Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News for the weekend of 7/30-31

[MelissaB]

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x385668

All previous daily threads are available here:

http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm

[MelissaB]

1. Some fear Voting Rights Act could change as provisions expire

Some fear Voting Rights Act could change as provisions expire

BY DAHLEEN GLANTON

Chicago Tribune


MARION, Ala. - (KRT) - Before the national movement began to secure voting rights for African-Americans, a quiet registration campaign started in this small Southern town where blacks were more accustomed to kneeling down to pick cotton than standing up for their civil rights.

It was here in the early 1960s that sharecroppers, maids and janitors - people who could barely read or write - began filing through the back door of the Perry County, Ala., courthouse to register to vote. One by one, they were turned down, victims of a $1.50 poll tax they could not afford and a literacy test that many uneducated whites also would have failed had they been forced to take it.

...snip

"While we are fighting for democracy in Iraq, our democracy is being threatened at home," said Jesse Jackson Sr., who will lead a voting rights rally in Atlanta next Saturday. "In 2000 in Florida, blacks were purged from the voting lists. In 2004 in Ohio, black voters were disqualified for no reason. When black registration went up, the number of voting machines in black districts went down. People waited in line for hours to vote. The elections were heavy with fraud targeting black voters."

...snip

Last year in Bayou La Batre, Ala., a fishing village where about a third of the 2,700 residents are Asian-American, the Justice Department found that Asian voters had been intimidated during a City Council primary election. Supporters of the white incumbent had challenged ballots questioning the citizenship of Asian voters and accusing them of having felony convictions. The Justice Department intervened and the first Asian-American was elected to the City Council.

And in Georgia, the Justice Department has been asked to examine a new law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, a move critics said would target minorities, the poor and the elderly.


More: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/12270239.htm

[MelissaB]

2. Calif. Rejects Voting Machine, But Utah Likes It

Calif. Rejects Voting Machine, But Utah Likes It

(Courtesy The Salt Lake Tribune) The brand of electronic voting booths selected for use by Utah voters was rejected in California officials, who say the computer freezes and printer jams too often to be reliable.

The electronic voting machines, made by Diebold, are slated for their first use in Utah in primary elections next June.

Utah election officials say they’ll stand by the $27 million purchase despite California’s claims and expect Diebold to fix any glitches.

“I’m confident when Diebold ships their product to Utah it will work the way we need it to,” said Michael Cragun, director of Utah's elections division.

California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson told a California newspaper last week that in a mock election held July 20 the machines had a failure rate of about 10 percent.

“And that’s not good enough for the voters of California and not good enough for me,” he said.


More: http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_211203934.html

[MelissaB]

3. Utah: New State Voting Machines Could Be Flawed

New State Voting Machines Could Be Flawed

Jul. 30, 2005
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The state of Utah's pick for new electronic voting machines could be riddles with problems.

California officials -- who picked the same machines -- said in a mock election last week, the computers faltered more than 10 percent of the time.

Made by Diebold, the machines allows for touch-screen voting and tell voters when they've made voting mistakes, like skipping a race or voting for more than one candidate.

Mike Cragun, director of Utah's elections division, says the state will stand by it's $27 million purchase. He says he expects Diebold to fix any glitches when Utah uses the machines for the first time in the June 2006 primary elections.

Diebold spokesman David Bear says the company is working on the California problems.


More: http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=222420

[MelissaB]

4. New Theft Charges In 2004 Election

\

New Theft Charges In 2004 Election

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072905B.shtml
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1387

Dramatic New Charges Deepen Link between Ohio’s "Coingate," Voinovich Mob Connections, and the Theft of the 2004 Election By Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman The Columbus Free Press

Friday 29 July 2005

Columbus - New charges filed against Ohio Governor Bob Taft’s former top aide have blazed a new trail between "Coingate" and the GOP theft of the 2004 presidential election.

Brian Hicks appears in court today to answer charges that he failed to report vacation trips he took to Coingate mastermind Tom Noe’s $1.3 million home in the Florida Keys. A top Taft aide for a dozen years, Hicks stayed at Noe’s place in 2002 and 2003. Another Taft aide, Cherie Carroll, is charged with taking some $500 in free dinners from Noe.

Noe is a high-roller crony of Taft, US Senator George Voinovich and President George W. Bush. Noe charged the Ohio Bureau of Workman’s Compensation nearly $13 million to invest some $58 million. Ohio Attorney-General Jim Petro, to whom Noe once donated money, says some $4 million disappeared into Noe’s pocket.

The new charges against Taft’s former aide are at the edge of Coingate’s links to Bush, Voinovich and organized crime. Through Noe’s wife Bernadette, those links extend to the GOP theft of Ohio 2004.


More: http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=7290

[MelissaB]

5. Scandal escalates, yet Taft stays mum

Scandal escalates, yet Taft stays mum

By STEVE EDER and
CHRISTOPHER D. KIRPATRICK
BLADE STAFF WRITERS


COLUMBUS - Ohio's most important political leader has become its most muted on the ethical problems tarnishing his administration and his legacy.

Gov. Bob Taft offers language - part political speak and part Orwell - when he takes credit for an ongoing ethics investigation into numerous free golf games he took over the years but at the same time is unwilling to offer details or even give a general outline of the subject.

"I initiated this process," he repeats over and over at his public events when questioned by reporters. "I am respecting the process."

...snip


"I think you are going to find a whole bunch of people hiring lawyers and seeing how quickly they can get to a prosecutor's office to cut a deal," predicted Paul Tipps, an influential Columbus lobbyist and the former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party.


More: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050731/NEWS24/507310402/-1/NEWS

[MelissaB]

6. Ohio: Privilege should be in the service

Privilege should be in the service

Palm-tree vacations and pricey steak dinners. The first criminal charges to spring from a statewide investment scandal originate in the world of privilege.


The irony? These specific perks were just cheap-o items straight off the shelf at the Government Wheel-n-Deal Dollar $tore.

...snip

Aren't Americans supposed to aspire to that level of access and privilege? And isn't the failure to remember minor details like paying your share just part of a country-club mentality?

Let's pay lotsa money for a place where the whole point is to be among other people who can afford to be someplace where "common" people cannot enter.

It's all summed up in two words: We're special.

And if we're special, well then, we deserve to be treated specially.

We deserve - well, we just deserve. Period. Let entitlement begin.

A dinner here, a cut-rate vacation there. Pretty soon you're talkin' real money - even multimillion dollar fiascos that end at taxpayer expense.

It's the American Dream, really, to "work your way up" to that kind of access and privilege. I almost feel sorry for Brian Hicks and Cherie Carroll and anyone else ensnared in this mess.

Almost.


More: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050731/COLUMNIST03/507310365/-1/NEWS06

[MelissaB]

7. Dramatic New Charges Deepen Link Between Ohio's "Coingate,"

Dramatic New Charges Deepen Link Between Ohio's "Coingate," Voinovich Mob Connections, and the Theft of the 2004 Election

by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

http://www.opednews.com

COLUMBUS -- New charges filed against Ohio Governor Bob Taft's former top aide have blazed a new trail between "Coingate" and the GOP theft of the 2004 presidential election.

...snip

The new charges against Taft's former aide are at the edge of Coingate's links to Bush, Voinovich and organized crime. Through Noe's wife Bernadette, those links extend to the GOP theft of Ohio 2004.

...snip

A very public high roller, Mifsud openly bragged of alleged ties to the CIA. He also claimed membership in the secretive Knights of Malta, running the Maltese American Foundation. The Knights and the CIA have been accused in various news reports of working together in covert operations around the globe.

...snip

Mifsud's own autobiography claimed service in "military intelligence" with the United States Air Force between 1966-1970. Columbus Alive revealed in an award-winning article that Mifsud was indeed the key player in spending millions of Ohio tax dollars to bring the CIA-affiliated drug-running Southern Air Transport airline to Columbus in 1995.

...snip

At one school polling station the voting machines were locked in the office of the principal, who called in sick. The Gesu School in West Toledo temporarily ran out of ballots. There were huge lines, missing ballots and technical anomalies associated with the leased Diebold Optical-Scan voting tabulators. Lucas County BOE Director Paula Hicks-Hudson admitted that the Diebold machines had jammed during the previous week's testing, but the BOE did not bother to fix them for the election.



More: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bob_fitr_050731_dramatic_new_charges.htm


I can't fit enough of the important parts in here. You really need to read the entire article.


Discussion here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x386545

[MelissaB]

8. Paul Hackettt Campaign "Worried Sick" About Fraud

excerpt of news item from
www.Ohiohonestelections.org

###Sunday, July 31, 2005
Paul Hackett Campaign Worried About Election Fraud

(From the July 24, 2005 Hamilton Journal News by Bill Rentschler):

"It is a sad and depressing commentary on the state of our democracy that David Woodruff, campaign manager for candidate Paul Hackett in Ohio’s special 2nd Congressional District election on Aug. 2, is worried sick about obtaining an honest, accurate vote count."

"Woodruff is convinced a scrupulously accurate vote count will give his underdog candidate a majority in the balloting and send him to Congress."

"But Woodruff is not just wringing his hands over the prospect of vote fraud; he is taking aggressive action to stave it off and preserve the sanctity of the ballot for every voter. For several weeks, Woodruff has been recruiting and training a hard-nosed cadre of lawyers, off-duty cops and sheriff deputies, and citizen activists to guard the polls against vote fraud in every precinct in the sprawling seven-county 2nd District."


Thanks to Columbus here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x386580

[MelissaB]

9. *** URGENT *** Diebold machines not HAVA COMPLIENT!!!!

Please forward this terrific email (below) from New Jersey election
activists. They detail the federal HAVA requirements, for the disabled,
and for error rates that Diebold's (& also Sequoia's) DRE voting
machines do not meet. (Written handouts on HAVA requirements that
Diebold DREs does "not" meet, while the AutoMARK does, are also
available on both Verifiedvoting.org & Votersunite.org, or by reading
HAVA.)

Utah's election officials ignore the consistent overwhelming written and
verbal advice given them by Utah's computer professionals, and the
plethera of mainstream news articles on the flaws of Diebold since March
2003. I am very curious to know what motivates Utah election officials
to purchase the most expensive, most flawed voting system in America, in
the face of all the facts? Were they bought off, are they hopelessly
ignorant (that would be difficult to imagine after all the input &
news), or are they planning to rig our elections because any computer
novice can tamper with election results in a few seconds without leaving
a trace with Diebold's central tabulators which would be located in
Utah's county election offices?

If it is any consolation, suing the Utah election office ought to be
easy for any patriotic Utah lawyer since they are purchasing systems
which they certainly must know, if they are doing their jobs at all, are
not certified to follow the HAVA laws.


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Certification issues regarding HAVA section 301
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 17:25:53 -0400
From: R. Janow <[e-mail] >
Reply-To: <[e-mail] >
To: <[e-mail] >


Dear Kathy

I noticed your name in an article (
_http://www.sltrib.com/ci_2901000_ from the Salt
Lake Tribune that a friend forwarded to me about your work in Utah on
voting machines.
I may have something that can help.

I've been working with a group here in Northern N. J. called
"Essex Country Task Force for Voting Rights". We have a similar
perhaps smaller scale problem with respect to impending purchases
of the Sequoia Advantage voting machine. There is also an existing NJ
infrastructure of about 7000 of the same machines - some bought with
HAVA money not long ago, some bought with County funds.

At first the local elections commissioner and the State Attorney
General (who
is responsible for elections, untypically for the rest of the U. S.)
stonewalled our
efforts, although the County elected Freeholders held up authoriziation
of the funds.
There are industry rumblings about closed territories and inside deals
in a field that
was not subject to public scrutiny until recently.

But we finally got their attention and may have stopped them
with a certification issue that may apply tot Diebold as well as
Sequoia - the
absence of demonstrable certifications on error rate, and also on all
the other items
that are required in HAVA 301. State certification is irrelevent; in
order to be
legal for use in Federal elections, and to qualify for reimbursement
from HAVA,
the machines must meet the Federal 2002 requirements of section 301 in
HAVA.
Otherwise any citizen can challenge Federal elections that use
non-certified equipment in court.

The hard thing for State officials to understand seems to be that this
is Federal.
State officials can certify all they want, but only the only the ITA's
(independent
testing labs) can do the tests and issue certifications.

I'm attaching a 1 page discussion of this, with tacked on quotes from
the laws, that
seemed to get the message across to officials. The EAC recently issued
an advisory (also attached)
that specifically mentions sections of the FEC VVS guidelines that
specify the Federal 2002
requirements, making those sections no longer voluntary. Hava 301 also
specifically mentions
VVS section 3.2.1 on maximum error rates, which are fivefold stronger
than they were
in the 1990 standards.

Feel free to follow up on this anytime.....Rich

<<...>> <<...>>

Rich Janow, Ph. D.
514 North Wyoming Avenue
South Orange, N. J.
[e-mail]_ <mailto:[e-mail] >
[phone]



Thanks to helderheid here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x386649

[Algorem]

10. Blackwell's fund-raising efforts improve, but he still trails rivals

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050730/NEWS09/507300425

COLUMBUS - ...

A late entry into the serious money game, Ohio's second-term secretary of state raised $1.2 million through June 30, slightly ahead of the $1.1 million raised during the period by Mr. Petro and well ahead of the $672,381 raised by Ms. Montgomery...

After expenses, Mr. Blackwell's campaign had a balance of $1.1 million on hand. That compares to a whopping $3.1 million in reserve for Mr. Petro and $1.5 million for Ms. Montgomery.

"It's more of the same big money running government," said Pete Draganic, a suburban Cleveland general contractor trying to get his nose into the crowded GOP primary tent. He has just $620 in the bank while he campaigns at county fairs and visits newspapers across the state...

"The two Democrats in a state that hasn't had a Democratic governor in 16 years are getting overwhelming support from contributors," Coleman spokesman Dan Trevas said. "This clearly shows Democrats are competitive and are going to take control of this state."...