Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Monday 06/08/08

[tbyg52]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Monday 06/08/08

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[tbyg52]

1. States nt

[tbyg52]

7. ME: Dobson Fights in Bush Country to Be on Ballot

snip

My question now is: Is it any coincidence that this woman who resides in the very town that the elder Bush calls home is having trouble getting onto the ballot in Maine as an Independent? What she knows now is that the clerks in the many towns all across Maine did not have sufficient time or labor to process her forms that she submitted on time to them for authentication to be then sent in to the state for placement on the ballot. (This is a simplification of a very detailed explanation that I can supply a fuller explanation of if you contact me.) Perhaps if this were a different family, say the Kennedys, we would not want to publicly call into question what may just be as the clerks in the various towns say it is too much work and too little time to get the papers processed correctly. But given the Bush family’s propensity for election tampering, no one should be surprised that this question arises.

More:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Laurie-Dobson-Fights-in-Bu-by-Deborah-Emin-080608-137.html

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10. CT: Dead Voters Still Showing Up on Election Records, Puzzling Officials

Jane Drury voted last year in an election in Stonington, Conn. The only problem is, she died eight years ago.

Her daughter, Jane Gumpel, thought someone must have goofed.

“I was surprised because this is not possible,” she said.

But it did happen. The town clerk’s record clearly shows Drury’s vote, marked by a horizontal line poll workers put next to her name. And it turns out Drury isn’t the only voter who apparently cast a ballot from the grave.

More:
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/06/09/dead-voters-still-showing-up-on-election-records-puzzling-officials/

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11. Dead voters: Fox continues to push 'voter fraud' claims

snip

However, Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz blames "clerical errors" for the results of the student survey, saying that any time a dead person seems to have voted it's because a poll worker checked off the wrong name on a voter list. "There was no voter fraud at all in the State of Connecticut," she told Fox. "I've been secretary of state for ten years and not one case of voter fraud has been prosecuted."

Despite Bysiewicz's denial, Fox is continuing to ask viewers to send in their voter fraud stories. "I hear about it all the time," Jarrett insisted. "You wonder if it's just a clerical error or something more nefarious."

More:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Dead_voters_Fox_continues_to_push_0609.html

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13. IN: Voter fraud case dismissed

All charges filed against a former Anderson city employee — more than 15 counts related to alleged voter fraud — more than three years ago have been dismissed.

Henry Superior Court 1 Judge Michael D. Peyton, who served as special judge in the case, dismissed all counts filed against Kyle E. Barber, 51, in late May, saying prosecutors took too long to bring him to trial.

A published telephone listing for Barber has since been disconnected, and he could not be reached for comment. Barber’s attorney, Bryan Williams of Anderson, said he expected the charges would be dropped.

More:
http://www.theheraldbulletin.com/local/local_story_160214404.html

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18. OR: Oregon Secretary of State visits PA to explain vote-by-mail

Bill Bradbury, Oregon's Secretary of State, was in Harrisburg last week to discuss his state's vote-by-mail system with Pennsylvania lawmakers.

In Oregon, residents get voter pamphlets in the mail, and return the completed ballot by mail or by placding it in a supervised drop box. The boxes are placed at libraries and other civic buildings. When the ballots are returned to the county elections office, every signature is checked before the vote is counted.

Bradbury claims, "We will have the cleanest, the most accurate voter registration rolls in the country in about another two years, because there's this constant cleansing, because of the returned ballots, that lead to inactive voter status."

The idea was generally well-received by the Pennsylvania legislators, although Democrat Robert Freeman of Northhampton County was worried about tradition "The one concern I have is the end of that civic ritual, going to a polling place, making a conscious effort to be there in line with your neighbors, casating your vote in a democratic style," Freeman said.

More:
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wpsu/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1295502§ionID=1

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19. FL: Paper ballot deal disappoints

What's the use of paper ballots if no one looks at them? That is the question that election watchdogs continue to press, even as the state's election supervisors race to implement the 2007 election law requiring every Florida county to vote on paper ballots.

Kindra Muntz of Sarasota was among the activists who cheered last spring as Gov. Charlie Crist signed the paper-trail legislation. But she also warned that the job would remain half-finished until the state beefed up its standards for auditing ballots by hand after elections to ensure against tampering and foul-ups. It is a safeguard that Florida still lacks.

"A paper trail is one thing, but paper alone is not the answer," said Muntz, president of the Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections. "We're not looking for something to wallpaper our walls with."

Even Secretary of State Kurt Browning wants to strengthen the post-election audit law. But changes proposed by House and Senate Democrats went nowhere this spring, leaving activists frustrated and fearful that, with a presidential election looming, Florida's election system remains vulnerable to disaster.

More:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080609/NEWS/806090502/1661

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21. AL: DA seeks federal probe of Perry County vote

The Perry County prosecutor says he will ask the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate an unusually high turnout and potential absentee ballot problems during the June 3rd primary elections.

District Attorney Michael Jackson says he expects there will be federal and state observers in Perry County for the July 15th primary runoff after a federal observer reported that a candidate hung around a polling place much of the day Tuesday and helped some voters cast ballots.

Secretary of State Beth Chapman says there are 8,361 registered voters in the rural county, and there were 4,207 votes cast, which means 50.3 percent of eligible voters would have gone to the polls.

More:
http://www.nbc13.com/gulfcoastwest/vtm/news.apx.-content-articles-VTM-2008-06-09-0017.html

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24. LA: Wave of new voter registrations contains large numbers of ineligible applicants

A voter registration push is becoming a big headache for the Caddo Parish registrar of voters office.

The problems arise from a voter-registration effort funded by the national Democrat Party.

Since late May, a group called Voting is Power has sent thousands of applications to registrars' offices in metropolitan areas in Louisiana. Many are ineligible, officials said.

Three thousand applications have arrived at the Caddo registrar's office since late May and thousands more are expected, Registrar of Voters Ernie Roberson said. So far, nearly a third of those entered into the system here can't be registered to vote: Many are convicted felons; others have incorrect or missing Social Security or drivers license numbers; and other applications have non-existent addresses.

More:
http://www.ktbs.com/news/Wave-of-new-voter-registrations-contains-large-numbers-of-ineligible-applicants-12875/

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28. TN: Governor signs voting record law

Gov. Phil Bredesen has signed into law a measure to require a paper record for voters' ballots in Tennessee.

It's not clear yet what financial effect the measure will have on Bedford County, said Bedford County Supervisor of Elections Summer Leverette.

The law requires any voting machine bought or leased after Jan. 1 to be able to create a paper trail that could be used in recounts and random audits. By the year 2010, all counties will have to have voting machines in place that create a paper trail.

More:
http://www.t-g.com/story/1435359.html

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31. LA: Voting rights facing debate, Supreme Court could decide state's election policy

The Supreme Court could decide whether Louisiana must keep asking the Justice Department for permission to make any changes in how it conducts elections.
Advertisement

At issue is a provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, known as Section 5, that all or part of Mississippi, Arizona, Alaska and other states in the South and elsewhere submit proposed electoral changes to the Justice Department for advance clearance.

The requirement applies to states, cities, towns and counties that in the past disenfranchised minority voters through poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation or other more subtle methods.

More:
http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080609/NEWS01/806090321/1002

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36. LA: Democrats, GOP push to register more La. voters

A Democratic organization, hoping to capitalize on Barack Obama's presidential run, has obtained the names of thousands of people in four major parishes to be added to Louisiana's voter registration lists.

The state GOP plans a counter-drive to increase Republican registration, Party Chairman Roger Villere of Metairie said.

The Democratic group, called Voting Is Power, is financed by the national Democratic Party.

Volunteers have been canvassing neighborhoods since February, collecting personal information and signatures from as many new potential voters as possible, said Brian Welsh, a spokesman for Louisiana Victory, an umbrella group coordinating Democratic voter drives.

More:
http://www.tri-parishtimes.com/articles/2008/06/09/ap/state/205_51_apl.txt

[UncountedMary]

46. NV: What's Going On?

Is there anyone on the ground in Nevada who can bring me up to speed on the election systems used and/or potential problems there during the 2008 election?

[tbyg52]

2. National nt

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17. The Democratic Primaries 2008: Managing Electoral Dynamics Via Covert Vote-Count Manipulation

Summary Statement

We present evidence supporting the hypothesis that systematic attempts are being made to manipulate the results of the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination contest, through overt means such as crossover voting by non-Democrats, and through covert means targeted at the electronic vote tabulation process itself. The net effect has been to prolong the nomination battle and sharpen its negativity, thereby boosting the prospects of the Republican nominee and making more plausible his "victory" in November-either by an honest count, or through continued exploitation of the proven security vulnerabilities in American voting systems.

Introduction

Perhaps John McCain is, as Humphrey Bogart says of the young Bulgarian who wins the money for his family's exit visa at the roulette table in Casablanca, "just a lucky guy." Lucky that the Democrats find themselves locked into a protracted primary season inexorable in its dynamics and increasingly destructive in its impact. Lucky that Hillary Clinton has been magically revived each time she has found herself on electoral life support, to assume a position just far enough behind Barack Obama to be induced to resort to desperate measures and increasingly-negative ads, yet not so far behind as to be forced to bow out. Lucky that dynamics ostensibly out of McCain's control have combined to give him such material assistance.

Perhaps. But there is compelling evidence that something other than luck is at work.

More:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Democratic-Primaries-2-by-Jonathan-Simon-080609-892.html

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20. 2 million poll workers wanted for November elections

States and counties are putting out "help wanted" signs five months before Election Day in hopes of finding hundreds of thousands of younger, tech-savvy poll workers needed to handle an expected record turnout.

In many cases, workers don't even have to be old enough to vote.

With a one-day workforce of nearly 2 million poll workers wanted by November, election officials are busily recruiting at high schools, colleges and businesses. They're looking for people who can speak foreign languages or help voters with disabilities. They're making training more convenient and splitting long workdays in half.

"The first challenge is just in the sheer numbers," says Dean Logan, acting clerk of Los Angeles County, which needs 25,000 poll workers in the nation's most populous voting jurisdiction.

More:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-06-08-pollworkers_N.htm

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26. How important is a fair election in November?

How important is a fair election in November? How important is AlterNet to You?

If you are like me, you are looking forward to the election in November to help change our country. I, personally, feel desperate for new approaches because there are so many things wrong with how we treat our people, and how we behave across the globe. I bet you do too.

But as we know, bad things can happen on Election Day. Remember Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004? The failures in our "democratic" system made me so furious. They made millions of us angry. And frankly we felt impotent, too.

So AlterNet decided to do something about it. We assigned our crack reporter Steve Rosenfeld to closely cover the voting process in the presidential primaries. Steve has been in Nevada, South Carolina, California, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and more. He exposed many of the new shenanigans that the enemies of democracy employ.

Hundreds of thousands of voters and experts read Steve's reporting on AlterNet. Steve knows about election issues as well as anyone reporting in America today. His work is very important and must continue right through Election Day, with your help.

More:
http://www.alternet.org/democracy/87410/

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30. Fla. Sen. Nelson Pushes for Electoral Overhaul

Fresh off seeing his state once again enmeshed in political controversy, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D) introduced a package of bills Friday designed to overhaul the entire electoral system.

The centerpiece of Nelson's proposal (the full details are here) is a constitutional amendment to abolish the electoral college system and "provide for the direct popular election of the President and Vice President of the United States," as the text of Nelson's resolution states.

"It's time for Congress to really give Americans the power of one-person, one-vote, instead of the political machinery selecting candidates and electing our president," Nelson said in a statement.

Wth Florida having been penalized by Democrats for holding its primary too early, Nelson also reiterated his previous call for the abolishment of the current presidential primary system in favor of rotating regional primaries. Michigan Sen. Carl Levin (D), whose state was also punished by the Democratic Party, also supports that proposal. In addition, Nelson wants all voters to have the option to vote early and/or by absentee ballot, and for all voting machines to produce a "paper trail."

More:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2008/06/fla_sen_nelson_pushes_for_elec.html?hpid=news-col-blog

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32. Federal Vote-Counting Accuracy Mandate Is Ignored

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), Section 301(a)(5), requires that the vote-counting error rate of each voting system used in federal elections must comply with the 2002 Voluntary Voting Systems Standards. UPDATE, May 5, 2008. It has come to our attention that the 1/500,000 error rate previously quoted here applies to the testing process. For operation in an election, the allowable error rate is 1 error in 10,000,000 ballot lines (0.00001%).

Here are some examples of voting system error rates logged in elections since HAVA was enacted, yet no federal agency has taken action to stop the use of these systems. In fact, all these systems are still in use in the United States.

More:
http://www.votersunite.org/info/AccuracyIgnored.asp

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34. Tapping Computer Science for a More ACCURATE Vote

Inspiring campaign rallies. Whistle-stop stump speeches. Intense debates. This year's presidential elections have already exhibited a number of time-honored traditions in American democracy. Unfortunately, recent presidential elections have included a new ritual--questions and controversies over the accuracy of voting technologies Americans use to cast and count their ballots.

Enter A Center for Correct, Usable, Reliable, Auditable and Transparent Elections (ACCURATE), a team of computer scientists and other academic researchers from across the country who are working to help bring the latest research, insights and innovations from the lab to the voting booth.

Created in 2005 with a $7.5 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), ACCURATE is part of NSF's Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate's CyberTrust program, a multi-year initiative that seeks to make the nation's underlying computer networks and infrastructures reliable even in the face of cyber attacks.

More:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111660&org=NSF&from=news

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37. Will states topple Electoral College?

First it was the presidential primary calendar that state legislatures across the country upended to give their voters a greater say this year in choosing candidates. Now a few states are orchestrating an overhaul of the way voters select the U.S. president.

Voters this fall will still use the Electoral College to determine the next occupant of the White House, but a movement is bubbling at the state level to bypass the process and instead ensure future presidents are the candidates who get the most votes nationwide — an outcome not always guaranteed under the current system.

Maryland last year became the first state to approve a “national popular vote” compact that would allocate all of its 10 electoral votes to the candidate who wins the most votes nationwide, rather than to the candidate who garners the most votes in the state, as is the case under the Electoral College.

New Jersey, Hawaii and Illinois have since followed suit and passed laws that would allot their collective 40 electoral votes the same way. Identical bills are moving in Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island, which have a total of 62 electoral votes.

More:
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=316080

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3. Foreign nt

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9. Nigeria: SIEC As Weapon of Electoral Fraud

Since the Supreme Court ruling in 1999,which clarified the prerogative of state governments to determine the tenure of local government chairmen and also to conduct council elections, state governments established their own Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC).

The composition of the commission is through an act of legislation by the different State Houses of Assembly. The commission is then saddled with the responsibility of deciding on the elective offices in a local council chairmanship, vice chairmanship and the councillorship elections. The conduct of these elections are primarily the responsibility of the commission.

Unlike the federal electoral body, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), whose duties include not only conducting elections into the offices of president/vice president, Senate, House of Representatives, governorship and state Houses of Assemblies, but also saddled with the responsibility of registration of political parties and voters, funding and regularisation/inspection of political parties; the SIEC is only concerned with conducting elections into the local councils.

More:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200806090415.html

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12. UK: CPS to consider vote fraud allegations

THE Crown Prosecution Service will decide whether a Halifax man should face charges over allegations of making false statements to obtain proxy votes for this year's local elections in Calderdale.

Police arrested the 62-year-old on April 30 in the west central area of Halifax and today confirmed they had passed a file to the CPS for consideration.

(A little) more:
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/CPS-to-consider-vote-fraud.4166601.jp

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16. Macedonia Will Hold Largest Rerun Vote

The opposition Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, previously claimed the vote was marred by widespread fraud by the ruling Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA.

“The decision (to hold a rerun) is the last chance to improve, at least symbolically, the degeneration of the election process,” the DUI’s press release on Saturday reads.

However, the DPA condemned the move arguing that the Electoral Commission was working under pressure from the DUI.

“These are the last blows that the DUI is trying to swipe against Albanians and the DPA”, the DPA Vice President Imer Selmani told media on Saturday.

With the rerun, the DPA will again have to contest around 51,000 votes it got at the June 1 election. This is nearly half of the total votes the party won.

More:
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/10837/

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35. UK: Lower voting age to 16, says local North Wales AM

Carl Sargeant, AM for Alyn and Deeside, claims it is "inconsistent" that 16-year-olds don't have the right to vote.

In a free vote at the Welsh Assembly in February, Mr Sargeant called on the government to lower the voting age from 18.

And he has now welcomed this Friday's House of Commons debate on the voting age.

Mr Sargeant said: "Sixteen-year olds-can gain full time employment, pay taxes, fight in the armed forces and marry – it is simply inconsistent that they are denied the right to vote.

More:
http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/news/Lower-voting-age-to-16.4161287.jp

[tbyg52]

4. Blogs, Editorials, LTTEs, etc. nt

[tbyg52]

8. CT: Are dead people voting?

Those opposed to requiring photo ID at polling places always claim that there is no evidence of voter fraud and therefore no such law requiring a voter to show a photo ID is needed.

Well, in Connecticut, some journalism students did some digging and found that there were some 8500 dead people still listed on the voter rolls. What’s more the students say, “more than 300 of them had somehow been counted as casting ballots after they died.”

My question is; if 300 dead people vote in Connecticut, how many dead people are voting in places like New York, California and Illinois? Why does the task of finding out fall upon students? Why aren’t major newspapers doing this digging.

More:
http://voices.kansascity.com/node/1393

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14. Why We Need Another Recount

Now that the presidential race is finally under way, a lot of Democrats are giddy with excitement, certain that Barack Obama will demolish John McCain; and those Democrats apparently have every reason to believe that it will happen. On the other hand, there also are some others who aren't quite so sure: others who recall the outcomes of the last two presidential races, both of which resulted in surprising "wins" for yet another dubious far-rightist candidate. Those uneasy types are wondering -- and the Democrats too should be wondering -- if history might yet again repeat itself, despite the rosy way things seem to look right now.

The question is, of course, unpleasant; but it's also necessary. And we might best begin to answer it by taking a close look at Recount, which just ended its first run on HBO (although subscribers can still see it On Demand). For all its strengths, the film is deeply flawed by the same weird denial that has kept the Democrats both in the dark and out of power--and that could keep them there beyond Election Day, regardless of the will of the electorate.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-crispin-miller/why-we-need-another-emrec_b_106109.html

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15. What Constitutes an Election Audit

What Ohio citizens conducted, under my direction, was a genuine audit of the 2004 presidential election. This was no mere “spot check” of randomly selected precincts, and no mere “recount” of the same ballots previously run through the electronic tabulators.

We learned to ask for everything: ballots, poll books, voter signature books, ballot accounting charts, packing slips, and invoices. We asked to see all the ballots, whether voted, spoiled, or unused. And we always asked to photograph the records, so that I could analyze them with painstaking accuracy, and reexamine the same records when necessary.

We lacked the element of surprise, as a list of requested precincts was almost always demanded in writing and well in advance. But I picked the counties, and I picked the precincts, and I rarely said how or why. “What are you looking for?” I was often asked. “I don’t know,” I would reply. “This is an audit.”

When the IRS audits your tax returns, you don’t get to pick the year, or decide which records to show them. They want to see everything. And so did we.

More:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-Constitutes-an-Electi-by-Richard-Hayes-Phil-080609-472.html

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23. The Right’s New Attack on Voters

Last April, as a national debate raged over whether Indiana’s voter ID law protects election integrity or disenfranchises low-income voters, a more sinister and potentially damaging voter-vetting proposal sat quietly in nine state legislatures, attracting little attention.

Laws that would require proof-of-citizenship in the form of a birth certificate, passport or naturalization papers in order to register to vote have been introduced in eight states: California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

That number was pared down from nine in late May, when, under popular pressure, the Missouri legislature ended their sessions without calling their proof-of-citizenship referendum to a vote. The Missouri bill—HJR 48—was the only such law that had the potential to go into effect prior to this November’s elections.

Birdell Owen, a Missouri resident who was displaced by Hurricane Katrina and has no birth certificate, was among those who celebrated the victory.

More:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3737/the_rights_new_attack_on_voters/

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29. Fixing the Vote: How to Keep New Voters from Falling Off the Rolls

The primaries have been thrilling, marked by surging voter participation. States without Electoral College clout that have traditionally been ignored by candidates—from Indiana and Texas to North Carolina and even South Dakota—have hosted vibrant campaigns. But as the excitement and suspense of the primary season fades and the reality of a general election sets in, how can we make sure this moment of rare public engagement is not just an aberration?

Major change comes when a widely felt public need collides with dysfunctional public institutions. Today, government is broken. The answer must be more than a simple changing of the guard; we know there will be a new president, after all. But there must also be changes in the way our democracy functions. If we want to end the special-interest stasis that paralyzes Congress, for example, we should move to public financing of congressional campaigns. If we worry that Congress is endlessly partisan, we should reform redistricting rules so that lawmakers can't simply carve themselves one-party districts. If we liked the 50-state frenzy that made every vote matter, we should end the Electoral College (which, intriguingly, could be bypassed by states even without a constitutional amendment).

More:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2882&Itemid=26

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40. Voter ID rule protects system

The Cook County clerk's Fence Post letter (May 23) complaining about all the so-called hurdles the poor allegedly now have to overcome due to the recent Supreme Court ruling that photo IDs are constitutional is about as ludicrous as I have ever seen.

People such as the clerk have made it too easy to violate the voter system with such things as motor-voter procedures and other almost 24-7 systems of registering.

The Supreme Court has essentially told us that it is OK to make sure that the system is fully protected.

Certainly, someone wanting to vote bad enough can take the responsibility of finding and providing a valid piece of identification.

More:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=203917&src=

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5. Campaign Finance nt

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38. Campaign Finance Complaint Filed Against McCain

A nonprofit campaign finance watchdog group called Campaign Money Watch is going on the offensive against John McCain.

The group, which bills itself as nonpartisan, is filing a complaint today asking the Federal Election Commission to look into two possible campaign finance violations by McCain's campaign. It has also released an advertisement in the Washington, D.C. market on McCain's connection to lobbyists.

The ad focuses on the battle between Airbus, a French company, and Boeing, an American company, for a Pentagon contract.

"Seven of McCain's staff and fundraisers lobbied for Airbus," an announcer says in the spot. "McCain got more money from Airbus' U.S. executives than any other politician. And guess what? John McCain intervened, which helped Airbus get that Pentagon contract."

More:
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/06/09/politics/horserace/entry4163803.shtml

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39. Pittsburgh mayor vetoes campaign finance limit bill

A bill that would have limited political contributions to candidates for public office in Pittsburgh was vetoed Monday by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.

Pittsburgh City Council last week voted 5-4 to limit candidates for a city office to a $2,000 donation from an individual and $5,000 from a group, corporation or union.

But Ravenstahl rejected the bill, which Councilman Bill Peduto, the measure's primary sponsor, said was disappointing.

"This is just emblematic of a backward thinking, old-school political town, and it's embarrassing, frankly, that Pittsburgh can't enact progressive legislation like almost every other city and state in this country," he said.

(A little) more:
http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2008/06/09/daily9.html

[tbyg52]

6. The Youth Vote nt

[tbyg52]

22. Parties split over teen voting bill

Voting is as American as mom and apple pie – the more votes cast, the better for democracy, right?

Not necessarily.

Efforts to gradually increase California's pool of voters by targeting young teenagers are splitting the Capitol along party lines.
Click here to find out more!

Democrats support, Republicans oppose.

"There's red apple pie and blue apple pie," quipped John J. Pitney, government professor at Claremont McKenna College.

More:
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/998578.html

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25. Three Myths About the Youth Vote

In any conversation about the role of young voters in the political process, there are a number of arguments that - without fail - creep into the discussion. Once these myths enter the debate, any further discussion is usually rendered moot and the majority of participants tend to side with the person propagating those myths and against youth advocates. It's sort of a reverse Godwin's Law for the youth vote. It would almost be funny if it didn't have dire consequences for our movement and the Democratic Party.

So today I'd like to try to dispel some of those myths in the interest of encouraging a more hopeful (and fact-based) discussion during the rest of the month here at Passing Through.

Myth 1 - The youth never turnout. This is false. Young voters will turn out if you ask them, the problem is that the Democratic Party stopped asking a long time ago. Celebrities and media campaigns won't cut it. "Asking" requires real, peer to peer field work - the same type of work that campaigns use to target older voters. In 1992, Rock the Vote ran that field component and youth turned out for Bill Clinton. In 1996 and 2000, there was no similar field effort and youth turnout declined.

More:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/passingthrough/327903

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27. Student vote could swing it for Obama

Americans, as the political scientists tell us, "vote their interest".

The very first thing the "next president of the United States", Oback Barama, did, on clinching his nomination, was to shore up the Jewish support with an address to Aipac. There ain't no Palestinian vote. So, no interest.

The other next president of the United States had, of course, got to Aipac first, reminding it that his opponent, Obama, had pledged to sit down with an emergent nuclear power which denied the first holocaust and was busy preparing the second (McCain's speech writers are strong on one-liners since the candidate has a tendency to ramble after the first couple of sentences).

More:
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/columnist/story/0,,2284595,00.html

[tbyg52]

33. Fanning the Flames of Youth Civic Engagement

Progressives need to make sure that young people's excitement over the primaries turns into long-term civic engagement.

"I am so, so, so excited," my wildly effective 18-year-old intern Krystie Yandoli told me, sitting on my couch and leafing through a new anthology in between bites of chocolate croissant. "At first I didn't know -- should I wait until I get to Syracuse and do it there or should I do it in Connecticut where I'm from? I seriously can't wait." Krystie, headed to the Syracuse University in the fall to study politics and journalism, is not talking about getting a tattoo or buying an iPhone. She's feverishly anticipating her first chance to vote in a presidential election.

As we finish the final contests of the primaries, young people are excited about politics. According to PBS News Hour, 5.7 million people under the age of 30 voted in the primaries, a 109 percent increase from last presidential election. And before you write this enthusiasm off as merely a passing fad of Obama mania (he got 57 percent of the youth vote in Iowa, for example), look at recent history: In 2004, youth turnout in the general election rose by 4.3 million votes over the 2000 level, and hit the highest level in over a decade.

More:
http://www.alternet.org/story/87026/

[tbyg52]

41. 'Toon: Fun with Electronic Voting

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/blogs/post/7526/fun-with-electronic-voting/

[tbyg52]

42. That's all, folks! nt

[Breeze54]

43. Kucinich calls for Bush impeachment... Elections Fraud!

:P

Live right Now!
http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan_rm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Kucinich_presents_Bush_impeachment_articles_0609.html

[flashl]

44. Will states topple Electoral College?

By Pamela M. Prah, Stateline.org Staff Writer

First it was the presidential primary calendar that state legislatures across the country upended to give their voters a greater say this year in choosing candidates. Now a few states are orchestrating an overhaul of the way voters select the U.S. president.

Voters this fall will still use the Electoral College to determine the next occupant of the White House, but a movement is bubbling at the state level to bypass the process and instead ensure future presidents are the candidates who get the most votes nationwide — an outcome not always guaranteed under the current system.

Maryland last year became the first state to approve a “national popular vote” compact that would allocate all of its 10 electoral votes to the candidate who wins the most votes nationwide, rather than to the candidate who garners the most votes in the state, as is the case under the Electoral College.

New Jersey, Hawaii and Illinois have since followed suit and passed laws that would allot their collective 40 electoral votes the same way. Identical bills are moving in Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island, which have a total of 62 electoral votes.

Stateline

[UncountedMary]

45. John McCain's Map for Swiping the Election

I'm sure he didn't realize what he was saying. But on Sunday morning during a discussion of the McCain campaign strategy ABC News' George Snuffleupagus* said that the McCain campaign would try and "steal Pennsylvania" from Senator Obama. I'm sure he thought he was being hyperbolic by using the word "steal," but with a majority of Pennsylvania counties still using electronic voting machines rather than paper ballots, he is being very literal.

But it's not just Pennsylvania. And it's not just trouble with electronic voting machines.

This week Rick Davis, McCain campaign manager, briefed a few correspondents on the campaign's plans. Thanks to a long-time election integrity activist and a very astute reader of this blog, we are going to refer to the campaign's plans as its "footprint." In other words, watch what the campaign says and where the campaign goes and match it with potential for voter suppression and vote manipulation.

According to Davis, McCain’s first general election ads went up in 54 markets in 10 states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada.

Pennsylvania
A state that is at "High Risk" for shenanigans this November, according to a report issued jointly by Common Cause and Verified Voting. Voters’ ballots in this state are recorded inside the voting machine on software or hardware with no separate paper ballot that can establish voter intent and become the ballot of record. So votes can be lost forever if the voting computer crashes, if the software or hardware malfunctions, or if the security of the voting machine is breached.

For all these high risk states, because there is no separate independent paper record, there is no hope of recreating voter intent if and when the machine fails. Hey, where'd their basic right to vote go?

It also no coincidence that in May of this year a Republican state legislator introduced a Voter ID bill - which, we all know, "is a solution in search of a problem," and has the potential to disenfranchise millions (including some very old nuns).

There is no doubt that Pennsylvania will be a mess on election day in November. The Election Protection Coalition reported receiving over 1,000 calls to their Voter Protection Hotline during their April 22 primary - including poll workers giving incorrect information, rule violations and poor administration regarding polling locations, equipment malfunction, voter intimidation, and registration issues. Potential caging violations were also reported from voters who have been registered as Democrats for years, but were suddenly listed as unaffiliated and had to vote provisionally.

Wisconsin
Wisconsin is classified as a "medium risk" because the majority of the voting systems use paper ballots but routine audits are non-existent. But in this state it gets much worse. Paper ballots and optical scan tabulators are used by 85% of the counties. From 1982 until 2006, the law required recounts using the paper ballots. That law was changed in early 2008 to mandate that all recounts of optical scan ballots must be done by machine - which would produce the same tally over and over again and do nothing to prove machine error. To create a further barrier, the only way to work around this law is to get a court order. Wisconsin is too cold to be Florida. Or is it?

Missouri
The report lists this state as being at "low risk," - meaning they have two safeguards in place - paper ballots or records and required random post-election audits on the voting machines. Must be why there was such a huge push by Republican state legislators this spring to pass a Voter ID bill, which could have disenfranchised as many as 240,000 voters - enough, surely, to sway the election results in this crucial swing state. What's next for Missouri? Keep your eyes peeled and your ears open...

Ohio
Here we go again. Ohio is still a mess with a Democratic Secretary of State trying to move towards a paper-based solution and a Republican state legislature fighting her every step of the way. Sprinkle in some vote tabulation problems during the primary and we have to wonder, will Ohio's system be in better shape by November? I know a McCampaign who hopes the answer is "No."

Colorado
A state where most of the electronic voting machines - after court-ordered testing in which machines made by three-out-of-four manufacturers failed and numerous studies which indicated that "the technology is unsophisticated, vulnerable to hacking and capable of miscounting without detection" - were decertified by Secretary of State Mike Coffman in December. Then recertified in the spring with a myriad of conditions and restrictions.

New Mexico The Guardian recently characterized New Mexico as "the ultimate battleground state" pointing out that it "chose Al Gore in 2000 by a mere 300 votes. Bush won New Mexico in 2004 by only 6,000 votes." You know who was from this state? David Iglesias, the Attorney General who was fired for his refusal to prosecute bogus cases of voter fraud. Fast forward to the February 2008 and it's now the state where 17,000 Democrats were inexplicably removed from the voter rolls and were required to vote provisionally. That's 11% of all votes up from 4% four years ago when the management of the voter rolls was not ES&S, a private company.

Nevada
Well, this is disturbing. I cannot find any news stories or blog posts about Nevada nor any election integrity groups active in the state. Watch this one very closely. Can someone fill me in on what I may be missing in state?

*Stephanopoulos