be about one chance in 900,000 of that kind of statistical error occurring.

Ohio was the most important state to Bush. He could not win without it. He spent so much time in the state that people began to wonder whether he had left a forwarding address to Ohio.

>more

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_892.shtml

K is for

http://www.dailykos.com/
and Kerry, the Kennedys and Krugman
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/paulkrugman/index.html

[livvy]

14. FL: Reject Renke Request, JQC Says

Reject Renke request, JQC says

The commission that investigates judges urges the state high court to deny the judge's motion to remain on the bench.

By JAMAL THALJI, Times Staff Writer
Published June 17, 2006

The Judicial Qualifications Commission Friday asked the Florida Supreme Court to reject Circuit Judge John Renke III's last-ditch attempt to stay on the bench - an attempt the JQC called improper.

Last month the Florida Supreme Court ordered the West Pasco family law judge off the bench and called his 2002 campaign a fraud for overstating Renke's experience and using an illegal $95,800 loan in the election. The court chose to go way beyond the JQC's original recommended punishment: fine Renke, suspend him and publicly reprimand him.

Renke last week employed his final option for staying on the bench: asking the court that wants him gone to rehear his case. The Florida Supreme Court hasn't decided yet, but if it rejects his request, Renke's days as a judge are over.

>more

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/17/Hernando/Reject_Renke_request_.shtml

L is for this amazing list:
One Thousand Reasons Documenting the Failures of the Bush Administration

http://www.thousandreasons.org/reasons.php

[livvy]

15. OH: Officials See Good in New Voting Rules (Action Opportunity Post!)

Officials see good in new voting rules
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CLEVELAND - New rules governing voter registration that some critics say are too tough and will hurt efforts to sign up new voters are not expected to cause problems, the head of an association of election board officials said Friday.

Steve Harsman, president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials and director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections, said during an interview that he believes the common feeling among association members is that new rules covering how voters can be registered and requirements that voters show proper identification will be beneficial.

"Once everybody adapts to the new rules, I think it's going to be better," said Harsman, in Cleveland for a meeting of county election officials. "I think it will minimize problems and potential voting fraud."

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell thanked the group of about 500 election officials for their dedication in helping the state convert to electronic voting, but did not discuss registration matters.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060617/NEWS01/606170369/1056

Here's the new rules that will be so beneficial...ha!
Stop New Voter Suppression Tactic in Ohio

A new voter suppression tactic has surfaced in Ohio. This time, Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has implemented new rules making some legitimate voter registration activities punishable as crimes and severely restricting the ability of organizations, including People For the American Way Foundation, to register voters in historically disenfranchised communities. The new rules place hurdles in the way of any compensated voter registration workers returning voter registrations they collect to the organization sponsoring the voter registration drive – making it exceedingly difficult for organizations to keep the records necessary to follow up later to make sure these potential new voters actually make it onto the rolls.

The Ohio Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) has the opportunity to reject these changes at its meting on June 26. Send them, and Secretary of State Blackwell, an email telling them to remove these roadblocks to democratic participation.
http://actions.pfaw.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=enJHKINrFqG&b=848149&aid=6995

M is for
Media Matters for America
You can join Media Matters for America in the fight against conservative misinformation in the media. We regularly provide action items based on our real-time monitoring of the media and conduct action campaigns to prevent the spread of conservative misinformation.

Thousands of activists like you take advantage of these tools to hold the media accountable for spreading conservative misinformation.
http://mediamatters.org/action_center/
and

http://www.moveon.org/
and

http://www.motherjones.com/
and

http://www.michaelmoore.com/index.php

[livvy]

16. CA: Lawyers Rest Case In Disputed Vernon Election Trial

Posted on Sat, Jun. 17, 2006


Lawyers rest case in disputed Vernon election trial


Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Attorneys finished presenting evidence Friday in a trial over a rare and highly disputed City Council election in Vernon two months ago.

Lawyers for the city of Vernon contend election fraud occurred when eight people moved into a city building in January, and three of them filed candidacy papers several days later. The five others who moved into the building signed the candidates' nomination papers and registered as voters.

The candidacies of Donald Huff, David Johnson and Alexander Lopez forced the first local election in 25 years in Vernon, a tiny industrial city south of downtown Los Angeles that has less than 100 residents. Since the April 11 election, however, City Clerk Bruce Malkenhorst Jr. has refused to count the ballots until three court challenges are settled.

In court papers, city officials charged the newcomers were part of a group linked to a corrupt politician from the nearby city of South Gate who was trying to engineer a coup.

>more

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/14841287.htm

N is for

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!

NLG National Office
Help for people contacted by FBI, help finding criminal lawyers, and help for lawyers and organizers.
143 Madison Ave, 4Fl, NY NY 10016
212.679.5100, http://www.nlg.org
http://www.nlg.org/resources/kyr/kyr_english.htm

and

http://nationaljournal.com/

[livvy]

17. Letter to the Editor: Fie On Grand Old (Vote) Pilferers

Fie on Grand Old (Vote) Pilferers
June 17, 2006 4:20 am

Holly Marshall

I have a suggestion for Laura Echevarria and other conservatives who believe that Democrats are whiny bad losers <"Ah decla-uh: Liberals' talk of secession purely gives me the vapuhs," June 10>.

Read the article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the June 15 issue of Rolling Stone magazine about the election irregularities in Ohio in 2004.

Liberals have not lost sight of the fact that we are a representative democracy. We deeply believe it.

In fact, Republicans have, with intent and purpose, succeeded in manipulating the election ma- chinery at the local level to the extent that hundreds of thousands of Democratic votes, in both 2000 and 2004, were systematically suppressed or invalidated.

>more

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/062006/06172006/198654

O is for


http://www.onlinejournal.com/

and

http://www.opensecrets.org/index.asp
and
http://ohiohonestelections.org/
and

http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/

[livvy]

18. Daily Kos: Election Reform and Ohio by Tom Vilsack

Election Reform and Ohio
by Tom Vilsack
Fri Jun 16, 2006 at 04:58:58 AM PDT

First, I want to thank everyone at the YearlyKos conference in Las Vegas and especially my fellow panelists Ken Bernstein ( a.k.a. TeacherKen) and Jamie Volmer. I was honored to be invited and enjoyed meeting a number of bloggers.

But I didn't write this post to revisit YearlyKos. This post is about a fundamental issue in our democracy: Voting is a right, not a privilege.

From the people I met this past weekend, I am sure we can all agree that it's time to restore fairness and integrity to the electoral process in our country -- and I know many of you are involved in a number of unique efforts to do just that.

However, there is one way we can all come together and have a lasting impact: Ohio, in 2006.

>more

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/6/16/75858/5788

P is for

New Personal Financial Reports of Members of Congress
Real Time Update As Available
http://www.fecinfo.com/
and

http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/home/
and

http://projectcensored.org/
and

The Ultimate Guide to U.S. Politics & Elections ... since 1997
http://www.politics1.com/
and


http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/

[livvy]

19. NJ: Group Objects to P.G. Results

Group objects to P.G. results
Saturday, June 17, 2006
By CHRISTOPHER WEIR
Staff Writer

PENNS GROVE -- A Democratic organization in the borough filed a petition with Superior Court Friday challenging the outcome of the June 6 Democratic Primary Election.

The Stevenson Club filed the petition in conjunction with their six candidates who ran in the election as either borough council or Democratic County Committee candidates.

The Stevenson Club wants a new election, according to club member and borough Councilman A.J. Crescenzi.

"There's substantial evidence that a large number of non-residents voted in the election," Crescenzi said. "This is our remedy to challenge the outcome of the election and to hopefully have another election in the borough."

>more

http://www.nj.com/news/sunbeam/index.ssf?/base/news-1/11505288487010.xml&coll=9

Q is for all the quick searching that goes on here!

[livvy]

20. GOP Campaign Manager Guilty of Corruption of Minors

Raw Story

GOP Campaign Manager Guilty of Corruption of Minors

June 16, 2006 1:44 PM

Brian Ross Reports:



ABC News' Andrew Katz and Fiore Mastroianni contributed to this report.

A man convicted of "corruption of minors" after being accused of having sex with two teenage girls is working as the campaign manager for a Republican candidate for Congress in Arizona, according to documents obtained by ABC News.

Steve Aiken, a former Quakertown, Pa. police officer and self-proclaimed reverend, was convicted of two counts of corruption of a minor stemming from his 1995 sexual relationships with two teenage girls. He served almost two-and-a-half months at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.

Aiken is listed as campaign manager for Randy Graf, a Republican in a five-way primary for the Congressional seat in Arizona's 8th district.

>more



http://www.rawstory.com/showoutarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.abcnews.com%2Ftheblotter%2F2006%2F06%2Fgop_campaign_ma.html

R is for


http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/
and

http://www.rawstory.com/

[livvy]

21. WP: Signs of Hope for GOP in Governors Races

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 06/16/2006
The Friday Line: Signs of Hope for GOP in Governors Races

Political analyst (and Fix friend) Stu Rothenberg has made the point that with the national environment so favorable to Democrats, Republicans will only win races in states where there are special circumstances that trump the national dynamic.

This month's ranking of gubernatorial races bears out Stu's theory. Despite the favorable national atmospherics, the two most vulnerable incumbents on the ballot this fall are Democrats. In Michigan, Gov. Jennifer Granholm continues to struggle to distance herself from her state's economic problems, which derive largely from the continued collapse of the U.S. auto industry. Granholm is likely to put the blame on national economic policies adopted by President Bush, but that is a tough sell to voters.

In Wisconsin, Gov. Jim Doyle's (D) administration has been plagued by allegations of wrongdoing, capped by the recent conviction of a former staffer on charges that she fixed a state contract.

>more


http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/

S is for search engines and

http://smirkingchimp.com/

and

http://www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml

[livvy]

22. OH: Office Keeps the Dead Off Vote List (And then they work on the living)

Office Keeps the Dead Off Vote List

By JOSELYN KING Political Writer

WHEELING—Ohio County elections coordinator Toni Chieffalo said local efforts are made to make certain the names of dead persons are removed from county voting records.

West Virginia Secretary of State Betty Ireland revealed last week that more than 6,000 deceased persons remain on voting rolls in the state, mostly in the southern counties.

Chieffalo explained that the Ohio County elections office receives a list of those receiving death certificates in the county, and that employees also examine obituaries and make note of county residents who pass away. A notation is placed on their voter registration card that the person is deceased.

“The name shouldn’t even print out on our voter roles unless it is one we missed,” she added. “We clean up the rolls the best that we can.”

>more

http://www.news-register.net/community/articles.asp?articleID=7277

T is for
TIA
http://truthisall.net/
and


http://forum.truthout.org/blog/

[livvy]

23. KS: "Help" Act Will Force Voters To Travel

'Help' Act will force voters to travel
By Carol Bronson of the Tribune Staff

On Aug. 1, Kansans will go to the polls to narrow the candidate field in races for state offices and select new township clerks and precinct committeemen and women - business as usual for a primary election. What is different this year is that about half of Pratt County residents will have to travel farther to do their voting, not to the nearest community, but to the county seat.

All voters residing outside the City of Pratt will be voting at the Church of Christ at 320 Country Club Road.

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 requires that every polling place have a handicapped-accessible voting machine. The cost of the machine is $3,500 plus ongoing programming and maintenance fees, Pratt County Election Officer Sherry Kruse said. Rather than purchase six - one each for Byers, Coats, Cullison, Iuka, Preston and Sawyer - she opted to buy one. A second machine will be available at the Pratt Community Center, where all residents of the City of Pratt vote.

Election officers in counties that have used the machines like them and say it's just something voters will have to get used to, according to Kruse.

>more

http://www.pratttribune.com/articles/2006/06/15/news/02_voters.txt

U is for

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/

[livvy]

24. Boston Plans a Drive To Boost Voter Turnout...

Boston plans a drive to boost voter turnout that would allow same-day registration. Above, a voter and her children in Hyde Park. (George Rizer/ Globe Staff/ File 2003)

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff | June 12, 2006

The city of Boston plans an all-out drive to allow voter registration on Election Day, and will launch aggressive voter drives among new Bostonians and high school students in an effort to boost turnout in the minority and non-English-speaking communities, Mayor Thomas M. Menino said last week.

Same-day registration, which would require approval from the Legislature, was among the major reforms recommended in a task force report that was commissioned by the mayor and made available to The Boston Globe.

In other states, the system has boosted voter participation by as much as 15 percent.

The task force also recommended that the city consider a weekend voting system, giving voters two or more days to cast their ballots.

But Menino, in an interview, said that he preferred to encourage voters who find it inconvenient to vote on the actual day of the election to file absentee ballots. Menino appointed the task force last year to examine the city's voting system after the US Department of Justice accused Boston of violating the rights of Hispanic and Asian-American voters and of ``improperly influencing, coercing, or ignoring the ballot choices" of voters who were not proficient in English.

Menino had initially vowed to fight the suit in court; he later forged a pact with the Justice Department that settled the case.

>more

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/06/12/city_tries_to_build_voter_turnout/

V is for

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=846&Itemid=113
and

http://www.votersunite.org/news.asp
and

http://votefraudnews.com/news/index.php
and

http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?list=type&type=38
and

http://www.velvetrevolution.us/

[livvy]

25. NM: Primary Vote Canvass Shows Changes in Totals But Not in Who Won

Saturday, June 17, 2006
Primary vote canvass shows changes in totals but not in who won

Jane Moorman News-Bulletin Staff Writer; [e-mail]

The Valencia County Commission approved the final results of the June 6 primary elections Friday after a two-hour discussion regarding how the results were tabulated on election night.

After reviewing all of the precinct, early voting and absentee results and adding in provisional ballots, the individual candidate totals were different from those released on election night, but the outcome of the races remained the same.

"We have checked and rechecked the numbers for each precinct and each voting machine," said County Clerk Tina Gallegos. "These numbers are the official results."

Gallegos reported that there were 7,432 voters, 24 percent of the county's registered voters. Since the election was for party primaries, only registered party members could vote — 5,332 Democrats and 2,100 Republicans participated in their parties' elections.

>more

http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/62367-06-17-06.html

W is for


http://www.peterwerbe.com/

[livvy]

26. Philippines: Comelec to Biazon: Show Us What You've Got

Some translation mess-ups in the article.


SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 2006 PHT

Comelec to Biazon: Show us what you’ve got

THE Commission on Elections yesterday urged Sen. Rodolfo Biazon to present the evidence he has gathered to support charges of massive fraud in the May 10, 2004 national elections.

Director James Jimenez, Comelec spokesman, said the poll body welcomes such evidence and would like the senator to show it to the commissioners.

>snip

Jimenez noted that earlier, some members of the opposition and their supporters claimed that they had evidence to prove the alleged massive cheating but failed to present them.

“If they have the evidence, they should have made them public earlier...

>more

http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php?page=news&id=4655&sid=1&urldate=2006-06-18

X is for making every vote count!

[livvy]

27. Slovakia: Economy Focus of Slovak Elections

Economy focus of Slovak elections

Saturday, June 17, 2006 Posted: 1506 GMT (2306 HKT)


Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) -- Slovaks cast ballots Saturday in a parliamentary vote that will determine whether the EU country continues its economic reforms praised abroad, or it will tip on a softer economic course that could delay its adoption of the euro currency in 2009.

Slovakia's main opposition Smer-Socialist Democratic Party led by Robert Fico was expected to win the balloting with 28 percent of votes, 4 percent less than polls showed earlier this month, according to a survey conducted by the Bratislava-based MVK agency last week.

Fico said he was confident in his party's election victory after casting his ballot at a polling station in a village of Aleksince, northeast of the capital, Bratislava.

"I didn't vote for myself. One does not do that and it is not necessary anyway," he said.

>more

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/06/17/slovak.vote.ap/

Y is for YOU, all of you who work every day at making a difference.
and for

not the search engine, silly, the sound we'll be making when the White House squatters are gone, true election and finance reform has taken place, and we have our country back!

[livvy]

28. Knives, Rifles and A Whip. Are Bush's Gift-Givers Trying to Say Something?

Sorry, this doesn't really belong here, but the list of gifts was just too funny.


Published on Saturday, June 17, 2006 by the Guardian / UK
Knives, Rifles and a Whip. Are Bush's Gift-Givers Trying to Say Something?
2004 presents inventory leaves president prepared for worst-case scenario
by Julian Borger

A braided leather whip, a sniper rifle, six jars of fertiliser and a copy of the Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook were among the presents foreign leaders have given George Bush. They are clearly trying to tell him something.

The inventory of official gifts from 2004, published this week by the state department, reads like the wish list of the sort of paranoid survivalist who holes up in his log cabin to await Armageddon, having long ago severed all ties with the rest of the world.

The president received a startling array of weapons, including assorted daggers and a machete from Gabon. He got the braided whip with a wooden handle from the Hungarian prime minister. The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, a gift from the Sultan of Brunei, has some tips on how to use some of these implements in a tight spot.

The paperback also explains how to wrestle with an alligator, escape from a mountain lion and take a punch. But the small arsenal of guns presented by Jordan's King Abdullah, including a $10,000 sniper rifle, would presumably render much of that advice unnecessary.

>more

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0617-03.htm

Z is for

http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm
Check out their toons. Here's a sample:

[livvy]

29. There are so many wonderful blogs, websites, etc.

I'm sure I've left many out, but no snubs were intended. So if I didn't link to yours, I apologize. Thanks for all you on DU do, and don't try to say that 10 times quickly!


A round of applause to DU!

[Wilms]

30. Yahoo's Got Brad: No Confidence in the Busby/Bilbray Election

Brad Friedman: No Confidence in the Busby/Bilbray Election

Take Your Democracy Back!

Brad Friedman

Jun 16, 2006

I don't know how else to put it, but every voting machine used in last week's special election run-off for the U.S. House seat vacated by the disgraced Randy "Duke" Cunningham in California's 50th congressional district was illegal. By federal standards, rules and provisions and by California state rules, laws and provisions. And now, by the San Diego County Registrar of Voters own admission.

TO REVIEW: The election was run on highly hackable Diebold voting machines that were sent home overnight and unsecurely with poll workers for days prior to the election which rendered the machines both illegal and uncertified for use in the election under both federal and state laws, requirements and statutes. The GOP has since rushed to swear-in Bilbray before the votes were counted, or the election even certified by the state of California.

snip

As to the Busby/Bilbray election...So far, PDA has declared "No Confidence" in the race. Tribune Media columnist Robert Koehler has declared "No Confidence" in the race. VelvetRevolution.us has declared "No Confidence" in the race. And VoteTrustUSA has declared "egregious violations" took place in the race.

So who actually won the race? At this time, there is no way to know. Not until the ballots are counted.

snip

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060617/cm_huffpost/023197


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x434617