Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday, April 23, 2006

[MelissaB]

Free Press special

Free Press uncovers evidence of ballot tampering in Warren County, Ohio

Bob Fitrakis
April 19, 2006

After locking out all media observers and declaring a Level 10 Homeland Security Alert, the Republican-dominated Warren County, Ohio reported the vote tally in the wee hours of the morning on November 3, 2004 -- and gave George W. Bush a surprising 14,000 vote boost. Two election workers told the Free Press that the ballots had been diverted to an unauthorized warehouse where they had been possibly stuffed. That is, punched for Bush only. Maps were supplied to the Free Press showing the locations of the warehouse and the Board of Elections.

Warren County officials refused to allow the Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism to handle the ballots, but they did allow us to photograph a few. Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D., has analyzed the ballots for the Free Press and concluded that there is evidence of fraud in Warren County. The ballots as photographed with Dr. Phillips' commentary below each ballot are included here for the first time.

The Free Press predicted early on that the ballots would be found punched only for Bush in Warren County. The Moss v. Bush lawsuit pointed to Warren, Butler and Clermont Counties as the three counties that provided more than Bush's entire margin in the Buckeye State: Bush won Ohio by 118,000, and 132,000 votes were supplied in these three southwestern Republican counties.

Now, for the first time, the Free Press is releasing images of the obvious election fraud in Warren County. The Free Press will continue its ongoing investigation in Ohio despite stonewalling by Republican state officials. See the images by clicking on the link below.

snip/link to ballot images
Please look at these ballots
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2006/1355

Discussion thread thanks to Wilms here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x424806

Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x424740

[MelissaB]

1. Conyer's letter to Blackwell concerning Warren County

One Hundred Eighth Congress
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Committee on the Judiciary
2138 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington DC 20515-6216
[phone]

December 2, 2004

The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell
Ohio Secretary of State
180 East Broad Street, 16th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215

Dear Secretary Blackwell:

We write to request your assistance with our ongoing investigation of election irregularities in the 2004 Presidential election. As you may be aware, the Government Accountability Office has agreed to undertake a systematic and comprehensive review of election irregularities throughout the nation. As a separate matter, we have requested that the House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff undertake a thorough review of each and every specific allegation of election irregularities received by our offices.

...snip


I. Counting Irregularities
A. Warren County Lockdown – On election night, Warren County locked down its administration building and barred reporters from observing the counting. When that decision was questioned, County officials claimed they were responding to a terrorist threat that ranked a “10" on a scale of 1 to 10, and that this information was received from an FBI agent. Despite repeated requests, County officials have declined to name that agent, however, and the FBI has stated that they had no information about a terror threat in Warren County. Your office has stated that it does not know of any other county that took these drastic measures.

In addition to these contradictions, Warren County officials have given conflicting accounts of when the decision was made to lock down the building. While the County Commissioner has stated that the decision to lockdown the building was made during an October 28 closed-door meeting, emailed memos – dated October 25 and 26 – indicate that preparations for the lockdown were already underway.

This lockdown must be viewed in the context of the aberrational results in Warren County. In the 2000 Presidential election, the Democratic Presidential candidate, Al Gore, stopped running television commercials and pulled resources out of Ohio weeks before the election. He won 28% of the vote in Warren County. In 2004, the Democratic Presidential candidate, John Kerry, fiercely contested Ohio and independent groups put considerable resources into getting out the Democratic vote. Moreover, unlike in 2000, independent candidate Ralph Nader was not on the Ohio ballot in 2004. Yet, the tallies reflect John Kerry receiving exactly the same percentage in Warren County as Gore received, 28%.

We hope you agree that transparent election procedures are vital to public confidence in electoral results. Moreover, such aberrant procedures only create suspicion and doubt that the counting of votes was manipulated. As part of your decision to certify the election, we hope you have investigated these concerns and found them without merit. To assist us in reaching a similar conclusion, we ask the following:


Much more: http://www.yuricareport.com/2004%20Election%20Fraud/ConyersLetterToBlackwell.html

[MelissaB]

2. "lunatic fringe"

Blackwell defined by '04 vote, supporters and opponents say

By JAMES DREW
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF

...snip

"Except for the political lunatic fringe, nobody will make the case that this election was handled in an extremely partisan fashion," Mr. Blackwell added. "I managed successfully a bipartisan elections system across 88 counties."

More: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060423/NEWS09/604230377/-1/NEWS

:rofl:

[MelissaB]

3. May 2, Rep. primary in Ohio

GOP rivals counseled to go hard to the end
Blackwell, Petro need to pull out all the stops, a former candidate says

Sunday, April 23, 2006
Joe Hallett and Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


"I’ve got candidates fighting as if they were Democrats," lamented Bennett, whose party’s 12-year stretch controlling state government is threatened by scandals and possible voter fatigue over one-party rule.

"I look at the money being spent and, in this environment, I would prefer to have the money spent on the general election."

...snip

Conventional political thought holds that Blackwell’s core group of supporters, including many religious conservatives, tend to be better-motivated voters than Petro’s base of more traditional establishment Republicans.

"Blackwell does seem to have a more secure base," said Paul Beck, an Ohio State University political scientist. "The real question is how well that base gets mobilized in the primary."


More: http://www.columbusdispatch.com/?story=dispatch/2006/04/23/20060423-E1-04.html

[MelissaB]

4. IN: Counties weigh options heading into election

Counties weigh options heading into election

Associated Press
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Officials throughout the state still aren't sure whether they'll be able to use their voting software in next week's primary.

Elections officers in at least five counties may have to break election law by using uncertified software on their election equipment, unless the software's developer gets emergency approval of the products.

Huntington, Noble, Wells, Kosciusko and Adams counties in northeastern Indiana rely on MicroVote Infinity voting machines, which use the uncertified software.

The Indiana Election Commission is working with Indianapolis-based MicroVote General Corp. to certify the software in the new machines. But there is no guarantee that will happen before the primary.

That leaves the counties facing a dilemma - switch to paper ballots or some other alternative, or follow Allen County's lead and use the machines despite a state law that forbids using the uncertified software.


More: http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/14412046.htm

[MelissaB]

5. IN: Officials to violate state law in voting

Officials to violate state law in voting

Allen County will use software that hasn't been certified for its primary elections
Associated Press

FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- Allen County will use voting software not certified by the state in the primary to try to keep the county from breaking federal law, officials have decided.

The county Election Board voted Thursday to use the MicroVote Infinity voting machines despite a state law that forbids using the uncertified software.

Board member David Wright said the board had little choice because 333 of the county's 405 voting machines are from Infinity.

"We're in an impossible situation right now," he said.
If the county does use the uncertified software, it could be sued either by the state or by a candidate in a contested race, said board member Andy Downs.


More: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060423/NEWS02/604230432/1006/NEWS01

[MelissaB]

6. PA: Schooled on new voting machines

Schooled on new voting machines
Training begins for county election staff to learn about equipment to be used in May 16 primary.

By KRIS WERNOWSKY [e-mail]
WILKES-BARRE – Leonard Piazza held up the big red bag for his audience of 20 to see.

“This is literally the key to the election that will come back to us,” Luzerne county’s election bureau director stressed.

On election night, May 16, the secured bag will hold the unofficial computer printout of the vote tallies that polling-place representatives will return to the courthouse once polls close.

Piazza and representatives from Election Systems & Software hosted two crash-course training sessions for about 30 people hired to help train poll workers to work the county’s new voting machines. The trainers got their first chance to interact with the newly implemented touch-screen technology at a series of advanced training sessions Saturday.

The expert users, in turn, will begin holding less technical training sessions at one of four regional training centers tomorrow, when poll workers will learn how to use the new ATM-like iVotronic machines.


More: http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/14409527.htm

[MelissaB]

7. NC: Debut of new vote machines is May 2

Debut of new vote machines is May 2
Voters in some areas might experience lines

CELESTE SMITH
[e-mail]

Union County voters will face new voting machines -- and perhaps in some cases, lines -- when they go to the polls on May 2.

Each of the 53 precincts will have one new voting machine, where paper ballots are fed into a scanner. This meets an N.C. law passed last year that requires a paper record of each electronically recorded ballot.

But the county board of elections had wanted 19 more machines from the state, for a total of 72. That would have been enough to place two pieces of the equipment in several larger precincts in western Union to limit voters' wait to vote in the primaries, according to elections director Shirley Secrest.

Almost all N.C. counties need new voting equipment because of the state law -- but the state elections board approved only one vendor, Election Systems and Software, to provide the machines. Secrest said the state will furnish Union County with those additional machines in time for Election Day in November.


More: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/states/north_carolina/counties/union/14408712.htm

[MelissaB]

8. Howard Dean on Electronic Voting Machines, Diebold and Otherwise...

Howard Dean on Electronic Voting Machines, Diebold and Otherwise...

"These machines are a problem. This is not some Internet conspiracy; this is a serious problem that faces American democracy. These machines are not reliable and they shouldn't be used. We should not be using machines in this country where the results of the vote can't be verified after the fact. Period. Any machines."
-- DNC Chair, Gov. Howard Dean, 4/19/06

David Grossman (formerly of MediaMatters.org, currently of PoliticsTV.com) attended a breakfast with Howard Dean the other day. He asked Dean about his concern over Electronic Voting Machines. Dean's answer was interesting (transcript of complete answer is below.)

While I'm encouraged somewhat by Dean's response -- he seems to have a general grasp of the concerns -- it seems to me that he's still vastly "misunderestimating" the disastrous situation now afoot in the country in the wake of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). He just doesn't yet seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation and the extent of the problems and dangers posed to our democracy.

To that end -- in case there are any of Howard Dean's peeps reading this -- I will make the same offer I've previously made to people close to John Kerry, Wes Clark and, personally today, to Russ Feingold (more on that later). Namely, I'll be happy to brief Dean and/or his staffers by phone, in person, or any other way they might like to full explain what we are now dealing with in this country, and how incredibly important it is that they pay attention and take action now. They may feel free to contact me here, if interested in taking me up on the offer.



Dean also speaks, in his full response, about his experience a year or so ago hacking a Diebold GEMS central tabulator with "someone" on "live TV". That "someone" was Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org and the live TV was a CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown which Dean was Guest Hosting. The clip of him hacking the machines with Harris is right here. He added, in his response, that he didn't know for sure, but it "could have been a program that was elaborately programmed to fool me into thinking I was doing something I really wasn't doing."

More at Brad Blog: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002722.htm

[MelissaB]

9. 'Daily Voting News' For April 22, 2006

'Daily Voting News' For April 22, 2006
by JGideon


http://www.opednews.com

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org


news here: http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_jgideon_060422__daily_voting_news__.htm

[MelissaB]

10. India: electronic voting machine "errors"

Brisk voting in progress at a polling booth in the first phase

THE first phase polls to the Bengal assembly held in the three ‘red clay’ districts of Midnapore west, Bankura, and Purulia remained free, fair, and peaceful keeping alive the tradition of the state under the Left Front. The Bengal CPI(M) and the Bengal Left Front have congratulated the political maturity of the people of the state for this to have been possible.

The polls were held in 21 assembly constituencies in Midnapore west, in 13 constituencies in Bankura, and for 11 seats in Purulia.

The turnout was impressive with close to 70 per cent polling completed in a large number of booths by the time it was 4.30 pm. Big queues continued to form even after the official closing time of five in the afternoon, outside of most of the polling stations and in all three districts

The big and naggingly continuous noise made in a section of the media that the Maoists’ vote boycott call would be a ‘huge success,’ has sounded as embarrassingly hollow after the polls as the anti-communist rhetoric that these scions are paid to churn out, day in, and day out.

...snip

Polling commenced slightly behind schedule in some booths because of mysterious malfunctioning of the Electronic Voting Machines or EVMs. It was found, for example in booths under the Balarampur constituency in Purulia, that the press on any button on the machine would produce a vote in favour of the Trinamul Congress. The errors were subsequently rectified.


More: http://pd.cpim.org/2006/0423/04232006_bengal%20polls.htm

[rumpel]

12. India: Bengal Opposition Cry For Re-Poll Turned Down

People's Democracy

Vol. XXX
No. 17

April 23, 2006

81% Polling In Three Districts

THE usual hue-and-cry indulged in by the Bengal opposition notwithstanding, the notion of a re-poll has not been entertained at the official level after the first phase polls were over.

The Election Commission has noted that nothing untoward had happened during the poll day to merit a re-poll. Voters cast their ballots in 5460 booths in the three districts of Midnapore west, Bankura, and Purulia on the first day of the five-phase poll in Bengal.

Preliminary estimation done by the state’s election department reveals that just under 81 per cent of the electorate has exercised their franchise on the first day of the Bengal assembly elections.

A full bench of the Election Commission in Delhi then went through the concerned documents sent up from Bengal and opined that nothing warranted re-poll in the state. Re-polls were held in just two booths in the Jhalda constituency in Purulia where the electronic voting machines had malfunctioned.

In a statement, the Bengal Left Front has expressed its surprise at the kind of noises being made from certain quarters to frown on the high rate of polling experienced during the first phase of the polls.

The Bengal Left Front has pointed out that 97 per cent of the voters in Bengal are equipped with electoral photo identity cards (EPIC).

Digital cameras were in operation in the booths themselves to prepare EPICS for those few who did not have them.

Nothing has been heard anywhere that a voter’s franchise has been exercised by a proxy.

The Bengal Left Front is of the firm opinion that any talk about re-polling based on ‘high’ percentage of votes cast would serve to undermine the basis of parliamentary itself.

Elsewhere the Supreme Court has rejected a case preferred by Trinamul Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi and two others asking for setting aside the results of the 2004 parliamentary polls in Bengal when 35 seats were in the fray. The basis of the allegation was a so-called unpublished report of an election official.

Meeting briefly at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan on April 19, the Bengal Left Front has appealed to everybody concerned to also make the rest of the phases of the assembly elections in the state, free, fair, and peaceful.

http://pd.cpim.org/2006/0423/04232006_bengal-1.htm

[rumpel]

35. India: PIL takes up cause of soldiers denied voting rights

Chandigarh Newsline

Chandigarh, April 23: A public interest litigation (PIL) against Chief Election Commissioner of India, B.B. Tandon has been filed by the All India Veterans Core Group (NGO), Sector 71, Mohali, president Brig H.S. Ghuman (retd). Possessing quasijudicial powers, the Chief Election Commissioner is the competent authority to take up the PIL and file a reply. The PIL has been sent to the Commissioner via registered mail on April 10.

According to the PIL, around 2.5 million soldiers and their family members are denied the fundamental right of casting a vote in state and Central government elections from the place of their posting. The PIL adds that every soldier, who is posted by the government, should be taken up in the electoral list by the Election Commission before any state or Central government elections.

The NGO has send the copies of the PIL to the Law Minister, Government of India; Defence Minister, Government of India, New Delhi; Captain Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister, Punjab; All Army commanders and the Adjutant General, Army Headquarters, New Delhi.

Some of the points which the PIL makes are: All Indians, including soldiers, under oath of allegiance to the Constitution of India, have ‘‘equal right’’ without any restriction to be registered at their place of posting and exercise franchise freely since they are subjected to all taxes at their place of posting. But it is not implemented by the state government servants on election duty. Is it intentional or due to lack of knowledge of election rules?

Likewise, political leaders in 1965 pulled out a ‘‘legislation’’ that the ‘‘postal ballot’’, which is actually applicable to the ‘‘service voters’’ posted abroad, would also be available to the soldiers posted within India. However, it was not clarified that it is an ‘‘option’’ nor any matching facility was created for the soldiers to be registered in the electoral rolls at their place of posting, knowing well that they are a ‘‘gated community’’.

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=179367

[MelissaB]

11. New Orleans:

Tears flow with votes at polls

Sunday, April 23, 2006
By Bruce Nolan
and Gwen Filosa%%par%%Staff writers

The most remarkable election in New Orleans history looked every bit the part Saturday, as tens of thousands of voters driven out of their devastated neighborhoods last summer returned to cast ballots in unfamiliar places. Many tearfully embraced neighbors they had not seen in months and vowed to rebuild their community through the power of their votes.

...snip


Challenge promised

Beth Butler, a community organizer with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, said a number of residents called ACORN's office to complain that commissioners improperly told them they could not vote without photo ID.

But Jay Main, an assistant New Orleans district attorney, said complaints coming into his office were "relatively light."

Even though voting appeared to unfold without major incident, several civil rights groups continued to attack the legitimacy of the election. They said displaced voters, most of them African-American, were faced with unreasonable voting obstacles and were effectively disenfranchised.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, whose Rainbow/PUSH coalition long has sought to delay the election, said opponents "absolutely" would challenge the outcomes as illegitimate.

In a news conference linked to a meeting of the Democratic National Committee in New Orleans, Jackson called on the party to take a stronger role in defending displaced New Orleans voters' rights. He said the Bush administration and "states-righters," a term for civil rights opponents in the 1950s and 1960s, hoped to use Katrina to disenfranchise black voters and undermine the historic 1965 federal Voting Rights Act.


More: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1145777769261150.xml

[rumpel]

15. New Orleans residents vote for their future

Chicago Tribune

Nagin, Landrieu look headed for a runoff

By Jeff Zeleny, Tribune national correspondent. Tribune news services contributed to this report
Published April 23, 2006

NEW ORLEANS -- The citizens of New Orleans, many of whom remain displaced by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, cast ballots Saturday in a historic mayoral election that will shape the future of their crippled city.

After traveling by bus from Atlanta and Houston, by car from across Louisiana or the Gulf Coast or simply by walking through their still-ravaged neighborhoods, voters formed steady lines at polling places to choose a leader to guide the city through reconstruction.

It was the first election since the storm struck nearly eight months ago.

"Some folks are seeing people they hadn't seen since the hurricane," said Secretary of State Al Ater, who is presiding over the election. "It is the first return of the community."

Mayor C. Ray Nagin appeared headed for a runoff election with Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, with almost three-quarters of the votes counted late Saturday. Nearly two dozen candidates were vying for mayor. If no one receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a second election will be held May 20.

With 71 percent of precincts reporting, Nagin led with 34 percent of the vote, followed by Landrieu with 29 percent and businessman Ron Forman with 19 percent.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0604230384apr23,1,6443176.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

[MelissaB]

13. MS: RICHARD BABB: 'Trust, but verify' good advice

RICHARD BABB: 'Trust, but verify' good advice
4/23/2006 8:26:14 AM
Daily Journal

...snip

Bugs in the system


As usual with top down solutions, there are always a few bugs in the system. In this case, however, there are not only a few bugs but one rather large cockroach running around. That is: how do you know that the little computer man inside the machine is correctly counting the votes?


Anyone who has had limited experience with computers know that they crash and burn on a regular basis. Just last month in Tarrant County, Texas; 100,000 phantom votes were recorded in that state's primary. And in July 2005, in Florida - the state which prompted all this techno response - a Finnish security expert, Harri Hursti, walked up to a Diebold machine and flipped the results using a generic memory card, leaving no trace of tampering. Mr Hursti, who apparently possesses a dry wit, placed a message on the machine in just a matter of seconds: "Are we having fun yet?"


Apparently, the answer was no because an embarrassed election official immediately shut down the machine. One can presume that Diebold officials were neither amused nor having fun when they discovered that one of their machines could be hacked so easily. After all, who wants a hackable computer, especially one designed to safeguard the fundamental right of a democracy?


The Mississippi Diebold machines have little paper scrolls attached to them. At first, we were told that these printers would not be necessary, but after a hue and cry was raised, they were then added - at extra expense of course. Supposedly, these paper trails allows for verification of votes in case of a recount and also allows the voter to verify that the machine correctly recorded his or her vote. However, just because the paper shows one thing on the scroll doesn't answer whether the vote is being tabulated correctly.

More: http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=217768&pub=1&div=Opinion

[Wilms]

19. One more snip

"Computerized voting is apparently a bad idea whose time has come. Absent a repeat of the Boston Tea Party, I guess we citizens are going to be forced to take our Democracy on faith." - Richard J. Babb

[rumpel]

14. AR: County election commission gets ready for upcoming elections

NWAnews.com

By Gary Lookadoo Staff Writer // [e-mail]
Posted on Sunday, April 23, 2006

BENTONVILLE — Members of the Benton County Election Commission didn’t have a checklist but managed to examine what has been done and what they still must do to get ready for upcoming elections.

Commissioners decided to move the polling place some voters will be using. The commission moved county voting Precinct 43 — in which people had been voting at the Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers. In upcoming elections, that precinct’s voters will be cast their ballots at the nearby Millwood Christian Church.

Voters in Precinct 44 already vote at the same church, and those voters will continue to vote there also, with two separate polling places set up in the church, commissioners said.

Two preferential primaries — one for Democrats and the other for Republicans — will be held May 23, along with nonpartisan judicial elections.

http://nwanews.com/bcdr/News/33889/

[rumpel]

16. Blackwell: GOP rivals counseled to go hard to the end

Blackwell, Petro need to pull out all the stops, a former candidate says
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Joe Hallett and Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The last time Ohio had a Republican governor’s race this good was 1986, and Paul E. Pfeifer finished third.

But he’s learned a thing or two since then, and although it might not be the most judicious advice for an Ohio Supreme Court justice to give, Pfeifer said it’s time for Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and Attorney General Jim Petro to come out swinging.

Politics ain’t beanbag, after all, and Petro and Blackwell have only nine days left to score points with GOP voters. If the candidates’ flaws are laid bare en route to the May 2 primary, well, that’s OK, Pfeifer said, because Democrats will expose them eventually.

"You might as well get it all out on the table, because your opponent in the fall surely will, warts and all," he said. "Having it laid out in the primary is not a bad thing, because then the primary voters will be able to make a discerning judgment about who has the most strength in the fall."

Ohio GOP Chairman Robert T. Bennett knows there’s wisdom in Pfeifer’s words, but hates to hear them.

"My hope is that we emerge from this primary without too much blood on the floor within the family," Bennett said.

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/?story=dispatch/2006/04/23/20060423-E1-04.html

[rumpel]

25. Blackwell defined by '04 vote, supporters and opponents say

Toledo Blade

Article published Sunday, April 23, 2006

By JAMES DREW
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF

COLUMBUS - It was shortly after the 2004 presidential election that Brian Burgess concluded that Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has what it takes to be governor of Ohio.

"Total determination and total steadfastness against the media desire to turn Ohio into Florida," said Mr. Burgess, referring to the furor over hanging chads, butterfly ballots, and recounts that delayed the final outcome of the 2000 election.
"A lot of Republicans felt that Ken Blackwell prevented that from happening," added Mr. Burgess, a Cincinnati-area resident and co-founder of an Internet-based group that encourages citizens to run for public office.
President Bush sealed his re-election in Ohio in 2004, aided by a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage that Mr. Blackwell led and voters approved. Those victories helped make Mr. Blackwell, Ohio's chief elections officer, the front-runner in the GOP nomination for governor.
A former Cincinnati mayor, Mr. Blackwell became state treasurer in 1994 and is serving his second term as secretary of state.
Over the past two decades, Mr. Blackwell has emerged as one of the nation's most prominent conservatives through his support of President George H.W. Bush and now his son, President George W. Bush; former U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp (R., N.Y.), billionaire publisher Steve Forbes, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R., Ga.).

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060423/NEWS09/604230377/-1/NEWS

[rumpel]

17. GA: Cox, Taylor reach out to black voters

Contra Costa Times

Posted on Sun, Apr. 23, 2006

SHANNON McCAFFREY
Associated Press
ATLANTA - Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor seems attached at the hip these days to former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young. The pair hit six cities in a tour of Georgia this weekend. And Young's face gets nearly as much air time as Taylor's in the candidate's first campaign ad.

Secretary of State Cathy Cox was all smiles last week as she helped unveil a new, larger portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. at the state Capitol. Cox was surrounded by surviving members of the King family.

Cox and Taylor were both in the pews on Easter Sunday at the 10,000-seat New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, a majority black megachurch.

As the Democratic primary for governor gathers steam, both candidates are aggressively courting black voters, expected to be critical in determining who will face Republican incumbent Sonny Perdue in November.

Blacks made up 47 percent of the electorate in the 2004 Democratic primary. And the most recent state voter registration records from this spring show that 177,852 more blacks have joined the active voter rolls since the same period in 2004. That's led to some speculation that Georgia could see its first majority black primary this year.

Taylor - with his press-the-flesh brand of old-school politics - has enjoyed strong support in the black community.

"I notice when he comes into a black church he's right at home," said state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, a leader in the civil rights movement.

"He has that charisma and electricity about him that I see in (former President) Bill Clinton. I see that same quality in Mark," Brooks said. "He's one of us."

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/politics/14412085.htm

[rumpel]

18. OR: Registration deadline near

By Edward Russo
The Register-Guard
Published: Sunday, April 23, 2006

Tuesday is the deadline for Oregon residents who want to register to vote or change their political affiliation in time for the May 16 primary.
New Oregon residents or people who changed their residence, mailing address or name must complete an Oregon voter registration card and bring or mail it to their county's elections office by Tuesday.
Lane County's election office is at 275 W. 10th Ave., Eugene. The voter registration cards are available at several places, including the elections office, post offices and Department of Motor Vehicles outlets. The cards must be postmarked no later than Tuesday.

Voters who want to change their political party must submit a new registration card to the elections office by 5 p.m. Tuesday, said Annette Newingham, chief deputy county clerk.
Residents who are not registered to vote will not receive a mail-in ballot. Ballots should start appearing in mailboxes on Friday and Saturday.
The primary election features races for federal, state and local offices. Republicans and Democrats will determine their gubernatorial nominees for the November general election. Local measures, such as school levies in the Bethel and Siuslaw school districts, also will be on primary ballots.

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/04/23/c1.cr.voters.0423.p1.php?section=cityregion

[rumpel]

20. TN: ID law may trip TennCare enrollees

Tennessean.com

Sunday, 04/23/06

Without birth certificates, even U.S. citizens could lose coverage

By CLAUDIA PINTO
Staff Writer

A new federal law aimed at keeping illegal immigrants off the nation's public health rolls could have the unintended result of bumping thousands of legitimate TennCare recipients off the program, state officials say.
As of July 1, those who sign up for TennCare, the state's expanded Medicaid program, or renew their benefits will have to prove their U.S. citizenship by presenting a birth certificate, a passport, or another "satisfactory" form of identification that has not yet been determined.

The requirement, in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 passed by Congress and signed by President Bush Feb. 8, has alarmed civil rights and patient rights advocates as well as state officials.
"Many of our clients — both in rural areas and inner cities — either don't have or don't have access to a birth certificate," said Michelle Johnson, director of communications for the Tennessee Department of Human Services, which determines TennCare eligibility. "And most certainly, very few of our clients have passports to establish their citizenship status, as has been suggested for use as documentation by proponents of this policy."
The severity of the situation here will depend on what alternative documentation federal authorities decide is satisfactory, officials said.
"So far, we have not been provided with that guidance," Johnson said. "There will be a briefing next week and we hope to learn more then, but we may not learn all the specifics."
State officials said they are most concerned about elderly people who were born in rural areas. They note Tennessee was much more rural decades ago and many people were born at home.

http://www.dicksonherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060423/NEWS07/604230380/1297/MTCN02

[rumpel]

21. NM: Border debate expected to decide Senate race in Arizona

New Mexican

By JENNIFER TALHEIM | Associated Press
April 23, 2006

Experts say election will depend on who is more motivated to go to the polls — conservative voters or Latinos

WASHINGTON — Nowhere in the country may immigration play a bigger role in politics than in Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, in which incumbent Republican Sen. Jon Kyl is seeking a third term.

Seven months from Election Day, Democrats and immigrantrights activists are hoping to take advantage of anger about the issue and mobilize Latino voters behind Kyl’s Democratic challenger, Jim Pederson.

Meanwhile, experts say Arizona Republicans are using immigration to keep conservative voters engaged, hoping their support for more restrictions makes conservatives eager to go to the polls for Kyl despite dissatisfaction with the national GOP and President Bush.

“It is clear this is going to trigger a lot of voting that might not have otherwise occurred,” said pollster Earl de Berge of the Phoenix-based Behavior Research Center.

Experts say the result will turn on who is more motivated to go to the polls come Nov. 7.

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/42671.html

[rumpel]

22. Louisiana Weekly: Hispanic Mobilization: Next Steps

By Ron Walters, NNPA
April 24, 2006

The recent mobilization of Hispanics in many cities around the country was an exceptionally important event that has serious political consequences.However, for it to yield the fruit that is intended, there should be some equally serious changes.

First, the mass demonstrations had the advantage of being narrowly targeted to the situation of undocumented workers in a way that tied it to the legislation and provoked clear and direct messages. This movement rejects the attempt to criminalize undocumented immigrants and feels that its contribution to the American economy earns it a place of respect and permanence as citizens in this country.

From my reading of the demonstrations they would accept a guest worker status as outlined in the McCain-Kennedy legislation.

This bill, that was approved by the Judiciary Committee 12-6, would allow the nearly 12 million undocumented workers to apply for temporary resident status for six years. Then, they could pay a $2,000 fine for entering illegally, and if they maintain a clean work, police, tax and other records they could apply for a green card to work legally and get in line for citizenship.

This bill, however, was derailed by Right Wing Republicans who want to scuttle anything that looks like an amnesty program, which is what they consider the "guest worker" bill. And so, they began offering amendments on the floor to what supporters of McCain-Kennedy thought was a closed deal.

http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20060424f

[rumpel]

23. IN: Are you ready for the primary? ( Voter Information )

http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060423/ELECTION01/604230307/1152

by:
-- Dan Shaw/Journal and Courier

Source: Tippecanoe County Board of Elections

[rumpel]

24. CA: CAPITOL NOTEBOOK: TIMES SACRAMENTO BUREAU (General Issues)

The Mercury News

Posted on Sun, Apr. 23, 2006

snip

Registered voters

PARTY TALK: The percentage of registered Democrats in California has dropped from this time four years ago. And that would be a great thing for Republicans except, well, the percentage of GOPers also has declined.

So, which party is moving up in popularity? The "none of your darned tootin' business" party, that's who.

The number of voters who register "decline to state" has consistently increased throughout the years to the point where it now represents 18.3 percent of the electorate, according to the Secretary of State. That's up from 14.7 percent in April 2002.

Democrats better hope that it's the left-leaners who are leading this trend.

Since 2002, Democratic registration has fallen from 45.2 percent to 42.7 percent, while Republicans have dropped only slightly from 34.9 to 34.6 percent.

Sure, Democrats can find some comfort in knowing that they still have an 8-point advantage over Republicans. But look at it this way: Since 2002, the state has added 326,869 registered voters, but there are actually 241,000 fewer Democrats and 67,000 more Republicans.

And more than 600,000 people who for whatever reason have decided to keep their political persuasion private.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/14410387.htm

[rumpel]

26. Advocate,CT: Voting maneuvers eroding democracy

Published April 23 2006

Democracy sure beats dictatorship, but the margin is thinning. One reason is technology. Computers now allow us to create legislative districts that are all exactly the same size. But they also allow us to predetermine whether each district will be Democratic or Republican -- gerrymandering on steroids.

Thus it won't much matter whom you vote for in next fall's legislative races. The incumbent will win. Knowing this, in many districts challengers won't even bother to emerge. And if the two major parties have already horse-traded control, as is likely, why even bother to vote? Or contribute. Send your bucks to those few districts that are still competitive.

It's similar for Congress. Connecticut has two seats that are ironclad Democratic, but three that tilt to the Republicans. But wait: Aren't these the same voters who have created an overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature? Plainly, it's all in who gets to draw the lines. And those are always folks who have a personal interest in the outcome.

We can thank Tom Delay for demonstrating to the world how it's done. His agents took away five Democratic congressional seats in Texas and gave them to Republicans, simply by packing most Democratic voters into a few urban districts.

A paper printout for each voter, much like your credit card receipt at the gas pump, is claimed to solve that problem. Maybe. And strangely, it took tremendous lobbying by reform groups to get our own secretary of the state, Susan Bysiewicz, to agree just to that minimal protection.

Then there is the question of who even gets to vote. People with photo IDs, that's who. But what if you don't drive, or you work two jobs, or are remote from the Department of Motor Vehicles office, or never received a birth certificate? Sorry. In Georgia, they're especially cute, with no DMV office in the whole city of Atlanta. Connecticut is not so different with its widely spaced offices making it insultingly difficult for the poor and disabled to get credentialed. The idea, it's claimed, is to frustrate fraud. But fraud, while not unknown among Nutmeggers, has always been peanuts. The real purpose of the photo ID is to discourage certain people, largely the poor, from voting. Claims of "fraud" are used like claims of "terrorism," to scare people into ready acceptance of needless control.

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-nor.collinsapr23,0,3926686.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines

[rumpel]

27. KY: State cuts thousands from its voter rolls

Kentucky.com

Posted on Sun, Apr. 23, 2006

CHECK WITH TENN., S.C. FINDS DUAL REGISTRANTS
By Ryan Alessi
HERALD-LEADER FRANKFORT BUREAU
FRANKFORT -- When moving to a different state, most people remember to inform the postal service about their new address and get a fresh driver's license.

A lot of folks, however, forget to tell their former state they'll no longer be voting there.

As a result, an untold number -- perhaps in the hundreds of thousands nationwide-- are registered to vote in more than one state, leaving the system open to voter fraud and raising questions about the integrity of elections.

Kentucky recently joined with two other Southern states in a trailblazing effort to compare voter files to root out those who -- whether inadvertently or purposely -- were registered to vote in two places.

What officials found surprised them: 16,000 names of registered Kentucky voters who showed up on either Tennessee's or South Carolina's list.

The Kentucky Board of Elections earlier this month lopped from its voter list 5,995 people apparently now living in Tennessee. At the same time, Tennessee took off roughly the same number of Kentucky registrants from its voter rolls, said Sarah Ball Johnson, executive director of the Kentucky Board of Elections.

Even more striking, Johnson said, was that Kentucky crossed off the names of 2,110 people who are believed to be residents of South Carolina, which also struck a similar number of Kentuckians from its list.

"It was a little surprising," Johnson said. "We just didn't think that many people moved between the two."

On the bright side, she said, the review didn't find anyone who voted in two states in the same election.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/14408631.htm

[rumpel]

28. Egypt: Democracy slumbers Egypt slowly becoming a family dynasty

San Francisco Chonicle

Lindsay Wise
Sunday, April 23, 2006

Cairo -- Four years ago, Osama al Gazali Harb received an unexpected telephone call from Gamal Mubarak, the son of President Hosni Mubarak, inviting Harb to join a new committee dedicated to promoting political and economic reform in the Arab world's largest country.

"I thought that if the genuine will to reform was there, Egypt could be transformed into total democracy in two or three years," recalled Harb, editor of the nation's leading foreign policy journal, Al Siyassa al Dawliyya. "This was my dream."

So, Harb became a prominent face of the government-led reform effort, serving as an appointed member of the upper house of parliament and as secretary general of the Egyptian council of Foreign Affairs. But last month, he abruptly resigned from Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP). "There is no serious intention for full democratization of the country," he said. "More and more people are losing trust in the whole process."

Today, Harb finds himself attacked regularly as a political opportunist by the same pro-government media that once published his upbeat editorials. His experience, some political observers say, is a cautionary tale for would-be dissenters and a sign that Mubarak is shying away from democratic reforms.

"Anyone who speaks out about reform is accused," said Hesham El-Bastawissi, a member of Egypt's High Court, who has been referred to a disciplinary council for possible expulsion from the bench after speaking out against election fraud in the most recent presidential and parliamentary elections. "They don't want fair elections," said El-Bastawissi. "They just want to put on a show for the West."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/04/23/ING47ICR7I1.DTL

[rumpel]

29. NC: Voter registration challenged

Sentinel

BY CHARLEY BUNYEA, SENTINEL STAFF

At a hearing held by the Dare County Board of Elections (BOE) on Tuesday, Manteo resident Malcom Fearing challenged Angela Khoury's right to vote in the Town of Manteo on the basis that she provided a false residence on her voter registration application.

According to North Carolina law, persons shall not intentionally give false information, written or oral, in order to register to vote or to obtain a ballot and on the basis of North Carolina General Statute 163-85(a), "Any registered voter of a county may challenge the right of any person to register, remain registered or vote in such county."

After an examination of evidence provided by Fearing and testimony from Khoury, the BOE unanimously voted to dismiss the charge against Khoury's right to vote and accepted that the address provided on her voter registration application is her permanant residnece.

The BOE dismissed the charge on the basis of NCGS 163-57(1), which states that, "A residence must be defined for registration and voting and that place shall be considered the residence of a person in which that person's habitation is fixed, and to which, whenever that person is absent, has the intention of returning."

Fearing challenged Khoury on the basis that her listed residence address at 305 Essex Square in Manteo was provided as false information on her voter registration application and that her real residence is at 230 Mother Vineyard Rd in Manteo which is the home of her husband Daniel Khoury.

According to Khoury's testimony, the 305 Essex Square address which also serves as her husband's law office is in fact the domicile in which she lives.

According to North Carolina law a domicile is defined as, "One's permanent dwelling place of indefinite duration, as distinguished from a temporary place of abode and." Board of Election officials also said that the domicile must have kitchen, sleeping and bathing facilities which Khoury verified.

http://obsentinel.womacknewspapers.com/articles/2006/04/22/politics/pols253103.txt

[MelissaB]

30. Land Shark: 6th Circuit opinion (4-21-06) Holds Op-SCan & P-cards Unconsti

Re: Stewart v Blackwell, a to-be-published 6th Circuit case that came down Friday April 21, 2006; opinion at http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/06a0143p-06.pdf

On Wednesday evening our time (Thursday New Zealand time) as you may know the "Cramdown" essay by DUs Autorank and Land Shark was published on the NZ Scoop site, arguing that DREs are being crammed down the throat of American democracy by the very structure of HAVA as it interacts with voting rights. See http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0604/S00233.htm

On Friday, the Cramdown just became force feeding with a firehose.

This federal court 6th Circuit published decision held that punch card and central count optical scan systems were, RELATIVE TO TOUCH SCREEN DRE's, unconstitutional under the Equal Protection of the US Constitution as interpreted by Bush v Gore. To the extent voting technologies have differing error rates, it creates a huge force to require statewide DREs (or other technologies). Uniformity avoids such equal protection claims.

However, as pointed out Wednesday in the cramdown piece on Scoop, HAVA heavily favors DREs in its structure and probably in its outright intent (though we need not resolve the question of intent to see and prove the actual impact in favor of DREs from the statutes themselves, among other factors). Certainly elections officials favor DRE touch screens because the secret vote counting gives the illusion of smoothness in elections regardless of any errors in the count, because the vote counting is secret.

Previous History: The United States District Court had previously denied the Pro-Touch Screen plaintiff's equal protection claim, which said that punch card and central count optical scan systems violated the Equal Protection clause of the US Constitution by disproportionately disfranchising minority voters. The District Court also held that it would reach the SAME result under either "rational basis review" or the higher and only meaningful standard of review of "strict scrutiny".

Holding: In reversing the District Court's unpublished decision with a decision to be published, the 6th Circuit followed BUSH V. GORE and held that some counties counting a certain way while other counties counting another way violates equal protection. The 6th circuit held that it was bound by precedent of Bush v Gore.

This means that states must apparently have a uniform system of vote recordation/tabulation or else any significant disparities in error rates for those systems would violate the equal protection. And, unlike the district court which used rational basis, the Sixth Circuit suggested that strict scrutiny should apply. However, the District Court had previously said that the level of scrutiny did not affect it's analysis. So the District court will now have new law to apply, but the clarification that strict scrutiny applies probably won't affect the result, if anything it increases the court's concern or activism level to intervene to insure uniform voting technology throughout the state.

While my analysis is ongoing (and I'm taking a copy of the 47 page opinion to the Y today while the kids swim) there appears to be two major implications with two caveats that are not encouraging:

(1) If states use different technologies including CENTRAL COUNT optical scan and DRE, if they generate different error rates they can violate Equal Protection under Bush v Gore

(2) At least for the 6th Circuit if not the nation, the Holt "audits" that thereafter require the paper to prevail in "at least 2%" of the precincts actually audited is a slam bam thank you ma'am reversal under Bush v Gore because the portion audited is treated unequally relative to the rest of the county and state. One can audit to one's heart's delight, but the notion that one precinct or county gets its votes counted more accurately than another offends Bush v Gore. Bush v Gore ignored the fact that counties or precincts are not "protected classes" like minority voters are, but it is the law of the land so in effect it created a new protected class under Equal Protection jurisprudence.

CAVEATS: The Sixth Circuit case may be headed to the US Supreme Court, in which case all bets are off, but we're not necessarily improving....
Second CAVEAT: UNTIL CHANGED OR MODIFIED OR REJECTED BY OTHER CIRCUITS, THIS OPINION IS A STRONG FORCE FOR CONSISTENT STATEWIDE VOTING TECHNOLOGY, REJECTING COUNTY BY COUNTY DIVERSITY in voting systems, to the extent they have distinguishable error rates.

if anyone wants to be in on a conference call regarding this opinion, please email me at [e-mail], or call my cell at 425-422-1387

I will do the conference at 5 p.m. EST, 2 Pm PST and will send out conference directions later on today to those interested. Much more will be available at that time.
---Paul Lehto



Thanks to Land Shark here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2585602

[MelissaB]

31. Reminder: VIDEO: America's Illegitimate Election 2004

VIDEO:

America's Illegitimate Election 2004
Never forget what happened on November 2nd, 2004...

Here's a video to help...

We've updated the short video compiled by a few Velvet Revolutionaries from Democratic Underground.

It is our hope that this video may serve as the definitive record of what happened in American during the 2004 Presidential Election. It documents -- in a few short minutes -- how your American right to a free, fair and transparent electoral system has been taken from you by the cynical and un-democratic powers-that-be.

This sort of thing should never happen in the world's most important democracy. And yet -- again in 2004 -- it did. Enough is enough.

It's time for the people to take both our country and our democracy back. If you still have any questions about that, please take a look at this video:


http://www.velvetrevolution.us/#020505



(How was that to cover a double post?)

[Wilms]

32. THE COSTS OF VOTING: EVIDENCE FROM A NATURAL EXPERIMENT

THE COSTS OF VOTING: EVIDENCE FROM A NATURAL EXPERIMENT

Paper prepared for delivery at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Society for Political Methodology, Stanford University, July 29-31.

Henry E. Brady
[e-mail]
Department of Political Science
University of California, Berkeley

John E. McNulty
[e-mail]
Department of Political Science
University of California, Berkeley

ABSTRACT: This paper uses the consolidation of polling places in Los Angeles County
during the October 2003 gubernatorial recall election to study the costs of voting. The
consolidation afforded an opportunity to observe a natural experiment: those whose
polling places were changed in the consolidation should be statistically comparable to
those whose polling places are not changed. Thus, we may observe both groups’ turnout
rates and ascribe any differences to the treatment of the change in polling locus. We find
evidence that changing polling place locations does decrease turnout overall by a
substantial 1.88 percentage points; a drop in polling place turnout of 3.05 percentage
points is offset by an increase in absentee voting of 1.19 percentage points.

snip

Although the consolidation is not a perfect natural experiment, it is about as close
as we normally come with observational data. Consequently, it provides us with a very
strong inference that consolidation in Los Angeles County reduced turnout by a
substantial 1.88% in the precincts in which the polling location was changed.
We also find that voting at the polling place decreases even more, by 3.05% but that an
increase of absentee voting of 1.19% makes up for some of this reduction. In addition, we
find that the substitution of absentee voting for a reduction in polling place voting is
greatest among people of middle age and older whereas younger people are more inclined
to simply not vote at all.

We also find that the change in polling place location has two effects: a
transportation effect resulting from the change in distance to the polling place and a
disruption effect resulting from the information required to find the new polling place and
the risk aversion that people feel about going into a new neighborhood. The disruption
effect is about five times larger than the transportation effect for the average person who
experienced an increased distance to the polling place of about a sixth of a mile, but the
effects were roughly equal for someone who had an increased distance of about a mile.

snip

pdf
http://polmeth04.stanford.edu/Papers/heb0727.pdf


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x424586

[rumpel]

33. IL: Chicago predicting faster election results

M&C News
Apr 23, 2006, 18:21 GMT

CHICAGO, IL, United States (UPI) -- Chicago and Cook County, Ill., officials are hoping the November election will be free of the balloting problems that plagued the March primary.

In an effort to solve those problems, officials have announced that all 5,000 precincts in Cook County will have their own touch-screen voting machines, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The Illinois State Board of Elections was told that the sharing of equipment was one of the reasons it took so long to tabulate election results in March.

The city and county leased voting equipment for the primary and required precincts that used the same polling sites to share.

Chicago and Cook County officials have said they intend to purchase new touch-screen voting machines for the 2,386 precincts in the Cook County suburbs and the 2,604 precincts in the city with funds supplied by the federal government.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1157745.php/Chicago_predicting_faster_election_results

[rumpel]

34. LA: Civil rights activities decry New Orleans voter turnout

NEW ORLEANS -- Civil rights activists seized upon low voter turnout in the first election here since Hurricane Katrina, saying Sunday that it bore out their predictions that the biggest losers would be displaced voters.

They foreshadowed lawsuits and called for state elections officials and the U.S. Department of Justice to re-evaluate whether they can do more before the May 20 runoff, and perhaps whether Saturday's vote should be thrown out.
Turnout was 108,153, or just over 36 percent of registered voters, down from about 45 percent in the last mayoral election four years ago.
"Turnout was very high for the circumstances, but very low for the eligible voters," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who spent election weekend in New Orleans, decrying what he perceived as widespread disenfranchisement of many of the city's black residents, tens of thousands of whom have been displaced out of state.
Incumbent Mayor Ray Nagin, who is black, received the highest vote total in the open primary, but was short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff against fellow Democrat and current Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, whose father was mayor and whose sister, Mary, is a second-term U.S. Senator.

http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=4806656

[rumpel]

36. Bradblog: My Dinner with Feingold

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002724.htm

:)