Election Reform and Related News: Saturday, March 29, 2008

[livvy]

Election Reform and Related News
Saturday, March 29, 2008



US Deaths in Iraq confirmed by the DoD: 4005
US Deaths in Afghanistan confirmed by the DoD: 491
Documented civilian deaths from violence in Iraq: 82,567 – 90,088



Please be sure to check out Vickiss's excellent thread from Friday for more very recent news.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=499691&mesg_id=499691

Everyone is welcome to participate. Feel free to:

:redbox: Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

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

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ...

:redbox: Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

:redbox: Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.

Recommendations for the Greatest Page are always welcomed. It's the best way to share the news with members who don't frequent this forum. It's the link below.

[livvy]

1. States n/t

[livvy]

2. IL: Suburban Voter Turnout in Cook County Highest in 20 Years

Suburban voter turnout in Cook County highest in 20 years
By David Beery | Daily Herald Staff
Published: 3/29/2008 12:09 AM

Cook County Clerk David Orr's final report on the Feb. 5 primary confirms what was apparent on Primary Day: Suburban voters turned out in droves.

Orr's office, which oversees elections in all of suburban Cook County, reported Friday that the suburbs' turnout for a presidential primary was the highest in 20 years.

Throughout suburban Cook, 43 percent of registered voters cast ballots, topping the 40 percent turnout in the 1992 primary. This year's turnout was heaviest in Oak Park and Evanston townships, where ballots were cast by 59 percent and 55 percent of registered voters, respectively. Among Northwest suburban townships, the highest turnout was in Wheeling, with 42 percent.

Orr's report gives further evidence, too, of a particularly heavy Democratic turnout in a primary that featured two Democratic presidential hopefuls with Illinois connections: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

a bit more...

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=162560&src=1

[livvy]

3. IN: Clark County Prepares For Packed Polls

Clark County prepares for packed polls
By MELISSA MOODY
Published: March 29, 2008 12:43 am
[e-mail]


— Clark County election officials expect to see almost double the voters at the polls for the 2008 primaries May 6, thanks to a contested race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

If voter turnout in the rest of the United States is any indication, Clark County’s tally — which was about 23 percent of the 65,388 registered voters for the 2004 primary elections — could be as much as 40 percent of registered voters for this year’s primary.

“It’s hard to predict,” said Donna Ennis, a member of the Clark County Election Board. “But based on what’s going on — what they show in the news and everywhere else — we’re projected a high voter turnout.

“People in Indiana are seeing all the attention. In previous presidential primaries, I can’t remember any president coming to campaign here.”

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton will be in New Albany today, and Ennis said she heard from a reliable source that Democratic rival Barack Obama also is planning to make a visit to Southern Indiana.

more...



http://www.news-tribune.net/clarkcounty/local_story_089004319.html?keyword=topstory

[livvy]

4. OH: Paper Finds Inconsistency in Crossover Voting

Paper finds inconsistency in crossover voting

Published:Saturday, March 29, 2008

In Mahoning County, crossover voters were challenged but given ballots even if they didn’t sign a pledge form.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Some Ohio counties challenged voters who switched parties when they voted in the state’s March 4 primary, while other counties challenged none, a newspaper review found.

The discrepancies show it’s time to review a century-old state law that outlines who can vote in party primaries, elections experts say.

More than 20,000 crossover voters in Cuyahoga County — the state’s largest county and a Democratic stronghold — were told by poll workers to sign statements pledging allegiance to their new party.

But a review by The Columbus Dispatch published Friday found Franklin County and other counties didn’t challenge any party switchers, while some counties only did so at the polls, but not if the voters used an absentee ballot.

more...

http://www.vindy.com/news/2008/mar/29/paper-finds-inconsistency-in-crossover-voting/

[livvy]

5. PA: County Has Deal To Sell 50 Voting Machines

County has deal to sell 50 voting machines
By The Tribune-Review
Saturday, March 29, 2008

Fayette County commissioners on Thursday ratified an agreement for the sale of 50 eSlate electronic voting machines to Blair County.
The machines are to be sold for $1,300 each, generating $65,000 in revenue that is to be set aside for election costs.

Commissioner Vincent Zapotosky said the eSlate machines are no longer needed because Fayette recently purchased 113 eScan machines, which are expected to reduce waiting times at the polls.

Both machines are manufactured by Texas-based Hart Intercivic, but each is operated differently.

The eScan machines use a paper ballot that is fed into a fax-type machine that reads and records the ballot. With the eSlates, voters use a dial to rotate through the choices in each race before pressing a button to select a candidate.
Both machines produce paper trails, but only the eScans use paper ballots.



more...
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_559632.html

[livvy]

6. PA: Election Board Delays Decisions On Vote Scanners

Election board delays decisions on vote scanners
By Richard Robbins
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, March 29, 2008

The Fayette County Election Board delayed until next week a series of decisions concerning new eScan voting machines, including whether to alert voters when they have not voted in all eligible races.

At a meeting Friday, the board instructed election bureau Director Laurie Lint to contact the two counties where the machines have been in use, Bedford and Lancaster, and the manufacturer, Texas-based HartIntercivic.

The county recently purchased 113 of the machines at a cost of $580,120. Election officials from throughout the county will receive training on the machines the week of April 14, Lint said.

Primary election day is April 22.

more...

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_559630.html

[livvy]

7. MS: Wilinson Election Pushed Back

Wilkinson election pushed back
By Vershal Hogan (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Saturday, March 29, 2008

Woodville — It will be almost a year after the initial election fight began that Wilkinson County residents will know the final results of the August 2007 Democratic primary election.

Instead of calling off the upcoming Democratic primary election do-over in response to a federal lawsuit, Judge Jim Persons ordered the date moved back to make if fall in compliance with federal law.

Three Wilkinson County residents filed the suit because the April 15 date Persons originally set for the specially-called primary earlier this month did not allow for the required 60 days prior notice for a specially-called election.

snip...

The incumbent candidates filed the contest after the Wilkinson County Democratic Executive Committee decided to throw out all of the absentee, affidavit and curbside ballots for the election after Smith, Stewart and Delaney came to them with allegations of fraud and intimidation during the election.

The decision to toss the ballots was done without the examination of a single ballot, but committee members allege that was because Allen, who was custodian of the ballots at the time, did not allow them to do so.

more...

http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/news/2008/mar/29/wilkinson-election-pushed-back/

[livvy]

15. TX: Early Voting For Runoffs Begins on Monday

March 28, 2008, 10:48PM
Early voting for runoffs begins on Monday
Voters can cast a ballot at 35 sites around Houston


Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle


Early voting starts Monday and ends Friday for Republican and Democratic runoffs on the April 8 ballot.

Voters who participated in a March 4 primary can vote in the second round only in the runoffs for the party they chose in the first round.

Voters who did not vote in the March 4 primary can vote in either the Republican or the Democratic runoff contests.

Early voting in Harris County takes place 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. next week at 35 locations. Voters can cast an early ballot at any location.

For election day, the parties have drastically reduced the number of polling places from March 4 and each voter can vote only at the location designated for their precinct. So officials urge voters to cast ballots early, when they have more options on where to vote.

more...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5657836.html

[livvy]

18. Sequoia Voting Systems Announces NJ Source Code and Accuracy Review by Wyle Labs

March 28, 2008 05:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Sequoia Voting Systems Announces New Jersey Source Code and Accuracy Review by Wyle Labs

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sequoia Voting Systems today announced that it has secured Wyle Laboratories to review and test voting equipment source code and accuracy as used in the state of New Jersey.

Wyle Laboratories (www.wylelabs.com), an Election Assistance Commission (EAC) accredited Voting System Test Lab, is a leader in the development of approaches to improve the test and evaluation of large software systems.

During the February 5 New Jersey primary, some Advantage direct recording electronic (DRE) machines appeared to show a discrepancy between the number of votes cast and the reported number of votes for each party. A subsequent review by the state of New Jersey and Sequoia Voting Systems determined that the data on all cartridges in the affected counties were correct, and that all votes were accurately recorded. Sequoia engineers have since identified the cause of the discrepancy, shared this information with its customer, and have upgraded the source code that is currently undergoing certification testing to eliminate the potential for future discrepancies.

Wyle Laboratories will review the source code used in the New Jersey primary election to confirm the cause of the reporting discrepancy. In addition, Wyle will accuracy test the Advantage with currently installed firmware as well as the firmware that is undergoing certification testing to be used in future elections.

The results of this analysis will be sent directly to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.

(That's it except for a description of who Sequoia is.)

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080328005720&newsLang=en

[livvy]

19. KY: Clarksville Woman Sought Special Prosecutor

March 29, 2008


Judge rejects vote-probe request

Clarksville woman sought special prosecutor

By Ben Zion Hershberg
[e-mail]

A Clark County Circuit Court magistrate yesterday rejected a request to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of absentee-vote fraud in Clarksville.

The request was filed March 20 by Mary Farrell of Clarksville, who alleged that town Street Superintendent Donnie Hansford had violated absentee-ballot law during Clarksville's 2003 election. She also alleged that a special prosecutor was needed because Hansford and Clark County Prosecutor Steve Stewart have a "close political relationship."

Magistrate Ken Abbott denied the request in an order, saying "there exists no clear and convincing evidence that the appointment is necessary."

Farrell said she was disappointed by Abbott's decision. She said she hadn't received a copy of the ruling and wouldn't decide whether to appeal until she had a chance to review it.



More...
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080329/NEWS02/803290487

[livvy]

20. NJ: GOP Rival Urges Probe of Senate Hopeful

GOP rival urges probe of Senate hopeful
Saturday, March 29, 2008

BY HERB JACKSON

Rival Senate candidate Murray Sabrin on Friday seized on Andy Unanue's admission that he lived in New York City since 2004 while continuing to vote and register his cars using his parents' address in Alpine.

"Voter fraud is a serious violation and if Andy Unanue committed such violations he should be held accountable," Sabrin, a Ramapo College professor from Fort Lee, said in a news release.

He called on U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie to look into potential violations of voting laws, and on New York and New Jersey insurance regulators to look at potential fraud.

Unanue, a former executive of Goya Foods who announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate six days ago, told The Record on Thursday that he has a New Jersey license and keeps "most of my cars in New Jersey" even though he moved from his parents' home in Alpine to Central Park West in 2004.

more...



http://www.northjersey.com/news/njpolitics/17121111.html

[livvy]

8. Election '08 n/t

[livvy]

9. WaPo Columnist: Why Obama Rocks the Vote

Why Obama Rocks the Vote

By Catherine Rampell
Sunday, March 30, 2008; B07


Just before every presidential campaign of the past few decades, the media have heralded the Year That Young People Will Actually Vote. Yet each of those years turned out to be a youth turnoff. The last time more than half of 18-to-24-year-olds voted in a federal election was 1968.

The hubbub is instigated every election cycle by the youth voter mobilization movement, led by Rock the Vote and Declare Yourself. These nonpartisan groups generally try to make voting more palatable in practice and principle: They make voter registration more convenient, and they try to make casting a ballot sound fashionably subversive. Both strategies have failed. This year, though, youth turnout is doing a turnabout, if numbers from the primaries are any indication. And it's because where Rock the Vote has gone wrong, Barack Obama has gone very, very right.

very big snip to get to the author's theory...

Here's my pet theory on why Obama energizes young voters. Other efforts to increase youth turnout have emphasized destruction of the status quo, but because they are "nonpartisan" they can't promote any alternative to root for. In contrast, Obama has given youths a team to join. In making his appeal to young people -- and few politicians have so directly and repeatedly addressed youth issues, such as college tuition -- he uses the first-person plural. Just as he preaches racial unity, so too does he seem to advocate age-based reconciliation, rather than a generational culture war young people know they can't win.

Obama emphasizes that political engagement is about being part of something bigger than oneself, not rebelling against that something bigger. He does not try to make voting individualistic, retaliatory or "bad-ass." Voting, like political engagement, is what it is: decent and well-mannered. Obama may portray himself as an outsider, but he wants to change things the old-fashioned way -- through idealism and authenticity, not rock-and-roll and cynicism. In other words, he's made voting hip by being square.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/28/AR2008032801857.html

[livvy]

10. Viewpoint: Superdelegates Are In The Driver's Seat

Article published Mar 29, 2008

Superdelegates are in the driver's seat
I had to laugh last weekend watching New Mexico governor and superdelegate Bill Richardson, who was everywhere endorsing Sen. Barack Obama, taking a moralistic stance on superdelegates respecting the will of the people.

Come again. Which people?

Would that be the people of his home state, who he will actually be "representing" at the convention, or the people of the 48 states that will be allowed to vote on the first Credentials Challenge, or the people of the 50 states who will be voting if Sen. Hillary Clinton ultimately has even one more vote than Obama on the question of seating Florida and Michigan?

High-minded moral questions about respecting the will of the people don't usually lend themselves so easily to the multiple-choice approach. Of course, the people of New Mexico handed Clinton a very comfortable victory, as did the people of Massachusetts, which isn't, and shouldn't be, stopping superdelegates Richardson and Sen. Ted Kennedy from casting their votes for Obama.

If you do the math, you quickly come to the conclusion that neither candidate, barring some truly unexpected landslide, is going to win this nomination on the basis of pledged delegates alone. As the rules structure it, there is no "will of the people," or at least not one strong enough to support a nominee.

Unless you want to change the rules in the middle of the game, the fact is that it will be up to the superdelegates to do what they were put there to do: decide who is most electable and cast their votes accordingly.

And who is the most electable of the two?

The truth is, who knows?

more...

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080329/OPINION04/76248935/-1/opinion

[livvy]

14. Zogby Visits CMU (Michigan)

Zogby visits CMU

Pollster says he's loved politics from the start
By Lisa Satayut
Sun Staff Writer

World renowned political pollster John Zogby still remembers when his mother took him to see General Dwight Eisenhower speak before he became president.
Zogby was just 4 years old.

Even at a very young age he felt a passion for politics.

"I saw him from a distance,"Zogby said of Eisenhower. "It was a big deal.”

big snip to an interesting question and response...

When asked why his predictions have been off lately, he said he doesn't predict the outcome of an election.

"We don't predict, we capture a snapshot,"Zogby said.

He said that polling for the primaries has been difficult.

"It's difficult this time around,"he said. "It's a volatile electorate.”

a bit more...

http://www.themorningsun.com/stories/032908/loc_zogby.shtml

[livvy]

21. NYT: A Case of the Blues

March 30, 2008
A Case of the Blues
By BENJAMIN WALLACE-WELLS
Correction Appended

The Oklahoma Congressman Tom Cole is 58 years old, but he has never been famous before, and after this year, he will most likely never be famous again. Even this kind of fame, brief and slight, is uncomfortable on him. Cole is a party man, a lifelong Republican consultant, campaign worker and politician whose career, like that of a typical European Social Democrat, has recognized only a fluid and fungible line between political operative and elected official. It sometimes seems an accident he’s in Congress at all. He is tall and slightly formal, and slightly awkward; people who meet him casually describe him as cordial or gentlemanly. The Republican Party, in its current uncertainty, might have chosen an ideologue to fill Cole’s post or, as is its habit, a money man. Its choice of Cole, an operative, was the establishment insisting that its own learned habits were enough to save itself. “Right now, with where we are,” Ken Mehlman, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, told me, “Tom Cole is the perfect leader.”

Cole is a year into his term as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the group charged with managing the party’s simultaneous campaigns for 435 seats in Congress, and this role has made him responsible for rebuilding the Republican Party from the ground up, and for mounting a defense of the political map. All campaign operatives are, to some extent, geographers, and the map of the United States, endlessly studied, is the object of their pieties and contains their own compulsions. Every operative has his own map, weighted by income, by ethnicity, by the practiced habits of ideology, but each believes his map is determinative and that elections do not contain surprises but more precise revelations of the map, of tendencies buried deep.

Early in December, I met Cole for the first time in the N.R.C.C.’s offices on Capitol Hill, in a building it shares with the R.N.C. The building has small cubbyholes like telephone booths, from which representatives make fund-raising calls, and a sleek phone bank in the basement that is populated, election nights, by the party’s interns and operatives. His own office walls are crammed with so many tribal curios — Cole, who is part Chickasaw, is the only registered member of a Native American tribe in Congress — that it can seem as if they are being offered for sale.

In 2006, the Democrats won so many elections in what was traditionally Republican territory that Cole, as his party’s chief Congressional recruiter, now finds himself in the unlikely position of flying into what used to be considered safe conservative districts and trying to goad Republican businessmen and state senators into running for Congress. His progress, he told me, has been mixed. He mentioned a black Republican prosecutor from Indiana named Curtis Hill, from a district that the party lost in 2006. Cole said he thought the seat was a more natural fit for his party than for the Democrats, and he wanted badly to convince Hill to run. Hill happened to be a founding-fathers buff, and so Cole flew him to Washington to meet with the White House political team and be briefed on how he could win, to look out at the monuments from his window seat and imagine himself as part of history. “Very intoxicating,” Hill told me afterward. But he was not convinced. Cole then flew out to Indiana to press Hill to run, telling him that the Democratic congressman, Joe Donnelly, could be depicted as a tool of Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, and out of touch with the values of the district. Hill thought about it hard. But he had five kids at home, and he also didn’t quite buy Cole’s description of Donnelly, whom Hill considered “a relatively conservative Democrat. I don’t think he’s done anything in his record that’s irritated anyone.” Hill turned the offer down. Cole said he had become convinced that Hill’s political gifts were so great that he would be running for senator or governor soon. “God, he’s just great,” Cole told me wistfully. “He’s just a star.”

More...This is a long piece, but I found it quite interesting. Know thine enemy, so they say. Wallace-Wells writes about national affairs for Rolling Stone, and is the author of the piece on Axelrod.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/magazine/30Republicans-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin

[livvy]

11. World n/t

[livvy]

12. Yemen: Hadramout Workshop Promotes Political Participation of Women

Yemen Observer: http://www.yobserver.com

Hadramout workshop promotes political participation of women
Posted in: News Varieties
Written By: Eman al-Jarady
Article Date: Mar 29, 2008 - 2:20:36 AM

Participants of a recent workshop learn to involve women in politics.
The women’s movement in Yemen and women’s organizations worked to support the active participation of females in the elections of 2006 and politics in general. Many workshops and forums were organized with this goal towards women’s issues and to help them reach the ranks of Parliament and play a serious role in their country’s political arena.

Recently, a workshop, organized by various civil society organizations focused on women’s issues, was held in al-Kukala of Hadramout. Over 20 participants and trainers attended, holding such training sessions that were oriented on ways and strategies to support women’s issues. The result of this workshop was to create a forum to support women’s issues and facilitate their participation in the upcoming elections of 2009.

President Salah, among others, have expressed support in a quota system that would guarantee women 15 percent of the seats in Parliament. However, opponents to this system argue that its introduction would require a major legislative effort and prefer the status quo, yet a study completed by Khaled al-Anesi, executive director of the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms (HOOD), found that the quota system could be enacted without major changes to the law.

Approximately 42 percent of Yemeni women, nearly four million, are registered voters, but even with such a number of voting women, the elections of 2006 saw little women elected or even candidates to political positions. Of the several thousand local council seats to be elected, only a few dozen women were accepted as candidates and even fewer elected.

more...

http://www.yobserver.com/news-varieties/10013987.html

[livvy]

13. E-Voting in Windsor

E-voting in Windsor

By IAN FAIRCLOUGH Valley Bureau
Sat. Mar 29 - 5:31 AM

WINDSOR — This town is planning to try electronic voting during municipal elections in October in an attempt to boost anemic voter turnout.

With only about 34 per cent of voters casting ballots for mayor and council in previous elections, the town hopes the new method will get more people involved in the process, chief administrative officer Louis Coutinho said.

He said there are no specific goals for voter turnout through the new system.

The system works by giving voters an electronic PIN so they can vote over the Internet or by telephone, but they may still go to a voting station and fill out a paper ballot if they prefer.

If they do decide to mark their X by pencil, their ID numbers will be recorded in the main database to prevent duplicate voting, Mr. Coutinho said.

more...

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1046375.html

[livvy]

16. National n/t

[livvy]

17. Portion of video "American Blackout"

McKinney, Conyers, Palast, ChoicePoint: about 10 minutes
Even though I've watched "American Blackout" several times, it was good to revisit even this small snippet. Got the rage going again. :evilgrin:

Original post and discussion by whirlygigspin "How to Steal an Election Without Really Trying"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x111828

Direct YouTube link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeFsDV0Hp3U

The video is available for purchase here:

http://theconnextion.com/americanblackout/index.cfm?AC=0

or here, and probably some other websites as well

http://www.amazon.com/American-Blackout-Cynthia-McKinney/dp/B000GYHRHE

[livvy]

22. Dim the lights, drum roll, please....

Have a great weekend!

[tbyg52]

23. Early morning K&R

But not as early as *your* work, I see...!

Thanks, livvy! :hi:

Oops - edited to correct "K$R" - is that a Freudian slip....?

[Mnemosyne]

24. To the Greatest with you! Perfect toon!

:kick:

Thanks Livvy! :hi:

[Kurovski]

25. Thank you, livvy!

:hug:

[livvy]

26. You're welcome and thanks for the knrs!

[EFerrari]

27. Thank you, livvy.

:Kick: