Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Tuesday, 1/9/07

[Melissa G]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Tuesday, 1/9/07


How Wonderful and Novel! A Secretary of State out there trying to protect voter rights...
May we find 50 of them to come guard our democracy!!!

All DU members welcome and encouraged to participate. This means You!



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).

[Melissa G]

1. New SoS Names Major E-Voting Critic/Attorney to Oversee Voting Systems in CA!

Thanks to BradBlog for the post and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3073107

Original message
BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: New SoS Names Major E-Voting Critic/Attorney to Oversee Voting Systems in CA!
Edited on Mon Jan-08-07 11:54 PM by BradBlog
This is tremendously important news for the entire nation. Read up...This was a great day!... -- Brad

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Major E-Voting Critic, Attorney Named to Key Voting Systems Oversight Role by New CA Secretary of State!
Debra Bowen Appoints Lowell Finley of Election Integrity Watchdog Group VoterAction.org to Role of 'Deputy SoS for Voting Systems Technology and Policy'
Critics of E-Voting Hail News as 'Collosal Suprise', Very Good for Voters, Very Bad for the Nation's Electronic Voting Machine Companies...

It may not be a very good day in the corporate offices at Diebold, but The BRAD BLOG has learned some big news that may well indicate today is a very good day indeed for the voters of America and specifically in California.

As incoming Sec. of State Debra Bowen was sworn in to her new office just moments ago, The BRAD BLOG can now reveal that one of the nation's top critics of unverifiable electronic voting systems --- and a key player across several states in the legal battles against voting machine companies such as Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia Voting Systems and Hart Intercivic --- is today being named by the new California Sec. of State Debra Bowen as Deputy SoS for Voting Systems Technology and Policy.

Lowell Finley, the lead attorney for the non-partisan voting machine legal watchdog organization VoterAction.org, will be named to the position today.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3073107

[Melissa G]

2. Are You a Citizen? Prove It

HEE HEE...Just desserts..May these stupid requirements inconvenience him and his family many more times...perhaps Colorado will be smart enough to ditch it!



Are You a Citizen? Prove It
By Kavan Peterson - When Colorado state Sen. Andy McElhany (R) championed adoption of the strictest identification requirements in the country, his aim was to keep illegal immigrants off state welfare rolls. He didn't anticipate making it harder for his 15-year-old daughter to get a learner's permit.



Stateline.org - infoZine - But that's what happened when his wife and daughter showed up at the Division of Motor Vehicles office in Colorado Springs in September. They brought the teen's passport, only to discover DMV had changed the rules and a passport was no longer a sufficient form of identification. "There's no reason to believe a 15-year-old girl is going to be running around with a fake passport just to get a driver's permit," a chagrined McElhany said.

Going to the DMV never has been a walk in the park, but it's likely to get even more difficult as states across the country begin to comply with stringent federal identification rules required by the 2005 Real ID Act.

Americans by the tens of millions will have to dig out documents such as Social Security cards and birth certificates, or go to the expense of getting new ones, to renew their driver's licenses. Fears of terrorism and the uproar over illegal immigration are behind the new rules. The Real ID Act is a response to the fact that four of the 19 foreign hijackers on Sept. 11 had obtained valid U.S. driver's licenses.

http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/20090/

[Melissa G]

3. Don't Let Your TX Rep Be the Deciding Vote for the Craddick-DeLay Machine

action item for the Speaker's race in Texas currently held by Tom Delay lapdog, Craddick...


Don't Let Your Rep Be the Deciding Vote for the Craddick-DeLay Machine

Now that Tom DeLay has moved to Virginia, the most corrupt man in Texas is Tom Craddick, the Republican that did Tom DeLay's business in Austin. Tuesday, January 9, our State Representatives will vote to elect a new speaker. It looks like the Craddick era will end thanks to a coaltion of Demorats and moderate Republicans.

BUT a handful of handful of so-called Democrats are still supporting Craddick. There is video online of Craddick supporters gathering last night at a secret meeting -- there are 74 of them caught on tape -- 10 of them are Democrats. Please look at the list below, if you see your State Representative, call their office and let them know you didn't send them to Austin to keep the DeLay era going!

Only 148 people get to cast a ballot in the race: the members of the Texas House (one lawmaker will be absent and another seat is vacant). That means these Democrats are in position to cast the deciding vote.. Don't let it be your Representative that keeps the Craddick era going.

Tell them to put the people of their district first and their own narrow personal ambitions last.

Your call could be the one that changes the mind of the deciding vote. Call your Rep and ask why they want to continue the regime that:

helped shut down the court house for most of their constituents

pushed DeLay's redistricting scheme to screw minorities and Democrats

appointed zero minorities to either the school reform or tax reform conference committees in 2005

stripped half-a-million eligible children of their health insurance benefits

tried to siphon billions of tax dollars out of public schools to fund a private-school voucher scheme pushed by his top contributor

deregulated college tuition, causing rates to soar an average 63 percent and pricing middle-class families out of the market

allowed Big Insurance to charge twice the national average for homeowners' insurance.

Craddick Dem Capitol Office District Office
Joe Deshotel [phone] [phone]
Kino Flores [phone] [phone]
[phone]
Ryan Guillen [phone] [phone]
[phone]
Aaron Pena [phone] [phone]
Helen Giddings [phone] [phone]
Sylvester Turner [phone] [phone]
Dawnna Dukes [phone] [phone]
Ruth Jones McClendon [phone] [phone]
Norma Chavez [phone] [phone]
Patrick Rose [phone] None
Kevin Bailey [phone] [phone]
Tracy King [phone] [phone]
Robert Puente [phone] [phone]
Harold Dutton [phone] [phone]

Fight On!
Richard Morrison

Thank you,
Nathan Wilcox
Save Texas Dems

[Melissa G]

4. The video of the Dems at the Craddick gathering...

From Burnt orange report..
Edited from the film below, here are the 10 Democrats who attended Tom Craddick's dinner at the Austin Club on January 7th to pledge their support. If they follow through and vote for him tomorrow, expect primary challengers to find this footage available to them. The House needs cleaning though it begins with Tom Craddick.




http://www.burntorangereport.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2659

[Melissa G]

13. Liveblog of Texas Speaker's race

Since some folks are having trouble with the Live feed, Texas Blue is live blogging here...
http://www.thetexasblue.com/tb/node/68



Speaker's Race: Liveblog
By Josh Berthume

Tue, 01/09/2007 - 12:46pm
2:36
The Secretary will not entertain a motion to delay the election of the Speaker until Thursday. Which is good, although it may take that long anyways to get anything done.

2:27 - 2:33 pm
Representative Phil King keeps pressing his question on a call for a public vote, and he's been chastised for violating parliamentary procedure. The question on calling for a public vote will apparently be a point of order, brought up later. This shouldn't be much a road block if the provision actually exists to override any amendment with a call for a public vote, but George and I are both looking for the cited passage in the rules, but we're having trouble digging it up. Now the check goes out to make sure all amendments are in - still waiting on one more.

snip
2:11 pm
George Nassar, our managing editor, just pointed out that HR 33, 34, and 35 are effectively a Division of Question on HR 1, which never came to the floor under that title. I am properly chastised. I am also getting more and more convinced that the secrecy of the ballot will have a serious (if not decisive) effect on the race. An awful lot of stalling going on. Again.

2:07 pm
Current discussion is on when votes would be made public - some amendments will make the votes secret forever, some will hide them until after committee assignments, some will make them immediately public. Expect serious horsetrading.

http://www.thetexasblue.com/tb/node/68

[Melissa G]

5. Testing the Testers

Editorial
Testing the Testers

Published: January 8, 2007

There is by now no doubt that there are serious problems with electronic voting machines: they fail to record votes, and even flip votes from one candidate to another. Election officials like to defend the machines by noting that they have been certified by independent testing labs. But the certification process has long been deeply flawed, and last week there was even more disturbing news — that the leading testing lab has been unable to meet the federal government’s standards.

Since last summer, Ciber Inc., the largest tester of voting machine software, has been unable to meet federal quality standards that will take effect later this year.

It is disturbing that if Christopher Drew had not reported this in The Times, the public still would not know. The Election Assistance Commission, the agency that evaluates the labs, did not reveal that Ciber fell short, and is still not saying what is wrong. Ciber, which is still working on meeting the standards, did not return our phone call.

Many Americans are using electronic voting machines that were certified by Ciber. Were those certifications done properly? Did whatever deficiencies Ciber has now exist then? No one is saying.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/opinion/08mon1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[Melissa G]

6. The Single Greatest Threat to the Media Reform Movement : Electronic Election Theft

The Single Greatest Threat to the Media Reform Movement : Electronic Election Theft

By Andi Novick

snip
I agree with Howard Zinn that we cannot expect reform from the top and that only social movements can force the changes we need to be a just and peaceful society. But social movements ultimately rely on our ability to affect the system by electing better representatives. In the last few years there has been a wholesale change in the way we conduct elections and most people barely appreciate the devastating consequence of having our 230 year right to observe and protect the integrity of our elections taken from us. How could they when we have lost our free press as well.

Over the next few months Re-Media will be bringing you this vital information you won't get from corporate media. We will continue to provide you with the evidence. We will be hosting a forum on the topic with experts in the field. We will be holding film series. And we as always, are asking you to take action. If you want to skip the rest of this email and just take action, jump to the end. It is extremely important that everyone act now. Or read on. I would not have put this much time in if I did not believe that unless all of us act now, we are in grave danger of sinking into a hole from which I can't see a way out.



Since Bush Took Office, We Have Been Forced by Federal Legislation to Vote on Electronic Machines Which University and Even Government Studies Agree "are vulnerable to errors and fraud and cannot be made secure"


Electronic voting was forced upon us by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). The above quote is taken from the recent report of the esteemed National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), technical advisor to the HAVA created election commission.
The report http://vote.nist.gov/DraftWhitePaperOnSIinVVSG2007-20061120.pdf has declared that by using the DREs, which millions of Americans have no choice but to vote on, "a single clever, dishonest programmer in a voting machine company could rig an entire statewide election"! .

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_andi_nov_070106_the_single_greatest_.htm

[Melissa G]

7. Panel: Blamed shared in election glitches

Panel: Blamed shared in election glitches

January 9, 2007


By Deanna Bellandi The Associated Press
Cook County Clerk David Orr said today that changes will be made to avoid the kinds of delays in reporting results that plagued the November general election.
The company that supplies the electronic voting machines will be required to conduct further testing of its equipment and improve its software so results are tallied faster. Also, the county will hire someone to oversee its election technology and ensure wired connections are in place to back up the wireless transmission of vote totals.

A new 29-page report by a panel of experts blamed the voting machine company — Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems — and Orr’s office for multiple technology failures and a lack of adequate testing beforehand that would have revealed the problems.

“We had this problem, we’re facing up to it,” Orr said.

The report said delays in reporting results were so severe in suburban Cook County during the election Nov. 7 that results from 90 percent of the precincts weren’t reported until 11 a.m. the next day. In prior elections since November 2000, that 90 percent threshold had been met by 8:30 p.m. on election nights.

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/203282,dst_votereport_109.article

[Melissa G]

8. One man, two votes?

One man, two votes?
Election officials: At least 27 voted twice in March primary

January 9, 2007

By Jonathan Lipman

Staff writer

In what might be called a classic Chicago problem, election officials have identified 27 people they believe voted twice during the primary election in March.

They found people who apparently had cast ballots in both the city and the suburbs -- many of them in the Southland.

The possible fraud was uncovered in September while city and county election officials were checking a complaint from the Cook County Republican Party.

"Given that the city and the county have 3 million registered voters, things can slip through the cracks," Cook County Deputy Clerk Brandon Neese said.

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/202793,092NWS9.article

[Kurovski]

16. "...it's illegal.

...Even in Chicago." :rofl:

Fairly dry.

[Melissa G]

9. Report outlines midterm e-voting failures

Report outlines midterm e-voting failures
1/6/2007 10:09:30 PM, by Jon Stokes

A report on the November midterms released this past week by three different e-voting activist groups describes problems with electronic voting machines in 36 states. The report (PDF), entitled "E-Voting Failures in the 2006 Mid-Term Elections: A Sampling of Problems Across the Nation," is based on reports made to a non-partisan hotline that operated the day of the November 7 midterm elections. Calls to the hotline yielded 1022 separate incident reports, the vast majority of which concerned problems with direct-recording electronic (DRE) machines like the Diebold Accuvote model described in my article on how to steal an election. Problems were also reported with scanners and electronic ballot markers, but DREs made up the bulk of the complaints.

The report outlines problems at every stage of the elections process, from initial precinct set-up, to voting, to post-election ballot counting. There were 103 reports in 57 different counties of polls opening late due to voting machine problems, with some machines refusing to start and others failing to properly print the initial "zero" tape. Problems related to closing the polls accounted for 43 more reports, with lost and corrupted memory cards listed among the incidents reported.

Of the problems encountered during the actual voting process, perhaps the most dramatic and puzzling category is the so-called "vote flipping," in which a voter attempts to select one candidate but finds that the opposing candidate's ballot is checked, either on the voting screen or on a summary screen.

The report puts to rest the commonly held belief that screen calibration problems could account for all of the reported instances of vote flipping. Some of the offending machines were not touchscreen models—voters used a selection wheel to make their choices. In other cases, the voters would make a touchscreen selection for one slate of candidates, only to have the summary screen (and in some cases the paper tape) report that half or more of the selections had been flipped.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070106-8563.html

[Melissa G]

10. New Bowen Deputy Forced Schwarzenegger to Pay Millions

New Bowen Deputy Forced Schwarzenegger to Pay Millions
Brad Blog, the state's most persistent blogger-watchdog on the dangers of voting technology, reports that Secretary of State Debra Bowen has hired a fierce critic of "unverified" voting machines as her chief deputy in charge of ... voting technology. Lowell Finley, the lead attorney for VoterAction.org, will become her new deputy secretary of state.

"Finley and VoterAction (his group) have filed a number of landmark lawsuits in several states, including in California, over the past year or so, demanding an immediate halt to the use and purchase of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE/touch-screen) voting systems and decertification of many of those systems, as well as improved processes for certification of such systems.

"The Berkeley-based attorney Finley -- also one of the attorneys representing voter plaintiffs in the contested election in Florida's 13th Congressional district in Sarasota --- had one of his most recent and notable successes last September, when a Colorado judge ordered a complete review of certification procedures for voting machines in the state. The court found the official placed in charge of testing and certification didn't have the qualifications necessary, and performed little or no testing."

The Oakland Tribune reported that Finley "has pulled out of lawsuits against elections officials in California, Florida, Ohio and other states in order to accept" the post.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/politicalmuscle/2007/01/bowen_hires_law.html

[Melissa G]

11. Kitty's Congressional Seat Still In Play

From Wonkette...


Kitty's Congressional Seat Still In Play
The honorable Vern Buchanan of Florida’s honorable 13th congressional district didn’t get a real warm welcome from House Democrats, because he won under absurdly suspicious circumstances. Outgoing governor Jeb Bush certified Buchanan’s bogus 369-vote “win” — 18,000 voters mysteriously avoided choosing a new House representative. Thanks to legendary Florida secretary of state and former 13th District congresslady Kitty Harris, totally unaccountable e-voting machines were used.

Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey spoiled Buchanan’s oath ceremony by telling the House the election was rigged and Vern should be back in Sarasota selling used cars. And on Friday, the Democrat-run House Administration Committee sent notice to Florida’s courts that something better be done. In response, Vern has posted a picture of his pretend swearing-in on the Koran with Nancy Pelosi, because it must be real if Nancy’s smiling and all!

Buchanan’s Dem opponent, Christine Jennings, has about a million lawyers on the case, ensuring that the 2006 midterm elections will never, ever end!

Bush vs. Gore it isn’t, but it still matters

http://wonkette.com/politics/katherine-harris/kittys-congressional-seat-still-in-play-227356.php

[Melissa G]

12. "VOTING MACHINE SKEPTIC TAKES STATE ELECTION HELM"

California Focus
By Thomas D. Elias
Article Last Updated: 01/09/2007 08:46:07 AM PST


"VOTING MACHINE SKEPTIC TAKES STATE ELECTION HELM"

Anxious time is just about to begin for the two interest groups that have done more than anyone else in recent years to make Californians feel uncertain about the integrity of their elections.

Those two groups: The makers of electronic voting machines of various types, many of whose devices have been shown to be both hackable and problematic in other ways. And county voter registrars who bought those machines largely with many millions of dollars derived from the federal Help America Vote Act, which was more concerned about speed of conversion to new technologies than whether they were trustworthy.

Now comes Democrat Debra Bowen, elected last fall and just now about to move into her new job as secretary of state, California's top elections officer. As a state senator from Marina del Rey for the last eight years, Bowen was the Legislature's leading skeptic of new-fangled voting machines and their bells and whistles.

Her appointed predecessor and defeated autumn opponent, the former Republican state Sen. Bruce McPherson of Santa Cruz, was anything but a skeptic, certifying virtually any machine any county registrar wanted to buy and imposing questionable checks on their performance.

http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/editorial/ci_4978189

[Melissa G]

14. High court won't tackle touch-screens

FLORIDA THE STATE IN BRIEF
High court won't tackle touch-screens


Posted January 9, 2007

The U.S. Supreme Court will not consider whether Florida's touch-screen voting machines need to have a paper trail in case of a recount.

The court Monday declined to hear U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler's appeal of a lower-court ruling that the state's touch-screen voting machines don't need to leave a paper ballot trail.

The Democrat from Boca Raton had sued in 2004, alleging the state was disenfranchising voters because some counties use machines that don't allow for a recount based on paper ballots, while other counties have machines that do.

The Supreme Court didn't comment in declining to consider Wexler's appeal of a decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that Florida could use electronic touch-screen voting machines that don't leave a trail of paper ballots.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-stbriefs09_407jan09,0,4671688.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-state

[Melissa G]

15. Iowa General Assembly Urged to Upgrade Election Procedures

Around the States




Iowa General Assembly Urged to Upgrade Election Procedures
By Iowans for Voting Integrity
January 09, 2007
In the wake of last week’s revelation about failures in the national testing of electronic voting machines, a citizens’ advocacy group is urging the Iowa General Assembly to legislate upgrades to state elections procedures. Iowans for Voting Integrity wants to require the use of paper ballots, routine manual audits (hand counting) of ballots in randomly selected precincts, a more rigorous, state-based system of testing vote tabulation software, and other measures to strengthen the transparency and integrity of elections.

All of Iowa’s votes are now counted by electronic machines, whether they are cast on a paper ballot and then scanned, or recorded directly by a touchscreen machine. Over the past year, numerous academic studies and independent security reports have warned that elections on these machines are at high risk of being compromised, either unintentionally or by deliberate, malicious design.


In the latest of such disclosures, the New York Times reported on Jan. 4 that Ciber, Inc., one of three federally-certified “independent testing authorities” charged with approving electronic voting systems, has been temporarily barred from further work due to failure to document its testing of voting software. Ciber has done testing on all of the voting equipment Iowa uses. Systems produced by Diebold Election Systems, used in over 70 Iowa counties and tested by Ciber, have in the last 3 years been discovered to have a number of distinct and serious security flaws, which computer scientists believe should have been discovered during the testing process.

Iowans for Voting Integrity (IVI) calls for the reports of these testing companies to be placed in the public domain, where citizens and experts can examine them. IVI also calls for the state to reform its Board of Examiners of voting machines to include a panel of real experts in computer technology. The current board consists of three people: two county auditors of opposing parties and one person who is required to have some training in computer operations.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2168&Itemid=113

[Kurovski]

17. Kick to the top! Thanks, MG!

:hug:

[Melissa G]

18. Because of e-voting, "...older, longtime poll workers are resigning."

Thanks to our beloved Wilms for the post and the DU discussion here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x464083

Original message
Because of e-voting, "...older, longtime poll workers are resigning."

Campaign seeks poll workers
League says ranks are dwindling

By AMY RINARD

Posted: Jan. 7, 2007

The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin is seeking computer-savvy teenagers and people of color in a recruiting campaign for poll workers needed to replace the dwindling corps of mostly older workers that have staffed polling places for decades.

snip

As election laws, equipment and procedures have become more complex and more dependent on electronic machines, elections officials around the state have reported that more of their older, longtime poll workers are resigning.

The campaign, already under way in Dane County, targets teens as young as 16 to serve as poll workers because young people are less apt to be intimidated by computerized election equipment.

"Some of the older poll workers are hesitant to use the high-tech voting machines," Kaminski said.

snip

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=550158

[Melissa G]

19. The Crooks are at it again, Limits put on hacking demonstration,

Thanks to kster for the post and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x464081
Original message
The Crooks are at it again, Limits put on hacking demonstration,


Nicole C. Brambila
The Desert Sun
January 8, 2007


Programmers might have hacked into democracy elsewhere, but it could get derailed in Riverside County.

In December, Supervisor Jeff Stone, frustrated with continual confrontations from the Temecula-area community watchdog group created to oversee Riverside County elections, challenged Save R Vote to hack into the county’s voting machines. Stone laid odds the group couldn’t do it.

That was until they hired Finnish computer programmer Harri Hursti - who successfully tampered with a Diebold voting machine in the HBO documentary “Hacking Democracy” - to attempt the hack.

Now Stone has thrown a couple of ground rules into the mix — no tools and no dismantling the machine. And the hacker has to infiltrate the system in 15 minutes, the estimated time it takes a voter to do their civic duty.

Tom Courbat, executive director of Save R Vote, says Stone needs to be realistic.


http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070108/UPDATE/70108028

Realistic? Stone needs to come to terms with the fact that the SECRET VOTE COUNTING GAME IS OVER. Maybe he just didn't get the memo.

[EFerrari]

20. I think that is going to be my Favorite Face 2007

Debra!

Thanks, Melissa G!

:hi:

[EFerrari]

21. kick