Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday, April 15

[livvy]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.



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

If you can:
1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

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.



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

[livvy]

1. Italy: Berlusconi Suffers Setback Over Recount

April 15, 2006
Berlusconi Suffers Setback Over Recount
By IAN FISHER

ROME, April 14 — Silvio Berlusconi's fight to remain prime minister suffered a possibly fatal blow on Friday when the Interior Ministry announced that there were not enough contested ballots to overturn the thin victory of his challenger, Romano Prodi.

Earlier this week, after the exceedingly tight elections, the ministry had put the number of contested ballots far higher, making it possible that a still-incomplete recount might change the results.

The new numbers crushed that hope, even if Mr. Berlusconi were to win every contested ballot.

"Our victory is confirmed," Mr. Prodi told reporters near his home in Bologna.
more


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/15/world/europe/15italy.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

[livvy]

2. Berlusconi's Allies Start to question His Insistence on Recount

April 14, 2006
Berlusconi's Allies Start to Question His Insistence on Recount
By IAN FISHER

ROME, April 13 — Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi seemed increasingly isolated on Thursday as even some allies cast doubt on whether a recount would change his narrow loss in last weekend's parliamentary elections, and on his claims of widespread fraud.



"Checks have always been made but I don't think they will change the results," said Lorenzo Cesa, leader of the Union of Christian Democrats, part of Mr. Berlusconi's center-right coalition, speaking to reporters in Rome.

Another ally, Ignazio La Russa, of the National Alliance, said: "I haven't heard about any fraud. I have heard of some serious irregularities, but that isn't a novelty."


Mr. Prodi, 66, said he remained "serene" that Mr. Berlusconi would not win. "He is absolutely unable to admit the truth," he told reporters. "It's not a surprise but, you know, it is only a problem of a couple of days in which everything will be certified."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/14/world/europe/14italy.html

[FogerRox]

21. Italy's Prodi Demands Concession, Apology

Italy's Prodi Demands Concession, Apology

Center-Left Leader Prodi Demands Italy Premier Berlusconi Concede, Apologize for Alleging Fraud

By ALESSANDRA RIZZO

ROME Apr 15, 2006 (AP)— Center-left leader Romano Prodi demanded anew Saturday that Premier Silvio Berlusconi concede defeat in Italy's tight election and apologize for alleging fraud after the number of contested ballots dwindled dramatically.

The conservative premier, however, remained defiant, describing himself late Friday as a "fighter" and an "optimist" and saying he still hoped to be declared the winner.

He also indicated in a letter published Saturday in Italy's main daily, Corriere della Sera, that he was not giving up.

"At least on the basis of the popular vote, there's no winner and no loser," Berlusconi wrote.

The official results of the contested ballot count have not been announced but were certain to confirm Prodi's narrow victory in the April 9-10 parliamentary elections after the Interior Ministry on Friday sharply reduced the number of contested ballots.

more-

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1845917

[livvy]

3. Salon: Whitewashing the New Orleans Vote?

Whitewashing the New Orleans vote?

Deficient polling places and confusing absentee ballots could shut thousands of black residents out of the city's mayoral election.

By Tracy Clark-Flory

April 15, 2006 | Kemberly Samuels, a former resident of the hurricane-ravaged 9th Ward now living in Houston, took a three-hour bus trip last Monday to cast her ballot during early voting for the New Orleans mayoral election. "I didn't trust the absentee process because I didn't want a repeat of what happened to the people in Florida," Samuels told Salon in a phone interview. The 52-year-old African-American teacher was part of an ongoing effort by civil rights groups to bus into Louisiana any voters who were scattered by Katrina to neighboring states. "I felt that it was my right as a citizen to vote in person, and that it would send a message that we want to have a say in who will run our city."

Samuels, who said she hasn't missed an election in the 34 years since she began voting, has spent the seven months since Katrina volunteering with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, an advocacy group for low-income families, to educate displaced New Orleans residents about the upcoming elections. She fears that tens of thousands of potential voters may be effectively shut out of the April 22 primaries and the May 20 general election.


In late March, New Orleans lawyer and civil rights advocate Tracie Washington sent eight visiting UCLA Law School students to photograph the 76 polling places sanctioned by state officials for the election. They discovered at least seven locations to be inaccessible to the disabled. One polling location on Eastover Drive in New Orleans East, a predominantly black neighborhood that was devastated by Katrina, is just the bare skeleton of a building, with exposed wiring and no walls. Photographs of the polling places, reviewed by Salon, show several buildings with no apparent way to accommodate the disabled, including one with a zigzagging set of 15 stairs. According to Washington, a majority of the 76 sites do not meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, due to uneven sidewalks, a lack of wheelchair ramps, and inadequate parking.


Secretary of State Al Ater shrugged off concerns about accommodating displaced residents. "With a 39 cent stamp and by doing it by mail, I don't know how much more accessible you can get," Ater told Salon. More than 17,000 requests for absentee ballots had been received by the Tuesday deadline, according to the Orleans Parish Registrar of Voters office. Of those requests, 70 to 75 percent have come from African-Americans, according to Ater, who reiterated, "No one has been left out of this process."

more on the effects and importance of this election to residents


Left: Eastover Country Clubhouse polling site in New Orleans East, April 2. Right: Wheelchair-inaccessible polling site at a residence in the Central City neighborhood, March 30.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/04/15/neworleans_vote/index_np.html

[livvy]

25. The Nation: Suppressing the N.O. Vote

Suppressing the N.O. Vote

editorial | posted April 13, 2006 (May 1, 2006 issue)

New Orleans has long been pivotal in the struggle for black voting rights. During the Civil War, free blacks there demanded suffrage; their efforts resulted in Lincoln's first public call for voting rights for some blacks in the final speech of his life. Once these rights were won, New Orleans blacks took an active part in politics, leading to the establishment of the South's only integrated public school system. But rights once gained aren't necessarily secure; after Reconstruction, blacks in New Orleans lost the right to vote. As Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote at the time of the Civil War, "revolutions may go backwards."

This is what we are seeing now, as New Orleans prepares for municipal elections on April 22. These elections are set to take place even though fewer than half the city's 460,000 residents have returned and the vast majority of those displaced outside Louisiana are African-Americans--the result of what Representative Barney Frank calls the Bush Administration's policy of "ethnic cleansing by inaction."

How did this happen? How did New Orleans become the most obvious symbol of the "backwards revolution" in voting rights that's been going on for at least twenty-five years? The answer is a states' rights mentality that pervades not just the Louisiana legislature but also the Bush Administration. As the Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote recently, the Administration "seems intent on suppressing the African-American vote in New Orleans and in Louisiana."

Starting months ago, civil rights advocates raised concerns about trying to hold an election in New Orleans with so many black residents spread all over the country, most in temporary, often shifting housing and likely to have a hard time finding out who's running, let alone getting and returning absentee ballots. Let evacuees cast their votes in major centers of the diaspora, the advocates urged, much as Mexicans and Iraqis living in the United States have participated in their home country elections by voting at satellite stations.

more

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060501/editors

[livvy]

4. RFK Jr. May Run For NY Office

RFK Jr. May Run For NY Office

April 14, 2006 5:00 a.m. EST

Denise Royal - All Headline News Staff Writer

New York, NY (AHN) – Robert Kennedy Jr. is considering running for office in New York State. The son of the late New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate says he’s not sure which office he might seek. He made these new revelations in an interview in the May issue of Elle magazine, on newsstands late Thursday.

In the interview, the 52-year-old chief attorney for the environmental group Riverkeeper says he’d consider running for governor or senate, if Hillary Clinton’s seat becomes available. Clinton is running for re-election in 2006 and has not said whether she will seek the presidency.

Kennedy announced in early 2005 that he would not run for the Democratic nomination for attorney general this year -- a contest that would have pitted him against his former brother-in-law, Andrew Cuomo, who recently divorced Kennedy's sister, Kerry Kennedy.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7003176598

[livvy]

5. OH: Court Cites Watergate in Ruling on Taft Records

Court cites Watergate in ruling on Taft records
By JULIE CARR SMYTH AP STATEHOUSE CORRESPONDENT

COLUMBUS - A divided Ohio Supreme Court decided Thursday to establish Gov. Bob Taft’s right to keep the public from viewing certain records sought as part of a government scandal, echoing Richard Nixon’s fight over the Watergate tapes.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 United States v. Nixon ruling over release of the Watergate tapes served as a foundation for the Ohio high court’s 5-2 decision, which for the first time allows the governor to keep many policymaking documents private.

The Ohio justices rejected, however, the notion that Taft has sweeping executive privilege to withhold all communications with his Cabinet directors and policy advisers. It set up a three-step process for releasing such records when they are in the public interest.



Sharply dissenting, Justice Paul Pfeifer noted that Ohio has gone without executive privilege for its governor for 200 years. He said invoking the Nixon decision — which ultimately did not apply to the tapes — was “appropriate only on an ironic level.”
more


http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=280377

[livvy]

6. TN: Party Has Candidate Taken Off Ballot

Saturday, 04/15/06
Party has candidate taken off ballot

Associated Press

A candidate who supports the racist movement of eugenics is being kept off the Aug. 3 Republican primary ballot at the request of the Republican Party, Tennessee Election Coordinator Brook Thompson said yesterday.

The state GOP's executive committee passed a resolution last month that denied James Hart as a "bona fide" Republican and authorized Chairman Bob Davis to take steps to remove Hart from the ballot as a Republican candidate for the 8th Congressional District.

"The Republican Party sent us a letter saying he's not a bona fide member," Thompson said.

Hart's campaign sent out a release yesterday stating, "Brook Thompson has issued his fatwa that James Hart's name will be stricken from the ballot. ... "

There's only one more sentence that is a response by Thompson. He said he was only "abiding by the statute."

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060415/NEWS0206/604150339/1016/NEWS02

[JimDandy]

7. IN: Law upheld: Voters need photo ID

April 15, 2006


Law upheld: Voters need photo ID
Federal judge says plaintiffs failed to demonstrate hardship

By Richard D. Walton

If you're planning to vote in the May 2 primary, you'll have to show a state or federally issued photo ID.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker upheld Indiana's stringent voter-identification law. Barker said plaintiffs, including the Indiana Democratic Party, failed to back up their contention that the ID law is unduly burdensome and would keep many people from casting ballots.

Barker wrote in her 126-page opinion that the opponents' arguments would require "the invalidation" not only of the photo ID statute, "but of significant portions of Indiana's election code which have previously passed Constitutional muster."

A number of states require photo identification for voters, but Indiana's law is considered among the most stringent because it offers few exceptions to the requirement.

<snip>

But (Judge) Barker wrote: "Despite apocalyptic assertions of wholesale voter disenfranchisement, plaintiffs have produced not a single piece of evidence of any identifiable registered voter who would be prevented from voting" because of the statute. The judge had particular scorn for a report prepared by an expert hired by the Democrats that said 989,000 registered voters in Indiana do not possess a BMV-issued driver's license or photo ID.

more>

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060415/NEWS02/604150478/-1/ZONES01

[livvy]

8. Opinion: The Minority Maker (A Rightwing Viewpoint)

The Minority Maker
The clever GOP strategy for defeat in November.


Thursday, April 13, 2006 12:01 a.m.

If Republicans lose control of Congress in November, they might want to look back at last Thursday as the day it was lost. That's when the big spenders among House Republicans blew up a deal between the leadership and rank-in-file to impose some modest spending discipline.

Unlike the collapse of the immigration bill, this fiasco can't be blamed on Senate Democrats. This one is all about Republicans and their refusal to give up their power to spend money at will and pass out "earmarks" like a bartender offering drinks on the house. The chief culprits are the House Appropriators, led by Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis of California and his 13 subcommittee chairmen known as "cardinals." If Republicans lose the House--and they are well on their way--Mr. Lewis deserves the moniker of the minority maker.

For weeks, the Republican Study Committee, a group of fiscally conservative Members, had been negotiating a spending outline with the House leadership. But when they finally struck a deal last week, Mr. Lewis refused to go along and threatened to defeat the budget on the House floor if Speaker Denny Hastert brought it up. With Democrats opposing the budget as a matter of party unity, GOP leaders gave up and left town for Easter recess without a vote on their budget blueprint for 2007.

Political hardball isn't new to Congress, but what's especially notable here is the utter cluelessness by Mr. Lewis and his friends about how much trouble they're in and how to get out of it. The rank-and-file Members who haven't yet gone native in Washington realize that their biggest problem is the disappointment of Republican voters at Congress's free-spending ways. If those voters stay home in November, Mr. Lewis will soon be known as Mr. Ranking Member.

more

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008226

[livvy]

9. Democrats Take Lead Over Republicans Amid Bush Woes, Poll Shows

Democrats Take Lead Over Republicans Amid Bush Woes, Poll Shows

April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Democrats, buoyed by President George W. Bush's problems, have taken commanding leads over Republicans on most issues and in voter preferences for the November congressional elections, a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll shows.

The poll found that registered voters favor Democrats by 49 percent to 35 percent as the party they would like to see win their congressional district this year. Democrats are preferred even on issues that often favor Republicans, such as taxes and the budget deficit, and lead by wide margins on traditional Democratic strengths like Social Security and health care.

While Republicans maintain an edge in handling terrorism and the war in Iraq, the party's disapproval rating among all Americans has jumped 6 percentage points since January, to 50 percent. That corresponds with a souring national mood, as 65 percent say the U.S. is on the wrong track.

``These numbers indicate deep trouble for the party this fall,'' said Vin Weber, a former Republican lawmaker from Minnesota with close ties to the Bush administration. ``For House Republicans, it means that a lot of seats that they have been thinking of as safe are going to be competitive.''

more

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aQMbbEisDy5c&refer=top_world_news

[livvy]

10. TX: Democrats Use DeLay As Foil To Rally Party

Apr 13, 7:45 PM EDT

Democrats use DeLay as foil to rally party

By KELLEY SHANNON
AP Political Writer

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- With their slate of fall candidates chosen, Texas Democrats are looking to rebuild their party with the help of a Republican: outgoing U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay.

Statewide Democratic candidates, gathering Wednesday for a sort of pep rally at the party's Texas headquarters, mentioned DeLay repeatedly while portraying top Texas Republicans as corrupted by big money donors.

"We're stuck with Tom DeLay, Rick Perry and the rest of the corrupt Republican leadership who's auctioned off the state Capitol to the highest bidder," said Democratic state chairman Charles Soechting. "Their pay-to-play style of politics has put special interests over the best interests of our state."

The Republican Party of Texas rejected the criticism as a desperate tactic.

more

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DEMOCRATS_DELAY?SITE=TXSAE&SECTION=POLITICS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-04-12-21-34-03

[livvy]

11. IN: Voting Machines Pulled

April 14, 2006

Voting machines pulled
Ballot uncertainties force county to forgo using its new touch-screen models
By Brendan O'Shaughnessy and Mary Beth Schneider
[e-mail]
April 14, 2006

New problems with Marion County's balloting system led election officials Thursday to abandon touch-screen voting machines required by federal law for the May 2 primary.

The announcement came as the state's top election official said he will hold hearings into whether two suppliers of Indiana voting machines, including Marion County's, violated state law.

Problems with the ballots could mean election officials in Indianapolis run afoul of federal law.

"This is not a willful announcement of breaking the law," Marion County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler said. "It's a report that we can't physically comply because the vendor hasn't provided what they are supposed to provide."

more

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060414/NEWS02/604140479/-1/ZONES04

[livvy]

12. A Collection of electionline.org News Pieces 4/13/06

on edit: This is supposed to be its own post, not a part of the previous one.


electionline Weekly – April 13, 2006
electionline.org

I. In Focus This Week

Clarification: An earlier version of the story below emailed to readers contained an editing error that implied some records from the California DMV were “only six months old.” The original version correctly noted that the records were “up to six months old.” We regret the error.

Database Troubles Arise in California, Elsewhere

By M. Mindy Moretti (Subheadings of article below)

Thousands of registration applications rejected in California

Nevada to use back up system

Problems arise during mock election in Indiana


State Could Rekindle Strange Relationship with Full-Face Ballot Requirement

By Kat Zambon
electionline.org

Connecticut’s on-again, off-again relationship with the full-face ballots has come full circle. The requirement, which turned out not to be a requirement at all, could now become state law, even though it seems few want it.
More of this article at link.


II. Election Reform News This Week (Headings and/or 1st sentences of articles only. More and links to articles can be found on the Electionline page at the bottom of this post.)


1. A former U.S. Department of Justice attorney charged with determining whether to pre-clear Georgia’s voter identification law penned a law review article advocating polling-place photo ID from all voters last spring, angering critics who say the staffer had made up his mind on the issue before reviewing it.

2. The top election official in one California county recommends that voters who have objections to either optical scan or touch-screen voting machines “make their choice now and not wait until election day,” The Vallejo Times Herald reported.

3. While Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State Pedro Cortes expressed optimism that the state will meet the May deadline for new machines throughout the state, locally, concerns are growing that machines cannot deployed in time, The Associated Press reported in a story published on PennLive.com.

4. Plans to deliver new equipment to Allegheny County, Pa. could become even more complicated.





http://www.electionline.org/Newsletters/tabid/87/ctl/Detail/mid/643/xmid/184/xmfid/3/Default.aspx

[livvy]

13. Eight States Apply to Vote Early in 2008

Eight States Apply to Vote Early in 2008



By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN, Associated Press WriterFri Apr 14, 10:52 PM ET

At least eight states applied Friday to join Iowa and New Hampshire in voting early in the 2008 Democratic presidential contest.

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada and South Carolina had put in a bid by Friday afternoon. Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera said he wasn't sure how many more states might apply.

The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee agreed last month to let several other states more racially diverse than Iowa and New Hampshire choose their presidential favorites early.

Under a process that still must be approved by the Rules Committee and the full national committee, one or two states would be allowed to hold caucuses between Iowa and New Hampshire, while another one or two would hold primaries shortly after New Hampshire. In 2004, both Iowa and New Hampshire votes were in January. The rest of the states would hold their primaries and caucuses beginning in early February.

more

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060415/ap_on_re_us/primary_scramble;_ylt=Al0nB3GxlhbE2H8442WpVTuyFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

[livvy]

14. NH Candidate Released From Hospital

N.H. Candidate Released From Hospital

Fri Apr 14, 9:57 PM ET

A congressional hopeful who crashed his car and got lost in the woods for more than a day was released Friday from the hospital where he was treated for a concussion, frostbite and other injuries.

"This has been a great ordeal I've gone through. I'm thankful to be alive and thankful to be going home to them," Gary Dodds said at a brief news conference with his wife and two daughters behind him.

Dodds, 41, of Rye, spoke from a wheelchair. He cannot walk or drive and faces extensive rehabilitation.

He described hitting a guardrail on the snowy Spaulding Turnpike while driving alone on April 5, being hit by air bags, then being in cold, deep water as he somehow crossed the Bellamy River.

more

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060415/ap_on_el_ho/injured_candidate;_ylt=AnfC6.hwNO2t9BFqKrEO_aayFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

[livvy]

15. CO: Aiming For the Perfect Tally - Local Grassroots Group Pushes for E.R.

April 13, 2006

Aiming for the perfect tally
Local grassroots group pushes for election reform


Lora Chamberlain gets the discussion going as the meeting of the Four Corners Election Protection Project gets under way Monday evening. Citing the inadequacies of the current AccuVote scanning machines, the group is working to mandate hand-counted ballots for La Plata County’s official tally instead./Photo by Todd Newcomer.


by Adam Howell

A grass-roots push to make local elections transparent is gaining ground. A local group is working to mandate hand-counted ballots for La Plata County’s official tally instead of using machines to calculate local votes.

An electoral reform group called the Four Corners Election Protection Project is reaffirming voting rights with a campaign to make local elections as open, transparent and observable as possible. Chief project organizer, Dr. Lora Chamberlain, says La Plata County’s current Diebold AccuVote optical scanning ballot-reading machines are insecure, error prone and more expensive than the more archaic technique of hand-counting the paper ballots. Specifically, Chamberlain says the memory cards in optical scanners can be pre-programmed to miscount votes, as was demonstrated by a Florida election official and the Black Box Voting reform organization to reporters in the infamous “Harri Hursti Hack.”

Project member Brian Brown said that while hand counting is prone to slight human error, the opti-scan machines are legendary for their ability to be hacked, noting how prone software is to errors.

“A simple way of looking at it is that with hand-counted ballots you’d need to have an impossible level of collaboration to significantly alter the results,” Brown said. “Whereas with electronic voting systems, one malfunctioning machine, or one corrupt person could change the results of one or more machines, and that could change the results countywide.”

more of interesting article below

http://www.durangotelegraph.com/telegraph.php?inc=/06-04-13/localnews.htm

[livvy]

16. TrueVoteMD Releases Documents Detailing Diebold Failures....

Recap of the 2006 Legislative Session
By the end of the legislative session on April 10, the Maryland Senate failed to pass legislation for a Voter-Verified Paper Ballot Audit Trail. In an effort to understand how and why that happened, let us recap this legislative session.
Read more...
TrueVoteMD Releases Documents Detailing Diebold Failures, Violations of State Law

Questions raised about the accuracy of the SBE’s public statements

In 2003, TrueVoteMD launched an effort to re-establish transparent, accurate, recountable elections in Maryland when it became apparent that the Diebold voting system was hackable, defective, and budget-busting. We thought that simply educating our State Election Board about the ever-growing list of errors, breakdowns, hacks and uncertain election results around the country would result in the simple solution advocated by experts: voter-verified paper ballots for recounts and audits. What we found instead was a surprising refusal to look at those facts.

Then it got worse. We learned about the use of uncertified software in violation of state law. We learned about voting system meltdowns - from voters- but also from insiders who were afraid to go public. We learned about missing candidates, screen problems, and machines failing to record any votes. We learned about a five month 'statewide lockdown' of the voting machines while Diebold scrambled to explain the meltdown in the months after November 2004.

Worst of all, we witnessed a State Elections Administrator who at every turn covered up the facts to protect a private corporation which had been hired to count our votes. Now, under court order, the State Administrator has been forced to turn over documents which show a long standing pattern of misleading legislators, the press and the public and lying under oath.

The Exhibits below are culled from thousands of pages of evidence with more to come. We hope that these facts will help Maryland and the nation find its way back to a voting system worthy of the confidence of the American electorate.

more

http://www.truevotemd.org/

[livvy]

17. Website: count paper ballots.com

Count Paper Ballots (CPB) is a nationwide citizen group dedicated to proving that privatized elections lead to mistabulated & fraudulent vote counting. We advocate hand counted, citizen secured, paper ballots as the ballot of record, counted in full view (of citizens, election day and are doing detailed audits of 2004 Election in GA and OH.



http://countpaperballots.com/

[livvy]

18. Website: Where's the Paper Trail for Each Ballot Cast?

Where's the Paper Trail for Each Ballot Cast?

.....A Web Site Dedicated to Election Integrity.....
.....Home of the Fraudulent Voting Machine.....

What's the problem with computers in elections? The blue display below is a teaching demonstration called the Fraudulent Voting Machine. Please use it to run some elections, and then read the explanation below it.

The demo starts by asking you to choose a "machine test" or "real election." Machine tests give accurate final tallies, but real elections might not! This is because, in a real election, one particular candidate is programmed to win.

Is it realistic to demonstrate a program that works two different ways? Yes! If you read the news you know that at least one major manufacturer of voting systems does something similar -- they use one program during tests, and a different program during real elections. And many manufacturers install "patches" -- which means different programming -- just before an election.

The demo runs an election with two candidates, John Doe and Mary Smith. In a "real election" if you enter any votes, Mary Smith will win. Fraud can look totally authentic -- to see for yourself, run a real election and enter more votes for John Doe, or give both candidates the same number of votes. After running your elections, read more below!

There is much more information posted after the voting demo.

http://www.wheresthepaper.org/

[livvy]

19. Voting on Paper Ballots

Voting on Paper Ballots

Part of the Voting and Elections web pages
by Douglas W. Jones
THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA Department of Computer Science

Overview

The classic Australian of paper ballot provides an excellent introduction to the system of checks and balances used to assure voter privacy and an accurate vote count in the face of a variety of threats. In this system, first used in the province of Victoria, Australia in 1858, voters are issued paper ballots at a polling place, and after the ballot is marked, voters deposit it in a ballot box. After the polls close, the box is opened, the ballots are counted by the election judges, and the totals are reported.

On the face of it, this system looks misleadingly simple, but the fact that this system was first introduced in the mid 19th century and the fact that it took decades before variations on this system to be adopted by other jurisdictions is strong evidence that this was not a trivial invention!

The threats that must be accounted for in a paper ballot election include ballot box stuffing and dishonest ballot counting. In addition, we must guard the privacy of the voter, so that voters are not subject to harassment (or worse) because of the way they cast their vote.

An analysis of the problem of carrying out an honest election begins with an enumeration of the different parties in the process. For each party, we identify of the threats that party poses and the countermeasures we can take to meet these threats. Historically, the identification of threats has frequently developed very slowly, with each threat being clearly addressed only after serious improprieties have been widely publicized. Many paper ballot voting systems in use today fail to address several threats, and even in the realm of paper ballots, technological changes threaten some of the countermeasures that have traditionally proven to be effective.

* The rules given here governing the conduct of an election are not intended to represent the rules used in any particular jurisdiction, but rather, these rules are but one example of a reasonable refinement of the Australian ballot.

More on the how-to's of running a paper ballot election...interesting piece!

http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/paper.html

[livvy]

20. Paper Ballots from History: Website

I ran across this site in my morning search for news. Although this certainly isn't news, I thought it was pretty interesting from an historical aspect.



"For most of the 19th century, political parties controlled the printing and distribution of paper ballots, also known as party tickets. State election laws typically specified the dimensions and thickness of the paper and the size of type to be used.

The rest was left to the issuing parties, local party operatives, and candidates. This resulted in various ballot forms and styles—and a potential for confusion and fraud."

Some cool posters and pictures from the site:


The First Vote, Harper's Weekly

Following the Civil War, African American males won the right to vote with passage of the 15th Amendment.


Stuffer's ballot box

Some ballot boxes actually helped commit outright fraud. This dishonest "stuffer's ballot box," featured in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper in 1856, concealed a sliding false bottom and side.


Paste pot and paster ballot

Many state election laws allowed voters to modify party tickets. Voters could "split" their ticket by scratching out the name of one candidate and writing in another, or by gluing on a strip of paper (called a paster) printed with the name of yet another person.

more history at the link


http://americanhistory.si.edu/vote/paperballots.html

[FogerRox]

22. Brad BLog :Abramoff 'Lurking in Background' of Ohio 2004, Diebold, HAVA

ROLLING STONE: Abramoff 'Lurking in Background' of Ohio 2004, Diebold, HAVA Issues
More MSM Coverage of BRAD BLOG Reporting...Same Lack of Appropriate Attribution...

More MSM Coverage of BRAD BLOG Reporting...Same Lack of Appropriate Attribution...
Before I register my complaint here with Matt Taibbi's otherwise excellent article on the background of "Mr. Republican" Jack Abramoff and "The secret history of the most corrupt man in...

Before I register my complaint here with Matt Taibbi's otherwise excellent article on the background of "Mr. Republican" Jack Abramoff and "The secret history of the most corrupt man in Washington," as published in the April 6th edition of Rolling Stone, I'll point to this smart graf amongst many such smart grafs in a very well-researched and informative piece:

One of the ugliest developments in American culture since Abramoff's obscure Cold Warrior days in the Eighties has been the raging but highly temporary success of various "smart guys" who upon closer examination aren't all that smart. There was BALCO steroid scum Victor Conte ("The smartest son of a bitch I ever met in my life," said one Olympian client), Enron's "smartest guys in the room" Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay, and, finally, "ingenious dealmaker" Jack Abramoff. Somewhere along the line, in the years since the Cold War, Americans as a whole became such craven, bum-licking, self-absorbed fat cats that they were willing to listen to these fifth-rate prophets who pretended that the idea that rules could be broken was some kind of earth-shattering revelation -- as though they had fucking invented fraud and cheating. But to a man, they all turned out to be dumb, incompetent fuckups, destined to bring us all down with them -- not even good at being criminals.

more-

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002692.htm

discussion thread-

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x423397

[Wilms]

23. PA: Republicans claim machine suit could have been averted

And Democratic fellow at-large Councilman John DeFazio's spokesperson says, "The optical scan machine does not have a voter-verifiable paper trail.".

What is he talking about?

Republicans claim machine suit could have been averted

By PATRICK CLOONAN, Daily News Staff Writer

04/14/2006

A day after a lawsuit was filed against Allegheny County's choice of electronic voting machines, Republican county councilors said an option ignored by the county could have averted legal action.

"Numerous experts spoke at several county meetings and expressed the only logical choice was to select the optical scan machines," Councilman Dave Fawcett, R-At Large, said Thursday.

snip

DeFazio could not be reached for comment, but a spokesman for the county executive said the Republicans are wrong on two counts and violate Pennsylvania's constitution with their third.

"The ES&S iVotronic machines are fully HAVA compliant," spokesman Kevin Evanto said. "They have been certified by both the U.S. government and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The optical scan machine does not have a voter-verifiable paper trail."

snip

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16480829&BRD=1282&PAG=461&dept_id=182121&rfi=6


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x423510

[FogerRox]

24. CA : Voter REG nightmare: Sen Bowen: "that's a big problem"

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The primary election is less than two months away in California and problems are starting to emerge with the state's new system for registering voters.

Thousands of people who thought they were registered are finding out they're not because of some tight new rules.

Starting this year, providing a driver's license is required by law for people registering to vote for the first time or changing their registration.

"People are concerned. You know, that's my personal information -- you don't need to know it," Sacramento County Registrar Jill LaVine said.

>snip<

"In Los Angeles County, there are tens of thousands of people who are affected. It really varies by county. But if two voters don't get to vote because the database problem, that's a big problem," state Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach, said.


More-

http://www.kcra.com/news/8707614/detail.html

This picture is from the DFA L.A. Meet-up web site:

[livvy]

26. The American Prospect: The Outrage Gap

The Outrage Gap
The last thing Democrats need is an electorate on the fence.

By Terence Samuel
Web Exclusive: 04.14.06


Bob Dole could not have been the first one to ponder the question, but he was on to something when he asked of his fellow Americans: “Where's the outrage?”

Back then, during the 1996 presidential campaign, the country was at peace, the economy was roaring along, President Clinton was talking about building a bridge to the 21st century -- whatever the hell that meant -- and he was thinking about how to improve race relations in America.

So what if there were skeletons in his closet waiting to come out. There was a feeling that the guy was trying to move the country somewhere, even if he only wanted to take baby steps. So the answer to Dole’s question was a shrug, he lost the election, and Clinton’s approval ratings stayed high, even when revelations tumbled out of the White House and he got impeached.

President Bush’s approval ratings have begun to resemble his waist size, so we know people are tired of him and his way of doing things. But weary voters are not the same as angry voters. These two types of voters don't behave the same way, and Democrats who are counting on the deepening disenchantment with Bush to take them over the top in November need to pay close attention.

more

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=11399

[Kurovski]

27. Kick to the top!

MMMM...chocolate Easter Bunny...

[MelissaB]

28. Livvy, this is the most beautiful daily news thread I've ever seen.

I can only imagine how much time it took you to do this. Thank you!