Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday 6/26/05

[Melissa G]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday 6/26/05

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

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.



If you want to know how post "News Banners" or other images, go here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=371233#371391

Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380445

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





Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page (it's the link just below).

[Melissa G]

1. EAH: HELP make the Election Assessment Hearing a BIG success!

Thanks to Kip for post and DU discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380293


EAH: HELP make the Election Assessment Hearing a BIG success!
DUers:

Please help the Election Assessment Hearing have a big impact!


1) Spread the word to the world (info about the hearing is on http://www.electionassessment.org )


2) Attend and support the hearing in Houston on June 29th

and/or

3) Crack your piggy bank and make a donation through Paypal at http://www.electionassessment.org
to help (my piggy bank has been drained and there are still people needing help to come and testify and there is PR to do). I need to raise $2,000.00 ASAP!

PLEASE HELP HOWEVER YOU CAN!

Kip

[Melissa G]

2. Electronic Voting - Not Ready For Prime Time- Howard Dean

Thanks to Amaryllis for post and DU discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380690


just found this; hadn't seen it before. Hope he knows more now than he did then; he seems to think e-voting can be made reliable and that a paper trail would provide a fix.

Electronic Voting - Not Ready For Prime Time

By Howard Dean

June 01, 2004
Tuesday

In December 2000, five Supreme Court justices concluded that a recount in the state of Florida's presidential election was unwarranted. This, despite the desire of the Florida Supreme Court to order a statewide recount in an election that was decided by only 537 votes. In the face of well-documented voting irregularities throughout the state, the U.S.

Supreme Court's decision created enormous cynicism about whether the votes of every American would actually be counted. Although we cannot change what happened in Florida, we have a responsibility to our democracy to prevent a similar situation from happening again.

Some politicians believe a solution to this problem can be found in electronic voting. Recently, the federal government passed legislation encouraging the use of "touch screen" voting machines even though they fail to provide a verifiable record that can be used in a recount. Furthermore, this equipment cannot even verify as to whether a voter did indeed cast a ballot for their intended candidate. Unfortunately, this November, as many as 28% of Americans - 50 million people - will cast ballots using machines that could produce such unreliable and unverifiable results.

Only since 2000 have touch screen voting machines become widely used and yet they have already caused widespread controversy due to their unreliability. For instance, in Wake County, N.C. in 2002, 436 votes were lost as a result of bad software. Hinds County, Miss. had to re-run an election because the machines had so many problems that the will of the voters could not be determined. According to local election officials in Fairfax County, Va., a recent election resulted in one in 100 votes being lost. Many states, such as New Hampshire and most recently Maine, have banned paperless touch screen voting and many more are considering doing so.

Without any accountability or transparency, even if these machines work, we cannot check whether they are in fact working reliably. The American public should not tolerate the use of paperless e-voting machines until at least the 2006 election, allowing time to prevent ongoing errors and failures with the technology. One way or another, every voter should be able to check that an accurate paper record has been made of their vote before it is recorded.

Both Democrats and Republicans have a serious interest in fixing this potentially enormous blow to democracy. A bipartisan bill, sponsored by Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), is one of several paper trail bills in the House and Senate and it should be passed as soon as possible. A grassroots movement for verified voting, led by organizations like VerifiedVoting.org, is gaining momentum nationwide.

There is nothing partisan about the survival of our democracy or its legitimacy. We cannot and must not put the success of one party or another above the good of our entire country and all our people. To the governments of the fifty states, Republican or Democrat, I ask you to put paperless e-voting machines on the shelf until 2006 or until they are reliable and will allow recounts. In a democracy you always count the votes no matter who wins. To abandon that principle is to abandon America.

http://www.sitnews.us/HowardDean/060104_dean.html

[Melissa G]

3. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA EVENT NOTICE

Thanks to Guvworld for the post and DU discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380454



NORTHERN CALIFORNIA EVENT NOTICE
June 24, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Voter Confidence Committee Presents Votergate the Movie

The Voter Confidence Committee (VCC) will present Votergate the Movie on Wednesday, June 29 at 6pm at the Redwood Peace and Justice Center at 1040 H St. in Arcata. Votergate documents the travels of Bev Harris and her efforts to shine light on the dark corporate secrets of our election system. This free screening will be followed by presentations and discussion of related election reform activities happening in Humboldt County, including:

--Discussion of the Voter Confidence Resolution
--PowerPoint presentation on preferential voting
--Introduction to publicly owned open voting systems
--Proposal of an Election Reform Task Force (Humboldt County) and Charter Review Commission (Eureka)

"The Voter Confidence Committee has opened several fronts in the election reform movement," says VCC Principal Dave Berman. The Arcata City Council will hold a hearing on the Voter Confidence Resolution at its July 6 meeting. Full text: http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2005/04/voter-confidence-r...

VCC Principal Scott Menzies recently gave presentations on preferential voting at a Eureka Town Hall Forum and during the June 7 Eureka City Council meeting. "This next time I'm going to expand the topic a little bit," says Menzies. "I'm going to discuss both Instant Runoff Voting and Choice Voting. The only difference is that IRV is for single-seat races and Choice voting is for multi-seat races like the City Councils."

The VCC has also been actively lobbying the Elections Department and the Board of Supervisors. "We definitely say No Deal With Diebold!" says VCC Principal Mark Konkler. "The VCC supports publicly owned open voting systems like the one designed by Open Voting Consortium."

Other recent VCC activities included a trip to Sacramento to attend the Voting Systems and Procedures Panel hearing where Diebold ultimately endured a heavy battering by the public for its record on voting security. While at the Capitol, VCC members also lobbied Assemblymember Berg and Senator Chesbro on voter confidence issues.

The VCC hopes to see community members plug into any of the various projects.

For more information: www.voterconfidencecommittee.org ; www.guvwurld.blogspot.com

Who: Voter Confidence Committee
What: Free screening of Votergate and discussion of local election reform efforts
Where: Redwood Peace and Justice Center, 1040 H St., Arcata
Why: Current election conditions ensure inconclusive outcomes
When: Wednesday, June 29, 6-8pm Humboldt Standard Time


www.guvwurld.org guvwurld.blogspot.com

[Melissa G]

4. Did George W. Bush steal America’s 2004 election?

Sunday 26th June 2005 (00h42) :
Did George W. Bush steal America’s 2004 election?

The following text is the Introduction to the 767 page: Did George W. Bush Steal America’s 2004 Election? Essential Documents. You can buy the book here.
This volume of documents is meant to provide you, the reader, with evidence necessary to make up your own mind.

Few debates have aroused more polarized ire. But too often the argument has proceeded without documentation. This volume of crucial source materials, from Ohio and elsewhere, is meant to correct that problem.

Amidst a bitterly contested vote count that resulted in unprecedented action by the Congress of the United States, here are some news accounts that followed this election, which was among the most bitterly contested in all US history:

• Despite repeated pre-election calls from officials across the nation and the world, Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State, who also served as Ohio’s co-chair for the Bush-Cheney campaign, refused to allow non-partisan international and United Nations observers the access they requested to monitor the Ohio vote. While such access is routinely demanded by the U.S. government in third world nations, it was banned in the American heartland.

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=6645

[Melissa G]

5. DNC reports of voter problems in Ohio

Washington Notebook
By Evan Lehmann




DNC reports of voter problems in Ohio

The Democratic National Committee released a report this week that concludes a quarter of Ohio voters -- who effectively sealed the presidential election's outcome -- experienced problems at the polls, including waiting in long lines.

The report also says twice as many black voters had poll problems than did white voters. Blacks reported waiting an average of 52 minutes, compared with 18 minutes for whites, according to the DNC.

Ohio officials, including Republican Rep. Bob Ney, who held hearings on the election, dispute the report's findings.

But Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., does not.

"We must insist on reform at every level to stop voter suppression, strengthen voting rights and secure funding for election officials to purchase reliable and verifiable voting machines so that the discrepancies the voting rights team found in Ohio do not occur again," Kerry said.

http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_2824552

[LightningFlash]

9. John Kerry has really been screaming about this...

I think its just the fact nobody covers what he says. But he has to know it was stolen and by Blackwell's cronies in that one state no less.....

[Festivito]

10. NOW he screams. (eyeroll) The DNC is as outrageous as Ohio's vote.

DNC says local officials did not allow them to see, so they covered their eyes and left. IS THIS AMERICA? WE DON'T KNOW IF OUR VOTES COUNT!!!

Cna you say outrageous.

[Melissa G]

6. Corporate control of the election process

Sunday 26th June 2005 (00h36) :
Corporate control of the election process
Those who hold the sacred trust of overseeing the election procedures and voting systems in this country are an alphabet-soup of organizations. The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS); the National Association of State Elections Directors (NASED), the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC), the Elections Assistance Commission (EAC); the Election Center. What do these groups have in common? They either receive their funding from the vendors or are greatly influenced by those who do receive funding from the vendors. We can only hope that the EAC can resist the influence. The others haven’t.
Who are these "vendors"? The vendors are the corporate face on our elections systems ­ the for-profit companies that develop and sell the equipment used to run our elections. They are those who have the most to gain from the influence they buy through their donations and dues to the alphabet soup, and that influence is considerable. They include names like Diebold, Elections Systems and Software (ES&S), Sequoia Voting Systems, Hart InterCivic, Accenture, UniSys, Accupoll, and more. In fact they are all proudly named on the list of corporate affiliates of NASS.<1>

The NASS Corporate Affiliates Program

How does a company become a "corporate affiliate" of the National Association of Secretaries of State, and what does it mean? According to a description of the NASS Corporate Affiliate Program, corporations can donate annual dues in the amount of $20,000, $10,000, $5,000, or $2,500. Those funds go directly into the coffers of NASS. And what do the corporations get for donating to this worthy cause? "The NASS Corporate Affiliate Program is a savvy way to share ideas and build relationships with key state decision makers while supporting the civic mission of the association."<2>

Build relationships with key state decision makers? In other words, unrestricted access to lobby the people who will be spending the taxpayers’ money to buy new election equipment. The scale of this unrestricted access is directly, and openly, related to the amount of "dues" that the corporation pays to the program.
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=6643

[Melissa G]

7. Solution found in dispute over space at court building

Solution found in dispute over space at court building

By Holly Harman Fackler
Telegraph-Forum staff


BUCYRUS -- A solution has been found to a space dispute between two county boards vying for what used to be used by Municipal Court in a county-owned building at 130 N. Walnut St.

At a commission meeting Wednesday, members of the Crawford County Board of Elections rejected two options proposed by county commissioners. Commissioner Ron Hoeft attended Friday's Board of Elections meeting to offer a third possibility.

The compromise, accepted by the election board with little discussion, allows it to stay with its original plan of moving offices into the former muni-court area and converting the current board room into a climate-controlled and double-locked facility for storing new high-tech voting machines that will be delivered next month.

The election board will give up about 360 square feet of office space adjacent to the health department, in addition to a hallway it doesn't use. The health department will use the newly obtained space to house the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program currently located at Southern Lights; and build an interview room for confidential meetings.

http://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050625/NEWS01/506250310/1002

[Melissa G]

8. County officials look at new election issues

County officials look at new election issues
Written by Ned Jenison

Friday, 24 June 2005
The first look at electronic balloting equipment for future Edgar County elections, and the locations of future polling sites, were offered Thursday night to township board members.
The Edgar County Township Officials Association held its quarterly meeting in the Farm Bureau meeting room for a demonstration of the voting equipment, and the tentative location of future polls.

Edgar County Clerk Becky Kraemer, who also serves as county supervisor of elections, presented the map provisionally drawn up by a committee of the Edgar County Board.

Primarily for economic reasons, the county proposes to reduce the present 29 precinct voting locations to just 10. Following the recommendation of the State Board of Elections and the latest state and federal election codes, these polling places will mostly be housed in public schools.

http://www.parisbeacon.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1358&Itemid=

[Melissa G]

11. Bush, Schwarznegger approval lagging

Bush, Schwarznegger approval lagging

By Steve Young, Guest columnist

Bush's numbers hit all-time low: Things are looking so bad for the president that in one recent poll, Bush only received a 50 percent approval rating. And that was a poll of the Bush twins.

Bad numbers catching on: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's numbers are even lower than the president's as his approval rating of 63 percent one year ago has fallen to 39 percent (lower than former Gov. Gray Davis' on the day he lost the recall), with a majority of Californians against the special election the governor has called for November. On the positive side for voters, Schwarzenegger has kept his Screen Actors Guild dues paid up to date.

http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~24781~2939061,00.html

[Melissa G]

12. Forget Iowa; come to New Jersey

Forget Iowa; come to New Jersey

Sunday, June 26, 2005
EDITORIAL BY THE HERALD NEWS



For too long, New Jersey voters have been taken for granted by presidential candidates. They come to the Garden State to raise money, but for the most part, they don't spend much time campaigning here. It isn't just a blue state vs. red state issue. New Jersey has held its presidential primary in June. By then, candidates have all but locked in their nominations. That will change in 2008.


Last week, the Legislature approved moving the presidential primary to the last Tuesday in February. Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey called for this change in his State of the State address. While holding a separate election will cost the state $10.3 million, it is a worthwhile expense. In the last presidential election, only 10 percent of New Jersey voters came to the polls.

Getting the vote out in June for congressional, state and local primary races will be more challenging in presidential years. But it is important that New Jersey and its 15 electoral votes are taken seriously. Candidates will have to come to New Jersey, a state more culturally and ethically diverse than states like Iowa and New Hampshire. The ensuing dialogue will not only benefit New Jerseyans; it will push more substance into the national campaign at an earlier stage.

Not only did the Legislature push up the primary; it also voted to give New Jerseyans more time to register to vote and to require all computer voting machines to produce a verifiable paper record. That should go a long way toward fighting voter fraud. Additionally, voters can request an absentee ballot for any reason.
http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk0MDAmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY3MTI4MjYmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNA==

[Melissa G]

13. Fate of poll sites on county agenda

Fate of poll sites on county agenda

BY BRAD SHANNON

THE OLYMPIAN

Barbara Posner is "adamantly opposed" to ending poll-site voting in Thurston County and switching to an all-mail ballot.

The Thurston County resident fears all-mail voting could lead to thefts of ballots and a loss of the sense of civic duty she feels at the polls.

By contrast, Thomas Carver of Olympia strongly favors the switch to all-mail balloting. Carver says it could boost voter turnout and lower fraud.

Posner and Carver are among the several dozen South Sound residents who weighed in recently on a proposal to switch to all-mail voting in Thurston County, sending their comments to Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman in advance of Monday's 6 p.m. public hearing on the subject.

http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050626/NEWS01/506260341/1006

[Melissa G]

14. Legislature breaks, leaves mixed results

Legislature breaks, leaves mixed results


snip
Jay Gallagher
Albany bureau chief


(June 26, 2005) — ALBANY — Here are some of the major actions taken by lawmakers during the 2005 legislative session, and some issues that weren't dealt with.

snip

VOTING

Issue: How the state will comply with a federal requirement to improve voting procedures.

Action: Both houses passed bills to set up a statewide voter database and allow first-time voters to use a wide array of acceptable identification. But they passed on to counties the decision on what kind of new machines to buy.

What supporters said: The state gets to keep about $220 million in federal aid for elections, fraud will be reduced and counties will have the chance to make their own decisions about the machines.

What opponents said: Different machines in different counties could lead to a serious disconnect on Election Day.

[e-mail]

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050626/NEWS01/506260351/1002/NEWS