Tuesday 1/18/05 update thread for fraud/election/recount/protests

[MelissaB]

In order to organize and document I thought it would be a good idea to have a daily thread to place items related to the recounts/fraud. This also make it easier to "catch up" when we are away from the computer for a while.

Please help us. If you see something that isn't here post it with a link to the thread and a thanks to the author. Thanks to everyone who is helping with this project.

Link to the thread from yesterday: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x287955

[MelissaB]

1. Credibility lacking without paper trail

When Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, formally protested the election proceedings, no one was shocked with the result. Obviously, the election was certified, and very little harm was done to the president's credibility.

However, what happened was our congressmen were given the time to address the problems with the American electoral process. Congressman after congressman admitted flaws that must be addressed before the next election.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., brought up the major problem that I had with the election in states such as our own and Ohio: the lack of a paper trail. If the United States wants voter confidence, we need paper trails and the ability to recount. At only 17 years old, I do not want my first ballot cast to be shadowed with doubt over whether it was counted or not.

Thus, I beg Rep. Robert Wexler to continue the fight for paper trails. I hope that other elected officials, Democrat or Republican, will join in his fight for fair and competent elections. Only when Americans feel confident in election results will our government have the credibility it deserves.

Hana Greenberg

Boca Raton


Link: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-pbmail729jan18,0,1259331.story?coll=sfla-news-letters

[texpatriot2004]

2. kick

[L. Coyote]

3. An interview with investigative journalist Greg Palast

‘Something is wrong in America’
An interview with investigative journalist Greg Palast
by Daniel Strumpf
San Diego City Beat

"Michael Moore used Palast’s articles about the 2000 elections as well as those probing links between the bin Laden and Bush families as the backbone of Fahrenheit 9/11. Palast chronicled his own investigative exploits in The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a tome that spent more than a year on The New York Times bestseller list. He also produced the critically acclaimed documentary Bush Family Fortunes. Most recently he landed a gig as a contributing editor with Harper’s magazine, and his articles regularly appear in Hustler magazine, in addition to various Internet sites."

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=408&row=0

[MelissaB]

4. Election reform legislation moving 'full-steam ahead'

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- As Washington's endless gubernatorial election moves into the courts, Secretary of State Sam Reed and state lawmakers on Monday pledged speedy action on election reform legislation.

>>>snip

Republican Reed, the state's chief elections officer, said he sees no sign that lawmakers will "sweep anything under the rug in any way." Polls show that confidence in the election system has taken a big hit, he said, and lawmakers are paying attention.

>>>snip

Gregoire was inaugurated last Wednesday, but Rossi and the GOP have filed a "contest" in the courts. The first hearing is set for Thursday in Chelan County Superior Court in Wenatchee. The case is expected to wind up in the state Supreme Court.

Republicans, who want a statewide revote, say the media and party investigators have turned up far more than enough erroneous votes to throw the original election in doubt. Examples include felons and dead people voting, provisional ballots being run through tally machines without proper scrutiny and discrepancies between some counties' voter lists and the number of votes that were certified.


More here: http://www.tdn.com/articles/2005/01/18/area_news/news07.txt

[MelissaB]

5. Bill seeks end to Election Day registration

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Bill seeks end to Election Day registration

By PAUL CARRIER, Portland Press Herald Writer


AUGUSTA — A state lawmaker wants Maine to scrap a 32-year-old law that allows voters to register on Election Day. But other lawmakers and election watchdog groups say the ban proposed by state Sen. Jonathan Courtney, R-Sanford, will be a hard sell in a state that traditionally has one of the highest voter turnouts in the country.

Courtney submitted his bill because he said he believes it would strengthen the integrity of the election process if the state sets a voter-registration deadline about two days before each election.

That way, he said, local officials will go into each election with a complete list of registered voters in their communities, avoiding the confusion that can occur when newcomers show up to register on Election Day.

Courtney offered no evidence of fraud under the existing system. But he said setting an earlier deadline would simplify the election process without disenfranchising voters, because his proposed registration cutoff would still be close to the election itself.


More: http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/050118elections.shtml

[MelissaB]

6. Many absentee Alaska voters didn't return ballot

Many absentee Alaska voters didn't return ballot
QUESTIONS: They may have voted elsewhere, not received ballot or not voted.


By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News

(Published: January 18, 2005)

>>>snip

In 2004 hundreds of absentee ballots didn't go out in the mail until the Friday before the Tuesday election because an election worker didn't allow for enough postage in Juneau. Leman said the state wants postal workers to bring such problems to a supervisor's attention.

Better voter education also is needed so citizens know their options, Glaiser said.

Even if Leman and elections officials could account for half of the mystery absentees, "that still leaves 10,000" ballots unaccounted for, said Matt McKenna, a spokesman for the Tony Knowles Senate campaign.

Knowles, the Democrat, lost to Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski by about 9,300 votes.

More: http://www.adn.com/front/story/6035461p-5924847c.html

[MelissaB]

7. Hefty to-do list awaits

Hefty to-do list awaits
Pre-K, tax cuts, DWI, election reform among the priorities

By Shea Andersen
Tribune Reporter
January 18, 2005


In his opening speech today to the Legislature, Gov. Bill Richardson will be casting lots of hooks even as he knows he won't always get bites.

The first-term governor, who has boasted of a near-total success in getting agendas through the Legislature, downplayed his chances of repeating that record.

"We're not going to get 97 percent this time," Richardson said Monday. "It's going to be more modest."

His to-do list, however, is anything but modest.

Democrat Richardson said he has an "action-packed agenda" for the 60-day session that starts today in Santa Fe.

Chief among those items:

>>>snip

Election reform: Richardson said he will announce his own proposal for voter identification requirements, something Republican lawmakers have craved for years.


More: http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_local_state_government/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19859_3478723,00.html

[MelissaB]

8. Oregon St Daily Baromoter: Voting reform shouldn't be scary for Republican

Voting reform shouldn't be scary for Republicans

by Elizabeth Meyer
The Daily Barometer

couple weeks ago, California Sen. Barbara Boxer and Ohio Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones made history, evoking a law not used since the 19th century, as they objected to certifying George W. Bush as the winner in Ohio.

Sen. Boxer and Congresswoman Tubbs Jones both know that Bush will be declared president for four more years. They both understand that Bush probably won Ohio, and probably won the rest of the country. Their problem, along with the Congressional Black Caucus's problem, is that problems inherent in the voting process in Ohio are simply not being addressed, and that those problems led to disenfranchised voters, votes not being counted, and in some cases, votes not being cast at all.

The Ohio election, like the Florida election in 2000, highlights the problems with voting in America. In Ohio, the exit polls didn't match the results. In Ukraine, that was one of the indicators of a fraudulent election, pointed out, ironically, by U.S. officials. But back at home, it's a statistical error.

In Ohio, some voters stood in line for 10 hours to vote. This was caused, according to Knight-Ridder papers, by the misallocation of voting machines. Rather than being sent out to precincts where record-breaking voter turnout was expected, working machines were kept in warehouses on Election Day. The long lines were all in areas that tend to vote Democrat.

Perhaps the most bizarre irregularity was in Warren County, where public observers were barred from watching the counting process, based on a terrorist threat from the FBI. The FBI denies that it ever released such a threat.

More: http://barometer.orst.edu/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/01/18/41ed583a01eb1

[MelissaB]

9. Problems the Democrats Have

Problems the Democrats Have
By Rudy Takala
MichNews.com
Jan 18, 2005




As the day of President Bush’s inauguration draws near, liberal organizations seem to be on the brink of implosion; they don’t know what policies to pursue, they don’t know who their chairman should be, and they don’t know whether they should attack the presidential inauguration as a bourgeoisie-perpetrated fraud or as simply too expensive.



Just recently on C-Span, a group of anarchists could be observed planning a protest to the inaugural ceremony. Other liberals have accused Bush of stealing 118,000 votes in Ohio. But as of late, the primary argument that they’ve asserted for the pursuit of their policies is that Bush doesn’t really have a mandate because the majority of Americans don’t really like the Republicans.


For example, the pro-abortion group NARAL recently sent an e-mail to its members stating, "As he prepares to begin his second term, Bush and his allies are using their trumped up 'mandate' to justify their dangerous and divisive anti-choice agenda. But if winning a slim majority of votes is enough to convince the President of his 'mandate,' then we would like to remind President Bush of just one thing: A majority of Americans supports a woman's right to choose.”



>>>snip

With regard to the “mandate,” it appears to be a point that the Democrats will continue to stress until the next election. Greg Mitchell of Editor and Publisher wrote on November fifth, “It’s true that President Bush got more votes than any winning candidate for president in history. He also had more people voting against him than any winning candidate for president in history.” And in a recent e-mail of his own, James Carville wrote, “Bush and the Republicans can only get their way in 2005 if we Democrats forget our own power. They only win if we choose to stop fighting. But if we stick together, we can transform American politics." He spoke of "bullying political tactics and ‘dangerous’ second-term agenda." Unfortunately, he didn’t elaborate on what “bullying tactics” Republicans were intent on using; most likely, it was the threat of campaigning against the Democrats’ positions.

More: http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_6488.shtml

[MelissaB]

10. 10,000 Jesuses

We're looking for a few good Jesuses. Men or women who are willing to wear a robe, grow a little hair and travel to Washington D.C. for the Presidential Inauguration on January 20th.

WHERE: We'll be converging at 4th St. & Penn. Ave. north side of the parade route beginning at 11:00 am

WHY ... would we want to go to the inauguration of a president many of us know is diametrically opposed to everything taught in the New Testament? Because it's important to let Mr. Bush and the American media know that their talk of 'values' is misplaced. We recommend dressing as Jesus and perhaps carrying signs which would indicate Jesus's disapproval:

"Who Would I torture?", "Who Would I Bomb?","I never owned an M-16" "What part of 'Turn the other cheek' don't you understand?"

The idea is to take back the symbols of Christianity for those who actually practice it in spirit, if not in name.

More: http://www.10000jesuses.org/

Thanks to Earth_First here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2967993

[MelissaB]

11. democracy in a box .... cartoon from Palast's site

Thanks to bobbieinok here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x290921

[Wilms]

12. kick n/t

[Melissa G]

13. kick