Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News 04.10.06 - HR 550 Special

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Tell Congress We Need Verifiable Elections

Rep. Holt has five new co-sponsores for his legislation. Look at who they are: Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI), Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) at a Capitol Hill press conference to discuss the critical need to pass HR 550, which would require an voter-verified paper audit trail for all electronic voting machines. Over 200 citizens spent April 6 and 7 visiting House offices to urge action on the bill before the November 2006 elections. (April 7, 2006)

You can make a difference! Here are the numbers:

U.S. House of Representatives Switchboard: 202-225-3121
Committee on House Administration (Majority Office): [phone]
Committee on House Administration (Minority Office): [phone]

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

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News April 10, 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).

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1. Nation: HR550-Election Reform (R. Holt, D, NJ-Sponsor) – Major Issues

Nation: HR550-Election Reform (R. Holt, D, NJ-Sponsor) – Major Issue-Current

The articles below this post describe some of the activities surrounding HR550, the legislation proposed by Congressman Rush Holt, D, NJ. The has been a swirl of publicity in our small corner of the worked, the election integrity community. This is the first chance to pass real legislation addressing concerns over election integrity. At the same time, some members of the community have noted the short comings of this legislation.

One thing to remember is that the political process is not a logical one. One event can trigger other events by raising consciousness. The law suit in New Mexico by VoterAction.Org triggered a great deal of controversy but seemed a long shot in terms of realizing reform. As the suit proceeded, there was more publicity and robust discussion. It ended up with Gov. Richardson, D, NM doing the right thing and backing a strong bill for verified paper ballots and a great deal of other beneficial reforms.

As part of the support for HR550, VoteTrustUSA (Warren Stewart) organized a national leadership conference concurrent with HR550’s consideration. The conference focused on enabling activists to pursue their efforts and also allowed the group to lobby members of congress on election integrity issues, e.g., HR 550.

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2. Nation: Statement of Voting Rights Advocate Cong. Rush Holt

For Immediate Release Contact: Pat Eddington

April 7, 2006 202-225-5801
HOLT JOINS CITIZEN ADVOCATES IN CALLING FOR ELECTION REFORM
200+ Citizens from 30 States and DC Press
http://www.holt.house.gov/issues2.cfm?id=11730

Lawmakers to Pass HR 550, Deliver Petition to House Administration Committee

(Washington, D.C.) – Election reform advocates from across the country today concluded a two-day blitz on Capitol Hill in support of Rep. Rush Holt’s Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (HR 550), a bill designed to restore confidence in the outcomes of elections and in our electoral process generally by requiring a voter-verified paper audit trail for each vote.

“The mid-term elections are just over seven months away, and the question remains: if you cast your vote on an electronic voting machine, will your vote be counted as you intended? Will it be counted at all?” said Holt. “The answer is nobody knows for certain—and that’s precisely why these machines must have independent paper audit records.”

Joining Holt at the event were Representatives Frank Wolf (R-VA), Tom Petri (R-WI), and Greg Walden (R-OR), as well as voting reform activists from across the country.

Working under the umbrella name of the “I Count Coalition,” organizations involved in the two-day lobbying and outreach activities included Common Cause, VerifiedVoting.org, VoteTrustUSA, VotersUnite.org, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Working Assets, and TrueMajority. More than 200 citizens held more than 100 individual meetings with members of Congress or their staffs to urge passage of H.R. 550, which would require that all voting systems used in federal elections generate a voter-verified paper record that could be inspected by voters prior to their final votes being cast and tallied. The activists delivered to the House Administration Committee a petition with more than 50,000 signatures calling upon the committee to pass HR 550 as written as soon as possible, and also conducted media interviews and blogging, with posts on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s website ( www.eff.org).

Passing HR 550 would ensure that in close elections where electronic voting machines malfunction, paper audit trails would be available to ensure a legal and verifiable recount of the votes. The bill would also require that a secure, accessible voter-verification mechanism be provided for use by voters with disabilities.

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3. Nation: Cong. Holt’s Response to Critics of HR 550 – DUer Bill Bored

Critics of HR 550 are concerned it’s not a perfect bill. Well surprise, you’re living in 21st century America. Of course it’s not perfect but it’s a lot better than previous legislation – think of HAVA. DFA NH sent out an alert on this and Holt’s response is below provided by DUer Bill Bored.

Bill Bored (1000+ posts)
Sun Apr-09-06 01:20 PM
Original message
HOLT'S RESPONSE!: MARK IT UP!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x421847#421881
Edited on Sun Apr-09-06 01:23 PM by Bill Bored
Link to Democracy for NH alert on bill—pluses and minuses:
http://www.democracyfornewhampshire.com/node/view/2243


Holt's response: HR 550

I’d like to start with two words: thank you. I deeply appreciate your commitment to open, honest, and auditable elections. I also appreciate your recognition of H.R. 550’s great promise and good intentions. For several years, I have been working on this issue with an army of citizens, voting experts, and computer scientists from across the country, and H.R. 550 is the product of their thoughtful analysis, hard work, and grassroots advocacy.

I know that others in the election reform community have already addressed your concerns in detail, but I wanted to take a moment to just reinforce a few key points. For more detailed comments, people should read analyses by Verified Voting and VoteTrustUSA.

I will just make four points of rebuttal, and then a comment. Before I do, however, I would ask that you join me in urging the House Administration Committee to mark-up H.R. 550 immediately. If the House takes no action at all, the 2006 elections – and perhaps the 2008 elections – will once again be un-auditable and un-verifiable. H.R. 550 is by far the strongest bill on the table, and blocking committee action on it is a surefire strategy to maintain the status quo.

A few points:

1) Neither the EAC nor a state may pick and choose where audits will be conducted. Selection of precincts for audit must be done at random. In other words, the EAC has no authority here. H.R. 550 is explicit on this point.

2) An audit is not the same as a recount. A recount seeks to determine the actual results of an election. By contrast, an audit ensures proper functioning of a voting system by spot-checking its tally against the voter-verified paper records. By testing randomly, an audit deters malfeasance because potential bad actors won’t know which 2% of precincts could be audited. If discrepancies are found, a larger audit follows, and potentially a recount.

3) H.R. 550 does not open the door to EAC contracting. Rather, it limits the EAC’s already existing power to do so by requiring public bidding on all contracts. This makes it possible for established citizen groups (perhaps such as your own) to bid for audit contracts. This is exactly what we want: regular citizens protecting the integrity of our elections. If we left it to the states to do audits, the results would be as we’ve seen in the past.

4) H.R. 550 does not call for DREs with printers. The bill only requires a voter-verified paper audit system that is accessible to all eligible voters. Section 2 of the bill explicitly contemplates paper ballots such as optical scan, mail-in, and those made by accessible marking devices. The bill would allow DREs only if they include a paper record.

In closing, H.R. 550 is the product of citizen activism in the greatest tradition of grassroots involvement. I reject, and in fact take umbrage at, any suggestion that the bill has been “hijacked.” To assert so is not only wrong, it is an insult to the thousands of people who have put in so much time, thought, and effort to improve and advance H.R. 550.

Sincerely,

Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12)
-- BB

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4. Nation: Ion Sancho, Leon Co. BoE Issues Statement Supporting HR 550

Remember Sancho. He did the “hack” test on Diebold equipment and then was the target of what seems to be collusion by the vendors, all of whom said they were too busy to support HR550;

STATEMENT
By Ion Sancho, Supervisor of Elections, Leon County Florida
April 08, 2006
The HR 550 Lobby Days brought to DC not only passionate citizens interested in e-voting reform but also election officials who have been forced into technology battles that they never wanted to fight. Participating in the Lobby Days events today is Ion Sancho, Supervisor of Elections of Leon County Florida. Sancho, as those who follow e-voting issues may recall, organized a series of tests of Diebold's touchscreen voting technology that (once again) exposed a series of serious vulnerabilities.

Sancho issued the follow statement in conjunction with a press conference that took place this morning:

"The independent authority of election officials to provide honest and impartial elections conducted in a fair and efficient manner is under attack today. Partisan politicians in conjunction with some voting machine vendors are taking away the right of American citizens to cast their votes and have them verified as accurate. Congressman Holt's bill is how we must begin to protect our votes and end the erosion of public trust in our elections."

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5. Nation: HR 550 – Nine New Co-Sponsors

VoteTrust, VerifiedVoting.Org and other groups supporting this legislation have asked activists to call their Representatives and ask them to co-sponsor the legislation. This is having a powerful effect.

HR 550 Collects Nine New Co-Sponsors As Citizens Come To DC to Demand Verifiable Elections
New from National Issues - Federal Legislation
By I Count Coalition (Press release, copyright restrictions do not apply)
April 08, 2006

Over the past two days, hundreds of citizens from across the country participated in the I Count Lobby Days in support of Rep. Rush Holt's Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (HR 550). Meetings has been arranged in 117 Congressional offices on Thursday afternoon and during the day Friday but already by mid -afternoon Thursday, Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA) agreed with activists representing Iowans for Voting Integrity that the nation needs the election safeguards that HR 550 would provide.

By the time Rep. Holt (D-NJ), and HR 550 co-sponsors Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), and Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI) spoke at a press conference on Friday morning, the number of new co-sponsors had risen to eight. New endorsements came from Rep. Ray LaHood (R-IL, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Rep. Tim Holden (D-PA), Rep. Steven Lynch (D-MA), and Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY). As the final meeting was concluding at the end of Friday afternoon, the call came from Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had brought the total co-sponsorship of HR 550 to 177.

After the press conference, a petition signed by over 50,000 voters form each of the 50 states was delivered to the both the majority and minority offices of the Committee on House Administration.

The I Count Lobby Days were organized by a coalition of national organizations dedicated to transparent and verifiable elections: Common Cause, Electronic Frontier Foundation, True Majority, Verified Voting, VotersUnite.org, VoteTrustUSA, and Working Assets. The I Count Coalition wishes to express their gratitude to the remarkable activists who came to Washington DC at their own expense to voice their support for voter verified paper records, random mandatory hand counted audits, and the prohibition of undisclosed software and wireless communication devices in voting systems.

Everyone involved in this exhilarating experience of democracy in action is also grateful to Michael Stipe of the band R.E.M. who paid for the printing of materials provided to activists and for the packets left behind for members of Congress.

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6. ALASKA!!!: Best Editorial Ever, perhaps, on Election Integrity & a Free

They’ve figured it out in Alaska. When you have an election and the nubers don’t add up, as in 2004 Alaska’s Presidential balloting, you examine the election and find the problems. The Alaska Board of Elections won’t release the data to allow this, even though Diebold has agreed (their machines). This editorial lays it out in clear terms. Great bookmark. They know this because they’re like Americans everywhere – when presented with the facts, they endorse election integrity and voting rights and despise election fraud and it’s perpetrators.


Sunday, April 09, 2006
Elections division hangs credibility in the balance
http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2006/04/09/news/opinion/opinion1.txt

Consent of the governed is the foundation of good, healthy democracy. So are accountability and transparency of process. So the ongoing refusal of Lt. Gov. Loren Leman and his Division of Elections to address massive vote-tallying irregularities is more than a little troubling.

In the 2004 election, the state used voting machines developed by Diebold, a firm which gained notoriety and fanned a controversy when its pro-Republican CEO announced prior to the election that he would deliver a Bush victory. It would be easy to pass off the comment as idle bravado except for the ease with which the Diebold machines can be “hacked” and manipulated without so much as a paper trail or any kind of backup system to verify results.

When district-by-district totals came up with some 101,000 votes more than official state totals showed for George W. Bush, eyebrows rightfully were raised. Sadly, the Division of Elections, which could have shut down any speculation about wrongdoing simply by releasing the database and database backup file, has refused to do so.
Despite the company's willingness to comply, the Division of Elections says making this information public might compromise the integrity and confidentiality of Diebold's information. So what about the integrity of the electoral process?

<snip>

What kind of twisted logic is the division applying when it says not releasing the information is simply an extension of its mission to protect the election process? Why should the public's confidence in the system take a back seat to protecting a private company - especially when that protection could be viewed as covering up an irregularity in the system?

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7. Italy: Right Wing Italian P.M.(BushBot) Trails by 5%--That Means He Wins!

We know how this works. Berlusconi owns a considerable share of Italian media, he’s very wealthy, and a pal of the * regime. He’s also under indictment in parts of Europe for illegal business dealings and cannot travel freely. 5% for someone like, that – he’ll take it in a “squeaker.” If I’m wrong, I’m happy.


April 9, 2006
Italy Begins Voting on the Fate of Berlusconi
By IAN FISHER
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/world/europe/09cnd-italy.html

ROME, May 9 — Italy began voting today for 945 members of its Parliament, but as has been the case here for years, the day was about one man alone: Silvio Berlusconi.

This time, in two days of voting, the issue is simply whether Mr. Berlusconi, the quirky dominating force in Italian politics, business and media, will keep his job as prime minister. Anything is possible, but after five years in office, a bad economy and a shrill campaign, Mr. Berlusconi did not seem to be basking in the voters' warm glow on this gorgeous spring day.

"Frankly, he has some character problems," said Domenico Calia, 41, an airplane salesman in Rome who voted for Mr. Berlusconi in 2001 but could not bring himself to do so again today. "A very insecure man, and it shows."

Polls have consistently shown Mr. Berlusconi, 69, trailing as much as 5 percentage points behind his center-left opponent, Romano Prodi, a technocratic former prime minister.

[stephinrome]

19. electronic vote counting in italy

my post in another thread on the elections here. Will be glued to TV from 3pm on...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=884377&mesg_id=885526

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21. Exit Polls Shot Berlusconi Losing

I said I wanted to be wrong that Berlusconi would win. My wish may be granted since he's behind in the Exit Polls (Margin of error 2%). I hope the clowns who hates exit polls don't show up here. We'll see how the vote count goes but paper is official there, according to DUer Stephanierome so we may be seeing the end of one of the nastiest leaders in the not so free world.

AP
Second Exit Poll Shows Berlusconi Losing
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/italy_election
By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer 17 minutes ago

ROME - Two exit polls indicated Monday that challenger Romano Prodi's center-left coalition was set to beat Premier Silvio Berlusconi's forces in Italian parliamentary elections.

Two Nexus polls indicated that Prodi's coalition received between 50 and 54 percent of the vote in both the upper and lower chambers of parliament, while Berlusconi's coalition received between 45 and 49 percent.

The exit polls broadcast by state-run RAI television and Berlusconi's Mediaset channels had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

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8. TX: Officials Responsible for Recent Elections Problems—No Problem

TX: Officials Responsible for Recent Elections Problems—No Problem
Sure, we’ll believe you. You’ve been so accurate in the past. Why not.

Officials say vote problems are solved Posted on Sun, Apr. 09, 2006
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/14302958.htm
By ANNA M. TINSLEY
Tarrant County election officials say they've worked out the kinks in the way they tabulated votes in the March 7 primary and believe that problems such as programming glitches that led to massive overcounts of votes that night will not be repeated in Tuesday's runoff election.
Some internal election procedures have also been changed, software altered and the tabulating of some data simplified. And election workers are more familiar with the new electronic voting equipment that federal rules now require nationwide.

"Anything you do, you want to make sure it works properly," said Gayle Hamilton, interim elections administrator for Tarrant County. "Problems we found in the primary have been checked and won't be repeated."

A computer programming glitch for the primary election counted some votes multiple times and boosted the final tally in the Republican and Democratic primaries by as much as 100,000 votes. Officials with Hart InterCivic, the company that made the equipment and wrote the software, said a procedural error led to inflated counts when totals from early voting, absentee-by-mail voting and election day voting were merged on election night.

But new problems can still emerge, said Dan Wallach, an associate professor at Rice University who specializes in computer security and electronic voting.

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9. TX: San Antonio Paper Runs Editorial Supporting Paper Trails – Audits

This is good news. Deep in the heart of Texas, there is an awakening after recent election screw ups. This is an excellent article and a sign that when presented with the facts, people agree on the need for free and fair elections.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/stories/MYSA040906.01H.EVote.d73f88f.html

Does every vote count?

Web Posted: 04/09/2006 12:00 AM CDT
Rebeca Chapa
Express-News editorial writer
When Judge Oscar Kazen narrowly lost his re-election bid during last month's Democratic primary, it was no surprise that he called for a recount. The slim 12-vote deficit out of nearly 35,000 cast was tantalizingly close, and a recount easily could have turned his fortunes around.

It didn't, but the process shed light on what some computer and voting technology experts consider a weakness of systems such as the one used in Bexar County: no voter-verifiable paper record of the votes cast in an election.

Kazen's was the second major recount in Bexar County, following the contentious Congressional District 28 race in 2004. In both cases, the recount consisted of re-tabulating only the paper ballots, not the tens of thousands of ballots cast on high-tech electronic touch-screen voting machines.

<snip>

"You can't trust an election that's run with paperless machines," says Avi Rubin, a professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "There isn't any way to recover the results."

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10. Great Britain: Susan Sarandon Worries About American Democracy

All right, so I’m stooping even lower than normal but I’m inspired by the NY Post-Murdoch “Page Six” gossip column-extortion scandal.




Susan Sarandon scared by threat to individual rights and election process
Sunday April 9th, 2006 at 3:59 pm by HeatherHoneypot
http://fametastic.co.uk/archive/20060409/891/susan-sarandon-scared-by-threat-to-individual-rights-and-election-process/

Susan SarandonSusan Sarandon has called for there to be international monitoring of US election practices after the results of the last two presidential elections.

“I believe our next election should be monitored by international entities, just like it happened in Haiti and Iraq.”

“The last one was an embarrassment. Everybody knew there was fraud, but nothing was done about it. In some states there were more votes than people able to vote.”

“I think we’ve never been as close to George Orwell’s 1984 as before.”

[FogerRox]

11. Brad BLog: E-VOTING 2006: The Approaching Train Wreck

I got the 1st vote in, Autorank, on the way to the greatest page buddy.




I think this is one of Johns best pieces.

By John Gideon.

excerpts:

In Texas there is at least one candidate who has stepped forward and has challenged the election because of anomalies in vote counts and known voting machine failures. One county's machines counted some votes up to 6 times which resulted in approximately 100,000 more votes being counted than were cast. Though the vendor, Hart Intercivic, initially blamed the problem on human error, they finally had to admit that it was a programming error and not poll workers or voters who had erred.

The vendor, ES&S, announced that their memory card contractor had made mistakes on some cards and they would be replaced. Memory cards for electronic voting machines store vote tabulations amongst other things.

Apparently ES&S does not consider 'Quality Control' to be a worthwhile corporate value because they never bothered to check those cards.

Why is this happening? It is very apparent that some of the voting machine vendors over-extended their ability to meet their contracts for machines and for ancillary services like paper ballot printing. These companies saw an opportunity to make a lot of money at the expense of the tax payers and they saw a deadline of 1 January 2006 that fit right in with their plans to get as much money as possible this year. The vendors are raking in the money through deceptive practices and shoddy workmanship.

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 should have been changed to extend the dead-line for another year. Many of us argued for this but our arguments fell on deaf ears. Now our local elections officials are being held-up by vendors who know they have them over a barrel and that the counties must do something right now or face penalties from the Department of Justice..

John is right, there is a train wreck coming. Hear the whistle blowing?

[Wilms]

15. Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x421988

[Wilms]

16. CA: Five of 80 new vote machines found faulty

Five of 80 new vote machines found faulty

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

By Jim Reece

Amador County election officials tested their 80 new voting machines last week, finding five with minor problems and the machines were sent back to the manufacturer to be replaced.

George Allen, deputy registrar of voters, said the 40 new AutoMark assistive vote marking machines and also 40 new vote counters were all tested, with faux test ballots. Four of the AutoMark machines failed and one of the vote counters failed. He said the machines will not be repaired but instead replaced by the manufacturer, Election Systems & Software Co.

The problems included a bad touch screen, where sections of the screen were not touch-sensitive. Each test used sample ballots on several fictitious races, run on each machine.

"It was very boring, doing the same thing over 40 times," said election worker Lee Delange.

snip

http://www.ledger-dispatch.com/news/newsview.asp?c=182979

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12. The Billionaire, the Blackmailer, & the Dark Lord-Murdoch in Shakedown?

For scandal, go here

[Wilms]

13. CA: Doubts raised about Vote-Pad voting system for disabled voters

Name the voting method, and I'll show you somebody who can't use it. Big deal.

Doubts raised about Vote-Pad voting system for disabled voters

by Nathan Rushton, 4/6/2006

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors approved this week the allocation of funds necessary to implement a pilot program that will provide assistive devices for blind, deaf and disabled voters aimed at making voting more accessible.

New information has raised doubts whether the county is going down the right path.

snip

But at the Humboldt County Elections Advisory Committee meeting Thursday night, elections officials discussed a Wisconsin-based disability advocacy group that is questioning whether the Vote-Pad devices from Vote-Pad Inc. actually comply with federal laws and qualify for local jurisdictions to be reimbursed for federally mandated accessibility requirements.

The Vote-Pad devices, which are similar to an oversized spiral-bound booklet, house the ballots and use several different tactile cues, along with programmable audio tapes, as well as a battery-powered verification tool, to guide disabled voters through the voting process.

Although the Wisconsin State Elections Board approved the Vote-PAD for use in Wisconsin for municipalities that currently hand-count paper ballots, Disability Rights Wisconsin raised concerns in a March 15 letter to the state that the Vote-PAD devices have not been formally tested or federally certified and meet no minimum accessibility standards, according to the letter.

snip

http://www.eurekareporter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ArticleID=9855

[Wilms]

14. CA: Nine appointed to task force to examine San Diego elections

Nine appointed to task force to examine San Diego elections

By: North County Times wire services

SAN DIEGO -- Nine community leaders were appointed to a task force Wednesday by a City Council committee to examine how elections are conducted in San Diego and to make recommendations on changes.

Conducting elections by mail only, instant runoff voting, voter outreach, the ballot tabulation process and public financing of elections are among the issues to be studied by the newly formed Elections Task Force.

The appointments to the panel were unanimously approved by the Rules, Open Government and Intergovernmental Relations Committee.

Each council member and Mayor Jerry Sanders nominated an individual from the community to sit on the task force, which will be chaired by City Clerk Elizabeth Maland and include representatives from the mayor's and city attorney's offices and the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst.

snip

"It is really a shame that the public confidence in our election system Wednesday has eroded to the point that it has," Madaffer said. "I would hope that whatever you all do as part of this task force you can help begin a process of restoring that lack of credibility."

snip

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/04/06/news/sandiego/14_36_404_5_06.txt

[AndyTiedye]

17. What I Sent to my Congressbeing

Please support HR 550 to require a verifiable paper trail in our elections.
Many of us are concerned about the many recent failures of electronic
voting machines resulting in lost votes or the same votes counted many times.
Other election-day failures of electronic machines have prevented people from voting.
There is also substantial concern about election fraud hidden in and by the
machines' programming. Some electronic machines have an uncanny tendency to "default" to Republican and even switch votes from Democratic to Republican right before the voters' eyes. Software updates are made
willy-nilly without regard for state certification requirements (including one
titled "rob-georgia.zip"). The source code is considered a trade secret so nobody gets to look at it.
Whether or not fraud has taken place, the obvious possibility has shaken our confidence in the integrity of the electoral system.

[Wilms]

18. Elections Chief Motivated by a Sense of Purpose

Elections chief motivated by a sense of purpose

Ion Sancho still has passion for job, despite recent headaches

By Jeff Burlew
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

April 10, 2006

snip

"People sort of coalesced behind my complaints about the validity of the election, and I sort of became the community focus on cleaning up the process," he said. "My point of view was, 'This process failed Leon County voters, and I'm going to do everything in my power to ensure that something like that never happens again.' "

snip

"I think his willingness to stand on the principle of assuring citizens that every vote counts has been a contribution of national significance," Thaell said.

snip

When he was born, he was given his middle name in honor of the French philosopher who opposed tyranny and fought for freedom of speech. For his first name, his father chose one of the tiniest particles known to man at that time.

"He told me that he wanted me to know my place - that I was just a small particle in this larger universe, and to remember that, that this universe didn't revolve around me," Sancho said.

snip

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060410/NEWS01/604100324/1010


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x422030

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20. From DUer the Handpuppet: Blackwell Hypocrisy--must read

theHandpuppet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal on Apr-10-06 07:57 AM
Original message
More Blackwell hypocrisy -- you've got to read this one!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2562232

Please give this a recommendation because this slimy rat needs to be outed by the spotlight of truth!!!..
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060409/NEWS01/604090398/1056

Blackwell defensive about stocks
Inside Columbus
BY JON CRAIG | ENQUIRER COLUMBUS BUREAU

COLUMBUS - Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's campaign for governor was in defensive mode last week when his annual financial-disclosure statement revealed he owns stock in companies that produce slot machines, voting machines, tobacco and the morning-after pill.

Blackwell's opponents quickly cried foul, since the Cincinnatian is against abortion and gambling.

In addition to Diebold, the election-machine vendor from North Canton, and International Game Technology of Nevada, Blackwell's multi-million-dollar portfolio includes stock in Halliburton; Weatherford International, a Houston-based oilfield company that moved to Bermuda to avoid paying U.S. taxes; Altria, the tobacco-producing company formerly known as Philip Morris; and Barr Pharmaceuticals, maker of Plan B, the morning-after pill....

[EFerrari]

22. Early New Orleans Voting Begins Around La.

Early New Orleans Voting Begins Around La.

By ALAN SAYRE, Associated Press Writer

Monday, April 10, 2006

Voters lined up in New Orleans and other Louisiana towns Monday for the start of early balloting in the city's primary election, delayed by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Fewer than half New Orleans' residents have been able to return since the Aug. 29 hurricane flooded their city. Many are now living in Texas and Georgia, but they still plan to vote on the leadership that will heavily influence how New Orleans is rebuilt.

"The future of the city depends upon it," said Jerome Steib, a 40-year-old offshore petroleum platform designer who stood in line Monday to cast an early vote.

From Texas, hundreds of people were scheduled to take buses to New Orleans and to satellite voting centers elsewhere in the state this week to cast early ballots. The busing is both practical and symbolic, said Kevin Whelan, spokesman for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/04/10/national/a075032D19.DTL&hw=New+Orleans+election&sn=001&sc=1000

[EFerrari]

23. Evacuees Return for New Orleans Vote

Evacuees Return for New Orleans Vote
By DOUG SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer

Monday, April 10, 2006

(04-10) 09:23 PDT Lake Charles, La. (AP) --

Cara Harrison drove 140 miles Monday just to vote for the next mayor of New Orleans, and she wasn't alone.

Hundreds of Hurricane Katrina evacuees boarded buses before dawn Monday in Texas and other states for the long trip to Louisiana, where they could cast early ballots starting Monday at 10 satellite voting centers set up across the state to give displaced residents a voice.

"We need to be a part of the political process," said Harrison, an evacuee from the flood-devastated Ninth Ward, who said she voted for incumbent Mayor Ray Nagin. She and her sister were the first voters at the Calcasieu Parish courthouse in Lake Charles.

The city's primary election for mayor and other offices is April 22, but fewer than half New Orleans' residents have been able to return to their devastated neighborhoods.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/04/10/politics/p092340D13.DTL&hw=New+Orleans+election&sn=002&sc=987

[EFerrari]

34. LA: ( New Orleans) Bused-in evacuees cast votes

New Orleans: Bused-in evacuees cast votes

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 10, 2006

NEW ORLEANS - Hundreds of Hurricane Katrina evacuees from as far away as Texas and Georgia have signed up to board buses and return to Louisiana in order to vote on the future of New Orleans.

The evacuees are returning to cast early votes today in elections for mayor and City Council, the first major test of the city's post-Katrina electoral system.

The busing is both practical and symbolic, said Kevin Whelan, spokesman for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

"Part of it is obviously turning out real voters. But it's still, obviously, a small percentage of the entire electorate," he said.

http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_national/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19860_4610380,00.html

[EFerrari]

40. LA: Federal observers will watch local balloting

Federal observers will watch local balloting
April 8, 2006

By Dan Turner
[e-mail]

Early voting in the New Orleans municipal elections begins Monday, and in at least two locations, the procedure will be under the watchful eye of the U.S. Justice Department.

The untested, unprecedented balloting will have residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina voting in 10 parishes outside their city. The Justice Department will have observers at Caddo and Ouachita parishes' registrar of voters offices, said Kristen Clarke-Avery of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

The observers will monitor the early voting period "to make sure things proceed smoothly," she said. "We tend not to see problems in places we see observers."

Caddo Parish Registrar of Voters Ernie Roberson said he wasn't aware that observers would be present.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060408/ELECTION/604080312/1002

[EFerrari]

24. PA: Montco fails to get voting machines certified

Montco fails to get voting machines certified

Margaret Gibbons, Special to The Mercury
04/10/2006

NORRISTOWN -- Montgomery County failed to gain state certification for its voting machines, but officials say it is too early to tell what effect that will have on the May 16 elections.

Commissioners’ Chairman Thomas J. Ellis promised, "We will do what we have to do for a safe, fair, effective and efficient election."

The problem, according to county Voter Services Director Joseph R. Passarella, is new software created by Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. to ensure that its electronic voting machines comply with new federal voting requirements.

The county purchased 1,050 Sequoia voting machines in 1996. Those machines were first certified for use by the state in 1995.

http://www.pottstownmercury.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16455991&BRD=1674&PAG=461&dept_id=18041&rfi=6

[EFerrari]

25. FL:State Senator Siplin arrested on fraud charges

State Senator Siplin arrested on fraud charges
BY MARY ELLEN KLAS
[e-mail]

TALLAHASSEE - flnews legis

Orlando state Sen. Gary Siplin, who left Miami seven years ago with a trail of bad debt and a history of close ties to county politicians, was charged this morning with fraudulently using his legislative staff to run his 2004 election campaign.

Sipin, 51, a Democrat who spent the 1990s promoting black professionals in Miami and serving as a bond lawyer for county financial deals, was charged with one felony and one misdemeanor for allegedly forcing three of his former Senate staffers to do campaign work.

''This case centers on a person in a position of trust utilizing approximately three months of labor, funded with taxpayer dollars, for his personal political campaign -- not for the job a state employee was being paid to do,'' said Orange County State Attorney Lawson Lamar said. ``That amounts to grand larceny from the people of Florida.''

A warrant was issued for Siplin's arrest this morning. He could not be reached from comment.



http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/14309634.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_news

[EFerrari]

26. TX: VOTEXAS.org Is Ready to Answer Questions

VOTEXAS.org Is Ready to Answer Questions About Electronic Voting; Voter Education Site Sees Steady Increase in Traffic (press release)

Monday April 10, 1:38 pm ET

AUSTIN, Texas, April 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Many Texans surfing the Web are logging on to VOTEXAS.org to get valuable information about electronic voting. With runoff elections scheduled around the state this week, voters still have time to log on if they have questions before going to the polls.

"I think we should use all the tools at our disposal to educate Texans about voting in this state," Secretary of State Roger Williams said. "Valuable voting information is only a mouse click away, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at VOTEXAS.org."

VOTEXAS.org saw its highest number of visits during the statewide primary last month. The site went online in January and since then has seen a steady increase in traffic. The Web site has important information and directions on the various electronic voting systems used in each of the 254 counties across Texas. Plus, there are links to electronic voting machine manufacturers where one can cast a virtual ballot.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060410/dam036.html?.v=48

(I wonder who is paying for this site. :eyes: )

[EFerrari]

27. OH: Report: Blackwell Accidentally Held Shares in Election-Machine Maker

(Of interest because it is today being reported in Toledo even though the AP report is from 4/4)



Report: Blackwell Accidentally Held Shares in Election-Machine Maker

COLUMBUS (AP) -- Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell revealed Monday he accidentally invested in shares of voting-machine manufacturer Diebold Inc. last year, a period when he was sued by other manufacturers over contracts that Diebold was up for. In a required ethics filing, Blackwell, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, said his investments are directed by an accountant and financial adviser without his knowledge or help, "similar to a blind trust."

He said a manager of his investments account at Credit Suisse First Boston bought 178 shares of Diebold stock at $53.67 per share in January 2005. Blackwell said the manager did not follow instructions to avoid such investments. He said 95 shares were later sold at a loss but he still held 83 shares until discovering them and liquidating them Monday, also at a loss.

He discovered them while reviewing his 2005 investments to prepare for Monday's filing with the Ohio Ethics Commission, a form required of all statewide candidates. "While I was unaware of this stock in my portfolio, its mere presence may be viewed as a conflict and is therefore not acceptable," Blackwell said in a letter dated Monday included in his filing.

http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=4722002&nav=menu34_2

[EFerrari]

28. NM: Losing Hatch mayoral candidate wants election thrown out

Losing Hatch mayoral candidate wants election thrown out

Last Update: 04/10/2006 9:37:51 AM
By: Associated Press

HATCH, N.M. (AP) - A losing candidate for Hatch mayor says she wants a new election.

Kathie Franzoy has filed a petition in state district court alleging improper recording of votes.

She says she wants paper ballots to be used instead of voting machines.

Franzoy alleges a canvassing board should not have entered absentee ballot results into the same voting machine used by voters on Election Day.

http://www.kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=storyviewer&id=25191&cat=SW_NEWMEXICO

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[EFerrari]

29. WV: Officials say machines are easy to operate.

Matthew Thompson
Daily Mail staff

Monday April 10, 2006

Find a job today.
It's time for Kanawha County to say goodbye to punch card ballots and welcome in the new optical-scan voting machines.

For the first time in 25 years, those registered in Kanawha's 183 precincts will have a new method of exercising their voting rights. Voters might be unfamiliar with the machines, but the process is fairly simple.

Starting with the May 9 primary election, voters will have a chance to use optical-scan machines in two different forms.

Most voters are likely to opt for using a black pen provided by the precinct to fill in ovals next to candidates' names on a paper ballot.

http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2006041036/

[EFerrari]

30. OH: County tallies few problems with new vote system

(Is this a planted story? Propaganda Warning!)

County tallies few problems with new vote system

By TOM GIAMBRONIJournal Staff Writer

LISBON - Columbiana County's new voting system hasn't had any

problems similar to those experienced in Summit County, where election officials have been forced to replace memory cards for a second time.

Election boards in both counties switched to optical-scan voting systems manufactured by Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb. Under this system, voters armed with an ink pen or pencil fill in an oval space on paper ballots similar to standardized tests taken by students. The ballot is fed into a scanner machine that records the vote onto a memory card.

Summit County officials reported having problems with 16 of the battered-powered memory cards, which either had low charges or experienced problems relaying vote totals to the main tabulator. Another 12 were deemed suspect because they look like an earlier batch of cards that had to be replaced.

ES&S replaced 350 of the cards Tuesday which were replacements for the first batch. There were no problems with the other 175 cards. Thirty percent of the first batch of cards failed during a previous test.

http://www.morningjournalnews.com/news/story/0410202006_new04news09.asp

[EFerrari]

31. TX (Tarrant Co) Officials say vote problems are solved

Officials say vote problems are solved
By ANNA M. TINSLEY
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

Tarrant County election officials say they've worked out the kinks in the way they tabulated votes in the March 7 primary and believe that problems such as programming glitches that led to massive overcounts of votes that night will not be repeated in Tuesday's runoff election.

Some internal election procedures have also been changed, software altered and the tabulating of some data simplified. And election workers are more familiar with the new electronic voting equipment that federal rules now require nationwide.

"Anything you do, you want to make sure it works properly," said Gayle Hamilton, interim elections administrator for Tarrant County. "Problems we found in the primary have been checked and won't be repeated."

A computer programming glitch for the primary election counted some votes multiple times and boosted the final tally in the Republican and Democratic primaries by as much as 100,000 votes. Officials with Hart InterCivic, the company that made the equipment and wrote the software, said a procedural error led to inflated counts when totals from early voting, absentee-by-mail voting and election day voting were merged on election night.

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/dfw/news/local/14302958.htm?source=rss&channel=dfw_local

[EFerrari]

32. MI: Jackson County gets new way to vote

Jackson County gets new way to vote

Sunday, April 09, 2006
By NATALIE CHAMBERS

The Mississippi Press

PASCAGOULA -- When Jackson County voters go the polls in November to elect a United States senator and representative, they will cast ballots on the county's new Diebold Accuvote TSX Touch Screen voting machines.

With a simple touch of the screen, the county will practically close the door on paper ballot voting of years past.

Jackson County election commission chairman Ben Sanford said TSX machines and a Diebold Optical Scan Machine are replacing more than 200 paper ballot counters lost when Hurricane Katrina barreled through the area Aug. 29.

Sanford said Jackson County received 216 Touch Screen voting machines and an Optical Scanner through the Help America Vote Act of 2002. The scanner will be used for ab-sentee, affidavit and emergency balloting.

http://www.gulflive.com/news/mississippipress/news.ssf?/base/news/1144577807118080.xml

[EFerrari]

33. (Reuters) Immigration rallies sweep through U.S. cities

Immigration rallies sweep through U.S. cities

10/04/2006 18:05

By Karen Jacobs

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Thousands of people wearing white and waving American flags poured into the streets of Atlanta on Monday demanding dignity and rights for millions of illegal immigrants in the United States.

Shouts of "Si se puede!," Spanish for "Yes, we can!" reverberated through the wave of protesters stirred to action by legislation that would turn them into felons and fence off the U.S. border with Mexico.

Among a sea of white T-shirts, some read "We are not criminals." Banners declared "We have a dream," echoing civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

Sweeping across the country from California to Maine, the protests, vigils and marches have snowballed into one of the biggest Hispanic movements since the 1960s when farm workers united under Cesar Chavez.

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/news/newswire.php/news/reuters/2006/04/10/world/immigration-rallies-sweep-through-us-cities.html&template=/news/templates/newswire/news_story_reuters.html

[EFerrari]

35. CA: Disgraced Lawmaker Looms Large In House Race

Disgraced Lawmaker Looms Large In House Race

Polls Open At 7 A.M. On Tuesday

POSTED: 10:29 am PDT April 10, 2006
UPDATED: 11:07 am PDT April 10, 2006

SAN DIEGO -- Ethics matter, and if there are any doubts just consider how the scandal of Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the former GOP congressman doing prison time for tax evasion and bribery, has cast a shadow over a House election.

This solid Republican district on the Southern California coast should be a cakewalk for the GOP in Tuesday's contest to choose Cunningham's successor. Complicating the Republican outlook, however, is Democrat Francine Busby, whose campaign has shone a harsh spotlight on corruption, and an everyone-on-the-ballot format involving 18 candidates.

"You have to be perceived as pure if you want a shot in this campaign," said pollster John Nienstedt.

Cunningham represented California's 50th Congressional District from 1993 until he resigned in disgrace late last year. In March, he was sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison on charges of evading taxes and accepting $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/politics/8597824/detail.html?rss=dgo&psp=news

[EFerrari]

36. OpEdNews: Simplified Voting Systems (vs Paper Ballots)

Simplified Voting Systems
Walter Albrecht

The SVS consists of a “Ballot Book” that has the ballot secured to the last page, or ballot page. The first page of the ballot book when down flat against the ballot page will expose the right hand row of circles or boxes, to be filled in with a pen or pencil to indicate your voting preference. Subsequent pages are narrower so that they expose the next row of boxes for voting.


When the voter has completed the voting he will remove the entire ballot page from the ballot book. The edge near the binding is perforated to make it easy to remove. The voter now folds half of the page over his voting choices concealing then, and places his ballot into the ballot box.

For counting of the ballots, an inexpensive fixture (see below) can be made to aid in the process or you can use an unused ballot by punching out the vote you are to count and folding the ballot page over the ballot. To count, insert the completed ballots into the fold exposing, very clearly, the vote.

In the future when scanners become more reliable and less prone to tampering we have a system in place for automatically scanning and counting.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_walter_a_060410_simplified_voting_sy.htm

[EFerrari]

37. IN: Counties accuse Nebraska company of problematic ballots, machines

Counties accuse Nebraska company of problematic ballots, machines

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS - Three central Indiana counties are blaming a Nebraska company that makes ballots and voting machines for errors they fear could disrupt balloting in the May 2 primary.

With the primary election less than a month away, Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb., is under fire from officials in Marion, Johnson and Hancock counties for incorrect ballots and delays in mailing the ballots and for not updating voting machine technology.

The issues are serious enough that a member of the Indiana Election Commission said Friday the company, which contracts with 27 Indiana counties, could face some sort of action.

"The bottom line in an election, if it impacts one vote, then it's a problem," said Tom John, a Republican on the commission.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/14297834.htm

[EFerrari]

39. IN: As voting nears, firm takes heat

As voting nears, firm takes heat
Problems with ballots and machines blamed on company

By Jason Thomas and Vic Ryckaert
[e-mail]


With the primary election less than a month away, three metro area counties, including Marion, are blaming a Nebraska-based company for problems with ballots and machines.

So far, government officials have managed to correct the errors, but they are worried that more problems could crop up in the weeks leading up to the May 2 primary. That primary includes federal, state and local races.

In Marion County, officials discovered that absentee ballots did not include instructions for the nonpartisan school board elections in Decatur and Washington townships. Absentee voting started this week, and the error that two people are going to have to vote again.

"This particular problem seems now to be fixed, and we got away with it only affecting two people," Marion County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler said Friday during an emergency meeting of the county Election Board. "But given the history of the last two weeks, I'm afraid of what will crop up again."

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060408/NEWS02/604080462/1006/NEWS01

[EFerrari]

38. CA (Marin Co) Board slated to consider voting machine expenses

Board slated to consider voting machine expenses
Staff Report

The Board of Supervisors meets Tuesday to review county boards and commissions. The review will be conducted at 9 a.m. in Room 324A of the Civic Center in San Rafael.

At 10 a.m., the county board will move to Room 330 of the Civic Center to consider spending $775,822 on disabled-access voting machines from Elections Systems and Software Inc., which manufactures a voting machine called AutoMark.

The board also will hear a status report on the progress of installing a new county computerized records system called MERIT. The first phase of the project, the financial records system, is scheduled to go live July 1.

http://www.marinij.com/marin/ci_3691228

[EFerrari]

41. OH: Voting system still has flaws

Voting system still has flaws

Memory cards' failure rate falls to 4%; absentee ballots yet to arrive
By Lisa A. Abraham
Beacon Journal staff writer

Despite promises by an Election Systems & Software official earlier this week that all new computer memory cards for voting machines at the Summit County Board of Elections had been tested twice and would work, 4 percent have failed.

The number of cards that failed -- 14 of 349 -- is small compared with that in earlier testing, when hundreds failed. But any failures are frustrating to elections staffers, who have been dealing with the faulty equipment since February and have only 24 days until the May 2 primary.

``I wasn't surprised because there's been so many batches where there's been problems,'' said Marijean Donofrio, deputy director of the elections board.

At the same time, ES&S failed to keep its promise to have absentee ballots printed and delivered to the board by Thursday -- a date that already was more than a week tardy.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/local/states/ohio/counties/summit_county/14295641.htm

[EFerrari]

42. NY: Survey: Disabled prefer absentee ballots

Survey: Disabled prefer absentee ballots

By Tom Grace

Cooperstown News Bureau

People on the Otsego County Board of Elections’ list of voters with permanent medical disabilities want to vote by absentee ballot, not come to the polls — no matter what new and expensive equipment is installed for them.

"We have 263 people on that list, and we sent letters to them to see what they think," Lucinda Jarvis, the county’s Democratic deputy elections commissioner, said Friday.

The result?

"We heard from about 90 percent, and they said they’d much rather continue voting by absentee ballot," Jarvis said. "Some said, ’Please, don’t take our absentee ballots away.’ Others said, ’You can install new equipment, but I’m not going to use it. I want to vote by absentee ballot."’

http://www.thedailystar.com/news/stories/2006/04/10/dp4.html

[Wilms]

46. Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x422273

This guy Tom Grace is on it!

[EFerrari]

43. Vote woes blamed on subversive conspiracy

Vote woes blamed on subversive conspiracy
Alleged Venezuelan tie called crackpot idea

By Gary Washburn
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 7, 2006, 9:17 PM CDT

Venezuela gave Chicago Ozzie Guillen, the beloved manager of the World Series champion White Sox. But is the South American country, with secrecy and stealth, also exporting vote fraud here?

As angry aldermen lambasted the head of the company that sold Chicago new, controversial voting machinery, Ald. Edward Burke (14th) suggested Friday that the hardware could be part of a Venezuelan conspiracy to subvert American elections.

Jack Blaine, president of Sequoia Voting Systems, faced the hostile questions for about two hours at the City Council hearing. He acknowledged some problems with his company's equipment in the March 21 primary.

But he flatly denied Burke's allegation that Venezuela's leftist president, U.S. critic Hugo Chavez, might be pulling strings behind the scenes.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-060407voting,1,5791216.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

:rofl:

[EFerrari]

44. Election reform plan proposed (Erosion of voter confidence)

Official cites eroding faith in process
Sunday, April 09, 2006
By WENDY PLUMP
Special to The Times

PRINCETON BOROUGH -- A federal elections official, speaking at a colloquium at Princeton University on Friday, offered four modest but pointed solutions to what he called the "alarming erosion" of American voter confidence following the last two presidential elections.

The solutions put most of the onus for improving the credibility of national and local elections on election administrators and the vendors who serve them.

The official, Ray Martinez, a U.S. Election Assistance Commission vice chairman, was the keynote speaker at "Making Every Vote Count: A Colloquium on Election Reform Legislation." The two-day event drew scholars, policy makers and advocates from all levels of the election community, including members of the U.S. Justice Department.

"One of the most alarming trends in our country is the continual erosion of voter confidence in the accuracy of our tabulated results," Martinez said. "The 2000 presidential election has adversely affected the opinion of the average American on our electoral process.

http://www.nj.com/news/times/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1144572323224260.xml&coll=5

[Wilms]

45. Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x422062