Tuesday 2/8 Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates Thread

[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 reform, fraud, protests, and other items. 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=203x319774


Note: I will be out of town today and won't be able to work on this thread today. Thanks to all who are helping!
:toast:

[dzika]

1. ACTION ITEMS

Please reply to this post with your action items.

[dzika]

39. Send Barbara Boxer a Rose on Valentine's Day!

Send Barbara Boxer a Rose on Valentine's Day!

Only 4 more days!
Don't forget to place your order by Feb. 12

Senator Barbara Boxer has recently emerged as the leading
voice in the fight against the Bush mandate of imperialism
abroad and destruction of civil liberties at home. She has
disputed the Ohio 2004 election vote, elegantly denied
Condoleezza Rice a confirmation vote, and almost singlehandedly
stood up for the principles of freedom, truth, and
accountability that we all hold so dear. She has started
what some are calling “The New Boxer Rebellion” - and
other Senators are starting to follow her lead.
Now is the time to let her know she has our full support,
admiration and thanks.

I have arranged for a national online florist, Coast to
Coast Florist, to take $10 pledges from callers up until
Feb.12th for three red roses, which, in a mass delivery,
will be taken on Feb 14th to the Hart Senate Building
office of Barbara Boxer in Washington DC.
This message will be included with the flowers:

Dear Senator Boxer:

We the people have sent these flowers to you this day in
thanks for your unwavering courage and determination to
stand up for the principles of freedom and truth in the
United States Senate. You are a shining example of what a
civil servant can, and should, be, and we, your
constituents and supporters, deeply appreciate your heroic
charge to bring accountability, responsibility and honesty
back into our government.

Here is the order/delivery information:

Call Coast to Coast Florist at 1-888-501-ROSE(7673).
This is a dedicated phone line, created only for this
order, a representative will answer “Barbara Boxer Rose
Campaign.” Press #1 to order and #2 for more information.
Give the representative your credit card number—you will
only be charged $10.00 for your roses. I am picking up the
delivery fee.

That’s it. The cut-off date for orders is Saturday, Feb.
12th. That only gives us TWO weeks!

Also included in this delivery will be a rose dipped in 22k
gold for her to keep. This fee I am also paying for.
(You may check out coasttocoastflorist.com online for your
own verification purposes — they have an informational link
on their customer service page, in the middle of the page
on the drop down menu about this - but please make orders
only on the toll-free number to ensure your order is
included in the mass delivery.)

Sen. Boxer is an emerging hero to liberals everywhere and a
grand public thank you is in order. This action will also
send a message to other Democratic senators and
representatives that we, the people, are watching - and we
will support, thank, and reelect those who stand up for our
democratic principles. Think of what a million roses could
mean! (And, once the roses lose their luster, we would
respectfully ask the Senator to donate the deceased to a
local manure manufacturer to be made into mulch - we're
green, too!)

Feel free to verify all of the above information with this
florist - who has taken a chance on this incredible idea
and showed tremendous enthusiasm and support. Please email
me directly if you need more verification of this movement.
This is not spam! We can only do it with your help! Make it
happen!

Thanks,
Stacy Davies
Citizen
Claremont, California
[e-mail]


The original email can be viewed in PDF Format:
http://members.cox.net/crankylittleblog/BBRC%20Email.pdf

[dzika]

41. Boxer will be getting thousands of Roses on Valentine's Day.

I called the pledge line, 1-888-501-ROSE(7673), earlier today to place an order. She told me that they had over 600 orders as of the middle of last week.

Each order will add 3 roses to the delivery. I'm sure they have passed 2000 roses by now.

Barbara Boxer may be our greatest advocate in the Senate. Show her that you appreciate her dedication by pledging 3 roses.

[dzika]

42. Updated Video by DU Members Chronicles the Illegitimate Election of 2004

February 7, 2005

WATCH NOW - Updated Video by DU Members...
Chronicles the Illegitimate Election of 2004

• Streaming RealPlayer (broadband version)
  http://velvetrevolution.us/Content/ElectoralReform/Video/Illegit_Election_2004-20-256.ram
  
  
• Streaming RealPlayer (dial-up version)
  http://velvetrevolution.us/Content/ElectoralReform/Video/Illegit_Election_2004-20-56.ram
  
  
  
• Windows Media Player (broadband version)
  http://velvetrevolution.us/Content/ElectoralReform/Video/Illegit_Election_2004-20-256.wmv
  
  
• Windows Media Player (dial-up version)
  http://velvetrevolution.us/Content/ElectoralReform/Video/Illegit_Election_2004-20-56.wmv
  
  
  
• Quicktime (broadband version)
  http://velvetrevolution.us/Content/ElectoralReform/Video/Illegit_Election_2004-20-256.mov
  
  
• Quicktime (dial-up version)
  http://velvetrvolution.us/Content/ElectoralReform/Video/Illegit_Election_2004-20-100.mov

Visit VelvetRevolution and Post this link everywhere you can:
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/#020505


NOTE: The Windows Media and Quicktime links can now be downloaded.

[dzika]

2. Dean's last opponent bows out of chairman's race _ with a warning

February 07, 2005

Dean's last opponent bows out of chairman's race _ with a warning

WASHINGTON - Tim Roemer, the only remaining opponent of one-time presidential candidate Howard Dean to be chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Monday he's bowing out of the race - but he offered a warning to Democrats.

Dean, the former governor of Vermont, is expected to win the party chairmanship at the Feb. 12 election.

Roemer, a former congressman from Indiana and a member of the Sept. 11 commission, said Democrats must be more inclusive in their outreach to fast-growing parts of the country.

"I got into this race five weeks ago to talk about the devastating loss we experienced in November," Roemer said in an interview. "It was not about 60,000 votes in Ohio," a reference to the margin by which Democratic candidate John Kerry lost that state - and the November election.

"It was about losing 97 of the 100 fastest growing counties in the country," he said. "If that's a trend in business or politics you're in trouble."

Republicans are in the strongest position they've been in since the early 20th century, Roemer said.
...
"If there's one reason Senator Kerry lost the presidential race, it was because he failed to make the American people feel safer," Roemer said, adding that he also wanted to encourage talk within the party about developing a stronger position on values.


http://start.earthlink.net/article/pol?guid=20050207/4206f5d0_3421_1334520050207869974822

[dzika]

3. Senator Boxer Features Black History Month

Senator Boxer Features Black History Month

Dear Friends:

Throughout our country, Black History Month is celebrated in
the month of February to review the rich history and important
contributions of African Americans since before the founding of
our nation.

I invite you to visit my Black History Month feature webpage on
my Senate website. You will find interesting biographies,
historical timelines, a quiz, and educational links to other
websites celebrating Black History Month. It also includes an
event locator listing Black History Month events being held
throughout California.

You can find the Black History Month feature webpage by
following the link on my website’s home page at
http://boxer.senate.gov/index.cfm. I hope you find it
interesting and informative. I appreciate hearing from
Californians and hope that you will feel free to contact me
regarding this or any other matter.

Sincerely,


Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

http://boxer.senate.gov/bhm/index.cfm

[dzika]

4. Ossie Davis 1917-2005: A Tribute to the Actor and Civil Rights Activist

Ossie Davis 1917-2005: A Tribute to the Actor and Civil Rights Activist

Here is a 7 minute video clip of a conversation DemocracyNow! had with Ossie Davis at a protest in Central Park soon after the pre-emptive strike on Iraq.




Video Clip in Windows Media format:
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/ossie_davis_cp_dn-01.wmv


For more videos and tributes visit DemocracyNow!
http://www.democracynow.org/index.pl?issue=20050207

[dzika]

5. Arnold Inc: Raising Millions in Campaign Money

Feb 7, 2005 7:32 pm US/Pacific

Arnold Inc: Raising Millions in Campaign Money

Video - News Broadcast: Schwarzenegger and Special Interests.


(CBS 5) Arnold Schwarzenegger is the man who campaigned against special interests and the influence of big money in state government.

So how's he doing on cleaning that up so far?

"We can't ignore the fact that he has raised $38 million as a politician," said Doug Heller of a group called ArnoldWatch.org.

And that's just his campaign money. In addition, the Governor has set up a half-dozen private fundraising groups that help pay for his Hollywood lifestyle in the governor's office as well as his campaigns for bond measures and initiatives. So, in a one-on-one interview, we asked the governor about "Arnold Incorporated."

"I'm very happy that I have those donors that pay for those initiatives," Schwarzenegger said. "We have been very successful with our initiatives... But here's the key thing -- never be able to be bought by the special interests. That is the key thing."

State records show that Schwarzenegger's various political committees are funded by millions of dollars from the same insurance companies, developers, financiers and others who have done business with the state for years. So do they influence his policies?
...
But the fact is, Schwarzenegger raises between $72,000 and $80,000 a day, twice as much as former governor Gray Davis ever did. When we reminded the governor of his own campaign promise not to take special interest money, he compared himself to California's last reformist governor.


more
http://www2.cbs5.com/specialreports/local_story_038223331.html

[dzika]

6. Pa. election reform is a welcome test for area lawyer

Posted on Sun, Feb. 06, 2005

Pa. election reform is a welcome test for area lawyer

Lesa Gelb is on task force that will review procedures then report to legislature.

By BRETT MARCY


HARRISBURG – Lesa Gelb knows her task isn’t easy: Help develop a plan within the next three months to fix Pennsylvania’s complex election process.

Gelb, of Laflin, is one of 13 members of the newly created Pennsylvania Election Reform Task Force, which will review the state’s election laws and procedures and make recommendations to the state legislature on how the system can be improved.

Gov. Ed Rendell appointed Gelb last month, and despite the challenge of the task force’s mission, she enthusiastically accepted the position.
...
First on the list is whether Pennsylvania should move up its presidential primary election date to make it more relevant on the national stage.

New Hampshire and Iowa traditionally are the first states to participate in the presidential nominating elections in January. In 2004, 10 states, accounting for more than half of the delegates needed to win the nomination, held their elections on Super Tuesday on March 2.
...
Another dicey issue for the panel is Pennsylvania’s statewide election system, called the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors, or SURE. The system, which was meant to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act, has been criticized as clunky, slow and inefficient.

Election directors from 27 eastern Pennsylvania counties recently endorsed a resolution calling on the state to abandon its contract with a subsidiary of Bermuda-based Accenture Ltd. and solicit bids on a new contract to finish the job.


more
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/10830489.htm

[dzika]

7. Bush Continues Year-round Campaign Tactics with Social Security Ad on CNN

02-08-2005

Bush Continues Year-round Campaign Tactics with Social Security Ad on CNN

This commercial played this morning on CNN. Notice how similar it is to the presidential campaign commercials. CNN also reported today that Bush had risen in opinion polls.

Don't be fooled. You may think that this is just an commercial for Bush's Social Security plan but it is a sign of much more. This is part of a year-round campaign propaganda that is being used to influence public opinion. It's part of a much bigger campaign for the 2006 and 2008 elections.

Just months after the November vote, the GOP sent out mass emails asking supporters to contribute so that Bush's recent presidential campaign could be carried forward to support key initiatives and prepare for future elections.

How long will it be before the swifties start attacking again?



Video in Windows Media Format:
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/bush_social_security_commercial_cnn-01..wmv

[dzika]

52. NO SHAME - RNC Tells Media to Block MoveOn Social Security Ad

NO SHAME - RNC Tells Media to Block MoveOn Social Security Ad

The RNC has put numerous TV stations "on notice" and tells them to block Social Security Ad by MoveOn.org.

So, Bush travels around the country to promote his Social Security plan at the expense of the taxpayer. Yet, only people that agree with him are allowed into his speeches AND all cable media outlets carried all 45 minutes of his speech today with little or no opposing viewpoints.

AND it's OK to that these same cable "news" stations can air the pro-Bush Social Security commercials without complaint.

Incredible!

Here is a report on the MoveOn.org ad from DemocracyNow!



Video in Windows Media format:
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/moveon_social_sec_ad_dn_050208-01.wmv

[dzika]

8. NC Ruling on provisional votes answers 1 question, raises more

Sun, Feb. 06, 2005

What's next? No one knows
NC Ruling on provisional votes answers 1 question, raises more

CARRIE LEVINE


An N.C. Supreme Court ruling that throws out provisional ballots cast by voters outside their home precinct misread state legislators' intent, the leading House Democrat said Saturday.

House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, said legislators wanted those votes to count, and attorneys for the General Assembly are conferring to determine legislators' options in the wake of the court ruling.

Meanwhile, Mecklenburg County officials scrambled to decipher whether the ruling would reopen November's close race for an at-large seat on the board of county commissioners.

Marvin Bethune, the Mecklenburg commissioners' attorney, said he is not yet sure whether the ruling will apply only to candidates named in the suit: state schools superintendent candidate Bill Fletcher, a Republican, and a candidate for Guilford County commissioner.

Bethune said sitting board members should continue to meet until the question is resolved.

"What do you think we should do? Stop government until it's settled?" he asked.

The case now goes back to a Wake County court, where a judge will determine how to address the ballots the state Supreme Court said were illegal.


more
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/10830116.htm

[dzika]

9. TX Upshur vote on unit road too close to call due to provisional ballots

Sunday, February 06, 2005

TX Upshur vote on unit road too close to call due to provisional ballots

By GLENN EVANS

Upshur County residents will have to wait to learn who will be in charge of their roads after balloting Saturday produced a two-vote margin with the fate of five more ballots unknown.

"It's still up in the air," said taxpayer association chief Vance Lowry, who could hardly celebrate a two-vote win as long as five provisional ballots remain wildcards. "It looks like it's practically a tie here."

Voting so far favored keeping the unit road system, 1,292 to 1,290.
...
County Clerk Robin Rodenberg said the five provisional ballots will have to be verified by Tax Assessor/Collector Mike Smith before they can be counted.

Provisional ballots are cast by people who can't prove they are eligible to vote in a particular election – often their address is in question – but who sign an affidavit and vote on contingency.


http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/news/stories/2005/02/06/20050206LNJUnitRoadVote.html

[dzika]

10. Lost votes in Alabama at the core of democracy

Sunday, February 06, 2005

Lost votes in Alabama at the core of democracy

ED PACKARD


The story that garnered attention was that Amendment 2 was not only dead, but also buried, having avoided resurrection by a recount. The story that did not garner much attention is what the recount revealed about election administration more generally.

As certified by the state canvassing board, the recount on Amendment 2 showed that the margin of defeat changed from 1,850 votes to 1,846. A change in the margin of only four votes out of a total of 1,380,750 votes, seems to be a marvelous achievement. This change of only four votes suggests great reliability in the way our system counts ballots.

However, when we look more closely at the total votes counted on Nov. 2, as compared to the recount, we see there was a net loss of total votes in the recount. While 1,380,750 votes were counted on Nov. 2, the recount results were based on counting 1,378,906 ballots, a net loss of 1,844 ballots. While a loss of nearly 2,000 ballots should be of interest in and of itself, the number 1,844 doesn't even tell the complete picture.

When looking at more detailed results, counties reported totals that reflect a wide array of lost and found votes. Individual counties lost as many as 656 "yes" votes, and found as many as 91. They also lost as many as 366 "no" votes, but found as many as 52. While some of the lost and found votes can be attributed to particular ballots not being counted the same way twice, thus shifting votes from "yes" to "no" and vice versa, the overall numbers suggest some additional dynamic at work. Statewide, the totals show a net loss of 920 "yes" votes and a net loss of 924 "no" votes. There was no zero-sum gain due to ballots being read differently at two different times.


much more
http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1107685318148820.xml

[dzika]

11. Hundreds of Iraqis protest alleged voting irregularities outside Green Zon

The scripted initial positive media reports about the Iraqi election has lead to a 6 point increase in Bush's approval rating. As time goes on we see that these reports were not true and the Iraqi election was plagued with irregularities and fraud. But the damage is done and you won't see much about this from the MSM outlets.

It seems that Iraqi "Democracy" shares a common thread with our own.

---

2/6/2005 11:12

Hundreds of Iraqis protest alleged voting irregularities outside Baghdad's Green Zone

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Hundreds of Iraqis shouted slogans and waved Iraqi flags Sunday outside Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone to protest alleged irregularities they say prevented tens of thousands of people in Mosul from voting in last weekend's landmark elections.

The demonstrators were mainly Iraqi Christians, Turkomen and Yazidis members of a small religion in the north who say polling centers never opened in their neighborhoods in the turbulent northern city and surrounding Ninevah province.

Electoral commission officials in Baghdad have acknowledged that many polling sites never opened Jan. 30 or opened late because of what they said were security concerns. Some sites that opened could not be supplied with ballots and other election materials, officials have said.
...
''We are protesting because we have been deprived of our right to participate in the elections,'' said Shameil Benjamin, a member of a Christian party called the Democratic Assyrian Movement. ''There were irregularities and we felt that the injustice was inflicted on us.''
...
Banners held aloft read, ''Assyrians, Turkomens, Yazidis have the right to enjoy the essence of freedom,'' and ''We demand our democratic rights and we reject marginalization.''

Mosul has become a flashpoint for insurgents battling U.S. and Iraqi security forces in recent weeks. In November, rebels launched an uprising there that forced nearly the entire police force to desert their posts.


http://www.boston.com/dailynews/037/world/Hundreds_of_Iraqis_protest_all:.shtml

[dzika]

12. Meng at center of voter fraud probe in New York

February 6, 2005

Meng at center of voter fraud probe in New York

BY BRYAN VIRASAMI


Assemblyman Jimmy Meng

The Queens district attorney is probing allegations of voter registration fraud that first surfaced during last year's Democratic primary in Flushing, officials said.

Assemb. Jimmy Meng, a Democrat, is said to be the focus of the investigation that involves some 160 voter registration forms with the addresses of businesses run by Meng or his family.

The city's Board of Elections turned over information pertaining to "alleged irregularities in election registrations," to the integrity bureau, said Patrick Clark, a spokesman for District Attorney Richard Brown.

"Those allegations are under review," Clark said.

The Board of Elections and Meng's opponents raised concerns over the forms as far back as the day of the September primary.

"They should have investigated earlier," Meng said Sunday. "These registrations didn't start today, it started a long time ago."


more
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-meng0207,0,481781.story?coll=ny-nynews-headlines

[dzika]

13. Trojan Horse Politics?

Friday, February 4, 2005

Trojan Horse Politics?

By Howard Kurtz

I'm surprised that one word in Bush's State of the Union hasn't gotten more attention.

That word is voluntary.

If people are given a choice as to whether they want to put some of their Social Security money into private (excuse me, Mr. President, personal) accounts, isn't that fair? Those who don't want to touch the new program with a 10-foot-pole can keep on getting the old benefits. Who could possibly object to voluntary?

The reason it's not getting more coverage, I think, is the Trojan Horse theory. That is, folks suspect that the voluntary part is just temporary, that if Bush can get his program passed, private accounts will gradually be phased in and future retirees won't have a choice.

The president's track record lends some credence to this view. He asked for big, but temporary, tax cuts, which helped the administration argue on the Hill that we could see whether the economy could sustain them. Then, of course, he demanded that the tax cuts be made permanent.
...
"This president does not back down. Perhaps that's why he won in November."

National Review editors, meanwhile, are high-fiving:

"This may have been the most conservative State of the Union address President Bush has delivered. There were, of course, some lines to make conservatives wince. Doubling Pell Grants will probably increase tuitions, enriching colleges more than helping students. The new money for defense lawyers in capital cases will have to be monitored so that it does not become a subsidy for left-wing legal activism. The president continues to support a 'temporary worker' proposal on immigration that most conservatives rightly consider reckless. But there were very few unpleasant surprises in this year's speech.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63138-2005Feb4.html

[dzika]

14. Belmont County, West Virginia to Review Voting Machines

Why is it that Shelley is forced to resign as a result of de-certifying Diebold DRE's in 4 CA counties and nothing happens to Blackwell when he rules that DRE's can't be used at all in Ohio?

---

Monday, February 07, 2005

Belmont County, West Virginia to Review Voting Machines

By JOSELYN KING


BELLAIRE - Belmont County Board of Elections members will review two optical scan voting systems in their office, then they will decide which should be used.

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the board will watch a demonstration of the system sold by Elections Systems and Software of Chicago. At 2 p.m., representatives of the Diebold Corp. of Dayton, Ohio, will show their product.
Board members then will meet at 5 p.m. for a special meeting to decide which of the two systems is best for Belmont County voters. The board office is located on the third floor of the Bank One building in Bellaire.

Their review of optical scanning systems comes just one month after Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell announced that optical scanning voting machines would be "the uniform system of election in Ohio," and not touchscreen voting machines.

The Help America Vote Act stipulates that all counties in the U.S. that presently use punchcard voting systems - such as Belmont County and other local counties - must upgrade these systems by May 2006. Through HAVA, Ohio has received $135 million to purchase new voting systems.

Blackwell previously asked counties in the state to select touchscreen voting systems, but since that time the Ohio General Assembly has passed legislation requiring voting systems to have a "voter verified paper audit trail," or provide some type of receipt to voters as a record of their ballot.

Adding the necessary devices to the touchscreen machines makes them too costly to provide them across the state, according to Blackwell. An optical scan machine is estimated to cost approximately $5,000, roughly what the touchscreen machine cost without the device.


http://www.theintelligencer.net/news/story/027202005_newbelmont.asp

[dzika]

15. Elections official will call it quits

Posted on Mon, Feb. 07, 2005

Elections official will call it quits
Deputy director leaving after less than 3 years on the Summit board

By Lisa A. Abraham

Beacon Journal staff writer


Just when officials at the Summit County Board of Elections finally have achieved some stability and order, Deputy Director John Schmidt has announced his retirement.

The departure, effective June 30, will have Democrats searching for a replacement less than three years after they appointed Schmidt.
...
Schmidt's appointment to the $77,500-a-year job was a controversial one, and in part led to the elections board being placed on administrative oversight by the Ohio Secretary of State's Office.

Democrats first tried to appoint him in August 2002, but Republicans wouldn't cooperate and abstained from the vote. At the time, former Elections Director Tom Wagner, a Republican, was on sick leave, and no one was in charge of board operations. Democratic Deputy Director Yolanda Walker had resigned that July tohead the local solid waste management authority.

The board's inability to fill the leadership void prompted Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to place the board on administrative oversight.

A month later, Republicans agreed to Schmidt's appointment.


more
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/living/community/10836663.htm

[dzika]

16. Blackwell, architect of voter suppression, is speaker at Black History Eve

Blackwell, architect of voter suppression, is speaker at Black History Event

Feb. 15
EVANSTON - Ken Blackwell, Ohio secretary of state and a Xavier University alumnus, will speak at Xavier's Cintas Center banquet room. His topic is "Adversity, Triumphs, and Lessons Learned" and is part of the XU's observance of Black History Month. The program begins with a reception and benediction at 3:30 p.m.; Blackwell is to speak at 4:05 p.m. The event is by invitation only. To request an invitation, contact Tom Clark at [phone] or [e-mail].

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050207/NEWS01/502070348/1056

[dzika]

17. California Fall ballot could see jumble of initiatives

Monday, February 7, 2005

CALIFORNIA
Fall ballot could see jumble of initiatives
'This is going to be the apocalypse of direct democracy'

If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger calls a special election this fall to pass his package of budget initiatives, he could find the ballot jammed with measures he'd rather ignore.

A record 63 proposed initiatives poured into the secretary of state's office in January, as conservatives, liberals and interest groups of all stripes scrambled to get their plans in front of California voters.

"This is going to be the apocalypse of direct democracy,'' said Lewis Uhler of the National Tax Limitation Committee, a veteran of the state's initiative battles. "The election will be unique in the annals of California.''

Contentious initiatives banning illegal immigrants from receiving driver's licenses, requiring parental notification before minors can receive abortions, raising property taxes for businesses and increasing the minimum wage are among many that could end up overshadowing the governor's budget proposals.

"In a perfect world, (Schwarzenegger) would just want his measures on the ballot to make it a referendum on him and his policies,'' said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll. "But that's not close to reality this time.''


more
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/02/07/BAG0UB6T7A1.DTL

[dzika]

18. Ken Blackwell MUST NOT be allowed to become Ohio's next governor

Ken Blackwell MUST NOT be allowed to become Ohio's next governor.

---

Article published Monday, February 7, 2005

In Ohio governor's race, economics matters

COLUMBUS - Race matters in American society, but economics matters much more in the Ohio governor's race.
That was one message last week as Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, a Democrat, jumped into the 2006 governor's race and political observers began to fantasize about a head-to-head race with Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.

The winner would be Ohio's first black governor, but in two appearances last week they never referred to their race. In fact, Mr. Coleman quoted a Republican, U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, in his announcement speech. Mr. Blackwell in a stump speech quoted Frederick Douglass, who helped persuade Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Both men showed how they can appeal to the suburban and white rural voters who may be the key to winning next year.

Speaking at the Ohio Asphalt Paving Conference last Thursday, Mr. Blackwell immediately connected with his audience - about 300 people, nearly all of them white, middle-aged men.

Mr. Blackwell briefly discussed his football days at Xavier University, his very brief foray into amateur boxing, and his childhood as the son of a meat-packer in Cincinnati.


http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050207/COLUMNIST04/502070318/-1/NEWS18

[dzika]

19. Petro willing, county will choose its voting system Wednesday

2005-02-07

Petro willing, county will choose its voting system Wednesday

By Nick Claussen
Athens NEWS Associate Editor


The Athens County Board of Elections will make another decision Wednesday on new voting machines for the county, unless state officials again change the process.

After the 2000 election, state and federal officials pushed for new voting machines to replace the traditional punch-card ballots around the country. Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell set deadlines for county boards of elections to choose new voting machines.

In January 2004, the Athens County Board of Elections voted 3-1 to purchase electronic touch-screen voting machines from Diebold Election Systems. The selection was made after the board studied the types of machines approved by the state, and brought in different machines for area residents to try out.

At one time, local officials thought that the new voting machines might be in place for the November 2004 election, but the changes were delayed around the state after Blackwell issued a new directive about how the voting machines needed to leave a paper trail, providing proof of the voting.

Blackwell has now issued a new directive stating that each county, whether it has punch-card ballots, electronic touch-screen machines, or optical-scan voting devices, has to switch to optical-scan voting machines. Each county has until Wednesday to choose from the systems offered by Diebold Election Systems and Election Systems and Software.


more
http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=19605

[dzika]

20. Iraqi Election Officials Acknowledge Serious Irregularities in Mosul

Feb 7, 2005 Baghdad

Iraqi Election Officials Acknowledge Serious Irregularities in Mosul

The first election results are in from Iraq's northern Kurdish-dominated regions, moving the main Kurdish alliance into second place, but still well behind the main Shiite religious coalition. Election officials caution that it is still too soon to say what the final results will look like. They also say there were some serious irregularities in the area around Iraq's third-largest city, Mosul.

Electoral commission official Izzedine al-Mahmoudi says, in the town of Bartala, east of Mosul, more than 15,000 thousand people were unable to vote because election workers did not show up on polling day, due to what he called security reasons.

Mr. Mahmoudi told reporters there were a number of polling stations in the Mosul area looted by gunmen.

"They stole the ballot boxes, and they tried to bribe the workers. In some polling centers, gunmen stole the election cards, and they returned them in irregular ballot boxes," he said, speaking through a translator.

Mr. Mahmoudi said 40 ballot boxes from Ninevah province, which includes Mosul, were affected by irregularities, and are now under investigation. They will have to be cleared by the electoral commission, before the ballots in them can be added to the official tally.

Some Christian and Sunni Arab politicians from northern Iraq have alleged that thousands of their supporters were unable to vote on election day, either because of electoral mismanagement, or because of what they believe might have been a deliberate effort to disenfranchise their communities.

http://www.politinfo.com/articles/article_2005_02_7_2304.html

[dzika]

21. G.O.P. Election Reform Bill Now Before Senate

Monday, February 07, 2005

Battle of the Bills: G.O.P. Election Reform Bill Now Before Senate Considered By Progressive Activists to Be Better Than Democratic One; Sun Explodes

By ADVOCATE STAFF


Here at The Advocate, we call it like we see it -- and what we see as we look out on the election reform movement today is two competing and mutually exclusive election reform bills in the U.S. Senate.

And we prefer the Republican one.

Sponsored by Senator John Ensign (R-NV), the Voting Integrity and Verification Act of 2005 (VIVA) would accomplish four vital objectives, and do so in time for the 2006 general election (text taken from the official report of The National Ballot Integrity Project):

• "Voters will be able to verify the accuracy of their ballot 'in a private and independent manner' by allowing the voter to review an individual paper version of the 'voter's ballot' before the 'voter's ballot' is cast and counted;
  
  
• "All electronic records produced by any voting system will be consistent with the paper records";
  
  
• "In the event of any inconsistencies or irregularities between any electronic records and paper records, the voter-verified paper record is considered the true and correct record of the votes cast";
  
  
• "The paper ballots will be used as the official record for the purpose of any recount or audit conducted with respect to any election for Federal Office."

The text of VIVA 2005 (which would serve as a retroactive amendment to the 2002 Help America Vote Act, or HAVA) can be found here.

In contrast to VIVA, a competing bill recently introduced by Senator Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, would allow for other forms of audit besides paper, would not take effect until 2009, and would only impact machines purchased in 2009 or after.

This is unacceptable.


read the entire article
http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2005/02/battle-of-bills-gop-election-reform.html

[dzika]

22. Washington State Republicans plot next move:

Feb. 7

Washington State Republicans plot next move:

SEATTLE, Feb. 7 : Washington Republicans were rethinking their strategy Monday after a Chelan County judge said he lacked the authority to order a new gubernatorial election.

Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges, who is hearing the GOP's request to have the 2004 gubernatorial election results thrown out, ruled state law does not permit him to order a new election. Republicans contend illegal voting and other irregularities threw the race to Democrat Christine Gregoire.

Bridges rejected the Democrats' bid to get the case tossed out, agreeing with Republicans that a 1977 state law delegated authority over elections contests to the courts. But Bridges' ruling on the new election, the GOP's key request, was the day's most significant.

Republicans say illegal voting by felons, ballots cast in the names of dead voters and other elections irregularities discovered during a hand recount of the November ballots tipped the election to Gregoire.


http://athens-olympics-2004.newkerala.com/?action=fullnews&id=69442

[dzika]

23. Adding E-Voting Printers Could Cost $23 Million, Counties Say

February 7, 2005

Adding E-Voting Printers Could Cost $23 Million, Counties Say

Some jurisdictions have paper-trail capability included in their costs already. Others will have to find the money, but may be reimbursed.

By Stuart Pfeifer, Times Staff Writer


Local election officials in California say they may have to pay between $18 million and $23 million to comply with a state law requiring printed records of ballots cast on electronic voting machines.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, addressing concerns about the reliability of touch-screen voting machines, signed a law last year that required installation of the printers by Jan. 1, 2006.

Even if state or federal funds eventually cover the cost of the printers, counties may have to pick up the tab initially, officials say.

Five of the 13 counties with electronic voting systems say their suppliers will make the changes at no additional cost because the printers were part of their original contracts. But other counties are wondering where they'll find the money. Orange County estimates it will cost $9 million to make the changes. Riverside County estimates its cost at between $3.4 million and $4.7 million, and Alameda County may have to pay between $5 million and $8 million.

The financial effect on Los Angeles County will be minimal, because it uses only a few electronic voting devices during early voting. For several more years, the county plans to use InkaVote paper ballots on election day.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Backup

It will cost between $18 million and $23 million statewide to pay for the printers needed to back up e-voting machine ballots, according to officials in the 13 counties with electronic voting.

Estimated costs of printers for e-voting machines

County: Cost

Orange: $9.0 million

Alameda: $5.0 million to $8.0 million

Riverside: $3.4 million to $4.7 million

Napa: $350,000

Merced: $220,000

Shasta: $200,000

Tehama: $200,000

Plumas: $22,000 to $32,000

Total: $18.4 million to $22.7 million

NOTE: Santa Clara, San Bernardino, Kern, San Diego and San Joaquin counties negotiated for inclusion of backup systems as part of their voting machine contracts and will not have to pay extra for printers.

more
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-machines7feb07,1,7749630.story?coll=la-news-politics-california

[dzika]

24. MO Voting to go high tech

MO Voting to go high tech

Raymond Castile

ST. CHARLES COUNTY


Voters in St. Charles County will use computers in place of punch cards as early as April 2006.

"We are going to have a whole new way of voting," said Rich Chrismer, county elections director.

The county will spend about $1 million this year to purchase electronic voting machines. It will be the first time in a quarter-century that the county has changed its voting equipment.
...
"The federal government, for the first time ever, is buying out punch card machines and providing states and counties with financial assistance to purchase new voting equipment," Chrismer said.

Chrismer said the problem is not that punch card machines are unreliable, but that vendors are getting out of the punch card business.

"They see that the government is moving toward electronic equipment, so punch cards are a thing of the past, like the record player or VCR," Chrismer said. "There is nothing wrong with punch cards. But it has become almost impossible to find vendors who sell or maintain the equipment. There is only one company in the United States that still makes the ballots, and there are no companies that still make the machines."
...
HAVA mandates that all voting equipment must be accessible to people with disabilities, including blindness. Touch-screen machines are accessible for people with blindness and other disabilities. Optical scan machines are not.

St. Louis County has opted to switch entirely to touch-screen voting equipment at a cost of $30 million.

St. Charles County will purchase only one touch-screen machine per voting location, in accordance with HAVA requirements.
...
"We will put examples of these machines in some local malls this fall so people can see them and touch them," he said. "We will have sample ballots so people can get hands-on use and practice voting on them. We want people to get comfortable with the machines."


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/neighborhoods/stories.nsf/news/story/885F9D2EEA2BD2A186256F9F005A5971?OpenDocument&Headline=Voting+to+go+high+tech

[dzika]

25. Vo-Heflin findings expected today; clearing out the new towing law

Monday, February 07, 2005

Vo-Heflin findings expected today; clearing out the new towing law

Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas, is expected to release his findings today in Republican Talmadge Heflin's challenge of Rep. Hubert Vo's election victory. Vo, D-Houston, defeated Heflin, who had been a lawmaker for 22 years, in the District 149 race in November. Heflin says some of the votes should have been disqualified.

Hartnett heard lawyers for both sides present their cases Jan. 27 and 28. He will release his findings to members of the Select Committee on Election Contests, who will then make a recommendation to the House. The House can vote to keep Vo, return the seat to Heflin or call another election.

A recount by Harris County found that Vo beat Heflin by 33 votes, though both lawyers agreed that the margin had shrunk to 16 by the end of the two-day hearing.

Andy Taylor, Heflin's lawyer, said Friday that he has evidence that 56 voters who reside in District 149 registered and voted in another district, taking away their right to vote for either Heflin or Vo.

Hartnett said he notified lawyers for both sides that he didn't think the new information would change his findings.



http://www.statesman.com/news/content/shared/tx/legislature/stories/02/7legebriefs.html

[dzika]

26. WaPo - Race Bait And Switch

Tuesday, February 8, 2005; Page A23

Race Bait And Switch

By E. J. Dionne Jr.

"Every Hispanic in America is watching," Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch declared ominously as most Senate Democrats voted last week to oppose the nomination of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general.

What was the senator from Utah implying? Hatch and everyone else knew perfectly well that Democrats voted against the new attorney general not because of his ethnicity but because they wanted to hold Gonzales and the White House he served accountable for appalling policies that led to the mistreatment of prisoners. But playing ethnic politics is more profitable for Republicans than arguing about torture, so Hatch let it rip.

Among the many double standards in U.S. politics is the contradictory attitude of many conservatives toward "political correctness" and the matter of "playing the race card."

Conservatives profess to be horrified by political correctness, which is roughly defined as the habit of stamping out frank discussion about matters related even tangentially to race, class, gender and ethnicity. Whenever a liberal raises concerns over whether a conservative initiative might damage the rights or interests of, say, African Americans or Latinos, that liberal is accused of being "politically correct" and playing the race card -- usually, just to make the sin sound really awful, off "the bottom of the deck."

But increasingly, it is conservatives who are using political correctness to sidestep hard issues. Consider the bait-and-switch in the Gonzales case: Democrats thought it appropriate to use Gonzales's nomination to launch a debate about torture policy. Gonzales is Latino. Therefore, Republicans insisted, Democrats who wanted to debate torture policy were anti-Latino.
...
More recently Bush has invoked racial considerations in support of his plan to privatize Social Security. "African American males die sooner than other males do, which means the system is inherently unfair to a certain group of people," Bush said at a White House Conference on Social Security in January. "That needs to be fixed."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6387-2005Feb7.html

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6387-2005Feb7.html

[dzika]

27. How do you move and store a 47-pound voting machine?

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

How do you move and store a 47-pound voting machine?

By Matt Suman

The Seneca County commissioners still must determine where to store optical scan voting machines after the elections board decides between two qualified vendors.

Commissioner Ben Nutter said the commissioners want to be sure Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell won't change his mind again before they designate storage space for the equipment.
Blackwell decided to go with optical scan voting machines, rather than electronic voting devices, because electronic machines exceed available funding, with the requirements for a paper receipt.

Nutter said, "It's (The Help America Vote Act) an incredibly bad waste of taxpayer money on the part of the state and federal government."

He said transporting the 47-pound optical scan machines is another issue. Nutter said the county might need to buy a truck to move the machines around.
...
Blackwell directed county elections boards to decide between two qualified vendors-Diebold Elections Systems or Elections Systems and Software by Wednesday.

The Seneca County Board of Elections will meet Tuesday evening after the special election to decide if they will use Diebold Elections Systems or Elections Systems and Software machines.

Blackwell's office has said contracts for new voting equipment will be worked out between vendors and his office instead of local elections boards.


http://www.advertiser-tribune.com/news/story/028202005_new03hava0208.asp

[dzika]

28. States struggle with election reform - air doubts as deadlines loom

States struggle with election reform
Officials air doubts as deadlines loom

By Robert Tanner

WASHINGTON -- Flaw-proof election machines. Easy-to-read ballots. Registration systems that catch double-voters or dead voters still on the rolls.

For top state election officials meeting in Washington, the pressure is on to ensure that the election changes demanded after President Bush's disputed 2000 victory are in place by the Jan. 1 deadline imposed by Congress.

The goal is to have the changes ready for the November 2006 midterm elections, but many secretaries of state who gathered in Washington yesterday for four days of meetings say there are too many obstacles in their way. And they worry that the federal government is undermining their authority with an assistance commission that is starting to act like a regulatory agency.
...
State and local officials administer elections, not the federal government. But the secretaries worry that federal election reforms are spilling beyond their boundaries, chipping away at state control and responsibility.

Their group, the National Association of Secretaries of State, approved a formal resolution that asks Congress to dissolve its oversight organization, the federal Election Assistance Commission, after the 2006 elections.

more
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/02/08/states_struggle_with_election_reform/

[dzika]

29. Shelley's Replacement Has a Challenging Job

February 8, 2005

Shelley's Replacement Has a Challenging Job

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Re "Secretary of State Shelley Steps Down," Feb. 5:

I used to wonder, what does a statewide secretary of state do? Is it an important job? Since Katherine Harris, Florida's secretary of state, brought us a troubled election in 2000, and Kenneth Blackwell, secretary of state in Ohio, presided over election irregularities in 2004, I have answered my own question. The job is very important. Whether or not the accusations made against him are true, Kevin Shelley, as secretary of state, clearly acted to ensure the fairness of our elections. He refused to certify the use of electronic voting machines in several counties because they lacked paper trails. And he was acting to require that all voting machines contain a verifiable paper trail in time for the 2006 elections.

The governor and the Legislature will be picking a replacement for Shelley. That person must continue the work of upholding the honesty of our elections. The governor and legislators need to choose a secretary of state who is committed to making every vote count, so that what happened in Florida and Ohio can't happen in California.

Jacqueline Riskin

Berkeley

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-general8.3feb08,0,6668858.story?coll=la-news-comment-letters

[dzika]

30. Spitzer calls for electoral overhaul

(thanks to Senator)

February 8, 2005

Spitzer calls for electoral overhaul

Criticizes legislature for not reforming system, cites 3-month battle for Senate seat in Westchester


New York Attorney
General Eliot Spitzer

ALBANY -- Turning his attention from corporate wrongdoing to the electoral system, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer called yesterday for voting reform to prevent irregularities similar to the flaws of the 2000 presidential election.

Spitzer, a Democratic candidate for governor in 2006, said the three-month-long battle over an election in Westchester's 35th Senate District showed a need for an overhaul.

"The 35th Senatorial District has become Dade County," Spitzer said.

Spitzer also criticized the State Legislature for not passing legislation to improve the system, a failure that could cost the state $219 million.
...
Spitzer originally detailed flaws in the voting system four years ago. Yesterday, he released a follow-up report that concluded little had changed. Spitzer said it is difficult for electoral officials to settle how some votes are cast and whose votes should be counted.
...
Within hours of the release of Spitzer's report, Democrats who control the Assembly called on the Republican-led Senate to confer with them so that both houses could pass uniform legislation. Both sides support reform but have been unable to reach a solution.


http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-stspit084138608feb08,0,4147224.story?coll=ny-statenews-headlines


DU Thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x320804

[dzika]

31. Republican gives up Texas election dispute

Posted on Tue, Feb. 08, 2005

Republican gives up Texas election dispute

Freshman Rep. Hubert Vo to be declared the winner

AUSTIN - The bitter fight over a Houston House seat came to an abrupt end Monday, when Republican Talmadge Heflin withdrew his election challenge and ceded the race to Democrat Hubert Vo, a Vietnamese businessman.

Heflin made the announcement just hours after receiving an unfavorable legislative report on the disputed November election. The report dismissed Heflin's claims of widespread voter fraud and recommended that Vo be declared the winner.

Heflin still could have pressed his case with the full House, the ultimate arbiter of their members' election disputes, but he said the report made clear that it was an uphill climb at best.

"When you see that you can't meet a criteria that is stressed upon you, it makes no sense to move ahead," he said. He vowed to press for cleaner elections and said he wanted to "wish Mr. Vo well for this legislative session."

But Heflin also suggested that Vo might want to be looking over his shoulder a bit: He said it was "highly likely" that he would be a candidate in 2006 for the House seat he represented for the last 22 years.


http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/legislature/10845341.htm

[dzika]

32. GOP effort to reopen New York Senate election case rejected

February 8, 2005

GOP effort to reopen New York Senate election case rejected

By LEN MANIACE


In a setback for Republican Nicholas Spano, the state Court of Appeals yesterday unanimously rejected a request by Republicans to rehear the 35th Senate District case, setting up what is expected to be a decisive vote count today.

The decision upholds last week's ruling by the state's highest court that calls for counting several categories of paper ballots that had been challenged by Republicans. Up to 249 ballots are at stake.

Spano now leads Democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins by 58 votes out of 127,000 cast in one of the longest-disputed elections in the state Legislature's history.

Stewart-Cousins called the ruling a victory for the voters. "We need to get on with this and get the votes counted," Stewart-Cousins said in a telephone interview. "I'm very, very happy the people will be in the position of deciding this race in the next day or so."
...
A Stewart-Cousins win would continue to erode the GOP majority in the Senate to 34-28.


http://www.nyjournalnews.com/newsroom/020805/a0108senate35.html

[dzika]

33. Rossi still optimistic on WA Gov. revote

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

Rossi still optimistic on WA Gov. revote

BRAD SHANNON

THE OLYMPIAN

Runner-up gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi dropped by the Capitol on Monday morning to thank his Republican friends in the Senate and House and to say he thinks he could win his bid for a new election as soon as next month.

And in a brief interview outside the House chambers, Rossi told reporters that he is not really concerned that Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire is getting settled into her office -- promoting her legislation, appointing staff and building up her public image as the leader of Washington state government.

He also tried to frame last week's court ruling in Chelan County as a clear victory for his cause, despite Judge John Bridges' finding that he cannot order a new election, even if Rossi wins his case. That has been Rossi's goal all along.
...
Although Rossi previously has said he does not want a court to hand him the victory, he said in his Bellevue news conference Monday afternoon that if it happens, his first act as governor would be to ask the Legislature to hold a new election.

Rossi later backtracked, as his spokeswoman Mary Lane insisted that Rossi would refuse the governorship in the event a court overturned the election and installed him in office. Instead, Lane said, Rossi would resign and call for a new election.

Brost said that "Rossi continues to lie to the public" about what he wants and would do.

more
http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20050208/topstories/83986.shtml

[dzika]

34. Washington County, Ohio - New voting system in by November

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Washington County, Ohio - New voting system in by November

By Justin McIntosh

The changes to Washington County polling places expected to prevent the voting disasters experienced in the 2000 presidential election will be ready for November's general election.

The decision to purchase new equipment comes after an early January directive from Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell that was sent to all county election boards in the state. The directive ordered all Ohio counties to start voting using optical scan systems.
While Washington County is one of 13 counties in Ohio that currently use the optical scan system, the county's system must be updated because it's nearly 10 years old and does not allow voters to check their votes immediately after casting their ballots.

The changes will not be drastic for Washington County voters as they will still fill out ovals with a pencil. But when they deposit the ballot in the ballot box, the new equipment will immediately count the person's vote, informing the person if the voter failed to vote for an office or somehow mismarked the ballot. Previously, ballots were counted by the board of elections workers at their office on Putnam Street.


http://www.mariettatimes.com/news/story/028202005_new05votingnn.asp

[dzika]

35. WaPo - Should Tax Dollars Fund Bush's Bubble?

Should Tax Dollars Fund Bush's Bubble?

By Dan Froomkin

A controversial president barnstorms through the country attending carefully controlled events where tickets are distributed by his own party, where no one disagrees with a word he says and no one puts him on the spot.

When this happened in the heat of the political season, the events and at least part of the president's travel costs were being paid for by his campaign. But now it's a post-election president spending tax dollars and ostensibly acting in the public interest.

Some of my readers think it's not appropriate.

"The president's dialogue with America on Social Security should be just that -- a dialogue, not a series of campaign events controlled by the local GOP bosses," writes John Deem of Huntersville, N.C.
...
Bush stays in the bubble because his aides figure that, just like during the campaign, events like these are an effective way of getting his message out without any downside risk. They work, they make nice sound bites and headlines, and nobody complains, at least not much.
...
Consider this exchange at Friday's Tampa event, where a woman (whose question was somehow not transcribed by the White House) asked how the private accounts would fix "the red problem." She was referring to Bush's snazzy charts illustrating what he said was Social Security's "red ink."


more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7880-2005Feb8.html

[dzika]

36. Forced by Blackwell, County decides to use Diebold voting system

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

Forced by Blackwell, County decides to use Diebold voting system

NEWARK -- A year after the state rejected its first choice, the Licking County Board of Elections selected another vendor to supply a voting system.

The board voted 4-0 on Monday to select Canton-based Diebold Election Systems to provide the county with an optical-scan voting system. The new system could be used in selective locations in the May primary, but must be in use by the Nov. 8 general election.

In January 2004, the board selected Sequoia Voting Systems, of Oakland, Calif., to supply it with 700 touch-screen voting machines. A month later, the choice was nullified when Sequoia was not on the secretary of state's list of approved vendors for Ohio's counties.
...
Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell told all of Ohio's 88 counties to choose between Diebold and Election Systems and Software. Counties were told to make a choice by Wednesday or the state would assign them a vendor.

"I don't like the position we were put in," said Board of Elections member Steve Harrington, a Democrat. "We didn't have the opportunity to look at things. I don't like to be put in a position, 'Decide on A or B, and we don't care what you like or don't like.' I don't appreciate that from the secretary of state."


http://www.newarkadvocate.com/news/stories/20050208/localnews/1968254.html

[dzika]

37. Fixing America's Broken Elections by Rep. John Conyers

February 8, 2005

Fixing America's Broken Elections

by Rep. John Conyers

published by TomPaine.com


The election debacles in Florida's 2000 presidential election and Ohio's 2004 election clearly demonstrate that our nation still has a long way to go in the continuing fight for electoral justice. Our nation cannot withstand deficiencies in machines and procedures that foster legitimate questions about the validity of the election outcome. Our democracy is at risk, and the time is now to move forward with election reform legislation.

Because of unprecedented discrepancies between exit poll results and election day official tallies in the 2004 election, I instructed my staff to examine whether there was any basis to theories that such discrepancies were an indicator that voting irregularities distorted official results. To be sure, aberrant results in exit polls are not proof positive of election irregularities. They are but one indicia or warning that something may have gone wrong—either with the polling or with the election—and that the election results bear greater scrutiny. Guided in part by Steve Freeman's analysis of the exit polls, I concluded that more examination of the official results was needed.

My staff reviewed thousands of pages of primary source materials, including copies of actual ballots, voter registration databases, and poll books. They also met with several individuals having firsthand knowledge of irregularities. What they found indicated problems in multiple areas, from machine tampering and malfunction, to the intimidation and caging of minority voters in urban and rural areas, to the purposeful misallocation of voting machines and the unjustifiable restrictions that were placed on the use of provisional ballots.
...
My staff found substantial evidence, admitted by a Triad voting machine company employee—in public, videotaped testimony— that he developed documents and manipulated voting machines for the purposes of allowing county officials to forgo a legally required full hand recount of ballots. Other instances of inappropriate political advocacy by voting machine company officials are well known.


more
http://progressivetrail.org/articles/050208Rep.JohnConyers.shtml

[dzika]

38. Iraqi Election Commission Report on Voter Lockout Inadequate

02-08-2005

Iraqi Election Commission Report on Voter Lockout Inadequate

(AINA) -- The Iraqi Independent Electoral High Commission (IEHC) has issued a report of its investigation into voting irregularities and lockouts in North Iraq. Responding to allegations by Assyrians, Turkmen, Yezidis and Shabaks that 300,000 of their members were denied the opportunity to vote on January 30th, the IEHC's report failed to satisfactorily explain the voting irregularities, and did not offer any resolution to the issue, such as allowing the disaffected region to vote at a later date.

The following report was translated for AINA by Mary Challita.

---

Bulletin No 15

The Independent Electoral High Commission reveals the existence of electoral inconsistencies in the Nineveh governorate.

Baghdad February 07th, 2005

The independent electoral high commission in Iraq declares that the National Assembly elections in the Nineveh governorate as well as the governorate council elections were held in a positive atmosphere with a relatively remarkable public participation even with the vast difficulties in making the necessary preparations because of the continuous terrorist threats to the electoral process on one hand and the local administrative authorities apology to extend any assistance in organizing the elections in the Nineveh governorate as it was confirmed by law on Sunday January 30th, 2005.

read the entire report
http://www.aina.org/news/20050208111414.htm

[Wilms]

40. Local official says secretary of state's departure comes too late

Chico ER
February 08, 2005

Local official says secretary of state's departure comes too late

By LARRY MITCHELL - Staff Writer

-snip-

Kevin Shelley's resignation last week was welcome, but for the good of California it came too late, said Candace Grubbs, Butte County's clerk-recorder.

-snip-

Shelley did a lot of bad things while he was in office, she said. The worst, overall, was undermining Californians' trust in their election system.

-snip/more-

<http://www.chicoer.com/Stories/0,1413,135~25088~2698810,00.html>


And my email to the ChicoER Editor:

In the article titled, "Local official says secretary of state's departure comes too late" by Larry Mitchell, Candace Grubbs, Butte County's clerk-recorder, claims recently resigned Secretary of State Kevin Shelley "...did a lot of bad things while he was in office.”

Assuming the charges that Shelley misused his office are correct, I'm glad to see him gone.

But Grubbs claims of Shelley's actions, "the worst, overall, was undermining Californians' trust in their election system."

Hardly. What undermines voter confidence are elections systems that lack a means of independent verification, a "Paper Ballot". Computer experts determination that computers are a security risk, also comes to mind. For others, a fair and transparent election process was undermined by Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's recent obstruction of a recount in his state.

And to state, as Grubbs does, that Shelley, "...apparently because of his political ambitions, made unjustified claims that the new touch-screen voting systems wouldn't be reliable without "a paper trail" begs a question; on what does Grubbs justify THAT claim?

The need for a Voter Verifiable Paper Ballot is a reasonable idea that enjoys bi-partisan support. Witness new legislation on both sides of the aisle in Washington.

The real problem with “Paper Ballots”? It's a lot of work for election supervisors. Sorry Grubbs. Democracy IS hard work.

[dzika]

43. Ohio - A state in a woeful state

Tuesday February 8, 2005

Ohio - A state in a woeful state

by The Post Editorial


In his seventh State of the State address today, Gov. Bob Taft will focus on the legacy he will leave in Ohio's history books. That legacy, unfortunately, will be one of a growing deficit and an increasingly inflexible state government. With future revenues projected to drop thanks to tax cuts and a "reformed" tax code, legislators are left with no choice but to cut social services to ensure the state's books end up in the black.
...
These cuts are hardly visible when one considers the state's entire budget. While they may make sense in the Republican economics textbook, here in the reality of the Buckeye State the problem does not fix itself so easily. A company cannot save itself from Chapter 11 by skimping on pencils and Post-it Notes. Cutting taxes in the face of budget shortfalls is ridiculous and narrow-minded. Nickel and diming the citizens of Ohio is not going to solve any of the state's budget woes, and Taft must realize that. In seven years, he has done nothing but lead this state and its people down a road of ruin. Come 2006, anything short of a J. Kenneth Blackwell administration would be better than this.

http://thepost.baker.ohiou.edu/E.php?article=E1&date=020805

[dzika]

44. Edward Jones: Don't Help Privatize Social Security

Edward Jones: Don't Help Privatize Social Security

Dear Working Families e-Activist:

Privatizing Social Security will mean huge benefit cuts and less security for working families—but for the giant brokerage firm Edward Jones, privatizing Social Security may mean big new profits.

Investment firms "could reap billions of dollars in management fees and commissions over the long term" if Social Security is privatized, according to the Jan. 18 Los Angeles Times—and Edward Jones is a leading booster of privatization.



Take action now—tell Edward Jones: Don't support Social Security privatization. Click here:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/jones

Edward Jones is a leading promoter of Social Security privatization through business organizations and lobby groups. In February, Edward Jones hosted a nationwide Social Security seminar at its brokerage offices nationwide—hawking privatization at the grassroots to Americans who can least afford it.

Before buying into Edward Jones's support for Social Security privatization, investors should check the firm's record: Federal regulators found, among other abuses, that Edward Jones took secret payments from mutual funds and steered its clients to those funds. The firm paid $75 million to settle with regulators. Now Edward Jones is pushing a national scam: privatizing Social Security.

We need your help to urge Edward Jones to:

• Disclose its support for groups pushing Social Security privatization;
  
• Disclose what it has communicated to public officials in private
• meetings about Social Security; and
  
• Withdraw all support for privatizing Social Security.

Take action now. Please tell Edward Jones: Don't support Social Security privatization.

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/jones



Social Security is America's best-run, most successful family protection program. Millions of retirees, survivors and people with disabilities rely on Social Security. President Bush's plan to move Social Security funds into private accounts may be good for Edward Jones's business—but it would hurt Edward Jones's clients and all working families terribly, forcing devastating cuts in benefits and replacing retirement security with retirement risk. Edward Jones's support of Social Security privatization is a serious conflict of interest.

Please contact Edwin Jones's Managing General Partner Douglass Hill. Urge his company to drop its support for Social Security privatization. Click here:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/jones


Thanks for all that you do.

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO
Feb. 8, 2005

---

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[dzika]

45. GOP starts new campaign to "bloody" Hillary Clinton before 2008 Pres. Race

GOP starts new campaign to "bloody" Hillary Clinton before 2008 Presisdential Race

From today's CNN Inside Politics


Video in Windows Media Format:
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/hillary_cnn_stop_her_now.wmv

[dzika]

46. Election Protection Volunteer's work to air on PBS

Election Protection Volunteer's work to air on PBS

Dear Activist:

Gail Pellett, a volunteer with Election Protection in Palm Beach, Florida, has written, produced and directed an episode in the upcoming four-part PBS series "Slavery and the Making of America," which airs on PBS stations nationwide this Wednesday, February 9th. (Pellett's episode, "Liberty in the Air," airs at 10 p.m.)

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/

"Slavery and the Making of America" documents the history of American slavery from its beginnings in the British colonies to its end in the Southern states and the years of post-Civil War Reconstruction. Drawing on a wealth of recent scholarship, it looks at slavery as an integral part of a developing nation, challenging the long-held notion that slavery was exclusively a Southern enterprise. At the same time, by focusing on the remarkable stories of individual slaves, it offers new perspectives on the slave experience and testifies to the active role that Africans and African Americans took in surviving their bondage and shaping their own lives.

"Liberty in the Air" spans the 1740s-1830s, exploring the continued expansion of slavery in the Colonies, the evolution of a distinct African American culture, and the roots of the emancipation movement.

At the core of this episode is the Revolutionary War, an event which reveals the contradictions of a nation seeking independence while simultaneously denying freedom to its black citizens.

We are all very proud to have had the opportunity to work with Gail on Election Protection and wanted to share this accomplishment with you.

The series is produced by WNET and is narrated by Morgan Freeman. It begins airing on February 9 on most PBS channels.

Check your local listings: http://www.pbs.org/stationfinder/index.html

We also invite you to visit our web site for more resources celebrating Black History Month.

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=8218

Sincerely,
The Election Protection Team
People For the American Way Foundation

[dzika]

47. Mississippi State Senate passes voter ID bill; 33 - 18

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

Mississippi State Senate passes voter ID bill; 33 - 18

By: CLAIRE STONE

Daily Times Leader


Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck announced on Wednesday that the Mississippi Senate passed a bill requiring voters to provide identification at the polls. The vote was 33-18. The bill now goes to the House, where similar legislation has died in the past. The bill allows several forms of identification, including driver's licenses, social security cards or utility bills. The bill also increases the penalty for voter intimidation. Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, voted against the bill, saying it was an insult to minorities and others who were once denied the right the vote and later had to pay poll taxes before casting a ballot. Senate Elections Chairman Terry Burton, R-Newton, said the bill would reduce voter fraud. "The cry has come from all over," Burton said. According to Clay County Circuit Clerk Bob Harrell, the bill would not have any significant bearing on elections in Clay County. "Well, this is designed to decrease voter fraud," said Harrell. "However, this is something that is not a problem for us. If it is passed, I don't think that there will be any problems with voters willingly showing ID--many people had them ready to show during the last election without even being asked. This bill should not really affect us one way or the other."


City of West Point Municipal Clerk Mary Dean concurred with Harrell.

"Voter fraud is not a big problem in West Point," said Dean. "This bill should not affect us one way or the other. The only thing that we have a problem with is people changing addresses and not letting us know. When you move, you need to fill out the proper paer work so that we will know what ward or district you are to vote in."


http://www.dailytimesleader.com/articles/2005/02/07/news/news05.txt

[dzika]

48. US Voters - Used, Abused, Dazed and Confused

Monday, February 07, 2005

US Voters - Used, Abused, Dazed and Confused

That describes the average American voter. When Americans go to the polls most are concerned about where the candidates stand on the issues, or the how the referendums and bills being voted on will affect them. Not very many people think about the "who's", "how's" and "what's" of the actual voting process. We take it on faith that things are being done fairly and correctly. This is America after all, and Americans do things right. Right??

Riiiiiiight.

So WHY, when faced with piles of evidence of fraud, do American voters just take it?
see: http://www.velvetrevolution.us/content/electoralreform/silenceofthescams.php

The Dance of Domination
The psychology of electoral domination has two parts – what is being done to people and how they allow it.

Psychological techniques, used deliberately, allow many tricks to go unnoticed and unchallenged. For example, “mystification” is a plausible misrepresentation of reality in which forms of exploitation are presented as forms of benevolence. Like magic and the use of distraction, the issue of voting reform was manipulated and misrepresented, so people felt calmed by the illusion that the problems are being corrected. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Elements of the Help America Vote Act, HAVA (a name as Orwellian as the Clear Skies Initiative, more accurately should be called “Hide America’s Voting Anomalies”), includes intrusive identity checks, the introduction of the “provisional ballot” most of which were not counted, and the use of electronic voting machines. Each of these was brilliantly misused for the opposite intention – to corrupt and deny votes to Kerry in ways people wouldn’t notice.

The subterfuge was successfully accomplished with use of censorship, illusion, distortion, brainwashing, propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, mystification, intimidation, shaming, and domination. As Bush might say, it was a “catastrophic success.”

These techniques combine to form something like a collective hypnotic induction, which creates an illusion of a consensus that cannot be challenged. Few have the insight, training and tools to see through the manipulation. Even fewer have the courage to take on the challenge. For many, responses to domination may include learned helplessness, psychic numbing, fear, cowardice, conformity, denial, cognitive laziness, disbelief, avoidance, and submission to authority. These items are inter-related and the lists are not exhaustive.

Before the psychological explanations, it is necessary to acknowledge the overwhelming factor of ignorance of the facts, but there can be subliminal awareness and lack of desire to know the facts. Of course if the facts were accurately reported in the mainstream media, the collective psychological climate would be conducive to a healthier public response. People accept fraud for reasons which may be conscious or unconscious...

I ran into my brother the other day (very liberal, very anti-bush) and we eventually got around to talking about the election. I was surprised by his response to my suggestion that Bush hadn't "won". He's convinced that the exit polls showed Bush winning, that there were no "problems" with the vote, and that more "red-staters" turned the vote. I still don't know if he realizes that the Ohio vote was challenged and that there are on-going investigations (pdf). He ended the conversation by laughing about "liberal conspiracy theories" and leaving.

What bothers me the most about this last election is the absolute refusal by most people to look at the process, to examine the evidence (list of links in right sidebar), and to challenge the outcome.


http://allspinzone.blogspot.com/2005/02/used-abused-dazed-and-confused.html

[dzika]

49. Ohio Election Fraud - Articles and Commentary

February 8, 2005

Articles and Commentary

Exit Polls
Edison/Mitofsky. Self Evaluation 1/19/05
O'Dell, Bruce. "Response to Tokaji Critique of USCV Edison/Mitofsky Exit Poll Discrepancies". 2/4/05
Tokaji, Dan. "Mea Culpa Rejected". 1/31/05 (Critique of US Count Votes 2/1/05 Report)
US Count Votes. Response to Edison/Mitofsky Election System 2004 Report 2/1/05

Legal Remedies
Lytel, David. "The Honest Elections Clause of the Constitution: How to Re-Establish Legitimacy of the American Electoral Process"

Voting Irregularities
Wang, Tova Andrea. "More Trials and Tribulations for Ohio"


http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/

[dzika]

50. List of Links Relating to Election Fraud and Electoral Reform

February 8, 2005

List of Links Relating to Election Fraud and Electoral Reform

http://ohioelection2004.com

(My web site)
[e-mail]

DefendTheRecount.org (National Voting Rights Institute) Updates on Ohio litigation.

MiaMedia Votergate Resource Center

House Judiciary Committee Democrat Forum on Ohio Election Irregularities

House Judiciary Hearing, December 13, 2004, Columbus, Ohio (Pacifica Radio audio download)

"Election 2004" Data & links

2004 Ohio Election - Analysis, Summary, Charts, and Spreadsheets

Black Voter Network

The Free Press

Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE)

Alliance for Democracy

OhioVigilance.org

Thank You, Patriot

Citizens for Voting Integrity

contestthevote.org

RadioLeft.com

Green Party Recount

Election Fraud and Reform Center

"No Stolen Elections" - United for Peace & Justice

51CapitalMarch

WeDoNotConcede.com

The Nashua Advocate

www.patrioticoutrage.org

electiledysfunction.org

No Stolen Democracy

Velvet Revolution

Bush Stole Election Again

U.S. Voting Integrity Project

www.truthinvoting.org

Moritz College of Law, Legal Documents in Ohio Election 2004 Litigations

Action Memos From "No Stolen Elections

Sacramento for Democracy (Vote Fraud Links)

Bob Fertik blog at Democrats.com

Pacifica Radio audiotape of Nov. 13, 2004, hearings in Columbus, OH

Portland Independent Media Center

Election Day videotapes

Neighborhood Network audio & video tape

votefraudnews.com

Election Fraud and Irregularity Headlines, Analsysis, Spreadsheets

Evidence of Fraud in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election: A Reader

VotersUnite.org

IndyVoter.org

866-OURVOTE database of Ohio incident reports

"Cannonfire" by Joseph Cannon

November 2nd Truth

Election Fraud Links

Liberty or Death:Fighting Stolen Election of 2004

MoveOn

Blackboxvoting.org

RecountOhio.org

Citizens For Fair Vote Count (votefraud.org)

Reign of Error

Election Fraud 2004 Video Library

Remember Ohio

source: http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2005/02/list-of-links-relating-to-election.html

[dzika]

51. GOP consultant gets 5 months in phone-jamming case

February 8, 2005

GOP consultant gets 5 months in phone-jamming case

By TIM McCAHILL

CONCORD, N.H. — A former Republican consultant was sentenced Tuesday to five months in jail for jamming Democratic telephone lines in several New Hampshire cities during the 2002 general election.

Allen Raymond, who was president of the Alexandria, Va.-based GOP Marketplace LLC at the time, did not comment as he left the U.S. District Court sentencing. He had pleaded guilty in June.

Judge Joseph DiClerico also imposed a fine of $15,600, the amount Raymond´s company was paid by New Hampshire Republicans for telemarketing services in 2002.
...
John Durkin, Raymond´s lawyer, portrayed his client as an upstanding citizen who had been taken advantage of by James Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, then the northeast political director of the national party committee working to elect Republican senators.

"This was not Allen Raymond´s idea," Durkin said. "Tobin called on Raymond to do this."

The assertion prompted stern questioning from DiClerico.

"What about common sense? What about a personal moral compass?" the judge said.
...
Last year, Tobin served as regional chairman of President Bush´s re-election campaign. He stepped down in October after allegations against him became public and was indicted in December. He has pleaded innocent.

Chuck McGee, former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, also has pleaded guilty to charges in the case. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

According to prosecutors, Raymond and co-conspirators, including Tobin, plotted to jam Democratic lines that voters could call for rides to the polls in Manchester, Nashua, Rochester and Claremont. A line run by the nonpartisan Manchester firefighters´ union also was jammed.

The more than 800 computer-generated calls lasted about 90 minutes on Nov. 5, 2002, as voters decided races for governor, U.S. senator and hundreds of other offices.


http://news.mainetoday.com/apwire/D884GP180-38.shtml

[dzika]

53. Voting Changes Coming to Ohio

Voting Changes Coming to Ohio

WTAP News
Todd Baucher

Elections this year in Ohio are going to be mostly local, but election boards will be seeing new balloting equipment.

The new technology will allow precinct workers to automatically tally votes at polling places before ballots are delivered to county election offices.

It will go along with Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's directive for all counties to use optical scan ballots, something Washington County already has.

"We will have very little voter education we'll have to do," says Becky Kirkbride, director of the Washington County Board of Elections. "We will have to educate our poll workers, and a little bit for ourselves, because our system is going to change in some ways, and we'll have to learn from the differences. But it's going to be a lot harder for other counties than is for us."



http://www.wtap.com/news/headlines/1242442.html

[dzika]

54. Conspicuous by their absence: Black leaders in the GOP

Updated Feb 8, 2005, 06:57 pm

Conspicuous by their absence: Black leaders in the GOP

By Askia Muhammad
White House Correspondent



‘There are a number of them who are ideologically committed.
But the number is small. The number you could put in a
phone booth. But in the second (Bush) administration,
you’ll probably see fewer of them.’
-Dr. Ronald Walters, University of Maryland political scientist


WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - Before the resignation of Secretary of State Colin Powell and FCC Chairman Michael Powell, his son, and before the disgrace of pundit Armstrong Williams, all of the prominent Black Republicans in this country could literally fit in a phone booth.

The long list of the Bush administration’s Black personnel is now even shorter, exposing another troubling sign: how few “trustworthy” Blacks there are in positions of influence within the GOP.
...
The President recently named Mr. Allen to the sensitive White House post, but some Blacks in his native Virginia question his views on race. At a meeting about Virginia’s controversial Confederate Heritage Month a few years ago when he was on the staff of Gov. James Gilmore, Mr. Allen presented an NAACP leader a painting of Confederate Army Commander Robert E. Lee.
...
Two of the most prominent are Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell and Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. But Mr. Blackwell was widely criticized for his role in certifying the 2004 election results despite complaints by Blacks of massive voter intimidation and election fraud. Mr. Blackwell is very unpopular in the Black community in Ohio, said Dr. Bositis who pointed out that there are two moderate White Republicans who are more popular with Blacks.


more
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_1795.shtml

[dzika]

55. Attorney general says Blackwell's voting machine order improper

Posted on Tue, Feb. 08, 2005

Attorney general says Blackwell's voting machine order improper

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The state's top elections official did not have authority to order counties to use one type of voting machine, Attorney General Jim Petro said Tuesday, a day before the deadline for counties to submit their machine choices.

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell arbitrarily rejected all but one kind of machine and was not given discretion by law to do so, Petro said. Blackwell and Petro are seeking the Republican nomination for governor.

Last month, Blackwell ordered elections officials in the 88 counties to pick their preferred type of optical-scan machines, which read marks voters make on paper ballots.

On behalf of the Franklin County Elections Board, which uses touch-screen machines, the county prosecutor asked Petro whether Blackwell had the right to issue the order. Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said the elections board meets Tuesday and he was unsure how the officials would proceed.

Petro said the law phasing out punchcard ballots allows county elections officials to choose between optical-scan machines and electronic touch-screen systems that create paper receipts allowing voters to check their choices.


http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10848373.htm

[dzika]

56. BRAD BLOG: Another FL Paper Jumps into Feeney, Yang, Clint Curtis Fray!

'New Times Broward-Palm Beach' Jumps into Feeney, Yang (YEI), Curtis Fray!
Article to hit stands and net tomorrow!

You thought the Clint Curtis story had run its course just because we were off for two weeks? Think again.

Several media outfits are currently looking at and/or working on stories that either report on "our story so far" or advance things a bit. A few, more than just a bit.

The next oufit out of the gate to touch on the Clint Curtis story will be yet another of Feeney's "hometown papers" (get those legal threat letters ready, Tom), The New Times Broward-Palm Beach jumps into the fray with a piece by staff writer Trevor Aaronson.

That latest thorn in Tom Feeney's side is scheduled to hit the stands on Wednesday. The BRAD BLOG has a preview...
PREVIEW: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001175.htm

And there will be much more to come!

---
Brad Friedman
THE BRAD BLOG - The uprising continues...
http://www.BradBlog.com
VELVET REVOLUTION - The revolution begins...
http://www.VelvetRevolution.us


DU Thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x321136

[MelissaB]

57. Schwarzenegger Booed, Questioned Over Fund Raising

Schwarzenegger Booed, Questioned Over Fund Raising

From a verbal assault on the ground to an aerial attack with planes and signs, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) is coming under fire for his fund raising. Watchdog groups are accusing the governor of breaking campaign contribution laws.


The governor is planning to ask voters to approve a series of reforms this year, such as restricting state spending and redrawing political boundaries. How Schwarzenegger plans to pay for that campaign is where the controversy begins.


Schwarzenegger wasn't greeted with his usual admiring crowd at a downtown Sacramento hotel Tuesday. Protesters booed the governor as he entered the hotel. And a sign on a plane that flew overhead questioned the governor's allegiance to special interest groups.


A spokeswoman said Schwarzenegger's agenda is public, with no secrecy. But On Tuesday, there was plenty of secrecy. Protestors were kept far away, and so was KCRA 3 reporter Kevin Riggs.

More: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20050209/lo_kcra/2575816

(Way to go California!)

[MelissaB]

58. Dzika, you are superman!

Your fingers must be smoking. Thank you!!

:yourock:

[dzika]

60. I just a had few days saved up.

I couldn't post for a couple of days so there was a lot in my inbox.

Glad to see you made it back ok :)

[dzika]

59. Opinion: Expect election fraud dreams to go unfulfilled

If you have an interest in claims made by the GOP about fraud in Milwaukee then this is an article worth reading.

---

5:02 a.m. February 8, 2005

Opinion: Expect election fraud dreams to go unfulfilled

By James Rowen for WisPolitics.com



The announcement of a multi-level law enforcement task force to examine problems with the 2004 election in the City of Milwaukee won't unearth the political treasure that Republicans and their talk show boosters are dreaming about -- a vast left-wing conspiracy that stole Wisconsin's electoral votes from the winner, President George W. Bush.

The GOP-er's dream scenario is that investigators can connect election-eve tire slashings, incomplete or erroneous voter documentation and sloppy decision-making by overwhelmed poll workers to a hidden Democratic Party bunker behind a secret door in City Hall.where Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett oversaw Fraud Central like a crazed Wizard of Oz.

Well, dream on. That's not what happened.


Read the entire column...
http://onmilwaukee.com/buzz/articles/wispol020805.html?6559

[dzika]

61. kick - for the West Coast

[Wilms]

62. kick n/t