Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News March 14, 2006--TIA Post!!!

[autorank]

Bobby Thompson’s “shot heard round the world.” 1951 against
Brooklyn Dodgers. NY Giants go to World Series. Dogers go home.

TruthIsAll Thu May-26-05 12:19 AM
Original message
The Miracle of Coogan's Bluff (1951) vs the Miracle of Bush's Bluff (2004)

August 12, 1951:
Brooklyn Dodgers: 73-38
New York Giants: 59-51 (13.5 games behind)

The Giants won 37 of their last 44 games.
The Dodgers won 23 of their last 43 games.

They tied for the pennant at 96-58.

The Giants won the playoff when Bobby Thomson (the Flying Scot) hit the Shot Heard Round the World.

It was called the Miracle of Coogan's Bluff, named after the Harlem site on the hill where the Polo Grounds once stood.

The Giants Won the Pennant!
The Giants Won the Pennant!
The Giants Won the Pennant!

The probability of this miracle was 1 in 737,984.

Compare that to the 1 in 19 trillion chance that 16 states would exceed the margin of error - all in favor of Bush.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=372634

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

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News March 14, 2006

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

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

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.

Please

"Recommend"

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

[autorank]

1. BRADBLOG: Exclusive Whistle Blower – Hart, just 100,000 votes or so!!!

BRADBLOG: Exclusive Whistle Blower – Hart, just 100,000 votes or so!!!
Way to go Brad. Go to his site and check it our. Another blow for election integrity.


EXCLUSIVE: Hart InterCivic Whistleblower Warned of Texas, Ohio E-Voting 'Fraud' Concerns in 2004!

100,000+ Votes Were Errantly Added by Hart Machines in a Single County in Last Tuesday's Primary via Flawed, Paperless 'eSlate' Touch-Screen System!

Former Hart Employee, Tarrant County TX Election Worker Notified State, Legal Authorities in 2004 About Serious Voting Machine Problems, Procedures...All Warnings and Complaints Ignored
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002542.htm

Continuing in an exclusive BRAD BLOG series of Voting Machine Vendor and Election Fraud whistleblowers, another insider, from yet another voting machine company, has now come forward to reveal a myriad of known problems inside both the company and in several states and counties with whom they do business.

During last Tuesday's Primary Election in the state of Texas, scores of "computer glitches" -- as voting officials and electronic voting machine vendors like to refer to them -- were revealed occurred across the state. Many of those "glitches" occurred on electronic voting equipment manufactured and supplied to various counties in Texas by the Hart InterCivic company.

One such "glitch" occurred in Texas' Tarrant County, which encompasses Fort Worth. That "glitch" resulted in some 100,000 votes being added to the result totals across the county's paperless Hart-Intercivic "eSlate" touch-screen voting system.

Election Officials in Tarrant claim they didn't look into the problems on Election Night as the problem emerged because, as reported by the Star-Telegram last week, "they were dealing with a new system, new procedures and some new equipment."

[Wilms]

15. Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x416787

[autorank]

2. CA: A Star is Born -- Steve Heller, Actor Screws Diebold

Watch this case. Heller took information from Diebolds attornies showing that they LIED to the state of CA and committed fraud and gave them to voting rights activists. He’s being prosecuted but I’ll bet “jury nullification will work.” Steve Heller for leading man.



http://insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/ci_3597361
Article Last Updated: 3/13/2006 10:52 AM

Bit actor to be tried for theft

Arrest makes Heller a folk hero to voting reform activists in California
By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area


Steve Heller, Actor & Activist

One night early in 2004, a few weeks before the presidential primary, a Van Nuys actor making ends meet temping as a word processor listened on headphones as a young lawyer laid out a defense for Diebold Election Systems Inc.'s use of unapproved voting software in Alameda County.

Sitting at a computer terminal on the 45th floor of a Los Angeles skyscraper, Steve Heller transcribed the lawyer's taped memo suggesting that Diebold could claim the software was a new, "experimental" voting system, even though it had handled two Alameda County elections in 2003.

Heller led a quiet life in the San Fernando Valley with his wife, dog and an occasional supporting role in film, TV or commercials, usually cast as someone's neighbor or dad, which is what he looks like. He was an "experienced and competent" word processor but no "heavyweight" in the eyes of his night-shift supervisor, who doubted Heller knew his computer commands were recorded.

<snip>

The Oakland Tribune reported on the memos, and almost overnight they appeared on Web sites from Washington to California to New Zealand, then elsewhere. Two weeks later, Shelley withdrew his earlier approval of Diebold's flagship touchscreen voting system, calling the firm's behavior "fraudulent" and "despicable." It took more than two years and numerous improvements before Diebold again could sell its electronic-voting products in California.

[Wilms]

14. Whistling Diebold - What price will we exact from a hero of democracy?

Whistling Diebold

What price will we exact from a hero of democracy?

By ROBERT C. KOEHLER
Tribune Media Services

March 9, 2006

They ain't gonna kiss you just because you're a whistleblower. No matter that you exposed wrongdoing and struck a blow for fair elections. The larger good isn't always obvious to the powers that be.

So Steve Heller, a Los Angeles-based actor whose day job is doing temporary office work, faces three felony charges, all of which are a stretch: felony access to computer data, commercial burglary and receiving stolen property. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office says he's a thief, an Internet criminal, and that's that. And, oh yeah, he violated attorney-client confidentiality, and cost a big law firm a million dollars in lost business.

Serious stuff. And if the DA's office has its way, this is all the judge and jury will look at: the law in its narrowest sense, as though ethical issues aren't sometimes murky and enormously complicated.

Indeed, this is the story of a 44-year-old man who had a problem in practical ethics fall into his lap a little over two years ago, when he was temping in the word-processing center of Jones Day, a major Los Angeles law firm. Among the firm's clients was Diebold Election Systems, the largest manufacturer of electronic voting machines and voting machine software in the U.S. - and probably the most controversial.

snip

http://www.commonwonders.com/archives/col336.htm


ER Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x416810

GD:P Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2512304

[autorank]

3. AZ: The Sleeping Giant – the Hisipanic Vote

Pay attention. They probably padded a lot of precincts with the Hispanic vote in 2004. Bush supposedly did better than he did in 2000. That’s probably because he was so helpful to Hispanics form 2000-2005, not! This is the new battleground.

Group aims to boost Latino voting

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0313mivota0313.html

Matthew Benson and Yvonne Wingett
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 13, 2006 12:00 AM

Members of a group dedicated to finding and mobilizing Latino voters are setting up shop in Phoenix in preparation for Tuesday's election, but with their eyes on bigger prizes in November 2006 and 2008.

For Tuesday's election, they will be in the Valley to oversee election procedures under the new voter identification requirements of Proposition 200. By the end of April, the group, Mi Familia Vota, will launch a grass-roots effort in Arizona, seeing promise in the state's growing Hispanic population and weak political participation.

<snip>

Political experts agree that an awakening of the Latino-voter bloc would send ripples across Arizona's electoral landscape. No constituency is growing faster. And none shows greater potential for political change.

"In a state like Arizona, both parties will need to have successful efforts to court that community," said Doug Cole, a confidant to former Gov. Fife Symington, a Republican. "The demographics are changing in the Southwest."

[autorank]

4. MO: Columnist Calls it like it is! MO Voter ID – Anti Poor, Anti Minorit

Get the message Baker-Carter Commission. But as predicted by this unheard of commentator, the Baker-Carter Commission’s endorsement of a National Voter ID started a rush by states, GA and MO, for example, to get their own IDs. What the heck, it’s only going to screw 190,000 people in MO. Good work enemies of democracy everywhere.


Posted on Tue, Mar. 07, 2006
As I See It

Bills would hinder right to vote

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/opinion/14033645.htm

By Sharon Sanders Brooks
Special to The Star
Brooks

Disenfranchising voters is becoming common practice. It allegedly happened in Florida and St. Louis in the 2000 presidential election, and it purportedly happened in Ohio during the 2004 presidential election.

Now the Missouri Senate is proposing the disenfranchisement of between 170,000 to 190,000 of voting-age people in the state under the guise of preventing voter fraud. Senate Bills 1014 and 730, introduced by Sens. Delbert Scott and Jason Crowell, are the so-called “Missouri Voter Protection Act.”

How can a body that was elected by the people conceive and carry out such a plan? Easy. Just enact bills that require all voters to show government-issued photo identification at the polls before they can cast ballots.

<snip>

Many minorities, the poor, the disabled, the elderly and people who live in rural areas would be affected. Twenty percent of Missouri seniors do not have a state-issued photo identification.

[autorank]

5. FL: Gore Goes After Bush in FLORIDA. How Good is That

And he’s kicking ass. Al Gore is my President and always will be!

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/florida/news-article.aspx?storyid=53635
Firstcoastnews.com Article
Former Vice President Gore Criticizes President Bush While Stumping in Florida


Al Gore

WEST PALM BEACH, FL (AP) -- Former Vice President Al Gore returned today to the state that effectively ended his presidential aspirations. While in Florida he criticized the Bush Administration's actions in Iraq as deceptive and called the White House's response to Hurricane Katrina irresponsible.

Gore stumped over the weekend in three Florida cities for Democratic incumbent Senator Bill Nelson, who is challenged by U-S Representative Katherine Harris. Harris is the former Florida secretary of state who oversaw the 2000 presidential election recount.

Introduced as the man who had the presidency stolen in 2000, Gore avoided talk of the now infamous recount that handed President Bush the election with a mere 537 votes in Florida.

He joked "I'm Al Gore. I'm a recovering politician."

[autorank]

6. Ukraine: It’s not easy having a democracy

…but they’re trying very hard. Good luck, we’ve lost ours.

from the March 14, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0314/p04s01-woeu.html

Keeping democracy alive in Ukraine
Interview: A key figure in the 2004 revolution, Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko is cleaning up the police force.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0314/p04s01-woeu.html
By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON - He was one of the leaders of Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, and - by his own account - the first to "pitch a tent" in Kiev's central square in 2000 in opposition to the Soviet-era government.

But now as a system insider, Ukraine Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko is discovering firsthand the hard work of building a new democracy. In Washington recently to advance US-Ukraine cooperation on justice and international crime, the youthful Mr. Lutsenko says he's learned that creating a clean and fair national police force is one of the most important determinants in a young democracy's success.

And stepping back to view the press for glasnost in the Middle East, the appointee of Ukraine President Viktor Yuschenko has some sobering words for the Bush administration's democratization enthusiasts.

"I would not like to be the adviser to the US foreign policy on the Middle East," he says, "for one thing because I have enough to be preoccupied with in Ukraine." But he says any country must have the "spark" inside if freedom's fire is to catch and not burn out.

[autorank]

7. NY: Election Integrity Activist Rockefeller Opposes DOJ!!!

From the people who brought you paper ballots in NM, VOTERACTION.ORG

Update from New York

Voters, Groups Oppose DOJ Lawsuit that Would Cause Electoral Chaos
http://voteraction.org/

A coalition of New York voters and civic groups, including New Yorkers for Verified Voting and the League of Women Voters of New York, announced today that they are intervening to oppose a lawsuit filed by the United States Department of Justice against New York State. Led by Larry Rockefeller, a longtime voting activist, the coalition has filed a Motion to Intervene asserting that the relief sought by the Department of Justice-rushing out new electronic voting machines for the September 2006 primaries-will inevitably cause mass chaos on election day and will deny the right of citizens to have their votes counted.

Mr. Rockefeller said, "The Department of Justice's rush to force the State to certify and buy computerized voting machines in time for the September primaries is a perfect storm for voting disaster. These machines have failed all over the country in other jurisdictions and, under this time pressure, will definitely fail New Yorkers. To privatize our elections using insecure technology risks inside fraud that can tilt election outcomes without a trace."

"New York State voters are the ones who lose if the Department of Justice forces electronic chaos on us," said Bo Lipari, Executive Director of New Yorkers for Verified Voting. "We cannot ignore the warnings of technical experts about the need for comprehensive analysis and testing of voting systems prior to their use in an election. We cannot ignore the warnings of election officials who call for adequate time to evaluate, purchase, and deploy a new voting system. And we cannot ignore the recurring problems with computerized voting which calls into question their ability to accurately count our votes."

[Wilms]

13. Paper ballots were found in studies to be the most reliable voting system

Paper ballots were found in studies to be the most reliable voting system

Monday, March 13, 2006

by WAYNE STINSON
Member, Peacemakers for Schoharie County Summ HY
Member, New York State League of Women Voters

The GAO reported federal standards contain vague and incomplete security provisions. National improvement initiatives "either lack specific plans for implementation" or "are not expected to be completed until after the 2006 election."

This risks "that many state and local jurisdictions will rely on voting systems that were not developed, acquired, tested, operated, or managed in accordance with rigorous security and reliability standards -- potentially affecting the reliability of future elections."

Perhaps it is time for New York state to bring a counter suit against the federal government for not putting in place, in a timely manner, federal standards and procedures that would offer secure, accurate, recountable and accessible voting systems from which to choose.

Paper ballots were found in studies to be the most reliable voting system. Let's vote on paper ballots, which, together with a device for handicapped voters, is HAVA compliant.

snip

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=459639&category=OPINION&newsdate=3/13/2006


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x416800

[babylonsister]

8. Awww, you are a good friend, autorank, great post, and

TruthIsAll is a legend!

[autorank]

11. Thank you and you're right. Watch DU at 11:00 a.m. EST Tuesday 3/14/06

Something special for everybody.

[Peace Patriot]

16. I'll be there!

What's up, autorank? Can't you give us a little tiny hint?

:bounce: :hide: :bounce:

[babylonsister]

9. Oops- props! nt

[AmBlue]

10. FL: Election Integrity group asks State to examine failed election

FROM: Voting Integrity Alliance of Tampa Bay

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : March 13, 2006

The Voting Integrity Alliance of Tampa Bay ("VIA Tampa Bay") has
requested the Florida Secretary of State investigate the failures of
Pinellas County's Sequoia election system during the elections of
March 7, 2006 and the Logic & Accuracy ("L&A") Tests of February 22-
23, 2006.

Additionally, VIA Tampa Bay has submitted a Public Records Request to
Deborah Clark, Supervisor of Elections of Pinellas County, to produce
all documentation in connection with the elections and L&A test. It
is critical the Supervisor of Elections produce all documentation
promptly as Florida election law provides only ten (10) days after
certification for the contest of an election. The election was
certified on March 11, 2006.

VIA Tampa Bay is a non-partisan organization dedicated to ensuring
that every citizen's vote is counted in a manner that is fair,
secure, accurate, transparent, verifiable, and instills complete
confidence in voters that their voice has been heard and their votes
have been counted. VIA Tampa Bay is also affiliated with VoteTrust
USA, a non-partisan, national coalition of election integrity experts
all across the country. You can visit their website at
www.votetrustusa.org.

[Wilms]

12. Electronic Voting Machines: Programmed for Failure?

Electronic Voting Machines: Programmed for Failure?

By Joan Krawitz, Executive Director, VoteTrustUSA

March 13, 2006

Howard Stanislevic's full report, “DRE Reliability: Failure by Design?” can be downloaded here.
http://www.votetrustusa.org/pdfs/DRE_Reliability.pdf

A second report "Voting Systems Batch Test Results – Reliability," by Stanislevic and John Gideon can be downloaded here.
http://www.votetrustusa.org/pdfs/BatchTestReliability.pdf


snip

Current federal standards allow almost 10% of electronic voting machines to fail every Election Day, according to “DRE Reliability: Failure by Design?” a new report issued by the VoteTrustUSA E-Voter Education Project. The report notes that the acceptable failure rate is even higher – approaching 25% -- in a 5-day early voting period.

The report was authored by Howard Stanislevic, a network engineering consultant whose experience includes working with the Internet Engineering Task Force on Internet Protocol Performance Metrics. Stanislevic points out that the failure rate allowed for touchscreen voting machines (also known as Direct Recording Electronic or DRE) exceeds the actual failure rate of the 40-year-old lever machines still in use in New York by 44%. The Department of Justice has filed suit against New York State for failure to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA). HAVA provides funding for states to replace lever and punch-card voting machines with more modern and accessible equipment in time for the first federal election of 2006.

A second paper, "Voting Systems Batch Test Results – Reliability," by Stanislevic and John Gideon of VoteTrustUSA and VotersUnite.org, examines the results from the recently completed "batch testing" of voting systems manufactured by Diebold, Hart Intercivic, and Sequoia Voting Systems, and puts the information from those tests, provided by the California Secretary of State’s office, into the context of the inadequate reliability standards.

The VoteTrustUSA E-Voter Education Project analysis found that federal guidelines would have allowed an Election Day machine failure or replacement every 37 seconds in Maryland, every 23 seconds in Georiga, and every 78-79 seconds in North Carolina and New Jersey.

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1041&Itemid=26

Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x416789

[skids]

17. Du thread -- election judge training -- just a tech seminar

This was posted over in GDP and I thought it deserved a link in ER

My daughter signed up to be an election judge

she had to go to a 2 hour meeting (i thought they would be talking about election laws, electioneering, what to do or who to call if someone's name isn't on the roll, etc. but i was wrong)

instead it was a two hour meeting all about how to set up, turn on and run the single diebold machine each precinct is supposed to have.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2512687

[Wilms]

18. TX: UnReliability of ES&S Tabulator Leads to ReCount and BoE Babbling

The good news is that it was a "required manual count of three precincts randomly selected by the Secretary of State's office" that identified the problem.

One question is could the random audit have missed it.

Jefferson County Recounts Votes; Same Winners, Different Numbers

( Air Date: 3/13/2006 )

snip

According to Jefferson County Clerk Carolyn Guidry, about 5,000 votes were counted twice. Guidry believes that on March 7th, the on-site technical supervisor provided by ES&S, the company that manufactures the new electronic voting machines, did not know how to handle a problem that arose with one of the counting machines.

“This was not a malfunction of the equipment,” said Guidry. “This was a human error, and the support that we requested and that we paid for ES&S was just not delivered by that company.”

snip

http://216.87.159.39/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=10761

OK. So the "problem" with the equipment was not an equipment "malfunction". It really was that the Privatized Election Clerk, er, I mean ES&S technician, "did not know how to handle" the problem.


Let's see what we have next.

Jefferson County election recount

By: BETH GALLASPY, The Enterprise

03/13/2006

snip

County Clerk Carolyn Guidry said election officials noticed a discrepancy Friday during a required manual count of three precincts randomly selected by the Secretary of State's office. The number of votes counted exceeded the number of votes cast, Guidry said.

snip

Guidry said she believes the problem occurred when the machine used to count votes cast on touch-screen machines shut down on election workers on election night after 60 percent of votes had been counted.

The votes were cleared using procedures prescribed by the machines' maker, ES&S, and the count started again. However, Guidry believes the machine retained the votes counted before the machine froze and added them to the final tally.

snip

http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16296181&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6

I'm not an Election Clerk (elected, appointed, or privatized), but it sure sounds like an equipment Reliability problem to me.

This article takes a closer look at the numbers.

http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16298265&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6

I wonder how many jurisdictions do audits. :shrug:


Guv, I have No Confidence in these elections.

http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2005/06/guide-to-voter-confidence-resolution.html


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x416851

[Joe Chi Minh]

19. "Guv, I have No Confidence in these elections." ......

What elections? A charade is only a simulacrum.

[Peace Patriot]

20. For what TRANSPARENT elections are accomplishing in Latin America, see

my post # 15 at

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x416746

Democracy CAN be restored!!!

:applause: Hugo! :applause: Evo! :applause: Michele! :applause: Lulu! :applause: Ollanto! :applause: Almo! :applause:

Hard work! Never give up! Never!

[Algorem]

21. Blackwell bars reporters

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/

Ken Blackwell’s appearance before an influential group of Cleveland’s religious leaders drew plenty of attention from television and newspaper reporters, who were interested in hearing the conservative black Republican answer questions from the traditionally Democratic-leaning group.

The problem: Blackwell didn’t want reporters to hear the exchange. He offered interviews after the event but refused to let them attend the session with the United Pastors in Mission...


Blackwell speaks


Gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell said he had a “frank and transparent discussion” today with members of the United Pastors in Mission, whose members peppered him with questions during a 90-minute luncheon at Cleveland's Antioch Baptist Church. The event was not open to reporters.

Blackwell, secretary of state and a black Republican, faced some obvious ones: Why blacks faced long lines in some parts of the state during the 2004 presidential election and how he could be a non-partisan election official while serving as honorary state co-chair for President Bush’s re-election campaign...

[Algorem]

22. Blackwell to settle class-action suit over Social Security numbers on Web

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1142328804178790.xml&coll=2

Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Andrew Welsh-Huggins
Associated Press

Columbus -- Secretary of State Ken Blackwell agreed Monday to remove Social Security numbers from financial documents posted on his agency's Web site and to take steps to prevent the numbers from being posted there in the future.

Blackwell also agreed in a hearing before U.S. District Judge Michael Watson in Cincinnati to remove the numbers from any documents posted in the future.

Blackwell's office also is creating an online sign-in system requiring a password to search the financial files, said Frederick Erny, a private attorney representing Blackwell in the case.

The settlement resolves a class-action lawsuit filed Thursday by a southwest Ohio truck driver whose Social Security number appeared on Blackwell's Web site without his knowledge...