Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday, June 24, 2006

[livvy]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.




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

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

2. Post stories using the 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.



Link to yesterday's excellent ERD:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=435852&mesg_id=435852

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

[livvy]

1. Ney Denied Aiding Abramoff Client, Senate Report Says

Last modified Thursday, June 22, 2006 5:41 PM PDT
Ney denied aiding Abramoff client, Senate report says

By: MARK SHERMAN - Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Bob Ney told Senate investigators he made no effort to help a client of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, despite extensive evidence to the contrary, a congressional report said Thursday.

Ney said he was not even familiar with the Tigua tribe of El Paso, Texas, which was seeking legislation that would allow it to reopen its shuttered casino, according to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee report on the massive lobbying fraud perpetrated on Indian tribes by Abramoff and others.
Yet the report says Ney assured tribal leaders of his support for the legislation on two occasions in 2002, once in person and once via telephone.

The section of the 373-page report that focuses on Ney is a fresh sign of potential legal trouble for the Ohio Republican who has become ensnared in a wide-ranging criminal probe of influence peddling in Washington.

>more

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/06/24/news/politics/16_32_496_22_06.txt

[livvy]

2. Washington Tax-Cut Advocate Aided Abramoff

Washington Tax-Cut Advocate Aided Abramoff

Saturday June 24, 2006 1:31 AM
By PETE YOST
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - In Jack Abramoff's world, prominent Washington tax-cut advocate Grover Norquist was a godsend.

Moving money from a casino-operating Indian tribe to Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition founder and professed gambling opponent, was a problem. Lobbyist Abramoff turned to his longtime friend Norquist, apparently to provide a buffer for Reed.

The result, according to evidence gathered by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, was that Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform became a conduit for more than a million dollars from the Mississippi Choctaw to Reed's operation, while Norquist, a close White House ally, took a cut.

Without citing any specific group, the Senate panel found numerous instances of nonprofit organizations that appeared to be involved in activities unrelated to their mission as described to the Internal Revenue Service.

>more

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5907802,00.html

[livvy]

3. New Details on Abramoff Connections

(Left to right, front row) Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, Rep. Bob Ney, R-OH, (back row, left to right) unidentified Scottish aide and David H. Safavian on a golf trip to St. Andrews in Scotland.



New details on Abramoff connections
Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist and Bob Ney mentioned in report
By Joel Seidman
Producer
NBC News

Updated: 5:36 p.m. ET June 23, 2006
WASHINGTON - Three prominent Republican names have surfaced from the 357-page Senate Indian Affairs Committee's report, titled "Gimme Five," released this week. The potentially damaging report offers a rich and complex chronology of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's influence-peddling scheme designed to rip-off his Tribal clients and reap huge profits.
The three are Representative Bob Ney - running for re-election in Ohio, and under investigation by the Justice Department; Ralph Reed - currently running for Lt. Governor of Georgia; and Grover Norquist - a prominent anti-tax activist.
Ralph Reed
Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition and a leading Republican Party strategist, is a central figure, according to the Senate report, in the Abramoff scheme. Reed received more than $4 million in payments on behalf of Indian tribe casinos - clients of Abramoff.
Beginning in the late 1990's, according to the report, Reed used the might of his many contacts within conservative Christian groups in the South and Southwest to block new casinos from opening or expanding. In 1998, Reed reached out to Abramoff in an e-mail, writing, "Hey, now that I'm done with electoral politics, I need to start humping in corporate accounts! I'm counting on you to help me with some contacts." Abramoff saw an opportunity and suggested a grassroots effort, recommending the Choctaw a tribe in Louisiana hire Reed to orchestrate an anti-gaming effort.

>much more
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13508546/

[livvy]

4. Opinion: To Protect Voting Rights, Stop the Party

To protect voting rights, stop the party
By Stebbins Jefferson (Stebbins Jefferson is a columnist for The Palm Beach Post.)

Palm Beach Post Columnist

Saturday, June 24, 2006

The goal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act was to ensure that minorities had equal access to the ballot box, the underlying assumption being that other Americans' right to vote was already sacrosanct.

To overcome the egregious practices some states used to prohibit black citizens from voting, Congress passed and President Johnson signed into law a detailed, specific, temporary law to eradicate race-based barriers to the ballot box. It outlawed literacy tests. In areas where local and state registration of minorities was determined to be less than 50 percent of eligible minority voters, the Department of Justice would provide oversight.

The Justice Department also was required to approve any changes in voting law in political jurisdictions that were at least 5 percent black. Nine states — Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and some sections of Virginia — were identified as needing this kind of federal supervision. In Florida, Collier, Hardee, Hendry and Hillsborough counties were cited.

>more

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2006/06/24/a14a_jeffersoncol_0624.html

[livvy]

5. OH: Wishing funds Were Here

Posted on Fri, Jun. 23, 2006




Wishing funds were here

New state law makes counties mail voters postcards at $1.3 million cost
By Patrick Cain
Beacon Journal staff writer

COLUMBUS - State legislators have handed Ohio's 88 counties an unfunded mandate to spend more than $1.3 million under a new law that requires local boards of elections to mail each registered voter a reminder to take along identification when casting a ballot in November.
In Summit County, sending postcards to about 362,000 registered voters will cost at least $64,000 in postage, more if election officials don't get the Postal Service's minimum rate of 17.9 cents.
The order is considered an unfunded mandate because legislators did not earmark state money to help local officials pay for what the state is requiring them to do.
``That's going to put us in a bind,'' said Marijean Donofrio, deputy director for the Summit County board. ``We'll have to go to County Council and have them appropriate county funds.''

>more

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/14884184.htm

[livvy]

6. OH: Strickland Leads Blackwell in Poll

Posted on Fri, Jun. 23, 2006

Strickland leads Blackwell in poll

A new Zogby-Wall Street Journal Online poll shows a close race between Ohio's gubernatorial candidates.

Congressman Ted Strickland, a Democrat from Lisbon, is leading Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, 49.1 percent to 44.3 percent.

However, the results are within the 3.3 percent margin of error.Blackwell's camp heralded the poll as proof that he is closing in on Strickland.

The results are similar to a May 25 University of Cincinnati poll that showed Strickland with a 6-point lead over Blackwell. Last week's SurveyUSA poll, however, showed Strickland ahead of Blackwell 53 percent to 37 percent.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/local/states/ohio/counties/summit_county/14884167.htm

[livvy]

7. Indiana Voter Roster To Get Cleaned Up

Article published Jun 23, 2006
Indiana voter roster to get cleaned up

By DEANNA MARTIN
Associated Press Writer

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana's voter registration list will trimmed to eliminate duplicate entries and names of those who have died, after Republicans and Democrats agreed on a plan to purge the rolls over the next few years.

Secretary of State Todd Rokita, a Republican and the state's top elections official, proposed in April to begin the process of purging the list, which would cost about $1.5 million.

Democrats and Republicans have sparred over the issue. But this week, Democratic and Republican co-directors of the state's Election Division agreed to the plan.

Letters will be sent to every registered voter in the state, with undeliverable mailers flagged as potential mistakes in the voter roster. The state would then send another mailer to those addresses, and if they are also returned, the voter would be placed on inactive status.

>more
http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060623/News01/60623012/CAT=News01

[livvy]

8. WI: Green Proposes Ethics Reform

FRIDAY JUNE 23, 2006

Green proposes ethics reform
SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. - Republican gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Mark Green wants a "pit bull" investigator to root out waste, fraud and abuse in state government. Democrats say Green's push for ethics reform is all bark and no bite.

Green, at a Friday news conference, proposed a series of reforms he said would address ethical lapses in state government, including creation of an Inspector General position to look into ethics violations.

"When I say the Inspector General will be a watchdog, I mean the Inspector General will be a pit bull as well," Green said.

He accused Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle of catering to special interests and not doing enough to address ethics issues.

>more


http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/14887041.htm

[livvy]

9. Report shows Electronic Voting Machines Have High Potential For...Fraud

Report shows electronic voting machines have high potential for voter fraud

Story by Gena Terlizzi (Contact)
6:18 p.m. Friday, June 23, 2006

The use of touch screen voting machines is growing, and with that new technology come new risks.
Washington D.C.-based Common Cause looked into those risks and released the results in this study.

49 News spoke to one of the study's authors.
“Its true machines can be hacked very easily and this has been demonstrated by computer experts,” said Barbar Burt, one author of the study.

The report said across the country, 37 States will use the electronic voting machines in the 2006 mid-term election. Of those states, 19 do not have laws that require voter verified paper ballots. Kansas is one of those states and according to the study that puts it at high risk for voting fraud and malfunction.

>more

http://www.49abcnews.com/news/2006/jun/23/report_shows_electronic_voting_machines_have_high_/

[livvy]

10. Beheading in Rosarito May Be Linked To Mexico's Elections

Beheading in Rosarito may be linked to Mexico's Elections
Amy Isackson

KPBS SAN DIEGO (2006-06-23)

The beheading of three Rosarito policeman and one civilian earlier this week could be an act of election time cleansing by drug cartels, according to one San Diego academic who has sources close to the action. KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson has details.

The men were abducted by a heavily armed convoy. The next day, their bodies were found in a vacant lot in Rosarito. Their heads were discovered miles north in Tijuana.

Many say the murders are the latest battle in the drug cartels' war to control key drug smuggling routes.

Jeffery Mc Illwain who studies border security at San Diego State University suspects the violence could also be tied to Mexico's July second elections.

>more
http://publicbroadcasting.net/kpbs/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=932605§ionID=1

[livvy]

11. US Rep. Green: Blasts Elections Board Decision For Continued Defiance...

Press Release

U.S. Rep. Green: Blasts Elections Board Decision for Continued Defiance of HAVA
6/23/2006
For additional information or
comment from Rep. Green, contact:
Luke Punzenberger (office) 202-226-7385
(pager) 800-759-8888 PIN 1754041

Rep. Green blasts State Elections Board for continued defiance of federal Help America Vote Act

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-Green Bay) issued the following statement Friday after the Wisconsin State Elections Board (SEB) voted to uphold its earlier decision allowing individuals to register to vote using either their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

“Despite the threat of a lawsuit that could cost Wisconsin taxpayers thousands of dollars, the SEB once again voted to completely ignore federal law, opting instead for a set of voter registration rules that will only further compromise the integrity of our elections. There’s no question that Wisconsin’s once-sterling reputation for clean and open government has grown tarnished over the last few years, and sadly, thanks to today’s decision that reputation could be dragged through the mud yet again.”


http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=65298

[livvy]

12. WI: RPW: On Decision by Doyle's St. El. Bd. to....Violate Fed. Law

Press Release

RPW: Statement on Decision by Doyle's State Elections Board to Willfully Violate Federal Law
6/23/2006
Contact: Bob Delaporte, [phone]

RPW Executive Director Rick Wiley Statement on decision by Doyle's State Elections Board to willfully violate Federal Law. "This afternoon, the State Elections Board declined the opportunity to comply with federal election law. Instead, they rolled the dice and dared the US Department of Justice to file a lawsuit against them to force compliance with the Help America Vote Act.

Jim Doyle's appointees to the board have failed the voters of Wisconsin again. They have failed to prevent a likely lawsuit, they have failed to protect the rights of legitimate voters and most glaringly, they have failed to restore any confidence our proud state once had in clean and fair elections.

Even though Jim Doyle has spent Wisconsin into a $2.6 billion deficit, his cronies want to put the state even farther into debt to defend an indefensible decision to violate the law of the land. Not a dime of taxpayer money should be spent defending the actions of the Doyle run State Elections Board.

It is a sad day when the only way Jim Doyle sees a victory in November is by applying pressure to his appointees to violate federal election law. What does that say about the character of the man in charge of our state?"

http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=65287

[livvy]

13. Additional Battalion For Congo Polls

Additional battalion for Congo polls

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Army will send an additional battalion to Congo to monitor the next month elections. The 2 Raj Rifles battalion is expected to leave mid-July, official sources said.

The Indian Army has a clean record in United Nations operations. It is the third largest contributor to peacekeeping operations; it has three battalions — 15 Kumaon, 2/11 Gorkha Rifles, 5 Gorkha Rifles — along with components of other units and the Headquarters 301 Infantry Brigade in Congo. Last year, it lost two soldiers there. Interestingly, the infantry battalions are operating in close proximity to a Pakistani brigade but are not under their command.

Capt. G.S. Salaria was awarded the Param Vir Chakra during for his valiant actions in Congo in the early 1960s.

The U.N. has its largest military peacekeeping operation in Congo, with 16,000 personnel deployed across the country to curb rebels.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/06/24/stories/2006062404071300.htm

[livvy]

14. MA: Gabrieli's "Results" Campaign Has Some "Wait-and-See"

Gabrieli's `results' campaign has some `wait-and-see'

BOSTON -- Chris Gabrieli entered the 2006 governor's race promising to be a different kind of candidate, a non-politician focused on bottom-line results.

Those who didn't hear it at his announcement ceremony simply had to watch one of the more than $2.5 million worth of TV ads he bought during the ensuing weeks.

Since then, though, close listeners may have detected the strains of an old-school politician rather than a private-sector reformer. There's been backroom deal-making, big money and a tepidness about committing to ironclad positions.

First, Gabrieli qualified for the fall primary ballot earlier this month, but only after the House speaker swung 17 delegate votes his way at the conclusion of the Democratic State Convention.

Then, Gabrieli, a former supporter of the state's Clean Elections public financing law, declared he would spend up to $15.36 million of his own money on his gubernatorial campaign. He joked it was a play on the 15.36 percent of convention delegates he received, but it established an unprecedented spending cap for a Statehouse race.

>more
http://www.wfsb.com/Global/story.asp?S=5071325&nav=1VGm

[livvy]

15. Women Needed to Clean Beltway Mess: Will Pol. Scandals Boost...Candidates?

Commentaries by Donna Brazile
(Donna Brazile is a regular contributor to the "Backtalk" section of Ms. Magazine, providing insightful political commentary from an insider's perspective. In addition to contributing to Ms., Brazile is the chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute and an adjunct women's studies professor at Georgetown University. She's also the author of Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics (Simon & Schuster, 2004).)

Women Needed to Clean Beltway Mess: Will political scandals boost female candidates?

Spring 2006

Washington, D.C., is a loud city, especially in an election year. It’s always full of gossip and chitchat, but the buzz has been deafening lately. Some people in town are holding their breath, hoping the lobbying and corruption scandals involving such figures as Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff will go away. Others, giddy like children on Christmas morning, await the partisan gifts that a jury in Texas or a plea bargained, disgraced lobbyist might bestow.

There is also much chatter about how women candidates in 2006 could benefit from the recent scandals inside the Beltway. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, women are throwing their hats in the ring for major elected positions in nine-tenths of the Union: 15 women are running for U.S. Senate, 165 for the U.S. House and 15 for state governorships. And that’s not even counting those running for other state offices.

A number of open seats (no incumbent in the running) beckon women to compete, including Senate seats in Vermont, Tennessee, Maryland and Minnesota, and governorships in Massachusetts and Florida. If we follow the adage that “every open seat is a woman’s seat,” women really do have the poten tial to make some waves during this election cycle. This is welcome news for those hoping 2006 will become another “Year of the Woman.”

But can women candidates capitalize on the Washington scandals in order to position themselves to win? While there is support for the theory that political corruption benefits women candidates, women cannot always assume success in such a political climate. Take a look at both sides of the historical record:

>more
http://www.msmagazine.com/radar/2006-06-21-donnabrazilefull.asp

[livvy]

16. ACLU Challenges Lawmakers Who Aim To Gut Voting Rights Act....

ACLU Challenges Lawmakers Who Aim to Gut Voting Rights Act, Says Proposals Would Eliminate Historic Federal Protections (6/23/2006)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Media@dcacluorg

WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today strongly condemned a proposal by several Republican members of Congress to "modernize" the Voting Rights Act, noting that the move would actually gut a key enforcement provision of the historic civil rights law. The amendment was to be offered to H.R. 9, "The Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006," that was introduced with strong bipartisan support on May 2.

The reauthorization bill was slated for discussion and a vote on the House floor on June 20, and the authors of the amendments forced a delay in action as they had found little support.

"When some Members of Congress claim they support the Voting Rights Act, and just want to `modernize’ it, they are being completely hypocritical," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Their proposal would actually gut one of the Voting Rights Act’s key provisions. This is political double-talk at its worst, and is particularly offensive given that the right to vote is at stake."

The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Charlie Norwood of Georgia, and supported by other Republican members of the Georgia delegation, including Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, would "update" the formula used to determine which states and local governments would retain the protection of Section 5 of the VRA, which requires jurisdictions with significant histories of discrimination in voting to get federal approval of any new voting practices or procedures. On June 20, the House Committee on Rules allowed Norwood’s amendment to be considered when Congress votes on H.R. 9.

>more
http://www.aclu.org/votingrights/gen/25988prs20060623.html

[livvy]

17. Clean Elections Commission Fines Murphy $10,000 For Campaign Violations

State Rep. Rick Murphy

Clean Elections Commission fines Murphy $10,000 for campaign violations

Friday, June 23, 2006

By Elizabeth Jackman

Approximately a year-and-a-half after the 2004 election, State Rep. Rick Murphy (R-Dist. 9) was fined $10,000 for violating rules of the Clean Elections Campaign Act.

The investigation began after Republican incumbent Phil Hanson lost the election to Murphy and Republican Bob Stump.

Hanson wrote a letter dated Oct. 13, 2004 to then-executive director of the Clean Elections Commission, Colleen Connor, requesting the commission investigate Murphy's reports for five different infractions.

n transcripts from the CCEC public meeting held May 25, executive director Todd Lang said Murphy had written nine checks to a consultant totaling more than $20,000, approximately two-thirds of his total participating candidate funding.

>more
http://www.glendalestar.com/articles/2006/06/23/news/news08.txt

[livvy]

18. MA: Clean Elections Tab Skyrocketing

Clean Elections tab skyrocketing
[e-mail] 06/23/2006

More than $11M in public funds earmarked for 2006 state campaigns; program likely to fall into debt in '07

AUGUSTA - An estimated $9.5 million in taxpayer dollars could be spent to finance the campaigns of candidates participating in Maine's publicly funded election program.

That figure represents by far the highest public campaign tab since the state's first-in-the-nation Clean Elections Act went into effect in 2000.

More than $11 million will be earmarked for the campaigns of three and possibly four candidates for governor, 232 people running for the House, and 59 running for Senate, but the legislative candidates aren't likely to spend the maximum allowable amounts, according to state officials who monitor the Clean Elections fund.

Those numbers are up from the 116 candidates who participated when public campaign financing was first available in 2000 at a cost of around $900,000 to the taxpayers. Today, 77 percent of all legislative candidates running in the general election are using public money to finance their campaigns.

>more (be sure to read "How it works" if you're interested in Clean Elections and ideas as to how to make it work in your state)

http://www.timesrecord.com/website/main.nsf/news.nsf/0/174D7A3D34472DF00525719600585E24?Opendocument

[livvy]

19. Green Party National Meeting Set For Tucson, AZ, July 27-30

Press Release

Green Party National Meeting Set for Tucson, AZ, July 27-30
GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
www.GP.org
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Contacts:Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, [e-mail] Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, [e-mail] Claudia Ellquist, Chair, Green Party of Pima County, 520-622-3339, [e-mail]
Green Party's 2006 national meeting to be held in Tucson, Arizona, July 27-30
· Press conferences will introduce the Green Party's 'Peace Slate' of candidates; schedule to be announced.
· Media credentialing page: http://www.gp.org/forms/media

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Green Party of the United States will hold its 2006 annual national meeting in Tucson Arizona, from Thursday, July 27 to Sunday, July 30.

Hosted by the Pima County Green Party and titled "El Futuro es Verde / The Future is Green," the meeting will take place at the Historic YWCA Building, four blocks from the University of Arizona.

Members of the press are encouraged to cover the meeting; a schedule of press conferences will be announced shortly. Reporters attending the meeting can visit <http://www.gp.org/forms/media> to fill out the Media Credentials Registration Form, and may also register on site.

"Having our meeting in Tucson, so near to the Mexican border, helps focus attention on the Green Party's support for the rights of immigrants, humane immigration policies, and repeal of NAFTA, which has damaged the economic security of both working Mexicans and working Americans," said Jody Grage, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.

>more
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2006_06_22.shtml

[livvy]

20. DeLay Files Final Legal funds Report

DeLay Files Final Legal Funds Report
WASHINGTON, Jun. 24, 2006

(AP) Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay reported raising $18,500 from individuals and corporations for his legal expenses and spending $43,282.24 in legal fees from April 1 to June 9.

Friday marked DeLay's final report with the House on the Tom DeLay legal Expense Trust. He quit Congress this month and will no longer have to file such reports with the House.

A copy of the report was posted on the Web site of PoliticalMoneyLine, which tracks political fundraising and spending.

DeLay resigned from Congress June 9 facing a tough re-election race and money laundering charges in Texas.

A Travis County prosecutor has alleged DeLay and two associates violated the state's ban on spending corporate money on elections campaigns. District Attorney Ronnie Earle alleged that DeLay raised corporate money through a political committee he launched and funneled it to GOP legislative races by way of the Republican National Committee.

>more
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/24/ap/politics/mainD8IE8LF04.shtml

[livvy]

21. SC: Stringfellow Does Not Appeal

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: Stringfellow does not appeal
Story posted Jun 23, 2006 - 22:09:33 EDT
By Stephen Guilfoyle / Editor

Despite saying he would appeal the Chester County Democratic Party's decision to uphold the primary vote that put him 17 votes behind, the Rev. Bill Stringfellow did not file a protest on time with the state Democratic Party.

The county executive committee heard his protest Thursday, then four members voted unanimously to uphold last week's primary victory for Jeff Kerr in the school board at-large race.
Stringfellow said he would appeal that decision to the state party's Executive Committee. It had to be filed by 3 p.m. Friday.

Chester County Democratic Party Chairman Alex Wylie said the party called him at 3:30 p.m. to tell him no appeal had been filed. Wylie said he called on Thursday to alert the state party to be on the lookout for it.

>more

http://www.onlinechester.com/articles/2006/06/23/headlines/breakingnews2.txt

[livvy]

22. Are Absentee Ballots Really The Answer?

Are Absentee Ballots Really The Answer?
By Douglas W. Jones, the University of Iowa

June 23, 2006

The recently released Common Cause report (Malfunction and Malfeasance: A Report on the Electronic Voting Machine Debacle) recommends that voters vote by absentee ballots in order to avoid the use of direct record electronic machines. All the studies I've seen show that absentee ballot processing is itself worthy of a similar report. Furthermore, where DRE machines are used on a one-per-precinct basis but mark-sense ballots are also available in the precinct (as is common here in my home state of Iowa) the recommendation should be to vote on paper at the precinct, not to vote by absentee ballot.

In some jurisdictions, all absentee ballots are eyeballed before being scanned. Any ballots that look less than perfectly marked go to the ballot duplication board. Where this board operates out in the open, with the intense public scrutiny its efforts are worthy of, absentee ballots are not a bad choice.

In some jurisdictions, all ballots that scan as blank or that scan as having overvotes are sent to the duplication board. Again, where this board operates out in the open, absentee ballots are not a bad choice.

In some jurisdictions, a random sample of the absentee ballots are machine scanned and then hand counted, and if the machine scan and hand count have unreconcilable differences (there are, after all, genuinely ambiguous marks), either a hand count of all the ballots is required or the machines are recalibrated and the exercise repeated
until the hand and machine counts are in agreement. In such jurisdictions, absentee voting is not a bad choice.

>more
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1422&Itemid=26

[Wilms]

32. Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x436098

[livvy]

23. AL: Precincts Don't Meet Guidelines

06/23/2006
Precincts don't meet guidelines
By: Patrick Johnston

The Barbour County Commission is seeking $138,575 in reimbursements from the federal government for voting machines.
However, there is no guarantee the commission will receive the money. That is because few if any of the county's voting precincts meet requirements established by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Advertisement
County administrator Jackie Guthrie stated at a recent work session the county was required to notify federal officials whether all precincts meet ADA requirements, which cover everything from wheelchair ramps to water fountains and handicap-accessible bathrooms. Only a handful of precincts, like the Bevill Center and Clayton Courthouse, come close. It would cost several thousand dollars to bring some older and smaller precincts into compliance.

Guthrie said she would not sign that the county is in full compliance.

"I'm not signing a lie," she said.

>more

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16828410&BRD=2235&PAG=461&dept_id=439676&rfi=6

[livvy]

24. CO: Auditor To Check On Election Commission

Auditor to check on election commission
By Rocky Mountain News

June 23, 2006

Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher is taking the Election Commission up on its invitation to "clear things up" concerning lost voting records and rumors of faulty voting machines.

Gallagher will tour the Denver Election Commission warehouse at East 38th Avenue and York Street at 2:30 p.m. today to inspect the voting machines to be used in the Aug. 8 primary election.

The Denver Election Commission has faced a barrage of criticism as it shifts city voters to 47 citywide vote centers for the Aug. 8 primary, ending a century of voting neighborhood precinct polling places. The new system will allow residents to cast ballots anywhere in the city.

Gallagher intends to review plans for both elections and seek answers to questions he recently raised in two letters to Mayor John Hickenlooper concerning the possibility of serious problems that could negatively impact this year’s elections.

Primary among them is whether 63,000 voter records on microfilm have been located.

(note: I found this article around midnight last night...now it seems to have disappeared...hmmmm....Here's the Google link http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&tab=wn&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official_s&q=Denver%20Elections%20commission

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4796789,00.html

Here is a related article from a couple days before:

City auditor sees election trouble

New letter to mayor claims problems plague agency

By Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News
June 21, 2006

The city auditor wrote Mayor John Hickenlooper on Tuesday to warn of a "tsunami" of chaos at the election commission - rumors of more missing voter information and new voting machines not working - that could imperil Denver's upcoming elections.

"I am extremely concerned that the situation at the Denver Election Commission is such that the August Primary election - and concurrent municipal election - as well as possibly the November General Election are in jeopardy," City Auditor Dennis Gallagher wrote in his second letter in five days warning the mayor of problems at the independent election agency. "I do not raise this issue lightly."

The auditor's first letter, sent June 15, cautioned the mayor about rising public anger over a perceived "laissez-faire attitude" by the Hickenlooper administration in reaction to news reports that the commission had lost more than 150,000 voter records that could be exploited by identity thieves during a February move to new headquarters. Since then, the agency found microfilm for nearly 87,000 voter registration records left behind at its former office but has been unable to locate the file cabinet that held the rest of the files.

In a response letter Tuesday, the mayor wrote: "Like everyone else, we too have questions and concerns about the safeguards and record- keeping utilized during the election commission's move earlier this year, internal communication within the election commission, staff morale and turnover, and what appears to be an ongoing lack of accountability and organization."
>more (if it doesn't disappear!)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/elections/article/0,2808,DRMN_24736_4790361,00.html

[livvy]

25. Georgians To File Lawsuit Asserting E-Voting Rights Violations

Georgians to File Lawsuit Asserting E-Voting Rights Violations Print
By VoterGA Press Release
June 23, 2006
A coalition of Georgia voters announced yesterday that it will file a lawsuit on behalf of all nine million current and future Georgia voters to seek relief from Georgia's existing implementation of electronic voting. Representatives of VoterGA, explained that current statewide voting cannot be verified, audited or recounted. They contend that because no direct physical evidence of voter intent is ever captured by the machines, fraud and errors are now virtually undetectable statewide.

Prior to 2002, about 82% of Georgians used optical scan and punch card equipment to cast ballots that could be verified, audited and recounted. The 2002 statewide E-voting implementation reduced that percentage from 82% to
zero. Two years later, Free Congress Foundation rated Georgia as having the worst voting systems and procedures in America. As rationale for the rating, VoterGA founder, Garland Favorito, posed the question: "If voters cannot see
their own ballot selections, cannot physically verify that their ballot was ever cast and cannot participate in counting the ballots, how could they be further disenfranchised?"

Mark Sawyer, who is also a member of Defenders of Democracy, explained why Georgia activists decided that a lawsuit was necessary: "We have been fighting to preserve basic audit capabilities since the voting machines were
being evaluated and we've met every kind of resistance imaginable".

VoterGA retained Walker Chandler to represent what they believe are the interests of all Georgians. Chandler is a former Libertarian Attorney General candidate who has already won a U.S. Supreme Court decision against
the state for unreasonable search and seizure violations of the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Comment on This Article

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1419&Itemid=113

[livvy]

26. UT: Voting At Your Finger Tips

Voting at your finger tips

Voting has been made easy by the simple touch of a computer screen, but it was years in the making. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 was passed by Congress in response to the 2000 Presidential election where the notorious Palm Beach "butterfly ballot" yielded higher than expected votes for third-party candidate Patrick Buchanan, and other voting irregularities.

HAVA authorized the federal government to allocate funds to the states to replace their mechanical voting equipment with electronic voting apparatus. It also required states to make voting more accessible to people with disabilities and provide a means for voters to check their ballots before being cast. Utah responded to the federal mandate by forming a committee to create a state plan that included the transition from punch cards to the Diebold AccuVote TSx touch screen, also known as a DRE.

This system is not connected to the Internet and, additionally, produces a permanent paper record with every vote cast. This paper record permits voters to view how their votes are being recorded. While there has been criticism about the security flaws, from the plugs being easily kicked out of the sockets to the technical loading procedure, the new technology uses memory cards and a touch screen that is easier and more efficient than pushing a metal prong through a hole in printed cardstock.

Let's be frank, nothing is 100 percent foolproof. And people do seem to be taking to the machines, regardless. According to workers from the Washington County Administration Building, there has been a steady stream of early voters since June 13. Early voting continues until Friday. Voters can find the nearest polling location by logging on to the Internet and visiting http://gva1.utah.gov/elections/polling.aspxor calling their county clerk's office. If you are leery about the new way to cast your vote, you can practice by visiting the state's Web site at www.leaveyourprint.com.
>tiny bit more

http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060622/OPINION01/606220322/1014

[livvy]

27. Palast: Democracy in Chains

Democracy in chains

Greg Palast
June 23, 2006 05:03 PM

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/greg_palast/2006/06/voting_rights_act_nailed_to_bu.html

Don't kid yourself: the Republican party's decision yesterday to "delay" the renewal of the Voting Rights Act has not a darn thing to do with objections of the Republican's white sheets caucus.

Complaints by a couple of good ol' boys to legislation have never stopped the GOP leadership from rolling over dissenters.

This is a strategic stall that is meant to decriminalise the Republican party's new game of challenging voters of colour by the hundreds of thousands.

In the 2004 presidential race, the GOP ran a massive, multi-state, multimillion-dollar operation to challenge the legitimacy of black, Hispanic and Native American voters. The methods used breached the Voting Rights Act, and while the Bush administration's civil rights division grinned and looked the other way, civil rights lawyers began circling, preparing to sue to stop the violations of the act before the 2008 race.

>more
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/greg_palast/2006/06/voting_rights_act_nailed_to_bu.html

Discussions:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x435935

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x435970

[livvy]

28. Jim Crow GOP

Jim Crow GOP
Steve Rosenfeld

June 22, 2006
(Steve Rosenfeld is executive producer of RadioNation with Laura Flanders, heard on Air America Radio and community public radio stations. He is co-author, with Robert Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, of What happened in Ohio: A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election, to be published by The New Press this fall.)

What’s a bigger problem with American elections: disenfranchisment of minority voters or new electronic voting machines stealing votes?

Most people on the political left will answer electronic machines. But on Wednesday, House Republicans showed America exactly why old-school election thuggery is a far more pressing problem. In fact, it was Jim Crow tactics, not computer hacking, which gave George W. Bush his Ohio victory in 2004. And such tactics are exactly what a handful of southern GOP congressmen defended on Wednesday when they derailed renewing the National Voting Rights Act, complaining it does not end federal oversight of elections in their states and requires multilingual ballots.

These Republicans want elections in their states to return to the good old days, when mostly white people voted—just substitute registered Republicans in 2006—and ballots were only in English—no Español, por favor. Their grassroots rebellion reveals a dirty secret about elections that liberals and Democrats still haven’t learned from the 2004 presidential race: The GOP wins elections by targeting likely Democrats, especially minorities and new voters, by creating barriers in voter registration and obstacles to voting itself and ballot counting.

What’s the biggest mistake made by the political left when considering whether the 2004 presidential election was stolen? Democrats need to understand that if they don’t want a replay of swing states like Ohio tilting the outcome in 2008, they can't think that electronically hacking into vote-counting computers alone delivered George W. Bush his victory. A Republican do-everything-dirty strategy tilting the electoral process was the real culprit—targeting every phase from voter registration to vote counting. Perhaps Wednesday’s racist display by the House GOP will change minds. Perhaps we will realize that we need to expand the Voting Rights Act to ensure protections in every state, not just the South.

>more
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/06/22/jim_crow_gop.php

[livvy]

29. Immigration Issues on Arizona Ballot

Immigration issues on Arizona ballot
By Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press
June 23, 2006

PHOENIX - Arizona voters will decide in November whether to expand the list of government benefits denied to illegal immigrants and make English the state's official language.

As one of the final actions in a 164-day session that concluded early Thursday, the Arizona Legislature approved two ballot measures that were a small part of an ambitious Republican agenda intended to lessen Arizona's role as a busy illegal entry point.

After Gov. Janet Napolitano rejected a wide-ranging immigration bill two weeks ago, lawmakers pushing for tighter border security tried to resurrect elements of the proposal through ballot measures in an attempt to bypass the chance for a veto and let voters decide the issue.

They failed Wednesday night to push through the Legislature ballot measures that would have criminalized the presence of illegal immigrants in Arizona and set state punishments for businesses that hire illicit foreign labor.

>more

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4796123,00.html

[livvy]

30. Editorial: Extend the Voting Rights Act

editorial
Extend the Voting Rights Act

DenverPost.com

We hope the rebellion in the House last week that resulted in the Republican caucus refusing to consider renewal of the landmark Voting Rights Act was but a brief moment of insanity. Surely the rebels will reverse course once they have a quiet moment to ponder the absurdity of their action.

House leaders pulled the bill Wednesday after Southern Republicans rose up in opposition to a renewal of the 1965 civil rights measure. The leadership pledged to proceed with a vote soon, even though no provisions of the act expire until next year.

The Voting Rights Act guaranteed rights for African-Americans disenfranchised by Jim Crow laws and customs in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Virginia. The act was expanded in 1975 to cover Alaska, Texas and Arizona, where citizens with limited command of English, mainly Latinos, were being discriminated against in the voting process.

The Washington Post reported that House Speaker Dennis Hastert brought the measure forward this election year hoping to "convince voters that the Republican Party as presently constituted is just ultraconservative, not actually racist," but he was sandbagged by a group of Southern Republicans who felt their states were being unfairly singled out. Hastert actually had the votes to pass the extension, but he is wedded to an outrageously partisan policy of not bringing up legislation without majority support from Republicans.

>more

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_3973951

[Wilms]

31. Excuse Me Bartender. Would You Recommend a DRE?

Freeman, Craft, McGregor Group, Inc. - New Information about Paul Craft and Kate McGregor

By Susan Pynchon, Florida Fair Elections Coalition

June 23, 2006

Florida Fair Elections Coalition has obtained the employment records for Paul Craft and Kate McGregor from the Florida Division of Elections (DoE). These employment records include disturbing information about the lack of credentials for both Craft and McGregor, two of the three partners in Freeman, Craft, McGregor Group, Inc., a private consulting firm that is in the powerful position of advising states (including California, Illinois and Maryland) about the accuracy, security, certification and purchases of their voting systems.

snip

Paul Craft

Until his resignation from the Florida Division of Elections (DoE), effective November 30, 2005, Paul Craft was Chief of Florida’s Bureau of Voting Systems Certification. He continues to be one of 8 members of the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) Voting Systems Board and one of 3 members of the Technical Sub-Committee of that board. He is also a member of the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) for voting system standards for National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST).

We believe it is a conflict of interest for Craft to have a private consulting firm and to remain a member of the NASED Voting Systems Board, which puts its stamp of approval on voting systems, and on the TGDC Committee. (Many states require a system to be NASED approved before those systems can be purchased or used in any election). Craft is in the position of approving testing by the so-called Independent Testing Authorities (ITAs) which are paid to do the testing of voting systems by the voting system companies themselves. The ITAs have shown on a number of occasions that their first loyalty is to the voting machine vendors.

snip

Kate McGregor

snip

Notably, McGregor’s MCF Group resumé states that she was a partner in “Creative Computer Consultants” for 71/2 years (from March 1994 to December 2001) in Tallahassee, Florida. However, her DoE employment records state that during this entire period and longer (from December 1992 through September 2002) she was working as the Manager of the Leon Pub, a bar in Leon County. She lists her job duties at the pub as serving customers, preparing product orders, preparing tax returns and maintaining accounts payable. Additionally, we have been unable to find any record or history of "Creative Computer Consultants" ever having existed in Tallahassee, Florida.

snip/burp

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1421&Itemid=26


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x436095

[FogerRox]

33. Kickin & Recommended

[Wilms]

34. Brad Blog: Busby/Bilbray Election: EMERGENCY TOWNHALL MEETINGS

http://www.bradblog.com/?page_id=2998


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x436192

[Wilms]

35. IA: Polk recorder to contest election

Polk recorder to contest election

Tim Brien says he can't accept his primary loss without ensuring that another county's error wasn't duplicated.

BERT DALMER
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

June 24, 2006

Polk County Recorder Tim Brien, a five-term incumbent who was soundly defeated by a political newcomer in June's primary elections, plans to challenge the election results based on the failure of similar voting machines in another Iowa county.

Brien lost his re-election bid to a former colleague, Julie Haggerty, by 3,670 votes. He said he can't accept the numbers without firm assurances that a ballot-counting error in Pottawattamie County did not also happen in Polk County. Brien has suggested recounting ballots by hand, as Pottawattamie County officials did when they discovered that they had improperly programmed their new counting machines.

"I think it's the only way to lay it to rest," Brien said. "It could be totally clean as a whistle. But if I don't ask, I never will find out. I just want to make sure the process worked like it should work."

snip

(In Pottawattamie County) the results were dramatic. Every winner in Pottawattamie County's nine contested races turned out, in retrospect, to be a loser. Initial returns that showed incumbent Recorder John Sciortino losing by a margin of 1,245 votes to 1,167 was found to have actually won the election 2,061 votes to 347.

snip

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060624/NEWS05/606240322/1001


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x436191

[Bill Bored]

36. POTTAWATTAMIE! nt

[Wilms]

37. POTTAWATTA-YOU, too! n/t

:hi:

[GuvWurld]

38. Eureka Times-Standard to watchdogs: Put up or shut up

On June 6, CA primary day, I spoke at a press conference called by my group the Voter Confidence Committee. Here is a transcript of my prepared remarks. You'll notice that we challenged the media not to report what they can't prove or independently verify. I have stayed with this angle and, as mentioned in this thread, set up private meetings with the editors of both Eureka daily newspapers. The entirely lame editorial below seems to be a pre-emptive strike. Please submit letters in response to this ridiculous piece to: [e-mail] (include real name, address and phone).


http://www.times-standard.com/opinion/ci_3976080

Article Launched: 06/24/2006 04:30:16 AM PDT

Having confidence in our voting system
The Times-Standard

Questions have been raised about the reliability of our elections going back to 2000 nationally and more recently locally. This is not new. We only need to look back at the Nixon-Kennedy election. Our history is rich with stories of ballot stuffing, poll intimidation, dead people voting. As long as there are elections, there will be questions.

Currently, the doubts involve how we vote and the supposed ease at which electronic voting can be hacked or otherwise tampered with.

We appreciate that there are those in this community and elsewhere who are acting as watchdogs, taking the time to examine and test and oversee the equipment, people and system by which we elect our officials. Such oversight is needed.

But there comes a time when talk about tampering must be replaced with evidence. If there is specific evidence of a local problem, let's hear it.

If not, let's certainly continue to monitor, but with due credit to our local elections officials.