Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Wednesday Arpil 5, 2006

[stillcool]

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.
If you can:
1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407240

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.

http://homepage.mac.com/rcareaga/diebold/adworks.htm

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

[kpete]

1. Will Diebold misstep hurt Blackwell? Experts unsure

Will Diebold misstep hurt Blackwell? Experts unsure
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Mark Niquette and Joe Hallett
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell hit a pothole of his own making this week in the Republican race for governor, but experts say it remains to be seen whether his campaign has been slowed.

As officials consider the possible legal ramifications of Blackwell’s revelation that he held stock in voting-machine vendor Diebold, political observers said the controversy might turn some undecided voters against the frontrunner for the May 2 nomination against Attorney General Jim Petro.

Gene Beaupre, a political scientist at Xavier University in Cincinnati, said he does not think the news will affect the hard-right conservatives who comprise Blackwell’s GOP base, "but if the primary election is close it could be a factor."

"It can’t help him; it can hurt him," Beaupre said. "I think he’s handled it well so far and come clean and said what the story is and tried to move on from it, but certainly his opponents won’t let that happen."

http://www.dispatch.com/columnists/columnists.php?story=dispatch/2006/04/05/20060405-A1-05.html

[kpete]

2. High Crimes in Emery County

High Crimes in Emery County
In a complete violation of the State and US Constitution, Emery County Clerk Bruce Funk has been locked out of his office.

In every county in the US, the people elect their county clerks. There is no precedent for the hostile obstruction of an elected official from performing his duties. It is illegal; plain and simple. Who made the decision, and under what authority can anyone physically prevent Bruce Funk entering his office? No crime has been committed.
This is an utter outrage, and it’s time for the attorney general to take action, as I know he will. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has consistently proven to be a man of integrity, and a defender of the rule of law.

Emery County Commissioner Ira Hatch appears to have bent to the will of Diebold executives and should understand that it is he, not Diebold who may be acting illegally.
Since the media has decided this gross violation of law and due process in not worthy of thorough reporting, we must look to other sources.

Please check back tomorrow for more details.


http://oneutah.org/2006/04/04/high-crimes-in-emery-county/

[JimDandy]

21. Diebold and Utah officials ganging-up on Clerk -- shades of Florida

Emery County election woes

By PATSY STODDARD
Editor

With or without Emery County Clerk Bruce Funk the elections must go on.

A special meeting for the Emery County Commissioners was held on March 27 at 1 p.m. to discuss just how the election process would continue. Representatives from Diebold Election Systems and the Lt. Governor’s office were on hand to answer any questions the county commissioners had.

The majority of the meeting was the closed door executive session with input from those involved. Before the meeting was closed, Clerk Funk said he would like to know what was being said as it involves him. He questioned as to whether as an elected official he was entitled to any council. County Attorney David Blackwell said he didn’t know if that was needed and those involved would be invited to speak in the closed session. The meeting is to see what course of action is to take place with the election process. Commissioner Ira Hatch said the meeting is to determine where the county stands now with Diebold and the State in light of the recent testing Funk authorized with the Black Box Voting organization. When the meeting came back into the open public session, Drew Kahl, technician for Diebold answered Funk’s questions concerning the machines. Funk had questions for the areas of concern he has with the machines these questions included: why low memory? why some with black screens? had any nonnative software been installed on the machines? are they new machines? why the differences in backup memory? what security measures do the machines have?

Diebold answered the questions to the commissioners satisfaction. Michael C. Cragun from the Lt. Governor’s Office said all of these questions with the machines could have been answered with a phone call to Diebold or to the Lt. Governor’s office. He is very agitated that the integrity of the Emery County election machines has been compromised by the choice of Funk to bring in independent testers. He feels Funk has gone outside of his jurisdiction.

>much more

http://www.ecprogress.com/index.php?tier=1&pub=2006-04-04&page=news#1

[stillcool]

3. Pennsylvania/Montgomery County/voting machines re-tested

By: MARGARET GIBBONS, Times Herald Staff
04/05/2006

COURTHOUSE - An upgraded version of the electronic voting machines now used by Montgomery County voters will be re-tested for state certification on April 11.

"I am optimistic that they will pass," said county voter services Director Joseph R. Passarella Tuesday.
That is because tabulation software, which caused the voting system to fail the certification testing last week, will not be included in this test, he explained.
Sequoia Voting Systems, which manufactured the 1,050 voting machines that the county has been using since their purchase in 1996, Tuesday issued a statement saying it will resubmit the software for state certification prior to the November general election.

During the certification process last week, the upgraded machine tested out fine, but a problem occurred with the software. Sequoia corrected that problem overnight but, as a result of that correction, new problems were detected the following day that raised the possibility that the voting process could be tampered with.
At that point, the examiner halted the certification process, declaring the new software "not stable."

Citing the certification problems and the potential for hacking, members of the non-partisan grassroots Election Reform Network have renewed their calls for the county to attach a component or go to a new system that would enable individual voters to see, on paper, the votes that the machine has recorded them casting.
To date, Montgomery County officials have balked at this request, noting that it is not required by law and that there is no federal or state aid to implement such a process.
Margaret Gibbons can be reached at [e-mail] or 610-272-2501 ext. 216.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16430320&BRD=1672&PAG=461&dept_id=33380&rfi=6

[stillcool]

4. New York/ Court review of village vote sought

Dunham Hollow advocate says election was full of irregularities
By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer

NASSAU -- Voters rejected a plan by a grass-roots group to form the village of Dunham Hollow to fight hard-rock mining but supporters now want the courts to review the validity of the election.
Doris McCarthy, a proponent of the village and one of four election inspectors for the March 6 election, has filed a petition in state Supreme Court asking it to review what she claims were irregularities in the election.

McCarthy, who lives on Greenman Hill Road, alleges that the voting machines were not sealed before or after the election, a procedure normally required by county boards of election to ensure no one tampers with the results.

The petition also alleges problems with the list of eligible voters supplied by the board of elections.

Supreme Court Justice Christian Hummel will consider the request to review the election's validity on April 20.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=467989&category=RENSSELAER&BCCode=&newsdate=4/5/2006

[stillcool]

5. Texas:Compliance with New Voting System Requirements

TO: All Election Officials
FROM: Ann McGeehan, Director of Elections
DATE: April 3, 2006
RE: Compliance with New Voting System Requirements

We have heard from many of you concerning the lack of vendor support to comply with the new voting system requirement for an accessible voting system in every polling place for the upcoming May elections. The disturbing reality is that most of the certified vendors do not have additional accessible equipment to lease to the cities, schools, and other political subdivisions. This means that the only option available to a local political subdivision is to lease equipment from the county or contract for the county to conduct the election. In addition, it is our understanding that some vendors desire to contract with the county only, and will not contract with the separate political subdivisions within a county. The Secretary of State’s office did not approve or condone these vendor-imposed conditions. Regrettably, the vendors have only recently communicated this policy to you, and that leaves many of you in an uncertain position concerning compliance with the accessible voting system requirement. We hear you, and share your concerns. Some of these issues will need to be resolved legislatively, others will be addressed administratively, and some may result in litigation. In the meantime we can offer the following advice:

1. Contracting for joint elections. Counties which do not have an elections administrator are not required to contract, but we encourage such contracts if at all feasible. Tex. Elec. Code Ann § 31.092 and 31.093 (Vernon 2003). All counties are required to lease their voting equipment and may impose reasonable restrictions and conditions in the lease agreement to protect the equipment from misuse or damage. Id. §123.035. The counties may hire temporaries and include the cost for temporaries in the contract. If it is necessary to secure outside (vendor) programming and coding costs, those are additional costs that the county would need to include in its contract. Many of the counties are indeed willing to contract and the election process is moving forward; some of you are fearful of such a drastic change in a short time period—we understand that.
2. Appoint a single point of contact (SPOC). If a contract with the county is not feasible, then we suggest that the local political subdivisions enter into a joint election agreement and designate one of the entities to serve as the SPOC. Id. § 271.002. The SPOC could arrange the lease terms with the county and also provide the ballot coding information to the vendor.
3. ADA/HAVA Compliance. All polling places must be accessible, and all must have a voting mechanism that allows a person with a disability to cast his or her vote choices in secret and independently. Id. § 61.012 (Vernon 2003).
4. You may still use hand-counted, paper ballots. You may no longer use lever or punch card voting systems, but if you use paper or optical scan ballots, you may continue to use such systems, along with the accessible voting equipment.
5. Consolidation. We encourage local political subdivisions to consolidate polling places and elections. The beauty of the new technology is that it allows several elections to be conducted on one voting machine. Always keep the voter in mind and make them your number one priority. What is easy, convenient and most beneficial for your voters while complying with state law? Allowing the voter to cast his or her vote choices for all local elections in one location is less confusing and most convenient to the voter.
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/laws/compliance.shtml

[stillcool]

6. Ill."Chicago ballot chaos: New computer vote machines malfunction"..

.... unverifiable"
By Christopher Bollyn
American Free Press

Apr 4, 2006, 14:33

COOK COUNTY, Illinois -- Chicago’s use of a flawed computerized voting system operated by a privately held foreign company reveals how meaningless and absurd the “democratic” process in America has become.

Having observed voting systems across Europe, from Serbia, Germany and Estonia to Holland and France, this reporter has noted that the most honest and transparent elections are also the most simple.

The more complicated methods of voting, such as the unverifiable computerized voting systems widely used across the United States, lack the most essential element of democratic elections -- transparency.

The $50 million touch-screen and optical-scan voting system provided by Sequoia Voting Systems failed across Chicago and suburban Cook County during the March 21 Illinois primary. However, the leading corporate-controlled newspapers merely lamented the failures of the system without addressing its fundamental flaws or even reporting that the company running the election is foreign-owned.

The “high-tech” computerized voting system was “cumbersome” and “slow,” one mainstream Chicago newspaper reported. The machines failed across the county causing “plenty of frustration and confusion for voters,” the paper reported. The ballots and votes from more than 400 precincts were still uncounted two days after the election due to machine malfunctions and lost memory cartridges which contain the results.

Reports from other dailies noted that as of noon Wednesday, Chicago was missing memory cartridges from 252 polling stations while Cook County officials “couldn’t find” the results from 162 suburban precincts.

Election officials tried to assure the public that although nobody knew where all the ballots and computerized memory cartridges were, they were “most assuredly not lost.”

“I don’t trust that,” U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) said. “This is Chicago. This is Cook County. We created vote fraud, vote scandal and stealing votes. We created that mechanism. It became an art form.”

“Ballot chaos” is how another large Chicago newspaper described the situation in which the votes from hundreds of precincts could not be found or counted on Election Night.

“We have accounted for the votes,” Langdon Neal, city election chairman told the publication. “What we haven’t been able to do is count them.”

In one precinct on the Near South Side, for example, the Sequoia optical scanner failed to register anything but Republican ballots. Although “election officials” tried to repair the machine four times, by the end of the day it had failed to register a single Democratic ballot in a precinct in which some 86 percent of the voters are Democrats.

When this reporter went to vote, the touch-screen machine went completely dead as the voter in front of me pressed the button to print. When the poll workers were asked if other voters had had similar problems with the equipment they said it had happened all day and showed me an unplugged machine that had broken down earlier.

When the polls closed at 7 p.m., American Free Press was at the Cook County Clerk’s office to see how the votes were tallied.

Citizens in Chicago, as in most American cities, are, however, forbidden from viewing or participating in the any aspect of the vote-counting process.

The so-called counting of the votes is managed by some two dozen employees of Sequoia Voting Systems, a privately held foreign company. These employees, many of whom are not even U.S. citizens, have “full access” to the “back room area,” a sealed-off section of the 5th floor of the county clerk’s office which is called the “tally area.”

In Chicago, the person in charge of the tallying of the votes was a British employee of Sequoia named David Allen from London. Allen, who ran the “Sequoia War Room” in an office next to that of Cook County Clerk David Orr, oversaw the “tally room” team, which included a dozen Venezuelan employees, who operated the hidden computer equipment that counts the votes.

As American Free Press has noted before, there are wire services such as the Associated Press, who could be seen having direct connections leading from their computers to the hidden mainframe computer of the Sequoia tallying system located behind the wall on the 5th floor of the clerk’s office.

Senior executives from Sequoia Voting Systems and from its partner company, Smartmatic, such as company president Jack A. Blaine and Roger Alejandro Piñate Martinez, vice president of special operations, also had “full access” to the tally area.

Sequoia, which was previously held by the British-based firm De La Rue PLC, a company, which produces bank notes, travelers' checks and cash handling equipment, was merged or combined with Smartmatic in March 2005.

Smartmatic, which has a U.S.-based office in Boca Raton, Fla., is headed by three young Venezuelans along with Blaine, a former vice president with Unisys. A dozen Venezuelans could be seen managing the most sensitive aspects of the recent election in Chicago.

Smartmatic, the parent company of Sequoia Voting Systems, obtained the company for a “ridiculously low amount of money,” Charles D. Brady, an analyst with Hibernia Southcoast Capital Inc., said at the time of the merger.

While De La Rue purchased 85 percent of Sequoia in 2002 for $35 million, it reportedly sold the growing global company for only $16 million in 2005. Tracey Graham, then president of Sequoia, said more than 30 organizations had expressed interest in buying her company, yet no names of other bidders were given citing “confidentiality agreements.”

The chief officers of Sequoia-Smartmatic are two 32-year old Venezuelans from Caracas, Antonio Mugica and Alfredo Anzola.

“With the combination of Sequoia and Smartmatic, both proven innovators with accomplished track records in either the U.S. or abroad, we are creating the first truly global leader in providing voter-verified electronic voting systems,” Blaine said in March 2005 when the merger was announced.

There is, however, nothing verifiable about the Sequoia voting system used in Cook County. The voter has no way of knowing if his vote has been counted or how it was counted.

The absolute lack of transparency in U.S. voting systems yields unverifiable election results, which can only be accepted on faith. In Chicago voters are asked to trust the results produced by malfunctioning machines operated by a privately owned foreign company.

Asked about the nature of the foreign company that runs elections in Cook County, Scott Burnham, spokesman for Cook County Clerk Orr simply said, “Ask Sequoia” and hung up the phone. Asked about the ownership of the privately held company, Allen, who supervised the tally, refused to answer and handed the phone to Michelle Shafer, the company’s vice president and spokesperson.

Pressed about Allen’s citizenship, Shafer finally admitted that the Sequoia employee who oversaw the tally was, indeed, a British citizen who had been assisted by a team of Venezuelans.

Dimas Ulacio, one of the Venezuelan technicians who worked in the tally area spoke with American Free Press. “Who really owns Sequoia?” Ulacio was asked. “Is Sequoia-Smartmatic truly a Venezuelan company or is it a British-owned company masquerading as a Venezuelan company?”

Ulacio laughed but refused to answer.

While a high percentage of the precinct results -- about 90 percent -- are usually reported within one hour of the polls closing, the Sequoia system failed to produce any results for nearly two hours. Only 44 percent of the precinct results had been reported four hours after the polls closed.

The widespread failures of the Sequoia voting system in the Cook County election, Shafer said, made for a “very typical Election Day in a jurisdiction where they are changing voting technology.” Rather than blame the machines, Shafer blamed human error.

Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to redistribute - as long as full credit is given to American Free Press - 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003.

Copyright © 1998-2006 Online Journal
Email Online Journal Editor
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/printer_657.shtml

[stillcool]

7. Citizen Lobby Congress for Reliable Electronic Voting

Wednesday, 5 April 2006


Organizations Come Together to Lobby for Election Reform - - Hundreds of citizen lobbyists from across the nation will be in Washington, DC, this coming Thursday and Friday, working to help secure the future of safe, reliable electronic voting through the passage of HR 550 -- the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act. HR 550 would ensure a voter-verified paper record of every vote, establish mandatory random hand-counted audits, and prohibit the use of secret software and wireless communications in voting machines.

The "Lobby Days" were organized by the HR 550 "I Count" Coalition, which includes the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Common Cause, Verified Voting, Voters Unite, VoteTrustUSA, and Working Assets. The coalition will hold a lobbying training session for activists before they go to work on Thursday.

"HR 550 represents the best opportunity to solve a number of problems related to the use of electronic voting equipment," said EFF Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "By participating in this event, voters will get a chance to make their voices heard in Congress and demand transparency and accountability in elections."

HR 550 has made significant progress in the House of Representatives, largely through the grassroots efforts of voting activists. Lobby Days will help continue the momentum and show members of Congress that many of their constituents are passionate about voting integrity

http://electioncentral.blog-city.com/

[stillcool]

8. Indiana:I-Team 8 Finds More Problems with ES&S Voting Equipment

y Pam Elliot
Produced by Loni Smith McKown

I-Team 8 broke the story many Indiana counties didn't receive official ballots for early voting that began Monday. On Tuesday, I-Team 8 uncovered a problem even worse.

Once again, a voting machine company is breaking Indiana law and violating county contracts.

What's missing is a "smart card" that allows you to vote. For now, copied paper ballots will have to do for absentee voting. Johnson County and nearly two-dozen others across the state don't have the official paper ballots.

I-Team 8 has also learned the batteries that came with Johnson County's $2.4 million equipment are old and failing. At least nine other counties have the same problem. If the battery fails, the internal ballots and all the votes cast will be lost.

Omaha-based ES&S has been in trouble with the state at least twice before for not following Indiana law, but it's not the only vendor failing Hoosier voters. The certification expired last October on electronic voting machines made by Indianapolis-based Microvote, used by 45 Indiana counties.

http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4726545&nav=0Ra7

[kpete]

9. The Struggle for a Verified Vote Continues

April 5, 2006
The Struggle for a Verified Vote Continues, But If You People Are Counting on Me to Get It Done, You Should Probably Learn to Love Being Disenfranchised Because I’m Getting Burned Out

I spent two hours today and yesterday doing some research for the Coalition for Voting Integrity. CVI is a group I belong to in Bucks County. We’re fighting to re-enfranchise PA as well as the rest of the country by ending the use of voting systems that do not use a voter-verified paper ballot.

My job yesterday and today is to call thirteen county offices to find out which electronic voting machine they’ll be using this year. It was very depressing work. Every worker I spoke to was polite and very helpful. They all stopped what there were doing to answer my eight questions. Some had to put me on hold to get the answers I needed. All I could think about was that we’ve been disenfranchised in this state and in most states around the country. A county clerk would cheerfully tell me that the machines "just arrived today" and I’d feel like crying.

But it wasn’t all bad news. One county, Snyder County, is going with the ES&S model 100, which is a precinct-based op-scan system. It’s the least of all evils as far as electronic voting machines goes because it uses a voter-verified paper ballot and it’s precinct-based, which means that the votes are counted in the precinct instead of at some other location after data are fed through yet another big black box called a "central tabulator." ES&S is a horrible company and the model 100 isn’t perfect, but if the whole country voted on similar machines, we’d at least have a shot at a verifiable vote. The voter-verified paper ballots and a proper audit are the keys to that.

Back to the phones. One day soon, I hope someone looks back at this period in history and holds the vaunted blogosphere "activists" to task for ignoring this issue.
http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2006/04/05/6353/

[kpete]

10. GREENSPAN: If Your Rig the #s In the Beginning-You Don't Need A Recount

Greenspan replied: “I’ve heard that if you rig the numbers in the beginning, you won’t have to do a recount.”
April 5, 2006, 12:21 pm
Counting Votes

Federal Reserve Board officials are careful not to give the impression that politics influences their decisions — even in closed-door Federal Open Market Committee meetings, since those deliberations now become public after five years. In transcripts released this week from meetings in 2000, there is nary a mention of the bitter election battle that fall between Vice President Al Gore and Texas governor George W. Bush. As the unsettled contest dragged on after Election Day, though, officials couldn’t resist.

Research director David Stockton noted that a recent strong new home sales report seemed inconsistent with an overall pattern of sideways activity. He then added, “In the spirit of the times, I refuse to concede defeat here, and I shall await the results of a recount, which will come in the form of revised sales figures later this month.”

Later, Atlanta Fed president Jack Guynn said he favored continuing to signal inflation worries in the Fed’s statement, but would withhold his arguments for it, unless his colleagues later said they wanted to drop it. Greenspan asked: “In other words, you want a vote recount?”

Shortly afterwards, Chicago Fed president Michael Moskow said: “I just want to say that if there is going to be a recount, I would like to speak first because those of us in Chicago know how to handle recounts!”

Greenspan replied: “I’ve heard that if you rig the numbers in the beginning, you won’t have to do a recount.”

Moskow started to answer: “We have many different ways of accomplishing—”

At which point, Greenspan cut him off: “I don’t want to hear any more!” –Greg Ip

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2006/04/05/counting-votes/

[kpete]

11. Elections Office Turmoil

Friday, March 31, 2006
Elections Office Turmoil
Winston-Salem Journal

With just a month to go before primary elections, the Forsyth County elections office is lacking in leadership in more ways than one. The board that oversees this crucial office has not provided optimum leadership, and that failure played a role in the loss of the longtime director of the office, and more recently, the loss of her deputy. The board needs to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that the primary elections run as smoothly as possible - especially since the county will be breaking in new voting machines in those elections.
.................

The board has appointed Terry Cox, a computer technician in the elections office, as the interim director. Cox has applied for the permanent position.

The board faces the primary elections with the new voting machines it insisted upon. Board members say they probably won't have a permanent director until after those elections. "We're certainly in a transition time, but I think the staff have got it nailed down pretty good," Elliott said.

The elections may well have their share of technical challenges for the elections staff. The machines will have to be installed and tested in time for the start of one-stop voting April 13.

To overcome those challenges, the board will have to provide better leadership than it has been providing in the last few months. And it will also need that leadership as it hires the new director. It's already let one good candidate, Gerardi-Dell, get away.

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_ColumnistArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137835050180&path=%2Fopinion%2Findex.shtml

[stillcool]

12. Michigan:Voting machines worry clerks

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
County officials meet with machine maker over equipment glitches

Maureen Feighan / The Detroit News

PONTIAC -- Oakland County's new $5 million optical-scan voting equipment is slow and prone to jams, say several local clerks who worry the glitches could lead to a headache-filled election next month.

Roughly two dozen clerks met Tuesday with representatives of Omaha, Neb.-based Election Services & Software to air their concerns about jams that occur when ballots are fed through the county's new M-100 machines, in addition to ambiguous error messages that pop up and other problems

But some clerks on Tuesday were frustrated by glitches they found "stunning." Many said hiring more election workers to help "back-fold" ballots wasn't an option because of tight budgets.

And election results will likely be slower in coming this year, but Johnson said the most important thing is they'll be accurate. ES&S is federally certified, a distinction that requires 1 million ballots to be fed through and read correctly without a mistake.

"The best thing is it has the highest integrity and that was the most important thing," Johnson said

You can reach Maureen Feighan at [phone] or [e-mail].
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060405/METRO/604050367/1003:puke: :puke: :puke:

[stillcool]

13. Wisconsin:Final county results unavailable

Challenger Diane Weiss was in position to oust incumbent Richard Jacobson late Tuesday in the sole contested race for the Portage School Board.

As of press time, Weiss, 55, a retired teacher from the Portage Community School District, held an advantage of 410 votes to 224 over Jacobson, 57, a two-term incumbent who's had two tenures with the board, the latest being for seven years.

The partial results obtained before press time Tuesday include the city of Portage and the village of Endeavor, but the Columbia County Clerk's Office did not have confirmed totals based on outstanding votes in other areas. Results from other contested races were not available
Faulty ballot readers forced the Clerk's Office to abandon its centralized counting system for this election, meaning all of Columbia County's 35 municipalities performed counts by hand and then delivered results to the Clerk's Office in Portage after polls closed Tuesday.

The vote-counting operations were slowed considerably. Clerk Jeanne Miller said at 11 p.m. that 11 of 35 municipalities were still outstanding, and that the office was hoping to have results compiled by this morning barring any setbacks.

Results will be updated as they are available on the county's Web site, www.co.columbia.wi.us. For more on the races, see Thursday's Daily Register.

-- Paul Ferguson

http://www.wiscnews.com/pdr/news/index.php?ntid=78973&ntpid=0

[kpete]

14. Osceola rejects voting-rights deal

Osceola rejects voting-rights deal
The U.S. government had offered to settle a lawsuit against the county.

Daphne Sashin
Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted April 5 2006

KISSIMMEE -- Osceola County commissioners have rejected the first settlement offer in the federal government's voting-rights lawsuit against the county.

Justice Department attorneys last month proposed a meeting to discuss a possible settlement. It suggested Osceola could switch from its countywide election format to five or six district seats and satisfy the Voting Rights Act.

"We remain open to considering alternatives that accomplish that objective and meet the interests of the county and its officials," Justice Department attorney Tim Mellett wrote in a March 13 letter to Osceola's outside counsel, Vincent Fontana.

The County Commission met in closed session March 27 to discuss the matter, and the county attorney's office planned to send an official response late Tuesday

more at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/orl-mosceola0506apr05,0,488948.story?coll=sfla-news-florida

[Algorem]

15. OH-election officials-"machines not connected to net,so can't be hacked"

Elections boards plan more how-to sessions on electronic voting

http://www.cleveland.com/election/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1144226640101640.xml&coll=2

Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Grant Segall
Plain Dealer Reporter

"This is a mainstream technology," said Michael Vu, director of the Cuyahoga board, which already has held many training sessions for voters and poll workers. "If you go to an ATM, if you use your microwave, if you use a cell phone, these are all push-button items you use on a daily basis."...

Election officials say the machines are not connected to the Internet and therefore can't be hacked. The officials will also compare each machine's paper and electronic records on primary night.

Portage and Medina counties debuted Diebold machines in November, and Portage reused them in February. Officials reported few problems besides paper snags...

In Cuyahoga, Vu promised to have a technician at every voting site and many roving technicians as well. He has also tripled the training of poll workers. The county is spending about $18 million, mostly in federal money, to convert from punch cards...



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

...Schumer-"Eighty percent of this election will be a referendum on George Bush."...


Trouble ahead for GOP?


A new statewide poll shows the Republican primary contest tightening - and wholesale trouble ahead for the GOP.

Scandals and a sour economy have a majority of voters ready to end the Republican dominance of state government, according to a telephone poll of likely voters conducted by the University of Akron's Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.

Released Wednesday, the survey showed that 59 percent of respondents prefer a Democratic comeback, 33.6 percent want the Republicans to remain in control and 7.4 percent were undecided.

Although the anti-Republican sentiment is particularly evident among Democrats, 62 percent of the all-important independent voters surveyed want Democrats to assume control of state government. The vast majority of those who want to toss out the GOP cited the Republicans' poor performance - not the Democrats' superior ideas or candidates - as the reason...



Voters' rights are focus of day's events

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1144225888101640.xml&coll=2

Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Jesse Tinsley
Plain Dealer Reporter

...Tuesday's events, which included a march from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to Cuyahoga Community College's Metro campus, coincided with a nationwide effort to raise awareness of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The advocacy group is concerned about restoring key provisions of the act addressing bilingual assistance, anti-discriminatory policies and voter intimidation practices.

Activities in Cleveland Tuesday also coincided with the 38th anniversary of the death of the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacy included securing voting rights for everyone.

Displaced New Orleans residents in the Cleveland area and elsewhere may call for assistance in voting in the mayoral elections: 1-866-698-6831 or 1-866-MYVOTE1.




Al Franken joke at end of show today- 'and we learned that Ken Blackwell bought Diebold stock.Like we don't get enough e-mails about voting machines already.'




Article published Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Dems dispute Ohio auditor ballot
Lone GOP hopeful's petitions challenged

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060405/NEWS09/604050452/-1/NEWS

By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU


COLUMBUS - Ohio Democrats yesterday asked Secretary of State Ken Blackwell to investigate whether the sole Republican candidate for state auditor should not be on the May 2 primary election ballot.

In a letter, the party asked Mr. Blackwell to reverse his position and investigate whether state Rep. Mary Taylor's petitions for auditor were invalid because her paid campaign manager oversaw their circulation.

"The law is pretty clear," said Brian Rothenberg, Ohio Democratic Party spokesman. "It really is an issue that the secretary of state needs to investigate. Ken Blackwell can decide to be partisan or enforce the law."

Changes in Ohio's campaign-finance law passed in special session in December, 2004, included a provision requiring those paid for "supervising, managing, or otherwise organizing" the gathering of signatures for candidate petitions to file a disclosure form with the secretary of state's office...

Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Strickland strong, Ohioans surly in statewide poll

http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/gov/

Democratic Congressman Ted Strickland leads both Republican gubernatorial candidates in the latest independent public-opinion poll released today.

A survey of 1,075 Ohio voters, taken Feb. 20 to March 25 by the University of Akron's Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, found Strickland leading Secretary of State Ken Blackwell by about 38 percent to 33 percent, with 29 percent undecided.

A matchup between Strickland and Attorney General Jim Petro found Strickland leading by 32 percent to 28 percent with nearly 40 percent undecided. Blackwell and Petro face each other in a May 2 primary election.

In the GOP primary matchup, Blackwell led Petro by about 39 percent to 32 percent with nearly 29 percent undecided...

[stillcool]

17. Ohio:"See, what happened was ". . .

http://www.ohio.com/
See, what happened was
Voting machine maker faces county

By Lisa A. Abraham
Beacon Journal staff writer

The Summit County Board of Elections finally got some answers to the problems with its new voting system.
At a board meeting Tuesday, an official from Election Systems & Software, the Omaha, Neb., maker of the county's new optical-scan voting system, explained to the board why computer memory cards in the system have continued to fail.

She said the faulty cards had a circuit board error and the batteries were not properly charged, which caused them to have repeated low-battery or dead-battery issues.
The problems have been corrected, she said.

However, in additional testing Friday, more failures were discovered. The company again replaced all 349 cards.
``Those memory cards will be here today (Tuesday) and they will work on Election Day,'' Buchanan said.
The board, however, criticized Don Mummey, the ES&S official in charge of setting up the Summit County system, for conducting further tests on his own without alerting elections officials or having a team of Republican and Democratic staffers on hand.
Mummey conducted tests Friday, when he found the failing cards. However, board staff discovered the cards only by accident.

Buchanan said she would see that media relations were improved.
However, when asked by a reporter for answers on the reliability of the machines after the meeting, Buchanan insisted that all inquiries be made to the company's official spokesman in Omaha.
pressed on whether she could guarantee the machines would work on Election Night, Buchanan said, ``We can't guarantee anything 100 percent.'' Moments later, however, she changed her answer and said, ``I'm saying the machines will work on Election Day.''

Lisa A. Abraham can be reached at 330-996-3737 or [e-mail]


http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/living/community/14267140.htm

[stillcool]

16. Louisiana:Voting dispute in New Orleans rages

http://www.finalcall.com/

By Jesse Muhammad
Staff Writer
Updated Apr 5, 2006, 03:13 pm

The counters are busy at the Orleans Parish Registrar of Voters office in New Orleans City Hall on Mar. 22, which was the last day for people to register to vote in the upcoming Apr. 22 election.
NEW ORLEANS (FinalCall.com) - With less than a month before New Orleans’ first elections since the massive flooding caused unprecedented destruction, great controversy surrounds what many see as the most pivotal mayoral race in the city’s history. Several civil rights organizations and countless residents are critical of the upcoming Apr. 22 election date because too many Black residents will be unable to vote because they are displaced in over 40 states.

Texas ACORN sued, unsuccessfully, to get polling places set up in Texas cities. A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Al Ater, the state’s top election official, said out-of-state voting operations are not legal under Louisiana law. The organization now plans to take three busloads of residents displaced in Houston to Lake Charles, La., to vote Apr. 10, the first day of early voting.

Those who would like to vote have two options: travel long distances to vote in person or follow a two-step process by mail. They must first write to request a ballot, and once it is received fill it in and then mail it back. According to Dale Atkins, who is running for re-election as a civil district court clerk, said less than 10,000 registered voters have requested absentee ballots and about 43,000 registered voters have told Louisiana officials they are living out of state.

“This is a Florida in the making,” said Urban League President Marc Morial, a former New Orleans mayor, referring to the controversy of the 2000 presidential election. “If you see an election train wreck coming, why not do something to prevent it?”

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_2538.shtml

[livvy]

18. K & R n/t

[FogerRox]

19. yeah----- KNR

[MelissaB]

20. montieg's Delay/2000 recount post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2551743#2552535

Don't miss this in post #30 by KharmaTrain

1. Tom Pyle, policy analyst, office of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).
2. Garry Malphrus, majority chief counsel and staff director, House Judiciary subcommittee on criminal justice.
3. Rory Cooper, political division staff member at the National Republican Congressional Committee.
4. Kevin Smith, former House Republican conference analyst and more recently of Voter.com.
5. Steven Brophy, former aide to Sen. Fred D. Thompson (R-Tenn.), now working at the consulting firm KPMG.
6. Matt Schlapp, former chief of staff for Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), now on the Bush campaign staff in Austin.
7. Roger Morse, aide to Rep. Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.).
8. Duane Gibson, aide to Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) of the House Resources Committee.
9. Chuck Royal, legislative assistant to Rep. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).
10. Layna McConkey, former legislative assistant to former Rep. Jim Ross Lightfoot (R-Iowa),
now at Steelman Health Strategies.

[rumpel]

22. K&R