Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News THURSDAY, 9/15/05

[autorank]

"The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy" – 1984. The brilliant Edwards defeated Republican candidate and Ku Klus Klan leader David Duke, but not by much and was chastened as he made his victory speech warning against a rising tide of racism in American politics.

NEW ORLEANS…Simply the Best

Never forget the pursuit of Truth.
Only the deluded & complicit accept election results on blind faith.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News THURSDAY, 9/15/05

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.

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[autorank]

1. WA: Republicans in Shnomish Co. Form “Election Machine Cult”

When I took Anthropology in college, I learned one thing – “cargo cults.” These were groups of indigenous people who had been air-dropped supplies during WWII in the South Pacific. The drops had Allied flags on them and when our guys were in the woods, they would receive help from those who had received the air drops. At the end of the war, the indigenous folks still needed food. They took to building elaborate stick models of cargo planes in hopes that this would attract the planes and the food dropped…hence the term “cargo cults. Now the Republicans in Shnomish County WA (home of DU’s Land Shark) have an “election machine cult.” They’re trying to buy election machines even though the county is almost tall vote by mail (much easier, hence more democratic). I guess they believe that if they buy the machines and put them out, voters will come. We’re up against a tough opponent here.

Council may ignore paper-backup law for elections

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/snohomishcountynews/2002492779_elections14n.html

By Christopher Schwarzen
Times Snohomish County Bureau
September 14, 2005

Despite a Jan. 1 compliance deadline, the Snohomish County Council may wait until after that date to spend about $1 million for backup election equipment.

For weeks, the council has debated whether to purchase a system that creates a paper trail of votes cast on electronic voting machines. The paper backup will be required by state law, effective Jan. 1, after last year's gubernatorial-election debacle.

But with 30 of the state's 39 counties having approved all-mail voting systems, there's a chance the state Legislature will revive one of two bills that would convert the entire state to all-mail balloting.

There's no enforcement provision in the law requiring the backup equipment, and noncompliance could be worth $1 million that would stay in the bank for the county.

<snip>

King, Pierce and Snohomish counties — with 60 percent of the state's registered voters — have resisted all-mail voting. . But Terwilliger said Snohomish County could be ready to convert tomorrow, as could Pierce County, where 80 percent of voters already use mail-in ballots.

Terwilliger has urged the council to join the all-mail ranks, which could increase to 32 counties before year's end. Spokane and Chelan counties are scheduled to vote on the matter.

<snip>

Koster, however, is opposed to all-mail balloting, even though it would save the county thousands of dollars annually. An envelope containing a mail-in ballot must be signed, and Koster said there would be too much opportunity for signature fraud. He also doesn't want to take away a voter's privacy rights at the polls.

His view is supported by Councilmen Gary Nelson and Jeff Sax, who round out the board's Republican majority.

Democratic Councilman Dave Gossett said he firmly supports an all-mail system. He has questioned the expenditure on equipment that Terwilliger has said will be outdated in three years. Equipment upkeep is slated at $600,000 annually.

<snip>


CLICK HERE to get quick access to Election Results and Discussion Forum on your “Latest” page.

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2. NJ: State Republicans Claim Major “Vote Fraud” –“I see dead people-voting

This story bears watching. When you see the term “voter fraud” that means fraud by voters themselves. That’s the Republican emphasis in this area -- all those phony Democratic voters. The faux vote fraud group of Republicans found 12 whole “vote frauds” in Milwaukee. They directed a news crew to the home of an alleged culprit who turned out to be a seminarian, not the bogus voter. Now they’ve upped the ante and accused. We will watch this and see if this story has legs. If so, then a crime has been committed. If not, the Republicans are reaching a new low.

CBS Channel 2, NYC

Voter Fraud May Be Uncovered In New Jersey

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_257180933.html

September 14, 2005
CBS) NEW YORK CBS 2 has obtained a draft of a letter that the New Jersey Republican State Committee will deliver Thursday to state Attorney General Peter Harvey asking him to investigate election irregularities, including voter fraud.

The letter lays out the results of what the committee calls an investigation that revealed, among other problems:
1. Nearly 17,000 registered voters are "officially" deceased
2. Nearly 5,000 of them voted in the last Garden State election.

Further, the committee claims that 170,000 people are registered to vote in New Jersey and at least one other state and that more than 6,500 of them voted in both states in the last election.


CLICK HERE to get quick access to Election Results and Discussion Forum on your “Latest” page.

[autorank]

3. AMERICAN COUP II—Great Election Fraud Resource from "Scoop"

This is one of the key resources, required reading if you’re inclined, for the American voting rights and election fraud movement. “Scoop” has covered the story from Day 1. This collection “American Coup II” covers the many facets of election fraud and provides a great resource and historical guide to the events that drive our elections.

AMERICAN COUP II - 1999-2005

http://www.scoop.co.nz/features/usacoup.html



Ohio, The Election, And America's Servile Press - While commentators, prompted by Republicans, claimed Bush won the 2004 election through the votes of a silent majority concerned with “family values,” Mark Crispin Miller writes that when voters were asked to state, “in their own words the most important factor in their vote,”only 14 percent named “moral values.” He details how the press (except for Keith Olbermann on MSNBC) ignored “the strange details of the election—except, that is, to ridicule all efforts to discuss them…It was as if they were reporting from inside a forest fire without acknowledging the fire, except to keep insisting that there was no fire.” See... Mark Crispin Miller: None Dare Call It Stolen. See also… LINK: Harper's Magazine Forum – What Went Wrong In Ohio



Diebold Document Deluge - JULY 20, 2005: One late night in Texas, 51-year-old Kathleen Wynne did something she never thought she would consider: She jumped into a dumpster. An ordinary citizen who had become concerned about the integrity of Diebold voting machines, Wynne was amazed to find hundreds of pages of documents in the trash. Among them: internal notes and memos, planning information, problems with equipment and customers, price bid worksheets, staff bonuses, and financial statements from Diebold Election Systems. It was early July, just after second quarter financials, and the Diebold elections division seemed to be cleaning house. See…New Diebold Docs. Have A “Stink” To Them
MORE:
• Votersunite.org - VotersUnite: A New EAC Advisory And What It Means
"Shocking" Election Practices Revealed in Georgia



An In-Depth Statistical Analysis Of Vote Fraud 2004 - According to the vote tabulators, in the 2004 presidential election George W. Bush won a stunning victory that defied all odds, particularly those applied by unbiased statisticians. He won despite trailing in most state and national polls. See...
The Unanswered Question: Who Really Won In 2004?
MORE:
• J. Conyers' What Went Wrong In Ohio – A Summary
•


William Rivers Pitt Farewells Vote Fraud Actuivist Andy Stephenson - It was late July 2004, and it was a hot day for Seattle. The park was filled with activists, organizers and regular folks, there to hear a battery of speakers who had come together for this stop on the Rolling Thunder Democracy Tour. See... William Rivers Pitt: The Best Of Us
MORE:
• Tom Flocco - Andy Stephenson (1963-2005) - In Memoriam

Two Major Reports Into Diebold Voting Systems Released - Incorporated into the foundation of the Diebold Precinct-Based Optical Scan 1.94w system is the mother of security holes, and no apparent cure will produce infertility, or system safety. See... Critical Security Issues In Diebold Optical Scan
MORE:
• UScountvotes.org - Working Paper On Deibold E-Voting Machines
• Blackboxvoting.org - Black Box Voting Update: (July 5, 2005)

CLICK HERE to get quick access to Election Results and Discussion Forum on your “Latest” page.

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4. LA & the South: Katrina a Threat to Black Voting Power in South

Read it and weep. The whole article is included. It’s a reprint on this news aggregator anyway. This is very tricky. See how it plays out. One assumption embedded in this article is that there will be no price to pay for Republicans among white Southerners for *’s stupidity. That remains to be seen but this article is well worth reading. The story will be followed and the racial motives of the Federal government and Congress need to be examined.

Will Katrina Wallop Black Voting Power?

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=04d78f52b76e0474b40d88e4e8347322

Pacific News Service, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Sep 14, 2005

Editor's Note: The hurricane, by scattering black voters over several states, may have given the GOP a gift.

LOS ANGELES--President Bush, Karl Rove and top GOP strategists would never publicly gloat over Katrina's unintended political consequences. But there was a big and potentially lethal one for black voters and the Democratic Party.

Nature's catastrophe scattered thousands of poor, black Democratic voters throughout more than 30 states, from New Hampshire to California. That could dilute black voting power and Democratic strength in Louisiana and the South. Black voters make up one-third of the state's voters, and nearly one-half of New Orleans voters. They gave Clinton more than 90 percent of their vote in 1992 and 1996. That propelled him to victory over Bush Sr. and Robert Dole, and helped break the GOP stranglehold on state offices.

It also momentarily dented the GOP's Southern strategy. The strategy entailed saying and doing as little as possible about civil rights, actively courting conservative whites and subtly pandering to the bigotry of Dixiecrats-turned-Republicans. Presidents Nixon, Reagan and Bush Sr. (in his 1988 win) banked on that to grab the White House. Transforming Louisiana, with its nine electoral votes, into a crucial swing state forced the GOP to pour resources, time and energy into the state to win it.

Though George W. Bush decisively beat Democratic presidential contenders Al Gore and John Kerry in 2000 and 2004, the top-heavy black vote for them enabled Democrats to bag many top state and local offices -- but just narrowly. A shift of a few thousand votes could tip those offices back to Republicans. The loss of thousands of black votes could also crack the 30 years of unbroken black and Democratic dominance of City Hall in New Orleans. The streets were barely dry in New Orleans blackest and poorest wards when there was talk that a white Republican may challenge black Congressional Democrat William Jefferson. If the majority of black voters in Jefferson's district don't return, and the likelihood is that many won't, that could make the GOP dream of seizing the Democratic Congressional seat a reality.

Black voter dispersal could also spell trouble for New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. He grabbed a majority of the white votes in his surprise victory in 2002. That could easily change in 2006. He's up for re-election, and a white candidate who plays hard on the widespread perception that Nagin, as Bush, also bungled the city's relief efforts could rally white voters.

The future of black voting strength in Louisiana depends on who comes back to the city and state, and when. Many of the mostly white, upscale parts of New Orleans received relatively minor storm damage. The voters in these areas will stay, and those whose homes were damaged have the resources to rebuild them. Many of them are Republican. Thousands of poor blacks don't have the resources to rebuild.

Even if many blacks choose to live permanently in the states they relocated to, that could dilute their vote, and further marginalize their political power. To prevent that, the NAACP and other voter groups have called on Congress to pass emergency legislation to extend special protections of the Voting Rights Act, which will expire in 2007, to displaced Louisiana voters. The aim is to insure that they can vote without restrictions in the places where they relocated.

There's little chance that GOP Congressional leaders will do that. They insist that there are enough protections to prevent state officials from tampering with voting laws and procedures. The act currently requires that the Justice Department or federal courts approve any changes in vote procedures that involve redistricting, district annexation, registration requirements, holding at-large elections and methods to qualify candidates to safeguard against discrimination.

But this hasn't stopped states from making changes in voting procedures that hurt minority voters. That includes changing or consolidating polling place locations, tightening voter identification procedures and adding new and tougher requirements on the timing for filing absentee ballots. State officials claim that the changes were made to prevent fraud or streamline the voting process. There's no evidence that the changes were deliberately made to thin the ranks of minority voters. Still, if minority voters don't have proper identification, have not been informed of polling changes or locations or don't have transportation to get to them, they could be shut out of the voting booth. The identification documents of thousands of blacks displaced by Katrina were destroyed or lost in flight.

Even with no polling restrictions or roadblocks, the voting power of the evacuees could still be crippled. Black political strength lay in blacks' numbers and concentration in key states such as Louisiana. Dispersal reduces them to a blip on the political radar in the far-flung states they've ended up in. That further waters down their voting strength, and potential political clout. Katrina destroyed the fortunes of thousands of New Orleans blacks, while potentially boosting the political fortunes of the GOP. That certainly hasn't escaped Bush and Rove.

PNS contributor Earl Ofari Hutchinson is political analyst is the author of "The Crisis in Black and Black" (Middle Passage Press).




CLICK HERE to get quick access to Election Results and Discussion Forum on your “Latest” page.

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5. Venezuela: US “Foundation” Continues to Fund Chavez Opponents.

Now we have international politics and elections. Seems a US group, the “National Endowment for Democracy” funded the Sumate group which backed anti-Chavez activities. Who is the NED? It’s a group of Council of Foreign Affairs types, with Vin Weber (R, MN, Ret.) as the Chairman of the Board of Directors He knows how to screw up an election! He headed a software development firm that wrote the code for the famous Jeb Bush 2000 "felon" purge that disenfranchised up to 90,000 black Floridians who were legitimately registered to vote; but denied the vote in 2000. Interestingly, it has some Democrats on the board too. Why does US foreign policy for Venezuela include support from a Non Government Organization (NGO) filled with people, almost exclusively from the moderate to solid right wing?

Chavez foes to get more U.S. funding

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/09/14/venezuela.opposition.ap/

September 14, 2005
CARACAS, Venezuela(Reuters) -- Opponents of President Hugo Chavez, facing trial for receiving money from a U.S.-financed organization, have gotten the group's approval for additional funding, representatives said Wednesday.

A Venezuelan judge last month ordered four members of the Sumate civil association, which backed the 2004 referendum against Chavez, tried for conspiracy after they received a grant last year from theNational Endowment for Democracy.

The NED is a nongovernmental organization funded by the U.S. Congress to promote democracy internationally.

New Sumate financing could fuel already tense relations between Washington and Chavez, an ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro who often clashes with U.S. officials over his self-proclaimed socialist revolution in the oil-rich country.

Chavez brands Sumate traitors, while opposition leaders and some U.S. officials say the group has been targeted in a political witch hunt against critics of the former army soldier turned president.

<snip>

The grant, which will help to "strengthen the democratic process in Venezuela" is approved but in the final stages of being signed, NED spokeswoman Jane Riley Jacobsen said.

Earlier this year, a Sumate leader, Maria Corina Machado, held talks with U.S. President George W. Bush in the White House. The Venezuelan government slammed the meeting as a provocation.

<snip>

Chavez, an ex-army paratrooper elected in 1998 vowing to combat poverty, often accuses Washington of trying to topple him and backing a failed 2002 coup. He won the August 2004 referendum, although opponents complained about fraud, a charge international observers did not support.

U.S. officials reject Chavez's plot charges, but they portray him as an authoritarian who undermines democracy at home and destabilizes the region by promoting "new socialist" ideas.

The Honorable Vin Weber
(Chairman)
Clark & Weinstock
NED Board Chairman


CLICK HERE to get quick access to Election Results and Discussion Forum on your “Latest” page.

[paineinthearse]

6. Ma: GOP vice-chair resigns, caught laundering drug money

"The vice chairman of the state Republican Party resigned after a federal sting led to money-laundering charges accusing him of offering to ``cleanse'' drug proceeds for a legal client...."

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=158x6435

[GuvWurld]

7. Kicking it to the Greatest Page >> Good show, autorank

[Usrename]

8. Kickin it up.

:grr:

[freedomfries]

9. KICK & RECOMMENDED

Thanks for all the superb resources!

[bleever]

10. Recommended and kicked. What a great job you're doing, autorank.

:yourock:

[autorank]

16. Gracias Senor!

[Wilms]

11. BradBlog: EXCLUSIVE! * A DIEBOLD INSIDER SPEAKS!

EXCLUSIVE! * A DIEBOLD INSIDER SPEAKS!

DIEB-THROAT : 'Diebold System One of Greatest Threats Democracy Has Ever Known'

Identifies U.S. Homeland Security 'Cyber Alert' Prior to '04 Election Warning Votes Can be 'Modified Remotely' via 'Undocumented Backdoor' in Central Tabulator Software!


In exclusive stunning admissions to The BRAD BLOG some 11 months after the 2004 Presidential Election, a "Diebold Insider" is now finally speaking out for the first time about the...

In exclusive stunning admissions to The BRAD BLOG some 11 months after the 2004 Presidential Election, a "Diebold Insider" is now finally speaking out for the first time about the alarming security flaws within Diebold, Inc's electronic voting systems, software and machinery. The source is acknowledging that the company's "upper management" -- as well as "top government officials" -- were keenly aware of the "undocumented backdoor" in Diebold's main "GEM Central Tabulator" software well prior to the 2004 election. A branch of the Federal Government even posted a security warning on the Internet.

Pointing to a little-noticed "Cyber Security Alert" issued by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the source inside Diebold -- who "for the time being" is requesting anonymity due to a continuing sensitive relationship with the company -- is charging that Diebold's technicians, including at least one of its lead programmers, knew about the security flaw and that the company instructed them to keep quiet about it.

"Diebold threatened violators with immediate dismissal," the insider, who we'll call DIEB-THROAT, explained recently to The BRAD BLOG via email. "In 2005, after one newly hired member of Diebold's technical staff pointed out the security flaw, he was criticized and isolated."

In phone interviews, DIEB-THROAT confirmed that the matters were well known within the company, but that a "culture of fear" had been developed to assure that employees, including technicians, vendors and programmers kept those issues to themselves.

-snip/more-

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001838.htm

Thanks to all for the discussions:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x393599

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4782326&mesg_id=4782326

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4782407&mesg_id=4782407

[Wilms]

12. Salt Lake City Weekly Editorial : What Geeks Do

Salt Lake City Weekly

Voices - September 15, 2005

What Geeks Do

by Brandon Burt

The trouble is, humans are fallible. As much as we hate to admit it, we make mistakes—sometimes with major consequences.

Computers are designed to help us accomplish our tasks with less effort, so it’s not surprising that they also help us make very bad mistakes—with great efficiency. At the touch of a button, you can wipe out a company’s financial records or inadvertently send a “private” love letter to everybody in your office.

Ask a normal, non-geeky person how a computer works and she’ll chirp, “It’s easy! You just click here and type in your account number.” Ask a geek, though, and you’re likely to get long, drawn-out explanations involving arcane terms like “latency” and “gigahertz.” Be careful, though—once he discovers you don’t know the difference between RAM and a hard drive, his eyes will roll right out of his head.

-snip-

Small malfeasances like these are harmless and help a geek blow off steam. But what happens when a geek becomes so internally tortured, so twisted and emotionally crippled, he forms a vendetta not just against ex-jocks, but against humanity itself? What does a geek do when he forms a “Professor Chaos” persona and vows to destroy everything America stands for?

He could go to work for Diebold.

-snip/more-

http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2005/voices_2005-09-15.cfm

[Wilms]

13. FL: (Diebold) Touchscreen voting machines raise concerns in area

Touchscreen voting machines raise concerns in area

By CINDY SWIRKO

Sun staff writer

September 14. 2005 6:01AM

The purchase of controversial touchscreen voting machines that do not produce a paper record is raising concerns among residents and Alachua County commissioners, who said they were not fully informed about the machines when they approved the purchase.

Diebold TSX machines, which have been banned in California and elsewhere, have been bought by Alachua County Elections Supervisor Pam Carpenter to comply with laws to aid disabled voters.

The vast majority of voters will continue to use the current paper ballot system.

Among the critics of the paperless machines who spoke at Tuesday's commission meeting was Vincent Lipsio, an engineer who has served on various national panels regarding voting machines.

-snip/more-

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050914/LOCAL/209140314/1078/news

[Wilms]

14. Unequal distribution of campaign resources depending where you live

more...

http://www.fairvote.org/?page=970

Thanks to amjfv for the discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2092301

[Algorem]

15. "patriot pastors" and Blackwell vs. Reform Ohio Now "hateful leftists"

http://www.freetimes.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2618&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

I'M TELLIN'! … Sometimes the Religious Right is like a younger sibling who smacks you when Mom isn't looking, then howls when you retaliate.

The Ohio Restoration Project was launched earlier this year to impose values, cut taxes and get Secretary of State Ken Blackwell elected governor. More recently, halting election reform has been added to the agenda. In August, ORP leader Rev. Russell Johnson called on his “patriot pastors” to organize voters against four amendments proposed by Reform Ohio Now, a nonpartisan group backed by Democrats and labor interests.

RON fought back. In a Web site post titled “Stop religious extremists' attack on election reform in Ohio!,” RON called ORP a “radical right-wing Christian group” fighting efforts to change how districts are drawn, reform campaign financing and create a statewide, non-partisan board to oversee elections.

After RON won a months-long battle to put these constitutional amendments on the November ballot, Blackwell called the movement's supporters “hateful leftists.” And now Blackwell wants everyone to write letters to newspapers and demand that RON apologize for its “anti-Christian” talk.

[Wilms]

17. .