Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, FRI. Sep. 8, 2006

[rumpel]

The CA-50 MUST be fought, even if it is only to illuminate the constitutional absurdity into the public foreground and discussion.

We have to go back in history and clarify the "intent" of this article in conjunction with the arguments for and against the formalization of the Bill of Rights. The concern was the rights of the people in each of their respective states be represented, and it was made clear, such rights are not vested in the federal government .


http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/billofrightsintro.html

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

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

If you can:

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4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.


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[rumpel]

1. MO: Judge rejects initial legal arguments in tobacco tax case (measure)

Tha Kansas City Star

Posted on Thu, Sep. 07, 2006

Judge rejects initial legal arguments in tobacco tax case
DAVID A. LIEB
Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Round 1 of the legal fight over a proposed tobacco tax measure ended in a draw Thursday, meaning that - for now - the measure remains off the November ballot.

Cole County Circuit Judge Thomas Brown rejected legal arguments by both sides of the ballot proposal who had sought to either count or disqualify thousands of petition signatures needed for voters to consider the proposed constitutional amendment Nov. 7.

Another hearing is scheduled Friday, at which attorneys could get into a name-by-name contest over whether hundreds of other petition signatures should be counted.

Secretary of State Robin Carnahan determined Aug. 8 that the tobacco amendment fell 274 signatures short of the 23,253 required in the 5th Congressional District, although it met the mark in five other districts for which petition signatures were submitted. As a result, she declined to certify it for the November ballot.

But last week, a Kansas City election board director acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that local officials had subsequently verified as valid 314 petition signatures that it initially rejected.

Attorneys on both sides of the dispute said Thursday that a Kansas City election official had been subpoenaed to testify in court Friday.

Independent of that testimony, attorney Chuck Hatfield said the Committee for a Healthy Future had identified about 1,000 signatures it believes were not checked by local election authorities and which could be counted. He said it's unclear whether the 314 signatures identified by the Kansas City election board overlap with that.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/15463955.htm

[rumpel]

2. AR: Early voting slow but no problems

By Larry Ault/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Thursday, September 7, 2006 9:44 AM CDT

Early voting, using Jefferson County’s new touch screen voting machines, got off to a slow start Tuesday without any reported problems, county election officials said Wednesday.

Taylor Eubank, coordinator of the Jefferson County Election Commission, said early voting leading up to the Sept. 19 school board election has been “terrific” so far.

Asked if election officials had encountered any problems with new voting equipment, Eubank said, “I’m not aware of any.”

County Clerk Helen Bradley said voting on the new equipment “went well” with no issues surfacing.

An election official at the Jefferson County Courthouse said midday on Wednesday that 27 people voted on Tuesday and 14 had voted by mid-afternoon on Wednesday. Voting in school elections is usually light.

Election officials were watching the new machines to ensure that they worked because they had not been used so far this year in the county.

http://www.pbcommercial.com/articles/2006/09/07/news/news1.txt

[rumpel]

3. PA: Official: Voting machines set to go

Lawsuit filed to stop use of machines without any paper backup.
Friday, September 08, 2006
By SARAH CASSI

The Express-Times
EASTON | Northampton County election officials said a rush to install new electronic voting machines led to problems during this year's primary, but they are ready for the general election.

In a letter to county Councilman John Cusick, County Chief Registrar Deborah DePaul said the state's certification of the machines was delayed. That left the county only weeks to create, teach and implement procedures and instructions for the new machines, DePaul said.

"It was like we were having an election for the first time," DePaul said at the election commission's meeting Thursday. "I was very happy with how the election went what could have happened and how it went, it went well."

DePaul said using the machines was a learning process, but poll workers reported primary voters were pleased with the new machines.

Fifteen percent of registered voters turned out for the primary and DePaul is expecting double that in November.

http://www.pennlive.com/news/expresstimes/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-7/115768871336510.xml&coll=2

[rumpel]

4. OH: The Observer, September 8, 2006

The Observer Online

Campus groups organize voter registration
Svetlana Binshtok, Contributing Reporter

With midterm elections just around the corner, Case Democrats, Alpha Phi Omega, CaseVOX, and the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA) are holding a voter registration drive on campus next week.

Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed service fraternity; CaseVOX, a pro-choice organization; and FMLA, a feminist organization; have joined together to enlist voters for the upcoming election.

Though all of these organizations can be considered liberal, they are working to register voters from every party. The goal is not to register Democrats or Republicans but rather to spread the message that even students have a voice in politics.

The midterm elections, though not as well-hyped as presidential elections, are still very important. During this election, the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate is up for reelection. This election will also determine a new governor for Ohio.

http://observer.case.edu/Archives/Volume_39/Issue_2/Story_921/

[rumpel]

6. TX: Voting Rights statute tested

chron.com
Sept. 7, 2006, 10:45PM

Austin water district sues over portion dealing with minority participation

By JANET ELLIOTT
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — When the Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 wanted to move its sole polling place from a residential garage to a school four years ago, it had to pay a lawyer $1,250 to file a letter with the U.S. Department of Justice and wait two months for permission to make the change.

Even though district leaders said they wanted to move the polling location to boost voter turnout, they had to convince the Justice Department that the change wouldn't reduce minority voting participation. Known as "preclearance," the process is a key feature of the Voting Rights Act, the major civil rights legislation recently reauthorized by Congress for another 25 years.

Last month, the MUD challenged the constitutionality of the law in a federal lawsuit against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Civil rights groups fear the case could reverse decades of improvements for minority voters in Texas and 15 other states subject to the preclearance scrutiny.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4171585.html

[kpete]

5. interesting article from the Guardian

The myth of fair elections in America

The debacle surrounding the Republican victory in 2000 demonstrated to the world that America's electoral process is wide open to abuse. But as Paul Harris discovers, the system has actually worsened since then

Thursday September 7, 2006
Observer.co.uk


One person, one vote. Count the totals. The one with the most wins. The beauty of democracy is its simplicity and its inherent fairness. It equalises everyone, even as it empowers everyone. What could go wrong? In America, it turns out, quite a lot.
Everyone remembers the debacle in Florida, 2000. The recounts, the law suits and the eventual deciding of a presidential election - not by the voters - but by the Supreme Court. The memory still causes a collective shudder to America's body politic.

Which makes the fact that America's system of voting is now even more suspect, more complicated, and more open to abuse than ever before so utterly shocking. Across the country a bewildering series of scandals or dubious practises are proliferating beyond control. The prospect of a 'second Florida' is now more likely not less. There are many - and not all of them are conspiracy theorists - who believed it may have happened in Ohio in 2004.

This week the venerable New York Times was the latest of many organisations and institutions to declare that America's democratic system is simply starting to fail. Not in terms of its democratic ideals, or some takeover by a Neocon cabal, but by a simple collapse in its ability to count everyone's votes accurately and fairly. The Times is editorialising on a shocking government report into electoral rules in Ohio's biggest county, Cuyahoga, which contains the city of Cleveland. It details a litany of errors and a large discrepancy between the paper record of a ballot and the result recorded by the new Diebold electronic voting machines the county has just installed. It also worried that 31 per cent of black people were asked for identification as they voted compared to 18 per cent of other voters. 'The report should be a wake-up call to states and counties nationwide,' the paper thundered.

more at:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/columnists/story/0,,1866780,00.html

[rumpel]

7. thanks

I am mighty late - had my personal legal set back - major blow late yesterday - totally forgot about ERD!

self :spank:

[rumpel]

8. LA: 7 prepare for primary for secretary of state

A special election will be held Sept. 30
Friday, September 08, 2006
By Robert Travis Scott

BATON ROUGE -- The recent challenge of conducting an election in New Orleans highlighted the important job held by Louisiana's secretary of state, a position sought by seven candidates in the Sept. 30 statewide primary in what promises to be a competitive race.

Four Republicans, a Democrat, a Libertarian and a nonparty candidate will vie for the office, which oversees elections, business incorporation documents, the state archives, and a set of museums and historical sites.

The special election was set in motion in February 2005, when Secretary of State Fox McKeithen fell in his Baton Rouge home, paralyzing him from the neck down and causing other health problems that took his life five months later.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1157698518239090.xml&coll=1

[rumpel]

9. CA: Committee tests voting machine

by Rebecca S. Bender, 9/8/2006

The Humboldt County Elections Advisory Committee got a chance Thursday night to try out the voting machine that will bring the county into compliance with federal law in the November election — at a cost to taxpayers of around $800,000.

The Hart InterCivic voting machines are an answer to the Help America Vote Act mandates, which require that disabled access be provided at every polling site.

After temporarily considering Diebold TSx touchscreen machines — a move that got the county named in a lawsuit, until it announced that it would not use the machines in November — the county settled on the low-tech VotePAD devices.

But those, too, proved troublesome, particularly when Secretary of State Bruce McPherson finally decided not to certify them on Aug. 25.

Early voting for the Nov. 7 general election begins Oct. 10. Failure to meet HAVA requirements in the election could open the county to legal action by the federal government.

http://www.eurekareporter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ArticleID=14786

[rumpel]

10. WV: Morgantown switches to electronic voting machines

The Daily Athenaeum Interactive

Friday Sep 08, 2006

by Angela Moscaritol
Correspondent
Voters heading to the polls on Nov. 7 can expect a different sight from years past. Instead of voting on optical scan ballots, Monongalia County voters will be casting their ballots on new electronic machines called iVotronic.
The new machines will work much like an Automatic Teller Machine where voters will press the screen to indicate their selections.
The new system will also enable visually impaired voters to cast their ballots on their own for the first time. The visually impaired will be given headphones through which they will hear each candidate's name and cast their vote by pressing a button in Braille.
The voting improvements for the visually impaired are some of the most significant benefits of the new machines, according to April Davies, supervisor of elections for Monongalia County.
"It gives everyone an equal opportunity to vote - handicapped or not," she said.

http://www.da.wvu.edu/XMLParser/printstory.phtml?id=23556

[rumpel]

11. CANADA but: Hopeful finds he's not on voters list

The London Free Press

Fri, September 8, 2006
By JOE BELANGER, FREE PRESS CITY HALL REPORTER

No one has to convince London city council candidate Stuart Smith about the importance of checking to see if you're on the voters list.

The Ward 13 candidate isn't, but he soon will be.

After checking the list with city staff, Stuart discovered he and his wife, Alexandra, were among 32,000 Londoners whose citizenship was in doubt, which pushed them off the official list.

"I was testing the system so I could relate to the residents in my ward what the process is to learn if they are eligible," Smith said in a news release.

"I was shocked to receive an e-mail . . . informing me of my absence from the list."

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegion/2006/09/08/1813819-sun.html

[rumpel]

12. TN: Author examines history of tainted American elections

The City Paper Online

By Ron Wynn, [e-mail]
September 08, 2006

Author and journalist Andrew Gumbel, a correspondent for London’s Independent newspaper for the past decade, spent several weeks during the United States’ 2000 and 2004 elections examining issues directly related to voting, specifically whether people were being systematically disenfranchised. His research and interest in this topic led him to write Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America (Nation), a volume that explores more than two centuries of controversies about election fraud and voting problems.

Gumbel, who will sign copies of his book tonight at Davis-Kidd, links the problem to the nation’s two-party system, which he maintains has placed control and victory ahead of fairness and justice.

“The interesting thing about American democracy is that at the beginning the system was far more concerned with fairness than results,” Gumbel said. “Then as parties became more powerful and the two-party system emerged, the people in charge of the machinery began placing their own interests ahead of the voters, particularly those on the bottom of economically and racial minorities. That’s led to the current situation where there’s no question that there have been widespread abuses in terms of voting rights.”

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section_id=12&screen=news&news_id=51988

[rumpel]

13. CA: Secretary of State Visits BVN?(This needs fact check)

blackvoicenews.com

Thursday, 07 September 2006
INLAND EMPIRE

Black Voice News Staff

The Secretary of State Bruce McPherson visited the Black Voice Media Center to talk about what his office is doing to encourage citizens to exercise their right to vote. He said the biggest changes in the voting process we have ever experienced is that of electronic voting. "I want to get to ethnic groups and students to register and vote. As soon as a student turns 18 my office sends them a birthday card and reminds them it is time to register. I send them congratulations when they graduate again reminding them to register," he said. According to McPherson there are 6 million eligible citizens who are not registered to vote and he is going up and down the state to bring attention to the issue.

McPherson has visited each of the 58 counties in the state since March 2005 when he was appointed to the office vacated by David Charles Scully who was jailed and fined for falsifying signatures on nomination petitions. "I was retired and very happy when the Governor called me to take on this responsibility. I feel I have something to give so here I am," he said.

http://www.blackvoicenews.com/content/view/39897/4/

[rumpel]

14. NY: Election commission faults Spencer financial documents (glitch!?)

By GLENN BLAIN
[e-mail]
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: September 8, 2006)

Federal election officials have raised questions about Republican Senate candidate John Spencer's July financial statement, including the campaign's apparent failure to document more than $500,000 in expenses.

In a letter sent to campaign treasurer John Spring, the Federal Election Commission notes that Spencer's July 15 statement reports $961,910 in operating expenses but itemizes only $461,037. Federal election law requires all expenses over $200 to be itemized.

"We asked them to explain it," said FEC spokesman George Smaragdis, who stressed that the agency's Aug. 17 letter was routine and simply part of the information-gathering process.

Among the other items noted by the FEC were the campaign's failure to itemize travel reimbursements — an issue first reported by The Journal News several weeks ago — and inaccurate reporting of total "election cycle-to-date" contributions from some individuals and committees.

Spencer spokesman Rob Ryan said many of the problems were the fault of a computer glitch that prevented federal election officials from being able to read all the data the campaign had filed. He said the campaign had been in contact with FEC officials and filed an amended financial report that addressed all of the agency's concerns.

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060908/NEWS02/609080396/1018

[rumpel]

15. VT: Is Vermont’s voting system secure?

Vermont Guardian

By Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian

Posted September 8, 2006

With none of the controversial touch-screen voting systems that have raised red flags in other states, and a safeguard mechanism in place, Vermonters can be assured of secure election results come November, according to Secretary of State Deb Markowitz.

Or can we?

A handful of local activists have their doubts, and last week a national voting watchdog pointed to what they say are serious problems with the Diebold optical scanner system used in Vermont.

Calais resident Jim Hogue, who helped propel the state’s ban on paperless electronic voting in 2003, said he thought at the time that the battle was over. “I thought ‘OK, we’ve won’ … and then I started discovering how vulnerable the optical scanners were.”

Optical scanners read text or illustrations printed on paper and translate the information by digitizing an image. Vermont town clerks themselves opted to use the Diebold 1.94w system, not only because it’s user friendly but because it’s compatible with existing printers, said Markowitz.

Seventy-three of Vermont’s 246 towns use them, representing more than 50 percent of the state’s approximately 417,000 registered voters.

The system allows voters to mark paper ballots, typically with pencils or pens, independent of any machine. Voters then insert their ballots into the scanner, which optically records the vote.

“It’s not just me feeling that way. What the security minds nationally are looking at as people are talking about concerns with touch-screen technology, they’re really suggesting in large part going to an optical scan technology,” said Markowitz.

http://www.vermontguardian.com/local/092006/VTVoting.shtml

[rumpel]

16. NH: Moderators: Use your vote on Tuesday

The Rockingham News

By Erik Zygmont
[e-mail]

Town moderators are encouraging residents to turn out and vote for the candidates of their choice in the New Hampshire state primary election on Tuesday.

Residents will choose who will be the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor, U.S. congressman, executive councilor, state senator, state representative, county sheriff, county attorney, county treasurer, register of deeds, register of probate and county commissioner.

Electra Alessio, town moderator of Kingston, says that voting is a way to respect U.S. soldiers abroad. "We have a lot of overseas military fighting for our rights to vote and to have a choice in our elections. It behoves us to make choices in those elections, because we have only ourselves to blame if those we elected aren't making the decisions we want ... We need to exercise that privilege," Alessio said.

Kathleen Hoelzel, the Raymond town moderator, says that voting "is our future." She said, "I'm the kind of person who says that you should always vote or keep quiet -- that's where we have our say, in the voting booths."

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/rock/09082006/nhnews-r-reg-voting0908.html

[rumpel]

17. GUAM: Primary Election challenged!!

Pacific Daily News

GEC unsure how to answer complaints calling for revote
By Steve Limtiaco
Pacific Daily News
[e-mail]

Some residents and candidates have filed grievances with the Guam Election Commission, asking that a new Primary Election be held, but it is unclear whether the commission has the ability to grant such a request.

The commission's legal counsel said the court system typically has been the place for those dissatisfied with past elections.

Attorney Cesar Cabot said the commission's role is to ensure that election results are accurate and to certify the results. Grievances filed with the commission can help point out problems in the election process that must be addressed before the results are certified, he said, and commission members are taking the grievances seriously.

Ballot recounts, audits and assessments are some of the tools available to the commission to ensure that election results are accurate before they are certified, he said.
The Election Commission has not decided when it will meet to certify the results of the Primary Election, and commission Executive Director Gerald Taitano yesterday said the commission staff continues to examine precinct records to ensure that all ballots, including electronic ones, have been counted.

It was discovered this week that 115 electronic ballots cast in Asan-Maina and 176 electronic ballots cast in Yona had been misplaced and were not included in the unofficial count on election night. Precinct officials used the wrong electronic cartridges to gather votes from the machines, according to the commission.

Cabot said each I-Votronic machine has three separate memory systems that can be audited against each other, plus the paper roll, which keeps a written account of the voting activity on the machine.

http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060909/NEWS01/609090302/1002

rumpel's note: Governor's Race - last week
Incumbent Camacho (R) as well as his republican challenger were way behind the democratic candidates in preliminary results

We have to keep an eye on this one! Don't want another Nevada...

[rumpel]

18. Saved the BEST: Appeal to be Filed By Plaintiffs in CA-50 Election Contes

BradBlog

Plaintiffs Seek to Prevent National Use of the Constitution as a Weapon!
Guest blogged by Emily Levy

The BRAD BLOG has learned that the plaintiffs in CA-50 election contest will be appealing the dismissal of the case in the 4th District. Briefs are now being prepared and funds being collected for what may be a rather expensive appeal. Notice of appeal may be filed as soon as today.

Donations to the appeal can be made via Velvet Revolution.

The appeal is a rejection of Judge Yuri Hofmann’s August 29 ruling which echoed GOP claims that the U.S. House of Representatives, not the state courts or voters, have the power to determine the outcome of elections of members of Congress. In California’s 50th Congressional district in San Diego County, Republican candidate Brian Bilbray was announced to be the winner of the June 6 special election, flown to Washington and sworn in before all the votes were counted or the election certified.

Says attorney Paul Lehto, who argued the plaintiffs' case in Hofmann’s court,

“Everybody would agree that every vote should be counted and yet the election was terminated with well over 10,000 votes still uncounted. Everybody would agree that you can’t end a basketball game with ten minutes left on the clock and yet that’s what the Speaker of the House did when they swore in Bilbray only seven days after the election and then claimed that what that meant was that everyone else except the House of Representatives was thereby rendered powerless to look into the election. The legal theories of the defendants attempt to turn the Constitution into a weapon to be used to terminate elections. The Constitution is supposed to protect We the People not be used against us.”

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3417#more-3417

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: could not resist :bounce: :bounce:

[livvy]

19. K and a big R! n/t