Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Wednesday 6/29/05

[Melissa G]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Wednesday 6/29/05

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

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

If you can:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233

3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

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



If you want to know how post "News Banners" or other images, go here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=371233#371391

Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x381154

All previous daily threads are available here:
http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm





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

[Melissa G]

1. VERIFIED VOTING VICTORIES

VERIFIED VOTING VICTORIES


We're excited to announce that the following states have improved the security and reliability of our elections by passing verified voting legislation or being well on the way to doing so--


New York: Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Bo Lipari at New Yorkers for Verified Voting (nyvv.org), we're happy
to report that the Senate and the Assembly passed bills S.5877 and A.8969 on June 23. The bill requires that voting systems have a voter-verified paper record and is awaiting Governor Pataki's signature.


Washington: On May 3, 2005, Governor Christine Gregoire signed Senate Bill 5395 into law. The bill requires a verified voting paper record for all voting systems starting 5/3/2005. VerifiedVoting.org joined Citizens for Voting Integrity-WA, Whatcom Fair Voting, and VotersUnite.org in support of this bill.


West Virginia: House Bill 2950, requiring a voter-verifiable paper record, was signed into law by Governor Manchin on May 4, 2005. VerifiedVoting.org partnered with West Virginia Citizen Action Group and West Virginia Citizens for HAVA to get the bill passed.


Minnesota: H.F.874, ensuring a voter-verified paper record, was signed into law by Governor Pawlenty on June 3, 2005.

More on Colorado, Hawaii and Conneticut at Verified Voting newsletter website
http://www.verifiedvoting.org

[Melissa G]

2. More Articles from table of contents of Verified Voting newsletter

* Verified Voting Victories
* VerifiedVoting.org Founder Testifies to Senate Committee
* North Carolina Could Prevent Future E-Voting Problems
* New Jersey Bill Nears Passage
* Volusia County Won't Purchase Diebold Voting Machines
* Miami-Dade's Elections Chief Considers Booting Touchscreens
* Indiana Election Board Opts For Paper Record
* Merits of Optical Scan Voting

http://www.verifiedvoting.org

[Melissa G]

3. Diebold Touch Screens Don't Meet Disability Requirements

Diebold Touch Screens Don't Meet Disability Requirements

by Susan Pynchon , news-journalonline.com
June 28th, 2005




The Diebold voting machines being proposed for Volusia County don't meet the requirements of the Help America Vote Act. The shocking part is, they don't have to. It's only 2005 and the law doesn't go into effect until Jan. 1, 2006, so vendors are able to sell, this year, whatever type of voting systems they can get away with selling.

As I write this, states and counties across our nation -- including Volusia County -- are being sold a bill of goods with respect to their purchases of new voting-machine systems to meet the requirements of HAVA, which include accessible voting machines for all voters. Voting-machine vendors are having a heyday because they have recognized a loophole in HAVA that is large enough to drive a truck (or push a voting machine) through.

Unwitting states and counties, believing that the systems being presented to them are HAVA-compliant, are being duped. Unless vendors offer a specific guarantee of HAVA compliance, hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayers' money may be squandered on equipment that will have to be scrapped or retrofitted at taxpayers' expense after Jan. 1, 2006.

While the proposed Diebold touch screens may provide accessibility for the blind, they are impossible to use for people with many other types of disabilities, including quadriplegics or those with severe manual impairments. Where is the sip/puff feature, the foot pedal or the joy stick offered by the competing AutoMark Voter Assist Terminal that Volusia County, with due diligence, had originally contracted to buy?


http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6072

[Melissa G]

4. E-voting Paper-Trail Hopes Hit Roadblock

E-voting Paper-Trail Hopes Hit Roadblock
News Story by Grant Gross

JUNE 27, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Calls for the U.S. government to require that electronic voting machines produce voter-verified paper trails ran into opposition from two members of a Senate committee during a hearing on e-voting last week.
Voting accuracy advocates and some lawmakers have repeatedly called for printers to be attached to e-voting machines to ensure their accuracy .

Five bills introduced in Congress this year would require voter-verified paper ballots with direct electronic recording (DRE) machines.

But Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, said that attaching printers to DREs could cause equipment problems. "It seems we're adding a level of complexity," he said.

Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), the committee's ranking Democrat, argued that a paper-only system couldn't be used by some disabled people. "By insisting on paper, you're denying people who cannot read because they cannot see," said Dodd, who has introduced a bill that would require a choice of paper, audio or visual verification.

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,102735,00.html

[Melissa G]

5. Voting System Needs $6 Million Upgrade

Voting System Needs $6 Million Upgrade

by Guy Ashley, Contra Costa Times
June 27th, 2005

OAKLAND - Four years after Alameda County purchased its touch-screen voting system for $12 million, the manufacturer wants the county to sink nearly $6 million more into upgrades to meet pending state requirements that voters be given paper receipts confirming their votes.

The proposal is sure to meet its share of criticism, given that the manufacturer is Texas-based Diebold Election Systems, whose equipment has had numerous problems since its installation.

The county's chief elections official supports the proposal, saying it would be far cheaper to upgrade than to buy a new system in time for the July 1, 2006 deadline for voter-verified paper trails for all electronic voting systems in California.

"If we went out to bid for a completely new voting system, we think it would cost us $14 million at a minimum," said Elaine Ginnold, the county's acting Registrar of Voters.

http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6073

[Melissa G]

6. Plenty of static over electronic voting machines

Plenty of static over electronic voting machines
By BRIAN CALLAWAY
The Intelligencer
Marybeth Kuznik had to wing her part of the program when she couldn't get the overhead presentation she'd prepared to work.

"To err is human," she told the audience. "To screw something up really big time takes a computer."

She meant it as a joke, but it ended up becoming a de facto theme Monday at a public forum on different voting methods at Bucks County's courthouse. Speaker after speaker lambasted the types of electronic voting machines Bucks County could soon buy as ripe for errors or tampering.

Rebecca Mercuri, a computer scientist and critic of electronic voting machines, told the crowd that it's impossible to make sure such computerized election systems are secure.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/113-06282005-508138.html

[Melissa G]

7. Grass-roots Bucks group shows pitfalls of electronic voting

Grass-roots Bucks group shows pitfalls of electronic voting
Forum at county courthouse addresses new federal law.

By Pervaiz Shallwani
Of The Morning Call

To comply with federal law, the Bucks County commissioners might have to buy new voting machines by the end of the year in time for the 2006 primary election.

On Monday night, a local grass-roots group, the Bucks County Coalition for Voting Integrity, told the elected officials their decisions will not go unnoticed.

Nearly every one of the 125 seats in the community room at the county courthouse in Doylestown was filled for a forum on voting machine technology and the possible pitfalls of switching to new machines.

The forum addressed topics from problems with new machines on the market to misconceptions about the federal Help America Vote Act, passed in 2002 after voting flaws were highlighted during the contentious 2000 presidential election.
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-2votingjun28,0,6134018.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed

[Melissa G]

8. Dunbar Township voting machines to be examined

Dunbar Township voting machines to be examined

By By David Hunt
Wednesday, June 29, 2005


Fayette County election officials will examine three Dunbar Township voting machines this week after several people petitioned the court with concerns that either fraud or a counting error may have changed the outcome of the supervisor's race.

"There was a lot of things that didn't seem to be on the up and up," said Robin Leighty, the township's newly elected auditor. Leighty was among those watching the unofficial count in District 3 the night of the May 17 primary. Leighty also signed the petition asking the court to order a recanvass.

Laurie Nicholson, county election bureau director, said the recanvass of the three-machine district is the final task that must be performed before the county's election results can be certified.

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/newssummary/s_348554.html

[Melissa G]

9. 15 Things About Bush&Co.: An Impeachment List

15 Things About Bush&Co.: An Impeachment List
Wednesday, 29 June 2005, 3:11 pm
Opinion: Bernard Weiner

15 Things Learned About Bush&Co.: An Impeachment List

DU discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203

By Bernard Weiner
The Crisis PapersThough my degrees are in government and international relations, I hadn't been part of the political arena in an activist way since "The Sixties" -- roughly the Civil Rights Movement late-'50s through the anti-Vietnam War mid-'70s. Instead, after years of college teaching, I found myself more engaged in cultural work as a playwright, poet and newspaper reporter, and, for nearly two decades, as a theater critic.

When 9/11 arrived, something snapped open in me, as it did for many Americans. The world indeed had changed, not just the fact that the U.S. was attacked in such a horrific way and had to respond but also, and perhaps more significantly, in the brazen, power-hungry way the Bush Administration had chosen to use those multiple terror-murders.

My political instincts and intuitions were re-activated, along with a desire to talk about what I saw happening, and I began writing political analyses for a wide variety of internet websites. If one examined those early columns, one could see a moderate progressive struggling, along with everyone else, in trying to make sense of what was going on politically, socially, economically.

After a year or so of writing for other publications, co-activist philosopher Ernest Partridge and I in November of 2002 founded our own website The Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org), where we not only would publish our political analyses but also link to the best writing we found out there on the Web, and help the fledgling resistance gain momentum.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0506/S00400.htm

[Melissa G]

10. Wasserman & Fitrakis: Dems Prove They're Unworthy

Wasserman & Fitrakis: Dems Prove They're Unworthy
Wednesday, 29 June 2005, 2:55 pm
Opinion: Harvey Wasserman
tommcintyre's DU discussion here..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x381320

With a limp election theft report, Dems prove why they're unworthy

by Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis
June 28, 2005
From: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1342In an astonishingly limp report on the stolen 2004 election, the Democratic Party has once again proven why it is unworthy to lead this country and incapable of mounting significant resistance to the far-right GOP juggernaut.

The Democrats much-vaunted "investigation" entitled “Democracy at Risk: The 2004 Election in Ohio” could well have been conducted by a high school class in elementary polling. It consists almost entirely of post-election phone interviews. It says nothing about the devastating discrepancies between exit polls and the highly improbable and virtually impossible vote total that gave George W. Bush a second term. It makes no case about precinct-by-precinct illegalities including unguarded ballots, election machine tampering, an unexplained bogus Homeland Security alert, the firing of whistle-blowing election board officials, and much more.

In point of fact, as we have outlined in Did George W. Bush Steal America’s 2004 Election? Essential Documents (CICJ Books), any third world election that was as rife with fraud and theft as was Ohio's this past November would have been summarily thrown out by the United Nations or any other body of international observers.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0506/S00396.htm

[furman]

11. Boxer wins BuzzFlash Wings of Justice Award for 2004 Election Challenge

Barbara Boxer, Wings of Justice Honoree
June 29, 2005

To those who say that it is political suicide to stand up for the truth -- especially in the face of
Bush media spin -- BuzzFlash has just two words: Barbara Boxer.

There are many reasons to honor Senator Boxer with the BuzzFlash "Wings of Justice Award,"
but we'll just concentrate on one.
She was the only United States Senator with the courage to stand up with House Democrats and
officially challenge the questionable 2004 election results.

Her actions helped the House Black Caucus and other members of the
House of Representatives raise official objections to the Electoral
College results -- election results riddled with documented cases of
vote suppression.

Barbara Boxer was the lone Senator to stand against papering over vote
fraud. ...

more at http://www.wingsofjustice.com/05/06/woj05004.html

WingsofJustice.com is a project of BuzzFlash.com, which provides
headlines, news, and commentary for a geographically-diverse,
politically-savvy, pro-democracy, anti-hypocrisy web audience, reaching 5 million visitors a month and growing.

Previous DU posting by furman at
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x381433

[ecedrihten]

12. An inquiry

does anyone have any information regarding Nick Curia and Ray Messier? A little bird tells me that these names have been implicated in some aspect of the vote tampering. They last worked for Nicheware Inc, if that helps. That info is the only info I've got, and any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm on deadline, by the way, and need to have something for my boss by friday.

ED

[LightningFlash]

14. Nick Curia and Ray Messier...

Here you go.... :thumbsup:

http://tinyurl.com/9plch
http://www.rmware.com/
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/apps/tex/xtexcad-2.1.README
http://securitydigest.org/tcp-ip/archive/1993/07

Email exchanges between Ray Messier, Curia (Nick Hilliard)

Here's another one of these guys, Nick Chalko (Some Accenture employee)

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_id=39239

[Melissa G]

13. Has the Consent of the Governed Been Withdrawn, YET?

Congratulations and Thanks to Guvworld for the post and DU Discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x381467

Originally Published in the Humboldt Advocate 6/29/05

Has the Consent of the Governed Been Withdrawn, YET?
By Dave Berman
6/24/05

Imagine it is November 8, 2005, the day California will hold Governor Schwarzenegger's special initiatives election. Voters are queued up awaiting their turn to cast a ballot. One by one the constituents approach the celebrity politician and whisper in his ear. At the end of the day, Arnold tells us the outcome. That is neither practical nor reliable, though it is strongly analogous to the private source code and secret vote counting prevalent in recent American elections.

Roughly 30% of the votes cast in last November's general election did not create a paper record. That means the votes were not verifiable and could not be recounted. That also means the so-called "irregularities" cannot be reconciled. So when an election machine loses data or counts backwards or registers more votes than there are registered voters, we have an inherent uncertainty about the results reported. Our elections are conducted under conditions that ensure inconclusive outcomes.

Many people clearly understand these systemic problems yet persist in data analysis and endless debate about election fraud. However strong the evidence may be, this is not an effective election reform tactic because it necessarily exacerbates partisan tension. It should not be surprising for election systems to be designed for ambiguity. Such conditions can be relied upon for polarizing controversy, which is to the advantage of those in power and detrimental to the rest of us.

The reforms we need are all systemic, just like the problems we must address. Thus, the point more important than fraud is: Because inconclusive results, by definition, mean that the true outcome of an election cannot be known, there is no basis for confidence in the results reported from U.S. federal elections. Do not accept the arbitrary argument from someone attempting to claim they still maintain confidence. Insist on understanding their basis for such confidence. You have the means to illustrate that no basis for confidence exists.

snip
The Arcata City Council has scheduled a hearing on the Voter Confidence Resolution on its July 6 agenda. Read the full text here: http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2005/04/voter-confidence-r...


Dave Berman co-founded the Voter Confidence Committee, an election reform and watchdog organization based in Humboldt County. For more info visit: www.voterconfidencecommittee.org

www.guvwurld.org guvwurld.blogspot.com