Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Monday 07/28/08

[tbyg52]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Monday 07/28/08

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[tbyg52]

1. States nt

[tbyg52]

7. VA: Officials investigating claims of fraudulent voter registrations

State officials are looking into claims of fraudulent voter registration forms after Hampton police charged three people with voter fraud.

Brittany Wyatt and Jessica Lemon, both 18-year-olds who live in Newport News, each were charged last week with one count of voter fraud, said Cpl. Allison Good, a Hampton police spokeswoman. Anthony House, 22, was charged with four counts of voter fraud.

The three worked for a non-profit group hired to sign up voters, Good said. Employees were paid to meet a daily quota of completed applications then turn them in to the group. Information on at least 60 applications was questioned by officials.

Some or all of the information on the forms was wrong, Good said. Because the registration forms gave addresses in a number of cities, police and commonwealth’s attorneys were notified - including those in Norfolk, Newport News, Isle of Wight, Gloucester and York, state officials said this morning.

More (plus comments):
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/07/three-charged-voter-registration-fraud-hampton

[tbyg52]

8. Frederick Alleges Voter Fraud

Is there "widespread" voter fraud occurring across Virginia or is the state Republican Party trying to suppress efforts by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) and the Democrats to register more people to vote?

In a conference call this morning, Del. Jeffrey M. Frederick (R-Prince William), the chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, seized on recent news reports that three people in Hampton Roads have been charged with submitting false names on voter registration applications. The three canvassers worked for the Community Voters Project, a program of The Fund for the Public Interest.

"There appears to be a coordinated and widespread effort in Virginia to commit voter fraud," said Frederick, who added the state party is also in possession of affidavit from someone alleging their social security number was fraudulently used to try to register someone else to vote. "These are just two known and documented examples of known voter fraud, and what we believe to be a widespread problem across Virginia."

Frederick is calling on Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) and Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R) to launch an investigation. Frederick is also urging residents to avoid giving their names or social security numbers to canvassers seeking to register voters.

More:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2008/07/frederick_alleges_voter_fraud.html

[tbyg52]

9. Voter Fraud

Several cities in the Commonwealth have been pegged for voter fraud, and the investigation is extending into other communities as well.

Voter fraud is a Class Five felony and can land you in prison for five years with the possibility of $2,500 in fines.

Despite this, reports of criminal voter registration and potential identity theft have recently occurred across Virginia.

In response, the Chairman of the Virginia Republican Party addressed this growing trend, and what Virginia voters should be aware of.

More (plus comments):
http://www.whsv.com/news/headlines/25988599.html

[tbyg52]

15. GOP Chief decries voter fraud, thin on specifics

The chairman of Virginia's Republican Party on Monday sought a statewide probe of what he claimed was voter registration fraud across a battleground state in this year's presidential race.

Jeff Frederick decried a "widespread problem across the commonwealth" after the arrests in Hampton on election fraud charges of three people last week. He urged Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Republican Attorney General Bob McDonnell to begin a statewide investigation.

The three were arrested on felony charges, and Frederick noted that the arrests triggered investigations in several other localities, including Richmond, Newport News and Norfolk.

But when pressed in an interview on his claim that registration fraud had been reported by local election registrars statewide, Frederick would not identify other affected jurisdictions, citing the advice of lawyers.

More:
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-va--gop-fraudallegati0728jul28,0,1819191.story

[tbyg52]

11. FL: New Computer Will Check Election Fraud

In years past, an overzealous citizen could vote early and often, casting a ballot in Lake Placid, then moving to polling places in Sebring, Avon Park and across Florida.

That's about to come to a screeching halt, said Elections Supervisor Joe Campbell. In time for early voting in August, Highlands County will employ the Electronic Voter Identification machine.

"You'll hand them your driver's license," said Campbell. "They'll scan it in."

Modern driver's licenses contain a black strip on the back, similar to credit cards. The magnetic strip contains citizenship and voting information.

More:
http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/2008/jul/28/la-new-computer-will-check-election-fraud/

[tbyg52]

17. NV: Lawsuit over voting machines dismissed in Nevada

My comment - the burden of proof shouldn't be on *us*. There's no way to know that they counted our vote correctly, therefore they should all go. End of story.

A judge has dismissed a citizen activist's lawsuit against a leading provider of electronic voting machines, saying no proof was offered that they malfunctioned.

In her complaint filed in October 2006, Patricia Axelrod of Reno claimed her vote in the 2004 general election was not counted because of a defective Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. machine.

But in a ruling issued July 17, Washoe County District Judge Jerome Polaha said state statutes cited by Axelrod gave her no standing to sue the company over an alleged lost vote.

The judge further said the alleged lost vote fails to constitute a "property interest" as claimed by Axelrod, and that Sequoia's machines have not been shown to have malfunctioned.

More:
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/dd70cd66ace5e4a49d2c279c48a49141.htm

[tbyg52]

50. Discussion (and not too late to rate it up!)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=506129&mesg_id=506129

[tbyg52]

19. WA: GFWC Voters 'Check In' with Election Trust Bar Codes

My comment: This is not a government election, but it troubles me when *anyone* says they love electronic voting - I'm afraid it will be catching....

After casting paper ballots for more than a century, the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) introduced online voting at its 2006 Annual International Convention through Election Trust, its balloting services vendor.

That year, the voting members loved paperless eVoting with one catch: authenticating each voter required a hand-typed, unique PIN…unnecessarily slowing down the balloting process.

The Solution?

For GFWC's 117th Annual International Convention in Chicago this June, Election Trust integrated barcode reader technology with its patented Secured by Scytl™ remote electronic voting platform to authenticate each GFWC delegate without the need for each person to manually enter a unique PIN.

More:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/07/prweb1143704.htm

[tbyg52]

26. MN: New site makes overseas voting easier

The state’s top election official says a new program could boost voter turnout tenfold among Minnesotans overseas.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie on Thursday unveiled a new Web site meant to make it easier for Minnesotans abroad – military members and civilians – to receive absentee election ballots.

Only 5 percent of Minnesota soldiers and their relatives who were overseas during the 2004 presidential election voted, compared to the state’s overall voter turnout of about 78 percent.

“We know that’s not because people don’t want to vote,” Ritchie said at a Thursday news conference. “What we discovered was that it was because there were so many barriers.”

More:
http://www.farmingtonindependent.com/articles/index.cfm?id=20019§ion=mnnews,Minnesota%20News&property_id=26

[tbyg52]

29. CA: Online voter registration bill may be enacted

California voters may have the opportunity to register to vote online if a bill that passed through an Assembly committee continues its momentum.

On July 9, Senate Bill 381, sponsored by Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee, bringing the bill that provides voters the convenience of registering to vote on the Internet one step closer to enactment.

"We ought to make it as easy as possible for people to be involved in the political process," Calderon said in a phone interview. "Certainly that's what democracy calls for."

Currently, voters in California must register to vote using a paper form. While a portion of voter registration can be done on the Secretary of State's Web site, a hard copy with a signature must follow.

More:
http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_10019294

[tbyg52]

30. NY: Lever voting wins again

Every polling station in Columbia and Rensselaer counties will have a new, modern voting machine this fall. But few voters will use them, and the results will be tallied in a very un-modern way--by hand counting each ballot.

Most voters who go to the polls will once again find the familiar lever voting machines November 4.

Election officials say those mechanical machines will be retired after this election in favor of an optical scan system approved earlier this year by the state. But officials have made similar promises in the past, and despite an order by a federal judge that the state use new machines, problems persist.

New York is the last state to comply with the Help America Vote Act, the federal law adopted after the disaster of the 2000 election. For years state officials and voting rights activists have expressed concerns about the reliability and security of the electronic voting machines used by other states. Those concerns, it turns out, were well founded, as some states have had major problems with their electronic voting systems.

More:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=248&dept_id=462341&newsid=19875089&PAG=461&rfi=9

[tbyg52]

32. TX: Doubt cast on record voting roll forecast

Harris County's roll of registered voters will hit 2 million for the Nov. 4 election, according to the voter registrar — a record high that should surpass the total for all of Iowa and at least 22 other states during an exciting presidential campaign.

But the local list also has triggered controversy, surprises and skepticism about who registers and how aggressively the county recruits, and rejects, potential new voters. Even the forecast of 2 million — made by voter registrar Paul Bettencourt, a Republican seeking re-election as tax assessor-collector — is in dispute.

For starters, 2 million citizens older than 17, in a county of roughly 4 million people, would represent only meager growth from the last presidential election here. The 2004 roll fell only 60,000 shy of 2 million.

On the other hand, the roll dropped to 1.8 million a year ago, due in part to Bettencourt's groundbreaking efforts under state and federal law to remove outmoded or improper registrations.

More:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5910590.html

[tbyg52]

45. NM: New Mexico Voter Registration Groups Sue New Mexico

On July 24, several groups that conduct voter registration drives filed a lawsuit against New Mexico restrictions. A 2005 New Mexico law made it a crime for someone to fail to turn in a completed registration form within 48 hours after it comes into his or her possession. The 2005 law also limits groups that register voters to only 50 voter registration blank forms. The lawsuit was filed by the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Federation of Women’s Clubs Overseas, New Mexico Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, and the Southwest Organizing Project. The case is American Assn. of People with Disablilities v Herrera, state court, Bernalillo County, cv 2008-07673.

(A little) more (plus comments):
http://www.ballot-access.org/2008/07/28/new-mexico-voter-registration-groups-sue-new-mexico/

[tbyg52]

48. CO: Secretary of State praises local improvements for voters

Routt County is no longer on the state’s Election Watch List.

Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman announced Thursday that the Routt County Clerk and Recorder’s Office has corrected voting problems highlighted in the 2006 general election, when difficulties with new electronic voting machines and crowded polling locations created delays of up to four hours for some voters.

Coffman said in a statement Thursday that throughout 2007 and so far in 2008, Routt County Clerk and Recorder Kay Weinland has “consistently provided (the Secretary of State’s) office with updates to changes to your election process.” Coffman said staff from his office visited Routt County in May and documented changes to the election process.

More:
http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2008/jul/25/secretary_state_praises_local_improvements_voters/

[liam_laddie]

53. OH: SoS Brunner mandates paper ballot option

On Friday 7/25, the SoS directed that paper ballots be made available on demand to any voter in a county using DRE's.

From the Dayton Daily News: By William Hershey, Friday, July 25, 2008, 02:01 PM

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner wants voters in counties that use electronic touch screen voting machines to have the option of using paper ballots in November.

In a directive to county boards of elections on Friday, July 25, Brunner said all counties with the touch screen machines should provide backup paper ballots equal to 25 percent of the precinct turnout in the 2004 general election. Costs will be reimbursed by the federal government, Brunner (pictured) wrote.
jbrunner.jpg

Dayton-area counties affected include: Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Darke and Butler.

Poll workers won’t be required to ask voters if they want paper ballots but Brunner’s office will provide four posters to be displayed at each polling location, telling them paper ballots are available.

[liam_laddie]

54. OH: More about Ohio SoS Jennifer Brunner

During the NAACP's national convention in Cincinnati July 12-17, she was interviewed by Kevin Osborne of "City Beat," Cincy's free weekly (and best progressive print media here.) From the July 23-29 issue -

When U.S. voters go to the polls in November to elect the next president, media pundits and advocacy groups again will be keeping a close eye on Ohio.

As almost anyone with a pulse knows, President Bush won reelection in 2004 thanks to Ohio's 20 electoral votes. And he won the Buckeye State by a meager 2.1 percent margin over John Kerry in what many critics allege was a deeply flawed election process.

The election four years ago was marred by various problems throughout Ohio, including dubious purges of voter rolls, areas that didn't receive enough voting machines, long lines at the polls and lingering questions about whether every ballot cast was in fact counted.

Some believe the process was intentionally manipulated by then-Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell -- a Cincinnati native -- to help his Republican brethren, while others say the problems were simply the result of incompetence. Regardless, Americans were saddled with yet another presidential election that left a bad taste in their mouths.

Full article at <http://citybeat.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A145682>

[flashl]

55. IL: State fines state Rep. Annazette Collins' campaign panel $20,000

Chicago Democrat must also apologize about finance reports

Tribune staff report
July 29, 2008

The Illinois State Board of Elections has fined the campaign committee of state Rep. Annazette Collins (D-Chicago) $20,000 and ordered her to apologize for filing political finance reports for the last three years that had showed her raising and spending no money when she actually took in and doled out more than $100,000.

The board's action last week was the result of a settlement of a complaint filed by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, which said Collins—first elected in 2000—showed no contributions or expenditures on her state-mandated campaign disclosure reports from 2005 to 2007.

Since the complaint was filed, Collins' campaign committee amended 18 of its previously filed reports to show she took in $110,301 in donations and spent $120,794 during the time period, the political finance watchdog group said.

The political reform group's director, Cynthia Canary, said in a statement Monday that Collins isn't the only one who has filed incorrect financial disclosure information.

Collins has until Aug. 29 to pay the fine. She has 30 days to issue the public apology, which was part of her campaign's settlement with the reform group.

[tbyg52]

2. National nt

[tbyg52]

12. States find success with Election Day voter registration

All-in-one approach raised turnout by 12 percent

If you’ve ever thought that early voter registration deadlines are arbitrary and lead to lower election turnout, it turns out you’re right.

Most states impose voter registration deadlines several weeks or months before November polling day to make registration more manageable and prevent voter fraud. But the early deadlines also lead to lower turnout, studies show. In the few states that allow residents to register at the polls on Election Day, turnout was higher by an average of 12 percent, according to the election reform advocacy group Demos.

That’s nothing to sneeze at. A 12 percent increase in voter participation across the U.S. would mean some 10 million more ballots cast, based on 2004 turnout. Those are mandate-creating kinds of numbers, and it has election reform groups and politicians taking notice.

Registering to vote where and when you cast your ballot makes a lot of sense. Though there are technical and security challenges to overcome, it has the elements of an elegant solution to a fundamental problem. Voters know what to expect.

More:
http://ohmygov.com/blogs/general_news/archive/2008/07/28/states-find-success-with-election-day-voter-registration.aspx

[tbyg52]

21. Action Alert: Tell your Senators to Support Transparent Elections and Oppose S.3212

We need your help today to make sure that Congress does not reverse the nation's progress toward voter-verified paper ballots. It is not an exaggeration to say this could be one of the most important actions you ever take on the issue of verified voting. After you take action, please forward this message to your friends.

Here is what's happening. This Wednesday, the U.S. Senate will hold hearings on S.3212, a bill aimed at providing independent verification of ballots cast on electronic voting machines. That's a laudable goal, but S.3212 gets it wrong - very wrong.

S.3212 would allow electronic "verification" of votes cast on electronic voting machines. If S.3212 becomes law, elections in many states would still depend on the trustworthiness of computer software. This bill also fails to require hand audits of federal election results, and contains other measures that could set back years of progress toward transparent and trustworthy elections.

Click here to tell your Senators to oppose S.3212.

More:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Action-Alert--Tell-your-Se-by-the-web-080727-555.html

Discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=506083&mesg_id=506083

[tbyg52]

25. Voter surge will challenge states

With a historic presidential race expected to drive huge numbers of people – particularly first-time voters – to the polls, states have a lot of work in store to ensure that every vote counts.

This year’s presidential primaries showed that the problems that made headlines in the past – with voter registration rolls, identification requirements and voting machine glitches – have been upstaged by a new difficulty. The huge turnout that whittled the presidential race to Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain overwhelmed some states and counties, according to a July 24 report by electionline.org, a project of the Pew Center on the States that tracks election reform efforts.

“Some places were unprepared. Some places just couldn’t handle it,” said Dan Seligson, electionline.org’s publications manager. “Even though they knew that there would be a massive number of voters, they just didn’t have the capacity.”

Of the November election, he added, “People know it’s going to be a historically high turnout. Whether they can do anything about it is another question.”

More:
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=328893

[tbyg52]

40. BradBlog: So Who Is Mike Connell? A Clip from 'Free For All' Gives You an Idea...

So we learned last week that new information concerning Republican high-tech guru Mike Connell's alleged participation in computer-aided fraud from Florida to Ohio to the Swiftboaters to RNC headquarters to Congress has helped lead Ohio attorney Cliff Arnebeck to reignite a long-standing federal lawsuit concerning Ohio's 2004 Presidential Election.

We learned this week that Connell may have been threatened by Karl Rove should the GOP's "high IQ Forrest Gump" --- so described for his uncanny ability to be found "at the scene of every crime" --- fail to "take the fall" for election fraud in Ohio, according to a letter sent by Arnebeck to AG Michael Mukasey asking for Connell's protection.

But who exactly is this exceptionally successful, yet largely-below-the-radar-until-now Republican operative?

More:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6220

[tbyg52]

41. Oops - got one in the wrong place. nt

[tbyg52]

46. Policy Center Demos Praises Legislation Designating Veterans Affairs Offices as Voter Registration S

ites

Applauds National Association of Secretaries of State for Resolution Calling for Registration at VA Offices

On Friday, Miles Rapoport, President of the national public policy center Demos, sent a letter of support to Senators Feinstein, Kerry, Clinton, Leahy, Schumer, Wyden, Reid, Murray and Obama for their sponsorship of S. 3308, introduced in the Senate on July 22, 2008. A House companion bill is expected to be introduced tomorrow. This legislation would require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to permit facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs to be designated as voter registration agencies, in accordance with the National Voter Registration Act.

With such designation, VA offices and facilities would be required to offer voter registration to individuals served there, as currently practiced at public assistance agencies and at offices that provide services to people with disabilities. It also requires the VA to accommodate voter registration assistance by nonpartisan organizations and elections officials.

In the letter, Rapoport wrote:

More:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/policy-center-demos-praises-legislation/story.aspx?guid=%7BC9E3B20F-F6E6-4BE3-B9C5-9123769A963C%7D&dist=hppr

[tbyg52]

3. Foreign nt

[tbyg52]

10. Philippines: Complicity in poll fraud coverup taints SAF record

It was no accident that it was the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police that penetrated the Batasan Pambansa and stuffed the ballot boxes with fake election returns to make it look like Gloria Arroyo won the 2004 elections.

Established in 1983 initially to help combat insurgency and later to “destroy enemy forces that undermine the nation’s stability," the police commandos are trained as a rapid deployment force and to “noiselessly operate in the shadows."

In its 25-year history, the elite unit has not been impervious to the country’s political upheavals. The SAF joined the February 1986 people power revolution that followed the defection of its founder, then Armed Forces vice chief of staff and Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police chief Fidel V. Ramos, and toppled President Ferdinand Marcos.

But in early 2005, some of the SAF’s own members said they undermined democracy when the unit switched the election returns on orders of former PNP chief Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.

More:
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/109947/Complicity-in-poll-fraud-coverup-taints-SAF-record

[tbyg52]

14. UK: Election fraud measures not enough, says ousted councillor

AN EX-POLITICIAN, who was ousted from her seat after 23-years because of election fraud, says new plans to tighten up postal voting produces are not good enough.

Labour’s Lydia Simmons hit the headlines earlier this year when a special election court found former Tory Eshaq Khan and his agents guilty of vote rigging in Slough central ward’s local elections in May 2007 , which meant he beat Mrs Simmons by 120 votes.

The court heard how the cheats cast votes pretending to be other people - many of whom were bogus or registered to live in overcrowded or derelict homes across the borough.

On Friday, the Electoral Commission called for the election time table to be increased from 17 days to 25 days to ensure there is enough time available for printing and processing postal votes.

More:
http://www.sloughobserver.co.uk/articles/1/3715

[tbyg52]

28. UK: Special Report: How police investigated vote rigging offences

THE conviction of former city mayor Raja Akhtar and ex-councillor Abdul Razaq brings to an end a massive police investigation which has seen six men convicted of electoral fraud in the past six months.
Operation Hooper has involved four years of work by a core team of Cambridgeshire detectives who trawled through more than 11,000 electoral documents and interviewed nearly 1,200 witnesses.

The £1 million investigation began in June 2004 after Peterborough City Council began receiving complaints from people who had arrived at polling stations to vote in the local elections, only to be told their ballots had already been cast by post.

The vast majority of complaints came from the city's Central ward, where electoral records showed the number of postal votes was far higher than in any other area.

More:
http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/Special-Report--How-police.4328536.jp

[tbyg52]

39. Democracy, Cambodian Style

As voting came to a close in Cambodia's national elections Sunday, I stood outside makeshift polling station 1660, waiting to watch the ballots counted. Just over 500 Cambodians had voted at this rural outpost - the downstairs of a wooden stilt house -- in the country's fourth parliamentary election since a massive UN intervention in the early 1990s.

Shortly after I arrived at the house, a woman rode up on a bicycle, her index finger stained purple indicating that she had already voted. She said she had been registered at more than one polling station and was wondering if she should vote again. Looking nervously at the gathered observers, the election officials sent her away. Then another woman approached the house from the nearby dirt road. Her hair hanging in limp strands from the intermittent rain, she explained she had been wandering around the village all day, trying to find the polling station where she was registered. Voting ended ten minutes ago, she was told. Disheartened, she left.

The ruling Cambodian People's Party has claimed over two-thirds of the vote in Sunday's election, a win that will tighten the party's grip on political power. Though an official tally is yet to be released, opposition parties are already contesting the CPP's victory. They argue that voter roll inconsistencies -- like those I witnessed on election day -- were in fact widespread and deliberate. Sam Rainsy, who heads the leading opposition party, claims that thousands of voters' names mysteriously disappeared from registration lists. He has called for a revote in the capital city of Phnom Penh, where he says irregularities were particularly glaring, and threatens to lead protests in the next few days if this does not happen.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elena-lesley/democracy-cambodian-style_b_115393.html

[tbyg52]

43. Ghana election 2008 Carter Center launches election observation mission

The Carter Center has launched an international election observation mission in Ghana with the deployment of four teams of observers to four regions around the country.
Observers will focus on the recently announced limited voter registration exercise and the pre-election political environment as part of the Center’s ongoing international election observation program.

The Ghana observation mission is being coordinated by the Carter Center’s country director, Dr. Keith Jennings, who has been in Ghana since May. The Center’s international observers are drawn from eight countries: Argentina, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Zimbabwe.

Collectively, the Center’s observers have previously participated in international observation missions to more than 25 other countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

More:
http://news.accra-mail.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=883:ghana-election-2008-carter-center-launches-election-observation-mission&catid=34:news&Itemid=53

[tbyg52]

44. UK: Labour forum backs voting age of 16

Labour's next election manifesto will back extending the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds, and support a wholly elected second chamber as a result of decisions taken yesterday at the party's critical three-day national policy forum in Warwick.

In talks at Warwick University that ended at 5am yesterday, ministers also agreed with unions to proposals in a 20-page document that include tighter protection for vulnerable workers and an assertion of the importance of public services. Unions failed to make progress on their insistence on a return to a right to take sympathetic industrial action. But some union leaders claimed the policy forum represented only "half-time" in the talks with the party, since the election could still be 20 months away.

"We have moved forward on a package that covers a wide range of areas that the British electorate wants to see addressed," said Dave Prentis, general secretary of the public services union Unison. "These include health and the public services, equal pay and equalities, tackling poverty, improving skills training and fairness at work. Importantly for us, it affirms the central role of the public sector in delivering public services. It makes clear that direct provision should be the preferred option - and that privatisation is not the way ahead."

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/28/labour.lords

[tbyg52]

49. Fiji: Scrap Communal Voting System

Communal voting over the past years has caused a lot of damage to Fiji and has continued to divide the people along racial lines.

Those are the words of the Co-Chair of the National Council for Building a Better Fiji and Head of the Catholic Church of Fiji Archbishop Petero Mataca as stakeholders get ready to discuss major electoral reforms next month.

Archbishop Mataca said the changes like the scrapping of the communal voting system are necessary.

(A little) more (plus comments):
http://www.fijivillage.com/iforum/?mod=read&id=290708f7d7393fbaf5a796b686a034

[tbyg52]

4. Blogs, Editorials, LTTEs, etc. nt

[tbyg52]

13. NY: The Fight to Hold on to Our HAVA-Compliant Lever Voting System:

Keeping the Air and the Facts Clear

"If citizens mistakenly believe that a court has already ruled against the legality of our lever voting system, they will give up and accept the unconstitutional system planned for 2009."

Let's Clear the Air distinguishes the facts from the myths about the status of New York State's electoral system. New York is the only state not to have computerized its electoral system and the only state that still has a secure, reliable, transparent, functioning electoral system. Since New York is in the process of installing ballot marking devices in every poll site, providing an accessible means for voters with special needs to vote independently, there is no justification for the State to abandon its now HAVA-compliant lever voting system.

Software-driven optical scanners and DRE voting systems have proven to be vulnerable to undetectable tampering. New York voters must fight to hold onto their theft-deterring lever voting system before they lose it. New York courts must defend our proud history of transparent, safeguarded, trustworthy elections and proclaim to the State's legislature and to the rest of the nation:

Exposing our elections to the risk of massive tampering using hidden, unprotectable vote-counting software is unconstitutional.

More:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Fight-to-Hold-on-to-Ou-by-andi-novick-080728-948.html

[Wilms]

52. Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x506211

[tbyg52]

16. The Systematic Destruction of Voting Rights in America (Part 1)

(NaturalNews) You might think you have the right to vote. You might think your vote counts. You might think that there's a problem here or there, but that they're the exceptions. You might think that the 2000 presidential election was an aberration, in which the U.S. Supreme Court violated ethical and court precedents to crown the election loser, countering the will of the people. You might think it can't possibly be an ongoing problem.

You might be very sadly mistaken.

Voting rights are under systematic attack in the United States. Techniques include:

* Outright disenfranchisement.

* Vote switching in election machines.

* Refusal to allow the public to see how votes are counted.

* Use of the people's courts by political parties and corporations to subvert the law.

* Use of lawsuit threats by large corporations against cash-strapped local governments to prevent them from examining voting machines.

More:
http://www.naturalnews.com/023706.html

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18. UK: Make voting compulsory for the sake of our democracy

Ken Penton puts the case for a ‘Democracy Day’ of rights, responsibility and reward for the whole British electorate

THE Ministry of Justice is currently consulting on whether elections in Britain should be moved to the weekend as part of a strategy “to identify and remove barriers to voting”. It is clear from the consultation paper, Election Day – Weekend Voting, that weekend voting is the Government’s preferred option. But will this really do anything to reverse the trend in falling turnout and the growing sense of a democratic deficit in this country? Or is it just another sign of the paucity of confidence in the Labour Government at present that it is not willing to take hard decisions which might make a real impact on the lives of and be popular with the majority of citizens?

Every British general election since the Second World War has been held on a Thursday. Turnout peaked at 83.61 per cent in 1950. Subsequently, it hovered in the 75-80 per cent bracket until 1992 (with the exceptions of October 1974 and 1983, when it fell to just under 73 per cent in both years), before dropping to 71.29 per cent in 1997. The real concern in the demise of Britons exercising their “responsibility” to fulfil their civic duty started with the 2001 general election when turnout fell dramatically to 59.38 percentage points – a drop of nearly 12 per cent on 1997. This fall occurred despite the relaxation of electoral procedures to encourage the take-up of postal and proxy voting, which Labour-affiliated unions, among others, put massive focus on in 2001 and 2005. The turnout in the latter year’s general election rose only slightly to 61.36 per cent.

More:
http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2008/07/28/make-voting-compulsory-for-the-sake-of-our-democracy/

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20. FL: New voting machines: Paper trail to nowhere?

After Sarasota's 2006 voting debacle, which featured huge undervotes and bitter accusations of technical failures, the state outlawed touch-screen voting. That made optical-scan systems the election technology of choice in Florida.

The move was hailed by reformers, who said the hard-copy ballots of optical systems provided a crucial backstop -- a paper trail -- if the results of an election were decided by just a few votes.

"What we're talking about here is democracy, and it is precious," Gov. Charlie Crist said when he proposed the 2007 overhaul. "You should, when you go vote, be able to have a record of it."

But it hasn't worked out that way.

More:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-papervote2808jul28,0,7510487.story

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22. Why we don't vote. A look at the American voting system, in case you missed it Sunday

My vote doesn’t matter. I forgot to register. I can’t leave work. I don’t know where to go. I have kids at home. It’s confusing.

The list of reasons people don’t vote is long.

Why? Because the list of people who don’t vote is long.

Here, in the cradle of democracy, between 80 million and 90 million people — about 40 percent of U.S. citizens old enough to cast ballots — won’t vote this November. And with two wars, a precarious economy and the first major-party African-American candidate ever topping a ticket, this vote is considered the most important and compelling presidential election in a generation.

More:
http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/13320

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23. FL: Radio Ralph: Optical Scanners

“Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.”

I could not help thinking of this line from a Thomas Gray poem when I read the top headline on page one of the New York Times Monday. “Influx of voters expected to test new technology,” the headline read. And what was the new technology? Optical scanners in the polling stations. Hey, why is this a new technology? Optical scanners have been around for a few decades, and Gainesville has been using them on election day for a dozen years. But according to the New York Times, voters in at least 11 states will be using this system for the first time in November.

Now up here in the north, we are supposed to be the yokel, backwater part of the state of Florida. We chose optical scanners and South Florida chose touch-screen voting machines. One has to consider the logic in these two choices. With optical scanners, a county has to invest in small, folding tables, paper ballots, felt-tipped pens and a small scanner in each precinct – all very inexpensive. For an election in which a large turn-out is expected, you just have to set up more of the little folding tables.

More:
http://www.am850.com/commentary/archives/2008/07/radio_ralph_optical_scanners.asp

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24. OH: Internet offers the future of voting

My comment - picture me with a grimace on my face as I read the title, please.

It seems voting machines change about as quickly as the weather in Northeast Ohio. In 2004, Lake County voters cast their ballots electronically.

Since then, however, the method changed, to touch screens with a paper audit trail. Now, citing a report, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner says the most reliable machines are optical scan - a pencil-completed paper ballot that is read by a machine.

She's also encouraging more absentee ballots, favoring mail-in ballots used in Oregon.
This comes as Republican state lawmakers criticize Brunner, a Democrat, for failing to require counties to mail absentee ballot applications for November to all registered voters.

More:
http://www.news-herald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19874218&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=220548&rfi=6

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34. LTTE: Improving Ballot Design

“A Lesson Not Learned” (editorial, July 24) rightly identifies the need to improve the design of election ballots but focuses mainly on long-term solutions. There is, however, something that every election district can do this year to reduce the likelihood of voter confusion: Make the ballots available just before they are locked into final form, and let ordinary citizens test them on the equipment that will be used on Election Day.

(A little) more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/opinion/l28vote.html?ref=opinion

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35. Caspar Weinberger Jr.: Should All Americans be Allowed to Vote?

From the "know your enemies" department.... I love the way he segues from McCain's piece being rejected for not meeting editorial standards to "if you don't read the NYT you're too ignorant to vote."

The recent partisan censorship by the New York Times regarding Senator John McCain’s op–ed article speaks for itself regardless of the spin the Times and its champions attempt to put on it. That their censorship is unfair, especially after publishing Senator Obama’s article, and that their love for all things left and their hate of most things right is equally apparent.

But there is in this election cycle a much larger issue which is brought to mind when media manipulation is so clearly displayed. Namely, should just any citizen have the sacred right to vote? Those of us who can read and understand issues and arguments, can and often do disagree. Those of us who are able to read the New York Times and decipher what is being said, really, for the most part, have already decided what we need to know to make a decision between the two apparent major party Presidential nominees.

Even if the Times fails to gives us the other side of an argument in one particular instance, or on many, we with some intellect and some sense of caring can discern that fact and distill it further into our choice of a candidate.

In short, if you are intelligent enough to read the Times or to boycott it on purpose because of its consistent left-biased slant, you are most certainly smart enough to be a voter, whatever your ultimate choice for the election.

More:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27719&s=rcme

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36. Votes from the grave

You've heard of the book (then movie), "Dead Man Walking"?

How about "dead man voting"?

What happens if you vote by mail, then die before Election Day?

We're aware of candidates who die before Election Day still receiving enough votes to be elected, but it never occurred to us that there's a legitimate way (not connected with ballot box fraud, known to have existed in some precincts) for your voice to be heard, even after you're gone.

What to do? Darn, you never can find a Harvard law professor when you need one.

It seems in some states, your mail-in vote indeed counts, even if you pass away before Election Day. In others, it doesn't. It depends on where you lived.

More:
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19871366&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=82701&rfi=6

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38. Soldiers' voting rights still not served

REP. Roy Blunt, the House Republican whip, on July 8 introduced a resolution demanding that the Defense Department better enable U.S. military personnel overseas to vote in the November elections. That act was followed by silence. Democrats normally leap on an opportunity to find fault with the Bush Pentagon. But not a single Democrat joined Blunt as a co-sponsor, and an all-Republican proposal cannot pass in the Democratic-controlled House.

Analysis by the federal Election Assistance Commission, rejecting inflated Defense Department voting claims, estimated overseas and absentee military voting for the 2006 midterm elections at a disgracefully low 5.5 percent. The quality of voting statistics is so poor that there is no way to tell how many of the slightly over 330,000 votes actually were sent in by the absentee military voters and their dependents and how many by civilian Americans living abroad - 6 million all total.

Nobody who has studied the question objectively sees any improvement since 2006, and that is a scandal. Retired U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Charles Henry wrote in the July issue of the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings: "While virtually everyone involved ... seems to agree that military people deserve at least equal opportunity when it comes to having their votes counted, indications are that in November 2008, many thousands of service members who try to vote will do so in vain."

More:
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinions/ci_10016423

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5. Campaign Finance nt

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27. Kansan sticks it to election system

When Sean Tevis decided to run for a seat in the Kansas Legislature, he faced a serious problem: money. Local political advisors warned the campaign novice that he would need a war chest of at least $26,000 to compete against his entrenched Republican rival.

It seemed like a fortune to the 39-year-old Democrat. Everyone he knew here was either on a fixed income, worried about losing a job or fretting that the nation's stumbling economy could spread to this southwestern suburb of Kansas City, Kan.

So Tevis created a droll online cartoon strip to appeal to potential supporters wherever they might be, using stick figures to represent himself, his GOP opponent and others.

In one panel, a stick-figure Tevis greets a constituent by rattling off a stream of personal facts he's found online about her -- including her birthdate, voting pattern, divorce, paycheck, credit card balances and medical history -- to illustrate his interest in protecting individual privacy.

More:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-candidate28-2008jul28,0,4489963.story

Cartoon website:
http://www.seantevis.com/3000

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37. Officials get too much latitude with campaign expenses, group says

A government-ethics watchdog group says Ohio's election laws should be changed to ensure that campaign contributions are used solely for campaigning.

Common Cause/Ohio said to help spur reform, it might file formal complaints with the Ohio Elections Commission against officeholders who have used contributions to pay for things such as country-club memberships, out-of-state trips and tickets to sporting events.

William K. Woods, chairman of Common Cause/Ohio, said an examination of such spending by WBNS-TV (Channel 10) left him "a little shocked."

"I realize there's fairly wide discretion in terms of the use of campaign funds, but the kind of personal use that you've found really shows that we really need an overhaul of the campaign-finance laws," Woods said.

More:
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/07/28/CampaignContributions.ART_ART_07-28-08_B6_HHAS3P1.html?sid=101

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42. Campaign Finance Laws Under Siege

When the Supreme Court threw out an obscure campaign finance regulation involving wealthy, self-financed candidates, reform advocates played down the ruling's significance.

The so-called Millionaires' Amendment had never been central to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, assured Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who wrote that law with John McCain. The amendment had raised contribution limits for any candidate facing a self-financed opponent with deep pockets, but the court found that unconstitutional. Pro-reform activists declared that the ruling was disappointing but not surprising, or even particularly significant.

But the high court's 5-4 vote in Davis v. Federal Election Commission on June 26 could resonate broadly. Some political scientists say the ruling threatens public financing rules at the state level. Others see trouble ahead for the existing campaign finance regime now that the Supreme Court boasts a solid majority of five justices more enamored with the First Amendment than with restrictive election laws.

"We could well be looking at a situation where the only campaign finance laws that are constitutional are disclosure laws and voluntary public financing systems." --Richard L. Hasen, Loyola Law School

More:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/rg_20080728_5842.php

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6. The Youth Vote nt

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31. MoveOn Ad Uses Humor on MTV, Comedy Central

ABC News' James Gerber Reports: The liberal political action group MoveOn.org has released a new television ad aimed at increasing youth turnout and mobilizing young voters around the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

The pro-Obama spot, titled "It Could Happen To You," was named the funniest video in the organization's recent "Obama in 30 Seconds" ad contest and will air for a week starting Wednesday, July 30 on MTV and Comedy Central.

The ad, produced by former "Boy Meets World" star Rider Strong, is styled like a public health spot. "I never thought it could happen to me," begins a young man. "This could happen to anybody," relates another. What, exactly, have these young adults contracted?

"Hope."

Watch the ad here.

More:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/07/moveon-ad-targe.html

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33. The Youth Vote

One of the stories this campaign season has been the youth vote, and the main story line comes down to this: Obama gives them inspiration. Type “youth vote inspired Obama” into Google and more than 600,000 hits come up.

If the youth vote does jump from its showing in 2004 (a significant increase from 2000), we should applaud 18-to-24-year-olds for their civic growth, and if Obama motivates them to cast their ballots in record numbers, he counts as more than a politician. He’s a leader.

We should pause, however, over the source of the increase in youth civic engagement. It sounds all to the good, and parents and teachers should advance the project of youth voter participation. But inspiration does have a down side, too, one that mentors should discuss with the young, for while it may ensure larger participation, it isn’t the best motivation for voting. Reasons:

More:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/election/2284/the-youth-vote

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47. S.A.V.E, NON-PARTISAN YOUTH VOTER ADVOCACY GROUP

AND EVOCA, VOICE-TO-WEB SERVICES INNOVATOR, LAUNCH THE INTERACTIVE “VOTER PROTECTION HOTLINE”

The Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE) deploys Evoca Media Services to achieve its mission of increased youth voter turnout and election protection using mobile phones and the Internet.

Washington, DC and Savannah, GA — July 28, 2008 – Everyone can call +1.866.558-4165 to put their voices online at www.savevoting.org, the website of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE), a national non-profit, non-partisan youth voter engagement organization. Powered by Evoca, the Voice-to-Web solutions provider, SAVE announced its “Voter Protection Hotline” to encourage young voters to report voter experiences and voting irregularities. With the global reach of the Internet, anyone can listen online at www.savevoting.org/SpeakOut.

SAVE chapters work with college administrators to institutionalize voter registration, host debates, discussions and town hall forums centered on electoral awareness, coordinate grassroots efforts to reform elections, lead registration programs for local high schools, disseminate voting information and resources, and collaborate with statewide press outlets to bring young voters to a forefront in the media. SAVE has held numerous press conferences on youth voting trends, hosted national town hall forums with presidential candidates, contributed to Congressional hearings, directed higher education-meetings on civic education, been featured in dozens of leading newspapers and media outlets, and formed partnerships with the United States Student Association, Student PIRGs (public interest research groups), and Mobilize.org.

More:
http://www.thecreativecoast.org/savannahnews/view/883-s-a-v-e-non-partisan-youth-voter-advocacy-group-and-evoca-voice-to-web-services-innovator-launch-the-interactive-voter-protection-hotline-

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51. That's all, folks! nt