Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Tuesday 01/15/08

[Melissa G]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Tuesday 01/15/08


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If you can:
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[Melissa G]

1. States n/t

[Melissa G]

5. NY- FBI looking into Huntington election

FBI looking into Huntington election
BY RICK BRAND | [e-mail]
2:24 PM EST, January 15, 2008

The FBI has subpoenaed election records in the disputed Huntington town board race to investigate possible tampering after one voting machine recorded 40 more votes than the total cast.

FBI special Agent Michael S. Craft sent the grand jury subpoena Friday to Republican Commissioner Cathy L. Richter Geier at the Suffolk Board of Elections in Yaphank seeking "any an all documents, records correspondence and e-mails regarding the election machine ... used in district #33."

The subpoena comes after a recount and an intense court battle in which state Supreme Court Justice Emily Pines last month declared Democratic incumbent Glenda Jackson the winner over Republican challenger William Dowler. That recount showed Jackson leading by 23 votes, not counting the machine that produced more votes than voters. That machine also had Jackson leading 107 to 88. Pines ruled that even if all 40 extra votes were removed from Jackson, she would have still won by two votes.


Before ruling, Pines also brought in two outside elections mechanics who she said found "no evidence" the machine had "malfunctioned or been the subject of tampering," leading to the "inescapable conclusion that as a result of human error, the machine had not been properly set at zero."

Craft, who attended many of the court hearings, declined to comment yesterday on the subpoena as did U.S. Attorney spokesman Robert Nardoza. But Geier said that Craft informed her he wants to interview employees who were in any way connected with use of the machines. Geier said he does not believe there was any wrongdoing, though an error could have occurred when inspectors checked the 1,700 voting machines before they were sent out to the polls. "I trust our people implicitly," said Geier.

http://www.newsday.com/community/news/northshoresuffolk/huntington/ny-hlfbi0116,0,7976229.story

[Melissa G]

6. TX- Security cameras peer into elections room

Security cameras peer into elections room


By Jessica Hawley-Jerome - Managing Editor Tuesday, January 15, 2008 11:58 AM CST

In the spirit of maintaining the county's checks and balances, Elections Administrator Toba Perez will be under constant surveillance soon, at least while she is on the clock. Commissioners approved Perez' request for a camera to be installed in her 12th Street office, a move necessitated by recent public scrutiny.

Perez said that there have been questions regarding who goes in and out of her office, as well as several public information requests. Because she does not keep a running log of visitors, Perez said that a camera would be a viable solution.

"It's mainly because of security and our interest in the machines," Perez said.

County Tax Assessor Mae Vion Meyer currently has a system with three operating cameras that monitor her office. Perez, whose office neighbors Meyer's, said that the system can accommodate a fourth camera, which would record her desk and all of the voting machines 24 hours a days, seven days a week.
http://www.banderabulletin.com/articles/2008/01/15/news/624.txt

[Melissa G]

7. NJ-Group wants emergency ballots at polls

Group wants emergency ballots at polls
by Rick Hepp/The Star-Ledger Tuesday January 15, 2008, 1:04 PM
Voting activists this morning called on Attorney General Anne Milgram to let voters cast emergency ballots in the upcoming presidential primary if they feel uncomfortable with the state's electronic voting machines.

New Jersey registered voters already have the right to request an absentee ballot before the primary and have it counted on Election Day.

But the activists want the attorney general, who oversees elections, to let voters in the Feb. 5 presidential primary request an emergency ballot at the polls, provide them with a private area to cast the vote and have a secure ballot box to place it.

Typically, emergency ballots are provided only when a voting machine is broken.

The Coalition for Peace Action made the request after Gov. Jon Corzine signed a bill Sunday extending the deadline for the state to install printers on its 10,000 electronic machines so voters can ensure their electronic ballots are recorded accurately, and the printouts can be used for recounts.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/01/group_wants_emergency_ballots.html

[Melissa G]

8. Satire alert MI- Michigan's Diebold voting machines explode, Ron Paul voters say

Michigan's Diebold voting machines explode, Ron Paul voters say
Written by myhat2u
Story written: 15 January 2008



Michigan's Sutton County reported zero votes for Ron Paul Michigan supporters of GOP primary candidate Ron Paul filed a complaint today with Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land over voting machines they say explode when processing votes for their candidate.

Premier Election Solutions -- the vote artist company formerly known as "Diebold" -- makes the optical scanners used in Michigan's elections. The problem was first noticed early this morning when a Ron Paul voter fed his ballot into a Premier "AccuVote" scanner.

"After noticing that Albert Howard was not on the ballot, I decided to vote for Ron Paul," said Tim Sharpe of Jackson, Michigan. "When I finished marking the ballot I fed it into the optical scanner. There was a brief pause followed by a flash of light, and then a lot of smoke and a big explosion. It knocked me back quite a few feet."

There have been over two dozen reports of exploding AccuVote scanners in several Michigan counties so far today, and in each case the machine was processing a Ron Paul vote. Some Michigan Paul supporters suspect foul play; they think the exploding machines are an attempt to discourage Michigan voters from choosing Paul.

"That's the most ridiculous conspiracy theory I've ever heard," said Sir Archibald Wingate, Premier's High Commissioner for Voting Policy. "Statistically speaking, hand-counted paper ballots are far more dangerous because they can catch fire with something as simple as a lit match."

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i28880

[Algorem]

10. OH-Diebold to restate more than four years of results

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/01/diebold_to_restate_for_than_fo.htmllts
Posted by The Associated Press January 15, 2008 12:29PM
Categories: Breaking News

Diebold Inc. said today it will restate more than four years of financial statements after concluding discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the point at which the ATM-maker recognizes revenue.

After the federal accounting investigation began, Diebold changed the way revenue is reported to record sales only after its products are delivered or installed.

But the company, based in Green, near Akron, has concluded that its financial statements for fiscal 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2003; the quarterly data in 2006 and 2005; and the quarter ended March 31, 2007 "must be restated to reflect the company's revised accounting method and should no longer be relied upon."

Diebold management's report on internal control over financial reporting for fiscal 2006 also should no longer be relied upon, the company said...

[Melissa G]

11. NJ-GOVERNOR CORZINE TAKES ACTION ON LEGISLATION

GOVERNOR CORZINE TAKES ACTION ON LEGISLATION
By Governors Press... - January 15, 2008 - 12:13pm
Tags: Governor Jon S. Corzine,
Release Date: January 15, 2008



TRENTON - Governor Jon S. Corzine signed the following bills into law on Sunday, January 13, with related statements:

snip
Governor Corzine signed the following bills into law on Monday, January 14, with statements:




S-507/A-2730 w/Statement (Gill/Gusciora) – Requires mandatory audit of election results in randomly selected election districts.

“Today, I am signing into law this measure because it furthers the public confidence in the accuracy and conduct of our election process. There is no more important element in our democratic system than the integrity of our elections, and I wholeheartedly support the establishment of an audit team to review the accuracy and conduct of elections in the state. This law contains many critical elements, including (a) that the audit team include independent individuals and professionals capable of ensuring an appropriate statistical approach, (b) that the audits cover federal and statewide elections as well as a selected number of county and municipal elections, and (c) that the audits not prevent or compromise the ability of candidates or other applicant from requesting a recount. “While I firmly believe that this measure is intended to and will further the integrity of our election system, I do have a number of concerns which I will work with the legislative leadership and sponsors to address, and which would have led me to conditionally veto the bill had it been presented to me in other circumstances. Most significantly, I believe it is important to review the most appropriate method of sampling and selection of election districts to best realize the purposes of election auditing. While cost is not a determinative factor here, it is important that we expend our resources in those races where there is the greatest need to review the integrity of the electoral process. To this end, it will be important to assess whether the approach undertaken by this measure requires sampling at a level that exceeds what is necessary to provide confidence in the electoral result. Finally, it appears that further refinement may be appropriate to ensure that the audit process can be completed in a timely fashion and not cause problems related to the certification of election results. “In raising these concerns, I note that no other state has provided an independent audit team with the level of responsibilities and expectations set forth in this legislation. Given that New Jersey will be the first to do so, it is particularly appropriate that we commit to reexamining the approach taken in this legislation, and I will work with the Legislature to do so after we have had an opportunity to learn from the experience of the audit team in at least one statewide primary and general election. In this regard, I also observe that in light of my recent signing of Senate Bill No. 2949 (First Reprint) the deadline for the State to provide voting machines that shall produce an individual permanent paper record for each vote cast has been extended until June 3, 2008, and thus the application of this measure is unlikely to be possible at least until that date. “Again, I applaud the sponsors and the Legislature for their commitment to ensuring public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process and look forward to working with them to ensure that New Jersey is a leader in this area.”

http://www.politickernj.com/governor-corzine-takes-action-legislation-15438

[Melissa G]

12. PA-Northampton Tests New Voting Machines

Northampton Tests New Voting Machines

Northampton County’s Election Office is looking at new voting machines to replace the ones that didn’t pass a state inspection last year. During the November 2007 elections, the county switched back to the old fashioned lever voting machines. This afternoon officials heard from five different voting machine companies. The goal for county officials is to get new voting machines in time for Pennsylvania’s primary day. WFMZ’s Bo Koltnow will have more on this story tonight on 69 News at 6.
< VOTING TROUBLES > Northampton election officals say the state is lending a hand by committing $2 million.  Primary day is on April 22nd for Pennsylvania.
http://wfmz.com/view/?id=207168

[Melissa G]

13. CO- Lawmaker sounds death knell for electronic voting

Lawmaker sounds death knell for electronic voting
By John Ingold
The Denver Post

Article Last Updated: 01/15/2008 02:45:23 PM MST


Officials trying to figure out how to hold elections this year in Colorado have all but decided not to use the troubled electronic voting terminals that threw the elections into turmoil, a state senator told his colleagues today.

Sen. Ken Gordon, the co-chairman of a task force looking at the election issues, said instead, legislators and county clerks have decided to use paper ballots.

"The decision that has pretty much been made is it's going to be paper, and it's going to be the same in every county," Gordon said today, after a lunchtime meeting with the Senate's Democratic caucus, where he updated his colleagues on the election issues.

Still to be decided is whether those paper ballots will be filled out at polling places or delivered exclusively through the mail. Gordon said today that 44 county clerks are in favor of an all-mail-ballot election, while eight clerks, including those from Denver, El Paso and Pueblo counties, are against it.

The legislature has to give the clerks authority to hold an all-mail-ballot presidential election. Gordon, a Denver Democrat, said if the legislature approved an all-mail election, he would require that counties also provide voting centers where people who didn't receive a mail ballot or wanted to cast a ballot in person could go.
http://origin.denverpost.com/extremes/ci_7978228

[Melissa G]

14. OH- Diebold, Regulators Reach Agreement

Associated Press
Diebold, Regulators Reach Agreement
Associated Press 01.15.08, 4:26 PM ET

NORTH CANTON, Ohio - Diebold Inc., which has not issued revenue and earnings statements since April, said on Tuesday it has reached agreement with federal regulators over how to report revenue.

But Diebold (nyse: DBD - news - people ) still has not said specifically when it will provide financial results for the second, third and fourth quarters of 2007 plus any revisions for previous years.

On Dec. 21, the company disclosed that the Justice Department was joining the Securities and Exchange Commission in a probe of Diebold accounting practices.

The company said it anticipates its accounting issues will be resolved during the first quarter of 2008.

Diebold, a maker of ATMs, business security systems and voting machines, said it has reached agreement with the SEC's Office of the Chief Accountant regarding the company's practice of recognizing certain revenue on a "bill and hold" basis.

Bill and hold is a means of reporting revenue before delivery of a product is completed.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/01/15/ap4534717.html

[Melissa G]

15. MN- Commissioners mediate voting machine dispute

Commissioners mediate voting machine dispute
James Bordewick Park Rapids Enterprise
Published Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Hubbard County commissioners mediated a dispute last week between members of Arago and Clover township boards regarding voting machines.

Members of both boards appealed to commissioners to resolve concerns over which entity would be responsible for purchasing additional electronic voting equipment if the townships split their combined precinct.

Commissioners resolved, by board consensus, to develop a county policy on precinct dissolution.


Hubbard County’s 34 voting districts consolidated into 22 precincts to avoid paying money beyond the federal grant for electronic voting equipment mandated by the Help America Vote Act.

Clover and Arago decided to combine precincts partly due to an insufficient infrastructure at the Arago town hall, according to Arago clerk Patti Stulich.
http://www.parkrapidsenterprise.com/articles/index.cfm?id=10763§ion=News

[Algorem]

18. OH- New voting machines mandated for Ohio

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/NEWS24/801150330

State wants 57 counties to scrap touch-screens

By JOE VARDON
BLADE STAFF WRITER

Over the past few years, Lucas County spent more than $4 million to buy 1,613 Diebold touch-screen voting machines, but now Ohio's secretary of state wants those machines to be scrapped and replaced with optical scanners with paper ballots.

"If we have to pay, that would be a huge issue for us," county Commissioner Pete Gerken said. "It's unlikely we'd be able to spend five, eight, nine million on our own. We support having voting machines people believe in, and I think understands local communities can't pay for it alone."

The issue surfaced first in Cleveland, with state officials determining that touch-screen voting machines used in Cuyahoga County were so unreliable that Ms. Brunner - the state's chief elections officer - ordered them dumped prior to the March 4 primary.

But the Diebold AccuVote-TSX, soon to be extinct in Cuyahoga County, will still be in use when Democrats and Republicans cast primary votes in Lucas, Wood, Fulton, Henry, Defiance, Hancock, Paulding, and Van Wert counties in the northwest portion of Ohio...

[Melissa G]

19. MO-Study prompts concern over voting machines

Study prompts concern over voting machines
By KEILA SZPALLER of the Missoulian



Problems with machines and software used to count votes in Missoula have prompted the League of Women Voters of Montana to ask the secretary of state to decertify the suspect election equipment.

“Trustworthy elections cannot be assured as long as the machines themselves are untrustworthy,” said the organization in a Jan. 6 letter to Secretary of State Brad Johnson.

The flaws came to light in a two-year, $1.9 million study released last month in Ohio. The matter arose Monday during a Missoula League of Women Voters meeting.


snip
Ohio's secretary of state conducted the study to improve the integrity of that state's elections. The study included an analysis of machines and software built by Election Systems and Software, which Montana uses. The report concluded that the ES&S voting system failed security checks and failed to meet best practices requirements.

The league responded by urging Johnson to decertify all such machines until they could be updated: “As you know, Montana law (MCA 13-17-103(2)) requires that state-approved voting systems ... ‘be based on commonly accepted industry standards for readily available technologies.' The EVEREST report reveals that ES&S machines used in Montana are not.”
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/01/15/news/mtregional/news10.txt

[Melissa G]

20. CO- Mayo foils voting machines

Mayo foils voting machines
Boulder County Clerk begins to dig through ballots used to test voting equipment
By Laura Snider (Contact)
Tuesday, January 15, 2008


Ballots smeared with lipstick, blotted with mayonnaise or clamped with a paper clip -- among other abnormalities -- were at least partially responsible for flunking Boulder County's voting equipment, Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall said Monday.

Secretary of State Mike Coffman decertified the county's vote-counting machines, manufactured by Hart InterCivic, last month because they "failed to count ballots correctly" in tests.


"When we heard them talking about stray marks (as the cause), we thought it meant random pen marks," Hall said. "These ballots would never have made it into the scanner."

On Wednesday, Hall will submit a request to the secretary of state, asking him to review his decision to decertify the machines.

"The certification process tests the equipment, but it doesn't test it in a real election situation, taking in the front-end processes and back-end processes," Hall said
http://dailycamera.com/news/2008/jan/15/mayo-foils-machines/

[flashl]

22. TX: Hundreds of area voters might have registrations canceled

County, state officials blame one another.

A recent change in voter registration law has left hundreds and possibly thousands of Travis and Williamson county residents temporarily ineligible to cast their ballots here.

Most are voters who had moved to other parts of Texas and recently returned. No one is sure how many people that is. But Travis County officials are scrambling to reach the approximately 8,500 people known to have moved out of the county who could go to the polls in the March presidential primaries and find they cannot vote.

...

"It's a mess," said Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector Nelda Wells Spears, whose office oversees voter registration.

The problem is that a new statewide voter registration database canceled 8,500 Travis County registrations when it came online last year.

Statesman

[Melissa G]

2. National n/t

[Melissa G]

17. 'Send Lawyers, Peace and Money': New Hampshire Election Contests Get Technical, Testy Before They Ev

BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 1/15/2008 4:27AM
'Send Lawyers, Peace and Money': New Hampshire Election Contests Get Technical, Testy Before They Even Begin
Election Integrity Experts Converge and Join Both Republican and Democratic Candidates in Quest for Transparency
New Hampshire Secretary of State Questioned About Documentation, Poll Records and Diebold Memory Cards...
By Brad Friedman from Sacramento...

Election Integrity experts from around the country have been converging on the Granite State over the last several days, in preparation for "historic" state-wide hand counts of New Hampshire's Primary Election ballots, The BRAD BLOG has learned. Counts of votes in both the Democratic and Republican side will begin in earnest this Wednesday, as long as the two contesting candidates deliver certified checks by 3pm on Tuesday, in an amount determined on Monday by Secretary of State William M. Gardner.

The battle for transparency and accountability on the ground, where some 80% of the state's ballots were tallied only by error-prone, hackable Diebold optical-scan voting machines, without human audit or spot-check of any kind, in last week's first-in-the-nation Primary, is already growing heated on both sides of the aisle, and even inside the statehouse as of Monday.

While representatives from each of the contestants have reportedly been working together on several aspects of the two separate counts --- each claiming to have requested the hand-counts in order to help answer questions about anomalous reported results --- what has become immediately clear, during our interviews with several members involved in the challgenges, as well as Election Integrity advocates now in New Hampshire and elsewhere, is that these election challenges may not likely mirror the partial recount in 2004, held at the request of then-Presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

As a two-page request for a detailed list of ballot and voting machine-related public documents and records, obtained by The BRAD BLOG, as submitted on Monday to Gardner by the previously obscure Republican candidate Albert Howard made clear, the battle for integrity and transparency in post-election challenges, may have finally caught up with the technical sea-changes in voting equipment that have overtaken the American election system over the last several years.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5560

[Melissa G]

3. International n/t

[Melissa G]

4. Editorial n/t

[Melissa G]

16. Jan 14 comment from John Gideon- voters unite

VotersUnite Co-Executive Director Ellen Theisen called Kerry Asbridge, Hancock Co Illinois County Clerk, in regards to a news report from late last week that Mr. Asbridge had requested the DoJ to investigate the deceptive business practices of ES&S. Asbridge spoke openly about how ES&S has treated his county; words that have been spoken previously by election officials across the country. Ellen reports this from her conversation with Asbridge: "The county, for years, sent their ballot information to ES&S on paper. Last year, the vendor told them they wanted it in Excel in a specific format. So, last November, the county sent it to ES&S as requested for this coming election. A week before Christmas, ES&S contacted them, said they had changed the format and **for a fee** would convert the data for them. The county resubmitted it themselves in the new format. Then a couple of weeks ago ... a repeat. New format, and for a fee ES&S would convert it." How many other counties across the nation have had to face the same business practices from a vendor that has been called “arrogant” and, as one retiring Arkansas election official pointed out last year, they “lack competency to make their equipment work timely and effectively. They ... make a difficult job impossible to do. They can’t spell, meet deadlines, send documents to the right address or code elections correctly. They leave races off the ballot for us to correct, they can’t program their software to work and you have to hand add the results. And they don’t return phone calls. The ES&S people in Arkansas are capable but the people I have dealt with in the home office in Omaha prevent them from being effective. They are also mean-spirited when you try to get them to correct the numerous and recurring errors.”
www.votersunite.org

[Algorem]

9. OH-Blackwell joins Club for Growth board

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-37/1200420704197580.xml&storylist=cleveland
1/15/2008, 12:57 p.m. EST
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Former Ohio Secretary of State and 2006 Republican candidate for governor Ken Blackwell has been named the newest member of the board of the Club for Growth, which advocates free-market, limited government policies.

The Washington-based Club for Growth can be a heavy player in Republican politics. The organization, for example, recently began running ads against Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee because of dissatisfaction with his gubernatorial record on taxes and spending

Club for Growth President Pat Toomey said Blackwell was a longtime defender of limited-government policies.

"He has an impressive history ... fighting for lower taxes and against bloated government spending in Ohio," Toomey said in a statement released Monday.









crap,posted in wrong spot."impressive history"?talk about crap.

[Kurovski]

21. K&R.

Thanks, MG! :hug: