Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Thursday 6/9/05

[MelissaB]

Everyone is encouraged to participate

If you can:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233

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

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



Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x376088

All previous daily threads are available here: http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm

[Wilms]

1. (FL) Voting machines to delay Sept. election in St. Lucie

Voting machines to delay Sept. election in St. Lucie

By Sandra Hong

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

St. Lucie County school officials are postponing a much anticipated September election that would ask voters to help pay for new schools because of delays in getting new voting machines.

Required by the state, the new touch-screen voting machines are designed for people with visual and physical disabilities and are required to be in place for any election after July 1, according to Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker.

But because of a flood of orders throughout Florida, St. Lucie will not receive its 95 Diebold touch-screen voting machines until mid-July, Walker said. Election workers won't be trained to use the machines until September, she said.

The delays will force the St. Lucie school board to push its Sept. 13 referendum date to at least Oct. 18, if not later.

-snip/more-

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2005/06/08/m3b_slskul_0608.html

[Wilms]

2. (FL) Touch-screen votes still touchy subject

news-journalonline.com

Touch-screen votes still touchy subject

By JAMES MILLER
Staff Writer

Last update: June 09, 2005

DELAND --

Now the bad: Despite the pass from the state, Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall is pulling no punches -- saying she was looking at all options, including suing a council she said isn't letting her do her job.

"They need to give me the tools to run elections," she said by telephone from Saddlebrook Resort, north of Tampa, where she was attending a conference of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.

-snip-

McFall's rebuke came after County Chairman Frank Bruno said a representative of the state Division of Elections told him state officials weren't planning to penalize the county or make it difficult to hold elections.

-snip-

While some -- though not all -- advocates for disabled voters favor touch-screen machines, opponents say without a paper ballot they are vulnerable to undetectable electronic fraud. A representative for one national group said earlier this week he expected the group to consider a lawsuit.

-snip/more-

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/03NewsHEAD03POL060905.htm

[meganmonkey]

3. VOTING PROBLEM (25% added to bush's total in township)

http://www.waow.com/news/full_story.php?id=37504

snip
A SHAWANO COUNTY COMMUNITY HAS A MAJOR DISCREPANCY OF ITS OWN.
THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL REPORTS THE TOWN OF HERMAN'S RESULTS GAVE GEORGE BUSH AN EXTRA 100 VOTES.
THAT'S AN ERROR OF NEARLY 25 PERCENT OF THE TOWN'S TOTAL VOTE.
snip


Thanks to Goddess40:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1535066

[MelissaB]

4. Computer glitch delays reporting of Wayne tally

Computer glitch delays reporting of Wayne tally

Thursday, June 9, 2005

By ROBERT RATISH
STAFF WRITER

WAYNE - In the end, it was a glitch in an old, reliable computerized voting system that delayed reporting of the municipal primary election results, the township clerk said Wednesday.

But by noon, the county clerk's office tallied the votes from the uncontested party voting in which the mayoral and three council nominations were at stake.


Mayor Scott Rumana, a Republican, received 1,767 votes, with Democratic challenger James Freeswick receiving 561 votes.

...snip

Township Clerk Katherine Pusterla said that the delay resulted from a problem with the software she uses to track the election results.

She said the township has been using that software for about 10 years without problems.

The voting machines also print out results on paper. Pusterla said she used those to manually count the vote totals and enter them into election software on another computer.


Link: http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk1OSZmZ2JlbDdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5NjcwNTc3OSZ5cmlyeTdmNzE3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTM=

[MelissaB]

5. Ohio: Elections board member peeved about missed vote

Elections board member peeved about missed vote

2005-06-09
By Nick Claussen
Athens NEWS Associate Editor


Athens County Board of Elections member Howard Stevens is upset at the Democratic members of the board for pushing through a vote on new voting machines for the county when he could not attend the meeting.

On May 17, the board was scheduled to decide on new voting machines for the county. This was to be the third vote on voting machines, because after the previous two votes Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell called on all Ohio counties to vote again.

In the discussions leading up to the vote on the machines, it was apparent that Republicans Stevens and Richard Mottl favored the electronic touch-screen voting machines from Diebold Election Systems, Inc., and Democrats Susan Gwinn and Bill Lavelle favored the optical-scan voting machines from Election Systems & Software.

If the vote had ended in a 2-2 tie, the decision would have been forwarded to Blackwell. Board members had previously said they believed Blackwell would select the Diebold machines for the county, just as he previously chose the Diebold machines after the last tie vote.

More: http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=20851

[MelissaB]

6. NJ: Ringwood handles voting foul-up

Ringwood handles voting foul-up

Thursday, June 9, 2005

By JAN BARRY
STAFF WRITER

RINGWOOD - Call it a lucky glitch. A computerized voting machine error only delayed polling results Tuesday as unopposed candidates obtained party nominations to Borough Council seats in the November elections.

A coding error prevented voting in the party primaries for more than two candidates, while three seats are open. Voters were told |to use paper ballots after the problem was discovered about |9 a.m. Tuesday.

...snip

"This office is not responsible in any way for what happened with the voting machines," Freytes said. She said the machines were purchased from ESNS of Omaha, Neb., and the ballots are prepared by the County Clerk's Office.

The problem was traced to a miscommunication between the County Clerk's Office and ESNS, which resets the computer codes for each election, said a county official who asked not to be named.

Link: http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MCZmZ2JlbDdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5NjcwNTc5NyZ5cmlyeTdmNzE3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTM=

[MelissaB]

7. Mass: Study finds voting trouble for some state residents

Study finds voting trouble for some state residents
Says nearly 9% denied ballots

By Rebecca Mahoney, Globe Correspondent | June 9, 2005

Nearly 9 percent of Massachusetts voters surveyed last fall experienced problems at the polls during the November election, according to a study released yesterday by a coalition of liberal advocacy groups who want to make it easier to vote.

The findings were immediately disputed by Secretary of State William F. Galvin, but the groups who conducted the survey stood by their report yesterday.

The survey of 41,753 voters found 3,643 people were not able to cast a regular ballot when they checked in at their polling sites, largely because they could not immediately verify their voter registration. The survey also found some machines were not working, some poll workers gave out incorrect information, and there were problems with provisional ballots given to voters whose identity or registration could not be immediately confirmed.

''Voter disenfranchisement doesn't only happen in Ohio or Florida," said Juan Martinez, executive director of MassVOTE, which conducted the survey, along with the NAACP, the Black Political Task Force, and other groups. ''These issues occur in every election in states across the country, including Massachusetts, and they need to be addressed."


More: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/06/09/study_finds_voting_trouble_for_some_state_residents/

[MelissaB]

8. NY: Major legislation that succeeded and failed in 2005

Major legislation that succeeded and failed in 2005

June 9, 2005, 2:02 AM EDT

HARTFORD, Conn. -- From civil unions and stem cell research to the death penalty and junk food in schools, the state legislature took up a variety of major issues in the 2005 session.

A look at the winners and losers:

WINNERS:

...snip

VOTING MACHINES _ Electronic voting machines will have to produce a paper record of votes. The bill helps bring the state in compliance with the Help America Vote Act, passed in the wake of the 2000 election problems in Florida.


Link: http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct-xgr--winnersandlos0609jun08,0,6043241.story?coll=ny-region-apconnecticut

[MelissaB]

9. PA: Beaver County: Using paper ballots costs extra $150,000

Beaver County: Using paper ballots costs extra $150,000

Thursday, June 09, 2005

The Beaver County commissioners signed off on official primary election results Wednesday afternoon, three weeks and a day after the May 17 vote.

Beaver was one of three counties in Pennsylvania -- Mercer and Greene were the others -- forced to switch to paper ballots after the state decertified the Unilect Patriot electronic voting system in early April. The lengthy process of counting the votes has added to an extra cost of more than $150,000 in Beaver, a cost the state has promised to pay.

County elections director Dorene Mandity said more than $100,000 went to Elections Systems and Security, a Nebraska firm which brought in optical scanning machines to count the ballots.

The official tally includes write-in votes and mis-marked ballots -- ones with ovals checked instead of filled in, for example -- and is verified by hand-counting 2 percent of the ballots and comparing the results to the machine-counted results.

More: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05160/518424.stm

[MelissaB]

10. PA: Fayette write-in votes discovered

06/09/2005

Fayette write-in votes discovered

By Amy Karpinsky , Herald-Standard

Additional write-in votes were discovered this week in voting machines in South Union Township after a county official was alerted that votes from one of the machines were not initially counted.
Fayette County Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites said Wednesday that he heard earlier this week upon returning from vacation that a "roll of paper" was left in one of the five machines in South Union District 1. Upon hearing that Tuesday, Vicites said he immediately sent a memo asking for the machine to be checked before he would sign off on certifying the election results.


Vicites said in seeking out the additional votes, he had no idea what effect to any election race the action would have, if any, but said officials should account for all the information pertaining to an election.

"I think it was an oversight," Vicites said. "It has nothing to do with any particular person. I just want to make sure things are done properly. I want total accountability."

The memo was also signed by fellow commissioners Angela M. Zimmerlink and Joseph A. Hardy III, who make up the election board and must certify the election results.


More: http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14664414&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6

[MelissaB]

11. OH Dem says BWC scandal ilegalites put PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN QUESTION!

OH Dem says BWC scandal ilegalities put PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN QUESTION!

Thursday, June 9, 2005
Kaptur alerts colleagues of unfolding scandal
Brown says illegalities put presidential election in question

The $215 million loss - coupled with a failed $50 million rare-coin investment with Tom Noe, a prominent Republican campaign contributor - have given Democrats political ammunition against the GOP, which has dominated state government for years.
Democrats such as Miss Kaptur and U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown of Lorain say the latest scandals mirror problems in Washington and even call into question the results of the 2004 presidential election.
"Shame on the governor of Ohio," said Miss Kaptur, who put The Blade's Tuesday online story breaking the news of the $215 million loss into the Congressional record. "Shame on the state officials of the State of Ohio. What a tragedy they have perpetrated on the people of our state."

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050609...


OHIO INVESTMENT SCANDAL
Taft's office told in October about $225 million loss; e-mail from Conrad said firm overleveraged account
Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, located in Columbus.
( THE BLADE/ALLAN DETRICH )
Zoom
By JAMES DREW
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF
COLUMBUS — Gov. Bob Taft’s office learned seven months ago — not this week — that the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation had lost $225 million in a high-risk investment.
In an Oct. 26, 2004, e-mail to Taft aide James Samuel, the bureau’s administrator-CEO, James Conrad, wrote that the “entire value” of the portfolio managed by MDL Capital Management was down about $225 million.
Mr. Conrad also alerted the governor’s office that the bureau had rejected MDL’s request for another $25 million and the firm was in danger of collapsing, which he said would be “likely to make national news.”

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050609...

TAFT and PETRO (OH Attorney General) knew of this huge loss in October '04 put failed to notify public. Hmmmh....Do you think it might have been politically motivated? Kudos to the Toledo Blade, THE premier investigative paper in the country! Is a Pullitizer in their future?
(I also posted this on LBN)


Thanks to mod mom here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x376362

[Wilms]

13. Corrected Links

Thursday, June 9, 2005
Kaptur alerts colleagues of unfolding scandal
Brown says illegalities put presidential election in question
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050609/NEWS09/506090443


Thursday, June 9, 2005
OHIO INVESTMENT SCANDAL
Taft's office told in October about $225 million loss; e-mail from Conrad said firm overleveraged account
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050609/NEWS24/50609003


ModMoms LBN discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1535033&mesg_id=1535033

[MelissaB]

12. Front-Runner for Public Broadcast Agency Job Is Former GOP Chair

Front-Runner for Public Broadcast Agency Job Is Former GOP Chair

By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 9, 2005; Page C01

A former co-chairman of the Republican National Committee is the leading candidate to take over the agency that funds public broadcasting, sparking new concerns among broadcasters about conservative influence over National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service programming.

Patricia de Stacy Harrison, a high-ranking official at the State Department, is one of two candidates for the top job at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and is the favored candidate of the CPB's chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, according to people close to the search. The CPB is a congressionally chartered agency that directs taxpayer funds to PBS, NPR and hundreds of radio and TV stations.



Patricia de Stacy Harrison has been a top-ranking official
at the State Department since October 2001. (Alex Wong - Getty Images)


Harrison's candidacy comes at a time when Tomlinson has stirred controversy by attacking PBS as having a liberal bias in its programs. Tomlinson, a longtime Republican, has advocated more balance on PBS's schedule and has supported using CPB funds to produce news-discussion programs that take a conservative point of view. Critics, including veteran PBS newsman and commentator Bill Moyers, have said Tomlinson is trying to use CPB's power to inject Republican ideology into PBS and National Public Radio programs.

Although the agency has hired a search firm to find other candidates for the job, the only other known candidate is Ken Ferree, who has been CPB's interim chief executive since April. Several high-ranking officials within public broadcasting said they expect the agency's eight-member board -- which is dominated by Republicans -- to decide on a new chief executive at the board's next meeting, scheduled for June 20-21.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/08/AR2005060802528.html

[Wilms]

14. Sequoia Lawsuit: The Federal Judge Issued his First Ruling

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x376414

[Wilms]

15. (CO) Owens signs two measures born of issues in November vote

Article Launched: 06/09/2005 03:36:40 AM

Election reforms on books

Owens signs two measures born of issues in November vote

By Susan Greene

Denver Post Staff Writer

Gov. Bill Owens has signed into law two measures reforming the way Colorado conducts elections.

The reforms come largely in response to concerns about Secretary of State Donetta Davidson's handling of the 2004 election. Davidson waited until nearly half of the state's 16,000 election judges had been trained last fall before issuing a manual designed to ensure that they all followed the same rules.

Under the new laws Owens ratified Monday, the secretary of state must formalize the standards used to train election officials.

To boost voter confidence in elections, the reforms also require voter-verified paper ballots by 2010, as well as random audits to compare electronic and paper results after each election.

-snip/more-

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_2791465

[Wilms]

16. (FL) Diebold calls for investigation of Leon County voting machines

Posted on Thu, Jun. 09, 2005

Diebold calls for investigation of Leon County voting machines

Accusing Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho of "gross negligence" for allowing an outsider to test the county's voting equipment, Diebold Election Systems Inc. has called for an investigation to make sure the machines haven't been compromised.

Sancho recently allowed a team from Black Box Voting to see if it could crack the security systems of the electronic-scanning machines. The visitors were unable to get in from outside the courthouse, but when they sat down at the computer itself, they managed to pierce software security and change vote totals in the experiment.

Michael Lindroos, senior corporate counsel for Diebold, wrote to Sancho and said the company can't guarantee the security of the county system now that outsiders have been able to experiment with it. Lindroos sent copies of his letter to county commissioners and the state Division of Elections, urging them to troubleshoot the system before any elections are conducted on it.

-snip/no more-

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/breaking_news/11855543.htm

[LightningFlash]

19. Diebold couldn't be more obvious. Trying to cover the pot.

[Wilms]

20. LF, if you'd like...

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

[Wilms]

17. (OH) Elections board member peeved about missed vote

Elections board member peeved about missed vote

2005-06-09

By Nick Claussen

Athens NEWS Associate Editor

Athens County Board of Elections member Howard Stevens is upset at the Democratic members of the board for pushing through a vote on new voting machines for the county when he could not attend the meeting.

On May 17, the board was scheduled to decide on new voting machines for the county. This was to be the third vote on voting machines, because after the previous two votes Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell called on all Ohio counties to vote again.

In the discussions leading up to the vote on the machines, it was apparent that Republicans Stevens and Richard Mottl favored the electronic touch-screen voting machines from Diebold Election Systems, Inc., and Democrats Susan Gwinn and Bill Lavelle favored the optical-scan voting machines from Election Systems & Software.

If the vote had ended in a 2-2 tie, the decision would have been forwarded to Blackwell. Board members had previously said they believed Blackwell would select the Diebold machines for the county, just as he previously chose the Diebold machines after the last tie vote.

-snip/more-

http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=20851

[Wilms]

18. (NJ) These absentee votes cast no cloud in A.C.

Posted on Thu, Jun. 09, 2005

These absentee votes cast no cloud in A.C.

Verification has begun, but - unlike in 2001 - they are not expected to change Tuesday's result.

By John Curran

Associated Press

ATLANTIC CITY - Hours after Democratic challenger Bob Levy claimed a 466-vote victory over incumbent Lorenzo Langford at the polls in Tuesday's mayoral primary, election workers began examining thousands of absentee ballots.

The ballots won't be counted until Monday, but neither side expected a replay of the 2001 general election, when absentee ballots propelled Langford into office.

-snip-

On Tuesday, he received 54 percent of the vote, compared with Langford's 46 percent. Langford, who conceded in a speech Tuesday night, said at the time that the number of absentee ballots submitted by Levy campaign messengers had surpassed the number delivered by Langford's campaign.

-snip-

Once the board validates provisional and absentee ballots, they will be tallied Monday by a representative of Sequoia Voting Systems, a company that uses scanners to count votes, said Mark Stein, chairman of the Board of Elections.

-snip/more-

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/new_jersey/11850057.htm

[Wilms]

21. Something Rotten in Ohio

Published on Thursday, June 9, 2005

The Nation

Something Rotten in Ohio

by Gore Vidal

Outside the oil and gas junta that controls two and a half branches of our government (the half soon to be whole is the judiciary), there was a good deal of envy at the late British election among those Americans who are serious about politics. Little money was spent by the three parties and none for TV advertising. Results were achieved swiftly and cheaply. Best of all, the three party leaders were quizzed sharply and intelligently by ordinary citizens known quaintly as subjects, thanks to the ubiquitous phantom crown so unlike our nuclear-taloned predatory eagle. Although news of foreign countries seldom appears in our tightly censored media (and good news, never), those of us who are addicted to C-SPAN and find it the one truly, if unconsciously, subversive media outlet in these United States are able to observe British politics in full cry.

-snip/more-

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0609-21.htm

Thanks to GreenPartyVoter for posting the discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x376455

[MelissaB]

22. Audio Clip of Andy Stephenson on tonight's Mike Malloy Show!

Courtesy of White Rose Society - The Internet's #1 source for liberal and progressive talk radio!


http://www.whiterosesociety.org/content/malloy/AndyS-on-MalloyShow06092005.mp3


Thanks to benburch here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3824588

[Wilms]

23. EFF to Provide Live Reports on Lobbying Blitz for E-voting Reform Bill

June 08, 2005
Transparent Lobbying for E-voting Reform This Week
EFF to Provide Live Reports on Lobbying Blitz for E-voting Reform Bill

San Francisco, CA - Tomorrow and Friday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will provide a series of weblog reports on a two-day lobbying effort by a coalition of activist groups fighting for transparent, auditable electronic voting.

The lobbying "blitz" is aimed at supporting H.R. 550, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act. This law would require electronic voting systems used in federal elections to generate a paper trail that could be verified by voters prior to their votes being cast. The coalition includes Common Cause, VerifiedVoting.org, VoteTrustUSA, VotersUnite.org, Rock the Vote, Working Assets, and other election-reform advocates.

More than 200 citizen activists from 25 states have signed up for the blitz, and have already set up at least 80 meetings with their representatives. The coalition will hold a lobbying training session for activists before they fan out across the Hill to lobby the House and Senate for the legislation, which is sponsored by Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.). On Friday, the coalition will hold a press conference with Rep. Holt, after which activists and lobbyists will be available for interviews, blogging, and podcasts, to talk about the importance of voter-verified paper trails.

EFF has more information about e-voting.

Contact:

Matt Zimmerman
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
[e-mail]

Weblog Reports:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks

Discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=203&topic_id=376616&mesg_id=376616

[Wilms]

24. (OH) Sherole Eaton Attends Hocking Democrat Meeting

NoBushSpokenHere reports:

I was quite surprised to see Sherole in attendance at the Hocking Democrat Meeting tonight. She was released from the hospital earlier today after having brain surgery just 3 days ago. Her face is bruised, her head shaved, large incision on her head, and just as ready to stand up for Democracy as she was the day she stood up to the Hocking Board of Elections during the recount in December.

-snip-

Hocking County President Regina Prater opened the floor for discussion of Sherole’s firing. The two Hocking "democrat" Board of Election members, Susie Hughes and Gerald Robinette were present at the meeting. It was these two individuals that had voted for Diebold and voted along with the Republicans to fire Sherole. Bruce Johnson stated to Gerald Robinette, “We will have a recommendation of who we want to become the next Deputy Director” and asked “Will you follow our recommendation?” Gerald Robinette replied, “No, I cannot say that we will” and added, “We normally just go along with whomever the Republicans want” A few people spoke to the group to explain these two individuals do not have the Democrat parties' interest at heart. The crowd applauded and shouted in support of cleaning up the party.

Regina Prater asked for the resignations of both Susie Hughes and Gerald Robinette from the BOE. They refused despite the resounding applause in support of her request.

-snip/more-
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x376621

[Wilms]

25. (OH) Ex- Pres. Bush aide was once key player in firm tied to Ohio scandal

Posted on June 9, 2005 12:47 PM

by William Bunch

"Well-known Philadelphia conservative pundit Joe Watkins -- a former aide to ex-President George H.W. Bush as well as Dan Quayle -- was managing director in the 1990s and early 2000s of the firm now wrapped up in a fast-growing GOP political scandal.

Watkins, a frequent guest on CNN and other cable networks, was a managing director and principal of MDL Capital Management when it first started doing business with Ohio in 1998. But he reportedly left shortly before 2003, when Ohio officials teamed up with MDL on a new hedge fund investment that lost a whopping $225 million in workers' compensation funds."

"The massive hedge fund loss is the newest tentacle of the scandal that's become known as "Coingate," because the workers' fund may be missing $10-12 million in assets in an investment with a rare coin dealer. The dealer, Tom Noe, also is a key GOP figure and major fundraiser for President Bush in Ohio, the state that narrowly gave him the final 20 electoral votes for his narrow re-election.

Watkins was the managing director and a principal of MDL Capital after 1995 -- when it bought another investment firm that the Philadelphian was working for -- and left some time prior to March 2003, based on news accounts. In 1998, Ohio's worker compensation fund invested $355 million in a long-bond fund with MDL Capital.

-snip/more-

http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/001992.html

Thanks to LightningFlash for posting the discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x376625

[Wilms]

26. EFF - Release the Hounds: How does one become a voting lobbyist?

Release the Hounds

June 09, 2005

Posted by Matt Zimmerman at 09:25 AM

How does one become a voting lobbyist? Enthusiastic activists from 26 states are just now finishing up three hours of training from event coordinators that included a briefing on HR 550 and similar Senate legislation, a run-down on how to conduct a successful and effective meeting with Congressional staff, media training, and more. All volunteers received a master schedule of who they have been assigned to meet with and when meetings with Congressional staff will occur. Meetings with over 80 members of Congress, designed to push for passage of the nation's best paper trail bill, now begin.

Bill proponents aren't going into the meetings empty handed. Extensive background materials (prepared by EFF, VerifiedVoting.org, Voters Unite, and others) discussing the bill, the problem with the current generation of paperless voting systems, who supports voter-verified paper records, and other topics are being distributed to members of Congress as I write this.

-snip/more-

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/003644.php


Click here to tell your member of Congress to support HR 550!
https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?page=UserAction&cmd=display&id=109


Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) on Electronic Voting and Voter-Verified Paper Records

pdf

http://www.workingforchange.com/webgraphics/lobby_packet%20wd%20-%20FINAL1.pdf


Discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x376636

[Wilms]

27. .